Chapter 54.
Before and After and Real life.
(Scott POV)
We managed to save Kes from this advantaged treatment to extend Kes's Life. Kes told me that we were under attack once from this race called the Krenim Which is how B'Elanna and I dead one time. And Kes remembers about us having a kid a girl along with Chloe and Clara.
"I can't believe that was how I got killed," I said.
"Well not now hopefully," Kes said.
"Completely more like, I won't want to know how Chloe and Clara were after that, Do you remember what we called that girl we had," I said.
"No, It's all a blur now," Kes said. "Guess we will never know,"
"Or we find out again," I said.
"Meaning," Kes said.
"Yeah," I said. As Kes moved over to the window.
"Kes what's wrong," I said heading over.
"I saw you die, Guess it really got to me," Kes said.
"Remember when the damn alien was in my head," I said.
"Yeah," Kes said.
"It tried that with me and I was just going to let it win without a fight. Look at me, Kes," I said as she did. "I'm still here, Right here, right now, Focus on that," As Kes hugged me.
"I missed you," Kes said.
"And I hardly feel like I was away," I said. "Come on, Let's go,"
"Where," Kes said.
"Holodeck 2," I said.
As we headed down there.
"So I'm going to become a security officer," Neelix said. "How about that?"
"Fortunately. Mr Neelix, What Kes has been describing is merely one possible future, On each occasion that she jumped to a previous time, her subsequent actions most likely altered the future from that moment on," Tuvok said.
"Good point, Tuvok," Neelix said. "Maybe I'll turn out to be Chief Security officer,"
"So Kes," Harry said. "Have you regained all your memories of the past,"
"I remember Last month's supply of replicator Rations that you borrowed that you owe me," Kes said. "If that's what you're asking,"
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten," Harry said.
"I realize it's only hypothetical, but still, I'd be curious to know what sort of Medical breakthroughs I'm going to make in this possible future," Doc said.
"It's not as if I've seen everything, That's going to happen over the next 6 years," Kes said. "I only remember short periods I experienced between jumps,"
"Even so, I bet you found out some pretty interesting things," B'Elanna said.
"Yeah, Kes, Tell us what you know," Tom said.
"Careful Tom, You may find out that you leave Voyager," Chakotay said. "Only to join a monastery," As I burst out laughing.
"Hey, give him a little credit. I'll bet he gets married and has a family," Harry said.
"Thank you," Tom said.
"Don't mention it," Harry said.
"Are you telling," B'Elanna said.
"Well as Tuvok said. I've only seen pieces of one possible future," Kes said.
"You know what, Don't tell me I don't want to know, I like a little mystery in my life," Tom said.
"Tom's right, I think we should all leave the future to the future," I said.
"While I agree it would not be wise for Kes to make all of her experiences public, a report on anything she knows about these Krenim might be useful," Tuvok said.
"I'll get started right away," Kes said.
"Hang on a minute, I didn't mean now, Stay and enjoy your party," I said.
"If there's one thing this experience has taught me, It's that there's no time like the present," Kes said heading.
XXX
It was a while since it happened. As I was in my Ready room.
"Captain's log, Stardate 50836.2, We've had long Range Communications with a seemingly friendly race known as the Vostigye, We'll be rendezvousing within the hour at one of their space stations, End log," I said as I headed out.
"Ensign Kim perhaps you could direct your attention to the sensors and tell us if we're nearing the Vostigye space station," Tuvok said.
"We should be getting close," Harry said. "That's funny, I'm not detecting it,"
"You've checked the coordinates they sent us," I said.
"Yes and, Hold on, Now I'm getting something, It's debris," Harry said.
"Debris," Chakotay said.
"Confirmed, I am reading a debris field encompassing nearly 80 cubic kilometers," Tuvok said.
"What's the composition of the Debris," I said.
"Boronite, Sarium, Carbon 60 composites," Harry said.
"Sounds like it could've been a space station," Tom said.
"On screen," I said. "What happened to it,"
"Something ripped it apart and from the energy decay readings, I'd say it was no more than an hour ago," Chakotay said.
"I'm not picking up any life sign, Captain," Harry said. "There don't appear to be any survivors,"
"There were 60 Vostigye Scientists on that station," I said.
"I don't read any recognizable weapons signatures," Tuvok said.
"Maybe somebody in this part of space has weapons that don't leave a traditional signature," Tom said.
"I'd like to know who they are and why they'd annihilate a science station," I said.
"Maybe we can find out, Captain there's a strangle pattern that seems to be emanating from subspace, Look like some kind of Plasma particles," Harry said.
"I've got it too," Chakotay said. "It's like a wake leading away from the debris field,"
"From a ship," I said.
"I can't tell," Chakotay said.
"Set a course to follow it Tom," I said.
"Yes Sir," Tom said.
XXX
"Captain, the particle wake we've been following is beginning to thin out," Tom said.
"Is there any indication what caused it," I said.
"I am detecting no ship, no structures no weapon signatures," Tuvok said.
"Wait a minute, Something," Harry said.
"I see it too," Chakotay said. "A subspace disruption,"
"What's causing it," I said.
"Can't tell, but it's getting more intense," Harry said as there was mid shaking.
"Shields up, Red Alert," I said As the Klaxon's went red. "Tom Back us off,"
"Something's coming out of subspace," Harry said.
"Tom move us away." I said.
"I don't have engines," Tom said.
"Propulsion is offline, so is navigational control," Harry said.
"Bridge to Engineering we need power," I said.
"I'm on it, Captain," B'Elanna said.
"The Anomaly is bearing down on us, Heading 047 mark 19," Tuvok said.
"Brace for impact," Chakotay said.
As we took a hit.
"It hit our starboard shields," Harry said.
"There's damage on Deck 3," Tuvok said.
"Ready weapons, we're going to disperse it," I said.
"Phasers on line," Tuvok said.
"Wait a minute," Chakotay said. "I'm not afraid to say it, I've never seen anything like that before,"
"Damage report," I said.
"20% Loss of the Starboard dorsal shields and minor bucking of the hull on Deck 3," Tuvok said.
"No indication of casualties," Harry said.
"We've got propulsion systems back online," Tom said. "I think I can put some distance between us and whatever that was,"
"Maybe we don't want to," I said. "We've just witnessed a phenomenon none of us has ever heard of before much less experienced, On a purely scientific level I think we owe it to ourselves to investigate,"
"I'm looking at the telemetry we collected It was an astral eddy that seems to have formed at the confluence of Space and subspace," Chakotay said.
"It was highly charged with plasma that explains the particle wake," Harry said.
"If we could harness some of that energy we could go off Replicator rations for a while," Chakotay said.
"Captain we don't have any idea what caused that phenomenon or what made it dissipate, So how do we investigate it if it's gone?" Harry said.
"I suspect there are condition in this part of space that lend themselves to the formation of those eddies, Set sensors for continuous scans of Subspace Maybe we can anticipate the next one," I said.
XXX
"Captain another one is forming," Chakotay said.
"Senior staff to the bridge immediately," I said.
"Captain it's coming towards us," Harry said.
"Red Alert," I said. as the Klaxon. Then Tom got here. "Tom, I want to send a probe into that anomaly, Can you hold position close enough for us to get accurate telemetry,"
"I can try," Tom said.
"Be ready to move away quickly," Chakotay said. "if it starts moving toward us,"
"Sorry about that, Just trying to find a way to ride the graviton waves it's throwing off," Tom said. "There, That's a little batter, We're in as good a position as we're going to be,"
"Tuvok, Launch it," I said.
"The Probe has been launched," Tuvok said as we got shook again.
"Actually, this is kind of fun," Tom said.
"Speak for yourself," B'Elanna said.
"We're starting to receive telemetry, Captain this is on weird disturbance I'm reading a temperature gradient of 9 million kelvins, massive discharges of Plasmatic energy, and there's a perfectly calm eye at the center," Harry said.
"Apparently, some of the matter inside it is being exchanged between space and subspace," Tuvok said.
"What about the plasma is there any way we can transfer some of it to Voyager," Chakotay said.
"I don't see how, We can't transport with this kind of turbulence," B'Elanna said.
"Maybe we could try a," I said as the shaking stopped.
"We lost it," Tom said as the Red alert went off.
"Where's the probe," Chakotay said.
"It's disappeared, It's still transmitting but there's a lot of interference," Harry said.
"I'm detecting some kind of unstable interfold layer not in space or subspace," B'Elanna said. "It could be where the Eddies originate and where the probe is now,
"We've got another particles wake, Since we can't get plasma directly from the eddies, maybe we could collect some from their wakes," Chakotay said.
"The Bussard collectors could be modified to gather plasma particles," Tuvok said.
"We could do that but Voyagers energy emissions are so high they'd corrupt the particles, I'm not sure the plasma would be much use to us," B'Elanna said.
"What if I took a shuttle out," Tom said. "The Energy emissions would be a lot lower,"
"That sounds like it's worth a try," I said.
"Well, you'd be exposing yourself to radiation poisoning," B'Elanna said.
"Check with the doc, Maybe he can give you some protection," I said.
"Yes Sir, I'll had to the shuttlebay as soon as I'm done," Tom said.
XXX
Tom was out and ready to go.
"Voyager to Shuttlecraft Cochran, Do you read?" I said.
"Loud and clear, Captain," Tom said. "I'm about 3,000 kilometers from the eddy, as soon as it dissipates I'll head for the particle wave,"
"If this one follows the pattern of the others it should begin to collapse within a few seconds," I said.
"That's good," Tom said. "I'm beginning to wish I hadn't had that second helping of French toast this morning,"
"Captain The eddy is starting to dissipate," Harry said.
"Stand by, Tom," I said.
"I'm ready," Tom said. "I'm in position, Captain, Activating the Bussard collectors, It's working, This may save us from Neelix's pleeka rind casserole after all,"
"We'll all thank you for that," I said.
"Captain, Subspace disruption," Harry said.
"Is another eddy forming," I said.
"It looks that way," Harry said.
"Tom, Get out of there now, there another eddy forming," I said.
"I'm going," Tom said.
"Harry, can you beam him out," I said.
"Transporters are offline," Harry said.
"It's working on them," B'Elanna said.
"Tom, Are you there," I said.
"It's pulling me in," Tom said. "I don't have enough power,"
"Where are the transporters," I said.
"I can't access them," B'Elanna said.
"The Shuttle being drawn inside the eddy," Harry said.
"McCall to Paris, Do you read me," I said.
"Captain, The astral eddy is beginning to dissipate," Tuvok said.
"Harry when the probe disappeared, it kept transmitting what about Tom's shuttle," I said.
"We're getting a lot of interference," Harry said. "I can't tell if it's a transmission or not,"
"See if you can clean it up," I said.
"I've adjusted the encoding filter, try it now," Harry said.
"Voyager to Paris, Tom Can you hear us? Respond," I said. "Calibrate to a theta band frequency, Maybe that'll help,"
"I can't hear you captain," Tom said. "There's a lot of plasma interference, I can't clean it up,"
"Say again Tom, you're breaking up," I said. "Adjust your transceiver lock and try again,"
"I can hear you that better," Tom said.
"A little, where are you," I said.
"Captain, I wish I could tell you," Tom said.
XXX
"The communications band width is as wide as I can get it," B'Elanna said.
"McCall to Paris, How's the transmission now," I said.
"Loud and clear, Captain," Tom said. "I've been analyzing the shuttle's sensor readings, and as nearly as I can figure, I'm in the interfold layer that we talked about, somewhere between space and subspace,"
"That's why we can't find you on any of our scans," I said.
"Harry was right, this looks like the spawning ground for the astral eddies, there are thousands of Baby ones in here," Tom said.
"That's interesting Tom, But wait, You're not thinking about using one that will come back to where we are to get back," I said.
"Actually yes," Tom said. "It looks to be the only way out,"
"Any of them soon," I said.
"Yes, I've been watching one, it seems about ready to erupt into normal space, If I can position the shuttle on it's leading edge I should be able to ride it back," Tom said.
"Shame we don't have any other ideas, Tom it's your call," I said.
"I don't see that there's much choice," Tom said.
"Alright, We be ready out here," I said.
"So far so good, captain, I'm almost inside the eye, I think this one is just about big enough to enter normal space," Tom said.
"Here it comes," Harry said.
"Captain," Tom said.
"Yes Tom," I said.
"I think you should get Voyager away from here," Tom said.
"Why? What's wrong," I said.
"This one's turning out to be a whopper, the biggest one we've seen by far, I don't think you should put the ship in danger," Tom said.
"We're not leaving, Tom, We've got to stay in close if we're going to beam you out," I said.
"The Eddy is moving towards us at a velocity of 300 kilometers per second," Tuvok said.
"Chakotay, Take the conn," I said. "Keep us ahead of it, but stay within transporter Range,"
"Right," Chakotay said.
"I'm going to try and get out of this," Tom said.
"Harry can you get a lock on him," I said.
"Not yet, Everything's too unstable," Harry said.
"Tom How much longer before you clear the eddy," I said.
"It had better be soon the hull is beginning to buckle," Tom said.
"I've got the shuttle on Sensors," B'Elanna said. "The hull is breaching,"
"Harry can you get a lock on him yet," I said.
"I'm trying hang on," Harry said. "Got it, The shuttle's aboard, captain, One life sign,"
"He's injured," B'Elanna said.
"Beam him to sickbay, Chakotay get us out of here," I said.
"Yes sir," Chakotay said. "We're clear,"
"Resume course for home, Maximum warp," I said.
"Aye Captain," Chakotay said.
Eventually we were back at warp heading home.
That's all for this chapter.
More to follow.
stay tuned and safe.
Love Y'all
PEACE!