AN: Thank you to all who have faved, followed, and reviewed so far. It's much appreciated. For all those new to my stories, I'm a hard working truck driver. There are times where I won't have much time at all to devote to my writing hobby as there are weeks where I'll work 70 hours a week several weeks in a row. It's part of my job and I don't mind at all. Money is kind of essential and those weeks always rake in the cash. Enough about my working life, let's get back to what you're all here for.
Oops! I misspelled Captain Lasky's name. Got that fixed. Also got Ensign Tom Paris' rank wrong too. Went back and fixed that as he hadn't been demoted yet in the series by that point.
Anyone notice how I had Captain Lasky subtly direct Captain Janeway to reveal valuable information first? He'd be very cautious in a situation like this and could tell that Captain Janeway wouldn't be overly secretive if he kept the situation calm.
Chapter 2: Setting up shop
UNSC Infinity
Flag conference room
"In that case, Captain, I hope that our partnership is beneficial to both of us and short lived." Captain Lasky held out his hand to Captain Janeway.
"For both our sakes and sanity, I hope so too Captain." Captain Janeway accepted the handshake.
"Roland? Give our guests a rundown of our history until this point." Captain Lasky gave Roland a slight gesture out of view of the Voyager crew.
Roland saw it and understood. A basic history minus all the more classified and darker elements. "Aye sir!" Roland swiped his hand and a graphic started playing while he orated.
Some time later, Captain Janeway spoke up. "If these insurrectionists hadn't started their attacks, humanity would've been completely unprepared for this… Covenant… correct?"
"Yes." There was a tone of sadness in Captain Lasky's voice. "Humans killing other humans. And for the worst of reasons at times."
"Using weapons of mass destruction, unprovoked and on civilians no less." Ensign Kim added with disbelief. "Something like that is just unthinkable in our society."
"We hadn't had a major conflict in nearly 400 years. It's sad to say, but the insurrection prepared us for the nightmare that came on its heels." Captain Lasky spoke.
The Voyager crew was solemnly silent as they thought over the terrifying realization that this version of humanity had very nearly gone extinct. And over the lies of delusional fools who thought they would be ascending to godhood over the corpses of an entire galaxy.
"Captain Lasky? If it takes my ship and crew sharing everything about our technology and knowledge with the Infinity in order to get both of our crews home, then so be it. We're both in this mess because of our lack of insight into slipstream space. We both have an obligation to our crews to see them home safely. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive our mistake." Captain Janeway admitted with a heavy heart.
Captain Lasky regarded her for a few seconds. "As long as we can both make it safely back to our own realities, I think myself and my crew can live with a detour like this."
"Then I think it's time we returned to our posts then, Captain." Captain Janeway said as she raised a hand and touched the badge on the front of her uniform. "Chakotay? What's the status of Voyagers systems?"
A couple seconds later, a reply came back. "Captain. Systems are functioning normally. We've got a problem though."
"Report." She commanded.
"The nearest star system is 489 light years from our current position, Captain."
Roland and Captain Lasky shared a slightly confused look. 'That'd only take roughly 8 hours in slipspace for us to reach.' They both thought.
"If I may, Captain?" Captain Lasky interrupted.
"Yes?"
"How fast is your method of FTL?"
Captain Janeway thought over the question for a moment before answering. "We can roughly manage around four to five light years per day at normal cruise warp speeds. More if we push the drive for a short period. It can't sustain faster speeds for too long though."
Roland gave Captain Lasky a look before he spoke up. "Captain? Sorry to say it like this but that is laughably slow compared to our drives."
Captain Janeway seemed a little shocked at first before she composed herself. "How fast are your drives, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Classified. But in our current situation, I'll make an exception. The Infinity can manage roughly 1500 light years per day."
The crew of Voyager froze at that information. "1500! If we had a drive like that it would've only taken us just two months to get home!" Ensign Kim muttered to himself in disbelief.
Captain Janeway swayed a moment before she steadied herself. "Captain? You wouldn't just leave us out here in the void, would you?"
"No need to worry, Ma'am." Roland said in a chipper tone. "You can just follow the Infinity into slipspace and ride our wake."
"We'll have two of our frigates follow Voyager to maintain the wake so that there are no chances of something going wrong." Captain Lasky offered.
"Although, I've gotta ask. How good is Voyager at handling gravitational shifts?" Roland asked.
"Voyager is capable of planetary landings. Our hull integrity fields also strengthen the hull against such forces." Captain Janeway answered.
"Status on ship systems coming back online?" Captain Lasky ordered.
"Main power should be back online within the hour, sir!" Roland reported. "The slipspace drive is intact and only needs the capacitors charged."
Captain Lasky nodded. "Well then, Captain, I think our meeting has gone on long enough. Let's get back to our posts. We'll contact you once we're ready to jump."
"Thank you, Captain."
UNSC Infinity
Command flight deck hanger
As soon as the doors opened to the cavernous hanger bay, both captains were greeted with an odd sight. "Captain? What are those and what are they attempting to do to my shuttle?" Captain Janeway asked. A number of deck hands were on scene holding back what appeared to be floating jellyfish to the Voyager crew.
Captain Lasky seemed to silently laugh to himself before he answered. "I really should've been expecting this." He shook his head at the situation. "Their species name is Huragok. We simply call them engineers." At Captain Janeway's questioning gaze, he continued. "They're docile. They literally live to fix technology and learn about and improve upon anything new they come across."
"Intriguing." Tuvok commented at the odd scene.
"Would you like a demonstration?" Roland asked as he appeared on a holo pedestal nearby.
Captain Janeway watched the scene in front of her with a curious gaze. "How fast are they at learning new things?"
"Oh… very fast. Got anything technology wise that you could hand to one?" Roland said as he made a whistling noise.
One of the Huragok stopped and turned its head to look behind it. It seemed to nod and chirp as it headed over to the ship captains. "Ah… this one's name is Suitably Balanced." Roland provided.
"That's an odd naming convention. Any particular reason behind that?" Captain Janeway queried.
"Huragok are given names that are attributed to how well they float upon creation." Roland answered.
Captain Janeway raised an eyebrow as she looked back to the AI's avatar. "Creation?"
"That's a tricky one to explain there heh heh. It still takes two to make a new Huragok in the end though. The process is also faster when more are involved. The 'children' take on traits of all members who participate." Roland explained. "They're essentially biological supercomputers."
Suitably Balanced was eagerly eyeing every piece of tech the Voyager crew had on hand. "Well, he seems to be getting ancy." Captain Lasky commented. "We generally refer to them as male as being called 'it' doesn't sit well with them."
"Ensign Kim? Hand him your data pad if you would, please." Captain Janeway offered.
Ensign Kim hesitantly held his data pad out to the floating engineer. Suitably Balanced slowly curled its tentacles around the data pad as it gently brought it closer to his face. He rolled the device in his grip and looked at it from several angles with the six eyes on his long narrow head. To the surprise of the Voyager crew, his tentacles split into thousands of cilia like appendages and rapidly disassembled the data pad. Once he had completed, the data pad had been reduced to thousands of individual pieces as he further inspected it. Just as quickly, he reassembled the data pad. He performed the rapid process several more times before he handed it back to the shocked looking ensign.
Laughing a bit at their obvious reaction, Captain Lasky spoke up. "That's generally the reaction everyone has when they see engineers at work for the first time."
Ensign Kim pulled the device he had on his hip out. Once he completed whatever it was that he was doing, he spoke up in a surprised tone. "Captain? Whatever he did to my data pad has had a noticeable effect on its performance."
Suitably Balanced almost appeared to look hungrily at the tricorder in the ensigns hands. "Looks like he's still interested in learning more. Go ahead, Mr Kim." Captain Janeway said.
After Suitably Balanced had performed his feat of engineering once again, the crew of Voyager finally boarded their shuttle and left back to their small ship. "Roland? What's his opinion of their tech?"
Roland and Suitably Balanced were finishing up whistling and gesturing to each other as the captain asked his question. "Their computer tech is roughly equivalent to ours for the most part. Their scanning tech, though, that's a whole different ball game there."
Captain Lasky nodded. "If we play our cards right and be cooperative, we should come out of this whole disaster all the better."
UNSC Infinity
Bridge
It wasn't much longer after Captain Lasky had returned to the bridge that Roland reported that main power had come back online. "Roland? I want the Infinity running at its peak for this jump. Make absolutely certain that the slipspace drive has had no adverse effects to its systems caused by our detour."
"Already on it, sir!"
"Prepare to deploy sub vessels one and two!" Captain Lasky called out to his bridge crew.
"Good to go on our end, sir! Charging slipspace capacitors." Roland reported.
Captain Lasky looked down to Roland. "What do our sensors say about the system we're about to head out to?"
"It's a main sequence yellow dwarf roughly comparable to Sol. Several gas giants and other smaller rocky planets. We'll get a better idea once we get there though. The system seems to be relatively young based on the stars output." Roland listed out.
Captain Lasky nodded. "We may have to collect raw materials in order to survive for an extended stay." He stood straight and called out. "Open a channel to Voyager!"
USS Voyager
Bridge
The crew of Voyager had been patiently waiting and testing ship systems while they waited the short period it took for the Infinity to bring its systems back online. "Captain? That… Huragok, engineers as they called them. What I wouldn't give to have some of them onboard Voyager." Ensign Kim said with slight awe.
Captain Janeway laughed to herself as she thought about what they had seen. "Yes. It would certainly make things easier on us, wouldn't it."
"Captain. We're being hailed by the Infinity." Seven of Nine reported.
Captain Janeway stood from her seat. "On screen." The image of of Captain Lasky standing straight on his bridge appeared on the main screen. "Captain. I take it the Infinity is finished with preparations?"
"Yes, Captain. Slipspace jump will commence in two minutes. Follow behind the Infinity at a distance of one km to our aft. Stridents one and two will follow to your port and starboard aft to maintain the slipstream wake. Make certain that any systems that could interfere with slipstream space are disengaged."
Captain Janeway thought over her options for a few moments. "How long will the… jump… take, Captain?"
"It will take the Infinity roughly eight hours or less to make the jump."
"Engineering? How much trouble would it be to shut down the warp core for eight hours?"
"Eight hours? That would give us the necessary time we need for maintenance and tests on several systems, Captain." B'Elanna Torres replied over the ships comms.
"Make it so." Captain Janeway returned her attention back to the main screen. "Do we need to know anything about slipspace in general in order to avoid any mistakes?"
Captain Lasky looked down to Roland. "Not much, Captain. Other than slipspace being comprised of 11 dimensions and appearing as an empty black void to the human eye, just maintain your following distance with the Infinity using your sublight engines and everything should be fine."
"Acknowledged. Janeway, out." Captain Janeway replied as she looked to Ensign Paris. "Move Voyager into position, Mr Paris."
"Aye, Captain." Ensign Paris answered as he punched in the appropriate commands.
"The Infinity is launching its sub vessels, Captain." Tuvok reported.
"Those are awfully big ships for just being frigates." Ensign Paris muttered to himself.
"Seems like the UNSC does everything bigger." Chakotay commented.
"That's an understatement if the Infinity is anything to go by." Captain Janeway replied. "I want our sensors scanning everything that happens. The UNSC is showing us a new field of physics and I want to learn everything that we can about it."
The sensor stations lit up in a litany of new and exotic readings several seconds later. The crew of Voyager looked on in awe and curiosity as the black portal edged with swirling blue white light opened in front of the Infinity. The repulsor engines of the massive ship flared to life and pushed it forward.
"Mr Paris. Follow them in." Captain Janeway ordered.
UNSC Infinity
Bridge
Captain Lasky leaned over the holotable as he looked over the readings on Voyager. "Roland? How's their ship holding up so far?"
Roland looked around himself as he casually looked back to the captain. "Surprisingly well, sir. Despite not being truly armored their ship is holding together very well. Their technology could revolutionize a lot of fields for us, sir. No doubt any ONI agents on board will do everything they can to secure it for study."
Captain Lasky drew in a breath as he thought on that outcome coming true. "Hopefully we won't have to deal with that. I think it's time we inform the crew of what our situation is." He stood up straight as he thought over his next words. "Open a shipwide comm."
"Aye, sir. You're on."
"All hands. This is the Captain speaking. The Infinity was caught in an unknown slipspace anomaly several hours ago and forced to drop out of slipspace. The reason for this anomaly was caused by an unknown ship testing out a new drive core. Normally, this wouldn't have been much of an issue to be worried over. However, this anomaly pulled both of our ships into uncharted territory. To put it simply, the Infinity is lost. The crew of the other ship have been confirmed to be human, surprisingly. The name of their ship is the USS Voyager. I've managed to garner any assistance that they are able to render in getting our ships back home." He paused for a moment to let his words sink in.
"Upon meeting with their captain, I was able to learn that they come from a separate reality altogether. Using star maps from both of our ships confirmed that we have found ourselves in an unknown galaxy similar to but different from our own. I ask that we all stay calm and focused during this trying time. It may take days, months, perhaps even years before we find a solution to get ourselves home." Captain Lasky sighed before taking a breath and sternly speaking once more. "We are the UNSC. Humanities protectors. And as humanity, there is nothing that we can't do or accomplish once we set our sights on a goal. Our fellow humans and families depend on our determination to succeed in getting home. That is all. Captain Lasky, out."
Roland gave Captain Lasky a satisfied nod before his avatar winked out.
USS Voyager
Bridge
Captain Janeway sat in her captains chair as she considered the new information that they had learned about their fellow stranded humans. The UNSC's recent history more than explained the excessive militarization of the Infinity. "Mr Tuvok? What are your thoughts on the escort that we had aboard the Infinity?"
Tuvok thought for a few seconds before answering. "Their armor wasn't simply armor. With how heavy it looked, it has to be powered. The weapons they carried were also of a simple but advanced nature. The UNSC appears to have adopted a utilitarian design methodology that is very robust."
"They also have to have shielding tech as well. That was an atmospheric shield that the shuttle passed through. But, ballistic weaponry though… their particle physics tables and equations must have followed a different path than our own." Ensign Kim added in his own thoughts.
Captain Janeway thought a few moments. "If their slipspace drive tech is as fast and effective as they say it is, then I'll do all that I can to see if they can build one for us."
Unknown star system
A swirling black portal opened above the orbital plane of the unknown solar system. Nothing happened at first until the blocky form of the UNSC Infinity made its way out of the void. The much smaller USS Voyager followed behind it along with two Strident heavy frigates.
Upon their entrance back into normal space, both the Infinity and Voyager started doing detailed scans on the unknown system. The system was comprised of three gas giants. One of them was absolutely massive at nearly the point of becoming a brown dwarf on its own. The other two were Saturn sized and had a large number of icy moons orbiting them. The rocky planets closest to the star were pok marked with a number of fresh and very large impact craters. Numerous proto planets and dwarf planets orbited the star in ways that would lead to eventual impacts with their neighbors.
USS Voyager
Bridge
The bridge crew patiently waited for the results of the system scan. Seven of Nine took particular interest in a small moon that was on the outer edge of the system. Its orbit was far too stable for the apparent age of the system. "Captain? The sensors are getting odd readings on a small planetoid orbiting at the edge of the system. I suggest we perform a more in-depth scan."
"Odd readings?" Captain Janeway said as she turned her head to look back.
"Yes. Its density is far too high for its size."
"Alright… let's see if our friends on the Infinity have noticed this as well. Open a channel to the Infinity." Captain Janeway ordered.
UNSC Infinity
Bridge
Captain Lasky was looking over the readouts of the sensors on the system they found themselves in. "This is good. There are a lot of metal rich asteroids to get raw materials from. The gas giants will be useful for harvesting deuterium for our fusion reactors as well." Captain Lasky sighed. "We may have to break out the Infinity's terraforming equipment to build facilities to produce food and other essential supplies. Our stores won't last forever unless we build a base of operations."
Roland walked across the holotable and looked closely at a small asteroid on the edge of the system. "Huh… that's weird." He muttered. Grabbing the object in question and enlarging it he pointed it out to Captain Lasky. "Sir? This asteroid is way too heavy for its size."
Roland was interrupted as the communications officer called out. "Sir! Voyager is hailing us!"
"Well… speak of the devil. I was about to suggest we ask Voyager if they see what we do." Roland spoke up before bringing the feed from Voyager up for Captain Lasky to see.
"Captain Janeway? What can I do for you?" Captain Lasky asked.
"Our sensors have picked up some odd readings on a planetoid on the outer edges of the system. Have your sensors finished their sweep of the system yet?"
Roland spoke up at this point. "We've pretty much finished a basic sweep. I'm still working on identifying all of the more promising resource satellites for future use." He brought forth the asteroid in question. "I'm guessing this is the source of your odd readings?"
"Yes, that is what our sensors picked up on. We're about to do a more in-depth scan of the anomaly. We didn't want to alarm you by suddenly jumping to warp to get closer for the scan."
"Understood, Captain. Keep us informed. The Infinity will join you shortly once we've finished our own scans of the system." Captain Lasky replied.
"We'll keep in touch. Voyager, out."
Captain Lasky and Roland watched the main screen as Voyager displayed surprising agility as it started to head towards the odd asteroid. The pylons on the sides of its aft tilted upwards before the blue lines on them glowed brightly as the small ship shot forwards. "Damn… thats an interesting way to achieve FTL." Roland casually said as he looked at the sensor readouts.
"We'll worry about that later. Have Stridents one and two dock with the Infinity." Captain Lasky ordered as he looked at the readings on the odd asteroid. "Roland? How long until we can make an in system jump?"
Roland thought for a moment. "Eh, about ten minutes, give or take a couple."
"Make it happen, Roland. If the gut feeling I'm getting on this is right, we might be able to get more intel on this new galaxy we find ourselves in."
USS Voyager
Bridge
The Federation starship arrived at the asteroid in question within several minutes of going to warp. "Let's see what we're dealing with here. On screen."
The main screen was then filled with the oblong form of a rocky and icy asteroid that was longer on one axis than the others. Its surface looked relatively young for this star systems age. "Captain. We're getting strange gravimetric readings from the asteroid." Ensign Kim spoke up from his station.
"Seven? What's your assessment?" Captain Janeway ordered.
"Scanning. There is an artificial object buried within the asteroid. The object is intact and merely buried it seems." Seven of Nine answered.
"Is it still active?" Captain Janeway asked.
"Negative. It appears to be dormant and powered down."
"Let's keep our distance for the time being." Captain Janeway said. "Do a scan of the local area for anything artificial in origin. Deep scans just in case anything is buried."
"Captain. The Infinity is hailing us." Tuvok spoke up.
"On screen."
"Captain Janeway. The Infinity is about to jump to your location. Have you learned anything about the asteroid?"
"Yes. There's an artificial object buried within it. We'll tell you more once you get here."
"Very well. Infinity, out."
Less than ten seconds later a black portal lined with blue white light opened several hundred km away from Voyager. "That was fast." Ensign Paris commented.
UNSC Infinity
Bridge
Once the Infinity had cleared the slipspace rupture, Roland directed all of its sensors on the asteroid in question. He even had the Forerunner luminary scanning it as well just in case. "Whew! Dodged a MAC round on that one! It's not Forerunner at least." Roland gestured to the side as he brought the image up on the holotable. "Whatever it is… it's nearly three times the size of the Infinity."
"Let's see if our friends over on Voyager can see anything that we can't. Open a channel." Captain Lasky ordered.
"Captain Lasky. What can Voyager do for you?"
"We've run our scans. You were right. Something is buried in that asteroid." Captain Lasky gestured for Roland to bring the scans up for them to see. "It's massive from what our initial scans have told us. Have your sensors detected anything else of note?"
"The object is dormant and powered down for the time being. It's surprisingly intact for being buried like it is."
"I thought so too. I've got a bad feeling about this object. Let's keep our distance for now and search the system further for any other clues as to this things purpose." Captain Lasky looked down to Roland. "Roland. Drop several probes to further continue scans on the object. And have them keep their distance for now."
"Voyager will drop some sensor probes as well. Better to have more eyes than necessary in this kind of situation."
"Agreed." Captain Lasky sighed. "Next order of business. Resource production. The Infinity has a small hydroponics lab for small scale food production, but that will be hardly sufficient to support our crew. We have the means to build the necessary facilities, it'll just take some time to get it done though."
"Might I make a suggestion, Captain?"
"Go ahead." Captain Lasky nodded.
"Voyager can assist with building these facilities. Since it would be pointless to travel anywhere, we'll offer the Infinity some of our replicator technology."
"Replicators? I'm at a loss here, Captain."
"With sufficient power and resources our replicators can produce nearly anything that you could need."
"Technology like that could revolutionize our factory levels production capacity." Captain Lasky muttered as he looked down to Roland who was deep in thought over Voyager's offer of tech. "I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth on this one. I'll leave the science to the eggheads down in our science bays. I don't need to be getting a headache over this. Captain Janeway? We'll gladly accept your offer of assistance in this situation."
"Glad to be of assistance, Captain. I suggest we set up our base of operations in a more stable sector of this star system. One of the smaller gas giants has suitable moons for resource harvesting from what our scans have shown us."
Captain Lasky looked down to Roland as he looked over the map of the system. Roland gave him a silent thumbs up with a smile as he gave his approval. "Very well, Captain. We'll notify you when the Infinity is ready to move out. Infinity, out."
Once the feed with Voyager had cut, Roland brought up the holographic image of the object that was buried within the asteroid. "Sir? This thing is just plain weird. There are some crazy gravitational readings coming from this thing. Our sensors are also having trouble even penetrating into it for the most part. It's almost like it's made out of Forerunner materials somehow. Whoever built this thing has to have advanced materials knowledge at least."
Captain Lasky thought over Roland's assessment for a few moments. "We'll worry about the giant tuning fork later. Right now, we've got more important things to worry about."
AN: Pretty much just a world building chapter. Hope you guys like the direction this is taking. Just so you guys know, I won't be nerfing or buffing anyone for the most part. They will be at their canon universe capacity. Yes Voyager is overpowered compared to mass effect. Yes Infinity is overpowered in comparison as well. The main balancing factor is numbers. They're alone here. And the galaxy is a very big place. Now to find out where and when they popped into the mass effect universe. Let me know your thoughts on my take on this crossover.
For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.