Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [45]
“Because she’s the boss.”
“No, I mean, ‘Why did she tell you to call me?’ “
“Because you’re about to lose most of the power to the holodeck.”
“I hate you.” The words were out of Tom’s mouth before he knew what he was saying.
“B’Elanna mentioned you might say that,” Joe said. “She advised me to tell you to hate the matter-antimatter intermix chamber instead.”
Through the shroud of panic that was settling down over him, Tom managed to recall the conversation from a couple nights before. “She was trying to track down a problem,” he said aloud.
“Well, we found it. More accurately, it found us. I have to shut down all nonessential systems in the next twenty minutes or we’ll be without the warp drive for several weeks.”
“I thought the holodecks had their own power supply,” Tom said searching for alternatives.
“Holodecks have a dedicated power supply, Tom. Not at all the same thing. Everything comes from the engines one way or another and, I’m sorry, but the holodecks aren’t essential.”
Mind racing, Tom asked, “How long will they be down.”
“As long as it takes for us to rebalance the load. I’m figuring at least a week.”
Tom sagged. There was no way he could push everything off another week. Most of the performers were either so wound up or so frightened that delaying that long would spell disaster. Damn it! Tom thought, but then another concern filtered in. “But otherwise we’re okay?” he asked. “B’Elanna’s okay?”
“Sure,” Joe said, sounding a little surprised by the question.
“Right. Okay. Thanks for the warning.”
“You bet. I hope you can figure out something.”
Me, too, Tom thought and went in search of Neelix.
Neelix understood precisely why they had to continue. “The show,” he said, “must go on.”
“Right,” Tom said. “Where did you hear that expression?”
“What expression?”
” ‘The show must go on.’ “
“I didn’t know it was an expression,” the Talaxian said. “I just assumed it was true.”
The captain agreed with their decision and gave her blessing for the show to continue.
“It’s going to be shorter,” Tom explained.
“Probably a good thing,” Captain Janeway replied.
“Probably,” Tom agreed, remembering school shows that dragged on and on. “It doesn’t make a good statement to have the captain front and center in the audience stifling a yawn.”
The captain raised an eyebrow then and asked, “Who said I was going to be in the audience?”
Bereft of effects technology, a handful of acts had to be scratched and one or two participants felt they simply couldn’t bring off their performance without visual aids. Dan Fisher was disappointed about the loss of his holographic horse, but decided simply to read the scene from the novel sans costume or crowd. Fortunately, Dan had a deep, resonant voice and practically brought the holodeck ceiling down with his command to “Ride now! Ride now! Ride for ruin and the world’s ending!” Tom noticed that the captain (who was waiting in the wings of the makeshift stage) flinched when she heard these words.
Fortunately, many of the musical acts were unaffected by the power outage, though, less fortunately, not all of them were up to the newly stripped down presentation. The Delaney sisters’ violin/viola combo number fell flat without the orchestrated score, though they gamely persevered through to the last note. In other instances, the lack of effects had a positive result. Tom didn’t think the audience would have put up with the expanded version of the Doctor’s Otello, but his a cappella version of the closing solo stunned everyone, including Tom, who had heard the full-blown (some might say “overblown”) rendition in one too many rehearsals.
Two other surprises rounded out the musical program. The first was Harry’s clarinet recital. Since his friend had insisted in practicing in private, no one, not even Tom or Neelix, had heard him play, but only set aside a ten-minute block. Harry, dressed in a white tie and tails, took the stage, and was picked out by the single spotlight B’Elanna had provided. He announced that he would begin with the second movement from Mozart’s clarinet concerto