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.
With the Thunderbird...
B'Elanna was elbow deep in the guts of the warp drive system, grunting a bit as she pulled out a transtator. She scowled, turning it over in her greasy hands.
"Burned out," she sighed.
"How bad?" Tom asked, leaning over from another open panel.
B'Elanna scowled over her shoulder at him, and squeezed the transtator until it snapped in half.
"That answer your question?" She asked rhetorically.
"I suppose it does," Paris observed wryly. He looked over at Harren, who was doing some work on a control panel.
"Harren! Could you help B'Elanna rebuild the transtator?"
"I have four doctorates in cosmology and physics, damnit," Harren muttered, "I'm not a mechanic!"
Paris held up a hand, to appease the grumpy genius.
"All right, all right. How does the warp drive look?"
"Well," Harren stated, bringing up the diagrams, "the field generators don't seem to be damaged. Nacelle housings are intact. Main issue seems to be in the power distribution and control systems."
Torres held up the transtator, glaring. Harren shrugged.
"That would be it," he said, "better get cracking on a new one!"
"Well, since you don't have anything else to do," B'Elanna said, all too sweetly, before she threw a toolbox at him, "get to work!"
"URK!" Harren fell back from his chair to the deck. He was silent a moment.
"Yes sir," he managed.
"Easy, B'Elanna, easy," Tom murmured, heading over and helping Harren up, "it's his first away mission, after all."
"And probably my last, at this rate," Harren grumbled.
Tom patted him on the shoulders with a friendly grin.
"Come on... Where's that explorer's spirit, huh?"
"I'd prefer to be back home with a big subspace telescope assembly, looking at this stuff," Harren stated flatly. Tom shrugged.
"Okay, but unfortunately, we're not there. So in the meantime, let's get out of here so you can get to do that, huh?"
Harren was going to bitch some more, but a fierce glare from Torres made him gulp and meekly comply. As B'Elanna headed off to follow, Paris took hold of her shoulder and shook his head.
"Easy, easy," he murmured, "he's not Maquis and barely Starfleet. So easy, huh?"
B'Elanna snorted... But nodded, and went with Harren to the replicators.
"We'll start with the motivator assembly, should be listed as CS-887-E..."
Tom headed forward, avoiding any pitfalls in the darkened ship, as he entered the cockpit. Kes was at the pilot's station, checking over everything with an extremely serious look on her face. So seriously was she scanning the information coming in that she didn't seem to notice Tom at all.
"Kes?"
She jumped at his voice, and looked back over her shoulder.
"Tom! You scared me!" She admonished.
"Sorry," Tom said with a cocky grin, taking the seat next to hers, "can't help flustering pretty girls."
"Ah, well... Uh... Thank you," Kes managed, turning her bright red face back to her controls. "Looks like they're still out there... Several Kazon warships, all sweeping the area."
Tom frowned, bringing up the passive sensor readings on his own console.
"Yeah," he muttered, "it's like they knew we were coming this way."
Kes nodded slowly.
"Yes, it is," she murmured, "and that worries me."
Tom glanced over at Kes, silent and expectant. She shrugged, almost helplessly.
"It's like... At the trading station, I could sense..." Kes's frown deepened.
"Sense what?" Tom asked, tilting his head like a curious cat.
"Other Ocampa," she said softly, "watching us. Scanning us. They were being... Careful. I couldn't get much off of them."
Tom hummed.
"Could the Kazon have taken and enslaved other Ocampa? Ones who also made it to the surface?" Tom pressed.
Kes nodded.
"It's possible," she said, but the doubt was heavy in her voice. She turned to look fully at Tom.
"But... I was a slave of the Kazon. So were other Ocampans. I know how it feels... How they felt. These Ocampa... Didn't feel like that at all. They were..."
She struggled to find the words.
"Cold," she decided. "Hard. Totally different from any other Ocampans I've ever sensed."
Tom's frown became thoughtful.
"Can you sense any now?" He asked. Kes hummed, and closed her eyes.
"... No, not like before," she said, "but... There is something... Staring at us... Distant."
Tom sighed and shook his head.
"Well... Least we've got the strongest Ocampa around to back us up if any of your people have gone bad," he said. Kes blushed again.
"I'm not that strong," she muttered, "if I was... I could have gotten us out of there, easily."
"You did get us out of there," Tom said encouragingly, reaching out to squeeze her small hand in his. "We're alive, and our ship can fly. That's enough to find a way to survive."
Kes managed a slow nod.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
The ship rocked furiously. Tom nearly fell out of his chair, and Kes went tumbling into his lap. B'Elanna and Harren came forward. B'Elanna glared angrily at the scene.
"What the hell is going on?!" She demanded, eyes like daggers at Kes and Tom. Tom quickly pushed Kes back into her chair, and checked the sensors.
"The Kazon are bombing the area," he grumbled. "Great... How far did you get on the new transtator?"
"Not far enough!" Torres scoffed, "we're going to need more time-!"
"We don't have it!" Tom decided, bringing on main power and the lights. "Get in your seats, we're taking off!"
"Are-Are you sure, sir?!" Harren asked, "we'll end up right in front of their guns and-!"
"Look, this is no time to decide it by committee! Strap in!" Tom shouted, punching the impulse drives and accelerating right out of the volcano. Good thing too-A few moments more, and the Thunderbird would have been trapped in the collapsing cavein from the Kazon phaser blasts.
"I am not a-EEYYYAAHHHH!"
Harren fell out of his chair and tumbled into the transporter pad as Tom dove behind some asteroids. Torres held on for dear life, as did Kes.
Yet now, she was certain-Something was watching them. Something... Almost familiar...
Slowly, but steadily, we advance.
And an omake: The episode...
"Displaced"
Random aliens have been teleporting onto the ships in Voyager's flotilla, and people onboard these ships have been teleported away. The aliens, calling themselves Nyrians, claim they don't know what's going on... However...
Mari: "They're lying."
Jurot: "Bald faced, lying."
Barttat: "Hmph. Naturally."
Shepherd: "Ease up, Gul Barttat. It could have just been a big misunderstanding, but-"
Bartatt: glare
Shepherd: "Okay, okay, so I didn't buy it either. Sue me."
Barttat: "Your captain gave them the benefit of the doubt!"
Shepherd: "I am well aware, sir."
Severin: "We should kill them all!"
Shepherd: "Woah woah woah! That's hardly constructive. No... I have a better idea. But I'm gonna have to run!"
Jurot: "Sir?"
Shepherd: "Just arm yourselves! But do it this way...!"
On the Nyrian ship, a few minutes later...
Nyrian: "You see, we just use the teleporters to peacefully capture ships. We hold you captive in comfortable surroundings! We're really very gentle!"
Janeway: "Gentle captors, you mean."
Nyrian: "You'll understand soon enough-"
Shepherd teleports in... With two photon torpedoes strapped to his body.
Nyrian: "Wh-Wh-What-?!"
Shepherd: "Hey Captain! Guess what? Looks like their transporter couldn't grab me without my torpedoes, too!"
Janeway: "Lieutenant... Are those armed?"
Shepherd: "Captain, come on, it's me. Of course they're armed!" He holds up a detonator in his hand with a broad grin "And they're set to maximum yield, too!"
Paris: "Did you do the drawings on them yourself?"
Shepherd: "Nah, that was little Yuri! He's got a talent!"
Nyrian: "Are you insane-?!"
Shepherd: "Ummm... You're literally kidnapping our crews to take over our ships. I think I'm responding in a perfectly rational, logical manner. Don't you agree, Commander Tuvok, sir?"
Tuvok: "You are as rational and logical as ever, Mister Shepherd."
Shepherd: "Thanks, I-Hey!"
Nyrian: "We can just disarm you! Guards!"
Shepherd: "Eh eh eh! None of that! Come one step closer, and we all go boom! It's a deadman's switch! Now, we can either talk like rational beings, or-"
Biessman materializes next, also strapped to two photon torpedoes and carrying a detonator.
Biessman: "I'M GONNA BLOW RIGHT NOW IF YOU DON'T FREAKING LET US GO!"
Shepherd: "Or you can talk to him. He's only slightly less rational than me."
Biessman: "GO AHEAD! TRY TO STUN ME! YOU'LL JUST DIE FEELING STUPIDER THAN YOUR STUPID HATS!"
Nyrian: "You-Your captain would never let you blow yourselves up-!"
Janeway: "Stand ready on those detonators, Mister Shepherd, Mister Biessman!"
Biessman: "TIME TO MEET THE GREAT GOD EXPLOSION!"
Shepherd: "I'm more agnostic about him myself, but I'm sure these guys'll become believers in the microsecond they have to live!"
Nyrian: "You're insane! You're all insane!"
Kes: "Just figured that out now, did you?"
Shepherd: "Anyway, I've directed the rest of our crews to all strap themselves into bombs and be ready to blow everything up the moment they're here!"
Nyrian: gulp
Janeway: "I believe we were discussing how kind and gentle you were? I trust as such forgiving people, you'd like to avoid us blowing up your ship with ourselves along with it?"
Needless to say, the Nyrians quickly free everyone and flee with their large ship. Very far away from here...
Later, on Voyager...
Chakotay: "Please tell me you were bluffing."
Shepherd: "Of course I was, sir! This detonator's a fake!"
He hits the trigger... Harry's console beeps.
Harry: "Sir, I'm detecting an explosion some ten lightyears away..."
Chakotay: glare
Shepherd: "Huh. Guess that wasn't the fake detonator. CHANG! YOU'RE REORGANIZING THE DEMOLITIONS LOCKER!"
Chang: "Wasn't me, sir! Must have been one of the Ocampan kids!"
Shepherd: "Who gave the Ocampan kids fake detonators that look like the real thing?!"
Chang: "You did, sir."
Shepherd: "Oh yeah. I gotta start reading my memos..."