Chapter 96.
Course Oblivion.
(Leah POV)
Tom and B'Elanna were finally getting married. As B'Elanna and Chakotay finally got here.
"This is it, Tom. Your bachelor days are over," I said.
"Not a moment too soon," Tom said.
"Second thoughts," I said.
"Second, third, Fourth," Tom said.
As Harry finally stopped playing.
"We're gathered here today not as Starfleet officers, But as Friends and Family to celebrate the marriage of 2 of Voyager's finest. B'Elanna has asked me to forego the rigors of Klingon painsticks, Probably thought Tom couldn't handle them," I said making some of us laugh. "In favour of a more traditional ceremony,"
"They're saving the painsticks for the honeymoon," Harry said. Making us laugh.
"As Captain, the honour of joining these 2 people has fallen to me, but before I declare them husband and wife, Tom and B'Elanna Have prepared their own vows," I said.
"I still don't know what I've done to deserve you, but whatever it is, I'll try to keep doing it, and I promise to stand by you, to honour you, Till death do us part," Tom said.
"Harry," I said.
"Hmm," Harry said.
"Ring," I whispered.
"Oh," Harry said passing it to Tom.
"May this ring be a symbol of our eternal love," Tom said.
"You stood by me, When most people would have run for the nearest airlock, You were willing to see past my shortcomings, And to take all the bumps and bruises, That came along with it, You made me a better person, Even though I put up one hell of a fight," B'Elanna said. "I look forward to our journey together,"
"Chakotay," I said.
"May this ring be the symbol of our eternal love," B'Elanna said. As Tom tried to get close.
"Not so fast," I said. "Lt Thomas Eugene Paris, Lt B'Elanna Torres, With the power vested in me by Starfleet Command And the United Federation of Planets, I now pronounce you Husband and wife. Now, Tom,"
XXX
"Captain's log Stardate 52586.3, We've had a lot to celebrate lately, Tom and B'Elanna's Wedding, Ensign Harper's new baby, And the continued health of our Enhanced Warp Drive, Which has taken us within striking distance of home, End Log," I said.
"In this case, The shortest path is a straight line, we'll pass right through the center of the Milky way," Chakotay said.
"And be in Sector 001 within 2 years," I said.
"More or Less," Chakotay said.
"You had 7 double check the calculations," I said.
"2 Years, 11 days, 6 hours, provided we continue to operate at peak efficiency," Chakotay said.
"Natural, Of Course, if we operate at peak efficiency, We'll be missing some interesting phenomena along the way, An anomalous gradient to the curvature of space, Unusual bioharmonic readings from a binary system We'll reach about 6 months from now," I said.
"And the scientist in you can't resist stopping to take a look," Chakotay said.
"It would only add another 2 or 3 months, Do you think the Crew would mutiny," I said.
"On the contrary, Everyone'll jump at the chance for some last minute exploration," Chakotay said.
"Everyone, But 7," I said.
"Let your first officer deal with the personnel problems," Chakotay said.
XXX
We were in the conference room. Since we had a problem.
"It's our warp field, The Enhanced drive is emitting Some form of subspace radiation that's affecting Voyager's infrastructure," B'Elanna said.
"It's beginning to break down the molecular bonds in all surrounding sections," Tuvok said.
"We're seeing early stages of the effect in the warp core, Reaction chamber, Injector ports, They're all showing signs of de-cohesion," B'Elanna said.
"It doesn't make any sense, We knew all about the subspace radiation and we ran dozens of simulations before we brought the new drive on line," Harry said.
"Have you tried taking the core off line," I said.
"It's not stopping the problem," B'Elanna said.
"Try to isolate the cause of this, And stabilize the sections that have already been affected. Dismissed," I said.
XXX
"Acute cellular degradation," I said.
"Their chromosomes are breaking down at the molecular level," Doc said.
"Proximity to the warp field," I said.
"I believe so," Doc said. "B'Elanna and my other 3 patients all work in Engineering, They've been subjected to the heaviest exposure, But preliminary scans suggest the rest of the crew has been affected as well, Including you, It's only a matter of time before you begin showing the same symptoms,"
"We've shut down the warp drive, but the ship is still deteriorating and so are we, But my wolf side should be stopping this," I said.
"How you felt odd at all," Doc said.
"No," I said. "Why is this happening,"
XXX
"Behold the primordial soup," Doc said.
"That's what created us," I said.
"Not just us," Chakotay said. "The entire ship is composed of the same material,"
"It's a biomimetic compound that duplicated the crew's molecular structure so precisely that I would never have detected it, If I hadn't known what to look for," Doc said.
"I was born on Earth, In Beacon Hills, I remember growing up there, The academy, I have no memory of being a copy," I said.
"Apparently the original Scott McCall's memories were duplicated as well," Doc said. "Somehow, after the real Voyager left, we began to forget we were duplicates,"
"Eventually we assumed their lives and set a course for Earth," Chakotay said.
"And now the warp core is breaking down our cellular structure, We didn't think the radiation would hurt us, because it isn't harmful to humanoids," I said.
"Each and every one of you will disintegrate just as B'Elanna did, I'm not immune, either, the Holo emitters, like everything else are copies," Doc said." It's only a matter of time before my program begins to degrade,"
"What can we do to stop the process," I said.
"There is one option," Chakotay said. "Go back,"
"To the Demon Class Planet," I said.
"We were created to survive there," Chakotay said.
"He's correct," Tuvok said. "It's reasonable to assume that if we return to our native environment, the degradation will cease,"
"Even if we survived the trip, We'd be travelling thousands of light years in the wrong direction," I said.
"It ma be the only way," Chakotay said.
"Duplicate or not, I'm still the same person I was yesterday, And so are all of you. And that means, we're going to do everything possible to complete our mission, which is to reach Earth, is that clear," I said.
"Yes, Sir," Chakotay said.
"I want you to adjust the environmental controls to simulate a Class y planet, That should slow the rate of degradation," I said.
"It's only a matter of time before the environmental controls themselves are affected," Tuvok said.
"I realize that, That's why we're going to try and find a safe harbour till we can figure out a way to stop the degradation, Scan for the nearest Class Y planet, And set a course," I said.
"In the meantime, I'll explain the situation to the crew," I said.
XXX
"There's still a great deal we don't know about this phenomenon, And I have every confidence we'll find a way to reverse it," I said.
"So you're saying all our experiences before we were duplicated none of it's real," Harry said.
"I don't pretend to understand it myself, Harry, But the way I choose to look at it is this, If everything about us was duplicated, that includes our memory engrams, the emotional centers of our brain, So if you feel something, remember something, believe something, I'm not about to tell you it's not real," I said.
"But there is another crew out there, right," Neelix said. "The Real Voyager,"
"I suppose there is, but I don't want that thought to distract any of you from our mission," I said.
"What mission is that," Tom said.
"The Same as it always been, Tom, To reach the Alpha Quadrant, safe and sound, But to do that, We're going to have to beat this problem, And for now that means conserving energy, Running the ship in grey mode, Cutting crew shifts in half, The less you exert yourselves the slower the cellular decay. Duplicates or not, You're still my crew, Dismissed," I said.
XXX
I was in my quarters with my girls, Who were in their room.
As my door bell rang.
"Come in," I said.
As Chakotay did.
"Chicken paprikash, Kathryn's Grandmother's recipe," I said. "Well maybe not her grandmother, But it's still delicious, It's our weekly dinner together, Don't tell me you forgot,"
"We've lost 3 more people," Chakotay said. "We've got to head back,"
"I've spent 5 years trying to get this crew home, I'm not about to quit now," I said.
"Listen to yourself, You haven't even been alive for 5 years," Chakotay said. "Home is a Class Y planet in the Delta Quadrant, We don't belong on Earth,"
"How do you know where we belong," I said. "For all we know, The Real Voyager's bee destroyed and we're all that's left, For all we know, We're supposed to be living their lives,"
"That's pretty big assumption, And it's putting this crew in danger," Chakotay said.
"There's only one thing I know how to be, Chakotay, and That's me," I said.
"I'd like to think I know Captain McCall pretty well myself, and as much as she'd like to her crew home, If the same thing Happened to him or not, I don't think she'd or he'd be willing to kill them in the process," Chakotay said.
"Maybe this dinner wasn't such a good idea after all," I said.
XXX
"I've tried everything, I can think of, Biomolecular enhancers, Gene splicing with replicated DNA, And I'm not closer to finding a cure. But I do have an idea," Doc said.
"I'm listening," I said.
"Find the original Voyager, If the real Captain was here, We could sample that DNA and imprint it onto your mimetic pattern," Doc said.
"Doc we have no way of knowing where they are, They could be behind us, Ahead of us, Back on Earth, Destroyed, Besides even if you could find the real McCall, how do we know She'd help, If the same thing that happened to me happened to him," I said.
"She's you," Doc said. "My Emitter starting to degrade,"
"Get back to Sickbay," I said.
"Tuvok to the Captain," Tuvok said.
"Go ahead," I said.
"Sensors have detected a Class Y planet," Tuvok said.
"On my way," I said.
XXX
"It may not be home, but it checks out, Thermionic radiation, Surface temperatures in excess of 500 kelvins," Harry said.
"Just what the Doctor Ordered," I said. "Safe Harbour,"
"There's no guarantee this is going to work," Chakotay said.
"Harry, Vent all plasma from the Nacelles, Transfer available power to atmospheric thrusters, And stand by to commence landing sequence," I said.
"Yes Sir," Harry said.
"Red Alert," I said. As the Klaxons went Red.
"Landing struts on line, Inertial Dampers at Maximum," Tom said.
"Take us down Tom," I said.
"Captain a vessel is approaching from the Planet's surface," Tuvok said.
"On screen," I said.
"They're hailing," Harry said.
"Open a channel," I said.
"You're in direct violation of the Ord'mirit Mining Treaty, Leave orbit or you'll be destroyed," He said.
"They are firing weapons," Tuvok said.
As we got hit.
"This is Captain Leah McCall of the Federation Starship Voyager. We are not your enemy," I said as we got hit again.
"Them seem to disagree," Chakotay said.
"We're not interested in your mining operation, Our ship is badly damaged, We need to set down on the surface to make repairs," I said.
"We repeat Leave or Be destroyed," He said.
As we got hit again.
"Shields down to 52%" Tuvok said.
"With our system degrading, We won't be able to take this much longer," Chakotay said.
"Target their Weapons Systems, Fire," I said.
"No effect," Tuvok said.
As we got hit again.
"Hull breaches on Decks 11, 14 and 15," Tuvok said.
"The damaged section are turning into biomimetic matter, Containment fields are failing," Harry said.
"Evacuate those Decks," I said.
"If we emit a polaron burst we can disable their shields long enough to Target their Warp core," Tuvok said.
"No, We're not going to destroy them over a misunderstanding," I said.
"Either that or Retreat," Tuvok said.
As we got hit again.
"We're Starfleet Officers, We can't forget that," I said. "Break orbit,"
"That planet may be our last chance for survival," Tom said.
"We'll have to find another option," I said.
"I'm not sure why we're still taking orders from you," Tom said.
"Lt Follow orders or leave the bridge," Chakotay said.
"Tom," Harry said.
"The Alien Vessel's not pursuing," Tuvok said.
"Begin scanning for other Class Y Planets, Harry, transmit a distress call on All subspace bands, If the real Voyager is out there, I want to find them," I said.
"In the meantime, Which direction to you want me to go," Tom said.
"Resume course for the Alpha Quadrant, Tom," I said.
As I went into my ready room.
"I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it," I said. As I knew Chakotay followed me in.
"Too bad," Chakotay said.
"I'm willing to take a little insolence from Tom, But I shouldn't have to remind you That I'm still the Captain," I said.
"You're not, You're a biomimetic lifeform created in that image," Chakotay said.
"Are you saying you're not taking orders from me anymore," I said.
"I'm saying you need to step back and look at our situation objectively," Chakotay said.
"You think I should have given the order to fire on that vessel," I said.
"No, I agreed with your decision to stand down, but how long can we adhere to Starfleet Principles before we start making compromises," Chakotay said.
"As long as it takes," I said. "Our ship may be deteriorating, but ur humanity is intact,"
"Belief alone won't hold this ship together," Chakotay said.
"It's gotten us this far," I said.
"Not far enough," Chakotay said. "Tom and I aren't the only ones who question your decisions, Now that the truth is known, A lot of people think we should turn around head for the Class Y planet, They're starting to remember their existence before Voyager,"
"What, What existence, Pools of biomimetic fluid, We didn't even experience sentience until Voyager came along," I said.
"What good is sentience if we're not alive to experience it, Leah, We've got to go back," Chakotay said.
"I promised the crew I'd get them home," I said.
"Home, Isn't Earth," Chakotay said. As his face went again.
"McCall to Sickbay, medical Emergency," I said.
Then we got beamed to sickbay.
"He's not responding," Doc said. "His neural Pathways are destabilizing. He's gone,"
As I left Sickbay back to the Bridge.
"We've lost Chakotay, Duplicate or not, He was real to me, and he was a fine Starfleet officer, and he was a friend, Who was afraid to let me know when I was wrong," I said. "Harry, Bring the enhanced Warp drive back online, Turn Voyager around, We're going Home,"
"Captain," Tom said.
"Set a course for the Demon Planet, maximum Warp," I said.
XXX
"Captain's log, Supplemental, We've lost 63 crewmen and our systems are continuing to fail, through we're still 5 weeks away from the demon planet, we haven't given up hope, But I've lost Chloe too, Clara been on the Bridge helping us out, She is started to degrade, Slower than us, End log," I said.
"The holographic projector is sickbay went offline at 0300. We've lost the Doctor," Harry said.
"Tom's condition," I said.
"No change," Harry said.
"Well, hmm, Look like we're in the market for a new medical officer, Feel up to it Neelix," I said.
"I've only been trained as a field medic," Neelix said.
"It will have to do," I said.
"What about my other duties," Neelix said.
"Make Sickbay your priority," I said "At this point, morale is a luxury. How the Core holding up?"
"the modified Nanoprobes are still reinforcing the warp field, It should remain functioning until we reach the Demon planet," 7 said. "However there is a less than 20% probability that Voyager will remain intact that long,"
"Well, It won't be the first time this crew has been up against," I said as my face went again.
"Dad," Clara said.
"It's all right, I'm just, A little Tired," I said.
"Let Harry Take command for a while," Neelix said.
"I'm still the captain," I said.
"And I am the Chief Medical officer," Neelix said. "Don't force me to relieve you of your duties,"
"Your concerns have been noted," I said. "Now, There is another matter, I want to download the ship's database, And our personal logs into a signal beacon, In the event we don't survive, There should be some record of our accomplishments,"
"A time Capsule," Harry said.
"This crew's existence may have been brief, but it's been distinguished, None of us deserve to be forgotten," I said.
"I will use unaffected components to construct a beacon," 7 said.
As we rumbling and went to Red Alert.
As I went to the Bridge.
"The deflector's offline, Interstellar dust is contaminating the warp field," Clara said.
"Purge it," I said.
"I can't The exhaust manifolds have disintegrated," 7 said.
"We have come too far to be stopped by dust, Reroute auxiliary power to the deflector," I said.
"Warp field failure in 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3," 7 said.
"Got it," Clara said.
"Reinitializing the deflector," 7 said.
As the rumbling stopped.
"The Warp field has stabilized," 7 said.
(Clara POV)
"I may not be morale officer anymore, But I think this is a cause for celebration," Neelix said. "What do you say Captain, Captain,"
"Dad," I said.
"She's gone," Neelix said.
XXX
(Real Leah POV)
"Captain to the Bridge," Chakotay said.
As I got there.
"Report," I said.
"We've picked up a distress call," Chakotay said.
"All it says is that they have suffered hull damage and need assistance," Harry said.
"Where," I said.
"At least 20 Lightyears from here," Harry said.
"Tom, Set a course, Maximum Warp," I said.
"Aye Captain," Tom said.
XXX
It's been nearly 12 hours. We were approaching coordinates.
"Range," I said. "5 million kilometers," Tom said.
"Try hailing again," I said.
"No response," Tuvok said.
"Captain' I've found the source of the distress call, It's coming from a vessel," Harry said.
"Can you identify it," Chakotay said.
"No, The readings are erratic," Harry said. "Looks like they have taken heavy damage,"
"400,000 kilometers," Tom said.
"Drop to impulse, Are the rescue team ready," I said.
"Ready to go," Chakotay said.
"Bridge to Sickbay, Stand by for casualties," I said.
"In visual range," Tuvok said.
"On Screen," I said. But saw nothing. "Where's the ship,"
"No sign of it," Harry said.
That debris that couldn't be all that's left," Chakotay said.
"I'm detecting residual deuterium, antineutrons, traces of dichromates, If it was a vessel it isn't anymore," Tuvok said.
"Scan for life signs, escape pods," I said.
"None," Tuvok said.
"Resume course for home," I said. "Make a note in the ship's record, we received a distress call at 0900 hours, Arrived at the vessel's last known coordinates at 2120. The ship was destroyed, cause unknown, No survivors,"
"Aye captain," Tom said.
That's all for this chapter.
More to follow
stay tuned and safe.
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