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The Pathfinder
"Captain, there is a vessel approaching. It appears to be. Starfleet issue." Lieutenant Tuvok stated. "Hail them." The Captain replied. What has Starfleet gotten themselves into now? She thought. The view screen showed another Intrepid Class ship, the Pathfinder. It looked identical to the Voyager, except equipment was sticking out all over the ship. It seemed a little eerie to see a Federation ship with all of the strange protrusions the Pathfinder had. Janeway recognized it as third in the series. "It seems they've made a few" He paused, trying to find the correct word, "Modifications to the design since we've been gone." Chakotay finished. On the view screen appeared a man in his forties. He had dark hair and deep brown eyes, which were almost black. Something in those eyes didn't seem right to Captain Janeway, and she could tell Chakotay thought so too. He had four pips on his collar, and his uniform was the same as the Voyager's crew. "Captain Janeway, how nice to finally meet you! I've been waiting for the opportunity for a long time. Are you ready to get the hell out of here?" A broad smile was on the man's face, and it seemed natural for him to smile. "It seems we have much to discuss, Captain." She waited for his name. It didn't take long for him to reply. "My apologies, I am Captain Christopher Rossman. I'll beam over in ten minutes with my first officer." Then the screen returned to the star field and the ship. "Chakotay, Tuvok, and B'elanna, meet me in my ready room." She exited the bridge and the three of them entered moments behind the Captain. "I don't trust them. Isn't a little too unlikely that Starfleet sent another ship here?" Janeway looked at the three officers. "He seems sincere enough. Sending the two highest ranking members of the ship does take some trust on their part." B'elanna was the first to reply. "I agree with the Captain. Their ship has modifications from the Borg, Klingons, and Vulcans." Tuvok stated. Janeway almost choked on her coffee. "Borg? I wasn't aware we had formed an alliance with them." Janeway replied sarcastically. Her suspicions were almost confirmed. Chakotay opened his mouth to speak, but the Captain's commbadge beeped. "The guests have arrived." A male voice reported. "Escort them to the briefing room." The four officers proceeded to meet their guests. As Janeway entered the briefing room, she put on her best diplomatic face. Whatever they came here for, she was prepared to find out what it was. Although, she thought, maybe I'm being too paranoid. We'll just have to see. Captain Rossman was already seated on the right side of the table, next to where Janeway would be sitting. His first officer sat beside him. "This is Commander Saloman. I will get right to the point, Captain. We were sent here to upgrade this vessel with some new equipment. Then it will be able to jump all the way to the Alpha Quadrant in a matter of minutes. The adjustments should take about three days. We should begin as soon as possible. No offense, but this isn't exactly where I want to be." He smiled again. Janeway thought for a few moments, assessing the risks and complications. "Well, it seems you are ready to begin as soon as the Engineers are beamed over. I give you permission to board our ship. B'elanna, get your teams ready to assist in any way possible. Captain, I would like to talk to you at 2000 hours. Let's get to work." All of the officers stood, saying goodbyes and departed from the room. Chakotay stayed, and Janeway sighed and looked out the window. "Captain, I would suggest that-" "I know, Commander. They will be under observation at all times. We'll be careful." "That's not what I was going to say. I was trying to tell you to contact Harry's parents and tell them to move the couch, we're coming home." He smiled, that dimpled smile no one could help but loving, and moved toward the window. He stared out at the stars he had become familiar with over the past seven years. He could have sworn the Captain had become a telepath. "We'll never see these stars again if we return. There's no guarantee we'll be able to come back." A certain sense of sorrow overcame the two officers. This Quadrant had become their home, no matter how much difficulty they had encountered. Janeway took Chakotay's put her arm around his shoulders. They stood like that for quite some time. Janeway's commbadge chirped and broke the silence. "Captain, Captain Rossman is ready to see you in your ready room." Tuvok's calm voice stated. Janeway acknowledged, and left the room. When she entered the bridge, Tom's hopeful face greeted her. "Only two days, 20 hours until home." He said and smiled. "Get back to work, Tom." She replied. She crossed to the bridge and entered her home away from home-her ready room. Captain Rossman seemed pleased to see her. "I have the information on this padd. It's a very simple plan, and we may finish ahead of schedule." He said as he handed her the diagrams and statistics she needed. "Thank you Captain," she sat on the couch next to him with a cup of fresh black coffee, "How's Admiral Paris taking all of this?" "She's excited, as anyone would be. The Admiral is already getting the celebrations in order. We have a ticker tape parade planned." Had Janeway heard correctly? She could have sworn Rossman had just said "she". A sudden and intense feeling of fear passed over her. She refused to show any sign of it in her expressions. "Everything's in order, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Captain." "Please, call me Chris." He said as he exited. Janeway was in the messhall bright and early in the morning. It was only 0200 hours, and she had only gotten four hours of sleep. She did, after all, have a trip to plan. The room was empty, except for a single Lieutenant. Her name was Shahara, and her race needed no sleep. Shahara looked like she was only 18, and was very shy. She mostly kept to herself, but she would talk to Janeway. It seemed that she only trusted the Captain. The Captain relocated herself next to the Lieutenant. "Lieutenant Yuy, I want your opinion. Is this possible from the technology we have?" Shahara was an amazing engineer, even rivaling B'elanna. If it was possible, she could do it. "Yes. If they have the right technology, the equipment could be installed. Why?" "I'm just making sure everything checks out. How's your brother? Has he planned the wedding with Ariel Goodman yet?" "He's almost finished. If he ever decides, he'll tell you in the next few days." "Thank you for your help, and good luck to your brother Wing." Janeway stood, and left the messhall. She had taken a liking to Shahara, and spent a lot of time with her when she wasn't working. ** Janeway was by now thoroughly confused. Half of her sources said everything was fine, the others said the Captain was lying. She had to resolve this soon or it would drive her mad. "Come in." A sleepy Chakotay said as he got out of bed. He yawned, and turned on the light. "Commander, we need to know if this man is lying to us." "Good Morning to you too, Kathryn." He smiled and sat in a chair after offering her one. "His story isn't quite right, but his engineering specs are fine. He seems suspicious, yet he's let us come aboard his ship. What's happening?" She flung her arms over the sides of the chair in exasperation. "Why don't you just send some people over to watch?" "Great idea. I'll let Neelix go. He can say he's trading supplies." By this time, Chakotay had walked behind her chair and was massaging her shoulders. She hadn't noticed until that moment, and she realized how much it helped relax her. She smiled. He knew the right time to try and comfort her. "You need rest now, or you'll tire yourself out." He chided playfully. She nodded, and stood. "Thank you for your help." She gave him a gentle smile and left before he could say another word. The repairs were almost complete on the Voyager when the worst possible thing could happen: The Borg. Three cubes appeared from a transwarp conduit, and powered up their weapons. The Voyager and the Pathfinder both received the same message. "We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile." At the same moment, both ships powered up. The Pathfinder fired and blew up a cube in one shot, and made another cube's shields go down to 10%. Voyager destroyed the second cube, and the bridge rocked as phasers sliced through their shields. "Target the third cube and destroy it." Janeway was angry now, and she's not to be threatened in that state. The Voyager let loose a volley of photon torpedoes and phasers, and with the help of the Pathfinder, destroyed it. "Still think they're trying to destroy us?" Tom asked. "He was saving himself, Tom. Not us." "Captain, we have modified shields. We'll only need another two hours until we are finished with the Warp Core." B'elanna announced over Janeway's commbadge. "Acknowledged, and good work, Belanna." She replied. At that moment, the Pathfinder turned toward Voyager, and powered up its weapons. Before anyone had a chance to respond, a phaser beam cut through space like a knife and struck the bow of the Voyager. "Fire everything we've got back at them." She realized something- someone-she had forgotten: Neelix. "Bring her shields down in the section where Neelix is, and beam him back." "Aye, Captain." Tuvok said as another phaser blast struck the ship. A low voice, almost a whisper, sounded over Chakotay's commbadge. "Commander, I have their shield frequency. It's 247.1 megahertz." It was Neelix. Chakotay smiled as he heard the message. Tuvok fired on their weapons systems and life support, both going down before Captain Rossman had realized what happened. "We have Neelix on board, Captain." A female voice said. "Good work." "Unfortunately, all of the Pathfinder's crew have returned to their ship." Janeway sighed. Why had they gone to such lengths to deceive Voyager's crew? What had they wanted? She decided to find out. "Beam the Captain to the brig. Keep a tractor beam on that ship, and don't let them get away. Tuvok, bring a security team and meet me there." She said and walked from the bridge. "Why are you doing this?" She demanded as soon as the doors to the brig swished open. Captain Rossman had the look of ignorance spread across his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Janeway shut down the forcefield and entered the cell at the same time. She got right up into his face and said, "Like hell you don't. I want answers. NOW." He stood perfectly still for a moment, his face betraying no secrets. He shrugged. "I suppose there's no point to not tell you. You're going to kill us anyway." He motioned to the flat surface that would provide a bed for him. Janeway stood still, obviously not going to sit. He shrugged again, and continued. "Well, as I'm sure you'll find out eventually." He was interrupted by Tuvok's entrance. "Captain, the Borg cubes were decoys. They were engineered by the Pathfinder's crew for reasons we are not aware of." Janeway nodded and waved Tuvok away. She wanted to hear what the Captain had to say. "We created the Borg cubes," he continued, "to convince you that we were allies so that we could capture this vessel. Unfortunately, one of my officers decided that he should attack Voyager now." He said, obviously angry. Janeway was intrigued. She pressed forward. "Why would you want to capture this ship? You have more sophisticated technology than this ship does." "Actually, we don't. We were creating a transportation device that would send you directly into dry dock at our home planet. We just created the specs on what could theoretically work, but have been working on the transporter device." He explained. "You still haven't answered the question. Why Voyager?" She asked. "Well, you see," he said, leaning closer and lowering his voice. "It's quite simple." Janeway made her first mistake. She leaned in a little to hear him. He removed a dagger from its sheath that had somehow and been overlooked. Janeway saw the light glint off of it, but had no time to react. He drove the blade into her chest, and Janeway fell to her knees. He rushed past her, and exited the cell, the forcefield still down. That's when Janeway made another mistake. She blocked his exit from the room, which also meant that the security guards couldn't get in. He turned back to her and arced the knife, slicing across the Captain's face from the right side of her forehead to just barely missing her left eye. She cried out in pain, and hurled him with all of her strength against the invisible barrier of the forcefield she had just activated. He crumpled to the ground in pain, out of breath. She immediately stood, blood pouring from her chest wound and dripped in her eyes, blinding her. She reached out and managed to get the knife from him. She wiped her eyes and took down the barrier. She let in Tuvok's security team, and was beamed to the Sickbay. Janeway screamed in a higher pitch and louder than even the Doctor could believe as he healed his Captain. Her back arched in pain and her body was a tense as possible. The muscles, skin, and blood vessels were knitting themselves together, and it hurt. She tried to stifle her voice, but it had no effect. She screamed again, but not as loudly. Tom put a finger in his ear and made a painful face. Janeway saw that he was just joking, and smiled tightly, her pain preventing her from laughing. The Doctor finished, and Janeway let out a deep breath. Her body relaxed a great deal. She was far from feeling better, but it was definitely an improvement. "You should consider singing, Captain. That was quite a pitch." The Doctor said, smiling. Tom nodded. Janeway groaned and said, "Thanks for the encouragement." She tried to sit using her arms to help her up, but her left arm screamed out in pain and she flopped back down. The Doctor looked at her quizzically, and scanned her. "You should not be experiencing pain. I healed your injuries fully." "I'm fine." She insisted, and forced herself to sit, barely wincing. She wanted out. The Doctor let her. "What do you think she found out from the Captain of the Pathfinder?" Tom asked after she had left. The Doctor shrugged. "It couldn't have been good though."
The Pathfinder
"Captain, there is a vessel approaching. It appears to be. Starfleet issue." Lieutenant Tuvok stated. "Hail them." The Captain replied. What has Starfleet gotten themselves into now? She thought. The view screen showed another Intrepid Class ship, the Pathfinder. It looked identical to the Voyager, except equipment was sticking out all over the ship. It seemed a little eerie to see a Federation ship with all of the strange protrusions the Pathfinder had. Janeway recognized it as third in the series. "It seems they've made a few" He paused, trying to find the correct word, "Modifications to the design since we've been gone." Chakotay finished. On the view screen appeared a man in his forties. He had dark hair and deep brown eyes, which were almost black. Something in those eyes didn't seem right to Captain Janeway, and she could tell Chakotay thought so too. He had four pips on his collar, and his uniform was the same as the Voyager's crew. "Captain Janeway, how nice to finally meet you! I've been waiting for the opportunity for a long time. Are you ready to get the hell out of here?" A broad smile was on the man's face, and it seemed natural for him to smile. "It seems we have much to discuss, Captain." She waited for his name. It didn't take long for him to reply. "My apologies, I am Captain Christopher Rossman. I'll beam over in ten minutes with my first officer." Then the screen returned to the star field and the ship. "Chakotay, Tuvok, and B'elanna, meet me in my ready room." She exited the bridge and the three of them entered moments behind the Captain. "I don't trust them. Isn't a little too unlikely that Starfleet sent another ship here?" Janeway looked at the three officers. "He seems sincere enough. Sending the two highest ranking members of the ship does take some trust on their part." B'elanna was the first to reply. "I agree with the Captain. Their ship has modifications from the Borg, Klingons, and Vulcans." Tuvok stated. Janeway almost choked on her coffee. "Borg? I wasn't aware we had formed an alliance with them." Janeway replied sarcastically. Her suspicions were almost confirmed. Chakotay opened his mouth to speak, but the Captain's commbadge beeped. "The guests have arrived." A male voice reported. "Escort them to the briefing room." The four officers proceeded to meet their guests. As Janeway entered the briefing room, she put on her best diplomatic face. Whatever they came here for, she was prepared to find out what it was. Although, she thought, maybe I'm being too paranoid. We'll just have to see. Captain Rossman was already seated on the right side of the table, next to where Janeway would be sitting. His first officer sat beside him. "This is Commander Saloman. I will get right to the point, Captain. We were sent here to upgrade this vessel with some new equipment. Then it will be able to jump all the way to the Alpha Quadrant in a matter of minutes. The adjustments should take about three days. We should begin as soon as possible. No offense, but this isn't exactly where I want to be." He smiled again. Janeway thought for a few moments, assessing the risks and complications. "Well, it seems you are ready to begin as soon as the Engineers are beamed over. I give you permission to board our ship. B'elanna, get your teams ready to assist in any way possible. Captain, I would like to talk to you at 2000 hours. Let's get to work." All of the officers stood, saying goodbyes and departed from the room. Chakotay stayed, and Janeway sighed and looked out the window. "Captain, I would suggest that-" "I know, Commander. They will be under observation at all times. We'll be careful." "That's not what I was going to say. I was trying to tell you to contact Harry's parents and tell them to move the couch, we're coming home." He smiled, that dimpled smile no one could help but loving, and moved toward the window. He stared out at the stars he had become familiar with over the past seven years. He could have sworn the Captain had become a telepath. "We'll never see these stars again if we return. There's no guarantee we'll be able to come back." A certain sense of sorrow overcame the two officers. This Quadrant had become their home, no matter how much difficulty they had encountered. Janeway took Chakotay's put her arm around his shoulders. They stood like that for quite some time. Janeway's commbadge chirped and broke the silence. "Captain, Captain Rossman is ready to see you in your ready room." Tuvok's calm voice stated. Janeway acknowledged, and left the room. When she entered the bridge, Tom's hopeful face greeted her. "Only two days, 20 hours until home." He said and smiled. "Get back to work, Tom." She replied. She crossed to the bridge and entered her home away from home-her ready room. Captain Rossman seemed pleased to see her. "I have the information on this padd. It's a very simple plan, and we may finish ahead of schedule." He said as he handed her the diagrams and statistics she needed. "Thank you Captain," she sat on the couch next to him with a cup of fresh black coffee, "How's Admiral Paris taking all of this?" "She's excited, as anyone would be. The Admiral is already getting the celebrations in order. We have a ticker tape parade planned." Had Janeway heard correctly? She could have sworn Rossman had just said "she". A sudden and intense feeling of fear passed over her. She refused to show any sign of it in her expressions. "Everything's in order, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Captain." "Please, call me Chris." He said as he exited. Janeway was in the messhall bright and early in the morning. It was only 0200 hours, and she had only gotten four hours of sleep. She did, after all, have a trip to plan. The room was empty, except for a single Lieutenant. Her name was Shahara, and her race needed no sleep. Shahara looked like she was only 18, and was very shy. She mostly kept to herself, but she would talk to Janeway. It seemed that she only trusted the Captain. The Captain relocated herself next to the Lieutenant. "Lieutenant Yuy, I want your opinion. Is this possible from the technology we have?" Shahara was an amazing engineer, even rivaling B'elanna. If it was possible, she could do it. "Yes. If they have the right technology, the equipment could be installed. Why?" "I'm just making sure everything checks out. How's your brother? Has he planned the wedding with Ariel Goodman yet?" "He's almost finished. If he ever decides, he'll tell you in the next few days." "Thank you for your help, and good luck to your brother Wing." Janeway stood, and left the messhall. She had taken a liking to Shahara, and spent a lot of time with her when she wasn't working. ** Janeway was by now thoroughly confused. Half of her sources said everything was fine, the others said the Captain was lying. She had to resolve this soon or it would drive her mad. "Come in." A sleepy Chakotay said as he got out of bed. He yawned, and turned on the light. "Commander, we need to know if this man is lying to us." "Good Morning to you too, Kathryn." He smiled and sat in a chair after offering her one. "His story isn't quite right, but his engineering specs are fine. He seems suspicious, yet he's let us come aboard his ship. What's happening?" She flung her arms over the sides of the chair in exasperation. "Why don't you just send some people over to watch?" "Great idea. I'll let Neelix go. He can say he's trading supplies." By this time, Chakotay had walked behind her chair and was massaging her shoulders. She hadn't noticed until that moment, and she realized how much it helped relax her. She smiled. He knew the right time to try and comfort her. "You need rest now, or you'll tire yourself out." He chided playfully. She nodded, and stood. "Thank you for your help." She gave him a gentle smile and left before he could say another word. The repairs were almost complete on the Voyager when the worst possible thing could happen: The Borg. Three cubes appeared from a transwarp conduit, and powered up their weapons. The Voyager and the Pathfinder both received the same message. "We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile." At the same moment, both ships powered up. The Pathfinder fired and blew up a cube in one shot, and made another cube's shields go down to 10%. Voyager destroyed the second cube, and the bridge rocked as phasers sliced through their shields. "Target the third cube and destroy it." Janeway was angry now, and she's not to be threatened in that state. The Voyager let loose a volley of photon torpedoes and phasers, and with the help of the Pathfinder, destroyed it. "Still think they're trying to destroy us?" Tom asked. "He was saving himself, Tom. Not us." "Captain, we have modified shields. We'll only need another two hours until we are finished with the Warp Core." B'elanna announced over Janeway's commbadge. "Acknowledged, and good work, Belanna." She replied. At that moment, the Pathfinder turned toward Voyager, and powered up its weapons. Before anyone had a chance to respond, a phaser beam cut through space like a knife and struck the bow of the Voyager. "Fire everything we've got back at them." She realized something- someone-she had forgotten: Neelix. "Bring her shields down in the section where Neelix is, and beam him back." "Aye, Captain." Tuvok said as another phaser blast struck the ship. A low voice, almost a whisper, sounded over Chakotay's commbadge. "Commander, I have their shield frequency. It's 247.1 megahertz." It was Neelix. Chakotay smiled as he heard the message. Tuvok fired on their weapons systems and life support, both going down before Captain Rossman had realized what happened. "We have Neelix on board, Captain." A female voice said. "Good work." "Unfortunately, all of the Pathfinder's crew have returned to their ship." Janeway sighed. Why had they gone to such lengths to deceive Voyager's crew? What had they wanted? She decided to find out. "Beam the Captain to the brig. Keep a tractor beam on that ship, and don't let them get away. Tuvok, bring a security team and meet me there." She said and walked from the bridge. "Why are you doing this?" She demanded as soon as the doors to the brig swished open. Captain Rossman had the look of ignorance spread across his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Janeway shut down the forcefield and entered the cell at the same time. She got right up into his face and said, "Like hell you don't. I want answers. NOW." He stood perfectly still for a moment, his face betraying no secrets. He shrugged. "I suppose there's no point to not tell you. You're going to kill us anyway." He motioned to the flat surface that would provide a bed for him. Janeway stood still, obviously not going to sit. He shrugged again, and continued. "Well, as I'm sure you'll find out eventually." He was interrupted by Tuvok's entrance. "Captain, the Borg cubes were decoys. They were engineered by the Pathfinder's crew for reasons we are not aware of." Janeway nodded and waved Tuvok away. She wanted to hear what the Captain had to say. "We created the Borg cubes," he continued, "to convince you that we were allies so that we could capture this vessel. Unfortunately, one of my officers decided that he should attack Voyager now." He said, obviously angry. Janeway was intrigued. She pressed forward. "Why would you want to capture this ship? You have more sophisticated technology than this ship does." "Actually, we don't. We were creating a transportation device that would send you directly into dry dock at our home planet. We just created the specs on what could theoretically work, but have been working on the transporter device." He explained. "You still haven't answered the question. Why Voyager?" She asked. "Well, you see," he said, leaning closer and lowering his voice. "It's quite simple." Janeway made her first mistake. She leaned in a little to hear him. He removed a dagger from its sheath that had somehow and been overlooked. Janeway saw the light glint off of it, but had no time to react. He drove the blade into her chest, and Janeway fell to her knees. He rushed past her, and exited the cell, the forcefield still down. That's when Janeway made another mistake. She blocked his exit from the room, which also meant that the security guards couldn't get in. He turned back to her and arced the knife, slicing across the Captain's face from the right side of her forehead to just barely missing her left eye. She cried out in pain, and hurled him with all of her strength against the invisible barrier of the forcefield she had just activated. He crumpled to the ground in pain, out of breath. She immediately stood, blood pouring from her chest wound and dripped in her eyes, blinding her. She reached out and managed to get the knife from him. She wiped her eyes and took down the barrier. She let in Tuvok's security team, and was beamed to the Sickbay. Janeway screamed in a higher pitch and louder than even the Doctor could believe as he healed his Captain. Her back arched in pain and her body was a tense as possible. The muscles, skin, and blood vessels were knitting themselves together, and it hurt. She tried to stifle her voice, but it had no effect. She screamed again, but not as loudly. Tom put a finger in his ear and made a painful face. Janeway saw that he was just joking, and smiled tightly, her pain preventing her from laughing. The Doctor finished, and Janeway let out a deep breath. Her body relaxed a great deal. She was far from feeling better, but it was definitely an improvement. "You should consider singing, Captain. That was quite a pitch." The Doctor said, smiling. Tom nodded. Janeway groaned and said, "Thanks for the encouragement." She tried to sit using her arms to help her up, but her left arm screamed out in pain and she flopped back down. The Doctor looked at her quizzically, and scanned her. "You should not be experiencing pain. I healed your injuries fully." "I'm fine." She insisted, and forced herself to sit, barely wincing. She wanted out. The Doctor let her. "What do you think she found out from the Captain of the Pathfinder?" Tom asked after she had left. The Doctor shrugged. "It couldn't have been good though."