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"Ten seconds."

"Eight."

"Seven."

"Six."

Again the ship smashed into a gravitational shift, sending the room sideways.

"Five."

"Hold the thrust," Seven said. "Shut down engines on my command."

"Four."

"Not yet," Seven said to Tyla. "Hold the thrust even."

"Three."

"Perfect," Seven said.

"Two."

"Shut down thrusters."

Tyla's fingers flew over the board, moving like a concert pianist at the top of her form.

"One."

"Thrusters down," Tyla said.

"Let's get out of here," Janeway said.

"Beam out." Chakotay's voice echoed one last time through the thick smell and smoke of the Qavok bridge.

Janeway felt the transporter pull her away.

Then the Voyager bridge was under her feet again.

Tyla and Seven stood beside her. All of them were facing the main screen.

"Three seconds," Kim said.

Seven stepped over and glanced at the panel in front of Kim.

"On target and on time, Captain," Seven said.

"Now!" Kim said.

As he spoke, a small white explosion filled the screen near the two neutron stars, then vanished as instantly as it appeared, leaving the swirling forces of the binary behind.

"Seems so small," Tom said.

"Against the power of that binary," Janeway said, "it was nothing more than a small hiccup. But enough of a hiccup to accelerate the mass loss from the bloated secondary and quicken its explosion by exactly two point three nine milliseconds."

"Two point three nine very important milliseconds," Chakotay said.

"When will we know if we've succeeded?" Tyla asked.

"When we can track the path of the neutron star and not one moment before, I'm afraid."

Seven nodded.

"Take us out of here, Tom," Janeway said. "Get us out of this turbulence as quickly as you can."

"Gladly," he said.

Voyager turned and moved away from the binary.

Then, after a moment, Tom said, "Whew, what's that smell?"

He glanced around at Janeway, Seven, and Tyla.

Janeway laughed. It wasn't until Tom had said something that she noticed that all the bridge crew had backed away.

"I think we all need showers and fresh clothes," Janeway said.

"Please," Chakotay said. "Then B'Elanna needs your help, as soon as you can get there. Even without the showers."

"Warp?"

Chakotay nodded.

"Tom, on second thought, once you get us through the turbulence, make the best speed you can away from the binary."

"We won't get far enough, Captain," Seven said. "Using impulse power only."

"I know," Janeway said. "But it will buy us back a few of those milliseconds we just gave away."

B'ELANNA GLANCED UP AS JANEWAY CAME THROUGH the door of Engineering. Her face looked flushed, as if she'd just taken a sonic shower. Maybe she had, for some reason or another.

B'Elanna kept working. So far, so good, on building the new relays for the warp drive. But they could use all the help they could get.

Seven had arrived just a few moments before and gone to work immediately on the repair of the backup relays. She seemed to feel that that was where the best chance of success lay. B'Elanna was still convinced they had to build a new system from scratch.

"What can I do?" Janeway asked. "I know the three options, three teams. Good thinking on your part."

"Thanks," B'Elanna said.

"My opinion is that the new relay is the best bet," Janeway said. "What can I do?"

"I agree," B'Elanna said. "The group over there needs help finishing those connections while I get this board ready. We're about ten minutes from the first basic test." She glanced up at the wall where she had started a large countdown.

Janeway followed her gaze and nodded.

"Not much time."

"Thirty-six minutes," Janeway said. "More than enough time."

B'Elanna wasn't so sure, but she didn't say anything else aloud. She just nodded and went back to work, pushing even harder than she had been before. But the only problem with working so hard was