Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [95]
” sit up too quickly,” the Vulcan doctor finished acidly.
It was at that point that Shelby realized they were in a shuttlecraft. She looked up at Calhoun in confusion, her face a question.
Easily reading her mind, Calhoun took her hand and said, “Back on Sinqay, our respective science officers managed to re-create the energy field that hauled us through to the ice world. Once they did that, they sent a shuttlecraft through after us.”
“But… but how will we… get back from here? Back through the energy field?”
“No.” It was Dr. Selar who spoke up. “We tried. But the field is rather unique in that it appears to be only one way.”
“Then… how ?”
“No need to worry,” Calhoun assured her. “McHenry’s helming the shuttlecraft. He has us pegged as three days out of Thallonian space.”
That was immediately enough to assuage Shelby’s worries. Mark McHenry may have struck her as one of the odder crewmen on the Excalibur, but if there was one thing that was certain, it was that his ability to know where he was anywhere in the galaxy was unerring, even uncanny. If he said it was going to take them three days to get back home from wherever the ice world had been, then that was quite simply that.
“You were very fortunate,” said Selar. “You mean that you showed up when you did?” asked Calhoun.
“That too. But I was referring to the fact that I am your doctor.” And with that, she headed toward the front of the craft, leaving Shelby and Calhoun alone in the rear section.
She squeezed his hand tightly. “Any regrets?” whispered Shelby.
He smiled and said, “I’ll tell you after I’m dead.”
And for a moment, just a brief moment… she thought that she saw pain and a longing for something he now knew he could never have, or never be happy with. But then, just like that, it was gone once more.
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
THE OTHER SIDE
Robert Greenberger
Prologue
Deanna Troi, carefully cupping her mug of hot chocolate, curled her feet underneath her legs and stared at the viewscreen in the captain’s quarters. She disliked the decor and would have preferred to let the Marco Polo ‘s real captain keep his space, but he was far from his starship and she was in temporary command. She had grown accustomed to making snap decisions and thought she was doing an adequate job, especially when her Sabre-class vessel had been bombarded by enemy fire.
The counselor-turned-commander had grown fond of her adopted crew and thought they performed well, especially since, like her, they had been thrown together with little warning. She missed the ones that had been dispatched for what Will Riker called “extended baby-sitting,” but they were doing their duty. As she was doing her own.
What Deanna truly came to discover about command, though, was that when being the one in charge, you quite often had to wait for the crew to perform their tasks before you could issue your next orders. And the waiting was more dangerous than Romulan disruptor fire.
“Any change, Will?” she asked the image on the viewscreen.
Riker, looking like he had not slept in a day, shook his head. He was speaking from his personal quarters on the Enterprise, just a few hundred kilometers away but seeming like he was in another quadrant.
“Nothing at all,” he replied. “The captain’s been gone for six hours now without a word.” She sipped at her chocolate, hoping its magical restorative powers would keep her alert for the next shift, which began in less than fifteen minutes. “And Doral?”
“Still sitting in his guest quarters, looking at images of his remaining ships. When power failed on one, we had to help evacuate the crew to other ships nearby. They’re down to forty-eight and it’s getting a little cramped for them.”
“The odds improve, don’t they?”
“Our sixteen against their forty-eight is still three-to-one odds. Wouldn’t expect that to stay the same the way things are going.” Riker seemed to be busying himself onscreen