Part 3 (1/2)
”That's impossible!” Starsa blurted out, and was shushed by the others.
”Starfleet Command reports that their flags.h.i.+p, the EnterpriseD, has been recalled to Earth to investigate this anomaly.” The blue c.o.c.kade bobbed impressively. ”Now we take you to the tunnels near the Presidio, home of Starfleet Academy, to view the remains.”
”Remains!” Starsa exclaimed again.
”Will you please shut up?” Bobbie Ray asked with exaggerated politeness, shouldering some of the remaining cadets aside to get a better view.
t.i.tus sat down at his desk, staring out the window at the Golden Gate Bridge. He was just as pleased to have their minds so quickly diverted from the antara match. He listened with only half an ear as the announcer described how the workers had discovered the severed head while installing additional seismic regulators in subterranean caverns to control earth movements that were typical along the San Andreas fault.
”Subterranean caverns,” t.i.tus repeated under his breath, realizing what that implied. Impatiently, he waited for the broadcast to end and the last of the cadets to depart to spread the bizarre news.
Finally only Bobbie Ray and Jayme were left, and t.i.tus knew Jayme would probably linger in their room all evening unless he asked her to leave. He had noticed she didn't like spending much time in her half-empty room, ever since Elma had resigned from the Academy. Jayme had more than once voiced her hope that a new cadet would fill the s.p.a.ce after the half-year break, but her room was still empty.
”I have an idea,” t.i.tus told them both. ”That is, if you want to have some real fun instead of holofakery.”
Bobbie Ray curled one lip at the intended slight. ”What's your bright idea this time?”
”You've never had a real thrill until you've descended a hundred meter fissure into an underground cavern.”
”You want to go down to the caves?” Bobbie Ray asked in disbelief. ”Are you crazy? You know how many security teams they must have posted?”
”We can't disturb the excavation site,” Jayme agreed. ”It could interfere with the Enterprise's investigation.”
t.i.tus raised his eyes to the heavens. ”I'm not stupid. We can explore the caverns without going near the Presidio.” He directly challenged Bobbie Ray. ”Unless, that is, you're too scared.”
Bobbie Ray hesitated, then shrugged, willing to go along with anything, as usual. Jayme briefly considered it before shaking her head. ”You don't know these caverns. They're dangerous; that's why they were sealed off ages ago.”
”We're not worried,” t.i.tus a.s.sured her. ”It's better to have three people on an underground exploratory team, but we'll go duo without you if we have to.”
”Even if I did agree to go, you'd never find a way to get inside.”
”Just leave that to me,” t.i.tus told them, feeling much better now. ”I'll get us below ground. Or I'm not an Antaranan.”
t.i.tus had grown up in the human colony of Antaranan, more in the caves than on the surface, so he figured there was n.o.body better to find their way through these puny San Franciscan caverns than himself. His mother was a biospeleologist, and had often taken him into the unexplored caverns and pa.s.sageways that riddled the crust of Antaranan, far beyond the familiar chambers used by the colony to grow the essential fungal-meats and fragile vegetable matter away from the harmful solar rays.
It wasn't difficult to access the maintenance records of the seismic regulators under San Francisco, as well as the original surveys of the caverns performed hundreds of years ago. Most of the main access ports were in the heart of the city-the financial district, in Union Square, even the ancient yards of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
When he showed Jayme the map, she shook her head at all of the access ports he suggested. As she liked to tell the other cadets, she knew the city inside out.
”This is where we should go down,” she insisted, pointing to a small auxiliary porthole near the Cable Car Barn Museum.
Bobbie Ray squinted at the print over that area. ”Chinatown?”
”I was looking for a more out-of-the-way place,” t.i.tus protested. ”That's one of the most crowded areas in the city.”
”Exactly!” Jayme exclaimed. ”Everyone's too busy and there's too much going on for anyone to pay much attention to a few people going down the access port.”
”Sounds reasonable,” Bobbie Ray agreed. ”Maybe we should get some orange coveralls. After all the media attention with the arrival of the EnterpriseD, no one will think it's unusual for workers to access old tunnels.”
”Fine,” t.i.tus said, resuming control of the expedition. ”Then you'll be ready to go on the next free day?”
”Sure; should we tell Starsa?” Jayme asked.
”The last thing we need is her medical alert going off,” t.i.tus protested. ”This isn't some joyride we're going on. It's serious. Both of you should make sure you really want to do this.”
Jayme nodded. ”If you go, then I should go, too. I checked, and it is safer with three people.”
Bobbie Ray yawned, reclining back on the cus.h.i.+ons of his bed. ”I think you're blowing this whole thing out of proportion. We saw those caves. Looks like an afternoon stroll to me.”
”Just you wait and see.” t.i.tus tried to sound ominous, but Bobbie Ray ruined it by laughing.
Irritated, t.i.tus left as the laughter continued to ring out behind him. He decided to take the transporter to the workout arena to blow off some steam. He couldn't wait to get that big Rex down on his turf. Then they would see how tough he was.
By the time their next free day came along, the EnterpriseD had finished its preliminary investigation on Earth. The a.n.a.lysis of the artifacts found at the dig site suggested they originated from the planet Devidia II in the Marrab sector.
It was barely dawn when t.i.tus woke to the news that the EnterpriseD was breaking orbit and was en route to Devidia II to investigate. He quickly called the others to get them moving. They needed to get past the upper tunnels and into new territory before the caverns were filled with secondary Starfleet investigators.
Bobbie Ray was like a limp rag, never eager to get up early, and being provocative undoubtedly because he knew how impatient t.i.tus was to get down to the caves. ”Yeah, yeah, just a few more minutes,” the Rex repeated, rolling over lazily.
t.i.tus prodded him again, fresh from his own shower and ready to go. When Jayme poked her head around the door, also up and eager, t.i.tus finally warned, ”I'll tell everyone you wimped out and we had to go without you.”
That did the trick, and within minutes the three cadets had transported into Chinatown. Jayme had taken the entire Quad on a tour of the city soon after the academic year began, so t.i.tus had already gotten a glimpse of the riot of color and noise and smells offered by the historic district. The streets were narrow canyons-very different from other Earth cities he'd seen so far, with their open green parks and towering spires. They had to watch their step along the sidewalks to avoid the squatting Asians who were tending their ion-grills, roasting a variety of real and exotic animal products right on the street.
Bobbie Ray kept stopping to toss credits at the vendors, picking up skewers of unidentifiable meat, while Jayme kept running into the makes.h.i.+ft booths to rifle through colored scarves and costumes. t.i.tus was too busy trying to get his bearings with the map on his padd, but somehow in the past few hundred years, the street locations and names had inexplicably s.h.i.+fted.
”We'll never find it!” he finally exclaimed, standing in the center of a five-way intersection that shouldn't have existed.
Bobbie Ray stuck a large fried insect in his mouth and briskly began crunching. The guy had a bottomless pit where his stomach should be.
”Close your mouth!” Jayme snapped, obviously disgusted by the sight of legs and feelers being randomly mashed around in the Rex's mouth.
”Want one?” Bobbie Ray asked, offering her a plasteen container that was piled with the desiccated bodies of Terran gra.s.shoppers.
”You know,” Jayme told him with a wicked glint in her eye, ”you shouldn't wear that color. Orange on orange makes you look like a big Zarcadian squash.”
”Will both of you pay attention?” t.i.tus demanded. ”We're going to have to pick another access port. We'll never find the one in here.”
”Oh, give me that!” Jayme s.n.a.t.c.hed the padd from his hand, muttering under her breath about ”tourists.”
With a few flicks of the screen, she overlaid a current map and zoomed in on their targeted access port.
”Here it is,” she said. ”Right behind the Ho Ching Acupuncture and Telekinetic Healing Clinic.”
”Oh, what a relief,” t.i.tus said sarcastically, taking back his padd.
”What would you do without us?” Bobbie Ray commented, grinning around the spindly legs of the gra.s.shoppers.
Jayme was right-no one paid any attention to three orange-clad workers opening the access port in the alleyway. Kids were running past, people were hanging clothes out overhead, and antigrav carts trundled by on both sides laden with warehouse goods or fresh produce.
Closing the access portal overhead, they stood in a rounded dirt-floored chamber similar to the one shown on the media broadcasts where Data's head was found. t.i.tus felt a sinking feeling, wondering if all the caverns had been reconditioned by the workforces over the years.