Relics - Michael Jan Friedman [70]
“Riker to Counselor Troi!” The first officer shouted.
No answer.
He tried it again.
Still nothing.
“It’s the sensor shield,” said Riker. It doesn’t just stop signals from above. It stops signals underneath it as well.”
The ensign nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “It’s useless.”
And that left only one alternative. Kane flinched inwardly at the thought of it. He glanced back the way they’d come … at the zagging, wind-torn ramps and the howling chasms. Then he looked at Riker.
“You stay here,” said the first officer. “I’ll go back and get them!”
The ensign was tempted to let him have his way. At least for a second or two. And then he grabbed Riker’s tunic again-just as he had a little while ago. “The hell you will,” he roared. “I’m coming too!” The first officer glared at him. And then, gradually, a smile spread over his face. “Have it your way,” he bellowed. “Just don’t get into any trouble, all right?” Kane nodded. “You’ve got my word on it!” Screwing up their nerve, they started back for Sousa and the others.
Chapter Fifteen
DEANNA TROI HAD BEGUN to worry when she heard the winds outside their tower howling like banshees. Leaving Sousa in the hands of Bartel and Krause, she had gone over to the arched entrance through which Riker and Kane had departed and felt the force of the weather on her face.
She had said a single word, a name “Will…”
He was in danger. She didn’t need a communicator to discover that; she could tell by the ebb and flow of his emotions. Terrible danger. And yet, she couldn’t lift a hand to help him.
Now, she stood by the entranceway again-no longer afraid, but confused. The winds were still yowling, though perhaps they were starting to die down a bit.
And Will Riker was still alive-despite that awful moment when it had seemed he would perish. Even at a distance, she could sense his presence, vital, determined. And he’d certainly been gone long enough to get the shuttle. More than long enough.
So the shuttle should be on its way, she told herself. And Will, along with that guilt-ridden Ensign Kane, should be in it.
But they weren’t. They were headed back the way they’d come-on foot. Something had gone wrong.
The shuttle was never going to arrive. Frowning, she looked back at Sousa and the two engineers. They were going to have to carry the injured man to the beam-down site, weren’t they?
Just as she thought that, Troi scanned the expanse of alien architecture again-and saw two figures on. one of the ramps leading to their tower. Two men in red and black.
“My god,” whispered a voice behind her. Turning, she saw Bartel. Normally the picture of efficiency, the woman looked shaken. “You were right, Counselor. They’re coming back without the shuttle.”
Minutes later, Riker and Kane came lurching into the tower. Both of them were out of breath, and their eyes were swollen from staring down the wind.
“No shuttle,” Krause said, just for the record.
“No shuttle,” the first officer confirmed. He was tired and he was breathing too hard. “We’re going to have to reach the beam-down site on our own-and fast. Geordi’s managed to use the Jenolen to wedge the hatch open, but it won’t hold up in there forever.”
Troi nodded. “So what are we waiting for?” she asked. “Let’s do it.”
Riker regarded the ensign and the two engineers. “You heard the counselor. If we each grab a limb, we can make it.”
“And what about me?” Troi inquired.
The first officer looked at her, his face rubbed raw by his battle with the weather. “You replace the first one that falls,” he said..
On the bridge of the Enterprise, Captain Picard listened to the bad news. “Five more minutes,” he echoed.
“At best,” shouted Geordi, straining to be heard over the grinding of the Jenolen’s engines. “Maybe not even that long.” .
Picard nodded. Time was running out. But his chief engineer had been careful to restrict his