Disclaimer - I don't own Star Trek Voyager. I just own this story though it has some similarities with the Star Trek novella 'Places of Exile' though it will feature a Janeway who comes more with it later on.
Merry Christmas!
The Voyager Exile.
As her ship travelled closer to the nearest Borg solar system, Captain Kathryn Janeway wondered if she was in over her head.
Granted, her plan to form an alliance with the Borg which was more like an exchange, as she had described to her senior staff, to give the collective the nanoprobe research the Doctor was working on while he tried to help Harry who was lying in sickbay in return for safe passage through their territory was a risk, but she thought it was worth it when she'd thought about it.
But after her private 'discussion' with Chakotay where he had expressed his not-so-private doubts about the alliance where he had told her the story of the scorpion poisoning that fox who was taking it across the river, Janeway had to admit her plans were risky. She also knew the rest of the senior staff were just as sceptical about this whole thing like Chakotay was, but now her own resolve was being tested as they approached the nearest Borg solar system.
Her plans had been made in the heat of the moment. She had gone without sleep for days as her ship had travelled closer and closer to Borg space when their long-range probe had been captured and presumably assimilated. But Voyager had known they were heading closer to Borg space, ever since they had unearthed the remains of that Borg skeleton on the Sakari homeworld shortly before their encounter with those former Borg drones in the Nekritt Expanse.
Janeway was willing to accept the fact she had made her decision solely because she didn't have much choice. She had no intention of going around Borg space after finding out about their war with Species 8472. But when she had argued with Chakotay about her plan, she had seen the familiar anger in his eyes, the anger all Maquis felt about the Federation and their view about that damn peace treaty. Janeway understood the anger, probably better than other Starfleet captains. She had fought the Cardassians before and she had been captured by them, and she had been tortured and raped by them. For a race who believed themselves to be superior to everyone around them, in truth she believed the Federation was wrong to forge the treaty which gave away too much.
Kathryn didn't really care if people believed she was a Maquis sympathiser for having that opinion; out here, stranded in the Delta Quadrant, surrounded by one hostile race after another with the almighty Borg Collective and a new species they had probably just tried to assimilate only they had underestimated them given how Tuvok and Chakotay's report about what had happened inside that crippled Borg cube, and how one of the drones had tried to assimilate the bio-ships' organic matter. She had enough troubles as it was to truly give a damn about some political opinion.
But she could read the lines.
Kathryn Janeway had come to know her Maquis first officer and the rest of her Maquis crewmembers. It had been a risk bringing the two crews who had totally different philosophies and approaches (Tuvok's security training holoprogram was only logical, though truthfully Janeway had put into place her own plans in case the Maquis tried to take the ship out of her control, though she had doubted they'd be stupid to do that. The Maquis had nowhere else to go; it was not like a mutiny and takeover of the ship where they'd take the ship away from her would magically wave a wand to get them home), and the clashes she'd had with them had given her headaches in the first two years.
In this case, Kathryn knew only too well Chakotay was frustrated with her, angry with once more using the Federations' habit of seeking alliances when they climbed to be moral and good, while at the same time seeking alliances with powers who had their own agendas and genuinely didn't care who they hurt when it suited the Federation and their view of the "greater good."
In the observation lounge, Janeway had seen the resentment, the same resentment she had seen in Federation colonists who were angry with their own government who had told them to just hand over their homes and schools and livelihoods that they had made for themselves for years only for their homes to be handed over to the Cardassians on a plate. It was just so frustrating she and Chakotay sometimes found themselves back at square one; she had truly hoped the pair of them had sorted through their differences especially since the Maquis crew members were better off on her ship.
"How soon before we've reached the Borg system, Tom?" Janeway asked as she sat up straight, her mind nearly made up about the current course of action. She was close to simply changing her mind and forgetting about the alliance she had thought up last night in her sleep-deprived state, and just let the Borg and their new enemy fight it out and deal with the consequences later.
"We'll be there in five minutes, ma'am," Tom replied as he checked his sensor readings.
Janeway blew out a breath, thinking…. and then she came to a decision. "Tom, slow us down, warp two," she said, making sure she used the tone where her decisions brooked no argument.
To his credit, Tom Paris didn't argue back, and his hands went over the controls on his console and the ship began to slow down.
Janeway sensed Chakotay's eyes on her, but she didn't look at him. The last thing she wanted at the moment was to have another debate about her decision.
When Voyager came out of warp close to the system, Janeway ordered the view screen to magnify the image. She didn't like what she saw; a planet surrounded by Borg cubes which made Tuvok's report about the life signs in the solar system being all Borg as being redundant. They were in Borg space, it was unlikely there was going to be anything but Borg here.
"Slow to below quarter impulse, Mr Paris," Janeway ordered, "let's take this nice and slow."
Even in the darkened bridge, she could tell the senior staff members - B'elanna who was substituting for Harry who was down in sickbay while the Doctor worked on the cure to Species 8472s' DNA which was eating him alive, Tom, Tuvok, and Chakotay - were surprised by her sudden shift. She could tell they had expected her to warp up close to a cube, wantonly hail them with her proposal and hope for the best. But her crew were not stupid enough to ask her out loud what was going on now.
"Have they detected us yet?" Janeway asked Tuvok; if they hadn't then she could work on her final decision with some time, but if the collective had detected them….
"Not yet," the Vulcan replied. Janeway closed her eyes with relief before she faced the view screen. Voyager was still moving closer to the Borg ships while they were close to the gravity well of a nearby gas giant. It was then she partially made up her mind. "Full stop, Tom," she ordered.
Tom Paris started, but his hands worked at his console. "Yes, ma'am," he replied, too professional to ask her why she was having a change of heart. Janeway was relieved by that, even if it was in her power to make decisions and change her mind without needing to explain her reasons to her crew, something she did not like since her ship was stranded this far from the Alpha Quadrant with no support whatsoever.
Janeway turned to face Chakotay who was looking at her curiously. "I've been thinking about what you've been saying," she whispered so then only the Indian first officer could hear her. "It is risky."
Chakotay nodded, obviously keeping his relief she was clearly thinking to himself. "What do you plan to do?" he asked.
Janeway sighed. "I don't know," she replied honestly, and it was true that she didn't.
Chakotay leaned forward. "We need to be patient," he said, "In the Maquis, we knew we were up against tremendous odds; we were fighting for our lives, for our homes and for our families against Starfleet and the Cardassian Union while we had only scant resources, so we had to resort to trickery to get the job done. But we were patient. We learnt to pick our battles while we implemented strategies that were far-reaching."
"We should do the same here, is that what you're saying?" Janeway asked.
"Yes. The Borg collective is vulnerable, like you said, but instead of helping them why not let them fight with their enemy, and by then we may have found a way to reason with them, or at least found a better way of fighting them than by just relying on a weapon derived from Borg technology."
But Janeway saw a flaw in that plan. "Kes described these aliens as xenophobic," she pointed out, "how do we reason with them and make sure they don't come back later on?"
Chakotay shrugged. "I don't know," he replied honestly. "But truthfully I think we should learn more about these aliens so then we can formulate defences. To be honest I'd rather not deal with them; during the last fight with them, Harry was injured and Voyager suffered damage, and we don't know enough about their weapons to really strengthen our shields."
Janeway frowned as she remembered seeing the damage control report after that incident. That and thinking about what had happened to Harry when he, Tuvok, and Chakotay had boarded that half destroyed cube only to run slap bang into that alien, who had infected him with its own DNA that was now eating him alive did more to help her decision as visions of the aliens destroying parts of Voyager while they boarded the Intrepid-class starship in the same manner as they had boarded those cubes they attacked, killing and infecting members of her crew as they went.
Even if she did go along with her plan to ally her ship and her crew with the collective, Species 8472 would realise what they were doing and attack them accordingly. But if the alliance didn't go through then they'd be attacked as well. No matter how she looked at it, Voyager would be severely damaged, and Kes's premonition about the destruction of Voyager was still there. Janeway just wondered what it was going to be.
Looking into Chakotay's eyes, Janeway could see the worry there as well.
"I understand what you're saying," Janeway said to him, still keeping her voice low and level so then no-one could hear, though she wondered how long it would be before somebody asked her what they were going to do now. They couldn't hold this position forever, sooner or later the Borg would realise they were there, and they would attack and assimilate Voyager. "But if we ally ourselves with them, we'd be forced to go through Borg space alone."
"Which is why I said we should continue on, since there's more of the Delta Quadrant left to explore," Chakotay said, nodding in agreement though she could see the frustrated weariness as they went over old ground, "and we may find another way home without getting ourselves attacked, and even if we do encounter Species 8472 again, we'll be better prepared for them. Face facts Kathryn, we're out of our depth. Stop trying to coming up with solutions without thinking about the consequences!"
Now that Kathryn had heard the same point for the second time in the last couple of hours, she had to admit it sounded more tempting, not to mention better than the first time. But while she was annoyed with Chakotay for being insubordinate, she had to concede to the point. She had always told herself to stop being so headstrong and overconfident, to take other people's advice when it was offered to her, but whenever the time came to use said advice she still ignored it and went ahead with her original plans nonetheless, thinking she knew better. Was their luck about to run out now, because of her arrogance?
A console beeped and Tuvok's urgent voice interrupted her thoughts. "Captain, a quantum singularity has opened above one of the Borg ships. A bio-ship is leaving it."
"Let's see it," Janeway ordered loudly to break off the conversation she'd been having with Chakotay, and she turned around and she caught sight of the glowing extra-dimensional wormhole close to one of the Borg cubes as the dart-like bio-ship left the anomaly, and opened fire on the nearest cube before it began to head for the planet inhabited by the collective.
"Tom, prepare to bring us about-," Kathryn ordered, but she was stopped when Tom's sensors triggered a chirp.
"Captain, there are nine more bio-ships coming out of the singularity," the pilot reported.
Janeway watched as the nine other extra-dimensional ships left the singularity, joining their fellow before they flew towards the planet and formed a rosette formation. The largest vessel in the centre of the formation while the first ship was hovering nearby, clearly not needed for what was going to happen next. "The outer ships are transferring power to the one in the middle of the formation, Captain," B'elanna reported as she checked the ops console, her Klingon ridged forehead becoming even more crinkled as she gazed at the readings the console was showing her, but not quite believing what she was reading. "The power build-up is unbelievable," she went on, and her eyes widened as she realised what was going on, "the computer has come up with a match. The power levels and their signature are virtually identical to a Xindi planet killer."
What?
Janeway turned to face the viewscreen, trying hard to keep the surprise off of her face. Starfleet had encountered many weapons in its time, but the Xindi had shown the type of power needed to destroy a planet. It was a strong reversal field. A planet was bound by immense gravitational energy that was difficult to overcome, but in the 22nd century, the NX-01 had brought back enough information about what kind of energy would be needed to overpower a planet. In ordinary practice, to destroy a world like Earth, it would need the full output of the sun to be turned to the planet for a full year.
But a reversal field could turn the planet's energy against it, and since it repelled rather than attracted….
She didn't bother to acknowledge Tuvok's report the bio-ships had gained enough power to fire their weapon against the Borg planet, she could see it happening; a beam of intense energy was fired at the dark orb on the screen, and like an egg being slowly crushed by a pair of fingers, the planet began to split with glowing lines, livid cracks appeared, spreading as the planets' gravitational energy repelled itself.
When she had been a cadet at the Academy, Janeway had seen the recordings of the Xindi probe, taken by the satellites in orbit at the time, and then later, the testings of the weapons' prototype. She remembered being horrified and terrified that an alien species had tried to destroy Earth and the human race based on the lies of another race, but she had been awed and terrified of the power of the weapon.
That same terror came back as the bio-ships fired their beam directly at the Borg planet before the molten mantle split open, blowing outwards as the debris spewed outwards, compelled by the reversal field to escape since there was nothing anymore to keep it contained.
The Borg ships tried to flee, the collective mind compelling them to escape, but some of the ships were still too close. The closest ships were shattered by the debris, those that were too far off were severely damaged.
Janeway licked her lips. Part of her felt some sympathy for the Borg despite what they had done for God alone knew how many centuries, and indeed she didn't know if the inhabitants of this solar system had once been a civilisation who hadn't known about the collective until it was too late, and their culture had been destroyed. It took a lot for her to resist the urge to reflexively hail the Borg to offer medical assistance since it wouldn't be well received and it would attract too much attention.
She was about to tell Tom to reverse course and use the gravity well of the gas giant they were orbiting when the comm. line chirped.
"Kes to Bridge," the ship's resident Ocampa shouted over the line (Janeway knew at once that whatever Kes was going to say would not be good). "They've sensed my presence! They know we're here!"
Janeway stood up and walked to the rail that separated her from the helm station urgently before she even realised what was going on. "Mr Paris. Get us out of here, maximum warp!"
Tom was already at work even before she said maximum warp, and he didn't bother acknowledging the order since there was little point. Using the gas giant's gravity as a slingshot, Tom turned Voyager around quickly and jumped into warp. But the relief on the bridge was short lived as Tuvok reported.
"The first bio-ship is in pursuit, it's matching our speed," the Vulcan's usually calm and measured tone was urgent.
Janeway cursed under her breath as she returned to her command chair. "Switch to aft view, maximum magnification."
The bio-ship's sleep dart-like form was definitely in hot pursuit, and it was gaining ground. Janeway wished she had bothered to properly study these aliens and their ships before she had made her plan to make contact with the Borg to ally with them in order to stop these aliens.
Looking at this ship as it was in pursuit, Janeway wondered how long they had before the bio-ship was in weapons range. It was getting closer to them.
"I can't stay ahead of it, Captain," Paris reported, and Janeway could tell that he was using every trick he knew just to keep the distance between them, but he was having a hard time. Janeway looked at the bio-ship as it chased them. How fast could that ship travel? How long could it pursue them before it finally had enough? Could it feel exhaustion? Every organic race in the universe had their limits; oh, some like Klingons and Vulcans had greater stamina, but eventually, they would grow exhausted. Surely the same thing applied to these aliens? The same laws had to bypass even the barriers that separated the realities between their universe and the one the aliens lived in?
Janeway hoped so because eventually Voyagers' engines could give out, and then the aliens would be close enough to open fire. No sooner had the thought materialised in her mind, the bio-ship opened fire. The energy beam impacted on Voyagers' shields and the ship rocked, and the aft console exploded. Janeway jumped out of her chair and turned her head, and her eyes widened in horror at the sight of three of her bridge crew on the ground, cradling their wounds.
"Shields down to seventy per cent," Tuvok shouted over the din.
Seventy? Janeway swallowed. They had just lost thirty per cent of their shield power with just one shot. One more blast and the aliens could penetrate the ship, and then Kes' vision would come true. Looking at the aft console and displays, Janeway watched as the medical team sent up to the bridge took the injured party away or treated them on the spot, and in front on the view screen which had been switched to forward view (When had it been switched back?), though truthfully she wished she could see it and make decisions based on what she saw it do. Too late. The ship rocked as the bio-ship fired another bolt of energy, only this time it was less than a shake.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"It was only a nick to the shields," Paris reported as he worked on his console. "I decided to try and make it harder for them to get a lock, but I had to use the inertial dampeners to stop anyone falling around."
"Good thinking," Janeway complimented, "keep it up."
"I'll do my best," Paris replied, "but each time I move, they compensate. That bio-ship is too fast, too manoeuvrable. The fact it's smaller doesn't help. It's like trying to outfly a World War two fighter."
Janeway said nothing about the comparison, knowing that Tom Paris had a fascination with the 20th century, and in this case, it was apt.
The situation was grim. Her ship was damaged, they were being chased by a new powerful enemy in place of an equally powerful enemy, just as she was about to make an alliance with the Borg.
It seemed that Species 8472 could lose their patience as well, just like all the other races in the galaxy they wished to purge. The bio-ship started opening fire on Voyager. There was no finesse in the shots, no attempt at properly aiming the bio-ships' weapon as they pursued Voyager through space. The pilot was just hoping to score a hit and hopefully caused enough damage.
Finally the inevitable happened. One of the shots impacted against the shields, and it seemed as though the entire bridge was exploding.
"Shields are down to forty per cent," Tuvok reported. "One more hit and we shall be defenceless."
Janeway closed her eyes, wishing the Vulcan security officer would stop stating the obvious. But she didn't have time to dwell on it when B'elanna reported from the ops console. "Another quantum singularity is opening, right in front of us."
Janeway swallowed as she witnessed the sight of the interdimensional wormhole opening, resembling a glowing hole in space. For a moment the explorer in her wanted to know what was on the other side, though truthfully she genuinely didn't care. Out of the singularity came two more bio-ships, and she swallowed again.
At that moment, Janeway realised that in her hubris she had caused this. Instead of simply bypassing Borg space, or just doing as Chakotay had suggested which was to just let the Borg and this new enemy fight it out, she did the exact opposite. She had put her crew in danger, and for what? To satisfy her arrogance, her need to always be the captain? She was a fool. She was out of ideas. She was out of her depth, she could see that now. Today, she had been getting ready to form an alliance with the Borg to modify their own technology in order to fight Species 8472.
Wait.
The nanoprobes.
Immediately she slapped a hand to her combadge. "Bridge to sickbay."
"Sickbay here, Captain. As the Chief Medical officer, I recommend we get out of here," the ships' holographic doctor said, and over the line, Janeway could hear the sounds of pained gasps and moaning coming over, and she fought back the urge to hurt herself for doing this.
"Doctor, how many nanoprobes have you reprogrammed?" she asked.
"I've only replicated and reprogrammed a few prototypes, Captain, and the answer is no. I cannot use them against Species 8472 at the moment. I'm still having problems with some of the probes' programming. However, it may be possible to use a few for the job," the Doctor replied.
"How so, and be quick Doctor," Janeway said, looking at the screen as the bio-ships menacingly approached them. Tom had managed to fly them out of the way of the ships and had moved deeper and deeper into Borg space, but now they had three bio-ships chasing after them.
"I can modify the phasers from sickbay to carry some of the nanoprobes, and a few of the probes that I haven't managed to program fully yet; it won't do much, it will just cause some mild discomfort for the bio-ships."
Janeway glanced at Chakotay who had hurried over to Tuvok's station, and their eyes met. He seemed to be saying "Why not? We haven't got anything else."
"Do it, Doctor," she ordered.
The modifications only took the Doctor a few moments to implement. "Sickbay to the bridge. I've done it."
"Good work, Doctor. Tuvok, target the closest bio-ship, and when you've done that, open fire," Janeway ordered.
The Vulcan nodded and got to work on his console, but as he was halfway through the procedure two of the closest bio-ships fired. This time the damage was more extreme.
"They've destroyed the starboard impulse engine," B'elanna shouted over the din as consoles, panels and displays exploded, and cables dropped from the ceiling and with them, half of the ceiling looked like it was about to collapse. Janeway swung round to Tactical. If there was ever a reason for the nanoprobe weapon it was now. "Mr Tuvok," she said.
"Firing now," the Vulcan said.
On the screen, Janeway could see that Tuvok had used a number of Voyager's available phaser strips to open fire, and she could see one of the beams of energy strike one of the bio-ships. It didn't look too badly damaged, but she didn't have time to take a further look like another of Tuvok's phaser beams struck another bio-ship. The third bio-ship retaliated by firing on Voyager, but Tom managed to bypass the beams on thrusters. They only just managed to escape the beam, but because of the damage Voyager had sustained to the impulse engines he was unable to avoid the second beam.
This time the damage was more extreme, as more consoles exploded. Amid the din and the sounds of rocking and people crying out, someone shouted out, though Janeway couldn't identify who it was.
"My god, they've virtually destroyed the starboard nacelle."
Chakotay's measured voice also shouted over the sounds. "Captain, the bio-ships."
"What about them?" At this point, Janeway just wanted this day to end.
"Something is wrong with them. One of them is….deteriorating," There was surprise in the first officer's words, as though he had no idea how to describe what was going on.
"Let's see it," Janeway ordered. The view screen's visual pick up had been damaged, but she could see clearly enough though it took her a while to see what was happening. The bio-ships were turning a darker, almost ashen colour, and then they lost control and exploded. Janeway blew out a breath of relief. "He's done it," she said.
The ship rocked. again, and Janeway fell to the ground with a wince. When she got up and looked at the view screen again she could see what was happening.
The third bio-ship hadn't been affected as adversely as the other two. Whereas the Doctor's experimental Borg weapon had affected the other bio-ships, the third seemed to be…sick. The ship was still fast, but there were moments where it looked sluggish on the screen as the strange colouration spread.
Interesting that effect, Janeway thought to herself and wondered if the number of nanoprobes fired through the phaser beams was enough to cause much damage. But the ship was firing at them with an intensity she would have believed to be anger. One of its beams struck the hull again before the ship finally lost the battle and exploded. The shockwave hit Voyager more intensely than the previous impacts. When it died down, Janeway got up off of the floor from where she'd landed and looked around.
"Is everyone alright?" she asked.
When she got affirmatives or negatives, she called for a damage report.
"Shields are down, weapons are only at fifty per cent. If the Borg or Species 8472 attack, we shall not be able to repel them," Tuvok reported, but the bad news just kept coming in.
"It's bad, Captain," B'elanna reported, her Klingon half struggling under the stress. "We've lost one of the impulse engines, the starboard nacelle is badly damaged, but the worst of it is the warp core. Engineering reports they had to shut down the core, but the damage has been done. We've lost all the information about the warp nacelles status, so we don't know how much damage has been caused to them. But that's not the worst of it!"
Torres glared at the console readout as though she blamed that for the problems she had. "The core matrix is damaged, but engineering doesn't yet know how much. We may not have warp drive anymore."
The beginning...