Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/incomplete/iftheybetwo.ch2-3

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Subject: New TNG Story: If They Be Two ch. 2-3
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DISCLAIMER: Paramount has the most toys, Paramount wins. The story is
mine, so don't mess with it, don't sell it, and leave my name attached.
Send all comments to [e-mail].

If They Be Two
Paisley R. Mason

Chapter 3
********

 For several minutes they walked through a much lower tunnel. They had to
creep along practically doubled over. The small rifts to the sides were
growing more frequent as the tunnel became more twisted, and each one had
to be carefully explored. Some went several meters into the rock. As he
poked cautiously about, Picard tried to consider the problem of what had
been chasing the doctor without thinking about his CMO herself. Not an
easy task. What in Heaven's name could chase a person in these tunnels
without getting shot, and where could Beverly be now? There were no traces
of her after that last phaser blast. Did whatever was chasing her carry
her off somewhere or worse? Picard realized he was back to worrying about
Beverly and mentally shook himself. He turned to Troi, who had stopped for
a moment to stretch her back. "Can you sense anything, Counselor?"
 "No, Sir. I'm still getting nothing different, just that same vague
sense."
 Worf's torch beam flashed ahead of the group. "Captain, it appears that
the tunnel forks again just up ahead." They moved forward cautiously.
 "You're right, Commander." He turned to the crew. "Each team will go
twenty meters down a tunnel, then come back up here. If the tunnels are
large enough to pursue, we'll split up. Morris, take your team to the
right. Let's go."
 Several minutes later the two teams met again. "Report, Lieutenant," said
Picard.
 "Sir, the tunnel appears to be very deep. There is a branch about ten
meters down as well which we should look into. There were no signs of Dr.
Crusher, though."
 "A lack of evidence doesn't prove she did not go that way. Our tunnel is
worth exploring, too. Search every possibility, Lieutenant, but don't take
any chances. We'll go this way."
 "Aye, Sir." Morris and her team turned to the right and vanished into the
darkness. Picard turned left, a worried Worf close on his heels.

                                         **********

 Will Riker was not a happy man. He and his captain understood one another
very well. Since Riker first beamed aboard the _Enterprise D_ nearly nine
years before, he and Picard had not only worked closely together, they had
become friends. At the heart of that friendship was trust. Riker trusted
Picard's judgment; Picard trusted Riker's. The first officer considered
himself very much responsible for Picard's safety and regarded it as being
of the first importance.
 Why, he asked himself, had he allowed the captain down here? He should
have put up more of a fight. The more he saw of these tunnels and
considered Dr. Crusher's disappearance, the more he wished the captain
safely aboard the ship. Of course, Riker could answer all his own
questions perfectly well. He knew exactly why he'd given in when Picard
insisted on joining the search. The captain and the CMO had been friends
for a long time. No one on the ship was insensible to the way those two
felt about each other, except possibly the two people most concerned -
themselves. The commander knew how he'd feel if it were Deanna who were
missing. She was his dearest friend, and if she disappeared he would do
anything to aid in her rescue. Picard was no different. Both the captain
and his first officer were men of action, and to sit idly by on starships
while the people they loved were in need of their help was anathema to
them. Beverly and Deanna would behave exactly the same way, actually. If
it were Picard missing in these tunnels, Beverly would have been the first
one down here. She probably would have found him by now, too, he thought
ruefully. No, Riker knew when things were out of his hands. That did not,
however, prevent him from worrying.
 "Commander!"
 Riker spun round at the shout and took off down the tunnel to where
Torres and Erickson had gone ahead. Coming round the bend, what he saw
made him stop short, his sanity seriously in question. Torres stood about
twelve meters away in the center of the tunnel pointing his phaser and
torch at an outcropping of rock which seemed to be moving toward him. For
a second no one moved as the rock got closer. Then Riker saw the wall seem
to part and stretch out what could only be called arms or wings toward the
lieutenant. Erickson came darting out of a nearby fissure just as it
touched Torres. The terrified lieutenant fired at the thing. The sound was
deafening in the enclosed space. Riker was too stunned even to shout about
the inadvisability of firing point blank in such a tiny area. The normally
unflappable commander watched with open mouth as the mass of rock suddenly
caved in on itself and seemed to morph back into the wall of the cavern.
There was a sudden, stunned silence.
 Riker pulled himself together and looked round at his team. Abblewhite,
came up slowly from behind him where she'd been inspecting a small cavern.
"Sir?"
 Torres and Erickson came back to them and for a few moments they all
turned about staring suspiciously at the walls.
 "Did everyone see that?" asked Riker, not entirely trusting his own eyes.
 "Sir, the rock did appear to be moving," confirmed Torres.
 "It all happened so quickly, I'm not sure what I saw," said Erickson.
 The commander had served aboard starships for a long time. He had seen
many strange things in his travels round the galaxy. He was not used to
feeling entirely at a loss, but feel at a loss he did now. It did not do
for the leader of the away team to look out of control, but a little
brainstorming appeared to be in order. "Anybody got any ideas?"
 The rest of the team looked as much at sea as he felt, but they gamely
tried to come up with solutions as they kept a sharp eye out for moving
rock. "Perhaps it was a hallucination caused by our being so far
underground. We have only a sketchy idea of what gasses are down here,"
said Abblewhite, scanning with her almost useless tricorder.
 "Why would all have the same hallucination, and at the same time?" Torres
pointed out.
 "True," said Riker. "All right, assuming it was not a hallucination, what
was it?"
 The rest of the team shook their heads, unable even to guess.
 "It could be alive," suggested Erickson rather tentatively.
 Riker looked at Abblewhite. "Can you pick up *any* bio readings?" he
asked. He'd been saying that throughout the mission but this time he
didn't want the doctor's life signs so much as he wanted to know if what
they had seen was caused by a living organism.
 "I'm getting nothing," she answered. "But that doesn't preclude the
possibility that whatever that thing was it actually was alive. I am
getting increased EM readings, but that could be all sorts of things."
 Torres looked doubtful. "We know rock is not alive so how could a living
organism make rock move like that?"
 "Well, you've just said it," said Abblewhite. "'Move like that.' That
rock looked more like jelly than rock. It was almost a liquid motion."
 Riker looked down at the science officer. He really would rather it was
not alive. "Why would it have waited all this time to show itself?"
 Abblewhite shook her head. "No one saw it when you were down here
before?"
 "No." He looked around again. "Well, let's keep moving. We don't have the
luxury of a lot of time. Normally I'd suggest getting the hell out of here
but we need to find the doctor. If you see that thing again, fire if you
have to. It appears to be affected by the phasers, but not anything more
than stunned. Come on."
 Riker hoped the others had not run into this thing, but he had a terrible
feeling that the doctor had encountered it. He hoped to Goodness she'd
also outrun it.

Chapter 4
********

 For a while Picard could hear Morris' team calling to Dr. Crusher as they
descended, and then even those sounds were lost. In the dead silence their
footsteps sounded impossibly loud. When they spoke, they did so in hushed
voices, the way people do in quiet places, as if the silence itself were
listening. When they called to Beverly the sound echoed back through the
rock mockingly, at an appalling volume. The torches flashed on the walls
and faces leapt suddenly out of the blackness for all the world as if they
were ghosts.
 Picard had done a fair amount of groping about in dark caverns in his
time. Many archeological expeditions took him far underground. He had
never been claustrophobic and he had never been afraid of the dark, but
here in these tunnels the blackness was so thick he could taste it. It was
like a living being; malevolent, lurking just around the next bend of the
tunnel to leap. He could almost hear it breathing as he picked his way
cautiously among the bits of rock on the narrow floor. He jumped when he
heard the soft scrape of chalk on the rock walls as Savin made another
mark to lead them back again, but was immediately reassured by the
presence of his team. To be in this darkness alone would be horrific.
Beverly. She was in all this darkness alone. He quickened his pace.

                                      **********

 The tunnel forked again unexpectedly and Abblewhite bumped her shoulder
hard on the rock. Scowling, she rubbed the bruise as she flashed her torch
beam down the next tunnel. The strong light disappeared into the blackness
and the science officer cursed quietly in her native Bajoran. She turned
to Riker, "Sir, we should explore this way too. It seems to be pretty
deep."
 "All right," said Riker. "I'll check this one, you go that way. Stay
within calling distance." He raised his voice. "Torres, Erickson, we're
gonna check these two."
 "Right, Sir. Aye, Sir" The voices drifted down from the tunnels above his
head. He turned and ducked into the low shaft, thanking the serendipity
that had lead the captain to bring down the tiny Abblewhite. He would
never have gotten into that tunnel she was exploring, and even she was
needing to crawl.

                                       **********

 "Sir, are you all right?" Worf lent a hand to his captain to help him
rise.
 "Yes, Mr. Worf, I'm fine. I just tripped in the dark."
 "Perhaps, Sir, we should rest for a few moments."
 "No!" Picard said quickly. He took a deep breath and continued more
quietly, "Let's go on. We haven't much time. We've only got two hours left
and we have to allow time for getting back."  Of course, Picard had no
intention of going anywhere without knowing what had happened to Beverly.
He would not leave her alone in this black void. "Counselor, will you and
Mr. Savin please examine that passage behind you? See how big it is." He
turned to the right and Worf followed.
 This tunnel was particularly steep and rubble-strewn and they had to pick
their way carefully. Picard could hear Savin's and Troi's voices from the
other tunnel, growing fainter the farther away they moved. His light
bobbed about as he struggled to maintain his balance, casting long shadows
on the rough walls. Worf turned down a small auxiliary tunnel and Picard
continued down the main slope for a few feet. The shout took him
completely by surprise and he nearly lost his footing as he whipped round
and began to scramble up the slope. The sound of phasers was a roar in the
echoing caverns. Worf, having been in a tunnel above the captain, got to
the main passage first. The fissure Savin and Troi had entered glowed red
with phaser fire. Worf and Picard flattened themselves to the wall beside
the opening and Worf looked in just in time to see Troi thrown back with
the ricochet of the phaser. The silence was abrupt and deadening. The two
at the top of the tunnel stepped into the opening, phasers at the ready,
torches flickering along the walls. All was still. Troi lay unmoving on
her back, Savin was nowhere to be seen.
 Picard reached the counselor first and felt for a pulse. She was still
alive and appeared only to have been stunned. Picard opened his tricorder
and scanned about in the vain hope it would tell him anything. He snapped
it shut in frustration. "Mr. Worf, what do you make of this?"
 Worf backed up to the captain, his phaser held tight in his hand. "I can
find no trace of Lieutenant Savin, Sir, but there are phaser marks along
that wall."
 "Show me."
 They crossed the wide tunnel and shone their lights on the far wall. Two
black spots marred the rock. Picard stifled a sigh and glanced at his
Chief of Security. "What do you make of all this, Commander?"
 Even in the darkness the scowl on the Klingon's face was frightening. "I
do not know, Sir." It was Worf's least favorite phrase. "However,
*something* has clearly outdone one of my finest security officers.
Perhaps when she wakes, Counselor Troi will be able to tell us more."
 Behind them, as if on cue, Deanna groaned. The two men turned and hurried
to her side. Picard helped her to sit up. "Counselor?"
 The woman blinked. "Captain, what- where's Savin?"
 "We were hoping you could tell us that. He's disappeared. I think you
were stunned with the ricochet of the phaser. How do you feel?"
 "Like I've been stunned with the ricochet of a phaser," she said. "Sir,
what do you mean Savin's disappeared? How long have I been out?"
 "About three minutes," said Picard. "We got here in time to see the
phaser-fire. Savin was taken immediately, but how, and by what and where
to, we do not know. What were you firing at?"
 Troi shook her head. "Captain, we were firing at the wall. It was moving,
Sir. It reached out to Savin with arms, I swear it."

                                       **********

 The girl eased herself down the tiny passage and thought that the first
thing she was going to do when she got back to the ship was get the
replicator to make her the biggest glass of water that it possibly could.
The second thing would be to create a holodeck program simulating the wide
open plains of North America on Earth, where she'd once spent some time
with an Academy friend. She'd make the grass stretch for miles in every
direction, covered by Earth's pretty blue sky. There wouldn't be so much
as a gopher hole to remind her of these dark, closed spaces. Abblewhite
sighed and called out, "Dr. Crusher?" Her voice reverberated back to her.
How much farther did this tunnel go? She stretched her shoulders
uncomfortably and crawled forward.

 The lieutenant blinked hard and adjusted her phaser in her hand. She
flashed her torch about but saw nothing. Then out of the corner of her eye
she caught a movement again. This time she was sure of it, this was no
hallucination, that wall was moving. Abblewhite began to scoot herself
cautiously backwards. There was no room to turn around until she got
another couple of meters back. The rock was coming closer and the girl
crawled faster. She'd have to chance using the phaser, despite the tiny
space. She raised it and fired. The light and noise were tremendous, but
she somehow escaped being stunned herself. The rock shrank away for a
moment and she made it to the spot where the tunnel widened.
 "Commander!" she shouted. "Torres, Erickson!" She was scrambling
frantically up the passage now. She turned to glance over her shoulder and
found that the rock had recovered and was coming toward her again, faster.
She fired the phaser and for a moment it shrank away again only to come
after her seconds later. Her feet slipped on the gravel littering the
tunnel as neared the top. From the main tunnel above there was a lot of
other noise, a great deal of shouting and what sounded like a phaser shot
above the din. She turned to fire once more but missed. The thing reached
out for her ankle just as she reached the mouth of the tunnel and strong
arms reached in to haul her up as two other phasers were shoved toward the
fissure.
 Erickson half dragged her out of the way as Riker and Torres waited at
the tunnel's entrance. They all stood gasping in the main passage and
whirled around, looking for any moving rock. All was quiet. The rock was
just rock again. The two commanders flashed their lights into the
passages, but found nothing. For a few moments they all waited.
 Finally Riker turned to the lieutenant. "Was it the rock again?"
Abblewhite nodded. "It was just like it was with you," she said, nodding
at Ensign Erickson. "It felt like the tunnel was closing in on me, only
the rock was like no rock I've ever seen."
 "The same thing just happened to me," said Riker.
 "To you?" gasped Abblewhite. "Then there's more than one of them?"
 "Evidently."
 "Did they look like what we saw the first time?" asked Torres.
 "Pretty much." answered Riker.
 "Sort of. Only it was in a smaller space so it wasn't as big. At least,
that's the only explanation I can find for the difference in size."
Abblewhite thought for a moment. "Actually, the first time I saw it -"
 "You saw it *twice*?" Riker interrupted.
 "Well, when I saw it, I fired and then it went away for a second. Then I
saw it again. This time though, I was already getting away from it and it
chased me. It made the rock look like a wave. It seemed like something was
under the rock, like a shockwave model." She was reminded of the gopher
hole on her yet-to-be-created holodeck program. "It was kind of like the
way a mole makes a trail just under the ground so you can see the ground
pushed up where it was. Only when it reached out for me, like it did for
Erickson, it never broke the surface, just took the rock with it."
 "That's the same kind of experience I had," said Riker. "I had more room
to run, though." He looked apologetically at Abblewhite.
 "Neither of you saw it again?" The girl turned to Torres and Erickson.
 "No, but we were together." said Torres. He turned to Riker. "Sir, I have
a theory."
 "Lieutenant, right now, I'll take all the theories I can get," said
Riker.
 "I think that we only see that... thing... when we're alone. Erickson saw
it after I'd gone down another tunnel. Then we didn't see it for half an
hour. Now you two each see it when you are alone. It may be that whatever
it is, it's afraid to attack us when we're together."
 Riker considered. "That's a possibility. All right. Let's go a little
farther. We have about forty-five minutes before we need to head back.
Abblewhite, from now on you and I are together." He turned to the others.
"The same goes for you two. Let's not let each other out of our sites for
an instant. If we see that thing again we're heading straight back. I
don't quite know what it might do to us, but I'm sure as hell not going to
stick around to find out."

                                        **********

 Picard looked skeptical, to say the least. Worf, who had been standing
guard and searching for clues, swiveled around and looked at Troi with an
incredulous stare. The counselor turned to Picard, "Sir, this could not
have been a hallucination."
 "Tell us exactly what happened, Deanna."
 "This tunnel, you see, branches slightly. This one is only about four
meters deep." She gestured to the left. "Savin checked out this little one
while I went down the deeper one. I got just about two meters down when
the wall started to come toward me. It actually moved! I fired and
shouted. I ran back and I heard Savin shout. He was standing there
pointing his phaser at the wall, and, Sir, I swear to you, it was moving
toward him and reached for him with ...arms. We fired at both of them."
 "You say the wall moved, came toward you with arms. Can you be more
specific?" asked Worf.
 Troi groped for words. "It looked like the wall had been turned into
jelly. It sort of oozed toward him and out of the mass of the rock came
out these... extensions, like arms. It... it looked like a child's clay
figure, the way they mold the arms out of the main body," she finished up
in a flash of inspiration.
 "So they were more shapeless than arms?" asked Picard.
 "Oh, yes, very shapeless. Not really arms at all, but that's the best
analogy I can think of. Maybe wings is a better term, they were huge."
 "What did the rock do to him?"
 "I don't know. I was hit before I could see anymore. Before I was knocked
unconscious, though. I did feel more strongly that unsettled feeling I
sensed before."
 Picard felt no more enlightened, but he had his Captain's Confident
Demeanor more firmly in place now. "Right," he said. "Well, Mr. Worf, any
ideas?"
 "I can find no further evidence of what has happened to Lieutenant Savin,
Sir. I suggest that we continue our search. We have little time."
 "True," said Picard. "And now we have two people to search for. Are you
feeling stronger, Counselor?"
 "Yes, Captain," answered Troi.
 "Right," said Picard again. "Let's go. Mr. Worf, if you would lead the
way to the main passage, please."
 As they reached the principle tunnel again, Picard turned at the mouth of
the smaller passage and marked a large X on the wall.

                                       **********

 Torres crawled out of the tunnel and gave Erickson a hand. The two turned
to meet Riker and Abblewhite who had come up from the tunnel below. Riker
looked dejected. "We'll have to go back," he said. "Otherwise they'll just
send teams down here to search for us. We'll get some sleep and in a few
hours we'll come down with more people."
 No one said anything. They all knew that unless one of the other teams
had found her, or she'd found a different way out, the chances of finding
Dr. Crusher, much less finding her alive, were very slim. In silence they
turned to climb back to the rendezvous point in the primary tunnel.