Title: Amaya

Summary: While on a dilithium mining mission, Kathryn runs into a surprise. ChakotayKathryn

Disclaimer: I do not own Voyager or its crew sadly :'( ... i only own what was not in the series (you'll find out soon)

Prologue

The Federation Starship Voyager drifted through the nebula slowly. What normally was just a beautiful interstellar phenomenon, was now their only chance for survival. A week had passed since Captain Janeway and crew had to take refugee in the sensor blinding cloud. A week full of repairs and stress.

Repairs were going extremely slow. They barely had energy to raise shields, let alone to fire a phaser. The unknown alien attack had left them extremely vulnerable and beaten up. They were literally dead in the water, the only thing moving them were the currents of gas and phosphor in the nebula. Their chances for a dilithium refit had been taken away. Voyager couldn't function without it. It was essential. Before entering the could, they had discovered a source of dilithium on a planet near the cloud. The only problem was, the ship wont be going anywhere until Engineering got impulse and the warp coil to work.

B'Elanna Torres took a short breath and impatiently blew at a strand of hair that had fallen across her eyes. She was on her knees and elbow deep inside a relay station and the recalcitrant wisp was just one more irritation in a series of annoyances that had plagued her all morning. She made one last adjustment to
the EPS network, stood up, and turned to her control station.

"Okay, let's do it again."

"Yes ma'am." Harry Kim replied and she rewarded him with a glare that would have done Kathryn Janeway proud.

"That's not funny Harry. We're sitting ducks right now. The warp core's off line and we can barely move at impulse. I promised the captain I'd get the defense system recalibrated and back up and running today, and I'm going to do it."

Voyager's engineering staff moved quickly and efficiently to obey her orders. She had promised them all extra time off if they met her deadline, and besides Lieutenant Torres was on a tear today, and no one wanted to incur her displeasure.

"Harry, we can get this to work. Adjust for gravimetric shear another three degrees. That should reduce the pulse and eliminate the reverberation."

Harry's fingers flew over his console as he made the corrections she requested.

"Activate the conversion matrix and begin the countdown. Let's go."

"Activated."

"Countdown to begin on my mark." She paused for a moment and made another entry on her console. "Now."

"Counting down from 10 seconds" Harry responded.

Voyager vibrated again as she sent another shockwave out into space.

"Damn." B'Elanna checked the readings on her console. "Harry, are you sure you made it exactly three degrees? Check the.."

"B'Elanna, I've adjusted it six times, exactly to your specifications. Maybe we should take a break."

"I don't need a break. I need this to work. Seven"

"I am here Lieutenant." The former drone appeared almost immediately at B'Elanna's elbow.

"I asked you to realign the deflector to compensate for the neutrino bursts."

"I have done as you directed Lieutenant. The problem is not with the deflector."

"Don't tell me what the problem isn't. Let's find out what the problem is."

She tossed her a PADD that had been resting on the edge of her console.

"Here. See if your Borg ingenuity can come up with a solution."

Seven of Nine raised an eyebrow and looked at Harry Kim, who just grinned and shrugged. Seven held his gaze for a second and then looked down at the PADD.

"In the meantime Harry," Torres turned and addressed him again. "Divert the neutrino emissions into the exhaust system."

"I'm due back on the bridge in five minutes B'El"

She glared at him again.

Harry nodded and did as he was ordered.

"Fire."

The ship shuddered even more violently than the last time as another wave of energy was thrown out into the void.

All three of them watched the readings as they appeared on the screen in front of them.

"Janeway to Torres. What's going on down there, Lieutenant?" Kathryn Janeway's voice came over the comm system.

"Captain, it's taking a little longer than I thought to work the kinks out of the matter conversion matrix. I'm trying to rebuild the entire defense system here."

"I appreciate what you're doing B'Elanna. I just want to make sure Voyager survives the improvements."

"Captain, your ship will be just fine." Torres out. She slapped at her comm badge and turned back to her console.

Harry sighed. It was going to be a long shift.