Star Trek:
Voyager
The Q & I
Chapter 1
Kathryn Janeway awoke at 0500 hours and knew something was wrong. Every instructor she had ever had at the academy said the best captains relied on three things: their crews, their ships, and their instinct. And right now, she was filled with an inexplicable sense of foreboding. She had come to know this same feeling ever since Voyager had been thrown into the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant on its maiden voyage. That had been six years ago, and since then she had taken on the Kazon, the Vidiians, the Hirogen, the Borg, and more than enough threatening alien races to fill in the boring days. In fact, boring days were few and far between out here, and often considered a precious commodity.
Janeway got out of bed and logged onto her computer. She went over every system, trying to find the source of her apprehension. The communications system was in perfect order. The navigational deflector was at 98 percent efficiency, and the shields were being repaired after a navigational error had brought the ship out of warp a little to close to a gravimetric shear this morning. The matter/antimatter reaction chambers were undergoing routine maintenance. The Impulse and Warp drives were working well, and the sensors and probes were in good repair and in good supply, respectively. The structural integrity field, however, was functioning just enough to allow the ship to go to warp without being crushed like a tin can. The transporters were almost perfectly, save for targeting scanners 3 and 5, which had been physically ripped off of the hull in the incident earlier today. And finally, last on the list, as Janeway always thought it should be on a science vessel, were the weapons: the phasers and photon torpedoes. The phasers were fine, and the torpedoes worked as well, or they would have, if there actually were any.
So, the ship was not the cause of her concerns. That gave her a sense of comfort, knowing that the ship was in relatively good condition, but it also made her even more nervous, because if the ship wasn't the reason for her seemingly unwarranted fear, something else was.
She looked at the clock - it read 0700. The night was over as far as sleep went, anyway, so she decided she would go to the bridge early today. In fact, she went early nearly every day. True, the stresses of command often made her tense, and she couldn't remember the last time she was well rested, but she loved the challenges the Delta Quadrant had to offer her. Though they were far from home, Janeway knew she wasn't the only one who didn't want to miss any of this opportunity. That was what the Delta Quadrant was - a gold mine of new space to explore, and a once in a lifetime chance, because it would take nearly a lifetime even to arrive here, and forget going back to report what you had seen. In that respect, the Caretaker had done them a great favor. All the crew had to do now was return with every sensor reading and visual log they could. The sense of truly unexplored space, being the first federation crew ever in the Delta Quadrant, brought Janeway back to her childhood in the big fields surrounding her house in Indiana. At a very young age, young Katherine had learned to love a fresh snowfall, because the next day promised adventures to rival all others. And the most wonderful moment was taking that first step in the crisp, even snow, because it let her feel as if she were the first person ever to step upon that land. There were no footprints of any kind. The snow was a big blank canvas for her to create whatever she wanted: snow angels, snowmen, and maybe even an occasional snow Vulcan. She loved that feeling, and as she grew she came to know it as the explorer in her. Being the first to see a place, before anyone else, to be able to say that you had actually discovered something, was truly remarkable. That was what drove her onward, even in the face of danger to herself, her ship, and her crew. That was the kind of thing she lived for. And so she embraced the day. She took a sonic shower, replicated a clean uniform, walked toward the door... and slammed right into it. After shaking her head a few times to clear it, she reached for her comm badge, and promptly realized it wasn't there. She had forgotten to attach it. How could the commander of a starship make such careless mistakes? Maybe she should go back to bed after all. She picked the badge up off of its place on the nightstand, attached it in its usual place, and tapped it.
"Janeway to engineering."
"Go ahead" came B'Elanna Torres' voice. She sounded tired, and after crawling around in a matter/antimatter reaction chamber for 4 hours, she had every right to be.
"I know you're busy B'Elanna, but I have a minor situation here. I'm in my quarters and the doors won't open."
"Just a moment, I'll run a diagnostic." B'Elanna said. A few minutes of silence went by, and then B'Elanna chuckled softly and said, "Captain, I think it might open if you disengaged the lock."
Janeway was really taken aback by her own stupidity, and then remembered B'Elanna was still on the line. "Thank you, B'Elanna, and I'm sorry for bothering you."
"It's no problem, captain. Is something on your mind?"
"Only everything. Janeway out."
Harry Kim sat alone on the bridge of the starship Voyager, with only his thoughts to keep him company. This was the part of the day he most looked forward to. The night shift had just left, leaving him alone on the bridge. Soon the day shift would come and interrupt his solitude, but he had about a half hour just to him. And in that half hour, he was in control of the ship. He was alone in the brain of the mighty vessel. In an emergency, the ship would do anything he asked, relying on him to make all the decisions for it.
Yes, were emergencies to arise, the one known as Ensign Eager would rise up and lead the ship valiantly out of danger... if anything were to happen. But today had been uneventful, so Harry was content to stand at his station behind the OPS console, carefully watching the status reports for any change that might warrant summoning Commander Chakotay, or even the Captain herself.
Actually, were anything to happen tonight, the Captain would already know. Harry's console showed two people logged onto the ship's status display. One was B'Elanna Torres, the ship chief engineer, who was most likely checking for any problems in any system anywhere on the ship. Torres was a good worker, although sometimes bit too thorough. She would go without sleep for days just to perform routine operations. Running a diagnostic on the power distribution network meant, to Harry, running a simple diagnostic program to check for any errors. Running a diagnostic on the power distribution network meant to Torres, however, personally checking every wire, transmitter, and receiver in the whole array. If the ship were not at nearly constant warp velocities, she would probably check the outer hull of the ship for cracks on a regular basis.
The other person logged onto the computer was Captain Janeway. Harry sighed. It looked as if, once again, the captain was losing sleep, probably over nothing more serious than a point-zero-three phase variance in the Bussard collectors.
Harry was musing over these things when the captain suddenly signed off. Good. She was going to get some sleep. Harry liked Captain Janeway and respected her judgment, but if she kept pushing forward without sleep, he would say something about his concerns to Chakotay. After all, was the ship safe in the hands of a woman who was falling asleep in the middle of giving orders?
Harry had been going over all these things in his mind, when the turbolift doors opened and Captain Janeway stepped onto the bridge. She looked tense, so in order to help cheer her, he stood tall and announced, "Captain on deck". It did the trick. She smiled before sitting down in her seat.
They engaged in small talk for a short time. The senior staff came onto the bridge, and the day was looking to be routine and uneventful, but that was not to last. The ship pitched forward so sharply that Lieutenant Tom Paris was thrown over his console, then evened out once again.
"No ships detected in the area," Tuvok, Voyager's chief of security, reported. "We are not under attack."
Then the comm system was activated. "Engineering to bridge, this is Torres."
"Go ahead, B'Elanna," Janeway replied. "What just happened?"
"Well, it looks like that shear we ran into today did even more damage to the ship than we thought. I can't repair the ship while we're moving. We need to pull in at a port in order to repair the damage."
"Understood. Janeway out" Janeway said. Then she turned her attention to Tuvok.
"Tuvok, are there any planets nearby?"
"Yes, captain. I am reading a single class M planet three light-years away. They have complex structures and what appear to be starbases."
"Very good. Tom, set a course. Warp 5."
Paris set the course, engaged the warp engines, and the ship was on its way. About an hour later, they arrived.
"We are being hailed," said Tuvok, "by a King Quana, the ruler of the planet."
"Put him onscreen," said Janeway.
Tuvok complied, and what the bridge crew saw next surprised them to no end.
King Quana said simply, "Kathy! Long time, no see!" The king recognized Captain Janeway, and well he should, since he was Q.
Voyager
The Q & I
Chapter 1
Kathryn Janeway awoke at 0500 hours and knew something was wrong. Every instructor she had ever had at the academy said the best captains relied on three things: their crews, their ships, and their instinct. And right now, she was filled with an inexplicable sense of foreboding. She had come to know this same feeling ever since Voyager had been thrown into the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant on its maiden voyage. That had been six years ago, and since then she had taken on the Kazon, the Vidiians, the Hirogen, the Borg, and more than enough threatening alien races to fill in the boring days. In fact, boring days were few and far between out here, and often considered a precious commodity.
Janeway got out of bed and logged onto her computer. She went over every system, trying to find the source of her apprehension. The communications system was in perfect order. The navigational deflector was at 98 percent efficiency, and the shields were being repaired after a navigational error had brought the ship out of warp a little to close to a gravimetric shear this morning. The matter/antimatter reaction chambers were undergoing routine maintenance. The Impulse and Warp drives were working well, and the sensors and probes were in good repair and in good supply, respectively. The structural integrity field, however, was functioning just enough to allow the ship to go to warp without being crushed like a tin can. The transporters were almost perfectly, save for targeting scanners 3 and 5, which had been physically ripped off of the hull in the incident earlier today. And finally, last on the list, as Janeway always thought it should be on a science vessel, were the weapons: the phasers and photon torpedoes. The phasers were fine, and the torpedoes worked as well, or they would have, if there actually were any.
So, the ship was not the cause of her concerns. That gave her a sense of comfort, knowing that the ship was in relatively good condition, but it also made her even more nervous, because if the ship wasn't the reason for her seemingly unwarranted fear, something else was.
She looked at the clock - it read 0700. The night was over as far as sleep went, anyway, so she decided she would go to the bridge early today. In fact, she went early nearly every day. True, the stresses of command often made her tense, and she couldn't remember the last time she was well rested, but she loved the challenges the Delta Quadrant had to offer her. Though they were far from home, Janeway knew she wasn't the only one who didn't want to miss any of this opportunity. That was what the Delta Quadrant was - a gold mine of new space to explore, and a once in a lifetime chance, because it would take nearly a lifetime even to arrive here, and forget going back to report what you had seen. In that respect, the Caretaker had done them a great favor. All the crew had to do now was return with every sensor reading and visual log they could. The sense of truly unexplored space, being the first federation crew ever in the Delta Quadrant, brought Janeway back to her childhood in the big fields surrounding her house in Indiana. At a very young age, young Katherine had learned to love a fresh snowfall, because the next day promised adventures to rival all others. And the most wonderful moment was taking that first step in the crisp, even snow, because it let her feel as if she were the first person ever to step upon that land. There were no footprints of any kind. The snow was a big blank canvas for her to create whatever she wanted: snow angels, snowmen, and maybe even an occasional snow Vulcan. She loved that feeling, and as she grew she came to know it as the explorer in her. Being the first to see a place, before anyone else, to be able to say that you had actually discovered something, was truly remarkable. That was what drove her onward, even in the face of danger to herself, her ship, and her crew. That was the kind of thing she lived for. And so she embraced the day. She took a sonic shower, replicated a clean uniform, walked toward the door... and slammed right into it. After shaking her head a few times to clear it, she reached for her comm badge, and promptly realized it wasn't there. She had forgotten to attach it. How could the commander of a starship make such careless mistakes? Maybe she should go back to bed after all. She picked the badge up off of its place on the nightstand, attached it in its usual place, and tapped it.
"Janeway to engineering."
"Go ahead" came B'Elanna Torres' voice. She sounded tired, and after crawling around in a matter/antimatter reaction chamber for 4 hours, she had every right to be.
"I know you're busy B'Elanna, but I have a minor situation here. I'm in my quarters and the doors won't open."
"Just a moment, I'll run a diagnostic." B'Elanna said. A few minutes of silence went by, and then B'Elanna chuckled softly and said, "Captain, I think it might open if you disengaged the lock."
Janeway was really taken aback by her own stupidity, and then remembered B'Elanna was still on the line. "Thank you, B'Elanna, and I'm sorry for bothering you."
"It's no problem, captain. Is something on your mind?"
"Only everything. Janeway out."
Harry Kim sat alone on the bridge of the starship Voyager, with only his thoughts to keep him company. This was the part of the day he most looked forward to. The night shift had just left, leaving him alone on the bridge. Soon the day shift would come and interrupt his solitude, but he had about a half hour just to him. And in that half hour, he was in control of the ship. He was alone in the brain of the mighty vessel. In an emergency, the ship would do anything he asked, relying on him to make all the decisions for it.
Yes, were emergencies to arise, the one known as Ensign Eager would rise up and lead the ship valiantly out of danger... if anything were to happen. But today had been uneventful, so Harry was content to stand at his station behind the OPS console, carefully watching the status reports for any change that might warrant summoning Commander Chakotay, or even the Captain herself.
Actually, were anything to happen tonight, the Captain would already know. Harry's console showed two people logged onto the ship's status display. One was B'Elanna Torres, the ship chief engineer, who was most likely checking for any problems in any system anywhere on the ship. Torres was a good worker, although sometimes bit too thorough. She would go without sleep for days just to perform routine operations. Running a diagnostic on the power distribution network meant, to Harry, running a simple diagnostic program to check for any errors. Running a diagnostic on the power distribution network meant to Torres, however, personally checking every wire, transmitter, and receiver in the whole array. If the ship were not at nearly constant warp velocities, she would probably check the outer hull of the ship for cracks on a regular basis.
The other person logged onto the computer was Captain Janeway. Harry sighed. It looked as if, once again, the captain was losing sleep, probably over nothing more serious than a point-zero-three phase variance in the Bussard collectors.
Harry was musing over these things when the captain suddenly signed off. Good. She was going to get some sleep. Harry liked Captain Janeway and respected her judgment, but if she kept pushing forward without sleep, he would say something about his concerns to Chakotay. After all, was the ship safe in the hands of a woman who was falling asleep in the middle of giving orders?
Harry had been going over all these things in his mind, when the turbolift doors opened and Captain Janeway stepped onto the bridge. She looked tense, so in order to help cheer her, he stood tall and announced, "Captain on deck". It did the trick. She smiled before sitting down in her seat.
They engaged in small talk for a short time. The senior staff came onto the bridge, and the day was looking to be routine and uneventful, but that was not to last. The ship pitched forward so sharply that Lieutenant Tom Paris was thrown over his console, then evened out once again.
"No ships detected in the area," Tuvok, Voyager's chief of security, reported. "We are not under attack."
Then the comm system was activated. "Engineering to bridge, this is Torres."
"Go ahead, B'Elanna," Janeway replied. "What just happened?"
"Well, it looks like that shear we ran into today did even more damage to the ship than we thought. I can't repair the ship while we're moving. We need to pull in at a port in order to repair the damage."
"Understood. Janeway out" Janeway said. Then she turned her attention to Tuvok.
"Tuvok, are there any planets nearby?"
"Yes, captain. I am reading a single class M planet three light-years away. They have complex structures and what appear to be starbases."
"Very good. Tom, set a course. Warp 5."
Paris set the course, engaged the warp engines, and the ship was on its way. About an hour later, they arrived.
"We are being hailed," said Tuvok, "by a King Quana, the ruler of the planet."
"Put him onscreen," said Janeway.
Tuvok complied, and what the bridge crew saw next surprised them to no end.
King Quana said simply, "Kathy! Long time, no see!" The king recognized Captain Janeway, and well he should, since he was Q.