The stars blurred in the sky above Commander Chakotay's head the usual sharp shimmering pinpoints stretching into blazing lines of white. He tried to shake his head to clear his vision but if his neck was still attached to the rest of his body, a fact he was unsure of currently, it appeared to no longer be functioning. Time seemed to both slow down and speed ahead. Was he floating or falling? The unbidden thought that he had been trying to banish floated back into his mind, was this it? The end he could no longer escape?

As part of the Maquis he had accepted that any moment could be the last. Expected it even. Expected to die fighting in a blaze of glory aboard the Val Jean for what he fiercely believed in. As the first officer aboard Voyager for five years now, the ship had become home, the crew family. Even so, alone and far from earth, they never could quite afford the luxury of feeling safe.

Now here he was, on a planet that he had never even known the name of, on the far side of the galaxy. In the dark. It was so dark. Except for the stars. If only he could keep from falling into the stars.

2 Days Earlier

Captain Kathryn Janeway sat aboard the bridge of her ship, the USS Voyager. It had been an uneventful day. An uneventful week in fact. She appreciated that the lack of action was getting them closer to Earth faster, but there was a reason she was a Starfleet officer. A quest for discovery and exploration beat in her soul. Peace and quiet made her ancy and while she never admit it to anyone except herself, she was never quite content with a complete lack of peril.

A ping interrupted her thoughts, and a brusque voice came over the bridge's internal com system, "Seven to Captain Janeway."

The Captain looked up, "yes Seven, what is it?"

"Please report to astrometrics, I have found something I believe you will find interesting."

"On my way." Janeway said. Turning to her first office she rolled her eyes slightly, "still giving me orders on my ship."

Commander Chakotay chuckled next to her, "better than trying to assimilate us all I suppose."

"Come on Commander, let's go see what is so important," she said getting out of her chair and walking up the few short steps to exit the bridge. Chakotay followed her as she called over her shoulder, "Lieutenant Paris, you have the bridge."

Together they entered the turbolift and walked down the hall to the astrometrics lab where they were greeted by the newest member of their crew the ex-Borg drone, Seven of Nine.

"Captain, Commander," she said nodding at each of them in turn. Wasting no time with pleasantries as usual she turned and drew their attention to a large map of a planet hanging in the domed front of the lab. "I have been taking some time lately to conduct long range scans close to, but not directly along our present route. Therefore, this attracted my attention this morning. Long range scans indicate the presence of substantial amounts of benamite on an M class planet approximately 12 lightyears off our current course. "

"Benamite?" Janeway breathed, "are you sure?"

"More scans will be necessary to determine for certain, but the current metallurgical data is very promising. Also, although we are still too far away to be certain, the planet appears to be uninhabited."

"Thank you Seven for bringing this to our attention. Please continue your scans and inform me of any new updates." The captain turned to her first officer, "What do you think Chakotay? Worth making a detour? This is what we need, with enough benamite crystals was can begin work on the slipstream drive again."

Chakotay grinned. "Well, it's not too far out of our way. With a working slipstream drive hopefully we'll be making up that detour by a few thousand lightyears."

"All right then," Janeway decided turning back to look at the map again. Slip stream drive. It had been out of their reach for months now. But with a working drive, they could cut close 10 years off their journey home. She touched her badge, "Janeway to bridge,"

"Yes Captain," the lieutenant's drawling voice came back.

"Tom," she ordered, "set a new course."

A few hours later, after Seven had confirmed that the planet in question did in fact have the benamite that they were looking for, Captain Janeway called for a meeting of her senior officers. Standing in front of her briefing room the Captain surveyed those sitting in front of her. She had begun by telling them about Seven's discovery and the excitement over the discovery of the benamite crystals was palpable. Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres immediately launched into a discussion of the most effective way to construct and install the new slipstream drive. Neelix was listing off lavish food courses for his newly planned, 'Return to Earth' party which he insisted the entire crew attend.

Janeway settled her hands on her hips, "Okay" she said bringing everyone's attention back to her. She couldn't help grinning, "I am as excited as you all are over this potential way of getting home faster. However, first things first, we need to get to the benamite. Commander Chakotay will lead the away team to find the crystals and ascertain the best way of getting them back on board. Tom, you and B'Elanna will go with him."

Chakotay stood up next to her, "We'll reach the planet by 0700 hours. As soon as we are able to confirm that it's safe down there, we'll beam down. The benamite we're looking for is on the night side, and due to an extremely slow rotational speed, it will be dark for the next 47 days. So we'll need to bring some lights."

The Captain put a hand on his shoulder, "dismissed," she added.