Ignoring the doctor, Kirk gestured toward the data card in Spock’s hand. “Prepare a full report on the information and your findings for Admiral Nogura, and store it in the same fashion. It’ll be up to him to decide what should be done with it.”

Based on his experience with anything related to Operation Vanguard, Kirk already knew what Nogura would say.

FOUR

Stardate 5829.6

Starbase 12

“So,” Nogura said, reaching for the brandy bottle in order to refresh Kirk’s glass, “now you know why I asked for the Enterpriseto be assigned to search for the Defiant.”

Kirk retrieved the glass, then leaned back in his chair. “Because of this new Tholian weapon?”

The admiral shook his head. “We actually had no advance knowledge of the technology the Tholians deployed on Traelus II. Captain Blair had detected elevated Klingon and Tholian ship activity in that region, and I authorized him to investigate. What he found there was . . . unfortunate happenstance, I’m afraid. Still, given everything we had going on at the time, it seemed prudent to classify it along with all other data and materials attached to Vanguard.”

“For what it’s worth,” Kirk said, “and from what Mister Spock showed me, the weapon doesn’t seem very practical, at least in its current form. It requires too much in the way of setup, which in turn requires stealth.”

Nogura shrugged. “While I can’t see it being of any real use against a hardened target, it could definitely be a problem if used against a civilian facility. What concerns me is how the Tholians were able to deploy the damned thing on Traelus II in the first place. You’d think the Klingons would’ve picked up on them being there long before that.” He gestured as though to dismiss his own idle thought. “Anyway, that’s not why I wanted the Enterprise.While the Defiantwas sent out there for a legitimate reason, to investigate heightening tension between the Tholians and the Klingons, we did suspect it might have some connection to one or both parties finding something related to the Shedai. You and your first officer guessed right: a sample of the meta-genome was found six years ago on Traelus II by the Sagittarius. Extensive surveys were never conducted thanks to the diplomatic screwup that gave the Klingons the right of claim to the planet.”

“Did Traelus II possess any other Shedai artifacts?” Kirk asked, frowning.

“Not that we know of,” Nogura replied, “and not that it matters anymore, anyway. With the Shedai gone, all of their technology appears to have self-destructed or else it’s simply inert. Even the pieces we have that we’d managed to get working to one degree or another are all dead now. Whatever control the Shedai possessed over their technology disappeared when they did.” Grimacing, he added, “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, we can still learn from the meta-genome samples we’ve collected and the research notes recorded by Lieutenant Xiong, Doctor Marcus, and their teams. The downside is that anybody else can, too.”

It required physical effort for Kirk not to react at the mention of Carol Marcus. He had not heard from her since her reassignment from Starbase 47 to a location that—to him and for the moment, at least—remained undisclosed. Their last meeting on Vanguard, like their recent previous encounters, had been awkward, with her maintaining her adamant stance that their son, David, remain with her and clueless as to Kirk’s true identity. Her fervent desire that the boy not come to idolize Starfleet while he waited at home for his father’s infrequent returns from long duty assignments was but one of the many points on which Kirk and Marcus disagreed. In the end, he acceded to her wishes, maintaining his silence for David’s sake.

There’s an easy way to fix that, he chided himself, just as Carol had reminded him the last time they spoke. He almost as quickly pushed away the thought—not because it was unwelcome but because he knew it was true.

Kirk forced his attention back to the matter at hand. “From what I know, the Klingons haven’t had the same success with respect to examining the meta-genome itself and learning anything from it. Are you saying we just got lucky with that?”

Nogura grunted. “Hardly. Don’t tell the Diplomatic Corps I said this, because heaven forbid we insult anyone, but my personal theory is that the Klingons’ research is flawed because they tend to go about these types of things the wrong way. Their primary motivation always seems to be how or if something can be used as a weapon. While I’m sure there’s a way to figure out something along those lines, we know that the meta-genome has so much other potential. I think the Klingons’ limited focus ultimately will end up being a waste of time. Besides, they—at least, their military and some segments of their leadership—don’t typically think long-term. They’re more interested in the quick exploitation of a resource. If they can’t get what they need or want from it right away, they tend to move on to something else.”

“Not all Klingons think like that,” Kirk said, recalling some of his own memorable encounters with various representatives of the empire.

“I agree,” the admiral conceded. “However, those brighter thinkers tend to be outnumbered by their less-enlightened counterparts. For now, that’ll have to be good enough, I suppose.”

Twirling the brandy in his glass, Kirk decided that the permission granted to him by Nogura to speak his mind was due for testing. “Sir, it occurs to be me that you neglected to mention this part of the Defiant’s mission during my debriefing about our rescue attempt.”

“I didn’t neglectany damned thing,” Nogura snapped, and for a fleeting moment his expression darkened with what Kirk recognized as restrained irritation. It was gone as suddenly as it appeared, and within seconds the older man had regained his composure. “As you’ve no doubt surmised all on your own, Captain, you had no need to know those aspects of the Defiant’s assignment, owing to my concerns about connections to the project. You still don’t, so drink my brandy, don’t push your luck, and try not to take advantage of my good graces.”

Kirk nodded. “Understood, sir.” They sat in silence for a moment, each staring at the top of Nogura’s desk, before the captain said, “Admiral, just about anyone who’s been paying attention knows you were the one who saw things going bad with the Klingons back before the Organians stepped in.”

“I’m not clairvoyant, if that’s what you’re going to ask,” Nogura remarked, the ghost of a smile teasing the corners of his mouth.

“Well, I guess that means I lose the betting pool, sir,” Kirk countered. “You knew that the situation in the Taurus Reach was going to escalate with the Klingons—and the Tholians, for that matter—well ahead of anyone else. You all but predicted the name of the Klingon ship that attacked that freighter in the Iremal Cluster, which tells me you either have some exceptional intelligence assets embedded within the empire, or else you may have had something to do with the freighter being in that location at that time. Maybe a diversion of some kind, but for what, I have no idea.”

It took a moment, but finally Nogura’s expression changed just enough to offer Kirk a hint that he might have guessed right. “Always thinking like a tactician. I knew there was something I liked about you, Captain.” Finishing his second drink since the start of the briefing, the admiral slid his empty glass across the desk, where it clinked against the brandy bottle. “And you’re right. The Ephialteswas a diversion of sorts, providing cover for a sensitive mission I gave to Captain Nassir and the Sagittarius, the very mission you ended up helping to complete.”