Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek.
Just an idea that stuck in my head and would not go away till I wrote it out. What if Starfleet had sent a ship after the Hansons after they ignored the direct order to return when they violated the Neutral Zone? What would their lives have been? Just my quick idea on what could have happened.
The Omega Sector, 2354…
The Aerie-class surveyor raced through space as its warp engines were pushed beyond its very limits to stay ahead of its pursuers. It was not that far ahead though as just seconds later an Excelsior-class starship continued to close in from behind.
On the small but homely bridge of the Aerie-class ship known as the USS Raven, two fugitives worked furiously to escape the ship that was quickly gaining on them while theirs shook with the speed it was travelling at, one way beyond its normal limits.
"Warp 8 is all these engines can give and they are still gaining on us. We cannot outrun them Magnus." Erin Hanson said as she worked her station furiously in the hope she might force a little more speed out of their ship while she looked for somewhere that they might use to hide from their pursuers. Her husband Magnus meanwhile was working another console with equal if not greater vigour.
"Arming photon torpedoes, maybe we can force them to stop and have a rethink." Magnus said which made Erin turn around in alarm.
"If we start shooting at them then they will start shooting at us. Magnus that is an Excelsior-class starship, they have us out gunned ten to one." Erin said, desperate not to risk a firefight they could not win because she and her husband could not accept defeat, not with her daughter Annika, their pride and joy in the cabin nearby.
The shaking of the ship had apparently woken the girl who called out in alarm as the ship shook.
"MAMMA! PAPA!" Annika called out in fear and Erin nearly went to go to her without thinking but Magnus yelled out in frustration as the Starfleet ship matched his every move, not thrown at all by any evasive manoeuvres that he made.
"NOT NOW ANNIKA!" Magnus yelled and Erin gave him a sharp glare and said stiffly.
"Magnus!" But her husband did not budge and anything he might have said was cut off by the comm system sparking to life.
"USS Raven, Doctors Magnus and Erin Hanson stand down and prepare to be boarded. This is the USS Melbourne ordering you to stand down. If you do not comply immediately we will force you to do so." The voice was male and full of authority and Erin did not doubt for a moment that they would do as they say. Magnus however without even thinking of the danger of what he was going to do, fired a pair of photon torpedoes at the now named USS Melbourne, which bounced harmlessly off their shields. Erin immediately lost whatever colour in her face she had left as the Starfleet vessel returned fire, striking them with a torpedo of their own, rocking the Raven badly.
"I TOLD YOU!" Erin yelled as she clung to her console to stay upright as the ship's warp field was stressed too much and finally collapsed. The ship fell roughly out of warp spinning wildly, causing Magnus and Erin to lose their grip on the console and be thrown to the floor as the inertial dampers struggled to cope with the turbulence. As they struggled to get up when the ship finally stopped spinning, a familiar sound filled the cabin and the two civilian scientists, now deemed criminals by the Federation who looked up to see a pair of Starfleet security officers had beamed in and were pointing phasers at them.
"Magnus and Erin Hanson, you are under arrest for violation of the Neutral Zone and deliberately ignoring orders to return. You are facing prison terms when we get back to Earth." The Andorian lieutenant told them as she levelled a phaser at them. Erin was not concerned though, knowing all they would do is stun them as she had a far more important question to ask them.
"What about Annika?" Erin was worried about what would happen to her daughter if she and Magnus were arrested and the Andorian's face did not soften in the slightest at the mention of her young daughter telling coldly.
"She will be cared for. Now on your feet." The Andorian said and reluctantly Erin and Magnus did. Meanwhile a human male ensign dragged their terrified daughter by the arm out of her room and beamed them all of them over to the Melbourne which took the Raven on tow as it made its way back to Earth.
-x-
One week later…
Annika sat alone and scared in the foyer of Starfleet Medical, the nurses aboard of the Melbourne had been kind to her and all but she had not seen her papa or mamma since they had been taken away from their ship. She had been told by the ship's doctor when he had beamed them down to wait here although he had not told her who for or why.
The room was cold and she tucked herself into her hard chair and held on tighter to her doll, one of the few things that Starfleet had allowed her to keep from the Raven. The Starfleet personnel walked past her without a single glance, tears began to form in her eyes as she became frightened with all the noise and strangers around her. She buried her head in her arms and started to cry. She desperately wanted to see her papa and mamma, she wanted them to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be alright.
However a gentle hand on her small shoulder and a familiar voice offered her a shred of comfort and respite from all the things that had upset the world of Annika Hanson so much that it had left her in tears. She looked up with her face stained with tears and a smile brought out on her face.
"Aunt Irene!" Annika cried out and threw her short arms around the neck of her loving aunt and clung on tightly, so glad to finally see someone that was familiar after being surrounded by strangers for so long. Irene wrapped her own arms gently around her young niece and rubbed her back.
"It is okay sweetheart. It is okay." Irene told her, not sure how to tell her niece that her parents were going to prison for the next five years for violating the Neutral Zone.
-x-
2370…Sixteen years later
Starbase 12 was abuzz with activity as today promised to be a landmark occasion for Starfleet and the Federation as a whole. Many important Federation officials and Starfleet officers had gathered to see what could be a historic occasion. One of which was a younger than normal Starfleet captain, looking out from an observation platform at her brand new ship, USS Voyager. Fresh off the production line it represented the best of current Federation technology and she was desperately eager to get out there and do some exploring although her dream first mission had been hijacked by the need to find Tuvok and the crew of Marquis that he had infiltrated. She would be leaving for the Badlands immediately after the experiment to hunt down the ship and bring it and its crew of misguided colonists back to face trial.
She did sympathise with the colonists, being forced to give up their homes and everything that they had worked for but it was foolish to take this action. Open rebellion against not only the Cardassians but the Federation that had protected and nurtured them, a diplomatic peace was the only way to address any situation not armed conflict. She regretted that she was going to have to arrest them but better her than the Cardassians.
Two old men walked up behind her in the uniforms of Starfleet admirals, hearing their footsteps she turned and smiled as she saw the faces of two men that she held in high regard.
"Admiral Paris. Admiral Patterson." She said with respect but a warm glint in her eyes. The two older men both smiled fondly at the young captain that they had both had a hand in shaping and were proud to see gain her own command.
"Welcome Kathy." Admiral Patterson said with a warm smile, he gave her a hug that she eagerly reciprocated before giving a more formal salute to the sterner Admiral Paris who did smile but it was not as wide as Patterson's. "Promises to be quite a spectacle today if it works." He sounded rather sceptical of what was planned for today but Katherine was still smiling with hopeful anticipation.
"Oh I am sure that it will go alright. If it does imagine all the possibilities it will open up for Starfleet. And the Federation." She added and Admiral Paris who was still bothered by the fact that his rebellious son Thomas was acting as an observer looked briefly at Voyager before he tried to suppress his own feelings. He could understand the logic of such a move as he was only member of Chakotay's Marquis cell ever caught but that he had joined at all did play a lot on Admiral Paris' mind. Trying to push past that he was mercifully interrupted by an announcement over the comm.
"All visitors please proceed to the Primary Observation Deck for the demonstration." The cool voice said without any emotion.
-x-
The Primary Observation Deck of Starbase 12 was thankfully a large and open space which was a good thing given that over two hundred Federation Officials and high ranking Starfleet officers had gathered there and now took their seats as they waited for the demonstration to begin. Janeway took her seat alongside her two Admiral mentors as she waited for the show to begin, that was when she saw the young but statuesque blonde human woman walking up onto the stage. She nearly scoffed as she saw many of the men in the room both young and old focus squarely on the blonde's impressive figure and cool Nordic beauty but she could admit to being impressed at how the blonde ignored their leering at her and carried on to the centre podium where she wasted no time in starting her speech.
"Good morning honoured guests." The woman said in a cool and detached voice that would have sounded more fitting if it was coming from a Vulcan than a human woman who looked no older than her early twenties. "I trust that you will find today a historic day in the history of the Federation, one that will expand our horizons further than ever before. As many of you already know I am Doctor Annika Hansen, I could bore you with my current position and any awards I have won but that is not why we are here today. So without further ado, please observe the test probe in the upper left quadrant and watch carefully." Annika Hansen said gesturing with her hand to the large unmanned ship in that was hanging in space not far from the space station they were sitting in.
Janeway felt her anticipation raise as she looked at the modified deep space probe with a greatly expanded drive section, this was what they had come to see. Now the only question was if it was going to work. This was the moment of truth.
Across the room there was no question in Annika Hansen's mind, it had to work she thought furiously. She would not allow self-doubt to hinder her, she never would she thought with hurt deep inside allow the words of others who had looked down on her to influence how she lived her life. That was not to say she was reckless, she had looked into every parameter that she could possibly do and had even used an unmanned probe to test her new invention on rather than risk someone else's life.
This had to work she thought and so she input the command at her small console in the podium and the modified probe like a puppet on a string began to fly away at impulse from the station before the warp nacelles turned from the normal blue to a strange green hue before it leapt away of from station.
"Well if you will grant me five minutes we shall see if today is a day for celebration or disaster." Annika said and despite her earlier self-declaration that today would not be a failure she found herself mentally praying that nothing would go wrong. The oppressive silence in the room did not help lift her mood either. She could see the disapproval and arrogant dismissal of her ability to deliver what she promised on the faces of many people there, especially on the face of Admiral Patterson although the mere thought of the man's name made her want to grind her teeth together. A long-time opponent she had fought his many attempts to get her work stopped and have her dismissed from her post eventually.
Today she thought grimly was another round in her own personal battle to be taken seriously, their eyes met briefly and he stared defiantly back at her icy glare while the female captain at Patterson's side looked at them both confused before finally another Admiral…the one named Paris took a forceful grip on Patterson's arm and made him abandon their little staring contest. Annika with anger bubbling just below the surface turned her attention back to the flight telemetry she had at her finger tips and was relieved to see everything was going like clockwork.
-x-
Back with the Admirals and Captain meanwhile, Patterson was getting a very small and quiet rebuke from Admiral Paris.
"Keep your feelings where they belong Theoderich not here." Paris warned Patterson, even going so far to use his first name to make the point. Janeway looked annoyed as she sat between the two men being ignored and decided in a quiet voice to ask what was going on so she could satisfy her own curiosity.
"Is there a problem with Doctor Hansen Admiral?" She addressed the question to Paris but it was Patterson that answered.
"That woman is the most unstable scientist I have ever had the misfortune to meet. She is never able to simply do as she is told and makes huge leaps of logic with no evidence of any kind that she is right. But with parents like hers though it should be expected." He said shortly which made Janeway frown at the contradictions in his words but also his mention of her parents, what did they had to do with this she wondered? Then however she remembered the scandal with Magnus and Erin Hansen and what they had done in a quest to find the Borg and prove their existence, something Starfleet and the Federation had dismissed for centuries despite evidence to the contrary.
Find the Borg, the mere idea filled her dread but she had to admire that unorthodox approach, it was a recurring theme of many great explorers and scientists and one that Janeway liked to think she was capable of herself, taking an unusual and new approach to accomplish her goals. And their belief that the Borg really existed had certainly been proved true Janeway thought with sadness over all the death and destruction that they had caused, if Starfleet had taken the threat more seriously perhaps they might had been better prepared for when Q had flung the Enterprise into the path of that first cube and all that had come after.
The voice of Doctor Annika Hansen however brought her back the present rather abruptly.
"Now honoured guests I shall turn to Commander Benjamin Sisko on Deep Space Nine to see if my experiment is a success. Computer, open a comm link to Deep Space Nine in the Bajoran system." Annika said with her voice completely confident. The computer with brisk efficiency did as it was bid and on the overhead screens an image of the Commander of the Federation's most important outpost for discovery due to the wormhole appeared. Commander Sisko was smiling as he looked down on the audience below and focused his eyes on Doctor Hansen who addressed him.
"Commander Sisko, did our probe arrive safely? Did the organic specimens survive?" Annika asked, inside she pleading to whatever higher powers there might be to let everything have gone to plan. But the Commander's smile did not falter and he told her.
"Doctor Hansen I can quite happily report that the probe not only arrived intact but with all the organic specimens unharmed. Congratulations." His smile seemed to grow wider and for the first time since taking the stage, Annika Hansen herself smiled which had many floundering again at her beauty, but the good Doctor did not notice a jot as she turned to her audience and announced with elation.
"Well honoured guests there you have it. I can now happily present you with the next great step in faster than light travel, the first successful test of the Federation's new Transwarp Drive." She finished letting the word 'Transwarp' hang in the air as the significance of the new technology sank in to all of her audience. Janeway herself was smiling from ear to ear and eagerly joined in the applause when it began albeit reluctantly from Patterson. Even he however much he hated to be proved wrong could appreciate the importance of this new discovery.
Janeway, the explorer was already imagining that vast new areas of the galaxy that this would open up to them; all the first contacts there were to be made and all the incredible wonders that were now within their reach. Her mind was practically spinning with the immense possibilities.
The Admirals at her side meanwhile were considering the tactical and strategic implications of the Federation developing Transwarp technology. The ships would be able to move faster than any of their current rivals, to virtually anywhere they were needed in a fraction of the time. Given the vast size of Federation space that was a great advantage over the Cardassians and the Romulans, but security around the technology would they realised have to be the tightest imaginable to prevent the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order from stealing it or indeed any other foreign power. It was already now giving them a headache but still it was a great day for the United Federation of Planets.
-x-
Hours later after spending more time than she was comfortable with having her hands shaken and empty congratulations sent her way, Annika was sitting back on the couch in her lab on Starbase 12 as she called her aunt Irene. It took only a moment for the call to connect and the smiling face of the woman that had raised her appeared on the screen.
"Annika! How did your demonstration go? Perfectly I expect with your hand at the controls." Irene said with a smile, knowing full well how much of a perfectionist her niece was. Everything had to be just so, even when she had been a girl it had been like that with strawberries. Her niece's smile only confirmed her confidence in her.
"It was an acceptable day." Annika said and made Irene roll her eyes at her niece's way of understating things.
"Well then, you are about to be written into the history books." Irene said with pride at her niece. "Alongside Cochrane and Archer, Doctor Annika Hansen inventor of the Transwarp drive."
"I…did not do this for fame." Annika said blushing slightly in embarrassment, revealing how shy and insecure she really was inside although she would only do this for Irene. The woman that had comforted Annika in her darkest moment and given her the confidence to pursue her dreams of being a scientist.
"I know sweetheart, just make sure that are ready for the first few buildings to be named after you and maybe a class of ships." Irene teased which made Annika blush even more but a knock on the door of Irene's farmhouse ended their conversation. "I am sorry Annika, the neighbours are coming around for dinner. I will call you tomorrow to speak some more. I love you sweetheart." Irene said with a smile.
"I love you too Aunt Irene." Annika said with a wide smile and tears forming in the corner of her eyes as the channel closed. She was glad of the privacy as she wiped the tears from the corner of her eye and went back to work. She still had adjustments to make to the drive technology so it was more streamlined and efficient not to mention look into what current and future classes of Starship were best suited to using the drive when it was ready for field testing with an actual proper starship and a proper crew. The Intrepid-class design was looking particularly promising for her purpose she noted and it fit the intentions that has gone into the ship's design; to save resources and time by building smaller and more efficient designs. Intended to serve multiple roles specifically exploration, survey and long range tactical missions it would be fitting to have this class of ship be the first to use the new drive. The USS Voyager she realised would be coming back to Earth once its mission to capture a cell of Marquis so was complete so if she had finished her work by then perhaps Captain Janeway would be willing to assist her, she had seemed eager enough during the presentation. She was also considering making some adjustments to the Prometheus Project to incorporate the new drive into its systems if she could convince the rest of the people on the top secret project.
A chime at the door stopped her from continuing her work by looking into the Akira-class, Sovereign-class and the Nova-class Starships for how compatible they might be with the drive. She looked up and called out annoyed.
"Enter." Her world however was shaken when the door opened and admitted a single woman into her lab, familiar and yet a stranger at the same time. "Mother."
Erin Hansen stepped into the lab and came face to face with her daughter. She tried to smile but her efforts were unconvincing to say the least and her own nervousness made her tense. An image mirrored in Annika, the air was instantly thick and the calm air of a moment before was dispelled by anxiety.
"Annika. It is good to see you sweetheart. I am so proud of you." Erin said trying to make some headway in building a bridge with her daughter. A woman that she had not spoken too in years and it was all her fault she thought grimly. Hers and Magnus, the anger and hurt in Annika's eyes made her grimace.
"You did not think so when I came to visit you in prison, you and father refused to see me." Annika accused her and Erin winced at the fury and repressed pain in her daughter's voice not to mention the way she referred to her and Magnus so coldly. She and Magnus when they had been imprisoned in New Zealand had been very bitter, all of their work reduced to worthless data that lay around gathering dust, their ambition thwarted so completely on top of facing five years in prison. Their failure ate away at them and when Annika had come to see them they had been unable to face her and kept from seeing their daughter. Something Erin now deeply regretted.
After a year or so Annika had stopped coming and stopped sending any of the letters that had gone unread. By the time that they had realised their mistake it was too late and it was Annika's turn to ignore them, no letter was answered and when they had eventually been released from prison she had not wanted to meet them. Arguments over their failure as scientists and as parents had driven such a wedge between them that Erin and Magnus who had once loved each other more than life itself could no longer stand to be on the same planet as each other. In their third year of confinement, their marriage had been annulled and upon release they had parted ways for good.
When they got out however it was even harder than they had realised to cope with the changes in their world. All of their standing as scientists had been utterly destroyed by their actions in pursue of the Borg and even their professional qualifications revoked. No one would give either of them a job anywhere in exobiology or indeed any other scientific field, Erin had retrained as a historian however tedious she had found it and regained some respect in academic circles for her research into Nordic theology and folklore, she had even remarried a couple of years later. Magnus had not been able to cope at all and last she had heard he had stolen a ship to try one last time to find the Borg to prove that he was right. He had disappeared after that and she could only imagine what might have happened to him. But neither of them had managed to build any bridges with their daughter, something she was hoping to do today.
But from the fury in her eyes, Erin knew she had a long way to go before she could make any headway with Annika.
"You have absolutely no idea what it was like when the people you love most in the whole world suddenly cast you out of their lives. Even occasional visits and letters would have been better than nothing." Annika said coldly, all the anger and hurt that she had felt as a child coming to the surface. But her fury would not let up yet as she came to a thorn her parents had put in her side themselves without even realising it.
"Do you know what your actions did to my life mother? Yours's and Father's?" She asked with anger and the cold way she referred to her parents made Erin wince but Annika was unrelenting. "When I told my teachers I wanted to be a scientist, they said I should rethink and chose another career since it was not suitable for me."
The words made Erin look up confused at what would make Annika's teachers say something like that when her daughter was obviously so talented and felt a stab of anger at someone saying her daughter was not good enough for the career she wanted. Annika did not leave her in suspense as for why they had said for long though.
"When I asked Irene what they were talking about she said it was due to you and Father! People judging me on what the two of you had done! Admiral Patterson for one! He tried to block my work on Transwarp based on his assumptions about me based on the two of you!" Annika said with rage and Erin was shocked that people would judge her daughter on what she and Magnus had done. She had been just a child! "I had to fight to get into college and university to get my qualifications! I had to steer clear of exobiology just to be taken seriously! Though I suppose I should thank you. All that struggle gave me the motivation to push myself harder than others and take risks no one else would to succeed as a scientist!" Annika said with irony. It was said that adversity was a strong motivator of progress, few things pushed development forward like it. If not for all the struggle she had faced to be given a chance to achieve what she wanted, she might never have discovered Transwarp!
Erin while angry about how her daughter had been treated by the establishment that she knew from personal experience was full of old men and women that were so fixed in their ways that a new idea was inconceivable to them also was ashamed. She had followed her daughter's career from a distance and with great interest and pride in everything Annika had achieved; a senior design consultant at Utopia Planitia shipyards, a leading researcher in advanced weapons development and defensive technologies at Starfleet Tactical, guest lecturer at Starfleet Academy and of course the inventor of Transwarp drive.
Today's events would surely bring many awards and open new positions for her daughter, Erin thought, her own had improved too in the last few years she thought with some bitterness given all the years out in the cold so to speak. The disastrous first contact with the Borg and their incursion into Federation space in 2366-7 had some of her old 'colleagues' reaching out to her for her research into the Borg and had even gotten her a position in a Starfleet Think Tank that was supposed to find ways to develop new weapons and defences against the Borg should they ever return although much to Erin and her fellow members annoyance, Starfleet and Federation bureaucrats were already lowering the resources allocated to them for more 'important projects'. If the danger was not right in your face it seemed Starfleet and the Federation did not want to know, sticking their heads in the sand like ostriches to pretend it was not there. The stupidly of the move rankled but there was little she could do except carry on and be grateful that she could at last indulge in scientific research again.
Both women looked at each other, both filled with strong emotion and unable to talk at first. Annika's fury made her breathing rapid and uneven but with her anger came an unexpected pang of longing to talk and build a relationship with her likely sole remaining parent.
She could still remember time when she had wanted so desperately to be with her parents, had written to them every day with Irene's help only for those letters to go ignored. When she had visited them in prison to see their faces again had been her greatest dream only to be turned away with no explanation. The bullying at school from children that knew of her parents' imprisonment from their own parents and the old looks of her own teachers, treating her as if she was diseased and contact had to be avoided. The stab of hurt that had gone into her heart each time it had happened until finally she could take it no longer and stopped trying to make contact with her parents or make friends. Building a wall of ice around herself to keep the hurt away, only Irene had been allowed through it for without her aunt's support she would have surely fallen apart.
Now her mother seemed to want to tear that wall down and force herself into her life. It annoyed her greatly but it nagged away until she could stand it no more and made a concession to her mother.
"Next month I will be presenting my refined Transwarp drive design to the Starfleet top brass and the Federation Council on Earth. You can meet me there if you want to talk but that is all I will promise…talk." Annika conceded to Erin who was immediately surprised at the chance but did not hesitate to jump on it. Erin smiled and told her daughter.
"It would be my pleasure." Feeling like she had taken the first step in building a new relationship with her daughter.
This is not intended to develop into a full story, but I hope anyone who read it has enjoyed this mad idea.
At the moment my focus is on finished Hadrian Lannister and developing the Harry Tyrell story and an Assassin's Creed Story. A rewrite for my Narnia story is also being considered but for now it is just plans.