Chapter Six
Voyager swung around the star at high warp, racing through time as well as space, going back to the time they had left behind. The ship shuddered under the strain, but she held together.
Arriving back at the instant they had left, Voyager raced out of the nebula. Here, time was something they had little of. For the second time, Paris set a course for the transwarp hub, Galahad Point. Flashing into transwarp, for a few instants the ship was visible. Then the cloaking device Reg Barclay had helped install activated and Voyager vanished.
"How long until we're within transporter range of the hub?" asked Janeway. She paced across the bridge as her ship ripped through space, racing towards a confrontation with the Queen.
"Five minutes, Captain. We'll drop out of transwarp when we're ready to enter the nebula," responded Lieutenant Rollins. He was at tactical because Tuvok was in the transporter room, getting his team ready to infiltrate the hub. Janeway nodded at him, then went and stood behind Paris at helm. She watched his skillful hands fly over the controls, Voyager responding to his touch, and on the viewscreen Voyager dropped out of transwarp. Still running engines hot, Paris drove Voyager full throttle through the outer layers of the nebula.
On the viewscreen, they again saw the transwarp hub. It glowed with activity, drones occupying every level, every station. Surrounding it, there were not the dozens of inactive Borg vessels and plethora of battle damage, but instead more than fifty Borg vessels floated menacingly in the void. Still cloaked, Voyager skidded to halt just meters over the hub. Beneath Voyager, thousands of Borg drones worked to keep the transwarp hub running in preparation for their invasion of the Federation. Above Voyager, dozens of Borg cubes prepared to mount that invasion. Janeway glanced grimly at Chakotay and nodded firmly. "Do it."
On one of those cubes, the Borg Queen waited and wondered what had become of Janeway. After discovering Janeway's spy in the collective, she had anticipated an attack on the hub, but it had never come. Janeway was quickly running out of time, and she felt an irrational disappointment. She had been looking forward to Janeway's inevitable futile attempt to stop her.
A sudden mental impulse triggered part of her brain, and her head turned quickly to respond. Finally. I've been waiting for you, Captain Janeway. On the viewer, she watched as Voyager shimmered into existence in the midst of her forces. The sleek ship skimmed over the transwarp hub and blasted anything in range with phaser fire. The Queen noted, with some astonishment, that Voyager's weapons penetrated all her defenses. "Begin adaptation sequence," she commanded to the drones in the command center. In her mind, she felt their acknowledgement as they went about finding a counter to Voyager's weapons.
Voyager leapt forward, hurling towards the Borg cube closest to the transwarp hub. From her, a single torpedo launched, and then the Queen observed Voyager shimmer back under cloak. "Find Janeway. Begin random fire sequence," she ordered. Then the torpedo struck the cube. And suddenly, impossibly, her invasion fleet had one less ship.
On the transwarp hub, Tuvok glanced at his team. Each of them wore the neural dampeners that hid their presence from the collective. On point, Lieutenant Ayala swung his compression rifle to cover the drones that ambled around them. Behind him, Ensign Mulcahey held a phaser in his right hand, but in his left he held a tricorder that contained a copy of the information cascade program. Covering their flank, Crewman Dalby held a rifle lightly in his right hand. "Clear," Dalby reported.
"Very well. We must make haste to reach the central plexus," said Tuvok. Ayala nodded, and the team moved purposely forward. Around them, the drones did not acknowledge or recognize their presence as they hurried towards the central sections of the transwarp hub's command center. With his tricorder, Mulcahey disabled one force field, then another, moving the team closer to their target.
In the space around the hub, Voyager had managed to avoid being struck by the Borg vessels, which were firing blind trying to find their position, but Janeway suspected that would not remain true indefinitely. Down to just five transphasic torpedoes, Janeway couldn't afford to engage in an all out conflict with the Borg, not now. Suddenly, the ship shook as a blast from one of the cubes struck Voyager squarely. Paris threw Voyager into a series of evasive maneuvers and the ship managed to find a new hiding spot.
On one of the cubes preparing to go through the hub to the Alpha Quadrant, the Borg Queen attempted to ascertain Janeway's plan. She had obviously found new technology to assist her in a conflict against the Borg, and was just as obviously trying to avoid using it unnecessarily. "What good does it do Janeway to have one ship hiding amongst fifty, when those fifty are about to assimilate the Alpha Quadrant?" she asked the silent drones in the room. They had no answer for her. Finally, the Queen decided that Janeway's presence was a nuisance, at worst. "Begin the transit to the Alpha Quadrant," she ordered.
"Captain!" gasped out Harry. "The cubes at the entrance to the transwarp hub are beginning to make the transit! If Tuvok's team doesn't initiate the cascade now those cubes won't be knocked out by it!" Janeway looked up at the viewer. And if the Queen is on one of those ships, she'll avoid it too. There won't be a collective to come home to, but she'll do a hell of a lot of damage to the Federation.
"Lieutenant Rollins, prepare a pair of tricobalt devices, maximum yield," she ordered. Then she nodded at Tom. "We're going to try to buy Tuvok just a little bit more time," she said. "Bring us around and prepare to drop the cloak. Arm one more of the transphasic torpedoes."
At the entrance to the transwarp conduit, one cube passed into it. And a second. When another came to the entrance, Voyager decloaked and strafed the hull with her upgraded phasers. Damaged, the cube fired back, and fell out of formation. As Voyager sliced apart her outer hull, a third cube entered into the conduit. Voyager planted herself right in the path of one of the other cubes, and launched another torpedo. It punched through the cube's side, and the cube disintegrated as secondary explosions rippled through its innards. As Voyager spun to combat the remaining cubes, a fourth cube managed to slip into the conduit.
In the hub, Mulcahey worked to disable the last forcefield separating the team from the central plexus of the transwarp hub. Tuvok worked with him and together they struggled to gain access. Dalby watched the inactive drones grimly. So far, they had still remained unaware of Voyager's away team, but he suspected that was about to end. Next to him, Ayala's finger curled around the trigger of his phaser rifle, watching the inactive drones that seemed to be present in every direction.
Finally, Mulcahey and Tuvok found a way to circumvent the barrier and the forcefield fell, sputtering out of existence. Slowly, the team crept forward into the large chamber that housed the transwarp plexus. Dalby's eyes narrowed as a drone activated to their left. He watched as it turned and looked straight at Mulcahey, and then ambled forward. When it was within four paces and still staring at Mulcahey, Dalby let his old Maquis instincts take over and pulled the trigger. The drone crumpled to the floor and for a second all was silent.
Then, unsurprisingly, an alarm began to blare. Tuvok turned and looked straight at Dalby, who met his eyes levelly before turning away and shooting another drone that appeared threatening. Then Tuvok raised his rifle and found a target of his own. "It appears that we have been detected. Hurry," he commanded. The team fell into a triangle around Mulcahey.
Dalby, Ayala, and Tuvok manned their weapons, blasting drones as they marched slowly forward. Racing to the plexus, Mulcahey snapped open his tricorder and downloaded the program into the plexus. Down on one knee, Dalby snapped off phaser blasts, catching multiple drones in the chest as Ayala phasered one that was just a few feet from Mulcahey. Then, suddenly, Mulcahey yelled in triumph as he activated the information cascade. The drones around them paused. Their implants lit up then gave out. All around them, the drones stopped dead, looking confused, and then Tuvok and his team dematerialized as Nicoletti grabbed them with Voyager's transporters.
Back on Voyager's bridge, Janeway was barking orders. "We've got to stop the four cubes that got through, and I'm not going to leave the transwarp hub here to be a menace in the future. Mr. Rollins, target the hub with the tricobalt devices. Tom, we're going to have to ride the explosion to get into the conduit before the entrance is collapsed," she said.
"I hear you, Captain. We'll punch our way through," Tom said, not taking his eyes off the viewscreen as Voyager went into a roll, leveling out as it again faced the hub.
Janeway looked up at the screen at the transwarp hub yawing before Voyager's bow, and she snapped the order. "Fire."
The Borg ships floating around the hub did nothing to stop Voyager as the ship leveled the transwarp hub with a pair of bright-blue tricobalt charges. The hub's protective shielding had been lost when the drones inside had been severed from the collective by the cascade. The detonation ricocheted through the entire facility, beginning to tear it apart as destruction rippled throughout the massive structure. Ahead of Voyager, the conduit entrance destabilized without the support from the hub, and it started to collapse. Voyager raced down towards the conduit and charged into it with reckless abandon.
Behind them, the entrance collapsed as Voyager raced forward. Ahead of them, they could see the fourth cube as it moved steadily towards the Alpha Quadrant. Ahead of it, Janeway knew, were three more cubes, and any one of them could do incredible damage before it was stopped.
"Tom, get us in close to that last cube," Janeway said. He nodded silently, still intently focused on his controls. In the back of the bridge, Tuvok entered and relieved Rollins. Janeway looked up at him. "Good job, Mr. Tuvok, but it's not over yet. Prepare one of the torpedoes, we're going to take out the cube in front of us before we get to the end of this conduit," she said.
Paris artfully piloted Voyager into point blank range with the cube, which threw some ineffectual energy blasts at her. Voyager went by the cube on the side, absorbing the damage with her new ablative armor, and then pulled in front. From her aft launcher launched one of the new torpedoes and the cube behind caught it head-on. Voyager raced forward, leaving behind a trail of debris as what was left of the cube vaporized along the conduit. Ahead of the ship Janeway watched as the cubes ahead exited the conduit. They quickly bore down on the exit themselves, watching a tiny pinprick of space grow on the viewer.
Voyager exited the conduit, emerging into open space. Ahead of her sat three cubes. Janeway turned to Kim. "Location, Ensign?"
Kim looked up. He grimaced slightly. "We're in the Alpha Quadrant, ma'am. The Wolf 359 system." Janeway turned back to the monitor. For an instant, a sudden and intense joy filled her. Wolf 359. Welcome to the Alpha Quadrant, just a few scanty lightyears between us and Earth. Then she suppressed it. Wolf 359, the system where the Borg killed thousands of Starfleet crewmen.
"Somehow fitting," she said. Ahead of Voyager sat the three cubes, waiting for Voyager's arrival. The distance between Voyager and the cubes decreased rapidly. "Bring us into weapons range, Mr. Paris," she growled.
On the viewer appeared the Queen. "Why hello, Captain Janeway. I was wondering when you would arrive. I see you have found yourself some new toys to play with, and I'm rather curious as to where you came up with all these new… innovations… so quickly?" Her voice was cloying, a sickly saccharine.
Janeway stared the Queen in the eye. "They were a gift, your highness. From a friend." Janeway stood up and planted her hands on her hips. " We're going to finish this right now, right here." Janeway glowered at the Queen.
The Queen looked back. "Yes. We are." She tilted her head and two of the cubes closed on Voyager. "You have fun dealing with those, Captain. I'm going to head over to Earth and destroy humanity once and for all." The screen shut down and the Queen's cube raced forward. "Tuvok, fire!" Janeway spat.
Paris tried to get Voyager a good firing angle on the lead cube, but it was decently covered by the other two. The torpedo caught the Borg cube off-center, detonating along the side. The cube took heavy damage as Voyager swung around and launched the last two torpedoes at the other two cubes. The cube the Queen was on hung in space momentarily, trying to recover – its transwarp drive was heavily damaged. The other two cubes staggered under the detonations from Voyager's last torpedoes. One fell away from Voyager, burning, but intact for the moment. The last one tore itself apart in a fury.
On Voyager's bridge a feeling of renewed jubilation settled through the crew. Harry started to smile and was about to say something, but the viewscreen came to life. "Not good enough, Janeway. If you could destroy me, you would have done it already," the Queen said. "Now, I'm going to ensure that you never have a home to return to." She glared viciously at Janeway. "I wonder what will happen to Earth when this cube slams into it at transwarp velocity?" she asked. Then her image blinked out. On the viewer, the crippled cube jumped uncertainly into transwarp. Janeway's eyes widened. Phasers weren't going to be enough to stop that cube from reaching Earth and certainly nothing Starfleet had could stop it. She had no torpedoes left to throw. Only one answer came to mind. Here we are again, having to sacrifice the ship to save Earth. She thought of the dead on that other Voyager. This time, she thought, at least I can save my crew.
She looked at Chakotay, and knew he knew what she was about to do. "Abandon ship." She said. No one responded and a deathly silence filled the bridge. "Abandon ship. Repeat, all hands this is the Captain. Abandon ship," she repeated. Tom looked up at her with wide eyes. She patted his shoulder. "It's all right, Tom. Go get B'Elanna and get out of here." She looked up at the crew. "That goes for all of you. Go!"
In astrometrics, Icheb and Seven looked up as the order was given. Seven turned to him. "Go, Icheb. Get to a shuttlecraft and get off the ship. Captain Janeway intends to sacrifice Voyager to stop the cube." Icheb looked up, and he nodded. Rushing from the lab, he stopped suddenly as a thought occurred to him.
He raced to sickbay instead, and nearly ran over the Doctor. "Where's the dead Queen, Doctor?" he asked hurriedly, glancing quickly at each of the biobeds.
"What? Why?" The Doctor asked. Before Icheb could respond, the Doctor's combadge beeped. On the other end, Tom Paris was speaking frantically.
"Doctor! Doc we need you aboard the Delta Flyer right away! B'Elanna's gone into labor. Doc, get down here!" The Doctor glanced at Icheb, both of them wide-eyed. Then the Doctor grabbed Icheb and raced to one of the back biobeds, where the Queen's corpse was lying. He watched, curious, as Icheb looked frantically through the implants the Doctor had retrieved during his autopsy. Finally, Icheb found the one he was looking for, and both raced out of Sickbay towards the shuttlebay.
Once there, they met Seven of Nine at the entrance. She was standing uncertainly, looking at the Flyer. "Come on, Seven," said the Doctor. Seven turned to him.
"I am going to stay and assist the Captain," she said.
"Seven, but she's going to kamikaze Voyager into the Borg cube! You'll be killed!" He reached for her to pull her to the Flyer. She shook her head.
"Doctor, I want you to know… you are the best friend I have ever had." She looked at him. "I am grateful that you care for me." Seven leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I will not leave Captain Janeway behind," she said.
She turned and marched back into the turbolift. Behind her, the Doctor turned away as Tom called, begging for his help with B'Elanna.
On the bridge, Janeway watched as the Flyer departed, joining a plethora of shuttlecraft and escape pods. The Queen was getting ahead, but they could still catch her before she got to Earth. She turned to Tuvok and Chakotay, the only ones left on the bridge. "Go," she said. They both started to respond, but were interrupted as the turbolift door slid open and Seven walked out. Janeway looked at her, confused. "Seven, go, take Chakotay and Tuvok and get in an escape pod," she ordered.
Seven looked at here levelly. "I will not comply," she said, and walked over the station behind the captain's chair. She looked over at Janeway, questioningly. "The rest of the crew has departed from Voyager. If we are to catch the Queen, we must pursue. Now."
Janeway looked at Chakotay helplessly. He smiled. "She spoke for me too." Janeway glanced at Tuvok, who just looked back at her impassively and returned to his station. Chakotay swung down behind the helm and pressed a few buttons quickly. Under his touch, Voyager leapt into transwarp.
Janeway regarded the few who had refused to leave. Stupid, stubborn… She sighed and resigned herself to their presence. "Tuvok, I need access to the transmitter," she said. As Tuvok worked to get her an open subspace frequency, she again looked at each of the ones who had refused to leave. Seven. Tuvok. Chakotay. I wish to God you had left… but thank you.
At Utopia Planitia Yards above Mars, Captain Robert DeSoto was meandering aimlessly about his bridge. The Hood was in the middle of a major refit – hopefully, when it was finished, the old ship would be as capable as any of the new ones. At least, that's the plan. But who knows if her engines, or her weapons, or any of it will stand up to daily use. In the meantime, I'm going stir-crazy.
Suddenly, one of the empty stations started beeping. Curious, his tactical officer went over and tapped the button. On the main viewer an image of a woman he did not know popped up, wearing an old-style command uniform. She spoke. "Starfleet Command, this is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager. There's no time to explain our arrival here right now. Two Borg vessels have invaded Federation territory – one is disabled at Wolf 359, the other is on a direct course for Earth. Voyager will intercept and destroy the cube headed for Earth by any means necessary – we are equipped with a transwarp drive and can catch it before it reaches Earth. However, most of my crew is helpless at Wolf 359 and when the cube there regains power it will undoubtedly attempt to assimilate them. Any ships in range, please do what you can to see that doesn't happen. Janeway out."
DeSoto watched the message quietly. Captain Janeway? The ship lost in the Delta Quadrant, right? He took no time to decide his next course of action, however. "Helm, break mooring with station keeping. Set a course for Wolf 359. Get whatever you can out of the engines."
His helmsman turned around. "Sir, the new warp drive hasn't even been field tested yet, or the new weapons and shields."
DeSoto stared the man down. "Well, then I guess we'll test them now. I'm sick and tired of sitting in spacedock and I'm not about to sit here and do nothing when those people need our help. Set the course!"
From the pilot's seat in the Delta Flyer, Mike Ayala had watched as Voyager vanished into transwarp. Now he sat waiting. From the cockpit, he could hear B'Elanna screaming at the Doctor, cursing him, her husband, and everything else. Across from Harry, Icheb sat, examining the implant he had retrieved. He was silent, as were they all except for those in the aft compartment.
The Flyer hung still, in a swarm of shuttlecraft and escape pods that contained all but four of Voyager's crew. Mike prayed that Captain Janeway wasn't planning to do what he suspected she was. To lose her now, so close to home, would truly be a tragedy.
Then Mike glanced at his console as a warning sensor started blinking. "What?" he muttered. From behind him, he heard Harry gasp, and he looked up through the Flyer's main window. Around the shuttle, escape pods were beginning to maneuver in the opposite direction. Looming ahead of them was the other remaining cube, giant gaping hole in its side from Voyager's torpedo, but even crippled a cube was more than enough to finish off a bunch of helpless escape pods. Ayala suddenly realized that he had more pressing things to worry about than the fate of his Captain.
Swinging the Flyer around in an evasive maneuver, he heard more curses from the aft compartment, as well as the Doctor screaming something about holding the shuttle steady. Ignoring the complaints – he had more pressing things to worry about than them, too – he directed the Flyer away from the cube.
Then, gasping, he threw the Flyer into a full stop. A giant shape loomed over the main window of the shuttle, swinging up around and above Voyager's shuttlecraft and escape pods. Ayala caught a glance of the ship's saucer section, her large secondary hull and bright blue warp nacelles as she charged forward to engage the Borg. Behind her, Mike saw several other Federation starships following in her trail, and the telltale flashes of phaser fire began to light up the screen.
Mike turned and grinned widely at Harry. Harry came down to the pilot's seat and slapped his back. "The cavalry has arrived!" he exclaimed. Together they watched as the dozen or so Federation starships laid into the already crippled Borg cube. Others dropped out of warp to join them, and it was clear that Starfleet had the advantage in this battle. Torpedoes split the void, tearing down into the cube.
"That's not why I was grinning, Harry," Mike said. He pointed at one of the starships – the first one that had brushed by the Flyer on her way to engage the Borg. Tapping a pair of buttons on his console, a small viewer to his and Harry's right popped up, and that ship was magnified on the viewer. She skated around the cube, quantum torpedoes and phasers punching small holes in the Borg cube. Harry pounded on Ayala's shoulder. It was the Hood.
Together they watched as the Borg cube staggered under a constant barrage from the assembled starships. Small explosions wracked her hull, and the smaller starships got in close, firing quantum torpedoes into the giant chasm left from Voyager's transphasic torpedo. Harry and Ayala recognized some of them. The Appalachia. The Endeavour. The Centaur. The cube faltered, burning. Finally, as the starships concentrated their fire on a small section of the cube, the sides burst outwards, detonating the ship. Then the starships swung back around towards Voyager's wayward crew.
The Flyer's communications system beeped, and a woman's voice filled the cockpit. "USS Hood to Federation shuttlecraft, we are bringing your people aboard. You are free to dock in our shuttlebay."
Harry keyed in the communications. "This is the Delta Flyer. Acknowledged, Hood." Harry shrugged, and grinned. It came through in his voice. "Thanks for the assist."
"Our pleasure, Delta Flyer."
Aboard the Hood, things were chaotic. Harry, Ayala, and Icheb were hustled to the bridge – the Hood's crew had been shocked, to say the least, to find Voyager's chief engineer, doctor, and helmsman in the back of the shuttle, fighting their way through Klingon labor, but they'd gotten over that shock quickly enough.
Icheb recognized DeSoto, who was standing behind his helmsman. From the state of the bridge, Icheb guessed the Hood was in the midst of a refit but had been scrambled when Starfleet Command realized the Borg were coming. Now the Hood had the entire crew of an Intrepid-class starship aboard and was racing back towards Earth. The cube was much too far ahead for the Hood to catch it, but it and Voyager were clear as day on the main viewscreen. They were exchanging fire as they closed on Earth, Voyager trying desperately to stop the cube, but it was clear that she wouldn't be able to with her phasers.
On the upper ring of the bridge, Icheb turned to Harry. "Ensign, I believe I have a way to stop the Queen," he said. Harry turned to him. Icheb continued, holding up the Borg implant he had retrieved. "We recovered the Queen's neural transceiver from the future. If we can re-activate it, all the data in the implant will automatically download into the present Queen, since the collective will perceive them to be from the same drone. The Queen's transceiver should have enough transmission capacity to infect the cube if we add a copy of the information cascade to the download – we might be able to short out the Queen's neural transceiver."
Harry looked up at him. "But the future Queen's neural transceiver has been damaged beyond repair by the cascade that the Hood triggered in the future, Icheb. I can't connect it to the collective." He stopped and his eyes widened. "But I can connect you to the collective. Maybe I can download the information from her transceiver into yours and use you as a carrier!"
Icheb nodded. "That was my idea," he said. Racing back to the Flyer, they activated the systems they'd used to infiltrate the hub at the beginning of the whole situation. Harry connected Icheb's implants to the Queen's neural transceiver and flipped the switch.
"Get her attention, Icheb. The download will take a few seconds."
On the Borg cube, the Queen had Earth in her sights. Voyager was a pest, raking phaser fire over the cube, but it would not be able to prevent the cube from reaching Earth. Both the cube and Voyager had dropped out of transwarp – the cube's drive had failed shortly after entering the Earth solar system, but a collision at full impulse would be as deadly to the population as one at transwarp. Her invasion plans had been foiled – the transwarp hub was gone, she suspected, and she was unable to contact the collective in the Delta Quadrant, but all that could be resolved after the threat from the Federation was no more. Janeway will pay for this. Her eyes narrowed.
"Hello again, your highness," a voice interrupted her thoughts. "I hope I'm not causing you too much distraction," it said. She recognized it quickly as belonging to the boy who had allowed Janeway to discover her invasion plans.
"You have failed, Icheb. I cannot be stopped."
"Perhaps, your highness. But perhaps Captain Janeway has beaten you, this time. Perhaps Voyager had beaten you at your own game, and it was a game you did not even realize you were playing. But you will." Suddenly, the Queen's head started throbbing. "I have given you something, your highness. Understanding of these events. Events that you set in motion. They now end with your end," Icheb whispered into her mind. Then his voice vanished, cut off.
Suddenly, fifteen years of memories forcefully rose to the front in the Queen's mind. The transwarp hub being infected by a devastating pathogen. Voyager attacking the transwarp hub and having her hull torn open and her aft sections blown apart. Her invasion of the Federation and preparing an attack against Earth. Federation starships rallying against her forces with new weapons she couldn't adapt against. A Sovereign-class starship pursuing and damaging her sphere before her cubes destroyed it, as an Excelsior-class ship waited in the background. Losing connection with the collective. Going to the past in desperation, and having her crippled sphere defeated by Voyager. Death.
And then, one last insult, she heard Janeway's whispered words. "Welcome to the past, your highness. It appears the future wasn't kind to you. I'm going to make it even worse." The Queen screamed in outrage, and then a small file slipped into her mind. She probed it curiously. When she did so, it triggered. Her neural transceiver failed and she collapsed to the ground, stunned. Desperate, she clawed her way to her feet. The voices. The collective. I cannot hear them. We are the Borg, this cannot happen! She turned to the drones that manned the cube. "Continue! Complete your task!" she ordered in a rage.
The drones surrounding her turned towards one another. Finally, one stepped forward. Their collective too, had been severed, freed from the chains the Queen held them under, and this drone just stared at her, not acting to carry out her will. It spoke. "Our designation is Lieutenant Gregory Bergan, operations officer, USS Melbourne," it said. All around them, the cube began to come apart.
Above Earth, Voyager and the cube danced, exchanging fire, and finally there was no time left. Voyager turned towards the cube, her remaining crew ready to sacrifice their lives and their ship to make sure the others would have a home to return to. Voyager turned into the cube, on the final route, and the nose of the ship closed with the cube.
When the ship was just meters from the side of the cube it detonated. A white-hot anti-matter explosion tore through space, shaking Voyager like a paper boat in a hurricane. Her armor tore away, sprawling out behind her as Voyager was nearly shattered by the blast. Hull plating fell away too and Voyager's engines gave out. Caught in the gravity of the planet, the ship plunged downwards towards the surface.
Voyager left a trail of fire as her hull superheated, burning off from the atmospheric tension. The ship left bits and pieces of debris behind as it blazed across the sky. The four people aboard were unable to stabilize her – Chakotay did his best at the helm, but the ship didn't respond as it plummeted downwards. Janeway and Chakotay clung to the helm console as Voyager neared the surface, staring at the viewscreen as the Earth rose up to greet them. Then Voyager slammed into the ground and it all went white.