Seekers

by Dayton Ward

  “They’ve pretty much scattered, sir,” replied the ensign. “Most of those who were making their way down here are already in the anteroom, or else they’ve taken off down some of the other tunnels. I don’t think very many of them know where they’re going. Commander Stano reports that no more Tomol are attempting to enter the caves from the surface. They’ve taken off up the mountain or into the forest. There are some stragglers down here, and we’re sending them your way.”

  “Don’t stay there any longer than you have to,” Klisiewicz warned. “Get back here so we can seal the entrance.”

  “We’re not making a run for the surface for beam-out?”

  “We will, but we’ll find another way out of here. Get here as fast as you can.”

  “Aye, sir. Hewitt out.”

  Behind him, a deep, gruff voice said, “We should retreat to a secure and defensible position.” Turning, Klisiewicz saw Tormog glowering at him from where he stood before a pair of Endeavour security officers, Ensigns ­Leandro Weinreich and Javokbi. Weinreich, a human male, was carrying a standard-issue phaser rifle, whereas his female Rigellian companion carried one of the weapons found in the storage chamber. To Klisiewicz, Javokbi seemed as comfortable with the alien “fire lance” as she would with any Starfleet weapon.

  “Where do you suggest we go, Doctor?” Klisiewicz asked.

  Leone added, “Yeah, it’s pretty much all up from here, no matter which way we go.” He gestured toward the main entrance. “Lead the way.”

  Weapons fire from the anteroom or somewhere farther up the passageway echoed across the cavern, and the dozens of Tomol who still were in the vicinity of the entrance renewed their flight deeper into the mammoth chamber. Six newly appointed Wardens and the four Endeavour security officers were backing away from the opening.

  “Here we go,” Leone said, and for the first time Klisiewicz noted that the doctor had brandished his own phaser. Then he pointed. “Look!”

  More security people were plunging through the entry. Klisiewicz saw Seta standing near it, holding out her arms, and he could tell she was saying something he could not hear. Seconds later, the section of stone wall serving as the door began sliding from its pocket, narrowing the gap just as the one last Endeavour security officer leaped into the cavern. The wall slid shut, and something clicked loud enough to cast its own echo across the room. Moving from the obelisk, Klisiewicz jogged toward the entrance and recognized Ensign Hewitt as the man who had been the last to enter.

  “They’re right behind us!” Hewitt shouted.

  As if in response to his warning, a large thud slammed against the wall panel, and Klisiewicz was certain he saw it tremble in its mounting.

  “That wall’s three meters thick,” Leone said. “It’s strong enough, right?”

  Standing behind Hewitt, Seta said, “I do not know how long we will be protected. I suspect the Changed will find another way inside.”

  “Always the optimist,” Leone quipped.

  Tormog said, “Perhaps my proposal to find a more secure position to await our attackers has merit after all.”

  Before Klisiewicz could say anything, a deep rumbling reverberated through the chamber, emanating from the rock beneath their feet and coursing through the walls around them.

  “Okay,” said Leone. “This is different.”

  Holding up his hand, Klisiewicz snapped, “Listen! Hear that? That’s artificial. It’s something new coming online.”

  Leone grunted. “Something pretty damned big, by the sound of it.”

  “Seta,” Klisiewicz said, even as he was reaching for the tricorder slung over his shoulder, “do you know what that might be?”

  The young Tomol priestess shook her head. “I do not.”

  Adjusting the scan settings on his tricorder, Klisiewicz frowned. “I think I might. These energy readings are a lot like the energy spikes the Endeavour’s sensors picked up when those drones were launched, but they’re a lot more powerful.”

  “Of course they are,” Leone said. “I think this is the obelisk’s way of telling us it’s time to haul ass.”

  From the readings he was seeing, Klisiewicz nodded. “Yeah, I think you might be right, but that means leaving this nice sealed room and going out to see our friends.” Neither option was particularly appealing at the moment. Though he had recorded a map of the underground passageways leading here from the surface cave entrance, he was not thrilled with attempting to navigate the subterranean maze while trying to avoid the Changed. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  “I will go outside,” Seta replied. “I will face Kerlo.”

  Leone said, “That’s crazy. She’s a kid, for crying out loud. What the hell can she possibly do against Kerlo or any of the Changed?”

  “He’ll kill you with a single thought,” Tormog said, sneering at the adolescent Tomol, “assuming he doesn’t just turn you into one of his followers.”

  Seta shook her head. “He cannot do that. I am not yet of age. Also, I am the priestess. I believe he will talk to me. I do not believe he wants to kill any of us, but instead help us all through the Change.”

  “Your predecessor might not agree with that evaluation,” Tormog said. “Nimur killed her and relished doing it. I saw it with my own eyes.”

  “As did I, only I did so while standing before Nimur, rather than cowering in the shadows.”

  “Ouch,” Leone said, noting the irritated expression clouding the Klingon’s features. “I’ve got a salve for that burn, if you want it.”

  Ignoring the verbal jousting, Klisiewicz looked to Seta. “You’re serious about this? Do you think you can confront Kerlo peacefully?”

  Seta appeared to Klisiewicz to have summoned a maturity and poise far beyond her handful of years. Her expression was one of quiet confidence as she offered a single nod.

  “There is only one way to know.”

  * * *

  This was an incredibly bad idea.

  The errant thought mocked Katherine Stano as she fired her phaser rifle, its power setting pushed almost to maximum. She loosed the torrent of energy at near point-blank range, blasting into the chest of the oncoming Changed who had taken on the form of an immense, hulking brute. The force of the beam should have been sufficient to punch a hole the size of Stano’s fist through the center of the creature’s torso, but instead the transformed Tomol howled in response to the devastating attack as it was blown off its feet and sent sailing a dozen meters across the small clearing. It landed on its back atop the packed soil and bounced to a halt. Tracking its movements with her phaser rifle, Stano watched the Changed raise one feeble arm before the limb fell across its torso and the creature lay still.

  “Nice shooting,” said Ensign Kerry Zane. The broad-chested security officer wielded his own phaser rifle as he moved toward the fallen Changed. Stano stepped closer, noting how the transformed Tomol’s dark oily skin was reminiscent of a snake’s hide as it reflected the light of the midday sun. She probed its chest with her rifle’s muzzle, noting that the skin did not yield. It was thick, perhaps possessing qualities that might explain how the creature had been able to withstand her weapon’s effects. The Changed’s face had elongated and narrowed, giving it a distinctly predatory appearance, and Stano saw that its muscles rippled beneath its dense skin.

  Zane indicated the unconscious Tomol with his weapon’s barrel. “He’s still alive.”

  “Lucky us,” Stano replied. Upon beaming up from the Masao’s landing site to the Endeavour, she had wasted no time grabbing a fully charged phaser rifle and extra power packs from the selection of arms waiting for her in the starship’s transporter room. Along with Zane, Ensign Hewitt, and three other security officers, she had transported back to the surface, in the forest near the clearing that fronted the entrance to what the Tomol called the Caves of the Shepherds. There, they had witnessed the near chaos as Tomol vil
lagers and some few Changed ran about. While most of the Tomol obviously were intent on seeking shelter, a small cadre had taken up defensive positions at or near the cave entrance, using weapons from a storehouse somewhere in the caverns in a bid to prevent any of the Changed from getting into the subterranean complex.

  Despite those valiant efforts, at least two of the renegade Tomol had made it past the protective line and now were somewhere deep underground, heading for the positions Ensign Hewitt and his team had taken up near the entrance to the cavern holding the Preserver obelisk. It would be up to them and the other Endeavour personnel accompanying Klisiewicz to protect the ancient artifact from attack, all while the science officer worked to find some weapon or technology that might be of use in defending against the Changed.

  “Incoming!” Zane shouted, dropping to one knee and aiming at a target somewhere behind Stano. She heard running footsteps approaching at a rapid clip, and instinct made her throw herself to one side as the ensign fired his weapon. Lying on the ground, Stano heard the high whine of the phaser rifle and then the impact of the strike as well as the growl of pain from the Tomol who took the full force of the energy beam from a distance of less than ten meters. She saw the Changed—a female—staggering in reaction to the attack. Unlike the Changed Stano had just dispatched, this one had not altered her Tomol form, and when she did not fall, Zane fired again, this time keeping his finger on the weapon’s firing stud and maintaining the onslaught until the Changed lurched backward before tripping over a rock and crashing to the ground. Still conscious, she attempted to raise herself to a sitting position only to be met by a third shot from Zane’s phaser. This time, she stayed down.

  “I’m down to less than thirty percent power,” the ensign said, before pointing to the spare power packs attached to either side of the phaser rifle’s stock. “Even with extras, these things will be dry in no time.”

  Stano nodded. “Let’s find our people and go home.”

  Though the original plan to defend the Tomol villagers from Kerlo and his small yet growing band of renegade Changed was still the primary mission, Stano could see the writing on the wall. Kerlo’s numbers were increasing every few minutes, and tricorder readings as well as sensor scans from the Sagittarius and the Endeavour told her that she and her people already were facing at least two dozen Changed. It was entirely possible that more were roaming the tunnels leading into the depths of the mountain and the cavern containing the Preserver obelisk. As much as it pained her to face the possibility of retreating from the skirmish, there were larger concerns. She had heard the shouts of the Changed who had attacked her moments earlier calling out to its companions to capture any or all of the “sky people” they encountered. This likely was part of a larger plan to use her or other members of the landing party as leverage to force Captain Khatami or Terrell to allow access to either or both of the Starfleet vessels. Stano had no intention of letting herself or any of her people be used in that way.

  A loud rumbling hum from above preceded a long shadow sweeping across the clearing, and Stano looked up to see the Sagittarius flying past overhead. It was low enough to the ground for her to make out hull seams as well as the damage the scout ship had suffered on its ventral hull. As tough as it was, the Sagittarius still was looking at repair time once it made its way back to the nearest starbase. The ship banked to its left, the port phaser emitter on the top of its primary hull firing a harsh blue-white beam of energy toward a target on the ground Stano could not see. A blast in the distance among the trees made her flinch, and she tightened her grip on her phaser rifle in anticipation of one or more of the Changed plunging headlong from the forest. Moving away from the clearing, the ship fired twice more toward the ground.

  “This is getting a little crazy,” Zane said.

  “More than a little.” Stano activated her communicator. “Stano to Sagittarius. What’s the story up there?”

  A moment later, the voice of Captain Clark Terrell replied, “We’re keeping busy, Commander. Our sensors are tracking twenty-six Changed. We’ve incapacitated eight of them. If there are more below the surface, we’re not seeing them, so watch your backs down there. Are you ready for us to try beaming up people?”

  Quelling her first instinct, Stano said, “Negative. Since you can only beam up one at a time, I don’t want to run the risk of someone being left alone down here. I’m going to call in the Endeavour and hope that doesn’t piss off whatever’s underground.”

  “Understood. Be advised that we’re picking up what look to be pretty powerful scanning beams, tracking us as well as the Endeavour and the Klingon ship, so be ready for things to go bad in a hurry. We’ll cover you as best we can, but we’ve already taken a pretty good pounding from those things. They overloaded our shield generators again, but Ilucci’s working on a fix.”

  Stano imagined the burly master chief toiling in the depths of the Sagittarius, sweating and cursing as he fought with his ship’s damaged systems in an effort to get them to behave. “We appreciate the help, Captain. I . . .”

  The rest of her words died in her throat as she caught sight of the scout ship turning in the distance to head back toward the clearing just as a pair of dark objects lunged upward from the forest. Looking like twins to the Changed Stano had just put down, the figures rose into the sky, arms spread wide and transforming before her eyes into long angled wings as they sailed toward the Sagittarius.

  Stano shouted into her communicator, “Captain Terrell! You’ve got incoming!”

  Now creatures of flight, the Changed pursued the ship as it banked away from the clearing and its nose tilted upward, and Stano heard the whine of its maneuvering thrusters as it pushed itself higher into the sky.

  “Hold steady, Commander,” Terrell’s voice snapped over her communicator. “These things are trying to latch on to us!”

  “Damn,” Zane said, his voice low. The single word was heavy with disbelief.

  Watching the Sagittarius pull away, Stano realized that as Captain Terrell and his crew dealt with the new and very immediate threat, she and her people on the ground were for the time being without air support. The sensation of being exposed out here in the open was impossible to deny. With that in mind, she reached once more for her communicator and activated the frequency designated for her team.

  “Stano to landing party. The Sagittarius is out of the picture until further notice. Continue protective measures and stand by for transport to the Endeavour.” Returning the communicator to her waist, she raised her phaser rifle. “Come on, Zane,” she said, setting off toward the caves, “let’s go find our people.”

  28

  Since he was not a member of the Sagittarius bridge crew, or even part of the ship’s total complement, there was no place for Lieutenant Commander Yataro to sit. The Lirin engineer could do nothing except grip one of the handholds situated near the command center’s aft control stations and watch the careening, spinning image on the main viewscreen. Sky and ground rotated clockwise and then back, switching places with utter frenzy as the ship’s helm officer, Ensign Nizsk, guided the Sagittarius through the latest in a series of frantic evasive maneuvers. The Kaferian’s fingers were almost a blur on her console, but despite her best efforts, there seemed to be no shaking their pursuers.

  “Sensors are detecting two life-forms on the outer hull,” reported Lieutenant Commander Sorak, the ship’s tactical officer, from where he sat at the station to Terrell’s left. “I am also reading a series of breaches in those ­sections.”

  “Let me see,” ordered Captain Clark Terrell. In response to his commands, the viewscreen shifted to show two dark figures crouching on the Sagittarius’s polished duranium skin. Yataro could see that both Changed had reverted from the flying forms they had used to chase the ship and now appeared as large, muscular behemoths with dark reptilian skin and long, flat heads. Rows of sharp teeth accented their long mouths, and their hands feature
d extended, multijointed claws. Each of the Changed was holding on to the hull with one hand, and Yataro realized that their claws had penetrated the thick plating.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Lieutenant Commander Vanessa Theriault, the ship’s first officer. Everyone watched as one of the Changed balled the fist of its free arm and drove it straight down, punching through the duranium shell as though it were paper. Its face twisting into an expression of rage and exertion, the rogue Tomol pulled at the edges of the hole it had created, and Yataro saw that section of plating begin to curl upward.

  “It’s going to tear its way inside,” Terrell said.

  A new alarm sounded on the bridge, and Sorak reported, “Another Changed has affixed itself to the underside of the primary hull, and it just tore away part of the navigational deflector. All the telemetry feeds to the dish are now offline.”

  “That’ll piss off the master chief,” said Theriault.

  Terrell replied, “We’ll worry about it if we survive the next five minutes. Nizsk, do whatever you have to do to get those damned things off my ship.”

  “Acknowledged,” replied the helm officer, her attention focused on her console. Under her guidance, the viewscreen changed to a tactical plot of the ship’s course as the Sagittarius began another series of aerial acrobatics that Yataro was certain were pushing the vessel’s internal gravity and inertial dampening systems to their limit. That much was obvious from the warbling whine of the maneuvering thrusters, which still were hampered from the earlier crash landing. Nearly every major component on the entire ship had been compromised to one degree or another, and the present strain would make matters worse. Yataro was not sure which would doom the Sagittarius to another unwanted landing on the planet surface first: the Changed, or the ship simply buckling under the stresses being inflicted upon it.

  A chirp from the intercom system preceded the agitated voice of the ship’s chief engineer, Master Chief Petty Officer Michael Ilucci. “What the hell are you people doing up there?”