DISCLAIMER: It's Paramount's galaxy.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: C/7. AU where the phase variance in the Quantum Slipstream drive is corrected by Seven and the crew of Voyager returns to Earth in the episode "Timeless". They return to an Alpha Quadrant in turmoil.

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FAMILY

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Stardate 52143.6

B'Elanna Torres was annoyed. A not all that uncommon occurrence, Seven of Nine observed, but in the current circumstances she had good reason. Torres moved across Engineering looking at a PADD that contained the source of her frustration. Most of the senior staff was assembled, the modified warp core humming quietly in the background. "That can't be right," Torres snapped. "We tested this engine molecule by molecule."

Tom Paris shrugged and replied "I'm sorry, B'Elanna." Paris' smugness didn't please the Chief Engineer one bit and she appeared ready to throttle him. In fact, no one in the assembled party was pleased.

Seven of Nine had been listening in on the conversation at the periphery of the group from the start. Although she had been aboard Voyager now for just over a year, she was still reluctant to engage in conversation with the crew unless absolutely necessary. Earlier in the day she had unintentionally become intoxicated at the gathering celebrating the completion of the Quantum Slipstream drive, and this made her all the more reticent. The memory of the incident was unfortunate. She considered the Doctor a mentor, helping her to improve her social skills, but his apparent joy during her indisposition was intolerable. She would prefer to remain silent now, but the Quantum Slipstream project had consumed a significant amount of her time and their scarce resources. Perhaps the situation would benefit from a new set of eyes. "I wish to examine the results of the simulation," she interjected.

Paris turned to her and threw up his hands. "Holodeck two. Run them for yourself. That is, if you don't mind being vaporized a few dozen times." Paris did have a knack for the dramatic, although it accomplished little in ameliorating the problem at hand.

"I looked at their findings Captain," Commander Chakotay put in. "If we try to take that flight in the morning, we'll be in escape pods by afternoon." Seven of Nine turned to study the First Officer. In the past few months, although he shared in the excitement, he had always remained cautious and reigned in the crew's expectations so they didn't get out of hand. It appeared his intuition had been correct. She perhaps knew Commander Chakotay best of all the crew, having shared a brief mental link with him when she was first severed from the Borg. Despite his reservations about her being aboard, which she knew intimately and fully understood, he always treated her fairly and she knew he was honorable and even-handed. There was much to admire about the man, Seven of Nine mused.

"It would appear we have no choice but to cancel it," Lieutenant Commander Tuvok added matter-of-factly.

"Either that or…" Paris glanced at Harry Kim who was standing behind an engineering console on the other side of the group from Seven of Nine. Kim seemed distracted. After a pause, Paris moved towards Kim and finished, "we can try it Harry's way."

Captain Janeway stopped studying the pulsations of the warp core and looked up with interest. "Ensign?" she asked and everyone turned to Ensign Kim.

Kim seemed startled to suddenly be the center of attention, but didn't miss a beat. "I've got an idea," he began slowly walking out from behind the console. "It's tricky, but I think it could work. The trouble begins about seventeen seconds into the flight. The phase variance kicks in and the Slipstream becomes unstable. What we need is someone in a shuttle to ride the rapids in front of Voyager."

"Yes!" Torres picked up on this suggestion and nodded enthusiastically. "They could map the threshold of the Slipstream as it's forming and send the phase corrections back to us. That is a great idea, Harry."

Kim appeared to gain confidence. "Now, here's the tricky part. The shuttle will only be a couple of seconds ahead of Voyager. That doesn't give auto-navigation much time to compensate."

Janeway turned to Paris. "Tom?"

"Couple of seconds?" Paris seemed both skeptical and optimistic, a curious combination of emotions. His meaning was not at all clear. As Seven of Nine considered, there would be no margin for error. Any mistake in Slipstream could prove disastrous.

"We can do this, Captain," Kim said emphatically, his hesitance from just moments before now gone. "Put me on that shuttle. I'll get Voyager through the Slipstream. What choice do we have? Take the drive offline? Months of work for nothing?"

"We built a highly experimental piece of technology," Tuvok countered. "There were bound to be setbacks." Trust it to Tuvok to interject the voice of reason.

Kim, however, would have none of it. "The benamite crystals at the heart of this engine have already started to decay. It could take years to synthesize more. I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't do all this work just to be stopped by a point four two phase variance. No offense, Captain."

Janeway waved her hand. "None taken," she said. "All right, Mister Kim. You've convinced me. Prepare a flight plan and have it on my desk within the hour."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'll let you know what I decide."

As the senior staff broke up and left Engineering, Seven of Nine paused. A point four two phase variance in Slipstream could be devastating, regardless of Ensign Kim's enthusiasm. She frowned ever so slightly and then turned on her heel to go to Holodeck Two and examine Mister Paris' findings for herself.

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Janeway sat down in the Captain's chair and engaged ship wide communications. "All hands, this is the Captain. Take your stations, secure all systems, and stand by for the jump to Slipstream."

Seven of Nine glanced down at her control panel. It was her job to monitor sensors and the possible occurrence of phase variances and the Slipstream threshold. She would be in direct link with the Delta Flyer and could enter the corrections they anticipated needing if Paris was unable to make the correction himself. "I've established a telemetry link with the shuttle," she commented dispassionately.

"Match their course and speed," Janeway responded, directing her comment to Tom Paris at the helm. She then adjusted the communicator. "Voyager to Chakotay."

"Yes, ma'am," Chakotay replied over the comm.

"Prepare to enter the Slipstream."

"Acknowledged."

Janeway paused for only a moment gazing towards the main view screen. "Engage."

Tom Paris adjusted controls on his panel. "Slipstream velocity in four, three, two."

As they approached the Slipstream threshold, there was turbulence, but this was expected. Down in Engineering, the Slipstream Drive powered the Quantum Matrix and moved both Voyager and the Delta Flyer past the threshold and into Slipstream. Not warped space, and not quite trans-warp space, the Slipstream established a conduit between the various higher dimensions. The turbulence quieted immediately.

It didn't take long for the phase variance within the Quantum Matrix to develop. Seven of Nine could see it clearly enough, similar to Paris' original and modified holodeck simulations. "I'm detecting a phase variance. Point one, point two," she said. Inertial dampers weren't keeping up with the gravimetric instability, and the ship began to shake.

"Helm?"

"Still waiting for Harry," Paris replied nervously.

"Point three," Seven of Nine commented.

"Voyager to Delta Flyer," Janeway said forcefully. "We need those corrections or we'll have to shut down the drive."

"We're on it Captain," Kim replied over the comm, although he sounded nervous.

There was an agonizing few seconds delay, and then the corrections arrived. Seven of Nine could see Kim's calculations just as Paris said "I'm receiving the phase corrections."

The Slipstream responded immediately. "The phase variance is decreasing," Seven said, but frowned slightly. The correction was improving as predicted. She had seen the same results in the simulations, but something still nagged at her. Even then, when the corrections were added according to Kim's calculations, it was still slightly off. Not enough to jeopardize the integrity of the Slipstream, but still present. And then a thought occurred to her in a flash of insight. Kim's corrections were exactly what was needed for the Slipstream threshold at the location of the Delta Flyer, but during the two point three second delay between the shuttle and Voyager, might a slight adjustment to the threshold still be necessary? The deviation would be miniscule, but could it be enough to account for the deviation Seven had seen even in the modified simulations. And if uncorrected, could it be enough to destabilize the threshold? The modified simulations on the holodeck seemed to indicate otherwise, but simulations are not exact replications of the truth. Were the actual dynamics nonlinear enough?

"Shields are holding," Tuvok commented from his station at tactical.

Janeway nodded approvingly. "Looks like we're on our way," she said with a smile.

Seven of Nine studied the readings, still unsettled. Should she mention her concerns? Everything appeared to be going as planned, but… As with the modified simulations, it was clear to her the rate of change in the phase variance was increasing and would likely overshoot, but it wasn't exactly as it had been on the holodeck. She had a link to the Slipstream and could adjust the drive ever so slightly and that should stabilize the correction without Paris having to do anything. Should she… Without another thought, in a split second decision, she made the change to the Quantum Matrix. It would be unnoticeable, except perhaps to someone down in Engineering if they happened to be looking at the correct display. It was so minor, perhaps it was unnecessary anyway.

The phase variance did overshoot slightly, but then stabilized for a time at a low level. The tunnel-like swirl of colors inside the Slipstream undulated outside and the threshold remained steady. Voyager and the shuttlecraft slipped through the higher dimensions of space-time making their way to the Alpha Quadrant.

Two more corrections were required. For each, Kim relayed the corrections from the Delta Flyer to Voyager, Paris made the necessary adjustments to Voyager's path through Slipstream as previously rehearsed, and Seven of Nine made her unseen adjustment to the Quantum Matrix. With each adjustment, Seven of Nine became more and more unsure if her contribution was even necessary, but it was clearly not making things worse. In just a matter of twenty-seven minutes, they neared their exit point into real space and the Alpha Quadrant.

"Prepare to exit Slipstream," Captain Janeway announced. "Let's put in well outside Jupiter's orbit. We don't want to create too much of a stir."

"Yes ma'am," Paris replied. Seconds later, the circular swirl of color from within the Slipstream was replaced by an innocuous star field on the main view screen. They had done it. For it wasn't just any old star field. It was the stars as seen of Earth, Sector zero-zero-one. They were back in the Alpha Quadrant.

"It appears our chronometer is off," Tuvok commented. He studied the tactical sensors more closely. "According to the Jupiter beacon, we've lost several months in Slipstream."

"Explain," Janeway asked, turning to face Tuvok.

"While twenty-seven minutes transpired for us here on Voyager, over two hundred and sixty seven days elapsed for the Galaxy as a whole."

Janeway frowned.

"An artifact of Slipstream travel perhaps?" Paris speculated. "Without a warp field, we weren't shielded from all the relativistic effects?"

Janeway shook her head and faced forward once more. "It makes little difference," she finally said, "synchronize ship's time to the Jupiter beacon." She then opened a comm channel to the Delta Flyer. "Harry, you did it. Congratulations and well done!"

"Thank you Captain."

"And now Commander, get the Delta Flyer back into the shuttle bay and let's head to Earth. We are long overdue."

"Yes Captain." Chakotay replied and the channel was terminated.

And then over ship wide communications. "All hands… we're home." Janeway's voice cracked with emotion, suddenly overcome by the realization of what they had all just accomplished.

Seven of Nine glanced down at sensors. The Delta Flyer was nearby and already on final approach to the shuttle bay. Beyond was Earth system and the heart of Federation space. In just a few moments, they would be in contact with Star Fleet Command and in orbit.

She felt disconcertingly anxious. It was an emotion she was unfamiliar with and that fact only heightened the feeling.

Her integration into this crew on Voyager had been slow and wasn't nearly complete. She was still learning what it was to be an individual. What it was to be human. Now, she was an expatriated drone cast into a greater pool of individuals in a Federation who were fearful and hostile towards the Borg.

What was going to happen to her?

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Author's note: Just a teaser for now. Given my other stories, however, I think you might guess at least one thing that is going to happen to her… I plan this to be similar in length to my previous C/7 AU stories. Hope you enjoy and please review.