Star Trek: TNG: Cold Equations II: Silent Weapons Read Online Free PDF Page A

Konar. “It’s too soon to go operational. We haven’t finished testing the control system, and I can’t guarantee the synaptomimetic circuits will work as planned. I need more time.”
    “There is no more time. We have our orders. It’s time to put our team in the field.”
    The junior scientist waved angrily at her screens of benchmark-test data, vital signs, and a thousand other metrics only she seemed to understand. “This is outrageous! Did you explain to Command what’ll happen if we overload this system? Not only could we lose contact with our assets in the field, the entire system could crash beyond recovery. I mean, look at the size of that signal! It’s not as if I can just run a backup on that, now can I?”
    For all her passion and precision, she can be woefully impolitic, Konar lamented. “I’ve explained the dangers to our superiors, at length and in great detail. They’ve decided that recent developments merit such a steep calculated risk, and it’s our duty to carry out their will.”
    Hearing the orders spelled out in stark and unforgiving terms seemed to quash Hain’s objections. “I understand.” She turned toward her screens for a moment, then looked back at Konar. “Do we have any specific objectives beyond bringing our field team on line?”
    “Yes. Download command protocol packet Hairotekija .”
    Konar stood back and waited while Hain opened and reviewed their classified directive from SRD Command. He had already read it and knew how foolhardy it was. He was curious to see if his junior colleague could restrain her righteous indignation long enough to obey orders. She spent twice as long poring over the file as he had; he wondered whether it was taking her longer to parse their instructions or if she was using the time to collect herself before voicing a reaction. At last, she turned and regarded him with a casual lift of her snout, but her body language was tense and ill at ease. “It’ll take two hours to initialize the transmitter,” she said. “I’ll have a steady uplink to our assets in the field within an hour after that. I need to request three hours of prep time for each agent, to make sure everyone is—”
    “You can have one hour per agent, no more.”
    It was an unreasonable restriction, and they both knew it, but Konar had no choice. His agenda and timetable had been imposed on him by the head of the SRD himself, Thot Tran. He feared the possibility that Hain would choose this moment to make a stand that would bring them both an onslaught of undesirable attention from their betters.
    Even concealed by the anonymizing armor of a Breen mask, her dudgeon was palpable. She answered with flat tones of acquiescence. “Very well. I’ll limit the checks to vital systems only. Ready to commence Operation Zelazo on your order, sir.”
    “The order is given.”
    Without a word, Hain went to work, powering up every system in the lab and launching scores of new applications they hadn’t yet started to debug, never mind test. In a matter of hours, their hastily convened operation would swing into action. Konar couldn’t begin to estimate their odds of success, given the obstacles that lay ahead for them and those who were depending upon them. All he could do was hope that he and Hain hadn’t just inaugurated a future disaster.
    Not daring to expect the best but only to avoid the worst, he returned to his private quarters to inform his superiors that their mad scheme was at last under way.
    •   •   •
    Inside the antechamber, Thot Tran saw nothing at all, only darkness and silence. He knew he was being scanned by a variety of subtle instruments, checked for hidden weapons, discreet elements of potential compound explosives, or elevated vital signs that could suggest he harbored violent intent toward the Confederacy’s head of state. Today, at least, he had borne none of those things to his meeting at the Linnavhava, the centuries-old official residence of the