Double Helix 03_ Red Sector - Diane Carey [118]
Zevon touched his sweater, then gazed at her in what could only be adoration. “How kind…” BZZZZZWA P! Phaser stun! No mistaking that sound!
The Pojjana troopers sprang like stricken cats and flopped to the ground, only an instant before a third beam struck Sykora and she was pitched into a convulsion that left her unconscious in a crotch of stone.
Zevon gasped in anguish and scrambled to his wife’s side, but there was nothing to be done for her but wait for the effect to wear off. The tables had turned again.
Over the crest of the ridge appeared a beautiful sight-Travis Perraton leading a landing party that included the evil twins, a handful of security trainees, and Dr. Leonard McCoy.
“We heard the trouble,” Travis said. “Ambassador Spock cued his comm link and we heard everything. You all right, Eric? “Why? Am I bleeding?” “Some blood on your neck there.”
“I’m okay, Tray, thanks.” Stiles accepted a service phaser and looked at the handiwork. “Round up those three and stuff ‘era into the equipment locker.” “Even the lady?”
Stiles met Zevon’s hopeful eyes, but he had certain decisions to make and certain dangers to consider. “That’s no lady. That’s a subcommander.” “Uh-huh. Got it. Lock her up, boys.”
The Bolt brothers assisted Dr. McCoy down a fairly stable rock incline, where he stopped before Zevon and gave the Romulan prince a good looking over.
“Good evening,” he said. “I’m Count Vladimir McCoy. I vant your blod.”
“Orsova.”
“Again? What do you want now! I tried to put that poison in Zevon, but he’s gone!”
“They have escaped through the root swamp. I will give you the coordinates of their space ship. You still have a chance to bring them to me. The doctors and Zevon. Alive if you can. Dead if you cannot,”
“How can I chase them if they go into space? I have no spaceships.”
“You ask too many questions, You will have my ship. I will arrange for you to be close to Zevon. Prepare yourself. You are about to become a spaceman.”
Chapter Twenty-four
As THE TWO POJJAN guards were heaved off into the waiting CST by the crewmen, Zevon hurried to his wife’s side and knelt beside her, touching her face. “I will not even speak to you about this unless you treat her first.” “She’ll recover,” Stiles complained. “It’s just phaser stun” “No, she’s ill. Like you when you were trapped here, we have no way to treat her on this planet. She’s not Pojjana. Their medicine has been working only poorly for her since-“
“Uh-oh,” McCoy preempted, and immediately came to Sykora’s side. “Better check that.”
Stiles glanced at Spock. Were they too late? Did Sykora have the royal family thing? He scrubbed the conversation they’d just had to see if there’d been any mention of Sykora’s bloodlines. Had he missed something? Did she have this plague that had everybody so worked up?
While McCoy scanned the unconscious woman with some kind of double-built medical scanner, Stiles turned to Travis. “Go back on board. Get ready to lift off.” “Aye aye,” Travis said. ‘I’ll be right there. Go on.” Over the fallen form of the Romulan woman, McCoy let Jason Bolt pull him back to his feet. “She’s not royal family. No trace of their DNA at all. She’s got hyperplexic myelitis. I’ve only seen it twice before in Volcanoes.”
Fearful just at the sound of that, Zevon looked at him beseechingly. “Is it dangerous?” “Eventually, it would be fatal.” “Can you stop it?” “I need to get her on a table.” The noncommittal answer clearly frightened Zevon.
Stiles watched him. The whole Romulan royal family was sick and dying, and all that meant anything to Zevon was this one woman. He parted his lips to utter some words of assurance, but never got the chance. As the ship sat ducklike on its landing struts, the skin of the CST crackled with an electrical surge that threw sparks all over the people standing on the ridge. For an instant Stiles thought something in or on the ship had exploded; then the