Ghost of a Chance Read Free Page A

did have one broken arm, though. Fortunately it happened in Sickbay.”
    “Ah, good.” Janeway nodded, glancing down at her screen again.
    “The bad news is, it was Kes.”
    Janeway’s head snapped up again. Kes was an Ocampa, a species that had a life span of only nine years; at just over one, Kes was already an adult, but she was still young enough to heal very quickly. No doubt she was in better shape than Neelix so far.
    Chakotay shrugged. “At least we managed to get the turbolifts working again, so Neelix is with her instead of with us.”
    Janeway touched her comm badge. “Captain to Sickbay. How is Kes doing?”
    “Quite well, as a matter of fact,” the holographic doctor said.
    “Though I’m sure the other patients would be happier if she were able to assist me again. I can tend to only one patient at a time. She is a great help. I…”
    Janeway waited, exchanging a glance with her first officer in the unexpected silence.
    “I understand,” Janeway said. “She is remarkable.”
    “She’ll be back to work tomorrow. A little stiff, perhaps, but otherwise…”
    Janeway found herself waiting again.
    He sounded cheerful enough, which was almost unusual. The holographic medical assistant program that had been pressed into service as Voyager’s only doctor was doing a splendid job, and Janeway couldn’t have been more pleased, but his attitude and bedside manner were sometimes difficult to manage.
    “Yes?” she prodded.
    “Captain,” the doctor replied, his voice just above a whisper, “if you could please find something for Mr. Neelix to do, and someplace else for him to do it, I would be extremely… grateful.”
    “We’ll see what we can do,” she replied, suppressing a chuckle, then signing off.
    “I’ll add that to my list,” Chakotay said. He was grinning as he left the ready room.
    Janeway stayed at her panel for a moment, working with the ship’s main computer, completing her reconstruction of the rogue star’s recent path. The brown dwarf had passed close enough to Drenar nearly to make this a new binary system. An interesting place to study, given sufficient time, which was something Voyager simply could not afford to spend.
    Still, enough raw data could be collected to provide for countless hours of analysis in the months, or years, to come.
    After another moment she shook her head. She didn’t need to be here right now. She told the computer to continue, then rose and followed Chakotay out.
    “Mr. Tuvok,” she said, stepping onto the bridge.
    “Ready, Captain,” the Vulcan answered. “The main deflector has been reconfigured, and approximate calculations have been completed.”
    Kim nodded confirmation from behind the Ops consoles. “Thrusters are at station-keeping,” he said. “I’ve diverted just enough impulse power to do the job.”
    Janeway took to her captain’s chair, then rested two fingers gently against her chin. “Then let’s begin.”
    “Activating Bussard ramscoop fields,” Tuvok said. Janeway watched on her own monitor as the electromagnetic fields, designed to be used for emergency collection of interstellar hydrogen during warp travel, began to expand outward, stretching in front of the ship from both of the warp nacelles.
    “Deflector field wrap initiated,” Kim said, working at his own console.
    “Field overlay achieved, Mr. Kim,” Tuvok said. “You may begin bending them downward.”
    “Commencing… now.”
    On the display, the captain witnessed the results as the two EM fields wrapped themselves around each other to form a tighter, more cohesive funnel, one that began to bend down and away from Voyager at nearly a forty-five-degree angle, an energy funnel theoretically capable of channeling the hydrogen-rich material of the moon’s upper atmosphere back toward the collectors located in the warp nacelle caps.
    “Take us in a little closer, Mr. Paris,” Chakotay told the helmsman, and Voyager slowly, gently descended.
    Gradually the mouth