Immortal Coil - Jeffrey Lang [55]
Data drew out his tricorder with his free hand and expertly opened it. “I am not sure, sir. One of us may have inadvertently tripped a sensor that activated a retrieval mechanism.”
“Or somebody on this end beamed us here,” McAdams said, her eyes scanning her surroundings alertly.
“My tricorder is detecting no life signs other than our own,” Data reported.
“All right,” Riker said. “Just the same, everyone be alert. And stay together. Where exactly are we, Data?” The lab seemed to curve away from them in both directions.
Data completed his scan and gave his report. “We are approximately thirty-four hundred kilometers southeast of our previous location,” he said, “and one hundred fifty meters beneath the floor of Galor IV’s largest ocean.”
“You did say the floor, didn’t you?” Barclay asked nervously. “Not the surface?”
“Correct. This facility is subterranean. It is a circular arrangement of rooms surrounding a large, dome-shaped space approximately seventy-five meters in diameter, perhaps a spacecraft bay.” Riker noticed the inner wall of the lab was dominated by a continuous row of dark glass. Viewports? “The dome opens at the top into a wide shaft leading up to the ocean floor. A force field is holding back the ocean. Extraordinary.”
Barclay was looking around in amazement. “Professor, what have you been up to?”
“Can you imagine the resources it took to build something like this?” Riker said. “And in secret?”
“Apparently there is far more to Professor Vaslovik than even I suspected, Commander,” Data admitted.
Riker tried his combadge. “Riker to Enterprise. Riker to Enterprise.” When no answer came, he looked at the others. “Can any of you get through?” When no one could, Riker asked Data, “Can we beam back?”
“I am not sure. I do not see anything that would suggest a transporter control interface.”
“Dammit,” Riker muttered. Investigating unknown territory didn’t bother him; not having a choice in the matter did. “All right, let’s see what we can find. Data, you take point. McAdams, you cover our backs. Everyone keep an eye out for a communications console or transporter controls.”
“Here’s something,” McAdams said, touching a hand-size panel just below the wall of dark glass. A section of the viewports immediately lightened to transparency, revealing the empty spaceship bay Data had described, and beyond it, the dark stripe of viewports that ran around its perimeter.
“Nothing in there?” Riker asked.
“I see what looks like a pair of launch tubes near the opposite wall. They lead right into the ceiling. See?”
Riker stepped closer for a better look. “What do you think? Missile launchers?”
“I’m thinking escape pods,” said McAdams. “If so, it gives us a way out, if all else fails.”
“Lieutenant McAdams is correct,” Data said. They turned to see him bent over a free-standing console several meters away while Barclay kept watch. “The tubes each contain an escape pod. I have found an access terminal to this facility’s central databases. I believe I have found the answers to at least some of our questions.”
The away team gathered around Data as he scrolled rapidly through a stream of text and images. Riker could not make out much as Data worked, though he thought he saw snatches of android diagrams, plus recordings of three men working around a large black slab, whom Riker recognized as Maddox, Barclay and Vaslovik.
“Evidence?” Riker asked.
“I believe, Commander, that the answer is both yes and no,” Data reported. “I am accessing his logs and will be better able to explain in a few moments.”
Barclay had apparently found another access terminal nearby and was also accessing records. “All the holographic clusters we created have been downloaded,” he said.
“Which means what?” McAdams asked.
“It means Professor Vaslovik activated the android’s neural net.”
“Can you determine whether or not the process worked?”
Reg shook his head. “No. This computer only shows that the files were moved, not whether the holotronic brain activated successfully.”
Riker stepped around