Slings and Arrows 01_ Sea of Troubles - J. Steven York [27]
“Do you know the cause of death?”
“We only have skeletal remains, but everything we see is consistent with a fall of at least twenty meters. I’ll send you the preliminary forensics report if I can get through that static you’re in.”
“Of course, that doesn’t tell us if she slipped or was pushed.”
“If we’re talking about a Changeling, I know where I’d put my bet.”
The panel next to the turbolift just down the corridor indicated an arriving car.
“Thanks, Dan. I’ve got to go, but I’ll be in touch. Hawk out.”
He lifted his phaser and watched the doors open. Picard and Riker emerged, and Hawk lowered his weapon.
Picard walked rapidly toward him. “Mr. Hawk, is everything in order?”
“This entire section has been evacuated, Captain, plus adjacent areas. The decks above and below the lecture hall have been cleared, and my security people have pulled back as well. I can’t say I’m happy about it, sir, but you have your clear zone.”
“Very good, Mr. Hawk. I’ll be going in alone.”
Hawk hesitated a moment before speaking. This was Picard. He wasn’t used to questioning the man, but it was now part of his job, something he was still adjusting to. “Captain, I should remind you that your standing orders are that all personnel are to travel in pairs outside secured areas. When you walk out of this meeting, how will we know it’s you?”
Picard raised an eyebrow, but didn’t seem disturbed. “Excellent point, Mr. Hawk, which is why you will go with me. Give Commander Riker your phaser.”
He handed over the rifle.
“The other one too, Mr. Hawk.”
He reluctantly removed the type-1 phaser from his belt and handed it to the XO. His duties in the past had rarely required him to wear a sidearm. Now he felt naked without it. It startled him to realize how quickly he had acclimated to the change, and how natural it now felt to carry a weapon at all times.
He and Picard walked down the corridor to the lecture hall. Picard turned to him, his voice just above a whisper. “I seriously doubt they’d have done much good, in any case, Mr. Hawk. Consider this a learning experience. Diplomacy can be as dangerous a game as open warfare, and a weapon is a poor choice for a security blanket. In any case, your job here is not to ensure my safety, it is to ensure the ship’s safety against me.”
They stepped through a side door into the lecture hall. It was a multifunction room, capable of being configured for use as a small gymnasium, a dance studio, a formal banquet room, and dozens of other applications, but at the moment it was set up to match its name, with a hundred or so theater-style seats in curved rows facing a low stage with a podium. Next to the podium, Hawk noted, was a table. On the table, a detailed model of the Enterprise-E, two meters long, casually rested, as though it were a prop set up for an engineering lecture.
Hawk knew its presence was no accident. Picard had assigned Hawk to have it replicated and quietly moved to the hall.
Picard gestured for Hawk to wait by the door, then continued up the side aisle and climbed the steps to the stage. He stood next to the table and looked around the room. “Changeling, are you here?”
Hawk scanned the room, considering any object that might be the Changeling. A lighting fixture? A seat cushion? A computer console? The carpet beneath his feet? The idea alarmed Hawk, and he kept his feet still only through an extreme force of will.
Or could the Changeling be watching them from an air duct or some tiny gap in a wall panel? Would it simply fail to show?
A movement to the left of the stage caught his eye. A water pitcher on the podium shimmered and transformed into a moving stream of amber liquid that arched over to the floor, grew larger, and extended into a vertical shape that took on humanoid form. It refined its shape and color, and the form became very familiar to Hawk.
Linda!
His jaw clenched, and he had to suppress the anger. Somewhere