Star Trek: The Fall: The Poisoned Chalice Read Online Free Page A

president had ever been assassinated in office.Not that there hadn’t been attempts, of course. Ra-Ghoratreii of Efros had come the closest to taking that dubious honor, after the whole Gorkon conspiracy business, and it was barely a year ago that Nan Bacco herself had been the target of a failed effort on the Orion homeworld.
    But now it had actually happened . Bacco’s death was something new and terrible. The people of the Federation had never lost a leader like this, and no one knew where to start to process it. Candlelight vigils and memorial ceremonies were already being held on member-worlds across the quadrant, and the scenes of public despair from the late president’s home Cestus III were harrowing.
    The timing of it couldn’t have been worse. The wounds of a Federation bloodied by the Borg Invasion were finally healing, and concerns over the rise of the Typhon Pact, the newest power in the galactic arena, had found some measure of stability. Olive branches had been extended to the Gorn and the Romulans. There was a sense of moving forward, that perhaps the quadrant was past the most terrible, that there was hope again.
    But now this brutal attack on someone respected across the galaxy had shaken the people of the UFP once more. Add to that the uncertainty surrounding the relationship between the Federation and Andor, one of its founding members, and the ramifications of Bacco’s death went far beyond Vale’s ability to grasp.
    She lost herself in the view from the window, measuring her own thoughts. In a way, she felt a little coldblooded about it all. At first, Vale had experienced the same hard jolt of shock and anger that many of her crewmates did, the moment of breathless astonishmentat the scenes of the assassination. But then, like a switch flipping inside her mind, all that emotion had been buried.
    She looked at the news footage of the incident light-years distant on DS9, and she was analyzing it, calculating the clinical facts of the killing. Before Titan, before Starfleet, Christine Vale had been a peace officer in the Pibroch City Police Department on Izar, and somewhere underneath the arrowhead combadge and black uniform tunic, she was still a cop at heart. She looked at Bacco’s death and saw a crime scene, disconnecting herself from the emotional content of the offense and asking the dispassionate questions. Who was the shooter? How did they get a weapon through station security? What was the motive?
    On one level, she knew that the best investigative minds in the UFP were already finding answers to those questions and many more, but right at that moment, Vale wanted to be there with them, working the case. If for no other reason than to be able to begin to make sense of the brutality of the act, to feel as if she were doing something about it.
    A sigh escaped her lips and she looked back to the padd, tapping the authorization tab, reluctantly returning to the matter at hand. When the intercom chimed in the quiet of the ready room, she almost jumped.
    â€œCommander Vale?” Out on the bridge, Tuvok was keeping a watch on things. “Incoming message for your attention.”
    Despite the fact that she was alone in the room, Vale drew up and straightened. “Pipe it in here, will you?”
    A moment later, Will Riker’s voice issued out ofthe air. “Christine? Do we have privacy?” She could hear the faint sound of wind noise in the background, as if he was up on a roof somewhere.
    â€œIt’s just me. Go ahead, sir.”
    â€œI have had . . . a very interesting morning.”
    â€œLet me guess. The brass decided to give you early retirement, Captain?” It was a weak attempt to lighten her tone, and it fell flat.
    â€œWorse than that,” said Riker. “As of now, I am the brass. It’s not ‘Captain’ anymore. Akaar just promoted me to rear admiral.”
    She was genuinely speechless for a long moment before