Twelve

THE STINGER DREW up alongside Eclipse and docked. Leaving Yamani in charge, Archer and T’Pol proceeded to the airlock.

When it opened, the woman he’d seen on the viewscreen was standing in front of them.

“Captain, I’m Doctor Trant. Please, put these on.” She handed Archer and T’Pol what looked like old-fashioned gas masks.

“These are for…”

“Your protection. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but…”

She explained the reason for the masks: the discoveries she had made-stereoisomers, the basic protein incompatibility Trip and Hoshi had displayed-and Trip’s own realization that Enterprise had traveled into a parallel universe.

Then it was Trant’s turn to listen. Archer let his first officer do the talking, as the doctor led them through the corridors of the Guild vessel.

As they walked, Archer couldn’t help but contrast what he was seeing now-Eclipse’s crowded, dirty, interior, with people living practically on top of one another-with the pristine shine of Makandros’s ship, inside and out. If the condition of this vessel was anything to go by, the Guild was losing this war-had been losing it for some time now. Every face he passed looked worn and tired-on the edge of defeat.

Just ahead of them, a steel door connected to a two-meter-long tunnel of thick gray-black fabric stuck out into the corridor. The tunnel’s other end, Archer saw, ran up against a door frame on the corridor’s interior wall.

“Homemade decontamination chamber,” Trant said, opening the steel door. “Hoshi’s quarters the last week she was here. She was extremely sensitive to the proteins I was telling you about.”

They followed her into the chamber. She shut the door behind them, and then squeezed past to the other end of the tunnel and opened the door there. They emerged into a room about half again as big as Archer’s quarters aboard Enterprise.

As they entered, a man rose from a table set in the middle of the room. Marshal Kairn.

He and Archer shook hands.

“Captain. Thank you for coming aboard.”

“Thank you for holding your fire,” Archer replied, his voice distorted by the mask.

“You can remove those now,” Trant said. “This room is sterile.”

Archer and T’Pol both took off the masks.

“Marshal, this is Sub-Commander T’Pol, my science officer.”

Kairn nodded. “Sub-Commander, Captain, you’ll forgive me if I skip the usual pleasantries and get right to the heart of the matter. You said you had a proposal of truce from General Makandros.”

“I do. The general wishes to call off hostilities between you, to focus on the enemy you now have in common.”

“And who might that be?”

“I believe he’s referring to a General Elson.”

“General Elson?” Kairn shook his head. “Does he take me for a fool? Captain,” Kairn looked Archer square in the eye. “Commander Tucker told me more than once that you were an intelligent man. Makandros and Elson are members of the governing council. They share a history of broken promises and surprise attacks. It is beyond belief that-“

“Sir,” Archer interrupted. “Forgive me. But the general thought you might suspect something like that. Which is why he gave me this.” The captain held up a memory chip in his hand.

“What is that?”

“Current battle positions of the Expeditionary Force in the Belt.”

Kairn did a double take. “What?”

“These are the current battle positions of his forces.” He held out the chip to Kairn. “Go on-take it.”

The marshal frowned. “Is he serious?”

Archer shrugged. “Why not see for yourself?”

Kairn’s eyes went from Archer to the chip, then back again. He looked uncertain, as if he thought the module might explode if he touched it.

“Very well,” he said finally, and removed it from Archer’s grasp.

“Doctor Trant,” Kairn said. “Will you give this chip to Lieutenant Royce and have him correlate the information on it with our own intelligence?”

“Of course.” Trant took the chip and turned to go.

She was halfway to the door when Kairn frowned and raised his hand.

“Wait, please.”

Trant stopped in her tracks.

Kairn leaned forward in his chair. “I should have asked this earlier. Captain, why are you here? Why are you acting as Makandros’s ambassador?”

“It wasn’t my idea, frankly.” Archer explained the circumstances of their capture, and Makandros’s promise to help them find Enterprise.

Kairn nodded thoughtfully when he’d finished.

“Which means you are nothing to him. A game piece to be sacrificed. Excuse me a moment.” He crossed to a com panel on the wall.

Archer exchanged a quick glance with T’Pol.

He had the sense that nothing Makandros could do or say was going to convince Kairn of his good intentions. Must be quite a history between the two of them-maybe even something personal, he decided.

He wondered briefly if they were a pawn in some larger game here between the two men. The two sides. But the general had been so convincing…

“Kairn to Royce.”

“Right here, sir.”

“Doctor Trant is bringing you something. A memory chip that supposedly contains some very critical information.”

“I understand.”

“Royce, I want you to be very careful with this chip. Have it tested-rigorously-before it interfaces with our systems.”

“Yes, sir.”

“It may contain a computer virus. It may be programmed to transmit a signal with our location on being scanned. It may be an explosive. Anything and everything you or the others can think of-check it. All ships stay on full alert for the time being as well. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Good. Trant will be along shortly. Out.”

With a nod, he sent the doctor on her way.

Kairn sat back down at the table.

“I’d offer you something to eat or drink, but-“

“Doctor Trant explained it to us already. Thank you, though. Marshal, while we wait, you said Trip and Hoshi had been here.”

“That’s correct,” Kairn said, and then went on to fill Archer in on what his two crew members had been doing for the last few weeks. Trying to find Enterprise. Trying to find the captain and their shipmates. Helping out the Guild, within certain limits. In short, doing pretty much what Archer himself would have done in their shoes.

After what happened with the cogenitor, and the Xyrillians, the captain would have thought Trip would be a little more…cautious about inserting himself into alien affairs. He could tell T’Pol was thinking the same thing, from the way she’d straightened in her chair when Kairn told them how Trip had piloted the Suliban cell-ship for their failed kidnap mission.

That was in the past, as far as Archer was concerned. He wouldn’t concern himself with it.

“But they’re gone now, you said? In search of Enterprise?”

“That’s right. They left yesterday.”

Archer sighed in frustration. To have missed them by less than twenty-four hours…

“Headed where?”

“The next star system over. Kota.”

The com buzzed. “Marshal?”

“Royce. You have news for me?”

“It checks out, sir. We sent ships to verify several of the positions encoded in the chip. Makandros’s ships are there.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” He closed the channel.

Archer leaned forward in his chair. “Seems like he was telling the truth, doesn’t it?”

Kairn took a long time to respond. “I suppose,” he said finally. “We’ll have to find out. You said Makandros gave you a channel to transmit on?”

The captain nodded.

Kairn stood. “Well then. If you’ll accompany me to the command deck, we’ll see what the general has to say.”

 

Archer and T’Pol flanked Kairn at his command chair.

Makandros’s image filled the viewscreen.

“It’s been a long time, Marshal. You’re looking well.”

Archer could tell by the way Kairn reacted to Makandros that he’d been right-the two men did know each other.

A fact that Kairn clearly didn’t care to dwell on.

“General. Say what you have to say.”

Makandros smiled. “Never one for the social niceties, were you, Kairn? All right. What I have to say is simple. I propose an alliance between our forces. An end to the war between us.”

“After ten years of hounding our ships, killing our people, destroying our bases…I have to say I find your change of heart puzzling. Difficult to believe, in fact.”

“You’ve seen the information I sent?”

“Yes.”

“It checked out, I presume.”

“It did. Which is the only reason I’m speaking with you.”

“I have some more information for you, Marshal.”

And then Makandros told Kairn about the trap Elson had set for him, the ships and the men he’d lost.

Kairn was silent for a moment after he’d finished.

“I see,” the marshal finally said. “Your change of heart is not without cause, then.”

“No. And I believe you have reason to distrust General Elson as well, Marshal. The rumors about Charest I’ve been hearing blame the Guild for those explosions. That strikes me as…uncharacteristic of your actions over the last decade, to say the least. As much as we have been at odds, you have never attacked civilian targets.”

Archer frowned. Most of what Makandros had just said made little sense to him-the reference to recent actions, the war gone past…. The captain knew he was not going to catch up on fifteen years of history all at once. The general’s words had an effect on Kairn, however.

For the first time since the conversation between the two men had started, the marshal was-be it ever so slightly-smiling.

“Much as it pains me to admit it, General, you’re entirely correct. We had nothing to do with Charest. But I certainly never expected you to believe that.”

“Times have changed,” Makandros said.

“I can see that. So what, exactly, do you propose?”

“We meet. Face to face. I want Lind there, as well.”

Kairn laughed out loud. “The Guildsman will shoot you on sight.”

“Tell him if he still wants to, he can shoot me after the meeting.”

“It might be easier to arrange if I knew what you were offering.”

“Besides your lives, you mean?”

“We started this war for a reason,” Kairn said. “To overthrow a dictator. To restore the presidium.”

“Noble goals. Impossible goals, for the moment.”

“Then we have nothing to talk about, General.”

“I think we do,” Makandros said. “Hear me out. I said those were impossible goals for the moment. You cannot deny that truth, Marshal. The Council-the military-will not accept a complete dismissal from power. They’ve grown too accustomed to it.”

“You should know.”

“I do. All the more reason why you should believe what I’m telling you. Democracy in a number of years, yes. Democracy now, no. They will never accept it.”

“Why not let the Council decide that?”

Makandros shook his head. “I misspoke. What I should have said was, Elson will be able to convince them not to accept democracy. They will fight for him. To the bitter end.”

Kairn was silent a moment. “And your plan? Assuming we agree to a truce?”

“We join forces,” Makandros said. “We back Sadir’s son for leadership of the Council. He takes command in his father’s name and, in turn, gives Lind a seat.”

Kairn shook his head. “The Guildsman will never agree to this. Be a figurehead? No.”

“Not a figurehead,” Makandros said. “With Lind, myself, and the boy, we will be able to fashion a majority. Submit a plan for a gradual transition back to democracy.”

“And Elson? What does he do during all this? Sit back and watch his power being snatched away?”

“He’ll have no choice. Move against the general’s son?” Makandros shook his head. “His own troops would turn against him.”

“You have a lot of faith in Sadir’s child.”

“I know him,” Makandros said. “He will listen to me.”

Kairn nodded slowly. “Where is the boy now?”

“With his mother. Where that is, we don’t know for certain. We know they are no longer in the Kresh. Our best guess is that they have taken refuge in one of the new satellite colonies.”

“Between the Belt and Denari.”

“Exactly.”

“Elson’s forces control that portion of space. You’ll have to go through them to get at the boy. How do you propose to do that?”

Makandros smiled. “The general has made a common amateur’s mistake. He has spread his forces too thin, on too many fronts. He has removed the Planetary Defense Battalion from their positions around Denari and sent them scurrying all around the system-to attack my forces, seek out your ships, secure the outer colonies. Only a minimal force remains on defensive duty. Within the past twenty-four hours, I have sent the bulk of my forces to attack the weapons facilities at Kota, which will further pressure him-“

“Kota?” Archer and Kairn spoke at the same time. They glanced at each other. The captain nodded for Kairn to continue.

“Two of Archer’s crew members have gone there, in search of his vessel. We had recently intercepted intelligence stating that it was there.”

Makandros shook his head. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, gentlemen, but Enterprise is not at Kota. I can tell you that for certain. I would have received news.”

Archer’s heart sank. Not only had Trip and Hoshi gone off on a wild-goose chase, but they were flying into the middle of an all-out war.

“That is unfortunate news,” Kairn said. “We can only hope for their safe return here.”

“Indeed,” Makandros said. “But to return to the matter at hand, do we have an agreement, Marshal? Can we meet to discuss this further?”

“An agreement.” Kairn nodded slowly. “Yes. At least the beginnings of one. I will contact the Guildsman, and we will talk further.”

Makandros smiled. Kairn, albeit grudgingly, did the same.

Archer couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit of satisfaction at his own small role in bringing about the truce. But that satisfaction was tempered by the question now burning in his brain: If his ship wasn’t at Kota, where was it?