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

finding her voice again. “Does it make me a bad person that the first thought I have is, ‘Do I get the ship now?’ ”
    Vale heard the brief smile in his voice. “Don’t push your luck, Commander. I’ve got you right where I need you.”
    It was tough to frame her next question, so in the end she gave up. “Look, I’m just going to put this out there; what the hell is going on, sir?”
    â€œDamned if I know. Apparently I get an office and an aide, but so far this promotion doesn’t appear to come with any explanations. But there’s more going on down here than just the fallout from the shooting. I’m going to need your steady hand up there, Chris.”
    She nodded. “Aye, sir. The crew should be told. And they’ll have questions.”
    â€œThey can take a number and get in line behind me.” He hesitated. “Here’s the thing. We don’t know how long Titan is going to be here, so my first order with this new rank is to run up a shore leave schedule, grant liberty to whomever needs it. I think our people could use some air and open sky. And McKinley’s tech staff can take theopportunity to give the ship a tune-up. Make that happen. In the meantime . . .” He drifted off for a second. “I’ll try to figure out how to explain this to Deanna. It’s a lot to process.”
    A grim certainty settled on Vale. “Captain . . . I mean, Admiral  . . . don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t think you deserve the laurels and all . . . but this has come from out of nowhere. Especially now, after the assassination.”
    â€œYou’re not saying anything I’m not already thinking, believe me. I’m sure Admiral Akaar has his reasons. Maybe he’ll see fit to share them with me, hopefully sooner rather than later. Carry on, Commander.”
    â€œAye, sir,” she added. “And, uh, congratulations.”
    â€œThanks,” said Riker. “I hope.”

Two
    I t was a good view, Riker reflected.
    Out across the bay, looking in the direction of the great spans of the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond them the towers of San Francisco, there were only clear blue skies and the occasional puff of white cloud on the coastal breezes. Silver dots—flyers and air trams—caught blinks of sunshine as they moved through the city’s aerial lanes. San Francisco was waking up, going to work, but Riker had been in the office since before dawn.
    He hardly felt like his feet had touched the ground since the brisk promotion ceremony a day earlier. Lieutenant Ssura, now permanently assigned as his adjutant, had taken him to his new base of operations in the south tower of the Starfleet Command complex and spent the rest of the day acclimating the new admiral on the details of his posting. By the time they were done, it was ship’s night up on Titan, and Riker wearily chose to snatch some sleep in the transient officers’ barracks rather than beam back into orbit and wake his wife and daughter.
    Deanna seemed to be taking the news a lot better than he did. She immediately dropped into what he had come to consider “counselor mode” and saidall the right things to set his mind at ease . . . for the moment. Talking to her, he found all the trivia of a hundred minor decisions welling up in his thoughts. Would they need to find a home on Earth now? A new school for Tasha? Will Riker hadn’t lived anywhere other than in the cabins of a starship for almost three decades, and the notion of suddenly finding a home back here on Earth was strangely banal and alien all at once. He’d been away for so long, back when escape from his youth in Alaska had been the only thing he wanted. It seemed odd coming home like this, the opportunity to think on it robbed from him.
    He turned from the window to look at the wide desk where dozens of padds of