Episode Synopsis
The newly launched USS Voyager embarks on a mission to find a renegade ship, but soon finds itself involved in a bigger mission: to get home.

Written
November to December 2008

Commander Kathryn Janeway stared solemnly into space, cradling an unusually 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 shy looking young ensign, who hid his face by glancing at the floor, a ridiculous amount of brown hair also helped with that. He dumped a package on her desk, "for you ma'am." He turned to leave.

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

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

"Doesn't smell like coffee," she mumbled. It was obviously not worthy of her time, she was due back on the bridge anyway. Resisting the urge to get another coffee, Kathryn Janeway moved away from her desk and left her office.

Moments later the package beeped, then exploded leaving the entire office in flames.

Kathryn entered the bridge, she was greeted by a lot of shocked faces but these didn't faze her. Like nothing happened she took a seat next to her Captain. He was busy staring at her with an eyebrow raised.

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

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

"Oh... bummer," Kathryn casually replied. Her eyes drifted up to the Vulcan Security Chief who walked up to the commanding officers.

"Commander, I am pleased to see you are all right," he calmly said. "Admiral Paris was wondering if you gave anymore thought about the promotion offer?"

"Why yes I have, a lot of thought," Kathryn said, her eyes darting around randomly.

"You don't know what Lieutenant Tuvok is talking about, do you?" the Captain muttered, groaning into his hand.

"Of course, does that get me out of this dump?" Kathryn asked the Vulcan standing nearby.

His eyebrow raised very high, the Captain meanwhile looked up to glare at her. "Um, why would they promote you and keep you here, when I'm still here?"

She casually shrugged in response, "why wouldn't they? At least if I was in command I wouldn't have offices blowing up, willy nilly. Tell Paris I'll take it."

At the back of the bridge the ensign from before looked around at her briefly, then back to his station. "God damnit! Plan B it is."

Loud footsteps broke the eery silence that had taken over the dark streets of Manchester. This side of town was known to be dangerous, and strange to say the least. As usual it was deserted, except for one lone figure walking alongside the kerb.

He clearly didn't care about drawing any attention to himself. His loud steps could have been heard a few streets away, as they seem to purposively aim for any puddles on the road. His clothing however was as dark as night, the only contrast was his bright blonde messy hair.

Unknown to him a couple more figures had heard him, they emerged from the alley way and began to carefully follow him.

Little did they know the young man seemed to expect it. A small smile tugged at his lips as he stopped dead, his hand reaching for the long, thin bag on his back.

As per usual it was a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco. Unfortunately for the graduates at Starfleet Academy the temperatures were close to zero, there was still snow lying on the ground. Each graduate had made sure to wear at least two layers of clothes underneath their graduation cloak.

Two Admirals were handing out the certificates very slowly in the eyes of the freezing students. "Harry Kim," one called out.

One young man breathed a sigh of relief, making it appear like he had just breathed out some smoke. He walked up to the stage to accept his well earned certificate, the other Admiral held out his hand for him to shake. Harry tried not to blush as he forgot he still had his room-mates fluffy black gloves on.

Harry quickly left the stage, his face beet red, and joined his family at the side of the ceremony area. His proud parents didn't appear to be affected as much by the cold, they greeted him with big grins and a hug.

"Aaaw our little Harry's all grown up," his mother cooed over him like he was five, pinching at his red cheeks.

"Mom, no... not here!" Harry whined. The pinching did warm his cheeks up a little but he was very aware of his classmates nearby.

"So son, do you know where you've been assigned?" his father asked him.

"Dad no, I still have to go through extra experience training so they can pick my field," Harry replied as his mother settled for cleaning his cheek with a hanky.

"Honey, you've been here for years and they still don't know," she said. "Though my boy is probably too good at everything to pick just one field."

Harry smiled, half of it out of embarrassment. "Um, would you like a tour of the place?"

His mother replied by hooking up her arm with her son's, "happy to sweety." She dragged him away like she was giving the tour, her husband followed them both, still smiling broadly.

He could barely see a metre ahead of him. The man's dark eyes had tried to adjust to the overlapping darkness, only managing to lighten the black into a dark hazy grey.

This is never a safe place to meet up, he thought to himself. My contact gets the job done, but if anyone saw him he'd most likely be arrested on the spot with that reward hanging over his head.

He was late. A sigh broke the silence, the man's large frame shifted impatiently. Getting new recruits was getting more and more difficult. The Marquis Captain had wasted his time with every visit for two months now. It looked to him like this would be another repeat performance.

Footsteps interrupted his thoughts, the Captain moved his hand down to his pocket that held both a weapon and a contacting device. He could never be too careful.

"Commander Chakotay?" a gruff voice said quietly.

He was almost relieved. He knew he could handle himself in a fight, no question but something about this town, this area that unnerved him. He had heard some strange things about it. An accidental chuckle brought him out of his worries, his eyes had finally adjusted to allow him to see the outline of his company's figure. "Well?"

"I have found two. You're not going to like it."

Chakotay sighed, now wasn't the time to be picky. The last battle with the Cardassians had seriously depleted his crew. "Take me to them."

His comrade chuckled to himself, this annoyed the Captain. "You don't get it, do you?"

"What is the problem exactly?" Chakotay grunted.

"I can't take you to them exactly, one of them still needs to be convinced," the recruiter smirked.

"That's not really your job, now is it," Chakotay stated, his calm voice didn't give away his annoyance with the other man. "Now why won't I like it?"

"The first is a Doctor, he has offered to smuggle in supplies," the recruiter replied. "However his step son is another matter."

Chakotay rolled his eyes, his hand once again was reaching to the weapon in his pocket. "Then we'll just recruit the Doctor, what's the problem?"

Despite the darkness Chakotay could tell his comrade was smiling in the most unnerving way he could. "Trust me, we want this young man on our side. He'll be most helpful."

"How so?" Chakotay sighed.

"Well if I said it all it would spoil the surprise now wouldn't it?" the recruiter laughed to himself. "All I can tell you right now is he's a first year Academy cadet, with quite the colourful record already."

"So are you suggesting we wait until he's expelled, is that the problem?" Chakotay angrily asked the difficult man in front of him.

"The problem is he'll be difficult to recruit and difficult to give orders to. The only reason he's still there is he's one of the brightest in his class, and um... how can I say it? Another special skill he possesses. We'd be fools to let Starfleet "control" it."

Chakotay had quite enough. He turned around to leave, "just send the Doctor to the usual place. I have plenty of bright recruits, if he'll be difficult I don't see..."

The man placed a hand on his arm. "When have I let you down before Commander?" he said roughly. "Trust me, you want this one on your side. Recruiting him will only be difficult because of his nature. However he hates Cardassians and his step father tells me we have something he'll not say no to."

"Fine, where are your recruiters?" Chakotay sighed.

"They had to wait for the boy to leave Starfleet grounds, by the time we get to San Francisco I'm sure they'll have confronted him."

"What is this thing he'll not say no to?" Chakotay asked.

"A girl apparently, a member of your crew."

Chakotay couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What? We don't run a dating agency, this is serious. I don't need another hormone driven spotty little Starfleet brat getting distracted."

"Mr Paris wasn't really that spotty, but I see your point," the man chuckled. "Rest assured that isn't the case, it's just something to get him on your ship. Come... we should make our way to my ship."

The two Marquis men made their way through the dark alleyways of San Francisco, each one less appealing than the last. In the distance they both could hear a struggle in the distance. Both men picked up their pace until they reached the next turn, what they saw in front of them stopped them dead in their tracks.

"So it's not just Manchester," Chakotay muttered as he eyed the two beaten people on the ground, in front of him.

The recruiter widened his own eyes, not believing what he was seeing. He rushed to their side to see if they were still alive. "Rushtan, Evans, what happened?"

One of the beaten men tried to open his bruised left eye, "he... didn't take kindly to being followed."

Chakotay shook his head, the recruiter helped the unfortunate man sit up. "But... how did he spot you?"

"I don't know sir, he just did," was his response.

"Which way did he go?" the recruiter asked carefully.

The man pointed his finger shakily straight ahead of them. "He just went that way sir. Be careful."

"We'd better hurry then," the recruiter said, turning to Chakotay. "You'd better stay with them."

"Hang on, we're after the one who did this to them?" he asked in disbelief.

"Exactly, but if he asks, we don't tell him this is why we want him," the recruiter replied. "Now I'll bring him back, this way..."

"Are you concussed Sampson, I know I said anyone really can join us, but I think this is the limit," Chakotay said. "What species are we dealing with exactly?" He marched forward to where the beaten man was pointing.

"Human, but I wouldn't..." the recruiter stood back up quickly.

Chakotay turned the corner, his fists clenched tightly. He half expected to see a man twice his build ready to punch him as soon as he did, what he saw instead shocked him. All he could really do was stare blankly as a young and thin blonde boy who didn't look much older than nineteen, leap over the wall nearby and disappear out of his sight.

"Unbelievable," was all he could say. He headed back the way he came.

Sampson stared up at him as he struggled to help the second injured man onto his feet. "Well?"

"He's gone," Chakotay muttered, staring blankly at the ground. "What the hell happened? He was just a kid."

"I told you, didn't I?" Sampson said in an ominous tone. "We may have to speak with his step father again."

"Oh do hurry," Chakotay sarcastically said as he finally made eye contact with the recruiter. "You two couldn't handle a kid? I should seriously think of rehiring."

Rushtan and Evans glanced at one another, both of them close to speechless. Sampson stepped forward to their defence. "Didn't you read up on that report I sent you?" Chakotay only stared impatiently at him. "A woman was murdered in a busy public place, strangely there were no witnesses. Her son showed up and attacked a group of Cardassians, accidentally killing two of them."

"That was him, I don't believe it," Chakotay shook his head in disbelief. "If the Cardassians killed his mother..."

"That wasn't proven," Sampson butted in.

"That doesn't matter, if he thinks it why did he start a fight with these two?" Chakotay questioned.

"We didn't get a chance to mention we were in the Marquis," Rushtan replied. "We were following him and he wasn't too pleased about it."

"We only were as we had reason to believe that Starfleet are keeping an eye on him," Evans added on.

Sampson shrugged his large shoulders, "well a chat with his step dad will clear this up. I'm sure once I mention that member of your crew Chakotay, recruiting him will be a breeze."

"Great," Chakotay's eyes rolled. "Who is the unfortunate lady?"

"I just don't think it's a good idea!" Kathryn snapped at the poor soul in front of her, death glare on full blare.

He in fact was Admiral Paris, even he managed to look a little nervous. "Well not everyone can handle caffeine."

"Then don't have coffee then, decaf is not coffee!" Kathryn screamed at him, knocking the full cup out of his hands.

Admiral Paris sighed, he was still not used to her strange obsession with coffee. "If you're going to react like that to my beverage choice, I shouldn't bother to tell you the news."

Kathryn's blue eyes narrowed, "don't tell me you're a tea lover."

"No, well yes but no," Paris responded. "We needed a Marquis operative, Lieutenant Tuvok volunteered."

"But I just saw him at Tactical," Kathryn frowned in confusion.

"He's been gone a week," Paris muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

Kathryn stared at him suspiciously, "I don't think so." She marched onto the bridge, almost knocking her Captain right out as he was on his way to the Ready Room she just left. "See, he's right there!" Her finger pointed at a blonde crewwoman standing at tactical.

"Uh... this may be inappropriate to ask sir, but I have to," the Captain muttered as he got his bearings back. "Who's she been threatening to sleep with to get this high up the ranks?"

Admiral Paris stared blankly in his direction, he decided to ignore the question and deal with the crazy soon to be Captain. "That's not Tuvok, that's Ensign Hathaway."

The blonde girl looked up, smiled politely at everyone then returned to work. Kathryn gasped, "oh my god Tuvok, you're smiling! How precious!"

"Oh god, when is her ship ready sir?" the Captain asked the Admiral.

Paris had meanwhile just hid his face with his hand, "I need a distraction." Right on cue his commbadge chirped to get his attention.

In: "Stevens to Paris."

Paris tapped the commbadge, "yes son?"

In: "We have a problem, code 137 sir."

"Give me a few minutes, Stevens," Paris said, sighing in relief. "Kathryn, I have matters to tend to."

Kathryn saw him attempt to go into the turbolift, she rushed to stop him. "Hey hey, what is that about Tuvok leaving. He seems happy here."

"That is not Tuvok. He has been on a Marquis ship for a week now," Paris grumbled. "I didn't tell you earlier as you spent the entire time digging through Federation guidelines, to find a way to get your dog onto your new ship."

"I don't see what's the harm in bringing her aboard, I really doubt anyone will try to blow up my office with her around," Kathryn said. She passed an accusing glare toward her Captain, "a little afraid of the competition?"

"Ugh," he groaned. He then said the words his entire bridge crew dreaded every day, "I'll be in my Ready Room." He disappeared into his office. All everyone could hear was him yelling obscenities in between words, "what the (beep) hell is this (beep) on the floor, it (beep)ing stinks here! God I (beep)ing hate that Janeway!"

"Anyway!" Paris said loudly enough to get her attention back. "We have a few graduates here for you to look through." He groaned as Kathryn looked around. "Not literally!" He handed a padd to her. "Just have a look through, you'll have to put through a request like everyone else. Now, I have to leave."

"Sure sure, don't forget Tuvok on your way out," Kathryn cheerfully said as she looked at the padd.

"Oh... I give up," Paris grunted, he escaped into the turbolift.

As soon as he was alone he keyed in the commands to stop the turbolift, then tapped his commbadge again. "Go ahead Stevens."

In: "Sir, we believe there are Marquis recruiters near the Academy."

"You just believe, what happened?" Paris questioned.

In: "We've seen a couple of people following him sir, however when we got to the area they were gone."

"Great, has he said anything himself?" Paris grunted.

In: "Just the usual attitude sir. With all due respect sir, he may be intelligent but he's hardly Starfleet material. Why can't we expel him?"

"I think that's quite enough," Paris snapped into the commbadge itself. "The council have their reasons. The most important matter here is about the Marquis, patrol the area. If they're still there we need to find them, stop them. They've tried this recruitment tactic last year with new, stressed students. We can't allow manipulation like this. Understood?"

In: "As you wish sir. But I do wish the council would reconsider, he's even worse than that half Klingon girl was a while ago."

"Yes but her tutors expected a lot out of her, it is a shame we lost her. If you lose him too, somebody will be demoted. Understood?" Paris harshly said.

In: "Yes sir. I'll go and have another talk with him, just in case. Stevens out."

Paris sighed as he returned his commbadge to his chest. "Computer, resume turbolift."

Sparks flew across the small Marquis bridge, the source was a measly little replicator sitting inside the wall nearby the door. Half Klingon B'Elanna Torres furiously marched over to it. Everyone nearby were smart enough to get out of her way, even if the sparks went in their direction.

"I just fixed this! What the hell happened!?" Her eyes darted to the nearest person to her. That was a man twice her height and weight, with scruffy brown hair and a goofy but nervous smile on his face. "Well!?"

His face, despite being already pale turned white. "Um... I er..." he quickly pointed a finger towards the floor.

B'Elanna turned on her heel to stare at where he was pointing. Lying on the ground was a guy covered in a lot of nasty burns, strangely enough he had a huge grin plastered over his face. "Oooooh yeah, that's the stuff!"

"Oh for god's..." B'Elanna grumbled, the rest of her sentence was in Klingon. "Chakotay, you have got to stop recruiting from the loony bin. That Sid, he's causing more damage than the Cardassians."

"Well maybe it would be a good idea to use him as a stress ball," Chakotay suggested. "Ian, either give her a hand or go and greet our new recruit."

The guy who stood nearest to B'Elanna moved a step forward. "But Commander, I haven't done anything wrong." A growl from B'Elanna made him regret his words. "Ok um... " he stepped backwards slowly, "new recruit... you betcha."

"I thought we were getting two new recruits," a short blonde girl commented from the side consoles. Her chair spun around quickly, her eyes lit up. "Are there any cute boys?"

Chakotay slapped his forehead in disgust, "Danny! One track mind, look it up."

"Ohno, I was only asking cos we don't want the girlies to be distracted. B'Elanna I'm looking at you," the blonde girl said with a serious look on her face.

"Yes and Jessie hasn't took up most of the entire women's quarters with her bags," Chakotay mumbled, "and some of the men's too."

"Oooh taking a peek were you?" Danny giggled to herself as she turned her chair back.

Chakotay rolled his eyes as he began pacing up and down the bridge. "We only have one newbie, the other will just be smuggling medical supplies to our ships using the Bad Lands as a cover. The newbie is our new opps officer as the last one got blown up."

"But all he ever did was steal lines from the Tactical, and fail at hacking information from the Cardassians," B'Elanna muttered in a muffled voice, she was now buried inside the replicator.

The doors opened swiftly to allow two figures into the bridge. "That shouldn't be a problem anymore," Sampson said. He turned to introduce his new recruit. He however was just looking uninterested and staring out the port window. "Everyone this is James..."

Danny's eyes lit up even more than before, "Jamesie!"

This got the new recruit's attention, his bright blue eyes widened in horror as he took a step backward. "Ohno."

"Oh yes!" Danny screeched as she charged for him. He quickly took a side step to avoid a hug. "Ooh, playing hard to get as usual. I see you just couldn't bare the thought of life without me."

Funnily enough everyone else had developed a headache, Chakotay groaned into his hand.

"I didn't even know you were here," James muttered. Danny edged closer to him, he'd edge away twice as far each time she tried. "Why... how?"

"Oh funny story, maybe we could discuss it over dinner," she winked at him.

"This is the girl you bribed him with?" Chakotay asked Sampson quietly.

"No, if I knew I'd still would not have mentioned it," Sampson quietly replied.

"Hang on a minute, what happened to Ian?" Chakotay questioned.

Sampson chuckled to himself, "he's probably hiding in the weapons storage again. How is he fitting in anyway, Porter's recruiting skills are not exactly up to par with mine these days."

"Well he found Danny, so let's just say he's lucky to still be alive," B'Elanna grumbled as she climbed out of the replicator.

"Indeed," Tuvok added on.

"Oh I almost forgot," Sampson said. He gestured towards Chakotay, "this is Commander Chakotay, he's in command of this ship so it's in your best interests to listen to him."

James smirked slightly as he looked towards him, "sure... I don't want to get on tubs' bad side." Chakotay's eyes narrowed, he wasn't loving any of this.

Sampson turned towards B'Elanna, "this is B'Elanna Torres, she's our best Engineer. It's best to watch yourself around her, she is quite the erm... fire cracker."

"And Sampson's quite the dead man when he's alone," B'Elanna grumbled as she climbed back into the replicator to fix it.

"You've already met Danny," Sampson muttered, he gestured towards Tuvok at the Tactical station. "This is Tuvok, he's in charge of our weapons and shields." His eyes caught sight of Sid on the floor, he was busy rubbing his burned arms, giggling like a school girl. "Um... that's Sid, calling him strange is an understatement."

Danny giggled too, "ooh he's really loving touchi...."

"Oh god no, I haven't missed that," James butted in.

Danny pouted her lips, "you don't let me have any fun."

"Well, I'll leave you to it. Commander, he's all yours," Sampson said, quickly regretting it as Danny burst out laughing. He quickly rushed out.

"Hmph," Chakotay grunted, folding his arms. He walked towards his new recruit. "First things first, this isn't Starfleet..."

"And?" James interrupted him.

One of the fuse's in Chakotay's head went out, he tried to keep his cool. "However we are a team here, we don't function well without some kind of order. Our only rules are; always do your best, don't piss off B'Elanna, and respect the chain of command."

"So you then?" James questioned.

"Yes," Chakotay replied.

"I'll pass," James commented.

A second fuse went off, his eyebrow twitched. "What do you mean by that!?"

"You swapped that last rule with the do whatever you can to get things done," Danny said quickly to avoid a scene. "That's why Sid always messes up, and why almost everyone on this ship has bruises." B'Elanna casually shrugged. "Though come to think of it, that's probably not a good rule for you Jamesie."

James closed his eyes, cringing slightly, "stop calling me that."

"What do you mean by you'll pass?" Chakotay grumbled.

"Oh it's not over," Danny sighed, she jumped back into her seat.

James shrugged his shoulders, raising his arms up at the same time. "What else could it mean?"

"You don't have a choice in the matter. I'm your superior, you take orders from me. Can your minuscule brain handle that information?" Chakotay grumbled.

"You said I had to respect you, not take orders," James said.

"Ok glad we got that cleared up," Danny said sweetly, "now are we off to the Lands of the Bad?"

"Well you do both, clear enough?" Chakotay snapped.

"Clear," James replied much to his relief. "It means sod all to me anyway."

Chakotay's last fuse blew, he marched over to close the distance between them, pointing his finger at him. "Let me get one thing clear. You're not in Starfleet anymore where all they can do is make you run laps or yell at you. This is the Marquis, if you talk to me like this again I won't hesitate next time."

James smirked at him again, he nudged him out of his space. "Ok tubs, let me get one thing clear. Keep out of my face and I'll not harm yours. I'll follow some orders, but I'm not going to respect anyone who thinks they can push people who are smaller than him around."

He walked around him and headed for the only door, he went straight passed Ian as he left. James didn't notice, but Ian did. His eyes widened in shock.

"Was that James?" he asked.

Chakotay by this point was seething, "unfortunately."

B'Elanna walked up to stand by his side, "Sampson did warn you."

"Fine he did, but I don't get it," Chakotay grumbled, sighing a little. "Danny?"

"Well.. he did as he was told at school unless the other boys were peeing him off. He's not usually this irritable over nothing. He has a smart mouth though, but harmless enough," she replied with a puzzled tone.

"Hmph," Chakotay grunted.

Ian sighed, "I should have known he'd join us, what with what happened to his mother and all." Danny stared at him with wide eyes. "Murdered."

"Oh my god, that would explain it," Danny gasped.

Chakotay groaned, "I already knew this, it doesn't give him an excuse to behave that way. And yes Danny, set a course for the Bad Lands."

"Coolio," Danny said, clicking her fingers. Her chair swiveled back around to face the console.

As usual, all was chaotic inside the crew's quarters. Everyone was rushing around, collecting weapons, and in some people's cases, their lucky charms.

Chakotay marched into the room, and he watched as everyone scrambled around the quarters. They turned to face him as he began to speak.

"Listen up everyone. When we lower the ship's shields we board it and take whatever we can. We will be given a lot of resistance, only shoot to defend yourselves. Am I understood?" Chakotay said calmly.

Some people replied with a nod. A lot of people groaned, what was the point of being in the Marquis if they weren't allowed to go on a Cardassian killing spree?

Chakotay rolled his eyes as James took one step forward, with his hand slightly raised.

"What?" he said questioningly.

"Why can't we kill any Cardassians except in self defence? Some of us want a little revenge," he bluntly asked. A lot of the crew agreed, most of them quietly with a few nods.

"So do I, but this isn't the mission for it. I know a lot of you have had family members killed by Cardassians, but there is no need." Chakotay said.

The young raven black haired girl who stood beside James sighed a little in annoyance, "you wouldn't kill them anyway, hurt maybe."

"Same thing," James muttered.

"Would you please stop gassing, I wanna go and have some fun," Danny giggled. Everyone showed that they agreed with a few loud cheers. She took a side step to get closer to James, "so um... I'm with you baby." He shuddered pretty violently.

"Oh god..."

"Er, Chakotay. Can I leave my son here?" an older woman asked, clasping a hand on a fifteen year old boy standing beside her.

"Aw, but mum, I wanna go," he whined.

"Listen to your mother, Craig. It'll be dangerous," Chakotay said.

"Oh fine, she gets to have all the fun," Craig muttered.

The black haired girl pulled James aside from the others, "I know you're mad about what happened, but the ones we'll be fighting with won't be the same ones."

"Yeah but," he protested. She raised a finger to interrupt him, "Jessie, they mur...."

"Shush," she said, in a teasing voice. Her back arched forward slightly, she peered up into his eyes. "if you continue to interupt me, I'll make you pay."

He tried to hold back a smile as he stared back at her. She knew full damn well that all she had to do was act cute to get her own way. "Don't do that with your back, it makes me look smaller than I am."

Jessie playfully punched him in the arm as she straightened up. "Surely I'm smaller when I do that." A little bit of her black curly hair went into her face, she blew at it and it fell back to the side of her face. "Now no killing, you're not a killer."

Despite the girl in front of him making cute gestures constantly, he grew uncomfortable and turned his head ajar. "Yeah you're right."

"Let's go!" Chakotay announced, interrupting the moment. Everyone in the room cheered loudly.

The cheers were long forgotten a few months later. The Marquis crew were in another difficult battle with the Cardassians. Up against their tiny old ship was a huge battle class cruiser.

An explosion behind him made him duck, he still barked out his orders. "Damage report!"

"Shields are at 20%, we can't take anymore hits Commander," Tuvok calmly replied.

"B'Elanna we need warp power," the Marquis Captain threw at his Engineer.

She slammed her hand on the station, "damn it Chakotay, we're barely maintaining impulse. What do you want me to do with it, ask it nicely?"

"Well you could stop hitting it," James commented from afar.

B'Elanna growled, "this engine is 38 years old, about the same as his IQ points. I have no chance in hell in reasoning with it."

A Cardassian appeared on the small screen above Chakotay's head. "Marquis ship, this is Gul Evec of the Cardassian Military. Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded..." He was cut off, Chakotay looked behind him.

"I'm in, I didn't want to tell him that," James muttered.

"Fire Tuvok," Chakotay ordered. Tuvok nodded, and fired the last remaining torpedoes. They went straight through the Cardassians shields, the last one hit them.

"They've increased security this time, that's all I can give you for now," James added on.

Chakotay sighed, "I'm taking us into the bad lands, that ship's too big to evade the storms."

The Marquis ship flew into the huge expanse known as the Bad Lands, plasma storms immediately greeted them with barely any breathing room in between. The Marquis ship easily danced its way around them, the Cardassian ship began to follow them. They dodged one storm, but was hit immediately by its neighbour, knocking it badly damaged out of the expanse.

"We need to hide out until they're gone," Chakotay muttered.

"There's a higher frequency plasma storm eight kilometres ahead, it should hide us from their sensors," Tuvok reported.

Chakotay nodded, "that's where I'm going."

Tuvok and James' stations began beeping madly, Chakotay looked back. "What?"

"There's some sort of coherent tetryon beam scanning us, I can't locate the source," Tuvok replied.

"Now there's a massive displacement wave following us," James looked behind him as Chakotay stood in the centre of the bridge. The tiny screen showed a very pale yellow wave forcing its way through the Bad Lands, the plasma storms did nothing to put it off.

Chakotay rushed back to his seat. "I can't lose them, everyone hold on."

A bright light engulfed the entire ship, blinding everyone.

****TO BE CONTINUED****

>> Part Two