Note: I kept Voyager's characters together aboard the same ship even though it isn't accurate because I like most of them. If you have any suggestions where you'd like the story to go feel free to leave a comment here, or in the Star Trek Voyager Facebook group, if you're there. I'm not an admin but like it. lol

"DILITHIUM" the console read. Tom Paris's weary eyes blinked and read the screen again, now fully alert. He verified that he indeed was not imagining things, before allowing the smile to spread on his face.

They'd been scouring this region of space for days, hoping for someone or thing who might have that precious material. This particular region was especially tricky due to its star cluster and other space phenomenon, that made long range scanning difficult or outright inaccurate; so Paris and a small crew had been dispatched to check it out.

His fingertips danced across the console to begin another scan, and the auto pilot whined for a moment that he was now manually diverting away from the plotted course.

He ignored the sound and quickly activated his comm.

"Captain, we have dilithium!" Tom's voice came over the view screen loud and clear. His tone was excited and that excitement soon ignited a previously weary and demoralized, bridge crew. "Set course for Tom's position." Janeway ordered with a smile herself "Warp Nine."

Stars blurred past as the ship began picking up speed. The sound of a comm keying up was heard, and then the voice of Bilana Torres asked, "Captain, engineering got a request to-"

"Yes, Bilana." Janeway cut to the chase. "It seems Tom's found the mother load. We won't have to worry about running out of dilithium for some time."

"Oh…. That's great. Just checking in, Captain. We're giving you all we have." The engineering chief said.

"Very good. Thank you for being prudent, Torrez." Janeway keyed the comm down.

Deep inside the bowels of the ship, in the engineering room, Torrez sighed heavily with relief. She almost cried, but her initial instinct was to brace herself and look around first, to make sure none of her subordinates saw her.

Seska and Carrie starred back blankly, processing the news of what they too had just heard, then began excitedly chatting amongst willed herself to turn and walk away. This had been their biggest hope in weeks. As the starship hurled itself through space towards their destination, Bilana Torrez walked up to a secluded station to wipe stray tears away.

"Word spread quickly throughout the corridors aboard Voyager" Chakotay thought as he awaited a cup of coffee, wishing he was in bed. It was still only hopeful news. Usually he wasn't up at this time yet, but he'd been called in to help prepare for extracting dilithium. As he sat bleary eyed at the counter, he awaited a thicker than usual brew of the 'coffee' Nelix had been making lately. It had an earthy like quality to it almost, tasting like south American coffee, yet strangely reminded him of kombucha somehow. Chakotay didn't want to admit it, but he'd quickly developed a taste for it, smiling as he watched breakfast being prepared.

Nelix, standing on the other side of the counter, found himself momentarily flustered enough to let a frying pan begin smoking on the stove. Pots and pans clanged and jostled about as he worried to himself. What if after the crew got their dilithium they didn't want to come to mess hall anymore? Well, perhaps it'd free him up more for more ambassador type duties. He'd find something to occupy his time with, hopefully. The news program he'd been doing probably needed more time anyway to put into verifying sources, accuracy, impartiality… all the more boring parts of news making.

It was only a matter of a few hours before Voyager was able to rendezvous, but by the time they reached the location, the difficult truth had become apparent: It was a prewarp planet. No satellites, space stations or starships; not even outward radio waves for communication with other planets had been detected.

Janeway felt her insides clenching. How could she deny the crew their much needed dilithium, when the ship's stores were already at emergency levels? They had been at two third rations now for a month or longer. It was demoralizing. Every day her subconscious hadn't failed to remind her that all this was her fault in some way, but she told no one.

Chakotay, had picked up on her apprehension already, feeling the emotion from her, since he happened to be standing close by. He couldn't let her talk herself out of this, if she tried, but having known Kathryn for so long now, he waited to see what her thoughts were. If she went for the dilithium, he'd take the opposite stance to help her avoid any pitfalls, but only after he knew she was going for it. They simply could not afford to pass up on these precious crystals, no matter who they belonged to. If she took the opposite stance he wasn't sure yet how he'd try to talk her into not leaving.

Some moments later, and after Tom had had time for a shower the senior staff were gathering around the conference room table to discuss options. "Strange place. From the little I could zoom in it reminded me of a prison colony." Paris stated dryly, as he sat down. The others had picked up on his waning hope for the planet. "Mr. Tuvok, you did verify from the Flyer's data, that these deposits are substantial, and are in some of the most rural regions of the surface?"

"Indeed Captain. It appears that the inner most region which appears to be the capital, is heavily developed while outer areas are mostly rural. If these deposits were to be entirely extracted, I calculate they could supply the entire Starfleet for some time (provided we were in the Alpha Quadrant)" He paused after the brief aside, and added, to make sure he was clear, "I calculate that there is little to no chance of their noticing us, if we did extract what the crew needed, due to their low level of technology."

Chakotay couldn't help but smile. Janeway glanced down at the data pad again, considering perhaps, how closely she would be skimming the Prime Directive. "…well, I don't see any reason why we can't borrow some, for now." She said, after a long pause. "Assemble a team from Elite Force, to recover some of the material. After we're sure it's not interfering with the natives, we might go back for more. Any questions?" she asked this more to gather thoughts than anything.

"The Flyer should be ready after a bit of maintenance," Tom spoke between bites of the first decent meal he'd had in days. Torrez looked on with a slight smile of amusement on her face, but left him alone.

Janeway blinked at the suggestion, but then looked over to Tuvok as if questioning.

"No, the first team should beam down. We don't want to give ourselves away. Even if it's prewarp." Tuvok offered his advice.

"They might have telescopes or Star gazers." Harry joked, and most everyone laughed or smiled at least.

"Very well," Janeway began. "We'll beam the first teams in, to establish a safe perimeter, to verify no one will notice them, and then send in the Flyer to pick up the deposits."

The meeting was quickly adjourned, and the teams broke up into their groups to work on the project. Tuvok, naturally headed up Elite Force, while Harry Kim led the science team that would be doing the actual extracting. He picked Seven of Nine as his second in command of the small team.

For the next few hours mission preparation took precedence over other tasks that could be placed on the back burner. Engineering ran a systems check of the teleportation's rooms, so even if the one that the team beamed down on broke, they might be beamed back from a different room if there was an emergency. Science checked the equipment they'd be bringing, and calibrated to mission requirements. All hands were in a state of high energy, both physically and emotionally.

At some point between preparation and go time the captain's office received a notification from security. Janeway answered. Although it was unexpected, Janeway wasn't especially worried, yet. "It appears that the several prefectures, around 20 in total, are all gathering for an event at their respective town center. I've instructed a team to continue monitoring events." Tuvok stated.

"Very good." Janeway nodded, a pause of concern lingering on her face for a moment.

"Hmm." Chakotay hummed out loud. "It may be nothing." He said coolly, yet his eyes watched her. She didn't seem overly flustered.

For a few hours all of the crew wondered and speculated whether they had been spotted already or not. Another part of the crew had been assigned to tuning into the planet's communications network though, to monitor things, and hadn't detected any signs of the people of Panem, as this was the name of the planet, apparently, recognizing Voyager, so that was good news. Surprisingly, there were no signs of anyone on the planet that even seem to be interested in outward exploration. It appeared that the communications that were available were all inwardly focused.

Eventually, science department settled on the theory that some sort of holiday or festival was being celebrated, and that it was just an fortunate coincidence, that people below were gathering for an special event of some sort. Crew members who had enjoyed the anthropological classes most at Starfleet were especially interested to observe the goings on, and invited to make observations from the data gathered so far, if they didn't have priority assignments. They'd write up articles on the observations made of this culture, and hopefully eventually share their findings with Alpha Quadrant.

Inside the main brig area, Elite Force finished checking their gear along with the science crew, and readied to go. Since the brig was rarely used, it had become mostly a security and Elite Force hangout, and equipment catch all storage.

"It's convenient, these games. They'll be too focused to see us coming in," one crewmember said to another as he hung his rifle from his shoulder.

"Yeah, they won't even notice the dilithium gone… for another couple hundred years." The two crewmen laughed. It had been decided by Janeway to leave an sort of informational beacon in orbit, or satellite, that would eventually be discovered by the people of Panem, if they ever did choose to explore skyward. The capsule had a few messages inside, such as how to contact Starfleet and possibly join, if the people of Panem ever ventured towards the Alpha Quadrant.

Just a few more hours until dark, and the games commencement. It'd be difficult to get some sleep, with all the nervous energy, but the two teams were ordered to rest, in the meantime.

During the meeting after some typical wrangling, Paris had volunteered to fly out the crew, since he was already familiar with the atmosphere, etc. so this was another reason Janeway had wanted the teams to rest. Usually, she'd want her best pilot on the bridge, but he did have a point, and it was already well established the planet couldn't muster an attack even if they'd wanted to, against Voyager.

Sometime during the early morning shift rotation after Janeway had handed over the bridge to Chakotay, Kess didn't quite yet realize she was tossing and turning. Suddenly, she awoke with a start. She was no longer on Voyager. The surroundings were very different. It was a home-a home in poor condition and although the culture seemed already very different intuitively she knew this was the day she'd be heading off to the games. The sinking feeling that this would be the last day she saw her family alive, and that she'd volunteered for this position to take the place of someone else, someone very dear to her, played in her mind. The culmination of all these feelings stirred her soul, deeply.

As she left the bedroom, entering the kitchen/dining area people she had never seen, but who instinctively she knew to be her family looked up to her. They were trying to be cheerful, but she could feel their sadness, for they knew she was about to depart for the Hunger Games. "Kess, Kess!" She heard Nelix calling her.

Kess woke startled, eyes darting and trying to focus about the room. Nelix was beside her, and immediately she began to relax. "Ohh…" was all she could manage to breathe at first. She felt a cold sweat had broken on her while she slept apparently.

"you were having a nightmare?" he asked, almost half questioning.

"Yes, but I-" she didn't know what to say. It had all been so real. "I think I need to speak with the captain." The look on Nelix's face was priceless. "Talk to the captain?" He almost laughed.

"Yes, I can explain later. It's intuition." She said as she threw on a robe and headed for the door. As the door hissed shut behind her, Nelix mouth was still wide open with surprise, and admiration.

Minutes later, the scent of freshly brewed tea began to creep in the air as the replicator finished something for Kess. It was the Captain's treat, even though she hadn't wanted to reward behavior that encouraged waking her up at such an hour. "So you think you picked up on these emotions, and were witnessing some sort of 'human' sacrifice about to take place?" Janeway's eyebrows furrowed, perplexed.

"yes, Captain. Exactly." Kess said, receiving the cup of tea. By now, Janeway's coffee had cooled enough thankfully for her to sip. "Very well. I'll instruct that we look into this. I trust your intuition-It's helped us before." The haggard captain replied, blinking her eyes a few times.

"Thank you captain… Sorry to have woke you so early." Kess apologized.

"It's no problem." Janeway said, glancing over at a wall clock. "I'll just take a power nap sometime this afternoon-probably after the mission is over." She chuckled, which made Kess laugh too. "Well, good morning." Kess wished and began to rise.

"Could you take this data pad by Sickbay, and drop it off?" Janeway asked tiredly, even though they both knew it was only a polite order.

"Of course Captain." Kess grabbed it with her free hand. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yes. I was just doing some studying is all, out of curiosity, and had borrowed it the last time I was over there. I imagine the doctor will start pestering me if I don't return it soon." Janeway laughed softly again.

Soon enough the errand was run and Kess began her day. From time to time similar feelings and thoughts would return about the girl she'd dreamed herself to be: Where she was, what she was doing as Kess went about performing her regular duties.

In the meantime, she and many of the rest of the crew participated in an information gathering and team building exercise to keep everyone from getting stir crazy. They called it the Panem wiki, as a joke. As a way to quickly brainstorm information about the surface, participants used ship cameras to take pictures, or video, and upload it to the wiki so they could all collaborate. It was partly reconnaissance to keep the teams safe, that would be beaming down, one last burst of attention to make sure they weren't heading into a trap; and partly it was an anthropological study for later when there was more time to digest the data.

Soon enough, zero hour arrived and Elite Force blinked into existence upon the dark surface. Tree trunks and undergrowth encircled them as far as the eye could see. Birds squawked randomly in the canopy, as the team activated the night vision of their helmets, and began moving into place, forming a protective perimeter for the crew that would be working at its center.

Not much long after, flashes of phaser from the science team worked to tap into the deposit. By now, Elite Force was thoroughly bored, with nothing more than the same tree trunks to look at. Most of their excitement was awaiting the other team to reach the dilithium.

"Still nothing-nobody." Dan, one of the members broke comm silence to report in since fifteen minutes had elapsed from the last uneventful report. He honestly sounded rather bored, but still remained professional. Lt. Commander tuvok almost smiled. Humans were an interesting, but still immature species in many ways.

The officers had chosen this deposit, even though it wasn't quite as much dilithium as other locations, because it was over a hundred miles from the nearest settlement. For some reason this part of the planet seemed neglected and undeveloped.

Not much longer they'd began pulling up crystal. The amounts that were collected already were still more than enough to aid them for some time, even if they were wasteful. Tuvok's comm piece broke into his thoughts, as he had it tuned in to the science crews channel as well, since he was leader of Elite Force. "Okay, excellent! We'll clean these samples up after we get back to the ship. Just keep them coming." Harry Kim, the science crew leader stated. After cutting out larger chunks now, of geode type pieces of rock and crystal. They were all back at the ship within three hours. It hadn't taken a tenth of that time for the good news to spread through the crew. They'd all be eating lobster and steak in no time, hopefully in time to celebrate and watch the Hunger Games.

Janeway, however, hadn't ever quite gotten over the early morning dream Kess had come to her about. What if it was true, and the planet had some sort of human sacrifice? She stopped her thoughts before they had time to go anywhere, partially because she didn't want to believe it, and partly because the Prime Directive said she wouldn't be able to anyway. "How convenient" she thought, permitting herself a moment to be cynical.