by Eric Kotani
Seven nodded and pulled up the numbers they would start with, including the basic structural integrity and shield strengths of the yacht. He watched, wondering how anyone on Voyager ever managed to talk to Seven. Or if she even had a friend. From his experience with her, he’d guess she didn’t.
And he doubted if she missed it.
* * *
“Four hours and twenty minutes remaining,” the computer said as Janeway dropped down into her command chair. On the main screen the binary had become a blur of the two neutron stars chasing around each other. Wisps of plasma seemed to be escaping the intense gravitational fields as the two stars tore at each other like street fighters trying to knock each other down. In this case, the primary, which was actually smaller in size, would win. And very soon.
And they only had four hours and twenty minutes before they would attempt to change the time of that final battle between the two neutron stars. Change it by two point three nine milliseconds.
Four hours and twenty minutes. Not much time to attempt the impossible.
Janeway wondered what those in command back on Earth would think of this. By moving the star’s path, she was more than likely violating the Prime Directive. Cultures that would be destroyed would now live, if she was successful. And some might interpret stopping the Qavok from taking their yacht back as a violation of the Prime Directive as well.
Just one violation right after another.
But it was far, far too late now to back out. What was the old Earth saying? “In for a penny, in for a pound.” At this point she was working on her first ton.
“Mr. Kim,” she said, “hail Captain Fedr on the Xorm ship. It’s time to have a little talk.”
“Aye, Captain,” Kim said.
She watched the incredible sight of the binary for a moment before Kim said, “On screen, Captain.”
“Captain Fedr,” she said as the wide-eyed face of the Xorm appeared. “Thank you for responding.”
He smiled, his green eyes almost sparkling with excitement. “At a time like this, it is a pleasure. Life is a pleasure when witnessing a wonder of the galaxy.”
“I wish I could say the same for us here,” Janeway said.
Her words wiped the smile right off his face. His eyes became intense and very focused.
“Is there a problem?” he asked.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take the long way to that answer,” Janeway said, and she proceeded to explain her crew’s findings.
“Core breach?” Captain Fedr echoed as she finished. He looked over at his colleague, Dr. Janss, who only nodded, lost in thought and calculations.
Captain Fedr didn’t seem to much like the thought of a core breach. He had probably had a few close calls in his past. Just about any starship captain had.
“Captain,” Janeway said. “The Qavok may be trying to use the same idea we’ve discovered to alter the path of the star to take it across the Lekk system.”
Captain Fedr nodded. “So there actually might be a way for them to succeed. We had written off that rumor as impossible.”
“Not impossible,” Janeway said. “A core breach aimed at another point of the less massive and larger neutron star eighty-one minutes before the projected time would cause it to hasten the time of explosion by two point four one milliseconds.”
“And that would do it?” Dr. Janss asked.
Janeway nodded. “I’ll be glad to send you our calculations.”
“I would love to see them,” Dr. Janss said.
Janeway glanced around to Chakotay, who was standing over a panel near Tuvok. “Send them to him.”
“Working on it now,” Chakotay said.
“But Captain,” Fedr asked, “do you know how the Qavok intend to accomplish this feat?”
“Not exactly,” Janeway said. “But I do have a theory.”
“Which involves us?”
“It might,” Janeway said. “We’ve been intensely scanning the Qavok warship for the past few hours. They do not have an extra warp core on board in any fashion.”
“That’s not surprising,” Captain Fedr replied.
“But they do have an extra thirty crew members, standing by in a large group in one of the shuttle-bays.”
“You said thirty?” Captain Fedr said, his face growing slightly pale and his eyes closing down to narrow slits.
Janeway nodded. “Thirty. We think it is one of their elite fighting forces.”
“The Qborne,” Fedr said. “The most dreaded name in the Qavok military. They always travel in units of thirty.”
Janeway waited a moment for Captain Fedr to collect his thoughts, and then she said, “We think they are possibly on board to take over your ship and use your warp core to alter the neutron star.”
“They wouldn’t dare,” Captain Fedr said, redness slowly filling the pale skin under his green eyes. “We haven’t had such an act of aggression between our two races for hundreds of years.”
“Well,” Janeway said. “I felt I needed to warn you and your crew, so that you might get ready. We’ll be glad to help you if such an attempt is made.”
“If what you say is true, we could use all the help we can get,” Fedr said. “We are outfitted as a research craft. We would stand no chance against the Qborne.”
“Fine,” Janeway said. “Consider us your protector until we need to get out of here ahead of the explosion. After that, you’re on your own.”
Captain Fedr actually smiled again. “Thank you, Captain Janeway.” He started to cut the connection when Dr. Janss said something from off screen.
“Oh, Captain,” Fedr said, “my chief physicist wants to know if you are going to try to alter the course of the neutron star yourself. And if so, how?”
Janeway laughed. “If we think it will work, and save those inhabited systems, we’re going to try. Right now our plan is to use the warp core on the Qavok prince’s yacht.”
Captain Fedr stared at her for a moment; then he burst into laughter.
“Captain,” he said between chuckles, “I like you more and more every minute.”
“Same here,” Janeway said, finding herself almost laughing along with the Xorm. “I will be in touch.”
She motioned for Harry to cut the connection, and then she turned around.
Her entire bridge crew was smiling, except, of course, Tuvok.
“He’s got quite a laugh,” Harry said.
“Infectious,” Chakotay said.
“That it is,” Janeway said, still fighting not to burst out laughing. “That it is.”
CHAPTER 14
“THREE HOURS AND FIFTY MINUTES REMAINING,” THE computer said as the last of the senior officers filed into the meeting room.
Janeway was privately beginning to regret having ordered the countdown. Whenever the computer reminded them of the time, the knot in her stomach twisted again, pulling at her insides like a monster eating at her. They had to find a way to solve this.
She forced herself to try to relax as she waited until everyone was settled. Everyone was present except Tom—who was remaining in the pilot’s chair until this was all over—and the two Lekk passengers. Janeway had excluded them because she had wanted only crew in this meeting, so they could speak as freely as possible.
“Reports?” she said.
B’Elanna shifted forward on her chair. She had a black smudge on her cheek and another on her shoulder. “The yacht has more problems than I care to count,” she said. “Bad design, bad construction, and really bad maintenance, for starters. But the good news is that the warp core is intact and functioning. I think I can get their ion drive up and running enough to fly the thing down into the star.”
“Shields?” Janeway asked.
“Never had much to begin with, but what it had is there and operating. One of the only things that is. I can install enough shields to last as long as we need them to.”
“Good,” Janeway said. Then she turned to Seven expectantly.
“The yac
ht’s warp core is insufficient to cause the desired results we need to effect a change in the explosion of the secondary neutron star.”
“What?” Janeway said, rocking back as if the news had just slapped her.
And in a way it had.
She had been counting on using that yacht.
“Please explain,” Chakotay asked.
“The warp core of the Qavok yacht,” Seven said, “is approximately four times smaller than our main warp core on Voyager. The resulting explosion —when the tidal forces of the binary breach the core—will not be sufficient to change the time of the final binary disruption by two point three nine milliseconds.”
Seven sat there, impassionately, seeming to wait for the next question. But Janeway didn’t know what the next question was.
“How short will we be?” Chakotay asked.
“Short enough to send the star through five inhabited systems,” Seven said, “and solidly into the Alpha Quadrant many millennia in the future.”
“There’s no way that is going to happen,” Janeway said.
Chakotay leaned forward. “What about the shuttle’s warp core? Is it any larger?”
“Only slightly,” Seven said. “Not enough.” Seven seemed to pause for a moment, then said to Janeway, “But if I may mention the containment project, I might have a solution.”
“Go ahead,” Janeway said. She had almost completely forgotten about that project. The idea of hitching a ride home paled in comparison to stopping the destruction of inhabited star systems. It was a similar decision to the one that had brought them to this quadrant in the first place.
A decision she had finally come to grips with.
“We have collected,” Seven said, “a significant amount of gravitational wave energy in a containment field. The original intent was to use the energy, if we could capture it, to speed our trip home. Am I correct, Captain?”
“You are,” Janeway said.
“And it’s stable?” B’Elanna asked. “I’ve been too busy to even check it.”
“I’ve watched it closely,” Seven said. “It is stable.”
“So what is your solution?” Janeway asked.
“A concentrated blast of the energy stored in that container, measured carefully and focused at the same instant and point in space as the yacht’s warp-core breach, would provide sufficient energy to hasten the explosion of the secondary neutron star.”
Janeway tried to imagine how that would work. How would they fire the energy? How would they measure it? They had barely figured out a way to contain it safely, let alone use it so quickly.
“There are drawbacks to this plan,” Seven said.
“I can think of a good dozen right off the top of my head,” B’Elanna said, worry creasing her features. “But give me yours first.”
“I think most problems might be solved in the short time allotted,” Seven said, staring at B’Elanna. Then she turned to Janeway and continued. “However, Voyager would have to be in a much lower orbit than we are in now for this plan to work effectively.”
“Lower?” Janeway asked.
Seven nodded.
“I can hear Tom screaming from here,” Chakotay said.
No one laughed.
“How much lower?” Ensign Kim asked. “Tom’s sweating just trying to maintain this orbit.”
Seven glanced at Torres, then back at Janeway. “We would have to follow the yacht down to two thousand kilometers above it when our bombs explode.”
“We would not survive that,” B’Elanna growled, starting up out of the chair at Seven.
“Easy, B’Elanna,” Chakotay said, putting his hand on her arm to settle her back into the chair.
Janeway also motioned for her to keep calm, but she knew Torres was right. She doubted they would survive a warp-core breach at that distance, let alone under those tidal forces. Plus there was a good chance that if they were that close to the binary, they would not be able to climb away fast enough, out of the neutron star’s gravity well, even under Voyager’s full power.
“I said there were problems,” Seven said.
“You weren’t kidding,” B’Elanna grumbled. “You just didn’t say the problems would be terminal.”
Seven did not reply.
Janeway sat back in her chair and glanced around the table, the knot in her stomach tighter than it was when they had started the meeting.
Chakotay glanced at her. He too looked worried.
It was time she set something straight.
“Just to clear the air here,” she said, still leaning back in her chair, pretending to remain as relaxed as possible. “I have no intention of destroying this ship to change the path of that neutron star. Do I make myself clear?”
There were a few nods around the room.
“Good,” she said. “That bloated secondary is going to explode very shortly. As I said before, if we can find a way to change the runaway’s path, we will. Otherwise, we record the event, take what energy we can from it, and then move on.”
Those words sounded cold to her ears, but she knew her crew needed to hear them.
She needed to hear them.
“Seven,” she said, “you and Dr. Maalot continue to work on your calculations. Find a way to direct more narrowly that gravitational wave energy from a greater distance.”
“That will not be possible.”
“Make it possible,” Janeway said. Then she turned to B’Elanna. “You and Lieutenant Tyla continue getting the yacht ready. If we can find a solution to this, I want to be prepared.”
“Understood,” B’Elanna said.
“Captain,” Ensign Kim said. “I have an idea that might work.”
“Go ahead,” Janeway said.
“Would it be possible to connect the shuttle and the yacht with a tractor beam and rupture both cores at the same instant?”
Janeway glanced at Torres.
“It’s possible,” the engineer replied.
“And maybe add in some extra explosives,” Kim went on, “like storing the gravitational wave energy container in the shuttle, to add a little extra boost to the explosion?”
B’Elanna shrugged. “Again, that would be possible.”
“Seven,” Janeway said, “you and Dr. Maalot do the calculations for the scenario that Ensign Kim just outlined. See if that would be enough.”
“Yes, Captain,” Seven said.
“Any of you,” Janeway said. “If you have an idea here, don’t hesitate to tell me. We’re not going to solve this one by going by the book.”
“The book went out the window a few light-years back,” Chakotay said, smiling.
“That it did,” Janeway said. “I want updates in one hour. Dismissed.”
* * *
Six minutes after the next computer warning—“Three hours and twenty minutes remaining”—Tuvok called for her.
“Captain to the bridge, please.”
She was beside him in less than ten seconds.
“The thirty Qavok aboard the Invincible are moving, Captain,” Tuvok said. “They seem to be boarding a vessel in a shuttlebay.”
Janeway stared at the readings. It was clear they were moving, but how long would it be until they attacked? And exactly where would that attack be?
“One more thing, Captain,” Tuvok said. “Four more Qavok warships have joined the seven standing off one astronomical unit away.”
“How fast can they get here?”
“Two hours, ten seconds,” Tuvok said.
Janeway nodded. “Then we’ll probably have just that much warning.”
“That would be logical,” Tuvok said.
Janeway didn’t want a fight, but it seemed the Qavok had other ideas. If it wasn’t one damn thing, it was another.
She turned to Ensign Kim. “Hail the Xorm.”
“Aye, Captain.”
She stepped down beside her command chair as Captain Fedr’s face filled the screen.
“The Qborne seem to be boarding some vessel
,” Janeway said.
Fedr’s face paled, and he nodded. “Thank you for the warning.”
“We think they will attack at approximately the same moment that their other warships arrive. That will give us about twenty-two minutes’ warning.”
“We see they’ve been gaining strength,” Fedr said. “We’ve put in an emergency call to our homeworld, but there are no other ships close enough to help us in time.”
“Well then,” Janeway said, “it looks like it’s just the two of us. They won’t know what hit them.”
“I hope you are right,” Captain Fedr said, smiling.
But Janeway could tell he was only smiling on the surface.
“We’ll continue monitoring their activity,” Janeway said, “and warn you the moment we see something.”
“We will do the same,” Captain Fedr said.
“Good,” Janeway said. “And one more thing. You mind if I toss a little scare into our old friend Captain Qados? Maybe give him a little hint that we know what he’s up to?”
Captain Fedr smiled. A real smile this time. “That would be wonderful. May we listen in?”
Janeway laughed. This Xorm captain had a good attitude. “I don’t see why not. Stay tuned.”
“Thank you, Captain,” he said, and cut the connection.
“Ensign, can you make sure they get this coming discussion without making it seem too obvious?”
“Not a problem, Captain,” Kim said.
“Fine,” she said, turning to face the image of the swirling neutron star binary. “Hail the Invincible.”
She dropped down into her chair and made herself appear completely relaxed.
After a moment Kim said, “On screen.”
Captain Qados’s reptilian face filled the screen. He was standing, probably trying to use his body to block out anything behind him.
“Yes, Captain,” he said.
Janeway saw more of the Qavok’s yellowed, broken teeth than she ever wanted to see.
“Just wanted to let you know,” Janeway said, smiling, keeping her posture relaxed, “that we are keeping an eye on your Qborne forces.”
Captain Qados’s mouth opened, again showing the teeth; then he snapped it closed. Clearly she had rattled him.