Safekeeper (part 3)
Disclaimer: See part two.
The Captain was about to hail the Kaay when someone walked on the bridge. He didn't know who it was, he had seen him once in sickbay. But he wasn't suppose to be the bridge. "Who are you? What are you doing on my bridge?"
"The name's Tomas Paris. I, uh, I wanted to say say something to Janeway."
"Why? Do you work with her?"
"No way. I spoke her only once before and I wasn't happy about it."
"You can't speak to her."
"Then leave her a message, say, 'Remember what the last time you spoke with Tomas Paris.' or something to that effect."
"What was the last thing you spoke to her about?"
"Something I knew and she didn't want me to tell anyone."
"Which is."
"She threaten to kill me if I told. You think I'm going to tell you when her ship is right next to ours?"
"You think I'm going to blindly pass on a message to her and have no idea what it means?"
Tomas shook his head, "Fine, I'll tell you this. It might make her agree to work with you."
The Captain raised an eyebrow. "I'll think about it."
Tomas nodded and left.
"And never walk on my bridge without permission again or you'll find yourself walking to the brig," the Captain added. When Tomas left, the Captain touched the comm link on his chair. "Zimmerman to the bridge."
When Zimmerman walked on the bridge the Captain asked, "What do you know about Tomas Paris."
"Everything? Good thing there's not much. I know he travels from place to place, whether it's a planet or ship or station or, well you get the point. That's why he was Voyager. He is-"
"What's his relationship with Janeway."
"I know he knows something she doesn't want anyone else to know."
"Which is?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
The Captain nodded, "He wants to relay a message to Janeway. Something that the two last spoke about and it may convince her to work with us. Your opinion?"
Zimmerman frowned, he wondered what it was that he knew. After a thoughtful pause, he spoke, "He wants to get home. Since you and her working together could make going home fastest, he wants you two to work together. I don't think he has anything else planned."
The Captain nodded, "Hail the Kaay."
The channel opened, Kathryn was there standing, "What?"
"Someone on my ship wanted me to relay a message to you. He says it'll help convince you to work with us."
"A message that's suppose to convince me to work with you? Intriguing."
"Yes. I don't know how." The Captain watched her to see her reaction.
She frowned and looked to a person a little behind her, (a Vulcan) then she shrugged and said, "I might as well hear it but I don't think it'll do any good."
The Captain continued, "Someone by the name of Tomas Paris (she looked surprised by the name) wanted you remember the last thing you spoke to him about."
Kathryn averted her eyes and seemed to be trying to figure out what it meant. Then she frowned, then she widened her eyes slightly with surprise and then smiled. Whatever that message meant, she got it. The Vulcan looked confused, he obviously didn't understand it. Another human female, this one with blonde hair, nodded slightly to herself, also seeming to understand.
"You get the message." The Captain said hoping relaying it wasn't a mistake.
Kathryn seemed less stern now, "Yes I do. It may work. I shall talk to my crew first."
The screen went blank and was replaced with the visual of the Array, the Kaay, and many stars.
The Captain shook his head, "That's exactly what she said before. It didn't work."
Kathryn turned to her crew, "It worked."
"What? How?" Tuvok said.
"I thought it would," Annika said.
The rest of the crew looked about as confused as Tuvok.
Kathryn explained (mostly to Tuvok), "It's not about what we were talking about it's about who we were talking about."
"Who?" Tuvok asked.
"Harry Kim," Kathryn said, "He's in Starfleet, a recent graduate from the Academy. But he's also a Maquis spy." Then she softly added, "And a friend. He gives us all of the Starfleet secrets he could find. He's the one who told us that B'Elanna was a spy." She paused, "He must have been assigned to Voyager. He's probably the officer Voyager's missing."
"We missed his first assignment," Annika added, sounding disappointed.
Kathryn nodded, "He probably requested it to help find us. He must have been worried."
By now most of the bridge crew knew what they were talking about. Most had knew about Harry. Some didn't care about him. Some respected him. Tuvok hadn't known because he was fairly new to the Kaay.
Tuvok nodded then added, "How does this Paris know about him."
"We don't know for sure. But he's not a problem. When Harry realized Paris knew he was Maquis, Harry told me. I grabbed and phaser and paid Paris a little visit."
"So we'll give our answer?' Annika asked.
"Yes." Kathryn answered as she walked to her chair.
"You do realize, captain" Tuvok said, "When we rescue them, B'Elanna will tell the Captain that we knew she was Starfleet. Then it'll look like we volunteered to help two Starfleet and no Maquis. It won't take long for the holocaptain to figure out the true person we were helping."
Kathryn nodded, "I thought of that. But there's more of a chance they, though I only care about the one, don't get rescued if we don't help. I am not taking that chance."
B'Elanna was sitting on her bed. Sdar and Kes and given her and Harry a brief tour of the place. It was indeed underground, it was also beautiful; colorful. They were what could be compared to as the town square. The major things like this hospital, a huge store, the school, or the temple were rooms built with the structure. But in the center their had been individual people selling things from jewelry to food to paintings.
The Safekeeper had not yet told them what she wanted. But both Harry and B'Elanna had a suspicion of what it was.
Harry was sitting on his own bed looking at something that looked like a book, Sdar had given it to him.
"What it that anyway?" B'Elanna asked.
"From what I can tell, a children's book that names different things." He didn't look up.
"They seem to be teaching us about themselves. I don't like the sound of that."
"Neither do I." He turned a page.
"Voyager will rescue us," B'Elanna assured. "But certainly not the Kaay."
Harry looked up. "I guess not." Though he knew if Kathryn found out he was kidnapped as well, she would help. He frowned slightly, thinking then shook his head, and changed the subject. "So what it your job? Besides being a spy."
"I cook."
"So your a professional cook? Learned from Starfleet?"
"Yes. What is your job?"
"Me? Oh, I-"
There was a knock at the door.
B'Elanna turned towards it, "Uh, come in?"
The Safekeeper (Sh'ku) walked in. "I think it is time to tell you what it is I ask of you." She paused, "As you know, I will die soon. When I die I need someone to take my place and take care of the Ocampa. (Neither Harry nor B'Elanna liked where this was going.) I have looked a replacement for some time. I chose the two of you."
"Why us?" B'Elanna asked.
"It's complicated. There are many reasons. The most important one is I want the replacement, whether being one person or many, to be able to replace me."
"Do the Ocampa know you're dying?" Harry asked.
"Only the top leaders."
"Once we make our decision, will you send back the Kaay and Voyager?"
"I can't there's not enough time to do it. I can't get anyone else either, you are my last hope."
"I never liked pressure," Harry mumbled. Then an idea came, "If we say yes. Could we learn how to do it and send them home."
"Yes. If you say yes I'll teach you everything you need to know and that would be one of the things."
"We need to talk about this," B'Elanna said.
Sh'ku nodded and left. As soon as she did, B'Elanna said, "I really don't want to replace her."
"Neither do I but..."
"Voyager can't go home if we say no."
Harry nodded. He added, nor the Kaay, in his head.
"I wish we could talk to Voyager," B'Elanna said. "Sh'ku should let us."
The Captain sat in his chair when his ops officer reported the Kaay was hailing them.
"On screen."
Kathryn was in her usual place. "We have discussed it. We have decided we will work with you."
The Captain was surprised. Also, more curious what Paris knew. He nodded, "Ok."
Kathryn continued, "We will beam aboard you ship. Prepare you transporter person."
The screen went blank and was again replaced with the same picture of the Array, the Kaay, and the stars.
The Captain tapped the comm on his chair, "Transporter Room prepare to receive people from the Kaay."
"Aye sir."
The Captain got up and went to the Transporter Room. When he got there Kathryn, the Vulcan, the blonde, and someone he had never seen before were already there. Each had a phaser. The Captain greeted them, "Welcome to Voyager."
Kathryn nodded, then said, "This is Tuvok my first officer (the Vulcan waved), Annika Hannsen, my new Chief of Security (the blonde nodded), and George Q'tal (the last man mumbled something about not having an official job)."
The Captain nodded, "I don't have a name and no one's here to introduce to."
"All the senior officers dead, huh?"
"Something like that."
"We need to get to work right away," Kathryn said, "We should go to the planet Ocampan. Also we should talk to this Neelix person and see if he knows anything else."
The Captain nodded then he started walking to the bridge, the Maquis followed. When they got to the bridge The Captain said, "I think hailing Neelix would be the best thing to do next."
Kathryn nodded, then she turned to a certain man on the bridge, "Zimmerman, it's been awhile. Now last time we spoke I said...now what was it I said." She pretended to be remembering.
"Please," Louis said, "Don't kill me."
"Give me one reason." Her eyes filled with angry.
The Captain spoke, "You will not kill him."
"I helped them," Louis said, "because I was worried about all my friends on the Kaay."
"Did Paris tell you to say that? I'm not buying it." Kathryn pulled out her phaser.
The Captain snapped, "Respect him as you would want me to respect someone of your crew."
"Oh great!" Louis said, "Now she'll just wait until we get home and I leave the ship."
"Why should I even do that?"
"He did convince me to tell you the message," the Captain said.
Kathryn looked at him in surprise. Then turned back to Louis, "You did? Why didn't you tell me before, you can live now. But be careful."
"You won't kill me?"
"No, uh, did Paris tell you what the message meant?"
"No."
"Good. I didn't think he would but I had to check." Then she turned to the Captain, "I suggest you hail Neelix."
The Captain was glad that was settled, "Ops, hail Neelix." He and Kathryn moved to the front center of the room.
"Ah, you again. I see you got your crew back." Neelix responded.
"He did," Kathryn said, "But I'm a captain from another crew."
"Are you nameless like he is?"
"No, my name is Kathryn Janeway."
"Good to meet you. I'm Neelix, if you didn't already know that. So I assume you want more information."
"Where can we find this Safekeeper and talk to him?" the Captain asked.
"I'm not sure, you'd have to ask the Ocampa that. But their is no way to get to them. They live underground and you can't get there."
"We'll find a way," the Captain said wondering if they could transport there. "Could you help us."
"I don't know."
"You helped us a lot and I think we'll need you again. Maybe if you could come aboard this ship-"
"I am very busy Captain. Unless you have something to offer me in return..."
"We could think of something, water, food, supplies, I'm sure we can come to an agreement," Janeway said.
"Terrific!" Neelix said, "That sounds great."
"Good," the Captain said, "We can bring your ship in our Shuttle bay and beam you over."
"Beam?"
"Oh, uh, we have equipment that will bring you directly on our ship."
"Most interesting," Neelix said, "I will wait to be beamed."
The screen went blank. This time replaced with Neelix's ship.
"Who shall greet him?" Kathryn asked.
Neelix stood still in his ship, suddenly things started turning blue and disappeared. He felt a tingling which he hoped was supposed to be part of 'beaming'. The blue started to fade and Neelix saw a room. the room became more real as the blue left. When he was done he saw three people. One behind a council who probably beamed him. The other two were there to greet him.
"Welcome to Voyager," said the one who called himself 'the Captain.'
"I got that greeting a few minutes ago," said the one who had told him her name was 'Kathryn Janeway'.
Neelix smiled, "Voyager has advance technology." He turned to Kathryn, "Are you from the ship near Voyager. The one about half it's size."
"Yes, it's name is Kaay."
"Kaay...Voyager...Kathryn Janeway...you have unusual names. No offense."
"None taken."
Neelix moved off the transport and looked around, "You two are from two different ships, yet you are the same race, or it seems. You are now on the same ship. Are you friends?"
"No," both responded quickly.
"And we are not quite the same race," Kathryn added.
"What are you?" Neelix asked, "If you don't mind me asking. I'm Talaxian."
"Human." Janeway said.
"Hologram." said the captain, Neelix was going to figure out anyway.
"I never heard of either of those. You must be from a far part of the galaxy."
"I have assigned quarters to you," the Captain said. "I thought you would go there first."
They left the room. A woman was standing by the door. The Captain pointed to her, "Lieutenant Elshim here will escort you to your quarters."
Elshim nodded, "Follow me." She turned and left. Neelix followed. As they left both the Captain and Kathryn heard Neelix saying, "So are you human or hologram?"
Voyager and the Kaay reached Ocampan. Neelix had informed them that the Safekeeper had spent a lot of his or her time there so they both went. When they arrived they saw simply beaming below the surface wouldn't be easy. The planet was being protected by a type of shield. While they tried to finds weakness in the shield they could beam through they decided to also assemble an away team and go to the surface.
Kathryn quickly picked who of the Maquis would go, her and Annika. Tuvok would stay on the Kaay. The Captain couldn't go himself so he to rely completely on Lit. Com. Pearl Forrest, who if she did a good job may become the new 1st officer; Lieutenant Alex Kindle, a security officer; Neelix; and the Maquis. He just barely knew all of them. At times the Captain wished he had been made so he could leave the ship.
Kathryn beamed down and quickly saw it was all desert. One thing interested her. It seemed to be buildings.
"It is buildings," Pearl confirmed, "Also the tricorder is detecting 24 people."
"They are of no help," Neelix said quickly, "They don't know how to get under the surface either and they are not very kind to deal with."
"Who are they?" Kathryn asked.
"Kazon."
"A few are approaching us," Pearl said.
Kathryn turned and saw three Kazon approaching. One was in front of the others. "Who are you?" the head one demanded.
"We're looking for the Ocampa."
"They live underground and no we don't know how to get there so don't bother asking."
"What can you tell us about the Ocampa or the Safekeeper."
"Ocampa only live nine years. They're worthless. The Safekeeper takes care of them. Personally I don't know why he bothers."
"Anything else?"
"You are as annoying as he," the Kazon pointed to Neelix, "They live underground and never come out. The Safekeeper gives them everything they need, water, food, supplies, everything."
"It sounds like you don't like the Ocampa."
"I hate anyone who gets everything for free."
"Do you know why the Safekeeper would kidnap people."
"How would I know?!"
"Ok," Kathryn left seeing they couldn't help her. "Do you detect anything else?" She asked Pearl.
"No."
They returned to the ships.
Harry and B'Elanna were thinking what to do.
"What if only one of us stay," B'Elanna suggested, "Then the other could go."
"Who gets to go?"
"We could flip a coin."
"My future will not be decided on a coin."
"Any random selection will do."
"My future will not be picked on random selection." He said, "We could try to escape and contact Voyager."
"Just leave them?"
"I'm sure he could just recapture us if he wanted. I don't mean that. Just I think the Captain should know what's going on."
"The Captain, doesn't he or she have a name?"
"No, he's a hologram."
"A hologram!? We have a hologram for a captain?"
"Not so bad, if he had more of a personality of Chakotay. Which he doesn't."
"Who?"
"His creator."
"Oh. You know that running away thing isn't such a bad idea. But we should ask Sh'ku if we can talk to Voyager again."
They left the room and and found Kes.
"Excuse me," B'Elanna said," We need to speak to the Safekeeper."
"Oh, I just receive the news, I was on my way to tell you."
"Tell us what?" Harry asked.
"Follow me," Kes went into a private room, "I didn't want to upset the others. Safekeeper died."
to be continued...
Disclaimer: See part two.
The Captain was about to hail the Kaay when someone walked on the bridge. He didn't know who it was, he had seen him once in sickbay. But he wasn't suppose to be the bridge. "Who are you? What are you doing on my bridge?"
"The name's Tomas Paris. I, uh, I wanted to say say something to Janeway."
"Why? Do you work with her?"
"No way. I spoke her only once before and I wasn't happy about it."
"You can't speak to her."
"Then leave her a message, say, 'Remember what the last time you spoke with Tomas Paris.' or something to that effect."
"What was the last thing you spoke to her about?"
"Something I knew and she didn't want me to tell anyone."
"Which is."
"She threaten to kill me if I told. You think I'm going to tell you when her ship is right next to ours?"
"You think I'm going to blindly pass on a message to her and have no idea what it means?"
Tomas shook his head, "Fine, I'll tell you this. It might make her agree to work with you."
The Captain raised an eyebrow. "I'll think about it."
Tomas nodded and left.
"And never walk on my bridge without permission again or you'll find yourself walking to the brig," the Captain added. When Tomas left, the Captain touched the comm link on his chair. "Zimmerman to the bridge."
When Zimmerman walked on the bridge the Captain asked, "What do you know about Tomas Paris."
"Everything? Good thing there's not much. I know he travels from place to place, whether it's a planet or ship or station or, well you get the point. That's why he was Voyager. He is-"
"What's his relationship with Janeway."
"I know he knows something she doesn't want anyone else to know."
"Which is?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
The Captain nodded, "He wants to relay a message to Janeway. Something that the two last spoke about and it may convince her to work with us. Your opinion?"
Zimmerman frowned, he wondered what it was that he knew. After a thoughtful pause, he spoke, "He wants to get home. Since you and her working together could make going home fastest, he wants you two to work together. I don't think he has anything else planned."
The Captain nodded, "Hail the Kaay."
The channel opened, Kathryn was there standing, "What?"
"Someone on my ship wanted me to relay a message to you. He says it'll help convince you to work with us."
"A message that's suppose to convince me to work with you? Intriguing."
"Yes. I don't know how." The Captain watched her to see her reaction.
She frowned and looked to a person a little behind her, (a Vulcan) then she shrugged and said, "I might as well hear it but I don't think it'll do any good."
The Captain continued, "Someone by the name of Tomas Paris (she looked surprised by the name) wanted you remember the last thing you spoke to him about."
Kathryn averted her eyes and seemed to be trying to figure out what it meant. Then she frowned, then she widened her eyes slightly with surprise and then smiled. Whatever that message meant, she got it. The Vulcan looked confused, he obviously didn't understand it. Another human female, this one with blonde hair, nodded slightly to herself, also seeming to understand.
"You get the message." The Captain said hoping relaying it wasn't a mistake.
Kathryn seemed less stern now, "Yes I do. It may work. I shall talk to my crew first."
The screen went blank and was replaced with the visual of the Array, the Kaay, and many stars.
The Captain shook his head, "That's exactly what she said before. It didn't work."
Kathryn turned to her crew, "It worked."
"What? How?" Tuvok said.
"I thought it would," Annika said.
The rest of the crew looked about as confused as Tuvok.
Kathryn explained (mostly to Tuvok), "It's not about what we were talking about it's about who we were talking about."
"Who?" Tuvok asked.
"Harry Kim," Kathryn said, "He's in Starfleet, a recent graduate from the Academy. But he's also a Maquis spy." Then she softly added, "And a friend. He gives us all of the Starfleet secrets he could find. He's the one who told us that B'Elanna was a spy." She paused, "He must have been assigned to Voyager. He's probably the officer Voyager's missing."
"We missed his first assignment," Annika added, sounding disappointed.
Kathryn nodded, "He probably requested it to help find us. He must have been worried."
By now most of the bridge crew knew what they were talking about. Most had knew about Harry. Some didn't care about him. Some respected him. Tuvok hadn't known because he was fairly new to the Kaay.
Tuvok nodded then added, "How does this Paris know about him."
"We don't know for sure. But he's not a problem. When Harry realized Paris knew he was Maquis, Harry told me. I grabbed and phaser and paid Paris a little visit."
"So we'll give our answer?' Annika asked.
"Yes." Kathryn answered as she walked to her chair.
"You do realize, captain" Tuvok said, "When we rescue them, B'Elanna will tell the Captain that we knew she was Starfleet. Then it'll look like we volunteered to help two Starfleet and no Maquis. It won't take long for the holocaptain to figure out the true person we were helping."
Kathryn nodded, "I thought of that. But there's more of a chance they, though I only care about the one, don't get rescued if we don't help. I am not taking that chance."
B'Elanna was sitting on her bed. Sdar and Kes and given her and Harry a brief tour of the place. It was indeed underground, it was also beautiful; colorful. They were what could be compared to as the town square. The major things like this hospital, a huge store, the school, or the temple were rooms built with the structure. But in the center their had been individual people selling things from jewelry to food to paintings.
The Safekeeper had not yet told them what she wanted. But both Harry and B'Elanna had a suspicion of what it was.
Harry was sitting on his own bed looking at something that looked like a book, Sdar had given it to him.
"What it that anyway?" B'Elanna asked.
"From what I can tell, a children's book that names different things." He didn't look up.
"They seem to be teaching us about themselves. I don't like the sound of that."
"Neither do I." He turned a page.
"Voyager will rescue us," B'Elanna assured. "But certainly not the Kaay."
Harry looked up. "I guess not." Though he knew if Kathryn found out he was kidnapped as well, she would help. He frowned slightly, thinking then shook his head, and changed the subject. "So what it your job? Besides being a spy."
"I cook."
"So your a professional cook? Learned from Starfleet?"
"Yes. What is your job?"
"Me? Oh, I-"
There was a knock at the door.
B'Elanna turned towards it, "Uh, come in?"
The Safekeeper (Sh'ku) walked in. "I think it is time to tell you what it is I ask of you." She paused, "As you know, I will die soon. When I die I need someone to take my place and take care of the Ocampa. (Neither Harry nor B'Elanna liked where this was going.) I have looked a replacement for some time. I chose the two of you."
"Why us?" B'Elanna asked.
"It's complicated. There are many reasons. The most important one is I want the replacement, whether being one person or many, to be able to replace me."
"Do the Ocampa know you're dying?" Harry asked.
"Only the top leaders."
"Once we make our decision, will you send back the Kaay and Voyager?"
"I can't there's not enough time to do it. I can't get anyone else either, you are my last hope."
"I never liked pressure," Harry mumbled. Then an idea came, "If we say yes. Could we learn how to do it and send them home."
"Yes. If you say yes I'll teach you everything you need to know and that would be one of the things."
"We need to talk about this," B'Elanna said.
Sh'ku nodded and left. As soon as she did, B'Elanna said, "I really don't want to replace her."
"Neither do I but..."
"Voyager can't go home if we say no."
Harry nodded. He added, nor the Kaay, in his head.
"I wish we could talk to Voyager," B'Elanna said. "Sh'ku should let us."
The Captain sat in his chair when his ops officer reported the Kaay was hailing them.
"On screen."
Kathryn was in her usual place. "We have discussed it. We have decided we will work with you."
The Captain was surprised. Also, more curious what Paris knew. He nodded, "Ok."
Kathryn continued, "We will beam aboard you ship. Prepare you transporter person."
The screen went blank and was again replaced with the same picture of the Array, the Kaay, and the stars.
The Captain tapped the comm on his chair, "Transporter Room prepare to receive people from the Kaay."
"Aye sir."
The Captain got up and went to the Transporter Room. When he got there Kathryn, the Vulcan, the blonde, and someone he had never seen before were already there. Each had a phaser. The Captain greeted them, "Welcome to Voyager."
Kathryn nodded, then said, "This is Tuvok my first officer (the Vulcan waved), Annika Hannsen, my new Chief of Security (the blonde nodded), and George Q'tal (the last man mumbled something about not having an official job)."
The Captain nodded, "I don't have a name and no one's here to introduce to."
"All the senior officers dead, huh?"
"Something like that."
"We need to get to work right away," Kathryn said, "We should go to the planet Ocampan. Also we should talk to this Neelix person and see if he knows anything else."
The Captain nodded then he started walking to the bridge, the Maquis followed. When they got to the bridge The Captain said, "I think hailing Neelix would be the best thing to do next."
Kathryn nodded, then she turned to a certain man on the bridge, "Zimmerman, it's been awhile. Now last time we spoke I said...now what was it I said." She pretended to be remembering.
"Please," Louis said, "Don't kill me."
"Give me one reason." Her eyes filled with angry.
The Captain spoke, "You will not kill him."
"I helped them," Louis said, "because I was worried about all my friends on the Kaay."
"Did Paris tell you to say that? I'm not buying it." Kathryn pulled out her phaser.
The Captain snapped, "Respect him as you would want me to respect someone of your crew."
"Oh great!" Louis said, "Now she'll just wait until we get home and I leave the ship."
"Why should I even do that?"
"He did convince me to tell you the message," the Captain said.
Kathryn looked at him in surprise. Then turned back to Louis, "You did? Why didn't you tell me before, you can live now. But be careful."
"You won't kill me?"
"No, uh, did Paris tell you what the message meant?"
"No."
"Good. I didn't think he would but I had to check." Then she turned to the Captain, "I suggest you hail Neelix."
The Captain was glad that was settled, "Ops, hail Neelix." He and Kathryn moved to the front center of the room.
"Ah, you again. I see you got your crew back." Neelix responded.
"He did," Kathryn said, "But I'm a captain from another crew."
"Are you nameless like he is?"
"No, my name is Kathryn Janeway."
"Good to meet you. I'm Neelix, if you didn't already know that. So I assume you want more information."
"Where can we find this Safekeeper and talk to him?" the Captain asked.
"I'm not sure, you'd have to ask the Ocampa that. But their is no way to get to them. They live underground and you can't get there."
"We'll find a way," the Captain said wondering if they could transport there. "Could you help us."
"I don't know."
"You helped us a lot and I think we'll need you again. Maybe if you could come aboard this ship-"
"I am very busy Captain. Unless you have something to offer me in return..."
"We could think of something, water, food, supplies, I'm sure we can come to an agreement," Janeway said.
"Terrific!" Neelix said, "That sounds great."
"Good," the Captain said, "We can bring your ship in our Shuttle bay and beam you over."
"Beam?"
"Oh, uh, we have equipment that will bring you directly on our ship."
"Most interesting," Neelix said, "I will wait to be beamed."
The screen went blank. This time replaced with Neelix's ship.
"Who shall greet him?" Kathryn asked.
Neelix stood still in his ship, suddenly things started turning blue and disappeared. He felt a tingling which he hoped was supposed to be part of 'beaming'. The blue started to fade and Neelix saw a room. the room became more real as the blue left. When he was done he saw three people. One behind a council who probably beamed him. The other two were there to greet him.
"Welcome to Voyager," said the one who called himself 'the Captain.'
"I got that greeting a few minutes ago," said the one who had told him her name was 'Kathryn Janeway'.
Neelix smiled, "Voyager has advance technology." He turned to Kathryn, "Are you from the ship near Voyager. The one about half it's size."
"Yes, it's name is Kaay."
"Kaay...Voyager...Kathryn Janeway...you have unusual names. No offense."
"None taken."
Neelix moved off the transport and looked around, "You two are from two different ships, yet you are the same race, or it seems. You are now on the same ship. Are you friends?"
"No," both responded quickly.
"And we are not quite the same race," Kathryn added.
"What are you?" Neelix asked, "If you don't mind me asking. I'm Talaxian."
"Human." Janeway said.
"Hologram." said the captain, Neelix was going to figure out anyway.
"I never heard of either of those. You must be from a far part of the galaxy."
"I have assigned quarters to you," the Captain said. "I thought you would go there first."
They left the room. A woman was standing by the door. The Captain pointed to her, "Lieutenant Elshim here will escort you to your quarters."
Elshim nodded, "Follow me." She turned and left. Neelix followed. As they left both the Captain and Kathryn heard Neelix saying, "So are you human or hologram?"
Voyager and the Kaay reached Ocampan. Neelix had informed them that the Safekeeper had spent a lot of his or her time there so they both went. When they arrived they saw simply beaming below the surface wouldn't be easy. The planet was being protected by a type of shield. While they tried to finds weakness in the shield they could beam through they decided to also assemble an away team and go to the surface.
Kathryn quickly picked who of the Maquis would go, her and Annika. Tuvok would stay on the Kaay. The Captain couldn't go himself so he to rely completely on Lit. Com. Pearl Forrest, who if she did a good job may become the new 1st officer; Lieutenant Alex Kindle, a security officer; Neelix; and the Maquis. He just barely knew all of them. At times the Captain wished he had been made so he could leave the ship.
Kathryn beamed down and quickly saw it was all desert. One thing interested her. It seemed to be buildings.
"It is buildings," Pearl confirmed, "Also the tricorder is detecting 24 people."
"They are of no help," Neelix said quickly, "They don't know how to get under the surface either and they are not very kind to deal with."
"Who are they?" Kathryn asked.
"Kazon."
"A few are approaching us," Pearl said.
Kathryn turned and saw three Kazon approaching. One was in front of the others. "Who are you?" the head one demanded.
"We're looking for the Ocampa."
"They live underground and no we don't know how to get there so don't bother asking."
"What can you tell us about the Ocampa or the Safekeeper."
"Ocampa only live nine years. They're worthless. The Safekeeper takes care of them. Personally I don't know why he bothers."
"Anything else?"
"You are as annoying as he," the Kazon pointed to Neelix, "They live underground and never come out. The Safekeeper gives them everything they need, water, food, supplies, everything."
"It sounds like you don't like the Ocampa."
"I hate anyone who gets everything for free."
"Do you know why the Safekeeper would kidnap people."
"How would I know?!"
"Ok," Kathryn left seeing they couldn't help her. "Do you detect anything else?" She asked Pearl.
"No."
They returned to the ships.
Harry and B'Elanna were thinking what to do.
"What if only one of us stay," B'Elanna suggested, "Then the other could go."
"Who gets to go?"
"We could flip a coin."
"My future will not be decided on a coin."
"Any random selection will do."
"My future will not be picked on random selection." He said, "We could try to escape and contact Voyager."
"Just leave them?"
"I'm sure he could just recapture us if he wanted. I don't mean that. Just I think the Captain should know what's going on."
"The Captain, doesn't he or she have a name?"
"No, he's a hologram."
"A hologram!? We have a hologram for a captain?"
"Not so bad, if he had more of a personality of Chakotay. Which he doesn't."
"Who?"
"His creator."
"Oh. You know that running away thing isn't such a bad idea. But we should ask Sh'ku if we can talk to Voyager again."
They left the room and and found Kes.
"Excuse me," B'Elanna said," We need to speak to the Safekeeper."
"Oh, I just receive the news, I was on my way to tell you."
"Tell us what?" Harry asked.
"Follow me," Kes went into a private room, "I didn't want to upset the others. Safekeeper died."
to be continued...