Star Trek: The Empty Chair (13 page)

Veilt laughed so softly as to hardly make any sound at all. “Believe it or not, there are others that may yet inspire you even more. But more of them shortly. Captain, we were glad to be of help to you, but our major role is not offensive.
Tyrava
is a habitat first and a battle station second. In fact, we always hoped to avoid battle. None of the people you see living here would have chosen the shipboard life had on-planet life not become intolerable for them. This ship holds some three hundred and eighty thousand souls from far-flung colonies of the Empire, planets like Gahvenn and Thalawir. Some of their worlds were sparsely populated, and nearly abandoned by the Empire; some were closer in, but more harshly treated. But in every case, the people who now populate
Tyrava
were willing to take the chance every day of dying, rather than live under the Empire any longer. With such a crew and population, one can do much. Or rather—” Veilt looked amused. “—they can do much with me. Their will with me, often expressed, is to do anything that would make the Empire a place where we could live again. Until recently, ‘anything’ meant ‘anything but war.’ But no longer. All over the Empire, the uprisings are beginning. This is the time for which many of us have waited. And this is the gamble on which we must now stake everything we have. If after the conflict to come the Empire still has not fallen, then we must seek our lives elsewhere. But in the meantime—” He looked at Ael. “—we must take our best chance.”

Ael bowed her head. “We did well enough here. But we must do better yet. In particular—” She glanced at Jim. “The
too-timely arrival of the Klingons suggests that they had spies at Artaleirh—as we long suspected. Desirable as it would have been to keep any Klingon ships from escaping the battle, in terms of intelligence, I think that has become a nonissue. The High Council will hear soon enough what actually transpired in these spaces. We must move forward, and quickly; so we must determine in what directions to move, in what force and strength—and to what purpose.”

Jim folded his hands on the table in front of him. “I’ve been considering some initial planning, if you would be willing to hear it.”

“More than willing,” Veilt said. “We also need to give some thought to what disinformation we can spread in this system before we move on. As for the rest—” He looked thoughtfully at Jim. “Your skills as a tactician have gained you the esteem and curses of our people often enough before. Few of us will have looked for the chance we see now, where you employ those skills on our behalf.”

“Not just yours,” Jim said. He glanced up from his hands. “No sane man willingly goes to war. But it seems that once every generation or so comes the war from which it would be cowardice to turn away. At the moment, this looks like that war.” Jim sighed. “And there are other issues. The proliferation of the Sunseed technology…”

Ael looked over at Veilt, frowning. “They were ready to seed that star. They would willingly have destroyed all life on a Rihanssu Imperial world, and used that fact to put the fear of such destruction on other worlds, where warships can no longer do so.”

“Or in cases where the Empire’s resources are spread too thinly to allow the dispatch of a task force,” Spock said.

Ael nodded. “I fear also that Artaleirh would have been a testbed in other ways. My concern is that they have been attempting to refine the technique to make it more predictable, or more deadly—or both. It is almost horrible to hope that
they are blind to the dangers of using such a thing repeatedly. Far worse is the concept that they are
not
blind to them.”

Veilt nodded, and looked at Kirk. “Ael has told me that you are attempting to devise some technique that may be used to keep the Sunseed technology from being implemented in a given star system.”

“That’s right,” Jim said, and threw a glance at Ael.

“I’m relieved to hear it,” Veilt said. “Even the possibility will give some hope to the many millions who could not make their way onto a ship such as this. In the meantime, such work may prevent the Sunseed technique being used as a weapon of war, as opposed to a mere tool of oppression. If you will share your research with us, we will give you whatever help we can. Meanwhile, we must choose our next destination quickly. Though what has happened here will throw the Klingons briefly into disarray, we cannot count on that state of mind lasting long. They will come after us in fury, and seek to strike where they can do the most harm—not just to us. To you as well.”

The hair stood up on the back of Jim’s neck. “A two-front war,” he said softly.

“It is always a harrowing prospect,” Veilt said. “And I must ask—does
your
front have more than one ship in it?”

It was the question for which Jim had been waiting, and the one he could not be sure that he would be answering correctly. “At the moment, no.” He paused for a long moment. “Strictly speaking, I shouldn’t be here. Strictly speaking, if Starfleet manages to get in touch with me again…”

Veilt shot a look at Ael. “I take it that you have been having some persistent communication difficulties.”

“Well,” Jim said, and smiled just slightly, “there
has
been all this jamming…”

Veilt smiled. “I have a feeling it may continue. Meanwhile, let me put to you a question of strategy. We have yet to gather to us all the resources that the Ship-Clans can bring
to the conflict to come. Two other ships like
Tyrava
exist, one of which is willing to meet us and lend its assistance to the next major engagement. Now we must decide where that is to be.”

He touched the table, and a large holographic map of Romulan space appeared in the air above it, rotating slowly. Jim looked at it.

He stood up. “There,” he said, and reached out a hand to point at a spot inside the display.

Veilt looked at him in silence for several long moments, then glanced at Ael as he stood up as well. “Not here,” he said, indicating another star, “or here?”

Jim shook his head. “Too far away. Those targets—Le-lent, and Biriha, I think?—would be too easy for the Senate to write off while they concentrated on other things. And they’re too far away from our final goal. Wasting time attacking them would merely give Grand Fleet more leisure to reinforce the Eisn system, and in strength, after this defeat at Artaleirh. Right now my estimate is that the Senate has their ‘force-projecting’ assets scattered across half the Empire, trying to put down, or keep down, the rebellions that are starting to spring up all over. Why give them so much time to call the assets back? Let’s concentrate their minds by attacking them much closer to home, so that they feel they have to divert most of Grand Fleet
there
to stop us, and ideally to break us. Let’s make them draw the line in the sand where
we
want it, not where they choose to.” He looked at the little blue-white star. “Augo.”

“The system is resource-rich, strategically placed, and a home to several large Grand Fleet refueling and resupply bases,” Spock said. “Additionally, it is a system that would need to be secured first by any force intending to make a major incursion into Hearthworld space, both to make Augo’s resources available to the invading forces, and to deny them to the defenders.”

“You would not merely go straight in to ch’Rihan?” Veilt said.

Jim laughed. “I may be the captain of the
Enterprise,
but even
my
one ship doesn’t make a fleet, any more than yours does, sir, with all respect to you and
Tyrava’
s size. What we’ve got now isn’t anything like enough force to take ch’Rihan and ch’Havran, especially with the intelligence I’ve got at the moment. If I were the admiral in charge of this operation—”

“You are,” Ael said.

Jim had to work to keep himself from showing any outward reaction. “—then I would use Augo, once the system was secured, as a staging point for the attack on ch’Rihan and ch’Havran. I would use the system as a place where reinforcements and previously unaligned forces could gather from the colony worlds. I would use its location, the timing of the system’s acquisition, and the events themselves as tools to gather the most recent possible intelligence from the Eisn system before I went in. I would use it as a base for initial strikes on the outer planets in the Eisn system, the domed bases, and defensive satellite arrays. And
then
I’d attack the Hearthworlds themselves. Time’s on our side at the moment, but not for long. The more we waste, the more Grand Fleet and the present Rihannsu government will benefit.”

Veilt nodded. “Captain, you have the true tactician’s eye for where to start work. So far, at least, we are in agreement.”

“So far, but no further?” Jim said.

“There is the issue of what happens when we
reach
ch’Rihan,” Veilt said. “Strategy for that has yet to be devised.”

“Sir,” Jim said, “we have a saying: it’s hard to describe the multiverse while standing on one foot. I’ve been giving that matter some passing thought. I have more thought to give it yet, since no planet is reduced
merely
from space. At least, no planet that hominids hope later to inhabit. I expect
to have a master close-planetary and ground-assault plan ironed out…oh, within a few hours?”

Veilt smiled very slowly. “I am reprimanded. A few days, certainly, will do. Even a tenday or so. For one thing, I have as yet given neither you nor the Commander-General any realistic assessment of non-Ship assets that will be available to us. That information would only become concrete when the engagement at Augo is done. And after that, you are quite right, there would be a need to move swiftly.”

There was a little silence at the table. “Captain,” Veilt said, “there is one thing I must say to you. There will be many of our people who will distrust your motives in assisting us. There will be those who would distrust them no matter how spectacular a victory we might achieve at Augo, indeed, no matter if you offered them ch’Rihan and ch’Havran on a salver. Betrayal will be constantly on such people’s minds, and however well-intentioned you prove, they will be looking to see how the Federation might be exploiting you for its own purposes. Your leadership will be constantly scrutinized and second-guessed at every level, examined for ulterior motives. But you’re not to feel as if you are being singled out in that regard, for there are Rihannsu who feel passionately about this uprising, this chance for freedom, but still fear and distrust my kinswoman, your colleague.” He looked at Ael.

She raised her eyebrows in a weary way. “We will liberate them whether they like it or not,” Ael said, her voice edged with humor. “Certainly they will like it better when they become sanguine enough to take part in the endeavor. For the meantime, I will go on as I have begun; I too am conscious of being used to a purpose, in some quarters at least, but I do not intend to let it stop me.” The look she gave Veilt was difficult to read.

“Sir,” Jim said, “the question does need to be answered. If we attack Augo, and fail—”

“Then
Tyrava
will make her way to other spaces,” Veilt said. “This ship was not built and populated with the desperate children of ten worlds to be destroyed in a fruitless conflict. We will try to make the Empire a place where we may remain. We all love our homeworlds; the decision to part from them was not casual. But most of us are past desiring to die for them. We are well armed, yes. The Clans who have near-beggared themselves to secretly build these ships have always understood that we would have to fight our way free of the Empire. But none of us ever planned for sustained campaigns inside Eisn space itself. Our weaponry was designed for flight into other spaces—not for taking on all of Grand Fleet in repeated battles. You have a chance to prove yourself at Augo. After that, if worse comes to worst, we go our own way.”

Jim nodded, and stood up. “With that understanding, perhaps I had better get to work. For the moment, I think we’ll be remaining where we are for at least a short time.” He glanced at Mr. Scott. “Scotty?”

“’Twould be wise,” Scotty said. “I’d prefer to stay here a day or so at least, for we’ve still a lot of replacement components to install as a result of that long run at high warp, before the battle. Our new dilithium crystal looks to be settling in nicely—aye, and this would be a fine place to lay in some spares; I’d guess the mining and processing facility will be glad to accommodate us. But I want to run some more tests on the main crystal to make sure she’s bedded in for more high-warp running. I have a feeling we’ll be needing it.”

He didn’t say anything about what Jim felt sure Scotty was thinking—that more time spent in
Tyrava’
s neighborhood would possibly give him a chance to investigate its warp technology more closely.

Veilt, for his own part, rose as well, and merely smiled that slight, somber smile again, nodding. “We too had thought to stay for a short time. Planetside provisioning has
been something of a problem for us in recent months; we have had to take unusual care not to be seen by any force, Rihannsu or otherwise. But our secret may safely now be assumed to be out, so we will use our time here to our best advantage. And as you say, extra dilithium is always welcome; and we will be in a position to be of assistance, if only as backup, while the Artaleirhin put their newly captured ships fully into commission, and make contact with other systems that are as active in rebellion.”

Everyone got up and headed for the door. “Sir,” Jim said, “perhaps we might invite you over to
Enterprise
in the next day or so? Purely socially.”

Veilt’s smile abruptly lost its somber quality. “I had been hoping you might ask,” he said. “Believe me, Captain, while our ship may seem impressive to you,
Enterprise
is impressive to us for entirely different reasons. Big ships are nothing special by themselves. Some vessels act bigger than they are, and produce bigger results.”

“I know,” Jim said. “The real trouble comes when they’re routinely
expected
to.”

As they made their way back to the transporter hall, that thought kept coming back to haunt Jim. It could sometimes be useful for your enemies to think that you were more of a danger than was really possible. But when your friends and allies thought so too…