String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [126]
As Chakotay moved to fire again, a burst of invisible energy shot from Phoebe’s hand and impacted his chest, sucking the wind from his lungs and knocking him several feet from his prior location.
Seven tried to aim her weapon at Phoebe, who was rising from the floor, but the Monorhans, attempting to aid the away team, were rushing to surround Phoebe and denying Seven a clear shot. Seven did not truly believe her weapon would damage the Nacene, but she was certain it would kill the Monorhans and hesitated to injure or anger her only allies.
She glanced aside to see Neelix searching the room for cover, a safer place from which to attack Phoebe or repel her next onslaught. Spotting a long, low bank of computer stations along the room’s edge, he rushed to Chakotay’s side and began to pull him to safety.
Seven saw his actions and intuited his destination. Keeping her aim fixed on the last spot where she’d had an unobstructed view of Phoebe, she moved to cover Neelix as he pulled Chakotay to the relative concealment of the station panel.
Dozens of the Monorhan creatures where thrown from Phoebe’s immediate vicinity. Poking her head above the computer station, Seven watched as Phoebe’s head and torso, still arcing with flashes of brilliant blue light, began to destabilize. Her face appeared first to flatten, then elongate. Her arms extended, losing their hands and fingers in favor of several longer cilia-like appendages. Several similar tentacles emerged from her chest until all that had been vaguely humanoid in Phoebe’s appearance dissolved in favor of the nightmarish creature Naomi had described to the captain when she awoke from her surgery. The Doctor had dutifully recorded Naomi’s description in his logs, and Seven had committed them to memory in preparation for this away mission.
The toxin still flowed through Phoebe. The translucent tentacles now pulsed with an inky black sludge, and the flashes of light gradually intensified from a cool blue to an angry red hue.
Phoebe, in her true Nacene form, was capable of inflicting substantially more damage upon her attackers. Monorhans were grasped by her powerful tentacles, and one after another, the life was drained from them. In each case, the small wormlike spores emerged in the final throes of death and began to collect in the center of the floor beneath Phoebe.
At this point, the only advantage the away team had was numbers. But given the rate at which the Monorhans were succumbing, Seven could not predict how long that advantage would hold.
Chakotay was stirring. Seven helped him to kneel, saying, “We are pinned down. The Monorhans are keeping Phoebe busy for the moment, but are taking heavy losses.”
“We have to get the Key and get out of here,” he said firmly.
“An interesting tactical choice, when you had that option only moments ago,” Seven replied.
“Don’t tell me you trust her?” Chakotay asked.
“I do not,” Seven said simply. “I was merely pointing out to you…”
“Later,” Chakotay cut her off. “I’m going back for the Key.”
“I will make the attempt,” Seven replied.
Chakotay next thought process was clear enough to read on his face. He was considering the fact that this had been his foolhardy idea, as well as Seven’s relative value to the crew and Voyager’s mission, and was obviously sorely tempted to contradict her.
“You are barely able to sit up, Chakotay,” Seven chided him.
“Go ahead,” he nodded. “But try and stay down.” Raising his rifle to his shoulder, he moved to Neelix’s side to cover Seven as she moved quietly away.
The scene playing out before Chakotay’s eyes was chaos. One after another, the Monorhans made suicidal runs toward Phoebe, and each time she managed to capture and subdue most that crossed within reach of her tentacles. The collection of… what had Phoebe called them?… spores beneath her was growing. Between Phoebe’s words and Assylia’s, it seemed safe to assume now that the Nacene