Star Trek: The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy #5: Atlantis Station Page 3

  The airbus moved farther up the mountain. The rocks below them became smoother, with a twisted, ropelike surface. “The rocks you are looking at now are pahoehoe basalt. Pa-ho-ee-ho-ee”—Leilani said the word slowly and clearly so they could all understand it—“is another Hawaiian word. We Hawaiians have always studied volcanoes with great interest.”

  Several of the cadets laughed. Lissa looked puzzled, not understanding the joke. Geordi decided she must not have taken any geology at the Academy. His teacher had talked about the Hawaiian volcanoes for a week. Some classes, he’d heard, spent even more time studying Hawaii.

  They continued upward. Leilani talked most of the time. She pointed out the different lava flows, described each one, and gave the history of its eruption.

  The mountainside was black and empty. From a distance, the rock looked like black syrup frozen into ropes and mounds and rivers. Most areas below were lifeless. In a few places, small, scraggly plants sprouted from cracks in the rocks.

  “We’re studying how plants grow on new rock,” Leilani said. “The wind blows line dust onto the island, and it’s trapped in the rocks. Some plants appear within fifty years of an eruption.”

  “Where do the seeds come from?” Amray asked. Her face was pressed against the window.

  “There weren’t any plants here when the island formed.” Amril leaned against her window in an identical position.

  “The seeds were brought here by birds. They eat the berries for food, but they can’t digest the seeds.” Leilani gave the computer an order and they swung in a wide arc. A small valley filled with brush appeared beneath them. Geordi’s VISOR picked out a dozen varieties of flora by how the light was reflected off the leaves. The pattern of the plants and rocks looked like a crazy quilt.

  “Even now, we discover at least one new variety every year,” Leilani continued. “As the plants break down the rocks to form soil, it becomes easier for more plants to grow.”

  They flew past the valley and continued up the mountain. The next valley appeared hotter to Geordi. He tried to check the different ranges from his VISOR, but the heat reflected from the black rocks looked very much like heat coming from beneath the surface.

  Before he could decide which was which, they were over the next ridge and heading for the summit. The last slope was the steepest. The whine from the engines rose to a shrill pitch as the bus climbed the last few meters.

  The ground flattened at the top. The bus landed a safe distance from the crater. A cloud of steam rose ahead of them. The ground was covered with small reddish chunks of rock.

  The door opened, letting in a blast of air that smelled of rotten eggs. “What’s that horrid smell?” Lissa asked, scowling.

  “That smell is sulfur from the volcano,” T’Varien said. She moved quickly for the door, with Ven close behind her. By the time Geordi got outside, both were looking over the edge. They were arguing about the best way to reach the floor of the crater.

  “You will not go down there!” Leilani’s voice cracked like a whip. “No one goes down there without proper equipment. And that’s after they get permission from the director.”

  The rocks crunched beneath Geordi’s boots. He bent down and picked up one. It was a couple of centimeters in diameter and full of holes.

  “We wish to study the volcano to the best of our ability.” T’Varien’s tone sounded reasonable. “We must get closer to do this. You are keeping us from doing our assignment.”

  Geordi rolled the piece of rock in his hand. The sharp edges cut into his hand like glass. When he looked closer, he saw that it was glass. A thin coating of iron oxide, much like rust, covered the unbroken surfaces.

  “No.” Leilani stood her ground, acting as though she dealt with unreasonable cadets every day. “Anyone who steps over that edge will be expelled from Starfleet Academy immediately.”

  Geordi hurried forward, curious to see why his classmates were so eager to climb into the crater. More rocks crunched under his boots and scattered ahead of him. A gust of hot, sulfur-laden air hit him as he reached the top.

  At his feet, the ground dropped away. Sheer cliffs surrounded the bowl-shaped crater. Three fire fountains, one more than they had been told, played near the opposite wall. The crater’s floor was almost two hundred meters below. Startled, Geordi stepped back.

  “True samurai must never show sign of fear.” Yoshi moved to the crater’s edge. “Force of nature is not dangerous like honorable opponent in battle.”

  “Tell that to the people who get killed in natural disasters,” Geordi muttered. Try as they might, scientists still couldn’t predict every major earthquake or hurricane or flood. Each year, people were killed because they ignored the warnings or because they weren’t warned in time.

  Geordi decided to play it safe. He could see well enough from where he was. Each fire fountain was throwing molten rock—it was called lava, he reminded himself—almost as high as the rim of the crater. The streams of lava looked like water squirted from a hose. At the base of each fountain, the lava was bright red, but it turned black as it cooled.

  The drops of rapidly cooling rock crashed and tinkled on the ground like china plates dropped onto the floor. Larger blobs of still-molten lava made dull plops when they landed. Geordi wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was hard to believe it was so hot this far from the eruption.

  “You are interfering with my right to practice my religion,” Ven said. He was shouting to be heard over the clattering rocks. “The Observance of the Flames is central to all five major Andorian religions.”

  Wondering what would happen next, Geordi looked away from the fire fountains. Ven and T’Varien had split, with one on either side of Leilani.

  “First, religious ceremonies on Isla del Fuego are restricted by the research station’s charter. You must have permission from the director.” Leilani crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Ven.

  The Andorian flushed a darker shade of blue. “I protest most strongly. I have the right under the Federation charter to practice my religion.”

  “Granted.” Leilani’s face relaxed into an I’ve-got-you grin. Her teeth flashed against her tanned skin. “However, you’re also a Starfleet cadet on an Academy assignment. As such, you can be dismissed from the Academy if you ignore my orders.”

  A tremor shook the mountain. Geordi felt the ground tilting beneath his feet. Rocks broke loose and fell into the crater. They clattered all the way down.

  Another tremor hit, and Geordi felt himself skating toward the cliff. Something moved off to one side. He looked that way and saw Yoshi sliding over the edge.

  Geordi threw himself flat and dug his toes into the loose rock. He reached for Yoshi, barely catching his hand. Yoshi’s body swung into the cliff. The impact twisted Geordi’s shoulder and jerked him toward the edge.

  Digging his toes farther into the loose rock, Geordi brought his other hand forward to grab Yoshi. The weight dragged him closer to the edge. The rocks beneath him vibrated with an ominous cracking. “Hurry! It’s giving way.”

  Yoshi struggled, his body swinging like a pendulum. Geordi pressed himself harder against the ground, but he kept sliding. His hands hung over empty air, then his arms followed.

  Just as he knew he was going to fall, Geordi felt strong hands around his ankle. Moments later, another pair of hands grabbed his other ankle. He risked a glance over his shoulder. Leilani and T’Varien were holding his feet. They pulled, dragging him backward inch by inch.

  He tightened his grip on Yoshi, hoping he could hang on until they were both safe. The rough pebbles cut into him, scraping his skin. The cracking sounds became louder.

  Yoshi’s head appeared above the cliff. The girls jerked on Geordi’s legs and Yoshi popped over the edge. Leilani and T’Varien dropped Geordi’s ankles.

  “Run!” Leilani ordered. She and T’Varien dashed for the airbus.

  The ground shook harder. Geordi rolled over and got to his knees. Behind him, he heard the scatt
er of pebbles as Yoshi scrambled to his feet. The ground heaved drunkenly beneath him.”

  Geordi didn’t bother to stand. Pushing off like a sprinter coming off the starting blocks, he lit out for the airbus. Yoshi was two steps behind him.

  They threw themselves through the door. As Geordi stumbled to his seat, Leilani ordered an emergency lift-off. The bus jumped into the air, shoving him deep into the padding.

  Beneath them, the side of the mountain crumbled and slid into the crater. Even through the walls of the airbus, the grinding and banging of the moving rocks were deafening. Clouds of dust made it impossible to see anything.

  Geordi shivered, thinking how close they had come to being buried beneath the rockslide. From the silence in the bus, he decided his classmates were also shaken by the close call. He tightened his safety harness. For the moment, he was content to let the computer fly them back to the research station.

  Back at the station, Leilani showed Geordi and his classmates to the cafeteria. He didn’t notice until they were eating that she had left the room.

  Geordi nibbled, on his sandwich. He knew he should eat it, but he wasn’t hungry. His narrow escape had shaken him more than he wanted to admit. He studied his classmates, comparing their actions with what his VISOR told him.

  Ven was angry, and Geordi guessed he was still upset about not being allowed into the crater. The Stenarios clones were withdrawn, locked in their own world. Geordi saw the sideways looks and the small signals they gave each other, but he didn’t know what they meant. T’Varien appeared calm, but Geordi’s VISOR told him that her body temperature was down, a sure sign of stress. Yoshi also pretended that nothing was wrong, but his hands were shaking.

  Lissa and Todd had been farthest from the crater, and Geordi couldn’t tell how the experience had affected them. They were talking to each other in low tones, too softly for Geordi to hear. With a shrug, he turned his attention back to his sandwich.

  Finally Yoshi spoke, giving Geordi a deep bow from the waist. “One must thank honorable classmate Geordi for saving worthless life. Deepest gratitude is humbly expressed.”

  “Uh—you’re welcome, Yoshi.” Geordi swallowed.

  “But I didn’t do it alone. Leilani and T’Varien had to pull me out, or we both would have fallen.”

  Yoshi tumed to T’Varien and gave her a deep bow. “Deepest gratitude is also extended to honorable classmate T’Varien for assistance in rescue.”

  T’Varien raised one eyebrow. For a moment, Geordi was afraid she would give them a lecture on human failings. Instead, she nodded. “It is only logical to save the lives of one’s crewmates. Starfleet does not approve of needless loss of life among its trained officers.”

  Suddenly, Geordi felt a lot better. T’Varien’s lack of feeling should have been depressing, but it had the opposite effect. Maybe because that’s what you expect her to say, he thought. Maybe he was beginning to understand her.

  Whatever the reason, he was suddenly hungry. He polished off his sandwich and went back for another. Leilani returned while he was finishing his cookies.

  She pulled a chair up to the end of the table and sat, facing them. “I have been talking with the director about what happened this morning. You’re all aware that every Starfleet assignment is a journey into the unknown. None of us knows when we may have a brush with death such as we did this morning.”

  Leilani paused, waiting for her words to sink in. Geordi thought she looked tired, as if the morning’s excitement had taken more out of her than it had from the rest of them. “The director talked with your teacher a few minutes ago. Lieutenant Muldov insisted that you should continue your tour. He said that, on a real mission, no Starfleet officer has the option of giving up when things become a little dangerous.”

  She drew in a deep breath, as though trying to steady herself. Why is she so tense? Geordi wondered. Lieutenant Muldov’s reaction was exactly what he had expected. In a moment, he heard the answer.

  “The director, however, feels you should be given the option to finish this trip later. In principle, she agrees that a real mission must continue. However, this morning you saw more danger than many Starfleet officers meet in a full tour of duty. It’s unfair to treat such an experience as a routine training assignment.”

  Todd straightened in his chair. “If Lieutenant Muldov says we should finish the trip, what’s the problem? What are we waiting for?”

  Leilani looked at each of them, paused for a moment, and then went on. She reached Geordi and stopped, studying his face. He read the question from her expression. Did he feel like continuing? He thought for a moment, then nodded. “We’re here and it seems like it would be easier to finish the tour now. I think it might be harder to come back later.”

  The others nodded in agreement. T’Varien summed up their feelings best. “If we are to become Starfleet officers, we must act like Starfleet officers. It is illogical for us to expect easier treatment as cadets than we will receive as officers.”

  That doesn’t mean we can’t be nervous, Geordi thought. After this morning, he would see routine assignments in a much different light. When mountains crumbled beneath your feet, nothing in the universe was completely certain.

  He was still thinking about that fifteen minutes later when they headed back for the aquashuttle. Even so, what else could go wrong? They had used a year’s supply of bad luck that morning. This afternoon, everything would be just fine.

  CHAPTER

  5

  To no one’s surprise, Ven took the pilot’s seat when the cadets boarded the aquashuttle. Geordi paused in the door, thinking how much he needed the points for piloting the ship. Ven, had no right to keep him from doing that part of his assignment.

  After this morning’s close escape, though, the other cadets would support Ven. Geordi knew he could fly the shuttle, but the others would think he was still too rattled. He would be better off waiting until they left the lower station before he asked for his turn. That decided, Geordi headed aft, choosing the seat beside the rear viewport. Amril and Amray were in the seats ahead of him, while Todd and Lissa were on the other side of the aisle.

  To Geordi’s surprise, Leilani took the copilot’s seat. T’Varien came aft, leaving Yoshi in the fold-out seat behind the flight officers. After watching T’Varien’s stiff movements, Geordi concentrated on his PADD. The Vulcan clearly believed she was a better copilot than Leilani.

  “Prepare for departure,” Leilani said. Geordi checked the buckle on his harness to make sure it was secure.

  Ven wasted no time in taking the shuttle up. He made a full power lift-off that drove Geordi deep in his seat. The shuttle’s nose pitched sharply upward, and Geordi felt like he was sitting on the side of a steep mountain.

  They reached the top of their arc. Ven tipped the shuttle downward, pointing it toward the ocean’s surface. In the brief moment before the computer adjusted for the change, they were in free fall. Geordi felt his stomach lurch and he fought to keep his lunch down.

  “Do you have to be so dramatic?” Lissa asked. She looked pale and Geordi guessed her stomach felt like his.

  “I calculated this as the optimum course for entering the ocean,” Ven said without taking his eyes off the controls. The shuttle’s engines whined as Ven increased power.

  Geordi shook his head, not bothering to say anything. He’d calculated this problem a dozen ways, and Ven’s solution wasn’t close to the best answer. The Andorian was hotdogging, showing off to impress Leilani. Considering how the computer graded their piloting, it was a foolish thing to do. A routine dive would score far higher.

  Fountains of spray erupted as the shuttle’s nose hit the water. The entry was smooth. The aquashuttle slowed quickly as it switched to underwater-operations mode. Gaudy fish and floating seaweed flashed past the viewport, but they were gone almost as soon as Geordi spotted them. A glance around the cabin showed him that his classmates were as fascinated with the underwater view as he was.

  Within se
conds, they were below the photic zone, the layer of the ocean that the sun’s light could penetrate. Blackness, permanent night, closed around the aquashuttle. Geordi shivered. The water outside was barely above freezing. The deeper they went and the closer they got to the lower station, the more icy water there was above them. If anything went wrong, they were a long way from safety.

  He shivered again, thinking how like—yet how unlike—the deep oceans and outer space were. Both were dark. Space filled the universe with an infinite night speckled with stardust, but the black water outside his viewport could not have been more featureless if he had removed his VISOR.

  Both were cold, although the emptiness of space was colder. And neither place contained air that humanoids could breathe. The vacuum of space could suck the air from an unprotected person’s lungs as quickly as the crushing pressure of the deep oceans could force the water in.

  He touched his waist pouch, reassuring himself that his rebreather was there. In an emergency, the unit would provide him with breathable air for several hours. I hope the batteries are fully charged, he thought. He also hoped he wouldn't need to use the device.

  A faint green light flickered outside the window, then disappeared behind them. For a moment, Geordi thought he had imagined it.

  “A phosphorescent fish!” Lissa pointed out the window. “Did you see it, Todd?”

  Todd leaned across her, trying to see out the window. The absolute blackness had returned. “It’s gone,” he said, settling back into his seat. “They aren’t usually found around here.”

  “That species does not favor habitats this near to the surface,” T’Varien said. “There is too much competition for food.”

  “I suppose you know exactly which type of fish that was.” Todd glared at the Vulcan. “Even if you didn’t see it, either.”

  “My files list twenty-five species of phosphorescent fish that are sometimes found in life zones similar to the one we are passing through. Of those twenty-five, probabilities favor—”