Survivors - Jean Lorrah [66]
But it had been here this morning. So he had been in here before the search, although after someone else had discovered Tasha missing. Whatever evidence had been here then was now scuffed about, turned over, muddled by the searchers even though they had carefully put everything back except the tricorder.
Data, however, had a perfect record in his memory banks of how the room had looked this morning. Remembering that he had told the guard he had come in to borrow something, he picked up Tasha’s shoe polisher and returned to his own room, making sure the guard looked up and saw him enter … for he did not expect to stay there long.
Quickly, he ran through the morning’s images of Tasha’s room. Nothing at ordinary focus. Wait … the chair by the door was at an odd angle. He focused in on the carpet, and could see the impressions its legs had left where it usually sat-where it sat once again this evening-along with a scuff mark where it had been shoved out of place.
A human would have had to squat down and examine the carpeting with special equipment. Data was able to magnify and home in on every square centimeter he had looked at, even with peripheral vision. There were the prints of three different sets of shoes-Tasha’s Starfleet issue boots, one set belonging to an average-sized humanoid male or rather large female who had wandered all over the room, and one set belonging to someone very heavy for the size of his feet, who had stood near the door, back against the wall, for some time.
Immediately in front of the door, Data’s own small but deep footprints walked straight through the signs of a fight-many footprints at various angles, other marks caused by other parts of bodies hitting the floor.
The carpeting held impressions best, but now that he knew what he was looking for Data found the scuffs on the door and walls. Tasha had fought two opponents who had been hiding in her room, waiting for her. Why hadn’t the guard heard?
Because he was part of the scheme? No, Nalavia didn’t have Tasha.
Because he was paid off? Unlikely-Nalavia’s displeasure did not seem worth the risk.
Because he was either away from his post or unconscious, then.
Data replayed his own return last night. The guard seemed to have been just waking up, rubbing his neck—
If he had been drugged he would probably have stayed unconscious. If he had been hit on the head he would have had pain. But a cramp in the neck where it joined the shoulder—
He had been put out with a Vulcan nerve pinch, then, which accounted for the heavier-than-human person in Tasha’s room. But … a Vulcan? On Treva without the Federation’s knowledge? Oh, no … not a Romulan, please!
This was no time for fruitless speculation. A Vulcanoid person and probably a human had kidnapped Tasha. They were not Nalavia’s people, which meant she was not on the palace grounds. Either she was hidden in the city, or she had been taken elsewhere. That depended on who had taken her.
There was only one likely prospect: Nalavia’s enemy, the warlord Rikan. He had a stronghold somewhere to the east of here. Data accessed the information on Rikan he had gleaned from Nalavia’s computers. Too far for her captors to have taken her on foot. Groundcar or flyer, then.
Data had no groundcar, but he did have a shuttlecraft … hangared at the city’s landing field.
Even if he was wrong about who had taken Tasha, he needed the shuttle’s radio to inform the Enterprise of today’s events. It would not be a wasted journey even if once there, where he could also access the aircraft control records, he found nothing that indicated a journey in the right direction.
All of this took less than five minutes. In forty-seven minutes, Data was expected at dinner. Soon thereafter, Nalavia would send someone for him-but by that time he planned to be far away from her Presidential Palace, “hot on the trail” of Tasha Yar.
Taking both phaser and tricorder, Data