Star Trek: Corps of Engineers: Invincible: Book 2 by David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido

Author:David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743428736
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2001-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

J’Roh leapt down from our guard post at the doorway and shot the creature again. It started to bleed mercury, as the other one had. But its wounds did not seem to stem its horrific tide. With one slash, it cut J’Roh’s body in two. Then Dolahn, the Gallamite doctor, ran up to it. Dolahn is not what I would consider a brave man. In fact, I would mostly consider him a fool. Like all Gallamites, he has a transparent head, so you can see his brain. Someone used to joke that he wore a hat so no one would know how small that brain truly was. The sad truth is, he wore the hat because Kejahna threatened to kill him if he didn’t. In any case, Dolahn ran up to the shii. He was armed only with some kind of edged instrument. He stabbed the creature in an odd place. It was right in the creature’s lower thorax. Probably where its stomach was. After the doctor did that, the shii cut his head off, too.

His head lay on the floor, the hat having fallen off. I could see his brain. It was not small. In fact, it seemed rather large.

Then the shii collected all the heads it had severed. I noticed that all the wounds that had been inflicted on it had healed. Well, almost all. Theone Dolahn had inflicted continued to drip mercury, even as it collected heads. When it was done, it tucked the heads under a foreleg. Then it ran out the way it came.

Slowly, people started to come out from under the beds and tables. The floors were awash in blue from all the blood. Some red was mixed in, from the doctor.

A moment later, Commander Gomez ran in. She asked, “What happened?”

Some mad fool burst out laughing at that absurd question. It took me a moment to realize that I was that fool. I continued to laugh while someone else—I believe it was Mranol— explained that the shii had come through and killed fifteen more people. The odd thing is, I hadn’t even noticed all the deaths. But I certainly wasn’t going to contradict Mranol.

I am now sitting in my tent. I am not sure if I’m ever going to leave the tent again. I have now had my rifle for almost an entire year. It has gone unfired the entire time. Could I have made a difference, either in the cave or in the hospital? Probably not. But perhaps I might have helped save a life or two.

It is obvious that I am not worthy to live when so many good men, like Kejahna and Dolahn and J’Roh, have died. Tell my children that I love them, Marig. And tell them that their father is a coward and a fool.

Best regards,

your unworthy husband,

Razka

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