Read Online Star Trek: The Empty Chair by Diane Duane - Free Book Online

boiling in from all directions and began to attack
Moerrdel’
s nacelles.
    It was impossible, with all the Romulan ships now keeping silent, to tell whether the same loss of communications that had afflicted
Elieth
was now affecting
Moerrdel.
If, as Jim thought, it was a symptom of what had happened to the first vessels into this system the last time Artaleirh was attacked, then the ships were probably in the hands of Ael’s allies already. Certainly neither of them had yet self-destructed. “Two down, seven to go,” Chekov said.
    “Hurray for our side,” Jim said, his eye still on the supercruisers, now slowly moving in toward the dilithium processing facility. “
Bloodwing?”
    “My apologies, Captain, we were busy,”
said Ael.
    “So I see. Nice shooting.”
    “I agree, though Khiy much desires to do something to our enemies besides shoot.”
Ael’s voice was amused.
    “Not just yet,” Jim said. “Why tip our hand? But he’ll have his chance pretty soon, I think. The big ships are moving in.”
    “As we see. I am uneasy about them, Captain. It’s in my mind that they’ve been better equipped than usual, the better to make an example of us. Especially you.”
    “We’re thinking alike,” Jim said, “which on this subject makes me uneasy. Any thoughts on what they might be carrying above and beyond the usual?”
    “There have been no great breakthroughs in weapons technology that I have heard of,”
Ael said,
“at least, not in Grand Fleet. Such things take time to test and install, and by the time that has happened, whatever secrecy might have initially surrounded the project is normally long gone. Though it must be said that I am lacking some of my old sources of intelligence.”
    “You couldn’t be blamed for that,” Jim said.
    “For which I thank you.
Esemar
and
Gauntlet
are closing, Captain. We must continue this discussion later. But tell me quickly—why would we need not to tilt our hands?”
    “‘Tip,’” Jim said. “Uhura is really going to have to do some more work on idiom in the translator. It’s a game, Commander. We’ll discuss it later.”
    “May it be so. Here they come.”
    “Out,” Jim said. He glanced at tactical, looked at the three ships closing on
Enterprise.
Two of them were the corvettes
Llendan
and
Chape.
The third…“Spock,” Jim said, “that big one—”
    “It is very overpowered, Captain,” Spock said, looking down his viewer again. “
Esemar’
s version of our ‘skinfield’ and structural integrity field is much enhanced, with shieldsat initial analysis approaching the power configurations of those on Artaleirh’s surface. But the shield implementation is otherwise standard. I see no indication of the waveform we have come to associate with the technology brought us via our ‘defectors.’ I would judge this to be merely a brute-force variant of earlier weapons technologies.”
    “Bigger, tougher, but not new,” Jim said, watching the slow, steady approach of the big ship. It looked rather like
Bloodwing,
as an expression of the original “bird-of-prey” design, but the primary hull was twice as thick, arguing a much bigger crew complement, or much heavier weaponry.
    “I would say so,” Spock said. But his own expression, as he looked up from his sensors, suggested to Jim that he was viewing his own assessment with some caution.
    Jim felt the same way. He glanced at tactical, saw that
Gauntlet,
unescorted, was presently heading toward
Bloodwing. But it may not
keep
doing that—and I dislike the idea of having two ships like that ganging up on me when I have no warp drive.
“Mr. Sulu,” he said, “while I’m unwilling to restrain your display of expertise, maybe this is a time to pretend to be exercising the better part of valor.”
    “‘Pretend’ to exercise it, Captain?” Sulu said, not turning his attention away from the viewscreen.
    Jim grimaced at Sulu’s amused tone of voice. “God forbid we should ever run away from anything