Ring Around the Sky - Allyn Gibson [29]
“Commander Gomez? Minister Eevraith?”
Tev snorted.
Lense took a step back and folded her arms. “If I give you permission to leave, you’ll be back once the crisis is over?”
Tev considered this for a moment. “You may have Lieutenant Commander Corsi send a security detail to drag me back.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Lense gestured to the sickbay doors. “Go.”
“In position, Captain,” called Wong.
Gold resumed his seat and nodded. “Very good.”
Grevesh’s chair came up to Gold. “Captain,” he said fretfully, as he looked back and forth between Gold and the viewscreen. “Can you save the planet?”
“If we don’t, it won’t be for lack of trying, First Minister,” said Gold. “But these people haven’t let me down yet.” He looked at Grevesh, then looked squarely at the viewscreen. The terminus of the elevator had shifted from its earlier position. Where before it had risen above the Ring’s geosynchronous orbit, it now had fallen back to its earlier height and out of its equatorial position. “Where’s she falling, Gomez?”
Gomez looked to the sensor console, then looked up at the viewscreen. “The elevator is angling to the south by four degrees.” She paused. “Given its height, if it continues to fall in that direction, it will wrap around the planet.”
Gold rose and came to Haznedl’s console. He planted his hand on her shoulder. “Can we get a tractor beam lock on the terminus?”
Susan Haznedl’s hands played across her console. She frowned, and looked up at Gold. “We’ll need to move in closer because of the weight of the elevator.”
Gold looked to Wong. “You heard her. Do it.”
Eevraith rushed to Gold’s side. “Captain? We haven’t much time.”
Gold looked up into Eevraith’s blurry red eyes. “We can’t make the time, but we can steal it where we can.”
The turbolift doors opened, and Tev stepped out. Gold, Gomez, and Eevraith all turned. Tev took a long look at the viewscreen. “I apologize, sirs,” he said. “I was delayed.”
A crowd had begun to gather near the waterfront, more than just the few that had gathered at the end of the boardwalk minutes before. From the shop next door to the restaurant, Kharzh’ullans poured outside and began to look up into space. Stevens imagined that the local broadcast networks were covering the impending collapse of the elevator.
A Kharzh’ullan ran up to Abramowitz and Stevens. He towered over them both; he stood nearly three meters tall. “You’re from the Starfleet ship. The one sent to repair the Ring.” He looked up into the sky at the elevator and the Ring. “What have you done?”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” said Stevens.
“Fabian,” said Abramowitz, “I think the elevator is starting to sway.”
Stevens scowled. To him, it appeared as though the elevator were stationary and straight, albeit with a kink near the horizon. At the Ring, however, the elevator was no longer attached; where he could see the break to the east where the Jem’Hadar had destroyed the Ring during the war, he could now see another break to the west of the terminus. He only wished that the da Vinci had given him more to go on than Tony’s terse “stand by.”
Stevens looked up at the Kharzh’ullan. “The da Vinci is doing what they can. What they planned on doing.”
The Kharzh’ullan looked skeptical. “I thought they were not collapsing the elevator for several hours yet.”
Stevens shrugged. “We probably had the time wrong.” He looked past the Kharzh’ullan at the elevator. It wasn’t swaying, as Abramowitz had thought, but it did have a pronounced list.
Abramowitz pointed up at the elevator’s terminus. Stevens and the Kharzh’ullan followed her gaze. “Fabian! The elevator is starting to fall!”
“Tractors!” ordered Gomez.
Shabalala nodded as he touched the tractor beam control. “Tractor beams engaged.”
“Take us to a higher orbit,” said Gold.
“Aye, sir,” replied Wong.
The bridge lights flickered momentarily, and the usual smooth engine hum was replaced by a grating whine. Gold frowned.
“Captain,” said Tev from the