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Geordi nodded to her, agreeing. He didn’t much like the idea of not being able to be pulled out in an emergency, but he’d been in lots of situations over the years where there was no quick escape. This would just be another.

“We do it by the book,” Corsi said.

“Agreed,” Gomez said. “I don’t want any stupid heroics in there, people. We go in, we get what we are looking for, and we come out. Once we determine the place is safe, we can explore more. Understood?”

Everyone except Captain Gold nodded. He just watched, his sharp gaze missing nothing as far as Geordi could tell.

“I’ll lead insertion team one,” Gomez said, “ consisting of Commander La Forge, Lieutenant Vale, 110 and 111. We’ll go for the engineering section. Duffy, you, Pattie, Stevens, Faulwell, and Corsi are team two. Find that secondary control room. And both teams are looking for the main computer, or any access to the main computer. Understood?”

Again everyone nodded.

“Good,” Gomez said. “We jump in on deck fifty-five and go down from there. I want the two teams to remain separated, but staying close enough to help the other if needed. We jump in ten minutes. Get ready.”

The room broke back into talking, and Lieutenant Vale turned to Geordi. “Anything special I need for this kind of mission? I’m afraid I’m not up to date on the S.C.E. insertion team regs.”

Geordi shrugged. “I’ve honestly no idea on the security side. Better check with Lieutenant Commander Corsi.”

Vale had a pained expression on her face, and Geordi suddenly remembered Vale had said the two went way back.

“Problem, Lieutenant?” Geordi asked, managing to not smile.

Vale took a deep breath and shook her head. “Meet you in the transporter room.”

Then, as Geordi watched, the young security chief moved toward the older woman, who frowned when she saw Vale coming. Geordi waited just long enough to make sure the two didn’t come to blows, then turned to head for the transporter room.

He didn’t need to ask Gomez what he needed to bring along. Give him a tricorder and a phaser and he was as ready as he was ever going to be. Missions like this were the reasons he had joined Starfleet in the first place. He loved going to new places, seeking out new information, new technology, boldly going where no Federation engineer had gone before.

And in a few minutes, he was going to be getting the chance to do just that again. He loved the chance, so why was he so worried about it?

Behind him, floating above the conference table, beside the two security officers, the image of the Beast rotated slowly.

CHAPTER

8

Gomez glanced around, her phaser drawn, as the transporter beam released them deep inside the Beast. Both Geordi and Lieutenant Vale had their phasers drawn as well. The room they had beamed into was large and well-lit, but not as plushly furnished as the upper decks. It looked to Gomez to be some sort of dining area. There were chairs and long tables, and some paintings attached to the walls.

“Clear,” Vale said.

Gomez and Geordi both put their phasers away.

“Looks like this ship had some economy-class passenger fares as well,” Geordi said.

“You didn’t expect all the rooms to look like those suites up in the rings, did you?” Gomez asked.

“Actually, I was hoping they would,” Geordi said.

“Always knew you were an unbridled optimist,” Gomez said, smiling at her old friend.

She glanced around and saw the entrance to what looked to be a sort of passenger lift. She had had some discussion with Corsi and Duffy about using the lifts, then decided to go ahead. She wasn’t sure if she liked the idea, but from what they could tell of the ship’s layout, the only other way up and down was to crawl through maintenance tubes. And she just didn’t want to do that for over forty decks.

“Da Vinci, can you hear me?” she asked, tapping her combadge.

“Loud and clear,” Captain Gold’s voice came back strong. “And we’re going to try to hold a computer lock on you for as long as we can.”

“Understood,” Gomez said. “We’ll stop and check in every ten decks.”

She turned and headed for the