Broken Bow - Diane Carey [52]
T’Pol confirmed, “They were from fourteen ... and all within the last six hours. I believe we’ve found what we’re looking for.”
Despite her reticence until now, she had a lilt of victory in her voice.
Archer dropped a hand on Reed’s shoulder. “How are your targeting scanners?”
“Aligned and ready, sir!”
“Bring weapons on-line and polarize the hull plating.”
The crew jumped to action all over the bridge. That was no by-the-book order!
Armed conflict during the shakedown voyage!
“Lay in a sixty degree vector,” Archer said calmly. “We’re going in.”
CHAPTER 13
EVERYONE WAS AT HIS STATION. The appearance of them there was beginning to gain a rhythm in the captain’s mind. He had started knowing which person he was addressing without turning to see who was there. He felt their tension without any words to confirm it. He knew what they were feeling and sometimes thinking.
Intensity could do that.
The Enterprise moved through disruptions of gaseous energy and storms the size of whole planets. Her running lights cut through the dense layers, but it was still strangely similar to that ice cyclone on Rigel Ten.
Hoshi’s little voice at his side had a new tremor in it when she spoke this time. “Sensor resolution’s falling off at about twelve kilometers ...”
Archer leaned forward. “Travis?”
Mayweather worked feverishly. “I’m okay, Captain.”
The ship trembled and rolled—full swings her entire beam-width from side to side. Even her massive power was nothing against the natural monstrosity of a gas giant. This was a terrible risk, something Archer knew would take weeks of exploration, testing, and measurements in another circumstance.
He wanted to know what the ship could do. This would tell him.
T’Pol worked almost anxiously at her console. “Our situation should improve. We’re about to break through the cyclohexane layer.”
The orange color gave way to an even denser layer of roiling blue liquid. The blue color, normally peaceful, seemed even angrier than the outer atmosphere, and more eerie. It was also more solid, slamming the bow every few seconds with powerful strikes. The ship trembled so hard that Archer held himself in place with both hands.
“I wouldn’t exactly call this an improvement,” Archer commented.
“Liquid phosphorescence,” T’Pol explained. “I wouldn’t have expected that beneath a layer of cyclohexane.”
The ship rocked sideways again, then took a hard drop forward.
Hoshi hunched her shoulders and hung on until her knuckles turned white. “You might think about recommending seat belts when we get home.”
“It’s just a little bad weather,” Archer assured.
The roiling on the main screen thinned and changed again.
The console near Hoshi suddenly cried out—peep peep peep peep!
“We’ve got sensors!” she called at the same pitch.
“Level off,” Archer ordered. “Go to long-range scan.”
He almost corrected himself—long-range meant a light-year. This was just a planetary atmosphere. On a starship level, this was next door. But they seemed to understand his context.
“I’m detecting two vessels,” T’Pol reported, “bearing one-one-nine mark 7.”
“Put it up.”
Hoshi worked her board. The viewscreen changed to show two Suliban ships moving away in the distance. The little vessels were unique to Archer’s eyes, about twice the size of shuttlepods.
“Impulse and warp engines,” Reed reported.
“What kind of weapons?” Archer asked.
“We’re too far away.”
“Sir,” Mayweather broke in, “I’m picking up something at three-forty-two mark 12 ... and it’s a lot bigger!”
The viewscreen shifted as Hoshi worked faster.
“All sensors,” Archer instructed T’Pol. “Get whatever you can!”
Before them on the changing screen, a huge complex came into focus. Was it a ship? Or buildings? Archer couldn’t tell, but it was massive. It had to be free-floating, because this gas giant had no surface.
“Go tighter.”
The screen zeroed in closer. The complex was indeed some kind of moving object, made of hundreds of Suliban ships interlocked to form a massive spiraled space station. A few individual cell ships engaged and disengaged from the mother