DISCLAIMER: I do not own Andromeda or Star Trek Voyager or their
characters. I am also making absolutely no money from this effort.
Thank you to those who read and those who reviewed this story. Here's another chapter for you all.
************************************************************************
Chapter 2
Lieutenant Torres was on Voyager's bridge briefing Chakotay on the attempt to reconstruct the wormhole when the away team materialized in front of the two officers. Janeway glanced around the bridge and let out a sigh of relief. It already felt good to be back home, such as it was.
Chakotay smiled and stepped forward to greet the away team. "Captain, it's good to have you back."
Janeway returned the commander's smile with one of her own. "Thank you Commander. It's good to be back. And before you ask, I will regale everybody with tales of our latest adventure just as soon as I've had had time to grab a cup of coffee and check my messages. Meet me in my quarters in one hour."
Members of Voyagers senior staff began filing into Janeway's quarters an hour later. Chakotay was the first to arrive. Soon afterwards Torres and Paris arrived, followed closely by Tuvok. Seven of Nine and the Doctor just sat down when Harry Kim arrived. Captain Janeway waited for the ops officer to be seated and began her briefing.
"I've called this meeting because I know you all wanted to know what happened to us on our latest away mission," Janeway began. She knew she was stating the obvious, but the captain wanted to give herself time to observe each member of her senior staff before beginning her story.
Seven of Nine was cool and calm, but Janeway detected a hint of curiosity in the blonde crewmember's blue eyes. Chakotay and Torres shifted in their chairs, anxious to hear the details of what Q had done to the away team.
Paris and Kim smiled at each other, anticipating the reaction to Janeway's story. Tuvok, as usual remained calm, although the Vulcan was eager to share his analysis of the Tricorder readings he had brought back. Tuvok had made sure to check his Tricorder immediately upon returning to Voyager, making sure none of the data had been erased or corrupted. While waiting for Janeway to prepare for her briefing, the Vulcan downloaded the Tricorder readings to Voyager's computer for additional analysis and future storage.
Janeway took a long sip of coffee before retelling the story of the away team's adventure onboard the Andromeda Ascendant. Chakotay maintained a fascinated expression throughout the story. Kim almost couldn't contain his amusement when he saw Torres glare at Paris when Janeway described Rommie and Beka. For his part, Paris maintained a look of utter innocence. Janeway ended the briefing with additional details of slipstream and holographic technologies.
"It sounds as if you had quite an interesting journey Captain," Chakotay commented once his mind had taken in the story. "It sounds as if the parallel universe is quite a brutal place where the strong take advantage of the weak without any kind of organization to oppose them."
"It makes me grateful to be living in our universe. While we have the Borg and other threats, at least there is some form of law and justice in the galaxies we've encountered," Torres added.
Seven of Nine decided to steer the conversation back to the practical. She didn't see any point on dwelling on the relative disadvantages of the parallel universe the away team had visited. "Captain the technology you described sounds quite promising and would hopefully prove beneficial. I would be interested in going into further detail in regards to this slipstream drive that Andromeda uses, as well as the artificial intelligence."
"I believe Mr. Tuvok is the one that can shed additional light on those subjects for us," Janeway replied. Then the captain nodded at the Tuvok, handing over the briefing to the Vulcan.
Tuvok leaned forward in his chair tapped several buttons on the console on in front of him. "The Tricorder data is ready to be accessed." The Vulcan paused momentarily as he waited for the others to read their monitors. "Slipstream technology is a rather fascinating technology. While I find the technology that allows for travel through slipstream quite fascinating, I am more intrigued by another aspect of it. From what I have been told by Captain Hunt and his crew, the act of navigating slipstream requires very little logic on the part of the pilot. Rather, successful navigation is based on instinct and reflexes."
If the information hadn't come from Tuvok, Chakotay wasn't sure he would have believed his ears. Even coming from Tuvok the idea that people would travel without relying on a set of coordinates seemed unfeasible and dangerous. "And Captain Hunt and his crew don't get lost while traveling through this slipstream?"
"Captain Hunt had Ms. Valentine navigate Andromeda through slipstream while we were onboard and we arrived at our destination without any delay," Tuvok answered patiently.
"How sentient is Andromeda's avatar Mr. Tuvok?" Seven of Nine asked.
The Vulcan put a disk into the console in front of him and pushed and pushed the play button. Brief scenes of AI Rommie performing her duties onboard Andromeda played out on an overhead viewing monitor.
B'Elanna Torres watched the scenes with a cold stare on her face. Torres had expected AI Rommie to be beautiful by human standards, but hadn't expected the highly developed personality displayed in the video.
A wide grin flashed across Paris' face. "If Starfleet implements artificial intelligence on its fleet of ships I hope Rommie will be the model for them."
Torres kicked her husband who was sitting beside the Klingon. Paris winced as the kick connected with his right leg. The helmsman reached a down and rubbed his left ankle.
"I merely meant that if we're going to be serving on ships with avatars then they should at least be good looking," Paris explained.
Seven of Nine sighed in response to the attempted explanation. "I fail to see how physical appearance should have any bearing on whether Starfleet decides to implement artificial intelligence avatars on its fleet."
Tuvok nodded his head in agreement. "I would have to agree with Seven of Nine, Mr. Paris. But I feel the Slipstream schematics that Mr. Harper supplied will be the most helpful to us in the immediate future."
"I came to the same conclusion Mr. Tuvok. Lieutenant Torres, start forming a team to start determining the feasibility of building a slipstream drive on Voyager," Janeway instructed the engineer.
Torres saw the data on slipstream technology and was eager to become acquainted with it. She was hoping Captain Janeway would agree to allow Torres and her engineering staff look into using the new technology. "I'll get right on it Captain."
Chokotay wasn't so sure about the advisability of using a heretofore unknown technology. "I would like to recommend Captain that we precede with caution. We should make sure to thoroughly test the slipstream technology and if it is decided that a slipstream drive is feasible that it first be installed on the Delta Flyer. This way if there is any problem and we lose a ship it won't be Voyager."
"A practical suggestion," Tuvok agreed.
"I for one am interested in hearing more about the practice of medicine in this alternate universe," the EMH announced. "Hopefully there will be something I will find useful in treating all the various injuries and ailments everybody on this ship seems to present to me with."
***
Seamus Harper was happily working on fixing a damaged circuit board on the Andromeda Ascendant. Things had gotten back to normal on the ship after Captain Janeway and the rest of Voyager's away team departed. Harper had to admit to himself that he already missed Lieutenant Paris and Ensign Kim. Paris and Kim were two people that the engineer could talk shop with. Harper found it difficult to talk shop with anybody on Andromeda since they only had a rudimentary knowledge of engineering. While the engineering crew provided courtesy of the Restored Commonwealth knew engineering, they just weren't the kind of people Harper could buddy up to. Paris and Kim understood all of Earth's references and culture.
*** At the same time onboard Voyager Captain Kathryn Janeway's briefing had just ended. B'Elanna Torres made a comment to Tom Paris when the helmsman disappeared before her eyes. Everybody in the room looked at each other in amazement.
Tuvok retained his composure and immediately pull out his Tricorder to take readings. "I am detecting no signs of Lieutenant Paris in this room."
"I don't like the looks of this," Torres announced, the worry evident in her voice.
Janeway instructed Voyager's computer to scan the ship for any sign of Lieutenant Paris. The captain had no illusions that her helmsman was still on board, but the search was part of standard protocol. As expected, the computer's synthetic voice announced that there were no signs that Lieutenant Tom Paris was on board Voyager.
Torres fought to keep her emotions in check. The Klingon side of her wanted to vent her frustration and fear by breaking something. Torres' made use of her Starfleet training. Taking her anger out on the ship wouldn't bring her husband back.
***
Harper sighed as he continued his work on the circuit board. He hoped Voyager and its crew made it back to their Earth. Part of Harper wished he had been able to visit the alternate Earth; just to see what might have been or what could be.
The engineer returned his thoughts back to the circuit board in front of him. Work was one of the only things Harper knew of that would get his mind off things that bothered him. Harper had just begun screwing the circuit board back into place when he was instantaneously transported onto Voyager's bridge. Confused, the engineer looked around and realized he was, not surprisingly, the center of attention. Everybody paused to take in the human that had materialized onboard their ship. Voyager's sensors detected a new life form onboard and the klaxons began sounding, alerting the entire ship of an unauthorized intruder.
Captain Janeway quickly accessed the bridge security cameras and saw Harper standing on the bridge witch half a dozen security personnel pointing phasers at the engineer.
The Andromeda engineer looked at the weapons, similar to a High Guard force lance, and slowly put his hands up above his head. "Okay guys, take it easy. I'm just a harmless little guy from Earth."
Thank you to those who read and those who reviewed this story. Here's another chapter for you all.
************************************************************************
Chapter 2
Lieutenant Torres was on Voyager's bridge briefing Chakotay on the attempt to reconstruct the wormhole when the away team materialized in front of the two officers. Janeway glanced around the bridge and let out a sigh of relief. It already felt good to be back home, such as it was.
Chakotay smiled and stepped forward to greet the away team. "Captain, it's good to have you back."
Janeway returned the commander's smile with one of her own. "Thank you Commander. It's good to be back. And before you ask, I will regale everybody with tales of our latest adventure just as soon as I've had had time to grab a cup of coffee and check my messages. Meet me in my quarters in one hour."
Members of Voyagers senior staff began filing into Janeway's quarters an hour later. Chakotay was the first to arrive. Soon afterwards Torres and Paris arrived, followed closely by Tuvok. Seven of Nine and the Doctor just sat down when Harry Kim arrived. Captain Janeway waited for the ops officer to be seated and began her briefing.
"I've called this meeting because I know you all wanted to know what happened to us on our latest away mission," Janeway began. She knew she was stating the obvious, but the captain wanted to give herself time to observe each member of her senior staff before beginning her story.
Seven of Nine was cool and calm, but Janeway detected a hint of curiosity in the blonde crewmember's blue eyes. Chakotay and Torres shifted in their chairs, anxious to hear the details of what Q had done to the away team.
Paris and Kim smiled at each other, anticipating the reaction to Janeway's story. Tuvok, as usual remained calm, although the Vulcan was eager to share his analysis of the Tricorder readings he had brought back. Tuvok had made sure to check his Tricorder immediately upon returning to Voyager, making sure none of the data had been erased or corrupted. While waiting for Janeway to prepare for her briefing, the Vulcan downloaded the Tricorder readings to Voyager's computer for additional analysis and future storage.
Janeway took a long sip of coffee before retelling the story of the away team's adventure onboard the Andromeda Ascendant. Chakotay maintained a fascinated expression throughout the story. Kim almost couldn't contain his amusement when he saw Torres glare at Paris when Janeway described Rommie and Beka. For his part, Paris maintained a look of utter innocence. Janeway ended the briefing with additional details of slipstream and holographic technologies.
"It sounds as if you had quite an interesting journey Captain," Chakotay commented once his mind had taken in the story. "It sounds as if the parallel universe is quite a brutal place where the strong take advantage of the weak without any kind of organization to oppose them."
"It makes me grateful to be living in our universe. While we have the Borg and other threats, at least there is some form of law and justice in the galaxies we've encountered," Torres added.
Seven of Nine decided to steer the conversation back to the practical. She didn't see any point on dwelling on the relative disadvantages of the parallel universe the away team had visited. "Captain the technology you described sounds quite promising and would hopefully prove beneficial. I would be interested in going into further detail in regards to this slipstream drive that Andromeda uses, as well as the artificial intelligence."
"I believe Mr. Tuvok is the one that can shed additional light on those subjects for us," Janeway replied. Then the captain nodded at the Tuvok, handing over the briefing to the Vulcan.
Tuvok leaned forward in his chair tapped several buttons on the console on in front of him. "The Tricorder data is ready to be accessed." The Vulcan paused momentarily as he waited for the others to read their monitors. "Slipstream technology is a rather fascinating technology. While I find the technology that allows for travel through slipstream quite fascinating, I am more intrigued by another aspect of it. From what I have been told by Captain Hunt and his crew, the act of navigating slipstream requires very little logic on the part of the pilot. Rather, successful navigation is based on instinct and reflexes."
If the information hadn't come from Tuvok, Chakotay wasn't sure he would have believed his ears. Even coming from Tuvok the idea that people would travel without relying on a set of coordinates seemed unfeasible and dangerous. "And Captain Hunt and his crew don't get lost while traveling through this slipstream?"
"Captain Hunt had Ms. Valentine navigate Andromeda through slipstream while we were onboard and we arrived at our destination without any delay," Tuvok answered patiently.
"How sentient is Andromeda's avatar Mr. Tuvok?" Seven of Nine asked.
The Vulcan put a disk into the console in front of him and pushed and pushed the play button. Brief scenes of AI Rommie performing her duties onboard Andromeda played out on an overhead viewing monitor.
B'Elanna Torres watched the scenes with a cold stare on her face. Torres had expected AI Rommie to be beautiful by human standards, but hadn't expected the highly developed personality displayed in the video.
A wide grin flashed across Paris' face. "If Starfleet implements artificial intelligence on its fleet of ships I hope Rommie will be the model for them."
Torres kicked her husband who was sitting beside the Klingon. Paris winced as the kick connected with his right leg. The helmsman reached a down and rubbed his left ankle.
"I merely meant that if we're going to be serving on ships with avatars then they should at least be good looking," Paris explained.
Seven of Nine sighed in response to the attempted explanation. "I fail to see how physical appearance should have any bearing on whether Starfleet decides to implement artificial intelligence avatars on its fleet."
Tuvok nodded his head in agreement. "I would have to agree with Seven of Nine, Mr. Paris. But I feel the Slipstream schematics that Mr. Harper supplied will be the most helpful to us in the immediate future."
"I came to the same conclusion Mr. Tuvok. Lieutenant Torres, start forming a team to start determining the feasibility of building a slipstream drive on Voyager," Janeway instructed the engineer.
Torres saw the data on slipstream technology and was eager to become acquainted with it. She was hoping Captain Janeway would agree to allow Torres and her engineering staff look into using the new technology. "I'll get right on it Captain."
Chokotay wasn't so sure about the advisability of using a heretofore unknown technology. "I would like to recommend Captain that we precede with caution. We should make sure to thoroughly test the slipstream technology and if it is decided that a slipstream drive is feasible that it first be installed on the Delta Flyer. This way if there is any problem and we lose a ship it won't be Voyager."
"A practical suggestion," Tuvok agreed.
"I for one am interested in hearing more about the practice of medicine in this alternate universe," the EMH announced. "Hopefully there will be something I will find useful in treating all the various injuries and ailments everybody on this ship seems to present to me with."
***
Seamus Harper was happily working on fixing a damaged circuit board on the Andromeda Ascendant. Things had gotten back to normal on the ship after Captain Janeway and the rest of Voyager's away team departed. Harper had to admit to himself that he already missed Lieutenant Paris and Ensign Kim. Paris and Kim were two people that the engineer could talk shop with. Harper found it difficult to talk shop with anybody on Andromeda since they only had a rudimentary knowledge of engineering. While the engineering crew provided courtesy of the Restored Commonwealth knew engineering, they just weren't the kind of people Harper could buddy up to. Paris and Kim understood all of Earth's references and culture.
*** At the same time onboard Voyager Captain Kathryn Janeway's briefing had just ended. B'Elanna Torres made a comment to Tom Paris when the helmsman disappeared before her eyes. Everybody in the room looked at each other in amazement.
Tuvok retained his composure and immediately pull out his Tricorder to take readings. "I am detecting no signs of Lieutenant Paris in this room."
"I don't like the looks of this," Torres announced, the worry evident in her voice.
Janeway instructed Voyager's computer to scan the ship for any sign of Lieutenant Paris. The captain had no illusions that her helmsman was still on board, but the search was part of standard protocol. As expected, the computer's synthetic voice announced that there were no signs that Lieutenant Tom Paris was on board Voyager.
Torres fought to keep her emotions in check. The Klingon side of her wanted to vent her frustration and fear by breaking something. Torres' made use of her Starfleet training. Taking her anger out on the ship wouldn't bring her husband back.
***
Harper sighed as he continued his work on the circuit board. He hoped Voyager and its crew made it back to their Earth. Part of Harper wished he had been able to visit the alternate Earth; just to see what might have been or what could be.
The engineer returned his thoughts back to the circuit board in front of him. Work was one of the only things Harper knew of that would get his mind off things that bothered him. Harper had just begun screwing the circuit board back into place when he was instantaneously transported onto Voyager's bridge. Confused, the engineer looked around and realized he was, not surprisingly, the center of attention. Everybody paused to take in the human that had materialized onboard their ship. Voyager's sensors detected a new life form onboard and the klaxons began sounding, alerting the entire ship of an unauthorized intruder.
Captain Janeway quickly accessed the bridge security cameras and saw Harper standing on the bridge witch half a dozen security personnel pointing phasers at the engineer.
The Andromeda engineer looked at the weapons, similar to a High Guard force lance, and slowly put his hands up above his head. "Okay guys, take it easy. I'm just a harmless little guy from Earth."