A/N: This story is based on the television series, Star Trek: Voyager, which as far as I know, is the property of Paramount Pictures. No infringement is intended.
Chapter 1: The Kaltyra
Just over a week after Baby Deborah turned six months old, the medical scans of Dr. Luke and the Tersan doctors concluded that it was now perfectly safe for her to travel through a Tersan wormhole, so Captain Janeway spent the rest of that day and night helping the Tersans with their calculations, and she really burned the midnight oil with them again while Dr. Luke remained aboard the Delta Flyer with Deborah. She didn't return to the Delta Flyer until half past five the next morning, and about an hour later, their alien friends were ready to fire up their device and create a temporary but stable wormhole for them once again. And as soon as Captain Janeway piloted the Delta Flyer through the entrance to the Tersan wormhole, they traveled over fourteen thousand light years within twenty seconds, and when they came out on the other side, they were officially fourteen years closer to Earth. Everything went exactly as the Captain, the Doctor, and the Tersans had expected it to. Everything went perfectly according to plan.
However, as soon as they came out on the other side of the temporary wormhole, something happened that was certainly not according to Captain Janeway's plans. Just a few seconds after they emerged from the wormhole on the other side, all of the sudden, a ship began to decloak, and when it did, the Captain and the Doctor saw that it was actually Voyager of all ships!
"They're hailing us," Captain Janeway announced, and then she opened a channel, and Commander Chakotay appeared onscreen. "You're not where you're supposed to be, Commander," she scolded.
"My apologies, Captain. Right after we came through the first wormhole, we came into contact with a friendly alien race called the Reelans, and like the Tersans and Starfleet, they too have great respect for space exploration. They also have an abundance of cloaking devices that they depend on to keep their ships hidden from the Borg. So, we explained our situation, and we came to an agreement. In exchange for sharing information with them on all our Delta Quadrant star charts and all the planets we've visited, they agreed to lend us one of their cloaking devices so we could stay here and wait for you," Commander Chakotay explained.
"That wasn't what we originally agreed to, Commander. You were supposed to continue traveling at Warp Four until we caught up with you in the Delta Flyer."
"I realize that," Commander Chakotay said sheepishly, feeling much like a naughty five-year-old. "I know we disobeyed your orders, Captain, and I accept full responsibility for that. It's just that the crew and I were very worried about you guys. We didn't want you and the Doctor to be stuck on the Delta Flyer all by yourselves with a new baby for over two months out in this crazy quadrant of space. And when we made First Contact with the Reelans and they suggested that we borrow a cloaking device of theirs so we could standby and wait safely for you guys to come through the second wormhole without any threat of the Borg or any other hostile aliens detecting us, we just couldn't resist their kind offer."
Mr. Neelix spoke up then and said, "Uh-uh-rejecting the Reelans' kind offer could have sabotaged First Contact with them, Captain. And that would have been a great loss to Starfleet."
"A great loss," Commander Paris agreed.
"A terrible loss," Lieutenant-Commander Kim chimed in.
"Mm-hmm," Captain Janeway responded, obviously not buying any of it. "Make all the excuses you want, but the moment Luke, Debbie, and I set foot on Voyager again, you naughty, naughty kids are going straight to the Brig!" she teased, and Commander Chakotay, Commander Paris, Lieutenant-Commander Kim, and Mr. Neelix all had a good laugh. "We'll be docking in approximately two minutes."
"Aye, Captain. We'll be waiting for you," Commander Chakotay said with a big grin.
"Janeway out," she responded, and then she closed the channel and began piloting the Delta Flyer towards the docking bay on Voyager.
Captain Janeway and Dr. Luke were more than thrilled to return with little Deborah to their family aboard Voyager, and their four older children were just as thrilled to have their parents and their new baby sister back with them, and so were the rest of the crew. And after Captain Janeway met with the Reelans and thanked them for the loan of their cloaking device, Voyager "got back on the road," so to speak, on their return journey to Earth, with all their crew present and accounted for, plus their brand-new little crew-member, Debbie. They traveled through space towards the Alpha Quadrant for the next five weeks without anything too eventful happening.
But then one day on the Bridge, suddenly, all of Voyager's systems just completely shut down, right out of the blue. And before Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay even had a chance to react, an alien transporter beam appeared and enveloped them and transported them off Voyager.
"Welcome, Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay," said a deep but friendly male voice as soon as they both materialized on the Bridge of the alien ship nearby. The man was over six feet tall and bald with blue skin like the Bolians and dark markings that ran down both sides of his body similar to the Trill, except the markings were a navy-blue color and went with his blue skin.
"What is this place? And why did you bring us here?" Captain Janeway questioned the alien.
"Permit me to introduce myself, Captain. My name is Commander Jamyse, and this is my vessel, the Kaltyra. I'm a Kensyte, and my homeworld of Kensyte Prime is just a few parsecs from here, as a matter of fact. I apologize for beaming you and your First Officer off your vessel without your permission, Captain, but it was necessary."
"Why?" she asked.
"As I'm sure you've noticed, the instant you entered our space, I had all of your ship's systems shut down completely," he said as he started walking to his own ready room near the Bridge, and Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay followed him.
"We weren't aware this space belonged to anyone; we're sorry if we've trespassed. But yes, I can assure you, my First Officer and I have noticed that indeed. And we need to get back to Voyager as soon as possible to get the auxiliary systems up and running before our people start running out of oxygen," said Captain Janeway as they entered his office.
Commander Jamyse shook his head then as he walked behind his desk and motioned for the Captain and the Commander to follow, and he told Captain Janeway, "No matter how hard you try, Captain, you and your crew will not be able to get auxiliary power back, or any kind of power back, until you and your First Officer have been warned about what my people call Byreya."
"Is that another alien race? Somebody you're at war with?" asked Commander Chakotay.
"No. Byreya is not a race of people. It's an artificial element my people created centuries ago," he explained as he pulled up a picture of the element on his computer screen and showed it to them. "It's essential to our people. It powers our spaceships and the vast majority of cities on our homeworld and on all the other worlds that are within Kensyte territory. Byreya is completely harmless to Kensytes like myself, but unfortunately, as other humanoid races have come through our territory over the years, we've learned that Byreya is toxic and deadly to them.
"We've been aware of Voyager's presence in this area of space for weeks, Captain Janeway," he said as he pulled up pictures of Voyager from their position in space weeks earlier. "With our highly advanced technology, we were able to secretly download as many records from your ship as we wanted. Please don't be angry or offended; we didn't do it with ill intent, and my people and I mean you no harm. In fact, just the opposite. We wanted to study humans and the other humanoid races aboard your ship to see if your physiology would be able to withstand the effects of the Byreya element that the atmosphere of Kensyte territory is saturated with. Unfortunately, the longer you and your crew stay in Kensyte territory, the more Byreya particles you are exposed to, the deadlier it becomes for you. I know, Captain Janeway, that you are the mother of a seven-month-old infant and of four other young children. I don't want to upset you, but I have to give you the cold, hard facts. If you remain in our space, your youngest child will only have to be exposed to Byreya for one week before she will die. The remaining children aboard your ship will be dead within eight weeks or less. You and the rest of the adults aboard Voyager would survive around a month longer, give or take a week.
"And I must be the bearer of even more bad news, I'm afraid," he told them as he showed them an image of all of Kensyte territory. "I know about your mission, Captain Janeway, to get your crew back to your home planet of Earth. Out of this dangerous quadrant of space you humans refer to as the 'Delta Quadrant.' And I wish I could give you better news, but I can't. Kensyte territory begins at this border that Voyager just crossed," he said while pointing to one border of the map, "and it extends all the way to within about one hundred light years of the border between the Delta Quadrant and the Alpha Quadrant. From here on out, if you choose to proceed with your journey back to Earth, Voyager is going to be traveling through space that is saturated with an element that is lethal to human beings and to all the other humanoid races aboard her."
"And according to this map, Kensyte territory is so vast that it would take us at least another seven to eight years to try to travel around it on our way back to the Alpha Quadrant," Captain Janway observed.
"That is correct," Commander Jamyse confirmed.
Captain Janeway shook her head and told him, "That's not an option."
"Our technology is much more advanced than that of humans, and we have worked with other humanoid races numerous times over the centuries to try to find ways to block Byreya particles from entering their ships, to try to find ways to counteract Byreya particles, but we haven't been able to come up with anything. There is only one thing that has been successful in ridding ships of Byreya so they can pass through Kensyte territory safely. But it does not come without sacrifice, Captain."
"We're listening," Captain Janeway told him.
"Over the years, we've developed a biometric device of sorts that pulls all the Byreya particles surrounding a ship, and all the particles inside the ship's atmosphere, out. There's just one problem."
"What problem is that?" asked Commander Chakotay.
"The device cannot keep pulling Byreya particles out of a ship's atmosphere continuously for months and months on end. Not by itself. The device can store a large quantity of Byreya particles, no doubt, but in order for it to be able to continue pulling the lethal particles out of the atmosphere, at some point, the particles it's already removed and stored must go somewhere."
"Where can they possibly go?" the Commander inquired. But Captain Janeway had already begun to sense what Commander Jamyse was telling her – without her telepathic and empathic gifts. (In fact, Kensytes were like Ferengi in the sense that telepaths and empaths were entirely unable to use their abilities to read their minds and sense their true feelings.)
"You said it was a biometric device. That means that at some point, the lethal particles must be put into a receptacle so that the device can continue to absorb as many Byreya particles as possible. And that receptacle has to be a person," Captain Janeway deduced.
"Correct, Captain," Commander Jamyse confirmed. "These devices are very rare, and they're not easy to come by. We can only give you one for you to use on Voyager during your journey through Kensyte territory. In order for it to continue functioning throughout the entirety of your passage through our space, filtering the Byreya particles out of your ship's atmosphere, it's going to have to eventually deposit some of its built-up particles into the bloodstream of a willing chyama, or as you humans would say, a willing sacrifice."
"So in other words, if we want to get Voyager through your territory and into the Alpha Quadrant safely, someone on our crew is going to have to agree to be attached to this biometric device of yours, have their bloodstream flooded with particles of an element that is lethal, and sacrifice their life so that we can get home," said Commander Chakotay.
"That's the basic summary of the situation, yes," Commander Jamyse confirmed. "I truly wish it didn't have to be this way, but it is the only way, I'm afraid. There's nothing more my people and I can do. If a Kensyte were to be attached to this device, it wouldn't do any good because our bloodstream is already overflowing the Byreya particles. We're literally exposed to it every waking moment of our lives. The reason why it has to be a humanoid lifeform like yourselves to be attached to this device, and not a humanoid like the Kensytes, is because humanoid bodies like yours absorb Byreya like a sponge, whereas my people simply excrete it when it reaches levels too high for our bodies to tolerate."
"I see," said Captain Janeway in a grave tone of voice.
"I apologize for temporarily cutting off power to Voyager, Captain Janeway, but I simply could not allow you to proceed any farther through our space without warning you about Byreya. I understand that this can be very difficult to take in, especially from an alien you just met a few minutes ago. I suggest you turn your ship around, Captain, and take it safely out of Kensyte space, and take a few days to deliberate with your First Officer. If you decide to proceed through our space to the Alpha Quadrant, the two of you will be faced with the difficult matter of choosing which one of your crewmen will be your chyama. I'll send you all our files on Byreya and our device, so you can study them for yourselves before making your final decision."
"Thank you, Commander," Captain Janeway said with a nod.
Commander Jamyse then picked up what appeared to be a small, square bronze pin, and he tapped on it lightly and spoke into it, saying, "Commander Jamyse to Subcommander Kyleese."
"Subcommander Kyleese here," another male voice came in.
"Please beam Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay back to Voyager. Then restore their power and begin transmitting all our files on Byreya and the biometric device to Voyager."
"Yes, sir," said the Subcommander, and then Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay vanished in the Kensyte transporter team and appeared back on the Bridge of Voyager.
As soon as they reappeared, all of Voyager's systems powered up again, and the Kaltyra began transmitting all files concerning Byreya and the biometric device to Voyager.
Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay simply stared at one another then, silently digesting the bombshell that Commander Jamyse had just dropped on them.
