Tooth and Claw - Doranna Durgin [74]
“Entirely.”
“Keep it that way.”
And though the grumbling from the back of the shuttle ceased, Worf was unable to comply. He ran the shuttle slow and nap of the ground—a cautious approach despite his beginning maneuver—but while the power fluctuations remained more subtle than those the Rahjah had experienced … they remained.
“We’re not going to make it,” Riker observed as the Collins slowly lost power; the landscape beneath the shuttle changed from thick, towering rain forest to shorter, less dense trees. They crossed a low ridge that ran endlessly in both directions, and the flat valley on the other side changed dramatically in nature. Too full of surface rock to support trees, it instead sported a patchwork of dark ground vegetation and sandy brown rock layers. Along the ridge ran a wide, flat, lazy river, and Riker got the distinct impression he was looking at a giant floodplain.
“No,” Worf said, “we are not. But the power loss is steady and manageable.”
“Take us as far as you can, then, and still provide a controlled landing.” At least they had that much. And if Riker wasn’t mistaken, he saw the faint glimmer of the Legacy force field in the distance.
He left the copilot’s seat and helped himself to an empty seat in the back. “We’ll be landing soon,” he said,
hoping for the chance to say more but only just barely getting his mouth open again before Akarr took over.
“We’re going down,” he said, a marked tilt to his ears and eyebrows that Riker hadn’t seen in him before and couldn’t interpret. Amazed disbelief? “Is it not possible for you people to build a shuttle that can travel across the surface of a continent without failing?”
It doesn’t look that way. “Your engineers assured us, over our concerns, that our shields would not only operate within this environment, but would protect our shuttle engine integrity,” Riker said. “The Fandreans backed your assessment”—and at this, Zefan sat bolt upright-“and we trusted your skills. So if you want to assign blame, let’s spread it around a little. Or else keep it to yourself, and work with the rest of us toward overcoming the problems!”
Quietly, Zefan said, “We were not consulted.”
Silence. Akarr’s mouth worked, but his gaze shifted from man to man, and ended up resting to Riker’s left. He looked like a young man caught in a lie … with the spotlight on… and trying to work up enough gall to bluff through it.
The silence stretched out into moments, during which Akarr looked as shocked as Riker felt, if nowhere near as angry. But the shuttle increased its descent, and he took it as a warning. Now was not the time, no matter what he felt building inside him. If nothing else, it gave him a kick of energy he had a feeling he’d need. He turned a hard look on Akarr. “When we get through this,” he said, “if we get through this … we’re going to have a talk. My people to your people. Until then—”
“We did consult the Fandreans,” Akarr said, making an effort to pull himself into a rigid posture. “Zefan simply has no knowledge of it—”
“—Until then,” Riker repeated, biting the words off hard, not even bothering to stand, to use his height to emphasize the command status he was wrenching from Akarr, “we’ll have to work together. Do you think you can do that? Because if you can’t, tell me now, so I can find some other way to deal with the situation.” He briefly entertained the image of Akarr, thrown over Worf’s shoulder with a gag over his mouth, being carted from the landing to the portal.
Because this time, they really were going to have to walk out.
“We will do our part,” Akarr said. “As always.”
“I am about to land,” Worf said over his shoulder. “It will not be smooth. Be prepared.”
It struck Riker as a good way to end the conversation.
The descent speed increased even more; Riker watched as Worf tried to compensate, achieved partial success, and managed to bring the nose up just in time to jar heavily to the ground in a level—if somewhat abrupt—fashion.
“That’s it?” Akarr said, clearly braced for another outright crash.
“For which,” Zefan said pointedly,