Author: Christy Anderson

You can contact me at kittyunlimited@go.com.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Paramount minus Ensign Christy Anderson and a few selected insignificant characters...

Author's Note: I think that this part is probably my favorite out of what I have written so far... typical Voyager adventure at the end. You'll see what I mean. Thanks for everyone who has sent feedback, it's appreciated very much. Alle für jetzt... All for now-- Christy

Time's Chosen: Part 4

"I think that she is coming to," the Doctor said. I heard the noise of a triicorder above me and groaned. "Here, help her sit up."

I sucked in my breath a little too sharply in an attempt to do it myself. "Voyager?" I whispered, tears threatening to overtake me.

"Yes," the Doctor answered as if he was talking to a small child. "You are on Voyager, Christy. Do you remember what happened?"

I looked up to meet the intense gazes of my peers. Could I tell them of the bleak future I had seen? Could I even begin to explain what I could not understand? "The intruder," I finally managed to force out, trying to catch my breath.

"Who was he?" Tuvok questioned. "Did you know him? Did you recognize his species?"

I shook my head in confusion. "I can't really say," I began. "I don't know who he was, and I didn't recognize his species, but he looked familiar."

Tuvok knelt down with sudden interest. "In what way?"

I grimaced as another jolt of pain went through my head. "I can't really say," I answered softly. I was still trying to take it all in- was I really back? From over in the corner, two Engineering crews rummaged through the mess.

"Someone's disconnected the gel pack!" B'Elanna exclaimed out of the blue. Tuvok rushed over immediately to investigate.

"We must be cautious, Captain," Tuvok began after he had examined the severed neural pathways for a few minutes. "This was done expertly. Whoever did this had a deep understanding of our integral systems. The pathways were disengaged with chilling preciseness, and they diverted all sensor activity through a loop in the Mess Hall. They could have been tracking us for weeks, observing us. I suggest we proceed by deploying security details all over the ship to manually search for such an intruder."

I sighed and cleared my throat, even now not feeling as if I was still in full control. "You are mistaken, Tuvok. The intruder did not disconnect the gel pack," I gulped, "I did."

The Doctor came over and ran some more triicorder scans, clearly undisturbed by the events around him. I heard additional movement around me. "And would you care to tell me how you got in Astrometrics? And what exactly you were planning to do?" the Captain snapped.

I winced at the sound of her voice. "I apologize, Captain This was an unwise decision" I looked up to meet her intense gaze. She began to open her mouth, but the Doctor cut her off.

"This is hardly a time for a discussion," he cut in. "You can resume it later after my patient has had the proper medical treatment."

"No," I said sternly. "I am at fault. I broke in to repair the lab. It was a selfish and foolish decision. I broke the rules, and I expect to be punished."

"What was the point?" she challenged with unbelief.

My mouth was dry. "I wanted to do something to occupy my mind. Repairing the lab seemed like a logical choice."

"Logical?" the Captain scoffed.

"Wait a second," Harry interrupted from the other side of the room. "I think I found something Look at this" The Captain pulled away from me to look. Harry was shaking his head skeptically, looking at his triicorder. "I cannot get any straight readings," he commented. "I don't understand. The triicorder says that the object contains some sort of organic fluid."

"Organic?" Neelix exclaimed. "How is that possible?" I looked up in the direction of his voice. I hadn't even noticed that he was in the room until now. It would only make the explanation harder.

"Perhaps it is some sort of explosion device. I am reading strong electrical charges," Tuvok put in.

"There's some sort of crude wiring on it though," B'Elanna caught on. You could always count on her to be right on target. "It almost looks as if it was designed to be put in place of a gel pack."

"Perhaps it is some sort of biological agent designed to infect the other gel packs through the neural circuitry," Tuvok suggested.

B'Elanna shook her head. "It looks like it was designed to be some sort of power source."

"It's a battery," I interrupted, too annoyed and shocked to allow the discussion to continue any further. "I was hooking it up to self power the Astrometrics Lab."

Harry looked at me incredulously. "That's dangerous. An organic battery could have exposed our systems to countless numbers of biological agents."

"That's absurd!" I snapped back. "I designed it myself- it is perfectly safe."

"How would you know that? You never had training in Engineering!" the Captain questioned in astonishment, shocked that I would make such a rash choice.

I looked her squarely in the eye. "No," I answered, "but I am being trained now"

"I hope this is not what we are training you for, Lieutenant," she interrupted in anger.

"I tested it on the holodeck- it is perfectly safe."

Harry looked down at the triicorder. "Whatever is in there, it is very acidic. One false move and the whole contraption might have exploded!" -Thanks, Harry, I thought to myself.

"What is in the battery, Christy?" the Captain asked quickly.

I glanced at Neelix, knowing that she would pull it out of me one way or another, but still I did not want to hurt my friend's feelings. "I cannot really say at the moment," I replied, hoping against all odds that she would drop the matter.

The instant the words came out of my mouth, Janeway stared at me, unsure if whether my words were an act of defiance. "Christy," she raised her voice only slightly, but her tone was commanding.

I sighed. "Leola Root Stew, Captain. I spilled some one day and it burned a hole through the carpet. I decided to experiment to see if it could be turned into a power source."

"My stew?" Neelix gasped with hurt in his voice.

"I always knew that was a killer," someone snidely commented from the back of the room.

Captain Janeway shot a look of annoyance in the direction it came from.

"And what about the experiment?" B'Elanna asked quietly. It seemed as if she was the only one not angry with me at the moment.

I gave a smile. "By my calculations, one battery could run the entire ship for six hours with full systems operational."

"How many batteries do you have?" the Captain inquired harshly.

"Six."

"If it is not too much trouble," B'Elanna put in, "I'd like to see those calculations and the schematics for the battery."

"Lieutenant," Janeway challenged irritably.

"Captain," she exclaimed with disbelief, "if Christy is right then we should keep some of these in storage for when we are low on dilithium."

"What about the intruder?" Harry said to change the subject.

His words caused shivers to run down my spine. "He looked so familiar" my voice trailed off.

The Doctor shut his triicorder. "Care to specify why your electrolyte levels are off the scale?" he asked sarcastically.

Suddenly the whole scene, including my vision, came back. "He hit me with some sort of energy bolt," I said softly.

"Energy bolt!" Harry exclaimed, kneeling down as if to double check that I was all right.

"Yes," I began almost dreamily, trying to make sense of the vision. Even now it seemed so far away. "He threw four. One shattered the display behind me."

Harry met my gaze. "Shattered the display," he commented with concern. Slowly I nodded my head. "Behind you," he repeated. I nodded again as his hands took hold of my face gently and showed me the console behind me. There wasn't a scratch.

"It exploded- I am sure of it," I whispered with horror.

Tuvok scanned the display. He raised his eyebrow. "This display has over a million micro fractures. There may be credibility to her story. Is there anything else can you remember, Lieutenant?"

I pointed to the power dome. "He turned the central power dome on."

B'Elanna cleared her throat. She had moved over to one of the power interface consoles. "Well whatever is powering that thing," she began, "it isn't coming from this ship."

Janeway frowned. "What do you mean?"

B'Elanna shrugged. "It looks like we are dealing with an alien power source."

"Anything else, Christy?" the Doctor asked. He grabbed my right hand. Immediately, I grimaced in pain. The Doctor pulled his hand away to stare at my own. "You have burns."

I nodded. "The wire split, and I was shocked. The small explosion singed my hand it isn't that bad"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows and pulled out a dermal regenerator. Running it over my hands, he shook his head. "Now, anything else?"

I looked over my shoulders at the others. Even though, the rawness of the experience was fading, I still questioned how much I should tell them. Would it be better if I kept it to myself? Finally, I gulped, trusting within my heart that my friends would understand. They would be able to help. "I had some sort of vision," I began hesitantly.

"Some sort of vision?" the Doctor reiterated, raising his eyebrows.

"I saw the future, I think." I winced again and rubbed my temples. The Doctor immediately administered a hypo spray.

"Don't fret about it," he said shrugging it off, "I sincerely doubt you saw the future. It was probably an after-effect of the energy bolt." I nodded weakly, not quite expecting so hasty a dismissal. "You'll need a day of rest, though," he added quickly. "Captain?"

Janeway seemed to snap out of deep concentration. "I apologize, Doctor. What were you saying?"

"Rest," he answered impatiently.

"Of course," she answered dismissing him with her hand. "Are you finished?"

The Doctor nodded. Captain Janeway set a grim look on her face then cleared her voice. "If you all do not mind, I'd like a moment alone with Lieutenant Anderson."

Her tone had not been extremely loud, but yet everyone piled out of the room as fast as they had came. The Captain gave a heavy sigh and turned back to me where I still sat on the floor. "I am disappointed in you. I expected more from you, Christy."

I nodded slowly. "I'm not sure I could offer you a decent explanation, Captain. I don't know what possessed me to condone my destructive behavior."

The Captain gave a small hint of a smile, offering me a hand up. "I know that these past few weeks have been hard for you, Christy. I know what it feels like to leave a love behind But, you cannot allow this to interfere with your work, let alone your judgement."

I nodded again. "I hope," I started cautiously, "that I have not lost the trust you placed in me."

Now the Captain smiled. "Lost it?" she asked rhetorically. "No, not quite. Tested it? Certainly. But no, Christy, you have not lost my trust."

I smiled graciously. "Thank you, Captain."

She nodded. "Since this is your first offense I'll let it slip by. But know from now on that orders are orders. If I close this lab off, it is to remain closed."

"Understood," I answered.

She gave a slight approving nod. "Good- dismissed- And, after the Doctor allows you to begin your duty shifts again, I expect you to spend your free time cleaning this mess up and helping B'Elanna transform your battery into a revolutionary power source."

The next day, the Doctor had cancelled all of my duty shifts, leaving me too much time to ponder what I had seen. It had been chaos- a parallel dimension, or something. Even to the moment, I could not imagine saying any of those hateful things to the people that had become my friends. For over an hour now, I had sat by myself in the Mess Hall, staring into my cup of Talaxian tea, supposedly guaranteed to drive the most persistent demon of the mind and spirit away. So far, it was not working, as my mind was ever more troubled than usual.

I looked up to see Tom and Harry enter the Mess Hall when the doors hissed open. Gab es keine Frist für das träge was there no respite for the weary? I tried to duck my head out of sight, but it was too late, I had been seen. The two walked directly over to my table.

"Christy!" Harry called. Like Siamese twins, the two troublemakers slid into the two seats across the table. Since Astrometrics, Harry had long apologized for what he had said.

"Good Afternoon," I managed glumly.

Harry looked at Tom. "Perhaps this isn't the best time," he said softly, directing the statement more to Tom than to me.

Tom shook his head and put on his charming smile. "I heard what happened yesterday, and I could not help but overhear that the Doctor gave you the day off."

I nodded. Whatever these two had concocted was going to happen, whether I liked it or not. I could hear the raw determination in Tom's voice.

"Well, if you had not noticed, we have docked at a planet, and Harry and I were wondering if you would like to go on a little 'outing' with us. You know, exploring the more colorful places of the main cities, the museums to the societies of new species where all ranks and classes can commune together as brothers."

As he spoke, I looked abruptly out the window. I had not even noticed that the Captain had planned to stop somewhere. I was sure she would have mentioned it at the earlier briefings, so it had me wonder how much I actually did pay attention to what was said nowadays. Then a realization struck me- this was one plan I planned to stay out of. "I know what is going on," I insinuated coyly, my spirits beginning to improve. "You want to go take a bar trip," I accused.

Tom shifted his glance down to the table, his smile frozen on his features. He was just like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar with that telltale expression of the cat that had just swallowed the bird. I could imagine those little yellow feathers sticking out of his mouth. "Well if you really want to call it that," he responded evasively.

"Oh, no!" I shook my head in disbelief. "You know what happened the last time you two guys got drunk. Didn't Commander Chakotay say that you could not go to a bar on our next six stops?"

Tom continued to stare at the table, as Harry sat beside him quiet as a mouse. "Well, not exactly"

"He said that we couldn't go without an escort," Harry blurted out with guilt.

"Oh, no!" I exclaimed again. "You two are really crazy! I am not even old enough to drink, let alone to escort you two loony drunks home."

"Commander Chakotay does not think so" Tom trailed his voice off for just the right touch.

I looked up at his begging face. "Really?" I asked amusedly. "Just what did the Commander say?"

"If we could get you to agree with it, we could"

I stood up from the table, eager to finish the conversation. "Clearly then, you are out of luck. I have no intention of accepting your invitation."

"Unfortunately, we all ready volunteered you," Harry blurted out again.

I spun around. "You didn't"

"We did" Tom interrupted. "We said that you had agreed and everything."

"Guys, I have work to do"

"Done," Tom interrupted again. "All of your scans for the month, as well as your quasar star project. We already collected the data and ran the program twelve times."

"Surely, B'Elanna would go"

"Are you nuts?" Harry challenged.

I sighed. They had cut off all of my escape routes. "Fine," I agreed at last, "meet me in Transporter Room 1 in an hour."

I left the Mess Hall for my quarters. At least I could take a bath and change. It would be nice to get off the ship for just a while. I arrived in my room, and the only light was the light of the forty candles on the Moheelean Prayer Altar, each one lit for him. The picture that I had taken of Tre'kent before he had left formed the center of the altar. Even with the fire reflecting off the glass, I could still picture him in my mind.

As I glanced around the room, I saw a pile of clothes on the bed. I went over and picked up the note that was pinned to them. "Thought you might want to blend in, so Harry and I did some research and replicated this for you- Tom." Despite myself, I could not help but laugh. Even in my darkest times, they were here to pull me through.

Emerging in Transporter Room One after a brief sonic shower, I was dressed like an idiot. Clad head to foot in alien attire that I began to hope was not some cruel joke; I could have passed for a clown. Tom and Harry were already there, and I laughed when I noticed how ridiculous their outfits looked too.

"Now you are sounding like yourself," Tom commented as we stepped onto the blue Transporter Pad. "Energize."

The Transporter Attendant raised up the confinement beam and we appeared in a pub, with people clad in even far worse attire than us. Who were these people anyway? A waitress, not even taken aback by our sudden appearance, led us to a table near the bar and waited to take our drink order. Tom and Harry ordered the specialty beers, but when it came down to me, all I asked for was a mineral water. The woman looked at me expectantly. "No alcohol, sweetie?" she asked in a drawl.

I shook my head, and raised up a tag that Tom had left with my clothes. It identified me as a minor in their society with the privilege, however of entering any complex. The pass, gotten through the government and authorized by Commander Chakotay, was to remind everyone not to offer me a drink. Not like I would take one, anyway. "I'm not old enough to drink," I answered frankly, holding up the pass. "I only came to chaperone my two shipmates."

She laughed. "Oh," she said with amusement, "I thought the two of them sneaked you in here to get a drink. Sure you don't want one?"

I shook my head. "Mineral Water will be fine."

When the waitress left, we sat at the table for a few minutes in deep silence, each afraid to speak. For a while, Harry told corny jokes, trying to lighten the mood. For me, it seemed to be too much, too soon. With Tre'kent and my recent vision, I was finding it hard to be around people for even twenty minutes. After a while I had had enough and just wanted to be alone. Eventually, my thoughts slipped out into space, reaching for one glimpse of Tre'kent's presence, but I could feel nothing. He was too far away and our telepathic link was not that strong.

"Christy!" Tom interrupted urgently. "Can't you hear me calling you?"

"I'm sorry, Tom. I was not paying attention."

He brushed off my excuse quickly. "Listen to that, will you?" he asked.

There were people talking in the background, but I could not hear what would be so important. "Hear what?" I questioned.

"That one man at the bar- he's speaking German."

I almost laughed. "Tom, we are halfway across the galaxy. There is no way that some alien would know how to speak German."

He grabbed my hand. "No," he commanded, "listen. After living on the same ship with you for three years, I think that I would be able to recognize it."

I listened intently to the man at the bar. He seemed to be telling some sort of a tale, "Ich ging auf meine Spielräume, auch ermüdet, um zu argumentieren, wohin die Männer mich nahmen. Als ich aufwachte, war ich im Gefängnis. Die Männer, die angeboten hatten, mir zu helfen waren wirklich Gesetzdurchführungoffiziere und ich waren auch getrunken worden, um zu beachten! Ich versuchte, mich mit einem des Schutzes auf Deutsch zu unterhalten, aber er betrachtete mich so dumm, wie Sie mich jetzt betrachten, ohne einen Anhaltspunkt zu wie, was ich sagte I went on my travels; too tired to argue where the men were taking me. When I woke up, I was in jail. The men who had offered to help me were actually law enforcement officers and I had been too drunk to notice! I tried to converse with one of the guards in German, but he looked at me as stupidly as you look at me now, without a clue to as what I was saying."

It was German! I looked at Tom dubiously. "You were right," I answered in no more than a whisper. "That man is speaking German."

Harry looked at Tom. That's impossible!" he cut off to point at the man, "It would mean that he's had some sort of recent contact with earth!"

Tom frowned. "Not necessarily recent contact."

I shook my head. "Now that is impossible! No one could have traveled to earth in less than a lifetime."

Now Harry mused over my words. "We have speculated on the possibility of other alien cultures possessing such technology."

Tom began to pick up on his drift. "Scientifically hypothesizing, this contact on Earth could have been made years ago, when the German language was still widespread. The knowledge could have been passed down. Can you understand what he is saying?"

I looked back over to the bar where the man was grinning from ear to ear. He was having a great time insulting the men at the bar. "Hier holen Junge, Barmixer kaninchen mir ein Getränk! ich sage ein Bier, ich bedeutete Baumsaft! Armer Dummkopf, hasse ich, Nutzen aus Ihrer Sprachbarriere so zu ziehen, aber es ist gerade normales lustiges! Nehmen Sie es zurück, ist es ursprüngliche Unterhaltung und ich liebe es! Here young, bartender rabbit fetch me a drink! Did I say a beer, I meant tree sap! Poor fool, I hate to take advantage of your language barrier like this, but it is original entertainment and I do love it!"

"Yeah," I answered unenthusiastically. The voice was so oddly familiar. He leaned from side to side and twirled on the stool, telling jokes and making fun of the men around him in German. I could see men shaking their heads as if they had heard it all before.

"That's enough of you, Charlie!" a man yelled from the corner of the bar. "We've been hearing too much of you lately and that funny tongue of yours. Why don't you shut up now for a moment?" His response caused some of the men around him to chuckle

I looked up at Tom, his face set in a grim frown. "I am going over to talk to him," he said determinedly.

Harry scrunched up his face. "Why?"

Tom shrugged. "Just a hunch, Harry," he answered. Too detached, I let Tom walk over and tap the guy on the shoulder. "Hello there. My name is Tom Paris, and I could not help but overhear"

The man did not even glance over his shoulder; instead, he waved his hand up in the air dismissively. "Ja, ja, ja Yes, yes, yes," came the reply.

Tom did a double take. "I think you misunderstand me. You see, I was over at the table with my friends, and"

"Nothing I have not heard before," the man interrupted.

"Nothing you haven't heard before what?" Tom shot back irritably.

The man resolved himself to a sigh. "My language is my own," he replied.

Tom put a knowing smile on his face and placed a heavy hand on the man's shoulder. Swinging, the guy around, Tom pointed to our own table. "Actually," he began. "I think not. I have a friend over there"

But the man was not looking at our table; instead, he drunkenly stared at Tom, his eyes dilated wide in disbelief. "Gnade Mercy, I have not seen that uniform in a while."

Tom stared in disbelief. "Excuse me?" he asked, looking down at his motley alien attire.

The man rubbed his eyes and looked again. His piercing blue eyes sent a chill down my spine. "I must be seeing things For a moment I thought I saw the Federation. I apologize," he mumbled. "I have been mistaken. Now leave me in peace." The man took another gulp of the drink in front of him and smiled idiotically in his drunken stupor. Within five seconds the man hiccupped.

"The Federation?" Tom asked hastily.

"You look like Paris," the man rambled on.

Tom almost choked. "Are you drunk?" he accused automatically.

The man stumbled to his feet, his sudden good humor turned to malice. "You want to make something of it?"

Tom's facial look mirrored my own incredulity. "I am not here to fight; I only wanted"

"What?" the man accused. "You came here to bug me. First, I lose a charge and a friend a few years from now. After ten years of mindless wandering I come here for a drink, and instead of comfort, all my buddies get tired of my stories and my voice. My language is all I have left of her! Suddenly no one wants to listen to troubled Charlie! Then you, you who I don't even know, come here to bug me and further degrade my existence! Well, you're scum! One day you'll die, pal, but I won't! And when that day comes, I will be the one standing here laughing!"

Tom gave the man a wary look. "Whoa! Calm down, buddy! I was not trying"

"Sure you were," the man cut Tom off. With those words, he swung his arm and hit Tom squarely on the nose.

"Cut that out, Charlie! Take yourself and your new friend out of the bar!"

But "Charlie" didn't seem to listen and took another swing at Tom. I jumped to my feet, determined to bring Tom back to the table before he did something rash. Harry pulled me down as the guards from the joint came up to haul the two out an exit.

"Wait," Harry cautioned me.

"I am supposed to keep you two out of trouble!" I exclaimed.

"Wait!" he reiterated. "The situation will only become more explosive if you go after him."

I nodded slowly, seeing the logic of his argument. I raised my hand to my Comm badge. "I am calling for a transport."

Harry grabbed my hand like I had just evoked the devil. "No! Chakotay would flip his wig if he heard this happened! Do you want to end up chaperoning us on a regular basis?"

I scrunched up my face in dislike. "Of course not!" I exploded. "What am I, insane? You guys would just have to learn to love being sober"

Harry smiled. "Let's just wait."

I raised my eyebrows, annoyed that he actually believed that I was going to obey him. I outrank him. "If he doesn't come back in twenty minutes, I will call for that transport," I threatened.

Harry grinned wider. "He'll be back."

I shook my head, but true to his word, Tom came in fifteen minutes later, with a heavy black cape draped over his shoulders and head. He slipped into the seat behind me and grabbed his drink from our table. I almost screamed when I saw his hand in front of me, but quick as lightening, he clamped his own hand over my mouth and leaned in closer. From across the table, Harry still sat, trying to quietly decipher an alien newspaper.

"Don't do that!" Tom hissed in my ear. "You will get us all kicked out and a one way ticket to their penitentiary."

I relaxed when I realized it was Tom. "Where have you been?" I shot back.

"Never mind that," he answered. "The guy put up a fight, and I knocked him out cold."

"You didn't!" I admonished loudly.

Harry looked up from what he was reading, oblivious to the whole situation. Tom still had his hand loosely over my mouth, his arm still uncomfortably tight around my neck. "Tom?" Harry asked.

Tom ignored the question and pulled the cape tighter around his face. "In fifteen minutes, I need you to leave with Harry and meet me in the alley. We are going to have to beam the man to Voyager. Maybe after some detox, he'll be more appreciative and answer more questions." I was about to ask him what he was talking about, but Tom clamped his hand tighter. I did not need to say anything for him to know what I was thinking. "I'll explain later, but he knew a few personal things about Voyager and Earth and you." I held my breath and nodded, letting it go at that. I trusted that Tom knew best. "Understand?" Tom asked unnecessarily.

I nodded. "Alleyway. Five minutes. With Harry."

"Good girl," he whispered as he exited as inconspicuously as he had come. Harry looked at me skeptically as we sat in silence.

Finally I stood. "Come on; let's go."

To be continued