Double Helix 03_ Red Sector - Diane Carey [82]
No one said anything to comfort or refute his tortured sup positions or stem the racing of his imagination.
‘There’s only so much he could do” Stiles grumbled, his thoughts taking on a life of their own. “After all, the sector’s been red for years. Nobody’s been in or out, right?” “We watch the sector constantly,” Spock undergirded. “There has been extremely little breaching, give or take the odd delinquent shaman.”
Dr. McCoy’s white brows danced. “Or the occasional sublime wise-ass. Other than that, a skinny bird couldn’t slip in and out of Red Sector without somebody’s noticing. Mr. Stiles, you think your friend could be somewhere other than the capital city? Running some process that engineers those new buildings?”
“Even Zevon couldn’t make industries all by himself, even if he were in charge of the whole planet, never mind a prisoner. Besides, he wasn’t an architect. Is eleven years long enough to make sweeping changes on a whole planet? Nah… probably not. He’d have to get all the way up to somebody trusting him first, and, believe me, on a planet of people who really don’t like aliens, that could take… well, more doing than either of us could manage from a prison cell or our lab. Travis, adjust the trim, will you?” “Trim, aye. Give it another three degrees level, Stinson?’ “Aye aye, sir, three degrees starboard.”
“We must not assume;’ Spock mentioned, “that anything is the same after eleven years”
Stiles strode around to the other side of the bridge, where Spock was still scanning the readouts of the planet below. “Are you saying you think he’s dead?”
Spock glanced at him. “You spare yourself by accepting the likelihood. You nearly died yourself.” “I was sick.” “And ill-treated, poorly fed, ignored, imprisoned-” “Zevon’s Romulan. He’s stronger than-“
“Not stronger enough” the ambassador cautioned, now standing straight and looking right at him. “The odds… are troubling.” McCoy was watching him. Stiles could sense it.
He could sense-and see the fretful averted attention of everybody around him. They all knew his past. He was too close to this. Maybe it was a mistake not sending somebody completely impassive. There was more at stake than just Zevon. Was he thinking clearly enough? “What do we do?” Stiles wondered. “Just… approach?”
“Almost to the atmosphere, Eric” Travis reported. “What do you want to do?” “I don’t know yet.”
“We’ve got to have an order either to enter or veer off. At this point we can’t hover.”
“No doubt the planetary monitoring system has already noticed us;’ Spock told him. “Although they had no spaceborne fleet, they were perfectly able to effect short-range scans of the immediate area, for defensive purpose~ I’m sure they have identified your ship as a Starfleet unit. If you don’t mind my suggesting we broadcast a “
A shriek cut him off as the CST bellowed around them and the whole ship was jaw-kicked. The deck canted to an instant 30-degree list, as if they’d struck something out in the middle of space. Were they too low? Had they hit a mountain?
Pinned to the side of the helm for a terrible few seconds, Stiles gritted his teeth and fought against the thrust. He heard the cries of his crew as they were thrown violently against the side of the tender, crammed into bulkheads and equipment and each other in a tangle of pressure and shock. “What is it!” he called. “Did we hit a satellite?”
Jeremy clung to the console one chair down from where Spock was pressed to the science ledge. “Energy funnel! It’s pulling us down?’
Dr. McCoy clasped his chaff and grimaced. “I hate this kind of thing-“
“Is it coming from the planet?” Twisting, Stiles jabbed at the helm over the shoulder of the flabbergasted trainee pilot. “Oh, no, I know they shouldn’t have this! They didn’t have anything like this! Not that could pull in a CST! We can tow a starship!”
Travis scrambled for the engineering mainframe to see if there was an answer there, but when he turned again his face was a mask of bafflement. “It’s as if the planet itself has grabbed us!”
The Imperial Palace
Cool aft,