A/N - Seras is such a powerful character that I'm wondering if she's becoming Mary Sue-ish. Don't let me let that happen! I'm doing my best, but ... sometimes I make mistakes and need to be told about them ;)


Chapter 7

Jump

Neelix had organized the crew not currently assigned duties into one of the massive cargo bays. Wandering through the tired huddles of people, he offered optimistic praise for everyone's hard work and effort to get there. And where needed, he offered condolences and optimism. Since being taken from Voyager, they'd lost two crew from the lower decks. Losing friends, family, like that was hard, but was unfortunately common enough that most weren't outwardly affected by the losses. He sighed at memories of those he had known and lost, then hurriedly pushed it out of mind. Behind him, little Naomi Wildman smiled at a crewman and offered him food cubes.

He met Samantha Wildman's gaze and felt the same paternal pride he could see in her eyes. The child was growing up through hostile situation after another, yet maintained an empathetic nature. Neelix accredited her mother's wonderful parenting, his own upbeat godparenting, and the excellent role model she had in Captain Janeway. Currently, the captain was overseeing the injured while Tom was away. Scrutinizing a tricorder, she frowned at the mystery woman who had been brought in unconscious. He was curious about Seras, but had duties he needed to attend to, like the imperious tugging on his sleeve that Naomi was performing.


Annoyed at the standard tricorder's readings of Seras she couldn't interpret, Janeway missed the Doctor's caustic, but professional and knowledgeable presence. Hopefully, his program had remained undamaged-even better, undetected-by the thieves. While she was hoping, she may as well wish that the Doctor had retaken the ship by himself and was in the process of returning to scoop them up. Her musings were interrupted by the abrupt appearance of her chief engineer.

"B'Elanna, can we access the controls yet?" She asked hopefully.

"Not yet." B'Elanna was focused on Seras. "Seven is working on it."

"It's hard to believe that this woman," an open palm was directed at the sleeping stranger, "Essentially became an organic Borg alcove." Janeway hummed. "Wouldn't the Borg love to hear that."

Alarmed, B'Elanna's dark eyes flashed to her. The impact of what she had just said fully dawned on Janeway, and adrenaline stressed through her tired body. An individual like Seras being acquired by the Borg was a terrifying thought. She didn't want to imagine a drone that could channel and manipulate energy like that, let alone the entire Collective. "Let's hope they never do."

Together, they found their regard settling on their sleeping ally.

"Captain, how did you disable the alarms back at the control station?" B'Elanna asked quietly.

"Probably the same way you got into the shackle control system," she replied. "With Seras' help."

B'Elanna knew her face was asking 'how'. And the captain went on carefully. "I pointed, and she jumped."

"Who jumped?" A throaty grumbling came from nearby.

Bedside manner far gentler than the Doctor's ever was, Janeway smiled and reached a hand to Seras' shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just ran in the..." trailing off, she squeezed her arm and shrugged. She looked away, over the crowd of people. "Too much running, not enough sleep."

The Voyager women both wondered at the off-key reaction. B'Elanna opened her mouth, but couldn't get words out, all of them tangling in the back of her throat.

"You fainted from lack of sleep?" Janeway asked.

Seras turned to her. "Yeah."

"Not from," Janeway gestured without direction.

It was like watching curtains being drawn over an open window the way Seras' face went from open and trusting to impassive and cold. "My energy manipulation," a ripple in her features, "Muscles have been exercised to the kind of endurance that Harry's body has been honed to. The way he can run without sweating."

"Seven to Captain Janeway," forestalled the furious questions they wanted to ask.

"Go ahead, Seven."

"I have broken past their security and have full control of the ship systems."

Into command mode, Captain Janeway burst in a flurry of orders and movement, directing her crew to get the ship into space. Smoothly, that's exactly what happened. They were in space and in pursuit of Voyager at warp three within half an hour. Of course, there were also ships in pursuit of them. Probably. There wasn't anything resembling it on sensors. Tuvok remarked that they may simply wait in ambush for them near Voyager, and a couple days later, he was proven correct.

Between B'Elanna's idea of using a nearby ion storm to mask their presence and Tom's usual fantastic maneuvering, they avoided the ambush and approached their ship without detection. A few thousand kilometers away, they hid inside the same asteroid belt that Voyager was stashed in. Surreptitious scans revealed that shields were down, warp core was offline, and only twenty-eight thieves were on their ship.

To be able to use the cargo ship's inferior transporters, they'd have to get much closer, within easy detection range of every enemy ship. And only five crew at a time could be transported. It was probably why the thieves posed at legitimate merchants, in order to get close enough to their quarry to attack. It was impossible to know which of the safeguards and computer traps the thieves had managed to overcome. For all they knew, Voyager's internal sensors would noticed the nanosecond the crew tried to beam onboard. They needed the element of surprise on their side to successfully retake their ship.

"Ideas, anyone?" Janeway asked her senior staff.

There were quite a few, and they proceeded to pick them apart and argue over them for an hour. Pressing her fingers to her skull, Janeway fought the headache growing behind her eyeballs.

"Captain, how did you disable the alarms back at the spaceport?" Tom's question silenced the room.

"I asked Seras to do it. All she needed from me was to know which system it was. I'd noticed strips of unlit lights that reminded me of our own alert lights. She slapped a hand over the power conduits and that was it." Janeway responded.

Chakotay stalled whatever Tom opened his mouth for. "I don't think it's a good idea to keep relying on our mysterious friend like this. We still don't know enough about her."

"We don't even have a plan yet, Chakotay." Arms crossed, B'Elanna glared at him.

"And we don't know what her breaking point is either." He countered. "You remember what happened after she killed those aliens. What if she breaks down again at a critical moment? We can't make plans that center around her."

Janeway's hand cutting through the air kept B'Elanna from arguing back. "He has a very good point. We will figure out how to retake Voyager without relying on Seras."


Several hours later, they had a sound plan that involved distraction, quick movement, and a lot of luck. The crew was being directed in what to do when Seras approached the captain. "What can I do to help?"

Not expecting the woman to bluntly offer assistance, Janeway floundered for a breath.

"I've done what I could to stay out of your crew's way and help Seven regenerate." Her head dipped in regret. She went on, her voice gaining strength. "Though I think I've damaged her implants as much as I've helped. I don't have much technical expertise or martial training, but you've seen what I can do. I can't stand slavers, and I want to help you retake your ship. Give me something to do," was ended with barely contained fire.

Strongly, the captain was reminded of the fire in her chief engineer. She smiled, liking and respecting this stranger even more. "No wonder you worry my first officer. You're a lot like B'Elanna."

Seras blinked at her. "I am?"

"Passionate and fierce about what you know you can do, what you believe to be right." Janeway explained and studied the young woman. "She respects you."

Confusion crinkled her forehead. "She does?"

"If she didn't, she wouldn't have been arguing with Chakotay about your intentions at every turn." The captain said. "Whatever you thought about her hitting you, it wasn't because she bore you any ill will. It kept you from drowning in your emotions, and she trusted you not to kill her even after that nasty burn you gave her."

Multiple face contortions danced on Seras, and she fidgeted.

"You seem to be pretty good at distractions. How do you feel about joining a team in one of the shuttles we found yesterday?"


Tom peeked at the two people in the tiny shuttle with him. The security crewman looked nervous, sweating and casting frequent glances at the other occupant. Seras seemed calmer, but was fixated on the windows, staring out into space. Curious, he wondered if she'd never been in space before she was kidnapped.

The chronometer indicated that it was time to start their distraction. He informed the others, "Time to play ball."

Seras gave him a weird smile and blew out something soft under her breath. A moment later, she lit up the area around the shuttle with enough energy flux to look like a problem.


From the ops station on the bridge of the cargo ship Harry reported, "They're taking the bait! Both ships are chasing the shuttle."

"Advance team, go!" Janeway barked.


Materializing directly into Engineering, the five-person team shot down the thieves working there before anyone could sneeze. B'Elanna dashed to a console and checked on internal sensors. "They're down. No one knows we're here."

"Chakotay to the captain, plan A is a go."

"Acknowledged," came her buoyant reply. Another five crew materialized and were sent out into the ship.

On the bridge of Voyager, Chakotay cheerily smoked the alien sitting in the captain's chair. He won himself a nice burn across his shoulder for not taking out the armed guards first, but they went down quickly enough. All over the ship, reports came in of success with retaking of their home. By the end of the day, every last intruder was securely stripped of weapons and locked in a cargo bay, one of the escort ships destroyed, the other disabled. Two days later, the cargo ship had been stripped of everything useful, excluding minimal life support. Janeway ordered the thieves over to be secured in the cargo bay of the ship, and a message sent to a nearby civilization that promised to deal with the slavers.

Voyager was put on course toward a promising star cluster, and a volunteer skeleton crew was manning her while the rest were assembled in the messhall. The place smelled heavily of rotten leola root, burned electrical, phaser discharge, and unwashed bodies. Most of the crews' belongings had been ransacked, their few momentos of the Alpha Quadrant stolen. Quarters were in disarray or heavily damaged. More than a few would be sleeping in another empty cargo bay for a while.

They were gathered to hold a memorial for the dead. But Captain Janeway wasn't about to let her crew wallow in sadness. Yet again, they'd battled impossible odds and survived. With a little sneaky planning with Neelix, she'd planned a little party. First, she said glowing words about the fallen. Then, she gave a heartfelt speech about family and home and how splendidly everyone had done and how proud she was of everybody. And when Neelix and Seras indicated readiness, she announced how the chef had found enough real food to have a celebratory meal. An excited murmur swept through the crowded hall.

But Janeway wanted to see them cheer and smile. She nodded at Seras. Hairs along her neck suddenly stuck out, and she grinned at the curious faces people were making. Over their heads, little sparks and arcs of light snapped and popped like fireworks. Tom led the senior staff with clapping and stomping while Neelix taught the crew a little song he had come up with. It was only six verses, but had a catchy melody and simplicity that everyone could pick up and carry. When the confiscated stash of alcohol was produced, even little Naomi was allowed a taste, though she spat it out, disgust written across every millimeter of her. Neelix' song was sang far into the night, only getting better as the alcohol loosened voices and encouraged hugging and convinced the more enthusiastic to dance.

Toward the end of the evening, Janeway was more than a little bleary, but not enough to be too unprofessional. She grinned widely at her crew, taking in their smiles and hugs and clapping shoulders and even a few stolen kisses. Content with their momentary happiness, Janeway relaxed in a torn chair beside her oldest friend.

Tuvok sipped at finger of alcohol still in his glass. Likely, he would not refill it, but Janeway grinned at his participation. He looked at her with his very Vulcan eyebrow raised. A ghost of an expression flickered on him. "You are enjoying yourself," she accused.

"I am pleased to watch the crew celebrate our return to Voyager." He replied. It was the closest he would come to agreeing. Janeway was content with that as well. She raised her glass. "To Voyager and her crew."

His glass tapped her own. "Indeed."


"This is your ship, huh?" Seras' neck was craned as she took in the height of the warp core.

B'Elanna considered the inactive reactor with her. "No."

Attention snapped to her. "What?"

"This is our home," was the soft reply. "Every scorched centimeter, offline system, cracked bulkhead, fried relay, and," she looked around with an affectionate smile at the drab grey walls. "Boring paint choice. Voyager is our home."