"The hull insulation is enough to keep the temperature within tolerances, and to protect us from solar or cosmic radiation."

"For how long?"

"Well, long enough that we'll asphyxiate before needing to worry about it."

"Oh, that makes me feel so much better."

La Forge wedged himself between a seat and the rail that held the tactical console. Nog had lost a few teeth, and Qat'qa had broken her left arm. Barclay was bleeding from both ears, and his nose.

"The Enterprise Enterprise once hit a quantum filament, and lost main power, computer control, and life support, but even then . . . We still had auxiliary power, lighting, and gravity." A thought struck him. "Antimatter containment! If we've lost everything here, then what's happened to antimatter containment?" once hit a quantum filament, and lost main power, computer control, and life support, but even then . . . We still had auxiliary power, lighting, and gravity." A thought struck him. "Antimatter containment! If we've lost everything here, then what's happened to antimatter containment?"

"It must still be on, or we'd be dead," Nog pointed out.

Making a.s.sumptions wasn't good enough for La Forge or Leah. "We need to check on it," they said as one.

"None of the consoles are working."

Barclay coughed and spat blood, which tumbled across the bridge in slow motion, making La Forge glad for the sake of the others that they couldn't see it. "Just a minute, though . . . we're asking ourselves the wrong question."

"How do you mean, Reg?"

"If we've lost all power we would have lost antimatter containment, but since that hasn't happened . . ."

La Forge understood. "The question is how come we're still alive, and, more or less, in one piece."

Vol felt as if he was back home in the clouds of the gas giant where his species had evolved. He had no problem keeping himself oriented in zero-g, and, in fact, felt more comfortable and more agile than usual. He also, however, recognized the problems that the lack of gravity foisted upon the other species aboard, and their difficulty was something he wanted to deal with as quickly as possible. His one great eye was receptive to thermal images in the visible spectrum. and, in fact, felt more comfortable and more agile than usual. He also, however, recognized the problems that the lack of gravity foisted upon the other species aboard, and their difficulty was something he wanted to deal with as quickly as possible. His one great eye was receptive to thermal images in the visible spectrum. All the better to see through the methane clouds, All the better to see through the methane clouds, he thought. he thought.

He flew across to Scotty, who was lying against the underside of the upper balcony around the inactive warp core. The man was still breathing, but his heat pattern looked different than normal, and Vol's first instinct was to call for a medical team. He stopped himself from wasting the time, knowing that, under these conditions, internal communication would be down.

Even the alarms that should be sounding weren't doing so. Vol carried Scotty down to the floor and secured him between two consoles, so that he wouldn't fall if and when the gravity was restored. Then he turned his attention to the darkened warp core, and the matter-antimatter intermix chamber. "Right, then. What are you playing at, eh? Why aren't we all dead?"

Doctor Alyssa Ogawa woke to the sounds of hoa.r.s.e screams and, more chillingly, the hollow and depressed moans of those who were past the screaming stage.

A couple of the nurses had managed to get emergency lights out of a locker before Ogawa had woken, and the lamps illuminated enough of the chaos in sickbay to guarantee her nightmares for weeks to come. Overly bright blue-white beams picked out drawn and pain-twisted faces floating at different orientations, and turned them into bloodless ghosts.

Globules of blood and vomit sailed lazily through the beams, providing startling color for a moment before vanishing into the blackness.

"Use the restraints," Ogawa ordered. "We need to get the patients secured into beds. And get hold of some magnetic boots. We can't treat anyone while we're floating around."

Carolan had already raided the emergency storage compartment secreted in one wall of the bridge and found EV suits and magnetic boots. The suits weren't yet needed even with life support down, but the boots and lights were immediately useful, so she had doled them out. Nog, Barclay, and Qat'qa all took boots and lights, which made a.s.sessing the situation a lot easier.

She had, quite sensibly, offered the captain and Dr. Brahms magnetic boots, but they had refused. The ability to stick to a surface would have impeded the journey that La Forge had decided to make.

It would have been a long and tiring climb through the Jeffries tubes for the pair, but the lack of gravity made it quicker and easier. They simply swam through the air in whichever direction was necessary.

Vol was waiting for them when they got to engineering, announcing his presence with a hearty cheer of "Ow, turn that b.l.o.o.d.y light away, you donut!" He blinked his huge eye several times.

"Sorry, Vol," La Forge called back. He directed the light toward the floor, seeing Scotty there, secured between two consoles of the main console ring that had replaced the chief engineer's office. His heart skipped several beats. "Is Scotty-"

"Still ticking," Vol said.

"First question," La Forge said, as it was the most urgent matter, "how come we're still here if there's no antimatter containment power?"

"He happened." Vol pointed the tip of a tentacle at Scotty. "He'd installed a stator backup for the intermix and antimatter storage chambers. I just found out myself two minutes ago, when I looked at them."

"Then we do have warp power?"

"We have the capability to generate it, but we don't actually have it."

"What happened to the gravity grid? The stator should have given us a good four hours of at least three quarters gravity even with the EPS grid dead."

"Six hours, with our current upgrade, not that it matters."

"Could we have been unconscious for six hours?" Leah asked.

"Not unless the chronometer in my tricorder stopped for the same length of time. That's not why the gravity went down. The containment fields have a stator backup-so instead of keeping the gravity on, the stator is maintaining antimatter containment."

Leah was incredulous. "For six hours?" It might take days to get power back.

"Yep. Sorry, mate."

La Forge said, "Okay, Here are our priorities. We need life support and gravity back online. We also need to be able to inform everyone when we get the gravity grid back."

"I'd have thought they'd notice."

"I don't want to drop everyone on their heads without warning." La Forge thought about where they might find some power. "The portable generators we used to power up the Intrepid. Intrepid. Where are they?" Where are they?"

"Cargo bay one," Leah replied.

"I'm thinking that if we can patch them into EPS grids to power the containment fields, life support, communications, and the gravity grid, that'll buy us time to find a more permanent solution to the rest of our problems without worrying that the ship will explode in six hours."

"I'll see to it," Vol promised, and he flew off into the darkness.

Leah and La Forge looked first at each other, then at the unconscious Scotty. Maybe it was the color his eyes generated to compensate for the lack of light, or the effects of the lack of gravity, but Scotty looked frail, for the first time that La Forge could think of.

Leah voiced the thought that was in his mind. "Let's get him to sickbay."

In the guest quarters Voktra shared with a couple of other Romulan officers, Sela wedged herself in the corner between a bulkhead and a structural support. "What happened, Voktra?"

"The same thing as happened to our ship, I think."

"I doubt there's any point in wondering who's going to rescue this this ship, then." ship, then."

Voktra didn't bother to reply. Sela's sense of humor had always seemed off to her. "Orders, Chairman?" Technically, Sela was a pa.s.senger, and Voktra the senior surviving officer of the Stormcrow's Stormcrow's crew, but she wasn't foolish enough to try to push it. crew, but she wasn't foolish enough to try to push it.

"We can't be sure how many casualties the Federation crew have sustained, or what shape this vessel is in . . ."

"If we've lost all power," Voktra said, "then the vessel's antimatter containment field will be a problem."

"Take a group to main engineering and ascertain the security of the containment field. I'll lead a group to the bridge, and see what can be done from there."

"What do we do about the Federation crew?"

"Ignore the dead or injured. If they try to imprison us, deal with them appropriately. If they're engaged in getting systems back online, then give them all the a.s.sistance you can. It makes me sick, but it is our best chance of survival."

One of the other officers approached. "If it is necessary to take control of the ship, when will we make our move?"

"I'm sure it will be necessary, but not quite yet. When the time comes, you'll know it."

"We'll need a signal, so we know to initiate the strategy."

Sela nodded. "When I use the phrase, 'as the crow flies.'"

"If we're to take over the ship, we'll need weapons, and we don't have many."

"This is a Galaxy Galaxy-cla.s.s starship. It may have been somewhat modified for a more experimental use, but it has a security team and tactical officer, and that means it will still have an armory."

"Which will have security measures in place."

"If there's power to run them," Sela reminded him.

"And guards."

"Starfleet security," she mused. "We're fortunate that my mother was tactical officer on a Galaxy Galaxy-cla.s.s vessel. There are a few things I remember that might be helpful."

If she had been asked to judge based only on first sight, Alyssa Ogawa would have sworn Scotty was dead when La Forge and Leah floated him into sickbay. His skin was split with cuts from the structural supports of the balcony, his internal wounds had reopened, according to a tricorder scan, and his skin was as white as polished bone. His limbs drifted limply as the captain and Leah maneuvered him to the surface of a biobed. They held him there while Ogawa reached under the bed and stretched a couple of restraints across him.

"How is he?" Leah asked.

"I don't know yet." None of the biobed's sensory or treatment functions were active, but at least she could keep an eye on him. Alyssa prepared a hypo of suitable compounds-anticoagulants and painkillers-but knew that there was no chance of putting his spleen, or other damaged internal organs, back together without the cellular regenerator array above the biobed.

"Is there anything we can do?" La Forge asked.

"I could really use power to get this place up and running again."

"We'll get you some. Come on, Leah."

They left, and, a few moments later, Scotty opened his eyes groggily. "Doctor Ogawa?"

"Yes. You're in sickbay."

"Considerin' all the possible alternatives, that's a relief." He tried to sit up, and found himself held down by the straps across his legs and chest. "What's the meanin' o' this?"

"Nothing personal, Scotty. The gravity is down, and I don't want my patients floating away."

Scotty was already picking feebly at the restraints. "I don't want to float away, la.s.s, I want to get back to engineering and get the power back on!"

"And do you think you're in any condition to do that?"

He looked at her with a cunning expression, and she could tell that he was experienced in having this kind of debate with doctors. "Let me ask you a question. Am I doin' any good here?"

"You're doing yourself good. You know: healing."

"So ye've treated me already."

"As much as I can. But without the cellular regenerator and biobed systems-"

"Then there's no more you can do for me now, but you've made me able to stand on my own two feet-gravity excepted."

"Yes."

"And who d'ye think might have the best chance of gettin' the power for your biobeds back online?"

"You can barely stand!"

"I'm fine, la.s.s. And if I don't help I won't stay fine. Ye just said as much yourself. So if you can give me a pair o' gravity boots . . ." Alyssa debated whether to spare a pair of the boots for Scotty. There weren't enough for everyone in sickbay, but he was right about one thing. The painkillers and treatment she'd given him would keep him upright for a while at least, and he did have a good chance of fixing the problem, if half of the things she'd heard about him were true.

Scotty grinned, and she could see in his eyes that he knew she would grant his request.

When he clumped out of sickbay in a pair of the boots, the nurse from whom he had borrowed them turned to Alyssa. "Do you really think he should be out there working in his condition?"

"No. But I think that trying to keep him in here would do more harm than good."

32.

"Ah, um, testing, testing. Can anyone hear me?" Reg Barclay's voice echoed tinnily throughout the rooms and corridors of the Reg Barclay's voice echoed tinnily throughout the rooms and corridors of the U.S.S. Challenger U.S.S. Challenger. In the darkness of areas where there were no lights available, it cut through the moans, cries, and conversations like a blade. In Nelson's it brought hope.

"Reg?" Guinan answered. "Is that you?" She had been cleaning minor cuts with the alcohol she normally kept for special customers, and tying tourniquets when the call came. In fact, she had organized a veritable production line of rough and ready field medicine, with the least injured people trying to help the most injured.

"Testing," Reg repeated, and Guinan realized that the voice was coming not through the intercom speakers, but through her combadge. In fact it was coming through the combadges of everyone who was floating in the room. Guinan tapped her badge and tried again. "Reg, this is Guinan. We hear you. We all hear you!" Reg repeated, and Guinan realized that the voice was coming not through the intercom speakers, but through her combadge. In fact it was coming through the combadges of everyone who was floating in the room. Guinan tapped her badge and tried again. "Reg, this is Guinan. We hear you. We all hear you!"

"Excellent!" Reg exclaimed. Reg exclaimed. "Where are you?" "Where are you?"

"Nelson's?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry. What's the situation like?"

"We have injured people, no gravity, and only a few lights. We need medical a.s.sistance."

"I hear you," Ogawa's voice cut in. Ogawa's voice cut in. "I'll send up help." "I'll send up help."