The Garden - Melissa Scott [77]
"Chakotay to Captain Janeway."
The sound of his voice broke her reverie, and Janeway allowed her smile to widen. Tuvok must have finished his survey ahead of schedule. "Janeway
here."
"Captain, we're reading an unexplained subspace wave just at the edge of our sensor range. I don't think it's a ship, but we can't be certain-and we don't have a definite identification."
"I'm on my way," Janeway answered, all thoughts of the past, even of Tuvok's mission, swept away in the sudden adrenaline rush.
The waveform analysis was spread across the main viewscreen when she arrived, and she frowned at it as she took her place in the command chair, already sure she didn't recognize the pattern. "Long-range sensors?"
"It's still too far away to show up on either visual or nonenergetic sensors. All we can expect to get is the waveform," Kim answered. His hands played across his controls, but Janeway guessed it was nervousness, the desire to recheck his readings, rather than any real hope of getting new information.
Janeway stared at the wave, shook her head as the screen vanished, replaced by the now-familiar star-scape. "Any thoughts, gentlemen?"
Chakotay made a soft sound through his teeth. "It's not really the same thing," he said, "but it reminds
me of-imagine you held the displacement echo of a Romulan cloaking device up to a mirror. That's what that pattern reminds me of."
Janeway looked down at her personal screen, touched keys to call up the various files on the cloaking device. The similarities were there, all right, but, as Chakotay had said, the picture in her screen was a mirror image of that pattern, peaks and valleys reversed. "Very interesting, Mr. Chakotay," she said. "And I think you're right. Go to yellow alert. Mr. Kim, hail the surface-Tuvok first, Adamant if you can't reach him."
"Captain, Mr. Tuvok is hailing us," Kim answered, and Janeway lifted an eyebrow.
"Put him on the screen."
"Captain." The Vulcan's expression was as deceptively serene as ever. "The Kirse report that one, maybe as many as five, ships have entered the system. They are cloaked, and therefore according to Adamant probably Andirrim."
"The location?" Janeway asked.
"Transmitting the sighting coordinates now." Tuvok pressed a button out of range of the viewer, and Kim looked up.
"The coordinates match the spot where we picked up the waveform, captain."
Janeway nodded. "Keep scanning, Mr. Kim. Report any change immediately. Mr. Tuvok, what are the Kirse plans?"
Tuvok looked over his shoulder. "You will have to ask Adamant that yourself, Captain." For an instant, Janeway could have sworn she heard disapproval in his voice.
"I beg your pardon, Adamant," she said. "I didn't realize you were there."
"I am here," the Kirse answered, and the image
swung sideways to bring him into focus. "If it is the Andirrim-and it most probably is; theirs is the most sophisticated cloaking device of all the attackers'- they may well want to trade. If so, I will let them land." He shrugged slightly, as though anticipating her response. And he probably could, she realized; Tuvok was bound to have made the objections that trembled on her tongue. "As you know, the shortage of metals is acute. I cannot afford revenge, or spite."
"Captain," Kim said, and Janeway glanced at him. "We're getting something on the visual scanners now."
"Put it on the main screen."
Instantly, Adamant's pale face was replaced by an image of stars. Five points of light shone brighter than the others the approaching ships, Janeway knew, and looked at her own sensor board. "Any chance of an enhanced view, Mr. Kim?"
"Working on that now, Captain."