Equinox - Diane Carey [18]
"Engineering's five decks down," Chakotay told her jovially. "It's a long crawl through the Jefferies tubes." When she mustered her will and stepped in after him, he ordered, "Deck eleven."
The lift doors closed and they were moving. He kept
watching her as she struggled to keep her anxiety under some kind of control.
She saw him watching her, saw the curiosity in his eyes, and ultimately explained, "I haven't set foot in a turbolift in over three months."
"Claustrophobia?"
She didn't seem to like the word, but didn't dispute it. "If one of those fissures opened up in here ... where would we take cover?"
That had been her life, it seemed. Taking cover. He tried to imagine-hiding most of the time, slipping out to rebuild defenses, trying to snatch an hour of sleep, only to waken to that whining sound and an attack by something he still couldn't picture. The whole horror played in Gilmore's expressive eyes, though she was trying to hide it from him, trying to summon what was left of her shredded Starfleetness.
"We'll be out of here before you know it," he assured. Sounded empty, considering what she'd endured, though he had to try to stem her obviously mounting fear.
At the worst possible moment, just as the lift started to get a good hum under it and cruise toward deck eleven, a brief hydraulic whine disturbed the flow. Gilmore visibly flinched.
"It was only a graviton relay," Chakotay said quickly. "Nothing to worry about."
A tremulous grin disturbed the near-panic in her face. "Do I look worried?"
The sounds of the lift grew louder. Chakotay had never noticed them before. It actually did whine and
hum as it got a stride. Gilmore's breath was coming in short sucks. Her hands were clenched. Just a few moments more-
"Emergency stop!"
The lift bumped to a halt. Luckily, it was almost at a deck and finished its seating before stopping. An instant later, Gilmore was out in the corridor on deck six.
When Chakotay got out there, she was trembling freely.
"If you don't mind," she shivered, "I think I'd rather take the Jefferies tube ..."
And off she went, as if she knew where it was.
Chakotay indulged in an inward shrug and stepped after her. "I could use the exercise."
"I'm sorry if this is awkward for you, Captain Janeway, having both our crews on your ship, two captains, two first officers-"
Janeway smiled as she walked with Rudy Ransom through the tidy corridors of Voyager and counted her blessings. This was the fourth time he'd apologized for being a problem, getting in the way, stalling their forward progress, you name it.
"Captain, I keep telling you," Janeway said, "and one of these days you'll figure out that I'm not just being polite, it's nice to have a crowded ship for a change. Besides, it's not that crowded. New faces, new conversations, the reminder that Starfleet is really there and not just a figment of our imaginations-we're all enjoying ourselves. To do something positive for a
change? I'd go out of my way for this anytime. We all would."
Ransom shook his head in reverie. "Every time we had an attack, I broadcast a distress signal on a Federation channel. I did it to make the crew feel better just for those last horrible seconds before we died. Every time we thought we'd die... I just wanted the last thing they heard to be their captain's voice calling for assistance from a friendly ship, even if the friendly ship never came. I wanted the last sounds to be words of hope, not just that awful whine and the screams of their shipmates dying in the corners. I never thought anybody would ... actually answer. When Voyager responded," he added after a pause, "I thought I was hallucinating."
"You didn't act like that," Janeway comforted. "You responded sharply and got us over there. You told us what to do, we expanded our shields, and here you are. I'm amazed you could think so clearly after what you'd been through for so long."
"You