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

Breen leader.
    Light assaulted him as the door to the domo’s private office opened, liberating Tran from the security antechamber. He stepped forward without waiting for his eyes to adjust because he did not want to appear hesitant or timid. To be invited into the home of the domo was a rare event, even for someone of such elevated status as Tran, who served as the director of the Breen military’s Special Research Division; it would not do for him to make a poor impression now.
    At the end of the long room, seated behind a grand desk, wreathed in shadows broken only by the ambient glow of the holographically projected, gently curved screens that overlapped one another and surrounded him on three sides, was Domo Brex, the appointed leader of the Breen Confederacy. Like his predecessors, he had been elevated to his post by a vote of his peers inside the civil government, out of recognition for his years of service, his excellence as a manager and leader, and his ability to foster consensus on a variety of issues. His annual review had recently seen his tenure extended for another term, and he lorded over his personal sanctum with the relaxed composure of one who lived free of mundane worries.
    Sighting his visitor, Brex banished his cocoon of holograms with one grand gesture, sweeping his hands outward in an arc from his chest. “Welcome, Thot Tran.”
    Tran approached to within a respectable distance of the desk and bowed his head. “I am honored to be received, Domo. How may I be of service?”
    “My chief adviser informs me that your team at Korwat has begun their operation. Are the other elements of your initiative ready to move, as well?”
    “Yes, my lord. I’ve seen personally to the details of every facet of this mission.”
    Brex stood and circled his desk in slow steps. “Good. But I need to impress upon you how vital this project is to the future of the Confederacy.” Halting in front of Tran, the domo towered over him. His august presence projected power and menace. “We stand poised at a historic moment of opportunity, Tran. As I predicted, the Romulans’ recent political overtures to the Federation have undermined their credibility with some of our more hard-line allies within the Pact. The Tholians’ Ruling Conclave, in particular, has begun to lose faith in Praetor Kamemor’s judgment, and I expect the Romulans’ political capital with the Tzenkethi autarch has also been sharply reduced.” All but touching the snout of his mask to Tran’s, he asked, “You see the opportunity in this, yes?”
    “If the Romulans are unwilling to lead the Pact, we will.”
    “Precisely.” Brex stepped past Tran and kept walking. Intuiting the domo’s desire, Tran fell into step behind him as he headed toward a sliding portal that led to a shielded promontory that overlooked the submerged capital city, which sprawled around the Linnavhava . Overhead, shafts of sunlight, broken by their passage through dozens of meters of arctic pack ice and a hundred meters of preternaturally clear seawater, danced through the city’s great sectioned dome of transparent duranium and dappled the metropolis below. “Once we win the trust of the Tholians and the Tzenkethi, the Kinshaya will fall into line, and we will become the preeminent power within the Typhon Pact—and, by extension, all of local space.”
    Intrigued by the domo’s curious omission, Tran asked, “What of the Gorn, my lord?”
    “They have their role to play. As we all do.” He rested his hands on a railing and leaned forward as he gazed out at the city. “But great victories, by definition, entail great risks, and this venture of ours is no different. If we want to take the future’s reins, we’ll need to make terrible sacrifices. Above all, each of our pawns must know as little as possible about their parts in this grand illusion we’re about to conjure. The stakes this time are too dear for us to accept failure. We must have victory, at any