Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [69]
"They're still on course," Kim said. "And on time."
"You just keep your eye on that transport lock, mister," Chakotay said. "I'll watch their progress."
"Yes, sir," Kim said. "Would you like me to keep announcing the countdown?"
Tom sighed. Heavily.
As B'Elanna's entire engineering staff poured in, she quickly gave them their jobs. They were going to attack the problem from every side possible. They were going to go after any chance of getting the warp drives running again. Any chance at all.
One team was going to try to fix the main systems. Their prognosis wasn't good. But they were going to try.
A second team was going to try to fix the backup system. Those components had less damage and the team stood a decent chance of finishing it.
Yet a third team, which she would head, was going to try to build an entire new bypass control system for warp drive. If they were lucky they'd manage to jump the ship into warp long enough to outrun the leading edge of the neutron-star explosion. B'Elanna gave this option the best chance of success. And when Janeway and Seven returned, they could chip in and help. Every hand was going to be needed to save them this time.
"One hour, people," B'Elanna barked as she banged her fist on an uncooperative control panel.
Janeway felt as if she were riding a bucking steer. What stabilizers the Qavok ship had seemed to have were off-line. Seven yanked a cord belt tight over Tyia's lap to hold her in her seat. Under different circumstances Janeway might have praised the former Borg's very human improvisation. But now was not the time.
Janeway gripped a pipe just to stay on her feet and envied Seven's balance.
"One minute to beam-out point," Chakotay said.
"We are falling slightly too fast," Seven said.
"Compensating," Tyla said, her voice terse. "The thrusters can only slow us down so much against this gravity."
"Understood," Seven said. "I've compensated for such acceleration after we've beamed out. But we must slow down exactly by sixty-four kilometers per second in the next thirty seconds."
"I'm not sure if the forward thrusters have that kind of strength," Tyla said.
"How about the aft thrusters?" Janeway asked.
Tyla nodded. "There are four of them, all working," she said.
"Do you have time to turn the ship?"
"I do," Tyla said.
"That will affect the final few seconds of the flight, but I will compensate," Seven said, busy working out the math.
"Hold on," Tyla said. "When I turn the ship sideways, it will get very rough."
"Holding," Janeway said.
"Turning," Tyla said.
She wasn't kidding when she said it was going to get rough. It felt like the room had rotated upward a full ninety degrees. Janeway knew that if they survived this, the doctor was going to have to take a whole bunch of bumps to task.
"Everything all right?" Chakotay's voice filled the Qavok bridge.
"Fine, Commander," Janeway said. "We just needed to take the ship in aft first. Better resistance."
"Understood," he said. "Thirty seconds." "There," Seven said. "We are again on the correct course and on time."
Janeway held her breath, waiting, watching her two crew members accomplish the seemingly impossible task of flying an alien warship into a neutron star binary with only thrusters. Janeway just wished that she could see the space outside of the ship, the binary, the matter swirling off of it. Then again, maybe it was better she couldn't at the moment.
"Fifteen seconds," Chakotay's voice again echoed through the bridge.
"Pull back slightly," Seven said, watching her instruments.
Tyla's hands flew over the controls. The woman was one fine pilot. Maybe almost as good as Tom. Again the ship bucked and rolled. Janeway managed to hold on to the pipe as her feet flew out from under her.
Seven held on with only one hand, working the calculator calmly with the other.
Tyla was so well secured in her seat that even the transporter