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Releasing a breath, Duffy relaxed a bit. “So what do we do in the meantime?”

“Tell me how your repairs are farin’.”

It was a question Duffy hadn’t expected, as he had explained to the S.C.E. leader in detail during their earlier conversation just what damage the starship had suffered. “All systems are operational except for the warp drive, just like—”

“Ah,” Scott said with a sigh that was almost too dramatic. “And that’s givin’ ye lots of trouble to fix so close to the point of interphase, ye say.”

“No, sir,” Duffy replied, his puzzlement growing by the second. “We’re almost—”

“It may take hours to repair before ye can even head back to Federation space.”

Realization finally dawned, and a smile spread across Duffy’s face as he began to pick up on Captain Scott’s lead. It was a look that was shared by everyone else at the table.

“Oh, yes, sir. I’d say at least three—”

“Twelve hours to repair, ye say? I’ll let Admiral Ross know right away.” Scott nodded grimly and twitched a cheek. Duffy almost laughed aloud.

Did he just wink at me?

“Set your team to work, Mr. Duffy,” Scott said, then adjusted his tone to a more serious timbre. “But I’ll be needin’ a word alone with ye now.”

Here it comes, Duffy thought as everyone else rose from their seats, moving with only slightly less speed than they might exhibit during an emergency evacuation of the ship. Only Stevens paused just long enough to offer a “thumbs-up” gesture and to mouth the words “Good luck” before he, too, was gone. In seconds Duffy was alone in the room, leaving him to look squarely at the viewer and ready to get called down by the chief of the S.C.E. himself.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. So long, and thanks for all the . . .

“Mr. Duffy,” the seasoned engineer said, “did I ever tell ye what the most frightenin’ words I ever heard spoken on the bridge of a starship were?” Duffy shook his head as the veteran engineer continued. “Well, here they are: ‘Mr. Scott, you have the conn.’”

Duffy laughed in spite of himself, realizing now that the captain understood his plight all too well. He didn’t know many engineers who had risen through the ranks of command, at least not the engineers he perceived as being cut from the same cloth as he was. After all, why would an engineer want to command a starship rather than spend that time tearing it apart and putting it back together?

“An engineer’s job isn’t just to keep a starship runnin’. It’s to keep her crew safe,” said Scott. “Some of the best years I had in Starfleet were when I was third in command of the Enterprise. Keepin’ the crew safe; that’s what I kept in mind every time I had to sit in the center seat.

“Mr. Duffy, I’m gonna level with ye. That diplomat Marshall wants to hang this whole mess on you. He thinks that an immature officer, a mere engineer unfit for command caused the whole thing.” Scott leaned forward, his eyes fixing on the younger man. “I know he’s wrong. We’ll show him he’s wrong, Mr. Duffy.”

Pride. That’s what shone in Captain Scott’s eyes as he spoke. Pride in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, pride in the crew of the da Vinci, pride in the engineer who stepped from third in command to leading a ship in a mission that now was so much more than salvaging a relic from a bygone era.

I can do this.

“Yes, we will, Captain,” said Duffy, now rising from his chair. “Just buy me the time.”

Scott nodded a few times, forcing his lips together tightly in a small frown. To Kieran Duffy, the old engineer appeared lost in his thoughts.

“Laddie, once I thought I was leavin’ my captain in that same damnable place. I’ll push like hell to keep ye from thinkin’ the same. Scott out.”

CHAPTER

3

With only the light from her helmet lamps to guide the way and the sound of her own breathing to keep her company, Gomez pulled herself through the Jefferies tube and deeper into the bowels of the Defiant. Despite there being no gravity to impede her progress or to grab her and send her plunging headlong