Marooned - Christie Golden [12]
Much as we aboard Voyager have learned to value Kes's contributions, we remain utterly at a loss as to why someone would set up so complex a trap for one member of the crew, and indeed, a member with the least amount of useful knowledge of our technology. Perhaps they were in need of her medical skills. But in that case, why not kidnap the doctor? They obviously are familiar with holographic emitters and could use him very effectively.
Armed with as much information about our enemy as we can glean from the ruins of Oasis, we are attempting to track the vessel that absconded with Kes. However, some things are easier said than done.
Harry Kim sighed, leaned back, and knuckled his reddened eyes.
"I don't understand it," said B'Elanna Torres for the umpteenth time. Her fingers drummed an impatient tattoo on the console. "They can't simply have vanished."
Anger and frustration simmered in her voice. The incident had shaken the entire crew. Torres in particular had reacted badly, with embarrassment and contained rage combined in a vitriolic brew. Somehow, she seemed to think that she should have expected the attack, even though there hadn't been the slightest reason to believe anything was amiss on Oasis. Somehow, she seemed to think she should have stopped it, prevented Kes's kidnapping, and saved Neelix and Paris in the bargain.
Kim started to reply, also for the umpteenth time, that the ships could have some sort of cloaking technology, but he closed his mouth. Torres would then answer, as she had repeatedly, that they had looked for that and found no indication of it. And he would then insist, again, that perhaps these aliens had different cloaking technology that could remain undiscovered by the Federation's tachyon detection grid technique and... Isn't it amazing, thought Kim with a good deal of sarcasm, all the conversations you can have without ever opening your mouth.
Torres sulked a moment longer, than sat erect in her chair. She squared her shoulders in a gesture of stubborn defiance. "Let's take a look at this one more time."
Inwardly, Kim groaned.
The chief engineer pointed to the colorful schematic on the computer screen. "Okay. This is what Oasis looked like when we entered into orbit."
Kim stared dully at the images of the slowly turning space station with the three ships of varying types snugly docked in the port. They blurred around the edges as he gazed at them. He blinked hard to clear his vision.
Rapidly Torres tapped on the computer keypads. The image shifted. "This is approximately forty minutes later." The three ships disengaged, almost simultaneously, and headed off in three different directions. "And about thirty minutes after that, Captain Janeway found out that something was wrong. So they've got a half-hour lead on us."
"Half hour," repeated Kim, his voice slightly slurred with exhaustion. "B'Elanna-"
"We tracked the first one's warp particle trail. Dead end. Second and third, the same. How is it possible, Harry?" She turned her dark-fire eyes upon him almost accusingly, as if he had the answers. "How could they just disappear? There's not the slightest trace of tachyon emissions or anything that would even hint at the activation of a cloaking device!"
Harry felt his head droop and he jerked it upright. "B'Elanna," he began, as gently as he could, "it's oh three thirty. We've done pretty well on Neelix's coffee thus far but if we keep this up much longer I'm going to start seeing white rabbits with pocket watches running around."
She narrowed her eyes. "What the hell are you talking about, Starfleet?"
Kim was suddenly embarrassed. "You know," he stammered as he felt his face grow hot, "Alice in Wonderland Didn't your mom read that to you when you were a kid?"
A shadow fell on Torres's face. "My mother never read to me," she replied softly.
Kim closed his eyes. Foot in mouth again. "Well, anyway, it's a