A/N: I will try to make my chapters slightly longer than my first chapter, as I was trying to get a feel for how long I wanted the story to be. That's my update. Without further ado, chapter 2.
Chapter 2
Janeway was sitting in her seat, listening to everything happening around her. Voyager had just been hit by something, and they needed to find out what. Harry was just arriving on the bridge when the captain was issuing orders. "Harry, there you are! I need you to run an analysis and find out what just hit us!" Harry was compliant, instantly taking over his console at ops, running a series of multi-spectral analyses in an attempt to isolate whatever did hit them. The results were slightly astounding. "Captain, I don't know how, but parts of the hull are beginning to disintegrate." Captain Janeway was not anywhere near pleased at the moment, and she eyed her coffee for a moment. It was her third coffee that day, and it looked like it wouldn't be her last. In true poor-timing fashion, Seven called.
"Captain, I believe I have discovered something of interest. I suggest remodulating the shields to an inverse frequency." Tuvok remodulated the shields, which seemed to stabilize the hull fragments that were disintegrating. Janeway called a staff meeting to address the senior officers, and hear what Seven had to say on the wave.
Seven entered the briefing room and noted that all of the senior officers were chatting about one thing or another. Harry and B'Elanna were discussing the damage in the EPS Conduits caused by the disintegrating hull, while Tuvok was discussing a minor malfunction in the shield generator caused by remodulating the shields to an inverse frequency, something not done often. Tom was sitting quietly reading his PADD, probably something Earth-history related. The Doctor was staring at Seven and finally Janeway and Chakotay were discussing how Seven knew to remodulate the shields to stabilize the hull. Seven noted all of these things and sat down at the table. Captain Janeway stood up and addressed her senior officers.
"As you may or may not know, Voyager encountered another particle wave. Seven is going to explain what she's found out about these phenomena. Seven?" Seven stood up to address the officers. It was going to be a relatively unpleasant speech.
"After analyzing the two particle waves that hit Voyager, I have managed to pinpoint the origin of these waves." She tapped a few buttons on the panel, and a display of a dot with an emanating wave pattern appeared. "It appears that a gaseous object approximately 42 light years away is releasing the waves of mutagenic particles..." She couldn't finish before Tom had an enquiry.
"I thought that we couldn't scan past the 30 light year electro-wall." Seven sighed lightly before continuing. Tom could be an interesting individual at times. "We can't. I used the dimensions and density of the particle wave, coupled with the rate of dissipation, in order to determine the source of the wave." Tom went back to fidgeting with his PADD, looking slightly confused. Now it was Chakotay's turn to question the results.
"How do you know it's not some sort of vessel or planetoid releasing the waves?" At least Chakotay's question was easier to respond to. "As Voyager has already experienced, the frequencies of the mutagenic particles vary, causing disruptions in normal matter. This would make it impossible for a solid object to withstand emanating a single wave, let alone multiple." Chakotay was quick with a response. "A gas giant could explain the wave then."
"I think that's enough speculation, commander. Seven, is there any way for us to protect ourselves against the waves?" Captain Janeway was not about to let a giant debate break out when another wave could already be travelling towards Voyager. "The frequencies of the particles appear to be random. Currently, Voyager would need to know the exact frequency of the particle wave and then match the shield harmonic to that frequency. Voyager's sensors cannot work that quickly." This news was disheartening. Captain Janeway sank into her seat, thanking Seven for her presentation.
The rest of the meeting went on relatively smoothly. B'Elanna presented the engineering report, while Harry requested repairs to the EPS Conduits and The Doctor was still looking for an inoculation, although the revelation about the multiple frequencies would make an inoculation almost impossible. Tuvok reported that he would work with Harry on adjusting the sensors to be able to match the shield harmonics to the particle waves more quickly, and Seven suggested a further study of the waves to determine if there was a discernible pattern. Janeway quickly approved all of these measures, dismissing her officers. She exited the briefing room herself, turning off the panel display on her way out. Sitting in her chair, she tried to drink the rest of her coffee. Unfortunately, it was cold and unenjoyable. She wondered for a moment if maybe these particle waves could heat up her coffee again, but resumed her duties when she realized she wouldn't like irradiated coffee.
Seven was back in astrometrics, continuing to analyze the particle waves, attempting to isolate anything in common. She had been at this for two hours, since the meeting, and she had been unable to find anything in common except for the origin of the waves. Whatever was doing this was capable of shifting energy frequencies, a minor characteristic thought only to be used by infinite-energy particles, namely Omega. However, these waves of energy weren't destroying subspace, which meant that the source was definitely not destabilized Omega. The computer wasn't coming up with anything either. Seven had been made aware of the request to go over the Transwarp Drive and suggest how it may be made better. This was looking far more enticing than the wave analysis, and so Seven left the computer to do it and proceeded to engineering, where the device was currently hooked into a diagnostic station. She began a diagnostic to ensure the device was still capable of supporting high-frequency energy.
Harry and Tuvok were in the main deflector control, attempting to maximize power output to the sensors. All of their attempts to quicken sensor and shield response had been met with failure, and the task was beginning to look more impossible with every passing moment. They were testing a power relay that would theoretically increase sensor input by 200%. "Well, shall we test the circuit?" Ensign Kim was eager to flip the switch and watch the sensors go. "Ensign Kim, you are experiencing symptoms of hyperactivity, which could lead to impairment of ability. Please remain calm during the test and remember that these are dangerous energy levels." Harry was too eager. He was ready to do it, get the circuit flowing. He knew that Tuvok would make him wait another few minutes just to power up the relay, but it was too long for him. He convinced Tuvok that nothing would go wrong, that his ability was perfectly unimpaired, and began the power-up sequence. Everything was going great... until the circuit overloaded and blew up in their faces.
The computer picked up on the explosion and sent a warning to the bridge. The ops officer was quick to relay the information. "Captain, a relay just exploded in main deflector control." The captain was quite noticeably concerned. She nearly hammered her combadge. "Janeway to Tuvok. Tuvok... please respond. Janeway to Ensign Kim. Respond please." She waited. There was no response. "Can you get a lock on them?" The officer nodded. "Beam them directly to sickbay, and get B'Elanna down to deflector control. Find out what happened." The officer nodded again, beaming both Harry and Tuvok to sickbay, and issuing the order to B'Elanna to get down to deflector control with an engineering team. Janeway handed control of the bridge over to Chakotay, and proceeded for the turbolift. She needed to find out how her officers were.
In sickbay, The Doctor was prepping hyposprays left, right, and center. Suddenly, two bodies beamed into sickbay. Harry and Tuvok. It was obvious that there had been an explosion from the damage to their uniforms and the burns on their faces and limbs. He placed them both on biobeds, and began the medical scans. For Tuvok, the damage was minor. He would need some dermal regeneration and a mild dosage of Inuprobaline to repair the arterial damage. Harry Kim was going to be a much different story. His injuries were more severe, with the impact of the explosion causing a small rupture in his spinal column. He would need immediate surgery, along with at least a week's worth of observation, since he would most definitely be in a coma for a while. The Doctor was just getting ready for the surgery when Captain Janeway walked in. "Doctor! What happened!" The captain was quite obviously upset. "Captain, I need you to remain calm and administer a small dose of Inuprobaline to Lieutenant Commander Tuvok." Janeway did so, but immediately turned to The Doctor. "What about Harry?" She was more than concerned. This was close to nervous breakdown. "Ensign Kim needs immediate surgery, and I don't know what's going to happen. His injuries are more severe, and stem all the way to his spinal column. This could take a while, and I really do need to insist that you let me perform the operation." Janeway looked stunned, but understanding. She let her head fall, and worry fell across her entire face. She walked out of sickbay and marched to deflector control. She would stop by the mess hall for that fourth coffee. Maybe a fifth as well. This was not a good day so far.
Seven had heard about the accident, and was slightly concerned about Harry and Tuvok. They were good people, and she would hate to lose them. Since engineering was almost empty, she took the Transwarp Drive back to Cargo Bay 2, where she could study it in more detail and more efficiently upgrade it to Borg standards, although even her knowledge was less than complete about transwarp. The analysis was going quickly now, and she was already beginning to incorporate some of her own theories into this device. She ran the profile through the computer, using an algorithm which would spit out useful applications of these principles. Seven continued to work on the Transwarp Drive for the next 20 minutes, until the computer displayed a series of results. She found one particularly intriguing. She could modify the device to enter the Warp 10 phenomenon without specialized energy converters, thus causing the same phenomenon that Tom Paris experienced. This would allow a probe to collect data on both the electromagnetic interference and the gaseous anomaly that was causing the mutagenic particle waves. However, the data wouldn't be precise, she would need a way to collect data about a specific point, and she just couldn't figure out how.
The proposal to the captain went relatively well. While the captain banned any field testing of transwarp capacity, she did agree to allow the probe to be constructed and for holodeck time to be used to design and test sensors capable of pinpointing a specific location within transwarp. Getting her to agree to a test flight was going to be difficult, as the crew was still afraid and on edge from when Paris and Janeway had their 'interesting' experience. Seven used a good deal of time designing the sensors. The hours passed. Tuvok had returned to duty, and began to assist Seven with the sensor design. Ensign Kim was still listed as critical, although apparently the operation had been a success. She decided that later in the evening she would go and visit, just to see what Harry's condition was. The work on the sensors was going slowly, as they would often fall out of phase as soon as a specific location was specified by the remote computer. It was clear that the battle on both fronts, Harry Kim and 'Beyond the electro-wall', were being lost. Seven and Tuvok continued working on specialized circuits that would be able to adjust to the phase of the sensors, but the work was theoretical and slow.
Janeway sat in her quarters, watching Chakotay read from her copy of Dante's Inferno. The two of them had spent much time debating and battling each other in the Delta Quadrant. He had often acted as her voice of conscience, trying to get her to do the right thing. Sometimes she just needed a boost. Either way, he was a great source of comfort for her. "Kathryn, I know you blame yourself for all of this. For being trapped in the Delta Quadrant, for the accident in deflector control, even for our current mess with the mutagenic waves. You need to know that no matter what, this crew trusts you because your judgment and leadership have led Voyager through all of these events, and I don't think there's anywhere else I'd rather be." Janeway was touched by this, and even slightly moved. "Thank you, commander. I had lost hope in this predicament especially, what with my ops officer being in critical condition, and almost losing my tactical officer..." "Now, Kathryn, Tuvok's injuries were minor. You heard B'Elanna, they just overloaded a power relay. We will get through this. Harry will get through this. I still have faith in you, even if you don't." Again, she was moved. She barely had time to thank Chakotay before The Doctor came on over the comm. "Captain, this is sickbay. I need to see you immediately. It's Harry." Her heart sank. She got up, and Chakotay followed her lead. "Captain, we'll go together, and we'll be ready for any news The Doctor throws at us." She looked slightly helpless and panicky. Together they strolled out of her quarters and into the turbolift, and Janeway gave the command. "Deck 5, sickbay."