What Legacies You Leave Behind (Part 4)
- A Voyager bedtime story
by Lt 17 of 26 aka fROzen TaTTooGaL™ (MERSTS)
Chakotay held Kathryn's hand almost protectively as they gathered around in the transporter room. The TCBs were laid neatly on three small antigrav carts. Kathryn and Tuvok were dressed in the functional uniform- bottom layer of the tops and pants only. Seven was still in her full unitard, but at least it wasn't as restrictive as a full Starfleet uniform. Each of them was armed with one of those new compression phaser rifles, assembled from the specs sent from the Alpha Quadrant. And a utility belt strapped firmly to their waists.
Kathryn patted his arm. "The Dominion ship intercepts in five minutes. You'd better get on the bridge."
He nodded, feeling suddenly tense. It's our big day, he thought, where we get to save the whole universe. He raised his hand and she grasped it tightly, intertwining their fingers. "Be careful," he said with heartfelt sincerity.
She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with unfathomable emotions. "Take care, Chakotay."
He unwillingly released her hand and walked away, towards the door. He looked back over his shoulder as the three of them got ready on the transporter platform. Before the doors slid close, he caught Kathryn's eye, and their breathtaking blueness shone with unshed tears. Then the doors slid into place, cutting off his view of her. With a sigh he headed for the bridge. Stop worrying so much, he chided himself. We're all going to be fine.
Harry Kim was on the bridge, feeling understandably nervous. He tried to suppress it; tried to stop his hands from shaking. He thought of all the bigger adversities he'd overcome over the years, and the thought of those experiences did wonders to calm him. He tweaked the new shielding system and modified structural integrity field to help focus his thoughts. The new temporary changes were draining a lot of power from their already stressed sources, meaning that they had to shut down many of the ship's non-essential functions such as the holodecks. They even cut power to personnel quarters, shutting off things like the sonic showers and the replicators -things which one hardly expected to use during a major battle.
The turbolift slid open and Chakotay stepped onto the bridge. "ETA of the Dominion fleet?" he asked.
"Two and a half minutes," replied Harry. His voice sounded confident, strong. Good.
At the helm, Tom nodded in approval at the silent steel beneath his friend's voice. What a long way we've come since the Alpha Quadrant, he thought. His hands danced over the surface of the helm controls, skilled and sure. From wanted criminal to savior of the galaxy. Rather than being tense and nervous, Tom felt excited, the adrenaline surging through his body. Today his piloting would be perfect, as it always was. Voyager would fly like the wind.
They surged forwards to their final destiny.
Weyoun smiled as the Federation ship drew closer. Now he had it in his grasp.
Behind him, he sensed that the Founder had come onto the bridge to observe the battle first hand. The bridge seemed laden with sudden silence as the Jem'Hadar and Vorta alike acknowledged his presence.
Soon…
Voyager burst out from behind the diaphanous clouds of plasma like an avenging angel, springing out on the Jem'Hadar ship without any warning. Enhanced with a new shielding system and SIF, as well as dozens of patchy repairs and modifications within the past 48 hours, the ship was as ready as she would ever be for battle. A actinic blue beam shot out from the aft section of the disabled deflector dish, drilling a hole in a weak point in the Jem'Hadar shields. Then the smaller ship darted away in the opposite direction, only to find itself surrounded in the middle of a hostile circle. There was no escaping this time- it was do or die.
Seven knew that the Jem'Hadar ships had arrived when she first felt the tingling which accompanied dematerialization. Immediately the air seemed to grow warmer and more oppressive. She glanced around the deserted corridor coalescing around her, taking in all the sights and sounds. So this is what a Jem'Hadar ship is like, she thought, scrutinizing the sharp, bold lines and crude symmetry, cross referencing it to her Borg knowledge.
Beside her, Kathryn picked up one of the antigravs and started heading down towards the polaron beam generator. Her pulse quickened as she remembered their original mission. " Come on," she said. " We have a lot of work to do."
On the bridge, Chakotay hailed the lead Dominion ship. The not-Weyoun was, as usual, occupying the center stage, but now there was someone new behind him. A man, tall but with unformed features, his face looking oddly smooth, as if constructed by an inexperienced child playing with clay. Then he noticed the rest of the bridge crew- Vorta and Jem'Hadar alike- looking at this new figure with an awe of reverence, and all the pieces fell into place. This man was a Founder- one of those which had spearheaded the Dominion.
He greeted Chakotay cursorily. "Commander Chakotay of the Starship Voyager, I believe." His voice had a gravelly, nasal quality that Chakotay did not quite like. He nodded in acknowledgement.
The Founder folded his arms together and smiled unpleasantly at Chakotay. "You have a fine vessel."
Chakotay heard the thinly veiled threat beneath the man's words. "We know what you came for," he said. "We can offer you everything you wanted- tactical information, star maps- you name it. Just leave our ship alone. We are of no interest to you in this quadrant- we never took part in the Federation offensive against the Dominion and we never will."
The Founder glanced sarcastically at Chakotay. "Now, Commander, that's not very altruistic, is it?"
In his chair, Chakotay tensed, realizing he was treading a thin line between distracting the Founder and aggravating him. "We don't live here. We couldn't care less what happens to this sector of space, so long as we get home."
The Founder sneered at Chakotay. "What makes you think you'll give us what we want?"
"As I said, we're willing to download every last iota of information about the Delta Quadrant that we have, just as long as you leave us alone."
"Information about the Delta Quadrant? Now, why would we need that?" asked the Founder in a mocking tone.
I'm not stupid, Chakotay thought, balling his hand up into a fist silently. "We know what you want, Founder. You need this information for your offensive against the Delta Quadrant."
"Offensive against the Delta Quadrant? It's such a boring place. The only reason we came here was because of you."
Because of us? Chakotay blinked. "We have no quarrel with you. What would you want with us?"
"Perhaps I should have been more specific. When I meant 'you' I was referring to your ship, of course…" The shapeshifter favored Chakotay a nasty grin. "Are you aware that your ship is the only one left in existence with this particular warp-core configuration? Only a few of these ships were commissioned with this core because shortly after its inauguration, it was found to have serious flaws."
"Flaws," said Chakotay suspiciously.
"The rest of the ships were either lost in battle, or refitted with a new core. Except this one, of course, because it's been… out of commission for so long. But we're about to set that record straight, because soon this ship will be lost in battle as well."
Chakotay glared at the screen. "I don't see what our destruction has to do with anything of your grand plans."
"Oh, but of course. Starfleet must have forgotten to inform you with this key information. How careless of them."
"What information?" Chakotay seethed, wondering how long the Dominion had been tinkering with their transmissions from the Alpha Quadrant. What else have they been keeping from us?
"Didn't you know? When your warp core is destroyed, the release of energy is concentrated enough to cause huge tears in the fabric of space-time, which become fairly easy to manipulate."
Fooled, Chakotay suddenly realized, we've been fooled. Behind him, Harry sucked in a sharp breath. "They want to use this energy release to punch a wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant- which they will control!" His brow furrowed. "But how? Since when did the Dominion obtain such sophisticated wormhole technology?"
"How and where doesn't matter, and neither do the efforts of your little friends trying to plant explosives on my ship." He gestured to non-Weyoun. "He can find all you synthetic biogel contraptions faster than you put them down." The Vorta swelled with pride as the Founder moved more clearly to the front and gazed derisively at Chakotay. "Your ship will be destroyed no matter what." Then he cut communications.
The Jem'Hadar ships began to fire.
Kathryn had planted the last real charge underneath a storage cabinet located some five feet away from the polaron generator rooms, bathed in an odd blue glow. The small spherical device had blinked and flashed as she had activated the timer button, being careful not to touch the deadman's switch rigged to it which would set off instant detonation. She'd checked her chrono- they were two mintues ahead of schedule. Excellent.
" Captain." Seven had called, her voice echoing from down the corridor. "Take a look at this."
Kathryn hurried down the corridor, worry etched on her face, probably hoping it wasn't more bad news.
It was. Seven stood in front of a recessed pit, blanketed in a thin layer of vaporizing liquid nitrogen. "What's that?" Kathryn asked, peering carefully into the pit. One could barely make the outlines of the machinery housed within it. The metal railing was freezing to the touch, and she moved her hands away from it.
"From what I can surmise, it is an energy collector of some sort," replied Seven. She pointed out the components of the collector to Kathryn. "I believe that the source of energy it collects is from the exterior of the ship; those black conduits over there induct the energy from its origin, accumulate it and intensify it here."
"But what does it do? Collect solar power?" Kathryn walked cautiously around the pit, examining it. "It don't see any output device."
Seven continued scanning the pit, her lips tightening. "I'm afraid its not anything as harmless as that. This equipment has been calibrated to receive an energy signal corresponding to that of a warp-core breach release- one of an Intrepid-class starship."
Kathryn gave her a swift glance. "The destruction of our ship. What would they do with all this energy?"
Seven frowned, unsure of the answer. "I have made some hypotheses," she told Kathryn. "The energy released by our warp core breach might be sufficient to rupture the fabric of space-time and create a permanent wormhole between the Delta Quadrant and whatever point you wish in the universe."
"One wonders why we've never thought of that one before," said Kathryn dryly. The she paused, thinking. "Wait, did you say any point in the universe?"
"That is correct."
"Including Earth…."she whispered. Her eyes widened. "Planetary defenses will be no match for fifteen Jem'Hadar ships appearing out of nowhere."
"Or Bajor," Seven noted. "The coordinates lead to Bajor." Her voice quieted. "No. In fact, the coordinates lead through Bajor." She snapped her tricorder shut. "It'll destroy the whole planet," she said softly, letting the implications carve a cold pit in her stomach.
"Seven, is there any way for us to ensure that this machinery does not come into operation?"
"Destroy it before our ship does," replied Seven curtly. "That is the only affirmative way."
"So it has come to this." She placed her hand over abdomen, as if about to be violently sick. Footsteps above their head made her suddenly look up. "Jem'Hadar troops!" she exclaimed in alarm. Her cerulean blue eyes met Seven's. "Let's go." And they ran back down the corridor, back up to the prearranged coordinates.
The Voyager shook with the fury of the Jem'Hadar ship's attack. Seated at the helm, Tom could hardly keep on his seat, much less fly the ship. But he tried valiantly, moving the ship away from the thickest of the fire. Voyager was doing much better with Seven and Harry's adapted shielding and the deflector dish off-line, but the polaron beams were perilously close to overloading circuitry ship-wide. Already the bridge had suffered a few surges, and the newly repaired consoles had been damaged again. Harry had a burn on his arm; Chakotay a few minor abrasions.
Chakotay was tense, as far as Tom could tell. The bear-like First Officer sat in the captain's chair, lip tightened into a thin line, clenching and unclenching a fist silently. "Harry," he said, "How long do we have until detonation?"
"Eight minutes," he said.
"Status of the away team?"
"They are headed towards the prearranged beamup coordinates," reported Ayala, taking Tuvok's place at Tactical.
The ship lurched violently as it took a hard hit. Tom winced as navigational reports flooded in bloodred on his console. "We've lost the aft ventral impulse engines!" Now Voyager was lame, unable to maneuver as skillfully as she had done before.
"Commander." It was B'Elanna, from Engineering. "Our sublight engines are experiencing an unhealthy amount of EM radiation flux from the new shielding. I might have to employ some kind of damping field on it, but it'll hamper operational efficiency."
Chakotay nodded. "Do it, B'Elanna."
"The away team is in position," reported Ayala.
"Standby to beam them out."
The three away team members gathered at the prearranged coordinates for beamup. In his hand Tuvok held a miniature tricobalt device: small, but powerful nonetheless. They were in a large, mostly empty storage room on the outer rim of the ship, a huge space with two decks. Tuvok planted the tricobalt device in one of the lower corners of the room. It had a one-minute timing delay. Taking their cue from Tuvok, the trio ran out of the room to wait for the explosion.
Unfortunately a platoon of Jem'Hadar troops awaited them outside the room.
Without hesitation the three bolted to the left, trying to reach the access ladder that would bring them back to the second level of the storage room. The Jem'Hadar followed them, firing bolts of scarlet energy at key superstructure points of the ship, trying to impede the way of the interlopers.
A huge support beam from the ceiling groaned, sagged, and crashed to the floor behind Seven just as she reached the access ladder. In front of her Tuvok returned with his compression phaser rifle, taking out two of the Jem'Hadar.
Kathryn was trapped under the massive beam. "Captain!" Seven ran over to lift the beam- and found its weight comparable to a class-2 shuttle's. "I can't move it!" she exclaimed. Tuvok came over to help her.
Kathryn's eyes widened as a close shot from the approaching Jem'Hadar sizzled over their heads. "Go," she told them, "leave me. I'll be fine."
Seven shook her head. "I'm not abandoning you!"
"There's no other way! You'll miss the beamout frame!" She glanced back at the Jem'Hadar, leaping easily over the obstacles they had made. "Seven, Tuvok, return to the Voyager. That's an order."
Tuvok's face was unreadable, but Seven's contorted with grief. "No!" she refused stubbornly. "Captain, I will not leave you here!"
"Just go, please! Go!" shouted Kathryn as the first Jem'Hadar started to clamber over the massive support beam.
With one last anguished glance over her shoulder, Seven fled up the access ladder and just barely into the room as the tricobalt device detonated.
The child rubbed her eyes; despite herself, she was tired. The angel picked up on this and paused at the climax of the story. The child glanced at her with eyes wide open. "You can't just stop here! I want to know what happens next!"
"I will finish the story tomorrow. Do not worry."
"But that means I'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out the ending!"
"You are a contrary child. First you say you do not want me to complete the story today, then you complain when I do not finish it."
"But you stopped at the most exciting part!"
"It is a literary technique known as a 'cliffhanger'," the angel told the girl, tucking her in. "Writers use it often."
"I like reading. Maybe I'll be a writer when I grow up." The six-year old favored the angel a cherubic smile. "Promise to come back tomorrow?"
"I promise."