Note From the Author-

Hello loyal readers. Some, if not all, of you are probably slightly (very) irritated at me for my very infrequent updates on my many unfinished stories.


And yet again, here I start another. I am putting my others on the back burner for a while to focus on this new one. It's slightly out of my style, and much darker than my normal, but like all experiments it will either work or fail horribly.

It takes place somewhere in season seven, and erases the 'endgame' timeline.

Either way, be prepared for something wild. Be prepared to go where no human has gone before.

Prologue
Delta Quadrant

Tom Paris felt the burn as the energy weapon sizzled through the fabric of his uniform and scrape his skin.

"Son of a bitch!" He screamed through his clenched teeth, as he ducked down behind the bend in the corridor. Tuvok pulled him from behind, and glanced at his wound.

"It is superficial. Try to ignore it." Was the Vulcan response. The lights flickered overhead as the ship rocked violently. They were in position outside the main double doors of the Voyager engine room. "Tuvok to bridge, we are pinned down. Requesting assistance."

--

"Tuvok to bridge, we are pinned down. Requesting assistance." The comm channel crackled overhead. Janeway glared up at the flickering viewscreen. She could barely make out the alien ship that sensors were tracking. Just moments before, a plasma explosion behind the science station had vaporized the one person standing at the console… Commander Chakotay. She had watched the burning plasma scorch through his skin. He had fallen down on the floor and flopped around screaming as the hot pasma disintegrated his organs. Moments later it was over, nothing left but a burnt through corpse. That image was all Kathryn Janeway could see in her mind.

"Repeat, we are pinned down!" She could hear the stress in Tuvoks voice, for he was on the verge of breaking. She, on the other hand, just snapped. She stood slowly, and braced herself when Voyager shuttered below her feet. She glanced up at Harry, with an odd calm in her voice.

"How many of them?"

"I'm reading thirty-seven. Correction, Forty-two. Captain, they are beaming in by the masses…"

"Computer, flood cargo bay one with Nyocene gas and lock its doors."

-Nyocene gas is…

"Override." She cut the mechanical voice off. The captain looked around her shattered bridge, then back up to Ensign Kim. "Beam them all into cargo bay one."

"What?" His young face had a heart-stricken expression on it.

"I gave you an order, ensign." She said, rage still building in her chest. She walked up to his station, and threw him out of the way.

"We can find another way!" Seven said, as she started towards the ops station. "They won't last a minute in there!"

Janeway took her hands off the console as she watched the screen below her hands.

TRANSPORT IN PROGRESS…TRANSPORT COMPLETE.

"That's the god damn point." She replied cold and stern. The bridge officers were silent as she walked back down to her chair. "Hail them."

Harry drifted back to his panel with a glazed look in his eyes. "Line open."

"Duvorex vessel, your boarding party is dead. I suggest if you-" She stopped when the comm line was cut off. There was a massive explosion on the viewscreen as the Duvorex ship was enveloped in flames. Janeway shot out of her seat.

"Something struck them from behind!" Seven blurted from her station.

"What the hell was it?" Janeway asked.

"Unknown, but…" Seven stopped when her sensor panel revealed something from her past. "Species zero zero zero." She said softly, with terror in her voice.

Chapter One

Two Years Later

"Federation Starship Zodiac requesting docking clearance." Lieutenant Perry Highland said over his computer panel on the bridge.

"Starbase Four clears you for docking in upper ring six. Welcome home, Zodiac."

Perry turned up to his captain and first officer. "Civilization here we come!"

Captain Lucas Yardale grinned ear to ear, as he glanced at his first officer Darren Henderson, and back down to Perry Highland.

"Are you saying we aren't civilized?" Captain Yardale asked him, still grinning. Perry returned his silly grin and stood up from his station.

"Not saying that at all. But after a year with you losers, my heart bleeds for that!" He walked in front of the main view screen, which was showing their approaching view of the massive Starbase and the beautiful planet behind it. The space doors had parted, and the nav lights were welcoming them in. "I mean look at her!"

Henderson leaned over to Yardale. "Looks like we have a mutiny on our hands, sir."

"I know! Thank god we are so close to help!" He replied. They both chuckled.

"I hate to break up your big joke over there…" Sabrina Williams, the Zodiac communications officer, spoke up and then trailed off, listening to her earpiece.

"Commander?" Captain Yardale swiveled his chair in her direction.

"Sir, subspace traffic just quadrupled. Something big just happened, it's hard to make out." The bridge fell silent, as the Zodiac continued to slip into the docking bay on automation. "Starfleet command is hailing us."

The light air in the room thickened as the viewer switched from an exterior view of the Starbase to a Fleet Admiral. Captain Yardale stood, and approached the viewer.

"Fleet Admiral Clemmins."

"Lucas Yardale, its good to see you back in our neck of the woods."

"Its good to be back…" He could already see the uneasy expression on the Admirals face.

"Let me cut right to it, old friend. About an hour ago, long-range sensors detected some very unusual readings seven lightyears from Starbase Four. Now we are not sure what caused them, but what we do know is that a ship just appeared out of nowhere."

"What kind of unusual readings? And what ship?" Yardale asked, as he crossed his arms.

"Sensors cannot make heads or tails out of the strange power signature that spiked. However long range scans indicate the ship is one of our own. Its Voyager."

The Captain raised his eyebrows. "Come again?"

"You heard me correctly. The Federation Starship Voyager, lost in the Delta Quadrant for nine years, just appeared on our doorstep."

"Good God! Are there any survivors? Have you sent out a rescue team?"

"The situation is as follows. Whatever brought them here increased the rad levels in that sector by near two hundred percent. We had to wait a while for them to dissipate before we can send a ship in. I don't have a good feeling about it. We aren't getting any life readings and all our hails have gone unanswered."

"Elevated rad levels can interfere with sensors." Darren Henderson stood from his chair. "We need to get a ship out there ASAP."

"I know. That's why I'm called. If you reinforce your shields, and inoculate your crew, I believe you can survive the radiation. Starfleet wants you at Voyagers side as soon as you can get there."

"Read you loud and clear."

"God speed. Starfleet out." The viewer blanked out, as the captain turned to his crew.

"Shore leave has just been postponed. Yardale to medical bay, prepare for radiation victims."

"Acknowledged."

"Helm, cancel docking procedures. As soon as we are clear of Starbase Four, lay in a course for Voyager… maximum warp." He sat down in his chair, and took a deep breath.

The chic Infinity-class Zodiac broke away from the Starbase and rocketed foreword into warp speed.