“The Romulans must be responsible, sir, Malcolm said. “Its got to be the Romulans.

Breaking eye contact with TPol, Gardner shook his head. “Weve found no definitive evidence of that either, Lieutenant.

“Then who isresponsible? Archer wanted to know.

“Brief transmissions fromColumbia and from personnel at Calder II have tentatively identified the aggressors in both attacks asVulcan military vessels. The hostiles appear to have jammed outgoing communications in both locations before we could learn any additional details. Starfleet Command is trying to keep this information under wraps, of course, for obvious reasons.

“But Command had to inform the United Earth Council.

“And they jumped to the conclusion that this was true? Archer asked. “Theyve seen the Klingon recordings. How could they consider blaming Vulcan?

“ Captain, I dont need to remind you that many people have problems with the Vulcans. They have never understood why they held humanity back, insisting that humans were not ready to move into deep space.

Archer was having trouble accepting any of this. “The problems Ive had with the Vulcans over the years have never been a secret, Admiral. But I cant believe that Vulcan would ever

“No, neither do I. But I answer to Earths government, as do you, Captain. However, it has been suggested that Commander TPol be relieved and confined.

TPols only response was to lift a single eyebrow in an evident gesture of defiance. Reed looked on in openly astonished silence.

“With all due respect, sir, Ill be damned if Im throwing my exec into the brig.

Gardner held up a hand to forestall any further argument. “ I said it was suggested. While the Council believes their eyes, Starfleet believes there is a more devious force behind this. Youre not the only one fostering a new alliance; Starfleet shared all of this data with the Vulcans.

“Romulans, Archer offered. Finally someone at Command was listening. “The Romulans may have just found a way to defeat us without firing a shot. All they need to do is drive wedges of suspicion betweenmembers of the Coalition. And the best way to start is to convince one Coalition world that another member has turned against it.

“Admiral. Please dont tell me that Starfleet has gone so far as to place Soval and his aides under arrest.

“Captain,Gardner said in scolding tones. “Starfleet Command and the United Earth government dont want this Coalition to come apart any more than you do. But Starfleet willhave to enforce Earths decisions once theyre made

“Fair enough, Admiral.

“Lets both hope that Earth understands that whatevers happening at Alpha Centauri and Calder is probably analogous to what those rogue Klingon ships did at Draylax.

Archer nodded. “ Enterpriseis a lot closer to the Calder system than Alpha Centauri. At maximum warp we can reach Calder II in

Gardner interrupted him again. “No. The Calder II outpost is small and almost entirely defenseless. There probably wont be anything left of it by the time you arrive.

Archer glanced at Reed, whose rueful nod tacitly endorsed the admirals coldly factual tactical assessment.

“Understood, Archer said, facing his terminal again. “Well head straight to Alpha Centauri then, and do whatever we can to reinforce Centauri IIIs defenses.

“Negative,said the admiral. “Columbia is on her way, since shes already in the Alpha Centauri sector.

Archer couldnt believe Gardner wanted Columbiato face the threat alone. “Captain Hernandez deserves to have Enterpriseat her back, he said. “Even if we have to get to the party a little bit late.

Looking a little regretful, the admiral shook his head again. “ No. Im afraid another problem has come up. Abackchannel joint operation that Command has been involved with. AndEnterprise is the only vessel currently in position to deal with it in time.

Archer closed his eyes for a moment and stroked his forehead, behind which a knot of intense painan agony utterly unrelated to the aftermath of his combat on QonoShad begun to form. “Admiral, what could be a higher priority for Enterprisethan whats happening right now at Alpha Centauri and Calder?

Archer was glad he was already sitting down when he heard the admirals answer: “A fuel carrier called theKobayashi Maru.

FORTY‑THREE

Tuesday, July 22, 2155 S.S. Kobayashi Maru, Gamma Hydra sector

J ACQUELINE S EARLES TRIEDnot to think about how much freefall always made her want to puke.

The Marus bridge was as dark as a proverbial tomb until the dim, red emergency lighting reluctantly flared to life. Searles breathed a silent prayer of thanks that the fuel carriers perpetually expense‑averse skipper had finally heeded her repeated requests that he bankroll the upgraded backup redundancies shed installed late last year.

Too bad he was willing to settle for the cheapo brand‑X artificial gravity plating, though,she thought as her stomach lurched. Her gorge rose to a higher orbit as Simonson drifted into view; the young pilots neck was bent into an unnatural shape that vaguely resembled a question mark. She didnt want to think about how many others aboard the Marumight have shared Simonsons fate. Moving with cautious deliberation, she secured the dead man to one of the chairs at an unoccupied duty station and somehow resisted the urge to become violently ill.

I must be in shock. Moving on autopilot.

“What the hell did we hit? Vance said as he launched his weightless form from console to console with surprising grace.

Employing considerably less grace, Stiles clung to one of the ops consoles as though his very life depended on it. He pounded on its side, bringing it back to a blinking, flickering semblance of normalcy using a technique he liked to call “percussive maintenance.

“Dunno just yet, the exec said. “But its for damned sure we didnt run over a cat. Thank God you managed to get through to Earth on the compic, Vance.

A fat lot of good thats going to do us right now,Searles thought. She wondered idly how many weeks it would take for a ship from Earth to reach this remote part of the Gamma Hydra sector.

Orienting herself so that she faced one of the forward stations, Searles pushed off against a section of wall near the bridges ceiling. Her inner ear had convinced her body that she was plunging downward at breakneck speed, despite the evidence of her eyes, which confirmed that she was moving fairly slowly relative to the console.

She drifted across the three meters or so of space that still separated her from the console, into which she slammed with a surprisingly hard and loud thump. Scrambling to avoid caroming off in some random direction, a slave both to microgravity and to her own inertia, she grabbed one of the consoles gravity‑failure handholdsdesigned for this very sort of mishapand began checking the internal com grid. The ships intercom network was pretty thoroughly jammed up, with upwards of three hundred people trying to call the bridge simultaneously to find out what was going on. Rebooting the console allowed at least a few individual voices to separate themselves from the background gabble of the rest of the multitude.

“Whats going on in the rest of the ship? Vance called out, cutting through the cacophony.

“We have a lot of dead and injured in the passenger and crew areas, she said, disabling the speakers to keep the horrific noise from drowning out all conversation on the bridge. A horrible bleakness shrouded her soul as she paused to speculate on whether the dead might be the lucky ones, with rescue such an unlikely option this far from Earth.