Strike Zone Part 1

Strike Zone.

by Peter David.

Prologue.

THE SAND CRUNCHED beneath the sole of Budian's three-toed boot. Then he stopped so suddenly that his feet skidded just a bit beneath him, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of his immediate crew of three. He spun around, hissing between his sharpened teeth. "Shut up! Shut up, the lot of you!"

If one did not have a Universal Translator one would have heard only a series of gutteral grunts, coughs, and snarls, with an occasional body slap for emphasis. The Kreel, for such was their race called, were notable for having one of the singularly least elegant languages in all the known galaxy.

Their exterior was just as appealing as their language. The Kreel had spindly legs that, in one of nature's more curious design aberrations (right up there with the b.u.mblebee and the duckbilled platypus), supported a ma.s.sively sinewed, almost triangular torso. Their arms were long, their knuckles hanging almost down to their knees. They took great pride in their bodies and were not shy about displaying them, usually sporting breeches and skimpy tunics cut to display a maximum amount of muscle. This was unfortunate for other races, since Kreel skin was unbelievably wrinkled, dry, and red, as if they all had permanent cases of sunburn. In addition, a thin layer of coa.r.s.e, matted hair, spotted their bodies.

Their heads seemed to rise up straight from their shoulders. As a result, when they turned to look to the side or behind them, they had to practically twist all the way around. They tended toward large lantern jaws, and their eyes were huge, almost like handb.a.l.l.s-appropriate for a race whose home planet seemed shrouded in almost perpetual gloom. The planet they were on now-under a blazing alien star-was so appallingly opposite from their home that it was physically painful.

In response to Budian's command, the three other members of the Kreel landing party quickly bowed their heads (by bending slightly at the waist, almost in the way the traditional j.a.panese did). Budian smiled then, showing his teeth once more, before gesturing that his second-in-command should join him.

"What do you think, Aneel?" said Budian. "What do the instruments say?"

Aneel pulled out the detection device that was based loosely on the design of a Federation tricorder, a marvelous instrument that current Kreel technology didn't have a chance in h.e.l.l of duplicating. He swung the device around hopefully, and then said nervously, "I'm not getting anything. I think it's broken."

"Well?"

"Well what?" said Aneel cautiously.

"Fix it! Fix it, you feldling idiot!"

Unnerved by his commander's display of temper, Aneel did the only thing he could: He smacked the detector with the side of his fisted, three-fingered hand.

The detector obediently lit up and started to hum contentedly. Aneel blinked in surprise and then looked to his commander for approval. Budian nodded curtly and then said "Which way?"

Aneel checked the readings on the detector and pointed. "Over there."

Slowly, they made their way in the direction that Aneel led them. Budian was one step behind and to the right. He was trying to watch everywhere at once-watch Aneel, watch his own men behind him, because he didn't trust a single one of the pack, and, most of all, watch the sky.

The last wouldn't have done him the least bit of good, he knew, because if that accursed Other Race showed up (d.a.m.ned be their name and barren be their women) to make a fuss over this planet (which was indisputably in Kreel territory), then there was no possible way that Budian was going to be able to see them in orbit from the planet surface. The idea was preposterous. He knew that, and yet he couldn't help himself as he kept glancing heavenward.

It was midday, and the air was just hanging there, the sky a blistering, uniform red. In the distance, Budian could hear the steady chittering of insects. No potential threat, but it was annoying.

"Through there."

Budian looked up, mentally chiding himself for his lapse in attention. Such lapses could prove fatal in the future. "Through where, Aneel?" he demanded.

Aneel was pointing straight ahead, but before them was only a wall of solid rock-part of a large mountain range that seemed to extend before them.

"Through there?"

"Yes, sir."

"How the flarg do we get through there?"

Aneel gestured helplessly. "I don't know, sir."

Budian let out the sigh of one who does not suffer fools gladly-either that or the sigh of one who is afraid he's about to be made to look like a fool. He reached for his belt and pulled out his weapon. "Stand back," he said, gripping the disruptor tightly with both hands and bracing himself. The kick on these weapons was not to be taken lightly.

Ten feet away from the mountainside he fired, blasting a steady wave of pure sound at the mountain. Rock and dirt exploded, covering the Kreel with a fine layer of filth. This did not bother them particularly; Kreel were not renowned for bathing.

"You're doing it, sir!" shouted Aneel. Budian nodded, keeping it up until so much dust was swirling up that even they, with their enlarged eyes, couldn't see much. His finger lifted away from the trigger and the blast ceased.

"Wonderful, sir!" said Aneel.

"Shut up."

"Yes, sir."

Budian stood and watched, silently urging the dirt out of the way so that they could see just what, if anything, they had uncovered.

Within moments, the debris had settled, and Budian's breath caught in surprise.

There was an opening. Clear as anything, there was an opening. There had been some sort of door there before; gleaming metal edges were still visible where the disruptor had torn it away. But now they had access to whatever it was that lay inside.

The Kreel glanced at one another and then, out of deference, stepped aside and indicated that Budian should go first.

There were times, it occurred to Budian, when being the leader wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

The sleek battlecruiser Kothulu settled into orbit around the planet which was, at present, simply designated as DQN 1196. The blazing red sun, a paltry several million miles off, cast a gentle glow off the gleaming hull of the s.h.i.+p.

"Commander?"

The commander did not look up immediately. One never looked up immediately when a subordinate requested attention. It gave the impression that you were anxious to hear what he had to say. A good commander, particularly a good Klingon commander, always made it appear that whatever the subordinate was about to say the Commander was already aware of it. The unspoken message was "Why did it take you so long to report the obvious?"

"Commander?" came the prompt again.

Count to three, turn, look, then speak. "Yes, Tron."

"Picking up life-form readings from planet surface."

The commander nodded. "Kreel, I'd wager."

A pause. Then Tron nodded. Keeping just the slightest touch of admiration out of his voice he said, "I believe so, sir." Subordinates knew that you never let ranking officers be aware when you were impressed by some feat of theirs.

Once again the commander nodded, his ma.s.sive, ridged head bobbing just a bit. "So our intelligence was correct, then. The Kreel sc.u.m are rooting around in this system."

"What is there around to interest them, Commander?" Tron asked, then promptly chided himself mentally. Never ask a question. It implies you don't know.

Too late, though. The commander had heard.

"What is there, Tron?" he said in a voice just loud enough to be heard by the entire bridge crew. "Nothing. Nothing of any interest except to a backward race such as the Kreel."

Slowly, the commander stood up. Tron's fingers played across the intercom. His mind jumped ahead, antic.i.p.ating his commander's thoughts. "The transporter room is prepared to beam them up at your command, sir," he said.

The commander sniffed in disdain. "Allow that Kreel slime to set foot aboard our magnificent vessel? Even in chains, they would not be worthy of that. Take a landing team, Tron, and find out what they're up to. See what they've found."

"Yes, Commander. Although," he added in his deep, gravelly voice, "you did say that there was nothing of interest down there."

"True," replied the commander easily.

"Then how could they possibly ... ?"

The commander turned and took several short steps over, bringing himself eye-to-eye with Tron. "Even worms," he said, "can turn up interesting tidbits in a moldering corpse."

The Kreel blinked in astonishment, unable to summon any of their usual bl.u.s.ter and arrogance.

When they had stepped through the newly blasted hole in the mountainside, they had discovered a stairway that led straight down into darkness. They s.h.i.+ned a light down into it, but the beam seemed to make only the barest dent in the overwhelming blackness. Budian naturally (and reluctantly, although he covered it well) went first, the others following behind him in single file.

They walked slowly down metal steps that seemed to trail off into infinity. Aneel glanced down at one point and silently noted the fact that the steps were not the least bit dusty, and he then made mention of that fact to his commander. "It's as if," Aneel added, "they were somehow just repelling dirt."

Budian snapped back, "Then it's fortunate that they don't just throw you right off."

From then on, Aneel decided he would keep his observations to himself.

Eventually, they reached the bottom of the stairs and there, several meters ahead of them, was a large, gleaming metal door. Detailed symbols were etched on it, symbols that the Kreel, who stared at them in confusion, could not even begin to understand. But when they got to within a few feet of the door it silently opened.

The Kreel blinked in the light that overwhelmed them. They pulled out their disruptors, ready in case something attacked them while they were momentarily disoriented. But nothing attacked, and the disorientation soon pa.s.sed.

They stepped into the light and were stunned by what they saw.

They were standing at the head of a corridor that branched off in two different directions: Both paths were ma.s.sive tunnels, gleaming metal and arching in high curves above them.

The tunnels were at least twenty feet high, and upon closer inspection were constructed of curved tiles, each about two feet square, joined so smoothly that the seams were barely visible. Budian ran his fingers across them, and even though he could see the divisions, he could not feel them. He shook his head (and, as a result, his torso) in amazement. "What could have made this?" he whispered. In the silence, his voice seemed to echo.

Aneel made vague gestures and wasn't able to come up with a reply. No matter. Budian hadn't really expected one.

He gestured to the other two members of the group. "You two," he said "go that way." He indicated the corridor branching off to the left. "Aneel ... you're with me."

This news was less than thrilling to Aneel. Not only would he have preferred to be with someone other than the leader, he frankly would have opted to remain back in the s.h.i.+p in the first place. The s.h.i.+p which was, even now, sitting serenely on the planet surface waiting for them to return.

How much easier, thought Aneel, it would be if the Kreel had transporter capability. But those techniques were used by wealthier and more advanced races. Not the Kreel. Not the Kreel who were known as warlike, backward scavengers. What they could do with the kind of weaponry used by the ... the ...

He spat. Budian looked at him in mild surprise. "Is that to be considered a criticism?" Budian asked in a very dangerous tone.

"No sir," said Aneel, in such an offhand manner that Budian realized he was telling the truth. "I was only thinking of the Klingons."

"May their s.h.i.+ps dissolve in piles of rust and their sun go nova," said Budian quickly.

They both spat, then pressed on, leaving little bubbling traces of expectoration on the floor behind them. They took some degree of comfort in cursing the Klingons at any opportunity, simply because they knew that the Klingons were so far advanced beyond them that cursing and spitting were the only things they could really do.

As they walked away, a small section of the floor came to life. The metal rippled ever so slightly, and the spit disappeared without a trace.

"They're definitely not here," said Spyre.

Tron nodded, sticking his head in through the open hatch of the Kreel scout s.h.i.+p. It was a patched-together affair inside, and Tron noted parts from at least four different technologies. He entered carefully, making sure not to accidentally step in something distasteful. He stared at the command panel in wonder, then reached behind it and came away with a handful of wiring-and tape.

Tape! By the Emperor, tape! It was nothing short of miraculous that this vessel hadn't blown up. He allowed it to slip from his fingers and turned to his crew.

"Find them," Tron said.

"Do we kill them once we find them?"

Tron's brow wrinkled slightly. Left to their own devices, back before the days of the Great Enlightenment, that is exactly what they would have done. "Their fate is in the commander's hands," he said. "Between you and me, killing them would certainly be my preference. What we will probably do"- and he emphasized the probably with faint distaste-"is toss them in their s.h.i.+p, take them in tow, and drop them off, powerless, somewhere in s.p.a.ce. Their fate from that point on is in their own hands. However, you don't have to be gentle when you do find them."

Budian and Aneel could not believe their good fortune.

They walked by room after room now, doors hissing open as they pa.s.sed. It was as if this underground lair was filled with secrets that it could not wait to yield up to them. And each room was filled with ...

"Weapons," said Aneel, stopping at one to palm a handgun reverentially. Unlike the huge, clumsy weapons that the Kreel exploratory group was carrying, these were smaller, sleeker. Unmistakably deadly, however.

Budian s.n.a.t.c.hed the weapon from his second-in-command's hands. "You might hurt yourself with this," he snapped. Or me, he added silently. "Come on. Let's see what's at the end of the corridor."

"But ... " Aneel gestured helplessly. "Shouldn't we go through some of these rooms? Explore them? Catalog the weapons?"

"They're not going anywhere. They've been here, who-knows-how-long, and will continue to be here. Let's discover everything this find has to offer before we start charting what we've found. That's simple enough to understand, isn't it, Aneel?"

"Yes, sir," said Aneel with marked lack of enthusiasm.

They worked their way farther along, Aneel now making a conscious effort to look neither left nor right. Eventually, the corridor made a slight turn, then another, and then Budian stepped back in alarm as another form suddenly appeared in front of him. Without hesitating he swung up the small weapon he'd been carrying and pulled the trigger.

A split-second too late, he realized that it was one of his own people.

The unfortunate Kreel threw up his hands and shouted.

"Wait!" he began-and then vanished. There was no beam from the weapon, merely a soft, diffuse glow, and suddenly the Kreel simply wasn't there. It was as if Budian had been holding a remote-control device while watching something on a monitor, and had then just shut it off.

"Don't startle me!" shouted Budian at the empty air, for it had all happened so quickly that he didn't fully have the time to register that the crewman was gone. "I hate it when-" And then it began to sink in.

He stared at the s.p.a.ce which the crew member had once occupied, then glanced at the remaining two members of the group. They each took a slight step back, as if nervous they might be next.

He held the gun a bit more tightly. "Come on," he said, gesturing with it. They followed obediently.

So the two branching corridors had come back on each other, and now the three members of the stalwart Kreel race walked on another twenty meters, past more rooms with fascinating technology, past curious inscriptions on the walls that made no sense to them.

And eventually, they hit a dead end.

The door facing them was more ma.s.sive than any they'd ever seen. The two sides of it came together in a vertical zigzag pattern that looked like teeth, ready to crunch down on any who endeavored to enter. To the right was a small panel made up of an array of smaller multicolored rectangles. Ten going up, four across, forty in all.