It was a fairly normal day aboard Voyager, well, as normal as you can get while being on the other side of the galaxy and in the middle of a hostile territory.
Luckily, they were out of Borg space, or any other enemy space for that matter.
Actually it's been a week since anything big happened. That usually meant that something was going to happen soon; as in, something dangerous. At least that's what Captain Janeway felt. She had a gut feeling that something big is happening and she didn't like it.
She had already increased security a bit, told Seven to keep an eye out for anything strange and shared her apprehension with Commander Chakotay. That was all she could do about it now.
She was now in her office, reading the various reports that were a part of her job. Security reports, personnel reports and other, she was currently reading a report from Seven of Nine about her new quarters, she had decided on giving her a private room, seeing how she needed less and less regeneration and more sleep.
Her cup was empty; not a problem.
A short walk to the replicator later she was walking to her desk and... ended up in the shuttle bay.
All around her she could see people appearing in white flashes of light. Q.
In a few seconds the entire crew was there, including Doctor, Naomi Wildman and others. The exits were blocked, and the senior officers gathered together to debate the situation. The transporters were not responding and the only way out that they hadn't tried was brute force.
"Omnipotent or not, this is my ship and I will not be locked away in it!" the captain yelled, nodding to Tuvok.
"Prepare phasers." Tuvok ordered a few of the members of the security team that were getting ready to cut their way through to freedom.
"Now wait just a moment." Someone voiced from the top of the shuttle nearby. It was a man in his thirties, dressed in an old-fashioned formal suit with a top-hat and a monocle. All heads turned towards him.
"And before you can start asking questions, yes I am Q and no I am not that Q." there was a hint of hatred in his voice when he referred to the other member of the continuum.
"And you are here because?" Captain Janeway asked, the feeling in her gut growing stronger.
"Ah, I am here, because I was feeling quite generous and decided to tell you about what is going to happen to you soon." That got quite a few questioning looks, the man just smirked at the idiocy of the pitiful race.
"You are the ones responsible for stopping the Continuum War... that war was my... endeavour. You have meddled in matters far beyond you and I have decided to intervene." Q started pacing across the shuttle now, slowly waving around the black cane he had in his right hand.
"I had watched from a distance at first, looking for a way to punish you... Pushing you away from your home planet would not be enough, putting you in a different galaxy would not be enough, just destroying you was too simple..." He silenced the crowd with a raised hand before they could protest and stood in front of them all.
"So I came to a solution, something that could not be undone, something that will crush your minds and possibly even bodies..." he smiled creepily, Tom absently noted that he had the look of an old-fashioned megalomaniac.
"What are you talking about!?" the Captain asked, this was not going well; true, they did interfere a bit too much into Q matters, then again, what other choice was there? They could not just abandon their duties, their morals and their responsibilities. Thankfully another flash of light appeared in another part of the room, revealing the familiar Q, the crew was never happier to see him.
"Q! What are you doing here?" the newcomer asked, visibly tense.
"Oh, nothing much..." with a wave of his cane the 'good Q' was gone just as fast as he came on board. A sense of dread fell onto the crew.
"Now then, you have about 5 minutes before it begins, I shall be postponing any Q stupid enough to interfere." he turned and began to leave before a yell stopped him.
"Wait! What's going to happen?!" Chakotay was the one to ask, the good Captain was still silent, trying to think of a way to make things better through talking or find a way to reason with Q.
"Oh, I'm sending you to a different universe." he said to them as if he was talking about an everyday occurrence.
"What?" The Captain asked. Q didn't even look at her, instead he smiled and started talking.
"You might appear in a universe where Earth doesn't even exist, maybe a place even further away from it? Maybe you will appear in between two galaxies, the empty space; maybe in a young universe where there aren't even any planets around. Then again you might appear inside a star or next to a black hole... not even I can make an accurate guess." People wanted to shout, some wanted to cry and some wanted to beg, before they could his smile widened and he said one final thing before leaving.
"...4 minutes, enjoy the trip." with a short wave he was gone and chaos started. Captain looked at the people around, some yelling, some looking like they had no hope left in them... she remembered the many times she saw those looks on some of her crew, now everyone had them. Then she remembered that it was her that made all that desperation and hopelessness leave, through her actions she helped them many times; now was no the time to give up.
"Battle stations!"
"Computer, direct transport of all senior staff to the bridge." In seconds, they were all there and taking their places in a silent hurry. There was no time for questions now. The Captain started giving orders as soon as she could.
"Red Alert! Shields and weapon systems! All sensors to maximum range!"
"Captain, unknown particles are converging on our position." Seven said from her console on the left side of the bridge.
"Full impulse, try and outmanoeuvre them." Tom just nodded, punching in commands with terrifying speed.
"They're gaining on us, we're not fast enough." Chakotay said from his own place right next to the Captain.
"Maximum warp!" She answered without pause and Tom complied once again.
"We are still not fast enough captain, the particles are latching onto the hull and coating it." Tuvok said from his console, those that knew him well recognized the slight change in his tone, if he had access to his emotions, he would be using them right now.
"Seven, is there some kind of energy pulse we can use to get rid of them?"
"Unknown, if we try it is possible that it will make things worse." Seven didn't even turn to answer, she had been working to find a solution but with no success.
"Captain, our warp field is failing, we're dropping out of warp!"
The Star-fleet had two rules concerning the Q, the first and the more important one was to try and avoid any dealings with them, the second one was that if dealing with Q was necessary not provoking them was the main objective. Everyone knew that it was a blessing in disguise that the Q like mind games so much, a human can win like that. However, not even all the fleets combined can stand in the way of a single Q if it decides to be forceful. Q was gone, there was only one thing they could do, try and hold out while the continuum settles this since it looked like a single rogue was behind this.
"Damn it... suggestions?!" Aside from the hurried tones of command input there was no sound. No one had any ideas about their predicament. The ship shook slightly and the stars on the screen disappeared completely.
"Report!"
"All systems are experiencing power loss, warp core is intact." to prove the truth in his statement, the lights on the bridge started dimming, everyone kept working on their consoles.
"The area seems to be saturated with a negative gravity field, the particles coating the hull are making the ship immune to the pulling forces from all around." Seven said from her console, still making
"Shields?"
"Losing power quickly."
"Captain we are receiving a transmission from... unknown sources, audio only." Harry said, speaking for the first time.
"Play it." It was the 'good Q'
"Kathryn, I did what I could but there wasn't enough time. He won't be doing anything like that ever again I can assure you of that. Your sense of time must be all warped, it's been a whole Earth day since you left... I can't bring you back. No one can. I'm... sorry, but even if you manage to find a way back I'll have to stop you from appearing here, it will destroy this universe. I don't know where you'll end up now, only piece of advice I can give you is that you try and ...adapt, I bet Seven likes that one. Good luck Kathy, I'll notify the Star-fleet personally... goodbye."
"Admiral Hackett, sir. The anomaly is changing."
"Report!"
"The emissions are deteriorating, it seems to be regressing in scale."
"What could that mean?"
"It could be falling apart or it could be... preparing to explode all of its energy outwards."
"How long?"
"Admiral, there is a transmission incoming from inside the anomaly."
"What is it?"
"It's an audio message, playing it now."
"Kathryn, I did what I could but - wasn't enough time. - won't be doing anything like that - again I can assure you -. Your sense of time must be all warped, it's been a - day since you left... I can't bring you back. No one can. I'm... sorry, but even if you - find a way back I'll have to stop you from appearing here, it will destroy this universe. I don't know where you'll end up now, only - advice I can give you is that you try and ...adapt, I bet Seven likes that one. Good luck Kathy, - goodbye."
"Admiral, the energy signature of the anomaly is rapidly decreasing."
"Order the rest of the fleet to increase distance from the anomaly."
"Aye sir."
Picard was on the bridge, oh how he enjoyed these quiet moments. A somewhat interesting planet with a young species that is unaware of them. No hostility. He almost smiled realizing that this means he was getting old.
The ghost of a smile left his face in an instant, a symptom of a sudden appearance of Q in the middle of his bridge.
"Q!"
"Before you start your pointless babble, I am only here to pass a message from a good friend of mine."
Picard silenced himself, seeing that Q didn't have that smug smile meant something serious.
"That wasn't so hard, was it? Now, this is a notice to the entire Federation, Voyager will not be coming home." Q did not seem happy with that fact, that alone, was almost enough to make Picard declare a yellow alert.
"What do you mean?"
"There was a... Q that didn't agree with the continuum and he was able to send Kathy and her crew away... you will not be seeing them again, sadly I can do nothing about it."
"Kathy?" Riker asked, wondering if this was how he referred to Captain Janeway.
"Oh, yes, if only she had accepted my offer to have a child with me, I would have sent her home that instant."
"What?!" Picard realised that he wouldn't be able to regain his inner peace any time soon.
"I am needed elsewhere now, mon capitaine, until next time." And so he left.
Captain Kathryn Janeway had two goals once she ended up in the delta quadrant with her ship, 'keep them alive' & 'get them home'. Right now they were not home, they were far, far away from home, so far, that it was impossible to go back. That was what Q said, and the way he had said it, the tone he used, she had no reason to think it was a lie.
Her rules saved her, if it wasn't for those two simple rules, she would have broken down a long time ago, having lives depend on you can do that to a person.
They were not coming home, that was true. However, they were alive, and she would keep them that way no matter what.
"Progress?" She asked Seven. It has been only a few minutes since the message, all systems were losing power yet there was no damage being done to them directly.
"It would seem that the particles are draining our power conduits in order to propel us. Shutting down systems would preserve the power conduits, however, shutting down all of them may leave us stranded." Seven turned, waiting for further instructions.
"Shut down all backup systems, prepare to shut down short range sensors and life-support, can you optimize the shields to hold for longer?"
"We are slowly losing the particles that are coating the ship, I can modify the shielding to increase their longevity."
"Do it."
"Captain, why shut down sensors and life support?" Chakotay asked, looking up from his console. Shutting down life-support wouldn't make a lot of difference now, but if it stayed offline for a long time, it would have a bad effect on the crew.
"No matter where we end up, we'll need those two the most, I can't afford to shut down shields but we will need life support and sensors first, we can repair the rest fairly quickly." Chakotay left it at that and turned back to the main display to look at the blank space.
Captain Janeway tapped a few commands in on her console.
"This is the captain speaking, I'm afraid that... I have some bad news. We have received a message from Q recently, ensign, play the message."
The message played and the crew listened. The last pieces of hope left them and the Captain could almost feel it. Once the message ended she spoke again.
"I cannot promise you a life better than what you had back in the alpha quadrant. We have lost our home, we have lost our families and we have lost our friends. But we are still alive. We will make a new home, we will be family to each other, we will be friends to each other. I wanted to do only two things, keep my crew alive and get them home, I may have lost one but I refuse to give up the other. We will live through this!"
The crew was slightly better, it was far from good, but there was still a chance, some kind of hope that would not leave this time. The bridge was also less tense than before.
"Captain, if time is flowing at a constant speed in this... void, then it has been approximately one month since we have left our universe." No one answered that, there was no need to answer.
Admiral Hackett was on his own bridge, the scientists have said that if anything is going to happen it should happen in only a few minutes, next to him were the representatives of all other Citadel races together with a Quarian, they requested to be present since it was quite interesting and Hackett agreed because the anomaly was dangerously close to Earth. Everything was a possible threat and a Quarian engineer was always a good help.
"Admiral Hackett, sir, the readings are changing again it's contracting."
The Salarian was constantly rushing around the bridge, looking at various readings while the Turian was organizing the ship placements of his fleet. The Quarian managed to stay next to the Admiral on one side while the Asari was on the other side.
The message that was received was classified but was shared with the Citadel and the ones on the bridge right now, the general agreement was that this was a 'door' to a different universe and that someone named Kathryn was coming through.
The Citadel considered this a diplomatic mission, he thought it was more like defence.
It started.
The anomaly itself looked a lot like a black hole; other than the inverted gravity field that is... no ships or probes can approach it to try and enter.
Right now it was getting smaller and smaller.
Just as it was about to disappear completely, a ship passed through it, it was a fairly big ship, not as big as a dreadnought, but then again, not many things were. It was also a ship with no light in it.
Everyone who had a console to work on did so, leaving the representatives of the Citadel races (together with the Quarian) to look at the ship. While it was big and impressive, it didn't look like a warship, that was a relief.
"Report!" Janeway yelled after the second tremor. The screen had stars now, together with many dots that looked a lot like warships.
"Short range sensors are online, life-support online, all backup systems are online, non-essential systems are under repairs right now, and should all be operational in about 10-15 minutes. Shields are at 5% and increasing. Warp core is intact and operating at full capacity. Weapon systems will be available in 3 minutes."
"Comm systems?"
"Almost there captain, a few more minutes."
"Seven, sensors?"
"The astrometrics lab is cross-referencing the star-charts, some of the older charts are a match, we are currently in... the Earth's Solar System." This time, even the various beeps from the consoles were gone, everyone had stopped.
"What? Are you sure?"
"Certain, M-class planet, third from the star, the continents are a match. The star and all other planets are a match to what I can see in the database about the Solar system. However, I am unable to locate any other known star systems, "
It took a little while but they managed to remember the fact that it was indeed a different universe, that also meant that it was a different Earth. But the fact that there is an Earth was a relief to most.
"What about the ships?" Janeway asked.
"Sensors are detecting 94 ships in total, half-a-dozen different kinds of lifeforms, most of them human." Harry said from his console.
"Threat level?"
"Kinetic weapons, shields and unknown energy fields on most of the ships." Tuvok said.
"Notify the crew about the current events, Chakotay."
"Captain, from the position of the Solar System we are in the late 22nd century." Seven added to her report.
"One of the ships is approaching slowly Captain, its weapons are currently offline."
"What is the status of our comm systems?"
"Ready."
"Hail them, audio only."
"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager speaking. Please identify yourself."
"This is Admiral Steven Hackett, commander of the Fifth Fleet of the Alliance Navy; requesting permission to board via shuttle-craft."
"Permission granted."
"Chakotay, you have the bridge, Tuvok, Harry, you're with me, send 2 additional security members to the shuttle bay and prepare the briefing room for our guests."
"Aye, Captain."
Janeway stood and left with Tuvok and Harry towards the turbo-lift while Chakotay took the Captains chair and continued with overseeing the repairs and sending the summary of events to all crew quarters and workstations.
On the walk to the shuttle bay, Tuvok was discussing possible security measures that might become necessary.
"The kinetic armaments on their vessels are somewhat primitive but highly effective, if my calculations are correct, it would not be able to do much against our shielding but our hull would not be able handle the power. Aside from that, one of the larger vessels seems to be a carrier, something I confirmed seeing the number of small one-person craft around."
"Fighter craft, a highly dangerous tactic, especially considering their numbers. Let's try not to make any enemies today, gentlemen."
With that they entered the shuttle bay to meet with two security members that were requested.
A few minutes later the shuttle arrived, it was a strange design, coloured white and blue. It landed and the doors opened.
First people out of the shuttle were two fully armed soldiers, armour, rifles, helmets and masks. Next were a human and four humanoid species. After them, another two soldiers exited the craft.
Two of the soldiers stayed behind, guarding the shuttle, while the rest walked forward.
"Welcome aboard Voyager, Admiral Hackett I presume?"
"Yes, Captain Janeway; these are the representatives of some of the Citadel races."
The introductions were simple and quick, Asari, Turian, Salarian and Quarian representatives gave their names and Janeway struggled a bit to remember them, that was one of the harder jobs of a diplomat. She introduced herself again, this time with Tuvok and Harry and their positions on the bridge.
She invited them to join her in the Briefing room, acting as if this was a regular first contact was... hard for her. Mostly because of the fact that there are actual humans around, with an actual Earth circling the real Sun not very far away.
Their first destination was the turbo-lift, and the first one to speak was the Salarian who, despite the fact that it was cramped, managed to move around.
"Deck 1." Janeway said, as the doors closed, making the turbo-lift start moving.
"Interesting, a high-speed elevator of sorts, how fast does it go?" He asked Tuvok, who was closest to him.
"10 meters per second is the designated safe speed"
"That fast? There should be a lot more force on us now."
"Internal inertial dampeners are removing most of those effects, making the turbo-lift use more comfortable."
"Interesting."
Before he could ask even more questions the door opened and they exited to find themselves on the bridge.
"Captain on the Bridge." Chakotay stood and showed respect to the captain, the rest of the crew did the same.
"At ease, this way please." She motioned towards the briefing room and walked in front of them.
Once inside, she dismissed Harry and they all took a seat; the guards standing behind them, backs to the wall.
"Now, I'm sure you all have a lot of questions, just like us; first, can I offer you some kind of refreshment?"
"No thank you, Captain, I believe we should start with those questions you mentioned." the Asari, Mirro, asked, "Are you really from an alternate universe?" The Salarian continued.
Private Audio Log, Kathryn Janeway.
There are still things I can't believe, despite everything I've witnessed.
I can't believe that it's been six months already, I can't believe that they accepted us so easily, I can't believe that they even managed to keep it a secret.
I'm not supposed to talk about it, of course. No one is supposed to.
Tomorrow is the day, I'm going to be the Captain of the SSV Voyager (again), it's been retrofitted, re-equipped and repainted. I'm glad that the crew decided to stay on board, I gave them all a choice to stay behind on Earth. Every last one of them wants to be on Voyager.
Last time I was on board... I saw that they changed the crew cabins. Now they're more 'cramped', or as they would call it, 'in the Alliance style'.
Almost 250 people will be under my command now, at least we shouldn't be fighting anyone.
Warp technology will need years of research, and probably decades until it becomes feasible. Same with the phasers and deflector shielding.
I have to get ready, tomorrow is the day we swear allegiance to the Alliance Navy; I never thought I would be saying something like that; Q was right, adapting is the way to go now.
On a different note, I really like the uniforms.