Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [123]
And she loved her work.
As she materialized aboard the Petraw ship, she used two quick hand signals that sent her three other crewmen into quick defensive positions. All had phasers in hand; one also had a phaser rifle strapped to his broad back. The corridor was close enough to the weapons room that it took little time to fan out and cover the door and entry points along the corridor. While its being empty helped, they still moved quietly and quickly, because she knew that fortunes could change with a single heartbeat.
To her right, Choloh, a hulking Tellarite, checked his tricorder and nodded. The armory was indeed occupied and the single digit held in the air told her it was just the one.
Well, she considered, checking the phaser setting, if you had to hide anywhere, an armory made an awful lot of sense.
Choloh adjusted his settings and pocketed the device, flexing his thick fingers around the phaser, nodding. The others also trained their attention on the single door that separated them from their target.
Vale stepped forward and rapped her knuckles on the door.
“Go away! I’m armed.” The voice was expectedly agitated and she was prepared for him to act irrationally given the desperate situation he was in.
“No kidding,” she replied. “Be awfully silly of you to sit in an armory and not test the merchandise. We can go about this a few ways, but me, I always go for the nice and easy ones. How about you?”
“What are you talking about?” The voice fairly screamed at her through the metallic door.
Vale stepped to her right, projecting her voice straight at the door. “We could storm the room, have lots of weapons discharge at once, and potentially blow a hole through the hull. You could come out firing and we, clearly outnumbering you, shoot you down. You could toss out the weapon and make a run for it, but that just means we get to pick for who chases and tackles you. Or…” “Or, you could talk me to death!”
Vale frowned at that. “Hadn’t thought about that one. Maybe next time. Right now, we need to bring you to Commander Riker and I’m running out of patience. Decide.”
The silence lasted only four seconds, but seemed far longer to Vale, who licked her lips once, tightening her grip on the phaser. She strained her ears to hear what he might be doing but the door muffled it.
“I’ll come out,” the voice said, so softly that Vale wasn’t sure of the words at first.
“Unlock the door, open it with your weapon on the ground, hands up on your head.” With hand signals, she had her people move into position, flanking the door. Crouching, she was poised to roll out of the way of weapons fire or scurry into the armory. By staying low, she hoped to be clear of whatever he might desperately try to use against her.
As the door slid open, however, there was little to fear. The Petraw that came out was young and in his natural appearance. There was a scared look to the eyes and the security chief noted the trembling hands against the scalp. With her right hand, she gestured for him to step forward out of the lethal room and he did, with hesitating steps. He was scared and she would have to act accordingly, since that meant he might panic or do something irrational. Vale nodded and Choloh stepped forward with restraints, which firmly affixed the Petraw’s hands behind his back, and to a belt. There was no resistance, and finally Vale let out a breath and lowered the weapon.
“I will be damn well heard, Riker,” bellowed Brisbayne.
“Captain, this is not open to discussion,” Riker said, trying to contain himself. The argument stopped being interesting when the Mercury ‘s captain began repeating himself, as if that would change the nature of the problem.
“Picard has been gone days, you’ve let the Petraw blow one of us up,