Equinox - Diane Carey [45]
The bridge turned cold as she entered. She sensed it, but as if she were walking into an hallucination. Chakotay, Tuvok, Seven, Paris, Kim, The Doctor, others ... she sensed the eyes of each one, and met none.
"Doctor," she said, looking at the main screen until she could muster what it took to look at him, "return to their research lab and retrieve all the data you can locate on the aliens. I want to find a way to communicate with them."
The normally bellicose hologram simply said, "Aye, Captain," and mobilized.
To Seven, Janeway gritted her teeth and stiffly said, "Go to their engine room. Take those warp core modifications off-line."
Seven didn't even muster the "aye" The Doctor had managed. She simply left. Even she, apparently, could feel the gravity change now that their grim captain was here, dragging her baggage.
Only Chakotay dared approach her as she lowered into her command chair.
"Captain?" he urged.
She dug her fingernails into the fake leather on the chair's arms. She didn't look at nun, or anyone.
"Let's try," she said, "to make first contact the right way."
CHAPTER
8
"WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO us?"
Maria Gilmore's question didn't exactly take Commander Chakotay by surprise, though he hadn't come up with an answer for something he expected to be asked.
"That's up to Captain Janeway," he said, shoving the responsibility over the wall. "You'll be confined to quarters until we find a way to make peace with these life forms you've been killing. If it's not too late."
Gilmore was anxious as they hurried down the corridor, with a security guard, fully armed with a phaser rifle, clomping behind them. Knowing she was technically in custody, her mood was tense and troubled, yet carried a certain flow of relief. For Chakotay, the guard was just added protection, but not against Gilmore.
'To be honest," she said, "I'm glad you stopped us. Living the rest of our lives knowing what we'd done..."
"You could've stopped yourself. Why didn't you?"
"I don't know ... when the captain ordered me to modify the warp core, I concentrated on the work. I tried not to think about how it was going to be used."
"Well, think about it now. Because we need your help."
He stopped at the door of the astrometrics lab-not her quarters, and not the brig.
"Commander?" She blinked, perplexed.
"After you."
In the lab, Seven of Nine was working at a console, and even her posture of aplomb was suffering from the frustration. On the domescreen, a graphic display showed the Equinox warp core and the weird modifications that had been made to it.
"We're having trouble making sense of all this," Chakotay told Gilmore.
"The schematics are encrypted," Seven pushed in. "I can't access them."
Chakotay kept looking at Gilmore. "Do you know the encryption codes?"
She hesitated. Her hands pressed to her thighs in a kind of resistance.
"Your captain's been relieved of command," Chakotay clarified. "You take orders from me now. Do you have the codes?"
With a blink as if awakening, she said, "Yes."
Seven stepped back from the console. "Proceed."
Gilmore did as ordered, though obviously she was uncertain and torn, her loyalties, training, and instincts all clashing.
Moving to her, Chakotay shifted from commanding officer to shipmate for a moment. "Think of it this way, Ensign. You might live with yourself a little easier."
While she worked, Gilmore's breathing was hollow and ragged as she fed the codes into the computer, then cleared the double-secured access authorization, using both her personal identification and Ransom's. That was a deep encryption, to need two IDs.
The guard was waiting for her at the door. As she turned, she flinched at the sight of him.
Turning to Seven one last time before incarceration, Gilmore sadly told her, "You said you wanted to learn more about humanity. But I guess we're not exactly prized examples. I'm sorry ..."
"On the contrary," Seven returned edgily, "you've taught me a great deal."
Unsettled by that,