The Eyes of the Beholders - A. C. Crispin [36]
The security team waved at them to stay where they were, then, phasers ready, moved around the main stack of cargo toward the entrance of the deck. Each member of the landing party had been provided with a schematic of the freighter.
A moment later Selar heard Worf’s gruff tones. “Doctor, we have found someone, but I fear we are too late to help her.”
Selar moved quickly to join the security team, her people following her. Worf and his team were squatting beside a limp figure that was sprawled in the open doorway. A thin spatter of red blood marred the light gray of the deck, its source hidden beneath the facedown form.
“The body is cold,” Worf rumbled as Selar reached him with a few running steps. “And I cannot locate a pulse.”
Dropping down beside him, Selar ran her medical scanner over the woman, then she nodded brusquely. “She’s been dead for at least two hours.” Already knowing what she would see, because of the tricorder’s readings, she turned the human over.
The corpse rolled onto her back, a once-attractive woman in her late forties with soft golden curls. An ornamental dagger was embedded in her chest. The blade had pierced the left ventricle, and death had been virtually immediate—which accounted for the relatively small amount of blood.
The body was icy cold from lying in the refrigerated compartment. Selar looked up at her team, noting that Johnson looked wide-eyed with fear and making a mental note to keep the woman with her.
“We will search in teams of three,” the Vulcan ordered crisply. “One doctor, one nurse, and one security officer to each team, is that understood?” They nodded. “Doctor Grunewalt, you and Nurse Selinski will make one team.” Worf gestured to Bernstein to join the designated medical personnel.
“Nurse Johnson and I will make another team.” Again Worf gestured, and Caledon, a small, dark-haired man from Proxima II, stepped up to join the Vulcan and Johnson. “Doctor Logan, you and Nurse Itoh will make up the last team.” Worf himself prepared to accompany Logan’s team.
“What about me?” Doctor Gavar asked.
“You and Yeoman Montez will be remaining here on the cargo deck,” Selar said. “Chief O’Brien reports that the energy field surrounding both ships is causing some distortion in his instrumentation. So, on his request that we allow a margin for error in the transporter coordinates, we will be beaming all patients back from the cargo deck. Gavar and Montez will assume the care of the patients waiting for transport.”
She glanced around at all of them. “The process of transporting will provide full decontamination procedures, as usual, but from what Doctor Crusher and I have observed so far, we are not dealing with a pathogen. Instead, we believe that we are dealing with some kind of malign alien mental invasion, possibly generated from the artifact.” She paused. “I have been conscious of something ever since we beamed over. Have any of the rest of you?”
All of the medical and security people nodded—even, after a second, Lieutenant Worf.
“But I thought we had scanned no life-forms over there,” Doctor Grunewalt said.
“We have not. However, there have been many new discoveries in connection with this mission, so we cannot be certain that our instrumentation will correctly evaluate everything connected with the artifact,” Selar pointed out. “But, for the moment, we are concerned only with this vessel. My point is that whatever affected the crew of this ship may affect us, too. If you should observe signs of mental deterioration in a team member, you are hereby charged to report your observation to me and to the other unaffected team member immediately. Is that understood?”
Everyone nodded, casting uneasy sideways glances at one another. “Good. Team One”—she indicated Grunewalt and Selinski—”you will take the forward lounge, the officers’ quarters, and the galley …”
A minute later, she had finished assigning the teams, and they were all on their way.
Selar followed her tricorder to the location of the first survivor. On the way they passed six bodies, two fully clothed,