Read Violations for Free Online Page B

flux hit the bridge, mashing Kim’s face against the plasteel surface of the terminal. He was stuck there, unable to move, his heart laboriously pounding under the stress.
    Then it released.
    “Inertial damping malfunctioning,” he announced, breathless.
    “We can see that, Ensign.” Tuvok still managed to maintain his air of calm, even with his shiny hair sticking up on one side.
    Paris crawled back to his console. “Plasma valving into the warp coils from the power transfer conduits. Automatic venting—” A flash lit the viewscreen, practically blinding Kim with the blue-white brightness of precious energy being dispersed into space.
    “—of plasma injection system,” Paris finished.
    Janeway leaped for her tricorder. “Torres—get that junction back on-line!”
    Torres realized she was lying on her back, staring at the curved ceiling of the tube. She could actually feel the ship moving, straining against itself. This shouldn’t be happening…
    The captain’s order got Torres moving, but her mind was still reeling with denials as she tried to get up. Half-dazed, she bent over the control panel, trying to remember the codes.
    The ship lurched again, followed immediately by the captain’s query, “Torres, report!”
    “I’m trying…” the engineer called out, righting herself.
    What she really wanted to say was—this shouldn’t be happening…
    The Ops control panel was off-line again, just as it had been before they reestablished the subspace integrity in the core.
    Janeway met Kim’s gaze as she hung on to the rail, the tricorder clutched in her hand. I knew this was a bad idea…. But Kim didn’t have the heart to say it out loud.
    Kes called through the tricorder. “Captain? This is sickbay.
    Something’s wrong with the doctor—” “Kes, we need to keep this line open,” Janeway interrupted.
    “But he’s just standing there, frozen. I can touch him, but his eyes are blank.”
    “Stand by,” the captain ordered. “The core will be reconnected any moment.” The ship shook and accelerated again. “Torres.”
    Kim felt the ship lift beneath him, and knew exactly how helpless an earthquake victim felt. He couldn’t hold on through the violent bucking, as the ship let off another phaser burst.
    Then abruptly they paused, hanging motionless.
    “No response from helm!” Paris called out, frantic.
    Kim tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. As his grandfather would say, “Looks like the jig is up!” Kim wasn’t sure what that meant, but if it didn’t refer to a situation like this one—drifting helplessly in space as a pack of pirates prepared to descend on them—then he didn’t know what it could mean.
    Suddenly, all systems powered up, obliterating the emergency lights.
    Kim’s ears popped, and he had to open his mouth wide to equalize the pressure difference. When he could, he said, “ODN is back on-line.
    Systems returned to Reduced Power Mode.”
    Paris was sitting with his legs braced far apart, just in case.
    “I have thrusters.”
    “We lost almost a quarter of our energy reserves,” Kim added.
    The captain stood up, tucking a stray strand of hair into her bun.
    “Ahead, on our original course.”
    Kim didn’t know how she could act so calm after all that. Then he wondered if maybe it was no act, maybe this was just par for the course in Starfleet.
    “Ahead at forty meters per second,” Paris confirmed.
    Kim decided to emulate the captain, even if he felt like mush on the inside. He quickly completed a level-five diagnostic.
    “Basically, we’re back where we started. Systems are functioning intermittently.”
    “Vessels are retreating,” Tuvok announced.
    “Wouldn’t you?” Paris asked. “After that little display, they don’t know what we could do next.”
    “Holding at a distance of one hundred thousand kilometers,” Tuvok confirmed.
    Janeway sat down gingerly, as if she’d pulled something in that last tumble. “Not exactly what I had in