Ring of Treason

Prologue

HAMLET
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,—meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;

The planet was so barren, so out-of-the-way, and so ugly that no one went there for fun or health. It had an ugly name too, Uxas, and those who knew about its location also knew that there was no law, no culture, no beauty, and no questions asked when you went there. The merchants kept the peace by removing all Phasers and other weapons upon docking, and they had hired guns to enforce the rules. The hired guns never asked questions, they just dispatched trouble makers efficiently and quickly. Peace meant profit to the merchants and it also meant that beings could come and go to Uxas and credits could and would be spent liberally and all transactions made there would be discreet.

The favorite meeting place for travelers was the bar named "Beyond Antares." The bar owner, a cruel, ruthless humanoid of mongrel looks and ancestry, had a singularly unexpected soft spot for the song and so had named the bar many years ago. Somewhere in his distant past, his mother had sung that song to him, so visitors had learned never to make fun of the bar name. The bar owner was a very rich man. He made money by offering different and sometimes lethal types of intoxicants and other pleasures which were illegal across the Federation. Because of this, the bar was always full. The food was not very good, but nobody cared about that. Beings came and went and no one gave them a second glance or cared who they met or how long or how little they stayed. It was considered bad manners to stare when someone came into the bar so no one did.

That is until the Romulan warrior walked in. As he entered the bar, all heads both male and female looked up. He was worth looking at. In any humanoid culture he would have been striking. Tall and lean, broad-shouldered; his stride confident and assured. His face was arrestingly handsome; symmetrically perfect, his nose straight, his mouth firm. His cheekbones were high and dark brows slanted up in a sensuous curve. His boots made staccato noises as he walked and his restless eyes scanned the bar until he saw the face he had come to meet. The Rigellian met his glance and nodded. The Romulan gathered the Rigellian with a nod and they went into one of the private alcoves.

"I am Commander Toth."

The Rigellian nodded. "And I am Soloth"

"I am authorized to complete the transaction with you. As agreed, Romulus will pay you 200,000 credits now and another 200,000 when either the plans or the prototype for the Trans Warp Drive are delivered to us. I also have been authorized to tell you that you may pay the Star Fleet traitors up to 50,000 credits each for their cooperation. Traitors are not usually that expensive, but we must make allowances for the higher ranks of the ones who are committing treason."

Soloth nodded his agreement and held out his hand. The Romulan passed over the credit chip payment and Soloth ran it over his scanner to make sure the payment was correct and he nodded in satisfaction.

"Why does Romulus want this drive so badly?" he asked, not really caring about the answer.

Toth smiled, baring his teeth. "It is none of your business, Soloth. Your business is to acquire the drive and deliver it to us." He stood. "We will be in touch."

Again all eyes followed him as he went out the door and made his way to the docking station and his ship. With our cloaking device and with the Transwarp Drive, Romulus will be invincible and unstoppable, he thought. We will rid ourselves of the accursed Federation, its ships, its military might, and its benevolent tyranny over so many worlds. It would be good to go to war. Things had been too quiet for too long for his taste. Little skirmishes here and there were not to his liking. A good war was what all Romulan Warriors wanted and at last it seemed they would get their wish.

Soloth sat still and sighed as he watched Toth leave, and then he too left the bar. Plans had to be made and time was short.