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Star Trek: Voyager
An Alternate Journey 01: Time of Mystery
10 July 2374
Deep Space, in a region of the Delta Quadrant
The USS Voyager was travelling at Warp 7, on a course towards the distant Federation.
In the Astrometrics lab Seven-of-Nine was scanning the region of space that Voyager was travelling through.
A sensor alert flashed up onto the main screen. Seven looked at it and brought up the information that the sensor computers had downloaded into the Astrometrics system. She was intrigued by what she found. She decided that it was something she needed to bring to the Captain's attention.
All was normal on the bridge when Seven signalled. "Astrometrics to Bridge."
"Report," Kathryn Janeway said from where she sat in the command chair. She wondered what Seven was reporting.
"Astrometrics sensors have detected a phenomenon most likely to be a wormhole 1.56 light years away."
That piqued Janeway's interest. "I'll be right there, Seven. Mr. Paris, set course for the phenomenon."
"Aye, Captain," Tom Paris responded from the helm station. "Course laid in, Captain."
"Engage."
"We're on our way." Voyager changed direction and headed in the direction of the phenomenon that Seven had detected.
The Captain stood. "You have the bridge, Chakotay," she ordered as she headed towards the turbolift.
"Confirmed," Chakotay, replied.. "Continue scanning."
As she rode in the turbolift, Janeway continued to wonder what Seven's discovery could be.
Less than five minutes after Seven's call, Janeway entered Astrometrics. "What do the sensors say, Seven?" she asked.
Seven was examining the data on the main screen. Besides a topographical map of the space near the anomaly, the words Einstein-Rosen Bridge were prominent. "It is certainly a wormhole, but I haven't been able to determine whether it leads to any region of the Alpha Quadrant proximate to Federation space," she said.
"Keep up the scans, Seven," Janeway said. She hoped that the wormhole did lead to Federation space, or at least would bring Voyager a lot closer to home.
"Yes, Captain," Seven said.
Janeway tapped her commbadge. "Janeway to Bridge."
"Bridge here," Chakotay said.
"Increase speed to Warp 9.2. We need to get to the wormhole so we can determine whether it leads to the Alpha Quadrant.
"Affirmative," Chakotay said.
"Janeway out."
"Captain, according to my calculations, we'll arrive shortly before it collapses," Seven said, emphasising the word collapse.
"Noted."
"My calculations may be off, we could be crushed if it collapses while we are traversing it!" Seven said.
"We'll be sending a probe through first," Janeway said. She didn't want to risk going through it without taking that precaution.
"Acknowledged."
"I'll be on the bridge."
As Janeway left the room she didn't hear the discussion going on among the other crewmembers on duty there.
Fifteen minutes later Jenny Delaney and her sister, Megan, entered the Mess Hall. "You seem rather happy today," said Voyager's Chef, Neelix.
"Seven has discovered a wormhole. We're on our way there," Jenny said.
"That's good news," Neelix said.
Both twins smiled.
"But don't spread it too much. we don't want to raise false hopes, do we?" Neelix asked.
"Maybe," Jenny said.
"Of course not, but what if it is our way home?" Megan asked.
"Just wait and see," Neelix said.
"Maybe," Megan said.
Fifteen minutes later. "Is it true that we approaching a wormhole?" Crewperson Billy Telfer asked.
"Apparently we are, according to the Delaney sisters," Neelix said, as he paused in his preparation of a Leola Root Stew.
"So, we may finally be going home?" Billy asked.
"Now, don't jump to conclusions, we don't want to raise false hopes, do we?" Neelix asked, repeating his earlier admonition to the Delaneys.
Telfer thought for a moment. "Of course not," he said.
"We will just have to wait and see," Neelix said.
"Certainly," Billy said.
The rumours continued to spread through the ship, mostly by word of mouth, but also via its onboard information networks.
Half an hour later, Voyager dropped out of warp near the wormhole.
"Report," Janeway said.
"Scanning, Captain," Harry Kim said. "It is collapsing!" he said with annoyance.
"How large is it?"Janeway said.
"A radius of 40 metres, Captain." What he didn't say was that whilst it was too small for Voyager, it was still large enough for their shuttlecraft, and Neelix's ship. "I'm also detecting a small vessel proximate to the entrance," Kim said.
"Interesting," Chakotay said.
"Prepare to launch a probe," Janeway said.
"Yes, Captain," Kim said.
"Astrometrics to the Bridge," Seven said.
"Report, Seven."
"It certainly is a wormhole, Captain. However, I am unable to determine the status of the other end," Seven said.
"The rate of collapse is accelerating, Captain!" Kim said.
"Confirmed," Seven said.
Then the wormhole collapsed.
"The wormhole has collapsed, Captain," Harry Kim said, disappointment showing in his voice.
"Maybe that vessel can tell us something about it. Run a scan on it, Harry," Janeway said.
"Aye, Captain," Harry said. The scan results came back moments later. "There are two human life signs. They are unconscious. The ship itself has no warp engines, or any other recognisable FTL technology."
"Interesting," Janeway said.
"Then the wormhole must have opened in a system," Paris said.
"Not necessarily," Chakotay said.
"Beam the two humans to sickbay and tractor the vessel into our shuttlebay," Janeway said.
"Aye, Captain," Kim said.
Voyager tractored the vessel into their shuttlebay.
The Emergency Medical Hologram was scanning the two humans as Janeway entered Sickbay.
"Report, Doctor," Janeway said.
"They are both healthy, although the level of pollutants in their systems suggest that they're both from the end of the 20th century."
"Fascinating," Janeway said. She wondered how two humans from the 20th century could have gained a hold of the ship that was now in Voyager's shuttlebay.
"They are simply asleep," the Doctor said.
"Can you wake them?" Janeway asked.
"Certainly," the Doctor said.
"Do so," Janeway said. The Doctor then used a hypospray to inject a stimulant into the sleeping patients.
They began to stir...
"Where am I?" the male asked as he stretched after waking. He saw his companion. "I mean, where are we?"
"You're on the Federation Starship Voyager," Janeway said, deciding not to hold that information back.
The male patient looked confused.
The female was now fully awake. "Could you tell us more about our situation than just about this 'Starship'?" the female asked, with cynicism in her voice.
"That's a good point,' the Doctor said acerbically.
"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway. We found you in a ship after we detected a wormhole."
"And?" the male prompted.
"We were looking for a wormhole because this ship is trapped on the other side of the galaxy 60 thousand light years and many decades travel time away from our homes," Janeway said in a hopeful tone.
"The Federation?" the female asked.
"The year is 2374, the Federation is a large interstellar polity that includes Earth," Janeway said.
The male turned to his companion. "Something must have gone wrong with the wormhole after we entered it."
"You think! We have ended up hundreds of years into the future, and thousands of light years away from our target!" the female said.
"Something has definitely gone wrong with the wormhole!" the male said, sounding slightly dejected.
"May I ask what two young adults from late 20th Century Earth doing with a ship that is centuries beyond the level of technology of that time?" Janeway asked.
"You have the ship. You can check the database. You will soon find out about how we came upon the ship!" the female said forcefully.
"Kathleen! You don't have to be so rude to the Captain! However, it is a long story, so we will elaborate after you have checked the ship's database," the male said.
"We will check the ship's database, but we still don't know your names," Janeway said.
"Daniel Howarth."
"Kathleen Collins."
"For two people from the turn of the millennium, you have a remarkably clean bill of health, despite some allergies. You can leave sickbay once the Captain gives you permission," the Doctor said.
"You can help us with locating the database aboard the ship, Mr. Howarth and Ms. Collins," Janeway said.
"Certainly, Captain," Daniel said.
"I agree," Kathleen said reluctantly.
"Then come with me," Janeway directed.
"We're going now?" Daniel asked.
"Yes," Janeway said.
"Good. I'd be bored if I stayed in this sickbay any longer," Kathleen said.
The Doctor sighed, remembering the incident when Neelix had to stay in sickbay for an extended period of time.
Daniel and Kathleen looked around in awe at the corridor as they exited sickbay. "So the sickbay isn't near the shuttlebay?" Daniel asked.
"It's not even on the same deck," Janeway replied.
B'Elanna Torres entered the shuttlebay, and looked at the ship that the two mysterious humans had appeared in.
She was disappointed that it looked very primitive. 'But I suppose that looks are in the eye of the beholder,' she thought.
She went over to it and started scanning it with her tricorder.
Running an errand for her superior officer, Ensign Katelyn Hawkins saw Janeway come out of a turbolift, with two unfamiliar humans. "So they are those people who came out of that ship?" she wondered.
About three minutes later, Janeway and Seven of Nine entered the shuttlebay with the two 20th century humans in tow.
"A big shuttle bay," Daniel murmured.
"Report, B'Elanna," the Captain said.
"Most of the technology is roughly on par with the Federation, Captain, albeit without any recognisable FTL technology."
The captain walked up to the open port hatch. "After you," she said to Daniel.
"Certainly," Daniel said.
Daniel lead the Captain, Seven of Nine and the Engineer into the ship, with Kathleen bringing up the rear.
He lead them to the small cockpit first. He input the sequence to power up the vessel. "Odd," he said.
"What's odd?" the Captain said.
"It is very low on power. There isn't enough energy stored to create wormholes," he said, reading the display.
"We wouldn't have been able to get home anyway, after the mistake we happened to make!" Kathleen said.
"Unfortunately, yes, Kathleen! However the computer system is fully functional. All data is available," Daniel said.
"B'Elanna," the Captain said, talking to the Engineer.
"Right on it, Captain," The engineer said, as she brought her scanning device to bear. She quickly began to download the data.
Seven of Nine looked around at the cockpit. "I believe I recognise the origin of this vessel, Captain," she said.
"You do?" the Captain asked.
"Species 4273, Ixazeroan, occasionally encountered from the early 24th Century onwards. Strange, their vessels did possess warp drive systems much like those elsewhere. Many vessels also possessed short range wormhole generators."
"All assimilated?" the captain asked.
"No, Captain, their polity still exists. It is low on the Collective's list of targets."
"I see," the captain said.
"Short range, you say, Seven?" Daniel asked.
"Yes."
"That may be the reason why Kathleen and I are here, we tried to get to Ixazeroa directly from Earth."
"That would certainly explain the malfunction that brought you here. It was reckless!" Seven said.
"I know, now," Daniel said, his voice low.
"You have all the data, B'Elanna?"
"Yes, Captain."
Janeway turned to Daniel. "How did you and Ms. Collins get your hands on this vessel?"
Daniel sat in the pilot's seat. "It is a long story, Captain."
"The logs are transferred to your PADD, Captain," B'Elanna said. She lifted the PADD in question.
"Examine the ship's systems, specifically the wormhole generators. Assist her, Seven," Janeway said.
"Yes, Captain," B'Elanna said as she left the Captain. Seven said nothing as she followed her.
"It began one night in our second year of University," Daniel began.
29 July 1999
Near Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
To the east of Armidale, an old Nissan Pulsar was approaching that city after having left Coffs Harbour a few hours before.
Kathleen Collins was looking forward to visiting her friend, Daniel Howarth, at the University of New England.
Suddenly she saw a shooting star just over the light pollution sent up by Armidale's streetlights to the west. "What the heck?" It was rather bright. She didn't know what it was, although she had her suspicions. She sped up to 110 km/hr, despite the limit being 100 km/hr...
Fifteen minutes later, Kathleen parked the car out front of Mary White College, the northernmost college of the University, where Daniel resided.
She got out of the car and looked around. She saw a red glow emanating from the sports fields towards the creek in the opposite direction from the College. 'What the hell is that?' she thought.
She decided to go into the College anyway. She ran into Daniel as he exited the College from the entrance next to the College office. "Hi, Kathleen, I'm about to investigate the crash that happened a quarter of an hour ago," he said.
"So that was it," Kathleen said.
"Huh?"
"I saw a shooting star over Armidale around that time."
"You did?"
"Yes."
Daniel and Kathleen crossed the road leading to the Sports Union and stepped onto the bike path leading to the other colleges, which lay half a kilometre away on the other side of the creek.
Immediately they saw a small ship lying at the bottom of a crater two thirds of the way towards the creek. The grass surrounding the crater was alight and there was a crowd of students along the path and outside the Sports Union.
"Looks like some kind of secret or alien ship has crashed there," Daniel said.
"Definitely," Kathleen said.
"I would like a closer look," Daniel said.
"So would I, but we would have to get through that crowd," Kathleen said.
Daniel looked at the crowd. "That's a good point." He decided to try anyway, he started walking down the hill.
Kathleen sighed and followed him. 'This isn't going to be easy,' she thought.
As they came closer they saw overheard many of their fellow students speculating about the nature of the craft...
When they came up to the ship, they saw that there was already a police presence. They came up to one of the officers present. "Nothing can be explained at present," the officer said, sounding like he had said it many times before.
"I'll ask someone else," Daniel said. The officer merely nodded in response to Daniel's musing.
Daniel turned away from the police and saw one of his College friends nearby. He pointed her out to Kathleen. "You think she'll know more?" she asked.
"Possibly," Daniel replied.
"Emily," Daniel said as he approached his friend.
"Hi, Daniel? I knew you would be interested in this," Emily Davidson said.
"Of course," Daniel said. He indicated Kathleen. "My high school friend, Kathleen Collins."
"You want to know if I know about the crash?" Emily asked, seeing the inquisitive look on Daniel's face.
Present – Voyager
Captain Janeway interrupted. "Could you skip to later when you actually got aboard the ship?" she asked.
"Possibly, but it would be easier to do it in a briefing room, rather than the confines of this ship," Daniel said.
Janeway gave that some thought. "Agreed," she finally said.
"Good," Daniel said, he lead the way out of the ship. Janeway instructed Seven and B'Elanna to continue their investigation of the ship, and for Kathleen to accompany them.
Five minutes later, the Captain and the two guests entered the Observation Lounge. "How big is this ship anyway?" Kathleen asked.
"345 meters long, 15 decks," Captain Janeway said.
"That's larger than most sea-going vessels of our era," Kathleen said. 'It's absolutely gigantic. They must have a lot of experience with building ships in space.
"But one of the medium sized classes of Starfleet ships," Janeway said.
"Even larger?" Kathleen asked, shaking her head. 'Unbelievable!'
"There were plans for a class of ship over 700 meters long when Voyager left the Alpha Quadrant. Some of those vessels may have been built by now," Janeway said.
"Cool," Daniel said.
"You may continue, Mr. Howarth, from where you first gained access to the ship," the Captain said.
"Ok, Captain..." Daniel began.
31 July 1999
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
Daniel heard a knock on his college room door. He opened the door, to find his friend, James McCallam, dressed in his Army Reserve uniform. 'He's here about something. I guess it's about the ship,' he thought.
"Daniel, you said you wanted to see that ship?" James asked all business.
"Yes," Daniel said warily.
"The higher ups have said that you can have a look at it," James said.
"Really? What about Kathleen?"
"She will join us. She's waiting in the Computer Room."
"Ok, let's go," Daniel said.
Kathleen joined Daniel and James as they exited the college via the door near the office.
"What do you think we'll find?" Kathleen asked.
James put his hand up. "Let's not talk about it until we get down there," he said. "Talk about something else."
"Sure," Kathleen said.
"Of course," Daniel said. He and Kathleen talked about the weather as they walked with James towards the ship.
Fifteen minutes later, James escorted Daniel and Kathleen through the security perimeter set up around the ship.
"It looks smaller than I expected," Daniel said.
"It measures 18 metres long, with a width of 8.5 metres. It also has a height of 5 metres," James said.
"Still rather large, bigger than a bus," Daniel said.
"Still, it's rather smaller than a DY-100, Daniel," Kathleen said.
"And slightly smaller than one of NASA's shuttles," Daniel said.
"Let's have a look," Kathleen said.
"Follow me," James said.
They followed James to the port side of the ship, where there was a hatch. "It has been examined already, right," Kathleen said.
"Yes, there are no traps," James said.
"Why doesn't that reassure me," Kathleen said.
"Don't worry, Kathleen," Daniel said as he entered.
"I'm not worried," Kathleen said, as she entered.
James followed them.
The two young adults entered the cockpit. "Wow," Daniel said, taking in the sight of all the instrumentation.
"You can say that again," Kathleen said.
Present – Voyager
"And so Kathleen and I saw the ship for the first time," Daniel said.
"It's all rather interesting, Mr. Howarth, but why did you get into the ship and try to get to its world of origin?" Janeway asked.
"We wanted to call off the invasion. The Ixazeroans had landed a small paramilitary force and were attempting to gain control of Armidale. Kathleen and I decided to take the ship and go to the homeworld to get their government to stop," Daniel said.
"I see, tell me," Janeway said.
"Sure," Daniel said.
8 August 1999
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
Kathleen and Daniel ran towards the ship. "Hurry!" James called back to them from behind them. He held his rifle at the ready, ready to fire at the alien persuers.
"We're almost there!" Kathleen said.
"Keep going!" James ordered. He saw an alien on its hoverboard. He pulled the trigger...
Daniel saw the alien lose control and crash. 'Not much time!' he thought. He pulled Kathleen across the last metre into the hatch.
Present – Voyager
In the shuttlebay, B'Elanna and Ensign Vorik were attempting to charge the ship. "Adjust the phase converters, again," B'Elanna said.
"Yes, Ma'am," Vorik said. He adjusted the phase converters. Then B'Elanna tried again. But it failed again, with more sparks flying out.
"Dammit!" B'Elanna cried out.
"Lieutenant? Vorik asked.
"This ship is not compatible with Voyager's systems!" B'Elanna said.
"We could try to charge it from the Baxial," Vorik said.
The half Klingon engineer glared at the Vulcan. "Good luck getting Neelix's permission for that."
"You could ask him yourself, Lieutenant."
"I guess I have to."
Five minutes later, B'Elanna entered the Mess Hall. She quickly found Neelix. "Neelix, I need to ask you a favour," she said.
"Anything," Neelix said.
"You know that we have picked up a ship that came through that wormhole, right?" B'Elanna asked.
"Yes."
"Well, it is without power, and we cannot charge it from Voyager," B'Elanna said.
Neelix guessed it. "So you want to charge it from the Baxial?"
"Yes."
"I'll be right there."
B'Elanna and Neelix entered the main shuttlebay. Neelix went to the auxiliary shuttlebay to bring the Baxial out of storage. Seven emerged from the Ixazeroan vessel. "Let me guess, you couldn't charge it either?" B'Elanna said.
"Correct, it's completely incompatible with Federation power systems. I doubt it would work with Telaxian systems either."
"I'm going to give it a try, Seven."
Seven raised an eyebrow. "I'm stating my opinion."
"Noted!"
Janeway had read B'Elanna's report. "So you're saying that we cannot charge it from Voyager or Neelix's ship."
"Exactly, Captain."
"So we're still in the same position we were when we detected the wormhole this morning," Janeway stated.
"I agree," Chakotay said.
"However, there is an alternative," Daniel said.
"Which is?" Tom asked.
"We set a course to the Ixazeroan homeworld. We have the coordinates, so we can get there," Daniel said.
"That would add nine years to our journey!" B'Elanna objected.
"That doesn't seem so much compared to the 60 years that it would take from this position," Daniel said.
"That's not the point," B'Elanna said.
"B'Elanna, it's worth the extra time if we're to get a chance of accessing the wormhole technology of the Ixazeroans," Harry Kim said.
"Right," B'Elanna said.
"Obviously this is a contentious issue, so I have decided to think about it overnight," Janeway said.
"Are you sure, Captain?" B'Elanna said.
"Yes, Lieutenant."
Daniel and Kathleen emerged from the observation lounge into the rear corridor. It was still rather overwhelming. "I still have difficulty believing it. The 24th century," Kathleen said.
"Yes, nearly four hundred years have passed," Daniel said.
"We have to get back somehow," Kathleen said.
"We'll figure it out," Daniel said.
They didn't notice that Tuvok had overheard them. He raised his eyebrow in curiosity.
11 July 2374
Janeway called the Senior Staff to the Observation Lounge at 0900 hours.
"I have made my decision. We are going to take the risk and change course to attempt to locate the Ixazeroan polity, and see if we can trade them something for use of the their wormhole technology to get us to the Federation."
"And if we cannot?" B'Elanna asked.
"Then we will have explored more of the Delta Quadrant than we would have otherwise. But I don't think it will come to that. Even if we can't use it to get all the way to the Federation, we will use it to get at least part of the way," Janeway said.
"Yes, Captain," Chakotay said.
"In addition, Mr. Howarth and Ms. Collins have joined the crew. They may be from the 20th century but they're eager to learn."
"True, Captain," Paris said.
"How do you feel about teaching them about the history since then?"
"Captain?"
"It will allow you to get to know them. Think about it," Janeway said.
"I will, Captain," Paris said.
"In the meantime, set the course to the Ixazeroan Homeworld, Mr. Paris."
Voyager, having changed course, went to warp.
Continued in An Alternate Journey 02: Voyager Tales.