Flashback - Diane Carey [42]
Chakotay sighed. Sometimes he wanted to go sit on a rock and just sit.
"Torres to bridge."
"Chakotay."
"We're about to launch. I'm going to start feeding readings through to you right now."
"Acknowledge d. Feed them through to Mr. Kim's tactical monitors. Mr. Kim?"
"Ready, sir."
"Go ahead, B'Elanna."
"Acknowledged. Beginning feed. . . and launching."
Holding his breath without even realizing he was doing it, Chakotay clenched his jaw and watched as the shuttlecraft looped up from under Voyager's port belly and plunged headlong into the depths of the blue nebula. At first, the shuttlecraft seemed to be steady on its course. Then it surged into a choppy swirl and started twisting against its own course.
"Shuttle's power grid is flickering," Kim reported. "It doesn't like whatever's out there."
Chakotay glanced at him. "Give them a few minutes. They've got their hands full."
He watched until he couldn't see the small dot anymore, and was glad the sensors could still see it.
Looked awfully small out there in that chewing mass of energy. What if there were gravity wells hiding in that mess? The shuttle's thin hull would be crushed like a rotten melon.
Too late. Should've thought of that ten minutes ago.
Damn.
"Mr. Kim?" he prodded when he couldn't stand the silence anymore.
"They're still alive, sir."
Not exactly the response he was hoping for. Something a little more technical would've been reassuring this time. Chakotay watched the screen, as if he could hold on to the shuttlecraft if he could only see it.
"Shuttlecraft to Voyager." Paris's voice came over the comm with a notable rasp as the signal bucked interference from inside the tumbling, unfriendly nebula.
"Chakotay here. What are the conditions, Mr. Paris?"
"Some very rough seas in here. B'Elanna's running around in the shuttle like a- "
"Don't you dare continue that."
"Well, she's running around. The scoop is deploying and I'm about to shut down engine thrust, so we'll be tumbling around with the strongest waves. Theoretically, that'll automatically take us through the most dense sirillium deposits. Be aware that once I shut down the engines I won't be able to restart them again in the middle of this soup, not without igniting
the sirillium. If you can't pull us out with your tractor beams, we'll just be a kind of weird Christmas ornament rolling around inside this thing just about forever."
Chakotay felt his stomach tighten. "Acknowledged. We'll get you out if we have to come in and throw a net over you."
"And who's going to throw a net over you, then?"
"You let me worry about that."
"Oh, no, Commander, I can share. After I shut down, there won't be anything for me to do out here but worry."
"I'm sure B'Elanna will keep you busy. What's your planned course?"
"I'm powering straight into the vein to the far side, then I'm going to loop around so our thrust is pushing us back toward you. That's when I'll cut engines. With a little luck, the corkscrew currents we're reading in there will keep moving us along the same general direction until you can pick us up visually. At that point we'll let you know if we can stand to stay out here any longer, or if our tanks are full If you can see us but not contact us, I'd suggest you bring us back without confirmation."
"Understood. Tractor beam is standing by."
"B'Elanna says she's ready to start collecting the sirillium. Coming about to course one-four-four in three . . . two . . . one . . . mark. Engine shutdown in five seconds. Five . . . four..."
"Sir," Harry Kim spoke up, "I can read the corkscrew wave he's entering, and I think I have a fix
on the shuttlecraft, but there are a lot of sensor echoes out there. I'm losing him every few seconds and having to reacquire."
"Do your best, Mr. Kim. Stay on top of it. We might have to change