Disclaimer: Sadly we do not own any of the Voyager characters, ships, plots or universe. They belong to Paramount.
Summary: After a year of being home, Voyager's scattered crew gathers together for one last battle~ but it's not the jolly reunion one might expect… Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Tom, B'Elanna, Harry, Seven, Celes…and some new characters. Enjoy!
Past Re-Visited
By Erin and Rebecca
Chapter 12:
What happened?
Tom was laying on a couch in guest quarters that were given to him. Miral lay sleeping on his chest, an arrangement that both found comforting. The Doctor wanted him to stay in sickbay, but Tom felt he would do better away from people right now. He should have been sleeping, but there was too much going on. Where is she? He thought as he worried about B'Elanna. Is she okay? Or have they killed her?
Tom was brought out of his frightening thoughts when the door chimed. Not wanting to disturb Miral, Tom didn't move from his spot. "Come."
The door opened to reveal Harry standing in the corridor.
"Harry, come in," Tom said when he saw his best friend.
Harry stopped after the door closed. They hadn't talked when they were in sickbay, and Harry wasn't sure what to say. Hi, how's it going? Just didn't seem appropriate when Tom's wife was being held hostage by a deadly alien.
Tom noticed the discomfort Harry was in and started the conversation. "So the Enterprise just wasn't exciting enough," he chuckled awkwardly.
Harry nodded as he sat in the chair next to Tom. "Doesn't quite compare."
Silence again filled the room until Miral started crying. Tom looked down at his daughter. "Doesn't look like she wants to sleep anymore." He thought for a second, "what time is it?"
Harry thought the question was weird but answered it anyway. "It's about 0300."
Creature of habit, Tom thought. "Which brings me to my next question, what are you doing up at three in the morning?" Tom started to move to walk Miral around the room, but groaned as he tried to move.
"Do you want me to hold her?" Harry asked standing up.
"Sure." Harry took his goddaughter from Tom and started to slowly pace the room. After a couple minutes, Tom spoke again, "You didn't answer my question."
Harry stopped pacing the room and stared out the window. Miral had finished her crying and was resting peacefully in her godfather's arms. "I'm up for the same reason you are," he finally replied.
Tom looked down away from Harry for a few moments. When he looked back up, the pain was evident on his face. "They've probably killed her by now."
"Tom," Harry walked back to the chair and sat down. "What happened over there?"
"It's a long story…"
"You're needed on the Bridge immediately," Lyman called down about five minutes after Tom left.
"I'll be right there," B'Elanna responded. She quickly changed and dropped Miral off with another family.
As she entered the Bridge, the first thing she noticed was the semi-shocked look on her husband's face. "What's wrong?"
"We found a debris field that was from Federation Starships," B'Elanna looked at the viewscreen while Tom spoke. "The weapon signature matches that of Species 8472."
"What?!" She walked over to the console to double check their findings. This can't be. They can't be here.
"It's them all right," Tom said, answering her thoughts.
"We have to alert Starfleet."
"We were about-"
"Tom, I'm picking up some sort of power surge from within the debris field," Abbey interrupted.
Tom didn't hesitate for a second. He immediately walked over to the helm and plotted a course. "I need shields up now, I'm getting us out of here."
"What's going on?" Josh asked looking between the two former Starfleet officers.
"It's their weapon," was all B'Elanna answered with, never looking away from her console.
"Isn't there something that we could stop it?" Josh asked again.
"Nothing that we have."
"B'Elanna, I need warp drive now," Tom quickly said.
"I'm picking up a ship closing on us," Abbey reported. "I think they're firing."
Tom tried to evade the weapon but the energy blast grazed the shields of the Darwin, throwing everyone from their consoles."
"Shields are down," Abbey said as she pulled herself back to her console.
"Tom, you've got warp," B'Elanna yelled.
Tom didn't waste his breath responding and just got them out of there.
"They're pursuing," Abbey stated, "warp 5, warp 6."
"I can keep us at warp 6.5 for another twenty minutes, and then I'm going to have to slow down." Tom silently cursed the ship for not having better warp engines.
"They've reached warp 7."
It wouldn't take more than a few minutes for Species 8472 to overtake the Darwin and everyone there knew it.
"I'm going to take us into the nebula that we were investigating yesterday," Tom said suddenly, "it may fool their sensors and it'll give us some time to repair our shields."
Not having any other options, everyone else concurred. Three minutes later, the Darwin dropped out of warp into the nebula with Species 8472 close behind.
It had been several hours and repairs were being made to the shield matrix. Suddenly, turbulence rocked the ship.
"They're firing again," Abbey said, "but they're shooting blind. They can't see us."
"Well, they're eventually going to get it right, I'm getting us out of here," Tom started pressing buttons on his console. The ship flew closer to the rim of the nebula, when the 8472 ship showed up on the viewscreen.
"Tom."
"I see it," Tom tried to avoid the weapon again, but it still hit the ship. The ship rocked, sparks flew, and bulkheads fell. The lights went out and consoles all blinked into blackness.
If he had been unconscious, it had only been for a few minutes, as awareness came back to him, he remembered the other person on the bridge. "Abbey?" No response. He tried again, "Abbey?"
He crawled across to where she had been. He found her dead body. Tom froze for a minute, but then made his way to the Jeffries tube. He had to make sure Miral and B'Elanna were all right.
He found B'Elanna and several other crewmen in the engine room trying to restore power. Tom ran over to B'Elanna. "Are you okay?"
She nodded and returned to her work. "I'm not sure if we can get power back on-line," she told him. "Are they still out there?"
"I assume so. I don't see why they just would have left."
"Why haven't they just finished us off?"
"I don't know," he shook his head. "They're circling like vultures."
She paused for a minute. "I can try to get main power back on-line by rerouting-"
"B'Elanna we have to evacuate."
"But-"
"We have to go now."
"Let me try one thing." He wanted to interrupt again, but she stopped him. "Find Miral, get everyone else out of here and then come back for me."
He wasn't going to waste time arguing with her so he left to get Miral. Along the way he told the crew to get to the escape pods. He'd only found about nine people alive by the time he made it to where Miral was staying. He took her and told the person watching her to head for an escape pod. Tom then returned to engineering to get B'Elanna.
He set Miral down away from anything relatively dangerous and walked over to B'Elanna. "We have to go."
"Just give me one more-"
"Now," he practically yelled.
"Fine."
As they turned to leave, they heard a low hum around them. Tom turned just in time to see his wife beamed off the ship.
"B'Elanna-" he started to yell but was cut off as the console next to him exploded, throwing up against a far wall. He felt blackness descend upon him as he heard more alarm klaxons going off. He fought to stay conscious, but ultimately lost.
Tom wasn't sure how long it he had been unconscious, but came to with Miral's crying. As he tried to move, he found himself in more pain than he had ever felt in his life. But, the sound of his daughter was the driving force he needed, and went to her, despite his pain. He thought he was going to lose consciousness again before he reached her but managed to make it. Laying next to her was a data Padd that had one simple statement on it, 'the weak will perish. Janeway must die,' and Tom realized why everything had just happened. He made his way to the nearest console, and transmitted a distress call hoping someone would get it before it was too late.
Tom had finished talking and the two sat in silence. Tom stared out the window his eyes misting over, thinking of the last memory of his wife.
After a few more minutes, Harry looked over to Tom. "I'm so sorry."
Tom looked him straight in the eye, "I'm sorry too."
"For what?"
"I realized what I did by sending the distress signal. Bringing you here was a death trap."
The silence returned as Harry thought about what Tom just stated. The two stared out to the stars contemplating the little future that they had left.
* * * * *
