The Escape Read Online Free PDF Page A

doubtful.
    The ship vanished. They vanished with it." "I know that," Janeway said. "I want to know what happened to it." "Believe me, Captain, we do too," Paris said. He was staring at the board in front of him as if it could provide answers. "It was not destroyed or transported by any means we know," Chakotay said. "It is not cloaked and it did not leave the planet in any normal fashion." "So what happened to it?" Janeway asked.
    Tuvok looked up and held her gaze for a moment before he answered. "It just simply ceased to exist." "Gentlemen, I do not accept that explanation.
    My away team has disappeared. We will find them." Janeway climbed the steps to the science station herself.
    As she stepped beside Chakotay, he made a startled sound. 33 "Captain," all three men said together. Paris finished the sentence. "The ship's back." Janeway looked at the viewscreen. The tiny hole in the rows of ships was gone. She let out the breath she had been holding. She tapped her comm badge.
    "Ensign Hoffman, beam that team out of there," she said. "Wait, Captain," Chakotay said. "Better belay that order." "Hold, Ensign." Janeway turned to'Chakotay. "This had better be good." "There's only one person on board," Chakotay said.
    "Humanoid," Tuvok added.
    "But no one we know," Paris said.
    "No one we know?" Janeway asked. She moved in beside Chakotay. The evidence at the science station was incontrovertible. The ship had left seconds earlier with all three members of the away team. It had reappeared with a single person on board, but that person wasn't human or a member of any other race the Federation had ever met.
    The away team had completely vanished. Not a trace of them was left.
    The warmth of the day and the heat coming off the concrete surface below the ramp contrasted sharply with the memory Torres had of this same place just a few minutes before. Cold winds and sand had blown thin air through thousands of abandoned ships. The sky had been a dull gray above the ship graveyard and the sun not much more than a low glow on the horizon. 34 Now the day was warm, the light yellow, the sky clear, and the sun directly overhead. The ships all seemed to be new, at least those that were present. And in a place where before no one had existed, not one living thing, now teemed thousands of colorfully dressed humanoids, calmly going about their business between the ships and the buildings. These humanoids all appeared to belong to the same race: they were as tall as most Klingons, but had larger chins and smaller foreheads. They seemed, however, to vary as much as Klingons varied. Like Earthlings, though, these people had different-color hair and a finer bone structure. Their clothing was as varied as their personal appearances. But nothing about them gave any clue as to what they used the ships for.
    B'Elanna set the shock of change aside-getting lost in the reaction would do her no good-and took a hard look up at the underside of the ship they had arrived in. It was clearly the same one, old and very weathered. The ships around them seemed much newer. She turned to Kim. His eyes were wide, his skin unnaturally pale. He had looked this same way when she had first met him, in the Ocampa doctor's rooms. Superficially composed and yet clearly scared to death.
    She knew he could function in strange circumstances. Despite his youth, he had strength. The secret was to tap it.
    "Find out where we are," she said, her voice almost a whisper, as if she was afraid someone might hear them.
    Kim glanced down at his tricorder. "How do I even start?" he asked, also very softly.
    "Start with the ships beside us, then go to the people." B'Elanna really didn't really care what order he worked in, so she had given him the order that seemed the simplest. Although here nothing seemed simple. And they all would have to be thinking clearly, and acting quickly. Behind her, Neelix hadn't moved at all. His tiny, spotted hands grasped the edge of the door. His knuckles were