Enigma Ship - J. Steven York [13]
She nodded. “Yes sir. Thank you for clearing that up for me.” She turned and headed for the inner door.
“And, Corsi?”
“Yes sir?”
“You’re thinking like a senior officer. I like to see that. You could be first-officer material one of these days, maybe even the big seat.”
“That wasn’t what I was thinking about, sir.”
“Sometimes you choose the seat, Corsi. Sometimes the seat chooses you.”
* * *
Corsi stepped into the corridor and stopped, considering the captain’s words. She was feeling the pressure, the apprehension of what they might find when they dropped out of warp in a few hours. She tapped her combadge. “Corsi to Stevens.”
“Stevens here.”
“Are you busy just now?”
“I’m in my quarters. I was hoping for a few hours’ sleep before we roll up our sleeves and start working on Enigma.” There was a pause. “Why?”
Chapter
5
“Kieran.”
The voice came out of darkness. It was a pleasant voice, a voice he liked. It was the message he didn’t like.
“You’re sleeping, Kieran.”
It was Sonya’s voice.
“Resting my eyes.”
“Well, you snore when you’re resting your eyes. You should have Elizabeth look into that.”
“I’m going to rest them a little longer.”
“Can’t. Captain Scott is returning our call.”
Duffy opened his eyes. He lifted his chin from his fist, which had been propping it up during his “rest,” and looked around the hololab.
Sonya grinned at him, looking rested and alert. He knew she hadn’t slept any more than he had. Where did that woman get her energy?
“Look alive, Lieutenant Commander, the boss is on the line.”
He glanced over at the wall-mounted viewscreen just in time to see the Starfleet logo vanish and be replaced by the image of Captain Scott. “Commander Gomez. Sorry I took so long to return your call. Meetings.” He grimaced, as though the one word explained everything. “What can I do for you?”
“Sorry to bother you, Captain, but our investigation into Enigma has turned up something that requires your expertise.”
Scotty brightened. “Well, why didn’t ye say so, lass? What have ye found?”
Duffy felt awake enough to dive in. “Captain, we’ve been reviewing the sensor logs from the Chinook and the freighter. The Chinook data hasn’t been terribly useful, but the freighter logs are a different matter. The quality is so bad we’ve had to filter and massage it a dozen different ways to get the resolution we needed, but we think we have something.”
“I’m transmitting a segment of the enhanced and restored visual record,” Gomez said.
Scott’s image on the screen was replaced by the visual playback. A space-suited figure floated in what seemed to be empty space. The suit was orange, an armored shell topped by a transparent bubble, with a bulky backpack studded with thruster nozzles, and a large toolpack attached to the belt. The man inside the helmet was humanoid and looked about thirty, perhaps younger, in human terms. But he was not human. His bright green skin made that clear.
Only when one looked closely was it apparent that something was just in front of the man, a discontinuity, like the edge of a soap bubble the size of a moon. He reached for the discontinuity and his hand stopped against the nearly invisible surface, like a mime touching the walls of a make-believe box. Then he reached into the pouch and pulled out an odd looking tool.
“Computer, freeze playback,” Gomez said. “Do you recognize the tool, Captain Scott?”
“Well, it’s no human manufacture, but I’d say it’s a magnetic probe o’ some kind.”
“Right,” said Duffy, “we think that’s exactly what it is. Probably Andorian from the looks of it.”
“Now, watch,” said Gomez, resuming the playback.
The suited man pressed the tip of the probe against the discontinuity, and twisted a control. The probe began to disappear inside, which was surprising, since, in this case, inside only looked like more empty space. But as it pierced the surface, it began to disappear. The man withdrew the tool, and adjusted the controls some more. The tip of the probe began to glow. He pressed it against Enigma again.
Suddenly,