THE MOMENT CAPTAIN ARCHER GAVE THE ORDER FOR THE emergency beam-out, Lieutenant Reed and two of his crew fell into position beside the transporter pad. They had drilled for this—an emergency beam-out triggered by an alien attack—but they’d never experienced it.
He’d been warned that anything could come through that transporter—and he’d seen what “anything” meant when Novakovich came through weeks ago, twigs and debris fused with his body.
But the transporter technology had other inaccuracies as well, and one of the reasons Reed drilled his team for just this moment was something he really didn’t want to contemplate.
What if the beam caught the aliens, but not the crewman? What if Edwards was still down there, suffering whatever it was that he’d been suffering when Archer ordered the beam-out?
There was no way to tell. Archer had ordered the shuttlepod to leave.
Reed held his phase pistol tightly, preparing to use it as the beam particles materialized on the pad. Lots of dark matter. Lots of unrecognizable body parts. Hairy black legs that had inverted joints. A black carapace and a human arm.
Reed froze, not wanting to see what was coming next. Man fused with alien, both dead. Everyone knew that was a possibility. No one wanted to deal with it. Not even his team, who shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.
The beam-in seemed to take forever, even though Reed knew it only took a few seconds. And as it completed, Reed realized that the tangle of arms and black alien legs hadn’t happened because the two beings had fused together, but because they had been beamed up side by side, so close that they seemed tangled.
His relief vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. The alien was huge, spiderlike, and strong. Edwards wasn’t small and the creature was at least twice his size. On that small pad, it was hard to tell where one stopped and the other started.
The transport finished, the beam of light faded, and for a moment, everything seemed frozen in time.
Then Edwards screamed, the most skin-crawling scream of fear and pain Reed had ever heard.
The alien moved all of its eight legs at the same time, whipping them up and around, knocking into Edwards and the walls.
Reed and his two men fired.
The shots, set to stun, hit and knocked out both Edwards and the creature. They both slumped to the small transporter pad, tangled together.
Reed moved over and tapped the communications link on the wall. “Reed to Dr. Phlox. I have a medical emergency. I’m bringing in Crewman Edwards and an alien captive.”
“One of the creatures from the southern continent?” Phlox sounded as if he were rubbing his hands together in delight—certainly not the reaction Reed was having. The transport area smelled strongly of dead fish, and the stench was making Reed’s eyes water.
“Yes, it is,” Reed said, “and I do believe it’s quite dangerous.”
“Believe?” Phlox asked.
“It’s unconscious at the moment—or it seems to be.” Reed motioned for his men to get Edwards out of there. They seemed reluctant to approach the alien. He found that indicative of the alien’s repulsive looks. Reed had chosen his security team for their fortitude as well as their fighting abilities.
“Well, I’ll see what I can do with it,” Phlox said. “Bring it all in.”
“Edwards is coming first.”
“Of course,” Phlox said, as if they’d already discussed that. And then the com made a slight thunk as he let it go.
Reed let his side go as well, and went to help his men. The stench was so strong here it was palpable. The air was thick with it, making it hard to breathe.
Reed’s men were having trouble moving the creature’s hairy legs to get at Edwards. Reed reached in, grabbed Edwards’ boots, and nearly recoiled as one of the alien legs brushed against his hand.
A shudder of disgust ran through Reed, but he said nothing. He helped his men free Edwards, then put his hands on his hips. Somehow he had to get that alien to sickbay.
And he knew that it wasn’t going to be a task that he would enjoy.
Captain’s log.
Vulcan Subcommander T’Pol has been critical of my allowing a shuttlepod to land and collect information on the ground in one of the southern continent’s alien villages. She was firmly against it to begin with, and now that there has been a problem with Crewman Edwards and an accidental abduction of one of the aliens, she is being very cold and silent. And that’s saying something for a Vulcan.
I have to admit, she might have been right in this case, as she was with the Fazi. It might have been more prudent to wait and study the aliens from orbit. I am assuming that at some point in the future of Earth’s exploration of space, there will be guidelines and regulations about how to make this contact.
Clearly the Vulcans have such rules. I’ve spent years rebelling against them, but now, in this situation, their rules are starting to make some sense. However, until this is all settled, I will not tell T’Pol I am starting to see the value in going slower with first-contact situations.
In the meantime, Dr. Phlox has informed me that he can find nothing physically wrong with Crewman Edwards. I plan on being in sickbay when Edwards wakes up. There are a number of questions I want to ask him about those aliens and how they managed to get so close to him on the surface.