Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [33]
“I have no way of knowing that, Captain.” Kes sighed. “I’m sorry.” She hurried off the bridge and back to her quarters before she could see the look of disappointment in the captain’s eyes.
The renewed sense of worry from her crew mates before she left the bridge had been overwhelming, and she curled up on her bed to recover from it. She racked her brain for another way she might help, but unless someone got hurt and landed in sickbay, she couldn’t think of anything. She doubted extra vegetables from the airponics bay would make anyone feel better. Where was that strength she’d learned from Tieran now? Of course, Tieran’s way of dealing with this problem would likely be to blow that ship out of space which, thankfully, wasn’t the Voyager crew’s way.
After a few minutes, she crept off her pillow and brought a padd back with her to the bed, where she stretched out on her side to do her research on the mechanism that would make her windmill work. Maybe if she focused hard enough on that, she could separate herself from the emotions of the rest of the crew.
She studied the gears at the mill’s head, one that rotated with the circular motion of the blades and another that, interlacing perpendicular to the first, changed the motion from circular to up and down. It was the sucker rod, which stretched all the way from the windmill’s head into the pump that lay below the water level, that was moved up and down, forcing water up a pipe and into crop fields or a holding tank for later use. There was also a valve to keep the water from running back down the pipe once it was pumped up. She continued to be impressed by the so-called “primitive” technology.
Once she felt that she understood the basic concepts, Kes continued to read some of the related topics the computer recommended.
She was amazed to find that not only had windmills once been used to pump water, but they had also ground grain and stone, and a special kind, called wind turbines, had, as the text said, “harnessed the power of the wind to generate electricity.” How wonderful that, kilometers from any neighbor or town, these human settlers had been able to use wind energy, otherwise wasted, in order to power, well, whatever they wanted to.
She drifted into daydreams, thinking about the kinds of things they might do with their power. They could use it to run a saw mill, like the one that had cut the boards she and B’Elanna had used in building their tower. They could add electric lights to their houses. Maybe they could even power the engine of one of the automobiles Tom Paris was always raving about. Or was it too early in human history for that type of vehicle?
Kes sat up, wide awake again. “Parsecs from any planet or space station,” she amended her previous thought out loud, “these aliens have been able to use wind energy, otherwise wasted, in order to power their vehicle.” Could it be possible? Could it be that simple?
She slid off the bed, calling, “Computer, current location of Lieutenant Torres?”
“Lieutenant Torres is in engineering.”
B’Elanna glanced up from the sensor control terminal to the odd sight of Kes entering engineering. “Thank Kahless, a distraction,” she said, meeting Kes halfway. “I’ve been going around in circles down here, trying the same things with the sensors I did days ago. It’s like I’m stuck in some sort of feedback loop.”
“Maybe this will help,” Kes said, handing Torres the padd she was carrying. The device displayed a schematic for a wind turbine and Kes began to talk so quickly that B’Elanna couldn’t act on her first impulse to complain that the mill project wasn’t their top priority.
“I was doing some more reading on windmills. Did you know that there are several different types?” She pointed at the padd. “This one takes wind power and uses it to generate electrical energy. I got to thinking. Our warp eddies are like wind currents that Voyager creates, right? Could the alien ship be using them to generate power somehow, and that’s why they’re staying so close to us and their