“Is there any way to tell if anyone is alive down there?”
Uhura shook her head no. “I’ve been trying, but the distortion is just too great.”
“Which means we can’t beam in there either,” Kirk said, more to himself.
He stared at the island. He knew that anyone inside during the wave of siliconic gel coming over might still be alive. The siliconic gel wasn’t poisonous in and of itself. It simply suffocated its victims by forcing all the air away. However, any air inside a house would also remain in the house for the same reason. The siliconic gel wouldn’t hold it there, but it also wouldn’t push it out very quickly. It would be more like a bubble trapped in a space under water. It would last for a short time, then slowly leak away upward, since the siliconic gel was heavier then breathable atmosphere. If anyone alive down there had a chance, they were going to have to be rescued quickly.
“Have Dr. McCoy meet us in the shuttlebay. And have full suits ready.”
“Yes, sir,” Uhura said.
“And tell Governor Pardonnet that we’re going into the area, and to keep his people out.”
“Understood,” Uhura said.
“Mr. Sulu, you’re with me.”
Kirk knew that flying onto an island covered with siliconic gel would be risky, at best, but if anyone was left alive down there, going in was the only way to get them out. He didn’t want to think about how he would find Lilian. But if she was still alive, he was going to try to get there in time.
Kirk and Sulu were already climbing into their suits when McCoy reached the shuttlebay.
“Jim, are you nuts?” McCoy asked. “That place is going to be like flying into the middle of an exploding volcano.”
Sulu smiled. “After flying around the Big Muddy through all those olivium storms, Doc, an exploding volcano’s going to be like a vacation.”
“Besides, Bones, the siliconic gel in and of itself isn’t explosive.”
McCoy snorted. “That storm is setting off explosion after explosion, Jim. You saw what being in one of those explosions did to Spock.”
“I know the risks, Bones, but if there are survivors, we’ve got to find them.” Kirk finished with his suit and climbed aboard the shuttle. Sulu was right behind him. “Finish getting in your suit on the way down, Doctor,” Kirk said. “We’re fighting time here.”
McCoy just shook his head as he tossed the suit on board ahead of him.
Lilian Coates wasn’t sure if her imagination was feeling the siliconic gel again, or if it was really coming inside. It felt as if she were walking against an ankle-high wind, as if the air itself was thicker from just below her knees down to the floor.
She finally forced herself to reach down and sweep her hand just above the floor.
She pulled back instantly, shudders running down her spine like a cold drip of water.
It felt as if her hand were pushing through spiderwebs, only without the stickiness.
She shivered again.
“Stop thinking about it,” she said out loud, scolding herself, letting the sound of her own voice in her own home calm her nerves. “Do the logical thing to save yourself. Help will be here soon.”
She glanced around, then ignoring how it felt to walk through the layer of siliconic gel, she moved across the living room, pulled open the blinds so she could see down the road toward the main village, and then sat on the couch with her feet up. When the siliconic gel reached the level of the couch, then she’d worry about finding a place higher up. But for the moment, she could see anyone coming up the road, and they should be able to see her.
The body on the road was that of a woman. From the angle of the front window she could tell that now. But she still couldn’t tell which of her neighbors it was.
This was so strange. She was just sitting on her couch, looking out her front window as she had done so many times in the past. Outside looked almost normal, except for the weird fuzziness to the air, as if the window had been melted slightly.
And the body in the road.
Yet she knew that her house was worse than being under water at the moment. In siliconic gel, there was no swimming up to reach the surface and safety. She was trapped on the bottom, and if she lost her air bubble inside the house, she would die just as surely as a swimmer drowning.
Drowning in spiderwebs.
Again she shuddered.
“Stop thinking about it!” she said aloud. Hearing her own voice helped.
There was another distant thunder rumble and then again the ground shook. On the couch it didn’t feel as strong as the first two, but the house and windows all shook. She held her breath, hoping she wouldn’t hear the sound of glass breaking. If she did she’d take a deep breath and try to make a run for the main building down the hill.
After a moment the rumbling stopped and again everything was quiet.
Deathly quiet.
She eased her hand down over the edge of the couch slightly. The level of siliconic gel was halfway up. It wouldn’t be long until she would be sitting in it, and would have to move.
She looked around the one-story home she had helped build. Where was she going to move to? That was the question.
Over her head open beams stretched across the room. If she had to, she’d climb up there. But she had no intention of dying up there. She’d try to make a run for it if the siliconic gel got up there as well.
Otherwise, she was just going to stay put and hope for rescue. By now Jim would know she was in trouble. And having the most famous starship captain in the Federation working to save her made her feel better.
A distant thunder, followed by a hard earthquake that again shook the room.
This one felt closer and more intense. But again, no windows broke and she let out the breath she had been holding.
It seemed in this situation, she was going to be holding her breath a lot.
Governor Pardonnet stared at the images coming in over his monitor from a ship relay. The thunder storm to the north of the main colony’s island was causing havoc. Every time a lightning strike hit the ground, there was a massive explosion that sent plumes of soil and rock hundreds of feet into the air.
He knew what that explosion was. Siliconic gel, being formed instantly from polymers created in the soil by the nanoassemblers. The earthquakes were being felt from the explosions a hundred kilometers away. Who knew what the quakes were doing to the buildings and materials left in the main colony. And the poor people still there.
He doubted anyone could still be alive. The siliconic gel had covered the entire town to a level of fifty feet deep almost instantly. It was blurring all sensors and vision. Kirk was taking a shuttle in to see if they could find survivors, but from the images coming in, the chances of anyone being alive in that area were next to none. If the siliconic gel hadn’t gotten them, the earthquakes and explosions soon would.
He stepped away from the monitor and stared out down the desert canyon and the construction madly taking place on the floor, in the walls, and overhead. This place was going to have to survive with the same level of destruction and earthquakes the first time a storm came through here. Luckily, this was a desert area, and storms were rare here. But the siliconic gel would still cover them soon enough if they didn’t find a way to stop it.
Could this canyon survive a pounding like the one the island was taking right now? He’d have to make sure the engineers saw these images and then ask them that same question.
Maybe, just maybe, he should be focusing his efforts on getting back to the ships, getting them ready to go again. He knew Kirk had a number of crews on the Conestogas doing just that. Maybe Kirk was right. Belle Terre, from the looks of those images coming over the screen, was going to be a dead planet very soon. He just didn’t want it taking too many of the colonists with it to the grave.
Chapter Eight
SULU BROUGHT the shuttle in smoothly near the colony transport pad. Kirk couldn’t believe the strangeness of it. At a hundred feet the atm
osphere was clear, at fifty feet it was thick and rough. Outside the shuttle the town looked, at first glance, to be in good shape. It was only on closer inspection, through the shimmering of the siliconic gel, that it became clear the earthquakes were taking their toll. A roof of one building had slid sideways, and two walls of another structure had completely collapsed.
A colony transport was on the pad, its cargo bay doors open. Two bodies were sprawled near it and Kirk could see another body at the controls and a few others in the passenger seats. If the transport had been locked up, ready to take off, the pilot and passengers would have made it out alive. As it was, they died in their seats, fighting for air that wasn’t there.
He let his gaze drift up the hill toward Lilian’s house. How many times had he walked that hill on a warm evening? He pushed the thought back and moved to get ready to go out.
“Jim,” McCoy said, pointing through the window of the shuttle. “They’re alive in the transport.”
“What?” He spun to look back at the colony ship. The pilot, a young-looking man with a mask over his face, was waving weakly at them.
“Let’s get over there,” Kirk said.
Moving as fast as they dared, they went through the shuttle airlock and out into the thick-feeling air. Kirk corrected his thinking. It wasn’t actually air, Kirk knew. It was siliconic gel, a silicone substance, yet it looked like air. You just couldn’t breathe it. It would be like trying to breathe sand or glass.
The transport pilot and the four passengers were all alive, but barely. All had masks on their faces and terrified looks in their eyes. Kirk had never seen four people so happy to see him. He just wished one of them had been Lilian. But no such luck.
Sulu moved up next to the pilot and adjusted the comm link on the transport’s control board so that they could talk to the pilot on the same frequency as their suits. McCoy set about checking each of the passengers one at a time.
“Are you all right?” Kirk asked, moving up and kneeling beside the pilot’s chair while Spock moved into the copilot’s position.
“Been better,” the pilot said, his voice barely holding back on breaking. “The stuff feels like spiders crawling on your skin.”
Kirk shuddered at that thought. He’d never been much of a fan of spiders.
“Oh, wonderful,” McCoy said under his breath. “Remind me to never take this suit off.”
“I was afraid to fire up the transport and take off for fear of an explosion. And we didn’t have enough oxygen to last much longer. We’re glad you got here in time.”
Kirk nodded. “We’re glad we got here, too. What’s your name?”
“Benny, sir,” the pilot said.
“Benny, did you see anyone else alive?”
“When the first earthquake hit, and this stuff covered us, a few people ran for the big building there. They made it inside, but I haven’t seen any movement since.”
“Thanks,” Kirk said.
“Can the transport fly?” Sulu asked.
“It could when I landed,” the pilot said. “We’ve been taking some pretty good shaking, but these babies are pretty rugged.”
“Are you able to fly it?” Kirk asked.
The pilot squared his shoulders, took a deep breath off his mask, and nodded. “I can do it.”
“Jim,” McCoy said, “these people are going to be all right. Shock and a slight lack of oxygen is all.”
“I had the air turned as low as I dared for all of us,” the pilot said. “To give us more time.”
Kirk patted him on the shoulder. “You did great, Benny. Give us a minute to get out and button you up, then head for the canyon settlement. I want the doctors there to check you all over. Understood?”
“Won’t I cause an explosion?” the pilot asked, his eyes wide with worry.
“The explosions are caused by an electrical charge,” Kirk said. “If you’ve been landing and taking off for the last day without causing one, you won’t cause one now. It’s the polymers that create the siliconic gel that explode, not the siliconic gel itself.”
The pilot nodded, clearly not convinced, but willing to take the chance if Kirk said it was all right.
“Just get the transport quickly up over two hundred feet and you’ll be fine,” Kirk said to the young man. “Air the cockpit out up there.”
“Understood, sir,” the pilot said.
They all climbed out and Sulu sealed the transport door.
“All right, Benny,” Kirk said. “Take her up nice and slow, just like you’ve always done.”
“Never been one for slow, sir,” Benny said. “But I’ll try.”
McCoy laughed. “He sounds like you when you were younger, Jim.”
“What’s that, sir?” Benny said.
“Nothing,” Kirk said, shaking his head at McCoy. “Just get yourself and your passengers safely to the canyon.”
“Copy that. Here goes.”
The transport rumbled to life and after a moment lifted off slowly, heading straight up. After a moment Benny’s voice came back happy and strong. “We’re in clear air up here and it feels wonderful!! Thanks.”
“You are more than welcome,” Kirk said. He then pointed to the large town hall building, and without another word the three of them headed there. So far their mission had saved five lives. Kirk just hoped Lilian’s life would be number six.
The siliconic gel had finally reached the level of the chairs and couch during the last earthquake, so Lilian had waded through it, ignoring the sensations on her legs, and climbed on the kitchen countertop. She could sit there for a while; when the siliconic gel got even higher, she could climb up in the rafters next.
So far she hadn’t allowed herself to think of not being rescued. She knew both Pardonnet and Jim wouldn’t allow people here to just die. It was just a matter of holding on long enough for the rescue to arrive.
A low rumble filled the room and she braced for another earthquake. But this time there wasn’t one. In fact, the rumble sounded different than the distant thunder. More like a transport taking off.
Or landing.
She dropped down off the counter into the siliconic gel and waded to the front window, the resistance against her legs light, yet very present. She could see the main buildings, but not the transport pad. If they were landing there, she wouldn’t be able to see them.
For an instant she thought she saw a figure in a spacesuit go inside the large building, but she wasn’t sure.
She desperately wanted to go back and crawl up on the counter, but instead forced herself to remain standing in front of the window. If there was someone down there, she needed them to see her.
Around her knees the siliconic gel moved slowly, as if alive with a thousand spiders crawling on her.
On the streets nothing moved at all.
Kirk wasn’t sure if the resistance to walking was from the spacesuit, or the siliconic gel around him. It felt almost as if he were moving in a very thin, very clear water, only without any bouyancy at all. Knowing that the siliconic gel was made of mostly silicon didn’t help him at all. He didn’t want to think about moving around inside glass.
They forced the door to the large meeting hall open and went inside. The light was weak through the windows and shadows filled the corners and upper areas. At first Kirk couldn’t see anyone, or any bodies.
“Up here!”
“You hear that?” McCoy said, pointing his flashlight beam up into the rafters. High above them in the large building, ten people clung for their lives on the wooden beams.
“Hurry!” one of them shouted. “It’s almost to us.”
“Our air is leaking out the roof!” another one shouted.
Kirk immediately reached into his backpack for the air masks with their own short supply of oxygen. He, McCoy, and Sulu each were carrying ten, and there were more in the shuttle if they needed them. The masks would last ten minutes, enough oxygen for the people to climb down and get into the shuttle. But somehow they had to get
the masks up to the people first, and that was going to be a problem in the suits. Spacesuits were just not made for climbing in normal gravity.
“Any ideas?” Kirk asked.
Neither McCoy nor Sulu said a word as they looked up.
“All right, then,” Kirk said. “I’m going to take this suit off and use a mask myself.”
“Jim,” McCoy said, “I wouldn’t recommend that—”
Too late. He had released the latches on his helmet and taken it off, grabbing an oxygen mask as he did and covering his mouth.
The pilot had been right. The siliconic gel felt like spiders crawling over his face and down his neck. He wanted to instantly start swatting at them, even though he knew they weren’t there. He hated spiders.
And it felt as if they were on his face, his neck, his arms. Crawling down his back.
He secured the mask over his face and quickly got rid of the rest of his suit, ignoring the feel of spiderwebs all over his body and pressing against his clothes. In all his years, this was the worst thing he had ever felt.
He forced himself to breathe slowly to save the oxygen in his mask, then slung the backpack over his shoulder and looked for the best way up.
“Stairs in the back will get you to the next level,” a voice shouted down from the rafters.
“Please hurry!” another shouted.
Kirk waved that he had heard, then moved off, indicating that McCoy and Sulu should follow as best they could.
Walking in the siliconic gel without a suit wasn’t much easier than in a suit. And it felt very, very odd, as if he were constantly pushing through webs. It was just enough resistance to be very noticeable, but not enough to really stop him.
He forced his way up the stairs and to a ladder on the wall that led up into the rafters.
Ten minutes later he was handing masks to very happy colonists sitting on beams, and then helping them climb down.
Ten minutes after that all ten survivors were in the shuttle being checked over by Dr. McCoy.
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