This was mutiny.
It was so quiet at first, I could hardly imagine what was about to occur.
Silence and shadowed darkness filled the vast transport hold. Scattered about the far and upper reaches were dim blue lights that cast little illumination----stationary fireflies, tiny beacons in an endless metal cave. A long, muted hissing sounded from somewhere far off, then slowly faded away. Quiet again.
Soft floor lights came to life, and the silence was shattered as I led a small group of eight across the open space of the hold to the shuttles on the far side---heavier, darker shadows within shadows. Behind me, in the darkened holding area, were more than eleven hundred people with all the personal possessions they were allowed; a shifting, anxious mass of humanity, waiting. I did not look back at them.
Timing would be critical. We had rehearsed these procedures repeatedly---everybody knew where they would go, what they would do. My group approached the first shuttle, then moved along its dark form to the rear. I gestured at Karen Fields, who took her station at the fuel intake. Then I hurried with the others to the fueling equipment in the back wall. One step at a time. One step.....
I keyed in the access codes, then nodded at two men who pulled the fueling hose structure from the wall, hydraulics whispering in the semidarkness----a metallic, massively tusked and wingless dragon. They guided it to the shuttle and, with the help of Karen, I locked it into place. But fueling was not to begin yet; not until the last minute, timed to finish when everyone and everything was loaded and ready to go. The fueling, even with authorized access codes, would almost surely alert someone, somewhere, resulting in an investigation. It had to be put off as long as possible.
Karen remained at the rear of the shuttle, ready to perform the disconnect, while the rest of us moved on to the next shuttle, where the process was repeated with someone again stationed at the rear. Four more times, step by step, no hesitations, no mistakes, until all six shuttles were hooked up to their fueling structures, waiting. Everyone, everything, waiting.617Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY80MlOTVAx
All was quiet again except for the hushed, tense hiss of machinery. Coils of evaporation swirled in and out of the dim blue overhead lights. I paused, scanning the hold, mentally reviewing our plans, while everyone continued to wait.
What had been forgotten, if anything? Minimal food stores, shelters, tools, testing equipment, water and food processors, crates of other, miscellaneous supplies----all had been clandestinely loaded aboard the shuttles earlier in the day. Not enough to long sustain all the people that were going, but there was no choice. There was no room; as it was, people were going to be jammed together like overbreeding laboratory animals. We had one shot at this, one trip down---no preliminary supply drops, no return trips for extra supplies. All or nothing, or nothing at all.
Where was Sulu? I hadn't seen him all day; I had been overseeing the loading with Deanna Troi and Francisco Avila while Sulu was off with Janice Rand, helping people prepare. I had recently seen Janice---she told me everybody was ready to go---but no sign of Sulu. Could he have backed out, afraid it wouldn't work?
"Lost your courage?" said a voice behind me. I turned to see the dwarf grinning at me from the shadows.
"No," I said.
"Then it's time. A new life and a new world."
Yes, it was time. I nodded, then signaled across the transport hold to Deanna Troi waiting in the holding area.
New lights bathed the hold, reflecting off metal surface, illuminating the shuttles, and the stillness was gone. Six groups of people emerged from the darkness and hurried across the metal deck. Scraping sounds, echoes of hundreds of footfalls. Like herds of cattle moving to new feeding grounds; or packs of lemming rushing to their own destruction.
People were overloaded, which was not surprising, and they dropped things. Someone stopped to retrieve a lost item, and everything jammed up around him. Leave it, damn you! I wanted to yell at that man. But he wouldn't. He scrambled around on hands and knees, tripping someone, reaching for his dropped bag. Finally he recovered it and struggled to his feet, then was swept along toward a shuttle.
The people in front were now flooding through the open shuttle doors, and I watched the pushing and shoving on the boarding ramps, the growing tension and fear. Hissed curses broke out. Near the entrance to Shuttle Onizuka a scuffle erupted, and two bundles went flying; one of them burst open when it hit the ground, scattering the contents.
A man in the center of the crowd tripped and fell, several others fell over him and each other. Panic and chaos erupted. People started running, grabbing and pulling at one another. The shoving worsened; more people stumbled and fell, dropping packets and bundles that slid across the floor. My stomach tightened as all of our plans threatened to fall apart. There was nothing I could do except watch, and hope.
Toward the back, anxiously working his way forward, was Guinan, the chief steward who served drinks at all of the Executive Council meetings. She carried a large pack strapped across her shoulders and gripped a pair of well-wrapped bundles in each hand. I caught her attention, and we stared at one another; I imagined I could see resentment and distrust in Guinan's gaze, a resentment that had built up during all those years of servitude. I'm helping you now, I wanted her to understand, but I knew that it was hopeless. There are things not easily remedied or forgotten, and this was one of them. He turned and joined the throng pushing toward the shuttles.617Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYHFDbflwfv
Then I saw Abigail, Charles's sister, in the group loading onto Shuttle Grissom. I looked all around her, then through the other gorups, but I saw no sign of Charles anywhere. I wanted to run to her, ask her about him, but I could not leave my station. Too much depended on me, and I couldn't chance getting trampled to death in all the confusion. Maybe Charles was already aboard one of the shuttles. I hoped so, anyway.
Sulu began pacing in tight circuits beside me. "It'll be a miracle if we pull this off," he said, shaking his head, wiping sweat from his face. He coughed out a nervous laugh.
The noise gradually diminished, and the tension seemed to abate. The six groups had become a single disorganized mob massed up against the shuttle boarding ramps, but the worst of the scuffling had stopped. The majority of people were inside the shuttle now; fueling could at last begin.
"Let's go," I said.
I started forward, Sulu at my side. I began with Shuttle Galileo, Sulu with Shuttlecraft Columbus. We each keyed in the fueling codes for rapid emergency fueling, set to stop at one-third full----enough to get them down, with a bit to spare. Then we moved to Grissom and Onizuka, keyed the codes, and finished up with John Paul II and Little Enterprise.
"Fifteen minutes, right?" Sulu said.
"Twenty at most."
We looked at the crowds pushing into the shuttles, now fewer then forty or fifty people left at each. The timing was right. Get the rest aboard, belongings stowed, everyone secured for flight....
"We're going to make it," Sulu said.
I nodded. Yes, we were. I moved quickly to the control panels, and punched in another series of codes. I turned and watched the huge, massive transport-hold doors slowly slide apart, gradually revealing the star-filled night sky.
Energy fields maintained the atmospheric integrity of the transport hold---no air was lost, no pressure. That side of the ship faced away from Antioch, and Sulu and I saw dozens, then hundreds, and finally thousands of bright stars as the doors continued to open, revealing the cold vastness of space.617Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByQ3q2bux2
"It's beautiful," Sulu said.617Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqA21GkGQsF
"Yes."617Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK2saN04Nry
A deep, heavy clang sounded as the doors locked into place, fully open now. The night sky waited out there for us, and another world waited for us below. My heart was beating hard and fast; I only now noticed it. I could hardly believe we were about to do this. This was not mutiny, I said to myself. This was escape.617Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYGXxAIBvyO
i turned away from the stars and stepped out from the wall to check on the boarding. I watched the last passengers go through the shuttle doors. All that remained now was to secure everyone and everything aboard, finish the fueling, and we would leave.
Then I heard Sulu cursing behind me.
"Shit," Sulu said. "Shit, shit, shit...."
I turned quickly to look at the dwarf. But it wasn't Sulu that I saw.
Rising into view, hovering outside the open transport hold doors, its gaping maw swirling with nuclear fire, was one of the harvesters. Silent in the vacuum of space, but even more terrible and frightening because of that silence.
A second harvester came into view and hovered beside the first; then the third appeared, all three lined up across the transport hold, blocking out the stars, interior furnaces glowing and burning, ravenous and waiting to consume us all.
I stared transfixed at those three luminescent and monstrous beings of metal and fire; I was unable to move, unable even to breathe.
How could this be? I wondered. Why were they here? They weren't due back for hours, and they didn't dock here, they docked in another hold far away on the other side of the ship. Why were they here?
Then I knew. They were here to stop the mutiny. To prevent the shuttles from leaving. A blockade.
Security forces emerged from one of the corridors at the far end of the transport hold, shattering my trance.
"Shit," Sulu said once more; then he vanished into the shadows.
I watched as more security forces appeared, flooding in from the other corridors, storming across the transport hold and converging on the shuttles. I hesitated only briefly seeing all of our plans and hopes shattering, then like Sulu I backed further into the shadows, turned, and hurried away.617Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3eqhPUE3Xw
