Equinox - Diane Carey [38]
"You can count on me, sir," Lessing said, as if making up for his brief lapse.
"I'll disengage the power couplings from engineering."
Ransom gave them his best confident posture. He was telling them they had to leave the comfort and safety of salvation to go back into the trenches, but soldiers had been doing that for centuries uncounted. From the Roman marches to the Battle of the Bulge,
from Tarkus to Cardassia, troopers had returned to the pit of hell for the sake of duty. At least they were going together, shoulder to shoulder, without contamination from a bunch of people who wore the same uniform but who would never understand how that uniform looks when it's soaked in bloody mud.
"You'll have time for one more shower," he told them. "Make the most of it."
CHAPTER
7
KATHRYN JANEWAY SAT STILL AND SCRATCHED HER HAND, disturbed. If only Ransom had fought a little, argued some, defended his command, just for a few minutes. She'd quoted half a regulation, and he'd folded to it without even checking.
Somehow she felt worse than if he'd argued.
Now Seven and Tuvok were reporting a power fluctuation in the security grid, within tolerance, but still troubling. It shouldn't have happened. Everything was on-line, being monitored, being tended. This was Red Alert, not a coffee klatsch.
Seven, standing before the captain in her ready room as Janeway sat at her desk, explained that she had tried to correct the flux, illustrating her efforts on a cutaway graphic. It zoomed into a single deck section as Seven explained.
"The discrepancy is in the research lab on Equinox. I could tune our field generator to match it, if we can determine the frequency of that multiphasic chamber. The lab, however, is still permeated with thermionic radiation."
"I thought it would have dissipated by now, Captain," Tuvok said, almost apologetically. "We discovered that three EPS conduits have been rerouted to the lab. They are emitting the radiation."
Janeway looked at the PADD he handed her. "Any theories?"
"Only one," Tuvok said bluntly. "Ransom doesn't want us to enter the research lab."
"He has been adamant about protecting his ship. I thought it was simply a captain's pride ..."
But maybe I'm being a sympathetic jerk and he's outthinking me.
"I want to take a closer look at that lab," she decided. "If we can close off those EPS conduits, how long will it take to vent the radiation?"
"Several hours," Seven said.
Janeway frowned. She was getting to hate that word several. How many? Two? Ten?
"I don't want to wait that long. Send The Doctor. He'll be immune to its effects. Tell him to look for anything out of the ordinary."
"Shall I notify Captain Ransom?" Tuvok asked. He was right to ask.
"Not yet." Janeway lowered her voice despite the privacy here. Perhaps it was the distaste in her mouth that made her quieter. "Let's wait until we test your theory.
Have The Doctor maintain an open comlink and give us continuous reports while he looks around. Tell me when he's in."
"Captain?"
"Oh-Chakotay." Janeway sighed, greeting him wearily as Tuvok and Seven turned to leave the ready room. Like most of the crew they were uncomfortable here and usually tried to leave quickly. This, unlike the bridge or the briefing room, was the captain's private domain, on the edge of action. Through that door was public land. Here, not so. This was the think tank, but only the captain's. More private even than her quarters, she actually spent much more time here than there.
"Am I disturbing you?" Chakotay asked when they were alone.
"No, not at all. You look tired. Sit down for a minute."
"Only a minute," he accepted. "We've shored up the shield power by tapping into the impulse pellet containment system, gained maybe another hour and some minutes. Time to breathe, at least."
"Any information about these life forms attacking us? That's what I really want."
"Nothing substantial. Well, nothing helpful."
"No communication. Language."