Spirit Walk_ Old Wounds (Book 1) - Christie Golden [64]
Chakotay nodded to his sister, then gave the command. “Helm, drop out of warp and establish orbit around Loran II.”
“Aye, Captain.” Smoothly, Tare complied.
“Campbell, put it on-screen.”
Campbell touched her controls, and Loran II appeared on the huge screen. It was a beautiful planet; its brown and green landmasses and lush oceans reminded Chakotay of Earth, the place that even now he thought of as home.
“There’s a lot of debris floating around here still, all of it old,” said Kim.
“Captain,” said Campbell, “there seems to be an extremely active storm system centered over a small part of the northern hemisphere.”
Chakotay frowned. “Let’s see it.”
For a moment, everyone stared at the huge storm system slowly turning. It looked like a hurricane or a cyclone.
“But…that’s exactly where our colony is!” exclaimed Fortier.
“Lieutenant, attempt to hail the colony.”
“No response, sir,” Campbell said. “Readings are inconclusive but…” She hesitated, then said, “But there seem to be no humanoid life readings anywhere on the planet.” She touched the controls. “I’m picking up some kind of surge…. It could be a natural phenomenon, but it has a pretty high EM reading.” She grimaced slightly. “And I should tell you we’ve been having trouble with the ops system before—a ghost or two in the works.”
Chakotay gazed at the strange storm, frowning. There was something oddly familiar about this, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Mr. Fortier, what sort of research did your colony perform?”
Fortier had swallowed hard at Campbell’s announcement, but spoke calmly. “The usual—biological, geological, meteorological.”
“Did you have any sort of weather-control technology?” Chakotay asked. It wasn’t unheard of; it was how Risa managed to maintain its tourist base.
Fortier shook his dark head. “No. We studied the weather, of course, just like we studied everything else on the planet. But we made no attempts to control it.”
“Were storms like this common?”
Fortier turned to him. “Captain,” he said quietly, “I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life.”
“Lieutenant, is this a natural or a created storm?” asked Chakotay.
“I’m not detecting anything that leads me to believe it’s artificial,” Campbell replied. “But if I may speak freely, sir, the fact that it happens to be located directly above the only area with technology seems too coincidental for this to be natural.”
“Captain,” said Kim, “if the Cardassians did occupy the planet at any point, this might be something they established.”
“That would make sense,” Campbell said, nodding. “This signal could very well be a by-product of weather control technology in operation.”
“Yes,” said Sekaya in an odd voice, staring at the image. Her arms, like Fortier’s, were folded tightly across her chest. “Yes, the Cardassians did things like that.”
Chakotay gave her a sharp look, but she continued to gaze at the screen. He rubbed his chin, considering his words carefully.
“Mr. Fortier, depending on what we find down there, it might be a good idea for you to consider reestablishing the colony elsewhere.”
Fortier whirled on Chakotay. “Absolutely not! That is our home, Captain. We had our children there.” His throat worked. “It now seems likely that we will bury our dead there. We must find out what happened. And when we do, we’ll reclaim this place and make it thrive again. None of us has any desire to start all over again somewhere else, no matter…no matter what we might find down there.”
Chakotay searched his eyes for a moment. He hoped that Fortier’s desire would be possible to fulfill. But Chakotay’s would be the final decision. He was under orders to keep the colonists safe, above everything else. If that meant forcing them to relocate elsewhere on Loran II, or even insisting they abandon the planet altogether, he knew he’d do it.
“Before we make any final decisions,” Chakotay said, “I’ve got to make sure it’s safe. Mr. Ellis, you’re