Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [74]
The remainder of the fleet arrived, and all the ships proceeded to Artalierh without incident.
Karemma trading vessel Shakikein
Gamma Quadrant
DaiMon Neek stared angrily at Vogusta over the viewer. For over a year, the Ferengi had been asking the Karemma merchant about Leyles ink. He had been insistent that he would pay “any price” to obtain some of the ink.
Finally, he broke into a pointy-toothed grin. “Sometimes I’m reminded why I like doing business with you, Vogusta. Your honesty is very refreshing.”
“If you say so,” Vogusta said with a sigh. “So we have a deal?”
“Three boxes of Leyles ink for one of the cases of kanar.”
“Three boxes for all three cases, DaiMon, or I take my business elsewhere. I’m sure if I have Shipmaster Darsook take us through the anomaly, I can find any number of sources of kanar at more reasonable prices and someone who’d be willing to take the ink off my ha—”
“Fine, fine,” Neek said quickly, “one box per case of kanar.” He smiled. “I’ll see you in the morning, Vogusta.”
The wall shimmered as Neek’s face faded from view. Vogusta returned to his hammock and continued reading until he fell asleep.
He was awakened by the voice of Operator Zali saying, “Vogusta, this is the flight deck. Please respond.”
Blinking himself awake, Vogusta got out of the hammock. Noting the time on the display unit near the hammock, he realized that they were probably arriving at Gaia. He placed his hand on the intercom control. “This is Vogusta.”
“Sir, Shipmaster Darsook has requested that I inform you that we’ve arrived and the transfer of goods is proceeding, and DaiMon Neek sends his regards.”
“Excellent,” Vogusta said. “Is my presence required?”
“No, sir.”
“Thank you. Out.” Vogusta went back to sleep, pleased that another successful transaction had taken place.
Malon Supertanker Keta
Delta Quadrant
Controller Sheel turned to Refeek at the flight control console against the bridge’s starboard bulkhead. “Increase to maximum.”
Refeek whirled around and squinted at him. “Controller, we’re at maximum.”
Glowering at the young man, Sheel said, “No, we’re at our maximum safe cruising speed. I want us to go to our emergency speed.”
“Sir,” Refeek said, casting a furtive glance at Liswan, “regulations say that we can go to emergency speed only in…well, an emergency.”
Sheel let out a long breath. “Refeek, one of our shields is about to collapse.”
“Well, we have three of them, don’t we?” Refeek asked. “I mean, don’t we have three so that if one fails the other two will keep going?”
“No, we have three because we don’t have enough power to run four. How many instances of shield failure have there been where the other shields didn’t immediately collapse in a cascade effect?”
His voice very small now, Refeek said, “Three, maybe?”
“It’s a trick question, Refeek—the answer is none. As soon as that shield goes down, it’ll be a matter of seconds before the others go with it. In fact, it could happen at any second, and I’d hate to think that we all died of theta radiation poisoning because of the precious time we lost because you were asking stupid questions!”
Refeek actually flinched at the last two words, before turning around and working his console.
“Uh, sir,” Liswan said quickly, “that may not be such a good idea. The shields may not be able to tolerate—”
“Liswan, is there any chance that we’ll make it to KMH-5 at our current speed before the shield collapses?”
“Well, no,” Liswan said. “Remlap said it’d be—”
“—twelve hours at the most. If we increase speed, there’s a chance we’ll make it to KMH-5 before the shield collapses. If we don’t increase speed, there’s no chance we’ll make it. I don’t know about you, but I know which option I prefer.”
Nodding, Liswan said, “I withdraw my objection, Controller.”
Dryly, Sheel said, “Very generous of you. Now if you’d be so kind as to go down to Remlap and see if she can keep our shields intact long enough to get there.”
“Of course.” Liswan quickly left the bridge.
To Sheel’s relief, Remlap was able to hold the shields together,