Broken Bow - Diane Carey [44]
“Get to the ship!” Archer shouted at Hoshi over the wind.
Luckily she wasn’t the heroic type and did as he ordered.
Archer thrust himself up on his aching legs and made himself obvious. He snapped his pistol up just as the Suliban leader noticed him. Without looking for cover, he ran furiously across the tarmac, directly toward the Suliban, firing as he ran.
One of the Suliban was struck by a lucky shot—lucky only because most of his plasma bullets were being sucked sideways by the wind vortex on these open flats. One more down.
The leader and the other soldier took cover. Archer reached T’Pol’s weapon, scooped it up without missing a step, and kept on with his direct assault.
“Go! “he called to her.
“Enterprise needs its captain!” she called back. “Give me the weapon!”
“I said, go!”
To her credit, she hesitated another moment. During that moment he struck her with a look so forceful that she must have realized she wouldn’t be changing his mind. This was no time for a discussion.
Archer broke the contact, raised the second weapon, and began firing both as T’Pol ran behind him toward the shuttle.
He glanced back to gauge her progress and saw the shuttlepod hatch open again for her. Reed was reaching for her! Archer spotted Mayweather warming up the helm. They were already aboard!
A flush of relief numbed Archer’s whole body. His team was intact!
As Reed pulled T’Pol inside, Archer moved backward toward the shuttle, firing constantly. The pistol in his left hand began to cool. Losing power!
The Suliban leader waved his hand. The Suliban broke apart from each other, forcing Archer to divide his target. The leader had figured out what to do, a simple but effective maneuver.
Archer was closer to the shuttle now, close enough for a good leap if he could only turn around, but he had to keep shooting. He aimed slightly to his left at a moving form.
From his right, a blue shot streaked in. His leg folded under him, burning and quivering. A moment later, the blinding pain struck full out.
A tangle of movement confused him. Reed, right overhead, firing into the snow!
Trip Tucker appeared at his side and pulled him through the hatch. Archer did everything he could to save himself and them from further torment, but he could barely think over the searing pain in his thigh. His thoughts piled together. Nothing made sense. He dug his shoulder into Tucker and accepted the support from his friend, who could do nothing for him, not here, like this.
“The starboard thruster’s down!” Mayweather spat.
“Ignore it.” T’Pol, almost excited. “Take us up.”
Hoshi’s face appeared in his closing periphery. She looked small, distant.
“Open a channel.” T’Pol again.
The surge of acceleration made Archer’s mind swarm like bees in the sky. The lower half of his body sizzled, as if he were being fried in a skillet. He tried to move, to sit up—
“Sub-Commander T’Pol to Enterprise.”
“Go ahead,” the voice on the com responded.
“We’ll be docking in a few minutes. Have Dr. Phlox meet us in decon.”
“Acknowledged. Is someone wounded?”
Archer tried to speak, to protest that he could stand, work, take them back to the ship, and go on with their mission to find Klaang ... the Klingons ... he had to ...
“Your pitch is too low. Bring the nose up.”
The pod rocked and turned in the wind. The port nacelle struck a branch and skidded into the snow. No, it was sand ...
“It’s okay. You’ve almost got it. Try again.”
The ship skittered on the sand and rose over open water, airborne again, wavering.
“I can’t do it!”
Dad, I can’t keep the ship in the air! Why can’t I do it right?
“Yes, you can. Take her up, straight and steady.”
The ship skidded into a sand dune, bruised and lifeless.
“Damn!” Archer gushed.
Dad came to his side.
“You can’t be afraid of the wind,” he said. “Learn to trust it.”
Archer turned and looked up onto the dune. T’Pol stood watching him and his father as they worked the model ship and tried to make it fly. What was she doing