Ghost of a Chance Read Free Page B

of the funnel began to fill with tenuous clouds of hydrogen-methane as the twin fields skimmed the atmosphere’s surface, drawing in material the way a draft drew smoke from a room. Paris brought the ship down another hundred kilometers, as dose as he dared to get while using the thrusters almost exclusively, but within seconds the ram fields started to collapse as the increased volume of gases leaked through.
    “Too much,” Janeway told him. “Back us off a bit.”
    As the ship slowly rose again, the fields reestablished themselves.
    “The process seems successful on a limited scale,” Tuvok reported.
    “Thank you,” B’Elanna Torres’s voice said over the intercom.
    Janeway looked up from her monitor and smiled. “I think we can live with that. B’Elanna, how long can we sustain the fields at this level?”
    “Approximately twenty-seven minutes.”
    “Good. We might try this again later. Meanwhile, as soon as we’re finished here I’d like to complete our preliminary scan of the rest of the system. The astrophysical data I’ve seen so far are quite remarkable, but I know there’s more.”
    “Agreed, Captain,” Chakotay said. “Actually, some of the early data would suggest the need for a more thorough survey as well.
    The fourth planet appears to have an extremely rich biosphere.
    It could even provide a good source of food. And…” He stopped himself, then shook his head.
    “What?”
    “Nothing,” he said.
    She sensed there was definitely something more. She stood silent for a moment, studying her first officer and feeling more certain. “You’re not telling me something.”
    “May I have a word with you in private?” Chakotay said, suddenly pensive.
    A rare mood for this man, Janeway thought. She nodded once.
    “Tuvok, you have the bridge,” she said. Then she turned.
    “Commander, my ready room.
    “All right, what’s going on?” she asked evenly, once the door slid closed behind them.
    “I had a vision last night,” Chakotay said, focusing on many things in the room before finally looking at Janeway. “Or a premonition. I’m not sure which, but it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I was visited by… by a ghost.”
    Janeway crossed the small room and sat on the sofa along the opposite wall. “A ghost?” she asked, after giving them both a moment. She tried to get Chakotay to sit as well, but instead, the commander began pacing as he told her about the beautiful world and its people, then about the destruction he had seen, and the final desperate cry.
    “If it’s real,” he concluded, “if these things I saw are true, then their plea for help was, too.”
    “And you think we can help these people, whoever they are?”
    “I don’t know. But I’d like to look into it, at least.”
    “And there’s a possibility that they are on the fourth planet in this system?” Janeway said, proceeding.
    “Nothing else fits. In fact, that planet may well be inhabited, and early spectral analysis of the atmosphere is consistent with a volcanically active planet. And something else, Captain. I checked with the doctor in Sickbay. Several other crew members have complained to the doctor about nightmares, about seeing things. Visions, you could say.”
    “Like yours?”
    “Two specifically mentioned seeing ghosts.”
    Janeway looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Are you saying Voyager is haunted?”
    “I really don’t know.”
    Janeway couldn’t help frowning. “As if we didn’t have enough problems.”
    Chakotay raised both eyebrows, compressing the Indian tattoo on the left side of his forehead. “I know,” he said. “But I thought… well, as long as we’re in the neighborhood…”
    “We’ll look into this more.” Janeway nodded. “I have a certain fascination with this system myself. I’d like a detailed survey, including the fourth planet, which should certainly include any effect the passing of that brown dwarf may have had on indigenous populations, if they