“A coolant leak?”
“Most likely. Assuming that they were unable to stop the leak in time, then they would have had no choice but to jettison the core. Whatever the mechanism, she’s dead in space now, Captain, falling away from us and accelerating. Her captain had the right idea, but without even impulse power to help that ship along, the energy in the jet just isn’t enough to counteract the gravitational pull from that protostar.”
“How far away is she?”
Glemoor checked his sensors again. “Approximately ninety million kilometers from the outer heliosphere of the protostar.”
“A little more than Mercury’s distance from the Sun,” Garrett mused. “Pretty warm.”
“And likely to get much more so. At their current rate of acceleration, the ship will impact in slightly less than six hours.”
Garrett waved the statistic away. “They’ll burn up long before then, if they’re not already dead from radiation. What about shields?”
“None, Captain. If she had them, she doesn’t have them now. In fact, I read minimal energy outputs all across the board.”
“Does she have life support?”
She saw the hesitation in Glemoor’s eyes. Finally, he shook his head in apology. “I can’t tell. The energy outputs I read should be enough for minimal life support, but that’s all. Since we have no idea even of the species we’re dealing with—humanoid or not—I have no ability to forecast their survival capabilities under these conditions.”
“Captain.” It was Bat-Levi. “Captain, no matter who they are, without shields, the amount of time before fatal exposure to gamma radiation…”
“Isn’t long. And we have no idea how long they’ve been out here. I know, Commander,” said Garrett. Well, if she was going to risk her ship on a rescue, there sure as hell better be someone worth risking them for. “Glemoor, can you at least tell me if there are life signs?”
Glemoor’s ebony features screwed into a grimace of concentration before he shook his head. “I can’t tell. What I can say for sure is that this vessel is much too small to have lifeboats.”
“So anyone who was on her when she jettisoned her core is still there—dead or alive.” Garrett scrubbed her lips with her left palm in thought. She paced behind Castillo and then around the helm, staring at the angry, billowing gases and interstellar dust swirling all around them. Had they come all this way in for nothing? She refused to believe it. Come on, come on, Garrett, think,think! The people on the other ship couldn’t leave. If they were alive, they were still on board. Ifthey were alive…leaning back against the helm, she put her hands on her hips, studying the viewscreen. The ship wasn’t visible, of course; it was much too far away. But she projected her mind into the nebulae, stabbing through the jets of ionized plasma and photo-ionized gases, searching. What would she do? Clearly, the captain of that vessel had the right idea. He or she tried to use the plasma jets for propulsion to get her ship clear, hoping against hope to build up enough momentum to carry her ship out of the nebula. Once out of the nebula, she could signal for help because she would know by then that her distress beacon hadn’t made it out….
“Where would I go?” Garrett said, out loud. She stared at the nebula she could see, the crippled ship she couldn’t. “If I knew my life support was failing and I’d lost shields and had no way out, where would I go to stay alive longest?”
It was Bat-Levi who answered, her voice ramping up with excitement. “The engine room, Captain! That’s where you’d go. The engine room would be the most heavily shielded area of the ship. Assuming the warp core’s gone, you could evacuate residual coolant and hole up there. And hope.”
Garrett nodded her agreement. “As long as there’s life, there’s hope. Glemoor, if we get closer, can you tell me if there are life signs?”
Glemoor regarded her carefully. “Captain, to get us that close, we would have to enter into the plasma jet ourselves.”
“Then here’s something for you to add to your collection of idioms, Mr. Glemoor,” said Garrett, though she wasn’t smiling. “Out of the frying pan into the fire. Given our current situation, that’s apt, and it’s the only way. Can you do it?”
“Captain, I have to remind you that long-range sensors aren’t functioning well enough to resolve into individual life-forms. I don’t know if I can tell you how many there are, one or a hundred.”
“One or a hundred, Glemoor. I don’t care. We find even one survivor, we have to go after him.”
“Yes, Captain. I’ll try.”
“Do better than that,” said Garrett. She nodded toward Castillo. “Bring us in closer. One-half impulse power. Bring us in into the plasma jet on a perpendicular and then aft thrusters down, course zero mark zero so we’re heading into it face first. That way we present the least amount of surface area to the plasma jet, make our shields last that much longer. Then I want you to keep us on that heading until Mr. Glemoor picks up something, or I tell you to stop. Understood?”
Castillo’s tongue flipped along his upper lip. “Aye, Captain.”
“Bat-Levi, raise engineering. Have them increase power to the forward shields.”
“Aye.”
Their inertial dampers were working perfectly, and so was their artificial gravity, yet when the ship crossed the boundary of the plasma jet, Garrett felt the shudder that rippled through the floors and bulkheads as concentrated streamers of hot ionized gas and radiation pounded the hull. The bridge lights dimmed momentarily then flared back to full brilliance, and Castillo nudged the aft thrusters in short bursts until the ship was cleaving the jet head-on, like an arrow shot from a bow, slicing the jet in two.
“How are our shields, Bat-Levi?”
“Ninety percent, Captain. The energy from that jet’s like getting pounded with phasers at quarter.”
“Just as long as they don’t buckle. How about radiation outside the hull?”
“Not good, Captain. Radiation levels jumped as soon as we hit the column and they’re increasing.”
“How long can we maintain shields at our current rate of energy consumption?”
“Estimate one hour, twenty minutes, Captain.”
“Plenty of time,” Garrett said, wondering if she believed that herself. “Stay on course, Mr. Castillo.”
To Castillo’s left, Garrett saw Glemoor hunched over his sensor displays. His back was to her, but she could read the intense concentration in the set of his shoulders. “Let me know the minute you’ve got anything, Mr. Glemoor.”
Glemoor may have been tense, but his tone was as genial as if they were discussing something of no greater gravity than the weather. “That wasmy intention, Captain.”
Garrett grinned at the mild jibe, and she felt her stomach unclench a smidgeon. But a few moments later, Stern hailed from sickbay, and Garrett knew it wasn’t a social call. “You want the good news, or the bad news?” said Stern.
“How much better is the good news?”
“Not very. Listen, Captain, I’ll give it to you in a nutshell. In this radiation-dense environment, we’ll last fifty minutes if those shields fail, and not more than two hours if they drop anywhere close to forty, fifty percent. We could probably buy some time by moving vulnerable crew from stations along the hull and concentrate them in engineering or sickbay, but not much.”
“Understood. Jo, I plan to have us out of here before then.”
“Mmm. Well, I converted cargo bay three into a triage and staging area. Assuming there are survivors, they’re going to need to stay somewhere, and that’s as good a place as any. We’ve got full decon standing by for anyone who got a good dose of radiation. I had a couple patients in sickbay. Nothing serious and they’re pretty stable, so they got moved to the mess hall.”
“I’m sure that’s made the chef’s day. Good work, Jo. Let’s hope we don’t have to test your team’s readiness.”