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Episode Synopsis
Voyager encounters an entire fleet of adrift ships surrounding the USS Leda, a Starfleet ship which disappeared over 90 years ago.

Written
8th - 11th March 2003

Edited for Reboot
26th October 2012

Episode Based In
September 2371 (very late season 1)

The Mess Hall:
The room was pretty much quiet. Neelix was busy cleaning up, an odd few crewmembers were sitting drinking tea or coffee. Tom, James, Thompson and Foster were sitting at their own table.

"Do you do this every single day?" Tom asked in a moaning voice.

"No, not always. I usually find much better things to do," James replied.

"Yeah me too," Thompson said.

"What, make out with O'Hara?" James said.

"Yes, it's better to do that than wander around the ship all day long," Thompson said.

"Whoever said that working at the helm is tedious never worked in a Security Team," Tom said.

"Get used to it, I have to work here until my punishment period is over," Foster said.

"Foster you work here full time," Thompson muttered.

"Oh yeah, keep forgetting," Foster said.

"Well I'm going, see you guys tomorrow," Tom said. He stood up and left the room.

"I'd rather have Threepwood back, I really would. Moan, moan, moan, moan," Thompson said.

"Threepwood did that too," James said.

"Yeh but I was used to his moaning. I don't want to have to practise getting used to his," Thompson said.

"Don't, just keep your anger stored in your head until it turns you insane," James said.

"Ah, I see... it worked for you didn't it?" Thompson said.

"No, I always let it out. You know like this," James said, he smacked Thompson in the back of the head.

"Fine, I'm going," Thompson muttered. He got up and walked out in a hurry.

Foster looked at his watch. "Don't let me stop you from going," James said.

"No it's not that, my brother will be home soon," Foster muttered as he stood up. He shuddered, then walked off.

James finished the drink he had, and finished all the others on the table too. He stood up, then headed towards the further away door. The doors opened to reveal a much different corridor to the ones on Voyager. The walls were a light blue, and there was a square pattern on both sides.

He started down the corridor, further down there was the sound of people screaming. As he went further down the corridor the screams got louder. He slowed down, and turned the corner. He jumped a mile when some guy collapsed on the ground, as he choked to death.

Some other people ran down the corridor, a few collapsed with really dry skin. The others stopped as they stopped breathing, they collapsed too. James rushed through them all, he eventually got to a large door.

He went through them and found himself in a large hall full of people, nobody was screaming or dying, everything was normal. All of the people were dressed in posh clothes, and some of them were drinking red wine. There was a table at the end of the room filled with untouched glasses of red wine.

James went over to the table, he picked up one of the glasses. He was about to turn around when he heard a strange whipping sound. He turned around finally, everything in the room had stopped. A sharp pain went through his hand, as he did the glass broke and shattered on to the floor.

Everyone in the room was dead quiet as the strange sound stopped. Suddenly, every single person fell to the ground. To his horror as they did so their bodies fell cleanly apart, like they had been sliced. The anguished groans haunting the room sent shivers down his spine, as severed arms seemed to still be able to spasm and twitch.

James looked down at his own hand, which had turned completely numb. He saw a massive cut right through it. It had also turned grossly pale. One slight movement, made the whole thing slide off his wrist and on to the floor.

Panicked, he backed away from the massacred bodies, he bumped into somebody tall. He turned around and...

Meanwhile, James/Jessie's Quarters:
Jessie sat up, she looked at James, who was kinda lying next to her. When I say kinda, I mean he's not staying still. She shook him roughly, "hey, wake up."

James woke up, he quickly sat up. The first thing he did was check his left hand, it was in one piece. He turned to Jessie. "What the... you're here again?"

Jessie looked behind her, then looked back, she grinned nervously. "Who are you talking to?"

"Look Jess, why don't you ask instead of sneaking into my bed when I'm asleep? You'll like your bed better if you actually sleep in it for a while," James asked as he rubbed the side of his face.

"It sounds a bit slutty saying, 'can I sleep with you again tonight?' Don't you think?" Jessie replied.

"Now that you mention it," James muttered as he got off the bed.

"Do you have nightmares everynight, or is it just when I'm around?" Jessie asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it, I'm sick," James replied.

Jessie climbed off the bed and went over to him. She felt his forehead. "Nope, you're not sick."

"Not that kind of sick," James said.

"Well it can't be Danny sick can it?" Jessie said in a worried tone.

"No, but it's kinda worse than that. I'm going to go for a walk," James said. He headed for the door while putting on his jacket.

"What happened to the 'wake me up and talk about it with me' thing?" Jessie asked.

"You don't want to hear about it, it was too gross," James replied. He left the room.

"Must have been the Janeway and his dad one again," Jessie muttered. She lay back down.

The Mess Hall:
James walked into total darkness. He went about two metres into the room, then he stopped. "Computer lights."

The lights went on, as they did there was a huge thud from the kitchen. James went over to it, slowly. Neelix suddenly stood up, they both jumped in shock.

"Oh I'm sorry, I was just preparing breakfast," Neelix said while trying to get his breath back.

"It's three in the morning," James muttered.

"Yes well, I couldn't sleep. I thought I'd start early. Speaking of which, do you want a glass of hot milk? I was going to get one myself," Neelix said as he left the kitchen.

"Erm, it's ok. I don't like milk hot," James said.

Neelix went over to the replicator. "Well the last thing anyone needs at this time, besides the night shift people, is caffeine. I'll get you a normal milk instead."

"Fine thanks," James said. He sat down at the nearest table. Neelix joined him holding two glasses of milk. He put them on the table.

"I'm sorry about the lights, I couldn't bring myself to switch them on," Neelix said.

"It was a good thing I did, I hate to know what you'd put in the breakfast when you can't see," James said.

"I know where everything is, I don't need the lights," Neelix said.

"So you have the lights off each time? I've just thought of a good prank," James said.

"Well, I don't actually so you can ditch your prank. I just had a weird dream earlier, involving the lights, I was afraid to switch them on," Neelix said.

"Oh, was Janeway there or something? You know, making out with some guy?" James asked.

Neelix looked confused, "no."

"Oh, so I'm going crazy. I keep having that dream," James said.

"Well that's nothing compared to my recent one," Neelix said.

"The guy was my dad," James muttered.

"Oh, I see," Neelix laughed.

"Not funny, besides I'd rather have that than have the dream I had earlier again. And I thought the Janeway one was hard to beat," James said.

"I have an idea for a new job for me. I could listen to crewmembers stories about their dreams, you know to help them sleep. That way I won't have time to sleep again," Neelix said while drumming his fingers on the table.

"Ok, you had a really screwy dream didn't you?" James said questioningly.

"Yes I did," Neelix said.

"Are you sure it didn't have Janeway in it?" James asked.

Neelix stared blankly at him. "No, there were lots of people, she may have been there."

"What happened?" James asked.

"You really want to know?" Neelix said in amazement.

"Sure, misery loves company, or in this case a bad dream story loves a second one," James said.

"Ok. I was busy cooking, in the dark. People were coming in, I could already hear lots of other people in the room already. As you may have guessed, I was in the Mess Hall. Anyway, I asked for the lights to come on, when I did everyone vaporised in a massive fire. It disappeared, just leaving me alive," Neelix said.

"Ah, so that's why you didn't have the lights on," James said.

"Yes exactly. I know it's silly, but the dream seemed so real," Neelix said.

"It's not silly, the first thing I did when I woke up was check if my hand was still there," James said.

Neelix's eyes widened. "Wha... what?"

"I won't go into bigger detail. I was on an alien ship, minding my own business, which is weird. Anyway, I saw people die in the corridors. I just ignored them and carried on. I went into a large hall, I went to the end of the room and I heard this weird sound. I turned around and everyone, well fell to bits," James replied.

Neelix turned a little pale, "um, maybe I don't want this milk after all." He pushed his milk away.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." James said.

"No it's ok, I should have guessed it would be this bad," Neelix said.

"Why?" James said questioningly.

Neelix looked nervous, he looked around like he was looking for somewhere to escape. "Um well, I've heard rumours about you. You know, people say you're creepy and you must have had a really bad past and stuff. You get the idea."

"When have I ever acted creepy? Yeah I've had a bad past, but I don't let it get to me all the time," James said.

"Yes well, somebody had to tell you about this," Neelix said.

"Wow, I have a sudden urge for caffeine, or maybe even tobacco," James said.

"Huh? What's tobacco?" Neelix asked.

"Nothing much, just don't tell anyone I did this," James replied, he lit a tab.

Neelix backed off, "fire, that things on fire!"

James quickly put the tab out, "oh god, sorry I forgot about the fire thing. Gee, it's a good thing I wasn't the one who wanted the dream counselling job."

"Yeah, you know it's ok. I just don't get why you'd put paper in your mouth and then set fire to it," Neelix said.

"No I didn't get it either, now I always need it when I get nervous. Damn nicotine," James said.

"Nicotine?" Neelix said questioningly.

"Forget it, I should just get some caffeine," James said. He stood up, then went over to the replicator.

"You'll be up all night thanks to that stuff," Neelix said.

"Yeh well, I don't think I can sleep again after that dream," James said. He turned around, holding a bottle of Cherry Coke. He heard that whipping noise again, then felt the same pain in his hand again. The bottle of Cherry Coke fell to the ground, in half by the way. A few seconds later James joined the bottle parts on the ground.

Neelix rushed over, he tapped his commbadge. "Neelix to Sickbay. Activate the EMH thing."

In: "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"James has just collapsed, his hand is severely cut," Neelix said.

The Bridge:
Danny was happily, yet tiredly (is that a word?) sitting at the helm, some unknown crewmembers were taking up other stations, Jessie was standing beside Danny at the helm.

"So you're not here to borrow rations, you're not here to bug me, why are you here?" Danny asked.

"I can't sleep, ok," Jessie replied.

"Why not, had a bad dream?" Danny asked in a voice you would use on a little kid.

Jessie rolled her eyes, "no James did."

Danny raised an eyebrow, and still managed to look confused. "How do you know, was he screaming? You really should check on him if he was, he could have been murdered."

"If you must know, I like sleeping in his bed," Jessie said quietly.

"Oooh," Danny said in her usual tone of voice.

"Just because of the bed, honestly," Jessie said.

"Really? Must be a nice bed, can I have it?" Danny asked.

"No, it's not mine remember. But I was thinking of swapping the beds, do you think he'll notice?" Jessie replied.

"Kinda yeah," Danny said while nodding her head.

"Too much of an effort," Jessie said.

"Exactly, why have your own private comfy bed, when you can share your 'practise' boyfriend's one?" Danny said.

"Believe me, I'd rather have my own. Everytime I sleep there he has nightmares, he must have them everynight. Luckily he doesn't wake up until I've already got up, but he always wakes me up when he has them," Jessie said.

"Maybe it would be worth the effort, after all," Danny said. Her console beeped loudly. "Hey this is odd. We've come out of warp, and it wasn't my fault this time."

"This time?" Jessie said questioningly.

"Must be a problem with the helm," Danny said, ignoring Jessie.

"Yeah, the helms the problem," Jessie said sarcastically.

"No seriously, you've been talking to me and I haven't pressed a button. The ship's been flying auto-pilot," Danny said.

"So why are you here if it's on auto-pilot?" Jessie asked.

"Shh, no one's suppose to know about that," Danny replied as a whisper. She looked around the room, she eventually looked back up at Jessie. "This is weird ok, I made the auto-pilot just go at warp 9 all night, it shouldn't have dropped out."

"You're right, this is weird. I'll check opps, that nameless crewman's very quiet," Jessie said. She went over to opps, the nameless crewman turned out to be a blow up doll. "Seriously Danny, a blow up doll?"

"No it's ok, he hasn't been there a while, the original's asleep in the Conference Room," Danny said.

"How long have I been in this room?" Jessie asked.

Sickbay:
The Doctor treated James' left hand as he lay on the biobed. Neelix was hovering nearby. The Doctor turned around and found Neelix right in his face.

"Well, what was wrong?" Neelix asked.

"Do you ask a lot of questions for everyone? I thought you saved that for Kes," the Doctor muttered in response. He went over to the medical tray.

"I just want to know," Neelix said.

The Doctor sighed, he turned back to Neelix. "He fell asleep, so it looks anyway. There was nothing wrong with him besides the cut hand."

"But he was only holding a Cherry Coke bottle, that couldn't of cut him," Neelix said.

"I'm a doctor, not an investigator. I'm sure there's a good explanation," the Doctor said. He walked into his office.

Neelix turned around, he jumped a mile. "Oh my god, when did you wake up?"

James climbed off the biobed, "just now. What's going on?"

"You collapsed in the Mess Hall, you cut your hand," Neelix replied.

"How exactly?" James asked.

"Good question, it was a very dramatic scene, hard to pay attention to the details," Neelix replied.

"Dramatic? The only part readers will be drama-thingy, whatever, about would be when the Cherry Coke went all over the floor. Oh my god, the Cherry Coke went all over the floor!" James stuttered.

"Oh my god, my carpet!" Neelix screeched.

James groaned, "so you have no idea what made the cut?"

Neelix shrugged, "no. Maybe you were just very tired like the Doctor said, and you got a broken bottle."

Suddenly the ship stopped abruptly, throwing people and things to the ground. James and Neelix climbed back onto their feet, the Doctor rushed in from the office.

"What happened?" he asked.

"How the hell are we supposed to know?" Neelix replied.

The Bridge:
Danny pulled herself off the console, eyes wide in panic. Everyone else pulled themselves to their feet.

"Oh god, that wasn't me," Danny stuttered.

Jessie looked at the opps station, "this is weird."

"Weird? I'm never going to be able to fly the ship again," Danny said.

"No, there's another ship there, we got pulled towards it by a gravity thingy," Jessie said.

Danny looked confused, "I didn't see a ship anywhere."

"Of course not, it was cloaked. It's kinda broken now, I'll show you," Jessie said.

The viewscreen changed view, it showed the side of the ship crashed up against a ship half invisible. Danny shuddered, "ooh that doesn't look pretty."

"Danny, it wasn't your fault and... oh my god," Jessie said.

"What?" Danny said.

"Well for starters the cloaked ship's adrift, it's been like that for about two weeks," Jessie said.

"What's the main course?" Danny asked.

"It's not alone, there are dozens of other ships in the same state. Oh there's something else," Jessie replied.

"Dessert?" Danny said questioningly.

"A Federation ship, it's ancient," Jessie said.

Kathryn, Tuvok, Tom and Harry rushed out of the turbolift. "Oh boy, now I'm in trouble," Danny muttered.

"What the hell have you done to my ship, Miss Scott?" Kathryn asked angrily.

"I didn't do anything, it just happened," Danny replied.

"Mr Paris, take over. Miss Scott must be a little tired to be flying the ship," Tuvok ordered.

"No, I didn't fall asleep at the helm. Jessie, tell them, there was a gravity pulling thingy," Danny said as she got out of her seat. Tom sat down in it looking a little too smug.

"Good excuse," Harry said as he joined Jessie at opps. "Oh, she's right."

Danny turned around smiling smugly, "see it wasn't my fault." Everyone just stared at her. "I'll be over there," Danny said as she pointed at the science station. She rushed over to it.

"Captain, we're in a ship graveyard. One ship appears to be Starfleet," Harry said.

"I just said that," Jessie muttered as she went to the Engineering station.

"How can another Starfleet ship be here, seventy odd years from Earth?" Kathryn asked.

"That's a much better question than you think, it's over ninety years old," Harry replied.

"A ship that old shouldn't even be able to get to warp nine, let alone go at that speed for the whole trip," Kathryn said.

"Exactly. Oh and according to the sensors it hasn't been in this area long, obviously it didn't travel at warp nine the whole way after all," Harry said.

"Wait a minute, I recognise that ship," Tom said.

"Wow Tom, here I was thinking you were in your late thirties," Danny said.

"No I don't mean I remember it personally, and I'm not even thirty yet," Tom said.

"Well you look it," Danny muttered.

"Where do you recognise it from?" Kathryn asked.

"I took Federation History at the Academy. I dunno why cos I always hated History, but if it wasn't for that ship I wouldn't have passed that exam. It was a really interesting subject," Tom replied.

"It's only a ship, big deal," Jessie said.

"Nah, this ship was a lemming from day one. Over forty people were killed in construction in bizarre accidents, one woman disappeared and was never seen again. When the ship was finally set off on its first mission, an epidemic quickly spread there. After a doctor visited the Leda, it disappeared," Tom said.

"Did you say Leda?" Danny said as she turned around.

"Yeah, you know about it?" Tom asked.

"Are you kidding? I had to do an assignment on that ship back in my disciplinary class. I know pretty much everything about it," Danny replied.

Kathryn folded her arms, "I don't remember anything about that ship."

"Not many teachers know about it, that's why," Tom said.

"Yeah, that ship was supposedly sent on a top secret military mission when it disappeared. Even the admirals around now don't know what that mission was, the info's been lost in time," Danny said.

"Well if it's a lemming ship, we really should not go near it," Kathryn said. Chakotay came onto the Bridge.

"What's going on?" Chakotay asked.

"Third time? Ok, keeping it brief. We crashed into dead ship, we're in a ship graveyard, there's a 90 year old ship called Leda here too," Jessie replied.

"Erm, right," Chakotay said.

"Well this all very nice, Tom pull us away from the other ship. We'd better start on repairs," Kathryn ordered.

"Aye aye," Tom said. He worked at his station but all he got were nasty beeps. "Captain, the gravity thing is stopping us from moving away."

Chakotay and Kathryn glanced at each other. Chakotay tapped his commbadge. "Bridge to Torres, we need your help up here."

Sickbay:
The room was filled with badly hurt patients. Kes rushed into the room, Lee followed not so rushy behind her. He yawned, "can't it wait a few hours?"

"Not really, Mr Williams. Remember, treat the more life threatening injuries first," the Doctor replied.

"Yeah yeah," Lee muttered.

The Doctor bumped into Neelix and James. "Either you two help, or go."

"Bye baldy," Neelix said. He rushed out.

The Doctor sighed, he shoved a hypospray into James' hands and walked off.

"Weird, he did the same to me and now I'm a permanent," Kes said as she treated a patient.

"Great," James muttered. He turned around and went over to one of the patients.

Somebody nearby Kes started coughing up blood, "oh great. Lee, James, will one of you get that?"

Lee turned away from a dead patient, "I'm trying to revive someone here."

"James, Doc?" Kes yelled. She looked around, she saw the Doctor treating one of the last remaining critical patients and James lying on the ground unconscious.

"What the, why didn't I think of that?" Lee asked. He had managed to revive the crewman, and she had woken up. "oh hi there."

The Bridge:
Kathryn and Chakotay were standing next to Danny, looking over her shoulder. "According to this the Leda was last seen near the Romulan border. The doctor who treated the epidemic was the one who last reported its whereabouts."

"Am I the only one getting a case of deja vu?" Tom said questioningly.

Kathryn and Chakotay glanced back. "What do you mean?" Kathryn asked.

"Well finding an old ship, with the whole crew dead, well didn't the Next Generation writers wear that plot out?" Tom replied.

"This is different, we don't have to find out what happened. Besides we can't tow this ship back home, the ship is over twenty times bigger than ours," Chakotay said.

"No wonder it was a lemming, it's way too big," Jessie muttered.

"Was a lemming, nah. I bet it still is. Think about it, all the other ships in this graveyard are younger than it. If something weird is going on, and in my TNG watching experience something is, then it'll be because of the Leda," Tom said.

"Tom, no one in this dimension could possibly have watched TNG," Kathryn said.

"Maybe the epidemic wasn't cured after all," Tom said. Everyone looked confused.

"What was the epidemic anyway?" Harry asked.

"The water had been spiked by some weird substance. The water that was infected caused the total opposite of what water is supposed to do," Danny replied.

"In other words, anyone infected would of died from dehydration if they drank nothing but water," Tom said.

"I doubt it was that, it's probably just some spacial anomaly. Or probably the Leda crew died of old age," Chakotay said.

"Don't be silly, TNG have already used that one," Tom said.

"No I mean, natural old age, not illness induced old age," Chakotay said.

"Oh yeah, then explain the other ships," Tom said.

"Does it matter?" Jessie asked.

"Of course it does," Tom replied.

"No it doesn't, we'll spend ages figuring it out and by then the same would have happened to us," Jessie said.

"We'd have to be discussing it for a while to die of old age like the Leda crew did. Well, not including all the old people," Harry said.

"What, like Janeway?" Tom blurted out. Kathryn glared at him, the force of the glare made him cower.

"People people, what makes you think what happened here was mild? For all we know, something really painful and slow happened to them all," Danny said.

"She's right, we should expect the worst case scenario. That way, we'll not be as shocked if something happens," Tom said.

"Exactly, it could have been the psycho from the Texas Chain-saw Massacre for all we know," Danny said. Everyone turned to look at her. "Or not," she said quietly.

B'Elanna came onto the bridge, she went over to the Engineering station. "I have an idea, Captain. We need to re-route more power to the engines to get us to pull away, and also a push from a deflector beam," she said.

"How long will it take?" Kathryn asked.

"About an hour," B'Elanna replied.

"Why is the deadline always hours or days?" Tom asked.

B'Elanna rolled her eyes, "am I too slow for you Paris? I'd let you try but your deadline would be a few months."

"Ooooh," Danny laughed.

"Why can't I get the last word anymore," Tom said quietly to himself.

"Captain, the ship we are attached to has just been empty for under two weeks. They have lots of food and dilithium supplies on board," Tuvok said.

Danny pulled a face, "eeew, we're going mouldy food shopping?"

"Yeh but where else will Neelix get the food for his cooking from if we don't?" Jessie said.

"That's put me off breakfast," Harry said.

"The food will not be mouldy, all of the food will be safely contained," Tuvok said.

"Good point, Lieutenant. Chakotay, lead a team to that ship," Kathryn commanded.

"Hey maybe we can get some food supplies from the Leda too, I do fancy pieces of nothing with nothing," Jessie said sarcastically.

"No wonder you look like a recovering anorexic," Tom sniggered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jessie asked.

Chakotay shook his head. "Tuvok, Tom, Danny, you're all with me."

"You'd better go to Sickbay for a radiation inoculation. Most of the ship is flooded by the stuff," Harry said.

"Right, let's go," Chakotay said. He, Tuvok, Tom and Danny went towards the turbolift.

"Oh goodie, I'm going. I get to choose what I want," Danny said.

"Don't forget to get me some mouldy bread," Jessie said.

"Ok, enough with the sarcasm and dumb jokes please," Kathryn groaned.

Sickbay:
Lee and Kes were holding down a guy that was going a little nuts. "The window's smashed, all my stash of drugs have been blown out! Let me go, let me go!"

"What kind of drugs?" Lee asked. Kes glared at him. "Kidding," he lied.

Chakotay, Tuvok, Tom and Danny came in. "Doctor, we need a radiation inoculation," Chakotay said.

"Oh sounds good, I'll have that too," Lee said.

"Glad you volunteered for mouldy food shopping," Danny said.

"For the last time, it won't be mouldy," Chakotay groaned.

"Oooh, do you think they'll have cheese?" Lee asked.

"If they have milk, then probably," Danny replied.

"Goodie, I'm coming," Lee said.

"What about my drugs, we need to beam them back. If I don't have them I'll die!" the nutty guy screamed.

"Yeah, that's what all druggies say," Kes said. Suddenly the guy fell onto the ground, dead. "Oops," Kes muttered.

"Hey, what happened to him?" Danny asked, as she pointed at James, still on the floor too.

"I don't know, he keeps collapsing. It's really getting annoying," the Doctor replied.

"Maybe he wants that guy's drugs," Tom said. Danny rolled her eyes.

"Speaking of which, I'd better wake him up," the Doctor said.

"But why, he's better asleep," Tom said.

"Er Tom..." Kes whispered.

"What?" Tom said questioningly.

"He's already awake," Kes said.

"Oh crap, bye everyone," Tom said. He ran out, Chakotay followed him out. A few minutes later he came back, dragging Tom by the arm. The Doctor injected each of the team members with a hypospray. James snatched the hypospray off him, and used it on himself.

"Ohno, you're not coming are you?" Tom asked nervously.

"No, he just wanted to take some drugs. Right Tom?" Lee replied.

"I didn't say anything about drugs," Tom said.

"Look I have to come with you, it'll get my mind off all the stuff's been going on," James said.

"I suppose that'll be ok," Chakotay said.

"I need to come to, just in case the inoculation starts to wear off or something," Lee said.

"Fine, we'd better go," Chakotay said. Lee hyposprayed himself, he followed the rest of the team out.

The alien ship:
The away team rematerialised in a dark corridor, everyone switched the torches on their arms on. They started walking down the corridor.

"The corridor's very familiar," James said.

"Most corridors looks the same," Chakotay said.

"I hope you're wrong. For goodness sake, this kind of blue is more suited in the bathroom," Danny said.

The team turned the corner, when they did Tom tripped over something on the ground. He shone his torch at it, he backed away in fear. "Oh god, there's a dead guy there."

"Well duh, of course there's dead people here. I doubt the ship flew here on it's own," James said.

"Voyager did, oops, I didn't say that," Danny said.

Lee came over, he knelt down besides the body. He scanned him. "This guy died of suffocation."

"Sounds familiar," James said nervously.

Tuvok shone his torch down the corridor, the light shone on dozens of bodies. "There are more down here."

Lee went over to one of the other bodies, his skin had already shriveled up like he'd been dead for years. "This is strange, this guy died of dehydration."

"Now that's definitely familiar," Tom said.

"We'd better keep going," Chakotay said. He lead the team further down the corridor, they passed a large door on the way. James went back to it, Danny went over to his side.

"Is there some mouldy food in there or something?" she asked as the others joined them.

"No, I have to see what's in there," James replied.

"Why?" Tom said questioningly.

"Look I had a dream about aliens like those dying of suffocation and dehydration," James said.

"Doesn't mean anything, not very out of the ordinary deaths," Chakotay said.

"I know, that's why I have to see what's in here, ok," James said.

"Fine, just a minute," Chakotay said.

The team went through the door, they all stopped looking really freaked out, well all except Tuvok. All the bodies in the room were at least cut into two pieces, most of the carpet was red with blood.

"Danny catch me, I'm going to faint," Tom muttered.

"Ok," Danny said in a mischievous tone.

"Oh, no I'm not," Tom sighed.

"I should be relieved that I don't have a sick mind, but this is worse," James muttered.

"You dreamt this?" Chakotay asked in shock.

"I didn't just dream the bodies, I saw it happen," James replied.

"I told you to expect chain-saw victims, but would you listen?" Danny said as she folded her arms. James, Tuvok, Lee and Chakotay slowly started walking through the graveyard.

"They're too neatly cut to be chain-saw victims," Lee said as he knelt down beside one half of a victim.

"And I think I would have noticed them being cut up with one," James said.

Danny shrugged. "Well what else could of done something like this? Imagine a cheated girl wanting to get revenge on her bed hopping guy, you know by chopping his balls off."

The rest of the team, including Tuvok, cringed. "Ow," they all muttered.

"The girl could have went a bit nuts after that," Danny said.

Tom turned around, he bumped into something. "Oh excuse m... aaaah!" he screamed, backing off.

"What, what?" Chakotay asked.

"That's not pretty," Tom muttered in response, he walked as far away from his last position as he could.

Danny flashed her torch at his previous spot, a tall dead guy was resting against the wall, minus the top of his head. "That's what you get for being tall, mate," Danny said.

"People were cut in half lower than that, I don't think he was the only one that died like that cos of height," Lee said.

"Yeah, the midgets could have been killed like that," Tom said.

"How do you know any of them were small, you can't tell which legs belong to which person," Lee said.

"Wait a minute, that's the same guy I crashed into in my dream," James said.

Tom laughed nervously, "I didn't scream, please god say you screamed too."

Danny giggled, she turned to James. "I didn't, I woke up then," he said.

"Oh by the way Tom, love your scream," Lee said. Tom pouted.

James looked underneath the table which still had the red wine on, he spotted another body there with a slit throat. "I've found my guy."

"Aaaw, I knew you would eventually. When's the wedding?" Tom said jokingly. He laughed, but no one else did.

"No, I found the guy that lost his hand in this incident. I must have been seeing through his eyes," James said.

"What's he doing under there, hiding like a woman?" Tom asked. Danny slapped him across the head.

"No, he must have been so traumatised when all this happened he slit his own throat," James replied.

"That's totally the wrong thing to do. I'd cut my eyes out after seeing this happen," Lee said, as he knelt down next to a young teenager without a head and shoulders.

"Ok, this is enough. We're leaving. Right now," Chakotay said.

"We haven't got the supplies we needed," Tuvok said.

"I don't care, we'd better leave before any of this happens to us," Chakotay said.

"In the spirit of TNG episodes, it probably will. Why does my chest hurt all of a sudden?" Tom said.

"Is it a sharp pain?" James asked.

"Um no," Tom replied.

"Damn, it hasn't happened to you then," James said. Danny herself looked disappointed.

"Oh, can you feel all the love in the room?" Tom said sarcastically.

"Nope, but I can feel death touching me on the shoulder," Lee said nervously.

Chakotay tapped his commbadge. "Chakotay to Voyager, get us out of here now."

A little while later, the Bridge:
"We're ready to separate us from the ship," B'Elanna said.

"Good, do it," Kathryn commanded. She started to drink her first cup of coffee.

"Hope Chakotay comes back soon," Jessie said. B'Elanna nodded.

"It's working, we're moving away from the ship," Harry said.

Chakotay and the rest of the team arrived on the bridge. Chakotay spotted Kathryn drinking from her coffee flask. "Looks like I'm in charge. Status B'Elanna."

"We're trying my plan now," B'Elanna said.

"That's it, we're free," Harry said.

"Ok Tom, get us out of here," Chakotay ordered.

"Who said I wanna leave, pretty place this is," Kathryn said in her hyper voice.

"Maybe we should beam her to that hall we found, that's not such a pretty place," Tom said.

"Hmm, yeah," Chakotay said.

Tom worked at his station, a little while later the ship came to a stop abruptly. "What the..."

"There's some sort of barrier stopping us from leaving," Harry said.

"Why do I get the feeling we're going to have to solve some mysteries before we can leave?" Chakotay asked himself.

"It's pure TNG," Tom muttered.

"Enough with TNG, you moron!" Jessie yelled.

"What kind of barrier is it, Harry?" Chakotay asked.

"An artificial one, Commander. I can't tell where it's coming from, but it does surround the whole ship graveyard," Harry replied.

"It does look like we've wandered right into somebody's booby trap," Chakotay said. Danny sniggered which made everyone groan. "Ok, just an ordinary trap."

"So what do we do?" Harry asked.

"More coffee," Kathryn mumbled, she ran into her Ready Room.

"No, but let's hope the water in the coffee has that virus in it," Danny said.

"Maybe the Leda will have some old sensor data, the last logs. Maybe we can find out what happened there," Chakotay said.

"It wasn't the first ship here, that's for sure. It's actually the most recent one, not including us," Harry said.

"Yeah but this ship is Starfleet, at least we'll have an idea how to gain access to anything we need," Chakotay said.

"That's a good idea," Danny said.

"Oh yeah, go aboard the creepy old ship. That always makes things better," Tom said sarcastically.

"But Tom, it'll be the ship that's been here the longest that has a higher chance of being the cause of this," Harry said.

"It's a lemming, with it being this old it'll probably have holes in the floor and stuff," Tom said.

"Ok, you're just scared," Danny said.

"No I'm not. I'm just recovering from that guy with only half a head. Ow, getting a bit of a headache just thinking about it," Tom said.

Chakotay groaned. "Harry, James, you're coming with me. Tuvok, you have the Bridge."

"Aye sir," Tuvok said.

"Why do I have to come?" James asked.

"You seemed to know what happened aboard the other ship," Chakotay replied.

"I didn't see anything about the Leda or whatever it's called," James said.

"Oh please go, I'd have to go instead," Tom said.

"Ok, I'm convinced," James said sarcastically.

"No no, I mean Jessie or most probably Danny might. You never know," Tom said quickly. Jessie glared at him.

"Fine, I'll go," James groaned. He, Chakotay and Harry left through the turbolift.

"I can't believe he fell for that," Tom said.

"Oh you're going to fall for something," Jessie said.

"Huh?" Tom muttered before getting hit by a flying tricorder.

The Leda:
Chakotay, Harry, James and Kes were going down a really dark corridor, which was damaged beyond belief. "You know, it looked nicer on the outside," Harry commented.

"According to the old ship's schematics, the bridge should be through here," Chakotay said. He pointed at a door with the PADD he was holding.

The team went towards the door. Harry and James went up to it and James pulled it open. Everyone went through it and found themselves on a massive bridge. Harry went over to what looked like the opps station. The others just looked around the room.

"I think I can gain access to the sensors and logs from here," Harry said. He placed a power module thing on the console.

"It's amazing that the ship still has life support yet everything else is down," Chakotay said.

"Not really, probably the last one alive was smart enough to re-route power to life support," James said.

"If you say so," Chakotay muttered.

"Commander, take a look at this," Kes called. Chakotay and James came over to stand beside her. She was standing in front of the Captain's chair where a skeleton was sitting.

"Hmm, Captain on the Bridge," James said.

Kes shone the torch up and down the body while she scanned it. "I don't think you'll find anything, it's only bones," Chakotay said.

"Commander, I've gained access to the navigational logs," Harry said. Chakotay went over to the opps station. "According to these, we're outside the Romulan border."

"That's not possible," Chakotay said.

"Obviously, someone has wiped the logs. The Leda was last sighted near the Romulan border, that's strange," Harry said.

"Can you access any logs?" Chakotay asked.

"I'm working on it now," Harry replied.

Voyager:
"Lieutenant, um can I just say something?" Danny asked nervously.

"What is it?" Tuvok replied.

"Um, the Leda's been here for only a little while, yet the scanners say it's ninety years old, right?" Danny said.

"That is correct," Tuvok said.

"If I remember my history classes the ship was sent on it's first mission in 2230. That means the ship should be one hundred and forty one years old," Danny said.

"Why didn't you remember that before?" Jessie asked.

"I didn't even think about it. When people kept saying it was ninety I figured it could be right, but now when it's silent I can hear my brain a bit better," Danny replied.

"Yeah the room has to be really quiet to hear a brain that size," Tom blurted out. Another tricorder came into contact with his head.

"If it's really that age, why are the scanners saying it's ninety?" Jessie asked.

"I do not know," Tuvok replied.

"I don't like the sound of this," Danny muttered.

"If you don't like that, you're not going to like this," Jessie said.

"What?" Danny said questioningly.

"The oldest ship in the fleet has been here for fifty one years. Isn't that the age difference we were discussing before?" Jessie said.

"I really don't like the sound of this," Danny muttered.

The Leda:
"I've found the Captain's last log, should I play it?" Harry asked.

"Yes, do that," Chakotay replied.

Harry fiddled with the console. A guy's voice was heard, "Captain's Log Supplemental; the situation is getting worse. More crewmembers have disappeared, and the systems are still continuing to play around. I fear that nothing will be left when we reach our destination, that's if we ever do."

"Great, looks like we have to go further back in the logs," Chakotay said.

"Where were they headed?" Kes asked.

"Their mission was top secret back then, no one will possibly know what they were doing now," Chakotay replied.

"I can't get into the other logs, I'll need to use the computer in the Ready Room," Harry said.

"I think you should ask him first," James said. Kes just laughed.

"I'm sure he won't mind," Harry muttered. He headed towards the Ready Room doors, which were half open. He pushed them further open, when he did a strange noise came from the room.

"Did anyone hear that?" Kes asked nervously.

"I did, maybe no one should go in there," James replied.

"Oh please, what could it possibly be?" Harry snorted. He was about to step inside the room when hundreds of small lights flew out of the room. Harry backed off as a result. He pulled out a tricorder.

"What in god's name are those?" Chakotay yelled as a loud buzzing noise overwhelmed the room.

"I don't know, Commander. The tricorder says there's nothing there!" Harry yelled back.

The lights surrounded each member of the team, one came right towards Kes' head so she ducked. It instead went into James' head. When it did, the others flew back into the Ready Room. The bridge was silent once again.

"Ok, that was close," Kes sighed.

"Yes, we'll just have to do without those logs," Chakotay said.

"Good idea," Harry muttered.

"Then we should go," James said as he turned his back on the others.

"Don't be stupid, we need to look at the sensor logs. There will also be other crewmembers logs, we need to know what's going on here," Chakotay said.

"You will all die if you don't," James said.

The rest of the team glanced at each other looking confused. Kes gasped, she quickly went over to Chakotay. "Commander, that's not James talking. There's someone else in there."

Chakotay stepped forward. "Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter, you have to leave," James replied.

"But we can't, we're stuck here," Chakotay said.

"They'll get tired of you eventually, all you have to do is stay off this ship," James said.

"They? What's going on?" Harry asked as he went over to Chakotay.

"Who will get tired of us?" Chakotay asked.

James turned around, "you want to know what happened to the first one's who refused to leave? I'll show you."

"Er, how? Do you have it on tape?" Harry muttered. Chakotay rolled his eyes.

Kes suddenly collapsed, Harry and Chakotay rushed over to her.

"It's too late," James said.

Voyager, the Bridge:
The ship shook gently. "What was that?" Kathryn asked as she came into the room.

"The Leda's just put a tractor beam on us, we're being pulled into it," Jessie replied.

"You can't blame me this time Janeway," Danny muttered.

"You can't blame me either," Tom said.

"I will if you don't fly us away from it," Kathryn said.

Tom raised his eyebrow in confusment, he turned to Kathryn. "Do you even know what a tractor beam is?"

"Try destroying the tractor emitters," Jessie said.

"That wouldn't be a logical course of action," Tuvok said.

"And why not?" Danny groaned.

"The Leda is very unstable, at close range destroying the emitters would destroy the whole ship, taking us with it. Also, the Leda has another three back up tractor emitters," Tuvok said.

"Son of a bitch," Jessie muttered.

The Leda:
Kes woke up, she quickly sat up. "I saw them..." she said quietly.

"Saw who?" Chakotay asked.

"I saw women, men, children... they were all..." Kes stuttered.

"All what, tell us Kes," Harry said.

"They were all... burning," Kes stuttered.

"The spirits never run out of ideas, you will all die in a new and original way," James said.

"The spirits are doing this?" Chakotay said questioningly.

"What spirits?" Harry muttered.

"The spirits of the ones who died in construction," James said.

"Look, we'll leave. Just tell us how to get out of this place," Chakotay said.

"You will never leave, you will all die," James said.

"But you said..." Harry started to say.

"It's too late, the spirits have noticed your intrusion. In twenty four hours your ship will be released and then everyone will die," James said.

"Released? What do you mean?" Chakotay asked.

"You will find out," James replied.

"Who are you, you're really bugging me," Chakotay asked.

"I am John Murphy, the Captain of this ship," James replied.

Kes looked towards the Captain's chair where the skeleton was. "Oh, that's you over there."

James glanced over to the Captain's chair briefly. "Yes, everyone on the Bridge was exposed to radiation. Just enough to let us suffer, just enough to kill us."

"What on earth happened to the Leda?" Chakotay asked.

"The Leda was a prototype for a time shield. It was designed to protect the crew from ageing while travelling through deep space," James replied.

"Like a stasis field, right?" Harry said.

"Not exactly, any ship that used the shield would not be affected by time. You'd be able to live for fifty years on that ship and wouldn't age a day," James said.

"So I take it, it backfired then?" Chakotay said.

"No, we were just starting to test it when the crew got infected by an illness. We had to delay the test until everyone was cured. Everyone was cured, but a few hours later the ones who were infected started to disappear. Ship's systems seemed to have a mind of its own, in a matter of hours hundreds of the crew had been killed," James said.

"So the ship's lemming ways were not just a legend," Harry muttered.

"We immediately tried to disable the shield. We had found the shield device on a planet, in the middle of a crash site. We figured that the shield was responsible for what made whatever crashed, crash. Disabling it did not work. About an hour after that, we tried contacting other parts of the ship but everyone had been killed. Everyone on the bridge were the only ones left of a crew of six hundred and twenty," James said.

"And then you got it too," Chakotay said.

"Exactly," James said.

"So you say it's the spirits of the ones who died because of construction work that did this, do you have any idea why?" Chakotay asked.

"The Leda was on a top secret military mission to gain some territory in the Delta Quadrant. All of the construction workers were not supposed to know about that, when they died they got trapped in the Leda itself. Our guess was that the spirits weren't happy about dying for a war ship. All of the workers thought this ship was just a passenger ship," James replied.

"Still, that's no reason to kill all of those people," Harry said.

"Well the spirits probably wanted to stop the mission. Since the ship would be outside of time once the shield was online, they couldn't destroy the engines for example, the crew could spend decades building new ones," James said.

"I guess, how do we get out of this mess then?" Chakotay asked. Harry shrugged.

"There is no way you can survive this, as we are speaking your ship is slowly being invaded by the spirits. It will take twenty four hours for them to fully dominate the ship, then you'll be released. They then will strike," James replied.

"That sounds great," Harry said sarcastically.

"We'd better get back to Voyager. Can we have our crewmember back?" Chakotay asked. As soon as he said it, James collapsed, one of the lights flew out of him and flew into the Ready Room. Chakotay tapped his commbadge, "Voyager, four to beam back."

Later, the Conference Room:
Kathryn was standing by the window, while most of the main cast were sitting at the table. Neelix was busy swapping her real coffee with decaf. All you could see through the window was the rest of the Leda's shuttle bay.

"So we have less than a day to get out of this dump, huh?" Kathryn was saying.

"Yes Captain, why don't you have some coffee," Neelix said. Kathryn giggled, she ran over and drank the whole cup. She quickly sobered up a bit.

"That's right. The reason why we can't escape this area is the Leda's shield, someone has activated it," Chakotay said.

"That's not right, all of the other ships have aged," Jessie said.

"It doesn't matter, the shield only affects the Leda. It has a wide area, but the time part of it only affects the source," James said.

"How do you know?" Tom asked.

"That Captain guy knew," James replied.

"So does this mean we're affected by it too?" Claire asked.

"Definitely," James replied.

"Oooh, I'll be young forever," Claire said happily. A few people rolled their eyes.

"Yep, you'll be young forever for twenty four hours and then you'll get cut in two," Lee said. Claire pouted.

"I need suggestions people, and I need them now," Kathryn said.

"That Captain said that the spirits are slowly invading the ship. I detected a beam coming from a wall in the bay. It is like it's scanning us very slowly. Already it has taken up part of Deck 15," Harry said.

"For now all we can do is evacuate the decks affected before the beam hits it," Tom said.

"We need an escape plan, you two. We can't be all squashed on the Bridge by tomorrow," Kathryn said.

"Why not, that would be the spirits original killing plan. Squashing everyone," Jessie said jokingly.

"They've probably already done that," James said.

"I have an idea," B'Elanna said as she stood up. She went over to the side panel. "I thought so, the Leda's power is all being routed to life support, the time shield and that beam. If that shield makes the Leda outside of time, then I'm guessing it'll have an unlimited source."

"That was the idea," James said.

"That's what I thought. The beam's power source will be connected to the shield, won't they? All we have to do is send something through the beam from the affected decks, and make the shield go off. Then time will catch up with the ship and probably drain the entire power source," B'Elanna said.

"What can we possibly put through the beam?" Kathryn asked.

"I haven't figured that part out yet," B'Elanna replied.

"Well it's better than no plan, get working on it," Chakotay said.

"Right," B'Elanna said. She left the room.

"In the mean time we will continue evacuation. When will Deck 14 be affected?" Kathryn asked.

"Well if it takes a day to do fifteen decks, then the process will be 6.7% completed when it is finished on Deck 15," Tuvok replied.

"Um, she said how long," Danny said.

"I wasn't finished. It'll take 1.6 hours for the scan to complete Deck 15," Tuvok replied. Danny coughed, Tuvok raised his eyebrow.

"Probably one hour and forty minutes, or something," Tom said.

"And we've been in this ship for twenty," Harry added.

"Captain I must point out that Engineering will be affected in just under seven hours. If we are to proceed with Lieutenant Torres' plan, we'll have to do it in the next six hours," Tuvok said.

"That shouldn't be a problem, B'Elanna will come..." Chakotay said. As he was speaking James, Jessie, Kes, Claire and Tom disappeared in a transporter beam.

In: "Foster to Bridge. Captain, twenty members of the crew have disappeared."

Everyone got up and left the Conference Room. Harry took over Foster at opps, Danny went to the helm, everyone else went to their usual stations.

"Where are they?" Kathryn asked.

"They must be on the Leda," Harry replied.

"I need a little more than just must be," Kathryn snapped.

"I'm sorry Captain, the scan thing is blocking all outward scans," Harry said.

"They must have known we've come up with a plan to escape," Chakotay muttered.

"I don't understand, how?" Kathryn said questioningly.

"I don't know. Think about it though, why would the Leda take twenty members of the crew just when we've come up with a plan?" Chakotay said.

Danny turned around, "to stop us from doing anything."

"Exactly, if we go along with B'Elanna's plan and we can't even rescue our crewmembers, they'll die when the power goes down," Chakotay said.

"We can't do it then. We'll have to rescue them first," Kathryn said.

"I must remind you Captain, if we have not found them in six to seven hours we will have lost Engineering, and we will not be able to escape at all," Tuvok said.

"We can't just leave them there to die," Kathryn said.

"I agree with Tuvok. If we stay, one hundred and fifty people will die. If we escape, only twenty people will," Chakotay said.

"My Ready Room, now," Kathryn said icily. She stormed into her Ready Room, Chakotay followed.

Kathryn stood behind her desk, and faced Chakotay. "If I was one of those crewmembers, I wouldn't want someone else deciding whether I should live or die."

"No, but if you were one of those, you'd gladly give up your life for the rest of the crew. I'm pretty sure most of them will feel that way," Chakotay said.

"That is not our decision to make!" Kathryn snapped.

"Yes it is, we have six hours to find them. If we haven't found them by then, they'll have no choice anyway," Chakotay said.

"So what'll happen the next time something like this happens? Will we continue to kill more and more of the crew to save our own lives until there's no one left?" Kathryn asked angrily.

"I don't like the idea of those twenty people dying either, but this is a unique situation," Chakotay said.

"I will not abandon any of my crew on some ghost ship! That was one of the rules I made for myself, I do not want to break my own rules!" Kathryn yelled.

"If you don't bend the rules once in a while then you're going to kill us all," Chakotay said calmly.

"No Chakotay, we will find them first and then escape," Kathryn said.

Chakotay stepped forward and leaned on the desk. "I think it's safe to say that if anyone but your precious little son wasn't onboard that ship, you'd do what I'm suggesting."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kathryn asked angrily.

"Isn't it obvious? I've only known you a year and I know that your son is the only reason you'd be willing to risk your crew. He's not worth it, nobody is worth over a hundred lives," Chakotay replied.

"You don't know me at all!" Kathryn yelled.

"Then prove me wrong, Captain. Do the right thing, I'm sure all of those crewmembers would want to die if it meant saving everyone else," Chakotay said.

"I can't send twenty people to their death, Chakotay! Not when there's a chance I can save them too!" Kathryn yelled.

"But if you're still looking for them in seven hours time, then you'll have sent a hundred and fifty people to their deaths. Personally, I'd rather have the twenty head count on my conscience," Chakotay said.

"We're not doing anything to the power until those twenty crewmembers are safe on Voyager," Kathryn said calmly.

"After seven hours, this ship won't be safe," Chakotay said. He walked out.

The Leda:
Craig pushed open a door, he walked through it and found himself in a flooded corridor. He carefully went down the corridor. He heard a voice in the distance, he picked up speed. "Hello, who's there?" he called.

He heard a lot of splashing, then he saw a figure running towards him. Eventually he saw it was Faye. "Craig, it's you. Oh god, I hate this ship."

"We've only been here five minutes," Craig said.

"Yeah but a ship that's been flooded is never a good ship. There's probably lots of dead bodies here," Faye said.

"You watch too many movies," Craig muttered.

"No I don't, I've only seen a few. In one, someone opened a door and lots of dead people came through a huge tidal wave," Faye said.

"Couldn't I be lumbered with a less paranoid crewmember?" Craig asked himself.

Meanwhile:
Kes and Tom were going down a drier corridor, the floor constantly kept creaking. "This is probably a really unstable area, so we'd better be careful," Tom said.

"Well my idea was to jump up and down a lot, but you're the boss," Kes said in a sarcastic manner.

"You've been hanging around Jessie, James, Danny and Ian too much," Tom muttered just before he disappeared down a hole. There was a thud as he landed on the below deck, in a rather uncomfortable way.

Kes knelt down, she stuck her head through it. "See, I told you we should have jumped up and down a lot."

Tom just managed to put his fingers up at her before he fell unconscious.

Kes pulled her head out of the hole, she looked up and saw a little girl. She stood up and backed off a bit. "Who are you?"

"Katie, I died on this ship after seeing lots of people die because a wire got loose, or something like that," the girl said.

"No, that's Ghost Ship. This isn't a parody of it," Kes said.

"Oh sorry," the girl said nervously. She disappeared. Instead she reappeared near Tom. He woke up, the girl jumped on him. "Booo!" she screamed.

Meanwhile, again:
Jessie was wandering down another corridor. All she heard was an ear piercing scream echo throughout the ship. "Tom's saw a ghost," she said to herself.

A Borg ship:
Jericute-os and some drones were hanging out in a large room.

"Hey cool, there's lots of dead ships. Let's go assimilate them!" Jericute-os giggled, while clapping her hands like a child.

"You're not the boss of us," drone 1 said.

"Oh let her, this might be a good time to abandon her," drone 2 said.

A drone came out of his alcove looking grouchy. "Do you mind, I'm trying to sleep!" he yelled.

The two drones rolled their eyes. "Sorry boss."

"I told you we shouldn't have got our manager assimilated," drone 2 said. Drone 1 pulled a face.

"Lookie, a big starfleet ship. Let's assimilate that first!" Jericute-os squealed.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" the manager asked.

"Screw you, I'm having fun with this ship. Minions, beam me and a few drones over to that ship," Jericute-os ordered.

"Ok, we'll beam you there," drone 2 said with an evil glint in her eyes. She pressed a button, Jericute-os disappeared.

The Leda:
Jericute-os appeared in what looked like a science lab. Some piece of equipment looked like it was smoking, Jericute-os groaned. "Oh great, I forgot this was a FV season finale." Right on cue the device blew up in Jericute-os' face.

When the smoke cleared and everything, Jessie walked into the room. She looked around, she saw Jericute-os' body lying underneath some rubble. "Phew, so glad that wasn't me," she said. She walked out of the room.

The Borg Ship:
Everyone were celebrating with some champagne. Yes Borg drink champagne. "Finally we've gotten rid of that cow," drone 2 was saying.

"Yeah, nothing can go wrong now," drone 1 said. The ship shook gently.

"What was that?" drone 2 asked.

"That ship's put a tractor beam on us," the manager replied.

"Destroy the emitters, duh boy," drone 1 commanded.

"Can't, we'd get destroyed this close. That ship's ancient, it could explode in one hit," the manager said.

"Oh great, so much for nothing can go wrong now," drone 2 muttered.

The Leda:
James and Claire went inside what looked like a large Mess Hall. "We're never going to find Voyager like this, we need to find a map of the ship," James said.

"Or we could just put an end to our troubles," Claire said as she sat down at a table. A skeleton was sitting at the table with her, a plate had lots of really off food on it, in fact it was just bits of mould on some chicken bones.

"No, there's other ways to die anyway," James said.

"Shame, I think this guy really likes me too," Claire said. She picked up the guy's hand and pretended to shake it. "Hi, I'm Claire."

James continued to look around the room. "Even if the food wasn't off I still wouldn't eat it. Everyone in the room are sitting at tables, they were probably poisoned."

"Yeah," Claire muttered. She stood up, she slowly followed James.

James stopped suddenly, a small hole in the floor was only a few centimetres away. "Woah, that was close."

Claire rolled her eyes. "What was?"

"I nearly stepped where that hole was," James replied.

"Now that would be a shame," Claire said sarcastically.

James turned around, "hey."

Claire smiled sweetly. "Don't forget to duck."

"Duck, why?" James asked. Claire punched him really hard in the face.

"That's why," Claire replied.

"What did you do that for?" James asked.

"I was bored, I haven't killed anyone in weeks," Claire replied.

"Are you one of the spirits?" James asked.

Claire laughed, "one of? I'm the only one."

"But, the Captain..." James started to say.

"Had no idea, no wonder he possessed you," Claire said.

"Ok, what do you want?" James asked.

Claire grinned and she shook her head. "What do I want? Hmmm, I want to do my hobby."

"What kind of sick person calls killing a hobby?" James asked.

"People like you and me," Claire replied.

"Me? I wouldn't do anything like what you did," James said.

"Don't be silly, you're just like me. We'd be a great team, although it would mean that I'd get less to kill," Claire said.

"I'm nothing like you or any of your friends," James said.

"You insult me," Claire muttered. She hit him again. "How dare you accuse me of having help in killing thousands of people. I did it all," Claire said, her eyes glowed red. She raised her hands, what looked like lightning came from her hands and hit James. He fell to the ground, the hole got bigger when he did. The deck then caved in.

Claire stood on the edge of the hole. "Aaaaw, did you fall down and get a boo boo?" She laughed. She put her foot on an unstable part of the floor, more of it caved in and fell where James was lying. "Oh while you're there, you can say hi to the old me, see ya later." She disappeared out of sight. More of the floor caved in after she did.

One bit of the metal fell nearby him, when he looked at it he saw a skull imbedded in it. Then he fell unconscious.

2239, the Alpha Quadrant:
A girl in her thirties was standing nearby a device that melted the metal, she looked at her watch. Some guys came over to her. "Hey Amy, we're on a break so we're going to pick up some women, care to join us?" one asked. All the others laughed. Amy turned to them.

"Oh grow up, just because I work in construction doesn't mean I'm a guy," Amy said.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that pet. Someday you'll accept it and come join us," the first guy said. This time he joined in on the laughter.

"Why would I want to be a guy, they're all smelly disgusting little pigs. I'm much better than all of you put together," Amy said.

"Really?" another guy said. One guy pushed her hard, she pushed him back so he pushed her harder. She lost her balance and she fell into the metal melting device. All the guys heard was a scream and she was gone.

"Ohno, oh shh..." one muttered.

"It wasn't me, it was you," the guilty one said.

"No it wasn't, you sick b***ard," another guy said.

The guilty one ran off, the others ran after him.

Present day, Voyager's Bridge:
"Captain, we're being hailed," Harry said.

"By our neighbours?" Kathryn said questioningly. On the viewscreen was the Borg sphere.

"No, by the Leda," Harry said.

Kathryn and Chakotay got off their chairs. "Must be at least one of our crew, put them on screen," Kathryn said.

Harry nodded. The viewscreen changed to show the Leda's bridge, on it was Claire.

"Claire, are you all right? Have you seen anyone else?" Kathryn asked.

Claire yawned, "well I found that James guy. He's kinda buried under some of the deck he fell through."

"Show a bit more concern, why didn't you help him?" Kathryn snapped.

"Why would I want to do that?" Claire replied. She laughed.

Kathryn and Chakotay glanced at each other briefly. "Who are you?" Chakotay asked.

"Aaaw, it could of been Claire. Oh stuff it, my name is Amy and I'm your judge, jury and executioner. Just wanna say that I'm looking forward to killing you all, and I have lots of new ideas," Claire replied. She looked over at Harry. "For starters, Harry I'm thinking of drowning you in your own hair gel. Janeway, I might start by cutting your hair off, then I'll put rat poison in all the coffee," Claire said.

"I'll just not drink it," Kathryn said. Everyone, including Tuvok, laughed.

"That'll be the day," Chakotay laughed.

"I wasn't finished, while you're dying of rat poisoning I will let you watch a video of the rest of your crew dying," Claire said.

"You are sick," Kathryn muttered.

"Why thank you," Claire said, she blushed.

"We will escape, and we'll destroy your precious ship," Kathryn said.

"Destroy me, and you kill your crew. It's your choice, either way I still get to kill people," Claire said.

"You will not get away with all the people you and your friends have killed," Chakotay said.

Claire's eyes glowed again, "so you all think there is a group of ghosts doing it. You're wrong, I have done it all myself. I look forward to cooking you and a few others in Neelix's Leola root stew, monkey brain." The viewscreen changed view again. Dramatic music took over the entire bridge.

"Phew, she didn't mention me. Maybe she'll just tickle me to death," Danny said. The music cut off abruptly.

"Why does someone always have to ruin the cliffhanger?" Kathryn moaned.

The Leda:
No, we're not finishing it there. Jericute-os was wandering around one of the corridors, looking a bit black from the explosion. Claire appeared from around the corner, she threw a knife at Jericute-os. She ducked just in time.

"Ha ha, missed me!" she yelled. She stuck her tongue out. Suddenly the deck above caved in, all the metal fell right on top of her.

"No I didn't," Claire laughed as she walked passed.

TO BE CONTINUED

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