Marooned - Christie Golden [59]
Despite his frustration and annoyance with himself, Kim had to smile. Lyssa grinned and punched him playfully in the arm. Her impish sense of humor had staved off many an argument over the last few hours.
Resigning himself to the taste, he took a bite of the hard, compacted food and chewed, thinking.
Why couldn't they crack it?
His dark eyes roved over the bridge. They'd been able to establish comfortable gravity and life-support, both from what apparently served as engineering. Kim wished desperately that he could have had a whole engineering crew beamed over here, but it simply hadn't been possible. He and Campbell had gone over every inch of the vessel in the last two-plus days, keeping in touch constantly with Carey and the others who were on the other two ships.
He'd been able to figure out how to operate the life' iort system with ease and in the process had teamed some valuable things about the beings who had designed these ships. The mixture of oxygen and nitrogen was similar, if not identical, to that commonly inhaled by Earth-born dwellers. A slight adjustment in the mixture, increasing the percentage of oxygen and adding a bit more argon and carbon dioxide, and it was comparable to Voyager's. So, it could have been Aren's people who had designed these ships.
That theory evaporated once he and Campbell had reached what served as the bridge. There were no seats at all. Kim sat down in front of one of the consoles and could barely reach it, though the bright buttons and gleaming lights indicated that beings with some sort of digits-and opposable thumbs-had operated the vessels.
They were big, whatever-whoever-they had been. And they didn't like chairs.
The gravity hadn't been too difficult to restore either. There was a vast network of forcefield generators, easily located and identified with tricorders and almost as easy to operate.
But the rest ... Lieutenant )Vfin, over on the team led by Carey, had been badly injured on his first attempt to break into the bridge navigational systems. He'd been stabilized, thanks to a well laden medikit, but a session with the doctor was in order when they were able to return to Voyager, which wouldn't be until this mission was completed. *Vfin had reportedly jokingly cried, "Keep delaying!" when this news was imparted to him.
Since that incident, they had all proceeded with utmost caution. Kim crunched a second bite of the dry bar and swallowed.
"just don't get it," he said for what felt like the thousandth time but was probably only the fortieth or so. "Why could we establish life support and gravity but not be able to break into any of the controls?"
Campbell shrugged her thin shoulders and finished her own rations. She rose, and extended a hand.
"Harry, if I knew that, I'd have made Lieutenant by now. Come on. Let's take another series of tricorder readings and see if anything's changed."
"If I'd have known this would be such easy traveling, I'd have packed heavier," Neelix told his little friend. Furball was draped around his neck like a living scarf. It chirped, as if in answer, and sniffed at Neelix's ear. Its tail tickled Neelix's nose.
Giggling, Neelix pushed the friendly little creature's triangular head away. "Stop that, silly thing," he admonished, smiling.
Somehow, the air didn't seem as thin as it had before. Perhaps he'd had time to adjust to it. Furball seemed to have quite the knack for finding food and water, and had become the friendly, clever little pet Neelix had never had. He wondered if perhaps he couldn't sway Janeway into letting him keep the little fellow.
If it weren't for the knowledge that Kes was trapped inside the desolate remains of New Hann, as the Sshoush-shin called it, Neelix could almost fancy himself enjoying this journey. He was soft from years of easy living aboard Voyager, and while that was nothing to be ashamed of as far as he was concerned, he found himself enjoying the sound sleep that