Planet X - Michael Jan Friedman [82]
The next thing the first officer knew, he was soaring in the direction of the dense, gray sky, Storm’s slender but strong fingers locked around his wrist. His senses reeled, but he kept his eyes open, not wanting to miss a single moment of it.
When he had had the powers of a Q at his disposal, Riker had never thought of using them to fly. Now, as he and the mutant rose higher than the highest building in Verdeen, he regretted the oversight.
Just a little while earlier, he had sailed over the city in a shuttle. But this was different, he told himself. Very different.
In a matter of seconds, he spotted the scene of confusion and chaos where the cries and the vibrations had come from. So did Storm, apparently, because she changed direction and swooped like a bird.
They bore down on the place with breathtaking speed, slipping past a rooftop and landing on ground that was still level and whole. Then they sized up the challenge ahead of them.
As in the last place they had come across, there were plenty of Draa’kon corpses strewn about, half-buried under earth and debris. But here, there were other corpses as well—the twisted, broken bodies of blue-suited city guards, civilians, and even what appeared to be some of the transformed.
At the center of it all, standing on a high mound of earth that seemed to have risen straight through the pavement, stood a single figure—a tall, slender Xhaldian with a crooked smile on his face.
He wasn’t alone, either. Four others, who appeared to be his accomplices, were standing at the base of the mound with Draa’kon disruptors in their hands. Judging by their appearances, at least two had come from the ranks of the transformed.
A little further off, half a dozen plainly terrified Xhaldians were huddled in the lee of an uprooted chunk of pavement. When they saw Riker and Storm approach the scene, hope illuminated their expressions.
“And who have we here?” asked the Xhaldian on the mound, his tone a cruel and disdainful one.
More than likely, he was the one who had caused all this destruction—hard as that was for the first officer to believe. He came forward.
“I’m Commander William Riker of the U.S.S. Enterprise.” He pointed to the heavens. “The ship that’s fighting for the life of your world up there.”
“How helpful,” the Xhaldian responded. “Though, as you can see, we freaks are perfectly capable of handling the invaders on our own.”
He has a point, the first officer told himself. It was just as Storm had predicted. The transformed had become a bigger threat than the Draa’kon.
“Who are you?” asked the mutant, taking her place beside the first officer.
The Xhaldian’s smile turned hard. “My name is Rahatan. I’m the one in charge around here—in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Her eyes narrowed. “By whose authority are you in charge?”
The Xhaldian glared at her. “By my own.”
Suddenly, one of his allies on the ground put his hands to his head and shouted a warning. Whirling, Rahatan found himself eyeing a pair of Enterprise security officers, their phasers extended in his direction.
Wilkes and Calderon, Riker thought. Two of the men from his shuttle.
“Come down from that mound,” Calderon told Rahatan.
The Xhaldian shook his head. “Come here and get me.”
“Stay where you are,” Riker yelled.
Wilkes and Calderon froze, awaiting further orders. But to the first officer’s dismay, it didn’t save them.
The ground exploded underneath them, flinging them high in the air. By the time they came back to earth, they were too broken and bloody to still be alive.
Riker’s resolve sharpened in the heat of his anger; he took advantage of the distraction to fire at Rahatan himself. But something protected him from hitting the Xhaldian—some kind of translucent shielding that deflected the force of the phaser beam.
Looking at the foot of the mound, he could see where it had come from. One of Rahatan’s lackeys had reached up and used her power to protect him.
The Xhaldian turned around again to face the first officer. “That was ill-advised,” he said in a strangely reasonable tone.