The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [114]
All that was missing was an open channel back to Enterprise, which the Romulans’ shroud appeared to have made impossible at the moment; fortunately, the signals sent by the transponders appeared to be strong enough to breach the Romulans’ security barrier and to permit everyone, rescuers and rescuees alike, to be beamed safely back to Enterprise once the devices were distributed.
“I can hear them,” Theras said over the com unit in his helmet. “They’re so very frightened.”
“I can feel Jhamel,” Shran said. “She’s alive.”
Chang moved to the door, his weapon raised. Seen through the night-vision feature in Malcolm’s helmet, the MACO appeared as a dark green silhouette set against a backdrop of slightly lighter green. Chang pried the door open slowly with one gloved hand, then pushed it into its wall recess with his foot. Peruzzi crouched to the side by the door, her weapon’s barrel tilted upward.
Malcolm saw people stumbling through the hallways, but couldn’t quite tell who or what they were. Their silhouettes were completely humanoid, but lacked antennae, so he was certain they weren’t Aenar. Romulans, then, he thought as he tried to take a scanner reading of the crew, only to discover that the Romulan shroud was obscuring his scan.
As he signaled the team to move out into the corridor, a large figure stepped into the room, his hands groping along the wall for purchase. Before either of the MACOs could respond, Shran had savagely smashed his pistol into the side of the figure’s head. As it crumpled to the ground, Shran muttered some phrase that Reed imagined to be a pungent Andorian curse.
They edged into the corridor, carefully dodging the shadowy figures, half a dozen of whom were moving along the walls. Reed found the situation almost surreal, as if he were caught in a dream in which no one had faces except for him.
“They’re in the chamber down there,” Theras said, pointing down a second corridor. “I’ve just made telepathic contact with Lissan. She’s been drugged to keep her telepathy in check, as have all the others.”
“Just as you anticipated,” Reed said. “But it’s a lucky turn for us that the Romulans aren’t keeping them so comatose that you can’t reach them at all.”
“Still, none of the Aenar minds I’m sensing are entirely lucid. I will do my best to explain to Lissan that we’re coming to rescue them. Perhaps she can keep the others calm, and prepare them for us.”
“Thank Uzaveh you’re finally good for something,” Shran said acidly.
Instinctively, Reed looked over at the Andorian, then realized that even if Shran could see his glare of disapproval, he wouldn’t have cared anyway. Still, Shran’s unfairness rankled him. After all, Theras had asked to come along on this mission, insisting- perhaps because he had something to prove to Shran- that his telepathy could prove indispensable to the rescue effort. Although Reed himself had wanted to leave Theras behind, he now felt that Captain Archer had been correct in deciding to include him on the boarding team.
Ahead of them, two large, round-helmeted humanoids stood in front of the doorway, brandishing weapons.
As the quintet approached close enough for their booted footfalls to be clearly heard, one of the men said “Vah-udt,” his rising inflection on the final syllable suggesting that he was asking a question. “Dhaile hwai rhadam!” he added, raising his weapon without aiming it directly at anyone in particular.
“He can only hear us,” T’Pol said quietly over her suit’s com system.
Reed wished they’d had time to install Hoshi’s Romulan translation program into their environmental suits, but it simply hadn’t been possible under the circumstances. He hoped the men weren’t surrendering, but given their aggressive postures and their weapons, he sincerely doubted it.
“Take them out,” he said. “Quietly and nonlethally.” Reed saw T’Pol put a hand on Shran’s shoulder, holding him back, and then turned to look to the group’s rear. So far, it appeared