| Star Trek: Eclipse | home |
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| Part Three |
"The wormhole." Talon called from his station,
"Hey, that’s right, we should be near the wormhole." Harry added.
"Kamii, get a lock on the wormhole. And stay clear of any ships other than Federation- I’m not in the mood for being attacked.." she paused. "Zeke, you’re not doing anything-"
"Hey!"
She rolled her eyes. "Report to astrometrics with Kim. Chandler, you take the bridge.
Ensign Minac, see if they need help in sick bay." She stood. "I’ll be in my ready room."
"Doing what?" Talon asked.
"I’ve got a headache. I’ll be resting while I try to decide what to do next. Senior officers meet me in the briefing room in one hour- if you can make it."
**
Voyager fell out of space. "Where are they?" Janeway said softly.
A scan was quickly done, "No where near us, that’s for sure." The ensign answered
"That’s impossible."
"What is?" B’Elanna asked entering the bridge.
"B’Elanna?"
"Yes. Now, please tell me what’s going on."
"We don’t know."
"Don’t know?" B’Elanna swore.
"The Eclipse is gone." Chakotay explained.
"Gone? My husband is on the ship! It can’t be ‘gone’!" B’Elanna yelled.
"They have an old ship with new components. There may have been complications." Chakotay continued.
"Just like how they got here. One moment they’re in the Alpha Quadrant, the next they’re in the Delta Quadrant…" the temporary helm officer said quietly.
"Not exactly all of the sudden they’re here, Bryce said the last thing they did was turn on the war- damn!" She stood up. "B’Elanna, get to engineering, Smith, report with me to astrometrics. Chakotay, you have the bridge."
**
"So we’ll use the wormhole, and obtain help from Deep Space Nine." Eve explained. "We can send a message to Starfleet, and our families. From there we can find a way to help Voyager. We’re not going home until Voyager can- all, or none."
"The Alpha Quadrant- wow." Harry took a deep breath. "Wow."
"And one more thing- the crew members seem to return to normal as soon as we have the funeral… I am not taking Paris anyway when he acts like this."
"I agree." Arik said entering the room.
"Arik! Shouldn’t you-" Eve started, obviously surprised.
"No. Mikel’s got a handle on it for the moment."
"How many of Voyager’s crew do we have?"
"Fourty-three, including their doctor and Neelix."
"Good thing we transferred one of the nurses… How long before we reach the wormhole?"
"Before 2200 hours." Kamii answered.
"Good. Commander, compile a list of those who were killed so can report it to Starfleet."
"Aye, Captain."
"And Talon, who does Paris most act like?" She asked, biting her lip.
"That’s easy! Crewman Day."
"Alright. Dismissed."
The room emptied, and soon everyone but Eve and Arik had left.
"Well?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Well what?" she demanded.
"Well what are you going to do?"
"Me? Prepare a message to Starfleet. They’re probably think we’re dead."
"Why are we going to try and return to Voyager? We could go home. All or none is their commitment, not ours." He walked to her and began playing with her hair.
"Part of my crew is on that ship! I can’t go home knowing they won’t be back for decades." She frowned. "And stop that. You’ll get my hair tangled."
He sighed, and moved his hand from her curls, taking her face in his hands. "Don’t be like that. You’re acting like you’re all alone with your decisions. I’ll always support you, you know that." He whispered and kissed her softly.
"I know. It’s just… well… you see…" she sighed. "Never mind." She reached up and moved his hands. "Stop that. We’re on duty, you know."
He nodded. "I know. Just had to make sure you realized you weren’t alone." He turned and left the room.
She leaned back against the table. "Great." She said. ‘Well, I’m probably screwing things up.’ She thought angrily. ‘Some Starfleet officer I make. First I kill half my crew, then I leave half of them in the Delta Quadrant. Real smooth.’ "Well," she said sarcastically. "You want to hear about what I did as a Starfleet officer? I wrecked my friends lives. Got my crew stranded real far from home. Oh yes, this is a great way to go about an assignment. And I haven’t even graduated yet! Just think how bad I’ll screw up when and if I do graduate." Her eyes suddenly stung. She closed her eyes, intent on not crying, and continued to talk to herself, more softly. "What do I do? Hmm? Mom, any help would be appreciated." Eve opened her eyes again, finding herself alone in the room. "That’s what I thought."
**
"Crewman Day was a friendly person- if not sometimes annoying when he felt like repeating what you had to say, but you have to admit it could be pretty funny. He was a good engineer, and a good friend. If you were in a terrible mood he could usually cheer you up." The pod was launched, and the room was silent for several mintues, as people slowly left the room.
"Hey Paris, how you feeling?" Eve asked, turning to him.
"A headache, and kind of weird, but I’m fine."
"Good." She smiled. "Anyone you especially want to talk to?"
"My Dad. He and I have a little unstable ground between us."
"Admiral Paris, right?"
"Yeah, that’d be him."
**
"How long till we reach the wormhole?" Bryce asked, as she walked around the bridge.
"Three minutes less than it was three minutes ago." Talon answered, rolling his eyes.
"Uh, Captain, enemy ships off port side, approaching at attack speed. Gun ports are open, and they are heavily armed. Very heavily armed." Kamii said, rushing the sentence out as she took evasive action.
"Damn. We were this close." Eve slammed her hand on the console.
"What do you want us to do, Ma’am?" Kamii asked.
"Keep heading tward the wormhole, full speed, and be prepared to return fire."
"Aye Captain." The bridge fell silent.
The ship shook.
"Report."
"Shields are at eight-seven percent."
"How long do we have till we reach the wormhole?"
"Four minutes."
"Return fire."
"Aye." Talon answered.
The watched on the view screen as the other ship was hit.
"What was the damage?"
"It brought their shields to ninety-four percent, but other than that…."
"Alright. Kamii, deviate course by two degrees, then swerve around. Evasive move 343-226 LA… now."
The Eclipse shot off, the other ship firing at it the entire time. Reaching the wormhole as it started to close, the small ship squeezed through, followed by their attackers.
The bridge cheered. "Don’t celebrate just yet. We’re not quiet home free." Eve sat down in her chair.
"The probably won’t fire when we reach Federation space." Ensign Kim said from where he had been stationed.
"Good."
"Captain, we’re reaching the end of the wormhole." Kamii reported.
"Very good."
"And… we’re out."
Eve sighed. "Well… that was… highly interesting." She forced a smile.
"We’re being hailed." Chandler said.
"On screen." Bryce smiled. She couldn’t wait to see Deep Space Nine’s reaction.
**
Kira and Dax were talking when an alarm went off.
"What’s going on? Sisko asked as he exited him office, entering the command center.
"Three ships are exiting the worm hole, one is Starfleet." Dax answered him.
"Starfleet?" Kira asked as it appeared on screen.
"It’s the ship from the Academy." Dax murmured. "The Eclipse." She scanned it. "It looks
like its had a few… improvements." She hailed it. "Let’s see how they’re doing."
Moments later, there was a response.
"Hello." Kira said.
"Hi." The girl responded, turning from the screen to face her crew. "Ta-da."
"How’d your ship get all the way on the otherside of the worm hole without us seeing you?"
"Long story." Bryce paused. "We were with Voyager for a bit. We have some of their crew."
Kira nodded, her eyes wide. "Starfleet’s been looking for you guys ever since you missed the check in over a month ago." She frowned. "Do you have over 150 people on your ship?"
"No. Some were killed, and some are still in the Delta Quadrant. So we have a crew of 21 cadets and forty three members of Voyagers crew, but two of them are the EMH and Neelix. That leaves sixty-two people run-."
"Enough talk. Docking bay three is open and you have clearance to dock."
"Understood. Eclipse out."
*
Eve grinned, and turned on the ship wide Comm. "We’ve just been give clearance to dock. Welcome to the Alpha Quadrant. After contacting Starfleet, you will be allowed to
Contact your families. Bryce out."
Harry was grinning hugely. "I’ll go get Seven, now that she’s back to normal, she should find this ‘mildly interesting.’" He headed out the door, passing Arik.
"Docking in five.. four…" Kamii interrupted.
Eve hit the ship-wide Comm again.
"Docking in two… one… and that’s it." Kamii finished.
Eve moved to turn the Comm off again, but Arik grabbed her hand,
"Stop playing with that. You over use that Comm."
"Nuh-uh." She tried to pull her hand away, but Arik pulled her up out of the chair.
"Oh, so you’re going to be stubborn." He laughed, and picked her up, as she protested the entire time.
Kamii, rolling her eyes, walked over and turned the comm off. "Next time you guys decide to flirt while on duty- make sure your not broadcasting it to the entire ship."
"Yes ma’am!" Arik laughed,
"Guys, sorry to break this up, but your expected to meet with DSN, so maybe you should get down to the airlock." Zeke pointed out.
"Come on Evey, time to meet the people." Arik said, carrying her from the room.
They reached the air lock and he put her down again.
"Thanks." She kissed him on the cheek. "Let’s go see what they have to tell us."
The group walked on to Deep Space Nine.
"Captain Sisko," Eve smiled, shaking his hand. "I’m Captain Eve Bryce, this is my pilot Kamii Davidson, Chief Security Officer Talon Haradon, First Officer Zeke Truan, and my Chief of Engineering Arik Gibson. From Voyager, Tom Paris, Harry Kim, and Seven of Nine."
Seven was trying to hide her interest. "This is the Alpha Quadrant?" She asked Harry.
"Yes, Seven."
"Was your ship damaged?" Sisko asked.
"Just a bit. Shields are not at one hundred percent."
He nodded. "You must be excited to get back to Earth."
"We can’t, sir. Not until our friends do. But we are planning on contacting our families."
"You mean you aren’t going home?" Dax asked.
"We will be doing everything we can to go back to Voyager and bring them home." Kamii explained.
"I guess… we understand." Sisko said, looking at his assembled crew.