Caretaker - L. A. Graf [71]
"It was the only way out." And, as if to demonstrate, Kes slipped her legs into the clot of darkness and slithered nimbly under.
Neelix almost melted with appreciation. "Isn't she remarkable?" he asked the Maquis. She was too distracted with the ominous forcefield net to answer him.
On her belly on the other side of the barrier, Kes already had Kim by the hands to guide him through. He could barely crawl, Paris noted with a twist of his stomach. If the tricorder hadn't blipped at just this tunnel--if Paris hadn't thought to come back and checkSo little time, the Array's Caretaker had said. So very little time.
Guiding the Maquis woman through behind Kim, Paris stepped aside to motion Neelix forward. The "women-and-children" complex, he told himself. Get everybody out who can't necessarily take care of themselves. He'd worry afterward what to do about himself if for some reason he couldn't immediately follow. For right now, he had to be sure his charges were safe or he wouldn't even be able to think.
Neelix scrambled under the damaged barrier without having to be encouraged. For one horrible instant, Paris didn't think he could make it--his rounded belly brushed the faintest thread of energy, and a stink like burning dung feathered upward from his singed clothes.
Then, his eyes white with panic, Neelix sucked himself a bare micrometer flatter, and pushed himself beyond the barrier, leaving nothing but his dignity behind.
Paris released his anxiously held breath in a rush and went to his knees outside the breach. Sliding his phaser under the net so that it bumped on Neelix's foot, he motioned to the bare rock wall still standing between them and freedom. "I've got it set," he said as he started to crawl under. "Just point and fire."
Neelix obeyed without question. The phaser sang in waspish counterpoint to the failing forcefield, and hot stone splattered the floor all around Paris as he pulled himself through the hole.
It still smelled like burnt chalk and smelted iron when he scrambled to his feet and swept Kim up from the floor to lead the way outside.
The wall Neelix burned through was barely three meters thick.
Outside, smoke rose in columns all the way to the distant horizon, flagging other tunnels already sealed shut by the Array.
Dust and ash with the flavor of salt hung suspended in the hot air like dirt in water. Covering Kim's mouth with one hand to try and save the ensign's breathing, Paris slapped his comm badge and looked toward the sky. "Paris to Voyager! Can you lock on to us now?"
Rollins's voice sounded tinny and distant against the roaring wind.
"Affirmative. But I'm only reading five signals."
Paris nodded, even though the conn officer couldn't see him.
"The others are--" A burning flash of light tore past directly overhead, sundering his last words. As it struck the ground somewhere just below the horizon, Paris knew they should be glad it hadn't landed right on top of them. Then the ground lurched like a mad animal beneath them, and Paris heard the terrifying crack and shatter of rock not so very far away. Shoving Kim into the dirt, he threw himself across the younger man to protect him with his own body, and a cloud of dirt roared out the newly made tunnel mouth behind them to bury them all.
Chapter 18
Paris waited, his face buried against Kim's back, until the rumble of falling stone finally wore itself out and faded away.
Even so, the distant echo of crumbling earth seemed to howl through the ground impossibly far below him. When he rolled to look behind, he half-expected to see their exit caved in with no hope of digging back past it. Instead, the opening stared back at him like a screaming mouth, and dust puffed out and upward in a weary cloud. He heard Kim groan, and realized that the ensign had turned, too, to view the desolation.
"Paris to Janeway." The effort of speaking pulled tickles of particulate matter