Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [10]
He swung slightly next to her. “Can’t we just tread water or, whatever you call it?”
“The walls are stretched taut. We wouldn’t be able to climb back out.”
She shifted as the opening shrank back to nearly its closed position. Kirk also had to regrip. He hoped none of the defenders would see their fingers digging into the pliant edge.
The smell was overpowering. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if he fell into it, stuck swimming until he couldn’t stay afloat any longer, then finally sinking under….
This time he could feel the slight vibration of people walking around. Maybe because his entire weight was supported by his fingers. He was in agony, trying not to make a sound.
After a while, the vibrations ceased.
“Are they gone?” he whispered, aching to get back out.
“A bit more. They’ll have to check the other sac rooms.”
Luz hadn’t said a word about the interstellar transporter since Kirk had first questioned her. But as they dangled uselessly from the lip of the sac, she finally said, “Tasm is completely inept. You would never have let her take the gateway, would you?”
Kirk looked at her in surprise. “You want to talk about that now?”
“Why not?” Luz was staring morosely down at the nutrient fluid.
Kirk considered the question. “My orders were to keep the gateway from falling into enemy hands. I didn’t trust Tasm, so I don’t think I would have let her take it.”
“I thought so.” Luz shifted, getting a better grip. “Tasm would have destroyed your ship to take the gateway.”
Kirk remembered the ease with which Tasm had disintegrated the Klingon cruiser with their quantum torpedoes. “The Enterprise has been in worse situations and survived.”
“Then it’s too bad you didn’t bring your ship with you,” Luz retorted.
“I like a streamlined mission every now and again.” Kirk smiled, showing his teeth. He was not about to indulge in useless worry or let Luz know that this was a particularly tight spot he was in. Confidence was the key to success. If he didn’t make it back to the Enterprise, he would have plenty of time later to think about failure.
Chapter 3
Kirk tried various tactics to make Luz cooperate with him. He was desperate enough to single-handedly hijack a starship, but he wasn’t leaving without the gateway component. Luz refused to tell him anything that would help him locate it.
They continued to elude the searchers, forgoing sleep to keep on the move. Kirk was amazed anew at the size of the complex.
Every time they had to go into a block of cells to get some nourishment, Kirk placed his head in the information feed, trying to hear news about the gateway. But it was hard for him to access the feed because he had to be nearly asleep to hear anything. He was so wary of searchers checking the cells that it was tough to relax.
Needless to say, despite his attempts he didn’t discover anything useful. But he did get the sense that the search for him and Luz was easing off and valuable workers had been returned to their regular duties. He wasn’t surprised. They would eventually be found, and there wasn’t much they could do to harm the Petraw while they were on the run. Especially with Luz still fanatically loyal to her own people.
Yet the countless days of constant companionship, forced to struggle together to survive, had an impact on Luz. Kirk could understand it would be hard to stay faithful to people who were out to kill you. Gradually, Luz’s rants against Tasm shifted against the matriarchs and the other Petraw. Her most scathing comments were reserved for her own podmates.
They were sitting in yet another narrow access tube, with Kirk trying to ignore the closeness of the walls, when Luz muttered for the hundredth time, “No imagination. No insight. Just because Tasm was the leader, they rewarded her and tossed me away. Even though I was right. Now Tasm will breed a bunch more idiotic Petraw