Author's note:
This story is a bit of a "what if". I don't know if you'd call it an AU, but I've always enjoyed playing around with timelines. Too much Dr Who I guess. So anyway, here it goes…
---oOo---
2381. Ten years after USS Voyager was transported to the Delta Quadrant……
Captain Nicholas Andreas emerged from the turbolift and turned right, eliciting a smile and an "Evening sir" from a young ensign who was waiting outside to catch it. He dabbed a napkin to his mouth as he walked, hoping to remove any final traces of the dessert he had just consumed in the mess hall. In his other hand was a thick, leather bound book. Stopping outside a door, he turned and - ignoring the chime button - knocked hard on the metal panel.
"Stupid chimes still drive me nuts", he thought to himself, just as a muffled "come in, Captain" issued from inside the quarters and the door slid open.
Inside an Asian woman was sitting, staring at a computer terminal which was slowly scrolling through some report or technical readout. She touched a button on the terminal and made to stand as the captain entered the room.
Andreas waved a hand dismissively, causing her to resume her seat. He smiled at her.
"Commander Lim" he said, pulling up the adjacent chair.
"Captain Andreas" she responded, a little more formally as she smoothed a wrinkle in her uniform. "I figured it was you"
"A little late to be reading ship's reports isn't it?" Andres responded. "We missed you at dinner tonight"
In fact it wasn't the first time the Commander had skipped dinner, he thought to himself. Outside of their duty stations, the crew barely saw the commander at all. Andreas thought about broaching the subject with her, but decided to leave it alone for now. Sometimes people just needed some space.
"I just wanted to go over a few things" She glanced at the book in his left hand. "Been doing some reading yourself sir?"
Captain Andreas flipped the book over so that the spine faced the commander. She tilted her head to read the title imprinted along it
"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" she read aloud.
"It's a great book. You're welcome to borrow it when I've finished"
"Umm…I've never really been into classic literature" Lim responded. "Trashy holo-novels are about my limit"
The captain smirked
"But anyway sir, you needed me for something?"
"Oh, nothing urgent" he replied. "I was actually just wandering back to my quarters. I thought I'd stop in before knocking off for the night". He paused briefly.
Come to think of it – has there been any update on the probes from Wilson yet?"
"Not yet sir. I checked in two hours ago and he was still going over some of the probe configurations. They've been having problems with some of the scanner setups."
"He did say that things are looking promising", she added, "and that he believes the probe deployment can still go ahead as planned tomorrow."
"Good….good."
There was another few seconds of awkward silence. Andreas surmised that he would get little conversation out of the commander tonight.
Hmmm, well, Wilson's probably turning in now too. I'll check with him first thing tomorrow"
"Very good sir"
The captain got up from the chair to leave. The commander followed his lead and stood.
Andreas tapped his book. "Well, I'm going to get in a few more chapters before getting to sleep."
He turned to leave, then paused.
"Sarah" he said in a fatherly tone of voice. "You've been working extremely hard lately. Why don't you get in a few hours on the holodeck with one of those 'trashy' novels of yours"
The commander smiled briefly again "I'll try sir".
"Well …..goodnight Commander"
'Goodnight sir'
The door slid open as the captain left the room, heading for his quarters, leaving the room in silence. Sarah returned to her chair and resumed studying the terminal readout. After a few minutes, she found herself staring off into space again. Rising, she snapped the terminal shut and headed out into the now deserted corridor outside her quarters. She scanned the corridor then, turning, she headed for the turbolift. The door slid open; she entered the lift, and then stopped. For a brief moment, Sarah almost considered taking the captain up on his advice, but decided that she couldn't stomach a holo-novel right now.
She gave the command for the turbolift to head for the bridge.
---oOo---
The bridge door opened to reveal an area largely devoid of people and activity. Only four crewmembers were at their stations, and the bridge lights were dimmed, giving the room a feel quite different to when it was daytime. Of course "day" and 'night" aboard a starship were abstract concepts, but the changes helped the crew keep in step with their body's needs for activity and sleep, as well as helping to ward off disorientation.
A stocky blonde woman occupied the captain's chair. A middle-aged Bajoran male was at Ops. A Vulcan male, who looked to be around 40 was at the tactical station. Lastly a young man, barely beyond his teens, was at the helm.
In contrast to the atmosphere on the bridge, the view screen showed a scene that was anything but devoid of activity. Out ahead, it displayed a massive cloud of swirling gas and particles. The screen itself flickered every minute or so, the result of strong electronic interference. The crew turned to face the new presence, then acknowledged the commander formally when they realised who had just emerged through the doors.
The stocky blonde rose from the captain's chair and made way, expecting the commander to sit. Sarah instead remained standing, but turned to face her.
"Any change in status Lieutenant?" Lim queried.
"No m'am. No signs of any other vessels, Romulan or otherwise. Engineering continues to report full power available. All shipboard systems within limits."
"We're continuing to run the scans requested by Lieutenant Wilson prior to the probe launches tomorrow. she added. "Obviously, we can only get extremely limited range, due to all this EM interference, but it all looks good".
"Very good" the commander responded.
The commander strode over to the tactical station. The Vulcan male, who had returned to scanning intently following the commanders entrance, rose and moved aside. The commander scanned the readouts scrolling across the screen, then smiled briefly at the Vulcan before backing away. As he made to resume pouring over the data, Sarah made for the captains chair.
As the ensign who occupied it moved an adjacent station, Sarah settled into the captain's seat. She gave a cursory look to the computer display embedded into the armrest, then stared out through the viewer at the maelstrom that surrounded them.
For several minutes the bridge crew kept glancing across at the commander from their stations, all wondering what the commander was doing on the bridge so late, waiting for some instruction or changes to their mission. But none came. Gradually they drifted back to their own worlds, privately wishing their superior would return to her quarters for some well deserved sleep.
The interest in the Commander Lim's sleep habits was not all pragmatic of course. One of the advantages of being on the "night shift" was the absence of senior personnel. Crew assigned to the night roster did what was required of them of course, as would any Starfleet officer. Indeed the night shift engineering crew maintained that they ran the warp drive a fraction of a percentage more efficiently than their daytime counterparts. But there was always a different, more casual feel to the ship at night.
But that feel was absent from the bridge at this very moment, as Commander Lim continued to survey the main viewer. The blonde Lieutenant, who had relinquished the Captain's chair for the second's position some minutes earlier, stole a glance at the commander and noticed that although gazing intently at the viewer, she seemed to be lost in her thoughts. And she was.
Sarah Lim - Starfleet officer. Several years ago she had been content with her civilian career in medicine. After her graduation, she had been appointed to a prime research position based in Zurich. For someone in their late twenties, who could ask for much more? And then she met Jack.
Jack had been a Starfleet engineer based in San Francisco. He was tall, he was intelligent. He was charming and witty. It was almost love at first sight. It hadn't taken long for a relationship to blossom between the pair. They met whenever they could. Cafés in the Swiss Mountains, walks by the San Francisco Bay shores. With the availability of transporters, shuttles and the like, living on opposite sides of the Earth hadn't been a problem.
The problem was her job. While her relationship with Jack grew, her career seemed to stagnate. Her area of research just wasn't in vogue anymore, and many of the people she looked up to in her department moved to other areas. Her friends kept imploring her to get out too.
"You're wasting yourself here," they would say. "You've got such a great brain on your shoulders, you should change direction".
"Why not move to one of the major offworld teaching hospitals. Or maybe Harvard Medical. Or Starfleet."
Starfleet had seemed like the answer to her problems. And Jack was only too keen to help her through the enlistment process. And though she was offered a position with Starfleet Medical on Earth, she had chosen instead to take a promising position as second in command of the medial team on the research vessel USS Nova. Finally, things were back on track. Her commander had soon taken her aside and told her she had the makings of a Chief Medical Officer. Maybe she would even get her own starship one day.
With all so much research to do, so many papers to write and submit, with all the prospects of promotion hanging in front of her, she barely noticed that she and Jack were going separate ways. Holo-messages and the occasional shore leave simply didn't make up for the months spent apart.
By the time she was promoted to Chief Medical Officer, the letters had finally stopped. Now here she sat, with the rank of Commander and second in command of the USS Anzac. And Jack was far away, living a separate life back on Earth, a life that she could have been a part of. Somehow now her current rank, the accolades she had received, the genuine encouragement from senior staff, meant much less now than it did before. She realised that the last time she had been truly happy was with Jack. And now Jack was gone.
"Commander"
Sarah startled and jumped. Momentarily disoriented, she looked around for the source of the voice.
"Commander"
Is was Muroc. She fought to regain her composure.
"Yes, Muroc"
"Commander, I am detecting an object off the port bow…….it appears to be a vessel of some kind"
Sarah tensed. Had they been found already, before they could carry out their mission? There were certainly no other fleet movements in this area of space, and given the current situation it was unlikely any civilain vessel would risk a journey into this part of the quadrant. Which appeared to leave only one possible explanation. Romulans.
Sarah addressed the Vulcan. "Is it a Romulan ship?"
"Please stand by, I am having difficultly penetrating the EM interference with our scans" came the response. The Vulcan was hunched over his station, while he made small adjustments with both hands on the system panel.
Commander Lim was about to order the ship to red alert, when the Vulcan cut her off.
"Commander, the vessel is definitely not Romulan."
"In fact" - he turned, and raised his left eyebrow as he continued – "it appears to be Federation."
"Federation? Are you sure?"
Theoretically, it wasn't possible for an 'emotionless' Vulcan to be hurt at having their judgment questioned, but despite this apparent fact Muroc's facial expression was doing a good impersonation of it.
He glanced back at his display, and then turned to the commander again.
"Confirmed, commander. The vessel is definitely Federation"
Sarah pondered this for a moment, then hit the comm key on her chair panel.
---oOo---
Captain Andres stood in the middle of a grassy field. Above him, forms whirled and dived, streaking across the sky. One group wore red and gold attire, the other green and silver. Around him, a crowd numbering in the thousands clapped and sang some sort of squad chant for the two teams. No-one seemed to notice the captain standing in the field of play.
The red and gold team gathered and moved as one toward the opposing end of the field, with green blurs closely behind. A ball was thrown thrown from the melee, passing neatly through a small hoop above the sideline, and a loud clang resounded. Goal! The crowd let out an appreciative roar.
Andres decided to get a better vantage point to watch this amazing match, and suddenly found himself in the stands, high above his former viewpoint. He looked around slowly and found himself surrounded by a sea of red and gold flags. Scarcely had he decided to join in with their chanting, when he heard a strange hum.
What was it? He tried to ignore it and concentrate and the game , but found his vision was blurring.
There it was again. And a voice. Or possibly several, he wasn't sure. Several players stopped and turned towards him, looks of annoyance on their faces.
Suddenly, a burly Klingon elbowed him aside, grabbed a nearby broom, and took off after one of the goal keepers. As he fought to regain his balance, a pack of Ferengi ran past him, their hands overflowing with gold, followed shortly by a very angry Gringots bank teller. Something fell from his hand, and landed with a loud thud.
He woke up. Nicholas found himself in his cabin.
The heavy leather-bound book lay on the floor, beside his bed. The comm panel behind his head sounded again.
"Captain, please report". It was Commander Lim. The captain glanced across at the panel time display. It was 2.15am.
"Commander" he said, with some exasperation. "It's 2.15 in the morning. What are you still doing on the bridge?"
"Captain, I" she stammered before recomposing herself. "Captain, we have encountered another ship." She paused. "It appears to be a Federation vessel."
His curiosity aroused, the captain made a note to forgive questioning the commander for her late night working habits. His voice lightened considerably.
"I'll be right up commander"
Andreas dressed quickly, snapped on his com badge, replaced the fallen book on his bedside dresser and strode out the door of his cabin towards the turbolift. A minute or so later he emerged onto the bridge.
There was now considerably more activity and chatter on the bridge than when Commander Lim had first arrived.
"Captain". It was the commander.
"The ship came out of nowhere on our port side. We didn't pick it up until we were only about ten kilometers out, due to all this EM interference from the nebula."
Andreas turned to face the view screen. It still flickered with electrical interference, but through the haze was the definite outline of a federation starship. As he watched, he noticed that it did not keep station with the Anzac. Instead it was rolling slowly to starboard. Whoever they were, they obviously had no engines.
"Life signs?" Andres questioned to no-one in particular.
It was the Vulcan who responded. "I am not picking up any life signs Captain, but I am getting some low level power readings"
The captain leant forward, resting his chin in his hand and stroked his beard. The starship was beginning to grow in size and they edged ever closer.
"Intrepid class, if I'm not mistaken" he muttered to himself, rubbing his chin
"Look at the hull!" a voice exclaimed. It was the young ensign currently at the helm.
As the crew looked with renewed interest, they began to notice various scorch marks on the hull. Not just one or two either. Indeed it seemed that almost every large surface of the ship had been scarred in some way. She had obviously seen heavy combat.
"Weapons fire" the captain uttered aloud, again to no-one in particular. He continued to stroke his beard, racking his mind for possible explanations. Whatever it was, signs of combat were unlikely to be positive.
"It might be time for shields" said the Captain in low voice, as he continued to attempt to assess the situation.
The Vulcan pressed at several points on the panel in front of him. The ship's computer let out a tone in response.
"Shields up captain".
"Helm, keep taking us in, nice and slow".
"Confirmed sir, ahead one eighth impulse" came the response from the ensign at the helm.
The ship continued to grow in the main viewer.
"Computer" called the captain. It bleeped in recognition. "Can you access the registry of the Federation vessel currently off our port side?"
Negative. Vessel does not currently have IFF activated
"Hmmm.". More beard stroking.
"Computer, main viewer zoom to the vessel's front quarter".
The computer obliged. The saucer section of the mystery ship now filled the viewscreen. The flickering from the interference remained.
"I can't make out the nameplate, can you commander?" Andreas asked.
"No sir. There's a scorch mark over the ship's name" She paused. "I can just make out part of the registry number. …6…5…6….I think"
There was several seconds' silence. Muroc was the next to speak.
"Captain, there is only one Intrepid-class vessel with those numbers in its designation."
He turned again towards the captain and commander, and raised his eyebrow in a gesture of astonishment before he spoke again.
"USS…Voyager"