Disclaimer: Paramount owns the universe and all the regular characters, Leena, Radek and these specific events are mine.
4. Their story.
"We set out with the Stavos, a Galor Class Warship, well over a year ago. I was the First Officer, Leena here our Science officer. We were investigating the disappearance of a Cardassian freighter on the far side of the Cardassian empire. Although there are no enemy forces out that way, and the cargo was not especially important, we were instructed to take a look. When we reached the co-ordinates where the freighter had disappeared, we were scanned with some sort of coherent tetryon beam."
He noticed the Federation officers nodding. That was indeed what'd happened to them, too.
"We read a massive displacement wave approaching," he continued, "Gul Laret decided to head into it, to see who or what was behind it."
"That strategy would hardly seem advisable," Tuvok said.
Radek gave a short laugh. "We soon discovered how little 'advisable' it was. We must have hit something in the wave; the ship was ripped open from deck three down. Most of our crew did not survive."
*How many people?* Janeway thought. 500-600 crew complement if her information was correct. She remembered her own bridge as they were pulled over here, the dead, the damage... But her ship had been in one piece, and most of the crew had lived. Obviously, the Cardassians had been much less fortunate.
"We barely found out where we were, as we were transported off the ship, and taken to some experimental laboratory. We spent the next five days there, then were beamed back to our ship -all but one of us."
"He kept one of your crew as well?" Janeway asked.
Radek nodded. "Yes. Although we never met a 'him'. We did not see or speak to anyone." He looked at Janeway. "You did?"
Janeway nodded. "We spoke to the Caretaker, yes. We tried to get him to sent us back, and retrieve our crew members."
*'If this were a Cardassian ship, we would be home by now'* Chakotay heard Seska's voice in his mind. "You could not convince the Caretaker to return you to the Alpha quadrant?" he asked.
It was Leena who answered this time. "We tried." she said, "As soon as we got the transporters working, Gul Laret beamed down with our Security chief and the eleven crew members who'd been on deck two."
Her voice trailed off, and for once, even Radek stayed quiet.
"What happened?" Janeway asked softly.
"About fifteen minutes later, they were transported back to the ship. Whether it was intentional, or whether this 'Caretaker' never bothered to check if there was any air on the deck he sent them to, I don't know, but they materialised on deck four. By the time we could lock onto them with the transporter, it was too late."
Janeway shuddered at that. The Caretaker had been so concerned about the Ocampa, but quite careless about other races. Pulling aliens from all over the Galaxy, experimenting on them, leaving them stranded -she could see how he would just whisk a group of aliens to a ship without worrying about what'd happen once they got there. She wondered about the time, though. Apparently, Tuvok had been thinking along the same lines.
"From what we have heard, the Caretaker pulled ships to this place for several months, but you describe a much earlier occurrence," he said.
"We've never found out about anyone before us -we never even found traces of that freighter. But if this being took just as much care," Radek made no attempt to mask the contempt in his voice. "With the other ships he pulled over here, there might have been some that left no trace."
"Perhaps. Or the Caretaker was still trying to figure out a procedure. You said you were over there for five days, we were there for three. He might have taken time for evaluation and adjustments when he still had more time," Janeway mused. She wondered about the motives of this strange extra-galactic being, but since the Array was destroyed, it was a moot point. She got back to the matter at hand.
"Then what did you do?"
"There were only five of us left -Kenna, the Medical officer; Talek, the Chief Engineer, Sari, the Navigator, and the two of us," Leena told them. "There was no way we could have staffed the Stavos even if we had had a way to make repairs. We decided to modify two of our shuttles, instead. After a week of hard work, we had them fitted in much the same way ours still is." She didn't elaborate, accepting and silently acceding the fact that they had no doubt scanned every bit of the little craft.
"After we set the Stavos to auto-destruct, we headed for the Alpha quadrant. We were soon met by the Kazon, you must have met them."
Janeway nodded. "You could say that."
Radek showed his contempt for the aliens in his words as well as his voice. "The primitives were easily manipulated into giving us supplies for a small amount of water."
"They did not try to take it from you?" Chakotay asked.
Leena caught on. "They tried to get your replicators?" The surprised look on Chakotay's face told her she had guessed right.
"Sometimes it's an advantage to be small. The Kazon never thought the two shuttles held anything of any great interest. If you look in this quadrant, there are many small, unaligned traders and freighters in Kazon territory. As long as they don't form a threat to the Kazon, they let them be."
Tuvok nodded. That made sense. After all, the Kazon hadn't had any knowledge of replicator technology, and had not known what to look for. Radek continued.
"We traded small amounts of water for supplies. The Kazon-Farla, a small tribe we met, tried to get us to stay with them, and use this talent they thought we had for finding water to help them gain influence. The Kazon-Ogla heard of it and one of the Kazon-Farla's ships was destroyed. That is the only serious run-in we had with the Kazon. We ran into serious trouble when we met a Vediian ship."
From the reactions Radek knew Voyager had also had encountered the body-harvesting aliens.
"Sari and Talek were attacked while their shuttle was on the surface of a small planet, where we collected some food. The aliens took several organs right out of their bodies -there was nothing Kenna could do for them," Leena said. "A few hours after lift-off we noticed a ship following us."
"They easily overtook us, locking a tractor beam on our shuttle. We fired all weapons, but their ship's shields were no match for our shuttles. Kenna set a collision course and destroyed the Vediian vessel and herself to get us free. We have been able to avoid the Vediians ever since."
Radek hated to tell this -not just because of the losses they'd taken, but because he hated to run from anything. What a difference it would've made to fly through this quadrant with the Stavos!
"I am still surprised you came this far in a shuttle," Tuvok said. "You must have flown top speed for most of the journey."
"We got a ride once, from the GeOri," Radek said.
"A ride?" Janeway's interest peaked.
Leena noticed the hope in her voice. "They won't do you any good. Their ships are no faster than Voyager. And they only help you if you fit into their schedule."
"Their schedule?" Chakotay asked.
"Yes. Their ships are equipped for long-range travel -they take trips of up to several months without dropping out of warp once- and they never refuse passengers. They'll give you supplies if you happen to find a ship docked somewhere, but they'll not deviate from their schedule. If it changes their lift-off time by five minutes, or would mean any kind of course change, no matter how little, they will not do it." Leena explained.
"It might still be worth talking to them", Janeway said. "If they can equip their ships for long hauls, perhaps they have technology that can help us."
Leena shook her head. "If you find a ship docked, they'll help. But they aren't docked very often. There's no negotiating with these GeOri. We heard the tale of one of their captains who delayed his departure for 30 minutes to hear from his wife, who was undergoing emergency surgery. She lived, and divorced him because he had waited."
Janeway felt herself wondering if they themselves would appear so rigid and, well, 'alien' to the cultures they encountered. There were so many cultures and civilisations all over the galaxy, and all had their own peculiarities. Still, she stored the information for any good it might do them.
The Cardassians had little more to tell. Although they'd stopped on some other planets, and encountered a few other ships, the only encounter that Janeway thought could be important in their own quest to get home was the one with the GeOri.
She tried to figure out what the Cardassians were thinking. They both wanted to get home –they'd set a course even in that little shuttle, knowing that at top speed it would still take centuries to get there.
For any other Federation crew it would make sense to remain on board, and travel on together. But Cardassians were not Federation members, and she'd noticed the way Radek talked about all non-Cardassians they had encountered. Even the GeOri, who had helped them, had received little more than contempt from the Glinn. So she wondered if he really would request passage on Voyager, and if he did, how they'd ever make it work, on such a small ship for perhaps years to come.
Leena, now, seemed more reasonable. But Radek was the one in charge. A Glinn was the equivalent of a Commander, a tenec a Lieutenant, Janeway knew.
She thought of more practical matters. If the Cardassians were to remain on board, they would have another shuttle. And a good little craft, that might stand up to a few scrapes.
As the Cardassians finished their story, Tuvok suggested to have some dinner before continuing.
Janeway thought that was a good suggestion, as she still hadn't thought of a good way to break to the Cardassians that some of her crew members were Maquis. When it was her turn to tell of their journey, it would be impossible to avoid.
Leena, she thought, might react in a reasonable way, but she was unsure about Radek. He'd seemed curt even for a Cardassian, and she was certain he would not take the news of the Maquis crew members lightly.
As Janeway didn't want to take the Cardassians into the mess hall, where they would be likely to run into Maquis crew members, she called Neelix to serve dinner in the conference room.