Three - Michael Jan Friedman [28]
Runj joined them, a phaser in his hand now too. “Any idea what they’re after?”
[79] Vigo shook his head. “Not specifically, no. But in a place like this, it could be a great many things.”
Sebring looked up and down the corridor. “You can say that again, pal. I just wish I knew how many of these slime devils we’re up against.”
“We could go through the installation one hallway at a time,” Runj said around his tusks, “and find out that way. But I wouldn’t advise it. I think we can be reasonably certain that they outnumber us.”
“Also,” said Vigo, “they may have taken hostages. That will make it a good deal more difficult for us to fight them.”
Sebring swore beneath his breath. “And if the research our people have been doing here falls into the wrong hands ...” His voice trailed off, leaving the rest to their imagination.
Vigo nodded. The research had to be their priority. But there were only three of them. How could they win against a potentially much larger force?
Then it came to him. “The intruders couldn’t have beamed down—not with that magnetic-storm belt out there. They had to descend in a shuttle, just as we did.”
Runj looked at him. “And they’ll need to take that shuttle back up.”
“Exactly,” said Vigo.
“So if we disable the thing,” Sebring reasoned, “they can’t leave with it.”
“Or what they came for,” Runj added. “At least until they can send down another shuttle.”
“If they even have one,” said Vigo.
[80] Sebring shrugged. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
“But we’ve got to strike now,” said Runj, “before they realize we’re on the loose.”
Vigo agreed wholeheartedly. “Let’s go,” he said, as he made his way to the nearest exit past the motionless bodies of his fellow Pandrilites.
Chapter Six
GREYHORSE WAS RECALIBRATING the sensor array on one of his biobeds when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of two people entering sickbay.
One of them, he knew, was Pug Joseph. The other was the individual who had beamed aboard the ship recently under mysterious circumstances.
Taking a deep breath, Greyhorse gathered himself. Then, slowly and deliberately, he looked up.
And saw her.
The doctor had been warned by the captain as to what was coming his way. But he hadn’t been warned strongly enough or thoroughly enough to prepare him for the sight that greeted his eyes.
He had expected to see someone who looked like his lover but wasn’t, someone along the lines of Gerda’s sister Idun. But the woman who had just walked into [82] Greyhorse’s sickbay was Gerda. At least, it seemed that way. And yet, in a profoundly disturbing way, she wasn’t.
The doctor couldn’t explain why he felt that way about her. And yet, he did.
The woman smiled as she and Joseph approached him—and that too was shocking in its way, because Gerda had never smiled that way, nor would she. But the newcomer was smiling in the very way Greyhorse was certain Gerda would have smiled if she had ever been inclined to do so.
“Doctor Greyhorse?” the woman ventured.
He cleared his throat to buy himself some time. “Yes,” he said at last, with an annoying quaver in his voice. “That’s correct. I’m Doctor Greyhorse.”
“Best doctor in the quadrant,” Joseph chipped in. “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. You’re in good hands.”
“I’m sure I am,” said the newcomer.
Greyhorse ignored both their compliments. “Though you seem to have suffered no ill effects,” he said, “the captain felt it was only prudent for me to look you over.”
“Of course,” the woman said. She looked around. “Where would you like me to sit?”
Greyhorse indicated another biobed with a gesture. “This will do. You have biobeds in your universe, don’t you?”
“We do,” the woman confirmed as she moved to the device and slid onto its surface. “But I don’t think they’re quite as advanced as the ones you have.” She shrugged in a way the doctor found immensely appealing. “Not that I’m an expert on such things.”
Greyhorse decided that it would be best to minimize [83] his conversation with the newcomer and