Chapter 2:

Janeway entered the conference room right on time. Everyone was there: Torres, Seven, Tom, Harry, the Doctor, Neelix and Chakotay. At one end of the table was Tehtor sitting in a chair, looking a tad uncomfortable. Janeway lowered herself into her chair at the head of the table. The chair was soft, as usual.

"Tehtor, you were saying about a crashed federation ship on your world." Janeway asked.

"Yes Captain" he said getting up and walking over to the display panel. He pressed a few buttons and a schematic for an old constution class starship came onto the screen.

"I have been looking at your database. This is the type of ship that we have found on our world. We weren't able to access its onboard computer because it was too heavily damaged. We were able to recover though a small data device from the engine room. On it held the logs and sensor readings of what happened we believe. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to interface our technology with it as ours uses a much different data storage system" he said in sorrow, but then perked up. "But two days ago, we detected a small vessel entering our space. When we scanned it, we were surprised to see that it has the same hull composition and marking as the ship on our planet. We opened frequencies and we started to talk."

"I was then invited to go down to their planet" Seven interrupted in her cool flat tone. "I transported down to find a planet. It's like a desert, Captain, Barely any water. When I was taken to the device, I scanned it. The device itself is damaged beyond repair, but the data inside is still able to be accessed."

"Would we be able to take a look at the device?" Torres asked.

"We brought it with us" Tehtor said producing a small box from his pocket. He put it on the table and pressed a few buttons.

The lid of the container started to shimmer then dissolve in front of their eyes. Inside lay a smaller box, but with dints in it. Janeways didn't recognize it. Tehtor reached into the box, brung it out and handed it to Torres.

Torres studied the device with her eyes. Structurally it looked like a pile of rubbish, but it looked mysterious.

"I am going to need to take this to engineering and get it analyzed." Torres announced after inspecting the device.

"Very well, dismissed" Janeway said. The crew filed out one by one, single file out of the door. Torres was carrying the device like it was a child, making sure not to drop it. To her, this could mean a lot. Tehtor was left in the room with Janeway. She hadn't eaten in hours, Mabie they would like to go and get a bite to eat.

"Tehtor, would you like to join me for a meal?" Janeway offered. Tehtor though for a minute.

"Sure, why not" He said. Janeway motioned for him to move out of the room through the door. Janeway followed. They walked through the bridge to the turbo lift, and then told it where they wanted to go. The doors of the turbo lift closed and they where wished away to where they wanted to go.

When Janeway was off the bridge, Tom was at Harry's console taking to Harry. He had noticed that they had left together, Tom noted. He turned to Harry.

"I think she likes him" Tom quipped.

"They are just friends" Harry shot back.

"Right Harry, and so are you and Seven" he retorted while walking away from Harry's console, leaving a dumbfounded look on Harry.

***

Torres was working at her usual console in engineering. Numbers were flashing past. In the background, the hum of the warp core could be heard and its glow could be seen. She was running tests on the device. So far, all she could tell was that it was box which was damaged. She had run all types of interface programs that she could think of. In all cases, the interface had collapsed.

Torres was running some new numbers through the computer. As the information ran past her eyes, she was mentally flagging parts of it when could be used. She had been working on this project for hours now. No progress at all. She was starting to get tired. She lent back over the back of her chair. She could feel her back crack and muscles complain of use. She decided that it was enough for one night.

Torres started to make her way out of engineering when she was hit with an idea. She rushed back to her station and brung up a structural display of the device. She proceeded to make a model of the data structure. The computer processed her requests as fast as it could, but was having problems computing the data. When it flung out the final result, Torres smiled. She got up out of her seat and headed for the door. Her destination, Sickbay.

When the turbo lift opened, she was about 3 doors away from sickbay. When she entered, device in hand, she was greeted by the doctor with his usual tone.

"Anything I can help you with Lieutenant?" he asked noticing the device in Torres' hand.

"I was running some tests on the data in this thing" she said holding up the device.

"I'm a doctor, not an engineer. What do you want me to do?" The Doctor replied inquisitive.

"When I looked at the data, I noticed that its interface wasn't built for carbon based life forms, but photonic life forms." Torres said.

The doctor was shocked for a second. A device which could only be accessed by photonic life forms? How could that be? Hundreds of things ran through his head. The doctor was deep in thought until he was interrupted by Torres.

"We need you to do to holodeck two. We can make the interface there." She said while walking out.

As she was leaving, she heard the doctor talking to the computer.

"Computer, transfer me to holodeck 2" he said. She looked back to see the doctor vanish after the acknowledgment beep from the computer.