Ghost of a Chance (5 page)

“I have no idea yet, Captain, but I am also picking up numerous energy signatures that are smaller but nonetheless similar to the main source.

Most appear to be mobile.” He paused, touching points on the panel before him. “There does not seem to be an organizational pattern, however. They appear and move at random in the area, and for random periods.”

“I’ve been watching the primary signature for a while,” Kim went on.

“The power levels tend to spike downward, then slowly recover, also at random intervals. I don’t know whether there is any correlation yet.

In general, though, the median level is slowly declining.”

“I’ll bet our Televek friends over there will say they don’t know anything about that, either,” Chakotay remarked.

“It is odd the Televek didn’t mention it,” Tuvok said.

“I agree.” Janeway pursed her lips, still looking over the data.

The magnetic field fluctuations seemed to be playing havoc with the sensors, making it difficult to get good readings. Still, she was certain Kim was right. The power source was real, considerable, and unlike anything she had ever seen before. Then suddenly she saw something else in the readings, a faint shadow on the surface of the planet that faded from the sensors as quickly as it had appeared. “Did you see that, Mr. Tuvok?”

“Yes, Captain. A brief sensor reflection.”

“What could cause something like that?”

“Processed alloy metals?” Kim offered.

“That is the likely explanation,” Tuvok replied.

“So… a metal structure,” Janeway postulated. “Or… another ship.”

“Possibly,” Tuvok said.

“I told you they couldn’t be trusted,” Neelix reminded one and all, hands clutched tightly against his chest. “Will you be needing me any longer, Captain?”

“Your advice is well taken,” the captain assured him. “We may need more of it.”

Neelix made a face that Janeway found unreadable.

“But if we know not to trust them, can’t we use that knowledge to our advantage?” Paris asked. “I mean, they’re the only game in town. We can’t change that, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we have to let them make all the rules.”

“Agreed,” Janeway said, “but asking the Televek for assistance or bartering for it would surely necessitate a transfer of knowledge and technologies. I don’t want to give away any of Voyager’s secrets to a race that probably shouldn’t have them—perhaps this race more than most.”

“Of course not,” Paris said, “but information, to some extent, would have to flow both ways, wouldn’t it?”

“The lieutenant makes an excellent point, Captain,” Chakotay noted.

“As it stands, we are at a severe disadvantage, and it will only be a matter of time before the Televek fully realize that.”

Despite the weight of the situation, Janeway felt a slight swell of satisfaction as she listened to this exchange between the members of her strange crew. Thrown together by fate and circumstance, seventy-five million light-years from home, their ship lacking half of its major systems, and hostile aliens hanging in orbit off the bow, and still they functioned well—as well as any captain could expect. Far too many of her decisions in this quadrant were difficult ones, but it helped to know she had the people to back them up.

“If we are to help anyone on Drenar Four, or help ourselves, it seems dealing with the Televek on some level is the only logical course,” she said, acknowledging Tuvok with a nod.

“Couldn’t we just leave the system?” Neelix asked.

“No, not yet,” Janeway said. She stood silent for a long moment.

Then: “Mr. Tuvok, you will see to security arrangements. We don’t want to appear unfriendly, but I’d rather not take any chances. I’ll be stopping off at Engineering if you need me.

Let me know when they arrive. Mr. Kim,” she added, turning to the younger officer, considering him a moment, “you’re with me.

I want you to go down to the shuttle bay. I may have a job for you.”

She turned on her heel and headed for the turbolift with the ensign close behind.

B’Elanna Torres held her lower lip between her teeth as her eyes scanned the data on the main engineering console. “Lieutenant Carey, how are those magnetic constrictor coils coming?” she shouted. He was on the upper level, somewhere out of sight. She saw him peek down at her through the railing, a look of exasperation on his face.

“They’re coming.”

B’Elanna took a deep breath, then nodded to him. Her greatest regret was that she couldn’t do everything herself, but Carey was a good man, as were the others working with him to get the warp drive back on-line.

Let some of it go, she told herself.

But she had to keep everyone pushing hard right now, including herself.

Partly because the captain required it, partly because she couldn’t help it. Not with so many systems so badly damaged.

Not when at any moment Voyager’s survival might well depend upon the work they were doing here. Still, there were limits, and some of them applied to everyone.

She bent over the panel and began touching keypads. Schematics flashed one after another on the dark glass screens above the console. She had so many people crawling in conduits that she’d lost track of some of them. Then there was the crew assigned to the transporter subsystems, ll of which needed work and none of which seemed to be improving according to the red indicators on the display she was looking at right now. She’d been after them on the intercom not ten minutes ago, but she hadn’t gone up there and personally… inspired them. Not yet, anyway.

Another grid appeared as she touched the control. More red flags.

“The captain isn’t going to like this,” she muttered, thinking out loud.

“Like what?” Janeway said.

B’Elanna looked around to see the captain standing just behind her.

She made a sour face. “Plenty.”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

B’Elanna took a deep breath, tried to think of a good place to begin, decided there wasn’t one. “I’ve got Carey working on the warp drives; that’s our number-one priority right now.

Life-support is stable. The transporters are still down, but we’re making progress there. The impulse engines are running at eighty-five percent, maybe eighty-six. That’s the good news.

The phasers… well, I’m sorry, Captain, but I’m afraid they aren’t—” “I know, Tuvok told me. At least the Televek don’t know about it yet.

Not specifically. At least I don’t think they do. We’re working on the phaser problem from another angle.”

B’Elanna looked at her. “What’s that?”

“The Televek may have the hardware we need, if you think you can adapt their technology to ours. It’s possible they’ll want to cooperate. It seems they are merchants first and whatever else second, and from the looks of things, we are certainly potential customers. They’re coming over for a visit.”

“I’m more than willing to try,” Torres said. “I’d use rubber bands right now if I thought they’d help, but do you think we can trust the Televek to help us rearm?”

“No.” Janeway grinned, which seemed to put B’Elanna somewhat at ease.

“That’s the tricky part. But I’m willing to try, as long as we proceed cautiously. I would like my chief engineer to be there when we talk to them. Can we spare you down here for a little while?”

B’Elanna looked around, making a quick evaluation. She saw several sweaty brows flash in her direction and couldn’t help a little smile of her own. “I think everyone here would welcome that idea,” she answered.

“Good.”

“Bridge to Captain Janeway,” Tuvok hailed. The captain raised her voice to engage the intercom. “Yes, Mr. Tuvok?”

“The Televek are aboard. They are unarmed.”

“Escort them to the briefing room. We’re on our way.”

***

No two first contact situations were ever the same, but Captain Janeway had seen enough of them to know that there were often similarities and that certain rules of engagement always applied.

She was prepared to give her visitors the benefit of the doubt from the start, but she was equally prepared to give them nothing more, unless they earned it.

“Welcome aboard Voyager,” Janeway began, introducing herself after Tuvok had presented the three aliens. Of the three Jonal was the only male, an elegant, strangely handsome figure slightly older than his two companions, who were both stunningly beautiful by any definition. All were physically impressive, a fact well demonstrated by the cut of their colorful two-sectioned tunics, with allowed much of their finely sculpted arms and legs to show.

Like Jonal, Mila and Tassay had skin that was bronze in color, and each possessed a pair of ridges that grew from either side of her forehead, beginning just behind her bright green eyes and sweeping back under her long stark-white hair.

Janeway turned to the others of her crew. “This is my first officer, Commander Chakotay, Mr. Paris is our helmsman, Mr. Neelix, our… liaison officer, and B’Elanna Torres our chief engineer.”

The aliens nodded and held their hands out, palms up, an apparent gesture of goodwill. Janeway returned the gesture, reassured by the knowledge that their transport pod and their persons had been thoroughly scanned for weapons and implants, and nothing had turned up.

“We are not Televek,” Jonal said. “We are Drosary.”

“We are advocates,” Mila, the shorter of the two women, explained. “We are here on behalf of our benefactors.”

The other female, Tassay, remained silent as everyone was seated around the conference table.

“Why won’t the Televek come themselves?” Janeway asked.

“It is their way,” Jonal answered.

“We are only too happy to provide this service, as it benefits all,” Mila said, with an affable air that seemed natural in her and her two companions.

Jonal seemed especially attentive, Janeway noticed, particularly to her. And as she looked around, she decided Tassay’s regard had already centered on Chakotay. With this in mind, she began to notice that Paris’s visual scrutiny of Mila seemed to be reciprocal as well.

These three Drosary were apparently quite friendly, but Neelix’s less flattering comments concerning their sponsors were still fresh in Janeway’s mind. “What can you tell us about the Televek as a people?” she probed, leaning slightly forward. “We hear… disturbing reports.”

“Many of which are not true, or we would not be here,” Tassay said, speaking for the first time. Hers was another soft voice, even softer than the others’, perhaps.

“The Televek are often misunderstood, Captain,” Jonal said.

“I have never been fond of misunderstandings,” Janeway assured them.

“Please enlighten us.”

“We were found on a war-ravaged world, a world that was not our own,” Jonal explained without hesitation. “A place where our people had tried to set up a colony. We were among the thousands who sought to escape the tyranny and genocide that were destroying our home. But the wars that had brutalized our people for so long seemed to follow us, and many of the other colonies as well, involving other races as they went. Soon we became the target of brutal raids carried out by a neighboring world. We were no match for them. Our people were being victimized.”

“Our own government would not help us,” Tassay added, speaking directly to Chakotay, it seemed. “They claimed we were outside the primary realms. We were left to fend for ourselves. You can’t know what it was like.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Chakotay said, glancing at B’Elanna Torres, the only other Maquis present. “I think some of us probably do.”

Janeway let it pass.

“The Televek rescued a few of us from the ashes, and offered to train us as advocates,” Mila said. “They have been kind to us.

We know them as few others do.”

“That’s quite a testimonial,” Chakotay said, “but—” “But they attacked my ship,” Janeway pointed out.

“The Televek are somewhat… nervous at times, Captain,” Jonal explained. “It is a consequence of circumstance. When confronted, they have a tendency to shoot first, and often with very good reason.

You must understand, the Televek deal in the finest, and often the newest, technologies in many a sector, especially defensive technologies. Therefore—” “And these are offensive technologies, perhaps?” Neelix said, apparently unwilling to let this last pass unchallenged.

“As the premier merchants in their field, the Televek offer a full range of merchandise,” Jonal said in answer.

“And why shouldn’t they?” Mila proposed, using an almost pleading tone. “What right does anyone have, after all, in a universe such as this, to pass judgment on others without true knowledge of their circumstances?”

“Agreed,” Chakotay said, seeming eager to hear the rest. “Please go on.”

“Yes, please,” Janeway concurred, leaning forward.

“Their position makes them the focus of many races’ attention, and for many reasons—from all manner of agreements and disagreements to outright piracy,” Jonal said. “This can produce complications. Not everyone is willing to pay a fair price, for example.”

“Yes,” Tassay added, folding her slender hands almost prayerlike in front of her. “You see, some races will stop at nothing to get the technologies they desire.”

“Furthermore, each time the Televek honor a contract, they make friends, and enemies,” Mila said. “Some enemies have been known to carry a grudge. It happens often enough.”

“So I hear,” Neelix remarked, not quite under his breath. All three of the advocates stared silently at him.

“This is very interesting,” Janeway said honestly, “but I still find their aggression toward this ship, a vessel they admit was unknown to them, a bit disturbing. I might be willing to overlook it, but I would like to know more about what the Televek are doing here, in orbit around Drenar Four. If their only purpose is to help the primitive population below, then I am curious as to what interested them in this planet, or those people, in the first place.”

“We’d also like to know what other terms Gantel had in mind,” Chakotay added, watching the visitors carefully.

“We want only what is best, of course,” Jonal replied.

“And reasonable,” Tassay said, again speaking to Chakotay. The two of them sat looking at each other for a moment, as if the conversation had momentarily ceased to matter.