The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [158]
They held each other’s gaze for a long moment. Beverly could be coolly calm and analytical. It was a skill Riker envied right now, since he needed to do something, even if he didn’t know what.
“We have to get back to the shuttle,” Riker suggested.
Beverly shook her head. “My tricorder’s been picking up one intermittent life sign outside. That scavenger’s still out there, waiting for us. And with a weapon he can use to finish what he started with you.”
Riker looked around the room, thinking about their situation and the Tellarite with the cargo gun, all while hoping he didn’t task the device’s power too much.
“He thinks he’s killed one Starfleet officer. He probably wants to make sure there’s no one to connect him to the crime.” He paused and regarded the walls of the emergency room. “Why hasn’t he come back in? He’s had time to check things out by now. He must think you’re alone, with me out of the way. But why is he still out there instead of coming in to finish the job?”
“Fabrini medical protocols again. When this ER detected the drastic change in your condition, it was programmed to assume the worst, a contagious biohazard, and the entire facility went into a quarantine lockdown. The whole building is sealed. Blast doors. Metal coverings on the windows. Sterile fields. And a facilitywide shield that keeps everything out. Even transporter beams.”
“Can you reopen it?”
“I think so. The system seems designed to open sections of the building after a humanoid operator has declared them safe. But with that Tellarite out there, it’s probably better to keep the whole place sealed.”
“So we’re trapped.”
“For now, yes. But Enterprise will find us. You know they will.” She stopped short of reminding Riker of all the times the crew of the Enterprise had managed some last-minute rescue. Riker had, after all, engineered enough of them, himself. “In the meantime, I’m going to go through the Fabrini medical records. Most of our knowledge of the Fabrini comes from the book found on Yonada. But the Yonadi had stagnated while this branch of the Fabrini continued to progress for centuries. So I’ve got some catching up to do.”
Will started to say, “What do you hope to find?” when it hit him. Beverly had been talking around the issue, driving the conversation away from the most logical question. “Even if we get back to the Enterprise, you can’t fix me, can you?”
Beverly set her jaw. “No, Will, I can’t. Your damage is too severe.”
“If we find that Tellarite, get the cargo gun…”
She shook her head. “I can’t just beam your heart back into your chest. Even assuming no pattern degradation, there’s no way to do that kind of precise integration. The shock alone would kill you.”
The enormity of his situation crashed down upon him. He managed to conceal most of it from Beverly, but she did notice that his knees weakened, just a little bit. She’d had to give this news to far too many people in her career, and she knew the signs. For just a second, he let the mantle of command drop. The slight swagger and the twinkle in his eye disappeared. It was an unvarnished, honest Riker who asked his friend, “What do I do?”
Beverly picked up Riker’s tricorder, which had also slipped from his belt during his attack. “Think about what you want to say,” she said and handed Riker the device.
“…I mean, what do I say?”
Riker took a sip of his tea, Darjeeling with honey this time, and settled into his chair in Picard’s ready room. He was going to miss a lot of things about the Enterprise, and his teatime with Picard was probably at the top of that list. Even if, in all his years aboard Enterprise, he hadn’t managed to find a tea he’d liked.
Picard eyed him closely, then gave a smile. “I think that you’re the one who should be answering that, Number One.”
“Look, it’s bad enough Deanna wants to have two weddings. Doubly bad that she wants the one on Betazed to be a traditional Betazed wedding, complete with nudity.” Riker smiled wryly and patted his stomach. “Hell, I haven’t had dessert in three months.
“But now,” he said as he rubbed