I looked out the window. The station was clearly visible a couple of kilometers away from the ship.
"It seems like this was not the spot," I finally said, turning my head back to Janeway.
"At least not yet," she said, standing next to me in the mess hall, looking out the window. Once again, it was ship's night, close to one in the morning.
But apparently she had to make sure she didn't get too much blood in her caffeine stream or she'll revert to human form from coffee elemental.
"Hmm," I agreed, "If I were them, this is where I would do it. The place is not heavily defended and plenty of traffic to blend in with for a surprise attack."
Janeway sighed softly, "I had hoped you were wrong."
I looked at her in surprise, "How come?"
"Because I thought that Chakotay was to be trusted."
I considered that for a long moment and then shook my head, "Not sure about trust, but even if he's not, I'm fairly sure he's smart enough to know that working with the Kazon is idiotic. Even if they win, they won't let him have the ship."
Janeway turned to me, leaning a hip against the table, "I'd think that anyone would be smart enough to figure that much out. So what's the motive?"
She had a point.
It was the only thing that made sense, but what was the motive? Not like they could have the Kazon take Voyager and then sneak off with it while they were squabbling about who would keep it.
Hell, even if they did, and had the entire Maquis crew to help, they couldn't run a ship this size.
We're on a skeleton crew as is, that's why I'm working on the drones!
"I don't know," I admitted after a long moment, looking at her, "You have an idea, Captain?"
Janeway sighed, "I've been thinking about what the motive might be. I have come up with two."
"Which is?"
"Somebody that's given up on trying to get back home," she said and sipped her coffee, "Either because they don't want to or because they don't think they will survive getting there and don't want to live their lives on a cramped raider. So they're using this to buy standing and status among the Kazon."
I slowly nodded, "That... almost makes sense, but the Kazon would never honor anything like that."
"There is also the second factor. Either alone, or combined with the first," Janeway said with a small dry smile, "Revenge against me for stranding them here."
"That works as a motive," I agreed and then tilted my head, "and in case you wonder, Captain, I do not blame you for ordering the array destroyed. It was an urgent and dangerous situation. The Kazon could not be allowed to gain access to that kind of technology."
She just nodded slightly, looking at the station in the distance.
"Nor do I think anyone in the crew are," I continued seriously, "There is regret they won't see their families for a while, but this is why we're out here in the first place. To explore the unknown. And it does not get much more unknown than this."
"That is one way to look at it," Janeway admitted, "Thank you."
"Of course, if we'd been in... say Andromeda instead of just across the galaxy, people may have been a bit more miffed," I then mused, "We actually have a chance to get back from here, assuming I can hold this tub together."
She nodded, "How's things going with the drone project?"
"Progressing, but I had to go back to the drawing board when it comes to the programming to add a more distributed architecture. The Managing programming didn't work out, too many variables. So I'm having the drones offload the difficult parts of the thinking on the ship's bio-neural backed computer. It's not ideal and has issues of its own, especially during emergencies, but it'll work for now."
"Any timeframe?"
I shifted my wings in a slight shrug, "Having the computer doing tests on the code as we speak. Assuming it'll work out, I plan to flash the new OS on one of the test units tomorrow. A couple of weeks of testing and if it works, we can deploy them as quickly as we can build them."
"That's great news."
"If it works," I cautioned her, "Captain, this is quite a departure from my normal design and a big leap from one that's being tested back home. There are a lot of things that can go wrong."
Janeway nodded, "I understand. But even if they could take over the most menial tasks, that will save our people a lot of manhours."
"Indeed," I agreed, "I also plan to do some special units. Dumb as the current model, but tougher, larger, armored and for away missions. I'm thinking of one assigned to each person on the away mission. Carry equipment, lift heavy things, get in the way of phaser fire, that sort of thing. Let us not only enhance our people, but preserve them as well as we can."
She smiled, "I like it. Get me the proposal as soon as you have a design ready."
"Will do in my copious amount of free time, sir."
Janeway regarded me, "You do realize that preserving the crew includes yourself? I can't have my chief engineer burning out."
I snorted in annoyance, "And our alternative is what at the moment?"
"Just try to take some time to disconnect sometimes," She said and then sipped her coffee, "I'll make it an order if I have to. We're going to be traveling for decades, I need you functioning."
I took a breath and glanced towards the station and then back to her, nodding, "I will, Captain. It will get better once we start getting to a critical number of drones, unloading my people. That'll ripple upwards, freeing everyone up. And taking that project off my plate as well."
"Any other ideas?"
"Millions," I said and bared my teeth slightly, "Very few practical. And sadly none that actually shorten our trip... well, for the rest of the galaxy anyway."
"Oh?"
I nodded, "Had a vague idea about time dilation. Reconfigure the warpdrive to power a shield before the ship and then soup up the impulse engines and turn the ship into a light hugger. We'll be home in a couple of years, subjective."
Janeway frowned, "You could do that?"
"In theory I think I can get the ship reconfigured into being able to pull something like it," I said and shrugged my wings, "Only problem is that it's subjective time. By the time we reached where we were going, seventy thousand years would have passed. It would be a bit of a moot point in going by then, it wouldn't be home anymore. Might as well set up a colony here if we're considering that. Would be safer and have the same effect."
"Not much point," Janeway admitted, "I had not even considered that idea."
"Nope," I agreed and then tilted my head, "...I actually looked it up in the database, did you know that Starfleet actually has two lighthuggers in operation?"
She looked at me in surprise, "We do?"
"Yep. On a five hundred year round trip, left a hundred years ago," I said, "USS Hope and USS Panacea. Both crewed completely by people suffering of Derugi Blood Plague. Built and launched in hope that by the time they return, there would be a cure. Subjective, their trip will take about a year."
"We know where they are?"
I nodded, "Starfleet have them on track. We don't have a cure yet, but we know where they are so when we do, we can signal them to slow down early."
"I wonder why they chose that instead of cryostasis."
"Maybe because they wanted to see what was happening and not just trust themselves to some vault somewhere," I said and then mimicked a shrug with my wings, "I should get some sleep. Good night, Captain."
"Good night, Lieutenant."
