Star Trek: Voyager: Endgame

at Korath. “This'll do just fine.”
    Like a cat batting a toy, she slapped the deflector device on the midsection of its casing, leaving behind a small magnetic transporter enhancer. With the other hand she thumbed the control plate of her tricorder with a predetermined code, then held her breath. The air around her began to whine.
    Both she and the deflector began to dematerialize.
    “Stop her!” Korath's shout echoed through the caverns. He raised his disruptor.
    The two Klingon guards pulled their weapons also and opened fire.
    Janeway hunched her shoulders. The heat of weapons fire crawled across her skin. Whether the transporter would operate fast enough or the disruptor fire would cut through the beams first, she couldn't calculate.
    As for Korath and their deal, she had already paid in full.



CHAPTER 6

    “C OMPUTER , DEPLOY ARMOR .”
    Janeway gave her shuttle its marching order before she had completely materialized in the cockpit. The shuttle hummed with a surge of power, and began to enjoy a
pokpokpok
sound as plate armor unfolded in successive shingles across the outer hull. What a terrific sound. The benefits of dealing with aliens in far-flung corners. Still a few tricks up her sleeve.
    Without taking the time to enjoy her advantage, she stepped to the nav board and tapped in the numbers. “Lay in a course for these coordinates—”
    The shuttle rocked hard to port and almost knocked her down. The Klingons here already? Korath had more influence than he thought. Of course, she'd just put him on the High Council, which hadn't hurt his ability to muster firepower.
    Janeway glanced at the armor readouts—holding. Good stuff. Just to be annoying, she tapped the trigger for the incoming comm receiver. Korath's image flickered on a monitor, transmitting from his rock cave.
    “What do you want?” Janeway asked
    “You'll pay for your deceit,
ghuy' cha!
The House of Korath won't rest until you've been drowned in your own blood—”
    “I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm on a tight schedule.”
    She hit the control that cut him off and the monitor snapped dark. Oh, that was fun!
    “Computer, warp six,” she added. Time to get down to business.
    Double-crossers like Korath were always easy targets. She had dealt with so many aliens and such varied psychologies in the Delta Quadrant that handling Klingons was a picnic.
    As easily as that, she left Korath and his insulted ego behind.
    She settled into her pilot seat and forced herself to relax, a trick she had practiced from long ago. A shuttle at warp six wasn't like a starship speeding along. There weren't twelve decks between her and space, no heavily insulated cushioning, no superstructure to absorb the effects of speed impossible in nature. Here, in this shuttle with its skin of alien armor, she could feel the warping of space upon her skin and in her muscles, behind her eyes and on the back of her neck.
    Suddenly she thought of Chakotay. He could never feel it. He always said it was her imagination, that she couldn't really wake up out of a sound sleep and know whether or not the ship had gone to warp speed.
    She had that sensation now, felt the thrill of high science racing across the tiny hairs on her arms. Even a hothead like Korath knew better than to chase her, and if he did the armor would confound him. But he wouldn't.
    Had Miral cleared the moon and made good on her escape?
    If I were all that sure of myself, I wouldn't worry.
    “Approaching designated coordinates,” the computer informed placidly.
    Janeway sat up quickly. “All stop.”
    “Warning: vessel approaching, vector one-two-one mark six.”
    She leaned forward and confirmed the sensor reading. Who would be out here?
    Other kinds of alarms went off in her head. Had she failed to keep her plans completely to herself? To keep all the secrets? She and her crew had become deeply skilled at reading each other's silences—had she involuntarily given herself away to them?
    “Oh . . . damn,” she murmured as the hail came through. “I knew things were going too well . . . computer, retract armor.”
    Pokpokpokpokpok
—the shuttle drew in its alien shingles.
    Through her forward viewport, Janeway peered at a starship, one of the newly commissioned line, huge as it hung over the shuttle. On the comm monitor, a family face appeared.
    Janeway sighed. “Harry . . . and people are always saying space is so big.”
    “Lower your shields, Admiral,”
Kim ordered,
“and stand by