Spirit Walk_ Enemy of My Enemy (Book 2) - Christie Golden [66]
“Landing?” Kim exclaimed. Tom was glad he’d at least waited until the channel was closed. “Tom, I don’t know if you know this, but we’re dealing with Sky Spirit stuff again. You remember what happened the last time we tried to take Voyager down in a storm like this.”
Tom met Harry’s brown eyes with his ice blue ones. “Chakotay’s probably down on that planet, a prisoner. Kaz definitely is a hostage. What would you do?”
Kim opened his mouth, closed it, then, strangely, smiled.
“Take the ship down.”
“Then let’s do it. Pilot, what’s your name?”
The incredibly gorgeous woman swiveled in her chair. “Lieutenant Akolo Tare, sir,” she replied in a deep, melodious voice.
“Lieutenant Tare, I’m sure you perform your duties admirably, but I’m going to relieve you for right now.”
She raised her ebony eyebrows in surprise and, Tom, thought, anger. “Sir?”
He rose from his chair and stepped down to the conn. “You heard me, Lieutenant. This used to be my position, and no one knows how to navigate this ship better than I do.”
“Let him do it, Tare,” Kim said.
Reluctantly Tare rose from her seat and stepped back. Paris sat down in the familiar seat and gave himself a fraction of a second to enjoy the sensation.
“Take her down, Mr. Paris,” said Harry Kim.
Chapter 19
THE CHANGELING HAD TO ADMIT that Kaz had been right—for the moment, the Trill was safe. Not even a Changeling could be two people at the same time, and therefore, much as he might want to, the Changeling could ill afford to murder his only viable hostage. Chakotay and Sekaya were hostages, too, of course, but he wasn’t about to give either of them up. He needed them far too much. He checked quickly to make sure the doctor was still alive, then returned to the helm, leaving his hostage unconscious on the floor.
“Ellis to Moset,” he said, using the name that the Cardassian knew best. “I’m making an emergency landing. Get the storms up once I’m down.” He let his face slip easily into the nondescript features of Ellis; it took less concentration to maintain that form than others, as he had held it for so many years.
“What’s going on?” The normally self-assured, smooth voice was worried.
“Too much to go into now,” he said. “They’ve figured it out and they’ve sent the Delta Flyer after me.” He checked his readings and saw with a rush of annoyance that Moset had yet to comply. “I said, get those storms up now, and make them big. Voyager’s got the ability to land on a planet, you know.”
“But what does this mean for me? For us?” the Cardassian wanted to know.
“We’ve got to leave at once.”
“But I can’t do that! I’m at a critical juncture in the experiments!”
“Once the Federation captures us, there will be no more experiments, don’t you understand?” He was shrieking now, at the end of his supply of patience for the trying doctor. “Put Chakotay and Sekaya in stasis. Take my creatures and—”
“We don’t have two spare stasis chambers. All but one are still occupied.”
“Then kill one of the occupants!” Why did he have to explain the simplest things to the man?
“Which one would—”
“I don’t care!”
He felt his features slip, reform into who knew what shape. When he lost his temper, he tended to lose control of his shape-shifting abilities as well. He didn’t care, though, not now. With an effort he forced himself to calm down.
“I have a few things I have to do before we depart,” he said. “We’ll escape in the cloaked ship.” He’d hoped to be able to utilize the Carrington as well, but now that the jig was up, he would have to abandon it, and a few of the creatures as well. It would be too easy for Voyager to track one of