A barrage of fire rained onto his position, confirming his fear that his time was quickly running out. Then, he heard the sound of more phaser fire, this time from well outside the cave entrance. Keru peeked around the rock formation before him to see a second attacker fall, even as the remaining six spilled into the passageway a few meters away.
Keru tried to get a bead on the nearest of them but was distracted as a dozen or so other Guardians moved into offensive mode. Armed with nothing more than wooden staves, knives, and fists, they ran to defend the caves and the helpless symbionts in their charge. But the interlopers apparently had both phasers and disruptors—as well as no apparent compunctions against hitting one of their own.
These bastards are on a suicide mission.That thought turned Keru’s heart to ice, but also galvanized him into action.
Keru tucked the phaser into his tunic, having decided that the odds of hitting another Guardian were too great to risk trying to take another shot. Running across the dimly lit, rocky chamber, he tackled a man who was stabbing Pran Sevos with the elderly Guardian’s own knife. They rolled to the side of the wounded Pran, but Keru couldn’t get a firm grip since his foe was slippery with his victim’s blood. The attacker grimaced as he raised the knife, but Keru drove a knee hard into his attacker’s abdomen, forcing the air from his lungs and sending his knife skittering across the cavern floor. Rising to his feet, Keru slammed his adversary’s much smaller body into a rocky wall, knocking him senseless.
Then Keru heard a phaser burst, and saw that Pran’s attacker had crumpled at the base of the wall.
Turning, Keru saw Cyl standing with a phaser in his hand. He was a bit bruised and bloodied, but didn’t appear to be seriously injured. He noticed that the fighting that had begun so quickly in the entranceway was mostly over already. The intruders apparently weren’t used to fighting in close quarters inside a darkened cave. The surviving Guardians were already moving to administer first aid to Pran and several other wounded Guardians, after having subdued the remaining five attackers.
Six,Keru thought with a start. There weresix of them!He scrambled down the passageway toward the interior of the caves and saw a female Guardian named Nelenne Lef lying prostrate on the ground ahead. After stopping to confirm that she was merely stunned, he moved beyond her as quickly as he could. Luckily, I know the passageways better than this intruder does,Keru thought, trying not to be distracted by worry over his fallen friend.
A moment later he turned a corner and saw a gray-garbed man ahead of him, running down the passage toward the pools. Keru skidded to a stop and grabbed a loose piece of flattened rock from the cave floor. As a child he had been a champion rock-skipper at the Lake Ograls Celebration Days Festival; the aim and skill he had acquired in those carefree days had later made him a formidable velocity opponent during his time in Starfleet.
Keru took a breath and drew his arm back, then brought it forward again in one seamless, fluid motion. The rock whizzed through the air and struck the running man squarely at the base of his spine. With a hoarse cry, the attacker dropped to the ground as though poleaxed. Keru didn’t need to check; he knew the invader wouldn’t be running anywhere anytime soon.
Rejoining the others, Keru informed them of the injured attacker back in the passageways, then turned to Cyl. “It sounds like they’re mounting a full-scale attack outside.”
“Yes,” Cyl said. “And my men are severely outnumbered.”
With some of the Guardians trailing behind them, Keru and Cyl ran back to the outer cave entrance to survey the scene below. The military men were just barely holding the line, but the crowds were steadily pushing them closer to the base of the cliffs—and to the pathways leading to Mak’ala’s entrance.
Speaking in clipped military tones, Keru and Cyl briefly discussed their options. There weren’t many. Even if the military detachment were to set their weapons to kill, the vast majority of the survivors would quickly overwhelm the skirmish line. Mak’ala would then fall to the angry throngs, and the symbionts would be at their mercy.
Prompted by his Starfleet training, Keru considered another option. He pointed to the Federation runabout that was parked about ten meters behind the skirmish line. “If I can get down to the Rio Grande,General, I think I might be able to do something about this.”
Cyl nodded, his own thoughts apparently moving in precisely the same direction. “Let’s do it.”
Moments later, after having left the Guardians armed with the particle weapons taken from their attackers, Keru and Cyl had reached the cover of a rocky outcropping only meters away from the runabout. The igneous stone formation formed a low escarpment that rose perhaps three meters above the spacecraft’s dorsal surface.
“If we try to reach the hatch, we’ll be directly in the crowd’s line of fire,” said Cyl.
Keru had noticed the same thing. “Give me some cover fire. I think I can get inside.”
Cyl checked the charge on his phaser. “What exactly are you planning on doing?”
Keru grinned. “I’m going to put up an electric fence—Starfleet style.”
Cyl nodded, a grin of his own slowly spreading across his weather-beaten face. He raised his phaser. “I’ll give you some covering fire. Ready when you are, Mister Keru.”
Keru nodded, took a deep breath, and stepped back three paces, his heart racing. You don’t know how much you miss the adventure until it’s gone,he thought. Sprinting forward, he launched himself off the ledge and into the cool morning air.
Even as he heard the whine of Cyl’s covering fire, Keru landed in a crouch on top of the runabout, skidding forward to a point just behind the cockpit. Flattening his body as best he could, he spider-crawled his way toward the center of the craft, where—in response to the authorization code he tapped into a discreetly concealed keypad—a round access hatch opened into the Jefferies tube that connected with the runabout’s interior. He felt the vessel rock slightly in response to a few quick pulses of phaser fire; fortunately, none of the hits appeared to have had any great effect on the runabout’s hull. Well, they know I’m here,Keru thought with a grim smile. But they probably don’t know what’s coming next.
Quickly making his way forward to the cockpit, Keru sat down at the aft port system chair, where he activated the tactical systems.
He studied the readouts for a moment, his mind racing to try to figure out exactly how he was going to accomplish what he needed to do. It’s been too long since I’ve piloted so much as a simulator,he thought, finally beginning to doubt his chances of success. He knew that Sean, a career conn officer, would have been able to do this blindfolded. What wouldhe have done?
A minute passed, then two. And then, as though guided by the hands of his dead lover, Keru knew exactly what he needed to do.
Once Keru had reached the top of the runabout, Cyl scrambled down the slope, barely managing to avoid a rapid volley of blasts. He’d made himself a target, hoping to divert the radicals’ attention from the massive Guardian.
Cyl felt safe for the moment, crouched behind the portable duranium blast shields that the small military unit had erected between themselves and the mob. Still, he was saddened to see that several of his soldiers had been captured by the protesters during the skirmishes.
He caught the attention of the highest-ranking person he could find. “Lieutenant, when I give the command—which I’m hoping to do within about two minutes—I want all of our troops to retreat by twenty meters.”
The young female officer looked bewildered. “Twenty meters? Sir, we’ll literally be up against the cave entrance. We’ll be giving up all our maneuvering room.”