Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [47]
"No need, Seven," Janeway said, "We're all learning from this one time."
"I do not foresee another time," Seven said.
"Nor do I," Janeway said. "Thank heavens."
She tapped her comm badge. "B'Elanna, are the shuttles ready?"
"They are, Captain," B'Elanna said. "But I think you might want to take a look at what Tyla found."
"On my way," Janeway said.
Tyla managed to contain her dread at showing the captain what she had found. She didn't know these humans very well, yet. And she had no idea how a powerful human captain like Janeway would react to news.
Janeway strode into the hangar bay, looking intent and worried. Tyla could clearly tell the woman was carrying a heavy burden. She was making decisions that would affect entire systems full of beings.
"What do you have?" Janeway asked as she approached Tyla.
"I was downloading the information from the yacht's computer," Tyla said, "to make sure we didn't miss anything that would be useful to us against the Qavok."
"Good idea," Janeway said.
"B'Elanna thought of it," Tyla said.
Janeway nodded to B'Elanna.
"I discovered a link," Tyla said. "Buried under passwords and command codes."
"To what?" Janeway asked.
"At first I didn't know," Tyla said. "I just knew it was a link of some sort. But once I got past the security features, I discovered there was a secondary computer aboard."
"Really?" Janeway said softly, her eyebrows raising above her closely set eyes. "What was the reason for that?"
"It seems," Tyla said, "that the computer was used as a command storage area. All Qavok military plans and operations were automatically downloaded to the second computer and stored. If the prince was using the yacht, he could then always be in touch with whatever operation was going on in the Qavok Empire."
"No wonder they were so angry when you took it," Janeway said, smiling at Tyla.
"Yes," Tyla said, feeling a little more relaxed now. "It does make sense."
"And we've downloaded all this information from both computers?" Janeway asked.
"We have," B'Elanna said. "But Tyla found this in the process."
B'Elanna keyed in a screen and a report appeared, filled with pictures of a round ship of some sort.
"What is it?" Janeway asked, scanning the page as quickly as she could.
"We think it's what the Qavok plan to use to change the course of the neutron star," Tyla said before B'Elanna could answer. She wanted to make sure that if anyone was punished for delivering the bad news, it would be her. She found it, she took responsibility for it.
"What?" Janeway said.
"Sure looks like it, Captain," B'Elanna said. "Extra-strong forward shields, no real passenger room, no real bridge area, very large warp core. And no weapons."
"And it seems to have been built for one flight," Tyla said. "Qavok only build ships with weapons, so that they can fight. They would never build a ship without a weapon, unless it was to be used to trigger another weapon."
"The neutron star binary," Janeway said.
"The binary," Tyla said, agreeing. "To attack my homeworld."
"Well," Janeway said, "that isn't going to happen. Especially now that you've found this. Good work."
Tyla nodded, not letting her relief show. "Thank you."
"You two make sure every detail of the shuttle and yacht is ready. And transfer the gravitational container to the shuttle when Seven tells you it's time."
"We'll be ready," B'Elanna said.
Tyla watched as the captain left the shuttlebay, walking as quickly as she had come in. "She's an amazing captain," Tyla said, more to herself than to B'Elanna.
"Captain Janeway?" B'Elanna asked, glancing up. Then she nodded. "You are right about that. Now get back to work. I want you scanning that information from the secondary computer. See if. you can find anything more we might use."
"Gladly,"