Synthesis - James Swallow [16]
“Do you see these?” she asked.
Nearby, Fell reached out for something drifting in front of her, caught by her suit’s lamps. “There’s another one here—”
The device came alive in a flash of motion, and the Deltan barely had time to scream. Vale saw the eye lens blink on, and from the seamless flanks of the cylindrical construct emerged four angled pincer arms, wicked and curved like blades. It leaped forward on a puff of thrust and clamped itself over Fell’s helmet. The blade arms bit in and applied pressure, webbing the clear faceplate with cracks.
Fell tumbled backward, grabbing at the insectile device, trying to pull it free. Vale saw Dennisar spin and bring his weapon to bear, then curse in gutter Orion. He couldn’t chance taking the shot, not when the slightest error would strike the Deltan girl.
Vale braced her feet against the wall of the chamber and pushed off, launching herself like a missile at the panicked young science officer. Small bits of debris pelted her as she moved, but she ignored them, timing the motion perfectly. She collided with Fell and sent both of them into an awkward, tumbling embrace. Their helmets bounced off each other.
“Commander!” Fell cried, and very distinctly, Vale saw tears of fright on the other side of the Deltan’s faceplate, floating there like tiny diamonds.
The machine ignored her, all of its attention set on puncturing the transparent aluminum keeping Peya Fell from explosive decompression. Vale pulled at it without success, watching the cracks widen. If she didn’t deal with this in the next few seconds, the woman would be dead.
“This is going to hurt,” she snapped, bringing up her hand phaser. “Close your eyes tight and turn your head.”
“Commander—”
“Do it now, Ensign!”
Fell nodded and did her best to bury her face in the helmet’s padding. Vale pressed her weapon’s emitter to the side of the machine’s casing and thumbed the beam gauge to its narrowest setting. She took a breath and pressed the firing pad.
The brief ray lit the chamber like a flash of lightning, cutting right through the device. Fell screamed in pain as the hard glare stabbed through her eyelids.
The glowing lens darkened, and the claws unlocked. Vale angrily batted the dead machine away and turned Fell’s helmeted head in her hands. “No breach…” she breathed. Gels secreted by the suit’s emergency systems bubbled at the cracks, working to seal them.
Behind her, Dennisar snatched the machine from the air and glowered at it. “Some sort of drone,” he rumbled. “An automatic defense system?”
“Keru to Vale.” The voice was rough with distortion. “Commander? We registered a phaser shot.”
“Wait one,” Vale snapped. “Peya? Peya, are you okay?”
Fell opened her red-rimmed eyes. Her pleasant olive complexion now had an ugly red cast to it, as if she had been sunburned. “I can’t see anything but blurs,” she managed. “It stings…”
“Take my hand.” Vale grabbed her and pulled her toward one of the other conduits, the only one illuminated by a ring of blue panels. “Chief, watch our backs. There’s more of those things in here, and they might come looking for their buddy.”
“Aye,” said the Orion, tossing the machine away and bringing up his weapon.
Vale blew out a breath as they moved into the next tunnel. “Keru? Tell Ensign Dakal that this dead ship isn’t so dead after all.”
The reply that greeted her was only static.
“Commander Vale, please respond.” Keru’s expression darkened as the hiss of interference filled the channel.
Dakal immediately tapped the communicator pad on his chest. “Away team to Shuttlecraft Holiday, do you read us?” The same static boiled back at him. “The radiation?”
“A sudden increase, enough to render our communications inert, at this precise moment?” Meldok’s tone was dismissive. “Extremely unlikely. I believe intrusion countermeasures have been deployed against us.”
The Trill pivoted. “Phasers,” he ordered, drawing his weapon. He pointed in the direction they had come. “Back