Read Online Star Trek: The Next Generation - 119 - Armageddon's Arrow by Dayton Ward - Free Book Online

and her feeling about such exercises remained unchanged: she hated it, particularly now that her helmet was sealed and she had no way to scratch her nose.
    “Are you okay?” asked Lieutenant Dina Elfiki, her voice muffled and filtered through her helmet’s communications receiver. Like Chen and everyone else aboard the Jefferies , the science officer was wearing an EV suit, or “standard extravehicular work garment,” as it was known in Starfleet nomenclature. Elfiki sat across from her in the shuttlecraft’s passenger area, studying her through their helmets’ faceplates.
    “I’m fine, thanks,” Chen replied. “It’s just the usual aversion to being hermetically sealed inside one of these things. I’ll be okay once we start moving around.”
    Elfiki nodded. “Same here. I never like wearing these suits either, but it’s this or we hold our breath the whole time.”
    “I always feel like a fish in a bowl,” said Lieutenant Rennan Konya from where he sat next to Chen. The deputy chief of security, along with Lieutenant Kirsten Cruzen, had been selected to accompany the away team as its security detail.
    Sitting next to Elfiki, Cruzen added, “I always feel like a vacuum-packed field ration.”
    “Spend enough time in one of these,” Konya said, smiling through his faceplate, “and you’ll start to smell like one, too.”
    Without missing a beat, Cruzen replied, “You manage that even without the suit.” Her remark elicited good-natured chuckles from Konya as well as Chen and Elfiki. For the first time since the team had boarded the shuttlecraft, Chen turned to Konya.
    “I’m glad you’re coming with us.”
    “Your first real first-contact mission in forever?” The Betazoid smiled, though Chen thought he might be forcing it, if only a bit. “I wouldn’t miss it for anything.”
    “Is everybody going to give me grief over that?” Chen asked. “It’s not my fault it’s taken this long.”
    “You should’ve joined security,” Cruzen offered. “It’s never boring, that’s for sure.”
    Chen nodded. “Maybe I’ll start training for that once this mission’s over.”
    “I’ll dig out the holodeck training programs when we get back,” Konya said, and again, Chen wondered if he might be trying too hard to affect a relaxed air, with the two of them sitting next to each other inside the shuttle’s cramped passenger compartment. Despite the confining EV suit, she reached up and patted him on the arm.
    “Deal.”
    Though she had come to terms with the way her romantic relationship with him had ended in abrupt fashion a few years earlier, the truth was that awkwardness had clouded most of their interactions since then. She had been hurt by Konya’s sudden decision to stop seeing her but had come to realize that his actions were part of a larger process of healing and coming to terms with the guilt and other traumatic feelings haunting him in the aftermath of the final Borg Invasion. He had been plagued by the shame he believed he deserved for surviving that brief yet costly conflict and had withdrawn from nearly everyone and everything around him. She knew that he still occasionally visited with Doctor Hegol Den, the Enterprise ’s counselor, though those sessions had tapered off in recent years. As for their friendship, Konya had been the first to make overtures, though the spark that they had shared in the beginning was conspicuous in its absence. Though she still harbored feelings for him, Chen knew that he had to figure out for himself what was best for him, and if she could be a strong supportive friend as he sought those answers, that was enough.
    From where he sat next to Commander La Forge in the shuttle’s cockpit, Commander Worf said, “ Enterprise , we are approaching the landing bay.”
    “Acknowledged , ” replied the voice of Captain Picard. “There’s been no apparent reaction to your presence .”
    After a brief pause, Lieutenant Aneta Šmrhová said over the