The Brave and the Bold Book Two - Keith R. A. DeCandido [6]
Voyskunsky peered over Kojima’s shoulder. “Reading the ship’s ID beacon. It and the hull configuration match with NCC-74656, U.S.S. Voyager.” She turned to Dayrit. “Anything on long-range?”
Dayrit shook his head—an odd sight, as the Filipino security chief had no discernible neck, so his head seemed to swivel directly on his shoulders. “There’s some activity in the DMZ, but it all seems to be interplanetary—and it’s all civilian.”
“As it should be,” Voyskunsky said. “After all, ‘demilitarized’ means ‘no military.’”
Kojima muttered, “And don’t think the Maquis don’t love that.”
Turning back to the ops officer, Voyskunsky asked, “What was that, Ensign?”
“Nothing important, sir,” Kojima said, straightening. “I just—well, if they allowed military ships in the DMZ, the Maquis might not be so much of a problem.”
Snorting, Dayrit said, “No, instead we’d have Starfleet and Central Command ships baring their teeth at each other. Three minutes later, we have another Cardassian War on our hands.” Something on the tactical console then caught Dayrit’s attention. “Incoming call from Voyager—it’s Captain Janeway.”
Good, DeSoto thought. It was looking more and more like this call was legitimate.
“In visual range,” Hsu announced from the conn.
“Put it on the viewer,” DeSoto said.
DeSoto watched as the general vista of space was replaced with a side view of the U.S.S. Voyager. The ship had a more angular saucer section that made it more aerodynamic. Where that was an unnecessary consideration for most starships, the Intrepid-class ships like Voyager were designed to be able to land on a planet’s surface. DeSoto appreciated the alteration to the standard design, though he couldn’t help but think that it made the ship look like a garden spade.
Right now, the nacelles were dimmed, and only about half the ship’s running lights were operational. If this wasn’t a true distress call, they were certainly making a good show of it.
Standing up, DeSoto said, “Let’s answer the hail, Manolet. Put Captain Janeway onscreen.”
The view of Voyager was replaced with that of her bridge. DeSoto smiled at the sight of the other ship’s much roomier control center. When his former first officer Will Riker had transferred to the Enterprise to be Picard’s first officer over seven years earlier, DeSoto had joked that he was going to a luxury liner. While Voyager wasn’t as grandiose as the Galaxy-class monster that Jean-Luc and Will served on, it still put the Hood to shame in its roominess. You could run laps on that bridge and not disturb a single duty officer, he thought with a smile.
In the center seat was a woman with features that managed to be both hard and soft, her brown hair tied into a bun at the back of her head.
“This is Captain Robert DeSoto of the U.S.S. Hood.”
“Captain Kathryn Janeway of what’s left of the Voyager ,” the woman said dryly. “Thanks for coming so quickly, Captain.”
“You’re a little far from home, aren’t you?” he said with a smile.
“No, we’re a lot far from home. The whole point of a shakedown cruise is to shake the ship and see what falls down. In our case, it fell right on our heads.”
“What happened?”
“Something’s wrong with the new bioneural gel packs. First they supercharged the engines so much that our dash to Alpha Centauri at warp one became a crazed sprint to the Cardassian border at warp nine-point-nine-eight.”
DeSoto whistled in appreciation mixed with horror.
“Now we’re at ten percent power. We’d appreciate a boost, if you’d be so kind, Captain.”
Voyskunsky said, “Bridge to engineering. Prepare to set up a power transfer between Hood and Voyager.”
“On it, Commander,” Lieutenant Czierniewski, the Hood’ s chief engineer, said.
Janeway smiled. “Thank you, Captain.”
“Happy to be of help.”
“I’m afraid there’s something else. My security chief discovered something before sensors went down. We need to verify it with you.”
DeSoto shrugged. “Sure.”
A tall, mahogany-skinned Vulcan lieutenant stepped forward from the tactical station at the aft of the bridge