STAR TREK® INSURRECTION™ by J. M. Dillard

Author:J. M. Dillard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: POCKET BOOKS
Published: 1998-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Most of the villagers had made it through the open fields into the meadow, with the uniformed Starfleet people helping the village leaders to guide the crowd. However, as they reached the narrow pass leading up into the mountains, their progress slowed. By this time, the exercise and his father Sojef’s fearless demeanor had calmed Artim somewhat; he stood close beside Sojef at the mountain pass as his father called out—calmly, rationally as always—to the others:

“Don’t try to carry too much. We’ve got a long climb ahead of us… .”

I’m safe, Artim reassured himself. I’m safe, because my father’s here, and he always knows the right thing to do….

Suddenly, the ground beneath him lurched, with such force that pebbles leapt into the air, slid down the pass; overhead, the sky boomed as if with mortally close thunder. Some of the people cried out; others dropped what they were carrying and began to move faster. Parents swept up children into their arms. Artim reached for his father’s hand and caught it.

As long as Father’s here, I can bear it… .

Another painful blast overhead; beside them, one of the brightly lit devices—a transport inhibitor, the artificial life-form had called it—exploded, then darkened. A brown-skinned Starfleet officer with a forehead that seemed made of wind-sculpted wood cried out to Captain Picard: “We’ve lost three transport inhibitors! There’s a gap in the field… .”

Artim was not entirely certain what that meant, but he knew it boded ill. Sojef began to move, and Artim followed, trying hard to hold on to his father’s hand in the moving wave of Ba’ku. They moved slowly at first, then faster, faster, pushed by those behind them, until they were running …

… running, beneath the roar of low-flying ships. Suddenly, to the front and the right, running Ba’ku shimmered and then simply disappeared. Artim at first doubted what he saw; but no, there was surprise too on Sojefs face, and a concern that made the boy feel a fresh thrill of fear. And it was not just one or two people who disappeared—no, it was a dozen, then twenty, thirty, fifty….

A man in the crowd screamed; a child cried out a mother’s name. Any semblance of civility was replaced by outright panic; the crowd began pushing harder now, harder, in its frenzy to reach the next transport inhibitor. With the peculiar helplessness one feels in the worst nightmares, Artim tried to hold on to his father’s hand; tried, but felt himself slowly pushed away until he could touch nothing but his father’s fingertips, even though Sojef struggled valiantly to maintain contact with his son. And then even fingertip-to-fingertip contact was broken, though Sojef’s very gaze seemed enough, so determined it was to keep hold of the boy. Then even that was gone, as with horror Artim watched his father’s form shimmer, then disappear as if it had never existed, had never set foot upon this path.

He stopped, as if waiting there might cause Sojef to reappear in the same spot; but the crowd in its hysteria knocked him down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.