Chapter One

April 2380

Allucia gazed at the pictures and mementos that lined her dresser. There was a photo of her and Ryoga, taken after that fateful dinner where Allucia had eaten Akane's food. Not only did she survive, but she had actually liked it too, much to the complete and utter shock to everyone else. In the other attached frame, her and him when Ranma and Akane had wed. Draped over one corner of this double-frame was one of Ryoga's bandannas. The one she had been clutching when Voyager had beamed her out of the battle for Yamato. She wore it whenever she worked out.

The next few pictures were of her and her dear big brother, Apollo, when he had visited four years ago. It was hard to believe it was so long ago... and at the same time, that she'd been aboard Voyager for nearly six years. One picture was of the two siblings at the softball game where Allucia's telekinetic abilities had inadvertently manifested themselves for the first time in years. Apollo was grinning at the camera; Allucia was glaring, with an expression that could kill. She was wearing her catcher's gear, helmet removed. In another picture, Apollo was giving Musha-ohki a noogie. He'd paid for it soon after of course, the cabbit had bitten him. The third picture was just the two of them with their arms around each other's shoulders in the mess hall. They were both in uniform; Allucia wondered if she would ever wear the uniform her brother wore. If Voyager would ever get back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Of course they would make it home... in about thirty years. But by then, Allucia would be around fifty years old, and probably running the ship. No, Tuvok would be running the ship, and she'd probably be first officer. Funny how she was thinking of the Alpha Quadrant as home when in all actuality she hadn't been there in hundreds of years. She hadn't considered it home until Apollo had inadvertently found his way to Voyager due to her telepathic abilities.

On the bright side, they weren't completely out of touch with the Alpha Quadrant anymore. Thanks to Project Pathfinder, they could exchange letters and files…the real time communication was only reserved for official Starfleet business. It didn't stop her from wishing that her brother's ship, the Highlander, would find an official excuse to contact Voyager; as long, of course, as they did it while she was at the helm. But they were able to send video messages to each other.

She'd been slacking in that aspect, however. Both she and Icheb had applied to Starfleet Academy during one of the data streams to Earth in the hopes that they could complete their classes on Voyager. They hadn't heard back yet but she was trying to prepare for all the placement testing and studying whenever she wasn't working out, sleeping, eating, or flying. She hadn't even told Apollo that she applied in case she wasn't accepted. If she wasn't…well, she'd brainstormed several crazy alternatives.

Allucia glanced at the chronometer. 0647. She'd better leave now or else she wouldn't have time for breakfast, she wanted to be on the bridge by 0730. She eyed the second golden line on the oblate rank insignia affixed to her collar, a full lieutenant now. Tom Paris had also regained his commission of junior grade lieutenant shortly after Apollo returned to the Alpha Quadrant, and Harry was promoted again as well.

As of her brother's surprise visit four years previous, Allucia had just been promoted to chief flight controller. Since this time around, the female pilot was technically promoted before Tom, she remained so. But then again, Tom wasn't complaining, he was still quite happy on Beta Shift. One of the reasons was because B'Elanna was expecting their second child. The other one, which wasn't quite related (or so Tom claimed), was the fact that Tom was spending more shifts in Sickbay to further his medical training.

They had finally gotten married about three years ago shortly after the Antarian Trans-stellar Rally. Of course, now Allucia wasn't sure if she could ever look at the Delta Flyer II the same way again... especially given that little Miral, just about two years old, was born a little less than nine months after the rally and the two had spent some time alone on the Flyer for quite a few days.

The lieutenant left her quarters (now on Deck Four, when Tom married B'Elanna he moved into her quarters on Deck Nine and Allucia got his old quarters), heading for the turbolift, reading a PADD. She bumped into Harry en route. "Morning Harry," she said, not looking up from her PADD.

Harry yawned, and scratched the back of his head. "Mornin', Lusha." he said, falling in step with her.

Allucia quirked an eyebrow. "Late night with Alice, eh?"

The ensign somehow awoke immediately and blushed nearly purple. Allucia snickered, then elbowed him in the side. "Wake up, lieutenant. That's an order."

The Ops officer looked at the Conn officer. "You don't outrank me." They entered the turbolift. "Deck Two."

Allucia looked up. "Yes I do. Captain Janeway promoted me first."

"By two minutes, and only because ‛B' comes before ‛K.' If you went by your real last name, I would have gotten promoted first."

She chuckled. "I still outrank you."

The lift doors opened, and the two entered the Mess a moment later. "Do not."

"Do too."

"Do—ow!" Harry rubbed his side, where his companion's elbow had been seconds earlier.

"Oops. Guess I don't know my own strength," Allucia said, smirking.

"I'm so sure."

The two lieutenants grabbed their breakfasts. Neelix was no longer ship's cook... about two years previous, he had decided to stay with a Talaxian colony Voyager had accidentally discovered. But in keeping with the community spirit, the entire crew (at least, those of them who could cook, a group Allucia was definitely not part of) rotated cooking duties, as a result, Allucia was relying on the replicator a little less often... and only still because she always seemed to be hungry.

The duo headed towards their usual table to sit with the Paris family. Tom looked half-dead; he had dark circles under his eyes. He had one arm propped up, and was resting his chin in his hand, as if to keep himself awake. The tired father was attempting to deflect cut up pieces of banana pancake being tossed at him by Miral as she ran in circles around the table. Occasionally she'd stop and stuff a piece in her mouth, if she wasn't grabbing food from everyone else's plates. Despite being around two Earth years of age, she was the size of a human four-year-old due to her unique makeup.

B'Elanna however, was absolutely beaming. Allucia looked briefly back and forth between the two of them, and chuckled. "Another sleepless night?" she asked.

Tom nodded. "Another night on the couch." He yawned.

Miral stopped for moment and pointed at her father. "Daddy needs a nap!"

"B'Elanna, did you kick him out of bed again?" Harry asked, trying to keep from grinning.

The half-Klingon smiled and shrugged. "I can't help it. I don't normally kick, toss, and turn at night." She turned slightly and patted her slightly swollen belly. "Besides, my mother did the same when she was pregnant with me. You think he would be used to it from when I was pregnant with Miral." B'Elanna grinned. "Additionally, most Klingon men don't mind kicking, tossing, and turning... because it usually leads to more, uh, baby making activities," she said, censoring herself for her daughter's sake as she followed her daughter with her eyes for a moment. The engineer grinned evilly. "I think I'm wearing Tom out."

Tom hid his face in his arms, making his daughter giggle again. Maybe it wasn't so much the night on the couch, after all... Allucia smirked and turned to B'Elanna. "Decide on any names yet?" she asked. "I happen to think Allucia would be a nice name if you have another girl."

"And Harry for a boy." Harry added.

Tom groaned. "You two are worse than Commander Chakotay and the Captain. At least they have a little more tact when dropping hints."

Allucia shrugged. "Can I help it if I want the best for my niece or nephew? Besides, I have to torture you until I see Apollo again." Tom rolled his eyes at this, while his unofficial little sister grinned and resumed wolfing down her rather large breakfast.

"With the way she eats, you'd think she was the pregnant one," Harry muttered.

"Oh yes, Harry. I've been pregnant for quite some time now, carrying your illegitimate child."

Harry immediately swallowed wrong and began to cough. "Very... funny... Lusha." he said, between coughs. Allucia merely grinned back, while the Parises laughed. The operations officer and the pilot were good friends, but as far as romantic relationships went, the latter wouldn't touch him with a ten-meter pole. It was no secret to anyone on their small ship the first and last time Harry pursued Allucia, it ended in disaster. It probably didn't help that the young pilot had filled out a little more femininely in the last few years and she incessantly teased Harry if she caught him looking at her the wrong way.

"Well, see you all later," she said, polishing off the last of her meal. "I want to be on the Bridge early." With that, she was gone.

Allucia sat her post, quite bored. The last time she had been this bored at conn, Q had appeared. Fortunately, now she was disciplined enough to not let her boredom show through. It was almost lunch time; despite her large breakfast, her stomach was beginning to growl. 1113 hours... Her mind began to wander; her eyes glazed over, but the pilot remained focused on her task.

Then the idea hit her. Before she could stop herself, she gasped out loud. And promptly clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Lieutenant," Kathryn asked, wondering if she'd ever get used to the young woman's quirks, "is everything all right?"

"Yes, Captain," Allucia said, quickly regaining control. She swiveled around in her chair. "Could I speak to you a moment in your Ready Room?"

"I don't see why not. Commander, you have the Bridge." Chakotay nodded as he smirked at Kathryn. Allucia quickly put the helm on autopilot and followed Kathryn into the adjoining room. The latter sat down behind her desk; the former however, began to pace back and forth in front of the desk.

"I apologize for disrupting the calm of the Bridge, Captain," Allucia began. Kathryn smiled wryly, not minding in the least; she'd been on the verge of a coffee break anyway. The lieutenant knew as well as she did they were more bored than they'd ever care to admit. "But I must share this with you. But I'm not sure if it's even possible; I don't want it to go beyond the senior staff."

"Well, by all means, spit it out."

Allucia took a deep breath. "...A possible way home."

Kathryn raised an eyebrow. "Continue."

"You're quite aware of the fact that while I'm in cabbit form, Musha-ohki, I can turn into a spaceship." The captain nodded slowly, all too-aware of the fact and had to resist the urge to glare at her pilot. "I know that Musha can travel at speeds higher than Voyager is capable of. I don't know how I know... I just know." Allucia shrugged. "I would... I would like to ask your permission to run some tests, and find out. All I need is one engineer."

Kathryn thought about it for a moment. It wasn't a huge request... but it wasn't a small one either. But she considered how everyone had come to her with pet projects every so often... Tom with the Delta Flyer, Seven with Omega, the Doctor with his holo-novels... "Permission granted. And even if we don't find a way home... this would be a great opportunity to explore your ‛cabbitness.'"

Allucia was so excited she immediately bolted from the Ready Room. "You're welcome. Dismissed." Kathryn shook her head with a smile as she watched the young woman leave. She stood up and walked towards the replicator. She couldn't help but think how much her protégé had grown and matured. She was seventeen when she had arrived; just two months previous she had turned twenty-three. I can't believe she's been here for over five years. Has the time passed so quickly? If this cockamamie scheme of Allucia's worked, it would make ten years in the Delta Quadrant.

After lunch and for the rest of her shift, the pilot surprised Chakotay and Kathryn with her ability to multitask as she flew with one hand and input information into a PADD with the other, glancing between the two. Once her shift ended, Allucia practically flew down to Engineering, the PADD outlined with a plan in her hand. Bursting into Engineering, she scanned the large room for B'Elanna. She soon found her, her legs sticking out from beneath a console. The pilot grabbed an anti-grav and slid underneath the console beside her.

"Allucia!" B'Elanna said, smiling and putting down her hydrospanner. "What are you doing on this side of the console? I thought you only liked breaking them, not repairing them."

The young pilot narrowed her eyes at her friend, but kept her smile. "If I were Tom, I'd ask you the same. However, I need your help." She handed her the PADD.

B'Elanna skimmed over it. "Intriguing..." the engineer said thoughtfully.

"Great! You free?"

"I am now!" the half-Klingon replied, sliding out. Allucia followed, then helped B'Elanna up.

A few minutes later, they stood in the shuttlebay. The pilot stared at the glass of cold water in her hands with trepidation. "I always hated doing this," she said. She handed the glass to the Doctor, who was now on hand as well.

The hologram took the glass and dumped it over her head without so much as a second subroutine.

Musha-ohki stood there, looking at the two humanoids with big blue eyes. The Doc picked her up, and unceremoniously threw her out of the shuttlebay. Just before she hit the forcefield was when she began the transformation, and once she began it, she was safe from the damaging effects of the vacuum. Seconds later, Musha-maru (as she had dubbed herself on the way to the shuttlebay) loomed in space.

An instant after that, the EMH and B'Elanna stood on her bridge. It was quiet, except for the humming of machinery. A clear dome separated them from space and a large purple crystal was centered at the apex of the half-sphere above them. Most of the crystal was inside the dome but a small portion was outside.

There was a flash, and a two-toned holo-screen with a black background and lavender letters appeared in the air, with a message: Unless you want to hear me constantly meowing, this is the only way I can communicate with you.

"That's fine," B'Elanna said. "You can hear me fine, right?"

Yes.

"How are you doing that, anyway?" the Doctor asked.

I'm not sure. I have to focus, kind of like I do when I'm thinking to other telepaths. But I tried to picture the screen on a PADD, except with a color I liked, instead.

The EMH chuckled. Meanwhile, B'Elanna had found something resembling a console was trying to look up propulsion systems, and coming up empty-handed. It was almost a amalgamation of the Federation LCARS format with but with the file navigation resembling endless venn diagrams rather than file trees. She did find plenty of information pertinent to piloting, which while unsurprising, it was interesting…the engineer came to a realization. Crystals hung everywhere in the air, with the face of Musha-ohki on them. Of course they wouldn't be here, B'Elanna thought, since the equivalent of the computer core would be Allucia's brain. "Lusha, you have no idea what your construction is, do you?" I wonder what the computer core would even be?

None whatsoever. The faces on the crystals smiled cutely.

B'Elanna sighed. This was going to take a while. "Do you know how to control your systems?"

Yes. I just think of what I want to do, like turning around, and it's as if I'm moving an arm or a leg.

"Hmmmm... can you bring yourself about, say, forty-five degrees?"

Give me a few moments... B'Elanna looked to the viewscreen. After about a minute, the view slowly shifted forty-two, forty-three, forty-four, then exactly forty-five degrees. She was a pilot, after all. How's that?

"Good. Can you turn back to other way?"

Through all of this, the Doc was making laps around the small Bridge, scanning with his tricorder. The view again shifted to face Voyager after about 15 seconds. "Interesting," he commented. "You did that 69% faster than the first time."

It's like learning to walk, I suppose. I've only done this once, and that was five years ago.

B'Elanna was going back and forth between her tricorder and the screen she had up. "Oh great, soon I'll have more kids to take care of."

Call it practice! At the same time, Musha-maru let out a happy "Miyah!"

B'Elanna laughed. "Sure. Think we can handle a little linear movement?"

Musha-maru immediately backed away from Voyager and fast, too. Before B'Elanna could blink, the Intrepid-class starship was the size of a softball on a screen.

B'Elanna tapped her combadge. "Torres to Ops. Harry, how fast did Musha-maru just move?"

Harry's hands flew over the controls. "Sensors say... Warp Six?! Uh, Musha went to Warp Six almost immediately. Point zero-seven-four seconds. I couldn't even register her putting up a static warp field, nor can I read one now, but the sensors definitely registered warp travel..."

After a few more basic tests, the cabbit, half-Klingon and hologram returned to the ship. Returning Musha-ohki to the ship was slightly more complicated. She could turn back into a cabbit on her own, but the trick was to beam her back aboard when she was small enough so that she wasn't exposed to the vacuum, and therefore completed her transformation aboard the ship.

After Allucia had been returned to her human form, she, the Doc, and B'Elanna presented their findings to the rest of the senior staff. There were several PADDs of data, and about a dozen of each for convenience. There were the Doctor's findings, the Engineering schematics B'Elanna had compiled, and the sensor readings Voyager had taken. Everyone was poring over the data, save one solitary figure at the end of one end of the table.

The young pilot had fallen fast asleep, using the crook of her arm as a makeshift pillow... yet, the hand still attached to the arm acting as her pillow still held a PADD. Harry noticed her first, and poked B'Elanna. She smirked, then nudged Chakotay; he in turn chuckled, getting Kathryn's attention. The captain shook her head, a smile on her face.

Finally, the Doctor noticed this odd spectacle. He was slightly concerned at seeing Allucia fast asleep; he had helped her to get on a balanced diet, and knew she was sleeping relatively well... at least, for her. He took his tricorder and scanned her. "Hmmmm... interesting."

"Doctor?" Kathryn inquired.

"The lieutenant is... well, regenerating is the best word. Her metabolism is moving at a rate nearly quadruple then that of a normal human. It's not regeneration in the sense that Seven of Nine regenerates... this is completely biological. I'm surprised I never noticed it before. I wonder if it has to do with the training she received on Yamato, or her unique affliction, or both."

Allucia opened her eyes, and blinked a few times. Then she sat straight up, realizing she had fallen asleep. She pulled down on her tunic self-consciously. "Sorry," she muttered. "I didn't realize—"

Kathryn chuckled. "It's quite all right, Allucia. Why don't you return to your quarters and get some rest?"

The young woman shook her head. "No, I'll be—" She was cut off as a rumble was heard in the room, emanating from her stomach.

"Lieutenant, have you eaten today?" the EMH asked.

The pilot looked taken aback. "Have I?! I had a stack of pancakes, an omelet, and two bowls of cereal for breakfast, and three cheeseburgers, onion rings, and cheese fries for lunch."

"I should not have asked," the Doc said, rolling his eyes. "Yet you're still hungry, which I presume is from your little excursion. After all, any type of spaceship needs massive amounts of fuel to function. I believe you should eat." He looked to Kathryn.

The captain nodded. "Lieutenant Banks, you're dismissed to the mess hall—" A grin spread across her face. "—And that's an order." As the gleeful pilot left the briefing room, Kathryn looked at the rest of her staff. "Any questions? Comments?"

Tuvok was looking rather pensive. Finally, he spoke. "I do not see any logical reason why this should not work."

"Oh?" she said, surprised. "You're that confident of our young pilot?"

His eyebrow went up. "Despite her rather volatile and unpredictable behavior, she has proved herself to be a highly capable officer. However, I am referring to information we gathered while we were on Yamato."

"What kind of information?" Chakotay asked.

"While we were there, we learned that many of the vessels they use all derive from the same type of cabbit that Lieutenant Banks is cursed to become. Those vessels also have the ability to generate transwarp conduits. Using those arguments logically, we can safely assume that the lieutenant's 'cabbit' form, in spaceship mode, will also have the ability for transwarp travel. And while Voyager does not have transwarp capability, there is no reason that it cannot follow a vessel that can—as we considered when we discovered the Borg transwarp hub two years ago. After all, Voyager is small enough to not be subject to the gravimetric disturbances and temporal stresses that Borg cubes need extra modifications to tolerate."

"Uh huh. And just why haven't we thought of this before, Tuvok?" Kathryn said, interested to hear what his answer would be.

"The subject was never brought up."

"Just as well," the Doctor added. "Before these past couple of days, I don't think Allucia would have been emotionally ready to undertake such a significant task."

"But you think she can do it now."

"Of that I have no doubt. But if word that I support her ever gets back to her, I'll delete that memory file and deny I ever said such a thing."

Kathryn grinned. "Well then, let's get moving. We might have a trip home to prepare for."