Chapter Text
Part Four (Cont’d)
The trio of back-clad figures walked in close formation across the dusty surface of the planet. At least for the time being, there was nothing in sight apart from an endless landscape of dirty brown and rusty red rocks. There was no sign of plant or animal life anywhere.
Natasha held one of the Bounty’s ageing stash of tricorders in her hand, doing her best to try and make sense of the short-range readings through the cacophony of interference in place around their target. Alongside her, Jirel clutched a stout disruptor pistol, while Maya was visibly unarmed, keeping her focus on the ground beneath her feet.
They were halfway up the side of the barren hillside that stood between them and the apparent location of the duridium mine in the next valley. And all three were breathing heavily from their ongoing exertions.
Denella had been right about wanting to keep the hike as short as possible. Although the incline of the hillside was relatively gentle, the Class-L conditions were turning it into a punishing ascent.
Technically, such a celestial body was habitable for most humanoids. But barely so. Living conditions on a Class-L planet teetered on the edge of what was possible to survive.
They were not necessarily in any immediate danger. Although Natasha had noted that the atmosphere contained potentially toxic levels of carbon dioxide for both humans and Trills, it would only become an issue with long-term exposure.
Still, despite that fact, and the healthy shot of stimulants Natasha had given each of them back on the Bounty to help with the lower oxygen levels, they were all definitely feeling the effects, and progress was proving to be slow. To Jirel, climbing this incline felt like trying to run a marathon after smoking a crate of Yridian cigars.
They pressed on, taking tired breaths as they did so, as Natasha checked their progress on her tricorder. “We’re inside the range of the transport inhibitors now,” she reported.
Jirel tried not to focus on the knot in his stomach that developed on hearing that. Knowing that, from this point on until they get safely back outside the invisible field in question, they were completely on their own.
Natasha continued her report as she tapped the device in her hand. “It definitely looks like there’s a valley up ahead,” she panted, “I’m also scanning heavy deposits of duridium all around. So I guess this is our mine.”
“Lifesigns?” Jirel coughed.
“Those as well. But there’s too much interference to be any clearer on who.”
“As soon as you spot a Trill, let us know,” Maya replied from Jirel’s other side, “Hopefully Toren will be somewhere we can easily get to.”
Jirel paused for a second and looked up at the rest of the ascent ahead of them. Although the slope remained gentle all the way to the top, they were still barely halfway up.
“Nice place,” he coughed sarcastically as he started moving again.
Natasha silently agreed with him as they pressed on, while Maya glanced over at the Trill. “Reminds me of that time we wound up on that planetoid in the Landos system. We were meeting with those Tzenkethi traders to exchange our cargo of duranium alloy for…ugh, what was it?”
Jirel stifled a grunt of exertion and sucked in another lungful of thin air before he reluctantly answered her query. “Plasma regulators.”
“Ah yes,” Maya nodded with a wry smile, “A bunch of filthy plasma regulators. A fine treasure, indeed.”
“Yeah, well, seemed like a good deal at the time. Especially when you told me you knew a group of Ferengi salvage merchants in the next system who paid good money for reusable spare parts.”
Maya nodded at this, and despite himself Jirel found it was easy to fall back into familiar conversation. At the very least, it was distracting him from the punishing climb.
“We didn’t bring any breathing equipment with us then, either,” Maya offered in Natasha’s direction by way of explanation, “And the Tzenkethi were late. We almost ended up suffocating down there, because someone was too stubborn to give up and leave, and thought that he could brave it out.”
She nodded in Jirel’s direction. The Trill offered a slightly embarrassed shrug. “I was young back then.”
“And you’re old now,” she replied with a faint cutting edge, “But you still haven’t invested in any breathing equipment.”
He couldn’t help but allow his face to crease into a full smile as he shook his head, as the two old friends, lovers, colleagues and adversaries settled further into their old back-and-forth ways. “Well, whenever I get the latinum together to afford it, I have to pay off another instalment of my debt to you, don’t I?”
“Huh. I guess you never did have a way with finances, did you?”
“Hey, I put in my share when we bought the Bounty. Fifty-fifty.”
“More like eighty-twenty, darling.”
Natasha remained silent and listened as the pair continued to bicker like an old married couple as the ascent continued. She wasn’t entirely amused by their banter. In fact, she found that she was more concerned.
She was embarrassed to admit that part of her concern stemmed from a sliver of Jirel-esque jealousy she was beginning to cultivate as the Trill grew closer to the other woman, something that she was determined she would deal with later as soon as she located an affordable therapist.
But the major part of her concern was around the untrustworthiness of the woman he was growing closer to. A woman that had already led them into danger twice since she had arrived onboard.
And one that was leading them deeper into danger with every step.
* * * * *
The silence of the Bounty’s cockpit was suddenly filled by a new sound.
Sunek impatiently drummed his fingers on the surface of his pilot’s controls, causing Klath to grimace slightly in frustration. Once again, the Vulcan seemed to be finding the most efficient means to irritate him as he was trying to remain focused on his sensor readings.
Not that Sunek was doing it on purpose. He just hated silence.
“So,” he said eventually, “If something goes wrong down there, and we can’t beam them out through the inhibitors, do we—?”
“We wait,” Klath replied immediately. There was no other answer.
“And if something goes wrong up here?”
“We fight.”
Sunek drummed his fingers a little faster. Not that he hadn’t been expecting those responses, but the frankness of the Klingon’s replies did little to ease his inner tension. He stared out the window at the dirty rock below them, though his eye was inevitably drawn to the silver twinkling sentry, just about visible some distance off their bow.
A slight shiver passed down the Vulcan’s spine at the sight of Automated Sentry Point Epsilon. Not that he knew that was the name of it.
“For how long?” he found himself asking Klath as a follow-up query.
This time, there was a slight pause. The Klingon looked up from his weapons controls to glare at the back of the Vulcan’s tousle-haired head. There was no uncertainty when his answer came.
“For as long as it takes.”
“Yeah,” Sunek muttered, not turning back around, “That was what I was afraid of.”
Klath grunted and returned his attention to his controls, as Sunek kept his focus on the twinkling form of the sentry.
Another silence descended. One that felt even more excruciating than the last as far as the Bounty’s pilot was concerned.
“Can we at least put the shields up?” he asked eventually.
Klath suppressed his latest frustrated growl at the latest of the Vulcan’s persistent interruptions and looked up again. “No,” he growled, “There are no immediate threats in our present position, and we must be ready to beam Jirel and the others back aboard as soon as they emerge from the transport inhibitors down on the surface.”
“No immediate threats? I’m staring at one right now.”
Sunek backed up his comment by gesturing at Automated Sentry Point Epsilon in the distance. Klath shook his head.
“Based on what we saw during our approach, it takes the sentries some 6.7 seconds to activate and secure a weapons lock. That will be enough time for us to respond, provided we remain alert.”
Sunek muttered something unintelligible under his breath, before he mustered a proper reply to the Klingon. “Yeah, ok, fine,” he sighed, “I get it. It’s just…that thing’s really starting to creep me out.”
“Then perhaps you should focus on assisting me. You will be able to access the ship’s sensor readings from your console.”
Sunek was confronted with a dilemma. On the one hand, he definitely needed something to distract him from the unnerving sight of the sentry. But on the other hand, he wasn’t sure if he wanted that distraction to actually involve work.
Eventually, he succumbed to the inevitable, and called up the sensor readings. And for a moment, silence returned. For a moment.
“Just feels like it’s watching us—”
“It is not watching you, Sunek,” Klath grunted with obvious frustration.
The Vulcan glanced back up from his console and caught sight of the sentry again.
It definitely felt like it was watching them.
* * * * *
Denella stood behind the transporter controls, not wanting to risk leaving her post for a second.
It was entirely likely that she had time to leave for a few seconds. Or even to route transporter controls up to her console in the cockpit. At least that way, she could keep an eye on the rest of the Bounty’s systems if necessary. But something about the elevated stakes of their current situation meant that it didn’t feel right for her to walk away from her post.
She kept her attention on the readouts in front of her, scanning the boundary of the transport inhibitor zone for the first signs of the others emerging safely. There was no way of knowing how long that would take, but she still wasn’t moving.
It had been an hour since they had disappeared inside the last line of defence that Synergy Mining Enterprises had installed. But it felt like twice that. And even though she had no idea exactly what they were having to do to find Toren, it definitely felt like it was talking too long.
Still, no matter how long it was going to take, she was prepared to wait. Just as she had done back at Hexis Spaceport all those years ago, on another of Maya’s wild goose chases, she knew that there was always time.
There had to be.
She chewed her lip with worry and considered calling up to the cockpit to check in with Klath and Sunek. But she knew they would both be focused on their own jobs.
Then, she saw something flare up on the readouts.
But it wasn’t what she had been expecting. In fact, it was something that caused an instant rush of panic inside her.
The details were clear. The frequencies of the dampening field that they had been able to beam through thanks to Maya’s information had changed. The parameters that she had used to beam Jirel, Natasha and Maya down to the surface were now useless.
She knew it would take her days, possibly weeks to try and isolate the new frequencies. And until then, they were trapped down there.
But despite the plight of the others, that wasn’t her most immediate concern. It was obvious that what just happened wasn’t any sort of scheduled change. Someone had altered the frequencies manually.
Which meant that someone knew they were here.
She reached out for the controls to open a comms link up to the cockpit, but her hand never made it to the button.
Because then the first shot slammed into the Bounty’s exposed hull.