Passages 1
Author: Cybermum

spoiler: The opportunity to trade for some top quality dilithium is one that is too good to pass up. But Janeway and Torres find more than they bargained for when their first contact/trade mission to the planet Zornon goes awry.

Prologue

The Federation Starship Voyager hung suspended in space, her sleek metallic hull illuminated only by her own running lights. She was in what her crew referred to as a void, another in a series of seemingly endless corridors of space devoid of stars, planets, formations or any other signs of life, that they had come upon over the course of their long journey home. Voyager's crew had almost become accustomed to these voids, and had slowly learned to use the time it took to cross them to their advantage; relaxing as much as they were able; catching up on paperwork; making repairs; and adding to or upgrading the ship's systems. They had acquired and developed a great deal of extra technology on their way across the Delta Quadrant and their captain often wondered whether Star Fleet command would be more interested in her logs, or in actually crawling through her ship with magnifying glasses when they finally got home. She guessed that just the Borg modifications would keep them busy for years.

The ship shuddered and a shockwave emanated from her deflector dish. A flash of light followed and the black velvet space that surrounded the ship seemed to ripple away from her into the nothingness.

B'Elanna Torres took a short breath and impatiently blew at a strand of hair that had fallen across her eyes. She was on her knees and elbow deep inside a relay station and the recalcitrant wisp was just one more irritation in a series of annoyances that had plagued her all morning. She made one last adjustment to the EPS network, stood up, and turned to her control station.

"Okay, let's do it again."

"Yes ma'am." Harry Kim replied and she rewarded him with a glare that would have done Kathryn Janeway proud.

"That's not funny Harry. We're sitting ducks right now. The warp core's off line and we can barely move at impulse. I promised the captain I'd get the defense system recalibrated and back up and running today, and I'm going to do it."

Voyager's engineering staff moved quickly and efficiently to obey her orders. She had promised them all extra time off if they met her deadline, and besides Lieutenant Torres was on a tear today, and no one wanted to incur her displeasure.

"Harry, we can get this to work. Adjust for gravimetric shear another three degrees. That should reduce the pulse and eliminate the reverberation."

Harry's fingers flew over his console as he made the corrections she requested.

"Activate the conversion matrix and begin the countdown. Let's go."

"Activated."

"Countdown to begin on my mark." She paused for a moment and made another entry on her console. "Now."

"Counting down from 10 seconds" Harry responded.

Voyager vibrated again as she sent another shockwave out into space.

"Damn." B'Elanna checked the readings on her console. "Harry, are you sure you made it exactly three degrees? Check the…"

"B'Elanna, I've adjusted it six times, exactly to your specifications. Maybe we should take a break."

"I don't need a break. I need this to work. Seven…"

"I am here Lieutenant." The former drone appeared almost immediately at B'Elanna's elbow.

"I asked you to realign the deflector to compensate for the neutrino bursts."

"I have done as you directed Lieutenant. The problem is not with the deflector."

"Don't tell me what the problem isn't. Let's find out what the problem is."

She tossed her a PADD that had been resting on the edge of her console.

"Here. See if your Borg ingenuity can come up with a solution."

Seven of Nine raised an eyebrow and looked at Harry Kim, who just grinned and shrugged. Seven held his gaze for a second and then looked down at the PADD.

"In the meantime Harry," Torres turned and addressed him again. "Divert the neutrino emissions into the exhaust system."

"I'm due back on the bridge in five minutes B'El…"

She glared at him again.

Harry nodded and did as he was ordered.

"Fire."

The ship shuddered even more violently than the last time as another wave of energy was thrown out into the void.

All three of them watched the readings as they appeared on the screen in front of them.

"What's going on down there, Lieutenant?" Kathryn Janeway's voice came over the comm system.

"Captain, it's taking a little longer than I thought to work the kinks out of the matter conversion matrix. I'm trying to rebuild the entire defense system here."

"I appreciate what you're doing B'Elanna. I just want to make sure Voyager survives the improvements."

"Captain, your ship will be just fine." Torres out. She slapped at her comm badge and turned back to her console.

Outside the ship the reverberations from the shockwave continued to travel, undulating through space like a fallen leaf might ripple the waters of a still pond. And several light years away, a small brown planet decloaked