String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [116]
Chakotay nodded with approval and took a deep breath. In seconds, at least one of their problems might very well be solved.
“Activating enhanced navigational array,” Harry announced.
“Coordinates locked in,” Tom replied.
This was it.
“Activating tetryon transport system on my mark… three… two… one… mark.”
The shuttle lifted from the bay deck and inched toward the invisible plane created between the two transport alcoves, now separated a wide enough distance to accommodate the shuttle’s width. In a flash of brilliant white light, Homeward Bound disappeared from the shuttlebay.
A pregnant pause…
… long enough for B’Elanna to confirm the shuttle’s arrival…
… silence…
Chakotay’s jaw tensed.
“Where are they, Lieutenant?” he asked.
B’Elanna’s fingers were flying across the sensor controls. Grid after grid was being searched, each replacing the last on the viewscreen as the computer confirmed quicker than the eye that the shuttle was nowhere to be found.
“I can’t…” B’Elanna stammered, then slammed her fists onto the panel in frustration.
“I have no idea,” she finally said.
“Does that mean they didn’t reach the edge of the system… or…?” Neelix asked, hurrying to join them.
He was interrupted by a call from Ensign Brooks over the comm. “Shuttlebay one to Lieutenant Torres.”
“What is it, Brooks?” B’Elanna snapped.
“The tetryon transporter has been… well…” He paused, as if searching for the right word.
“Has been what?” Chakotay demanded.
“It melted, sir,” Brooks replied. “There was no explosion. I can’t imagine where the heat necessary to generate something like this… both of the alcoves from the array were completely destroyed, and they took two meters of conduit and panels in every direction with them.”
“Begin an immediate analysis of the debris. I’ll expect a full report within the hour. Chakotay out.” Turning to B’Elanna he said expectantly, “Well?”
“They didn’t arrive at the set coordinates,” B’Elanna said stoically, “and they’re not within a hundred light-years in any direction of the coded end point of the transport.”
Before any of them could give in to an inkling of despair, Chakotay raised his shoulders and snapped, “Find them, Lieutenant.”
B’Elanna’s eyes were brimming with tears. Refusing to allow them to fall, she managed a firm “Aye, sir,” and turned back to the console to begin her search.
In the last few months B’Elanna had lost too much. The first news she had received from the Alpha Quadrant while she had been building a new life for herself aboard Voyager had been about the massacre of the Maquis she had served with . The Maquis had taken something with them when they died, something she had never forced herself to clearly name. It was her passion, and her hope… the fire in her belly that had seen her through every impossible situation she had encountered as Voyager’s chief engineer. For months she had suffered this loss in silence, unsure how or where to even begin to make peace with it.
She would be damned before she would also lose one of her best friends, and the man she loved.
Not today, anyway.
Chapter 14
Seven of Nine intercepted Neelix en route to join Commander Chakotay in transporter room three.
“Oh, hello, Seven,” Neelix said somberly as she fell into step beside him.
“Are you unwell, Neelix?” she asked, more out of curiosity than concern.
“Oh… I’m fine.” He shrugged unconvincingly.
“You disapprove of the commander’s plan?” she asked. She had seen thousands being led into assimilation chambers. Neelix resembled those who already knew what they were facing.
“Well, let’s see,” Neelix said, “in the last ten hours we’ve managed to lose the captain, Lieutenant Paris, and Ensign Kim, and we’re about to intentionally antagonize at least one, possibly many of the Nacene while risking another encounter with the creatures who led Tuvok here and infected him with the parasite that is about to kill him. I don’t know if ‘disapprove’ is the right word,” he finished, shifting his modified phaser rifle from his right to his left shoulder. “I suppose if it were up to me,