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

Author's Note: *the door bursts open and Dragon Cobolt enters, with sunglasses and a cigar* I'm lived, bitch!

Janeway sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose while Neelix continued swearing into his cupped palms. "Tom, try and find the hyperactive little git."

"If I find them, they'll be found by everyone out there," Tom said, turning in his seat to face her, frowning.

"Then try and find them subtly," Janeway said, frowning at him.

"How?" Tom asked.

"They are not cloaked," Tuvok said, frowning ever so slightly. "We simply need to find the shape of them against the stars, as well as any waste heat their shuttle cannot avoid venting."

"That'd take a nearly sentient super computer and the most advanced tachyon sensors in the universe working in tandem," Tom said, then smacked his lips. "It'll be done in five minutes, I think?" He turned back to the console. His fingers began to play along the controls as he looked down at the seat, his brow furrowing.

Janeway crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall. Tuvok stepped to her side, and D-91 to her other.

"Do you think it was a good idea to put our ace so far up our sleeve?" D-91 asked.

"I think so," Janeway said, quietly.

Tuvok arched an eyebrow. His eyes and D-91's cameras met. Both of them knew that was Captainese for i sure hope so.

The Val Jean sat in an orbit normally reserved for spy stations and unexpected planetkilling asteroids. The cloaked ship hung so high above the ecliptic that they had an unobstructed view of every fleet, every world, and every mote of dust in a shocking distance. They had moved here as soon as the orbital defenses were finished, and they had waited. Seska felt like she was in her element, leaning back in her seat and peering down at the gentle orbit that the USS Voyager had slipped into. She nodded proudly, murmuring. "That Paris can fly."

"What was that?" Rak asked, walking up behind her, her feathers trailing along the ground with a susurration that should have been quite loud over the engine noise - but the big Gorn had the knack of walking just so, making the sound blend in with the air cyclers. Seska jerked upright, while in tactica, R'lash laughed and shook her head.

"She's got a crush on the red blooded country boy," R'lash said.

"Paris isn't from the country!" Seska snapped.

"He's not from a megacity, tunnel habitat or arcology, that makes him a country boy in my book," R'lash said, ticking the three possibilities for urban off on her fingers. "Besides, you can do better."

"I don't need do anything!" Seska snapped. "We're supposed to be keeping an eye on the enemy fleets, anyway." Her console trilled. "And helping with a search for a...a stolen shuttlecraft!?" She asked, her brow furrowing slightly. "Neelix Junior stole a shuttlecraft? And Lt. Strong and Lt. C'Nola and Lt. T'are!?"

"Damn," Rak said, her feathers frilling up slightly. "And here I thought Bri was good at seducing taller ladies."

R'lash snorted as Seska began to type away at her console, frowning intently as she did so. The map that she brought up showed the three fleets - each one situated in a different part of the outer system. The Viidian forces were already establishing their own space habitats by tractoring together (using the unbelievably primitive method of drones and tug ships, ugh!) asteroids and ice rocks. The Haakonians were maintaining a tight formation, while the Talaxians had spread out as much as they could - with several of their picket ships and forward scouts dipping daringly far into the system, nestling up against Neptune and Saturn. Seska put her fingers together and frowned.

"Voyager is looking here..." She murmured. "But by my guess, they're going for the Viidians."

"Whatever gives you that idea?" Rak asked.

"Well, it says right here they are," R'lash said, scrolling through the rest of the message. Seksa blanched.

"Oh," she said, her cheeks darkening. "I just assumed they would, because only taking on people you see as pure evil would get C'nola, Strong and T'are all together on a shuttle on this kind of mission." She nodded firmly. "It's just how you Federation types are. And I admit, I can get the impulse. I don't like those Viidians one bit."

"They're rubbing off on you!" R'lash said, warningly.

"Weren't you the one saying that the way Romulans treat Remans is kinda fucked up?" Rak asked.

"I thought that BEFORE I ended up here!" R'lash said. "Why do you think I was on that POS Bird of Prey running a dennik mission?"

"Your mother was a smuggler and you were a perennial failure at your standardized exams for naval postings," Seksa said, in the tone of someone giving the correct answer at a speaking quiz. The glower from R'lash and the amused smirk from Rak both slid off her back like water as she beamed. "Oh! Spotted them. I was right, they are going to the Viidians."

"They-"

"Yes, but I still guessed right!" Seska said, hurriedly.

The Val Jean pinged the Voyager - and below them, as the planets spun, as the sun burned, the shuttle crept closer and closer.

Pod Technician Manager Tabit Boor thought he smelled something funny. Of course, smelling something funny - even in a brand new Pen like this one - wasn't exactly unusual, considering the number of zipheads who were strapped in, and how hard they were working for long distance forecasting and tactical analysis. The only problem, in Boor's opinion, was that they didn't have anything like the Dragon. Of course, his Pod had never had access to the Nurel clique's pocketed trump card - they had been a third tier Pod, everyone knew it. That fact rankled him - it rankled everyone in his Pod, honestly. He wished they had a ziphead like the Dragon, because...while TacCom zips and Security zips were useful for their deeply Focused attentions to weapon targeting routines and formations and short term battlefield tactics, they were garbage at anything beyond the next, eh, thirty seconds of a fight?

Not that anyone in the pod actually asked Pod Technician Manager Tabit Boor his opinions on anything. His job was mostly to keep the nutrient pipes from clogging, and to ensure that the zips didn't get sores from hanging in their harnesses. But he did like to think about things. After all, you never knew when a lowly Pod Technican Manager might ascend to a Pod Sergeant! Or even-

His nose wrinkled.

Okay.

Seriously.

What was that smell?

He pulled his communicator off his belt and spoke into it. "Tech-2, identify this odor." He said. "It's kind of...burning smell?"

The flat voice of one of the technician zips that he managed started to mumble in his ear: "Probable cause: Overloading power cables, broken food processor, stuck air processor, imminent boarding party. Boarding. Boarding party. Boarding. Boarding. Boarding. Boarding."

Boor sighed and turned to face the inner wall of the corridor he stood in, shaking his head. He changed frequencies. "Hey, Pen Manager Fargle," he said as, behind him, a pinprick of light appeared above his head. It swept around him in a big circle, creating a humanoid sized circle in the wall. "Tech-2's stuck in a paranoic loop. They think there's a boarding party coming in when some air processor's jammed."

"I'll deal with it, Pod Technician Manager," Fargle said.

"Good," Boor said, clicking his mic off, then turning around to find a circular chunk of plasteel heaved out of the way by a nine foot tall, muscular blond human woman who was glowing with a shimmering golden light. Next to her was a diminutive Haakonian/Talaxian hybrid, a half Catian, and an Orion.

Boor actually recognized the little guy.

"Hello," Admiral Ne'smith said.

Boor opened his mouth to snarl you when two phaser beams hit him in the chest and he hit the ground.

Amy, C'nola, T'are and Neelix Jr. stepped over Boor, who's communicator buzzed. An authoritative voice came from it. "Pod Technician Manager, report. We have received an unusual energy reading from your area!"

---
CURRENT TRUTHS: "Two Years To Doomsday", "Quantum Locked Core", "Four Fleets - A Siege!"
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 1

What does Voyager + Val Jean Do?
[ ] Send the Val Jean in close to provide cloaked assistance
[ ] Send the Val Jean in close to beam them out of there immediately
[ ] Cobble together a way to send a stealth transmission to them
[ ] Stay back and watch the sitch unfold
[ ] Write In

What do the boarding crew do?
[ ] Try and fake being Boor to keep things on the DL, then make for the bridge to take the place as quietly as they can
[ ] Fuck it! We're doing it live! Blitz the Bridge, the Pens, and take the whole station. It's not like it has a lot of non-Focused. And it's not like the bad guys will blow it up, it has all their strategic and tactical planning assets aboard
[ ] Write In