Ghost of a Chance (28 page)

Stephens shook his head. “They’re not responding, Captain.”

“I didn’t think she would.”

“It is too late in any case,” Tuvok said. The image of the Televek commander, Shaale—if Jonal had told her the right name—suddenly vanished, replaced by a view of space. To one side of the screen a brilliant multicolored flash suddenly lit the heavens.

“The lead cruiser has been destroyed,” Tuvok finished. “I am not reading any survivors.”

“I’m picking up a hailing signal from just off our starboard,” Stephens said.

“Confirm two contacts,” Tuvok added. “They are Televek pods.

They must have come from the damaged cruiser we left orbiting the near moon.”

“They’re signaling their fleet that they’re coming, Captain,” Stephens added.

“How many life signs?” Janeway asked.

Tuvok studied his console. “Eleven in one pod, six in the other.”

“Good.” Janeway tapped her comm badge. “Bridge to transporter room.

I want you to beam Jonal, Mila, and Tassay onto the second of those two pods. Tuvok will transfer the coordinates.”

“Aye, sir,” came the transporter chief’s reply.

“Are you just letting them go?” Chakotay asked.

Janeway sighed. “I’m not going to keep them in our brig for the next seventy years.” She held his gaze for a moment. “Comments, Commander?”

Chakotay shrugged agreeably. “Not a one, Captain.”

“Transporter room reports all three prisoners beamed aboard the second pod,” Tuvok announced.

“Good,” Janeway said, knitting her fingers together behind her back.

“Mr. Tuvok, I’d like you to put the tactical display back up on the main screen.”

As the image appeared, it was clear that the surviving Televek ships were turning, heading away. Two hulks remained, drifting not far from the debris that marked the place where Shaale’s vessel had been.

“Bridge to Engineering.”

“Torres here, Captain.”

“Belay that warp drive reconfiguration order. We’ve still got moons to move, and it looks as if we just might get the chance.”

Janeway turned to Chakotay and saw a stark, wide-eyed look suddenly cross his face. He gasped as his breath seemed to catch in his throat.

She tried to reach for him, but suddenly she couldn’t see him anymore, and the ghosts were with her.

***

Voices filled Janeway’s mind, but they were not all the voices of ghosts. Among them were the frightened, astonished voices of more than one hundred forty men and women, the entire crew of Voyager. All together, somehow, somewhere, they touched one another in the gentlest way. Then the ghosts began to speak to everyone at once.

There were no words, just as before; it was more a sense, an essence, a tacit meaning. This time, however, there were no visions of suffering, no attacks, no fear, no omens of catastrophes to come, no dead. Just a notion that could only be translated into words like “thank you”…

“the children”…

“thank you”…

The children were the Drenarians, Janeway thought, sure of it.

But the people of Drenar Four were not the children of the ghosts, and the ghosts were not their ancestors. The reality was better than that.

Yet even as those thoughts came to her, the images in her mind—in the mind of everyone on board—suddenly changed. She saw something of the great consciousness that had sent the ghosts, the presence that had spoken to her and to Chakotay, and that spoke to the others now.

At their first entry into the alien stream of consciousness a blizzard of perceptions overwhelmed the crew, bits and pieces of galaxies and worlds and peoples, information that came in emotional as well as visual form. But the stream quickly narrowed and became an image only Janeway recognized, that of a fantastic alien vessel, a ship several hundred times Voyager’s size… passing before her eyes, blocking countless stars from view…

Lieutenant Torres waited patiently to be addressed while Janeway listened to the reports of the other officers gathered at the briefing room table. Voyager was almost back to normal.

“We’re ready to get under way, Captain,” B’Elanna said in turn.

“We have nearly full warp capability, and full impulse.” With Drenar Four’s three moons finally moved into their projected positions she had at last been able to reconfigure the warp drives. She had even managed to get a small repair crew down to the planet to retrieve Voyager’s damaged shuttlecraft.

And according to preliminary data, the planet itself had already begun to quiet, though this change was measurable only by using Voyager’s sensors; it would be weeks before the Drenarians noticed a real difference. But it would be enough of a difference, B’Elanna thought, quite pleased with the notion.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Janeway said. “A good job, all of you.”

“How soon will we be leaving?” Neelix said, the first time he had spoken this morning.

“Soon enough,” Janeway told him. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

Neelix looked slightly miffed. “I’m not, Captain. I simply wanted to mention that before we go, we ought to take one of your shuttlecraft over to those abandoned Televek cruisers and do a little… poking around, for inventory’s sake.”

Janeway and Chakotay looked at each other, then both of them turned toward B’Elanna.

“Agreed,” B’Elanna said. “After all, they did say those ships might have the kinds of parts we need. Maybe that was the one thing they were telling the truth about.”

“Neelix,” Janeway said with a smile, “I’m going to take you up on that.

Paris, lay in a course to those abandoned ships. We’ll beam over.

Commander,” she told Chakotay, “and B’Elanna, make a list. We’re going shopping!”

Within minutes Voyager stood alongside one of the silent, drifting Televek cruisers. A moment later Captain Janeway, Chakotay, Paris, and Lieutenant Torres materialized in a darkened corridor, handheld lights revealing smooth, unadorned walls.

“Chakotay and I will take the bridge.”

Janeway said. “You two know what you have to do. Keep in touch.”

They split up, each pair making their way, listening to their own heavy footfalls echo in the otherwise utterly still air—stale air, Janeway noted, thick with the smell of burned circuitry and uncertain chemicals. And cold. Interior temperatures were falling steadily.

Janeway could already see her own breath.

Life-support had been eliminated along with everything else when the ghosts had attacked.

Guided by Rollins on Voyager’s bridge, Janeway found the Televek bridge quickly enough. She and Chakotay went to work at once, looking over the various systems, attempting to determine the extent of the damage.

“We aren’t going to get main power on-line,” Chakotay said. He was crouched at one of the five compact console clusters that made up most of the bridge. “The primary feeds are melted, along with all contiguous components.”

So they weren’t going to be able to analyze or test any Televek technologies—not right away, in any case—but as Janeway examined what she guessed must be the tactical and weapons control center, she saw that it hardly mattered. She stood up and let out a deep sigh. “Even if we could route power in here somehow, everything is ruined. The destruction was quite thorough.”

Chakotay stood up as well. He nodded, a gesture barely noted in the reflected glow of his flash beam on the panels to either side.

Janeway tapped her comm badge once more. “Torres, Paris, we’ve got nothing in here. Are you having any luck?”

“Negative, Captain,” B’Elanna replied. “Engineering is completely useless. Everything is burned beyond repair. Some of it is still smoldering. The ship’s fire-control systems must have begun to function for a short time before the power went dead. Otherwise, I don’t think we’d be standing here right now.”

“Captain,” Tuvok’s voice interrupted.

Janeway tapped her badge once more. “Go ahead.”

“I am scanning what appears to be a sizable storage area very near the engineering and weapons sections of the cruiser. But the entire section is well shielded. Direct transport inside will not be possible. Subsequent scans indicate a similar room aboard the other derelict. Also, those same scans have turned up very little in terms of stockpiles or supplies, other than ship’s stores, and equipment in use.”

“You’d expect more, wouldn’t you?” Janeway said sardonically.

“Yes, Captain. If the Televek are indeed arms and technology merchants, and if they are routinely as cautious as we have been led to believe, then it is logical to assume they would take the precaution of carrying valuable merchandise in just such an area.”

“Acknowledged. Janeway to Torres. Did you get that?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“I want both of you to meet us in the corridor near that storage facility at once.”

“We’re on our way, Captain,” Paris replied.

The away team met at where two hallways intersected. They found themselves facing a large double hatchway composed of two-inch-thick terminium. Both B’Elanna and Chakotay looked the entry system over carefully before offering Janeway a mutual shrug.

“It’s locked,” the Commander noted.

“And without power to anything, we can’t bypass the seal,” B’Elanna said. “We’re going to have to do this another way.”

“Agreed,” Janeway said. Janeway gave both officers the go-ahead.

All three of them stood back as Janeway tapped at her badge.

“Transporter room, we’re going to need a Type III phaser compression rifle, immediately.”

A moment later the rifle materialized on the deck at Chakotay’s feet.

The commander picked the weapon up and set it to maximum, then held it in both hands at waist level. He waited while the others looked away, then fired point-blank at the center of the doors. One full burst was enough.

“Take care that you don’t get burned,” Janeway warned as the four of them stepped forward, their faces warm from the heat of the phaser, and used their hands to push the big doors aside. They slid open easily.

Paris was the first one through the entryway.

Janeway raised her light with his to scan the room. She could hardly believe her eyes.

The room was immense and filled to every corner with dozens of containers, large and small. But without opening a single one it was clear what most of them contained. Diagrams had been attached to the cartons, all of them depicting hardware and components, from EPS conduits and regulators and graviton generators to phaser emitters.

And in between the many stacks and rows of crates, on open pallets and protected by clear covering, there rested larger equipment meant for heavy excavation and assault. The Televek had come prepared for some serious digging and a no-contest perimeter defense.

“I can tell you right now,” B’Elanna said, striding up to a short stack of crates, the end cap of an aisle formed by dozens of crates, all slightly larger. “We’ve got that EPS regulator we need, and about seven more, right here.”

She laid her hand on one of the crates and seemed to trace the surface with her fingers, then she looked back at the others and smiled.

“They’re a little different from ours,” she added, turning again to the diagram on the crate’s exterior, examining it more closely. “But I think this’ll work.”

“Janeway to Voyager. We’re going to need an engineering team over here right away. We’ve got a big job for them.”

B’Elanna started tapping at the nearest crate’s keypad while the others headed into the stacks.

The rest of the away team, led by Lieutenant Carey, arrived moments later and went straight to work, cataloging first, opening crates when necessary, then reviewing the data they had collected with one of the two engineering officers. Six hours later Lieutenant Torres pronounced them finished.

Not only would the storeroom provide the EPS unit they needed to bring the phasers back, but one large crate held a precious bonus—a pair of warp-capable tactical probes roughly the size of Voyager’s photon torpedoes. B’Elanna examined the find and decided that the entire guidance and instrument mechanism would have to be gutted, but the units could be converted to resupply Voyager’s limited stores.

And there was more—a considerable collection of components and hand weapons, no doubt on both ships, all for the taking, but many of them would have served little purpose aboard Voyager, and it was not immediately clear what some of the others were for.

Moreover, Voyager’s own storage capacity was severely limited.

In the end, choices had to be made. The second cruiser was largely left alone.

As Janeway sat in the captain’s chair reviewing the final list of procurements, she found she had few complaints.

“That will be all for now,” she said, adding a satisfied smile as she handed the PADD back to B’Elanna. She placed both palms flat on the arms of the chair and gazed at the main screen, which was filled with a view of Drenar Four and the stars beyond. “Prepare to get under way,” she told the bridge crew.

“Are you planning to visit the Drenarians again before we leave?”

Chakotay asked from his own chair, just to Janeway’s left.

“No,” she said. “We’ve gone over the line as it is. I think the Prime Directive has been bludgeoned enough for now, current arguments notwithstanding.”

“Of course, Captain,” Chakotay said wryly.

Janeway looked at him. “Haven’t we already had this conversation?”

“Several times,” Paris remarked, eyes steady ahead.

“It remains a question that has no definitive answer,” Tuvok said. “We cannot be sure how much of the Drenarians’ current civilization is the result of the ghosts, or the being or beings who created the ghosts.

Therefore, one cannot truly say whether or not we acted irresponsibly when we attempted to avert their destruction.”

“I have some idea,” Janeway said, looking first at him, then at the others. They waited quietly for her to go on. She took a deep breath.

“It’s something I learned in the visions I had—or was given. I’ve had some time to collect my thoughts, and I’ve got my theories. The Drenarians are convinced that a very ancient god visited them, and that before it left, it opened their hearts and minds to the spirits of their own ancestors. I believe the dying god who passed this way ages ago was actually an alien being possessed of remarkable technology, a being composed of pure energy, perhaps, possibly from another galaxy.