The hail coming from the stranded shuttle was weak but Harry tried his best to get a stable connection. He weeded though a mass of ions left from a passing storm and then locked down the signal pattern as soon as he was able to grab it. "I have the signal, Captain. Putting it on screen."
Captain Janeway looked up at the forward view screen and watched as the normal span of stars was replaced by the image of a young woman with red hair, blue eyes, and a rather nasty open gash near her temple that was dripping blood down her pale cheek. "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager. How can we be of assistance?"
The young woman franticly tapped at buttons as she looked into the screen. "My name is Llennodo Nonnahs. My shuttle was heavily damaged in a passing ion storm and I do not think I can make it to the closest outpost to make my repairs. I beg your kindness, Captain, and ask if you may have room for me in your shuttle bay so that I may make the repairs needed so I may make the rest of my journey safely." The young woman paused to gage the Captain's body language and then went on. "I do not have much to offer in return, but I do have some organic foods and my services."
Janeway's features soften ever so slightly as she listened to Harry who was giving her his readings on the shuttle. She didn't want to wait to long before giving an answer because the young woman's shuttle was starting to get a bit smoky.
"Engines are pretty much shot, she's pretty much costing on thrusters, there are several fractures in the hull, shielding and life support are to the bare minimum." Harry reported.
The Captain held up a hand to tell Harry that was enough. "We have plenty of room in our aft shuttle bay, Ms. Nonnahs. Allow us to guide you in with our tractor beam."
A warm smile spread slowly on the young woman's face. "Many thanks to you, Captain Janeway."
The signal was cut as Janeway began to issue orders. "Bring the shuttle into the shuttle bay nice and easy, Mister Kim. Tuvok, send a security officer down to meet our guest." She then pressed her comm. badge. "Janeway to Neelix. Neelix we have a guest coming into the aft shuttle bay. She needs medical treatment will you greet her and then see she gets to sick bay."
The Talaxian's cheery voice replied quickly. "Of course, Captain."
Janeway nodded, and grinned a little at how smoothly her crew worked together. "Mister Paris, keep us clear of that ion storm."
The shuttle was slipped into the shuttle bay with simple ease and once it was secure and she realized she was safely on the ship, Llennodo sighed in relief. She had been banking on Janeway's kindness when it came to other travelers to get her on the ship, which was the easy part. The hard part was going to be finding Bruening without giving herself away.
Llennodo grabbed her head as she stood, her surroundings suddenly swimming. 'Damn, over did it by letting that storm bounce me around so much.' She thought as she made her way to the hatch. She closed her eyes as the hatch lowered and hoped that when she reopened them her vision would be clearer. She was really hoping this was a side effect from the hyper-sprays she'd used as she was being towed in, and not the concussion she'd suffered. With her luck it was a bit of both. Normally she wouldn't still be feeling the effects of an injury this long afterwards, but she'd had to make a few modifications to herself in order to keep her cover.
"Greetings and welcome to Voyager." Came a cheerful voice from the foot of the hatch ramp. "I'm Neelix, the ship's moral officer."
Llennodo opened her eyes and looked down at the fuzzy little man. She had to restrain herself quite a bit to keep from smiling at the sight of him. "I am Llennodo. Llennodo Nonnahs. Thank you again for allowing me to dock. Your Captain is very kind."
Neelix smiled as he watched the young woman walk slowly down the hatch ramp. "That she is, Ms. Nonnahs." The gash over the young woman's eye and the unsteadiness of her stance finally caught Neelix's eye and he frowned. "Your hurt. Come on, let's get you to our medical bay."
"Thank you." Llennodo said as she gratefully accepted Neelix's help. "And please call me Llennodo."
The Doctor rushed over when he saw Neelix and a security officer enter with a pale looking young woman. He quickly helped them get her to a bio bed and then went right into his questions. "Who is this and what happened?"
"She's a guest. The Captain is allowing her to stay with us while she repairs her shuttle." Neelix said as he rose to the balls of his feet and the back again. "As far as what happened," He paused and then looked at Llennodo as the Doctor scanned her.
"I got caught in an ion storm." Llennodo said softly. Her head was pounding as she put her hand up to it as if that would make it stop. "I hit my head on my consol and got bounded around the cockpit like a pin ball."
The Doctor gave the young woman a very curious look when she'd used such a clearly human reference. 'How very Mister Paris of her.' He thought as he looked over his scans. "Well it would appear that you've reaggravated a previous head wound. Quite a nasty concussion that happened fairly recently."
Llennodo tried not to grimace as she thought of a believable story. "I fell while collecting dorgone root on Vendel Prime." She offered as an explanation. "My climbing rope was old and frayed. Lucky I hadn't gone to far up the cliff before it broke."
"Luck indeed." The Doctor scolded. "I can treat your wounds of course, but you will need some rest."
Llennodo smiled appreciatively. "My thanks, Doctor, but I do not wish to be any trouble or take up space on your vessel for any longer then needed."
"I am sure the Captain would not mind if you took a day or two to mend yourself before mending your shuttle, Miss?"
"Llennodo Nonnahs." Llennodo replied.
The Doctor smiled his trademark lop sided smile. "Miss Nonnahs." The Doctor went right to work on treating the various wounds the young woman had suffered as he directed his next words at Neelix. "Perhaps you can find our guest a place to stay while she is here?"
Neelix nodded. "Of course."
Llennodo had to admit that having the swimming sensation in her head stop was rather wonderful, as was the lessening of her pounding headache, but being stuck in sickbay while she had a job to do was nerve racking. She had to find out if Bruening was on board and in order to do that she would need access to her shuttle's computer. At the time she'd thought repairing her seemingly decrepitude shuttle would give her the perfect excuse to be in there alone scanning the crew and monitoring the ship, her wounded appearance was suppose to add to her cover not delay her search.
She sighed as she looked up at the ceiling above the bio bed she was laying on. Every minute she spent on Voyager and around her crew was a risk to not only them but to her self as well. 'This is why that whole damn project was a mistake' She thought to herself as she tried to collect her thoughts and work out a plan. The doors to sick bay opened and Llennodo lifted her head to see who was coming in. The sight of the woman standing next to the Doctor caused her breath to catch in her lungs. Seeing her on the tiny screen on the shuttle was one thing but to be seeing her standing there, mere feet from her was unreal. It wasn't like she hadn't seen her before, or that she hadn't seen her look this way before, but she was fairly younger and a woman she didn't quite know yet.
"How is our guest doing?" Captain Janeway asked the Doctor as she glanced over at the young woman on the bed.
The Doctor huffed a little. "Pretty banged up. She had inquiries that hadn't healed completely and her little dance with the ion storm added to them. She'll need rest but should be fine."
The Captain nodded and then walked over to the young woman. "How are you feeling Miss Nonnahs?"
Llennodo sat up slowly. Blue eyes locked with blue-gray for a flash of a moment before she looked down at the woman's nose rather then her eyes. "Much better, thanks to your fine doctor."
Janeway could feel the Doctor's ego expand from across the room. "That shuttle of yours has been thought a rather rough ringer."
It didn't surprise Llennodo that Janeway had scanned her shuttle. It was a security protocol. No captain would allow a stranger on board without learning at least something about them. Llennodo was suddenly really glad she'd had the three days it took to meet up with the ion storm that she knew Voyager would be passing near, to work out all her security. In effect she was hiding in plain sight. Her shuttle, thought decades more advanced appeared to be of this quadrant and time, and her own appearance was just alien enough to mask any possible identifiers. "She is an old shuttle with more light years on her then most, but she is trustworthy and gets me to where I need to go."
"And where would that be?" The Captain asked as she causally looked the young woman over.
She was being sized up and Llennodo knew it. "To where ever the work and the adventure take me." She replied. "I am some what of a fish out of water here, Captain, and I go where ever I need to in order to survive."
"A fish out of water?" Janeway asked.
The Doctor's eyebrow rose. That was another awfully human expression.
Llennodo nodded. "I am one of only a hand full of people to ever venture this far from my home world." It wasn't really a lie just an underestimation of the truth. Her ability to look Captain Janeway in the eye and weave her tale had worried Llennodo, but it had it be done and she would deal with the inner guilt once this was all over.
"How far from home are you, Miss. Nonnahs?" The Captain asked. She was being polite and welcoming, but didn't try to hide the fact that she was questioning the young woman.
"Several hundred light years. I come from a small world called Zanta Minor in the Wotrey system." Paying attention to her astrometrics and xeno biology classes was finally paying off. Everything she was feeding to the Captain could be confirmed without posing a threat to her cover.
The expression on Janeway's face shifted a little as she accepted the young woman's answers. "The Doctor would like you to rest for a day or two and my chief engineer will assign someone to lend you a hand and help you get what ever you need to make your repairs."
Llennodo smiled. "You are to kind Captain Janeway. As I said I have some supplies worth trading for anything I might need."
Janeway smiled, "I'm sure you can work something out with Mister Neelix regarding any trades."
After her conversation with the Captain, seeing her face to face as weird as it was, Llennodo knew that her decision to come here was the right one. Not that she'd ever had any doubts; she knew she couldn't allow Bruening to succeed. To many lives depended on Voyager's survival.
"Well, Llennodo are you ready to head to you quarters?" Neelix asked as he approached her.
Llennodo nodded as she slowly slipped off the bed. "Would it be alright for me to get a few things from my shuttle later?"
Neelix nodded. "The Captain has granted you full visitors rights. You're not restricted to quarters. You may come to the mess hall to eat, work on your shuttle in the shuttle bay, use our holodecks."
"Come to sick bay for follow ups." The Doctor added.
A half smile tugged Llennodo's lips as she nodded. "Yes Doctor."
She tried to act as if she was following Neelix's lead, but Llennodo knew where the small guest quarters were. She knew the lay out of Voyager as well as anyone. She had prepared for this mission as best she could; she was as prepared as anyone could be, for just about anything, except the strange emotions she was feeling. From the moment she stepped onto Voyager's deck plating she'd felt a wash of emotion that she was quickly trying to tapper down. Now that she was on the ship, and the feeling of urgency she'd harbored in her belly was slightly subduing, those emotions were strong. She had to fight her urges to smile at people she passed, or places she knew, and she was finding that she needed to speak carefully so that old habits would not assert themselves.
"Here we are." Neelix said as he opened the door and stepped inside. "They're not much, rather small, but they're all yours."
Llennodo stepped inside after Neelix and looked around. It was one room, a bed, a desk and a few drawers. There was an ensuite off to the left and a small replicator in the corner. "They're very nice Mister Neelix, thank you."
"If you need to get in touch with me or the doctor there is a comm station built into the replicator, which I'm afraid it rather limited." Neelix explained.
Llennodo assured Neelix that she didn't need much and would most likely stop by the mess hall rather then use the replicator. She even told him she was looking forward to trying his cooking. After being left alone Llennodo decided it best to wait for a while before heading to the shuttle bay, which was luckily close to her quarters, so she took the Doctor's advice and rested for a while. She stretched out on the small bed and just took in where she was. She knew she couldn't do this too often, that she had to keep herself rained in if she was going to avoid overwhelming herself, but for a brief moment she allowed herself to relish in the feeling of being home.