Pathways - Jeri Taylor [34]
Then he heard something moving in the pit.
Not wanting to guess what it might be, he risked turning on his wrist beacon, and shined it right into the just uplifting head of a large serpent. From his Starfleet training, he identified it as a Cardassian nephrus snake, which had obviously been brought here by the illegal settlers. It was a mottled brown color with an abnormally thick, muscular body and an elongated, wedge-shaped head and one unblinking eye, which now fixed him in its flat gaze. Unlike the reptiles of Earth, it depended on its eye to detect its prey, and it bore some resemblance to alligators and crocodiles in that it had teeth and a powerful jaw. It was known to be a fierce predator, more than capable of crushing a man to death, and had probably been kept hungry by the Cardassians. At the moment, it was about three meters away, at the opposite side of the pit. He wondered briefly if he had developed any special rapport with reptiles now that he had a snake as a spirit guide, but then decided he’d better not put that thought to a test.
“Chakotay to Liberty. Beam me up right away.”
He waited, still eyeing the snake, which was, unfortunately, attracted to the light and was beginning to rouse out of its torpid slumber. But Chakotay had no intention of shutting the light off and staying in the darkness with the serpent, even for the few seconds it took to transport.
Then he realized those seconds had already passed. He touched his combadge again. “Chakotay to Seska. Do you read?”
No answer. It occurred to him that the Cardassians must have done something to mask communications from the pit, but he quickly realized he didn’t have time to try to figure that out because the snake was on the move. Although he had always been taught to value the life of any living being, he drew his phaser. The snake, he was sure, didn’t value his life.
But whatever damping field prevented communications also prevented weapons fire.
He disliked turning his back on the thing, but he had to try to climb. He shone the beacon up one wall of the pit and saw a smooth, graded surface that offered no handhold. He looked back and saw that the snake was uncoiling, wedge head lowering to the ground. He looked back to the next wall, quickly ran the light over it, and found it as smooth as the last one. The third wall, the only other one he could reach without running into the snake, was just the same.
In mounting desperation, he played the light on the pit wall behind the snake and saw his only opportunity embedded there: a stubble of tree root that protruded from the dirt wall.
But that meant he had to get past the snake.
It was moving toward him, now, slowly, its one eye fastened on the beacon strapped to Chakotay’s wrist. He quickly unsnapped it and set it on the ground in the farthest corner from the serpent, light pointed directly at it. Then he moved slowly away from the light.
The serpent kept its eye on the beacon. It seemed mesmerized, confused, heavy body undulating sluggishly along the floor of the pit, as though wary of this bright intruder. Chakotay kept moving away from the light and the snake, inching his way along the wall, ready to make his leap for freedom. When the serpent’s head was less than a meter away from the light, he bolted for the far wall.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the snake’s head turn at the sudden movement, but it was apparently baffled enough to hesitate. Chakotay charged for the wall, but tripped over the coiled tail of the serpent and went sprawling. Heart pounding, he scrambled to his feet and flung himself at the far wall, grabbing for the tree root.
It pulled out in his hands.
He glanced back and saw that the snake’s head was now pointed in his direction, and its long ropy body was in the process of reversing course. He began scrabbling at the wall of the pit, digging into it, looking for something that might hold his weight, but he kept pulling out only