The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad
Voyager fantasies by Lt Taya 17 Janeway
fire in the sky
Voyager streaked across the sky, pursued by one of the Maldorian cruisers. It was a huge, modular, four-hundred-crew-strong affair, and Voyager was dwarfed by it. Furthermore, it had Ice-enhanced shields, glowing blue in the inky darkness of space. Yet they bravely took it on.
In the Delta Flyer, Seven and Paris prepped for the fight even as Voyager came under attack, shaking under them. Their instructions were clear: disable the shielding on the Maldorian cruiser, then leave Voyager to finish the job for them. The Delta Flyer was a small ship, and hopefully it would escape close scrutiny by the cruiser.
On the bridge Chakotay felt unconscionably nervous. He could feel Janeway's coiled tension as she sat in the chair beside him, and he knew that she hadn't been as uncertain as this in battle since a very long time. He kept trying to reassure himself that this ship was no different from any other that they had fought, and probably would be no more than cannon fodder with the likes of the Borg, but somehow he couldn't convince himself. He wished there were more women on the bridge to help Janeway and Kes in the event that the battle came down to pure clash of magical powers. None of the men had so far been taught how to cast anything significant, save for him, and what little he had learned hardly qualified as a battle spell. But he'd been reluctant to raise the point during the last briefing because he knew it was a touchy subject with many of the men- and not to mention Torres.
Ashkari fighters spilled from the cruiser with them, their glittering red Fire-enhanced shields clashing with the cool blue lancets of Ice energy shooting from the Maldorian cruiser. As the Delta Flyer slipped in amongst them, Janeway gave the order to fire. "Photon torpedoes, full spread."
"Torpedoes away," replied Tuvok crisply.
Let's see how their shields stand up to conventional technology, thought Chakotay as six bright spots flew towards the Maldorian cruiser.
Torpedoes met shields, and there was a brief cataclysmic flare of light. When it had cleared, the cruiser's shields glowed a little less blue than before. Chakotay smiled in victory.
Then the Maldorian cruiser began attacking them with its own short sharp bursts of energy. They passed through Voyager's shields like a knife through soft butter, crawling over her hull and nacelles and surging through the newly repaired warp core. The ship shook.
In Engineering Torres gritted her teeth in frustration as other female members of her team closed their eyes and fueled energy to the warp core, repelling the Maldorian attack, while she could do nothing except monitor signals. She had jerry-rigged one panel to display the stats of the Delta Flyer, and she periodically checked back on it to see that it was doing okay.
In the Delta Flyer, Paris slipped the ship quietly amongst the fighting Ashkari ships, closer to the vulnerable underbelly of the lead Maldorian ship. Somewhere here was a weakness they could exploit. He turned back to look at Seven at the weapons console, but she was silent, her gaze fixed on the Maldorian cruiser, searching with tendrils of Fire.
"I've found something," she said abruptly. "It is an exhaust port leading from their main propulsion system. It is inefficiently shielded. Our phasers are likely to penetrate into the infrastructure." Her fingers worked the controls swiftly, and the Delta Flyer's phasers drilled into the Maldorian cruiser.
There was a brief explosion and the cruiser rocked violently, injured. Paris let out a war whoop of victory as the breach in the cruiser's hull began venting plasma.
His cry was cut off by a violent lurching of the Delta Flyer as a massive wave of Ice energy slammed into it.
Things were going just as badly on the ground.
The small Ashkari forces, led by the Panizhe, were badly outnumbered by the Maldorian ground troops. Although many of the Ashkari warriors were strong, wielders of Saffron Fire or its equivalents and higher, the odds did not look to their favor. Each of them found themselves besieged by at least eight opponents, and the uncasted males were suffering the most.
Coordinating the battle a mere few miles away in the war room, Myriam was agiatated. "How much longer till Haldor is secured?" she asked Janae.
"From the looks of it, none too soon," the young Warrior-Healer replied. "The fighting has broken past the south gates, but it's a hard push for those in the north." She gestured towards the battlefield in the city, where buildings were being razed and civilians were running for cover. "There's no way we could secure the city until we storm their central fortress, and we need all six gates to be broken through to accomplish that!" She blew air through her lips. "We're not going to make it, Myriam. We're outnumbered ten to one!" She pointed to one figure on the battlefield, doing a deadly battle dance with countless others. "Look at Nydea! She's heading off with eighteen Maldorians!"
Myriam's eyes narrowed. Nydea was a wielder of Scarlet Fire, but she wouldn't be able to hold out for long for such a vicious attack. She swore silently. They were supposed to be facing off a small garrison of fifty, thamade, not an army of five hundred! How did Nayrn get wind of their battle plans? There was no time to consider that; they were desperate now. It was time for a change of plans. "Do we have enough power to carry out a total annihilation?"
Janae's eyes widened as she glanced around the roomful of Warriors. "Plenty, if we count all those on the field, but… Myriam, do you know how much destruction that would cause? The Fire sphere will be unusable for days! We'd be vulnerable to attack!"
"We can fall back on the Smoke sphere. We're not as attuned to it, I know, but it should hold out for defense." At Janae's skeptical look, she sighed. "Look, we have no other choice. Haldon is critical to our plans. We cannot afford t o lose this battle."
Janae pondered this for a moment, then nodded. "I must concur. Shall I tell the other Warriors?" She gestured to the field.
Myriam paused in thought, then shook her head. "Let me do it. Send a message to Voyager."
On the bridge of Voyager, Janeway leapt to her feet as the Delta Flyer was pummeled by a wave of blue Ice energy, coruscating against its shields. A small ship like the Flyer wouldn't hold up long against the attack, and Voyager had to create a diversion, something to draw the Maldorian cruiser's attack away from it.
Moments later, a tremor ran through Voyager as backwash from the initial attack swept through her.
Janeway said nothing, merely standing in the middle of the bridge and staring at the viewscreen.
The Delta Flyer got more Maldorian punishment.
Still Janeway did nothing.
Concerned, Chakotay headed for her, wondering if she had fallen under some sort of spell. "Captain…"
She made no response, and Chakotay realized it was because she had shut her eyes in concentration, focusing her energies on the Delta Flyer, keeping its shields up against the Maldorian attack. He glanced over and Kes and a chill ran though him as he saw that she was piloting the ship with her eyes shut.
The next wave of destructive energy hit Voyager as well, draining her shields in a manner no other weapon ever had. The ship listed violently to one side. Janeway winced and refocused her efforts, her breathing labored as she fought against the powerful attacks of the Maldorian cruiser.
"Commander," said Kim softly, "there's a message from the planet. Janae says that the Warriors are going to unleash a single-blow devastation on the Maldor, but the energy requirement is going to throw the whole of the Fire sphere out of equilibrium. She tells us to be careful."
Chakotay gripped Janeway's shoulder. "Did you hear that, captain?"
If she heard, she gave no indication as another wave of Ice destruction came sweeping over to them.
The Delta Flyer suffered even more.
In Engineering, Torres growled dangerously as the warp core surged bluer than normal for a minute, then subsided as the engineering team brought it back under control. She felt incapacitated, useless.
Another surge of energy. Bleeps of alarm came from the console she'd rigged to display the Delta Flyer's status. Concerned, she rushed over to see. The shields of the Flyer had buckled under the attack, and breaches were forming in the hull. Atmosphere was leaking out, they were venting plasma, circuitry overloads-
The rankling irritation that had been bothering her for days simmered and boiled over into anger, pure anger. Tom was being hurt by these monsters, and she couldn't do a damn thing about it because she couldn't harness any of her powers! Her rage, fueled by the constant shaking of the ship, mounted. Snarling, she imagined smashing the Maldorian cruiser to bits with her bare hands.
And without realizing why or how, she had unleashed a righteously angry torrent of energy rushing towards the cruiser.
The bridge of Voyager shook as a concentric circle of red light spread from her, rushing towards the Maldorian cruiser, slamming into the Ice-enhanced shields and withering them away to nothing. The shields of the Delta Flyer glowed bright red as the wave of Fire energy rushed past it. The energy crashed onto the Maldorian cruiser, and it seemed to glow from the inside out for a moment.
Then it was expanding in a huge fireball, blossoming out towards Voyager.
As the first shockwave hit the Intrepid-class starship, another concentric ring of Fire energy spread out on the surface of Algaroth, ripping through Maldorian ranks like the arrival of Armageddon.
The fight was over.
When the light had cleared and Chakotay was able to breathe again, he gazed out at the starfield. The Delta Flyer was limping back to the ship. Both Seven and Paris were apparently shaken but otherwise unharmed. "What was that?" Kim wondered out loud.
Kes turned and smiled with wry amusement. "Looks like B'Elanna found a way to harness her powers after all."
Torres. Of course. He nodded to Kes, then turned to Janeway. "Captain?"
She turned to address him, and he was shocked. She was exhausted, totally and utterly exhausted. He knew that every battle always took something out of her, but he'd never seen her so completely drained before. All the color had gone from her cheeks, and her skin, so pale it looked translucent, seemed to be painfully stretched over her cheekbones. Dark shadows danced under her limpid blue eyes, making them look unnaturally wide. It was as if she'd aged ten years in twenty minutes. She opened her mouth to speak, but the effort made her sway slightly on the spot. Alarmed, Chakotay grabbed her waist, and he felt her sag slightly in his arms. He noted with a growing chill that she seemed to have lost a weight- a lot of it- just within the space of one battle. Considering that she'd started out with only ninety pounds in the first place, she was damned near just skin and bones right now. Quietly shushing her, he slowly guided her back to her chair as the rest of the bridge watched on in concern. She slumped in her seat, looking like a fragile porcelain doll.
Kes followed them from her station and gave Janeway a once-over, and her small brow creased. "She exhausted every last reserve of energy she had to protect Voyager," she told Chakotay.
Janeway barely managed a ghost of a smile. "Myriam must have forgotten to tell me about that."
Kes placed a gentle hand on her forehead, sang a simple few words, and a warm glow of energy passed over Janeway for a brief moment. All the remaining tension in her seemed to go out of her as she slouched further in the chair. "You must rest."
Janeway nodded, her eyes closing. "Take the ship back to the planet…" That was as far as she got before she fell asleep, lulled by Kes' relaxation spell.
Chakotay stood with a small half grin. "I guess this means that we'll have to clear the mess of our ship up ourselves." He nodded to their Vulcan security chief at Tactical. "Tuvok, get damage control on the task…" He picked his captain up, an easy feat, considering that she weighed next to nothing right now. She snuggled against him like a small child, curling up sleepily in his arms, lost to the world. "…While I take care of this mess."