Requiem - Michael Jan Friedman [56]
At an increase of twelve points, the pressure would become too great. The dilithium crystal would shatter, causing a runaway reaction that would eventually breach the reactor’s magnetic vessel and cause the whole thing to explode—taking the colony and a sizable chunk of Cestus III along with it.
“No,” the captain said out loud. “It’s too much.”
Julia’s forehead wrinkled ever so slightly. “I beg your pardon?”
“It’s too much,” he repeated. And before he realized it, he was making his way through the throng toward Hronsky—not knowing what he would say, but knowing that he had to say something.
Before he quite got there, however, he felt a hand close on his arm. Tracing it to a face, he saw that it was the commodore who’d gotten hold of him.
“Hill,” Travers said flatly, as if the very word left a bad taste in his mouth. “What are you doing here? This area is supposed to be secure.” Peering over the heads of the assembled colonists, he must have spotted Julia’s among them, because his next comment was “Oh. I see.”
“Let me go,” insisted Picard. “I must speak with Commander Hronsky.”
The commodore’s brow furrowed. “And why is that?” he asked.
The captain frowned. “Because if he’s not careful, he’s going to blow up the whole colony.”
Travers regarded him, not certain whether to get angry or to laugh, “Blow up the colony,” he repeated. “And I suppose you’ve got some property on Risa you want to sell me.”
Shrugging off the commodore’s grip, Picard continued his passage toward the chief engineer—and beyond him, the control console for the sensor array. Hronsky held up his hand.
“That’s far enough, Mr. Hill. Don’t make me call for security.”
All eyes were on the captain now as he pointed to the power gauge on the console. “Two-twelve is too high. Your dilithium crystal won’t be able to take that kind of pressure.”
The engineer looked at him askance, his arms folded across his chest. “And how would you know? This isn’t the same kind of engine they use on commercial vessels.”
Indeed, how would he know—if he were truly Dixon Hill, captain of a merchant ship called the Stargazer, and not the man in charge of the twenty-fourth-century Enterprise?
“I’ve known a few Starfleet officers in my day,” said Picard. “And none of them would think of taking their injection ratios higher than two hundred.”
Hronsky harrumphed. “Then, obviously, you haven’t been introduced to Captain Lasker of the Iroquois. Or Captain Tranh of the Peerless. They’ve been running their injection ratios at two-fifteen for weeks now, with no sign of a problem.” He shook his head derisively. “As if I need to answer to you, Mr. Hill.”
The captain let the remark slip off his back. There was no room for emotions here. He had to get his point across before this celebration turned into disaster.
To be sure, Hronsky was right about both ships. But some twenty-five days after it initiated the experiment, the Iroquois suffered a runaway reaction that tore it in half. And the Peerless would have suffered the same fate—or at least, that’s what an investigation showed—if it hadn’t pulled back on its injection ratio when its sister ship was destroyed.
“Those vessels have bigger core chambers,” Picard pointed out, rightly enough. “In their cases, it will take longer for the pressure to build up. But here …” He indicated the power gauge again. “The chamber is small. We’ve got to lower the ratio now, while there’s still time.”
Travers shouldered his way in front of the captain. “You sound quite sure of yourself, Mr. Hill. But Starfleet Command is quite sure of the contrary, or they wouldn’t have authorized the experiments on the Peerless and the Iroquois.”
Picard’s lips compressed in a thin, tight line as he tried his damnedest to hold back his frustration. He couldn’t stop what Hronsky was doing without giving away who he was. And he couldn’t give away who he was without risking a mutilation of this timeline.
“Starfleet Command is wrong,” he told the commodore—rather weakly, he knew. “The Iroquois won’t last the month. And the Peerless will discontinue