Part 16 (1/2)
Riker nodded. ”Thank you, Ensign. In the meantime, I'll have Lieutenant Worf map out the routes I'd like your friends to search. And-”
”Begging your pardon, sir,” Ro interrupted, ”but I think they'll prefer to map out their own routes. That's just their way.”
He could live with that. He said so. The ensign turned to go, then stopped herself and looked back at him.
”You know,” she said, ”you surprised me. I thought you'd hold out until the bitter end.”
Riker allowed himself a smile. ”So did I,” he admitted.
Ro looked at him frankly. ”What changed your mind?”
He shrugged. ”I don't know, exactly. I guess desperation has a way of clarifying your priorities.”
She smiled back. ”Right.” And a moment later, the ready-room doors were closing behind her.
Squinting in the rays of the hot midday sun, Picard kept his phaser hidden in the crook of his arm as he and Julia made their way across the colony's plaza to the sensor facility. Fortunately, there were few of the colonists around, and those who were didn't seem to take any inordinate interest in them.
At the entrance to the facility, they stopped, waiting for the security system to announce their presence. The captain looked around uneasily, then turned as the doors started to slide aside.
Of all people, it had to be Hronsky himself who stood there, his eyes popping open suddenly as he realized whom he was facing. Before he could sound the alarm, Picard drew his weapon and pressed the trigger.
The chief engineer staggered under the impact of the blast, hit the wall behind him, and slid to the ground. With one last sweeping glance, to make sure this hadn't been noticed by anyone in the plaza, the captain took Julia by the arm and led her inside.
”d.a.m.n,” she whispered, kneeling for a second by the unconscious Hronsky. ”Did you have to stun him, too?”
”Yes,” Picard replied-also in a whisper. ”There was no time to do anything else.”
Scanning the interior of the structure, he saw that it was spa.r.s.ely populated now-in contrast to the day before, when the chief engineer had announced his discovery. And all those present were too occupied with their monitors to notice what had happened to their superior.
The controls that related to the power source were in the center of the room. No one was watching them at the moment. Perhaps that had been Hronsky's job. Or perhaps he had decided not to post anyone over them, as a show of disdain for the prisoner's warning.
In any case, the captain and Julia were able to get halfway to the controls before anyone even glanced in their direction. But once one of the engineers noticed them, the others all raised their heads-almost as if there were a telepathic link between them.
”What do you want?” blurted one of them-the red-bearded man that Picard had seen here before. He was looking not at Picard's face, but at his leveled phaser.
”Not to harm you,” the captain a.s.sured him.
”He's here to sabotage the power source,” concluded a woman with long, blonde hair tied up in a braid.
There was no point in explaining, Picard decided. He had tried that once already and failed miserably. So instead, he merely took the few extra steps he needed to reach the control console.
Julia stayed with him. She must have felt terrible, the way her fellow colonists were staring at her. Like a traitor. But she was acting in their best interests, even if they would never believe it.
A stocky man with graying temples seemed on the verge of making a move. The captain froze him with a glance.
”Don't even think about it,” he said.
The man scowled. ”Why are you doing this?” he asked. ”Who are you, anyway?”
Picard ignored them, lowering his gaze to the level of the power-source monitors. He didn't like what he saw there. Pressure in the containment vessel was up markedly. Punching a few raised pads on the console, he saw that the trend was accelerating. Another couple of hours of this and it would have been too late to stop the process.
But it wasn't too late now. At least, not according to the captain's calculations. There was still time to keep these people alive, at least for a while.
He was just about to reduce the magnetic injector ratio to two hundred when he heard the doors to the place slide open and felt a hot breath from the air outside. Whirling, Picard saw a single figure silhouetted in the brightlight.
”d.a.m.n,” spat Travers, starting toward the limp body of his chief engineer. ”What in the name of heaven is going on here?”
The captain realized that, with his body in the way, he'd been blocking the commodore's view of his phaser. Instantly, he remedied that.
Travers's eyes opened wide as they fixed on the weapon. Then, slowly, he looked up to meet Picard's. For a moment, the man just stood there, trying to decipher the situation-to find an option worth pursuing.
If he were a character in a Dixon Hill novel, he might have tried to ”make a break for it.” As it was, the commodore seemed to know when was out of luck. Of course, he wasn't going to step inside until the captain asked him to. There was still a chance that someone might spot him and realize that the sensor control section had been taken over.
”Please,” said Picard. ”Come in.”
Frowning, Travers complied. The doors swept closed behind him as he got down on his haunches to look at Hronsky. Satisfied that the engineer was still alive, he looked up at his antagonist.
”I'm curious,” he said, ”about how you expect to get away with this.”
Very simple, thought the captain. I don't. Not unless I can figure out a way to signal my first officer, and quickly.
But what he said was ”Never mind that, now. Move over here, with the rest of your people.” He gestured with his phaser, to make it clear as to what he wanted Travers to do.
En route, however, the commodore appeared to notice that the doctor wasn't standing with everyone else. She was right in front of the power control console. Travers put two and two together.
”No,” he said, his eyes s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up in his face. ”Not you, Julia. Not you, too.”
”I believe him,” she told the commodore, refusing to lower her gaze. ”Though I don't expect anyone else to.”
”That's good,” Travers replied, not bothering to keep his scorn out of his voice. ”Because no one else here is that gullible, as far as I can tell.”
Julia didn't say any more. She knew that she would be called to a court-martial for helping a mystery man sabotage the sensors' power source. And her only defense would be the readings in her tricorder.
If Picard were the judge advocate a.s.signed to the case, he was sure he'd have a difficult time finding her innocent. So would anyone else. But apparently, the doctor had already accepted that prospect.
”If it is any consolation,” said the captain, ”I do not plan to disable your power source. Only to make it impossible for you to tamper with the injection ratio-in the short term, at any rate.”
Glancing back and forth between the console and the colonists, he remembered to keep his phaser aimed at the latter with one hand, while he worked at the former with the other. Before long, he had discovered the subprogram that governed the action of the magnetic injectors. Adjusting it, he inst.i.tuted an elaborate pa.s.sword system to stand guard over the alteration. Then he stood back.
Travers was glowering at him. ”We'll meet again, Mr. Hill. You can count on that. And when we do, you'll have occasion to regret this incident.”
”Perhaps,” Picard conceded. ”However, you will not.”
The question in the captain's mind now was where to go from here, With the power-source crisis firmly fixed in the front of his mind, he hadn't had time to make any longer-range plans. Now he had no choice.
The problem, of course, was that he hadn't yet figured out a way to contact Riker. And until he did, it would be impossible for him to formulate a real plan of action. On the other hand, he couldn't stay here-or anywhere in the colony, for that matter. That left just one option: taking to the hills.