Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [71]
And right now, that was the last thing she needed.
The bridge was silent as Tyla entered. Dr. Maalot was out of sickbay and at a panel at the back of the room, running figures for something. She couldn't imagine what he might be doing, but she was glad he was up and about.
On the main screen, the binary had gotten smaller as Voyager rushed away as fast as its secondary engines would push it. But she knew they could not possibly get ahead of that plasma shock wave from the explosion of the secondary neutron star, let alone the nasty gamma-ray bursts.
"I've gotten shields back up to eighty-three percent," Ensign Kim said.
Commander Chakotay nodded.
"Good."
"Ah, Lieutenant Tyla," Dr. Maalot said, turning and smiling. "Good to see you alive."
"And you," she said.
"We are having quite an adventure, aren't we?" he said, smiling as if what they'd been through so far was just a fairy tale.
"I suppose that's one way to look at it," she said. "What are you working on?"
"An idea to help us get out of here alive once more."
"I don't understand," she said.
Commander Chakotay had also overheard the doctor's comments. "You have an idea, Doctor?" Chakotay said, moving up to stand beside Tyla.
"I'm not at all sure it will work."
"Since we're less than twelve minutes away from being destroyed," the commander said, "I'm willing to listen to just about anything."
Tyla was impressed that the commander would, with so little time remaining, be willing to listen to Dr. Maalot. Maalot must have really impressed them earlier.
"Well, as I'm sure you know," Dr. Maalot said, "the leading edge of the coming explosion will be gamma-ray and x-ray photons. Nasty things that will pretty well kill off everybody in this ship if we're not far enough away."
Chakotay nodded.
"Then, following that is a very, very intense plasma shock wave, spreading out at incredible speeds. But not as fast as the first wave, if you get my drift."
Chakotay nodded. "So, if we survive the first blast of gamma-ray photons-"
"And X-rays," Dr. Maalot said.
"-we will have time before the plasma wave. Correct?"
"Exactly. At this distance, we will have an extra ten minutes."
"So how do we survive the first wave?" Tyla asked. She couldn't see a way to do that.
"The best bet would be to get out of the way."
"We're trying to do that, Doctor," Chakotay said, clearly annoyed.
"No, I mean perhaps we could duck in behind something like a large asteroid, a small moon, anything we can find. Let that body take most of the brunt of the shock wave. Then, with Voyager's shields on full, we should make it through. But I need to do a little more figuring."
"Do the math, Doctor," Chakotay said. "Don't let me stop you."
Tyla stepped back against the bulkhead to make sure she also didn't disturb Dr. Maalot.
"Tom, anything like an asteroid or moon nearby?" Chakotay asked, moving down to stand beside his pilot.
"Large asteroid ahead," Tom said. "Seven minutes."
"We've got exactly nine and a half," Chakotay said. "Get us there and in position. Make sure you are ready to jump to warp at any moment. As soon as it comes back on-line."
"Understood, Commander."
Tyla watched as Tom worked, steering the wonderful ship known as Voyager as if it was his right hand. She admired his skill.
And envied his position.
Janeway wiped a trickle of sweat from her forehead and glanced up at the clock B'Elanna had on the wall. Five minutes.
Five short minutes.
They didn't have a choice at this moment. They were going to have to try something.
And quickly.
In front of her B'Elanna had her head under the panel. She was hooking up the last connections on their makeshift warp relay.
Seven's group was close to fixing the backup relays. But close wasn't good enough. Close wasn't going to beat the gamma-ray and x-ray bursts that were going to hit the ship in less than five minutes.
"Captain?" Chakotay's