Day of Honor - Michael Jan Friedman [58]
B'Elanna straightened and worked at her own console. Her findings confirmed her companion's. "That's the warp signature, all right. But there's something else out there.…"
"Something else?" he echoed.
She worked at her controls some more. "It's a ship."
It was an ominous thought. Tom looked out the observation port.
"I don't see anything yet," he said.
"We're not in visual range," the engineer advised him. "It'll be a minute or two more."
In the meantime, she did her best to get some information about the ship. She didn't want to confront it without knowing what they were dealing with. But the more data B'Elanna obtained, the less she liked it.
She turned to Tom. "According to our sensors, the ship has the same energy signature as the Caatati."
He met her gaze. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."
She nodded. "Me, too."
Tom's brow wrinkled. "Maybe they're guarding it for us," he suggested only half-seriously.
B'Elanna frowned at him. "Right. And the Cardassians are really teddy bears in disguise."
A moment later, they came into visual range. "I see it," said Tom.
She followed his gaze, craning her neck to see out the window. "What do they think they're doing?" she asked.
There was a narrow shaft of yellow-white energy extending from the Caatati vessel to Voyager's warp core. The shaft wasn't holding together well, eitherit kept breaking up.
"They're trying to put a tractor beam on it," she snapped. "If they're not careful, they'll rip it apart!"
Tom cursed beneath his breath and opened a communications channel. "This is the shuttle Cochrane to the Caatati ship. Please respond."
The Caatati didn't hesitate to respond on audio. "Don't come any closer, Cochrane. We're performing a salvage operation."
"What a coincidence," said Tom. "So are we."
"That warp core was ejected from our ship," B'Elanna pointed out. "We've come to retrieve it."
"I'm afraid we got here first," said the Caatati. "Don't interfere with our operation or we'll open fire."
B'Elanna couldn't hold herself back any longer.
Arrogance was one thing; stupidity was another.
"Don't you realize that core is highly unstable?"
she demanded. "If you try to tractor it like that, you could cause an antimatter explosion."
There was no reply. Tom worked at his console. Then he cursed again, this time more volubly. "They aren't answering."
"Idiots!" B'Elanna snarled.
Tom nodded. "We have to keep them from destroying the core."
B'Elanna thought quickly. Then she got up and went to another control panel at the aft end of the cabin.
"What are you doing?" the helmsman asked.
"I'm going to try to disrupt their tractor beam.
Then we can initiate one of our own."
As she manipulated her controls, the shuttle sent out a particle beam. As it met the Caatati beam, the two sizzled and sparked.
Tom checked his sensors. "It's working. Their tractor is breaking down. Pretty soon-"
He was interrupted by a loud thump. Then the shuttle pitched sharply to port and the red-alert lights came on.
B'Elanna felt ice water trickle down her spine. Righting herself in her seat, she checked her monitors again.
"What was that?" Tom asked.
B'Elanna bit back her frustration. "They sent an antimatter pulse back through our particle beam."
"Shut off the beam," he told her.
"It shut itself off," she snapped.
The shuttle began shaking. "Warning," said the onboard computer. "The structural integrity field has been compromised."
"Great," said Tom.
"Structural integrity now at fifty-three percent and falling," the computer continued. "Hull breach in one minute, twenty seconds."
B'Elanna worked at her controls. "We've got to reroute power from the propulsion and weapons systems."
"Warning," said the computer. "Hull breach in one minute, ten seconds."
"Do it!" she snapped.
"I'm doing it!" Tom snapped back. "It's having no effect!"
"Warning," the computer declared. "The structural integrity field has collapsed. Hull breach in sixty seconds."
Tom got up and pulled B'Elanna away from her console. "We've got to get out of here!"
She tore away