“What the hell is that thing?” La Sala whispered. Though her own weapon was aimed at the creature, she did not fire, apparently continuing to follow Zhao’s last instructions.
Xiong felt his pulse racing in his ears and his heart beating as though it might push through his chest as he got his first good look at the…whatever it was. It appeared to be humanoid in only the most rudimentary sense; dark, towering more than two meters in height, glistening and steaming next to the vehicle in stark contrast to the snowpack surrounding it. Its physique was devoid of clothing or in fact any discernible qualities. He saw no indications of hair or skin tone or even facial features. No muscle tone was apparent in any of its extremities; the arms instead appeared to be faceted like glass or polished steel and honed to razor-sharp points that gleamed in what feeble sunlight managed to penetrate the dense cloud cover.
He, La Sala, and Bohanon watched as the thing stalked Nauls, covering ground in massive strides and closing the gap between itself and the security officer in seconds. Nauls fired again at near point-blank range, the cobalt blue beam simply disappearing into the creature’s torso as it continued forward. Then the thing swung a massive, shimmering arm that caught Nauls at the midsection, slicing him in half and sending his body falling in two different directions. Blood stained and melted the surrounding snow, rapidly expanding away from the luckless man’s tortured corpse as it ran in rivers down the embankment.
Xiong heard Bohanon scream in abject terror at the same moment the air was filled with the whine of another phaser.
Captain Zhao’s.
This time the report sounded louder and more powerful while the energy beam that struck the creature looked brighter, its drone more intense. Xiong guessed that the captain had increased the setting on his phaser in a renewed attempt to stop the horrific monster in its tracks.
As before, the weapon seemed to have no effect. The creature appeared almost oblivious of any attack on itself as it turned and lunged toward the source of the weapons fire. Zhao, unfazed by the imminent danger he faced, held his ground and fired again even as he reached into his parka with his free hand to extract his communicator.
“Xiong!” La Sala said as she thumbed the power setting on her phaser all the way forward. “Set to maximum and fire! Now!”
Fumbling with his own weapon, Xiong raised it and aimed at the thing advancing on Zhao. The whine of tightly focused energy rang in his ears as his phaser’s piercing blue beam joined La Sala’s in a frantic attempt to force it into breaking off its attack.
Ahead of the creature, Zhao finally moved as it lashed out at him, dodging to his left and scrambling toward the transport vehicle. Xiong gasped in horror as the captain slipped and fell face-first to the snow-packed earth, jarring his phaser and communicator from his grip. The devices skittered across the ice-slickened ground, only to stop well beyond his reach.
“No!”La Sala screamed, rising up from behind the rock outcropping and firing at the creature once again. The thing turned, its featureless face seemingly looking right at them, and Xiong felt the icy fingers of terror close around his heart at the same instant he felt Bohanon jerk on his arm.
“Shoot it!” the Denobulan screamed.
The thing was moving again, this time directly toward them. Snow, ice, and dirt whipped into a frenzy around him as Xiong held his free hand up to protect his exposed face. At the same time, he brought his phaser up to strike in one last stand against the rushing creature. Once again, the weapon tingled in his hand as it discharged its powerful beam of energy, which again proved useless as the menacing black form loomed closer, blocking the very sun from his view.
The tingle in his hand then seemed to cascade over his entire body. Only after he saw the first hints of gold sparkles start to coalesce around him did he realize he had been caught by a transporter beam. Everything faded into blinding white light…
…only to be replaced by the stark interior of a transporter room and the terrified face of a crewman standing behind the chamber’s bright red console. On the pad ahead of him and to his left, Lieutenant La Sala found herself aiming her phaser at the crewman and hurriedly lowered the weapon.
“Sorry, Chief,” she said as she stepped down from the pad. Turning, she looked to Xiong. “Lieutenant…” she began, but the rest of her words died in her throat. Her eyes grew wide with new fear and her mouth dropped open in unbridled shock as she stared at something to his right.
Xiong turned to see Bohanon standing next to him, his features frozen in terror and surprise. His arms were held up in front of him as if trying to fend off an invisible enemy. Between his collar and his abdomen was a nearly perfect circle of nothingness, penetrating his torso from front to back.
The lifeless Denobulan collapsed to the transporter pad just as Xiong felt his own legs go out from under him. Color washed from his vision before everything was consumed by black.
“Incoming!”
Yet again, Khatami employed a death grip on the arms of the command chair as the Endeavourdid its best to buck her out of her seat, pummeled once more from the planet’s surface. This time the blow hit her from the side, driving her rib cage against the sharp contours of the command chair’s armrest. Smoke and sparks issued from the bridge’s now unmanned environmental-control station.
“Transporter room, report!” she shouted into her chair’s intercom, continuing to endure her jaw’s relentless ache.
“We have three…”
“The captain?”
The pause from the other end fed her fears. “ No, Commander.”
Khatami pressed her fingers into her brow in frustration. “Keep trying!”
“I’m working on it,”the transporter chief said, “ but there’s nothing else to lock on to down there.”
Thoughts of Zhao and the encampment, along with all sorts of wildly imagined terrors, flashed in her mind, though the anguish and torture was short as Halse called for her attention.
“Damage reports coming in, Commander,” he said. “Secondary hull compromised. Critical breach of the hangar deck. Life support is down to forty-four percent.”
At his own station, Mog turned in his seat. “They’re having to seal off engineering to contain a coolant leak.” Looking to Khatami, he said, “I should probably get down there.”
“I need you here,” she snapped, the words startling her even as they sprang from her lips. The Tellarite regarded her with torment in his eyes, the need to see to his people and his allegiance waging war with each other. She held his gaze and in a near-whisper added, “Please….”
Mog nodded once. “They’ve got it contained, and I can direct damage control from up here.” The delivery of his report was such that Khatami wondered if it was more to assure himself than anyone else. Returning to his console, he rechecked the row of display monitors before straightening in his seat. “But we’ve got another problem, Commander. The hit to the secondary hull has cracked the base of the port nacelle strut. It needs emergency repair and we can’t do it here.” Indicating the planet on the viewscreen with a nod of his massive head, he added, “Without shields, if we take another hit, the support will shear off and we’re done. Simple as that.”
We can’t leave yet,she thought. I can’t.
“Power is cycling up again on the planet,” Klisiewicz said. “We’ve got about forty seconds, Commander.”
Khatami jammed the intercom button. “Transporter room! Who’s down there?”
“This is Chief Schuster, sir. I’ve got Lieutenant La Sala and two members of the research team here. Lieutenant Xiong and…I’m not sure what the other person’s name was. Xiong’s pretty shaken up, but he’s okay.”