Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [96]
Finally she asked, “What are you doing, Will?”
“Oh, just working on a new recipe,” he admitted with a grin.
“Well,” she said with a warm smile, “practice makes perfect.”
Just talking to him made her feel better and kept the harsh reality of their situation just a little further away. “What’s to become of the Petraw?” she asked, turning back to the immediate problem.
“Their drive to expand their reach means getting them home during their lifetime is impossible,” he replied. “Doral can’t even say for certain if the Petraw Empire even exists anymore. They remain close to the galactic center, way beyond any portion of space any of us have ever explored. Desan told me there’s been no evidence of the Petraw in their Empire.”
“Has the Glory restored power yet?” The Romulan warbird had been seriously injured when they first found the Petraw ships.
Riker shook his head again, an uncertain expression on his face. “She won’t admit to it, but Data thinks he pierced their shielding enough to determine the quantum-singularity drive has been ruptured beyond repair. I’ve got him working on emergency evacuation plans since I doubt they would all fit on the Jarok.”
“Captain Brisbayne tells me much the same about Mercury. He’s taking it very hard, losing his first command,” Troi added. “I think he hoped to retire without ever losing a ship or getting in a serious firefight.”
“Given the Borg and the Dominion War, he’s a rarity among Starfleet captains,” Riker said. “Geordi’s dispatched his alpha team to help with repairs so we’ve got hope.”
Troi sipped in a silence for a moment, wondering what progress was being made by their own captain, who stepped through the Iconian gateway found aboard Doral’s lead Petraw vessel. Six hours with no knowing what he found on the other side. His orders had been strict: no one was to follow him through.
Chapter 1
Picard emerged from the gateway into a forest that sang with birdcalls and swarmed with large insects. A short distance from his position, he saw the building first glimpsed from the engineering deck of the lead Petraw vessel. It was a gleaming domed building and now before him, he saw red and orange filigree at the dome’s base and watched it snake up toward the top. The oval dome itself was a cobalt blue, shining wetly in what he presumed to be the late-afternoon sun.
Sweat had already begun to trickle down his neck and he realized how warm it was, too warm to be pleasant and humid enough to indicate it had recently rained. Picard considered himself fortunate he missed the shower as he opened his tricorder. With some alarm, the captain found the instrument dead. His right hand reached for his phaser and saw that it, too, registered no power. This was not the first time he had arrived to find technology dampened, but he had hoped to be better prepared for what was to come.
With greater caution, Picard began walking around the dome, looking for sentries or even an accessway. There was little doubt he needed to get inside and speak with the people the ones he hoped were the one true Iconian people. No one had seen them in over two hundred millennia and no pictures of them were found on any of the worlds that had direct links to the Iconian culture. It was one of the more intriguing mysteries about them. His boots beat down wild flowers, thick ropy grass strands, and even fallen twigs. The rain helped moisten everything so it kept his movements quiet. To his practiced eye, Picard noted that everything outside the domed structure was left to its natural state. The air seemed pure so the dome gave off no harmful emissions. It also made no sound; there was not even a hint of a power current.
After twenty minutes, Picard estimated he had managed his way around a third of the dome. Nothing had changed although the sun had dried out more of the surroundings and wild animal calls could be heard. He guessed they had come out from their hiding spots. The captain wished it would be cooler since the sun was that much lower, but it was not to be.
“Captain