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

The away team assembled to scout out the deep structures in the belly of the world was exactly who Janeway would have expected for this kind of mission: T'are and Tuvok for science, Amy Strong and three of her security forces for protection, and Harry Kim for handling any technical fields that T'are couldn't manage. Janeway itched to get down there with them - but she needed to stay on the ship. It wasn't just for protocol. Janeway felt grimly certain that she was getting a little too emotionally invested in this planet...

Is it wrong to care about the lives of a billion people? Phoebe asked.

I need to remain objective, Kat thought, firmly.

Hmm. Sounds like Starfleet excuses to protect yourself from... Phoebe trailed off. Kat shook her head, while next to her, Torres glared down at the teleportation console. She frowned, her fingers lightly playing along the controls as she bit her lower lip. "Well," she said, quietly. "This is not looking great."

"What?" Janeway asked.

"There's an interphasic quantum lock around the facility - not detectable until we tried to subspace tunnel through it. Let me-" Torres tapped more switches between her conversation, then yelped as the wall exploded outwards in a spray of sparks and a sudden crackle of plasma fire. "Shit! We gotta blowout!" The half-Klingon vaulted over the console, then started to stamp out the fire that was trying to catch on the carpet, while the away team leaped to fray. Amy and Alexia stepped up with their multitools drawn and started to spray fire retardant onto the hissing, smoking conduits.

"What happened?" Tuvok asked, his voice controlled as Janeway leaned over the console. She read off the infromation, shaking her head.

"The conduits couldn't take the extra power shunted into the systems for the quantum tunnel, Torres, this is well beyond normal specifications," she said.

"Well, you said a billion lives are at fucking stake," Torres said. "I figured, fifty fifty shot. Worst thing that happened was we lose a conduit or two in the blowout." She waved her hand before her face, her nose crinkling. "Oy Gevalt, we lost two conduits..."

"How long to get the transporter back online?" Janeway snapped.

"Huh?" Torres glanced over her shoulder. "What? Oh, five minutes. EPS conduits are made to explode. Better them explode than the alternative. Like, did you think we packed the ship with these things for fucking fun?"

"Torres," Janeway said, flatly.

Torres, noticing her expression, shook her head, then sighed. "The real issue is that quantum lock. It's stronger than anything I've ever seen."

"Can we get down, like, the normal way?" Amy asked.

"What, dig through fucking bedrock?" Torres snapped. Then she frowned. "That might be easier, actually. We could drill a borehole with a properly rigged phaser. We'd just need to find a place that can handle the temperature differential and won't have much of an ecological effect. I mean, we're still talking about a 21st century stripmine level of damages. We could do it slower, too, with...focused beaming excavation and hand phaser drilling, that'd take..." She rubbed her chin. "Eh, two, three hundred people less than a week?"

"That fast?" Amy asked, her eyebrows shooting up.

"Sure, the main issue will be ventilation, and we can put in air-cyclers," Torres said, shrugging. "So, yeah. We can either try and punch through on the transporters - not suggesting that, because next time, we may lose more than just some EPS conduits. Or we can bore down. Or we can mine down. But either way, it's not happening right away."

Janeway sighed. "Got it." She looked at the burned, smoking hole on the wall. She frowned. "Get on that, Torres."

"I was just going to admire it for a bit longer," Torres muttered under her breath. "Maybe let it stink up the place more."

As the turbolift whirred up, Janeway leaned against the wall. "Did you manage the translation on those incoming transmissions?" she asked, quietly.

"Neelix Junior and Neelix are working together on it - as both of them have Haakonian and Talaxian ciphers," Tuvok said.

"And Neelix will keep an eye on Neelix," Janeway said, nodding. "Clever."

At the exact same moment, a turbolift on the neighboring line was skimming down. The door on it opened and an annoyed looking T'are and C'nola stepped onto it. C'nola was patting T'are's arm sympathetically. "Hey, think of it like this, next time, you can go down a mine, which is even more dangerous," the snarky Caitian said, grinning at T'are, while T'are smiled at her - then she sniffed, then looked down, to see that Neelix Junior was leaning against the lift wall, looking up at them with his eyebrows raised.

"I take it the teleportation has been postponed?" he asked, dryly.

"You can say that again," T'are muttered, grumpily, while C'nola let out a little snort - and then a distant voice.

"Hold the lift!"

C'nola stuck her leg out, grinning toothily at Amy Strong as Amy jogged in, having been changing out of her hazard uniform. She panted, then flashed a smile at C'nola, who turned her head back to T'are and said: "See, on a proper ship, we didn't have EPS conduits and teleporters didn't fail nearly so often."

"You had unshielded plasma conduits," T'are said. "Those things would immolate you if they blew."

"Yeah, but they always blew away from important stuff," C'nola said, shrugging.

"And the teleporter failed all the time, Catra," Amy whispered to her as the door hissed shut. Then, seeing the diminutive half-Haakonian, she blinked. "Oh! Lord Haaktriar. Er. Lieutenant Jetrel?"

"Neelix, please. Neelix Junior," Neelix Junior said, bowing his head. "Ladies, I have been wondering - you have access to FTL capable shuttles on this ship? I heard quite a compliment?"

"More than a compliment!" T'are said, brightly. "We're able to fabricate and launch shuttles on the fly. The real limitation is manpower, oversight, local resources..." She ticked the numbers off on her fingers as Neelix Junior thumbed down a button on the turbolift, which started to whirr once more.

"Interesting, interesting," Neelix Junior said. "Now, I know that I'm new to this ship, but...well, I think that considering the fact there's a Talaxian and Viidian and Kazon fleet approaching, w-"

"There's a Viidian fleet?" C'nola asked, her ears perking up.

"All three, in fact. And a Haakonian fleet or two, if the long ranged scanners are accurate," Neelix Junior said, his voice picking up the tempo, the words coming out with an almost irresistible momentum. "Now, with the evidence pointing towards the possibility of a multi-fleet, multi-empire war erupting over this planet, it may be that you will require every hand on deck. So to speak. Now, I may not have ever gotten ship duty, despite my best efforts, but I did my four years in the Imperial Academy, and that included light flier and suborbital combat operations, not to mention studying Kazon fleet tactics. Lots of small craft tactics in that. It'd be a shame to be left on the sidelines when I could be put to some use, eh?" His eyes sparkled brightly. "So, I was thinking perhaps you three fine ladies could maybe see about getting me access to some flight time on these fine Type Ten Shuttles that I've heard so much about?"

"I...dunno..." T'are said.

C'nola narrowed her eyes.

Amy, though, smiled. "Well, we can at least run it by someone?"

"I mean, I don't want to impose," Neelix Junior said, bowing and spreading one arm wide.

The three girls exchanged a glance.

Janeway stepped off the turbolift and found Neelix - without his nephew anywhere to be seen - leaning over the communication console, an ear bead stuck into his ear. Kes sat next to him, frowning as she tapped at the controls. Janeway smiled to see them, and walked over. "So, what do we have?"

"The Talaxian code is way past my last cipher," Neelix said. "But it's pretty clearly a serious order, the enciphering is intense and the directionality is powerful enough that if we were a few AU closer, it'd have burned a hole in the hull."

"I've picked out ship designations," Kes said, smiling. "And from the designations, it sounds like a collection of Viidian ships - my guess is the Talaxians are giving sabotage targets to a deep space agent."

"A single agent against multiple ships?" Janeway asked, frowning. "And, wait, if it's a message to a deep cover agent, wouldn't that be you? Do the Talaxians know you're with Voyager?" Neelix nodded to her. "How?"

"I was seen on a Viidian station that then erupted into a tiny little civil war," Neelix said, cheerfully. "And everyone has their eyes on Voyager, I assure you." Janeway nodded at that. "But if they were sending a message to me, why use codes they'd know I wouldn't know?" He frowned.

"Is it possible that there is a Talaxian agent on Earth-2?" Tuvok asked, standing behind Janeway. Janeway shook her head.

"We only detected one non-human lifeform on the planet. And...well, Neelix, the Talaxian's bioscience is on par with the Haakonian?" Janeway asked. Neelix nodded.

"Then the only logical answer," Tuvok said. "Is that the message was meant for Lieutenant Jetrel. He has familial connections to Talax through his mother, is the only known alien agent in this area that we are aware of. The Talaxians lack the technology to be on the planet without us being aware of us, unless Lieutenant T'are made an error in her scanning of the planet - a possibility that we can check easily."

"Well, if Neelix Junior was the target of the message, then he'd have mentioned it," Kes said.

"Where did he get too?" Janeway asked.

"He said he was having an bit of inflamed joints, one of the byproducts of his teratogenic issues," Neelix said, wincing slightly. "He was hoping the Doctor might have something for them."

Janeway frowned.


---
CURRENT TRUTHS: "Two Years To Doomsday", "Quantum Locked Core"
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 0

EDIT: Plan vote! Plan vote! Plan VOTE!

Hmmm...what's your plan for the planetary issues?
[ ] Begin phaser boring
[ ] Try and batter your way through via teleporters
[ ] Set up mining operations
[ ] Write In

Does T'are, C'nola and Amy buy Neelix Junior's story?
[ ] They do need every pilot they can get!
[ ] Call it in
[ ] Write In

What do you do about the approaching fleets?
[ ] Watch for now
[ ] Send the Val Jean for scouting.
[ ] Write In