“ This is Commander zh’Rhun,”said the voice of the Lovell’s first officer, who at the moment was overseeing the reconstruction of the outpost’s main camp. “ Power readings from the other sites of those weapons emplacements are coming online, Lieutenant. I want your location evacuated and everyone transported up on the double.”
Al-Khaled already had informed the commander upon Xiong’s detection of the sudden activation of power sources deep beneath their own location. Zh’Rhun had allowed them to stay on site despite her misgivings over the new development, but Xiong knew that their grace period now had expired.
“We have to stay,” Xiong protested anyway, waving his arms to indicate the banks of dormant control consoles. “Our defensive measures are in place, and this could be our only chance to see this equipment in operation.”
Members of al-Khaled’s Corps of Engineers team were at this moment working less than thirty meters from where he stood, farther down the corridor that—like this chamber—had been carved with mathematical precision from the solid rock. In addition to the forcefield generators they already were in the process of deploying, the engineers also were setting up emitters for what they hoped would be a power generator capable of producing a dampening field to disrupt any communications signals detected between this location and other points across the planet. Sooner or later, Xiong surmised, they would have to test that equipment, and despite the fear gnawing at his gut as he remembered what happened here the last time he faced attack, he knew that now was as good a time as any.
“ I’m not ready to try those forcefields with live test subjects, Lieutenant,”zh’Rhun replied, her tone terse, “ and we have no way of knowing if the dampening field will have any effect at all.” Though he had met the Andorian officer for the first time only during the Lovell’s transit to Erilon from Vanguard, that initial encounter was enough to tell him that the commander was unaccustomed to having her orders questioned. “ Get to the surface and call for beam-out. I want everyone out of there right now.”
Xiong was tempted to argue the point but never got the chance as al-Khaled replied, “Understood, Commander. We’re leaving now. Al-Khaled out.” Closing the communicator and returning it to his belt, he regarded Xiong with a resigned expression. “You heard the boss, Ming. Let’s get our people.”
Whatever dissatisfaction Xiong harbored vanished, however, at the sound of his still-active tricorder emitting an alert tone. Holding up the device to inspect its miniaturized display, his eyes widened even as he felt his pulse quicken.
“I’ve got something new here,” he said. “Proximity sensors have detected three unidentified life-forms. They weren’t there a minute ago.”
“Transporter?” al-Khaled asked.
Xiong shook his head. “No transporter signature. One second nothing, the next there they are. Two are on the surface, heading for the base camp.”
The engineer frowned. “Where’s the third?” he asked, his right hand drifting to rest atop the Type-II phaser he wore on his hip.
“Fifty-seven meters below us,” Xiong replied, his jaw clamping in confusion at what the tricorder was telling him. “This doesn’t make any sense. According to these readings, that should be solid rock.”
“Or something designed to present the appearance of solid rock,” al-Khaled said, turning to run from the chamber into the corridor beyond. “Come on!”
Xiong followed after his companion as al-Khaled sprinted into the underground passageway to where two members of his engineering team, a Denobulan female and a human male, crouched near a piece of bulky equipment. Xiong recognized it as the main component for a portable forcefield emitter, one side panel of which lay open to expose its internal mechanisms. The Denobulan—an ensign named Ghrex, according to the nametag embossed over the right breast of her red utility jumpsuit—looked up at al-Khaled’s approach.
“Are the forcefields ready to go?” he called out.
Ghrex nodded. “We know,” she said as she returned her attention to her task. “We picked up the life-form.”
“We need thirty seconds,” added the other engineer, whose nametag identified him as Ensign O’Halloran.
As if in reply, the corridor around them rumbled as though gripped in a single intense, monotonous drone. The vibrations ran through everything—the walls, the equipment, even the tricorder Xiong still carried in his left hand.
“That can’t be good,” al-Khaled said.
Running footsteps echoed through the passageway behind them, and Xiong turned to see Lieutenant Jessica Diamond, the Lovell’s weapons officer, jogging toward them accompanied by two members of her security team, each of them carrying a phaser rifle. She was still wearing her open parka, and Xiong noted how the perspiration on her face matted to her forehead the bangs of her shoulder-length brown hair.
“Time to go, people,” Diamond called out as she approached them. Unlike her two subordinates’, her breathing seemed unaffected by her exertion, even though Xiong knew the trio had to have run the hundred or so meters from the entrance to the underground compound.
Studying his tricorder, Xiong once more felt his heart beginning to pound in his chest. “Too late for that, Lieutenant. I’m picking up a life-form—not one of our people—heading this way.”
Then the rumbling returned, and this time all of them in the corridor nearly were thrown off their feet. It continued for several seconds and, in a fit of panic, Xiong stared wild-eyed at the ceiling of the passageway, searching for signs that the stone tunnel might cave in on them.
“What the hell is that?” he cried, shouting to be heard above the din.
Khatami had only time to grip the armrests of her command chair.
The energy blast slammed into the Endeavour’s forward shields, overflow from the point of impact bleeding through the protective screens and lashing out against the hull of the ship itself. Khatami felt the force of the attack transferred through the innards of the starship, the deck shuddering beneath her feet even as the starship lurched to starboard, throwing her against her chair.
Overhead lighting flickered as alarms rang out across the bridge. All around her, people held on to anything that might provide support, be it the railing around the command well or their own workstations. Only Mog failed to anchor himself in time, his robust frame tumbling from his chair to the deck near the turbolift alcove. Even over the alert klaxons Khatami heard the engineer grunt in pain from the force of his fall.
“Mog!” she shouted as she swiveled her chair in his direction. “Are you all right?”
The Tellarite rolled to a sitting position even as Lieutenant Neelakanta wrestled the helm console to bring the Endeavourback under his control. “I’m fine,” he called out, pulling himself to his feet and stumbling back to the engineering station.
“Damage reports,” Khatami ordered, ignoring the dull ache in her side from where she had struck her chair.
“Shields at seventy-three percent and holding,” Mog replied after a moment. “All systems functional.”
Nodding at the report, Khatami swung her chair back to her right until she could see the science station. “Ensign, is the Lovellunder attack?”
Klisiewicz shook his head. “No, Captain. They seem to be out of range.”
“Let’s keep them out there,” Khatami replied. “Where are we with the weapons emplacements?” she asked even as she saw the younger man returning his attention to his sensor displays.
“Power stations are recharging,” Klisiewicz said a moment later. “Estimating next barrage in fifteen… mark!”
“Get us some maneuvering room, helm,” Khatami ordered. “Do we have targets plotted yet?”