Grand Designs Read online

  “And it was a stroke of luck that they didn’t get to use that weapon,” Gold countered. “If you thought they might do something like this and still went ahead with your plan, then you’re even more dangerous than the people who built the damned things.”

  “It was a calculated risk,” Marshall said, “but I was confident that Commander Gomez and her people would be able to stay on top of things. There may have been a few bumps, but ultimately that’s what happened.”

  Shaking his head in disbelief, Gold stepped from behind his desk. “How many times does this sort of nonsense have to happen before we finally learn that taking sides in these types of disputes is disastrous for everyone involved? Have we forgotten the forty-year civil war on Mordan IV that was caused by a Starfleet captain? And what about Kirk on Neural or Talin? Those are required reading at Starfleet Academy, and still perfect examples of what happens when you muck with a planet’s culture. Isn’t any of this on the Diplomatic Corps’ reading list?”

  Marshall drew himself up to his full height, his chest puffing out and his brow knit in irritation. “I’ve listened to as much abuse from you as I’m going to, Captain. Rest assured that your conduct will factor prominently in my report to your superiors.” He said nothing else as he turned and exited the ready room, leaving Gold alone with his first officer.

  “I have to say I’m disappointed, Gomez.”

  Nodding, Gomez replied. “I know, Captain, and I’m sorry. Marshall ordered me not to discuss the matter with anyone, including you. Even before I knew what he had in mind, I went to Captain Scott for help, but he’d been given similar orders about the mission. I knew what we were doing was crazy, but when the orders came from Starfleet I had no choice, sir. I can’t tell you how hard this has been for me.”

  Gold sighed in frustration. He had never been tolerant of “just following orders” as an excuse, but Gomez had raised a valid point. If the orders given to her came from the highest levels of Starfleet Command to cooperate with the Diplomatic Corps, was she not supposed to infer that the orders were lawful and issued in such a manner that those obliged to follow them would not find themselves in a moral or ethical quandary?

  He moved back behind his desk and dropped into his chair, indicating for Gomez to take one of the two seats before him. Sighing, he said, “When I first accepted command of the da Vinci, I thought I was comfortable with the notion that part of my crew could be accountable to someone else without going through me if the situation called for it.” Salek, a Vulcan and the ship’s previous S.C.E. team commander until his death during the Dominion War, had also served as Gold’s first officer and aided him in adjusting to the ship’s unorthodox rank and personnel structure.

  “But after what’s happened here,” he added, “it’s obvious that this is a policy vulnerable to abuse. You should never have been put in the position of having to keep secrets from me. There has to be some form of redress to ensure that officers caught up in these types of situations can’t be forced to withhold important information, particularly from ship commanders.” Leaning forward in his chair, he added, “Not to mention, I don’t think I’m content with my and the rest of the crew’s being a bunch of chauffeurs that people like Marshall can just drag into any mess they decide to create.”

  Gomez grimaced at that. “For what it’s worth, Captain, I’ve never viewed you or the crew in that way. I think after this much time we’ve proven we work better together than separated, which is why I hated Marshall’s putting me in that position. I just didn’t know what to do, so I concentrated on making sure the Rhaaxans developed an ineffective biogen.” She shook her head as disbelief and anger clouded her features. “And as for the colonists, we never saw that coming. We should have anticipated that they might do something themselves, but they’d never even hinted at anything like that. I can’t believe how easily we were suckered.” Looking up to meet Gold’s gaze, she asked. “What do you think the Federation Council is going to say about this?”

  “If they have any sense,” Gold replied, “they’ll deny the Rhaaxans’ and Numai’s application for membership, at least for the foreseeable future. Beyond that, the prefects were right. We did cause some of this, and we have a responsibility to fix it. I expect that Marshall or someone else will be here for a quite a while, working with the Rhaaxans and the colonists to find some kind of permanent, peaceful solution.”

  “I wonder how the citizens of both planets will react when the actions of their governments are made public?” Gomez asked.

  The captain shrugged. “They’ll have plenty of explaining to do, I suspect. Maybe now they’ll stop and see just where all this insanity has left them. I’d be very surprised if there weren’t calls for resignations and elections to select new leaders.” Nodding more to himself than anyone else, he added, “All things considered, that might not be such a bad thing.”

  No matter the outcome, Gold knew it was a dispute that would be a long time in resolving. Regardless, the captain was sure that this would be recorded as yet another dark chapter in the annals of Federation diplomatic history, but would it be the one to provide some bit of wisdom and perhaps prevent another such incident from happening in the future? Gold doubted it.

  More important, to him at least, was his concern that what had happened here would have lasting effects on him and his relationship with his crew. This mission had highlighted not only the myriad problems that plagued the Rhaaxans’ grand aspirations to become Federation members, but also exposed a glaring flaw in what many had believed to be an effective organizational design that supported the unique demands of S.C.E. detachments being ferried by Starfleet ships.

  Looks like I’m going to have a long talk with Captain Scott one of these days.

  It was an issue David Gold wanted addressed, quickly, before it caused more damage to the bond between a ship’s captain and its crew.

  About the Authors

  DAYTON WARD has been a fan of Star Trek since conception (his, not the show’s). After serving for eleven years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he discovered the private sector and the piles of cash to be made there as a software engineer. He got his start in professional writing by having stories selected for each of Pocket Books’ first three Star Trek: Strange New Worlds writing contests. In addition to his various writing projects with Kevin Dilmore (see Kevin’s bio below), Dayton is the author of the Star Trek novel In the Name of Honor, the science fiction novel The Last World War, and the short story “Loose Ends” in Star Trek: New Frontier: No Limits. Though he currently lives in Kansas City with his wife, Michi, Dayton is a Florida native and still maintains a torrid long-distance romance with his beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Readers interested in contacting Dayton or learning more about his writing are encouraged to venture to his Internet cobweb collection at http://www.daytonward.com.

  After fifteen years as a newspaper reporter and editor, KEVIN DILMORE turned his full attention to his freelance writing career in 2003. Since 1997, he has been a contributing writer to Star Trek Communicator, writing news stories and personality profiles for the bimonthly publication of the Official Star Trek Fan Club. Look for Kevin’s interviews with some of Star Trek’s most popular authors in volumes of the Star Trek Signature Editions. On the fictional side of things, his story “The Road to Edos” was published last year in the Star Trek: New Frontier anthology No Limits. With Dayton Ward, he has written the Star Trek: The Next Generation novels A Time to Sow and A Time to Harvest Field Expediency,” a story featuring the S.C.E. in the anthology Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War and six other Star Trek: S.C.E. eBooks, with more to come. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Kevin lives in Prairie Village, Kansas, with his wife, Michelle, and their three daughters.

  COMING NEXT MONTH: Star Trek™: S.C.E. #40

  FAILSAFE by David Mack

  When a cultural observation probe malfunctions and crash-lands on a pre-warp world, the S.C.E. is sent in to destroy it before the technology falls into the hands of a civilizati
on not prepared for it. Unfortunately, when Commander Gomez and her team arrive, they find that the device has already been captured by terrorist forces who intend to reverse-engineer the technology into a weapon that will change the balance of power on their world to deadly effect!

  Now it’s a race against time for the S.C.E. to find and destroy the probe before it’s too late!

  COMING IN MAY FROM POCKET BOOKS!