Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [27]
She sat back, forcing herself to take a deep breath and relax her tight muscles. She could feel the joints cracking in her back as she moved her shoulders around. She would have time to rest later. In just a few hours, one of the rarest events in the galaxy would take place. And she was going to be there, watching, maybe even helping it along a little.
The door from the bridge opened and Chakotay entered. He smiled at her and moved around the table while others filed in behind him.
"Status of the Qavok, Mr. Tuvok?" Janeway asked as her top staff, as well as Lieutenant Tyla and Dr. Maalot, filed in and took seats around the conference table. Only Paris and Neelix were missing. The two Lekk guests looked nervous. Dr. Maalot's hands were shaking and he was sweating. Tyla, on the other hand, showed her nervousness by holding her shoulders tight, in a formal posture. Her straight gaze never wavered.
"The two warships have taken up a position one astronomical unit away," Tuvok said. "They have been joined by two more. It would be logical to assume more will join those. The Invincible has returned to its original position."
Janeway nodded. "Captain Qados is rebuilding his fleet."
"It would seem that way," Tuvok said.
Janeway shrugged. "Fine by me, as long as they stay right where they are until we get our explosion. Have we taken up our strategic orbit around the binary?"
"We have," Chakotay said. "Tom is staying at the helm to make sure nothing goes wrong. Screens are up."
"Good," Janeway said, nodding to her second-in-command. She too felt better with Tom at the controls. He was by far the best pilot they had, and if something happened with the binary, she wanted him at the controls.
She glanced at Torres and Seven. "Is your project finished?"
"Within the hour," Torres answered.
"We should be working on it now," Seven said, clearly annoyed at the interruption.
"In a moment, Seven," Janeway said, holding up her hand for Seven to stop. "This won't take long."
Seven said nothing, but Chakotay looked puzzled.
Janeway sighed softly. She would tell him what was going on as soon as the meeting was finished. She had planned to brief him before now, but just hadn't had the time.
The door swished open and Mr. Neelix entered. "Sorry I'm late, Captain," he said, smiling at her as he slid a cup of coffee beside her on the conference table.
"Thank you, Neelix," she said, letting the cup sit. At the moment she had to deal with the problem she had discovered.
"Dr. Maalot," she said, "in Engineering you had a schematic showing the orbital plane of the neutron-star binary. All the possible paths the larger neutron star will take after the explosion."
"I did," he said.
"Would you be so kind as to put that on the main screen so we can all see it? B'Elanna, please show Dr. Maalot how to do that."
It took only a moment before the image was in front of all of them.
"Tyla and Dr. Maalot believe that the Qavok will attempt to send the star at their home system. Right?"
Both Tyla and Dr. Maalot nodded.
"It is what we overheard," Tyla said. "We would not lie about such a thing."
Dr. Maalot was again nodding.
Janeway held up her hand. "I'm not saying you lied. I'm just trying to get the facts in front of all of us here."
Tyla said nothing, so Janeway went on. "B'Elanna, on the screen show the area on both sides of the Lekk home system that the star must pass for the Qavok to be successful. Say one thousand astronomical units on either side would do the damage."
"I doubt our system would remain intact at that range," Dr. Maalot said.
"I agree," Janeway said. "But we need to draw the line somewhere."
Two short parallel lines appeared on both sides of the Lekk system on the schematic.
"Now," Janeway said,