Ghost of a Chance - Mark Garland [69]
"Thanks," she said.
Kim's grin was feeble but sincere. "You're welcome, Captain."
"We'll have to jump over it," she said. After allowing Kim to help her to her feet, she collected her hand phaser, and then they both stood back a few paces and broke into another sprint.
They cleared the empty distance easily enough, but no sooner had they rolled up and gotten to their feet than they were forced to drop as the heat of a phaser beam passed between them. The Televek had found them again.
"Keep moving," Janeway snapped, starting off once more. "Fire over your shoulder. Watch where you're--" Before she could finish, the ground began to rumble. Then it shook with an all too familiar tremor.
Janeway grabbed the nearest tree only to find it suddenly being uprooted as a fresh, jagged fissure appeared from nowhere, crossing the forest floor right beneath her, racing to join the one they had just jumped across. She heard Kim yelling to her again.
"I know!" she shouted, letting go, leaping backward. The underbrush dug at her back when she landed. This time, though, it was she who helped Kim to his feet as the tremors momentarily subsided--but did not end. A fresh wave was already beginning.
Janeway glanced back. She could see two of the Televek getting up, looking for their quarry as they got their bearings again.
One of them spotted the two Federation uniforms right away.
"They're still coming," she said, tugging at Kim's silt-covered uniform sleeve.
"So we're still going," he replied, wasting no time in complying.
As they leaped the new ravine, the quakes reintensified, sending the far edge of the gap straight up half a meter, just as they landed on it. They rose with the land, shins bruised, momentum carrying them forward, and tumbled helplessly down the other side, then down again as they reached a wide natural gully.
Janeway saw Kim trying to grab ahold of the trees and scrub; she was already trying to do the same, but the intensifying shock waves emanating from beneath them made every target a moving one.
The world was "shaking and undulating like a storm-tossed sea.
Both officers plunged downward until a pair of massive fallen trees blocked their path. As they slammed into the smooth bark, the quake abruptly ended, as if a great hand had reached out and stilled all motion.
"Captain, are you still all right?" Kim asked, groaning heavily as he spoke the words, trying to get up again. He closed both eyes and flinched as he attempted to straighten his back; then he moaned again.
"I think so," Janeway answered, making a face she thought nearly matched Kim's as she tried to get her own legs underneath her.
Winds were building now, shifting, as if a great storm was approaching, but the thickening gray clouds that filled the sky were not from any weather system, Janeway was certain of that.
Soon volcanic ash would begin to fall from them, blanketing everything, eventually smothering all the life in this region, even if the world itself managed to survive.
"Maybe those Televek fell into that new crevice," Kim said wistfully.
As his words joined the gusting winds they were made mute by another phaser blast. Kim cried out, then fell, clutching his right leg.
"You're hit!" Janeway shouted, snatching at the ensign's uniform.
She raised her weapon and fired in the direction of the attack without looking up, concerned primarily with Kim's condition, and with getting him to cover. The apex where the fallen trees crossed stood more than three meters tall, and the trees themselves were nearly that thick as well.
Janeway managed to move along