The Red King - Michael A. Martin [113]
“Asteroid status?” Riker asked Jaza, who was diligently monitoring Titan’s sensor web from his post on the starboard side of the upper bridge.
“No serious damage, Captain,” the Bajoran science officer said. “Just some minor rearrangement of the surface rock layers.”
Riker touched the combadge on his chest. “Riker to away team.”
“Vale here, Captain.”
Riker spared a quick glance at Jaza. The science officer appeared visibly relieved to hear the exec’s voice. “How are things holding together inside Vanguard, Chris?”
“So far Keru, Tuvok, and I have managed to persuade almost everybody riding inside this rock with us not to riot. With a little help from our entire security complement, Frane, and our former guests from the Neyel military, that is.”
Riker couldn’t quite suppress a smile. He felt a surge of pride at Frane’s newfound sense of duty to his people.
“We could probably do with a little less shelling, though,” Vale continued, an edge of acerbic humor audible in her tone. “Dr. Ree and Dr. Onnta have their claws and hands full enough already without having to deal with an explosive decompression event on top of all the other injuries.”
Yet another flash of light briefly illuminated the surface of Vanguard, reminding Riker of a brilliant meteor shower he’d witnessed over Valdez during his thirteenth summer. Fortunately, this latest conflagration did not appear to have reached the habitat’s vitals. But even with the emergency forcefield generators Dr. Ra-Havreii’s engineering team had placed in strategic locations along Vanguard’s surface, Riker knew that the habitat’s luck couldn’t hold out forever; being ten kilometers long, the great rock simply couldn’t weave and dodge the way her tow ships could, no matter how quickly Titan’s sensor web distributed the real-time navigational hazard data it gathered.
Even though Vanguard’s human builders had taken the precaution of arranging the habitat’s interior into many independent, airtight sections—thereby preventing a single small hull breach from taking out the colony’s entire population—the death toll that would result from the blowout of an entire section would be in the thousands.
Riker took this latest light show as a signal that time was growing dangerously short. “We’ll keep doing our best to avoid the worst of the bumps, Chris,” he said. “How are the refugees doing psychologically?”
“I think we all have our hands full keeping passenger morale about as steady as you’re keeping Vanguard. Fortunately, we’ve got some expert help.”
“I thought Counselor Huilan and Counselor Haaj might come in handy over there.”
“Oh, they have, Captain, believe me. But I was referring to somebody else: Mekrikuk. Granted, a few of the Neyel have reacted to him as though he’s a monster straight out of a fairy tale. But he seems to have exerted a strong calming influence on a lot of the more agitated folks we’ve encountered here.”
Riker was gratified to hear that. He was pleased to discover that such projective telepathy had an application other than wanton violence; he couldn’t help but hope that the Federation authorities would look kindly on Mekrikuk’s request for political asylum.
“You’re doing great work, Chris. I need you to try to keep a lid on things just a little while longer,” Riker said. “The convoy is approaching the periphery of the Red King now. We’ll be making the passage through the rift in just a few minutes. We’ll see you on the other side. Titan out.”
He stepped back down to the bridge’s center and took his seat. “Restore forward view, please, Cadet,” he said. “Full magnification.”
Dakal entered a short series of commands into his