Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [120]
“It’s one of the older vessels,” she said, tapping at an image screen behind her, identifying a single vessel in the bottom right portion of the screen.
“Data, who do we have watching that ship?”
The android turned and replied, “Subcommander Rivel of the Glory.”
“Riker to Chargh.”
“Grekor here.”
“Captain, can you maneuver toward the vessel identified on our screens?”
“Can’t I just blow them up and solve the problem?”
Riker shook his head in frustration, because he felt the temptation as well.
“Sorry, I don’t think that’s wise at this time. I do intend to do something about this. After all, I promised Captain Oliv.”
“Very well. Chargh out.”
“Thank you, Taleen. I owe you one. Riker out.”
Riker stood and walked over to Data’s station, standing to the android’s side. He was tired and annoyed and worried. If one saboteur could get out and cause such damage, could more? How was he to protect the entire fleet? He doubted the ships could generate enough of a dampening field to stop the entire Petraw fleet. As it was, he had people stationed on every ship, so bringing them back to their home ships would be problematic. And how much longer should he wait for Picard to return before acting on his own? “You are preoccupied.”
“Very much so, Data,” Riker admitted. “The captain was not specific about his return and how long I need to wait. I can’t endanger all the ships. I want you and Geordi to theorize a way to stop these transports from happening again.”
“Understood, sir. I will be in engineering if you need me.”
“Good. Lieutenant Vale, take a detachment to the saboteur’s current ship and let’s get ahold of him… or them. Meantime, I need to have a word with Commander Desan about her staff’s efficiency.”
“How did you figure out a direction?”
Chanik had asked variations of this question since they headed out and each time, Picard tried to explain without giving away too much information. The boy was inquisitive and bright, so he couldn’t say too much.
“It’s like the stars we saw last night. If you let your mind wander, you find patterns in the shapes. I did that with things I have seen in my journeys and suddenly I saw a pattern that I took to form a map. I could be right or I could be wasting precious time.”
Chanik grinned at the captain as he struggled to keep up with the older man’s long strides. “You’ll be right. You were right every time we had to choose yesterday. You taught the farmer, stopped the highwaymen, saved the baby. Young Gods know how to do things better than people.”
“I am people, Chanik. Call me Picard or Young God, I still breathe and eat and walk like you do,” Picard said. He knew he was skirting theological issues and wanted to keep the boy focused on the walk. He quickened his pace and forced the boy to trot to catch up, stopping the questioning for now.
They had been moving from street to street for three hours now with just one break. The boy was resilient and his endurance was a marvel. Together, they cut through overgrown passageways and hefted fallen branches from trees that had taken up residence in plazas. Using the sun as a guide, Picard continued to refine his estimates of where they were headed, correcting their path time and again.
With luck, they would reach the building in question just after lunch. That would provide him with plenty of daylight to thoroughly search the area to find if his guess was correct. If it wasn’t, then he could easily have passed it earlier and would never know.
“We must hurry,” Picard said over his shoulder. “I think we’re on the right path and I’m eager to see if I’m right.”
“I’m right behind you,” he said, puffing just a little.
He was wrong. They arrived at the targeted building much after lunch and he saw the sun was already starting toward the horizon. With the taller buildings surrounding them, it would be dark within a few hours.
Compared with the rest of the City, the building was nondescript. If it truly housed a gateway, one could not tell by design or ornamentation. The outside was reds and