Star Trek: The Next Generation: War Drums by John Vornholt

Author:John Vornholt
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Fiction
ISBN: 9780671792367
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1992-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

ENSIGN Ro, Myra and Gregg Calvert, and Doctor Drayton rematerialized in Transporter Room Three aboard the Enterprise . They were met by Chief O'Brien and Captain Picard, who was dressed to travel in a warm-looking suede jacket. He welcomed them with a smile.

"Wow!" said Myra, gaping at a transporter facility the crew of the Enterprise took for granted. "Can we look around?"

Captain Picard stepped jauntily aboard the platform. "Perhaps later," he replied. "At the moment most of the crew is performing diagnostic tests and maintenance."

"Can we get on to the ocean?" asked Louise Dray-ton impatiently. "I don't want to waste a second."

"Very well," said Picard, centering himself on a transporter pad. "Chief O'Brien, you have the coordinates."

The chief nodded. "Locked in. If you want to come back quickly, don't hesitate to call."

"We shan't," answered Picard. "Energize."

A dull hum suffused the room, and the five people in the chamber evaporated into shafts of light.

They materialized on a black beach with copper-colored waves washing ashore at a leisurely pace. The polished ebony pebbles crunched loudly under his feet as Captain Picard took a few hesitant steps along the beach. A wave splashed ashore and dumped some reddish scum atop Picard's boot; the substance instantly coalesced, like mercury, clinging to itself. It slid off the toe of his boot into the coarse black sand, leaving a gray trail where the black shoe polish had been.

"Hey!" exclaimed Picard, jumping back in alarm.

"Oh, yes," said Doctor Drayton, "the sea foam is acidic. Don't let it get on you."

"Also alive and sentient!" yelled Myra, jogging down the beach toward an archway of black rock that jutted from the forest and disappeared into the churning sea, forming a natural bridge between the two elements.

"Myra! Wait for the rest of us!" called Gregg like a worried parent. He trod after her and was quickly followed by Ensign Ro.

Drayton shook her head at Picard, muttering, "That child. She thinks the pond scum you see on the waves is sentient. I will admit our tests show it may have a hive mind, like bees and ants. But how much thinking it does is open to debate."

"What do you think?" asked Picard.

"I think it's a remarkable organism," answered Drayton, "and we need to camp out here for a year to study it. We have quite a world here, and we don't know one fifth of what there is to know about it. Come along to the tide pools, and you will see for yourself."

They trod along the beach toward the immense, jagged archway, and Picard tried to reconcile colors that seemed in the wrong places a black beach and forest, a copper-red sea, and a sickly green sky. The only healthy green was at the very tops of the trees, and the trees seemed to be slinking back from the ocean, as if they knew its waters were deadly. It was peculiar to see the lazy red waves washing ashore to deposit clumps of mysterious sea life that oozed into the black pebbles as quickly as they could.

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