Disclaimer: CBS/Paramount owns Voyager and all the characters established on the show.
Set approximately one week before Endgame…..
Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay were walking towards their quarters.
"Care for a working dinner, Commander?" asked the Captain.
Chakotay had opened his mouth to respond when a commbadge interrupted them.
"Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway. Recommend we raise shields and go to red alert for at least the next hour."
Puzzled, Janeway responded, "Seven? What cause do you have to believe we are in danger? We have had several days with no incidents."
Seven responded, "Captain, there is not time to explain. Believe me when I say we are in danger for the next hour."
Janeway looked at Chakotay. "Seven has been right about circumstances like this before," Chakotay offered. Janeway agreed. "Captain Janeway to the bridge; Red Alert, shields up."
As she was speaking, the ship shuddered from an attack. The Captain and Commander looked at each other, wondering the same thing: how had Seven anticipated the attack? Then they both turned as one and sprinted for the turbolift and the bridge.
An hour had passed, and the enemy vessel, an unidentified ship, had been destroyed. The Captain had convened the senior staff in the conference lounge to discuss the attack, and hear Seven's explanation of her prediction.
"First off, damage report." Janeway stated. She looked to B'Elanna Torres.
Torres responded, "Transporters are off-line. The hull is at 47 strength. Port shield emitters are down, and the warp drive will be offline for the next 32 hours." Anticipating Janeway's next question, she went on, "I estimate full repairs will take two days."
"Very well; put all of your team on it." Janeway ordered. She then turned to the Doctor. "How many casualties did we sustain?"
The EMH replied "We were lucky. Your order to raise the shields came just in time to deflect most of the initial attack. As a result, there were only 15 casualties, none more than broken bones from the patient's loss of balance."
"Good. And now, Seven, what led you to believe we would be under attack?"
Seven answered Janeway, "I have been running a new program in astrometrics based off of data acquired from species 4774. Before their culture was assimilated, their scientists had postulated a theory that patterns in interstellar gas led to the creation and location of star formations. By extracting the current location of all stars and resources in sensor range, it would be possible to predict the location of other stars not currently visible to sensors. Additionally, the theory could be used to locate resources such as deuterium and dilithium."
"That is a great theory, but how does it pertain to the attack?" interrupted Commander Chakotay, "From what you have said, it would only detect natural resources and not be able to predict the location of vessels, enemy or otherwise."
"That is correct," Seven acknowledged, "however; I was not using the model to predict stellar circumstances. I was testing the algorithm by analyzing Voyager's previous missions to determine if a pattern was present. Surprisingly, there was."
A murmur ran through the group. It was Ensign Kim who asked the question on everyone's minds. "What pattern did you observe Seven?"
Seven responded, "There were several major patterns present. The one of most concern at the moment, however, is that over 99.7 of all incidents reported in the official log occurred on Wednesdays and usually beginning around 2000 hours, or in the older time standard, at 8:00 at night. Furthermore, most of the instances lasted for around an hour, with minor exceptions in which case the incident lasted a multiple of an hour. Additionally, some minor temporal anomalies focused on the ship made some events which appeared to us to be several days long, such as the Dauntless slipstream mission, to occur within an hour period compared to an absolute time scale."
Janeway interrupted, "Are you telling me that virtually all of our missions have occurred at the same time on the same day of the week?"
Seven nodded. "Additionally, I was able to determine that some missions have happened multiple times, due to a localized breach in space-time which appears to follow the ship. The exact same events tend to repeat themselves in sequence. However, the repeating events seem to occur on almost every day of the week, at varying times. These 'temporal flashbacks' occur far more often."
Lt. Tom Paris inhaled sharply, and muttered a low curse. Janeway, having heard him looked at him sharply. "Do you have something to contribute, Mr. Paris?"
He looked up and nodded palely. "All of you know that I am a 20th century history buff." He ignored Tuvok's raised eyebrow. "One thing immediately comes to mind based off of Seven's descriptions. We are in a television show. The shows usually only aired one new episode a week. Additionally, once the show had aired for a season or two, repeat episodes were shown on normal weekdays. This could account for Seven's 'temporal flashbacks;' they are the re-runs of the show."
Janeway considered the facts, then asked a question, "What about Q? Is it possible that he is behind this?"
Seven shook her head. "No, Q has demonstrated that he his power are of use only in this universe as well as others, such as when he showed Captain Picard an alternate timeline of his life; they are not able to affect things outside of our universe. Additionally, the pattern detection system was able to detect patterns in several other logs similar to our own, including Deep Space Nine, the Enterprises NX-01, D, and E, as well as Captain Kirk's missions. On one of Kirk's mission's the pattern went so far as to extend into the mirror universe. Also, at a later date, Worf of the Enterprise D encountered multiple universes. This would suggest that all possible universes are contained in this 'TV show' concept of Lt. Paris, and that Q himself is subject to its restrictions."
Chakotay asked, "Are there any other patterns the prediction model has noticed?"
Seven responded, "No, but there are several anomalies that have been detected which may be explained by the Lt.'s theory of a TV show. First, how many shuttles have been destroyed over the course of the last seven years?"
Janeway responded automatically "32." She frowned, and repeated herself, "32?"
Seven nodded. "Indeed. We have lost 32 shuttles so far; 8 alone in the first two years in the Delta Quadrant. This is in spite of never creating a new shuttle, or having the storage space for more than 2 or 3. The only possible explanation I have concluded is possible is that the writers of the show forgot to include a scene where we explain the creation process of a shuttle, or show the repairs to all of the crashes. Additionally, there is a high correlation of shuttle flights and crashes; if circumstances require the use of a shuttle, it usually ends up being destroyed."
She continued, "Additionally, early when stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the crew encountered a life form resembling a nebula or cloud. A transcript of the incident included the Captain and Commander discussing the number of torpedoes remaining; 38 at the time. The exact wording by the captain was 'And no way to replace them after they're gone.'"
Tuvok looked at Seven and stated, "That is correct. The ship can logically carry a limited number of torpedoes."
Seven responded, "According to calculations made by the program, we have used far more torpedoes than we originally carried. We should have run out approximately halfway through the fifth year of our mission, if the computer counts the number of torpedoes fired."
Tuvok considered this. "Indeed" he murmured to himself, as he sat back to contemplate this.
"Another striking improbability," continued Seven, "is the continued appearance of the Borg. As of the events in which Captain Picard was assimilated into Locutus, the Borg were able to adapt to any weapon with limited damage being accomplished by the attacking ship, and the attacking ship assimilated soon after. The only true exception to this rule was the USS Enterprise D, and it came very close to destroying itself in the process. However, Voyager has not for the most part run into these difficulties. The Borg are mostly a nuisance now, and pose no true threat. Voyager's phasers have proven to have enough modulations that even though it is only one ship and has been harassing the Borg for several years, they still have failed to adapt to the range of firing possibilities."
"While I am sure the Captain and other scientifically inclined members of the senior staff find this fascinating, I want to know if any of us have been directly affected by this," interjected the Doctor.
Seven paused for a moment before replying. "If I tie the program into our personal logs, then that fact may be revealed. Captain?"
Janeway looked at Chakotay. He nodded, showing his support, and Janeway thanked him with her eyes. She took a breath and said, "I can't order any of you to do this; there is no clear threat posed to the ship. I would strongly encourage you to allow Seven to do this with your logs."
After some discussion, it was agreed upon by the senior staff, and Seven fed the logs into the prediction model. After a few seconds the PADD with Seven's results was updated. She looked down at it and began to speak, hesitated, then continued.
"Apparently both the Captain and Commander are deeply in love with the other; however, the authors of the show have apparently made both of them give up on the other. Apparently, the authors have a fascination with blonde women; Chakotay has fallen for many blondes due to their influence. The Captain has been set up as a remote woman who must rely on the Commander so much that she has no choice but to keep him distant."
The Captain and Commander gaped at this. Seven, her eyes still on the PADD, didn't notice, and resumed reading.
"Additionally in romance the Doctor is deeply in love with me, and I apparently reciprocate, according to the feeling inside of me. However, the show's writers have apparently introduced a crush on Commander Chakotay. Based on previous changes, the next change forced by the authors according to the model predicts that next week I will go on several dates with him. However, the model also suggests that this will increase my passion for the Doctor, since we are both very similar at heart, and the disparities between him and Chakotay would, with no writer intervention, cause me to leave Chakotay for the Doctor, and Chakotay leave me for the Captain."
By this point the Doctor was grinning smugly as Seven continued, "Harry has been the most abused by the authors, having died more than other characters, as well as forced to fall in love with unattainable women. This is despite the fact that he has a fiancé on Earth. I believe that the writers have forgotten this fact, and so try and set Harry up with every unattainable female he encounters."
Harry was feeling uncomfortable due to the revelation that the writers had interfered more in his life than others.
"Tom and B'Elanna, on the other hand, have actually not been altered much. B'Elanna's initial attraction to Tom, as well as the events on the 'Day of Honor' was provoked by the writers, but the continuing attraction and love was solely them."
Tom and B'Elanna looked at each other, relived that their love was true, and not a product of other's imaginations.
"Tuvok and Neelix are for the most part normal, with the exception of their interactions with each other. In reality, they would be friends, whereas the writers seem to enjoy setting them against each other, with Neelix attempting to make Tuvok smile, and Tuvok irritating Neelix with his logic."
After Seven finished, a silence hung in the air as everyone considered how their lives had been altered. Captain Janeway broke the silence and said to Seven, "Thank you for revealing that; the only question now is what do we do about it?"
Again, silence fell over the room as the senior staff considered possibilities. Tom then interjected, "I seem to recall that TV series tended to be shown for 7 years. We are coming up on the 7 year mark. Any chance that we just do nothing and it will end the writer's control over us?"
Seven considered the proposition, and concurred. "This is the only option I believe we have," said Seven. It is predicted that we only have one more 'episode' before the series is over. As of Wednesday next week, we should not act as if we know about the writers. We should let them 'control' us so they do not try and exert their influence after the season is over. For example, I will go on dates with Commander Chakotay, even though I would rather do virtually anything else, no offence Commander."
Chakotay grinned. "None taken Seven. I could say the same about you."
Janeway looked around. "If there are no other options, then I suppose that we must accept one more week of being controlled. Then we take our destiny into our own hands."
The senior staff stood and prepared for the last episode; prepared to be controlled.
After Endgame
The events after Endgame followed Tom and Seven's prediction. The writers never interfered again. The Captain and Chakotay were married the instant the ship landed on Earth. The Doctor and Seven dated for several months, before Seven proposed to him. Harry and Libby, his fiancé were married upon his arrival back at Earth. Tuvok was reunited with his wife shortly after the return through the transwarp portal. Neelix managed to escape the writers by leaving Voyager, and only appeared in Endgame in a brief appearance in which he talked with Seven.
The effects of Endgame were undone; the crew of Voyager couldn't have been happier.