The Journey Continues
"Azan to Naomi" the voiced called from the air. The girl tapped her comm badge on the bedside table.
"Naomi here"
"You are most urgently needed on the Bridge"
"Do I have time to get a cup of hot chocolate?" Naomi asked sleepily.
"No" Azan replied. "However, there will be one on the Bridge"
"I am on my way. Naomi out" and the girl rose from her bed and rubbed her eyes before reaching down for her boots. She left her quarters and went to the turbolift – encountering a frazzled looking Icheb with a night's worth of beard on his chin. "Any idea?" she asked as they stepped into the car and headed up.
"I have none" replied her friend. "Azan did seem very concerned about something"
"We'll find out" the girl said. The rest of the ride was in silence before the turbolift car came to a halt and allowed them entry to the Bridge. Rebi and Mezoti were already there and Azan nodded at the new arrivals. "You want to tell us what this is all about and why we have come to a halt?"
"I am sorry for interrupting your sleep, Naomi, but this is of grave importance" Azan turned to the Science station and tapped a few commands into the console. "Sensors have revealed evidence of Borg activity"
"Anything useful we can salvage?" asked Mezoti.
"Anything there is would be very degraded" Rebi said.
"I don't think so" Azan said.
"Why?" asked Naomi.
"Because this activity took place less than a month ago"
"WHAT?" came the collective shout from the others.
"I ran the scans twice to be certain, but I got the same results. From analysing the plasma traces in planetary orbit…" the main viewscreen displayed a couple of different readings at once, "… I have determined that there was a lone Borg Sphere no longer than a month ago"
"After all these months…?" Naomi shook her head. "It isn't possible…"
"We might be able to find drones on the planet's surface" Icheb said. "If we can remove their data processing nodes, we may very well be able to find out what they are doing"
"You mean you want to cut them open?" Naomi's eyes widened.
"That is the only way to do so, Naomi" Mezoti said. "Would you like me to plot us a course to the planet?"
"No… No, I'll do it" she replied. "You and Icheb go down to Transporter Room 1 and get into suits. Azan? You and Rebi get to Sickbay and get it ready for an autopsy"
"Autopsy?" Azan raised an eyebrow.
"If we find dead drones then we might as well put them to a good use. Maybe we can create a virus or some sort that affects their organic components"
"Why not give them a cold?" asked Mezoti.
"A cold?"
"The Borg would expect a complex and creative virus, so something simple would easily escape their detection for long enough"
"Perhaps… Lets just get to this place and find out what we are dealing with" Naomi said. The others left as Naomi took the helm and flew the ship to the planet that had been visited by the Borg. Putting the ship on automatic pilot and raising the shields, Naomi crossed over to the Science station and reviewed some of the data. She found that it was Class M and roughly the same size as Earth. But where Earth was rich and teeming with life, this planet was not. Naomi read indications of massive devastation caused by orbital bombardment and heavy damage to the structures below. All animal life had ceased to exist. It never would again for thousands of years as the ecosystem was ruined and would several thousand years to completely heal and support new life. There was oxygen in the atmosphere, but it was contaminated with all sorts of things. Naomi was glad she had ordered Icheb and Mezoti into suits on a gut feeling.
#
"Icheb to Voyager. We have arrived on the planet's surface. There is heavy damage as far as we can see, though bodies seem to be little to non existent" Icheb reported. As soon as Voyager had entered orbit, he and Mezoti had beamed down to the planet along with the twins. Azan and Rebi would search for any working computers and try to access any records of what had happened.
"Try inside the buildings" Naomi suggested.
"They appear to be ready to collapse, but we shall endeavour to find one that is not so ready to do so" Icheb chuckled lightly.
"Azan here. Rebi and myself have located what appears to be some sort of main computer centre"
"Can you recover the records?"
"We could, however the computers themselves are missing"
"Missing?" Naomi exclaimed. "How do you lose a set of computers?"
"The computers are missing from the racks they should be installed in. I can only surmise that the Borg took them when they killed everyone"
"Or took them as drones" Mezoti muttered darkly.
"I am reading what looks to be a military complex on the southern half of the second northern continent" Naomi reviewed her scans. "I'll beam you and Rebi over to there. with any luck, you might find computers still there and be able to download the information"
"We will need a sample of the local language" said Rebi.
"Such as…"
"Well a dictionary would be nice" he replied.
"Smart arse" Naomi muttered. "Standby for transport… Energising" and she beamed the twins to the location.
"Mezoti to Voyager"
"Shoot"
"We have encountered a number of dead drones, but they are either badly decomposed or crushed under the debris. We think a number of others might be behind the debris pile we are currently working on"
"Icheb? What do you think?"
"Icheb can not hear you due to unknown metals shielding communications. I am outside what appears to have been a school" Mezoti broke off as she spoke to Icheb. "Icheb has found an almost perfectly intact body of a drone. It appears to have been preserved by the effects of the nuclear winter"
"Do you want to beam aboard or do you want to look for another drone?" asked Naomi.
"We shall remain on the surface for a little while" Mezoti said. "We might find another drone in good condition"
"Well call me if you need anything. Voyager standing by"
#
"Azan, I am detecting a faint life sign thirteen metres in that direction" Rebi said, pointing down a long corridor that was full of debris.
"A survivor after this amount of time?" his brother frowned but adjusted his phaser and fired it. Instantly, Azan regretted his decision as a number of drones came down the corridor. "As Naomi would say, 'Oh crap…'. Lets get out of here"
"I concur" Rebi said, and the pair of them fired a few shots at the drones before hurrying back out the way they had just come. "Rebi to Voyager. Two for immediate beam up!"
"Whats up?"
"Just do it!" Rebi shouted. Naomi must have been stunned from the tone of his voice as she complied – transporting them directly to the Bridge.
"Are you alright?" Naomi asked.
"Yeah" Rebi panted slightly. "Computer, arm forward torpedo tubes. Set target for two for the location I just beamed up from"
"Torpedoes armed. Target set" the computer reported.
"Fire" and two orange balls of light burst from the ship, raced towards the ground and slammed into the bunker.
"Would you mind telling me what happened down there?" Naomi asked.
"We found live Borg down there. From the one glance of what they were doing, it appears as if they had been left behind to assimilate any survivors. Given the fact that we haven't encountered anything else, I would surmise that they were destroyed"
"Could they have got a message off to the Sphere?" asked Naomi.
"Unknown, but the possibility is high"
"Right – We are out of here. Voyager to Mezoti"
"Mezoti here"
"Get ready for an immediate beam up"
"Understood" and, two minutes later, the starship hurtled out of the system and on a course for Earth.
#
"The drones were cut off by a trick of the fates" said Mezoti. "The Sphere was attacking the planet when it suffered a major malfunction and exploded. The few drones down on the planet went into a hibernation mode until a ship turned up"
"So the Borg are defeated?" Naomi asked.
"Yes. Completely. Utterly. Absolutely"
"A simple yes would have been okay" Naomi said.
"I did not want there to be any misunderstanding" her friend smiled.
"Naomi, I have something else to report to you" Icheb said. "Over the last few weeks, I have been attempting to get the Doctor back online. I have been able to recover his core program. However, it would appear that everything else is gone. From what I have been able to find out, there was a short circuit in the section of the computer core that contained his program – deleting everything but his medical programs. We can call on him at any time, but he will not be the Doctor that we know well"
"Is there anything that you can do?" asked Rebi.
"Normally, something could be done with a trained Engineering crew and a week. Of course, the EMH was only designed for short term supplement to the ship's medical staff"
"Leave him down" Naomi made the decision. "At least his medical stuff is alright. Better make a back up copy in case the damage gets worse" and Icheb nodded.
"I have already done so" he told her.
"Right… Anything else people want to say?"
"Sensors detect a Class M planet within a short distance" Azan said. "I suggest that we go into orbit and have a break for a few days"
"We're behind time getting back to the Alpha Quadrant" Naomi said.
"Even at best speeds, we're going to take a hundred years to get back to the closest point of the Alpha Quadrant" Mezoti said. "Whilst we can simply regenerate, you need to take a holiday from time to time. Using the holodeck does not count, you know that…"
"This is mutiny" Naomi said.
"This is friendship" Rebi replied.
"It would be a pleasant change from the ship's air" Icheb added. "Besides, we could use the time to allow the warp drive to cool down. We've been running at high warp for nearly three weeks. There are also a number of systems that we could repair at the same time. As you know, we were not able to completely repair the ship after the battle with the Borg"
"How long will it take us to get there?" asked Naomi.
"At current speed, about thirteen hours" Mezoti said.
"And the planet is uninhabited?"
"Yes"
"Mmm…" Naomi thought it over in her head. Even with all that she had learned from Voyager's crew, she still had trouble deciding what was the right thing to do. "Alright then. Mezoti, set course for this planet – best possible speed. Keep an eye out for any other vessels in the area. Icheb, get together a list of repairs that can be done whilst we are in orbit. Azan, you go and get the camping stuff out of storage. Rebi, would you mind giving me a hand with something in the Astrometrics Lab?"
"I will comply" Rebi said.
"What are you doing?" asked Icheb.
"I want to send Starfleet a message" said Naomi. "They should know that we are alright. Even if we can never get a return message, they deserve to know we survived and that we are on our way back" she said.
"How do you plan to do this?" asked Mezoti.
"I was thinking of using the navigational deflector to send a tachyon packet. It should reach them in a month or so. I remember Seven telling me about it once during science class" Naomi's voice was tinged with sadness as she thought about her lost mother, friends and crew of Voyager.
"What do you plan to send to them?" asked Azan.
"Ship's status, crew status, logs, navigational data up to the moment of transmission and our plans" Naomi said.
"It will not arrive for several months. How will you ensure it is noticed by Starfleet Command?" asked Icheb.
"I'll encode it as Code 1"
"A cunning plan. Communications systems are designed to give priority over the war codes. By encoding the packet as such, Starfleet will read it and know we survived the attack on the Borg – even if we can never get a return message" Mezoti was impressed by her friend's plan.
"Lets get to work" and they filed out – all except for Icheb.
"May I have a moment?"
"Sure"
"I did not want to discuss this in front of the others, but there may be a way to get transwarp drive" Icheb said.
"I thought you just said it was completely useless"
"The Borg system is" Icheb explained. "However, it is possible for us to install the system used by the aliens we took them from. Although the Borg coils were rendered useless by the elimination of the Borg, some parts still work. If we landed on this planet, we could shut down the main drive systems, remove the Borg components and install the alien system in its place. It will not get us the same speeds as before, but it will cut nearly twenty years off the journey"
"Really?" Naomi looked at her friend. "Then some of us might actually make it"
"Perhaps" Icheb replied. "It appears as if the drive requires a shut down period of twelve hours every forty eight hours"
"So we use normal warp during the cooling period…" Naomi shrugged. "Has the Borg database got any charts for this area?" the girl asked.
"Not fully detailed" Icheb said. "This is an area of somewhat primitive species. The Borg never bothered with them. They deemed them to be not worthy of assimilation"
"I was thinking of having the computer bring us out of transwarp when we get close to places we might find or make a wormhole. If we can, it is possible we could cut more time off the way back"
"Creating a wormhole would mean burning out the main deflector. I remind you that we would need it inside the wormhole should we either find or make one"
"It was a thought" Naomi sighed and sat on the edge of the briefing room table. "Sometimes I don't think I can do this anymore" she looked at Icheb with a few tears gathering in her eyes. "Sometimes I just want to pack it in and settle down someplace"
"I believe in you, Naomi, as do the others. We will get this ship back to the Alpha Quadrant. Even if it takes us a thousand years, we will get it back home and we will do it under your command" Icheb hesitated and then gave her a warm hug. It seemed to do the trick as Naomi stopped crying and collected herself.
"Lets get going" she said. "Suddenly the idea of taking time off sounds good… Icheb? Have you ever thought about what you would do when we reach the Alpha Quadrant?" Naomi asked.
"I have not given it much thought" the Brunali paused. "By the time we get back to the Alpha Quadrant, I will be far too old to train as a Starfleet Officer. I suppose that I could teach astrology and advanced physics. And yourself?"
"Find my relatives and visit them, I suppose" Naomi said. "Its kinda scary to think we will grow up"
"We could always go into status" Icheb smiled and Naomi returned it.
"Come on, Itchy" she said with a cheeky wink that told Icheb that all was well with his young friend. "Lets get to our shore leave"
"Aye, Aye, Captain"
# # # # #
"Approaching planet" said Azan. "On screen" and brought the image of the brilliant green planet up on the main viewscreen.
"It's beautiful" breathed Naomi.
"Sensors confirm all readings within the standard Class M norms, though the gravity is at 0.8g compared to Earth standard" Mezoti said.
"There are no other vessels in range" said Icheb.
"I read seven large continents and thousands of small islands all over the planet. There are signs of volcanic activity on some of the islands near the equator, but nothing too serious"
"It looks good enough to land" said Rebi. "Why don't we?" he asked Naomi.
"Yes, why not… Any objections?" but, as she thought, she got none. "Icheb, set Condition Blue. Prepare for landing"
"Aye, Naomi" Icheb worked the Operations console and the lights dimmed and turned blue as an alert tone sounded all over the Bridge.
"Rebi, rig the shields for entry and atmospheric flight. Icheb, vent drive plasma from the nacelles and disengage the warp drive"
"Understood"
"I will comply"
"Mezoti, find us a nice place to land"
"Any preferences?" she enquired.
"Someplace nice, soft and near the sea" Naomi said. "Pass the place to the Helm. Mr Azan, you may begin your descent"
"Aye" and Azan brought Voyager into the planet's atmosphere. Ten minutes later, the ship was sat on the surface of the planet.
"Secure all stations" Naomi said. "That was great… Lets go and take a look around"
"We could do that from here" Icheb said.
"And you know thats not the same…" Naomi mock glared and rolled her eyes. "Computer, contact us if any vessels comes within range of our current position"
Acknowledged
#
"I didn't think that anything could beat the holodeck, but this just blows it out of the water" Naomi sighed happily as she lay on the beach sunbathing.
"It is somewhat agreeable" Icheb said, wiggling his toes in the warm sand. "I am certain that you would not think I would say this, but why do we not stay for longer?" he asked.
"How long?"
"Oh, I think a month on this beach should be good" Mezoti said sleepily. Naomi and Icheb laughed as they watched the twins race each other in the waters near the landing ground.
"I could live here forever and ever" Naomi said.
"If that is you wish, Naomi, then that is what we shall do" Icheb said. "We would be safe for many years" he added.
"I really want to, but I promised Mom and Captain Janeway and Seven and everybody else that I'd get the ship home. Of course" she added, "A month sounds about right"
Voyager computer to Naomi Wildman
"Go ahead" Naomi tapped her com badge.
A vessel has entered sensor range. Bearing 132 mark 98. Speed Warp 9.98
"Where is it heading?"
Current location of USS Voyager
"Define type of vessel"
Borg Cube – Type 3
"Has it detected us?" Naomi, Icheb and Mezoti were no longer just lazing around now.
Unknown
"Power down to minimal levels. Shut down life support, power down warp and impulse drives. Switch to battery power. Keep a continuous watch using passive sensors. Report when the Cube does something. Naomi out" she looked at the other two. "After all this time, a lone Cube turns up? How could it have escaped the destruction of the Borg?"
"I do not know" Icheb replied. "I am more concerned to know if it has been following us using some kind of stealth technology"
Voyager to Naomi Wildman
"Naomi"
Borg Cube has scanned the surface and then departed on course 010 mark 58
"Did it detect us?"
Indications from sensor data conclude it did not
"Begin power up sequence of impulse drive. Bring manoeuvring thrusters to standby. Computer, new standing orders: Keep constant transporter lock on Naomi, Mezoti, Icheb, Azan and Rebi"
Acknowledged. Beginning power up sequence now
"We leaving?" asked Mezoti.
"No, but I want to get up and away as quickly as possible should they come back" Naomi said. "For now, I want to try that refreshing water" and, without another word, she stripped off her clothing and jumped into the sea.
"It is sometimes disturbing to see her do that" Icheb said. "Although she appears to be the same age as you, she is somewhat younger" and Mezoti nodded in agreement.
"Perhaps a talk with the Doctor is in order?" she suggested.
"I will suggest it to her" Icheb said. "Due to her mixed K'tarian and Human genes, she has grown at a different rate then what could be expected" he didn't talk again until Naomi was well out of ear shot. "There is another problem. It is one that I have spoken to Azan and Rebi about, but one which I have not been able to speak to you about until now"
"What?" Mezoti frowned.
"I must admit that I have been keeping certain things from Naomi, or else changing computer readouts when she has asked for them. During the battle with the Borg at Unimatrix Zero One, we took a lot of damage"
"I was there" Mezoti said.
"I know… The damage I speak of is to the ship's lateral members. Many key locations were severely damaged and we have not been able to repair them. Naomi's decision to land here has made it impossible for us to take off again"
"The damage is that bad?" Mezoti's eyes were wide with the understanding.
"The repairs are not so terrible that we can't leave, but we have an issue. According to the computer, the repairs would take three months with an engineering crew at a Starbase. We have no crew at all, no experience in doing something like this, one cadet, four pre teenagers and the nearest Starbase is over a hundred thousand light years away at maximum warp"
"Can't we brace the members with extra plating?"
"That would only slow the rate of damage progression. Do you think I should tell her?" Icheb asked as he watched Naomi swimming towards some rocks.
"Later, perhaps" Mezoti said. "After so much in her life, let her enjoy a few days before breaking the news to her"
"Maybe you are right" Icheb said. They watched as Naomi reached the rocks and began to climb up them – suddenly, she dropped down and made a huge splash – causing Icheb to get soaked. He spluttered and shook his wet hair from his face as Mezoti gave in to a fit of giggles. "Laughing at me, will you?" he growled, stood, scooped the girl into his arms and took a running leap into the sea.
#
That evening, only Naomi was awake – holding a nominal watch on the bridge. After looking over the sensor logs, the group had discovered that the Borg Cube had been the result of a malfunction. After she had been tired out from all of the swimming, running and playing that day, she had slept for several hours – waking up in time for dinner and her turn as watchkeeper on the Bridge. She spent the time going over some reports she wanted to send to Starfleet and also looked at new clothing for herself. Her normal clothing was far too heavy for the warm climate of the planet they had landed on, she had settled for a pleated skirt and a thin cotton t-shirt with sandals. She'd also discovered something called a skort that was a combination of short and skirt along with a lavender colour blouse as well as a number of other items.
Shuttle in position
"Computer, begin recording" Naomi was brought from her thoughts by the computer.
Acknowledged. Recording…
"This is a message from Naomi Wildman of the USS Voyager to Starfleet Command. We have survived the assault on Unimatrix Zero One. All mission objectives were completed and the Borg are no longer a threat to the galaxy. However, an incident involving our escape and the detonation of ordinance used in the attack has thrown us far off our expected position. Our current position is 101,316.7 thousand light years from the nearest point to the Alpha Quadrant. After discussing the situation with my friends, we have decided to continue the primary mission directive set by Captain Kathryn Janeway to return Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant. This journey, however, will take around 100 years to complete. It is my intention to continue on a course to Starbase 515, the nearest Starbase to our current position, whilst looking for new technologies or wormholes we can use to take years off of our journey. Included in this packet are all of our logs, ship status reports and navigational data from the last time we communicated. After a period of refitting and repairing, we will resume the journey. Although it may take a hundred years to complete, we will return. Keep a docking port ready for us. Naomi Wildman, Captain, USS Voyager, out" and the computer bleeped to indicate the message was recorded. "Computer, transfer the message to the shuttle and prepare to activate shuttle deflector on my command.
Acknowledged
"Transfer the data to the shuttle and let me know when that is complete" Naomi ordered. As she waited, she turned her attention to the small matter of Deck 15 Sections 1 through 26.
