Part 1 (2/2)

As the chief engineer made his abashed exit, Riker got up and walked to Hernandez's side. In slow, careful motions, he helped her stand and steady herself. ”Are you all right?”

”I think so,” she said. ”That last pulse was a doozy. Guess I didn't know my own strength.”

Riker did a double-take. ”You caused that final pulse?”

”I had to,” she said. ”It was the only way to close off the pa.s.sage and destroy the machine at the other end once we were clear. That'll keep the Caeliar off our backs for a while.”

”Define 'a while.'”

Hernandez shrugged. ”Hard to say. Depends how much damage I did and how badly the Caeliar want to come after us. Could be a few days. Could be a few decades.”

”We'd better get busy making repairs, then,” Riker said.

She nodded once. ”That would probably be a good idea.”

Riker turned to Lieutenant Rriarr. ”As soon as the turbolifts are working, have Captain Hernandez escorted to quarters and placed under guard.” To Hernandez, he added, ”No offense.”

”None taken,” she replied. ”After eight hundred years with the Caeliar, I'm used to being treated like a prisoner.”

Deanna Troi screamed in horror as Dr. Ree sank his fangs into her chest just below her left breast, and Ree felt absolutely terrible about it, because he was only trying to help.

The Pahkwa-thanh physician ignored Troi's frantic slaps at his head as he released a tiny amount of venom into her bloodstream. Then the half-Betazoid woman stiffened under his slender, taloned feet as the fast poison took effect.

Four sets of hands-one pair on each arm and two pairs on his tail-yanked him backward, off Troi, and dragged him into a clumsy group tumble away from her. He rolled to his feet to find himself confronted by the away team's security contingent, which consisted of Chief Petty Officer Dennisar, Lieutenant Gian Sortollo, and t.i.tan's security chief, Lieutenant Commander Ranul Keru. The team's fuming-mad first officer, Commander Christine Vale, snapped, ”What the h.e.l.l were you doing, Ree?”

”The only thing that I could, under the circ.u.mstances,” Ree replied, squaring off against his four comrades.

Vale's struggle for calm was admirable, if unsuccessful. She flexed her hands and fought to unclench her jaw. ”This had better be the best d.a.m.ned explanation of your life, Doctor.”

A shadow stepped off a nearby wall and became Inyx, the chief scientist of the Caeliar. The looming, lanky alien tilted his bulbous head and permanently frowning visage in Ree's direction. ”I am quite eager to hear your explanation as well,” he said. The deep inflation and deflation of the air sacs that drooped over his bony shoulders suggested a recent exertion.

Ensign Torvig Bu-kar-nguv cowered outside the door of Troi's quarters and poked his ovine head cautiously around the jamb to see what was transpiring inside. Ree understood perfectly the reticence of the young Choblik, whose species-bipedal runners with no natural forelimbs-were descended from prey animals.

As Ree chose his words, Commander Tuvok, t.i.tan's second officer, entered and kneeled beside Troi. The brown-skinned Vulcan man gently rested one hand on Troi's forehead.

”I confess it was an act of desperation,” Ree said. ”After the Caeliar destroyed all of our tricorders-including mine-I had no way to a.s.sess the counselor's condition with enough specificity to administer any of the hyposprays in my satchel.”

”So you bit her,” Sortollo interrupted with deadpan sarcasm. ”Yeah, that makes sense.”

Undeterred by the Mars-born human's cynicism, Ree continued, ”Commander Troi's condition became progressively worse after she went to bed. Based on my tactile measure of her blood pressure, pulse, and temperature, I concluded there was a high probability that she had suffered a serious internal hemorrhage.” He directed his next comments to Inyx, who had moved to Troi's side and squatted low, opposite Tukov, to examine her. ”She would not permit me to seek your help or request the use of your sterile medical facilities for the procedure.”

”And that's why he bit her,” Dennisar said, riffing on Sortollo's dry delivery. Commander Vale glared the Orion into a shamed silence.

Inyx rested his gently undulating cilia over Troi's bite wound. ”You injected her with a toxin.”

Menace was implied in Vale's every syllable as she said, ”If you've got a point to make, Doctor, now's the time.”

”My venom is a relic of Pahkwa-thanh evolution,” he said to her. ”It places prey in a state of living suspended animation. Its purpose in my species' biology was to enable sires of new hatchlings to roam a large territory and bring live prey back to the nest without a struggle, so that it would be fresh when fed to our young. In this case, I used it to place Counselor Troi in a suspended state to halt the progression of her hemorrhage.”

Keru sighed heavily and shook his head. ”All right, that does kind of make sense.”

”What you did was barbaric and violent,” Inyx said. A sheet of quicksilver spread beneath Troi like a metallic bloodstain. It solidified and levitated her from the floor. ”Your paralyzing toxin, while effective in the short term, will not sustain her for long. If that is what pa.s.ses for medicine among your kind, I am not certain you deserve to be called a doctor.”

Inyx began escorting the levitated Troi toward the exit.

Tuvok lurked silently behind Inyx, his intense stare fixed on Troi's face, which was frozen in a look of shock even though she was no longer sensate.

Vale blocked Inyx's path. The security personnel regrouped behind her, fully obstructing the doorway. ”Hold on,” she said to Inyx. ”Where are you taking her?”

”To a facility where we can provide her with proper medical care,” the Caeliar scientist replied. He glanced at Ree and added in a pointed tone, ”You might be surprised to learn that our methods do not include masticating our patients.”

Ree was a gentle being by nature, but the Caeliar seemed committed to putting his goodwill to the test. ”She needs the kind of medical care that I can provide to her only on t.i.tan,” he said to Inyx. ”If you really were the beneficent hosts you claim to be, you'd let us return to the s.h.i.+p.”

Inyx halted and turned back to face Ree. ”I am afraid that is quite impossible,” he said.

”Yes, yes,” Ree groused. ”Because of your sacred privacy.”

”No,” Inyx said, ”because your s.h.i.+p has escaped and left you all behind.” A gap opened in the ceiling above Inyx and Troi, who ascended through it into the open air of the starless night. Inyx looked down and added, ”I will leave you to contemplate that while I try to save your friend's life.” He and Troi faded into the darkness and were gone.

A shocked silence filled the room as the remaining away-team members regarded one another with searching expressions.

Dennisar asked no one in particular, ”Do you really think t.i.tan got away?”

Keru gave a noncommittal sideways nod. ”The Caeliar haven't lied to us so far. Could be the truth.”

Vale said, ”If they did, good for them. And it's good news for us, too, because you know Captain Riker will send help.”

Everyone nodded, and Ree could sense that they were all trying to put the most positive possible spin on the cold fact of having been abandoned by their s.h.i.+pmates and captain.

Torvig was the first to wander back to his quarters, and then Tuvok slipped away, his demeanor reserved and withdrawn. Vale left next, and Keru ushered his two men out of the room.

Ree followed the burly Trill security chief out of Troi's quarters into the corridor. Keru snickered under his breath. ”I'm sorry, Doc,” he said. ”But for a second there, I really thought you were trying to eat Counselor Troi.”

”I would never do such a thing,” Ree said, affecting a tone of greater offense than he really felt. Then he showed Keru a toothy grin. ”Though I have to admit...she was rather succulent.” Noting the man's anxious sidelong glance, Ree added with a fl.u.s.tered flourish, ”Kidding.”

4527 B.C.E.

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