Flashback - Diane Carey [44]
"Are you willing to do it?" she demanded.
He stared at her. "Do what?"
She reached to one side and picked up a hypo. What was inside didn't matter for the point she was trying to make. "Will you do it? Go to Tuvok and kill him?"
Neelix stood back from the hypo, his hands at his sides, and stared at it.
Kes shook it before him. "That's what you're talking about, isn't it? This will do it, Neelix."
She summoned the tough shield she had seen others on this ship use to protect themselves from their own fears when danger demanded their resolve. There wasn't much she could do for these people, these strangers from another part of the galaxy who had risked their lives for her, saved her, embraced her, and given her purpose.
"This is the only way," she told him gently, but firmly. "We're part of this crew now. We have to stand together. Tuvok can't take the stress all by himself. I've got to do this for him. Maybe I'm helping purge some of this in some way. I have to take it, for his sake, just as he would for mine." She stepped toward him, lowering the hypo. "And I can't take the stress of worrying about what you're going to do, Neelix. I have to know you'll hold to your promise and say nothing about this to anyone. It's my decision. Promise me. Promise me, Neelix. Or things will be forever changed between us."
CHAPTER 13
"MAINTAIN COURSE."
Captain Hikaru Sulu didn't seem surprised that Klingons had appeared, but did seem oddly irritated that his plans were compromised by the hostile race's defense of their own territory. Apparently he'd made his decision and was staying the course.
Did he really intend to go all the way to the Klingon homeworld, or perhaps to Rura Penthe itself, and effect the rescue personally? Or was he making a show, distracting Klingon firepower and attention away from whatever the Enterprise was doing on its own?
Janeway had her own suspicions. Was Sulu actually expecting to beat back three Klingon cruisers?
No-that didn't make sense. If he'd wanted his
presence in the vicinity to remain secret, he would've destroyed Kang's ship straight off. But he hadn't-in fact, he'd given them plenty of time to send off their communication to these three. Now four of the Klingon's main fleet vessels were involved with the Excelsi or, instead of somewhere else. If Janeway remembered correctly, the whole Klingon fleet was comprised of only about ten heavy cruisers.
And four were here.
Sulu was creating a diversion. That had to be the answer.
The ship went into warp maneuvering at almost the same instant as the Klingon ships started firing volleys of torpedoes. The Excelsior rocked viciously, but held her course straight back toward the depths of Klingon space, ensuring that these Klingons would be nice and mad, and concentrating right here, right now.
"Return fire!" Sulu finally freed his crew to react, now that he had allowed the Klingons to get nice and close, close enough to be fully engaged and not veer off casually. He wanted their full attention and was willing to risk his ship to get it.
In person, as if invited by command request, Captain Kathryn Janeway witnessed just the kind of bootstrap resolve she'd only imagined in these captains of the last century. She found herself enjoying it, even learning. She thought those days of command surprises were over for her.
But, of course, she'd yet to participate in a full-
blown war on a long-term basis, or the touchy beginnings of a war, or even the touchy beginnings of peace. She found herself hungry to keep watching.
"Evasive pattern Delta-Six," Sulu dictated, suddenly very calm.
"Aye, Captain," the helmsman said. "Evasive pattern Delta-Six."
At tactical, Rand said, "They're closing to two thousand kilometers. Three more vessels are coming within sensor range!"
Valtane sucked a hard breath. "Captain, torpedoes incoming, aft and forward!"
"Shipwide alert-all hands, brace for impact."
The ship bolted hard to port and down a full ten degrees,