Chapter 69.
Message in a bottle.
(Scott POV)
"7 to the Captain," 7 said.
"Go ahead," I said.
"Report to the Astrometrics labs, There is something you will want to see," 7 said.
"On my way," I said. "Tom you got the Bridge,"
Then Headed for the Astrometrics lab. Where I ran into Chakotay.
"Astrometrics," Chakotay said.
"I've been summoned," I said. "Any guesses what this is about?"
"None," Chakotay said.
As we got to there and headed in.
"Your cull sounded urgent," Chakotay said.
"It was, I've been working to increase the range of the astrometrics sensors, And I've detected something That you should find of particular interest," 7 said.
"A ship, What's special about it," I said.
"I've analyzed the warp signature, It's a starfleet vessel," 7 said.
"Can you get closer," I said.
"Yes," 7 said.
"It's a federation ship," Chakotay said.
"Not only that, It's a Prometheus Class," I said.
"Prometheus Class Never heard of it," Chakotay said.
"It's a Tactical Ship, That was being built for long range Tactical missions," I said.
"How do you know that?" Chakotay said.
"Kept up with all new ship designs," I said. "Where is it?"
"The ship we're seeing is in the Alpha Quadrant," 7 said.
"You couldn't have extended the Astrometrics sensors that far," Chakotay said.
"No but I increased the range far enough to detect large network of Relay stations, They're alien in origin, abandoned but still functioning, By establishing a sensor link with the nearest station, I'm getting readings from the entire network, The Starfleet ship is within range of one of the far sensors Near the outer edges of the Alpha Quadrant," 7 said.
"It must be on a deep space mission. The Prometheus Class was made for those," Is aid.
"I've extrapolated it's course," 7 said.
"It doesn't look like we are going to keep track of it very long," Chakotay said.
"The Ship should move out of range in 41 minutes," 7 said.
"Can we use the network to transmit a message?" Chakotay said.
"Yes, But we'll have to remodulate our signal to match the networks interlink frequency," 7 said.
"We don't have much time, Chakotay, Get on it," I said.
XXX
We were on the Bridge.
"7 how much longer do we have?" I said.
"16 minutes," 7 said.
"That should do it, The Sub-space transceiver is at 200% output and online, We're Ready," B'Elanna said.
"Open a channel," I said.
"Open," Harry said.
"Starfleet vessel, This is Captain Scott McCall of the Starship Voyager, We are in the Delta Quadrant, At Coordinates 18 mark 205 mark 47, Remodulate your signal to match our interlink frequency," I said.
"We're receiving a transmission," Tuvok said.
"Let's hear it," I said.
"Starship Voyager," It said.
"Shut it off, Bridge to 7 what went wrong?" I said
"I don't understand, My Readings show that the Station picked up our message and relayed it across the entire network," 7 said.
"We should try widening the Subspace bandwidth, and sending the message again," B'Elanna said.
"Do it," I said.
"Transmitting," Harry said.
"The Signal is being relayed, No sign of interference, Wait, It's being deflected back again," 7 said.
"Shut it off Tuvok," I said.
"I have a possible explanation Captain, AS our carrier wave moves along the network, it may be degrading," 7 said.
"Oh, Can we try a different kind of signal, Something stronger," Tom said.
"A holographic datastream might work, It wouldn't degrade so quickly," B'Elanna said.
"It would take too long to reconfigure the message," Chakotay said.
"Forget that, The Doc," I said.
"Exactly," B'Elanna said.
"Bring to Astrometrics and I'll meet you there, We don't have much time, 7 start working on it," I said.
Then Once I got there We filled the Doc in..
"When I requested more away mission, This isn't exactly what I had in mind," Doc said.
"You may be our only chance to communicate with that ship," I said.
"When you get there, You'll be downloaded into their EMH system, I'm sending an initiation code along with your program so you'll be activated immediately," B'Elanna said.
"We have less than 90 seconds before that ship moves out of range," 7 said.
"How am I supposed to get back here?" Doc said.
"When you've completed your mission, Instruct them to move within range of the sensor network, With any luck they'll be able to send you back the same way you came," I said.
"Luck?" Doc said.
"I won't lie Doc, A lot of things could go wrong, We're relaying on an alien Technology to send you across thousands of light years, That Ship is a Prometheus Class. Long Range Tactical mission," I said.
"So there's a chance my program could be lost," Doc said.
"Yes, I'm asking you to take that chance," I said.
"35 seconds," 7 said.
"Doc," I said.
"Far be it from me to turn down an opportunity to become a hero," Doc said. "I'm ready,"
"Torres to Bridge," B'Elanna said.
"Standing by," Chakotay said.
"I'm Downloading him into the Transceiver array," B'Elanna said.
"10 seconds," 7 said.
"Good luck Doc," I said.
"There's that word again," Doc said.
"It worked, He made it," B'Elanna said.
"Now we wait," I said. "Get whatever Diagnostics done you need to B'Elanna,"
"Get right on them," B'Elanna said.
"I'll be in my Ready room," I said.
XXX
I was on the bridge waiting for something.
"No word," Chakotay said as he came back to the bridge. "Our link to the sensor net is stable, 7 is standing watch in Astrometrics, I tired to relieve her, but she doesn't want to leave her post. She says she doesn't need to regenerate for the next few days, What are you doing,"
"Letters home, Updating them, One to family, Mark, Let him know, just in case," I said. "I know, It's premature, Jumping the gun,"
"You're right, It's probably a mistake for us to get our hopes up at all," Chakotay said. "We've been through this before,"
"Yeah, That Romulan ship, Are you trying to try something with me," I said.
"All right, I'll admit it, I just finished a letter to my cousin in Ohio," Chakotay said.
"Knew it," I said.
XXX
I was in my Ready room As B'Elanna finished all the diagnostics, And Also give me everything we got from the last Outpost. More components. Even a few things which was come in handle.
"Torres to the Captain," B'Elanna said.
"Go ahead," I said.
"Something has happened," B'Elanna said.
"On my way," I said.
Then I Headed for the Astrometrics.
B'Elanna filled me in on what happened as 7 was trying to get us back in.
"We're boosting the signal gain as high as it'll go, I think we can cut through the alien's jamming signal," B'Elanna said.
"I warned you," He said.
"I apologize for our intrusion, Allow me to explain," I said.
"No Explanations," He said.
"Your relay network gave us the unique opportunity to communicate with our people, They are very far away, And we're expecting a message back from them," I said.
"All messages will be intercepted," He said.
"He's trying to jam the link again," B'Elanna said.
"There must be some room for negotiation, Isn't there anything you might accept in exchange for," I said as he got shocked. "What happened?"
"I generated a feedback surge along our sensor link," 7 said.
"You killed him," B'Elanna said.
"It was a mild shock he will recover," 7 said.
"And when he does," I said.
"He wasn't responding to diplomacy," 7 said.
"Is the link stable," I said.
"Yes Captain," 7 said.
"Keep watching for the Doctor, Let me you if our friend gives us any more trouble," I said starting to head out. "Mild shock, Nice," As I walked out and back to the Bridge.
"What we got," I said.
"Everything is ready to go as soon as we get the Doctor back," Chakotay said.
"Good, Let's be ready to go to warp As soon as he is safely back on board," I said.
"Got it," Chakotay said. "Did B'Elanna give you that update yet,"
"Already has, Still going over it," I said.
"Hopefully something we can use," Chakotay said.
"Hopefully," I said.
"Torres to Bridge, Captain, I think he's back," B'Elanna said.
"Acknowledged, Tuvok, Chakotay," I said. As we got down there and as we start the Doctor starting to appear but needed a hand to fully get back. Once it worked he was back. "Doc Report,"
"I did it," Doc said.
"You completed the mission," I said.
"Yes once the Romulans were out of the way," Doc said.
"Romulans," Tuvok said.
"They taken over the Prometheus, the ship I was on. But I managed to turn the tables on them with a little help from a fellow EMH," Doc said.
"You got through to Starfleet?" Chakotay said.
"I spoke directly with Headquarters, Apparently Voyager was declared officially lost 14 months ago, I set the record straight, I told them everything that's happened to this crew, They said they would contact your families and tell them the news and promised that they won't stop until they've found a way to get Voyager back home. They asked me to relay a message," Doc said. "They wanted you to know, You're no longer alone,"
"60,000 lightyears, seems a little closer right now," I said.
That's all for this chapter.
More to follow.
Stay tuned and safe.
Love Y'all
PEACE!