Corsi leaned across the bar, “I’m your worst nightmare if you piss me off. Now, do you know who stole from the archaeologists, or not? And you’d best tell me the truth.”
The expression in Aegris’s eyes didn’t change at Corsi’s words. “Is that right now, little woman?” he asked, leaning on the bar as though he were out for a stare-down.
“Yes.” Vale stepped in. “Domenica Corsi, this is Aegris. Corsi taught me everything I know, Aegris. Be…”
Vale grabbed the edge of the bar, holding on until her knuckles were white.
“Christine?” Corsi asked, her voice as sharp as she could manage.
Vale lost her grasp on the bar, falling to the floor with the thud of a heavy piece of meat. “Christine!”
Corsi was on her knees beside Vale in an instant, checking her friend’s pulse, eyes, everything she could think of. “Aegris,” Corsi said, “where can I put her until she comes to?”
Aegris, for his part, looked at her as though she were nursing a drunk on his floor. “You can take her back to your camp.”
To the credit—or, perhaps not—of the rest of the bar’s patrons, they didn’t even notice a woman had just collapsed in front of them. If any of them had, they merely went back to their conversations. Yep, this place isn’t going to make even a one-star rating.
“No, Aegris, I can’t.” Corsi stood back up, reached across the bar and grabbed Aegris by the apron. “She’s sick. The same thing can happen to everyone in this room if you don’t help us find who stole items from the Federation dig site.”
Aegris gave her that same oh, dear girl look she’d received every single time a man had underestimated her. “And the sky will be bright green tomorrow.”
She pulled harder on the man’s shirt, noting from his occasional wince that she must have been getting chest hair in the process. “Fine,” she said. “If you want to die, far be it from me to stop you.”
Pushing Aegris back, hard enough to throw him into the shelf of bottles that lined the wall behind the bar, she turned back to the bar’s patrons. “Everyone, listen up. Looters broke into the archaeological dig just outside of town a few days ago. They took something that’s vital to the safety of everyone on this planet, including all of you. I don’t care if you don’t believe me, but if anyone here has remembered something in the last few days that they’ve been trying hard as hell to forget, that’s just the beginning. Anyone know where the looters are?”
Not a soul raised a hand.
She walked around the room, trying to catch the gaze of everyone present. “Nobody? Nobody’s had an old memory they’d rather forget come back to haunt them? Not even in a dream?”
One of the women in the back gasped at that. “Dreams, too?”
“That’s where it can start,” Corsi said. “You’re having a perfectly normal dream, and all of a sudden it’s something you wanted to forget.”
A perfectly normal dream… Corsi mentally shook the visions that had been plaguing her from her mind. Control it, Corsi. Vale needs you right now. Everybody on this planet needs you right now.
She willed the image away, her grandfather, no. Not now. Go away. I’m not seeing it.
Vale began to stir, groaning as she slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position. “Corsi? What happened?”
“Just stay there, Christine. Take it easy. You passed out.”
“I what?”
“Just don’t move yet.”
Vale, of course, didn’t listen. Christine tried to reach toward one of the barstools in what was probably a logical attempt to use it to stand up, but nothing happened. “Um, Domenica?”
“What?”
“I can’t move from here.”
Corsi rushed back over, putting one of Christine’s arms over her shoulders as she tried to help her stand. “Come on, you can do it.”
Vale’s legs were like rubber, refusing to support her weight. Sitting her back down on the floor, Corsi placed a hand around Vale’s calf. “Can you feel this?”
Vale shook her head. “What’s going on?” she asked. “I felt fine just a minute ago.”
“Damn. We need to get you out of this field.”
“No,” Christine said, punctuating the statement with a shake of her head. “You need me with you. Unless you think you can strong-arm all of these people into telling you where the looters are?”
Corsi cursed under her breath. Vale was right. Besides, she’d also been in the firefight that had broken out when the looters were trying to escape the dig site. She’d know the bastards on sight. “Okay,” she said. “But I don’t like this. You need to get to safety.”
“Bull. You’d be giving the same protests if you were in my shoes, and you know it. Help me stand up and let’s get out of here.”
“Maybe Sarjenka has some crutches in her bag of tricks.” She once again reached a hand around Christine’s waist, using the other to drape Vale’s arm over her shoulders. Turning her head back to the establishment’s patrons, she said, “If anyone, and I mean anyone has any information about what happened, come to the archaeological dig site. Please. Help us save this planet.”
Together, they headed back toward Collins’s dig site, and from there toward the shuttles.
CHAPTER
6
When Sarjenka went back to check on Dantas and the others, she found a situation quite removed from what she’d seen before.
“Dantas?”
Dantas, however, was sleeping so soundly, not even a clap beside her ear awoke her. No. She didn’t even tell me she was seeing anything. It can’t have taken her down this fast. Placing two fingers against her assistant’s neck, Sarjenka breathed a sigh of relief to feel a pulse. It was thready, but it was still there. Falcão’s skin was cool to the touch, but not to a point where it was worrisome.
Looking around the shuttle, she checked the pulse of every patient, until she reached Rennan Konya. Rennan was sleeping peacefully in the shuttle’s command chair, apparently comfortable that there was no way more looters could get into the shuttle with the door closed.
Of course, the door wasn’t closed, and to Sarjenka’s knowledge, there wasn’t enough power in the Kwolek to move even a lever, let alone something as big as the shuttle’s door. “Rennan?” she asked, gently shaking the man’s shoulder. “Wake up.”
It took a moment, but the Betazoid finally roused. “Doc? Oh, no. How long was I out?”
“I don’t know.”
Rennan rubbed his hands against his face, almost pushing his eyes back into his head. “Damn. Everything okay here?”
“Yes. Dantas has gotten the situation under control. You can do us one favor, though.”
Rennan stood straight up, yawning when he reached his full height. “I’ll get the rest of the dig crew and bring them here,” he finally said. Then his brow furrowed. “How did I know you were going to ask that?”
Sarjenka quickly ran a hand over his hairline, not sure what she was checking for, but checking anyway. “You’re Betazoid, Rennan. This field has been acting differently on every different species here. The humans have been having migraines along with the memory visions. I’ve been having more visions than I can keep track of. Apparently it amplifies a Betazoid’s abilities too. Any memories coming back to you that you never remembered until now?”
Rennan shook his head. “Just suddenly being able to read your mind, Doctor.”
She took a deep breath, assimilating this new bit of information. “Okay, yes, I’d like you to go back and get the rest of the dig team. No questions. They need to be taken out of here as soon as possible. Makk is trying to find the new edge of the field. If he can do that, we’re going to need to get everyone out of this area as soon as possible. If you can read everyone’s minds now, you’ll be able to tell them whatever it takes to get them to come with us. And that’s what I need you to do. Can you do that?”
Rennan thought for a long moment before nodding. “Bring them to the Shirley?”
Sarj
enka turned around and looked at the six sleeping patients in the rear hold of the shuttle. It had obviously taken a while to remove the various crates of equipment they’d brought down in the first place, but she noticed that at least two patients were sleeping on makeshift beds from the crates. “Yes. I’ll have Data help get the equipment out of the rear hold of the Shirley. We’ll get beds set up using the crates.”
“Understood. I’ll be back before you can say ‘Sacred Chalice of Rixx.’” Flipping her a quick, informal salute, he threaded his way between the sleeping people and out the shuttle’s door.
No sooner was he through the door than she heard him say, “Commander? What’s going on?”
“I think we’ve found another effect of this field. Hey, Doc!”
Sarjenka ducked out of the shuttle and found Domenica supporting Christine Vale, who appeared unable to walk under her own power. “Don’t tell me it’s spreading to the motor cortex. Come here,” she said, gesturing them toward the nearest bed of medical crates. “Let me take a look.”
Christine lay back on the crates, and Sarjenka couldn’t help but notice a sense of relief washing over the woman.
“Okay,” Sarjenka began, “tell me what happened.”
“She blacked out—”
“I think I passed out—”
“I think it’s best I hear it from the patient, please,” she said. “Or at the very least one at a time. You lost consciousness?”
“Yeah,” Christine said. “I think so. We were talking to one of my contacts when I just couldn’t stand up anymore. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor and couldn’t get back up.”
“Not without help,” Domenica added. “Doc, did you bring any crutches with you? We need Vale back out there.”
“Yeah,” Christine said, the fingers of her right hand moving to her forehead. “I need to be able to help with this investigation. There are some people in town who will never talk to Corsi. No offense, Commander.”
One corner of Domenica’s lips turned up. “I do tend to have that effect on people, don’t I?”
Sarjenka’s eyes went back and forth between Domenica and her friend, knowing full well that what Christine really needed was a trip back up to the da Vinci to get her out of that field. Then maybe a neural regeneration would help with the legs. But there was no way that was coming any time soon.
“Sarj!”
She stopped in her tracks. That had been Dantas’s voice, sounding quite panicked. Sarjenka ran back into the shuttle, only to find her assistant collapsed in a heap on the floor, only able to move her left arm and right leg.
“Okay,” Sarjenka said. “Dantas, just lie there. Commander Corsi, can you help, please? Can you get Commander Data to help Dantas into a bed?”
“You’ve got it.” Domenica said, her voice immediately followed by the thrash of someone running over the growth in the clearing.
Going back out to where Christine waited, she rummaged through the supply cases until she found what she was looking for: a passive two-leg orthosis for Christine’s legs that, combined with a set of crutches, would help her walk.
“You really brought crutches?” Christine asked.
“Of course,” she replied. “We were going to an area where my equipment would probably not work, so I put as much equipment that didn’t require computers or power as I thought might be necessary into the cargo. Yes, it’s archaic medicine, but it’s better than nothing. Besides, if there were leg wounds, these would help get the injured to the shuttles.”
Leaning the crutches against the makeshift bed, she began strapping the external supports onto Christine’s legs. The hinges creaked as she tested Christine’s range of motion, but even though they were old, they’d support her weight. “These should keep your legs solid enough to walk. Between these and the crutches, you should be able to get around. If I could use the medical tricorder, I might be able to give you a better treatment, Christine. I apologize.”
“It’s not your fault,” Domenica said, returning with Commander Data. “It’s whoever thought it would be a good idea to take those three stones from this temple. Most likely Collins. Typical arrogant academic.”
“Thank you for that vote of confidence, Commander Corsi. I feel so comfortable with my security in your hands.”
Sarjenka leaned around Domenica, just in time to see Gabriel Collins hobbling toward them. There was a stiffness to his walk that Sarjenka didn’t like. “Are you feeling all right, Professor?”
Gabriel looked down, and seemed to realize his gait was off. “Yeah. I just slept funny. What’s going on?”
“We’re evacuating the dig site,” Sarjenka said. “I don’t believe it’s safe for your people to be on this planet any longer.”
“What? You can’t do that. We have permits. We have—”
“I can, and I will. Your people are in danger, Professor. If Commander Gomez can’t figure out what’s set this off, your people are slowly going to die. And there’s nothing I can do about it as long as that field is in place. Is that what you want?”
It was at that moment that the gravity of what he was seeing appeared to sink in. “Heyerdahl, Davis, they’re down too?”
Sarjenka nodded. “They’re in the rear of that shuttle with my assistant—who has also lost the ability to move parts of her body. This field moves on to the motor cortex after it floods the hippocampus. I really don’t want to find out where it moves from there.”
“Sarjenka,” Data said. “If you no longer require my assistance, I will return to check on Captain Picard.”
“Yes, please, Data. Thank you.” With that, the android left, allowing her to return her attentions to the archaeologist. “Professor Collins, I know what you’re thinking. Can you really put your team through this for the sake of an ancient weapon that it may kill you to find? What if your wife dies because of this weapon? What about the natives? They’re innocent bystanders in this. They never agreed to it, but it’s affecting them as well. When the first native dies, the blood will be on your hands.”
Gabriel’s eyes went between Sarjenka and where Christine sat on the edge of the makeshift bed. The sight of the supports that held her upright seemed to help drive the point home. “All right. We’ll leave and come back when the field is brought down. Where are my wife and the rest of your team?”
Sarjenka breathed a sigh of relief. “They were looking for the temple.”
Gabriel slowly nodded. “Okay. I’ll go see what I can do to help them.”
He stepped back into the forest, a sense of determination about him that Sarjenka was happy to see. They might get out of this after all.
No sooner was he gone than Sarjenka turned to Corsi and said, “Domenica, you might want to take Rennan with you.”
“Why? Don’t you need him here?”
Sarjenka shook her head, explaining what had happened to the Betazoid. “Now he might be of greater use to you on the search than to me here.”
“Good call. Konya!”
Rennan’s head appeared around the shuttlecraft door. “You need me, boss? Yeah, you do. Be right there.”
Corsi arced an eyebrow and then reached down to help Christine stand. “Yeah, that’s going to be handy. Come on, Konya. You’re with us.”
CHAPTER
7
“You’re crazy. You know that, right?”
Nancy Conlon’s voice filtered through the general chaos of sounds in main engineering, making its way to Fabian Stevens’s ears.
“Yeah, but if I weren’t, this plan would never work,” he said, sliding out from under the control panel for the main deflector shields and flashing her his best Trust me, I know what I’m doing grin. Even he had to admit that of all the harebrained schemes they’d come up with in his years on the da Vinci, this was one of the furthest out there. But if it worked, he’d be a hero. And he liked that idea, especially when it came along with saving Dom’s life for a change. After his little trick with her rank pip, he could use all of the brownie poin
ts he could get. “All we have to do is route some excess power from the warp core into the shield generator. Then we extend the shields down as far as possible, and see where the field begins to interfere.”
Conlon’s eyes narrowed. “And what if the shields go down completely?”
Stevens paused. In his enthusiasm for trying to save the day, he hadn’t actually considered that prospect. However, his backbrain—which was often smarter than he was, but he’d never admit it—chose that time to throw out a response. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t that be our first signal to get the hell out of there?”
Nancy opened her mouth to say something else, but appeared to decide against tempting fate. Pursing her lips, she headed over toward a distant console at a determined pace. Oh, she’s pissed. Dom could not possibly have gotten payback on her before she went down there, could she?
Stevens could hear Corsi’s voice in his head. No, she’s pissed because you’re appropriating her engine room for another one of your half-assed ideas.
But, he’d run five simulations in the hololab before bringing it to Captain Gold. It was nigh-on foolproof.
And you’re just the fool who’d mess it up.
Stevens took a deep breath, forced himself to relax, and went back to the shield controls. A little reconfiguration here, a move one isolinear chip there, and it would be perfect.
“Paul! Paul, wake up!”
Sonya placed a hand on Cunningham’s shoulder, shaking it for all she was worth. Yet he steadfastly insisted on remaining on the dirt floor. Nothing would make him stir.
“Damn,” Inana said, snapping her fingers in front of his nose. “He’s out like a light. Come on, he’ll wake up in a bit with a headache from hell, but we can’t wait for that.”
Sonya wasn’t quite as sanguine about his prospects as Inana. She’d seen the pain—both physical and mental—on his face back in the forest, and known it like an old friend. “First migraines, then unconsciousness, I don’t want to know what this thing’s going to do to us next.” She turned to Carol and Bart. “Guys, does anything look familiar around here? Anything that might give an indication of what these cables do?” She wasn’t quite sure why she wasn’t asking Inana, but there was just something that she didn’t like about the woman’s reaction to one of her teammates going down. Still, it was better to not appear overly suspicious. “Inana, what do you know about this place?”
Star Trek™: Corps of Engineers: Remembrance of Things Past Book Two Page 4