Death of a Neutron Star

by Eric Kotani

  “Understood,” Janeway said. “Just pace us and stay close enough to keep a transporter lock on us in case this goes bad.”

  “Will do,” Chakotay said. “Out.”

  Janeway moved down and stood over Tyla’s right shoulder. Seven looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. “Warp drive is out?”

  “Yes,” Janeway said. “I know, I know.”

  Without warp, they were in the process of speeding up their own deaths by exactly two point three nine milliseconds.

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAKOTAY MOVED OVER AND STOOD NEXT TO ENSIGN Kim, just in case he needed any help with the transporter. There was no way he was going to lose Kathryn, Seven, and Tyla at this point.

  “Everything is functioning, Commander,” Kim said. “Transporter lock is solid on all three.”

  “Good,” he said. But he didn’t move away. He just felt better being where the action was.

  On the big screen the Qavok warship flashed across as an ungainly blemish against the backdrop of the beautiful, swirling binary. Unlike the Xorm ship, there was nothing good-looking at all about a Qavok warship.

  “Three minutes for beam-out from Invincible,” Kim said.

  “Another countdown,” Tom said. “We’re going for a countdown record today.”

  “Seems that way, doesn’t it?” Chakotay said.

  Voyager jolted slightly and Tom shook his head. “They must be getting pounded over there.”

  “They’re still on course,” Kim said. “And on time.”

  “You just keep your eye on that transport lock, mister,” Chakotay said. “I’ll watch their progress.”

  “Yes, sir,” Kim said. “Would you like me to keep announcing the countdown?”

  Tom sighed. Heavily.

  * * *

  As B’Elanna’s entire engineering staff poured in, she quickly gave them their jobs. They were going to attack the problem from every side possible. They were going to go after any chance of getting the warp drives running again. Any chance at all.

  One team was going to try to fix the main systems. Their prognosis wasn’t good. But they were going to try.

  A second team was going to try to fix the backup system. Those components had less damage and the team stood a decent chance of finishing it.

  Yet a third team, which she would head, was going to try to build an entire new bypass control system for warp drive. If they were lucky they’d manage to jump the ship into warp long enough to outrun the leading edge of the neutron-star explosion. B’Elanna gave this option the best chance of success. And when Janeway and Seven returned, they could chip in and help. Every hand was going to be needed to save them this time.

  “One hour, people,” B’Elanna barked as she banged her fist on an uncooperative control panel.

  * * *

  Janeway felt as if she were riding a bucking steer. What stabilizers the Qavok ship had seemed to have were off-line. Seven yanked a cord belt tight over Tyla’s lap to hold her in her seat. Under different circumstances Janeway might have praised the former Borg’s very human improvisation. But now was not the time.

  Janeway gripped a pipe just to stay on her feet and envied Seven’s balance.

  “One minute to beam-out point,” Chakotay said.

  “We are falling slightly too fast,” Seven said.

  “Compensating,” Tyla said, her voice terse. “The thrusters can only slow us down so much against this gravity.”

  “Understood,” Seven said. “I’ve compensated for such acceleration after we’ve beamed out. But we must slow down exactly by sixty-four kilometers per second in the next thirty seconds.”

  “I’m not sure if the forward thrusters have that kind of strength,” Tyla said.

  “How about the aft thrusters?” Janeway asked.

  Tyla nodded. “There are four of them, all working,” she said.

  “Do you have time to turn the ship?”

  “I do,” Tyla said.

  “That will affect the final few seconds of the flight, but I will compensate,” Seven said, busy working out the math.

  “Hold on,” Tyla said. “When I turn the ship sideways, it will get very rough.”

  “Holding,” Janeway said.

  “Turning,” Tyla said.

  She wasn’t kidding when she said it was going to get rough. It felt like the room had rotated upward a full ninety degrees. Janeway knew that if they survived this, the doctor was going to have to take a whole bunch of bumps to task.

  “Everything all right?” Chakotay’s voice filled the Qavok bridge.

  “Fine, Commander,” Janeway said. “We just needed to take the ship in aft first. Better resistance.”

  “Understood,” he said. “Thirty seconds.”

  “There,” Seven said. “We are again on the correct course and on time.”

  Janeway held her breath, waiting, watching her two crew members accomplish the seemingly impossible task of flying an alien warship into a neutron star binary with only thrusters. Janeway just wished that she could see the space outside of the ship, the binary, the matter swirling off of it. Then again, maybe it was better she couldn’t at the moment.

  “Fifteen seconds,” Chakotay’s voice again echoed through the bridge.

  “Pull back slightly,” Seven said, watching her instruments.

  Tyla’s hands flew over the controls. The woman was one fine pilot. Maybe almost as good as Tom.

  Again the ship bucked and rolled. Janeway managed to hold on to the pipe as her feet flew out from under her.

  Seven held on with only one hand, working the calculator calmly with the other.

  Tyla was so well secured in her seat that even the transporter was going to have problems getting her out.

  “Ten seconds.”

  “Eight.”

  “Seven.”

  “Six.”

  Again the ship smashed into a gravitational shift, sending the room sideways.

  “Five.”

  “Hold the thrust,” Seven said. “Shut down engines on my command.”

  “Four.”

  “Not yet,” Seven said to Tyla. “Hold the thrust even.”

  “Three.”

  “Perfect,” Seven said.

  “Two.”

  “Shut down thrusters.”

  Tyla’s fingers flew over the board, moving like a concert pianist at the top of her form.

  “One.”

  “Thrusters down,” Tyla said.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Janeway said.

  “Beam out.” Chakotay’s voice echoed one last time through the thick smell and smoke of the Qavok bridge.

  Janeway felt the transporter pull her away.

  Then the Voyager bridge was under her feet again.

  Tyla and Seven stood beside her. All of them were facing the main screen.

  “Three seconds,” Kim said.

  Seven stepped over and glanced at the panel in front of Kim.

  “On target and on time, Captain,” Seven said.

  “Now!” Kim said.

  As he spoke, a small white explosion filled the screen near the two neutron stars, then vanished as instantly as it appeared, leaving the swirling forces of the binary behind.

  “Seems so small,” Tom said.

  “Against the power of that binary,” Janeway said, “it was nothing more than a small hiccup. But enough of a hiccup to accelerate the mass loss from the bloated secondary and quicken its explosion by exactly two point three nine milliseconds.”

  “Two point three nine very important milliseconds,” Chakotay said.

  “When will we know if we’ve succeeded?” Tyla asked.

  “When we can track the path of the neutron star and not one moment before, I’m afraid.”

  Seven nodded.

  “Take us out of here, Tom,” Janeway said. “Get us out of this turbulence as quickly as you can.”

  “Gladly,” he said.

  Voyager turned and moved away from the binary.

 
; Then, after a moment, Tom said, “Whew, what’s that smell?”

  He glanced around at Janeway, Seven, and Tyla.

  Janeway laughed. It wasn’t until Tom had said something that she noticed that all the bridge crew had backed away.

  “I think we all need showers and fresh clothes,” Janeway said.

  “Please,” Chakotay said. “Then B’Elanna needs your help, as soon as you can get there. Even without the showers.”

  “Warp?”

  Chakotay nodded.

  “Tom, on second thought, once you get us through the turbulence, make the best speed you can away from the binary.”

  “We won’t get far enough, Captain,” Seven said. “Using impulse power only.”

  “I know,” Janeway said. “But it will buy us back a few of those milliseconds we just gave away.”

  CHAPTER 26

  B’ELANNA GLANCED UP AS JANEWAY CAME THROUGH the door of Engineering. Her face looked flushed, as if she’d just taken a sonic shower. Maybe she had, for some reason or another.

  B’Elanna kept working. So far, so good, on building the new relays for the warp drive. But they could use all the help they could get.

  Seven had arrived just a few moments before and gone to work immediately on the repair of the backup relays. She seemed to feel that that was where the best chance of success lay. B’Elanna was still convinced they had to build a new system from scratch.

  “What can I do?” Janeway asked. “I know the three options, three teams. Good thinking on your part.”

  “Thanks,” B’Elanna said.

  “My opinion is that the new relay is the best bet,” Janeway said. “What can I do?”

  “I agree,” B’Elanna said. “The group over there needs help finishing those connections while I get this board ready. We’re about ten minutes from the first basic test.” She glanced up at the wall where she had started a large countdown.

  Janeway followed her gaze and nodded.

  “Not much time.”

  “Thirty-six minutes,” Janeway said. “More than enough time.”

  B’Elanna wasn’t so sure, but she didn’t say anything else aloud. She just nodded and went back to work, pushing even harder than she had been before. But the only problem with working so hard was that time seemed to fly faster.

  And right now, that was the last thing she needed.

  * * *

  The bridge was silent as Tyla entered. Dr. Maalot was out of sickbay and at a panel at the back of the room, running figures for something. She couldn’t imagine what he might be doing, but she was glad he was up and about.

  On the main screen, the binary had gotten smaller as Voyager rushed away as fast as its secondary engines would push it. But she knew they could not possibly get ahead of that plasma shock wave from the explosion of the secondary neutron star, let alone the nasty gamma-ray bursts.

  “I’ve gotten shields back up to eighty-three percent,” Ensign Kim said.

  Commander Chakotay nodded. “Good.”

  “Ah, Lieutenant Tyla,” Dr. Maalot said, turning and smiling. “Good to see you alive.”

  “And you,” she said.

  “We are having quite an adventure, aren’t we?” he said, smiling as if what they’d been through so far was just a fairy tale.

  “I suppose that’s one way to look at it,” she said. “What are you working on?”

  “An idea to help us get out of here alive once more.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  Commander Chakotay had also overheard the doctor’s comments. “You have an idea, Doctor?” Chakotay said, moving up to stand beside Tyla.

  “I’m not at all sure it will work.”

  “Since we’re less than twelve minutes away from being destroyed,” the commander said, “I’m willing to listen to just about anything.”

  Tyla was impressed that the commander would, with so little time remaining, be willing to listen to Dr. Maalot. Maalot must have really impressed them earlier.

  “Well, as I’m sure you know,” Dr. Maalot said, “the leading edge of the coming explosion will be gamma-ray and x-ray photons. Nasty things that will pretty well kill off everybody in this ship if we’re not far enough away.”

  Chakotay nodded.

  “Then, following that is a very, very intense plasma shock wave, spreading out at incredible speeds. But not as fast as the first wave, if you get my drift.”

  Chakotay nodded. “So, if we survive the first blast of gamma-ray photons—”

  “And X-rays,” Dr. Maalot said.

  “—we will have time before the plasma wave. Correct?”

  “Exactly. At this distance, we will have an extra ten minutes.”

  “So how do we survive the first wave?” Tyla asked. She couldn’t see a way to do that.

  “The best bet would be to get out of the way.”

  “We’re trying to do that, Doctor,” Chakotay said, clearly annoyed.

  “No, I mean perhaps we could duck in behind something like a large asteroid, a small moon, anything we can find. Let that body take most of the brunt of the shock wave. Then, with Voyager’s shields on full, we should make it through. But I need to do a little more figuring.”

  “Do the math, Doctor,” Chakotay said. “Don’t let me stop you.”

  Tyla stepped back against the bulkhead to make sure she also didn’t disturb Dr. Maalot.

  “Tom, anything like an asteroid or moon nearby?” Chakotay asked, moving down to stand beside his pilot.

  “Large asteroid ahead,” Tom said. “Seven minutes.”

  “We’ve got exactly nine and a half,” Chakotay said. “Get us there and in position. Make sure you are ready to jump to warp at any moment. As soon as it comes back on-line.”

  “Understood, Commander.”

  Tyla watched as Tom worked, steering the wonderful ship known as Voyager as if it was his right hand. She admired his skill.

  And envied his position.

  * * *

  Janeway wiped a trickle of sweat from her forehead and glanced up at the clock B’Elanna had on the wall. Five minutes.

  Five short minutes.

  They didn’t have a choice at this moment. They were going to have to try something.

  And quickly.

  In front of her B’Elanna had her head under the panel. She was hooking up the last connections on their makeshift warp relay.

  Seven’s group was close to fixing the backup relays. But close wasn’t good enough. Close wasn’t going to beat the gamma-ray and x-ray bursts that were going to hit the ship in less than five minutes.

  “Captain?” Chakotay’s voice broke through her thoughts.

  “Go ahead.”

  “We’re ducking in behind a large asteroid. Dr. Maalot thinks it might help us ride through the first wave of gamma-rays. That will buy us an extra ten minutes before the plasma wave hits.”

  “Understood,” she said. “Good idea. But stand ready. We’re going to try two warp fixes before that point.”

  “Standing by.”

  B’Elanna crawled out from under the panel.

  “Ready to give it a shot,” she said.

  “How hard?” Janeway asked. “Warp one for ten seconds won’t get us out of the way. Warp six for ten seconds will help a lot.”

  “Warp six,” she said, glancing up at the clock. Janeway followed her gaze. Less than two minutes. This had better work.

  Or Dr. Maalot’s idea had better work. Right about now they needed one last miracle.

  “Janeway to bridge.”

  “Go ahead, Captain,” Chakotay said.

  “Warp six. Hit it.”

  Beside them the panel sparked as the craft jumped to warp six.

  “Hold on,” B’Elanna said. “Hold on.”

  A small wisp of smoke drifted up from the panel, but it seemed to be holding.

  “Eight seconds,” Janeway said.

  “Nine.”

  “Ten.”

  “Eleven.”

/>   “It’s holding,” B’Elanna said, smiling as the warp drive continued to take them safely away from the impending exploding destruction.

  Janeway glanced up at the clock. “Forty-five seconds is all we had left. We cut that very, very close.”

  “We sure did,” B’Elanna said.

  * * *

  On the bridge, Tom glanced around at Chakotay. “Commander, now that we’re moving again, exactly where do you want me to go?”

  “Away from that neutron star,” Chakotay said, smiling and dropping down into his chair. “Just away. We’ll circle back to the Lekk home system after we’re at a safe distance.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” Tom said.

  His hands danced over the control board. “Away it is.”

  CHAPTER 27

  A DAY LATER, LIEUTENANT TYLA STOOD ON THE Voyager bridge beside Tuvok, watching as Voyager dropped out of warp on the outskirts of her home system. It seemed as if it had been centuries before that that the Qavok had kidnapped her and Dr. Maalot. In her wildest imagination, she never would have thought she would come home in such a fashion. And after having done so much.

  The neutron star would soon-be a thing of the past. Their tampering had worked. The neutron star wouldn’t go near an inhabited system before leaving the galaxy. They had succeeded.

  Actually, as Captain Janeway had said, they had gotten very lucky.

  Captain Janeway moved up beside her and stood, watching the Lekk system appear on the main screen. She was sipping that foul-smelling liquid they called coffee. It was the only thing on Voyager Tyla didn’t like, but it was sure making the captain happy.

  “Beautiful home you have here,” Janeway said between sips as the blue and reddish planet appeared on the screen.

  “I’ve missed it,” Tyla said.

  “I can imagine,” Janeway said.

  Tyla noticed that for a moment, Janeway’s eyes were distant, as if imagining her own home system so far away.

  “Captain,” Tyla said. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “No need,” Janeway said.

  “Oh, I must respectfully disagree,” Tyla said. “There is a need. You trusted me after I showed you I shouldn’t be trusted.”

  Janeway laughed. “Oh, you could always be trusted,” she said, “to do what you needed to do, plus more.”

  “But my escape attempt?”