Star Trek: Destiny #1: Gods of Night by David Mack

Author:David Mack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2008-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

2168

13

Veronica Fletcher popped her head around the corner from the foyer and said to Erika Hernandez, “We’re ready, Captain.”

Hernandez lifted her feet from a reasonable facsimile of an ottoman and got up from the wraparound sofa that bordered three sides of the penthouse suite’s sunken main room. She climbed the few stairs in quick steps and passed the open dining area. It was well stocked with fruits and a wide variety of faithfully re-created Earth foodstuffs. Before she left, she stole another look at the warm, natural light slanting through the suite’s panoramic windows, which rose to great arches near the vaulted ceilings. As gilded prisons went, this one, intended for her and the rest of the landing party, was truly first-rate.

She joined Fletcher in the foyer and followed her out to the floor’s central corridor, where a transparent pod waited for them in an alcove. They stepped inside. It began a swift descent, devoid of any sensation of movement, into a glowing shaft of pale, pulsing rings. In seconds they emerged into what seemed like thin air, dropping in a controlled manner toward a pool of water shimmering with rippled sunlight.

The towers of the city surrounded them, and through slivers between the platinum spires, Hernandez caught flashes of the jagged mountaintops in the west. Peach-colored clouds were pulled taut across the sky.

“It really is a beautiful city,” Fletcher said.

Hernandez allowed herself a tired grin. “Nice place to visit. Wouldn’t want to live here.”

Their pod touched down on the surface of the water without so much as a ripple. The dancing sparkle of sunlight on wind-teased water transformed into a dull glow of reflected illumination on a solid, matte surface, and the pod itself sublimated and dissipated into the hot summer air.

Fletcher led the way across a sprawling plaza paved with white marble. Hulking granite sculptures and massive, flowering topiaries depicted alien creatures unlike any the captain had ever seen before.

At its far end, flanked by densely grown trees, was a rectangular reflecting pool. Its surface was serene and black, and it cast razor-sharp reflections of everything in sight. At its farthest end, a tall, thick-trunked, droop-boughed tree stood on a low, wide island of earth, whose mossy shores reached to within a meter of the low wall that bordered the pool.

The rest of the landing party was gathered in a cluster on the miniature island in the shade of the tree, crouched like ancient primates wary of abandoning their arboreal redoubts.

Fletcher and Hernandez hopped across the narrow channel of water to the tree’s island and slipped into the middle of the huddle. Hernandez folded her arms across her bent knees. “What did we learn?”

Before anyone else could speak, Major Foyle asked, “Captain, are we sure it’s safe to talk here?”

“Why wouldn’t it be, Major?”

He looked at the other MACOs and then replied, “What if we’re being monitored?”

Fletcher fielded the question. “If the Caeliar want to listen in, I don’t think it matters where we go in this city. Or on this planet, to be honest.

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