Seekers

by Dayton Ward

  Nice positive thinking you’ve got there, Commander.

  Shifting his kneeling position, Zane said, “Remind me to ask Commander Yataro when we get back about installing tie-downs or something in these shuttles.”

  “Noted,” Stano said. Designed primarily as personnel transports rather than tactical vehicles, standard shuttle­craft of the sort carried by most Starfleet vessels lacked many of the uninteresting yet very useful features found aboard vessels intended for more martial purposes. Small things like tie straps or foot- and handholds, taken for granted aboard military craft, were conspicuous by their absence here aboard the Masao. Stano and Zane had adapted to the situation as best they could, taking lengths of cord from a survival kit in the shuttle’s aft storage compartment, tying them around their waists, and securing their makeshift harnesses to two empty passenger seats. The cord supposedly was rated to support a weight of four hundred kilograms, but that did little to ease Stano’s anxiety as she peered through the open hatch to the ground below.

  From the cockpit, Lerax called out, “Sensors are picking up fluctuating bio readings, similar to what Commander Theriault warned us about. Several of the Tomol are undergoing the Change.”

  “How many?” Stano had expected this to happen once Kerlo and the handful of followers who had escaped with him from the Sagittarius crash site made their way to the Tomol village.

  Lerax replied, “Sensors show eleven Tomol exhibiting the altered readings.” A moment later, he added, “Twelve.”

  “At least we know Kerlo can’t change them all,” Stano said. According to Doctors Leone and Babitz, Kerlo and Nimur before her had been able to trigger the Change only in those individuals already naturally presenting the first symptoms of the cycle. Therefore, the vast majority of the villagers would not fall victim to Kerlo’s telekinetic manipulations of their peculiar body chemistry.

  Next to her, Zane grunted. “Small favors.”

  “Yeah, but the Changed can still kill anyone who gets in their way,” Stano countered. “Including us.” Raising her voice, she asked, “Where’s the Sagittarius?”

  “Holding station starboard aft,” Lerax answered. The Edoan’s body movements were a flurry of activity as he oversaw the shuttlecraft’s maneuvering and sensor controls at the same time, making full use of his third arm.

  “What about our people on the ground?” Stano asked. “Any sign of them?”

  Lerax shook his head. “Negative, Commander, but sensor scans are inconclusive for areas below the surface. At last report, Lieutenant Klisiewicz and the Endeavour landing party were still inside the caves, having been joined by my security team. It’s likely that they are still there.”

  “Probably the safest place to be, for the moment, anyway.” Stano knew that with the Sagittarius’s single transporter pad still off-line, the only way to evacuate Endeavour personnel from the surface was either to land or for the Endeavour itself to get close enough to use its own transporters. Leaving the Tomol defenseless against the Changed was not an option, which is what had led to Stano sending in the balance of her landing party to bolster Klisiewicz and his group. As for Klisiewicz, he had ventured into the underground complex to try to translate enough of the Preserver obelisk’s glyphs and other systems to be able to deactivate whatever defensive protocols had damaged the starship. If the science officer could not accomplish that feat, then Stano knew she might be forced to land once again, in defiance of her own desire to keep the Masao away from Kerlo and the other Changed.

  “Somebody’s checking us out,” Zane said, pointing through the open hatchway. “Look.”

  Returning her attention to the scene below, Stano saw three figures giving chase to other Tomol, while another stood alone on the trail leading to the caves, his gaze turned up toward the shuttlecraft. Even from the Masao’s position above the treetops and dozens of meters away, Stano could see the crimson glow in the Tomol’s eyes. It was Kerlo, she realized, now fully gripped by the effects of the Change. He was beyond rescuing and had turned from being an ally to an enemy.

  Balancing herself against the bulkhead, Stano aimed her phaser rifle and fired, unleashing a beam of blue-white energy toward Kerlo. The beam struck the Changed in the torso and he staggered back several steps, bending at the waist and reaching for his chest at the point of impact. He stumbled and dropped to one knee but did not fall, and he was still conscious. Stano was increasing the phaser rifle’s power setting when Kerlo looked up again, and this time he smiled.

  “Uh-oh,” Zane said, raising his own phaser rifle.

  “Lerax!” Stano shouted. “Get us the hell out of here. Now!”

  She issued the order just as she saw Kerlo raise his arms, the palms of his hands toward the sky. Then the Masao bucked and pitched as something she could not see slammed into the shuttlecraft, and everyone crammed into the tight quarters cried out in alarm at the sudden attitude change. Stano and Zane tumbled away from the open hatch to the cabin’s starboard side, rolling into one of the empty passenger seats. Alert tones wailed in the confined space and Stano heard the whine of the maneuvering thrusters as they fought against whatever unseen force pushed against the shuttle.

  “Hold on!” the Edoan shouted. “Initiating evasive maneuvers.” Lerax’s three arms were almost a blur as he worked the controls, fighting to keep the Masao airborne.

  Stano felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Zane staring down at her, the junior security officer’s anxiety evident on his face. “You okay, Commander?”

  Before she even could nod an acknowledgment, the shuttlecraft rocked again as it weathered a second assault, and this time Stano bounced on the deck plating as the ship shuddered around her. She already had lost count at the number of warning lights and other status indicators that had flared to life on the cockpit console, and a glance through the open hatch revealed a heaving view of sky and forest as Lerax continued to wrestle with the controls.

  “Starboard stabilizer is out,” the lieutenant reported. “Aft maneuvering thrusters are failing.” His focus remained on the console. “We need to land, Commander.”

  “Do it!” Stano said. “But put some distance between us and the caves.” Kerlo attempting to commandeer the shuttlecraft remained a valid concern, after all. Pulling herself to her knees, Stano reached for the cockpit’s other seat, noting as she did so from the console’s status monitors that the Masao was in a rapid descent.

  Outside the hatch, the trees were getting closer.

  * * *

  Leaning forward in her command chair with her arms resting on her thighs was doing nothing to alleviate the knot at the small of Atish Khatami’s back. She ignored her discomfort, instead directing her attention and energies to the tactical schematic displayed on the Endeavour bridge’s main viewscreen. In place of the customary plot of the starship’s position in space relative to allied or enemy vessels, the graphic offered a computer-generated view of Suba, in particular an enhanced view of the terrain surrounding the mountains near the Tomol village and the entrance to the caves leading to the Preserver artifact. Superimposed over the green-and-brown mass were two bright blue dots representing the U.S.S. Sagittarius and the shuttlecraft Masao. Both vessels were moving about the cave entrance and the surrounding area, near which glowed dozens of smaller red dots—far too many to count—indicating life signs in the vicinity. Other red markers were moving in all directions away from the caves, and Khatami guessed these were Tomol retreating to the relative safety of the surrounding forest.

  “Sensors,” Khatami snapped. “Any signs the pyramid’s taking an interest in us?”

  Ensign Kayla Iacovino turned from the science station. “I’m seeing no such indications, Captain. I’m picking up new power sources coming online, but without probing deeper I’m not able to investigate what those might be for.” She paused, then asked, “Should I increase our scan intensity?”

  “Not yet.
” Khatami had already undertaken a risk just by ordering the Endeavour to move within transporter range and altering its course so that it now was in geosynchronous orbit over the Tomol village and the caverns. So far, the Preserver pyramid had taken no overt acknow­ledgment of those actions, and Khatami wanted to keep things that way. “Where are our people on the ground?”

  “Other than those aboard the shuttlecraft and the Sagittarius,” Iacovino said, “I’m not seeing any of our people on the surface. It’s possible Lieutenant Klisiewicz’s landing party is with him belowground.” The junior science officer did not need to elaborate; Khatami was well aware that the Endeavour’s sensors remained incapable of penetrating the mineral-rich rock and soil obscuring the Preservers’ subterranean complex from prying eyes. While the passages and caverns might provide some degree of protection from the Changed, they also would prevent Khatami from beaming those people back to the ship.

  She asked, “What about Changed life signs? Can you distinguish them from the other Tomol from up here?”

  “Yes, Captain,” Iacovino responded. “There’s a definite difference in bio readings that we can detect even from this distance.”

  “Feed that information to McCormack.” Rising from her chair, Khatami placed one hand on the navigator’s shoulder. “Lieutenant, start tracking the Changed life signs and be ready to target them with heavy stun.”

  McCormack looked over her shoulder. “From this altitude, targeting individuals could prove problematic, Captain.”

  “Understood. If necessary, we’ll blanket an area, but I want to be ready to back up the Sagittarius any way we can.”

  From the communications station, Lieutenant Hector Estrada called out, “Captain! Receiving an urgent message from Commander Stano on the Masao.”

  “On speakers,” Khatami ordered, moving to the rail separating her from Estrada. A second later, Katherine Stano’s voice exploded from the bridge intercom system.

  “Masao to Endeavour! We’ve been attacked by the Changed and have suffered damage that’s forcing us to land. I’m putting her down two kilometers southwest of the cave entrance. Stand by to beam us up!”

  Waving toward the communications console, Khatami told Estrada, “Notify the transporter room.” She turned back to the viewscreen, where the blue dot representing the Masao was moving away from the cave entrance and toward a small clearing. “Commander,” she called out, “do you have any injuries on board?”

  “Negative,” Stano replied, “and I’ll be requesting permission to lead a team back to the surface to help our people down there.”

  Despite the danger it entailed, Khatami had expected her first officer to make that request. She did not like the idea of sending her people back into harm’s way, but at the moment it was among the least objectionable options available to her as far as getting assistance to Klisiewicz and his landing party. “Understood, but it’s you and trained security people only. We’ll have fresh phaser rifles ready for you when you get up here.”

  “Acknowledged,” Stano replied, the tension in her voice obvious. “We’re setting down now.”

  From behind her, Estrada said, “Captain, the Sagittarius is hailing us. They’re under attack, too.”

  Khatami gestured for the communications officer to switch frequencies. A moment later, the image on the main viewscreen changed from the tactical plot to the face of Captain Clark Terrell. Sweat shone on the man’s forehead, and his expression was tense as he leaned forward in his chair. All around him, alarm indicators flashed across the scout ship’s compact bridge, and the overhead lighting was flickering.

  “Clark? What’s your status?”

  “We’re getting hammered down here. We tried coming in low to target some of the Changed, but they turned and hit us with . . . something. Sensors never saw it coming, but it was like running into a concrete wall. We were in bad shape to begin with, but now I’ve got system failures all over the ship. Even with full shields, they managed to hurt us pretty good.”

  “Can you stay on station?”

  Terrell nodded. “For now, you bet.” His features softened. “We’re not going anywhere, Atish. Our transporter pad’s operational, but we could use some bigger guns.”

  “We’re on that,” Khatami said. She knew that Terrell was taking a tremendous risk with his wounded vessel and its battered crew, but she had no doubts that the Sagittarius would remain on the scene until it was pulled from the sky. “You concentrate on avoiding the Changed and evacuating any of our people who make it to the surface. We’ll cover you.”

  “Got it.” Terrell offered a mock salute. “Sagittarius out.”

  As the image on the screen shifted back to the tactical schematic, Estrada reported, “Captain, the transporter room just notified me that Commander Stano and the others are aboard, and she’s readying her team to beam back down.”

  “Good.” Khatami allowed herself a small sigh of relief as she moved to stand between the helm and navigator’s stations. “That only leaves us with an even million things to worry about.”

  27

  Emerging from the Preserver obelisk, Stephen Klisiewicz was taken aback at the number of Tomol who had relocated into the immense cavern surrounding the ancient artifact. Hundreds of villagers, almost all of whom had never set foot in or laid eyes upon this hallowed place, were moving about the chamber. Loud voices echoed off the cave’s high, arched ceiling, bellowing instructions for people to keep moving deeper into the subterranean passages rather than clogging the area near the great cavern’s primary entrance.

  “This is getting out of hand,” he said, noting how the pace of the proceedings was nearly frantic, in response to what Klisiewicz knew was a rapidly deteriorating situation on the surface. Tomol were running into the caves, some carrying young children in their arms, and while most heeded the instructions of those villagers who had been tapped to serve as stand-ins for those Wardens already killed by Nimur and her followers, there were some whose fear had all but blinded and deafened them to such direction. In those cases, the newly deputized Wardens took direct action, pulling aside the more troublesome refugees and calming them before sending them deeper into the cavern.

  “Damn,” said Leone as he stepped from the obelisk’s opening and moved to stand beside Klisiewicz. “This doesn’t look good, does it?”

  “Tell me about it,” Klisiewicz said. The entrance remained open, its rectangular shape and smooth lines at odds with the rest of the cavern that retained much of its natural beauty. Through the entrance Klisiewicz could see still more Tomol, waiting in the anteroom as they were ushered into the cavern, and standing at the opening were four members of the Endeavour’s security detail, each armed with one of the weapons from the cache he and Leone had found within the obelisk. Additional security officers were deployed at the other entrances and tunnels leading to and from the cavern, all of which had been sealed to limit access to the vast chamber. Klisiewicz suspected that neither Kerlo nor any of the other Changed knew much if anything about the underground complex and would be limited to following the main passageway from the surface if they wanted access.

  In other words, they’ll be coming right at us.

  He and the rest of his people did not appear to be the only ones taking notice of the new developments. Moments earlier, a low thrum had begun from somewhere deep within the obelisk, or perhaps the rock beneath the artifact, the source of which Klisiewicz had been unable to pinpoint. His tricorder had registered two new energy sources from somewhere deep in the complex’s bowels, readings that had been confirmed in cursory fashion by Ensign Iacovino aboard the Endeavour. His studies of the glyphs inside the obelisk had not given him sufficient insight into the mechanism to determine the purpose of the new energy readings, but Klisiewicz guessed the Preserver artifact was enabling protocols similar to what it already had done during prior skirmishes with the Changed.

  At least, I h
ope that’s what it’s doing.

  His communicator beeped. “Klisiewicz here.”

  “Ensign Hewitt, sir!” Anxiety laced the junior security officer’s words. “Our tricorders are picking up Changed in the tunnels, coming this way. We’re still getting interference from the surrounding rock, so they have to be close.”

  Klisiewicz recalled that Hewitt and a team of three security officers, part of the group deployed by the recently arrived Commander Stano to reinforce his own landing party, were positioned at one of the tunnel junctions nearly one hundred meters from the cavern entrance. If they encountered no significant resistance, the Changed could be at the massive door protecting this chamber in two minutes or less.

  “How many are you picking up?” As he asked the question, Klisiewicz kept his attention on the number of Tomol still entering the cavern and being directed away from the entrance. Someone obviously had communicated the threat of the approaching Changed, as the villagers were proceeding at a desperate pace farther into the smaller rooms and the tunnels leading deeper into the belly of the mountain protecting the Preserver complex.

  “Two, at least. But there’s a third reading I’m not sure about.”

  Leone said, “The first two could have triggered the Change in one of the other villagers. I tried to give the serum to everyone we thought was close enough to the Change to pose a threat, but it would’ve been easy to miss one . . . or more.”

  And none of that, Klisiewicz reminded himself, took into consideration the doctor’s lingering concern that his unorthodox treatment might end up not working, anyway.

  “Hewitt, what’s the situation with the evacuees?”