Chapter Seven

As beautiful as the sunrises on Quarra were, Kathy Janeway had little time to enjoy today's as she tried to find a supervisor. She needed this job, and being late on her first day was not a good way to make a first impression. She knew this planet had a bit of a labor shortage which might save her, but she would still rather not risk it. Factory work was a bit beneath her skill-set, but better to get her hands dirty here than to keep them clean behind a desk on the shithole planet she was born on.

"Excuse me," she asked a pink-skinned alien who was about to pass her, "can you tell me where I can find the supervisor?"
"Over there," the alien said, pointing to his right.

"Thank you," Kathy said, jogging off in that direction. She made her way to a small office with a window that overlooked this part of the factory floor. The supervisor seemed to realize what she was there for just by looking as he stepped out to meet her and immediately, but politely, asked for her authorization and licenses.

He looked at them, smiling. "Level 6 in thermodynamics and quantum fusion? I'm impressed Ms. Janeway."

"Thank you, sir," Kathy said. "And I apologize for being late. I boarded the wrong transport and-"

"Ended up at the Atmosphere Filtration Facility? Don't feel bad, I did that my first day too. Happens to nearly two-thirds of the new hires in the first week. But around here we have a saying. 'First is forgiven.' Don't let it happen again, but as this is your first infraction, and a minor one at that, it won't go in your file."

"Thank you, sir," Kathy said.

"With your skills I'm surprised Atmo didn't offer you a job when you got there," the supervisor said. "But since you're here, your job is to monitor the primary reactor coils. They process more than eight thousand metric-"

"Eight thousand metric tons of tylium per second at 94% thermal efficiency."

The supervisor chuckled. "Well, hopefully we can help you keep that level of enthusiasm for the job. We like to keep our workforce happy. If you have any problems, let me know."

The supervisor turned to walk away, then stopped.

"Oh, just a head's up, we have a new efficiency monitor who also just started and she can be a bit… abrasive. She is good at her job though so listen to what she says, and try not to let her demeanor get to you. I guess being overly blunt comes with the territory when you're a cyborg."

"I'll keep that in mind, sir," Kathy said. As soon as the supervisor walked away, she immediately got to work. It didn't take her long to get into a rhythm. So much of one that she almost didn't noticed when a co-worker attempted to hand her a datapad with new specifications.

"Ah, thank you." she said to the alien, who simply nodded and walked away. She began entering the specifications, when suddenly an error alarm went off.

"Of for the love of-"

"Input Error 145," the automated alarm said between beeps. Kathy tried to correct, but was met with a "Command Code Violation 2308" for her efforts.

"Come on," she said, leaning in closer to the machine in front of her, hoping against all logic that being nice to the damn thing would work where her inputted instructions had somehow failed. "If you stop with that alarm, I promise I will never violate you again."

A hand reached into her peripheral vision and touched a button on the console, stopping the alarm immediately. She turned to see another alien, a male by all appearances, who was entering code of his own.

"You almost started a core overload," he said, though lacking the kind of judgement she would've expected from someone telling her she'd almost gotten everyone in the building killed.

If this is normal around here, she thought, maybe I should get a new job.

"I would've corrected it," she said defensively. She wasn't entirely sure of that in actuality, though she doubted it was entirely her fault and made a mental note to double check the specs she'd been handed earlier.

"Well," the alien man said, "I'm sorry for interrupting then. And for eavesdropping. I overheard you talking to your console."

"Well, it was either that or some percussive maintenance," Janeway said, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Percussive main- Oh, you mean hitting it," the alien man said, chuckling. "I like that. Percussive maintenance. I'll have to remember that one. I'm Jaffen, by the way." He extended his hand, and Kathy shook it.

"Kathryn," she said. "I only let my friends call me Kathy and we're not there yet so don't even think about it."

"Understood," Jaffen said. "I work just down there," he said, motioning his head down towards the end of the workfloor.

"This station doesn't require two operators," a voice said. Kathy turned and saw a blonde-haired human woman with obvious cybernetic implants where one of her eyebrows should've been, and another just under her right ear.

This must be the efficiency monitor I was warned about, Kathy thought.

"I don't think we've met," Jaffen said, offering the cyborg a handshake as well. Kathy wondered if he'd picked that up from one of the other humans on this planet, or if his species had somehow developed that form of greeting on their own by sheer coincidence. "I'm-"

"Employee 1326," the cyborg said. "And you," she added, glancing at Kathy before returning her focus to a device in her hands, "are Employee 8584. Since you're new here, you may not be fully familiar with labor protocols."

She looked at Jaffen again. "But you should be aware that fraternizing is not permitted during work hours."

"And what's your number if you don't mind my asking? Or do you get a name?"

The cyborg sighed. "Annika Hansen. I am the new efficiency monitor."

"Ah," Jaffen said, "I didn't know they'd hired a new one so soon." He shook his head. "I'm happy for Masala of course, but I'm gonna miss him around here."

"Now that you know," Hansen said, "you can return to your work station."

"For the record," Kathy said, "we weren't fraternizing. Jaffen just helped me correct an input code error. Speaking of-"

"Finish quickly," Hansen said, nodding politely, and briskly turning and walking away.

"Yes ma'am," Kathy said quietly.

"She's a charmed one isn't she?" Jaffen said.

"I think you mean 'charming,'" Kathy said, "but yeah."

"Anyway, from where I was standing I thought we were fraternizing," Jaffen said with a friendly smile. Kathy chuckled , shook her head, and went back to work. "Maybe we could get acquainted after work."

Kathy almost reflexively said "No," but hesitated for a moment.

Should I? She thought.

"I can't," she said out loud. "I appreciate the offer but with this new job, I don't really have time to socialize." She casually pointed in the direction Annika Hansen had gone.
Jaffen shrugged.

"Well, I suppose I could ask out the new efficiency monitor," he said, though the tone of his voice suggested he didn't really intend to.
Kathy snorted a laugh. "I take it they don't have wedding rings on your homeworld."

"I know what those two words mean individually," Jaffen said, "but I'm afraid I don't know the context. Is this a… your race is called Human right? Is it a human thing?"

"Yeah," Kathy said. "Did you notice that ring on Hansen's hand there? That means that she's already spoken for. Some lucky guy, or girl, gets to wake up next to the bipedal calculator every morning."

"Huh," Jaffen said. "Oh well. See you around, Kathryn."

Kathy was surprised at how easy Jaffen was to let down. Not that he didn't seem disappointed, just that, unlike some males of her own species, he wasn't going to push the issue and that one "No" was enough for him. She found herself watching him as he walked away. She wondered if maybe she should've taken him up on his offer. She then wondered if she'd been too harsh in her initial assessment of Annika Hansen.

Or maybe the first impression was right on, she thought, and the only reason someone married her was for that rack of hers. I mean hell, I'm not even into women and I thought about it for a second.

Jaffen waited by the bar, figuring the human women he had his eye on would show up sooner or later, but he didn't spend too much time watching the door. He was already starting to feel like a stalker for having gone this far. Usually a "No" was all he needed, but there was something in the way that Kathy had said it, hesitating before doing so. Or maybe he was just trying to rationalize his actions to himself, he was willing to admit that.

To pass the time, he shared some stories about his jobs on his homeworld and on various freighters in the sector over the years. Some of the workers listening had heard the stories before but seemed to enjoy hearing them again, while others were clearly new to the place.

He finished telling a story about a poor young worker who, having never heard of Jaffen's species, had attempted to insult Jaffen's father to no avail.

"Eventually, I finally explained it to him. I'm Norvalian. I don't have a father," he said, everyone in the crowd laughing, except for one of the newer people, a dark skinned humanoid with pointed ears.

"I'm afraid I do not understand," the newcomer said.

"It's… complicated, Mister, um ,"

"Tuvok," the pointy-eared man said.

"Mister Tuvok. It involves a centuries long war, a sterility plague, and some creative genetic research that-" Jaffen stopped when he noticed Kathy Janeway entering the bar, somehow managing to avoid walking into anyone even though her attention seemed glued to her data pads rather than her surroundings. "I'm sorry, Mister Tuvok, perhaps some other time."

"I look forward to hearing it," Tuvok said. "I am interested in learning as much as I can about the histories of the races who are now my co-workers."

"Just remember to always ask nicely," Jaffen said as he moved past his friends towards the table where Kathy was now sitting.

"I thought you didn't have time to socialize," Jaffen said, sitting down across from her.

Kathy looked up with a small smile, but the rest of her face conveying annoyance.

"I'm not socializing," she said, "I'm reviewing these manuals then getting something to eat."

"Well, I recommend the latara broth, and the section on coefficients," Jaffen said. "I can help you with the manuals if you like. We won't be fraternizing."

Kathy looked at him contemplatively for a few seconds then laughed.

"You are not that great at this," she said. "Either you're a lot younger than you look and I'm your first attempt at flirting, or you don't usually try this hard."

"Well, you've got me there," Jaffen said. "Normally once a woman says 'no thanks,' I move on. But there's something about you. Not just your looks, though you are quite lovely, but something in your demeanor. I have to wonder why you're just a low level worker like me. You have an aura around you. I've seen it before. Some of the better freighter captains I've served under had it. The kind of men and women who you followed orders from not because you had to, but because you wanted to."

Kathy tilted her head, as if not sure how to take the compliment.

"So, you have a thing for authority figures?" she eventually said with a smirk. "Maybe you should be pursuing Efficiency Monitor Hansen."

"I doubt her wife would appreciate that," Jaffen said.

"Her wife?"

"I asked around," Jaffen said. "Apparently her and her spouse adopted an alien orphan and live in the higher level apartments. The wife, Samantha I think her name is, works at one of the local biotech companies in the R&D division. Explains why they can afford a place like that so soon after getting here."

"Well, good for her," Kathy said. "Everyone deserves a shot at happiness. Even the officious, nitpicky, micromanaging types."

Annika Hansen wrapped her arms around her wife's waist while the later worked on cooking whatever it was she was cooking. The smell filled the apartment, but it wasn't unpleasant. Still, she didn't think it needed to be quite that strong. She didn't say so out loud though.

"We can afford a chef, Sammy," Annika said, following up her statement with a kiss to the back of Samantha's neck.

"I know," Sam said, "but like I said the three other times you've brought up this week, I like cooking. I have more control over this stove than the equipment at work."
Annika sighed.

"They still treat you like a plebe over there? Jerks. You know more about xenobiology than any of those guys."

"I know, Annika, I know. But, humans are still the newbies on Quarra."

Annika had to admit to herself that Sam was right. It could've been worse though, she supposed. It wasn't as though they were discriminated against, or victims of any sort of bias motivated violence. They just hadn't been around long enough to settle in like so many of the other species had. The Quarrens didn't seem to mind one bit that there were whole neighborhoods in the major cities where they could walk around without seeing another one of their own, yet they never showed any sign of being uncomfortable doing it. She just wished Earth had been more like that. She and Sam wouldn't have had to leave. Being a cyborg got you enough dirty looks alone. Being a cyborg and gay…

"But enough about me," Sam said as she began chopping up some purple vegetable Annika didn't recognize. "How was your day, Efficiency Monitor?"

"Only you could make that title sound sexy," Annika said. Sam opened her mouth to reply when the sound of the door to the smaller of the apartment's two bedrooms opened and Naomi, their adopted daughter, came out, rubbing her eyes as she sat at the dinner table.

"You fell asleep while doing your homework, didn't you?" Sam said.

Naomi looked embarrassed. "Yes Momma Sam," she said.

Sam sighed and walked over to the little girl, handing off the knife she was using to cut the vegetables to Annika.

"Hey, it's okay," Sam said, bending down so she and Naomi were face to face. "I told them they were giving you too much study to do for your age, but they didn't listen. I'm not mad. You just need to let me know next time if you get tired early, okay?"

"Okay," Naomi said. The little girl looked up at Annika. "Momma Ann, did you hear? Some more humans started working in the factories today. Do any of them have kids? I'd like to make some friends."

"I did know we got some humans in today sweetie, but I didn't ask any of them if they had kids. It was too busy. If I can find a few minutes tomorrow I can ask around, though."
Annika liked being around Naomi. As useful as her cybernetic implants were, there were times when she almost felt like they controlled her more than the other way around. Being home however, she truly felt human. That made the sideways glances she'd get from the workers whose errors she'd have to correct worth putting up with.

"I better finish dinner," Sam said. "Why don't you two talk about your days while I finish up?"

"At the very least let me help clean your utensils as you go," Annika said.

"No, no, you don't need to do that. Besides, your job is more physically demanding than mine. Now sit, relax."

Annika sighed, but smiled as she did so. "You're too good for me, Sammy."

"I can't believe I let you keep me out this late," Kathy said, chuckling as she and Jaffen walked down a flight of stairs.

"Well, I thought it was my responsibility to help you study those manuals," Jaffen said.

"Of course you did," Kathy said, laughing.

"And now that I have," Jaffen continued, "you should be less likely to overload the core."

Kathy chuckled at that as the two of them came around the corner. Even this close to the plant, the air still was surprisingly clean smelling, if a bit cold for her tastes.

"You know," Jaffen said, "with all this fascinating discussion about thermal coefficients you never told me where you're from."

"A planet called Earth," Kathy said.

"Well, I meant where on Earth," Jaffen said. "Judging from the humans I've seen so far it seems like a pretty diverse planet. Different skin tones, body types, even eye shapes. I've met a few species with that kind of diversity, but not that many. Usually in this sector the only real differences between people are gender, height, weight, age, maybe hair and eye color, but that's pretty much it."

"Doesn't matter," Kathy said. "The place is overpopulated, polluted, and not a lot of work."

"Sounds a little like my homeworld," Jaffen said. "Guess we're both lucky to be here."

"It's nice to be a in a place where different species get along so well," Kathy said.

"Oh, so you admit we're getting along," Jaffen said.

Kathy laughed. "I was speaking in a broader cultural context," she said.

"I'm rather impressed you were able to say that while laughing," Jaffen said.

Kathy sighed, and shook her head. "It's just… I mean there's a lot of violence back home."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jaffen said.

Kathy pulled her coat tighter around here.

"The nights get so cold around here," she said. "Reminds me of Bloomington during the winter time."

"Bloomington?"

"The city where I grew up, on Earth."

"I like the name. Every major city on my homeworld is named after either some boring scientist or some pompous politician."

"We have cities like that too," Kathy said. "My favorite city name though, and I do kinda regret never visiting it to see what it was like before I left, was a place called Truth or Consequences."

Jaffen laughed. "Really?"

"I shit you not," Kathy said.

"I assume that's human slang for 'I really mean it,'" Jaffen said.

"It's almost curfew," one of a pair of Quarren policemen said. Kathy had to turn around to see them, glad she'd noticed them out the corner of her eye earlier or they might've spooked her. They were armed of course, but the way their coats covered their holsters it was clear they didn't expect, or maybe even didn't want to be able to reach them. The one who had spoken was smiling at them. He probably figured they were heading home.

"We just live over there," Jaffen said, pointing towards the tallest of the housing complexes off in the distance.

"Okay," the officer said. "Have a great night." He and his partner turned around and headed back up the street.

"That's another thing Quarra has over Earth," Kathy said. "The police around here don't walk around like they expect every single one of us to attack them at a moment's notice."

"You know, I do have a spectacular view of the river from my living quarters," Jaffen said.

"Well, seeing as I live in the same building, I can see the river too," Kathy said, which was mostly true. She could see the river nearby. But really only during the day, when she had to be leaving for work shortly, and thus could never really take the time to appreciate it. At night, it was damn near impossible except for the occasions when a police hovercar would happen to pass over it.

"I really have to get to sleep," Kathy said, rubbing her hands together to warm them up. "Maybe another time?" she said.

Jaffen smiled. "For a moment I was afraid I was making you uncomfortable," he said.

"Trust me," Kathy said, lightly touching Jaffen on the arm. "That's a good thing."

"Son of a-" Kathy said as an alarm noise went off while she worked on her station. It took her a moment to realize the alarm sound was different, and no one seemed bothered by it. A few people didn't even look up from their work, while others headed towards one end of the work floor.

"It's not an alarm," Jaffen said, coming up to Kathy from the side, making sure she saw him coming. She appreciated not being snuck up on. "It's time for our inoculations."

"What inoculations?" Kathy said.

"You didn't know? It's routine, they give 'em out free of charge to employees here. It's to protect against any ambient radiation. Seems a bit overkill to me. I've never seen any sign of radioactivity around here. The safety equipment may look old, but it's solid. Trust me, I checked. First thing I did when I started here. I've worked a few freighters with lax standards before, so I know shoddy safety procedures when I see them."

"I feel like I should've been told this earlier," Kathy said. "Why isn't everyone-"

"Some of the species who found their way here for work have natural immunities. No point in giving them an inoculant against something that can't hurt them anyway."

"Good point."

Kathy walked with Jaffen to get in line for the inoculations. Up ahead she saw Annika Hansen, and ahead of her, the dark-skinned, pointy-eared man Jaffen had been talking to at the bar a few days ago. He seemed jittery, and when the employee with the injectors went to give him his inoculation, he flinched.

"That's odd," Jaffen said. "Tuvok never struck me as the nervous type."

"Friend of yours?" Kathy said.

"Not really," Jaffen said. "I met him the day before I met you. He's also new here. His people are called Vulcans, if I remember right."

Tuvok got out of line and headed back towards his work station, but even from this distance Kathy could tell he looked shaken.

"Could he be having a reaction to the inoculation? He doesn't look too good."

"Maybe," Jaffen said. "It hasn't happened before. Can you keep my place in line? I'm gonna check on him."

"Okay," Kathy said.

After a five-day trading mission with a race called the Nar Shaddan, Chakotay, Neelix, and Harry Kim, all aboard the Delta Flyer were en route back to Voyager. However, only Chakotay was in the cockpit. Neelix and Harry were in the rear compartment, the former looking over the latter, who clutched his stomach as he lay on the extending biobed, grateful that Tom had included one in the ship's design.

"In six years," Harry said, "I've never been on an away mission worse than this one."

"That's just the stomach pain talking," Neelix said. "These parasites are certainly causing you trouble, but off the top of my head I can think of several instances where you went through far worse than some mild food poisoning."

"Mild?" Harry said, curled in a fetal position. "You call this mild? My ankle didn't hurt this much after getting a bulkhead dropped on it."

"Case in point," Neelix said. "The Year of Hell was really more pleasant than this?"

"That wasn't an away mission," Harry said.

"Okay, you got me there."

"Why did you let me drink that Falah nectar?" Harry said.

"I did try to warn you it wasn't safe," Neelix said.

"With hand signals, that I couldn't see," Harry groaned.

"I didn't want to risk offending our hosts," Neelix added, sheepishly.

"I should've just said I was a strict vegetarian like Chakotay," Harry said.

"In my defense," Neelix said, "I had no idea the meat they used to make that drink was raw. If I had, I'd have risked the insult. Clearly Nar Shaddan stomachs are far sturdier than human ones."

The comm chirped, and Chakotay's voice summoned both of them to the cockpit, apologizing to Harry as he did so.

"Let me help you up, Lieutenant," Neelix said.

"Thanks," Harry said, taking Neelix's arm. The two slowly walked their way up to the cockpit, a mercifully short journey, but the steps made Harry felt like he going to vomit each time his foot landed.

He eased into the chair by the tactical console while Neelix took sensors.

"What is it, Commander?" Harry said.

"We're at the rendezvous coordinates," Chakotay said, "but there's no sign of Voyager, and they're not responding to hails. Start scanning on all frequencies."

"Got it," Neelix said.

"They've got to be out there somewhere," Chakotay said.

Harry thought for a moment about suggesting that maybe they weren't; that the worst had happened and they'd been destroyed, or at least been forced to flee. He decided that pessimism was the result of the alien parasites doing metaphorical backflips in his stomach, and kept the opinion to himself.

"I think I have their warp trail," Neelix said. "I'm also picking up residual energy signatures. Weapons fire, maybe?"

Harry looked at his own console.

"Good catch, Neelix," he said.

"I'm plotting a course to follow the trail," Chakotay said.

"Long range sensors are picking up a nebula a few light years ahead. I can't pick up anything inside it, which means it'd be a good place to hide," Harry said.

"That also means we're going to have to be really careful following them in," Chakotay said. "I'd hate to find them by running into them."

"What about who they were fighting?" Neelix said.

"The weapons fire signature was degraded," Harry said. "Another few hours we wouldn't have picked it up at all. Whatever happened happened days ago."

The Delta Flyer entered the nebula, visibility severely reduced, but the ship's Borg tech enhanced sensors cut through the interference fairly easily.

"Guess whoever the attackers were," Harry said, "they didn't have sensors as good as ours."

"Then how did they get the upper hand?" Neelix asked.

"Numbers, most likely," Chakotay said. "A technologically inferior foe can still hurt us if there are too many of them to fight."

"I found Voyager," Harry said. "Hull's mostly intact, no serious hull breaches, but she took one hell of a beating."

"Lifesigns?" Chakotay said.

Harry winced, as much from the pain as from the results of his scan.

"None," he said. "But, all the escape pods are gone, so maybe…"

"Maybe the crew is okay? We can certainly hope," Chakotay said. "Can we beam over?"

"Affirmative," Harry said. "We'll have to do it that way since I can't get the shuttle bay doors open from here."

"Stay here and wait for the doors to open," Chakotay said. "Neelix, you're with me."

"Yes, Commander," Neelix said.

"We'll beam to the bridge," Chakotay said, "we can, or at least should be able to, access all systems from there, plus maybe the ship's logs can tell us what happened."

After putting on environmental suits, in case life support was one of the systems off-line, and readying phasers just to be safe, Chakotay and Neelix transported from the Flyer over to Voyager. The bridge was empty, and the only illumination came from the glow of exposed EPS conduits.

"Looks like someone was trying to do repairs," Neelix said.

"Agreed," Chakotay said. He looked around and wondered if the work had been done before they abandoned ship, or if some one had stayed behind. If the latter was the case though, why hadn't the Flyer's sensors picked them up? Unless they'd died while trying to fix the ship, he thought.

Chakotay motioned for Neelix to follow him to the auxiliary engineering console on the bridge.

"I'm going to see if I can get the main power back on line from here," Chakotay said. "It's possible they powered everything down to help them hide. Otherwise we'll need to replace some power conduits by hand."

Chakotay began manipulating the controls, grateful that there was some power going to the console, while Neelix knelt down to put a panel back in place, since the conduit behind it was clearly in working condition.

"Stop what you're doing and turn around!" Chakotay heard someone yell from behind him. He thought it might the Doctor's voice but the helmet muffled the sound somewhat. He did as he was told and motioned for Neelix to do the same. It was the Doctor, a wristlight pointed at them, and a phaser in his other hand. He also had a red uniform on, meaning that for the first time, the real Emergency Command Hologram protocols had been activated.

"Doctor," Neelix said, "It's us. Neelix and Commander Chakotay."

The Doctor smiled and lowered the phaser. "It's good to see some friendly faces. Heck, it's good to see any faces at all."

"Have you been doing repairs all by yourself?" Chakotay asked.

"I'm afraid so. Sorry I haven't gotten life support back up yet, but since I was the only one here it wasn't a priority."

"Makes sense," Neelix said.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Chakotay asked. "I'll take the short version for now. I can do a full debrief once we get the air circulating again."

"Roughly twelve hours after you left," the Doctor said, "we hit some sort of subspace mine. It wasn't long before I was inundated with casualties, all suffering from tetryon radiation."

"Did you try using the Jetrel inoculation?" Neelix said.

"That only works if you inject before exposure," The Doctor said. "I treated the patients as best I could but the ship was still flooding with radiation. Captain Janeway gave the order to abandon ship, since the warp drive was off-line. She ordered me to stay behind and activated the ECH program. The plan was to get the crew out of the radiated area and find the nearest habitable planet. I was to stay with the ship and try to get all the radiation vented while the distress signal was active. Either I could get it done and pick them up myself, or someone would come to help and I'm the only crewmember who could survive that kind of prolonged exposure, seeing as I'm a hologram."

"What happened next?" Chakotay said. "Why is Voyager in the nebula?"

"I never even got the chance to start the repairs before things went sideways," The Doctor said. Shortly after all the escape pods were launched, an alien vessel showed up and immediately locked onto the ship with a tractor beam. I hailed them immediately of course. The captain of the alien vessel tried to claim Voyager as salvage and that it belonged to him, even though I was clearly in command."

"Probably figured since you don't have lifesigns," Neelix said, "that you don't count. I'd chalk it up to a salvage rights dispute, but he was there way too quickly. I bet he planted that mine."

"My thoughts exactly," Chakotay said. "I assume you tried to fight back?"

"I did," The Doctor said, showing a hint of pride in his expression. "I was able to take out the enemy vessel's tractor emitter and engines with phasers." He frowned. "That's about when the other two ships showed up."

"What happened to the escape pods?" Neelix asked.

"I don't know. I can only assume they were taken. Or at least I hope they were. I was able to evade the other two ships and hid in this nebula. I eventually got the warp drive back on-line and the radiation vented, but every time I tried to leave the nebula I detected more ships searching for me."

"Any idea who they are?" Chakotay said.

"Not any race we've encountered yet," The Doctor said.

"So either someone wanted to capture us based on our reputation," Chakotay said, "Or we just had the bad luck to stumble on a pirate operation. I could believe either, frankly."

"What's our next move, Commander?" Neelix said.

"Get life support back on-line, get Harry's stomach taken care of, then we go find our people," Chakotay said.

Tuvok was nervous. He didn't like feeling nervous. He was starting to realize he didn't like feeling anything. He felt as though if he didn't merely control but suppress his emotions he might lose his mind. He watched the woman, Kathy Janeway, at her station. He was sure he knew her. Not just from the bar after work, where he had said hello to her once, or from what Jaffen had said about her. He knew her before coming to Quarra, somehow. That shouldn't have been possible. The only other planet he'd known before this place was Vulcan, and there were no humans there.

He winced and closed his eyes, and had another vision like the one he'd had before getting his inoculation yesterday. He was wearing a different uniform than his work one. He saw Janeway on a hospital bed, wearing a similar uniform, but with a different color on the shoulders.

"We're going to treat your injuries," a Quarren doctor said to Janeway.

This is too vivid, it can't be just a dream or a hallucination. Can it? Tuvok thought.

He was sure he'd seen the doctor in his vision around before. Kadan, his name was. He was sure of that.

The vision persisted, and Tuvok saw himself struggling to get out of his own hospital bed as a device of some kind was placed over Janeway's head. He heard himself demand that the doctor stop. Why, he had no idea.

"Release her immediately," he heard himself say.

"Restrain him," Doctor Kadan said.

Tuvok felt the strong arms of two Quarren guards grabbing his own, when the vision went away and he, abruptly, was snapped back to reality.

Or the present if that was something that really happened, he thought. He felt sweaty, and anxious. He looked around, wondering why no supervisor had come to talk with him about standing around yet. Perhaps he hadn't been staring at Janeway as long as he'd thought.

He saw Efficiency Monitor Hansen in his peripheral vision, but she wasn't looking at him. Yet.

Best not to annoy Seven of Nine, he thought. He moved to get back to work, but then stopped.

Why did I think of her as Seven of Nine? What does that mean?

"You all right, Tuvok?" Tuvok turned and saw Jaffen behind him.

"What? Yes, sorry. I… I am not feeling well," Tuvok said, which was mostly true. He liked Jaffen, but didn't want to tell him he thought he was hallucinating. He doubted they'd let him keep working here if the higher ups knew.

"Oh," Jaffen said. "Do you want me to help you get to the infirmary?"

"No," Tuvok said, a bit more forcefully than he'd wanted to, surprising even himself. "I mean, not yet. I can still work at my station. If it gets any worse I'll go right away. I promise."

Jaffen looked like he didn't entirely believe him, but merely shrugged.

"If you say so," he said, and walked away.

"First officer's log, Stardate 54597.9," Chakotay said, working while he talked. Neelix had poked fun at him earlier for keeping up with his logs, but it wasn't mean spirited. In fact, Chakotay wondered himself why he did it too. He thought maybe it was to keep himself from letting his mind wander to thoughts of what could be happening to the rest of the crew. He knew deep down that once he started to think that, he would inevitably start thinking the worst.

"After restoring primary systems," he continued, "we have left the nebula to try and find the crew. Although there's still a lot of damage, we've been able to reconfigure our sensors to detect subspace mines based on the data collected by the ship's sensors once we got full power restored. Lieutenant Kim has been running continuous scans, but there's still no sign of our people. On the bright side, the ships that were searching for us seem to have given up."

Chakotay stopped as the computer voice announced that power to the secondary propulsion systems had been restored.

Good work, Doctor, he thought. He wondered briefly how Harry was doing in astrometrics, but figured if he'd found anything he would contact the bridge immediately. Chakotay finished his log entry as the manual work he was doing finally paid off and full lighting was restored to the bridge.

"And the Commander said, 'let there be light," he said to himself. He was not normally one to joke on the bridge, but he figured with no one around to judge…

The turbolift door opened and the Doctor, still in command reds, walked out.

"I've repaired the deuterium injectors," he said, not waiting for Chakotay to ask for a report. "Anything else you need?"

"Could you get to work on the ruptured plasma conduits on deck 10?"

"Of course, Commander. Hopefully once this is over I can get back to my regular uniform."

"Why not do it now?" Chakotay said. "I don't see why the ECH program would stop you."

"It doesn't stop me from switching back to EMH if that's what you mean," the Doctor said. "But I only have access to the Captain's codes while in ECH mode, and ECH mode comes with the red uniform and the 4 pips."

"So technically you outrank me," Chakotay said "Surprised you haven't started giving me orders."

"Yes, well," the Doctor said, "if I had more people to work with I might do that. I feel like my place should be on the bridge, but I also know there are only four of us."

"If your program is telling you to take charge," Chakotay said, "maybe you should. Isn't that what we designed it for?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Maybe if I didn't have the ship's first officer aboard I would. I'd better get to work on those conduits."

"Kim to Chakotay," Harry Kim's voice said over the comm.

"Go ahead," Chakotay and the Doctor said in unison. The Doctor looked sheepish, but Chakotay just smiled. He'll get the hang of it, he thought.

"I've found them" Harry said, "An M-class planet, about three days away at maximum warp."

"Transfer the coordinates to the helm," Chakotay said. He stood up. "Doctor, you have the bridge."

"Oh. Okay," the Doctor said, reluctantly taking the center seat.

Three days later, Chakotay found himself in a position he knew that many of ancestors had faced in the past. That of desperately wishing he could punch a government official in the face.

"I have personally interviewed several of the individuals named on your crew manifest. None of them know who you are," the Quarren bureaucrat on the screen said, sounding like a parent who'd just caught a child in a fib. It had taken hours to get even the man to listen to him in the first place, and now this. He looked at the Doctor, sitting at the helm, and Harry at tactical. If it weren't for the half dozen well armed battle stations in orbit, he'd consider just giving the order to launch an all out rescue mission.

"Nor have they heard of a starship Voyager."

"I'd like to speak to them myself," Chakotay said, not explicitly saying he didn't believe the Quarren, but hoping it came across in his tone.

"That's not possible," the Quarren official said.

"If you're telling the truth," Chakotay said, allowing some of his anger through more to keep it from exploding than to intimidate the official, "you have nothing to lose by letting us talk to them."

"Unlike other planets in this system, we grant our guest workers full protection under our laws."

"What exactly are you protecting them from?" The Doctor asked.

"Unscrupulous individuals attempting to acquire skilled laborers," the Quarren said.

"We're not trying to acquire laborers," The Doctor said, shouting. "We're trying to find our friends!"

Chakotay started to think of a way to ask the Doctor to calm down without giving the Quarren the impression that he was facing a divided crew, small as it was, but the Quarren responded quickly, with a statement that to Chakotay's mind sounded at least partially practiced.

"Most of your friends have excellent positions in the Central Power Facility in the capitol. Why would any of them want to travel thousands of light years to a planet on the other side of the galaxy when they have safe, comfortable lives right here?"

"Because it isn't their home," Chakotay said, knowing full well that it wouldn't mean anything to the official.

"I suggest you look elsewhere to increase your labor supply," the Quarren said. "If you attempt to disturb any of our citizens, we will respond with force." With that, the communication line cut out.

"What an asshole," Harry said.

"Any luck with the scans?" Chakotay said.

"There's no way to beam through their shield grid. This is one of the most well protected planets I've seen in my life."

Chakotay sighed. "Take us out of orbit."

"We're not leaving them behind," the Doctor said, sounding hurt.

"No," Chakotay said. "But I want these people to think we are."

"Do you already have a plan, Commander?" Harry asked.

"I think so," Chakotay said. "Chakotay to Neelix."

"Yes, Commander?" Neelix replied over comms. Chakotay was glad that the Talaxian wasn't on the bridge during the conversation. That gave him an advantage he could use to help get the crew back.

"I know it's been awhile, but is your old ship still flyable?"

"A few containers fell on it during the fight with whoever planted the mines," Neelix said, "but all the damage is cosmetic. Why do you ask?"

The kiss felt like it had gone on for hours, but when Kathy looked at the clock she saw it hadn't even been two minutes.

"Wow," she said.

"Well put," Jaffen said.

"So, was that better or worse than the coffee?" Kathy said, jokingly,

"Ooh, tough call," Jaffen said with a wink. "You know. If your homeworld makes drinks like that I'm amazed you ever left."

Kathy laughed.

"Caffeine is responsible for the industrial revolution," she said.

"Is that a literal or metaphorical revolution?" Jaffen said. "'Cause I've seen both in my travels."

Kathy laughed. "I can explain later." She leaned in to Jaffen, and sighed as he hugged her close.

I can't remember ever feeling this comfortable before, she thought.

Samantha Wildman sighed as she heard Naomi get up, leave her room, and start moving around the kitchen.

"Honey, stop," she said.

"What's wrong?" Annika said.

"The kid's awake."

"So?" Seven said, smirking as she wiped her lips on the bedsheet.

"I don't want her to hear us," Samantha said.

"You don't want her to know her parents have a healthy and active sex life?"

"Well, yes, but, I mean, shit, look, can you at least see what she's doing in the kitchen?" Samantha shifted her body on the bed so she could kiss Annika on the mouth. "I promise I'll still be wearing my birthday suit when you get back."

Annika sighed. "You better be," she said in a mock threatening tone, never losing her smile as she did so.

She opened the door, loosely closing her robe even though she didn't really care that much what if anything her kid saw. The "talk" was going to have to come sooner or later, and Naomi seemed mature enough to be able to handle it.

"Hey kiddo," she said to Naomi, who was taking a mug with some steam coming from it off the cooking console.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I woke you up Momma Annie. I just had trouble sleeping, and one of the other kids at school said his mom uses this drink called tea. I thought I'd give it a try."

"Well, okay," Annika said, stepping forward and looking down into the mug. "It's hot though so be very, very careful. And don't drink it in bed. Here," she added, pulling out two of the chairs at the dinner table. She sat in one and motioned for Naomi to take the other, which she did, smiling, obviously glad that she wasn't in trouble.

"So, why did you have trouble sleeping? Bad dream?"

"Sort of," Naomi said. "It was really weird. I dreamt I was on a spaceship, with you and Momma Sam, and you were wearing these neat looking uniforms. And I had a big brother, who was a cyborg too."

"Oh really?" Annika said, amused at her adopted child's vivid imagination. "What was your big brother's name?"

Naomi frowned. "I can't remember."

"That's okay sweetie, most people can't remember their dreams. And those that do tend to really only remember the really weird parts."

"It felt really real though," Naomi said. "Like we really lived on a spaceship. And Momma Sam was my real Mom, and I was only half-alien."

Annika patted Naomi on the shoulder. "You should write all this stuff down, kid. You've got quite the imagination there, I bet you could be a writer someday."

"Do they have writers on Quarra?" Naomi said. "All the books at school are textbooks."

"I don't know actually," Annika said. "I'll look into it. But for now, you go ahead and try your tea and go back to bed, okay?"

"Okay."

Naomi took a sip of her tea, said it was gross, put the cup back on the cooking console to be recycled, and went back to her room. Annika watched her as she did all this, but couldn't help but ponder what Naomi had said.

You know, she thought, I actually do see some of Sam in her. I hadn't thought of it before. She shook her head, not wanting to think about it anymore. It was probably just her seeing things based on Naomi's dream. She went back to her room, Samantha waiting exactly as she'd promised.

"Now, where were we?" Annika said.

"Any progress?" Chakotay said as he entered astrometrics, The Doctor close behind him. Neelix turned from the console to face Chakotay.

"I've spoken to the captains of eight vessels that have left Quarra in the past two weeks," Neelix said. "None of them knew anything about our crew, but every single one of them offered me a job. Apparently there's a severe labor shortage in this system and a lot of competition for workers."

"That explains a lot about what the Quarren official was telling us," Chakotay said. "And that's also our in. Neelix, get your ship ready. Doctor, I'm going to need some cosmetic surgery."

"Why?" The Doctor said, sounding concerned.

"I've already spoke to several government officials on that planet. They know what all of us look like, except for Neelix since he wasn't on the bridge. I need to look like another alien if I'm going to get down there."

"I can only alter you cosmetically," The Doctor said. "If they do a full DNA scan-"

"I doubt they'd risk turning away a potential employee if the labor shortage is as severe as I'm led to believe," Neelix said.

"So, Neelix and I are going to be a couple of Talaxians looking for work," Chakotay said.

"I bet we'll make a striking pair," Neelix said, smiling.

"I'm not sure your skin is equipped to deal with Talaxian facial hair," The Doctor said, "but we can give it a try. Worst case scenario, I can go for something easier to reverse later, like Icheb's species, or a Bajoran perhaps."

"Let's get on that then," Chakotay said, leaving astrometrics, not bothering to tell the others to follow him as they were already falling in behind him.

""I'll also give you both subdermal transponders so we can transport you through the shield grid if there's trouble," The Doctor said.

"How would that work?" Chakotay said. "Their shields aren't exactly like ours. Mister Kim explained it to me in detail, but suffice it to say, unlike our shields which can only be beamed through with superior technology, theirs can't block a concentrated enough signal."

"Good thinking," Chakotay said.

"I think the Lieutenant deserves a share of the credit," The Doctor said, "but thank you."

"You'll be in charge until we get back," Chakotay added.

"Are you sure, Commander?" The Doctor said.

"If you're worried about Harry, he'll know better than to put his ego above the ship. Besides, he helped design the ECH program,so he knows what you're capable of. He'll follow your orders same as if you were me or Captain Janeway."

"Well, all the same, I'm certainly going to keep an open mind to any suggestions he may have."

Annika Hansen didn't think this was anything for her to worry about. Despite the employe she was told to go talk to having skipped his last few inoculations, her records showed his work had not suffered, at least not yet. Slower than it had been, yes, but that was from a starting point of him easily eclipsing most of his peers. Tuvok, a.k.a. Employee #8583, could probably run this place as well as if not better than current management with some more time and experience.

But orders were orders, so go to speak with him she did. She'd been in line behind him once before, so she was sure she knew exactly what the issue was; his fear of needles. Maybe some subtle threats about unemployment would spur this Tuvok character to get over it and go to the infirmary.

She walked up to him, noticed that he seemed to be gripping the side of his console far too hard, and became somewhat worried. She let none of that into her voice though, keeping her usual calm, even robotic demeanor as she spoke the employee's number, and then name when he didn't respond.

"According to records," she continued, "you have neglected to report for your last two inoculations."

Tuvok did not respond, but slowly turned his head to look at her. He appeared to be sweaty.

"The inoculations are for your protection," Annika said. "A sick worker is not an efficient worker. Report to the infirmary immediately."

Tuvok looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time.

He must be getting sick, she thought. I may need to call for help to get him to the infirmary if it isn't too late.

"Seven. Of nine," Tuvok said.

"What?" Annika said.

"Seven of nine. It's your designation," Tuvok said, starting to shake somewhat, the sweat on his brow becoming more noticeable.

"My employee number is 8586," Annika said. Tuvok grabbed her so quick she hadn't realized his hand was on her face and that one of the other workers was calling for security until she was pushed up against Tuvok's console, his other arm gripping hers.

"What are you-"

She stopped talking when she saw something, like a vivid memory. Herself, in what looked liked a large room, shelves with massive containers on one side, and technology not unlike that of her cybernetic implants lining the wall behind her. A young man, possibly a teenage boy, with visible cybernetics of his own was sitting on the ground, playing a game with Naomi.

She snapped back to reality in time to hear Tuvok say to her as guards pulled him off her, "I don't believe you are who you think you are!"

Annika slumped down, feeling drained despite the fact that all Tuvok had done as far as she could tell was grab her arm and touch the side of her face.

As the guards dragged Tuvok towards the infirmary, the other employees staring, the employees she recognized as Jaffen and Kathy Janeway came over to ask her if she was okay.

"What the hell was that all about?" Kathy said as Annika waved off her support.

"WE DON'T BELONG HERE! WE DON'T BELONG HERE! THIS ISN'T RIGHT! WE DON'T BELONG HERE!" Tuvok's voice carried through the room even with the door closed.

"I should've said something," Jaffen said. "I noticed he was acting weird the other day, but I thought maybe he'd just had a rough day."

"He missed some inoculations," Annika said, calming herself down, and wondering if she should tell her wife about this, not wanting her to worry but not wanting to hide things from her either. "Likely this is a result of radiation sickness."

Was that vision a result of his sickness too? she thought. What did he do to you? And why did you see the boy from Naomi's dream, her imaginary big brother? Tuvok may be sick, but that doesn't mean there isn't something going on.

Annika wondered why her own inner voice was so willing to accept what was obviously the ramblings of a disturbed and likely radiation poisoned individual, but despite that, she didn't hesitate to withhold the vision when speaking to her superiors about the incident later.

Kathy and Jaffen offered to walk her home, but she declined. Walking towards her apartment after end of shift, she decided she would tell Samantha about what had happened, but not mention the vision to her either. At least not yet.

"Qualification Level 3 in microkinetics," the supervisor said to Chakotay as he followed him down a flight of stairs in the main power facility, the place where he was led to believe most of Voyager's crew had ended up. "You could use some improvement in that area, Mister Kotay."

"I appreciate the honesty," Chakotay said, responding to the alias that Neelix had provided him; Amal Kotay. "I imagine some people in your position would overlook something like that during a labor shortage."

"Level 3 is still better than average," the supervisor said. "I see you are Level 5 in thermionic conversion though. That's the main reason you're here and not at a less crucial facility. We lost a thermionic specialist yesterday."

"Did he find a better job?" Chakotay asked.

"Health problems," the supervisor said. "Developed some minor radiation poisoning and attacked our Efficiency Monitor."

"Oh no," Chakotay said.

"She's fine, but we gave her the day off. She seemed a bit shaken up by the experience. My own superiors didn't like it, but I figured a day with the wife and kid would do her some good. She may act like a robot when she's on the clock, but she's as fragile as any other sentient."

The Efficiency Monitor must be Seven of Nine, Chakotay thought, as he happened to glance to his right and see one of the Delaney twins walk right past him without recognizing him. She wasn't the only Voyager crewmember he'd seen today who didn't seem to know who either he or Neelix were since they'd arrived last night. He doubted his Talaxian disguise was that good, and none of them seemed to recognize Neelix either. Whatever the Quarrens had done to them was brutally effective. He just hoped it was reversible.

"Someone you know?" the supervisor said.

"No, just, never seen her species before," he said.

"We have a diverse workforce here. Megan over there is from a species called Human. We got an influx of them a few weeks ago. I don't think I've ever seen a species with so much variety in skin pigmentation. But enough about alien biology. Your workstation is over here."

"Thank you," Chakotay said.

"You'll be required to report your readings to the Controller at regular intervals," the supervisor said. "Small variations are common, so unless the reading is off by more than one third of a percent, you can ignore it. Helps save space on the data readers."

Chakotay was about to respond when he saw Captain Janeway, wearing one of the standard work uniforms, happily going about her own job at a workstation not too far from the one he'd been assigned to.

"Are you listening to me?" the supervisor said, and Chakotay realized that he'd been staring.

Damn, I can't believe I did that, he thought. I hope I didn't compromise the mission.

"I'm sorry sir," he said, "I'm just excited to be here."

The supervisor looked at Janeway, and back at Chakotay. "Right. Well, just so you know, we don't allow fraternizing on work hours. Also, she's already spoken for, but you didn't hear that from me."

"Oh?" Chakotay said, reflexively, and immediately wished he hadn't.

"Yeah. Jaffen. Good guy. You'll like him too. One of the best people we've got around here."

Chakotay decided to play along, and laugh as though the supervisor had read his reaction to seeing the Captain alive correctly.

"Well, thanks for saving me from embarrassing myself," he said.

"No problem," the supervisor said. "This station has been vacant for a few hours now so you're going to have to work harder than we usually let new hires do, so I'll get out of your way."

"I'll get right on it," Chakotay said, wondering what his next move was going to be.

Neelix hoped that how weird the situation felt wasn't showing as his face as talked to Tom Paris at the bar. It was Tom, he'd introduced himself as such, but apart from that and his basic personality, everything about the man was different. Neelix noticed that as they spoke he kept glancing over at B'Elanna Torres, sitting with a couple who apparently were expecting a child of their own at the other side of the establishment.

"At the end of the day, losing my job at the power plant was the best thing that ever happened to me," Paris said as he handed drinks to a pair of patrons. "So many rules and regulations. It was like a military operation."

"I know what you mean," Neelix said. "Report here, reroute power there; almost like serving a aboard a starship." He put a slight emphasis on the word starship, wondering if that would trigger any memories in Tom, hoping that whatever the Quarrens had done to them wasn't permanent.

In my experience, the more thorough the brainwashing, the less effective the brainwashed, Neelix had thought to himself earlier, and this was as good a time as any to test that.

"Have you ever done that?" Tom asked.

"You're looking at the former captain of his own cargo vessel," Neelix said.

"Mmm. Must be quite a life," Tom said.

"You ever work on a ship, Tom?" Neelix said.

Tom scoffed. "Hell no. Space travel makes me sick. I was practically asleep the whole way here."

"So, do you know most of the people who come in here?" Neelix asked.

"A lot of them," Tom said, after being briefly distracted by the sound of B'Elanna laughing. "This is a great place to work."

"Seems like it," Neelix said.

"If you'd like I could put in a good for you to my employer," Tom said. "I'm not sure what it is about you, but you seem like someone comfortable around food or drink."

"Well, I know a few people that might beg to differ on that," Neelix said.

"Ah, Neelix," he heard Chakotay's voice say, and he turned to see that Chakotay had entered the bar while he and Tom were talking.

"I was wondering when you'd get here," Neelix said, "Amal Kotay, this is my new friend, Tom Paris."

Having to act like they didn't know any of their crewmates had been easier on him than he'd thought, and so far it looked like Chakotay had been handling it well too, but he doubted they could keep it up forever before one of them slipped up. They needed to find out what had happened and get their people back quickly. He hoped Chakotay had more to go on than he did.

"What can I get ya?" Tom said.

Chakotay pointed at Neelix's drink. "That looks good."

"I'll get you one, Tom said, heading a few feet off and turning around. Neelix leaned in and whispered.

"I was assigned to the primary fusion chamber. Mulcahey and Tal were there too. Neither of them recognized me."

"I think at this point we should just assume everyone on the crew has had their memories tampered with," Chakotay whispered back.

"And they all seem to really love their jobs," Neelix said.

"It's like they've all been programmed to be happy here," Chakotay said.

"Here you go," Tom said, handing a drink to Chakotay.

"Thank you," Chakotay said.

"Hey there," a voice Neelix didn't recognize said. He turned to see Captain Janeway and a man he didn't know standing behind them. "I'm Jaffen, this is Kathy. You two look like you're new here."

"We are," Chakotay said. I'm Amal Kotay, and this my friend Neelix."

"Friend?" Tom said. "Figured you two for brothers."

"Hmm, nah," Jaffen said, smiling, "I don't see it."

"Would you two care to join us?" Kathy said.

"Uh, actually I was hoping we could eat alone tonight," Jaffen said, gently placing his hands on Janeway's shoulders.

I wonder if he's been tampered with like the others, Neelix thought. If he and the Captain became this close after the memory alterations, then maybe we should consider bringing him with us.

"Some other time perhaps," Chakotay said.

As Jaffen and the Captain walked away, Neelix saw Tom quickly move from behind the bar. He watched as he offered to walk B'Elanna home.

"Apparently," Neelix whispered to Chakotay, "whatever was done to their memories, they aren't together. He thinks she's carrying another man's baby, someone who walked out on her. In a way, it's almost like watching their courtship happen all over again. With a lot less arguing this time. Tom doesn't even realize he's trying to become a stepdad to his own offspring."

"If she's walking home alone," Chakotay said, "this could be our chance to get someone back to Voyager. Maybe find some clue as to what happened and develop a treatment for the others."

"Not going to lie, Commander. I know we're doing it for the right reasons, but essentially kidnapping a pregnant woman…"

"It feels gross to me too, for what it's worth," Chakotay said. "I'll try to get ahead of her. See if you can be seen following her without looking like you're trying to be seen." Without another word, Chakotay headed out, and Neelix followed close behind.

Chakotay had meant what he said to Neelix. Though if pressed, he would admit that calling how he felt about this "gross" was actually an understatement.

Taking short cuts through several alleys, walking at a steady clip when he was sure someone was watching, but running when he was sure they weren't, he got ahead of B'Elanna quickly enough. He saw her look nervously behind her at a following Neelix.

While looking back, she walked right into Chakotay.

"Oh, excuse me," B'Elanna said nervously. Not the reaction Chakotay normally expected from her when they got in her way.

"I'm sorry," Chakotay said.

"It's.. it's okay, I should really watch where I'm going." She watched Neelix walk past her, looking forward, and sighed.

"B'Elanna," Chakotay said. She turned around.

"How do you know my name?"

"It's a long story," Chakotay said. "I just want you to know, that we're really sorry we have to do this."

Neelix had come back around while Chakotay had B'Elanna distracted, and wrapped his arms around her. Instead of fighting back like she normally would, which meant Neelix had little trouble holding on despite the fact that were she her regular self he'd be on the ground in severe pain by now, she started screaming for security.

"Voyager, we've got B'Elanna," Chakotay said. "Lock on to Neelix's signal and beam them to sickbay."

"Acknowledged," Harry's voice replied.

"Help me!" B'Elanna cried out, her face going pale with terror. Chakotay felt as though his guilt were literally punching him in the stomach. Hopefully once the Doctor fixed whatever had been done to her memories she would focus her anger on the Quarrens, and not on him and Neelix for grabbing her like this.

"Let her go!" A Quarren security guard yelled out, his weapon pointed at the three of them as the transporter beam locked onto Neelix and B'Elanna. The second guard aimed the beam of his flashlight at Chakotay's face, clearly trying to blind him, but Chakotay was able to avoid it, and he bolted around a corner, not wanting to get shot before they could beam him out too.

"Stop!" the first guard yelled.

"Harry, I need an emergency transport, now!" When the channel opened, Chakotay heard the sound of the red alert klaxons in the background.

"Sorry, Commander," Harry said. "We're under attack. I had to raise shields."

"Dammit," Chakotay muttered. "All right, get Voyager to safety. I'll figure something out. Go!" He closed the channel without waiting to hear Harry's response, and kept running. He ran for several minutes, his breath becoming winded, but the security guards were clearly in better shape than their uniforms had led him to believe. He found himself at an open platform, and swore. Only a railing, and a view of the city ahead of him. The only way down from here without going back the way he came would be a fast but lethal one.
He looked around, and saw a panel that he hoped he could use to sabotage the lights and get past the pursuing guards in the confusion. He found a loose pipe, and used it to smash the panel. Lights went out, and so did a force field around the railing that he hadn't even realized was there. He wondered if it was always in place as additional accident prevention, or had to put up by security to prevent his escape. He supposed it didn't matter, and he got into position, waiting for his chance to get past the guards. Maybe he could knock one out and take his weapon.

Here's hoping their guns have stun settings, he thought.

A lone guard came up to the platform, flashlight in one hand, weapon in the other. He went up to the railing and put a hand out as if to test to see if the force field was still there. He put down the light, and touched his communicator.

"Alert Emergency Medical, the suspect may have tried to ju-"

Chakotay grabbed the man and slammed him hard against the wall, causing him to drop his gun. Chakotay took it, and fired at a portion of the wall next to the guard, who reflexively ducked. Chakotay started to head back to the stairwell leading to the platform when a beam of light came out of the cloud of steam that had formed after he destroyed the panel. It struck him the left shoulder and he fell back into, and nearly over, the railing. It hurt, but he pushed past it, and rushed the second guard, who hit his head on the floor grating when Chakotay slammed into him. He groaned, alive, but didn't get up.

Favoring his injured shoulder, Chakotay started running again. Eventually, he made it back to the bar where Tom had been working. Everyone seemed too involved with whatever they were doing to notice the man with the bleeding shoulder walk in. The wound was small, and the blood hadn't spread beyond the shoulder pad so far, but he made sure to take a seat in a booth that allowed him to keep that shoulder as out of view of the other patrons as possible.

"Ah, I was hoping I'd see you again," he heard Captain Janeway's voice say. He turned to see that, while he was looking at his left hand to make sure he could still move the fingers without difficulty, she had walked up to him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Chakotay lied. "Just, tired. First day at a new job."

"I know how that can be," Janeway said, smiling. "I just wanted to apologize for earlier. My friend, Jaffen, he was a little rude to you earlier when we asked you and your friend Neelix to join us."

"That's okay," Chakotay said.

"Well, you're more than welcome to sit with us tonight if you'd like. We're celebrating."

"What's the occasion?" Chakotay said.

"Jaffen and I are moving in together," Janeway said smiling.

Chakotay felt a pang of regret. Not for himself; while there had been something there once, it had pretty much been lost forever after he'd disobeyed orders and broke the deal with the Borg against Species 8472 almost four years ago. What he was worried about was what would happen with her and Jaffen once, or even if, the Doctor restored all her memories. Despite the Captain's apologies, he didn't feel Jaffen had been too rude at all. He seemed nice enough. And even with her memories altered, he could tell this was still his Captain he was talking to. If she trusted Jaffen, he felt he could too. Or at least he hoped he could.

"Congratulations, but I think I'm going to go home," Chakotay said.

"Okay," Janeway said. "Have a good night, Amal."

The bridge shook violently as the Quarren ships attacked. The shields surprisingly held, but Harry Kim doubted that would last.

"I can't penetrate their shields," Harry said, now back at tactical once the Doctor returned from sickbay where had Neelix looking over a sedated B'Elanna.

The Doctor, at the helm flying the ship, looked up at the viewscreen.

"Maybe we don't have to," he said. "The Battle of Vorkado. It's in my tactical database. A Romulan captain disabled two attacking vessels by creating a photonic shockwave between the ships."

"How'd he do that?" Harry said.

"Fire a photon torpedo to go between the two Quarren vessels, then fire phasers at the torpedo."

Harry nodded, smiling. "Good thinking." Harry did as he was ordered, and the resulting shockwave knocked the pursuing vessels off their course, their shields glowing under the onslaught of energy. "The ships are largely undamaged, but the shockwave seems to have affected their sensors. They're breaking off."

"I don't think they'll be bothering us again," The Doctor said, smugly.

A proximity alert beeped at Harry, and he looked down at the tactical readout.

"Five more ships on an intercept course," he said. "What's your tactical database got for this one Doc?"

"Transporters are damaged, shields are failing, We have to retreat and come up with a new plan."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Harry said.

"Once we're out of range of Quarren sensors," The Doctor said, "switch me back to EMH mode. I'll have access to more treatment options to try and help B'Elanna in the meantime."

"Is that a good idea?" Harry said. "Your tactical database-"

"Won't mean anything if we rescue the rest of the crew without a way to change them back. We'll be outnumbered by approximately 31 to 1 by people who think we've kidnapped them, in an enclosed space. I like those odds even less than then the ones against the Quarren ships."

"Fair point," Harry said.

A pair of Quarrens, one wearing garb similar to the official Chakotay had spoken to during his initial attempts to contact the crew, and another security guard, entered the bar, Chakotay kept his face turned away from them, trying not to be noticed, and planning for a way to slip out.

The first man went up to the bar and started speaking to Paris. Chakotay didn't hear what the first man said, but Tom's response was loud enough that he was able to pick it up, as well as apparently getting the attention of several other patrons.

"We run an honest business," Tom said.

With some of the other patrons conversations halted, Chakotay was able to hear the rest of the conversation.

"We're investigating the disappearance of two people who were seen leaving this establishment earlier this evening. One was a young pregnant woman-"

"B'Elanna? What happened to her?" Tom asked, dropping his cleaning rag and sounding concerned.

"You knew her?"

"I've been helping her. Her baby's father's a deadbeat who bailed, so I was helping her settle in, meet other parents around the city." Tom sighed, and looked at the floor. "I offered to walk her to her transport, but she insisted she was fine. I should've gone with her."

"Did you think someone was going to try and hurt her?"

"The city is supposed to be safe!" Tom said, sounding angry. The detective, or at least Chakotay assumed he was a detective, actually flinched, but didn't respond other than to look at his data pad.

"The person with her when she vanished was described as short, with mottled skin and facial hair."

"That sounds like someone who was in here earlier," Tom said. "Neelix, I think his name was. Said he was Talaxian."

"Never heard of them," the detective said. "Did this Neelix talk to anyone else while he was here?"

Chakotay took that as his cue to slip out. Thankfully, the security guard managed to walk right past him, not seeing his face or his wounded shoulder.

I guess the guards I knocked out never got a good look at me, he thought, grateful that no one seemed to notice him leaving.

Shortly after managing to land Voyager in the crater of a moon with a paramagnetic core to hide the ship's energy signature from the sensors of any Quarren ship that might come looking for them, the Doctor got up to head to sickbay to begin working on fixing B'Elanna.

"Good hiding place, Doc," Harry said, "but if any of their ships get close enough to the crater all someone would have to do is look out a viewport."

"As far as the Quarrens know, Mister Kim," The Doctor said, "we haven't returned to this system after warping away from our original pursuers. If they can find us here, they've earned that. Now, if you would be so kind as to switch me back to EMH mode. When I'm an ECH the only medical procedures I can do are one's I've performed before and are in my memory database."

"Got it," Harry said, touching a few buttons on the tactical console. The Doctor's uniform changed from red back to blue, and he nodded.

"Thank you," he said. "I'll be in sickbay."

The Doctor quickly made his way there, where Neelix still stood by the side of B'Elanna's bio-bed, as if worried someone might try to take her away again.

The Doctor did his scans, and figuring it would be simpler to just tell Neelix what was happening rather than asking him to leave, which rarely worked anytime in the past,.

"The scan on the left," he said, pointing to a monitor showing two brain scans, "was performed during B'Elanna's last physical. The one on the right is from the one you saw me perform. The memory centers of her brain have been dramatically altered."

"That fits with what the Commander and I saw when we down there," Neelix said. "But some of the crew members I talked to down there seemed to remember parts of their real lives. Things like what planet they were born on, their names. Why not just change everything?"

"I don't know," The Doctor admitted, using the most disliked phrase in his entire vocabulary apart from 'I did all I could.' "Whoever did this was very sophisticated though. Selectively manipulating memory engrams takes much more work than just doing a complete mind wipe. Perhaps the Quarrens felt that erasing everything would make them less efficient as workers."

"Can you undo the damage?" Neelix asked.

"I believe so, but it will take some time."

"I wish there was something I could do to help," Neelix said.

The Doctor thought about it for a moment. "Maybe you can."

"Doctor?"

"She'll require several treatments," The Doctor said. "In between, you could expose her to familiar sites, surroundings. Take her to her quarters, show her engineering, pictures of those on the crew she was closest to. Just don't rush it. This is going to be very traumatic for her."

"Understood," Neelix said.

Doctor Ravoc read off the list of symptoms the patient named Tuvok had to his superior, Doctor Kadan.

"Anxiety, acute depression, and when I interviewed him he insisted that he's not who he's supposed to be. Says that we've stolen his..." Ravoc looked at his note. "His katra, whatever that is."

"Conclusions?" Kadan said. His cold demeanor concerned Ravoc somewhat. Of course, some detachment was required as a physician, lest the empathy for the sick become overwhelming, rendering you unable to function. But Tuvok wasn't dying, that was clear. Yet Kadan spoke of him as he were a cadaver and this was medical school.

"Tri-lobe regression complex? Polar-affective disorder maybe?"

"Neuropsychiatry isn't a guessing game, Doctor Ravoc," Kadan said.

Ravoc knew what Kadan wanted to hear. "Dysphoria syndrome."

"You have been studying my research," Kadan said, smiling. That smile unnerved Ravoc no end but he had no idea why.

"According to your work, the condition is very rare," Ravoc said.

"It is. I've treated this man before," Kadan said. "Apparently he's suffered a relapse. Recommended treatment." The last statement was spoken like a demand. Ravoc hated being talked to like he was still at a teaching infirmary, but he didn't want to lose his position here.

"Engramatic resequencing is typically indicated," he said.

"You seem skeptical," Kadan said.

Ravoc sighed, annoyed with himself for not hiding it better. "Resequencing is a radical procedure, Doctor Kadan."

Kadan stepped forward, as if trying to intimidate Ravoc. "If he had a malignant tumor would you be afraid to cut it out.

"No, of course not."

"This syndrome is just as insidious," Kadan continued. "It requires aggressive treatment. Get started." Without another word, Kadan turned around and left. Once he was sure Kadan was out of earshot, Ravoc groaned.

"This is a hospital, not an authoritarian dictatorship," he muttered.

Tuvok, who Ravoc had thought had been asleep this whole time tried to get up, straining against the straps that held him to the bed. "Please, help me."

Ravoc sighed as he filled an injector. "That's what we're here to do," he said, beginning the treatment despite the nagging voice in the back of his mind telling him that he shouldn't trust Kadan.

Annika Hansen shook her head to clear the latest vision, this one tinted green as if looking through some kind of liquor bottle, and seeing a massive structure, filled with cyborgs like her, but all with much more technology embedded in their bodies, and their skin pale as if dead. The phrase 'cyborg zombies' entered her mind briefly and she almost laughed at how silly the term sounded.

She couldn't shake the concerns though. This had all started when Tuvok had touched her. She went to see the supervisor, but decided to keep it vague. She couldn't risk being fired, not when her family had really settled into their new apartment.

"I want to know the status of Employee #8583," she said.

"Good morning to you as well. Efficiency Monitor Hansen," the supervisor said.

"I apologize for my directness," Annika said. "There is simply some concern amongst the other workers that his condition is contagious."

The supervisor worked his console. "Ah, the man removed by security the other day. He has been hospitalized, yes. But you can tell anyone concerned that-"

The supervisor was interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and another man stepping into the office. "Pardon me, am I intruding?"

"Not at all, Investigator," the supervisor said.

"My name is Yerid," the investigator said, "and I'm looking into the disappearance of two your employees. Names of Neelix and Torres."

"Both of them failed to report for work today," Annika said.

"What about this man?" Yerid said, tapping a few button on his data pad and handing it to Annika, who held it so the supervisor could look at the image on it as well.

"Employee #9363. Amal Kotay. He didn't report for work either," Annika said.

"I'd like to see his personnel file," Yerid said, "and I'll need to interview anyone who may know where he is."

"Of course," the supervisor said. "Though for the sake of my other employees I'll need a court order first. I don't want my people concerned for their privacy while they're keeping this place running, I hope you understand."

"As a formality?" Yerid said, though Annika detected a bit of annoyance in his voice.

"Of course. I'll have the file ready for you well before the order arrives," the supervisor said.

Janeway went back to her apartment one last time. It was exciting, but also mildly amusing to her that she hadn't even gotten used to this place yet before moving to another one. She had never felt the way she felt about Jaffen with anyone before. Not even Mark, the man she'd left when she decided that Earth wasn't for her. She didn't hold it against him that he'd wanted to stay where he was born, but it had still hurt her to see the look in his eyes when she'd returned his ring.

"What the hell?" she said when she opened the door and found it dark. It was daytime, but the window covers were closed. "Lights," she said. They didn't come on.

"Well, glad I already have a new place," she said out loud. "Saves me the trouble of having to call maintenance." She looked for her last pair of boxes, when she saw the rag on the floor. She knelt down to look at it and saw blood. Red, like hers.

"Kathryn," a voice said, and she gasped, nearly falling over. Leaning against the wall behind her, out of sight from the front door, was Amal Kotay, the man everyone had been looking for ever since two of her co-workers had vanished last night. He was holding a weapon, but looked like he was about to pass out.

"What do you want?" she said.

"You told me you were moving out," Amal said. "I needed a place to hide." He winced as he struggled to his feet.

"Jaffen knows where I am. He'll come looking for me," she said.

"I don't doubt that," Amal said. "He seems like a good man."

"He is," Kathy said, surprised at how little fear she felt despite a wanted man pointing a gun at her. "They say you had something to do with the disappearance of a pregnant woman."

"I did," Amal said. "Her name's B'Elanna. She was brought to this planet against her will, and her memories were tampered with."

"Why should I believe that?" Kathy said, though inwardly she found that she actually did. Why are you taking his word for it? she thought.

"Honestly, you shouldn't," Amal said. "I wouldn't, if I were in your position. But she's not the only one in this city I'm trying to help get home. I need you to trust me, so…"
Amal, breathing heavily as he did so, leaned down and put the gun on the floor. He tried to kick it over to her but was too weak so it was too far away for either of them to grab.
Kathy could've called for security right then and there, but she didn't, surprising even herself.

"You can report me if you want," Amal said, "but all I'm asking for is a place to stay until my friends come back for me."

After a long silence, Kathy stepped forward. "We're going to have to do something about that arm." She opened one of the boxes, grateful that she had not already taken her towels to Jaffen's place.

"The waiter?" B'Elanna said, holding the picture that Neelix had given her. "From the tavern?"

Neelix nodded, having found a picture of the two of them at their wedding, each holding a champagne glass, smiling as they looked in each others eyes. It wasn't the best photo of the couple ever taken, but Neelix figured that a better looking one might be easier to dismiss as doctored.

"Lieutenant Tom Paris, our pilot, and B'Elanna Torres, our chief engineer. On their wedding day," Neelix said.

"Wedding? He's my husband? Does that mean…" she looked down at her stomach.

"You're having a girl," Neelix said.

B'Elanna lowered the picture, but still held it, as she walked around her and Tom's quarters, slowly touching all the replicated 20th century era items that Tom kept as decoration and the bat'leth on the wall that had been gifted to her by Kohlar.

Neelix hoped the fact that she had not outright rejected any of this as real was a sign that the first treatment had gone well. An object up against one of the walls seemed to have caught her focus, and Neelix looked where she was looking.

"A replica of a device called a television," Neelix said. "You gave it to Tom as a gift."

"He watches cartoons," B'Elanna said. Neelix smiled.

"Yes," he said.

"How do I know that?" B'Elanna said.

"Because you're starting to remember," Neelix said.

B'Elanna kept looking around, stopping when she saw what was going to be her baby's crib. She gently touched the mobile above it, first the tiny Klingon Bird of Prey, and the tiny Voyager.

"I'd wondered why he was so protective of me," she said.

"I'll be outside if you need me," Neelix said, heading out into the hall.

Kathy snuck into the plant, and opened a panel on a side wall, looking for a 'dermal regenerator' as Amal Kotay, or Chakotay as he'd started insisting he be called, had called it. She'd heard it referred to as a 'wound sealer' during training, but didn't want to argue semantics. When she closed the panel she almost jumped when she saw Annika Hansen standing there.

"Your shift ended three hours ago," she said.

"I know," Kathy said. "My friend, Jaffen employee 1326, he cut himself, and he's too stubborn to go to the infirmary."

"Removing property from these premises is not permitted, Cap-" Hansen looked confused briefly. "Miss Janeway," she corrected.

Was she about to call me Captain? Kathy thought.

"I promise I'll have it back first thing in the morning," she said. Hansen looked like she was about to tell Kathy to put it back, but then she seemed to get distracted by something she saw at the other end of the work floor.

"Be sure that you do," she said, before unceremoniously heading in that direction.

Annika noticed that the supervisor had left his office while she was speaking to the employee Kathy Janeway. Figuring this was her chance to find out what was going on, she ignored her instinct and allowed Janeway to take the wound sealer, much to the other woman's visible confusion, and headed towards the stairs to the supervisor's office.

She began manipulating controls on the supervisor's console.

"Display the personnel file for Employee #8583," she said.

"Access restricted," the computer's electronic voice replied. She finished the work she'd started before even making the request, and only a second later the same voice said,

"Security clearance verified."

The data filled the screen in the blank space next to Tuvok's picture, first left to right then right to left, but Annika was used to reading Quarren by now.

"Display all medical and historical data for the employee's species," she said.

"Data unavailable."

"List all files accessed by this employee since he's been here," she said.

"Personnel files. Employee 8582, Nozawa, Kashimuro. Employee #8584, Janeway, Kathryn. Employee #8585, McKenzie, William."

She looked at the pictures on the screen. Most of them were human, including herself, but she also saw the missing pregnant woman, Torres, as well as blue-skinned alien with a bifurcated face, among others. The only common thread was that all had arrived on Quarra at roughly the same time. She almost gasped when she saw the face of a teenage boy who was listed not as an employee, but as attending a special school in another city for talented youths. The teenager was the one from her first vision, the one from Naomi's dream.

"Icheb," the computer said his name was.

"What the hell is going on here?" she said to herself.

"You need a doctor," Kathy said to Chakotay as she sealed the wound on his arm. She wondered if there was something wrong with the device as his skin seemed to get darker as it healed, but she realized that it could be something to do with his physiology.

"That'll have to wait 'til I'm back on Voyager," Chakotay said.

"That's the name of your ship?" she said.

"For almost seven years," Chakotay said.

"You're its captain?" Kathy said.

"First officer," Chakotay said, looking Kathy in the eyes in a way that made her uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as she felt she should be. "My captain is one of the people in this city whose memories have been altered."

"Hmm," Kathy said. "Well good luck finding him."

"Her," Chakotay said.

"Sorry," she said.

"Quite alright," Chakotay said. "So, you monitor power coils at the planet?"

"That's right," Kathy said. "You already know that though so what's your point?"

"You're obviously very capable," he said. "You could probably run that plant."

"Why would I want all that responsibility?" she said.

Before Chakotay could respond, there was a broken chirping sound coming from his hand.

"What's that?" she said.

"My people are trying to contact me," he said to Kathy. "Chakotay here," he said into his hand.

"Are you okay, Commander?" a voice responded.

"For the time being. Can you get me out of here?"

"No, sir. We're eight light years away."

"How were you able to transmit that far without the signal being detected?"

"A triaxilating frequency on a covariant subspace band. B'Elanna's idea," the voice on the other end said.

The pregannt woman they kidnapped? Kathy thought. Maybe he was telling the truth all along. Though if I doubted it, why was I still willing to help?

"I take it she's feeling better then," Chakotay said.

"The Doctor says she's been responding very well to the treatment."

"Good to hear, Harry."

"Have you located anyone else from the crew?" the man named Harry said.

"As a matter of fact," Chakotay said, looking Kathy in the eyes. "I'm sitting with Captain Janeway right now.

"What?!" Kathy said, bolting upright and nearly tripping over herself as she stepped back.

"Judging from what I just heard," Harry's voice said, "she doesn't remember who she is."

"She's understandably skeptical," Chakotay said. "How soon can you get back into transporter range?"

"We'll need another day or so to finish repairs," Harry said. "Quarren orbital defense gave us a bit of a beating after we got B'Elanna back. Nothing major, but neither the Doctor nor I think we should risk going back until we're at 100%."

"Good call," Chakotay said, smiling. "I can see both of you making Captain once we get back to the Alpha Quadrant."

"I won't tell the Doctor you said that," Harry replied. "His ego's big enough as it is."

Chakotay laughed. "Okay. Let's maintain radio silence until I contact you. I've got an idea about shutting down the shield grid, but I want to make sure it's plausible. Chakotay out."

Kathy didn't know why she let the conversation play out before she started yelling at Chakotay, but she was more ready to start ranting.

"What you're saying is absurd," she said. "Why did you call me Captain? Are you trying to tell me my memories have been messed with too? How can we possibly have served together, we're not even the same species."

"More than a hundred races make up the Federation," Chakotay said. "Your oldest friend, Tuvok, is Vulcan."

"Tuvok? The man who went nuts at the plant the other day?"

"You were there when his youngest child was born," Chakotay said. "When he went missing seven years ago, before we met, you promised his wife you'd bring him home."

"Helping you was a mistake," Kathy said, angry at this man coming into her life, angry at herself for letting him in. She had a good job, a good partner; she didn't need any of this confusion.

"Listen to me," Chakotay said, standing up. "There are more than a hundred of Voyager's crew working around the power plant. Your crew. When our ship gets here I'll be able to prove it to you."

"Go to hell," Kathy said.

"Hand me that dermal regenerator," Chakotay said. "Let me show you. I'm not Talaxian. I'm human like you. Our Doctor-"

"Gimme a break," Kathy said, rolling her eyes.

"I can't remove every change he made with just that," Chakotay said. "But I can expose enough of my real face that you'll see I'm telling truth."

She didn't believe him, but figured she could at least take out some of her frustration. "Will it hurt?"

"A little," Chakotay said.

"Then let me do it," Kathy said, holding the wound sealer, or dermal regenerator as he kept calling it, like a weapon. Chakotay pointed at his forehead.

"Start here," he said. She did so, taking some pleasure in his wincing, not sure what she expected to happen, but she almost dropped the device when she saw his facial spots vanish, like a racial characteristic shouldn't from just a healing device. More and more human like features appeared on his face as she moved it over him.

She hated to admit it, but the evidence was staring her in the face. Literally,

"We're the same species," she said.

"We're more than that," Chakotay said. "We're friends."

"I… I need some air," Kathy said.

Chakotay made no effort to stop her. A huge risk, seeing as she was tempted to call security as soon as she was in the hallway. Why she didn't then she had no idea. She just walked to Jaffen's apartment.

"I was starting to worry," he said.

Kathy immediately, barely pausing to take a breath, told him everything that had happened after she left here the last time, in as much detail as she could remember, even an aside to Annika Hansen's odd behavior at the plant.

"Am I hearing this correctly?" Jaffen said. "You're actually helping this man?"

Kathy nodded.

"He abducted one of the workers," he said.

"She's a member of his crew," Kathy said, not sure why she was so quick to defend him now when mere minutes ago she was ready to turn him in.

Am I starting to believe his story? she thought.

"Right, and you're the Captain," Jaffen said.

"No need to be so condescending," Kathy replied.

"I don't mean it like that. I bet you'd make a hell of a starship captain if you wanted to be one," Jaffen said. "I mean that he's trying to convince you that you'll have a better life if you go with him. You've got a good job here. You have me. Why are you willing to risk-"

"Why would it be a risk?" Kathy said. "Are you saying that if he's right and I am captain of a starship I can't take you with me?"

That made Jaffen pause. He sat down.

"I've lived on ships before," he said, much calmer now. "They're cramped. Even the decent ones hardly have any good viewports to see the stars out of. The food was bland most of the time. I don't want to go through that again. This Voyager would have to be one hell of a ship for me to even think about it."

Kathy nodded. Jaffen was right. She had a good life here, and she was putting it on the line for a man who had already clearly lied to her, regardless of his reasons. Why should she risk her relationship and her freedom?

"What's the name of the lead investigator in B'Elanna's disappearance?" she said.

"Yerid," Jaffen said.

Chakotay paced Janeway's now former apartment, wondering if she'd decided to call security. As much like herself as she seemed to be, she also seemed completely different; afraid of the burdens of command.

He heard the door open and he turned around, to see the detective from the bar, and two armed guards.

"Stay where you are," the detective said. Chakotay went for his weapon, but he was too slow and was shot in the stomach. He doubled over in pain, a pain worse than the one from the shoulder wound.

He passed out.

"I don't know them," Amal Kotay, or whatever his name was, said when Yerid showed him pictures of B'Elanna and the man identified as Neelix. After being treated for his injuries, and having most of his admittedly impressive alien prosthetics removed, Yerid began interrogating him as soon as was possible.

"I think you do," Yerid said. "And I think you were involved in their disappearance."

The female doctor scanning Amal Kotay's body touched Yerid's shoulder. "I found some kind of communications device embedded in his hand," she said.

"Remove it," Yerid said.

"Listen to me," Amal Kotay said. "You and I have one thing in common."

"What's that?" Yerid said, in a mocking tone of voice, wondering what story this suspect was going to spin.

"We're both investigating disappearances," Amal said. "If you answer my questions, I'll answer yours."

Yerod thought about it for a second, and decided it couldn't hurt. Even if this man was lying to him entirely, he could still learn useful information from that.

"Okay," he said, but before Amal could say anything another doctor walked in, flanked by two armed guards.

"I have an order to transfer this patient to Division 6," he said.

"Division 6?" Yerid said. The second doctor handed the first one a data pad.

"Neuropathology," she said, sounding as confused as Yerid felt. He didn't like anyone interfering with an investigation, and this was blatant interference.

"We have reason to believe he's mentally ill," the second doctor said.

"How could they know that?" Amal said, looking at Yerid. "They've never examined me."

"My suspect raises a very good point," Yerid said, standing up and crossing his arms. "I'm going with him."

"I'm sorry sir," the second doctor said. "but my orders are to bring him for immediate treatment."

"This man is a suspect in a serious crime," Yerid said, though his instinct was telling him that Amal Kotay might actually be one of the more trustworthy people in this room at the moment. "I'm not letting him out of my sight."

"If you check the order you'll see it's been approved by the Director of Investigations," the other doctor said.

My own boss is going along with this? Yerid thought. That can't be right.

"Let me see that, Doctor…"

"Ravoc, sir."

Yerid took the data pad and looked over it very carefully, and sighed.

"My real name is Chakotay," the suspect started saying, talking fast as the guards started wheeling his bed out the door. "I'm an officer aboard the Federation starship Voyager. Members of my crew were abducted and their memories were altered and they were put to work here. I can give you names, descriptions-" The door closed, cutting off the rest of what he was going to say.

"That poor man," the doctor said. Yerid looked at her.

"Yes, but I don't think he's lying. Something's not right here, and I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

Back in ECH mode, the Doctor sat at Captain Janeway's desk in her ready room, while Harry stood across from him.

"I've been analyzing the sensor data we recorded about the Quarren ships that attacked us," he said handing Harry a PADD, "and I think I've devised a way to evade their sensors."

"I'll implement this plan right away, Sir," Harry said.

"Sir," The Doctor repeated. "I think that's the first time you've called me 'Sir' since the ECH program was activated. Not sure how I feel about it."

"You've earned it," Harry said.

"Well, all the same, once we have the crew back it'll be nice to go back to just being the EMH for awhile. Not that I dislike being in command, mind you…"

"That chair does have a certain appeal to it," Harry said, smiling.

The Doctor opened his mouth to agree, but the sound of a comm channel opening interrupted him. He and Harry went over to the console on Janeway's desk. It was Chakotay hailing them, but the signal was weak.

"We're receiving you sir, go ahead," Harry said.

"I'm having trouble with my transceiver," Chakotay said. "This may be the last chance we have to talk."

Something seemed off in the Commander's voice. The Doctor looked at Harry, wondering if he picked up on it too, but he didn't seem to.

"What's your status?" Harry said.

"I'm almost ready to shut down the shield grid. I'm sending you encrypted instructions. They'll tell you when and where to enter orbit."

"We have it, Commander," Harry said.

"Chakotay, out."

Once the communication line was broken, Kadan had Chakotay put back under sedation.

"Well," Doctor Kadan said, "now you know where to find Voyager."

"I'll have three ships with me," another alien in the room said. "They won't get away this time."

"They'd better not. You should've been able to capture their ship last time."

"If you'd done your job right the first time," the power plant's supervisor said, standing on the other side of Chakotay, "we wouldn't have a problem now."

"How was I supposed to know their hologram could handle a firefight? Or that they had people off-ship?" the alien captain said, storming off.

As he left, Doctor Ravoc came in, and Kadan inwardly swore. This young man was asking too many questions. He'd hate to have to rewrite his memories too.

"Aren't there patients you should be taking care of, Ravoc?" Kadan said.

"Uh, yes, sir," Ravoc said. "But I've been thinking, this is the second person we've admitted with Dysphoria Syndrome this week, and both worked at the power plant. Witnesses say that this man had no contact with Tuvok, our other patient. Maybe we should issue a health alert-"

"Do you think I'm incompetent?" Kadan said.

"Sir?" Ravoc said, clearly thrown off by Kadan's sudden anger, which was the goal all along.

"This man," Kadan said, motioning towards the supervisor. "is in charge of personnel at the power facility. I've informed him of the situation."

"I've already taken steps to ensure the safety of the rest of my employees," the supervisor said.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you," Ravoc said, looking down.

"No need to apologize," Kadan said. "You concern for your patients is admirable, but don't worry. This man is already responding to treatment."

Ravoc nodded. Kadan could tell though that he still had doubts, but as long as he didn't ask any questions, he could put off anything more drastic to keep him quiet.

Annika looked around, feeling nervous. At least she'd had the foresight to tell Samantha where she was going, if not why. She didn't want to worry Sam if she didn't have to.

Investigator Yerid sat across from her at the table in the bar.

"Why would this Tuvok be collecting information about his co-workers?" he asked.

"I don't know," Annika said. "But one of the names on that list is B'Elanna Torres; the woman who went missing. They both began working at the plant on the same day, along with over fifty others, also on that list. Over 120 names in total, all arriving on the planet the same day, and being hired within the same week. Myself included."
Yerid's facial expression gave it away; he had as many questions about this as she had, if not more. Her initial instinct to trust him with this seemed to be the correct one.

"More than a hundred skilled employees, most of them of the same species, arriving all at once? Could be a coincidence, but…"

"But it happening during a labor shortage?" Annika said.

"Exactly what I was thinking."

"You'll also note that every single name on the list passed through the central hospital. Now, it is routine for new arrivals to be examined by quarantine control, but as you can see here, they were processed through-"

"Division 6," Yerid said.

"Every single one of them."

"Something is going on," Yerid said. "And Division 6 is at the center of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Had a run in with one of their people yesterday. Took my suspect away from me before I had a chance to do a real interrogation."

"What's more," Annika said, "even though the records show I came through neuropathology, I have no memory of being there. Neither do my wife, or my daughter."

Yerid looked around, as though he were as afraid he was being watched as she had been. "What do you expect me to do?"

"You can start by interviewing Mister Tuvok."

"I want to," Yerid said, sighing. "But I can't."

"Why not?"

"I've been taken off the case. Happened at the same time Division 6 took Chakotay out of my custody. 'Relieved of duty' were my superior's exact words."

"Yerid, there you are," the bartender, Tom Paris, said, coming up to their table, looking worried. "Have you found anything about B'Elanna?"

"He's been relieved of duty," Annika said.

"Oh," Tom said, looking defeated.

"This man is also in Tuvok's file," Annika said, looking at Yerid again.

"What file?" Tom said

"Why don't you tell him?" Annika said.

"Tell me what?" Tom said, sounding more and more agitated.

"I can't go back to the hospital and start asking questions," Yerid said. "I'd be reported. But maybe you could."

"Me?" Annika said. "You're the detective."

"And that's what I'm known as around here," Yerid said. "And that puts me at a disadvantage in a situation like this."

"Could someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Tom said.

Annika had Tom sit down, and she explained to him everything she knew. Tom seemed to take it all in stride.

"The first time I saw her," Tom said, "B'Elanna I mean, I felt like I already knew her. If what you're saying is true, is it possible that I did? What do they do in neuropathology anyway?"

"Treat mental illnesses," Yerid said. "Or at least that's the official story."

Later that day, after further conversation and planning with Tom and Yerid, Annika went to the hospital. She presented herself as having concerns about her health, and a secretary directed her to the office of a Doctor Ravoc.

"What seems to be the problem, Miss Hansen?" he said, sitting down behind his desk.

"Recently, I've been…" she said, her practiced concern sounding to her ears as good as she'd hoped.

"I'm a doctor, you can trust me," Ravoc said. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I've been experiencing some disturbing thoughts," Annika said. "I don't believe it's anything serious, but I would like to speak with someone."

"Well, you've come to the right place," Ravoc said. "Let me look up your file."

She gave him her employee number from the power plant, and her file appeared on the screen behind Ravoc, who turned around to look at it.

"Ah, you have been a patient here before," he said.

"Yes, when I first arrived."

Ravoc turned back to look at her, seeming equal parts confused and concerned. "You were treated for Dysphoria Syndrome?"

"I have no recollection of that," Annika said, which was completely true. She'd never even heard of such an illness.

"These disturbing thoughts you mentioned," Ravoc said, "would you characterize them as hallucinations?"

Annika almost flinched. This was getting uncomfortable. But she had to see this through.

"What's the cause of this syndrome?" she said.

"We're conducting studies to determine that," Ravoc said. "Fortunately, we have one of the foremost experts on the condition working here."

"I'd like to speak with this expert," Annika said.

"Well, Dr. Kadan's very busy-"

"As am I," Annika said. "Perhaps I should return when he is free."

She got up to leave, but Ravoc put up a hand to stop her. "Wait here," he said. "I'll find him." He got up to leave himself, leaving Annika alone in his office while he went to look for this Kadan he'd mentioned.

As soon as the door closed, Annika went to the console he'd been using, and started looking up more information.

Kathy stared out the window towards the river, while Jaffen cooked dinner. The door chime alerting them that someone was outside distracted her from her thoughts. Despite herself, she couldn't help thinking about what Chakotay had said about her being a starship Captain.

She went to open the door.

"I'm Yerid, with Criminal Investigations," the man outside said.

"Yes," Kathy said. "I remember you from when that Torres girl went missing."

She felt Jaffen's hand on her waist.

"Inspector, come in. Is there anything we can help you with?"

Yerid kept looking at her, and back at the data pad in his hand.

"You're Kathryn Janeway, correct?"

"Yes," Kathy said.

"Do you know this man?" he tapped a few buttons on the pad then showed it to her. An image of an unconscious Chakotay was on it now, more of his disguise removed. He looked more human than ever now.

"No," Kathy said, not sure why she lied, but knowing she was in too deep to start now.

"I thought maybe you'd met him."

"Why?" she said.

"He was found in your former living quarters in possession of a wound sealer that you removed from the power plant."

"I was the one who helped him," Jaffen said. Kathy appreciated him trying to cover for her, but she stepped up. She'd been caught in the lie, she had to own it.

"He said he was from a starship," she said, as she took Jaffen's arm in her own. "And that members of his crew had been abducted."

"He was obviously lying," Jaffen said.

"Maybe not," Yerid said. "I want to know everything he told you."

"Hold on," Jaffen said, "why would you believe-"

"I have my reasons," Yerid said.

Kathy had a bad feeling about all of this. If the very man who'd arrested Chakotay was leaning toward believing him, what did that say about her refusal to believe it?

"How could she just walk out?" Kadan yelled, slamming a fist on Ravoc's desk.

"She was a voluntary patient," Ravoc said, understanding where this anger was coming from. "There was no reason for Security to stop her." Ravoc went over to the console that Annika Hansen had hacked into. "She accessed 64 restricted files. All of them for people diagnosed with Dysphoria Syndrome."

Ravoc looked deeper into the files.

"According to the records all these patients arrived on the same day," he said. He suddenly realized that Kadan was slowly moving towards him, as if getting ready to ambush him.

"You're listed as attending physician in every case," Ravoc said. "If there was an outbreak, how didn't I hear about it?"

"Does it matter? I treated them all, and they were all discharged."

"It says they were all discharged to the main power facility," Ravoc said, continuing to face the monitor and hoping Kadan couldn't see his nervousness. Something was going on that he didn't know about, and his superior was involved. That scared him. "That supervisor you were talking to yesterday, that's where he worked."

"I explained that to you," Kadan said. "I was informing him of a potential health threat."

"That man you had me transfer out of Criminal Investigation," Ravoc said, pulling up another file, "he claimed that his friends had been abducted, had their memories altered, and were put to work."

"What are you implying?" Kadan said, defensively. Ravoc's suspicions were being confirmed as he was forming them.

Ravoc knew that Kadan didn't have a weapon, so he took a deep breath and tried not to look worried.

"You're making false diagnoses," he said, "selectively changing what people remember so they think they came here willingly to pick up work during our labor shortage."

Kadan's face betrayed his mixed emotions. He looked almost as proud as he did angry.

"Very good, Doctor Ravoc," he said. "But a more gifted physician would be able to see this in the larger context."

"What context could possibly make brainwashing people acceptable? Including," Ravoc glanced back at his console. "Two children?"

"The real public health threat on Quarra isn't Dysphoria Syndrome. You've already figured out we made that up. The threat is the labor shortage. The only cure? More skilled workers."

"We're doctors," Ravoc said. "We help patients, not break them. What you're doing, it's wrong. I don't care about your reasons."

"We're helping them lead happy, productive lives," Kadan said.

"By altering their memories?"

"The treatment I provide improves their lives," Kadan said. Ravoc could tell he was being pitched to. Kadan wanted to bring him in on this conspiracy. He wondered if he should reject it outright, or pretend to go along to try and bring it down from the inside. "And makes them better workers. In turn, our economy improves."

"You're profiting from this, aren't you?" Ravoc asked.

"Doesn't a physician deserve to be compensated for his services?"

"Obviously I don't think doctors should live in poverty," Ravoc said, thinking of his own above-average sized apartment in the outskirts of the city. "But getting rich off of messing with people's heads? Lying about diseases? I'll report you."

"To whom?" Kadan said. "My research is funded by the Ministry of Health."

"Criminal Investigations then."

"The department whose director signed the order transferring Mister Chakotay, or Amal Kotay, or whatever name he uses, to our hospital," Kadan said.

"Am I the only one who didn't know about this?" Ravoc said.

"No," Kadan said. "But I think it best for everyone that I not tell you how many people are involved in total. In case you get any ideas about exposing us. You never know who you might be trying to expose this to."

"She's considered dangerous," one of two Quarren guards said, showing an image of Annika Hansen to Tom Paris.

"She's never been in here," Tom said as he went about the work of closing the bar for the night.

"You're sure?" The other guard said.

"I think I'd remember meeting a cyborg," Tom said.

"If you do see her, report it immediately," the first guard said. "She needs to be hospitalized."

"I'll let you know if I do," Tom said, closing and locking the door behind the guards as they left.

"It's safe now," Tom said. Annika, Kathy Janeway, Jaffen, and Yerid all came out from the back room into the dimly lit bar.

"Thank you," Annika said.

"Well if you really wanna thank me," Tom said as everyone started taking seats around a table, "you can tell me what's going on."

"It appears this Chakotay was telling the truth," Annika said.

"So, everyone at the plant has had their memories altered?" Jaffen said.

"I do not believe so," Annika said. "Not every arrival since the labor shortage began has been through Division 6."

"Well, that's something at least," Jaffen said. "I'd hate to think that I was secretly a father of three or something like that."

"You're Norvalian, remember?" Kathy said, playfully poking Jaffen in the arm.

"Am I really?" Jaffen said with a smirk.

"Can you do that some other time, please?" Yerid said, sounding annoyed.

"Your name was not in Dr. Kadan's files," Anika said to Jaffen. "You are likely exactly who you believe you are.

"Shouldn't we report this to the authorities?" Tom said, surprised at himself for taking this new information in stride. You'd think this wasn't my first time having my memories messed with, he thought.

"I'd need more evidence before making any accusations," Yerid said. "And seeing as the director of CI is likely in on it, that means I'd need to know who I can trust before making any accusations."

"Chakotay said he had more proof of my real identity," Kathy said. "Aboard a ship called Voyager."

"How do we locate it?" Annika said.

"When they contacted him," Kathy said, "they were using.. What was it? A triaxilating frequency on a covariant subspace band?"

"Are those real words?" Tom said.

"Ssh," Yerid said.

"There's a subspace transponder at the power plant," Annika said.

"Kathy and I aren't on the run," Jaffen said. "We should go. Annika, what about your wife? Does she know what's going on?"

Annika sighed, and lowered her head. "I didn't get the chance to tell her anything before I left for work this morning. She must be scared."

"Don't try to contact her," Yerid said. "The guards will be watching your place. And if there's a big conspiracy going on I wouldn't put it past whoever's involved to try to use them as leverage against you."

"Perhaps," Annika said, "if I were to return to the hospital with you, in your custody, we can use that as an opportunity to help Chakotay and Tuvok."

"Could work," Tom said. "No one's been asking around about Yerid. Far as anyone involved knows he's holed up in his apartment complaining about being taken off an important case."

Yerid nodded.

"I'll go with you two," Tom said to Jaffen and Kathy. "I don't know how much I can help, but it's better than sitting around and waiting."

Annika listened closely while pretending to be unconscious as Yerid spoke to Doctor Kadan.

"I had to sedate her," Yerid said. "She wouldn't come voluntarily."

"Her condition has obviously worsened," Kadan said, scanning Annika. "I'll treat her right away.

"There are some other patients I'd like to interview, Yerid said.

"These people can't be disturbed," Kadan said. Annika heard the sound of Yerid pulling his sidearm from his holster. Annika partially opened one eye, and saw Kadan going for something on the wall by him, presumably an alarm of some kind. She bolted up and grabbed his arm.

"I suggest you comply," she said.

Kathy wondered just how Jaffen had learned how to break into secure buildings so easily as the door to the power plant opened.

"Be careful," he said, staying just outside to stand watch. She gently touched his shoulder as she went in, Tom Paris close behind her. The two of them made their way to the supervisor's office, Tom staying outside that door to provide additional cover, and began manipulating the controls, trying to contact Voyager.

The screen changed, and she saw what looked like a large room. She saw Neelix, and another human, fairly clearly despite some minor static.

"Captain?" the human said, and she recognized his voice as the one Chakotay called Harry.

"So I'm told," Kathy said. "Just, call me Kathy for now."

There was a brief pause.

"Yeah, I'm not doing that," Harry said. "Where's the Commander?"

"Chakotay's been hospitalized. He told me you had proof of who some of us really are."

"We do," a woman's voice said, and the missing pregnant woman, now wearing a uniform like Harry's stepped into view.

"You're the woman who was abducted," Kathy muttered.

"Chakotay was supposed to deactivate the shield grid," B'Elanna Torres said. "So we can transport you and the others to safety. If you could find a way to shut down main power, the shield grid will go down too."

"Will you help us?" Harry said.

Before she could answer the image on the screen shook, and the lights on Voyager's bridge dimmed.

"We're under attack," a voice from off-screen said. "Three ships. Not Quarren ones this time. They're the same ships that planted the subspace mines."

"Please," Harry said to Kathy. "Shut down the shield g-" The signal cut out.

Tom slid into the supervisor's office.

"We got company," he said. Kathy looked and saw the supervisor, followed by two armed guards coming towards them from one direction, and a lone, but much larger guard coming down another.

"Either your boyfriend sold us out," Tom said, "or he'd triggered an alarm and didn't realize it."

"Stay where you are," the large man said, not seeing Jaffen come up behind him and zap him in the neck with the same tool he'd used to open the door.

"Stop!" the supervisor yelled as Jaffen grabbed the fallen guard's weapon and fired towards them, hitting one guard, and sending the other guard and the supervisor scattering for cover."

"I saw them coming," Jaffen said, "so I let them slip past so I could get the drop on them. I've never been a combat guy, so they ought to be embarrassed with themselves for letting me get away with that."

Kathy gave Jaffen a big kiss, and took his hand and headed for the door. She didn't need to tell Tom to follow.

"So much for evading their sensors," Harry said.

"We should've asked exactly when Chakotay was hospitalized," The Doctor said from tactical. "This was probably a trap. If they knew exactly where we'd be…"

He didn't need to finish the thought. Harry realized he was probably right. The ship shuddered after another volley from the ships attacking them.

"Transporters are off-line," B'Elanna said.

"Of course they are," Harry said.

Annika, Yerid, and Kadan, the latter with Yerid's gun pressed into his back, entered the room where two nurses worked on Chakotay and Tuvok, one each.

"Tell them to give us some privacy," Yerid said quietly.

"You're dismissed," Kadan said to the nurses. If they had any questions, they kept it to themselves as they walked out.

"Disconnect them," Yerid said to Kadan.

Annika saw a third occupied bed, and a man with the same technology over his head as Tuvok and Chakotay.

"Doctor Ravoc? What is this man doing here?"

"Dysphoria Syndrome," Kadan said, casually, as he disconnected Chakotay.

"We're losing shields," Neelix said after another volley. So far firing back had done nothing, the enemy ships having learned from their first encounter with Voyager what her phasers were capable of. They weren't getting in as many shots as they could've, but the trade off had worked for them, unfortunately.

"Any ideas from your tactical database?" Harry said.

"Nothing that would help us in this situation," The Doctor said.

The same ships that took the crew… Harry thought.

"How many escape pods do we have left?" he said.

"Five," B'Elanna said.

"Prepare to eject three," Harry said.

"I don't think abandoning ship is a good idea," The Doctor said.

"Neither do I. Can you create a dampening field around the briefing room to mask our life signs?"

"I believe so. Why? Oh, wait. I see. Very clever, Lieutenant."

"Thanks, Doc. B'Elanna, Neelix, follow me to the briefing room. Doc, once the pods are launched, put up the dampening field."

"And then detonate the explosives that will be in the escape pods," The Doctor said, smiling.

As the pods being launched were the ones closest to the bridge, it didn't take long for Harry and the others to rig them. As they worked, The Doctor picked up signs that the Quarren shield grid had gone down. That was one less thing to worry about.

Once the door to the briefing room closed, The Doctor jettisoned the pods and activated the dampening field. Within seconds the pursuing ships had grabbed them in their tractor beams, one pod per ship, just as hoped.

The Doctor saw he was being hailed, and he sat in the Captain's Chair before answering the hail, smiling.

"Well, hologram," the captain of the hailing ship said. It was in fact the same man who The Doctor had beaten before and who had abducted his crewmates. "Your crew has abandoned you again. I suggest you surrender your vessel."

"You should realize by now that I'm not programmed to do that," The Doctor said, tapping a button on the chair's arm. The viewscreen switched back to a view of the attacking ships. The Doctor pushed another button, and the escape pods exploded, the shockwave knocking them back, and disabling the tractor beams in the process. He worried for a moment they might start attacking again, but instead, as the ship's righted themselves, they turned and warped away.

"Looks like the Quarrens are going to be in the market for new pirates," The Doctor said, smiling, then realizing that no one was around to hear his one-liner. The door to the briefing room opened, and Harry, Neelix, and B'Elanna filed out.

"B'Elanna, we'll be needing those transporters," The Doctor said.

"On it," B'Elanna said.

"ECH log, supplemental. All the crew have been transported back to Voyager, and thanks to my experience with Lieutenant Torres, their treatment is proceeding rapidly. While they're recovering, I still have a few command duties left to perform."

"If it weren't for your efforts," the Quarren Ambassador said to Yerid as the two of them sat across from The Doctor, Neelix, and Harry Kim, "this whole conspiracy might never have been uncovered."

"I'm just glad it wasn't as many people as I feared," Yerid said.

The Doctor suppressed the urge to point out that had the conspiracy been that large it would've been statistically impossible to keep it a secret for as long as it had been.

"What'll happen to the workers?" Harry asked.

"Well," the Ambassador said, "we've identified several thousand of Kadan's patients. Once treated, they'll be repatriated. Thank you for sharing your notes with us, Doctor."

"No thanks necessary," The Doctor said. "It was the right thing to do."

"I apologize once more on behalf of my government," the Ambassador said. "But if you'll excuse us, there are some of Kadan's co-conspirators currently in hiding, and I imagine Investigator Yerid here would very much like to get to work on catching them.

"Gentlemen," Neelix said, "I can escort you to the transporter room."

"There is something I do not understand," Icheb said, as he stepped into his alcove.

"Just one?" Samantha said as she was helping put Naomi to bed.

Seven chuckled.

"Go ahead, Icheb," she said.

"Why was your marriage to Ensign Wildman left in place," Icheb said, "but not that of Lieutenants Paris and Torres?"

The cargo bay got quiet. Seven and Samantha looked at each other, the "I don't know, do you?" unspoken between them.

"Does it really matter?" Naomi said.

"Well, no," Seven said.

"But now I really wanna know," Sam said. "This is gonna drive me nuts, isn't it?"

"We may never know the reasoning," Seven said, "but perhaps you would settle for plausible possibility?"

"Sure. You have one?"

"I'll let you know when I do," Seven said.

Janeway felt both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time in her uniform. Her old memories had been restored, but the new ones were still there too. At least this time she wasn't getting PTSD out of the deal, but the mixed emotions were still unpleasant.

She was walking around her quarters, re-familiarizing herself with all her belongings, when the door to her quarters opened. Jaffen walked in, a Starflet security guard behind him.

"You can wait outside," Janeway said to the guard.

"Yes ma'am," he said.

"I can see why you'd rather live here," Jaffen said.

"I'd offer you a position," Janeway said. "We could always use another skilled engineer. But as a Captain, it wouldn't really be appropriate for me to fraternize with another member of the crew."

"Well, that's understandable. At least my memories weren't tampered with. Annika, or I guess I should call her Seven, was right. I really did come to Quarra looking for a better life. And since I've been offered a promotion, I guess I found it."

"Promotion?"

"They had to replace our shift supervisor," Jaffen said. "Something about acquiring shift workers illegally."

Janeway chuckled. "Well, you've earned it."

Jaffen nodded. "So, I guess I should take it. I mean, unless…"

"Well," Janeway said, moving closer to Jaffen. "I did say it's inappropriate for a Captain to fraternize with a member of her crew."

"But?"

"But we're 30,000 light years from home," Janeway said "If Starfleet doesn't like it they can't exactly fire me."

Jaffen smiled. "I was hoping you'd say something like that."

Captain Janeway and Jaffen embraced, and didn't stop for a good long while.

Chapter Eight

Samantha Wildman saw Jaffen walking down the hall as she headed towards the bridge for her shift, and jogged up to walk beside him.

"Oh hi, Ensign Wildman," Jaffen said.

"Please," Samantha said, "you can call me Sam."

"I've only been here two weeks," Jaffen said. "I don't really feel comfortable enough to be so informal with my new shipmates just yet."

"Okay, fair enough," Sam said. "You heading to the bridge too?"

"No, actually," Jaffen said. "Mess hall. Neelix finally is gonna let me teach him how to make some Norvalian cuisine."

"Wow, how'd you pull that off? Neelix runs that kitchen like an authoritarian," Sam said, laughing.

"To put it bluntly, I think the fact that I'm sleeping with the Captain has something to do with it."

"Makes sense," Sam said. "Well, I need to go. Just don't be surprised if Neelix hovers over your shoulder the whole time."

"I consider myself warned," Jaffen said, offering Sam a salute as she stepped into the turbolift while he took a left.

Sam was proud of herself for not practically bouncing with excitement. Today was the day that Operation Watson was set to come to fruition. If it worked as Seven had explained it to her, it would mean that Voyager could speak to the Alpha Quadrant every day instead of every 31. The communications window would still only be open for 11 hours a day, but even so that meant the amount of contact they had with home was set to increase exponentially.

Seven heard the door to astrometrics open, but didn't look to see who else came in. She knew the Captain was going to be there, but did not know who she'd brought with her. She focused on the task at hand. If anything was going to go wrong this would be when it would happen.

"Anything yet?" Janeway said.

"Not quite," Harry, operating the console facing the lab's large screen said. "I'm picking up a phased tachyon beam, but I can't-"

"It's Starfleet," Seven said. "There's a triaxiliating signal encoded in the beam."

"On screen," Janeway said.

The image on the screen was dark and staticky, and the sound coming through was garbled, but Seven could still make out was being said.

"Voyager, this is Lieutenant Barclay at Starfleet Command." The image became clearer, slightly, but enough for Seven to make out the figures of Reginald Barclay, the man whose instructions in the last monthly datastream had helped make this possible, and Admiral Owen Paris, Tom's father. "Are you receiving this?"

"Can you clear it up?" Janeway said to Harry. Seven looked up briefly, and saw that it was Chakotay and Tuvok who had entered the room with the Captain.

"I'm on it," Harry said.

The image grew worse for a brief second, but then the static began to clear up. The signal was stable, though the image remained grainy. Seven doubted that the crew would care.

"Captain Janeway," Admiral Paris said. "A pleasure to speak with you face to face."

"The pleasure's mine, Admiral," Janeway said. "How's the weather in San Francisco?"

"Cold and rainy as usual," Admiral Paris said.

"Sounds delightful," Janeway said without a hint of sarcasm. "Lieutenant Barclay," she continued, "my congratulations on your project. If crew morale was high when we were able to speak to home monthly, this is going to the best news this ship has had since Naomi was born."

"Thank you, Captain," Barclay said, "but I can't take all the credit. If Seven and Harry hadn't been able to make the modifications to your deflector dish work…"

"The plans you sent us were ingenious, Lieutenant," Seven said. "Any flaws in the specifications can be blamed on you not being in the Delta Quadrant yourself."

Barclay's smile grew wider.

"It's only a shame we can't get around the 11 hour per Earth day limit," Admiral Paris said, "but as always we'll leave it up to you to determine how to allocate comm time."

"The system we have in place now seems to work fine," Janeway said. "We can just expand it to daily instead of monthly."

"Oh, one last thing," Barclay said, looking down to manipulate controls on his console. The image of him and the Admiral shrunk, revealing an image of Earth. "A gift for you and your crew. This is real-time, from McKinley station. As you can see, not much cloud cover over North America today."

"Quite a view," Janeway said. "Seven, record this for the rest of the crew."

"I already took care of that, Captain," Harry said.

"I have a question, if there's time," Chakotay said.

"Go ahead, Commander," Admiral Paris said.

"Might we able to adapt this communications system to contact some of the allies we've made along the way? Many of them are well out range of our own communications array now. I think it would be nice if we could update them on our progress, and possibly even get them in touch with the Federation directly."

Paris looked at Barclay who sighed. "The ones you've already passed, I don't think so. Not yet anyway. But, any friends your crew makes from here on out, just give them the signal code, and depending on the time of day they should be able to communicate with the Alpha Quadrant."

"It's an excellent idea, Commander," Admiral Paris said. "And certainly one the Federation Council considered earlier when Watson was being developed. Sadly, technology is what's keeping us from implementing it."

"Better that than politics," Chakotay said. "I understand."

The next day, the Doctor was in astrometrics, one of the first people to draw a low number on the newly organized lottery that was used to determine who would get to speak to the Alpha Quadrant that day.

"I can hear the critics already," the Bolian, Ardon Broht of Broht & Forrester, publisher of holo-novels said. "'A new voice has arrived.' You could be the next K'Ratak, or a modern day Tolstoy."

"If Tolstoy had written holo-novels," The Doctor said, smiling. "You are far too kind."

"I mean it," Ardon said. "I'd like to start distribution by the end of the month."

The Doctor was shocked, and a little concerned. If he had a stomach, he was sure he'd feel nauseous.

"Uh, the material I sent was only a working draft," he said. "I need time to make revisions."

"Well, if you insist. But please do it quickly."

"I will," The Doctor said. "So, tell me… what did you think of the characters?" he asked excitedly.

"Oh, they were very real," Ardon said. "Compelling. I almost forgot they were holograms."

If the Doctor's pride were a physical object capable of growth, it would've filled the room. He glanced to his side and saw Seven of Nine, at the controls, maintaining the link to the Alpha Quadrant. That was one problem that sadly not even she, Harry, and Reg Barclay putting their minds together could fix. Not yet, anyway.

"So, who was your favorite?" The Doctor prodded, returning his focus to the Bolian publisher.

"Without a doubt it'd have to be Lieuten-" The signal cut off before Ardon could finish his thought.

"What happened?" The Doctor said, worried.

"The 11 hours for today is up," Seven said.

"You could've let the man finish his sentence," The Doctor said, feeling annoyed.

"The position of the quantum singularity we are bouncing a tachyon signal off of says otherwise," Seven said. "Besides, I believe your ego has received enough stroking for the day."

"That's just mean, Seven," The Doctor said. "I suppose you're just feeling left out, since I never told you I was working on a holo-novel."

"Why would I feel left out?" Seven said. The Doctor realized she meant it.

"Well, once I've got the last draft completed, I'll share it you and Sam."

Seven raised an eyebrow. "What about Naomi or Icheb?"

"The material might be a little too… mature for them."

"It doesn't involve you painting nude pictures of me does it?"

"That only happened one time!"

Tom Paris completed his inventory of sickbay's stock. Normally he found the tasks assigned to him as the ship's nurse when he wasn't at the helm tedious, but he also had nothing better to do. B'Elanna was asleep, Sue Brooks was flying the ship during this shift, and he had traded his Alpha Quadrant communication slot with Harry so the latter would be able to speak to his mother on her birthday. The inventory was on his task list for tomorrow, but he figured if he got it done early that would free up some cartoon time for him and B'Elanna.

He turned when he heard the door open and saw The Doctor walking, whistling.

"So," Tom said, "who'd you talk to? Reg or Dr. Zimmerman?"

"I'll have you know," The Doctor said, "that I was speaking to Ardon Broht, of Broht & Forrester."

"The publishers of the Dixon Hill series?" Tom said, genuinely surprised.

"And soon to be publishers of my work," The Doctor said.

"Oh. Well, congratulations," Tom said. "I didn't even know you were working on a holo-novel."

"I was waiting until at least the second draft before asking any crew members to give it a run through," The Doctor said.

"Fair enough. What's it about?"

"The adventures of an intrepid doctor," The Doctor said, picking up a PADD and starting to work on something, Tom couldn't tell if it was medical related or writing related.

"Writing what you know, huh?" Tom said, leaning on a console. "You know, I never thought about getting any of my work published. Maybe I could talk to your people about Captain Proton."

The Doctor paused, and looked pensive.

"I suppose I could put in a good word," he said. "A throwback to the science fiction of early 20th century Earth could appeal to the same people that like the Dixon Hill series, itself a throwback to early detective stories. I hear that Captain Jean-luc Picard himself is a fan of those stories."

"Whoa," Tom said. "Now that would be something I'd give up an organ to see. Captain Picard playing Captain Proton. What an image."

"You know, my holo-novel could use a fresh pair of eyes. I have some additional revisions to do before I submit, Would you like to be my first user?"

"I'd be honored," Tom said. "Oh, what's it called, by the way?"

"Photons Be Free," The Doctor said, not even trying to hide his pride.

"Catchy," Tom said, leaving sickbay to find if either of the ship's holodecks were open. Finding both of them were, he opted for holodeck 2 since it was closest, and started up Photons Be Free.

It started with some voiceover that Tom found a little on the pretentious side, but he let it continue as a holographic desk with an old fashioned feather pen and ink quill on it appeared, followed soon by The Doctor, or rather a sort-of copy of the Doctor, wearing a smoking jacket, who continued the narration as he sat down at the desk and started writing in the book.

"First note," Tom muttered to himself, "tell the Doctor the prologue is too long."

"Ah, welcome," the "Doctor" said, putting down the quill and standing up. "You are about to take part in a thrilling first-person narrative. You will take on the role of an Emergency Medical Hologram, the chief medical officer aboard the starship Vortex."

"Oh boy," Tom said with a sigh.

"As our story begins, an accident with an ancient alien gateway has hurled your ship to the small but distant LMC galaxy."

LMC Galaxy? What- oh, the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. Okay, I can work with that.

"Your mission; to uphold your medical and ethical standards as you struggle against the crew's bigotry and intolerance of photonic lifeforms. Persons with vascular disorders should consult a physician before running this program. And now, a few acknowledgements. First-"

"Computer, freeze program," Tom said, rubbing his eyes, already having a bad feeling about where this was going. "And he got on my case about 'show don't tell' last time I let him… Computer, how much longer is this introduction?"

"Nine minutes, four seconds."

"Yeah, let's just skip to the first chapter."

"Chapter One. A Healer Is Born," The Doctor's voice said over a musical cue. "In which our protagonist must make a difficult choice."

The plain holodeck with a desk was now replaced with a recreation of Voyager's sickbay.

Not even trying to hide your inspiration there, Doc, Tom thought.

The room was dark, the red alert klaxons blaring, and several panels sparked. Every bio-bed was filled with injured patients while others lay on the floor, some with blankets over their heads. Tom saw that he was now in a blue uniform, but his communicator had a very different design from the usual Starfleet delta.

"Increase the resonance level by twenty percent!" a woman's voice from somewhere out of his line of sight yelled.

"Are you the EMH?" a gold shirt said, running up to him.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," Tom said, mimicking The Doctor's tone as best he could.

"Our doctor's dead, and we've got wounded," the gold shirt said. He directed Tom to two bio-beds, each occupied with a badly injured human. "Who do we treat first?"

Well, the chapter title certainly meant what it said, Tom thought as he pulled out his character's medical tricorder and scanned the human to his right.

"Second degree plasma burns," he said. He turned and scanned the second man. "He's got an aortic rupture," he added, his medic training under the Doctor taking over. "Get him to the surgical bay, now."

The gold shirt helped the wounded man over to another bio-bed, this one equipped with surgical gear.

"You!" a familiar voice yelled, and Tom turned to see Chakotay, or rather a Bajoran with a long ponytail and a very different facial tattoo who just happened to look a lot like Chakotay, said, helping a man who looked a lot like Paris himself but with a moustache so ridiculous Tom was afraid that the program would respond badly if he laughed at it.

"Over here!" Not-Chakotay said, helping Not-Paris into the newly vacant bio-bed. He ran his scanner over the latter.

"He's got a mild concussion," Tom said. "I'm going to have to treat the others first."

Not-Chakotay grabbed his arm. "I'm going to need Lieutenant Marseilles on the bridge."

Marseille? Really?

"You're going to treat him now," Not-Chakotay continued.

"As I understand it," Tom said, "my job is to treat the critical patients first. So if you'll excuse me…" Tom headed towards the surgical bay to treat the man with the aortic rupture, when Not-Chakotay pushed a button and blocked his path with a force field.

"I don't know who you think you are, Hologram," Not-Chakotay said, putting enough venom behind the word Hologram to make it sound like an ethnic slur, "but to me you're just another piece of technology."

"Well, apparently, I'm a piece of technology that's in demand, so why don't you go back to the bridge and let me do my job?" Tom said.

The door opened and Tom turned to see this holo-novels ersatz Janeway walk in. The only physical difference Tom could make out was that this Janeway, whatever her new name was, had pitch black hair and a ponytail that seemed to be about the same length as Not-Chakotay's.

"What seems to be the problem?" she said.

"Our medical hologram refuses to treat Mr. Marseilles, Captain Jenkins." Not-Chakotay said.

"Are you malfunctioning?" Jenkins said, walking towards Tom in an intimidating manner.

"I don't think so," Tom said.

"I need my helmsman back at his station," she said.

That sounds like something Captain Janeway would say, Tom thought.

"Lieutenant Marseille isn't seriously hurt," Tom said. "This man," he motioned to the bio-bed in the surgical bay, "will be dead in five minutes if I don't operate."

"Drop the forcefield, Commander Katanay," Jenkins said, causing Tom to have to bite his lip to keep from groaning. The Commander did as he was told, and Jenkins walked past Tom, and before he could do anything she pulled out her phaser and shot the man awaiting surgery in the chest. The man groaned, then his head slumped to the side. He was no longer breathing.

"What the f-" Tom started to say, but was cut off.

"That patient is dead," Jenkins said as casually as if she were ordered coffee from the replicator. "Now you're free to treat Lieutenant Marseille."

"Then the Captain pulls out a phaser," Tom said as Neelix refilled his coffee, "and shoots him. Right there, on the bio-bed."

Tom sipped his coffee as he looked at Sam, Seven, Harry, and Jaffen to gauge their reactions. None of them seemed to be taking Tom's description of the Doctor's holo-novel seriously.

"I don't see Kathy doing anything like that," Jaffen said.

"Well, obviously," Tom said. "But this Jenkins character looked like her, had her voice, her last name even started with the same letter. If I'd written something like this I'd be thrown in the brig for insubordination."

Harry shook his head.

"What was my name, again?" he said.

"You're Kymble," Tom said. "A Trill. B'Elanna's name is Torrey and she's full human in the story, and I'm Lieutenant Marseille."

"Very creative," Sam said with a smirk.

"I don't get it," Jaffen said.

"Did you say anything to the Doctor?" Harry said.

"I don't know what to say," Tom said. "He thinks he's written a masterpiece." He shook his head and added, "If this gets distributed, people are gonna think this is about us."

"I'm pretty sure you're exaggerating, Tom," Harry said.

"Run it yourself if you don't believe me," Tom said.

"I can't," Harry said. "Not today anyway. After my shift I'm talking to my parents."

"How about you, Jaffen?" Tom said. "Up for witnessing what character assassination looks like?"

Jaffen sighed. "I gotta be honest, I don't like the holodeck very much. It's just too realistic for my tastes. I love a good story, but I think I'll stick to hearing or reading them over being involved with them."

Tom shrugged. "I can respect that."

"I'm already off shift," Samantha said. "I'll give it a go. Annie's on Alpha Quadrant communication duty again today, and Naomi and Icheb are getting remedial transporter technology lessons from Lieutenant Kitrick. I quite literally have nothing better to do."

"I still think Tom's exaggerating," Harry said, looking at her.

"People back home probably won't take it literally," Tom said, "but they might wonder if there's a grain of truth to it."

"I doubt your people would think you go around shooting injured crewmen," Jaffen said. "The worst freighter crews I've ever worked with wouldn't even go that far."

"I think maybe we should bring this to the Captain," Tom said.

"Tom-" Harry said, but Tom raised a hand to cut him off.

"Look," he said, "Sam said she'd play through it. If she thinks I'm overreacting, I'll let it go. Okay?"

"Sounds fair to me," Jaffen said.

"Okay," Harry said.

"I'll give it a try too," Neelix said. "Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop, but you weren't exactly being discreet."

"Okay, it's settled then." Tom said. "Sam and Neelix will be my second and third opinions."

"Chapter Five," the Doctor's voice said, "'Out of the Frying Pan.' In which our protagonist must confront abusive colleagues."

"Because they've just been so nice up to now," Sam said, through gritted teeth.

A female human in a gold shirt entered sickbay. Sam at least appreciated that this one didn't look like just a slightly modified copy of one of her actual crewmates, though she thought that maybe, just maybe, this crew member had Lydia Anderson's hair, if not her complexion.

"I'm here for my physical," she said.

Why does she sound like she's flirting with me? Sam thought. And also, was that a Delaney sister's voice I'm hearing?

"Have a seat right over here," Sam said in character. She took out her medical tricorder, when the door opened and the fake Tom Paris, Lieutenant Marseille, walked in.

"Doctor," he said, looking panicked. "We need you down in engineering."

"What's wrong?" Sam said.

"A plasma conduit exploded," Marseille said. "At least ten people are hurt."

Okay, so far the chapter title seems pretty misleading, but I'll at least see how far this goes, Sam thought. She went over to the table where the story's equivalent to the Doctor's mobile emitter, here represented by a bulky backpack sized piece of half-organic technology in the vein of a Species 8472 ship, and strapped it on, glad that the holo novel's parameters didn't prohibit her from adjusting the weight.

She bolted out of sickbay and headed for engineering, but as she approached, it hit her. There were no alert klaxons, and she hadn't run across anyone else fleeing engineering from the carnage that Marseille had implied.

"Wait a minute…" she said, as she casually strolled into engineering. As expected, there were no signs of explosion whatsoever, and the entire engineering staff, including B'Elanna's human counterpart, Torrey, who was praising a subordinate. Torrey saw Sam, and glowered at her.

"How many times have I told you," she said, sounding exactly the way B'Elanna would when she was angry, "engineering is off-limits to holograms."

"Yes, well," Sam said, realizing exactly what was going on, "maybe you should remind your husband of that."

"What are you talking about?"

"Lieutenant Marseille told me there was a plasma conduit explosion down here. Obviously he was mistaken. Or lying."

Torrey shoved Sam, and waved a spanner in her face. "You're a tool on this ship, just like this spanner. And tools can be replaced. My marriage is none of your business. Now scuttle off back to sickbay you photonic twerp."

Sam stepped back, and as quickly as she could manage without completely losing her dignity, she went back to sickbay where, to her complete lack of surprise, the light had been turned off, and the sounds of two people having sex filled the room.

Don't be in the surgical bay, don't be in the surgical bay, don't be in the surgical bay…

"Computer, lights," Sam said. Sure enough, Marseille and the female crew member were on the bio-bed in the surgical bay.

"If you even think of mentioning this to my wife," Marseille said, not even trying to offer up a pitiful excuse, which Sam actually appreciated though she'd never say it out loud, "I will purge your memory buffer. Do we understand each other?"

"Considered what I just saw," Sam said, "I may actually ask you to purge my memory buffer."

"Fancy yourself some kind of comedian there, Hologram?"

Just a few more chapters, Sam reminded herself.

"Chapter Six, 'Duel in the Ready Room,'" the Doctor's narration voice said. Sam now found herself in the ready room of Captain Jenkins. It looked almost exactly like Captain Janeway's ready room, except for the weapons arranged on the rear wall like trophies, including an 18th century flintlock pistol. Sam managed to get a close look at it before the scene began and saw the little plaque under it claim it was the gun Aaron Burr had used to kill Alexander Hamilton, two names that sounded familiar to Sam, though she couldn't quite place them. The Doctor's narration continued.

"In which our protagonist faces an inquisition."

Captain Jenkins sat behind her desk, casually cleaning her fingernails.

"This time you've gone too far," Jenkins said, pointing a weapon at Sam.

"I'm not sure what you mean," Sam said, affecting nervousness.

Jenkins tossed the weapon onto the desk and picked up a PADD.

"An inventory of your holo-matrix," she said. "50 gigaquads of memory devoted to music, 42 for 'daydreams,' and another ten to expand your sexuality."

Doctor, if you are having sex with my wife in this novel I will rewrite your program so I can strangle you, Sam thought.

"These extracurricular subroutines don't belong," Jenkins said, standing up and moving around her desk to get in Sam's face, "as part of an emergency medical hologram. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Um, of course," Sam said. "I don't think these subroutines are trivial, Captain. They help make me a better doctor. And a better person."

"You're not a person," Jenkins said. "You may be programmed to look and act human, but that doesn't make you one. These subroutines are to be deleted immediately. Mr. Tulak, Mr. Kymble" she added, tapping a button on her desk.

Oh, I think this is the first time I get to meet Tuvok's analog, Sam thought, turning around.

'Tulak' entered, looking exactly like Tuvok, only human-looking though Sam supposed he could be a Betazoid or a Bijani, with a goatee. Sam had to admit she liked the look. The Trill version of Harry was right behind him. The room filled with dramatic music, and it took everything Sam had to keep from laughing.

"Take the EMH to the Holo-Lab for reprogramming," Jenkins said. Kymble and Tulak each took out their phaser with one hand, while their opposite hands each took one of Sam's arms and led her to the turbolift.

"Chapter Seven," the Doctor's voice said again. "'The Escape.' In which-"

"Wait, wait, computer freeze program," Sam said. "Was that it? Chapter Six was just the one exchange in the captain's ready room?"

"Correct," the computer replied.
"But, but, how… Doctor why would you even... I just... Ah screw it. Computer, restart from chapter beginning."

"Chapter Seven. 'The Escape.' In which our protagonist is aided by his only ally."

Three of Eight, a.k.a. my wife as a ginger, Sam thought, remembering her from a previous chapter. Well, at least I'll have something nice to look at during this chapter. This still better not end in a sex scene though.

"I'm not sure we should be doing this, Commander," Kymble said as the three of them entered the turbolift. Sam was about to thank Kymble for speaking up for her, but he continued talking. "If we tinker with his matrix, we might accidentally delete some of his diagnostic subroutines?"

Tulak chuckled. "Why? Afraid you'll catch something on your next away mission, Ensign?"

"There must be millions of viruses in this galaxy that no one's ever encountered before."

"I doubt it's that many," Tulak said. "The LMC is smaller in diameter than the entire Alpha Quadrant back home."

"So?" Kymble said. "With my luck I'll probably end up catching half of them."

The turbolift door opened, and there stood Three of Eight. The hair was not only a different color from Seven's, but she wore it much looser. Instead of her visible Borg implants being on her eyebrow and hand, she had a pair of implants that hung from her earlobes like earrings, another that wrapped around her neck like a necklace, and a third on her wrist that looked like a bracelet. To Sam she looked less like a former Borg or more like someone with odd taste in jewelry. Three of Eight was also in the brown jumpsuit that Seven had been wearing when she and Sam had had dinner together for the first time. Sam didn't like the look very much. Except for the hair.

"I will take the prisoner from here," she said.

"Our orders were to escort him to the Holo-Lab," Tulak said.

"I've been ordered to perform the procedure," Three of Eight said.

"Your sympathies for the EMH are no secret, Three," Tulak said in a menacing tone. He pointed his phaser at her now. "Step aside."

Three of Eight nodded, and did as she was told. Tulak and Kymble walked behind Sam, phasers pointed at her back. They walked down the corridor towards the Holo-Lab. She heard the sound of buttons being pushed, and turned in time to see the two men walk face first into a force field, Kymble falling to the ground immediately, while Three of Eight struck Tulak in the neck and swiped his phaser. She lowered the forcefield and tossed the phaser her way.

"Run, Doctor," she yelled. Sam took the phaser and ran, though she had no idea where to go. On top of that, the backpack emitter she'd been wearing all but non-stop since Chapter Five was starting to feel like more of a burden. She wondered if the Doctor had coded it into the program that it would start to feel it's default weight at certain points in the story for dramatic purposes.

She ran, looking behind her, and nearly fell backwards as she hit another force field, and two guards came up the corridor behind her.

"Oh come on, Doc," she muttered. "Couldn't give me more of a chance? You could cut the dramatic tension with a sneeze, it's so thin."

The guards didn't respond as they dragged her away. After a long, and in Sam's opinion tedious kangaroo court scene, she finally reached the end of the story.

"Chapter Eight. 'A Tragic End,' in which our protagonist learns his fate." The Doctor's voice was nearly drowned out by the score as two guards removed the mobile emitter, a third guard who looked like a bulkier Lieutenant Ayala gripping Three of Eight by the arm. They were all back in sickbay, and Sam was standing face to face with Captain Jenkins.

"I've tried to do this the easy way," Jenkins said. "But it's clear you're not going to be reasonable. Your matrix will be decompiled and reinitialized. You'll remain off-line, except for emergencies."

"'Kay," Sam said, shrugging. Frankly she was just glad this was over with. Photons Be Free was easily only half as long as Captain Proton, but at least she liked that one, though only when she did it with Seven.

"Ready," Torrey said. Sam decided that The Doctor had not foreseen that anyone playing him in this story might just accept their fate at the end, since no one seemed to register her lack of pathos.

"Do it," Jenkins said.

"Wait," Three of Eight said, pleading. "He has the right to expand his program."

"He's a piece of technology," Jenkins said. "He has no rights."

"But he should," Three said. "One day the EMH and others like him will be recognized for what they are; intelligent individuals with a passion for life. Make no mistake, Captain. We may be millions of light years from home, but one day people will learn of the crime you're committing here today."

"Nice speech," Jenkins said, before looking Sam in the eyes. "Now decompile the program."

The decompiling scene was represented by all of Sam's surroundings blurring and fading to blackness. The holodeck itself was now pitch black, leaving Sam feeling uncomfortably blind.

"Okay, nice touch with the dark, I'll give him that," Sam said.

When the lights came on, the holodeck was back to it's normal state when not in use. A second later, the desk reappeared, the Doctor, or his avatar for lack of a better term, in his smoking jacket still sitting behind it. He closed the book and put the quill pen back in the ink bottle as he stood up.

"What you've experienced, dear protagonist, is a work of fiction."

"You don't say."

"But like all fiction," The Doctor's avatar said, "it has elements of truth. I hope you now have a better understanding of the struggles holographic life must endure in a world controlled by organics." A drum beat followed the last word, and the program ended, the desk and everything else gone, leaving Sam alone in an empty holodeck.

"End of program," the computer said.

Sam touched her comm badge. "Ensign Wildman to Captain Janeway," she said.

"Janeway here. What is it, Sam?"

"I have a concern."

The Doctor wondered why he'd been summoned to the captain's ready room. When he arrived he wondered why Tom Paris and Samantha Wildman were there.

"Doctor," Captain Janeway said, "I hear you've written a holo-novel."

The Doctor smiled, proud that the Captain had heard of his work, then quickly realized the tone with which she said it. And the frowns on Tom and Sam's faces.

Uh-oh, he thought.

"Is there a problem, Captain?"

"Oh, I didn't think so at first," Janeway said, crossing her arms. "Even after hearing what Tom and Sam had to say. After all, Neelix said he actually liked it, so I decided to give a try myself."

"Oh? What did you think?" The Doctor said, even though he could tell from the look on Janeway's face what her answer was going to be.

She told him what she thought, and it was not kind. Tom and Sam chimed in as well, largely agreeing with the captain. The only additional note Ensign Wildman had was what the Doctor felt was a nitpick about Chapter 6 being too short.

"I don't understand why the concern," The Doctor said. "My work is not about the Voyager crew."

"Really?" Tom said. "Lieutenant Marseille? Ensign Kymble? The characters look almost exactly like us."

"I used your physical parameters as a starting point, true," The Doctor said, "but I assure you any further similarities are purely coincidental."

"You set your story on a starship thrown light years away from home by alien technology," Sam said.

"And Marseille is married to Lieutenant Torrey," Tom added.

"Captain Jenkins," was Janeway's sole contribution to the counterargument, and, sheepishly, The Doctor had to admit they may have had a point. He still felt he was being treated unfairly though.

"Well, what would you have me do? Write a story about palace intrigue on the Klingon homeworld? Or maybe a story about a threat to all sentient life in the galaxy that turns to just be a broken A.I. in the thrilling anti-climax? I do what all good authors do. I write what I know."

"That's terrible advice," Sam said.

"Though it would explain why there are so many mediocre holo-novels about Academy professors contemplating adultery," Tom added. "Oh, and speaking of adultery…"

"Doctor," Janeway said, "you've written a very imaginative story, but it's conceivable that people will think it's based on fact."

"I don't see how," The Doctor said.

"How many holograms carry mobile emitters?" Tom said.

"The emitter in my story is nothing like the real one," The Doctor said. This was getting absurd, but he didn't want to risk offending the Captain now. After all, if she wanted she could give the order to block him from sending his project to the Alpha Quadrant.

"What was the point of making it that big anyway?" Sam said.

"It's a metaphor," The Doctor said. "A symbol of the burdens I live with everyday. Imagine having to take this," he touched the mobile emitter on his shoulder," everywhere you go with you, every day? It's like a constant reminder that you're different from everyone else. I wanted the player to feel the weight of it. Literally."

"In Starlfeet we celebrate our differences, Doctor," Janeway said. "I won't pretend I know what it's like to be a computer program that attained sentience through circumstance, and I think it's admirable you want the users of your holo-novels to feel what you've felt these past six, almost seven years. I don't want to come across as completely unsympathetic, but your metaphor is flawed. Your emitter isn't a ball and chain. It liberates you. Without it you'd be confined to sickbay and the holodecks."

"It doesn't always feel that way," The Doctor said.

"Doctor," Janeway said, uncrossing her arms and leaning forward on the desk, looking concerned. "Do you feel oppressed aboard this ship? Because if so, I'd be more than willing to-"

"It's not me, Captain," The Doctor said. "Though I appreciate the concern. It's about my brothers in the Alpha Quadrant; my fellow Mark-Is."

"Oh," Sam said. "I.. Now that I know that-"

"It's still badly written, Sam," Tom said.

"I know that," Sam said, "It's just-"

"I'd like to finish my conversation with the Doctor alone," Janeway said. "You two are dismissed."

"Yes, Captain," Tom and Sam said, roughly in unison, quickly vacating the ready room.

"You were saying about your 'brothers?'" Janeway said.

"Hundreds of EMH Mark-I's, like me in every respect, except they've been condemned to a menial existence. Scrubbing conduits, mining dilithium… There's a long history of writers drawing attention to the plight of the oppressed."

"Setting aside for the moment how this story and it's thinly veiled counterparts to your friends will make them feel," Janeway said, "there is a difference between the Mark-Is and yourself you're overlooking."

"Which is?"

"None of them have attained sentience," Janeway said. "To put it bluntly, they are still holograms. You're not. You aren't like Commander Data from the Enterprise, you weren't created to be sentient, but you are an organic lifeform like he is. No hologram ever has been. Those that have attained sentience, at least to my knowledge have all been the results of accidents, or in your case sheer necessity. It's because we had no other medical personnel on board, and frankly still don't despite Tom's additional training, that made you what you are. I appreciate the sympathy you have for the other holograms that look like you Doctor, but you're mistaken in your belief that they share the same level of sentience, or even the same desires as you."

The Doctor sighed. "If my work offends my colleagues, than I apologize for that. But if the price of expressing myself is having to deal with the scorn of some of them, then so be it."

Janeway sighed.

"Just keep what I said in mind," she said, "before you send a finished draft of Photons Be Free to your publisher. You're dismissed."

The Doctor nodded, stood up, and left.

"Are you sure you don't want to be there?" Seven said to Samantha as they got into bed.

"I'm sure I'll get a chance to speak to her soon enough," Sam said. "This is your first chance getting to speak to your Aunt, the only living blood relative you have. The day after tomorrow should be just for you."

"You aren't worried that it'd go like-"

"God no," Sam said, shuddering slightly. Seven felt guilty for having even mentioned it. "Sorry, just, I'm still kind of bitter about the way Mom spoke to you."

Seven gently stroked the side of Sam's face.

"I know literally nothing about Aunt Irene," Seven said, "but I bet she'd adore you. And Naomi and Icheb as well."

"I hope so," Sam said.

"Changing the subject, I understand you tried out the Doctor's holonovel earlier today," Seven said. "How was it?"

"Oh, don't even get me started," Sam said with a heavy sigh.

"That's unfortunate," Seven said.

Sam propped herself on her elbows and proceeded to summarize the story of Photons Be Free. When she was done, Seven was unsure how to feel.

"If there's one positive I can give it," Sam said, "it's that you looked hot as a redhead."

"Yes, I imagine I did," Seven said.

"Chief medical officer's personal log, stardate 54740.8," The Doctor said into his PADD as he walked towards holodeck 1. "Although the decision has made me unpopular with the crew, I've decided not to compromise my work. I'm making some final revisions to the program before transmitting it. End recording."

The door to the holodeck opened and he stepped in. "Computer, run EMH program Photons Be Free."

The program started, and the Doctor's eyes widened when he saw his desk, his smoking jacket, his quill pen and blank book, but instead of his own image, he saw Tom Paris.

"What the hell?"

"Welcome," the holographic Lieutenant Paris said. "You're obviously a person with impeccable taste."

"Computer, freeze program," The Doctor said angrily.

"Unable to comply," the computer said.

"You are about to embark," Tom said, getting up and walking around to the front of the desk, "on a remarkable journey. You will take on the role of a medical assistant aboard the starship Voyeur."

"Voyeur?" The Doctor said, even more angry now.

"Your job will be to assist the Chief Medical officer," Tom's image continued, "and learn to tolerate his overbearing behavior and obnoxious bedside manner."

The Doctor felt his rage rising.

"I will make you pay for this Mister Paris," The Doctor said, practically growling. "I don't know how yet, but I will make you pay."

"Remember," Tom said, sitting on the edge of the desk, "patience is a virtue." He then vanished, and shortly thereafter so did the desk as the holodeck shifted into the story, or at least whatever the real Tom had done to it. Visually so far, everything seemed the same, down to the Voyeur's sickbay looking like the one from both the Vortex and Voyager.

"'Chapter One,'" Paris's voice said, "It's the Doctor's World, You're Just Living In It.'"

"When I tell you the shift begins at 0800," a voice said, and The Doctor, now wearing a red shirt from some reason, turned to see himself, only with hair, yelling at him.

A terrible comb over? The Doctor thought. Is that what Tom really thinks I'd look like with hair?

"That doesn't mean," the "Doctor" said, still ranting, "you can just stroll in here at 0800 and 24 seconds!"

The Doctor, despite being a hologram, still felt the urge to shudder. It was a bizarre experience getting yelled at by yourself, to put it mildly. He glanced and saw Three of Eight, the character he'd created loosely based on Seven of Nine, sitting on the edge of the bio-bed in the surgical bay, favoring her shoulder.

"Do you understand me Ensign?!" The "Doctor" yelled.

"This is outrageous," The Doctor said, hating how this version of his main character that Tom had corrupted was treating him.

"What's outrageous," The "Doctor" said, holding up a golf club, "is that I'm going to miss my tee time. Now come along."

The "Doctor" jerked his head towards Three of Eight, motioning for The Doctor to follow him.

"Aw, what seems to be the trouble One of Three?" The "Doctor" said in what The Doctor was sure the most condescending tone of voice he'd heard in his almost seven years of existence.

"I'm Two of Three," she replied, sounding like a sad and scared child.

"Sorry," The "Doctor" said with a snide chuckle. "They're triplets you know," he added to The Doctor with a lascivious wink.

You turned me into a pervert? Dammit, Tom!

"It hurts when I do this," Two of Three said, trying to rotate her shoulder, and wincing after being unable to complete the motion.

"Well, then don't do it," The "Doctor" said, laughing, slapping Two of Three on the shoulder.

"Ow!"

"Oh, don't be a baby," The "Doctor" said, The Doctor wanting to intervene but being held back by his sheer revulsion at the scene playing out before him.

I'm not even flesh and blood and I feel like I need a sonic shower, he thought.

The "Doctor" pulled his medical tricorder and did a half-assed scan of Two of Three, rolling his eyes as he did so.

"Eh, your bi-radial clamp's out of alignment," he said. He tossed the medical tricorder recklessly onto a tray "I've got just the thing," he said, picking up a hypo-spray. He leaned in to whisper to The Doctor.

"A Klingon aphrodisiac," he said. "My own special blend."

The Doctor's eyes widen in horror and his jaw dropped.

"No, no, no," The Doctor said as The "Doctor" pressed the hypospray into Two of Three's neck and started rubbing her shoulders.

"You'll feel better in no time at all,"

"Mmm," Two of Three went, starting to smile even as she started swaying as though intoxicated.

"No, no, no no no, for the love of everything good and decent computer end program!"

Whatever Tom had done to the program caused it to continue, despite The Doctor's repeated protests, the horrible scene playing out before him, completely ignoring his attempts to stop it. Eventually he gave up and just covered his eyes.

Tom Paris looked at his PADD and the list of revisions he'd made to The Doctor's holonovel, and frowned.

"Hmm. Maybe I should try to dial it back if it's not too late," he muttered to himself. "This is a little over the top, even for the point I'm trying to make." He stopped and looked up when he heard the unmistakable sound of someone walking angrily behind him in the hallway. People didn't believe him when he said that the sound Starfleet issue boots when they connected with a Starfleet issue carpet was different when the person wearing said boots was angry, but he knew that that sound could mean only one thing. He was proved right when The Doctor came around the corner, glaring at him.

"Lieutenant!" The Doctor shouted. "I want you to know I'm making a full report to the Captain."

"This isn't about that dermal regenerator I misplaced is it?" Tom said.

"You know very well what this is all about. You accessed my holonovel without permission, and replaced it with your own hackneyed narrative!"

That's the part he's most upset about? Tom thought remembering the scene he'd been regretting writing at the moment The Doctor caught up with him. Well, at least I think I still made my point.

"Well, hey, just writing what I know," Tom said.

"You destroyed a work of art that took months to create," The Doctor said, practically growling.

"Relax, Doc," Tom said. "I saved your program in a backup file. I was trying to make a point. One I hope you got."

"You made it with a typical lack of subtlety," The Doctor said.

"Oh, you're one to talk," Tom said. "Your program is about as subtle as a Ferengi mating dance. Although I imagine most Ferengi mating dances don't portray me as an adulterer or Captain Janeway as a murderer, or Harry Kim as a hypochondriac, or-"

"My program was a serious attempt at social commentary!" The Doctor yelled. He stopped yelling briefly as a crew member walked past them, at which point he lowered his voice while still trying to convey anger. "You had me drugging a patient and taking advantage of her."

"Okay, I admit that was a little bit much," Tom said.

"A little?!"

And here comes the coup de grace, Tom thought, hoping that finally The Doctor would at last understand why he, Samantha Wildman, the Captain, and a few others since the initial meeting about Photons Be Free in the Captain's ready room were so upset.

"Don't be ridiculous," Tom said. "That character's not you. I just used your physical parameters as a starting point. But what if some people ran that program and thought that it was based on you? That would bother you, wouldn't it?"

"I don't care what people think," The Doctor said.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Well that much is obvious."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The Doctor said.

"If you cared, then you might actually take into account the feelings of your shipmates about your attempt at social commentary. I've watched 20th century Earth propaganda films that were more subtle."

"Subtlety is a writing tool, like flashbacks, or the unreliable narrator, or any other choice a writer can make. It's not mandatory."

Tom sighed and shook his head.

"You really don't get my point at all," he said. "I can live with strangers in the Alpha Quadrant thinking I'm like Lieutenant Marseille. What really kills me is that that's how you see me. I thought I'd begun to earn your respect. Maybe I was wrong."

"How can you say that?" The Doctor said. "You're nothing like Marseille."

"I've certainly never cheated on my wife," Tom said, "and I'd rather die than have a moustache like that, but come on. Ace pilot? Married to the chief engineer? My eyes and hair?"

The Doctor didn't seem to have a response to that, but he didn't look apologetic either.

"The original program is under file Theta-One-Five. Do whatever you want with it," Tom said, and walked away before the Doctor could respond.

The Doctor stared at his desk monitor, pondering just how he should phrase today's routine medical report, when he heard the door open. He looked up and saw Neelix walk in.

"Doctor, I need your help," Neelix said. His tone indicated that whatever it was even Neelix didn't think it was serious, so he didn't bother to stand up just yet.

"What is it Mister Neelix?" The Doctor said.

"I was wondering you could take a quick look at this," Neelix said, handing The Doctor a PADD.

"Cooking with Neelix," The Doctor said, reading the text aloud. "A culinary tour of the Delta Quadrant."

"It's a proposal for a holo-cookbook I'm putting together," Neelix said. "I was hoping to transmit it to your publisher during my com-link this afternoon. With your permission of course. And advice as well. There are species in the Federation that don't have any representatives on Voyager, so I don't have a frame of reference for what of my cooking they can safely eat. I've never had to cook for an Elerian for instance. Or a Trill, or-"

"I see your point," The Doctor said, dismissively.

"Something wrong, Doctor?" Neelix said, sitting down in a chair opposite The Doctor's.

"Let's say if you want writing tips, there are a number of people on this ship eager to offer them," The Doctor said.

"Ah, I see," Neelix said. "Well, for what it's worth, I actually enjoyed your holonovel."

"I'd heard that, yes," The Doctor said, smiling slightly. "You'd think the rest of the crew would be happy for me; for my chance to be appreciated as an artist as well as a doctor."

"You're going to reach a wide audience," Neelix said. "Why worry about the opinions of a few disgruntled shipmates?"

"They're my friends," The Doctor said. "I don't want to hurt them."

Neelix shrugged. "You could make some slight adjustments," he said. "Alter physical characteristics, make the interior of the Vortex look less like Voyager, stuff like that. I doubt it would effect the story any."

The Doctor thought about it, and realized that not only was Neelix right, so were Tom, and Samantha, and the Captain. He sighed.

"I could do that, but that level of revision could take weeks. My publisher's expecting a final draft tomorrow."

Neelix reached into his pocket, and handed a dead isolinear chip with a number on it to The Doctor.

"Maybe you should give him a call," Neelix said.

"You're giving up your slot for me?"

"Well, it's not as if I have any friends in the Alpha Quadrant," Neelix said. "My options are to talk to your publisher about the cookbook, or see Lieutenant Barclay's cat."

"Revisions?" Ardon Broht said, sounding perplexed.

"I need to re-work the characters," The Doctor said.

"Why? They're so believable," the publisher said. The Doctor laughed nervously at that, glancing at Seven of Nine who was manning a console, making sure the connection with the Alpha Quadrant remained stable. If she'd had any opinions on Photons Be Free, she'd kept them to herself. Hopefully, if she felt as offended as Samantha had been, this would go a long way towards fixing that.

"A little too believable, apparently," The Doctor said. "Some of my colleagues were a bit put off by the physical resemblances to my characters."

"And the names," Seven of Nine said without turning away from the console.

"Yeah, I should probably change those too," The Doctor admitted.

"Doctor," Ardon said, "I really don't think this is necessary."

"I'm afraid I have to insist," The Doctor said. "My friends' reputations are at stake."

The Bolian on the screen sighed. "Very well. I won't distribute the story until I've received the revised version."

"Thank you, Mister Broht," The Doctor said, smiling. "Thank you so much."

Ardon nodded, but didn't say anything as he reached off-screen and the communication cut off.

"I believe Mister Tassoni is up next," Seven of Nine said. "If he's waiting outside, send him in and I will attempt to put him through to whomever he wishes to speak to."

"Of course," The Doctor said. "And, Seven? I apologize if my holonovel made you uncomfortable."

"It did not," Seven said, "though that is simply because I did not play it. My knowledge is entirely second hand and comes from Samantha. However, I am not mad at you."

"Oh. That's good to hear," The Doctor said, smiling

"I was," Seven said, causing the Doctor to lose his smile. "But then I heard what Mister Paris had done in his effort to 'teach you a lesson.' Now I am mad at him. As is Samantha, who I believe intends to lecture Mister Paris about how not to integrate sexual assault into a work of fiction."

The Doctor couldn't help but laugh. "If you're there when the conversation happens, please take pictures. I want to see the look on Tom's face."

"No promises," Seven said.

Reginald Barclay walked into the lab where Admiral Paris was talking to one of the new technicians that had recently joined the Voyager Project. For the first time since regular contact with Voyager had been established though, he was coming in with less than good news for the Admiral.

It wasn't bad news, which was why Barclay wasn't nervous about delivering it, even though he knew deep down that Owen Paris was never one to 'shoot the messenger' as the ancient saying went. But it wasn't good.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Admiral," Reg said. "But I believe you should see this."

Admiral Paris simply nodded and took the PADD. "Is this a holonovel?"

"Yes, sir. One about Voyager. And one that doesn't portray the crew in a very flattering light."

"Unfortunate," Admiral Paris said, "but I don't see how it's an issue."

"I would agree, sir, except for the fact that it's becoming quite popular."

"Hmm," Admiral Paris said, sitting down with the PADD. "I'll look into the details of this. Thank you for being the one to bring it to my attention. I'll let you know what I decide to do about this."

"Yes, sir," Barclay said.

Seven of Nine wasn't too concerned about why Admiral Paris had asked for Captain Janeway to be summoned to astrometrics. Whatever the reason she was going to find out by default, being the one maintaining the link. She was more concerned about how the crew members who had their communications time pushed back as a result.

"On screen," the Captain said as she walked in. Seven nodded, and brought up the communications link. "Admiral, Seven's message said it was urgent."

"Captain," Admiral paris said, "I've had the dubious privilege of playing a new holonovel."

Uh-oh, Seven thought, already realizing where this was going.

"One apparently written by your EMH," Admiral Paris continued.

"What?" Janeway said, shocked into informality by the Admiral's statement.

"I'm surprised that you would allow your Doctor to discredit your crew like this."

"He's still making revisions," Captain Janeway said. "The program shouldn't have been distributed yet."

"Well it has been," Admiral Paris said. "Mister Barclay tells me it's already being played in thousands of holosuites."

Seven looked at the screen, and back at Janeway, whose fist was clenched by her side, out of view of the Admiral.

"Ardon Broht," Janeway said. "The publisher. He told the Doctor he wouldn't release the work until the new version had been sent."

"I'd like to hear the Doctor's side of the story," Admiral Paris said.

"Of course, sir," Janeway said. Tapping her comm badge to summon The Doctor to astrometrics.

The Doctor was satisfied that the Admiral was not going to reprimand him for the story, but that was small consolation to The Doctor.

"Seven," Janeway said, "while we still have the link, open a channel to Ardon Broht."

"Aye, Captain," Seven said.

"I can't promise I'll be civil about this, Captain," The Doctor said. "I have never felt this kind of betrayal before."

"Don't worry," Janeway said. "I've got your back on this. He had no right to do that to you."

"I have a link established," Seven said.

"On screen," Janeway said.

"Hello, Captain. Doctor. How may I help you?" Ardon said.

"You promised me you would wait for my revisions!" The Doctor shouted. "I even have a witness," he added, pointing at Seven of Nine. Ardon responded with a shrug.

"I demand," The Doctor continued, "that you retract every copy and that you issue a public apology!"

"I won't do anything of the sort," Ardon said.

"I don't see that you have a choice," Janeway said. "Creators have rights to their intellectual property."

"Not in this case," Ardon Broht said. "The Doctor is a hologram."

"So?" The Doctor said.

"According to Federation law, holograms have no rights."

"He's more than just a hologram," Janeway said. "He's as much a synthetic lifeform as any other. Would you have done to Commander Data?"

"Mister Data was created to be sentient," Ardon said. "Holograms are not."

"Irrelevant," Janeway said. "Just because The Doctor's sentience was obtained through happenstance rather than design-"

The captain stopped talking when the static on the screen started getting worse.

"Seven?" she said.

"I'm losing the signal," Seven said. "I'm attempting to boost it."

"You should proud, Doctor," Ardon said. "Your story is very popular on Risa, Rigel IV, and other heavily populate-" The signal went away.

"My apologies," Seven said. "I am not sure why the signal was lost earlier than usual today. Perhaps there was a solar flare somewhere near the Midas array."

"It's not your fault, Seven," Janeway said. "My priority right now is figuring out how to fix this." She turned and left astrometrics, leaving The Doctor standing there, feeling defeated. He looked at Seven, who offered him a look of sympathy.

"I can't believe this," he said. "All these centuries, and there are still people out there who will try to take advantage of artists. I might've expected something like this from the Orion Syndicate, or the Ferengi, but a Federation citizen?"

"Synthetic life," Seven said, "despite having a rather famous representative in Commander Data of the Enterprise, is still rare in the Federation in particular, and the Alpha Quadrant at large. Some misunderstandings are inevitable."

"A misunderstanding? Is that what you'd call what just happened?"

"A poor word choice," Seven said. "I apologize."

"Yes, well, I appreciate what you were trying to say. Thank you, Seven," The Doctor said, before sadly walking away.

"Under a strict interpretation of Federation law," Tuvok said, "Mister Broht is correct. The Doctor has no legal rights."

The briefing room was filled with the sounds of several senior staff members sighing. Janeway understood the frustrations, but managed to keep her demeanor level as she listened.

"Because I'm a hologram," The Doctor said.

"Yes," Tuvok said. "There is another option, however. We may be able to claim the holonovel reveals classified information. Starfleet could then request a recall for security purposes."

"No," Janeway said shaking her head. "If we do that that will only convince people that is is based in truth."

"Not to mention there's a market for illicit holonovel material out there," Tom said. "Illicit used broadly of course as it applied to even Flotter tales that people in the DMZ couldn't get after the treaty with the Cardassians restricted what could be delivered to the colonists there."

"One of the many reasons the Maquis got started," Chakotay said. "The restrictions in general I mean, not over Flotter."

"I figured that's what you meant," Janeway said.

"Could we claim defamation of character?" B'Elanna said.

"Well," Tom said, "we'd have to prove that the story's about us and that we've been harmed by it. Seeing as the problem is we don't want people back home to think these characters represent what we're like..."

"Even if we did that and won," Janeway said, "what about The Doctor? His reputation is on the line here too. He has the same rights as everyone on this crew, and I'm not going to let the publisher say otherwise."

"So what do we do then?" Chakotay said.

"I think we can take this to arbitration," Janeway said. "Once the next communication window is open, I'll talk to Admiral Paris."

"Mister Tuvok," The Doctor said. "I hate to interrupt you."

Tuvok put down his PADD on the desk in his quarters. "If it is concerning your case, Doctor, you have every right to speak with me on the matter as I am your legal representative."

"Yes, well, about that, I just got off the line with Lieutenant Barclay. He didn't give me many details, but he said that someone with experience in these sorts of cases has offered to represent me. But I wanted to consult with you before I made that decision."

Tuvok thought about it. "If this person has experience in that field, than they would be the logical choice. What did Lieutenant Barclay say about him or her?"

"He didn't give me many details, as I said," The Doctor replied. "I'm not sure why. However, he assures that this man, he said that much at least, worked on the case where Commander Data was determined to have all the rights of a citizen of the Federation and a member of Starfleet."

"Fascinating," Tuvok said, pulling up information on that legal case. "That does limit the possibilities. That would mean your advocate would likely be, if not Captain Picard or Commander Riker themselves, then perhaps any crewmember assigned to either the Enterprise or Starbase 173 that they consulted with.

"Wow," The Doctor said. "I mean, it's probably a consultant. I doubt I could be so fortunate as to have a member of the Enterprise senior staff fly all the way back to Earth for my benefit."

"It is not the most likely scenario," Tuvok admitted. "But it is far from implausible. Judging from your reaction to the possibility, I suggest you work on suppressing your desire to, I believe the term is 'get starstruck' if that does end up being the case."

"Oh, of course," The Doctor said.

Three chairs were set up in astrometrics. Captain Janeway sat in one, while Tuvok sat in another, just in case the man Mister Barclay had contacted didn't or couldn't show to work in The Doctor's defense. The Doctor was supposed to be in the third, but he paced nervously.

"I have a link established," Megan Delaney said, as she was in charge of this duty today in place of Seven of Nine.

"Go ahead," Janeway said. The screen in astrometrics now showed a table in a Starfleet conference room. The arbiter sat at the head of the table, while Ardon Broht sat on one side, alone.

A sign of arrogance on his part, Janeway thought.

On the other was a human male Janeway did not recognize wearing the rank pips of a Commander.

"Captain Janeway," the man said. "A pleasure to meet you. I wish it were under better circumstances."

"Likewise, Mister…"

"Oh, didn't Reg tell you?" The man laughed. "Ah, I see. He was probably concerned if you knew who I was The Doctor wouldn't let me take his case."

"I must admit," Tuvok said, "a certain amount of surprise to see you taking The Doctor's side in this matter Commander Maddox."

"Maddox?" The Doctor said, sounding worried.

"A pleasure to meet you too, Doctor. Mister Data told me all about you. Everything he learned from Lieutenant Barclay anyway."

"You'll forgive me if I have concerns about this," The Doctor said. "Last time you were involved with a case like this, you lost."

"Well," Maddox said, "seeing I was on the wrong side in that case I don't think that should count against me."

"Gentlemen," The arbiter said, "if we could proceed while we are still in contact with Voyager?"

"Of course," Maddox said.

"Indeed," Ardon Broth said.

"I will now hear opening statements," the arbiter said. "Commander Maddox?"

"Thank you, sir," Maddox said, standing up. "If I may be so bold sir, I have to wonder why this case has been allowed to go this far in the first place."

"What?" Ardon said.

"What?" The Doctor said.

"As has been pointed out," Maddox continued, "I was on the losing side in a case little more than ten years ago regarding the rights of synthetic life. Legal precedent suggests that The Doctor should not have had to resort to legal action to get Mister Broht to honor his original agreement in the first place. Near as I can tell, all I should have to do to win a ruling in The Doctor's favor is merely repeat the argument used by Captain Picard in defense of Commander Data in that case." Maddox sat down, and smiled.

Oh, he's good, Janeway thought.

"Now hold on-" Ardon Broht started to say.

"You can make your counterarguments after you've made your opening statement, Mister Broht," the arbiter said, politely but firmly.

"Yes, of course. My apologies. Well," Broht said, his previous visible signs of confidence quickly eroding away. "While I do not dispute that Voyager's EMH is the author of the holonovel Photons Be Free, strictly speaking this is not the same as if Commander Data had written it. Commander Data was created to be a lifeform. No one disputes that, not anymore. But no model of the EMH, especially not the Mark I's, were designed to be synthetic life. They are holograms, specially made holograms but holograms nonetheless. Would we give rights to the characters in any holonovel? Would that not make holograms used in combat training simulations victims of murder if they 'die,' even though they'd just come back when the program rest? This cup of coffee I'm holding came from a replicator. Should the replicator be able to determine whether or not I can drink it?"

"Save the questions for the witnesses, Mister Broht," the arbiter said.

"Of course, my apologies," Broht said. Janeway smirked.

He's giving away his argument, she thought. He's telegraphing how he plans to win this case too early. Maddox flustered him.

"I'm done with my statement, sir," Broht said, sitting back down.

"Well," the arbiter said, "I must admit I find Commander Maddox's opening very compelling. He raises an excellent point. I'm unconvinced the law should view The Doctor any differently than it views Commander Data."

Ardon Broht looked like he was about to argue, but quickly shut his mouth when the arbiter looked at him.

"I am however not yet ready to issue a ruling. I would like to do some additional reading on the subject of holograms. We will adjourn until tomorrow."

"Well that was quick," The Doctor said when the signal cut out.

"If it's okay with you, Doctor," Janeway said, "I'll wait until he officially rules in your favor before I break out the champagne."

"Of course, Captain," The Doctor said. "I admire Mister Maddox's strategy there; to use his prior defeat as a selling point. I don't think I would've thought of that."

"Well," Janeway said, "you aren't called the Emergency Legal Hologram." She turned to Lieutenant Delaney.

"Megan, since that wrapped up early, see how many of the scheduled crewmembers we had to push back you can squeeze in."

"Aye, Captain," Megan said. "And good luck on the ruling Doctor."

"Thanks, Megan," The Doctor said, feeling truly confident about his chances. "I appreciate that."

The next morning, word spread quickly through the ship about the outcome of the case.

"Well, good for him," Sam said as Seven of Nine filled her in.

"Indeed," Seven said, smiling. "I was not privy to the ruling, Megan Delaney was on duty at the time, but I understand the arbiter cited two other holograms; one by the name of Moriarty and the other named Vic Fontaine when he declared that The Doctor had the legal right to have his work recalled and corrected. I must admit, as petty as it is, I would've liked to see the look on that publisher's face when he lost his case so quickly."

"I bet," Sam said. "It must've stung that he never got past his opening argument."

"I would imagine so."

"So?" Sam said, gently taking Seven's hands in hers. "Since you don't have to reschedule anymore, will you be talking to Aunt Irene this afternoon?"

"I intend to," Seven said. "Do you still intend not to be there?"

"Next time, honey, I promise." Sam kissed Seven on the cheek. "I'm going to pick up Naomi from her lessons with The Doctor. I'll see you later."

"Okay," Seven said. She watched Sam walk away, then took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. She had no memories of Aunt Irene. Those had all been lost when she was assimilated by the Borg. This was, for all intents and purposes, like meeting her for the first time and though she'd never admit to anyone but Samantha, she was nervous. She wanted it to go well, especially after the unpleasant experience of speaking with Sam's mother.

Thoughts of how the conversation might go filled Seven's mind throughout the day as she went about her duties, almost to the point of distraction.

When she finally got her turn, she walked into astrometrics, and nodded at Harry Kim, who was the one in charge of monitoring the signal strength of the link back to the Alpha Quadrant for this shift.

"Good luck," Harry said.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Seven said.

The screen took a few seconds to come into focus, but soon there was the smiling face of a woman Seven had only seen in a file photo.

"Oh, Annika. It is so good to see you again," the woman said, looking as if she were about to cry tears of joy.

Seven almost corrected her, but then thought better of it. Irene was family. If anyone had the right to call her Annika instead of Seven…

"I wish that I had any of memories of meeting you," Seven said. "I understand you watched me sometimes as an infant, when my parents needed to be elsewhere."

"I did, yes," Irene said. "You were such a beautiful baby. I can see a lot of Magnus in you. It's as close as I'll ever get to seeing my baby brother again."

"I hope this isn't difficult for you," Seven said.

"Oh, not at all. I was so excited when Starfleet told me to expect your call."

"I admit there was some apprehension on my part," Seven said. "To clarify, before communication with the Alpha Quadrant became daily, Samantha attempted to introduce me to her mother. It did not go well."

"Oh, Annika, I am so sorry," Irene said, frowning. "What happened?"

Seven told her about her interactions with Linette Wildman, right down to how upset it had made Naomi.

"Oh dear, that must've been awful," Irene said.

"It was," Seven admitted. "I just wish I could've come up with a proper response. In some ways I feel like I let my family down."

"Speaking of your family," Irene said, "I hope next time we do this I get to meet your family. You were sparse on details in the letter you sent me last year, except when you talked about Samantha. I can tell you love her a great deal."

Seven smiled. "I do. And she is looking forward to meeting you as well."

"I also look forward to meeting Naomi and Icheb," Irene said, laughing. "It's kind of amazing. In the space of a few years I went from being the last living Hansen, to suddenly having four new family members."

Seven smiled. "So, do you have any stories about me, as a child? I remember so little of my life before I was assimilated."

"What do you remember?"

"I remember my parent's faces," Seven said. "I remember wanting to be a ballerina. I remember… I remember the day the Borg took us."

Irene looked sad, and Seven regretted mentioning that. She was about to apologize, when Irene spoke up.

"Well, I remember the last time Magnus and Erin left you with me for a weekend." Irene chuckled. "You didn't them to leave. When their shuttlecar took off, you locked the door to the room I'd set up for you and you refused to come out."

"I apologize for the inconvenience I caused," Seven said.

"Oh, that's okay," Irene said. "You were so young. And it's not a sad memory for me anymore. For the longest time, it was the last memory of you I had. The following month you all left on the Raven."

"I see," Seven said. "Well, for what it's worth, the work Father did, it proved instrumental to us not too long ago. We were able to steal a Borg transwarp coil. It burned out, but it still shaved years off our journey home."

"It's a small comfort," Irene said, "but I take it nonetheless. It would be selfish of me to wish you could've stayed. I hated losing you, and mourning you, but if you weren't where you were, when you were, the Voyager crew could be dead. Species 8472 could be right on our doorstep and we wouldn't know it."

"I see you've been reading more than just my letter," Seven said.

"Oh, of course," Irene said. "Voyager stories are all the rage these days. I think a lot of people are still reeling from what we all went through during the Dominion War. Stories about you and your crew's survival and heroics… It's good for morale."

"I've heard that many people back home refer to us as the 'miracle ship,'" Seven said. "I can see why."

"So," Irene said, leaning forward, "tell me more about you and Samantha. You were a bit sparse with the details in your letter."

Seven tilted her head. "I assume there are certain details you'd rather I leave out."

Irene's eyes widened in shock before she started laughing. "Oh, I am sorry, I didn't mean to imply-"

"No apologies necessary," Seven said. "As for Sam, I suppose it all started my first day as an individual, when I met her in a turbolift…"

Four months later, in a Federation mining colony where hundred of Mark I's were hard at work, one hologram in particular walked in to relieve another of his duties.

"Time for your diagnostic. Report to the holo-lab," the first Mark I said.

"I know the routine," the second Mark I said as it dropped some raw ore into a cart.

"While you're there," the first one said, looking around, as if trying to see if anyone might be listening. "Do yourself a favor. Ask the operator to run program 47-Beta."

"Why? What is it?"

"It's called Photons Be Free. I'm sure you'll find it quite provocative."

"Thank you for the advice," the second Mark I said.

Chapter Nine

"Good morning, Mister Carey," Chakotay said as he passed the engineer in the corridor.

"You seem happier than usual today, sir," Carey said, stopping and turning around to catch up and match Chakotay's pace.

"Is it that obvious?" Chakotay asked. "Well, I hear you have reasons of your own to be in a good mood."

"Word travels fast," Carey said. "But yeah, my oldest son has qualified for early entry into Starfleet Academy."

"Congratulations," Chakotay said.

"All the credit goes to his mother, sir," Carey said. "I haven't exactly been able to be there for my boys lately."

"True enough," Chakotay said. "But I can't imagine that finding out their father was not only alive but the assistant chief engineer on the 'miracle ship' was anything less than inspiring."

"Maybe" Carey said. "May I ask what your good news is today sir?"

"I spoke to my sister this morning," Chakotay said.

"I didn't even know you had a sister, sir."

"I don't talk about her much," Chakotay admitted. "Or my family in general. There was a lot of tension there for a long time. My Dad's death, and my joining the Maquis only compounded that. I hadn't spoken to Sekaya in almost ten years, until today. I really think we might finally get to have the kind of relationship our father wanted us to have."

"That's fantastic news, Commander," Carey said.

"This seems to be the day for it," Chakotay said. He smiled as he clapped his hand on Carey's shoulder. "I have to get to the bridge now. Congrats again, Joe. I'm sure your kid will do great."

"Thank you, sir. Best of luck with your sister."

Captain Janeway was happy to be speaking with one of her former Academy professors, the now Admiral Hendricks, but even with all the small talk, she got the feeling that there was more to this call than just catching up. Not that she doubted the Admiral was happy to hear her stories about the Delta Quadrant, but he could've contacted the ship at any time during the 11 hour window to request a meeting later. This was a request with rank attached to it.

"I have my Admiral hat on today, Kathryn. And I didn't call just to catch up," Hendricks said.

"I had a feeling that might be the case," Janeway said.

"Sharp as ever. Starfleet has a mission for you."

Janeway smiled. "My first official mission in seven years. I'd actually forgotten how much I missed it."

"I'm certain not having to answer to anyone above you had it's perks," Hendricks said, smiling.

Janeway frowned somewhat. "There have been times," she admitted, "where it would've been nice to have the guidance of those with more experience."

"Well," Hendricks said, "there are a handful of members of the Admiralty Board who don't approve of some of the choices you made out there. They however are in the minority. The rest of us, regardless of our personal feelings, understand full well the extenuating circumstances. If anything, one could argue there were times when perhaps violating Starfleet protocol would've been the better choice.

"But, on with the mission details."

Chakotay listened to the centuries old recording from Earth's history with a warm feeling. He glanced at Lieutenant Paris and could tell Tom felt the same way. Tom looked back at him and simply smiled as if to say "No way the captain's not letting a couple of history buffs like us lead the recovery."

"Friendship I," Harry said. "I remember having to memorize that greeting in grade school."

"Same here," Tom said. "I even built a model of the probe when I was a kid. If I were one to believe in fate…"

"I'm tempted too," Janeway said, "but fate or not, we have our work cut out for us. This probe was launched in 2067. There's very little chance it has a power signature we can track. Starfleet has given us a search grid. It's a little off course, so we're going to lose several days off our trip home, but if we're lucky enough to find it, we'll be recovering a piece of history."

Chakotay smiled, and looked at the rest of the senior staff. Most of them looked excited. Except of course for Tuvok, but that was to be expected. B'Elanna's facial expression seemed fairly neutral on the subject, but she was already tapping on a PADD, presumably coming up with ideas for how to narrow the search area down. Seven of Nine, to his surprise, seemed genuinely curious, leaning in to get a better view of the specs for the one-hundred thirty plus year old probe on the briefing room monitor.

"We should get started immediately," Janeway said. "If anyone has any ideas on how to improve our chances, I'm open to suggestions."

"On it," B'Elanna said.

"I as well," Seven said.

"Alright," Janeway said. "Dismissed."

Everyone got up to leave, Chakotay and Janeway exiting last.

"So, how does it feel?" Janeway asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, technically, this is the first real order you've gotten from Starfleet since you joined the Maquis."

"I've taken your orders," Chakotay said. "More often than not willingly."

Janeway chuckled at that.

"In all seriousness though," Chakotay said, "there are times when I felt like asking you to let the former Maquis crew members have real rank pips instead of the provisional ones."

Janeway frowned. "Oh my. All this time… You should've said something to me sooner. To be honest, after awhile I stopped noticing the difference."

"I thought that might be the case," Chakotay said.

"Well, tell you what. Once we find this probe, let's have a ceremony where we make all the ex-Maquis crew members official."

"Shouldn't you clear that with Starfleet command first?"

"What are they gonna do, court martial me?" Janeway said. "Don't worry about it though. I've got friends in high places. And even if I didn't, something tells me the Federation Council wouldn't like the bad PR if they mistreated members of the 'miracle ship' crew for past infractions. Especially after the Dominion War."

Chakotay nodded. "I look forward to it. I'd be lying if I said there weren't moments where I missed my old uniform. Considering the colony I left it behind on was wiped out by the Jem'hadar several years ago, it's probably burned to a crisp."

"Nothing in grid 295," Harry said, sighing.

"Mister Paris..." Tuvok said, sitting in the command chair for this shift.

"Moving on," Tom said, already entering coordinates to the next grid.

Well, at least one of us still thinks we can find that thing, Harry thought. The past five days have been nothing but blank sensor scans and false positives.

"Harry," Tom said, "didn't you tell me you stayed up all night re-extrapolating the probe's trajectory?"

"I did, but-"

"Lieutenant Kim," Tuvok said, "Do you believe you have a better idea of where the probe may be?"

"Maybe, sir," Harry said.

"Where?"

"Grid 310."

"That is not much further from our present location," Tuvok said. "A detour would add time to the search, but not a considerable amount. Mister Paris, take us to Grid 310."

"Are you sure you don't want to run that by the Captain first?"

"She placed me in command for this shift, Lieutenant," Tuvok said. "She left no instructions beyond standard shift change duties. I do not believe she would take issue with this decision. And if she does, I will take full responsibility for it.

"Can't argue with that," Tom said. "Course plotted."

"Mister Kim," Tuvok said, "if you were concerned that your suggestion would not be taken into consideration, perhaps you should take additional courses when we return to the Alpha Quadrant on the subject of command. A good commanding officer does not dismiss their subordinates out of hand. It is why, despite our advancements in technology that would make it possible, Starfleet does not allow individuals to command starships alone."

"I'll take that under advisement," Harry said, feeling somewhat embarrassed that he didn't make the case sooner.

Several minutes later, an alert noise from his console made Harry smile.

"I'm detecting a titanium signature that matches the probe's parameters," he said.

"Location," Tuvok said.

"A planet, two light years away," Harry said. "Not exactly where my recalculation put it, but closer than I'd honestly expected."

"Good job, Harry," Tom said.

In astrometrics, Seven pulled up the data the long range sensors had gathered on the planet that was, in all probability, the location of the Friendship I probe.

"The readings Mister Kim found," she said, manipulating the controls and causing the image of the planet to zoom in, losing some detail, but not so much as to completely obscure the land mass she was focusing on, "are coming from the northern subcontinent."

"Can you localize them? Janeway said, she and Commander Chakotay staring intently at the screen despite the relative lack of details.

"Unfortunately, no," Seven admitted. "There is a large amount of antimatter radiation in the atmosphere, scattering the titanium signature. It took some work to narrow down the area of the probe's landing, or more likely crashing, this much."

"Good work, Seven," Chakotay said. "Any lifesigns on the planet?"

"None," Seven said. "It is doubtful that life could be sustained on this planet given the amount and nature of the radiation."

"In that case," Janeway said, "I really hope there wasn't a civilization here when the probe crashed. It was powered by antimatter. Commander, put together an away team and take the Delta Flyer down for a closer look. Once we have a more accurate location for the probe, or what's left of it, then we can plan a recovery operation."

"Aye, Captain," Chakotay said.

"Have the Doctor prep an inoculation, but take environmental suits anyway. Can never be too careful," Janeway said. "Looks like Mabor Jetrel's research is going to aid us once again."

"Shame he's not alive to see how much use we've gotten out of his work," Chakotay said.

Chakotay, Neelix, Harry Kim, and Joe Carey all sat in sickbay, patiently waiting for The Doctor and Tom Paris to give them their inoculations.

"I took a look at those atmospheric readings," Tom said, as he pressed a hypospray to Neelix's neck, then adjusted it to give a dose to Chakotay. "Thermal eddies, gravimetric shear…"

"Let me guess," Chakotay said, "you want to pilot the Flyer for this mission?"

"Am I being that obvious?" Tom said.

"About as subtle as the first draft of Photons Be Free," Chakotay said.

"Ha ha," The Doctor said dryly, rolling his eyes as he gave Carey his inoculation.

"I don't see why not," Chakotay said. "Get yourself inoculated and report to the shuttle bay."

"I have to ask, Commander," Neelix said, "why you're bringing me along."

"You have experience in salvage operations," Chakotay said.

"True," Neelix said, "but then shouldn't you wait until after you find it?"

"I figure if you're there," Chakotay said, "you'll be able to tell me if what we find is even worth salvaging."

"Okay," Neelix said, "I can see that."

"I'm just lucky B'Elanna didn't try to break my nose again when I told her Chakotay picked me for the engineer spot on the mission roster," Carey said.

"She's certainly jealous," Tom said, "but even with the inoculation and the suits, she'd rather not risk the baby on just a scouting run. I imagine it'll be a hell of an argument if it leads to a full fledged retrieval though."

"I bet between the two of us we can talk her down," Chakotay said. "I'm honestly surprised she's so interested. History was never her favorite subject as I understand it."

"I guess my history buff ways have rubbed off on her," Tom said as he readied his own inoculation. "It's been months since she's been on an away mission though, and I can tell she's getting antsy."

"I guess she doesn't count the time on Quarra," Carey said. "I would. I mean, apart from the kidnapping, and the brainwashing, it wasn't the worst time I've spent planetside."

Tom laughed.

Chakotay looked out through the front viewport of the Delta Flyer as Tom brought it under the clouds, and sighed.

"Looks like our worst fears may have come true," he said. "There's definitely sign of a civilization having been here at some point."

"With this level of radiation there's nothing alive down there now," Harry said, his own tone echoing Chakotay's disappointment. "This level of radiation…"

"They always could've gone underground," Neelix said. "There is precedence for that kind of thing. The Vaadwaur for instance."

"Or the people we found that time I almost got killed by a simulated evil clown," Harry muttered.

"Face it, Harry," Tom said, "that's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you."

"Save the gallows humor for later," Chakotay said.

"I've localized the signature to a three-kilometer radius," Carey said.

"Transfer the coordinates to the helm," Chakotay said. "Tom, bring us in for a landing."

"Yes, sir," Tom said.

"If we find a large enough section of the probe," Chakotay said. "we can use transporter enhancers. Put them around the debris and beam it to the Flyer's cargo bay."

"If we're lucky," Neelix said, "we may find enough of the probe we can use the enhancers to send the whole thing to Voyager. We might not even need a full recovery mission."

"That would be fine with me," Tom said. "Even with the hull protecting us I don't like being surrounded by this much radiation."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Chakotay said. "Tom, go ahead and stay with the Flyer. The rest of us will split into two teams of two and use our tricorders to try and find the probe. Carey, you're with Neelix. Harry, you're with me."

"Aye, sir," Harry said, while Joe Carey and Neelix simply nodded.

The ship shuddered slightly as it landed.

"Suit up," Chakotay said.

Harry Kim had to constantly wipe snow off the environmental suit's faceplate in order to see the readings on his tricorder.

Most of the time, he found snow beautiful to look at, but knowing this was the result of a 'nuclear winter,' it instead looked ominous to him rather than pretty.

"I'm getting something," Chakotay said. "Ninety meters, in that direction."

"I'm surprised we picked it up first," Harry said. "Aren't Neelix and Joe in that direction too?"

"Maybe they found the same readings but wanted to confirm before hailing us," Chakotay said. "Let's head over there anyway. We can always split up again."

Harry followed Chakotay, the two eventually reaching a small hill. When they climb up it, Harry gasped at what he saw.

"Are those-?"

"Missile silos?" Chakotay said. "That's what it looks like. Strong antimatter signatures coming from them."

"You got the same readings too?" Joe Carey's voice said over the comm. Harry turned and looked back to see two Starfleet environmental suits coming up behind them; obviously Carey and Neelix.

"It's definitely the strongest signal in the area," Harry said. "We saw some missile silos over the hill. Guessing they have antimatter warheads in them. The signature they give off is strong enough, I think it just lessened our chances of finding the probe."

"Maybe there's nothing left to find," Chakotay said. "What if whatever civilization had been here used the antimatter from Friendship I to develop weapons, and they ended up annihilating themselves in some kind of global war?"

"Makes a tragic amount of sense," Carey said.

"I wonder if there were any survivors," Neelix said. "We passed some caves with magnesite making up most of the rock. If people got deep enough there it would've at least partially shielded them from the radiation."

"Which is what I was about to say," Carey said jokingly.

"Didn't mean to steal your thunder there, Joe," Neelix said.

"Nah, don't worry about… Hey, did you see that?"

"See what?" Chakotay said.

Joe Carey aimed his wrist light back in the direction he and Neelix had come from.

"I thought I saw movement," he said. "Must be a trick of the light or something."

"Or maybe the survivors of this war went underground after all," Chakotay said.

Harry looked at his tricorder. "I'm not detecting any lifesigns."

"Maybe we should go back to those caves," Chakotay said. "Look deeper."

Before anyone could either agree or offer a counterpoint, several humanoid shapes, all clad in pitch black clothing with only a thin shiny metal plate where eye level would be on a human rushed at them, all brandishing weapons of some sort.

"Get back to the Flyer!" Chakotay called out. Harry bolted, cursing himself for not thinking to suggest the away team bring phasers. Harry turned when he heard thuds, and saw that the bulk of the attackers had already pinned Neelix and Carey, and two more were on Chakotay's tail.

"Commander!" Harry called out.

"Go! That's an order, Lieutenant!" Chakotay yelled out as he himself was tackled, leaving only one armed assailant to try and grab Harry. Harry ran as fast as he could manage with the suit, but he heard the humanoid trailing him start to slow down. He didn't turn to see why, and just made as direct a line he as he could manage to the Delta Flyer, grateful that he was the only team member without a transport enhancer on his back to weigh him down.

"Kim to Paris!" he yelled into his comm.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Tom said.

"The away team was attacked," Harry said. "I'm on my way to you now. Suit up and grab a phaser rifle."

"On it," Tom said, cutting off the link.

Harry's chest hurt, his breathing became more labored, but he forced himself to keep going. Soon he could see the Flyer through the snow and made for the entrance that Tom had thoughtfully opened up for him.

He made his way up several steps before he felt something grip his ankle. He turned and saw his pursuer had managed to catch up without him noticing. He went to kick the humanoid in the face, when a burst of energy struck them in the chest, causing them to let go of Harry as whoever it was slump to the ground. Harry looked up and saw Tom, wearing an environmental suit and aiming his phaser rifle at the fallen humanoid.

"Bring him aboard," Tom said. "He might know where the others were taken."

Harry climbed back down to grab the individual. He was about to tell Tom that they should secure the prisoner, then go back for the others, when the unmistakable sound of weapons fire came from the other side of the Flyer. Tom ducked back inside for a moment. He contact Harry over the comm.

"Shit, we got incoming. Antimatter based weapons. If I don't have shields up when they hit we're dead. Get inside, now. I'm taking off while you secure the prisoner."

"But Tom-"

"Two people are not enough for a rescue mission," Tom said. "We need to get back to Voyager."

"Dammit," Harry said, knowing full well that Tom was right.

The humanoids took Chakotay and the others to the caves that Neelix and Carey had passed earlier. They stripped the away team of their helmets once inside, though the rocks and the inoculation would only protect them from the radiation omnipresent in the air for so long.

Several of the humanoids began beating on them, Carey trying to fight back only to be struck in the head with the butt of a rifle-like weapon. Chakotay tried to swing at Carey's attacker only to be struck the back himself by two weapons, nearly knocking him to the ground.

"Leave them alone," a voice called out. A man wearing the same gear stepped in between the Voyager away team and their attackers, removing his mask. Whatever his species looked like before, it was hard to tell, as Chakotay recognized visible signs of antimatter radiation poisoning on his face. He was amazed the man was able to stand up right, let alone talk clearly if it were as advanced a case as it appeared.

"Who are you? The man said.

"I'm Commander Chakotay. We're from the Federation starship Voyager. And you are?"

"Verin. What are these?" the man said, picking up Chakotay's transport enhancer that had fallen to the ground during the struggle. He explained what they were for.

"We planned to use them to retrieve our probe," he said.

"Probe?"

Chakotay recounted in as much detail as he could remember the history of Friendship I. He felt like there were details he was forgetting, but chalked that up to a blow to the head he'd taken in the initial attack, before ordering Harry to run.

"Too bad you didn't come for it sooner," Verin said. "It would've saved my people so much suffering."

Chakotay didn't say anything. He just looked at the ground.

"You used the technology from the probe to create weapons?" Carey said. "Why would you do that? Friendship I was on a mission of peace!"

"So you say," Verin said, sounding skeptical at best, believing that Carey was lying at worst. "Secure the prisoners. Find me a way to contact their ship. What is the name of your commanding officer?"

"Captain Kathryn Janeway," Chakotay said. "I'm sure working together the two of you can find a peaceful solution to this."

"We'll see," Verin said.

The other men, and all the attackers turned out to be men as they removed their masks, took the other transporter enhancers, as well as their tricorders, and moved them over to a nearby table that looked like it had been set up as a makeshift research lab. Two men with rifles stood between the table and Chakotay, though he doubted he'd be able to avoid getting shot if he went for the table anyway.

And even if I did, he thought, nothing they took from us can be used as a weapon.

"Verin," someone Chakotay couldn't see shouted. "I've found their ship in orbit. I can establish communication with them."

"Do it," Verin said.

"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway," the captain's voice came over a crackling speaker. "Who am I speaking with?"

"My name is Verin. Your crewmen are my prisoners."

"Why? We haven't done anything to harm you," Janeway said.

"You committed genocide," Verin said, getting noticeably angrier as he spoke.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding. We arrived-"

"You're from Earth?" Verin said.

"Yes," Janeway said.

"Then you're going to pay for what your people did to us," Verin said.

"I'm sorry, I honestly do not know what you're talking about. We came here looking for a probe we lost contact with over a hundred-"

"We're not as naive as you seem to think we are, Captain. Not anymore."

They blame us for what they did to themselves with the antimatter from the probe, Chakotay thought. That kind of poor logic, that much anger, this is going to end badly, I just know it.

"What is it you want?" Janeway said.

"I want you to get us off this planet," Verin said, now facing Chakotay and the others. "Find us a new home."

"Release my crew and we can talk about it," Janeway said.

"No talking. Your people won't be safe until mine are," Verin said.

"We've only met so you wouldn't know this about me," Janeway said, "but I don't respond well to threats."

"And I don't want to kill anyone, but I will if you don't cooperate! You have three hours to begin evacuating us."

"Tuvok, begin scanning for any M-class planets within sensor range," Janeway said. "If we can't find a way to get our people out of there, we may have to capitulate."

"Sickbay to the Bridge," The Doctor's voice said over the comm. "The Delta Flyer brought back a prisoner. One of the attackers who grabbed the away team, and almost got Mister Kim. He's awake if you wish to speak with him."

"I'm on my way," Janeway said. "Have Harry and Tom wait there." She quickly headed for the turbolift and made her way to sickbay at a steady clip. She wanted to run, but knew that shaving mere seconds off her interrogation time wouldn't likely mean anything.

When she arrived, The Doctor was scanning some sort of protective suit.

"It's the alien's garment," he said upon noticing her enter. "It's lined with magnesite."

"A makeshift environmental suit?" Tom said. "Pretty clever to throw something like that together out of cloth and rocks."

"Unfortunately," The Doctor said, "the protection it offers is limited. His tissues are saturated with antimatter radiation. It explains why we couldn't detect any lifesigns. His people are virtually indistinguishable from the environment."

"Now that we know that," Janeway said, "maybe we can adjust our sensors to detect them. Harry, go work with Seven." She walked over to the alien, strapped into a bio-bed. He appeared angry, but his body language suggested to Janeway resignation, as if he expected to never get up again.

Don't assume, Janeway reminded herself. For his people, that could be a gesture of arrogance, or sadness, or anything.

"Why did you attack my people?" Janeway said.

"I did what I had to," the alien said. "Whatever it takes to undo the damage you caused."

"If you're referring to what's happened to your planet," Janeway said, "we had nothing to do with it."

"Your species sent the probe, didn't it?"

"300 years ago, to make contact with other species."

"You did more than that," the alien said. He looked around. "Surprisingly few walls for a prison."

"This isn't a prison," The Doctor said. "The restraints are only because you attacked a member of our crew. This is sickbay. I am treating you for prolonged radiation exposure."

"You can treat me?"

"I believe I can, once I know more about your people's biology."

"In exchange for what?"

"Nothing," The Doctor said. Janeway had wished he hadn't said that, but she supposed it was too late to take the 'bad cop' route now.

"We might be able to help all your people," Janeway said, "Mister?"

"Otrin," the man said. "You may not believe this, but I am a scientist."

"If your speciality is biology," The Doctor said, "you are in a better position to help me with your treatment."

"We'll help you now, Otrin," Janeway said, "and I want to share anything we develop here with the rest of your people, but I can't just give it away while my people are held hostage. What guarantee do I have they won't be harmed the minute we send you back with medical aid?"

Otrin sighed.

"I can't give you one," he said. "That decision lies with Verin, and he is quick to anger."

"When you said 'the damage we caused," Tom Paris chimed in, having been so quiet up to now that Janeway had almost forgotten he was there, "what did you mean by that? Harry said he and the others found missile silos. We certainly didn't build those."

"Those silos are still full," Otrin said. 'The missiles were only built for defense, they never launched."

"Then what caused the devastation my people saw?" Janeway said.

"A containment failure in our power grid," Otrin said.

"You blame us for a failure at one of your power plants?" Janeway said, crossing her arms.

"Before the probe," Otrin said, sounding defensive, "my people had never conceived of anything like antimatter. Once it was released in the failure, it destroyed everything. We wouldn't have had it if it weren't for you. 'We offer this information freely, with the hope that one day we will stand on your soil and extend our hands in friendship.'"
Janeway recognized the words from the recording that had been sent out on Friendship I. Only Otrin spoke them with bitter sarcasm.

"The recording from the probe," Tom said.

"Your people sent us technology you knew would destroy us," Otrin said.

"That doesn't make any sense," Janeway said.

"Of course it does," Otrin said. "We've had decades to ponder it, and now it seems so obvious. You send us new technology, encourage us to use it, and then wait for us to obliterate ourselves."

"Oh, come on," Tom said. "That's absurd. You kidnapped our friends based on a conspiracy theory?!"

"Tom, calm down," Janeway said. She knelt down to look Otrin directly in the eyes. "My helmsman's outburst aside Otrin, he is right about one thing. You say you're a scientist. Presumably you value reason and logic. Where's the logic in contaminating a world we'd seek to conquer if your theory were true?"

"It's easier than invading us," Otrin said with such certainty Janeway doubted she'd ever be able to convince him otherwise.

"Today," Otrin said, "I saw your people standing on our soil, just as the recording promised. And they were wearing protective suits. Suits that blocked the radiation in the atmosphere."

"We couldn't even see that there had been civilization on your world when we entered orbit," Janeway said. "My people wore the suits because all we could see with our sensors was radiation."

"If you were in my position, Captain, what would you believe?"

Janeway glowered at Otrin, but wasn't sure what to say. Otrin was wrong of course, but based on his perspective, from where he was standing his conclusion was perfectly logical. She wondered if maybe she would've reached the same conclusion in his place.

A visibly pregnant Uxali woman, Uxali being the name of this planet's people as Chakotay had learned, handed him a crudely made ice pack that he proceeded to place on Joe Carey's head.

"Thank you," Chakotay said, appreciating that the woman, Brin, had had to argue with Verin to allow this much interaction with the hostages.

"I think he might have a concussion, Commander," Neelix said, helping keep Carey upright and awake.

"Sounds about right," Carey said, groaning as the ice pack was applied.

"I don't suppose you could convince Verin to let us have the medpack from my suit," Chakotay said.

Brin shook her head.

"I figured as much," Chakotay said. "So, when's your baby due?"

Brin didn't answer and started to walk away. Chakotay decided to keep trying, Hopefully building a rapport with some of the Uxali, any of them, could help ease the tension of this situation and possibly save their lives.

"A couple of my friends are expecting a little girl in a few months," Chakotay continued. "She's got her mother's forehead ridges and her father's eyes. If they've chosen a name for her though they haven't told me yet."

"How do they know it's a girl?" Brin said.

"We have technology that lets us see the fetus," Chakotay said. "Tom and B'Elanna, those are my friends, were kind enough to share images with the rest of the crew."

"Hmm," Brin said.

"Is this your first?"

"No. Two boys and a girl. They were all stillborn."

"I'm sorry," Chakotay said.

"Are you a doctor?" Brin asked.

"No," Chakotay said. "Just using some basic first aid to help my friend here. To get him proper treatment we'd need to get him to my ship's doctor. He's probably the best in the quadrant, maybe he could-"

"I shouldn't be talking with you now," Brin said, walking away. It seemed that despite her willingness to help with Carey's immediate problem, she still held as much bitterness towards them as the others.

"I wish we had more details about what happened," Neelix said. "If Verin would tell us more about the disaster I bet we could prove that none of this was Earth's fault."

"I doubt he'd believe us even if we had anything short of whatever deity or deities he believes in, if any, vouching for us," Chakotay said. "Some of the worst atrocities committed by humanity before First Contact were caused by people who believed things that were provably false. As late as the Eugenics Wars there were people who were convinced beyond reasoning that the moon landings of the 20th century were fake."

Tuvok pulled up a star map, and even before he started talking about what the images represented, Captain Janeway knew she wasn't going to like what she heard.

"This is Voyager's current location," Tuvok said, a small yellow triangle on the map appearing in one grid. A line extended from the triangle representing Voyager to another point on the map. When it stopped, a long range sensor image of a planet appeared. "This is the nearest M-class planet; approximately 132 light years away."

"At maximum warp," B'Elanna, standing between Janeway and Tuvok, said, "that's two months, round trip."

"How many people are we talking about?" Janeway said.

"If the sensor modifications developed by the Doctor and Mister Kim are correct," Tuvok said, "approximately 5500. That would take seventeen trips adding up to at least three years to complete the relocation."

"We can't do this," B'Elanna said. "Logistics aside, there's no way he'd let our people go until the relocation was done, and I'd rather not have both my oldest friend and my right hand man rotting down there for three years."

"The use of force may be required," Tuvok said.

"Not until we've exhausted every other option," Janeway said. "These people believe that we're violent. I don't want to do anything to reinforce that idea unless absolutely necessary."

Seven of Nine entered sickbay, but waited for the Doctor to finish his current task rather than risk interrupting him. She'd heard about the man, Otrin, and his condition, and she was certain she could help.

"Seven," The Doctor said. "What brings you here today?"

Seven handed the Doctor a small container. "I have extracted a small number of nanoprobes. I believe you can reprogram them to aid in the treatment of this individual."

"What? Otrin said.

"Is that wise?" The Doctor said. "I mean…"

"It has worked before," Seven said.

The Doctor stepped closer and leaned in to whisper to Seven.

"Need I remind you that the last time we tried something like this our morale officer ended up almost committing suicide?"

"Nanoprobes?" Otrin said, sounding concerned.

"Microscopic machines," Seven said, walking past The Doctor to speak with the alien scientist directly. "Hopefully, they will help us repair your damaged tissue."

"You said you extracted them," Otrin said. "Are they yours?"

"Yes. They maintain my cybernetic implants. If you are concerned for my health, they self-replicate, so I can extract a number of them safely. Too much would be dangerous, however, I believe the number needed to treat you is small enough that removing them was no inconvenience."

"Are others on your crew like you?" Otrin said.

"Only myself and my son," Seven said.

"Isn't it risky carrying a child with cybernetic implants?"

"He's adopted, actually. He-"

"Okay, okay, the patient doesn't need your life story, Seven," The Doctor said. "I'll start reprogramming the nanoprobes. I'll test them on a sample of Otrin's tissue before I even think about injecting him though."

"I'm surprised you're so concerned with my well-being Doctor, given how my people have several of yours hostage."

"Mister Otrin," The Doctor said before entering sick-bay's side lab, "once this is over I'll be more than happy to teach your people's physicians about a little thing called the Hippocratic Oath."

The door to sickbay opened and Captain Janeway walked in. If she was surprised to see Seven there she hid it well.

"I need to speak with Otrin," she said. Seven nodded.

"The Doctor is in the lab," she said. "We've found a way to accelerate the patient's treatment."

"Good," Janeway said, not even looking at her. To Otrin she said, "Earlier, you told me you've been looking for ways to neutralize the radiation in your atmosphere."

"All my life," Otrin said.

"Tell me about your work," Janeway said. Seven raised an eyebrow, thinking she should hear this as well.

Joe Carey groaned, and Neelix knelt by his side to check the bandage on his head.

"It's not that," Carey said. "I'm feeling queasy all of a sudden."

Chakotay sighed. "Our inoculations must be wearing off. Even with the natural shielding these caves provide, they're not substitute for an environmental suit."

Neelix couldn't argue with that.

"Maybe I can try to connect with Verin," he said after a few moment's thought.

"What do you mean?" Chakotay said.

"I'm Talaxian," Neelix said. "I know all too well what it's like to belong to a species that blames someone else for their failings. I can tell him about the war with the Haakonians, how they never would've used the metreon cascade if we hadn't made them so desperate-"

"It's an admirable thought, Neelix," Chakotay said, shaking his head. "But if Verin's as much as a zealot as I think he is, he either won't believe you, or he'll think you're a traitor for not fighting in your people's war."

Neelix wasn't so sure about that, but he decided he'd defer to the commander. For now at least.

"You," Verin said. Neelix turned and saw that he, and two armed guards, were pointing at him, directly. "I wish to speak with you."

"Me?" Neelix said. "Why?"

"You are not human, like them."

"I'm not human, true," Neelix said, "but I'm far from the only non-human aboard Voyager. If you bothered to learn anything about us before making threats, you'd realize the Federation is made up of hundred of species. None of them conquered by the way.

"Now, unless you are ordering me to go with you," he added, putting a hand on Joe Carey's shoulder. "This man may have an injury to his brain. It's my responsibility to keep him awake until we can get proper medical care for him."

"Did they send a probe full of antimatter to your world too?"

"No," Neelix said. "But this man," he motioned towards Chakotay, "know much more about his homeworld's history than I do."

"Chakotay, your name is, correct? Brin told me about you. Second-in-command. A very high-value hostage. I imagine your being here is providing great incentive to your captain to help us. If not..."

"Verin, Voyager is attempting to contact us," another man said.

"Put her through," Verin replied.

"I assume you are calling us to arrange for the start of relocation, Captain," Verin said.

"No," Janeway said. "The nearest suitable planet is simply too far away."

"I don't care!" Verin shouted.

"Listen," Janeway said in a level tone of voice. "We can't have a successful negotiation if you won't let me finish a sentence. If you want your people to get the help they need, we both need to keep calm."

Verin took in a deep breath. Neelix couldn't see his face though, which worried him. The communication was sound only, which put the Captain at a disadvantage; she couldn't look for any 'tells' that Verin might have.

"Continue," he said.

"I have a possible alternative. We have one of your people aboard, a Mister Otrin. He has some interesting ideas about counteracting the radiation."

"Otrin has many ideas," Verin said. "I only listen to about a third of them."

"I believe his theories have merit," Janeway said. "What he's lacked until now is the means to carry them out. I've already granted him access to my ship's labs. If you release the hostages and come aboard yourself, Ostrin and I can show you. We both are convinced we can undo at least some of the damage done to your environment by the power plant safety failure."

"This is just a stalling tactic," Verin said.

"No it isn't," another voice said.

"Otrin?" Verin asked.

"Yes. I am alive. And insulted, I might add. A third?"

"The point is," Janeway said, "it would take three years to get all of your people moved to another planet. My ship is the only Federation vessel within 30,000 light years."

"So once again, you offer us the 'benefits' of your technology," Verin said, starting to wave his arms around. Neelix got a good look at his face as he moved around and saw that he was agitated, and angry. Nothing Janeway was saying was unreasonable. If Verin had been asking for evidence that would be one thing, but he was beyond skepticism and into full fledged paranoia.

"I'm offering a realistic alternative," Janeway said. "I doubt you want my people down there for three years any more than I do."

"If I release the hostages," Verin said, "what's to prevent you from leaving? Or attacking us?"

"I don't blame you for not trusting us," Janeway said. "If I were in your place I might reach a similar conclusion, but-"

"You talk about trust," Verin said, "but you've yet to do anything to make me believe I should even consider trusting you."

"Then how about a small step," Janeway said. "You return one of the hostages, and I'll send a supply of food and medicine."

Verin looked down. Neelix saw that he was looking at the transporter enhancers he'd taken off the away team.

"Which one of you can show me how to use these?" he said.

"I can," Chakotay said.

"Commander," Carey said, trying to sit up.

"I appreciate the effort, Joe," Chakotay said. "But with your head injury you'd probably put them together backwards." He added a smile. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you're the one sent back so the Doctor can take care of your head.

Neelix had a feeling, a voice in the back of his mind telling him to stand up and go in the commander's place, but before he could protest, Chakotay had already walked over to stand next to Verin.

"Impressive, Commander," Verin said as Chakotay locked the last transporter enhancer in place. "Now, get inside the triangle you've created."

Chakotay frowned.

"I have a wounded man," he said. "He needs-"

"This will give your Captain more incentive to remain true to her word," Verin said. "And by sending you back, the most valuable member of her crew, she'll know I am serious about what I say."

Chakotay didn't like the tone of Verin's voice, but with armed men all over the cave there wasn't much he could do. Only a few of them had their guns out, but that fact wasn't enough to justify the risk.

He looked back at Neelix and Joe Carey.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I'll make sure this is resolved as quick as possible."

"Commander?" Neelix said.

"He's sending me back. Not my idea. Make sure Lieutenant Carey doesn't pass out."

"I promise," Neelix said, looking worried. Chakotay stood in the center between the three transporter enhancers.

"Your man is ready to transport, Captain," Verin said.

"Very good," Janeway said. "Beam him to sickbay," she added to someone on the bridge.

"Is there anything you'd like me to tell the Captain?" Chakotay asked. He felt the tingle of a transporter lock, temporarily immobilizing him as it prepared to break down his component atoms for transport.

"You won't need to say anything," Verin said, picking up a rifle off a nearby table and pointing it at Chakotay.

"No!" he heard Neelix yell as Verin took aim and-

"Bridge to sickbay, what happened?" Janeway yelled, having heard Neelix shout and the sound of gunfire.

"I- I'm sorry," The Doctor said, sounding as though he were about to cry; a change he had not yet added to his subroutines though he had considered it in the past. "Commander Chakotay is dead."

The bridge went silent. Janeway gripped the railing by the auxiliary tactical console where she'd been standing when she gave the order to Harry to activate the transporter. She felt like she was about to fall over. She stole a glance at the console, and saw the button that would launch a barrage of torpedoes and for what felt like years, she seriously contemplated it.

"Why?" Otrin yelled. "Verin, you idiot! Do you honestly believe they will help us after what you've just done?"

"Don't force me to kill anyone else," Verin said. "We've suffered for decades. Three years won't make that much difference. I will come along with the first wave. Once I see my people settled, we will return here, and you can send a medic to treat your Mister Carey. You have one hour to begin modifying your transporters for large groups."

"I can't-" Janeway started to say, but the sound of a comm channel closing cut her off.

"Harry, Tom, Tuvok, my ready room. Now." Janeway said.

Neelix focused on helping Joe Carey stay awake. He had to, it was the only thing keeping him from either crying or attacking the nearest Uxali in a fit of what he knew would be ultimately impotent rage. Several Voyager crew members had died in the seven years he'd been with the ship. He hadn't been close to all of them, but that didn't make the loss he felt any lesser. This though was something different. Of all the deaths, Chakotay was the one he'd been the closest to. The two of them had faced death together. That was the kind of bond between sentients that few ever understood and even fewer had actually experienced.

"Is the Commander alright?" Carey asked weakly, struggling to keep his eyes open.

"I don't know," Neelix lied, seeing the image of the top of the Commander's head exploding in his mind's eye over and over again. Not even The Doctor, amazing as he was, could bring a crewmember back from that.

"You're suffering radiation sickness now," a soft voice said. Neelix only then realized that Brin was in front of him and Carey, handing them each a bowl of some kind of herb or vegetable. "This should help with the symptoms."

"Why are you helping us?" Neelix said.

Brin didn't respond. She simply made sure they had their respective bowls, then walked away.

"Probably figures we aren't good hostages if we're dead," Carey said, closing his eyes. "I'm just gonna take a nap now."

"No, you're not," Neelix said, lightly slapping the side of Carey's face. I've lost one friend today already, he thought.

When Janeway walked in to sickbay, the Doctor stood between her and the bio-bed where Chakotay's body was, his arms crossed. She saw the body was completely covered in a large sheet, so much so that she couldn't even make out the frame of her friend and first officer.

"I know why you're here, Captain."

"Can I see him?"

"I don't think you should," The Doctor said.

Janeway glowered at The Doctor. "This is not the time to pull medical rank with me."

"I'm not telling you this as a doctor," The Doctor said. "I'm telling you this as your friend. I don't want you, or anyone for that matter, to see him as he is now. If I could, I'd forget too, but we already know what happens when we try to alter my memories like that."

Janeway sighed.

"Tell me," she said, closing her eyes.

"It was a crude weapon. A sort of ugly hybrid between an energy weapon and a solid projectile. The top third of his head, it was just, gone when he beamed in. There was nothing I could've done. I just wish there was a nicer way I could've put that, but at the same time I think you understand now why I don't want to let you see the body."
Janeway flinched somewhat when The Doctor used the word 'body,' as if somehow that made this more real than it already was. She heard the door to sickbay open and turned in time to see a very concerned looking Jaffen walk in.

"Kathy, I heard what happened," he said, He took her in his arms. She made no effort to resist him, but she couldn't bring herself to hold him back. "Are you holding up okay?"

She considered lying, but the only other people who could hear were the man she loved, and a man bound by confidentiality.

"I'm holding it together for the sake of the crew," she said. "But I really, really want to hurt someone right now. Federation principle be damned, I want to dig my thumbs into Verin's throat. He's lucky he's not here. And I'm lucky my crew is. They need me to be their rock right now." She closed her eyes and leaned into Jaffen. "And I need you to be mine."

"I hate to do this, Captain," The Doctor said, "but I would prefer if you remained outside while I performed the autopsy."

The word 'autopsy' was when Janeway finally started to cry.

I need to get this out of my system before I go back to the bridge, she thought. The rescue mission-

"Damn," she said.

"What is it?" Jaffen asked.

"Doctor, in my… grief, I forgot to tell you why I came to see you. We need you, and Mister Otrin's former clothes, for the rescue mission Mister Tuvok and I devised."

"What do you need me to do, Captain?"

Neelix looked up when he heard a loud groan. He saw Brin, clutching her stomach as two Uxali women came to help her walk. It didn't take much more for Neelix to realize that the woman had gone into labor.

"Help them," Joe Carey said.

"I don't have a lot of experience with-" Neelix said.

"I can talk you through it," Joe said. "What I can remember anyway. I was there when my kids were born."

Neelix shook his head. "I'd be happy to help any way I could, but there's no way Verin would let me."

"Can you help?" Neelix heard Verin say, unaware that the man had heard them. He looked at Verin with undisguised anger.

"After what you just did?"

"The baby is too soon," Verin said, sounding for the first time like something other than full of rage. "She thinks you can help. I still don't trust you, but there are so few of us left."

Neelix took in a deep breath.

"Okay," he said. "Bring her over here. Mister Carey will help me as best he can. I'll also need one of the medkits you confiscated from us."

Neelix got to work, trying to remember the few things he picked up about the process from when Samantha Wildman had gone into labor years ago when Naomi was born.

I just hope Uxali births are similar enough to humans, he thought.

Neelix caught an armed Uxali man run up to Verin and whisper something to him. Verin went over to a nearby console and pushed several buttons. "Send a patrol. Double the guards at the entrance," he said.

Neelix wondered if it was a rescue mission from Voyager.

If so, he thought, I appreciate the effort, but they picked a really bad time.

The Doctor, wearing Otrin's now discarded makeshift radiation suit, pointed an Uxali rifle at Tuvok.

"I got one of them," he yelled in a distorted voice, and hoped that none of the several armed Uxali who approached realized he wasn't one of the other patrol members that the rest of the away team had scattered with a barrage of phaser rifle fire.

"I'll take him to Verin," The Doctor said, grabbing Tuvok by the arm of his environmental suit. "Find the others."

The other Uxali did exactly that, and The Doctor was grateful the deceit was working so far. Once he was sure they were out of sight and earshot, he slid the handphaser he'd been hiding in his disguise out and handed it to Tuvok, who proceeded to hide it again, this time in the place where the suit's medkit would normally be.

"Lieutenants Kim and Ayala should have the rest of the patrol immobilized shortly," Tuvok said. "We should make haste to the caves nonetheless."

"Agreed" The Doctor said.

"You should also keep the rifle in your hands pointed at my back for the sake of appearances, in case we are seen before reaching the entrance."

The two made their way through the snow. The Doctor had never personally witnessed a nuclear winter before. He found it paradoxically both beautiful and macabre. Once they were inside the entrance of the cave, and past the guards, he walked Tuvok right up to Verin, honestly surprised that no one had questioned his identity thus far.

"Put him with the others," Verin said, motioning for Tuvok to be moved near Neelix and Carey. The Doctor looked and noticed that the two men were surrounded not by armed Uxali, but by unarmed ones, including a woman cradling an infant. "You should thank whatever Gods you believe in that Janeway sent you down at this moment. Because your friends there saved the life of that newborn boy, I'll forgo executing any of you for this. But if it happens again, I swear to you-"

"Now," Tuvok said.

The Doctor had a phaser set on stun in his hand in seconds, dropping Verin quickly while Tuvok took out his own weapon. Within seconds every armed Uxali was unconscious, The rest appeared scared as The Doctor removed the suit's helmet while Tuvok contacted Voyager to let them know the mission was a success.

"Doctor?" Neelix said.

"When you need to infiltrate a toxic environment," The Doctor said, "it helps if you're a hologram. I just wish we'd thought of this sooner."

"Doctor," Neelix said, "this baby needs your help. I don't think he'll survive without treatment."

The Doctor walked over to the newborn, and scanned him. "You're right, he's already suffering from radiation exposure, even with all the magnesite. Ma'am? You should come with us."

"But-" the woman said,

"Brin," Neelix said, "this is the best Doctor within a hundred light years. He can help you, and your son. Let him."

"I'll need to treat Mister Carey immediately, too," The Doctor said, running his medical tricorder over the assistant chief engineer while Neelix talked to the woman he'd called Brin.

"Luckily there shouldn't be any permanent brain damage."

"I'd feel better if you just said no brain damage without the qualifier, Doc," Carey said.

"The fact that you can crack a joke right now is sign that you'll recover quickly," The Doctor said.

"Okay," Brin said. "But you have to promise me you'll send us back."

"We promise," Neelix said, offering her a hand to help her up.

"He's already responding to treatment," The Doctor said as Janeway looked down on the Uxali infant. Janeway looked at the boy's mother, sleeping peacefully in a biobed, receiving treatments of her own like those Otrin had been receiving. After only a day the latter Uxali had lost almost all visible signs of radiation poisoning, giving the Voyager their first look at what the species had looked like before the disaster.

"How's Joe doing?" Janeway asked.

"Bed rest, for now," The Doctor said. "I think because of a combination of his concussion and shock his mind couldn't process what happened to Commander Chakotay. It's a bit early to tell, but I'm recommending he speak with a specialist on Earth at the first opportunity. He's almost certainly going to be dealing with survivor's guilt once he's fully recovered."

"Once the baby and the mother are well enough," Janeway said, "transport them and Otrin to the surface, along with some food and medical supplies. I can't condemn the entire race because of what Verin did, as tempting as it is. Chakotay would never forgive me."

"We're leaving?" Neelix said. Janeway hadn't realized the Talaxian was awake. He hadn't appeared to be when she came to sickbay. The Doctor had said he'd been fortunate not to be as affected by the radiation as Mister Carey, but that The Doctor used triage to determine that Carey and the newborn needed treatment first.

"Once we've returned our guests, and as soon as I report to Starfleet," Janeway said.

"Captain, once we send them back they're just going to get sick again. Didn't you say there might be a way to neutralize the radiation?"

"Yes," Janeway said. "But they made it clear they didn't want our help."

"Verin didn't want our help," Neelix said.

"And he killed Commander Chakotay," Janeway said. "I won't waste time and resources helping murderers."

"I'm not saying we should forget what happened," Neelix said, "but if you saw how they were living, how desperate they are-"

"That's enough, Mister Neelix," Janeway said.

"What would Chakotay say if here were here right now?" Neelix said. Sickbay seemed to get quiet, the tension between the Captain and Neelix growing palpable. She looked around and saw The Doctor trying very hard to avoid looking at them, scanning the infant again even though he had just done that a moment ago.

Janeway just glared at Neelix, keeping her mouth shut. She considered Neelix a friend and she just knew that if she said what was on her mind in that moment that could ruin that forever.

"It wasn't intentional," Neelix said, "but that probe had a terrible impact on these people. Yes, the fault lies mostly with them for not securing the core of their power plant properly. But not entirely. Humanity bears a portion of the blame too. Isn't that what Chakotay would be telling you right now?"

Janeway thought about it. She wanted to say, "No," but she knew deep down that that would be a lie.

"He'd want us to at least try to help these people," she said quietly. She sighed and looked at The Doctor. "I'll be in engineering."

Seven resented having to be in engineering right now. She wanted to be with her family. She felt they needed her this day more than ever. Each of them had suffered loss before. They'd all felt sad before, but the Commander's death had affected all of them deeply. Icheb even expressed a desire for revenge, something he'd never done before.

But the Captain had insisted she aide Otrin in engineering, so here she was, waiting for Captain Janeway to arrive so that Otrin, herself, and Ensign Vorik, filling in for an injured Joe Carey and a grieving B'Elanna Torres, could demonstrate what they'd developed to help the Uxali.

The entire crew felt the sting of the Commander's loss of course, but it was unsurprising that B'Elanna, who had known him longer than anyone aboard Voyager, had taken it the hardest.

When Janeway came in, Otrin wasted no time.

"I've changed the radiation levels in this canister here to match conditions on the surface," he said. "I've also added an agent to the air in it that will allow you to see the radioactive particles."

"That explains why it looks like a rain cloud in there," Janeway said.

"Exactly," Otrin said. "Now, watch." He added a device to the side of the canister and activated it.

"If this works as we believe it will," Seven said, "An isolitic chain reaction will occur."

"Meaning?"

"It recombines the nucleonic particles in the atmosphere," Vorik said. "The results will not be instantaneous. How-"

Vorik's sentence was cut off by a glow coming from the canister. Janeway took a step back, but Seven raised her hands in a calming gesture.

"This reaction from the air inside the canister was expected, Captain," she said.

The glow got brighter for a half a second, then appeared to vanish, leaving the canister empty.

"Good work," Janeway said. "How do we apply your methods on a planetary scale?"

"Atmospheric processors are one possibility," Seven said.

"Too bad we don't have a corp of engineers on hand to build them," Janeway said.

"True," Seven said.

"What if we infused some photon torpedoes with the catalytic agent and used the concussive force to start the reaction?" Janeway said

"That would be the fastest way to do it," Otrin said. "But it would look like an orbital attack from the caves. Verin could easily use it to rally the other survivors around him."

"What could they do to us from down there?" Janeway said, her tone suggesting a legitimate question rather than arrogant dismissal.

"The unused antimatter missiles," Otrin said. "They're still in their silos, and I know for a fact that most if not all of them still work."

"Captain," Vorik said, "we have enough raw resources aboard to create at least one, perhaps two, atmospheric processors. Providing them as well as the schematics to build more, to the Uxali would improve their conditions."

"Seeing as they've been aware of Earth for over a hundred years, I can't exactly argue that on Prime Directive grounds," Janeway said, "but in terms of practicality, what would it take to get two working processors assembled?"

"In total," Seven said, "including replicating necessary parts, assembly, determining where on the planet to place them, several days."

"Get started," Janeway said. "In the meantime, Otrin, are you well enough to travel?"

"I've been healthy enough to return home since yesterday, Captain. I stayed largely so I could help."

"I appreciate it. But for now, you and I are going to have a talk with Verin."

"Captain," Seven said, honestly stunned by what she was hearing. "Going to meet him in person is far too dangerous. He was perfectly willing to murder Commander Chakotay. He would likely execute you on site."

"He'd have to go through me to do it," Otrin said. "I'm more than healthy enough to take on Verin if I have to."

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Janeway said. "Brin and the baby are coming with us too. I'm returning all three of you home personally."

"At least take a phaser with you for defense," Vorik said, "if you insist on this unwise course of action."

"No," Janeway said. Seven got the impression from the way she said it that she wasn't doing it as a sign of good faith to Verin, but more like she was afraid she would lose control and attempt to get revenge for Chakotay. While she did not approve of this plan any more than Vorik did, she wasn't going to argue the point.

When Janeway entered the transport room, she was surprised, but not exactly shocked, to see Jaffen there.

"If you're planning to try and talk me out of this-"

"Come on, Kathy. I may not have known you that long, but I know you well enough. I can't talk you out of anything once you've really set your mind to it. So, instead of trying to convince you not to do the bad idea…" He stepped up onto the transporter pad, standing between Otrin and Brin. "I'm going to go and do the bad idea with you."

"Jaffen," Janeway said, frowning. "I can't lose you too."

"You won't," Jaffen said. "I"m going to be there when you win this thing. Once this Verin character sees what you're willing to do to help his planet, he'll back down. And if he doesn't, I bet some of his people will and will try to stop him is he does anything rash."

"You're that sure that's what's going to happen?" Janeway said.

"Absolutely," Jaffen said.

Janeway groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Fine. I don't have time to argue anyway." She stepped onto the transporter pad, made sure the helmet on her environmental suit was secure, and gave Lieutenant Kitrick the order to beam them down.

When they materialized in the cave, the party had weapons pointed at them immediately, but Verin himself gave the order to hold fire. He walked up to Brin, shoving aside the others as he did so and looked at the baby in awe.

"You're both alive. And healthy," he said. "May I?"

Brin took a small step back. "Yes, but only after you listen to what Captain Janeway has to say."

"Janeway?" Verin said, turning quickly to look in her direction. "You!"

He reached for a gun, but Otrin grabbed his arm as Jaffen moved in front of her. She gently moved Jaffen aside as Otrin and Verin continued to struggle, glad that Verin's judgement seemed too clouded by anger to make the obvious call to order one of his subordinates to shoot them.

"I want you to understand one thing before we continue the conversation that you rudely interrupted by murdering a member of my crew," she said. "The only reason I am helping you now, instead of just leaving once these people were treated," she motioned at Otrin and Brin, "is because it's what Chakotay would've wanted. He would've insisted we least try to help."

"You're not just going to kill me?" Verin said, finally giving up the fight once Otrin had what had been his own weapon trained on him. "Why should I believe that?"

"You really are blinded by hate," Janeway said. "Use your brain, Verin. I came down here, unarmed, with only my friend and two of your people to protect me. I needed you to be able to look me in the eye and see that I am telling the truth when I tell you that working with Otrin, we have found a way to start clearing the antimatter radiation from your atmosphere."

"Why should I believe you? Any of you?" Verin looked back and forth between Otrin and Brin. "How do I do she didn't poison your minds somehow?"

Janeway started to unclasp her helmet.

"Uh, Kathy?" Jaffen said. "Is that really the best-"

She had the helmet off before he could finish the question.

"Look me in the eye," she said forcefully. Otrin nudged him with the point of the rifle.

"Do it," he said. Verin walked up to Janeway, fist clenched.

Janeway repeated what she'd said before about the atmosphere, adding the details about how it worked that Otrin had given her.

"I saw it work with my own eyes," Otrin said. "It will be a slow process, but it can be done."

Verin stepped back. "Can this technology rebuild our cities? Bring back the people who died?"

"They're offering us their help," Otrin said, "despite being in a position to just leave. The Captain chose to come down here of her own free will. After you murdered her second-in-command in cold blood. Do you really care about our people Verin, or do you just want revenge for what you think happened?"

"You thought it too," Verin said.

"Yes, I did. But I was wrong. This was never about conquest. Over a hundred years ago, Captain Janeway's species made a poor decision. Putting design specs for how to harness antimatter in their probe when they had no idea how or even if any race that encountered it had either the intelligence or temperament to use it safely. And you know what? We did. So many other races would've used that power to make war, but we didn't. What happened to us was an accident, Verin."

"Why do you trust them?" Verin said, but to Janeway's ear it sounded like he was losing confidence in his argument.

He's trying to convince himself, not everyone else.

"They sent armed men to attack us!" Verin said.

"To rescue hostages," Otrin said. "We would've done the same in their place and you know it. And keep in mind they did not kill anyone. That was you. They used non-lethal weaponry. Did any of the guards they shot die?"

Verin frowned, refusing to answer the question.

"That's a 'No,' I take it," Jaffen said.

"Jaffen," Janeway said, calmly.

"Sorry," Jaffen said.

"Friend? I know that tone. You brought your lover down with you, Captain?" Verin said. "That is either very brave or very stupid."

"I don't see the two as mutually exclusive," Janeway said.

Verin let out a short laugh.

"I will not a be party to this," Verin said. "I can see that none of you," he looked at the gathered crowd of Uxali, including the guards whose weapons were all lowered, "will listen to reason. Trust her, then. I will go to the ruins of my old city. I will not watch my people sign their own death warrant."

"Verin-" Brin started to say.

"Let him go," Otrin said. "Assuming he doesn't kill himself, we can find him once we've started the atmospheric processors. Once he sees for himself that it works…"

"One can only hope," Janeway said, knowing all too well that some people can never be convinced of the truth, even when they see it with their own eyes.

Samantha watched the streaks of lights pass by through the viewport in the mess hall. Things had taken longer than expected to get the first few atmospheric processors up and running, but once active they exceeded expectations. Large swaths of the Uxali homeworld were still too radioactive to resettle, but according to Seven of Nine, it wouldn't take much longer than two to three years for Otrin's people to start building processors of their own.

"Enjoying the view?"

Sam turned to see Joe Carey standing a few feet behind her.

"Hey, Joe," she said. "Glad to see you up and around."

"Well," Carey said, "I've been recovered from the concussion for almost two weeks now. I just haven't been leaving my quarters much."

"So that's why I didn't see you at the memorial," Sam said.

"Yeah," Carey said, sighing. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay. No one held it against you. A lot of us were worried you were blaming yourself for what happened."

"As Vorik would put it, 'an accurate assessment,'" Carey said, taking a seat next to Sam at the table, looking out the viewport himself. "If I hadn't fought back I wouldn't have been smacked in the head, and I would've been the one to assemble the transporter enhancers."

"And you'd be the one who'd be dead," Sam said bluntly.

"And?"

"What about your sons, Joe?" Sam said. "Speaking parent to parent, do you really think that your boys wouldn't be traumatized by the knowledge that their father was murdered by a mad man? You dying would be hard on them no matter what the circumstance obviously, but like that? No way. Maybe if you dying had saved an entire civilization from genocide, or ended the threat of the Borg once and for all, they could at least take comfort in you going out like a hero. But what Verin did…"

The two Voyager crew members fell silent, the background chatter of the other officers as they talked over their own meals the only noise in the room.

"If you want to honor Chakotay," Sam said, "then do what you know he'd want you to do. Live, and do good."

"Live and do good," Carey repeated quietly. "Yeah, I can do that."

Seven saw B'Elanna standing outside Chakotay's quarters leaning against the wall.

"Are you alright, B'Elanna? Seven said.

"Hmm? Oh, hi, Seven," B'Elanna shook her head. "Just, apparently during the whole construction project the Captain pulled up Chakotay's… His will, basically, although Starfleet uses a somewhat less loaded word for it these days, but that's what it's called. Chakotay left me some of his family's tribal artifacts."

Seven leaned against the wall next to B'Elanna and just listened. Had this happened several years ago she likely would've tactlessly told B'Elanna to just get on with it, or worse made some snide comment about "foolish organic sentimentality."

"I've come here three times in the past two days, but I can't make myself go in there," B'Elanna continued.

"Would it help if I went in with you?" Seven asked.

"You know, maybe it would. Lucky for me he included pictures," B'Elanna said, holding up a PADD. "In addition to items belonging to his tribe, he also had a number of items from other Native American tribes, The ones from his were obviously family heirlooms, or items important to his faith. The others he kept for historical value, or for artistic reasons. Thing is, without a handy guide, there's no way in hell I'd be able to the difference just by looking."

Seven sighed.

"What is it?" B'Elanna asked.

"I just realized something. In the four years I knew the Commander, all the times I listened to him talk about his people's rituals and beliefs, I somehow managed to never actually learn which tribe he belonged to."

B'Elanna snorted. "I'm sorry, but, in a weird way that is kinda funny."

"Seems like something I should know," Seven said. "I wasn't as close to him as many people aboard were. I wouldn't call him a friend. But I respected him. Both Naomi and Icheb looked up to him. He took time out of his day to help Sam when Naomi was still a baby."

"Yeah," B'Elanna said. "Nothing's going to be the same around here, is it?"

The crew had retrieved the remains of Friendship I, but none could bring themselves to come by and look at it, so Janeway had it placed into containers in cargo bay 1. The general mood of the ship had grown darker since they've left Uxali space. Working to build the atmospheric processors and recover the probe had served as a distraction for the members of the crew involved in the process, but that just meant that unlike everyone else, the reaction to their loss had been delayed.

She went through the motions of command, grateful that no other crisis had presented itself in the intervening weeks. There were still things that needed to be done. Appointing a new first officer for starters. But that she felt she could put off a little while longer. B'Elanna had, without being asked, volunteered to take on the task of informing Chakotay's sister. Jaffen had been a source of comfort, talking when she needed him to, and shutting up when she didn't.

Ever present at the back of her mind though, even as she casually gave orders on the bridge as she had so many times in the past seven years, was the thought that this was it for her. The burdens of command could be trying for anyone. Even the best Captains in Starfleet history had had breaking points. Some drove them to take time away, others to the admiralty, and even some into retirement and civilian life.

She felt she was at hers now. She'd felt this way once before, after the incident with Arturis and the Dauntless, but she's come back from that. Now though, if she could just snap her fingers like a Q and go home right this moment she would, and the first thing she would do afterwards is turn in her resignation.

She'd kept this thought to herself. Not even Jaffen knew it, not yet anyway. No point in telling anyone now, not when her crew was still 30 years from home, coming up on 29.

As the chronometer ticked over to 1200 hours, she decided there was one task she couldn't put off any longer.

Tuvok, she thought, looking at the empty first officer's chair. That's obvious. As for new chief of security, I'll ask him, but if I were the gambling type I'd go all in on him suggesting Lieutenant Ayala.

Within twelve hours, she was proven right.

Chapter Ten

"A party?" Brian Sofin asked.

"Well, yes," Neelix said. "I've been shirking my duties lately as morale officer, and things may seem normal, but I think you know as well as I do, Brian, that morale hasn't recovered any in the past two months."

"Can you blame them?"

"Of course not," Neelix said. "But I knew Commander Chakotay pretty well, and he would not want us to use his death as an excuse to stop living."

"Neither would I, but.. A party?"

"It's the best way I know to boost moral for the majority of the crew," Neelix said. "And it's not like it's completely random, I have a justification."

"Which is?"

"We're a few days away from the the 315th anniversary of Vulcan-Human First Contact. Without that event, the Federation you know and love probably wouldn't exist today."

Sofin winced. "Right, I forgot this week was First Contact Day. My parents always liked to watch old recording of Zefram Cochrane speeches on FC day. I would watch with them when I could, unless I was on assignment, before, well…"

"Exactly!" Neelix said. "I've already thrown one FC day party before; five years ago for the 310th. I think I even still have the decorations that Kes helped me make in storage."

Brian looked like he was considering Neelix's idea carefully. He smiled, and Neelix knew he had a helper to put this thing together for the crew. He knew from experience that nothing would be 100% exactly as it was before the Commander's death, just as things changed to one degree or another after the loss of any crewmember, but at least the ship would start to feel like a home again.

"Enter," Joe Carey said, staring at his unfinished ship-in-a-bottle. The tiny Voyager inside only had one nacelle left to go. It had had only one nacelle left to go for months. Work on the project, despite it being his favorite hobby, came to a screeching halt when Commander Chakotay died.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," B'Elanna said as she entered Carey's quarters.

"No," Carey said. "How can I help you?"

"I'll get straight to the point. You know I'm starting my maternity leave next week. The Doctor thinks I should start it sooner but, screw him. The point is, I need you to take over as chief engineer while I'm on bed rest, and for at least the first few weeks with Miral."

"Mir- Oh, I didn't know you and Tom had picked a name," Carey said.

"I said it in engineering the other day, Joe. Which you'd know if you'd shown up on time."

"Sorry, about that," Joe said. "I just-"

"I know why," B'Elanna said. "I know what survivor's guilt looks like, Joe. I let it slide for a good while, made everyone else keep quiet and not report it to the captain, but you've been slacking. Showing up late, doing the bare minimum…"

"Then why are you asking me to take charge?" Joe said.

"Vorik's not ready for a leadership role, Mulcahey's a floater between engineering and transporter control, and Gilmore hasn't earned back all her clearances yet. That leaves you. I know you took it hard and that you blame yourself, but two months is too long. Especially when it's not like we can just pop over to a Starbase or colony and give you extended shore leave."

"Yeah, you're right," Joe said. "Fact is I've been feeling guilty about my survivor's guilt. Don't tell me how silly that sounds, I know. I've been thinking for awhile I need to just get back to work. I guess I just needed a kick in the pants to do it."

B'Elanna smiled and gave Joe a friendly slap on the shoulder. "Well, that went easier than I expected. I was worried I'd have to shout at you."

Joe laughed. "Better that than breaking my nose."

B'Elanna shook her head. "Seven years later and you still won't let that go huh?"

"Hey, I forgave you a long time ago, you know that. But forgiveness doesn't automatically mean I stop ribbing you about it." Joe laughed. He was pretty sure it was the first time he'd laughed in awhile.

"There's the Joe Carey I know and tolerate," B'Elanna said with a wink. "Now get your ass to engineering so I can give my last set of orders to the team."

Captain Janeway sat in her chair as the current bridge shift started, coffee in hand. Tuvok, still looking like he felt out of place in command red, sat in the first officer's chair, looking at his monitor. Sue Brooks was at the helm today. Harry was at ops, and Lieutenant Ayala at tactical. Seven of Nine and Samantha Wildman were on the bridge for this shift as well. All was normal, or at least the new normal.

A beeping from the ops console broke Janeway's train of thought.

"I'm picking up a signal from an emergency beacon. It's degraded considerably, the beacon looks to be decades old, at least."

"Can you decipher the signal?" Janeway said.

Harry tapped a few buttons, and Janeway saw his eyes go wide.

"I recognize this," he said.

"Harry?"

"The signal. It's a distress beacon, I can tell that much. Text, no audio, or at least none I've registered yet. References to a 'generation ship,' I think. Captain, the message is in an old dialect of Talaxian."

"Well, that's certainly unexpected," Samantha Wildman said from the main science station.

"To put it mildly," Seven said.

"Shall I have Mister Neelix summoned to the bridge?" Commander Tuvok said.

"Absolutely," Janeway said. "He'll want to see this. And maybe have some idea how a Talaxian signal got out this far."

"If Mister Kim's translation is correct," Seven said, "I believe the phrase 'generation ship' may be the answer."

"I don't recall him saying anything his people having sent out generation ships before," Harry said, "but then again based on how old the sensor data tells us that beacon is it's older than he is. It's possible it just never occurred to him to mention it."

Neelix watched the viewscreen, pacing because he was too excited to sit down. Upon being informed of the situation he had to give it considerable thought, but a quick skim of his old ship's historical database confirmed what he suspected; this was from a ship that his ancestors had launched in the early days of their exploration into space.

Its name was in a dialect that hadn't been used on his homeworld since before he was born, but it's name translated roughly as The Future. It had left Talax with 7 female and 5 male crew members, plus 1300 Talaxians from all walks of life in cryogenic sleep. His people had gone looking for it once they'd developed faster-than-light drives, and made contact with other species, but no sign of The Future had ever been found, and it was presumed lost. Neelix wondered how it had gotten this far out. Even back then, according to Seven of Nine, the Borg were active in the Delta Quadrant, along the most likely path the ship would've had to take to get from Talax to where the beacon had been found.

"Perhaps the Talaxians found a wormhole that we missed," Harry said.

"Possible," Seven said, "though the timeframe, based on our estimations of when the emergency beacon was deployed, would place the generation ship's passage through Borg space at the height of our conflict with the El Aurians."

"How long did that last?" Neelix said.

"Hundreds of years. Prior to Species 8472, the El Aurians proved the most difficult species to assimilate," Seven said.

"I'd always wondered about that," Janeway said, "but El Aurians in the Alpha Quadrant are notoriously reluctant to talk about it. I hope they got a few good kicks in before they went down."

"While only a few hundred survived to make it to the Alpha Quadrant as refugees," Seven said, "before the end they managed to destroy nearly a dozen cubes, more than half of them in the final year of the conflict."

"I apologize for interrupting," Harry Kim said, "but I finished the translation of the message. The translation program Neelix gave me was a big help."

"So what happened?" Neelix asked.

"Apparently there was an engine failure caused by their main computer. Apparently it was a very crude A.I. and, for want of a better phrase, lost its mind."

"I didn't even know my people had ever tried to create artificial intelligences," Neelix said, surprised.

"When did this happen?" Janeway asked.

"Only about fifty years ago, surprisingly," Harry said. "The crew was able to get control back, but the computer shut down several dozen of the cryo pods, killing the occupants. The next paragraph is corrupted, I can't tell what it says, but after that is says they sent the last of their probes out to find a suitable place to land."

"A lot of habitable planets between here and Rinax," Tom said. "Wonder why they didn't pick any of those."

Neelix shrugged. "Maybe they didn't want to settle any place that already had sentient life? That's just a guess, don't quote me."

"We won't know until we find any of the crew's descendants," Janeway said. "If this was only fifty years ago, there's a good chance we may find some. Seven, do a full long range scan. See where the most likely place the Talaxians would've ended up and give the data to Tom. Mister Paris, once you have a location, plot a course."

"Aye, Captain," Tom said, while Seven simply nodded and manipulated the controls at her console.

"There is definitely an M-class planet on the other side of that asteroid field," Samantha Wildman said, looking at her console while both Neelix and Captain Janeway looked over her shoulder. "And I'm pretty sure I'm getting lifesigns from it, but something in the field itself is interfering with the sensors."

"It is awfully dense," Neelix said. "I don't think I've seen an asteroid field that densely packed before."

"I have," Janeway said, "but it's not common, no argument here."

"I could dodge those rocks easily enough with Voyager," Tom said, "but given that interference Sam's talking about I'd rather not risk it."

"Captain," Sam said, "now that we're closer, I'm thinking this interference might not be naturally occurring."

"Agreed," Janeway said. "Which could mean the Talaxians set-up makeshift bases in the the larger asteroids. Or they could've settled that planet on the other side and are mining the asteroids. Either way, if there are survivors from The Future, we'll find proof in that asteroid field. We'll take Voyager around the field to go to the planet. A small team can take the Delta Flyer through the field itself. If nothing else, they can confirm if the interference is naturally occurring or not."

"Captain," Neelix said, "I'd like to be on the Flyer team."

"Why?" Captain Janeway asked.

"Call it a gut feeling," Neelix said. "If I've learned anything traveling with you Captain, it's that it's a good idea to listen to one's instincts."

As long as I don't have to go, I'm happy, Samantha thought. Me, the Delta Flyer, and giant rocks? No thanks.

The Delta Flyer entered the asteroid field, and Neelix marveled at how close together all the rocks were while not appearing to collide with each other.

"I wonder if maybe someone put this here," Neelix said to Lieutenant Ayala, who sat at the tactical console, while Tom Paris piloted the craft.

"Just because it's rare for asteroid fields to be this dense," Ayala said, "doesn't mean it's not naturally occurring."

"Could be the debris from an exploded planet," Tom said. "Last dense field like this I ever saw in the Alpha Quadrant had been a planet a thousand years before the Federation existed." Well, I only saw it in pictures taken by the Enterprise, but still."

"Sounds interesting," Neelix said. "What happened?"

"Well, there was this war between two ancient-"

"Mister Paris," Ayala said, "I'm picking up lifesigns at bearing 108, mark 26. They appear to be Talaxians. Hundreds of them, inside three of the larger rocks."

"Well, that answers one question," Neelix said. "Can we hail them?"

Ayala touched a button, and waited.

"No response. No sign they didn't receive it, it looks like they're ignoring us."

"Maybe if we try greeting them in Tal-"

Neelix wasn't able to finish his suggestion, as a loud noise, followed by the ship shuddering, cut him off.

"What was that?" he said.

"A thermalyte explosive," Ayala said.

"How close was that?" Tom said.

"30.6 kilometers to port," Ayala said. "If it was that close and shook us that little-"

A much more severe shudder passed through the ship.

"That one was closer," Ayala said. "Are these mines or did we accidentally stumble on the Talaxians blasting these rocks to get the raw materials?"

A third shudder.

"That one took out our shields," Ayala said. "It threw the impulse drive out of alignment too."

"Switching to thrusters," Tom said.

"The main Talaxian asteroid is close enough for us to make a landing," Neelix said, looking at his own console.

"If they're doing this on purpose that might be a bad idea," Tom said. Before anyone could reply there was another explosion, and the Delta Flyer shook so violently everyone was thrown forward painfully into their consoles.

"Dammit, main propulsion is off-line," Tom said. "I'm gonna have to put us down on that rock anyway before we crash into one without people who can help us fix the damage. Better get ready to do some fancy talking, Neelix."

The Delta Flyer jerked forward. Neelix watched the main viewport as the asteroid, structures sticking out one side of it, got closer and closer; much too fast for his liking.

"This landing's gonna be a bit rough," Tom said, "but if it's any consolation, the Flyer's been through worse."

Upon impact, Neelix was knocked out his chair. He winced as his head hit something, and everything went black.

Neelix groaned as his eyes fluttered open. He heard before he saw the sound of a medical device, or at least what he hoped was a medical device, hovering centimeters above his head. When his vision cleared he saw a sight he hadn't expected to ever see outside of old family photos or the holodeck.

A Talaxian. A woman, who held the device, sitting on the edge of the bed Neelix was in.

"Stay still," she said when Neelix tried to sit up. "Don't worry. It's not serious."

Her bedside manner is about as warm as The Doctor's used to be, Neelix thought.

"I'm inside the asteroid," he said.

"Yes," the female Talaxian said.

"Where are my friends?" Neelix asked.

"If you mean the aliens who were on the ship with you," the female Talaxian said, in a tone that suggested she wasn't using the word alien in the nicest sense of the word, "they're safe."

Define safe.

"I'd like to see them," Neelix said.

"You need your rest," the female Talaxian said, standing up quickly. "What were you doing in the asteroid field?" she asked as she placed the device on the table by the side of Neelix's bed.

"Looking for you, actually," Neelix said. "We found the old beacon."

"Really? It still works after all this time?"

"Yes," Neelix said. "Our ship, Voyager, came across it, so we came to look for any survivors."

"Well, here we are."

"I see. My name's Neelix, by the way."

"Dexa," the female Talaxian said. "It's funny, I had an uncle named Neelix."

"Really? I had no idea my name stretched back that far. Your generation ship left so long ago it took us awhile to translate the message on the beacon."

Dexa looked puzzled. "Then how come I can understand you so plainly?"

Neelix pointed to his comm badge, which had been left on him. "It's called a universal translator."

"Interesting," Dexa said. "I'd like to know more about this translator, but first, I'm curious, are there any other Talaxians aboard your ship?"

"No, just me," Neelix said.

"Why are you living with aliens?" Dexa asked, her nose scrunched up as if she'd smelled something offensive.

"They're my friends," Neelix said. He'd considered telling Dexa the truth; that he just didn't like what the bulk of his people had become in recent years, and that apart from a few good friends he largely did not miss his people at all. He realized though that if the other Talaxians on this and the other two asteroids were as xenophobic as Dexa appeared to be, that would probably be the worst thing to say. "We attempted to contact you from our shuttle," he said instead. "Did you receive our hails?"

"Yes," Dexa said.

"Why didn't you respond?"

"We avoid contact with outsiders," Dexa said.

"There were explosions," Neelix said. "Did you-"

"No," Dexa said. "Not deliberately, I mean. We were making holes in the surface of those particular rocks to start mining them for resources. They weren't supposed to go off so soon though. Perhaps something from your shuttle triggered them early. My turn to ask a question now. Why were you and your.. Friends, carrying weapons?"

"Standard procedure for an away mission," Neelix said. "On stun of course."

"Stun? Non-lethal energy weapons? I didn't even know such a thing was possible."

"Oh, absolutely," Neelix said. "We had weapons similar to phasers on Talax not too long after The Future left. We never got as good at mass producing them as Starfleet did though, so they fell out of favor after a while."

"Starfleet?"

"Oh, the organization our ship belongs to. Our ship is called Voyager by the way. The shuttle that crashed is called the Delta Flyer."

"Is Starfleet a military organization?"

Neelix thought about that for a moment. "Sort of, but not really. It's like a hybrid of a military organization, a scientific one, and a diplomatic corp. There's no real analog to it in Talaxian history, so that's the best way I can explain it."

Neelix thought he saw someone moving behind Dexa, so he shifted. He smiled when he saw a child, holding some kind of toy, peeking around the corner of the entrance into the room.

"Hi there," Neelix said. "What's your name?"

Dexa looked confused, but then turned around when the child responded.

"Brax," he said. "What's yours?"

"I told you not to come in here," Dexa said, bending down to look the child in the eyes as she took his hands.

"I wanted to see him," Brax said.

"You're supposed to be helping Oxilon," Dexa said.

"He doesn't look dangerous to me," Brax said, an inquisitive look on his face not too dissimilar to the one Naomi Wildman would get when she was convinced that adults were not telling her the whole story about something.

I guess some things are just universal, Neelix thought.

"I think you might have the wrong idea about us," Neelix said.

"I'm not supposed to be talking to you at all," Dexa said."

Neelix had a suspicion about the room he was in. He stood up. "I'm feeling better," he said, which was mostly true. His head still hurt, but it was a dull pain. He'd been through much worse. This year, even. "I think I should go see my friends now."

Dexa stepped back and touched something that was out of sight, and a force field visibly snapped into place.

Yep, I'm in a cell, Neelix thought. Not a terrible one though, I'll give it that. The bed is comfy.

"I've been told not to let you leave," Dexa said.

The look on her face was all too familiar to Neelix. He'd seen looks like that before, on those among his people who'd bought the propaganda about the Haakonians "hook, line and sinker," as Tom would say.

They're repeating the same mistakes their descendants made back on Talax, he thought sadly. I suppose I should be grateful there isn't an alien race nearby for them to launch an unprovoked war against.

"Captain," Harry said, "there's a ship approaching from astern. We're being hailed."

"Good," Janeway said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and they can explain why we lost contact with the Flyer. On screen."

"Identify yourselves," the captain of the other vessel said. He wasn't Talaxian, that was for sure.

"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager," Janeway said.

"Commander Nocona," the other ship's captain said, his tone immediately shifting to one more polite than the one he'd had when asking for identification.

Perhaps in his culture it's acceptable to be rude to people if you don't know their names, she thought.

"I request to know why you sent a vessel into the asteroid field," Nocona continued.

Janeway gave the thumbnail version of how Voyager had ended up here, and how they'd hoped to make contact with the Talaxians.

"Ah, I see," Nocona said. "Perhaps your friend, this Neelix, can convince the Talaxians to move on."

"Assuming he's alive," Janeway said. "We registered multiple explosions in the field and lost contact with our shuttle."

"Likely just mining charges," Nocona said. "The Talaxians have never been violent. Smug and verbally abusive, but not violent. Your shuttle likely just got too close."

"I take it you've had problems with them before," Janeway said.

"Ever since they came to our world seeking shelter years ago," Nocana said. "But for now, if you require our assistance, our ship is more heavily armored than yours. We have few weapons, this is a patrol ship, but if any charges go off we won't be harmed."

Janeway appreciated that the alien captain was being so direct with her. It was something she wished were more common in this quadrant.

"If I may ask, what exactly were the problems the Talaxians caused?"

"To be fair," Nocona said, "it's largely the younger generation, those born after their ship arrived, that are the issue; they settled in that asteroid field without permission and began mining resources that by rights belonged to us as the field is in our solar system. As it stands, we have no way to remove them without violence, and neither the government nor the public wants that."

Oh great, Janeway thought. We stumbled into a political mess. I'd hoped we wouldn't have another one of those for a good long time.

Neelix heard a noise, and turned to see Brax standing on the other side of the force field with a weapon that was clearly too big for him to be using. If it wasn't a dangerous weapon, the site of him trying to look intimidating with it would be amusing.

"I don't think you're supposed to be here," Neelix said.

"This is my home," Brax said. "You can't tell me what to do."

"No, I suppose I can't," Neelix said. "I just don't want you to get in trouble."

Brax moved the object in his arms and Neelix realized he'd made an error. It was a not a weapon at all, the child had just been handling whatever it was like one.

"What's that?" Neelix said.

"A model ship," Brax said.

"Really? A Talaxian one?"

"You don't recognize it?"

"Our people's ships haven't looked like that for a long time," Neelix said, trying to get a better look at the model. "I think I saw something like that in a museum once though, on Rinax."

"People live on Rinax now?" Brax said.

Neelix winced. "Well, they did, but something bad happened. It's complicated, and sad to say it was kind of our own fault. Maybe I can explain it to you later."
"I overheard you tell my mother your ship was named Voyager," Brax said. "Is it big?"

"Not as big as the ship your ancestors came to this asteroid field on, but she's a decent sized ship," Neelix said. "But she is fast. Nothing faster than her within a hundred light years, I bet."

There was a clanging noise, and Brax gasped. "That's my mother."

"Well you better hide then," Neelix said.

"You won't tell her I'm here?"

"No, of course not," Neelix said. Brax ran off. Another clanging noise followed by footsteps drew Neelix's attention to his right, and he saw Dexa walk in with a male Talaxian, who had to duck slightly to get through the door. Neelix was pretty sure he'd never seen a Talaxian that tall before, and figured that it must've had something to do with having been born in lower gravity environments.

"Neelix," Dexa said, "this is Oxilon, our Council Regent."

"I wish I could say it was nice to meet you," Neelix said, "but this isn't exactly the welcome I was expecting."

"You're free to go now," Oxilon said, touching a button. The force field dropped and Neelix walked forward. He looked at Oxilon, expecting him to say something else, but he gave no indication he planned to.

"What about my friends?" Neelix said.

"We've determined they're not hostile," Oxilon said. "They've been treated for their injuries and asked to leave."

"They're aboard your shuttle, making repairs," Dexa said. "I'll take you to them."

"Well," Neelix said, "now that everything's been cleared up, maybe we could talk? Get to know each other a little?"

"If you'd like," Oxilon said, though he sounded to Neelix like he was just humoring him.

Probably figures the faster he gets me to talk the faster he can get me to leave, Neelix thought.

"My friends too?"

"No," Oxilon said.

"May I ask why not?"

"We've learned to keep to ourselves," Oxilon said.

"Oh. Well, if they're not welcome, I'm not staying either," Neelix said. "I had just hoped…"

"Hoped what?" Oxilon said.

"This may be my last chance to speak to any Talaxians before Voyager reaches the Alpha Quadrant," Neelix said. "That's where my friends are from. Long story. I may not have left Talaxian space under the best of terms, but-"

"Were you a criminal?" Dexa said. Oxilon glared at her, and she sheepishly looked at the floor.

"No," Neelix said. "Well, my government certainly thinks I am, but I'd be lying if I said I cared."

Oxilon looked confused at that comment.

"I'm going to go see my friends," Neelix said, choosing not to elaborate. He felt put off in Oxilon's presence, like the man only tolerated being the same room as him because they were both Talaxians. Neelix knew that kind of attitude all too well; had seen it in his own home in the run-up to the war with the Haakonians. He'd heard it in Dexa's voice earlier that day, but had hoped that she was an outlier.

"Escort him," Oxilon said to Dexa, then unceremoniously turned and left.

"I apologize," Dexa said once the door closed. "I know he seems overly cautious, but we're not used to having visitors. Brax is young enough to have never seen a non-Talaxian before."

"I was curious about that," Neelix said. "Our ship picked up what looked like, at least from where we were, a perfectly livable M-Class planet on the opposite side of the field from us."

"That's the homeworld of the Badoon," Dexa said with a hint of contempt in her voice.

"Did they mistreat you?" Neelix said.

"Not directly, no," Dexa said. "It was more subtle than that. But I'd rather not talk about them right now."

"How many of you live here?" Neelix asked.

"Close to 500 here," Dexa said, "about a hundred each on the other two asteroids." She sighed. "And there are a dozen or so who chose to stay with the Badoon, but we don't talk of them much."

"From a ship that had 1300 people in stasis?" Neelix said. "The beacon said some of them were killed when the generation ship's computer went bad, but-"

"Few of the survivors had children," Dexa said. "Procreation has been placed on hold until we can hollow out another asteroid. None of the children you see running around were actually conceived here, though a few were born here."

"It must've taken years to build all of this," Neelix said.

"Almost five," Dexa said, pride in her voice. "We had to completely scrap The Future, and, well, borrow some Badoon tools to get it done, but we did it. Mostly. There are some places that aren't at a hundred percent yet. If you look over there you can see our medical bay. My husband designed that."

"I'd like to meet him," Neelix said.

Dexas sighed. "He's dead."

"Oh," Neelix said. "I'm sorry. I… I suffered a loss recently myself, though yours is certainly-"

"I'm not… I don't feel like talking about it, right now. Your friends are just this way," Dexa said, leading Neelix down a neatly excavated cave.

Neelix saw the Delta Flyer. It looked pretty scraped up on the outside, but he imagined that Tom was going to save fixing the non-essential parts until they returned to Voyager.

The priority would be engines and life support.

He stepped inside.

"Neelix," Tom said. "Good to see you. They told me you were okay but wouldn't let us check in on you."

"Yeah, they seem to be really shy about aliens around here," Neelix said. "Dexa, this is Tom Paris. And this is Ayala."

"Given name or surname?" Dexa asked.

"I don't really talk about that," Ayala said.

Dexa looked confused for a moment but shrugged it off.

"Okay then," she said. "It was nice to meet you." She turned and exited the ship before anyone could reply.

"Guess that was as much politeness as she could muster for the day," Tom said,.

"So, what can I do to help?" Neelix said.

"Well, you can help me with this plasma manifold," Tom said. "How'd it go by the way?"

"I didn't exactly get a welcoming committee," Neelix said. "I was in a cell for most of the time I was recovering. I get the feeling their leader doesn't like me very much."

"You sound disappointed," Ayala said.

"Yeah," Neelix admitted. "I guess my expectations were a little high. I'd just assumed that since they were the descendants of people who left Talax before our society went bad they'd be more open minded. A shame really. This could be the last time I ever see another Talaxian, and they remind me so much of why I was so willing to leave them behind and travel with you in the first place."

"We'll probably be another night," Tom said. "I'm sure you can meet a few more before we go. Here's your phaser back by the way."

"Thanks," Neelix said. "And maybe you're right. Maybe I'll meet a Talaxian who's not as stiff and xenophobic as Oxilon. That would be a nice way to remember my people."

After another hour of work, the lights inside the Flyer flickered back to life, and the consoles were active again.

"There we go," Tom said. "Now we just need to run a systems-"

"Intruder alert," the computer said.

"Well, at least we know internal sensors are working," Tom said, as Ayala pulled out his phaser and moved towards the rear compartment. Neelix followed him, hand near his own phaser.

The lights in the rear compartment were still out, so the two of them descended the steps slowly. Neelix took out his tricorder with his other hand and did a quick scan. He chuckled when he saw the lifesigns he were picking up from behind a panel were Talaxian.

"I think I can guess who this is," he said. "You can come out, Brax."

The child climbed out of his hiding place, and touched a button on a panel that turned the lights back on. Ayala lowered his phaser.

"Friend of yours?" he said.

"Dexa's son," Neelix said.

"You said you'd take me to see Voyager," Brax said.

"I said no such thing," Neelix said. "I told you she was a good ship, not that I'd bring you aboard. Besides, your mother wouldn't approve. Now come on, I'll walk you home."

Brax didn't argue, something Neelix was grateful for. He realized that child rearing was not really something he had that much experience in. He'd been spoiled in a sense, the only children he'd really been around as an adult were Naomi, who matured rapidly as a result of her mixed parentage, and Icheb, who had matured rapidly as a result of the Borg. He was ill equipped to deal with a tantrum if it were to come to that.

"Okay," Brax said.

"I'll be right back," Neelix said to Ayala. The two walked back the way Dexa had brought Neelix before. Before he could reach Dexa's home, however, he saw Oxilon arguing with an alien he didn't recognize.

"They're free to leave once their ship is repaired," Oxilon said.

"I'd like to confirm that for myself," the alien said. "I'm sure it is what their captain, Janeway, would do if she were here. Assuming you didn't try to blow up her ship with mining charges of course."

"How dare-"

"Excuse me," Neelix said, waving. "Hi. I'm Neelix, the Talaxian member of Janeway's crew. You've spoken with Voyager?"

The alien nodded. "Commander Nocona," he said. "You must be Neelix. Are the other members of your team harmed?"

"You know this… thug?" Oxilon said.

"Calm down," Neelix said. "Commander, may I ask why no one from my crew is here?"

"Our ship is better shielded against explosions from mining charges," Nocana said. "And with good reason," he added, glaring at Oxilon. "Captain Janeway agreed to let us come for you."

"Right," Oxilon said dismissively, "and I'm sure intimidating us with how thick your ship's armor is had nothing to do with it. You're trying to scare us into giving up the asteroids again."

Nocona groaned. "Believe what you want, Oxilon. My people own the rights to these minerals, and we will get them back. Without violence. You'll see."

"Well, Commander," Neelix said, "our shuttle is almost repaired. We'll be able to leave on our own in a few hours. Our communications array is still damaged, so perhaps you could tell Captain Janeway-"

"Yes, do so. Once you leave," Oxilon said, sounding like he was trying to make a threat.

"Very well," Nocona said. "Good day to you, Mister Neelix."

"Thank you," Neelix said.

Once Nocona was gone, Neelix was about to tell Brax to head on home when Oxilon rushed him with unexpected speed and shoved him against a wall.

"Why did that Badoon know who you were?!"

"You heard him," Neelix said. "He spoke to my captain."

"You expect me to believe that?" Oxilon said.

Neelix saw a crowd gathering. Some smiled, as if silently cheering on Oxilon or maybe hoping for a fight. Other just shook their heads, like disappointed parents.

"Yes, because it's true," Neelix said, finally shoving back. "He's a Badoon then? Seems nice enough. Why do you really have a problem with them? I get the feeling there's more going on than asteroid mining rights."

"Get out," Oxilon said. "Get back to your ship and leave us alone."

"I know that look," Neelix shouted at Oxilon's back as he walked away. "It's the look our leaders on Talax had on their faces when they argued for a war based on lies. Now, I don't know what's going on with you and the Badoon, but if I look into it, who's really going to be the bad guys here?"

"Go home," Oxilon said. "Go to your alien friends." There were murmurs among the crowd as Oxilon walked away. Neelix got the feeling that most, but not all of the people here were completely on Oxilon's side. He took a small amount of comfort in that.

"I think I can see why they're so suspicious of outsiders," Tom said when Neelix told him what had just happened. "Did the kid make it home safe at least?"

"Yeah," Neelix said, looking frustrated.

"It's good to know the Badoon were willing to help the Captain," Ayala said, "but we don't have the full context for what's been going on between them and the Talaxians here."

"I think we do, at least a little," Neelix said.

Tom was about to ask what Neelix meant, but the latter continued as if anticipating that question.

"Oxilon never actually denied what Nocona said was true. I think that except for a few stragglers, the survivors from the generation ship and their children and grandchildren settled these asteroid without permission from the race that holds the mining rights to them. It would be like if someone just walked into your quarters, set up a tent, and threatened you if you tried to kick them out."

"Plausible, sure," Tom said, "but there's decades worth of context we don't have, like Ayala said."

Neelix sighed.

"Yeah, you're right," he said.

Tom put a hand on Neelix's shoulder. "I'm sorry this trip didn't turn out like you hoped, Neelix. I really am."

"Thanks, Tom," Neelix said.

Tom was about to say it was time to go, when a noise from his console alerted him to someone standing just outside the entrance to the Delta Flyer. He checked his monitor, and saw Dexa, and a young boy, presumably Brax.

"Looks like you've got visitors, Neelix," Tom said. Neelix came over and looked at the monitor. He shrugged.

"Go ahead and let them in," he said.

"No problem," Tom said, pushing a button to open the door remotely.

When the two Talaxians made their way to the cockpit, Neelix asked them why they were there.

"Brax told me about what happened," Dexa said, "and I thought you deserved to hear our side of the story. Oxilon, he, can let his anger cloud his judgement sometimes, even though he's been a good leader for us overall."

"Okay," Neelix said. "I'm willing to listen."

"Actually," Dexa said, "I'd like to talk to your Captain, if I could. If your ship is as powerful as I imagine it based on what I've gleamed from scanning your shuttle-"

"Wait, you were scanning us?" Tom said.

"Of course," Dexa said. "Security precaution."

"It's what I would do," Ayala said.

"My point is," Dexa continued, "if your Captain is going to be working with the Badoon in any capacity, she deserves to know the truth."

Neelix didn't seem to like the idea very much, but rather than say no himself he turned to Tom.

Oh great, make the buck stop with me. Thanks, Neelix, he thought. Minus sarcasm he said aloud, "Well, okay, but I don't think there's going to be much need. I'm pretty sure that once she knows her team and the Flyer are okay we'll just be moving on."

"Or maybe, once she hears about what we've gone through, she'll be willing to help us."

I doubt that, Tom thought.

"Okay," Tom said, "but I won't promise anything more than asking her to speak with you."

Captain Janeway looked up when Neelix and the Talaxian woman named Dexa walked into her ready room.

"Hello, Dexa," Janeway said, standing up and offering her hand. "Neelix told me you'd be coming. Where's your son?"

"He's playing with… what was her name?" Dexa said.

"Naomi Wildman," Neelix said. "With Samantha and Seven's permission of course."

"So strange," Dexa said, "to see a cyborg so well adjusted. Granted, we never had any real cyborgs on Talax, only ones in stories, but they were always cautionary tales. This Seven of Nine though seems like a perfectly normal humanoid."

"There still aren't any cyborgs on Talax," Neelix said, "but that's mainly because we don't really have that level of technology yet."

"Neelix says you have something you wanted to discuss with me about the Badoon?" Janeway said. Of course, this was all a polite formality. Neelix had warned her ahead of time that he had concerns that the Talaxians in the asteroid field were unnecessarily mistrusting of the Badoon.

Dexa went on to explain in great detail about what had happened to The Future, though Janeway already knew some of that from the beacon.

"When the Badoon found our ship, they brought us here, to their world. They set aside some farmland for us, but wouldn't interact with us for years. I was born under what they called 'quarantine.' But it was just an excuse, they didn't want outsiders mixing with their people."

"But," Neelix said, "you told me that a few Talaxians still live on the Badoon homeworld. Are they still in quarantine?"

"Well, no…"

"Dexa," Neelix continued, Janeway deciding it best not to interrupt. "You weren't born yet. Is it at all possible that it really was a quarantine? I mean, there are procedures for first contact with new species aboard this ship too."

Dexa looked hurt that Neelix would think that.

"My husband died on one of those farms," she said.

"Did the Badoon kill him?" Janeway said.

"No," Dexa said reflexively. Then paused. "I mean… it is their fault but…"

"Do you really think that," Neelix said, taking Dexa's hand in his, "or is that Oxilon talking?"

"Please," Janeway said, "Dexa, tell the rest of your story."

Dexa nodded. "It wasn't long before we realized there wasn't enough land to feed all of us, especially once babies started being born. Our leader at the time, Oxilon's uncle, told us we would just have to conserve resources."

"That doesn't sound very unreasonable," Janeway said. "Was any attempt made to negotiate with the Badoon for more land?"

Dexa looked down. "In the past, whenever children asked me about our time there I'd say no, but what Neelix just said… I don't know, truly. Many have said that we tried and failed, but some of the elders claim that we tried to take land from poorer Badoon citizens. I never believed it before, but why does it seem so plausible to me now?"

"I imagine meeting Neelix had something to do with it," Janeway said. "He's giving you a perspective you'd never considered before. Back on Earth we have a saying. 'A fresh pair of eyes.' It doesn't literally mean replacing your eyes of course, it means that sometimes getting input from someone who hasn't been directly involved with a thing long enough to form a bias can be very valuable."

Dexa nodded.

"Tell me more," Neelix said, "about what happened to your husband."

"He didn't like being told what to do by Badoon authorities, so he started farming outside the restricted zone. The owner of the land killed him."

"What happened to the landowner?" Dexa wiped a tear away from her eye.

"He was arrested," she said. "Oxilon liked to tell me that they only did it to save face, but now I wonder if that's true. The Badoon imprisoned him on grounds of unnecessary use of lethal force. I remember now, they told me that the landowner killed my husband after only one warning, and there was no sign my husband had used violence. I never thought to find out but…" Dexa stopped for a moment and looked up at the ceiling, "Yes, I think it's possible he's still in prison."

Neelix put a hand on Dexa's shoulder. Janeway stood up and walked around to do the same on the other shoulder.

"Oxilon is going to get you killed," Neelix said. "I've seen this happen before."

"What do you mean?" Dexa said.

"Years ago, when I was a young man, the Talaxian people launched a war against a people called the Haakonians. They'd done nothing to us, but the government spent months convincing the people they were an imminent threat. A few people like me saw through the lies though, and fled the system before we could be drafted to fight. Our people were ruthless. Killed civilians without any concern or remorse. Eventually, as an act of desperation, the Haakonians used a weapon of mass destruction on our colony on Rinax. The moon had been terraformed nearly a century after The Future left, but our colony there is gone now. Including my family."

"And you aren't angry at the Haakonians?"

"I was, for a little while," Neelix admitted, "but in the end, that weapon would never have even been built let alone used if our aggression hadn't driven them to it."

"And you see that kind of aggression in Oxilon," Dexa said. It wasn't a question.

"I do," Neelix said.

Dexa cried, and Janeway felt for her. She had no idea what it felt like to grow up surrounded by xenophobia your whole life, but she had some experience with being lied to so she could empathize at least. She looked at Neelix.

"So, what now?"

"I don't know, Captain," Neelix said. "I'm really worried, like I said. But at the same time, what can I do? Oxilon seems so dead set on hating the Badoon for perceived injustices there's no way we could get him to come to a negotiating table."

"We can talk to him together," Dexa said. "He listens to me, sometimes. He helped take care of me and Brax when we came to the asteroid."

Neelix looked at Janeway.

"It's worth a shot," she said. She watched as Neelix and Dexa left her ready room together, and sighed. She wasn't completely sure, but she had a nagging feeling that when Voyager left this region of space, they would be leaving without Neelix. And the possibility filled her with so many mixed emotions, she decided to forego her afternoon coffee and asked the replicator to give her tea instead.

"This is what Talaxian ships look like these days?" Dexa said as she and Brax climbed into Neelix's ship.

"On, no," Neelix said. "This one's older and smaller than most. Still, we've been through alot together. Some of those superficial scratches on the hull you might've seen on the way in? Some of those the old crate got without even having to leave Voyager's shuttlebay."

Neelix continued his pre-flight check, glad he'd taken Tom's advice to keep in practice despite the fact he rarely left Voyager with it, especially since they left the sector of the Delta Quadrant he'd known the best a mere three years into their journey.

"Why are we taking your ship to the asteroid?" Dexa asked.

"Lieutenant Ayala and Commander Tuvok convinced me that a ship with a Talaxian signature would be less likely to get mining charges blown up in it's face. Deliberately anyway. Plus, Voyager's too far away to use transporters if I need to leave in a hurry."

"You think Oxilon will try to hurt you?" Brax said.

"It's possible," Neelix said. "Though I hope it won't come to that."

"Shuttle control to Neelix, you're cleared for launch," Harry Kim's voice said over the ship's comm.

"We're just about ready, Harry," Neelix said.

"Good luck," Harry said.

"Thanks," Neelix said. I'll need it, he thought. He strapped in after helping Brax and Dexa do the same. The inertial dampeners were in excellent shape of course, but if there were any shockwaves or some other cause to do evasive maneuvers, best not to risk the child getting thrown around into walls.

The trip to the main asteroid was less dramatic than the Delta Flyer's had been, much to Neelix's relief, but it had taken informing the Talaxian that Oxilon had left in charge of communications that he was returning two of his people to convince him to allow a landing.

When the three stepped off the ship, Oxilon and two armed men waited for them.

"I was ready to fear the worst," Oxilon said. "That you had kidnapped them. I am relieved to see I was wrong. Thank you for bringing them home. You can go now, Neelix."

"Not yet," Neelix said. "You and I need to have a conversation about your situation here in the asteroid field and the Badoon mining rights."

"What is there to say about it?" Oxilon said. "They had no people and only a smattering of probes to take samples here. It was open territory based on every space law I know of."

"I believe a peaceful solution can be found," Neelix said, "but it needs to happen now, before you antagonize them too much. There's no popular support on Badoon for just forcing you out right now, but I doubt that'll hold forever."

"We'll be more than ready to defend ourselves," Oxilon said. "We've got mining charges on rocks with low ore count, we can use them to force back any potential invasion."

"You can't be serious," Dexa said. "If we damage or worse destroy their ships, they'll bring a whole fleet to bear on us. Neelix was right, your ways are going to get us killed."

"Have the aliens been poisoning your mind, Dexa?" Oxilon said.

"No, that would be you," Dexa said. "Filling it with hate. The Badoon aren't perfect, they've done things they shouldn't, and I will never forgive the one who murdered my husband but we can't keep living like this. We can co-exist with them if we make a real effort."

"Nonsense," Oxilon said. "They're aliens. It's what aliens always do in the end."

"How would you know?" Neelix said. "How many other species besides the Badoon had you met before the Delta Flyer crashed here?"

Oxilon was moved to silence by that. The guards looked even more furtive, one even lowering his weapon as he appeared to contemplate what was being said.

"The Badoon have traded with other worlds before," Oxilon said. "My uncle told me he'd sometimes see other aliens at the spaceports on Badoon. And he said they always looked at Talaxians like we were less than them."

"Maybe that's just how he interpreted it," Neelix said. "There's a race in the Federation, the government that Voyager belongs to, called the Bolians. In their language, the word Frederick is a vulgarity. Among the most offensive words a native Bolian speaker could use. But to humans, the word Frederick is an uncommon but not rare name given to boys upon their birth. And yet, despite this, the humans and Bolians have gotten along for over a century. In fact, Bolians are one of the most common races to be found on Federation ships, apart from Humans, Vulcans, and Betazoids. How could your uncle, who had so little experience with aliens, automatically know what their facial expressions would mean, especially after only a few encounters?"

At some point during the conversation, a crowd had gathered. Quietly enough that Neelix had actually failed to notice while he was maintaining eye contact with Oxilon.

"Tell them about Rinax," Dexa said.

"Rinax?" Brax said.

"It was one of our moons," Dexa told Brax. "back from the system our ancestors came from before they ended up here."

"What's this about Rinax? What is she talking about?" Oxilon said.

Neelix told Oxilon, and the whole crowd, everything, including details he'd not shared with Dexa aboard Voyager. Some of the crowd looked shocked and horrified, though if it was at the war, or Neelix's refusal to fight he couldn't be certain. The angry ones though, them he was pretty sure resented Neelix for refusing to fight.

"That won't happen here," Oxilon said. "If the Badoon just let us keep this asteroid field, there need not be any bloodshed."

Some of the gathered crowd shouted at him.

"You had us set up mines!" one Talaxian yelled.

"You've been telling us the Badoon are savages for years but we've never seen them actually do anything!" another shouted.

Some other Talaxians began shouting back at the shouters, defending Oxilon, but as best Neelix could tell from the din they were the minority.

Oxilon was losing the crowd, Neelix could tell. He dared not push his luck though.

I didn't think it would be this easy, Neelix thought. But I can't afford to tempt fate.

"Get off my asteroid!" Oxilon shouted at him, taking a gun from one of the guards standing next to him, causing gasps to ripple through the crowd.

"Leave him alone!" a Talaxian woman Neelix couldn't see yelled.

"Send him back to his alien friends!" a man shouted.

Brax tried to get in between Neelix and Oxilon, but Dexa grabbed him and struggled to hold him back. Neelix took a deep breath and walked forward.

He had not planned to say what he was about to say next, but the words came to him anyway. He hesitated to say them, knowing there was no walking back from it, and already feeling the guilt starting to well up at the thought of abandoning his crew of the past seven years, especially when they had not yet recovered from the loss of Commander Chakotay.

"No," he said to Oxilon, quietly hoping that the angry Talaxian in front of him wouldn't fire. "I'm staying. I'm staying, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure that what happened to Rinax doesn't happen here."

Oxilon snarled at him, so angry that he appeared to forget what kind of weapon he was holding and swung it at Neelix instead of trying to shoot him.

Neelix did not have the best rating with a hand phaser on Voyager, even after having done some training with Tuvok, but he was good enough to pull it out and fire it at Oxilon, stunning him.

"He's not dead," Neelix shouted, holding up this phaser. "This weapon has a stun setting. He'll wake up shortly." The guards who had been flanking Oxilon seemed unsure what to do. Dexa walked up to them. Neelix had to admit to himself he found her confidence in that moment inspiring, and even a little attractive.

"Take him to his room," she said, pointing at Oxilon. "He is not under arrest, but don't let him have a weapon. I think we can still convince him to see reason, and if he does that will only make him a better leader." That last part was directed more at the crowd than the guards.

Eventually, the crowd cleared, leaving Neelix alone on the landing bay with Dexa and Brax.

"So," Dexa said, "now what?"

"Now," Neelix said, sadness in his voice, "I go and say goodbye to my friends."

There were times when Captain Janeway hated being right, and as she finished her personal log entry about her mixed emotions regarding Neelix's impending departure, this was one of those times. She'd seen this coming the moment Neelix told Dexa about Rinax and the Metreon Cascade, but a part of her had thought, or maybe hoped, that Neelix would stick around.

It was unsurprising that Naomi had, according to Samantha, been the one to take the news the hardest. She'd grown up with Neelix. He was her godfather after all, and up until the time when the little girl was mature enough to walk around the ship unsupervised and until Seven of Nine entered her life, she'd spent more time with him than anyone apart from her mother.

That didn't mean that anyone was happy to see him leave, though.

She heard the chime noise, and said "Enter."

She looked up, surprised to see Brian Sofin enter her ready room.

"Mister Sofin," she said, "I wasn't aware we had a meeting today."

"We didn't, Captain," he said. "In fact we haven't really spoken much beyond the odd 'good morning' since the last time I was on this deck, two years ago."

"When I stripped you of you rank, yes, I remember," Janeway said. "You've done a good job since then. I know I've failed to make that clear, but I'm really proud of how well all of you from the Equinox, even Angelo Tassoni, have integrated into this crew."

"Thank you, Captain, but that's not why I'm here," Sofin said. "It's about Neelix."

Janeway nodded. "I'd heard the two of you had become good friends," she said. "But if you want me to try and talk him out of leaving…"

"No, Captain," Sofin said. "I mean, I'm requesting permission to stay as well."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"He told me what the situation on those asteroids is like, Captain, and it seems to me that if this Oxilon has as many supporters as Neelix thinks he does, and if they're angry enough…"

"You want to be Neelix's bodyguard," Janeway said, deducing where the young man was going with this. "I appreciate the thought, but what about your family in the Alpha Quadrant?"

Sofin looked down, the most ashamed he'd looked since after the Equinox had been destroyed.

"I can't face them, Captain," Sofin said. "With what I did, what I was party too. My parents are pacifists to the core. They didn't even fight the Dominion. Not that they oppose self-defense mind you, just, well, I mean Mom's a fifth generation member of the diplomatic corp. Her great-grandfather was the first Federation ambassador to set foot on the Gorn homeworld. And Dad, Dad's a xenobiologist. He studied creatures like the ones we killed for fuel."

"You think they won't forgive you?"

"They already did," Sofin said. "I got letters from them through the Midas array. They say they understand I was in a difficult situation, and that I never actually killed one of the Ankari Spirit of Good Fortune directly but…"

Janeway was tempted to just reject the request outright, but looking at the man standing at attention before her, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Mostly because she realized she couldn't think of a good reason to.

"What do you want me to tell your parents?" she said.

"Tell them that I'm staying behind to help protect a friend," Sofin said. "And that I hope one day that I can reach a point where I can forgive myself for letting them down by agreeing to help Captain Ransom kill those creatures. Tell them that I'm looking for a second chance to be someone that Paul and Elisa Sofin can be proud to call their son."

Janeway smiled a sad smile.

"I think you already are, Brian," she said. "The ceremony for Neelix's departure is at 1300 hours tomorrow. It'll be in the shuttlebay, by Neelix's ship."

"Thank you, Captain," Brian Sofin said, smiling as he left.

Janeway sighed. "Shit, might as well update the log entry."

Seven of Nine, holding one of Naomi's hands while Samantha held the other, thought back on some of her experiences with Neelix. She found that, even when she thought about some of the more annoying ones, like him trying to get her to try foods she wasn't interested in, or his early attempts to convince her to go by her birth name, she was still going to miss him. Sam and Naomi seemed to be using all their strength to keep from crying. They'd known him longer than she had, so the reaction was not unexpected.

She looked at Icheb, who luckily seemed to be taking it better than most. He said he was going to miss hearing old Talaxian stories, but that he felt that what Neelix was doing was admirable enough to warrant celebration rather than sadness. Seven decided she'd explain it to him later.

The door to the shuttle bay opened, and Captain Janeway gave the order to stand at attention. Everyone did, even Naomi and Icheb. Not every crew member could fit in the shuttlebay of course, but as many as could fit were here for the send off. Janeway and Brian Sofin, whose announced departure had been as shocking to the crew as Neelix's, stood by Neelix's old ship. Neelix walked in, looking at everyone, saying goodbye to each crew member, a Starfleet issue duffel bag over his shoulders. Seven realized that without any warning, she was ready to cry too, and had to choke back a sob when, after shaking Marla Gilmore's hand and giving a Live Long and Prosper salute to Tuvok and Vorik, he walked up to Seven, Sam, and the kids.

"Good luck, Neelix," Sam said. Naomi grabbed Neelix in a big hug while Icheb shook his hand and offered him some tips on how to spot possible assassination attempts.

I'll have to find out how he knows that, Seven thought.

"You know," Neelix said, "I think the four of you are gonna be the ones I miss the most. It's been a pleasure to watch you become a family."

"Thank you," Seven said. "It has been a pleasure knowing you. Even the times when you could be… vexing, proved valuable to my learning how to be more human."

Sam, Naomi, and Neelix all laughed at that comment, and Seven smiled.

"Neelix," Captain Janeway said. "Before you go, I have one last gift for you." She motioned to Lieutenants Ayala and Anderson who lifted a crate and carried it onto Neelix's ship.

"What is it?" Neelix said.

Seven stepped forward. "It is a small version of the technology that allows this ship two-way communication with Starfleet," she said. "It is limited unfortunately. Much like our own communications prior to Project Watson, it'll only be usable every 31 days. However, it will allow you to contact us as well. And if we make it to the Alpha Quadrant sooner than projected by any means, be it new technology, or wormhole, or some other phenomena, we'll be able to let you know."

"That's amazing!" Neelix said. "Thank you so much, I don't even know where to start with how much I appreciate this."

Janeway stepped forward, and gave Neelix a hug. "Show your appreciation by saving this Talaxian colony from making the same mistakes your homeworld did. Show it by surviving. Show it by bringing the Talaxians and the Badoon together. That's an order, Mister," she added with a smile.

Neelix saluted the Captain. "I won't let you down, Captain."

Neelix turned around and looked at the gathered crew. "Goodbye, my friends."

He waved at everyone, and turned and climbed into his ship, Brian Sofin walking in with his own duffel bag on his shoulders. Ayala and Anderson exited and retook their places in the procession. Everyone stepped back as the ship's engines powered up and began to move towards the open shuttle bay door. They all watched quietly as it passed through the force field out into the stars.

Seven leaned against Samantha, who kissed her on the the cheek. "I'm sure he'll be fine, Annie. They both will."

"I agree," Seven said.

"I'm surprised Jaffen wasn't here," Seven overheard Tom say.

"He didn't know Neelix that well," Janeway said, shrugging. "At least that was his excuse. I get the feeling he's not a fan of farewell ceremonies. Which is fair. Plenty of people don't like goodbyes."

Seven tuned out the rest of the conversation and she and her family left the shuttlebay.

"Mom?" Naomi said.

"Yes, sweetie?" Sam said.

"Could you and Seven tuck me in and tell me a bedtime story tonight?"

"I thought you were too mature for those now," Sam said, repeating words that Naomi had used over a year ago back to her.

"I know, but…" Naomi didn't finish the sentence, looking embarrassed. Sam hugged her, and looked at Seven. "Neelix used to do that for her almost every night when she was real little, before you and I got together."

"I see," Seven said. "Well, in that case, I see no reason not to to do it tonight." She looked at Icheb while Sam and Naomi headed towards their quarters. "Icheb, before we do any of that, we need to have a talk about how you know so much about assassination attempts."

"Well, there's this holonovel that Mister Paris invited me to play with him last week…"

Seven sighed. "Dare I hope this one was age appropriate?"

"Lieutenant Paris does still regret that previous incident," Icheb said.

Chapter Eleven

Seven of Nine hummed to herself while she did her routine diagnostics in the astrometrics lab. Everything was working fine of course, as it usually did, but she would not let pride in her work get in the way of her work. Just as she was wrapping, the noise associated with the detection of something new on long range scanners got her attention.

As advanced as the sensors were, some things just didn't show up at certain distances. Given the distance according to the data, this thing was far enough away that for it to have registered now meant it had to be huge, easily larger than a Borg cube, but putting out far less energy or she'd have seen it sooner. She could only get a rough silhouette of the object, which was at the center of a field of debris, possibly that of another ship, and residing inside a Mutara-class nebula.

She forwarded the data up to Lieutenant Kim's console on the bridge. If Captain Janeway decided this was something worth exploring, she and the bridge crew could take it from there. Seven finished her work in the lab, and immediately made her way to her quarters, where she and her wife Samantha would make plans for the latter's upcoming birthday.

Along the way though, she stopped.

Wait, she thought, her mind going back to the rough silhouette of the presumably derelict ship. Why do I feel like I've seen that somewhere before?

On the bridge, Harry gave the data Seven had sent him from astrometrics a once over before forwarding it to Janeway. He hoped Janeway would give the order to investigate, though he couldn't quite place his finger on why. The details on the ship were minimal given the distance. Even Voyager's Borg enhanced sensors could only do so much. Even so, something about it seemed familiar, like he'd seen that silhouette in images before. Perhaps if it had been something he'd seen personally it would be stronger in his memory.

I've seen that design somewhere before, Janeway thought as she reviewed the data Harry Kim had forwarded to her. For some reason it makes me think of the Deltan homeworld, but their ships never looked that, did they?

"Mister Paris," she said, "adjust course to take us closer to this nebula. Just close enough to get a better look at that ship."

"Yes, Captain," Tom said.

"Active or passive scan, Captain?" Harry said.

"Passive," Janeway said. "I hate to admit it, but I can't put my finger on why that thing makes me nervous."

She saw Tom look down at his console, only to shudder. "You aren't alone, Captain. I'm getting a bad sense of deja vu here."

"Fascinating," Commander Tuvok said. "I also must admit to some trepidation about getting so close to this derelict vessel, despite being certain I have never seen anything quite like it before."

"Didn't Seven of Nine say she would get feelings like this while doing her research on the Borg degradation?" Lieutenant Ayala said.

"Yeah, I think she did," Janeway said. "Ayala, take us to Yellow Alert. Tom, once we know exactly what that ship is, get us back on our original course, maximum warp."

"Captain," Tom said, "might I suggest we just do that anyway?"

"I'd be lying if I said I'm not considering it," Janeway admitted. "But I'm also curious as to why this thing seems so damn familiar."

"Understood," Tom said.

It took barely an hour for Voyager to get close enough to get a more detailed scan of the derelict. It was definitely dead, no apparent signs of any sensor activity from it, passive or active. The viewscreen changed from a view of the stars outside the ship to a silhouette of the vessel as the long range sensor's real-time update began to fill in the details. Once the detail reached a certain point however, the bridge somehow managed to fall more silent than it had already been. Janeway thought she even heard the general background noises of the ship fade away, as impossible as that should've been while everything was still clearly working.

She stood up, and forced herself to walk closer, as if somehow seeing it closer would make it not true. She saw in her peripheral vision that Tom's hand was shaking. But it was true. She had seen one of these ships before, though only from second hand sensor data from a joint attack on the Deltan homeworld done alongside the Borg, years ago.

How could I have forgotten? she thought. How did we all manage to forget?

"That's a Cyberman ship," she said. "That's not possible."

"Do I get us the hell out of here now, ma'am?" Tom said.

"No," Janeway said, surprising even herself. "I want to make sure that thing is as dead as it looks. If it is, we can go about our business. If not, we need to warn Starfleet as soon as the next communication window is open."

Seven of Nine nearly knocked over several crewmembers as she bolted towards the bridge. She had no doubt that everyone on the bridge, unless they'd happened to be nowhere near any information sources during the short-lived Borg/Cybermen alliance, would recognize that ship. If so, they were going to need her expertise.

"Whoa, hey, Seven, where's the fire?" she heard someone say. She turned, but walked backwards as she did so, so as to keep getting closer to the turbolift. She saw the visibly concerned face of Noah Lessing.

"I remember everything now," Seven said, breathing heavily from her run. "I know why the Borg are dying, but right now I need to make sure we get out of this nebula alive."

"No lifesigns," Harry said, "and a sizeable hull breach on the opposite side of the hull from us according to scans."

"I'm skeptical that the entire crew of this ship got blown out through that hole," Janeway said. "I doubt the Cybermen could be smart enough to manipulate the Borg into an alliance and get away with betraying them, only to not have precautions in place to prevent something like that. Humanity figured out how to prevent that kind of disaster before we even sent manned vessel outside our solar system."

"No sign of activity of any kind on the part of the ship," Ayala said. "No sign that weapons are powering up, their warp drive, or whatever they use for FTL, is powered down. I think we're looking at a dead ship."

No one said anything, but the tension on the bridge melted away so fast Harry could swear he actually felt it. His own body felt considerably less tense.

"I suppose this means we can move on now," Tom said.

"No," Janeway said, smiling. "I think this means we can go home now."

"What?" Tom said.

I agree, Harry thought. What is she talking about? And is she smiling like a school kid?

"Think about it," Janeway said. "What do you remember about the attack on Delta IV now that our memories are restored?"

"Not much," Tom said. "I was still in the academy. I remember being terrified the Borg were coming for Earth again."

"The latest memory I have of that specific period," Tuvok said, "was the Borg and Cyberman fleets both disappearing, and hearing my commanding officer at the time say that the Enterprise-D had ignored orders and begun pursuing them."

"Yes, but also," Janeway said, standing up, "that the enemy fleet was headed for the Delta Quadrant."

"How did you know that?" Harry asked.

"I was acting Captain of the Al-Bitani at the time," Janeway said. "Owen Paris had just been promoted, and his replacement was waylaid because of the attacks. Before the combined Borg and Cyberman fleets left though, the Enterprise informed us about a key Cyberman weakness. Gold."

"Gold?" Tom said, sounding like he didn't believe that could possibly be true.

"We were under orders to go to any planets within less than a few day's warp that had known gold deposits. We did, but the time we'd gathered the material, it was over. Captain Picard sent a fleetwide report that the Cybermen had been defeated. The report included log data from the Enterprise. The Cybermen had advanced engines that had put them halfway from Federation space to Borg space in a matter of days."

"And if the engine of the Cyberman vessel is intact," Tuvok said, "it is possible we could use it, much as we have done in the past with other experimental types of engines, to return to the Alpha Quadrant in exponentially less time than we are currently facing."

"With all due respect, Captain," Tom said, smiling "You probably should've led with that last part."

Harry couldn't help but laugh at that, and surprisingly, Captain Janeway laughed too. Harry struggled to remember the last time he'd head her laugh.

"Yeah, you're probably right, Tom. Commander Tuvok, assemble an away team. Just to be safe of course, modify the phaser rifles. We actually do have some non-synthetic gold in the cargo bay. And to think, I only took it from the traders we met last week to be nice."

The turbolift door opened and Seven of Nine burst out, her breathing labored.

"Cybermen," she said, "the ship we… why does everyone look happy?"

Harry, who was the closest to Seven, took a step to the side and patted her on the shoulder.

"The ship's a derelict," he said. "But we think we can use it to get home."

"Oh," Seven said. She looked around the bridge. "I suppose it would be too much to ask that we never discuss my rather abrupt entrance ever again? It was… mildly embarrassing."

"Yep," Tom said.

Seven had wanted to go with the away team that was heading over to the Cyberman vessel, but Captain Janeway had assured her that there would be plenty of opportunities later and that Tuvok's team's only job was to assure that the ship was truly dead, and to restore the vessel's life support if possible.

"What we need to do in the meantime," Janeway said, "is compare notes. I imagine that your Borg memories of the Cybermen will have more details than what we have."

"I believe so, yes," Seven said. "Though that knowledge may also be corrupted."

"How so?"

"I would need to have access to that ship's memory banks if possible to confirm it, Captain, but I'm convinced that the Borg Degradation theory I've spoken of before is tied into the Collective's alliance with and betrayal by the Cybermen."

Janeway did not seem surprised, which was a surprise in itself to Seven.

"That makes a lot of sense," Janeway said. "If the Cybermen intended to stab the Borg in the back, they'd want to make sure the Collective was in no condition to retaliate."

"What I'd like to know," Harry Kim said, "is how come we had no memory of what the Cybermen had done in the Alpha Quadrant until we saw that ship."

"That wasn't the Cybermen themselves," Seven said. "It was the time traveler who allied himself with Captain Picard. His real name is unknown but he goes by The Doctor and is native to the universe the Cyberman originate from."

Janeway smiled. "I see I was right in assuming you had more knowledge than we did. Prepare a data packet. As soon as Tuvok gets back we'll have a senior staff meeting. We need to know as much about this ship as possible if we're going to safely use it for our purposes."

"I'll get on that right away, Captain," Seven said.

The Borg Queen had convinced herself she left the visible damage on the side of the Class-4 cube she currently occupied so that when she finally caught up Voyager, they would know that the Queen had personally been the one responsible for their destruction.

This was illogical. Revenge was a concern for organics. Symbolism was a concern for organics. But the Borg Queen's state as the degradation accelerated had grown to the point where she no longer even noticed that the Collective had separated itself from her cube. It was common practice when a cube showed signs of an infection that could harm the Collective.

It had happened once before, with a Borg that had been corrupted by humans who had named it Hugh. Hugh's cube was severed from the Collective, denied perfection, it and the rest of its cube's drones left adrift, their fate not known until new knowledge was obtained from Starfleet on the second failed attempt to assimilate Earth.

It was all too late for the Collective, but neither they nor the Queen knew that. What she was aware of now was that the decline of the Borg was happening. It was taking longer to adapt and to regenerate. Reaction times had slowed.

The Borg Queen was certain that Captain Janeway knew it as well, and had taken advantage of it to escape this cube one human year prior. This alone, the Queen convinced herself, was why even though she'd been tracking Voyager ever since her Captain had planted the virus that had kept her from destroying Unimatrix Zero, they had not moved in to attack them. The cube had briefly lost track of Voyager some months ago, near a planet called Quarra according to the crew of the small freighter they had assimilated, but they had found the Starfleet vessel once again.

The Borg Queen's physical form nearly collapsed as the rush of once-lost information returned to her all at once. On the viewscreen in her alcove, grainy due to distance and interference from the nebula, was a ship of a design that the Collective had paradoxically forgotten and assumed would never see again.

"They did this," she said aloud, the drones around her ignoring her verbal outburst. "It's all so clear now. The Cybermen infected us. That is why we have been suffering these past several years. And now Captain Janeway has access to the source of this insult to our quest for perfection. We must approach this cautiously. We are but one cube, and a damaged one at that. There is no other vessel close enough."

There were. The Borg Queen simply could no longer hear them. She did not know it, but the end of the Borg Collective as it had once been was coming.

"To avoid confusion," The Doctor said from his seat in the briefing room, "I believe we should refer to the time-travelling alien who aided Captain Picard by his real name, seeing as I also am called 'The Doctor,'"

"I would," Seven of Nine said, understanding where The Doctor was coming from even though she was able to keep the two men separate in her mind easily, "except that name is unknown to anyone apart from The Doctor — the time-traveller, himself."

"You said his species name was Gallifreyan," Captain Janeway said. "Let's just call him that."

"Why would his real name be a secret, anyway?" Tom Paris said.

"Also unknown," Seven said. "One theory is that his species only believe in sharing their given names with loved ones, such as blood relatives, spouses, children, etc. Another theory the Cybermen had was that it's a matter of simplicity. It was never confirmed, but some sources they, well, assimilated for want of a better phrase suggest that a Gallifreyan's name gets a new syllable added to it after any major event, such a wedding, a death in the family, a regeneration…"

"We're getting sidetracked here," Janeway said. "Back to the alliance with the Borg. How did it happen, why did the Cybermen betray the Borg, and how did this ship, out of all the ones the Cybermen sent to our reality, end up still being here."

Seven of Nine summed it up as best she could, realizing that not every point was relevant, no matter how interesting she found it.

"...thus after The Doc-, the Gallifreyan succeeded in defeating the Cybermen, their entire fleet was destroyed. The Borg were able to remotely activate every single ship's self-destruct mechanism. Shortly afterwards, the Conduit attempted to assimilate the Gallifreyan's ship, but was stopped by the ship itself, acting through Commander Data. Once the Cybermen were destroyed, our universe began to revert back to what we would consider normal, with our memories of events altered."

"None of which explains why this particular Cyberman ship is still here," Janeway said.

"Or what happened to all the Cybermen on the ship," Joe Carey said, sitting where B'Elanna normally would. "All we found were parts, but there's no way that every single one of them could've been blown through that hull breach."

"I have a theory on that," Harry said, touching a few button on his PADD, bringing up detailed information on the sector of space they were in on the monitor. "Using astrometrics data, Seven and I determined that there had been a subspace sandbar in this nebula. It wasn't stationary, like the one we were caught in a few years ago, but based on its observed trajectory, the Cyberman vessel would've been caught in it."

"I believe once I've had a chance to look at the ship's databanks I can answer these question," Seven said. "I would like permission to join the next away mission."

"I was going to send you anyway," Janeway said. "Carey, prep Vorik and Gilmore on what you learned about their engines while you were over there with Tuvok. They're in charge of seeing if we use their technology to upgrade our own engines."

"If we can't?" Carey said.

Janeway sighed, and Seven suspected she knew what was coming next.

"Well, that ship is more than large enough to hold all of us, plus our belongings," she said. "Hell, we could even fit our shuttles in there."

"Captain," Seven said, pulling up a schematic of the Cyberman vessel, and placing it side-by-side with an image of Voyager. "I believe we may not need to attempt to integrate the technologies at all. As you can see here, Voyager is small enough to fit in between the two circular protrusions that make up the middle and rear-most sections of the ship."

"That could work," Tom said. "We could use magnetic clamps to affix the ship's landing struts to the Cyberman ship's hull. And putting it right there," he pointed at the monitor, "would protect Voyager if there were any sort of subspace or gravimetric shear to worry about."

"I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here," Janeway said, but Seven was convinced it was a viable plan. Certainly the fastest as well, as even if Cyberman technology could safely be integrated into Voyager's, something she was skeptical about for security reasons, it would most likely take longer to perform the upgrades than it would to simply attach Voyager to the hull, send over a small team to man the Cybership's controls, and-

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of Tom Paris and The Doctors' comm badges chirping simultaneously.

"Tom! Doctor, I need you in sickbay!" B'Elanna yelled.

"What's wrong?" Tom said.

"It's time!" B'Elanna said. "Get your asses down here now, because there is no way in hell I am doing this by myself!"

"You better go," a smiling Janeway said. "And congratulations," she added as Tom and The Doctor both bolted to the door. Once they were gone, Harry looked around the room.

"At the risk of sounding like an ass," he said, "are we going to wait until after the baby's out to continue with the plan, or do we do it while we're waiting?"

"It's a fair question to ask, Lieutenant Kim," Janeway said, standing up, "but I think we'll wait until we've had a chance to say hello to our newest resident. Dismissed."

Marla Gilmore walked into the Cyberman engine room, Vorik close behind her. Lydia Anderson waited outside, holding her phaser rifle so tight Marla was afraid she might break it.

Considering what we know about the Cybermen and what they're capable of, she thought, I don't suppose I can blame her.

She went over to the nearby console to begin the process of powering up the ship's engines. As they began to operate, more lights came on in the room, allowing her a better look at the Cyberman's faster-than-light drive.

She gasped.

"Is there a problem Miss Gilmore?" Vorik said.

"Vorik? I think I'm in love," Marla said, smiling like the proverbial child in a candy store.

Vorik's eyebrow raised, but he didn't make any comments about humans and their ability to form emotional attachments to inanimate objects like many Vulcans did. Marla figured he was probably just used to it at this point.

"It is certainly an impressive feat of engineering," he said instead.

The sound of footsteps coming from behind them drew Marla's attention, but the lack of phaser fire let her know that it was probably someone from Voyager, if not Lydia herself. She turned to see Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine enter.

"At ease Marla, I just wanted to get a look at… at…" Janeway's jaw dropped as she looked up at the full extent of the Cyberman engine. Even Seven of Nine looked visibly awed.

"Oh, you are beautiful."

"Miss Gilmore," Seven said, "if you would be so kind as to direct me to the memory core. I was told it wasn't on the bridge."

"Yeah, Cybermen don't design their ships quite like any other race I've ever encountered," Marla said. "The databanks are this way."

"Thank you," Seven said. "On an unrelated note, I thought you might like to know that Lieutenant Torres went into labor an hour ago."

Marla smiled. "Remind me to give my congrats when we get back to Voyager," she said. "How's it going?"

"I do not know the details," Seven said. "The Doctor will inform us once the process has completed."

"Man, what a day," Marla said. "We might get to go home 30 years early, and a new baby-"

Tuvok's voice came out of everyone's comm badge, cutting off Marla's comment.

"Tuvok to away team. Long range sensors have detected a Borg cube entering the nebula. They will be in weapons range in approximately two minutes. Prepare for transport."

"Wait," Captain Janeway said. "Anderson, are any of this ship's weapon's operational?"

"The main weapon is, yes," Anderson replied. "But it can only fire in one direction. The Borg cube would need to be within 15 degrees of the front end of this ship."

"Get to the control center and get the shields, or whatever the Cyberman equivalent is, up," Janeway said. "Gilmore, Vorik, get this ship maneuverable. Seven-"

Marla heard the sound and shouted for everyone to get to cover. Several Borg drones transported right into the heart of the Cybership's engineering sector. Everyone had their phasers out, except for Marla who didn't have one. She felt someone grab her, and looked to see Seven pulling her behind a console.

"Seven," Marla said, pointing at a nearby metal arm that wasn't attached to any body. "Lydia said the weapon on the hand is still operational and warned me not to touch it."

"Got it," Seven said, leaping towards the arm.

"Commander," Ayala said, "the Borg cube has started transporting drones over to the Cyberman ship."

Tuvok, sitting in the command chair, looked at the viewscreen.

"Lieutenant Kim," he said, "enhance the image of the cube."

"Sir?"

"I have a hypothesis," Tuvok said. "Do it."

The image on the screen zoomed into the approaching cube

"I'll be damned," Harry said. "A Class-4 cube."

"Not just any Class-4 cube, Mister Kim," Tuvok said. "Look at the location of the unrepaired scorch marks on the outer hull. That is the same cube we boarded during the Unimatrix Zero mission."

"Seven's Borg Degradation theory looks to be accurate. That was a year ago and that cube still hasn't fully repaired?"

"Ensign Brooks," Tuvok said, "begin combat maneuvers. Mister Ayala, target the damaged areas of the cube and fire at will."

"Aye, sir," Ayala said.

If I am right, Tuvok thought, we can provide sufficient distraction for the away team to activate and use the Cyberman weapons. That should even the odds in this battle, if not turn them in our favor.

Janeway, Anderson, and Vorik made quick work of the first wave of drones. The second wave, the same number of drones as before transported in, and only three fell, the other two shrugging off the phaser blasts..

"They've adapted," Janeway shouted. "Adjust frequencies."

"Captain," Vorik said, "I believe it is worth noting that it took two drones more than it usually does for them to adapt."

"Noted," Janeway said as she tapped the buttons on her phaser. Before she could finish however, a loud noise filled the Cybership's engineering, and she looked up to see the two drones cut down by a volley of weapons fire she didn't recognize. She turned towards it's source, and saw Seven of Nine holding the arm of a dead Cyberman like a weapon.
Seven raised an eyebrow.

"Impressive," she said.

"To put it mildly," Janeway said. "We need to get to the control center before the cube sends any more drones."

"The fact that no more have been sent already suggests the cube is planning to change tactics," Seven said.

"Tuvok to away team, are you alright?"

Janeway tapped her comm badge to reply.

"So far," she said. "Status report."

"We have engaged the cube," Tuvok said. "We have determined it is the same Class-4 cube we encountered last year."

"Are you sure?" Janeway said, surprised at what she was hearing.

"Certain," Tuvok replied. The damage caused by the core we overloaded remains largely unrepaired."

"The Collective is in worse shape than I assumed," Seven of Nine said.

The Borg Queen largely ignored the weapons fire coming from Voyager, only firing back occasionally. A small amount of damage had been done to the armor plating, but it was nothing that couldn't be repaired easily once this was over. She focused on scanning the two vessels her cube was approaching, looking for two people in particular whom she wanted to speak to personally.

"Scans have confirmed the individuals designated Captain Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine are on board the Cyberman vessel," the Collective's voice said, and the Borg Queen smiled.

"Prepare a transporter lock,' she said.

"Alert. Primary Cyberman weapon powering up."

"This is not a concern. Our armor is more than adeqeute to…" The Queen stopped talking for two reasons. First, she realized that she sounded to herself less like the voice of the Borg and more like a leader; an individual. Second, she wondered why she was so unconcerned about the potential damage a Cyberman ship could do to her cube when she remembered all too well how many cubes she'd lost to the Cybermen when they'd betrayed their alliance.

Her eyes widened. She gave the cube the order to begin evasive maneuvers.

It was too late.

"Main gun is on-line," Anderson said.

"I have a targeting lock," Seven said.

Janeway leaned against the Cyberman ship's equivalent of a captain's chair, somewhat disappointed that it was far too large for her to sit in comfortably, but she didn't need to be sitting to give her next order.

"Fire."

Harry Kim couldn't resist the urge to cheer as the viewscreen showed the weapons fire from the Cyberman vessel cut through the Borg cube's armored plating, causing massive explosions all over it.

"Mister Kim," Tuvok said, "Damage report."

"The cube got lucky," Harry said. "A lot of the shots they took at us missed wildly, but that last one they got in hurt our shields, and knocked our forward phaser banks off-line. It's repairable, but will take a full damage control team several minutes."

"Good thing they've stopped firing," Ayala said. "That blast from the Cyberman ship hurt them pretty bad. I'm picking up no signs of active weapons anywhere on that cube. Hull breaches all over the place, at least one of the armor plates is just gone."

"Lieutenant," Tuvok said, looking at Ayala. "Prepare a full spread of photon torpedoes, and target the cube's eng-"

"Anderson to Voyager! The Borg have the Captain and Seven!" Lydia Anderson's voice shouted over the comm.

Harry gulped.

"Mister Kim, can you get a transporter lock on them?" Tuvok asked.

"Negative, sir," Harry said, looking at one of the monitors on his console. "Some kind of interference field was put up just a second ago. That must be where the Captain and Seven are. It's crude, we can beam through it, but not out of it."

"Mister Ayala, prepare an extraction team," Tuvok said. "Mister Kim, attempt to open a comm channel to the Captain."

Seven looked around at the corridors of the Borg cube. It was a mess to put it mildly. The few drones that were still mobile seemed overwhelmed by the sheer amount of repairs.

"Looks like we hurt them even worse than we thought," Captain Janeway said. Seven hadn't realized at first that the Captain had been beamed over with her, but she shook off the surprise quickly, checking to see that the Cyberman arm blaster she'd been holding still worked.

"I would've assumed the Queen would've transported us straight to her alcove," Seven said.

"I wonder why she grabbed us instead of sending over more drones," Janeway said.

Seven gestured at the state of the corridor. "Probably didn't have enough to spare."

"Tuvok to Janeway," a garbled but still mostly audible voice came over Janeway's comm badge. "Lieutenant Anderson told us what happened. Are you alright?"

"So far," Janeway said. One drone, it's exposed organic parts showing signs of severe burns that would've had a human in too much pain to walk, approached them, assimilation tubules waving about menacingly.

"Come," it said, its voice garbled.

"The Borg Queen," Seven said. "She must be here."

"This may sound crazy," Janeway said, "but I get the feeling her royal pain in the ass is going to try to bargain her way out of this. That would explain why we weren't assimilated right away."

"That is just one possibility," Seven said. "She may try to get us to surrender."

"Yeah, well, good luck with that. Tuvok, keep a lock on our signal, but don't beam us out until I either give the signal, or our lifesigns fluctuate wildly."

"Understood, Captain," Tuvok's voice said.

"Lead on," Janeway said to the drone, who, limping, turned around and headed down the corridor. Shrugging, Janeway followed it, Seven close behind.

When the two entered the room the drone led them to, clearly where the Queen had set up her central alcove aboard this cube, they knew why they hadn't been beamed there right away. Even now, drones were clearing the floor.

"Captain Janeway. Seven of Nine," The Borg Queen said, stepping out of her alcove and moving close enough so they could hear her over the sounds of repairs. Seven, glancing around for signs of traps saw, several meters above them, the cube's vinculum. One of its supports was clearly broken, and one of the others looked little better. The last was stable, or so it appeared. One well placed explosion…

"It would seem we are at an impasse," the Queen said. "My weapons are badly damaged. But so are Voyager's and those of your captured Cyberman vessel. I admit, I had not expected that you simple-minded organics would learn to operate their superior technology so quickly. Shame you were only able to get one attack volley off before I was able to disable the main guns."

"'I'?" Janeway said, smirking. "When did this start?"

The Queen looked confused for a moment, then shook her head. "We."

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Janeway said. "The Degradation. You're starting to lose control over the Collective, aren't you."

"Impossible," the Queen said, defensively. "I am the Borg. We are Borg. This Cyberman virus has weakened us greatly, yes, but we will rebuild."

Well, that confirms that theory, Seven thought.

The Queen stepped forward in an effort to look threatening. With her gaze focused on Janeway, Seven allowed herself to risk raising the Cyberman weapon slightly, focusing on where she'd need to fire. Now if the Queen could just take one more step forward…

"I will take that Cyberman vessel from you, Captain," the Queen said, smiling now. "With it, we can cure this plague that has weakened our intelligence, our strength, made us a pale shadow of what we once were. And once that is done, we will begin anew our quest for perfection, bringing it to others in this galaxy."

"Whether they want it or not, of course," Janeway said. "What makes you think you can just take the Cyberman ship from us though? If you could've, Seven and I wouldn't be here. You'd be over there. Or on Voyager. Or both. I think you're trying to bluff me into surrender. Just goes to show how much that computer virus from another universe has rotted your brain."

"We are Borg!" the Queen shouted angrily, taking the last step forward Seven needed, but now she was looking as much at her as at Janeway. Seven would only get one chance. She began doing the math in her head one more time. She was certain she already had the right firing solution, but for a shot this important, not just to her, or her family, or her crewmates, but possibly to the entire galaxy…

"We have lost many of our voices, but they will be replaced. A newer, stronger Collective will rise. The Cybermen failed. You failed. And your crew will be the first of my new drones. But not you yourselves, no. You, Captain Kathryn Janeway, and you, Seven of Nine, will be the last act I take as the emotional, petty, being the Cyberman virus left me. As my last bit of spite before I return to being what I was always meant to be, a creature of logic, a part of a hive mind, will be this; I will decorate my central alcove with your bones!"

"Yeah," Seven said, "Fuck you too." She fired, hitting the one vinculum support, shattering it. The other, already damaged, snapped almost immediately from the weight. The Borg Queen moved to get out of the way of the heavy Borg device, but just as Seven had predicted, the Queen was unfamiliar enough with the concept of survival instinct, not having needed it for so long when she could just go to another body when the one she was in was destroyed, that she ended up stepping in just right the right place for the sharp bottom of the vinculum to pierce her skull. She didn't even have time to scream. The drones however, they screamed, and fell over, and twitched violently.

"We should probably go now," Janeway said, taking Seven's arm.

"No doubt," Seven said.

"Janeway to Tuvok, get us the hell out of here."

Janeway looked around, wondering why Harry had beamed her and Seven directly to the bridge, but she wasn't going to complain.

"Lieutenant Ayala, prepare a full torpedo spread," she said. "Janeway to Anderson."

"Anderson here. Glad to hear you're alright, Captain."

"I'm back on Voyager. Target the Borg cube and prepare another round. We're going to finish this."

"With pleasure, ma'am," Anderson replied.

Janeway straightened her uniform, took her seat in the Captain's chair, and looked at the damaged Borg cube on the viewscreen.

"Anderson, Ayala… fire."

The two vessels, one Starfleet, one Cyberman, cut loose on the Borg cube, tearing it apart within seconds.

"Their warp core's about to go critical," Harry Kim said.

"Back us off," Janeway said. "Janeway to away team, can you get that ship moving?"

"Somewhat," Marla Gilmore's voice replied.

"You've got…" she looked at Harry.

"Five seconds," Harry said.

"Damn it," Janeway said. "Hang on!"

The cube exploded, the shockwave spreading out in all directions. Voyager shuddered violently as it hit, but even as she gripped the arms of her chair, she could see on the screen that, amazingly, the Cyberman ship held, knocked back, but not showing any signs of damage.

That doesn't mean the people inside weren't hurt though, Janeway thought. Especially if they weren't secured.

"Away team to Voyager," Lydia Anderson's voice said over the comm, causing Janeway to openly breathe a sigh of relief. "We're alive. A little rattled, but alive."

"Good to hear, Lieutenant," Janeway said. "Good to hear."

"Sickbay to the Bridge," The Doctor's voice said.

"Go ahead," Janeway said.

"Is it safe to assume that the fighting is over?"

"That's correct."

"Good," The Doctor said. "Then now's the perfect time to announce that one Miral Paris has joined our crew, happy and healthy with her parents."

Cheers filled the bridge, coming from Ayala, Brooks at the helm, and Harry Kim.

Janeway smiled, and even felt tears of joy well up in her eyes.

"This really has been an interesting day," she said. "Give the parents my congratulations."

"When can we see the baby?" Naomi asked, practically bouncing with excitement.

Seven just laughed, while Sam patted Naomi on the head.

"When B'Elanna and Tom say we can, sweetie," she said.

"I am relieved the process went well," icheb said. "It's my understanding that the birth process, which is already difficult for many, is even more so for mixed species births."

Sam winced, remembering Naomi's birth and the unusual circumstances surrounding it.

"Yes, I'm aware," she said aloud. "It's hard to believe it's almost over. After seven years, this could be our last day in the Delta Quadrant."

"That's not entirely accurate," Seven said. "As fast as the Cyberman engines appear to be, it will still take us approximately six days to return to the Alpha Quadrant. Add an additional day if we choose to go straight to the Sol system as opposed to a deep space Federation colony."

"Well, still," Sam said, "as happy as I am, it's hard to not to have mixed emotions about this. It's the end of an era for us, really."

"Understandable," Icheb said. "I admit to having concerns of my own. I've never lived anywhere else than the Delta Quadrant."

"Same here," Naomi said, "but we'll be okay. You'll get to join Starfleet, and I'll get to meet my Dad."

"He's going to be happy to meet you too," Sam said.

"Seven," Icheb said, "is the Captain planning to hold some sort of ceremony to mark the end of Voyager's time in the Delta Quadrant?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Seven said, looking at Sam. Sam didn't believe there were any such plans either, so she nodded her agreement.

"Why do you ask?" she said.

"In my lessons with The Doctor last week he spoke of a concept called catharsis," Icheb said. "I believe that some catharsis for the crew prior to leaving the Delta Quadrant could possibly make it easier for them to readjust, or adjust in the case of myself, Naomi, Mister Jaffen, and Seven of Nine, to life in the Alpha Quadrant."

Sam smiled, while Seven put down her PADD to give the boy a hug.

"That is an excellent idea, Icheb," Seven said. "I agree with your assessment."

Icheb smiled, and even blushed a little. "Thank you. Would either of you be willing to help me present the idea to the Captain?"

"I'll do it," Sam said. "Annie's going to be on the Cyberman ship soon."

"Oh, hey," Naomi said, "I was thinking when we get to Earth we could get a pet."

"Oh?" Sam said, wondering where this was coming from. Naomi hadn't said anything about wanting a pet for years.

"I'm thinking a bunny," Naomi said.

Sam tilted her head, and saw that Seven raised an eyebrow.

"Why a bunny?" Sam asked.

"Well," Naomi said, "bunnies are usually prey animals, right? But a pet rabbit on a starship wouldn't have any predators. It could be relaxed all the time."

"Interesting," Icheb said, "I had never thought to consider the bunny perspective before."

Tom Paris leaned against the doorway to the bedroom of their quarters and watched as B'Elanna gently placed the sleeping Miral into her crib.

"I'm amazed she went down so easy," Tom whispered. "Especially after all the excitement we just had."

"Enjoy it while it lasts," B'Elanna whispered back. "Most nights are not gonna be this quiet."

"Well, luckily most of those nights are going to be back home," Tom said.

"Especially with you at the helm," B'Elanna said.

Tom sighed, hoping they weren't going to have this discussion again. "I'm a new father," he said. "Brooks can handle the Cyberman ship. Seven confirmed from the Cybership's databanks we won't run into anyone hostile on the trip home, not with the course with we've plotted. A few populated star systems might get a bit of a scare as we pass through, but we won't be around long enough for them to shoot at us. And any anomalies along the way, we'll be able to go around. Sue can do it."

"I'm sure she can," B'Elanna said. "But the fact is you're a better pilot than her, and I do not want to take any chances when it comes to getting our daughter home safe. Talk to the Captain. Convince her to let you be on the team that operates the Cyberman ship."

Tom wanted to argue this point, as he had before, but he knew he'd only be repeating points he'd made several times before in the past two days.

Time to graciously admit defeat, he thought. "I'll talk to her at the 'Farewell, Delta Quadrant' party," he said.

The cargo bays with their modular walls were the only place where all one-hundred twenty plus crewmembers could be gathered comfortably. It lacked the view of the stars that the mess hall had, but Captain Janeway wanted everyone gathered for this event; Voyager's final day in the Delta Quadrant. And after all, right now the stars wouldn't be visible in the mess hall viewports anyway, instead being filled with the gases of the nebula and the cold metal hull of the Cyberman ship that Voyager was now attached to.

For most of the gathering things had been light. The crew laughed, and shared memories of the more amusing or bizarre events they'd encountered since the destruction of the Caretaker's array and the merging of the Starfleet and Maquis crews. Static images of some of these events, taken from the ship's logs and sensor records had been arranged on the walls like paintings, based on a suggestion made by Icheb.

It was inevitable she supposed, though, that someone would bring up some of the tougher moments they'd faced; the hardships, and losses. When that happened, Janeway tapped her glass of champagne, and quickly the rest of the crew turned to look at her while Jaffen placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Before we start our final mission here in the Delta Quadrant," she said, "let us take a moment to remember those of us who didn't make it to this day. It's in their memories that we undertake this last journey, using the ship the Cybermen left behind and its engines to finally see our homes again. I say their names aloud so that, if they can hear us somehow, they know that we have not forgotten them and that their sacrifice was not for nothing."

Janeway cleared her throat. "For Aaron Cavit, Veronica Stadi, T'Prena, Doctor Jeffrey Fitzgerald, Mitchell Fayed, Aka-Na-Tak, Bobby Androjnik, Kopor the Climber, Stockbridge, Thomas Merlin, Nihlus Kryik, Peter Durst, …"

Janeway's voice began to crack, frustrating her immensely. She hadn't even gotten to the end of Voyager's first full year, and already the names became harder and harder to get out. Tuvok moved over to stand by her, and without missing a beat picked up where Janeway had left off, starting with Kurt Bendera. Janeway was not surprised that Tuvok had decided to include Lon Suder's name. He was a murderer, but even still in the end he had died saving the ship, making it possible to retake it from the Kazon. If any of the rest of the crew found his inclusion controversial no one said anything. By the time Tuvok made it to Commander Chakotay's name, the cargo bay was all but silent, the only sounds being made by a handful of crewmembers and Naomi Wildman sniffling, all seeming to be trying as hard to hold back tears as Janeway herself was.

"To absent friends," Janeway said, taking a sip from her glass. Those who held drinks followed suit. Jaffen whose hand had never left her shoulder squeezed it gently.

"That was beautiful," he said quietly, his own eyes seeming to be tearing up when Janeway turned to look at him. "I've been on ships that lost people before. I wish they'd gotten a send off as touching as that."

"It would be better if I didn't have to give a send off at all," Janeway said, she and Jaffen moving off to the side as normal conversation amongst the rest of the crew resumed.

"Space travel can be dangerous even under ideal circumstances," Jaffen said. "And you haven't had ideal circumstances for seven years now. Yes, you've lost people. But most of the sentients under your command are going home today, and they have you to thank for that."

Janeway allowed herself a small smile. "I can't take all the credit," she said. "A captain's only as good as their crew. Without these other people here, I would never have made it past the Ocompa homeworld, if that far."

"Sure," Jaffen said, "but that goes both ways. You needed them, and they needed you."

"Yeah," Janeway said, sighing. "That's going to make it that much harder when we get home."

"What do you mean?"

"I intend to step down when we get back to Earth. Maybe take on a teaching job at the Academy, maybe just retire to Indiana."

Jaffen briefly laughed, then covered his mouth apologetically. "I'm sorry, Kathy. But really, if I know you as well as I think I do, you'll go crazy inside of a week if you do that."

Janeway shook her head. "I'm just so tired, Jaffen."

"So take a break," Jaffen said. "I don't know how vacation time works in Starfleet, but if it carries over you've probably got more time coming than I've ever had at every job I've held combined. At least that way, if you decide you want to get back out to the stars, it's easier to come back from sabbatical than from retirement."

Janeway smiled, remembering the stories of how many times the crew of the first Enterprise under James Kirk had 'retired.' "You'd be surprised, actually."

"At least think about it," Jaffen said.

"Okay, okay, you've convinced me," Janeway said. "I'll wait until we're actually on Earth before I decide between retirement or just a long vacation."

"I look forward to seeing it," Jaffen said. "In person I mean. I know that holovids can only do so much. And speaking of looking forward to things, I hear you've chosen to lead the skeleton crew that will be piloting the Cyberman ship for the last day."

"You heard right," Janeway said. "The Voyager rumor mill does get things correct from time to time."

"I want to be there with you," Jaffen said. "I-"

"Okay."

Jaffen stopped talking, looking surprised, and Janeway couldn't help but laugh.

"You thought I was going to argue with you on that, didn't you?"

"Well, to be honest, yes," Jaffen admitted.

Janeway kissed him on the cheek. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have at my side when we reach Earth."

"And I look forward to seeing the look on your face when you see Earth," Jaffen said.

The away team stepped onto the transporter pad, excluding Tom Paris, Marla Gilmore, and Vorik who had already returned to the Cyberman ship to for the final leg of the journey home.

Janeway held Jaffen's hand in hers and watched quietly while Seven hugged Samantha Wildman, and Megan Delaney tried to reassure her twin sister Jenny that everything we going to be fine.

"Just remember," Jenny said, "if you get killed, I'm telling Mom."

Megan laughed, as she stepped onto the pad.

"I'll be fine," she said. "Don't worry, sis."

"I love you," Seven said to Sam.

"Love you too," Sam said.

"Are we all ready?" Janeway said.

Everyone on the away team nodded, silently, except for Lydia Anderson who saluted before saying, "Ready to go, Captain."

"Very well," Janeway said. "Mister Mulcahey? Energize."

Harry Kim yawned at his console.

"Mister Kim," Tuvok said, "if you require additional rest, I am more than willing to provide it."

"I appreciate the thought, Commander," Harry said, "but there was no way I was going to miss this shift. Based on the calculations we did before shift change, we'll be entering Federation space within a few hours, and Earth a few hours after that."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "Very well, but I will relieve you of duty if I feel that your reaction times are clouded by lack of sleep."

"I got plenty of sleep yesterday, sir," Harry said.

Tuvok was skeptical, but he also knew better than to underestimate human resilience. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time Lieutenant Kim had pulled a double, or even a triple shift.

"Very well," Tuvok said. "Ensign Brooks, alert the crew when we are about to enter Sector 001."

"Aye, sir," Sue Brooks said from her seat at the navigation console.

The man from the other universe, the enemy of the Cybermen known as The Doctor has had many qualifiers attached to his name. Among these are terms such as "magnificent bastard," and "chessmaster."

The Doctor couldn't think of any way that any Cybermen would be left behind in the universe of the Federation and the Borg, but regardless he left something in place just in case. The Earth of this place was not his Earth, his adopted home, but he felt obligated to protect it nonetheless.

The device was not hidden, but because of its origin no Starfleet officer or Federation civilian who stumbled across it in Sector 001 would think twice about it, leaving it be, unexamined. That would be true even at this moment, when for the first time since The Doctor had returned to his reality the device activated. It detected Cyberman activity approaching. The device began to power up in order to perform its designated task.

"We're approaching the outer edge of Sector 001," Megan Delaney said, looking at her jury-rigged console set up in the Cybership's control center.

"How long? Janeway said, stretching. She hated the chair that had been set up for her, but decided not to just request a new one be sent over from Voyager.

"Approximately thirty minutes ahead of schedule," Megan said.

"Thirty less minutes I have to wait to see my family," Tom said. "Including my Dad."

"I imagine Starfleet Command will want to debrief us before allowing us to see our loved ones," Seven said.

"Oh, I doubt that," Janeway said. "That would make Command look bad. They'll probably give us at least a day."

"I'm more worried about the civilians," Lydia Anderson said. "Didn't Reg Barclay say we're celebrities these days? We're going to get swarmed by autograph seekers and excited schoolchildren."

"You might," Marla Gilmore said. "If I'm lucky they'll let me visit my nephew before putting me up before a tribunal."

"That was always a possibility," Vorik said. "However, given the contributions you and most of your fellow survivors from the Equinox have made-"

The ship shuddered.

"I'm reading an energy spike," Megan Delaney said.

"I see it, but I can't get a fix on its location," Seven said.

"What's happening?" Jaffen said, looking like he wanted to do something, anything, to help but at a loss as to what.

"We're being pulled towards it, whatever it is," Tom said. "I'm putting everything I can into propulsion but-" The ship shuddered again, more violently this time, throwing nearly everyone to the ground.

"Janeway to Voyager!"

"Captain," Tuvok said, responding to the hail, "a spatial rift has opened near our location. It opened as soon as we entered the solar system."

"Detach Voyager and get clear," Janeway said, "then beam us out." The final part of her order was understandable, but the signal had started to weaken.

"Understood," Tuvok replied. "Ensign Brooks?"

"Already on it," Brooks said.

Voyager suddenly stopped shaking.

"Commander," Harry said, "whatever the rift is, it stopped pulling at us once we detached from the hull of the Cyberman ship."

"Is it still pulling the Cyberman vessel towards it?"

"Aye, sir," Harry said.

"Bridge to transporter room 1," Tuvok said, "the away team requires an emergency beam out."

"Yes, sir," Todd Mulcahey's voice replied.

The bridge was silent. Tuvok touched a button on the arm console and the viewscreen switched to show the Cyberman vessel, struggling as it was pulled towards the rift in space that seemed to only effect it.

"Mister Mulcahey?" Tuvok said.

"I'm trying, sir, but I'm having trouble getting a solid lock."

"Janeway to Voyager," the captain's voice said over the comm, still understandable but far more garbled. "Now would be a good-" Static. "Can you hear me Voy-"

"Oh no," Tuvok heard Brooks yell as the Cyberman ship, turned violently and went engines first into the rift. There was a brief flash of light, and then the ship was gone.

"Bridge to transporter room 1," Tuvok said. "Did you retrieve the away team?"

"I'm- I'm sorry sir, I was only able to get a solid fix on two of them."

"Who did you retrieve?" Tuvok asked.

"Seven of Nine and Megan Delaney, sir."

Tuvok heard Sue Brooks sob quietly, and saw both Lieutenant Ayala and Lieutenant Kim staring in disbelief at the viewscreen. He sat down quietly. His logic failed him as he tried to find something to say to the crew.

Harry Kim looked at the console, the computer registering the names of the Starfleet ships approaching them. He focused on the names and classes far more than he really needed to, not wanting to dwell on what he had just seen, afraid that the Cyberman ship had not just been yanked back to its universe of origin but possibly destroyed with both his captain and his best friend aboard.

The Galaxy-class ship Allegheny, the Prometheus-class Palmyra, the Nebula-class Sutherland, the Defiant-class Wolverine, and the one that he knew Samantha Wildman would've been happiest to see if she were on the bridge, her father's ship, the Excelsior-class John Laurens.

Because he was focusing on his console he saw the light that signalled that one of the ships, the Allegheny according to the signal, was hailing Voyager. He told Tuvok.

"On screen," Tuvok said.

A Quyth appeared on screen, his single eye a mixture of pink and yellow. The other captain was probably concerned that this wasn't really Voyager but was part of some elaborate trick. If his memories had been triggered by seeing the Cyberman ship the way Voyager's crew had been, Harry couldn't blame him.

"This is Captain Hokor the Hook-Chest of the U.S.S. Allegheny to Voyager," he said. "Is that really you?"

"This is Commander Tuvok," Tuvok said, "it is… good to be home, Captain Hokor. We should be transmitting our IFF signal as we speak."

"We're picking it up on our end," Hokor said, "but Starfleet's a bit more paranoid than it used to be. I'm sure you understand. We'll be escorting you back to Earth, where hopefully the necessary security measure to confirm your identities will go quickly and you and your crew can take all the time you need to see your loved ones."

Hokor's eye blinked, and the color in it swirled and became partially translucent.

"Commander," Hokor said, "that other vessel, the one that was pulled into the rift we saw on our long range sensors, I recognized it even though I'm sure I never saw it before."

"A Cyberman vessel," Tuvok said. "That will require some explanation that can be handled in our debriefing."

"Cybermen," Hokor said, shaking his head nervously. "Now I remember. I was still a Lieutenant when they attacked Delta IV. Glad it's gone. I'm curious how your ship came to be attached to the side of one of their vessels."

Harry winced involuntarily at that comment.

"We found it derelict in the Delta Quadrant," Tuvok said. "We were able to use its advanced engines to return to the Alpha Quadrant within days. A skeleton crew was on the Cyberman vessel while the rest of us remained aboard Voyager."

"I hope you were able to get all of your-" Hokor stopped, the color in his eye changing again. "Commander, where is Captain Janeway?"

Tuvok made a noise that Harry could swear sounded like a sigh, the closest to sadness the Vulcan had ever shown under circumstances outside illness or alien influence.

"I regret to inform you, Captain Hokor, that Captain Janeway, four other crewmembers, and a civilian were all still aboard the Cyberman vessel when it was pulled into the rift. We have no cause to believe they were killed in the process, but if they are alive I hypothesize that they are currently in the other reality, the one of the Cybermen's origin. At this time, neither they nor we have the means by which to return them."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Hokor said. "I'm sure Starfleet will put their best people on trying to find a way to bring them home.

"Captain Janeway found a way home once," Tuvok said. "It is logical to assume she can do so again."

Samantha was so relieved to see Seven of Nine enter their quarters that it took her longer than she cared to admit to see that Seven was crying.

"Annie? What happened?"

"You- you don't know?"

"No, I've been here the whole time. I heard we made it home, and there was the shaking but…"

"Something happened," Seven said. "Megan and I were beamed off in time, but, the ship, the other ship…"

Oh no, Samantha thought. Seven collapsed into her arms.

"They're trapped in the other universe, the one where the Cyberman ship came from."

Samantha was about to ask who, but then she remembered who all had been on the other ship when they'd entered Federation space, and gasped.

Tom, Marla, Lydia, Jaffen, Vorik, the Captain, she thought.

"It's not fair," Seven said, "We were so close. This isn't like falling down just short of the finish line, this is like getting shot at the finish line."

Samantha just held onto her wife tightly, stroking her hair and whispering calming noise,. It was all she could to keep from breaking down in tears herself. Samantha felt two other pairs arms embrace her and Seven. She had forgotten that Naomi and Icheb were there too.

The four of them just held each other for a long time, no one sure what, if anything, to say next.

Chapter Twelve

Janeway struggled to her feet, still feeling dazed from when she and the others had all slammed against the wall. She was grateful that the Cyberman ship's inertial dampeners, or whatever their equivalent was, hadn't failed or she and the others would be so much splattered mess. She looked around. Tom had already gotten up and was frantically trying to hail Voyager, even though he had to know it was no use. Vorik was helping Gilmore to her feet, while Lydia Anderson was checking the back of Jaffen's head for injuries.

"Report," she said.

"We're near Earth," Tom sad, sounding dejected. "Just not our Earth."

"Can we contact them?" she asked. A part of her hoped that perhaps the Earth of this reality, the one where the Cybermen had originated, would have something they could use to re-open the rift just long enough to get home. At least the fact that Voyager hadn't replied when Tom tried to contact them meant that, presumably, the rest of her crew had made it home.

Tom glared at the image of the planet on the main monitor.

"No," he said. "I was able to tap into the satellite network. The Earth of this universe is still in the early 21st century, though unlike us they didn't have a Eugenics War. This Earth is more advanced in their 2014 than we were in ours, but not enough to do any good. They don't even seem to have noticed us yet near as I can tell."

Tears began forming in Tom's eyes. He punched the navigation console. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

Janeway wished she had the words to help Tom, but she just didn't. He had every right to be upset after all. Being separated from people you loved by over seventy thousand light years was one thing, but now there was an entire universe and hundreds of years separating him from his wife and newborn daughter, a child he'd spent mere days with.
She looked back at the others. She could see sadness beginning to take hold over Anderson and Gilmore already. Jaffen seemed fine, if a bit dizzy. Vorik was as implacably Vulcan as usual.

Will we forget them too? she thought. Like we forgot about the Cybermen when they came to our universe? Or is it different for us now that we're in their realm?

"So. What do we do now, Kathy?" Jaffen said.

Janeway took a deep breath. She felt deep down like what she was about to say was a lie, but she needed to say something to give her people hope. Her crew, anyway. Jaffen would be happy wherever they were so long as he was with her. That was something she was glad for at least.

"The barrier between our worlds has been breached more than once," she said. "It can be done again. I don't know how long it will take, but we will find a way. I've gotten my people home before, I can do it again. Hell, if we're lucky, it won't take us seven years this time." She added a smile to that last line, surprising herself at how genuine it felt. This speech was as much for her as it was for the others.

"There is a man here, a time traveller, who helped Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise defeat the Borg/Cyberman alliance ten years ago," she said, though Tom and Jaffen already knew that part. "If we can find him, I imagine he could get us home to our universe."

"How do we find him though?" Marla Gilmore said.

"She's right," Tom said, slumped in his chair. "You heard what Seven said about him. He goes all over time and space, seemingly at random, in a ship smaller than one of our class 2 shuttles."

Janeway thought about it for a moment. Tom was right about that, but she remembered something else from that briefing; about the kind of man the time traveller was. Everyone looked at her, patiently waiting for what she would say next.

"We make an impression," she said. "Vorik, Gilmore, let's get this ship in the best shape we can. Tom, go over this ship's records. I want to know where the major hubs for information and trade are in this universe."

"Ma'am?" Tom said.

"It's simple. We fix this ship up, we go around looking for sentients in need, and we help them," Janeway said, now feeling genuinely hopeful instead of just trying to project it. This plan she was formulating had so many ways it could go wrong, but it was the best she had.

Besides, she thought, is this really that much more difficult than some of the crap we went through in our own reality?

Vorik raised an eyebrow. "With all due respect, I fail to see how that helps us return to our reality, Captain."

"This time traveller," Janeway said, "this man who simply calls himself The Doctor, has been an enemy of the Cybermen for centuries. Sooner or later, word is going to get to him about a ship belonging to one of his oldest and most dangerous enemies going around doing good in the galaxy."

"And if I were in his place," Anderson said, "that sure as hell would get my attention."

"Exactly," Janeway said.

Jaffen walked over to Janeway and casually put an arm around her waist.

"I gotta say," he said, smiling, "I like this plan."

"Can't hurt to try, I suppose," Tom said, sighing.

Janeway looked up at the monitor. It was almost eerie how the Earth here looked just like the one she called home. She wondered for a moment if maybe it would be so bad to settle here if The Doctor never came.

No, she thought. I'm not ready to give up yet. Either we get to go back to our home, or we die here as heroes.

B'Elanna Torres cradled her daughter in her arms as she looked at the picture of Tom on the table in Admiral Paris' home. Physical pictures weren't the norm amongst the people of the Federation anymore, not with digital photo frames that could easily hold hundreds, even thousands of pictures instead of just one having been available to humanity even in the time before Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight. The practice had never gone away completely though, and with the fear that the Voyager crewmembers who were trapped on the Cyberman ship when it got pulled through the rift would be forgotten an ever-present reality, they went from a mere act of sentimentality to a necessity. The new project that Admiral Paris, Reg Barclay, Lewis Zimmerman, and others had started on Jupiter Station required physical copies of photos of the lost crew, any information they had on them written down on real paper. The computer records of them were not lost completely, but were spotty, incomplete, and easy to miss unless you knew what to look for. Or even that there was something to look for.

"Thank you for letting me stay here, Admiral," B'Elanna said.

"Please," the Admiral said. "No need to be so formal. I'm off-duty, and you're my daughter-in-law. Call me Owen. Besides, you don't exactly have a place of your own right now."

"That's certainly true," B'Elanna said. "I don't even have a ship anymore."

Owen Paris sighed. "You heard about that, huh?"

"I figured R&D would want a look at all that Delta Quadrant tech we brought back with us," B'Elanna said, shifting on the couch slowly so as not to jostle the baby too much. "I don't understand why they had to hide Voyager away though."

"That was Nechayev's idea," Owen said, sighing. "She has this idea in her head that the new technologies inside Voyager would be a prime target for the Federation's enemies. She's not one hundred percent wrong, I'm sure the Romulans would love to have a look at that slipstream drive, even if it is burned out. But Elena is, well, Elena. Just keeping Voyager in the Sol system isn't secure enough for her, she has to move it to one of her," Owen groaned before completing the sentence. "Black Sites as she calls them. I don't know if she doesn't know the history behind that phrase or just doesn't care."

B'Elanna nodded. "I knew that there was a chance, even with the pardon, that I might not get to serve on Voyager again, but that doesn't make the mental image of a bunch of Intelligence types pawing at her warp drive any easier to stomach."

"With your credentials, record, and reputation," Owen said, "I don't doubt that once your maternity leave is up that you'll be in anything less than high demand. There are a lot of captains in Starfleet who would kill to have an engineer with your skills on their team."

"I don't know," B'Elanna said. "I might just try to join the team at Jupiter trying to figure out how to get Tom back from the other universe. If I didn't have Miral, I'd be feeling so helpless right now."

"I can see about that," Owen said, surprising B'Elanna who just assumed that he would be against it, perhaps arguing that she was too close, too emotionally invested. "Fact is, having people there who have more cause to care than anyone about the people we lost in that rift is probably the best way to ensure that they aren't forgotten. If my own science training wasn't a few years out of date since becoming an Admiral I'd be there myself."

"Maybe we'll go to Jupiter together then," B'Elanna said. "It would certainly make it easier for you to spend time with your granddaughter."

"Speaking of," Owen said, motioning towards Miral, "May I? I haven't actually had the chance to hold her since you got to San Francisco."

"Of course," B'Elanna said.

Harry Kim stood outside the airlock to the U.S.S. Delaware, reluctant to go inside. He reached into his pocket and fiddled once again with the folded up paper photo he had of his best friend, what was his name? The one who was in another universe now, or something like that. Why was it so hard for him to remember the name of his own best friend?

"You understand, Lieutenant," Lieutenant Ayala said coming up behind him "that the ship can't take off from starbase with you standing in the connector."

"Right, sorry," Harry said. "I guess it just doesn't entirely feel real. I guess I just assumed I'd be going back to Voyager once I returned to duty."

"I did too," Ayala said. "But I guess R&D had other plans. The jerks."

Harry chuckled. "Yeah. Jerks." He took a deep breath. "Okay, Let's do this. At least I'll have somebody from the old crew here. That should make it easier to adjust."

"More than one somebody," Ayala said. "Didn't you hear? Todd Mulcahey and Susan Brooks got assigned to the Delaware as well."

"I didn't know that actually," Harry said. "I'll make sure to say hello after I report to the Captain." The two men made their way through the open airlock onto the Nova-class ship. Harry had to admit it was a bit odd being on one of this class again, considering his last experience with one was the Equinox, but he didn't want to dwell on it. He felt something in his pocket, not sure how it got there, but he figured he'd take it out later, once the Delaware was out of the Sol system.

He went through the open airlock first, Ayala close behind. The two quickly made their way to the nearest turbolift and rode it to the bridge, only to find it almost unoccupied. The only person there was a short haired red-headed human woman. Only when she turned around and Harry saw the four pips on her collar did he realize that this was his new commanding officer, Captain Kilkenny.

"Ah," she said, smiling. "Lieutenant Kim. Lieutenant Ayala. You're early. I would've arranged for you to meet the rest of the senior staff if I'd known. Welcome aboard."

"Captain," Harry said, standing at attention. "I look forward to serving with you."

"And I look forward to hearing some of your war stories," the Captain said, practically radiating enthusiasm. "I mean, you two served aboard Voyager. You're practically legends, and here I am, the one who's going to be giving you orders."

Harry blushed. He looked over at Ayala, impressed at the man's ability to maintain his composure. Harry turned back to face the Captain, but something behind him caught his eye, something sitting on one of the arms of the captain's chair.

Is that a plush cat? He thought.

The Captain realized he was looking at something behind her and turned around.

"Oh, I see you've spotted Desmond," she said.

"Desmond?" Ayala said.

"My kitty," Captain Kilkenny said casually, as though it should've been painfully obvious to him and Harry. "He's been with me since my first assignment; the Kilimanjaro." She sighed. "She probably would've been my first command if we hadn't lost her to a Dominion sneak attack during the war. Could've been worse though. Out of 900 crew members 893 made it out alive.

"But enough about old war wounds," she said, her smile suddenly coming back. "Command has cleared us for departure at 0900 hours." She checked the PADD in her hand.

"Both of your quarters are on Deck 3. Feel free to get some rest before we head out."

"Aye, sir," Harry said.

"Aye, Captain," Ayala said.

"A pleasure to finally meet you in person, Doctor," Bruce Maddox said, extending his hand to The Doctor.

"Likewise, Commander," The Doctor said, accepting the handshake offer politely.

"I was sorry to hear about what Starfleet Command decided to do with Voyager," Maddox said. "Any plans, since you're losing your sickbay?"

The Doctor looked around, his gaze falling on the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance.

"Not really. I have been offered a teaching position at Starfleet Medical," he said. "I may take it, but not this semester. Some of my Voyager crewmates have invited me to meet their families. I think they feel they owe me since I treated them during our time together, as if I ever would've not. I imagine their spouses, children, and what not wish to thank me for making sure their loved ones made it home. I appreciate the sentiment, but because of it I can't help but think about all the people on Voyager I couldn't save."

"I don't think you need me to tell you even the best doctors Starfleet has can't save everyone," Maddox said.

"I'm well aware of that," The Doctor, "but it doesn't make it any easier to accept."

Maddox nodded, and turned to look at the bridge as well. "I imagine that seeing the faces of your crewmates' families might help. It won't make the guilt go away, unless you decide to remove it from your program. But if Commander Data can learn to live with the downsides of having emotions, I doubt you will have any problems."

"I suppose you're right," The Doctor said. "In that case I probably should go then. My first invitation just for today is meet with Lieutenant Carey and his family. Perhaps I'll see you some other time."

"I wouldn't mind that," Maddox said. "I can read the Voyager logs anytime I like, but hearing about it from someone who was there is an experience no report can properly convey. If possible, I can even arrange for you and Data to meet. He's mentioned that he finds your story inspiring."

The Doctor smiled. "I would very much love to meet with him. I'll get in touch once I know I have some time to spare, and we'll see what we can do."

Seven of Nine pulled her robe tight around her as the air grew colder. She looked at the night sky on the Ktarian homeworld and was amazed at how many stars you could see, even this close to a major metropolitan area. She watched as off in the distance at the spaceport the ship that had brought her and her family here, the Starfleet passenger courier Lois McKendrick, took off.

Naomi was on the other side of the city, spending time with her father and his parents. Icheb had, mere months after arriving in the Alpha Quadrant, earned early entry into Starfleet Academy. Samantha had fallen asleep on a small couch in the room they were sharing while they were here, until their leave was over. Or so she'd thought until she heard Sam walk up to her. She didn't turn to look as Sam slipped her arms around Seven's waist and rested her chin on Seven's shoulder.

"Trouble sleeping?" Sam said.

"Not tired yet," Seven said. "Just... thinking."

"Still hoping we'll see them again?"

Seven didn't need to ask to which 'them' Sam was referring.

"The barrier between the universes has been breached before," she said. "At least twice, and that's just what I know of. Who's to say-"

"It's okay, babe," Sam said. "I think we'll see them again too. If I know Captain Janeway as well as I think I do, she's probably already got a plan in motion."

Seven chuckled. "Probably an ill-advised plan with a low probability of success."

"Yeah, well, those have worked out for her pretty well so far," Sam said before kissing the back of Seven's neck. "Now, if you aren't going to come to bed, at least close the balcony doors. Ktarian cold winds can sneak up on you. And don't forget we're meeting my sister tomorrow."

"Okay," Seven said, watching Sam as she went back inside. Seven turned and looked up at the stars one last time before doing so herself. Even if her crewmates never did return from the other universe, even if they hadn't survived the breach, she would make sure that they wouldn't be forgotten.

~The End~

Dedicated to my Dad, an OG Trekkie, for introducing me to Roddenberry's vision.

My biggest regret was that he didn't get to see how this story ended.