All was fine on the bridge. Duty crews were about to switch. Paris was trying to convince Harry to go on a double date with him and the Delaney sisters. Captain Janeway and Neelix were in her ready room, discussing who knows what.
Then everything began shifting, shaking. Janeway shot out her ready room, ready for action, barking orders. A true woman of action, the captain is.
Tuvok said we'd hit the edge of some shock wave. The captain decided to investigate.
When we arrived, we saw a virtually destroyed world. No vegetation, no evidence of space craft, orbital satellites, nothing. My readings told me they had artificial waterways and underground aqueducts. There was life there, a civilization. I made comment upon those last two facts.
"Or there was," Janeway said.
Janeway, being the curious woman that she is, decided to take an away team. The atmosphere was within acceptable conditions. So she took Tuvok, Paris and Torres with her, leaving me in charge of the ship.
They beamed down. Totally routine. Nothing out of the ordinary.
They were down there for quite some time. Then Janeway called, asking for an emergency beam out. Then we lost contact with her and Paris. They had just disappeared.
There had been no sign of them. Sub-space fractures. . .hell. Time is something that you don't play with. I remember that well from my academy days.
There's no way to tell where exactly Paris and Janeway are. One thing about Janeway that I've noticed: She'll do anything within her power to let us know she's all right. We've guessed that she'll set up a homing beacon. If we can pick that up, we may be able to retrieve both her and Paris. We just don't know how to do that yet.
Harry Kim and Torres found a way to bring them back. The only problem is that the generator burns itself out after thirty seconds. We can re-initialize, but not at the same location. It reminds me of a round of cat and mouse.
I was on my way out of Engineering when Neelix and Kes appeared. She wanted to go with us. I told her that she didn't need to see what was down there.
"I've already seen it. I have to go," she stated plainly. How? I couldn't even make a guess at that one. But those blue eyes of hers pleaded with me, begged me to let her go along.
So I took the chance and brought Kes along with us. I've seen many things in this universe that couldn't be explained. I suppose Kes may be among those unexplainable things.
"What is it?" I asked, after observing her for a few minutes.
"It's as though I can sense the people who were here." She began walking and a followed along behind her.
"I know. It's like walking through a graveyard."
"No. It's more then that," she said. "It almost feels like I could touch the people who were here."
I watched Kes for a moment, perhaps in mild concern. I turned my attention to the others. "What have you found?" I asked.
Summation: the occurrences are minimizing, making our chances of finding the Captain and Paris a lot harder.
Then Harry locked onto the comm badge signal. And we followed the signal to a strange room.
We found their badges. But no sign of them. It looks like they were caught in the explosion, or at least their comm badges were.
Kes looked as if someone had walked on her grave. She could sense them, Janeway and Paris. They were--had been here. She was sure. Time to break out the generator to retrieve them. She was shaken, from the look on her face. I placed my hand on her shoulder, to offer her some comfort.
We found them. I tried to contact Janeway, but received nothing. We'd missed them. Our window of opportunity. Time was wearing short.
Back on Voyager, the truth came. Over seventy of the rifts had closed. if we had any chance of retrieving them, we'd have to go to the flash point, hoping that is what the captain would have done. Tuvok argued the point, of whether or not Janeway would have even violated the Prime Directive.
I gambled. I would have found the flash point. I think she would have too. Call it a gut hunch, but if there was that much at stake, then I would've been there, had I been in her shoes. I made the decision. We were going to try one more time.
We beamed down to the flash point, hoping this time for success. A long shot, sure, but one worth trying.
We didn't find the beacon, but Tuvok came back to the fact that the captain wouldn't have been here.
Then Kes, bless her heart said what I'd thought. She said that the captain had been there. That this was where she died. Hell of a thought. Someone that full of life and strength, dead.
We activated it and began to open the rift, but was met with interference from the other side. Then there was this blinding white light. . .
All was fine on the bridge. Duty crews were about to switch. Behind me, Paris was trying to talk Harry into a double date with the Delaney sisters.
"Chakotay to Captain Janeway." She came out of her ready room with Neelix.
"Yes, Commander?"
"We've identified a M-class planet in the Red Dwarf system we're approaching. Do you want to change course to investigate?"
"Are you familiar with any intelligent life-forms in this sector, Mr. Neelix?" She said, addressing the Talaxian.
He said wasn't exactly familiar with any.
The turbolift door opened, depositing Kes onto the bridge.
She was anxious, wanting to see the planet, having to know. She said something about there being devastation, destruction. Convincing Neelix that it wasn't a bad dream.
Since we don't interfere with pre-warp civilizations, we didn't investigate. Kes wanted to see that planet. Janeway obliged her.
We noted the co-ordinates and continued on our way home to the Alpha Quadrant. . .warp factor six.
"Aye, Captain," I replied.
Was it just me or was this a feeling of Deja vu?
Must be me.
**End Log**