Enigma - Michael Jan Friedman [62]
“Why there?”
“It’s better fortified than most parts of the ship. We’ll be as safe there as anywhere.”
Besides, Nikolas had weathered a few space battles in his time. If the captain put her ego aside for a change, he might be able to put his experience to good use.
A moment later, he heard the clanging of the ship’s red-alert alarm, though the thickness of the tube took the edge off it. What took you so long? he wondered.
Kastiigan was on the bridge when word came: Yet another starship had stopped answering hails.
This time it was the Ch’cheri, commanded by Captain Callahan. And the vessel’s last known location had been directly in the path of the alien armada.
Kastiigan nodded. The report served as a confirmation of everything he had heard, everything he had been given to understand about the situation.
Their enemy was formidable—quite possibly the most powerful adversary the fleet had ever faced. There was no room for caution or half-measures here, no possibility of compromise. The Stargazer and her sister ships would either destroy the invaders or be destroyed themselves.
When the aliens’ armada appeared, the Stargazer would need the best from every member of her crew. And no one would serve more unflinchingly or courageously than Kastiigan. He would do whatever his captain and crewmates needed of him—no matter the effort required, no matter the cost.
He didn’t know what the outcome would be, but if Starfleet faltered, it wouldn’t be because of him. He would honor the vows he had made when he joined the fleet. And dead or alive, he would make his friends and relatives proud of him.
Ben Zoma whispered two words, “That’s it.”
They could have continued to download data. However, the first officer’s instincts told him it was time to go.
In fact, it was remarkable that they hadn’t been detected already. They had obviously stumbled on a part of the warship that wasn’t used as much as the others, but eventually someone would pass through and see a bunch of intruders standing around a data node.
And the iffiest part of their mission was still ahead of them. They had to get to the aliens’ small-craft bay, commandeer a vessel, and use its com capabilities to send off what they had gathered.
No easy task. Which was why they needed to get about it.
“All right,” McAteer said, with a glance at Ben Zoma. “Now let’s go.” And he started back down the corridor, Chen right behind him.
Ben Zoma waited only as long as it took Garner to put away her tricorder. Then he too followed the admiral.
As before, they found the way to the lift without incident. The doors opened and they crammed the compartment, and used its touch-sensitive map to program in a destination.
Four decks down, the doors opened and they stepped out again. But as soon as they did, they ran into trouble.
Luckily, the two aliens in the corridor were surprised to see them. They were cut down too quickly in a hail of phaser beams to get out their own weapons or call for help.
But for all Ben Zoma knew, an alarm had gone off somewhere. That’s what would have happened if there had been phaser fire on the Stargazer. So he picked up the pace as they headed for the small-craft bay.
En route, they ran into another alien. This one managed to at least draw his weapon before they stunned him. Stepping over him, they kept going.
Less than a minute later, they reached their goal. Ben Zoma positioned everyone except himself and Paris on either side of the doors, their backs to the bulkhead—in case the aliens within had been warned about them.
But as the doors slid aside, Ben Zoma saw that wasn’t the case. Neither of the figures he saw standing around the pair of small ships had any idea of what was coming. Advancing into the bay quickly but quietly, he took out one guard with a single burst.
The second one’s head turned as the first one went skidding backward, but there was nothing he could do about it. Paris’s beam slammed him into the ship behind him, knocking him out.
With a wave of his phaser, Ben Zoma let the others know they could enter. He