"So how was your first day as First Officer on the Stella?" Aeryn asked.
Chakotay broke out in a big smile.
"Very good," he said, "I never realized how much I liked being on a small ship with only a few people whom you all knew personally. Don't get me wrong, I love being on Voyager, but this… It just makes me feel at home."
"I'm glad," Aeryn said, "I wouldn't want a First Officer who disliked being here."
She then picked up a PADD and quickly scanned the contents.
"Now, I called you up here not just to ask about your day, but for us to review this." She handed him the PADD and continued: "We don't really have the custom to have day reports and such, with so little people everybody knows everything around so it's not really necessary, but sometimes there are things I'd like to discuss with the First Officer before I do with the rest."
"Makes sense," Chakotay said as he also scanned the PADD.
"The Funny Phenomenon?" he then said. Aeryn chuckled.
"Yeah, our nickname for the anomaly outside, we're not overly formal here. So what do you think, you've no doubt discussed it on Voyager and I'd like your view. And possibly the views of your crewmates too."
"Well, we're not really sure. We've ruled out a wormhole, a temporal displacement and a subspace rift. Besides that, we haven't gotten anywhere." Aeryn nodded and changed the subject.
"Well, did you read the report on our Engineering trouble?" Chakotay nodded.
"Warp core breach out of nothing. You were only just able to stop it and suspect a magical cause," Chakotay said and frowned only slightly at the words 'magical cause'.
"Indeed, and I did see that frown," Aeryn said with a grin, "and that's okay, I don't ask that you believe it right away. I also believe that I haven't gotten around to the magical part of this crew haven't I?"
"Not that I can remember," Chakotay said, readying himself for another tale of incredible things.
"Well, I am what is usually referred to as a witch. That is also the reason why Leo has been a part of my family, I told you he was a Whitelighter didn't I?"
Chakotay nodded.
"Well, Whitelighters are, as I said, a sort of guardian angels but I didn't tell you that they are guardian angels especially for witches. He has been the Whitelighter of the witches in my family for centuries, since the late 20th/early 21st century. And as such, he is also my Whitelighter. I have certain gifts, as I like to refer to it. I posess three special powers that have been in my family ever since the 17th century; namely telekinesis, the gift of premonitions of past and present and the gift to freeze people and things for a while. Also, ever since I became immortal, I developed a telepathic bond with Leo, that's how I knew there was an emergency when he orbed out during our initial meeting. Oh, and to proof it, well…" Aeryn glanced at the cup on her desk and made it fly through the air in random patterns.
"I can't really proof the premonition part and for the time freeze… hold on."
Aeryn tapped her badge and said: "Spike, be so kind as to come to my Ready Room for a minute."
"Sure," came the reply. And a few seconds later, Spike walked in. As soon as the door closed behind him, and he had stepped up to her desk, Aeryn froze him.
"Check him out if you want. I can personally unfreeze him and if I leave him like this, he'll unfreeze out of himself in approximately 5 minutes. I have learned to control the amount of 'freeze' I throw at people and can time it from roughly 5 to 30 minutes."
Chakotay had stood up and was now circling Spike. He held his hand for his mouth but was interrupted by Aeryn.
"That won't work, Spike's a vampire remember, they don't breath. For that matter I better could have taken somebody else. But no, frozen people don't breathe. Everything is stopped, also their internal organs and everything. It's like stasis."
Chakotay grabbed the tricorder Aeryn was now holding out to him and scanned Spike, then he prodded him a bit and finally he sat down again.
"That's amazing," was all he could say as Aeryn unfroze Spike.
"So what's the deal?" Spike asked.
"Oh," Aeryn said, "people also don't remember being frozen, they don't notice, so for them, no time has passed when they wake up."
"You froze me!?"
"Had to prove a bit to Chakotay, you may go back to the bridge now."
"Hmph," Spike said as he turned around and walked back to the Bridge.
"Okay, one more thing, this information is sensitive, you may share it with the people that where present at our initial meeting only."
Chakotay nodded, "understood."
Next day began uneventful, there was a rather easy first contact with a new species for Voyager which got them (and the Stella too) some materials they needed.
By afternoon, the FP had grown again but besides that it was unchanged.
Still, Aeryn called a meeting for that night and so they all sat on the Bridge at that point.
Chakotay seemed puzzled by this and asked to the reason why they had this meeting on the Bridge and not in the Briefing Room.
"It's 'cause we're with so little a crew," Spike said.
"Yeah," Reiko confirmed, "we need to keep an eye on ship operations at the same time."
"This ship," Aeryn added, "was designed for eight people as you know. But it can support 24, that is, three per quarters. And the Briefing Room is more for trips with such a bigger crew, since then you don't have all the crew in a meeting. When we have a meeting, it's usually with all of us and then we do it on the Bridge so we can, as Reiko said, keep an eye on everything. And for smaller meetings we usually use my Ready Room, so the Briefing Room is not often used."
'Before we begin, I have an additional question," Chakotay then said.
"Shoot."
"What are… all of you, your functions? I mean, I know the obvious functions, but there's labs and such on this ship, you have to double in functions or else this is impossible to do."
"Yes, we double," Aeryn began, "I am Captain and I serve as Chief Tactical and Security. That I do because it was my track at the Academy. And I'm the Captain because the whole exploring thing was my idea, and at the time I was the only one who had gone to the academy."
Then, Aeryn gave a nod in Reiko's direction, who was sitting next to her, to indicate she was next.
"I'm Chief Operations, also because that was my track at the Academy and I double as Science Officer."
"I'm the Pilot," Spike said, "and Chief Astro."
"He means Astrometrics," Deyran said, "and I am the First Officer and I double as Engineer, which was my track at the Academy, and I serve as one of the spare Pilots."
"Oh yeah," Aeryn said, "I also fly the ship when both Spike and Deyran are unavailable."
"I'm the Chief Engineer," Angel then said, "and I double as Astrometrics Officer."
"And I," Leo, who was last, said, "am the CMO and Chief Science Officer."
"Amazing," Chakotay said, "I mean, in the Maquis we had at least double your crew on a ship this size and even then we were often shorthanded."
"Yes, but you spent your days fighting, we usually spend ours exploring. We don't often get into trouble. Despite our condition when you helped us out," Aeryn said, laughing at the last comment, "But, let's now get into official mode. About the FP. Reiko, Spike, anything?"
Reiko and Spike just shook their heads.
"I might have something," Leo said, "I did some research in the ongoing telemetry we're getting from it and at the time we had our near warp core breach, there was a surge coming from the Phenomenon. And it was directed at us."
"A surge?" Deyran asked.
"Yes, very faint, I almost missed it."
"So you're saying that it caused the breach?" Angel said
"It's possible… I think, well, it could also be magical instead of scientific."
Angel exhaled loudly, "What happened to days when magical was clearly distinguishable from normal…"
Reiko began laughing, "Grandpa's on it again."
And all the time, Chakotay was just observing the exchanges between the small crew.
They shouldn't be called a crew, he thought, it's a family…
"Okay," Aeryn interrupted the merry men and woman, "if it's magical, we can do something about it." She turned and accessed the computer through the console she was near.
"Let's see if there's something in the Book."
"What book," Chakotay asked.
"Book of Shadows, it's a witch's book with spells, information, potions etcetera. It's been in my family since the 1600's. Normally when doing magical research I use the real book 'cause that feels better, but now we're in a bit of a hurry, so I'll access the E-Book variant."
"You put it in the computer?"
"Yeah, in a special protected file. Only the magical ones among us can access all of it. Reiko and Deyran have limited access to descriptions of demons and warlocks and such but not to the actual spells because they can't do them anyway and also not to the potions. For their own protection."
Aeryn continued to look through the electronical version of the BoS for half an hour but found nothing. The others had been searching in the other libraries, Reiko and Deyran, together with Chakotay had been researching the ordinary encyclopedia's coming from all over the galaxy, while Angel, Spike and Leo researched the extensive electronic Occult Library; electronic versions of all of Angel's Occult books, collected over the years by him, and also by his old friends, now long deceased, Giles and Wesley.
"Okay, I give up." Reiko pressed a button and turned the chair she was sitting on. "There is absolutely nothing in the library."
"Same here," Spike said, "the OL's empty too."
Aeryn nodded, "The Book doesn't have anything either."
"I could…" Leo began and glanced upwards.
"Not yet," Aeryn said, decisively, "I don't want the Elders involved unless I absolutely have to. Let's try some more science. There has to be something you haven't tried yet."
"Well, there are some tests we didn't do because what they measure is highly unlikely and stuff," Reiko said as she looked sideways to Leo.
He bit his lip and nodded.
"Well, then, you do that, and we'll… do something else."
"You don't like the… Elders?" Chakotay asked.
"Not particularly," Aeryn said and then noticed his slightly confused look, "The Elders are higher beings, they are the ones who originally gave my family line our powers. They used be very influential in the lives of my ancestors but that ended with the Charmed Ones. They were very famous in the magical dimensions because they were, in their time the most powerful witches around. That was in the early 21st century. After that, the power has remained in the family line, but never as powerful as they were. They were also the last ones the Elders had some sort of control over. The Elders were able to give and take away their powers until they were around their fifties. Then they had become so powerful that the Elders could not remove their powers anymore, all they could do was give. And ever since it has been that way. So the Elders can give me extra powers, but they can't take the ones I have away. And I got those through the bloodline of my family."
"But what do the Elders do?"
"Good question, nowadays, not very much, they are a kind of overseers. They see what happens, they usually have extra information and they are the bosses of Whitelighters. They lost a lot of their power with my family, they used to be able to sort of boss us around but in this time they can't anymore."
"Whitelighters… like Leo, right."
"Yes, but Leo quit after I became immortal. He is still a Whitelighter with all powers that go with the function but he does not have any other official charges except me, and he basically 'does' the others too."
"I see."
The rest of the day went by uneventful, Reiko and Leo did the extra tests they hadn't done before as Aeryn continued spitting through the Occult Library in her Ready Room. The OccLib was so big, they hadn't finished going through it during the meeting. Spike now again manned the helm as the Stella and Voyager flew through space on their way to the Alpha Quadrant.
Chakotay, as First Officer this week, held the Captain's Chair while Angel had returned to Engineering and Deyran held the Operations post on the Bridge.
Aeryn slammed her fist down on the button and as the screen on her desk went black she leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. I hate it, she thought, why isn't this bastard in any book. Unless… it's an old dog with a new trick…
She got up and stormed unto the Bridge.
"I'll be in the lab."
She barged into the corridor, headed for the lift, went down to Deck 2 and walked to the extra set of empty quarters that were doubling as extra lab.
"Guys, listen up," she said as she entered. Leo and Reiko both turned around and looked at her.
"I couldn't find anything in the books but I was thinking, what if it's an old dog with a new trick?"
"You mean a demon you encountered before," Leo said, "could very well be. But then what?"
"Can we try to beam a piece of the anomaly aboard? Maybe that'll piss hem off enough to appear."
"That I don't exactly know, Reiko?"
"We can try, we'll have to go back to the Bridge then, I'll have to run some scans on Ops first."
Aeryn and Reiko headed back for the Bridge while Leo stopped at the transporter Room with the special sealed container. On the Bridge, Chakotay got up when he saw the women enter, but Aeryn waved him back into the chair.
"Keep the Bridge Commander, I'm busy over here."
Reiko immediately began scanning and soon nodded.
"We can do it," she said.
"Good," Aeryn replied and tapped her commbadge.
"Okay people, listen up," she said to the others on the Bridge and to Angel and Leo in Engineering and the Transporter Room, "we're going to try to beam a part of the anomaly aboard. Angel keep an eye on the engines down there, our little demon might not like it if we try to beam a part of him or his disguise aboard. Leo, Reiko's sending you the coordinates."
"Got them," Leo said a second later, "Initiating transport. It's coming…"
"Look!" Chakotay suddenly said at the same time as a claxon sounded.
"Voyager's warp core is breaching," he yelled as the computer warned of the breach in the vicinity."
"The bastard!" Aeryn yelled, "he knows we'll be watching. Leo! Beam or orb me over there now!"
Almost right away the tingle of the transporter enveloped Aeryn and a second or so later she rematerialized in Voyager's Engineering. She ran towards the warp core and threw up her hands, freezing the assembly.
"Damn!" she suddenly heard behind her and when she turned around, her mouth fell open.
"You!?"
Chakotay broke out in a big smile.
"Very good," he said, "I never realized how much I liked being on a small ship with only a few people whom you all knew personally. Don't get me wrong, I love being on Voyager, but this… It just makes me feel at home."
"I'm glad," Aeryn said, "I wouldn't want a First Officer who disliked being here."
She then picked up a PADD and quickly scanned the contents.
"Now, I called you up here not just to ask about your day, but for us to review this." She handed him the PADD and continued: "We don't really have the custom to have day reports and such, with so little people everybody knows everything around so it's not really necessary, but sometimes there are things I'd like to discuss with the First Officer before I do with the rest."
"Makes sense," Chakotay said as he also scanned the PADD.
"The Funny Phenomenon?" he then said. Aeryn chuckled.
"Yeah, our nickname for the anomaly outside, we're not overly formal here. So what do you think, you've no doubt discussed it on Voyager and I'd like your view. And possibly the views of your crewmates too."
"Well, we're not really sure. We've ruled out a wormhole, a temporal displacement and a subspace rift. Besides that, we haven't gotten anywhere." Aeryn nodded and changed the subject.
"Well, did you read the report on our Engineering trouble?" Chakotay nodded.
"Warp core breach out of nothing. You were only just able to stop it and suspect a magical cause," Chakotay said and frowned only slightly at the words 'magical cause'.
"Indeed, and I did see that frown," Aeryn said with a grin, "and that's okay, I don't ask that you believe it right away. I also believe that I haven't gotten around to the magical part of this crew haven't I?"
"Not that I can remember," Chakotay said, readying himself for another tale of incredible things.
"Well, I am what is usually referred to as a witch. That is also the reason why Leo has been a part of my family, I told you he was a Whitelighter didn't I?"
Chakotay nodded.
"Well, Whitelighters are, as I said, a sort of guardian angels but I didn't tell you that they are guardian angels especially for witches. He has been the Whitelighter of the witches in my family for centuries, since the late 20th/early 21st century. And as such, he is also my Whitelighter. I have certain gifts, as I like to refer to it. I posess three special powers that have been in my family ever since the 17th century; namely telekinesis, the gift of premonitions of past and present and the gift to freeze people and things for a while. Also, ever since I became immortal, I developed a telepathic bond with Leo, that's how I knew there was an emergency when he orbed out during our initial meeting. Oh, and to proof it, well…" Aeryn glanced at the cup on her desk and made it fly through the air in random patterns.
"I can't really proof the premonition part and for the time freeze… hold on."
Aeryn tapped her badge and said: "Spike, be so kind as to come to my Ready Room for a minute."
"Sure," came the reply. And a few seconds later, Spike walked in. As soon as the door closed behind him, and he had stepped up to her desk, Aeryn froze him.
"Check him out if you want. I can personally unfreeze him and if I leave him like this, he'll unfreeze out of himself in approximately 5 minutes. I have learned to control the amount of 'freeze' I throw at people and can time it from roughly 5 to 30 minutes."
Chakotay had stood up and was now circling Spike. He held his hand for his mouth but was interrupted by Aeryn.
"That won't work, Spike's a vampire remember, they don't breath. For that matter I better could have taken somebody else. But no, frozen people don't breathe. Everything is stopped, also their internal organs and everything. It's like stasis."
Chakotay grabbed the tricorder Aeryn was now holding out to him and scanned Spike, then he prodded him a bit and finally he sat down again.
"That's amazing," was all he could say as Aeryn unfroze Spike.
"So what's the deal?" Spike asked.
"Oh," Aeryn said, "people also don't remember being frozen, they don't notice, so for them, no time has passed when they wake up."
"You froze me!?"
"Had to prove a bit to Chakotay, you may go back to the bridge now."
"Hmph," Spike said as he turned around and walked back to the Bridge.
"Okay, one more thing, this information is sensitive, you may share it with the people that where present at our initial meeting only."
Chakotay nodded, "understood."
Next day began uneventful, there was a rather easy first contact with a new species for Voyager which got them (and the Stella too) some materials they needed.
By afternoon, the FP had grown again but besides that it was unchanged.
Still, Aeryn called a meeting for that night and so they all sat on the Bridge at that point.
Chakotay seemed puzzled by this and asked to the reason why they had this meeting on the Bridge and not in the Briefing Room.
"It's 'cause we're with so little a crew," Spike said.
"Yeah," Reiko confirmed, "we need to keep an eye on ship operations at the same time."
"This ship," Aeryn added, "was designed for eight people as you know. But it can support 24, that is, three per quarters. And the Briefing Room is more for trips with such a bigger crew, since then you don't have all the crew in a meeting. When we have a meeting, it's usually with all of us and then we do it on the Bridge so we can, as Reiko said, keep an eye on everything. And for smaller meetings we usually use my Ready Room, so the Briefing Room is not often used."
'Before we begin, I have an additional question," Chakotay then said.
"Shoot."
"What are… all of you, your functions? I mean, I know the obvious functions, but there's labs and such on this ship, you have to double in functions or else this is impossible to do."
"Yes, we double," Aeryn began, "I am Captain and I serve as Chief Tactical and Security. That I do because it was my track at the Academy. And I'm the Captain because the whole exploring thing was my idea, and at the time I was the only one who had gone to the academy."
Then, Aeryn gave a nod in Reiko's direction, who was sitting next to her, to indicate she was next.
"I'm Chief Operations, also because that was my track at the Academy and I double as Science Officer."
"I'm the Pilot," Spike said, "and Chief Astro."
"He means Astrometrics," Deyran said, "and I am the First Officer and I double as Engineer, which was my track at the Academy, and I serve as one of the spare Pilots."
"Oh yeah," Aeryn said, "I also fly the ship when both Spike and Deyran are unavailable."
"I'm the Chief Engineer," Angel then said, "and I double as Astrometrics Officer."
"And I," Leo, who was last, said, "am the CMO and Chief Science Officer."
"Amazing," Chakotay said, "I mean, in the Maquis we had at least double your crew on a ship this size and even then we were often shorthanded."
"Yes, but you spent your days fighting, we usually spend ours exploring. We don't often get into trouble. Despite our condition when you helped us out," Aeryn said, laughing at the last comment, "But, let's now get into official mode. About the FP. Reiko, Spike, anything?"
Reiko and Spike just shook their heads.
"I might have something," Leo said, "I did some research in the ongoing telemetry we're getting from it and at the time we had our near warp core breach, there was a surge coming from the Phenomenon. And it was directed at us."
"A surge?" Deyran asked.
"Yes, very faint, I almost missed it."
"So you're saying that it caused the breach?" Angel said
"It's possible… I think, well, it could also be magical instead of scientific."
Angel exhaled loudly, "What happened to days when magical was clearly distinguishable from normal…"
Reiko began laughing, "Grandpa's on it again."
And all the time, Chakotay was just observing the exchanges between the small crew.
They shouldn't be called a crew, he thought, it's a family…
"Okay," Aeryn interrupted the merry men and woman, "if it's magical, we can do something about it." She turned and accessed the computer through the console she was near.
"Let's see if there's something in the Book."
"What book," Chakotay asked.
"Book of Shadows, it's a witch's book with spells, information, potions etcetera. It's been in my family since the 1600's. Normally when doing magical research I use the real book 'cause that feels better, but now we're in a bit of a hurry, so I'll access the E-Book variant."
"You put it in the computer?"
"Yeah, in a special protected file. Only the magical ones among us can access all of it. Reiko and Deyran have limited access to descriptions of demons and warlocks and such but not to the actual spells because they can't do them anyway and also not to the potions. For their own protection."
Aeryn continued to look through the electronical version of the BoS for half an hour but found nothing. The others had been searching in the other libraries, Reiko and Deyran, together with Chakotay had been researching the ordinary encyclopedia's coming from all over the galaxy, while Angel, Spike and Leo researched the extensive electronic Occult Library; electronic versions of all of Angel's Occult books, collected over the years by him, and also by his old friends, now long deceased, Giles and Wesley.
"Okay, I give up." Reiko pressed a button and turned the chair she was sitting on. "There is absolutely nothing in the library."
"Same here," Spike said, "the OL's empty too."
Aeryn nodded, "The Book doesn't have anything either."
"I could…" Leo began and glanced upwards.
"Not yet," Aeryn said, decisively, "I don't want the Elders involved unless I absolutely have to. Let's try some more science. There has to be something you haven't tried yet."
"Well, there are some tests we didn't do because what they measure is highly unlikely and stuff," Reiko said as she looked sideways to Leo.
He bit his lip and nodded.
"Well, then, you do that, and we'll… do something else."
"You don't like the… Elders?" Chakotay asked.
"Not particularly," Aeryn said and then noticed his slightly confused look, "The Elders are higher beings, they are the ones who originally gave my family line our powers. They used be very influential in the lives of my ancestors but that ended with the Charmed Ones. They were very famous in the magical dimensions because they were, in their time the most powerful witches around. That was in the early 21st century. After that, the power has remained in the family line, but never as powerful as they were. They were also the last ones the Elders had some sort of control over. The Elders were able to give and take away their powers until they were around their fifties. Then they had become so powerful that the Elders could not remove their powers anymore, all they could do was give. And ever since it has been that way. So the Elders can give me extra powers, but they can't take the ones I have away. And I got those through the bloodline of my family."
"But what do the Elders do?"
"Good question, nowadays, not very much, they are a kind of overseers. They see what happens, they usually have extra information and they are the bosses of Whitelighters. They lost a lot of their power with my family, they used to be able to sort of boss us around but in this time they can't anymore."
"Whitelighters… like Leo, right."
"Yes, but Leo quit after I became immortal. He is still a Whitelighter with all powers that go with the function but he does not have any other official charges except me, and he basically 'does' the others too."
"I see."
The rest of the day went by uneventful, Reiko and Leo did the extra tests they hadn't done before as Aeryn continued spitting through the Occult Library in her Ready Room. The OccLib was so big, they hadn't finished going through it during the meeting. Spike now again manned the helm as the Stella and Voyager flew through space on their way to the Alpha Quadrant.
Chakotay, as First Officer this week, held the Captain's Chair while Angel had returned to Engineering and Deyran held the Operations post on the Bridge.
Aeryn slammed her fist down on the button and as the screen on her desk went black she leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. I hate it, she thought, why isn't this bastard in any book. Unless… it's an old dog with a new trick…
She got up and stormed unto the Bridge.
"I'll be in the lab."
She barged into the corridor, headed for the lift, went down to Deck 2 and walked to the extra set of empty quarters that were doubling as extra lab.
"Guys, listen up," she said as she entered. Leo and Reiko both turned around and looked at her.
"I couldn't find anything in the books but I was thinking, what if it's an old dog with a new trick?"
"You mean a demon you encountered before," Leo said, "could very well be. But then what?"
"Can we try to beam a piece of the anomaly aboard? Maybe that'll piss hem off enough to appear."
"That I don't exactly know, Reiko?"
"We can try, we'll have to go back to the Bridge then, I'll have to run some scans on Ops first."
Aeryn and Reiko headed back for the Bridge while Leo stopped at the transporter Room with the special sealed container. On the Bridge, Chakotay got up when he saw the women enter, but Aeryn waved him back into the chair.
"Keep the Bridge Commander, I'm busy over here."
Reiko immediately began scanning and soon nodded.
"We can do it," she said.
"Good," Aeryn replied and tapped her commbadge.
"Okay people, listen up," she said to the others on the Bridge and to Angel and Leo in Engineering and the Transporter Room, "we're going to try to beam a part of the anomaly aboard. Angel keep an eye on the engines down there, our little demon might not like it if we try to beam a part of him or his disguise aboard. Leo, Reiko's sending you the coordinates."
"Got them," Leo said a second later, "Initiating transport. It's coming…"
"Look!" Chakotay suddenly said at the same time as a claxon sounded.
"Voyager's warp core is breaching," he yelled as the computer warned of the breach in the vicinity."
"The bastard!" Aeryn yelled, "he knows we'll be watching. Leo! Beam or orb me over there now!"
Almost right away the tingle of the transporter enveloped Aeryn and a second or so later she rematerialized in Voyager's Engineering. She ran towards the warp core and threw up her hands, freezing the assembly.
"Damn!" she suddenly heard behind her and when she turned around, her mouth fell open.
"You!?"