STAR TREK: TNG - The Genesis Wave, Book One
Page 30
“Yes, it’s happening!” said Mot. He kissed the top of his mother’s head and then his father’s. “I love you both!”
“We love you, Son!” rasped his father, burying his face in Mot’s broad chest. All around them, the sanctuary shuddered, and the wind howled with an unearthly force. Mot closed his eyes and gripped his loving parents, certain that the next moment would be their last.
“Captain, we are leaving orbit,” declared Data, taking the initiative Picard had charged him with.
On the viewscreen, the Neptune soared toward the planet, no longer firing indiscriminately but in flames. Their phasers had stopped the rogue ship, but there was no telling how much destruction she had wrought before being stopped.
Picard wanted to rush down to the transporter room and find what had caused Beverly and her crew to lose their minds, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the planet. A pulsing wall of flame ripped over the yellow-green plains and the blue rivers, turning them into great pillars of steam and ash. The whole planet quivered [308] and throbbed like a sun going nova. He tried to imagine there being hundreds of pockets of survivors, but it hardly seemed possible. It could be days before they knew how many had been saved, if any.
The last image he saw on the viewscreen was the fiery wall engulfing the tiny Neptune like a monstrous tidal wave crashing over a rowboat.
They had made their stand on Myrmidon, but there was no way anyone could call this a victory. In a few more days, Earth would fall, and they still had no idea who was doing this to them. Or how to stop it. The Genesis Wave rushed onward, undiminished, its voracious appetite still eager to consume more worlds, more solar systems, and more lives.
To Be Continued in
Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Genesis Wave
Book Two
Coming in April from Pocket Books
Editor’s Acknowledgment
The editor would like to thank David Mack, who is less fictional than some might presume, for providing THE GENESIS REPORT that makes up the bulk of Chapter Fourteen.
About the e-Book
(SEPTEMBER, 2003)—Proofed and formatted by Bibliophile.