Foundations Book Two Page 5

  As the engineer severed the connection, Scott regarded his friend. "So, how do ye propose we shut Landru off again?"

  Al-Khaled almost smiled. "I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along."

  "You remind me of my captain sometimes, do ye know that?" Scott replied, shaking his head. "I suppose the best place to start formulatin' a plan is the command center." Turning, he walked over to where a sagging Marplon sat limp in a nearby chair. "Marplon, we're going to need your help, sir."

  Having been administered a vitamin supplement and tri-ox compound by Dr. Hamilton to help ease the discomfort of his earlier exertions, Marplon nodded enthusiastically. "Whatever I can do to assist you, my friend. You have only to ask."

  Taking the Elder by the arm, Scott looked to the rest of the group. "Let's get to the command center."

  Leaving Hamilton to tend to Reger and Hacom, the four men made their way to one of the hospital's street level exits. Scott was thankful to see that a security guard he recognized from the Enterprise but whose name he could not remember was already stationed at the door and was observing the street outside through a small window. At the group's approach the ensign nodded to Scott.

  "It was almost a riot out there a few minutes ago, Commander," the security guard reported, "but it seems to have quieted down now."

  Moving to the window, Scott peered out and saw dozens of Betans standing motionless in the street. He motioned for Marplon to take a look.

  "They are communing with Landru," the Elder said after a few seconds. "We should hurry."

  Taking his own look out another window, al-Khaled sighed. "It's a long way to the command center. I wish we had a phaser or two."

  "Look at it this way, lad," Scott said. "We'll have plenty of them when we get there."

  Chuckling at the deadpan remark, al-Khaled cast a wry glance in Scott's direction. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

  Scott said nothing as he opened the door and moved out onto the sidewalk. Seeing that the citizens on the street still appeared to be communing, as Marplon had called it, he motioned for the others to follow him as he set off at a brisk jog up the street. As they ran, he tried to inspect every person they passed, looking for some hint that any of them might be about to come out of their trance.

  Don't move, he willed the crowd of people all around them. Don't move.

  They began to move.

  "Uh-oh," al-Khaled said.

  A sharp pain lanced through Scott's shoulder and he felt himself knocked partially off balance. "What the…?" Then he heard al-Khaled cry out in pain from behind him. Turning, he saw that his friend was grabbing the back of his thigh and limping.

  "Rocks! They're throwing rocks!" Lindstrom called out as he raced ahead of the running pack, leading Marplon by the arm with the older man struggling to keep pace with the sociologist. "Watch out!"

  Scott and al-Khaled both picked up their pace, running even faster up the street as the crowd around them began to react with more urgency to their presence.

  "Why is it…Scotty?" al-Khaled said between pants, his breathing becoming labored as they continued to run.

  Scott was feeling the exertion, too. "What…?"

  "When things…go to hell…they always go…so fast. For once…why can't something go…to hell at a…leisurely pace?"

  Moving as they did, they were able to avoid most of the objects thrown at them. Rocks, bricks, pieces of wood, and anything else people could heft rained down all around them, bouncing off the sidewalk and the walls of buildings. Scott was beginning to feel his lungs burning in protest to the extended sprint. The group turned a corner, and he saw the familiar entrance to the building housing the Starfleet command center. As they approached, the doors opened and two security officers beckoned to them, phasers in hand to provide cover from the horde of people chasing after them.

  "Seal the door!" Scott yelled as he and the others piled through the entryway. Safely inside, they allowed themselves to sag against a nearby wall, each of them doing their best to inhale all of the unused oxygen in the room.

  "I haven't run like that since the Academy," Lindstrom spat out between breaths. "And we sure didn't have to run so far for cover when this happened after the Red Hour."

  Al-Khaled said, "Sorry I missed that."

  "Aye," Scott added. "And I was having my own problems onboard the Enter--"

  He froze in mid-sentence as he remembered yet another problem Landru had caused when it was still operating. The computer's influence had not been confined to the planet and the people who lived upon it, after all.

  "Oh dear lord," he breathed as he reached for his communicator and viciously flipped the unit's cover open.

  "Scott to Lovell!"

  On the Lovell's bridge, Captain Daniel Okagawa heard the alarm in Scott's voice as it exploded from the intercom. Swiveling his command chair toward the communications station, he nodded toward the ensign on duty there to open the frequency.

  "Okagawa here. Mr. Scott, what's wrong?"

  "Captain! Ye've got to get the hell away from here, now!"

  Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, Okagawa leaned forward in his seat. "Mr. Scott, what are you talking about?"

  The engineer's voice was almost frantic. "The Landru computer is back online, Captain, and its planetary defenses are sure to follow. It'll drag ye down just as it did the Archon, and tried to with the Enterprise."

  Though he had only worked with the Enterprise engineer once before, the man's reputation had preceded him, both then and before this current mission. He was not known for irrational or ill-advised courses of action. If Scott believed that something bad was about to happen, Okagawa was obliged to at least consider what he was saying.

  Turning to the science station, he said, "Run a scan for any new energy sources down there." Then, returning his attention to Scott he asked, "What are we looking for, Mr. Scott?"

  "It's a series of heat beams that Landru used to defend itself from orbital attack," Scott replied. "If it gets a lock on ye, the Lovell will be unable to break orbit or do anything until it's off. You've got to leave right away."

  From the science station, the Tellarite lieutenant on duty, Xav, turned to the captain. "Sir, sensors are picking up a large power source coming online, from a location approximately five hundred meters beneath the surface of the city. It's larger than anything that's been running since we arrived here, and it's increasing in intensity."

  Okagawa ran the scenario through his mind. With nearly eighty Starfleet personnel on the planet, it would take a good bit of time to transport them all back to the ship, maybe more time than they had before…before what?

  His course of action, therefore, was simple.

  "Raise shields," he ordered. "Helm, prepare to leave orbit." Then to Scott he said, "Mr. Scott, does Mahmud concur with your theory?"

  "Aye, that he does, sir. This is the first he's hearin' of this, too, but he's agreein' with me."

  That was enough for Okagawa. "Break orbit, helm. Put some distance between us and…"

  Then the ship shuddered around him and nearly threw him from his seat. Personnel at every bridge station flailed for something to hold on to as the deck shifted beneath their feet.

  "What the hell is that?" he asked as the shock wave began to intensify.

  Xav, still holding on to his console to keep from being thrown to the floor, replied, "Some type of energy beam from the surface, sir! Shield strength is at seventy-nine percent and dropping rapidly."

  "Helm, get us out of here. Full impulse power!"

  The very hull of the Lovell seemed to voice its objection as the ship's powerful impulse engines, modified and reconfigured over the past few years by its crew of talented engineers, strained and fought against the attack. Okagawa had a vision of the ship in the grip of Landru's orbital defense system, being dragged down through the atmosphere of Beta III.

  Then there was the feel of a rubber band snapping and the ship's inertial dampeners
groaned in protest as the Lovell gathered enough power to break free of the beams' influence and head away from the planet.

  "That was a bit too close, thank you very much," Okagawa said to no one in particular, wiping his brow as he sighed in relief. To the ensign at communications he asked, "Can we still contact the landing party?"

  The ensign shook his head. "Afraid not, sir. We're out of range."

  Nodding, the captain turned his chair to face the main viewer, which now displayed a field of moving stars instead of what he wanted to see, the welcoming curve of Beta III from high orbit. As he settled back into his seat, Okagawa had the sudden feeling that his ship seemed very empty to him, to say nothing of feeling a lot less purposeful.

  It's up to you now, gentlemen, he mused, directing his thoughts and good wishes to the men and women he had been forced to leave on the planet's surface.

  Chapter

  6

  As his connection with the Lovell crackled and finally died out altogether, Scott closed his communicator and returned it to his belt. His expression was somber, a fact not lost on his companions.

  "Did they make it?" al-Khaled asked. "Have they left orbit?"

  "Aye, that they have," Scott replied. "They're out of range now. We're on our own for the time being, lads."

  "I don't understand," Lindstrom said, finally bringing his breathing under control. "I thought that you removed Landru's control over everything."

  Al-Khaled nodded. "We severed the ties between Landru's central core and the rest of the network that it once oversaw. We also removed any trace of the Landru personality from the databanks we found."

  "Landru is all powerful," Marplon said as he lowered himself into one of the few chairs in the command center. "He foresaw a time when he might face enemies such as you, and provided for that eventuality. The Guardian, Hacom, must have been the instrument of that will."

  Shrugging, al-Khaled replied, "Obviously there was some sort of recovery or backup system in place that we missed. That must be what Hacom found."

  "Well," Scotty said, "it doesna matter now how it happened. All that matters now is that Landru is active again and is regaining control of its computer systems."

  "But his overall influence will be limited, Scotty," al-Khaled countered. "Landru doesn't have the control he once did over the rest of the automated network. We saw to that. None of our modifications tie into the central core yet, so we still retain control over most of the city's automated systems."

  "He still has control over the important parts, though," Lindstrom said. "We've already seen that he is reasserting his influence over the people. There's nothing to say he can't order someone to launch physical attacks on those areas we've removed from him."

  "Exactly," al-Khaled said. "Landru is like a severed head in search of a body." When his friends looked at him with odd expressions on their faces, he amended, "Sorry. Bad choice of words."

  "Actually," Scott said, "that brings up a good question. Landru may have regained control of the systems he used to keep the people under his control, but will the people fall back into his grip that easily?"

  Marplon mulled the engineer's questions. "We all are vulnerable to some degree, but the indoctrination runs undeniably deep in many. There are those among my people who long for Landru's return."

  "You mean like Hacom," al-Khaled said.

  Shaking his head, the Elder waved the suggestion away. "You do not understand. Hacom was chosen by Landru to protect his will at all costs. His role as the Guardian was decreed for him long before you came to us."

  Hacom was only the cause of their current problem, Scott knew. The effects of the Elder's actions were continuing to reveal themselves with each passing moment. The longer he and his friends waited to act, the harder he knew their task would become.

  "We have to find a way to shut down Landru again, for good this time. Not simply deactivate him, but disable him completely." Sighing in resignation, he nodded as the implication of his words became clear even to him. "We may have to destroy the central core completely to do it. Of course, that's easier said than done, isn't it?"

  Al-Khaled moved to a supply locker and opened it after keying in the proper security code on the small keypad set into its door. Inside were twelve Type II phasers along with extra power cells. Extracting three of the weapons, he resealed the locker before handing a phaser each to Lindstrom and Scott.

  "So, how do we get to the central core?" al-Khaled asked.

  Marplon shook his head. "With Landru once again active, approaching it will be all but impossible. Lawgivers will be stationed to protect that area."

  "The Lawgivers," Lindstrom echoed. "With the microcircuit chips they each carry, Landru's control over them is sure to be absolute."

  "And we don't have the resources to launch any kind of attack," al-Khaled added, "not with the Lovell out of communications range." He shook his head. "A few well-placed photon torpedoes and our problems would be solved."

  Marplon started at the words, rising from his chair with an excited expression on his face. "Are you saying you require weapons?"

  "Possibly," Scott said, holding up his phaser for emphasis. "These willna be enough if we're going to have any chance of stoppin' that contraption."

  The Elder nodded. "There may be a way."

  Not pausing to explain himself, Marplon instead waved for the trio of Starfleet officers to follow him from the command center, leading them deeper into the building. A curious Scott followed close behind, with al-Khaled and Lindstrom bringing up the rear. Each of them had drawn their phasers and were keeping an eye out for trouble.

  "Where are we going?" Scott asked.

  "You already know about the underground tunnels that connect many of Landru's control centers," Marplon replied. "They were used by Lawgivers and Elders to better carry out his will. There are entrances to the tunnels throughout the city. I believe we can use the one in this building to take us where we need to go."

  Rounding a corner, Marplon reached out to what Scott at first thought was nothing more than a section of wall, unadorned except for a coating of drab yellow paint. The engineer was only mildly surprised when the wall panel swung open, revealing a concealed doorway and a dark tunnel beyond.

  What he was surprised to see, however, was the Lawgiver ascending from stairs beyond the hidden entrance.

  "Look out!" he called, reaching to pull the Elder clear as the Lawgiver, dressed in the now familiar robe and hood that concealed the wearer's head and carrying the staff that was the symbol of their power, moved to stand in the doorway.

  "Stop," it said, pointing its staff at the group. "You attack the Body. You are enemies of Landru."

  Before Scott could react, a blue beam of energy appeared from over his shoulder, striking the Lawgiver in the center of the chest. The beam held the robed figure for a moment before fading, leaving the Lawgiver to collapse in a heap to the carpeted floor.

  Turning, Scott saw Lindstrom, his phaser arm still extended in the direction of the Lawgiver. Seeing the look on Scott's face, the sociologist shrugged. "Sometimes the simplest approach is the best one."

  "There are liable to be more of them throughout the tunnels," Marplon said. "We must hurry now!"

  As he moved to inspect the opening that led downward into the vast network of tunnels beneath the city, al-Khaled regarded the Elder. "Just where exactly are we going?"

  It was a cache the likes of which Montgomery Scott had not seen outside a museum.

  The room was filled with Federation technology and Starfleet-issue equipment. An assortment of items, some of which Scott had never seen outside of reference books and historical texts, lay before them. Everything was shrouded with fine dust and tucked away on shelves in accordance with no rhyme or reason as to order or function.

  More than a century old, it was all that remained of the U.S.S. Archon.

  "Landru decreed all of this, even the room in which we walk, forbidden," Marplon said as he watched the thre
e Starfleet officers assess the room's contents. "No one was to examine the devices, or reveal to anyone that they even existed. Even those who salvaged the artifacts were…never heard from again."

  Scott ran a finger along the edge of what looked to be the monitoring console for an impulse engine. More than likely, he decided, this panel had come from the Archon's main engineering center, regulating fuel flow and output efficiency levels. He could see that the gunmetal gray surface beneath the layer of dust was smoked with soot. Had this been caused by an onboard fire? Had the ship suffered structural failure as it was dragged from orbit by Landru's defensive systems, allowing the unyielding heat of the planet's atmosphere to roast the interior of the vessel during its plummet to the surface? Shaking off the vision, he looked about the rest of the room.

  That looks like the barrel of an old laser cannon, he told himself as his eyes fell across the antique weapon. A Mark II at least, and there's a subspace relay beacon, an interphasic coil. However, none of it seemed to be operational or even salvageable.

  "I have no idea what most of this stuff is," Lindstrom said. "I wouldn't know if there was anything useful in here even if I was looking right at it."

  Al-Khaled replied, "I doubt we'd even have the time to rig up something that clever or involved. Our best bet might be something we can use to subdue the Lawgivers so we can get at Landru and start tearing out circuit boards by the handful."

  Scott crouched to floor level to examine what appeared to be a section of scarred plating from the Archon's hull. "I'm not even sure what we could devise from this collection of junk."