The Murdered Sun - Christie Golden [65]
Kes smiled, one of her small, secret, wise smiles that made Chakotay recall just how little they knew about her race.
"I think," she said, pitching her voice very soft, "that Tom has met a female whom he likes, respects, cares about--and has no physical desire for." Her sweet smile deepened, became impish.
"And I think he's finding it terribly confusing."
***
There was no literal clock ticking away the minutes, of course.
But Janeway certainly felt as if there were.
There were just too many things that could go wrong for her to relax even for a moment According to the information Kim had gathered from the Akerian ship, the vessels could obtain speeds comparable to Voyager's warp factor nine. Conceivably, then, the Victory could cover the distance between Veruna Four and Akeras in a day.
Janeway had gambled that the disabled vessel wouldn't be able to travel at warp nine. Tuvok certainly agreed with her on this.
"Chances that the Victory will be able to reach and maintain maximum speed for the entire journey are approximately 2,358,489 to 1," he had rattled reassuringly right off the top of his curly dark Vulcan head.
So the Victory wouldn't be a problem for at least forty-eight hours.
But how long after that did they have? How badly was the ship hurt, after all? According to the Conquest's records, there was originally a total of eight light-speed vessels in the Akerian fleet. One had crashed on the planet, providing the Verunans with their first, badly needed glimpse into Akerian technology. That left seven. Janeway had disabled the Conquest, further diminishing the ranks of potential enemy vessels. But there were still six left.
The question was, Where were they? The Victory was, by everybody's best guess, heading home as quickly as possible to Akeras for repairs.
From what she knew of the Akerian nature, Janeway felt certain it was coming back to continue the fight.
Where were the other five being deployed? Were they back in orbit around Akeras? Off terrorizing other innocent solar systems?
Or were they inside the concavity, in the belly of the dreadful Sun-Eater, completely unaware of the turmoil directly outside the event horizon? And if they were inside the concavity, what was she going to do if they came out?
Every instinct was crying out to her that she should press her advantage while she had it. And certainly, Voyager and her crew were ready, willing, and able to enter Sun-Eater right this minute if she gave the order.
But then there was the question of the Verunans. Janeway herself had been the one to offer aid to their enslaved comrades, but that was before she'd realized just how backward the Verunan technology truly was, before she knew just how fast the Akerian ships could fly.
Now, she recalled her own words of three days ago, spoken here in this same conference room: It would cost us nothing but a little time to escort them back out, see them safely back to Veruna Four, and reenter Sun-Eater. I'm willing to give them that time.
She still was, deep in her heart. But she was playing a very risky game, with her own crew taking on a good part of that risk.
The Akerians were a one-trick pony, certainly, and Janeway now knew how to avoid their only weapons and how to quickly and efficiently disable them. But still, but still...
The door hissed open. Janeway immediately donned what she privately called her "captain's card-playing face" and turned to face her officers.
Paris had obviously just been in some sort of verbal altercation with someone; his color was high. Judging from the hints of smiles on Chakotay's and B'Elanna's dark faces and the perplexed expression Neelix wore, she guessed they'd been privy to it.
Kes, serenely lovely as ever, followed silently while Tuvok and Kim brought up the rear.
Janeway kept standing, watching her staff as they took seats.
Good people, all of them. They'd done her proud. Silently, she resolved anew not to let them down.
"Before