String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [66]
There was only one door left along this hall. At first he thought it had no design, but upon closer examination he saw that the same swirls and whirls covered the door in very faint hues of black.
Raising his left hand this time, Chakotay opened the door and instinctively drew away. He stood at the brink of nothingness. The blackness before him had no depth or texture. It was simply absence.
As he stepped away, his combadge chirped to life. It was one of the most beautiful sounds he had ever heard.
“Paris to Chakotay, do you read me?”
“I’m here, Paris,” Chakotay said.
“I’m a little less than two thousand meters from your position, Commander.”
“You have the tricorder?” Chakotay asked.
“Yes, sir. We found Tuvok. He and Harry have transported back to the ship. I have the pattern enhancers with me. Can you meet me halfway?”
“Just tell me where to go, Lieutenant. There’s no way for me to get a sense of direction.”
“You’re at a dead end, Commander,” Tom said.
“You’re telling me,” Chakotay replied under his breath.
“Head back down the corridor. Three hundred meters or so down you will see a three-way intersection. Turn to your left. And leave your comm channel open.”
“Understood,” Chakotay replied, and began walking as quickly as he could away from the black room. “I tried to reach you earlier, Tom, but I couldn’t get a signal.”
There was no response.
“Tom? Tom?”
Chakotay quickened his pace and continued to call for Paris. Once he had cleared the corridor of swirling doors he found the first intersection and turned toward the left, just as Tom had instructed. He was rewarded a few moments later by a burst of static over his combadge.
“Chakotay?” Tom was calling.
“I can hear you. There’s some kind of interference. It keeps cutting our signal,” Chakotay replied. “I’ve found the first intersection and taken the left turn.”
“I can see your signal, Commander,” Tom replied. “And I think I’ve found a shortcut. There’s a door at the end of your corridor. It leads to a large room, probably a cargo hold of some kind. Go straight through, and I’ll meet you on the other side. I have a little farther to go than you, so wait for me.”
“Understood, Tom. I can see the doorway now.”
Unlike the other doors Chakotay had encountered, this one had an elaborate locking mechanism embedded in the wall to the right of the door. Chakotay tried a few random variations of picking the lock before he stepped back, resigned, and leveled his compression rifle at the door. It disintegrated in a wave of fire and sparks and Chakotay stepped gingerly over the bottom lip of the frame, entered the inky blackness of the room, and activated his wrist light.
Playing the light along the right side of the room, he immediately saw a long, low bank of consoles. They were dead. No faint hum or dim light betrayed an operational status. There was a clear path before him and as he began to jog forward, he focused the light to his left and almost tripped over his own feet.
He was staring at a Hirogen hunter. It took him a second to realize that, though the hunter glared back at him with dark penetrating eyes, he was standing behind a transparent barrier. Moving closer, Chakotay confirmed that the Hirogen was in some kind of stasis chamber. To the hunter’s right was another alien that Chakotay did not recognize, also in stasis. This creature was bipedal, but with two long necks that extended from its torso, one slightly taller than the other. Its skin was a dull shade of copper. Perched atop one neck was a bulging head covered with small spikes. The other was topped with a larger head consisting of small circular indentations layered with fine cilia.
Chakotay retraced his steps but slowed his progress through the room. The stasis chambers, each containing a distinct