Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [60]
"What deadline?" Tom asked.
"The deadline to stop that neutron star from plowing through inhabited systems."
"That deadline is only minutes away," Chakotay said. "We can't make that one, Captain."
"I know, but I'm betting we have a second window."
"Captain," Kim said. "We blew up the yacht, remember?"
"Oh, I remember," she said, laughing and gently touching the bump on the back of her head. The pain was declining, but unless she got down to sickbay soon, she was going to have one heck of a headache. That didn't matter. She didn't have time for that now.
She had a neutron star to send safely out of the galaxy.
"SEVEN?" CAPTAIN JANEWAY*S HAIL FILLED THE Engineering section of Voyager. Seven of Nine was there, working on repairs to the phasers. She considered it simple work. Necessary to the safety of the entire ship, thus important.
"Yes, Captain," she said.
"I need you to run a few very quick calculations for me," Janeway said.
"Certainly," Seven said. She moved over to a console and prepared it "Go ahead."
"Are you familiar with the size of the warp core on a Qavok warship?"
"I have the specifications," Seven said. She quickly brought up the newly entered specs taken from the yacht's computer, and displayed them on the screen.
"Using the power generated with a warp-core breach of a Qavok warship core," Janeway said, talking slowly, clearly to make sure she was understood, "would it be possible to alter the path of the neutron star to the safe path out of the galaxy?"
"One moment," Seven said.
Her fingers keyed in the data and ran the formulas. She had run this type of calculation so many times over the past hours, she almost knew it well enough to figure it without the help of the computer. Yet, to guarantee that she gave the captain the correct data, she used the computer. The result a few seconds later agreed with her initial estimate.
"Yes, Captain," she said. "The warp-core breach of that magnitude would have to be in an exact location above the secondary neutron star, but it could be done."
"How soon?" Janeway said.
"Twenty-six minutes, ten seconds," Seven said. "The difference in time from our previous estimate is, of course, the result of the difference in size of the energy generated by a core breach of that size."
"Understood," Janeway said. "I was hoping that would be the case. Now, one more quick calculation if you would."
"Certainly."
"Do you have the coordinates for the Qavok home system?" Janeway asked.
"I do," Seven said, her fingers moving as she spoke to pull up the information on her board.
"Figure, using the same size core, what it would take to send the neutron star through the Qavok home system. And when such a change would need to be made?"
"Captain?" Seven said. Certainly Captain Jane-way was not thinking of sending the neutron star through an inhabited system.
"Do it, please," Janeway said. Her voice was cold and to the point.
Seven ran the numbers quickly.
"It would be possible," Seven said.
"When?"
Seven glanced at her calculations. "Eighteen minutes."
Seven heard Janeway sigh, then there was silence.
"Captain?" Seven said.
"Sorry," Janeway said. "Just thinking. I need you to stop what you were doing and double- and triple-check your calculations for sending the neutron star out of the galaxy safely. That way, if we have success dealing with the other side of this equation, we'll be ready."
"I'm afraid," Seven said, "that I do not follow you."
"You will," Janeway said. "Just double-check those figures. If we try sending that neutron star out of the galaxy, I don't want any mistakes. Understood?"
"Perfectly," Seven said.
Janeway cut the connection. For a moment Seven stood, staring at the two calculations she had done for the captain. Then she cleared the second one and went to work double-checking the first. There were many details that had to be considered. She would consider them all.