Unification - Jeri Taylor [73]
And so he watched, riveted, as a guard noticed Janicka and ran toward her. The little girl stared up at him, unable to move. He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, and then Janicka came to life. She shrieked, and kicked at the guard with all her might. Annoyed, he simply grabbed her by her ankles and swung her around in a circle until her face collided with the corner of a building.
He dropped her then and she crumpled, leaden, onto the street. Even from his hiding place, D’Tan could see that Janicka’s fair, delicate face was now a template of cracked and broken segments through which blood was streaming. She did not move or even twitch. She would never again eat a treat or walk with him to the caves or clean the windows in her parents’ store. Janicka, his good friend, was gone.
D’Tan sank back against the wall of the storage unit. The guards had already passed by, continuing their carnage as they marched through the segment. Here, before D’Tan, was a wasteland of the dead and wounded. Already the noise was subsiding, and all he could hear were the groans of those who still breathed.
He knew that Mr. Spock was in terrible danger. This massacre was meant to wipe out the movement, and if the guards knew that Krocton segment contained its nucleus and its most dedicated adherents, there was every chance they knew about the caves, too.
D’Tan waited a few moments until the noise of the marauding guards had grown faint, and then he crawled out of his sanctuary. Trying not to look at the devastation around him, he started running toward the caves.
Chapter Nineteen
THE ENTERPRISE CAME gracefully out of warp speed and entered orbit around Gaiorndon Core. It was a bleak, forbidding planet, electromagnetically shrouded and obscured by fierce storms and wildly erratic arcs of jagged electricity.
Riker turned from the viewscreen to Geordi, at one of the aft science stations. “Any signs of life, Mr. La Forge?” he asked.
Geordi shook his head as he scanned the instruments. “Negative, Commander.”
“The Romulans could have a cloaked base on the surface,” suggested Troi.
“Or anywhere else along the Neutral Zone,” added Riker. He had an unsettling feeling of disappointment. He had felt they were close to uncovering the mysterious origins of the stolen Vulcan ship, and now they found themselves in orbit over an uninhabited planet. Had they come all this way for nothing?
“Sir,” Worf’s voice interrupted, “a coded subspace signal from Romulus. It’s the captain.”
Riker moved to Worf’s tactical console, read the message to himself. Troi must have seen the concern on his face, because she moved toward him.
“What?” she asked.
Riker read the message aloud. “Maintain position at Galorndon Core. Diplomatic initiative appears to be succeeding. Will advise soon.”
Riker found this message instantly suspicious. The captain had only been able to communicate with them from the Klingon ship, and then by piggyback transmission. This coded message directly from Romulus was troubling. He cast a glance toward Worh he could tell that the Klingon officer shared his concern.
“The message did employ the proper code sequence, Commander,” Worf said. “Yeah,” said Riker. “I’m sure it did.” But he still didn’t trust it.
D’Tan was prepared for anything as he approached the caves. He kept cover as he neared them, running in a crouch through a thicket of dense wagi brush that paralleled the road. He stopped opposite the cave opening and watched for a while; he was apprehensive about entering and being caught in the narrow, tubelike chamber that led into the main cavern.
After a few moments, he decided not to risk the larger entrance but to take the time to come in from the rear, through a circuitous, winding corridor, which