A/N – This is a completely new rewrite of a story which I started writing in 2003. Goodness knows my writing from back then could've used some improvement, so I'm starting from scratch. I hope you enjoy it. By the way, credit for the title goes to Maigan. Reviews welcome.

Disclaimer- Yes, it's true. I did not come up with the Star Trek franchise. USS Voyager, its characters and everything else are the property of Paramount as much as I may wish the contrary. I make no money from this and copyright infringement is not intended. No sue me, por favor.

Star Trek Voyager: Paraverse

Episode One

Chapter One

I rang the doorbell and turned around to watch my mom drive away as I stood there on my best friend's stoop. Waiting, I glanced around in marvel of how quickly the debris from Hurricane Isabel had been carried off. After all, it had only been a little more than a month. I heard dull footsteps crossing the floor and approaching until they stopped in front of the door.

"Who is it?" said Maigan, my best friend of more than two years, her voice muffled through the heavy wood of the door.

"Who do you think?" I replied.

She laughed as she pulled open the door and let me in, carrying my Halloween costume in a Wal-Mart bag.

"How long do you need to get ready?" she asked me as I headed to change in the bathroom.

"Just a couple minutes. You?"

"I've just gotta put on my jacket," she said.

Maigan was going out trick-or-treating as Jon Bon Jovi in a simple costume consisting of just an acid wash jacket and a guitar. She already had the hair. I, however, being the geek I am, was going as Chakotay complete with a uniform bought from eBay (with the wrong combadge), temporary forehead tattoo, and a phase pistol from the Archer era. I was hardly convincing, only 13 years old.

I quickly changed into a black pair of dress pants and switched out my t-shirt for the uniform top. I straightened the collar and stepped out of the bathroom. Maigan began to laugh.

"Oh be quiet," I said. "At least I'm dressed as someone the same gender." I smirked at her outfit.

"Har-de-har-har." Maigan sarcastically quipped as we walked out the front door together.

"At which end of the street do you want to start?"

"That way," she said as she pointed to the left.

We skipped down the steps together and walked the length of the driveway out to the street. Then I jabbed the phase pistol into her back.

"Keep walking changeling. Try and morph out of this and I'll burn a hole right through you," I quietly threatened, trying to stifle a laugh with mixed results.

"That's where you've got it wrong, John. I'm not the changeling. For all you know it could be the pip on your collar." She was winging it, never having watched an episode of Star Trek in her life, but she was doing well.

"And I'm just supposed to take you at your word, Maigan?"

"Do you have any other choice?"

As I contemplated that, she whipped around out of my grasp and wielded her guitar in the air like a sword and began to chase me down the street.

"I knew it!" I yelled a her as I dodged out of her way and pointed the pistol at her head. Eyes narrowed, I fired point blank. As the shoddy sound effect reverberated in the night air, she overdramatically clasped her chest and fell to the ground. I ran to her side.

"No! What have I done?" I grabbed her at the shoulders.

Gasping for breath, she looked at me. "I...forgive you,...John," she whispered. She turned her head and let out a sigh, supposedly dead.

Overacting for the humor of it, I slapped my combadge and said, "Voyager! Medical emergency! Two to beam up!"

The corpse was having a hard time keeping a straight face, and as I fell on top of her in laughter, we vanished in a column of blue light.

A/N – Sorry if you found this chapter a bit boring. It was just to establish some background. Next chapter, the real fun begins!