Part 21 (1/2)

He watched the way the light reflected off a bare patch of the cave's floor, and he nodded. ”Metal,” he said.

Jestem turned off the light, tucked it into his own belt, and said, ”We're going down there. Secure some safety lines in the cliff face, and relay our coordinates to the Demial.”

”Yes, sir,” Sedath said. He nodded to Malfomn, who set himself to work hammering spikes into the stone cliff face and securing st.u.r.dy ropes to them. Sedath removed his pack and dug out the radio. He turned it on, set it to the s.h.i.+p's frequency, and pressed the transmit b.u.t.ton. ”Landing party to Demial, acknowledge.”

The watch officer's voice squawked and crackled over the barely reliable portable transceiver, ”Demial here. Go ahead.”

”Our coordinates are grid teskol seventeen, azimuth three-fifty-six-point-two, elevation one thousand three hundred nine.”

”Noted,” said the watch officer. ”Any details for the log?”

”We've found an opening in a cliff wall,” Sedath said, and then he paused as Jestem snapped around and glared at him, as if to say, Not another word-not yet. Composing himself, Sedath continued, ”We're going underground to see where it leads, so we'll be out of touch for a bit.”

”Got it. Watch your step down there.”

”Count on it. Landing party out.” He switched off the radio and tucked it back inside his pack. He walked back to the others and saw that Malfomn had finished securing two safety lines and was hurling their coils of slack down the ice shaft. Sedath sidled up to Jestem, who was still gazing down into the subterranean darkness. ”Sir,” Sedath said, ”maybe I should go first, just this once.”

”Nonsense,” Jestem said, slipping back into his practiced persona of nonchalant bravery. ”I was just getting my bearings, that's all. Let's get down there before we lose the light.”

There was no time for Sedath to protest. Jestem locked his jacket's climbing loop around the safety line and started down the shaft, his boots slipping clumsily across the snow-dusted ice as he worked his way down the rope, using his hands as a brake. Half a minute later, the commander was at the bottom, s.h.i.+ning his borrowed palmlight down the tunnel.

Sedath directed and supervised the descents, and he was the last person down. After a few strides away from the ice, his footsteps echoed against metal, much as they did aboard the Demial. He halted in midstep as Jestem, Karai, and Malfomn spun around and shushed him. As soon as he stopped, they turned away and seemed to be listening intently, so Sedath did the same.

Faint sounds reechoed in the darkness, so softly that they almost became lost in the melancholy moaning of the wind through the pa.s.sages. Then the sounds became closer and clearer: a soft sc.r.a.pe and several light footfalls.

”Lights,” Jestem said, switching on his palmlight. Karai, Malfomn, and Marasa did the same. Empty-handed, all that Sedath could do was stand to one side and try to gaze past the crisscrossed beams to see what might emerge from the darkness.

Two shapes shuffled into the penumbra of the palmlights. At first, all Sedath could see were their dark outlines, but even from those, he was certain that he was looking at a man and a woman. They were emaciated and garbed in tattered, loose-hanging bits of fabric, which fluttered in the chilly breeze that never seemed to cease. The beams from the palmlights were reflected in the pair's eyes, which even from a distance had a disconcerting emptiness that sent a s.h.i.+ver of fear down Sedath's spine.

”Identify yourselves,” Jestem called out.

Karai said with venomous anger, ”We know who they are-corporate spies.” Sneering at the disheveled figures limping and walking stiffly out of the darkness, he added, ”Looks like they already got what they deserve, too.”

Then the mysterious duo stepped fully into the harsh glare of the palmlights. They were definitely a male and a female, but Sedath was certain they weren't Kindir. For one thing, their hands each had only a single opposable thumb instead of the normal two. Even more shocking to him were their pallid, mottled-gray complexions. Kindir skin varied in pigmentation from golden brown to ebony, and no one in the history of the world had ever had eyes the color of the sky-but this woman did.

The landing party was still and silent, dumbfounded by the significance of this encounter: They were face-to-face with living, intelligent beings not of their world.

The alien woman spoke in a monotonal voice. Her words didn't sound like any of the dozens of major languages on Arehaz. She repeated herself as she and her companion advanced on the landing party.

Jestem muttered to Sedath, ”Any idea what she said?”

”No clue,” Sedath said.

The aliens stopped at arm's length from the landing party. The woman spoke again, repeating her monotonal declaration. Then she and the man each extended one hand to the landing party.

”I think it's some kind of greeting,” Sedath said.

He stepped forward to take the man's hand, but Jestem grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. ”Looks like she does the talking around here. Let me handle this.” Jestem took half a step forward and offered his hand to the woman. ”I am Salaz Jestem of the icebreaker Demial,” he said. ”On behalf of Kindir around the world, welcome to Arehaz.”

The woman grasped the commander's extended hand. Slender metallic tubules broke through the skin between her knuckles and leaped like serpents into the fleshy part of Jestem's wrist. He convulsed and then became rigid. The light left his eyes.

Sedath and Malfomn sprang to Jestem's aid. The male alien's hand struck in a blur, locked around Sedath's throat, and lifted him off the ground. The female let go of Jestem and snared Malfomn's arm before he could land his punch.

The two men struggled in vain to free themselves. Despite the aliens' gaunt appearances, they were amazingly strong. Out of the corner of his eye, Sedath saw Dr. Marasa spring to catch Jestem, who had staggered away from the melee in a daze.

Marasa shook Jestem by his shoulders. ”Commander? Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

Jestem looked up at Marasa-and then he lifted one hand to the doctor's throat and skewered it with two silver tubules from his own knuckles. Marasa twitched in Jestem's clutches, and next to Sedath, Malfomn was quaking and wearing a glazed look as the female alien withdrew her tubules from his wrist.

Then Sedath felt a bite on his own neck, like a pair of tiny fangs piercing his carotid. A dark, m.u.f.fling curtain of terror descended on his thoughts as the female spoke again. This time, hearing her inside his mind, he understood her perfectly.

You will be a.s.similated.

2381.

21.

Gredenko looked back from ops and said, ”Starfleet Command is confirming all reports, Captain.”

Dax smiled and heaved a deep, relieved sigh. Applause and cheering filled the Aventine's bridge, and even Bowers let down his guard for a moment to pump his fist and shout, ”Yes!”

It really worked. Dax could barely believe it. a.s.saulting the Borg probe s.h.i.+p had been a terrible risk and the wildest of long shots, but they had done it-and played a decisive role in saving five allied worlds from annihilation.

As the applause tapered off, Dax joined Lieutenant Kandel at tactical and asked, ”How long before Captain Hernandez can tap into the Borg vinculum again?”

The Deltan woman replied, ”We don't know yet, Captain. The last report from Lieutenant Kedair said that Captain Hernandez had to be disconnected from the vinculum for her own good.”

”Has the captain regained consciousness?”

”Yes, a few moments ago,” Kandel said.

”Then I want her patched back into the vinc-” A thunderclap and a jarring impact knocked the bridge into a confused jumble of bodies falling and tumbling in the dark.

Bowers shouted, ”s.h.i.+elds! Tactical, report!”

Several more blasts shook the Aventine in rapid succession. ”Taking fire from the Borg s.h.i.+p,” Kandel called back over the din of explosions.

”Return fire!” Dax said. ”Target their weapons!”

”Firing,” Kandel said. On the main viewer, blue streams of phaser energy skewered the Borg scout's hull, vaporizing its primary and secondary armaments. Dax hoped she wasn't inflicting more friendly-fire casualties on her boarding teams.