Unworthy - Kirsten Beyer [85]
“Then who?”
“Someone located on the fourth planet of the Indign system, the one populated exclusively by the Neyser,” Seven said, a hint of anger in her voice.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Just as alpha shift was ending, Captain Eden asked Commander Paris and Lieutenant Kim to report to her ready room. She had already reviewed Conlon’s most recent report. Most of the affected systems had been restored. Multiple viruses responsible for the failures had been found and eliminated. Conlon was now in the process of reviewing the logs of anyone with command clearance as only someone with that authorization could have accessed that many systems. Eden sensed that Nancy was taking it personally that someone was messing with her engines.
Eden was troubled by the why as much as with the whom . In the captain’s opinion, the most relevant clue might be the coordinates to which the saboteur had intended to direct Voyager . The area contained a high concentration of subspace instabilities that suggested a motive to Eden that was most disturbing.
There was a brief, uncomfortable skirmish when Paris and Kim entered, over who should precede whom through the door, that gave the captain pause.
As Kim was mock bowing and gesturing for Paris to enter ahead of him, her patience snapped and she said, “Let’s go, gentlemen. None of us has time for this right now.”
Appropriately chastened, they hurried inside.
“Take a seat,” she ordered, nodding to the chairs opposite her desk. Once they’d settled, she said, “It’s going to be several days before we have a full report on what happened today, but one interpretation of the information we do have at hand has disturbed me greatly and I’d like your input.”
“Of course, Captain,” Harry said immediately.
“We might have a saboteur onboard.”
Both looked appropriately stunned.
“Conlon thinks someone damaged the power systems intentionally?” Paris asked, aghast.
“Shortly before we made the journey from the terminus of the Beta and Delta quadrants to the nebula, Lieutenant Conlon discovered a series of strange deflector protocols that had been recently restored to our active systems. Among them was one whose only purpose is to open a rift to fluidic space. Conlon has found it impossible to purge this protocol thus far, though she did successfully quarantine it. I don’t have to tell either one of you how troubling it is to imagine that someone on board might wish to make contact with Species 8472.”
“No, you don’t,” Kim agreed.
“Today, we suffered massive failures to dozens of systems, but strangely, propulsion was unaffected, though navigational control was disrupted. The slipstream drive came online of its own accord and was about to take us to a set of coordinates where opening a rift to fluidic space might have been possible.”
“Can’t we open a rift anywhere?” Paris asked.
“Theoretically, yes,” Eden answered. “Practically speaking, you need a naturally occurring quantum singularity, or you have to create an artificial one. That’s easier to do in areas where subspace has already been altered by the presence of, among other things, transwarp tunnels. Our researchers have found it all but impossible to open even a tiny rift in the Alpha quadrant. That didn’t make sense until the destabilizing factors of regular subspace travel, which are readily found here in the Delta quadrant thanks to the Borg’s preferential form of FTL flight, were taken into account.”
“Captain, you think that someone onboard is interested in picking a fight with Species 8472?” Paris asked.
“I think it’s possible, and I want to know who you think might be most likely to harbor such an agenda,” Eden replied.
“No one,” Paris said immediately.
“Really?” Kim asked dismissively.
“Come on, Harry,” Paris went on, “anyone who’s ever met those guys wouldn’t willingly come within a light-year of them. They’re not exactly known for their hospitality.”
“Obviously not,” Kim said, directing himself toward Eden.
“What about Seven?” the captain asked evenly.
Both paused to consider it.
“I ask, not because I doubt her intentions,