Chapter 10 – Star Fleet Research

"Admiral. Captain Chakotay and Seven of Nine are here to see you."

"Send them in," Owen replied and stood. That was quick, but he was expecting them and ready. The Val Jean had arrived at the Utopia Planita shipyards less than an hour before. In fact, he could see the vessel from his office in this new division of Star Fleet Research. The windows in his workplace also offered a breathtaking view of Mars and he moved over to stand near them. The oxidized plains below stretched out to the edge of the visible planet, and the great chasm of Valles Marineris was coming into view on the eastern edge.

"Admiral," Chakotay said entering the office. "This is quite a place you have here. Congratulations on your new position." Seven of Nine followed closely behind and nodded in greeting.

Owen extended his hand and shook both their hands vigorously. "Thank you Captain. I hope we do good things here." He then motioned towards his desk and the three of them moved over. "Good work in the Demilitarized Zone and in the final battle," Owen added as he picked up a phaser sitting on the edge of his desk. "I'm happy you're all back safe." He handed the phaser to Chakotay.

"What's this?" Chakotay asked.

"I want to show you something," Owen responded.

Chakotay examined the phaser. There was nothing special about it and so Chakotay first showed it to Seven and then looked back at Admiral Paris with a questioning look. "I don't get it."

"It's not the phaser," Owen said and stepped back a few paces. "Fire it at me."

"Admiral?"

"Don't worry. Just fire the phaser and watch what happens."

Chakotay aimed the phaser at Admiral Paris' chest and pulled the trigger. Immediately, a force field materialized ten centimeters from Owen's body to block the phaser blast. A hexagonal portion of the field glowed faintly with dissipated energy. Chakotay stopped firing after a second.

Owen smiled and stepped forward to take the phaser back from Chakotay. "A little something we've recently developed using the Borg technology recovered from Voyager," Owen explained. "A personal force field generated by my modified comm badge." Owen took off the badge and showed it to both of them. In outward appearance, it was nearly identical to a regular badge.

"How do you dissipate the energy?" Seven asked, obviously intrigued.

Owen chuckled. "Very good. We're still working on that," he replied. "This prototype only works with a phaser on stun. Even then, after ten seconds, the unit will overheat."

"The Borg dump the energy directly into subspace," Seven stated.

"A little too dangerous for our tastes," Owen replied. "We're investigating alternatives now." He placed the phaser down and picked up a PADD, handing it to Seven. He motioned for Chakotay to take a look as well. "Recognize this?"

Seven studied the PADD for a moment. "It appears to be photon torpedo modified to hold a significant gravimetric charge."

"I recognize it," Chakotay added. "These are the same modifications we made to increase the weapon's yield to eighty isotons in order to destroy Omega."

Owen smiled. "So you know about Omega?" He knew all about the incident in the Delta Quadrant from the classified report. Strictly speaking, both Chakotay and Seven should know nothing about the Omega molecule.

Seven and Chakotay exchanged a quick look.

"A gravimetric photon torpedo," Owen expanded, choosing to ignore the fact that Chakotay and Seven obviously did know about Omega. That discussion could wait for another day. "Again, we're developing a prototype by exploiting some innovations we've gleaned from the Voyager logs."

"Admiral…"

Owen raised his hand. "There's one more thing I want to show you both," he said and moved behind his desk to the computer. He entered in some quick commands, the file he required was already queued up. The office window opaqued slightly to reduce the glare, and a plot was projected on the office view screen on the opposite wall. It showed two plots, a quantum slipstream phase variance magnitude on top of a reduced quantum matrix threshold, both as a function of time. Owen could see that Seven recognized it at once. Three positions during the approximately twenty-seven minute plot were highlighted. "At the three instances marked, a very slight modification to the quantum matrix was applied shortly after the major correction transmitted by the shuttlecraft back to Voyager was executed. We've determined by examining the telemetry of Voyager's flight through slipstream that these modifications were essential to the success of the slipstream's integrity." He looked back and forth between Chakotay and Seven. "Without them, it is likely Voyager would have been thrown from the quantum slipstream, possibly being destroyed in the process." He paused a moment for emphasis and then turned to Seven. "Do you recognize these adjustments Seven?"

Seven nodded. "I do. At the time, I did not think them relevant, but I performed the adjustments anyway."

"They were apparently very relevant," Owen said and switched off the display. "These adjustments were tracked back to your station on the bridge and it's possible the two of you wouldn't be here without them."

"Why are you showing us this Admiral?" Seven asked.

Owen nodded slowly and stepped back out from behind his desk. This was it. The preliminaries were over and he was ready to make his pitch. "I have a proposition," he finally said. "I know the two of you come as a package deal. I think both of you, your experience and expertise, could best be utilized here at Star Fleet Research. We're working on a number of other initiatives in addition to the quantum slipstream, personal force field and gravimetric photon torpedo; ablative armor, improvements to the existing multiphasic shields, transphasic torpedoes, on-demand site-to-site transport, enhanced quasimorphic phasers."

Again Chakotay and Seven exchanged a quick look. To Owen, by what he could observe from their body language, they appeared to have grown even closer in the six weeks since their first meeting. That might work to his advantage.

"What are you suggesting?" Chakotay asked, curiosity in his voice. Owen smiled. They were intrigued. That was what he was waiting for and he pressed forward with the details of his proposal.

"That you rejoin Star Fleet, accept a promotion to Captain, and become my deputy here at Utopia Planita. Our mission is advanced defensive and offensive capabilities for the next generation of Star Fleet vessels, and we plan to exploit as much as we can from Voyager's experience in the Delta Quadrant." He then turned to Seven. "I've pushed through Star Fleet Command a field commission and promotion for you as well to Lieutenant Commander, if you're willing. You would be the division's Science Advisor and Subject Matter Expert." Seven turned to Chakotay with a raised eyebrow. "The two of you would work hand in hand here on Mars," Owen added and moved towards the door. "As for the Val Jean, I intend to use it as a test bed for the work we're doing here, particularly with respect to the quantum slipstream drive. I'll step out now for a moment so you can discuss my proposal in private." Owen felt confident he had them and smiled as the door shut behind him. His aide stood when he entered his outer office. She was the same aide he had at his previous posting at Star Fleet Intelligence. The two of them, in fact, had only arrived on Mars a few days before. His orders to take command of the division only being approved the day after the Battle of Cardassia.

"That was fast admiral," she commented. "How do you think it went?"

Owen gave his aide a wink. "I think we got them Talia."

She smiled back and then stepped forward to present the Admiral a PADD. "Regarding the arrangements for this weekend," Talia said. "I tracked down a recipe for blood pie and both of Miss Torres' parents have accepted your invitation."

"There won't be a problem?" Owen asked. "We can still make arrangements for separate events."

Talia shook her head. "I've spoken to both of them, and they seem agreeable to your current plans."

Owen clasped his hands together. "Excellent," he said. Everything was coming together. He had a long talk with Tom the other day and suspected he was planning to propose to B'Elanna. It was only a matter of time. If Miss Torres was going to be family, Owen wanted to meet her and the future in-laws and start things out right.

"Did you discuss with Captain Chakotay the plans regarding your son?"

Owen winced in frustration. "I forgot to mention that," he replied and glanced quickly back at the closed door. His hope was for Tom and B'Elanna to be stationed here at Utopia Planita as well. The division would need an experienced pilot, and he couldn't think of anyone more qualified. As for Miss Torres, with all her experience in the Delta Quadrant, she would obviously be a valuable asset as well. Instead of asking them himself, however, Owen was hoping to get Captain Chakotay and Seven of Nine to ask. It was likely they would have more influence than himself. He also forgot to mention his ongoing negotiations with the Vulcan Science Academy. He was arranging for Chakotay's officer T'Vora and her husband to come to Utopia Planitia on loan. In fact, T'Vora had already expressed interest in the possibility. Owen hesitated a moment, then moved back to the office. He opened the door and was about to speak when he noticed that Chakotay and Seven of Nine hadn't seen him enter and were in a close embrace. The two of them were oblivious to his presence. If Owen didn't know better, it appeared almost as if they were sharing their first kiss, both tender and urgent. He slid back out without disturbing them, the request concerning Tom and B'Elanna could wait.

Owen grinned. He was now fairly certain they would accept his offer.

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Author's note: orionastro asked for Trek tech, so I tried to bring some of that into this chapter and tie back to the beginning of the story as well, and of course complete the C/7 story arch in this AU. Just one more very short chapter to go that will serve as an epilogue. Thanks to those who've left reviews, followed, and favorited.