valkryies6

Ship of the Valkryies (Part Six)

A Star Trek crossover fanfic by Lt Taya 17 Janeway (TaTTooGaL™)

The weather on Cogito IV was warm, heated by the rays of two yellow stars. The current orbit of the planet took the two suns on a similar trajectory against the sky at almost the same time, so it was a brief burst of intense sunlight instead of a continuous drenching at normal power. Quite a raw deal, actually. Janeway hated to think of schools built on this planet- in the afternoon classrooms on Earth were invariably too hot by a few degrees, and they only had one sun. People living on this planet either were thermophilic in nature, otherwise they had teachers who were a lot more interesting than human ones.

Right now they were gathered in a stadium of some sort, a holographic environment whose center could be changed to various settings as need be. This ThinkQuest game was apparently a popular game amongst the Cogitans, but they'd never allowed offworlders to play before. As such, they were uneasy about hosting this portion of the Intergalactic Treasure Hunt, but there was little one could do against the wishes of a Q, else she wouldn't be here playing his ridiculous games in the first place.

The game was simple: each team had three members, each of whom had to complete a special task. A panel of six judges then assigned scores on who had accomplished the task to his or her best ability. At the end of the day, the team with the most points scored won the game. Janeway had elected to send Deanna Troi, Jadzia Dax and herself for this Quest.

Deanna was up for the first task. There were three other teams competing in the game, and theirs was the last one to take a turn. The Cogitan ambassador, a nervous thin man, guided the four participants to the center of the stadium while the rest of the team watched from the sidelines. "The first task," he said, rubbing his hands together restlessly.

Twelve holographic people appeared behind the ambassador, and simultaneously, a small sphere appeared in the ambassador's hand. "I have here in my hand a nestin ball- it's a popular sport here- and a group of holographic helpers. The objective of the task is to get each helper to touch the ball with both palms in as short a time as possible." He tossed the ball to the first participant, a Tak Tak.

The first participant made them stand in a close line and pass the ball to each other fast.

The second one made them stand in two alternate rows facing each other and smack the ball to each other, volleyball fashion, down the rows in a zigzag fashion.

The third one made them gather around the ball in a circle and slap it with both hands in quick succession.

Now it was Troi's turn.

She stood considering the twelve helpers and the ball carefully, thinking hard. The previous attempts had all taken half a minute or so to complete, and she was determined to do it within a third of that time. So she closed her eyes and thought of the fastest way to get a ball to contact as many surfaces as possible.

She opened her eyes and smiled.

"Could you all cup your hands like this?" she asked the helpers, curling her fingers around the ball to demonstrate. The helpers complied, and she nodded in approval. Next, she made them line their cupped hands in a straight column, so that it became a pipe of sorts. Janeway smiled when she saw that, knowing what Troi was about to do.

She held the ball over the column and dropped it through.

It took less than ten seconds to roll down the helpers' hands and hit the floor.

Troi raised her fist in victory.

The next task was Jadzia's. They were supposed to build the tallest and sturdiest structure possible, using just straws and adhesive tape. Jadzia gave Janeway an amused glance, as if to say, four years in an advanced structural engineering course in Starfleet Academy and here I am, building with straws and Scotchtape. Janeway hid a grin and watched the Trill's deft fingers twist and tape straws together. Applying the most fundamental rules of physics, Jadzia managed to build a pyramidal structure which, although not the tallest, managed to support the most weight put on by the Cogitans. As she returned to the sidelines Jadzia shrugged. What creative thinking? Not like I invented the laws of physics.

Now it was Janeway's turn. She headed to the center of the field, knowing that their victory depended on her performance. The Cogitan ambassador smiled pleasantly at her.

Then twelve huge bellowing animals appeared behind him.

Janeway's eyes widened as the Cogitan ambassador unclipped a long cylindrical object from his belt. He held it out to the four participants. "This is a forcefield marker," he said. "Applying it to the ground releases tiny field generators which will create a forcefield fence at waist-level in whatever shape you draw." He gestured to the monstrous beasts behind him. "Your task is to put these creatures inside a fence using the least number of field generators."

Janeway could barely keep her jaw from dropping. What the-?

The first participant, from the Tak Tak arranged the beasts, which looked like a cross between an ox and a rhino, in a tight circle and drew a circle around them.

The second participant forced them up on their hind feet and drew a smaller circle.

The third participant, a huge hulking individual who might have been half giant, used sheer brute force to arrange the beasts into a pyramidal shape like Jadzia's straw structure, except they certainly were a lot more massive than straws. But his circle was still larger than the second participant's.

Janeway took the marker as the third participant handed it to her and swallowed a deep breath. What could she do to make the circle smaller? She considered the animals, each of which was about ten times her weight and probably twice that heavy. There was no way she was going to be able to lift one, much less stack them on top of one another.

Think, Kathryn, think, she chided herself. There had to be some other way. Cassandra mentioned innovative thinking. How could she apply creativity to this situation?

Creativity means thinking outside the box. My thoughts are inside the box. I want to get outside.

Inside the box. Inside the fence. Inside and outside, outside the fence-

Then it struck her.

Praying that it was allowed within the rules, she bent down, and drew a tiny circle around herself. The forcefield sprang up, cutting her off from the rest of the world.

The Cogitan ambassador gave her a positively puzzled look. "I'm sorry," he said in that slow, patronizing tone one would use when addressing a particularly dim-witted chipmunk, "but I'm afraid you might have misinterpreted the aim of this activity. You're supposed to be putting the animals inside the fence."

"And I have. Not only that, I have also put you and everyone else here inside the fence as well. The only one who's outside of the fence… is me." She smiled sweetly at him, hoping he'd buy it. Well, he did want creative thinking… and who's to define what's the inside or outside of a fence, anyway? It's just a damned boundary.

The Cogitan ambassador stared at her with his jaw open for a moment, then he smiled, holding his hand out to her. "Congratulations… I think you've just won the game."

******

Molly peeked out from the edge of the corridor. The coast was clear, no sign of Naomi or Quinlan anywhere. As quickly as her short legs would let her, she scurried across the length of the corridor diagonally and hid at the intersection of the two corridors.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Naomi's voice came ringing from further up the corridor. Molly stifled a giggle and moved down the corridor, away from Naomi's voice. There was a Jefferies tube access slightly further down, and Molly was going to use it as a hiding place.

She was so involved in sneaking away silently that she didn't see the pair of legs standing in the corridor until she hit them. Glancing up in shock, she realized it was her mother, hands on hips, holding a pair of gardening gloves and a flat spade in one hand. "Where've you been?" Keiko asked, annoyed. "I've been looking all over for you."

"I'm playing hide-and-seek with Naomi and Quinlan," Molly replied. "Naomi's looking for me, I have to hide."

Keiko let out a sigh and shook her head. For the past few days she'd found herself unusually busy despite the fact that she wasn't really part of the senior crew, and hadn't been sent down on any missions yet. Voyager was in a mess, and Keiko, with rudimentary engineer's training, was happy to help. It was the first time they'd had peace on board this ship, and she had gone down to see their aeroponics garden. With all that, Keiko hadn't really been spending too much time with Molly, and she couldn't bear to blame the child for staying out of sight. As long as she's safe… "Be careful, okay?" she told Molly, figuring that she wouldn't be in too much danger playing with Naomi and Cass' daughter.

Molly nodded and scurried down the corridor, ducking into the Jefferies tube system to hide. Keiko resumed her walk down to the Mess Hall, and ran into Naomi Wildman coming up the corridor. The half-Ktarian girl was flushed from running around. "Hi! Have you seen Molly?"

Keiko shook her head, smiling. "I've no idea where she's gone," she said, "but you might try going further down this corridor."

"Thank you." Naomi headed in the direction Keiko had pointed her to.

When Keiko had gone, Quinlan appeared beside Naomi as mysteriously as she always did. Quinlan was a small, dark haired and dark eyed child, with a preternatural calm which hid an insatiable spark of mischief. "Are all the grownups gone?" she asked.

"Yep," replied Naomi. "All gone."

Quinlan grinned. "Good."

"Why do you always have to hide from the grownups anyway?" asked Naomi, curious. "Are you hiding from them because you're in trouble?"

"No. I'm playing a game of hide and seek with my mommy and daddy and someone might tell. That would take the fun out of everything," whispered Quinlan conspiratorially. "Let's go find where Molly is. I bet she's in that Jefferies tube over there."

Naomi giggled, went over to the said Jefferies tube and flipped it open. Molly was crouched inside. Naomi slapped Molly's arm, yelled "You're Q!" and scrambled away, laughing and dashing helter-skelter down the corridor.

Molly squealed and leapt out of the Jefferies tube in hot pursuit of the two girls. Giggling wildly the trio of crazed children ran like a group of…. Well, crazed children.

Then abruptly Naomi and Quinlan stopped running. Molly ran into them from behind. "I caught you!" she exclaimed, wondering why they'd stopped in the first place.

Then she realized Seven of Nine was standing in front of them like a pillar of imposing bronze. Molly gulped as the ex-Borg frowned severely down at them. "What are you doing?"

"Uh… running?" replied Molly timidly.

Seven afforded her a glance to let her know she was stating the blindingly obvious, as if Molly wasn't already aware of that fact. "That much is obvious," she said crisply. "I am more concerned with your reason for flight. I see little reason for such as you to be pursued while aboard this vessel."

"Well…" said Naomi, uncertain, and not really wanting to get her friend upset with her. And also not wanting to let the captain get any wind of their misbehavior. "We were only playing."

"Then the use of excessive speed in locomotion is not required, and in fact is inherently dangerous. You could have fallen, and someone could have been hurt."

"Do you always speak like that?" asked Quinlan. "You sound like a computer."

Seven seemed to notice the girl for the first time. "Who are you?"

"I'm Quinlan," said the dark-haired child.

"Cass' daughter," added Naomi helpfully. "I think."

"We were playing Tag the Q," Molly said. "Want to join us?"

Seven faintly scandalized by the idea. "Running down corridors is a display of lack of decorum which does not befit a member of this crew."

The three girls glanced at Seven with wide round eyes. "Pleeaaaase?"

******

Janeway was on her way to the bridge when she was nearly run over by a gaggle of small giggling children running headlong through the corridors at warp speed. Thankfully, she was in too cheerful a mood to scold or even stop them. She merely smiled, shook her head and turned to continued on her way to the bridge.

Only to get run over by a not-so-small giggling ex-Borg drone.

"Seven?" Janeway was genuinely surprised. "What are you doing?"

Seven's eyes went wide and she looked more embarrassed than she'd ever been. "My apologies, Captain. I was merely… playing with the children."

Janeway laughed a little at that. "None necessary," she said flippantly. She stood up and brushed herself off. "Recreational games like these might be a… useful outlet for expression of pent-up emotions and energy."

The three children poked their heads around the corridor curiously. "Seven?"

Seven gave Janeway an uncomfortable glance, not wanting to disappoint the children, but not really wanting to break into another wild run in front of her captain either.

Janeway waved towards the children. "Go ahead." Then she continued her way onto the bridge.

The moment she was out of sight, Seven smiled, and darted down the corridor after the three children.

******

The doors to the bridge slid open, admitting the captain. Cass was already there, standing at Seven's usual station behind the fishbone arch. Kira was in the center, Ro at Tactical, Keiko at Operations and Torres at the elm. As she headed for the center seat Kira relinquished it to her, smiling.

"Congratulations," Cass told her as she settled down in her seat. "You won… again." She handed Janeway a small gaming padd. "This is your reward."

Janeway leaned back to take it, then turned it over in the light, scrutinizing it. "It's a child's toy."

"It may come in useful later," Cass informed her.

Janeway tapped at the padd and perused the contents. "The clue is here?"

"Yes."

"It's the blueprint for a building."

"So it is."

"How are we supposed to find one single building located within this entire quadrant?" Janeway gave Cass an imploring stare. "Do we look like walking architectural databases to you?"

"You have Borg on board," Cass reminded her gently. "If there's any race which qualifies as walkimng architectural databases, it is them."

"My resident Borg is currently on a rampage down a corridor chasing a trio of children. She is in no state to analyze these plans." Janeway smiled almost maternally. "I'll ask her later."

"Oh, by the way," said Cass, "You will no longer be able to choose who you want to be on the team for missions any longer. That responsibility now falls to me." She gestured to Ro. "For the nest mission you will be going in alone."

Ro spun to face her in stunned shock. "Me, go alone?"

Cass gave her smile which was both gentle yet acid. "Are you not up to the challenge?"

"Of course not," scoffed Ro, sounding much more confident that she felt. "It's just that… don't I need backup just in case something happens?"

"None are necessary," said Cass. "The next job is a simple theft."