The weapons officer placed his hands on his knees, turning to look at Tal as if to say I can be killed for less.

Tal stalked over to stand all but nose to nose with Koval; they were about the same height, but Koval’s very posture spoke of inbreeding, decadence, where Tal was disciplined to the bone.

Technically Tal Shiar of Koval’s rank could commandeer the vessel and remove even an admiral from the bridge, but he’d find precious little assistance from Tal’s handpicked crew if he did. Concomitantly, Tal could see to it that Koval fell down a turboshaft or did something else equally stupid that might be expected of someone not used to a warbird’s hidden dangers, but he who had thus far had more lives than a h’vartmight this time not survive. Stalemate.

“This is my ship,” Tal told Koval quietly, biting each word off distinctly. “We don’t fire unless I know why.”

Koval held Tal’s gaze, though the blue eyes were fierce, but his words were for the weapons officer. “Weapons, I told you to fire,” he said, his words as distinct as Tal’s.

“Admiral?” Helm sounded almost apologetic. “Unidentified vessel approaching at 107 mark 4. Configuration…Federation starship.”

Chapter 18

Now this was a target Admiral Tal would have no problem firing on if need be. Shrugging Koval off, he locked into the command chair.

“Engage cloak and come about. Bring us in line with her and maintain.” He looked at Koval “Did you know about this?”

“No,” Koval said. “But it makes matters more interesting, doesn’t it?”

It seems self-evident to describe space as three-dimensional, but it’s something to keep in mind when talking about tactics. During the Romulan War, analogies to submarine warfare were often drawn, but they could help only so much. Yes, two submarines can confront each other up-to-down as well as sideways-to-sideways, but both would still be dependent upon the planet’s gravity for maneuverability, and could never have approached each other upside down.

But there is no “up” in space.

Cultural historians often found it interesting to study old twenty-first-century space operas and note that two ships or even two fleets facing off for battle inevitably arrived at the point of confrontation right side up. No one ever dropped out of warp upside down or perpendicular relative to the observer.

In this particular instance, those on the warbird saw Okinawaemerge from the void at a 45-degree angle. If the warbird hadn’t been cloaked, she would have seemed from the point of view of Okinawato be listing acutely to starboard. From Sisko’s perspective on Albatross,they were both askew, but his mind adjusted for it even as the ships themselves corrected for the discrepancy. What worried Sisko more was that Albatrosshad ended up smack in the path of both of them.

“An interesting tactical dilemma,” Tuvok observed. “On the one hand, the warbird could simultaneously incinerate us and give Okinawaa glancing blow. But in doing so, she would have to decloak, and leave herself open to return fire from Okinawa.If we attempt to escape the line of fire, we risk giving the Romulans a clear shot at Okinawa;however—”

“Save it for the debriefing,” Sisko said tightly, racking his brain for a tactical maneuver that would solve this. “I’m getting us out of here, and then I’m going aft to see where that alarm is coming from.”

He threw the ship into a dive that structurally she shouldn’t have been able to manage, and the clumsy bird juddered and groaned and squawked in protest, but she somehow managed it.

“What do they think they’re doing?” Captain Leyton wondered. He’d been just about to hail Albatrosswhen she suddenly began to plummet like her namesake after a fish. A glance at the energy distortion just behind where Albatrosshad been gave him his answer. “Oh, I see.”

He began issuing orders calmly. “Yellow alert. Send standard challenge on all frequencies. Raise shields. Weapons at ready; stand by. And let me know if Albatrossslows down long enough to engage a tractor beam.”

“I can give you something for space sickness,” Selar suggested, seeing all the color drain from Zetha’s face as Sisko pulled the ship out of the dive, under Okinawa’s belly and, in a roller coaster ride of evasive maneuvers, out of the line of fire.

Zetha shook her head. “I’m fine. Tell me again about the test results. Is it really true?”

“Affirmative,” Selar said. Battened down or not, she had completed an analysis of hilopon,and was now downloading all the data she had gathered on this mission into her tricorder, in the event they needed to abandon ship. “We have a potential cure, and perhaps the rudiments of a vaccine as well.”

Despite her terror, Zetha managed a weak smile. “But if we die here, without letting the admiral and Dr. Crusher know…”

Selar had no answer. They had the Romulan datachips, and she would continue to copy her research in hopes of transferring both to Okinawa.Worry was illogical.

Too many Romulan commanders are trained only to fight, not to negotiate. Admiral Tal was not one of them. Looking daggers at Koval, he instructed his comm officer to answer Okinawa’s challenge at once.

“I can’t help thinking that that starship is here because of you,” he remarked to Koval as Comm fiddled with codes and frequencies, “I don’t know what you did on Renaga, but I do know where you went. It seems to me that ever since we crossed into the Outmarches, my crew and I have risked our lives for the privilege of becoming an interplanetary incident at the behest of the Tal Shiar. And I find that most irritating.”

“Admiral…” from Comm; he raised a hand that indicated: Wait!

“You may have power enough to commandeer my ship, but once on my ship, you are answerable to me,” Tal continued, his eyes boring into Koval. “I have survived far greater threats than you. If you speak, if you so much as inhale deeply while I am speaking to their captain, I will give them the coordinates you beamed to. I wonder what they’d find there?”

Koval said nothing. He simply met Tal’s gaze squarely. It was so seldom anyone challenged him that he found it refreshing. For a moment a pair of defiant green eyes flashed across his memory and he frowned slightly. Who might that have been? He had touched so many lives, watched so many die, so many beg for mercy, so many realize at the last moment how completely he had invaded and controlled their lives without their ever realizing it, that sometimes it was hard to remember them all. Ah, well. If the admiral wanted to run this part of the show, let him. He had other means at his disposal.

Tal nodded to Comm to open the channel.

“Commander Federation vessel,” he said to the bearded human materializing on the forward screen, “challenge acknowledged. But you are as much in the wrong place as we. I await your explanation.”

Ultimately the standoff took on the aspect of a chess game. Admiral Tal dropped the warbird’s cloak (necessary after this much time, if he intended to have full power for weapons) but not her shields; Captain Leyton stood fast. For the next several minutes the two commanders traded accusations of trespass into the Zone, treaty violation, and whether there were Romulans with transmitters on Renaga. Tal made note of the frail-looking humanoid standing behind the bearded captain’s shoulder occasionally whispering something into his ear. Each time he did so, the human would frown and go on speaking.