The Lost Era: Well of Souls: Star Trek (41 page)

“But he’s a kid!”

“So what? What, you’re going to save him?”

“No,” said Mar, faltering. He turned away, ashamed. “It’s just ...”

“Then shut up, Mar!” Chen-Mai flicked his phaser to kill. “If you’ve got nothing to add, then shut the hell up!”

“Please,” Jase sobbed, blood drooling from his lips, “please, don’t hurt my dad,
please
.”

“Look at it this way,” said Chen-Mai, leveling his phaser at Jase. “I do you first, you won’t have to watch.”

“Freeze!”
The command cut through the air like a knife. “Right there! Don’t move, don’t so much as goddamn
breathe!”

Mar froze. Chen-Mai flinched then whirled on his heel, weapon hand coming up for a shot.

There was a high-pitched whine, a flash of light, and the phaser blast caught his weapon hand. Shrieking, Chen-Mai spun around; his phaser clattered to the stone floor.

“I said,” Garrett readied her phaser for another blast, “don’t goddamn
move
.”

“Mom?” Jase tried pushing himself from the stone floor.
“Mom?”

At the sound of her son’s voice, Garrett started, blinked as if she’d been struck. An instant later, the color drained from her face. Her eyes flicked over to the far wall then down to Kaldarren.

“Jase?” she whispered in disbelief. She took a step forward.
“Ven?”

“Oh, Lord,” said Stern. She stood at Garret’s elbow, her own phaser out and ready. “What the
hell?”

“Ven,”
Garrett said again, starting forward. “Jase, what’s wrong with your father? Ven, I don’t understand, what ... ?”

It was the only opening Chen-Mai needed. In a blur of movement, he had swept up his phaser with his good hand and come up behind Jase, locking the boy’s neck in a stranglehold with his forearm.

“All right,” said Chen-Mai, jamming the muzzle of his phaser against Jase’s temple. “Everyone, drop your phasers. Nice and easy.”

“A
shuttlepod?”
Servos protesting, Bat-Levi crossed to stand behind Glemoor at his station next to Castillo. “Are you
sure?”

“Positive, Commander. Sensors indicate a Vulcan shuttlepod heading for the planet’s surface, and Commander Halak’s transponder signal indicates that he is on board.”
Glemoor twisted his head around to look up at Bat-Levi. “Those shuttlepods are short-range vessels.”

“I know. I think it’s safe to assume they didn’t give him a ship for his own amusement. Who’s with him?”

“Life signs read Vulcan.”

“So Fake Burke is still aboard the
T’Pol,
and that means she’s nearby. Where?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t be precise.”

Bat-Levi gave the Naxeran a dry look. “Guess.”

Glemoor blinked. “Well, I
guess
the
T’Pol’s
hidden behind the planet’s moon, or the planet itself.”

“Yeah, that’s what I would do.” Bat-Levi watched the course of the small green blip of the shuttlepod as it angled in toward the surface. “The fact that the shuttlepod’s headed down also means they don’t know we’re here.”

“Very likely. A Vulcan warpshuttle would have limited sensor capabilities. The question is what do we do now?”

Bat-Levi debated. She rejected as useless any speculation as to why the
T’Pol
was in the vicinity. They had no way of knowing, and this wasn’t her primary concern at the moment. Safeguarding the crew was. Bat-Levi wanted to try hailing Garrett but knew not only that their signal was unlikely to pierce through the interference, but this risked revealing their position. Not that she worried about
T’Pol’s
firepower:
Enterprise
won that particular argument, hands down. The Cardassians, however, were a different matter.

Bat-Levi looked over at Castillo. “Helm, I want you to take us into the transition region of that brown star.”

Castillo looked startled. “That’s awfully close, Commander. Even with shields at max, we’ll cook.”

But Glemoor was shaking his head. “No, Ensign, it’s a good strategy, an
excellent
move. By definition, the brown star is cooler than, say, your Sol.”

“And since the star itself is cooler, the temperature will be low enough for us not to be in any danger but just high enough to obscure our plasma trail,” said Bat-Levi. “We won’t cook, not if we don’t stay too long.”

“Permission to give a suggestion, Commander?” asked Castillo. At her nod, he continued, “We have no way of knowing how long we’ll have to stay. It’s much less risky if we adopt the same strategy as the
T’Pol.
Keep the planet and its moon in front of us as a natural barrier. The stellar winds ought to obscure our plasma trail, and you said yourself that the warpshuttle’s sensors can’t read very far.”

Bat-Levi and Glemoor exchanged glances. Then Bat-Levi put her good hand on Castillo’s shoulder.

“It’s not the
T’Pol
I’m worried about,” she said, gently.

Jase, all that blood, what are you doing here, what’s happening? And Ven, Ven, what’s wrong with you?
Garrett swallowed back her panic. “Jase?”

“I’m okay, Mom. But, Dad, you’ve got ...” His voice ended in a choked gargle as Chen-Mai tightened his stranglehold around the boy’s neck.

“I said, be quiet!” Chen-Mai peered at Garrett over Jase’s right shoulder. “You, drop your weapon! Do it now! The other woman, too! In front of you where I can see them!”

“Fine.” Garrett held up her hands, palms out, and let her phaser clatter to the rock. Stern hesitated then followed suit. “No problem,” said Garrett. “Just take it easy.”

“I am
very
easy! Now, kick them out of the way ... good. Now back up.”

The women did as they were told. Garrett’s gaze dropped to Kaldarren, who lay crumpled on his side. “Ven,” she called. She saw his eyelids flutter then open.
“Ven!”

“Rachel.” Kaldarren’s face was a mask of pain. “Rachel, I knew you’d come if I called, I
knew
...”

He gave a sharp cry as Chen-Mai aimed a vicious kick at his back. “Quiet!” screamed Chen-Mai.

“Stop!” cried Garrett. She balled her fists in frustration and grief. “Let us
help
him!”

“Not until I get some answers.” Chen-Mai rammed the point of his phaser into Jase’s temple. “Now, mind telling me how you got here?”

“Mom,” Jase began again, “Mom, I ...”

“Enough!” Chen-Mai tightened his grip.

“Jase.” Garrett gritted her teeth. It was all she could do to keep from leaping across the room and throttling the man. “Jase, don’t say any more. Just be quiet.”

“Well,” said Chen-Mai, his black eyes swiveling to take in Jase, Garrett, and then Kaldarren. “A family reunion. What’re the odds on that, huh? When did you and Kaldarren hatch up this little scheme?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Garrett.

Chen-Mai snorted. “Let’s see, we’ve got the kid and his father, and now his mother conveniently shows up at just the right moment. Did Kaldarren set this up? I didn’t think he was that smart.”

Garrett wet her lips. “Listen to me. I don’t know what’s going on here, but ...”

“Captain, I think I do,” Stern interrupted, her tone low and urgent. “Those energy signatures I read at the tunnel entrance. They’re
here
.”

“Captain?” Chen-Mai was instantly alert. “What do you mean,
Captain?”

Ignoring him, Garrett glanced back over her shoulder. “That neuromagnetic plasma you read?”

“What do you mean,
Captain?”
Chen-Mai shouted. “What do you
mean? Who
are you?”

Garrett turned, teeth bared. “I am Captain Rachel Garrett of the Federation Starship
Enterprise. This
is my ship’s doctor.
That
is my son, and
that’s
his father. Okay?”

“Not okay.” Chen-Mai’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?”

“We answered a distress call.”

“Distress call ... we didn’t send out any distress call.”

“That’s because you tripped an alarm, you moron.” Stern’s voice dripped with contempt. “At the tunnel entrance. Let me guess, you’re the one with the ham-handed approach to opening doors, right? Phaser, right? Idiot, you tripped an alarm.”

Chen-Mai gaped, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. “The mechanism was jammed, it was ...”

Stern made a horsey sound. “Jammed, my eye. You fired your damn phaser and set off a silent alarm beacon. We picked it up aboard our ship. And you can bet we’re not the only ones.”

Garrett said, “We had to investigate; we had no way of distinguishing an alarm from a distress call. We found the biosphere then picked up your life signs and followed them until we came here. I had no idea that either my son or my ... husband was here.” She looked past Chen-Mai at Jase. “Jase, what happened here, son?”

Jase’s eyes slid sideways as if to gauge whether or not he was about to be choked again. “I,” he began, “Pahl and I, we found the tunnel a couple of days ago. Then Pahl, he put on that mask, and then one of those things, it took him over.”

“The mask?” Chen-Mai searched the floor until his eyes caught a glint of silver. “You mean, that? That’s
important?”

“You bet your sweet ass, it is,” said Stern. “I think I get it, Captain. It’s all here. There are hundreds of signatures in this room. Here and not here, almost as if they’re,” she studied her tricorder readings then shook her head in bewilderment, “as if they’re cloaked in some way. But the energy is neural. Captain, they’re minds. Or spirits, ghosts. And a lot of them ...” she inclined her head toward Kaldarren, but didn’t finish the sentence.

“They’re inside?” Garrett paled. She closed her eyes for a moment, steeling herself. “Oh, dear God. Can you help him?”

“I don’t know,” said Stern, starting forward. “I need to do ...”

“Don’t move, don’t move!” Chen-Mai shouted. “You, the doctor, put that down, put it
down!”

“Oh, give it a rest,” Stern growled. She dropped to her knees by Kaldarren and ran her medical tricorder over the length of his body. “I’m a doctor and this man’s hurt. So either shoot me or shut up.” When Chen-Mai didn’t respond, Stern continued, “Wising up, right? Look, some of those things are
inside
him. For all I know, some more are inside that boy over there.”

“What?” Mar started, stared down at his nephew’s still, waxen features. “
In
Pahl?”

“No,” said Jase, “no, it’s not. It’s gone. When Dad talked to It, It left Pahl and went into Dad.”

It, thought Garrett, like a name. “Talked to It. Telepathically, Jase?”

Jase nodded, and she saw his eyes pool. “I couldn’t hear it. I felt it, though. I knew they were here, that they
are
here.”

“Makes sense,” Stern murmured.

“I knew it,” said Chen-Mai. His lips trembled with suppressed excitement. “I knew it, I knew it! He found a portal.”

“No,” said Jase, the tears spilling down his cheeks. “There’s no door, or anything like that. Pahl used the mask, but Dad didn’t.”

Stern grunted. “Mind transference, Captain, same principle as the Vulcan mind-meld, or any true telepathic contact. But that mask, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that it’s a device that focuses or collimates neural energy. Like a lens focuses diffuse light to a single point: The lens doesn’t
make
the light. It’s simply a conduit for allowing certain properties of light to be exaggerated, or used.”

“What do you mean?” Chen-Mai raged. “Speak sense! Can that be used, or not?”

“Probably not by you.” Stern’s look spoke volumes. “Or me, for that matter, but not because I’m the least bit like you, thank God. That thing just makes it easier for an energy exchange to take place. True telepaths wouldn’t require it.”

“But empaths would?” asked Garrett.

Stern hesitated, gave Jase a quick glance. “Sure,” she said, then with added emphasis, “or people with fledgling telepathic abilities.”

“That can’t be,” said Mar. “Pahl is not a telepath.”

“But he’s Naxeran, and from his complexion, one of his parents was a Weyrie, right?” When Mar nodded, Stern looked over at Garrett. “The Weyries are the only class of Naxerans who dream, Captain. They also have a fairly high prevalence of psychiatric problems. Hallucination, delusions.”

“Telepathic equivalents?”

“Maybe for the Naxerans.”

“Glemoor’s never mentioned it.”

“The Naxerans may not know, Captain. As I recall, the Weyries don’t tend to live very long. They’re also pretty reclusive; I don’t think other Naxerans have much to do with them.”

“The Weyries,” said Mar, his frills trembling, “very strange, very
odd
...”

“Weyries,” Chen-Mai interrupted. “Empaths, telepaths! Enough of this talk. What matters now is that you
are
here.”

“Don’t you get it?” Stern asked. “We wouldn’t
be
here if you hadn’t been so helpful with your phaser on that airlock. And you can bet your bottom dollar that if we caught that signal, so will the Cardassians. They’re probably on their way now.”

Garrett looked over at Mar. Of the two men, she thought that the Naxeran would be the most reasonable. “Look, I don’t know why you’re here. Frankly, I don’t care. Right now, I care about getting out of here before the Cardassians show up. Now the best thing for everyone is for you to come with us. We’ve got a shuttle. We can take care of your boy on the ship.”

Mar hesitated, glanced over at Chen-Mai, then nodded.

“No!” Chen-Mai shouted. “No, are you
crazy?
You want to leave all this behind?”

“But if they’re right and the Cardassians are coming, what good will it do us if we’re dead?” asked Mar.

“They’re just making it up,” said Chen-Mai. “The boy’s father and his mother, they’re both in on this.”

“Oh, that’s intelligence for you,” said Stern.

“Jo!” Garrett snapped. And to Chen-Mai: “If we don’t leave now, we’ll be stranded here. Our ship has orders to leave the system if they so much as sniff a Cardassian ship. We have to go now!”

But Chen-Mai was shaking his head and, to Garrett’s dismay, he began backing up, using Jase as a shield. “Oh, no. Your ship might leave, and you might be right, but I’ll be taking my own ship, thanks. Now I want what’s my due. I didn’t take all these risks to be left with nothing. All that money in that other room there, I’m not leaving it behind. And just to make sure your ship doesn’t fire on me on my way out of the system, the boy’s coming with me.”

“Mom,” said Jase, his eyes wide with fright. “Mom!”

“Wait a minute.” Mar started to his feet. “What about me? What about Pahl? You’re not leaving us behind!”

“
No one
has to be left behind!” Garrett said sharply. “Look, I give you my word, we’ll let you go. You won’t be charged. Come with us; you don’t have to do this!”

Chen-Mai’s face was hard. “I don’t believe you. I’m leaving and I’m taking the boy. You, Mar, if you’re coming, leave the boy and come now!”

“No.” Mar spread out his hands in a helpless gesture. “I can’t do that. I can’t leave Pahl. Please, Chen-Mai, at least let the doctor ...”