Tooth and Claw - Doranna Durgin [15]
“Much advice,” Akarr said. “Maybe we should have had Picard pilot the shuttle after all.”
Beside La Forge, Yenan made his fluttery hand gesture again. Definitely some kind of chagrin, Geordi thought. “No, you’ve made the best choice,” he said. “Commander Riker is the best shuttle pilot we’ve got. Even Captain Jellico had to admit that.”
“Admiral, now,” Riker said, somewhat darkly.
“This Jellico is no one to me,” Akarr said.
“Let’s just say he doesn’t offer praise lightly.” La Forge nodded at the Rahjah, where Akarr’s men were now clustered around the shuttle door. “And I think you’re about to have an opportunity to find out for yourself.”
Akarr rested a hand on his much-decorated trophy knife, and pondered Riker for another moment longer. “Of course,” he said, “flying in is not the hard part. The hunt… you are, Commander, welcome to join us on the hunt. But, given our conversation yesterday, I expect that you’ll choose to stay with the shuttle.”
“I would happily join you on your hunt,” Riker said, snatching the challenge before the words even had time to settle.
“Uh, Commander—” La Forge said. “The shuttle… someone really needs to be there to monitor—”
Riker glanced sharply at him, and La Forge fell silent. His point had been heard, no need for more words. The ReynTa glanced between the two of them and gave a short laugh, a strange noise of which La Forge hadn’t been able to discern the origin. “As I thought,” Akarr said. ‘^ shame. We would have liked a Federation witness to the kaphoora. So be it. Commander, shall we depart?”
And Riker, giving La Forge one of those looks, chin at its most contentious angle, turned on his heel and stalked for the shuttle, overtaking Akarr on the way.
Yenan seemed to come out of hiding. “I wouldn’t want to be on that shuttle,” he said, smoothing down the fur of his arms. “You and me both,” La Forge responded under his breath. “Now, how about we look at those shields? I don’t want to miss my chance to see them in operation.”
Yenan straightened. Unlike Akarr, he didn’t strut; his gait was more of a lurching waddle. But it took him where he needed to go, into the booth with La Forge looking over his shoulder, trying to keep an eye on Yenan’s activities with the controls and the portal area at the same time. As the shuttle lifted, hovered, and then moved smoothly forward, Yenan made a few lightning adjustments to the frequency inputs, and then thumbed a sickly green switch that would have said don’t press me unless you mean it in any language.
With a painful whine of power, the portal opened-starting at the ground in a semicircle, and expanding evenly outward until it was large enough for the modified cargo shuttle. The shuttle slid through with remarkably little fanfare, and the portal snapped shut behind it.
La Forge transferred his attention back to the controls, where Yenan made a series of quick adjustments, then pointed at a timing indicator on the display. “There, you see? The countdown for the scheduled openings starts automatically. If the shield booth is not manned shortly before, the console will contact me, and I’ll make sure someone is here.”
“Good system,” La Forge said. “But what’s this?” He pointed to one of the normally static readouts, and the glut of Fandrean number icons tumbling past. Just as quickly, it was over; the Fandrean didn’t even glance up in time to see them.
“I’ll recall them,” Yenan muttered, jabbing at the controls. “Probably another one of the strange surges we’ve mentioned—ah, yes. Just that. Lucky we are, that you were right here for one. When we go back inside, we’ll call up the data and compare it to the previous surges. Maybe your outsider’s perspective will give us the answers we need.”
La Forge shook his head. “That