Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [31]
"Of course," Janeway said. With a few taps on her pad, she swung a small screen around on her desk so Dr. Maalot could study it.
Tyla glanced at Chakotay, who stood silently, waiting. Janeway watched Dr. Maalot go over the numbers, her expression passionless, almost cold. Tyla managed to force herself to also remain calm. Yet as each moment ticked by, she felt as if the last hope for her people was fading. She knew that was just her imagination, and she tried to ignore it. But she was a trained fighter. Standing and watching someone else do the fighting was not in her nature.
Finally, Dr. Maalot glanced up at the captain. "I'd like to run more calculations," he said. "But on the surface, your calculations seem correct."
"So is it possible," Janeway asked, looking directly at Tyla, "that the Qavok have some sort of special weapon or explosive capabilities we don't know about?"
"How large?" Tyla asked.
"Large enough to shatter a small planet," Dr. Maalot said.
Tyla actually laughed before she could catch herself. "If the Qavok had such a weapon, do you think they would use it in such an indirect way?"
She stared at the captain, making sure her point went clearly home. "If the Qavok had such a weapon, they would have long since used it against my planet. So the answer to your question is no. The Qavok do not possess such an explosive force."
Janeway nodded. "So they have either miscalculated, or they have figured another way of affecting the path the neutron star will take. And that's what we've got to find out quickly."
The captain turned to her second-in-command. "I want you to run any scan you can think on the Qavok warship Invincible. I want anything unusual pinpointed on that ship."
"Understood," Chakotay said.
"Dr. Maalot," Janeway said, "I'd like you to run calculations to confirm our findings as quickly as possible, then I'd like you to search for any possible way to alter the secondary's explosion with less power."
"I will do that, Captain."
"Good. Lieutenant Tyla, you go with Commander Chakotay. I assume you know the basic layout of a Qavok warship."
"I do, Captain," Tyla said.
"Good," Janeway said. "So if you two find something different over there in your scans, I want to know about it."
Tyla nodded. For the first time since Voyager had saved them, she felt like she had a useful task to perform.
"We're going to make Captain Qados mad," Chakotay said, smiling. "I doubt their screens will block our scans."
"Good," Janeway said. "Let him take a shot at us and we'll end this quickly."
Tyla wanted to rejoice. Finally, the captain had the attitude she had hoped for.
"Will do," Chakotay said.
"Dismissed," Janeway said. She swung the small screen on her desk around and began to study it.
Tyla followed Chakotay out of the room.
This was too good to be true. Let Dr. Maalot study his stupid stars. For her it was far, far more important to study a Qavok warship.
And then live to get the information home.
JANEWAY FINISHED GOING OVER THE CALCULATIONS one last time. The energy needed to cause the secondary star to explode at an exact moment was far, far too immense to even consider. Yet she knew, without a doubt, that they were missing something.
She pushed herself away from her desk and checked the time. About eight hours from now, the secondary neutron star would lose too much mass to maintain its nuclear degeneracy, causing a massive explosion that would send the more massive neutron star hurtling through space, the deadliest missile ever conceived by Mother Nature.
Janeway was making no progress at all. Maybe someone else was. It was time to check.
Finishing the last sip of her coffee, she headed onto the bridge. Chakotay and Lieutenant Tyla were hunched over a sensor panel Dr. Maalot and Ensign Kim worked silently in the communications area. Tom worked the controls, keeping Voyager steady against the increasingly rough gravitational forces coming