THREE

2351

Her bags were packed once again. She stood in between them, staring straight at the front door. She couldn't bring herself to go any further. This felt very wrong to her, she had thought about it more than enough over the last two years. It really was the right thing to do.

Three taps at the door brought her back to Earth. Her hand reached for the door, she noticed it was trembling as she did so. To her relief her cousin Leanne was on the other side of the door, smiling warmly.

"Hey Kath, I heard," her voice was sympathetic.

Kathryn's throat closed up, the tears were threatening to appear. "Yeah, I said I'd do it but I can't."

Leanne's face fell, her hand clasped her cousin's shoulder. "Then don't. Take him with you."

"I heard that," a voice behind Kathryn said. Kathryn tensed a little and Leanne tried her best not to scowl as Peter Taylor walked over to the pair.

"It's ok. I'll... just go and say bye to him," Kathryn said through her hoarse voice.

"He's asleep, I doubt he'll be able to hear you," Peter said, almost breaking into a smirk.

Kathryn caught it in the corner of her eye. Her body once again told her what she was doing was wrong. The smile he now had on his face reminded her of the night she met him. She couldn't believe she fell for his act, even if she was a silly teenager. She thought she was more mature than that. Obviously not, I'm still just a kid. That was why she was leaving. It was for the best.

"I guess," she eventually muttered.

"Where's her stuff, I'll get them," Leanne said. Her face went immediately red when she spotted the bags sitting at Kathryn's feet.

"It's ok. Women shouldn't carry heavy bags," Peter said as he crouched down to pick them up.

"Oh, so there's a nice side to you being sexist," Leanne said in a mocking tone.

Kathryn was surprised to see he was a little offended at that remark. It made her feel a little better now that his smile was wiped off. "I'm not," he muttered. The girls watched him walk out of the house with the bags. Kathryn's gaze lingered on the interior door for a moment.

Leanne gave her cousin another reassuring pat on the shoulder before walking out as well. Kathryn silently thanked her for it. The tears were now falling.

2369
USS Endeavor

"I'll teach her," he said in mid pace. "Nobody makes a fool out of me. Who does she think I am?" The pacing back and forth was making him a little dizzy so he stopped it. The next thought that popped into his head made him laugh. "Oh I'll get you your coffee, Commander. Enjoy, it'll be your last."

"Perhaps you should take a breath between insults, Commander," Tuvok suggested.

As he expected, he got an angry growl. "All I ask is people around here do their jobs. It would be like me asking you to do your rounds and you telling me to shove it up my butt."

"I disagree," Tuvok said with a raised eyebrow. Kathryn growled again, but as usual he was the only person who could survive it. "A more fitting comparison would be to tell me to bake you a cake and myself saying I'm busy with my rounds."

"What?" Kathryn was actually confused.

"That man you asked to make you coffee was an Ensign from Engineering," Tuvok explained.

Kathryn was still a little confused, "strange, I've never seen him before. Though in my defence, he does have a stupid emo haircut in his face. Probably for the best."

"He just transferred here from Earth," Tuvok explained.

"Fair enough. Who do I ask for coffee around here then?" Kathryn asked seriously.

Tuvok's eyebrow nearly escaped his forehead. "No one. There's a replicator."

"Ooph, someone's snooty," Kathryn scoffed. "I just thought that since..."

"You assumed wrong," Tuvok dared to say.

Kathryn didn't hear him, she was distracted for a moment. "Is it snooty or snotty? Who cares. What?"

"Perhaps you should take a break, Captain. You always get far more irritable when you've been working for too long," Tuvok suggested.

"I'm fine," Kathryn sighed.

"Bridge to Commander Janeway. You have an incoming call from Earth. Mark Johnson."

"Oh god, what does that whiny little pissant want now?" Kathryn growled as she walked away. "Patch it through to my office, take your time!"

"It's been years, I still don't understand her," Tuvok said to himself.

Kathryn stomped over to her desk, angrily dragged the computer over so it was directly in front of her and she plopped herself down on the seat like it was a huge effort. As soon as the computer switched on she decided to scream at it, "what!?"

The man on the screen didn't seem bothered or startled at all at being screamed at. He expected it. "Hi Kathy, bad day?"

"How did you guess that? Are you psychic or something?" Kathryn grumbled.

The man shrugged. "Just a hunch I had. Do you have time to talk?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I am very busy," Kathryn snarled. "You've got something in your hair."

The man frowned, he turned slightly to one side to tend to his silver hair. Kathryn took that opportunity to run over to the nearby replicator. When he turned back she had a bucket sized cup in her hands. Apart from that he wouldn't have known she had left her seat.

"Why do I always fall for that?" the man asked.

"Cos you're a schmuck," Kathryn answered with a sweet smile. He could only smile back as she slurped at the giant mug.

"Anyway... the Endeavor is due back soon. I thought we could use that free time to talk about the wedding," the man said. "And further ahead than that."

Kathryn's eyes narrowed over the rim of her cup. She slowly lowered it to the desk. "I told you. My career comes first."

"I know, that would never have to change," the man said meekly. "I thought why don't I join you, then you don't have to give up anything. Or you can continue your career and I'll be the parent."

Kathryn's eyebrow twitched, the anger was difficult to keep inside her. Another sip of the cup wasn't enough to calm her even a little.

"You always struck me as a maternal type, you said you liked kids," the man stuttered.

"Well you were struck wrong. I can come down there and fix that, if you want," Kathryn threatened.

The man shook his head, "there's no need to be like that. If you don't want any kids, we don't have any... it's..."

"I don't!" Kathryn snapped. "Did you really think I'd want to pop out an... kid, let daddy watch him all the time, and I never get to see him again?"

The man stared at her with concern. "Why wouldn't you see him or her again?"

Kathryn's eyes closed when she realised she'd said too much. Anger soon took over again. "I'm ranting, forget it. We're not having kids, at least not for a long, long time. If you have a problem with that, you can just leave."

The man sighed as he looked at the floor. "No I don't." Kathryn wasn't too convinced with his answer, it just made her all the more angry. "We'll talk about the wedding when you return, and that's that. Promise," he said with a smile.

"Oh bugger off," Kathryn snarled. She pressed a key to switch him off her screen. Once he was gone the anger melted away and all that was left was sadness.

Taking her cup with her she walked over to the nearby window. Kathryn stared solemnly into space, cradling the large cup in her skinny hands. The disobedient door chime to her office decided to go off when she placed the cup by her lips. Raising just one finger, she slurped at her beverage, determined to make the selfish crewmember at her door wait as long as possible.

Two minutes later the cup was empty, her finger was drumming the desk, her left eye was on the nearby replicator. Finally she replied, "come in!"

The doors opened swiftly for a younger looking Damien with a lot of hair in his face. He dumped a package on her desk. With a nervous voice he said, "for you ma'am." He turned to leave.

Kathryn jumped to her feet, "wait!" Damien jumped out of his skin. "Is it coffee related?"

"I... er... dunno sir... er ma'am," he badly lied. "Excuse me." He managed to leave much quicker than he entered, leaving Kathryn to curiously stare at the package.

She carefully sniffed it. It had a faint aroma of coffee, it made her drool a little. "This is from Mark isn't it?" she thought outloud. "Thought he could bribe me, well he's got another thing coming!" She had to be on the Bridge anyway so Kathryn marched out of her office. He couldn't see her do it but it was a statement anyway. She could always get the coffee later.

Moments after she left the package beeped, then exploded leaving the entire office in flames.

Damien cursed quietly to himself as Kathryn entered the Bridge safe and sound. She didn't even look irritated.

"What? I'm not late," she said.

"Your office just blew up," the Captain said, without blinking.

His attention went to the PADD in his hands. He tapped the panel labelled Plan A which had a cartoon drawing of Kathryn with a huge bun running around on fire, while a cartoon Damien smiled with angry looking eyes. It disappeared and was replaced by Plan B. This one looked like a drawing of a starship, him standing on it with his arms wide and people cowering underneath it.

"Nah, that'll take too long," he said. The PADD went back to Plan A. "The package was a little obvious. I just need more time." His finger went to alter it slightly.

"Really? Well then, I better go. I've got an office to clean," Kathryn said with shifty eyes. "Er, get someone else to clean... it." She dashed off.

The Captain sitting beside her before groaned into his hands. Tuvok's eyebrow raised.

"Perhaps we should discuss it with her later," he suggested.

"God damnit! Plan B it is," Damien muttered as his Plan A drawing was all wrong. He marched off into the turbolift.

"Discuss it?" the irritated Captain stuttered. "I'll be the first to congratulate her. Heck I'll throw her a Good Riddance party."

"Indeed," Tuvok didn't know what else to say.

2370
USS Voyager

Kathryn and an Admiral walked out of the brand new Ready Room, Kathryn was carrying a cup of coffee of course.

"It's a good thing you transferred when you did," the Admiral was saying. "Apparently the new first officer's replicator set itself on fire. He's still in intensive care."

Kathryn shook her head before sipping on her coffee. "I did warn them about that, but nobody would believe me. I suspected a lower member of the crew wanted that job."

"Probably, but the crew believe the ship is cursed," the Admiral chuckled at the ridiculousness of it.

Kathryn laughed with him, "as if that would happen. Where are we going next?"

"The science labs on Deck Thirteen, they're a killer," the Admiral replied. The two entered the nearest turbolift, passing two crewmembers building the back stations.

"Was that one of those irony jokes, you know like haha that won't happen and then it happens joke?" the guy asked.

The woman stared at him, then she rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, this is Star Trek. Now let's go finish off the shuttle replicator, not that they'd need it." The man's eyes widened as she walked off.

2371

Kathryn thought she misheard. Her eyes widened and the blood drained from her face.

"We're on the other side of the galaxy," Harry couldn't believe it either.

Kathryn was standing in front of the window, staring into space. The door chimed loud enough to break her out of her thoughts.

"Yes?"

The door opened for Chakotay, he wasn't alone though. Kathryn barely noticed as she made her way over to her desk. The first thing she did was grab her mug and sip at it.

"Apparently you and I have the same problem. I get why we have a bunch of kids on our ship; Marquis attracts angry, vengeful and even bored people of all ages, but Starfleet..." Chakotay said.

Kathryn rolled her eyes as she sat down in her seat. "A bit of a mix up. Before we were sent to look for you, they were supposed to get a bit of experience. That class should have been told it had been cancelled."

"Hmm, and here I thought it was just a bad fanfiction trying to bring in characters that were too young," Chakotay chuckled.

"Duh," Kathryn shrugged. "Any of yours can join our pre-cadets in the schools I told Tuvok to setup. What else have you got?"

Chakotay frowned as she downed the whole extremely large cup, with steam still rising from it. "Wow, um..." he tried to compose himself. "These are the last lot, they were the two who were kidnapped by the Caretaker."

"Mmm hmm," Kathryn said as her head turned to the replicator.

Chakotay turned to the group behind him. "Kids, you can go." The younger ones left quickly, the coffee smell was overpowering. There were only two left, one of them started to leave. "Not you."

"Oh so I'm old, am I?" she huffed quietly.

"I never said that," Chakotay rolled his eyes. "The last two are a problem. One worked in Engineering and that's full already. The other, well I don't think you have any need for a hacker."

"The day shift is missing someone to man the Engineering station, he/she could take that," Kathryn said from the replicator. Chakotay was a little shocked, he hadn't seen her walk there. The pair behind him were just as surprised, one tilted his head to one side and squinted his eyes.

"Okay, so that's Jessie sorted. I don't recommend him for the Bridge though," Chakotay said, gesturing behind him.

This time he caught Kathryn going back to the desk, she held another cup of coffee. "There's only really Sickbay left," she said.

Chakotay tried not to laugh, he felt one glare behind him. He didn't know it was the girl that was doing it though. "Thanks for that image."

Kathryn stared at the new Commander like he had walked in wearing a dress. To him she looked just as ridiculous with the giant mug in her hands and a straw sticking out of it. "Put him on the Bridge, I'm sure there's something else he can do if he's that clever. What's the fuss?"

Chakotay was torn between laughing again and frowning. "I wouldn't say clev... um, just he's got an attitude problem and..."

"It's rude to talk about people like they're not there," Jessie found herself grumbling.

"Indeed, you're one to talk about an attitude problem," Kathryn muttered between straw slurps.

Chakotay cleared his throat. "Ok you two, bridge day shifts. You can go."

Jessie rolled her eyes as she turned to leave, she stopped when she realised she was the only one doing that. "What? James, what's wrong?"

He finally stopped tilting his head and staring, then turned to her. "Is it just me, or is there something really odd looking on her head?" His finger pointed at Kathryn. Jessie turned her own head to look.

Kathryn's eyes widened, and she started feeling her hair.

James' did as well, he shook his pointed finger. "There, you got it."

Kathryn glared at him. "That is my hair." Chakotay meanwhile slapped his forehead with his right hand.

"Well it sure is odd, bye," James said. Jessie giggled as they both walked out.

"Chakotay," Kathryn muttered.

Chakotay sighed, "that's what I was talking about. He's rude, bad tempered and doesn't shut up."

"What are their names? I'll need to know when I start yelling at them," Kathryn asked.

"The girl's okay, well she was until he joined the crew. Jessie... erm, Jessie Rex something. He's James Taylor," Chakotay answered with a frown. He missed Kathryn's eyes almost falling out of the socket as they widened so much, he was too busy frowning. "Think Stuart is on the end, the step dad that joined was called that. Doesn't matter."

"Did you say Taylor?" Kathryn stuttered.

Chakotay looked puzzled. "Yes, is there a problem?"

"I think I might have erm, met his father," Kathryn replied. The urge to get a much bigger mug was strong, especially now that her current one was empty. "What are the odds?"

"Um tiny. Though to be fair his name is really common. He may not be related to the same Taylor you know," Chakotay said. He almost jumped out of his skin as Kathryn had gone again, she was back at the replicator getting the new mug. "How do you do that?"

She casually walked by him, staring at him with the judgmental eyes she gave him before. "Do what?"

"Uh the replicator thing," Chakotay stuttered. Kathryn's stare got even worse. He was starting to feel like he really was wearing a silly dress with the way she was looking at him. "That was fast, um. Forget it. Have you talked to Paris yet?"

"No, but I do have to address the crew. We've got a long journey ahead," Kathryn answered. A loud slurp echoed around the room. "I'm trying to think of what to say to them."

"I'm sure you'll think of something. Excuse me," Chakotay said over the slurps. He quickly left.

Kathryn sighed once she collapsed back into her seat. "Couldn't be him, it couldn't. Why does he have to be here?"

The Bridge:
Everyone stood mostly to attention, staring towards the pacing Captain. A few worried that her speech would last a while so they brought a PADD to read, or were standing next to something to lean or sit on. The Marquis crew were already suited up in Starfleet attire, which one of them found rather uncomfortable.

"This thing is hideous," Jessie whispered to James standing beside her. "Yellow and black, ugh." He tried not to smirk.

"We're alone, in an unfamiliar and hostile area of space," Kathryn started her speech. "We've already made some friends here," she said towards Neelix and Kes. "And some enemies." Her face crumpled as she tried to remember the middle of her speech, but it was gone. "Crap," she whispered. As everyone were still staring at her she quickly tried to cover that up and continue on somehow.

"Who would have thought that this eclectic group of voyagers..." Kathryn paused to let the pun sink in. Most of the Bridge just rolled their eyes. "Could actually become one crew. Starfleet, Marquis. Klingon, Ocampan... um," Kathryn stared at Neelix. "What were you again?"

"Talaxian," Neelix was offended.

"I thought it was Neelix, Mr Talaxian," Tuvok actually sounded annoyed for once.

"That's stupid. How could any moron get that mixed up, Mr Vulcan?" Neelix huffed.

Kathryn ignored them both, "Ocampan, Talaxian, that whiny hologram, Borg..." She frowned, "wait, that's not right."

"You think?" James commented.

Tom pouted, "I was going to say that."

Kathryn stared at him like he did say that, "even Mr Paris. Granted, we'll have our share of difficulties. Hopefully coffee shortages and office explosions won't be amongst them."

"Captain," Chakotay interrupted. Kathryn growled at him. "You do realise that's the Doctor's speech from Year of Hell, right?"

"No, yes," Kathryn badly improvised. "What's that?" Chakotay shrugged, he couldn't remember. "Ok fine, what was it?" Her face lit up. "There was this parable I heard as a child, and I never forgot it. A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river..."

"Really?" Chakotay groaned into his hand.

Kathryn started to pout as her mug or bucket of coffee had worn off. "We'll be looking for one person, amongst thousands..."

Everyone shook their heads.

"Here's the sequence of events, we will drop our shie..." Kathryn said.

"No!" everyone shouted.

"Oh fine, I'll improvise," Kathryn grumbled. "Yes our journey looks long and bleak, but it doesn't have to be. We're explorers, this is an opportunity to explore this unknown area of space. In the meantime we'll be looking for wormholes, advanced technologies, coffee brewers, spatial anomalies. Somehow, someday, we'll find our way back." She smiled broadly, "I knew I'd remember the end part. Nailed it."

Chakotay tried not to smirk, "uh huh, fifth time's the charm."

2372

Kathryn glanced menacingly as she stepped closer to the viewscreen. "I'm Captain Janeway of blah blah, don't care... why did you get me tea!?" she screamed at Chakotay.

"Maybe we should have introduced an ape as the Captain, we'd be better off," Jessie said.

"But Chakotay already tried," Danny said.

"That's it, I need a vacation," Chakotay groaned, he left the bridge.

"Um well, better make this quick. I need to talk to you privately," the man on the screen said.

"Fine I'll beam you here," Kathryn muttered. She waved her hand in Harry's direction.

"Thank you Cap..." he said before getting cut off.

The Ready Room:
"So Tryhard, what can I do for you?" Kathryn asked in a fake polite voice.

The alien sat on the sofa nearby, trying badly not to look offended. "Ligod."

"Why would I want to do that, and what about?" Kathryn was genuinely confused. "Also there's no reason to get angry at me."

Ligod stared blankly at the woman standing in front of him. "That's my name."

"Oh, that's a stupid name," Kathryn grumbled.

"Um, can we get down to business?" Ligod asked.

Kathryn shrugged, "whatever."

"As I'm a Watcher I am charged with searching and train..." Ligod started to explain.

"That's got to be the worst job I've ever heard. Don't you ever get bored?" Kathryn interrupted. She scowled at him, "that actually sounds a little pervy to me."

"Searching and training the gifted few known as Slayers," Ligod started again despite that. "That is why I'm here."

Kathryn's eyes shifted from one side to another, eventually they looked at him like he was nuts. "Ookay. Good for you."

"Ah, I didn't expect you to know what I meant," Ligod said cheerfully. "To put it simply, Slayers are people who are stronger than their species usually is. A lot stronger. They also have a natural talent for fighting, have excellent endurance and agility..."

Kathryn's nose shrivelled up this time, her eyes went towards the window. "Again, good for you."

"Oh I'm not a Slayer," Ligod laughed.

Kathryn smirked, "I never thought it."

"Hmm. The Slayers are generally used against the Game Cube phenomenon, but naturally they're useful for other more supernatural things. Again, this is why I'm here. I'm here to retrieve one as I need their help with an emergency," Ligod explained.

"Let me get this straight, you think a member of my crew is one of these natural Slayer people?" Kathryn questioned, her eyebrow now raised.

"Yes, but the whole Game Cube and Slayer subject is supposed to be confidential. Only Admirals and the Slayers themselves in your species should only know," Ligod said.

"What are the Game Cubes anyway?" Kathryn asked.

"I can't answer that. What I've told you is already breaking the rules," Ligod replied.

"So what is the emergency?" Kathryn asked.

"Well we live on the ocean colony several kilometres away from many thousands of native colonies. We've been living in peace, and they never bothered us and vice versa until an incident one hundred years ago," Ligod said. He drank some of the coffee he held in his hand, he cringed and poured it in the nearby plant.

"They informed us of a threat so we sent our strongest Slayers, the Chosens of that current generation, to investigate but blend in with the natives. They never came back. Everytime our Chosens were at a suitable age we'd send them too, none of them came back either."

Kathryn finished her coffee, she stood up and headed over to the plant. "So, what's this got to do with us?" She stroked the plant, "oh and thanks for feeding my coffee plant, its favourite is coffee obviously."

Ligod pulled a disgusted face, "um you're welcome. Anyway the reason I'm here is that we figured the next batch of Chosens need help as the current method is clearly not working. We thought perhaps a Natural will be able to up the odds a little."

Kathryn continued to stroke the plant, meanwhile giving him the same what a nutter stare she was giving him before.

"Um, our Natural's are all on assignments elsewhere. Our Chosen has returned recently so she and her brother are ready to take on this immense challenge," Ligod said.

"I hope you know who to look for, cos I have no idea," Kathryn said. "Not that I believe you, mind you," she muttered to herself.

"We know a lot about him. His name is James Taylor," Ligod said.

Kathryn accidentally spat coffee in his face, "what!?"

Ligod wiped the gallon of coffee from his face, then he started to rub his soggy clothes. "I'm sorry, I know this will be difficult. He will be in good hands though. Miss Zare is excellent at what she does, her and her brother may not even need him."

"This is ridiculous," Kathryn spat. "You want me to believe there are people out there with the strength of ten men, and..."

"I'd probably times that by another ten," Ligod said meekly. "And that's just the Naturals."

Kathryn's eyes were very wide by this time. "But he... he's just a normal kid." She shook her head, "man, he's just a normal man. I mean yes he's good at winning fights, never seen him lose but..."

Ligod looked on in sympathy, it looked odd on him and a little patronising. "No mother can handle news like this well. However I'm sure you noticed his gift, especially when the child himself doesn't know. It's okay, take your time."

Smoke started rising from the Captain, her eyes were on fire. "Mother?"

"Watchers are supposed to know everything about their Slayers, including details like that," Ligod said with a smile.

Conference Room:
Tom stood bothering the only female guest, she didn't look too happy about it. Ligod kept well out of the way, the young teenaged boy standing nearby him was clearly annoying him.

"If you guys are all so knowing, how come you only just found about this one?" the boy asked.

"Rean," Ligod warned him. His eyes shifted slightly, the boy noticed it and stared at him suspiciously. "He was very far away."

"It would be super handy if we knew about some object that picked people up and dropped them off at far away places," Rean teased. "Oh wait, we do."

"Shh!" Ligod shushed him.

The boy laughed as he wandered over to the other two.

"Soo, a date tonight. Pick you up at eight?" Tom said to his victim.

She pinched his nose hard, and kept a tight hold. "How about now, this is fun." The resulting crack made him squeal like a pig. When she let him go his nose looked a little crooked, but that was the least of his problems. The amount of blood pouring from it made him collapse on the spot.

James chose that moment to walk in. He looked confused at the helmsman on the floor. "Have I already been in here?"

Ligod rushed over to him. "Ah James, it's great to meet you."

"How do you know for sure I'm him, it could have been that annoying tall guy," James said after taking a step back.

"Watchers know their Slayers," Ligod replied.

"Oh great, a watcher, no way I'm doing this again," James groaned.

"I know, aren't their intro speeches and junk boring?" Rean said.

Ligod glanced his way, "Rean hush." The boy rolled his eyes.

"What's all this about then?" James asked.

"Simple. You are a Slayer," Ligod said. Both Zare and Rean rolled their eyes and shook their heads in disbelief. James meanwhile was torn between smirking and hitting the man. "Ah of course, you don't know. You must have noticed that you have strength others don't. That is why. Clear?"

"No, but a little bit of yes, but more don't care," James said.

"You should though. Now I am sending these two to a colony that we lost contact with many years ago. You're going to go with them to either find survivors, and find what happened. Or if nothing has happened, get communications working," Ligod said.

"There's still bits that I'm not clear on," James said.

Zare shrugged, "me too. Is that helmsman fodder?" She pointed at Tom at the front of the shuttle.

"I thought that one was obvious," James replied.

Tom cleared his throat. "Ahem, I can hear you!"

"According to the watch guy, that's what I am as well," James said in a hushed voice.

Zare shook her head. "Ligod's a moron, don't listen to him. We basically just need an extra hand as we don't know what we're facing."

"From a rookie?" James didn't look convinced.

A small smirk appeared on Zare's face, "leave my brother out of this." Rean scowled and stuck his tongue out at her. "That's the other reason you're here. Rean's strong sure, but this is his first mission and Ligod tells me you've fought a few strange things before."

James frowned, suspicion was all over his face. "How the hell would he know?"

"Told ya. Ligod's getting lazy in his old age," Rean commented.

Zare glanced at her younger brother, "what?"

"He's acting like James is all new to him, but what he says tells another story," Rean replied.

"He told you, he's from the other side of the galaxy. It's not easy to get there," Zare scolded him.

"She's not wrong," Tom commented. "She's also quite hot."

"Why are you here?" James asked, sensing Zare about to explode beside him.

"Cos I love the water, I've always wanted to work on the ocean but..." Tom replied.

"No, why are you here?" James asked loudly.

"I don't get what you mean," Tom tried to sound innocent.

The shuttle drifted through the ocean depths towards a large underwater station. Despite the dim shield surrounding it, the station looked powerless. A tiny gap appeared near the top of it, the shuttle flew towards it. Once it was through to the surface of the station, the shield reappeared. Doors began to open directly in front of them.

Once they were through the shuttle found itself in a bay with another ship. It landed next to it.

The group made their way through the bay, towards the large bay doors. What was on the other side shocked the Human members of the team. Instead of a ship or station metallic look, the whole area in front of them was built up like a village. However since the lights were not working, the darkness hid the damage time had done to everything. Water dripped from different parts of the ceiling far above them, as nothing was happening it was all they could hear.

"Well this is nice and creepy," Jessie said.

Tom glanced all around him, "are you kidding? She's a beauty."

Rean went ahead of the others, he stopped outside a hotel entrance. "Was this place a holiday resort or something?"

"Yeah it was the best around. Let's have a look inside," Zare said. She and Rean went up the steps, the others followed her. They all spread out once they were inside.

Tom stepped outside another door, it lead to the outdoor pool which was just as dark as everything else. He used the torch to look around the entire pool area. It was completely deserted.

"Why does the hotel look empty, ie no bodies," Tom said.

"Was there any survivors?" Jessie asked.

"No, this is odd," Rean replied.

"Yeah, where is everyone?" James said.

Tom turned his back on the pool area and walked through the door to get back inside. As soon as he did there was a loud thud behind him, it startled everyone.

"What was that?" Rean trembled.

The rest of the group walked over to where Tom was, he and they walked through the door to get outside.

"Was it only me who heard a splash too?" Jessie asked. She stepped closer to the pool and knelt down beside it.

"Jess be careful," James warned her.

"I know," Jessie nodded.

Tom pulled out a tricorder, "no-one's touched the water in a hundred years. The colony has no bugs, anything else alive, and plants except fake trees, right?"

"Right," Zare said.

"Why did it look dark even when I pointed the torch at it before?" Tom said. He started to fiddle with the tricorder.

Thanks to the darkness they barely saw it, but they felt a tidal wave emerge from the pool and slam into them. It knocked everyone off balance.

"Yuck! Not nice," Rean moaned.

Zare looked around nervously, "uh... where's that other girl gone?"

"Damn," James muttered. He rushed forward to drop himself into the pool.

"Is he nuts?" Rean said, looking up at his sister.

Zare glanced at him, "there should be a drain or something, try and empty the pool."

"Ok," Rean said, he rushed off.

Both Jessie and James surfaced, but Jessie looked unconscious. James managed to grab a hold of the side.

"I did it!" Rean yelled.

The water quickly drained from the pool, but not before Tom had decided to play hero too. He jumped into about two inches of water, he squeaked on impact.

"Ooh, found something," Rean called from afar.

Tom groaned, he stood back up. James walked over to him carrying Jessie. "Are you ok?"

"A few broken bones and dignity, I'm fine," Tom replied.

A bright light came on suddenly, everyone covered their eyes. Rean rushed over to Zare's side, squinting his eyes. Jessie woke back up, she quickly covered her eyes too.

"Ugh, that's not good," she coughed. James put her back on the ground, she wiped her arms.

Tom was the first to adjust to the light, his eyes widened in panic, "oh god."

"What?" Jessie said.

James collapsed suddenly, everyone just stared at him. Jessie quickly knelt down next to him, her eyes adjusted to the light finally. She looked around, noticing the whole pool walls and ground were stained in blood. She and James were also completely covered, while Tom's front was covered too.

"That pool wasn't dirty, it was blood stained," Zare stuttered.

"What happened to him?" Rean asked.

Tom knelt down too, his fingers went to check James' pulse, "he's fine, just unconscious."

"How did you get the lights to work?" Zare asked.

"Lights switch," Rean replied.

"The power mustn't have been drained, someone obviously switched the whole colony off when whatever happened, happened," Tom said.

Jessie suddenly collapsed too, Tom checked her pulse too. "Fainted, must be something in the blood that they accidentally swallowed." Zare pulled a disgusted face.

"Just a thought, why is there blood in a pool?" Rean asked nervously.

Tom screamed like a girl, this woke James and Jessie up. The other two stared at him.

"What the hell are you screaming for?" James asked.

"Behind you..." Tom stuttered. "Zare, Rean, below you." Everyone looked in the direction Tom had told them, they all gasped. Right at the side of the pool lay a body. "What the, how?"

James and Jessie quickly got onto to their feet. Zare jumped down, she scanned it. "Rean, cover your eyes."

"Too late," Rean stuttered.

Zare continued to scan but just looking at it told her not to bother, "well he didn't drown." Standing up confirmed it, the body lying in front of her didn't have a head.

The group stood in the middle of a street, staring down at something. Well Rean was trying but Zare's hand kept trying to block his eyes. Tom looked a little shaken to say the least.

Right in front of them lay another headless body. This one also didn't look as fresh as the previous one.

Zare trembled as she knelt down. James took over hiding Rean from it for her, he moaned everytime he tried.

"I've seen this guy before," she said.

Jessie's face was scrunched in disgust, "how can you tell? He's rotted and headless."

"The clothes, the place..." Zare stuttered. "I saw this."

"You did?" Tom said. "I wish I did before I tripped over the dude."

"What do you mean you saw this?" James asked.

Zare slowly climbed to her feet. "In a dream. He was trying to fend off Hilare demons. That explains a lot."

"It does?" Jessie said.

Zare nodded. "Yeah. Their claws are poisonous. The poison quickly takes over and destroys everything. And I mean everything. This will be why there's no one here."

"Ouch," Tom stuttered.

"We do have two bodies though," James reminded her.

"Yeah, it doesn't make any sense," Zare said as she looked back down at the body. Something caught her eye so she knelt down beside it. "He has a Chosen mark."

"A what?" Tom asked.

"A bruise, tattoo or scar that shows who's a Chosen. He must have been one," Zare replied. "Oh god, that means..."

"The guy in the pool, we should go back," James said.

Jessie sighed, "yay."

Tom nodded furiously, "I second that yay."

"If these guys are as dangerous as Zare says, maybe you guys should go back to the shuttle," James said.

Zare nodded, "yes, and take Rean with you." Rean was nodding with her until she said that. He stared up at her with accusing eyes. "Don't look at me like that, you saw that coming."

"Did not. I'm stronger than him," Rean grumbled, pointing at James. He didn't really notice as he had his own protests going on.

"I can understand a kid and a wuss, but me? What gives?" Jessie said questioningly. Tom was about to say something, but he just pouted instead.

"You could say I'm practising being overprotective," James said.

Zare meanwhile ruffled her brother's hair. "You're still a kid, he's not."

"But... Ligod said this was my first mission," Rean continued to pout.

"Yeah and I've got to thank him for that little present," Zare muttered. She glanced back towards James, briefly catching Jessie beside him rolling her eyes. "Shall we?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

The pair were soon back at the blood soaked pool, each of them standing inside it.

James reluctantly knelt down beside the headless body, he carefully rolled it onto its back. Zare cringed immediately.

"He's a Chosen too," she said. Her hand pointed towards the mark on its arm. "He doesn't seem as aged as the other. This is starting to make too much sense."

"It is?" James said.

"Yeah, the last three lots of Chosens were killed by unknown causes according to reports," Zare said.

"Missing in action you mean," James said.

"Yeah I figure all of them came here and never left," Zare said.

"Not really, two generations are here at least," James said.

Zare glanced towards him, "yeah but the first pair were sent somewhere to observe activities. The other four were sent on a mission to find survivors somewhere. Damn I should have put it together," Zare said angrily. She put one hand over her face.

"I don't get it. If six Chosens died here, why would Ligod want to send more?" James questioned. "Also, why wouldn't he tell you about the previous attempts?"

"The first two were definitely killed by the Hilare demons. They must be still here. Who else will take care of it if we can't?" Zare replied. "Ligod thought Rean could deal with this, I'll kill him."

"Maybe that's why he invited another Slayer," James said in an uneasy voice.

Zare threw him a deadly glare, "he's thirteen. He shouldn't be here!"

"Not disagreeing with you there," James nodded.

"Good. He should stay with your friends. You should guard them while I take care of this," Zare grumbled as she made her way over to the pool's ladder.

James was still nodding until what she said clicked with him, he quickly rushed after her. "Wait a minute..."

"This isn't a debate," she snapped.

"Too bad," James said once he caught up with her. He quickly moved around to stand in front of her. "We're talking about demons that have killed off three pairs of Chosens. I don't think one solo is going to give them too much trouble."

"What, and a Chosen/Natural duo will do better?" Zare said with a raised eyebrow.

"Better than you alone," James answered.

Zare smirked at him with contempt. "You didn't even know what a Slayer was two days ago, let alone demons. A few vampires here and there doesn't make you a pro."

"Your brother knows more than I do, so by your logic..." James muttered back.

Zare's eyes flared up. Her fist flew up to hit him, he quickly dodged and stepped back. "Don't you dare. You're a rookie, he's a kid. I'm doing this alone."

"Then you'll die alone," James said.

Zare scoffed, then she laughed bitterly. "Oh, how does little Jessie put up with this crap?"

James felt his shoulders tense up a little. "What?"

"The macho act. I'm just a girl right, helpless without a strong male to help me out," Zare said.

"What?" James laughed in disbelief. "How did you get that from that?"

Zare walked up to him so they were almost nose to nose, or more accurately forehead to nose. "Well I've got news for you. I'm much stronger than you and if you're too insecure to handle that, then don't take it out on me. If you do..."

"I'm the insecure one? I'm not the one playing the gender card here," James said. "If it was Rean that was the adult one and he wanted to do the same thing, I'd still protest. I'd still come along and try to help him."

Zare's smirk was back, "you're not coming. You said it yourself, two Chosens couldn't do this. Maybe I can't alone but a newbie Natural sure isn't going to make any difference. You'll die for nothing. Face it, you're just a typical guy who can't handle the fact that a girl was picked to be stronger over him."

"Just because your ex trainee Slayer boyfriend was an insecure little boy, doesn't mean that every single guy is the same," James countered. "I have no problem with you being stronger than me, in fact it's a relief. I had a hard enough time with the strength I have, which I didn't want either, why would I want more?"

Zare shrugged, "well..."

"So a girl's stronger than me. So what? I don't honestly understand why that would bother anyone, but hey, believe what you want. I don't care what crap you come up with, I'm coming with you and that's that. You can't stop me," James argued.

"There's your answer," Zare sighed. "I can." She grabbed his shoulders and quickly threw her leg up to knee him as hard as she could in the stomach. As soon as he started to double over from the damage, she swung her fist into his jaw.

When he was down Zare turned on her heel to leave him behind. She stopped when she heard him start to get back up.

"Don't. It's suicide," he said. "We can think of something else. Just wait."

Zare scoffed, "something else?"

"There's always another way. Charging into a demon's nest, if you can find it at all, can't be the only way," James said as he slowly and carefully walked over.

"We're Slayers; we kill monsters, fight cubes. What else is there to do?" Zare muttered. She looked around the area in front of her. A nearby piece of debris caught her eye.

"That's probably what the other Slayers thought, and now look at them," James said, briefly glancing back at the pool. Zare picked up the large piece of debris when he did. "Sometimes going head first into a fight can work, but not all the time. We'll think of something else. If not..."

"No time," Zare whispered. She turned around and swung her new weapon into his face. The blow threw him to the ground, face first. She waited this time before turning her back on him. "I'm sorry. This is what Chosen's do."

Jessie's eyes widened as James returned to the shuttle with his new bruises and cut on his face. "What the... What happened?" she hurried over to him.

"Zare," he answered quietly so Rean couldn't hear.

He did anyway and he ran over to the pair. "What, where is she?" he asked.

James hesitated for a moment, but Tom and Jessie were wanting to know too and there was little time to be discreet. "She's going to take on the demons. I tried to stop her."

"Ugh, this is so typical of her," Rean huffed.

Tom hurried over as well, he looked worried. "She does this sort of lone wolf thing a lot?"

"She's the Chosen, I'm not old enough to help her. Yeah," Rean grumbled.

Jessie shook her head, "you tried to help her and she beat you in response." She looked towards Rean, "I'm not finishing that one."

"She doesn't know where they are, it gives us some time," James said with a sigh on the end.

Tom smiled smugly, "I can give you more than that."

"Yes, invisible girls talking to him," Jessie rolled her eyes. James frowned at the two of them despite his sore jaw. "Sensors picked up a lot of lifesigns appearing in a large warehouse not far from here."

"It's the demons' nest. I found that out," Tom said.

Jessie gave him a dirty look, he just smiled in return. "I think we could have figured that out without your imaginary friend, Tom."

Rean perked up slightly, "ooh ooh, I've got a plan."

"As long as it isn't charge in and get killed, I'm all ears," James said.

"How about we use the weapons on this ship to destroy it, or a bomb," Rean suggested.

Tom's eyes widened, "I dunno what's worse."

"Can't, unless you want to take us with it. The warehouse next to theirs is the shield generator. With that down, the pressure could crush the colony," Jessie said.

"Sounds good," James said.

"What?" Tom stuttered.

Jessie smirked at him first, then she smiled at the other two. "We can't fire at it, it's too far away and there's too much in the way. We could make something explosive and plant it nearby." She stepped over to the other side of the shuttle to pick up something.

"Fine, we could do that," Tom huffed. "But what about Zare, and how are we supposed to get in without being seen?"

"Zare should show up on the sensors, especially if she hasn't found the nest," James pointed out. He rushed over to the front of the shuttle just as Jessie was about to attack him with a regenerator. She huffed at the bad timing of it.

"She's always doing this. She doesn't get that she's not supposed to be alone in this Chosen crap. That's why she has me, that's why Natural's are picked out too," Rean grumbled. Both Tom and Jessie looked at him, Jessie soon glanced down to the floor. "She thinks it's her versus the bad in the universe, I... I don't get her. It'll be better when I'm old enough, right?"

Tom reached out to pat the boy on the shoulder. "Definitely kid." Jessie sighed and made her way to the front of the shuttle. "For now, you just be her brother. It's all she really needs at the moment."

"You okay?" Jessie asked quietly.

James nodded as he tapped on the controls. "Yeah, just a few bruises."

"Not that," Jessie whispered. "This Slayer stuff..."

James briefly looked over his shoulder at her. "Doesn't change anything. Yeah sure, I mean it's nice to know what was wrong with me all this time. It..." He hesitated a moment, it just made Jessie worry more. "Doesn't matter."

"There's nothing wrong with you," Jessie scolded him but in a gentle voice.

"I know," James said in a voice that made Jessie think he didn't mean it. He looked over again with a small smile on his face. "At least I'm not alone."

Jessie glanced back at Rean, then back at him. "Yeah."

"I meant you," James said as he looked back at the console.

"Oh," Jessie said, her cheeks slowly turning red. "Right."

James' face turned a little pale when the console beeped at him. "The only lifesigns are in the warehouse."

"We'd better hurry then," Tom said as he slowly approached them both. "I'll see what I can cook up quickly."

"There's no time," James stuttered. He gave the console a light smack, but it still was pretty hard to it. "I can't figure out which lifesign is hers. They're all different..." He turned to hurry out of the shuttle, Jessie quickly got in his way to slow him down.

"You'll be no better off than she is," she said.

"I know but we can't just leave her there. She'll be dead before the bomb's ready," James said.

Tom walked over to the pair, grabbing something mid way.

"Yes but what if they get you as well. Who will deliver the bomb then?" Jessie said. She felt terrible for saying it, her head shook in disgust. "I don't want to lose you."

"Um..." Tom tried to butt in.

"You're right, but we can't just wait for Tom to..." James said, then he noticed Tom beside him. "Stand around looking at us."

"Yeah, um... two things. One," Tom said nervously. He held out his fist and opened it up to reveal a couple of commbadges in his palm. "Give one to Zare and we can get her out. Nobody gave our two guests one, pretty stupid considering the awaymission."

"And two is about the bomb right?" Jessie said uneasily.

Tom looked a little guilty, he pointed to the back of the shuttle. The pair followed his finger, quickly noticing there were only three of them in the shuttle.

"Damn," James muttered. "Sorry," he said to Jessie before rushing out. He grabbed the commbadges from Tom and a phaser rifle as he did.

Jessie began to follow him but Tom cleared his throat to stop her. She turned around to look at him. "You monitor the commbadges, I'll replicate the bomb. We can still make this work," he said.

Jessie glanced back to the shuttle door with worry all over her face. She eventually looked back and nodded.

As he approached the warehouse he could hear the familiar sounds of a fight going on. He tried to run faster than he was already. He could see it now, its roof just peeping over the building he was running by.

Once he got there he quickly hid behind the wall surrounding it, right next to the open gate. A boy's scream, followed by rough voices laughing sent a chill down his spine. Slowly he looked around the wall. He could not see where the boy was, all he could see were the backs of very large monsters, each one with very long and deadly claws.

James lifted the rifle in his arm to point it ahead of him, his eyes quickly checked to see if the rifle was definitely on the right setting. The word Maximum confirmed that. He glanced again, this time the monsters were dispersing a little so he could see something, anything in front of them.

They were watching, cheering on a larger one. Its back was facing James, but he could see its arm lifting up into the air. His eyes widened as whatever it was holding, he could see now just peeping out from above its head.

"Zare," he whispered. He didn't have time to worry about it. He maneuvered the rifle around the gap in the wall and aimed at the middle demon. The ones surrounding it were constantly moving though. James was just about to fire when the demon's grip on Zare tightened into a fist. His eyes widened in horror, his skin turned ghostly white, his hands started to shake.

The demons laughed as the whole warehouse lit up, each one seemed to be generating the light. It only lasted for a few seconds, but James barely noticed it. What he had just seen had shocked him to the core.

In the corner of his eye he noticed something lying on the other side of the wall, curiosity got the better of him, or he didn't want to look ahead anymore. He didn't think his eyes could get any wider, but they did anyway. The thing lying nearby was tiny, the size of a small boy. His own started to shake as he noticed the still form had no head.

Something told him to run, and it wasn't just that. He quickly looked back forward, the demons had spotted him. They slowly made their way over, laughing over what they had done. That was when James saw the discarded body of Zare lying behind them.

"Time to test the Chosen power, boys," the leader cackled. The others laughed with him.

There were far too many, and what only one of them had done to Zare was fresh on his mind. James knew what he had to do. He turned around and ran as fast as he could. The only thing that followed him was haunting laughter.

It had only been a couple of weeks since the incident at the ocean colony, but it happened every night when he tried to sleep. The lack of it was starting to take its toll.

"You did the right thing," Jessie told him again.

"Hmm," James could only say.

Tuvok stood nearby with his arms folded behind his back. "Crewman Rex is correct. Sometimes the only thing you can do is retreat. You shouldn't..."

"Tell that to the next Chosens who are sent to their deaths," James said quietly, but loud enough for Tuvok to make out.

Jessie's head shook. "That wouldn't be your fault. Those idiot watchers shouldn't keep sending them. The colony is empty, it's not worth it."

"Hmm," James repeated.

"You are still a member of Security, Ensign. You can't avoid awaymissions for the rest of your time there," Tuvok said.

James only rolled his eyes at that comment. His head dipped back down to look at his hands folded across his lap. Jessie was about to place her hand on his, but with the rest of his team nearby, she didn't want Tom or Thompson making jokes, especially now. She settled for a hand on his arm.

"This isn't some supernatural mission cooked up by a homicidal prick, it's just a regular mission to find coffee by a tiny bit less homicidal coffee fanatic," Jessie said. She had managed to mostly talk herself out of it before she had even finished.

Tom nodded. "Yup, if we're going to die here, it'll be the usual boring way."

"Mr Paris," Tuvok warned.

Tom's eyes widened, "what? Yeah, we won't die. Nothing ever happens on supply missions."

"Has he got any two's?" Foster asked far in the background.

Thompson glanced over at the other four, then reached over to peek at the cards lying face down on the table. "No."

"Great," Foster grinned. He put a two card on the middle pile. Thompson's eyes narrowed. He had to pick up two cards from other pile.

Jessie's eyebrow raised as she'd seen and heard this exchange, but Tom hadn't.

"I don't know," James muttered.

"You don't need to. You have no choice," Tuvok said. Jessie shot him a glare. "You were trying to convince him earlier."

"Yeah until I remembered what happened last time Janeway ran out of coffee," Jessie said. "If James isn't confident enough, logically he's not going to be a useful addition to the team. Right?"

Tuvok's eyebrow raised. James finally moved his head to look at her, barely doing the same thing as Tuvok. She shrugged.

"Quiet virgins, I'm trying to think of my next move," Thompson snapped. He put down another card.

Foster pouted as he put down his next card, "I am not one of those!"

Tom looked over his shoulder, he quickly turned around just as Thompson was peeping at the discarded cards again. This time he was stealing one. "Hey!" He darted towards the table to grab his arm. Thompson tried to dodge it, which Tom followed. The pair looked like they were doing a one arm pantomime act as this went on for a few minutes.

"Mr Taylor was the most useful addition to the team when he was in a coma," Tuvok commented.

Jessie tried her best not to laugh, glancing briefly at James' tired face helped. She just gave him a sympathetic smile instead.

"Snooze you lose the Ace of Hearts," Thompson complained.

Tom groaned, "I was being nice, unlike you!"

"Yeah, you are a rock," Thompson grumbled.

Foster meanwhile shook his head.

"Look at it this way. If this team goes on the mission without you and something endangers them, as well as the supply team, then you will continue to feel this way," Tuvok argued. "The best way to fight what you Humans call Survivors Guilt is to continue as normal."

"What if I'm there and it makes no difference?" James questioned.

Tuvok's eyebrow raised again. Jessie glanced at him briefly, then back at James. "He's right, about the first bit at least anyway." James shook his head. "Zare and Rean didn't die because of anything you did, you've got to know that."

"I do know that," James said.

"Good. The team will need to be in the shuttle bay in ten minutes," Tuvok said. He walked out before anyone else could object.

"Then why are you beating yourself up?" Jessie whispered softly.

"Duh!" Tom butted in. He now held his abandoned cards, Thompson pouted behind him. "He's bad moody cos he didn't get to be the big hero. We guys are fragile that way."

"Speak for yourself," Thompson huffed.

James had just enough of his old self in him to roll his eyes and say, "no."

"No? You just don't want to agree with me or anything. You're mad that they fought and died, and you ran away. I would be bummed too," Tom said with a sympathetic smile on his face. "You know how you get over it?"

"If I didn't run away, I'd have been killed too," James muttered.

Tom grinned, "see, glad I could help. Let's go guys." He headed for the door. The other two members of the team didn't even look at him, they remained in their seats.

Jessie covered her annoyed face with her hand, she shook her head lightly. "God," she groaned. Her hand returned to her lap. "How can someone be that stupid?"

Foster put down his last card, smiling smugly. "Okay, time to go."

Thompson whined as he put his last two cards down. "Two out of three?" Foster only shook his head. "Damn it!" The pair headed out as well.

"Tom's half right," James admitted.

Jessie nodded to his surprise, she turned her gaze back on him. "I know. You don't like feeling helpless, especially when others are involved. I just wish you didn't always think that you have to do everything."

"It's not that," James said quietly.

"Zare thought like that, didn't she?" Jessie said. "The difference is you knew when to retreat and she didn't. You shouldn't feel ashamed at that, you should be proud of yourself. It'll keep you alive, which I want as well."

"So what do you think I should do then?" James asked.

Jessie smiled, "go down, do nothing but watch them screw everything up, laugh." Her smile grew as she noticed a one slowly grow on his face. "You're not going down to fight monsters, you've only been sent to stop the supply team hiding any coffee plants from Janeway. It's a do nothing job."

"Yeah," James mumbled with half a smile.

The Shuttle Sacajawea
"What are we supposed to be doing again? Tuvok lost me at shuttle," Foster asked nervously.

Tom shrugged, "Janeway still hasn't got her coffee supplies, plus we need some of that healthy stuff."

"Vegetables?" Foster smirked.

"That's it," Tom said. He ignored the sniggering behind him, well tried to. "Another team will join us once we ok it, we're guarding them or something."

"Guarding, from what?" Thompson asked.

"Probably Janeway herself," Tom smiled.

Foster took him seriously, he looked a little panicked, "oh god. We're going to die."

"Relax. What's going to happen?" Tom said just as the shuttle landed on the ground. "See? No crash, no problem. Unlike Janeway's mission, this will be a breeze."

Meanwhile:
"Captain, perhaps we should have a recess," Tuvok said calmly.

Kathryn looked up at him, her fist only an inch away from her victim's face. Her eyebrow twitched, "go ahead. I won't stop you."

"Wow, you're much more irritable this time. Curious," the man she was kneeling over chuckled.

Tuvok noticed their other guest roll his eyes, his eyebrow raised even further.

"How about I help you with that suicide thing right now," Kathryn growled. Her fist finally hit its target, though he didn't seem bothered at all by it. "Damn it, these Q's would make a lousy punch bag."

"I beg to differ."

Kathryn threw her glare towards the other Q, he just smiled at her. "You're right." She threw one more punch at the one on the floor, then she stood up. "Now, where were we?"

"A recess, I need to talk to my colleague for a moment," Q said.

The second Q climbed to his feet, he immediately pointed an accusing finger at him. "You know full damn well I won the last two times. Why must you play this game over and over again, it's cruel."

Q chuckled, "further proof he's insane. Excuse us." He clicked his fingers, the pair disappeared in a white light.

"God, how long does it take to get some coffee," Kathryn growled, her attention wavered to the planet.

"Indeed," Tuvok said quietly.

The two Q's reappeared in a quiet room.

"Grant me my freedom, Q. You did it twice already," Q2 complained.

"Yes and like those times, we must follow the plot already laid out," Q said.

Q2 frowned, "I thought we weren't supposed to do fourth wall jokes."

"I didn't mean that," Q groaned. "Make too many changes to the timeline and the consequences will be disastrous. You will not have to do this again."

"Oh I'm sorry if my re-occurring death and resurrection is such a bother to you, Q," Q2 hissed.

Q smiled, "apology accepted. Now, shall we return to the play?"

"We're in a play now?" Q2 looked confused.

Q only sighed in response.

"Them talking about doing all of this over and over again. I don't trust them," Kathryn said.

Tuvok agreed, he nodded. "It is likely another practical joke, like the ones he used to do against the Enterprise."

"Then we will no longer play along," Kathryn said. "I won't be a pawn in Q's little game, this ends here."

The planet:
Thompson and Foster stood outside the shuttle, both of them armed with a phaser. Of course that didn't make them any braver. The slightest movement like a breeze hitting a leaf made them jump.

"I knew I should have gone with James. Your nervousness is catching," Thompson grunted.

Foster glared at him, "it was your idea!"

"Um, I remember you being the first to volunteer," Thompson smiled.

Foster went bright red very quickly. "That's not the point."

"Uh huh," Thompson nodded. "Sissy."

"I'm not, I'm just sensible. You, you're just a..." Foster stammered.

Thompson moved around to face him, smirking away. "Just a what?"

Foster turned away from him, "you think you're so great, but nobody likes you. Get the hint."

The leaves rustled behind Thompson, this time it wasn't the wind that did it. A few figures pushed through the trees and bushes to join the two. They hadn't noticed yet since they weren't even looking that way.

"You mean James? He doesn't like anybody," Thompson sniggered. "Well except the Jessie girl, but we both know girls don't count."

Foster rolled his eyes, "no of course not, cos in Thompson's world girls aren't people."

The new arrivals looked at each other. One pointed at Thompson and licked his lips. The others shook their heads and pointed at the shuttle. He pouted.

"That's not what I meant, you're nitpicking. I meant every guy always likes a pretty face, no matter how much of an anti social freak he is," Thompson groaned.

The three people crept towards the shuttle, still unnoticed.

"Oh yeah, but it's not just him. I did say nobody likes you, remember?" Foster said.

"I thought nobody was just him and Tom, and who cares about Tom?" Thompson commented. He shrugged, "who cares about either of them. Though I guess if he isn't having a breakdown or coma's he is the one that does all the dangerous work."

The group disappeared around to the other side of the shuttle. Unknown to the squabblers they tiptoed inside through the open doors.

"Jesus, do you think I like you? Or do I not count as a nobody?" Foster asked. Thompson snorted into laughter, Foster's response was to shove him. That stopped him, his mouth dropped open in shock. "Well?"

"Don't push me!" Thompson grumbled. He shoved him back. "I thought we were buddies."

Foster laughed this time, he pushed harder this time. "I have better taste than that."

"Oh yeah!?" Thompson scoffed. His next shove was using his fist. Foster stared at him for a minute before doing the same back.

The three intruders snuck out of the shuttle and started to make their way back around. They waited by the side of it to check on the two so called guards. By this time they were rolling around on the floor, barely hitting each other.

"Wow," one of the intruders whispered. He shook his head at the others, they nodded back. They carefully walked back to the bushes they came from.

"Stop that, that's cheating!" Thompson complained as Foster somehow got him in a headlock. Thompson had a tight hold of Foster's hair and was pulling. The two rolled again, just catching the intruders slipping away into the shadows.

"Uhoh," Foster stuttered.

"Oops," Thompson also did. They quickly let go of each other and got to their feet as quickly as they could. "We need a cover story, fast."

Tom and James stared at the pair, their eyes pretty wide.

"What happened here?" Tom asked.

"These people broke in, beat us up and took a power module," Thompson replied.

"People? There are no humanoid lifesigns on this planet," Tom said in disbelief.

James glanced away to hide some nervousness in his eyes. "Yeah."

"No there were people, I'm sure of it," Foster stuttered. Thompson nodded furiously.

Tom smirked at the two. "Are you sure they weren't monkeys?"

"Well one moron did grab my hair," Foster muttered. Thompson gave him an elbow, Foster glared at him for it.

James stared at the window of the shuttle, Tom missed the elbow thing as he was watching him. "What?"

"Nothing. You guys should get back inside, seal the door," James answered.

Tom frowned, "um, you guys?"

"Yeah we shouldn't split up again," Foster said.

"I'm not suggesting splitting up. I'm suggesting that you guys stay behind and I go," James said.

"Hey I don't mind people, it's bugs I don't like," Tom said.

James shook his head. "I don't think it's people."

"Neither do I," Tom smirked. Thompson and Foster glared at him.

"I can handle it. You stay here," James said. He turned around and headed back the way he came.

"God that guy's full of himself," Thompson muttered, shaking his head.

"I don't care what he says guys, we're going too," Tom said.

"You're both mad, these people were strong. When I say strong, I mean freakishly strong like James," Thompson said. Foster glanced at him with wide eyes.

Tom cleared his throat, "we're still going. Freaks like James can still get shot, bring phasers." Thompson and Foster nodded nervously, they went back into the shuttle.

"You don't know that they were strong," Foster whispered.

Thompson pointed at a broken console. Foster shook his head. "See, this is why I'm great and you aren't." Foster resisted the urge to hit him again.

Tom rushed in as well. "Come on guys, hurry. We can save the day yet."

Tom lead the way towards a clearing, cradling a phaser rifle in his left arm. He stopped when he heard voices straight ahead. The pair behind him stopped as well.

"Cover," he whispered before hiding behind a nearby tree. They did the same.

"I told you it was people," Thompson whispered.

"Shh," Tom tried to hush him. He peeped his head around the tree to try and see inside the clearing.

"Aren't you glad you didn't fill up on wimps?" one man's voice sneered. A few voices seemed to agree with him. "You want more boys and girls?"

Tom looked at the others, they looked just as nervous as him. The cheering they heard didn't help.

"The ship will send more down to find their lost colleagues. They won't if they're still alive," the man's voice said. "I can't make it any clearer."

"Those two were wimps though, hardly snack worthy," a woman's voice said.

"Snack?" Thompson squeaked. Tom and Foster's heads swung in his direction, their mouths and eyes wide open. He cringed, this time he only mouthed, "oops."

They all heard a dark laugh, then footsteps approaching.

"Ok, I don't have to tell you," Tom whispered. He looked to the others, but they'd already gone. "Gee thanks, definitely didn't." He turned around completely and ran as fast as he could.

Voyager:
"Nobody's answering," Harry reported.

Kathryn sent him a death glare but quickly shook it off, it wasn't helping.

"I'm only detecting two lifesigns now, Captain," Tuvok reported.

"Damn it, get them out of there!" Chakotay snapped. Harry nodded.

The planet:
Tom felt like he'd been running for hours, he was almost out of breath. The voices behind him were gaining in though, he had no choice.

Luckily though he could see it getting lighter ahead. His arm was slapped by another tree branch in the way, it slashed him just like the last one. He couldn't let that slow him down though.

Finally the trees cleared. Dead ahead of him was a lake with a waterfall crashing into it. He had to change direction or he'd risk falling in. When he did his foot caught on something large and heavy. He heard and felt his ankle twist from the impact. At the speed he was running, he couldn't stop himself from falling hard onto the ground.

It was silent for a moment. The voices behind him came back in a blur. He tried to lift his head, everything span in front of him. He didn't have time to worry about that, he tried to push himself back up but his ankle screamed at him to stop.

"No," he groaned. With the strength he had left, he pulled himself into a sitting position. The area around him slowly stopped spinning. When it did he looked to his left to see what he tripped over. What he saw made him almost throw up, the pain in his ankle was a distant memory as he dragged his body further back.

He had hoped he just tripped over a rock or just a dip in the grass. No, he tripped over a body. The first thing he saw were the dozens of gashes spread all over his skin, each one stained with so much blood that it had pooled in the grass underneath. What got him the most was the open eyes almost looking right at him.

The last thing he saw before a transporter beam rescued him was the sickly sight of the body's twisted neck. He hoped it was over for him before he felt any of it.

The Conference Room:
Chakotay didn't dare look at her, just in case. He just kept his eye on the PADD in his hands. "Out of the original and rescue team, only Mr Paris returned. We've been unable to find any signs of Thompson, Foster, Davids, Reyna, or Harrison. Paris told me though he found um... the fourth member of his team." The silence was killing him, he swore the temperature in the room dropped. "Apart from that, what Tom has said about the attackers is... putting it nicely, ridiculous. I think he's in shock."

Tuvok dared to look Kathryn's way. She had her back to the two of them so it was difficult to gauge her reaction. However he had no reason to believe this would be different to any other casualty on Voyager.

"There are no alien lifesigns on the surface. The aliens must have masked them," he said.

"I prefer that explanation to what Tom was saying," Chakotay said.

"Indeed," Tuvok agreed.

"We have to be very careful here. From what he said, what happened to Ja... number four, the people who did this are strong and they are brutal. If we are to retrieve any of our people, we..." Chakotay said. He was interrupted by a cup of hot coffee, probably only replicated decaf, slamming into the wall just beside him. He was surprised, but not as much as Tuvok was. "Um..."

"Get out," Kathryn hissed. Her back was still on them, both of them were very grateful for that.

"Captain, we need to discuss this situation. These people have stolen technology from us, possibly killed indiscriminantly. Since they've masked their lifesigns they may have kidnapped our people..." Tuvok said.

Chakotay cringed slightly, he knew one was definitely not kidnapped. He didn't say that outloud though, he didn't want to be next.

"Bridge to Janeway," Harry's voice interrupted.

When he didn't get an answer, Chakotay tapped his commbadge. "Chakotay here, what is it?"

"I don't know where it came from, but a vessel has just left the planet. They've gone to warp."

Kathryn's fists were tightly clenched, as well as her jaw. "Follow them," she ordered. Chakotay felt a chill in her voice, he knew better than to argue with her.

"Yes ma'am. Bridge out."

"Was I talking to myself? Get out," Kathryn muttered.

Tuvok was the first to leave, though he was a little concerned with what just happened. Chakotay stared at her for a short time, he tried to think of something, anything to say. His head was blank. He turned to leave too.

Kathryn stared at the planet below her. She could barely see most of it, night had fell where they were. It didn't matter to her, staring at the planet felt like she was staring directly at a certain someone. The ship then jumped into warp, all she could see then were streaming stars.

Kathryn felt like she had abandoned him again. The last time she did it she felt sick, this time she was.

Ten Months Later

The holodeck doors opened. Tom and Harry walked through them in their beach clothes, grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm definitely trying the volley ball next time. I'll beat you there, no problem," Harry said.

Tom laughed, "you wish."

The pair passed another pair on their way into the holodeck, wearing similar clothes to them. Harry glanced over his shoulder at them.

"God it's been so quiet lately," Tom sighed.

"It was a good idea to have the resort on 24/7," Harry said. "After the changes were made of course."

"I thought we could do the same with Holodeck Two, something different you know," Tom said.

Harry winced, "if it involves bad Irish stereotypes, cows and old clothes, then I'm going to say you're out of good ideas."

The pair reached the turbolift. They stopped to wait for it. Tom looked a little uncomfortable. "Hey, give a guy a break. I'm still post traumatic stressey."

Harry just smirked at that. "It's been nearly a year Tom, you can't keep using that. At least you can't twice in one week."

"Damn," Tom sighed.

Chakotay's voice ran out over the intercom, "senior officers report to the Conference Room."

Tom and Harry gave each other a worried stare. As soon as the turbolift arrived they rushed inside it.

Conference Room:
"We knew this day was coming, but we're still not ready," Chakotay said. "Borg Space." He had already mentioned it, but the two words made everyone but Tuvok tense up again.

"At least we've had many months of nothing to ease us into it," the Doctor commented to lighten the mood. It obviously didn't.

"I'll admit we're a little rusty, but it's us, we can handle anything," Chakotay said.

"Except vampires," Tom whispered to himself, glancing down at his hands. Most of the room looked more awkward than tense, they avoided looking at him. Tom sighed, he was used to no one believing him. B'Elanna gave him a glance, he felt a little relieved at that.

"Some of us anyway. The Captain, does she..." Neelix remarked.

"She's been informed," Chakotay answered before he could ask. "Their space is vast, we've really got no way of going around it. We'll have to go through it. I'm open to suggestions."

"During previous encounters with them, people were able to beam aboard their ships and encounter no resistance. Apparently they weren't a threat. Surely one ship flying through their space is less of a threat than an incursion," Harry said.

Chakotay didn't look so sure. "We're going to need a little more than that."

"What can we do other than dodging any signs of a cube?" Tom commented.

B'Elanna looked a little disgusted for some reason. Anyone who saw it were a little confused. "I have a really bad idea."

Chakotay stared with a curious look. "I know we joke about it, but we can't attack the Borg with Neelix's cooking."

Neelix pouted, "I don't see the Borg being bribed, somehow."

B'Elanna tried not to laugh, it still didn't help her nausea. "No. We have someone onboard who used to own a ship with a cloaking device. Perhaps with some... persuasion he'll help us install that on Voyager." She saw Tuvok's eyebrow raise. "I know it's against some treaty that the Federation signed, but I hardly think it applies out here. There's no Romulans to piss off here, is there?"

"Damien?" Harry was surprised. "That guy hates us, still not sure why, he won't want to help. He's only here cos that said ship was destroyed anyway."

"Maybe he will if it means avoiding being assimilated by the Borg," B'Elanna said.

Chakotay nodded. "That ship was destroyed by a ship from the future, hardly a fault with the cloak."

"No but it means unless he's memorised the technical specifications, the cloak's just a dream in a mad man's head," Harry pointed out.

"We can only ask," Tom smiled. "And get laughed at. Where's the harm?"

"If the lack of a cloak threatens his own life, Mr Damien will have no choice but to consider helping us," Tuvok said. "If you recall the mission with the time ship he did assist us."

"Yeah cos he wanted to play Captain," Harry muttered.

Tom gave him a nudge with his elbow, "still a little sore about that, Harry?"

"Still, if the situation benefits him, he will render aid," Tuvok said.

Chakotay sighed, "all right. I'll ask him. We still need another plan in case he just laughs at me or can't do it."

The room was silent as everyone tried to think of an alternative to what was already said. Eventually Harry spoke up meekly, "why can't we use Neelix's cooking against them? They assimilate it, they eat it, they're all stuck in their Sickbay with food poisoning for months."

Neelix looked a little confused, "I don't get it."

Chakotay smirked at the Ensign, "I'll consider it. Unfortunately we're ducking, covering and asking a mad villain wannabe for help. Whoever complained about the last few months being uneventful, this is all your fault."

Everyone looked at Tom immediately. His eyes widened slightly. "What? I'm the last guy who wanted action. Apart from time travel escapades, my last bit of action nearly got me eaten and not sleeping for weeks." Most of the room groaned when he said eaten, B'Elanna was one of the few who didn't. She gave him a sympathetic smile at the last part.

"I still see him sometimes, looking at me. Like he was blaming me... god," he whispered. Under the table B'Elanna took his hand, he clutched it tightly. "No wonder Jessie can't even look at me... I can't stop making it all about me, stop it."

"You didn't do anything wrong, you survived," B'Elanna said softly.

Harry smiled slightly and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"Okay if that's all, dismissed," Chakotay said uncomfortably.

As it usually was the Ready Room was dark, the only light came from the computer on the desk. Everytime he came in he wasn't prepared for the look and feel of the office now. The usual smell of coffee was a forgotten memory. The plants she used to keep had withered and died. Even her old tea cup set had long since been destroyed. It broke his heart everytime he came in here.

"I figured I should discuss our only plans with you before I proceed," Chakotay had said. As usual it took a while for her to respond to anything, so he waited patiently.

Eventually Kathryn's shadow moved slightly, he saw her head turn to the left. "Cloak?" she said quietly.

"It's still risky. We know the Borg adapt to technology they've already assimilated. Damien's cloak, we dunno where he got it," Chakotay said.

Another silence took over the room for a while. "He built it."

"So he says. You want me to ask him then?" Chakotay asked. He just managed to catch a nod. "Okay. If we avoid cubes and use a cloak, we could make it. I don't know how long we'll have to keep it up, hopefully..."

"Dismissed Commander," Kathryn said barely louder than a whisper.

Chakotay nodded and turned to leave Kathryn alone in the dark again.

Damien had been laughing a while, so long in fact Chakotay had resorted to reading a PADD to pass the time. Eventually he stopped and wiped a few stray tears from his eye.

"You're really pathetic, aren't you?" he said finally.

Chakotay sighed, "yes, but after asking Neelix's help we've already scraped the bottom of the barrel."

Damien's smirk turned into a scowl. "Admit it, you're here because you know I'm smarter than all of you. Better. You need me."

"Then I'm sure the Borg will be getting a treat when they find us. Forget it," Chakotay grumbled. He turned to leave.

Damien chuckled, "nicely played, but I've dealt with those imbeciles before. They talk big, but they're just a lost bunch of misfits with a catsuit addiction that'll make you sick. Don't think of them as clever, though they may be smarter than you, they're just mindless lemmings. They..."

"Perhaps them assimilating you is not a bad idea. You'll bore them to death," Chakotay interrupted. "I'll prepare a shuttle..."

"You don't want them assimilating me. I know more than you could imagine," Damien said. "I even know of an advantage, something you can use against them." He sat down behind the Commander's own desk, he glared at him for it. A quick glance at the computer and Damien put on a fake pout. "Aaw, it might be a little soon for that."

"What are you talking about?" Chakotay questioned.

Damien's smile came back. "Do you really think the Borg are the biggest bad's around here? Think again. Though for now, I could help you hide. It won't matter later on though. I know what your Captain is like, I know what she's capable of."

Chakotay rolled his eyes, he marched over to lean on his own desk. Damien's smile turned into smirk as he put on the most threatening glare he could muster. "She's not here, I am."

"Yeah and why's that? Oh yeah, dead son. That was a bummer," Damien teased.

Chakotay's eyes widened as his face drained of any colour. "How... how did you know about that?"

"I told you," Damien sneered. "I know more than you think."

Chakotay reached out to grab him by his jacket, he pulled him over as close as possible. The smirk was temporarily wiped off. "I said how."

"She gave him up this time, didn't she? It made her just as pissy as I remember her," Damien didn't answer. He smirked again despite his predicament. "That spells trouble for you and I. She's rash, volatile and ready to sacrifice her own crew to get what she wants. Only now that he's kicked it, she's going to care even less."

Chakotay's grip on him loosened a little, Damien was able to clench his fist in front of his face. It immediately unclenched and went flat. "Boom," he whispered.

"God," Chakotay groaned. He let go of him, the hapless ex-villain fell on top of the table immediately. "I'd get more sense out of Neelix listing his pie ingredients."

Damien laughed as he pushed himself back onto his feet. "You've all forgotten, I haven't, it's okay. I'll help you with your little cloak, but remember this. When the going gets tough, Janeway gets mad. Since she's already mad, you can't even imagine what she'll do. You can at least say goodbye to your precious Voyager."

Chakotay shook his head, he could feel his eyes starting to roll again.

"Again," Damien sneered.

Chakotay frowned, "what again?"

Damien laughed again. "If she does crack, let me deal with her. I owe her for the last time." He headed for the door, still smirking away.

Chakotay held his arm out in front of him to stop him from leaving. "What last time?"

"The last time she got us all killed over her freak spawn, of course," Damien said like it was obvious. He ducked to get passed him. Chakotay was too busy trying to figure out what he was talking about to stop him leaving.

First Officer's Log Stardate 50767.4: We've been in Borg Space for nearly two weeks and so far we've been able to avoid a confrontation. B'Elanna and Damien have been working on a cloaking device for the remainder of the trip, I have been informed it is ready for testing. I only hope that putting up with Damien's tall tales have been worth it.

B'Elanna had gotten used to wearing ear muffs to work. They didn't completely drown out all the noise, but as Damien was still alive they obviously worked enough. Unfortunately now was one of those brief times where she had to listen to the moron's babbling's. She had pushed the right muff to behind her ear, but that was all she was giving him.

"... could blow us up to smithereens," he said.

B'Elanna was again used to him saying Voyager was going to blow up, so she wasn't sure whether she should ask him to repeat himself or not. This was the test day so she decided to take the chance. "What?"

Damien sighed loudly. "If we don't get the power feeding to that unit, it could overload and blow us up." He looked behind him at the current command duo, "where do you get these idiots?"

B'Elanna clenched her fist and also looked at them. Chakotay's soft smile settled her down a little. "I think we rescued you from your ship exploding, but I could be wrong."

Damien only rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, turning it around on me so I'm the idiot I'm talking about. That one's never been done before. You're so clever!"

"Jesus, we all took James's sarcasm for granted, didn't we?" B'Elanna groaned. She resisted yet another urge to smack the man in the face. "In case you haven't noticed, I've muted you out most of the time. Something I think everyone should do."

"Ah, that's why my warnings about the unit on Deck Thirteen, section two have been ignored," Damien sneered. He shrugged, "can't get a monkey to do a genius's work. Excuse me." He wandered off towards the Jeffries tube.

Now that he was gone, both Chakotay and Tuvok dared to approach a seething B'Elanna.

"What's that about a unit without power?" Chakotay asked.

B'Elanna groaned angrily. "Ugh, the units installed to generate the cloak on only one deck have been giving us trouble. The power keeps getting drawn elsewhere."

"Ah, Deck Thirteen strikes again," Chakotay commented.

Tuvok's nodded in agreement. "Indeed, 97% of the malfunctions over the last year have been situated on that deck. It warrants an investigation."

"I'm already on it," B'Elanna growled. "I'm not the only one not listening. I told him that I sent a team down there just an hour ago to fix the unit, and that we wouldn't start the test till it was done. I'll be glad when it's operational."

"How long do you think it'll be? The longer we go on without a Borg attack, the more paranoid the crew seems to get," Chakotay questioned.

B'Elanna was about to reply when a team of three entered Engineering, she sighed in relief. "Let's find out." She walked over to confront them. "Status?"

"It's working Lieutenant," one of the team members replied. They looked relieved when she did, like it wasn't safe until then.

"Yeah, one of the connectors had been fried. We determined that too much power had gone through it," a second member answered.

B'Elanna was about to interrogate them further but the first member sensed it. "We made sure to test if it would do that again. We did it many times. Just in case we installed a new unit and tested that too. No problems."

"Good," B'Elanna smiled. "To answer your question, Commander, only five minutes."

Chakotay nodded, "excellent. Get Damien back before he ruins it and we'll get started. We'll be on the Bridge." B'Elanna pulled a disgusted face as she looked back to where Damien had gone.

He and Tuvok turned to leave. They were only metres away from the door when it opened for someone else. They were both surprised to see a distressed looking Kes.

"Commander, Lieutenant," she stuttered in between heavy breathing. "We have to turn around."

"What?" Chakotay could only say. He noticed she was trembling violently. He placed a gently hand on her shoulder. "Why don't we talk about this outside."

All three of them quickly left Engineering to join the quiet corridor. They didn't go much further.

"I saw... Voyager, the Borg and something, something else," Kes stuttered. "It's not just the Borg we need to worry about but..."

"You had a vision?" Tuvok stated. Kes nodded. "Perhaps we should examine what you saw further. Your telepathic abilities..."

"There's no time," Kes stuttered. "You are about to activate the cloak, it happens soon. We must turn around."

"Kes, calm down. If we turn around we'll still be in Borg space for another two weeks, it's not that easy," Chakotay tried to assure her.

"Voyager will be destroyed," Kes said.

Chakotay looked at Tuvok, as usual he looked calm. "Kes, until your abilities have been disciplined, your visions will be inaccurate, out of order. We need you to go through what happened again, but calmly."

"We don't have time!" Kes stammered. "They will find us and kill us. They will not stop, I'm certain of that."

"How do you know the cloak being activated is a sign of it about to happen?" Chakotay asked.

Kes shook her head. "I cannot explain it. I saw it, it was apart of the vision so it must have some relevance."

"Perhaps we should delay the cloaking test until we can examine her vision," Tuvok suggested.

Chakotay shook his head, "if she's right and it happens when we test it or activate it later, it won't matter if we do it or not. I'll update the Captain but I think she'll want us to go through with it anyway."

"We should turn around, change course. The Borg must know where we are," Kes said.

"You take care of that," Chakotay said to Tuvok. "I'll get Harry to check the long range sensors. Must be something we've missed." He turned back to Kes, "don't worry. Visions are warnings, right? They're not definite."

"I hope you're right," Kes whispered.

The Bridge:
Tom finished what he was doing, he looked behind him. "We're a couple lightyears down a different path, Commander."

"Good," Chakotay sighed in relief. He glanced over to the Engineering station. "We're ready." The person manning it only nodded and pressed one command.

In Engineering B'Elanna was seconds away from knocking Damien into a coma. He held onto her pair of ear muffs behind his back. The console they were both at beeped at them both.

"Okay, Bridge says we're ready," she said.

Damien smiled proudly, "I shall do the honours." His hand went forward to press something. B'Elanna slapped it away and did it instead.

Voyager continued its journey at high warp. Suddenly its entire hull shimmered before disappearing completely.

"It's working," Harry reported. "We're also getting reports from the crew who would normally see parts of the hull through a window. We're cloaked."

Chakotay looked relieved, he glanced at Kes sitting beside him. She looked even more tense than she was before.

"Okay. Keep us on course and..." Chakotay said. He was cut off by the ship lurching forward violently. Red Alert activated immediately. "Report!"

Harry was shaking quite a lot, "it came out of nowhere..."

Tuvok interrupted him, "Borg Cube, directly behind us. It appeared to come out of transwarp a second after we cloaked."

"I didn't see it," Harry stuttered.

Chakotay stared straight ahead of him, then at Kes. "They must have seen us before we cloaked."

"And they saw us do it," Kes whispered.

Chakotay cursed inwardly as he climbed out of his chair. Another jolt almost pushed him back. "If we weren't on their assimilation list, we are now. Change our course, Tom. Hopefully we can throw them off if they can't see us."

Tom nodded, "yes sir."

The Ready Room doors opened. It was a bigger shock than the Borg attack, especially when they saw Kathryn walk out of it. Her hair was unkempt and a lot longer than it usually was. The bags under her eyes seemed to be half way down to her nose. She also wasn't in full uniform, all that she had was the grey tank top and black trousers. Both of which were wrinkled from over use.

"What's going on?" she hissed.

Chakotay cringed, "the Borg. We think they saw us activate the cloak."

The ship shook a few more times, Tom winced with each one. "They're closing in, almost in tractor range."

"They're following?" Chakotay questioned.

Tom nodded, "looks like."

"They're following the cloak, not the ship," Damien said from the turbolift. He stepped off it. "I could explain but it'd be too comp..."

"You mean your perfect cloak isn't perfect. Colour me surprised," Chakotay groaned.

Kathryn glared at the ex-villain. The sight of her made him cringe, but smirk afterwards. "Woah, having your kid become vampire dinner isn't a good look for you, Kathy."

Most of the Bridge looked confused, if they weren't in the middle of an attack they'd have stopped and stared at the two in question. One person however did, leaving the Engineering console unwatched.

"What do you mean, her kid?" Jessie grumbled.

Damien jumped when he saw her as well. She wasn't the Jessie he was used to. It looked like she had made no real effort to dress herself up as she usually did. She looked almost casual, like she just planned to sit on the sofa all day. Her hair was lazily tied in a ponytail that hadn't been touched in a day, and even slept with. Like Kathryn her eyes showed everyone that she hadn't slept properly in many months, it didn't help that she had neglected her usual make up routine.

"I thought the vampire dinner part would be the OMG part. That's interesting," he snickered in Kathryn's direction.

Tom had turned a lot paler at the memory. It made him feel sick again. "Oh god, please don't."

Kathryn kept her deadly glare on Damien enough to make him wither at it. She made her way over to the command centre once she had achieved that. "Can you fix it?"

"Of course," Damien muttered. He headed over to the Engineering station, another jolt made him stumble on route. He tried to ignore the looks the person manning it was giving him. "This is what happens when other people do your work. They'll be picking up the trace radiation from the emitters, I had a way to counter it. It should have..."

Another hit pulled everyone backwards violently, a few consoles did their usual explosions.

"That's it. Change course," Damien said.

Tom briefly glanced back at Chakotay, he nodded.

The Borg cube fired another green torpedo ahead of it. When it collided with something, the hull of Voyager and its shields became visible for a second. Soon after it disappeared from sight again, the outline of the ship appeared, distorted. Another hit did the same thing, only this time that lone part stayed visible for a lot longer while the rest of Voyager remained mostly hidden.

"That last hit destroyed a few of the emitters, the cloak is failing!" Harry reported.

"Damn it," Damien growled.

Tom clutched onto his console with one hand, the other hand finished tapping the course correction in. "Course changed."

The wait to see if it worked seemed like an eternity, almost everyone held their breath and hoped. The trembling had stopped, but they still waited for the word.

Harry sighed in relief, "they're not pursuing."

"Stand down Red Alert," Chakotay ordered.

"I wouldn't," Damien commented. "The cloak's damaged, it could fail at any minute. As soon as it does they'll find us."

"Stop whining and do something about it," Kathryn hissed.

Damien's eyes narrowed in her direction, but her deadly death glare looked even worse than it usually did. He felt a bit nervous, and tried to cover that up with a smug glance. "I do it because it benefits me." Kathryn kept her stare on him as he quickly ran out into the nearest turbolift.

"That prick always drives me to a drink," she grumbled whilst walking back to her Ready Room.

Chakotay let out a deep sigh. "We need another plan and fast. I knew we couldn't rely solely on the cloak." He turned to Kes, "we need to talk. What happens next?"

Kes stared straight ahead at the viewscreen, her eyes still a little wide in terror.

"Kes?" Chakotay tried again.

Kes slowly glanced at him, "they won't stop. They'll destroy us."

"Yay for optimism," Tom muttered to himself.

Kes shook her head, "we have one advantage. The Borg they... have a weakness. It'll only buy us time though."

Chakotay remembered something that Damien had said earlier, it unnerved him more than he liked.

"This is only going to get worse and worse," Tom commented. He felt everyone's eyes staring at him. "What, I'm just hoping jinxing works both ways."

Chakotay rolled his eyes just as Kathryn walked out of the Ready Room again, holding a cup. "Yeah, I don't think so Tom." He then noticed the cup, seeing her do that made him smile a little. It didn't last as the smell wafting from it wasn't coffee. It almost smelt like tea. "But we can only hope you're right."

Two Weeks Later

Voyager dropped out of warp, leaving behind a trail of smoke leaking from its warp drives. Seconds later a Borg cube dropped out of warp too and followed the starship. It immediately starting firing weapons at it. Parts of the ship seemed to be shimmering, changing shape.

The Bridge was in shambles; debris lay everywhere, a fire was burning at the back, a lot of the stations were blackened and off.

"They're readying the tractor beam," Harry reported.

"Warp isn't responding." Tom quickly tapped away, "evasive maneuvers."

Harry looked over his shoulder as the remaining bit of his rear station beeped at him. "The molecular structure of the hull is weakening."

"Kes," Chakotay whispered.

Meanwhile Kathryn was guiding an exhausted Kes down a corridor. An explosion ripped out the wall behind them, throwing them forward into a wall that was still in one piece.

"I can't stop it," Kes stuttered. "I'm sorry."

Kathryn quickly tapped her commbadge. "Janeway to Bridge. Lock onto Kes' commbadge signal, beam her to the shuttle bay."

"Stand by," Harry's voice said.

Kathryn looked at the girl she had her arm around, she could barely stand anymore and looked almost ready to pass out.

"I can't, the molecules in Kes' body is unstable. I can't get a lock."

"It looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way, as usual," Kathryn grumbled. She tried to lift the exhausted woman from the wall to her feet. "Hold on."

Kes knew she had no choice, she ran with her down the corridor the best she could. More explosions ripped through the walls behind them.

Finally they arrived at the shuttle bay doors, where Tuvok stood waiting for them. He quickly approached the two of them. His hands went immediately to Kes' face to perform a meld. Kathryn backed off to let him do that, the thought of Kes leaving made her feel a little bitter.

"Our minds are one..." Tuvok groaned as whatever was happening to Kes was too much for him. "Are thoughts are one. Try to regain control for a moment. Just for a moment. Only for a moment." A shock flew through his mind, he was pushed back into the wall.

"You must hurry," he told Kathryn.

"Hull breaches on Decks three, four and five," Harry's voice reported.

"Emergency containment fields, now!" Chakotay's voice barked.

Kathryn held onto Kes before she could fall to the ground. She gently guided her into the shuttle bay.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt..." Kes whispered.

The two made their way into the nearest shuttlecraft. Kathryn opened the door.

Kathryn glanced at her briefly, "it's okay, it's not your fault. You can still stay."

"I can't. Look what's happening," Kes pleaded with her.

Kathryn stared into her desperate eyes, she nodded. "Good luck." With that she guided the Ocampan into the shuttle.

Once she was sat down, Kathryn backed away and rushed outside it.

"You too," Kes said as the doors shut.

The Bridge:
"The Borg will go after her, this is a stupid plan," Jessie grunted from the side of the Bridge.

Tom sighed, "we're not going to be much better. If I don't keep us clear, the tractor beam will hit us and we know what happens next."

Chakotay stood in the centre of the Bridge in deep thought.

"Kes is in the shuttle," Kathryn's voice reported.

"Acknowledged," Chakotay said. "If you can keep her covered, Tom."

Tom nodded, "I'll certainly try."

On the viewscreen the shuttle escaped and flew ahead of them. Voyager continued to shake.

"It's happening, it's happening to me," Kes' voice said.

"Her molecules are completely destabilising, so is the shuttle," Harry said, the ship shaking almost interrupted him. This one seemed a lot more violent than the others.

"They've got us," Tom stuttered. "They're pulling us in!"

There was no time to react to that, three figures dematerialised around the Bridge. The closest one to the helm went straight for Tom. Everyone who was armed quickly reached for their phasers.

Tom barely had time to glance over his shoulder, the drone was almost on him. A phaser shot slammed into its back, bringing it straight to its knees. Tom looked over to where the phaser fire came from, the only person in that direction was Jessie. He swore he saw a satisfied smirk on her face, the one she used after hitting someone she thought wronged her. He thought that he imagined it, that Jessie died a long time ago.

The remaining two drones were also shot down. Unfortunately all three were soon replaced seconds later.

Inside the shuttle Kes smiled as her entire body looked like it was fading away.

"Don't worry, I won't abandon you," she said. Light began to take over, consuming her.

The same happened to the shuttle. The light pierced the space around it, the shuttle could not be seen anymore. It continued to grow until it collided with Voyager.

Engineering:
"Rotate the frequency!" one crewmember yelled as phaser fire rung around the room.

B'Elanna swung around as the warp core suddenly sprung to life. "What?"

On the bridge everything was still shaking, the viewscreen was filled with blinding light. Even the invading drones seemed to be affected by it. Two were shot down. Jessie fired at the last one, but the shot bounced off its green shields. Seeing her as a threat, he headed straight for her.

Kathryn rushed out of the turbolift, she glowered at the last remaining invader.

"Damn it," Jessie growled as she quickly attempted to change the settings on the phaser.

"Bridge, the core is back online. Matter antimatter reaction is at 110%, no 120%... I don't understand."

Everyone felt the ship suddenly jerk forward, they each held onto the closest thing they could. Luckily for Jessie the drone about to attack her fell to the floor, she did as well.

Now the viewscreen showed the stars streaming ahead of them, only a lot faster than they were used to.

"My god, this speed. It's impossible," Tom stuttered.

The last remaining back stations exploded, Harry ducked as opps did. "We're coming apart!" he yelled over the noise.

The battered Voyager dropped out of warp as suddenly as it began. It finally came to a stop.

"We just dropped out of... whatever it was we were in," Tom reported.

Jessie quickly pulled herself back up and armed the phaser. She held off though when she saw the drone lying on the ground, with smoke rising from it. Kathryn stood over it, snarling at it whilst holding an upside down cup.

"Adapt to that," Kathryn growled at the unfortunate drone. She tossed the cup at its head, naturally it smashed.

Chakotay stared at her with wide eyes, he wasn't the only one. Jessie looked shocked that Kathryn seemed to be the one who saved her.

"Hot tea kills Borg drones. I'll have to remember that," Chakotay stuttered.

Kathryn rolled her eyes, "it's only unconscious. Either do a Locutus on it, or chuck it out the airlock." Tuvok tapped his commbadge to contact a Security team as he walked over to the drone.

"What just happened? Besides that," Chakotay said, gesturing at the unconscious invader.

Tom couldn't believe what he was seeing on his station. "We're ten thousand light years from where we just were."

"We're out of Borg space," Chakotay couldn't believe it either. "Kes saved us."

Kathryn didn't feel like they were out of the woods yet, looking around her battered Bridge didn't help. "You're half right. Tuvok..." Tuvok glanced at her. "Contact every department head, do a head count. I want to make sure all of our guests have kicked it."

"Yes Captain," Tuvok nodded. He stepped into the nearby turbolift.

"Chakotay, I want a full damage report," Kathryn ordered.

Chakotay nodded, he rushed over to take over Tactical.

Kathryn glanced around at everyone else, the last person she checked on was Jessie. She had taken a few steps closer to her. Kathryn winced a little. She hadn't yet noticed how different Jessie looked, she hadn't seen her for nearly a year, it took her by surprise.

"Thanks," she said, almost shyly.

Kathryn shook her head, "forget it. It's what he would have wanted."

Jessie reacted the way she expected. She appeared to swallow a large lump in her throat, her eyes started to tear up. In the end she nodded and turned her back on her to return to her station.

"We'll get out of this yet," Kathryn tried to tell herself. It didn't work, a feeling of dread still lingered over her. "We'll be okay."

A few weeks had passed and Voyager still looked like the Borg's punching bag. It wasn't alone though. Two large and very bulky ships were on its tail and bow. One of them charged and fired a large torpedo at the already damaged ship. Like they weren't even there the torpedo went straight through its shields and slammed into the hull.

"Hail them again!" Kathryn hissed towards Opps.

"They're responding," Harry sighed in relief.

Kathryn armed her best glare, it was almost deadly enough to melt steel. As an alien man appeared on the viewscreen looking smug, it took everything she had to stop herself from charging over and actually punching the screen.

"Why have you attacked us? We've done nothing wrong and clearly we were already in distress," Kathryn barked at him.

"You have breached Krenim space. That act is a hostile one, punishable by death," the alien man sneered as he swiveled in his chair.

Chakotay's eyes widened, he shared that stare with everyone who was mostly doing the same. "Krenim, like the ones Kes warned us about after her backwards time travelling."

Tuvok gave him a knowing glance, he glanced down to work at Tactical.

"We've tried to contact you, but all we've received is a torpedo in our hull. As you can see we've already suffered damage, we're not a threat," Kathryn said.

"What is your reason for violating our borders?" the man only said.

Kathryn could tell that whatever her answer was, he was going to do the same thing as he did before. "Obviously we're trying to conquer your entire sector of space by throwing pieces of debris from our own ship at you, you overcompensating little prick."

The man looked amused, but not for the reason a lot of the Bridge crew hoped. "I would prefer to seize your vessel before it is barely worth recycling for scrap. Surrender now and I will forego the execution of your crew."

"Maybe you should give up and I will forego the shoving of my fist in your face," Kathryn growled.

Chakotay looked very uneasy at this point and he wasn't the only one.

The man ignored her threats, everyone assumed his ship was immune to the death glare rays. "Prepare to be boarded." He disappeared off the screen.

"If Kes' account is correct, matching the shield frequency to the temporal variance of the Krenim weapons should protect us," Tuvok explained. "I am inputting it now." The entire ship shuddered as another torpedo blast ripped straight into the hull.

"Yes yes, just do it," Kathryn muttered.

Voyager maneuvered to dodge another incoming shot, as it did the second enemy ship also fired. This torpedo flew straight towards the top of the saucer. As the others it slipped straight through the shields and punched a hole straight through the ready room, just missing the bridge.

The Bridge felt the impact, none more so than Tactical and the Engineering station. Tuvok was tossed away from his station by the blow, just in time for it to explode afterwards. The Engineering station however had exploded on impact, sending its occupant flying hard onto the ground.

Kathryn was the first to respond, as she rushed over to where she landed, she glanced over to check on a still moving Tuvok. Crewmembers at the back of the bridge helped him up. Kathryn realised as soon as she knelt down beside her other fallen crewmember, that this one wasn't as lucky.

"Jessie?" she barely mumbled as her hand quickly checked to see if she had a pulse. "Damn it," she snapped when she couldn't find it.

Tom glanced over his shoulder, a lump formed in his throat. "Ohno..."

Kathryn climbed to her feet, she shook her head in rage. "Harry, reroute Tactical to any station we have left. We need those shields, and we need something to shove down those assholes throats," she ordered in a cold voice.

Harry looked a little shaken, he nodded. "Yes ma'am. Rerouting to the console next to the Captain's chair."

"Good," Kathryn snarled. She hurried back to her chair, barely breaking a sweat as the next hit tried to throw her off. "What was the temporal frequency?" she asked anyone.

"One point four seven," she heard Tuvok answer as he was carted off to Sickbay.

"In the mean time get us out of the Krenim borders, Tom," Chakotay ordered.

"No argument here," Tom said.

Voyager tried to turn and escape from its attackers, but they followed and continued their assault. Their attempt to escape seemed to anger them further, they fired even more shots than before.

One hit slammed a little too close to the starboard warp nacelle. It was enough to slow the starship to a stop. Lights were beginning to flicker on and off. One of the vessels overtook to get a few shots in at the front of the ship.

"Impulse engines have taken a hit, we've got thrusters only," Tom started to panic.

"Hail them again," Chakotay ordered.

Kathryn threw him one of her glares, "unless you want to surrender and be tortured, you will belay that order Commander." Chakotay sighed, he knew she was right. However they didn't have much choice. "I just need a few more seconds."

"We don't have it. They're targeting the nacelles again," Harry warned.

Tom glanced back at his friend, "thrusters may get us away in time, hold on."

Kes' consciousness seemed to float, she felt like she could be almost anywhere at any time. Her instincts had told her to keep careful watch of her former colleagues, she believed that push forward would not solve all of their problems. Kes would have sent them further but she could not risk overpowering their warp core.

Right now she believed it would have been worth the risk. Until she realised the full scope of her powers, all she could do now was watch as her friends were mercilessly attacked by a bunch of territory driven ego maniacs. She had seen for herself the damage they were capable of, yet even with her warnings Voyager was still no match for them.

Kes tried to reach out to help them, but it was too late.

"No," her whole being cried as the starship crippled under the last blow. All that was left were pieces of tiny debris. Now that she had evolved she could no longer physically cry, she still felt the way she would if she did though. It hurt a lot more that way.

Suddenly images began flashing in front of her. They appeared so fast, it was hard to keep them separate.

Voyager flies into a strange anomaly. It vanishes moments later.

A smaller starship than Voyager tries to land in the middle of a city. Unlike Voyager it isn't designed for it, it lands roughly. A strange cube shaped object falls from the sky above them.

James' body falls to the ground, it lies in the grass motionless. A group of people swarm around him, hiding him from her sight.

A M-class planet flashes purple, it fades and is replaced by a huge uninhabitable rock. It crumbles to pieces.

A young girl she had never seen before, laughs as she plays with another child close to her age.

Kathryn cradles a newborn baby. Chakotay and the Doctor smile nearby.

The girl from before disappears.

The boy she played with is attacked from behind by a strange man. He disappears as well.

The girl is older, she's crying. She's replaced by a different girl with bright blue eyes after she is engulfed in a white light.

Voyager flies towards the same planet as before. The ship flashes in and out of existence. When it disappears, the planet shifts between purple or disappears completely. Voyager eventually flies into complete darkness.

The cube almost hits the smaller ship, instead Voyager flashes into its place and is ripped apart.

Voyager is destroyed by the Krenim again.

A Borg Sphere approaches Voyager.

The girl from before is young again, she holds hands with an older looking James. Suddenly she's a teenager, but he's somehow younger, closer to the age Kes remembered him.

A shuttle flies into a strange looking anomaly.

The cube goes back into the sky, leaving the other ship behind. An image of the planet from before flashes over it.

The girl raises two weapons, she's nervous but ready for a fight. Standing beside her is James who does the same. The image moves, almost zooms out from them. Her view of them almost disappears as it flies over hundreds of figures, each of them standing opposing the two.

Voyager lifts off after a cube has left them.

Kathryn approaches the girl and the blue eyed girl.

Voyager flies with a Borg cube unharmed.

James' body falls to the ground again, only this time he rolls to one side and gets back up again.

The planet appears normal as Voyager flies into its orbit.

The girl smiles.

The images drained all of Kes' energy. Once they were over she tried to piece them all together, they made very little sense to her. The cube, the other ship, the girl and the planet were the primary focus of a lot of the images. She had never seen any of them before, she had no idea what they meant.

Once her energy began to come back to her, Kes decided to focus on the parts she did understand. The part that troubled her the most was the images of Voyager's destruction. If only she could fix that. Maybe once she had access or knowledge of her full powers, she could.

She wondered why she was sent those images, a lot of them didn't happen to Voyager and now that it was gone they still couldn't. Perhaps that is why she saw those images, they were telling her that she could save them and that was their future.

Even then it still didn't make sense. There was one minor detail that eluded her. James died a long time before Voyager did, why was he all over the images? Kes was thankful she no longer had a body, so to speak, or her head would have been thumping.

It then occurred to her. These images were just fragments; what caused them, what happened after them? They must be linked in some way, perhaps if she filled in those gaps she'd be able to connect the dots. She started with the earliest one, the simplest one; James' death. In one of the flashes he died as before, but the other he didn't. What happened after he did, and what would change if he didn't? Perhaps the people in the same awayteam wouldn't have died as well, the attackers may not have escaped. She had no way of knowing.

There was only way to find out. Voyager's fate was not going to get any worse.

Part Two <<  >> Part Four