Here There Be Dragons Part 16

Data gently touched Picard's arm. "Captain," he murmured, "those men are not locals."

Picard frowned and stared at the figures. He could see nothing about them that differentiated them from the others, but he knew that Data must have his reasons for what he had said. "Explain."

"They do not have the same appearance as the local people, Captain," Data said softly. "There is a distinct trace of the hygiene chamber about them. They are wearing synthetic materials carefully crafted to look like local garb while being much more comfortable. Also, their body language is subtly different. They are more arrogant and self-a.s.sured."

"Two members of the gang?"

"I am certain of it, Captain."

Glancing around, Picard saw that everyone's attention was on the guards at the head of the stairs. "Then I think we had better have a talk with those two gentlemen," he suggested. He drifted across the ante-room, trying hard to appear inconspicuous. Data and Kirsch followed him. Neither of the two men looked up from their conversation until Picard grabbed the arm of the robed man. Before the man could say anything, Picard held his sword against the small of his back.

"Quietly," he suggested. The man clamped his mouth shut. The black-robed figure stared at Data, who had apparently materialized from nowhere to fasten an iron grip on his arm. "It's a bit too crowded out here," Picard murmured. "Shall we find somewhere a little more private where we can talk?"

Kirsch caught on and opened one of the doors to the main hall behind them. Picard and Data led their prisoners through and then Kirsch closed the door behind them. The brief kidnapping had pa.s.sed completely unnoticed by the guards.

"Who are you?" demanded Randolph. He tried to sound merely angry, but fear made his voice tremble. He and Hagan had been planning their escape from this world, and now this had to happen. "If it's for money-"

"That's not the reason," Picard said coldly. "I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise. And I believe that you're two of the men my officers and I have been seeking."

Randolph paled. "The Enterprise?" he croaked. "You mean ... it's still there?"

"What are you talking about?" Picard didn't like the sound of that one bit. "Why wouldn't it be still there?"

"Shut up, you fool," Hagan hissed. "Don't tell them anything!"

Picard glanced at Data. "Try your communicator," he ordered. For the moment he was willing to allow Kirsch to see anything. He could be dealt with later. "I want to know what's happening to my ship."

Data tapped his brooch. "Away team to Enterprise. Come in, Geordi."

There was a howl of static, and then Geordi's faint reply. "Signal ... poor," the voice crackled. "Can this wait? We're under attack right now."

Picard slammed Randolph against the nearest wall. "Start talking," he ordered. "What's happening to my ship?"

Chapter Twenty.

"I'M GETTING a very strange feeling about this place."

Riker paused and looked at Deanna. She had an odd expression on her face. It was partly puzzlement and partly something else. "How strange?" he asked her.

"Very strange." Deanna ran her fingers along the wall of the corridor. "I feel as if ... as if there are mice skittering about in the back of my mind. It's making my brain itch, Will. I've never felt anything quite like it." She blinked hard, bringing herself back into focus with the pa.s.sageway. "It must be something to do with the Preservers. It's like nothing I've ever felt before."

"Is there a tunnel or something here?" asked Ro practically. "Some way out for us?"

Deanna concentrated. "No. I don't get a feeling of a way out. More like ... a way in."

"Just what we need," Ro muttered. "We're in it right up to our necks already. I was rather hoping for a back exit or something."

"There's much more here than you imagine," Deanna told her. "I get a tremendous feeling of power. There's a huge amount of untapped potential here. Stored mental energy. Records. All kinds of things." She grabbed Riker's hands, elated as a child at Christmas. "I feel very strongly that there's something here that's not quite dead."

"Us, I hope," Ro said.

"Besides us. There's ... No, it's not one of the Preservers." Deanna face was almost glowing. "It's a sort of afterimage of them. A sensation that one or more of them left a part of their being here. It's like a shard of gla.s.s, or a splinter of wood. It's not everything they are, but it's a part of everything they are. Will, we're on the verge of finding them. I know it!"

Ro jerked her finger back down the pa.s.sageway. "And they're on the verge of finding us. Can't you hurry this up?"

"Shut up, Ensign," Riker snapped. "Deanna-where is this ... this splinter? Can you reach out and touch it?"

"It's very close." Deanna closed her eyes, concentrating. "It's so near, and yet ..." She was moving with her eyes shut, yet with confidence. She walked down the corridor, toward the wall at the end.

Ro looked back over her shoulder. The noise from the guardroom had increased. There was the sound of wood shattering, then the sound of human voices. "Uh-I think they're through," she announced.

Deanna didn't seem at all bothered by this. Instead, she kept on walking, her eyes closed. As she came closer to the wall at the end of the corridor, she laughed. Ro lunged for her, but Riker held her back.

"She's going to get one h.e.l.l of a b.u.mp," Ro warned.

"I don't think so." Riker eased his grip. He was as tense as Ro, but for very different reasons. "Watch."

With no sign of slowing down, Deanna walked directly up to the wall-then into it. She simply walked through it as if it wasn't there. Ro's eyes went wide.

"Come on." Riker grabbed her arm and jerked her after him. She winced, expecting to be slammed into stones, but there was nothing in her way.

Volker smiled grimly as the barricade crashed down. The room beyond was empty. "They must be farther in," he said. "Let's go."

The duke stomped after Volker and his men as they ran through the guardroom, then into the cells beyond. His men slammed open each unlocked door as they pa.s.sed, but there was no sign of the missing prisoners. Volker picked up the pace. Astonishingly, the duke managed to keep up with him.

They came to the long corridor that abruptly ended in a wall. Ahead, they saw Riker and the other woman, Ro. Hands joined, they simply walked into the far wall as if it were not there. Volker skidded to a halt, staring at the sight in shock.

The duke grabbed his arm. "It's a trick of some kind," he snapped. "A secret pa.s.sage. Have your men find the key."

"We'll see about it." Volker walked down the pa.s.sageway. There was neither sign nor sound of the missing prisoners now. He had seen them walk into the wall with his own eyes. No door, or anything. They simply walked into the wall itself. He stopped a foot away from the stones. Were they, somehow, nothing more than an illusion? A trick of some kind?

Raising his sword, Volker rapped on the stones with the pommel. He expected to meet nothing there but air and smoke. Instead, the sword rang as it struck solid stone.

It was impossible! He had seen them with his own eyes walk through this wall as if there was nothing here. He slammed himseff against the wall, but it refused to give way. Stone met his flesh, and he fell back, his skin tingling with pain.

"It's witchcraft," he whispered. "It can be nothing else. I saw them walk into this wall-but it is solid. Solid!" He slammed his hands against the stones in fury. "They must be witches!"

The duke hastily made the sign of the cross. The guards fell back a few paces, muttering to themselves. Volker struck at the wall with his sword but produced only sparks from his blade.

"It isn't possible!" he cried. "What is happening here?"

"You were right, Captain Volker," the duke said, his voice quivering. "It must be magic. There is no other explanation. Is there?" He turned terrified eyes onto his captain of the guard. Volker merely shook his head, struck dumb.

"It must be Preserver technology," Ro said, awe-struck, as they walked straight through the wall. "There's no other explanation, is there?" She had somehow sensed the stones as she had pa.s.sed through them. They had seemed to be less real, somehow, than the projections on one of the ship's holodecks. At the same time they were also more real. It was as if she had somehow become out of phase with the wall, occupying the same s.p.a.ce without overlapping the structure of the stones. What scared her the most was the feeling that her mind could almost grasp how it was done.

Behind the wall there was only brightness. She could just about make out Deanna, who had turned back and was holding out her hands. Ro gripped one tightly. Riker took Deanna's other hand.

"It's all right," Deanna said happily. "We're fine now."

Ro glanced down, then wished she hadn't. There was nothing there but a shaft. She could feel nothing at all beneath her stolen boots. "I wish I could believe that," she said softly.

The nothingness beneath them seemed to fade away, and they fell down the shaft.

The duke whirled around on Volker, his face white. "It seems that you are unable to keep any of your prisoners confined," he snapped. He was angry, but there was also fear in his voice. "That's three more of them gone-and the ones I particularly wanted to see suffer."

Volker gestured at the wall in front of them. "Do you want to try and tell me how in the name of heaven I was to have expected or prevented them from walking through a solid wall?"

The duke wasn't to be sidetracked by trivialities like logic. "They were your prisoners! I told you that if you couldn't hold them, you'd suffer for it. As G.o.d is my witness, I'll see you suffer!" He turned to the guards, who were cringing farther down the corridor. "You-come here! I want Captain Volker arrested and thrown into some cell that even he can't get out off!" None of the guards moved. The duke's fear was being channelled into anger now. There was nothing he could do against people who could walk through walls, but there was plenty he could do with a fool who had failed him. "Cowards!" he screamed at them. Spinning back to face Volker, he demanded: "Is this how you train your men? They're not men, they're dogs!"

Coldly Volker glared at his lord. "They're good enough men when things go well. It's your fault we're in this stupid mess. Your lechery led to the first girl being here, and your venality to the rest."

"How dare you speak to me like that!" thundered the duke. 'I'll have you whipped for this!" He held out his hand. "Give me your sword."

"If you insist." Volker drew his sword, then in a single swift motion thrust it with all of his strength into the duke's ma.s.sive stomach. The duke gave a stunned cry, his eyes glazing. "Rot in h.e.l.l," Volker snarled and twisted the weapon. Blood and bile surged about the wound. As the duke sagged, Volker withdrew the sword and stepped back.

The dying man fell to his knees, clutching at his stomach. Blood bubbled around his gloved fingers, staining the expensive fabric and splattering onto the cold stones. He stared up at his a.s.sa.s.sin, and then his eyes bulged. He fell forward, twitching slightly, and then was still.

Volker turned to his men. None had dared make a move. "I think the duke's had a slight accident, but a fatal one," he said. "Do any of you have a problem with that?" The men all hastily shook their heads. "Good." Volker strode down the pa.s.sageway to join them. "Then it's time we set to work to clean up this mess the old reprobate left us. You three, find me some masons." He glanced back down the tunnel. "We'll brick this place up. If Riker and the others want to stay here, we'll make absolutely certain that they never get out again. You two, find Randolph. Tell him nothing of the duke, but ask him to come to the main hall. It's time he paid a few long-standing debts, I think." He couldn't afford to let the duke's adviser live. Unlike the soldiers, who would follow anyone who led them well, Randolph might cause problems. There was also the matter of what to do with the d.u.c.h.ess. Would it be better for her to have an accident as well, or should he perhaps consider marrying her to consolidate his position?

Problems, problems, problems ...

The shaft that Ro, Riker, and Deanna were dropping down was quite extensive. There was nothing to see, and Ro's initial panic stopped when it became obvious they were in the grips of a tractor beam of some kind. It held her gently, yet allowed her to move about.

"It looks as if the Preservers have opened the door for us to come inside," Riker murmured. Deanna still had an expression of bliss on her face, so Ro a.s.sumed he was directing his remarks to her.

"But can we trust them to open it when we want to leave again?" she asked.

"We've no reason to think that they may be hostile, Ensign," Riker said.

"We've no reason to a.s.sume that they're benign, either," Ro countered. "In fact, what we do know of them could be taken either way."

Riker frowned. "They preserve societies that would otherwise have died out. That suggests they value life."

"They preserve societies that perhaps should have died out," argued Ro. "That Amerind world the old Enterprise discovered hadn't evolved at all in hundreds of years. Neither has this planet. Maybe these Preservers are deliberately r.e.t.a.r.ding their progress for their own reasons. Let's face it, putting humans on a world populated by dragons isn't the nicest possible gesture, is it?"

"A human culture that already believed in the existence of dragons," Riker pointed out. "And I think you may be judging their actions too harshly."

"Possibly I am," Ro agreed. "But we don't know." She nodded at Deanna. "She's obviously entranced by them. I figure I'd better balance that by being a little more suspicious than normal."

Riker grinned. "And I can be middle of the road?"

Ro returned his smile. "I thought you'd like being caught between two women, Commander."

Before Riker could come up with a rejoinder for this, their fall ended. There was no slowing-they simply stopped in the air. There was no feeling of inertia or motion sickness. Ahead of them stretched a short tunnel, lined with glowing metallic panels.

"We're here," said Deanna, stepping forward. Ro shrugged and then followed. Riker kept pace with her as they walked down the pa.s.sageway and emerged into the room beyond.

Randolph was shaking with fear. Picard had a handful of his clothing and held him pressed against the cold stone wall.

"What is happening to my ship?" Picard repeated angrily.

"Gravity mines," Randolph gasped. As he spoke, he triggered the release for the small pouch under his shirtsleeve that held the tranquilizer needle. It slid out into his palm. Quickly he brought his hand around to stab Picard with it.

Metallic fingers closed about his wrist and squeezed. Randolph screamed, and the needle fell from his nerveless fingers to clatter on the floor. Data kept his grip on the man's wrist as he stooped to pick up the needle. "Drugged," he explained to Picard, holding it up. He seemed to be unaware that he was crushing Randolph's wrist.

"Prompt action, Mr. Data." Picard glared at the howling prisoner again. "Answer me, d.a.m.n you."

"He's breaking my wrist!" Randolph screamed.

Letting go of the man's clothing, Picard turned to face the trembling Hagan. "Mr. Data, if he doesn't begin talking within the next ten seconds, snap his wrist. Then we can talk to his friend here."

"Gravity mines," said Randolph hastily. "They're a Preserver weapon, to protect this planet. I triggered them a short while ago and set them after the Enterprise."

"That's much better," Picard said approvingly. "Now-how do we stop them?"

"I don't know."

"Mr. Data-"

"I swear it!" Randolph screamed. "I don't know! I found the instructions on a panel in their control room. It's difficult script to translate. It took me months to decipher as much as I did. I only bothered with how to set the mines, not with how to turn them off again."

Picard considered this. The man could be lying, but he doubted it. He was plainly terrified and incompetent. A petty crook, way out of his tiny little league when he'd stumbled across something of this magnitude. It was all too believable that he would not have bothered to find out how to stop the attack once it had begun. "I'll accept what you say for now," he decided. "Now-where is this Preserver control room?"

"It's under the castle." Randolph stared at his wrist. "Tell him to let me go. Please! I'll tell you anything you want to know."

"You'll talk first," Picard replied. "And how do we get into the room?"

"Via the dungeons."

Picard shook his head. "Come, you can do better than that. Do you seriously expect us to walk into a cell and accept that there's a control room on the other side of it? I wasn't born yesterday, you know."

"It's not a cell, it's just a corridor." Randolph licked his lips nervously. "It looks as if you come to a dead end, but if you know there's a door there, you can walk into it. But you've got to believe it, or you just walk into solid stone. They must have made it like that to hide it from the natives."

"From the dungeons?" mused Picard. That was where all of the guards were milling about. It would be impossible to get into the Preservers' control area while every Tom, d.i.c.k, and Harry in the castle was in the dungeons. He'd need to lure them out first. But he couldn't plan that while guarding these two crooks. He tapped Data's communicator. "Picard to O'Brien."

The static didn't seem as bad as it had before. "O'Brien here, sir."

"Mr. O'Brien, are you able to transport up to the ship at the moment?"

"Aye, sir. I've rigged a gravity compensator, and the ship's shields are timed to the mines' gravity pulses. But I don't have any readings for you on my board. Just Mr. Data at your current position."