Paradise Interrupted

by John S. Drew

  “Me, too,” Gomez said even as Tev said simultaneously, “As am I.” They looked at each other for a moment, waiting for the other to say something. Their staring contest was cut short by a clap of thunder overhead.

  “All right,” Gomez broke the silence. “We’re moving into the caves. I want security scanning ahead; I’ll follow with Soloman and Pattie in the middle and Tev covering the rear.” She brushed away a lock of her hair blown in front of her by a developing wind.

  Tev was about to object when a streak of lightning sizzled across the sky. Everyone suddenly realized just how humid it was becoming.

  “It looks like we’re in for a storm,” Gomez said. “Let’s move out, people, and let’s be careful. We don’t know where that third Gorn is or if Kazar has joined him.”

  They began their trek across the sand, moving toward the cave entrance. The wind picked up its pace, staggering some of the crew with its buffeting force. Pattie reached out and steadied Soloman, who looked as though he was going to be lifted off the ground.

  As they advanced, Corsi stepped up to Gomez and whispered, “I’m impressed. Tev didn’t put up a fight or anything.”

  “He’s learning. Sometimes he forgets that he’s second in command—and I didn’t help matters on our first mission when I dropped the command ball. But I think I’ve earned a grudging respect from him.”

  “That says a lot.” Corsi let a grin slip out.

  “Exactly,” Gomez replied. “But by the same token, I can’t let his brusqueness take command of any situation I’m in charge of handling. I’ve still got to sometimes remind him that I’m in charge.”

  “Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” Corsi sighed.

  “Speaking of crowns, how about you?” Gomez looked at Angelopoulos. “How are the new recruits adjusting?”

  Corsi shrugged. “All right, I guess. I haven’t heard any complaints.”

  “Do you ever?”

  “From the recruits? No—but I trust Hawk to let me know if something’s up. I’ve been trying to keep a looser hand, anyhow. Most of these people know their stuff—Lauoc, Krotine, even Konya.”

  “What about him?” Gomez asked, indicating Angelopoulos.

  “Pretty straightforward and clever, based on his record. And he asked to transfer here.”

  “I’m impressed, Domenica—you’ve mellowed in your old age.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Corsi said with a smile. “I just think that, especially after everything that’s happened to us in the past year, there are some really important things in life you have to appreciate in the here and now.”

  Gomez knew exactly what the security chief was talking about, especially in regards to a certain Fabian Stevens, who was waiting for her back at the ship. Gomez was of two minds about their slowly developing relationship. On the one hand, Fabian and Domenica were a good match.

  On the other hand, Gomez harbored a thin, green streak of envy. Watching the two always reminded Gomez of what she and Kieran had and she wanted it again. How many times had she been the one who cooled down Duffy’s advances, even hesitating when he proposed to her just before the Galvan VI mission began? Despite her words, hadn’t Corsi learned anything from Gomez and Duffy?

  The area around the away team began to darken, and a call from Angelopoulos ahead of them drew Gomez from her morose thoughts.

  “I’ve pinpointed the source of the energy pattern,” he reported. He held up his tricorder and tapped a command into the small unit. “I’ve also mapped out the interior of the cave system. I’m sending it to your tricorders. There are two entrances into the cavern.”

  Gomez turned to Corsi. “Well?”

  “We keep it simple to start, Commander,” Corsi replied quickly. “You and I and Blue will enter from one side while Tev, Soloman, and Angelopoulos will enter from the other.”

  Gomez nodded appreciatively. “Good. I like it. Let’s make no sudden moves here. Wait for my signal to move in.” She was looking at Tev as she said this. The Tellarite grunted his acknowledgment.

  Sparky had been silent for some time. Eddie didn’t bother his new friend as he was still getting used to the sensation of the absorbed energy washing over him. There was that little part of Eddie that wondered if he was causing any harm to himself being joined to Sparky.

  Physically, he looked the same, save for the hairs on his hands and arms standing up. He reached up and felt his hair swaying about in an upright position. Other than his odd hairstyle and the tingling sensation coursing throughout his body, Eddie felt fine.

  DANGER.

  “What?” Eddie still wasn’t used to hearing Sparky’s voice in his mind.

  DANGER. OTHERS OF YOUR KIND APPROACHING.

  “My kind?” Eddie repeated. “Humans?”

  SOLID MATTER. ENERGY DEVICES. Sparky paused. WEAPONS. MAY HARM EDDIE JOHNSON.

  “Me? How do you know they’re going to hurt us? They might be here to help us.”

  TRUST NO ONE.

  “You trusted me,” Eddie argued.

  FRIEND.

  “And these people could turn out to be friends too.” Eddie continued to press his point. “My father could be among them.”

  ANGER AT FATHER. HE HURT EDDIE JOHNSON. FATHER HURT SPARKY.

  “I was mad at my father, yes, but I wouldn’t want to hurt him.”

  NOT HURT. INCAPACITATE.

  Sparky began to glow again, preparing itself for an assault. Eddie tried to call out, but found that his voice wasn’t echoing off the cavern walls.

  CANNOT ALERT THEM. INCAPACITATE AND THEN INVESTIGATE.

  “No!” Eddie cried out. “You don’t know if you’ll hurt them! Stop!”

  The young boy, now a part of the energy being, struggled to stop the surge. He willed himself to halt the process.

  STOP. EDDIE JOHNSON CANNOT CONTROL THIS.

  “I have to try,” Eddie said, gritting his teeth as he tried to maintain his concentration.

  In the large outer cavern, Corsi and Angelopoulos checked the setting on their phasers.

  “Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to have any effect on something that can suck the energy from an entire peninsula,” Gomez said.

  Corsi tapped at her phaser. “It makes me feel more secure.” She lifted the weapon and examined it. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. It’s been drained.”

  “As has my tricorder,” Soloman reported.

  “I’ve still got my phaser,” Angelopoulos said, lifting his weapon.

  “As do I,” Tev added. “Interesting. Some of our equipment is being affected this time, while others are not.”

  “Yes.” Gomez was interrupted from continuing her thoughts by a cry from Soloman. He dropped to the ground, writhing in agony. Gomez was quickly to his side, pulling out her tricorder.

  “Whatever is causing this drain is affecting Soloman. It’s feeding on his neural impulses. He’s slipping into a coma.”

  “That does it,” Corsi said, taking Angelopoulos’s weapon from his hands. “Let’s take this thing out.”

  Before she could take another step, she was knocked off her feet by a concussive force, brought about by a phased explosion nearby.

  “Well,” Angelopoulos said, pointing toward the entrance to the cavern. “And I thought things couldn’t get worse.”

  The three Gorn had entered the cavern, their weapons raised. They advanced slowly, making sure they had the entire away team covered.

  “Do not move,” Kazar hissed.

  Chapter

  13

  “Get down!” Corsi ordered as she jumped behind a large boulder. She drew a bead on the lead Gorn and fired Angelopoulos’s weapon.

  Kazar stumbled back and toppled over like a great pine tree, crashing with a heavy thud. The two remaining Gorn strafed the area with their weapons fire.

  Gomez ducked behind the boulder, settling beside Corsi.

  “Isn’t anything ever easy?” she asked.

  Corsi’s only reply was a shrug as she
took another shot.

  The chamber reverberated with the loud echo of crashing thunder and sizzling lightning from just outside the cave.

  “That storm’s getting worse,” Gomez said, trying to look over the shoulders of the Gorn to the cave entrance beyond. The sky had darkened considerably and the wind was whipping up the sand into little tornadoes.

  Gomez spotted Pattie standing close to the opening featuring the energy reading. She signaled Pattie to go in. The Nasat nodded her head in acknowledgment.

  “I need some cover for Pattie,” Gomez said.

  “Got it,” Corsi replied. She began to fire wildly above the heads of the Gorn, sending a shower of debris upon the two. The Gorn ceased their fire for a moment as they tried to protect themselves.

  “Go!” Gomez shouted.

  Tonais tried to wend his way through the crowds of panicked guests who had gathered in the lobby of the Sheltered Arms resort, one of the largest in the region. He allowed himself only a moment to appreciate the effort it had taken on his part to organize the evacuation.

  That was the easy part.

  Now, he had to make sure that the people made it off-planet safely. That was the difficult part.

  Many of the guests had arrived on transports that would not return for days. What ships were currently in orbit were not enough to transport the entire planet. According to his people, the weather instability would not affect the entire planet right away. Thankfully, he would be able to get himself and the guests on Monagas Lagoon off-planet in less than twenty-four hours.

  Bander, never far away from Tonais’s side, had spent the better part of the afternoon coordinating the evacuation effort. He entered the spacious courtyard area, clutching his padd. Rivers of sweat poured down his balding head.

  “Bander!” Tonais snapped, belying the gratitude he was feeling at seeing his assistant. “What news do you have?”

  “All is ready, Director,” Bander reported. He raised his data padd and began ticking off items with his fingers, rapidly playing across the screen like an accomplished pianist. “The Daniella is the first vessel, which will take approximately sixty-five people.”

  Tonais looked out at the people gathered and made a quick count. “They could take everyone here. Contact them with the coordinates.”

  Bander nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  The room erupted in a panicked scream as a lightning bolt struck a streetlamp just outside, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks. Tonais stepped forward, placing his arms out in a placating gesture.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, please settle down. We’re ready to begin transport. If you’ll all gather your belongings and place yourselves in groups of six, we’ll start the process.” He turned to Bander. “Calm these people down and get them organized.”

  Bander looked at the growing panic and gulped. “Yes, sir.” The little man moved slowly out into the crowd. “Excuse me.” He turned his gaze upward as most of the guests towered over him and spoke a little louder. “Uh, excuse me.”

  He stopped short at the sight of a Nausicaan. The alien looked down at Bander with a scowl.

  “I am going first.”

  Bander nodded. “Of course you are, sir.” Bander struggled to keep from fainting.

  Tonais walked off in the opposite direction, leaving the chaos to Bander for a moment. He tried to recall when such a disaster had occurred on Risa and could only think of the time the food synthesizers were distributing only prune danish. It was fine for breakfast, but by lunchtime the guests were getting ugly.

  There was also that time when a group of subversives took control of the weather control station. If not for the intervention of two Starfleet officers, they might have succeeded in doing great harm to Risa.

  But this was different. This was appearing to become something they could not rectify, not even with the aid of the S.C.E. Tonais looked out the window at the gathering storm. In the distance, he could make out a number of complexes buckling under the intense winds that were whipping up wildly. Several of the roofs of these structures had already been torn off and the destruction of the rest appeared imminent.

  “Excuse me.”

  Tonais was drawn from his thoughts by a human, an Earther from the looks of him. His clothes looked as though they had been slept in for some time and his face was in need of a shave. But what most stood out for Tonais were the man’s eyes. They were bloodshot as if the man had been crying for hours.

  Tonais smiled with the warmth he usually saved for either visiting dignitaries or wealthy socialites. “Friend, you have nothing to fear. If you’ll just stay with the group, you will be beamed off-planet shortly.”

  The man shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. My name is Ray Johnson. I’m missing my son.”

  Tonais looked around the concourse. “I’m sure he must be here somewhere.”

  “You don’t understand,” Johnson said, his voice becoming panicked, his eyes welling up with tears again. “He’s not here. He was exploring some caves by the lagoon and never came home. And now the storm’s getting worse! You’ve got to help me!”

  Tonais saw this was not something that simple public relations was going to resolve. He looked over toward Bander, who was stuck between a Nausicaan and an Andorian who appeared to be jostling the little man back and forth.

  “Very well, Mr. Johnson,” Tonais said reassuringly. “Now why don’t you tell me again what happened to your son, from the beginning?”

  Chapter

  14

  Captain David Gold watched the forward monitor as the warped star field re-formed into normal space. He focused his vision on two pinpricks of light, moving forward at a rapid speed. He looked toward Shabalala, not asking the question.

  The tactical officer magnified the screen, bringing the energy waves into view. “Confirmed, sir. I’m reading just under forty AU in diameter with a power output of…” he adjusted his console and leaned back with a slight whistle. “You don’t want to know, sir. Shall I raise shields?”

  Gold thought about it for a moment. “No. Not yet, anyway. Let’s try the hand of friendship. Open hailing frequencies.”

  “Frequencies open,” Shabalala said.

  The only sound the bridge crew heard for the next several moments was that of the various instruments at work. Shabalala broke the silence with an exhalation of panicked breath. “I’m reading fluctuations in the energy output. The two masses are slowing down.”

  “Let’s do the same. Take us to half impulse, Wong.”

  “Aye, sir,” Wong replied.

  “Any response?” Gold asked Shabalala.

  The tactical officer shook his head. “No, sir. Just a minute.” He tapped on his console. “We’re getting some sort of emission, sir.”

  “A weapon?”

  Shabalala shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Let’s not take a chance. Shields; go to yellow alert.”

  Personnel scattered about, moving themselves into position, ready to play their part in the situation.

  “Impact in ten seconds,” Shabalala said. “It’s not a weapon, sir.”

  The bridge shuddered slightly with the impact. The bridge lights winked out for a moment, but immediately snapped back on. Several monitors began to display schematics of the ship.

  “It’s a scan of some sort, Captain,” Shabalala said. “It’s reading everything in our data banks.” He tried to cut off the flow of information but was not successful. Shabalala looked to Gold and shook his head. “And we’ve lost shields.”

  The lights flickered again, to be replaced by emergency lighting. It cast disturbing shadows throughout the room.

  Shabalala softly pounded his console in frustration as he watched the information from their records flow. The final image on the monitor was of the warp core chamber. It slowly faded away.

  “Uh-oh,” Shabalala said softly.

  Pattie, having curled herself into a near-perfect sphere, rolled toward the chamber entrance. One of the G
orn, ignoring the fact that he was being pelted by large chunks of falling debris, focused his weapons fire on the Nasat. Luckily, her shell provided protection.

  Gomez yelled above the whine of the firefight, “Keep them back!” She turned and made her own dash for the cavern. Bits of the cavern wall exploded on her with each impact of the Gorn’s weapons.

  Pattie was the first to make it through the opening, with Gomez following. As Pattie emerged from her rolled-up position, she let out a series of chime-like noises that Gomez recognized as her being startled.

  “Commander,” Pattie said, “I believe we’ve found our energy disruption.”

  Gomez took a cautious step forward toward the glowing ball of light. She placed a hand before her eyes, trying to block out the glare, but it was no use. Her hand appeared translucent in the being’s presence.

  Tears began to stream down Gomez’s eyes as she struggled to take in the image before her. She blinked several times, unsure if she saw something in the middle of the pulsing orb.

  “Hello?” she asked tentatively.

  HELLO. The voice appeared to be that of two people speaking at the same time. There was a stereophonic tone to the slightly reverberating speech.

  Gomez took in a breath. “All right, you can understand me. My name is Commander Sonya Gomez.”

  ARE YOU WITH STARFLEET COMMAND? The voice was now only one and very excited. I WANT TO BE IN STARFLEET WHEN I GROW UP.

  Gomez stopped for a moment to think about how to answer. There were many alien races among Starfleet’s personnel, but she wasn’t sure how such a being would fit in the organization.

  Pattie, who had been slowly making her way around the pulsing orb, examining it as best she could without her instrumentation, said, “Commander, there is a humanoid being within the pulse.”

  Gomez turned and took another look, despite the slight headache she was developing. She managed to make out the form. “Who are you?”

  The pulse shuddered slightly for several seconds before replying. MY NAME IS EDDIE JOHNSON AND THIS IS MY FRIEND, SPARKY.