Star Trek: Voyager
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PROLOGUE:

Starstation Epsilon-4 just happened to be the closest Federation outpost headed towards the Delta Quadrant.  It's maximum sensor range extended just a few parsecs into that quarter of the galaxy, and for over a year, the outpost's computer had been giving a substantial amount of it's processing power to extending that range as far as possible.  They were looking for a Federation starship.

It had been over a year since the Federation leanred that the Starship Voyager, under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway, was trapped in the Delta Quadrant, and not smashed into component particles by plasma storms in the Badlands as had been previously thought.  Now, Starfleet was doing everything it could to facilitate the Voyager's safe return home.  That included sending long-range subspace probes into the Delta Quadrant, through territory that didn't belong to them.  Thousands of man hours had been logged on developing new engine technologies.

And then, they had lost contact with Voyager.

That didn't mean they would stop looking.

*************************************************************************

"Commander, there's something odd on the screens," Williamson reported.  Commander Beaumont, CO of SSE-4 looked up from his book, annoyed at the interruption.  None of them wanted to be there on SSE-4.  SSE-4 had a reputation in the Fleet for be the least-wanted posting in the galaxy.  If you received orders to report for duty on SSE-4, it probably meant you'd done something stupid like assault a superior officer.

Williamson was a delinquent, always had been.  He'd had a rough childhood, growing up on a failed colony where order and peace were a thing long forgotten by the populace.  Starfleet had not intervened for some reason, and let the place go to hell.  So he'd lived a violent life.  It had only culminated six months prior when he'd assaulted and killed his superior officer who'd given him some grief over a job that wasn't very well done.

Beaumont was the same way.  His incompetency of starship command had gotten him bumped down from Captain to Commander, and lost the command of a ship.  Probably forever.  His starship had been assaulted by Jem'Hadar attackers near the border, and he'd decided to stay and fight against overwhelming odds instead of retreating.  As a result, the cargo of medical supplies his ship was carrying was destroyed and never reached a defense post a few star systems away.  His court martial had been quick.

But now they were there, two of the seventeen people stationed on Starstation Epsilon-4, near the Delta Quadrant.

"What is it?" Beaumont asked, moving over to Williamson's station.

"Some kind of spatial anomaly," Williamson answered, shifting slightly so that Beaumont could see the displays.  The brightly light computer screens flashed up and down with the resonant frequencies of the anomaly that was tearing up reality several light-minutes away.  "I can't get a clear reading on it."

Beaumont furrowed his brow at the readings; he wasn't a scientist.  "All right.  Send out a probe."  He turned away from the station, and looked over at Lt. Virginia Kent, who manned the small communications console, and said, "Send those readings to the nearest ship.  Request their presence."

Kent nodded, and obeyed the order.

"Sir..."  It was Williamson again.

"What is it?"

"Something's coming out."

"On screen."  The aged viewscreen on the wall of the station's command center flickered on, showing them a visual of the anomaly.  Writhing, translucent, orange blobs sailed out of the anomaly, swarming about in a massive cloud.  They headed right towards the station.  Before Beaumont, Williamson or Kent knew what was going on, the deck had been torn out from beneath them, and the last thing any of them heard over their own screams was the scream of the metal in the deck as it was being torn assunder.

PLASMA, PART TWO
 

“They’ve got us, Captain,” Harry Kim reported from the Ops console.  The deck shook slightly as the umpteenth Borg tractor beam locked on to them for what seemed like the umpteenth time.  Janeway grunted with annoyance, and looked up at the newly revived Lt. Commander Tuvok who was standing at his Tactical console ready to fight the Borg.  She nodded, and Tuvok nodded back.  The Vulcan knew what to do and he needed no verbal comments from his friend and commanding officer.

Voyager’s enhanced phaser banks lashed out at the source of the Borg tractor.  Seven of Nine had been working long and hard to replicate the adaptive technologies of the Borg and make them compatible with Starfleet engineering.  Finally, she’d gotten it to work.  They now had an adaptive weapon against an adaptive opponent.  Of course, it chewed up a lot of computer memory for the ship to autonomously devise new weaponry to combat the Borg, but it worked.  It also wasn’t as good as Borg technology, but Seven and the rest of the crew of Voyager had to make do with that.

The phasers sliced into the as-yet-undamaged hull of the Borg cube.  An explosion ripped the Borg tractor emitter to shreds, and the beam disappeared.  Voyager lurched when the beam let go, and then surged forward as Ensign Tom Paris poured power into the ship’s impulse engines.  She roared away from the Borg cube that was trying frantically (well, as frantic as the Borg get anyway) to reconstruct their tractor emitters and catch them.

“Continue firing!” Janeway ordered.  “Paris, get us out of here!  Course one-four-three-mark-seven!  Maximum warp, engage!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Paris replied, and slapped his console.  The ship screamed as it jumped into emergency warp, and tore away from the Borg cube.  The cube decided to pursue the Voyager, and leapt into warp right behind it.  Borg maximized their power, and channeled their warp drive to the maximum.  The cube caught up to Voyager in less than five minutes.  Borg torpedoes slammed Voyager’s shields, throwing the crew around inside.

“Mr. Paris, evasive maneuvers!” Janeway shouted.  “Pattern Janeway-Beta-Three!”

Paris didn’t bother to reply as he punched the command into the sputtering helm console.  The ship darted off in a new direction away from the Borg cube at high warp.  The cube responded almost instantly, with the expected computer-like speed reflex.

“Captain,” Tuvok called from tactical, “we must not let this continue.  These consistent battles with the Borg are allowing the swarm to catch up to us.  They are now forty five minutes away and closing.”

“Damn,” Janeway muttered.  “What can we do to get the Borg off our backs?  We’ve tried every kind of subspace jamming we can think of.  The next thing would be… to cloak the ship somehow.”

Now Harry Kim spoke up.  “Captain, we have the plans for a 23rd Century Romulan cloaking device in the database.  I found the prints a little while ago while looking up information on the old Enterprise.”

Janeway’s eyes opened a little wider, and her eyebrows went up.  “Indeed?  Well, Mr. Kim, get to work.”  She turned to Chakotay as Kim rushed off the bridge headed toward Engineering.  “What else can we do?  Seven of Nine’s parents had some ingenious ideas, but the Borg already adapted.  Besides, I don’t think the Borg have encountered any century-old Romulan cloaks.”

Chakotay grinned, and held onto the arms of his chair as the deck rocked again.  He thought to himself, Let's get this over with soon.

"Mr. Paris, maneuver Charlie-Victor!"

The deck rolled as the ship tilted up on its side and rocketed away from the Borg again.

***
Nothing remained of SSE-4 when the Starship Enterprise arrived.  Nothing substantial anyway.  The largest piece of debris was about half a meter long, and only a few inches wide.

The bridge crew watched with somber faces as the debris rolled about slowly in space on thier viewscreens.  Sparks from sputtering EPS conduits and batteries occasionally lit the area, but other than that only natural light, and that provided by the Enterprise-E herself could help them see the devastation of the small outpost.  Beyond the small but wide-spread debris field, the anomaly lay.  It writhed with the raw power of existence in the universe.  What was beyond it, nothing and no one aboard the Enterprise could tell.

"Full sensor sweep, Mr. Data," Captain Jean-Luc Picard ordered.

The pale-skinned android at the Ops Console replied, "Aye, Captain," and set to work.  Picard turned to his First Officer, William Riker, who was seated at Picard's right.  He opened his mouth as if to speak, but didn't.  The now-beardless Riker raised his eyebrows, waiting for Picard to say something.

"Prepare a Class-One probe for anomaly penetration," he said.  Riker nodded, and began punching commands into his console.  "Report, Mr. Data."

There was a brief pause, and then Data replied, "There are no survivors, sir.  And the outpost is a total loss.  I am reading residual energy signatures that I am not familiar with, and neither is the ship's computer."

"Probe ready, Captain," Riker said.

Picard nodded.  "Launch."

On the forward viewscreen, the tiny probe streaked upward from the bottom of the screen, and disappeared into the brightness of the anomaly's center.  The telemetry from the probe came back crystal clear for the first few minutes of the journey.  Then, harsh shearing forces ripped and tore at the hull of the probe, threatening to destroy it. The probe fought hard gravitational eddies, pushing its thrusters to their maximum capacity.

"We are receiving telemetry from the inside of the anomaly, Captain," Data said.  "The video feed is also functioning."

"On screen."

The inside of the anomaly was like nothing they'd ever seen before.  It was like the inside of a sphere, with curving walls in the distance.  Writhing tendrils of energy coursed along the insides of the walls, detaching blobs every now and then that would flaot away, and then rejoin again later on when gravitational forces beckoned.  The probe's ride got much smoother once it exited the gateway provided by the anomaly.  That didn't mean that it stayed smoother.

The probe dipped and jumped off its course to evade the blobs that would detach from the wall.  But its ultimate destination remained unchanged: the orb that lay at the center of the anomaly.  Picard was just as surprised to see a planet at the center of the anomaly as anyone else was.  The probe moved in closer to the planet, and Picard could see the vast sprawling cities that were built upon it.  Massive structures that rose up into the sky of the planet glinted in the orange light being cast from the walls of the anomaly-sphere.

"Sir, it appears that the anomaly is a gateway to a pocket dimension," Data announced.

"A 'pocket dimension'?"

"Yes, sir. A pocket dimension is  a small universe of its own that exists within the subspace continuum of our own," Data explained.  "However, I do not believe any evidence has been collected where the wall of the dimension could be so clearly seen."

Picard stood up from his chair, and took several steps forward to stand just behind Data's chair.  Riker joined him, as always. "Are you detected any subspace communications ability on the planet?"

"Yes, Captain," Data said, tapping commands into his console, attempting a subspace link.  "But the anomaly is thwarting my attempts to contact the probe or the planet.  We must take the ship in."

Picard sighed, and turned around.  He didn't want to take his ship in there.  Whatever that anomaly was, it most certainly was related to whatever was responsible for the destruction of a Federation outpost, and the deaths of 17 Starfleet officers.  Did he want to go in there, and risk a Federation starship, and another seven hundred lives?  It was a harsh decision; it always was.  But as a Captain in Starfleet, it was a decision Picard had to make on a daily basis.

"Helm, take us in, half impulse."

****

Voyager was cloaked.  A fleet of twenty Borg ships was in the area, zig-zagging about the sector in efficient search patterns that left no asteroid unturned.  But it had been three days since their last encounter with the Borg, and what repairs they could do were complete.  Seven of Nine reported that the ship was now only two weeks away from the edge of this tendril of Borg space.  Janeway had actually slept well, for the first time in a long time when she heard these good reports.

She was in her quarters, reading and dozing lightly when the chime rang.

"Come in," she called.

Chakotay entered her quarters, and stood above the couch where she sat, casually, with his arms clasped behind his back.  She looked up from the PADD expectantly, and asked, "Yes?"

He was silent for a moment, simply looking down at her.  She wasn't in her uniform, but wore a simple gown that went all the way down to her ankles.  It was pink, made of silk, and clung to her form in some places while falling loose in others.  Such was the way of such nightgowns, Chakotay knew.  Of course, female fashion wasn't exactly his field of expertise, but past experience led him to garnering such knowledge.  Chakotay took a breath, and then spoke.

"We've found something," he said simply.  Janeway blinked.

"And?"

Chakotay sighed, and sat down on the couch next to her.  This was obviously something he was having trouble telling her.  She was confused by it, and turned to face him when he sat down.  He took another deep breath before speaking, obviously trying to think of the words.  Words, Janeway knew, were the most imprecise manner of communication known to exist, but were still the most widely used by the intelligent races of the universe.

"The anomaly that the plasma-eaters came out of has reappeared on our sensors," he told her quietly.  "We sent a probe inside, at long range.  We're a couple hours away if we change course, but I wanted to check with you first, even considering what we found."

"What did you find, Chakotay?"

"Another probe, sent inside the anomaly by another ship."

"So?  We're probably not the only curious explorers in the galaxy."

"Another Federation ship."

This shocked Janeway into silence.  As if in slow motion, the PADD dropped from her hand, and fell downward through the air towards the warm, soft carpet below.  It hit with a dull thud, both of them turning to watch it as it hit on the corner, bounced once or twice and then settled into the fuzzy floor covering.

"Chakotay..." she said slowly, softly, leaning forward.  "Do you know what this could mean?"

Chakotay nodded.  "That's why I came here, instead of calling you to the bridge.  I didn't want to get everyone's hopes up unnecissarily.  We've been through this before."

"But we still have to take the chance, hopes up or not," Janeway said, dashing into her bedroom for a change of clothes.  She reappeared a moment later, pulling on her uniform jacket while trying to tuck in her shirt at the same time and failing at both.  Her energy, excitement and enthusiasm were getting the best of her, which was exactly what Chakotay had hoped to avoid.  Muttering something evil to himself, he grabbed her by the arms, and pushed her down onto the couch.

"Chakotay, what are you--"

"Kathryn, listen to me," he hissed.  "This is exactly what I wanted to avoid by coming here to tell you this.  You're too built up for this.  It can't go like this, or you'll be devastated when it doesn't work.  I need you to keep a cool head, and so does the rest of this crew.  We're not out of dangerous waters yet.  The Borg are looking hard for us, and that swarm of plasma-eaters will catch up to us in just over two hours.  Now, if we turn to investigate this anomaly, we'll be cutting that two hours down to
twenty-five minutes.  Are you willing to take that chance?"

Janeway looked him square in the eyes, and said, "If it gets us home, yes.  I'd burn the Constitution of the Federation to get us out of this mess right now."

"You don't mean that?!" Chakotay exclaimed, completely shocked and apalled by what she had said.

Janeway simply stared.

****

"Phasers have no effect!" Lieutenant Jan, the tactical officer called.  The bridge of the Enterprise rocked again, and the helmsman was thrown from his chair to the deck.  His head smacked the floor hard, and an awful crack resonated through the bridge.  The sound of emergency klaxons filled the air then as the ship was thrown harshly off course, tumbling away from the anomaly it had sought to enter.  The blobs' translucent orange tentacles smashed and battered the ship's shields, and the Enterprise had no defense against them.

"Data, get us out of here!" Picard shouted.  The Enterprise pulled away from the anomaly, and the hostile creatures, at full impulse.  The nearest creature swatted the Enterprise, and the ship tumlbed away.  Picard ducked his head as the master systems status board exploded behind him.  Sparks and smoke filled the air around the bridge.  The entire ship bucked forward, struck from aft.  Picard held on, having no console in front of him to catch him if we fell.  Riker and Troi where thrust against their stations.  Riker grunted loudly, and Troi let out a shrill "Oomph!"

"Photon torpedoes, aft bay! Fire!" he shouted, looking at the picture of the back of the Enterprise on the main viewscreen that showed the swarm of creatures licking and picking at each other and the ship.  Three torpedoes were loosed, they flew right through the creatures, which once again had gone out of phase with normal space-time.  "Remote detonate!"  He took the chance that the disruption of space and time by an anti-matter reaction would find the phase variance of the creatures.  Picard was no scientist, but he wasn't stupid.

The torpedoes detonated, blowing three of the creatures into spiral courses away from them.  They could almost hear the screams of pain coming from them.  One of the torpedoes had actually exploded inside one of them, and this was the one that caught Picard's attention.  The creature had been blown to pieces, small bits and chunks of it were lazily tumbling away.

"Mr. Jan!  Continue torpedo bombardment, full spread," he ordered now.  "Program the torpedoes to detonate within the disruptions caused by the differing phase-variances!  Lock on, and fire!"

"Aye, sir!"  Within seconds, the new commands had been input into the torpedo guidance systems, and Jan had let loose on the offensive creatures.  Explosions littered the surrounding space, the remains of the creatures clogged the area further.

"Mr. Data, continue on our escape course!  Once we're free, engage warp drive!"

"Aye, Captain."

The Enterprise dipped sharply, then tilted upward again and rocketed forward as six of the creatures came in from above and forward.  Picard gritted his teeth as open space lay dead ahead, past a small swarm of creatures.  "Fire torpedoes, forward launcher."  The torpedoes cleared the way, and Data pushed the Enterprise through the opening they had created.  "Mr. Data! Warp speed now!"

With remarkable ease, the Enterprise shot away from the swarm of creatures, and back towards the relative safety of Federation territory.

****

Janeway sat in her chair with her fingers laced together, her chin resting on her hands. She was leaning on the arms of her chair on her elbows, her back away from the chair.  Chakotay was to her left, but he was standing.  The bridge was quiet, except for the comforting beeps and chirps of the ship's automated computer systems.  And the damage was noticeably gone, too.  Everything was clean, shiny and pristine again, as it had been before.  The air smelled nice.  There was nothing at all wrong with the bridge, or any of the systems on Voyager.  It was the bright, writhing image on the viewscreen that troubled her.

The anomaly was larger on the Delta Quadrant side, their probe told them that.  The pocket universe within was only about the size of a small solar system, but it still connected the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant.  That was the important part here.  The hard part was getting through.  Voyager's probe had seen the vast numbers of creatures that dwelled within the pocket-universe.

Slowly, carefully, Janeway thought through what she was about to do.  It was definately worth the risk, if she could get them home.  But would it work?  Even with the vents closed, the creatures could still sense the plasma that was building up in the nacelles, though it took a great deal of them to feel it and pass it along telepathically, which, she was sure, was their main mode of communication.  They seemed to have a swarm mentality, but Janeway had been able to pick out small coordinated attacks that they had managed to pull off against the Voyager.  There were millions of those creatures roaming around inside the anomaly.  That many of them... If they even got a wiff of plasma from Voyager...

"Mr. Paris," she said slowly, standing up from her chair.  "Plot your course precisely.  I want in and out of there as quickly as possible, no stops."

"Yes, ma'am--"

"CAPTAIN!" Kim shouted.  "The Borg!  Fifteen ships, dropping out of transwarp right behind us!"

Shit, Janeway thought, and replied, "Shields up!  Red alert, battle stations!  Aft view, on screen!"

Fifteen Borg cubes appeared in a flash of green energy that expunged them from the transwarp conduit.  They rushed forward towards the Voyager, tractor beams flaring.  Paris pushed the ship into a wild evasive, rocketing towards the anomaly.  The Borg followed closely, licking at the Voyager's heels.  Janeway held on as the ship began to rock and quake constantly when they entered the outer edges of the anomaly.

"Steady as she goes, Mr. Paris!"

****

Seventeen starships closed in on the anomaly's coordinates.

"Captain, we are unable to locate the anomaly on our sensors," Data reported to Picard.  "It is gone."

Picard stood up from his chair, and walked forward a bit to stand next to Data, and look at the Ops console.  He bit on his lower lip as he read what the computer had told the android.

"Any idea where it might have gone to?"

"Our knowledge of pocket-universes is extremely limited, sir," Data said, looking up from his console to face him.  "I do not have the necessary information to devise a method of locating the entrance."

"Do you know what could cause one?  How did the door open in the first place?"

Data looked down at the console in thought and then up at Picard again.  "A rupture in the space-time continuum, concurrant with the phase-variance of the pocket universe would constitute such an anomaly.  If we can find the special phase-variance of the creatures and their universe, it should be possible to modify our photon torpedoes to create the desired effect."

Picard nodded in understanding and agreement.  "Full sensor sweep, Mr. Data.  Find us a creature."

"Aye, sir," Data responded.  A minute later, the deck rocked, and the sound of groaning metal filled the bridge.  "Sir, the anomaly... It is opening!"  Picard looked up quickly, and saw the massive eruption of light on the screen.  A dark blob appeared at the center; something was coming out, and blocking the light.  Something big.

"Mr. Data... LOOK OUT!"  The Enterprise ducked to the port side, barely skipping out of the way as the starship Voyager came roaring out of the anomaly, with ten Borg cubes righton their heels.  The deck rocked again beneath Picard.  He looked up, thinking, What now?  The last of the Borg cubes that came pouring out of the anomaly were covered with the hostile creatures that were tearing away at the hulls of the cubes.  The cubes exploded, spraying debris against the fleet of Federation ships.  "All ships, retreat!"

The creatures poured out of the anomaly, tens of thousands of them.  As the eighteen Starfleet ships and six surviving Borg cubes warped away to safety, the number of creatures that had invaded the Alpha Quadrant reached the four million mark.  They began to spread out through Federation space, attacking every ship they came across that didn't know what they were.  The Alpha Quadrant was completely unprepared for the assault it had now come under.  There was only one ship in the entire quadrant that knew what to do to keep from becoming food to these creatures.

Voyager was in the Alpha Quadrant.

They were home.

End Part Two
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