Chapter Three

The faces that sat around the conference table were grim. They had been engaged by the Fen Domar sixteen times now, and so far had managed to scrape their way out of each situation. But the last time had caused the most damage, the result of their enemy changing tactics and nearly disabling Voyager in the process. The captain started the meeting by asking Tuvok, "Any sign of other Fen Domar ships?"

"Not at the moment," he replied, fingers carefully steepled together on the table. "But we would be foolish to assume that they do not have reinforcements enroute."

"I agree. Fortunately the new upgrades to Astrometrics have given us more time than we usually have with these guys." Looking at each officer, she said, "Anyone got any bright ideas?"

It was Harry who ventured out first. "I was thinking that, with the right adjustment to our shield harmonics, it might be possible to hide in the upper atmosphere of one of the gas giants."

Paris shook his head. "Our presence would cause eddies that would make us visible. We'd have to go deep to be covered, and it might be too much pressure for the hull to take." He then addressed the captain. "What about faking our own deaths? We could feign damage, or show them activating the self-destruct, then create an explosion that would cover our jump to warp?"

The idea had its merits, but they could very well end up shooting themselves in the foot. The size of the explosion needed to cover their tracks would have to be tremendous, and if it wasn't timed just right, they might just destroy themselves or, worse yet, disable the ship and leave themselves drifting in space, where they would be ripe for the taking. "Let's prepare for it, but as a last resort," she told them. "B'Elanna?"

Her chief engineer nodded as she made notes in her padd, then looked up. "I was thinking that we could use the deflector array to screw with their communications systems. Rig it to plant erroneous information in their systems, like navigation errors that need to be corrected."

Chakotay fixed her with a look. "Can you do that undetected? From this distance?"

"It'll take some doing," was her answer, "but I don't see why we couldn't match the frequencies they're using."

"Get on it." Janeway looked around the table. "Anyone else?"

Harry shifted in his chair a little. "What about the comet?"

That got her attention. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well…even if we are able to jump to warp hidden in an explosion, it might only be a few days, or even hours, before we show up on their scans again." He started to gesture with his hands as he continued to explain. "A Class 6 comet has a core large enough to land on."

There was a stunned quiet from everyone in the room. "Class 6 comets are known to be highly unstable," Tuvok was the first to point out. "On a number of scientific exploration vessels, their nuclei have been observed to disintegrate as they approach the star which they orbit."

"Is this comet's perihelion either one of these nearby stars?" Janeway questioned.

"Yes Captain. It appears to be heading back out away from the more distant star. Its tail currently extends approximately two and a half AUs."

"Even if the comet is stable, merely landing on the core's surface will not be enough," Tuvok interjected, annoyance filtering through his voice. "The Fen Domar will be able to merely circle around and scan it to find us."

The tone in which he spoke caught everyone's attention. While he was normally able to control his more irrational side, every once in a while, a bit of erratic emotion seeped into his speech. The Doctor had observed this a few weeks earlier, but his attempts to find a more effective medication mix had been stalled as he cared for all the casualties that had been caused by battle after battle. "I agree," the captain told him. "Just landing Voyager on the surface won't be enough."

"No comet core is smooth," Tom pointed out.

"It's possible that there might be some sort of natural concavity that could conceal the ship," Chakotay added.

"Harry, start scanning the core to see if there's a good hiding place," Janeway ordered. "B'Elanna, start working on the explosion ploy and have it ready just in case we run out of options. Tuvok, keep an eye on our friends out there and let me know if they change course. In the meantime, keep brainstorming other ideas in case this comet doesn't turn out to be one we can use. We'll reconvene in three hours. Dismissed." She stayed seated while they all got up to leave, and quickly called, "Commander, a moment please," before he could go.

Chakotay turned to face her, hands again clasped behind his back. "Yes, Captain?"

She stood to meet him. "I just wanted to say…thank you for giving us Seven's ideas for Astrometrics. If it hadn't been for those, we probably wouldn't have seen these ships until they were almost on top of us."

The impassive expression he usually wore these days when dealing with her relaxed slightly. It was the first time that she'd mentioned his wife's name to him since that last fight they'd had. "It's what she would have wanted," he said quietly, memories of Seven's determination coming back to him. Then with a twinkle in his eyes, he added, "It did increase our efficiency, after all."

To this, Kathryn couldn't help but laugh a little. "That it did." They lapsed into a few moments of silence, each wondering if there was something else that they should say. But she found that she didn't have anything, and simply said, "Dismissed."

He looked grateful to be released, again giving her a small nod before he turned and left the room. She shook her head after him, wondering if they would ever manage to be able to talk to one another like they had before, without such a heavy blanket of discomfort.