What's Past_ Many Splendors (Book 6) - Keith R.A. DeCandido [25]
More important though, she had learned what Geordi had instructed her to learn: to relax.
“General quarters. All off-duty and civilian personnel report to quarters immediately.”
Sonya looked up sharply as she entered main engineering to report for her second day of duty as a lieutenant. The computer’s instruction didn’t apply to her, as she had just come on duty, but she wondered what had prompted it. Yesterday, the Enterprise had taken on an Angosian prisoner named Roga Danar, and this morning was transferring him back to a penal colony on one of Angosia’s moons. Sonya’s initial thought—What could possibly have gone wrong?—was immediately suppressed. A year on the U.S.S. Enterprise had wrested out of her the notion that nothing could go wrong almost as fast as the notion that there were things that didn’t have a solution.
From transporter control, Cliff Meyers said, “I don’t believe this—Danar broke out of the transporter field!”
“That’s not possible,” Kieran said.
Geordi ran over to stand behind Cliff. “I’ve seen this guy in action, Duffy, don’t be so sure of that.”
From behind Sonya at the main console, Ensign Koji Oliver said, “Turbolifts are down, security fields going up on the lower decks.” Then he frowned. “Turbolifts are back up.”
“Who ordered that?” Sonya asked.
“The bridge.” Gar sounded as confused as Sonya.
Geordi went over to the main console next to Koji. “Probably a trick—everyone on the ship knows the turbolifts should be down, but Danar may not. If he sees the lifts are working, he might take one and then we’d get him.”
“Sir,” Kieran said, “I’m not tracking Danar at all. Are we sure he’s loose?”
“He’s invisible to sensor scans,” Geordi said.
“Oh. Sorry, sir.”
Sonya sighed. Kieran should have known that.
“Phaser on overload! Seal this deck!” That was Worf’s voice on the speaker. Before Sonya could even register the words, Geordi had pounced on the console and sealed off section twelve of deck thirty-six.
Sonya held her breath as the seconds ticked by.
Then: “Captain, the overload has been averted.”
Everyone in engineering exhaled. Geordi lowered the force fields in that section, but kept the security fields up. Sonya went back to the warp core to see that her diagnostic was done, and the warp core was functioning normally.
“It’ll be okay,” Kieran said. “I’m sure Worf’ll take care of the guy.”
“Hang on, something’s wrong,” Koji said. “One of the force fields on this deck just went down. The bridge didn’t—”
Koji’s words were cut off, and Sonya heard something fall. She whirled around to see Koji being flipped over someone’s back and onto the console by a fast-moving figure who backhanded Geordi hard enough to knock his VISOR off. Both Kieran and Cliff moved to stop him, but they were taken down, too.
Sonya was about to cry out Kieran’s name as he crumpled, broken, to the deck, but before she could, she felt a blow to the side of her head, and the universe went dark.
The next thing Sonya knew, she was lying on a biobed in sickbay, a throbbing, nauseating pain in her head, and Nurse Temple standing over her. “Wha—what happen’?”
“You’re fine, Ensign, just a bump on the head. You’ll be okay in a little while.”
“Kieran…Geordi…engineer—” She tried to sit up. This proved a rather big mistake, as the room started jumping around, bouncing back and forth, and generally behaving in a very silly manner.
She quickly lay back down.
The nurse smiled and said, “Notice I didn’t say you’d be okay now. Rest, all right? The doctor will be by to see you in