Unworthy - Kirsten Beyer [54]
“He’s very helpful,” Nancy acknowledged. “Oh, speaking of problems I’m having a hard time solving, did your shuttle’s slipstream drive ever have any interface issues with your deflector? Processing delays, specifically?”
“No,” B’Elanna said, her curiosity instantly tweaked. “But my deflectors were designed specifically to integrate with the slipstream drive.”
“Lucky you,” Nancy replied.
“Why don’t you forward me your most recent deflector control parameters and schematics and let me take a look,” B’Elanna suggested.
“I suppose fresh eyes can’t hurt.” Nancy smiled. “See you later, B’Elanna.”
B’Elanna busied herself getting Miral ready for the day. It was a luxurious undertaking now that it could be performed in roughly three times the space they had enjoyed on the Home Free.
Just as she was ready to take Miral to sickbay for her morning checkup, Nancy’s data transmission arrived. B’Elanna spent the hour and a half while she was waiting for the doctor to complete his exam engrossed in a thorough evaluation. It was a journey down the engineering road not traveled. But it didn’t take long for B’Elanna to discover what she believed was the source of Conlon’s interface problem, and once she’d settled Miral in for her afternoon nap, she transferred Kula’s program to her quarters.
In main engineering, B’Elanna unobtrusively made herself comfortable at a diagnostic station and began running simulations that would test her theory. Confident she was right, she still wanted to confirm her suspicions. Halfway through her analysis of Voyager’s deflector protocols, B’Elanna found something unusual. It was not the subtle misalignment she had expected, but it would certainly account for the interface issues Conlon had described.
What the hell are those doing here? she wondered to herself.
Her next step was to send a message to Vorik.
Counselor Cambridge and the doctor had filed detailed reports with Captain Eden on Seven, confirming that she was capable of performing regular duties and that it was in her best interest to do so. Eden trusted both of these officers implicitly, but she wanted to make her own assessment. The captain entered astrometrics where Seven and Lieutenant Devi Patel—Voyager’s senior science officer—were conducting a scan of the system they were approaching.
The two women were working together at the central panel. Patel was a petite, dark-skinned woman whose shiny, straight black hair had an almost Vulcan appearance since she kept it styled in a short, severe cut. Patel barely reached Seven’s shoulder. A formidable biologist, she’d proved her worth time and again in the three years she had served aboard Voyager.
“Report,” Eden ordered as she stepped forward, taking in the vast display on the screen before her. Voyager’s astrometrics lab had been an inspired addition, and one that Eden had every intention of making the most of. Seven—quite rightly—deferred to Patel to begin the presentation.
The lieutenant began in her crisp, high-pitched voice, “As you can see, Captain, the Hawking’s initial assessment— indicating that the third, fourth, seventh, and tenth planets within the system are inhabited—was correct. With more accurate scans, we have discovered that sentient life-forms inhabiting the third planet appear to fall into six discrete species.
“Six different sentient species inhabiting the same planet, let alone system?” Eden asked.
“Yes, Captain.”
“If I may, Captain?” Seven interjected.
“Go on.”
“The Borg did encounter and catalog four of the six species in question.”
“Really?”
Patel continued, “The least prolific of the six species is humanoid.”
“Species 6649,” Seven added. “They call themselves the Neyser and are indigenous to a system more than four hundred light-years away.”
“How did they get here?” Eden asked.
“Unknown,” Patel replied. “On the third planet they live in intimate proximity to the other five sentient species. However, they also appear to have successfully colonized the fourth planet several thousand years ago. The fourth planet is exclusively inhabited by the Neyser.”