Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [19]
Riker walked toward the swamp, where they could see the gray mist of poisonous vapors swirling against the invisible barrier. Sounds came through, though: the lapping of water moved by some breeze that stirred the vapors, but stopped dead at the barrier. There were other noises, too, but not knowing the fauna of this planet, Data could not identify them. All seemed to resound in a minor key. Such tones, he knew, had an unsettling effect on humans.
At the edge of the water, Riker put out a hand, and was stopped. It looked as if he were holding back the swamp vapors. He pushed, but succeeded only in shoving himself backward. “Just like the barrier around the habitats,” he noted.
Data tried all his own instrumentation, as well as every detection device in his tricorder. All said there was nothing between the swamp and the clean air on the island. Yet the two remained sharply separated, and the away team could not penetrate the barrier. Neither could their tricorders detect lifeform readings through it, although they could see the swamp teeming with life.
“Yet the ship’s instrumentation read the Elysians right through it, from orbit,” Data pointed out. “There should not be such a discrepancy.” “It’s not natural,” Geordi agreed. “I guess it’s our job to find out if it’s supernatural.”
“Supernatural, Geordi?” Riker asked skeptically. “Magic, sir,” Data answered.
“Technology so far above ours it seems-was Riker held up his hand to stop Data. “I get the picture.” He motioned them forward. “Come on.”
Both Data and Geordi could penetrate the mist with infrared vision, and see farther into the swamp. It was not an appealing place. Dark, dank hummocks of rotting wood mingled with the roots of live trees.
Reptilian beasts slithered through the water, which in some areas was several meters deep but in others just a shallow layer over mud so saturated that it would act as quicksand. Flying creatures sailed from one gray tree to another on batlike wings. Data saw one dive into the water, emerging with something snakelike held between rows of sharp teeth. Its victim put up a valiant fight as it twisted, coiling about the flying creature until it bound its wings, and the two, still entwined and struggling, fell into the water and sank. No wonder the Elysians, with no technology to build protected, motorized craft, honored anyone who managed to travel alive through such a place. Geordi, meanwhile, had turned to study the mountain. “Commander!” he said suddenly, and both Riker and Data turned.
“Riker, what do you see up there-about ten meters up, just to the right of center?” “Nothing, Geordi, just a sheer rock wall.”
“Data?”
“The same-and the tricorder indicates solid rock.”
“Tune it to my Visual Acuity Transmitter,” Geordi instructed, switching on the addition to his VISOR which, for brief periods, would allow their instruments to pick up exactly what he was seeing.
Data adjusted his tricorder to the frequency of Geordi’s transmitter. In the middle of the solid rock wall, there appeared an uneven . .
. opening? None of the frequencies Data could access with his own eyes showed it, but Geordi’s VISOR did.
By this time Riker and Worf were on either side of Data, looking over his shoulders at the tricorder screen. “I wonder,” Riker mused, “whether this is the test. Are we supposed to go into the mountain rather than climb it?” “Shall we attempt to enter, Commander?” asked Worf. “Hold on a minute,” Riker said, tapping his combadge. “Captain, we’ve