Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [41]
Chakotay leaned forward. "What about the shuttle's warp core? Is it any larger?"
"Only slightly," Seven said. "Not enough." Seven seemed to pause for a moment, then said to Janeway, "But if I may mention the containment project, I might have a solution."
"Go ahead," Janeway said. She had almost completely forgotten about that project. The idea of hitching a ride home paled in comparison to stopping the destruction of inhabited star systems. It was a similar decision to the one that had brought them to this quadrant in the first place.
A decision she had finally come to grips with.
"We have collected," Seven said, "a significant amount of gravitational wave energy in a containment field. The original intent was to use the energy, if we could capture it, to speed our trip home. Am I correct, Captain?"
"You are," Janeway said.
"And it's stable?" B'Elanna asked. "I've been too busy to even check it."
"I've watched it closely," Seven said. "It is stable."
"So what is your solution?" Janeway asked.
"A concentrated blast of the energy stored in that container, measured carefully and focused at the same instant and point in space as the yacht's warp-core breach, would provide sufficient energy to hasten the explosion of the secondary neutron star."
Janeway tried to imagine how that would work. How would they fire the energy? How would they measure it? They had barely figured out a way to contain it safely, let alone use it so quickly.
"There are drawbacks to this plan," Seven said.
"I can think of a good dozen right off the top of my head," B'Elanna said, worry creasing her features. "But give me yours first."
"I think most problems might be solved in the short time allotted," Seven said, staring at B'Elanna. Then she turned to Janeway and continued. "However, Voyager would have to be in a much lower orbit than we are in now for this plan to work effectively."
"Lower?" Janeway asked.
Seven nodded.
"I can hear Tom screaming from here," Chakotay said.
No one laughed.
"How much lower?" Ensign Kim asked. "Tom's sweating just trying to maintain this orbit."
Seven glanced at Torres, then back at Janeway. "We would have to follow the yacht down to two thousand kilometers above it when our bombs explode."
"We would not survive that," B'Elanna growled, starting up out of the chair at Seven.
"Easy, B'Elanna," Chakotay said, putting his hand on her arm to settle her back into the chair.
Janeway also motioned for her to keep calm, but she knew Torres was right. She doubted they would survive a warp-core breach at that distance, let alone under those tidal forces. Plus there was a good chance that if they were that close to the binary, they would not be able to climb away fast enough, out of the neutron star's gravity well, even under Voyager's full power.
"I said there were problems," Seven said.
"You weren't kidding," B'Elanna grumbled. "You just didn't say the problems would be terminal."
Seven did not reply.
Janeway sat back in her chair and glanced around the table, the knot in her stomach tighter than it was when they had started the meeting.
Chakotay glanced at her. He too looked worried.
It was time she set something straight.
"Just to clear the air here," she said, still leaning back in her chair, pretending to remain as relaxed as possible. "I have no intention of destroying this ship to change the path of that neutron star. Do I make myself clear?"
There were a few nods around the room.
"Good," she said. "That bloated secondary is going to explode very shortly. As I said before, if we can find a way to change the runaway's path, we will. Otherwise, we record the event, take what energy we can from it, and then move on."
Those words sounded cold to her ears, but she knew her crew needed to hear them.
She needed to hear them.
"Seven," she said, "you and Dr. Maalot continue to work on your calculations. Find a way to direct more narrowly that gravitational wave energy