The Murdered Sun - Christie Golden [88]
Janeway hoped that the commander was wrong. In fact, she was gambling Paris's life on it.
Questions within questions, and what she and her crew had learned did not enlighten. They were presently hugging what Janeway had taken to calling the wall, for want of a better term. From what they could tell, the concavity was shaped like a balloon, with a comparatively small entrance and a large, spherical shape inside.
The gravity here was stronger, and it drew the lighted particles of the dying Verunan sun to the wall.
"Any luck on narrowing down the origin of those verteron particles, Ensign Kim?"
"Negative, Captain. They seem to be coming from everywhere." A sudden thought occurred to the young man "Captain... could Sun-Eater itself be a wormhole?" he queried excitedly.
"I hate to dash your hopes, Mr. Kim," replied his commander, "but I've already thought of that. We've seen the entrance--an entrance far too large for a black hole--but we've yet to find an exit."
"Captain," said Tuvok, straightening to face her. "I am reminded of the incident involving a Vulcan science vessel some dozen years ago.
It experienced a breach of the warp core while exploring a small wormhole that had appeared in the vicinity of Garus Prime--and was instantly destroyed. The resulting explosion collapsed the wormhole but not immediately. One end collapsed first. The second followed but not until many moments later."
Janeway's breath caught in her throat. "Are you suggesting that this was once a wormhole and that there was an explosion here?"
It made sense. It matched the facts. But what had exploded?
And why was the planet trapped in here? More theories, more questions, more dead ends.
"Precisely, Captain. It is the only theory that appears to fit all the facts."
"Kim, get someone researching that incident. I want all the details.
In the meantime--" "Captain!" Kim's startled exclamation was almost a yelp of sheer surprise. "We're being hailed by the Destroyer!"
"Mr. Tuvok," ordered Janeway, "ready whatever defenses won't blow us to kingdom come in here. Mr. Kim, put the commander on screen."
The eerie orange glow of the illuminated pocket in space disappeared, replaced by the head and shoulders of a helmeted Akerian.
His--her?--armor was in every way identical to that worn by First Warrior Linneas, but there were fewer notches on the horns that curved gracefully up from the helmet.
"I am Garai, first warrior of the Empirical Exploratory Unit, commander of the Akerian vessel Destroyer. In the name of the great and glorious empress Riva, I demand to know your business here in our territory."
Hope that she might be able to reason with First Warrior Garai warred with her knowledge of Linneas's behavior in Janeway's heart. "I am Captain Kathryn Janeway, captain of the Federation Starship Voyager.
Our business here is exploration. We bear you no hostility, First Warrior Garai."
"Then why have you sent six of your vessels to the planet surface?"
replied Garai. "Was their purpose purely exploratory as well?"
His voice held a challenge, but it did not tremble with the suppressed anger and arrogance that had characterized Linneas's conversation. It was calm, cool... rational.
Janeway decided to take a risk. "Only one of those was our ship," she said honestly. "The rest are Verunan vessels."
Garai was silent. Not for the first time, Janeway wished she could see the facial reactions of her peer in the other ship.
She imagined, though, that her revelation stunned him.
But he seemed to recover. When he next spoke, his voice was as steady as before. "The Verunans do not have the technology. You are lying to me, Captain Janeway."
"I am not. The Verunans may not be as primitive as you think them to be. They have come to rescue their enslaved kin, nothing more."
"Then we shall destroy them," replied Garai coolly. "Those puny ships are no match for us. They seemed to need you to even penetrate inside the concavity in order to