“So
now they think we are dead,” Kevas said. Studying the engineering read-outs
that might well be true he ascertained. They couldn’t bring the warp engine
back on-line without risking an uncontrolled antimatter reaction and the impulse
reactor was done for. It didn’t matter that the Ferengi ship had stopped
jamming their com-frequencies – the Argolis cluster provided more than enough
interference that they would never be able to contact the Valkyrie now.
“Yes.”
Foster used the maneuvering thrusters to slow their advance as much as he could,
but the Hawk was still drifting further into the Argolis, gripped by some
gravitational force that would be their doom, if they didn’t find a way out.
“You are supposed to be the engineer around here. Any suggestions?”
Before
Kevas had a chance to reply the cockpit door opened and Tori Xedon slumped down
in her chair. “Commander Kobango is still unconscious. I think he’s got a
concussion, but as far as I can tell it’s nothing life-threatening.”
‘Damn,
I am a pilot, not a CO. This isn’t supposed to be happening.’
Cal Foster spun his chair about and looked around the small cockpit. Now he was
stuck in command of a disabled ship with a cadet and a CM1 as his crew. His eyes
fell on the gleaming silver dedication plaque of the Hawk.
“Just then I saw a young hawk
flying and my soul began to rise, and soon my heart was singing – roll, roll
me away tonight,”
it read and that was how it was supposed to be. Just a man and a ship flying
into the great unknown, but now the unknown had caught up with him and he was
running out of options faster than a horde of Klingons went through a barrel of
bloodwine.
“I
think I may have an idea...” Reto Kevas’ voice trailed off, unsure about
what he had in mind. He turned to the ops console and started a full diagnostic
of the warp engines.
“Don’t
sit on it until it hatches. I am willing to listen to any useful idea.”
Kevas
was too busy to even notice the change that had come over Lieutenant Foster.
When he spoke he was just thinking out loud, not aware that his lips formed the
words going though his mind.
“The
impulse reactors are done for, but the impulse engines should still work. Now
where to get power for them... If I can bring the warp engines back for even a
few seconds we could shunt the warp power directly to the impulse engines.
Should be just enough to get us out of here.”
Tori’s
fingers clenched around her chair’s armrests. “We have lost the antimatter
injector constriction. You can’t start the warp engines again without blowing
us up!”
“You
must be crazy!” Lieutenant Foster tried to get a hold of his emotions. “We
will end up with an uncontrolled matter-antimatter reaction and then it’s
goodbye us. Come up with something else or shut up.”
“No!”
Kevas jumped off his chair and spun around to face the Lieutenant. “There is
still some deuterium in the intermix chamber. All we have to do is give it one
burst of antimatter to start a reaction. We don’t have to use the injectors
for more than a few seconds to get us out off here. Timing it won’t be easy,
but it can be done.”
“No!
I say we don’t risk it. You will blow us all to kingdom come if you try it!”
Kevas
drew a deep breath and shut his eyes for a second. When he opened them again his
voice was almost calm, even if he was certain it fully betrayed his lack of
confidence. ”Listen, Lieutenant, you may be able to fly this ship like no one
else can, but I know these engines and they can take it. You can take your
chances with my plan or you can wait until we are crushed by some protostar or
another, it’s up to you.”
*
* * * *
“Isn’t
it weird how many wardrooms and lounges and mess halls this ship has?” Moira
asked. “Even with a crew of more than a thousand everyone off-duty could find
a place to dine all for himself.”
Dar
shoved his empty plate aside and looked around the small wardroom he and Moira
had all to themselves. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration and you forget that
the Galaxy-class was designed with diplomacy in mind and not just for
exploration. Imagine one or two hundred diplomats running around the ship and
you’ll see the wisdom of it.”
“I
guess you are right. Banquet halls and conference rooms and private meeting
rooms for diplomatic delegations… it makes sense, but it still seems a bit
excessive to me.” Moira shrugged and rose. “I’m gonna get a cup of coffee.
Anything for you?”
“Tarkalean
tea, please,” the Bolian replied after a momentary hesitation. Dar Enikal
wasn’t actually paying much attention to food or beverages right now. Again he
ran his eyes around the empty room. The only furniture in the small wardroom,
aside from a few potted plants and the replicators, were half a dozen tables
with four comfortable chairs around each of them. One reason the two officer’s
had the room to themselves was probably the lack of windows. From Dar’s
experience most people preferred the lounges with windows to the rooms tucked
away at the interior of the ship, but that suited him just fine.
“Thanks.”
He took the cup Moira handed him and placed it on the table. For a moment he
just watched her sip her coffee. “Can I ask you something?”
Moira
cocked her head and studied the Commander’s face. There was something about
his voice that gave her pause, an urgency he tried to hide with some success,
but knowing Dar well enough she noticed it anyway. “Sure, what is it?”
Dar
reached for his cup and took a sip of tea. Now that he had taken the first step,
he was suddenly no longer sure how best to go ahead. No, he realized, he had
been unsure about it all along, but waiting any longer was not likely to change
that.
“Do
you know what happened to us while the Captain was away in the Argolis? Not the
story about some freak subspace shockwave knocking us out, but the real truth?”
‘So
this is it’,
Moira thought as she stared down at the table top, avoiding the Bolian’s
questioning gaze. She had promised Rishana and the Captain she would keep quiet
about it, but just telling Dar she knew nothing wouldn’t help – it seemed
too important, too urgent for him to let the matter go.
“This
seems to be pretty important to you.” Noticing Dar’s vigorous nod from the
corner of her eye Moira added: “Why?”
Dar
drew a sharp breath and exhaled audibly. “Isn’t it enough that I want to
know the truth? I just don’t like people mushrooming me.”
Moira
involuntarily grinned at his choice of the human expression, but she was very
certain that the Commander wasn’t telling her the whole truth. “Then don’t
try the same with me. There is more to it than that.”
Dar
tried to hide his surprise as best as he could and reached for his tea-cup again.
Moira had seen right through him, but after they had known each other for almost
three years he should have expected it. Maybe he had just been too wrapped up in
his own thoughts to give it much attention.
“Yes,”
he admitted after taking a gulp of tea. Just as Moira turned her head back in
his direction he looked away from her. “I thought I could just leave it at the
official explanation Tarin has given us, but I can’t. There is something I
can’t clearly remember about what happened, but I have this overwhelming
feeling that it’s important, that I need to remember it.” He sighed
and turned to meet Moira’s gaze. “Whenever I try to recall it, it just slips
from my mind. Maybe if I knew what really happened it would help me remember.”
*
* * * *
“No.
We are not going to do it.”
“But
Lieutenant...”
“I
said no and that’s it.” Cal pointed at Tori Xedon, “Get busy with those
sensors and find out what’s ahead. We still have maneuvering thrusters. If I
know what’s ahead we can get around it.” He rose and took a step forward,
bringing his face close to the Bajoran’s. “If you think you are such a great
engineer, why don’t you bring the impulse reactor back on-line, instead of
thinking up more of your half-baked idiocies.”
‘Because
the stupid thing is fused. Oh hell, I need to get out of here.’
“Yes,
Sir!” Reto snapped back and turned on his heel. The door controls almost
failed to react in time and he had to turn sideways to get out as fast as he
wanted to.
Caleb
Foster was ready to slump down in the pilot’s seat, but noticing that Tori was
looking up to him he took his time, sitting down slowly and deliberately.
“Anything on the sensors?”
“A
lot, but nothing that tells us what’s ahead. It must be a protostar, but I
have no idea how close it is,” she said and started on a long explanation on
the nature of protostar clusters, interspersed with occasional remarks that
astrophysics was not really her forte.
“I
know all that,” Foster cut her short. “You can’t become a pilot without
learning a few things about astrophysics and stellar cartography.”
For
a few minutes they sat in silence while Cal tried his best to slow their advance
into the heart of the Argolis with only the maneuvering thrusters. It helped,
but only a little. It would not be enough and Cal knew it, however hard he tried
to ignore the facts. That thrice damned Ferengi had shot them up in no time at
all and there had been not a thing Cal had been able to do about it. ‘This
isn’t how it was supposed to be. I was meant to be a pilot and I tried so hard
and I have failed.’
“Do
you think the Valkyrie has detected the plasma explosion?” Tori added a
“Sir” almost as an afterthought.
“It’s
possible, but even if they did, they can’t follow us into the Argolis and a
search using shuttles will be pretty difficult. Then there is that Ferengi ship.
I don’t think he can take on the Valkyrie, but he could slow them down
enough to make any search even harder.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and
closed his eyes for a few seconds.
“Have
you ever flown a shuttle?”
“I
took the basic shuttle operations course last year.”
“Good.”
Caleb rose and stepped away from the helm controls. “You are going to take the
helm. I am gonna see how that engineering guy is doing.”
“But
Lieutenant, I can’t...”
“Yes,
you can. Basic controls aren’t too different from a shuttle and I’ll tell
you what to do.” As Tori reluctantly settled into the pilot’s seat Foster
leaned over her shoulder and explained the controls to the young Komari.
“Now
do you understand what you have to do?”
As
she turned her head and looked at him, Cal hardly heard her affirmation. Their
faces were only centimeters apart and he stared right into her eyes. He swiftly
stood straight and took a deep breath. “Good.”
He
turned and headed for the cockpit door. “Just do what I told you and you’ll
do fine.”
*
* * * *
“I
can see how important this is to you, but I gave my word not to talk about
it.”
“So
you admit there is more to it than the official story,” Dar shot back.
Moira
sighed. “Look, I have told you everything I can. Tarin asked me not to talk
about it, so I won’t. If this isn’t good enough for you, you should take
this up with her.”
“But
why? Damn it, I am her XO. Why would she hold back on me?” Dar was almost
ready to shout, but Moira realized he wasn’t angry with her in particular. The
Commander turned his head away again and fell silent, bottling up his emotions
and hiding them behind his usual stoic expression.
For
a long moment Moira studied the Bolian’s face. He had hidden his emotions so
quickly that she suspected he had had never expected a full explanation from her
and the thought saddened her. They had been colleagues for three years and
friends for almost as long. That he might have expected her to withhold the
truth from him was a dismaying thought, regardless of how little his underlying
feelings had to do with her person.
Moira
only realized that she reached out to him when her hand gently touched Dar’s
forearm, but even when she noticed it, she kept her hand where it was.
“Listen
to me, please.” Dar glanced down at her hand, but noticing her distraught tone
he quickly looked up to Moira’s face. The mix of concern and distress that
distorted her features made him swallow anything he had been about to say and he
just listened.
“I
don’t understand half of what’s been going on, but Tarin asked me to keep
quiet about it and that’s reason enough for me. I really don’t know why she
wouldn’t tell you about it, but I trust her.” She breathed deeply and a
small smile broke through her anguish. “I don’t think she would ever do
something that was against our best interest, so I have faith in her judgment.
Why is it so difficult for you to do the same?”
*
* * * *
“Sorry,
but there is nothing I can do about this reactor.” Reto withdrew his head from
the access panel. Leaning against the airlock wall he pointed his thumb at the
heart of the impulse engines. “Have a look for yourself, Lieutenant.”
Foster leaned inside the compartment
and looked around. Over the years he had picked up enough engineering skills to
notice how right the Bajoran was. Half the control elements had fused into a
solid block of circuits and plastic that could only be replaced if they cut them
out with brute force. Even with the necessary spare parts it would take hours to
rewire all the connections they would have to burn through.
“How good are our chances with the
antimatter burst you’ve been talking about?”
Reto Kevas scratched at the ridges
on his nose. “I’d say about 70 to 30 in our favour. Why? Don’t tell me we
are going ahead with my half-baked idiocy?”
Lieutenant Foster just snorted and
withdrew from the small engine compartment, ignoring the crewman’s caustic
undertone. “I just wanted to know. Our chances to be found by the Valkyrie
may be less promising, but I still say we wait. For now the anti-matter burst is
plan B.”
He headed towards the front of the
ship again, but Kevas took a few quick steps and blocked the Lieutenant’s way.
“Lieutenant Foster, with all due respect, we don’t have time to wait any
longer.”
Caleb took a step back. “That’s
not for you to decide.”
“No Sir, it isn’t.” Reto Kevas
stepped aside and made way for the Lieutenant. Noticing Foster’s hesitation
the Bajoran was almost pleased. Foster was not used to any mere crewman standing
up to him, but quickly Kevas got a hold of himself. Soon none of it would matter
any more. The crewman sharply inhaled, delight over his own courage and the
dread of impending doom fighting for control of his emotions. He looked away
from the human pilot and his desperation won the inner struggle.
“I will need at least half an hour,
maybe more, to set up the anti-matter reaction. If anything goes wrong while we
wait for a rescue party it will be too late, unless I start working on it right
now.”
Caleb Foster wanted to hit the wall
with all his might and he wanted to just open the airlock to end it all and he
wanted a hundred other things, but he could do none of it. All he could do was
just stand there, his eyes transfixed on the young Bajoran, as the truth finally
started to sink in. All he had ever wanted to be was a pilot and a Starfleet
officer and now he would be dead very soon, unless he put his life in some
else’s hands.
He
had piloted med-evac shuttles around Romulan warbirds and he had guided ships
through the worst of ion-storms, but it had always been his decisions, his
skills, that had been decisive. Never before had Caleb Foster trusted his life
into another man’s hands, but if there was one thing he wanted even more than
to pilot a ship it was to live, as marginal as the difference sometimes appeared
to him.
Lieutenant Foster forced himself to
stand bolt upright, his hands clenching into fists.
“Okay, get started on whatever it
takes to set up that anti-matter burst.”
*
* * * *
Dar
stared down at his glass. He moved it back and forth and watched the deep green
liquid slosh around in the half-empty glass, but he paid as little attention to
it, as he paid to the people in Ten Forward. His thoughts were all turning
around the conversation he had had with Moira half an hour ago.
‘Why
did I just run out,’ he asked himself, even if part of him already knew the answer. He had
been too afraid of what he had seen in her face – the pain, the sadness, the...
other feelings. Dar Enikal was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to acknowledge
what he had already realized deep down inside, but the part of him that shared
Moira’s feelings hurt, as he recalled it all. If he had acted on what he felt
for her he would have lost the resolve to confront her about the truth he needed
to know, and yet he still hadn’t made up his mind.
A
part of him knew what he needed to do – he needed to talk to Tarin, to make
her tell him the truth, because he was certain it was vital; not just to him,
but to others as well, and yet he knew just as well that Moira had been right.
If he was unable, unwilling, to trust Tarin, how could they be the team they
needed to be. But if she couldn’t trust him, had they not already
stopped being a team?
He
finished his drink in one long gulp, realizing that his thoughts ran around in
circles, yet unable to break the vicious cycle of distrust and hopes and fears
that had ruled his thoughts for days.
“You
said you had something for me?” a grave voice interrupted the Bolian’s
thoughts.
“Yes,
I have,” Crewman Neldon cheerfully replied as he reached behind the bar and
placed a small cargo crate on the counter. “Twelve bottles of 2348, as
advertised.”
Vontar
laid his hands on the crate with the gentleness of a lover touching the object
of his deepest affection. “I am in your debt.”
Crewman
Neldon shook his head. “No you aren’t.” For a second he looked overly
thoughtful, his brows deeply furrowed. “Well... I guess you are, but there’s
no hurry to pay me back.” He turned around to Commander Enikal. “Another one
for you, Sir?”
Dar
Enikal just shoved his empty glass across the bar and nodded. Turning his head
he looked up to the Klingon standing at his side. “Haven’t seen you in a
while. Where have you been those last few weeks?”
“In
my quarters most of the time,” Vontar replied, his fingers slightly tightening
around the case of bloodwine. “I meditate for two days, hone my warrior’s
skills on the third, sometimes using your holodeck, and sleep on the forth day.
I have done so ever since I came aboard.”
“I
see.”
“Now
I will return to my quarters, to feast, to drink and to study the words of
Kahless as is my calling and my duty as a Klingon.” Without further ado he
grabbed the crate of bloodwine and headed out the lounge.
“Aren’t
you afraid he will never be able to pay you back?” Dar asked after a few
seconds.
“Well,”
Neldon slowly replied, leaning closer over the counter, “I was afraid of that
when he asked me to get some real bloodwine for him, but then I figured I’d
ask someone who knows about these things and Lieutenant O’Shea ensured me that
when a Klingon says he owes you, he owes you.” The crewman smiled as he poured
a drink for himself. “You see, with the Klingons it’s all about honor. Once
they give you their word they’ll be good to it, that much you can rely on.”
Dar
looked down at his glass. ‘Yes, trust, that’s all it is about, isn’t it,’
he thought. Even without ever saying so he had given Tarin his word to stand by
her side, regardless of the occasional disagreement between them. But hadn’t
she given the same promise when she took command of the ship, to stand by her
crew and take care of them?
*
* * * *
“Lieutenant
Foster thought I might be able to assist you.”
“Maybe
you can,” Kevas said, without turning his eyes from the warp reactor. “How
much do you know about physics and mathematics?”
“I
am not sure. My teachers thought I have a talent for mathematics, but so far I
could only compare my skills with other cadets.”
Reto
Kevas shoved the core of the warp reactor back into the ceiling and closed the
maintenance hatch. Pull-out engine components were one of the best ideas
Starfleet ever had and he briefly wondered why it wasn’t in more widespread
use.
“I
guess that’s good enough” ‘I hope.’ He activated the small
computer console in the Hawk’s wardroom and transferred some data from
his tricorder to the main computer. “Take a look at this, please. Here we have
the maximum energy output I believe we can shunt to the impulse drive without
frying it and this here is the amount of deuterium still in the reaction chamber.
What you need to work out is precisely how much antimatter we will need to
generate that much energy. I have done some calculations myself, but I am not
that good at theory.”
For
a few seconds Tori studied the data he had pointed out. “I think I can do it.
It doesn’t look too difficult.”
“Glad
to hear it.” Kevas smiled at her and selected a few tools from his engineering
kit. “I have to set up the impulse drive for a direct power feed from the warp
reactor, but if you need me, I’ll be right around the corner.”
“What
if the deuterium in the reaction chamber won’t generate enough energy output?”
Tori called out after him, as the Bajoran entered the airlock aft of the
wardroom.
Reto
Kevas looked around the corner again “Let’s just hope it does. I want to
route the antimatter injector control through the matter injector software. May
give us a little more control over them, but that way we can’t use both
injectors at the same time.”
As
he turned back to the impulse drive Tori briefly wondered why they didn’t just
add more deuterium to the chamber before starting the antimatter reaction. ‘Of
course. That would only make it harder to control the reaction itself. Warp
engines were never designed to work with a burst like the one we are setting
up.’
“Will
this work, what do you think?”
Kevas
stopped his spontaneous answer just as his mouth opened.
“There
are no guarantees, but if” – ‘you can refine my calculations’ –
“I do my job right, we should have a pretty good chance.” His deep sigh
revealed part of his true emotions. “I just wish Commander Tucker was here now.”
“Is
he that good an engineer?” Before the Bajoran had a chance to reply Tori added,
somewhat subdued: “I am sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I
don’t know anything about him.”
“Yes,
he is,” Kevas raised his voice as he burrowed deeper into the small engine
compartment. “I haven’t known him for long, but he was one of the lead
designers for the Valkyrie’s warp drive and he was on the design team
for the ‘69 upgrade to the Akira-class engines. If anyone knows about starship
engines, it’s him.”
Tori
Xedon couldn’t help smiling. Komari valued nothing higher than professional
expertise, but for an apprentice to acknowledge his inferiority to his mentor
was something their culture considered one of the strongest signs of true talent.
“I
hope you are making progress,” Cal Foster’s voice came over the com-system.
“Give
me fifteen minutes and we should be set to go.”
“In
that case,” Foster replied, “you better work faster. Radiation levels are
rising out there and I am not sure how long the shields will hold.”
Kevas
interrupted his work on the impulse engines for a moment. “I could repair the
shields first, bring them up to full strength again.”
“No.
Concentrate on the engines. With the radiation levels I am reading here it looks
like we are getting very close to one of the protostars. Now if we hit one of
those, the shields won’t do us any good. We have to get out of here, the
sooner the better.”
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3