Uninspired Voyages
A Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction by Andrew J. Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation et al are the property of CBS Television, Para creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
This takes place before State of Flux...
The mood was solemn in the messhall. Even Shepherd's usual exuberance and snarkiness was toned down significantly as he sat with Tom and Harry. Kes, sitting opposive them with her friend Mari alongside, felt the mood and frowned.
"Is everything all right?" She asked, looking around, "everything feels... Somber."
Indeed, the mood in the messhall was down. Kes could get plenty of surface thoughts, but it was all so confusing. Tom looked up at her and offered a charming smile.
"It's just a hard day for a lot of Starfleeters. Especially people who have been in for a long time, or have a lot of family who served."
Harry nodded slowly, looking down at his synthale.
"Or anyone from Earth," he contributed. Mari frowned, the younger Ocampan leaning closer to Harry with a comforting expression.
"What is it?" She asked.
Shepherd sighed deeply.
"Wolf 359 Memorial Day," he explained. Mari and Kes both frowned.
"Wolf 359?" Mari asked. Paris nodded, sipping his synthehol.
"Yeah. When the Borg attacked us," he said.
"The Borg," Kes whispered, shivering. She'd read about them in Voyager's library files. Just the description was horrific enough, but paired with the emotions everyone was feeling... The picture was horrific.
Harry began to explain things, his eyes still down.
"Just one of their ships, what we call a cube, came to assimilate the whole Federation. The last major staging area for a fleet before you get to Earth is a small red dwarf called Wolf 359. We assembled a fleet of over 40 starships to fight the cube..." Harry sighed softly, "and only one of our ships survived."
"Caretaker," Mari breathed in horror, "How many people-?!"
"Eleven thousand, five hundred and forty six," Shepherd said, his tone empty.
The three Alpha Quadrant men drank from their glasses. Kes frowned deeply.
"I'm sorry," Kes said, "we don't have to-"
Shepherd waved his hand.
"No. It's all right. It's good to talk about it," he said. Tom nodded, looking up at Kes and Mari intently.
"Pretty much everyone remembers where they were that day," Paris said, "it was such a shock. A century of peace where the Federation was thought invincible and... Then comes one ship from across the galaxy that shatters that notion. It was just an illusion, one the Borg tore to shreds in one terrible day." Paris shook his head. "It's burned into my mind."
Harry looked at Tom inquisitively.
"Where were you when it happened?" Harry asked. Paris gave Harry a long look, and took a pull from his synthale before he responded.
"I was a first year cadet. When we heard about it,, I volunteered to be on the USS Republic crew. It was an old training ship, almost a century old. My father tried to keep me off it, but I went aboard anyway. I thought it was heroic but... Deep down I knew we were all going to die. It was a last ditch effort to fight them, part of a fleet of anything we could scrounge up. To do something. I still remember seeing it in high orbit, the biggest, blackest thing you ever saw. Our weapons just seemed to bounce off it. It ignored us completely. When the Enterprise-D showed up, it drew the cube away. All I could think was 'thank God.'" He look over at Harry, "you?"
Harry let out a long breath through his nostrils, looking pensive.
"I remember my mom and dad taking us to the local spaceport. There were thousands of people trying to get off world. Dozens of ships flying off, trying to get away. I was 16 but I felt as helpless as a child with my parents holding my hands. After that? It was easy to justify me going on to join Starfleet. So many other people my age joined after that too."
Mari looked over at Shepherd, who was contemplating his drink.
"And you?" She asked.
Shepherd gave the Ocampans a tight smile.
"I was on the Enterprise-D. Right in the thick of it. I got deputized as a field medic."
"Oh Caretaker," Kes murmured. Shepherd nodded, swirling his drink as he let his mind drift back in time.
"Yeah... Front row seats."
2366
Shepherd Junior was woken up in the middle of the night. The teenager groaned, and looked up at his father in the darkened quarters.
"Dad," Shepherd groaned, glancing over at his clock, "it's 0200... I'm not late for the stupid shift."
Shepherd Senior nodded, looking more stoic than usual.
"I know. I just wanted to tell you something."
Shepherd Jr groaned, and then covered his face with a pillow.
"Can't it wait until morning? Or whatever-We're in space after all-"
Shepherd Sr removes the pillow and looks into his son's eyes.
"I just wanted to let you know... I love you. And I'm very proud of you, son."
Shepherd Junior stares back.
"... Thhhanks... I guess," the confused, groggy teenager managed. Shepherd Senior nodded with a small smile.
"Go back to sleep."
Shepherd Jr. did just that, laying back and conking out for a few more hours. His alarm got him up, and despite his grumbling, he did get his breakfast and to sickbay on time. He was just walking in through the doors, yawning, when he was interrupted by Doctor Crusher. She shoved a battlefield trauma kit into his hands. He blinked in confusion and looked around at the rest of the sickbay, which was packed with anxious movement. All of the nurses and doctors were getting ready. This activity registered in Shepherd Junior's mind, and he responded the only way he could.
"Bwah? Wha-?"
"Shepherd," Crusher stated firmly, "you're assigned to Main Engineering with Ortiz. Get going!'
While normally Shepherd might just tell some Starfleet officer where to shove their orders when he was groggy, the urgency in Crusher's voice seemed to reach his common sense. He stood up straight and nodded.
"Yes ma'am!"
The sleepy teenager turned to follow a tall male Starfleet nurse down to Main Engineering. It had taken him a while, but he finally noticed the Yellow alert lighting on throughout the ship. It was flashing rhymically, almost soothingly. Maybe that's why his brain had taken so long to register.
"Did... I miss something, Ortiz?" Shepherd asked. The tall nurse nodded grimly.
"It's the Borg, kid," he stated, "we're looking for them."
Ice dropped into the pit of Shepherd Jr's stomach. The Borg... Yeah. He remembered that, all right. Last year, when a cube-shaped ship the size of a dinosaur killing asteroid showed up and made them their bitch. Of trying desperately to hide his fear behind jokes even as he worked with Geordi in Main Engineering to get as much power out of the engines as possible.
Okay, so he'd mostly just been getting the real engineers drinks and tools and towels while they worked, but still. It wasn't exactly a fun experience.
"No shit?" Shepherd managed. Ortiz nodded.
"No shit. Come on."
They went to a trauma station set up on Deck 36, just outside of Main Engineering. Shepherd got everything put together, as he had been trained to. He set up portable biobeds in an unused room, and unboxed the medical scanners and stasis units. It was over very quickly, and Shepherd soon cursed that he'd actually paid attention. After that, he and Ortiz waited, mainly in silence. The bridge posted updates occasionally as they flew through the Typhon Expanse. Hours passed.
Shepherd Jr was just nodding off again on his perch atop one of the biobeds, when the red alert klaxons filled the air.
"RED ALERT. TAKE EMERGENCY STATIONS," the computer's voice spoke. Shepherd sat up at attention. But he was scared. He had to do something. Anything, to know what was going on. He walked over to the bulkhead panel, and typed in some commands. Ortiz frowned.
"What are you doing?" He asked. Shepherd shrugged.
"Getting a look through the outside cameras... I want to see what's going on... Aha!"
He got the image... The huge blocky exterior of the Borg cube filled the viewer. Shepherd Jr. felt faint.
"Oh shit..."
A green tractor beam seized the Enterprise-D and the ship shook. Shepherd Jr stumbled but Ortiz caught him. They both watched as the cube grew larger in the viewer, and as Enterprise's weapons lashed out furiously. They could feel the shudder of the photon torpedoes launching, the hum of the phasers.
They also saw this massive barrage of firepower did absolutely nothing to the Borg cube.
"Oh shit oh shit..." Shepherd murmured, leaning against a bulkhead and Ortiz.
Then a green beam lashed out, and the ship shuddered around them like a wounded animal. The corridor beyond them flashed green like a strobe and something exploded! The deck rumbled and Ortiz shoved Shepherd to the deck to shield him!
"ALERT: DECOMPRESSION DANGER. EVACUATE SECTION IMMEDIATELY," the Enterprise computer called out, as air began to rush through the breach behind them. Shepherd Junior was forced up onto his feet, and Ortiz pushed him forward down the corridor.
"KID! KID GET OUT OF HERE! GO!" Ortiz bellowed.
Shepherd Jr. could barely hear the big nurse. He could barely breathe, his lungs burned.. A bulkhead began to lower in front of them, to seal the breach. The deck shuddered and an ominous rumble filled the bulkheads before the ship shook violently, like an earthquake. Shepherd fell hard, losing his footing. He struggled to get back up even as the bulkhead slid down faster. He reached out and pushed forward with his feet.
"Wait! Wait-!" He screamed.
He felt Ortiz grab Shepherd by the shoulder and his waistband. He threw the teenager as hard as he could, shoving him underneath the pressure bulkhead. Shepherd tumbled over onto his back, and looked back in horror just before the bulkhead slammed shut with a hiss, and a terrible thud.
"ORTIZ! ORTIZ!"
Shepherd Jr hit his commbadge.
"ORTIZ! ORTIZ, RESPOND!" He shouted.
Silence... Then screaming. It seemed so close, and yet so far away. He tried the door control, but it buzzed angrily at him. He tried pounding on the door, until his fists were bloody, but it was completely futile-It wouldn't budge. He even began scrambling for a phaser to try and blast it down... Which is when the medics found him.
It was only when the medics gave him a hypospray, and he felt how sore his throat was, that he realized...
He had been the one screaming.
Shepherd could almost remember being brought to sickbay. He was checked over, poked and prodded, then he moved away to make room for more serious casualties. He couldn't bare to look at them as they were brought in, so he went to hide in the doctor's office. He curled up in a corner with his arms around his knees.
He felt sick. He felt frozen. He felt... Horrible. Like he wanted to hide forever.
It took some time but he felt a familiar presence sit down next to him. He looked up at the form of his mother, unable to bring his eyes to hers.
"Sweetie?" She asked softly. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Talk to me. Look at me. Please."
Shepherd managed to take a deep breath, then looked up. His eyes still couldn't meet his mother's though, but she had apparently seen enough.
"I know how it feels, son," she said gently. "I know what you are feeling. You think you killed Ortiz. You think you are a coward."
She bowed her head and kissed the top of his. He felt himself snuggling into her warmth.
"Being brave doesn't mean you lack fear," she said quietly, "it means you control it. You put it aside because there is something more important than the fear. Your mother, your father... Wesley. We all need you. When you're afraid... Please. Think of us. Think of helping us, and your ship. Can you do that for me, sweetie?"
Shepherd managed to slowly nod, though it felt like trying to push the Enterprise across the Himalayas all by himself. His mother smiled and nodded, squeezing him tightly.
"Come on," she said, "they need field medics on the bridge."
"Ah?" Shepherd asked, blinking. His mother smiled warmly.
"I may be an astrometrics technician, but I'm trained as a medic. They need medics, so we're going." She winked. "I promise not to embarrass you in front of Wesley."
Shepherd managed to stand with his mother's help, getting to his feet. He felt something hard against his hip and looked down. He frowned.
"Why are you carrying the family sword?" He asked.
"You never know," his mother said with a smile, "it might come in handy."
"The Borg shrug off phaser blasts," he reminded her. "Even dad could only kill one by having everyone blast one with four phasers at once."
Mrs. Shepherd's smile grew just a bit.
"They have heads and limbs," she said, "and joints which much remain unencumbered to move. They have eyes and ears and mouths and throats." She shrugged and hugged him tightly.
"And your poor mother just feels safer with her sword at her side! But even safer with her big, strong son alongside!" She cooed. Shepherd groaned.
"Come off it mom, seriously."
His mother giggled again and patted him on the shoulder.
"Come on. We need to be on the bridge soon," she said. "Your father is sleeping, and we don't want him to wake up too soon, do we?"
"No Mom," Shepherd said.
As it turned out, they reached the bridge just as they got hit by something big. They spilled out of the turbolift to see the viewscreen, where Captain Picard was watching with Commander Riker.
"They're some kind of magneto guided charges," Riker said. Another hit the ship, making them shake. Shepherd stayed on his feet, as his mother leaned against the bulkhead. Worf looked over his console.
"Direct hit to the hull. Damage to the port power coupling."
Picard shook his head. "Looks like our sanctuary is about to end," he said. He tapped his commbadge as he walked to his chair. "LaForge! I'm going to have to take the ship out of the nebula! I want every bit of power you can give me!"
"Full impulse until we clear the nebula," Riker ordered Wesley, who was hard at work at the conn, "then kick it up to Warp 9!"
"Yessir!" Wesley reported, his voice firm if a bit nervous. Shepherd watched him work though, and saw how firm Wesley was keeping his shoulders. How still.
He was able to hold himself together. To be useful. He couldn't help but envy the conviction his best friend had. Maybe even admire him a little.
Not that he'd ever tell him that.
The nebula cleared, and the stars blurred. They leaped into warp, but it was though Shepherd could feel the Borg cube gaining on them.
"They are trying to lock on with a tractor beam!" Worf warned.
"Rotate the shield frequencies! Keep them guessing!" Riker ordered. This lasted off of five seconds, before the ship shook violently underneath them. The hum of the warp engines cut out, and Shepherd held onto the bulkhead for dear life.
"Shields have failed! They've locked on!" Worf shouted.
Moments later, a Borg beamed onto the bridge, emerging from a field of green energy. The drone began walked towards them, slowly, unhurried. Shepherd had never seen a Borg drone in person, and now he really wished he hadn't. It was humanoid, its skin swollen and bloated like a water logged corpse. Tubes stuck out from what skin was exposed, as its boots thudded loudly against the deck.
Probably the worst part though was its' eyes. They were dead, as though nothing was going on behind its pale visage.
Worf pulled out a phaser and fired, bringing it down in a shot right to its chest. It fell, and another drone appeared. It walked over its fallen comrade, not even pausing. Worf fired again, but a green forcefield blocked the blast easily.
"They must have adapted to the new settings-!" Riker shouted, as he tried to charge the drone. It seized him and threw him like a rag doll across the bridge, slamming him into the deck with monstrous strength. Worf tried to leap over the railing to get to the drone, but another beamed in and lunged for him. Worf caught and struggled with the drone, straining against its monstrous cybernetic strength. He saw Wesley gaping, frozen in fear. He saw the captain, holding his ground, trying to think of something-!
"JUNIOR!" Mrs. Shepherd shouted as he vaulted over the railing. He sprinted as fast as he could and threw himself into the Borg's chest, knocking it back! A small part of his mind noted that, no matter how strong someone was, the laws of physics still applied. He sent the Borg drone falling onto its back, and he tried to scramble away before the mindless thing recovered-
An icy hand closed around his neck from behind, and lifted him like a kitten. He choked, his eyes wide, as he saw another Borg drone stare at him for a moment, before it tossed him.
He flew through the air, slamming into the bulkhead. Everything hurt, something snapped, and he slumped to the deck. He couldn't even scream, as his throat couldn't cooperate.
He saw the Borg drone advance on the captain, as though not even inconvenienced. Its fellow drone that he had brought low got back up, and followed. Shepherd closed his eyes tightly, anger and despair and pain raging inside him.
I couldn't... Even...!
SCHLUNK!
He got his eyes open at the strange, loud sound. The drone that had thrown him was staring in dull surprise at the stumps that used to be its hands. The hands were on the deck, separated by a sword blow. In front of the astonished Captain Picard stood a woman in science blue, her sword unsheathed and glistening with blood.
It took Shepherd a second to recognize the fearsome, enraged looking woman as his mother.
The drone continued to advance, unbothered by the loss of its hands. His mother moved, swinging her blade like an axe, and the drone's head came off. The second drone continued its march, as the corpse of its brother fell lifelessly to the deck.
"You will not touch him," Shepherd's mother snarled. She moved again, thrusting her blade right through its ocular implant and out the back of its skull! She wrenched her blade free, taking the top half of the drone's skull with it. She swung down again, separating the drone's arm from its shoulder and sending the limb to the deck with a loud thud.
Another drone materialized in front of his mother, and she advanced on him. But Worf bodily threw his drone at it, toppling both. His mother pounced, driving her blade through the backs of both drones to bring them down.
As she did though, yet another drone materialized behind the captain. Shepherd tried to cry out, warn him. The captain cried out as the drone seized him, and both vanished in a green transporter beam. Commander Riker got up, helped by another ensign, as Wesley sat frozen in his chair. Riker stumbled over to Shepherd, and immediately began doing health checks.
Worf had taken down his drone, and was at tactical.
"They're heading away, at warp 9.3!" Worf shouted.
"Pursuit course, Mister Crusher!" Riker got out, sounding dazed. "Medical team to the bridge!"
"I've got him sir," Shepherd's mother said gently, getting in front of Shepherd. She began checking him with a medical tricorder, her bloody sword at her side. "Sweetie? Can you hear me? Sweetie!"
"They're accelerating," Worf called, "warp 9.5... 9.6-!"
"Stay with them!" Riker managed.
"I can now calculate their course, sir," Worf said. "They're headed right for Sector 001... The Terran System."
Riker sucked in a deep breath.
"Earth," he breathed, as Shepherd finally blacked out to his mother's blood stained face. She was concerned and worried... But most of all?
She was truly, completely, furious.
This will be a short flashback arc. But I hope you enjoy it.