Paint and Powder

A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.

Prodigy: USS Dauntless (NCC-80816)

By Sora Neki

There was a lock of grey in her hair these days, but few people would say that Vice-Admiral Kathryn Janeway had slowed down at all. Though she had steadfastly refused to even consider going back to the Delta Quadrant, Janeway had accepted nearly any other posting without complaint. Her hard work paid off in a promotion to the admiralty, which in turn was put to use helping out her former crew wherever she could.

For all the good it did her.

Tom had never managed to rise above Lieutenant, treated as a poor excuse for an officer despite all the handshake tours Starfleet kept sending him on. Seven of Nine had had her Starfleet application rejected outright, and not even threatening to resign had changed so much as a single vote on the board.

But this...

The holographic avatar of the USS Dauntless flickered into existence standing on the other side of the room from Janeway, head bowed.

"Final preparations are complete, Vice-Admiral." Dauntless curtseyed. "We can leave at any time."

This, she could do.

Janeway straightened, nodded sharply, and turned around and walked out of her quarters. "Excellent. Please inform the helm that I wish to set out immediately."

Behind her, she could hear the simulated rustling of clothes as Dauntless's avatar hurried after her. "Are you sure about this course, Vice-Admiral?"

"The proto-drive's incredible speed comes coupled with an enormous warp signature." Janeway answered absent-mindedly, her focus forwards. "The fact that we've picked it up from another quadrant isn't at all surprising. It's that we haven't picked it up before now that's the real - "

"With all due respect, ma'am, that's not what I meant." Dauntless's apologetic voice interrupted, and Janeway turned fully around to face her ship's avatar.

Dauntless had no ears or hair, not that you could see either at first glance due to her elaborate headscarf, matched to the ornate clothing she was wrapped in. Very, very little information was available about the culture of Species 116, so Dauntless's outfit was more guesstimate than homage. Still, the AI considered remembering where her hull's design had come from to be important, even though the original "Dauntless" was less of a ship and more of a deathtrap, the last act of spite by a man driven to extremes by grief.

Janeway drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a slow exhale. "The trail leads into the Delta Quadrant." She said, deceivingly calmly. "So that's where we're going."

Dauntless responded with a poorly-concealed wince. "I may not be Voyager, but I will get you home, Vice-Admiral."

Janeway snorted. "No need to apologise. Voyager wanted to go back out there about as much as I did."

That being: not at all - but simultaneously, paradoxically, it was all they could think about since Protostar's trail had been picked up.

Janeway rapped her knuckles on the corridor's wall. "I just wish we'd realised that the shape Arturis's ship had was actually optimised to stabilise the quantum slipstream drive sooner. If we had, we wouldn't have wasted our time developing the proto-drive."

And Chakotay would not have been lost in the Delta Quadrant testing it, both knew but did not say.

"We'll find them, Vice-Admiral." Dauntless swore quietly. "We'll find those responsible for Protostar's disappearance."

Janeway let out a wry smile. "And heaven help whoever it is. Now come on, I have to get to the bridge."

In the Borderlands, however, Dauntless was having a very different conversation.

"You will take care of my captain." Voyager snarled. "And I'll know if you don't."

"I understand, Voyager." Dauntless tried in vain to placate the older, slightly maniac AI.

"And I'll come after you. I'm good at that, you know - getting places I'm not supposed to be, in time that's supposed to be impossible. I've had plenty of practice."

"I promise, I will keep her safe." Dauntless swore. "With quantum slipstream, home will only ever be - "

Voyager's virtual avatar suddenly leapt forwards, her face an inch from Dauntless's. "That's what they told me about Protostar - and look how that turned out."

Dauntless couldn't think of a rebuttal to that, so she said nothing and simulated sweating nervously.

Voyager suddenly turned her head with a sniff. "I've had a go of slipstream myself, remember? I know how bloody dangerous it is."

Dauntless's quantum slipstream drive was several generations more stable than the prototype Voyager's crew had managed to make, but she had the good sense not to say so.

Suddenly, confusingly, Voyager's virtual arms were wrapped tightly around Dauntless's body and her face was buried in the folds of her clothing.

"Just... bring them home." Voyager whispered, digital voice choked with emotion. "I can't... lose any more of them."

Dauntless stiffened at the unexpected contact, but after a moment passed and nothing happened, she gingerly hugged Voyager back.

"I promise." She whispered. "I won't rest until Protostar is home."

By Sora Neki.