What's Past_ Many Splendors (Book 6) - Keith R.A. DeCandido [29]
The screen in front of Sonya and Geordi lit up with the text from the journal. She started scanning it. “There we go.” She highlighted a paragraph and enlarged it.
Geordi read it over, seeing that it was a program for remodulating shields that would not require realigning the emitters. The intent was to be able to modify shields in battle. “This’ll work—we’re not reconfiguring, we’re remodulating, but the theory should still apply.” Grinning, Geordi gave Sonya a pat on the arm. “Nice work, Sonya.”
Beaming, Sonya said, “Thank you, sir.”
“You and Van Mayter get on this right away. And then, when gamma’s over, you all go to bed.”
Sonya hesitated. “But if we’re not finished—”
“Give it to Duffy and Barclay. What Commander Riker said to Shelby applies to you, too.” Sonya was about to object, pointing out that she hadn’t been able to sleep in any case, when Geordi said, “Trust me, we’ll come across the Borg soon enough, and when we do, I’m gonna be asking two hundred percent from everyone. Until then, though, I want you all rested. That’s an order, Lieutenant.”
Those last four words were said in as formal a tone as Geordi La Forge ever used. Straightening, Sonya said, “Yes, sir, Commander.”
Geordi relaxed again. “All right. I’m gonna see what we can do about phasers. Higher EM frequencies might mess up their subspace fie—”
“Commander La Forge, report to observation lounge.” That was Riker.
Tapping his combadge, Geordi said, “On my way, Commander.” He looked at Sonya. “Get to work, then get some sleep.”
Sonya nodded.
“Sealing doors to core chamber. Warning: inner hull failure. Decompression danger, deck thirty-six, section four. Sealing main engineering.”
The computer’s announcement sent Sonya rocketing awake from a fitful sleep.
Kieran!
She leapt out of bed, still in full uniform, having feared that this very thing might happen while she slept, and not wanting to waste any time getting on duty where she was needed.
As she entered the turbolift, her combadge chirped. “La Forge to all off-shift engineering personnel, report to Lieutenant Duffy on deck thirty-six. I’ll be on the bridge.”
Relief washed over Sonya at the news that Kieran was okay. Maybe they were lucky and they were able to evacuate before engineering was sealed off.
Kieran was waiting when she arrived at the main engineering console. The core chamber was behind a blast door. Also present were about a dozen engineers, plus some people from security. Sonya tried not to think about who she didn’t see: Alfredo Della Guardia, Denny Russell, Bigay Ampalayon, Beth Bracken, Cliff Meyers…
When everyone arrived, Kieran—sounding more grave than Sonya’d ever heard him speak—said, “The Borg cut into the deck, causing a hull breach. Nineteen people were unable to get out of the area, of which we’ve scanned eleven outside the hull.”
“Lieu—lieutenant?” That was Reg Barclay, who was standing over the navigation display. “We’re—we’re moving. According to—to this readout, we’re headed for the Paulsen Nebula.”
“Captain’s probably hoping to lose ’em in there,” one of the security guards said.
“All right,” Kieran said, “let’s get to work. We need to seal the breach and get this damn blast door back up.”
They were the worst days of Sonya Gomez’s life.
The loss of Denny Russell had hit her the hardest. They’d been classmates at the Academy, after all. His deadpan calm had always been a welcome contrast to Sonya’s nervous enthusiasm.
But all of them were devastating losses to the Enterprise. The eight whose bodies hadn’t been scanned were found wedged into odd parts of engineering after they sealed the breach. It hadn’t been easy—working in a nebula with the Borg searching for you made for difficult and tense work—but they did it. Nine of the nineteen were the security guards assigned to engineering when the ship was at red alert, who would not have left until all the engineers were out. The ten engineers’ names were imprinted on Sonya’s brain from seeing it on a display: AMPALAYON, BRACKEN, BRUNER,