Equinox - Diane Carey [52]
"Tuvok to bridge. The field generator is off-line. Its power couplings were disengaged."
Torres' voice sounded in the deep background. "Someone reconfigured the internal sensors so we couldn't detect it!"
Janeway leaned forward and shouted at the monsters in the mirror.
"Whatever it takes, get that grid on-line!"
CHAPTER
9
ARMED AND DANGEROUS. GRIPPING THE PHASER RIFLE he'd taken from one of the unconscious security guards outside the crew quarters, Rudy Ransom led his handful of crew down the Voyager's corridor, pleased at their skill with ignoring the rumbling and shaking that ravaged the ship.
Unlike the Voyager crew, who were disoriented every time the ship wracked, his own team rushed right through it. This had become their normal habitat.
Luckily they were all here, held in the same astound-ingly comfortable and clean crew's quarters-Burke, Gilmore, Lessing, Morrow, Nash, Tassoni, and Sofin.
"You broke us out just in time," he said over his shoulder to their doctor. "How are you moving around outside of sickbay?"
"This device on my arm is a mobile emitter," the
doctor explained as he jogged. "Evidently they acquired it from someone they encountered in the Delta Quadrant."
"It figures," Ransom complained. "They've had a lot more luck than we have. Lessing, keep up, kid!"
"Right behind you, sir!"
"It'll take them days to untangle that field generator. Now Miss Janeway will be getting a taste of what we've been through. I hope she chokes on it. Max, where's the rest of the crew?"
"They're all being held on Equinox, Rudy. At least, they were last I heard."
"We've got to get off the ship."
From behind, the doctor called, "I re-routed transporter control to a panel in the next junction. We can-"
Phaser fire threw a grid of blistering light bands across their path. Security guards!
Ransom shoved Gilmore down an adjoining corridor, then lay down a blanket of covering fire. "Doctor! Lead them off! Meet us back on Equinox!"
"Aye, aye. I'll ditch the emitter and meet you on board."
"Go!"
As the doctor rushed down the corridor, the two security guards took the bait and followed him, apparently not recognizing him in the flash and dust of phaser fire. Good. Ransom had bet on that.
Continuing to lay down fire, he gestured the others around the corner.
"They've sealed off the deck!" Burke said.
"Don't worry."
Ransom stopped at the wall junction panel and worked it.
"We're getting out of here. When we beam on board, Max and I will go straight to the bridge. Maria, you'll have to go to engineering and stun that Borg girl before she gets a report that we've escaped. How fast can you move?"
"You can beam me directly there, Rudy. Just divide the transporter focus."
"You set the beam."
"Aye, sir."
"Let's go."
They rushed into the transporter room, a little adjunct chamber that wasn't the main transporter room. Luckily, Starfleet had standardized long ago and the minimum number of pads for any secondary transporter room was now eight-to handle large emergencies, under the assumption that adjunct transporters had to be used only in times of crisis.
Just enough.
"Set the controls, Maria."
Ransom motioned the others to take position on the pads while he turned back to the door panel and used his phaser rifle to fry the locking mechanism.
Now it'd take a torch to get in. Perfect.
"I've set it to automatic, split beam." Maria worked the panel and spoke over the next thrum of attack. "Their shields are down-forty percent!"
"Doesn't give us much time," Max commented. An old story for them.
"Everybody stay where you are," Maria said. "There's no second chance. They've detected the unauthorized transport... they're trying to block it. I'm bypassing the Ops controls! Now or never!"
She jumped up onto the only empty pad and drew her phaser.
Ransom shouldered his rifle. "Next stop, the Equinox!"
"Janeway to Seven of Nine! Seven! Respond!"
"Just ignore them. What've we got, Max?"
"Maria must've