Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 17 - Foundations - Book 1 by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780743456722
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2002-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

In the environmental-control center, Scott saw that al-Khaled was engrossed in one of the monitors at his console.

“Mahmud?” he said, crossing the small room to join his companion. “What have ye got, lad?”

Not answering immediately, al-Khaled continued to study the display for several more seconds before he turned toward Celine. “Chief, are these the most detailed schematics for the outpost that we can get from these workstations?”

Rising from his own chair, the outpost operations chief shook his head. “We’ve got everything mapped. What do you want to see?”

“The conduit system for the reactor coolant,” al-Khaled replied. “Something’s not right here. There has to be a leak somewhere. Maybe we can find the breach and patch it. Then we could direct some more coolant to the reactor and maybe avoid having to dig through to the chamber after all.”

Celine leaned closer to the console and tapped a series of switches, calling up a more detailed schematic that showed the system of conduits directing the flow of coolant to and from the reactor. Areas of bright red highlighted several areas along the conduit lines, illustrating where the breaks were.

“We may have to rig a bypass for some of these damaged sections,” Scott said as he pointed to various areas on the screen. “It’ll take some time, though.” Shaking his head, he added, “More time than we might have. We dinna have any choice but to keep diggin’ for the reactor.”

An alarm suddenly sounded in the cramped confines of the control room. Scott’s head whipped toward the source and he saw that it was coming from the console he had been overseeing a few moments before.

It was the monitor that displayed the scan data from J’lenn’s tricorder.

“Stop the—!”

But then the control room rocked like a shuttlecraft struck by a photon torpedo.

The deck abruptly disappeared from beneath Scott’s feet. With no time to break his fall as he was dumped onto the grimy floor, the impact drove the air from his lungs and he felt a sharp pain in his back as he fell onto something hard and unyielding. In the corner of his eye he could see al-Khaled thrown from his chair to the deck and Celine barely able to hold on to the console. Dust shook from the walls and ceiling, creating a fine shroud that choked the very air from the room.

Still lying on the littered deck, Scott groped for his own communicator, which had been tossed to the floor by the explosion. It was still open and active.

“J’lenn! Come in, J’lenn! Kellerman? Is anyone there?” His shouting drowned out the plethora of buzzers and alarms now sounding in the control room. It did not, however, drown out the pounding sound of his heart.

“J’Lenn!”

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