Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [137]
Without thinking, Kira ran toward that room, left hand still holding the device, right hand moving to the phaser that Worf-over Eddington’s objections-had issued her.
“Son of a bitch,” Corsi was saying as Kira entered. It was apparently Koval’s bedroom, a lavishly appointed space with a huge bed, spacescape paintings on two of the walls, and a small nightstand holding what looked like a platinum sculpture.
All four members of Corsi’s team were lying facedown on the floor. Kira could see blood trickling out their ears. “Some kind of sonic booby trap.”
Kneeling down by one of the bodies, Kira said, “He was expecting us.”
From behind Kira, Eddington said, “Not necessarily. Koval’s a veteran Tal Shiar agent. This could be a standard booby trap. But the tricorder should have picked it up.”
As Eddington spoke, Kira noticed a fifth pair of uniform-clad legs on the other side of Koval’s bed. Only four people had come into the bedroom with Corsi.
Whirling around, her left hand moved toward the activation switch on the device.
But it was too late. “Corsi’s” left hand shimmered and transformed into a whip that knocked the device out of Kira’s hands, even as her right hand and phaser also transformed into a pointed piece of metal that impaled Eddington right through the chest. Eddington’s finger spasmed on his phaser, and it fired harmlessly into the ceiling.
“You solids,” the creature said with contempt, using the same tone that the real Domenica Corsi had when expressing skepticism over the reality of the Founders’ infiltration. “Did you truly think we would be unaware of what you were doing? The moment you killed one of our own, we knew what was happening. It was easy to prepare.”
While the shapechanger gloated, Kira dove for where the device had fallen.
She heard the reports of several dozen phaser beams-no doubt the rest of the team responding to the screams and Eddington’s phaser fire-as she tried to wrap her hands around the device. Those blasts saved her life, as the Founder no doubt would have killed her but for the distraction of a dozen phaser hits on its person.
Suddenly, Kira found herself blown backward, intense heat and frigid cold both assaulting her face and chest as she fell on her rear end. Several of the phaser shots had blasted through the retreat’s walls, letting in the obscene weather. Wind slammed into the retreat and snow blew into Kira’s face, reducing visibility to almost nothing.
Holding a hand up in front of her face, Kira tried desperately to find the device, which had sufficient mass that she was fairly certain it wouldn’t have budged too much even in these winds.
Kira herself could hardly say the same as she fought against the pounding wind with every iota of strength. She heard anguished screams and more and more phasers being fired, but the shapechanger seemed to still have the upper hand. Less than a dozen security personnel were left to deal with it, and Kira had to hope that they would keep it occupied long enough for her to neutralize it.
Gripping the bed for purchase, she inched her way toward where the device had landed, blinking away the snow that got in her wide brown eyes, pushing herself against the wind that was now howling in.
Just as she managed to grip the device, a massive form collided with her, sending them both rolling across the floor toward the hole that had been blasted into the wall. Claws rended her flesh and pain ripped through her side. The shapechanger had transformed into some kind of white-furred ursine beast-probably a type that thrived in this mountainous region-and intended to kill Kira in that form.
But she still kept her grip on the device, and thumbed it to an active state just as the Founder was modulating into another form.
What that form might be, Kira did not discover, for it quickly collapsed into its natural liquid state, letting out a strangled scream as it did so.
Her Starfleet phaser was no longer in its holster.