String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [43]
“Chakotay to Captain Janeway,” he called over the comm system.
“Go ahead, Commander.” Her voice resonated through the bridge.
“We’ve laid in our course for our approach to the array, and we’ve discovered a transmission, possibly from the Monorhan ship,” he informed her.
“I’ll be right there,” she replied briskly, ending the communication.
As Janeway closed the comm channel she cursed silently at the war raging within her between family and duty. She was needed on the bridge, but Phoebe was missing. For the moment, her sister took priority. She was momentarily shocked at the computer’s announcement indicating that Phoebe was not on board, but she refused to allow herself the luxury of panic. She couldn’t count the number of times in the past four years she had imagined returning to Earth, only to have her most joyful reunion, the one she anticipated with her mother, tainted by the news that while Voyager had been lost, she had failed to protect the life of her sister.
Wait a minute.
Her sister was supposed to be on Earth.
No, Phoebe had been on Earth, but at the last moment asked to join Janeway on what was supposed to be a brief rescue mission in the Badlands. She had been commissioned to do a painting of the unusual and beautiful plasma eruptions in the Badlands and had begged her sister to give her the opportunity to see them firsthand.
Setting the disquieting thoughts aside for the moment, she was about to dispatch a security team on a deck-by-deck search for Phoebe when her mingled fear and anger were dissipated by the relief of seeing Phoebe walking calmly toward her.
“Where have you been?” Janeway demanded savagely.
“What do you mean?” Phoebe replied, obviously slightly annoyed by Janeway’s tone.
“I asked the ship’s computer to locate you a few moments ago and you weren’t on board.”
“Yes I was.”
“Phoebe…” Janeway began fiercely.
“Where would I go, Kath? I’ve been in my quarters since the last time I saw you. The computer made a mistake.”
Janeway considered this. Her sister was aggravating, self-centered, and occasionally irresponsible, but she wasn’t a liar. On the other hand, the ship’s computer was incapable of lying.
It doesn’t matter.
The thought, like the vibrant memory of Phoebe’s face the day she pleaded with her sister to take her on Voyager’s maiden trek, didn’t feel organic. Of course it mattered.
As she wrestled with herself, wondering at her reticence to call Phoebe to task for her improbable explanation, she saw that Phoebe’s gaze was fixed on the Key.
“Kath, what have you done to the Key?” Phoebe demanded.
“That isn’t your concern,” Janeway snapped. A slight wave of nausea rose abruptly from her stomach. Grasping the edge of the diagnostic display table, she willed the nausea to pass, along with the dizzying sensation that now accompanied it.
Yes it is.
She heard the words clearly in her mind, but could not imagine where they were coming from. The next wave of nausea that assaulted her almost brought her to her knees.
“I’m sorry, Phoebe,” Janeway murmured softly.
“It’s all right,” Phoebe soothed. “Tell me what you have done to the Key.”
“Nothing, for the moment. We’re keeping it behind a forcefield to contain the subspace dissonance waves emanating from it. It appears to be alive.”
Janeway was suddenly conscious of a firm hand grasping her arm. It was B’Elanna.
“Captain, are you all right?”
Get rid of her.
Janeway didn’t know how she knew, but nonetheless she was certain that as long as she obeyed that strange voice, the crippling sensations