The Soldiers of Fear (4 page)

"They are being picked up from storage by the Starship Idaho. Use them as you see fit."

"Understood," Picard said.

"Good luck, Jean-Luc," the admiral said.

"Thank you, sir."

The admiral's image winked out.

Picard tugged on his shirt and turned to face his staff. Worf was glowering. "Captain, I apologize"

"You were out of line, Mr. Worf," Picard said. "But the admiral understood, as did I. We may be heading into one of the most difficult battles we have ever faced."

Picard paced back and forth, talking. "One Fury ship nearly defeated the entire Klingon fleet the first time. It was only through the ingenuity of the original Enterprise crew that that ship was defeated. Captain Kirk's logs warn that the Furies are extremely intelligent and very powerful. He said, quite explicitly, that he believed the tactics he used eighty years ago cannot be used in any future attack. He believed that if the Furies returned, they would return stronger, smarter, and even more prepared than they had been before."

Picard took a deep breath and went on. "It is thought that complete information about our cultures and capabilities was sent back to the Furies' homeworld before their first ship, Rath, was destroyed. They know as much about us as we do about them."

He went on. "Federation tacticians have speculated that when or if the Furies returned, their technology would be equal to or greater than our own. We must be prepared for this. We are going against an enemy that is both cunning and advanced. We must be careful never to underestimate them."

Deanna Troi's hands were folded tightly. Geordi La Forge was toying nervously with his VISOR. Riker was tapping his fingers on the conference table. They all stared at him.

Only Data seemed calm.

"We only have another hour," Picard said. "In that time, I want you to remind your staff about the Furies' effect. The way they look can stir buried fears. Unlike the first Enterprise, we are prepared. The Furies may try to use our fear of them against us, but they will not succeed."

His officers stared at him, their gazes intense and focused.

"I want you all to use the files. Mr. La Forge, I want you to analyze the Kirk-Furies battle from an engineering perspective. Their first ship had the ability to use energy from weapons fired at it. I want to know how to counteract that if these new ships can do the same."

La Forge nodded.

Picard turned to Data. "Mr. Data, review the myths from every culture represented on this ship. Deanna, work with Data."

"Yes, sir," Data said. Deanna only nodded.

"Mr. Worf, you and Commander Riker will study the original battle from a tactical standpoint. No use repeating the same mistakes. And watch how the Rath responded. They may have a tactic we can use against them."

"Yes, sir," both Worf and Riker said at the same time.

"Very well, people," Picard said, moving over behind his chair. "Let's get to our stations. We have a great deal of work to do in a very short time."

The officers stood as a unit and filed out the door. No conversation, no joviality, no conviviality. Only a determination to survive the next few hours.

They would need all the determination they had. If the research done since the first ship appeared was correct, the Furies had once ruled all of this sector of space. They had somehow been pushed out and only luck and Captain Kirk had kept them from returning the first time.

Now they were trying again.

As he watched his senior officers leave, he silently wished he could talk to Captain Kirk. Somehow Kirk had defeated hell itself and closed the door. Now that door had opened again. And unless it was slammed shut, the old term "hell on earth" would take on an entirely new meaning.

Or a very old one.

RIKER'S BACK ITCHED. Even though he grabbed a moment to change into his uniform, he hadn't been able to shower off the sweat from his mock dogfight with Redbay since the crisis began. He felt as if he had been on the bridge for days instead of hours.

Deanna would say it was easier to concentrate on the minor discomfort than the problems ahead.

She would probably be right.

He had been on edge ever since he saw that tape from Brundage Station.

The others had too. Captain Picard was unusually silent. Worf was even more taciturn than usual. But it was Deanna that Riker worried about. As she had left the conference room, she had had a preoccupied look, as if she were concentrating on voices within instead of events without.

She and Data were working in the science officer's station, and occasionally Riker glanced over from his chair beside the captain.

"Brundage Station is within scanner range," Worf said, his deep voice booming from the security station behind Riker. "The station appears to be undamaged."

The captain sat up straighter. The news had obviously surprised him. It had surprised Riker too. From what he had seen on the transmission from the Brundage Station, the Furies attacked first. Riker assumed that when the transmission to Starfleet had been cut off, the station had been destroyed. Obviously the captain had thought the same thing.

"Put it on screen, Mr. Worf."

The captain stood and took two steps toward the screen as if he were going to have a conversation with whatever appeared. He had been filled with an odd energy that Riker had never seen before. It almost seemed as if he were nervous, his movements as out of character as Deanna's.

"Magnify," the captain said.

Riker turned his attention to the screen. Brundage Station looked normal. He had expected to see signs of the Furies' presence, but the station looked as it always had: a cylinder hanging in space. The surface of the station was covered with antennas and sensor dishes. Riker saw nothing unusual. No laser blasts. No holes.

And yet ...

Something was wrong. He could feel it. It was a cursed place, a place where people had died, a place where evil had happened.

He forced those thoughts to the back, then glanced over his shoulder at Deanna. Her wide eyes were filled with apprehension. She felt it too

Or was she picking up his mood? His fears. He had to control his mind and focus.

He got up abruptly and walked to Captain Picard's side.

"Captain," Data said, his voice seeming almost unreasonably calm, "the station is still functioning normally. The environmental controls are operational, the weapons systems are on-line, and the computer array seems to be intact."

"Could this be an illusion?" Riker asked.

"No, sir," Data said. He paused. "The scans also show one life-form is still aboard the station."

"A Fury?" The captain asked.

"No, sir. According to the readings, this life-form is human."

"It is a trick," Worf said. "The Havoc are doing what they can to get us aboard that station."

"Are you getting different readings, Mr. Worf?" the captain asked.

"No, sir." Worf crossed his arms over his massive chest. "It would be logical, after the attack we saw, to assume that the Havoc what humans call the Furies have left the station intact to lure us aboard. It is a very old trick of combat."

It seemed likely to Riker too. "Perhaps we should beam the life-form aboard the Enterprise," he said.

"But if we follow Mr. Worf 's logic, we don't know what we're beaming aboard, do we, Number One?" The captain asked the question in a tone that required no answer. He walked up the steps to the security station. "The admiral reported five Fury ships. Where are they now?"

"The five ships of unknown design are surrounding the Furies Point, sir," Data said. "While this design of the ship matches the one seen by the Brundage Station crew, it matches nothing we have in our records, including the original Fury ship, the Rath. We are only assuming these are Fury ships."

"Thank you, Data." Picard nodded, and glanced at Worf's relay himself. Then he looked at the helmsman. "Mr. Filer, take us to a position between the station and those ships."

Riker felt his mouth go dry. He knew the drill. The captain was following a very clear protocol. Riker knew what the next order would be.

"Number One, take an away team onto Brundage Station. Gather as much information as you can, and find that life-form. Be prepared for anything, as Mr. Worf so clearly reminded us. We will keep a lock on you at all times. Use the emergency beam-out at the first sign of trouble."

Riker strode up the stairs toward the turbolift. "Aye, sir," he said. He could only take a handful of people. This would be a risky away mission. But he had to take people who could absorb a lot of information in a short period of time. "Data, you're with me."

Data stood from his seat at the science station, and hurried toward the turbolift. Riker tapped his comm badge. "Mr. La Forge, meet me in transporter room three."

The turbolift's doors closed around them. Riker wiped his damp palms on his pants legs. "Transporter room three," he said.

The faint reassuring whir of the lift filled the room.

"I do not understand the level of anxiety the crew seems to be feeling," Data said. "Captain Picard assured us that we would have no trouble facing the Furies as just another life-form, yet his actions seem to say otherwise. Is it a fear of how they look?"

"No," Riker said, more harshly than he intended. "We don't fear looks."

"Yet the crew seems on edge. Or am I perceiving this incorrectly?"

"Data, we've all been trained for the return of the Furies from the beginnings of our careers."

Data nodded, looking solemn. "I would think that would reduce the anxiety instead of raise it. Or am I again misinterpreting the response?"

"It's a little more complicated than that, Data," Riker said, and stopped as the lift's doors opened onto the transporter room. Anderson, the transporter chief, was already in position, hands on the controls.

"The captain says I'm to monitor your every movement," Anderson said.

"See that you do," Riker said.

Data shot him a puzzled look.

Riker realized he was on edge. He usually had more finesse than that.

Geordi entered from the hallway. "Forgive me, Commander, but I'm not sure I should be away from engineering."

"I don't anticipate being on the station very long, Geordi," Riker said as he stepped onto the transporter pad. "And what you see there might be able to help us on the Enterprise."

Geordi climbed onto the pad.

Riker glanced over his shoulder. Data was in place. "Energize."

His body dissolved into multicolored light. Then, almost instantly, he was rematerializing on Brundage Station. The air felt hot and sticky.

It smelled of sulfur.

A shiver ran down Riker's spine.

The lights were on, but a thin haze of smoke and mist floated in the air, reminiscent of the smoke in the holodeck nightclubs where Data had once practiced his awful comedy routines.

The anxiety Riker had felt since that morning rose, catching in his throat like a bone. The hair on the back of his neck rose. Yet, except for the smell and the smoke, nothing looked out of place.

He pulled out his phaser. "Data, analyze the air for me. What am I smelling?"

Data sniffed, not even needing his tricorder. "The air has a sulfuric component that is slowly fading. The humidity is at ninety-seven percent, and the temperature is ten degrees above normal. I do not detect any trace of fire. The smoke mixed with the humid mist seems to be from some sort of heat weapon."

Riker nodded. Data's matter-of-fact answer enabled Riker to put some of the anxiety aside. Alongside Riker, Geordi also had his phaser out. He then removed his tricorder. It hummed as it ran through its routine.

"If I didn't know better," Geordi said, "I would think we were in the steam baths of Risa. But I couldn't tell you what's causing the effect. My readings show the environmental controls are working normally."

"Risa smells better than this," Riker said. "Draw your weapon, Data."

"Aye, sir," Data said, his tone puzzled. He obviously saw no threat.

They stepped off the transporter pad as one unit, but moving in three slightly different directions.

"The life-sign readings are coming from that corridor," Geordi said, indicating the door with his phaser. "They're faint."

"Are you getting anything else?" Riker asked as he made his way to the door.

Geordi shook his head.

Data moved quicker than they did. The door opened automatically. Riker stopped, but Data went on as if nothing were wrong. Riker hadn't felt this tentative since he was a cadet at the academy.

He glanced at Geordi, who also hadn't moved. "You feel it too," Riker said softly.

Geordi nodded. "Something terrible happened here. And I don't much like it."

"Over here!" Data said from outside the door.

Riker took a deep breath of the oppressive air, and hurried toward the door. There a young officer the same officer who had faced the Furies on the transmission leaned against the wall like a broken toy soldier. His head lolled to the side.

Data was running his tricorder over the boy. "I see no obvious wounds," Data said, "but his life signs are very weak."

Riker knelt beside the boy and saw that his eyes were open. "Lieutenant," Riker said. "Lieutenant Young?"

"I don't think he can see you," Geordi said. He crouched beside them, observing Young's eyes.

"Is he blind?" Data asked.

Geordi shook his head. "Probably catatonic."

Riker slapped his comm badge. "Riker to Enterprise."

Lieutenant Young jerked away from Riker's voice and covered his head. Only a croaking came from his throat as he tried to scream.

Young's action made Riker shiver.

"Enterprise here. Go ahead, Number One."

"We found Lieutenant Young. He appears to be in shock. I suggest we beam him directly to sickbay."

"Acknowledged, Number One." As Captain Picard's voice faded, multicolored light enveloped Young. Young cringed even more as he disappeared.

"He was not injured," Data said again.

"Yes, he was, Data," Geordi said softly. He stood and went to the computer access panel near the door.