Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 40 - Failsafe by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780743480871
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2004-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Stevens and Hawkins sat next to the fence that separated the men’s and women’s camps. The crisscrossing searchlight beams that swept like clockwork over the prison yards passed over their heads. Directly on the other side of the fence, Gomez leaned sideways against the chain-link and stared at the sky.

In the hour or so that they had been waiting to hear back from Abramowitz, the weather had cleared considerably. The night sky was an unpolluted black field salted with stars. The air had grown colder and drier. Stevens watched his exhaled breath become gray ghosts that vanished into the darkness.

He turned and looked at Gomez, then he glanced skyward, following the direction of her gaze. A brilliant, cross-shaped constellation dominated that patch of the sky.

Gomez whispered through the fence to him. “Which one are you looking at?”

He answered without looking away from the stars.

“The same one you are.”

“Second from the bottom of the cross, right?” Hawkins said.

“Yeah,” Stevens said, somber and reflective.

They sat together in silence for a few minutes. Stevens knew, just as he was sure Gomez and Hawkins did, that the star they were looking at was Galvan, and that none of them wanted to say its name. Hawkins finally broke the silence. “Y’know, sometimes…lately…I can almost go an entire day without thinking about it.”

“I envy you,” Stevens said. He knew that Hawkins’s loss at Galvan VI had been just as painful as his or Gomez’s. Hawkins had lost most of his colleagues on the security staff, including his best friend, Stephen Drew, during that fateful mission.

Another silence enveloped them. Then the mechanically neutral synthetic voice from Abramowitz’s tricorder spoke to them through their transceivers. “Abramowitz to away team, priority one.”

Gomez put her hand to her ear, though it wasn’t really necessary. “Gomez here. Go ahead.”

“I have good news and bad news.”

Stevens, Hawkins, and Gomez swapped dismayed reactions.

“The camp’s public-address hardware is a closed system,” Abramowitz transmitted. “I wasn’t able to access it.”

“What’s the good news?” Gomez said.

“I’m using an alternative method to trigger your snowfall.”

Stevens suppressed a stab of panic. “What method?”

“I found a derelict Tenebian satellite that was scheduled for atmospheric reentry and changed its descent profile.”

The trio’s looks of dismay turned to terror.

“You’re crashing a satellite into the mountain?” Hawkins said. “Isn’t that a little…” His voice pitched with disbelief. “…imprecise?!”

“We’ll know in about thirty-five seconds. I suggest you take cover.”

Stevens was about to say something about the importance of leaving engineering to engineers when a fiery streak slashed low across the sky overhead. Oh, no, he thought, then he sprinted to catch up to Hawkins, who was already running between the tents, shouting to wake up the other male prisoners. Gomez ran through the women’s yard, shouting for the women to retreat to the far side of their camp.

A crimson flash on the mountainside above the camp lit up the night sky. One second later, a cataclysmic boom shattered the night. X’Maris and Venekans alike awoke in terror. A surreal, deathly silence washed over the camp.

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