Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [57]
"As I said," Tuvok calmly replied, "our drives are all damaged beyond immediate repair."
"We still have twenty-percent shields," Dr. Maalot said as he picked himself back up and climbed into his chair again. "Barely, I might add."
Tyla scanned the board in front of her. "We also have phasers still on-line. Just nothing to shoot at."
"True," Tuvok said. "Now we must hope that Voyager is victorious. Or we may get a chance to defend ourselves one final time. Dr. Maalot, see if you can increase our shield strength. Lieutenant, please stand by in case we are approached."
"Where are you going?"
"I will attempt to fix basic thrusters," he said.
She nodded as Tuvok climbed from his chair.
Suddenly, just as on the yacht, she felt very alone, sitting in the front seat, waiting to be killed like a bug. But this time, she had something to fight back with if any of those ships decided to try to kill her. She'd at least sting them before dying.
On the screen, out of phaser range, Voyager was in the fight of its life. And there wasn't a thing that Tyla could do to help.
She could only sit and watch.
And she hated that.
Hated that more than anything.
She was a fighter. Her job was to fight.
Not watch.
JANEWAY HELD ON TO HER COMMAND CHAIR AS THE ship rocked. For a moment the lights dimmed, then the power came back up. In front of them on the screen it was clear they had taken out two more of the Qavok ships, but somehow, some way, the Qavok had strengthened their shields. She didn't know how that was possible, but it had happened.
Janeway knew they were in trouble. Deep trouble.
One of the warship's combined blasts had knocked out their phasers and torpedoes. Now Voyager was simply a sitting duck. On the main screen the remaining six warships shifted position slightly, moving three up front and leaving three to flank their bomb ship.
"B'Elanna," Janeway said. "I need phasers."
She didn't expect an answer. B'Elanna would be working as fast as she could to find and fix the problem.
It had better be very fast, she thought.
She tried to force herself to sit back and study the entire situation, look for another way to win this.
Tuvok and the shuttle had done its share of damage, hitting the Qavok from the side and managing to destroy three before being knocked aside. Tuvok had managed to jump the shuttle to warp for a short burst, just long enough to get out of range and harm's way.
At least for the moment.
It looked as if the shuttle was now dead in space. They had lost contact but sensors reported that all the passengers were alive. Janeway doubted that that shuttle was going to be flying down into any neutron star binary anytime soon, from the looks of it.
So much for their carefully worked plans on how to change a force of nature. If they could stop the Qavok from changing it, that neutron star was headed exactly where nature had wanted it to go.
Again the entire ship rocked around her.
"Screens down to forty percent," Ensign Kim said.
"B'Elanna?"
"Can't do it, Captain." B'Elanna did not even attempt to conceal her frustration. "Phaser controls have been fused all the way through. We won't have any weapons of any sort for at least three hours. And there's no way to go around the fused areas."
Janeway pounded her fist on the panel.
"Tom," she said, "drop us back into a lower orbit. Buy us a few minutes."
Tom did as he was told just as the ship rocked again.
"Thirty percent," Ensign Kim said. 'Two or three more hits like that and we'll lose shields."
"Understood," she said. "Bring all power to the forward shields. Keep those up."
If she didn't do something quickly, this was where their long trip home was going to end.
She studied the schematic on the edge of the big screen. Six warships bearing down on them. Behind Voyager, in a lower orbit, was the Xorm ship, waiting for its turn in the box. She had hoped to spare them the fight. But