Chapter Three

Perry Highland moaned slightly, as he rolled over on his back. It didn't take him long to realize that he was not where he should be The space suit was uncomfortable to lie in, so he grunted and tried to right himself. Every muscle in his body ached severely. After he finally sat up, he leaned against the corridor wall and looked around. The curved hallway had debris in the carpet, broken wall plating, and flickering lights that were barely hanging on to emergency power. He was somewhere on Voyager.

"Highland to Zodiac." He muttered quietly, for it hurt to talk. He was met with silence. "Highland to Henderson, Williams." Still nothing.

"Damnit." Perry said under his breath. Moments later after abandoning the suit, he looked down at his uniform. The threading had burn marks in it. "That's weird." He remarked. After inspecting his surroundings for a moment, he noticed a computer panel on the wall around the corner. He limped towards it, and pressed the corner of the display. The screen lit up bright. "Computer, access internal sensors." The panel beeped. "Scan the ship for lifeforms."

-Sensor resolution is below twenty percent. Subprocessors 645 through 1428 are unresponsive.

"Show me what you can." He replied. The screen flashed, and a diagram of the ship appeared. It was scattered with green dots. "Display this deck." The screen zoomed and panned, and displayed a green dot right where he was standing. He was surrounded by three other green dots. When he saw it, he twirled around quickly. The corridor was empty.

Perry shook his head, remembering that the system said the scans could be inaccurate. He started to walk away from the panel when he noticed the red text on the top.

EMERGENCY POWER LEVELS: THIRTY TWO PERCENT

EMERGENCY CONTAINMENT FIELD FAILURE IN TWELEVE MINUTES

Suddenly realizing he was in trouble without his space suit helmet, he remembered the Arizona. He tapped his comm badge quickly. "Highland to Arizona." He breathed a sigh of relief when the computer responded.

"Federation Shuttlecraft Arizona computer system responding."

"Lock on to my signal and beam me aboard." He held his breath and crossed his fingers as the transporter beam swept over him. This time, it felt normal.

A few moments later, Perry materialized on the transporter pad of the small shuttle. He took a quick step toward the helm, and crashed into the chair. "Computer, hail the Zodiac." His voice was still ragged from the transporter accident. He ached everywhere.

-No response. The computer stated after a few moments.

"See if you can locate Henderson and Williams on Voyager."

-Standby, initiating scan. While the computer was busy with that, he accessed the sensor array. A moment later, the Zodiac appeared on the readout. "Well at least you are still there." He muttered.

-Scan complete. There are no life forms present on Voyager.

He looked up, puzzled. "Alright, detach from the Voyager airlock, and lay in a course for the Zodiac." He stood up and walked toward the back of the shuttle. He felt the shuttle break the dock under his feet.

-Course laid in.

"Three quarters impulse power. Engage."

The shuttlecraft made a soft thud as it landed in the shuttlebay. After walking out of the hatch, he took off towards the double door. He glanced up at the control booth and noticed there were no officers at the post. He took a left in the corridor and directed his voice upward.

"Highland to bridge." He was met with silence. He shook his head, and continued towards the turbolift in the empty corridor. "Main bridge."

The lift shot up, and he backed against the wall and looked himself over. His uniform was charred, and he had faint burn marks on his skin, although none of them hurt. He mainly ached internally, which concerned him. When the Zodiac tried to transport him over something must have gone wrong and they aborted. That, however, didn't explain were the crew was now.

The doors parted onto the bridge. He walked out of the lift and looked around. The room was deserted. There was no sign of a struggle or damage, and all the panels were lit up bright. The main viewscreen was displaying the drifting Voyager.

"Where the hell is everybody?" He muttered as he looked around the room. "Computer, shipwide. This is Lieutenant Perry Highland, is there anybody on board? Respond." The bridge remained silent except for the miscellanies beeps and chirps of the room. He suddenly doubled over from a sharp pain in his stomach.

Perry hit the floor in pain, and rolled over gripping his midsection. "Fuck!" He lay there for a moment, trying to decide his next move. It was hard to think through the searing pain in his stomach. "Computer!" He hissed through his teeth. "Send an emergency distress call to Starfleet Command!"

-Distress signal activated.

"Beam me to-" he stopped when he remembered the effect of the Zodiac's presumably damaged transporter system. "Belay that. Highland to Arizona, lock onto my signal and beam me to the Zodiac sickbay. Energize!"

The transporter released him, and he looked around the room quick enough to know he was alone. "Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Hologram!" He barely heard the holoemitters spark when he blacked out.

"Rise and shine, Lieutenant." Perry opened his eyes and cussed under his breath. He noticed Captain Yardale, Commander Henderson and Commander Williams where standing over him. He bolted up, as Doctor Jarred Dupree walked around the corner.

"Take it easy Lieutenant." He said, as he took the sensor out of his medical tricorder and started to scan him.

"Wha… what happened?" Perry stammered, the fog still clearing from his head.

"You three were pulled through a forcefield." The captain replied with concern.

"Apparently when we activated the containment fields on Voyager, one of them interfered with out emergency beam out. The Zodiac pulled us straight through it. Doctor Dupree says we are lucky to be alive." Sabrina replied to him.

"But I was on Voyager. The transport failed and I was put back on Voyager. I had to bring the Arizona back… ship was deserted… and sent a distress call to Starfleet…" Perry said softly. Captain Yardale and Doctor Dupree glanced at each other.

"He's delusional." The doctor said quickly.

"Am not… I'm fine. I'm telling you I was still on that ship!" He started to get up when a hypospray was pressed up to his neck. "Son of a bitch! I'm fine…" He trailed off and fell back to the bed.

The four officers stood around him, looking down at his unconscious body.