The Garden - Melissa Scott [70]
porter, and turned to see a door materialize in the wall below the tower. "No, scratch that, the door just opened. I think my party's here."
"Carry on, B'Elanna," Chakotay answered. "And keep in touch. Voyager out."
A Kirse, not one of the winged ones, stepped out from the new door's shadow, his-no, her, Torres realized, though this one was so thin as to make gender almost impossible to guess-her bare feet almost soundless on the stones. She stopped a few meters from Torres, brought her hands together in what Torres guessed was meant for polite greeting.
"B'Elanna Torres? I'm called Silver-Hammer. I'm sent to show you our system, and to discuss trading raw materials."
Torres nodded. "Glad to meet you," she said, knowing she sounded gruff, but didn't know what else would be appropriate. The Kirse seemed unmoved.
"If you'd come this way?"
Torres followed, wondering where Revek was. Every other team had reported his presence-but then, they'd all been fully human. Maybe they don't think he'd get along well with a half-Klingon, she thought, and didn't know whether she should be offended or not. The truth of the matter was that she hadn't liked him much on their first and only meeting, but it irritated her that the Kirse had noticed-no, she corrected, with her usual rigid honesty, it irritates me that I showed it. I have to be more careful.
Silver-Hammer stopped at the center of the courtyard, so abruptly that Torres almost walked into her. Before she could say anything, however, either question or apology, the Kirse extended her hand, and the transporter sounded again. At their feet, the purple square disappeared, revealing a set of stairs spiraling down into darkness. The edges of the gold squares to
either side seemed perceptibly paler, too, and Torres wondered if they had been that pale before the transporter operation. "Down here," Silver-Hammer said. Torres followed, cautiously, and was glad when light faded on at their approach. There was no rail on the stairs, only a central core that the treads coiled around, and that core was the only source of light, a ball of blue radiance glowing through the stone. It moved with them, never illuminating more than a few meters in any direction, and after one quick glance Torres was careful to keep her eyes fixed on the stair in front of her. As far as she could see, they were descending through empty space, and the light from the courtyard didn't penetrate nearly far enough to show her anything.
"Stop a minute," Silver-Hammer said. Torres did as she was told, repressing the desire to tap her communicator, signal the ship, and Silver-Hammer raised her hand again, pointing her palm at the opening above them. The transporter sounded, and the square of light blinked out, but not before Torres had caught a glimpse of something bright and silver cupped in her hand. The controller for the transporter? she wondered, but the Kirse was already continuing down the stairs.
The stairway seemed endless, an empty spiral through the dark, but the rational part of Torres's brain guessed they had only descended about twenty meters before the light from the core picked out the end of the stairs and the dark surface of pavement below them. Silver-Hammer's fist clenched, fingers working, and another string of lights appeared, running along the top of a wall. They grew rapidly brighter, and Torres realized that they were standing at the bottom of what looked like a deep and artificial
canyon-so much like one, in fact, that she caught herself looking for signs of damp, and listening for the sound of rushing water. Instead, the transporter sounded, and a new door appeared, spilling light across the dark-gray stones.
"This is the workshop," Silver-Hammer said, and paused inside the door.
Torres followed, and jumped as the wall sealed itself again behind her. "Do you always do that?"
"The doors?" Silver-Hammer blinked. "It's safer- or maybe I mean wiser? The work here is delicate, I wouldn't want anyone to interfere with it. Or