String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [21]
It wasn’t that Phoebe was unaware of the identity of the Key’s new owner. Voyager’s captain, Kathryn Janeway, had been presented with the Key a little over a day earlier, and with typical human arrogance and stupidity, the first thing she had done was remove it from its ceremonial case and give it a cursory visual examination. One touch was all that was required for the Key to sense its new owner and imprint itself upon her.
The emotional spasms she was struggling to contain came from the certainty that Vivia had neither the patience nor the wisdom to do anything other than threaten the owner of the Key with oblivion should she refuse a request. But Phoebe had been watching this Captain Janeway and her crew since the transfer of the Key had taken place. She already knew everything that could be known about these humanoids and their Voyager, and she had no doubt that Janeway would willingly die before being coerced into anything.
“You must leave this to me,” Phoebe replied, refusing to answer Vivia’s question. “I will sever her connection to the Key, but it will take time. Only then will I be able to destroy it.”
“And what of the rupture?” Vivia demanded.
“You have said you are already working to seal it. I trust you will succeed, and the peace and balance between us will be maintained.”
“You have three days,” Vivia replied as she began to release herself from the restrictive and distasteful human form. “If you fail, the Others will return with me, and we will deal with these beings as we see fit.”
Phoebe knew this was possible. It was a huge risk, but one she could easily see Vivia and the Others accepting.
As she watched her mirror image dissipate in a mass of flowing, undulating plasmatic energy, she was abruptly thrown to the ground by the unexpected release of highly charged particles that were displaced by Vivia’s transformation.
“Dammit,” she hissed, picking herself up. Voyager possessed highly refined internal sensors. There was only so much she could hide from them. Vivia’s unnecessary show of force had surely alerted Voyager’s crew to her presence by now.
Although Phoebe had already formed her plan and done much to put that plan into effect, there was still more to do, more than could be done in three short days.
But three days was all she had. Either the captain would do exactly as she said, or they would soon be on a collision course with the unimaginable.
War.
Phoebe took some small comfort in the knowledge that Vivia had, for the present, accepted her less than thorough accounting of the problems at hand. Phoebe did not like to lie. It was usually an unnecessary complication. But in this case, the whole truth had been a risk she was not willing to take.
Turning to examine one of the many crude matter-generation devices that were common on the ship, she paused for a moment over an image that rested on the captain’s desk. It was a framed photograph of three women, one obviously older than the other two. All shared the same bright blue eyes and auburn hair. The face of the eldest was marked with slight furrows, particularly around the eyes and mouth, and her hair was streaked with gray, but the physical resemblance among the three was still striking.
“Gretchen,” Phoebe said, tracing the older woman’s face with a finger. “Mother of Kathryn, and Phoebe,” she finished. As she replaced the photo and set to work on the captain’s replicator, she decided that of the three, Phoebe Janeway definitely looked the happiest. Perhaps that was a good sign.
Chapter 3
Chakotay had been less than pleased when he called to Tom’s quarters and found that he was not, as he had been ordered, getting some extra rest. Chakotay was decidedly uneasy about how the next several hours were going to develop, and he wanted his helmsman in top form. The captain’s urgent call for him to gather the senior staff and meet in astrometrics had done nothing to allay his sense of foreboding, but he tried to put it aside as he entered the holographic research lab and found Tom and Ensign Kim conferring