Dark Matters_ Ghost Dance (Book 2) - Christie Golden [28]
Perhaps death had decided it did not like to be cheated after all.
"Yellow Alert," said Janeway, sliding into her command chair. "Shields up. Battle stations." Though I hope it doesn't come to that, she thought. Wiping out those thirteen Romulan warbirds, watching them explode to bits because of the dark matter they carried-that was hard enough. "On screen."
It was every bit as bad as she had feared. Several ships were headed right for them. They were large,
cumbersome-looking things. If Janeway had to guess, she surmised they were heavier with weapons than with engines. These things were built for battle, not speed. If the need arose, Voyager could probably outrun them.
But that's not what we're here to do, she thought with a sudden surge of fierce passion. We're here to help them, to free them from the dark matter if they're infected with it.
"Harry," she ordered, "scan for dark matter."
"Scanning," Kim replied. "They're crammed full of the stuff, Captain. People and vessels."
Janeway thought a deep, profound curse. "B'Elanna, what's the status on getting the dark matter out of objects rather than just from space?'
"Not good, Captain. We didn't have a chance to run any tests."
"Is Dr. R'Mor with you?" Janeway inquired.
"I am here, Captain."
"Of all of us, you're the most familiar with the dark matter. What's your opinion?"
A long pause. The ships were moving ever closer. "It has shown no signs of distress or instability thus far," he said, and she could hear the caution in his voice. "One would hope that this would continue, but there is, of course, no guarantee."
Janeway had been all for her hardworking team in engineering to take a well-deserved break at the time. Now, she wished they'd at least tried to extract dark matter from a coffee cup, or a plant, or anything at all. But they hadn't. One always made the right decisions in hindsight, didn't one?
"Mr. Kim says the approaching ships are filled with dark matter," Janeway informed the Romulan. "How would you propose removing it?"
"The separation point would probably occur within the transporter mechanism itself," came a clear female voice. For a moment Janeway couldn't place it, then she thought: Khala. "It could be risky trying to locate the dark matter within the individual molecules at the point of origin, especially when dealing with an unknown, unfamiliar cellular structure. I would recommend total dematerialization and the separation of the dark matter particles at mat moment."
"I see," said Janeway, her blue eyes on the approaching vessels of war. From what she understood about the process, she felt Khala was right.
But what did that mean for them? How in the world were they going to conduct a first contact with a hostile species and then ask for the kind of trust that was going to be required? Hello, you 're a totally new species and you're filled with a maddening hatred that's actually not what you 're feeling at all. Let us dematerialize you, remove the bad thing and then put you together again. And let us do that to your ship and crew as well.
Oh, how she wished Chakotay were here. She'd love to hear his take on the situation. But she was now, as she always had been from day one of this strange voyage, the captain, and every decision ultimately rested with her.
"Mr. Kim," she said, her voice betraying none of her growing sense of hopelessness, "do we recognize this species at all?'
"Negative," said Kim.
"Bridge to Seven. Take a look at our new friends. Do you know them?"
"Negative," came Seven's crisp, cool voice. Same word, same distressing information.
"Open a channel," said Janeway, squaring her shoulders. "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. We are on a peaceful mission in your sector of space and would like to open communications. Particularly,