A/N: This chapter has been written by Fran, also know as dragon33 and me.
We've met each other in Ireland as au pairs and as we had too much time on our hands we started writing this story. It's far from its final fase, so there will be lots of revisions coming up. We are also looking for a beta-er/editor, as she is from Germany and I am from the Netherlands.
This story focuses on three couples, or future to be couples, namely:
Chakotay/ Janeway
Paris / Torres
Ayala/ Kim (my influence of course haha)
Perhaps even some Doctor / Seven, were not really sure yet about that one though.
Well we hope you like it and reviews would be greatly appreciated – thanks
Chapter one:
After being away from the ship for three weeks, the four men were really looking forward to going back to Voyager. It had been a long, tiring and most of all boring away mission for Tom, Harry, Chakotay and the Doctor. They had been exploring all the inhabited planets in the Koeien system, while Voyager was undergoing repairs on an alien space dock several light years away. They had been searching for minerals and some fresh supplies for their long journey home.
Because Tom had set the Delta Flyer on auto-pilot hours ago, they were now deeply immerged in a game of poker. The Doctor was on the winning hand today and had nearly stripped the other men of their rations. They were all holding their cards their faces emotionless. The Doctor raised the stake with another ration.
"My dear Doctor I think you're bluffing, I raise you another two!" Tom said, looking very smug.
Harry looked at his cards frustrated, then at Tom and the Doctor, back at his cards again and sighed: "Okay, I'm out."
"Me too, I'm never going to win this game. I fold!" Chakotay added.
Now there were only The Doctor and Tom left and neither of them was willing to give in.
"Well, well, I guess it's been you and me again Mr Paris. I raise you another five rations and I want to see your cards." The Doctor said, smiling lovingly at him.
"Do you really…" Tom started, but was interrupted when suddenly all the lights went off and they were thrown against the right-hand bulkhead.
¨What the hell... ¨Chakotay muttered as everyone tried to hold onto something. They all went to their respected stations and checked the readings to figure out what was happening to the Delta Flyer.
¨I have no control over the helm.¨ Tom reported. ¨All engines are offline.¨
¨Shields and phasers are down, too¨ Chakotay said.
¨The environmental control is still working, but I don't know for how long...¨ the Doctor informed them.
¨Communications are down as well, but the scanners are still operating.¨ Harry added.
¨Can you scan our surroundings? What is going on out there?¨ Chakotay asked.
¨Just a moment... there seems to be some kind of tractor beam directed at us from the planet we just passed.¨ Harry explained.
Chakotay turned to Harry: ¨But we scanned the planet two weeks ago and there was nothing on it! How can that be?¨
¨They must have had some sort of cloaking device activated that we weren't able to penetrate before. The scanners are now showing two buildings on the northern hemisphere, which seem to be the origin of the beam."
¨We're being pulled towards the planet!¨ Tom told them.
Captain's log supplemental:
Stardate ...
After staying at the Kneuzen space-station for three weeks doing our repairs on the ship's hull. We're finally ready to rendezvous with the Delta Flyer.
Computer end log¨
The captain sighed as she sat down behind her desk with a steaming cup of coffee. She would be glad when her crew would be complete again
Even though they had only been gone for three weeks, the ship didn't feel right without them. She missed Tom's jokes, Harry's innocent and kind personality, The Doctors straight-forwardness and cocky remarks, but most of all she missed Chakotay. She always drew strength from his quiet support and honesty. He was the one that didn't hesitate to tell her when she was wrong and also didn't avoid arguing with her. But he was always there for her, when she needed him. And she needed his friendship. Because she was the Captain she had to keep a certain distance from her crew and so Chaktay was the closest friend she had. They had dinner in one's others quarters at least once a week and they ate breakfast together whenever possible. She loved spending time with him on the holodeck and she always felt that she could talk to him about everything. And sometimes, just sometimes, she imagined what it would be like to take the next step; to let their friendship develop into something more. She knew he once loved her, but now she wasn't so sure anymore. He had become good at hiding his feelings from her. As had she.
She would not dare to admit to herself that she loved him, let alone stand to him. She preferred burying her feelings deep inside her...
Captain Janeway was pulled from her musing when she heard Tuvok say: ¨Captain to the bridge¨
She quickly got up and entered the bridge.
"What seems to be the matter, Tuvok?" she asked, approaching him.
"We have the reached the rendezvous coordinates, but the away-team still isn't here. I've tried to contact them, but they have not answered any of our hails."
"What about our scanners? Can you locate them?"
"We scanned our proximity throughout, but there is no sign of them as to yet." The Vulcan informed her.
"We'll wait for another hour, if there still not there we'll follow their flight-plan." Janeway ordered.
Tom Paris opened his eyes slowly, trying to focus on his surroundings, which proved to be difficult as his vision was swimming in and out of sight. He turned around and groaned as he realised that, that was a big mistake. His head was throbbing painfully and he felt blood running down his face, which seemed to origin from a cut over his left eyebrow.
As he continued to look around he became aware that the Doctor was sitting next to him, checking over Chakotay.
Tom pulled himself up and crawled over where Harry lay. He nudged him softly. "Harry." He croaked.
His friend rose his head and faced him. "God, you look like hell." Tom added.
"Hear who's talking!"
They both turned their heads as they heard a groan behind them: Chakotay was waking up as well and trying to figure out what the hell the Doctor was doing to him.
"Relax commander, one of your left upper ribs is broken. I just need to bandage it, so you can move around without doing further harm."
"What the hell happened? Where are we?" Tom asked.
"I'm not exactly sure. What about you, Doc? You were awake the entire time." Harry replied. "I only remember that we crashed on the planet and were boarded by an unfamiliar race."
"Yes, they paralysed you with some kind of gas and took us to an examination room, where we were all scanned. They also took tissue samples from you. Needlessly to say they soon found out that I was different from the rest of you, but apparently they didn't figure out exactly what I am. I of course pretended to be affected by the gas as well and acted like I was unconscious, so that I could observe them and not arouse even more suspicion. After they changed us into these nicely coloured and smell-free outfits."
Tom snorted "Smell-free indeed!"
The Doctor ignored him and continued: "So here we are now. They put us in this cell about an hour ago, in which I took liberty of checking you over for serious injures."
"Did any guards appear since we were brought here?" Chakotay asked.
"No, but I am not sure if this room isn't bugged."
"What are we going to do? We need to find a way to contact Voyager, so they can get us out of here!" Harry said worriedly.
"Doctor, do you have any idea of what they have done to the Delta Flyer?" Tom inquired.
"I don't know, Mr Paris. I'm sorry."
"Harry is right, we need to find a way to contact Voyager." Chakotay told them. "Does anyone have any ideas?"
But before anyone could answer the door burst open and six alien guards barged in.
Tom, Harry and The Doctor were grabbed and taken away from their cell, leaving Chakotay behind by himself.
Back on Voyager the hour was up long ago and they had laid in a course to the Delta Flyer's last known position.
They had been constantly scanning for the Delta Flyer, but 'till thus far they hadn't found any sign of it's whereabouts.
The Captain was sitting in her command chair looking around at the present crewmembers on the bridge. Tuvok was there as always standing straight and alert behind his station. Ayala was currently at Harry's station, as she liked to think of it, also B'Elanna was there at the engineering station, while ensign Bakx was at the helm.
Captain noticed how worried ensign Ayala looked as he was working at his station frankly.
She wondered what could have made him so nervous. He always seemed quiet and relaxed and was never this worried about his fellow crewmembers, as far as she knew of. Which of member of the away-team could he be thinking about? Her trail of thoughts was interrupted when Tuvok reported:
"Captain, we have reached the coordinates and are picking up the Delta Flyer's trail. It leads to the Trinity Solar system, where they visited to of the four planets and moved on to the next system. I suggest that we keep on following the trail as the shuttle's residue is a couple of days old. Apparently they not re-enter the system on their way back as their flight-plan suggested, which suggests that they are still in on of the other solar systems to come."
"I agree, Mr Tuvok. Ensign Bakx keep following their course, full impulse."
"Aye aye Captain."
"Brilliant", Tom thought. "I'm the one being sold as a miner. Why couldn't it be something else like… I don't know a bartender or something! I hate digging in the dirt!"
Tom, unlike his comrades, had been sent to a mining facility and had spent the last couple of days digging for minerals. He didn't know what they were used for, all he knew he was supposed to dig for some kind of blue stone. He worked the whole day and at night he shared a cell with the rest of the workers, who all seemed to be prisoners as well. It was hard to communicate with them as they had taken away his combadge. He had tried some sort of sign-language in the beginning, but the other aliens had just ignored him.
He rested his head tiredly on his make-shift bed. The last couple of days had really taken its toll. He wasn't used to this kind of hard labour.
"I wish I knew what they had done to Harry, The Doctor and Chakotay. Why did they leave the commander in our cell? I just hope the guys are in a better place then I am, right now."
"How long will this hell continue?" Harry wondered. He looked around the exotic bar he was now working in. One of the alien races, he had learned were called Warnow, caught his eyes and motioned him to come closer. "Please not another lap dance." Harry prayed silently.
His eyes drifted downwards. He was wearing a tight-fitting, kind of shimmering outfit, which changed colour with every movement he made. He couldn't really call it an outfit actually, as it just consisted of a pair very short shorts, which left almost nothing to once imagination, and a short sleeveless top, which barely reached his belly button. "Why does this kind of thing always happen to me! I would rather work in a mine for the rest of my life than undergo this humiliation much longer."
As Harry reached the particularly foul looking Warnow, he was roughly pulled down and forced to sit next to him, while the Warnow put one of his three ugly black arms around him.
"I haven't seen you here before, precious. Why don't I buy you a drink and we could get to know each other a bit better." He whispered seductively in Harry's ear.
Harry groaned inwardly, but knew better than to reject the offer. He could still vividly remember the first time he tried to do that. His boss, a large, cross looking fella, was there to keep an eye on them all the time. If he saw one of his employees not obeying his customers' wishes, he would activate the chip, which was located in their shoulders, causing immense pain.
Harry didn't want to go through that again, so he gave the alien a forced smile and tried to appear interested in the alien as well.
On the other side of the bar The Doctor kept an eye on Harry, while pouring out drinks for several customers. For some reason unknown to him, they had thought him to be an excellent bartender. He had been lucky, he realized that. He would gladly trade places with his friend, because Harry was clearly having a rough time. For a hologram such as himself, the emotional toll would be less severe. Unfortunately switching places wasn't as simple as that. He had tried, oh yes he had, but no good had come of it. His boss, named Eikel, soon found out that the chip didn't seem to affect The Doctor as much as the others, but had of course found a way around that. Whenever he wasn't pleased with the EMH's work, he took it out on Harry. A method the Warnow found out quickly, worked all too well.
So the Doctor had stayed silent ever since, keeping a watchful eye on his friend was all he could do for now.
They had been employed by the Warnow. A brutal, foul looking race. They had three arms, one on either side of their body's and one in front on their stomach. The Doctor had several theories on the purpose of the third arm. Further more they had two fishlike eyes, which blinked almost uncontrollable. The pattern seemed to get more erratic once they were getting excited, which was something the Doctor was able to observe all the time. Their nose consisted of two blue slits just below their yellow/green eyes. Their mouths were unlike anything the EMH had encountered before. They appeared to be two tiny black holes one above the other. The Warnow seemed to breathe through the upper one and eat and drink through the other. On rare occasions their long slimy tongues would appear, a sign of true excitement, so the Doctor had learned.
Their skin color differed per gender. The female ones were dark brown, where the males were almost transparently white. Like the dancer's outfits the male's skin would change through different light falls.
Other races would often visit as well. The Kneuzen and Cork, two species who looked very much alike, were the ones that visited the bar the most. The Doctor assumed that once they must have shared the same planet or had at least had the same ancestors. They looked more human-like than the Warnow's. The species they reminded him the most of were the Ferengi. Both Kneuzen and Cork were small compared to human standards, barely reaching 4 feet high. They had big bright eyes, with eyelashes that reached 'till far over their eyebrows. Apparently the longer they were, the more beautiful one was considered. They had one set of big bat-like ears, covered by a mane of black hair. The only difference between their psychical appearances the Doctor was able to discover was that the Cork's skin colour was a dull shade of grey, while the Kneuzen were chocolate brown.
The problem was that although all the species that came to the bar were so different, none of them seemed to have even the slightest urge to help the prisoners. Perhaps they didn't know they were forced to work here or perhaps they just didn't care. Either way they were no help what so ever. So that's why the doctor was, next to his newfound profession, looking for a way to escape for Harry and himself.
In the meanwhile Voyager had been searching through several Solar Systems, but so far they didn't have any luck in locating the missing crew members. They were still following the Delta Flyers trail and were now entering the fourth Solar System, which the Delta Flyer had visited. As the passed the third planned, Ayala found something interesting:
"Captain, I'm picking up a second trail."
"Can you clarify the origin of it, ensign?"
"Yes, it's also from the Delta Flyer only it's a newer trail and coming from the opposite direction. It seems they landed on this planet."
"Any sign of them leaving the planet again? Or of the shuttle itself?" Janeway asked.
"No captain, no trace of them leaving or of them being on the surface of the planet." Ayala informed her.
"Scan for human life signs."
"There are no human life signs, nor any other life signs I can pick up."
"What about the shuttle? Can you find any trace of it?"
"No captain, but I'm picking up some high energy levels on the northern hemisphere ." Ayala reported.
"B'Elanna can you clarify what those energy levels are there for?" The captain asked, turning to her chief engineer.
"It seems to be a cloaking device, covering several square kilometres."
"Is there any way to penetrate the shield?" Kathryn questioned.
"I'm working on it, but it will take several minutes. We need to recalibrate the deflector array."