by Melanie
"Sending down the last of them now, E'Arte."
"Excellent." He looked appreciatively his new ship. "I'Nu oversee the deployment. I'll be on the Bridge." Not waiting for a response, he headed for the door, only to bounce off a forcefield that had been erected over it.
I'Nu rushed over to help his superior back to his feet.
"What happened?!" the leader barked, shaking off the assisting hands.
"Some sort of electrical field?" C'Nar wondered staring at the doorway. "I'Nu go touch it."
The clerk shot him a glance that said: "*You* go touch it!"
"Do it," E'Arte ordered.
Swallowing, I'Nu moved towards it until he was an arm's length from it and timidly reached out an index finger towards the door. He gasped loudly and screeched as the shock bit him and he jerked backwards.
The glare E'Arte sent C'Nar left no room for error in translation. "Get rid of it, immediately," was fully understood.
-------
"Lieutenant, try to calm down."
B'Elanna Torres hated being made a fool of only slightly less than she did being confined so Nozawa's suggestion from the cell across the corridor hardly found her in the calmest of moods. She halted her pacing of her two meter wide by three meter deep cell and whirled around to growl at him through the thick metal bars that were her door.
"If you tell me that one more time, Nozawa, I'll-"
"That's enough," Chakotay barked from a few cells down. "Now everyone keep calm. Anyone who's hurt speak up."
No one did.
"Good, now let's do a head count and see if anyone's missing."
It took a while to get the logistics of such a seemingly simple operation figured out, but at last they did. It was at hearing the last person shout out their number that they realized their counting off was five short.
'Tom, Seven, and Neelix are off with Sunfire,' Chakotay thought, 'so whose voices didn't I hear?'
A sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach answered him.
The Captain and Doctor were the only two voices who had not been heard.
-------
"What do you mean you're locked out?!" E'Arte yelled at C'Nar.
"Exactly what I said." He gestured to the Transporter console. "I'm locked out. Nothing responds to commands." To demonstrate, he pressed, at random, any buttons not used in connection with the transporters with no fear of anything horrendous or even mildly interesting happening. "The only thing I can access on the entire ship is this transporter."
"How is that possible?"
"There are plenty of explanations. Someone may have realized something strange was happening and ordered it. Maybe it was an automatic thing. If the entire crew is off of the ship at the same time, this kicks in to defend the ship from being seized. I don't know. And without a working terminal, the computer technicians won't be able to try to supersede the command codes to give us access."
"So you're telling me this is nothing more than a huge, flying... sculpture?!"
"Essentially, yes."
"But the transporter still works!"
"Yes."
"Can't you just beam us passed that?" He gestured towards the forcefield over the doorway.
He tried with I'Nu. The Gherop's form shimmered in the transporter beam for a couple of seconds then rematerialized in precisely the same spot where he had been before.
"We can only beam down or up, no sideways or whatever other direction you want to go."
E'Arte looked like he wanted to kill someone and both Gherop fervently hoped it was neither of them. "I can return to the surface without fearing for my safety?" he growled.
"Yes, I believe so."
This was not the resounding vote of confidence he was hoping for. This simple plan of his certainly was not working out the way he had expected. "You stay and work on this problem. I'Nu and I are going to the surface. I'll just have to convince them to tell us how counteract this."
"I doubt they'll do it willingly."
"No, but if they won't, I know someone who might."
-------
"Harry?" Nru rushed into Harry's temporary quarters without knocking. "Harry, get up."
Even thought his internal clock would have woken him long ago were he on Voyager, Harry still was in bed asleep. The night before had not been easy on him. He had spent a great deal of time worrying about how badly the Captain was going to punish him for breaking orders. *If* he did not die of course. Then, as happened with most creatures who were confronted with evidence of their own mortality, he had begun to regret all of his past mistakes and had spent a long time dwelling on his recent behavior, especially
towards Tom Paris. By the hours of the morning, a lot of things had been put in perspective. He was willing to concede the possibility B'Elanna was right and he had been a little harsh on his friend. When he finally fell asleep, he decided to speak to Tom as soon as Sunfire arrived at Rachar, whether that communication put the P'Chi base at risk of being compromised or not. He did not want to die hating the man he loved almost as much as his parents.
"Harry!"
"What?" Harry squinted in the harsh glare from the overhead light she had flicked on as she entered his bedroom. "What is it?"
"You must get up."
"You've contacted Voyager?"
"We found out some disturbing news before we could. Get up and I'll tell you."
Three minutes later, he joined her in the dining area the four of them shared while in quarantine. Ksu and Plwa already were seated at the table, the remains of lunch on plates before them.
"What is it?" Harry asked Nru, taking his seat as she did hers.
"Word just came from one of our spies inside the Verta." She laid a hand over his. "They've taken Voyager."
"Who has? The Verta? How? I thought they were too small and ill equipped to do anything other than the occasional bombing or shooting. Taking Voyager would be a huge undertaking. How-"
"Details are still sketchy, but the as far as we can tell, some of your crew came down here to search for you. There was an altercation between one of them and two Rachar. It's not known what was said, but it must have been something horrible because she took offence and a brawl broke out."
"*She* took offence?" One name instantly came to his mind. B'Elanna. "So this brawl broke out. Then what?"
"Since it involved one of your crewmembers and two of our people and at the time E'Arte and his clerk were on your ship, they beamed the three of them up to Voyager. Your Captain and E'Arte were about to sort out the mess when the Verta hit another hospital. E'Arte and I'Nu beamed down here and the Rachar were to be held on Voyager for the time being. The two of them took over Voyager at some point after that. No one knows how."
"It just goes to show you how disorganized the Verta are," Ksu sighed shaking his head. "The ones on Voyager had E'Arte and I'Nu within their reach. But thanks to another faction, they lost them."
"Thankfully," Nru interjected deep purple eyes shifting to him. "If the Verta factions ever truly become organized, we're in for trouble." She looked awkwardly at Harry. "To be frank, we downplayed their threat. We spend so long doing that for the sake of the populace that we're starting to find it a second nature. The truth is, we're barely holding our own against them."
Harry blinked, stunned.
"There are at least a half a dozen different groups calling themselves Verta. None of them ever seem to communicate with one another or if they do you wouldn't know it from the way they appear to work at cross-purposes. This is a classic example. Doubtless, they would have hoped to capture E'Arte as well as your ship only thanks to another group's act, they didn't. But do not misunderstand me, with one of the factions in control of your ship the others will hear about it and propose an alliance between the factions. If the Verta become united, we will have trouble."
"How can you be certain they are even in control?"
"Your Captain was able to send a brief message to E'Arte, telling him what happened. She was cut of
f before she could say much more than the two Rachar prisoners had seized control. No explanation of how or anything."
"What about my crewmates on the surface? The ones who were searching for me? Did they beam up with those involved in the altercation?"
"We don't know. If they too are missing, we won't know until Voyager's been liberated. We don't have spies inside all of the factions yet, unfortunately, so we can't know everything they're up to. Our informants are keeping their eyes and ears open. That's all we can do."
She ran her hands over her arms in what he now knew was the Rachar equivalent of a human rubbing his or her face or the back of his or her neck. "There'll be a panic once our citizens know the Verta has Voyager." She shook her head. "I don't even want to think about it."
"My shipmates won't sit still for this, you know. They'll be trying to retake Voyager."
"Is there anyway you can help them? I know on our own ships there is a way to remotely access its functions in case of emergency. Did your ship's designers include anything similar?"
He nodded. "Yes, but I'll need a computer and a communications link."
Ksu frowned. "That could be dangerous. The Verta may trace it back to here."
"We'll have to risk it," Nru insisted. "We could be infectious. It is too risky to let us leave quarantine until the doctors are sure we're safe. And it would take too long for him to teach anyone else to do what has to be done." She nodded to Harry. "We'll get you what you need just give us a list."
-------
E'Arte and I'Nu materialized inside an office, startling the Gherop who was reading a report. He leapt to attention.
"E'Arte," he saluted. "All's ready. The troops have been placed on alert all over Rachar, ready to-"
"There's been a delay, D'Ere. I'Nu, you have your orders. Contact me the minute it is met with success."
The clerk nodded and left the office.
He turned back to D'Ere. "Take me to her."
The officer led him out of the office and into a lift at the end of the corridor.
"Any trouble with the others?"
"Just the usual attempts to escape their cells. Nothing we could not handle."
"Good. What about her?"
"There was a little trouble. She awoke as we were about to toss her into the cell you designated hers. But we managed to subdue her."
They stepped out into a damp and dimly lit corridor many levels beneath the one they had left. The sound of their footsteps echoed throughout the stone tunnel for which many Rachar slaves had lost their lives in drilling then clearing away the resulting debris. But it had been more than worth it in the Gherop's opinion. This subterranean stronghold and prison was the envy of any in all of the Empire. No one had ever escaped from it. Even more prestigious was the success rate at breaking prisoners. Only one had not broken. She had died first. He was sure their newest inmate, being the pampered soul she was, would not be any different than the others. In fact, she might break all the records and break faster than anyone.
"Open it up," he commanded the two guards flanking the door to a particular cell.
One of the pair inserted a key into a slot in the wall next to the doors, releasing the lock. The other grasped the handle of the heavy door and dragged it slowly open.
The cell beyond was in darkness. A scurrying of insects could be heard along with faint breathing. Holding his hand out for a light, E'Arte received one from one of the guards and stepped into the cell to have a little chat with Captain Kathryn Janeway.
-------
At Seven's tap on his shoulder, Tom shut off the piece of equipment he was using and removed his ear protection as she removed hers.
"Sunfire wishes to speak to you."
"Sunfire, go ahead," he called to the ceiling of the cargo hold.
"Gherop passed through here recently," the ship told him.
"How recently?"
"A few days at most."
"Great," he grimaced. "How far are we from the rendezvous point?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Let's get this mess cleaned up then."
The former Borg looked him up and down. "You are exhausted and are a quite dirty, Lieutenant. You should go shower and change."
Tom was about to thank her for the "compliment" when Neelix, having heard her comment, changed his course to rush over and fuss too. "Yes, Tom. A good shower would perk you up. We can take care of this."
Tom shook his head. "No, I-"
"Oh, no you don't," Sunfire argued before he could.
Much to the surprise of the others and his own consternation, Sunfire beamed him out of the hold and into his quarters where she kept him locked in until he finally conceded and stood naked beneath a warm water shower for a while. A blast of cold water woke him minutes later.
"Hey!"
"Sorry," she told him, "but you can sleep later."
Grumbling about first being told to sleep and now been told not to, he dried himself off and dressed in his newly cleaned clothes. By the time he had reached the Bridge, Neelix and Seven already were there. Judging by their immaculate faces and clothing, either Sunfire had used similar tactics with them to get them to wash up or cleaning up the hold had not been as big a job as he had thought.
"Feeling better, Lieutenant?" Seven enquired, trying to use her people skills.
Distractedly, he gave her a brief nod.
Neelix sighed at the sight of Voyager. "I bet they are going to be happy to see us." He looked at Tom who was frowning at the main viewer. "The first thing we have to do is have the Doctor take a look at your injuries, Tom." He whirled around to look at Seven. "Not that I don't think you did a good job, Seven."
"No offence taken, Mr. Neelix," she informed him.
"Good." He turned back to Tom who still was frowning at Voyager. "Tom, what is it?"
"I don't know," he mumbled. "The ship.... The orbit's not quite...." His eyes widened. "Sunfire, check the orbit."
"The orbit's decaying. Whoever's at the Helm clearly isn't paying attention," the ship disapproved.
"Backdoor program. Find out who's at the Helm."
Seven moved to stand beside him. "None of the pilots on Voyager are inept enough to not notice Voyager's orbit is decaying."
"Exactly."
Neelix blinked. "You don't think...."
"I don't know. There might just be some problem with the navigational controls again. But if it isn't-"
"There's no one at the Helm," Sunfire confirmed. She tapped into the internal sensors and showed them a view of Voyager's empty Bridge. "All ship's systems are locked down. And it gets worse."
"How worse?"
"The entire crew is gone and there's an alien in Transporter Room One. The good news is he's trapped in there. Someone's put a Level 10 forcefield over the door."
The screen changed to show a grey-skinned alien in an ugly mood. He was glaring at his practically useless console and arguing with himself about the logic of abandoning ship before some security program took offence at his presence and blasted him and how nice it was of E'Arte and I'Nu to leave him there all alone.
"Ever seen one of them before, Seven?"
"No, Lieutenant. As of the time I left them, The Borg had never assimilated any of his species." She consulted the scans of the planet she was doing at the Ops station. "Nor members of the other species on the planet either. I am unable to provide any information about them."
"There are two species on this planet."
"Yes."
"Just two."
"Yes."
There were many planets in the Alpha Quadrant with two dominant species occupying them so why was his sixth sense was pricking at him to warn him something was amiss about this one? Shaking his head, he discounted it and returned to the subject of the empty Voyager was not right about this
"Sunfire, to be safe, encrypt Voyager's systems further. Use the Delta 19 encryption. Even if they make it through the locks, the encryption will keep them busy for quite a while. It
's impossible to crack without the right key," he said to the others.
"There are traces of transporter signals all over the ship," Seven informed him.
"See if they got the Doctor, too," Tom asked, knowing it was a long shot.
It paid off.
"His program and mobile emitter still are in Sickbay."
"What about us?" Neelix interrupted worriedly. "Won't Voyager see us?"
"Calm down, Neelix," Tom soothed. "I patched up the cloak. Neither Voyager nor any sensors from the surface can see us."
"But a patch is not-"
"When we have Voyager back, I'll have Engineering replicate the new relay. I couldn't justify using that much energy when we might need all we've got if we had to fight someone again. The patch will hold for a while yet. Now I'll be back in a minute."
"Back?"
"I'm going to get the Doc. Sunfire, beam me to Voyager's Sickbay."
-------
In the relative safety of a Sickbay, the EMH had watched the invader with consternation. Less than pleased with what he was hearing and seeing, he now wished he had rethought leaving them able to beam off of and on to the ship. By the time he had discovered Commander Chakotay was not ignoring him but actually had disappeared from the Bridge, it was too late to save the crew. All of them had been beamed down to the surface then moved from the beam down point to somewhere the sensors could not penetrate and the three in the Transporter Room were talking about beaming their own kind up. He had been left with no choice but to seal them inside the room and restrict their access to the ship's systems in the hopes they would reveal their plans for Voyager. As expected, they had bemoaned their lack of access, but had not revealed their plans or the crew's new location.
He too was frustrated, especially when the two had left. If he had been smart, he would have killed all of their access to the transporters. His idea had been so logical Tuvok and Vorik would have been proud. When they could not use Voyager as they wanted to, he had expected they would bring up some of the crew to undo what he had done. From there it would be a simple matter of knocking out the aliens and he and whomever they brought up could regain the ship and rescue the rest of the crew. He had not considered for a moment they would actually *leave* Voyager to "talk" to the crew instead of bringing them up. That error may have cost him the crew's lives.