turned his shoulder to Cavit and bent over the tactical console for a better view of the readout.
Plasma discharge blinked and retreated in random blossoms all over the screen, with the glowing, jagged line of the Maquis’s course dancing back and forth throughout it. The Cardassians had inserted a black marker at the point where they’d been forced to break pursuit, and a dotted line showing how far their sensors had tracked the Maquis after that. “I’d guess they were trying to get to one of the M-class planetoids in the Terikof Belt.”
“That would take them here,” Cavit explained to the security officer without having to be asked, leaning just a little uncomfortably beyond Paris to point at one corner of the officer’s screen.
The security lieutenant nodded, and the image on his display flickered and rebuilt itself, flickered and regrew again. “The plasma storms would have forced them in this direction.”
Janeway nodded. “Adjust our course to match,” she told Cavit.
“Aye, Captain.”
The first officer seemed perfectly happy to disengage himself from the knot around the tactical panel, trotting almost all the way around the upper deck before stepping down to confer with Stadi at the helm. Ah, Stadi. She’d been half-friendly on the trip out. Now, she didn’t even spare him a glance as she set about executing the instructions she got from Cavit. Oh, well.
Paris bid her farewell with a tiny sigh as he followed Janeway down toward her captain’s chair.
“The Cardassians claim they forced the Maquis ship into a plasma storm, where it was destroyed.” Janeway settled into her chair with a frown.
“But our probes haven’t picked up any debris.”
“A plasma storm might not leave any debris,” Paris pointed out.
Janeway shook her head, glancing up at him. “We’d still be able to pick up a resonance trace from their warp core.” Which was true, so Paris didn’t offer any further suggestions.
“Captain …” Kim turned halfway in his seat, as though afraid to lift his hands from the controls. “I’m reading a coherent tetryon beam scanning us.”
Janeway sat forward again. “Origin, Mr. Kim?”
He swung back toward his instruments. “I’m not sure,” he admitted.
Then he blinked suddenly, and hesitated for a moment before his hands flashed over his console again. “There’s also a displacement wave moving toward us. …”
The captain rose to her feet. “Onscreen.”
Energy as white and coherent as Paris had ever seen exploded across the viewscreen when Kim brought up the image. Even knowing there must be hundreds of thousands of kilometers between the ship and that seething wave of distortion, Paris had to brace one hand against the back of the command chair to keep from jumping back as Kim increased the magnification.
Janeway moved a few steps closer to the monstrous image, as though she might yet see something the ship’s computers couldn’t tell them.
“Analysis.”
“Some kind of polarized magnetic variation,” Kim reported.
Cavit leaned over the rail from next to the tactical station.
“We might be able to disperse it with a graviton particle field.”
Janeway nodded without turning to him. “Do it.”
Cavit hurried to wave the security officer away from the panel as the captain announced, “Red alert,” and touched a hand to Stadi’s shoulder.
“Move us away from it, Lieutenant.”
“New heading,” the pilot confirmed.
“Four-one-mark-one-eight-zero.”
“Initiating graviton field,” Cavit chimed in, and Paris felt the whole ship tremble as the first officer launched the powerful burst on its way.
Unlike the advancing displacement anomaly, there was no visual track to follow as the graviton field swelled out beyond the bow of the ship and met up with the onrushing enemy. Paris thought he glimpsed a quick flutter in the displacement wave’s integrity at about the point when he knew it and the field would likely cross paths. But it
Plasma discharge blinked and retreated in random blossoms all over the screen, with the glowing, jagged line of the Maquis’s course dancing back and forth throughout it. The Cardassians had inserted a black marker at the point where they’d been forced to break pursuit, and a dotted line showing how far their sensors had tracked the Maquis after that. “I’d guess they were trying to get to one of the M-class planetoids in the Terikof Belt.”
“That would take them here,” Cavit explained to the security officer without having to be asked, leaning just a little uncomfortably beyond Paris to point at one corner of the officer’s screen.
The security lieutenant nodded, and the image on his display flickered and rebuilt itself, flickered and regrew again. “The plasma storms would have forced them in this direction.”
Janeway nodded. “Adjust our course to match,” she told Cavit.
“Aye, Captain.”
The first officer seemed perfectly happy to disengage himself from the knot around the tactical panel, trotting almost all the way around the upper deck before stepping down to confer with Stadi at the helm. Ah, Stadi. She’d been half-friendly on the trip out. Now, she didn’t even spare him a glance as she set about executing the instructions she got from Cavit. Oh, well.
Paris bid her farewell with a tiny sigh as he followed Janeway down toward her captain’s chair.
“The Cardassians claim they forced the Maquis ship into a plasma storm, where it was destroyed.” Janeway settled into her chair with a frown.
“But our probes haven’t picked up any debris.”
“A plasma storm might not leave any debris,” Paris pointed out.
Janeway shook her head, glancing up at him. “We’d still be able to pick up a resonance trace from their warp core.” Which was true, so Paris didn’t offer any further suggestions.
“Captain …” Kim turned halfway in his seat, as though afraid to lift his hands from the controls. “I’m reading a coherent tetryon beam scanning us.”
Janeway sat forward again. “Origin, Mr. Kim?”
He swung back toward his instruments. “I’m not sure,” he admitted.
Then he blinked suddenly, and hesitated for a moment before his hands flashed over his console again. “There’s also a displacement wave moving toward us. …”
The captain rose to her feet. “Onscreen.”
Energy as white and coherent as Paris had ever seen exploded across the viewscreen when Kim brought up the image. Even knowing there must be hundreds of thousands of kilometers between the ship and that seething wave of distortion, Paris had to brace one hand against the back of the command chair to keep from jumping back as Kim increased the magnification.
Janeway moved a few steps closer to the monstrous image, as though she might yet see something the ship’s computers couldn’t tell them.
“Analysis.”
“Some kind of polarized magnetic variation,” Kim reported.
Cavit leaned over the rail from next to the tactical station.
“We might be able to disperse it with a graviton particle field.”
Janeway nodded without turning to him. “Do it.”
Cavit hurried to wave the security officer away from the panel as the captain announced, “Red alert,” and touched a hand to Stadi’s shoulder.
“Move us away from it, Lieutenant.”
“New heading,” the pilot confirmed.
“Four-one-mark-one-eight-zero.”
“Initiating graviton field,” Cavit chimed in, and Paris felt the whole ship tremble as the first officer launched the powerful burst on its way.
Unlike the advancing displacement anomaly, there was no visual track to follow as the graviton field swelled out beyond the bow of the ship and met up with the onrushing enemy. Paris thought he glimpsed a quick flutter in the displacement wave’s integrity at about the point when he knew it and the field would likely cross paths. But it
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