Have Tech, Will Travel (SCE Books 1-4) - Keith R. A. DeCandido_. [et al.] [102]
Duffy couldn’t help himself. “Sounds like what happened to me after breakfast.”
Ignoring Duffy, Lense did not even give him the satisfaction of an irritated look. “Based on what I learned from the Enterprise logs, the humanoids among us on both ships have an added concern. Our proximity to the area of interphase puts us at risk for irregular, paranoid and ultimately psychotic behavior, something we might as well call space madness.” Lense glanced at Duffy, as if she expected him to chime in again. He held his tongue as she rose from the table.
“Dr. McCoy believed it was this condition that killed the Defiant ’s crew, but he was able to develop a counteragent to the interphase’s effects on his ship, one that my team has already begun to administer to our crew.” She held up a hypospray. “I can give all of you your first inoculations now, if that’s not an interruption, Commander.”
With Gomez nodding assent, Lense rose from her chair and walked first to Duffy and placed the hypospray to his neck.
He leaned to one side and asked, “So what’s in this stuff, Doc?”
Lense grinned slightly, thumbing the hypo before answering Duffy’s hanging question. Through the hiss of the spray, she said simply, “Theragen.”
Duffy’s eyes widened in shock and he slapped his hand to his neck, nearly toppling his chair over in his haste to scramble to his feet.
“What? That stuff’s pure poison!” Basic Starfleet combat history was rife with accounts of 23rd Century Klingon biochemical warfare and their use of theragen as a nerve gas, one quickly and painfully deadly to humans. Not an honorable way to fight a foe, Duffy believed, but times were different then.
Gold laughed aloud, as did Gomez and the others in the room. “Mr. Duffy, Dr. Lense has assured me that it’s merely a derivative. It’s perfectly safe and may even carry a slight intoxicating effect.”
“That’s correct,” Lense added. Her right eyebrow rose in an almost Vulcan fashion as she added, “Dr. McCoy also saw fit to include a recipe for mixing the counteragent with Scotch, based apparently on field testing by the ship’s engineer, whom we all know, of course.” The doctor’s deadpan delivery evoked another chorus of laughs from the group.
“Well, if it’s good enough for Captain Scott,” Duffy said, “far be it from me to say no to a nip of the hard stuff, Doc.” He tried to laugh it off but his adrenaline needed another moment to simmer.
As Lense made her way around the others, she paused at P8 Blue’s seat. “Pattie, I want to monitor the interphase’s effects on you before your inoculation. I don’t think the theragen is necessary.”
“I will report any irregularities at once, Doctor.”
Satisfied with Lense’s report, Gomez turned her attention back to the group. “So those of us headed to the Defiant are ready. The plan is for Soloman and me to install a series of portable generators to the Defiant ’s systems, as she’s sure to be completely drained of power. It won’t restore full functionality, but we should be able to activate the maneuvering thrusters and gain limited control of some shipboard systems. Pattie will verify the ship’s systems to make sure they can handle the power and prepare ship’s thrusters to help coax us out of the rift, assuming they will still work.
“Dr. Lense, your job is to keep an eye on us and gather what data you can on the physiological effects of the interphase phenomenon.” The physician confirmed the instructions with a single nod.
“Captain, I need you to get whatever information you can from the Defiant ’s logs and pass anything to me that might help us.”
“That’s hardly an order, Commander,” said Gold and smiled. “You have no idea how much I want to hear the answers to our questions about the Defiant in the words of Captain Blair himself.”
She then turned to Duffy. “Commander, what have you got for me?”
He almost stammered, knowing she playfully chose those words to catch him off guard before the whole team. It went a long way toward calming the fresh wave of butterflies that had formed in his gut.
“I wish I could say we’re going to be as busy as your team.