Star Voyager
By Iejasu and Miklinar
- Whatever stars shine, the brightest will always be the special one
that shines above your home. -
Katherine Janeway, Captain of the Federation starship _Voyager,
stranded in the Delta Quadrant, stared at the viewscreen. There,
before her ship, was
the nearest terminus of a wormhole that had proved to be yet another
false hope. The wormhole was large enough, and was apparently stable, but the
few signals received from the probe told them the other end was further
from home, not nearer.
"Captain, the probe has stopped transmitting signals." Tom Paris's
voice barely hid his disappointment.
The captain turned towards the young man. "Very well, Mr. Paris.
Log the readings, and put us back on course for home." Her voice was
calm as always, a source of stability to her crew.
Suddenly the voice of Harry Kim cut though the air. "Captain, something
is coming though the wormhole! A ship!"
Janeway turned swiftly back towards... a small ship tumbling into
view. "Readings, Mr. Kim?"
"One life form, lifesigns decreasing rapidly. The hull is badly
damaged, and she's lost life support."
"Wow," Tom Paris muttered, staring at the ship. "That's a radical
design -- I've never seen anything like her."
Janeway was almost able to hide her grin. It was one of the constants
of the universe: Tom Paris's fascination with starships.
Janeway inquired dryly, "Mister Paris, I assume from your remark
that there is nothing like that in our database?"
Paris hastily ran a search in the ship's database
Kim's voice cut in, "Captain, lifesigns have dropped to critical
levels. And the ship's hull is starting to buckle."
"Beam the occupant straight into sickbay. Inform the doctor that he has
a new patient."
A flash on the screen. Everyone on the bridge threw hands up to
cover their eyes -- a reflex no one, even the logical Tuvok, had made
any effort to suppress. The shock wave from the explosion slammed into
Voyager. The ship rocked, lights flickering until the emergency systems
came online. The wormhole entrance collapsed.
"DAMAGE REPORT!" Janeway's voice cut through the clamor.
Tom Paris's jaw dropped. "Was all that energy from that one ship?"
B'Lanna Torres's voice over the intercom lost nothing of its snap.
"Life support is out on decks three to five. Warp drive is offline. We
have 40 percent of impulse power." The Klingon snarl increased, "Repair
crews are already working."
The captain interrupted, "When you have things under control, I want a
full report. Janeway out."
Katherine Janeway glanced at Kim and raised an eyebrow. Kim nodded,
"Transport successful."
*******
The injured man awoke. He found himself staring up at a balding man
with a supercilious .....
"Where am I?" The patient's voice boomed through the sickbay, giving no
clue to how weak and disoriented he felt.
"You are aboard the starship _Voyager._ We beamed you aboard just
before your ship blew up, after it came through the wormhole."
The injured man felt medical apparatus restraining him.. But he
stared at the medic. To his perceptions, there was no one there! "You
aren't a life-form. WHAT are you?" he growled menacingly.
The doctor answered in his most "cheerful" voice. "I'm the Emergency
Medical Hologram onboard this vessel. If you relax, the diagnostic
readings will be more accurate. You...."
****
Janeway strode into the sickbay, the door sliding closed behind
her. The doctor was talking to the new arrival. Under the medical
apparatus, the patient wore what seemed to be a variety of a pressure
suit, damaged by the explosion. Or were those disrupter burns? "I'm Katherine
Janeway. I'm captain of this ship."
The injured man twisted slightly under the medical restraints.
"Dispense with the pleasantries, Captain. I do not wish to discuss
anything. Signal the nearest Imperial base. Have them send a shuttle to
pick me up."
Janeway blinked at the tone of voice. The man sounded like an
admiral of her acquaintance, not someone who would have been piloting
himself. She decided to play safe. "I see. We're not familiar with all
of the minor local political groups, so if you'd be so kind as to give us
a direction for a beamcast, we'll be happy to call your people for a
pickup." She added softly, "Can your ships make warp seven, or should
we wait for them? What name should we give them?"
The patient's voice lost its authoritative tone for an instant.
"What's 'Warp seven'?" Then the damaged body twisted violently, shoving
the medical restraints aside. "Give me an outside comm line,
immediately!" The patient tried to sit upright.
The doctor quickly applied a hypospray to a spot just below the
armored helmet. The patient subsided, returning to his rest position on
the diagnostic bed.
"Did you do that?" Janeway inquired.
"The patient is in no condition to walk around, and there was no
time to reason with him." The doctor walked around to study the
diagnostic readings. "Fascinating. This man is lucky to be alive."
Janeway walked over to the diagnostic table. "Is his species in our
databank?" she asked the EMH. What she saw was a pressure suit of a
dark flexible material, a leather or a plastic, with instrument modules that
had lights blinking at intervals. His face mask was a stylized face, and
emitted a breathing noise not at all synchronized with his speech. The
suit was badly burned. Her voice softened, "How badly is he injured?"
The EMH nodded curtly. "He seems to be an Earth-human." The doctor
flipped a switch and an image appeared above his desk. The doctor
pointed out features of the suit. "The pressure suit is nearly a full
life support system. According to my readings, he has suffered several
amputations as well as a number of broken bones and extensive internal
damage."
"You seem displeased, Doctor..." Janeway observed.
The doctor lost his carefully programmed cool demeanor.... "How can a
culture with advanced space travel be so backwards in their medical
science? They've nearly turned him into a cyborg by adding prosthetic
parts, instead of applying regeneration techniques. The readings show
that he is in constant pain." The hologram shook his head.
Janeway looked down at the unconscious form. "Can you do anything?"
The doctor scowled down at the newest resident of sickbay, then turned
toward the captain, his statement changing to a satisfied smile. "It
will take a great deal of expertise and effort, but I should be able to
improve this patient's condition considerably."
Janeway nodded, "Talk to him about it, once he's awake again, and
calmed down."
Captain Janeway returned to the bridge while the doctor continued his
scans and set up a security screen to be sure his new patient would stay in
sickbay. He checked on his readouts again, finally finding something
that was definitely not earth human standard, the brain had additional front
lobes. He stored this information for further use. The comm link was
signaling from bridge, a unobtrusive query from bridge if everything
was all right. He confirmed the query and started to apply a hypospray to
the patients neck in order to wake him up.
The injured man woke up to find himself staring into the face of this
"doctor". But this time he was prepared...
"Captain," Harry Kim called out, "Security breach in sickbay! The
patient's attacking the doctor and tearing sickbay apart." Kim frowned
and touched his screen. "The comm's been cut off."
Katharine Janeway looked surprised. "The force fields have been
activated?" she inquired in a low voice.
Tuvok's calm voice answered "Yes, Captain, they are still activated.
The Vulcan was already in the turbolift before the Captain left her chair.