The Returned, Part III Read online

  “All right, then. So the solution is obvious.”

  Q snapped his fingers, and suddenly Cwansi was in his arms rather than Robin’s.

  Robin let out a horrified shriek, and McHenry immediately charged Q. But it availed him nothing, because Q had vanished.

  “Bring him back!” howled Robin.

  Q’s disembodied voice boomed through the ship. “I’m afraid that really isn’t an option,” it said. “But fear not. I have somewhere else for you to be.”

  And suddenly the engines roared to life, and the ship started to hurtle forward.

  “Lyla, are you doing this?!” shouted Xyon.

  “No, Xyon,” Lyla calmly replied. “The engines came on-line by themselves, nor did I set the heading.”

  The ship sped through space, and the entire time Robin was howling for Xyon to find a way to stop it. It was a bellowed request that he would happily have followed, but he had no idea how to do so. He staggered to the control console and tried to take command of his ship, but he was completely unable to. It was going through space with literally a mind of its own, and he was helpless to prevent it.

  Space sped past them as the passengers in the small craft were tossed around from the ship’s headlong speed. Robin didn’t seem to notice it, though. She was too busy hysterically screaming her son’s name, and there was nothing that Mark could do to calm her down.

  Abruptly the ship began to slow as the reverse thrusters flared to life. The ship’s speed decreased, and Xyon desperately tried to get a fix on where they were.

  Then he saw it.

  “Crap.”

  Deep Space

  CALHOUN TUMBLED END over end as the airless, heatless depths of space slammed into his body.

  He knew not to hold his breath. Holding one’s breath in airless space was a sure way to cause one’s lungs to rupture. Besides, he could hold his breath, even under the best of circumstances, for only a minute or so. He felt every pore in his body contract.

  Soleta was doing what she could to shield him, but he had no idea if her stealth suit would enable her to survive in space. She wrapped her arms around him, but the protection that she was able to provide him was minimal at best.

  They spun through space, the suction of the vacuum having pulled them out of the Dayan ship with rather significant force. Calhoun had lost his view of the Dayan ship, even though they weren’t that far from it. He realized it was because his eyes were starting to mist over.

  It wasn’t the first time in his life that he’d been stranded out in the depths of space, but it hadn’t gotten any easier. He started shivering violently, and Soleta was holding him as tightly as she could. Part of him wanted her to use her neck pinch to knock him out, so that he could succumb while unconscious. That would have been ideal. But there was no way to ask her to do that, because his words wouldn’t carry to her in airless space. Besides, Calhoun was too dedicated to the concept of living. If these were to be his last seconds, he was determined to experience them.

  Then, to his shock, space around him began to dissolve. The sound of a transporter sounded in his ears, but he instinctively knew that it wasn’t the Excalibur’s. It sounded different. But he was sure that it wasn’t the Dayan transporter either. That had a totally different sound to it.

  He was surprised that he was able to hear anything at all, since they were in soundless space. He had to think that it was because the transporter beam was enveloping him and therefore going directly into the molecules of his ears.

  And then he rematerialized, still clutching desperately to Soleta. She had come along with him, which made sense, considering how tightly they were wrapped in each other’s arms.

  The moment they were solid again, they tumbled away from each other. Calhoun sat up, bewildered, and to his astonishment he was staring into the eyes of Mark McHenry. “What the—” he started to say.

  He didn’t manage to get another word out because the ship banked hard to port. He saw Xyon seated at the control panel, sending the ship speeding forward. He called back to his father, “Who the hell are your friends?! They’re gigantic! I’ve never seen a ship that big!”

  It took Calhoun a moment to draw breath into his tortured lungs. “They’re the Dayan. They’re here to destroy all life in the galaxy.”

  “Well, that’s certainly a large enough ship to do it with!”

  Explosions suddenly roared around them. Xyon sent the ship to starboard as he snarled, “They’re shooting at us! That’s rude!”

  Calhoun stumbled forward, not taking the time to find out what McHenry or Lefler was doing there. She didn’t seem to be in the position to explain it; she was seated in a corner and sobbing to herself. He didn’t see Cwansi with her and immediately figured out why she was weeping. But this wasn’t the time to ask questions.

  He grabbed the back of Xyon’s chair and held on. “Can you avoid them?”

  “I don’t care how big they are,” Xyon said proudly. “Nothing can hit this ship when I’m taking evasive maneuvers.”

  Xyon’s ship was dropping like a rock through space, cutting to one side and the other as blasts from the Dayan ship continued to try and target them. But Xyon was as good as his word, staying one step ahead of the Dayan blasts.

  “Where do I go?” demanded Xyon.

  “Don’t you know?” said Calhoun.

  “No clue. I got punted here by Q.”

  “Q? What?”

  “Captain, can we get into this later?” said McHenry urgently. He ran forward and jumped into the navigation seat next to Xyon. It was typically empty; McHenry grabbed hold of the controls.

  “What are you doing?” said Xyon.

  “Setting our course! Two twenty-seven mark eighty-three! Keep us dodging but put us on that!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m always sure,” said McHenry confidently.

  Xyon obeyed, sending his ship hurtling down and away from the Dayan ship. It continued to fire on them, and now, despite Xyon’s pride in his evasive maneuvers, a couple of shots nearly tagged them. He gulped deeply but kept the ship steady.

  “Almost there,” said McHenry.

  “Where?”

  “Almost there.”

  “Stop saying that!” said an annoyed Xyon.

  He cut port and starboard again, and then another blast clipped them with incredible force.

  “Aft shields have collapsed, Xyon,” Lyla told him. “Forward shields cannot sustain another hit.”

  Xyon couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t flying a Starfleet ship, but his shields were reasonably strong. The Dayan had only managed to hit him once, and he’d already lost his aft shields. “From one hit? What the hell are they firing at us?!”

  “You don’t want to know,” said Calhoun.

  The ship hurtled forward, Xyon doing everything he could to avoid being hit again.

  “Let’s hope this works,” McHenry said in a low voice.

  “Let’s hope what works? What are we doing?” asked an increasingly desperate Xyon.

  “There! Right there!” McHenry suddenly shouted.

  Calhoun looked and saw what Mark was pointing at. It was the interior of the Excalibur’s shuttlebay, and it was directly ahead of them. It was the only part of the ship that was visible. Apparently the cloaking device only covered the exterior of the ship; the interior could be seen when the shuttlebay doors were open.

  “Hold on!” Xyon warned them.

  The small vessel hurtled into the shuttlebay. It was not remotely a soft landing. Xyon hit the reverse thrusters, but he couldn’t fully halt the ship’s forward momentum. It hit the shuttlebay deck and skidded. The sounds of screeching metal tore through Calhoun’s ears. Even Robin stopped crying, effectively shocked out of her tragedy by the roughness of the Lyla’s landing.

  The speed caused it to bounce into the a
ir and then land again. It almost flipped over, but somehow Xyon managed to keep it even. The problem was that the far end of the shuttlebay was coming up fast. Xyon was frantically trying to slow down the ship. The reverse thrusters roared more fiercely. “This is gonna be close!” Xyon shouted.

  The ship continued to skid along the shuttlebay, and then, literally centimeters away from the other end of the bay, Lyla finally screeched to a halt. Calhoun could see the faces of the crew who were on duty, visible behind the large clear windows, flinching because they were fearful that the ship was going to slam into the far end.

  Calhoun hit his combadge. “Calhoun to bridge! Get us the hell out of here!”

  “Captain?!” came Burgoyne’s surprised voice, but then s/he immediately responded to the order. “Aye, sir!”

  Excalibur

  i.

  “CAPTAIN?!” BURGOYNE SAID in astonishment but then quickly added: “Aye, sir!” S/he spun toward Tobias and called, “Get us out of here, Tania!”

  “Heading?”

  “Anywhere!”

  The engines of the Excalibur came to life and the ship, still cloaked, headed off into space.

  Burgoyne couldn’t quite understand what had just happened. Xyon’s ship had just dropped out of space, showing up from absolutely nowhere. This had happened almost simultaneously with an explosion occurring on the far side of the Dayan ship. The Excalibur, in passive mode, didn’t have sensors on the Dayan vessel and couldn’t tell what had caused the explosion. They knew that suddenly Xyon’s ship came hurtling from the far side of the Dayan ship. At first it had been heading away from the Excalibur, but then it course corrected and was suddenly coming straight for them. It had been Burgoyne’s notion to angle the ship around so that the shuttlebay could be opened and serve as a means of catching Xyon’s ship.

  It had not been a plan that met with Tania’s approval. “Why allow him onto the ship?” she demanded. “For all we know, he’s working with the Dayan. This could be a trick.”

  Burgoyne didn’t believe it. However Xyon had shown up, s/he was positive that it wasn’t some manner of deception, no matter Tobias’s conviction—she believed that Xyon might be trying some manner of trickery. But Burgoyne didn’t have the time to question why Tobias believed it; s/he had to make a command decision.

  The decision had been absolutely spot-on, because apparently Calhoun was on Xyon’s ship. S/he had no idea how that had happened, but s/he wasn’t about to knock it.

  The Excalibur hurtled away from the Dayan ship, which apparently was caught so flat-footed that the ship was in warp space before the Dayan had the opportunity to react. Plus, it helped that the Excalibur was still cloaked and the Dayan couldn’t see it or detect them.

  “Captain, where are you?” Burgoyne said.

  “We’re heading to sickbay.”

  “Are you injured?”

  “Well, I was just floating in space, so a fast checkup to make sure that none of my internal organs burst would seem to be the smart move.”

  “On my way.”

  Burgoyne got up from the chair and said briskly, “Kebron, you have the conn. If the Dayan show up, inform me immediately.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  S/he stepped into the turbolift and said, “Sickbay.” The doors closed and the turbolift immediately started heading toward the correct deck.

  As the lift moved, Burgoyne let out a relieved sigh and sagged against the wall. S/he still had no idea what they were going to do about the Dayan, still in Thallonian space in a ship designed to destroy everything it encountered. But the one thing s/he did know was that as long as Calhoun was all right, everything would eventually work out.

  The turbolift slowed, then opened, and s/he sprinted out of it and down the corridor. When s/he arrived at sickbay, s/he was stunned by what s/he saw.

  Calhoun was already up and around. Standing there with him were McHenry and, of all people, Xyon. And Soleta? Wasn’t Soleta dead? The major point of confusion was that Robin Lefler was also there. She was lying on a bio-bed, plainly sedated. It was monitoring her stats, and both her pulse and heartbeat were high. Her slumber wasn’t restful; she seemed as if her mind was trapped in some awful dream that wasn’t letting up on her.

  She was clutching McHenry’s hand as if it were a life preserver. She wasn’t even aware that she was doing it, obviously. He stroked her hand gently with his free one.

  Doctor Lochley was studying her life signs. “She’ll be okay. Her body still needs time to adjust.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” said Burgoyne. “Soleta, how are you still alive? And, McHenry, you and Robin . . . what are you doing here? Did Xyon get you from New Thallon?” Then suddenly s/he realized who was missing, and Lefler’s entire unstable physiology made sense. “Where’s Cwansi? Is he . . .”

  “He was kidnapped by Q,” said McHenry.

  “By Q? The Q?”

  McHenry nodded. “Yeah. The Q.”

  “Do we know where he took him?”

  “The only thing I can think of is back to New Thallon. To deliver him to Shintar Han, the prime minister who wants to kill him.”

  Burgoyne was having trouble believing it. “Kill him? Who would want to kill an infant?”

  “This lunatic. Trust me.”

  “We’re only an hour from New Thallon at top warp,” said Calhoun grimly. “Burgoyne, take us there. McHenry, do you want to go on ahead?”

  “There’s no point,” said McHenry softly. “Either the child is alive or dead; and if he’s dead, it’s because Han killed him the moment that Q returned with him. Delaying an hour wouldn’t make a difference. Besides, I think that Robin needs me.”

  “Why did you have to knock her out?” Burgoyne asked Lochley.

  “I didn’t have a choice. She was hysterical,” said Lochley. “Putting her under was the simplest way to calm her down.” The doctor stared at the life readings. “Her metabolism is steadying itself. So that’s good, at least.”

  “It’s steadying itself because I’m doing it,” McHenry said quietly. “She’s having a dream where she’s cradling her son and singing to him. I figured I could give her that.”

  “Well, that’s very considerate of you,” said Lochley.

  McHenry shrugged as he continued to stroke her hand.

  ii.

  THE MOOD IN the observation lounge was tense. The captain was pacing the room while Burgoyne sat at the far end; also present were Xyon, Soleta, and Tobias. Tobias kept casting glares at Xyon, which Calhoun didn’t understand, but he didn’t see any need to dwell on it at the moment.

  “Have we informed Starfleet of the Dayan’s presence?” asked Calhoun.

  Tobias turned her attention away from Xyon and nodded. “Yes, sir. As soon as we were clear of their ship, I sent an emergency signal on all frequencies. It may take some time for it to reach Command, but the word is out. For what that’s worth.”

  “It may not be worth much,” Calhoun said grimly. “Considering the power we’ve seen that ship display, I’m not sure what can stop it. How do you take down a ship that, every time you hit it, heals itself?”

  “Diplomacy,” said Soleta. “That is the only way to stop them. Open up talks with them to convince them to stand down.”

  “They’re not interested in talks,” said Calhoun. “All they care about is destruction. It’s their underpinning, their philosophy. We don’t have the weaponry that can stand up to them; this is going to be a hell of a problem for us.”

  “One thing at a time,” said Burgoyne. “Right now we have to focus on trying to get Robin’s son back.”

  “That’s assuming that we can even get near New Thallon,” said Calhoun. “They were able to penetrate our cloaking device easily enough the last time. We still have no idea how they managed to do that.”

  Tobias started to lean forward to speak but w
as interrupted by Xyon, who said softly, “It was me.”

  The crew turned and looked at him in confusion. All save Tobias, who seemed genuinely surprised. “What?” said Calhoun.

  “It was me,” he said again. “I brought in a tracking device and left it in Kally’s room so that the Thallonians would be able to find you.”

  For a moment there was astonished silence in the room. “Why did you do that?” asked an astonished Burgoyne.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It does,” said Burgoyne, “if you don’t want to either be tossed into the brig or, even better, off this ship—without benefit of your ship.”

  “It’s obvious why,” said Calhoun. There was no trace of emotion in his voice. “It’s because he hated me and wanted to destroy me.”

  “That was part of it. And I was working with Shintar Han. But,” he added quickly, “I didn’t know he wanted to kill the child. I’d never have cooperated if I’d known that was part of his plan.”

  “Why should we believe that?” said Burgoyne.

  “There’s no reason you should.”

  “Why are you telling us now?” said Calhoun. “That’s what I want to know.”

  “Because you deserve to know the truth. Especially since it will have an impact on your strategy. I’ll go down to her quarters and get the signaling device so that they won’t be able to—”

  “I’ve already destroyed it,” said Tobias.

  All heads turned toward her in surprise. “You knew about this?” asked an astounded Burgoyne. “Am I the only one on the ship who didn’t?”

  “Kalinda figured it out. She found the signaling device and brought it to me.”

  Burgoyne was looking increasingly agitated. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

  “Or me?” said Calhoun.

  “Because she was trying to help Xyon,” said Tobias, looking in wonderment at him. “She believed that eventually he would change his mind and realize that what he’d done was wrong. She was hoping that, by covering for him, his father would never find out and they could repair their relationship.”

  Despite the tension in the room, Xyon actually chuckled upon hearing that. “That sounds like her.”