Summary: Six months after Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, Admiral Janeway and her new Delta Quadrant Unit receive a cry for help from an unexpected source. To answer it, they must test out B'Elanna's groundbreaking but risky research, and in so doing, come to terms with the changes that have affected them since their return. A post-series story that is also a sort of "fix-it" for Janeway and Chakotay. Because, come on!

Author's notes: Wow, posting this story feels both liberating and bittersweet – it's been on mind for several months now, so it's strange to let it go. What am I going to daydream about, now?

Anyway, the story is complete, so I will be posting regularly, probably one installment per day. It hasn't been beta'ed, so I apologize for any mistakes!

Rating: Teen (some mature themes later on, but nothing explicit)

Classification: Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi, Romance, Post-series

Pairing: Janeway/Chakotay-centric but features the whole "cast", also references to B'Elanna/Tom and Neelix/Dexa

Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager and its characters are the property of CBS, this is for entertainment only, no infringement intended.

Better get comfy 'cause this is gonna take a while! I hope you enjoy!

I always strive to improve my writing, so constructive criticism and reviews are welcome!

The Neutrino Entraptor

Prologue

"Once, a long time ago, beyond the skies of Talax existed a sea of living stars; stars so bright and so joyful, their lights brightened the night sky in twirls of gold and fire! The living stars feared nothing, for even when they died, their dust remained suspended in the sea of stars, to be illuminated by the others – their essence living on.

Our ancestors could see them as they playfully danced and chased each other across the dome of night, their tails trailing behind them in a flash of light and stardust. Even though the stars paid no heed to the small and insignificant lifeforms that observed them from below, it is said that they illuminated the Great Forest with eternal light and brightness, bestowing their guidance and wisdom upon the departed souls when they reached the Great Forest to rejoin their ancestors.

Many, many years ago, in the time of my great-grandmother's great-grandmother, the living stars heard of a Great Wave of Darkness that consumed all that was light and happiness on its path. In their arrogance (or maybe it was just innocence) the living stars didn't fear the Great Wave of Darkness and paid no heed to the rumors. They danced and chased each other as they had done for millennia, and believed they would keep doing so for millennia to come.

But, soon enough the Great Wave of Darkness was upon them, looming large and dangerous as it advanced, oblivious to the light that it consumed along the way.

Brash and innocent, the youngest of the stars flew to the Wave and asked the Darkness: "why do you consume all that is bright? Do you not see how happy we are?"

The Great Wave of Darkness replied: "And can you not see that your happiness is another one's despair? We are of darkness, darkness is what makes us whole."

Upon realizing that the Great Wave of Darkness would destroy them if it carried on its current path, the stars decided to wage war to stop it from devouring their light. For incommensurable time they fought – light against shadow, primordial brightness against eternal darkness. But the Great Wave of Darkness merely grew and grew as it absorbed the energy from the living stars it devoured while it relentlessly, carelessly blazed forward, unperturbed by the war the living stars were waging against it.

When the Talaxians next looked up to the night sky, the sea of living stars had vanished, leaving behind nothing but void and emptiness…"

Neelix trailed off as he finished the story, the sudden silence heavy within the confines of his communication station on the asteroid he now called home. He looked down into Brax's eyes as the boy stared up at him from where he sat by the console. Fear had widened his eyes into a mask of fright, and Neelix forced a soft smile onto his face as he reached out to circle the boy's small shoulder with his arm.

A few months ago, weeks after Neelix's last communication with Voyager – after he had finally been able to tweak his communication systems to include the hyper-sub space technology Voyager had used – a transmission had finally, unexpectedly come through. Neelix had been astonished to hear B'Elanna's voice describing how she and her team of scientists had been able to reestablish the flow of transmissions from a new Deep Space station's communications array located near the border between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The wonderful thing about it was that, instead of the month-long delay between outbursts, there was no restraint on how many transmissions could be sent, and it only took about 12 Federation hours for the transmissions to travel from the Alpha Quadrant to Neelix's asteroid. They had since then established regular communications and updates. In his recordings, Neelix had told them about the miners' departure from the asteroid belt two months after Neelix's decision to say. He'd told them about how Dexa had decided to join the Council, and had gossiped about the latest news. Meanwhile B'Elanna and a few others had updated him on all that had happened to the Voyager crew since their return home. He'd also gotten what amounted to letters from a number of people, like Naomi and her mother, Seven of Nine, Tom, Chakotay, and a few others who just wanted to say hello.

Today, however, Neelix was the bearer of bad news – or at the very least rumors of an alarming nature – and he struggled to hide his anxiety when he pulled his adoptive son closer against his side. He turned to the console once again and pressed the button to reopen the transmission.

"I know this probably all sounds a bit ridiculous to you all, especially you Mr. Vulcan, and you as well Captain Janeway – well, I guess it's Admiral, now. But I have good reasons to believe that the strange threat I've heard about today, this… thing… that seems to be coming our way – and eventually your way, is the same that frightened my people so long ago; scared them so much it was recorded into fables like the one I just told you about. At first I thought it was just a plasma drift – I've seen them before in the Talaxian system – and I'd always thought that this legend originated from such phenomena, but… The description of my informant – a great, fast-moving dark cloud that absorbs light instead of merely hiding it – is too particularly similar to the stories to be a coincidence. It's hard to tell if or when it will be here, I don't know how fast it travels, or if it'll even travel far enough to reach you in the Alpha Quadrant. But, considering the nature of B'Elanna's research, I figured I would try to reach out, and warn you if I could. As you know these last few months I've been following B'Elanna's instructions on constructing the device and assembling the necessary materials for an eventual test run." He paused, glancing briefly at his adoptive son's head. "We're safe for now. But I hope – if you get this message – that you'll be willing to test it out, and maybe in doing so transport us out of the path of this…darkness. That is, if you're willing to have a bunch of Delta Quadrant refugees on your doorstep," Neelix added with a small chuckle, a poor attempt at lightening up the mood of his message, before he sobered and gave a sigh. "I hope you get this message soon. We'll be waiting to hear back from you." He paused again, squeezing Brax harder against his chest. "Whatever happens, I wish you all the best, my friends."

Neelix cut the transmission quietly.

"Will they be able to help us?" Brax asked after a moment, his voice muffled by Neelix's chest.

"Of course they will be!" he reassured, hoping Brax couldn't hear the doubt in his voice. "I've never met people more clever or determined than those Terrans! Admiral Janeway won't give up on us, and neither will the others! And my friend Seven, she was Borg once, you know, she has all the knowledge of the Collective in her mind, I'm sure she'll be eager to help. Now, it's our job to make sure the device is assembled properly, right down to the minute details of B'Elanna's instructions," he added, infusing enthusiasm and determination in his tone as he patted Brax's back and gently pushed him away to stand.

"Do you really think it'll work?"

"The Neutrino Entraptor? Of course it will. And if I know my friends, it's going to take us to our new home. They call it Earth."

oooOooo

You're getting another chapter today, just to get the ball really rolling here…