Equinox - Diane Carey [62]
Just before Janeway would've fired to defend Kim, the alien stopped in midair. Its head changed, turning bulbous and softer. It seemed confused, opening and closing its knuckly fingers, kneading its palms with two-inch claws. Obviously a predator, she noted in a silly instant of detachment.
As if they didn't know that.
But it had stopped. It was hovering.
She began to reach out her hand in what she hoped was a universal gesture, but suddenly the creature reversed itself, flashing its tail, and disappeared back inside the globe, which collapsed almost immediately, taking the warning tone with it.
Well, there's hospitality.
At least it was quiet now.
"Raise shields," Janeway remembered to order.
Everyone turned to Kim and waited as he fidgeted at his controls. "If they understood our message," he said, "they haven't responded."
The ship shook briefly, a shudder like a sailboat taking a blunt wave. Another attack.
"There's your response," Janeway told them, letting
herself sound as harsh as she felt. "Activate your deflector pulse."
"Shields are holding at sixty-two percent," Tuvok said.
"That should buy us another few minutes of peace and quiet. I suggest we make the most of it. Focus your efforts on repairing the warp drive. We've got to find the Equinox."
Shoulder slumped, Chakotay picked up the PADD with the apparently useless fractals. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to take another stab at this message. If we reword-"
"They're not listening, Chakotay. We should be tracking Ransom, not tinkering with adverbs."
Get out-off the bridge, before this all starts again. She pushed away from the command center and headed for her ready room, feeling a few gashes in her spirit that needed licking.
When she got in there, the door didn't close behind her right away.
He had followed her in.
"Want your first officer's advice?" he asked. Somehow he managed to keep from putting emphasis on any of those key words.
"Allow me." Janeway turned to face him. " 'Our deflector is losing power, and when it fails we'll be defenseless. It's Voyager we should be worrying about, not the Equinox.' "
"You'd make a great first officer," he said. "It's advice worth taking."
"Maybe so. But we have a crew member trapped on that ship."
"Is this really about Seven?" Chakotay asked, risking opening the can of worms. "Or is it about him? Ransom?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Janeway said, and she knew-they both knew-she was lying.
"You've been known to hold a grudge," he said. 'This man betrayed Starfleet. He broke the Prime Directive, dishonored everything you believe in, and threw Voyager to the wolves."
She could've gotten a great I-told-you-so. He seemed to have changed his tune, or at least a few notes of it. Or perhaps he was baiting her again to see what the past hours' events had done to her.
"Borg, Hirogen, Malon," she ticked off. "We've run into our share of bad guys. Ransom's no different."
"Yes, he is. You said it yourself. He's human. I don't blame you for being angry, but you can't compromise the safety of this ship to satisfy some personal vendetta."
"I appreciate your candor," she said in a warning tone. "Now let me be as blunt. You're right, I am angry. I'm damned angry. He's a Starfleet captain and he's decided to abandon everything this uniform stands for. He's out there right now, torturing and murdering innocent life forms just to get home a little quicker. I'm not going to stand for it. I'm going to hunt him down no matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost. If you want to call that a vendetta, then go right ahead."
On the saw-toothed challenge, Chakotay began to turn and leave, then changed his mind. Perhaps the cloying understanding of near-death held him here, and
the fact that they were a long way from out of this. Janeway deplored the fact that he really was doing his job,