Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [105]
Sisko set the ship down where the Sliwoni authorities instructed him to. A party of officials met Albatross at the designated landing area, scanned a few of the containers, issued travel permits good for three days and maps to the nearest town, then went on their way. Fascinated by their traditional use of archery, Tuvok set about gathering native materials to construct a longbow.
Once again Sisko suggested the landing party work in teams.
“I don’t want to leave the ship unattended. Even sealed up she’s vulnerable, no matter how many reassurances the Sliwoni authorities give us. We should either pair up, or at least Tuvok and I should take turns remaining behind.”
“Agreed,” Tuvok said.
More than a little surprised that this time he’d gotten no argument, Sisko organized his thoughts.
“Right now my main concern is getting that environmental adapter back online. Apparently it’s the one thing Heisenberg overlooked in the refit, and he didn’t leave me a spare. I can gather air and soil samples in the vicinity of the ship while the rest of you go into town. Then tomorrow I can go with Selar and Zetha while you stay with the ship.”
This seemed to sit well with Tuvok, who nodded in agreement, then returned to sanding the riser on the longbow, deep in concentration.
Zetha found him testing the tensile strength of the completed bow.
“Must I go with you this time?” she asked quietly.
Tuvok unstrung the bow and considered. She had been inordinately calm and quick to react when the Quirinians were on board. Had the event taken more of a toll on her than was evident?
“Do you wish to remain here?”
Still unable to ask directly for anything, she shrugged.
“Selar and I will be employing our Vulcan cover,” Tuvok said. “There is no necessity for you to accompany us. You may remain here with Lieutenant Sisko if you wish.”
“I’ll speak to him,” she said, and was gone.
Sisko was up to his elbows in machine parts. Assuming he was alone, he was cursing in all the languages he knew.
“Not going well, is it?” Zetha asked over his shoulder.
She was sitting cross-legged in the doorway, looking like nothing so much as a mischievous elf. That was another thing about her that got under his skin. She was never outright disrespectful, but she didn’t go out of her way to be anything more than civil, either. Sisko found himself glowering at her. “Thought I told you to stay out of the engine room?”
“I’m not in the engine room,” she pointed out. “I’m sitting on the floor of the gangway looking into the engine room.”
“It’s not a ‘floor,’ it’s a deck,” Sisko said crossly, then realized how petty he sounded.
“Something’s wrong with that thing,” Zetha observed. “You’ve been fussing with it for days. Is it dangerous?”
“Not at the moment,” Sisko said, turning his back on her, tinkering. “But it’s failing. If it fails altogether while we’re in space, it could affect the air we breathe.”
“Enough to kill us?”
“Probably not.”
“But it might?”
She’s a kid, Sisko reminded himself. She’s concerned about her welfare, that’s all. He gave her his complete attention.
“Remote possibility. If I can’t fix the adapter. Which I can. Or jury-rig a bypass. Or, worst case scenario, go into town and see if the Sliwoni have something similar I can trade for.”
“Is that likely?”
Sisko returned to his tinkering. “According to Starfleet records, they trade with humans. Their tech is a little behind ours and, given the age of some of Albatross’s original components, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“So they’d use it in their offworld ships?”
Sisko sighed. Even Jake didn’t ask so many questions when he knew his dad was busy.
“It’s a universal adapter. Could