The Most Important Part: THANK YOUS TO THE REVIEWERS: Luis, Cal, Xia
Sarrasri, Jason, (Tarsitanoj1@citadel.edu), Karone, Starfish, Harry, and
Snake!
A/N: whoah! Reviews! Yay! Thank you! I love them and if you reviewed I love you too! And now, without further babbling, I give you **drum roll** chapter four!
Mixed Up, chapter four
The Andromeda had finally stopped rocking, the only problem was, and almost everything else had stopped too. The only sounds in the entire ship were those made by its five conscious inhabitants. Two others who could usually be found making sounds (one a lot more than the other in all fairness) were indisposed at that moment. One, being a living counterpart to the ships Artificial Intelligence, was unresponsive as the said AI could not be found, so to speak, the other was unconscious, and nobody knew why. Why didn't he pull himself out of the computer beforehand? It was this question, as well as several others and a few well-chosen obscenities that were running through Bekas head at this time as she pounded at the console in-front of her while it stubbornly refused to co- operate. The only good thing that had come out of the last three hours since the Andromeda had mysteriously crashed on them, taking the one person who was probably best suited to fix such a problem with her, was that they had stabilized life support, but they had no clue on how to fix Andromeda, or how to bring Harper round. They had no sensors either, so they didn't know why the wormhole, if it was still there, had stopped fluctuating or what had happened to Voyager. In short they were sitting ducks, helpless. Beka hated being helpless. She pounded the console again. "Y'know, you're supposed to be fixing my ship." A voice from behind her said, amusement apparent in their voice, despite the situation.
"Whatever Dylan."
Dylan came to her side a grin tugging at his lips, "Well, a genius did tell me once that high tech problems demand low tech solutions, so I'll let you off this time."
Beka couldn't stop the smile that came; Harper would say anything to prove a point, "Yeah well, you know Harper." Dylan nodded; Beka took her attention from glaring at the unresponsive console to the man beside her, "Any luck with Rommie?"
Dylan sighed, frustrated, "Still nothing, its like she's just gone -even that doesn't mean that nothing should work -the back-up systems should take over all the basic systems. But nothing works, and I doubt we'll be able to make anything else work. Life support was hard enough," he paused for a moment, "If we can force the Hanger Bay doors open, you could take the Eureka Maru to Voyager, let them know our situation, see what their situation is, find out what happened with that wormhole -why it stopped, if its still there -a whole run down of what's been happening since Andromeda went down, see if they know anything -"
"Dylan! I get it. I'll get Trance and we'll go see about Voyager," she fixed him with another glare, "And you look after Harper."
***
Beka slipped into the well-warn 'stream chair and tightened the restraints till they did their designed for job and requested permission to leave from Andromeda, behind her Trance sat at the science/sensor station, tail swishing behind her as she tapped away, confirming the okay given by Andromeda. "Here we go Trance, bring us luck."
The Eureka Maru, guided by Beka, glided out of the Hanger Bay Doors (which Tyr and Dylan had finally managed to get working, or force open, depending on who you asked), and towards Voyagers last known co-ordinates before everything had gone side-ways. "They still there Trance?"
"Yes, well, they haven't been destroyed and sensors say that everybody is still alive. So they're still there -"
"Trance I mean are they at the same co-ordinates that we're heading for at the moment or have they moved?"
Trance giggled, "Oh, then, no, they've moved a bit." She posted the new co- ordinates to Bekas side computer, and she adjusted their course accordingly,
"Can you open a channel to Voyager?"
Trance tapped a few more buttons, making the console emit short beeps, and Voyagers Bridge appeared on the main screen at the front of the Marus top deck where everybody was able to see it.
"Captain Janeway," Beka said by way of greeting before pausing, "We need your help." All that time spent onboard the Andromeda didn't mean she liked asking for help, but Harper needed help too the way things were going, "Our AI has," she paused again trying to find the right word to describe their predicament with Andromeda, "disappeared and took Harper with it and we have barely have the minimal systems running."
The man Beka recognised as Tom from the meeting a day before was sitting at a long station at the for-front of the bridge, with Janeway behind him. He looked up from the computer to her, "Damn."
***
Janeway frowned at the pilot before she herself spoke, moving forward to place a warning hand on Tom's shoulder, "That is a problem, I'm willing to send some of my engineers over to give you a hand in finding out what's wrong with your AI, I don't suppose you have any idea what happened to the wormhole?"
Beka smiled slightly, "Actually that was gonna be my next question, with haven't got any sensors on Andromeda at the moment, so we don't know what's happened since Rommie went down. From the readings we've got at the moment the wormhole is gone, right?"
"Yes, but we think we picked up something coming through before then."
"Do you know what?"
"I've got my people on it." And she did, the only problem was they were no closer to figuring out what came through now as they were when Harry had first detected it a few seconds before the wormhole closed. And now this, "Our transporters been fixed, would you like our engineers to beam on to your ship?"
From her position Janeway noticed Beka and Trance exchange looks, then it clicked. They had got onto the subject of Transporters the other night (their engineer seemed very interested) so B'Lanna had explained the basics, after recovering from the shock that people with an AI and a ship that size didn't have transporters, and apparently had to resist the urge to explain everything to the hyper-active young man.
"Sure, do you need us to do anything?"
"No, we can gather some co-ordinates ourselves, I'll contact you again in five minutes when I've organised a team -they'll fill you in on any thing you want to know."
Beka nodded and terminated the communication.
***
"I wish everybody was as willing to help as Captain Janeway, things would be a lot nicer in this universe if they were." Trance said, her tail curling in thought,
"Yeah Trance, and if everybody were willing to help everybody else, Dylan would be out of the job. Which means we would be too," Beka paused, "So how do you think this transporter of theirs will work?"
"I don't know that's more Harpers area of expertise isn't it?"
Beka nodded and they fell silent, waiting for whatever was about to happen, true to her word, five minutes later Trance opened a channel that came from Voyager. Janeway was sending over her team and they'd be appearing right behind her chair. A strange sound, a shimmer of light and a very startled Beka later Janeways new Away Team stood behind them.
"Hullo Beka, Trance," greeted B'Lanna, "This is Ensign Harry Kim -I don't think you've met yet."
"Hi." Said Harry, "You said you were having trouble with your AI?"
Any response Beka or Trance would have given was cut off by an alarm that started beeping at Trances station. "That's the perimeter alarm!" Janeways face appeared on the screen again, but now the area around her flashed warning red, highlighting faces with sharp relief.
"The wormhole is back." Somebody off-screen spoke to her, calling away her attention and when she looked back her face was tight, "The energy signature that came through before is back,"
Beka bought up readouts of the wormhole, in the almost exact same place, as before, true enough there was some kind of energy being transmitted through. But by whom and where from? And there were those waves again, she noted grimly, as she fought with the Maru to maintain control while Harry and B'Lanna grabbled around for something to hold onto and Trance held herself in place securely with her tail and other limbs. "And we've seen it before." Beka jerked her head back to Janeway,
"Well who is it?" she demanded.
"People I would rather never see again. They are --" "Beka! Ships are coming though!" Trances startled yell bought Bekas attention back to her ship, "They're firing!"
"Hold on to something!" The Voyagers Bridge flicked off the screen to be replaced with a representation of the wormhole, now complete with ships coming through, one that was already clear and firing and two more following closely behind, if she saw correctly. Pushing the controls to the left she banked the Maru into a tight roll, narrowly missing the stream of weapons fire that erupted from the alien ships. "Trance! Send a message to Janeway, I want to know who these guys are!" she yelled through gritted teeth.
"There might not be any need, we recognise those designs," it was B'Lanna, she had forgotten they were there, "And we're in big trouble."
**************************************************************************** ***
Post A/N: heheheh, aren't I evil? I'm taking into consideration all the guesses you guys are taking for the bad guys, and I think I have the perfect one **grins evilly** but why should I tell you now? I need to do some research first though, so keep reviewing and I'll keep writing. There's going to be a firefight in the next chapter (hopefully), and I'll finally tell you all who/what the bad guys are and I might even fix Andromeda. Maybe Harper too. REVIEW! -lani xxx
PS: I now have a personal fanfiction archive where I put everything I write -which includes the poems and original stories I don't post here! Check it out here: www.reality-under-siege.net/mdreams/
A/N: whoah! Reviews! Yay! Thank you! I love them and if you reviewed I love you too! And now, without further babbling, I give you **drum roll** chapter four!
Mixed Up, chapter four
The Andromeda had finally stopped rocking, the only problem was, and almost everything else had stopped too. The only sounds in the entire ship were those made by its five conscious inhabitants. Two others who could usually be found making sounds (one a lot more than the other in all fairness) were indisposed at that moment. One, being a living counterpart to the ships Artificial Intelligence, was unresponsive as the said AI could not be found, so to speak, the other was unconscious, and nobody knew why. Why didn't he pull himself out of the computer beforehand? It was this question, as well as several others and a few well-chosen obscenities that were running through Bekas head at this time as she pounded at the console in-front of her while it stubbornly refused to co- operate. The only good thing that had come out of the last three hours since the Andromeda had mysteriously crashed on them, taking the one person who was probably best suited to fix such a problem with her, was that they had stabilized life support, but they had no clue on how to fix Andromeda, or how to bring Harper round. They had no sensors either, so they didn't know why the wormhole, if it was still there, had stopped fluctuating or what had happened to Voyager. In short they were sitting ducks, helpless. Beka hated being helpless. She pounded the console again. "Y'know, you're supposed to be fixing my ship." A voice from behind her said, amusement apparent in their voice, despite the situation.
"Whatever Dylan."
Dylan came to her side a grin tugging at his lips, "Well, a genius did tell me once that high tech problems demand low tech solutions, so I'll let you off this time."
Beka couldn't stop the smile that came; Harper would say anything to prove a point, "Yeah well, you know Harper." Dylan nodded; Beka took her attention from glaring at the unresponsive console to the man beside her, "Any luck with Rommie?"
Dylan sighed, frustrated, "Still nothing, its like she's just gone -even that doesn't mean that nothing should work -the back-up systems should take over all the basic systems. But nothing works, and I doubt we'll be able to make anything else work. Life support was hard enough," he paused for a moment, "If we can force the Hanger Bay doors open, you could take the Eureka Maru to Voyager, let them know our situation, see what their situation is, find out what happened with that wormhole -why it stopped, if its still there -a whole run down of what's been happening since Andromeda went down, see if they know anything -"
"Dylan! I get it. I'll get Trance and we'll go see about Voyager," she fixed him with another glare, "And you look after Harper."
***
Beka slipped into the well-warn 'stream chair and tightened the restraints till they did their designed for job and requested permission to leave from Andromeda, behind her Trance sat at the science/sensor station, tail swishing behind her as she tapped away, confirming the okay given by Andromeda. "Here we go Trance, bring us luck."
The Eureka Maru, guided by Beka, glided out of the Hanger Bay Doors (which Tyr and Dylan had finally managed to get working, or force open, depending on who you asked), and towards Voyagers last known co-ordinates before everything had gone side-ways. "They still there Trance?"
"Yes, well, they haven't been destroyed and sensors say that everybody is still alive. So they're still there -"
"Trance I mean are they at the same co-ordinates that we're heading for at the moment or have they moved?"
Trance giggled, "Oh, then, no, they've moved a bit." She posted the new co- ordinates to Bekas side computer, and she adjusted their course accordingly,
"Can you open a channel to Voyager?"
Trance tapped a few more buttons, making the console emit short beeps, and Voyagers Bridge appeared on the main screen at the front of the Marus top deck where everybody was able to see it.
"Captain Janeway," Beka said by way of greeting before pausing, "We need your help." All that time spent onboard the Andromeda didn't mean she liked asking for help, but Harper needed help too the way things were going, "Our AI has," she paused again trying to find the right word to describe their predicament with Andromeda, "disappeared and took Harper with it and we have barely have the minimal systems running."
The man Beka recognised as Tom from the meeting a day before was sitting at a long station at the for-front of the bridge, with Janeway behind him. He looked up from the computer to her, "Damn."
***
Janeway frowned at the pilot before she herself spoke, moving forward to place a warning hand on Tom's shoulder, "That is a problem, I'm willing to send some of my engineers over to give you a hand in finding out what's wrong with your AI, I don't suppose you have any idea what happened to the wormhole?"
Beka smiled slightly, "Actually that was gonna be my next question, with haven't got any sensors on Andromeda at the moment, so we don't know what's happened since Rommie went down. From the readings we've got at the moment the wormhole is gone, right?"
"Yes, but we think we picked up something coming through before then."
"Do you know what?"
"I've got my people on it." And she did, the only problem was they were no closer to figuring out what came through now as they were when Harry had first detected it a few seconds before the wormhole closed. And now this, "Our transporters been fixed, would you like our engineers to beam on to your ship?"
From her position Janeway noticed Beka and Trance exchange looks, then it clicked. They had got onto the subject of Transporters the other night (their engineer seemed very interested) so B'Lanna had explained the basics, after recovering from the shock that people with an AI and a ship that size didn't have transporters, and apparently had to resist the urge to explain everything to the hyper-active young man.
"Sure, do you need us to do anything?"
"No, we can gather some co-ordinates ourselves, I'll contact you again in five minutes when I've organised a team -they'll fill you in on any thing you want to know."
Beka nodded and terminated the communication.
***
"I wish everybody was as willing to help as Captain Janeway, things would be a lot nicer in this universe if they were." Trance said, her tail curling in thought,
"Yeah Trance, and if everybody were willing to help everybody else, Dylan would be out of the job. Which means we would be too," Beka paused, "So how do you think this transporter of theirs will work?"
"I don't know that's more Harpers area of expertise isn't it?"
Beka nodded and they fell silent, waiting for whatever was about to happen, true to her word, five minutes later Trance opened a channel that came from Voyager. Janeway was sending over her team and they'd be appearing right behind her chair. A strange sound, a shimmer of light and a very startled Beka later Janeways new Away Team stood behind them.
"Hullo Beka, Trance," greeted B'Lanna, "This is Ensign Harry Kim -I don't think you've met yet."
"Hi." Said Harry, "You said you were having trouble with your AI?"
Any response Beka or Trance would have given was cut off by an alarm that started beeping at Trances station. "That's the perimeter alarm!" Janeways face appeared on the screen again, but now the area around her flashed warning red, highlighting faces with sharp relief.
"The wormhole is back." Somebody off-screen spoke to her, calling away her attention and when she looked back her face was tight, "The energy signature that came through before is back,"
Beka bought up readouts of the wormhole, in the almost exact same place, as before, true enough there was some kind of energy being transmitted through. But by whom and where from? And there were those waves again, she noted grimly, as she fought with the Maru to maintain control while Harry and B'Lanna grabbled around for something to hold onto and Trance held herself in place securely with her tail and other limbs. "And we've seen it before." Beka jerked her head back to Janeway,
"Well who is it?" she demanded.
"People I would rather never see again. They are --" "Beka! Ships are coming though!" Trances startled yell bought Bekas attention back to her ship, "They're firing!"
"Hold on to something!" The Voyagers Bridge flicked off the screen to be replaced with a representation of the wormhole, now complete with ships coming through, one that was already clear and firing and two more following closely behind, if she saw correctly. Pushing the controls to the left she banked the Maru into a tight roll, narrowly missing the stream of weapons fire that erupted from the alien ships. "Trance! Send a message to Janeway, I want to know who these guys are!" she yelled through gritted teeth.
"There might not be any need, we recognise those designs," it was B'Lanna, she had forgotten they were there, "And we're in big trouble."
**************************************************************************** ***
Post A/N: heheheh, aren't I evil? I'm taking into consideration all the guesses you guys are taking for the bad guys, and I think I have the perfect one **grins evilly** but why should I tell you now? I need to do some research first though, so keep reviewing and I'll keep writing. There's going to be a firefight in the next chapter (hopefully), and I'll finally tell you all who/what the bad guys are and I might even fix Andromeda. Maybe Harper too. REVIEW! -lani xxx
PS: I now have a personal fanfiction archive where I put everything I write -which includes the poems and original stories I don't post here! Check it out here: www.reality-under-siege.net/mdreams/