Unworthy - Kirsten Beyer [102]
Eden rose automatically from her chair. Her instincts already told her what was coming.
“Nancy, what’s happening?” Eden demanded.
“We’ve lost control of the deflector,” Conlon replied. “The protocol for opening a rift to fluidic space is overriding every other system. Give us a minute.”
“Belay that,” Eden ordered calmly.
“Captain?”
“I doubt you’ll be able to disengage the system in time anyway,” Eden added. Turning to Paris she said, “Computer, locate Admiral Batiste.”
“Admiral Batiste is in the main shuttlebay.”
“Lock it down,” Eden instructed Kim. “Commander Paris, the bridge is yours.” As she hurried toward the turbolift she added, “Lieutenant Kim, dispatch a security team to meet me at the shuttlebay. They are not to enter until I arrive.”
“Understood, Captain.”
“Captain?” Paris said. “You might want to see this.”
A bright beam shot forth from Voyager’s deflector dish. Where its energy dispersed, a roiling greenish-white miasma churned before them. Eden’s stomach fell at her first actual glimpse of fluidic space.
“Red Alert,” she ordered immediately. “Lieutenant Kim, can you close that rift?” she demanded.
“Yes, Captain,” Kim replied confidently, “but it may take a few minutes.”
“Best possible speed, Lieutenant,” Eden requested.
Paris crossed to stand at Eden’s side, watching expectantly.
“Get to the shuttlebay,” he said softly. “I’ve got this.”
Eden met his eyes and nodded briskly.
“Anything comes through that rift—”
“I’ll take care of it,” he assured her.
Without another word, Eden left the bridge. She now knew to a certainty who. She was finally going to learn why.
Captain Itak was meditating in his quarters, as was his custom at the end of a duty shift. His breath was slow and regular. His limbs were light as feathers. He floated in a sea of tranquillity, at one with the universe in its vast, mysterious harmony.
“Ops to Captain Itak.”
“Go ahead, Ensign,” Itak responded as he gingerly shifted his weight and rose from a kneeling position.
“Long-range scans are detecting two dozen Indign vessels moving in formation away from their planetary system.”
“Heading?” Itak asked, moving intently but unhurriedly to the door of his cabin. From there he was mere meters to the bridge.
“They’re headed straight for us!” Bloom announced with less restraint than Itak would have wished.
“How soon will they intercept our vessel?” Itak said evenly as he entered the bridge and moved gracefully to his chair.
“Nineteen minutes, sir,” Bloom replied.
“Red Alert,” Itak ordered. “Send a priority message to Admiral Batiste, advising him of our position, and request instruction.”
After a brief moment, Bloom confirmed, “Message sent, sir.”
Lieutenant T’Pena arrived moments later and assumed the bridge tactical station.
“Analysis, Lieutenant T’Pena?” Itak requested.
“Twenty-four vessels, moving at high warp. Their shields are raised and their weapons are online.”
“Are their offensive systems similar to those of the first Indign vessel we encountered?”
“No, sir,” T’Pena replied. “The energy signatures suggest significantly more intense firepower. I am also detecting additional phaser banks. If we maintain our position and engage, the odds are eighty-nine point seven nine percent that we will be destroyed. It appears they have learned from our first encounter,” he suggested.
“They have done more than that, Lieutenant,” Itak corrected him. “They have adapted.”
“Sir, Voyager has received our message but there is no response from Admiral Batiste,” Bloom reported.
Itak did not require a response to come to the only logical conclusion.
“Set course for Voyager, maximum warp,” he ordered.
Recalculating the odds, Itak determined that even with the flagship’s assistance, the likelihood that any of the Federation vessels would survive the coming encounter was less than thirty-five percent.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Barclay led the Doctor systematically throughout the Galen, one section and room at