Punishment
A normally boring night shift becomes almost deadly and they meet a man with nothing lose and nothing to gain by what he does.
Authors Note: I know my story is riddled with potential or very actual plot holes, as I have no beta reader. So you can either take the story as what it is, a story and therefore with a pinch of salt or you can point out the big ones and I will adapt the story accordingly.
Just so you know I own none of the Voyager characters, the ship or any of the ideas put forth in the series I am just borrowing them for the purpose of this story.
Chapter 2: StorytimeThe transporter beam whirred into life as their guest had materialise aboard their vessel. Captain Janeway was standing on the deck as was Commander Chakotay and Tuvok all now dressed in their Starfleet uniforms now. Harry was at the controls performing the transport. Lieutenant Hartstone appeared on the platform and got his bearings before looking down at the three figures before him
"Good morning I am Captain Kathryn Janeway and this is my first officer Commander Chakotay, and my Chief of Security Lieutenant Commander Tuvok"
"Lieutenant Simon Hartstone of the USS Sword good morning" he replied he looked at the first officer before saying "You do have something to tell me starting why you have a Maquis commander as your first officer"
"Long story short we have been thrown into the Delta Quadrant by a life form known as the Caretaker along with Commander Chakotay and his Maquis ship after the Commander sacrificed his ship to save this one we integrated his Maquis crew into my Starfleet one and we have been a well oiled machine ever since"
"Well there were a few teething problems at the start" the Commander interjected smiling slightly
"There were weren't there" she smiled back "But we are a well oiled machine now"
"Fascinating" Lieutenant Hartstone, said as they finished the story.
"What about you" the Captain turned back to their guest
"My story has no short version only the long and the very long version"
"Well we are going to meet the rest of my senior staff for breakfast, I think your story would be a great thing to discuss over breakfast"
"Fair enough I have not eaten anything yet either" he replied
"Do you have any other crew members?" Tuvok questioned
"Nope just me alone with my thoughts." Tuvok raised his eyebrow, they got to the mess hall, there were a few crewmembers having their breakfast before their shifts started, they turned to look at the three most senior officers on Voyager walk in with a stranger and sit at the far table were the rest of the senior staff was sitting. Mr Hartstone sat as the Captain went round the table introducing everyone
"The rest of my senior staff, Lieutenants Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres Chief Pilot and Chief Engineer respectively, Ensign Harry Kim Chief Operations officer, The Doctor Chief Medical Officer, Mr. Neelix Ships Ambassador, Morale Officer, Head Chef and hundreds of other duties that would take to long to recount" she smiled at him a little before continuing "and last but certainly not least Seven of Nine my Astrometrics officer."
"Lieutenant Simon Hartstone" he went round the table shaking everyone's hand "She's a former drone, that's pretty rare only the toughest make it back to humanity after assimilation"
"Mr Hartstone sit, what's your pleasure" Neelix said
"What's on the menu?"
"Scrambled eggs and toast, cheese omelette…." he stopped Neelix before he could get any further
"Scrambled eggs would be fine" Neelix bolted off to cook up the eggs for their guest Tom waited until Neelix was well out of earshot before whispering
"We all take our own lives into our hands every day by eating Neelix's cooking" he smiled
"Well I have been living off Starfleet emergency rations for the past 5 years, anything would be a welcome luxury even if it does include a little food poisoning."
Neelix had returned with Simon's scrambled eggs and toast and picked up on the conversation "Emergency rations for the last 5 years how horrible" he gasped
"You get used to the taste" and he thought before returning "or lack their-of after the first hundred portions or so" he smiled as he tucked into his eggs
"How long have you been in the Delta Quadrant?" Harry asked
"The last 10 years"
"Ouch 10 years in the Delta Quadrant how did you end up here in the first place?"
"Assimilation"
"You were assimilated" Seven spoke up
"Indeed I was" he lifted up a tuft of his unkempt hair to reveal a piece of cranial plating as well as he lifted up his shirt to reveal another star shaped implant on the left side of his stomach. "Suffice to say I still have implants all over my body as well as nanoprobes swimming around my blood, also" he pointed to his missing eye lifting up the patch to reveal another implant "haven't found a replacement for this eye yet" the Doctor jumped in
"Well maybe there is something I can do about that, Seven's left eye is a prosthetic eye. When were you assimilated?" The Doctor asked
"Stardate 42761.3 Doctor …… you got a name don't you?" Simon was fishing for a name again
"I'm sorry I don't have a name I'm a emergency medical hologram after the medical staff of Voyager was killed by our journey into the Delta Quadrant I have been active ever since"
"Did you say Stardate 42761.3 Mr Hartstone?" Seven was in deep thought as she thought of something
"I did" he wasn't smiling but he wasn't frowning but he knew what she was going to say
"What is it Seven?" The Captain said with a quizzical look on her face
"Captain Stardate 42761.3 was the date the entity known as Q threw the USS Enterprise D into the path of the first Borg cube" they all turned back to Simon he looked straight at them through his one eye and just replied
"Yep, three sections of three decks of the Enterprise were removed from the ship for study I just happened to be on one of those decks at the time"
"Bad luck eh" Harry jumped in
"Yep horrendously bad as it happens the worst luck of my life"
"So what happened who pulled the plug on your link?" Tom asked
"No one in fact about 6 years ago a freak power surge in the cube I was serving on severed my neural connection, with a combination of guile, cunning, a bit of brawling and good luck I managed to beam to a planet. The Borg must have deemed me irrelevant or unable to survive outside of the collective or both because they never come back for me. A found a colony and after quashing initial fears of a Borg invasion they managed to remove most of my implants. I then odd jobbed my way round the Quadrant for a bit before I found a world decimated by the Borg all signs of life and technology removed. That's when I decided some one had to step up and fight back. I found a Borg assimilation yard where I found a number of vessels being stripped for materials and technology and that's when I found the USS Sword, so I took it back and I managed to evade a sphere by flying into a nebula."
"Why didn't you fight you made destroying that sphere" B'Elanna pointed out the window "look easy" she finished
"The Sword was stripped I had to control everything manually and you cannot fight if you have no weapons, the phaser banks were offline and there were no torpedoes to fire"
"It is not like Borg to leave a Drone behind," Seven added
"I know but I'm here so I am not complaining about their change of heart"
"Why didn't you set a course for home like we are doing you surely can't think you can fight the Borg single handily?" Tom said
"I can sure as hell try and there is nothing left for me at home"
"What about family" Janeway interrupted
"My brothers were assimilated at the battle of Wolf 359 when their thoughts became one with mine I found out that my mother and father were killed by the Borg a few years before when they ran into a cube scouting the area for the attack on the Alpha Quadrant, and I was married to the uniform at the time."
"What about Aunt's and Uncle's any of them" Harry said
"None both my parents were only children, of course there were friends of family that I considered Aunts and Uncles when very young but I'd probably think they would have moved on"
"Yep" that's all he could say the memories still ran deep, the shared thoughts of him and his brothers always hit home. Janeway sensed that story time was over for now
"Captain I suggest we move our ships away from this Borg debris fields as you may know or not know the Borg have the habit of returning to salvage any functioning equipment, I can tell the Sword to match your course and speed."
"Ok Mr. Hartstone that does seem like the most prudent course of action in the meantime, Doctor I think that you should take Mr Hartstone to sickbay to fit him for that prosthetic eye, everyone else can go about their business I'll be on the bridge if you need me" Janeway got up an exited as everyone else stood
"Mr Paris can you assist me in Sickbay"
"I have a duty shift on the bridge to begin soon"
"Don't worry about it Tom" Chakotay said "assist the Doctor I will tell the Captain where you are"
"Aye Sir"