Star Trek Voyager #15: Echoes by Dean Wesley Smith

Author:Dean Wesley Smith [Smith, Dean Wesley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780743453813
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Published: 2002-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 2O

Time The ninetieth shift Location 2,544 parallel universes to the right of ours

PARIS DECIDED THAT HE HATED THE PULSES, ALMOST AS

much as he hated this empty planet. Each time he had been lifted and deposited back on the ground, his eye for color had changed.

The central mosaic tiles in the transportation area had shifted from gold to purple. Now he didn't know a lot about the color spectrum, but he did know that the eye, when faced with gold, did not automatically conjure up purple.

Kes held her medical tricorder over him, and was taking readings. "The pulse seems to have made no physical difference, Tom," she said.

"Then why am I seeing new colors?"

"Maybe for the same reason that this footwell now has places for both feet, where before it was one long unit," Chakotay said.

"The differences aren't just visual?" Paris asked.

"Well, I certainly wish that if things were going

to change," Torres snapped, "they would make this equipment easier to work."

They had spent the last hour and a half underground, below the transporter station, studying the equipment and the holographic globe and anything else they could find.

"What are these people thinking of?" Torres muttered. "A thing is either on or off. Why doesn't it work that way? Where's the sense in this? On, off, maybe-on-off? This is driving me crazy!"

Paris leaned toward her. "I thought you were a wiz at engineering."

She glared at him so fiercely he had to take a step back. Never mess with a Klingon, he reminded himself. Never.

"I am a wiz at engineering," she said. "Do you want to try this?"

He held up his hands. "No," he said. "I just want to get out of here."

"Well, Tom, I think someone may have granted your wish." Chakotay was holding his tricorder. "Voyager is above us again."

"Fantastic," Torres said. She took out her own tricorder, and then glanced at Chakotay in surprise. "It's as if they were never gone."

"Janeway to Chakotay." The captain's voice sounded tinny and far away in the large space.

The intensity of the relief Paris felt surprised him. Amazing to hear her voice again! He hadn't realized that somewhere inside he had been resigning himself to forging some kind of life on this

planet of ghosts, preparing for an uncomfortable inevitability. He turned and grinned at Chakotay, who was smiling just as widely.

"Captain, it's good to hear your voice," Chakotay said.

"Yours too, Commander. How is the team?"

"Everyone is fine, just confused."

"Are you ready to beam up?"

"More than ready, Captain."

"I want you up here as quickly as possible, before we have more interference from the energy source. I want a full report in the conference room. I'm initiating transport in five seconds."

"Aye, Captain," Chakotay said.

Torres blew out an explosive breath. "I've never been so glad to hear someone's voice in my life," she said.

Paris glanced around the emptiness, the still-working equipment, the signs of a people suddenly vanished.

"Now that we're leaving," he said, "will at least one of you admit this place is creepy?"

The transporter beam grabbed them before anyone could answer.

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