Star Trek_ A Choice of Catastrophes - Michael Schuster [72]
When they opened fire on the warehouse, it became clear what had caused the earlier explosion.
Ahead of Kirk, the tunnel took a sharp turn to the right. He slowed down to listen. Nothing. That was a relief. He’d hate to run into—
Two Farrezzi stood near the next junction, roughly twenty meters ahead. They were large, impressive beings. Kirk stopped as soon as he spotted them, but it was too late. With their five protruding eyes, it was impossible for them not to have seen him.
They were fast, almost impossibly so, given their legs didn’t contain any bones.
Instinct took over. Kirk ran, fervently hoping that his memory of the tunnel maze was reliable. When he passed an alcove, he hurled himself into the recess. The impact pushed the air out of his lungs, and his left shoulder hurt like hell after hitting the wall.
Two blurry shadows sped past him, which was good.
They stopped almost immediately, which was not.
In one quick motion, he grabbed his phaser, sped out of the alcove, and fired a rapid sequence of shots at the Farrezzi without waiting to take aim.
When one of them toppled, Kirk had good reason to fear being squashed, heavy as they were. The Farrezzi he’d hit collapsed on itself, legs giving in like cooked pasta, before its body fell backward and hit the floor with a thump.
One down, one to go. Before the captain could get off another shot, two of the Farrezzi’s limbs shot out, grabbing Kirk’s arms with their prehensile ends and pinning him to the deck. As the being came closer, two of its other limbs wrapped themselves around his legs, and the fifth made for his throat. His phaser was just a half meter from his right hand. It might as well have been on the other side of the planet.
Up close, the wrinkly, fur-covered alien torso resembled a large, fleshy bulb that expanded and contracted rhythmically. The legs’ ends—not actually feet—split in two, then again in two smaller ones, to leave the Farrezzi with a total of four thin tentacle-like digits per leg, capable of wrapping themselves tightly around objects.
The grip on his throat was not that tight, but he was beginning to feel its effects. His vision started to swim, his heart pounding. Kirk summoned all of his energy to buck and thrash wildly beneath the slaver’s heavy body.
Pinned down like an insect in a specimen collection, he had no chance. The more he resisted, the stronger the grip became. To top it all off, Kirk knew it could get worse. If another Farrezzi came to this one’s aid, he’d be done for.
What he needed now was a plan—before he passed out.
TEN
Fourteen Years Ago
Nancy Bierce is a couple of years younger than Leonard. She’s attending Emory for an off-world certification. She has a degree in anthropology, but wants to work off-planet for the Federation Ministry of Science and Space Exploration, which requires a semester of training courses, one of them in basic space medicine. Leonard notices Nancy when she joins a study group that meets at Bradley’s Café.
Leonard likes Nancy almost instantly. She is capable of giving as good as she gets. She understands his complaining is just in fun. In fact, she rarely takes him seriously even when he is serious. Nancy doesn’t know his name at first, but nicknames him Plum after an embarrassing incident with a disgusting smoothie. She knows Leonard hates it, which is why she keeps using it even after she learns his name.
He loves listening to her talk about space. She wants to immerse herself in alien cultures. Next year, she’ll be a civilian specialist in a Starfleet survey crew to the Baten Kaitos sector. It sounds amazing. Leonard remembers how much he liked his time on Dramia II.
Things at home are growing worse. Joanna has provided him and Jocelyn with more things to argue about. Jocelyn is jealous of the time he spends at Bradley’s. He’s careful not to mention Nancy, even though he hasn’t and wouldn’t do a thing with her.
It seems that every night Leonard spends at home degenerates into an argument. He tells Jocelyn that he loves her, he