The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [53]
“It looks like a raid,” Worf said. “The rightful owners would not have done this.”
“It could have been some sort of emergency during the harvest,” said La Forge. “A fluctuation in the scramjet’s orbit, maybe.”
Worf said nothing, but his expression was skeptical. He continued taking tricorder scans as he walked down the rows of hydroponic racks.
Troi stepped closer to La Forge. “I agree with Worf.” She looked around the room again. “Something’s not right here.”
La Forge sighed. “Maybe the start of the same kind of unrest they had on their homeworld.”
“I recommend we take additional security personnel with us,” Worf piped up from across the compartment.
“We can’t show up like an invasion force,” La Forge said. “Look, there’s nothing here that couldn’t have been an accident or even an adolescent prank.”
Worf grudgingly acknowledged that, which caused La Forge to wonder what sort of mayhem teenage Klingons caused. Probably a lot worse than this. They continued exploring the scramjet but found no conclusive evidence. Finally La Forge said, “It’s almost time. Let’s get our helmets on and run through a suit check.”
They headed down the gangway to where they’d left their helmets. Just as they finished the safety protocols, the elevator control console emitted a loud tone and a light came on inside the airlock.
“Well,” said La Forge with a smile, “I guess our ride is here.” Troi rolled her eyes as Worf grimaced. “What? That was exactly like something Commander Riker would have said.”
“But he would have made it work,” said Worf. Troi laughed, tried to cover her mouth, but only hit her faceplate with her gloved hand.
La Forge shook his head as he opened the airlock, leading them inside. A red-striped hatch on the floor was clearly off limits, so they stood back from it. The entrance hatch sealed behind them and, after a quick cycling of air, the red-striped floor hatch opened, revealing a ladder. Leaning forward, La Forge peeked down the ladder to an oval platform with a short railing around it and seats with lap belts.
“Guys, the elevator is a bit…minimalist,” La Forge said.
La Forge stared at the cloud where the squid had vanished, his oxygen-starved brain still trying to process the image of the humanoid. That was a Narsosian riding one of those flying squids, he thought. They were hunting the mantas. He didn’t know what he had expected if he found the Narsosians, but he hadn’t let his imagination run this far.
Then a movement in the cloud focused his fading attention. But it was no squid. A bulbous shape appeared out of the mist. a darkness behind it hinting of a larger shape still hidden. What is that? The shape continued to expand. It reminded La Forge of an ancient dirigible, an airship, but he knew it was another Askarian life-form. Its skin was mottled tan with streaks of bioluminescence. Clusters of bright red stalks sprouted from it in random spots. Sensory organs, maybe, La Forge thought. And still it emerged, its shape continuing to expand. It looked a couple hundred meters long and fifty meters across. Dangling below it was a patchwork of nets and ropes, suspending an array of platforms and shelters. Dozens of Narsosians in EV suits moved about on the platforms and in the rigging.
As La Forge watched, a group of them walked to one side of the airship and pulled some ropes, adjusting rudders that hung below the platforms. Slowly, the airship turned toward him, its body undulating strangely as the creature followed its riders’ wishes, guided by the rudders. As it drew closer, several of the stalk clusters vibrated and angled toward him.
Okay, so now I’m going to be eaten by a giant