Foreign Foes by Dave Galanter

Author:Dave Galanter [Galanter, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Life on Other Planets, Star Trek, Media Tie-In
ISBN: 9780671884147
Publisher: Star Trek
Published: 1994-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

BARBARA CLENCHED THE HANDLE of her phaser close to her stomach and tried not to breathe. One overt move—one sound that gave her away—and Picard might die. She watched tacitly as Urosk forced the captain through the hatchway.

The door closed behind them. Picard had said something as Urosk shoved him in, Barbara couldn’t tell what.

She anxiously chewed at her lower lip. If only Urosk’s phaser hadn’t been trained so closely on Picard . . . Then again, the two of them were only centimeters apart. From where she was, pressed into the alcove of a doorway, she wouldn’t have been able to target Urosk if he’d had a bullseye on his back. All the training she’d had with a phaser was the two-hour class offered when she purchased one a few years ago. She knew the settings and what they could do, but even those were on a civilian hand weapon, not the sleek, military one she now held in her sweaty palm. This she had gotten from one of her lease-a-guards. It looked much more like a Starfleet weapon than her old phaser-pistol, and it was warmer to the touch, pulsing with pent-up energy.

She rose, straightened herself, then quickly shrank back against the wall. Footsteps shuffled. Heavy ones. Another Hidran—shifting down the hall toward the door. She could smell the sour mustiness of him as he passed. Unnoticed, she pushed out her breath in short, quiet bursts.

Her heart was pounding so loudly she thought that it might give her away. Not the sound—the fact that she might have a heart attack, fall on her own phaser, and vaporize herself and half the building with her.

The Hidran hesitated before joining the others beyond the hatch. He looked from side to side, seemingly apprehensive, then finally disappeared through the door.

Quickly she moved from doorway to doorway up the corridor, carefully watching that hatch for any sound or movement and pausing to hide her form behind any supporting pillar that allowed.

From behind her came a moan and she jumped. In the alcove next to her, crammed between the tight walls, were two men in Starfleet security uniforms. Picard’s missing crewmen, obviously on the job.

Without a holster for her phaser she had to set the safety and tuck it under her arm as she helped one of them up. She pulled him out into the hall, guiding him to sit against the wall. He groaned a thanks and she did the same for the other. Both had lost their communicator/insignia she noticed.

“What happened?” Barbara asked.

The first one she pulled out—tall and human with brown curly hair—spoke in a raspy voice. “The Hidran captain attacked me . . . Tried to get my weapon.”

“Tried?” she asked wryly.

Curly looked up indignantly. With the bruise on his jaw and an eye swelled closed he hardly looked threatening. More like a school boy who’d been in a playground scrap.

Barbara glanced at the other man, who was still dazed.

She helped the groggy one sit up straighter, cupping her hand behind his head to give it balance.

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