“Excuse me?”
“We need to nudge the city. I need you to reverse the polarity on the tractor beam to—”
She hesitated. Tev instantly said, “Nine point eight two.”
“Best make it six, lad,” Scotty added.
“To six,” Sonya said before Tev could protest. “That should give us just enough of a gentle push to propel the city forward.”
Fabian grinned. “Perfect. Then I can stabilize the graviton generators enough to lower the city somewhat gently to the ground.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Probably, but do it anyhow.”
Gold’s voice came over the combadge. “Gomez, you get one chance. If I see the city falling I’m beaming you all out of there.”
“Just keep them from firing on us, sir.”
“Deal. Get back here in one piece—all of you.”
Fabian had to ask: “Captain…about Bart…”
“Lense and Sarjenka are working on him. You worry about you.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay Commander,” Nancy said in a less than enthusiastic voice. “One nudge, coming up. Brace yourself.”
Fabian grabbed the podium harder.
The others, save Pattie, did likewise just as the city lurched forward. The force was greater than Fabian anticipated and he lost his grip on the podium. His feet gave beneath him and he fell backward. The noise that cut through his brain brought his hands to his ears as he rolled onto his side.
But he felt the city moving.
Felt the dampeners compensating for the forward momentum; felt the navigation system increase its spin.
Sonya was beside him, pulling at his hands. “Fabian, what is it?”
He gritted his teeth. “It’s the dampeners—the strain is stripping the harmonics.” He blinked at Sonya. “We’re going to lose altitude. I have to adjust the graviton engines.”
Sonya moved back.
But something was wrong. Fabian lay back on the floor, no longer shivering but perspiring heavily. He struggled out of his jacket and tried to get up.
“I—I can’t stand.”
“What?” Sonya helped him remove his jacket. “Is it the parasites?”
He nodded. “Elizabeth told me this might happen. Seems they’ve finally started mucking about with the worst parts. You’re going to have to prop me up.”
Sonya did as Fabian asked, grunting as she lifted Fabian up and then pushed his own shoulder beneath the engineer’s right one. Fabian reached out and took hold of the podium, forcing his legs beneath him. “Tev, keep an eye on the RPMs.”
“Very well.” If Tev was annoyed at being given an order by a subordinate, he didn’t show it.
Fabian touched the flat surface again, his palms wet with perspiration. With a deep breath he closed his eyes and saw the graviton engines again. He thought of a shuttlecraft—one of his parents’ fastest—and stretched out his arms along the podium, careful not to fall.
“Speed. And if you’re measuring in machs that’s too fast.”
“I’m aware of that, Specialist. It’s 43.448 knots.”
Shaking his head, Fabian said, “Still too fast. What did that woman do? Whack us like a baseball?”
Tev snuffled. “Had she adjusted the tractor beam to my specifications—”
Fabian interrupted Tev before he could castigate a living legend. “I’m not going to be able to slow it down—I don’t know how. But I think I can sort of land it the way humans used to land their space shuttles.”
“You mean like a runway?” Scott asked.
“In that fashion, yeah. That way the sudden stop can prevent us from crashing.” He grinned. “Scotty, can you scan ahead for any sort of smooth area? Preferably something the length of a space station?”
Scotty activated the grids in front of him. “Luckily there’s just an area ahead of us. And as long as we don’t get fired on again, we should make it there in less than three minutes.”
“Then let’s get this city at a lower altitude.”
Tev read out the knots as Fabian slowed the RPMs. The city shuddered as the atmospheric pressure decreased.
Fabian’s ears popped several times.
“For the love of—” Scotty began. “We’ve got an incoming.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” Fabian lowered the city again, hoping the whatever-it-was they were lobbing at Stratos missed them.
It didn’t.
He was so close. Only twenty kilometers from the surface when the blast hit them. Fabian was thrown away from the podium and slammed into the wall behind him. He fell forward onto his knees, which gave beneath him as he felt the city shutter to pieces around him….
Chapter
11
Two days later…
Sarjenka stood outside the sterile room, looking through the glass at Bart Faulwell. He lay on a stasis table, his aging slowed, his life on hold. Lense moved in her scrubs, masked, protective eyewear over her face.
She checked his vitals as a machine encased his body, keeping it in a sterile field. His feet and legs were covered in light sheets.
Someone came to stand by her. A glance to her left. Captain Scott.
“How’s Dr. Faulwell?”
She sighed. “He’s alive. Barely. Dr. Lense worked a miracle on that table. She already knew he was allergic to Retnox 5, so she didn’t even go that route. She knew before we’d left Stratos and contacted Starfleet medical for a Retnox patient. The organs are waiting on Starbase 375. It was faster than couriering them to us.” Sarjenka turned a surprised face to Captain Scott. “Did you know she actually took an old scan of Bart’s pattern and used the EMH program to project a kidney, pancreas, and spleen into his body? That’s what’s keeping him alive.”
He smiled at her. “I guess the doctor’s her own miracle worker, eh?”
Sarjenka turned back to the window and watched Lense. “Yeah. I couldn’t have done that—he wouldn’t have survived if she hadn’t have thought so fast.”
“But it was you who took charge, Sarjenka. You stopped Corsi from removing that pole; you risked that cutter and opened him up. You saved a life.”
“But will I ever think that quick on my feet?” She looked at him.
“Experience, lass. I have very little to do with the da Vinci’s crew, Sarjenka. But I have to admit, David did right by hiring you. You’re going to make a fine surgeon.”
She beamed up at him. “I hope so.”
Gold entered sickbay then as the pregnant CMO stepped out of the sterile ICU. “Lense, everything’s ready for you.”
Lense removed her mask and glasses. “Good,” she said. “As long as the CMO there doesn’t get in my way. I want complete control over his care—no messing this one up.” She looked directly at Gold. “He’ll live, Captain. Bart should be okay. But—” Her attention turned to his right.
Sarjenka knew what Lense meant.
Fabian Stevens.
Lense led the three of them out of the sterile area and into the lab. They’d removed several workbenches and rolled a gurney inside, complete with a bed monitor.
Fabian lay in the center of the bed, his eyes open. He blinked randomly, staring straight ahead.
Lense picked up a tricorder and ran a scan. “The dendrites have a choke hold on his entire brain—including his spinal cord. He’s paralyzed. The only thing he can do is blink. I think he can see me when I lean over him because his heart rate increases. But as for any other communication…” She shook her head. “Nothing.”
Scott rubbed at his neck. Sarjenka had treated him herself when the away team was beamed into sickbay as Stratos crashed. At first, she thought that Fabian was dead.
In many ways, he was worse than dead. He was living dead. Something her people couldn’t tolerate. A mind trapped in an unresponsive body.
“Corsi’s been in here every second she’s not on shift. She sits with him. Never says a word. Just sits and holds his hand.” Lense put her hands to her f
ace. “I told you this could happen. I told you.”
But Gold didn’t move. He only stood at the side of Stevens’s bed.
What Lense didn’t say was that Fabian had had another visitor. Commander Gomez had been in and out as well. Only instead of sitting she’d helped Sarjenka bathe him, as well as change his feeding tube. She read to him softly from a favorite book of hers—a collection of work by a human author named Richard Brautigan. The captain had given her this copy after the last one was lost at Galvan VI.
Sarjenka thought maybe she would borrow it sometime.
“I’m not going to give up, Lense. There’s got to be a way to stop the parasite. Look what you did with Faulwell.”
“Bart’s not out of the woods yet, Captain.” She snatched a tissue from a nearby container. “They’re polar opposites. Time is going to heal Bart—but time is going to kill Fabian.”
Sarjenka looked over at the tissue box, and then at the dead flower in the slim glass vase beside it. Nancy Conlon had brought it in that first evening after the cleanup on Ardana was underway.
It had been a beautiful Earth flower called a spider mum—long, skinny petals with a hidden center. It sort of reminded her of a spider now, with it’s withered pedals and browning stalk.
The poor thing didn’t get any fresh water—much less any good light—so it had dried up and withered.
Sarjenka stood up straight, nearly knocking over a nearby chair. “I think I know something to try.” She looked at Lense.
Lense blew into the tissue. “I’m listening.”
“From the beginning I thought the dendrites were thriving on the neurochemicals created by Fabian’s brain by the stimulus it received. What if that’s not it? Because he’s been still and quiet and the dendrites are still thriving.” She held up a long finger. “What if it’s the stimulus itself?”
Gold frowned. “I don’t follow. That’s the same thing.”
But Lense was shaking her head slowly. Sarjenka thought for an instant the doctor was going to dismiss her idea until Lense said, “It’s still getting stimulus.”
Scott snapped his fingers. “The light, the sounds, the monitors, people in and out.”
“Exactly,” Sarjenka said. She was excited now because she had an idea—a plan that might save Fabian’s life. “What if we deprived Fabian of all stimulus? We put him in a totally dark room, put him into a coma and let him hang like that for few days. In theory the parasite will be denied the relevant input and the dendrites should wither away and eventually be chewed up by his own body’s defenses.”
Lense looked past Sarjenka, her mind buzzing forward. “We block out the light with curtains and I can bring the life-support monitors in here. You could monitor Fabian while I kept an eye on Bart. The EMH can handle any smaller injury that comes in.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Gold said. “You’re going to put Stevens into a coma—on purpose?”
“It’s the only way to lower the brain activity to an almost nil reading,” Lense said. “Oh, we’ll need a dampener to block out sound. I’ll have Pattie whip something up.”
“Is this wise?”
“Captain.” Sarjenka moved to him. “As he is now, he could die at any moment or second. The parasite could prolong his life in this state for days, weeks, months, or years. If we don’t try this, we’ll condemn him to Ra’el Sha—the living death to my people.”
Gold looked from Lense to Sarjenka. “Do it.” He left sickbay without a word or a backward glance.
“Why is he so angry?” Sarjenka asked as she started clearing away room for the life-support machine. “We’re trying to help Fabian.”
“He blames himself, Sarjenka. I tried to warn him, but he insisted Fabian continue to exploit the parasite.” She glanced at her friend motionless in the bed beside her. “And now it’s come to this.”
Sarjenka took a few steps closer. “Why didn’t you tell the captain that Commander Gomez had been in here too?”
“Sarj,” Lense said, using the nickname for the first time.
She stared wide-eyed at her mentor and superior officer. Lense looked tired at that moment—mentally worn thin. “When Fabian’s stable and we’ve set you up a monitor, I’d like to sit you down and tell you about a friendship between two men—and the woman that one of them loved.”
Epilogue
He heard a sound in the dark. The clink of glass against metal. His lids stirred and he opened his eyes. It was still dark.
Someone moved beside him, brushed his left arm. He was cold. “Hello?”
“Fabian?”
He recognized the voice. Sonya.
A tiny light came on to his left. He winced at the brightness and blinked several times. There wasn’t any pain.
Reality struck him in that instant. He could talk! And move!
“Whu…whut happened?” His voice sounded awful. He had strange dreams of being chased by men in white robes, all of them wanting to turn him into a motorcycle.
Weird.
“Elizabeth says the dendrites are gone—or at least they’re drying up. We’ll be at Starbase 375 in about three hours. She’s getting Bart ready for transport.”
He looked at her in the soft light. Her hair was down, framing her face. Sonya’s skin was pale, ghostly in the dark surrounding her. Dark half moons hung beneath her eyes and they were red rimmed. “You okay? You look—You okay?”
He was parched and wanted water, but he also needed to know what happened. But that could wait.
“I’m—” She swallowed and looked up. Her eyes filled with tears and she wiped irritably at them. “You’ve been in this room for four days in a coma. It was the only way to kill off the parasites. No one could see you or touch you for four days.”
Fabian tried wrapping his brain around that one. I was in a coma?
“Is…Why are you crying?”
She looked at him. Really looked at him. And Fabian felt something stir inside his chest. She used to look at Duff like that when she was mad at him. “You could have died.”
Was that it? “Hey, I’m sorry. I needed to do something, Sonya. I can’t just sit around.” He cleared his throat. “Sit around and do nothing.”
“But you could have died.”
“Bart could have too.” He licked his lips. They were dry and cracked. “But he didn’t. And I didn’t. I still have no idea why I didn’t. Did Stratos crash?”
“Yes. It’s in several big pieces.”
“Good. I hope it broke all their toys.”
But she wasn’t laughing.
“Sonya…”
“You don’t get it, do you? I could have lost you. Like I lost Kieran. Like I lost Keith and Kara and Diego and Jil and…” She sniffed. “I need you to stay here. I need Bart to stay here.”
“We are. We’re both still kicking.” He took stock of his body and thought of that one again. “Okay, not kicking. But I’m sure I could throw something hard.”
She still didn’t smile. “And, yes, I was a little mad at you.”
Fabian frowned. “For what?”
“For not kissing me back.”
“But how could I—Sonya, I’m—”
She put a hand over his lips and then moved them away. “I know. You’re seeing Domenica. And I love her as much as I love you. I would never hurt her.”
“No, that’s not what I was going to say.”
“What?” She frowned.
He licked his lips. His eyes were growing tired and he wanted to close them, but he felt he needed to be honest. He needed to tell her the truth. “The reason I didn’t kiss you is because…you’re Duff’s girl.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Fabian, as you like to point out to me, Kieran is dead.”
“I know that. But from the start, even before you two got back together, I knew you were his girl. That was always forefront in my mind. You were his woman.” He wanted to lift his hand and make compartmental gestures—but maybe tomorrow. “I could never kiss my best friend’s girl.”<
br />
She took his hand in hers and held it up to her cheek. She rubbed her soft skin against his knuckles. “You miss him too.”
“All the time, Sonya. But I’m the friend. And as long as I see you still holding on to him, I’ll always see you as his.” He yawned then. “I’m sorry, Sonya—I’m just so tired.”
She kept his hand in hers. “That’s okay, Fabian. Sleep.” And she lay down over his chest, bent at her waist from the chair she sat in. He wanted to tell her that was a very uncomfortable position to sleep in, but she was warm against his chest. And her hair smelled like some of those perfumed papers Bart kept in their shared cabin.
He was comfortable with the weight against him and he nuzzled his nose against her head and kissed it. It was only after several minutes of twilight, the moments before sleep claimed him, that he felt Sonya’s rhythmic breathing. He heard something akin to a sigh in the dark and opened his eyes. Someone turned out the light at that moment, but not before he caught the glimpse of indigo in the fading light.
Acknowledgments
The first and most heartfelt thank you must be given to Keith R.A. DeCandido for allowing me to be a part of such a rich and incredible series. Ever since pushing my own boundaries with Blackout, I’ve wanted to come back to the da Vinci and take on another character—and another adventure. I only hope I never disappoint—or give him agita again.
I would also love to put in an affectionate thank you to Dr. Ilsa J. Bick, one of my closest friends, for without her input parts of this story could never have been realized. Also added in this list is Herbert Beas III, a friend, writer, and fellow Star Trek fan, whose love of the graviton engine was mine to mine.
A thanks to my daughter, for knowing Mommy has to sit at her desk most weekends and nights, and to my parents—especially my dad—who introduced all of his children to the wonderful and inspiring world of Gene Rodenberry.
About the Author
PHAEDRA M. WELDON has been a fan of Star Trek since her dad introduced her to the series when she was twelve. Her professional writing career began with stories selected for two of Pocket Books’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies—“The Lights in the Sky” in Volume 1 and “Who Cries for Prometheus?” in Volume 5. She is also the author of many original fiction short stories for DAW anthologies, and is excited about her first original published novel, Wraith, to be released from Ace in June 2007. Her other work with Star Trek includes S.C.E. #59: Blackout and The Oppressor’s Wrong, Book 2 in the upcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation six-eBook series, Slings and Arrows.
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