String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [23]
By the time the captain (trailed by Ensign Kim) arrived in astrometrics, Seven of Nine had completed modeling local space and organized her thoughts. Knowing she would have the captain’s attention for only a few minutes, Seven knew she must transfer the critical information as efficiently as possible. When she had been part of the collective, data distribution had been effortless, instantaneous, and universal; such was not the case with her crewmates on Voyager.
As much as she had come to cherish her individuality, Seven was frustrated by the feeling of isolation it provoked. There were things she knew, important information locked away in her Borg databases, and she wanted very badly to share those things with others, but it seemed to her that Captain Janeway—all of them, really, but the captain more than any other—was always fomenting obstacles to her distributing that information under the guise of helping her become more “human.” When opportunities such as this one arose, when the captain set aside time in order to allow Seven to help elucidate a situation, she deeply resented distractions.
Lieutenant Torres was being a distraction.
No sooner had Seven begun her recitation than Torres hailed Captain Janeway with irrelevant questions about tractor beam performance in heavy inertial situations. This was precisely the sort of query engineering databases had been created to answer, but Torres could not be bothered with such a simple solution to her problem, especially if asking the captain also gave her the opportunity to again voice her opinions about the wisdom of assisting the Monorhans in the manner Captain Janeway was considering.
Unfortunately, the captain seemed to be enjoying the discussion about tractor beam specs; her face was radiant with what looked like joy, though Seven knew she sometimes misinterpreted emotional states. Five minutes of inane chatter later, Janeway was agreeing to meet Chakotay and the Monorhans on the bridge so that the engineer could test their ideas. Seven felt her agitation growing, but bit back the desire to comment. Torres was an important, if annoying, member of the community. Straightening her back, Seven inhaled deeply and attempted to clear her mind.
“I’m sorry, Seven,” the captain said as soon as she signed off. “I have only a few minutes now, but I want to hear what you’ve found out.”
“Two things of note, Captain,” Seven said, beginning her recitation. “There is an eighty-one percent likelihood that the Monorhans are from a planet in the white dwarf binary system.”
“Yes, Seven. Captain Ziv confirmed that while we were walking to sickbay.”
“Of course, Captain. Though, of course, he could have been lying. I am merely saying that, statistically speaking, it is very likely.”
“Why would he lie?” Ensign Kim asked.
“Why does anyone lie, Ensign?” Seven asked. “I am merely observing that sometimes they do. In this case, there is an eighty-one percent chance the Monorhan is being truthful.”
“All right, Seven. What else?”
Seven touched a control and brought up a display on the main viewscreen. “This is a three-dimensional model showing the density of the local subspace layer. Of course, a fourth- or even fifth-dimensional model would be more accurate, but there are limits to what I can accomplish with this equipment in a compressed time frame.”
“Seven…I have three minutes.”
“Of course,” Seven said, and internally chastised herself for falling prey to the same editorializing she had mentally accused Torres of committing. “Please note the extreme irregularities,” she said while highlighting a spiky patch. “Subspace can usually be described as a homogeneous layer. This section I’ve indicated has the white dwarf at its center.”
The captain and Kim studied the display for several seconds before either of them commented. Finally, Kim asked, “But what does it mean?”
“It means,” the captain said, “that whatever we’re dealing with here, it’s not the same sort of subspace instability seen at the Hekaras