Miracle Workers (SCE Books 5-8) - Keith R. A. DeCandido_. [et al.] [2]
“Even if the rift was open,” Gomez said, “the Defiant’s maneuvering thrusters aren’t enough to push us out on their own.” The generators they had brought with them from the da Vinci would never be enough to power the ship’s massive impulse engines, to say nothing about the warp drive.
Gold shrugged. “Then we’ll just have to find another way, won’t we?”
“Captain,” Gomez said, “what if we do get out? The Tholians could be waiting on the other side of the rift for us. We’d be sitting ducks.”
“Given a choice between waiting here for who knows what to happen or taking our chances in normal space,” Gold replied, “I choose the latter option.”
The chirp of his suit communicator interrupted their conversation; it was followed by the voice of Dr. Elizabeth Lense, the da Vinci’s chief medical officer.
“Lense to Captain Gold. I have an emergency situation and require assistance.”
“Doctor?” Gold called out, his voice rising a notch. “Are you all right? What about Pattie?”
Shortly after beaming to the Defiant, P8 Blue, the S.C.E. team’s resident Nasat engineer, had detected an odd power source emanating from deep within the ship. Gold had sent her and Dr. Lense to investigate, and they had found a strange device of Tholian design stored in one of the ship’s cargo holds. To the best of Gold’s knowledge, Pattie and Lense had remained down there during the Tholian attack. He had sudden visions of the pair caught in a maelstrom of cargo containers and equipment tumbling about the cargo hold free from the restraints of gravity, and Pattie and Lense frantically seeking cover from the potentially lethal assault.
“I am uninjured,” Lense replied to the captain, miraculously maintaining her composed tone of voice, “but we are not in the cargo bay. During the attack, a section of the hull destabilized and Pattie fell out into space. As she was already unconscious, I had no choice but to follow.”
“What?” Gold said. “You mean you’re drifting in space outside the ship?”
“No, sir. I managed to get us back, but by then the hull had solidified again. I am standing on the exterior of the ship, and I can find no sign of an airlock or other entry point. Pattie has sustained a concussion. She needs medical treatment.”
Gold looked to Gomez. “Transporters? Can we beam her directly to the bridge?”
The engineer shook her head. “There’s no power to the transporters, sir, and no way to remote control them from up here. Someone would have to be in the transporter room on deck seven.”
Gold turned to the science station to find Soloman already working at the sensor controls. He didn’t have to wait long before the Bynar looked up.
“I have located them, Captain. The closest entrance to . . . the ship is a maintenance airlock on the . . . starboard side of deck fourteen. I can direct her to that location . . . from here, but the hatch will have to be opened manually.”
Lense’s voice carried a note of concern. “I’m not sure if I can do that by myself and take care of Pattie at the same time.”
“I can meet her there, Captain,” Gomez said. “Soloman can give me directions to the hatch, and I’ll get there through the Jefferies tubes.” She knew that navigating the crawlspaces and maintenance throughways connecting nearly every point on the starship would be difficult while wearing her environment suit, but that would be offset somewhat by the absence of the ship’s artificial gravity field.
“Sounds like a plan,” Gold said, nodding his approval. “In the meantime, Soloman and I are going to do some more detective work. It’s pretty obvious that whatever set the Tholians off has something to do with that little tchotchke that Pattie and the doctor found in the cargo bay.”
CHAPTER
2
Today was the last day Kieran Duffy wanted an excuse to lie down on the job.
Yet mere minutes after his first space battle as the commanding officer of a Starfleet vessel, he was sprawled across the deck plates in the main engineering room of the