Flashback - Diane Carey [36]
She gazed out the portal at the swirling nebula, the mindless stars, the beckoning and endless distance. For an instant she was alone in space.
"Sickbay to Captain Janeway."
For a moment she almost didn't answer, didn't want to be disturbed.
"Go ahead, Doctor."
"I'm ready to revive Mr. Tuvok."
"Acknowledged," she said. "I'm on my way."
"Send to Commander, Enterprise. 'We stand ready to assist you. Captain Sulu, U.S.S. Excelsior.'"
Captain Sulu
Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country
CHAPTER 11
"YOUR MIND TO MY MIND . . . YOUR THOUGHTS TO MY
thoughts. I am taking us back to the boy I once was . . . the boy lying on the precipice ..."
Scents of burning insulation. Deck carpet sizzling with ash and sparks. The hot stink of seared conduits still struggling to push electrons through their connections.
That new scent that wouldn't go away for months.
The faint click of a neurocortical monitor. Yes, she could hear that too.
But the smells were her first clues that they weren't on a plateau on Vulcan. She opened her eyes-when had she closed them?-and found herself standing at the science station where Tuvok was assigned. She was back on the bridge of the Excelsior.
Red alert lights flashed, and the klaxon whooped.
Smoke stung her eyes and cramped her lungs. The ship bolted and dropped, surged and bucked. Battle!
"Try rerouting power to the containment field!"
"Stabilizing. But I don't know how much longer I can hold her together."
"Targeting array is on manual!"
"Target the lead battle cruiser, full photon spread."
"Firing . . . direct hit to their drive systems. They're dropping out of warp."
"Starboard shields are off-line!"
"Bring us about."
"All stop. Shut down our primary systems." Captain Sulu came forward out of the stenchy smoke.
This was the near end of the battle with the Klingons, exactly the same as the first time she had entered Tuvok's mind. He had come back to the same place again. The same dialogue replayed around Janeway as she looked for Tuvok.
She knew where to look.
There he was, on the command deck, holding the scorched body of Dimitri Valtane.
He laid Valtane on the deck with hopeless finality, then came to join Janeway. His face was creased with the same confusion she felt at having been thrust back here again.
"We're back in the battle with the Klingons," she said. "Eighty years ago."
"I am at a loss to explain, Captain," he attempted. "But it's hard to accept this as a coincidence."
She looked around and stayed quiet, curious about what would happen. This time she wanted to play it
out, to see if anything changed that would've affected Tuvok.
"They're closing from all directions, Captain," the helmsman said. "We're surrounded!"
"All stop," Sulu said. "Shut down our primary systems. Warp drive, sensors, tactical, shields- everything except minimal life support."
Rand twisted around. "Sir?"
"We're nearly dead," Sulu told her. "We might as well act like it."
The crew went to work. Gradually the battered supership wheezed to the least of trickling power. Half the lights went off. Systems crackling for attention and beeping for care went suddenly silent.
"All systems are off-line," Rand reported with the calm of defeat. "We're dead in space."
Sulu moved to a console and watched it. "Everyone play possum. Helm ... as soon as they've closed to within fifty kilometers, I want you to jump to high warp."
Janeway couldn't help a teasing grin. That was the oldest trick in the book. Of course, eighty years ago it wasn't so old yet, was it?
The helmsman looked around at Sulu. "But, sir, with our shields this low, that kind of acceleration might-"
Sulu nodded. "Let's just hope the warp core holds."
A tense pause, and everybody set jaw and waited.
Only Janeway snickered with hindsight. The Excelsior class eventually proved itself out as very tough. To these people, the design was fairly new.
They didn't know what a workhorse the class would