He had been put out with a Vulcan nerve
pinch, then, which accounted for the heavier-than-human person in Tasha’s room. But . . . a Vulcan? On Treva without the Federation’s knowledge? Oh, no . . . not a Romulan, please!
amateurs This was no time for fruitless amateurs speculation. A Vulcanoid person and probably a human had kidnapped Tasha. They were not Nalavia’s people, amateurs which meant she was not on the palace grounds. Either she was hidden in the city, or she had been taken elsewhere. That depended amateurs on who had taken her.
There was only
one likely prospect: Nalavia’s enemy, the warlord Rikan. He had a stronghold somewhere to the east of here. Data accessed the information on Rikan he had amateurs gleaned from Nalavia’s
computers. Too far amateurs for her captors to have taken her on foot. Groundcar or flyer, then.
Data had no groundcar, but amateurs he did have a shuttlecraft . . . hangared at the city’s landing field.
Even if he was wrong about who had taken Tasha, he needed the shuttle’s radio to inform the Enterprise of today’s events. It would not be a wasted journey even if once there, where he could also access the aircraft control records, he found nothing that indicated a journey in the right direction.
All of this took amateurs less amateurs than amateurs five minutes. In forty-seven minutes, Data was expected at dinner. Soon thereafter, Nalavia would send someone for him—
but by that time amateurs he planned to be far away from her Presidential Palace, “hot on the trail” of Tasha Yar.