The Best And The Brightest Part 4

"I'm going in," t.i.tus said, suddenly feeling much calmer, knowing that he had to take control. He got them into this mess.

"You'll drown!" Jayme cried out. "That tunnel we came down-it's lower than this cave. It must be filled with water, too!"

t.i.tus swallowed, remembering how long the tunnel was. "We may not have oceans on Antaranan, but that doesn't mean we didn't have water. I'm a good swimmer."

"I'm not!" Bobbie Ray wailed, trying to shake the water from the fur on his hands. He was shivering and wet through.

"Get up to the top," t.i.tus ordered. "I'll have you beamed out of here in no time."

The other two cadets reluctantly retreated as he flung gear from his pouch-water flask, extra rope-leaving only the necessities, with just enough room to spare so he could wedge his jet-boots in.

Standing hip-deep in the hole, wincing from the biting cold water, he glanced back up at the cadets. "Hang tight!"

They didn't look rea.s.sured.

Taking a deep breath, he ducked under the water. Immediately he knew it wouldn't work. The surge of water welling up carried him back to the surface.

As he broke into the air again, he was saying, "All right! It's all right! I've got an idea."

He quickly removed the jet-boots and strapped them on. Water was nearing his waist now. He didn't care if it killed him, he wasn't going to give up this time.

Diving down headfirst, he got around the jag in the fissure and then turned on the boots. The jets churned the water and almost drove him into the rock wall, but he eased off the power and used his hands to guide him down to the tunnel. Underwater, even with the handlight, he could hardly see, so he groped his way down, feeling the sc.r.a.pe of rocks against his coveralls as the boots propelled him through the water.

He knew he had reached the tunnel by the strong surge of the current pushing him in the direction he wanted to go. But he was running out of oxygen. His jaw clenched as he gunned the boots, squinting his eyes against the pressure of the water as he shot through the murky light cast by the glow of the jets.

Everything was getting dark and hazy, and his chest seemed ready to burst. t.i.tus wasn't sure he was going to make it to the vertical shaft.

Jayme felt sorry for Bobbie Ray, huddled next to her at the top of the talus slope. "Maybe it won't reach this far," she offered.

Bobbie Ray was wiping at his fur with the fleshy palm of one hand, smoothing and smashing it, pressing all the water out. Then he would twitch and shake, making the damp hair stand out again. Then he would pick another patch and begin the whole process over again. It seemed like more a nervous reaction than an effort to dry himself.

"Do you think he drowned yet?" Bobbie Ray asked, unable to meet her eyes.

"Umm," she murmured, "by now, he either drowned or got out alive."

"Are you going to try it?" Bobbie Ray asked.

Jayme wasn't aware that her calculating glances at the hole had been that obvious. "I'll try it before I drown in here."

Bobbie Ray went back to stroking his fur, concentrating on every swipe.

"I'll help you," she a.s.sured him.

"That won't do any good. I could barely pa.s.s the Starfleet swimming requirements. And you don't know how hard that was for me."

Jayme silently patted his knee. She wasn't sure she could make it, but every bit of her mind and body was focused on that hole, ready to dive through the water and turn on her jet-boots just as t.i.tus had done. Even if it killed her. Because that was better than sitting here until the water rose up around her chin.

"I just wish I knew if he made it," she murmured.

"Wait a few more minutes. Maybe he's at a public transporter terminal right now. There was one right outside the access port."

They both stared at the hole.

The shaft was full of water, too. t.i.tus desperately revved the boots, aiming straight up, his hand clenched on the control so tightly that even if he drowned he knew he would surface.

When he thought he was pa.s.sing out, he broke into air. A shower of water rose with him, and his surge in speed left him gasping and laughing and, when he finally could, crying out in relief. Arrowing up, he raised both arms, trying to pick up more speed, thinking about Jayme and Bobbie Ray back in that death trap.

He was going so fast that the opening approached before realized it. Braking, he hit the ceiling and bounced down, managing to twist in midair so he would land on the floor of the access entrance.

Still panting and gasping, almost hysterical with his near miss, he rolled over in the dirt, trying to wipe away the muddy dust that settled on his face and eyes. When he could finally see, Starsa, Moll Enor, and Nev Reoh were several meters away, standing in the access room and staring at him.

"What happened to you?" Moll Enor demanded.

"What are you doing here?" t.i.tus said at the same time.

Starsa raised one hand slightly, blinking in amazement at his dramatic appearance. "I listened outside your door the other night, and I heard you planning to come down to the caves without me-"

"You what!" t.i.tus interrupted.

"I followed you," Starsa admitted, "but then the hole started filling with water, and you didn't come out."

"We beamed over when she called us because we were afraid you were in trouble," Moll Enor added.

"Jayme and Bobbie Ray!" t.i.tus forgot about Starsa's gross invasion of privacy-just one of many. "They're trapped in a cavern. We've got to beam them out fast-"

"I already tried that!" Starsa interrupted. "You went below the network of seismic regulators. The active energy field is interfering with the sensor locks on the transporter."

"That's why we brought the sonic cutter," Reoh agreed as t.i.tus clutched at his hair.

"Where?" t.i.tus demanded. He grabbed the cylindrical unit, practically ripping it from Reoh's back. Leaving the others to follow as best they could, he turned his jet-boots on and jumped into the shaft, hardly breaking his fall toward the rising water.

Jayme and Bobbie Ray were treading water, barely six feet over the original opening into the cave. "It's easy," Jayme told him. "Just dive and when your boots are pointed up, hit the jets."

Bobbie Ray nodded glumly, more concerned with keeping his chin out of the water than judging the angle of the hole. Jayme reached up, but she couldn't touch the low-hanging ceiling.

"We're running out of time. You have to try it," she told him.

The Rex took a few deep breaths, then a few more, hyperventilating to get enough oxygen in his system. With a thumbs up, he splashed awkwardly under the water. Jayme peered through the brackish water, ready to cheer as he dove through the hole. But even before his hindquarters went through, he was pushing back out and paddling frantically up for air.

He grabbed onto her, almost pulling her under as he sprayed her with water. "Let go!" she shouted, trying to pry his fingers off her. She gulped air just before going under. Then her instincts kicked in and she was more concerned with getting away from him than helping.

"I'm sorry!" was the first thing she heard. "I'm sorry!"

Jayme tried to catch her breath, treading water out of his tremendous reach. She knew t.i.tus had brought then down here because he wanted to get one over on Bobbie Ray. She had agreed to come along became, secretly, she also wanted to see the dashing know-it-all brought down a few notches. It seemed like all the girls in the Academy-except for her and Starsa-thought Bobbie Ray was the hottest thing in a uniform. She couldn't get over the fact that all her friends were drooling over that smug, self-satisfied grin. Now his whiskers hung almost straight down, dragged by the water at his chin. If only t.i.tus could see him now.

But they hadn't counted on this.

The water was rising. She could almost touch the ceiling. But she couldn't desert Bobbie Ray. "Now what do I do?" she moaned.

"Right there," t.i.tus ordered, positioning himself at the top of the talus slope.

Nev Reoh nearly knocked over the sonic cutter as he and Starsa hung on to stabilize it. t.i.tus swore under his breath at the Bajoran. He had tried, but the cutter was too powerful for him to stabilize it himself. And it took too long for the others to climb down and join him.

Water poured into the first cavern and coursed through the crevice just below the ledge they had to use to get to the next cavern. t.i.tus practically ran to the rear of the second cave, working on the a.s.sumption that the top of the talus slope was the narrowest point of the barrier leading into the next cavern.

Moll Enor adjusted her safety gla.s.ses. "Are you sure about this?"

t.i.tus took hold of the handles of the sonic cutter, snapping to Reoh, "Get it locked, will you! We're running out of time."

With more brute force than was usually necessary, t.i.tus aimed the cutter at the rubble near the ceiling of the cave. Dust and bits of rock were flung back and caught in the stasis field, hanging in mid-air until he shut off the cutter for a moment to see his progress.

Reoh clambered up peering under his arm. "How far?"

"You think I know?" he demanded, taking hold of the cutter once more.

With another everlasting flurry of stones and the straining whine of the cutter, t.i.tus kept the beam pointed at the rocks long after he should have paused and checked his progress. "Come on!" he muttered through gritted teeth. "Give!"

"Wait?" Moll Enor yelled through the rumble of cut rock. "I see-"

t.i.tus was suddenly pulled forward as the sonic cutter broke through the rock. Leaving the beam on short intensity, he swiped around at the rock to widen the gap.

As soon as the cutter was deactivated, Moll Enor ducked through the hole ahead of him. "Bobbie Ray! Jayme! You okay?"

t.i.tus pushed her through and with one pa.s.s of his handlight, he knew. "It's not the right one."

Moll Enor splashed down into the water. "Jayme! Bobbie Ray!" Her dark skin made it difficult to see her in the dim light.

Nev Reoh poked his head through. "Are you sure they aren't there?"

"Pa.s.s that cutter in," t.i.tus ordered. He had been afraid they weren't in the next cavern-it was even lower than this one. "It's the next cave."

As he set up the sonic cutter, he didn't add the words that rang through his head-I hope it's the next one.

"The water is rising in here," Moll Enor murmured behind him.

"Yeah, and every cave is lower than the next one," t.i.tus explained.

"Why are you going through this part?" Reoh asked, even as he helped.

"The ceiling's collapsed in the next cave. We've got to aim lower or we'll just bore through rock over the top of it."

"Oh." Reoh looked frightened, standing knee-deep in water. Starsa clutched him, practically pulling him off balance to keep herself from falling into the water. Reoh steadied her and aimed the tricorder at the wall. "I don't read any lifesigns. Do you think they're okay?"

"I don't know," t.i.tus said as he opened up the power on the cutter again.

"You better try it," Bobbie Ray told her, gasping in the depleted oxygen. Their faces were bobbing near the ceiling now. "Before we run out of air."

"We would have already suffocated if there weren't air seeping in," she countered.

"The point is," Bobbie Ray reminded her, "you can't breathe underwater."

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll take my chances."

Numbly she looked at him, those big golden eyes, the orange fur plastered to his face. "I can't leave you here!"

"You have to try to get out."

Desperately she glanced down at the hole, nearly ten feet below them now. "I don't know if I can make it."

"You have to try," he insisted.

"I'll try only if you follow me."

For a moment Bobbie Ray seemed about to refuse, then he suddenly nodded. "Sure. Maybe I can make it if I follow you."

Jayme narrowed her eyes. "You serious?"

"Sure, why not? Die here, die down there-what's the difference?"

She hardly believed him, but in their current situation, what choice did she have? "You better follow me," she ordered. "Or I'll kill you."

Bobbie Ray actually smiled at that. "Yes, sir!"

"Okay, breathe deep." They both took deep, cleansing breaths, five or six each. "Ready? Then here we go-"

Jayme ducked underwater, but she heard the rumble and saw a bright light glinting through the water. When she broke surface, Bobbie Ray hadn't even submerged. Instead, he was pointing to the side wall near the ceiling. A hole was opening up, and they were drawn along with the water pouring out of the cavern.

"h.e.l.lo?" a frightened voice called.

"That's Moll Enor!" Jayme cried out. "We're here! Enor!"

They started swimming toward the hole and were easily sucked through with the water. Sitting on the rocks, hip-deep in water, looking up at Moll Enor, Nev Reoh, Starsa, and t.i.tus, all she could say was, "What took you so long?"

"Hey," t.i.tus said defensively. "I told you I'd take care of everything."

"Well, at least you're working together now," Superintendent Brand told the Quad as they stood in a row in her office. "That's some progress."

Bobbie Ray and Starsa looked pleased with themselves. Even Reoh relaxed. But Jayme, t.i.tus, and Moll knew better.

"You would be good cadets if only you could work toward something constructive," Brand added. "Since T'Rees is on field a.s.signment, he won't receive the formal reprimand that will be placed on each of your records."

t.i.tus was glad to hear he wouldn't have to explain this to their Vulcan quadmate. He thanked whatever G.o.ds there were that T'Rees was temporarily on field a.s.signment at Starbase 175.

Brand's severe tone eased somewhat. "Because you conscientiously notified the authorities about the cavern you discovered containing the calcified human bones, I have decided not to place you on probation."

t.i.tus finally began to breathe easier. They had just barely gotten off probation from their first Quad reprimand, and it felt like he'd been waiting forever for the next tryouts to join the Parrises Squares League.