Strange New Worlds IX Read online

  “Oh my,” Picard said, his voice barely a whisper.

  “What?” Louis asked, peering anxiously through the grass. “What do you see? I can’t see a thing.”

  Picard smiled. “Just as well. You’re much too young to see this.”

  “Stop that,” Louis said. “I’m only a year younger than you are.” He nudged Picard aside to put himself into his friend’s point of view, but he still couldn’t see anything but some blue sky and surf. By God, if he’d missed what he’d come all the way down here for, he would just die. He pushed himself a little higher to get an even better view.

  At once, Picard yanked him back with a sharp tug. “Keep down, you fool. Do you have any idea what they’ll do to us if they see us gawking at them in the altogether.”

  “I’m sure it will be worth—wait, the altogether?” Louis strained his vision more than he ever had before, almost willing the grass to part for him. He still saw nothing, though he could now hear soft voices some distance ahead and gentle splashing in the water. He could almost imagine the sisters wading along the shoreline, testing the water’s temperature.

  “I don’t know why I let you drag me into this excursion in the first place,” Picard said. “It’s childish.”

  “Because, my dear friend, they are the Bloom sisters, and that nomenclature does not solely apply to their surname.”

  Picard glanced through the grass toward the beach. “Indeed, it does not.”

  Louis’s jaw dropped and he shot to his feet just in time to see the bare shoulders and red hair of the young women dip below the water. Picard laughed as he stood up and Louis scowled in mock indignation. “I want a full report.”

  “Mm, I’m sure you do.”

  They both laughed, then Louis realized he didn’t want to be caught out in the open when the sisters emerged. “Let’s head up to that small bluff over there,” he said, pointing the way. “We’ll have an unobstructed view when they come out, yet we’ll be out of sight.”

  “Brilliant,” Picard said, rolling his eyes as they started up the dirt path leading up the slope. “More importantly, you could use the exercise.”

  They walked in silence for several minutes, navigating the rocky terrain which led up into the wooded area at the top of the bluff. For a few seconds, Louis almost forgot about the Bloom sisters and just enjoyed the experience of hiking with his best friend.

  “So tell me, Louis,” Picard said as they neared the top. “Why don’t you consider Starfleet instead of staying Earthbound? I’m certain the S.C.E. might have a place for you, or the terraforming divisions of Starfleet.”

  This wasn’t the first time Jean-Luc had brought up Starfleet, but while Jean-Luc seemed born to fly away from his family’s vineyards in a starship, Louis had never thought the service was for him. There was just so much to explore here on their own world without having to go elsewhere. And in doing so, other worlds might benefit from what was learned on Earth. Jean-Luc never liked hearing this from him, but Louis told him anyway.

  “So, you’re afraid of space,” Jean-Luc said, clearly baiting him. And as usual, he fell into the trap.

  “I’m not!” he bellowed, the rejoinder sending a squirrel scurrying deeper into the woods.

  “You are,” Picard said with a grin. “And I suspect you’re afraid of the Bloom sisters as well.”

  “Afraid of—?” Louis could hardly believe what he’d heard. Afraid? Of the Bloom sisters? Preposterous! “Now, Jean-Luc, that is quite possibly the most…ridiculous thing I have ever heard you say.”

  “Is it? Then why don’t you get off this bluff and swim out to them right now.” He waved a hand at the beach below, where the sisters splashed each other, carried on, and appeared to be having a grand old time.

  “I can’t do that,” Louis said, his blood going cold. “You know me and water.”

  “Well, if you start to drown, they might save you,” Picard said, then evidently saw how unsettled Louis had become at the idea. “Then why not wait for them out on the beach, and ask one of them on a date. Or both, if you’re feeling extra fearless.”

  Louis shifted. Why did he suddenly feel as though he’d been put on the spot? “Why don’t you?”

  “Because I’m not the one obsessed with the Bloom sisters.”

  “I’m not obsessed,” Louis said.

  “Then go on,” Picard said, waving a hand again. “Go down and ask them. You’ll have to make the first move, because it’s not as if they’ll ever ask you to go anywhere with them.”

  Of all the—had he just insulted him? “What is that supposed to—”

  Suddenly, Picard’s face went slack, then brightened with a smile a moment later. “Too late.”

  Louis turned to see one of the most remarkable sights he’d ever seen. The Bloom sisters—the source of many a wandering thought over the years—had surfaced and were splashing toward the beach where they’d left their clothes, unaware that they were being observed. Louis felt his throat constrict, his blood rush, and his jaw drop slowly open at the sight, yet as he watched their wet bodies glistening in the afternoon sunlight, a swell of guilt swept through him like an unexplained chill on a warm summer’s day. Here he was intruding upon a private moment of bonding between two siblings simply to satisfy a silly hormonal obsession.

  Still, it was quite the sight, and at that moment the ocean had never been more appealing.

  Louis screamed as his lungs finally gave out and a cloud of bubbles surged toward the top of the cistern of water in which he’d been submerged. The cry of terror sounded like a muffled gurgle to his ears, the sound of a panicked, frightened man. He closed his mouth too late and gagged on the water that rushed down his throat, drowning him. His body thrashed violently as he tried to extricate himself, but powerful hands held him down. Images of his wife and daughter, Patrice and Sophie, fought to comfort him in these final moments.

  And then suddenly, he was pulled free of the nightmare, the vise-like grip on his head and shoulders gone. He erupted in a fit of coughs, expelling the water in his lungs, then suddenly lost his balance as his remaining leg failed to keep him aloft. Like a felled tree, he toppled, and with his hands bound behind his back he was unable to brace himself. He hit the floor, hard. A jolt of pain screamed through his shoulder. He continued to gag, water trickling from his mouth like a leaky faucet. Lying prone on the wet floor, he felt like a fish on the deck of a boat, death far closer than any hope of renewed freedom.

  When he’d regained some semblance of control, Louis looked up at the Vorta, who appeared to be observing the entire ordeal with a mixture of cold indifference and curiosity.

  “Please,” Louis begged. “Don’t do that again.”

  He’d always been teased about his aversion to the water. He couldn’t imagine many other deaths worse than drowning, and such a dark, frightening end had never been far from his mind whenever he’d been near water. As a result, he’d never been a very good swimmer and missed out on participating on afternoons at the lake with his friends.

  The Vorta knelt down before him in an almost friendly manner. “In my experience, when someone makes a request like that with such conviction, it’s a signal that they’re ready to cooperate fully, rather than be subjected to such unfortunate, but necessary, measures again. Is that the case here, Louis? Or is it back into the water for you?”

  Tears welled in Louis’s eyes and spilled down his cheeks, mixing with the water already trickling from his soaking hair. “I…”

  “There, there,” the Vorta said, patting his shoulder soothingly. “I know this has been a bad day for you. I’ve been there. We’ve all had bad days. But this one can be over as soon as you tell me what I need to know. That’s all. It’s so easy. Just give me the information I want, and then we’ll leave. Granted,” he said, glancing around, “you’ll have quite a mess to clean up, but at least you’ll be alive. You want to help me, don’t you?”

  Louis gave him a weary nod. God knew he wanted to say whatever it took to get t
he Vorta and his Dominion soldiers out of there, but there was nothing he could say. If Jean-Luc had been in his position, he would have been able to come up with an acceptable line of double-talk that might satisfy the Vorta, but Louis wasn’t a Starfleet officer with experience in dealing with evil aliens. He was a scientist. Just a scientist.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, knowing his whispered words would very likely mean his death. “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re just…wrong.”

  “I see,” said the Vorta. He nodded at the Jem’Hadar waiting silently nearby, then rose himself. “The water it is then.”

  Louis struggled vainly, but this time he was too exhausted to scream.

  “For God’s sake, Jean-Luc,” Louis said with a wide grin on his face. The two men stood before a long mirror in an opulent sitting room in the chalet where Louis would shortly be married. Both were dressed in tuxedos and Picard was straightening Louis’s suit even though it was perfectly immaculate already. “You’re my best man. You’re supposed to be giving me your encouragement and support on my wedding day.”

  “I gave you my encouragement and support the last time you got married, but I didn’t approve then either,” Picard said, his grin echoing his friend’s.

  Louis scowled a bit as Picard fiddled with his bow tie. “Yes, well…you were right that time, as it turned out, but this time it’s different.”

  “Is it?” asked Picard.

  “It is,” Louis said. “Patrice is the one for me, I’m sure of it.” He had never felt for anyone the way he felt for Patrice. In fact, he had never fully realized just how wonderful love could be until he’d met her that first time in Italy. She’d been up on the lakeside wharf, and he had been in his rapidly sinking canoe…

  “I was always sure you’d marry one of the Bloom sisters,” Picard said. “You know, they’re both out there…”

  “I did invite them,” Louis said.

  “…no husbands at their sides,” Picard continued as though Louis hadn’t spoken. “I’m sure the both of them were waiting for you all these years to pop the question.”

  “Very funny,” Louis said and shrugged Picard away. “They were just a youthful obsession.”

  “A-ha!” Picard said as he slapped his hands together. “So it was an obsession. I was right all along.”

  Louis rolled his eyes and looked at his friend’s reflection in the mirror. “Patrice and I mesh, Jean-Luc. I know it sounds clichéd, but we’re like two halves of the same being,” he explained, lacing his fingers together. “I’ve never felt that way about anyone in my life.”

  Picard regarded him with a serious expression for a moment, then placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “Of course you have my support, Louis. And I wish you all the best…and all the luck you’ll need.”

  “I don’t think I’ll need luck this time,” Louis said.

  Picard shrugged. “Well, I’m giving it to you anyway.”

  They primped and preened in front of the mirror some more.

  “Anyway,” Louis said after a few moments, “for someone who’s never been married before or had a long-term relationship, you certainly have your opinions on who’s right and wrong for me.”

  “I’m in Starfleet, Louis,” Picard said. “I can’t afford the distraction.”

  “Is that what marriage is to you?” Louis asked, a sad note to his voice. “A distraction?”

  “For me, yes. I’m married to my career. Besides, I don’t have anyone in my life like that right now. Perhaps I never will.”

  “Bollocks,” Louis said. “You just wait. One of these days, when you least expect it, you’ll meet Miss Right. And the next thing you know, there will be a swarm of little Jean-Lucs running around the yard…or through the starship corridors, as the case may be.”

  “Stranger things have happened,” Picard said, though Louis didn’t think he sounded particularly convinced.

  “Yes, they have,” Louis replied. “And when they do, be sure to send me an invitation so I can be just as unencouraging and unsupportive as you are.” He laughed good-naturedly and a moment later, Picard joined in the laughter as well.

  “I’ll try to remember that,” Picard said. “Now, let’s get out of here before all of your guests get bored and leave. For at least half of them, this whole affair carries with it a strong sense of déjà vu.”

  “You always know the right things to say, Jean-Luc,” Louis said wryly.

  When Louis regained consciousness, he couldn’t have been more surprised. He thought for sure that he’d been going to his death, but he must have passed out instead. Maybe the Vorta couldn’t see the advantage in drowning an unconscious man. Or perhaps it didn’t hold enough entertainment value for him.

  Ideally, Louis would have preferred to awaken to realize the horror he’d undergone had been a simple nightmare, but one look at his missing leg told him that wasn’t the case. As he sat against a wall, his right leg stretched out before him, he gazed at the vacant spot next to it and wondered idly what had happened to his amputated limb. Had it been discarded? Considering that the bodies of his coworkers still lay where they rested, it wouldn’t surprise him if it remained where it had fallen in a pool of his blood.

  Louis looked ahead to see two stone-faced Jem’Hadar staring at him, their pulse weapons held at the ready. Like I’m in a position to put up any sort of resistance! he thought.

  “It’s an interesting perspective, down here on the floor.”

  Louis frowned at the voice and turned to see the Vorta sitting a few feet away, back against the wall, feet extended outward, emulating Louis’s position.

  “A child’s life must be fascinating,” the Vorta continued, “to witness life so removed from the perception of everyone else. There’s a kind of…innocence down here, don’t you think?”

  Louis looked at the Vorta as though the alien had lost his mind. But before Louis could think of a response, the Vorta rose in such a way that it seemed like he was making a statement. Innocence sitting down, not so innocent standing up. Very subtle.

  The Vorta gestured. One of the Jem’Hadar hauled Louis up and dragged him to a chair at the table where the vat of water had been and was now, thankfully, gone. The Vorta stood across from him, hands clasped before him.

  “I researched the name of your Atlantis Project and learned that according to Greek myth Atlantis was an island paradise that was tragically overcome by the sea and lost forever. A fascinating tale. Generally, every myth is based on truth to some extent. In our case, some truth is based on myth.”

  Louis stared at him blankly for a moment, then found his voice. “I don’t understand.”

  The Vorta leaned forward slightly. “Then allow me to explain. I believe,” he said as he began strolling around the table, “that this Atlantis Project is a research base—the prototype, if you will, of a similar base, or bases, located somewhere in Federation space that will be used to launch surprise attacks against Dominion forces. As I’m sure you can understand, this is something I cannot allow to transpire.”

  Louis almost laughed. “Are…are you serious?”

  “Quite,” said the Vorta, coming to stop exactly where he’d begun.

  “That’s…ridiculous,” Louis said.

  The Vorta seemed amused. “Is it?”

  “Yes!” Louis blurted, feeling the rawness of his throat. “Access our computer records. The Atlantis Project has been active for over twenty years, long before anyone had even heard of the Dominion. You’ll find no evidence of what you’re suggesting.”

  “Actually, I have read your database, and I must admit it was fascinating research,” the Vorta said. “Tectonic pressures, water containment, raising the ocean floor…it all sounds so adventurous. If it were not for the fact that we were dire enemies in a terrible war, I would have liked to sit down with you to discuss your progress and suggest a few theories of my own. Sadly, this is not the case. Furthermore, while your project has existed for almost two decades, obviously the current
situation has prompted you to modify your research to better serve the war effort.”

  “Obvious? How is that obvious? The only obvious thing I see here is that you’ve lost your mind and all sense of reason along with it. You’re so determined to make this mission of yours a success that you’re manufacturing a lie that can’t possibly be true so that you can justify killing everyone here when you leave!” The words tumbled out of Louis’s mouth like an out-of-control roller-coaster that had no way to stop until it was finished.

  Louis shook his head. He wanted to laugh again, but was afraid that would be going too far and would only get him a quick death for his trouble. Still, he couldn’t believe the Vorta was trying to bait him with such a ridiculous premise.

  “You appear amused,” the Vorta said, then glanced at the nearest Jem’Hadar. “It seems he doesn’t believe my assertions.”

  “/-|-|_//-,” the Breen captain taunted.

  The Vorta appeared as though he was about to rise to the Breen’s bait, but resisted at the last moment. Instead, he walked to one of the office’s windows and looked out into the murky deep water on the other side of the glass. He stood there for several minutes, following the wiggling path of a large blue fish, watching a series of bubbles drift upwards out of sight and musing about God-knew-what.

  The calm of the moment was broken as a Jem’Hadar soldier burst into the room and marched directly toward the Vorta. The Vorta turned with an expression of annoyance on his pale face.

  “This interruption is unacceptable,” he said. The Jem’Hadar didn’t appear to care one way or the other about the Vorta’s annoyance and simply delivered his report. Louis couldn’t hear what the brute said, but his words appeared to have captured the Vorta’s attention. The tormentor’s posture tensed and his demeanor became far more serious.

  “Take two men with you,” he told the Jem’Hadar. “Make it quick.”

  “_//-/_|-,” the Breen said in its unintelligible electro-babble.

  “Fine,” said the Vorta with an exasperated sigh. “Send some of your men too, if you must.”