Myriad Universes 01: Infinity's Prism by Christopher L. Bennett; William Leisner; James Swallow

Author:Christopher L. Bennett; William Leisner; James Swallow
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Star Trek
ISBN: 9781416571803
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2008-07-22T10:00:00+00:00

9

The Casciron shuttle swooped and slalomed through the mountains of Kovoran, hugging their crags so closely that it left the occasional smear of paint behind. In the passenger seats, Danros and Gerron were taut with fear. But their pilot was loving it. For B’Elanna Torres, the exhilaration of facing death and barely scraping free of its clutches was the only thing that made her feel alive.

Sure, the goal was nominally to stay under the Kovoran sensor grid, to get close enough to the Vostigye research base to plant the charges that would bring it down. B’Elanna had been as angry as anyone else in the resistance upon learning of the biological experiments being conducted on the Casciron refugees on this planet. Apparently the Vostigye weren’t content to live in their spacegoing tin cans and let the Casciron find planets where they could live independently. No, they had to plant colonies so they could claim more territory and make excuses for keeping the Casciron from finding a home. And even once they’d stripped them of their stings, they couldn’t leave them alone; no, they had to use them in some sick medical experiment.

Oh, no doubt they would excuse it as something to help the war effort against the Scourge. B’Elanna had to hand it to Kathryn Janeway and her lap dog Chakotay-they’d done wonders bringing the sensibilities of the Federation to the Delta Quadrant. Just like the Federation, their Delta Coalition spoke of peace and inclusion, then made deals with monsters and overlooked their abuses when it served their own interests. Back with the Maquis, B’Elanna had preferred to strike at Cardassian targets, doing her best not to harm Federation citizens, whom she held blameless for the mistakes of their leaders. Now, she no longer cared to hold back. The Vostigye were the real monsters, and their friendly face as they assimilated and exploited other cultures just made them all the worse.

More, though, she just needed to feel something. Grieving and moving on hadn’t worked; how could she move on from losing everyone who’d ever mattered to her? The distraction of sex hadn’t worked; she’d indulged Gerron’s interest for an evening here and there, but when she tried to invest herself in it, she was reminded too much of the one man she strove not to think about-the man who had taken her capacity for love with him when he died. The only thing that fulfilled her was the fight-any fight. Anything that let her feel death’s fingers closing around her and then kick its teeth in one more time.

And if death won the next round? Well, what difference would it make to anyone, really?

But B’Elanna managed to stay just ahead of death’s clutches this time, bringing the shuttle down safely in range of the research facility. Half an hour later, she’d snuck her team past its security perimeter, their biosigns masked by her equipment, and Danros planted the charges around the administrative section, away from the labs and confinement areas where the Casciron subjects would be held.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.