Approaching the Nekrit Expanse

I woke up the next day in my bed onboard the Fae Dragon feeling sluggish, but otherwise fine. Janeway gave me a few days off which I used to practice my newest transformation. While the unkillable nature of my newest form was an obvious boon, the most important thing that I gained was the ability to 'listen' to the Chaos within me.

Chaos, by its definition, was complete disorder and confusion, yet it was not a 'sudden' force. Chaos would start with a small spark; insignificant and easily overlooked, but each piece would build upon the next like a snowball rolling down a hill. It was also different than the Temporal Anomaly, which had been my first taste of Chaos mana, due to the differences of understanding the element between Tori and myself. I could absorb it far easier than other forms of mana, but it was still not quite the same as 'my' Chaos mana which had partially responsible for why I had been having such difficulty with melding with my storm. My understanding of Chaos had been clouded by Tori's understanding without me realizing it since even the Dystina that I fought could only use his version of Chaos, though his history with her allowed him to mimic hers quite closely.

Things never stopped onboard Voyager since we were always on our way back to Earth. Things were quiet for nearly a month, though an episode did pop up during that time. It was actually one of my favorites because Janeway got to be a badass and retake the ship practically on her own, but my presence prevented the situation from developing to the dangerous level that it had in the show.

While Janeway and Neelix were away on a trade mission, we had picked up a distress call from a mining colony. They had been infected with some kind of virus and did not have the ability to treat themselves. The Doctor, of course, wanted to help and, as a hologram, he could safely enter the mine without risk of being infected.

I had not remembered the episode instantly, so I did not object and neither did Chakotay. The Doctor beamed down to the colony and took readings of the infected miners, but when he reported that somehow, the virus had processed the host's growth hormone and used it to leave the microscopic world, joining the macroscopic world; basically, it was able to become visible to the naked eye. As soon as he said that I instantly recognized the episode and could only silently complain that I had not realized it sooner since it was already too late to prevent the virus from beaming up with the Doctor now that he was down there.

I kept silent about the danger and let the Doctor beam up. Thankfully, I remembered where the trouble would begin, so I placed myself in the Mess Hall around lunch time and waited for the drama to start. Sure enough, the replicators were already down and B'Elanna showed up just a few minutes after me. Just like in the show, B'Elanna was infected by an infected gel-pack which ruptured as soon as she reached out to remove it from the replicator. I waited until the Doctor was called and started the quarantine procedure before I offered to heal her to ensure that he got the sample that he needed to create the antigen. I healed B'Elanna, removing all traces of the virus from her body, but unfortunately, the virus was already airborne, so I got to heal everyone on Deck Two, over and over, until the Doctor finally made the antigen. Honestly, it was not too bad, and I prevented the virus from ever advancing past Deck Two, so by the time that we rendezvoused with Janeway and Neelix, the Doctor had managed to create the antigen and eliminated the virus.

The episode had barely been a blimp on the radar since I prevented everything from getting out of hand, but the same thing could not be said for the next episode that popped up. I was working on the Bridge when we approached something that I had been waiting months for, the Nekrit Expanse. This was not the border of Borg space, but rather, after we crossed it, we would start to see signs of them in the following episodes. I was not sure how long it would take to find the true border, but there would not be a major villain until we reached it.

"Mister Neelix, please report to the Bridge," Janeway said, tapping her badge and snapping me out of my thoughts.

"On my way, Captain," he replied almost instantly.

"What's troubling you?" Janeway asked quietly.

I sighed, unsure of what exactly to tell her. "I've 'seen' this nebula before and know that we'll have some trouble ahead."

"Can you give me anymore information?"

Before I could reply, the turbo lift doors opened and Neelix walked onto the Bridge.

"Later. There is nothing that will be happening soon that I know of," I replied, though it was a small lie since several people would be getting in trouble on the space station that Neelix would suggest us to visit.

She nodded her head and stood up. "Neelix, we seem to be approaching some kind of interstellar dust clouds. Can you tell us anything about them? They look rather ominous to me."

"I believe this is a region of space known as the Nekrit Expanse," Neelix replied, though I heard a hint of fear in his voice.

"What can you tell us about this expanse, Mister Neelix?"

"It's a vast territory. No one knows much about it."

"Those plasma storms might be a problem for navigation. Full sensor scan, Tuvok," Janeway instructed.

"Aye, Captain," Tuvok acknowledged. "It's thousands of light-years wide, so it is inadvisable to attempt to navigate around it."

"Then we'll have to go through it," Janeway remarked. "Looks like we'll be counting on your knowledge of the Delta Quadrant even more than usual, Neelix."

"Yes, ma'am. I'm at your command, as always," he replied, putting up a happy front though I could practically smell the fear radiating from him.

"Will there be any planets where we can take on supplies?"

"There is a station near the border... a kind of supply depot for mining and trading ships. I suggest we stop there for provisions before we go into the Nekrit Expanse."

"What are the coordinates?"

"Uh, let's see. It's actually been a while..." Neelix said, trying to remember.

"I have the station on sensors, Captain. Three point four light-years away, heading zero-seven-one mark seventeen," I answered for him since I had started scanning for the space station while they were talking.

"You heard her, Tom," Janeway said.

"On our way," Tom replied as he tapped at his console.

Three point four light-years did not sound like a lot and the show made it seem like they had crossed the distance in just a few minutes, but the truth of the matter was that it would take us nearly a day to reach the station. Neelix was excused until tomorrow while Janeway left the Bridge to Tuvok and led me into her Ready Room. She ordered drinks for both of us, and we both sat down on the couch.

"So, what has you so worried that you went into a daze upon seeing the Nekrit Expanse?" Janeway asked after she took a sip of her coffee.

"I want to stress that we are not quite to their territory yet, but within a year's time, if I had to guess, we will reach Borg space," I said grimly.

"The Borg?" she asked with a bit of surprise.

"Mmhmm... while we travel through the Nekrit Expanse, we will discover traces of them. I'm not too sure how far their border is from the expanse, only that it is ahead of us," I replied.

She sighed and looked out the window. "I always knew this day would come. Have you or your kind come into contact with the Borg before?"

"I haven't, nor my crew, but I don't know for sure if any other Vazukuru has. I know plenty about them though, and I'm not too excited about meeting them. I don't know if they have a way to 'adapt' to our mana-based attacks, but if any race could, it would be the Borg. As powerful as I am, I don't think that I could take on the entire Collective on my own; even the Q are weary of provoking them."

"What do you think we should do?" she asked, truly wanting my opinion.

"There is no going around Borg space, it's simply too vast, so we only have three options. Shelter down on some planet, turn around, or throw caution to the wind and go through their territory. The first two options aren't really something that either of us would consider, which only leaves us with the last. It will be a challenge for sure, but when has that ever caused us to back down?"

Janeway gave me a smirk and nodded her head. "You're right. We can't just quit when things get hard. We'll find a way, we always do."

I smiled and nodded my head as well. The past two years had been a slow build up to this confrontation since the Borg were regarded as one of the Federation's strongest enemies. Once we crossed their border, they would pop up throughout the rest of the show with the finale ending by delivering a crippling blow to the Collective while Voyager finally reaches the Alpha Quadrant.

We talked for a bit longer before we returned to our duties. After my shift, I returned to the Fae Dragon where I was questioned about my knowledge of the events. I had already told them about this particular episode, so they just wanted confirmation that this was it. We already decided to let things play out as they had in the episode since it was an important event for Neelix's character growth with minimal danger to the ship, but there was a minor change when I joined Janeway on the Bridge the next day as we approached.

"We're being hailed, Captain," Tuvok announced.

"On screen," Janeway said, standing up. "I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager."

"Bahrat, manager of this station. What can I do for you?" the alien on the screen asked without looking at us, more focused on his consoles.

"Your station is a trading outpost, isn't it? I'd like permission to come aboard to negotiate for supplies," Janeway replied.

"Granted," he said, finally looking into the screen. "But understand that any transaction you negotiate on this station is subject to my approval. I receive a twenty percent commission on all trade. Your whereabouts will be closely monitored. Communications with your ship may also be monitoredat my discretion. Do you agree to these conditions?"

"Evidently, I have no choice," she retorted.

"Excellent. Meet me in my office in one hour and we'll discuss your needs," the alien said before shutting off communication.

"Pleasant fellow," Tom remarked.

"Neelix, Rebecca, Tom... you're with me. Chakotay, you have the Bridge," Janeway instructed.

The three of us stood up and followed Janeway to the turbo lift while I silently cursed my luck. If I was taking Chakotay's place on this little away mission, I would be implicated with Tom instead of him. While I was not too worried about Bahrat's threat of prison time, it would still be annoying if he tried to detain me since I would have to play Starfleet rules and keep my temper in check. Still, I had to play along unless I was going to step in.

The list of our needs had already been prepared, so we just headed down to Transporter Room Two and walked inside. We beamed over to the space station and were met by one of Bahrat's workers. He gave us a small tour of the station before leading Janeway off to Bahrat's office while the rest of us headed towards the main market area.

Neelix wanted off one direction while Tom and I went another. The small market was slightly crowded and there were all different types of races that I had never seen before. Food, machinery, metals, crystals, and so much more were displayed in the different stalls, so my eyes bounced from place to place.

"Excited?" Tom asked with amusement.

"Just enjoying the change of pace," I replied. "Voyager is great, but a place like this reminds me of the market place in Polis. There are all sorts of people here, doing what they can to make a living, honest or otherwise. Everything is a bit too 'clean' onboard the ship to feel like the reality that I know, but a bit of dirt and grime just adds some flavor to life, no?"

"Yeah, I guess it does," Tom chuckled.

A blue-skinned alien wearing a black cloak approached us and asked, "Good day. Anything in particular you're looking for? Anything I can help you with?"

"We were hoping to find some magnetic spindle bearings for our reaction control assembly," I replied since it was the number one thing that B'Elanna requested.

"Spindle bearings, spindle bearings... No. Can't help you with that. No, but tell me, long voyage ahead?" he asked.

"Uh, you could say that," Tom said with a smirk.

"I have something that might ease your journey, ease it considerably. Rhuludian crystals," he offered, showing a small tube of blue crystals. "Ingesting just one of these will make days of tedious travel seem like moments of exquisite rapture."

"No, thank you," Tom said, frowning and starting to walk away.

"The price is surprisingly..." he started.

"No," I said, forcibly and flexing a bit my aura.

The alien tucked away his drugs quickly and scampered away.

"A bit of dirt and grim, huh?" Tom asked with a chuckle.

"Meh, to each their own," I retorted, smirking.

We kept walking around for a while before Janeway paged us to meet up and transport back to Voyager. We did not have any luck finding the spindle bearings, but I vaguely remembered that it would be Neelix's friend who would find them for the ship. Neelix was clearly more stressed than when we arrived, but he was trying to hide it behind a smile. Still, no one said anything, and we simply returned to the ship.

The next two days passed quietly, but the morning of the third, the murder of Sutok, the drug selling alien that Tom and I had met, was announced. The weapon signature proved that it was done by a Federation weapon, so Janeway assigned Tuvok to assist in the investigation. I had been smart and stayed on Voyager after that, but Tom had not been so lucky and assisted Chakotay on one of the trade deals. He was arrested by Bahrat, who tried to come for me as well, but the circumstantial evidence he showed Janeway was laughable to say the least, so she flat out refused to hand me over.

He was forced to back down since his station was not strong enough to threaten Voyager itself, but thankfully, Neelix put into action his crazy plan to capture the Kolaati traders responsible for the drugs on the space station that night. He made a deal with Bahrat to have Tom released and neither he nor his friend, Wix, would have to serve any time in his prison. In the end, things played out just like the show, including his punishment of two weeks scrubbing the exhaust manifolds.

His mistake was that he trusted his friend and fell into a web of lies and problems because he just wanted to be of use to Voyager. He was not the one who killed Sutok and his readiness to leave the ship had swayed Janeway's heart. She understood that he had been scared of being abandoned, so by not letting him leave, she showed him that this was his new family and gave him one more chance to prove that he deserved his place in the crew.