How to Break the Prime Directive (and get away with it)

Part 7: Tachyon Bursts?

Engineering was a hive of activity. Suvok found that not just his gamma shift colleagues, but most of the beta shift engineering staff were climbing through the Jeffries tubes and over the warp core housing, brandishing tricorders. The unfamiliar babble of their anxious voices filled the room.

"Ensign Suvok!" bellowed Commander Reya. The chief engineer was standing, hands on hips, paunch protruding like he was a king, rather than a starship engineer. "How on earth did you get here so quickly? Were you standing out in the corridor waiting for a chance to be useful? Well, no matter. Grab a tricorder. We're looking for tachyon bursts. Tachyon bursts, and anything else unusual - especially flashes of blue light. You see one of those, you let me know, understood? Now get going!"

An ensign from beta shift pushed a tricorder into Suvok's hands. He pressed the button at the top of the smooth, plastic box, and the device buzzed to life. Suvok noted that this tricorder was in good condition - it looked new. Usually, Suvok and the other newcomers to engineering were trained on old, battered tricorders, slightly-damaged machines that had spent most of their lives getting knocked around at the back of a storage locker or down on some godforsaken planet. Something this new and this nice would be substantially more sensitive.

"Is there something wrong with the warp core?" Suvok wondered out loud. It would make sense; tachyons, like a ship in warp, travelled faster than light.

Reya shrugged. "Not according to any of my diagnostics. Besides, these are small tachyon bursts - very small. Not what you'd expect from a malfunctioning warp core."

"Fascinating," Suvok replied. "Do you have a theory as to what may be causing these bursts?"

Reya snorted. "Nothing you need to worry about, ensign."

"But, sir, if I had a better idea of the cause -"

Somewhere behind him, Suvok could hear a door slide open.

"Captain on deck!" someone called. The room fell silent.

Suvok turned his head just in time to see the Captain stride in through the turbolift doors. Yolanda Williams was tall for a human woman, tall enough that Suvok had to look up to look into her eyes. She had sharp features, and she had a shrewd mind. She had captained the Hotspur for three years now, and she insisted her ship ran like clockwork. Had he not been a Vulcan, and thus immune to petty emotion, Suvok would have been afraid of her. As it was, he saluted smartly.

"Sorry, ensign. I'm stealing my Chief Engineer away from you," Captain Williams said.