Death of a Neutron Star

by Eric Kotani

  Janeway studied it for a moment. On this line only two inhabited systems would be destroyed. One millisecond to save millions of lives. It seemed so harsh.

  “If my calculations have allowed one millisecond too many, this would be the path.” The line shifted quickly back to the left. Again three inhabited systems would be destroyed.

  Three different systems.

  “I’ve checked your computer model,” B’Elanna said. “I’d bet on your hitting the time right on the money, within a fraction of a millisecond at most.”

  Seven nodded and said nothing.

  “So how much of a shift are the Qavok trying for,” Janeway asked, “if they plan to send the star at the Lekk system?”

  Dr. Maalot started and Janeway touched his arm as a way of apology. She knew he must have family, friends there. If the Qavok succeeded, there would be time to evacuate the entire system, but it would still mean the loss of his homeworld.

  Seven did a few quick calculations, then keyed in her findings on the astronomical display floating in front of them. The stars shifted and the line snapped to the left, cutting through the center of the Lekk system. “The explosion of the secondary neutron star must be sped up by two point four one milliseconds to get this path.”

  “I agree,” B’Elanna said after a moment. “I figured the same result.”

  Janeway nodded. She didn’t want to leave anything to chance; that was why she had both Seven and B’Elanna doing calculations. A very tiny mistake now would mean disaster to millions later.

  “We can’t let them do that,” Dr. Maalot said.

  “Don’t worry,” Janeway said assuringly. “We’ll stop them.”

  Maalot nodded and took a deep breath. Clearly seeing the line run through his home system had shaken him. It would have shaken her if that line had gone through Earth. But Janeway was even more afraid of the next question, afraid to ask it, to find out that what she asked was impossible.

  She glanced at the display, then turned to face Seven. “How much must the final explosion be shifted to send the star safely out of the galaxy?”

  Seven did another adjustment to the display and again it shifted. Only this time there were no green-colored stars anywhere inside the red-tinted cylinder of death.

  “The final explosion must happen two point three nine milliseconds earlier than predicted,” Seven said. “To do so, we must increase the mass loss from the secondary star at this exact time.”

  Janeway nodded. A huge amount of time considering the forces at work. But just maybe it would be possible.

  “Agreed,” B’Elanna said.

  Seven nodded at her.

  Beside them Dr. Maalot was doing fast calculations. After a moment he looked up, beaming. “If the mass loss is increased by point zero one six percent, the explosion will come exactly three point one five milliseconds earlier.

  “How much energy would be needed to do that?” Janeway asked.

  Dr. Maalot, B’Elanna, and Seven all worked at the calculation. Janeway stared at the line moving safely past all the inhabited systems. If there was a chance of making this flight path for the neutron star happen, they would take it.

  Dr. Maalot finally broke the silence. “The amount of energy I came up with is staggering.”

  “The exact same amount as a warp-core breach,” Seven said. “Within acceptable and controllable parameters.”

  Janeway stared at Seven for a moment. She had been afraid that would be the answer. This wasn’t a situation she wanted to be put in. But she knew math doesn’t lie.

  “So,” B’Elanna said, “the energy would be almost the same to move the star at the Lekk system. Right?”

  “Yes,” Seven said.

  Dr. Maalot just nodded.

  “So where do the Qavok think they are going to get a warp-core breach?”

  Silence filled the room as all of them thought about B’Elanna’s question. Janeway didn’t much like what she was thinking. Because if Captain Qados was planning to dive his ship into that binary, she was going to have to destroy him first. And she didn’t like that idea at all.

  “I’m fairly certain that Qavok do not commit suicide,” Dr. Maalot said. “Especially by the shipload.”

  “Yes, but would they die for their cause?” B’Elanna asked. “Like good soldiers?”

  Janeway glanced up at the display. The path of the neutron star went harmlessly out of the galaxy. No inhabited systems were destroyed. It was the only option they had. They had to try for it, somehow, some way. Doing nothing cost too many lives.

  “How long until we have to send a warp core into that star to get this scenario?”

  Seven and B’Elanna both set quickly to work. After less than ten seconds Seven looked up. “Five hours, twenty-three minutes, ten seconds, fifty-nine milliseconds.”

  Torres looked up and nodded.

  “All right,” Janeway said. “I want a countdown. Have the computer remind us every thirty minutes that we’ve got that long to find a way to send a warp-core-sized explosion down into that binary. And stop the Qavok from doing the same. Let’s get to work.”

  Janeway spun and left the lab, headed for the bridge. If an answer could be found, the three of them would find it.

  She would come back and keep them moving shortly. But right now there were two things she had to check on before she could make the next move. Something that Chakotay had said nagged at her.

  And something that Tuvok had said.

  * * *

  “Five hours, twenty minutes remaining.”

  The computer announced the time to the entire ship just as Janeway walked onto the bridge. The entire bridge crew looked puzzled. She imagined that most everyone on the ship did too. But they would soon be filled in on the details.

  “Listen up, people,” Janeway said as she stepped down and stood beside her command chair. “This is how long we have to find a way to send the big neutron star below us on a safe path out of this galaxy. One millisecond later and entire inhabited systems will die.”

  The silence on the bridge was heavy.

  Chakotay simply stared at her.

  Ensign Kim’s mouth was slightly open.

  Beside her Tom was shaking his head from side to side in clear disbelief.

  “So everyone stay sharp,” she said. “We won’t have a second chance at this.”

  She stepped up to where Chakotay and Lieutenant Tyla were standing. “Anything more?”

  “Nothing, Captain,” Chakotay said.

  Tyla’s large green eyes were intense, but Janeway could tell that she was disappointed also.

  “Does the Invincible have a second warp core on board?” she asked. “A shuttle, or an experiment of some sort?”

  “No,” Tyla said. “Qavok warships do not have shuttles with warp drives. Their shuttles are used mainly for ship-to-ground movement. Or ship-to-ship. Simple ion-propulsion drives only.”

  “No extra warp core found in our scans,” Chakotay said.

  Janeway nodded. She was afraid of that. She went on to the next question. “You mentioned that there were extra Qavok crew members on board the Invincible?”

  “That’s right,” Tyla said. “The normal crew for a warship is one hundred and sixteen. There are one hundred and forty-six on that ship. An extra thirty crew members.”

  “Why?” Janeway asked. “Can you see any reason?”

  “None,” Chakotay said. “They seemed to be doing nothing at all.”

  Tyla nodded. “They are bunched in what seems to be a hangar bay, as if they were simply passengers.”

  Suddenly Tyla’s face paled even more and her wide green eyes turned to slits. “Or an attack force.”

  “What?” Janeway asked.

  Tyla faced her. “Quvok elite fighting companies consist of exactly thirty soldiers. Thirty is an important number to them; it has some religious significance. Why didn’t I see that before now?”

  “You saw it now,” Janeway said. “That explains a great deal, actu
ally.”

  “How?” Chakotay asked.

  Janeway held up her hand. “I’ve got two more questions to find answers to before I try to answer that.”

  Chakotay nodded as Janeway faced Tyla. “To your knowledge, would the Qavok ever sacrifice an entire ship to accomplish a mission?”

  Tyla shook her head. “Not if they didn’t have to. They are not a self-sacrificing people, Captain.”

  “Okay,” Janeway said. “That takes care of that option.”

  She turned to Tuvok. “Have more Qavok warships joined the group yet?”

  “No. The count remains at seven.”

  “And don’t you think that they arrived there fairly quickly?”

  “They were clearly close by, Captain,” Tuvok said.

  “And having that many warships close by is logical to you?”

  “Not at all,” Tuvok said. His gaze held hers for a moment before he went on. “Clearly they had planned to be in this area for some reason not related to our presence.”

  “My thought exactly,” Janeway said. “And we spoiled their plan in some fashion or another.”

  Janeway turned back to Chakotay, then decided to tell the entire bridge crew. “All right, everyone, here’s what is happening.”

  She waited a moment until everyone had glanced up at her, then went on. “We’ve discovered that it would take a warp-core-breach level of energy to alter slightly the timing of the coming neutron-star explosion. And that warp-core breach must be timed perfectly.”

  Around Voyager’s bridge her crew nodded. Lieutenant Tyla looked intense.

  “We’ve also tracked the path the primary neutron star will take after the explosion of the secondary one. It will destroy three inhabited systems in the next few centuries. So, as I said earlier, we’re going to try to change that path. That’s why the countdown.”

  Paris was nodding. Tuvok had one eyebrow raised in thought.

  “We also believe that the Qavok are going to try to alter the path of the neutron star to pass through the Lekk system, among others. We don’t know where they’re going to get an extra warp core, but I have no doubt they will.”

  “The troops,” Tyla said. “They plan on invading the Xorm ship and using it.”

  “Possibly,” Janeway said. “But that’s only one possibility. We need to attack this on two fronts. First, we stop the Qavok. Second, we set up a change of our own. Everyone follow what’s happening?”

  “Got it, Captain,” Paris said. “Except where are we going to get an extra core?”

  Janeway paused for a moment, knowing how Tom was going to take this news. He invested his heart and his soul in the new shuttle. “We’ll have to use the shuttle.”

  He glanced around at her, a stunned look in his eyes.

  “We’ll build another one,” she said.

  All he did was nod, then turned back to his controls. But then, before she could say anything, he spun back.

  “Hey, what about the prince’s yacht?”

  Janeway looked at his face, then laughed. “I promised to return it to them.”

  “If they held off until after the neutron star explosion,” Kim said. “From what you just said, it doesn’t look as if they will do that.”

  “Very good point,” Janeway said. “And if they do attack in any fashion, either us, or the Xorm ship, or try to change the neutron star explosion, we’ll use their yacht. All right?”

  “All right,” Paris said. He seemed even more pleased with himself than usual.

  “Your controls, mister,” she said.

  Paris spun around, still smiling.

  “Tuvok, I want long-range sensor scans of the surrounding area.”

  “Understood, Captain,” Tuvok said.

  “Lieutenant,” she said, speaking to Tyla, “would you mind helping B’Elanna make sure the Qavok yacht is ready to go?”

  “It would be my pleasure,” she said, smiling. Her wide-set green eyes seemed to almost glow.

  “I’ll tell her you’re coming,” she said. With a few quick steps she was off the bridge and into her office. She found herself smiling, also glad that they wouldn’t lose their new shuttle. Using the Qavok prince’s yacht had a nice feel to it.

  Sort of poetic justice.

  CHAPTER 13

  TYLA GLANCED AROUND AT THE PLUSH FURNISHINGS OF the yacht. The perfumed air seemed thick in comparison to Voyager’s clear, odorless atmosphere. The carpet made the floor feel spongy under her feet, and the mood lighting seemed far, far too low to ever work in.

  It now felt like a decade since she and Dr. Maalot had frantically climbed aboard this small ship. The five minutes it had taken her to familiarize herself with the controls were the longest five minutes she had ever lived. But she had been lucky. No Qavok had noticed them boarding the yacht. She had gotten the five minutes she needed.

  Pure luck. Nothing more.

  And they had been lucky to have Voyager come to their rescue. She was still embarrassed at her fruitless escape attempt from Voyager, but no one had said a word about it since. And now she felt she was being trusted. Humans were a very forgiving species. She would not have done the same in Captain Janeway’s place.

  “Grab the edge of the panel,” B’Elanna said.

  Tyla snapped back to her present job. She and B’Elanna had to get the yacht up to flying just far enough to get down into the clutches of the neutron star binary. And do it at just the exact moment.

  Tyla lifted the panel away and B’Elanna stuck her head into the compartment behind it. It was a service hatch for the engine room of the ship. There was no real door into that room.

  “Bring those tools,” B’Elanna said, pointing to some equipment on the deck. Then she turned and crawled inside the opening, standing up in the small room on the other side.

  Tyla followed quickly, also standing.

  The inside of the engine room was strikingly different from the luxuriously furnished main cabins of the yacht. It was hidden from view of the prince, as if seeing it might harm his delicate sensibilities. If a Qavok had delicate sensibilities.

  The deck was bare metal; the walls were, likewise, plain metal sheets. The room smelled faintly of burnt circuits. Not a good omen, Tyla guessed.

  B’Elanna flipped open a sensor and began taking readings. After a moment she shook her head. “The warp core is still active, but we’ll be lucky to get this thing to fly even on thrusters.”

  “What can I do?” Tyla asked.

  “How much engineering experience do you have?”

  “Not much,” Tyla said. “But I know ships.”

  B’Elanna nodded. “See if you can run some diagnostics on the ship’s systems. I’ll start by getting the thrusters back on-line.”

  Tyla nodded. “I’ll be at the controls. Yell if you need my help.”

  “Will do,” B’Elanna said, sounding distracted. Apparently she had already shifted her focus to the task that faced her.

  Tyla crawled out of the engine room and back into the plush furnishing of the main cabin. After a moment she was back in the pilot’s chair, isolated in the small area off the front of the main cabin. The seat felt comfortable to her.

  The thought made her shudder.

  That flight from the Qavok system was the longest she ever remembered. And she had spent practically every minute of it in this chair. And she had been prepared to die in this chair.

  Her fingers danced over the familiar control board, and after a moment she had diagnostic programs running on the warp core, thrusters, and shields. It would take a few minutes for the runs to finish.

  She sat back and let her mind drift. She had sat like this during those hours of flight. Alone in here, with Dr. Maalot pacing in the main cabin, not knowing if she would be blown out of space at any moment.

  Waiting.

  Fearing.

  The small pilot area suddenly felt smaller and smaller, as if the walls were closing in around her.

  She had to escape, to push the craft harder a
nd harder.

  She had no choice.

  The walls closed in even more.

  “Relax,” she said aloud, her words echoing in the cabin. Through the port she could see the interior of the Voyager bay.

  “You’re safe,” she said aloud, just to hear her own voice and force the images away. “Breathe.” She forced herself to take a deep breath.

  That helped. The walls stopped closing in.

  She took another deep breath and the panic slowly ebbed, leaving only the nagging fear that something was wrong.

  But nothing was at the moment.

  It was going to be very nice to watch this yacht explode in a neutron star.

  She’d never have to see it again, sit in this seat again, remember those hours of panicked flight again.

  She just might cheer.

  * * *

  Dr. Maalot glanced over at the half-Borg, half-human named Seven. She stood over a panel, working intently. The woman was a wonder. Logical, extremely smart, and cold as the outside of an interstellar freighter. He’d met many aliens in his time, but never one like her.

  He moved over beside her and glanced at the board. She seemed to be running a diagnostic on a storage container. Some sort of energy-storage unit. Gravitational in nature. But before he could see any more she shut the program down and turned to him.

  “Have you completed your calculations?”

  “I have,” he said. “They agree with yours to the tenth decimal point of a second.”

  “Good,” she said. “You will help me.”

  She turned back to her board and keyed in another program.

  “With what?” he asked.

  “We must determine exactly how long the yacht will remain intact descending into the tidal forces of the neutron star binary.”

  He glanced at the board where she’d been running the diagnostic. “Do you mind telling me what you were running the diagnostic on?” he asked.

  “I mind,” Seven said, her voice flat and without emotion. “We must complete our calculations.”

  “You are quite the slave master,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I do not consider you a slave,” she said. “Nor am I your master. We have our orders. Nothing more.”

  Dr. Maalot held up his hand for her to stop. “Tell me what you want me to do.”