The Brave and the Bold Book Two - Keith R. A. DeCandido [5]
He couldn’t get anyone on the Hood to play against him, though. The problem with being a such a good player, of course, was that you were far superior to most of those around you. This, along with the added awkwardness most had at the idea of playing against their commanding officer, left him with either the deeply unsatisfying notion of playing the ship’s computer, or not playing.
Then Dina Voyskunsky transferred to the Hood from the Excalibur, and one day saw DeSoto playing against the computer. She asked what he was doing; he told her; she was intrigued, never having heard of the game; and he proceeded to take her under his wing as his mother had done with him.
A year later, he was deeply regretting that decision. Voyskunsky had gone from a nine-stone handicap to playing even with him in six months, and now she was beating him with alarming regularity.
Then he saw it. There was indeed a possibility. It would require both of them to play brilliantly, and would probably still wind up with him on the losing end. However, he had to give it a shot. He had to do something to salvage the tattered threads of his dignity.
As he prepared to place one of his stones, he was interrupted by the beep of the communication system. “Bridge to Captain DeSoto.”
It was the voice of Lieutenant Manolet Dayrit, the Hood’ s security chief and current duty officer on the bridge. “Go ahead, Manolet,” DeSoto said after tapping his combadge.
“Sir, you need to come up here. We’re receiving a distress signal from the U.S.S. Voyager.”
DeSoto frowned, then recalled a recent fleet memo about the newest Intrepid-class ship, which was supposed to incorporate bioneural circuitry that would facilitate navigation through the Badlands. With the growing Maquis problem—and with the Maquis increasingly making use of the plasma-storm-filled Badlands as a hiding place—Starfleet had decided to create a ship that could handle that navigation hazard more easily.
“We’ll be right up,” the captain said, standing. “DeSoto out.”
Voyskunsky had once again employed her too-wide smile. “So what’s your move?”
“We’ll finish this later. Right now I’m more worried about that distress signal.”
As they exited the lounge, Voyskunsky asked, “Why?” As they headed toward the turbolift, Voyskunsky reached to the back of her head to tie her long brown hair back into a ponytail. She wore it loose only off duty.
“Because Voyager’ s supposed to be on her shakedown cruise. I don’t know where that was supposed to be offhand, but I doubt it was this far out.”
As they entered the turbolift, Voyskunsky said, “So it could be a very clumsily laid trap.”
DeSoto nodded. “Bridge.” The turbolift started to accelerate upward. “Or they really could be out here near the Cardassian border, in which case, I’d say the shakedown cruise went horribly wrong.”
Dayrit had already moved from the command chair to the tactical station behind it when DeSoto and Voyskunsky entered the Hood’ s small bridge. Ensign Jose Kojima stood at the operations console next to Dayrit, also right behind the captain, with Lieutenant Baifang Hsu at the conn at the bridge’s fore. While DeSoto moved to the captain’s chair, Voyskunsky stood between Dayrit and Kojima. “Report.”
“The distress call does seem to be from Voyager, sir—the hailing language matches. We can be there in ten minutes at warp nine. But I checked—Voyager should be in Sector 001 on its shakedown cruise. The location of the distress call is only about an eighth of a light-year from the DMZ.”
Voyskunsky looked down at DeSoto. “We have to check it out, Captain.”
DeSoto nodded. “Agreed. Baifang, set course for that distress call, warp nine.”
The young woman’s long-fingered hands played across the conn. “Course plotted and laid in, sir.”
“Hit it. Jose, the nanosecond we’re in sensor range, I want a full scan on whatever’s broadcasting that signal. Manolet, give me long-range—make sure there aren’t any Maquis or Cardassian surprises waiting for us.”
A pair of “Aye, sir’s” came from behind him.
Ten uncomfortable