At Face Value - Part 2
Written - 7/03
Summary - A routine supply mission for Janeway and Torres leads to unexpected consequences for the crew when they find themselves entangled in an alien conflict.
Rating - G
Note - This story begins shortly after the incidents in the episode Juggernaut and concludes shortly after the episode Barge of the Dead.
Part 2
Commander's Chakotay and Tuvok were beginning to get concerned about the two women that had transported to the planet several hours earlier. It was now thirty minutes beyond the time they were supposed to check in with the ship and there had been no word from them or from the Hakonene representatives they were to meet. Chakotay had been sitting in his chair on the bridge reading reports and handling the day to day routine of a starship for some time. Now that most of the work was done, he was preoccupied with the fact that there had been no communication with the Captain. "Harry, have we had any communication from the Captain yet?"
"No Sir. Nothing so far." replied the Ensign. It was the fifth time in the last half and hour that Chakotay had asked that question, even though he was well aware of the answer.
"Commander Tuvok, what do you make of the fact that the Captain is now quite late for her appointed check in?" he asked, knowing full well the answer to his question.
Tuvok had been as concerned as Chakotay in his own way and was on the verge of saying something himself. The First Officer had just given him the opportunity he needed. "Commander, as you know, Captain Janeway is not normally lax in following procedure, especially one she has established. While we cannot assume that something has gone wrong, I would think it wise to try to contact her."
"A highly logical suggestion Tuvok, and exactly what I was thinking." Chakotay turned his attention back to his operations officer. "Harry, hail the Hakonene and ask for permission to speak with the Captain."
"Aye sir." Harry's hands moved deftly over the controls as he sent a standard hail to the Hakonene government. "Message received and acknowledged Commander. They are contacting the Captain's team."
"Very good." replied the Commander, and they all settled back to wait for a reply.
Several minutes passed before Harry identified an incoming message. "Commander, the Hakonene ambassador is returning our hail."
"On screen." As the image appeared on the view screen in front of him, Chakotay rose from his seat and approached the center of the bridge. "Greetings Ambassador, but I was hoping to communicate with our Captain."
The Ambassador spoke evenly, "I'm afraid that's not possible."
Chakotay remained outwardly calm, "And why would that be?"
"We are currently under attack by the Veret, an enemy who resides to the south. I am truly sorry Commander, but I'm afraid your captain and chief engineer apparently transported into an area that was under siege when they arrived. We have lost contact with the team that your officers were to meet. I can only assume that they encountered a raiding party. We were unaware of the danger or I assure you we would have taken steps."
Chakotay exchanged a brief but very meaningful glance with Tom Paris at the helm. "Ambassador." Chakotay interrupted as he adjusted his posture to stand ramrod straight and took two more steps forward toward the viewscreen, "Where are our people?" he asked in as stern a tone as possible without becoming obviously threatening.
The Ambassador looked somewhat apologetic when he answered, "Unfortunately we do not know Commander. We have not been in contact with our team for several hours now. There is any number of possibilities as to what could have happened. I would suggest that we not speculate until we have more information to go on."
"May I ask what measures are being taken to get that information?" Chakotay was now barely concealing his impatience, but diplomacy was still the best course of action, at least for the moment.
"I'm sorry to say that we have been unable to get a team to the surface to investigate. That area is now swarming with Veret. It would be extremely hazardous to enter the area at this time even if we had a patrol available to send out. We are experiencing attacks to our perimeter defenses and must concentrate our forces on preventing a full-scale assault should those defenses be breached. The Veret have managed to infiltrate our shield generator through a surface tunnel and have disabled several large sectors of the perimeter grid. We are trying desperately to regain control of the generator to re-establish our security grid. I'm sorry to say that we cannot hope to send a search team until we have the situation under control. Again, I am sorry Commander."
"Ambassador, I cannot offer to assist you in your conflict as we have a strict policy of non-interference. However, under the circumstances, I must insist that you authorize us to conduct a search of our own."
"Given the circumstances, I will grant you permission to send a search party to the surface. But you must understand that it will be at your own risk. I will need you to provide us with the number of people in your team."
Chakotay was pleased he was getting what he needed from the Ambassador to launch a search. There was just one small detail remaining, "Ambassador, I must insist that we be allowed to protect ourselves. That will require us to bring weapons."
The Ambassador considered this request carefully and for a lengthy period of time before responding. "Very well, but you will be allowed only one of your hand weapons for each member of your team. I'm sure you must understand that we must limit the possibility that your technology will fall into enemy hands. Keep in mind that your scanning and communication devices will still not function properly."
"I understand." Chakotay was already formulating a plan in his mind for the search. "I will contact you again when we are ready to send a team to the surface. Please keep us informed if you hear anything about our officers."
"Rest assured Commander, I will immediately pass on any information that comes to me. And Commander, I will hope that you find your officers alive and well."
"Thank you Ambassador. Voyager out." As soon as the screen went blank, Chakotay began to give orders. "Tuvok, assemble the staff in the briefing room in thirty minutes. I'll be in the Captain's ready room until then."
"Aye sir." said Tuvok. And as Chakotay made his was to the ready room, the bridge became unusually quiet as the rest of the bridge crew dealt with their own personal concerns for their captain and chief engineer, in particular, the officer at the helm.
=/\=
After B'Elanna had gone to sleep, Janeway left to search their surroundings as far as she thought was safe. She had discovered that the Hakonene had not been kidding about an arduous journey. She had followed the trail they had taken farther into the tunnel and had discovered that it rapidly became incredibly rocky and steep. She hoped they had not underestimated the time it would take to negotiate their way back to the central cavern. During her travels she had also come across several other passages leading in different directions. While curious about where they led, she was not willing to wander too far from B'Elanna should she be needed.
She spent about three hours wandering the tunnels, periodically retracing her steps to check in on the Lieutenant, always finding her still asleep. After exploring as far as she thought was safe, she headed back to the fire.
Upon returning, she added more grass and wood to the flames, cleaned up their makeshift campsite, and sat down at B'Elanna's side. Within a few minutes she noticed the Lieutenant stirring beside her.
Once her eyes adjusted to the light, B'Elanna found the Captain sitting next to her leaning against the same boulder. "Have you been here the whole time I was asleep?"
"No, I actually just sat down a few minutes ago. I was exploring our surroundings. It's actually been several hours since you were awake last."
"No word from the Hakonene?"
"As a matter of fact, no. And I'm beginning to get concerned. They should have made it to the central cavern and be on their way back by now, but if they had to return by the same route, it might still be a while. I saw the trail they went down, it looks pretty dangerous. We'll just have to be patient.
"Did you think to bring along a deck of cards?" B'Elanna said with a lopsided smile.
"Glad to see you still have a sense of humor. How do you feel?"
The Lieutenant shifted herself to sit up slightly higher against the rock. While uncomfortable, she was happy to see that she could manage to move around better, the rest obviously renewing some of her strength. "Better, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a round of Velocity just yet."
"I have no doubt you'd rise to the challenge if necessary." As she helped B'Elanna get a drink of water, Janeway was again silently grateful for the tenacity of the young woman before her. It certainly made an incredibly difficult situation much easier to deal with. She knew that B'Elanna was in pain, and had to be generally very uncomfortable, not to mention probably harboring a lot of mixed feelings about the whole situation, yet she was doing her level best not to show it. Quite a change from the belligerent, troubled young woman she had displayed on the ship of late.
In the back of Janeway's mind was the thought that the treatment she had provided may have bought them time, but that was all. B'Elanna certainly wouldn't recover without real medical attention. The Captain was confident that she could get herself out of this, but she would not leave her junior officer alone willingly. She hoped and prayed that help would come before she was forced to go find it on her own.
=/\=
Chakotay walked into the briefing room promptly as expected to find the rest of his officers already around the table. Harry, Tom, Tuvok, the Doctor and Seven were all seated, waiting to hear what he had in mind to try to find the Janeway and B'Elanna.
As he moved to the monitor on the wall to the side of the briefing room, he began to discuss his plan. "As you all know by now, Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Torres are missing on the planet. They and the Hakonene team they were supposed to meet are presumed lost in the area of a Veret raid. We know nothing of this race other than the limited information that the Hakonene have provided. I will expect all of you to familiarize yourselves with this information as soon as this meeting is completed."
Tom was extremely impatient to know what the Chakotay had in mind and chose to force the issue. "Commander, aren't we going after them? They may be in danger or hurt somewhere and need our help."
Tom and B'Elanna had a very close romantic relationship. If Chakotay had been out of contact with someone he cared about that much, he would be upset as well. But while he and Captain Janeway did not have a romantic relationship, he most certainly understood how Tom felt. In his own way, he was as concerned for Kathryn as Tom was for B'Elanna, not to mention that B'Elanna was also one of his closest friends, but part of being in command meant that he had to keep his and everyone else's emotions in check. "Tom, I have every intention of sending a team after them. But we all need to be as informed as possible about what we may be up against if we expect to be successful. Tuvok, I want you and the Doctor to form a team and go down to the surface after them."
Tom spoke up again. "But Commander, I thought that I.."
"Easy Tom, I want you and Harry to take the Delta Flyer. Get as close to the surface as you possibly can, but stay out of visual range of any of the Veret on the surface. We don't want them to panic, especially if the Captain and B'Elanna have been taken by them. Your job will be to try to relay communications between the away team and Voyager, and to search for our missing officer's comm signals. I'm hoping you will have better luck than we've had on Voyager due to the proximity to the surface. Seven, I'll need you on the bridge to handle our scans and communications in Harry's absence."
"Very well." Seven was glad her expertise would be used in the search in some way as well. She was also concerned about the missing officers and wanted to help find them.
"Alright people, you have one hour to make any necessary preparations and study the information that the Hakonene have provided. Tuvok, I want your team assembled in transporter room two and ready to beam to the Captain's transport site at that time. Hand phasers only for weapons."
"Aye Sir."
Turning from Tuvok to the two younger officers at that table, he made eye contact with them. "Harry and Tom, I want you ready to launch at the same time."
Both of them nodded their acknowledgement of his orders.
"That's it then. Let's bring our officers home. Dismissed."
=/\=
B'Elanna and the Captain had been talking quietly for some time when B'Elanna's Klingon instincts alerted her to possible danger. "Captain, I think we have company." she said softly.
"From what direction?" asked Janeway.
"That's the problem, not the direction I would have expected. It seems to be coming from the same direction we entered, the surface."
The Captain tried to sound optimistic "Maybe our Hakonene companions made it and have brought back help from the outside."
"Possible, but I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Well, there's nowhere to hide, and they would soon track us down if we tried to run. Better to take our chances facing whoever it is head on. You stay put, I need to clean up a bit and hide anything that may link us directly to the Hakonene, just in case." The Captain said, grabbing her jacket and donning it quickly as she put the camp in order.
B'Elanna wished there was something she could do and began to try to rise to her feet in spite of her captain's order.
Janeway noticed her attempt to rise and immediately stopped her. "B'Elanna, I thought I told you to say put? I don't want to take the chance of aggravating that leg more than necessary. Sit down."
"Yes Ma'am." B'Elanna replied, sounding apologetic.
Janeway's tone had left no room for argument and she knew it, staring intently at her junior officer as she zipped her jacket and placed a few extra bandages inside it. Then she hid the laser cutter in her boot and quickly gathered any possibly suspicious items and stuffed them behind a rock.
She had just finished when a group of five Veret came out of the shadows of the tunnel and surrounded them. Five vicious looking arrows like the one that had injured B'Elanna were pointed directly at them. "Who are you?" snarled the apparent leader of the group. "You do not look like the Hakonene." He focused his gaze on B'Elanna and then back to the Captain.
The Hakonene and the Veret were similar in appearance to humans. The Hakonene had cranial ridges and another pronounced pair of ridges from the base of their ears toward their neck. Most of the Hakonene that they had met also had dark to light brown hair and dark eyes.
The Veret were considerably more human in appearance with the exception that they were much larger on average. They all had extremely dark hair and eyes as well. Janeway and B'Elanna were dwarfed by comparison. By human, and particularly Klingon, standards both women were actually somewhat smaller than most. B'Elanna somewhat resembled the Hakonene, but in actuality Janeway was the most different from the Hakonene or the Veret, her lighter hair and blue eyes different than both. The Veret had obviously noticed the differences, but the similarities were enough that it did not unduly alarm them.
The Universal Translator seemed to have little trouble with the language and Janeway had understood every word. Janeway stood straight and tall directly in front of the leader. "We are visitors here and lost our way in the storms on the surface. We are no threat to you."
"I'll be the judge of that. Search them!" he said as he gave the order with a head movement so he could maintain his aim at Kathryn Janeway's throat.
Janeway raised her chin in the air somewhat defiantly and amazingly maintained her position while a Veret raider jabbed her in the stomach in the process of roughly searching her for any weapons. Luckily he left her comm badge alone.
"This one is injured, Jomar." said the raider nearest B'Elanna over his shoulder to the Veret leader as he dragged her to a standing position and searched her. Janeway saw her cringe, pitch her shoulders forward slightly, and bite her lip as she placed her weight on her injured leg.
Janeway was both awed by B'Elanna's ability to retain her composure and infuriated by their rough treatment of one of her officers. Closing what little distance remained between her and the Veret leader, seemingly heedless of the cold metal arrowhead now pressed to her throat, she let her displeasure be known. "I will not tolerate any mistreatment of my friend."
"You are very demanding for one so small." The leader said, glaring at her.
B'Elanna felt lousy. Just standing up had her vision swimming. She knew they had no way of knowing how she had been injured, or how badly. These Veret had not recognized their clothing either. Therefore, there was every chance this was a different group than had chased them here. Knowing that, she took a chance. "I was injured when I fell in one of the tunnels, striking a sharp rock, I'm fine now."
'Quick thinking B'Elanna.' thought Janeway. But she was acutely aware that the engineer was not fine at all, just a good actress with a tenacious streak.
Janeway was pleased when the raider searching her finally finished and managed to overlook her boots. "No weapons on this one Jomar." the alien who searched her said.
"None here either." said the raider with B'Elanna.
"Good." said Jomar, never taking his attention from Janeway. "What business do you have with our enemies?" he asked her.
Janeway thought quickly. She wasn't sure how much these people knew of space travel, given what their Hakonene companions had said earlier. "We came here from a far away land to trade. We lost our way. We were unaware there was a conflict here or we would have brought weapons of our own. If you let us leave, we will go in peace and never come here again."
"I will think about it. Get your coverings," Jomar said as he pointed toward their parkas on the ground. "You will need them."
Janeway recovered both of their parkas putting hers on first and then assisting the Lieutenant. They exchanged glances for a brief moment, "B'Elanna, can you walk?" asked Janeway quietly, concerned.
"We're about to find out Captain." she said as she bit her lip, pulled herself completely upright, and slowly began to put one foot in front of the other as they were herded in the direction of one of the distant tunnels while one of the Veret kicked dirt on the remnants of their fire.
=/\=
"Chakotay to transporter room two. Commander Tuvok, is your team ready?"
"Yes sir. We are ready to beam to the surface on your order." was Tuvok's crisp reply.
"Transporter chief, energize."
"Aye Sir." The transporter officer followed his orders with a smooth hand movement over the controls and the away team was gone with the customary patterns of light and energy.
Chakotay then turned his attention to the team on the Flyer. "Delta Flyer, acknowledge."
"We're here Commander." said Harry.
"Your turn, get to it."
"Aye Sir." Harry looked at Tom, "Well, let's go."
Tom added to the transmission with the bridge. "We'll bring them back Commander."
"I'm sure you will Ensign. Good luck." Chakotay had no doubt that they would bring them back. He just hoped it would be with both of them in one piece.
TBC
Written - 7/03
Summary - A routine supply mission for Janeway and Torres leads to unexpected consequences for the crew when they find themselves entangled in an alien conflict.
Rating - G
Note - This story begins shortly after the incidents in the episode Juggernaut and concludes shortly after the episode Barge of the Dead.
Part 2
Commander's Chakotay and Tuvok were beginning to get concerned about the two women that had transported to the planet several hours earlier. It was now thirty minutes beyond the time they were supposed to check in with the ship and there had been no word from them or from the Hakonene representatives they were to meet. Chakotay had been sitting in his chair on the bridge reading reports and handling the day to day routine of a starship for some time. Now that most of the work was done, he was preoccupied with the fact that there had been no communication with the Captain. "Harry, have we had any communication from the Captain yet?"
"No Sir. Nothing so far." replied the Ensign. It was the fifth time in the last half and hour that Chakotay had asked that question, even though he was well aware of the answer.
"Commander Tuvok, what do you make of the fact that the Captain is now quite late for her appointed check in?" he asked, knowing full well the answer to his question.
Tuvok had been as concerned as Chakotay in his own way and was on the verge of saying something himself. The First Officer had just given him the opportunity he needed. "Commander, as you know, Captain Janeway is not normally lax in following procedure, especially one she has established. While we cannot assume that something has gone wrong, I would think it wise to try to contact her."
"A highly logical suggestion Tuvok, and exactly what I was thinking." Chakotay turned his attention back to his operations officer. "Harry, hail the Hakonene and ask for permission to speak with the Captain."
"Aye sir." Harry's hands moved deftly over the controls as he sent a standard hail to the Hakonene government. "Message received and acknowledged Commander. They are contacting the Captain's team."
"Very good." replied the Commander, and they all settled back to wait for a reply.
Several minutes passed before Harry identified an incoming message. "Commander, the Hakonene ambassador is returning our hail."
"On screen." As the image appeared on the view screen in front of him, Chakotay rose from his seat and approached the center of the bridge. "Greetings Ambassador, but I was hoping to communicate with our Captain."
The Ambassador spoke evenly, "I'm afraid that's not possible."
Chakotay remained outwardly calm, "And why would that be?"
"We are currently under attack by the Veret, an enemy who resides to the south. I am truly sorry Commander, but I'm afraid your captain and chief engineer apparently transported into an area that was under siege when they arrived. We have lost contact with the team that your officers were to meet. I can only assume that they encountered a raiding party. We were unaware of the danger or I assure you we would have taken steps."
Chakotay exchanged a brief but very meaningful glance with Tom Paris at the helm. "Ambassador." Chakotay interrupted as he adjusted his posture to stand ramrod straight and took two more steps forward toward the viewscreen, "Where are our people?" he asked in as stern a tone as possible without becoming obviously threatening.
The Ambassador looked somewhat apologetic when he answered, "Unfortunately we do not know Commander. We have not been in contact with our team for several hours now. There is any number of possibilities as to what could have happened. I would suggest that we not speculate until we have more information to go on."
"May I ask what measures are being taken to get that information?" Chakotay was now barely concealing his impatience, but diplomacy was still the best course of action, at least for the moment.
"I'm sorry to say that we have been unable to get a team to the surface to investigate. That area is now swarming with Veret. It would be extremely hazardous to enter the area at this time even if we had a patrol available to send out. We are experiencing attacks to our perimeter defenses and must concentrate our forces on preventing a full-scale assault should those defenses be breached. The Veret have managed to infiltrate our shield generator through a surface tunnel and have disabled several large sectors of the perimeter grid. We are trying desperately to regain control of the generator to re-establish our security grid. I'm sorry to say that we cannot hope to send a search team until we have the situation under control. Again, I am sorry Commander."
"Ambassador, I cannot offer to assist you in your conflict as we have a strict policy of non-interference. However, under the circumstances, I must insist that you authorize us to conduct a search of our own."
"Given the circumstances, I will grant you permission to send a search party to the surface. But you must understand that it will be at your own risk. I will need you to provide us with the number of people in your team."
Chakotay was pleased he was getting what he needed from the Ambassador to launch a search. There was just one small detail remaining, "Ambassador, I must insist that we be allowed to protect ourselves. That will require us to bring weapons."
The Ambassador considered this request carefully and for a lengthy period of time before responding. "Very well, but you will be allowed only one of your hand weapons for each member of your team. I'm sure you must understand that we must limit the possibility that your technology will fall into enemy hands. Keep in mind that your scanning and communication devices will still not function properly."
"I understand." Chakotay was already formulating a plan in his mind for the search. "I will contact you again when we are ready to send a team to the surface. Please keep us informed if you hear anything about our officers."
"Rest assured Commander, I will immediately pass on any information that comes to me. And Commander, I will hope that you find your officers alive and well."
"Thank you Ambassador. Voyager out." As soon as the screen went blank, Chakotay began to give orders. "Tuvok, assemble the staff in the briefing room in thirty minutes. I'll be in the Captain's ready room until then."
"Aye sir." said Tuvok. And as Chakotay made his was to the ready room, the bridge became unusually quiet as the rest of the bridge crew dealt with their own personal concerns for their captain and chief engineer, in particular, the officer at the helm.
=/\=
After B'Elanna had gone to sleep, Janeway left to search their surroundings as far as she thought was safe. She had discovered that the Hakonene had not been kidding about an arduous journey. She had followed the trail they had taken farther into the tunnel and had discovered that it rapidly became incredibly rocky and steep. She hoped they had not underestimated the time it would take to negotiate their way back to the central cavern. During her travels she had also come across several other passages leading in different directions. While curious about where they led, she was not willing to wander too far from B'Elanna should she be needed.
She spent about three hours wandering the tunnels, periodically retracing her steps to check in on the Lieutenant, always finding her still asleep. After exploring as far as she thought was safe, she headed back to the fire.
Upon returning, she added more grass and wood to the flames, cleaned up their makeshift campsite, and sat down at B'Elanna's side. Within a few minutes she noticed the Lieutenant stirring beside her.
Once her eyes adjusted to the light, B'Elanna found the Captain sitting next to her leaning against the same boulder. "Have you been here the whole time I was asleep?"
"No, I actually just sat down a few minutes ago. I was exploring our surroundings. It's actually been several hours since you were awake last."
"No word from the Hakonene?"
"As a matter of fact, no. And I'm beginning to get concerned. They should have made it to the central cavern and be on their way back by now, but if they had to return by the same route, it might still be a while. I saw the trail they went down, it looks pretty dangerous. We'll just have to be patient.
"Did you think to bring along a deck of cards?" B'Elanna said with a lopsided smile.
"Glad to see you still have a sense of humor. How do you feel?"
The Lieutenant shifted herself to sit up slightly higher against the rock. While uncomfortable, she was happy to see that she could manage to move around better, the rest obviously renewing some of her strength. "Better, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a round of Velocity just yet."
"I have no doubt you'd rise to the challenge if necessary." As she helped B'Elanna get a drink of water, Janeway was again silently grateful for the tenacity of the young woman before her. It certainly made an incredibly difficult situation much easier to deal with. She knew that B'Elanna was in pain, and had to be generally very uncomfortable, not to mention probably harboring a lot of mixed feelings about the whole situation, yet she was doing her level best not to show it. Quite a change from the belligerent, troubled young woman she had displayed on the ship of late.
In the back of Janeway's mind was the thought that the treatment she had provided may have bought them time, but that was all. B'Elanna certainly wouldn't recover without real medical attention. The Captain was confident that she could get herself out of this, but she would not leave her junior officer alone willingly. She hoped and prayed that help would come before she was forced to go find it on her own.
=/\=
Chakotay walked into the briefing room promptly as expected to find the rest of his officers already around the table. Harry, Tom, Tuvok, the Doctor and Seven were all seated, waiting to hear what he had in mind to try to find the Janeway and B'Elanna.
As he moved to the monitor on the wall to the side of the briefing room, he began to discuss his plan. "As you all know by now, Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Torres are missing on the planet. They and the Hakonene team they were supposed to meet are presumed lost in the area of a Veret raid. We know nothing of this race other than the limited information that the Hakonene have provided. I will expect all of you to familiarize yourselves with this information as soon as this meeting is completed."
Tom was extremely impatient to know what the Chakotay had in mind and chose to force the issue. "Commander, aren't we going after them? They may be in danger or hurt somewhere and need our help."
Tom and B'Elanna had a very close romantic relationship. If Chakotay had been out of contact with someone he cared about that much, he would be upset as well. But while he and Captain Janeway did not have a romantic relationship, he most certainly understood how Tom felt. In his own way, he was as concerned for Kathryn as Tom was for B'Elanna, not to mention that B'Elanna was also one of his closest friends, but part of being in command meant that he had to keep his and everyone else's emotions in check. "Tom, I have every intention of sending a team after them. But we all need to be as informed as possible about what we may be up against if we expect to be successful. Tuvok, I want you and the Doctor to form a team and go down to the surface after them."
Tom spoke up again. "But Commander, I thought that I.."
"Easy Tom, I want you and Harry to take the Delta Flyer. Get as close to the surface as you possibly can, but stay out of visual range of any of the Veret on the surface. We don't want them to panic, especially if the Captain and B'Elanna have been taken by them. Your job will be to try to relay communications between the away team and Voyager, and to search for our missing officer's comm signals. I'm hoping you will have better luck than we've had on Voyager due to the proximity to the surface. Seven, I'll need you on the bridge to handle our scans and communications in Harry's absence."
"Very well." Seven was glad her expertise would be used in the search in some way as well. She was also concerned about the missing officers and wanted to help find them.
"Alright people, you have one hour to make any necessary preparations and study the information that the Hakonene have provided. Tuvok, I want your team assembled in transporter room two and ready to beam to the Captain's transport site at that time. Hand phasers only for weapons."
"Aye Sir."
Turning from Tuvok to the two younger officers at that table, he made eye contact with them. "Harry and Tom, I want you ready to launch at the same time."
Both of them nodded their acknowledgement of his orders.
"That's it then. Let's bring our officers home. Dismissed."
=/\=
B'Elanna and the Captain had been talking quietly for some time when B'Elanna's Klingon instincts alerted her to possible danger. "Captain, I think we have company." she said softly.
"From what direction?" asked Janeway.
"That's the problem, not the direction I would have expected. It seems to be coming from the same direction we entered, the surface."
The Captain tried to sound optimistic "Maybe our Hakonene companions made it and have brought back help from the outside."
"Possible, but I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Well, there's nowhere to hide, and they would soon track us down if we tried to run. Better to take our chances facing whoever it is head on. You stay put, I need to clean up a bit and hide anything that may link us directly to the Hakonene, just in case." The Captain said, grabbing her jacket and donning it quickly as she put the camp in order.
B'Elanna wished there was something she could do and began to try to rise to her feet in spite of her captain's order.
Janeway noticed her attempt to rise and immediately stopped her. "B'Elanna, I thought I told you to say put? I don't want to take the chance of aggravating that leg more than necessary. Sit down."
"Yes Ma'am." B'Elanna replied, sounding apologetic.
Janeway's tone had left no room for argument and she knew it, staring intently at her junior officer as she zipped her jacket and placed a few extra bandages inside it. Then she hid the laser cutter in her boot and quickly gathered any possibly suspicious items and stuffed them behind a rock.
She had just finished when a group of five Veret came out of the shadows of the tunnel and surrounded them. Five vicious looking arrows like the one that had injured B'Elanna were pointed directly at them. "Who are you?" snarled the apparent leader of the group. "You do not look like the Hakonene." He focused his gaze on B'Elanna and then back to the Captain.
The Hakonene and the Veret were similar in appearance to humans. The Hakonene had cranial ridges and another pronounced pair of ridges from the base of their ears toward their neck. Most of the Hakonene that they had met also had dark to light brown hair and dark eyes.
The Veret were considerably more human in appearance with the exception that they were much larger on average. They all had extremely dark hair and eyes as well. Janeway and B'Elanna were dwarfed by comparison. By human, and particularly Klingon, standards both women were actually somewhat smaller than most. B'Elanna somewhat resembled the Hakonene, but in actuality Janeway was the most different from the Hakonene or the Veret, her lighter hair and blue eyes different than both. The Veret had obviously noticed the differences, but the similarities were enough that it did not unduly alarm them.
The Universal Translator seemed to have little trouble with the language and Janeway had understood every word. Janeway stood straight and tall directly in front of the leader. "We are visitors here and lost our way in the storms on the surface. We are no threat to you."
"I'll be the judge of that. Search them!" he said as he gave the order with a head movement so he could maintain his aim at Kathryn Janeway's throat.
Janeway raised her chin in the air somewhat defiantly and amazingly maintained her position while a Veret raider jabbed her in the stomach in the process of roughly searching her for any weapons. Luckily he left her comm badge alone.
"This one is injured, Jomar." said the raider nearest B'Elanna over his shoulder to the Veret leader as he dragged her to a standing position and searched her. Janeway saw her cringe, pitch her shoulders forward slightly, and bite her lip as she placed her weight on her injured leg.
Janeway was both awed by B'Elanna's ability to retain her composure and infuriated by their rough treatment of one of her officers. Closing what little distance remained between her and the Veret leader, seemingly heedless of the cold metal arrowhead now pressed to her throat, she let her displeasure be known. "I will not tolerate any mistreatment of my friend."
"You are very demanding for one so small." The leader said, glaring at her.
B'Elanna felt lousy. Just standing up had her vision swimming. She knew they had no way of knowing how she had been injured, or how badly. These Veret had not recognized their clothing either. Therefore, there was every chance this was a different group than had chased them here. Knowing that, she took a chance. "I was injured when I fell in one of the tunnels, striking a sharp rock, I'm fine now."
'Quick thinking B'Elanna.' thought Janeway. But she was acutely aware that the engineer was not fine at all, just a good actress with a tenacious streak.
Janeway was pleased when the raider searching her finally finished and managed to overlook her boots. "No weapons on this one Jomar." the alien who searched her said.
"None here either." said the raider with B'Elanna.
"Good." said Jomar, never taking his attention from Janeway. "What business do you have with our enemies?" he asked her.
Janeway thought quickly. She wasn't sure how much these people knew of space travel, given what their Hakonene companions had said earlier. "We came here from a far away land to trade. We lost our way. We were unaware there was a conflict here or we would have brought weapons of our own. If you let us leave, we will go in peace and never come here again."
"I will think about it. Get your coverings," Jomar said as he pointed toward their parkas on the ground. "You will need them."
Janeway recovered both of their parkas putting hers on first and then assisting the Lieutenant. They exchanged glances for a brief moment, "B'Elanna, can you walk?" asked Janeway quietly, concerned.
"We're about to find out Captain." she said as she bit her lip, pulled herself completely upright, and slowly began to put one foot in front of the other as they were herded in the direction of one of the distant tunnels while one of the Veret kicked dirt on the remnants of their fire.
=/\=
"Chakotay to transporter room two. Commander Tuvok, is your team ready?"
"Yes sir. We are ready to beam to the surface on your order." was Tuvok's crisp reply.
"Transporter chief, energize."
"Aye Sir." The transporter officer followed his orders with a smooth hand movement over the controls and the away team was gone with the customary patterns of light and energy.
Chakotay then turned his attention to the team on the Flyer. "Delta Flyer, acknowledge."
"We're here Commander." said Harry.
"Your turn, get to it."
"Aye Sir." Harry looked at Tom, "Well, let's go."
Tom added to the transmission with the bridge. "We'll bring them back Commander."
"I'm sure you will Ensign. Good luck." Chakotay had no doubt that they would bring them back. He just hoped it would be with both of them in one piece.
TBC