Mosaic - Jeri Taylor [74]
The admiral stared out the window as though to recapture that long-ago moment. "It was amazing. Here was this little mite of a thing handling that flight program as though he were an Academy cadet. The next day I brought some friends along and let them watch, because I knew no one would believe me if I told them a kid that age could handle a simulator." He chuckled briefly at the memory. "They said I must've programmed an autopilot sequence and just let Tom sit there and pretend. But of course they checked and saw that wasn't true."
"How old is he now, sir?"
"Fifteen. Already been accepted for admission to the Academy when he graduates." Kathryn thought she had never heard such naked pride in a parent before. She envied this young Tom Paris, who had a father that gloried so in his accomplishments. She doubted that her father ever regaled his cohorts with stories of her achievements. "We're approaching the upper atmosphere of the moon, sir," she said, reading from her instruments. "Preparing landing sequence." Then she gasped as she saw something else on the sensors and heard the admiral grunt as he noticed the same thing.
"There's a ship behind the limb of the moon," she said automatically, knowing he was well aware of it. He was already keying controls, swinging the shuttle in an arc to return to the Icarus. "I don't recognize the signature," she began, but he interrupted brusquely. "That's a Cardassian ship, Ensign."
A cold knot formed in her stomach. This wasn't Cardassian territory. What was it doing here? "Should I alert the ship?"
"Maintain communications silence. It's possible they're unaware of the Icarus. I'd like to keep it that way."
Kathryn was aware that he was running a fairly complicated series of evasive maneuvers. What was he anticipating? She willed herself to remain calm, and focused on the sensors, which showed that a massive ship was rounding the limb of the moon. In seconds it would be within eyesight. The shuttle was dancing in space, maneuvering gracefully but unpredictably, when the Cardassian ship appeared. It was huge, roughly arrow-shaped, with a variety of weapons systems prominently displayed along its hull. Kathryn felt her heart hammering, but her mind was focused and her hands on the controls were steady.
A deep violet tractoring beam suddenly emanated from the Cardassian ship, and Kathryn realized the admiral had been anticipating this; his maneuvers were an effort to keep them from locking on. He glanced over at her, and his grave eyes were worried. "This may get unpleasant for us, Ensign," he said. "Do your best, but don't be unnecessarily heroic." She didn't know what he meant.
For a few minutes he was able to avoid the tractor, but as they both knew, it was only a delaying tactic. Eventually the larger ship with its fat tractor beam would ensnare them-and that's exactly what happened, with a bonejarring snap that tossed them around like toys. Kathryn's head bounced off the console; lights flared in her head, a brief but brilliant display that she barely registered before everything went black.
I did it, Daddy, she was saying, I derived the distance formula. She kept saying it over and over, but her father wouldn't look at her; he just kept his eyes straight ahead, not listening. She said it louder, trying to break through to him, yelling in her urgency to get him to turn and look at her. I solved the problem, I know how to derive the distance formula! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy-
The sound of her own groan pulled her to consciousness, and her father faded; she tried to get him back but the moment had slipped away. Now she was aware only of cold and dampness, and a dull pain in her head. She reached to touch it and encountered a thick crust of dried blood. Where was she? She should be on board the Icarus, but what she felt beneath her was soggy earth. A holodeck program? She struggled to make sense of the