Synthesis - James Swallow [82]
“What are those things?” The words fell breathlessly from Sethe’s lips. “Is it a weapon? A life-form?”
“It is a threat,” Tuvok said firmly. “And beyond our means to combat at this juncture.”
“Sir,” said Dakal urgently, “the tanker… another one of the Null forms is closing on it!”
The Holiday lurched as the Vulcan pivoted the craft around and aimed it toward the fleeing Sentry transport. As the nose of the shuttle swung around, Pava immediately saw the ponderous shape of the scaffoldlike freighter. The ship was caught among a shoal of fragments from the collapsing refinery platform, making slow turns and wallowing as it tried to light for open space and the safety of a spatial-shear corridor.
One of the oblate chunks of Null matter looped close, knocking aside wreckage in flashes of energetic contact. A single beam cannon atop the tanker’s conning tower shot actinic rays toward it, but each shot was a glancing one that did nothing to slow the approach. Damage was visible along one of the cargo pods, a thin streamer of discharged gases tumbling away into ice crystals.
“Phasers,” ordered Tuvok, and Pava laid her hands flat on the fire controls, the warm-up sequence already started.
“The mass of that object is much higher than its dimensions would suggest,” reported Dakal. “It resembles a form of protomatter. I’m also picking up peculiar subspace effects around it. We may not be able to inflict any major damage.”
“I am aware of that, Ensign.” He didn’t look in Pava’s direction as he gave the next command. “Target the center of mass, and fire, sustained burst.”
“Firing,” said the Andorian.
Hot blue lances of phased energy reached out and hit home, dead on target. Pava rotated the firing arc as Tuvok pulled the Holiday past the Null mass in a sweeping dive. She saw a curling feeler of shimmering matter reaching for the tanker, and it quivered as the phaser bolts struck.
The reaction was immediate and deadly. The mass spun about, extruding more spindly tendrils to reach out after the Starfleet shuttle.
“Holiday to tanker.” She heard the Vulcan speak calmly into the communication grid. “Lieutenant McCreedy, can you clear the debris field?”
The engineer’s voice was tight with controlled horror. “Commander, that thing will eat you alive! Don’t engage it!”
“Your concern is appreciated but unnecessary. The deuterium is of primary concern. You are to exit this area at maximum velocity. Acknowledge.”
“But sir—”
“Acknowledge,” he repeated, flipping the Holiday into a diving turn.
“Orders acknowledged.” The reply was stiff. “Good luck. McCreedy out.”
“Tanker is ten seconds from the edge of the debris field,” Dakal reported. “Null mass is closing on us.”
“Stand by to fire.” Tuvok’s dark fingers moved so quickly across the controls they were almost a blur. “Lieutenant Sethe, bring the inertial dampeners to full power.”
The Cygnian leaped at the rear console and did as he was ordered. “Done!”
Tuvok gave Pava a sideways look. “Weapons free, Lieutenant.”
Before she could answer, the Vulcan did something to the shuttle’s spaceframe that made the hull moan disturbingly. With deft control on the Holiday’s attitude thrusters, Tuvok put the craft in a balletic spin that rolled and inverted it all at once, in a split second bringing the small ship around so that it was flying backward with no loss of forward momentum. The Null sphere abruptly filled the view beyond the canopy, and as Pava watched, the object thinned and opened into a ring-shaped torus, stretching to envelop the shuttle. It wants to crush us like a Zylo egg…
She hit the firing controls again, this time releasing a scattershot