Part 16 (2/2)
”It's all right,” Deanna said happily. ”We're fine now.”
Ro glanced down, then wished she hadn't. There was nothing there but a shaft. She could feel nothing at all beneath her stolen boots. ”I wish I could believe that,” she said softly.
The nothingness beneath them seemed to fade away, and they fell down the shaft.
The duke whirled around on Volker, his face white. ”It seems that you are unable to keep any of your prisoners confined,” he snapped. He was angry, but there was also fear in his voice. ”That's three more of them gone-and the ones I particularly wanted to see suffer.”
Volker gestured at the wall in front of them. ”Do you want to try and tell me how in the name of heaven I was to have expected or prevented them from walking through a solid wall?”
The duke wasn't to be sidetracked by trivialities like logic. ”They were your prisoners! I told you that if you couldn't hold them, you'd suffer for it. As G.o.d is my witness, I'll see you suffer!” He turned to the guards, who were cringing farther down the corridor. ”You-come here! I want Captain Volker arrested and thrown into some cell that even he can't get out off!” None of the guards moved. The duke's fear was being channelled into anger now. There was nothing he could do against people who could walk through walls, but there was plenty he could do with a fool who had failed him. ”Cowards!” he screamed at them. Spinning back to face Volker, he demanded: ”Is this how you train your men? They're not men, they're dogs!”
Coldly Volker glared at his lord. ”They're good enough men when things go well. It's your fault we're in this stupid mess. Your lechery led to the first girl being here, and your venality to the rest.”
”How dare you speak to me like that!” thundered the duke. 'I'll have you whipped for this!” He held out his hand. ”Give me your sword.”
”If you insist.” Volker drew his sword, then in a single swift motion thrust it with all of his strength into the duke's ma.s.sive stomach. The duke gave a stunned cry, his eyes glazing. ”Rot in h.e.l.l,” Volker snarled and twisted the weapon. Blood and bile surged about the wound. As the duke sagged, Volker withdrew the sword and stepped back.
The dying man fell to his knees, clutching at his stomach. Blood bubbled around his gloved fingers, staining the expensive fabric and splattering onto the cold stones. He stared up at his a.s.sa.s.sin, and then his eyes bulged. He fell forward, twitching slightly, and then was still.
Volker turned to his men. None had dared make a move. ”I think the duke's had a slight accident, but a fatal one,” he said. ”Do any of you have a problem with that?” The men all hastily shook their heads. ”Good.” Volker strode down the pa.s.sageway to join them. ”Then it's time we set to work to clean up this mess the old reprobate left us. You three, find me some masons.” He glanced back down the tunnel. ”We'll brick this place up. If Riker and the others want to stay here, we'll make absolutely certain that they never get out again. You two, find Randolph. Tell him nothing of the duke, but ask him to come to the main hall. It's time he paid a few long-standing debts, I think.” He couldn't afford to let the duke's adviser live. Unlike the soldiers, who would follow anyone who led them well, Randolph might cause problems. There was also the matter of what to do with the d.u.c.h.ess. Would it be better for her to have an accident as well, or should he perhaps consider marrying her to consolidate his position?
Problems, problems, problems ...
The shaft that Ro, Riker, and Deanna were dropping down was quite extensive. There was nothing to see, and Ro's initial panic stopped when it became obvious they were in the grips of a tractor beam of some kind. It held her gently, yet allowed her to move about.
”It looks as if the Preservers have opened the door for us to come inside,” Riker murmured. Deanna still had an expression of bliss on her face, so Ro a.s.sumed he was directing his remarks to her.
”But can we trust them to open it when we want to leave again?” she asked.
”We've no reason to think that they may be hostile, Ensign,” Riker said.
”We've no reason to a.s.sume that they're benign, either,” Ro countered. ”In fact, what we do know of them could be taken either way.”
Riker frowned. ”They preserve societies that would otherwise have died out. That suggests they value life.”
”They preserve societies that perhaps should have died out,” argued Ro. ”That Amerind world the old Enterprise discovered hadn't evolved at all in hundreds of years. Neither has this planet. Maybe these Preservers are deliberately r.e.t.a.r.ding their progress for their own reasons. Let's face it, putting humans on a world populated by dragons isn't the nicest possible gesture, is it?”
”A human culture that already believed in the existence of dragons,” Riker pointed out. ”And I think you may be judging their actions too harshly.”
”Possibly I am,” Ro agreed. ”But we don't know.” She nodded at Deanna. ”She's obviously entranced by them. I figure I'd better balance that by being a little more suspicious than normal.”
Riker grinned. ”And I can be middle of the road?”
Ro returned his smile. ”I thought you'd like being caught between two women, Commander.”
Before Riker could come up with a rejoinder for this, their fall ended. There was no slowing-they simply stopped in the air. There was no feeling of inertia or motion sickness. Ahead of them stretched a short tunnel, lined with glowing metallic panels.
”We're here,” said Deanna, stepping forward. Ro shrugged and then followed. Riker kept pace with her as they walked down the pa.s.sageway and emerged into the room beyond.
Randolph was shaking with fear. Picard had a handful of his clothing and held him pressed against the cold stone wall.
”What is happening to my s.h.i.+p?” Picard repeated angrily.
”Gravity mines,” Randolph gasped. As he spoke, he triggered the release for the small pouch under his s.h.i.+rtsleeve that held the tranquilizer needle. It slid out into his palm. Quickly he brought his hand around to stab Picard with it.
Metallic fingers closed about his wrist and squeezed. Randolph screamed, and the needle fell from his nerveless fingers to clatter on the floor. Data kept his grip on the man's wrist as he stooped to pick up the needle. ”Drugged,” he explained to Picard, holding it up. He seemed to be unaware that he was crus.h.i.+ng Randolph's wrist.
”Prompt action, Mr. Data.” Picard glared at the howling prisoner again. ”Answer me, d.a.m.n you.”
”He's breaking my wrist!” Randolph screamed.
Letting go of the man's clothing, Picard turned to face the trembling Hagan. ”Mr. Data, if he doesn't begin talking within the next ten seconds, snap his wrist. Then we can talk to his friend here.”
”Gravity mines,” said Randolph hastily. ”They're a Preserver weapon, to protect this planet. I triggered them a short while ago and set them after the Enterprise.”
”That's much better,” Picard said approvingly. ”Now-how do we stop them?”
”I don't know.”
”Mr. Data-”
”I swear it!” Randolph screamed. ”I don't know! I found the instructions on a panel in their control room. It's difficult script to translate. It took me months to decipher as much as I did. I only bothered with how to set the mines, not with how to turn them off again.”
Picard considered this. The man could be lying, but he doubted it. He was plainly terrified and incompetent. A petty crook, way out of his tiny little league when he'd stumbled across something of this magnitude. It was all too believable that he would not have bothered to find out how to stop the attack once it had begun. ”I'll accept what you say for now,” he decided. ”Now-where is this Preserver control room?”
”It's under the castle.” Randolph stared at his wrist. ”Tell him to let me go. Please! I'll tell you anything you want to know.”
”You'll talk first,” Picard replied. ”And how do we get into the room?”
”Via the dungeons.”
Picard shook his head. ”Come, you can do better than that. Do you seriously expect us to walk into a cell and accept that there's a control room on the other side of it? I wasn't born yesterday, you know.”
”It's not a cell, it's just a corridor.” Randolph licked his lips nervously. ”It looks as if you come to a dead end, but if you know there's a door there, you can walk into it. But you've got to believe it, or you just walk into solid stone. They must have made it like that to hide it from the natives.”
”From the dungeons?” mused Picard. That was where all of the guards were milling about. It would be impossible to get into the Preservers' control area while every Tom, d.i.c.k, and Harry in the castle was in the dungeons. He'd need to lure them out first. But he couldn't plan that while guarding these two crooks. He tapped Data's communicator. ”Picard to O'Brien.”
The static didn't seem as bad as it had before. ”O'Brien here, sir.”
”Mr. O'Brien, are you able to transport up to the s.h.i.+p at the moment?”
”Aye, sir. I've rigged a gravity compensator, and the s.h.i.+p's s.h.i.+elds are timed to the mines' gravity pulses. But I don't have any readings for you on my board. Just Mr. Data at your current position.”
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