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

"Mr. Kim, look out!"

Mr. Kim, his PADD tucked under his arm, looked up to see T'are shouting at him, standing next to one of the Vhnori miners that he was down here to meet. He blinked, smiled, lifted his hand-

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

And then the blaring horn of the mining hauler filled his ears. He turned, had enough time to think: Who the hell puts ground traffic on the same road pedestrians use?

And then he was run over by the mining hauler.

Harry Kim's eyes snapped open and he gasped, sitting up, looking around himself wildly. He was sprawled in a large, lush, gorgeous jungle that spread out in every direction. The flora glowed with glittering iridescent highlights and flowing lines of pale pink and blue bioluminescents. Tiny white fireflies danced and pranced in the air around his nose, about his head, and throughout the whole forest. The air was thick. Humid. Harry reached up and hastily dialed up his uniform's temperature controls, setting it to be more...suited for the climate. This still meant his face and hands were beginning to sweat, but at least the rest of him was feeling fairly comfortable. He scrambled to his feet, then tapped his combadge.

"Kim to Voyager," he said.

Silence.

"Kim to Voyager," he said again. Then he scowled, tapping the combadge. "Diagnostic - are we out of range or jammed?"

The combadge chirruped. "Unknown," it said.

"Do we have any locational data?" Harry asked.

"Unknown," the combadge chirruped.

Harry sighed.

As his neck sweated and his face grew flushed, he checked his transporter buffer. He had two days of rations, his tricorder, his phaser, two charge packs, some survival rope, a multitool, and a mineral scanner. He picked the narrow, stabby looking device up and frowned at it. To think, just a few hours ago, he had been DAMN excited to use this thing. Their ships had come into the Vhnori solar system a few days before and, upon learning that their primary trade goods were exotic, paradimensional minerals...well, they had needed to investigate and see what they could trade.

The only issue was the Vhnori mining cartels weren't exactly eager to share. But negotiations had been going well - well enough that Voyager had gotten to send down away missions to find other deposits of minerals for the cartels to mine, in exchange for finding those positions for them to then...mine them...

Harry set the mineral sampler. "Okay," he said. "Got hit by a truck...and now you're here. Either the paradimensional minerals are acting up or you're in one...incredibly humid heaven." He started to tuck everything back into his transporter buffer, save for his tricorder, and he was just about to dial in Vhorni and known Federation life signals when he heard a loud CRACK of someone stepping on a branch. Harry lifted his head - and heard a soft humming sound. He could see, through the trees, that there was someone humanoid walking through the woods. He stood, about to cry out, but then remembered...he had no idea where he was. This might be a pre-warp civilization he'd been thrown into. Or...or...any number of possibilities.

He started to creep forward, moving from shadow to shadow, and came to the small clearing that the humanoid figure was walking towards.

A thin stream was running over rocks and down into a large, beautiful grotto, surrounded by pale white sand. Pink flowers grew along the small rise that the water flowed over, and floating lillies that were bright white and shot through with red lines bobbed on the water. The humanoid had stepped out and revealed she was a Vhorni - but rather than being dressed in the grungy coveralls and unitards that he was used to seeing, she was dressed in a pale white shift, her short brown hair tied back into a ponytail - showing off the ridges of her forehead. She was about Harry's age - and prettier than he was really expecting. The only other items she had was a curious looking belt around her hips, which drew her shift tight around her hips, and left her long, tanned legs fully exposed and...gleaming. Something slapped against her hip, but Harry couldn't quite see it from his angle.

The Vhorni girl hummed to herself, undid her belt and took hold of her shift and whipped it up and over her shoulders, tossing it aside. Harry jerked his head away from the view before he saw more than a flash of her naked body - stumbled, tripped, caught for his position, hit his palm against a smooth rock, slid off said smooth rock...then went right over the edge of the rise. He landed, head first into the water, and splashed down. His head struck the soft muck and then he flailed around. When his head was jerked up above the water, gasping, water dripping from his black hair, he was able to blink water from his eyes...

And saw the gleaming point of a steel sword, the tip within an inch of his nose. The girl was holding said sword, her other hand pressing the shift to her chest to barely protect her modesty, as she glared at him.

"A peeping Tom, eh?" she asked.

No, that's Paris, was the first thought that skittered through Harry's brain. Instead, he stammered. "W-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" He lifted his arms, while the woman glared down at him. "I'm not a peeping Tom!"

"Then thou art a spy?" she snarled. "What...is...wrong with thy face?"

Harry blinked.

Thy? He thought. I need to check on the universal translator, don't I?

"I'm not a spy, a-and I'm...uh...I..." Harry stammered.

A low, mournful sound filled the air. The sound of distant horns. Cries and shouts. The woman snapped her head around, hissing. "Hells! I thought I had left yonder blackguards behind miles hence!" She glared at Harry, then sprang into the water, kicking her belt with her. The belt sank and then she was in the pond next to Harry, hastily grabbing a reed from the branch. She shot a glare at him. "If thy are no spy, then thou's best either run and lead Lord Hagastram's forces away - or thou shall hide thy own hide!"

She then ducked beneath the water and the reed stuck up into the air as a makeshift...snorkle.

Well.

She was clever, at least.

Harry pulled his tricorder at, watching as the hydrophobic surface shed water with ease. The scanner flared and showed lots of Vhorni life signs - and other, much larger life signs, matching them - moving out in small groups, fanning throughout the woods. Harry had only been to a few of Tom's war games, but that was enough to recognize what Tom called 'cavalry' ... soldiers riding domesticated creatures. They seemed primitive, but even modern societies used cavalry. Some even in warfare, in specialized roles.

And some were heading his way.

---
CURRENT TRUTH: "hunted in a strange land"
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 0

What do you do!?
[ ] mimic the reed trick and get some answers once you're free
[ ] Get your phaser out and stun them, then get some answers from the girl.
[ ] Try diplomacy on the cavalry
[ ] Write In

Harry scowled, looked at his tricorder, looked up, then whispered. "Shiiiit!" He tugged his collar up, got a seal in, then doused himself under the water. The uniform was designed as an emergency vacuum suit - vital for when you were exposed to space as often as starfleet officers were - and so it formed a near perfect seal against his nose. Now, normally, this would expose his belly to space, but it was considered better to be alive with a bruised tummy than dead with a fine set of abs - but in the comparatively vastly more friendly environment of a pond...

It was fine.

Through the water, he saw large, four legged canine looking creatures loping along, with Vhnori on their backs. They swept past the pond, pausing only to look it over, then kept riding on. The woman beside him remained down for a bit longer - then sat up. Harry did likewise, tugging his shirt back down and breathing clear again.

The woman gaped at him. "How...didst thou..."

"I, uh...my uniform..." Harry gestured to it. "I...it helps me breathe sometimes."

The woman shook her head. "So. Thy are a servant of an Adept, I see." She stood, and for a moment, Harry had just...the most amazing view of her athletic, muscular back, the curve of her spine, and the tautness of her rump, all glistening with the moisture streaming off her body. It was for just a moment because Harry snapped his head to the side, his cheeks burning hard. The woman stepped out of the water, shaking her head, and kept speaking. "Whom do you serve? Ultraviolet? Infrared?"

The jarring contrast between the thees and thous and the relatively modern terms of infared and ultraviolet did make Harry look back. The woman was brushing herself as dry as she could and had slung her shift back on over her shoulders, which meant...honestly, it might have been less distracting if she had just stayed nude. Still, with the sun shining on her, he hoped that her clothing would dry quickly. Harry stepped from the pond, tapping at his cufflinks until the water sloughed off him all at once. The sudden splash drew her attention and her mouth opened in shock. "Such a useful garment," she said, her eyes wide.

"Starfleet uniform," he said, spreading his hands.

"Ah, the Adept of the Stars, then?" the woman said, frowning. "Another Adept come to plague these lands with their scheming?"

"No, no, we're...I'm...not...not any of that," Harry said. "My name's Harry Kim."

"Harry Kim," she said, tasting the name as if it was a strange fruit. "An odd name. An odd name for an odd man, I suppose. Thy may call me Lyan."

"Well, Lyan..." Harry said. "...lets get out of here before those...those, uh, soldiers came back."

"Good thinking, Harry Kim," she said. "Follow me."

Lyan set a harsh pace, walking forward through the jungle with clear determination. Neither of them talked, but Harry still was a starfleet officer. He took SOME readings with his tricorder - but was unable to determine much beyond the fact they weren't going towards the army. So, at least Lyan wasn't heading in the wrong direction. After what felt like an hour of walking, they rested in a small shaded grotto. Harry watched as a six legged deerlike creature ambled by, while Lyan sat on a stump, panting softly and stretching out her long, limber legs.

"So...uh...can I ask some questions?" Harry asked.

"Thy my ask, verily," Lyan said, wincing as she bent forward. The movement of her body, combined with the sheerness of her outfit, made Harry want to look anywhere else. Seeing his blush and shifting eyeline, she laughed quietly. "Harry Kim, have thy never been around a woman in thy life?"

Harry blushed. "It's different with Orions," he muttered. "For one thing, Orions know when to wear uniforms that..." He shook his head.

"Oh-rions?" Lyan asked, then stood. "What are these Orions?"

"Nevermind," Harry said. "I'll explain after you tell me what that army is and who Lord Helgastram is and, and...and what the hell an Adept is and where I am."

"Thou art in the land of the Vhnori," Lyan said. "Tis a land spanning the western ocean and the eastern desert, with several kingdoms, each ruled by an Adept - the Adept of the Ultraviolet, the Infrared, the Antimatter and the Positron." She frowned. "Thy are magicians of great and terrible power, and Lord Helgastram is one of the knight errants of the Adept of Ultraviolet. He hunts me."

"Why?" Harry asked, trying to process all of that.

Lyan huffed. "None of thy business," she said, prickly. "Virgin."

Harry scowled. "I'm not a virgin," he said, "And even if I was, none of that has anything to do with anything about me."

Lyan snorted, then looked aside. "Seems to make thy a blushing fumbler, the last thing I need on my escape."

Harry opened his mouth to respond, then forced his mouth shut. She was trying to distract him from the question he had asked. He instead turned away from her. Now that they weren't stumbling along, he compared, mentally, everything he had seen here with the Vhnori homeworld that he had seen. The...Vhnori homeworld was not exactly the most well tended place, ecologically speaking. It was mostly strip mined. This place, though, looked utterly untouched. And...

"Wait, did you say magic?" He asked, turning to face Lyan.

She looked at him as if he was an idiot. "Yes. Of course."

Harry sighed, then put his hand over his face, rubbing his cheeks slowly. "Great. It's Megas-Tu all over again."

"Megas-"

"Nevermind," Harry said, then frowned. "Where are you planning to go?"

"I...am going to flee to the Adept of Positrons. She, it is said, is kind to those who flee her siblings wrath. And her golems are stout and strong and quite numerous - they can protect me." She rubbed her hand along her shoulder. "What of thee? What is thy plan?"

"Figure out what the hell is going on," Harry said. "I was on the Vhnori homeworld, your homeworld, like, an hour ago and it was nothing like this. Did I get tossed backwards in time? ...I hope not." He frowned. "Or is this another universe? Or...what?"

"...the Adepts are said to have great libraries, Harry Kim," Lyan said, looking aside. "Thy might come with me." She paused. "Not that thy should get any ideas about me wishing to have thee near me. It is merely that traveling alone in such a country, it is a perilous task!" She stuck her nose into the air, frowning as she did so.

---
CURRENT TRUTH: "hunted in a strange land"
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 1

What do you do?

[ ] Go with her, maybe get to know her as you walk. Learn more about this mysterious Lyan, if she's going to be thy...er...your only companion for a while.
[ ] Go with her, but first, take a bit to really survey the area with your tricorder - you got some inconclusive readings earlier and might learn more now. This...might give the mounted knights to catch up, but knowing something is worth it.
[ ] Write In