The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [55]
“So they can’t give us any idea of what to expect down there,” La Forge said.
“No, they can’t. Sorry, Geordi.”
“Then I guess we better just go find out for ourselves. La Forge out.” He looked at his away team. “Everybody buckled up? Let’s get going.”
Half an hour later, La Forge eased the lift to a halt again. They would have to stop more frequently to place the relays as they got deeper into the atmosphere. After scrambling atop the drive unit and attaching another comm relay, La Forge was startled by Worf shouting.
“Geordi, behind you!”
Taking a huge gasp of air brought La Forge rushing back to the present. His surroundings spiraled into focus. He lay on his back, helmet off, still gulping more than breathing. Several Narsosians stood around him, peering down. From his vantage on the floor, the tall Narsosians seemed to stretch to the ceiling. Their clothes looked like they were woven of squid silk and dyed with random splashes of color. As his brain was replenished with oxygen and his thinking cleared, he realized that the ceiling really was just a few centimeters above their heads. And the ceiling was…undulating.
La Forge reached up to his VISOR to make sure it was properly attached to its contacts on his temples. Just as he confirmed it was working properly, he finally recalled the airship sucking him into a dark, cramped space, then being “spit out” again, through a biological airlock, into this place. The realization jolted him to action, and he rolled quickly onto his hands and knees then sprang to his feet. The Narsosians stepped back, giving him room as he spread out his arms for balance. The floor yielded a bit under his feet, making it difficult to stand still. He glanced around at the dome-shaped space, its wavering walls, the bioluminescent stripes that lit it. It was about the size of the observation lounge back on the Enterprise and was clearly inside the airship.
“It’s all right,” said a female Narsosian as she stepped forward. She made calming gestures with her hands and spoke in exaggerated soothing tones. “I know you can’t understand me, but you’re safe now…”
La Forge forced himself to relax. He got a better stance as he remembered trying out a trampoline on the holodeck once; the inside of the airship had much the same feel. “I can understand you.” Surprised at the translator’s effects, the Narsosians whispered nervously among themselves. La Forge tapped his VISOR. “Like this helps me see, we have a specialized computer for translation. We translated your language from the distress call.”
The woman looked suspicious. “We sent no distress call.”
La Forge shook his head gently. “Not you personally. I meant the old distress call, when your ancestors left Narsosia. We recovered the scramjet the beacon was on.”
Now they all looked suspicious. A couple of the males chomped their wide teeth together a couple times.
“We detected the signal a few days ago. My ship, the Enterprise, is in orbit around Askaria. We came here as fast as we could.” He took a careful step forward, noticing something that had been missing from the mummified Narsosians. The downy hair that covered their skin could subtly shift colors. A quiet wave of blue seemed to wash over them, and although La Forge had no idea what that might mean, he pushed on. “Our ships are faster than light. Space travel is much easier now. Like most things.”
The woman took another step toward him. “I’m Ontra. I lead on this float.” Her down had turned a pale white.
“I’m Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge.” La Forge smiled. Now I’m getting somewhere.
“What do you want with us?”
Or maybe I’m not getting anywhere. “We want nothing from you,” he said, thinking about what Riker had told him about the delegation from the moon. “But I do want to thank you for rescuing me. I thought I was going to be doing the rescuing.”
Ontra frowned. “Do we look like we need rescuing?”
La Forge wasn’t sure how to answer that, and he wished he had Troi here. But I don’t. I’ll have to handle this myself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”