Title: Any Other Name
Author: Zappy Zaps
Category: AU Action/Adventure/Drama
Summary: Neh….
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All the Star Trek characters are Paramount's. I don't own them (yet). ;)
Archiving: Please do, but tell me! zappyzaps@hotmail.com
Author's note: This chapter will explain a lot about what happened during the months I keep referring to. And now back to my favourite genre! Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe!! Mwa-ha ha ha haaa!! (
May02
Part 3
There was hardly a distinction between Starfleet and Maquis on Voyager. They had suffered through hard times together and it had made their difference and disagreements seem unimportant. Often they were struggling to survive in poor conditions. The Kazon had not been the most generous of hosts.
As the old adage goes: 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' and Starfleet officers and Maquis rebels united against a common foe. With some outside intervention they had gained their freedom and the ties had remained even after their emancipation.
In another universe it would have been a rare sight –Maquis and Starfleet sitting at the same table sharing jokes and enjoying each other's company so early in their long journey, but here it was part of the routine. Mariah Henley was seated at a table with Jennifer Delaney. The two women were discussing what had happened recently when B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim entered to get their own lunch. Jenny waved the two over to the table and they filled the last two available seats.
The conversation at the table was light and easy. They informed each other of what was happening in their respective departments. Henley was telling them about what was happening in the navigational department when Tom walked into the mess hall. He glanced around and gave a friendly nod to Neelix before moving to the replicator to get his meal. He took a seat at a small table alone, aware of the glances in his direction but ignoring them for the time being.
"A bit of a loner," Henley stated referring to Tom.
"So?" B'Elanna challenged coming to Tom's defence.
Hearing the edge in B'Elanna's voice Henley responded, "It's just an observation. Somehow he gets dragged out here and survives and then for no gain of his own he frees us. I'm wondering what his angle is and what he's up to."
"I don't know what his 'angle' is but I don't think he's planning anything," Harry said.
"Other than leaving," Jenny appended sadly. Tom had saved her from a group of Kazon who would have done God-knows-what to her.
"If he leaves that's his own prerogative," B'Elanna shrugged. It was Tom's choice but she would miss him, as would the few people who felt owed him. He had lost almost everything he had to help them. Granted, they didn't know much about him but from first impressions, Tom was someone they would like to get to know better but probably wouldn't get the chance.
"I think Mr. Corrin is hiding something," Henley said and glanced over to where Tom was sitting but he was gone. "Where the-"
"Corrin?" B'Elanna questioned. The name was familiar but she couldn't recall where she had heard it before.
"His name is Tom Corrin?" Jenny repeated. "I think you're mistaken."
"Captain Janeway called him Mr. Corrin on the bridge this morning and he responded," Henley said. B'Elanna looked at Harry who was deep in thought. The name Corrin was familiar to him as well. Oblivious to the inattentiveness of the chief engineer and head of operations Mariah and Jenny continued the conversation.
"Corrin is a Fieran name. The royal Families name actually." Jenny, being in the stellar cartography division, was well versed in the different world and species of the Federation and surrounding areas.
"Fieran? Are they part of the Federation?" Harry inquired.
"Not exactly. An alliance was made between the Fieran Empire and the Federation by king…King….Reigh, I think it was. It only happened recently because of all the conflict in the Alpha Quadrant," Jenny explained.
A few minutes later Harry and B'Elanna left the mess hall and headed to main engineering. There was still some work to be done and Harry had been temporarily reassigned to engineering to help out. They were silent most of the way there trying to figure out where the name Corrin was familiar from. While Jenny wasn't B'Elanna's favourite person on the ship the information she had just given them might be useful in figuring out Tom before he left the ship. Suddenly she remembered where she had heard the name before.
"Harry, the Mercury. That's where we've heard 'Corrin'," B'Elanna said.
"Do you think he's really Fieran?" Harry asked.
"We'll have to ask him."
((=/\=))
His arrival in the quadrant had not been an easy one. The displacement wave battered the already weak ship and further injured the single occupant. Tom had been on his ship, Mercury, investigating the disappearance of his friend and colleague Sobey in the badlands when the ship was scanned and brought to the Delta Quadrant. Tom had lost consciousness due to the severe injuries he sustained during the trip and had no recollection of being on the array. He was beamed back to his ship in almost the same condition. Mercury drifted slowly away from the array and was discovered by a Talaxian freighter. In hopes of salvaging the parts of the ship, Mercury was towed by the freighter to the nearest port. The composition of Mercury's hull was impermeable to the Talaxian sensors and they were unaware that the ship had a resident.
The Talaxians made several attempts to gain access to the shuttle but it was locked down and could not be opened from the outside. Even their weapons didn't harm the ship. They had nearly given up when an unconscious form materialised in front of them. Not knowing what else to do they helped the stranger as much as they could but couldn't do much since they had never encountered the species before. Their stranger awoke a few hours later.
Tom awoke to find two odd looking beings with whiskers and spots on the sides of their head looking down at him. He later discovered that these people were called Talaxians. He had left their infirmary immediately and returned to his ship. He had no trouble getting in and tended to the rest of his injuries as best he could. The next time he left his ship to go to the space port he was reminded in a rude manner by the freighter Captain that he owed them for saving his life.
Actually it was his ship that had saved his life. Mercury's computer had almost been sentient before the displacement wave hit them. Unfortunately the damage to the ship's computer was extensive and much of the memory was corrupted and Mercury's sentience was lost. Mercury's last act under his own free will had been beaming Tom to the spaceport to get medical attention.
And so over twenty days after his arrival in the Delta Quadrant Tom found himself here. Warnings illuminated the console but for the moment he ignored them. Tapping a few more keys in succession the rumbling ceased and engine control was restored. The sleek vessel made it past the edge of the ion storm and into regular space. Not taking to the time to sigh in relief he attended to his damaged ship. The main computer core was badly damaged and coolant was leaking into the air.
"Damn this quadrant," Tom grunted as he tried to dislodge a fused relay.
'Damage to- [static]- sec….secondary…' the male voice of the computer tried to warn but the message was barely intelligible.
"….secondary command processors, I know," He grumbled to the computer. It would take him several hours to repair all the damage to his ship. He headed to the cargo hold to make sure his merchandise was still intact. Sliding easily down the rails of the ladder he dropped to the second deck. He stepped over conduits and wires where he had been forced to rewire the ships system just to keep the engines humming and life support online.
He pressed the release for the doors to open but nothing happened. Sighing he forced the door open and was pleased to find that his cargo made it through the ion storm unharmed. "Cargo," he scoffed, "more like garbage." Turning he left the room, for the moment not caring that the door didn't close behind him when he pressed the button. It was just one more thing that was falling apart on this once top off-the-line ship.
A few hours later the ship made it back to the Talaxian spaceport. Tom docked the ship and took a moment to check his own injuries before leaving. Cuts and bruises, nothing he couldn't take care of later. Wiping away some of the blood that was trickling into his eye from the gash on the left side of his forehead he opened the air lock.
"You're late!" A stocky little Talaxian tried to march into the Tom's ship but was stopped before his foot could touch the metal of the floor. With a firm grip of the little man's collar Tom pressed him against the wall.
"And you're annoying! If you ever try to walk onto my ship without permission I'll make sure you never walk again. Understood?"
The Talaxian nodded once after a moment of contemplation. He wasn't afraid of the tall human, but he should be. If one second Tom decided he really didn't like the talaxian freighter Captain, Tom could have him lying dead on the floor in by the end of the next second. The Talaxian didn't know this however and proceeded to treat Tom like the dirt on the bottom of his shoes.
"My merchandise?"
"Your garbage is still in the millions of pieces I received them in," Tom told him.
"I'm not paying you for snide comments Mr. Paris. I saved your life after all."
"And to this moment I regret it," Tom mumbled.
The entrance slid opened after he gave the voice command and Tom walked into his ship with an armful of gear and small devices. He had used his payment to buy these. He would need them if his plan was going to work. The people who had seen him walking back to his ship carrying the items only laughed and ridiculed him. He added the new items to the pile and looked at his collection. To most people it looked like a pile of junk but with these Tom could create what he needed to help another group of people foreign to this quadrant.
During his first hours of consciousness in the Delta Quadrant he had heard from the freighter Captain about how he and other strangers had been brought to this quadrant by the Caretaker. He was also informed about two ships like his, but larger, which had been seen going to and leaving the Ocampan home-world. They told him that the smaller of the two ships had been destroyed and the crew was serving on Voyager along with its crew. Voyager however, was being commanded by the Kazon.
From what Tom had been told he managed to piece together what had happened. Tom had heard of Voyager before and knew it was a Starfleet ship under the command of Kathryn Janeway. They had been brought to this quadrant by the Caretaker and tested for compatibility just as he supposedly was. They went to the Ocampan home-world to retrieve some of their crewmembers who had been sent there. While they were away Tom arrived in the Delta quadrant but had been towed away by the freighter before Voyager returned.
Voyager then went back to the array to look for a way home but due to the circumstances was forced to destroy the array. During the battle with the Kazon who had claimed the array as their property, Voyager had been badly damaged and somehow the Liberty was destroyed. For whatever reason Captain Janeway could not initiate the self-destruct sequence and Voyager had been annexed by the Kazon.
It had been nearly a month since all this had occurred. Tom may have been able to help them evade the Kazon had he been with them. He was a phenomenal pilot, among other things, and his ship was armed with some of the most advance weaponry and shielding in the Alpha Quadrant but he had been unconscious for the first two days of his arrival. Hoping to help the crews of the Liberty and Voyager Tom had scouted the area where the Kazon had made their base. It was a small M-class planet with a population of a few thousand Kazon. Tom hadn't been equipped at the time to mount a rescue –his ship had barely been running –so he went back to the Talaxian port and for the last month he had been working to pay for the parts he needed to repair his ship and attempt to get Voyager and her new crew away from the Kazon.
Seated on the floor of his ship he assembled the devices he would need to get Voyager. Scattered around him were little pieces of metal wire and little contraptions, which on their own were useless but properly assembled could be used to create havoc and confusion.
"Shit!" he cried as one of the gadgets gave him a sizeable shock. He put it on the floor and rubbed his eyes. He was tired. He hadn't been sleeping much lately. He needed to sleep he knew that but he couldn't afford to waste time. His routine for the past twenty-some days had been: work, take a stimulant, work, scout the Kazon base, take another stimulant and work some more. He only slept when he absolutely had to and even then it had been limited to a few short hours.
He needed to get Voyager but it was a lot for one person to do. He had asked for help from the Talaxians but they had been reluctant. Voyager was an advanced ship to them and the Kazon were an unfriendly bunch. They already knew of one of their own colleagues who had been captured while helping the Voyagers and the rest had no desire to share in their comrade's fate.
"Em, are you there?" Tom called out.
The crackled response came 'Hello…-unable to… please repeat….'
Tom sighed the computer was still on the fritz. 'M', short for Mercury, was what Tom had named the computer system. When he had first acquired this vessel he noticed the advanced system that was installed and decided to make the most of it. He created a small interactive program that could acquire and use information; it could learn. The program wasn't perfect but over the years it improved and Tom improved on the programming until Em became like a person inside his computer, with his own 'logical' opinions to give whether Tom asked for them or not.
Em had been a companion for Tom during his long and fairly boring missions. The program had exceeded Tom's expectations but in one foul swoop it had all been taken away leaving only the elementary pieces of the original voice command programming.
"I need to get you up an running." Tom said. He planned on going after Voyager in two days but he need his ship in working order –his main priorities were the cloaking device and the main computer, all other important systems were in acceptable condition. He had already waited too long to go after them. The Kazon didn't seem like the most welcoming of host –the longer they were with the Kazon the less likely their chances of survival were.
They walked through the corridors aware of the disrupter aimed at their backs. Whether they were Starfleet or Maquis they were all treated the same way. The group of six Starfleet officers and crewmen and four Maquis were escorted back to their holding cell in the cargo bay of the ship.
The three cargo bays had been converted into barracks for the crew to live in. The routine was mundane. They slept during their few hours of peace, woke up and were sent to work repairing the damage to the ship or working in the mines to get the materials Voyager needed. If they were lucky they were given something to eat twice a day. All the while the Kazon watched their every move.
Captain Janeway watched the group walk in and looked each one of them over for any injuries. The Kazon had a bad habit of harming those who didn't immediately follow the orders given to them. They group that entered were in good condition and she allowed her a moment of relief. They were rarely allowed to go to sickbay unless it was a life threatening injury and even then the treatment the holographic Doctor was allowed to administer to them was minimal. Three people had already succumb to their injuries and one Maquis crewman who had attacked a Kazon was killed, Lon Suder.
Spirits were down as they had yet to find a way of freeing themselves. A few Kazon factions had joined together and they outnumber the Voyager crew twenty to one.
Janeway walked to the back corner and rejoined the group consisting of Lieutenant Tuvok, Ensign Harry Kim, Chakotay and B'Elanna Torres. They had distinguished themselves as leaders during this ordeal and they were her 'senior staff' even though they had no ship to command.
"They're alright,' Janeway said.
"We've got to find a way to beat them," Torres practically snarled. Her volatile nature had gotten her in trouble a few times but it had saved her and others in other instances.
"There are just too many of them," Harry Kim said.
"It's been nearly a month. Our time's running out," Chakotay warned. "They're learning how the ship works. They won't need us to keep it running much longer."
"You're right. Repairs are almost complete." Janeway looked around at the crew. They were all weak and tired. The Kazon may not be the most intelligent people in the quadrant but they new how to keep a group down. Not enough food, not enough rest and too much work could break anybody's spirits. Not how Janeway expected her first command to turn out.
The doors to the Cargo bay slid open and Seska walked in. The Bajoran woman went straight to Chakotay once she spotted him. She was unharmed and of the entire crew she had adapted the best to their captivity. Tuvok suspected that she had been giving the Kazon extra information and thus they treated her better, but he could not prove his theory.
"I think they're about ready to kill us off," she said in a hushed tone. The other crewmembers didn't need to hear this.
"Are you sure?" Janeway asked.
Seska nodded. "I heard some of the Majs discussing what should be done with us and none of the suggestions sounded very pleasing." There was silence for a few moments as their minds conjured up images of what could be done to them: sold as slaves, executed, left on some god-forsaken planet… "We should try and make an alliance with them," Seska suggested. They all looked at her in surprise. An alliance with these brutes?
"You can't be serious," B'Elanna said to her friend.
"What other choice do we have?"
Tom piloted Mercury in a low orbit. Voyager was landed on the planets surface but was restrained by clamps that Tom would have to weaken or destroy for Voyager to be able to take off. It was nighttime on the side of the planet where Voyager was located and with Mercury cloaked it would be impossible for the Kazon find it. Hopefully the cloaking device would continue to work. Basically, Mercury was being held together with spit and optimism.
A few hours later they were all trying to get some precious sleep when the doors slid open. A few Kazon males stood in the doorway and looked around. The bright light from the hallway woke up a few crewmembers.
They stood in the doorway and spoke to each other in low voices before moving towards a young human woman who was still asleep. "This one will do," one of them said and he grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet. The woman woke and after seeing what was happening she began to struggle. Other crewmembers got up and tried to stop them from taking her away but their efforts were in vain. The disruptors easily subdued those who tried to help the young woman. By the time the Kazon had left with the woman, everybody in the cargo bay was awake and for the rest of the night that was how they stayed.
Never before had only one person been removed from the barrack during the night. She hadn't been taken to go work on repairs. The Kazon hoped she would provide them with other services. With the plight facing the woman nobody could sleep as uninvited images of what they could be doing to her surfaced in their minds and any one of them might be next.
She struggled and fought her captors as panic flowed through her. The group of burly Kazon only laughed and continued to drag her into some empty quarters. "Let me go!" she screamed. One Kazon backhanded her and she fell to the ground crying.
The doors to the quarters unexpectedly slid open and a tall man with a slender build stood in the entrance. "That's no way to treat a lady," he said. The Kazon didn't waste anytime asking who he was. He was not one of them and therefore he was their enemy.
The woman cowered in the corner and huddled into a ball hoping that she wouldn't be hurt. She heard the blows land and the grunts from the Kazon. Had they killed the man? What were they going to do to her? Finally the sounds stopped. She didn't move from her position. Soft steps came closer to her until they stopped and she could feel his presence near her.
Gently he placed a hand on her shoulder but removed it when she flinched.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he assured her in a soft voice.
Pulling her hands away from her face and opening her eyes she saw the man dressed in dark clothing crouched in front of her. She moved away from him. "Who are you?" she asked in a small voice. Over his eyes was a visor made of translucent polymer but it was too dark for her to see his eyes through.
Tom showed her his hands to indicate he didn't have any weapons and reached up to remove the headgear he wore. The hard material of the headgear went around his head and on it had transmitters and an uplink to his computer. The front had a visor that covered his eye and the right side had an earpiece that allowed him to hear transmission and a microphone so that he could communicate without having to hold anything.
"You're human."
"I need your help," he told her. He stood and offered her a hand to help her up.
"Who are you? How did you escape?" she asked her questions rapidly but Tom couldn't take the time to answer. He took out and strange looking piece of equipment and handed it to her.
"Take this with you back to the cargo bay and place it on the wall next to the control panel that opens the doors. Once it's securely mounted don't touch it again or you'll get a nasty shock. Do you understand?" She nodded her head vigorously. "Go to your Captain and tell her to get the crew ready." Tom pulled out a standard phaser. She took a step back. He held it out to her. "You'll need this."
Carefully she took the phaser from him. They went to the exit stepping over the unconscious Kazon men. After he checked that the area was clear they stepped out of the room. Tom put on the headgear and went left. To get to the cargo bays the woman had to go right. The blonde man left without a look back and she watched him go for a few seconds until she realised she too should be on her way.
"Jenny, are you alright?" Meagan, her twin sister asked her when she walked in. She didn't have any marks on her and she seemed all right if a little perturbed.
"I'm fine," she looked around for the Captain and saw the older woman coming towards her to see if she was all right. "Captain, there's a man loose on the ship. I think he's going to try and free us," she said quickly.
"Who?" The Captain inquired as to the man's identity.
"I don't know. I didn't recognize him."
"What did he look like?" Janeway asked the flustered officer.
"He was….about this tall," she raised her hand to a height a few centimetres taller than Tuvok, "and he had blonde hair and blue eyes."
"Was he human?" Ensign Kim asked. Jenny nodded the affirmative.
"Somebody you know?" Janeway asked Harry but he shook his head. "Does anybody know who this person could be?" Nobody spoke up. There were no blue-eyed blondes of that height on board.
End Part 3
Author: Zappy Zaps
Category: AU Action/Adventure/Drama
Summary: Neh….
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All the Star Trek characters are Paramount's. I don't own them (yet). ;)
Archiving: Please do, but tell me! zappyzaps@hotmail.com
Author's note: This chapter will explain a lot about what happened during the months I keep referring to. And now back to my favourite genre! Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe!! Mwa-ha ha ha haaa!! (
May02
Part 3
There was hardly a distinction between Starfleet and Maquis on Voyager. They had suffered through hard times together and it had made their difference and disagreements seem unimportant. Often they were struggling to survive in poor conditions. The Kazon had not been the most generous of hosts.
As the old adage goes: 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' and Starfleet officers and Maquis rebels united against a common foe. With some outside intervention they had gained their freedom and the ties had remained even after their emancipation.
In another universe it would have been a rare sight –Maquis and Starfleet sitting at the same table sharing jokes and enjoying each other's company so early in their long journey, but here it was part of the routine. Mariah Henley was seated at a table with Jennifer Delaney. The two women were discussing what had happened recently when B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim entered to get their own lunch. Jenny waved the two over to the table and they filled the last two available seats.
The conversation at the table was light and easy. They informed each other of what was happening in their respective departments. Henley was telling them about what was happening in the navigational department when Tom walked into the mess hall. He glanced around and gave a friendly nod to Neelix before moving to the replicator to get his meal. He took a seat at a small table alone, aware of the glances in his direction but ignoring them for the time being.
"A bit of a loner," Henley stated referring to Tom.
"So?" B'Elanna challenged coming to Tom's defence.
Hearing the edge in B'Elanna's voice Henley responded, "It's just an observation. Somehow he gets dragged out here and survives and then for no gain of his own he frees us. I'm wondering what his angle is and what he's up to."
"I don't know what his 'angle' is but I don't think he's planning anything," Harry said.
"Other than leaving," Jenny appended sadly. Tom had saved her from a group of Kazon who would have done God-knows-what to her.
"If he leaves that's his own prerogative," B'Elanna shrugged. It was Tom's choice but she would miss him, as would the few people who felt owed him. He had lost almost everything he had to help them. Granted, they didn't know much about him but from first impressions, Tom was someone they would like to get to know better but probably wouldn't get the chance.
"I think Mr. Corrin is hiding something," Henley said and glanced over to where Tom was sitting but he was gone. "Where the-"
"Corrin?" B'Elanna questioned. The name was familiar but she couldn't recall where she had heard it before.
"His name is Tom Corrin?" Jenny repeated. "I think you're mistaken."
"Captain Janeway called him Mr. Corrin on the bridge this morning and he responded," Henley said. B'Elanna looked at Harry who was deep in thought. The name Corrin was familiar to him as well. Oblivious to the inattentiveness of the chief engineer and head of operations Mariah and Jenny continued the conversation.
"Corrin is a Fieran name. The royal Families name actually." Jenny, being in the stellar cartography division, was well versed in the different world and species of the Federation and surrounding areas.
"Fieran? Are they part of the Federation?" Harry inquired.
"Not exactly. An alliance was made between the Fieran Empire and the Federation by king…King….Reigh, I think it was. It only happened recently because of all the conflict in the Alpha Quadrant," Jenny explained.
A few minutes later Harry and B'Elanna left the mess hall and headed to main engineering. There was still some work to be done and Harry had been temporarily reassigned to engineering to help out. They were silent most of the way there trying to figure out where the name Corrin was familiar from. While Jenny wasn't B'Elanna's favourite person on the ship the information she had just given them might be useful in figuring out Tom before he left the ship. Suddenly she remembered where she had heard the name before.
"Harry, the Mercury. That's where we've heard 'Corrin'," B'Elanna said.
"Do you think he's really Fieran?" Harry asked.
"We'll have to ask him."
((=/\=))
His arrival in the quadrant had not been an easy one. The displacement wave battered the already weak ship and further injured the single occupant. Tom had been on his ship, Mercury, investigating the disappearance of his friend and colleague Sobey in the badlands when the ship was scanned and brought to the Delta Quadrant. Tom had lost consciousness due to the severe injuries he sustained during the trip and had no recollection of being on the array. He was beamed back to his ship in almost the same condition. Mercury drifted slowly away from the array and was discovered by a Talaxian freighter. In hopes of salvaging the parts of the ship, Mercury was towed by the freighter to the nearest port. The composition of Mercury's hull was impermeable to the Talaxian sensors and they were unaware that the ship had a resident.
The Talaxians made several attempts to gain access to the shuttle but it was locked down and could not be opened from the outside. Even their weapons didn't harm the ship. They had nearly given up when an unconscious form materialised in front of them. Not knowing what else to do they helped the stranger as much as they could but couldn't do much since they had never encountered the species before. Their stranger awoke a few hours later.
Tom awoke to find two odd looking beings with whiskers and spots on the sides of their head looking down at him. He later discovered that these people were called Talaxians. He had left their infirmary immediately and returned to his ship. He had no trouble getting in and tended to the rest of his injuries as best he could. The next time he left his ship to go to the space port he was reminded in a rude manner by the freighter Captain that he owed them for saving his life.
Actually it was his ship that had saved his life. Mercury's computer had almost been sentient before the displacement wave hit them. Unfortunately the damage to the ship's computer was extensive and much of the memory was corrupted and Mercury's sentience was lost. Mercury's last act under his own free will had been beaming Tom to the spaceport to get medical attention.
And so over twenty days after his arrival in the Delta Quadrant Tom found himself here. Warnings illuminated the console but for the moment he ignored them. Tapping a few more keys in succession the rumbling ceased and engine control was restored. The sleek vessel made it past the edge of the ion storm and into regular space. Not taking to the time to sigh in relief he attended to his damaged ship. The main computer core was badly damaged and coolant was leaking into the air.
"Damn this quadrant," Tom grunted as he tried to dislodge a fused relay.
'Damage to- [static]- sec….secondary…' the male voice of the computer tried to warn but the message was barely intelligible.
"….secondary command processors, I know," He grumbled to the computer. It would take him several hours to repair all the damage to his ship. He headed to the cargo hold to make sure his merchandise was still intact. Sliding easily down the rails of the ladder he dropped to the second deck. He stepped over conduits and wires where he had been forced to rewire the ships system just to keep the engines humming and life support online.
He pressed the release for the doors to open but nothing happened. Sighing he forced the door open and was pleased to find that his cargo made it through the ion storm unharmed. "Cargo," he scoffed, "more like garbage." Turning he left the room, for the moment not caring that the door didn't close behind him when he pressed the button. It was just one more thing that was falling apart on this once top off-the-line ship.
A few hours later the ship made it back to the Talaxian spaceport. Tom docked the ship and took a moment to check his own injuries before leaving. Cuts and bruises, nothing he couldn't take care of later. Wiping away some of the blood that was trickling into his eye from the gash on the left side of his forehead he opened the air lock.
"You're late!" A stocky little Talaxian tried to march into the Tom's ship but was stopped before his foot could touch the metal of the floor. With a firm grip of the little man's collar Tom pressed him against the wall.
"And you're annoying! If you ever try to walk onto my ship without permission I'll make sure you never walk again. Understood?"
The Talaxian nodded once after a moment of contemplation. He wasn't afraid of the tall human, but he should be. If one second Tom decided he really didn't like the talaxian freighter Captain, Tom could have him lying dead on the floor in by the end of the next second. The Talaxian didn't know this however and proceeded to treat Tom like the dirt on the bottom of his shoes.
"My merchandise?"
"Your garbage is still in the millions of pieces I received them in," Tom told him.
"I'm not paying you for snide comments Mr. Paris. I saved your life after all."
"And to this moment I regret it," Tom mumbled.
The entrance slid opened after he gave the voice command and Tom walked into his ship with an armful of gear and small devices. He had used his payment to buy these. He would need them if his plan was going to work. The people who had seen him walking back to his ship carrying the items only laughed and ridiculed him. He added the new items to the pile and looked at his collection. To most people it looked like a pile of junk but with these Tom could create what he needed to help another group of people foreign to this quadrant.
During his first hours of consciousness in the Delta Quadrant he had heard from the freighter Captain about how he and other strangers had been brought to this quadrant by the Caretaker. He was also informed about two ships like his, but larger, which had been seen going to and leaving the Ocampan home-world. They told him that the smaller of the two ships had been destroyed and the crew was serving on Voyager along with its crew. Voyager however, was being commanded by the Kazon.
From what Tom had been told he managed to piece together what had happened. Tom had heard of Voyager before and knew it was a Starfleet ship under the command of Kathryn Janeway. They had been brought to this quadrant by the Caretaker and tested for compatibility just as he supposedly was. They went to the Ocampan home-world to retrieve some of their crewmembers who had been sent there. While they were away Tom arrived in the Delta quadrant but had been towed away by the freighter before Voyager returned.
Voyager then went back to the array to look for a way home but due to the circumstances was forced to destroy the array. During the battle with the Kazon who had claimed the array as their property, Voyager had been badly damaged and somehow the Liberty was destroyed. For whatever reason Captain Janeway could not initiate the self-destruct sequence and Voyager had been annexed by the Kazon.
It had been nearly a month since all this had occurred. Tom may have been able to help them evade the Kazon had he been with them. He was a phenomenal pilot, among other things, and his ship was armed with some of the most advance weaponry and shielding in the Alpha Quadrant but he had been unconscious for the first two days of his arrival. Hoping to help the crews of the Liberty and Voyager Tom had scouted the area where the Kazon had made their base. It was a small M-class planet with a population of a few thousand Kazon. Tom hadn't been equipped at the time to mount a rescue –his ship had barely been running –so he went back to the Talaxian port and for the last month he had been working to pay for the parts he needed to repair his ship and attempt to get Voyager and her new crew away from the Kazon.
Seated on the floor of his ship he assembled the devices he would need to get Voyager. Scattered around him were little pieces of metal wire and little contraptions, which on their own were useless but properly assembled could be used to create havoc and confusion.
"Shit!" he cried as one of the gadgets gave him a sizeable shock. He put it on the floor and rubbed his eyes. He was tired. He hadn't been sleeping much lately. He needed to sleep he knew that but he couldn't afford to waste time. His routine for the past twenty-some days had been: work, take a stimulant, work, scout the Kazon base, take another stimulant and work some more. He only slept when he absolutely had to and even then it had been limited to a few short hours.
He needed to get Voyager but it was a lot for one person to do. He had asked for help from the Talaxians but they had been reluctant. Voyager was an advanced ship to them and the Kazon were an unfriendly bunch. They already knew of one of their own colleagues who had been captured while helping the Voyagers and the rest had no desire to share in their comrade's fate.
"Em, are you there?" Tom called out.
The crackled response came 'Hello…-unable to… please repeat….'
Tom sighed the computer was still on the fritz. 'M', short for Mercury, was what Tom had named the computer system. When he had first acquired this vessel he noticed the advanced system that was installed and decided to make the most of it. He created a small interactive program that could acquire and use information; it could learn. The program wasn't perfect but over the years it improved and Tom improved on the programming until Em became like a person inside his computer, with his own 'logical' opinions to give whether Tom asked for them or not.
Em had been a companion for Tom during his long and fairly boring missions. The program had exceeded Tom's expectations but in one foul swoop it had all been taken away leaving only the elementary pieces of the original voice command programming.
"I need to get you up an running." Tom said. He planned on going after Voyager in two days but he need his ship in working order –his main priorities were the cloaking device and the main computer, all other important systems were in acceptable condition. He had already waited too long to go after them. The Kazon didn't seem like the most welcoming of host –the longer they were with the Kazon the less likely their chances of survival were.
They walked through the corridors aware of the disrupter aimed at their backs. Whether they were Starfleet or Maquis they were all treated the same way. The group of six Starfleet officers and crewmen and four Maquis were escorted back to their holding cell in the cargo bay of the ship.
The three cargo bays had been converted into barracks for the crew to live in. The routine was mundane. They slept during their few hours of peace, woke up and were sent to work repairing the damage to the ship or working in the mines to get the materials Voyager needed. If they were lucky they were given something to eat twice a day. All the while the Kazon watched their every move.
Captain Janeway watched the group walk in and looked each one of them over for any injuries. The Kazon had a bad habit of harming those who didn't immediately follow the orders given to them. They group that entered were in good condition and she allowed her a moment of relief. They were rarely allowed to go to sickbay unless it was a life threatening injury and even then the treatment the holographic Doctor was allowed to administer to them was minimal. Three people had already succumb to their injuries and one Maquis crewman who had attacked a Kazon was killed, Lon Suder.
Spirits were down as they had yet to find a way of freeing themselves. A few Kazon factions had joined together and they outnumber the Voyager crew twenty to one.
Janeway walked to the back corner and rejoined the group consisting of Lieutenant Tuvok, Ensign Harry Kim, Chakotay and B'Elanna Torres. They had distinguished themselves as leaders during this ordeal and they were her 'senior staff' even though they had no ship to command.
"They're alright,' Janeway said.
"We've got to find a way to beat them," Torres practically snarled. Her volatile nature had gotten her in trouble a few times but it had saved her and others in other instances.
"There are just too many of them," Harry Kim said.
"It's been nearly a month. Our time's running out," Chakotay warned. "They're learning how the ship works. They won't need us to keep it running much longer."
"You're right. Repairs are almost complete." Janeway looked around at the crew. They were all weak and tired. The Kazon may not be the most intelligent people in the quadrant but they new how to keep a group down. Not enough food, not enough rest and too much work could break anybody's spirits. Not how Janeway expected her first command to turn out.
The doors to the Cargo bay slid open and Seska walked in. The Bajoran woman went straight to Chakotay once she spotted him. She was unharmed and of the entire crew she had adapted the best to their captivity. Tuvok suspected that she had been giving the Kazon extra information and thus they treated her better, but he could not prove his theory.
"I think they're about ready to kill us off," she said in a hushed tone. The other crewmembers didn't need to hear this.
"Are you sure?" Janeway asked.
Seska nodded. "I heard some of the Majs discussing what should be done with us and none of the suggestions sounded very pleasing." There was silence for a few moments as their minds conjured up images of what could be done to them: sold as slaves, executed, left on some god-forsaken planet… "We should try and make an alliance with them," Seska suggested. They all looked at her in surprise. An alliance with these brutes?
"You can't be serious," B'Elanna said to her friend.
"What other choice do we have?"
Tom piloted Mercury in a low orbit. Voyager was landed on the planets surface but was restrained by clamps that Tom would have to weaken or destroy for Voyager to be able to take off. It was nighttime on the side of the planet where Voyager was located and with Mercury cloaked it would be impossible for the Kazon find it. Hopefully the cloaking device would continue to work. Basically, Mercury was being held together with spit and optimism.
A few hours later they were all trying to get some precious sleep when the doors slid open. A few Kazon males stood in the doorway and looked around. The bright light from the hallway woke up a few crewmembers.
They stood in the doorway and spoke to each other in low voices before moving towards a young human woman who was still asleep. "This one will do," one of them said and he grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet. The woman woke and after seeing what was happening she began to struggle. Other crewmembers got up and tried to stop them from taking her away but their efforts were in vain. The disruptors easily subdued those who tried to help the young woman. By the time the Kazon had left with the woman, everybody in the cargo bay was awake and for the rest of the night that was how they stayed.
Never before had only one person been removed from the barrack during the night. She hadn't been taken to go work on repairs. The Kazon hoped she would provide them with other services. With the plight facing the woman nobody could sleep as uninvited images of what they could be doing to her surfaced in their minds and any one of them might be next.
She struggled and fought her captors as panic flowed through her. The group of burly Kazon only laughed and continued to drag her into some empty quarters. "Let me go!" she screamed. One Kazon backhanded her and she fell to the ground crying.
The doors to the quarters unexpectedly slid open and a tall man with a slender build stood in the entrance. "That's no way to treat a lady," he said. The Kazon didn't waste anytime asking who he was. He was not one of them and therefore he was their enemy.
The woman cowered in the corner and huddled into a ball hoping that she wouldn't be hurt. She heard the blows land and the grunts from the Kazon. Had they killed the man? What were they going to do to her? Finally the sounds stopped. She didn't move from her position. Soft steps came closer to her until they stopped and she could feel his presence near her.
Gently he placed a hand on her shoulder but removed it when she flinched.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he assured her in a soft voice.
Pulling her hands away from her face and opening her eyes she saw the man dressed in dark clothing crouched in front of her. She moved away from him. "Who are you?" she asked in a small voice. Over his eyes was a visor made of translucent polymer but it was too dark for her to see his eyes through.
Tom showed her his hands to indicate he didn't have any weapons and reached up to remove the headgear he wore. The hard material of the headgear went around his head and on it had transmitters and an uplink to his computer. The front had a visor that covered his eye and the right side had an earpiece that allowed him to hear transmission and a microphone so that he could communicate without having to hold anything.
"You're human."
"I need your help," he told her. He stood and offered her a hand to help her up.
"Who are you? How did you escape?" she asked her questions rapidly but Tom couldn't take the time to answer. He took out and strange looking piece of equipment and handed it to her.
"Take this with you back to the cargo bay and place it on the wall next to the control panel that opens the doors. Once it's securely mounted don't touch it again or you'll get a nasty shock. Do you understand?" She nodded her head vigorously. "Go to your Captain and tell her to get the crew ready." Tom pulled out a standard phaser. She took a step back. He held it out to her. "You'll need this."
Carefully she took the phaser from him. They went to the exit stepping over the unconscious Kazon men. After he checked that the area was clear they stepped out of the room. Tom put on the headgear and went left. To get to the cargo bays the woman had to go right. The blonde man left without a look back and she watched him go for a few seconds until she realised she too should be on her way.
"Jenny, are you alright?" Meagan, her twin sister asked her when she walked in. She didn't have any marks on her and she seemed all right if a little perturbed.
"I'm fine," she looked around for the Captain and saw the older woman coming towards her to see if she was all right. "Captain, there's a man loose on the ship. I think he's going to try and free us," she said quickly.
"Who?" The Captain inquired as to the man's identity.
"I don't know. I didn't recognize him."
"What did he look like?" Janeway asked the flustered officer.
"He was….about this tall," she raised her hand to a height a few centimetres taller than Tuvok, "and he had blonde hair and blue eyes."
"Was he human?" Ensign Kim asked. Jenny nodded the affirmative.
"Somebody you know?" Janeway asked Harry but he shook his head. "Does anybody know who this person could be?" Nobody spoke up. There were no blue-eyed blondes of that height on board.
End Part 3