Death of a Neutron Star

by Eric Kotani

  “Yes, Captain,” she said.

  “I need you to run a few very quick calculations for me,” Janeway said.

  “Certainly,” Seven said. She moved over to a console and prepared it. “Go ahead.”

  “Are you familiar with the size of the warp core on a Qavok warship?”

  “I have the specifications,” Seven said. She quickly brought up the newly entered specs taken from the yacht’s computer, and displayed them on the screen.

  “Using the power generated with a warp-core breach of a Qavok warship core,” Janeway said, talking slowly, clearly to make sure she was understood, “would it be possible to alter the path of the neutron star to the safe path out of the galaxy?”

  “One moment,” Seven said.

  Her fingers keyed in the data and ran the formulas. She had run this type of calculation so many times over the past hours, she almost knew it well enough to figure it without the help of the computer. Yet, to guarantee that she gave the captain the correct data, she used the computer. The result a few seconds later agreed with her initial estimate.

  “Yes, Captain,” she said. “The warp-core breach of that magnitude would have to be in an exact location above the secondary neutron star, but it could be done.”

  “How soon?” Janeway said.

  “Twenty-six minutes, ten seconds,” Seven said. “The difference in time from our previous estimate is, of course, the result of the difference in size of the energy generated by a core breach of that size.”

  “Understood,” Janeway said. “I was hoping that would be the case. Now, one more quick calculation if you would.”

  “Certainly.”

  “Do you have the coordinates for the Qavok home system?” Janeway asked.

  “I do,” Seven said, her fingers moving as she spoke to pull up the information on her board.

  “Figure, using the same size core, what it would take to send the neutron star through the Qavok home system. And when such a change would need to be made?”

  “Captain?” Seven said. Certainly Captain Janeway was not thinking of sending the neutron star through an inhabited system.

  “Do it, please,” Janeway said. Her voice was cold and to the point.

  Seven ran the numbers quickly.

  “It would be possible,” Seven said.

  “When?”

  Seven glanced at her calculations. “Eighteen minutes.”

  Seven heard Janeway sigh, then there was silence.

  “Captain?” Seven said.

  “Sorry,” Janeway said. “Just thinking. I need you to stop what you were doing and double- and triple-check your calculations for sending the neutron star out of the galaxy safely. That way, if we have success dealing with the other side of this equation, we’ll be ready.”

  “I’m afraid,” Seven said, “that I do not follow you.”

  “You will,” Janeway said. “Just double-check those figures. If we try sending that neutron star out of the galaxy, I don’t want any mistakes. Understood?”

  “Perfectly,” Seven said.

  Janeway cut the connection. For a moment Seven stood, staring at the two calculations she had done for the captain. Then she cleared the second one and went to work double-checking the first. There were many details that had to be considered. She would consider them all.

  * * *

  The tractor beam settled the shuttle safely onto the shuttlebay deck with a slight thump. Tyla sat silent for a moment in the copilot’s chair as beside her Tuvok shut down the last of the shuttle systems.

  After he was finished, she said, “Thank you for allowing us to help.”

  Tuvok nodded. “You were logical choices.”

  Tyla smiled.

  She climbed from the chair and a few moments later was heading down the hallway toward sickbay. She’d been with Dr. Maalot so long, she was actually starting to like the physicist. And when the shock wave had sent him against that bulkhead and knocked him unconscious, she was worried for his safety.

  Very worried.

  Then suddenly he had disappeared from the shuttle—“beamed,” as they put it, to sickbay. And at that moment she understood, finally, how she had been so easily captured during her stupid escape attempt.

  A dozen people were sitting on the floor of the sickbay, holding an arm or a bandaged leg, apparently waiting their turn. The few beds were full and a bald-headed human was efficiently moving around the tables.

  “Please state the nature of your medical emergency,” he said, glancing up at her as she entered.

  “Just here to check on the condition of Dr. Maalot,” she said. “I am not injured.”

  “Well,” the Doctor said, “thank you for that.” He shook his head in seeming amazement, then pointed over his shoulder. “He’s on the first bed. Nothing serious.”

  Tyla felt a sense of relief at that news.

  She moved over to where Dr. Maalot lay, his eyes closed. As she approached, he smiled weakly. “Thanks for coming to check up on me, Lieutenant.”

  “We’ve been together too long now to have something happen this close to the end.”

  “Did we stop the Qavok?”

  “Completely,” Tyla said, smiling. “Captain Janeway sent the prince’s yacht right into the middle of them, set to blow up.” She loved the irony of that solution.

  Dr. Maalot sat up, looking almost shocked. “With the energy container on board?”

  Tyla nodded, still smiling. “None of the Qavok captains wanted to get in trouble by destroying their prince’s yacht. Janeway just floated it right out into the middle of them, hailed them to tell them it was their reward, and then blew it up. Wonderful, just wonderful.”

  Maalot laughed, then moaned and lay back down, still smiling. “It seems,” he said, “that your stealing the yacht saved our planet.”

  Tyla stopped smiling. She didn’t like the idea of being considered any sort of hero. She had simply been doing her job.

  Dr. Maalot didn’t seem to notice her change of mood. He just went on. “It’s just too bad that now Janeway won’t be able to trigger the exploding neutron star and get its primary companion out of the galaxy safely. Too bad for a number of worlds along the way.”

  Tyla suddenly found herself thinking of those worlds. There were millions on those worlds who would have made a different decision today. Saving their own worlds would have come first over saving another. Just as saving the Lekk homeworld had been her first priority.

  “The Doctor says I should be up in fifteen minutes. Where will I be able to find you?”

  Tyla shrugged. “I guess I’ll ask Captain Janeway if I can watch the neutron star binary explosion from the bridge.”

  “I would like that,” he said. “Would you ask for me, also?”

  “I’d be glad to.” She patted his arm. “Now you rest until the Doctor tells you to move.”

  “Young woman,” the Doctor said to Tyla, “I wish more of my patients were as smart as you.”

  “He’s the smart one,” she said, pointing at Maalot. “I’m just a soldier.”

  The Doctor only grunted and went back to work.

  She moved out into the hall, and suddenly, for the first time in a while, she realized she was hungry. Maybe the strange man, Neelix, would be able to find her some food. She had time.

  Or at least she thought she did.

  “Captain Janeway to Lieutenant Tyla. Would you please report to the bridge?”

  The question froze her in midstep. She glanced around, but couldn’t see what to do. She had seen the crew tap their badges and reply, but she didn’t have a badge. Another crew member—a young-looking man with short brown hair—was in the hall nearby.

  “Excuse me,” Tyla said. “I’m Lieutenant Tyla. How do I respond to the captain?”

  The guy smiled and pointed at the wall. “Right there. Tap it once and speak. The computer will get it to the right place.”

  “Thank you.”

  She quickly tapped the button. “Lieutenant Tyla h
ere. On my way.”

  “Thank you,” Janeway said.

  Tyla nodded and stepped back, almost bumping into the crew member who had stayed to make sure she didn’t need any more help.

  “Sorry,” he said. “You know it isn’t often many of us get called to the bridge.”

  Tyla smiled. “That’s all right,” she said. “I’m just a guest. There aren’t many of you lucky enough to be on Voyager.”

  He nodded, clearly thinking about what she had said as she turned away and headed for the bridge at a fast walk.

  She really did feel that any crew member of this wonderful craft was lucky. And if she didn’t have so much information about the Qavok to take home, she would be tempted to ask to stay on board.

  But not this time.

  CHAPTER 22

  JANEWAY ENDED THE BRIEF CONVERSATION WITH LIEUtenant Tyla and glanced around the bridge at her crew. They were all staring at her, the joy of surviving the Qavok attack suddenly forgotten after hearing her exchange with Seven.

  Lieutenant Tyla entered the bridge, and Janeway motioned that she take a position next to Tuvok. Torres came in behind her by a few steps.

  Good.

  “Here’s what I’m thinking,” Janeway said. “I believe that in about sixteen to eighteen minutes the Xorm ship Gravity will send a warp core down at the binary, in an attempt to shift the neutron star onto a path through the Qavok home system.”

  “What?” Chakotay said.

  Tyla looked suddenly ill.

  “Is that possible?” the first officer asked.

  Janeway nodded. “Seven did the initial math, but yes it is, using a standard warp core found on Xorm and Qavok ships.”

  “And you think they’re carrying a second active warp core?” Chakotay asked.

  “Actually,” Janeway said, “this is only a suspicion. Lieutenant Tyla, what can you tell us about the Xorm? So far we’ve been taking them at face value.”

  Tyla shrugged. “There’s not much to say. They have been at war with the Qavok for centuries, but over all of my lifetime, they have never actually fought. They both worked for my homeworld to join their side, and when we opted to stay neutral, the Qavok invaded.”

  “Do you think the Xorm are capable of doing such a terrible thing?”

  Again Tyla only shrugged. “I would imagine that anything is possible. The Xorm are smarter than the Qavok, but less military. If the Qavok thought of a way to send the star into our homeworld, I’m sure the Xorm thought of a way of using it against the Qavok. That would solve their perennial Qavok issue permanently.”

  “All right,” Janeway said, “so we can’t rule out the possibility. I’m afraid we must progress under the assumption that they are going to try it.”

  “Captain, if you’ll pardon me,” Kim said, “but I’m still not following.”

  “Tom?” Janeway asked, turning to her pilot.

  “Nobody in their right mind would stay in that low orbit for observation,” Tom replied. “There’s nothing they can get there that they can’t get at a higher orbit. Therefore, it only makes sense to conclude that they wanted to stay that close for reasons other than research.”

  Kim nodded. “Got it.”

  “B’Elanna,” Janeway said, “any chance of weapons anytime soon?”

  “Not for hours,” she said. “Sorry.”

  “We’ll just have to think of other options.”

  “Captain,” Tuvok said. “The shuttle still has weapons capability.”

  “But no power?”

  “Correct.”

  “Well, we still may be able to use those weapons. Get back down to the shuttlebay and stand by. Lieutenant Tyla, would you go with him?”

  “Pleasure,” she said.

  “Okay, people,” Janeway said, “red alert. Battle stations. I want everything ready if we need to move.”

  The red lights came and the battle stations sounded. Tuvok and Tyla ducked out the door at a fast walk. Chakotay stepped back into Tuvok’s position.

  Janeway sat down in her command chair. “Tom, ease us down toward the Xorm.”

  “Aye, Captain,” he said. “It might get a little rough.”

  “Just as long as we survive,” she said.

  “No problem there,” he said.

  “Mr. Kim, Chakotay, I want full scans of the Xorm ship. Look for a second active warp core. If there isn’t one, we’ll apologize, back out of here, and go to Plan B.”

  “They’re trying to block our scans, Captain,” Kim said after a moment. “But they’re not succeeding,” he continued with a note of triumph.

  “Got it,” Chakotay said. “On their shuttle deck, inside a small ship of some kind.”

  Janeway glanced around at her second-in-command just as he looked up. “It’s in an unmanned shuttle.”

  “And it’s not the shuttle’s power source and drive?”

  “No,” Chakotay said. “It’s baggage. Nothing more.”

  “Damn,” she said. “I was hoping I was wrong.”

  “So was I, Captain,” Tom said. “No offense.”

  “None taken.”

  “The Xorm are hailing us.”

  “On screen,” Janeway said, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to look stern.

  “What is the meaning of scanning us, Captain?” Fedr said, his eyes nothing more than slits.

  “Well,” Janeway said, acting calmly, “when you decided to stay at such a low orbit, I got to wondering why.”

  Captain Fedr’s face slowly grew slightly red. “As I said. Research on the binary.”

  “Would you care to explain to me what information you can get in that extremely dangerous and difficult-to-maintain orbit that you could not get at, say, the location we are at now?”

  Janeway just kept smiling. She wanted to make sure she didn’t shove him in the wrong way.

  Captain Fedr’s face just kept getting redder and redder.

  “With all due respect, Captain, that is our business and not yours.”

  “Ahh, I see,” Janeway said, now no longer smiling. “You’re not planning, by chance, to use the extra warp core in your shuttlebay to send the neutron star at the Qavok homeworld?”

  “With due respect, I am simply following my orders. This discussion has ended,” Fedr said ruefully.

  The connection was terminated and the spinning neutron star binary filled the screen.

  “Guess we got the answer we needed,” she said. “Not the one we wanted, though.”

  Behind her the bridge was deathly silent.

  She tapped her combadge. “Seven?”

  “Go ahead, Captain.”

  “We found an extra warp core on the Xorm ship. Harry’s loading the information our scans got down to you. What I need to know is how much time we have before they launch it.”

  “I will have the answer in a moment, Captain,” Seven said.

  Janeway glanced back at Chakotay. “Any chance we can transport through their shields?”

  Chakotay did a quick check of the board in front of him, then shook his head. “Afraid not.”

  “Too bad,” Janeway said. “That would have made it so easy.”

  “Captain,” Seven said. “Taking all factors into account, including the time it will take for the warp core to reach the desired height above the secondary neutron star, the time remaining is nine minutes and ten seconds. Mark.”

  “Got it,” Kim said.

  “Thanks. Keep working on the second time frame,” Janeway told Seven. “I’m hoping we’re going to get a chance to use it.”

  “Understood,” Seven said.

  “All right, I’m open to suggestions here.”

  “The shuttle is the answer, Captain,” Chakotay said.

  “How?”

  “We hold it outside our screens with a tractor beam, let it fire enough to knock down the Xorm shields. When they’re down, we’ll beam that warp core out of the Xorm ship and destroy it.”

  “Without shields, Captain,” Tom said, “the Xo
rm ship won’t last long in that orbit.”

  Janeway nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s their problem. Unless someone has a better idea, I’m going with this one.”

  “Captain,” B’Elanna said. “We could have the shuttle blow up the warp core right after it has launched and is outside the Xorm shields.”

  Janeway nodded. A second good idea. “We’ll hold that as our backup in case the first plan doesn’t work. That’s cutting things just a little too close for my taste. Other suggestions?”

  Nothing.

  “All right then, let’s do it. B’Elanna, I want you down there running the tractor beam. Make it solid, double it up where you can. This is going to be a bumpy ride and we don’t want to lose them.”

  “Got it,” she said, and headed for the door.

  “Tuvok,” Janeway said on the comm line. “Here’s what we’re going to try to do.”

  It took her less than a minute to explain the plan. That left seven minutes and thirty seconds to put it all in motion.

  Seven minutes to slowly count down. She desperately needed a cup of coffee.

  And maybe about seven hours of sleep.

  CHAPTER 23

  “LAUNCH THE SHUTTLE,” JANEWAY SAID.

  “Launching,” B’Elanna said.

  “Three minutes, ten seconds remaining,” Harry said.

  On the screen, the beautiful shape of the Xorm ship Gravity floated between Voyager and the binary neutron star. The binary was now spinning off so much mass, it looked more like a swirling spiral galaxy to Janeway than a binary star. And there was no way to tell the two stars apart anymore with the naked eye. They were both just one big blur on the main screen. Very shortly, just before the final moment, the binary period would decrease to barely six milliseconds.

  Voyager jolted and Janeway held on to the arm of her command chair. They were back at their original orbit level. The Xorm ship was below them a considerable distance, but within easy phaser range.

  “Rougher than just an hour before, Captain,” Tom said. “I have no idea how the Xorm ship is holding that orbit.”