“Yeah, we did. And it’s working. The Eerlikka are finding out what it’s like to live instead of having everything handed to them.”
Corsi rolled her eyes. “If you’re gonna start spouting rhetoric, I’ll shoot you again.”
To Corsi’s surprise, the woman actually looked contrite. “Sorry. Occupational hazard when you hang around with fanatics.”
“So why hang around with them?”
“I wonder that sometimes, especially when they pull dumb moves like this.”
Corsi frowned, but inwardly she smiled. This was the best way to gather intelligence—casual conversation, don’t let the subject know she’s being interrogated. “Like what?”
“Leaving people here in the middle of a computer complex that’s falling apart at the seams on the off chance that someone might come by was not the brightest of moves.”
“It wasn’t that off chance—after all, we came by.”
“Yeah, but we’re just as trapped in here as you are. Actually, we’re more trapped. Your scanners and weapons work.”
Corsi nodded. “Bad tactics.”
“Yeah, well, us fanatics don’t always think things through,” the woman said with a bitter chuckle. “I’m Yanasa, by the way.”
“I’m the person holding the rifle. Pleased to meet you.” Corsi saw no reason to give Yanasa any more information than needed.
“Okay, Rifle Woman, what’s the plan?”
“The plan is, you don’t move until I tell you to.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s the only part that concerns you.”
A beeping noise filled the air, and then a voice said, “ Senbolma to Hagi.”
Yanasa looked at the still-slumbering form of her comrade, from whose belt the voice was emitting.
“Hagi, this is Undlar, answer me, dammit!” said a different voice.
Corsi mouthed the words, Don’t touch it to Yanasa, who obligingly didn’t move.
“Something must have happened to him,” said the first voice.
“Close the channel,” said Undlar. “Hagi’s got the only comm unit. We may have to beam dow—”
Then it cut off. Corsi sighed. She had been hoping they might say something about the da Vinci before they cut off communications, but that would’ve been too convenient.
“Only one comm unit? That wasn’t very bright,” Corsi said.
“We only had one hand-unit that wasn’t tied into Ganitriul,” Yanasa said. “I wanted to wait until we had enough units for everyone, but, like every sensible suggestion I made, I was outvoted.” She indicated Hagi with her head. “Why’s he still out if I’m up?”
Not seeing any harm in answering that question, Corsi said, “Different people react to stun different ways. You’ve probably got a faster metabolism than him or something.”
“Well, you should be grateful, Rifle Woman, ’ cause Hagi’s the field leader of this merry bunch, and he’d give you more rhetoric than you’d know what to do with.”
“Lieutenant Commander Corsi,” said Ganitriul, “I have successfully altered the settings on the scattering field. The Eerlikka weapons still do not function, but your phaser rifles should now function as normal.”
“Thank you, Ganitriul.” Corsi turned to Yanasa and smiled. As she did so, she adjusted the rifle to the heavy stun setting.
Yanasa was just shaking her head. “We weren’t expecting this. It never occurred to any of us that Ganitriul would actually work against us. I had thought that it wouldn’t function at all, but I guess they underestimated that personality. I honestly had thought it was just an interface, not a separate AI personality unto itself.”
Oh, God, not another one who runs off about engineering minutiae at the drop of a hat , Corsi thought. She almost would’ve preferred the rhetoric. She got enough of this on the da Vinci .
Just then, the forcefields went down.
Without even hesitating, Corsi fired on Yanasa. She crumpled to the ground.
Hagi started to stir. Corsi fired on him, too, and he was still.
That ought to keep them out for a while , she thought. She tapped her combadge. “Corsi to Gomez.”
No one answered.
CHAPTER
9
Fighting through the haze that was starting to cloud his vision, 110 entered the last of the codes needed to activate the manual override on the ventilation system in this cavern. The next step was to actually get the vents going, but he had to fight his fingers to make them work properly. He wished 111 was there beside him. Together, they would have worked twice as fast, and gotten the vents clear before the forcefields failed.
But she was dead. He had felt her die. He still could feel it, even now, as his consciousness started to fade. . . .
In the background, he heard two filtered voices. One sounded like Ganitriul, and he caught the words phaser rifles , but he couldn’t make out the rest. The other was Lieutenant Commander Corsi.
The world started to go an odd shade of green. 110 just wanted to lie down and off-line. But, no—then he’d relive 111’s death again. Besides, if he did, the three of them would succumb to the gas, and then they’d be left for dead. It was bad enough that 111 had died; 110 would not be responsible for letting Gomez and Hawkins die as well.
He entered the command.
Within seconds, his vision cleared. His thought processes once again settled into the orderly pattern he was accustomed to. And the green haze faded.
Gomez was coughing furiously, but she managed to get out the words “Good work, 110” between coughs.
“I did what any of us would have, Commander,” 110 said, not wanting to take undue credit for something so routine.
“Don’t sell yourself short.” More coughs. “You’re the only one who knew your way around Ganitriul’s circuits well enough to perform the override.” Yet more coughs. “So stop being so modest and take credit for your work.”
110 blinked. He supposed that the commander was right.
So why did he feel like he hadn’t done anything special?
“Corsi to Gomez, are you there , Commander?”
Tapping her combadge, Gomez managed to say, “I’m here. We had a bit of a scrape with some gas, but we’re okay now.”
Prompted by those words, 110 went to the minimedikit that Hawkins—who was coughing even more than Gomez—had on his belt pouch and removed the medical tricorder.
“Well,” Corsi was saying, “I’m out of the force-field, and we’ve got full weapons now. I nailed both prisoners with heavy stun, so they won’t be a factor for a while.”
“All right, head for Drew’s position and see if you can cut him free from the bulkheads—or at least cut a hole for some air for him. Then get to the core. We’ll meet you there.”
“Yes, sir. Corsi out.”
110 said, “According to the readings, both of you suffered minor damage to your esophageal passages from the gas. It can be repaired when we return to the da Vinci .”
“How about you?” Gomez asked between two more coughs.
“No deleterious aftereffects,” he said calmly.
Smiling, Gomez said, “Lucky you. C’mon, let’s get a move on to the core. How much farther?”
“Approximately fifty meters,” 110 said, consulting the tricorder, “then down another ladder, and we will be there, Commander.”
The two humans’ coughs were now coming at longer intervals, which was a good sign. Gomez said, “Let’s go.”
Undlar had finally disposed of First Speaker Ansed’s body. It had been a revolting task, and one he never wanted to be even remotely involved with again as long as he lived. He swore that, one day, he would kill Emarur for forcing him to commit this depraved action.
But, for now, he needed the owner of the Senbolma , so he restrained himself.
As he reentered the flight deck, he said, “Contact the surface. Hagi hasn’t checked in, and I want an update.”
Emarur asked, “Is the body—” “
Yes , the b
ody is disposed of. I hauled the damn thing to the transporter bay and dispersed her atoms into space. Now, contact the surface!”
Turning his back on Undlar, Emarur opened a channel. “ Senbolma to Hagi.”
There was no response. Angrily, Undlar leaned over Emarur’s shoulder and said, “Hagi, this is Undlar; answer me, dammit!”
“Something must have happened to him,” Emarur said, showing a phenomenal grasp of the blindingly obvious.
“Close the channel,” said Undlar. “Hagi’s got the only comm unit. We may have to beam down and see for ourselves.”
“Hang on a second,” Emarur said, turning to the pilot. “What’re you picking up down there?”
The pilot shook his head. “I’ve been reading the same life signs all along. Some of them are faint, though—they’re going deeper into the infrastructure of Ganitriul, and it’s hard to get a reading that far down. And some people have dropped out as they went into some areas, and—”
Undlar had no patience for this. “Are there still twelve Eerlikka down there?”
“Yes,” the pilot said.
“Are there still five aliens?”
“Yes. Four human and one Bynar, in case you’re interested.”
“I’m not,” Undlar said. “We’ll have to—”
An alarm went off. The pilot looked at his readout. “It’s the da Vinci ! It’s back—it was in orbit around the second planet.”
Emarur frowned. “How could they have been in orbit around the second planet?”
“I don’t know, but that’s where they’re coming from.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Undlar said. “This time we’ll finish them off. Arm the weapons.”
To Undlar’s annoyance, the pilot looked at Emarur first. Emarur nodded, and only then did the pilot say, “Arming weapons. Shields up.”
“This time, I want them destroyed,” Undlar said.
“Then shut up and let me work,” Emarur replied. Then he turned to the pilot. “Fire as soon as they’re in range.”
“Firing,” the pilot said a moment later. Then he grinned. “Their shields are down.”
Undlar smiled. He had no idea why their ship blasters were so effective against Starfleet shields, but he was willing to accept that they were.
The pilot said, “Firing again.” A pause. “A direct hit, but no hull damage. Interesting—they’ve managed to partly reconstruct the shields. They’re down again, though. They took damage to their weapons, propulsion, and secondary systems.” Smiling a bit, the pilot said, “They’ve got a good engineer or two over there.”
Maybe , Undlar thought, we should consider selling the weapon to the Federation after we take over Eerlik.
Of course, the Federation might not want to deal with a government that had destroyed one of their ships, even if one could consider it a field test. So maybe we can sell it to someone else. The Ferengi or the Breen. The Breen would probably love a chance to even the score after the Dominion War. . . .
Undlar shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. Time enough for that after we’ve triumphed , he thought. “What are you waiting for?” Undlar said impatiently to Emarur and the pilot. “Destroy them.”
“Targeting them n—” The pilot cut himself off. “I’ve lost the lock.” He stabbed at his console, but nothing happened. “I can’t reestablish.”
Emarur cried, “The shields have gone down!”
“What?”
“I’ve lost helm control,” the pilot said, continuing to stab pointlessly at his console.
“Dammit, Emarur, what happened?”
Emarur was also stabbing at his console. “I can’t access any ship’s system. We’ve been completely locked out.”
“That’s impossible!” Undlar cried.
The face of the human captain of the da Vinci appeared suddenly on the viewscreen. “We’re the S.C.E., Undlar. Impossible things are our business. Now then, are you folks going to surrender?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Undlar said. “Fine, you’ve taken over our ship. Now what? You don’t have enough power to do anything to us. Your transporters and weapons and shields are down, so you can’t fire on us and you can’t board us. It’s a stalemate, Captain. And I have righteousness on my side.”
“Righteousness? You call cold-blooded murder righteous?”
The human sounded indignant. Well, let him , Undlar thought. “Every revolution has its executions, Captain. And this is a revolution. We will bring Eerlik out of its decadence and into a new era of greatness. And I can assure you that I will never give up. I will never surrender to you!”
“Screen off,” Gold said, not wanting to look at Undlar’s smug, teal-colored face. “Bridge to engineering. Duffy, La Forge, give me good news.”
“Wish I could, Captain,” La Forge said. “I might be able to get the shields reconstituted again, but I doubt it. And the weapons systems were jury-rigged as it is—it’ll take at least four hours to fix them now.”
“Get on it,” Gold said with a sigh. At least La Forge had been able to reconstitute the shields after the first shot. That was all that had saved them—if he hadn’t, that second shot would’ve done major structural damage instead of “merely” taking out half their systems. In fact , he thought, that second shot would’ve more than likely destroyed the ship.
He turned back to McAllan. “Contact the surface.”
“Yes, sir.” A pause. “Sir, I’m only reading two combadges—Corsi and Drew.”
“Gold to Corsi,” the captain said.
“Corsi here.”
“Situation report, Commander.”
“Commander Gomez, 110, and Hawkins are currently approaching the computer core, so they can do whatever they need to do to fix the thing. I’m on my way there now. Drew is trapped between two bulkheads that fell down. The security systems have been switching on and off—that’s how I got separated from the others—but Ganitriul’s doing its best to help us out.”
“We’re not reading Gomez, Hawkins, or 110 up here.”
“I’m reading all three of them on my tricorder.”
“Good. We’re in a stalemate up here with the Eerlikka ship. The sooner you people get Ganitriul up and running again, the better.”
“Understood, Captain. Can we get reinforcements?”
“Negative,” Gold said, hating the fact that he had to say it. “Transporter’s down. I’m afraid you’re on your own, Corsi.”
“That’s fine, sir. We’ll get it done.”
“Keep me posted for as long as you can. Da Vinci out.” He looked around the bridge, then hit his combadge. “Duffy, La Forge, how soon until the transporters are up?”
“Maybe six hours,” Duffy said.
“Make that the priority. We can end this if we can board them.”
From the conn position, Wong said, “Why don’t we board them with a shuttle?” The da Vinci had two shuttlecraft, the Archimedes and the Franklin .
McAllan was shaking his head. “Too risky. They’ll know we’re coming when we approach the shuttlebay and open up the bay doors—and they’ve got hand weapons. I can’t tell what kind they are, but if they’re anything like the shipboard weapons, the shuttle will be a sitting duck.”
Gold sighed, then looked at Stevens, seated with Abramowitz and Faulwell at one of the rear science stations. “Can you maintain the hold on their computer system?”
Stevens nodded. “No problem, sir. I installed a dozen passwords on all the systems, and they’re all in-jokes that only about three people in my family would even guess.”
“I doubt they even know what a password is in this context,” Abramowitz said. “We should be fine.”
“Is there any kind of security device we can use against them?”
Stevens shook his head. “They don’t have anything like that. Best I can do is either cut off their air supply or their gravity.”
“Killing them’s only a last-ditch option,” Gold said, “and knocking out the gravity’ll hardly ma
tter.” He sighed again. “All right then, we’ll wait.” He hated waiting. Rachel always said his impatience would be the death of him. Hope she’s wrong this time , he thought.
Sonya Gomez felt like someone had scraped her throat with a rusty knife. She didn’t particularly want to cough, as it hurt like hell every time she did, but it got to the point where not coughing was worse. So she coughed. And was sorry she had.
This went on for the entire time she, 110, and Hawkins walked the rest of the way to the core.
“Corsi to Gomez.”
“Go ahead.”
“Good news, Commander—the da Vinci is okay.”
Sonya had been trying very hard not to think about the fact that they hadn’t been in touch with the ship. The idea that she’d never see Kieran again . . .
Aloud, she simply said, “That’s good to hear.”
“You’re too far deep for them to pick you up—and I will be soon. I tried to get Drew out, but one rifle can’t cut it without exhausting the power pack. I was able to make a small breathing hole for him, so he should be able to survive until we can get everything under control.”
“All right,” Sonya said. “We’re almost at the core. We’ll meet you here. Be careful.”
“Always, Commander. Corsi out.”
About ten minutes passed in silence, and then Ganitriul’s ever-pleasant voice sounded once again. “Commander Gomez, I am afraid that the scattering field has gone down. Any weapon will work within the caverns now, not just yours.”
“Okay,” she said with a sigh. That had been a handy tactical advantage, but they’d have to live without it.
After another five minutes, Sonya figured they had arrived at their destination when they were confronted with a massive bulkhead. “I’m assuming this is the entrance to the core and not another security protocol we have to work around?”
Ganitriul’s voice said, “Yes, Commander Gomez, this is the entrance to the core.”
“I’ve got the code to open the door,” 110 said.
The Bynar walked up to a keypad, which was right at arm level for him. Sonya smiled. Good thing that the Eerlikka and the Bynars are roughly the same average height , she thought.
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