Perfection, 20 of 28
"PERFECTION"
by Jim Smith
Fine print: I don't own Star Trek and I'm not claiming to. I just own the story. Ask me before you do anything with it.
Chapter Twenty.
Janeway's face loomed across the viewscreen of the Stormwind. "I had a feeling you'd try to come after me. Don't."
Even now, Commander Kreighen was astonished by her gall. Lancaster, on the other hand, was unfazed. "I am unaccustomed to taking orders from someone who hobbled my ship for the Borg to capture."
"We could debate the merits of my actions all day, Captain, but Intercomplex 934 is just a few minutes away, so I don't have the time. According to Jimenez, Unimatrix Zero built the weapon I only proposed as a bluff."
"And how does he know that?" Kreighen asked.
"He didn't spell it out," she explained, "but apparently one of the Zeroes has been feeding him information. He wanted to withhold it until the Borg agreed to his terms, but I strongly suspect Vystir contacted them behind his back. They should be on their way."
The captain glanced to Narb-Uzek, who shook his head. "I'm not detecting any transwarp apertures on long-range sensors."
"They'll be coming," Janeway insisted. "And they won't let anything come between them and this weapon. I will not let them assimilate it. So there will very likely be a subspace explosion in this sector. I recommend you get as far away from here as possible."
Kreighen recognized a suicide plan when he heard one. "That's not going to work, Admiral."
"Then it's too bad this isn't open to debate. Janeway out." The viewscreen went blank.
"We can't let her do it, Captain," Kreighen argued. "She might keep the Borg from getting that weapon. But that won't solve the Xhiryptyr'x problem."
"Indeed." Lancaster approached the helm. Since the Stormwind had been trying to locate the Hrunting without overtaking it, the starship hadn't been traveling at its best speed. "Accelerate to maximum warp, Mister Mindek. How soon can we reach the intercomplex?"
Mindek ran the calculations. "Twenty minutes."
"We need to close that gap." Kreighen started to look over Mindek's shoulder at her console, until he remembered his place. So he went to the first officer's chair, which was equipped to provide all the information he might need. According to his own console, the ship was now traveling at warp 9.97. "Mindek, how much more can you push her?"
Reflexively, she glanced to Lancaster before responding, but the captain's eyes made it clear that he would have no second-guessing of his executive. "Akira-class vessels have a theoretical limit of 9.98, disregarding safety regulations. However, this ship has never exceeded 9.976, and at that velocity we incurred considerable structural damage."
"I say we fly her apart, Captain. Janeway and Korok will kill each other over that weapon, and we need both of them alive."
"What of the plan you put together? The Stormwind may not be able to play her part if we 'fly her apart.'"
"It's either that or give Janeway a chance to destroy the station before we get there. And if that happens, we'll never have time to turn around and outrun the--"
"Sir!" Lieutenant Robinson didn't look away from her station, but her voice carried across the bridge. "I'm picking up subspace distortions on long-range sensors..."
"The Borg?"
"I don't think so, Captain." Robinson continued to study her readings. "They appear to be...neurogenic fields."
"Neurogenic?" Godavarthy found that hard to believe, but she quickly recalibrated her instruments at ops. "Confirmed. There are seven...no. Twelve neurogenic fields, traveling at high warp speed. And all of them are on an intercept course with Intercomplex 934."
Robinson was becoming lost in the wonder of the emergency. "I've never seen a neurogenic field so coherent...not at this scale. This isn't just psionic energy, this is an intelligence at work..."
But Kreighen had seen it before, and once he reached Robinson's science station he recognized the readings. "It's them," he said. "We've run out of time, Captain. If the Borg show up now, they'll be in a position to assimilate the omega weapon and Species 10538."
Lancaster set his jaw. "Notify engineering, Mister Mindek. We're going to warp factor 9.98."