The Best And The Brightest Part 9

The bigger Rex abruptly stopped in his tracks, raising his head slightly and drawing back his upper lip. She could see his tongue flicking the roof of his half-open mouth. The Rex seemed to be almost in a trancelike state for a few moments, holding its breath and staring straight ahead. Then it abruptly shook its head and looked directly at her.

Starsa wasn't about to get into a staring match with the Rex. She never won with Bobbie Ray, always ending up blinking first or turning away from his huge, unwavering gold eyes.

She dropped the rope. "Bobbie Ray! Nev Reoh! Grab the rope!"

Bobbie Ray leaned out of the hole in the wall, giving her a wide-eyed stare. "Hurry!" she shouted at him.

As Bobbie Ray began to claw his way up the cliff, leaving deep grooves in the wall from his hind claws, the other two Rex retreated to a place where they could get up the cliff. Starsa chewed on her lip, watching their fast progress.

"They want you!" she told Bobbie Ray.

"How rea.s.suring," he retorted, nervously watching as the Rex bounded gracefully up the steep slope.

"Help me!" Nev Reoh wailed from below, dangling from the rope like he'd run out of strength.

With Bobbie Ray's a.s.sistance, Starsa pulled Nev Reoh up at least a body length, looping the rope around the boulders to give them leverage. They gave another mighty heave, bringing the Bajoran near the lip of the plateau.

"Uh-oh!" Bobbie Ray exclaimed, as the Rex reached the plateau and headed for them.

"You're talking to them wrong," Starsa panted.

"They haven't given me a chance to talk to them," Bobbie Ray protested.

"They talk with their bodies, not their mouths! Go meet them," Starsa told him, hanging on to the rope with all her might. "Reoh, you'll have to climb up the last bit!"

Hesitantly, Bobbie Ray moved forward to meet them.

"Not like that!" Starsa exclaimed. "Make yourself look bigger! Fluff everything out-"

"I'm going to get killed," Bobbie Ray muttered.

"Think of it as stylized combat. I doubt they really want to hurt us-or they would have killed me. They're confused because you're not responding right." She grunted, holding onto the rope. "Reoh, get your Bajoran b.u.t.t up here! A three-year-old could climb faster than you!"

Bobbie Ray faced the two large Rex as they cautiously approached, no longer growling as they had when he had run. He realized he was on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet, and his shoulders instinctively squared to make as himself appear as big as possible.

They began to circle, and he kept his face toward them, backpedaling slightly to keep them from surrounding him. The smaller Rex fell back, letting the larger one move in.

All Bobbie Ray could see were the enormous incisors of the Rex and each one of those four-inch claws. The hair on his spine crawled, as if sensing the way those jaws would clamp on the back of his neck to deliver the killing bite.

"Make the first move," Starsa hissed from behind him.

Bobbie Ray gave her a quick glare. Why hadn't his parents ever taught him about Rex? Surely they knew that, going into Starfleet, he was bound to encounter his own kind. If he got out of this, he was going to have a long talk with his mother.

"Go on!" Starsa urged. "Be tough. Put your ears back, like when you're challenging someone to a fight."

"You're interfering with my concentration," Bobbie Ray snapped.

The Rex stopped, seemingly confused, looking from him to Starsa. Bobbie Ray realized she was right, and he began advancing slowly, weaving from side to side, taking care to rotate his ears so the backs faced frontward, in what Starsa said was his "growly" look.

It seemed to work, because the other Rex immediately flattened his ears, not just turning them back but making them almost disappear. Bobbie Ray tried out a low growl or two, but was less than pleased when a spine-chilling wail seemed to rise from nowhere.

"What's that?" Nev Reoh asked, peeking over the edge of the plateau.

"I think it's coming from him," Bobbie Ray said out of the corner of his mouth. This time he was careful not to break his stance. Knowing he could never compete with that unearthly sound, Bobbie Ray made a big show of moving forward a few inches, his legs absurdly stiff.

"That's good," Starsa called out encouragement. "I think you're scaring him."

"Is that a good idea?" Bobbie Ray murmured, advancing, then pausing, giving the Rex plenty of time to call it quits.

As the Rex came very near, his head seemed to twist as if focusing in on Bobbie Ray from a different angle. He took a slow step forward and twisted his head the other way, and Bobbie Ray started to get the feeling that he was a sitting duck. A rather realistic growling whine rose from the back of his throat, rumbling out and rising in power as adrenaline-laced panic sang through his nerves.

They both slowed, moving in tiny increments, balanced only by each other's shifting. The Rex was screaming directly at him, frozen, and Bobbie Ray felt the same compulsion to glare at his rival, to move even slower, as if not to admit fear.

Suddenly his adversary lunged toward him, and Bobbie Ray shied back, trying to get room to maneuver. The Rex came in over his back to get his teeth on Bobbie Ray's neck. The cadet kicked out his leg, swiping support from under the Rex, causing both of them to tumble away from each other.

Bobbie Ray was quickly back on his feet, twitching his fur, trying to feel if he had been slashed by those deadly claws. But the Rex hadn't connected. Bobbie Ray silently blessed every hand-to-hand defense instructor he'd ever had.

The Rex seemed even more wary this time, but he stared hard at him before coming in again, taking a defensive posture. When Bobbie Ray immediately countered his stance, the Rex didn't move in as close this time. After a few frozen moments, wailing and rumbling loud enough to make Starsa cover her ears, the Rex finally began to ease back.

Bobbie Ray felt himself relax with every centimeter the Rex slowly retreated. It was so gradual that he wasn't sure it was over until both the Rex faded away, turning and disappearing down into the canyon.

"You did it!" Starsa exclaimed, clapping her hands. She jumped on Bobbie Ray, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He was practically rigid, still in his alert-stance, feeling strangely exhilarated and unwilling to break his pose. "Let go," he ordered under his breath.

Laughing, Starsa jumped down and did a little dance. "We did it! We did it!"

"They might come back any second," Nev Reoh said, edging up to them. Bobbie Ray noticed he stayed well out of arm's reach.

"No, they won't," both Bobbie Ray and Starsa said at the same time. She grinned, and he finally felt his whiskers move in response, lying smoothly against his face as his teeth showed in a smile.

They didn't even make it back to the seep to rejoin Ijen, Puller, and Reeves before the cadet ship signaled them to await transport. As the stark landscape faded from view, Bobbie Ray knew it would be forever burned into his memory, along with the victory he'd had facing down the Rex.

"There were no fatalities among the cadets," the survival instructor informed them on reaching the ship. "Everyone has automatically pa.s.sed their survival test, whether they regrouped or not."

Bobbie Ray had completely forgotten about the Academy, and it seemed very far away with the battlel.u.s.t still thrumming through his blood.

"When we realized it was a ruse," the instructor added, "we fought our way back though the Rex shuttles that were holding us off. We believe they were drawn here because of your lifesigns, Cadet Jefferson. We could tell there was a confrontation going on down there. What happened?"

Bobbie Ray shrugged one shoulder. "It was some sort of mock battle. As soon as I engaged them, they withdrew."

He knew that didn't explain everything, but he also knew there was no way to talk about what had happened. It was more subtle and more powerful than anything he had ever felt before. He was used to always being the strongest, the fastest, the most agile, but when his own kind had challenged him, he felt as b.u.mbling and awkward as Nev Reoh. He had gone into security because it came naturally and was easy for him, but after seeing the Rex laughing at him while he was stuck in that hole, he realized how much he had let his natural abilities slide.

Now he couldn't wait to get back to the Academy and try some of those intimidation techniques used by the Rex. Just wait until his instructors saw what he could do!

Chapter Five.

MOLL ENOR WAS RETURNING from the back of the science pod, balso tonic in hand, when she overheard Cadet Campbell saying to Cadet Wu, "I do not know the cadet well enough to say."

"Yeah, that's my point," Wu agreed with a wry grin. "You'd think after a month of living on the science station together-"

He broke off abruptly as Moll Enor appeared around the central power a.s.sembly. Cadet Wu was leaning forward curiously, intent on gossiping with the taciturn Campbell. Cadet Campbell was concentrating on his console, frowning slightly, but even he started in surprise at Moll's appearance.

That's when Moll realized they were talking about her. She flushed hotly, avoiding their eyes, thankful that they probably wouldn't notice the way her spots suddenly stood out. Ever since she had won top honors in her cla.s.s, all the cadets knew who she was. They constantly watched her and talked about her. She was the freak again, exactly as she had been on the Trill homeworld, where having a photographic memory was extremely rare.

"Excuse me, sir," Moll said to Cadet Mantegna, the designated commander on this tagging and tracking mission within the ring nebula. "Do you have the latest readings on the levels of interior microwave radiation?"

Mantegna sighed at her interruption, not bothering to look up. "It will have to wait a few minutes, Cadet Enor. I'm in the middle of the infrared sensor sweep right now." Mantegna flicked Moll a glance as she hesitated. "Is that all?"

"Yes, sir," Moll said, backing away.

She made it back to her station, where she was running a computer program of the numerous mathematical equations that plotted the movements of the asteroids as they spun and tumbled in the turbulence of the ring nebula, moving in a roughly helixical orbit. There was only a three-second delay from the sensor pickups to mathematical translation, so she was basically seeing a real-time flow of data, gathered for an in-depth a.n.a.lysis by the astrophysics lab. For Moll, the work had been routine the second day, and except when she was in command of their science pod, she had spent the better part of four weeks staring with glazed eyes at the screen, hypnotized by the chaotic pattern that appeared and disappeared within the data.

The Federation astrophysics lab, poised outside the Trifid ring nebula, was considered a prime field a.s.signment. Though it was relatively small, it was close to Sol system, so teams of cadets were rotated in. The cadets used the science pod, the Sagittarius, to do the grunt work of collecting data in the neverending surveys of the debris. Based on the data, some scientists theorized that the protosolar system was destroyed when a subs.p.a.ce compression collided with the Trifid star, causing it to go supernova and eject most of its ma.s.s.

Whereas most nebula expand away from their source, diffusing high-energy particles and cosmic rays, the compression phenomenon caused the Trifid ring nebula to rotate in on itself, forming a churning toroid around a strong gravity well. It was almost as awe-inspiring as the Bajoran wormhole, which she had gone to see during the summer break while on field a.s.signment on the Oberth-cla.s.s science ship, the Copernicus.

Because of her first-place standing in her cla.s.s, Moll Enor had also been able to choose to come to the Trifid ring nebula. From the science station, Moll liked to watch the toroid bands of color caused by the centrifugal action of the gases. The bands were separated into turquoise blue darkening to purple in the center, surrounded by a wide band of yellow, and thinner bands of red and green on the outer edge.

The colors were so brilliant that the first time she entered the gas cloud, she expected it to appear opaque inside. Instead, the interior shimmered with luminous discharges arcing between the tumbling asteroids, creating a delicate tracery of fine molecular chains, endlessly twisting and tangling together.

Her station signaled when data was received from Mantegna's internal synchrotron scan. Electrons moving at nearly the speed of light inevitably leaked into the Sagittarius as they spiraled about the magnetic field of the nebula. The other cadets were getting negligent with the Starfleet protocol of manually confirming the automatic scans, but it was necessary, since synchrotron radiation often distorted scanner readings.

Moll hadn't told them that Trill who were joined with the vermiform symbiont were particularly sensitive to annular phase transitions. Some joined Trill weren't able to use the transporter system. She didn't have that problem, but she didn't want to find out the hard way that the Enor symbiont was sensistive to higher levels of synchrotron radiation.

Mantegna muttered something as he abruptly began running a systems diagnostic check.

"What's wrong?" Wu asked.

Mantegna stood up to activate the power boost. "I'm trying to find out. The comm link won't open."

"Maybe something's wrong with the phase buffers on the emitters," Wukee suggested. "Or the ones on the relay. Remember last week-"

"If you would give me a moment," Mantegna interrupted, "I'll tell you where the malfunction is... ." Campbell turned along with Moll as Mantegna thoughtfully murmured, "Hmm ..." over the data.

"Well? Are you going to tell us?" Wukee asked insistently.

Mantegna reseated himself at the navigation console. "The problem is in the communications relay." He scanned for the nearest relay buoy.

Since Moll received the same telemetry report on the asteroids, she knew the nearest relay was in the tertiary phase layer of the nebula-what appeared to be the thick yellow ring from the exterior. Inside, there was no difference in the twinkling brightness of layers upon layers of discharge filaments that constantly appeared and disappeared between the asteroids. But cadet research teams were only supposed to catalog and tag asteroids in the outer red and green bands, because the turbulence of the magnetic field increased exponentially toward the gravity well.

Mantegna asked Moll, "When will the next science team come through this section?"

They all knew that was the sort of question she could answer. Having once seen their a.s.signment rotations, she would remember everyone's schedule. Suddenly, Moll felt as if the science pod was too crowded for four people and her eidetic memory.

"Not until next quarter," she said, tight-lipped. "They just came through this section."

Satisfied, Mantegna turned back to the helm to plot their course to the nearest relay buoy. He input the new coordinates to take the science pod in. "We're going into the tertiary zone."

"I'll reroute the comm to another relay buoy and notify the station," Moll agreed.

But Wukee sounded concerned as he asked, "Aren't we supposed to stay out of there?"

Mantegna raised his brows. "Communication systems have priority! Remember the regulations manual they gave us? What if a science pod got caught in a burst current and couldn't get a signal out because the relay was malfunctioning?"

Moll said reasonably, "Then they would divert their comm-link to another relay, as I just did."

Mantegna didn't deign to reply. He was too pleased by the break in their routine. Truth to tell, they all were. Moll felt a rush of antic.i.p.ation at doing something new-an eager dread of not knowing, wanting to know, but uncertain without information to fall back on.

So Moll was more wary than the others, and was the first to notice that something odd was happening. There were more asteroids in the tertiary phase, and they were moving differently. The science pod closed in, but Moll was still unable to see the buoy.

"Shields at maximum," Mantegna announced.

The pod slowed, letting their forcefield nudge away the jostling asteroids. Moll instinctively hunched down as a mountain-sized planetoid grazed overhead, shuddering as it impacted with another large asteroid, crushing a smaller boulder in between with a spray of energy sparks. Debris arched toward them, and the kinetic particles rocked the pod despite its stabalizers.

"Merdu!" Wu exclaimed, as they all shielded their eyes from the burst of light.

"Boost power to rear shields," Mantegna called out, barely keeping his voice from cracking.

Even Campbell was sneaking wide-eyed glances at the screen as he tried to adjust the deflectors to ward off asteroids.

"The buoy must have been destroyed!" Wukee gasped out. "We should go back-"

"No," Moll denied. "I've still got the subs.p.a.ce signal on telemetry."

Incredulously, Wu asked, "How could it survive-"

"There!" Moll exclaimed, pointing at the screen. "There's a break in the asteroids... ."

The deflectors of their pod were buffeted as they finally broke into the calm sphere at the heart of the spiraling asteroids. The communications buoy was spinning on its axis in the very center, with what appeared to be an asteroid stuck to it. They were whipping around so fast that the two blurred together.

As they moved in closer, Moll warned, "Don't get caught in the vortex."

"We're in the magnetic calm between the two solenoids," Mantegna dismissed. "It looks like we've got a live one here."

Campbell crouched over his console as if s.n.a.t.c.hing the data off as it appeared. "Radius approximately ten meters."

Wukee was shaking his head over the science console. "The spin is disrupting our sensors. I can't get a lock on it."

The other cadets kept glancing at Moll, even Mantegna, though he affected an air of calm. Self-consciously, Moll said, "We should notify the station immediately."

"We have another problem," Campbell spoke up. "This entire vortex is moving through the tertiary phase, spiraling toward the inner phases."