The Escape Read Online Free PDF Page B

"How about if I just go back inside and wait for you folks to come up with an answer. I missed a good nap to be here. I wouldn't mind sleeping my way through your solution. In fact, that sounds very good. I'm going back inside now." Neelix backed through the door, keeping his gaze on the strange people around him.
    "Don't touch anything," B'Elanna said. "Just go back in and sit-was She stopped suddenly. A clear picture went through her mind of Neelix plopping down on the ship. "Check the seat that Neelix sat in. There might be sensors in the chairs." "Let's do it quickly," Neelix said, and nodded in the direction of the bottom of the ramp. One of the humanoids, a tall man wearing a bright orange jump suit, stood with his hands on his hips looking stem and slowly shaking his bead at them.
    At closer look B'Elanna could see that he had bright blue eyes, set very wide on his face, a nose that seemed almost smashed flat, and at least eight fingers. The orange coveralls did very little to mask his strength of upper body.
    B'Elanna thought the size of him would compare well to a Klingon warrior's.
    "You are not authorized to be here," the man said.
    Torres replaced her tricorder and held out her hands in what she hoped was a universal gesture of conciliation. "We know," she said. "We-was "You have to come to Control." "Actually," she said. "We'd rather go back. We didn't expect-was 39 "Your appearance here is a violation of Control Ordinance 852.6l." "We're sorry," Kim said. He glanced at B'Elanna. "We didn't mean to. We accidentally triggered-was "Any eighthundred violation requires the presence of the violators at Control. If you don't come with me voluntarily, we'll take you by force." "We volunteer!" Neelix said, holding up his hands as he came out of the ship. "We volunteer, don't we, frsThat' Torres sighed. She never volunteered to get into trouble, yet it always seemed to happen.
    "Let's move," the man said. "We need to deal with this violation quickly. That ship has to be off the platform in three hours. We're expecting the Real Time ship to return then." Torres glanced at her companions, hoping they understood better than she did. Kim shrugged.
    Neelix had his hands above his head and was marching forward, following the strange man. When Neelix got off the ramp he stopped beside the man. He barely came to the man's waist. Torres could see Neelix's strangeness register on the man's face; then it seemed to fade into unimportance.
    "Hurry," the man said. He whirled and walked away as if he expected them to follow him.
    "It seems we have no choice," Torres said.
    She indicated that Kim should be first behind the man in orange. Neelix dropped into line next and she brought up the rear, carefully marking in her mind exactly how to get back to the exact ship they had arrived in.
    She just hoped she got the chance. 40
    THE ALARM CHIMED THROUGH THE WARM RUMOR OF Drickel's hilltop home, rousing him from his afternoon nap on his favorite couch.
    That alarm hadn't gone off in years and he'd almost forgotten how much its soft, gentle chimes annoyed him.
    "All right, all right," he said. "Alarm off." The chimes stopped and the faint lyrical sounds of Period Three flutes filled the house with soothing harmonies from the best musicians of Rollingburg's Retreat.
    He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and sat up. The green of the living room, with its scattered sofas and seating arrangements, blended into the green of the plush jungle outside. The walls were large windows that provided him with a clear view of dozens of different animals. Beyond the jungle, he could see a range tall, new, and very rough mountains in the distance.
    Some days he focused the window on the mountains.
    During others, he buried the view deep into the forest. Before he had gone to sleep, he left the view turned to a shadowy undergrowth that let in little light. The cool, moist darkness looked inviting, but he had an alarm to answer.
    He cursed silently and comdialed up a