Crossover - Michael Jan Friedman [66]
But by then, she told herself, it might well be too late.
Eragian regarded the three Starfleet officers crumpled on the floor of the corridor, surrounded by a dozen or more guards. One of the intruders was clearly human. The other two, he wasn’t so sure about.
After all, one had a mechanism that halfway encircled his head—some kind of prosthetic device which the proconsul had never seen before. And the third one seemed too pallid to be a human.
“And they were trying to free the other prisoner?” Lennex asked. “The one who took his own life just a little while ago?”
Commander Barnak nodded. “That is what we have come to believe. We can think of no other reason for their being here.”
“Indeed,” muttered Eragian. “And this one,” he said, pointing to the being with the yellowish skin. “Have you been able to identify his origin?”
Barnak shook his head. “We have not, Your Eminence. However, he exhibited incredible resistance to our disruptor beams.” He knelt beside the being, then turned the being’s head to one side, exposing the back of his neck. “And we saw this when we examined him.”
Eragian’s mouth went dry. The guard was pointing to what looked like circuitry, exposed by a beam impact.
He grunted, covering up his surprise. People in his station weren’t supposed to be surprised—not by anything.
“How interesting,” Lennex replied, seemingly unflustered. “And the one in the facial appliance?”
“We have not yet determined the reason for the device,” Barnak told him. “Of course, given its placement, it would seem to enhance one’s visual acuity.”
“Perhaps,” the proconsul conceded. “In any case, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we? Bring them all to the nearest cell. I’ll want to interrogate them at my leisure.”
The base commander inclined his head. “As you wish, Your Eminence.”
“And, Barnak…” said Eragian.
The Romulan looked at him. “Yes, Proconsul?”
Eragian eyed him. “Don’t let this one slip away as the last one did—if you value your life even a little bit.”
The base commander swallowed. “I will double the watch,” he promised, then gestured to his waiting subordinates.
Immediately, Barnak’s men bent to the task of lifting and transporting the prisoners. As he looked on, Eragian crossed his arms over his chest and considered what their presence here meant.
First, it confirmed that his original prisoner was not the mentally unstable buffoon he’d appeared to be. Second, it indicated that the first prisoner hadn’t blundered his way here after all—but rather that his mission had been a premeditated and purposeful one.
And third, it told the proconsul that both the prisoner and his mission were important to Starfleet—or they wouldn’t have sent a team here in an attempt to retrieve him.
Lennex stood beside him, saying nothing. But he was obviously thinking the same things.
Eragian was more eager than ever to identify the mysterious individual who had destroyed himself trying to escape from the outpost—and to determine why the man had crossed the Neutral Zone in the first place.
Of course, with this new group of prisoners in hand, he was that much closer to finding out.
CHAPTER 16
“Above all,” Spock said, “the universe is ordered by logic, in both the realm of normal space that we inhabit and the other dimensions we have observed. Even in the chaos of quantum and subspace mechanics, we can see the elegant symmetry of the universe.”
Almost all of his surviving followers were present for the morning lesson. The Vulcan had initially taken that as a good sign.
But before long, he had seen how dispirited they were. The survivors of the failed escape attempt had been welcomed back into the body of students, but it was difficult for them to conceal their emotions.
They felt grief. Despair. And apprehension about their all-too-brief future. And those feelings were clearly shared by the students who had not participated in the attempt.
Unfortunately Spock had no wisdom to offer