
Star Trek - TOS 096 - Honor Blade, Rihannsu 4
Chapter Six
sempach was one of a newer, experimental class of cruisers, the Constellation class, named in memory of
Matt Decker's old ship that had been lost against the planet killer in the L-374 system not so very long
ago. The class-name ship and Sempach had been the first out of the shipyards, with Speedwell close
be-hind, and all of them were already busy performing their basic function-trying out a new four-nacelle
design that was supposed to provide starships with a more streamlined and reliable warp field, capable of
higher speeds. The technology, referred to as "pre-transwarp" in some of the literature Jim had seen, was
extremely interesting but technically somewhat difficult to understand, and Scotty had passed it on to his
captain with a single comment: "Rubbish." Nonetheless, the technology seemed so far to be
working all right, and the design crews had plainly been busy elsewhere too: the ship was very
hand-some from the outside, with a lean and rakish look to her. As the transporter effect wore off, Jim
looked around Sempach' transporter room, surprised at its size and its somewhat nonutilitarian look;
there was even a small lounge area off to one side, with com-fortable sealing. Kind of overdone, Jim
thought as he greeted the transporter technician at the console and then raised an eyebrow at himself.
She's affecting me. Still, it'd be nice not having to stand around waiting for visiting dignitaries to arrive.
The transporter room doors opened, and Com-modore Danilov came in, looking much as he had when
Jim had last seen him in San Francisco: a brawny man of medium height, dark with a combina-tion of
Polynesian and eastern European blood, the dark hair going silver-shot now above a broad, round face,
surprisingly unlined for someone of his age.
"Sir," Jim said, "you hardly had to come down here to meet me..."
The commodore gave him a wry look out of his sharp dark eyes as they shook hands. "Captain," Danilov
said, "I'm still learning to find my way around this ship. I know I could have sent a lieu-tenant for you, but
they get lost too. Come on."
They went off down the corridors together, the commodore making his way quickly enough despite his
disclaimer. Jim's feelings about his superior offi-cers ranged from the respectful to the occasionally
scandalous, but here was one man in whose case he
came down hard on the respectful side: twenty-five years in Starfleet, the kind of officer who flew a ship
or a desk with equal skill-though he fought them more often than he simply flew them. Danilov's
ex-perience and effectiveness in battle had become leg-endary; hi particular, he had probably scored
more points during the last big war with the Klingons than any other commander except Captain Suvuk
of In-trepid, until the Organians blew the whistle and stopped play. Jono Danilov had that invaluable
com-modity for a commander, a reputation for luck: he always seemed to come out only slightly
scorched from any trouble he got into, no matter how the trou-ble seemed to seek him out-and it did.
"She's a fine ship," he said to Jim as they turned a corner, "a little fidgety at first, but she's settled hi nicely
now. Fleet's pleased: they're already flying the keels for the two new ones-Stargazer and Hathaway."
Jim nodded. "She's a real lady, Commodore. And she still has that new-ship smell."
"I want to keep it that way for a while," Danilov said, shooting Jim a look, "and avoid getting things all
scorched and smoky. The question is, will I be able to."