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"Please come with us," the leader said, and all three stepped aside from the
airlock door.
Displaying a confidence he didn't feel, Geordi stepped inside, followed
closely by Data. Still moving stiffly, the three aliens entered, the one who was
apparently the leader pulling the door shut behind them and sealing it.
Strangely, there were no lights within the airlock, leaving them in total
darkness, but the infrared portion of the spectrum provided Geordi with images
of perfect clarity. Observing all three, he waited for them to do something to
activate the transporter.
But none of them did. Instead, the apparent leader made his way blindly to
the inoperative door at the opposite end of the compartment, jostling both
Geordi and Data as he, in effect, felt his way past them.
Then, without anyone having touched a control, the transporter energized,
Geordi braced himself as he saw the energies building around him, almost
obscuring the images of the others.
Even more so than on the derelict, however, the energies were dull and faded
to his Visored senses, and he wondered if the second stage--if there was a
second stage this time--would be even more blindingly intense that the energies
that had brought them here.
But there was no second stage.
As the energies faded, he saw that they were in the outer airlock,
essentially identical to the inner.
The leader of the three was reaching for the locking mechanism in the outer
door, feeling blindly in the darkness.
But also in the darkness, one of the other two--the overly nervous one, the
one who had asked if Data and Geordi were "the Builders"--put his hand slowly,
cautiously on the weapon suspended from his belt.
Silently, he withdrew it from its holster, and as it emerged, Geordi saw that
it was indeed a primitive projectile weapon. Unlike a phaser, it had no
nonlethal settings.
From both the infrared patterns of the man's skin and the trembling intensity
with which he gripped the weapon, it was obvious to Geordi he planned to fire it
the moment there was enough light to give him a target.
Under cover of what to the others was total darkness, Geordi drew his phaser
and fired.
Even before the light from the phaser beam died out, he was turning it toward
the other two, his finger tensing to press the firing stud again.
But before he could fire a second time, a new aura pulsed into existence,
freezing him instantly in place. For an instant, he thought it was the precursor
to the energies of the transporter, but in virtually the same instant, he
realized that the aura was closer to that produced by a ship's phaser.
Then his consciousness faded and his muscles went slack, leaving him to hang
like a rag doll in the zero G of the airlock.
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