The Red King - Michael A. Martin [87]
“While the actual physical threat to our shuttles is as grave as that facing the Neyel craft, our technological capabilities are significantly more advanced than theirs,” Tuvok said. “Our sensors will allow us to pinpoint in advance the likeliest sites of energetic interactions between the protouniverse and normal space. Even those few moments of forewarning should give us sufficient time to take appropriate evasive maneuvers and reinforce our shields as necessary.”
Pazlar could only hope that Tuvok was right about that, though she already had her doubts as to how much protection any deflector shield system could provide. After all, space itself—including, very possibly, the space occupied by Titan and her eight shuttlecraft—was actually breaking down. She knew she was about to face a trial by fire.
Of course, today wouldn’t be her first such experience. In addition to her skills as a stellar cartographer, Pazlar had maintained excellent pilot credentials over the years. She was used to evac missions, having flown in nine of them while stationed aboard the Aegrippos during the Dominion War. But in those days, her chief worries during her rescue assignments had been enemy ships and their firepower; here, today, she was going up against an entity more powerful than anything ever encountered by either side during the war.
Lieutenant Bowan Radowski moved forward in response to Tuvok’s curt nod. “Coordination of the transporters from the shuttlecraft to the Vanguard habitat will be handled as much as possible from aboard Titan, aided by three of the Romulan ships that will be dedicated solely to this task,” he said. “However, when you’re in the thick of things down on Oghen, we will likely be unable to help you. The catastrophes that are occurring all over the planet will compound the problems for your rescue efforts. Because of the subspace interference being generated by the protouniverse, we’re expecting to have a difficult time achieving transporter locks on targets entirely from orbit. That’s where you shuttle teams come in, identifying en masse targets at close range and relaying the transporter locks to the orbiting rescue fleet ships. At the same time, you’ll be using your shuttlecraft’s own transporters to round up stray refugees; if the best you can do is to grab a few individuals at random, then that’s what you’ll have to do.”
Pazlar felt yet another pang of anxiety, but didn’t voice the question that gnawed at her. How do we decide who to save and who to leave here to die? She could see from the pained, somber expressions all around her that others were likely wrestling with the very same question.
It was a huge question, she realized, and answerable only in that it was patently unanswerable. She had to make a conscious decision not to listen to the small voice inside her that continued to ask it, and hoped everyone else could do likewise. Otherwise, we’ll be paralyzed with indecision. And if that happens, how can we rescue anybody ?
“Once your shuttles are full, break every speed record you can to return to the Vanguard habitat,” Radowski said, his dark-skinned features looking strained and serious. “Since the transporters aboard your shuttlecraft may not be powerful enough to penetrate Vanguard’s crust, we’ll use Titan’s transporters and those of the Romulans to offload every survivor you have, so you can get back to the surface of Oghen as quickly as possible.”
Ranul Keru stepped forward as Radowski finished. The security chief clearly wasn’t operating at full bore—his skin still had an ashen tone, and Pazlar could see bulky bandages underneath his loose-fitting uniform tunic—but she had to admire his tenacious devotion to his duties.
“The main reason that we’re having security aboard the shuttles—besides providing additional hands to carry out the rescue efforts—is that there will be no time to warn the Neyel or the other species down on Oghen of our efforts. As far as many of them know, we could be invaders who are kidnapping them to enslave