Synthesis - James Swallow [39]
Annoyance and frustration churned inside him. He was being called upon to do the hardest job that any security officer could perform when their vessel was under threat. He was doing nothing.
Ranul placed his hands flat on the surface of the table and glared out at the tubular alien craft, as if his displeasure could somehow be transmitted to the machine-controlled monstrosity. Around him, every chair except Riker’s was filled. Commander Troi sat to his right, and directly opposite him was the XO. Tuvok sat across from Doctor Ree and Torvig, and in a rare appearance outside the stellar cartography lab in her g-suit, Lieutenant Commander Pazlar had the seat at the far end. Torvig caught Ranul’s eye and gave him a quizzical look, but the Trill didn’t return it. The ensign probably felt a little out of his depth here among the upper ranks, but someone with an engineer’s standpoint was needed for the meeting, and Doctor Ra-Havreii had insisted in no uncertain terms that it couldn’t be him, not if Captain Riker wanted the Titan’s computer systems swept for intruder programs and, in Xin’s words, “done properly.”
Ree was concluding his report. “It is a testament to the safety measures built into the Luna-class design that we did not suffer a huge loss of life.” The saurian’s long head tilted slightly. “Fortunately, the majority of injuries suffered are treatable. They were largely decompressionrelated, with a few plasma burns, broken bones, and the like.”
“You said the majority,” noted Vale. “How many did we lose?”
Ree sucked in a tight breath. “There have been two deaths,” he said gravely. “Crewman Baars perished instantly when a warp-field coil imploded. Ensign Unünüü was lost after a critical venting of atmosphere in his quarters. In addition, Lieutenant Tylith remains in critical condition with a subdural hematoma caused by an impact on her skull. I am not confident of her chances for survival.”
“And that on top of major structural damage to the ship, all because we couldn’t talk to each other,” said Melora. “Why couldn’t they have just waited instead of attacking us?” She had a padd in front of her. “The sensors did flag the muon signal they sent us, but it was so fast and so dense it almost got lost in the backscatter from the debris zone.”
“They are machines,” Tuvok noted. “Incredibly sophisticated, indeed, but still machines. And as such, they appear to adhere to a very rigid pattern of programmed behaviors.”
“Shoot first, ask questions later,” Vale added. “You’ve got to wonder what made them that way in the first place.”
“Ensign.” Riker returned to the head of the table and paused, resting his hands on the back of the chair. “What’s the estimate on repairs?”
Torvig cleared his throat and straightened. “As Lieutenant Commander Pazlar said, the damage is major. We have no warp capability, no long-range communications, and retardation of several noncritical systems throughout the ship. Uncontrolled venting during the attack has greatly depleted our deuterium tanks. The starboard nacelle is structurally sound but, uh, requires extensive repairs. In addition, there’s damage to several areas of the outer hull. But none of these problems is insurmountable. In the chief engineer’s opinion, if the Titan were able to make orbit around a world with available deuterium resources, even find a nebula or a comet, we could effect repairs to bring us back to warp capability within two weeks and then finish the remainder of the operation in flight.” He coughed again. “I, um, fully concur with Doctor RaHavreii’s evaluation.”
“There’s just one problem with that, Vig,” said Ranul. He pointed out the window, toward the Sentry ship towing them through the subspace shear. “Until they decide to let us go, we’re little more than prisoners.”
“White-Blue doesn’t see it that way,” offered Commander Troi.
“I’m sure,” replied the