A Call to Darkness - Michael Jan Friedman [24]
She was completely unprepared for what happened next. First, a web of slender green filaments came out of nowhere. Then it closed down around Badnajian. Finally, man and web just vanished.
All in the space of a heartbeat, maybe less.
Pulaski felt light-headed. She clutched at a bulkhead for support.
“Doctor Pulaski?” It was Riker’s voice again, strident with alarm now. “Doctor, what’s going on there?”
“Badnajian just disappeared.” She swallowed, understanding for the first time what might have happened to the crew of the Mendel. “And he may not be alone in that regard.”
“I’m beaming you back,” said Riker. “All of you. Stand by.”
“No,” she told him, recalling the reason she’d contacted him in the first place. “Listen. There may not be time. You’ve got to get word to Doctor Burtin. Tell him that…”
But she never finished her sentence.
“Transporter room-report!”
The hesitation in Chief O’Brien’s voice told Riker all he needed to know. His teeth grated together as he tried to control the anger building up inside him.
And it was only himself he had to be angry with. For letting the captain go in the first place. For not following up when Picard signed off so abruptly. Most of all, for not seeing what was coming… until now, when it was obviously too late.
“I… I don’t know what happened,” said O’Brien finally. “First, I could only record two of our people within the parameters of the Mendel. And then, just as I tried to bring those two back… they vanished, sir. They’re gone-and I don’t know where.”
The first officer cursed beneath his breath.
“Sir?” asked the transporter chief.
He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “If you had to guess,” asked Riker, “what would you say happened to them?”
A pause. “It almost seemed as if someone else just got to them first, sir. Teleported them, I mean, just as we were about to.”
“Thank you,” said Riker.
He tried to think. To ignore the challenge he couldn’t help but see in the midst of the viewscreen’s golden chaos.
“The Klah’kimmbri,” said Troi, at his side. “The captain was right, wasn’t he?”
She was still a little shaky, barely recovered from the turbulent, desperate emotions she’d experienced as she probed the away team before its sudden disappearance. However, she was a lot more composed than she had been even moments ago.
Riker nodded in answer to her question. “But it’s not just a matter of polarization, apparently. They seem to be able to penetrate the mantle in either direction-send as well as receive. That’s the only way they could have established the coordinates they needed to beam down our away team. Or, for that matter, the crew of the Mendel.”
“It was the one possibility we didn’t consider,” said the empath. “That the research people could have been teleported off their ship.”
“And for good reason,” said Riker. “It just didn’t make any sense. Still doesn’t. Why would the Klah’kimmbri develop a special transporter beam-one which can ignore the mantle-when it would be useless against any real aggressor? Obviously, it can’t penetrate a high-energy shield, or we’d have seen some disappearances on the Enterprise as well. The only crews vulnerable to forced teleportation would be those on primitive vessels without sophisticated shield technology-or crippled ships like the Mendel, where…”
He stopped himself.
Troi regarded him. “What’s the matter?”
Riker glanced at the screen again. “I wonder,” he said. “Could they have been waiting for a ship like the Mendel to come along? A crippled vessel, without any shields to protect it?” He licked his lips. “Maybe we’ve been looking at this the wrong way. What if the Klah’kimmbri aren’t on the defensive after all? What if their real objective is to, say, kidnap the crews of unprotected vessels?”
Troi’s delicate, dark brows came together. “But…?” Her unspoken question seemed to hang in the air.
The first officer finished it for her. “Why would the Klah’kimmbri want to do such a thing?” He shook his head. “I don’t know, Deanna.” Resolve stiffened in him. “But I’m damned well going to find out.”
Chapter