THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST Page 5

  Titus knelt and picked up some of the rocky debris on the floor. “Hey, these are cave pearls.”

  “Real pearls?” Jayme asked, picking up a handful of the shiny white spheres. “They’re huge!”

  “It’s calcified gravel and bits of stuff,” Titus clarified. “You don’t find them very often, usually only in unexplored caves. I wonder if we’re the first ones to find this place.”

  “That was a tricky entrance,” Bobbie Ray agreed. “I would have never seen it.”

  Titus finally had his moment of satisfaction. He felt as if he had been trying to catch up to his roommate since they both arrived at the Academy. Except that Bobbie Ray had all the advantages of a childhood on Earth, supported by wealthy parents, while Titus felt like some kind of country bumpkin, unable to tell a sonic haircutter from a steak knife.

  “Look up here!” Jayme called, halfway up the gentle slope of the talus incline. “I think the ceiling fell in back here.”

  “It looks like the roof sank until it ran into the ground,” Bobbie Ray agreed, swatting at the elusive, fat drops that continually bombed them from above.

  They climbed the shifting slope to the point where the ground and ceiling met. The rounded debris constantly moved under their hands and knees. Titus examined some of the bits, and was surprised to see elongated pieces as well as the more traditional “pearls.”

  “Why aren’t there any stalactites in this cavern?” Jayme asked, standing in the last possible space at the upper end. A dense curtain of drops speckled the air in front of them.

  “This cavern is lower than the others. If there’s too much water, there’s no time for the sediment to form between each drop,” Titus explained. “That’s what makes the cave pearls—the sediment forms as they’re polished and agitated by the water.”

  “I think they’re beautiful,” Jayme said, gathering a few in her hand.

  Titus squatted down next to her in a relatively dripfree zone. He aimed his tricorder at one of the elongated pearls. “This is bone! Human bone!”

  Bobbie Ray immediately dropped his pearls, absently rubbing his hands on his coveralls as he looked at the tricorder readings. “You’re right. They’re ancient!”

  Jayme was also hanging over his arm, trying to see. “Give me a second,” he ordered, keying in the commands. “Somewhere between twelve and fifteen thousand years old!”

  “That’s when humans first moved onto this continent,” Jayme breathed, gently cupping her pearls in her palms. “They must have used these caves as shelter or storage. Maybe even burial. This is amazing!”

  Titus barely had a second to absorb their find before Bobbie Ray muttered, “Uh-oh! I think we’ve got trouble.”

  The Rex was staring back at the hole they had climbed up. Water was welling up and pouring over the low lip that held back the piles of cave pearls. It made a rushing sound as it disappeared into the cave pearls piled on the floor.

  “Oh no!” Titus exclaimed, running back down to their only entrance to the cavern. Now it was full of water. Even worse, water continued to pour over the stone lip and began to rise among the cave pearls. Soon, it had flooded the shallow basin and was rising higher, filling the cave.

  “What’s happening?” Bobbie Ray cried in true panic. “How are we going to get out?”

  Jayme dipped her fingers in the water, sticking them in her mouth. “Salty. That’s what I was afraid of. The tide must be rising.”

  They both turned to look at Titus, mutely demanding that he do something. He knew he probably looked as panicked as Bobbie Ray. “The tide?”

  “Yes, the tide’s coming in,” Jayme repeated, frantically scrambling through the cave pearls to the wall, searching up it with her handlight. “I don’t see a high-water mark anywhere. Could it . . . is it possible . . .”

  “You mean this whole cave gets filled with water?” Bobbie Ray asked in a high voice.

  Titus could only shake his head. “I don’t know! We don’t have oceans on Antaranan!”

  “What!” Jayme shrieked. “You brought us in here and you didn’t know what you were doing?”

  Bobbie Ray leaned over the hole, digging at the rising water with his hands. When he came up soaked, his fur sticking out in clumps and clinging to his surprisingly skinny neck, Titus had no urge to laugh. The fear in the Rex’s eyes was too real.

  “I’m going in,” Titus said, suddenly feeling much calmer, knowing that he had to take control. He got them into this mess.

  “You’ll drown!” Jayme cried out. “That tunnel we came down—it’s lower than this cave. It must be filled with water, too!”

  Titus swallowed, remembering how long the tunnel was. “We may not have oceans on Antaranan, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have water. I’m a good swimmer.”

  “I’m not!” Bobbie Ray wailed, trying to shake the water from the fur on his hands. He was shivering and wet through.

  “Get up to the top,” Titus ordered. “I’ll have you beamed out of here in no time.”

  The other two cadets reluctantly retreated as he flung gear from his pouch—water flask, extra rope—leaving only the necessities, with just enough room to spare so he could wedge his jet-boots in.

  Standing hip-deep in the hole, wincing from the biting cold water, he glanced back up at the cadets. “Hang tight!”

  They didn’t look reassured.

  Taking a deep breath, he ducked under the water. Immediately he knew it wouldn’t work. The surge of water welling up carried him back to the surface.

  As he broke into the air again, he was saying, “All right! It’s all right! I’ve got an idea.”

  He quickly removed the jet-boots and strapped them on. Water was nearing his waist now. He didn’t care if it killed him, he wasn’t going to give up this time.

  Diving down headfirst, he got around the jag in the fissure and then turned on the boots. The jets churned the water and almost drove him into the rock wall, but he eased off the power and used his hands to guide him down to the tunnel. Underwater, even with the handlight, he could hardly see, so he groped his way down, feeling the scrape of rocks against his coveralls as the boots propelled him through the water.

  He knew he had reached the tunnel by the strong surge of the current pushing him in the direction he wanted to go. But he was running out of oxygen. His jaw clenched as he gunned the boots, squinting his eyes against the pressure of the water as he shot through the murky light cast by the glow of the jets.

  Everything was getting dark and hazy, and his chest seemed ready to burst. Titus wasn’t sure he was going to make it to the vertical shaft.

  * * *

  Jayme felt sorry for Bobbie Ray, huddled next to her at the top of the talus slope. “Maybe it won’t reach this far,” she offered.

  Bobbie Ray was wiping at his fur with the fleshy palm of one hand, smoothing and smashing it, pressing all the water out. Then he would twitch and shake, making the damp hair stand out again. Then he would pick another patch and begin the whole process over again. It seemed like more a nervous reaction than an effort to dry himself.

  “Do you think he drowned yet?” Bobbie Ray asked, unable to meet her eyes.

  “Umm,” she murmured, “by now, he either drowned or got out alive.”

  “Are you going to try it?” Bobbie Ray asked.

  Jayme wasn’t aware that her calculating glances at the hole had been that obvious. “I’ll try it before I drown in here.”

  Bobbie Ray went back to stroking his fur, concentrating on every swipe.

  “I’ll help you,” she assured him.

  “That won’t do any good. I could barely pass the Starfleet swimming requirements. And you don’t know how hard that was for me.”

  Jayme silently patted his knee. She wasn’t sure she could make it, but every bit of her mind and body was focused on that hole, ready to dive through the water and turn on her jet-boots just as Titus had done. Even if it killed her. Because that was better than sitting here until the water rose up
around her chin.

  “I just wish I knew if he made it,” she murmured.

  “Wait a few more minutes. Maybe he’s at a public transporter terminal right now. There was one right outside the access port.”

  They both stared at the hole.

  * * *

  The shaft was full of water, too. Titus desperately revved the boots, aiming straight up, his hand clenched on the control so tightly that even if he drowned he knew he would surface.

  When he thought he was passing out, he broke into air. A shower of water rose with him, and his surge in speed left him gasping and laughing and, when he finally could, crying out in relief. Arrowing up, he raised both arms, trying to pick up more speed, thinking about Jayme and Bobbie Ray back in that death trap.

  He was going so fast that the opening approached before realized it. Braking, he hit the ceiling and bounced down, managing to twist in midair so he would land on the floor of the access entrance.

  Still panting and gasping, almost hysterical with his near miss, he rolled over in the dirt, trying to wipe away the muddy dust that settled on his face and eyes. When he could finally see, Starsa, Moll Enor, and Nev Reoh were several meters away, standing in the access room and staring at him.

  “What happened to you?” Moll Enor demanded.

  “What are you doing here?” Titus said at the same time.

  Starsa raised one hand slightly, blinking in amazement at his dramatic appearance. “I listened outside your door the other night, and I heard you planning to come down to the caves without me—”

  “You what!” Titus interrupted.

  “I followed you,” Starsa admitted, “but then the hole started filling with water, and you didn’t come out.”

  “We beamed over when she called us because we were afraid you were in trouble,” Moll Enor added.

  “Jayme and Bobbie Ray!” Titus forgot about Starsa’s gross invasion of privacy—just one of many. “They’re trapped in a cavern. We’ve got to beam them out fast—”

  “I already tried that!” Starsa interrupted. “You went below the network of seismic regulators. The active energy field is interfering with the sensor locks on the transporter.”

  “That’s why we brought the sonic cutter,” Reoh agreed as Titus clutched at his hair.

  “Where?” Titus demanded. He grabbed the cylindrical unit, practically ripping it from Reoh’s back. Leaving the others to follow as best they could, he turned his jet-boots on and jumped into the shaft, hardly breaking his fall toward the rising water.

  Jayme and Bobbie Ray were treading water, barely six feet over the original opening into the cave. “It’s easy,” Jayme told him. “Just dive and when your boots are pointed up, hit the jets.”

  Bobbie Ray nodded glumly, more concerned with keeping his chin out of the water than judging the angle of the hole. Jayme reached up, but she couldn’t touch the low-hanging ceiling.

  “We’re running out of time. You have to try it,” she told him.

  The Rex took a few deep breaths, then a few more, hyperventilating to get enough oxygen in his system. With a thumbs up, he splashed awkwardly under the water. Jayme peered through the brackish water, ready to cheer as he dove through the hole. But even before his hindquarters went through, he was pushing back out and paddling frantically up for air.

  He grabbed onto her, almost pulling her under as he sprayed her with water. “Let go!” she shouted, trying to pry his fingers off her. She gulped air just before going under. Then her instincts kicked in and she was more concerned with getting away from him than helping.

  “I’m sorry!” was the first thing she heard. “I’m sorry!”

  Jayme tried to catch her breath, treading water out of his tremendous reach. She knew Titus had brought then down here because he wanted to get one over on Bobbie Ray. She had agreed to come along became, secretly, she also wanted to see the dashing know-it-all brought down a few notches. It seemed like all the girls in the Academy—except for her and Starsa—thought Bobbie Ray was the hottest thing in a uniform. She couldn’t get over the fact that all her friends were drooling over that smug, self-satisfied grin. Now his whiskers hung almost straight down, dragged by the water at his chin. If only Titus could see him now.

  But they hadn’t counted on this.

  The water was rising. She could almost touch the ceiling. But she couldn’t desert Bobbie Ray. “Now what do I do?” she moaned.

  “Right there,” Titus ordered, positioning himself at the top of the talus slope.

  Nev Reoh nearly knocked over the sonic cutter as he and Starsa hung on to stabilize it. Titus swore under his breath at the Bajoran. He had tried, but the cutter was too powerful for him to stabilize it himself. And it took too long for the others to climb down and join him.

  Water poured into the first cavern and coursed through the crevice just below the ledge they had to use to get to the next cavern. Titus practically ran to the rear of the second cave, working on the assumption that the top of the talus slope was the narrowest point of the barrier leading into the next cavern.

  Moll Enor adjusted her safety glasses. “Are you sure about this?”

  Titus took hold of the handles of the sonic cutter, snapping to Reoh, “Get it locked, will you! We’re running out of time.”

  With more brute force than was usually necessary, Titus aimed the cutter at the rubble near the ceiling of the cave. Dust and bits of rock were flung back and caught in the stasis field, hanging in mid-air until he shut off the cutter for a moment to see his progress.

  Reoh clambered up peering under his arm. “How far?”

  “You think I know?” he demanded, taking hold of the cutter once more.

  With another everlasting flurry of stones and the straining whine of the cutter, Titus kept the beam pointed at the rocks long after he should have paused and checked his progress. “Come on!” he muttered through gritted teeth. “Give!”

  “Wait?” Moll Enor yelled through the rumble of cut rock. “I see—”

  Titus was suddenly pulled forward as the sonic cutter broke through the rock. Leaving the beam on short intensity, he swiped around at the rock to widen the gap.

  As soon as the cutter was deactivated, Moll Enor ducked through the hole ahead of him. “Bobbie Ray! Jayme! You okay?”

  Titus pushed her through and with one pass of his handlight, he knew. “It’s not the right one.”

  Moll Enor splashed down into the water. “Jayme! Bobbie Ray!” Her dark skin made it difficult to see her in the dim light.

  Nev Reoh poked his head through. “Are you sure they aren’t there?”

  “Pass that cutter in,” Titus ordered. He had been afraid they weren’t in the next cavern—it was even lower than this one. “It’s the next cave.”

  As he set up the sonic cutter, he didn’t add the words that rang through his head—I hope it’s the next one.

  “The water is rising in here,” Moll Enor murmured behind him.

  “Yeah, and every cave is lower than the next one,” Titus explained.

  “Why are you going through this part?” Reoh asked, even as he helped.

  “The ceiling’s collapsed in the next cave. We’ve got to aim lower or we’ll just bore through rock over the top of it.”

  “Oh.” Reoh looked frightened, standing knee-deep in water. Starsa clutched him, practically pulling him off balance to keep herself from falling into the water. Reoh steadied her and aimed the tricorder at the wall. “I don’t read any lifesigns. Do you think they’re okay?”

  “I don’t know,” Titus said as he opened up the power on the cutter again.

  “You better try it,” Bobbie Ray told her, gasping in the depleted oxygen. Their faces were bobbing near the ceiling now. “Before we run out of air.”

  “We would have already suffocated if there weren’t air seeping in,” she countered.

  “The point is,” Bobbie Ray reminded her, “you can’t breathe underwater.”

  “What about you?” she asked
.

  “I’ll take my chances.”

  Numbly she looked at him, those big golden eyes, the orange fur plastered to his face. “I can’t leave you here!”

  “You have to try to get out.”

  Desperately she glanced down at the hole, nearly ten feet below them now. “I don’t know if I can make it.”

  “You have to try,” he insisted.

  “I’ll try only if you follow me.”

  For a moment Bobbie Ray seemed about to refuse, then he suddenly nodded. “Sure. Maybe I can make it if I follow you.”

  Jayme narrowed her eyes. “You serious?”

  “Sure, why not? Die here, die down there—what’s the difference?”

  She hardly believed him, but in their current situation, what choice did she have? “You better follow me,” she ordered. “Or I’ll kill you.”

  Bobbie Ray actually smiled at that. “Yes, sir!”

  “Okay, breathe deep.” They both took deep, cleansing breaths, five or six each. “Ready? Then here we go—”

  Jayme ducked underwater, but she heard the rumble and saw a bright light glinting through the water. When she broke surface, Bobbie Ray hadn’t even submerged. Instead, he was pointing to the side wall near the ceiling. A hole was opening up, and they were drawn along with the water pouring out of the cavern.

  “Hello?” a frightened voice called.

  “That’s Moll Enor!” Jayme cried out. “We’re here! Enor!”

  They started swimming toward the hole and were easily sucked through with the water. Sitting on the rocks, hip-deep in water, looking up at Moll Enor, Nev Reoh, Starsa, and Titus, all she could say was, “What took you so long?”

  “Hey,” Titus said defensively. “I told you I’d take care of everything.”

  “Well, at least you’re working together now,” Superintendent Brand told the Quad as they stood in a row in her office. “That’s some progress.”