Star Trek: The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy #6: Mystery of the Missing Crew (8 page)

Data knew that Sinna could not have been happy about the situation—but as before, she kept her fears to herself.

Only her eyes showed her anxiety as they followed the progress of the red dot on deck three. It was moving through the ship’s corridors at a most impressive pace, coming ever closer to them.

But at the same time the
Yosemite
‘s computer was working to stop it. As the android looked on, something happened to the area around the red dot in section seven on Deck Five. The grid went from green to blue in that spot.

It meant that the first of his commands had been carried out. One of the intruders was now pinned under a gravity ten times as strong as that of Earth.

One down, thought the android … and five to go. A moment later a second section on the sensor grid turned blue. And a third.

All three of the intruders on Deck Five had been rendered useless. And as Data watched, a fourth—the construct on Deck One, near the engine room—was neutralized as well.

“Only two left,” Sinna observed. Before she had completed her remark, a fifth red dot was captured, leaving only a single construct still at large—the one on their level.

The android tracked its movement along the grid, calculated its speed, and came up with an estimate of when it would arrive at the site of the gravity trap. Then he checked the computer’s progress in creating the trap.

“Are we going to be in time?” asked Sinna. Her voice was taut with concern.

Data’s answer was simple, to the point, and completely lacking in emotion. “No,” he informed her. “We are not. The construct will pass the location of the trap several seconds before it is set up.”

Sinna’s jaw dropped. “You mean it’s going to keep on coming … and there’s nothing we can do to stop it?” She tried to compose herself. “Aren’t you the least bit afraid of what might happen now?”

Without looking at her, the android started working at his controls again. “I am incapable of being afraid,” he explained. “It is not part of my programming. However, I have no more wish to be destroyed than you do. That is why I have already begun to institute a secondary plan.”

That seemed to calm her down a bit. “Secondary?” she echoed. “You mean, there’s still a chance…?”

“That we can stop it?” Keeping his eyes on the console, he nodded. “A chance, yes—but with even less possibility of success than before. You see,
this
plan depends not only on the ship’s computer, but on
us
.”

“That’s fine with me,” said Sinna, surprising him. The muscles in her temples rippled with determination. “Anything’s better than sitting here and waiting. What do we have to do?”

Data turned to her. “I have instructed the computer to set up another trap. However, it lies along only one of the several routes the invader may take to get here. And if it proceeds along a different route, the trap will be useless.”

His companion eyed him. “I see what you’re getting at. We have to find it and get it to pursue us along that route. That is, without becoming trapped ourselves, of course.”

“Exactly,” replied the android. “Of course,” he went on, “it would have been more convenient to institute the trap directly outside this control room. However, we would then have been unable to exit without releasing the construct from the forces binding it.”

Sinna nodded to signify her understanding. With one last glance at the life support console, “Data led the way out into the corridor and gestured for her to follow.

“Come,” the android said. “We must act quickly.”

With the Yanna on his heels, Data launched himself down the corridor. It took only a few seconds for him to reach an intersection, where he turned right and pelted down a second corridor. At the next junction he made a left and kept on going.

His companion did her best to keep up. Right now that was all that was necessary. It was when they actually encountered their adversary that they would have any real need for speed.

Little by little, they approached the point at which their path would intersect with that of the intruder. Data could only hope that their adversary had seen no reason to take a different path, or he and Sinna could be in trouble. After all, without the internal sensor grid to refer to, they might as well have been operating in the dark.

A few moments later, however, they came across some evidence that they were on the right track. Naturally, the android heard it first.

It was the clicking sound that the intruders made when they ran. Stopping just short of another intersection, Data motioned for Sinna to stop as well.

“By the twin moons,” she gasped, nearly out of breath from her exertions. Her brow wrinkled as she listened. “Is that what I think it is?”

“It is the intruder,” the android responded, just in case she really expected an answer.

The clicking sounds were getting louder, but Data and Sinna didn’t dare run away yet. They had to make sure that when they
did
run, the construct came after them. So they waited.

And
waited
.

At last, when it seemed that the thing was right on top of them, Data peeked around the corner, hoping to sight their adversary. As it turned out, they sighted each
other
.

Even the android wasn’t prepared for what followed. He was expecting to see a machine much like the one he had seen earlier, with much the same abilities.

He was wrong. And he would have been
dead
wrong if he hadn’t managed to pull his head back in time.

As it was, the intruder’s energy beam ripped away a large section of the bulkhead where he’d been standing, leaving only a smoking heap of metallic sludge in its place. Allowing Sinna to pull him behind her, they took off back down the corridor.

“That blast…” the Yanna began.

“Was much stronger than those we have seen previously,” the android noted. “That is because we are dealing with a different sort of construct here … one which is obviously a good deal more powerful than the specimen we encountered earlier.”

Then there was no more time to speak, because the bulkheads on either side of them were turning into blazing slag under the destructive influence of the intruder’s beams.

In three strides Data caught up to Sinna; one more and he had passed her. Then, as before, he took advantage of his superhuman quickness to keep them just ahead of their pursuer’s barrage.

Making a right at the junction, the android skidded a little—and it almost cost him his artificial existence. Fortunately, his positronic reflexes allowed him to recover before the invader’s blast took his head off. Spurred by a new sense of urgency, he bowed his head and sped off.

The construct wasn’t as far behind them as Data would have liked. He could hear the thing’s feet hitting the deck at a pace that matched his own. Not only did this intruder command more firepower, the android decided, it was also faster than the other intruders.

Data negotiated the corridor in broken-field fashion. Zig. Zag. Zag again. And Sinna followed, zagging right along with him.

The android regretted the fact that their evasive maneuvers cut down slightly on their speed, but it couldn’t be helped. No amount of swiftness would help them if the construct could get off an easy shot.

At the next intersection Data turned left, wary of going into another skid. Still, their adversary’s blasts came within inches of hitting them, leaving the bulkhead to one side of them a blackened, hissing ruin.

“How much farther?” asked Sinna, her breath coming in huge gulps, her face bright red as a result of her exertions.

“Not much,” he replied, careful not to break stride even the least little bit. “I programmed the gravity trap to be created just beyond the next corridor crossing.”

By now the
Yosemite
’s computer should have had enough time to carry out his orders. The trap should have been set.

But what if it was not? What if something had gone wrong, and there was nothing to halt the intruder in his tracks?

The android didn’t want to think about that. Instead, he concentrated on making it to the end of the hallway, where he and Sinna would take their chances.

As if it somehow sensed that the chase was coming to an end—one way or the other—the construct increased the intensity of its onslaught. Its blasts ripped through the bulkheads on either side of Data, sending up a noise like a thousand screeching voices.

Smoke billowed around the android and his companion in thick, black clouds. Fragments of the bulkhead spattered and sizzled on the deck around his feet. And still he went on, plunging toward what he hoped was their salvation.

Squinting, Data did his best to see past the smoke … past the crackling, red energy beams that tore tunnels of lurid light through it … to the upcoming intersection. He could barely make out the corners where the bulkheads ended, giving way to the perpendicular corridor.

What he had to accomplish in the next second or two would require split-second timing. After all, if he stopped too soon and cut right or left, the machine in pursuit of him would note that and do the. same.

But if he waited too long to stop, he and Sinna would slide into the gravity trap. And while all that high-intensity g-force probably wouldn’t prove lethal to
him
, it certainly would to the Yanna. Nor could he toss her away at the last moment—because the intruder might go after her instead of the android.

The smoke slid past him on either side.
Not yet
, he told himself.

A crimson beam incinerated the fabric that covered his right shoulder, barely missing the soft artificial flesh beneath it.
Not yet
, he repeated silently.

A spot on the deck beside his foot was turned into a black, oozing wound.
Not yet
, he resolved, clenching his teeth.

And then, when it seemed he had no choice but to plunge headlong through the intersection and the trap that awaited him on the other side, the android planted his left foot and veered off sharply to the right.

He couldn’t have waited any longer, he thought, as he and his companion whirled and came to a halt. But would it be enough? Would his scheme produce the desired results?

Data got his answer a fraction of a second later as the intruder went careening through the intersection at full speed … and ran straight into the gravity trap.

For a moment all was silent in the corridor except for Sinna’s ragged breathing. Steeling himself, the android edged his way to the corner of the bulkhead and craned his neck, to peer around it.

To his surprise, he found the intruder staring right at him, its weapon arm raised in his direction. Only then did it occur to Data that he may have miscalculated. Though the same sort of gravity trap had been effective against the five other invaders, this more powerful, more lethal version of the construct might have been able to shrug off the trap’s effects.

Data could almost see the stab of crimson energy that would spell his doom. But it never came.

Instead, the construct toppled forward at the waist, finally falling victim to the android’s snare. And once it was bent over like that," there was no chance of its getting up.

“It worked,” said a voice from behind Data. He turned his head and saw that Sinna had come up behind him. “You did it,” she said, chuckling. “You immobilized every last one of them.”

“So it would appear,” the android agreed. At least for now, the constructs had been neutralized.

However, that didn’t mean that they were out of danger. Once the aliens saw that their invaders had failed, they might decide to attack the
Yosemite
in some other way.

“Computer,” said the android abruptly, “give me the bridge. Are you there, Lagon?”

It took only a moment for Lagon to respond. “Where else would I be?” asked the Yanna. “Are you all right?”

“We are fine,” Data assured him. “And you?”

“Fine as well.”

“No further threats from the alien ship?” asked the android.

“None,” replied Lagon.

“We were concerned,” said a new voice, which Data recognized as Odri1’s. “We were afraid the invaders might have gotten to you before they became incapacitated.”