“Hoshi, can you clean that up? Archer said, frowning.

Scowling down at her console, the youthful communications expert shook her head. “Sorry, Captain. Theres just too much external interference. Its almost as though

“Almost as though somebody a little closer to her than we are is jamming her signals, Archer said, interrupting. “That damned Romulan ship.

“What could have happened to the Horizon? Mayweather said, looking up from his helm seat; he was obviously rattled emotionally, though he seemed to be working hard to conceal that fact. “The booby trap that the Kobayashi Maruhit cant have been the only one the Romulans or the Klingons left lying around in this sector. Maybe

“Lets not get ahead of ourselves, Travis, Archer said. He stepped toward the pilot and laid a hand gently on his shoulder. “I promise you well get to the bottom of this, just as quickly as we can.

Mayweather nodded, his dark eyes gleaming with both appreciation and worry. “Thank you, sir.

Turning back toward Hoshis station, Archer said, “Why the hell would even the Romulans try to jam distress calls from a human freighter way out here in the boondocks?

“Its actually a modified Klingonfreighter, Captain, Malcolm said. “The Romulans might be taking over her systems with their new weapon, as part of another one of their territorial skirmishes against the Klingons.

Or maybe they know full well that theKobayashi Maru is filled with defenseless humans and theyre doing this just for the sheer sadistic hell of it,Archer thought. He knew hed never forget how theyd tried to annihilate the civilization on Coridan Prime, even if he never succeeded in proving their involvement definitively. Maybe theyre trying to force us to fire some of the first shots in the new war we all know is coming.

“Were receiving another incoming signal, Captain, Hoshi said as she examined the frequency and modulation graphs on her displays.

“From the Kobayashi Maru? Archer said.

“No, sir. The point‑source vector doesnt match at all, and the signal seems to have bypassed the worst of the jamming effect.

Archers eyebrows rose involuntarily as he approached her console to get a better look at the incoming message scrolling on her displays. “Starfleet Command?

“No, sir. Its in the wrong frequency range. And its in the lowest portions of the subspace bands, so low its hard to sort out from the cosmic subspace background noise.

“Enhance that signal and pinpoint its source, Archer said.

Hoshi swiftly tapped new instructions into her board, and her brow crumpled in puzzlement as she studied the new data that resulted. “Looks like its coming from the Romulanship, Captain.

“Audio? Archer asked.

She shook her head. “No, only modulation pulses. Its almost as though somebody on that ship is tapping against the ships own signal‑jamming protocols, using some other on‑board system to create the taps.

“The way you might bang out a Morse code message by rapping a monkey wrench against a pipe, said Archer.

“Exactly.

“Any idea who the sender is? Archer said, although he already had a pretty good idea of the identity of whoever was wielding the “subspace monkey wrench on the Romulan ship.

“Just the name Lazarus, Captainjust like the message we received back in February. The name keeps repeating throughout the message. He saw her eyes widen in evident recognition of the name, which he knew she had encountered once before not so very long ago.

“Pipe it to my ready room, Hoshi, Archer said, then turned so that he faced both the main science console and the tactical station.

“Malcolm, you have the bridge. TPol, youre with me.

Then he was practically in a footrace with his first officer to discover whether or not “Lazarus had returned from the dead yet again.

FORTY‑EIGHT

The Depths of Tezel‑Orokos Kuiper Belt

P OWERLESS TO TAKEany direct action to stop the proceedings that were unfolding before him on the bird‑of‑preys bustling bridge, Trip sat with his back to the console where his captors had parked him. He watched in silence as Sopek finally gave the order that confirmed nearly all of Trips worst suspicions.

“The lead vessel has activated the arrenhehwiuatelecapture system, Sublieutenant, the turncoat captain said to the youthful male officer seated at the forward helm console. “ Enterprisewill come within the systems operational range when she closes with the freighter to commence rescue operations. The attack force will reveal itself then, while bringing the device fully to bear against the Earth vessel.

Trip watched. But he wasnt watching helplessly.

Despite the slight shaking of his hands, no doubt caused by the close presence of both Sopek and his crewnot to mention the disruptor‑packing two‑legged watchdog posted near the turbolift doorsTrip hadnt found it all that difficult to take surreptitious control of a couple of the ships more innocuous‑looking systems.

The backup coolant valves that governed the dispersal of the life‑support systems waste heat had taken only a few short minutes to figure out. Using those bursts to create a corresponding pulsation within the adjacent tertiary subspace communications backup systema little‑noticed system that engaged automatically during signal‑jamming operationshad taken even less time.

The trickiest part of the gambit had been trying to look casual while digging a finger deeply into his right ear in order to gently extract the small universal translation unit that the Adigeon plastic surgeons had concealed there.

Hate to lose either one of these things,Trip thought, remembering how difficult it had been to fix this one after it had temporarily failed a few weeks back. But I can get by with just the left one if I really need to.

Right now, what he reallyneeded was to tap out a message on his improvised equivalent of a subspace telegraph. But any telegraph operator required the use of a telegraph key, of course, and Trip suspected that his ear‑implant device would fit the bill nicely, given the right combination of skill and luck.

Pretending to stretch, he palmed the tiny, raisin‑sized control mechanism, then allowed it to roll to a stop between his right thumb and forefinger. Relying both on his sense of touch and his memory of the repairs hed already once been forced to make on the unit, he found the tiny actuator switch that controlled the receipt of inputs from the jaw‑implanted bone conduction microphone that allowed him to “converse with the device on a silent, subvocal level.

Too bad I cant just use the subvocal interface directly over a voice‑channel link,he thought as the little unit began automatically running up and down the local wireless interface frequencies, seeking a match with the console‑accessible systems Trip had just seized. But I suppose you cant have everything.

He could only hope that what he now had would prove to be enoughand that someone aboard Enterprisewould notice that somebody herewas sending them a signal, albeit an unorthodox one. Reasoning that his best chance to get Captain Archers attention quickly was to start with a familiar, easily recognizable message, Trip started by repeatedly sending the equivalent of the name “Lazarus, the code name he had used months ago, while trying to send Enterpriseadvance word of the attack on Coridan. Memories of the Coridan disaster, which had claimed more than a billion lives despite his last‑minute warnings, filled Trip with foreboding.

As did the realization that whether or not Captain Archer received and understood his transmissions in time to act on them, at least one ship and crew was all but certain to come to a terrible end today.

Unobtrusively squeezing the ear implant in his hand in a rhythmic but silent tattoo of dots and dashes, Trip began tapping out a message.