Double Helix 06_ The First Virtue - Michael Jan Friedman [67]
The commander was thoroughly delighted to leave town. The dirt felt good underneath his boots and the air smelled cleaner. He glanced now and then at Grace, both of them doing their best to keep up with the rapid pace Tuvok was setting for them, and his heart lifted.
They had done what Captain Picard had asked of them. They had identified the elusive third party responsible for the attacks of terrorism in the Cordra and Melacron systems.
Now that the quarry had a name, he could be tracked down and stopped. And they had accomplished this while doing something else exceedingly worthwhile-freeing a woman from a life not fit for a-
“There they are!” came a deep-throated cry.
Crusher turned in time to see blue energy blasts light up the night, striking and pulverizing the stones at their feet. As one, he and Tuvok dove for cover behind some larger rocks.
The commander had imagined that Grace would do the same, lithe and athletic as she was. He thought she would be the least of his troubles. But she continued to stand there in the line of fire, her body taut, her head thrown back in a defiant howl.
“No!” she snarled. “You will not take me back!” Bending, she took hold of a stone and lifted it over her head, ready to hurl it at her attackers in a useless but valiant gesture.
Crusher clenched his jaw and went back out after the slave girl. But before he could get to her, there was a hideous flash of blue light and she crumpled to the ground.
“Grace!” the commander cried out.
She was writhing on the ground, moaning in agony. And what he could see of her abdomen didn’t look good.
Anger coursing through him, Crusher raised his weapon and fired. He heard himself shouting something-he didn’t know what. But he kept shouting and firing and shouting and firing … until Tuvok put his hand on the commander’s arm and told him there was no one left to fire at.
Crusher took a deep, shuddering breath and lowered his weapon. Then he went to Grace, dropped down at her side and slipped his hands underneath her, so he could pick her up.
“Hang on,” he urged her, even as his eyes told him that her wound would be fatal. “We’ll take you to our ship and-“
“Liar,” she said, wincing at the pain in her blackened, bloody belly. “I am dying. We Orions know such things. I-” Before she could say any more, she went rigid with a sudden surge of torment.
“Grace…” he hissed.
A slender green hand covered with blood reached up to grasp the commander’s filthy shirt. The Orion’s expression was a defiant one, even now. She bared her teeth as she spoke.
“I… die… free….” she moaned, her eyes blazing with an inner fire. “Not a slave…free.”
Then, with a pitiful expiration of breath, Grace’s hard-muscled body went Limp in his arms.
Crusher gazed helplessly at the Orion, his vision blurring. Damn it, he thought miserably. They had been so close to escaping, all of them. Why did she have to make a stand all by herself? Why couldn’t she have gone for cover the way he and Tuvok did?
He knew the answer, though, didn’t he? All her life, Grace had been trained to act on instinct-and that was what she had done this time as well. But this time, her instincts had led her astray.
Gently, the commander released the Orion and shut her bright green eyes. Then he stood and turned to the Vulcan, who had been checking on the bastards who had murdered her.
“There were only four of them,” Tuvok reported. “Barrh must have split up his henchmen into small groups to improve his chances of finding us.”
Crusher gazed at Grace. “We met her, what… a couple of hours ago? And yet I feel as if I’ve lost one of my best friends.”
“Commander,” said the Vulcan, his voice unusually soft, “do not allow Grace’s sacrifice to be wasted. We must hurry before we are again apprehended by Barrh’s men.”
Crusher blinked to clear his vision. “I hear you,” he said.
They would find their captain, he vowed,