The Murdered Sun - Christie Golden [69]
Ready for anything, he thought. As were they all.
***
Here we go, thought Janeway. Let's make this as smooth as we can.
"Yellow alert," she snapped. "Janeway to Paris."
"Paris here," came the lieutenant's voice, sounding small and tinny.
"How is our little fleet doing?"
"Well, they're a little nervous, but all six liftoffs have gone perfectly. Okay... okay, here they come now."
"On screen." The planet appeared on the screen. "Magnify."
Now, Janeway could see the six tiny little ships forming a perfect V, smoothly making their way toward the waiting shuttlecraft. Paris hadn't exaggerated. They were very attractive, well-designed crafts.
"I'm taking the lead," Paris continued, "and am bringing them in to our starboard side, parallel to the docking port." The shuttlecraft maneuvered into position, with the six Guardians falling gracefully in line.
"Looks good, Mr. Paris," Janeway approved. "We'll be ready to go to warp two in sixty seconds." She glanced back at Kim. He knew how important it was for everything to be timed correctly. He met her gaze evenly, nodded. She allowed herself a smile.
"Everyone in place, Lieutenant?"
"Ready, Captain," Paris answered.
"Shields up," she ordered.
"Shields up, Captain," Tuvok confirmed. "All six ships and the shuttlecraft are safely inside the shields."
"Mr. Kim?"
Kim began the countdown. "Five... four... three... two...
one."
"Engage," said the captain.
Voyager sprang into warp. "How are our friends, Mr. Paris?"
"We're fine, Captain. No one's having problems maintaining position."
"Put Sun-Eater on the screen," said Janeway. At once, the huge, gaping maw of the black, distorted space appeared. She gazed at it as it grew closer. At warp two, the fastest speed attainable by the shuttlecraft and the Verunan ships at this point (though Torres seemed to think that further investigation into the staggering Verunan archives would yield ways to increase speed in the vessels), they'd reach Sun-Eater in an hour.
Her body was taut. Janeway took a slow, steadying breath, forcing her muscles to relax. Intellectually, she knew they were not heading into a black hole. But it sure as hell looked like one.
"Mr. Tuvok, keep me appraised of the situation as we approach."
She wanted to sit down, probably ought to sit down. It would send a message of reassurance to the bridge crew. But her legs were locked here, as if nailed to the floor, and she knew herself well enough to know that she could no more sit and feign ease at this moment than she could fly.
As the minutes crept by, Tuvok calmly rattled off statistics, noting the gradual increase of the gravitational pull, the pressure being put on the shields, the percentage by which the ship's sensors were becoming inaccurate, the dimensions of the entrance into the mouth of Sun-Eater.
Suddenly he broke off in midsentence. Janeway's head whipped around.
"Captain, sensors indicate the approach of two Akerian vessels at warp seven." The Vulcan glanced up from his console. His brown eyes locked with hers. "Their heading is zero-four-six mark three-two."
"Directly for the concavity," breathed Janeway. She uttered an angry curse. "Red alert!" The bridge darkened and the bloodred pulse of the alert signal began. "Put them on screen."
There they were, two large, bulky vessels. Janeway recognized one of them as the Victory. Linneas was apparently not one to give up easily.
It did not surprise her. The second was a new ship, which the computer translated as the Destroyer. The two moved in tandem, never varying from their obvious destination: Sun-Eater.
"Hail them, Mr. Kim."
She kept her eyes on the screen, hearing the soft sounds of the buttons Harry Kim was manipulating. "No response, Captain."
Janeway hadn't really expected one, but she had needed to make the gesture. "Keep trying, Ensign." She mentally ran through her