JANEWAY:

"Captain."

"Yes, Mr. Tuvok?" I said from my usual seat in the command chair on Voyager's bridge.

"Scans detect a large power surge coming from a nearby planet." He said in his calm voice.

I turned to look at him. "What kind of power surge?"

"Unknown Captain." Tuvok answered. "But energy readings suggest it is the opening of a wormhole."

"A wormhole?" I sounded surprised, even to myself. "Is that even possible?"

"Logically, a wormhole should not be able to form so close to a planetary mass." Tuvok said.

At his words, I smiled with excitement. I was fascinated by the possibilities of this. As a scientist, I couldn't let this opportunity pass by. And as a Starfleet Captain, I had the soul of an explorer. Everyone on Voyager did.

"Mr. Paris, slow to impulse." I ordered. "Mr. Kim, I want to know everything about that planet."

"Aye, Captain." Tom Paris, Voyager's helmsman replied.

There was a moment of quiet on the bridge and I heard, as well as felt, the tension humming through Voyager and her crew. It was comforting feeling, and one that I had felt many times before. "Captian?" Harry Kim asked.

"Yes, Mr. Kim?"

"The planet appears to be uninhabited." He told me. "It has twin suns and an atmosphere able to sustain human life. There is only one technological signature, and it appears to be made of an unknown alloy."

"Mr. Tuvok . . . " I began, but was cut off by Harry's sharp cry.

"Captain!" he said. "Four life signs just appeared on the planet's surface. They're human!"

My eyebrows rose in surprise. Around five years ago, Voyager had been flung thousands of light years away from Earth, into the Delta Quadrant. As far as I knew, we were the only humans to get this far. "Are you sure?" I asked Harry.

"Yes, Captain." He replied.

"He is indeed correct." Tuvok agreed. "The power surge has disappeared leaving four human bio-signs."

"Are you telling me that these humans can travel through wormholes?" I said.

I could scarcely believe my ears. If this was possible, then we might just have found a way home! I tapped a button on the arm of my chair. "Commander Chakotay, report to the bridge."

Chakotay was my first officer, and without him, I doubt I would have been able to cope with everything that had happened over the last five years. A second later, the door to the bridge swished open and Chakotay entered. "I was already on my way when I heard the call." He explained.

I smiled briefly at hjm as he walked to his chair, which was right beside mine. He sat down and accessed his viewscreen. As he read the data, I saw his eyebrows rise. "Is this true?" he said softly to me.

"Yes." I said, grinning.

He turned to me, his eyes sparkling and his face alive with hope, just as mine was. I was stuck in that moment how handsome he was. Sometimes there are just moments when I seem to realise this. When he smiled at me like that I found myself wanting to smile back at him forever.

I dragged my thoughts back to the wormhole. "Venteron emanations, tunnelling, secondary particles. If that isn't a wormhole, I don't know what is." I said.

"And the four humans just appeared?" Chakotay asked.

""Yes." I replied. I then raised my voice to address the rest of the bridge crew. "Mr. Paris, put us in planetary orbit." I ordered.

"Aye, Captain!" he replied.

"Tuvok, I want you to analyse that data. I want to know exactly what
happened."

"Yes, Captain." He replied.

I turned back to Chakotay. "Take Seven, and find out what this thing
is and how those humans got here."

"Aye, Captain." He replied.

As he got up to leave, I added. "And take Tom with you, too."

"Aye, Captain." Tom said, his face breaking into an enthusiastic grin.

Tom and Chakotay left the bridge, and I turned to Tuvok again. "Can you put this device on-screen?" I asked him. "I want to see it."

"Yes, Captain." He replied, and a moment later, the view-screen changed from it's usual vista of black space covered with stars, to a picture of the planet's barren surface.

The planet was dry and dusty, with no visible plant life. "Why would the humans want to come here?" I muttered to myself.

I looked at the small structure in the middle of the screen. It appeared to be a ring of some sort - which could be explained if this device somehow opened a wormhole. I couldn't see the humans from here, and whatever the device was, it was silent now. "Magnify." I said, hoping a closer view would help answer some of my questions.

Tuvok complied, and the image on the screen got larger. I looked at the ring, and noticed the symbols on the outside. They looked strangely familiar, but I didn't know what they were. There was a small device next to the ring, and it contained what looked like buttons. I shook my head. This was very strange. I could only hope that Chakotay and Seven would find out more about this device, and where those humans came from.

* * *

CHAKOTAY:

The planet was dry and dusty, with air that seemed heavy and thick. I broke out into a sweat almost as soon as I finished materialising. And I wondered again why humans would come to a place like this. I got out my tricorder, and set off for the ring, Seven right behind me.

"This planet is uninhabited and contains an environment that seems to be hostile to humans. I do not understand why these humans would come here." Seven said.

"Neither do I." I replied.

Seven frowned at that, and had the look on her face that she gets every time she comes across something she does not understand about humans. "Tom?" I called.

"Yes?" Tom said, jogging up to me.

"What were you doing?"

"Nothing." Tom said with a innocent face.

I let the comment go, and looked up as we got closer to the alien device. It was a large ring, about as twice as tall as a human, with strange markings all around it. I took some readings of it, just as Seven was, and noticed the small device next to it.

"Do you think this is how you control it?" I asked Seven.

"There is strong possibility." She replied.

"They're constellations." Tom said.

I frowned. "Tom?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"The symbols on the ring." Tom said. "They're constellations." He turned away from the gate and looked at me. "You know how you join the stars together? Well that's all they are."

I nodded and looked at the ring. They were constellations now that I looked at them. Those symbols also matched the symbols on the smaller device. "It looks like this is how you control it." I said. "You obviously match the symbols."

"Indeed." Seven said. "Although the number of symbols suggests there would be many variations, suggesting this device could lead to many different locations."

I nodded thoughtfully at that. It an amazing thought. And if these humans could create something like this, then they might just possess the technology needed to get Voyager home. I looked up at Seven. "Have you finished your readings?" I asked.

"Almost." She replied.

A minute later she was done. I looked off to a slightly scrubby area just beyond the ring. "Let's find these humans." I said.

I began walking towards the scrub, with Tom right behind me. Seven followed, her eyes alert for any movement. I stopped two meters away from the brush. "My name is Commander Chakotay." I said. "From the USS Voyager. We are explorers, and we mean you no harm."

There was no movement. "They are hiding from us." Seven said. "But they are there."

"Please." I said. "We only want to help you."

There was a brief movement from behind the bushes, and a woman stood up. She was wearing some sort of uniform, all of it black, and had obviously removed some of it because of the heat. Her arms were bare, aside from to sheathed knives running from elbow to wrist, and wore a vest over black pants.

She also carried some dangerous, but ancient looking weapons. Her hair was a dark red and her eyes a brilliant green, although her hair had come undone slightly, and there was a smug of dirt on her cheek. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded in a surprisingly harsh voice, training what looked like an automatic gun at my chest.

"Their weapons and clothing suggest they are not from our time." Seven said from behind me. "As does her speech. I believe this woman is from somewhere within the late 20th century."

The woman remained coldly pointing a gun at us. She never moved. "Who are you?" she repeated.

"Commander Chakotay of the USS Voyager." I said. "This is Lieutenant Tom Paris, and Seven of Nine."

"USS Voyager?" she said. "Where is it?"

"Voyager is a starship. She's currently orbiting the planet."

I expected this remark to surprise the woman, since in the 20th and even early 21st century space travel was still something that was both expensive and new. But the woman never even blinked. Either she had a very good poker face, or the idea of space travel wasn't new to her.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Lieutenant Colonel Josephine Riley of the United States Air Force." She replied.

"Where are the others?" I asked. "Are they still here?"

"Yes." She said. "What do you want?"

"To help you." I said. "And to learn about how you got here."

"How I got here?" she echoed. Then she closed her eyes. "Wormholes. You want to know about wormholes."

Riley let go of the gun, and looked back at me. There was a tiredness in her eyes when she did. She seemed to be debating something with herself. Then she looked down at something - or probably someone - on the ground near her. "Alright." She said. "You give us some medical attention and some supplies, and I'll tell you everything I know about wormholes and the 'gate."

"The gate?" I asked.

"The stargate." She said. Then at my confused look she pointed at the device. "That."

"Done." I said.

I tapped my combadge. "Captain, I request permission to bring the humans on board."

"Where are they from?" Janeway asked.

"Seven says they come from around the late 20th century."

"What?" Janeway said, sounding surprised. Then she sighed. "I'll beam the doctor down, but I can't let them on board a warp ship, Chakotay. You know that."

"If I may interrupt, Captain." Seven said. "But I do not believe we would be in violation of the Prime Directive. These humans are not from our reality. I believe they are from another dimension, and we therefore do not risk contaminating our own timeline."

"Are you sure, Seven?" Janeway asked.

"Of course."

"Very well. Permission granted." Captain Janeway said.

A moment later, I felt the familiar tingling sensation as I was beamed back on board Voyager.