Chapter Two - Timeship
"…Federation Timeship Dakota, requesting immediate temporal escape clearance. Please, respond. Our temporal drive has been disabled by what we expect to be sabotage. The stealth systems have also been rendered inoperative. We are exposed to the current time frame, and our def…" The speakers abruptly stopped, causing Kathryn Janeway to look up at her ops officer.
"Mister Kim?" She asked from a standing position in front of her chair.
"It just stopped." He replied, after checking his computer panel. Chakotay stood up next to the captain.
"Timeship?" He said to Janeway. She shrugged her shoulders in response.
"Seven of Nine to the bridge." The comm chimed. Janeway leaned over to Chakotay and whispered:
"I bet she has something to contribute to the situation." He grinned. Janeway cleared her voice, and spoke louder. "Bridge here go ahead, Seven."
"I have located the source of the transmission. It is approximately two lightyears from our current position. I advise caution, it seems that the area of space surrounding the vessel is in a state of temporal flux." Janeway raised her eyebrows.
"Noted, thanks Seven. Tom, lay in a course, best speed."
"Yes, Ma'am. Course plotted and laid in."
"Engage." Janeway said, as she sat down in her chair and looked over at her trusted first officer – who seemed to be thinking exactly what she was.
"A Federation Timeship, in trouble. This trip just gets getting more interesting by the day." He said.
"You got that right." Janeway replied, as she looked toward the view screen, and wondering what this Timeship held in store for them.
--
Voyager rocked mildly, causing Janeway to stand up. "What was that?" She asked Tuvok.
"It seemed to be a temporal shockwave, very mild. Shields are holding." He replied, calmly.
"Captain, we are closing on the ship. Its within visual range." Tom said from the helm. Janeway turned back toward him.
"Onscreen." Voyagers main view screen suddenly activated, displaying nothing but stars. Janeway frowned, and turned back to Tuvok. "Where is it?"
"Standby," Tuvok started. "Captain, look at the viewscreen." He said. She whirled back around, and raised her eyebrows. A blue glowing mist seemed to be surrounding a semi-cloaked ship. The ship, what little Janeway could make out, seemed to be a little smaller than Voyager, with a completely different hull configuration. Suddenly, the ship completely disappeared, leaving the mist around it outlining the silhouette of the ship. Janeway turned over to Kim.
"Harry, what do you suppose is going on? And what is that blue stuff?" She said, as she pointed at the screen.
"Captain, the sensors can't make anything of the mist. My guess would be its fluid from some form of propulsion system we haven't encountered yet. As for the ship appearing and disappearing, I would guess it's a malfunctioning cloak."
"I concur." Tuvok said from the other side of the room. Janeway stared at the image on her screen for a moment longer.
"Tuvok, open hailing frequencies."
--
"Sir, the axxom reactor is overloading! I can't keep the core temperature down very much longer, much less the stealth system!" The chief engineer's voice boomed through the loudspeakers on the bridge of the Dakota.
Captain Deryck Janeway - a descendent of Kathryn Janeway herself – held onto the armrests of his chair as his ship shook beneath him.
"Captain, I'm telling you the ship isn't going to hold together if we keep pushing our resources into the stealth system. We need to disengage it immediately if we are going to survive!" The words rang in his ears. If I disengage the stealth system, we immediately start breaking rules. If I don't, we get destroyed. Dammit. Deryck Janeway did not like breaking rules.
"Captain, Voyager is hailing us." Serena Taylor, the Dakotas communications officer spoke up over the commotion on the bridge. He shot his eyes over to her.
"Audio and one way only, lets hear them." He replied to her. His ship rocked again from an explosion many decks below his feet.
"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. Do you require assistance? We received your distress call." The speakers crackled. He shot an icy glare over at Serena.
"That distress signal was supposed to be along the temporal wavebands! I didn't want you to send it through subspace!" He yelled at her.
"I didn't!" She yelled back. "the computer says I sent it via temporalsync, not subspace!" She replied.
"Damn." Suddenly, a very large rumble shook the ship.
"Engine room to bridge, we have huge problems down here!"
"How big?" Deryck Janeway snapped.
"Um – as in I just ejected the axxom core. Tractor emitters are shot, hail Voyager and tell them to remodulate their tractor beam to a frequency of six point nine terahertz, and lock onto the core. That should stabilize it."
"Damn! You ejected the core?" Suddenly, he felt the ejection rockets firing, sending the unstable sleek silver axxom core sliding out into space. A moment later, the stealth system went offline, causing the Timeship to become visible. Deryck Janeway turned back to his comm officer. "Open the channel, now."
--
"Captain, they are responding." Kim said from his station. Janeway started to open her mouth, but Tuvok cut her off.
"Captain, something just ejected from what seems to be the engineering section of that ship… it is emitting very strong temporal energy."
"Noted Tuvok. Tom, keep us clear of whatever it is they just dumped. Harry, put them through." Janeway said. Suddenly, Voyagers viewscreen sparkled to life. A younger captain appeared on the screen, with a uniform Janeway didn't recognize. However, his comm badge vaguely resembled the widely used ones of Starfleet. The image shook briefly, and then man stood up.
"My name is Deryck Janeway, of the Federation Timeship Dakota. Our tractor emitters have been damaged, and our axxom core is about to breach. You need to lock onto it with your tractor beam at a frequency of six point nine terahertz, and that should stabilize it. Please, both our ships will be destroyed if that core is not stabilized."
Janeway stalled a moment from hearing her own name, then turned to Kim.
"Do it." Harry keyed in a chain of commands, which activated Voyagers tractor beam.
"I've got it, Captain."
"Our readings show it is stabilizing. Thank you." The man on the viewscreen stopped for a moment, as someone walked up to him and whispered something into his ear. "Captain Janeway, please hold the core until we complete repairs. Dakota out." The viewscreen flicked to an outer view of the now-visible Dakota.
"Not very chatty." Chakotay said, as he walked up to Kathrnys side.
"Definitely not. If that thing is a timeship from our own future, that captain has to keep our conversations very limited so that he does not pollute the timeline."
"Captain," Harry spoke up, "didn't that man address himself as Deryck Janeway?" Tom swiveled his chair around to face the rest of the command staff.
"You never know, that man could be your great great great great great grandson, Captain." Janeway grinned at him.
"We may never know, Tom." She replied to his remark.
"Seven of Nine to Janeway." Sevens voice suddenly came from Janeways comm badge.
"Janeway here." She replied.
"I have been scanning that core that the Dakota ejected into space, and there is something I believe you might want to see." Janeway nodded.
"Be there in a moment, Janeway out. Chakotay, your with me."