The Escape (17 page)

For the second time on this mission he felt a sense of urgency. If he didn't move fast he might lose this one. And he didn't want to think about what exactly that meant.

He limped to the third wreck and hurriedly placed the pads on the proper locations. For the moment three floating wrecks would have to be enough. He just didn't have the time to do all five.

When he finished, he stood partially under the last. shuttle. The sand stung like tiny chunks of ice as he pulled the remote control out of his bag and keyed in the first ship. It slowly floated three meters off the ground.

The guard under it yelled and ran out into the open, his weapon at ready. His eyes were wide, and he continued shouting until the others turned to watch.

"So far so good," Drickel said to himself.

Quickly Drickel switched on the control for the second ship and floated a full ten meters off the pavement. The winds at that height were stronger, and the ship bucked once. Drickel adjusted the pads, then held the ship steady.

Its broken ramp banged against the underside of the shuttle, sending resounding booms floating off on the wind. Two guards pointed to the new wreck and ran into the open area.

Pointed Ears took out his sensor and calmly studied the wreck. His pale companion watched for a moment, hands on his hips and a bemused expression on his face, before pulling out his sensors and moving in the opposite direct from Pointed Ears. Both men aimed their sensors at the floating shuttles, then swept the sensors around the area, obviously trying to find him.

"Go ahead," Drickel said aloud. "Try to find me if you can." He keyed in the third set of pads on the shuttle over his head and let it lift two meters up. It too wavered slightly in the wind but held steady, its ramp still touching the concrete about two meters from Drickel. Now the guards appeared really confused.

They were surrounded by three wrecks floating without reason. They seemed disoriented, but after a moment Drickel became impressed by their control and discipline. All had their weapons at ready, but not a one of them fired at the floating ships.

Mostly they just watched and stayed ready. "Tough audience," Drickel said.

He turned to see what the two men with the sensors were doing. Pointed Ears had moved closer to Drickel 183 and was examining the shuttle floating above him. After a moment, he waved his'hand toward his pale companion, indicating that the man should come closer. The pale companion nodded.

Without aiming his sensor device at anything, Pointed Ears keyed something in and then looked up, as if he expected a reaction. And he got one.

At that very instant Pointed Ears looked up, the control in Drickel's hand sent out a faint warning light.

He glanced down. The link to all the pads had been severed, shutting them down.

He cursed and ran, forgetting the pain in his hip.

A groan echoed above him as a gust of wind hit the shuttle at the same time as the antigravity cut off.

By the time the landing gear hit the ground, Drickel had taken one full running step. But those old stubby lander legs had never been made to come down so quickly from such a height. It wouldn't have been able to take the weight of the shuttle dropped from two meters in the air when it was brand new.

His only hope was that he would get out from under it.

He did, but not the way he wanted.

He had taken another step before the landing leg farthest from him snapped like a thousand guns discharging at once. Pieces of the landing gear bom-barded him like shrapnel.

He felt as if he were running underwater.

Time felt as if it had slowed, even though he knew it hadn't. ,184 One more step.

One more step and he'd be out from under the wreck. He took half the step when the landing gear closest to him shattered. He felt the concussion like a bomb going off next to him. Then the impact hit him, knocking the breath out. of his body and sending him into the air.

Flying.

Flying.

Flying away from the crashing shuttle.

Mercifully the blackness took him before he hit the ground. is Cm-rMN JANEWAY STOOD amiDE ENS-IGN HoTO -MAN iation THE transporter room. Hoffman's able fingers were bringing the last of the away team up: Carey, Tavok, and Paris. The others had already been beamed aboardone to sickbay. The holographic doctor had complained about the lack of warning. As the last three members materialized, Janeway understood why Tuvok suggested that she meet them in the transporter room instead of the bridge. Carey looked fine, a little dirty from working on the old shuttle and a bit windblown, but relatively healthy.

At least compared to Paris and Tuvok.

They looked as if they'd just crawled out of a cave-in. They were covered in dirt. It was so thick on their uniforms the color was gone, and their faces were smeared with it. Only their eyes were visible, and Ilse Paris's whites were so red, they looked like they were bleeding, while Tuvok's inner eyelid was more than half closed. "I trust nothing happened in the caverns," Janeway said. "No," Paris said, "if you don't count being assaulted by millions of years of accumulated dust." "I believe the accumulation appeared to be only a hundred thousand years' worth," Tuvok said. "I doubt we would have been able to walk in-was "Anyway, Captain," Paris said, "we're fine. Which is more than I can say for Ensign Berggren." "Sickbay says he was cut by flying shrapnel," Janeway says. "He'll be fine.

But I would like to know exactly what happened." t'Apparently," Tuvok said , was our ghost decided that we needed to see more than one flying ship.

It was using antigravity pads run by a remote control. I blocked the signal and the ships fell back to the ground." "The crashes were spectacular," Paris said. "And so loud I swear you could have heard them up here." Tuvok ignored him. Janeway suppressed a smile. It appeared Paris was interrupting just to annoy Tavok. It wouldn't work. Tuvok did not annoy. "If we shift through the wreckage we shall be able to recover the devices," Tuvok said. "I am concerned that we will not be able to find our ghost.

Logically, it should have tried something else after the crashes. But, although we remained on the surface a good ten minutes longer, nothing happened." "Do you have a hypothesis, Mr. Tuvok?" 187 "I believe it may be injured, even dead.".ensign Hoffman made a small sound beside Janeway. Janeway glanced at her. Hoffman and Torres had been working on special projects in Engineering. Apparently they had become friends.

Hoffman knew, as everyone else did, that the ghost was their best chance of discovering how to bring the away team back.

"Go on," Janeway said.

"I traced the signal emitting from the remote control to a location under one of the crashed shuttles." "Any sign of a body?" "No," Tuvok said. "But it may be injured and close and we would never see it." "If the ghost was under that ship as it fell," Paris said, "it would have taken a very amazing person to get out.

It was only a few meters in the air." "So how do you propose finding this ghost?" "Heat, Captain," Tuvok said. "An injured person would not move much. The body will build up a heat signature, which I might be able to trace." 11 If the ghost is dead, that won't work." Carey spoke for the first time. "I know," Tuvok said. "But if it is dead, we do not need to find it." "Ut's try," Janeway said. "Paris, are you able to help him?" "I am," he said. Janeway almost laughed at the look in his eyes. She could tell that the last thing he wanted to do was return to that planet's surface. But as long as Kim was missing, he'd go back as often as it took. It was one of the many traits about Paris she admired.

Ilse "Good," she said. She turned to Carey as Tuvok stepped to one side and tapped his comm badge to secure the right equipment. "How is the study of the wrecks coming?" "It was going fine until the excitement. Nothing definite yet on what makes the time travel work, but we are stockpiling the metal plates from the interior of the ship on Hangar Deck Two. Those plates can be used very nicely as raw materials for parts." "Good," she said. "Keep at it. Regroup your teams and beam back down. I want you continuing on that line. But help Tuvok and Paris anytime they need it. Finding that ghost is a priority.

Understood?" "Understood, Captain." "We are ready," Tuvok said.

The two men stepped back up on the transporter platform. While Carey moved off to quickly put his engineering teams back together. Paris put his hands up to cover his eyes from the blowing sand.

Tuvok stood there stoically.

"Good luck," she said as the beam took them. She hoped they found that ghost. She didn't want to rely on Kjanders for everything.

They hadn't slept. Torres, Kim, and Neelix had stayed awake ever since Rawlik left the last time, eating pieces of the snack he had brought them and discussing options. There had to be a way to beat this timetravel system. Torres just hadn't found it yet.

She had once told a friend that she could find the loopholes in any bureaucracy. Only two had thwarted her: Starfleet and now Alcawell.

Starfleet had allowed 189 her to leave-not peaceably, since that was not her way-but she was still able to continue her life.

Alcawell was determined to take even that.

Rawlik had become their only hope.

Things had become pretty hopeless if their only hopeeawas the chief bureaucrat in a bureaucracy that prided itself on its adherence to rules. "I wish we had windows," Kim said. "Rawlik said he would be talking to the council in the morning, but how are we to know when morning is? We don't even know if this planet has a twenty-four-hour day." "Or if they continually add hours at the end of each day to write more rules," Neelix said. He leaned back on the couch. "I didn't even say a proper good-bye to Kes. I thought I would be back soon enough. It shows that one should always expect the unexpected." "That's a clichd where I come from," Kim said.

"Clichds are clichds because they have a level of wisdom," Neelix said. "Clichds are clich6's," Torres said, "because people use them in the wrong circumstances." "I would wager that particular clichd is not a clichd on Alcawell," Neelix said.

"No," Kim said. "Here they anticipate the unexpected and thwart it." Torres glanced at Kim. The fear seemed to have left hm."...Long hours with nothing to do often did that for folks. And she had to remember how strong he was. She had faced death with him before. Then the odds had seemed long too.

Still, they had found a solution.

Here, the solutions always created more problems. The door opened and Rawlik entered carrying their breakfast tray. Torres wrinkled her nose at it as he set it on a footstool. Several pastries that looked like mashed beets mixed with bright red food dye and three glasses of a purple beverage the color of Rawlik's assistant's hair. Torres ignored the food for a moment, even though her stomach was growling. "Are the appeals fin, ished?" Rawlik picked up one of the pastries and took a bite. He chewed and swallowed before answering her.

"The council is still in session. I went in front of them a hour ago Real Time and pleaded your case.

Breakfastr" He offered the tray to Neelix.

"Well," Neelix said, taking a pastry and a glass. "This won't be our last meal if the council remains in session all day." Kim took his glass as well. "You know," he said to Rawlik, "it would be better if you stocked the kitchen like Neelix said. Then you wouldn't have to break from your arguments and serve us." "I'm done arguing," Rawlik said.

Neelix took a tentafive sip of the liquid.

"It's sweet," he said with surprise.

Torres took a glass as Kim sipped his.

"It doesn't really taste familiar," Kim said.

Torres drank. On the contrary, the drink tasted very familiar. "My mother used to make something similar," she said. "A Klingon specialty called Vleq. I always called it Yuk. She served it hot, though." "We can warm it for you," Rawlik said.

Torres shook her head. "No need. I would rather hear about the proceedings. How soon will we know?" "Soon," Rawlik said. He paced around the room, following the same path Torres had.

Neelix and Kim hadn't touched their pastries, but they had both finished the drink. Torres finished hers as well. It was just like Vleq. Even though it was sweet, it didn't completely quench a thirst. It only promised to do so. The idea of pastries after a drink that sweet made her vaguely nauseated.

"If the council decides against us," she said, "where do we appeal?" "There is no appeal," Rawlik said quietly. "The council is the highest authority, I am afraid that now we can only wait." "Well," Neelix said, stretching out on the sofa, "I have learned that the best way to wait is to nap. I've always been fond of naps.

Sometimes Kes says I nap too much.... his His voice trailed away.

Kim was nodding. "Yeah," he said. "A nap sounds good. 91 "Don't nap," Torres said to Neelix. "When you nap, we always get in trouble." Then the exhaustion hit her. Only it didn't feel like real exhaustion. It felt-more welcoming.

Don't nap. When you nap-Then somewhere in the back of her mind she realized what was going on. She launched herself at Rawlik, but the two guards had already moved into position. "You poisoned us!" 192 Rawlik nodded. "There was no other way." "The council?" He actually looked sad. "I'm sorry.vv She yanked herself out of the guardsv grasp. The movement made her dizzy. "I was going to go out fighting," she said. Her words were slurred. "Take a few of you scummy time freaks with me." Rawlik nodded, and she could barely see his face at this point. "You did," he said. "You were the only people in the history of this culture to cause four Time Alarms." She didn't care about that. She fell to her knees beside the sofa and grabbed Neelix's shoulders. "Wake up!" she said. She had heard somewhere that drugs didn't always work if people stayed awake. But his body was heavy. He wasn't moving. "Wake up!" She turned to Kim. "Wake up!" His eyes were partially open. She couldn't tell if he was breathing. She pushed herself to her feet. "I'm still going to go out fighting," she said. She flailed at Rawlik. He caught her VM-ISTS. He wouldn't have been able to do that if she had been up to full strength. "You already fought. You and your friends killed five of my men and wounded five others, including a council member, before we backtimed for this solution." She jerked in his grasp. The dizziness was growing.