Mosaic - Jeri Taylor [94]
"Take the hand of the person in front of and behind you. Each of you, with the exception of myself in front, and Ensign LeFevre in back, should be joined with two others."
There was a hasty shuffling in the dark as the crew members followed his order. "All set, sir," came LeFevre's voice from several meters down the corridor.
"Very well." Tuvok's rich voice rang through the passageways. "Mr. Neelix, you're directly behind me. We will proceed."
Neelix put one hand in Tuvok's; the other was held by Greta Kale. Almost subliminally, he registered that Tuvok's voice had sounded different as he called out the last command, but he couldn't put his finger on just what had changed.
Tuvok kept up a fairly steady accounting of his plan and the route they were following-largely, Neelix suspected, to function as a calming presence for the group. "I am reading signs of Kes and Ensign Kim's progress through this passageway," he intoned. "We are most assuredly following the path they charted."
Tuvok's voice definitely sounded different. There was no question about it. Closer. More-muffled. What had caused this change? Neelix spoke out himself, curious if his voice would sound similar. "Are you reading any signs of Kes and Harry themselves, or just their trail?" He sounded strange to himself. His voice seemed to be absorbed into the air and hang there, as though he were inside a thick cocoon. "At this point, I am only detecting their trail. I have yet to detect any life signs." As Tuvok spoke, Neelix pinpointed what had changed: the Vulcan's voice didn't echo. The bare stone walls of this underground structure had heretofore bounced the sound of their voices in several directions, resonating hollowly through the passageways. Now sound wasn't reflecting. It was being absorbed.
"We will be turning to port," announced Tuvok, but he did so before Neelix had registered the order, and his shoulder grazed the stone corner. But it didn't feel like stone anymore. It had yielded to his grazing touch. He didn't want to alarm Ensign Kale by dropping her hand, so he maneuvered close to the wall, then raised the hand that clenched Kale's so that he could feel the surface.
It was sticky. Gelatinous, like a thickly textured Yasti pudding. Neelix recoiled at the feel, and instinctively scrubbed his knuckles-and Kale's-on his trousers. "Mr. Vulcan," he said, with his voice sounding in his ears as though he were underwater, "I believe something is happening to the walls."
Tuvok halted immediately. "Feel them," Neelix implored. "It's almost as though-they're melting."
Neelix dropped his hand and could sense the Vulcan, in the inky darkness, reaching out to touch the wall. Then he saw the faint glow of the tricorder as Tuvok scanned.
"The wall does in fact seem to be metamorphosing," the Vulcan intoned. "Further, the organic readings in the material have increased significantly."
"What does that mean?" asked Neelix, decidedly apprehensive about this turn of events. Stone that changed texture and exhibited organic signs was not stone that he cared to have surrounding him thirty meters underground. "I cannot be certain. I would suggest, however, that it would be advantageous for us to increase our pace. Join hands and follow." They did so, and Neelix felt himself begin to perspire. Was it nervousness, or was it, as he suspected, because the air was becoming warmer? And is that why the walls were beginning to melt? And if the former was true, how hot would it get and would the walls melt completely? And if they did, what would happen then?
Burdened by questions, Neelix was grateful when Tuvok discovered a stairway-undoubtedly the one Kes and Harry had reported-and they started downward. It would be taking them closer to Kes, and with any luck, away from the disquieting presence of the melting walls.
Harry watched in stupefaction as Kes seemed to have a one-sided conversation with the winged humanoid, though so far as Harry could tell the creature wasn't