"Resistance is futile."
- Seven of Nine
Chapter 4 -- Voyager Strikes Back
Mars tapped her foot impatiently and again glanced around the small
(and somewhat crowded) room that served as Voyager's armory. Their
journey here from Sickbay had been pleasantly uneventful, but they had
been lingering here for almost two hours while they (or at least she)
watched Harry and Seven of Nine finish the modifications to nearly a
dozen phaser rifles. But it finally looked as if the end was in sight,
for Harry had begun remodulating the last phaser they needed.
Of course, it didn't help her temperament any that she was just
about the only one without anything to do at the moment. Harry was still
busy setting the last rifle to a frequency modulation that Mercury said
would be most effective against denizens of the Negaverse, or those
enhanced by the power of the Negaforce. For her part, Seven was still
working on adding Borg technology to the prefire chambers, intensifying
the beam output to make the weapon even deadlier. Or at least, that's
what she thought Seven had said. The former drone had given a rather
lengthy and highly technical explanation to what she was doing, but
she didn't understand half of it.
She wasn't sure that even Mercury understood it all.
Speaking of Mercury, she and Jupiter formed the end of the
assembly line. As each weapon was completed, Jupiter would test fire
it at a standard phaser target while Mercury would scan the beam to
measure it's estimated effectiveness.
As for the others, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask were talking in
hushed tones at the far end of the room. From the glances they kept
casting Seven's way, Mars could guess what the topic of discussion was.
Venus was hovering nearby Harry, keeping a running conversation
going with him. He didn't seem to mind talking with her, but Mars
wasn't sure that he was aware that she was flirting with him.
As for the Doctor... He had gone out soon after they arrived
here, scouting out the nearby corridors for their opponents. That he
had yet to return...
A sudden, low knock on the door startled her, causing her and
almost everyone else to jump and stare at the door. Imperturbable as
ever, Seven calmly stood up and keyed the manual release, opening the
door slightly. The gap was only a few centimeters but it was enough for
the Doctor to squeeze his holographic form through. "Where have you
been?!?" Mars hissed as Seven closed and secured the door.
"Conducting reconnaissance, as I said I would do when I left."
The hologram regarded her curiously. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes! It shouldn't have taken you two hours to check out the area!"
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Indeed? I wasn't aware my
performance was being timed." Mars glared at the hologram. "I suppose
I could have completed my mission sooner if I hadn't been concerned with
remaining undetected."
"What did you find, Doctor?" Seven asked, preempting another
outburst from Mars.
"I checked this deck extensively in all directions, both corridors
and Jeffries tubes. I found no sign of the intruders anywhere. It seems
that they are consolidating their efforts on securing the bridge and
engineering."
"And on removing your crew," Mercury put in, checking her computer
again. "I estimate that they'll be able to teleport some of them off in
about forty minutes."
"Then we have little time to waste," Seven stated. "Ensign Kim, how
are you progressing?"
Harry snapped the maintenance panel shut on the phaser rifle, and
placed it down on the deck. "Just finished," he told her in a satisfied
tone. "Eleven phaser rifles all remodulated."
"Great. That just leaves the three Seven has to finish work on,"
Venus said.
"Doctor, Ensign Kim. As you have the farthest to go, I suggest you
take your teams and proceed to your destinations immediately," Seven said.
"In the interim, I will finish work on the phaser units here and then
proceed to engineering."
"Who put you in charge?" Mars muttered.
"Won't you need us to test the others?" Jupiter asked.
"It would be prudent, but time is growing short." Seven looked to
Mercury. "If memory serves, you haven't found any problems with the
units modified so far."
"Not yet," Mercury admitted. "But --"
"Then any further objections would be irrelevant. I will simply use
the same procedure as with the other rifles."
There were several uncertain looks among Voyager's newfound allies.
"I hate to admit it, but she does have a point about time getting short,"
Tuxedo Mask said.
Sailor Moon took another look to each of her friends, each of them
reluctantly nodding in agreement. "OK, let's go."
Being the nearest to the hatch, the Doctor opened the access to
the Jeffries tubes. While he did that, the others picked up the phaser
rifles they would transport to their assigned locations. "After you," he
said to Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
After the first group had entered, Harry moved to follow. As he
entered, Mars heard him say something, but she couldn't make out the words.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me you're worried we can't take the aliens?"
she asked.
Harry looked back at her and shook his head. "It's not that. I'm
just wondering how Chakotay and the others are doing."
At that moment, a universe away, Voyager's first officer was being
lead through a series of tunnels. Trying to memorize his way around the
intricate network, Chakotay slowed his pace but it seemed his guards were
the impatient sort. One of them gave him a rough shove in the small of
his back with it's staff, sending him sprawling into a large cavern.
Chakotay scrambled to his feet, glaring at the green skinned guard but
otherwise did nothing. The other guard gestured roughly, indicating to
Chakotay to keep moving. Turning about, he resumed walking towards the
center of the chamber.
Moments later he approached a small circle of light. Seeing that
Tuvok and Neelix were already there ahead of him, he quickened his pace
towards them. Upon first glance both seemed fine, though their clothing
was smeared with dirt and disheveled as was his uniform. "How are you
two doing?"
"As well as can be expected, Commander," the Talaxian replied.
Neelix was putting up a good front, but Chakotay could see in the
Talaxian's eyes that he was still in a good deal of pain from the blows
he had taken when they had been captured. Chakotay still felt the
impacts himself from the attack. Fortunately for them, it seemed that
their captors wanted them alive and relatively unharmed. At least for
now.
"My condition is quite adequate, Commander," Tuvok added. He was
of course maintaining the typical Vulcan stoicism, thus making nearly impossible to read him. But considering that Vulcans were nearly as
tough as Klingons, Chakotay knew that he was most likely in the best
condition of any of them.
The loud noise of a door opening alerted Chakotay that someone else
was approaching, and he broke off questioning his comrades. There would
be time enough for that later. Instead he watched silently as a group
of their captors moved into a formation around the dias, with one of
them standing on it. They appeared identical to those that had captured
them, save for the fact that their skins were colored a bright orange.
The one atop the dias had a blue coloring to it's skin. From it's
position and the way in which it was regarding them, Chakotay presumed
that this was the leader. He took a step towards this alien and addressed
it. "I am Commander Chakotay, first officer of the Federation Starship
Voyager. Our mission is one of peace. There's no need to treat us as if
we are your enemies."
The alien leader responded in it's own language, but a voice soon
emanated from the crystal at the top of it's staff. Evidently it not
only served as a weapon, but a translator as well. "We know who you are,
human." Chakotay and Neelix both started, while Tuvok raised an eyebrow.
"And there is every need, for you are our enemies. All who serve in
*Starfleet* -" Her voice (Chakotay presumed it was a female addressing
him, since the voice from the translator sounded female) dripped scorn as
it said 'Starfleet'. "- are our enemies."
Chakotay stared at her, incredulous. This planet was sixty
thousand light years from the nearest Federation outpost, yet this
creature seemed intimately familiar with Starfleet. And extremely
hostile towards anyone associated with it as well.
Neelix leaned forward. "She doesn't seem like the friendly type,
Commander," he whispered.
"Silence!" a load voice roared from the translator.
"I repeat, we are *not* your enemies," Chakotay reiterated,
ignoring the command. "Starfleet's mission is one of peaceful exploration. Our purpose in coming to your world was to determine if a spatial anomaly
we detected just inside your atmosphere could be used as a means for us
to get home."
The alien leader didn't reply except by staring coldly at him.
Then, responding to some unseen signal, one of the guards struck Chakotay
with the butt of it's staff, causing him to double over. Tuvok and
Neelix both took an instinctive step towards the commander but their
paths were immediately blocked by other guards. "I said, 'Silence',
human."
Gasping for breath as he was, Chakotay was unable to respond. But
after a moment or two he was able to force himself to stand up, glaring
defiantly at the alien.
"Spare me the pathetic lies, human. We of Negara are well
acquainted with Starfleet." She leaned closer to Chakotay, her very
pose dripping with menace. "And for your information, I am Metallah,
Queen of Negara. And *I* will ask the questions here." It was clear
now to Chakotay that any attempts at diplomacy were wasted here. "Now,
you will answer me. I sent over one hundred of my best to your wretched
ship, and then it had the gall to *vanish*. Where is your ship?" The
voice from the translator grew louder and shrill as she demanded,
"*Where is Voyager*?!?"
Hours later, a very tired and even more disheveled Chakotay was
picking himself off the cell floor after the guard slammed and locked
the door. He threw a dangerous glare at the door as he brushed himself
off bruskly. "I'm getting more than a little tired of being shoved
around like this," he remarked to his companions, his voice more than a
little terse. Indicating the throne room they had left earlier he said,
"Have either of you got any idea what the hell all that was about?"
Neelix shook his head. "I have no idea, Commander. I never heard
of the Federation until I met Voyager. I have no idea how she did."
Tuvok frowned slightly , considering the problem. "It is possible
that another Federation ship was pulled into the Delta Quadrant before
Voyager," he postulated.
Neelix shrugged. "If so I never heard of it."
"The Delta Quadrant is a rather large place, Mr. Neelix," Tuvok
observed. "It is quite likely that a Starfleet vessel other than Voyager
was stranded here and that news of it's existence never reached you."
"We could speculate all day and not figure it out," Chakotay said.
"All we really know is that there is some connection between this
Metallah. What worries me is she said that her people had boarded
Voyager."
"Almost a hundred," Neelix concurred. "But she also said it
vanished. Perhaps Captain Janeway found a way to elude them."
Tuvok shook his head, looking about as sullen as a Vulcan could
ever hope. "I wish I could share your optimism, Mr. Neelix. While I
have confidence in Captain Janeway's tactical abilities, given the
aliens demonstrated immunity to phasers they could very well capture
Voyager."
"If that's happened, then we could be the only chance Voyager
has." Chakotay looked about the cell. "We're going to have to find a
way to escape."
"That's not going to be easy, Commander," Neelix noted. "In fact,"
he added looking at the solid door, "it may be impossible."
Chakotay smiled at the Talaxian. "Don't worry, Neelix. We'll
figure something out. Those of us in the Maquis had to do the
impossible everyday just to survive."
Tom cast another glance down the walkway to deck two. As before,
he could see the forcefield at the bottom shimmering as blow after blow
from the aliens hammered at it. It wouldn't be much longer before it
would fail, allowing the intruders to rush onto the bridge. Turning, he
made one more check of the defensive arrangements. Ensign Graves was
situated behind the helm, armed with a phaser compression rifle. Tom
and Chell, a Bolian who had been among the Maquis that had joined the
crew, each had positions flanking her, both armed with hand phasers.
In theory, they had the entrance from deck two thoroughly covered. Unfortunately, given the resistance to phasers the intruders had shown
to date, they might as well be throwing tribbles at the intruders.
"Everyone set?"
"Sure," Ensign Graves replied in a dry voice, Chell nodding
agreement. "All ready to do our General Custer imitation."
"Come on, it's not that bad," Tom said, putting a false tone of
joviality into his voice. "We may be outnumbered and badly outgunned,
but we were in the same situation against the Cardassians."
Graves didn't react to the lame attempt at bravado but Chell was
quick to point out, "If you shot a Cardassian, he went down. It's not
the case with these things."
Tom nodded grimly, unable to counter Chell's point. At the moment
they needed a miracle if they were going to hold onto the bridge. 'Come
on, Harry.'
As if in answer to his thought, the floor hatch to the Jeffries
tube opened up. Reflexively, they all shifted aim to cover the opening,
but soon relaxed when Harry climbed out. "It's about time," Tom said,
thoroughly relieved.
"Sorry it took so long," Harry began, but he as soon as he tried
to stand, he stumbled and nearly fell. The only reason he didn't was
because he managed to grab onto the nearby bridge railing.
Seeing how pale Harry had become, Tom rushed over to his friend.
"Harry, you look like hell."
"I'll admit things were a bit rougher than I would've liked,"
Harry said with a wane smile. He nodded back to the floor hatch. "But
I did manage to find some help."
Tom followed Harry's gesture towards the tube access, and he
blinked upon seeing who was exiting. "Who...?"
What appeared to be two teenage girls were emerging from the
Jeffries tube. The first one, with long black hair and dressed in a
mostly white outfit with a red skirt, stood up glaring at Harry. "What
do you mean, 'you found us'?" she demanded. "We found *you* being
attacked and saved *your* life, remember?"
"Take it easy, Mars," the other one advised her. Tom noted that
her attire favored blue, as did the color of her hair.
"Harry..." he said uneasily.
"You remember the Sailor Scouts that Seven mentioned?" After Tom
nodded, Harry continued, "Well, these are two of them. This is Sailor
Mercury and the one with a worse temper than B'Elanna is Sailor Mars."
Mercury smiled and nodded in greetings to Tom, but Mars was too
busy scowling at Harry. "I do *not* have a bad temper," she groused.
Tom was still puzzled. "How did they get here?"
"Remember what I said about the quantum flux? And how we shifted
to another universe?" After Tom nodded again, "Well, we ended up on
their homeworld. In other words... Welcome to Earth."
Tom firmly clamped his mouth shut, because he was sure that if he
didn't, it would end up hitting the floor. When he felt confident
enough to speak, "Earth?"
"That's right. But that's not all the news I have." Harry tossed
Tom the phaser rifle he was carrying, then unslinging the one across his
back. At the same time, Mars and Mercury tossed rifles to Graves and
Chell. "Curtesy of a little Starfleet ingenuity from me, some Borg
innovation by Seven and a lot of insight from Sailor Mercury -" he tilted
his head in her direction. Mercury smiled slightly in response. "- we
have a modified phaser that should make the aliens think twice about
taking Voyager."
Tom looked the phaser over carefully, feeling a sense of optimism
creep into him for the first time in a long while. If the Sailor Scouts
were as effective as Captain Janeway had said, and with these new
phasers, maybe they did have a chance after all.
"How much further?" Venus asked impatiently.
"We are nearly there," Seven responded with as much patience as
she ever showed. "There are only fifteen more meters until we reach
the engineering exit."
"I still say we should have exited outside engineering and rushed
the aliens," Jupiter growled. "We could take them out easily."
"We still have time,"Seven stated. "Besides, our primary mission
is to get these modified phaser rifles to those inside."
"If we take care of the aliens, then we won't have to worry about
getting inside engineering," Jupiter retorted. "And how do you know
there is enough time?"
"Based on my observations of the aliens abilities, I was able to
estimate how long the forcefields protecting engineering would last.
Using that as a base, I allotted the time needed to complete the
modifications." She paused and looked back at them. "Of course, I did
have to modify the schedule to allow for Sailor Venus' irrelevant
conversations."
"What the... what do you mean, 'irrelevant conversation'?" the
blonde challenged.
"Your flirtations with Ensign Kim were hardly conducive to our
mission."
"What's wrong?" Venus asked, then she smiled. "Jealous?"
"Hardly," Seven stated before resuming her progress.
Venus wasn't about to let is go. "Aha! I knew it! You really
do..." She paused, listening to sounds coming from the far end of the
Jeffries tube. Seven and Jupiter did likewise. "What's that?"
Seven grimaced. "The aliens have penetrated the forcefield and
broken into engineering." Without further word, she moved forward at
an accelerated pace. Venus and Jupiter followed.
"So much for the best laid plans of mice, men and Borg," Jupiter
muttered.
The Doctor peered through the open door into the mess hall, Sailor
Moon and Tuxedo Mask doing likewise. Inside, they could see the tables
had been shoved roughly to one side, clearing out a large space in the
middle. It was large enough for a cluster of the aliens, five in all,
to stand together in a circular formation. They didn't appear to be
doing anything, but the Doctor knew something was up, as the top of each
staff was glowing brightly. Standing around them and keeping a watchful
eye out were about a dozen more of the intruders. "Over a dozen of them,
that I could see," he whispered to his companions after pulling back a
few meters.
"There were even more of your crew in there," Tuxedo Mask
whispered back, Sailor Moon nodding in agreement.
"I know." Indeed, it would have been hard for the hologram to
miss that, as they were lying all around the room, in some cases piled
one atop another. As far as he could tell they were only unconscious,
but it was impossible for him to say for certain with doing a detailed
examination. Which the aliens were unlikely to permit. "There must be
one third of the crew in there."
"How long until they teleport?" asked Sailor Moon.
"You're the experts on beings like these," the Doctor replied.
"You tell me." However, the look he exchanged with the two of them told
them he was thinking the same thing they were. It would be soon. Very
soon.
The distinctive sound of a forcefield collapsing brought Tom back
to reality. "Everyone in position!" he yelled, jumping back to his
previous position behind the helm. Ensign Graves took the spot to his
immediate right while Chell posted himself on his left. Harry posted
himself at the Engineering station, using it as cover. Mercury and
Mars reacted quickly, posting themselves alongside the Starfleet
defenders. Looking at the defensive setup, Mars experienced a brief
sense of deja vu, remembering a time when she and the others minus Sailor
Moon had faced off against Malachite with a security squad from the
Enterprise providing cover. This quickly became relevant as the
Starfleet personnel present fired immediately when the intruders became
visible on the bridge. True to Seven's predictions, the phasers were
more effective against the aliens, but not as immediately as she had
hoped. It still took two or three shots to render one of the intruders
immobile. But given the firepower they were able to mass against the
doorway, it didn't seem probable that the aliens would be able to get
through. Especially when she and Mercury added their support.
As the first alien appeared at the entrance Mars stiffened,
feeling rather than hearing a note of alarm in her head. There was
something dangerous and evil on the bridge, something other than the
aliens rushing up from the deck below. As the Voyager defenders opened
fire she quickly looked about, trying to spot it. Just in time for her
to see a door to her left slide open and one of the aliens move through
it. "Over there!" she warned the others while summoning her powers.
"MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND!" Keening sharply in pain, the lead alien
vanished in a amid ringlets of flame.
Lacking time for anything more subtle, Seven kicked open the
engineering Jeffries tube access and crawled outside. But she ducked
back inside when a phaser beam lanced at her location. "I see you alien!"
a near panic stricken voiced cried.
"I am not an alien, I am Seven of Nine," she retorted irritably.
She poked her head back outside the tube, and glared at the direction
the beam had come from. The crewman lowered the weapon he had pointed
at her, an apologetic expression forming on his face.
"Sorry, Seven," he said. "It's just that..." His eyes darted
about the room, focussing mainly on the lower level. "...they're
everywhere!"
Emerging fully from the Jeffries tube, Seven could see that he
hadn't exaggerated the situation. The intruders in engineering vastly
outnumbered the defenders, and more could be seen rushing in. She
handed a rifle to the crewman. "Here," she said, unslinging another
one. "You will find this weapon more effective against them." He
nodded, but began pointing the weapon at the tube entrance when
Jupiter began crawling out. Seven grabbed him by the arm and spun him
roughly about. "Fire at the aliens, not them!" she snapped, then
proceeded to do so herself. It took three bursts but one of the
intruders dropped to the deck.
"Finally some action," Seven heard Jupiter say, felt a large
accumulation of static electricity build before Jupiter let fly her
attack with a loud cry. The electrical outburst struck among a group
of the intruders near the engineering entrance, scattering them like
tenpins. Grinning in triumph, Jupiter leapt over the railing to the
deck below, with Venus following right behind her.
Upon landing, Venus raced over to her left, where she saw one of
Voyager's crew, a Vulcan, being menaced by one of the aliens. As calm
as any of his race, he showed no emotion at all as he dodged the various
blows while firing his own phaser at his attacker. Unfortunately, this
was having very little effect. But Venus knew she could change that.
"VENUS LOVE CHAIN ENCIRCLE!"
Responding to her summons, the golden band of energy lassoed the
alien, rendering it immobile. The Vulcan was slightly taken aback by
her intervention, but his hesitation lasted only half a moment. He
moved forward and placed a hand at the base of the alien's neck. It
jerked as if poked with a cattle prod, then fell to the floor.
"Fascinating," the Vulcan noted. "While it's skin is of a
chitinous nature, it is still pliable enough for the Vulcan Nerve Pinch
to be effective."
"Whatever you say," she answered. She tossed him the phaser rifle
she had been carrying from the armory, glad to be rid of it's weight.
"Seven said this should help you fight them."
"Indeed?" he noted.
"Yep."
"This should be of great assistance," he said before swiveling the
weapon in her direction.
"Hey!" Before she could react, he pressed the trigger, sending a
phaser pulse rushing just by her. From behind her, she heard what
sounded like one of the aliens in pain. Turning around, she saw one that
had been almost right behind her staggering. The Vulcan fired at the
alien twice more before it finally fell.
"It seems you are correct," he said. "Though multiple shots seemed
to be needed to neutralize them." He looked at her, one eyebrow upraised,
"I am Ensign Vorick."
"Sailor Venus."
"I'm afraid we don't have time for any elaborate plans," the
Doctor said. In the distance he could hear the sounds of phaser fire,
no doubt coming from the bridge. The aliens had no doubt penetrated the
forcefield protecting the bridge and it was very likely that they had
entered into engineering as well. "I'll go in first and distract them.
When their attention is focused on me, make your move."
"Wait a minute. What about you?" Sailor Moon objected. "You'll
be killed!"
The Doctor smiled. "I appreciate your concern, but it's
unnecessary. I'm a hologram, remember? I'm immune to their attacks..."
He paused before adding, "...I hope."
The other aliens started when the Doctor strolled in, but his
nonchalant approach put them off, allowing him to get close to one of
those in the circle. "You look like you could use some rest," he told
it before pressing his hypo up against it's neck. There was a loud
hissing noise as the hypo discharged, and the alien staggered before
finally collapsing. "As I thought," the Doctor noted with some
satisfaction, "They're immune to anesthetics in a gaseous form, but not
to a direct injection."
The aliens were not pleased, to put it mildly. Three of them
unleashed energy bolts at him, which passed right through his holographic
form. But seconds later, his form blurred with static momentarily.
"Oh, no," he said as the realization dawned on him that he wasn't
entirely immune to the alien energy. While it hadn't affected him
directly, it had introduced a slight instability in his holographic
matrix. At the moment it wasn't bad, but if he got hit again...
"Hold it!" All alien eyes turned to the entrance, where Sailor
Moon and Tuxedo Mask were standing. Taking advantage of the situation,
the Doctor decided to head for cover. "I am Sailor Moon, champion of
justice! This ship belongs to Starfleet, not you creeps! So consider
this an eviction notice, in the name of the Moon!"
The second Mars shouted out her warning, Tom swiveled about to face
the new threat. The Sailor Scout had already dealt with the first one,
but he could see others behind it inside the ready room. "Keep the deck
two entrance covered. We'll handle this," he told Ensign Graves.
She nodded curtly, not pausing her firing. "Yes, sir."
Mercury quickly ran over her options while Tom, and then Harry,
began firing at the ready room entrance. She could deal with the next
alien up the ramp easily, but with their fire power now split there was
a danger the next two or three would get past the phasers and put them
in danger of being overrun. Their best option was to get some cover from
the aliens attacks, then she could go on the offensive. And since there
wasn't a lot available on the bridge, that left... "MERCURY BUBBLES
BLAST!"
The next batch of aliens to the top of the ramp now found
themselves facing an nearly impenetrable fog bank. Unable to see
their targets or even the layout of the bridge, they hesitated.
This proved to be their undoing, for the Scouts and their
Starfleet allies were not hampered by the fog. Ensign Graves and Chell
both fired rapidly, dropping this rank of the intruders. The next group
up found themselves facing Sailor Mercury going on the offensive. A
wave of cold swept down the ramp, freezing the intruders in their tracks.
The frozen forms served to slow the next wave of attackers.
It was going a little harder on the other bridge front, but
Mercury's fogbank worked in their favor here as well, allowing the
three of them to stagger their fire effectively. Several of the
intruders were able to work their way onto the bridge, but being nearly
blinded by the fog their effectiveness was almost nil. But the number
of them was giving Tom cause to worry. Sooner or later, one of them
would stumble onto the defenders or the fog would fade and then...
Without warning he heard what sounded like an electrical discharge
from inside the ready room. The sounds of several of the aliens in pain
soon followed. "What the hell..." Looking over at Mars, he could tell
that she was equally puzzled. There was another electrical discharge
sound and this time beams of energy lanced out from the ready room,
striking down the aliens on the bridge.
"What was that?" Mars asked in a whisper.
"Good question," Tom replied. "I wish I had an answer." He
glanced over at Harry, but he shook his head. He had no clue as to what
that was either.
"Whatever it was, it wasn't electricity." Tom and Mars both
turned. Mercury was standing behind them, scanning the area with her
computer. Tom noted that both Graves and Chell were standing by the
deck two walkway, having ceased firing and that the fog on the bridge
was dissipating.
Seeing his eyes on her, Graves nodded to Tom. "Situation is
secure, sir. I think we stopped them."
"Good. Do what you can to secure that door." Tom turned back to
the open ready room door. "In the meantime, I'm going to find out what
happened to the captain."
B'Elanna grappled with one of the aliens, trying to summon up
another burst of strength. Her human side knew that it was quite likely
a hopeless fight to hold engineering, but her Klingon half was past
caring. And that half was currently in control.
Unfortunately it wasn't doing her much good. She had grabbed the
alien's staff and tried to wrest it away, but the intruder was much
stronger than even a Klingon and it was slowly pressing her backwards
against the bulkhead. It was perilously close to forcing the staff
against her neck when she heard a loud voice cry out, "Leave her alone!"
The next thing B'Elanna knew, her attacker was pulled backwards by a
tall, auburn haired girl who proceeded to punch the alien square in the
face. For all the trouble it had given B'Elanna, it proved no much for
her strength and it dropped like a stone.
B'Elanna took a couple of deep breaths and regarded her benefactor.
"Thanks, whoever you are."
"No problem. And the name's Sailor Jupiter," she replied,handing
a phaser rifle to B'Elanna. "Here. If Seven's right, this should help
even the odds."
"I certainly hope so," B'Elanna said, checking the phaser settings.
"I'll take any advantage I can -- LOOK OUT!"
Jupiter whirled at Torres' warning only to see the top of an alien
staff inches from her face. But for some odd reason, it hadn't struck
her yet. After a moment, she realized why -- someone was holding the
staff back. Namely, Seven of Nine.
Both Jupiter and B'Elanna watched the contest of wills between
Seven and the alien. At first it seemed too close to call, then slowly
and inexorably Seven began forcing it backwards. Then a loud snap was
heard as Seven broke the staff clean in half. The alien was too stunned
to react when Seven grabbed it forcibly and flung it back against the
bulkhead where it fell atop the one Jupiter had knocked out.
"Resistance is futile."
"Thanks," Jupiter said.
"You are welcome," Seven answered, retrieving her own weapon.
All things considered, the Doctor mused, things were going rather
well. After Sailor Moon had given her mandatory introductory speech,
the aliens not involved with the teleportation effort had rushed her and
Tuxedo Mask, only to be confronted with a rather powerful attack from her
and an array of lethal roses from him. Unfortunately, there was little
he could do to assist. He had dodged the next round of energy bolts the
intruders had sent his way, or almost dodged. One of them had hit him in
his hand, damaging the hypo beyond repair.
Fortunately he knew that an emergency medical kit was stored in
here. Moving quickly, he retrieved the kit and then made his way to a
relatively safe spot inside Neelix's kitchen. The best thing he could do
at the moment, he decided, was to revive some of the security personnel
here and give them the phaser rifle they had brought.
Lacking the time for anything subtle, the hologram gave three
crewman rather large doses of inimizine, a very potent stimulant. It
should counter the anestazine they had inhaled earlier.
He poked his head up above the countertop. So far it appeared that
his two allies still hand the situation in hand, as there were several
aliens now on the floor. But their defense of those in the circle had
been intense. Except for the one the Doctor had sedated, the others
were still there and their staffs were now giving off a blinding glare.
Bending down again, he thrust the phaser rifles into the hands of
the still groggy crew. "Use these against the alien. But only them.
We've secured some outside assistance, and it would be poor form for
you to --"
He didn't get any farther than that. There was a blinding flash
of light, then a loud scream of "NO!"
Standing up quickly, the Doctor made a quick evaluation of what
had happened. What he saw, or rather didn't see, proved to be most
unsettling. "Uh oh."
Tom was the first one into the ready room. It seemed just like he
had last seen it, with Captain Janeway sprawled upon the couch. But
upon going further into the room, he spotted how the aliens had entered.
There was a large hole in the floor that went clear through to the deck
below. "The captain's not going to be too happy about that," he
muttered. "Neither's B'Elanna, for that matter." Aside from that, there
was nothing else amiss in here, no sign whatsoever of what had attacked
the aliens at the end of the struggle. Putting that aside for the moment,
he went over to Captain Janeway. Mercury was already beside her,
scanning with her computer. The other Scout, Mars, was behind her,
staring at the captain with her eyes narrowed. "Any luck?"
"Not really," Mercury said, shaking her head for emphasis. "There's
no sign of any cranial trauma or neurological damage."
"That's what I found," Tom sighed. He wasn't a doctor (nor did he
have any desire to become one), but he was still frustrated by his
inability to do anything for the captain. "Nothing that could account
for her being unconscious."
"Oh, I found something," Mercury said. "I just don't know what
it means."
Curious, Tom peered over her shoulder to get a better look at the
computer display. A puzzled expression immediately formed on his face.
"What the hell...?"
"I was hoping you could tell me."
Mars waited impatiently for either of them to explain, but both
were too engrossed with examining the computer display. "Would one of
you tell me what you're talking about?" she finally snapped.
Startled, both of them jumped slightly. "Captain Janeway is
exhibiting a dual EEG pattern," Mercury explained.
Tom reopened the medical tricorder and started scanning the
captain again. "I'm picking it up too," he said, frowning. "But it
wasn't there the last time I checked."
Mercury frowned also. "That's odd."
"Maybe, but it fits with what I'm sensing from her," Mars added.
"There's a duality about her, as if there were two minds inside her
head." She turned to face Tom. "The good news is that I'm not
sensing anything evil or malicious about either one."
"That doesn't mean much. It still could be some form of neural
parasite or virus."
"No, it's nothing like that," Mars insisted. "There's another
intelligence here. Another mind."
B'Elanna looked around the engine after the roar of thunder from
Jupiter's last attack faded, searching for another target. Seeing that
the room was clear except for Voyager crew and the two Sailor Scouts,
she allowed herself to sag back against a nearby control panel. "We
did it. We won."
"Of course we did!" Venus exclaimed. She and Jupiter were on the
far side of the room, exchanging high fives and congratulating each
other. But their exuberance faded when they realized that Seven was
staring at them, her expression clearly indicating that she was in doubt
as to their sanity.
B'Elanna had limped over to panel and began working on restoring
the comm system. Without looking back she said, "Seven, why don't you
get to work on restoring main power?"
"Very well, Lieutenant." Seven moved to the warp core diagnostic
panel and began a series of diagnostics.
Interested, Venus watched her work for a few minute. "Anything I
can do to help?"
Seven fixed her with a firm stare. "*No.*"
Tom was still wondering just what to make of Mercury's findings
when a very unexpected beep sounded from the comm system. "Kim to Paris.
I just got word from B'Elanna. Seven and her groups arrived in
engineering and drove the intruders away from there. As you can tell,
she's got the comm system back online, and she's beginning to work on
restoring main power."
"Thanks, Harry." Tom tapped his commbadge. "Paris to the Doctor."
"Go ahead."
"What the situation down there?"
"It would seem our recent guests decided that discretion was the
better part of valor and left the ship. Or at least those in the mess
hall did."
Mercury made a quick adjustment to her computer. "He's right. I'm
not detecting any more of the aliens on Voyager."
Tom sighed with relief. "That's the best news I've had today.
Nice work, Doc."
"Don't congratulate me yet, Mr. Paris." Tom heard the gloomy tone
in the Doctor's voice and felt a growing sense of apprehension. Mars
and Mercury each paused and listened intently themselves. "When they
departed, our friends took with them a number of our crew."
"How many?" 'And who?' he wondered to himself.
"I'm not sure exactly. Between twenty and thirty. From what I
could tell, they were mostly members of ship's security."
"Great," Tom grimaced. "Any more good news?"
"I'm afraid so," the hologram reported. "They also managed to
abduct one of our allies, Tuxedo Mask. Needless to say, Sailor Moon is
not taking that very well."
Mars and Mercury both stiffened as soon as the Doctor said this.
"Stay up here," Mars told her friend. "I'm going down there." Not
waiting to hear her response, she got up and hurriedly left the room.
Back in the Delta Quadrant, Metallah stepped hesitantly into a
large chamber in the lower levels of her citadel. If Chakotay had been
watching this, he would have found it odd that the being who had been so
arrogant and assured when interrogating himself and the away team would
be almost afraid to enter into a seemingly empty room. Empty that is
except for a large, transparent container. Inside it could be seen
several colors (mostly blues, reds and black) shifting and swirling
about. Still hesitant, she slowly approached and then spoke to it, her
head bowed. "We failed. Our incursion force was driven off Voyager
thanks to the interference from those Sailor Scouts." The colors
swirled about in a very agitated manner, taking on a deep red tone.
"Somehow that wretched ship was able to trigger the gateway back to
their world. Our force was able to teleport back across, but only at
a substantial loss of their energy reserves." Not willing to report
only failure she quickly added, "But we did capture a number of Voyager's
crew, and Tuxedo Mask as well."
As she had hoped, the colors slowed and took on a lighter,
friendlier hue. After several minutes, a deep resonating voice emerged.
"Very well, Metallah. Keep the prisoners secure and prepare for
Voyager's return."
"I could lead another force to take the ship," she volunteered.
"But to perform the teleport, we will need --"
"There's no need to go after the Federation ship," the voice
interrupted her. "As long as we have the Starfleet away team and those
you captured on Voyager in custody, we can be sure that the Federation
ship will return. They won't leave their crew behind. And the Sailor
Scouts will be with them, trying to rescue Tuxedo Mask. We can deal with
our enemies in one fell swoop."
It was fortunate that the mess hall was on deck two and not on one
of the lower decks, Mars reflected as she made her way there. Leaving
the bridge as rapidly as she had, she neglected to ask anyone directions.
Of course, she could have called Mercury on her communicator and asked,
but her own sense of pride prevented her from doing so. In any event,
she found the room quickly enough and saw that the Doctor was examining
the remaining crew inside. "...I'm rapidly becoming inundated, Mr.
Paris," he was saying. "I've got at least a dozen injured here, and who
knows how many there are in engineering. I need help!"
"I'd like to oblige you, Doc, but right now I don't have the time,"
Tom responded. "With Captain Janeway unconscious, I'm currently in
command. I've got about a dozen things to handle up here." There was a
brief pause on the other end of the comm line. "Doc, Sailor Mercury just
volunteered to give you a hand. She'll meet you in Sickbay. Paris out."
The hologram sighed, then his form frizzed out again. "This is
becoming irritating," he noted drily, then noticed Mars entering the room. Before she could say anything he said, "I had a feeling you'd show up.
She's over there," pointing to one of the windows. Looking that way
herself, she could see Sailor Moon standing there.
She wondered briefly on how the Doctor knew she would be here, but
there were more important things for her to worry about at the moment.
"Thanks, Doctor."
The Doctor watched her approach Sailor Moon before returning
his attention to the wounded. It came as no surprise to him that Mars
would be the first one here to reassure the leader of the Sailor Scouts.
As he had informed them earlier in Sickbay, the medical logs of several
of the finest physicians in the Federation had been incorporated into
his program. And that had included Dr. Crusher's observations of the
Scouts.
Mars stopped just behind Sailor Moon. She waited a bit for her
to notice but she remained still, staring out the window at the
snowscape. Finally she touched her lightly on the shoulder, "Serena?"
She wasn't sure what kind of reaction she was expecting, but
Sailor Moon jumping as if she had been poked with a cattle prod hadn't
been foremost in her thoughts. Sailor Moon whirled about to face
Mars.
Mars didn't bother asking the usual cliched "Are you OK?", for it
was blatantly obvious that she was not. While she wasn't bawling her eyes
out as she might have done in the past, her eyes were red from the tears
that she had shed and there was an almost terrified look in her eyes.
"They took him, Raye," she said in a voice choked with emotion.
"I know," Mars told her. Then, not caring if the Doctor or anyone
else saw, she wrapped her arms around her friend in a reassuring hug.
"We've been through this before, Serena. We got him back then, and
we'll do it this time, too."
The first thing Tuxedo Mask became aware of was the sound of
distant voices, growing more distinct as consciousness slowly returned.
Instinctively he tried to sit up, then groaned as the throbbing in his
head intensified suddenly.
One of those nearby knelt down by him. "Easy there, friend. Our
hosts were a little rough in how they treated you."
"Yeah, I remember." He gingerly felt the bump on his head that
served as a reminder. Blinking a few more times to clear his sight, he
examined his surroundings. He was locked in a cell with these three for
companions. Two of them were in Starfleet uniforms, while the third was
dressed in what apparently passed for civilian garb. "You must be that
Voyager away team that beamed down."
The man kneeling next to him, who had a very distinctive tatoo on
the left side of his forehead, blinked in surprise. "That's right.
I'm Commander Chakotay, this is Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, and this
is..."
"Neelix, at your service," the Talaxian said. He bent over
slightly, handing Tuxedo Mask his hat. "I'm afraid they just threw
this in after you."
"I'm surprised they even bothered." Tuxedo Mask gingerly got back
to his feet, using the cell wall for support. "Thanks, though."
Chakotay stood up himself. "You seem to be acquainted with us
somehow. Mind telling us how?"
"Simple. I was just on your ship, Voyager, not long ago. And I
met a few of your shipmates there." In the next few minutes, he briefed
them on what he had seen and heard during his sojourn on Voyager.
The more he heard from Tuxedo Mask, the more concerned Chakotay
grew. "Do you know if either of the other teams were successful?"
Tuxedo Mask shook his head. "No idea. But Sailor Moon and I were
doing pretty good against them, so I would imagine the other Scouts would
make a dent in the aliens."
"They call themselves Negarans," the first officer told him.
"That fits," Tuxedo Mask snorted.
Chakotay nodded absently as he quickly pondered the situation.
With Captain Janeway unconscious, the left Tom in command. A few years
ago he might have been gravely concerned with that prospect, but Tom
had proven himself time and again over the last four years. He felt
confident that Tom could manage things there, and that he would bring
Voyager back over to this universe somehow. "We're going to have to
move quickly," he said, addressing his crewmates. "If they were able
to drive the intruders off the ship, then Tom's going to bring the ship
back here as soon as possible. It's going to be up to us to find out
what the Negarans are up to, and how best to put a crimp in their plans."
"Then we should put our plan into motion as soon as possible,"
Tuvok observed.
"Agreed." Chakotay turned to Tuxedo Mask again. "It's a good
thing they didn't put you in here any later, or you'd be spending your
stay in here alone."
"Plans?" Tuxedo Mask regarded Chakotay and the others carefully.
They seemed to be completely serious. "Why do you say that? Planning
an escape?"
Chakotay nodded. "That's right," he confirmed, lowering his
voice. "We've been working on a plan for some time now. We're just
about ready to put it into motion."
Tuxedo Mask looked about the cell. The walls seemed to be solid
stone, and the door looked to be a formidable barrier, one that even he
would have trouble breaking down. And there was no way these three had
had time to dig an escape tunnel. "What're you planning on? Get the
guards to open the door and let you walk out of here?"
Chakotay smiled slightly despite the sarcasm present in Tuxedo
Mask's voice. "As a matter of fact... that's exactly what we intend
to do."
Next time: The crew makes repairs to Voyager, the Doctor tries to
awaken Captain Janeway and Chakotay makes good his promise in
chapter five: "The Great Escape".
- Seven of Nine
Chapter 4 -- Voyager Strikes Back
Mars tapped her foot impatiently and again glanced around the small
(and somewhat crowded) room that served as Voyager's armory. Their
journey here from Sickbay had been pleasantly uneventful, but they had
been lingering here for almost two hours while they (or at least she)
watched Harry and Seven of Nine finish the modifications to nearly a
dozen phaser rifles. But it finally looked as if the end was in sight,
for Harry had begun remodulating the last phaser they needed.
Of course, it didn't help her temperament any that she was just
about the only one without anything to do at the moment. Harry was still
busy setting the last rifle to a frequency modulation that Mercury said
would be most effective against denizens of the Negaverse, or those
enhanced by the power of the Negaforce. For her part, Seven was still
working on adding Borg technology to the prefire chambers, intensifying
the beam output to make the weapon even deadlier. Or at least, that's
what she thought Seven had said. The former drone had given a rather
lengthy and highly technical explanation to what she was doing, but
she didn't understand half of it.
She wasn't sure that even Mercury understood it all.
Speaking of Mercury, she and Jupiter formed the end of the
assembly line. As each weapon was completed, Jupiter would test fire
it at a standard phaser target while Mercury would scan the beam to
measure it's estimated effectiveness.
As for the others, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask were talking in
hushed tones at the far end of the room. From the glances they kept
casting Seven's way, Mars could guess what the topic of discussion was.
Venus was hovering nearby Harry, keeping a running conversation
going with him. He didn't seem to mind talking with her, but Mars
wasn't sure that he was aware that she was flirting with him.
As for the Doctor... He had gone out soon after they arrived
here, scouting out the nearby corridors for their opponents. That he
had yet to return...
A sudden, low knock on the door startled her, causing her and
almost everyone else to jump and stare at the door. Imperturbable as
ever, Seven calmly stood up and keyed the manual release, opening the
door slightly. The gap was only a few centimeters but it was enough for
the Doctor to squeeze his holographic form through. "Where have you
been?!?" Mars hissed as Seven closed and secured the door.
"Conducting reconnaissance, as I said I would do when I left."
The hologram regarded her curiously. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes! It shouldn't have taken you two hours to check out the area!"
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Indeed? I wasn't aware my
performance was being timed." Mars glared at the hologram. "I suppose
I could have completed my mission sooner if I hadn't been concerned with
remaining undetected."
"What did you find, Doctor?" Seven asked, preempting another
outburst from Mars.
"I checked this deck extensively in all directions, both corridors
and Jeffries tubes. I found no sign of the intruders anywhere. It seems
that they are consolidating their efforts on securing the bridge and
engineering."
"And on removing your crew," Mercury put in, checking her computer
again. "I estimate that they'll be able to teleport some of them off in
about forty minutes."
"Then we have little time to waste," Seven stated. "Ensign Kim, how
are you progressing?"
Harry snapped the maintenance panel shut on the phaser rifle, and
placed it down on the deck. "Just finished," he told her in a satisfied
tone. "Eleven phaser rifles all remodulated."
"Great. That just leaves the three Seven has to finish work on,"
Venus said.
"Doctor, Ensign Kim. As you have the farthest to go, I suggest you
take your teams and proceed to your destinations immediately," Seven said.
"In the interim, I will finish work on the phaser units here and then
proceed to engineering."
"Who put you in charge?" Mars muttered.
"Won't you need us to test the others?" Jupiter asked.
"It would be prudent, but time is growing short." Seven looked to
Mercury. "If memory serves, you haven't found any problems with the
units modified so far."
"Not yet," Mercury admitted. "But --"
"Then any further objections would be irrelevant. I will simply use
the same procedure as with the other rifles."
There were several uncertain looks among Voyager's newfound allies.
"I hate to admit it, but she does have a point about time getting short,"
Tuxedo Mask said.
Sailor Moon took another look to each of her friends, each of them
reluctantly nodding in agreement. "OK, let's go."
Being the nearest to the hatch, the Doctor opened the access to
the Jeffries tubes. While he did that, the others picked up the phaser
rifles they would transport to their assigned locations. "After you," he
said to Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
After the first group had entered, Harry moved to follow. As he
entered, Mars heard him say something, but she couldn't make out the words.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me you're worried we can't take the aliens?"
she asked.
Harry looked back at her and shook his head. "It's not that. I'm
just wondering how Chakotay and the others are doing."
At that moment, a universe away, Voyager's first officer was being
lead through a series of tunnels. Trying to memorize his way around the
intricate network, Chakotay slowed his pace but it seemed his guards were
the impatient sort. One of them gave him a rough shove in the small of
his back with it's staff, sending him sprawling into a large cavern.
Chakotay scrambled to his feet, glaring at the green skinned guard but
otherwise did nothing. The other guard gestured roughly, indicating to
Chakotay to keep moving. Turning about, he resumed walking towards the
center of the chamber.
Moments later he approached a small circle of light. Seeing that
Tuvok and Neelix were already there ahead of him, he quickened his pace
towards them. Upon first glance both seemed fine, though their clothing
was smeared with dirt and disheveled as was his uniform. "How are you
two doing?"
"As well as can be expected, Commander," the Talaxian replied.
Neelix was putting up a good front, but Chakotay could see in the
Talaxian's eyes that he was still in a good deal of pain from the blows
he had taken when they had been captured. Chakotay still felt the
impacts himself from the attack. Fortunately for them, it seemed that
their captors wanted them alive and relatively unharmed. At least for
now.
"My condition is quite adequate, Commander," Tuvok added. He was
of course maintaining the typical Vulcan stoicism, thus making nearly impossible to read him. But considering that Vulcans were nearly as
tough as Klingons, Chakotay knew that he was most likely in the best
condition of any of them.
The loud noise of a door opening alerted Chakotay that someone else
was approaching, and he broke off questioning his comrades. There would
be time enough for that later. Instead he watched silently as a group
of their captors moved into a formation around the dias, with one of
them standing on it. They appeared identical to those that had captured
them, save for the fact that their skins were colored a bright orange.
The one atop the dias had a blue coloring to it's skin. From it's
position and the way in which it was regarding them, Chakotay presumed
that this was the leader. He took a step towards this alien and addressed
it. "I am Commander Chakotay, first officer of the Federation Starship
Voyager. Our mission is one of peace. There's no need to treat us as if
we are your enemies."
The alien leader responded in it's own language, but a voice soon
emanated from the crystal at the top of it's staff. Evidently it not
only served as a weapon, but a translator as well. "We know who you are,
human." Chakotay and Neelix both started, while Tuvok raised an eyebrow.
"And there is every need, for you are our enemies. All who serve in
*Starfleet* -" Her voice (Chakotay presumed it was a female addressing
him, since the voice from the translator sounded female) dripped scorn as
it said 'Starfleet'. "- are our enemies."
Chakotay stared at her, incredulous. This planet was sixty
thousand light years from the nearest Federation outpost, yet this
creature seemed intimately familiar with Starfleet. And extremely
hostile towards anyone associated with it as well.
Neelix leaned forward. "She doesn't seem like the friendly type,
Commander," he whispered.
"Silence!" a load voice roared from the translator.
"I repeat, we are *not* your enemies," Chakotay reiterated,
ignoring the command. "Starfleet's mission is one of peaceful exploration. Our purpose in coming to your world was to determine if a spatial anomaly
we detected just inside your atmosphere could be used as a means for us
to get home."
The alien leader didn't reply except by staring coldly at him.
Then, responding to some unseen signal, one of the guards struck Chakotay
with the butt of it's staff, causing him to double over. Tuvok and
Neelix both took an instinctive step towards the commander but their
paths were immediately blocked by other guards. "I said, 'Silence',
human."
Gasping for breath as he was, Chakotay was unable to respond. But
after a moment or two he was able to force himself to stand up, glaring
defiantly at the alien.
"Spare me the pathetic lies, human. We of Negara are well
acquainted with Starfleet." She leaned closer to Chakotay, her very
pose dripping with menace. "And for your information, I am Metallah,
Queen of Negara. And *I* will ask the questions here." It was clear
now to Chakotay that any attempts at diplomacy were wasted here. "Now,
you will answer me. I sent over one hundred of my best to your wretched
ship, and then it had the gall to *vanish*. Where is your ship?" The
voice from the translator grew louder and shrill as she demanded,
"*Where is Voyager*?!?"
Hours later, a very tired and even more disheveled Chakotay was
picking himself off the cell floor after the guard slammed and locked
the door. He threw a dangerous glare at the door as he brushed himself
off bruskly. "I'm getting more than a little tired of being shoved
around like this," he remarked to his companions, his voice more than a
little terse. Indicating the throne room they had left earlier he said,
"Have either of you got any idea what the hell all that was about?"
Neelix shook his head. "I have no idea, Commander. I never heard
of the Federation until I met Voyager. I have no idea how she did."
Tuvok frowned slightly , considering the problem. "It is possible
that another Federation ship was pulled into the Delta Quadrant before
Voyager," he postulated.
Neelix shrugged. "If so I never heard of it."
"The Delta Quadrant is a rather large place, Mr. Neelix," Tuvok
observed. "It is quite likely that a Starfleet vessel other than Voyager
was stranded here and that news of it's existence never reached you."
"We could speculate all day and not figure it out," Chakotay said.
"All we really know is that there is some connection between this
Metallah. What worries me is she said that her people had boarded
Voyager."
"Almost a hundred," Neelix concurred. "But she also said it
vanished. Perhaps Captain Janeway found a way to elude them."
Tuvok shook his head, looking about as sullen as a Vulcan could
ever hope. "I wish I could share your optimism, Mr. Neelix. While I
have confidence in Captain Janeway's tactical abilities, given the
aliens demonstrated immunity to phasers they could very well capture
Voyager."
"If that's happened, then we could be the only chance Voyager
has." Chakotay looked about the cell. "We're going to have to find a
way to escape."
"That's not going to be easy, Commander," Neelix noted. "In fact,"
he added looking at the solid door, "it may be impossible."
Chakotay smiled at the Talaxian. "Don't worry, Neelix. We'll
figure something out. Those of us in the Maquis had to do the
impossible everyday just to survive."
Tom cast another glance down the walkway to deck two. As before,
he could see the forcefield at the bottom shimmering as blow after blow
from the aliens hammered at it. It wouldn't be much longer before it
would fail, allowing the intruders to rush onto the bridge. Turning, he
made one more check of the defensive arrangements. Ensign Graves was
situated behind the helm, armed with a phaser compression rifle. Tom
and Chell, a Bolian who had been among the Maquis that had joined the
crew, each had positions flanking her, both armed with hand phasers.
In theory, they had the entrance from deck two thoroughly covered. Unfortunately, given the resistance to phasers the intruders had shown
to date, they might as well be throwing tribbles at the intruders.
"Everyone set?"
"Sure," Ensign Graves replied in a dry voice, Chell nodding
agreement. "All ready to do our General Custer imitation."
"Come on, it's not that bad," Tom said, putting a false tone of
joviality into his voice. "We may be outnumbered and badly outgunned,
but we were in the same situation against the Cardassians."
Graves didn't react to the lame attempt at bravado but Chell was
quick to point out, "If you shot a Cardassian, he went down. It's not
the case with these things."
Tom nodded grimly, unable to counter Chell's point. At the moment
they needed a miracle if they were going to hold onto the bridge. 'Come
on, Harry.'
As if in answer to his thought, the floor hatch to the Jeffries
tube opened up. Reflexively, they all shifted aim to cover the opening,
but soon relaxed when Harry climbed out. "It's about time," Tom said,
thoroughly relieved.
"Sorry it took so long," Harry began, but he as soon as he tried
to stand, he stumbled and nearly fell. The only reason he didn't was
because he managed to grab onto the nearby bridge railing.
Seeing how pale Harry had become, Tom rushed over to his friend.
"Harry, you look like hell."
"I'll admit things were a bit rougher than I would've liked,"
Harry said with a wane smile. He nodded back to the floor hatch. "But
I did manage to find some help."
Tom followed Harry's gesture towards the tube access, and he
blinked upon seeing who was exiting. "Who...?"
What appeared to be two teenage girls were emerging from the
Jeffries tube. The first one, with long black hair and dressed in a
mostly white outfit with a red skirt, stood up glaring at Harry. "What
do you mean, 'you found us'?" she demanded. "We found *you* being
attacked and saved *your* life, remember?"
"Take it easy, Mars," the other one advised her. Tom noted that
her attire favored blue, as did the color of her hair.
"Harry..." he said uneasily.
"You remember the Sailor Scouts that Seven mentioned?" After Tom
nodded, Harry continued, "Well, these are two of them. This is Sailor
Mercury and the one with a worse temper than B'Elanna is Sailor Mars."
Mercury smiled and nodded in greetings to Tom, but Mars was too
busy scowling at Harry. "I do *not* have a bad temper," she groused.
Tom was still puzzled. "How did they get here?"
"Remember what I said about the quantum flux? And how we shifted
to another universe?" After Tom nodded again, "Well, we ended up on
their homeworld. In other words... Welcome to Earth."
Tom firmly clamped his mouth shut, because he was sure that if he
didn't, it would end up hitting the floor. When he felt confident
enough to speak, "Earth?"
"That's right. But that's not all the news I have." Harry tossed
Tom the phaser rifle he was carrying, then unslinging the one across his
back. At the same time, Mars and Mercury tossed rifles to Graves and
Chell. "Curtesy of a little Starfleet ingenuity from me, some Borg
innovation by Seven and a lot of insight from Sailor Mercury -" he tilted
his head in her direction. Mercury smiled slightly in response. "- we
have a modified phaser that should make the aliens think twice about
taking Voyager."
Tom looked the phaser over carefully, feeling a sense of optimism
creep into him for the first time in a long while. If the Sailor Scouts
were as effective as Captain Janeway had said, and with these new
phasers, maybe they did have a chance after all.
"How much further?" Venus asked impatiently.
"We are nearly there," Seven responded with as much patience as
she ever showed. "There are only fifteen more meters until we reach
the engineering exit."
"I still say we should have exited outside engineering and rushed
the aliens," Jupiter growled. "We could take them out easily."
"We still have time,"Seven stated. "Besides, our primary mission
is to get these modified phaser rifles to those inside."
"If we take care of the aliens, then we won't have to worry about
getting inside engineering," Jupiter retorted. "And how do you know
there is enough time?"
"Based on my observations of the aliens abilities, I was able to
estimate how long the forcefields protecting engineering would last.
Using that as a base, I allotted the time needed to complete the
modifications." She paused and looked back at them. "Of course, I did
have to modify the schedule to allow for Sailor Venus' irrelevant
conversations."
"What the... what do you mean, 'irrelevant conversation'?" the
blonde challenged.
"Your flirtations with Ensign Kim were hardly conducive to our
mission."
"What's wrong?" Venus asked, then she smiled. "Jealous?"
"Hardly," Seven stated before resuming her progress.
Venus wasn't about to let is go. "Aha! I knew it! You really
do..." She paused, listening to sounds coming from the far end of the
Jeffries tube. Seven and Jupiter did likewise. "What's that?"
Seven grimaced. "The aliens have penetrated the forcefield and
broken into engineering." Without further word, she moved forward at
an accelerated pace. Venus and Jupiter followed.
"So much for the best laid plans of mice, men and Borg," Jupiter
muttered.
The Doctor peered through the open door into the mess hall, Sailor
Moon and Tuxedo Mask doing likewise. Inside, they could see the tables
had been shoved roughly to one side, clearing out a large space in the
middle. It was large enough for a cluster of the aliens, five in all,
to stand together in a circular formation. They didn't appear to be
doing anything, but the Doctor knew something was up, as the top of each
staff was glowing brightly. Standing around them and keeping a watchful
eye out were about a dozen more of the intruders. "Over a dozen of them,
that I could see," he whispered to his companions after pulling back a
few meters.
"There were even more of your crew in there," Tuxedo Mask
whispered back, Sailor Moon nodding in agreement.
"I know." Indeed, it would have been hard for the hologram to
miss that, as they were lying all around the room, in some cases piled
one atop another. As far as he could tell they were only unconscious,
but it was impossible for him to say for certain with doing a detailed
examination. Which the aliens were unlikely to permit. "There must be
one third of the crew in there."
"How long until they teleport?" asked Sailor Moon.
"You're the experts on beings like these," the Doctor replied.
"You tell me." However, the look he exchanged with the two of them told
them he was thinking the same thing they were. It would be soon. Very
soon.
The distinctive sound of a forcefield collapsing brought Tom back
to reality. "Everyone in position!" he yelled, jumping back to his
previous position behind the helm. Ensign Graves took the spot to his
immediate right while Chell posted himself on his left. Harry posted
himself at the Engineering station, using it as cover. Mercury and
Mars reacted quickly, posting themselves alongside the Starfleet
defenders. Looking at the defensive setup, Mars experienced a brief
sense of deja vu, remembering a time when she and the others minus Sailor
Moon had faced off against Malachite with a security squad from the
Enterprise providing cover. This quickly became relevant as the
Starfleet personnel present fired immediately when the intruders became
visible on the bridge. True to Seven's predictions, the phasers were
more effective against the aliens, but not as immediately as she had
hoped. It still took two or three shots to render one of the intruders
immobile. But given the firepower they were able to mass against the
doorway, it didn't seem probable that the aliens would be able to get
through. Especially when she and Mercury added their support.
As the first alien appeared at the entrance Mars stiffened,
feeling rather than hearing a note of alarm in her head. There was
something dangerous and evil on the bridge, something other than the
aliens rushing up from the deck below. As the Voyager defenders opened
fire she quickly looked about, trying to spot it. Just in time for her
to see a door to her left slide open and one of the aliens move through
it. "Over there!" she warned the others while summoning her powers.
"MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND!" Keening sharply in pain, the lead alien
vanished in a amid ringlets of flame.
Lacking time for anything more subtle, Seven kicked open the
engineering Jeffries tube access and crawled outside. But she ducked
back inside when a phaser beam lanced at her location. "I see you alien!"
a near panic stricken voiced cried.
"I am not an alien, I am Seven of Nine," she retorted irritably.
She poked her head back outside the tube, and glared at the direction
the beam had come from. The crewman lowered the weapon he had pointed
at her, an apologetic expression forming on his face.
"Sorry, Seven," he said. "It's just that..." His eyes darted
about the room, focussing mainly on the lower level. "...they're
everywhere!"
Emerging fully from the Jeffries tube, Seven could see that he
hadn't exaggerated the situation. The intruders in engineering vastly
outnumbered the defenders, and more could be seen rushing in. She
handed a rifle to the crewman. "Here," she said, unslinging another
one. "You will find this weapon more effective against them." He
nodded, but began pointing the weapon at the tube entrance when
Jupiter began crawling out. Seven grabbed him by the arm and spun him
roughly about. "Fire at the aliens, not them!" she snapped, then
proceeded to do so herself. It took three bursts but one of the
intruders dropped to the deck.
"Finally some action," Seven heard Jupiter say, felt a large
accumulation of static electricity build before Jupiter let fly her
attack with a loud cry. The electrical outburst struck among a group
of the intruders near the engineering entrance, scattering them like
tenpins. Grinning in triumph, Jupiter leapt over the railing to the
deck below, with Venus following right behind her.
Upon landing, Venus raced over to her left, where she saw one of
Voyager's crew, a Vulcan, being menaced by one of the aliens. As calm
as any of his race, he showed no emotion at all as he dodged the various
blows while firing his own phaser at his attacker. Unfortunately, this
was having very little effect. But Venus knew she could change that.
"VENUS LOVE CHAIN ENCIRCLE!"
Responding to her summons, the golden band of energy lassoed the
alien, rendering it immobile. The Vulcan was slightly taken aback by
her intervention, but his hesitation lasted only half a moment. He
moved forward and placed a hand at the base of the alien's neck. It
jerked as if poked with a cattle prod, then fell to the floor.
"Fascinating," the Vulcan noted. "While it's skin is of a
chitinous nature, it is still pliable enough for the Vulcan Nerve Pinch
to be effective."
"Whatever you say," she answered. She tossed him the phaser rifle
she had been carrying from the armory, glad to be rid of it's weight.
"Seven said this should help you fight them."
"Indeed?" he noted.
"Yep."
"This should be of great assistance," he said before swiveling the
weapon in her direction.
"Hey!" Before she could react, he pressed the trigger, sending a
phaser pulse rushing just by her. From behind her, she heard what
sounded like one of the aliens in pain. Turning around, she saw one that
had been almost right behind her staggering. The Vulcan fired at the
alien twice more before it finally fell.
"It seems you are correct," he said. "Though multiple shots seemed
to be needed to neutralize them." He looked at her, one eyebrow upraised,
"I am Ensign Vorick."
"Sailor Venus."
"I'm afraid we don't have time for any elaborate plans," the
Doctor said. In the distance he could hear the sounds of phaser fire,
no doubt coming from the bridge. The aliens had no doubt penetrated the
forcefield protecting the bridge and it was very likely that they had
entered into engineering as well. "I'll go in first and distract them.
When their attention is focused on me, make your move."
"Wait a minute. What about you?" Sailor Moon objected. "You'll
be killed!"
The Doctor smiled. "I appreciate your concern, but it's
unnecessary. I'm a hologram, remember? I'm immune to their attacks..."
He paused before adding, "...I hope."
The other aliens started when the Doctor strolled in, but his
nonchalant approach put them off, allowing him to get close to one of
those in the circle. "You look like you could use some rest," he told
it before pressing his hypo up against it's neck. There was a loud
hissing noise as the hypo discharged, and the alien staggered before
finally collapsing. "As I thought," the Doctor noted with some
satisfaction, "They're immune to anesthetics in a gaseous form, but not
to a direct injection."
The aliens were not pleased, to put it mildly. Three of them
unleashed energy bolts at him, which passed right through his holographic
form. But seconds later, his form blurred with static momentarily.
"Oh, no," he said as the realization dawned on him that he wasn't
entirely immune to the alien energy. While it hadn't affected him
directly, it had introduced a slight instability in his holographic
matrix. At the moment it wasn't bad, but if he got hit again...
"Hold it!" All alien eyes turned to the entrance, where Sailor
Moon and Tuxedo Mask were standing. Taking advantage of the situation,
the Doctor decided to head for cover. "I am Sailor Moon, champion of
justice! This ship belongs to Starfleet, not you creeps! So consider
this an eviction notice, in the name of the Moon!"
The second Mars shouted out her warning, Tom swiveled about to face
the new threat. The Sailor Scout had already dealt with the first one,
but he could see others behind it inside the ready room. "Keep the deck
two entrance covered. We'll handle this," he told Ensign Graves.
She nodded curtly, not pausing her firing. "Yes, sir."
Mercury quickly ran over her options while Tom, and then Harry,
began firing at the ready room entrance. She could deal with the next
alien up the ramp easily, but with their fire power now split there was
a danger the next two or three would get past the phasers and put them
in danger of being overrun. Their best option was to get some cover from
the aliens attacks, then she could go on the offensive. And since there
wasn't a lot available on the bridge, that left... "MERCURY BUBBLES
BLAST!"
The next batch of aliens to the top of the ramp now found
themselves facing an nearly impenetrable fog bank. Unable to see
their targets or even the layout of the bridge, they hesitated.
This proved to be their undoing, for the Scouts and their
Starfleet allies were not hampered by the fog. Ensign Graves and Chell
both fired rapidly, dropping this rank of the intruders. The next group
up found themselves facing Sailor Mercury going on the offensive. A
wave of cold swept down the ramp, freezing the intruders in their tracks.
The frozen forms served to slow the next wave of attackers.
It was going a little harder on the other bridge front, but
Mercury's fogbank worked in their favor here as well, allowing the
three of them to stagger their fire effectively. Several of the
intruders were able to work their way onto the bridge, but being nearly
blinded by the fog their effectiveness was almost nil. But the number
of them was giving Tom cause to worry. Sooner or later, one of them
would stumble onto the defenders or the fog would fade and then...
Without warning he heard what sounded like an electrical discharge
from inside the ready room. The sounds of several of the aliens in pain
soon followed. "What the hell..." Looking over at Mars, he could tell
that she was equally puzzled. There was another electrical discharge
sound and this time beams of energy lanced out from the ready room,
striking down the aliens on the bridge.
"What was that?" Mars asked in a whisper.
"Good question," Tom replied. "I wish I had an answer." He
glanced over at Harry, but he shook his head. He had no clue as to what
that was either.
"Whatever it was, it wasn't electricity." Tom and Mars both
turned. Mercury was standing behind them, scanning the area with her
computer. Tom noted that both Graves and Chell were standing by the
deck two walkway, having ceased firing and that the fog on the bridge
was dissipating.
Seeing his eyes on her, Graves nodded to Tom. "Situation is
secure, sir. I think we stopped them."
"Good. Do what you can to secure that door." Tom turned back to
the open ready room door. "In the meantime, I'm going to find out what
happened to the captain."
B'Elanna grappled with one of the aliens, trying to summon up
another burst of strength. Her human side knew that it was quite likely
a hopeless fight to hold engineering, but her Klingon half was past
caring. And that half was currently in control.
Unfortunately it wasn't doing her much good. She had grabbed the
alien's staff and tried to wrest it away, but the intruder was much
stronger than even a Klingon and it was slowly pressing her backwards
against the bulkhead. It was perilously close to forcing the staff
against her neck when she heard a loud voice cry out, "Leave her alone!"
The next thing B'Elanna knew, her attacker was pulled backwards by a
tall, auburn haired girl who proceeded to punch the alien square in the
face. For all the trouble it had given B'Elanna, it proved no much for
her strength and it dropped like a stone.
B'Elanna took a couple of deep breaths and regarded her benefactor.
"Thanks, whoever you are."
"No problem. And the name's Sailor Jupiter," she replied,handing
a phaser rifle to B'Elanna. "Here. If Seven's right, this should help
even the odds."
"I certainly hope so," B'Elanna said, checking the phaser settings.
"I'll take any advantage I can -- LOOK OUT!"
Jupiter whirled at Torres' warning only to see the top of an alien
staff inches from her face. But for some odd reason, it hadn't struck
her yet. After a moment, she realized why -- someone was holding the
staff back. Namely, Seven of Nine.
Both Jupiter and B'Elanna watched the contest of wills between
Seven and the alien. At first it seemed too close to call, then slowly
and inexorably Seven began forcing it backwards. Then a loud snap was
heard as Seven broke the staff clean in half. The alien was too stunned
to react when Seven grabbed it forcibly and flung it back against the
bulkhead where it fell atop the one Jupiter had knocked out.
"Resistance is futile."
"Thanks," Jupiter said.
"You are welcome," Seven answered, retrieving her own weapon.
All things considered, the Doctor mused, things were going rather
well. After Sailor Moon had given her mandatory introductory speech,
the aliens not involved with the teleportation effort had rushed her and
Tuxedo Mask, only to be confronted with a rather powerful attack from her
and an array of lethal roses from him. Unfortunately, there was little
he could do to assist. He had dodged the next round of energy bolts the
intruders had sent his way, or almost dodged. One of them had hit him in
his hand, damaging the hypo beyond repair.
Fortunately he knew that an emergency medical kit was stored in
here. Moving quickly, he retrieved the kit and then made his way to a
relatively safe spot inside Neelix's kitchen. The best thing he could do
at the moment, he decided, was to revive some of the security personnel
here and give them the phaser rifle they had brought.
Lacking the time for anything subtle, the hologram gave three
crewman rather large doses of inimizine, a very potent stimulant. It
should counter the anestazine they had inhaled earlier.
He poked his head up above the countertop. So far it appeared that
his two allies still hand the situation in hand, as there were several
aliens now on the floor. But their defense of those in the circle had
been intense. Except for the one the Doctor had sedated, the others
were still there and their staffs were now giving off a blinding glare.
Bending down again, he thrust the phaser rifles into the hands of
the still groggy crew. "Use these against the alien. But only them.
We've secured some outside assistance, and it would be poor form for
you to --"
He didn't get any farther than that. There was a blinding flash
of light, then a loud scream of "NO!"
Standing up quickly, the Doctor made a quick evaluation of what
had happened. What he saw, or rather didn't see, proved to be most
unsettling. "Uh oh."
Tom was the first one into the ready room. It seemed just like he
had last seen it, with Captain Janeway sprawled upon the couch. But
upon going further into the room, he spotted how the aliens had entered.
There was a large hole in the floor that went clear through to the deck
below. "The captain's not going to be too happy about that," he
muttered. "Neither's B'Elanna, for that matter." Aside from that, there
was nothing else amiss in here, no sign whatsoever of what had attacked
the aliens at the end of the struggle. Putting that aside for the moment,
he went over to Captain Janeway. Mercury was already beside her,
scanning with her computer. The other Scout, Mars, was behind her,
staring at the captain with her eyes narrowed. "Any luck?"
"Not really," Mercury said, shaking her head for emphasis. "There's
no sign of any cranial trauma or neurological damage."
"That's what I found," Tom sighed. He wasn't a doctor (nor did he
have any desire to become one), but he was still frustrated by his
inability to do anything for the captain. "Nothing that could account
for her being unconscious."
"Oh, I found something," Mercury said. "I just don't know what
it means."
Curious, Tom peered over her shoulder to get a better look at the
computer display. A puzzled expression immediately formed on his face.
"What the hell...?"
"I was hoping you could tell me."
Mars waited impatiently for either of them to explain, but both
were too engrossed with examining the computer display. "Would one of
you tell me what you're talking about?" she finally snapped.
Startled, both of them jumped slightly. "Captain Janeway is
exhibiting a dual EEG pattern," Mercury explained.
Tom reopened the medical tricorder and started scanning the
captain again. "I'm picking it up too," he said, frowning. "But it
wasn't there the last time I checked."
Mercury frowned also. "That's odd."
"Maybe, but it fits with what I'm sensing from her," Mars added.
"There's a duality about her, as if there were two minds inside her
head." She turned to face Tom. "The good news is that I'm not
sensing anything evil or malicious about either one."
"That doesn't mean much. It still could be some form of neural
parasite or virus."
"No, it's nothing like that," Mars insisted. "There's another
intelligence here. Another mind."
B'Elanna looked around the engine after the roar of thunder from
Jupiter's last attack faded, searching for another target. Seeing that
the room was clear except for Voyager crew and the two Sailor Scouts,
she allowed herself to sag back against a nearby control panel. "We
did it. We won."
"Of course we did!" Venus exclaimed. She and Jupiter were on the
far side of the room, exchanging high fives and congratulating each
other. But their exuberance faded when they realized that Seven was
staring at them, her expression clearly indicating that she was in doubt
as to their sanity.
B'Elanna had limped over to panel and began working on restoring
the comm system. Without looking back she said, "Seven, why don't you
get to work on restoring main power?"
"Very well, Lieutenant." Seven moved to the warp core diagnostic
panel and began a series of diagnostics.
Interested, Venus watched her work for a few minute. "Anything I
can do to help?"
Seven fixed her with a firm stare. "*No.*"
Tom was still wondering just what to make of Mercury's findings
when a very unexpected beep sounded from the comm system. "Kim to Paris.
I just got word from B'Elanna. Seven and her groups arrived in
engineering and drove the intruders away from there. As you can tell,
she's got the comm system back online, and she's beginning to work on
restoring main power."
"Thanks, Harry." Tom tapped his commbadge. "Paris to the Doctor."
"Go ahead."
"What the situation down there?"
"It would seem our recent guests decided that discretion was the
better part of valor and left the ship. Or at least those in the mess
hall did."
Mercury made a quick adjustment to her computer. "He's right. I'm
not detecting any more of the aliens on Voyager."
Tom sighed with relief. "That's the best news I've had today.
Nice work, Doc."
"Don't congratulate me yet, Mr. Paris." Tom heard the gloomy tone
in the Doctor's voice and felt a growing sense of apprehension. Mars
and Mercury each paused and listened intently themselves. "When they
departed, our friends took with them a number of our crew."
"How many?" 'And who?' he wondered to himself.
"I'm not sure exactly. Between twenty and thirty. From what I
could tell, they were mostly members of ship's security."
"Great," Tom grimaced. "Any more good news?"
"I'm afraid so," the hologram reported. "They also managed to
abduct one of our allies, Tuxedo Mask. Needless to say, Sailor Moon is
not taking that very well."
Mars and Mercury both stiffened as soon as the Doctor said this.
"Stay up here," Mars told her friend. "I'm going down there." Not
waiting to hear her response, she got up and hurriedly left the room.
Back in the Delta Quadrant, Metallah stepped hesitantly into a
large chamber in the lower levels of her citadel. If Chakotay had been
watching this, he would have found it odd that the being who had been so
arrogant and assured when interrogating himself and the away team would
be almost afraid to enter into a seemingly empty room. Empty that is
except for a large, transparent container. Inside it could be seen
several colors (mostly blues, reds and black) shifting and swirling
about. Still hesitant, she slowly approached and then spoke to it, her
head bowed. "We failed. Our incursion force was driven off Voyager
thanks to the interference from those Sailor Scouts." The colors
swirled about in a very agitated manner, taking on a deep red tone.
"Somehow that wretched ship was able to trigger the gateway back to
their world. Our force was able to teleport back across, but only at
a substantial loss of their energy reserves." Not willing to report
only failure she quickly added, "But we did capture a number of Voyager's
crew, and Tuxedo Mask as well."
As she had hoped, the colors slowed and took on a lighter,
friendlier hue. After several minutes, a deep resonating voice emerged.
"Very well, Metallah. Keep the prisoners secure and prepare for
Voyager's return."
"I could lead another force to take the ship," she volunteered.
"But to perform the teleport, we will need --"
"There's no need to go after the Federation ship," the voice
interrupted her. "As long as we have the Starfleet away team and those
you captured on Voyager in custody, we can be sure that the Federation
ship will return. They won't leave their crew behind. And the Sailor
Scouts will be with them, trying to rescue Tuxedo Mask. We can deal with
our enemies in one fell swoop."
It was fortunate that the mess hall was on deck two and not on one
of the lower decks, Mars reflected as she made her way there. Leaving
the bridge as rapidly as she had, she neglected to ask anyone directions.
Of course, she could have called Mercury on her communicator and asked,
but her own sense of pride prevented her from doing so. In any event,
she found the room quickly enough and saw that the Doctor was examining
the remaining crew inside. "...I'm rapidly becoming inundated, Mr.
Paris," he was saying. "I've got at least a dozen injured here, and who
knows how many there are in engineering. I need help!"
"I'd like to oblige you, Doc, but right now I don't have the time,"
Tom responded. "With Captain Janeway unconscious, I'm currently in
command. I've got about a dozen things to handle up here." There was a
brief pause on the other end of the comm line. "Doc, Sailor Mercury just
volunteered to give you a hand. She'll meet you in Sickbay. Paris out."
The hologram sighed, then his form frizzed out again. "This is
becoming irritating," he noted drily, then noticed Mars entering the room. Before she could say anything he said, "I had a feeling you'd show up.
She's over there," pointing to one of the windows. Looking that way
herself, she could see Sailor Moon standing there.
She wondered briefly on how the Doctor knew she would be here, but
there were more important things for her to worry about at the moment.
"Thanks, Doctor."
The Doctor watched her approach Sailor Moon before returning
his attention to the wounded. It came as no surprise to him that Mars
would be the first one here to reassure the leader of the Sailor Scouts.
As he had informed them earlier in Sickbay, the medical logs of several
of the finest physicians in the Federation had been incorporated into
his program. And that had included Dr. Crusher's observations of the
Scouts.
Mars stopped just behind Sailor Moon. She waited a bit for her
to notice but she remained still, staring out the window at the
snowscape. Finally she touched her lightly on the shoulder, "Serena?"
She wasn't sure what kind of reaction she was expecting, but
Sailor Moon jumping as if she had been poked with a cattle prod hadn't
been foremost in her thoughts. Sailor Moon whirled about to face
Mars.
Mars didn't bother asking the usual cliched "Are you OK?", for it
was blatantly obvious that she was not. While she wasn't bawling her eyes
out as she might have done in the past, her eyes were red from the tears
that she had shed and there was an almost terrified look in her eyes.
"They took him, Raye," she said in a voice choked with emotion.
"I know," Mars told her. Then, not caring if the Doctor or anyone
else saw, she wrapped her arms around her friend in a reassuring hug.
"We've been through this before, Serena. We got him back then, and
we'll do it this time, too."
The first thing Tuxedo Mask became aware of was the sound of
distant voices, growing more distinct as consciousness slowly returned.
Instinctively he tried to sit up, then groaned as the throbbing in his
head intensified suddenly.
One of those nearby knelt down by him. "Easy there, friend. Our
hosts were a little rough in how they treated you."
"Yeah, I remember." He gingerly felt the bump on his head that
served as a reminder. Blinking a few more times to clear his sight, he
examined his surroundings. He was locked in a cell with these three for
companions. Two of them were in Starfleet uniforms, while the third was
dressed in what apparently passed for civilian garb. "You must be that
Voyager away team that beamed down."
The man kneeling next to him, who had a very distinctive tatoo on
the left side of his forehead, blinked in surprise. "That's right.
I'm Commander Chakotay, this is Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, and this
is..."
"Neelix, at your service," the Talaxian said. He bent over
slightly, handing Tuxedo Mask his hat. "I'm afraid they just threw
this in after you."
"I'm surprised they even bothered." Tuxedo Mask gingerly got back
to his feet, using the cell wall for support. "Thanks, though."
Chakotay stood up himself. "You seem to be acquainted with us
somehow. Mind telling us how?"
"Simple. I was just on your ship, Voyager, not long ago. And I
met a few of your shipmates there." In the next few minutes, he briefed
them on what he had seen and heard during his sojourn on Voyager.
The more he heard from Tuxedo Mask, the more concerned Chakotay
grew. "Do you know if either of the other teams were successful?"
Tuxedo Mask shook his head. "No idea. But Sailor Moon and I were
doing pretty good against them, so I would imagine the other Scouts would
make a dent in the aliens."
"They call themselves Negarans," the first officer told him.
"That fits," Tuxedo Mask snorted.
Chakotay nodded absently as he quickly pondered the situation.
With Captain Janeway unconscious, the left Tom in command. A few years
ago he might have been gravely concerned with that prospect, but Tom
had proven himself time and again over the last four years. He felt
confident that Tom could manage things there, and that he would bring
Voyager back over to this universe somehow. "We're going to have to
move quickly," he said, addressing his crewmates. "If they were able
to drive the intruders off the ship, then Tom's going to bring the ship
back here as soon as possible. It's going to be up to us to find out
what the Negarans are up to, and how best to put a crimp in their plans."
"Then we should put our plan into motion as soon as possible,"
Tuvok observed.
"Agreed." Chakotay turned to Tuxedo Mask again. "It's a good
thing they didn't put you in here any later, or you'd be spending your
stay in here alone."
"Plans?" Tuxedo Mask regarded Chakotay and the others carefully.
They seemed to be completely serious. "Why do you say that? Planning
an escape?"
Chakotay nodded. "That's right," he confirmed, lowering his
voice. "We've been working on a plan for some time now. We're just
about ready to put it into motion."
Tuxedo Mask looked about the cell. The walls seemed to be solid
stone, and the door looked to be a formidable barrier, one that even he
would have trouble breaking down. And there was no way these three had
had time to dig an escape tunnel. "What're you planning on? Get the
guards to open the door and let you walk out of here?"
Chakotay smiled slightly despite the sarcasm present in Tuxedo
Mask's voice. "As a matter of fact... that's exactly what we intend
to do."
Next time: The crew makes repairs to Voyager, the Doctor tries to
awaken Captain Janeway and Chakotay makes good his promise in
chapter five: "The Great Escape".