String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [24]
“But Neelix,” she whined, “the captain drinks coffee all day long.”
“And when you’re the captain, you can have anything you like. But as long as you’re a little girl and I’m in charge of the mess hall, your choices are water, juice, or milk.”
Naomi wrinkled her nose in faint disgust as she decided that this was probably not a battle she was going to win.
“Milk, please,” she said.
Neelix returned moments later with a tall glass of cold milk, and seated himself across from her. She took a dutiful sip before digging into her sandwich with real gusto. Her mother loved grilled cheese sandwiches. There were other human foods that Naomi had no stomach for, strawberries, broccoli, and scrambled eggs among them. The Doctor had told her that it was probably the Ktarian half of her that didn’t like these foods-the half of her she had inherited from the father she had never known.
She wanted to be just like her beautiful, kind mother. So she had forced herself to try and eat everything her mother ate, even when she ended up in sickbay for two whole hours once when she couldn’t stop throwing up after inhaling a dessert called “strawberry shortcake.” She had been thrilled to discover that melted cheese on toasted, buttered bread was something she and her mother could enjoy together. Even though her mother wouldn’t be able to join her and Neelix for lunch today, she had intentionally requested grilled cheese. She would save half to share with her mother when her duty shift was done.
But there was a problem.
Half the sandwich was already gone and Naomi was still hungry. As she considered the half she had mentally reserved for her mother, a third option sprang to mind.
“Neelix?” Naomi asked.
“Yes, my dear?” he replied.
“Do you think you could make me another half a sandwich?”
He smiled. “Of course,” he answered, rising to go to the kitchen. “I’ll wrap it up for you. Your mom will be pretty hungry when she gets off duty. It will make a perfect snack.”
Naomi grinned broadly as she took a huge bite of the rest of her lunch. It was nice having a godfather who could read her mind.
She was glad she had picked up her sandwich when she did. Moments later, her seat shook violently beneath her, spilling the still mostly full glass of milk all over her plate.
Once the disturbance had passed, Janeway quickly tapped her combadge.
“Janeway to the bridge. What was that?” she snapped.
“We don’t know, Captain,” Rollins replied. “We’re reading some kind of electromagnetic discharge.”
“Is it coming from the singularity?” was Janeway’s next question.
“Negative, Captain. It originated within the ship. It might have been an overload in the power relays. Give me one moment.”
Janeway could feel her anxiety rising to a fever pitch.
“Lieutenant Rollins?” she finally asked, unable to contain herself any longer.
“Captain, the discharge originated in your cabin.”
Janeway started immediately for the door as she called out, “Send a security team to meet me at my cabin. I’m on my way there now.”
“Understood,” Rollins replied.
“Commander,” she said as Chakotay moved to join her, “I need all available personnel monitoring the array and the microsingularity.”
“I’ll see to it,” he replied.
Less than two minutes later, Janeway turned the corner to find three security officers standing outside her cabin, both their phasers and their tricorders at the ready.
“Report,” she ordered when she reached them.
All three of them seemed puzzled by the readings they were getting. Ensign Maplethorpe was the first to offer, “There’s a life-form in there, Captain. For a minute, it looked like more than one, but our tricorders don’t seem to be calibrated properly. I’ve never seen interference like this.”
Janeway grabbed her phaser as she called to the computer, “Computer, can you identify the life-form in my cabin?”
She was momentarily stunned at the computer’s reply.
“Phoebe Janeway.”
With her free hand Janeway entered