String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [89]
A shadowy figure rushed past her and bore the ball of light down onto the deck beside the helm station. The two figures, one light and one dark, flailed wildly at each other, both pumping and pummeling. Wild grunting noises filled the bridge and the pungent smell grew sharper and more penetrating.
Enough of this, Janeway thought and pressed herself up again despite the agony in her head and her lower back. Once she was on her feet, she allowed gravity to do its work, tipping forward, falling on Tom’s back, and though she hoped she didn’t injure him, she knew the welfare of one crewman was less important at the moment than getting the ship moving.
Button, button, where’s the button? The near-incoherent thought swirled around in her head, and she cursed herself for her foolishness. There! Janeway found the correct row of switches and activated the thrusters. Fortunately, Tom had keyed the entire sequence to a macro, so what normally would have required several commands required only one. Voyager lurched forward, the underpowered inertial dampeners struggling to compensate for the leap to full impulse.
Looking up at the monitor, Janeway saw a gap in the unchanging white, a burst of energy, and then blackness as the overloaded sensors shut down the feed. Suddenly, the agony lifted and the captain gratefully lowered her weight onto the deck, careful not to drop onto Tom again. They had created a gap and gone through it…to what? She would find out in a moment. For now she was grateful to simply rest her eyes.
“Don’t move, Captain,” Chakotay shouted to be heard over the klaxon.
“Chakotay?” she stammered. “What happened?”
“I think Sem somehow turned off the autopilot.” The klaxon suddenly died and Janeway heard Chakotay speaking into his combadge: “We need the Doctor up here.” Janeway tried to sit up, but Chakotay gently pushed her back down. “The way you fell,” he said softly. “I want the Doctor to take a look at you.”
There was a long pause during which Janeway had a moment to reorient herself and recall everything that happened in the past few minutes. Struggling to see around Chakotay, she spied two crumpled Monorhan bodies to the left of the helm: Sem and Ziv. Was either still breathing? She couldn’t tell for certain, but she thought they both were. Finally, she heard Harry Kim say, “Bridge, this is sickbay. I’m sending up an auxiliary med team.”
“Is the Doctor busy?”
“Not exactly, Commander. There’s a problem with the holo-matrix. He’s missing…parts.”
“Parts?”
“Important parts.”
Chakotay frowned, but did not let the anxiety in his face creep into his voice. “Okay, Harry,” he said. “Stay there and coordinate. I expect you’ll be seeing patients soon.”
“Understood. Is the captain there?”
“Yes, but she can’t respond…”
“I’m here, Harry. What is it?”
“Captain, I’m reading that the main monitor is down. Could you try to bring it up? I’m looking at something through the sensor feed I think you’ll want to see.”
“Help me up, Chakotay,” she said under her breath. He sighed, but did as he was asked, then helped Janeway settle into her chair. “Tom,” she asked. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tom said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry about not…”
“Belay that, Mr. Paris. Get the monitor up.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Tom’s fingers danced over the console and a moment later the main monitor lit up. The background noise on the bridge died down as everyone stared up at the image.
“Harry,” the captain asked. “What are we looking at?”
“It’s what you told me we might see, Captain,” Harry said. “It’s the Blue Eye.”
Before she opened her eyes, B’Elanna was aware of the scent of clean sheets right out of the ’fresher, a smell that people made a big deal about, but she honestly didn’t care about one way or another. Except this time. This time it was wonderful, special, the most delightful aroma she