Caretaker - L. A. Graf [67]
Silence.
Janeway exchanged a startled look with Tuvok, who interrupted his own control just enough to lift one eyebrow and glance pointlessly surfaceward. Ignoring an impulse to do likewise, Janeway slapped at her comm badge. "Away team to Voyager."
Rollins answered immediately. "Yes, Captain?"
"What's going on with the Array?"
He hesitated only slightly, but Janeway could feel the uncertainty resonating down the open comm channel. "It's no longer sending out pulses, Captain. And it appears to be realigning its position."
Oh, God, if it was preparing to leave the solar system, they had better hope it couldn't reach warp speeds. Otherwise they'd never have time to catch up to it after locating Kim, and their chances of getting home anytime soon would disappear right along with it. "Keep me informed" was all she said aloud to Rollins.
"Janeway out." But their window of opportunity had just nudged closed another crack.
Paris summoned her attention with a quick touch of his hand, and Janeway turned where he pointed to see Kes and Daggin hurrying toward them through the eerily noiseless clots of nervous Ocampa.
Were they fretting telepathically among themselves? Janeway wondered.
Or just standing around in shock to find themselves in true silence for the first time in what had to be centuries? She wondered whether any of them realized that their world would probably sound like this from now on.
"They haven't been at the clinic for hours," Kes called as she and Daggin drew closer. Her porcelain brow was wrinkled with concern.
"We can search the city," Daggin offered. He indicated the farmers who had gathered tight around them again. "Ask if anyone's seen them."
Janeway nodded her agreement, and the group of young Ocampa dissolved in a dozen directions, slipping themselves neatly into the surrounding crowd. Janeway tried to imagine Kim and Torres fitting in so unobtrusively, and couldn't. "If they were trying to get to the surface," she said, turning back to Kes, "how would they go?"
"Probably the same way I did--up one of the ancient tunnels."
Janeway didn't even want to think about how far underground they were, or how long those tunnels must run. "Mr. Paris, go with her and start checking them out."
"Wait!" Neelix scurried after Paris as the young pilot motioned Kes to lead the way. "You might need an extra hand."
Mostly, Janeway suspected, Neelix wanted to make sure Paris didn't find the opportunity to impress the pretty Ocampa too thoroughly while Neelix wasn't around to put things in perspective. It was such a charmingly trivial thing to worry about when compared with the fate of a single starship, she almost smiled in appreciation of the pudgy alien's innocence.
"We need to talk to every doctor and nurse at this hospital."
She started for the distant clinic without waiting to see if Tuvok and Chakotay were following, trusting them to stay close.
If either of them realized the captain was leading them back toward the clinic Kes had suggested they not be seen around, they didn't mention it. "I want to see what they can tell us about Torres and Kim--" The floor bucked upward with a skull-crushing boom, and screams shrilled like sirens through the subterranean valley as Janeway slammed into the ground. She rolled, gasping for breath, and grabbed at the hand Chakotay extended to pull herself to her feet. Nearby, Tuvok already had his tricorder balanced on his palm, trying to frown coherent readings off the screen as Ocampa all around them scattered like buckshot birds in all directions.
"Voyager to Captain Janeway!"
Rollins's voice barely reached her above the chaos. Janeway found herself standing tensely, waiting for the world to move again and staring up toward where a ceiling ought to be as if that would somehow help it stay there. "Go ahead."
"Captain, the Array is firing some kind of weapon at the surface."
Instruments