Chapter Five – The Crash
"Red Alert!" Commander Cavit yelled, as the ship rocked to its side. A moment later, Janeway came jogging out of her ready room.
"Report." She said quickly, assuming a standing position in front of her chair. Tuvok responded to her query.
"An EPS transfer junction overloaded on deck four, starboard side." Janeway frowned.
"There isn't anything there besides crew quarters, is there?" She asked.
"Crew quarters, and transporter control." He responded.
"Torres to Janeway." The comm system cracked to life.
"Janeway here." She replied, as she put her hands on her hips.
"That explosion came from room 21, that's Hogans quarters, and I can't raise him on the comm!" Janeway frowned.
"Send a team in to assess the damage. I'll see if we can find Hogan. Janeway out." Janeway stood in thought for a moment. "Computer, locate Hogan."
-Ensign Hogan is not aboard Voyager. The computer replied.
"What?" Janeway said with concern, suddenly the ship jolted wildly throwing everybody to the floor. "What the hell was that?" Janeway said as she jumped back up. The collision alert siren was blaring loudly. Ensign Kim hauled himself back up to his station, and checked.
"Captain, there is something big in front of us!" He said, as he punched a button, activating the main view screen. Reid Target looked up from the helm, and swiveled his chair around facing Janeway.
"That's a planet! We are about to hit a planet!" He yelled, as he turned back to the Helm.
"Pull us up!" Janeway yelled, as she jumped into her chair, holding onto the armrests.
"I cant!" He said quickly, after harshly prodding his panel. "We are already too far in, I need to implement an emergency landing!" He said, still pressing buttons.
"Do it!" Janeway said, as the bridge rocked from side to side. "Computer, blue alert!" The bridge shook violently, as the lighting turned blue. Reid Target keyed in some commands, as the thrusters came online, trying to slow their rapid decent.
"Hang on!" Target yelled over the commotion, hoping he could put the ship down in one piece.
--
Torres groaned, as she attempted to stand up. She realized however, that she was being restricted by a large heavy object. Ensign Conahan, already up came to assist her.
"Are you ok, Lieutenant?" She said, as she helped B'Elanna push the heavy beam off.
"I've been better. What happened?" Torres said as she stood up. Then she looked around the room. "Oh my…" She mumbled. Every display in the room was shattered, rubble was everywhere, parts of the walls were burnt, and there were injured crewmembers scattered around the entire room. She glanced up at the warp core. It was offline.
"I think we landed the ship… or at least crash landed." She muttered as she looked around. Then she pointed at the core. "You were knocked out before we hit, I shut down the matter/antimatter flow and locked the magnetic constrictors right before we struck, thank goodness the core did not breach."
"Yeah. So what works and what's broke?" B'Elanna said as she walked over to a flickering panel. It was frozen. She then glanced back at her fallen comrades, and pressed her comm badge. "B'Elanna to Sickbay, medical teams to Engineering."
"It's useless, the intership comm system is down." Conahan said.
"That doesn't explain why our badges don't work." She said, as she looked around the shattered room. "What the hell did we hit?"
--
Katheryn Janeway was seeing stars.
"Dammit." She muttered, as she looked up. The glare from the light was so intense, she had to look back down until her eyes adjusted. She looked back up, and gasped. The entire ceiling of the bridge was ripped away, revealing a blue sky! "Everyone, report." She said, as she stood up and looked around. Her heart sank as she looked around her bridge. The room was a disaster. The helm console, as well as her helm officer were completely gone. She turned around and looked behind her. Tuvok, Kim and Cavit were all on the ground starting to come to. She noticed all of the computer panels had been severed and must have flown out from the tear in the top of the bridge. Cavit was the first on his feet.
"Oh my… where is…" He stopped, as he looked up. "oh, damn." Kim groaned as he stood up.
"Captain…" He started to say until he realized the intense sunlight. He stopped, and stared speechless. Tuvok looked around the room, and then walked down to Janeways side.
"We need to get a casualty assessment, and find out the extent of the damage to the ship." He said, holding his voice steady. Janeway stared at the shattered viewscreen in the front of the room, and then looked up at the white clouds.
"Do a deck by deck search, find all of the remaining crew that is alive. Gather everyone up in cargo bay…" She stopped, thinking. "Bring them here. We'll climb out on top of the ship, and find out where the hell we are. That way we can have everyone walk around it, and get a visual assessment of the damage. Get all the tricorders you can find, as well. I have a feeling we are going to need them." She said softy. Tuvok nodded, and left. She turned to Cavit and Kim. "Commander Cavit, Ensign Kim. Go find some antigravity lifts, we are going to need them to get out that rip in the ceiling." They nodded, and left the bridge. She stood there alone, looking around. "Damn." She muttered, as she walked to her ready room, and pried the doors open. A blast of fresh air hit her in the face. She smiled softly as she looked in the room. The windows had completely shattered, leaving an easy walkway out onto the outer hull. She walked around to the back of her desk, and grabbed a tricorder. She flipped it open, and the small holographic display activated. She set it to scan as wide as its sensors could, and then she started walking toward the window. She stepped up on her couch, and then out onto the hull of her once-mighty starship. She gasped at the sight on the horizon.
--
B'Elannas head was killing her. Not knowing what was happening on the rest of the ship was about to drive her insane, so she was trying not to think about it. Instead, she was trying to concentrate on getting things in Engineering a little less chaotic. It wasn't working. She watched Conahan drag five dead engineers by the door, and line them up for when they were found. B'Elanna found herself worrying about Hogan. She hoped he was alright. Glancing at the warp core, she wondered just how hard they had landed. She remembered blacking out while the ship was going through extreme turbulence, almost like they were landing. Suddenly, she heard voices outside the main doors. She turned, and looked towards them. Conahan was already near them, and she jumped back and grabbed a phaser. B'Elanna backed up, and reached for a phaser as well. Tuvoks strong arm forced the doors open, and Conahan and Torres lowered their weapons.
"Ensign Conahan, Lieutenant Torres." He said, as he entered the door, with a security team of four. He glanced down at the five dead crewmembers. "Are you two the only ones alive down here?" He asked, as he glanced around the room.
"Unfortunately." B'Elanna said, as she stepped foreword.
"Regretful. What is the status of the warp core?" Tuvok asked as he walked further into the room. Conahan and Torres exchanged glances, then B'Elanna cleared her throat.
"Um, its not good. We aren't even sure how bad the damage is yet, everything down here is useless at the moment. All of the tricorders and comm badges are inoperative."
"Interesting." He said, and glanced around one more time. "The captain has ordered everyone to the bridge, on our landing the top part of the hull was… severed. She intends to have a ship wide meeting on top of the ship, and then have everyone scout out the damage."
"Great, you mean Voyager now has a sunroof?" B'Elanna said sarcastically. Tuvok glanced at her. "Hogan!" Did you check deck four, room 21? That's where he is supposed to be!" She said. Tuvok glanced back at his security detail, and all of them looked at the floor.
"Lieutenant Torres, most of the starboard side of the ship is missing. It seems to have been torn off while we were landing."
--
Katheryn Janeway stood speechless at the city on the horizon. It was so far away, she would not have been able to see it if it wasn't for its mass. The city was enormous. From what she could see, it had massive buildings, reaching as high as the eye could see. She shook it off, and turned around and looked at her ship. She couldn't see much from where she was standing, so she climbed up as far as she could, and walked toward the bridge. She stopped when she got to the edge, and looked down. The ceiling of just the bridge had been ripped off, apparently. She looked down, and saw Cavit and Kim walk into the room below her.
"Captain?" Kim said, as he looked around the empty bridge.
"Up here, Mister Kim." She said from the top of the ship. Kim looked up. "How did you get up there? We couldn't find any functioning antigrav lifts."
"Go through my ready room. The windows are broken out. I'll wait for you." Kim and Cavit nodded, and disappeared from her sight. She looked back at the city, and then remembered the tricorder she was holding. She flipped it open, and ran a scan of the ship. Cavit and Kim climbed up behind her.
"Captain, look." Cavit said, as he pointed behind them. Janeway turned, and her mouth dropped open. There was a field behind them, with mountains behind that. As far as they could see, were drag marks from Voyager skidding across the land. She glanced to the starboard side of the ship, and gasped. It had been completely ripped away.
--
B'Elanna climbed up beside Janeway, who was staring at the missing segment of the ship. "Damn…" B'Elanna muttered. She looked back toward the mountains, and then noticed something strange. She squinted her eyes, and noticed some of the trees on one of the mountains were flickering. She concentrated hard, and looked at them some more… something was familiar about how they were doing it. She suddenly realized it. She was on a holodeck!