Voyager: An Alternate Journey 01: Time of Mystery

[USS Fardell]

Star Trek: Voyager
An Alternate Journey: Time of Mystery
10 July 2374
Deep Space; in a region of the Delta Quadrant

The USS Voyager NCC 74656 was travelling at Warp 7, on a course towards the distant Federation.


In Astrometrics, former Borg drone, Seven of Nine, was scanning the region of space that Voyager was travelling through. A sensor alert flashed up on the main screen. She brought up the information on the phenomenon that the sensor computers had downloaded into the Astrometrics computers. What she found interested her. ‘Intriguing,’ she thought. It was definitely something she needed to bring to the Captain’s attention.


“Astrometrics to the Bridge,” Seven reported.

“Report,” Captain Kathryn Janeway said from the command chair.

“Astrometrics sensors have detected what appears to be a wormhole 1.56 light years away,” Seven said.

That piqued Janeway’s interest. “I’ll be right there. Mr. Paris, set course for the phenomenon,” she ordered.

“Aye, Captain,” Lieutenant Tom Paris said. He input the course changes. “Course laid in, Captain.”

“Engage,” Captain Janeway said.

Tom pressed the engage ‘button’ and the ship changed direction. “We’re on our way,” he said.

The captain stood up. “You have the bridge, Chakotay,” she said as she headed towards the turbolift.

“Confirmed,” Chakotay said.


Less than five minutes later, Captain Janeway entered Astrometrics. “What do the sensors say, Seven?” she asked.

Seven was examining the data on the main screen. “It is certainly a wormhole, but I haven’t been able to determine whether it leads to any region of the Alpha Quadrant proximate to Federation space,” she said.

“Keep up the scans, Seven,” Janeway said. She hoped that the wormhole did lead to Federation space, or at least bringVoyager a lot closer to home.

“Yes, Captain,” Seven said.

Janeway tapped her commbadge. “Janeway to Bridge.”

“Bridge here,” Chakotay said.

“Increase speed to Warp 9.2. We need to get to the wormhole so we can determine whether it leads to the Alpha Quadrant.

“Affirmative,” Chakotay said.


Voyager increased its speed and sped on towards the suspected wormhole.


Fifteen minutes later Jenny Delaney and her sister, Megan, entered the Mess Hall.

“You seem happy today,” said Voyager’s Morale Officer and Chef, Neelix.

“Seven has discovered a wormhole. We’re on our way there,” Jenny said.

“That’s good news,” Neelix said.

Both twins smiled.

“But don’t spread it too much. we don’t want to raise false hopes, do we?” Neelix asked.

“Maybe,” Jenny said.


Fifteen minutes later. “Is it true that we approaching a wormhole?” Crewperson Billy Telfer asked.

“Apparently we are, according to the Delaney sisters,” Neelix said, as he paused in his preparation of a Leola Root Stew.

“So, we may finally be going home?” Billy asked.

“Now, don’t jump to conclusions, we don’t want to raise false hopes, do we?” Neelix asked.

Telfer thought for a moment. “Of course not,” he said.

“We will just have to wait and see,” Neelix said.

“Certainly,” Billy said.


Half an hour later, Voyager dropped out of warp near the wormhole.


“Report,” Janeway said.

“Scanning, Captain,” Harry Kim said. “It is collapsing!” he said with annoyance.

“How large is it?”Janeway said.

“A radius of 40 metres, Captain.” What he didn’t say was that whilst it was too small for Voyager, it was still large enough for their shuttlecraft, and Neelix’s ship. “I’m also detecting a small vessel proximate to the entrance,” Kim said.

“Interesting,” Janeway said.

“Astrometrics to the Bridge,” Seven said.

“Report, Seven.”

“It certainly is a wormhole, Captain. However, I am unable to determine the status of the other end,” Seven said.

“The rate of collapse is accelerating, Captain!” Kim said.


Then the wormhole collapsed.

“The wormhole has collapsed, Captain,” Harry Kim said, disappointment showing in his voice.

“Maybe that vessel can tell us something about it. Run a scan on it, Harry,” Janeway said.

“Aye, Captain,” Harry said. The scan results came back moments later. “There are two human life signs. They are unconscious. The ship itself has no warp engines, or any other recognisable FTL technology.”

“Then the wormhole must have opened in a system,” Paris said.

“Not necessarily,” Chakotay said.

“Beam the two humans to sickbay and tractor the vessel into our shuttlebay,” Janeway said.

“Aye, Captain,” Kim said.

Janeway walked over to the turbolift. “Sickbay,” she said.


The Emergency Medical Hologram, otherwise known as 'the Doctor,' was scanning the two humans as Janeway entered Sickbay.

“Report, Doctor,” Janeway said.

“They are both healthy, although the level of pollutants in their systems suggest that they're both from the end of the 20th century.”

“Fascinating,” Janeway said. She wondered how two humans from the 20th century could gained a hold of the ship that was now in Voyager’s shuttlebay.

“They are simply asleep,” the Doctor said.

“Can you wake them?” Janeway asked.

“Certainly,” the Doctor said. He then used a hypospray to inject a stimulant into the sleeping patients.

They began to stir.


“Where am I?” the male asked as he stretched after waking. He saw his companion. “I mean, where are we?”

“You’re on the Federation Starship Voyager,” Janeway said.

The male patient looked confused.

The female was now fully awake. “Could you tell us more about our situation than just about this ‘Starship’?” the female asked, with cynicism in her voice.

“That’s a good point,’ the Doctor said acerbically.

“I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway. We found you in a ship after we detected a wormhole.”

“And?” the male prompted.

“We were looking for a wormhole because this ship is trapped on the other side of the galaxy 60 thousand light years and many decades travel time away from our homes,” Janeway said.

“The Federation?” the female asked.

“The year is 2374, the Federation is a large interstellar polity that includes Earth,” Janeway said.

The male turned to his companion. “Something must have gone wrong with the wormhole after we entered it.”

“You think! We have ended up hundreds of years into the future, and thousands of light years away from our target!” the female said.

“Something has definitely gone wrong with the wormhole!” the male said.

“May I ask what two young adults from late 20th Century Earth doing with a ship that is centuries beyond the level of technology of that time?” Janeway asked.

“You have the ship. You can check the database. You will soon find out about how we came upon the ship!” the female said forcefully.

“Kathleen! You don’t have to be so rude to the Captain! However, it is a long story, so we will elaborate after you have checked the ship’s database,” the male said.

“We will check the ship’s database, but we still don’t know your names,” Janeway said.

“Daniel Howarth.”

“Kathleen Collins.”

“For 2 people from the turn of the millennium, you have a remarkably clean bill of health, despite some allergies. You can leave sickbay once the Captain gives you permission,” the Doctor said.

“You can help us with locating the database aboard the ship, Mr. Howarth and Ms. Collin’s,” Janeway said.

“Certainly, Captain,” Daniel said. Kathleen reluctantly agreed with her friend.

 

[Sandoval]

Well if I'm brutally honest it's a bit clunky but I'm going to presume that this is one of, if not your first attempts at writing. It's an interesting enough little piece, although I don't personally see the massive urgency to reach the wormhole at warp nine.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Unless it was beginning to collapse, but that should have been in the story. It would be easier to read if it was in past tense than present tense.

Interesting though.

 

[USS Fardell]

Conclusion

Voyager’s Chief Engineer, Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres, entered the shuttlebay, and looked at the ship that the two mysterious humans had appeared in.
She was disappointed that it looked very primitive. ‘But I suppose that looks are in the eye of the beholder,’ she thought.

She went over to it and started scanning it with her tricorder.


About seven minutes later, Janeway and Seven of Nine entered the shuttlebay with the two 20th century humans in tow.

“A big shuttle bay,” Daniel murmured.

“Report, B’Elanna,” the Captain said.

“Most of the technology is roughly on par with the Federation, Captain, albeit without any recognisable FTL technology.”

The captain walked up to the open port hatch. “After you,” she said to Daniel.

“Certainly,” Daniel said.


Daniel lead the Captain, Seven of Nine and the Engineer into the ship, with Kathleen bringing up the rear.

He lead them to the small cockpit first. He input the sequence to power up the vessel. “Odd,” he said.

“What’s odd?” the Captain said.

“It is very low on power. There isn’t enough energy stored to create wormholes,” he said, reading the display.

“We wouldn’t have been able to get home anyway, after the mistake we happened to make!” Kathleen said.

“Unfortunately, yes, Kathleen! However the computer system is fully functional. All data is available,” Daniel said.

“B’Elanna,” the Captain said, talking to the Engineer.

“Right on it, Captain,” The engineer said, as she brought her scanning device to bear. She quickly began to download the data.

Seven of Nine looked around at the cockpit. “I believe I recognise the origin of this vessel, Captain,” she said.

“You do?” the Captain asked.

“Species 4273, Ixazeroan, occasionally encountered from the early 24th Century onwards. Strange, their vessels did possess warp drive systems much like those elsewhere. Many vessels also possessed short range wormhole generators.”

“All assimilated?” the captain asked.

“No, Captain, their polity still exists. It is low on the Collective’s list of targets,” Seven said.

“I see,” the captain said.

“Short range, you say, Seven?” Daniel asked.

“Yes.”

“That may be the reason why Kathleen and I are here, we tried to get to Ixazeroa directly from Earth.”

“You have all the data, B’Elanna?”

“Yes, Captain.”

The Captain turned to Daniel. “How did you and Ms. Collins get your hands on this vessel?”

Daniel sat in the pilot’s seat. “It is a long story, Captain.”

“The logs are transferred to your PADD, Captain,” B’Elanna said.

“Examine the ship’s systems, specifically the wormhole generators. Assist her, Seven,” Janeway said.

“Yes, Captain,” B’Elanna said as she left the Captain. Seven said nothing as she followed her.

“It began one night in our second year of University,” Daniel began.



29 July 1999
Near Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
To the east of Armidale, an old Nissan Pulsar was approaching that city after having left Coffs Harbour a few hours before.

Kathleen Collins was looking forwards to visiting her friend, Daniel Howarth, at the University of New England.

Suddenly she saw a shooting star just over the light pollution sent up by Armidale’s streetlights to the east. “What the heck?” It was rather bright. She sped up to 110 km/hr, despite the limit being 100 km/hr...


Fifteen minutes later, Kathleen parked the car out front of Mary White College, the northernmost college of the University, where Daniel resided.

She got out of the car and looked around. She saw a red glow emanating from the sports fields towards the creek in the opposite direction from the College. ‘What the hell is that?’ she thought.

She decided to go into the College anyway. She ran into Daniel as he exited the College. “Hi, Kathleen, I’m about to investigate the crash that happened a quarter of an hour ago,” he said.

“So that was it,” Kathleen said.

“Huh?”

“I saw a shooting star over Armidale around that time.”

“Ok,” Daniel said.


Daniel and Kathleen crossed the road leading to the Sports Union and stepped onto the bike path leading to the other colleges, half a kilometre away on the other side of the creek.

Immediately they saw a small ship lying at the bottom of a crater two thirds of the way towards the creek. The grass surrounding the crater was alight and there was a crowd of students along the path and outside the Sports Union.

“Looks like some kind of alien ship has crashed there,” Daniel said.

“Definitely,” Kathleen said.

“I would like a closer look,” Daniel said.

“So would I, but we would have to get through that crowd,” Kathleen said.

Daniel looked at the crowd. “That’s a good point.” He decided to try anyway, he started walking down the hill.

Kathleen sighed and followed him. ‘This isn’t going to be easy,’ she thought.



Present – Voyager
Captain Janeway interrupted. “Could you skip to later when you actually got aboard the ship?” she asked.

“Possibly, but it would be easier to do it in a briefing room, rather than the confines of this ship,” Daniel said.

Janeway gave that some thought. “Agreed,” she finally said.

“Good,” Daniel said, he lead the way out of the ship. Janeway instructed Seven and B’Elanna to continue their investigation of the ship, and for Kathleen to accompany them.


Five minutes later, the Captain and the two guests entered the Observation Lounge. “How big is this ship anyway?” Kathleen asked.

“345 meters long, 15 decks,” Captain Janeway said.

“That’s larger than most sea-going vessels of our era,” Kathleen said.

“But one of the medium sized classes of Starfleet ships,” Janeway said.

“Even larger?” Kathleen asked, shaking her head.

“There were plans for a class of ship over 700 meters long when Voyager left the Alpha Quadrant. Some of those vessels may have been built by now,” Janeway said.

“Cool,” Daniel said.

“You may continue, Mr. Howarth, from where you first gained access to the ship,” the Captain said.

“Ok, Captain....” Daniel began.



31 July 1999
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
Daniel heard a knock on his college room door. “He opened the door, to find his friend, James McCallam, dressed in his Army Reserve uniform.

“Daniel, you said you wanted to see that ship?” James asked all business.

“Yes,” Daniel said warily.

“The higher ups have said that you can have a look at it,” James said.

“Really? What about Kathleen?”

“She will join us. She’s waiting in the Computer Room.”

“Ok, let’s go,” Daniel said.


Kathleen joined Daniel and James as they left the college.

“What do you think we’ll find?” Kathleen asked.

James put his hand up. “Let’s not talk about it until we get down there,” he said. “Talk about something else.”

“Sure,” Kathleen said. She and Daniel talked about the weather as they walked with James towards the ship.


Fifteen minutes later, James escorted Daniel and Kathleen through the security perimeter set up around the ship.

“It looks smaller than I expected,” Daniel said.

“It measures 18 metres long, with a width of 8.5 metres. It also has a height of 5 metres,” James said.

“Still rather large, bigger than a bus,” Daniel said.

“Still, it’s rather smaller than a DY-100, Daniel,” Kathleen said.

“And slightly smaller than one of NASA’s shuttles,” Daniel said.

“Let’s have a look,” Kathleen said.

“Follow me,” James said.

They followed James to the port side of the ship, where there was a hatch. “It has been examined already, right,” Kathleen said.

“Yes, there are no traps,” James said.

“Why doesn’t that reassure me,” Kathleen said.

“Don’t worry, Kathleen,” Daniel said as he entered.

“I’m not worried,” Kathleen said, as she entered.


Present – Voyager
“And so Kathleen and I saw the ship for the first time,” Daniel said.

“It’s all rather interesting, Mr. Howarth, but why did you get into the ship and try to get to its world of origin?” Janeway asked.

“We wanted to call off the invasion. The Ixazeroans had landed a small paramilitary force and were attempting to gain control of Armidale. Kathleen and I decided to take the ship and go to the homeworld to get their government to stop,” Daniel said.

“I see,” Janeway said.


In the shuttlebay, B’Elanna and Ensign Vorik were attempting to charge the ship. “Adjust the phase converters, again,” B’Elanna said.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Vorik said. He adjusted the phase converters. Then B’Elanna tried again. But it failed again.

“Dammit!” B’Elanna cried out.

“Lieutenant? Vorik asked.

“This ship is not compatible with Voyager’s systems!” B’Elanna said.

“We could try to charge it from the Baxial,” Vorik said.

The half Klingon engineer glared at the Vulcan. “Good luck getting Neelix’s permission for that.”

“You could ask him yourself, Lieutenent.”

“I guess I have to.”


Five minutes later, B’Elanna entered the Mess Hall. She quickly found Neelix. “Neelix, I need to ask you a favour,” she said.

“Anything,” Neelix said.

“You know that we have picked up a ship that came through that wormhole, right?” B’Elanna asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, it is without power, and we cannot charge it from Voyager,” B’Elanna said.

Neelix guessed it. “So you want to charge it from the Baxial?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be right there.”


B’Elanna and Neelix entered the main shuttlebay. Neelix went to the auxiliary shuttlebay to bring the Baxial out of storage. Seven emerged from the Ixazeroan vessel. “Let me guess, you couldn’t charge it either?” B’Elanna said.

“Correct, it’s completely incompatible with Federation power systems. I doubt it would work with Telaxian systems either.”

“I’m going to give it a try, Seven.”

Seven raised an eyebrow. “I’m stating my opinion.”

“Noted!”


With the Ixazeroan vessel and the Baxial present, the main shuttlebay was cramped. Neelix made the connection to the starboard charge port. “Ready to go, B’Elanna,” he said.

“Here we go,” B’Elanna said. She input the commands. There were then sparks as the Baxial failed the charge the Ixazeroan vessel as Voyager had. B’Elanna tried a few more times, but with the same result. It was very exasperating.


Janeway had read B’Elanna’s report. “So you’re saying that we cannot charge it from Voyager or Neelix’s ship.”

“Exactly, Captain.”

“So we’re still in the same position we were when we detected the wormhole this morning,” Janeway stated.

“I agree,” Chakotay said.

“However, there is an alternative,” Daniel said.

“Which is?” Tom asked.

“We set a course to the Ixazeroan homeworld. We have the coordinates, so we can get there,” Daniel said.

“That would add nine years to our journey!” B’Elanna objected.

“That doesn’t seem so much compared to the 60 years that it would take from this position,” Daniel said.

“That’s not the point,” B’Elanna said.

“B’Elanna, it’s worth the extra time if we’re to get a chance of accessing the wormhole technology of the Ixazeroans,” Harry Kim said.

“Right,” B’Elanna said.

“Obviously this is a contentious issue, so I have decided to think about it overnight,” Janeway said.

“Are you sure, Captain?” B’Elanna said.

“Yes, Lieutenant.”


11 July 2374
Janeway called the Senior Staff to the Observation Lounge at 0900 hours.
“I have made my decision. We are going to take the risk and change course to attempt to locate the Ixazeroan polity, and see if we can trade them something for use of the their wormhole technology to get us to the Federation.”

“And if we cannot?” B’Elanna asked.

“Then we will have explored more of the Delta Quadrant than we would have otherwise. But I don’t think it will come to that. Even if we can’t use it to get all the way to the Federation, we will use it to get at least part of the way,” Janeway said.

“Yes, Captain,” Chakotay said.

“In addition, Mr. Howarth and Ms. Collins have joined the crew. They may be from the 20th century but they’re eager to learn.”

“True, Captain,” Paris said.

“How do you feel about teaching them about the history since then?”

“Captain?”

“It will allow you to get to know them. Think about it,” Janeway said.

“I will, Captain,” Paris said.

“In the meantime, set the course to the Ixazeroan Homeworld, Mr. Paris.”


Voyager, having changed course, went to warp.



Finis