Kirk shook his head as he looked up, one hand already on the ladder. “One of us might say something we’ll regret.”
“Your friends might be civilians, but you’re not.”
Janeway had reached the ladder. She put her hand over his. “I suspect you refused the mission to Inver Three because you were caught up in following some lead on Manassas.”
Kirk steeled himself not to shake off her hand. He had no wish to offend the admiral. But neither would he let her stop him. “This ship is mine to use as I wish between Starfleet missions. You told me that yourself.”
“Yes. Between missions. But if you refused one because you were on a mission of your own, that is unacceptable.”
Kirk felt Janeway’s hand give his own a slight push before it dropped away, freeing him.
He took a breath to center himself, was aware of the thrum of the ship’s warp generators, idling at standby, ready to burst into superluminal speeds at a single command from their captain. Kirk felt the pent-up energy of those engines move through him. He was unable to distinguish their needs from his own.
He had to keep moving.
Like his ship, he had been held in one place too long.
He relinquished his grasp on the ladder and turned to face Janeway. “I’ve said all I can say. I’ve filed my report. I’ve listened to you express Starfleet’s interpretation of events. And here we are.” Emotion was gone from him, and in that moment of clarity and reflection his thoughts turned once again to Spock. We’re life, Jim….
“You’ll never be able to court-martial me with what you have-even for a Starfleet tribunal, there’s too much room for reasonable doubt. So either take my ship from me now, or don’t. But let’s not waste any more time trying to resolve something that can’t be resolved.”
“You’re willing to give this up?” Janeway said with open disbelief. It was clear to Kirk she meant the Belle Reve.
“I can always get another ship,” he said, though he knew he’d be hard-pressed to find one with this vessel’s capabilities. “And my friends and my son will come with me. So I really have nothing of value to lose.”
Janeway took so long to reply that for a moment it seemed she’d given up. But she’d only changed strategy, and the rules of their engagement.
“What if I told you the Starfleet team on Inver Three didn’t get killed by rebels?”
Kirk didn’t know what point she was trying to make. “Then I’d say you still had a chance to get a recovery team in there to extract them.”
“We don’t know where they are.”
It was a simple statement, but there was something about the way Janeway said it that caught Kirk’s attention. He studied her, trying to read her expression. But the admiral had served many years with a Vulcan as well. Her self-control was the equal of his own.
“What I’m about to tell you is classified far above what you’re cleared for,” Janeway said.
Kirk forced himself to stay silent. If he was about to hear information Janeway thought it was necessary for him to know, how could he not be cleared for it? Of all of the ills of the past humanity had grown beyond, governmental bureaucracy remained as an echo of the dark ages.
“The entire negotiating team disappeared,” Janeway said. “Within days of stopping the civil war on Inver Three, and bringing both sides together, and pulling that world back into the Federation.”
Kirk was puzzled, and intrigued. Why was Janeway revealing this to him now? Especially since she had spent most of the past hour accusing him of complicity in the team’s death.
“A planet’s a big place,” Kirk said, his tone neutral, all his senses alert to detect whatever else it was that Janeway was hiding from him.
Janeway finally acknowledged their unspoken battle of wills by conceding. She smiled in resignation. “All right. So now, maybe Starfleet will have to court-martial both of us.”
Kirk shrugged, waiting, not sure if this was just another ploy on the admiral’s part. “You get used to it.” He regarded her with curiosity, waiting.
Janeway wasted no more of his time. “Over the past year and a half, one hundred and twenty-eight key Federation personnel have… vanished. If we count Ambassador Spock, it’s one hundred and twenty-nine.”
Irrational hope flared in Kirk. “A pattern?” he asked.
“Circumstantial,” Janeway cautioned. “But there is reason to believe that at least some of the disappearances are connected.”
Kirk’s mind raced as he tried to find something in all he had learned about Spock and Norinda and the Jolan Movement of Romulus and Remus. Something that would suggest a link to other events.
He could think of nothing.
“Why did you wait so long to tell me?” Kirk asked. Had he wasted a year looking for Spock without the information he needed?
“We don’t know who’s responsible,” Janeway admitted. “Starfleet Intelligence– “
“Intelligence?” Kirk was surprised to hear that department was involved.
“– is reluctant to declassify their investigations. They’re concerned whoever’s behind the disappearances might benefit from knowing that… we know nothing.”
Kirk made himself ask the obvious question. “Has Starfleet Intelligence conducted an investigation into Spock’s disappearance?”
Janeway nodded. “As part of their ongoing investigation of the other cases, they have.”
“And?” Kirk asked.
Janeway shook her head in exasperation. “I’ll say it once more-I think it’s time we worked together.”
Procedure over the welfare of individuals… Kirk felt the familiar heat of anger. Mindless rules of behavior… “I thought that’s what we were doing this past year.”
“I don’t make policy, Captain. And you do have a reputation for not playing by the rules.”
Kirk ignored the provocation to another argument. It was time to move on, though it appeared that, contrary to his first thoughts, he’d be moving on with Starfleet after all.
He put both hands on the ladder. “If Starfleet’s going to help look for Spock, I want my crew to hear everything. No more secrecy. No more lies.” Before Janeway could protest, Kirk started to climb. “I’ll see you on the bridge.”
By the time he’d reached A Deck, he understood exactly why someone would make one hundred twenty-nine Federation officials disappear over the past year and a half. Even without knowing their identities, Kirk was certain he would find an explanatory pattern in their professions and their areas of expertise-a pattern that would reveal why they were valuable to the Federation.
Which meant that somewhere an enemy was gathering its forces, and the capture of Spock was not just an act of personal revenge; it was the first strike in a war that might already have begun.
4
U.S.S. TITAN NCC-80102, SALTON CROSS
STARDATE 58552.2
Riker didn’t hesitate. He gave his orders in a steady stream.
“Send a priority distress call to the Araldii ship. Scan the radiation burst heading for us-look for any region where the intensity might be weaker than others. Conn-align us stern first to the direction of the blast. All personnel are to immediately proceed to the most forward sections of the main decks.”
He tapped his combadge. “Riker to engineering. When will we have shields?”
“Working on it, Captain. Two minutes… maybe three…”
“Concentrate on the stern-I want every scrap of power put into aft shields. Turn off the gravity if you have to.”
Troi was already at the communications station and had switched over to emergency power. “Captain-the Araldii ship has responded. They’re on their way.”
