Double Helix 03_ Red Sector - Diane Carey [7]
Stiles let himself be tugged aside, and barely registered the low mutters of his men around him through the afterglow of his meeting with Spook.
“Beam-shielding” Matt Girvan grumbled. ‘Requires planning. What if they had to get out under more dangerous conditions than mudballs and molotovs?” “It’s beam-shielded so assassins or terrorists can’t beam in.” “Why couldn’t they make it one-way?” “Too unstable. Sucks too much energy to maintain over time.”
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll get ‘era out. Eric’ll carry them all on his back if he has to.” “If he doesn’t choke up a lung first.”
“We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t make us bow backward out of the room.”
The team laughed. A cluttered sound, muffled… like a storm coming.
Beside Stiles, Perraton raised his helmet visor and smiled with genuine sympathy. “You okay, Eric?” he asked.
Stiles felt his lips chapping as he breathed in and out, in and out, like a landed fish. He’d just met his hero and he didn’t know if he’d liked it.
And it wasn’t over. In fact, it was just beginning. He’d have to do everything perfectly from now on. No more botched formations. No more stammering. He had to be perfect. Smooth.
“Ease up, lightfoot,” Perraton suggested privately. “He’s just a guy.”
“Just a guy” Stiles rasped. “He’s a hero, Travis… a Starfleet icon… the first Vulcan in Star fleet…Captain James Kirk’s executive officer… I’ve heard every story a hundred times all my life-do you know how many times he participated in saving the whole Federation? And even the Klingon Empire?”
“Doesn’t matter now. Anyway, the hard part’s over. You met him, you survived, and the experience didn’t suck out your brains. He was a Starfleet man for half a century. He knows the drill. So get a perspective. Here he comes.” Do the job. Do the job.
The ambassador flowed back into the foyer, now carrying a slim red folder and followed by more than a dozen people and his attendant Edwin. Suddenly the foyer was swarming with civilians. At least they were mostly adults, a few teenagers-Stiles didn’t relish the prospect of herding toddlers through that mess out there. He stiffened as the ambassador came directly to him. “We’re ready, Mr. Stiles.” “Yes, sir… how would you like to do this?” Spock handed the folder to Miss Theonella. “Pardon me.9”
“I… I figured you’d have some preference about… what order you want them in and… how to do it.”
The ambassador thought about that briefly, his dark eyes working, as if he hadn’t considered such an option. After a moment he vocally shrugged. “Your mission, Ensign.”
Over Spock’s shoulder, Perraton smiled and gave Stiles a thumbs-up.
Sustained by that, Stiles forced himself to rise to the demand. “Uh… if you people would form a line, two by two, and Oak Squad situate yourselves between them, uh, one every… uh-“
He paused, died to do the math, but couldn’t remember how. His brain had been sucked out!
Maybe he wouldn’t have to count and add and divide-his men were already arranging themselves into position. Perraton was taking the lead, and motioning the others into the queue at intervals.
‘I’ll take the rear guard” Stiles said. “Ambassador, would you mind coming back here with me, sir?” ” Thank you, Ensign, I will.”
“All right, let’s-no, no, you can’t do the door” Stiles motioned to the funny-looking butler who was still standing his post at the door, waiting to open it for everybody. ‘Travis, put that man in line behind Girvan and you do the door. Then fall in.” “Copy that.” “Okay, phaser rifles ready.” “Ready!” his men shouted. “Rifles up!” “Up!” “Very well!”
Stiles took one more look at Ambassador Spock’s steady form in line before him, at the large UFP shield printed on the back of the blue jacket. The stars of the United Federation of Planets swam before his eyes.
He drew a breath. His voice echoed under the high tiled ceiling. “Mobilize !”
Chapter Two
BRASH SUNLIGHT BLARED into Stiles’s eyes, smashing his dream of