Star Trek: The Badlands 1 by Susan Wright

Author:Susan Wright
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Space Opera, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743406741
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2000-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

Ro laren fidgeted with her uniform collar. It itched. She wasn’t used to having something tight around her neck. The prison jumpsuits she had worn up until a couple of weeks ago had been V-necked, gray and ugly.

Ro still wasn’t sure she’d made the right decision. Despite four years of training at Starfleet Academy and duty on board a Starship, she had landed in prison for disobeying orders and killing eight people. She didn’t trust herselfand in spite of one successful mission with the Enterprise, she wasn’t sure why Captain Picard trusted her.

“Retreat out of the sensor shadow,” Captain Picard ordered.

“Aye, sir,” Ro said, remembering to add the required “sir” this time. She input a bearing just outside the area designated as the sensor shadow and engaged full impulse power. The rendezvous time had long come and gone and there was still no sign of the shuttlecraft Hawking.

“Scan the region for vessels,” Picard ordered.

“Plasma interference is reducing the sensor range,” Worf regretfully reported. “However, I am reading no vessels in the area.”

Picard lowered his voice, but Ro had no trouble hearing his question to Counselor Deanna Troi. “Can you sense anything from them?”

Ro leaned back further, trying to hear. She was unnerved by the Betazoid empath. She was never sure how much the counselor knew.

“Nothing, sir,” Troi replied. “Not since they entered the Badlands. Maybe the ionization of the plasma storms interferes with empathic powers.”

Ro shivered, wondering if Troi could read her emotions right now. She didn’t like being transparent, but that’s the way Troi made her feel during their counseling sessions. The questions she asked! Ro wanted to advise her to give upthere was no way to heal her wounds. There was no way for a Bajoran refugee to be “normal” like other people.

Since Ro figured Counselor Troi would report everything, she just kept saying she was grateful that Captain Picard was offering her a second chance. At one point, Troi had asked if Ro really wanted to return to Starfleet. Ro had quickly answered, yes. She didn’t bother to add that aside from prison on Jaros II, she had no other place to go. She would rather die than return to a Bajoran resettlement camp to repair broken equipment or grow tubers in the dust.

“Leaving the sensor shadow, sir,” Ro announced, bringing the ship to a halt.

“Worf, send out long-range sensor probes,” Picard ordered. “Perhaps the Hawking left the Badlands at a different location.”

Riker had to swallow several times to regain control. It had felt for a moment like he was being turned inside out.

“We have encountered a subspace field,” Data said, sounding like nothing had happened.

“What kind?”

“Currently unknown, sir,” Data replied.

Riker was having trouble controlling the Hawking. Intense subspace fields were known to disrupt the plasma flow. He sent the engine sequence into automatic shutdown. Other systems were shutting down, responding to the abrupt reduction in power. With only auxiliary generators, shields were at 30 percent.

“Was that a weapon of some kind?” Riker brought the Hawking to a stop, preferring to remain on the edge of the sensor shadow until they knew more.

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