As abruptly as they had been transported to the array, they were back. Chakotay blinked in surprise as he straightened from being slouched-over his console. "Report," he managed, clearing his dry throat.

Tuvok looked slightly out-of-sorts—as out-of-sorts as a Vulcan could look—as he activated his console. "It appears that we were at the array 13.7 days," he said calmly.

"Two weeks?" Chakotay exclaimed in surprise. "What the hell were they doing with us in two weeks?"

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "I do not have sufficient information to answer that," he said.

"That was a rhetorical question, Tuvok," Chakotay said with a slight chuckle as he checked the ship's status. From what he could see, it looked like Torres had done her magic on the engines yet again before they were forced off the ship.

*Seska to Chakotay,* the comm system announced. Without waiting for a response, she continued. *Is B'Elanna up there with you? Everyone made it back to engineering except her.*

He glanced up in surprise. "No, she's not here," he said with a frown. "Do you think she's still on the array?"

*Are you asking me?* Seska asked dryly.

He rolled his eyes. "How do the engines look?"

There was a slight pause on the other end. *It looks like Torres managed to get the warp drive back online before we were transported to that circle dance they had over there.*

Chakotay had to chuckle at that. "It's a square dance, Seska. Do we have enough power to get away from here?"

*We have the power, yes, but where do you want to go? In case you've forgotten, we're on the other side of the galaxy, and that thing is probably our only way back.*

He hated to admit it, but she was right. "Let me worry about that," he snapped. "Chakotay out." He sighed and rubbed his hand over his hair before turning to his tactical officer/jack-of-all-trades. "Scan for the nearest inhabited planet. We need to figure out what's going on around here, and I'm hoping one of the neighbors will be able to get us some information."

Tuvok nodded. "There appear to be several M-class planets in the vicinity. I am reading life signs on one 1.7 light-years away."

"Setting a course," Chakotay said, tapping at his panel. He powered up the engines, but before they could go anywhere, he felt the all-too-familiar shaking of a tractor beam. "Where's that coming from?" he snapped. "Is it the array?"

"No," Tuvok said bluntly. "I'm reading a Starfleet vessel."

"Starfleet?" Chakotay asked, surprised. "What are they doing here?"

"Most likely, the same thing we are," Tuvok said dryly. "We are being hailed."

"Wonderful," Chakotay muttered. He sighed again. The last thing he wanted was a nice heart-to-heart with some ambitious Starfleet captain. "On screen."

He turned his head slightly toward the viewscreen, and found himself face-to-face, so to speak, with a stern-looking woman with auburn hair and the four pips of a captain. He managed to avoid raising his eyebrows in surprise; she wasn't exactly his type, and he thought the tight bun she had her hair tied in made her look too severe, but of all of his years in Starfleet, he never served under such an attractive captain. You've been chasing Cardies too long, Chakotay, he scolded himself. While his ship was under a tractor beam on the other side of the galaxy was no time to be thinking about getting a date. And he was sure Seska wouldn't appreciate the thought, either.

Over on Voyager, the few gathered on the bridge were watching the encounter from their side of things. "Commander Chakotay," the captain began. "I am Captain Janeway of the USS Voyager. One of my crew didn't make it back from the array, Ensign Harry Kim. Was he transported to your ship by mistake?"

"No," the Maquis captain said flatly. He paused for a second. "We're also missing one of our crew, one of my engineers, B'Elanna Torres."

Lt. Tom Paris glanced up in surprise. The two captains were continuing their conversation, but he didn't hear any of it. Torres? In the Maquis? Sure, she had all sorts of misplaced anger, but he didn't think she'd be the type to take it the Maquis. He glanced behind him at his former roommate, whose eyes were wide with surprise. Feeling Paris' eyes on him, he turned toward the pilot, a slightly guilty look on his face. He shook his head almost imperceptibly and turned back to the viewscreen.

"Three of us will beam over," Chakotay was saying, bringing Paris back to the present. A minute later, three men in Maquis fatigues appeared on the bridge, phasers and all.

"Watch out, they're armed!" Ensign Rollins called out, pulling out his phaser. Paris rolled his eyes and turned back to his station. Of course they'd be armed. They were outlaws.

"Welcome back, Mr. Tuvok," Captain Janeway said, a triumphant smile on her face.

The tall Vulcan turned toward the Maquis captain, an eyebrow raised. "I must inform you that I was assigned to infiltrate your crew. I am Captain Janeway's chief of security." A dark haired man behind Chakotay took a step forward, stopped by his captain's arm.

"I always thought that it was mighty convenient that those Starfleet ships were waiting for us after we dropped off those medical supplies," Ryan Addison said, stepping forward and fixing Tuvok with a cold glare.

The security chief raised an eyebrow. "It was my duty to inform Starfleet of any illegal action against their ships or bases, Mr. Addison."

"At least the Vulcan can say he was doing his duty," Chakotay said, directing that at Addison. "What's your excuse?"

The tall red-headed observer slowly turned his gaze toward his former Maquis captain. "This isn't about you, Chakotay," he said softly. "This is about me." He gave a dry smile and shrugged a shoulder. "You always said that we had to look out for ourselves above all. I'm just following your advice."

Chakotay opened his mouth to respond, but Janeway held up a hand to stop him. "You two can finish this later. Right now, we have two missing crewmen to find." She waited for an objection, and not hearing one, continued. "We need to get back to that array, see if they're still there." She turned to her security chief. "Mr. Tuvok, break out the compression rifles, and meet us in Transporter Room Two. We'll divide into teams. While Mr. Chakotay and I search the array for our missing people, you'll have to search the array, learn as much about its technology as you can. It brought us here, we have to believe it'll take us back." Her eyes moved slowly over the other faces. Tuvok was as impassive as always, Paris appeared impatient, Addison's face was a mask, Chakotay seemed almost hostile. "Agreed?" she asked pointedly, directing the question at Chakotay, who nodded once in response. "Then let's do it. Mr. Paris, you have the bridge. Maintain red alert, and hold our current position. Keep a transporter lock on us at all times."

The captain and the two men she indicated made their way toward the turbolift in the back of the room. Paris stood there impassive for a moment, then spoke. "Captain," he called out, making his way toward her. She stopped by the Tactical station as the men boarded the turbolift. "Let me go with you," Paris said insistently once he reached her.

She shook her head quickly. "Like I said earlier, you're the closest thing I have to a first officer right now, Lieutenant. I need you here."

"I'm a pilot, Captain. I have no command experience; I barely know how to work the transporters. Rollins can handle the ship better than I can," he said, gesturing toward the officer at Tactical. He lowered his voice slightly. "Please, Captain, I got to know Harry. I would hate to see anything happen to him."

She thought she heard the slightest pause before the name "Harry", and frowned at it. If he couldn't even remember his name, how much could he have gotten to know him? She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Paris," she said emphatically. "I need you here." She turned back toward the turbolift, but his voice stopped her again.

"Then take Ryan," he said, gesturing to his friend. At her surprised expression, he scoffed slightly. "It's not as if he's going to pull some Maquis trick with his old friends over there, Captain. We're in the Delta quadrant; where's he going to go?"

She considered that for a second, then nodded once. "Mr. Addison, you're with me."

Ryan paused before passing his friend. "I'll explain when I get back," he said quietly.

Paris looked at him with a cold expression in his eyes. "Don't bother," he said brusquely before turning to return to his station.