Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [15]
Tasm took the lead, overshadowed by the defender next to her. Kirk was half-carried, half-dragged up a long slanting corridor. As they went up, Kirk wondered if they were being taken to the exterior platform where they would be summarily tossed off the cliff to smash into the molten rock at the bottom. At least the heat would burn him to a cinder before he hit the lava. But after going up a few levels, they began to move deeper into the complex. Kirk kept track of every turn they took, optimistically intending to use the knowledge to find his way back to the gateway. That was the spirit. He only needed to get Tasm and the defenders to cooperate by turning their backs and ignoring him for a few minutes….
They picked up more defenders along the way who seemed eager to pound him into a pulp if he so much as twitched. He wasn’t sure how he knew that when they didn’t say a word. Maybe it was because they all looked alike, and something about that uniformity was unnerving.
A couple of times Luz started yelling past Kirk at Tasm, venting the frustration that had been boiling inside of her for days. Kirk wasn’t sure how Tasm kept her steady pace. Some of the insults about her intelligence and command abilities were enough to make him wince on her behalf. He supposed Luz wasn’t counting on leniency from her commanding officer. She hadn’t gotten it the first time.
They finally reached their destination. Kirk could tell by the way Tasm glared at him, cautioning, “One wrong move and I’ll shoot you.”
Kirk raised his hands slightly to indicate he didn’t want any trouble. “You could just give me a ship and let me go right now, Tasm.”
“That’s for the matriarchs to decide.”
Luz was panting, infuriated. She hardly looked Petraw compared to the others, with her face contorted in anger. “I saved the gateway! I brought it back.”
Tasm actually smiled. “Perhaps the matriarchs will thank you before putting you away, Luz.”
“You don’t deserve to join them! It should be my honor…” Luz lunged against the defenders holding her, but she couldn’t shake them. She swung there, a fighting slip of a woman.
Tasm didn’t touch the wall, but an opening began to grow slightly larger than the others. The Petraw herded them inside. There must have been a dozen defenders around them now, along with Tasm holding the phaser.
Kirk looked up and kept on looking. They were at the bottom of a cylindrical well that rose very high into the rock, at least ten times higher than it was wide. In the very center, a long slender tube dangled down to a bulbous gold sack that nearly brushed the floor. It was shaped like a ripe pear, and swayed slightly as the air was disturbed by their entrance. Its rounded sides were shiny taut.
Looking up, Kirk saw that the surrounding walls, starting about ten meters above them, were dotted by hundreds of small protrusions. The curving wall was so dark that it took him a moment to see they were moving.
They were Petraw. At least, each one was the head, arms, and chest of a Petraw. Kirk shifted so he could see the lowest one better, and gulped. Where its legs had once been was a swollen mass that stretched wide, bulbously attaching to the lumpy, moist wall.
“What is this?” he asked incredulously.
“This is the birthing chamber,” Tasm said reverently.
“Joining the birthing chamber is our highest honor,” Luz snapped.
“She doesn’t deserve it!”
Tasm glared at Luz, but saved her words for those who mattered. “Beloved matriarchs, we have brought you Luz and the invader.”
Kirk didn’t think it was a good idea to be considered a nameless antagonist. “Matriarchs! I am James T. Kirk and I come in p”
One of the Petraw defenders belted him in the stomach. That dropped him to his knees, and they withdrew to a watchful two paces.
Kirk coughed and choked, trying to catch his breath. Luz landed next to him, on her knees, looking up the well of matriarchs. Heads turned on the wall, and arms gestured in various attitudes of distress or condemnation.
Tasm stood next to them, with the phaser