Vaadwaur Galaxy 2.

The inside of the Underspace was a maze. There was simply no other way of describing them. While you can keep the one course, when you turn in the corridors there are three other channels in front of you, forcing you to make a split second course correction. It was probably for that reason why the Vaadwaur had spent such a long time mapping them out, Chakotay reflected.

In the weeks they had been in the 15th century, Janeway had changed her mind about not simply making a course for the Alpha Quadrant. Originally she had wanted the whole year to pass, where the Vaadwaur would be overthrown and their planet so heavily bombarded that in the 24th century, it would be a radioactive wasteland where nothing from a blade of grass or chirping bird would live.

But as time passed it soon became evident that the rebellion was on, and in that time Janeway had shown she didn't have the patience to wait but then again everyone was willing and prepared to endure travelling the never ending maze of corridors and brave attacks from the Vaadwaur or any of the others in the rebellion who were using the network as well. Chakotay had supported Janeway's decision because he was tired of the Delta Quadrant, and he wanted to go home, he had felt the original decision was made before they even realised the rebellion was already on and there was nothing they could do and the best thing they could do was to simply use the confusion to return to the Alpha Quadrant.

Easier said than done.

Voyager had only had one experience with the Underspace and they didn't have any complete maps of the strange region of subspace corridors, so they were forced to travel through them blind now they knew how to get into the network. It was a dangerous policy in itself, even though they had gotten lucky the first time after they had learnt how the Underspace worked and how they had to enter the corridors before they discovered that the rebellion had been going on for some time. With that discovery, Janeway had changed her mind seeing the time was now, and they had passed through the network, travelling 400 light years twisting and turning in the Underspace. Astrometrics had taken advantage of the trip to map out a much bigger chunk of the vast maze, and while they still had a long way to go before they knew how to find a decent route of getting to the Alpha Quadrant without making the stupid mistake of passing through a branch that took them back 10,000 light years.

And it had happened.

Only a few days ago, Voyager had been passing through the channels quickly, avoiding some of the crude spaceships used by the rebels to take the fight to the Vaadwaur, when they passed into another corridor and came out into a vast reach of open space before it was reported they had returned to a point in space 70 light years back the way they had come. Janeway had been disheartened by that discovery and she had totally ignored the fact it was an occupational hazard they would just have to accept…. Unless they found a way of mapping the Underspace.

During a staff meeting, Janeway had asked for suggestions. She instantly shot down any idea that meant they went anywhere near a Vaadwaur ship. She wanted to keep them as far from the Vaadwaur as possible, even though Seven of Nine had hinted her suspicion that the Vaadwaur ships carried starcharts of the Underspace corridor and hadn't memorised them at all. Janeway had considered the possibility, but she had made two points; the first, the Vaadwaur they incapacitated to get the maps could eventually wind up in the underground shelter on their homeworld and would remember them, changing the timeline for good, which was the last thing they needed.

It was bad enough they were even here in the first place, even if there were some distinct advantages to being this far back in the past. But if they attacked a Vaadwaur ship, what kind of damage would that have caused during their original meeting with them? The thought was enough to stop any train of thought of going anywhere near the Vaadwaur again.

Second, they should be limiting how much contact they actually had with the Vaadwaur, or anyone else. Chakotay had given it some thought, and while he personally felt they could help the Turei and the other races who were rebelling from being trodden on for years by the Vaadwaur, something which appealed to his years of being in the Maquis. It offended not only Chakotay's history of being an Indian and a Maquis freedom fighter to not help others whom he had something in common with. But he knew Janeway's mind was not going to change, at the same time the decision to keep as far from the Vaadwaur and the other races in the rebellion made some sense.

"We're nearing the end of the tunnel, Captain," Tom reported.

"Okay, lay in a course," Janeway said.

"Aye, Captain."

When the ship broke through the exit and back into normal space, Harry spoke up, "Captain, as we passed through into normal space, sensors detected a slight neutrino radio signal. It is self repeating, and it appears like some kind of message."

"A neutrino radio signal?" Janeway frowned, wondering what that could be. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. It was only just noticeable. The only reason we detected it at all was because I was running a number of scans on the entrance way and was trying to pick up anymore transmissions from our long-range probes, and these neutrino radio signals are not powerful enough for interstellar communication so detecting them in space is not considered a priority by Starfleet standards," Harry replied.

"Harry, keep in touch with the probes when we get back into the Underspace, lets see if there are other neutrino signals throughout the network," Chakotay ordered while Janeway wondered .

"Aye, sir."

Janeway turned to Chakotay. "You've got an idea, haven't you?"

"No, but the Vaadwaur might have had something to do with it. I remember in the old days of space exploration, in the 20th century, they used satellites that beamed radio signals and bounced them around the solar system to relay messages. Effective by our standards, but we know that the Vaadwaur's level of technology is primitive. They might have left beacons scattered throughout the Underspace for communications, or-."

"Navigation," Janeway finished breathlessly, the idea instantly sparking ideas and possibilities in her mind, and plans started to form. She tapped her combadge. "Janeway to Seven of Nine."

"Seven here, Captain."

"Seven, go back over the logs of the probes we've sent through the Underspace corridors. Harry picked up a neutrino radio signal as we were passing through the exit," Janeway ordered.

"I will need the frequency," Seven said.

"Harry, send it to her," Janeway said.

"Aye Captain."

A few moments later Seven came back over the line. "The probes we've sent out have detected several beacons transmitting neutrino signals, Captain. However they are not as weak as Mr Kim thinks. And the long range probe's previous data indicates they are scattered throughout the Underspace at the various intersections and entrance and exit points."

Janeway's excitement at finally getting a way to navigate the Underspace was visible now. "Seven, can you use the signals to help us plot a route through the corridors?"

"No, not yet," the former Borg drone replied. "But now we're found this out, I want to use the signals to map them out more effectively before going to that level."

Janeway sighed. "Okay, Seven," she replied, a little disheartened of getting a way home easily. "We'll wait. How long do you think it will take?"

"Hard to be sure, but now we know about them, it shouldn't take us too long."

"Okay, I'll come down to Astrometrics later to see how its going."

"Understood," the former Borg drone masked her feelings about how to take that, making Chakotay hide a smile. Seven had become a master of deadpan deliveries.

"Captain," Tuvok said urgently as his console began to chirp urgently, "sensors are detecting a ship on intercept course."

"Is it a Vaadwaur ship, Tuvok?" Chakotay asked.

"No. Its Borg," Tuvok looked up grimly.

Janeway leapt to her feet instinctively, her mind recalling Gedrin and the other Vaadwaur in their initial encounter telling them the Borg of their time - this time, she corrected herself - the Borg were limited to a few systems only. She had gotten a look at the navigational logs, and she knew they had moved 100 light years further away from what should have been Borg space, although their knowledge of Borg history and what the Collective had been in the 15th century was non-existent.

"Red Alert," she ordered, deciding not to bother with speculations at this point. "All hands to battlestations. Tuvok, what do we know of this Borg vessel?" If this thing came from a collective limited to a few systems, it couldn't have been very powerful.

Tuvok quickly ran the scans. "The ship is significantly less advanced than the Borg ships we have encountered in the past, Captain. I'm not picking up any of the higher power levels we have seen in ships like Cubes or Spheres."

"Yeah, I'm also picking up their warp signature. Their power emissions are similar to warp five ships," Tom added.

"Warp five? How the hell did they get out here?" Harry asked.

"A plan by the Collective to expand their territories?" Chakotay shrugged. "Seven might have a better idea compared to us."

"It doesn't matter. When will they be in range?" Janeway asked.

"Three minutes."

"What are their armaments?"

"Plasma beams and X-ray lasers and what appear to be photonic torpedoes," Tuvok replied. "I'm not picking up on any kind of shielding, but a weak form of armour plating which would be strengthened by hull polarisation."

Janeway and Chakotay exchanged a glance. They would have no trouble breaking that down. "Tuvok, arm the photon torpedoes; we may have to use them."

"Aye, Captain," Tuvok replied. "The ship is coming into range."

Janeway shifted in her chair, anxious at seeing a pre-24th century Borg ship. "On screen."

The Borg ship that appeared was nothing like the Borg they were familiar with in the past. Or the future? Relatively speaking terms were hard to get the brain around. The Borg ship was cylindrical in appearance, like an old fashioned submarine torpedo, or a rocket ship. The crew had learnt from Seven the Borg didn't actually build their ships, instead they captured them and assimilated them and over time the nanoprobes would build up the mass, shaping the hull into a cube while giving it the appearance the conduits and pipework were inside out.

This ship was black all over and there were signs the ship was covered with the same inside out design of future Borg ships, but that was it.

"They're hailing us," Harry reported.

"Let's hear it," Janeway was already bracing herself for the usual delivery, the threat of assimilation.

"WE ARE THE BORG. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

The voice sounded very different. While it did sound like a million voices speaking at once, it seemed less strong than the voice of the Collective in the 24th century.

"Don't bother reopening contact, Harry. Tuvok, just fire on them, we've got better things to do with our time than deal with the Borg," Janeway ordered. "Tom, turn us about to face them."

Voyager opened fire as soon as the ship turned around. The Borg ship suffered severe damage in the first few moments, the phaser beams burning through the hull plating, despite its relatively high strength. The Borg, overwhelmed by the sudden attack, tried to back off and retaliate, but their weapons were no match for Voyager.

"Tuvok, prepare to transport a photon torpedo into the engineering section of that ship," Janeway ordered when she realised they could be at this all day long. "Set it to detonate 2 seconds after transport is finished."

"Aye, Captain," Tuvok replied as he got to work. When he was finished he announced the torpedo was ready.

"Lower the shields. Begin transport," Janeway ordered.

On the screen, a few seconds later, the Borg ship exploded as the torpedo ruptured the ship's warp reactor, setting off a chain reaction to the already damaged ship. Voyager shook from the shockwave, but there was no damage.

"That ship must have been extremely primitive," Chakotay commented while relieved the whole thing was brief.

"Yes," Janeway replied, thoughtful for a moment. "Commander, I want to see if the ship has any Borg data nodes we can access. I want to know what they were doing this far away, and besides this is a rare chance to learn more about ancient Borg history."

Chakotay nodded and he quickly leaned over the console between them and got to work.

X

"The Borg ship was sent out by the Collective over 10 years ago, Captain," Seven said as she finished reading over the history from the data nodes; the technology of this time was so easy to break she barely had any problems with it. "The Collective found a ship belonging to Species 116, and they assimilated it and its crew."

"Species 116? Isn't that Arturis's people?" Janeway asked, shuddering at the memory of the brilliant but vengeful alien genius who had been a walking universal translator who had lost his people because of her plan to make an alliance with the Borg. She remembered his species designation, but she hadn't realised the Borg and they had conflicts this far back, but it made sense.

"Yes," there was a brief shudder in Seven's voice as she remembered Arturis. "At this time they have more advanced warp technology than most races in the galaxy. They readdressed their warp scale a long time ago, and they've been exploring space ever since. One of their ships was captured by the Borg and assimilated. And now the Borg are spreading out. Here's a map of the Collective as it was before the assimilation," Seven inputted a command into the computer, and a 3D map showing a small chunk of space appeared. "And this is the Collective's size now."

Another image appeared, this time showing the amount of space the Borg had. It was slightly larger in size than before.

There was one question on Janeway's mind right now. "Why are they sending out their most advanced ship this far out?"

"Its a mission of exploration, Captain," Seven replied. "The Borg are sending out long range ships for exploration purposes and to grow the Collective, assimilating small numbers of ships and races. While the Vaadwaur are more preoccupied with their rebellion, they aren't aware of this."

Janeway nodded in understanding. "Ah, so that's why they didn't know about this. Did you get any idea of where the Borg are?"

Seven answered by inputting a new command which showed the path of the Borg ship. "This was the only long range Borg ship into this part of the Delta Quadrant, Captain. There aren't any for light years."

Janeway sighed in relief. "Good. Have you had any luck with the Underspace maps?"

"Yes," Seven showed her. A large map of the Underspace appeared on the main screen in the Astrometrics lab. As Janeway studied it, she saw that the map was much larger than the one she had last seen when she had been to the lab. When they had first discovered the Underspace, their sensors had scanned only a small fraction of the network. It wasn't a great deal but it showed a detailed map of the whole network, and since they had found themselves in this century they had the time to go further in the Underspace, mapping small chunks of it. But now they knew how the Vaadwaur navigated the network, they were detecting more beacons which gave them more information about the expanse of the Underspace.

The map was dotted in hundreds of small beacons.

"That is a lot of beacons," Tal Celes, who was working in the lab at the moment, commented as she walked over to study the map. "But it tells us how the Vaadwaur navigate. But do we really think they went out, mapping the Underspace by sending hundreds of ships through the corridors, like old fashioned navigators making maps and taking bearings?"

"At this point, no, Celes," Seven replied. "Originally I thought they had, but the more I look at these maps and see the beacons, I can see that the Vaadwaur sent out their ships and planted beacons in different locations to beam neutrinos through the corridors and that gave them the routes before planting more beacons to let them know where star systems were."

"So, they started with a single starting point, moving outwards, planting more beacons, so when they travel through the corridors they merely have to check the frequency of the neutrinos for a specific place, find the route, and they just head there," Celes nodded.

"Still its better than just going in and getting lost while studying different routes. By doing this, it would likely have only taken the Vaadwaur a century to move out into the Delta Quadrant, but a few more to really map out other parts of the galaxy, and maybe beyond," Janeway commented.

Celes and Seven caught on. "Do you think the Vaadwaur found routes to other galaxies?" Celes asked in disbelief.

"It's possible," Seven told her.

"Maybe, but did they get there to do anything?" No-one could answer the young Bajorans' question.

"That doesn't matter. But now we know we can navigate the network, and these beacons are an elegant and practical way of mapping the place out without subspace scanners. Can we find a way into the Alpha Quadrant?" Janeway said.

"We're still mapping the routes out. We've already got the edge of the Delta Quadrant into the Gamma Quadrant, and we've got a few routes through that quadrant," Celes said before she checked the map beacons. "Seven, please check this."

Seven leaned over. "You're right," she said.

"About what?" Janeway asked.

"There's a route that leads from the Talaxian system all the way across the Delta-Gamma Quadrants and into a star system 6 light years away from where the New Bajor colony was," Seven replied.

"New Bajor? The planet which was destroyed by the Jem'Hadar?" Janeway said.

"The same."

"Where are we now?" Janeway asked, recalling what they knew of the system and how far from the Gamma Quadrant terminus of the Bajoran wormhole the system was.

Seven showed them. They were a long way off, but the route would likely only take a few months. Janeway looked longingly at the route as she recalled the discovery of New Bajor. "I think we'll stay here for a little bit, and wait for more of the beacon maps to be found. We'll send a few more long-range probes at warp to find more corridor entry points and map them out, but if we find a decent route that will take us straight to the Alpha Quadrant, we'll use it, but if we have to, then we'll turn about…and go to the corridors near New Bajor. One way or another," Janeway added as she finished making her decision and weighing up the pros and cons, "we'll get home."