IA: A Prelude to War

by Crayz9000

First book of a series. 30 years before Yavin, a massive Jedi expedition known as the Outbound Flight disappeared in the unknown regions of the galaxy. Most assumed it had been destroyed by an alien named Thrawn... but what if that assumption was wrong?

9. Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

Jaina nearly put her fist through the comm panel, but thought better of it. "It's the third time," she complained, "and I still haven't heard anything from ExGal 4." After picking up the convoy's survivors, they had dropped them off at one of the few major spaceports in the sparsely-populated sector before continuing on to Belkadan.

"What about the scan?" Jacen asked from the rear of the cockpit.

"One humanoid lifesign, and not much of anything else." Jaina turned around in her chair, frustration obvious on her face. "So, what do we do now?"

As he put his boots up on a side console and leaned back, Jacen shrugged. "Knock harder?"

"I guess that could work." Jaina spun back around, immediately reaching for the controls. Then, as if something had stung her, she pulled back. "Hang on. Is the atmosphere even breathable?"

The cockpit was silent, save for the hum of computers, for a long moment. "Yes," Tenel Ka eventually said. "Marginally. There's a lot of carbon dioxide, methane, and sulfur dioxide floating around. There are also intense storms raging across the planet, although none are near the station so far. The situation seems to be calming down, however, and according to the computer the atmosphere should be back at normal levels in another month or so."

"So you're saying that it smells like a cesspool. Wonderful."

Jaina looked at him with an incredulous expression. "What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind. Just page Kyp and tell him that we're going in. He'll probably want to come as well."

She checked some settings on the panel. "Sounds good to me," she said as she reached overhead and turned on the comm. "Rock Dragon to Avenger Leader. Kyp, there hasn't been any response, so we're going to land and take a look. What are your plans?"

The comm was silent for a moment as Kyp talked to his squadron mates. "I'll come with you. Miko and the rest of the squadron will stay in orbit and keep us informed of anything."

"Will do," she acknowledged, switching the comm to standby and grabbing the yoke. The Hapan transport responded immediately, diving into into Belkadan's atmosphere at a shallow attitude. Less than a minute later, they were skimming over the treetops-or rather, what was left of them.

There was a slight stir as Jacen stood up in the back of the cockpit and walked forward so as to get a better view. "Blaster bolts!" he exclaimed as soon as he saw the jungle. "I knew the 3GS data was out of date, but I had no idea it was this bad..." 3GS stood for the Third Galactic Survey, which had been conducted toward the later years of the Old Republic just before the Clone Wars.

"There's ExGal 4," Tenel Ka stated, her arm pointing to a rapidly growing speck on the horizon. "We'll worry about the jungle after we land. Lowie, anything on the short-range scanners yet?"

By the time the Wookiee barked a negative and waited for Em Tedee to translate it, the Rock Dragon was already circling over the science station as Jaina attempted to find a suitable landing zone. The search didn't take very long, and soon thereafter both ships had touched down on what passed for a landing pad.

As the landing ramp unfolded, Jacen was the first one down, holding his lightsaber in one hand just in case there was any wildlife looking for a quick snack. However, it wasn't wildlife that assaulted him. It was the smell.

"Phew. It's like rotten vegetables," Jaina remarked for him as she came right behind him on the ramp.

"No kidding." He stepped onto the stresscrete pad, looking down when he heard his boots crunching on something. The ground was covered evenly with small, rounded, two-centimeter brown objects that looked like surprisingly uniform pebbles. He picked one up and turned it over in his gloved hands. "Check this out. Looks like these are-"

Jacen was interrupted by a loud bellow from Lowie, which was promptly followed up by a remark from Em Tedee. "A pity that you can't shut off your olfactory sensors."

The Wookiee snorted and chuffed something in response.

"What? No, you wouldn't do that. Would you?"

Lowie grabbed the small translator with a meaty paw and held it up to his face, then bared his fangs in a slight grin.

"I see your point," Em Tedee said in a rather humiliated tone. "Can you put me back now?"

The Wookiee did so, then strode across the pad to where Kyp was lowering his R6 astromech. The other Jedi were already gathered there and talking.

"I wonder what happened to this jungle," Jacen was saying. "I mean, we've got these dead beetles strewn all over the place, and everything else seems pretty dead to me."

"The person inside ExGal 4 might be able to answer that," Kyp said, turning as Lowie approached. "Good, we're all here. Lowie, would you mind taking R6 here back to your transport and staying there to alert us in case Miko finds something?"

Lowie bellowed a 'yes,' then walked back to the ship with R6 in tow as the other Jedi went for the nearest entrance to ExGal 4.

"Well, this would explain why they couldn't hear us," Jaina observed as they stopped in front of a fallen communications tower. "Completely sm... wait, there's someone trapped under it! Help me get it off."

Several lightsaber strokes later, they rolled the top of the tower off the body, which was wearing a badly torn envirosuit. Jacen gingerly reached down and pulled the hood off the body, revealing a crushed skeleton that was covered in more of the dead beetles.

"I wonder how long he's been there for," Jacen said, grimacing. "And whoever's inside didn't even come out and check... some teamwork."

"Maybe he couldn't get the tower off," Tenel Ka remarked, fingering her rancor-tooth lightsaber. "Or else whatever hit this planet made him stay inside."

By now the group had reached the door, and Kyp pressed the control panel to no avail. "Security lockout," he remarked, distaste obvious on his face.

Then the heavy door slid open. Standing behind it was a black-haired human male, who looked to be in his middle 30s.

"Welcome to ExGal 4," the man said in passable Basic. "I take it you're the rescue party? We've been expecting you for over a month."

Confusion momentarily flashed across Kyp's face, although he quickly recovered. "Yes, we were sent by the Extragalactic Society when they received your distress call. It seems we came too late, however."

"Too late for Tomri or the rest of the station crew, perhaps," the man said as he gestured to the body lying next to the tower. "But I am still alive."

'He didn't even seem to care about Tomri,' Jacen thought.

"True," Kyp said, extending his hand. "But I don't believe we've been introduced yet. I'm Kyp Durron, and these are my assistants."

"Yomin Carr," the man said as he somewhat hesitantly took Kyp's outstreched hand. "A pleasure to meet you."

Kyp immediately took charge of the situation. "Can you show us around the facility so we can assess the damage?"

"Certainly," Yomin Carr replied. "Follow me." He began walking down the hallway, stopping at the first door he came to and unlocking it. "This is, or was, our hydroponics facility," he said as they stepped inside. "After the storm, one of the trees overhanging the facility fell over and smashed the upper windows. Fortunately none of the plants were attacked by those beetles."

Jacen looked around the room, which was, just as Carr had said, now open to the sky. The plants scattered around the hydroponics room were all relatively standard food-producing plants, and he didn't notice anything really abnormal about them... "The beetles, can you tell me anything about them?"

Yomin Carr shook his head. "Not much. It's possible that they mutated on this planet and then spread, doing enough damage to the environment to produce the storm that damaged this facility."

"Do you have any genetic testing equipment here?"

"No." Carr frowned. "This is an astronomical station, remember? All the scientific equipment we had was for charting extragalactic objects."

Kyp laughed. "Don't worry about Jacen too much. He's our biologist, and isn't very much into technology."

"I see," Carr replied as he noticed that Jaina was entering some information into her datapad. "As soon as you've finished the damage assessment for this room, shall we move on?"

"Sure," Jaina said, flipping the datapad shut and sliding it back into a pocket on her flight suit. "What's the next damaged room?"

"The observation lounge," Carr replied as he stepped back into the hallway and continued walking.

.

.

Meanwhile, in the Rock Dragon, Lowbacca paced back and forth in the cargo bay. He stopped to pick up the scratched piece of durasteel, and looked over it thoughtfully before setting it back down. It had already been fifteen minutes since the rest had left...

Lowie finally made up his mind. Attaching a comlink extender to the Rock Dragon's comm panel, so he'd know if Miko tried to contact him, he stuck a comlink on his belt, gestured to Kyp's R6 to follow him, and headed down the ramp.

"Are you sure this is a wise decision?" Em Tedee warbled from his belt. Lowbacca ignored the miniature translator for the time being, going so far as to slap his paw over its grille as he approached the door. He then tried the door panel, but to no avail, and growled something.

"Lowbacca requests that you override the door's security code," Em Tedee told the R6 in a muted tone. The barrel-headed astromech trundled up, extended its data port, and plugged into the control panel. A tense moment later the door slid open.

The Wookiee grunted an inquiry under its breath, which Em Tedee then translated. A quiet reply promptly came from the R6.

"R6 says that the computer center is approximately thirty meters into the base. The other group is about fifty meters away from the computer center."

Lowie bared his fangs slightly in a feral smile and quickly strode into ExGal 4, R6 in close pursuit.

.

.

"What can you tell us about the storm?" Tenel Ka asked Yomin Carr as they left the wrecked observation lounge.

Carr shook his head. "As much as I told... ah... Jacen about the beetles. The storm started a little over a month ago on the far side of the planet. It spread rapidly, and several days after it started, several of the other scientists left in the base's airspeeder to check on its progress. When they returned, we hastily began preparing the base for the storm, but we were not fast enough. As the rest of the team took our shuttle into orbit to map out the global damage from the storm, the main comm tower was damaged. Bensin Tomri, who stayed behind with me, decided to climb up and fix it. I warned him against it, but he ignored me. The tower collapsed and I was unable to free him."

"And the shuttle?" Jaina interjected.

The scientist glared at her. "I was getting to that. I think the shuttle was damaged by the storm when it took off, because when they came back down it went out of control and burned up in the atmosphere. None of them made it as far as I could tell."

"So you basically holed up and waited for help to arrive."

"Yes," Carr replied, stopping in front of another door and unlocking it. "Now this was the communications room," he stated as they stepped inside. "All the equipment has serious acid damage, and will need to be replaced."

"Acid damage?" Jacen frowned, then sighed in realization. "Sulfur mixed with the water in the atmosphere. Of course."

"Correct," Carr replied. "But the equipment was rather old. I hope that the Extragalactic Society can bring some newer equipment."

"We'll mention it when we return," Kyp replied. "But they are on a short budget."

As Carr closed up the comm room, he continued talking. "The astronomical facilities were damaged the worst of all. The main optical telescope was completely ruined, along with the hyperspacial sensor array..."

.

.

Lowbacca warily scanned the room as R6 whirred away at the computer terminal, downloading as many of the base's records as possible. The droid paused momentarily, and an audio recording began to play.

"It's the fourth day of the storm," a woman's voice began, "and there's no sign of letting up. When we checked on the storm's progress earlier today, we got caught in it and Tee-Ubo was wounded. She sacrificed herself by giving us her oxygen pack so that we could get back to base." The woman on the recording took a breath, and Lowbacca could tell that she was in pain. "However, the sensor contact has already entered the Helska system and is approaching the fourth planet, decelerating all the time. Despite the storm, in a few minutes we're going to leave in the old shuttle and investigate. Bensin and Yomin are staying behind to watch the base, and I hope they survive the storm. Danni Quee out."

The Wookiee pondered the message as R6 continued downloading. By the time the droid finished, he had made up his mind, and left in the direction that R6 told him the rest of the Jedi were.

.

.

Yomin Carr stopped in his tracks as he saw Lowbacca and R6 approaching. "I was not informed that you had androids with you," he calmly stated.

The Jedi turned to see Lowie, who bellowed something.

"Wait a second. Why are droids a problem?" Kyp looked back at Yomin Carr.

"It was an agreement with the Extragalactic Society that this base would not have any droids, as they are an offense to my religion. So I would recommend that you immediately remove your droid from the premises."

Kyp rolled his eyes, but decided that a confrontation was not worth it. "Lowie, take R6 back to the ship, will you?"

The Wookiee barked an objection, but Kyp put up his hand. "You can tell us later. Just go."

"Thank you," Carr curtly stated as soon as Lowbacca and the droids had left.

"You're welcome," Kyp replied, not meaning it at all. "Is there any other damage that we need to know about?"

Yomin Carr shook his head. "There's minor damage all through the base, of course, but that's to be expected."

"Well, then, I guess we're done here." Kyp looked straight at Carr. "Should we take you back to ExGal headquarters or do you want to take your chances and stay here until aid arrives?"

"I will stay here. There is still some data that can be gathered despite most of the main instruments being down. Thank you for the offer, but it is unnecessary."

"In that case, we'll be on our way."

.

.

Yomin Carr allowed himself a slight smile as he watched the group return to their ships and leave. He wasn't entirely happy about the fact that they brought a droid into the station-he hadn't made up the part about droids being against his religion, but that was not what worried him. He thought he had disconnected the station's main computer, but astromechs were repair droids and known to be good at slicing.

Carr sealed the door again and walked back to his quarters, lost deep in thought. These people seemed to accept everything that he had fed them, but he still found something a little unsettling about them. Perhaps they were the Jedi that Nom Anor had warned him about?

With that thought, he reached his quarters and slid the metal door open. As soon as he'd shut the door again, he began to undress, pulling off the suffocating artificial fabric uniform that had been issued to all the ExGal scientists. He balled the uniform up and, sneering, roughly tossed it into the room's closet. Then he reached up and pressed an area to the side of his nose. For a moment, nothing happened; then there was a slight, moist, ripping sound, and his "skin" began to peel along his spine. It continued to peel off, tiny hooks unbinding themselves from his pores in a wave of excruciating pain that ran from head to toe.

He savored the pain, drank it in as if it were alchohol. Now the creature-it couldn't have been anything else-was halfway off. It continued to peel off him, now revealing his true face. Finally finished, the ooglith masquer undulated along the floor until it found its typical resting place.

Yomin Carr straightened and looked at himself in the room's mirror. Scars ran along his body, long since healed, evidence of the tortures that he had put himself through while on the Praetorite Vong worldship.

He tore his mind off his appearance, and put on a utilitarian loincloth before reaching into the closet and withdrawing a roughly head-sized pulsating creature, a villip. Setting it on his bed, Carr stroked the ridge on the front of the villip. A seam appeared in the center of the villip, which continued to invert itself until it was almost a perfect ball again. The oblong ball of the villip then took on the shape of a well-scarred face.

"Executor," Carr addressed the person who possessed the villip's twin.

"What do you have to report, Attendant?"

"A small group of humans, as well as a large alien-I believe it's called a Wookiee-visited the station today. They said they were an inspection team from the Extragalactic Society."

Nom Anor's eyes, or more correctly, the villip's rendition of his eyes, narrowed. "How many people?"

"I counted five, Executor."

Anor drew in a sharp breath. "Four humans and a Wookiee? What were the appearances of the humans? Was one a red-haired woman with only one arm?"

"Yes," Carr replied, unsure of what the Executor was thinking.

"Then we must speed up our plans dramatically. Those were Jedi, attendant."

"Jeedai?" the Praetorite Vong infiltrator inquired, slightly slurring the word. "They did not seem suspicious..."

"Jedi can mask their feelings quite well; I have dealt with them before. Are they still on the planet?"

"No, Executor. They left the landing pad several minutes ago."

"Be watchful, attendant. They may return at any time. I will contact Prefect Da'Gara and inform him of this news. He may send a coralskipper to retrieve you, or he may not."

"Understood," Carr replied before closing the villip.

.

.

"Did anyone else find anything strange about that guy?" Jacen asked as he took a seat at the rear of the cockpit. "It was... I don't know how to put it... like trying to probe a Hutt but worse."

Tenel Ka nodded. "Almost like he didn't exist as far as the Force was concerned."

"Almost," Jacen agreed. "But that gets me wondering, if the Force is in everything as Uncle Luke has said, then how can a person not exist in the Force?"

Jaina rolled her eyes. "We've discussed that before, well, sort of. How can a ysalamir live if it pushes the Force back?"

He shrugged. "Got me there."

A Wookiee roar from the rear of the ship broke through any semblance of discussion. Sighing, Jacen came to his feet and walked into the hold. "What's the matter?" he asked.

Lowbacca arfed softly, gesturing at the screen of the ship's computer, which was displaying some technical data.

"Kriff," Jacen muttered to himself as he broke out in a run back to the cockpit. "Turn around," he insisted to the surprise of his sister and Tenel Ka. "We need to go back. Now."

"Why?" the two pilots asked almost in unison.

"Because Yomin Carr lied to us."

"What?"

Jacen paused to brace himself against the doorway. "The base's shuttle didn't burn up in Belkadan's atmosphere," he explained. "Logs showed a signal from sector L-30, about eighteen parsecs Rimward. Most of the personnel left in a shuttle to investigate that, not the storm. So as far as we know they're still alive."

Tenel Ka reached for the comm, leaving Jaina to do the flying. "Avenger Leader, this is Tenel Ka on the Rock Dragon. We just received some new data from Lowbacca concerning ExGal 4."

"-copy," Kyp acknowledged, partially cut off by a burst of static. "R6 already told me. We'll discuss it with the rest of the squadron."

.

.

Predictably, the Avengers couldn't form a solid conclusion. Miko and about half of the squadron wanted to investigate. The rest, excluding Kyp (who had decided to wait before he took a side) were in favor of staying.

"Jacen," his sister began, "if you think they might still be alive, we should go to Helska immediately. Not back down there."

"But it could also be a front. We know he's alive, and we can still get information from him."

Tenel Ka nodded her approval. "And what does Lowbacca have to say?"

An excited Wookiee bellow answered the question; there was no mistaking whose side Lowbacca was on. Jacen merely smiled, to his sister's discomfort.

"Squadron's split fifty-fifty," Kyp reported over the comm. "How about you guys?"

They told him.

"Then it's settled," he remarked. "Good point, Jacen; we don't need to waste time chasing wild Gundarks."

With that conclusion the two ships, transport and starfighter, plowed back through the atmosphere at a much faster rate. This time the Jedi wasted no time on pleasantries, leaving Tenel Ka to watch the ships as they charged for the front door.

"Fused shut this time," Jacen remarked as he drew his lightsaber. He quickly sliced through the sealed door, only to find the corridor beyond crushed in rubble. "Kriff."

"Master Lowbacca suggests that we find a back door," Em Tedee translated from his position on the Wookiee's utility belt.

"What a novel idea," Jacen dryly remarked as he shut down his lightsaber and clipped it back on his belt, running to catch up with the rest of the group. They were almost halfway around the station by the time he did.

The sight that greeted the group as they neared the back door was, to put it mildly, gruesome. An astromech droid leaned against the back wall, its dome crudely removed and a human skull in the dome's place.

"My goodness," a tinny voice erupted after it could see the destroyed astromech.

"What kind of maniac does that?" Jaina inquired, thoroughly revolted.

"Same kind of maniac that I suspect we'll find inside," Kyp answered. "So much for his claims of ExGal agreeing to not have droids in the station."

This time Jaina stepped up to the door and tried the controls. "Locked as well."

Lowbacca arfed something, which Em Tedee reluctantly translated. "Master Lowbacca suggests interfacing me to the door controls."

"Alright, then, get up here."

Em Tedee floated off Lowbacca's belt on his repulsorlift cushion. "I must protest being used in this manner," the small droid complained despite knowing the uselessness of the complaint as Jaina hooked him up. Moments later the door slid open.

"Sithspit!" Jaina exclaimed as she involuntarily took a step away from the door. In her startled state, she forgot about the stairs leading to the door and lost her balance, landing in Kyp's arms.

Standing just beyond the door frame was a roughly humanoid creature, almost exactly two meters tall-the same height as Yomin Carr, Jacen thought. In the alien's hand was a snakelike staff, and tatoos covered its body from head to toe. Upon seeing Jaina's discomfiture, it gave what might have been the equivalent of a snort, although Jacen wondered how that was possible given the lack of a normal nose on the alien.

"I did not know that you jeedai were so characteristically clumsy," the alien remarked in Yomin Carr's voice. Then it leapt into action, snakelike staff stiffening and swinging as if it were a lightsaber.

Four humming lightsabers, each a different color, greeted the hissing staff. Jacen, now the nearest to Yomin Carr, swung his saber into the path of the hissing serpent-and was surprised when the living creature deflected his saber as if it were another lightsaber.

"What the..." was all he had time to say before he ducked into a roll, and the creature's staff bit into the wall behind where he had been standing. Now he was inside ExGal 4, but so was Carr. There was an electronic screech, and the wires that connected Em Tedee were broken by the staff while Jacen was distracted; the droid went flying back into the clearing before it could regain control with its repulsors.

The door slammed shut, leaving Jacen standing opposite Yomin Carr. As the tip of a lightsaber poked through one corner of the blast door, Carr sprung into action again, hammering at Jacen with a flurry of blows that put the Jedi firmly on the defensive. The Jedi found himself hard pressed to keep up, feeling rather disoriented around the alien, and after perhaps two minutes had passed his guard faltered; he felt something strike his left heel, and he fell backwards.

Before he could react, Carr was standing over him, armored foot standing on his lightsaber arm, strange staff pointing at his throat. "Too easy," the alien gloated, and drew his staff back for a killing blow-

Which was stopped by a glowing bronze blade. Lowbacca bared his fangs at the alien warrior before applying more force to his blade, driving Carr back. Jaina ran over to help her brother while Kyp joined in the attack with Lowie.

"Are you all right?" she asked, helping Jacen to his feet.

He winced as a starburst of pain seemed to spread from his heel. Whatever the staff was had torn through his thick boot as if it didn't exist. "I think it might have been poisoned."

"Then get back to the ship," she warned him.

"I'll try." He leaned back against a wall, trying to recover enough strength in that leg to limp back to the ship while Jaina charged into battle. As the battle raged on, Jacen focused on halting the flow of the poison before it did any more damage. He already couldn't feel anything below his knee, and as he shifted weight in preparation to walk out the door, his ankle folded and he collapsed with a groan. So much for that idea, he thought as he started crawling.

Now outnumbered, it was only a matter of minutes before the three Jedi brought Yomin Carr down. Bring him down they did; he croaked and fell as a lightsaber punched through his shoulder armor.

"Who are you really?" Kyp demanded, his lightsaber pointed at the alien's face.

Yomin Carr managed to contort his broken and bleeding face into something that resembled a grin. "The beginning of your end," he managed as his hand twitched imperceptibly toward the staff, which was lying only a few centimeters away. The staff instantly responded, softening and becoming more snake-like. Its head coiled upward, and before Jaina or any of the other Jedi could react, it spat a blob of venom toward her face. She started to dodge to the side, but with no warning from the Force her reaction time wasn't fast enough.

The venom splashed across her right eye and cheek, burning like acid. She instantly recoiled, using a gloved hand to wipe most of the venom off her face.

Before it could cause any more damage, Lowbacca rapidly stepped over and in one smooth swing beheaded the now soft staff. At the same time, Kyp moved his lightsaber closer to Carr's exposed face.

"You will tell us who you employed you," he said in a very serious tone, "now."

Yomin Carr managed to choke out a laugh. "I know enough to tell you that your vaunted Jeedai powers are useless against me."

Kyp didn't flinch. "Tell us."

The alien said no more. Sighing, Kyp turned to Lowbacca. "Lowie, bind him while I make sure he doesn't try anything. We'll have to bring him with us."

As the Wookiee reached for the binders that hung on his belt, Kyp spotted Carr's other arm moving toward a bandolier on his chest. He swung the lightsaber to intercept it, cutting off the hand. The arm thumped down on top of the bandolier weakly as dark blood spurted out.

Kyp's eyes widened. "Stand back!" he warned as he took a leap backwards. Moments later, the bandolier exploded, scattering Yomin Carr's remains all over the room. Kyp wiped some dark blood off his face. "So much for interrogation," he sighed.

"Was that the same person who gave us the tour?" Jaina asked in a tone that suggested she'd seen better days. Already she had torn off part of her jumpsuit and used it to wipe the venom off her face.

"Apparently so," Kyp replied as he turned toward her. He noticed that her right eye was tearing; a stream of clear fluid escaped and trickled down Jaina's cheek. "How badly did it hurt you?"

She shrugged. "It burned pretty bad, and I'm having some trouble seeing out of this eye."

Kyp nodded. "All right, let's get back to our ships and patch you guys up. Then we can tear this station apart to see what really happened."

.

---

.

When Lorana landed the Delta-12 in D-One's hangar, Tom was surprised to find about a dozen security officers and one of the Jedi standing around in the middle of the hangar deck. Once the canopy had opened, he jumped out and began walking over to the group with Lorana.

"What's going on, Master Helsani?" Lorana asked as she approached the Jedi.

He turned to regard the two new arrivals. "Captain Janeway materialized here a couple minutes ago and began shouting about how she needed to talk to Commander Chakotay. We've restrained her until the Commander arrives.

"Wasn't she supposed to be in sickbay on Voyager?" Tom asked. "How did she get out?"

"I'm not sure," Helsani replied. "She has not been very forthcoming."

Tom frowned. "Huh. Mind if I talk to her?"

The Jedi shrugged. "Sure, go ahead." He waved to the security officers, who cleared a path for him to walk through.

As he approached, he noticed several cuts and scrapes on her hands and forehead. "What's going on, Captain?"

"Thank goodness you're OK, Tom!" she exclaimed. "I wanted to come over here to warn Chakotay not to negotiate. Has he already signed anything?"

Tom frowned. "Yes, we have an agreement for them to tow us to Earth. We'll be leaving in about an hour."

"Have they taken any blood samples from you?"

He drew back and narrowed his eyes. "No... why?"

"Nevermind," she quickly said. "I think we're all in danger. I started flying over here but a fighter from this ship started shooting and drove me into an asteroid field-"

"That was YOU?" Tom exclaimed. He lunged for her, colliding and knocking her to the ground. "I-" he grabbed her collar, "can't-" pulled her head toward him and stared straight into her stunned eyes, "believe you would be that stupid!"

Strong arms grabbed from behind and pulled him off the shocked Captain. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I was on that fighter!" he shouted. "We were trying to hail you but you didn't respond! Those were just warning shots, we weren't trying to hit you!"

She stared back at him, dumbfounded, as the security officers pulled her to her feet and held her opposite Tom.

"Captain, Lieutenant, what the hell is all this about?" Chakotay demanded, having entered the circle during the altercation.

"She-"

"You're-"

"stole-"

"all-"

"my-"

"in-

"-ship!"

"-danger!"

Chakotay held up a hand. "One at a time, please! Captain, you first."

"You're in danger," she repeated. "They've tricked all of you!"

He regarded her with an incredulous expression. "Captain, with all due respect, we've been working together for weeks now on repairing Voyager to depart for Earth. This is our best chance at getting out of this goddamned quadrant, and you want us to just abort now? I think you've completely lost it." He turned to Tom. "Lieutenant, I hope you understand that although Captain Janeway is temporarily suspended of her rank, attacking any superior officer is still insubordination. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Tom looked down at the gleaming black metal deck. "Jedi Jinzler offered to let me ride in a fighter craft they had here. While we were out flying, we saw the Delta Flyer come blasting out of Voyager's shuttlebay. It didn't respond to our hails, so Lorana fired a couple of warning shots ahead of it. The pilot took it into an asteroid field where it was destroyed." He pointed to Janeway. "She just admitted she was the one flying it."

Chakotay turned back to the Captain. "Is that true?"

She nodded.

He frowned slightly. "Aren't you supposed to be in Sickbay?"

"I thought it was more important to warn you," she replied.

Chakotay reached up and began to massage his temples. "I assume, then, that you did not have the Doctor's, or Tuvok's, permission to leave, much less fly over here." He dropped his hands back down. "I don't even know how many lives you risked pulling your little stunt! Then you wrecked the only working shuttlecraft we had left. Do you understand now why the Doctor removed you from command?"

When she didn't reply, he looked down at his wristwatch. "Well, I don't have time to take you back to Voyager. Master Helsani, would you mind having your men escort the Captain to the brig so we can sort this out later?"

The Jedi Master nodded and the security officers snapped binders onto Janeway's hands before leading her off. Chakotay watched the scene for a few moments and then turned to Tom.

"You know, I do understand why you're upset. I'd be pretty upset too if I spent months building something only to have her trash it... in fact, that's almost what I felt like when she wanted us to walk away from this the first time.

"But that doesn't excuse you from attacking Captain Janeway, even if she's not technically in command right at the moment. She is still a captain in Starfleet unless Starfleet Command decides otherwise, and striking a superior officer is still insubordination.

Chakotay looked up at Tom, then nodded in the direction of the containment field at the edge of the hangar. The two began walking toward it, away from where the rest of the people were congregated.

"Having said that," Chakotay said with the slightest hint of humor, "I've been waiting for someone to go off on her like that for a long time. You have no idea how it feels to deal with a captain who is always right, even if she's wrong."

Tom gave the commander a confused look. "So what does that mean for me?"

Chakotay seemed to consider the question for a few long moments. "I'm going to consider this talk we've had your reprimand. To show I'm serious, I'm going to temporarily demote you back to Ensign, and make you spend the rest of the trip back in the brig. When we get home, Starfleet is going to go over this mess with a fine-toothed comb regardless, and I doubt they're going to be very sympathetic with any of us given that we were Maquis."

"I see," Tom replied. "You don't want to look like you're playing favorites."

The commander shrugged. "I don't think I am, but what they think is another story. I just hope they see the big picture here."

"What, that we managed to successfully have first contact with explorers from another galaxy?" Tom asked. "I'd say that's a pretty big accomplishment."

"True," Chakotay mused. "I really don't know how to expect Starfleet Command to react. I mean, I did take a pretty big chance trusting the Jedi. Let's hope it pays off."

Tom nodded. "So... are you going to send me to the brig right now?"

Chakotay shook his head. "I figured that you should at least see us start the trip home. Besides, you're not going to go crazy and attack me, are you?"

"No."

"Then let's go to the bridge and see what happens."

While they were walking back, Chakotay's commbadge chirped and he tapped it. "Chakotay here."

"Commander, this is Tuvok. Janeway escaped in the Delta Flyer about twenty minutes ago. We saw that it was destroyed shortly after, although there was a transporter signature targeted at the ship you're on. What happened?"

It only took a few minutes for Chakotay to explain the situation to Tuvok, and by the time he had finished they had already arrived on the command deck of D-One.

Not wanting to get in the way of anyone, Tom stayed toward the rear of the bridge. Meanwhile, Chakotay and Lorana walked forward to where Master C'baoth was standing and overseeing final preparations.

"So there was an accident?" C'baoth asked as they walked up.

Chakotay nodded. "Captain Janeway escaped from our sickbay and took one of our shuttles. Jedi Jinzler here tried to stop her, but Janeway went into the asteroid field and managed to destroy the shuttle."

"I see." C'baoth turned his gaze back to the crew working in the pits. "From your demeanor, I assume nobody was hurt. Is your ship ready?"

"Yes," Chakotay replied.

"Good." C'baoth swept his gaze around the bridge. "Final countdown will be starting shortly. You will be staying here for the first jump?"

He nodded again, and waited for the countdown to begin. Fortunately, the wait wasn't very long, and he listened to the automated countdown with mild interest, walking forward to look at the viewscreens that wrapped around the perimeter of the command deck. When the countdown reached zero, there was a quiet rumbling noise and the faint stars he could see out the screens suddenly turned to streaks, then were replaced moments later with an odd swirling tunnel of bluish light. Barely a minute later, the tunnel dissolved back into pinpoints of light.

"First jump successful," one of the techs in the pit announced. "D-Two through D-Five report no major equipment failures. D-Six remote slave circuits operating nominally. Plotting jump coordinates. Estimated time to next jump in two minutes and thirty-seven seconds."

The countdown clocks on the command deck changed to reflect the new time, and as Chakotay walked back to where C'baoth stood, he tapped his commbadge. "Chakotay to Voyager, please report status."

"All systems normal," Tuvok's voice came back a moment later. "Warp core still offline, impulse reactors operating at high efficiency. The sensor data we retrieved during the hyperspace jump was quite interesting."

Chakotay smiled. "Well, I'm sure that will keep Seven busy during the trip home."

"Indeed. Tuvok out."

.

.

The second jump started off as uneventful as the first, but when the countdown to reversion reached the halfway mark, the ship seemed to lurch, the sky of hyperspace was replaced with a dizzily spinning starfield, and alarms began ringing all over the command deck.

"What happened?" Chakotay asked.

"Gravity-well alarm," Captain Avin replied. "Designed to shut the hyperdrive down before the ship is catastrophically damaged." He took a step forward and looked down into the pit. "Status?"

"Trying to re-establish contact with D-Six, Captain," one of the techs replied.

"Do we have any idea where they are?"

"No, Sir. They could be light-years away. We're looking right now."

"Captain," Chakotay interrupted, "we might be able to help. I can have Voyager scan with long-range sensors."

Avin nodded. "Thank you."

Chakotay tapped his commbadge. "Chakotay to Tuvok, come in."

"Tuvok here," the reply came a moment later.

"I need you to scan for D-Six. We seem to have lost it during the jump. They think it could be several light-years away."

.

.

Chakotay nervously tapped his foot against the deck while he waited for a response. Finally, it came. "We have them, Commander. I'll forward the coordinates to D-One."

"Thank you," he replied.

"Don't thank me too soon," Tuvok said a moment later. "I'm also picking up large subspace distortions near D-Six."

Chakotay frowned. "Please tell me that isn't what I think it is."

There was a long pause. "It's the Borg."