Broken Bow - Diane Carey [19]
“Request permission to get underway?” Mayweather looked at Archer.
Archer snapped out of his thoughts. Warp speed ... high warp. This was it.
He looked at T’Pol and asked silently for confirmation of the course.
She sensed his eyes and looked up. “The coordinates are off by point two degrees.”
Mayweather glanced at her, embarrassed and angry. Something about the way she said that ...
But Archer wasn’t about to let her spoil the moment. “Thank you,” he said quickly, and waved casually to Mayweather. “Let’s go.”
“Warp power,” Mayweather uttered aloud, though he didn’t have to. “Warp factor one ...”
The ship surged physically. There was a snap of light, and the crescent of Earth was left behind as if by magical invocation. The whole solar system was suddenly no more than a whim.
“Warp one accomplished,” Mayweather confirmed.
Archer made eye contact with everyone around him ... first T’Pol, who had no more criticisms. Then Reed. He seemed weary, but British propriety kept his shoulders back and tension in check, and he gave Archer a nod of generous encouragement.
Archer smiled, then looked at the little screen with Trip Tucker shepherding his engines. “Trip? You okay?”
“Ready and willing,” Tucker responded, but never looked away from the glowing warp core.
“Go to warp factor two.” :.
“Warp two,” Mayweather choked.
Another flash, another surge, and the ship shouldered into a multiplicity of speed. Stars blurred. Space itself began to bend to the ship’s will.
“Warp two accomplished, sir.”
“I like the feeling,” Archer offered. “Everybody stable? No jumps in the readings?”
No one spoke up.
“Warp factor three.”
Though Mayweather didn’t respond, his hands worked on the helm. Another flash. The surge this time was smoother, and in a moment they had made warp three.
“Good,” Archer commented. “Everybody take a breath. Check your stations. Hoshi, do a ship wide sweep.”
“Shipwide, aye,” Hoshi responded, her voice tight. She was terrified. Giving her something to do was sound operational practice. He’d have to make sure she wasn’t idle at times like this.
“Let’s have warp four, helm.”
He barely felt his own voice. Pushing it, yes. He should’ve cruised at warp two for a day. He didn’t feel like waiting. He wanted the first log entry to read immediate high warp.
Somebody gasped, but he wasn’t sure who. Probably Hoshi. Couldn’t be T’Pol, right? Or Reed.
Not that it mattered. They were all gasping on the inside.
“Respond to me, Travis,” Archer steadily insisted.
“Oh ... yes, sir. Warp factor four, aye. Sorry.”
“No problem at all. Doing fine. Feels pretty good, actually. Hear that warp hum? I like that.”
His casual conversation seemed to help them all. The power systems whined some at this higher challenge. Lights flashed on several consoles, but nobody called an end to it. Anyone, at any station, could have stopped the progress with an alarm warning. Unless they were at battle stations, even Archer would have a hard time explaining pushing beyond stress once he got a stop warning from one of the crew, almost anywhere on the ship.
No one spoke up. In fact, they were eerily quiet. Hoshi’s communications board flickered with green lights from systems deep in the ship’s fibrous flanks.
“Warp factor four,” Mayweather uttered, “accomplished, Captain. All systems report stable. Helm is steady.”
“Trip?”
On the engineering monitor, Tucker finally turned to meet Archer’s expectant eyes. “We’re all-go down here, Captain. Flow over the dilithium crystals is even. No flux on the power ratios. She looks good.”
“Congratulations, Trip ... everybody. Let’s cruise at warp four for a while and see how she does. All hands, standard watch rotation for the next twenty-two hours. T’Pol, how would you like to try the con on for size?”
She looked up, startled. Yes, he’d managed to fluster her. Clearly she hadn’t expected to take command at all. She knew she was just some kind of figurehead here and had probably hoped to stay pretty much to what she knew at the science station.
But if the rest of the crew had