Part 16 (1/2)
She stood in front of the vinculum, which a team from the Enterprise had captured and taken offline. The vertical shaft was capped at its top and bottom by diamond-shaped, emerald-hued polyhedrons. An intricate cage of protective black metal surrounded each major component, and the core shaft was surrounded by several rows of horizontal bands. It vaguely reminded Kedair of a warp core on a Federation stars.h.i.+p.
Irregular impacts echoed in the cavernous s.p.a.ce outside the vinculum's tower. Kedair looked down the pa.s.sage and through the blasted-open entrance to see her people clearing the corpses of Borg drones from the tower by tossing them over the edge of the entrance's exterior platform, into the belly of the s.h.i.+p, which was a random-looking pit of snaking pipes and jutting machinery.
Kedair fought the urge to contact sickbay on the Aventine and pester Dr. Ta.r.s.es for an update on the wounded personnel. Just let the medics work, she told herself. She dreaded going back to the s.h.i.+p. Sooner or later, she would have to write and submit her after-action report for this mission, and she was torn over whether to describe her blunder as the result of incompetence or of negligence. All that really mattered to her was that the officers who had obeyed her order to fire not face a court-martial; as far as Kedair was concerned, they were as much victims as the people they'd shot.
”All squad leaders have checked in, Lieutenant,” T'Prel said, interrupting Kedair's guilty ruminations. ”All drones have been neutralized, and all decks have been secured.”
”Good,” Kedair said. She stepped away and tapped her combadge. ”Kedair to Aventine. We're ready for the engineers.”
”Acknowledged,” Commander Bowers replied over the comm. ”They're beaming in now.”
There was a faintly electric tingle in the air before the first sparkle of a transporter beam appeared in the darkness. Then six figures took shape in a flurry of particles and a euphonic wash of sound. The effect brightened the entire vinculum chamber for several seconds. When it faded, Lieutenant Leishman and five of her engineers stood before the mysterious Borg device, holding toolkits and eyeing their surroundings with equal parts apprehension and professional curiosity.
”This ought to be interesting,” Leishman said, smirking at the vinculum. ”a.s.suming Voyager's technical specs are accurate.”
Unable to stomach Leishman's good mood, Kedair extinguished it with a glower as she said, ”Whatever you're gonna do, Mikaela, do it fast. It's time to give the Borg a new queen.”
17.
A flash of movement and a snap of jaws, the sting of fangs breaking flesh, a rush of terror- Deanna Troi awoke with a shudder and pulled her arms up and in, striking a defensive pose. Her hands and feet were stiff and cold, and a tingling of chilled gooseflesh traveled up her legs. Exhaled breaths became white clouds above her. Shaking off her disorientation, she realized she was no longer in her quarters.
The room was narrow, but its ceiling was far above, at a dizzying height. A clamsh.e.l.l-shaped skylight was directly over Troi, who tucked her chin to her chest and examined her own situation. She was lying on a dull metal slab and surrounded by bizarre machines, which pulsed with violet light and whose purposes she couldn't begin to divine. An especially large and fearsome-looking contraption hovered near the ceiling, above a point several meters past the foot of what Troi surmised was an operating platform. Along the top of one wall, in the only area uncluttered by machines and un.o.bstructed by crisscrosses of drooping cables, was a broad observation window.
Inyx stood behind a transparent barrier to her right. He appeared to be engrossed in a complex task and did not yet seem to be aware that Troi had regained consciousness.
She reached slowly toward her chest and gingerly touched where Ree had bitten her. Searching with her fingertips, she found the rips in her uniform but no corresponding wounds in her flesh. Though the air in the laboratory felt cold to her, she wasn't in any real discomfort. Closing her eyes, she focused on the sensations from within her body, in an effort to a.s.sess her own condition. No pain, she realized. That's good...I hope.
Troi opened her eyes to find Inyx looming over her.
”You're awake,” he said in his mellow baritone. ”Good.”
Inyx, like the other Caeliar, projected no emotional aura that Troi's empathy could detect. If his intentions were sinister or duplicitous, she had no way of knowing beforehand. She propped herself up on her elbows and asked, ”Where are we?”
”In my lab,” Inyx said. ”It was the only sterile facility in Axion that was properly equipped to a.s.sist you.”
She tried to swallow, but her mouth felt too dry. ”The last thing I remember, Ree attacked me.”
”A misunderstanding, apparently,” Inyx replied. ”He used his species' natural venom to place you temporarily in a suspended state. It was a crude solution to your dilemma, but it did briefly stave off the immediate crisis.”
Panic quickened her pulse. ”Venom?”
”There is no danger, Deanna,” Inyx said. ”I've purged the toxins from your system and stabilized you-for the moment. I didn't wish to take any further steps without your informed consent, however. That's why I've revived you.”
Pondering the degree to which Inyx must have examined her to be able to cleanse her system of Pahkwa-thanh venom, Troi surmised that he had likely become privy to all of her extant medical issues. ”You know that I'm pregnant...don't you?”
”Yes, Deanna.”
After days of running from the heartbreaking truth of her situation, confessing it almost felt like a relief. ”Do you also know that it's not going well?”
”That much was clear when I saw that its mutation had threatened your life,” Inyx said. ”I would like to help you.”
Tears rolled from her eyes and blazed fiery trails across her cold cheeks and over the edge of her jaw. ”The captain of t.i.tan is my husband and the father of my child,” she said. ”I want to go back to my s.h.i.+p and be with him.”
”I'm sorry, Deanna, that won't be possible.” Before Troi could protest, Inyx added, ”t.i.tan escaped orbit and returned to your Federation approximately ten hours ago.”
The news cut through her like a blade. Shock dominated her thoughts. My Imzadi left me? He's gone? Denial took hold. ”How could t.i.tan be back in the Federation already?”
”It repurposed a subs.p.a.ce pa.s.sage that we had created for reconnaissance purposes,” Inyx said. ”With a.s.sistance from Erika Hernandez, t.i.tan's crew enlarged the subs.p.a.ce aperture and used it to make a near-instantaneous journey home. As I'm sure you can imagine, the Quorum is feeling rather vexed.”
Troi lay back on the slab and covered her face with her hands. ”I can't believe he left me,” she muttered.
The part of her that was an officer understood Riker's actions perfectly. No doubt, he'd been forced to choose between saving the s.h.i.+p and the majority of its crew or risking their freedom for the sake of the already captured away team. Viewed in that light, Troi knew that her captain's decision had been logical. But the part of her that was a wife shrank beneath the crus.h.i.+ng emotional blow of Will's abandonment.
Inyx said, ”Deanna, we really can't afford to wait any longer. I am ready to a.s.sist you medically, but I require your permission to proceed.”
She lowered her hands and folded them protectively across her abdomen. ”Dr. Ree wanted to do this days ago,” she said. ”I wouldn't let him. I don't know why not. Maybe I was hoping for a miracle.” A surge of emotion constricted her throat. It took her a few tries before she could continue. ”But I guess it's time to accept that maybe some things weren't meant to be.”
”I don't understand,” Inyx said.
Troi replied, ”I'm giving you permission to proceed. To terminate my pregnancy.”
The imposing Caeliar scientist recoiled from her, as if in horror. ”Deanna, I think you've mistaken my intentions.” He recovered a small measure of his composure and continued, ”As I've explained to you before, the Caeliar abhor violence and will not terminate sentient life for any reason. Likewise, for us to abandon a life in peril that could be saved is also anathema.” Resuming his proud bearing, he finished, ”I was not asking to end your pregnancy, Deanna, but to repair it.”
”You could do that?” she asked, amazed at the very idea.
”And more,” Inyx said. ”I have spent a considerable fraction of the past several centuries learning about humanoid biology, mostly for Erika's benefit. However, I am certain that I possess the knowledge and expertise to restore the proper, natural genetic pattern of your fetus and to repair the damage in the unfertilized ova of your uterus. While I won't impose my cures on you or your child without consent, I am not too proud to beg you to accept my help.” He transformed the waggling cilia at the end of one of his arms into a semblance of a long, bony humanoid hand, and he extended it in invitation toward Troi.
”Grant me your permission, Deanna,” he said, ”and I will heal you-and your child.”
The pa.s.sage through the catacombs of Axion grew narrower with every step Keru and Torvig took. ”Where are we going, Vig?”
”Just a bit farther, Ranul,” Torvig said. ”If my senses are accurate, there should be an opening twenty-two meters ahead.”
Their voices and scuffling steps echoed and carried in the pitch-dark tunnel. ”I wish you'd told me we were going spelunking,” he said to the Choblik engineer, his voice echoing off the close walls. ”I'd have brought one of the palm beacons.”
”Not necessary,” Torvig said. ”There is an increase in the ambient light ahead, at the tunnel's terminus.”
Keru's eyes saw nothing but the same pools of darkness broken by occasional patches of deep shadow. ”I'll take your word for it, Vig.” He looked back over his shoulder and found the path back just as dark as the path forward. ”I wonder which one of our Caeliar observers is trailing us right now.”
”You could simply ask them,” Torvig said.