The Brave and the Bold Book Two - Keith R. A. DeCandido [10]
The smile Janeway hit Honigsberg with was as scary a sight as DeSoto had ever seen. “Try me, Lieutenant. I’ve used the occasional two-syllable word in my time. I think I can handle it.”
Letting out a long breath, Honigsberg closed his eyes. Then he reopened them and spoke. “The connections between the gel packs and the other systems are misreading the inputs. It’s transferring power at a greatly accelerated rate, and we can’t slow it down. It’s not just improving response time like it’s supposed to, it’s increasing everything. And it’s not a software problem. The only way to fix this is to go back to Mars and replace every single damn gel-pack unit—and every single gel pack, since the current ones are all burned out.”
The smile became a sweet one, but no less scary for that. “See, Mr. Honigsberg, was that so hard?”
“How much time will we need at Utopia Planitia?” Cavit asked.
“We’re talking weeks, Commander, at least. This is a major design flaw.”
Czierniewski added, “But not unusual when you’re playing with new toys. I mean hey, this is why you have shakedown cruises.”
Cavit turned to DeSoto. “All the more reason why we need your help here, Captain.”
Turning to his first officer, DeSoto asked, “Any objections, Commander?”
“Assuming the plan is sound, no. Aaron’s plans do tend to work, though, so I’m pretty sanguine.” She smiled. Cavit grimaced. “I still think we’d be better off going in full force, but sometimes the sneaky approach is better.”
Remembering their latest Go game, DeSoto silently agreed, and turned back to Janeway. “All right, then, let’s see what you’ve got. If we both back it up, I’m sure we can sell the changes in the plan to Nechayev.”
Chapter Three
HAVING FINALLY CONVINCED DESOTO to resign the Go game—and gaining great satisfaction out of it, especially since she was able to counter his last-ditch maneuver—Dina Voyskunsky left the lounge and headed to the bridge while the captain headed for bed. Just as she arrived for the overnight shift, a communication came in from Voyager. Taking it in the captain’s ready room, she was greeted by the smiling face of Lieutenant Honigsberg.
“Commander, it looks like we’re as shipshape as we’re going to be. We’re back up to a hundred percent. I figure we’ll only be at optimum power consumption for about six hours or so, but that’s enough to get us home so we can beat this puppy into shape.”
Voyskunsky returned the smile, remembering the glee of problem-solving from her own days as an engineer. “Looking forward to it, eh?”
“Nah, not so much,” Honigsberg said with a slight tilt to his head. “I want to get out into the field with this beast. I’m greatly looking forward to spending many years with these engines.”
Chuckling, Voyskunsky said, “I’ll have Czierniewski cut the power transfer, then.”
“Fine. Thank her and her team for me, will you? The extra hands really helped. Oh, and Mr. Cavit wanted to talk to you.”
“Put him on,” Voyskunsky said with a smile, thinking, I doubt that “wanted” is the right word to use. “Felt it necessary,” maybe.
The image switched from the happy face of a chief engineer to the dour face of a first officer. “You know,” she said without preamble, “you didn’t used to always look grumpy all the time.”
Cavit closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them. “I was really hoping DeSoto would be on duty.”
“Nope, he’s asleep,” Voyskunsky said, reveling in his discomfort. “Went to bed after I whupped him at Go again.”
Blinking, Cavit said, “I couldn’t have heard that right.”
“Heard what?” Voyskunsky blinked coquettishly, feigning innocence.
“It sounded like you said you beat Captain DeSoto at Go.”
“That’s because it’s what I said.” Voyskunsky got up and went over to the replicator in the ready room. If she was going to have a lengthy one-on-one talk with Aaron Cavit, she needed fortification. “Orange blossom tea, hot,” she instructed the computer.
“When did you learn how to play well enough to beat him?”
“Captain taught me himself,” she said, removing the tea from the replicator dispenser.