Malice
Author: The Passionate Admiral
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Star Trek Universe, but I do own the Jiopians, the Riscadi, and the Beitruu. (As well as the Fikalo and the Wrilohans.)
Note: This takes place near the beginning of season 7, say between "Inside Man" and "Flesh And Blood."
The USS Voyager was in orbit of the planet Jiopia. Captain Kathryn Janeway had instigated shore leave for the crew. After months of exhausting work and the victorious battle for the liberation of Unimatrix Zero, she had given the crew what they deserved and desperately needed.
Most of the members of the crew were enjoying themselves on the planet's surface. The only two people who had not been on the surface at some point within the past week were Tuvok and Seven Of Nine. During the duration of the Voyager's stay, Tuvok had been in command of the bridge longer than Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay combined.
Most of the crew was on the planet's surface enjoying the festivities. At that moment, Captain Janeway was giving the governor of Jiopia a tour of Voyager. They had just arrived in the engine room.
"And this, Governor Tiliod, is the warp core." Captain Janeway was explaining to the tall man. "Our maximum speed is warp 10, which we acquired thanks to the hard work of three of our crewmen. Unfortunately, one of them experienced a most unusual side-effect, so the most speed we allow is warp factor 9.975."
"I see." said Governor Tiliod. "Where are these three crewmen right now?"
The Jiopians looked very much like Humans, except they were slightly taller than the average Human, and they had a type of half-circle protruding out of their foreheads. Two more of these large three-dimensional half-circles were on their chins; one went on each side of their faces.
"None of them are here right now." said Janeway. "I sent them off on a research and observation mission just shortly before we arrived here. However, they should be returning in eight or nine hours. Their names are Harry Kim, Tom Paris, and B'Elanna Torres."
"Ah yes, now, this B'Elanna Torres…" said Tiliod, "she is a Klingon, correct?"
"Half-Klingon, actually." Janeway corrected him. "Her mother is Klingon, but her father is Human. Lieutenant Paris, Ensign Kim, and the majority of the people on this ship including myself are Human as well."
"Fascinating." said the Governor. After he jotted down a few more notes, he said "I have looked through the information you provided me with about your race's backgrounds, Captain. I cannot argue with you when you say that you are a peaceful people. But there are a few events in your history when you have been very violent and uncivil."
"We have learned to suppress our primal barbaric sides." Janeway told him. "Most of us have, at any rate. It is still possible to set any Human's bad side off."
"Very interesting." said the Governor. "Before we press on, I need to send a quick message to my subordinate about a certain matter. Is there a place I may speak in private?"
"Sure, come with me." said Janeway. Then she led the Governor to a room where he could contact his people in privacy.
A few light years away, the Delta Flyer emerged from a binary pulsar cluster. Its three crewmembers- Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres, and Harry Kim- were operating the shuttle and keeping it sailing smoothly. Tom was piloting the small ship gracefully, B'Elanna was running a diagnostic on the impulse engines, and Harry took a moment to record a personal log.
He documented "Ensign Kim Personal Log, Stardate 54023.4: This time I've spent with Lieutenants Paris and Torres has been most… uneventful. We did nothing but monitor various anomalies for the past week, and I've mostly just been useful with keeping the Flyer organized and documenting some microbes we've discovered. But with Tom and B'Elanna around, time is never boring. I guess I should be thankful that the Captain didn't decide to send Tuvok and Seven of Nine with me instead. I probably would've died of boredom if she had."
Harry had been recording his log in the back of the ship. Once he was finished, he stored it in the ship's databanks and returned to the front of the ship. Tom, without looking over his shoulder, said to his best friend "Another 'Dear Journal' moment, Harry?"
"How can you tell, Tom?" said Harry.
"That's your eleventh one this week." B'Elanna noted.
Harry shrugged and said "We've made a lot of progress. I need to keep my journal up to date."
"There's even a limit to notifying your journal, Harry." Tom quipped as he turned his chair to face the rest of the cockpit of the Delta Flyer. "It will get bored from hearing you drone on about your day after a while."
B'Elanna chuckled at Tom's last comment.
"At least I have a variety of things to talk about in my log entries, Tom." Harry retorted. "What's your idea of a typical log entry? 'Personal log: B'Elanna and I have almost done it again?' I imagine that's one you would put over and over in your shockingly empty log entry database."
"Okay, Harry, that's hitting it a little over the edge." said B'Elanna.
"I know, but I'm kidding." Harry reassured her. "I'm sorry about that last one."
"Oh, it's quite alright, buddy." said Tom. "It's better to respond to one snappy comment with another snappy comment than to be submissive and not respond at all."
"I'm sure all three of us could agree on that." said B'Elanna.
"She would know." said Tom. "She's had a lot of experience."
B'Elanna gave Tom a menacing glare. He just grinned and said "But I love her anyway."
B'Elanna dropped her glare and smiled back. Harry sat down at the chair to the right behind the pilot's seat. Working at that station, he said "It just seems so unusual that the Captain would send the three of us out to study this system while the rest of the crew is on shore leave."
"Perhaps she wanted her 'three favorite' officers testing out the Delta Flyer II." Tom theorized.
B'Elanna shrugged and suggested "Or maybe it's to test our resolve to stick to our duty."
Tom nodded and said "Yeah, Harry. Maybe this is a test, and if you pass it, you may end up getting a promotion."
Harry grinned and said "That would be a positive thought."
Suddenly, an alarm went off from the pilot's panel. Tom revolved his chair back around and found the source of the alarm. He announced "There's an unidentified mass approaching us."
Harry examined the sensors and told the other two "Long rang sensors indicate it could be a vessel of some type."
B'Elanna inspected the star charts and said "You're right, Harry. It is a ship. And a big one at that. It appears to be on a direct intercept course."
"Have they activated weapons?" asked Tom.
"Negative." said Harry.
"Well, let's not take any chances." Tom said. "I'm finding us a route that avoids a confrontation with whoever these people are. The Captain said no first contacts without her unless absolutely necessary."
The Delta Flyer swerved around and went from impulse to warp 5. But the alien ship followed them at warp 6.
"They're following us!" shouted Harry.
"I'm going to need more power from the warp drive if we're going to elude them!" Tom said to B'Elanna, almost putting her under uneasy pressure.
"You should have warp 8 right now!" she told him.
Tom implemented warp 8. But just a few moments later, Harry announced "They've gone to warp 9!"
Tom swore under his breath and said "We've got to get them off our tail!"
"Maybe we should try talking to them." suggested Harry. "Let them know we're not hostile."
"Good idea." said Tom. "Open a channel."
Harry got to work. After a few seconds, he declared "Channel open!"
"This is the Shuttle Delta Flyer of the Federation Starship Voyager." Tom said over the hailing frequency. "We are on a peaceful mission of exploration. Please, break off your pursuit course."
Suddenly, the other ship emitted a type of electrical shockwave from one of its weapons turrets directly at the Flyer. It erupted just behind the Flyer, and suddenly a few of the most critical systems on the ship started functioning incorrectly.
"I guess they don't believe us." Tom muttered under his breath.
"That or they're just not in the mood to talk." Harry theorized.
"That weapon just destabilized the warp field!" B'Elanna announced.
"We're losing speed fast!" Harry reported.
"Navigations are fluctuating!" said Tom. "I'm attempting to compensate for the irregularities!"
Soon, the other ship was within ten miles of the Flyer. The former locked onto the latter with a tractor beam and started towing it in.
"I can't break us free." Tom proclaimed. "We have to disrupt that tractor beam!"
"Our weapons are down!" B'Elanna enlightened him.
"I'll try programming the deflector dish to emit an EM pulse!" said Harry. He and B'Elanna went to work on that, but the pulse had no effect on the other ship or the tractor beam.
Very soon, a second tractor beam locked onto the Flyer from within a shuttlebay in the ship. The ship was pulling the Flyer inside.
"Our only hope is to send out a distress signal to the Voyager now." said Tom.
"I think I can send an encrypted message through the deflector array." said Harry. "I'll set it up as quickly as possible."
Harry quickly went to work setting up a distress signal. When he was finished, he programmed the deflector to send it out and initiated the emission sequence.
A few mere seconds after Harry had set out the distress call, the Delta Flyer was pulled fully into the shuttlebay. The hanger doors closed and the entire room went dark.
"Please tell me you were able to send out the distress signal in time, Harry." Tom pleaded.
Harry, looking worried, just said "I sure hope I was."