Synthesis - James Swallow [133]
Odd, he thought. I never really considered how attractive she is until now. Isn’t that strange? Zurin shook his head and blinked. “Focus, Dakal,” he mumbled.
A few steps away, Commander Tuvok held on to the shuddering interface console, as if it were the only safe purchase on the entire planetoid. “Zero-Three,” he called. “You must withdraw. The Null effect is converging—”
A new whipcord strike flayed steel and brass from the machine moon, the concussion knocking all of them to the ground. Huge chunks of metal were instantly denatured and transformed into seething plasmatic superfluids.
“Error. Error. Error.” The Sentry was roaring, the cog wheel screeching where it spun into a blur. “Should have remained. Exiled. Mute and forgotten. I came back and brought it with me. It followed me. I opened the door!”
“No!” Tuvok shouted, but flares of detonation and secondary discharges deep in the vent shaft smothered his voice.
“Doomed doomed doomed. I saw it I brought it I perish for it.”
Red light spilled over the group, and, as one, they looked up to see the fast-growing bulk of the Demon planet moving to fill the sky. The burning flashes of Null matter licked at the surface of the construct one more time, before retreating away to find new targets.
“We’re entering the gravity well!” said Sethe.
Tuvok stood, staring the hellish world in the face. “It would seem so,” he replied.
Radowski winced as the data feed from the bridge unspooled across the transporter control console in front of him. Troi saw the instant tension in the lieutenant’s arms and fingers, the tightening of the lines of his face.
“Can you bring them back?” said Riker, for a moment turning away from the Sentry drones.
“I’ll try,” Radowski replied, nodding to himself, attacking the controls with a sudden burst of motion, reconfiguring the confinement-beam protocols and pattern-buffer settings on the fly. “I’ll have to use a skeletal lock.”
“Transferring most recent biometric data from sickbay database to your console,” said the avatar immediately. “Updating target parameters.”
“Thanks, that’ll help.” The lieutenant blinked and used the sensors to push through the soup of interference, to seek out traces of bone matter particular to Vulcan, Cardassian, Cygnian, and Andorian humanoids. “Partial locks on all targets. That’s as good as it’s going to get.”
Riker nodded to Troi and gave Radowski a look. “Bring them home, Bowan.”
“Here we go,” he said. “I’ll use the cargo-transport pad here. The broad-spectrum catchment array has a better chance of getting them all in one shot. Energizing… now.”
The avatar’s gaze turned inward for a second. “Crosscircuiting. Boosting matter gain.”
“I’ve got disruption patterns on one target!” snapped the lieutenant. “It’s Dakal! Trying to compensate.” Radowski’s fingers flew across the panel.
“I can divert the ensign directly to sickbay,” noted the hologram.
Troi didn’t wait for the captain’s approval. “Go ahead. If he’s hurt, every second is crucial.”
“Working…”
Radowski sucked in a breath and drew down the control slides. “Initiating rematerialization.”
Three shapes hazed into being on the hexagonal pad of the cargo transporter, by heartbeats shifting from undefined specters to humanoid forms and then recognizable figures in Starfleet EVA suits.
Troi dashed over to the pad, Vale moving with her, as the beaming process completed and the survivors of the Shuttlecraft Holiday stumbled and collapsed with the shock of the transition.
Vale caught Tuvok as the Vulcan lurched. “Easy, Commander.”
Pava twisted off her helmet and tossed it away. “Bah,” she gasped. “I never want to go through that again.”
Sethe gulped in air as he doffed his headgear, glancing around with surprise. “Zurin! Where’s Zurin?”
“Safe,” said Riker, pausing to look at the hologram. “Right?”
The avatar nodded. “Yes. I did my best to filter out the pattern distortion before he rematerialized. Doctor Ree is seeing to him as we speak.