need to take down Calhoun fast and we need to take him down hard.”
“So it’s shoot first, ask questions later.”
“That is the current plan.”
“Well then,” said Jellico, his voice on edge, “I’m just going to have to take it up with—”
“Take it up with whomever you wish,” Nechayev interrupted him brusquely. “You will find that this mandate isn’t originating from me, but from the highest levels in the fleet.”
“Really. I don’t recall being in any meetings where that was decided.”
“As I said, check for yourself if you don’t believe me. The simple fact is, Admiral, that Calhoun hasn’t made himself a ton of friends during his time in Starfleet, despite his services to you and me and even to the entirety of the Federation. They like the outcome of his efforts, but not how he goes about it. He’s already overstretched the leash they put him on, and now that he’s slipped it, the decision is to put him down. It’s your job to coordinate that effort and make sure it’s attended to, as expeditiously as possible. Now if you don’t feel that you are up to the task…”
“Your concern about what I am and am not ‘up to’ is duly noted, Admiral,” Jellico said. He suddenly became aware that he was squeezing so tightly on the underside of his desk that his knuckles were turning white. He eased up before he lost feeling in his hands. “I assure you that, once I’ve verified these orders through channels—as you have so graciously suggested I do—I will carry them out to the best ability that my many years of service can provide.”
“That,” said Nechayev with a slight bow, “is all I could have asked.”
Tusari looked from one to the other and then bowed as well. “Then it seems we are done here.”
Oh no, we’re not, Jellico thought. We’re not done by a long shot. We’re just getting started.
Xenex
Now
More Brethren vessels had returned. Scarcely hours after the initial assault upon their original landing party, the Brethren had shown up in force, ready to lay waste to anyone and everyone in their path. Calhoun could only imagine how puzzled they must have been to discover exactly no one and nothing standing in their way.
The Xenexians had dispersed. Men, women, children, all of them had cleared out, hiding in the mountainous terrain that composed their land and served them well in fighting back against invading forces. They would have had to be completely insane to remain where they were, making themselves targets for any subsequent newcomers. Xenexians were many things, but insane was most definitely not one of them.
They had taken time to do only one thing: Build a pyre for their fallen leader, D’ndai. Calhoun had stood there, watching the flames lick his brother’s body, blacken his skin, and burn him to cinders. Some of the floating ash wound up on Calhoun’s face, and he did nothing to brush it away.
He had known how unnecessary all of this had been. If his brother had only let him turn himself over to the Brethren, none of this would have happened. Instead D’ndai had insisted on handling matters himself, and now look where it had gotten him. Just look.
They will pay. They will all pay, Calhoun had thought grimly.
He had then formed the Xenexians into ranks. There were too many of them to keep as one large force. Until they knew what it was they were dealing with, they needed to employ strictly guerrilla tactics combined with the strategy of retreat first put forward by the Roman dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus. There would be no meeting with the Brethren in prolonged, face-to-face battle. Instead the Xenexians would fall back, they would hide, and they would strike from hiding in hopes of wearing down their enemies. It was the only strategy that could serve them in the long run.
They had then spread throughout the land, making a dozen encampments, bringing enough supplies with them that each encampment would be self-contained. Communication was done entirely with runners.
And still, with all that… with all that…
Calhoun had already lost more people than he would have thought possible. The Brethren had not hesitated to go off into the mountains, searching out the Xenexians, and tracking Calhoun and his people relentlessly. The Xenexians had fought back, and they had outmaneuvered, and they had taken down a number of the bastards, but more of them continued to come in unrelenting waves.
Yet Calhoun remained convinced that the long run was going to