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"So everyone stay sharp," she said. "We won't have a second chance at this."

She stepped up to where Chakotay and Lieutenant Tyla were standing. "Anything more?"

"Nothing, Captain," Chakotay said.

Tyla's large green eyes were intense, but Janeway could tell that she was disappointed also.

"Does the Invincible have a second warp core on board?" she asked. "A shuttle, or an experiment of some sort?"

"No," Tyla said. "Qavok warships do not have shuttles with warp drives. Their shuttles are used mainly for ship-to-ground movement. Or ship-to-ship. Simple ion-propulsion drives only."

"No extra warp core found in our scans," Chakotay said.

Janeway nodded. She was afraid of that. She went on to the next question. "You mentioned that there were extra Qavok crew members on board the Invincible?"

"That's right," Tyla said. "The normal crew for a warship is one hundred and sixteen. There are one hundred and forty-six on that ship. An extra thirty crew members."

"Why?" Janeway asked. "Can you see any reason?"

"None," Chakotay said. "They seemed to be doing nothing at all."

Tyla nodded. "They are bunched in what seems to be a hangar bay, as if they were simply passengers."

Suddenly Tyla's face paled even more and her wide green eyes turned to slits. "Or an attack force."

"What?" Janeway asked.

Tyla faced her. "Qavok elite fighting companies consist of exactly thirty soldiers. Thirty is an important number to them; it has some religious significance. Why didn't I see that before now?"

"You saw it now," Janeway said. "That explains a great deal, actually."

"How?" Chakotay asked.

Janeway held up her hand. "I've got two more questions to find answers to before I try to answer that."

Chakotay nodded as Janeway faced Tyla. 'To your knowledge, would the Qavok ever sacrifice an entire ship to accomplish a mission?"

Tyla shook her head. "Not if they didn't have to. They are not a self-sacrificing people, Captain."

"Okay," Janeway said. "That takes care of that option."

She turned to Tuvok. "Have more Qavok warships joined the group yet?"

"No. The count remains at seven."

"And don't you think that they arrived there fairly quickly?"

"They were clearly close by, Captain," Tuvok said.

"And having that many warships close by is logical to you?"

"Not at all," Tuvok said. His gaze held hers for a moment before he went on. "Clearly they had planned to be in this area for some reason not related to our presence."

"My thought exactly," Janeway said. "And we spoiled their plan in some fashion or another."

Janeway turned back to Chakotay, then decided to tell the entire bridge crew. "All right, everyone, here's what is happening."

She waited a moment until everyone had glanced up at her, then went on. "We've discovered that it would take a warp-core-breach level of energy to alter slightly the timing of the coming neutron-star explosion. And that warp-core breach must be timed perfectly."

Around Voyager's bridge her crew nodded. Lieutenant Tyla looked intense.

"We've also tracked the path the primary neutron star will take after the explosion of the secondary one. It will destroy three inhabited systems in the next few centuries. So, as I said earlier, we're going to try to change that path. That's why the countdown."

Paris was nodding. Tuvok had one eyebrow raised in thought.

"We also believe that the Qavok are going to try to alter the path of the neutron star to pass through the Lekk system, among others. We don't know where they're going to get an extra warp core, but I have no doubt they will."

"The troops," Tyla said. "They plan on invading the Xorm ship and using it."

"Possibly," Janeway said. "Bat that's only one possibility. We need to attack this on two fronts. First, we stop the Qavok. Second, we set up a change of our own. Everyone follow what's happening?"

"Got it, Captain," Paris said. "Except where