Chapter 3

"Two of us were chosen to stay behind and care for them."

Harry looked at the information in front of him, silently waiting for the inevitable question. He could have just blurted out the information, but he had found that there was a certain rhythm to the sharing of information on the bridge.

But his thoughts were torn between the information on the screens and the implications thereof regarding the news Libby had given him just this morning. He wished he could be with her now, but he knew the best thing he could do for them now was to stay at his post and to give his best.

"What is it, Harry?" Janeway asked.

"Admiral, the Daedalus is drifting off our port bow," he began. "But you might want to take a look at this." He manipulated a control and the view on the front screen changed to that of a peculiar array hanging in space. It resembled a flower, opened at its prime.

It was extremely familiar.

"The Caretaker's array," Janeway breathed.

"But we destroyed it," Chakotay frowned. He looked at Kim. Harry glanced at the information on the panel before giving the explanation everyone wanted from him.

"It's not the Caretaker's array, but the female entity's array. Voyager instantly recognized it. This is Suspiria's array." Harry heaved a big sigh, glad that was done.

The bridge was quiet as everyone tried to make sense of the information. Suspiria was one of two sporocystian life-forms that had come from another galaxy. Their technology had destroyed the atmosphere of the Ocampa homeworld and these two entities had been chosen to stay behind and take care of the Ocampa. But the female had gone her own way while taking some of the Ocampa with her. It had been the male that had initially brought them to the Delta quadrant in an attempt to procreate.

When he had died Janeway had made the decision to destroy the Caretaker's array, an act that had stranded them in the Delta quadrant. But the female had thought they had killed the Caretaker and had tried to destroy Voyager.

"Why would the female have brought us here?" Tom now wondered. Though Suspiria had tried to destroy them, they had explained to her what had happened and she had left them in peace ever since.

"Perhaps she, too, is dying?" Harry wondered. Although, he thought to himself, they had no proof it had been she who had brought them here. Perhaps the Ocampa themselves had triggered or activated the Tetrion beam.

"No," Janeway said in that way that signalled she was thinking. "She did not strike me as the kind that would do something like this." She turned to look at Harry and he mentally sighed. Somehow it always fell on him to find the answers. "Harry," she inevitably asked him. "Can you detect the female Caretaker on the array?"

Silently he berated himself for not thinking of that earlier, but quickly he scanned the array. The information he received was a bit garbled, but it was obvious something was wrong on the array.

"Cap...Admiral, I read sporocystian life-signs on the array, as well as numerous Ocampa life-signs. But the Ocampa life-sings are weak," he tried to explain. "The Ocampa are either in a coma or dying."

Janeway nodded. She seemed to be considering something, and suddenly Kim wished Tuvok was back on the bridge. The Vulcan had the most amazing ability to solve riddles.

"See if you can raise the array," Chakotay ordered. Harry nodded even though he knew nobody was looking at him. All attention was focussed on the view-screen. After a minute he had to report that nobody was answering his hails.

Before any further action could be decided on, the doors to the turbo-lift slid open to reveal Admirals Crewaw and Foxworth. The two dignitaries looked a bit rumpled, but extremely agitated.

"What's going on here?" Crewaw demanded. Harry wished he could meld into the floor, but years of experience had taught him well. So instead of cringing he stood even straighter and looked in front. From the corner of his eye he saw Janeway smile at him. Suddenly he, too, wanted to smile. Crewaw was messing with the wrong person, and whatever followed now would be interesting.

Janeway did not disappoint him. "Admiral Crewaw, I am delighted to see you have not suffered any injuries from the violence of the displacement wave," she coolly told the puffy woman. Harry knew Crewaw was the same age as Voyager's own admiral, but whereas Janeway was still as neat and petite as the first time he had seen her, the other admiral had let herself go.

"What displacement wave?" Foxworth wanted to know. The man was tall and thin, with gray hair and a long, sloping face.

"We were hit by a coherent Tetrion wave," Janeway explained. "It seems both Voyager and the Daedalus has been dragged into the Delta quadrant."

"What?" the fat woman asked. Harry had to suppress a grin. "Are you sure?"

"The array you see on the view-screen is one we have encountered before," Chakotay answered. Harry wondered if Chakotay was being gallant or if he was as irritated with the brass as the rest of them were. At the moment Tom was industriously working at the con.

Just when it seemed as if things could not get more complicated, the turbo-lift doors opened and Barclay stepped onto the bridge.

"I'm so sorry," the man began. "I had no idea this was going to happen!"

"Yeah, neither did we," Tom drawled. Kim smiled. Reg Barclay was worse than Neelix. In all honesty, Kim liked Neelix, but he was still not sure one could like Reg. Harry knew Deanna Troy liked the man, but she was not on board. His thoughts suddenly made him blush. As a teen he had a slight crush on the counsellor.

While Chakotay and Janeway stepped in and tried to calm Reg and the dignitaries down, a slight beep on his consol drew his attention. Another ship was fast approaching. And the worst part was that he knew the ship.

"Captain!" he said as loud as he could. As he knew he would Chakotay heard him above the rising din on the bridge.

"What is it, Mister Kim?" the Captain asked. By now Crewaw, Foxworth and Reg were in a discussion of their own. Janeway had decided to join Chakotay at his station and both were now peering over his shoulder at the blip on his screen.

"It's Kazon," Harry told them. "And in fact, the ship is that of the Kazon-Nistrim."

"It is almost like a reunion out there," Chakotay remarked.

"Let's just hope Maje Culluh does not hold grudges," Janeway answered, referring to the leader of the Kazon-Nistrim. The Maje had stranded them on a planet years ago – with the help of Seska, a Cardassian infiltrator. Seska had died in the ensuing battle, but Culluh had escaped with his new-born son. If the captain on the Kazon ship was indeed Culluh, then they were in for a bad day.