The Captain's Table Omnibus 1-6 by Various

Author:Various [Various]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0743406702
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2001-01-24T07:00:00+00:00

Six

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND! THEY JUST SAVED US! THEY PULLED US OUT! THEY drove off Sasaquon! Why are they firing on us?”

“Later!”

A powerful voice sounded at my side, and two big hands shoved me physically to the side and down out of the way.

I twisted around to see who was manhandling me. Vince, the deck boss, whatever that meant, was back on the main deck, keeping me aside and barking orders to the others. His rusty hair was flecked with insulation and metal shavings—so there was damage below too.

Ducking lower than his grip, I squirmed away from him, and he instantly paid no more attention to me. Somehow I felt less insulted this time and cooperated by staying down and back. They had their hands full, and I didn’t know how to help. Thrusting myself into the middle of the problem wouldn’t do anything to solve it, and I should’ve known that from the start. I’d figure all this out, some way or other, I’d add up all that was around me, what I’d heard and seen, balance the inconsistencies, and pick at the technology until the curtains lifted. I’d do it myself, get my answers, and figure out what to do—later.

A flickering memory from my earliest days aboard Starfleet ships came sniggering back: what it was like to have people on board who didn’t know what was going on but always tried to push themselves into the middle of things. I’d always hated that and taken solace in Starfleet crews with darned few civilian visitors crowding the bridge at critical moments.

Was that it? Was I spoiled? I’d come into Starfleet through all the right channels, always knowing the rules and understanding what was happening around me. Today I had been thrown into a situation I didn’t understand, with a technology I didn’t understand, and was being fired upon by people who had just saved my life.

Before I even finished that thought, the ship virtually dissolved around me. The vision of space overhead and to my sides disappeared and was replaced once again by the shoebox of tiled bulkheads, now draining cables and conduits and pieces of hardware, spitting sparks and spewing smoke. I ducked to keep my hair from catching fire again, and saw Quen slam to the deck, driven down by a double explosion directly over his head.

Dazed by the blast, he started to sluggishly roll over, waving at the sprinkle of ship guts spilling all over him, then threw one arm over his head. At first the motion confused me, but almost in the same instant I saw that he was protecting himself from a meter-wide piece of the ceiling material dangling from one fraying cable. He’d be killed if it fell!

I pushed away from the bulkhead where I was huddling and made a wild jump toward the hanging piece just as the cable parted. My left forearm and shoulder rammed the piece in midair and drove it only about two feet forward, but that was enough to

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