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The Lift Doors Opened…
…and Picard got inside.
But he didn’t get inside alone. The X-Man known as Archangel
came with him.
As the doors closed, Archangel
turned to him. “You’re going after that cluster missile,
aren’t you?”
The captain didn’t return
the winged man’s scrutiny. “As it happens,” he
said, “I am. Computer – Shuttlebay One.”
The lift began to move.
”Take me with you,”
said Archangel.
Finally, Picard looked at
him – his expression a skeptical one. “Why would I
do that?”
”Because I can help,”
the mutant told him. “I may not be a hundred percent, but
I can probably fly at peak efficiency for a short period of time.
With a little luck, I can make it to the missile and disarm it.”
The captain shook his head.
“We don’t know anything about the technology that went
into it.”
”But we will,” Archangel
insisted. “When we’re up close and personal with it,
you’ll scan it with those high-powered, sophisticated instruments
of yours and figure out what makes it tick.”
”Even so,” said
Picard, “the friction created by its passage through the
atmosphere will render it too hot to handle.”
”Can you slow it down?”
the mutant asked.
Picard glared at him. “Yes,
with a tractor beam. But what if you make a mistake and the device
explodes in your face?”
Archangel smiled a taut smile.
“Then you’ll have one less annoying X-Man flying around
your ship.”
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