The Voyage Within

[Hiver]

The ship rocked and I dug my claws into the railing to stop myself from sliding. The deck shuddered as the rear photon torpedo launcher cycled three times.

"Shields at thirty two percent!" Carey called out, "Rerouting power to port shields."

"Direct hit to port nacelle!" Torres said loudly from next to the warp core, clinging to the railing as the ship shook again, "We can't take many more of those!"

"Redirect the damage control drones," I said loud enough to be heard over the warp core pressure alarm, "Warp drive is priority number two after shields."

Fucking Vidiians just wouldn't fucking give up! Take a damn hint already!

Damn zombies!

"This is the Captain," Janeway's voice rang through the ship, "Boarding pods incoming. Stand by to repel boarders."

I bared my teeth in annoyance.

"Optimists inbound, stand ready to repel boarders," I growled before the ship shuddered beneath my paws, "Hunt, watch the warp core, that alarm is there for a reason."

"We're good, Chief! We're good!" she yelled back, tapping away at her console.

The ship shuddered once more and I suppressed a sigh to push my rage down. Stop breaking my damn ship, you arseholes!

The warp core whined in a very unhealthy manner and the ship outright shook before smoothing out once more as we entered warp.

I snorted and flicked my eyes, opening a channel, "Captain, Zephyr. I don't recommend pushing more than warp six, we're redline down here. Even at that, you have Warp for about thirty minutes at most."

"We're on course for a new born star system," Janeway answered, "We'll be able to hide in the debris and radiation."

"Hope it's closer than thirty minutes or that will be real easy."

"Understood. Janeway out."

Klang!

Something hit the main door to engineering and I glanced in that direction.

Klang! The sound of weapons fire.

I growled softly and shifted a bit more in that direction. Intruders. Intruders in my territory. Burn them. Burn them to ash!

I bared my teeth and opened another channel, "Zephyr to Tuvok. Commander, I have intruders outside engineering. Deal with it."

"I have a team one hallway away, forcefields locking down now."

Damn Vidiians had sensor dampening tech almost as good as their medical tech, they were frustrating to try to track through a ship once they managed to board.

And they always fought to the death, they never surrendered unless stunned.

Not that logically I could necessarily blame them. They were fighting for their lives as they rotted from the inside out.

They needed implants, new organs from new species to slow the phage down. The plague infecting their people was adaptive, slowly adapting to infect new organs, but while it worked on that, it stopped affecting the rest of their body.

But eventually it won and it started again.

So they needed a constant supply of new species, new organs. Why they didn't buy gene samples and take up cloning?

No clue, they didn't exactly talk to us other than to demand our surrender. Fat fucking chance of that.

More weapons fire outside.

"Tuvok to Zephyr, you are clear," Tuvok transmitted after a couple of seconds.

"Good hunting," I said and closed the channel. Tuvok and the rest of security would be busy for the next while chasing down the rats infesting the ship before they could cause any real damage.

All crew were to be armed when fighting Vidiians. They always tried for boarding actions.

At least they always used stun beams.

All the better to keep their prey alive until they could be brought back to their ship to be harvested in the best possible condition later.

So far we haven't lost anyone to them.

So far.

Growling softly, I eyed the warp core, pulling the readings up on my visor, "Torres, I gave the captain thirty minutes of warp. Please keep an eye on that flow restrictor or we're looking at something quite a bit shorter than that."

"No worries, I got it," Torres answered, sounding distracted.

A ping appeared in my visor. One of the maintenance drones was down. It must have encountered a Vidiian group.

I sent the location to security and deployed forcefields across that entire hallway.

The hull was showing five holes. Five boarding pods had found their mark.

Fifty or so Vidiians.

Rumbling in another growl, I eyed the warp core before bringing up the damage control information of the ship and got to directing damage control parties and the drones to the most critical areas.

We dropped out of warp with a distinctly unhealthy tremble.

Something to the right exploded into sparks as a power surge ripped through the system. Warp drive's down.

I glanced at the exterior sensor readings.

We're in the system. Best hope Janeway was right and we could hide here until we could get things back online. Because that's going to take a while.

Or things are going to get real interesting as more Vidiians converge on our position.

Zombies didn't give up easily. Go extinct with some dignity, damn it.

 

[Hiver]

"How bad is it?" Commander Chakotay asked, looking at Muninn.

I sighed, "We should have warp drive back up in a couple of hours. Our biggest issue is the second photon torpedo launcher, it's scrap, took a direct hit at some point. We're going to need to pull the entire launcher and rebuild it from scratch. It's slagged."

"And the hull breaches?" Janeway asked, her hands folded on the desk.

"Just holes in metal, not an issue. We'll even be able to recycle their boarding pods for materials. The bigger issue is the launcher and the hits we took to the nacelles," I explained, "Captain, we can get her rolling right now but we're getting seriously down to the wire. We need downtime to do some real maintenance. I'm talking about, like, a month or more somewhere where we can pull… everything… and give it a good refit. It'll take a month or so for the absolute minimum and we need somewhere quiet with a lot of raw materials."

Janeway frowned and sighed, "That's going to be difficult."

"We pick a time where we can have downtime or the ship is going to end up doing it for us," I told her seriously, "I understand that now is a bad time, we need to get out of Vidiian space first. But the time is coming quickly where we can't just keep patching things. We've taken a lot of pounding these two years since we were taken by the Caretaker."

She let out another sigh before she nodded, "We'll look for a good spot for it, Lieutenant. Tom, how are we doing?"

He leaned back in his chair and shrugged, "We're smack dab in the middle of the rings around a proto gas giant. No way they'll be able to find us here unless they physically run into us. You could have half of Starfleet in-system and they wouldn't be able to find us. But we should get ready to run if they do spot us, we can't see them coming any more than they can see us."

"I have an idea about that," Harry Kim said, "We could launch some probes, spreading them out around our location. They shouldn't be able to spot them but it should also give us some advance warning if they start to get close."

Janeway nodded, "Good idea," she said and then looked across the table, "Dinah, how does our loss of a tube affect us?"

"It's not great, Captain," she said, her arms crossed, "It's a forward tube too which makes it even worse. I don't want to get in a fight with one tube down. The timetable to get that fixed was an entire week?" she asked, looking at my drone.

"Assuming everything goes well and nothing else comes up," I agreed, "And assuming nothing managed to hide from our diagnostic so far. And even then, it'll be a jury rigged mess. One hit might take it out."

Janeway nodded.

Quite frankly, it's a miracle we had not lost any more people to the Vidiians. They had dogged our heels for the last couple of months.

"I have an idea, Captain," I said, having Muninn turn to look at her, "If we get a couple of days, we may be able to reconfigure the shields to reduce our sensor signature."

"Like a cloaking device?" Dinah asked with a frown, glancing at Tuvok.

He shook her head, "Not necessarily, Lieutenant. I believe Lieutenant Zephyr is suggesting something more similar to a scattering field."

"Similar effect," I agreed, "It was Lieutenant Torres' idea. It will slightly reduce our shield's effectiveness of being a shield, but should make us more difficult to detect."

Janeway raised her eyebrows, "How much?"

"Approximately ten percent weaker, but will reduce our sensor signature by about twenty three percent according to the simulation with the modifications we can do quickly. The real issue is that we have to take down and reconfigure the entire shield grid. The procedure will take a couple of days at least."

Paris shook his head and then glanced out the window behind him, "I would not recommend hanging around here with no shields."

Outside the window, all that could be seen was red gasses and tumbling rocks.

Janeway nodded in agreement, "It's a good idea," she said and drummed her fingers on the table in thought, "But like Tom said, now is not a good time. Let's get out of here and then we'll find a nice quiet system to patch ourselves up in."

"You know," Dinah mused, "We're not that far from that system Zeph discovered. You know, the one the projections said that cube we found floating in space was from?"

We had discovered a giant glass cube about a year ago. It had been drifting through space for the better part of eighty seven million years.

The alien super computer in my brain thought it had originated from a system less than thirty lightyears from here.

I had Muninn look at her, "When that cube left that system, if the calculations are even correct, the dinosaurs would have something like twenty million years yet to chase what would evolve into the rat-like ancestors of humanity around. The odds of there being anything left but dust there is almost infinitely small."

"But we're not that far away," Dinah pointed out, "We might as well check it out, we need somewhere to lay low for a bit, might as well be there."

"With half a ship and down a torpedo tube? What if I'm wrong and there is someone hostile there?"

Dinah raised an eyebrow, "With almost ninety million years head start, I hardly think it matters if we're in a state of the art fully intact starship or a rowboat."

"That's a pretty good point," Chakotay commented, looking at Janeway, "What do you think, Captain?"

Janeway was silent for several seconds before she slowly nodded, "Good idea, Dinah," she said, "Tom, set us a course for when we leave the system. I want everything as repaired as possible before we leave."

I had Muninn nod, "We'll do our best, Captain."

With the meeting breaking up, I disconnected my visor from Muninn's view before I let out a sigh and looked out across engineering.

We still had a slight haze of slightly acrid smoke in the air, the air recyclers struggling to clean it out as everyone moved around with purpose.

Only part of B'Elanna I could detect was curses drifting out of the Jefferies tube to the right of me. Carey was down by the warp core.

Everyone else was equally busy.

Fix the ship.

Right.

We'll get right on that.

 

[Hiver]

Dinah dropped down across the table from me with a groan, putting her tray on the table. I glanced up from my PADD and my repair schedule,

"Tired?"

She smiled slightly, "Considering how much you're doing right now, I feel like I shouldn't complain. But yes."

"How're the Vidiians doing?"

Tuvok was back to chief of security and Dinah was the main tactical officer. She may be responsible for shooting things with the ship weapons, but she was also still a security officer.

When things calmed down outside, she joined in on coordinating hunting them down from the bridge.

Dinah sighed and rubbed her face, "Four died during the attack. Another five since. There's not really much we can do for them," she admitted, "We've confined them to hold four and are making them as comfortable as we can."

Boarding a ship is among the most dangerous things you can do. The defenders have home field advantage and boarding pods could be picked off on the way.

The Vidiians had a logic about it.

They used their terminal patients for it. The ones too far to be able to extend their lives with new organs. The ones that would soon die, but were still strong enough to hold a weapon.

To get the organs the rest of their people needed to stave off the phage.

I rumbled in a growl.

"Yes, yes, I know your view of pirates," Dinah sighed again and poked at her food, "but it's not quite the same."

"Indeed," I agreed, "Pirates will usually just kill you or sell you as a slave. They rarely want to disassemble you."

She nodded and speared a green thing on her fork. "Easy for us to judge. We're not the ones rotting while alive."

I snorted. "They have a choice. Face the end with dignity or this. They see their suffering and choose to spread it to as many people as they can to extend their lives."

"It's not just their death, it's their extinction."

"Hmm," I said and nodded, "Tell me this. Imagine a race that was getting their minds drained by an interdimensional phenomenon. Bit by bit they're dying. But they find out they can stave it off and even stop it, extending their lives indefinitely by inflicting as much suffering as possible on other thinking beings. Would you pity them as well?"

"That's stupid."

I chuckled, "Perhaps. But the situation is the same. The Vidiians are going extinct and they decided to make that everyone else's problem. Using the organs of other species is not a solution, all it does is slow the phage down. It's not even a cure."

Dinah poked at her salad, "Yeah."

"And in the meantime, the sector has to fend off the death throes of their race as they try to bring as many with them into death as they can," I snorted.

"We're not tossing them out the airlock."

I grumbled and went back to my PADD.

The Federation was too soft on pirates. Honestly, there were times I couldn't help but agree with the Klingons or even Romulans.

Don't see a lot of pirate activity in Romulan space.

"...How bad are things in engineering?"

I growled softly, "Well, not too bad. We're still flying half a ship."

"You're grumpy."

I glowered at her, "People keep shooting holes in my ship. The ship that I need to keep together for another sixty eight years. I think I'm entitled."

"Yeah, fair I guess. Warp drive back online?"

I nodded, "Warp drive is back online. We can run if we have to. We won't be able to work on the launcher until we can work outside however. We're working on everything else now."

Even the warp drive was not at a hundred percent. We can reach maximum warp if we need to, but I wouldn't push that for more than a couple of hours or so at most.

"When did you sleep last?"

"What day is it?"

Dinah shook her head, "Damn it, Zeph, we can't have you go into hibernation randomly."

I chuckled, "Just teasing, I make sure to get at least six hours a day," I said and shifted my wings a bit, curling my tail a bit, "But I have to admit, going into hibernation for a couple of days sound really nice right about now."

Dinah nodded in agreement, eating a tomato wedge. "Yeah, no kidding. When did we last have shore leave?"

I tilted my head in thought. "Toladi, wasn't it?" I mused.

"Oh yeah. That's…damn, that's almost six months ago."

"Just before we entered Vidiian space," I agreed, "That was a nice planet. I enjoyed that."

Dinah grinned, "You would have, they were just as much meat eaters as you are. Friendly too. They were even reptiles!"

"Hmm," I agreed, "Reptiles maybe, but bipeds. Didn't even have any wings."

They were also just as tiny as humans. It seemed like intelligent life had a standard range and my species, if I even had a species, was an extreme outlier in both aspects.

Dinah ate another forkful of green before slowly chewing, "...We need another break like that."

"Agreed. Hopefully we're out of Vidiian space soon," I said and shook my head, "Don't see it happening before then."

"I don't know about that," Dinah mused, "There have to be species here that have held their planets and systems. I know the Vidiians attacked and… harvested… some of them, but there has to be some that held out."

"Hopefully."

 

[Hiver]

I slowly blinked my eyes open.

The red light of the newborn system outside filtering in through the windows of my quarters, giving everything the glow of blood.

I glanced at one of the consoles. Four in the morning. I had been dreaming.

I had been flying beneath a golden sun. Over infinite expanses. Stars stretching out beneath my wings.

What am I doing awa-

Beep beep.

I grumbled and raised my head, "Zephyr here."

"Sorry to wake you, but we have a situation," B'Elanna Torres' voice said, "Can you come to the port nacelle?"

"On my way," I growled and pushed myself onto my paws.

It didn't take long for me to get to the room at the base of the nacelle. It wasn't very easy, it consisted of narrow hallways, but it was as close as I could get in person because the rest of the way was nothing but Jefferies tubes.

Torres was waiting by the fusion reactor, arms crossed.

"Shouldn't you also be sleeping?" I asked as I entered the small room.

"Had an idea," she said, "and it was a good thing I did." She pointed at the fusion reactor.

I turned my head to look at the fusion reactor.

It was a fusion reactor. Doing fusion reactor things. Diagnosis on the console by it looked fine.

I turned back to her, "Are you feeling okay?"

Torres pointed again and I moved over to peer into one of the open inspection hatches.

The plasma emergency overflow had a hole in it. A small crack, just a couple of millimeters across, was running along it.

I could actually see light coming through it.

Slowly pulling my head back out, I slowly blinked and nodded. "I see," I said.

If plasma load on the reactor went up, it could automatically vent through the overflow if the pressure went too high. Which would blow it straight onto the housing of the reactor.

Which would burn through it in about half a second, making the entire thing turn into its component subatomic particles and about half the secondary hull disappear.

"The sensors didn't catch it?" I asked, turning my head to look at her.

Torres shook her head, "Sensor reads as burned out, but it's a backup emergency system. It's about two thousand items down on the list to be fixed. I had an idea about how to increase fuel efficiency but I needed to check the actual hardware first. It was pure luck that I spotted it."

"Alright," I said, "We can't run it like that, take the reactor offline and we have to prioritize all systems that can blow us up, even secondary backup systems that can hide things that can blow us up if they hide a different issue."

She nodded, "Usual priority lists don't work out here," she agreed and walked over to the console to start to bring the reactor offline, "But until it's fixed we're down to one reactor for the impulse drive."

No redundancies.

I'm a Starfleet engineer, the thought of no redundancies makes my scales crawl.

"I know," I agreed, "Have you checked the other reactor?"

B'Elanna nodded and tapped away at the console, "First thing I did, it's in good condition. We really need to have some downtime to catch up."

"I know. I pushed for it during yesterday's meeting. But we don't exactly have a station waiting for us with a free drydock."

She nodded and turned around, leaning back against the console, crossing her arms, "Even in the Maquis we had bases. Places we could stop and do repairs. We can't keep going like this."

I bared my teeth slightly, "I know."

B'Elanna raised her hands, "Just saying."

I sighed and shook my head, "Not your fault, B'Elanna. I'm as frustrated as you are. We need a month at least to even catch up. The drones help, as does the former Maquis crew. But every time there is battle damage, we slip behind."

The drones, even as smart as I managed to get them, were only really useful for very routine tasks. They were still a force multiplier as one person could direct several of them through a more complex task which helped, but it just wasn't enough.

She nodded, "They're certainly helpful. Wish I had those in the past," she agreed before she shrugged, "We just need the downtime and we can get this ship looking factory new."

I chuckled, "That's a bit optimistic, I'll settle for not falling into pieces around us. Now go to bed, you have a duty shift in five hours."

"I really should-"

I fixed her with a glare, "I need you functional, we're behind as is. Sleep. Now."

Torres let out a sigh, "Alright," she agreed and pushed off from the console, "Good night, chief."

"Good night."

She moved past and I looked at the fusion reactor.

Lucky. Very lucky that Torres caught that one. But if we missed that one until now, that means we may have missed something equally as dangerous somewhere else.

Which means that we need to go through everything again and not just trust the sensors.

Everyone was so stressed and tired, just burned out that we had started to miss things.

And now we had to go over everything manually.

Which will play merry hell with our estimated time schedule because I didn't dare recommend we're ready to move from here until then. Because if we went into combat with that reactor in that condition…

Very possible boom.

 

[Hiver]

The ship exploded out from the dust cloud into empty space as beams of energy slashed through the proto planetary cloud.

We had less time than we expected.

Sometimes the enemy gets lucky too.

I dug my claws into the metal of the floor as the ship shook, the red alert alarm still blaring as I kept an eye on the warp core.

"Engineering, Janeway," the Captain said, opening a comlink, "Do we have warp?"

"This is Zephyr," I said, "We have warp. Punch it."

They did.

The warp core whined.

I never heard the warp core whine before. I really didn't like the fact that it made that sort of sound or any sort of sound other than a soft hum, I could feel it in my bones.

My eyes were glued to the readings in my visor and I carefully adjusted the field geometry, the pressure and temperature slowly getting more healthy as the sound started to die down.

Sucking in a slow and deep breath, I pushed myself up to sit, "Carey?"

"I'm on it, boss," he said from the console by the warp core, "Don't worry, she'll make it. Great work with killing that harmonic."

I glanced at the sensor readings.

We were at maximum warp, leaving the three Vidiian ships far behind. Their maximum speed was warp eight.

We could sprint to warp 9.975 for up to twelve hours. Well, we could when leaving the shipyard anyway. Now I really, really, really wouldn't like to hold that speed for more than six or seven at absolute best. But that should be enough time to get us out of their sensor range at least.

I shifted my tail slightly and there was a thump. I glanced back, "...Sorry Ensign."

Ensign Hunt climbed onto her feet, picking up her dropped PADD before rubbing her hip with one hand as she grinned, "Don't worry about it, sir. Should have known not to try for that shortcut by now."

"Still, I should be more careful," I said, "People are too squishy for me to be careless."

She smiled and waved it off before moving to climb to the second level. I flexed my claws a bit carefully against the floor.

I had been lucky. She could have just as easily been seriously hurt. I had to be more careful.

Control.

Always, always control. Always look, always careful. Always control.

People are too squishy for me not to be careful at all times.

A single careless motion could break someone's nose, snap a limb, a bone.

A neck.

I was too strong and too big to move carelessly.

I carefully shifted my wings and glanced at the sensors, at the Vidiian ships quickly falling behind. I slowly clicked a claw against the deck in thought.

We were some thirty days away from our destination. More than enough time for the Viidians to get the word out and have ships move to intercept if they had any close enough.

We weren't heading directly there, we were heading out on an english from our most direct course until we exited their sensor coverage, but there may still be ways for them to track us.

"Zephyr to Torres."

"Torres here."

I shifted position slightly, glancing to check it was clear before I coiled my tail slightly, "Lieutenant, do you happen to have any tools in your Maquis toolbox to disperse our ion trail? I have some ideas, but I figured you may have something ready already."

"I do have a few. What do you have in mind?"

"Something to throw the Vidiians off our trail by the time we change course towards our destination," I explained, "Sending them off on a wild goose chase would be preferable, but just wiping it out would be acceptable."

She didn't answer for several long moments before she sounded thoughtful, "...I have an idea, but I'm going to need to borrow Harry for it. Let me get back to you."

"You have five hours at most before we have to drop down to cruising speed."

"Got it, we're on it, Lieutenant," she said and closed the connection.

"Carey, how are we looking?" I asked, looking over at him.

He glanced up from the console for a second, "We're good, I think we will be able to keep her stable for six hours or so if we keep on top of it and nothing explodes."

I nodded, "Keep on it, Mister Carey," I told him and opened a channel, "Engineering to bridge."

"Bridge here," Janeway answered, "How're we looking, Lieutenant?"

"We're good for now, Captain," I said, "Nothing is currently on fire and we should be able to keep up maximum warp for another six hours or so maximum before we have to drop down to cruise. I talked with Torres about some Maquis tricks to get the Vidiians off our ion trail before we have to drop down to cruise to hide our course. She has some ideas and is working on it."

"She pulled Harry off the bridge for the project," Janeway agreed, "Keep on it, Lieutenant."

"No worries, Captain," I said, "We'll keep her together," and then closed the channel.

I hoped at least.

Glancing that I wouldn't squish someone, I waited for a crewman to walk past before I moved to clamber up to the second level to my usual resting spot to start going through the repair reports from last night shift.

 

[Hiver]

"Hey Zephyr. Want to join us?" Harry asked as I entered the lounge.

I looked over to where he and Paris were sitting, some sort of game on the table between them. Still not a huge fan of Paris, but we have gotten into a bit of a ceasefire during the two years we spent on the ship.

I still thought it was just a matter of time until he fucked up and got somebody killed, but so far he had not so I didn't bring it up.

"What are you playing?" I asked and moved over to their table before sitting down, curling my tail a bit to keep it more out of the way.

"Tellarite poker," Paris answered, "It involves dice so it's a bit more fair."

Paris was an augment. Well, not really. The term is genetically enhanced. Supposedly enhanced memory, reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

So far I had seen little difference between him and the other humans, but then again my perspective is a bit out of the normal.

Compared to myself, most humans were less than impressive. That was not a judgment of any sort, simply the truth.

"Me playing would be unfair," I said, "I have yet been able to keep augmented intelligence from automatically calculating odds. And I had difficulty not counting cards even before it. But I would like to observe for a while if you do not mind?"

Paris nodded, "Sounds good," and reached for the dice. "So what's the latest word on the Vidiians?"

"It seems like B'Elanna's and Harry's probe has worked," I said, giving Harry a nod, "We have yet to spot any on our track and none in our course."

Harry nodded and then frowned as Paris drew a couple of cards before putting some chits onto the table. "You're bluffing."

Paris smirked, "You keep thinking that."

Harry picked up the dice and rolled before drawing a card. They were d4 dice and it seemed like they were rolling for how many cards they had to draw and then rolling again on how many to discard.

"Any thought of what we'll find at our destination?" he then asked, looking at me, "You're the one that found the system."

I shook my head, "I think we'll find nothing but a star system of dead planets. Even if it was a civilization there once, it was close to ninety million years ago. The longest lasting civilization we know of is just an estimation because of the lack of remains, but the Iconian civilization was estimated to have lasted for approximately a hundred thousand years. Less than zero point zero zero one percent of that timeframe. If the calculations are right and that's the origin of that glass cube, they're long gone."

"But do you think it's your people?" Paris asked, "Your species?"

"No," I said and snorted, "While I think the computer in my head was likely constructed by my people, it's twenty million years newer than that cube was and almost two thousand lightyears away. By the time my people were still flying across plains hunting small fuzzy things before even evolving speech, that cube had already been on its way for close to twenty million years."

Harry nodded slowly, "Those kind of timeframes just boggle the mind," he said and tossed a couple of chits onto the table, "Hell, twenty million years ago humans still had forteen millions years or so to go before we diverged from our common ancestor with the chimp."

"When the cube left, the dinosaurs still had twenty million years left hunting your ancestors into small burrows," I agreed, "So no. I don't think we're going to find anything at all. But it's as good a destination as any and maybe if we're lucky we might find a habitable planet we can gather some supplies from."

Paris nodded, "Well, if they could launch that cube, they clearly made it through their environmental filter."

That was one of the great filters a civilization had to somehow navigate in their way to become a spacefaring civilization. How to get there without killing off their biosphere and themselves in the process.

"Not necessarily," Harry pointed out, "The odds are that the biosphere is still there, but… what's the statistics for warp capable species that killed their homeworld?"

"Seven point two percent," Paris and I said at the same time.

I glanced at him and then nodded, "The odds are a bit lower actually," I then added, "There are several instances where a species has lost their homeworld after they reached full spacefaring status due to a failed terraforming effort. I'm not an expert in the matter, but it's a real easy thing to mess up."

Paris nodded in agreement, "Yep. We're lucky with Earth to be honest that we had the Vulcans' support. Without their experience it could really easily gone real wrong real fast. Did you know we almost lost Australia twice?"

"Twice?" I asked. I only knew of one Australian ecological collapse.

Sometime during the twenty-seventies the population of rabbits and feral pigs reached a critical mass, they swept over the landscape like locusts and the local ecology just collapsed. They lost something like seventy percent of native species.

Paris nodded, "Early twenty third century. They were working on the restoration efforts. The last invasive cat had been exiled from the island and they were cloning koalas from genetic samples. Well, they messed up the balance somewhere and there was a cascade collapse across the entire continent. They had to basically start over from scratch."

"They got it right eventually," I said, "As far as I know, their ecosystem is stable now."

He nodded again and rolled his dice, "Yep. But terraforming is difficult," he said and exchanged some cards before looking at me. "But I bet we'll find at least a habitable planet."

"I bet we'll find something a lot more interesting. A society that had the resources to send something like that cube just for an art project or memorial has to have left some trace behind," Harry said, "Even if it's just something in solar orbit."

Paris smiled, "Wanna put your money where your mouth is?" he asked and then looked at me, "What about you, Zephyr?"

I chuckled, "This is one bet I will take," I said and considered it for a second, "What's the buy in?"

Paris crossed his arms, "Two hours of holodeck time?" he asked, looking between me and Harry.

"Alright," Harry agreed with a grin, "Two hours of holodeck time that we'll find ruins of whatever sent out that cube. If it's the right system."

Paris nodded and pulled out a PADD to note it down, "And my bet is that we won't find anything of the sort, but that we'll find a planet we can find supplies on. Zephyr?"

"A dead system, nothing but dust," I said, "Be it the right system or not."

"Side bet, right system or not?" Paris asked, eyebrows raised.

"Don't push it, Paris."

 

[Hiver]

For once I was on the bridge.

Because I wanted to see Paris and Harry find out they just gave me four hours of holodeck time. I already knew what to do with it.

I really needed some time off, I'm thinking of going flying, maybe somewhere exotic. Apparently Avatar was one of the electronic movies that had survived. Had'nt tried it yet, but going flying on Pandora would be awesome.

Three weeks.

It took three weeks to get here from where we slipped the Vidiians and I mostly had the ship holding together.

Mostly.

There were random glitches all through the ship still and the warp core was begging for a shutdown to be refurbished.

It wasn't just that it had been running for two years non-stop, they were made to be able to do that, especially Voyager. She was built for the kind of missions Starfleet used to do.

Five year missions.

But this had very much not been a standard deep space mission. For one thing, you could actually stop and take a couple of weeks to make repairs for that. Besides, for a standard long mission you didn't exactly spend years traveling. You went somewhere and then spent months floating around studying a planet or system or nebula or-

"What the hell."

Every single eye on the bridge turned to Harry Kim and he turned slightly red, "...Sorry, Captain. But you've got to see this," he said and tapped a couple buttons on his console, bringing it up on the main screen.

It was a diagram of the system we were just entering.

A star in the middle and six planets in orbit around it.

Correction. In One orbit around it. Six planets sharing a circumferentially equidistant orbit around the star.

"That's impossible," I said as I stared at the screen, "The orbital harmonics would never work, it'll eventually fall apart, and I'm talking quickly. Actually, that's never going to happen naturally."

Paris nodded, "Actually, I read about something similar," he said and glanced back towards the bridge, "Close to something called a Klemperer rosette but that's for alternating smaller and larger bodies. It works in theory, but not practice because the distance needs to be so exact that any random gravity wave breaks it. Never works with planetoids without stationkeeping. And these are all the same mass."

"Not planetoids," Harry said, "Full sized M class planets smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone."

"Any sign of technology in the system?" Janeway asked.

"Nothing I can detect, other than those planets," Harry answered, "No ships, no energy signatures. Actually, nothing else in the system other than those plants. No other planets, asteroids or other bodies detected."

"Alright," Janeway said and glanced at Chakotay before she stood up, "Open a channel."

"Channel open."

"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager, currently entering your system. We're peaceful explorers and mean no harm."

We waited.

"No answer, Captain," Harry said after several long moments.

"What do you think, Captain?" Chakotay asked.

"I think we'll go see if anyone is home," Janeway answered, "Mister Paris, put us in a standard orbit around the closest planet."

"Standard orbit, aye," he said and the ship stopped.

"Uhm, Captain," he said, tapping at his console, "We just dropped out of warp."

There had not even been a tremble, but he was right. My gravity sense could tell we were no longer at warp.

"Lieutenant?" Janeway said, glancing in my direction.

I was already on it, "...Nothing wrong with the warp drive, we just can't form a stable warp field. It's like something is flattening subspace in this entire area, keeping us from folding space."

Which was impossible, but so were the six planets in a single orbit, so what the hell do I know.

"Tom, bring us about," Janeway ordered, "Maximum impulse until we're back to where we dropped out of warp."

"On it."

I kept an eye on the sensors, "Harry, you seeing that?" I asked.

"I'm seeing it, " he agreed, "Captain, we're coming up on a… boundary? Subspace outside looks normal, but on this side it's strangely flattened like Lieutenant Zephyr said."

"It seems like the locals don't like people speeding," Paris said, glancing back at Janeway, "Impulse only."

"Tuvok, what are you thinking?" Janeway asked, glancing over at him, he was at the former science officer's station on the right of the bridge as Dinah was using the tactical officer's station.

"It seems to me, Captain, that they do not like visitors."

Chakotay shook his head, "Not necessarily," he pointed out, "It may simply be a defensive measure. Or even a side-effect of what's keeping those planets in orbit."

"I would like to point out," Dinah said, "That if we do go in and they turn out to be hostile, we won't be able to run. Those planets are five lightdays inside the limit."

I slowly clicked a claw against the floor in thought, looking at those planets on display on the main screen.

Trap?

Or opportunity?

"Captain," I mused, "This may be an opportunity."

"How come?" she asked, looking over to me at the left side of the bridge.

I shook my head, "Dinah's right, we won't be able to run quickly if a danger shows up, but neither will we be able to get jumped. We would be close to a week from any threat and even if I have the entire warp core disassembled on the floor of engineering I'd be able to put it together again in less time than that. And we are faster in sublight than the Vidiians. Putting us in orbit around one of those planets would make it possible for us to do much needed shutdown maintenance. Besides, as long as we keep low emissions, they shouldn't even see us without entering the system and giving us time to run."

Janeway looked thoughtful before she nodded firmly, "Mister Paris, bring us in."

 

[Hiver]

"Sublight travel sucks," Dinah commented and dropped onto the deck next to me, crossing her arms as she leaned her back against my side.

"Hmh," I snorted, looking out the forcefield of the hangar at the pinprick of stars.

It was the best way to view stars on board, no window and plenty of open space. I found it relaxing and tried to take breaks here when I could. I had spent most of the day doing project planning for when we arrive in orbit and can start taking things offline.

I want to spend as little time as possible as a sitting duck, so the more I could prepare, the better.

But now, I was mostly done for the day and could actually relax. And I liked looking at my stars.

The 'no fun allowed' zone extended five light days from the planet's orbit. At our impulse drive's maximum speed of about 0.8C, it would take us over 3.6 days to get there. At least the lack of space junk in the region allowed us to push it that high instead of crawling along at a quarter of lightspeed.

Well, for us anyway. For the rest of the universe it will take a bit over six days.

When not cheating with a warp drive the universe sucks, but it could suck a lot worse.

"So what do you think we'll find?"

"Two less hours of holodeck time," I grumbled and turned my head so I could see her.

Dinah frowned, "What?"

"Nothing. I don't know what we'll find, but I'm not sure anyone is home. Nobody responded to our hails and there has been no reaction to us entering the system. They've had plenty of time to do so, we send out a new one every couple of minutes and have been on our way for close to three days now."

Objectively anyway.

She nodded, "I guess. Any idea how somebody made anything like this yet?"

"None," I sighed, "There aren't really any theories about any of this stuff. Yes, nothing in the math says you can't flatten subspace, but that orbit of those planets is impossible. Gravity just doesn't work that way, that orbit is incredibly unstable. Something have to constantly adjust the orbits."

"Well, apparently there are people who don't care," Dinah commented and reached to poke the side of my head, "Anything from your alien computer?"

"Nope," I said, "Doesn't really work like that. I don't have enough to work on. Wish it did, because in theory if you can flatten subspace, you can also bend it a lot better than we can. Which would mean better engines."

Dinah nodded thoughtfully, "We should gather as much information as we can, maybe we can figure out how to improve our warp drive?"

I snorted and lifted my head to look at her eyes at the same level, "Who's this 'we', miss 'I shoot things'?"

"Ha, ha," she said and rolled her eyes, putting a hand on the tip of my snout to push me away.

I chuckled and then put my head back down on the deck. "My point is that I don't know if anything here will outright help us, but just having the time to put in some real maintenance time will be so, so useful."

"Uhm... speaking of which..."

I eyed her, "...What broke?"

Dinah sighed, "Nothing serious, but my sonic shower started to wail at me this morning and made my skin vibrate when I turned it on. Had to borrow my neighbor's instead."

"Sounds like it fell out of resonance," I mused, "A pretty easy fix. Did you report it?"

"Not yet, I figured it'd be close to the bottom of things to fix anyway," Dinah said and leaned against my side again, "I had planned to do it tonight. I'll just use one in one of the empty cabins until it can get fixed."

I chuckled, "About item three thousand or so on the list. How's our Vidiians doing?"

Dinah sighed and shook her head, "Lost another one this morning. Five left alive and only one of them is still conscious. There's nothing we can do for them."

Meanwhile they laid around and ate our food, breathed our air and were a drain on our resources. Used our medical supplies. After doing their best to capture our ships and steal our organs.

They should have gone out the airlock the second we captured them.

"...Actually, submit the error with the shower as soon as you can," I mused after a second, "That sort of error is at the level drones can handle, one of them will pick it up fairly soon."

"Alright."

I watched the stars for several long moments before she spoke up again,

"So what are you thinking of?"

I sighed, "The people that built this place. This entire thing is even more advanced than the dyson sphere in the alpha quadrant. At least that's a somewhat stable configuration or at the very least not actively unstable. This is absolutely not and the fact that they went with multiple worlds instead of something like a ring world is just plain showing off."

"You know," Dinah said, brushing her hair back with a frown, "Something just occurred to me."

"What?"

"Are we sure they're actually planets? And not massive stations?"

I considered that for a moment.

They absolutely could be. In fact, it would likely be way easier to do than hauling actual planets into place and keeping them there because if they were space stations instead of actual planets they would have internal power generation and engines for station keeping. And likely hollow so be way less heavy in the first place.

Besides, we had so far spotted absolutely nothing in the system that could generate the subspace flattening effect.

So if the machines for that were inside the worlds, or even more likely, were the worlds... that makes sense.

"You know," I mused, "You may be onto something there. That makes a lot more sense than hauling actual M class worlds into a single orbit at least. That was a good thought."

She shrugged, "Make sense to me, but then again... we don't have anything even close to the technology to build any of this. At the level of technology needed it might not even matter which they did, it's equally as easy."

"True," I answered and then looked at her, "So what are you up to?"

Dinah shrugged, "Tried to read a book, but this place makes me too tense to relax. So I went to see what you're up to."

"Hmmh," I said, "Bored then, I take it?"

"Yeeeep. And holodecks are all booked solid until our arrival."

"Make sense, people wanting to get some time in before we shut them down if we actually get time for the maintenance we need," I agreed, "Board games?" I then suggested.

"Sounds like a plan."

 

[Hiver]

I was back on the bridge when we slid into a standard orbit around what we had started to call planet A.

I was on the bridge because there was no way in hell I wanted to miss this.

"Standard orbit, Captain," Paris reported and glanced back.

"Harry, what are we getting from the surface?" Captain Janeway asked.

He tapped away on his console, "I have been running scans all the way into orbit, Captain," he answered, "It's an M class planet. No power sources, no signs of buildings. No ruins and no signals. Nothing to indicate it's anything but a fairly standard M class planet, if one with an uncommonly pleasant climate."

"Uncommonly pleasant?" Chakotay asked.

"The planet has a zero degree axial tilt," Harry explained, "No real seasons to talk of and a completely circular orbit around the host star at just the right distance. Most of the surface baring the poles seems to be sitting between twenty and twenty five degrees celsius. Middle of summer all year around, for the entire planet."

"Nice vacation place," Paris commented, "and absolutely not natural in any way.".

Janeway nodded, standing up and walking towards the center of the bridge, looking out over the world through the main viewer, "No signs at all of ruins? Inhabitants?"

"None, Captain," Harry answered, "From what I can see there is no trace of anything of the sort. Not even any fires that can't be explained by storms or volcanic activity."

"Does it have volcanic activity?" I asked.

"Several areas," he confirmed, "Sorry Dinah, that theory didn't work out."

"Eh, it just made more sense that they would be massive stations," Dinah answered with a shrug.

Janeway nodded to herself and then turned back towards us, "Alright. Nobody is complaining about us being here and no locals have been found. Let's get started."

"Actually Captain," Harry said, tapping on his console, "We may have to put that on hold. A Vidiian ship is just approaching the outer system. Just showed up on our sensors."

I felt a growl rumble through my chest, "Damn it, I thought we were finally rid of those guys!"

"Have they spotted us?" the Captain asked, turning towards him, "How far out?"

"They'll hit the area of no warp in about five minutes at this rate," he answered and then glanced up, "I'm not sure if they spotted us yet, we're in a pretty low emission mode."

"It is unlikely they have spotted us just yet," Tuvok said, "Their sensors are not as good as ours."

Janeway let out a small sigh and returned to sink into her seat, "Too good to be true I suppose," she said.

Chakotay nodded, "We should wait a while until they're into the speed limited field. If we don't, they might turn around and go back to warp to circle around ahead of us."

"Good point," she said and, "Harry, keep an eye on them, but we're staying here for the moment. Let's wait until they're committed."

"Should wait a couple of days then then," Paris commented, "Give them a day or two to really get into the field. We're faster than they are in the first place."

I nodded, "I agreed," I said and then tilted my head, "On the other claw… that's only one Vidiian ship," I said and bared my teeth, "We could very easily blow them out of space. And then just stay here. We just need to find a way to jam their com system."

I brought the sensor view up on my visor, eyeing the ship.

I wish they'd all just die already, go extinct with some damn self respect!

Janeway slowly drummed her fingers on the armrest of the chair, "Alright, Harry ke-"

"Holy shit!" Kim exclaimed and I felt my own jaw drop.

I couldn't have agreed more.

A beam of plasma appeared in space, all the way from the star to intersect the Vidiian ship the second it hit the area of compressed subspace.

It wasn't a beam of a phaser or a plasma weapon, it was like a spear of solar plasma five light days long had just appeared in space, crossing the distance instantaneously from the star to the Vidiian ship, not just destroying it but outright erasing it from existence.

Dinah muttered an awed curse.

"Report!" Janeway snapped.

"Captain," Dinah said, "I think the star just shot the Vidiians out of space with some sort of energy weapon."

"Not just an energy weapon," I said quietly, flicking through the sensor readings, "That was an FTL energy weapon. I think it worked by bending subspace similar to a warp field to project part of the star's core into a corridor across space, almost instantly. Like the mother of all solar flares. Times about a thousand and then focused."

"That's what it looked like alright," Dinah commented, tapping on her console, "What do you think, Commander?" she asked and looked towards Tuvok.

He nodded and looked at her. "It seems consistent with that analysis, lieutenant," he agreed.

Janeway took a deep breath, "It seems like there are some people at home after all. Perhaps we should leave."

"I don't know," Chakotay said slowly, looking at her, "They didn't fire on us."

"But we don't know what the Vidiians did to piss them off," Paris said, "For all we know, us leaving may what tick them off with us."

"Maybe they don't like Vidiians?" I commented.

Seriously, who does.

"We still have two living Vidiians onboard," Dinah commented, "Unlikely that's it."

Technically living maybe.

I slowly clicked a claw on the floor, my tail slowly shifting as I looked out over the horizon, "I think that if whoever controls this system minded that we're here we would know it right now because we would already be subatomic particles spread across half the sector."

"That's a good point," Dinah pointed out, "We've been a sitting duck for close to three days on our way in."

"Six, don't forget time dilation on our side," I told her.

"I hate relativistic math," she muttered.

"In fact," I continued, "Captain, I think we should send out a transmission and ask for permission to land to conduct repairs and gather supplies."

Paris turned towards me, "That might be pushing it."

"I agree," Janeway said, "We're already on very thin ice right now."

Chakotay looked at the main viewer before he turned to her, "Wouldn't hurt to ask. Surely they have a less energetic way to say no than blowing us out of space."

Janeway was silent for a long time before she looked at me, "How much would it help?"

"A lot," I said and shook my head, "Having a solid surface to base our repairs from would let us do a lot more than floating here, even more so if we can gather raw materials. We should be able to get the ship back up to close to a hundred percent rather than falling to pieces around us. Actually, just getting people off the ship so we can work would help so much."

She looked thoughtful for several long moments before she stood up, "Alright," she said, "Harry, record this."

"Recording, Captain."

"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. We would like to land on the planet we are currently orbiting to conduct repairs of our ship and gather supplies before continuing on our way. If you have any objections to any part of that, please let us know in any way. Send us any sort of signal and we'll stay where we are and do what repairs we can with what supplies we have. We will wait for your reply for one rotation of the planet we are orbiting before taking any action."

She then nodded to Harry, "Send that out on every subspace channel as well as any other way you can think of, radio, smoke signals, messenger pigeon. Flags out the airlock, whatever it takes to get it to the locals."

"Yes, Captain. I'm on it."

 

[Hiver]

"Mister Kim, any signals? Any at all?" Janeway asked as she looked over towards his station.

I was not on the bridge this time, I had actual work to do and couldn't just hang around. So I had put Muninn there for me to remote into.

"Nothing. Captain," Harry answered, shaking his head, "We tried transmitting the message in every way we could think of. B'Elanna even thought to encode it into gravity pulses with the main deflector dish. We got nothing in response."

Paris glanced back towards them, "If they're this advanced, even if they use something else to communicate between themselves, they should be able to figure out what we're listening on."

"Agreed," Janeway said with a nod before she walked over to sink into the captain's chair, "our deadline is up."

"We located a good landing spot on the western continent," Chakotay told her, "A solid rocky area close to a lot of potential resources. Should be able to hold our weight easily enough."

"Zephyr, we're ready for landing?" she asked, looking towards Muninn.

I had the drone nod as I answered, "As ready as we're going to be, Captain."

Janeway nodded, "Very well. Mister Paris, bring us down. Gently, in case they warn us off."

"Understood," he said and turned back forward, "gently as she goes."

I cleared my visor and then stood up, looking down across engineering and raised my voice, "Attention, we are undergoing a full landing sequence. Brace for turbulence."

"All ready for landing," Carey said, looking up from his console as everyone got to work, "Hunt, landing gear?"

"All green, sir," she answered him, "It's probably the most reliable system we have right now, we've never used it before. It's never taken any damage. It test-deployed smoothly this morning."

"Excellent news," I said, "I do not want to explain to Captain Janeway why the ship fell over when we tried to set down."

The deck trembled slightly beneath my paws.

I brought up the sensors in my visor. Twenty kilometers above the surface.

Shifting my position slightly, I spread my paws for more balance as the ship trembled slightly again. Paris was bringing us down slowly, keeping things below the speed of sound.

We do not want the people in this system pissed at us, so we're going to be good guests.

Besides, this thing was not really made to fly in-atmosphere. The Intrepid class may be capable of planetary landings, but that didn't mean they were meant to spend a lot of time there.

"Two kilometer warning," I said, keeping an eye on the stress on the hull, "Bring the artificial gravity offline!"

A minute later Janeway's voice came on the shipwide com, "All hands, this is the Captain. Brace for landing."

"Two hundred meter warning," I said, "Brace for landing. Torres, keep an eye on that warp core!"

"Fifty meters! Twenty!" I warned, "Brace! Brace! Brace!"

The ship shuddered, there was a groaning sound that made me bare my teeth and then the deck shifted slightly beneath us before seeming to settle.

"Hunt?" I asked.

"Gear is holding solid, ground is solid. We're good, Boss!" she yelled back.

"Excellent, good work," I said, "Torres, bring the core down."

"Understood," Torres answered from somewhere beneath where I couldn't see her, "Bringing the warp core offline."

The sound of the soft humming that always filled engineering faded down to nothing and everyone slowly went quiet, looking at the now grey and dark warp core.

There was just something outright wrong with having an offline warp core. It's like the heart of the ship having stopped beating.

"Alright everyone," I said after a couple of seconds, "I know it's creepy, back to work."

I got a ping from Muninn and I reconnected in my visor, "Yes, Captain," I answered after a second of reviewing the transcription of the last couple of seconds, "I'm here;" and directed the drone to follow everyone into the meeting room, getting my first look at the planet outside through the windows.

Rocky ground for a couple of hundred meters mixed with grass and then a forest of tall trees. The skies were blue with wisps of white clouds.

"Alright," Janeway said as everyone had gotten seated, "Well done, Mister Paris. It seems like our hosts didn't mind us landing, so we're going to have to presume they won't mind the rest we transmitted either."

Chakotay nodded, "We should do a complete planetary survey while we're here." he said, "We should be able to locate anything we might need in the process. Maybe even send shuttles to the other planets in the system."

"It would be safer not to send shuttles to the other planets," Tuvok pointed out, "We apparently have permission here, there is nothing that indicates we have permission to visit the other worlds."

"Commander Tuvok has a good point," I agreed, "We should probably not push it. Our hosts are being quite accommodating as is."

"Agreed," Janeway said, "All shuttle flights are to keep inside the atmosphere. If there are no complications, we'll do a circle around the system and run scans on the way back out. Lieutenant, how long would repairs take?"

I had Muninn shake it's head, "I am not completely sure, Captain," I admitted, "If we want to get as close to a hundred percent as possible, we're looking at at least a month, minimum, possibly more if we find something we don't know about yet. We have taken a lot of punishment these last two years."

"Understood," she said and sat down, "The entire crew will be at your disposal."

"Not sure how much help some will be," I admitted, "We have drones for heavy lifting. Plenty of crew available for your survey and security of the camp."

One of her eyebrows raised, "The camp?"

"Yes, everyone needs to get off. Life support has to be turned off when we work with it anyway and not needing to work around people living onboard will greatly cut how much time this will take," I explained, "I tried to get it done anyway, but any other project schedule just doesn't work out to less than three months."

She threw her hands up a bit with a sigh, relaxing back in her chair, "I suppose we're going to be roughing it for a bit. Tuvok, we're going to need a secure perimeter."

"Yes, Captain," he agreed, "We'll erect a perimeter fence around the landing site."

Dinah nodded, "Agreed, Commander," she said, "We might not have spotted any dangerous creatures so far, but best be safe."

"Having the camp next to the ship may be the most practical," Chakotay said, "But it might not be the best place. Before we commit, we should survey the area."

I had Muninn nod, "You know, that's a good point," I agreed, "For all we know this area is infested with the local version of fire ants. Might as well find that out before going through the effort of setting things up."

Janeway nodded, "Agreed. Harry, put together a couple of teams and run a full survey of everything in a hundred kilometers. Needing to ferry crew back and forth with the shuttles would be inconvenient, but could be better than the alternative."

Time to get to work.

First of all, I need to redo all my project plans.

Joy.