Last Full Measure - Michael A. Martin [19]
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed’s lilting voice pulled Chandra out of his reverie. “Sensor readings show extremely faint ion trails that resemble the fuel residue found in the wreckage of the Xindi probe.” Reed pointed toward a viewscreen located just beneath the forward window; the screen displayed an aerial image of a desert settlement, overlaid with the lines of a tactical grid. “About five kilometers ahead, at that large settlement.”
“Any hails or challenges from the surface?” Archer asked.
“None, sir,” Reed said.
“Then start looking for a place to set us down,” the captain said to Lieutenant O’Neill, who dutifully set about entering final approach instructions into her flight control console.
Chandra surreptitiously studied Archer’s grim, distracted expression. These days, he rarely saw the captain smile—the captain’s demeanor had significantly changed since the Xindi attack on Earth—except for once when he had passed by Archer’s quarters as the captain had exited, and Archer’s dog had barked playfully at him as he’d passed.
As the shuttlepod descended further, it became apparent that the settlement was more like a sprawling city. Few of the buildings were over three or four stories high, while dozens of ships, some of them quite large, were in view at various landing sites and hangar facilities.
“Coming up on the site where the Xindi ion traces are strongest,” O’Neill said from the pilot’s seat. “Should we land here, or pick a spot a little bit farther away?”
Chandra was still amazed that they had the freedom to simply land without having to obtain any official clearances. How did this place manage to operate with no legal authorities in evidence? The thought filled him with foreboding, making him wonder what other, more insidious means the locals might use to maintain order—or to assert control over offworld visitors.
“Let’s take the bull by the horns,” Archer said. “Set us down here.”
Minutes later, as the shuttlepod touched down, swirls of gray-tan dust eddied about the ship, once again obscuring the view from the forward window. Chandra noticed several figures near other ships parked nearby, but they seemed to be paying little attention to the new arrival.
Chandra saw the MACOs triple-checking that their weapons were set under their cloaks, and he made certain that his own phase pistol was in place as well. Then, surprisingly, Archer handed him a translator padd. “You run the program, Ensign Chandra. O’Neill and Reed will have backups running as well.”
“Yes, sir,” Chandra said, tapping a few keys on the padd.
After Chandra made a final confirmation that the atmosphere outside was safe, Peruzzi and Kemper opened the shuttlepod’s starboard-side hatchway, leaving both the port-side hatch and the dorsal airlock closed and latched. As soon as the gull-wing hatch began swinging upward, a small swirl of dust blew deeply into the vessel’s interior, riding one of Kaletoo’s unpleasantly hot breezes. The pair of MACOs exited first, and although they weren’t brandishing their weapons, Chandra could see that they were completely alert and combat-ready.
Major Hayes signaled for everyone else to exit, and the group immediately began to do so, starting with the captain and Lieutenant O’Neill. Exiting last, Chandra put his hand up to his eyes as he came out into the bright sun, shielding himself from its merciless glare.
A corpulent, sluglike creature approached them. It was as tall as a human, but its body was gray-green and wrinkled. Its hide was covered in a viscous liquid, which, in turn, was matted with sand and other windblown debris. It had two pudgy arms and three-fingered hands, and its