A/N Thanks for the reviews guys, keep them coming.

Chapter 19

Cold Storage

Captain's Log supplemental: We've been in the Delta Quadrant for a few days and after talking to Dax, who was next in line to be my Commander, I've decided to make Kira my first officer. Her reaction to when I asked her to be the Commander of this ship was surprising to say the least as she laughed in my face. After calming down and seeing that I was serious and after repeating Dax's report on her, she agreed. Dax is now a Lt. Commander and is second in command of this ship and I've decided to make Valerie my OPs officer, Seven my Astrometrics Officer, and Odo my new Tactical Officer and Chief of Security. To get him up to speed on Tactical control, Valerie has agreed to train him. As for our unexpected guest B'Elanna Torres, Kira has agreed to interrogate her. Surprisingly the crew's spirits are still up, considering that we're stuck in an uncharted quadrant, but that might change if we have to endure Mr. Neelix's... fine cuisine.

"Mr. Neelix this entire meal is unacceptable!" Ben shouted, his voice echoing in the Mess Hall. "I've never tasted something so bad... so improperly seasoned."

"Ah, Captain I see you human's don't like to rough it?" Neelix replied with a sly smile.

"Roughing it is one thing but this is downright disgraceful to cooking." Ben told him with a shake of his head. "Seven I know you're busy in Astrometrics but do you think you can take over in here for a shift a day?"

"Surely the food cannot be that bad." Seven spoke up as she took the food out of Ben's hand and tasted it. Stopping on her first bite, she looked from Neelix to Ben. "I'll start on the next shift."

"Very good, Mr. Neelix with me." Ben said as the two walked out of the door.

"Your dad was really worked up." Tom replied as he walked up behind Seven. "Was the food really that bad?"

"Would you like to taste it?" Seven asked as she held up the food in her hand. It looked like a cross between a small loaf of bread and a piece of fruit.

"Ummm.. no thanks." Tom replied as he scrunched up his face in disgust. "Look I was thinking that maybe you could talk to your old man and tell him that the crew might enjoy a movie night."

"A movie night?" Seven questioned.

"Yeah, you know at least once a week the crew could get together on different shifts and watch a movie together." the pilot replied. "I mean we have to conserve energy and we only have one holodeck anyway. I can't think of a better way to conserve power then that."

"My father values your opinion as well, Tom." she told him honestly. "Why don't you tell him yourself?"

"I... I guess you have a point." he replied with raised eyebrows. He had to remember that his opinion mattered now. "Hey you want to get together later on tonight and watch some movies? I... I mean so we can weed out the ones that the crew might not like."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Seven asked with an uncharacteristic wide smile.

"Well... I... I guess." Tom told her as he ran a hand though his hair. He couldn't explain why but for the first time in his life he was nervous talking to a woman.

"At the end of this date would you also like to copulate?" she asked as she walked up closer to him, inches away from his face.

"What... I... I..."

"I was only joking, Tom." Seven replied with a smile as she stepped back. "My father told me I should explore the concepts of humor. Was it amusing?"

"Well it.. it certainly got my attention." he replied as his heart rate started to go down to a normal pace.

"I'm sorry but I can't go out on a... date with you tonight." she told him seriously as she looked around the Mess hall. "I have to pull half a shift on the Bridge and Commander Dax and I are still deciphering the information from the Caretaker's array, so we can plot an efficient course through the Delta Quadrant to get home. After that I must start my duties as Chef." as she said that she thought back to a conversation she had with her Grandpa on Earth. She knew that he swore to make her into a chef one day and here she was. If only he could see her now.

"Well maybe I can help you." Tom replied as he interrupted her thoughts. "I have the next shift off and I haven't made any plans."

"You're going to help me cook?" Seven asked, another smile creeping up on her beautiful face. "I doubt if you could make more then a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

"You're getting better at this whole joking thing." Tom replied with a laugh.

"Who said I was joking?" she asked, with a chuckle of her own as she turned and left for the Bridge.

"I was under the impression that you would be helpful to me." Ben was saying as he and Neelix walked though one of the corridors of the ship.

"And I can be, Captain." Neelix was quick to assure, as he walked swiftly behind him. "Just give me something to work on. Anything!"

"For now I'd like you to help Kes in cargo bay two." Ben replied, thinking of something useful the man could do that would keep him out of his hair. "She's converting it into an Hydroponics garden. I believe that Doctor Bashir is helping her now."

"Doctor... Doctor Bashir you say?" Neelix asked as he started to twist angrily at the towel he was holding. "You mean that handsome young doctor that treated my Kes' wounds when we first arrived here?"

"Yes." Ben simply said as he watched Neelix's whole mood change.

'He's alone with my Kes.' the Talaxian thought to himself. "I'll go to Cargo bay two immediately, sir." Neelix said as he spun on his heel and called over his shoulder. "I won't let you down."

"What a peculiar man." Ben mumbled to himself as he continued his walk. He needed to go to the Brig to see how Kira was faring with her interrogation.

The Brig

"Now like I said before, we were trapped in an anomaly for almost three years and we have no knowledge of this faction you told us about." Kira was saying as she let out a sigh. She had been in here with this young lady for over an hour yelling and screaming and finally she'd started to make some headway.

Not only was that annoying but her new Starfleet uniform must've been designed by a Cardassian torturer. It wasn't necessarily hot but it was designed in a way to make you have to tug down on it every ten minutes. She silently wondered how Odo was fairing with his uniform, until she remembered that he was a shape-shifter and his uniform was a part of him. 'Lucky bastard.' she thought loosely to herself.

"The Maquis." B'Elanna answered Kira. "We're called the Maquis. The Federation annexed a lot of different territories and planets over to the Cardassians in the Demilitarized Zone. A lot of people were killed or lost their homes so we started the Maquis and fought back. After what those spoon heads did to Bajor you should understand that." B'Elanna said as Kira flinched at that. "Since the Federation gave up on us so easily we had to do what was needed to survive. We continued the war that they gave up on."

"Fighting hit and run, always outgunned, living on nothing but hate and adrenaline. It's not much of a life and it eats away at you so that every day a little part of you dies." Kira told B'Elanna as she paced back and forth by the Brig cell. "Look I know how it feels to have to fight for your life and do things you wished a million times you didn't have to. But we're a long way from the Alpha Quadrant and we have to stick together."

"But do you trust that guy?" B'Elanna asked, referring to Ben. "I mean he's Starfleet."

"I don't know." Kira told her honestly. "But you have to look at it this way. We don't have much of a choice." she said letting the weight of what she said sink in. "Now how did you get to the Delta Quadrant?"

"The ship that I was on, the Val Jean, was in the Badlands and we were taking heavy damage from a Cardassian warship." B'Elanna answered her honestly. "There was a coherent tetryon beam that scanned us, followed by a massive wave. We were taken to this massive array and I remember... I remember something was experimenting on us. The next thing I knew I woke up in a strange hospital with people telling me I had some kind of incurable disease. I wanted to take my chances and at least try to find my friends so I headed up towards the surface and when I got there I was attacked by the Kazon."

"When we first got here we detected two ion trails." Kira started. "One was an unknown vessel and the other one was strangely enough from a Cardassian ship."

"That had to be the, Val Jean." B'Elanna cut her off. "The Maquis stole a few Cardassian ships a few years ago so we could easily pass through their space. After awhile they found out what ships we stole and updated their registry, so we would register as Maquis raiders and convoys to other ships in the Alpha Quadrant."

Before Kira could answer, Ben walked into the room and gave Kira a nod as they quickly conversed. Nodding back, his new first officer took a step back as he approached the holding cell.

"How are you feeling today?" Ben asked of B'Elanna of who let out a growl of frustration.

"Just peachy." she replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Good." Ben said honestly, even though he narrowed his eyes. "Look, Miss Torres I'll be perfectly honest and very blunt. I have to have a meeting with Diplomat Zereb in a few moments to see if he'll grant us permission to travel through his sector of space. I'll be gone for a couple of hours and in those hours I want you to make a decision. Seeing as though I can't hold you in the Brig for the next seventy five years I can either drop you off on the next M class planet with some provisions or you can stay with us and become a productive member of my crew. If you choose to stay then I have to be perfectly clear with you. You will not attack a member of my crew like that again. Luckily all Dr. Bashir received was a broken nose."

"Ha, serves him right." B'Elanna mumbled under her breath.

"This is serious, Miss Torres!" Ben spat hotly. "I can't possibly imagine what you've seen and done in your time in the Maquis but you should remember that your friends aren't here. They've either abandoned you or they've been destroyed. It's time that you start thinking about yourself right now and about your future. You're not a member of my crew but even still I'd hate to leave anyone behind, especially in an uncharted part of the galaxy. You have two hours to make up your mind." and with that he spun on his heel and walked out of the room, leaving the half Klingon half Human woman to look after him angrily.

Hitting on the force field several times, she turned around herself and sat heavily on the bunk that was in her cell. Looking up she saw that Kira was watching her with a half bemused look on her face. If only she knew that Kira was only smiling because she saw so much of herself in this girl.

"What did he mean by my crew might be dead?" B'Elanna asked after a moment of calming down.

"When I told you we detected those ion trails, we also detected a small cluster of debris by the array." Kira informed her. "We didn't have time to collect proper sensor data to see if it was an entire ship that exploded, so they might not be dead. It could've just been possible that they got attacked and had to leave. I'll be back in a few minutes with something for you to eat."

With that said Kira walked out of the room, where Ben was waiting for her in the corridor.

"So what do you think?" Ben asked as they started to walk down the hall.

"She'll come around." Kira replied, confident in her assessment. "I mean who the hell would want to be left out here alone?"

"I agree." Ben told her with a grin. "Now I have a meeting to get too. You have the ship until I get back."

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to stay here and talk to B'Elanna." Kira spoke up, before he could walk away. "There's something special about her and I figure I can at least find out a little more about her crew just in case we encounter them."

"All right." Ben said with a nod. "Just let Dax know that she has the bridge."

"Hey it's only going to be two hours." Kira said as he turned around and started to walk away. "What's the worse that could happen?"

Bridge

"And just what does this button do?" Odo asked as he went to push a button at Tactical.

"Don't touch that!" Valerie shouted as she diverted his hands. Personally she didn't mind taking the OPS position or even training this guy at Tactical, but what she hated was the fact that Sisko had promoted Odo to a full Lieutenant while she was still a junior grade. "I... I mean you shouldn't touch that, sir. That button will deploy a full spread of photon torpedoes."

"What's happening?" Odo asked, as the console started to light up. Looking in confusion herself, Valerie typed at a few commands.

"It seems to be some sort of small craft floating derelict in space." Valerie reported, more to herself then anybody else.

"Onscreen." Dax commanded from her position at the command chair.

Doing as she was instructed, the main viewer showed a short distance off, and appearing very small, was an ancient looking satellite.

"Seven, are you getting any readings from it?" Dax asked.

"It is transmitting a carrier signal on a frequency similar to that of which was used on Earth centuries ago."

"Is there a message?" the Trill Commander asked.

"No." Seven said as she kept typing into her console. "Just the carrier. It's possible that it was intended for encoded computer or telemetry information. Judging from these scans this satellite is over four hundred years old."

"Hmm, four hundred years old?" Dax questioned.

"Four hundred and thirty five years old to be exact." Valerie cut in as she accessed those scanning protocols and displayed them on her console.

Unaffected by Valerie's interruption, Seven continued studying her readouts. "The power is solar... and primitive for what you'd expect. I am also detecting minimal life support."

"Could this have come from the Zotobian system?" Dax asked as she looked from Seven to Valerie. She didn't know what it was about but she definitely sensed tension coming from the two of them or more accurately from Valerie.

"There's no way of knowing without having access to their historical database." Seven reported.

"I'm so bored, I'm half tempted to beam over there." Dax loosely commented. They had standing orders from Ben to stay on the border of the Zotobian system until he got back from talking to the diplomat that was going to let them travel through their space. "But then again it's just a derelict."

"At it's current speed and heading it will enter into this systems sun and be destroyed." Seven told her.

"Sir, if you'd like I can attach a tractor beam to it." Valerie offered.

"No." Jadzia finally decided. "It's just a piece of space debris. If we weren't sitting here waiting for Ben, we wouldn't have even noticed it."

"Commander Dax, I request permission to investigate this vehicle?" Seven asked as she turned around and looked at her.

"Why?" Dax asked in confusion. "It's just a derelict."

"This ship was once a derelict as well, Commander." Seven informed her.

"I see your point." Dax said as she gave the younger woman a smile. "All right, but just be ready to beam back before Ben returns. Valerie, I want you to go with her."

"Wait one second, Commander." Odo said as he intervened in the conversation. "As the ships new Chief of Security I think it's my duty to escort Miss Sisko. Besides I think the estrogen level would be a lot lower if her and I were together."

"You have a point, Odo." Jadzia replied with a chuckle. "All right, go with her."

With that said the two exited the Bridge. As the two officers beamed onto the satellite, they looked around and saw that they were in a small control area. The equipment at one time may have seemed cutting edge but to Seven it was just as primitive as primitive could get.

'But that's the same thing I said about the Ares.' she thought to herself. Focusing on her job, she scanned the area with her tricorder, even as Odo stood beside her as calm as ever.

"This room has a minimal oxygen atmosphere." she started as she indicated a piece of equipment, which was lightly blinking. "That's an ancient solar generator and it's still operating."

"Computer, status report." Odo said aloud, only for nothing to happen. "Computer..."

"Constable, it will stand to reason that the computers of that era were not voice activated." Seven interrupted as she examined the keyboard and noticed the dials, needle machines, and guages. "The on-board computers have ceased functioning. I may be able to download this old style disk drive back on the Ares."

With a nod Odo saw a door that led to another room. Approaching it, he clearly expected it to slide open, but not to his surprise it didn't, even as he waved a hand in front of it.

"Let me guess..." Odo started with a half growl in his voice. "...the doors of that era don't slide open either?"

Not saying anything, Seven moved next to him and both officers reached down and turned a handle, physically sliding the door open.

As they moved forward into the second room, Seven's combadge suddenly chirped.

'Dax, to Sisko. What have you found?'

"Very little so far, Commander." Seven replied as she and Odo entered the other compartment and saw a series of crypts, lining both sides of the room.

Each was glass-covered and coffin-like in design, with a computerized panel above it. With just a glance, the ex-Borg drone saw that the panel both monitored and controlled the crypts.

Walking up to one Seven cleared away the frost to reveal a shriveled humanoid form. She grimaced as she saw it's all blackened and hideous body.

"The seal was broken and the environment has been corrupted." she reported to Odo as she moved to the next crypt. Beside her, Odo wiped the frost from a third crypt and he had found another shriveled form.

"Here's another." he said as Seven wiped away the frost from the crypt by him.

"And this one is empty." she replied as she easily lifted the cover. "It has been forced open and the occupant removed."

"Miss Sisko, take a look at this." Odo said, as Seven quickly stepped over to where he was.

Through the hole which Odo had wiped in the frost, she saw a humanoid, a woman. If she could judge her age by human years, the female appeared to be about thirty-five, attractive and unconscious.

Her facial appearance was similar to that of a Human with two eyes, a nose and a mouth, but she also possessed a swept back hairline and a slightly enlarged forehead with no eyebrows. There was also a slight ridge that ran from the hairline down the center of the forehead to the top of the nose.

"Why would someone leave their people floating in space like this?" Odo asked. "Do you think they were frozen and sent to arrive at a certain destination?"

"No." Seven said as she started to look around. "If that were the purpose, there would be evidence of a more sophisticated monitoring system. This container is designed solely for refrigeration. This vehicle should still be in orbit of the planet it came from."

Going into investigation mode Odo stood still for a moment to try to figure this out.

"These crypts were opened." he said to himself indicating the ones with the shriveled forms in them, before turning to the others. "And the occupants in these were taken. Why take some of them, destroy others, and leave her apparently untouched?" as he said the question aloud, he put a finger to his lips and pondered the situation. Something wasn't right about this.

"Perhaps they learned all they could from the others." Seven said as she interrupted his thoughts. "We may never know." with that said she moved down the line of crypts, wiping another to reveal the perfectly preserved face of a male of the same species as the woman.

'Lieutenant Odo and Ensign Sisko, you will return to the Ares... immediately.' they heard Dax's voice say over the comline.

"We've run into a... bit of a situation here, Commander." Odo responded. "There are people on-board. Frozen."

'Frozen. How many?' Dax asked, after a moment of thinking.

"Two." Seven answered. "What should I do? The vehicle has suffered severe damage. Most of the systems have failed."

'Are you recommending they be transferred to the Ares?' Jadzia questioned.

"I do not think we should leave them here." Seven said as she shared a look with Odo. "I think we should beam them aboard."

'What do you think, Odo?'

With a sigh and a grumble, the Changeling looked at Seven, of whom he knew wanted to bring these people back to the ship. With a roll of his eyes, he nodded at the girl, hoping he wasn't about to make a mistake.

"I think the most... humanitarian thing to do is to transport these people over." he responded.

'Stand by for transport.'

Ares Sickbay

Rubbing at his temples, Ben walked into the sickbay and let out a yawn. Diplomat Zereb and his people seemed to be a peaceful lot but man were they talkative. As he opened his eyes he looked on the medical tables and saw two humanoids covered with sheets.

"Ah, Captain you're here." Julian said as he walked swiftly out of his office.

"Dax informed me that it was urgent that you see me." Ben replied as he looked at the people again. "Who are these two?"

"These are the people from the capsule."

"Capsule?" Ben asked in surprise. "What capsule?"

"The people Seven beamed over." the doctor informed him.

"I wasn't aware she had."

"Well, she did and they were frozen." Julian said, hating to be the bearer of this news. Sometimes he thought that maybe the crew did this to him on purpose. "I thawed them."

"You what!?" Ben barked. "Who gave you permission to..."

"I didn't know what else to do, sir." Julian cut him off. "The crypts in which they had been frozen were literally falling apart. It was either that...or..."

"What's their condition?" Ben asked letting out a sigh, as he cut him off.

"Right now they are both sleeping." Julian replied as he looked down at both patients. "I gave both of them a thorough examination and neither one has any viruses or a disease that might be harmful to the crew. What 's strange however is that I've found a life form inside of the male. Given it's rate of gestation I believe it is a symbiote similar to a Trill."

"Wake her up first, doctor." Ben said as he looked at the woman. "Maybe she can tell us what's going on and if her home world is close by then we can drop them off."

Fixing up a hypospray, Julian walked over to the woman and pressed it's contents into her neck. After a few seconds the drugs took effect and she opened her eyes. As they began to focus, she looked at the two men standing over her and she was about to attempt to run, until Ben put a soft hand on her shoulder.

"It's all right." Sisko assured, trying to keep his deep voice as soft as possible. "I am Captain Benjamin Sisko and you are onboard the USS Ares. May I ask who you are?"

"I... I am Jenara." the woman replied with a husky and very sexual sounding voice. "I am Princess of Necronom IV. Why have you disturbed my slumber?"

"Well Princess Jenara the vessel you were traveling on was about to lose all power and fail." Julian explained. "If we hadn't taken you out of cryogenic stasis you would have died."

"That's impossible." Jenara said with a shake of her head. "That was a newly made vessel crafted by the finest minds on my planet. Surely it couldn't have started to fall apart after only a few weeks."

As she said that Julian and Ben gave each other a look.

"I.. I beg your Highness' pardon but... you've been in stasis for a lot longer then a few weeks." Julian told her.

"How much longer?" the beautiful alien asked.

"According to the data we received you... you've been frozen for well over four hundred years." Bashir informed her as she broke out and started crying. "And... and I'm also sorry to tell you that yourself and this gentlemen beside you are the only ones that survived."

Looking over to the other medical table a few feet away, she stood up and ran to the male of her species and grabbed his hand.

"Oh... Tanakis." she cried as she buried her head into his chest.

His own heart breaking, at what had just transpired, Ben slowly walked over to her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry about your loss." he told her in comfort. "The other people on the vessel with you, who were they?"

"They were members of the Royal family." Jenara said as tears stung at her eyes. "My... mother... my father, my sister and brothers."

"Who is this gentleman?" Julian asked.

"He is Tanakis, a member of my Royal Guard." Jenara explained. "He saved my life and the lives of my family."

"Princess." Ben started as to get her attention. "Please tell us what happened?"

"We... we were a peaceful people, Captain." Jenara started her story. "But even a peaceful people have their share of enemies. A clan on the western hemisphere of my planet known as the Deathwok people unleashed an army of horrible genetic monsters that terrorized the cities of my nations capital. The monsters mutated and quickly started to overwhelm the population. In a last ditch effort to secure the Royal family's safety our scientists created the time arc to make sure we survived the attack. Those beasts got so close to almost killing us all until Tanakis bravely stepped forward and gave us time to board the arc. I had no idea that he was placed on there with us."

'So basically you sacrificed your people so they could die instead of you.' Ben thought to himself. "I'm sorry to hear that. It's been over four hundred years now so who knows how your kingdom held up. I'll show you some star charts and if it's not out of our way we can take you home."

"Thank you, Captain." Jenara told him with a genuine smile. "Your people are very kind."

"Doctor I think he's been under long enough." Ben said as he nodded towards Tanakis. "Wake him up."

Before Doctor Bashir could fix up a hypo-spray, Tanakis lightly moaned.

"It looks like he's coming out of his stupor by himself." Ben commented.

"That's impossible." Julian replied as he looked at his patient in confusion. "I gave him enough sedatives to bring down an elephant, unless I used something to wake him up."

Another groan tore from Tanakis' lips as he opened his eyes and clutched the edge of the table with his hands, his knuckles whitening. In a matter of seconds his face screwed up into a mask of agony, and he trembled violently from head to toe.

"Doctor, what's wrong with him?" Ben asked as Doctor Bashir ran over with his tricorder.

Before he could even begin to take some scans, a red smear of blood blossomed on the chest of Tanakis' tunic. In a state of disbelief the group's eyes were all glued to his chest as the fabric of his tunic was ripped open and a horrible nasty little head the size of a man's fist pushed out.

The disgusting little head lunged, spurting out of his chest trailing a thick, wormlike tail, splattering fluids and blood. Tanakis slumped over in his bed, a huge hole in his chest, spouting blood, as the alien squirmed on the floor and darted to the other side of the room.

Coming out of his state of shock, Ben had to calm down himself even as he slapped at his combadge.

"Security to Sickbay!" he yelled as he looked from Bashir to Jenara, who was screaming hysterically and had jumped up on her bio-bed. "We have a situation."