Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [151]
Damn it, thought B’Elanna, instinctively holding herself hidden in the lee of the tube exit. The last thing she was in the mood for right now was to see or speak with any one of the Equinox survivors.
She decided to hang back until the biologists left, rather than risk a meeting that could very well end with Lessing’s split skull in her hands.
There was another tube junction in the center of what, to B’Elanna, was the ceiling. She watched as Lessing and the others stepped into it, one by one, disappearing on whatever errand occupied them.
When she was sure they were gone, she made a beeline for the device the AI had shown her. It wasn’t hard to spot.
The device, one of sixty positioned all over the ship, was a cylinder about four meters high and two around. There were access panels on both sides and some sort of wide Y connector linking the upper portion of the machine to the glossy facet above.
“All right,” she said to the thing. “Let’s get a look at you.”
Several hours later she thought she had learned what she’d come to find out. Just to confirm her theory she pressed her palm against the nearest access facet.
“B’Elanna specifies a service to gain our true compliance,” said the AI.
“What is the designation of this device?” she said. The response was a series of strangely musical sounds that reminded her of wind chimes. “Please rephrase, if possible.”
“Resonator,” said the AI.
B’Elanna smiled. Janeway was going to love this.
They were all staring at her again as if she’d sprouted an extra head. The captain, Chakotay, the Doctor, Harry, Tuvok; even Tom had managed to tear himself away from the helm to attend her briefing.
It dawned on her that she hadn’t seen Tom in days and that to him she must look a mess. She hadn’t showered. Her hair and face were smeared with sweat and grime and other substances that had yet to be defined.
Worse, she could tell that the excitement she felt over her discovery was playing as some sort of manic episode in the minds of the others.
What’s wrong with B’Elanna now? she could feel them all thinking. Well, they were all in for a big shock.
“What do you mean ‘we’re going home’?” said Captain Janeway soberly.
“Picture the universe as a river,” said B’Elanna, brushing an errant lock of hair away from her face. “Everything flows outward from the center at a rate no one’s ever been able to calculate.”
“Because there is no static external position from which to judge that rate,” said Tuvok.
“Until now,” said B’Elanna. She began to warm to her subject, moving around the seated officers and gesturing expansively to emphasize points. “Space is the river. Subspace is the riverbed. The alien drive somehow allows it to create bubbles in subspace in order to travel.”
She could tell they understood that at least. It explained the bizarre subspace cyclones they’d encountered when they’d entered this region. The alien ship’s drive must have malfunctioned somehow.
“And you’ve figured out how we can do that too?” said Tom, clearly trying to be helpful.
“No,” said B’Elanna. “I have no idea how they navigated subspace or how they traveled in more than one direction.”
“Then how- ?”
“We don’t have to navigate,” said B’Elanna, beaming. “All Voyager has to do is stay put.”
They were all still staring. They all still had that look on their faces. She counted to five silently and then asked the computer to give a holographic display of the galaxy. When it came into view, floating above the conference table like a massive snowflake, B’Elanna pointed at the Delta Quadrant.
“We’re here, downriver,” she said. Then she pointed at the Alpha Quadrant. “Home is here, directly upriver. All we have to do is anchor ourselves in subspace and we won’t have to worry about going home. Home will come to us.”
There was a brief pause while the others processed what she’d told them. Then there was an eruption of questions. What were the power requirements? Could the alien systems damage Voyager’s? How quickly could the necessary modifications be made? How soon, realistically, could they see home?
B’Elanna