Star Trek fiction: "Stampede"

[eliyes]

Nuni pelted across the alien landscape, sparing a glance at his phaser as he changed the power setting. Three of his crewmates and a double handful of adolescent colonists raced along in his wake, but he pulled ahead more with every step. He kept his eyes trained on his goal -- a grass-covered dome that was the nearest above-ground entrance to the colony's emergency tunnels -- and his ears firmly swiveled backwards, monitoring the pursuit.

He only had a type-1 phaser, so by the time he was close enough to the dome to fire, he could read the signs on the doors. At least, until they disintegrated; he didn't have time to waste finessing the locks, simple though they were. Nuni vaulted inside, not even touching down on the steps that lead to the sunken level of the floor. He reset his weapon as he veered left, to the large hatch set in the wall. Then it was punch in the code they'd all been given, and yank the thing open when the higher-tech locks released.

He got it open just before the others poured in through the first doorway. Zwicker had a fresh rip in her uniform trousers and was carrying one of the schoolchildren, whose leg was bloodied. Atterol and Fielan appeared disheveled but unharmed, shouting and waving the kids towards safety. As they swarmed down the tunnel ladder, the rumbling in the ground grew so alarming that Nuni's hair tried to stand up, despite the nanoweb holding it back.

With a wordless shout, Fielan took up position at the door and began firing. Atterol wrenched open the cabinet marked as holding supplies and started tossing packages down with the kids -- and then the last colonist was through, and the Starfleet officers descended into the tunnel.

Nuni dogged the hatch behind them, locking it from the inside only just in time. A powerful blow against it from the outside knocked him away, and he barely managed to grab for the ladder before he would have fallen on the people below.

"You okay?" Zwicker asked. She had a medkit in her hands.

"I think so, but sir --" He didn't bother lowering his voice; at least a third of the kids were Kerelians and thus has even better hearing that he did. Still, he paused to give the hatch a troubled look. "That won't hold for long."

Fielan joined them. "I can't raise the ship."

"These tunnels are shielded against electrical storms," Nuni reminded her. "We probably won't be able to get a signal out."

"Damn it!" The security officer glared at him, and he shrugged helplessly.

"It's better than nothing!"

"All right," said Zwicker, taking charge. "Split up. Nuni, you're with me -- I'll need you to get us through any more locks. Fielan, you and Atterol guard the rear." And the four of them started herding the schoolchildren down the tunnels.

"How far is the next exit?" Zwicker asked Nuni.

"About sixteen kilometers. This area isn't very developed yet."

A young Tellerite started questioning Fielan, no doubt liking the Zaldan's blunt honesty.

"Why do we have to walk? I'm tired. Aren't we safe here?"

"From getting fried by lightning, maybe, but your colony elders didn't figure in 'keeping out wild animals' when they made their doors. What were those things?"

"Treelna," volunteered another student. "We eat them."

"I don't!" the Tellarite protested.

"Of course not," Fielan said. "You're an herbivore. But those things seemed more likely to eat us than the other way around. Do they always act like that?"

"No," one of the students said, his voice nonchalant, "but those were a herd of the ones the elders let go feral."

"Why would they do that?"

"Just easier that way."

Up front, Nuni and Zwicker shared a troubled look. This wasn't the first they'd heard of done here because it was 'easier', nor the only such with dangerous consequences.

The captain needed to hear about this as soon as possible.