Ragnarok by Nathan Archer Page B

beam,” Tuvok replied from behind his console.
    “It was not a true phaser, but the product of a similar, somewhat more primitive technology.”
    Janeway considered that. Phasers had been the standard armament in the Federation for a century, and the technology had spread throughout the Alpha Quadrant—but apparently it wasn’t so widespread here.
    A phaser used a tuned monopolaric beam of coherent energy that could be modulated for various effects, from blocking nerve impulses without doing any other harm to the target all the way up to disrupting the strong nuclear force, which caused matter to disintegrate right down to the subatomic level.
    Tuvok said the weapons in use here were something else, however.
    “Give me the specs on that.”
    “On your screen, Captain,” the Vulcan replied.
    Janeway flipped up the panel by her chair and studied the display. As Tuvok had said, the weapons were not phasers; they projected coherent energy, but it wasn’t monopolaric, which meant it could not be tuned properly. The phase could evidently be shifted up or down, which would alter its effects to some extent, but it would have nothing remotely like the versatility of the Voyager’s own weapons. These beams could not be set to stun, nor could they obliterate matter entirely; they could merely blast.
    That blast could be adjusted so that it was delivered as intense heat, or as a cutting beam, or in various other forms, but it was still far less effective than a phaser.
    Apparently no one in the Kuriyar Cluster had ever developed the Kawamura-Franklin circuit that made true phasers possible.
    “Is that the best they’ve got?” Janeway asked.
    “I cannot say,” Tuvok replied, “but it does appear to be their primary armament.”
    “Our shields handled it without any problem,” Janeway commented.
    “The shot was fired from extreme range,” the Vulcan pointed out.
    “However, it would appear that our shields could, indeed, withstand a reasonably heavy assault by such weapons for quite some time.”
    “Years?” Janeway asked, looking up at the Vulcan, thinking of Tuvok’s earlier estimate that the battle had thirty years left to run.
    “No,” Tuvok said. “The Hachai and P’nir shields would appear to be superior to our own in durability; in our present condition, the power consumption would drain Voyager’s engines relatively quickly, and our shields would then collapse. We could, however, survive at least a few hours of serious bombardment.”
    That was interesting; it opened up possibilities. It meant that if necessary, the Voyager could stay to talk to one side even while under attack by the other. That wasn’t ordinarily any part of the role of a negotiator, but the situation here was not an ordinary one.
    And there might be another possibility, as well, one bearing on their own needs.
    “Could we survive long enough to reach that thing in there, that globe, and find out what it is?” she asked.
    Tuvok hesitated.
    “Could you rephrase the question, Captain?”
    “I’m asking you, Mr. Tuvok,” Janeway said, “what are our odds of reaching that object intact, if we go in there with our shields at full power and making whatever evasive maneuvers we can?”
    “Captain, there are too many variables to give an exact answer…”
    “An approximation will do. What order of magnitude are we talking about here?”
    “Our odds of survival would be several thousand to one against,” Tuvok admitted, his expression slightly pained at having to give so imprecise a response.
    “Why, if their weapons are so ineffective?” Chakotay demanded.
    “It’s not merely the phased-energy weapons we would need to worry about,” Tuvok explained. “If you observe the battle, you will see that the participants are not significantly more vulnerable to such weapons than we are; the beams are used primarily to force the enemy in a chosen direction.” He gestured at the screen. “What actual damage occurs is inflicted in