Immortal Coil - Jeffrey Lang [59]
The Enterprise was going to have her hands full and wasn’t going to have time to worry about a tiny escape pod. Rhea silently wished the ship good luck, then entered a new course into the autopilot. A quick look confirmed that they did indeed have the range to get where she wanted to go, though she never really doubted it.
She turned around in the seat and saw that Data was staring past her, out into space. Was he wondering about the fate of his ship? Was his mind even functioning anymore?
“I can’t take you to your home, Data,” she said softly. “But I can take you back to mine.”
The pod cleared the gravity well of the planet and the warp drive engaged, while behind it, two titans battled.
Beverly Crusher was trying to make herself heard above the bray of the planetary emergency klaxon. A pair of orderlies was trying to transfer a recently admitted patient—a pregnant woman who had been having false labor pains—out of her bed and onto a stretcher without first disconnecting all the monitors. Finally, one of them heard her, disconnected the monitors, untangled himself and the expectant mother was bundled off without any additional injuries to either patient or staff. As they headed for the shelter, Crusher stayed behind and silently counted to ten. This isn’t a starship crew, she reminded herself. They’re infirmary workers at a research institute. It isn’t like they’re attacked by silent, implacable foes every day.
Her ship was under fire—Haftel had been able to tell her that much before the evacuation order had been sounded—but no one seemed to know anything else. She had tried to check with DIT security, but they had cut her off when they realized she wasn’t in immediate distress. Crusher had been annoyed, but then decided to let it go. The entire security staff for the Institute might have numbered in the neighborhood of a few dozen officers and they had their hands full. Could it be the Dominion? Had one of their ships made its way this far into Federation territory? There was no way to know and the only way the doctor could focus past her frustration was to keep busy.
Crusher followed the orderlies down the corridor until they passed the ICU where Crusher stopped and passed through the large double doors. As she had expected, Maury Sullivan was at the nurse’s station transferring patient records to the protected core. They would need the records if they were forced to spend any length of time in the shelters, and they couldn’t risk their being lost if the main computers were damaged. Most of the backups were done automatically, but the infirmary workers knew the limitations of their system and knew not to trust automatic systems.
“Who’s left?” Crusher asked.
Maury answered without looking up. “Just Maddox. I wanted you here.” Suddenly, the lights dimmed to almost complete darkness, then rose again to half their former level.
“Get down to the shelter,” Crusher ordered. “And send back those two orderlies. I’ll do what I can until they return.” Crusher hurried to Maddox’s room, but when she got there she was surprised to find someone already at work, an unfamiliar med-tech. But as soon as her eyes adjusted to the subdued light, the doctor saw the tech wasn’t getting Maddox ready to move. Quite the opposite, in fact; he was attaching something—some sort of neural stimulator?—to his forehead. Crusher shouted, “What the hell are you doing? Get away from him!” But the tech didn’t even look up until he had completed the procedure and removed the device, shoving past Crusher as he bolted out the door.
Cursing, Crusher recovered quickly and checked Maddox, made sure his vital signs were stable, then ran out into the hall. She almost crashed into Maury and a worried-looking orderly, but managed to spin around them without breaking stride. “A tech just walked out of here,” Crusher shouted to be heard above the klaxon. “Which way?”
Maury