STAR TREK: A Long Road (Voyager Fix It Quest)

Janeway listened to C'nola's report as she watched the away team at work on the planetary surface. Torres and Tuvok had almost finished setting up the device that would expand the time hole enough to allow crew to pass through into the space, and even they stopped midway through as C'nola said: "So, i phasered my way through the wall, jumped the outer fence, and I was out."

"...I see," Janeway said, then tapped her combadge. "Wacoche."

"Yes, she's just like that," Wacoche said from the other end of the line.

Janeway shook her head, then turned to face D-91. "Opinions?" she asked, trying to control her own immediate reactions. While it was...deeply unstarfleet, she could at the very least get where C'nola was coming from. They had no idea if Voyager would have been able to reach them - at least, that's what C'nola claimed. Escape was priority. And...there was something to be said about keeping Starfleet technology out of potentially hostile alien hands.

"I believe the approaching Kazon ships are due to this action by C'nola," D-91 said. "This would be taken as a hostile act by the local government, and they are allies with a Kazon sect."

"I'm thinking...we try and beam the two of them back, with an away team prepped for security operations if that fails," Janeway said, quietly.

"I agree."

"Who are our best people for security, now that Amy's down there?" Janeway frowned. "...Neelix, Kes...if they'll go."

"Might I suggest another option?" Wacoche asked, his voice coming through the coms. "You may remember...the Gorn."

"Ah. Yes. The Gorn." Janeway shook her head. "Why didn't I think of that."

"You did want security specialists," Wacoche said.

"The hole's widening," Torres said, grinning as she looked at the shimmering field of blue light emitted by her thingy. She glanced over at T'are and Tuvok, nodding. "We're good for crew transfer in five minuets."

A transporter flickered - and when it was done, three more suited figures had arrived. One of them was Neelix, in his Talaxian combat suit, dark colored, with a kind of shifting camouflage worked into the fabric. Kes was in a Starfleet suit fitted for her - and both of them were carrying phaser rifles. The third towered over both of them, a looming figure in a bright red suit with the symbol of the Gorn Hegemony stenciled onto the shoulders. Their helmet was almost conical in shape, like the beaked helmets of old Earth knights - and he held in his hands a weapon that would have been a disruptor rifle in some hands - but in his, was merely a brutal looking pistol.

"V'orak," Tuvok said. "I was not aware you were going on any away missions."

V'orak had been a member of the Val Jean's crew only by the thinnest of thin margins. He had been...assigned them by the Hegemony, as an attaché. Just as old wars on Earth had often seen military observers from non-related powers being sent to them, to learn and study the ways and means of combat while the power in question was not at war...so too did the wars of the 24th century often have such folk tromping about. The Hegemony had been at peace for centuries, thanks primarily to their location in a bubble of space banded mostly by Klingons - who wouldn't bother them without upsetting the Federation - and the Tholians, who had been isolationists for years.

That didn't mean they were not intensely interested in war.

Torres couldn't even blame them. After all, the galaxy still mostly ran on phasers and torpedoes, despite the best efforts of the Federation. It sometimes felt like everyone else was playing by different rules than her - that grinding unfairness had driven her out of Starfleet.

Well.

That and she once broke an instructors arm in the Academy.

"Sup, V'orak," Torres said.

V'orak inclined his head, then rumbled. "How goes the...effect...of the Thingy."

His stentorian voice lent an air of gravitas to the situation that the word Thingy really robbed. Which was the whole reason why Torres called it that. It was harder to be terrified out of your mind when you were dealing with a Thingy - and while healthy caution was well named, being so scared shitless of the energy you were emitting, absorbing, redirecting or generally fucking with was a great way to end up doing nothing at all. Or worse, retiring from engineering to become...Security or something.

"The time hole's getting wider every second," Torres said. "We're keeping things slow. The ship's scanning the area for harmonic resonances, in case we want to make it bigger or smaller or-"

The Thingie sparked. Smoke exploded from the side of it and Torres sprang to the side, ready to slam down the SCRAM button on the device - but she saw immediately the Thingy wasn't the issue. "We're getting an unexpected feedback source from the time hole!" Torres said. "It's like someone's shooting energy into it!" She bit her lip. "Oh no, no, no no!" She ran to the hole, holding up her tricorder. "Fuck! Fuck!"

"What's going on, Torres?" Janeway asked, her voice the exact kind of calm rock that Torres needed right now, when panicking seemed like a great idea.

"Some asshole on the far end of the hole is firing a primitive active scan into it," she said. "LADAR and radar, I think, it's enough to cause excitement on both ends of the hole - something my Thingy was expressly designed to avoid!"

"Shut it down!" T'are shouted from where she waited on the sidelines.

The Thingy burst into a spray of sparks.

"I can't," Torres said, quietly, stepping backwards. "Whatever's gonna happen, it isn't going to-"

The hole ripped open. It was wide enough for two men to walk abreast and looked in at a hastily established collection of Kazon scientests - they were dressed in protective uniforms and had set up a series of tools and emitters that were all aimed at the hole. Their leader - a young woman - was gaping at the hole.

"...oh..." she said, quietly. "The alien wasn't lying?"

The ground began to shudder under Torres' feet.

"Paris, report, what is going on across the planet?" Janeway asked, watching as the planet before her flashed with blue white sparks, flickering across it like a low grade orbital bombardment.

"Tachyon pulses from dozens of rifts are flaring up," he said. "...and I'm picking up lifesigns. People are appearing from the past in the present."

"The present with the choking, toxic atmosphere?" Harry asked.

"If I didn't miss my guess, the Kazon thingy and our thingy worked to...merge the planet together," Tom said, his fingers flying along the console. "I'm beaming every lifesign I am picking up to sickbay - there's only a few now, but...shit! The number is increasing - Captain, we don't have six billion berths on this ship!"

"We had twenty four hours, now it looks like we have less than twenty four minutes," D-91 said.

"We need to know what caused the past event," Janeway said. "...please tell me it wasn't this."

"I believe I have an answer."

The voice came from the ground - and despite the sounds tremoring, Tuvok sounded remarkably calm. "I am detecting a massive source of antimatter through the portal. I believe that the locals have an antimatter production facility on this planet - one of remarkable scale."

Janeway frowned. "Their technology is far too primitive for building antimatter production at scale."

"...well, I mean, it was, before we got here."

The voice was new and sounded muffled, like it was being picked up externally rather than from an attached com badge. "Who is this?" Janeway asked.

"I'm Dr. Xoraxa, from Sect Relora, who is this? Are you...the aliens from the future?" She sounded confused, and excited all at once. "How did you travel through time?"

"No, before we explain anything, explain what you just said," Janeway said, firmly.

"I said, uh, their technology wasn't up to building antimatter, but we provided the technical specifications. It's part of our R&S program. We find worlds before they break warp and give them the technology to join Relora - but joining requires, uh, a resource allocation and antimatter production is very important!"

"You...offloaded the most dangerous kind of industrial process known to the galaxy to a pre-warp civilization!?" Janeway asked, unable to keep the shock and horror from her voice.

"...well..."

The shuddering, shaking sounds of the timequakes rocking the planet came again - and Dr. Xoraxa screamed in shock.

"Things are getting dicy down here, captain!" Torres shouted.

The sparks flaring on the planet were getting worse.

C'nola's ears twitched as she listened in on the revelations, shouting, and general clamor. When she peeked out, the apocalyptic end of the world scenario was looking a bit more mysterious and terrifying than dangerous and terrifying. There was no shaking, no trembling - just flashes of white light that could be seen around and among buildings. The security forces were milling about - some being directed to calm panicking civilians, some hurrying to their commander. She could just barely see Amy - and of course she was handcuffed by the command tent.

C'nola stuck her tongue into her cheek, then sighed. "We gotta save the world again," she said, shaking her head slightly, then tapped her combadge. "Yo, Cap. Obviously, it doesn't matter if people get sucked into the future if the future is fine. We gotta just safely shut down the antimatter whoozits."

"And if you know how to do that, we're listening C'nola," Captain Janeway said.

C'nola shrugged. "When Amy shifts, anything she's holding shifts with her. So, she just has to pick up the factory, then shift into, like, anything else and the factory becomes a part of that new whatsit. Then we get her somewhere safe and she shifts back, then we run away before the factory explodes."

"...Doctor," Janeway said. "Forwarding you the last twelve seconds of my feed, could that work?"

A new voice came on the line. "From what I read, that is the most plausible thing I've heard all week," the Doctor said, sounding deeply sarcastic...and making C'nola's hackles rise.

From what he read?

Later.
---
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 2 (I spent 1 from your scan to answer the question about "What's happening!?")
CURRENT TRUTHS: "Past and Future On a Collision Course with Destiny!"

What do?
[ ] Plan C'nola: Phaser your way out, grab Amy, steal car, hit the anitmatter factory, get Amy through the portal. Bam! Day saved.
[ ] Plan Hole: Spend 2 advantage to create truth "Widened Fissue", then fly Voyager and Val Jean into the past. Beam antimatter out. Bam! Day saved.
[ ] Plan Diplomacy: convince Kazon that they need to beam the antimatter into space and shut the factory down. Bam! Day saved!
[ ] Write In