• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

She whirled in her seat, her eyes spitting fire. “I told you it’s an enemy. That’s all you have to know.”

“That’s what you think,” Corbis snarled. He pointed a long, thick finger at Abby. “I’m done fighting, done putting my life on the line. I want to see that treasure I’ve been waiting for!”

“Get off my bridge,” Abby told him sternly.

The Pandrilite advanced on her. “Like hell I will.”

She stood up and faced him. “I told you to leave the bridge, Mr. Corbis. If I were you”

Before she could complete her warning, the Pandrilite belted her across the face. Unprepared for that kind of force, Abby flipped backward over her center seat and landed on the floor.

Then, before anyone could get to her, Corbis drew his weapon and put it to her head. I exchanged glances with Worf and Thadoc, but there was little any of us could do at the moment.

“Don’t you see?” Corbis snarled at his comrades. “There’s something going on here they don’t want us to know about!” He turned to me, his eyes red-rimmed with fury. “Isn’t that right, Starfleet scum?”

I swallowed. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Corbis. We’ve got to act quickly or we’ll be destroyed.”

It was no more than the truth. The Abinarri would likely take us for an enemy whether we entered the fray or not. We had to undertake evasive maneuvers or we would be ripped open.

Corbis’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “We’ll act quickly all right. We’ll get the hell out of here.” He glared at Thadoc, who had risen halfway out of his seat. “And we’ll do it now, won’t we or I’ll vaporize your precious little captain!”

“Don’t listen to him,” Abby said, wiping blood from her mouth. “Let him kill me. Just don’t abandon those people down there.”

The Pandrilite made a sound deep in his throat. “So there are people down there. Is that what this is about?”

Abby didn’t say anything. No doubt, she regretted having opened her mouth at all.

“Is that why you came through Hel’s Gate, dragging the rest of us along?” asked Corbis. “Is that why you risked the life of everyone aboard this ship? What happened to the Hoard, Captain? What happened to riches beyond our wildest dreams?”

“Yes,” said Gob, his grotesque nostrils flaring wildly as he took a step toward Abby. “What about those promises you made us?”

“I made no promises,” Abby told him. “I”

Corbis silenced her with a jab from the barrel of his weapon. “Shut up,” he said. “I’ve had my fill of your lies.”

“I’ve got an idea,” said Gob, grinning greedily. “We’ll take the warbird and make a run for it. Then, when we’re on the other side of the Gate, we can sell her to the highest bidder.”

“That’s what you think,” I countered. “Once the Romulans find out you have their ship, you won’t live long enough to find a buyer. They’ll reduce you to atoms first.”

“He’s right,” Abby groaned, despite the weapon held to her head. “Your only chance is to stay here and”

The Pandrilite jabbed her again in the temple. “I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut.”

It was all I could do to keep from charging at him.

Madigoor

“YOU SEE?” SAID Dravvin.

Flennarh nodded. “You called it, all right. You said Pandrilites were trouble, and here’s the proof of it.”

The gecko looked appropriately astonished.

“Enough of that,” Bo’tex declared. “I want to hear how Picard here got out of his spot.”

“So do I,” said the Captain of the Kalliope.

“What did you do?” asked the Caxtonian.

“Weren’t you listening?” Hompaq snarled. “He said there was nothing he could do.”

“Actually,” Robinson explained, “that’s a figure of speech. At the time, it seems there’s nothing one can do. But inevitably, one finds some way to prove oneself wrong.”

“And do something,” Dravvin interpreted.

“Exactly,” said Robinson.

“True,” Picard noted. “At least, most of the time. In this case, however, there was literally nothing we could do. Nothing at all, if we valued Red Abby’s life.”

Robinson looked at him. “Nothing? Literally?”

“Nothing,” Picard confirmed.

“Then how was she saved?” Flenarrh asked.

“Perhaps she wasn’t,” Hompaq pointed out. “Perhaps she died at the hands of the