Collective Hindsight (Book 2) - Aaron Rosenberg [14]
He didn’t have an answer for that, so he simply turned back to the viewscreen. It really did look like his mental picture of Jonah and the whale—the da Vinci sailed through the Dancing Star’s cargo doors without a problem, ample room on both sides thanks to Wong’s deft handling, and settled into the middle of its hold. The ceiling soared above them, lost in the darkness, and the walls were so far away that they were also swallowed up. If not for the floor, it would have been easy to imagine that the da Vinci was still out in space, albeit in an area without any stars.
“All right, Gomez,” Gold sighed as the thud of the closing cargo door echoed across the ship. “We’re in. Now I expect you to handle the rest. I’ll be here in my little minnow if you need me.”
“Not to worry, sir,” she called back as she headed for the door. “This whale’s friendly. It’s those three sharks I’m worried about.”
* * *
“Everybody ready?” Sonya settled herself in the command chair, and Fabian had to suppress a wince. The last time a Starfleet officer sat in that chair, it was Salek. Fabian still remembered the sight of the Vulcan’s ashes piled on the cushion before he and Duffy piloted the Dancing Star into Randall V’s sun.
“All set here,” he replied from the tactical station.
“Ready, Commander,” Soloman called from the computer console.
“Good to go,” Pattie chimed in from navigation.
“Of course,” was Tev’s only reply from ops.
“Then let’s move some moonshine,” Sonya said with a smile. “Distance to firing point, Tev?”
“Point-zero-seven light-years,” came the immediate response.
“Current speed?”
“Warp one-point-one-five,” Pattie said.
“Time to Androssi arrival?”
Fabian checked his monitors. “Point-eight-nine hours.”
“Time to Cardienne, at estimated speed?”
“Point-eight-seven hours.”
Sonya sighed. “It’s going to be close. Tev, prepare to engage tractor beam, on my mark.”
“Ready, Commander.” It amazed Fabian that the Tellarite hadn’t insulted anyone all day. Maybe it’s his time of month, he thought wryly—and was glad he hadn’t said it out loud.
“And, three, two, one—mark.”
“Tractor beam engaged.”
“Changing course,” Pattie called out. “Speed dropping to warp one-point-zero-nine.”
“Release tractor beam—now!”
“Tractor beam released.”
“Now on course for Cardienne,” Pattie announced, antennae waving. “Speed at warp one-point-three-nine!”
“Congratulations, people,” Sonya said, leaning back in her chair. “It worked!”
“Yeah,” Fabian couldn’t resist adding, “those cops’ll never catch us now.”
Chapter
6
Overseer Caldon still could not accept what he had just seen. Upon dropping out of FTL, they had immediately detected not only the unfamiliar ship but also a Federation Starfleet vessel near it. Additional scans had identified it as the U.S.S. da Vinci, NCC-81623, a vessel that Caldon’s fellow overseer Biron had encountered twice—and failed to dispose of each time. Caldon had been looking forward to correcting his rival’s error when the U.S.S. da Vinci had moved inside the target vessel. Then this—
He stared at the screen, replaying the image in his mind. The vessel had been heading toward them, and had suddenly turned sharply to one side and accelerated. Given its size, such a turn should have been impossible, and the ship gave no indication that its engines had provided additional thrust to account for the change in velocity. Yet now it was moving more quickly, and on a completely different flight path.
Caldon frowned. Perhaps Biron was not a fool after all, and these Federation individuals were more clever than expected. No matter. His crew had already calculated their new path, and it led directly toward an uninhabited system—in fact, directly toward that system’s sun. It was a simple matter for him to spread out his ship sections, one on either side and his main section approaching from behind. With the sun before them, the mystery ship was boxed in, and would be easy to capture. And the da Vinci had trapped itself within, which would prove to be their undoing.
Yet, even as he gave orders for the new