Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [114]
“I don’t assign professions, Chanik. You will find your own path and I trust you will do it with integrity.”
“Spoken like a true God!” Chanik exclaimed.
Picard winced, sighed, and continued walking toward the City.
Chapter 4
The red alert klaxon woke Riker out of a not-very-sound sleep. He had managed very little uninterrupted rest since he and the Enterprise were first dispatched to end the quarrel between them and the Carreon.
Still, years of training led Riker to be fully awake as the klaxon sounded.
“Bridge, report!”
“Data here,” the android replied. “One of the Deltan ships exploded.”
“What? How!”
“Sensor readings are still coming in. It seems to be totally destroyed with all hands.”
“Was it Captain Oliv’s?”
“No, sir.”
“Get him on the com. I’ll be on the bridge in a minute.”
It was more like eight minutes later, but Riker was back in uniform, settling into the captain’s chair. Data had wisely instructed a yeoman to have a cup of coffee ready for the acting captain. There was bustling activity around the large space but he noted the absence of his closest comrades. La Forge was still working to salvage the Mercury, Troi remained in command of the Marco Polo, and Picard was… somewhere. That continued to trouble him with each passing hour. As he took a sip from the steaming cup, Riker watched Captain Oliv appear on the screen. He was clearly agitated, which was natural.
“Captain Riker, what will you do about this?”
“I just arrived on the bridge. What happened, Captain?”
“One of our ships exploded!”
Riker turned to Data, who walked his way and elaborated. “Sensors show there was a failure of the magnetic seals around their warp core. The overload was instantaneous.”
“Was this a natural accident?”
“Insufficient detail is known, sir. We are still studying the results.”
“Send the sensor logs to Geordi for a look. Captain,” Riker said, addressing the viewscreen, “we’ll get to the bottom of this. You have my sympathies for your loss.”
“Sympathies do nothing to bring them back. What you can provide me with is justice.”
“Just as soon as we figure out if anyone was behind it. Enterprise out.” As the screen returned to the image of space, he addressed the second officer. “Data, I’ll want to address the fleet in a moment. Given what we know, any speculation on someone behind this?”
The android resumed his seat and shook his head. “I have too little to go on to offer a valid opinion.”
“Damn. I knew it had been too quiet.”
What amazed Picard the most was the utter silence as they got closer to the City, to the point where it was almost as silent as it had been on the planet where he’d met with the Sentries. Chanik was right that animals avoided the place. His earlier estimates were off; it had to be easily closer to a kilometer in width, with the tallest buildings at least that in height. The metal constructs seemed dull in the sun, mostly copper and greens. In terms of architectural style, he was still too far away to tell if it matched what he had seen of the Iconians.
At least one building had crumbled, either from age or attack. The City itself was ringed with smaller buildings that grew in size the closer to the center they were. He did notice that all the structures were rounded, the style seeming to prefer curves to edges. Birds swooped between the buildings, their long tails whipping back and forth. But on land, he spotted nothing.
“We’re making good time, Chanik,” Picard said happily. He was looking forward to once more exploring and learning. Pleasant as the countryside was, it did little for his spirit.
They continued to walk, speaking very little as if respectful for the silence surrounding the dead City. After a time, they heard sounds. Picard immediately recognized them as voices, angry ones at that. He looked down at Chanik, who shrugged.
“The nearest village has to be at least a day’s walk to the east,” he said. “Just the remains of very old buildings here.”
Picard thought about it, unsure of what they would find. Very old could mean old