xxxxx

Captain's Log

We have received a distress call and are on our way to offer assistance.

Janeway sat in the Captain's chair waiting.

"Captain we are approaching the coordinates." Tom Paris reported.

"On screen." Janeway commanded.

A widening debris field appeared.

"What happened?" Janeway whispered.

"Looks like the Hirogen got them." Harry reported.

Janeway sighed. "Any sign of Hirogens?"

"No, Captain, but there do appear to be some escape pods, no life signs detected."

"Tractor them in to Cargo Bay One and open them." Janeway ordered. "Perhaps we will find someone."

"B'Elanna may be able to find something usable, Captain," Tom suggested

"Agreed," Janeway approved. She put a hand to her comm badge. "B'Elanna, stand by to examine the escape pods in Cargo Bay One."

"Acknowledged."

xxxx

B'Elanna entered Cargo Bay One with a security team and Lieutenant Carey as an assistant. At her order, the first pod was opened. B'Elanna was impressed by the technology, but confused by the fact that it was vacant and the interior showed no signs of damage.

They move on to the next and the next until they have opened them all

Lieutenant Carey shook his head. "It's kind of sad, really. They build pods that withstand the destruction of their ship with little more than scratched paint and none of them even had the chance to use them."

B'Elanna nodded somberly, before instructing him to gather a team to start assessing the components for compatibility.

xxxx

Janeway surveyed the officers seated around the table in the briefing room. "As you all know, food is still disappearing from the mess hall. I know some of you had theorized that we might have picked up some sort of scavenger in one of our last loads of supplies, but it has come to my attention that there has been unauthorized replicator usage as well for several days. Since security footage shows no one near the replicator around that time, I feel that we need to consider that whatever or whoever is stealing food is an intelligent lifeform. Has anyone discovered anything further?"

Shaken heads and "No, Captain"s were all the answer she received.

"In that case, I want everyone to keep their eyes open for anything unusual. Tuvok, see what you can do with that footage. If anyone comes up with anything even remotely possible, I want to know about it. So far they seem to be harmless, but I have no intention of standing by while a possible threat is hiding on my ship. Dismissed."

xxxx

Seven left the briefing room and turned toward sick bay. Chakotay had made her promise to check with the Doctor today if the pain returned and it had in the meeting. The Doctor greeted her pleasantly.

"Good morning, Seven. Is there a problem?"

"I have been experiencing pain in my implants, especially in my left hand. It is infrequent, which is why I have not come before now."

"How long has this been happening?"

"Eleven days. The first occurrence was at 0840 hours at my station as I was repairing my console. I assumed I had made an error and received a shock, but the following occurrences did not fit with this assumption. In the intervening time, I have experienced the sensation eight times and it seems to be growing more frequent."

"Have you been experiencing any other symptoms?"

"I have been somewhat fatigued."

"Have you been under any stress or sleeping less than usual?"

"No, my schedule has been unchanged for several weeks."

"Why don't we take a look. I suspect it is nothing more than a pinched nerve in your shoulder, easily fixed."

Seven climbed onto the table while the Doctor reached for his tricorder. "That's odd."

"Doctor?"

"I am sure I set that tricorder right here after Ensign Essen's check-up earlier."

"Perhaps you left it in your office?" Seven suggested.

The Doctor went to his office muttering under his breath. He came back a few moments later, scowling fiercely. "It was not there, either, and it isn't the only thing missing. It is a good thing I have a spare tricorder. I'll just take a few scans and you can get back to work while I report this to the Captain. We can set up another appointment for tomorrow if there are any problems."

xxxx

"Come on, Icheb. It will be perfectly safe. They're just little animals. Forcefields would trap them easily," Naomi wheedled.

"Then why can't you capture them yourself? My duties are far more important than playing."

"It's not playing. Neelix is really upset about this. The other day they stole his favorite greens right off the sideboard."

"How can you be sure they're little animals?"

"What else could they be? No one has seen them, so they have to be small, plus if they were smarter, they would just ask us for help. Pleeeease, Icheb. You know I don't have the clearance to make forcefields on my own."

Icheb sighed. "Very well. I will help you set them up, but you have to use your own rations."

Naomi gave him a hug and skipped down the corridor to help Neelix with lunch.

xxxx

Janeway was starting to wonder what deity she had annoyed. Not only had they continued to make no headway in the disappearance of food, not only had other supplies begun to go missing, now she had a Hirogen ship looming over Voyager while its captain demanded that she turn over the refugees.

Frankly, she had had enough. She assured the Hirogens through gritted teeth that they had no refugees aboard, nor did they plan to. When questioned about the alien technology their sensors had picked up, she informed them that it was salvage taken from debris they had discovered weeks before. She also added that under the treaty, they should not be hunting any sentient species, so even if they had refugees, they would not have been required to turn them over. She asked them pointedly to respect their treaty with Voyager and leave them alone.

Chakotay looked at her with some concern after the transmission was ended. "Are you alright, Captain? You were rather abrupt."

"I'm just frustrated with this whole situation. I want to know who or what is on my ship and why it feels the need to skulk around stealing our supplies. I would have been more than willing to offer supplies to someone in need, but this is ridiculous."

The bridge crew wisely said nothing as they went about their duties.

xxxx

Naomi Wildman walked dejectedly down the hall. This was her last time checking the traps. So far, none of them had worked at all and Icheb said it was time to take them all down. She would have started checking sooner, but Neelix wouldn't let her out of his sight until the Hirogen ship was long gone. She had saved this trap for last because she had spent the most time on it and left the best foods.

She turned the corner and gasped. Her trap had caught something, but it was much larger than she expected. It turned at the noise and watched her gravely with slitted eyes. She stared at the alien for a moment. "Um...I'm Naomi Wildman. Can you understand me?"

The alien nodded slowly and carefully.

Naomi gulped. "I have to go tell Icheb. I'll be right back."

xxxx

Seven of Nine hurried into sickbay. "I apologize for taking so long to return, Doctor. I have been scanning the ship for days, using every method and diagnostic anyone could remember."

"If it had been serious I would have called. Tell me, has anyone discovered who stole from me?"

"That has yet to be ascertained. Hence my continued absence. I have been able to detect nothing with any of the tests. I am not accustomed to failure. I find it...frustrating."

"Have you experienced further pain?"

"At least once each day."

"Well, I have good news and bad news."

"Proceed."

"The good news is that the scans detected nothing wrong with your implants, nor do you have any pinched nerves."

"And the bad news?"

"I'm afraid I will need to run more tests. I suspect I know what the problem is, but I would like to take a closer look."

Seven climbed onto the table and waited patiently through the scan. The Doctor examined the data and nodded several times. "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"

xxxx

"Icheb! I caught something! It's an alien."

"Telling lies will not convince me to let you keep the traps up longer, Naomi."

She stamped her foot impatiently. "I'm not lying, Icheb. He's all red with black and white stripes and a tail and when I asked if he understood what I was saying, he nodded his head. You have to come right now or I'm going to get Neelix."

Icheb sighed and set aside his padd. "If we get there and this is all a prank, I won't help you with anything ever again."

Naomi scowled as she half-dragged him from the room.

Icheb took one look at the alien in the trap and tapped his comm badge. "Icheb to the Captain. There is a situation on Deck 6 that requires your immediate attention."

xxxx

Five minutes later, Janeway arrived, fists on hips. She watched the alien for a moment, then took a deep breath. "I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. I would appreciate an explanation of who you are and why you are on my ship."

"Please forgive my rude behavior. I am Qi of the Kieru. As a race we are cautious in nature. I was uncertain how my presence would be taken. Originally, I simply planned to hide on your ship until you came to a planet or station."

"Then why show yourself now? The young folk who put up these traps inform me that they have been set for weeks. I find it hard to believe you have avoided them successfully all this time only to be captured now."

"You are perceptive, Captain Kathryn Janeway. I felt that this method would be the least likely to frighten anyone. After your encounter with the Hirogen earlier, I decided you were trustworthy enough to approach and you were correct in your assessment that it is inconsiderate to take supplies without allowing you a chance to offer them first."

Janeway studied him consideringly before giving the order, "Lower the forcefield and stand down."

The security officers did as instructed and Qi stepped forward, took both of Janeway's hands, and bowed over them. "The stars shine upon our meeting."

Janeway found that she couldn't stay annoyed at the polite alien. "Tell me, how did you sneak aboard?"

Qi rose from his bow. "You brought me aboard. My escape pod rests in your cargo area."

Janeway raised an eyebrow. "My crew were quite thorough in their search."

"That is true. I watched them search for some time. But I am better at hiding than they are at searching. That is why the Hirogen hunt my people even now. It was a great relief when we heard that you have no love for the Hirogen and that you found a way to keep them from attacking your people. Perhaps you could tell me how you accomplished this."

"Perhaps," Janeway agreed. "In the meantime, perhaps you would tell me where you were going and how many more of your people might be hiding on this ship." She smiled as his eyes widened. "Yes, it had occurred to me that if you were in one pod that the others might hold passengers as well. We are willing to offer you and whoever else is on this ship safe passage to wherever you were going, so long as it is not too far out of our way."

"You honor us, Captain Kathryn Janeway."

"Any one of those names is fine," she interjected as he bowed again.

"We never expected such kindness from strangers. I can assure you that our people will be most grateful for our return and will reward you with many gifts."

"We would be content to trade for supplies and information about the space we are about to travel."

"I will not hear of it. Kindness must be rewarded properly. To refuse would be to shame the Kieru forever. But perhaps now is not the time to discuss this. You had questions I would be pleased to answer."

"Come to my ready room and we can discuss matters over a cup of coffee. Tuvok, please make sure that Qi's people are given quarters. Naomi, I want you to inform Neelix that we will be feeding..." she looked inquiringly at Qi.

"Thirteen."

"Thirteen more people." She waited for their affirmative answers before leading him to the lift.

xxxx

Chakotay was just coming off his shift when Seven approached him. "Seven, did you hear about our visitors?"

She nodded. "Their navigator came to Astrometrics to give me data on this region of space."

"I find them quite fascinating. They have yet to explain how they were able to fool every sensor we have, but I'm hoping we can get that for ourselves. It would be useful to be able to hide that completely if we were boarded, especially now that we have several children aboard."

"That is what I wish to speak of."

"Children? Has Tom's Owen broken out again?"

"No. I wish to talk about our own children."

"Seven? What brought this up? I didn't think you wanted children just yet."

"It is more that I have been uncertain I would make a suitable parent. But I have decided to start researching the process."

Chakotay studied her face carefully. "What are you saying? You want a child?"

"I am saying we are having a child. That is why I have been experiencing pain in my implants. The Doctor says it may take some time to determine how to stop the pain, but -"

Chakotay hugged her tightly. "We're having a baby!"

xxxxx

Janeway walked into Sick Bay to check on their guests.

"Captain," the Doctor said. "I need to discuss something I found with you."

Janeway followed the Doctor into his office. "What is it Doctor?" she asked.

"They seem to be perfectly healthy but there is genetic coding that I cannot recognize. I checked all of my databases and ran numerous simulations and I can't discover what it does." The Doctor explained.

"Well, Doctor, there will always be mysteries in the universe. So long as they continue to be our allies I am content to leave it at that." Janeway stated firmly.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We have a good chunk of the next chapter written and when ever I get off my lazy butt I'll update my other stories.