Time Flies at the Speed of Light

Sadly, the 'Night' episode reared its ugly head, and it was even more boring than I thought possible. There was literally nothing to do aside from basic repairs to the ship. There was nothing on sensors other than minor theta radiation and looking outside was just blackness. Both holo-decks were in constant use, and we had already converted Deck Fourteen, where the hibernation pods had been, into a third. Leveraging the fact that Voyager could not replenish their fuel while out here, I had secured my group access to Holo-Deck Two for an hour every day in return for several generators that ran off of mana crystals which converted into an energy source that Voyager could use; a bit greedy, I know, but Echo and L'Naan would be insufferable if they were not able to take advantage of the Time-bending properties and specialized trainers.

Things had been playing out as the episode set up, except that I had not allowed Janeway to retreat into her quarters. The benefit of being a captain, as well as having the ability to fight the ship on my own, meant that even when she called Security to remove me from her quarters, after I teleported inside, no one was willing to force me out. I even gave up the majority of my holodeck time, so that I could pop in on her regularly and annoy her out of her room; finally, I was living up to our background as 'descendants of Q' since she could only deal with my antics for so long before she relented.

When the events of the episode finally started, over two months after entering the region of boring space, things followed the episode fairly closely, but I made sure to fix what I could. The aliens that were native to the region invaded the ship after using a damping field to suppress most of Voyager's systems. They fled rather quickly once the Malon freight arrived, but Tom and Seven captured one, who was rather nice once he realized that we would not turn him over to them. Before he returned to his people, I gave him a device which would allow them to treat the theta radiation for his people; it was based off the plans that Raven had designed to treat the Phage which Katye had refined and built. It would be able to slowly treat the theta radiation poisoning that their whole race was suffering from due to the Malon frigate. 

As soon as the Malon garbage ship appeared, I wanted to destroy it personally, but Katye's warning stuck in the back of my mind. The Malon ships that Voyager came across were literally toxic barges, so tearing them open would only hurt these innocent people. Since I had already told Janeway the details of the episode, she did not entertain Controller Emok more than a few minutes after he scared off the unnamed aliens.

Since I had made a point of not involving myself, and the rest of my group, too much into the mess of the episode, my group did not have to do anything to solve the problem. The biggest change was that Janeway did not bother trying to 'sacrifice' herself to destroy the minor wormhole, not that the Voyager crew had allowed her to do so in the episode, and we used the final method from the show.

Thanks to the device that I had passed to the alien, the rest of his people came in force when we rushed for the exit of this zone. The Malon freight tried to block our path, but our new friends proved that they were good people as half the fleet positioned themselves between Voyager and the Malon ship. We detonated several modified torpedoes at the mouth of the mini wormhole, right after we entered it, which destabilized it so that even if the Malon ship survived, they would have to make the long trek home.

While Voyager did not make it to 'normal' space by the time that they were thrown out of the mini-wormhole, a few moments later, with true television drama, the stars in front of us slowly began to appear. Within a few days, we were back in normal space, on course for the Alpha Quadrant, and there was a revitalization throughout the crew as things finally became more interesting again.

We managed to skip another episode entirely, though not by intention. The 'Drone' episode had been caused by a transporter malfunction which allowed a few of Seven's nanoprobes to infect the Doctor's mobile emitter which ended up creating a Twenty-Fourth century Borg drone. In the episode, Seven had been able to guide the naive drone and made him a full, functioning member of the crew before the Borg detected him and sent a Cube to collect him. While he managed to destroy the Borg Cube all on his own, he had been significantly damaged by the explosion and refused treatment, using his Borg shielding to emphasize his point. In the show, he had been a truly unique individual, but due to the existence of my group, he never had the chance to be born, which made me sad as I had hoped to recruit him.

While those two episodes had been uneventful, the next could not be missed so easily. Voyager launched a brand new, long-range probe with unique shielding and sensors based off of Seven's, Tuvok's, and Katye's understanding of Borg, Federation, and Vazukuru technology. Honestly, it was an impressive feat of engineering which would allow Voyager to explore much more of what was ahead of them, even better than what they had developed in the episode.

Unfortunately, that probe is what drew us into the mess of the episode and, while we could have prevented this particular mess from happening, it was needed as this was the birth of the Delta Flyer. Far too many episodes would depend on this ship and, while the Fae Dragon could possibly take up the role, it would change far too much if we replaced the Delta Flyer, since Janeway would only send us out as a last resort. On the plus side, our group got to help with the development of the Delta Flyer, but there was a more important note to the episode than just the Delta Flyer.

B'Elanna was highlighted in this episode, but not in a favorable light. After hearing about the fall of the Maquis, she had begun to spiral into a dark depression which she had been able to hide from the crew, but her removal of the safety protocols from the holo-deck programs caught up with her. Chakotay found her unconscious in a simulation, which ended up with her in Sick Bay and the Doctor discovering the history of injuries which he reported to Janeway. Like a good captain, she pulled Chakotay and Tom aside in her Ready Room to discuss B'Elanna's recent behavior. Both had seen minor signs of troubles with her, growing, over the past few months, so she authorized Chakotay to look through her holo-deck which allowed him to uncover everything that she had been doing to herself, along with the root cause.

The episode ended with a weak patch-job that addressed the survivor's guilt that she had been dealing with, while never addressed again. Things with B'Elanna during this 'episode' were significantly different as my group had been fully involving themselves in her business as soon as the destruction of the Maquis was announced. She was still depressed by the loss of her friends, surrogate family, but we had made a point of engaging with her in different ways along with hinting at things with Chakotay, Tom, and a few other former Maquis who were close to her.

By the time the Delta Flyer was launched and returned with the probe, B'Elanna had not shown the same signs of self-harm. It was a great outcome as this Delta Flyer was stronger than the one from the show and B'Elanna was in a much better headspace. Things had been going our way for quite some time, but that did not make me particularly happy. There were still plenty of challenges ahead of us, including what was set up for the next episode...

"Welcome aboard," Janeway said sarcastically.

An ensign with a yellow security officer uniform was awaking up from sedation on the main bio-bed. A security force field was around the surgical suite, and there were several armed guards, including Echo, Katye, and myself, though only Echo was here as a security officer. ----Doc and Chakatoy

"Where am I?" the ensign exclaimed, jumping up to a sitting position and looking scared.

"On a starship."

"What starship? Why have you brought me here? I'll be reporting this incident to the Admiral."

"You can drop the charade. We know you're not human," Chakotay stated.

"Who are you?" Janeway added.

"Gentry, David," the ensign said immediately, his fear rising by the millisecond.

While I knew this episode revolved around a 'training ground' of Species 8472 that Voyager had managed to stumble across, I had not expected how things would play out. The 'young' ensign was far weaker than I had expected, even below Raven and Echo when we first started in this universe. Obviously, the ones that I had come across when I first encountered them were the elites of their warriors. It made sense when you thought about the 'War' that they were raging against the Borg, but it still surprised me.

"Rank: Ensign," he continued. "Starfleet service number 9-9-beta-3-2-7-8. Planet of origin: Earth."

"We're not interested in your knowledge of human culture. We're not part of your re-creation," Chakotay said.

"I'm Captain Janeway of the Federation Starship, Voyager. I'm from Earth. You're not," Janeway said dismissively, and with annoyance.

"Gentry, David. Rank: Ensign. Starfleet Service Number 9-9-beta-3-2-7-8," he repeated like a broken record.

Janeway gave me a look before she said, "Doctor."

"What are you doing?" the ensign asked.

"I need a sample of your DNA," the Doctor stated calmly as he walked over to 'him' with a hypospray in his hands.

"Why?"

"Since you won't tell us who you are, we have no choice but to find out for ourselves," Janeway replied.

"You won't be harmed," the Doctor reassured.

"Gentry to Headquarters. Security alert!" the ensign said panicked, tapping his comm badge.

"We've disabled your comm badge," Chakotay remarked.

"No! Don't touch me," the ensign exclaimed, knocking the Doctor's hand away and jumping off the bio-bed. "Disease! Humans!"

The young, panicked ensign let out an inhuman screech as he attempted to kill himself with strangely a Yin-type poison spell. While it would be a quick and almost unstoppable method of killing himself, it would be incredibly painful. Unfortunately for him, or probably fortunately for the young idiot, my healing spell was the perfect counter for this type of suicide. I teleported myself next to him as soon as I sensed the spell forming, as his casting speed was worse than Echo casting a Fire spell when she first started learning magic, though it was opposite their Yang-mana-rich bodies, making it much harder than any other element to wield.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, and casting my spell, I chided with a chuckle, "Now, now, kiddo... We aren't going to hurt you, or let you hurt yourself."

At full panic now, the young ensign pushed even more mana into his self-destruction technique, but that only allowed me to eat away at his reserves faster. There had been numerous fights where I had literal wisps of mana yet remained conscious, but that was due to the strength of my True Soul. 'He' did not have that luxury and passed out, despite his best efforts, when his mana pool was drained to less than a tenth. My healing was countering his efforts, so once he burned off enough of his mana, he simply passed out, though that led to his transformation being undone, revealing that he was Species 8472.

"Aside from members of the Fae Dragon crew and Senior Officers, the rest of you are dismissed," Janeway ordered with an annoyed sigh.

I resisted the urge to chuckle and picked up the large creature, now that it was back to its normal appearance. Carefully, I placed the "ensign" back down on the bio-bed, though I had to retrieve a few bars of mage-steel from my storage ring so that I could stretch out the platform of the bio-bed to accommodate Species 8472.

"Rebecca..." Janeway groaned, like we were suddenly in a comedy.

"Do you want to face the Devil that you know, or the Devil that's been watching you? Things won't end badly without us interfering directly, so with the fact that we managed to keep this... 'student' alive now, this can end peacefully, though I would like to make a request when we meet with their leaders and, if they refuse, I have no problem with it... though I doubt that they would deny me," I chuckled.

"Are you behind her on 'this'?" Janeway asked, looking at Katye since she had a good understanding of our relationship.

"No one will die with her idea, though she might be stripped of her powers for time, if she is wrong," Katye replied with a smirk.

"Fine, there are more important matters at hand, like why Species 8472 are creating simulations of Starfleet Headquarters! I want a report, Rebecca, along with whatever information that you can give Chakotay within the hour," Janeway ordered.

If we had not been so crunched on time, I might have given her a hard time, but I also understood where her frustration laid. I knew this was going to happen. Chakotay, Tuvok, and Tom would stumble across this facility, kidnap a resident, and then return to Voyager to figure out what was going on, yet I said nothing about it.

The obvious reason why I had kept silent was that, if they stumbled across the space station, it meant that Species 8472 were still intent on their plan to infiltrate Starfleet, which only Voyager could prevent. Aside from the potential danger with Chakotay acting as a spy inside their simulation, the events of the episode really weren't too dangerous as Janeway managed to talk her way out of the stand-off with the space station and even secured some R-and-R time for her crew. And, since Species 8472 never popped up in any of the series after Voyager, the event also stopped the invasion plan... from Species 8472, anyways.

After reading my report, Janeway understood why I had said nothing and begrudgingly agreed with my decision. While Voyager was pulled into a mess that I could have made sure never happened, the potential danger that missing this 'event' could have on Starfleet far outweighed the annoyance of not knowing about everything sooner. She followed the guidance that I gave her within my report and was nice enough to include me at the meeting with the leaders of the space station, as I had asked.

"...Targmanure!" 'Boothby' complained as he stormed around the table in the Briefing Room after everyone else were at their seats. "United Federation of Planets... tolerance for all species... the Prime Directive... targmanure, every word of it."

"Your metaphor is colorful, but inaccurate," Tuvok stated.

"Vulcan logic, add that to the list," he retorted as he finally sat down.

"Obviously, you've studied a Starfleet database. You must've learned something about our history. We adhere to our directives.

High-minded ideas are one thing, but your actions tell a very different story. You infiltrated our re-creation, captured one of our people, created biological weapons to infect our species, you are allies with the Borg..." - General

"No," Janeway objected.

"There are two drones sitting at this very table. Look at them... all gussied up to look normal," Boothby barked.

"I am no longer part of the Collective," Seven said, dryly.

"My lover sacrificed herself to ensure that I never connected to the Borg," I growled, releasing a bit of my true aura on them since 'Boothby' was the only one who could possibly fight against me and make them understand that we were not weaklings.

"Once a Borg, always a Borg," he growled, glaring at me.

"Rebecca and Seven of Nine are members of this crew," Janeway stated with a tone that left no room to argue.

"The Borg are irrelevant. It's the humans that pose a threat," 'Admiral Bullock' stated.

"They think the Federation is a hostile invasion force out to destroy their species," Chakotay explained.

"I see. So, you're planning a pre-emptive strike against Earth," Janeway conjected.

"Maybe I am," Boothby retorted.

"You realize I can't let that happen," Janeway replied.

"Go ahead. Fire your damn nanoprobes, blow our re-creation to high heavens. There are a dozen more scattered throughout the Quadrant. You'll never find them all."

"What if I told you that Starfleet isn't planning an invasion, that no one on Earth has even heard of you?" Janeway asked.

"I'd say you're lying."

"Have another look at that Federation database of yours. You'll see there is no mention of your realm," Janeway stated.

"Immaterial. Any information regarding our species has no doubt been classified by Starfleet Intelligence," Admiral Bullock replied.

"Good point. We could keep this paranoid debate going all day. You have no reason to trust us, and we have no reason to trust you," Janeway sighed.

"Hear, hear. I knew this reunion would be a fiasco. Admiral," Boothby said, standing up.

"Seven... disarm the warheads," Janeway ordered.

"Captain?" Seven could not help but question her decision.

"Do it," Janeway repeated her order.

With obvious annoyance and distrust, Seven still did as she was told and the one who had been flirting with Chakotay throughout the episode walked over to the terminal.

"What are you trying to prove, young lady?" Boothby could not help but ask.

"One of us have to take our finger off the trigger. It might as well be me," Janeway replied.

"Their weapons are off-line," Chakotay 'girlfriend' announced.

"It's a trick," Bullock accused.

"Our defenses are down. What will you do now? Blow Voyager to high heavens or do we keep talking?" Janeway asked with surprising confidence, though I had told her how things would play out.

"Humans... you've got a flair for the dramatic, I'll give you that. You want to keep talking? Fine by me, but no more beating around the bush. Now, what do you want from us? The truth, Captain," Boothby demanded.

"Voyager is alone in the Delta Quadrant. We haven't been in contact with Earth for months, only thanks to an alien relay which we lost contact with shortly after, exchanging a minor amount of information, mostly personal letters to my crew," Janeway defended.

"Explain why you attacked our realm, hand in hand with the Borg," Boothby demanded.

"At the time, we didn't realize that the Borg had started the war against you. We forged a temporary alliance with them because we thought you were the threat," she replied honestly.

"'Your galaxy will be purged.'" Seven quoted. "Sound familiar?"

"We were only trying to defend ourselves," Bullock defended.

"If that's true, why are you still in our galaxy?" Tuvok asked. "Your conflict with the Borg ended over a year ago."

"Why re-create Starfleet, and masquerade as humans? It looks to me like you're the ones planning an invasion. The truth," Janeway said.

"Don't answer her. She's manipulating us," Bullock said.

"If you won't answer, I will," Chakotay's 'girlfriend' retorted.

"Commander!" Bullock growled.

"Out mission is to infiltrate your homeworld, to place operatives in the highest levels of Starfleet, monitor your military installations. It's a reconnaissance mission, nothing more."

"We should listen to her, Captain. They're being driven by fear just like we are... unless everything you said on our date was just part of an act," Chakotay said.

"It wasn't," she responded immediately.

"Enough!" Bullock barked as he stood up and headed towards the door. "We must not negotiate with these creatures."

"Sit down, Admiral," Boothby chided.

"Sir?" he responded with disbelief.

"I said sit down, or I'll knock you right on your human butt," Boothby retorted.

"You've been seduced by them, both of you," Bullock accused.

"I've had a chance to see through human eyes and I'm beginning to wonder... are they really so violent? What if we're wrong?" Chakotay's girl asked.

"We can't risk trusting them!" Bullock growled.

"You'd rather risk another war?" she shot back.

"Keep talking, son," Boothby said.

"Archer's right," Chakotay replied, standing up. "We've got to set aside our preconceptions about each other. Granted, our species didn't meet under the best of circumstances, but maybe we can make first contact again. Maybe this time, we'll get it right."

"You believe in this fellow?" Boothby asked, looking at Archer, Chakotay's 'girlfriend'.

"Yes," she agreed.

"There would have to be a few ground rules."

"Name them," Janeway replied without hesitation.

"First off, I want to take a look at that nanoprobe technology. It scares the hell out of me," Boothby stated.

"All right... but I'll need some tactical information in return, your genetic alteration techniques for a start," Janeway countered.

"I'm sure something can be arranged. You on board, Admiral?" While Bullock said nothing, he nodded his head, so Boothby continued, "Good enough for me."

"One last thing... Rebecca?" Janeway sighed.

"I've pulled my rank, as a Vazukuru Captain, to make this request, and it is only that, a request. If you are willing, I would like to ask for a sparring session between members of your group against my own, within proper brackets. There are three members of my group, myself included, that would like to spar against your people to test their 'mettle' so to speak. This is not a life-or-death battle, and we have a method to ensure that no bodily harm will be done to the other during the duel... except for my fight. I would prefer that it was done in the 'real' world, so that I could see if I can now resist your parasitic nature or your DNA. It would also give you a chance to understand the Vazukuru that defends the Federation, though we are just three of the hundred that the Federation can call upon in a time of need," I explained.

"I've felt your strength and sensed the other one on your level on the ship. You want me to cower because you two are strong?" Boothby mocked.

"No, in fact, Katye and I are probably at the peak of the Vazukuru power level for what is watching the Federation. I honestly want to see how I can stand up against you while the other two are a bit battle hungry for new challenges. The Federation ideals don't really allow us to explore our powers to their full extent, so a powerful race, such as your own, would be a worthy test of the training that we have all gone under... and of course, it would give you a chance to get an understanding of our race, and powers, which aren't in any Federation database," I offered with a smile as I stared directly at Boothby.

He smirked, "Fine, I will test your Spirit, and pick the other opponents based off their aura. Is that fair with you?"

"Perfectly," I agreed.