Xander continued to fall, and fall and fall. The ground was rushing up to meet him and certain was death waiting for him on the rocky bottom of the valley. Then there was blissful darkness.
Xander's eyes slowly flickered open to be assaulted by a brilliant white light. His brain immediately went into overdrive and span round in circles for a short while as a torrent of thoughts hit him. Among them was 'is this it; finally?' 'Not now; now that I've finally found Seven' and never forgetting, 'What the Fuck is it this time!'
"You humans, have such messy thoughts" an all too familiar voice said.
Xander groaned and sat bolt upright, ignoring the pain from his eyes as they got used to the light. "Q"
"Well, that's a fine howdoyoudo" Q said with a chuckle.
"What happened this time?"
Q smirked at him, "I thought I would invite you to join me for a very important event in your life"
"Huh?" Xander said, his mind still not fully operational, he had been expecting to be mush at the bottom of a very long drop.
"Some information has come to light that is very important to current events" Q tried again.
"Sorry Q, I'm still kinda fuzzy, what?"
"Just get off of your backside and come with me," Q said indicating a dark rectangle that showed no light whatsoever.
"Alright, alright" Xander said getting to his feet.
He stood beside Q for a moment, "What happened, I thought…"
"That the sun would be bright?" Q cut him off with a warning glance.
Xander frowned slightly but cleared his mind of any questions, Q was up to something, and wanted Xander to trust him, so he did.
They walked on in silence until they were at the very threshold of the dark rectangle.
"What's beyond the door?" Xander asked before stepping through.
"Now what would have happened if Alice had only asked that?" Q wondered aloud pushing Xander firmly into the darkness.
Xander was assaulted by noise, and then a soft light and finally a slightly weird smell hit his nostrils.
"This" Q said regally, "Is the Council Chambers and meeting place of The Powers That Be"
"It looks like one of those knight road shows" Xander commented. He was hit by the surreal-ness of it all as he spied several hundred different races and that was just within his sight.
Q chuckled slightly, "That my dear Xander is just a representation that your pitiful human brain can cope with. Much like the continuum itself, the chamber will show its self in a way that you can cope with. What you see and I perceive are two vastly different things"
Xander smirked, "No one likes a smarty pants" he quipped remembering the last time he'd been swiped from deaths jaws.
"Very amusing I'm sure" Q said with a mock icy tone.
"So what's the what?"
Q cocked an eyebrow at him, "A trial" he said simply.
"For who?"
In answer Q just directed Xander towards the center of the ring, "His"
Standing there in irons was none other than Lucifer himself.
"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this aren't I?" Xander said with glee.
Q became serious for a moment, "I very much doubt that" he muttered but Xander was fully able to hear him. Reserving comment, for now, Xander turned to watch.
A fanfare was struck up and the strangest sight yet walked into the room. A human looking male wearing what looked to be snake skin trousers with long black hair and dark eyeliner walked into the ring.
Xander turned to Q with a very confused expression, "What's Alice Cooper doing here?"
Q frowned, "The Witch?"
"The Rock Star" Xander said pointing to exhibit A.
Q laughed slightly, "Again your perceptions twist the sight to your will. That is the arbiter"
"Yeah, who's that?"
Q bowed as did the rest of the chamber, the sound of millions of rustling clothes invaded his senses for a moment and Xander found himself being pulled down into a bow, "The Creator" Q said in a stage whisper.
Xander glanced back up to the strange figure in shock, "No Shit?"
The Creator held up a heavily bangled arm and the room went back to their original positions. Only they were now silent, where as before there had been a roar of sound. "My fellow deities, Lucifer was brought before us to answer the charge of breaking the treaty"
The room, if possible became even more silent, it was now deafening.
The Creator hadn't finished, "He is accused of tampering with a spell and rendering magic unusable to your worshipers and followers. He has already been proven guilty of this crime and now all that remains is for me to punish him" The Creator fell silent his dark eyes seeming to meet with each and every set in the huge room.
When those dark orbs met with Xander's the Creator smiled, "Well, Well" he said, "If it isn't Q's champion"
The room swivelled and turned on some sort of 4th dimension and Xander found that he was standing right in front of the man/deity where before he had been stood thirty foot away. At his side Q took the change of scenery almost as well as he did, in other words with shock.
"Q, you've been a very naughty boy," the Alice Cooper-alike admonished with a teasing smile, "This human was about to die when you brought him here. That is not following the spirit of the treaty now is it?"
"My Lord, I only did as I was asked"
"I said bring him here, not save him in the process, you could have just brought his essence here"
"My Lord, I apologise, I misunderstood" Q said bowing deeply.
The Creator looked at him with a frank and disbelieving glare. "There will be repercussions for this" he said dangerously.
"Urm, Creator guy" Xander said causing Q to hiss in surprise, "Don't take it out on him, I was the one that fell"
The room hung and sat on their collective edges of their seats.
The Creator looked at Xander with no expression on his face for a long moment before splitting into a wide smile, "That's not strictly speaking true" he whipped around to face Lucifer, "Is it Lucifer?"
"I'm not sure what you mean?" Lucifer said looking slightly nervous.
"I mean the fact that you gave him a little helping hand by crumbling the rock from under his feet. Another Treaty Violation"
The Creator smiled a sharks smile, "You'll have to get up a lot earlier to get one over on me little creature"
Xander gulped, even though it was his worst enemy on the receiving end. The Creator was a seriously scary guy. If what he had learned from Q was any indication he was also the only true Omnipotent being in existence, truly Omnipresent to boot.
The Creator turned back to him, the danger gone from his eyes and a sad look, "I can't undo what he has done" he stated, "We can only change the playing field"
Xander frowned, "huh?"
The Creator turned to Q and studied him for a long moment, "It appears that it was your one and only transgression, and because of Lucifer's meddling it was more of a bending than a breaking. So what to do with you all"
Q smiled nervously, "You could let us go with a slapped wrist, well myself and Xander anyway, him" he said indicating Lucifer, "You should strip him of his powers and send him to the Borg"
The Creator cocked an eyebrow at the super being who lapsed into immediate silence.
The Alice cooper look alike then started to pace up and down tapping his chin thoughtfully, the creak of snake skin as he walked a strange counter beat to the heel of his cowboy boot.
"If only Buffy could see me now" Xander muttered.
Q chortled slightly and the Creator turned and glared at them. "Quite the double act aren't you?" he asked rhetorically.
Xander had a dry mouth all of a sudden, he'd always known that his mouth would be the end of him, but this wasn't quite what he had in mind.
Lucifer caught his eye and sneered at him, his face contorted into a hateful grimace.
Xander glared right back at him, "Don't make me come over there!" he warned.
"You just don't know when to shut up do you" the Creator said with a slightly warmed smile, "You remind me of a friend I had a very long time ago, oh about three universe's ago I think. Look a bit like him too. Mind you, he was swallowed by a ampotentian devil plant because he couldn't keep quiet but there you go" The Creator said wistfully. Then he clicked his fingers, the sound ringing out and echoing around the huge hall. "I've got it"
He paused for a second, "We do a do-over, but this time Lucy here" he jabbed a thumb at Lucifer, "Won't be able to dabble with Magic, or change any spells. He'll have to make do with his normal methods of foiling your plans. Now; what to do with you two? Normally I would wipe your mind" he said to Xander, "But I think that would be too easy"
"Mr Lord, do not punish the human for my…"
"SILENCE" the Creator, roared shutting Q up in a blink of an eye.
"I hadn't finished, I am forced to punish this human because of your actions. I won't wipe his memories because Lucifer would take advantage of that to kill him straight away. However, because of that we can't just do over, we'll have to get inventive." The Creator smiled as he plucked something as it passed through Xander's Mind, "That's a good idea Xander, thank you"
Q glared at him, "What did you do?" he demanded.
Xander gave him a helpless look and shrugged, "I don't know!"
"An astronaught, frozen in ice for 500 years. I like it but that won't quite work either. Something more natural then or, Alien abduction yes, then stranded in space, cryogenically frozen. I'll even put you right in the Enterprise's flight path."
Xander's eyes flew open, "Huh?" he said desperately.
The Creator smiled at him and it wasn't an as unfriendly expression as Xander had been expecting, "They'll be much less suspicious that way. There is even an alien race I can use. For the cover story" The Creator smiled widely, "The Briori were always up to that sort of thing"
Q winced, "That's harsh"
"You think that's bad. You're really attached to this human; aren't you?" The Creator smiled, "So be it, I seem to remember that a universe ago there was a type of weapon"
The super being known as Q blanched, "What? No, please, not those, some of them are still around! I have a wife, a son anything but that!"
The Creator held up his hand silencing the distraught super being, "Moderated as it is by Lucifer's actions I cannot in good conscious turn you into that sort of weapon for an indefinite time frame. You'll be bonded to that sword," he said pointing to Xander's Katana, "and that man for the next 300 years"
Q breathed a sigh of relief.
Xander held up his hand; a confused expression on his face. The Creator smiled at him, "Yes? Do you need the lavatory?" he said with an amused voice.
"No, it's just a coupla questions" Xander said nervously.
"Shoot"
Xander held up his hand and ticked off one finger, "A universe ago?"
"A universe is not just a measurement of space, it is also a measurement of time. It is the life span of a universe from big bang to small whimper"
"Whoa!" Xander said, "Okay, I kinda get that, what are you talking about in regards to my friend here?" he said pointing to Q. and ticking off another finger.
"He will be bound to you and your weapon, your constant companion. The usual rules will apply, communication, some minor protection but his powers will be heavily bound for the duration"
"300 years seems a bit steep?" Xander commented, "He didn't really do anything wrong!" with yet another finger ticked off.
The Creator smiled at him with a secretive look behind his dark eyes before turning to Q, "A friend Q? I'm surprised, normally you alienate any race you come across" he turned back to Xander, "300 years is a very short time for a being such as Q, I realise you don't understand or rather cannot truly conceive of his lifespan, which is measured in universe's if you get what I mean"
Xander nodded slightly and glanced at Q, "Is that true?"
Q nodded with a strangely fond smile, "What of my child, my wife?"
"They can visit" The Creator allowed with a smile.
"Freedom of choice?" Xander said ticking of his forth finger.
The Creator gave him a secret smile, "The alternative is that I allow this to play out as it stands, and I have to warn you that the hellmouth is already open on Earth. It is however your choice?"
Xander nodded his head, "I get it now, whilst I have a choice, I really don't have a choice"
"As I thought. Was there anything else?" The Creator asked.
Xander shook his head, "Not at the moment"
The creator nodded and then his face-hardened as he turned to Lucifer, "Ah Lucy, Lucy, Lucy why did you do it? We were once such good friends" He sighed; "Now I have to punish you; unless…" The creator smiled, "Come back Lucifer, go back to the continuum and take up the work you had always been so very good at?"
Lucifer just glared at him.
"Very Well" The Creator said and snapped his fingers.
Lucifer waited for a long time for this moment, the small Briori escape capsule was nearly at his position now. From his vantage point he could just make out the face of the human that had been the thorn in his side. He also knew that invisible as he was Q in his sword bound form was also in that container. This would ensure that he could kill two birds with one stone.
The handsome human looking being pulled back his foot and took careful aim. As the escape pod approached his position he unleashed his kick. Using the Briori pod as a soccer ball he launched it off into the depths of space, hopefully to end up in a sun.
Task complete Lucifer smiled to himself and with a flash of red light went back to hell and his preparations.
The Creator faded into sight with a sad smile on his face, with eyes that see things that none other could he tracked the escape pod and redirected the Briori device's trajectory, just slightly. It wouldn't meet the Enterprise, but then it wouldn't end up in a star either.
After all, he couldn't be 'SEEN' to be taking sides.
The Universe is a collection so large that there is only one word to describe it. What is it a collection of though, Galaxies millions upon millions of stars, planets, black holes, quasar's and a host of stellar cartography that staggers the imagination. A single universe contains everything that we can possible imagine. There is no plural for universe for a very simple reason. There is only one universe. Some use the universe as a measurement of time, these are being that deify any logical explanation. Creatures so old that one can simple not understand the breadth of their lifetime. Intellect that eclipses the greatest minds of any of the more humanoid species, and yet…
… And yet, even they can still be small-minded, mean and vengeful. It was such an emotion that had sent a slender metallic object careening across the galaxy at great speeds. The occupant of the pod, a human male, twenty-one years of age with dark hair and totally unaware was likewise sent along with the Pod. Inside of that self same pod was a virtually omnipotent being that was as helpless as the human beside it. The 'super' being wasn't mad, he was not feeling vengeful in fact he found it strangely ironic that he one of the Q could find himself in this predicament.
The Q is an extradimensional race with virtually unlimited powers. A Q can assume any shape, any phenomena, and even manipulate the space/time continuum itself if he so desired. He could harness immense amounts of energy and manipulate them through mere thought alone. The Q originally existed in an extra dimensional universe, known as the Q Continuum, but can switch between dimensions at will. So this Q in particular was wryly amused, to put it mildly.
USS Voyager NCC-74656
October 2376
342.5 meters of some of the Federation's best technology and scientific effort glided through space at a rate of 1,516 times the speed of light, (1.63 trillion KpH), still 30,000 light years from home after seven years of travel across some of the most inhospitable regions of space. However at that speed it would still take them another 198 years to end their epic journey. Alone, but determined she works her way back towards the Alpha quadrant and home.
Upon that gallant ship her crew was waking and sleeping; her captain had risen earlier than she really needed to, as was her preference. She rode up in the turbo lift her mind freewheeling along with no specific thoughts as she did so, her fingers tapping the rail that wrapped around the small lift car. She was approximately 15 minutes early for the beginning of her shift; she liked to have the 'Day shift' to her self. Chakotay, her first officer, ran the 'Night' shift. Of course things such as night and day were completely relative on a starship. Only really being delimited by the tick of the chronometer than by the rise and fall of a star.
The lift slid to a halt and the door swished open with a hissing noise. Her face warmed into a smile as the youngest member of her command team entered fresh as a daisy and about as old.
"Good Morning Captain" Harry Kim said.
"Good Morning Harry; you seem chirper today" Janeway enquired with a smile. Her first meeting with the fresh out of Starfleet ensign had been an amusing one; since that day he had proven himself, over and again as one of the most capable officers she'd worked with. She was seriously considering giving him a field promotion to Lieutenant (junior grade). She would have to go through his service record later and check. The stocky Korean man smiled an equally warm smile for his Captain.
"Just looking forward to another 'interesting' day in the Delta quadrant; Captain" Kim said his dark eyes glittering with amusement.
He was of course being ironic. As a welcome change of pace they had encountered no hostile life forms, there hadn't been a single nebula to swallow them up and time had flowed as it should do; forwards, and without any looping. As far as Captain Janeway was concerned, that was definitely of the good. It had become somewhat of a running joke for the last month since they had dropped of Neelix and peace had ruled the day. Interesting was now a euphuism for peaceful. Once Janeway would have been horrified to think of their situation as peaceful. When she had been younger and with less nasty experiences under her belt, she would have sought out any number of adventures. Now, she was enjoying the calm for as long as it lasted.
"Don't worry Mr. Kim; I'm sure that our 'interesting' period won't last" Janeway told him with a satirical tone of voice.
Harry just smiled in response to that and nodded his agreement; no peace had lasted for long when it came to voyager. He was sure that if trouble didn't find, them they'd find trouble.
The turbo lift which had resumed its journey, once again slid to a halt. The doors opened onto the bridge and Janeway took her customary deep breath. With a last glance and a smile at Harry she squared her shoulders and stepped on to her bridge.
The Voyager was more than a ship to her crew, and especially to its Captain. She was both their home and their protector. The ship itself had taken various batterings over the last seven years and they'd glued her back together again. As such she had yet to fail them in that regard. It was possible that in the coming years that she may end up dying, some alien race that was just too strong for her, or perhaps massive technical failure. Janeway hoped that the day would never come that she would have to scuttle Voyager.
"Good Morning Captain" Chakotay said with a smile as he stood from the captain's chair and stepped to one side. It was an almost totally unconscious sign of respect but Janeway appreciated it anyway.
She smiled at her First officer, "Good morning to you Chakotay; how is she this morning?"
Chakotay, once her enemy and now trusted executive officer, continued his smile, "Running well, B'Ellana tells me that she and Seven have managed to improve engine efficiency by 0.9%"
Janeway's eyebrows rose in concert, "Really… …Together?"
"Yes… …Together," Chakotay allowed a slight chuckle, "B'Ellana tells me that they will have enough power now to increase replicator rations by 1%"
Janeway pursed her lips in thought for a second, "That's good news. Please let the crew know their new allotments. Now that Neelix isn't cooking for us, we'll need them"
"He'll be sorely missed as both cook and our morale officer"
Janeway thoroughly agreed with that as her firm nod indicated, "I'll miss him also," she admitted. "Anything else to report"
Chakotay shook his head, "Nothing Captain"
"Very well, you're relieved"
"I stand relieved," he intoned as per regulations the smile and twinkle in his eye belaying the serious words.
The night shift segued into the day shift with a general rustle of moving bodies as crewmen and officers swapped stations all across the ship. Janeway did however notice one absence. "Where's Tom?" she asked kinking her neck to look at Harry at his Ops. Station.
Harry smirked, "Another False Alarm" he said simply.
Janeway smiled slightly. Just then the Turbo lift doors opened to show Ensign Tom Paris still tucking his uniform into place and looking both tired and harried.
"Good Morning Ensign" Janeway said gravely, schooling her face into a frown.
"I'm; SO sorry captain. I was up all night… Sorry" Thomas Eugene Paris said looking highly embarrassed.
Janeway let her smile show through as Tom took to his station with alacrity, "We'll let it slide this time, Ensign. Expectant fathers get a little slack" she said her mouth twitching into a smile.
Paris shot her a grateful look, "Thank you Captain; it won't happen again"
Janeway just nodded her head her eyes twinkling with amusement. She'd been following the pregnancy of B'Ellana closely and with great interest. She was sure that the little bundle of Klingon rage and Paris impetuousness would become quite the handful; but like her parents she would turn out to be an asset to her parents and if, god forbid they were still traveling, to Voyager herself.
Janeway forced her mind back on track with the ease of practice, "Ops." She called out.
"Reporting green across the board, captain" Kim answered crisply.
"Con" Janeway said
Tom's hands flew across his board with expert efficiency, "On course for the Alpha quadrant at Warp 8, Captain" he said, the sleep gone from his voice and with a professional air, despite his still ruffled hair.
Janeway's mouth twitched again as she looked at the back of his head. "Ensign Paris; Tom, you have something on your uniform" she said her voice highly amused.
Tom checked his person and turned a confused expression to her, "Captain?" he asked
Janeway pointed to his neck so he reached up and came away with shaving cream. His face flushed, "Eh, Thanks Captain"
"No problem and sort out your hair" Janeway continued.
He did as he was asked, thanking god that Captain Janeway was as understanding as she was. Some captains in the fleet would have had him relieved of duty for some of the things he'd done, this was just the latest accident.
A flash of brilliant light flooded the bridge at the precise moment that he stopped talking. Once the light had faded in its place was a tall auburn haired woman with an imperious bearing.
"Q" Janeway greeted the female super-being.
The female Q surveyed her with slight contempt showing itself on her, the mewling infant in her arms making itself known by a small cry.
Janeway frowned at the bundle of almost omnipotent skin, "Didn't I see him as a teenager?" she asked, almost rhetorically.
The female Q sneered slightly, "Human's; your concept of time is so… Simplistic"
Janeway didn't respond to her tone, and only lifted her eyebrow, "I see; well, what can we do for you this time, or is this a social visit"
The female Q laughed slightly, "As if, I'd lower myself to socialize with humans"
"I seem to remember your husband wanting to socialize me," Janeway muttered slightly louder than she would normally; the female Q had always gotten on her wick.
"Q, is special" Q said.
"So tell me; where is your husband, should I be raising shields or is he not raising hell for a change"
"Hell, funny you should say that" the female Q replied with a knowing smile. "Let us just say that he is pursuing another career choice at this current time. Forcing me to take up his little crusades"
Janeway exchanged a bemused expression with her second in command, "What can we do for you?" she tried again.
The female Q walked from her position just in front of the Viewscreen across to the Conn officer. "Turn this amoeba around and send it back that way," the Q said pointing off behind them with a graceful finger and a superior smile.
"We're on our way home as well you realize" Janeway said at the startled glance from her Conn officer.
"This won't take you that far off of your journey" the female Q pressed, then her face changed to show a slightly warmer expression, "There is something that I just KNOW you will find interesting in the binary system a mere light year in the other direction. I am surprised your sensor's didn't notice it before"
Janeway once again glanced at her number one, who for his part shrugged, a light year really wasn't here nor there at Warp 9.
"What are we scanning for?" Janeway asked.
"I believe you've had some dealing with the race before; The Briori"
Janeway sucked in a breath, "The Briori?"
The Q shot her an annoyed look, "Yes The Briori. Must I repeat everything I say, this will be even more boring if you don't at least pretend you're an intelligent species. I don't know what Q see's in you all, I really don't"
"Fine, Helm, alter our course, heading..." She glanced at Harry Kim, whose fingers were flying across his board at speed.
He looked up and with a confident voice born of many adventures said, "bearing 0 mark 0 mark 180"
Janeway lifted her eyebrow, "It's straight behind us?"
Kim nodded, "It is Captain, a Briori chamber just like the ones we've seen before, it's heading into a dense nebula; at Warp nine we'll arrive in ten minutes and hopefully catch it before it goes to far"
"Alright, let's go, Warp 9" Janeway said her mind floating back to the conversation she and Harry had about 'Interesting' times. The Chinese had a curse; it stated 'May you live in interesting times'. Janeway wasn't sure what she had ever done to a Chinaman, but they had certainly cursed her well and truly.
The humid and somewhat dark bridge was silent except for the clicking of machines and the occasional shuffle of a booted foot scrapping across the floor.
The Alpha, a large male with a scar running down his face and disappearing into his Armour, was an impressive sight. He was at least a foot taller than those around him and he had an air of a predator at rest that other Hirogen aspired to. He was an awesome hunter with many prizes in the trophy room. He was actually slightly older than most of his fellow Alpha. But then he'd held the position for a very long time. As such he was feared among his people, and respected. His second in command, the Beta, was an alpha in his own right. The only reason that he did not leave to build his own pack was that he knew he still had much to learn from his alpha. There wasn't such a thing as loyalty, as such, in the Hirogen species but the Beta felt something that came very close towards his Alpha.
The Alpha poured over the sensor readings with a feral smile gracing his somewhat demonic face, "It is the Voyager!" he announced.
"Yes My Alpha, they are heading directly towards the Nebula," the Beta reported.
The Alpha tilted his head in a sure sign that he was deep in thought. The Voyager had many dealings with his race; their expansive communications network had seen to it that all Hirogen knew of this. They had both helped and hindered his fellow Hirogen on many occasions.
"Your Orders?"
"Set course for stealth approach. I want to observe them for a time before we make our move" the Alpha said with a grim smile.
"Yes My Alpha"
"One more thing" the alpha said suddenly
"Yes My Alpha."
"What is it they are doing?" the Alpha said pointing at the sudden course correction that had alerted them to the ships presence in the first place, "Scan the nebula"
The Beta did as he was told, "There is a probe… no some sort of pod entering the nebula. I only managed to get a very quick scan before the nebula cloaked the signal; there appears to be a life form inside of it"
"Interesting; I wonder what they find so interesting about a worthless pod with a single life sign?" the Alpha said rhetorically.
The Beta wisely choose not to answer, his Alpha had quite the temper if crossed.
The Briori homeworld deep within the Delta quadrant may have been lost. The Briori themselves had been essentially thrown off of their own planet. That did not mean, however, that the Briori were as dead a race as their ex-slaves had thought. Some, a scant few had managed to escape the wrath of their slaves. They had escaped and flown as far away from the slaughter of their kind as they had been able. Those remnants of a once mighty and proud race had then slipped back millennia in their development. Their technology had still been available to them, but it was soon the case that they didn't have anyone to run it.
After a thousand years, the once dominating and fierce Briori had once again found their feet. The remnants of that slave-based civilization had learnt from their mistakes. The Briori no longer had slaves; slaves that had known more about their technology than they had. From the base laid down by their ancestors the Briori had become scholars, writers, poets and scientists. They had their warrior caste but it was no longer the driving force of their advancement. They had become self-reliant and had re-learnt their own technological advancements. Then finally, they had then taken to the stars once more.
It hadn't taken them long to realize that the universe had changed a great deal from the stories written by the settlers of the planet. The entire region of space was unsettled, there were new powerful races that had taken to space faring themselves. Those races had been very much more warlike than they. The Briori realized that they needed protection and that it would be off of their own backs. So they had designed some of the best shielding in the sector, there weapons became more powerful and the ships larger and more capable. However, they did it only to protect themselves and not to conquer. It was quickly realized that the Briori were not easy targets, so they had been left alone for the most part. Any incursion into their space had been rebutted with deadly force. They spread across their own system without pause, yet they stilled their progression as soon as they reached the final hospitable planet in the 8-planet system. They concentrated their pursuits to art, technology and to the enhancement of one's self.
From their warlike beginnings, much like the Vulcan's of the Alpha quadrant, they had evolved into a peaceful and wise race. Their technology was among the best in the sector, their ships mighty. Eventually their telepathic abilities already quite mighty were refined into a surgeon's scalpel where once had been a blunt bladed axe.
Then one day several hundred years into their new lives, a blast from the past entered a nearby nebula. The scientific quarter was immediately in uproarious excitement. There was a remnant from the days of old. Their sensitive scanning equipment had been pointed in the right direction at just the right time. A slave pod had been caught in almost snap shot perfection. The scans were studied and discussed between the various heads of departments until finally they arrived on the desk of the single most powerful Briori - Chancellor Gomm.
The Chancellor's long elegant fingers reached across his desk and picked up the data pad with a faintly bored air. Then his large almond eyes widened to show their completely black entirety. His large oval head turned and tilted to look at the slender scientist in shock, "A Slave Pod" he said, or rather thought at her.
The scientist sent back her excitement at the finding and The Chancellor couldn't disagree. It was of great cultural and historical significance to retrieve the pod and to study it. He hoped that perhaps they could learn more about their warrior like existence pre-fall, as it was known. The Chancellor reached out with his mind and access the communications network. It routed his very thoughts across the solar system to the final planet where a Prima of the fleet heard them.
Prima Thang's reply was immediate, he would take the mission and he and his crew would bring back the artifact as soon as was possible.
Chancellor Gomm sent his appreciation and gratitude across space to Prima Thang who was already reaching out to his Secondis and other command crew and members. Within three hours the large saucer shaped ship left the solar system and set course to the D'Lorean nebula.
The nebula was a glow with color; tones of orange and red were reflected off of the small craft's clear alloy surface. It was a shame that the passenger wasn't awake to enjoy the show; he would have seen some of the most beautiful space scenery in the quadrant. The D'Lorean system was extremely rare.
The entire system of planets was in a nebula and turbulent with high amounts of Metreon gas bubbles, a naturally occurring, inflammable gas. Also Sirillium, which occurs in nebulae/gaseous anomalies in Delta and Alpha Quadrants, and a very highly combustible gas, as well as theta-xenon, argon, fluorine, oxygen with the occasional plasma storms. In short it was beautiful and terrifyingly dangerous. Just the sort of thing the passenger would have enjoyed. His ever-present companion, however, was conscious, as they had almost always been. They surveyed the beautiful nebula with a slight sigh of boredom. It wasn't that they didn't find it fascinating, but they had seen and done so many things that backtracking on yourself was not the most enjoyable thing for a Q to do. He'd been here many times before. A very rare form of creature existed on the main planet of the system, and the planet they were headed for. As such Q had been here to watch over the species, unique to this system alone.
The pod he was currently encased in was about 8 foot long, just barely big enough to hold it's cargo and a few electronic gadgets that kept life support and the cryogenic suspension running to keep the human occupant alive. The pod was not made for this sort of travel, but the designers had the aforethought to make sure that in the case of emergency that it could take the stresses of space. The Briori had been a technologically advanced race and their designs had been hardy.
Q's eyes widened slightly as he felt the tiny craft start to shudder being pulled in by the gravity well of the Class N planet. He knew about Briori technology, of course, but he seriously doubted that they had ever thought that a pod would have to make an incursion into a planets atmosphere. The forces involved were great and vastly different from those of the relatively simple task of space flight.
The end of the pod started to glow as it abraded against the planets atmosphere and the friction created surplus heat. The pod shuddered and trembled before starting to shake violently. The creator had placed Xander into the pod in a state of cryogenic suspension so he was well out of the bone jarring experience that Q, even in his current form, was forced to endure. The super alloy Katana was rattling about in the pod like beans in a tin can, jarring the super being inside of it. Apparently the creator had not seen fit to likewise suspend Q's awareness. It had been an intensely boring month for him, and now to add insult to injury he was being shaken like King Kong was mad at the slender shell of the Briori Suspension Pod.
For what seemed like eternity Q was shaken around, linear time to him was a torturous thing to suffer, as a Q he lived a much more interesting existence. The only time hoping he was allowed now was to phase shift himself slightly out of line with the current flow of time to hide him from prying eyes. As such he would be able to remain at Xander's side at all times. Only that was not a Q power, it wasn't even a trick to him; it was a function of the type of weapon he had become. Borne by heroes throughout time there was a type of weapon that was virtually indestructible and very powerful. He was temporarily in this state due to a little too much bending of the rules. Xander had been essentially caught in the middle. Q suspected that the creator had been especially lenient to him because of that fact and for which was truly grateful, that said. He just wished the creator hadn't stuck him in an overgrown butter knife in a tin can right in the middle of space.
The pod broke through the various layers of the planet's atmosphere until finally, moving at just under the speed of sound it broke in through a cloud bank and sliced across the clear blue skies. Luckily the pod had hit the planet in such as way that it was virtually horizontal to the ground. Dropping quickly it glided across several hundred miles, slowing its mad dash on wind friction alone. Then as it's speed dropped so did its altitude finally dropping to sea level and hitting the dark blue ocean. It hit the water with a tremendous crash and splash before bouncing like a skimming stone several times, all slowing the still far too fast speed of the craft.
A final lurch and the pod took to the air once again sailing across a yellow-sanded beech and smashing its way into a tropical looking forest behind. Huge cracks, snaps and crunching sounds emanated from all around the torpedo like pod as it flew into the forest creating a path of destruction in it's wake before finally it smashed into a tree and was brought to a rather abrupt halt.
The pod seemed to hang in the air for a moment before plummeting down to the ground end first and digging its way in slightly. Then it shuddered for another moment before dropping down on its base. Amazingly it was still in one piece, the end was rather crushed but other than that it had come through the ordeal in surprisingly good condition.
The forest was silent for a few minutes, as the creatures became accustomed to the dirty tubular pod. Then when it made no further moves the creatures of the planet got back to doing what they were doing.
The pod clicked and fizzed as it cooled down from the tremendous temperatures that it had achieved on its entry through the class N world's atmosphere. It was a testament to Briori engineering that the pod had made it that far, but now the systems went into shut down. Because the Briori liked their slaves to actually survive the system started the reintegration sequence of the pod, heating the lifeless looking human it in its protective embrace.
A few seconds later the three lights on the side of the pod came to life, all three lights flashed: -
Three Lights: -
The heating ducks super heated the human male, warming his body back up to normal operating temperatures.
Two Lights: -
As the body came to life the critical systems set the body's heart pumping for itself, the brain activity was allowed to come back up.
One Light: -
A large electrical current was sent through the body forcing it back into a fully working state and the inhibitors were purged from the man's system as Cortical stimulators reactivated the man's upper brain functions.
No Lights: -
The man's back arched as he took a breath for the first time in 375 years, in theory.
The hood slid off of the pod allowing oxygen to get to the man's lungs. The man, a veteran of waking up in less than solicitous surroundings came awake far faster than he should have done. His eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright; he ignored the sense of nausea and the light-headedness. Instead he looked around him taking in the surroundings.
"Oh; you are shitting ME!"
Janeway looked at the scientific data on the Op's panel with a gleam of interest in her eye. This sort of nebula was by no means unique, but the combinations of gases within it certainly were. The less informative but infinitely more attractive view of the nebula was painted across the forward view screen showing it in its visual beauty that the scientific data did little justice to.
"What do you think Harry" Janeway asked the dark haired Korean man at her side.
He smiled at her, "It's beautiful," he said with a note of wonder in his voice, a note that the captain was glad to hear. It would be so easy for a young ensign like Harry to quickly become jaded by all the had seen, it was nice that he had kept that streak of wonder that would make him a great explorer one day.
With a smirk she replied, "It is, but not the answer I was hoping for"
Harry sobered and shot her a chagrined look, "Sorry captain, the nebula itself it loaded with several highly flammable gases that could be ignited by Warp engines. So it we go in, we go in on impulse, other than that the doctor will have to give us an immunization against metremia. Other than that we should be okay"
The captain nodded, she had thought much the same herself, but what was the point of having a dog and barking yourself, "Excellent, thank you Harry" she turned to the front of the bridge, "Helm, set course and enter the nebula at one half impulse"
"One half impulse, Aye" Paris intoned by the book. He was trying to show that he could be just as professional as anyone else. Janeway knew this and smothered an amused smirk.
"Very good" she said and watched as the nebula grew slowly in the main viewer.
"I want us to start scanning as soon as we enter the nebula, I want to know where that pod is," she said to Harry who nodded curtly and whose fingers then flew across his board.
She smiled, "Now lets solve ourselves a little puzzle shall we," she said her eyes alight with a true explorers gleam.
The dark eyes of the Alpha glared down at his panel watching the sleek federation craft enter the nebula with cautious movements and speed.
"Go to full stealth and follow them into the nebula" the alpha commanded his Beta, who was at his shoulder, "Once we are in I want you to hide us here" he said indicating the second of the binary systems stars. "That should give us cover from their scanning technology"
Then beta nodded his agreement, "A good plan my Alpha"
The alpha smiled, "Of course it is" he said dangerously.
The beta gulped slightly and stepped well back from the annoyed Alpha, "I meant no disrespect my Alpha"
The Alpha softened slightly and inclined his head, "Very well, then let us prepare for a glorious hunt"
The beta smiled slightly realizing that he had just been let off of the leash as it were, "Yes My Alpha"
"I'm sorry captain, I can't tell you anymore than its vague direction" Harry said with a self-annoyed expression.
"It's alright Harry, The nebula must be effecting our scans. You did well to spot the course by eddies in the gases" the captain said with a fond smile. It was true, it had been quite a feat to recognize the subtle play of space gases to show a course of a non-propelled ship such as the pod. "At least we know where it is, so tell me more about the planet"
"It's Class N, with a large amount of water and a tropical climate. Which is about all I can tell you captain as the gases that surround the planet have the same effect as the ones in this nebula." Harry said with a sigh of frustration.
"Recommendations?"
Harry shook his head slightly; "An away team may be able to use tricorder's to scan from the surface, IF; it is the gases that are foiling our scanners"
"I see, thank you Harry" Janeway said and turned to the her first officer who had been called in, "Commander, assemble an away team"
The handsome star fleeter nodded his head, "Yes Captain"
"Who will you be taking?" Janeway asked curious to see if he was of a like mind on this. They usually were but it never hurt to make sure.
"Harry, Tom, Seven and myself" Chakotay replied with a smile.
Janeway pursed her lips, "Take Lieutenant Andrews from Xenobiology as well, she is an expert at nebula encased planetary systems, you should read her paper on it" she said with a slight smile. She knew that the action orientated commander would more likely want to eat his own leg than read the heavily scientific paper.
Chakotay smiled, "I'm sure it is, I'll go down and get her on my way to Seven"
Janeway nodded a fond smile on her face as she thought about the ex-drone who had become such an important member of her team.
Lieutenant Andrew's was a young woman of 25 years of age; she had joined Starfleet for one reason only, her love of science. The only reason she wanted to explore was because of the discovery of more science and her study of the findings. Since the age of 8 the subject, and the wide variety of topics within it had fascinated her. She eventually graduated the academy with honors in Xenobiology, her favorite subject and had since received critical exclaim for her papers of a variety of subjects. Her IQ was enormous and her mind sharp and enquiring. Her one failing was the fact she was a little too interested in science and had forgotten all about the marvels of the actual world. Such as, for instance, people and occasionally food and other common sense type concerns.
She was attractive with a dark brunette bob that feathered out around her face, framing her gamine features. Her pale complexion was a sign of her passion for her subject but it was also an enhancement to her looks. She didn't bother with makeup of any sort, her hair was kept in a bob purely because it was easy to manage and other than basic personal hygiene she rarely took notice of her appearance. Her uniform was often crumpled and disheveled looking but her captain, and her commanders before knew to ignore that fact for her scientific expertise.
"Lieutenant" a soft voice spoke from the doorway to her lab. She was far too engrossed in her work to register such a softly spoken greeting and completely ignored it.
"Lieutenant" the voice asked again a little louder this time, again no reply was given.
Finally with a slight smile Chakotay reached out and grabbed the woman gently by the shoulder. The next thing he knew he was facing down towards the deck held in a perfectly executed arm lock. A little known fact by many was that Lieutenant Andrews had studied the science of martial arts from an early age. Her father had been a highly ranked sensei of Aikido and had taught his little girl everything she needed to know about protecting herself since she was able to balance on two pudgy feet.
"Oh god Commander" Lieutenant Andrews said in utter shock letting go of the First Office and a man with the power to put her in the brig for the rest of her life for such an act, "I'm so sorry" she said fussing over the chuckling commander Chakotay.
"It's quite alright Lieutenant, I understand, I startled you, it's my fault. You weren't answering my call, so I had to do something" he rolled his shoulder with chagrinned smile, "Though I wish I hadn't done that"
The shy Lieutenant was now blushing at him prettily, "I'm so sorry commander, I'm not on report am I, I'd understand…"
"…No, l I understand, although you should try to remain more aware of your surroundings"
"I'm sorry I was just going over the readings on the nebula outside" she sad pointing to the bulkhead.
Chakotay smiled at her charmingly, "That's good to hear, did you find anything?" he asked her.
"Nothing too out of the ordinary, it's the combinations that are interesting" she said her eyes alight with interest.
"That's good to hear, I have a mission for you Lieutenant."
"Really, what's that sir" she asked distractively as she reached down to pick up her Data PADD.
Chakotay chuckled slightly; this Lieutenant Andrews was an odd duck to say the least, he was chuckling because she had picked up the padd and totally forgotten his presence. "Lieutenant" he said, not reaching out this time, he had no wish to inspect the floor so closely, once again.
"Hrm?" she said turning around thoughtfully, "Oh sorry Commander you were saying"
"I need you on an away mission" he said simply.
She frowned slightly, "Me, Sir? Why? I'm not really trained for that"
Chakotay nodded, "I'm aware of your status Lieutenant however, the captain believes your expertise on nebula effects and encased systems will help us down on the planet"
Her eyes lit up in excitement, "You've read my paper?"
Chakotay shook his head, seeing a hurt look cross the attractive scientists face he quickly added, "No, but the captain has and… it is she that recommended you for the mission on that basis"
With that Lieutenant stood a little straighter and beamed at him. The smile was tremendous; it did something to her face that took her from a slightly nerdy looking woman into a beautiful one. "I'll do my best sir," she said crisply, like a cadet on parade.
Smiling Chakotay nodded, "I'm sure you will. We're meeting in Transporter room three in ten minutes, bring only what you think you'll need" he told her.
Seven cocked an elegant eyebrow at the huge screen that made up a large part of the astrometrics lab. With a curious expression her hands flew across the panel at her right as they did the same on the left, playing the computer like a concert pianist and with the same flair. Her mind concentrated in two different directions entirely her enhanced Borg physiology allowing her to multitask on a level completely unheard of before in humanity. It was by no means impossible to reach the level of split thought due to patience and diligence even for a normal human the Borg had just sped things up.
The doors behind her slid open and she spared a quick glance behind her, a smile flickered across her face for a moment when she saw who it was, before hiding it behind a nod. "Commander"
"Seven" Chakotay said gravely but with his eyes dancing. There was a brief pause as they looked at each other.
"Fancy a jaunt down to the planet" Chakotay said with a warm smile.
Seven finished her dual programming and nodded curtly, "Of course"
No further words required she saved her progress and walked out of the lab with Chakotay at her side.
Tom smiled as he watched the attractive scientist arrive, "Hey Jo" he said with a large smile. "Planning on staying there for a month," he said nodding at the large collection of cases towed behind her on an antigrav trailer.
Jo spared him a slight smile, Tom Paris was well known from one end of the ship to the other, and was liked by most, including her. At one time she had entertained a slight crush on the dashing pilot. His sense of humor and action orientated persona had attracted her, but then she'd always fallen for the heroic types, even if they'd turned out to be utter bastards in the end.
Then an idea for a paper arrived in her spectacular brain and he'd been forgotten for the duration of its composition. By the time she'd finished he'd been married to B'Ellana Torres.
"These are just a few instruments to help our scanning" she told him with a mild glare, "and there's not THAT many"
The door swished apart at her final few words and Chakotay and Seven arrived. "There is far too many Lieutenant. I'm afraid you'll have to trim the load, A LOT"
With a slight sigh she glanced back at the pile and selected a specially enhanced tricorder and a few other items she slung around her neck.
Paris walked over and took a few items tossing a couple of them to Harry and taking a few for him, helping the young woman with her load. She blushed at him with her dazzling smile and kept quiet. Her mouth had a way of running away with her that she had no wish of inflicting on a now married man with a daughter on the way.
Smiling charmingly at her he walked back to the pad and took his place beside a smirking Harry, "What?" he demanded good-naturedly.
Harry chuckled slightly, "Nothing Tom, nothing"
"Alright then, shall we" Chakotay said taking a place beside Seven with Lieutenant Jo Andrews standing between himself and Tom. He tapped his communicator, "We're leaving now captain"
"Good hunting" came the amused reply and with a nod towards the transporter chief they dematerialized into quantum particles and were hurled at the planet.
"They have beamed a party towards the planet" a nondescript Hirogen hunter informed his commander.
"Take us to the other side of the planet and we'll do the same" The alpha said laconically leaning back in his chair, but with intent eyes upon the image of Voyager gleaming in space.
Xander sat on top of his pod swinging his leg back and forth chewing on a fruit he'd been reliable informed was both tasty and harmless. He wasn't so sure about the tasty part, but it hadn't burnt him or turned him Orange, so he thought it was at least a good start.
"So where are we again?" he said to someone only he knew was there.
#Really do you have to be so dense#
"Thanks Q" he said with a smile and a cheerful voice. "That's the nicest thing you've said all day"
There was a snort of laughter in his mind, #Very well, we are in the D'Lorean system, a race used to live here that was very similar to your Aztecan culture on Earth, they died out about three hundred years ago when the Borg attacked. #
"The Borg!" Xander said thoughtfully, "I really don't like them, I understand it's your fault we ended up in their sights in the first place. WTF were you thinking?"
#Just giving you puny humans a fighting chance# Q said snootily.
"Huh?" Xander said taking another bite of the apple like fruit and leaning back, sunning his face.
#Just think what would have happened the first time you'd met if I hadn't warned you# Q said smugly.
"Point" Xander said with a nod. He was talking aloud for the sound; he knew already that he didn't actually need to. If anyone had been watching the sight of the dark haired man sunbathing and talking to himself would have been humorous. Xander's thoughts turned back towards their position again. "I don't suppose we're on a shipping lane are we?"
#No# Q said his mental voice a sigh, #It's rare that anyone comes here#
"Shit" Xander said succinctly, "Any chance that they had any technology we can use?"
#None, they were a very primitive people, beautiful in their own way but not technologically advanced#
"Well shit," Xander said, "How did we end up here anyway?"
#Lucifer# Q said, almost spat.
"Bastard" Xander said with a slightly annoyed chuckle.
#How can you be so, so, up beat? # Q asked exasperated.
"I just know something good will happen, I can feel it"
#Save me from humans and their feelings#
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, look at the end of the day, Lucy just cheated again so I'm guessing that Alice Cooper wouldn't put up with that"
#Alice… oh the creator, you should really show more respect there. Oh, and don't hold your breath, I suspect he's already done all he's willing to do#
"How so?"
#Lucy doesn't miss# Q said succinctly a story in his three words.
"Huh, well in that case…" Xander paused trying to think of something to say, "Damn I wish Seven was here"
#That wouldn't do you any good# Q said with a soft tone. #She doesn't know who you are and is currently falling for tattoo face. #
"Damn" Xander breathed. "I'd not thought of that, back to square one then"
#More like –10# Q said with a snort of amusement.
Xander let out a chuckle, "Oh hell, I'll deal we've got more important things to worry about right now"
#Like what#
"Like getting off of this rock and back to Earth before the key opens and Jacinta is called…" Xander trailed of then looked thoughtful and slightly worried, "It will still be her won't it?"
#Hmm, oh yes of course, that's not the sort of the thing that will be effected, unless of course someone kills her and then it'd go to the next in line#
"I need to get back to Earth" Xander said suddenly standing on top of the pod his eyes angry, "I really don't like Lucy"
#Nor I# Q agreed, #But there is little we can do about him at this time#
Xander nodded executing a perfect somersault off of the pod and landing on his feet in front of it. He walked around checking of the systems for a few moments with his ever-present companion watching with wry amusement. "This is totalled" Xander said finally.
#It took you that long to realize it# Q said mockingly.
"I was hoping I was wrong" Xander replied with a heavy sigh, "You know just once I'd like to be saved" he said leaning against the metallic tube.
As soon as the transporter let go of them Tom glanced around taking stock of the situation. Beside him Harry was already looking down at his tricorder as Seven did the same. Jo was looking up into the clear blue sky with a smile, "Funny to think there's a gaseous nebula up there" she commented.
Chakotay moved out, his phaser already swinging around in a protective arc, "Harry" he said, the single word a command.
"I can only get a few meters on the Tricorder's Commander, there seems to be some sort of field in place around the planet that is effecting our equipment" Harry said with a frustrated tone.
"I also am reduced to a scant area" Seven filled in, her blue eyes focused on the small Tricorder screen.
Jo looked down at her tricorder and smiled, "I've got a kilometer" she said.
Seven cocked an eyebrow and walked over to her, "How are you beaching the interference"
As the two scientific women exchanged notes Chakotay hit his Comm. Badge, "Captain…"
"… Commander" Janeway's reply came back and it was full of static and only just audible.
"We have limited scanning range and we'll have to make our way to the estimated touch down point on foot." Chakotay reported, "We're also having problems receiving you Captain"
"I see…" Janeway's reply was cut off when her ship rocked below her feet.
Tuvok looked up from his console, "We are being attacked, by what appears to be a Hirogen ship"
"Them again!" Janeway said her jaw set in a firm line, "Hail them"
Tuvok did as he was requested to no avail, the heavily armored ship just continued to poor phaser fire at them.
"Is … alright … Captain?" Chakotay asked with concern, his transmission becoming more and more inaudible as time passed.
"We're under attack, I'm afraid we'll have to beam you back up" Janeway said with a nod to Tuvok who tried with little success. "The gases in the area had just doubled in percentage per foot, I can no longer get a lock"
Just then a fizzle and popping sound emanated from the comms system, "Chakotay"
"Ca… … … In"
"Damn it all, return fire" Janeway ordered realizing the futility of any further talk. The comms system was down, for now at least and she had to deal with the large problem spitting deadly phased energy at her ship. "All bank spread" she said a glint in her eyes, "Lets see if we can get their attention"
The phasers stabbed out across the space between the two mighty Vessels splashing across the Monotanium hull of the Hirogen ship. It rocked with the force of the blasts but other than that, there was little visual effect.
"Damage?" Janeway asked with a frown.
"0.05%, they appear to be much better armored than other Hirogen ships we have encountered" Tuvok said with no emotion evident in his voice. However he was after all a Vulcan.
Down on the planet Chakotay frowned, "Right, lets create a temporary base of operations here, then if we've not heard from the captain we'll start searching at first light," he said glancing up at the fading light of the twin suns.
Xander had become increasingly angry as he walked through the fading light of the forest, his anger totally directed at the being known as Lucifer. He was currently using the fine Katana as a means to clear a path through the forest. He had been prattling on with Q for the last two hours as he walked as they planned what they would do with the being responsible for their predicament. Xander's Katana whipped out and sliced through a large branch.
There was a moment of silence, #you realize that was a very large Snake you just cut through? #
Xander paused slightly and then shrugged, "Shouldn't have looked at me funny" then he continued to hack and slash his way through the jungle, "This is all Lucy's fault; I just know it. I bet he zapped us here; using that clicky finger thing he does"
#No actually he kicked us# Q frowned, figuratively speaking, as he noticed something. #Urh, Xander#
"You wait until I get my hands on him, I'll break those fingers and then lets see if he can do any of his Mojo!"
#Xander! # Q tried again, a little louder
"I'll marmalize him; I'll cut his nuts off, I'll…" Xander continued his tirade unabated.
#XANDER! # Q Screamed as loudly as he could
"WHAT!" Xander said holding his head in his hands and shouting past the sudden pain.
#That snake you hit was in fact a hydra and is currently very; very angry# Q said in a much more calm tone of voice, that was also highly mocking.
"So!" Xander asked in annoyance.
#It's right behind us# Q told him his voice humorous.
Xander turned around to find that there was a lizard like creature whose many heads were now pointed at him and hissing angrily. The creature itself was very large and it did indeed have many heads all pointed towards him, they were vaguely snake like in appearance with necks about the width of a fully grown Boa Constrictor from Earth. Its dark mottled skin was shades of green and brown and Xander could see that it would blend in well with the vegetation that was all around them.
"Aw shit!" Xander said stepping backwards and eyeing the monster with agitation.
Xander ducked under a flailing head only to have to roll away from another head that snapped at him. His katana flashed out and lopped it off and he turned back to the creature.
"How the hell do I kill that?" he asked aloud.
#You humans always want to kill things don't you? I suppose you think just because…#
"Q, buddy, I'll knock it out if you know how?" Xander said as he twisted a full 360 lopping off another three heads.
#Try hitting it in the eye#
Xander glanced at the things head's, "Which one?"
#No, it's real eye#
"Huh" Xander said looking at the beast; after a moment he noticed that there appeared to be another head that was attached on a much shorter neck than the hundreds of other's. "That one?"
#That one#
"And it won't kill it, just knock it cold?" Xander asked eyeing the 'true' head gauging various stratagems.
#Yes# Q answered in an exasperated tone, #Now do get on with it already#.
Xander suddenly started running towards the real head; taking to the air as one of the long necked heads knocked him flying into the trees. Xander hit a tree with a whoosh of expelled air and dropped to the ground with a pained grunt, "Okay, OW!" he said with his vision swimming and stars dancing across what little there was left of it. He shook his head a few times to clear the numbness and glared at the still angrily thrashing creature.
There was distinct chuckling to be heard in his head. Xander narrowed his eyes but refrained from comment instead focusing on the creature currently making a clearing for itself.
He took a couple of deep breaths and his legs bowed as he lowered his center of gravity towards the floor. Then he started to step towards the beast slowly and making no noise with his steps.
He continued that way for the twenty foot he'd been thrown until he was on the edge of the newly made clearing. The beast was thrashing around in an angry fashion trampling anything in its way.
Xander watched it for a moment barely breathing, instincts that are born into all humans but much closer to the surface of the battle hardened man took over. His eyes tracked the multitude of heads as the flayed around until he noticed the real head looking away.
The one thing about his 'Abduction' had been that the Creator had sealed him up wearing what he'd 'died' in, including his complete lack of a shirt, which he blamed totally on Seven. He did, however, and luckily have his normal load of weapons on him. He took advantage of that fact by pulling out a stake and holding it ready to throw. Then he reversed it in his hand and let fly. The stake streaked across the distance separating them and nailed the hydra right in the eye. The large beast let out a deafening wail and dropped down to the floor.
Xander allowed himself a smirk walking out of the clearing and approaching the beast cautiously. His katana disappeared into the folds of his jacket and he bent down to inspect the beast. As he did so he retrieved his stake and slipped it into his coat.
#Magnificent isn't it. They only survive here you know. Why I once chased away a Hirogen Hunting party just so they could continue to do so, I hate to see such unique beauty wasted# Q announced in Xander's head.
#Yeah, they are. Just animal then not demon# Xander thought back at him, not wishing to disturb the peace of the suddenly quiet clearing.
#Just animal, although there is a Hydra demon, for instance there is Tiamet#
#The guardian of the hellmouth, based on the Chinese legend#
#Well, done; I'm actually almost impressed#
Xander smirked to himself, #Blame Giles, he's the one that got me reading all those demonology books#
He walked over to the now prone mammoth creature and hunkered down looking at it closely.
"Well this planet sure is fun" Paris commented rubbing his arm where a vine had virtually leapt out and whacked against his arm. So far, fun wasn't what he was having.
"Next time try ducking" Harry said with a slight chortle but with his eyes glued to his tricorder.
"How was I supposed to know you were flipping vines at me" Paris said with a glare at his best friends back.
Harry smothered a full out laugh, "What can I say…"
"…Nothing, you're supposed to be reading the tricorder" Chakotay admonished him gentle, "And we don't know if there's any native humanoids that might take offense at our presence"
Paris had to concede the point, and whilst he liked his former marquee commander that didn't blunt his annoyance at Chakotay's mild telling off of Harry and himself. Chakotay was just a little too regulation at times, strange considering his somewhat checkered past with the fleet.
"Sorry Commander" Harry said ever the star pupil although he was rolling his eyes at Paris. His tricorder bleated at him and his entire focus was fastened upon the small device. "Commander, I'm getting intermittent readings from the north"
Chakotay nodded and adjusted their course, "This way" he said holding out his makeshift computerized compass.
Seven glanced at her readings and nodded agreeing with what she considered to be the highly competent ensigns readings then set off after the object of her affections.
Xander turned away from the Hydra looking out at the forest and trying to pick a direction that had some meaning.
Behind him the hydra came to life and Xander was about to draw his weapon when Q stopped him.
#HOLD! #
"Why?"
#It's harmless, I told you. It was just angry. They're amazing creatures just not very bright, it won't remember it was hurt or why. As such it is actually very docile#
Xander smirked, "Honestly?"
#Of Course# Q said with a chuckle that did little to allay Xander's worries.
Xander turned to look at the Hydra that was groggily getting to its feet and smiled. He reached out and petted the creature's true head causing it to suddenly emit a deep rumbling noise.
#Careful# Q said with a smile in his mental voice, #you might end up as it's mate#
Xander smiled again still petting the creature #It'll be the first action I' ve seen in 375 year's by my calculations# he thought at his ever-present friend.
The Voyager shook once again as the Hirogen hunting ship bombarded it with its high capacity phasers.
"Shields holding at 75%" Tuvok intoned gravely and unaffected by the battering they were receiving.
Janeway glowered at the image of the still communications silent craft, "And them?" she asked a note of iron in her voice.
"I would estimate 95%," Tuvok told her.
She turned to him with a lifted eyebrow, "what?"
"I can not get a clear reading from their shields due to the growing thickness of the gases"
Janeway frowned in worry, "What about our away team"
Tuvok shook his head ever so slightly, "I have lost all contact with the planet. I did however log what could have been a transport"
"Damn!" Janeway said her eyes glinting darkly at the imposing Hirogen ship. "Hail them again"
There was a short pause, "No reply"
"Quantum Torpedo's on my mark; Full spread" Janeway ordered.
"Mark"
The lethal weapons unleashed and leapt across space towards the Hirogen Hunting ship.
The missiles slammed against the heavy armor of the Hirogen ship and thundered her wrath against the attackers. The Viewscreen blossomed with light, and for a moment, just for a moment, Janeway thought that she'd won. Then the screen faded back to normal and the ship remain hanging in space and looking as intact as ever. She mentally berated herself and then turned to her Conn officer, "Take us further back into the nebula," she said praying that her Away team was all right.
Chakotay sat down on a rock, taking a sip of cool water and a bite from his rations pack. He glanced over to the glowing head of Seven a slight smile shifting across his rugged features before professionalism quashed the emotions running through his system.
Paris watched his commander with a growing smirk, especially seeing to where his eyes kept flicking, 'Huh, seems Chakotay's taken a shine to Seven' he thought with no small amount of humor. He couldn't wait to tell B'Ellana that the scuttlebutt was true.
Harry glanced at his friends' expression with a slight feeling of worry in his gut. Nothing ever good came from that expression.
Jo Andrews walked over to a tree and leant against it her tricorder bleeping as she adjusted and readjusted her readings until she had gleaned a little more range out of it. Then she sent the changes to the team's tricorder's causing them all to bleep at the same time. "I've managed to get another half Kilometer from the readings" she informed their startled glances.
Seven tilted her head, "Impressive" she said to the now blushing scientist.
"Urh…Thanks" Jo said her cheeks glowing. She just had no idea how to deal with human's anymore not even ex-drone ones. Too much time spent in her lab and not enough interaction makes Jo a shy girl.
"Hey, it's the pod" Harry said with a smile, "The reading I had before it's the pod and it's half a click away. Jo's enhancement's have improved the sensor resolution so I can now see clearly" he smiled at the shy woman, "Thanks"
"No problem" she said feeling a little safer with a fellow scientist.
Chakotay stood rubbing his hands clean of crumbs, "Then shall we go and have a look?"
The Hirogen hunting party came to a complete standstill the Alpha himself had led the party to the surface in a last minute change of plans. He was curious as to the human's interest in the pod. Curiosity had eventually gotten the better of him and he was now leading his best hunters, bar his Beta, towards the vague readings they were getting from several clicks away.
Making a fist he then extracted a digit then started to flash hunting signs to his co hunters who spread out in a containment formation.
The advanced sensor housed on his rifle was telling him that a life sign was heading towards him. Then with a smile he folded back into the shadows becoming as still as the night itself.
Xander Harris, champion of Q and patron saint of slayer's walked stealthily through the jungle, the hairs on his neck had risen with the now all too familiar feeling of dread that comes with approaching violence. He could almost feel the eyes of something on him and it wasn't a feeling he liked.
#Can you feel anything# he asked Q
#No, Damnable limitations, I cannot sense anything other than that which you are able# Q answered the frustration in his voice clear.
#Sorry about that buddy# Xander thought back at him with compassion in his voice.
Q was stunned into silence for a moment, he had never felt the sort of emotion from a so-called inferior race before and it was something he found he rather liked.
#Thank you# he replied finally, and with feeling.
Xander shrugged, #Well I am… What was that# he said suddenly becoming as alert as a pointer dog.
The silence of the forest pervaded his consciousness, returning memories of the soldier that had possessed him that fateful Halloween, and that was the last thing he needed right then. With the ease borne of long practice he banished the screams of women and children and concentrated on the eerily quiet forest around him.
Suddenly he felt something from his left. He whirled around his hand reaching out and his Katana literally appearing out of thin air. The magically enhanced blade turned to one side the highly reflective surface 'bouncing' the phased energy beam straight back at its source. There was a scream as a hunter died under his own fire and then all hell broke loose.
Seven ran her tricorder over the Briori pod utterly focused on the surprisingly intact device, "The reanimation cycle was triggered some time ago, apparently it's cargo is now awake and wandering around the forest" she said in an even voice.
"Can you tell what was inside?" Chakotay enquired.
"Human, singular" Seven replied confirming what they already knew.
Chakotay nodded, "Well, where the hell are they" he said looking around and using skills long ago learnt from his grandfather. He read the ground at the end of the pod with a frown wrinkling his tattoo. "Strange" he muttered.
"What is commander" Jo asked watching him with scientific interest.
"These foot prints are from a size ten, and appear to be that of a very large man, you can see that they have sunken in. I thought perhaps he'd jumped down, which would be impressive considering how he must have felt. But they are a little deep for that. Then as I looked over these other prints that go all the way around the pod" he said keeping up his commentary as he followed the trail. "I can see that he must have jumped down, but he did something that increased his speed, such as a somersault"
He stood off and wiped his hands clean, "From what we saw with the '37s that should be almost impossible. He is either highly fit or not human"
Seven had her tricorder pointed at the Pod's computer bank and was reading the data that was coming in through from it. "Human, according to the Briori from Earth in 20 - 01."
"That was 375 year's ago," Tom said helpfully.
Seven shot him a mild glare, "Correct" she said frostily, "As I was about to surmise, this individual must be very fit, his readings certainly show that his body fat ratio to be virtually nil" she filed that information away for later analysis, it was rare for humans of that era to be so fit. At least that is what she had found from her studies. "Cardiovascular readings also show that he is unusually fit"
Chakotay nodded, "Just goes to show," he said with a smile, thinking about his grandfather, "Sometimes the old ways are the best"
Jo Andrew's smiled as she tinkered with her tricorder, "Hmmm" she said as the readings scrolled quickly on screen.
"What is it Lieutenant" Chakotay asked looking over her shoulder at her tricorder, but finding himself unable to read the text moving quite that fast.
"I'm picking up a residual trail…" she was cut off when a scream rent the night.
The star fleet officers all looked at each other and then Chakotay led them as they started to run towards the sound.
Xander twisted around throwing a large scaly looking demon/alien over his hip and onto the floor. A quick slice later and the creature wouldn't be attacking him again. This time he had a little more warning and spun round his leg whipping out to nail a Hirogen straight in the face and knocking it back slightly.
Xander's eyes widened slightly when the large alien was only staggered and continued to come at him. Then using more powerful moves he span and took to the air, his foot traveling 360 twice before it whipped the Hirogen's head around with bone breaking speed. The alien sagged to the floor and he used his Katana to turn aside another phaser bolt. Then he bolted, picking a direction at random and moving as fast as his legs were able to carry him. Branches and leafy plants whipped at him trying to trip him.
The Alpha appeared from the shadows a smile on his face as he looked down at the carnage the prey had caused on his hunting pack. Then he walked over to the phasered and badly burned hunter who had taken a shot without orders. He saw that the pitiful excuse for a hunter was still breathing and decided to do something about that.
He reached down and clasped down on either side of the hunter's head and twisted savagely, breaking its neck and stilling its life force. "Stupidity will not be tolerated" He said turning to face the remainder of the pack. "Especially now that we have truly worthy prey"
Xander continued his run through the forest suddenly breaking into a cleared area and found he wasn't the only inhabitant. There were a few familiar faces among them as well. He couldn't believe his luck, in both ways.
#Told you# he said to Q before shouting, "RUN, NASTY SCALY GUYS COMING THIS WAY" and continuing his mad dash.
#Nobody like's a know it all# Q shot back with a mental chuckle that almost sent Xander tripping over.
The star fleet officers all looked at each other for a few moments, still in their half running poses before abruptly turning about face and streaking after the dark haired and clothed man.
A couple of seconds after they left the clearing the Hirogen hunting party came more cautiously into the small clearing and the Alpha held up his hand sniffing the air. After a second of contemplation he pointed and they set off again.
Xander moderated his pace slightly to allow the star fleet personnel to catch up to him and found that Seven was at his side, with Chakotay at hers. He flashed her a smile that caused her to frown slightly. Then a loud noise distracted them all as the Alpha ordered his men to start firing into the forest.
A cry of alarm made Xander react and he turned and bolted the way he had come.
Both Seven and Chakotay's steps faltered as they reacted a shade slower than the dark haired man. Xander reached the fallen Jo Andrew's and smiled at her as he reached down and hauled her to her feet.
Seven arrived at his side, "What is the matter" she enquired from the pale Lieutenant.
"Ankle, I think I've sprained it" Jo said with a flush of embarrassment.
"Chill, no big thing, just hold-on tight OK?" Xander said swinging the lithe woman up into his arms gaining a surprised look form Seven. "Go!" he ordered and started to run, ignoring the extra weight and whilst picking up speed slower than normal he still managed an impressive turn of speed.
Jo turned and looked at her rescuer and found her self caught by his looks. A flush covered her face even as they ran for their lives, with a hail of energy weapons fire all around them. Seven paced the dark haired man checking that he was still moving well with the extra weight. What she saw surprised her. His gaze was focused and his breathing was measured as he used every ounce of concentration to totally ignore the world around him other than to navigate by. He was almost in a state of trance, legs pumping and jaw set into a rigid unrelenting line.
Chakotay caught up to them, having checked on the other member's of the away team, his eyes widening as he spotted the dark haired human carrying one of his officers.
The burning energy fire all around them halted after a moment and Xander came to a complete stop turning and regarding the forest with intense concentration. "I think they've changed tactics" he said his voice just above a whisper and amazingly his breathing even and unstrained. "I think we'll be safe for a minute," his instincts telling him he was right even if the odds didn't add up.
Harry pulled out his tricorder and scanned in the direction of the shots his dark eyes glued to the miniature screen, "He's right they're moving away"
"Good instincts" Chakotay commented.
"Thanks" Xander said with a forced smile. He glanced around to find that Tom Paris, Harry Kim, Seven Of Nine and Chakotay had been sent to save him from the voyager; at least that is what he surmised given the date Q had given him. He knew he was in the delta quadrant and that all added up to his deduction. It wasn't something he was entirely happy about. To be here, now, when Chakotay and Seven were just entering the bloom of their relationship… Not something he was looking forward too.
Chakotay cleared his throat looking at the science Lieutenant with a wryly amused smile, "'Lieutenant perhaps you could get down and give our friend a rest"
Xander smirked, "Whatever, I'm still fine though"
Jo continued to gaze at her rescuer. her heart fluttering around in her chest. Xander's dark eyes met hers and he smiled at her, "How you doing, the name's Xander…" he paused a twinkle entering his eye, "Hey nice jogging suit's" he said to them all as a whole.
Out of the darkness of space, a flat saucer shaped vessel dropped out of warp and sailed elegantly to the very edge of the nebula. Hanging in the vast ocean of space it remained utterly still and scanned ahead as far as it could, which was further than anyone else had managed due to their impressive technology.
Prima Thang's eyes glittered with thought as he directed the helm to take them in slowly. The elegant saucer slowly slipped into the fog nebula and it's gleaming silver lines seemed to merge into it.
Xander settled back against the tree his eyes alight with humor as he watched the star fleet officer's go into a huddle. He knew pretty much what to expect, they would do what Riker had been taught to do and find shelter and entrench until help came. He'd learnt after a short Q and A that they were unable to call for help. They had been very cagey about the source of any help. He supposed they didn't want to scare him with stories of spacecraft. He just made out that he thought he was on Earth with some mutated soldiers or something. A story he'd picked out of a comic book. Q was still chuckling in his head even now, which, was yet another reason why he was feeling damn right perky at that moment.
Deciding that he really should do something he walked towards the star Fleeters. Chakotay noticed him coming and greeting him, "Hello Xander"
Xander smiled at him and nodded then turned and faced the other way. Chakotay frowned in puzzlement; he had thought the dark haired human was coming to talk to them. Then his eyebrow's rose as Xander suddenly broke into a sprint crossing the space between him and the tree he had been leaning against in a matter of milliseconds before 'RUNNING' up the side to the nearest branch some eight foot off the ground. He swung himself and with controlled movements he swung himself up to land on his feet on the sturdy branch and reached for the next.
"What is he doing" Paris asked with a bemused smile.
Seven tilted her head to one side and watched the dark clothed man work his way up several branches until he was at the last branch that could conceivable take his weight easily.
"He's a spry guy" Harry commented.
"The scans did say he was fit" Jo put in her eyes glued to the dark form as he balanced on the branch and leant back onto the main trunk his eyes looking out at the forest canopy. Tom and Harry shared an amused glance at her wistful tone of voice.
"He is 'looking out' for us I believe" Seven said stating the obvious but answering the question.
"I was hoping to get some more out of him, like why he seems to be taking this all so easily?" Chakotay commented.
"Can you climb tree's Commander" Tom said with a glint of amusement in his eye.
Chakotay smiled at the pilot and nodded, "I certainly can" he said and walked over to the tree and inspected it before finding a handhold and beginning his slow, steady climb.
"That's going to take ages" Harry commented and started to look around for some firewood.
"Uh-huh" Paris agreed and joined his friend in his search.
Seven felt Jo walk up beside her and smiled slightly at the shy woman's presence, "Hello Lieutenant"
"Hello Seven" Jo said agreeably, "Interesting man isn't he" she said nodding towards the silhouetted form of Xander high in the trees. He was leaning back on the tree as if he didn't have a care in the world and wasn't thirty foot off of the floor. With nothing but a branch between him and a long drop and a sudden stop.
"I do not have enough data to draw any conclusions, but from what we have seen he appears to be…" Seven trailed off searching for the right world.
"Amazing" Jo filled in for her, somewhat breathlessly. Seven lifted an amused brow and refrained from further comment.
Chakotay reached Xander's branch and pulled himself onto it and sat with his legs astride it. He took a moment to catch his breath during which time he was regarded with amusement from the dark haired Xander. His clothes were strange, that was one of the first things that Chakotay had noticed about the man. A half length frock type jacket, black with matching trousers and from what he had seen before, no shirt. There was a glimpse of toned pectoral peeking out from the jacket. He couldn't quite figure out why he would be dressed in such a fashion from the time period he was from. Then there was his boots, a small thing but Chakotay noticed they appeared to be almost exactly the same as start fleet issue. He ignored that small piece of information though as in truth fleet issue boots were just about as generic as you could get from just about any time frame.
Then there was the look he was receiving at that moment in time; it was one of curious amusement. He would expect many things from the newly awakened from a Briori chamber and had in fact seen several. Amusement and utter calm wasn't one of them. There was something a little off about this Xander Harris.
"I wanted to ask you some questions" Chakotay said his voice calm even in the face of the drop either side of his body. He'd done some climbing in his youth and afterwards, height did little to scare him.
"Shoot" Xander replied his eyes casting over the forest.
"What year is it?"
"2001" Xander replied without pause, "Why lost your PDA?"
"PDA?" Chakotay asked before he could catch himself, 'Oh well, he was going to find out eventually' he thought with a chagrined smile. Xander however smiled slightly and ignored the comment dragging it out a bit; just to watch Chakotay sweat.
#You're evil# Q informed him.
#Gotta get my kicks# Xander said
#You're standing 3 inches from certain death, and you want kicks? # Q said incredulously.
Xander stifled a chuckle and kept his eyes on the peaceful looking forest.
"What's the last thing you remember" Chakotay asked him.
"A real bright light then pfft." Xander said, "Until I woke up in that weird chamber thingy"
"Before that?"
"I was on my way to a date," Xander answered with total lack of anything resembling the truth. "I'm kinda upset I missed that, she was seriously hot."
Chakotay smiled, "What if I told you that you've missed a bit more than that"
"I kinda figured that" Xander said nodding downwards and towards where Seven, and the others were pouring over their tricorder's, "Funky hardware you got there"
Chakotay frowned, "You're taking this remarkably well"
"Thanks" Xander said with a smile, "But, like, what am I going to do about; it if this really is the future. I just want to know who the scaly guys were"
"I'm not sure, but from your description they sound like the Hirogen" Chakotay filled in.
"Huh, and they are?"
"A humanoid species that lives for the hunt"
"Hunting what, me?"
"Anything worthy" Chakotay informed him with a smile, "Including us at times"
"Huh, so how'd they get to … Earth" Xander said tripping over his mouth slightly, he was about to say the D'Lorean system.
Chakotay missed his trip, "They didn't" he replied
"Huh, I know I'm going to regret this, but where are we?"
"I'll answer that when you're on the ground," Chakotay told him with a slight chuckle.
"That bad, huh" Xander said smiling at the man that had been one of his least liked people in the world.
"You could say that," Chakotay informed him, "Shall we?" he asked indicating down.
Xander shrugged, "Sure, nothing doing up here anyhow"
Chakotay nodded and started to scale down the tree.
Xander watched him for several moments with a grim smile on his face, #He's going to take all night like that# he mentally complained.
#He's a cautious man# Q said fairly.
#Heh# Xander replied and walked down the branch a way's. #Wish he'd get out of the way though#
#Why? # Q asked in sudden trepidation.
#Cause I want to get down# Xander said as if it were obvious and sank to his knees and sat on the branch before falling over backwards. He span around the branch slightly, his hands coming up to grip it; before letting himself drop to the next and repeating the process.
He landed at the base of the tree only seconds after his first drop and smiled up at Chakotay's slowly descending form.
#Where did you learn to do that? # Q asked stunned.
#You don't know? # Xander asked surprised.
#I do not have access to the continuum at this time# Q replied snappishly, #I only have my own experiences and memories to work with#
#Damn, must suck to be you right now old friend#
Q nodded mentally speaking, #Does rather, are you going to answer my question? #
#Growing up, I used to do just about anything to make myself feel better about mom and dad. Which included being an adrenaline junky from an early age. Climbing tree's was just one way of making my heart beat faster and feeling some pleasure#
#And the descent? # Q said fearing he knew the answer.
#Got boring after a while, had to find new ways of getting more adrenaline. Then Buffy came along…# Xander shrugged, literally, forgetting himself. #Then I had something else to concentrate on#
#Lunatic# Q said succinctly.
#You betcha# Xander said with a wide smile.
Chakotay finally reached the base of the tree and turned to find Xander grinning at him. His face registered extreme shock for a moment, "How…"
Xander just winked at him and held out a hand indicating the commander should go first. They arrived to find Jo Andrews sitting next to a fire her eyes glued to Xander and looking pale. " Lunatic " she commented gaining a shocked glare from all who knew her. She'd seen his antics and decent method however and was feeling the strain of a panic attack.
Xander shot her a sexy lopsided smile, "You betcha" he said with a wink.
"Lieutenant!" Chakotay said his voice commanding and reproachful.
"Chill, she probably just saw the way I climbed down" Xander said smiling, his voice had a slight edge to it despite his smile though.
"I'm sorry" Jo said meekly glancing down her face glowing.
Xander's eye flashed angrily for a moment before he placed a hand on Jo's shoulder and smiled down into her upturned eyes, "I'm not offended, I just have that effect on people" he said gaining a winning smile from the shy woman.
"We have protocols that must be adhered to Mr. Harris I'm sure you understand the chain of command"
#Can I hit him yet? #
#NO! #
#Shit! # Xander replied mentally before smiling at the Commander, "Not really no!"
#Stop it# Q admonished him a note of amusement in his voice despite the words.
#Sorry, he just bugs me#
#He bugs you because he has Seven? # Q asked, well, almost stated.
#Your point is? # Xander replied his dancing eyes the mirror to his humor's reply.
#That you should at least try to base your impression of him on something more concrete#
#Huh, I suppose… But where's the fun in that#
#Why, oh why did I pick you# Q said his voice full of laughter.
Chakotay looked into Xander's amused expression wondering what to say in reply to a comment like that, "You've never been in a chain of command?"
"Only unwillingly, I prefer to be my own boss" Xander replied honestly, "But I apologize for p… playing in your sandbox. But I know that urh..." he trailed off looking at Jo.
"Lieutenant Jo Andrews" she replied her eyes glassy, suddenly she'd found something even more interesting than her tricorder readings.
"Lieutenant Andrews was only reacting to my unusual climbing style, and that's to be expected, I know my best Budd willow fainted the first time she saw it" he said with a charming smile, "I took no offense from her comment and in fact heartily agree with it" he continued with that infectious smile he reserved for such occasions.
Chakotay's lips quivered slightly then nodded and mentally stepped away from the plate. "I see, was this the case Lieutenant?"
Jo nodded vaguely still looking at Xander before remembering herself and answering properly, "It is commander, it was just a bit of a shock"
Chakotay nodded with an understanding look in his eyes, "Very well, then I apologize Lieutenant"
Xander's eyes widened a little, but then he really thought about it. Would seven have been attracted to the complete prick that Chakotay had appeared, to him at least, to be? He didn't think so, and he realized that he had been somewhat hasty in his opinion after all. He didn't think that he'd ever be a best buddy with the man, but he had to give him a chance at least.
#You can be mature after all# Q put in with a snigger that made Xander's eyes dance with humor as well. It was a strange side effect of having a friend stuck in your head, especially one with as a compatible sense of humor as Q's, he found himself looking at the world through humor filled eyes more than he had before, or due to the date, later. It was certainly a balm to his slightly weary soul, this reset had done very little to make him feel good. He'd lost the woman he'd loved without even a chance to say goodbye, of course on the upside he was also alive. Which was something he could get behind.
The Alpha surveyed his camp with a critical eye. He was several good hunters and one failure down on his hunting pack. This was an unusual situation for him but not one that he found deeply disturbing. He was more interested in knowing how that a human looking male had managed to turn aside an energy blast without being atomized or burnt alive. It was an impressive weapon that could turn aside such a powerful blast as one from a Hirogen phase rifle.
He smiled grimly, he would have that weapon for his own collection and it would make a fine addition to his trophy cabinet, of that he was certain. Hirogen Ship
The Beta narrowed his eyes at an operations display, "Where are they?" he demanded hotly.
The crewmen looked at his commander with fear, "I do not know, they have disappeared from our scanners"
The beta growled but made no move to threaten or in any other way harm the operations operator. He would need him for a time yet.
"Sir!" the operator suddenly exclaimed jolting the Beta from his contemplative thoughts, "An unidentified ship has just entered our scanning range"
"Report" The Beta snapped.
"It appears to be a Briori command ship?" The operator said with a confused voice.
The Beta frowned slightly, "The Briori, what are they doing here"
"It was one of their pods, perhaps they have come to retrieve it" the lowly officer put forth.
The beta nodded, "That is possible, but do we allow them to have it?" he asked rhetorically.
The Operator wisely realized the phasing of the question and remained silent. He watched as the large disc came into range of the weapons system. "They are in range"
"Hmmm, back away into the nebula and we'll watch them for a while and observe our prey. Have we managed to regain communications with the Alpha?" he said calling over his shoulder to the communications station.
"No my Beta" the elderly communications operator intoned gravely.
"Keep trying" the Beta snapped, he didn't like being cut off from his Alpha in such a way. He trusted the experienced hunter to remain safe, but he also worried slightly that the mighty Hirogen would be lost to them and future generations. The Alpha was an important man in the Hirogen hunting packs and was well respected by more than just he, despite his gruff ways.
Xander slouched down to the floor, the fire warming his face as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the heat. He felt a presence at his side and opened his eyes and smiled at the friendly face of Harry Kim. "Hi"
"Hello" Harry said nervously looking at the enigma that was the dark man in front of him.
"What can I do for you ensign" Xander asked, he'd finally got the proper intros done after Chakotay had filled him in on his position. Xander had pretended to act surprised and stunned at the news. He didn't think he did a very good job of it, but Chakotay, at least, had seemed to be convinced.
"Call me Harry" Harry told him again with a friendly smile.
"Harry then." Xander said with a friendly smile of his own, "Curious about Buck Rogers hey?"
"I thought you said your name was Xander"
"Sorry, it's from an old TV show"
"Oh, Tom likes TV from the twentieth"
"Yeah, I should talk to him see if we've got any shows we both like" Xander said smiling and closing his eyes again, feeling the forest all around him.
"I was wondering, urh… What happened to you?"
"Sorry?" Xander asked his eyes snapping open, "How do you mean?"
"How you got to be on the pod in the first place"
"I've got no idea I'm afraid, one minute I'm on my way to a date, the next, I'm here and what was it, 375 years in the future/present, whatever"
"Must be tough"
Xander shrugged, "Not too bad, not much I can do about it, I'm guessing you guys haven't cracked time travel yet have you? So it's not like you can send me home"
Harry smiled slightly, "Not yet, but we will" he said with a sure voice.
Xander tilted his head, so he continued, "Long story, but needless to say we've met Fleet people from the future"
"Huh, cool," Xander said then looked thoughtful, "Well so am I right now" he said his lips pursed philosophically, "That gives it a whole new perspective; hey" he said off of Harry's surprised smile.
"Yeah, it does somewhat" Harry said smiling wider.
"Well to me you guys are from the future, or rather I'm from the past, man this time travel stuff sucks"
"Well, strictly speaking you didn't travel in time, you were in a state of suspended animation, you're really 375 years, plus however old you were before that" Harry corrected him.
"Damn, that makes me… 397 years old. Huh older than Deadboy" Xander said forgetting himself for a moment.
"Deadboy?" Harry asked with a bemused expression on his face.
"Old friend" Xander grimaced, "Well acquaintance anyway" he looked around, noticing that Jo was on her way over with the others.
"Looks like the rest are here for the party," Xander said smiling in a welcoming fashion.
Jo made sure that she ended up sat next to Xander with Harry on his other side, Seven and Chakotay were across the fire from him and finally Paris flopped down to sit next to Harry, creating a twisted semi circle around the fire.
"You know strictly speaking we' shouldn't have lit this" Xander commented looking into the dancing orange and red of the fire.
"Why?" Jo asked curiously.
Xander smiled charmingly at her, "Because we've lit a beacon for the Hero gems"
"Hirogen" Seven corrected, her eyes intently regarding the strange man out of time.
"Sorry?" Xander said smiling into her eyes with a look in his that Seven didn't have the experience to recognize.
"They are called the Hirogen" Seven replied
"Oh right, sorry, not great with names" Xander said with a bit of goof ball showing.
#Idiotic Ape! # Was added to his thoughts and his eyes danced in the fire light capturing Jo's interest and causing Seven to tilt her head to one side, a strange feeling in her chest.
"What about the fire" Jo asked suddenly worried.
"Don't worry about it, the Hirogen's" he said with a glance at Seven who nodded, "Will most likely track us for a while, learn from their mistake before and then attack"
"What makes you say that?" Chakotay asked.
"They're hunters right?" Xander said with a shrug, "A good hunter learns to watch his prey before striking the killing blow"
"What mistake did they make?" Harry asked thinking furiously but coming up blank.
Xander smiled, slightly arrogantly but changed it to a secretive one instead, "They attacked me" The arrogant thing… he was SO not doing again.
"They attacked you? How did you get away?" Jo asked her eyes wide.
Xander looked at her and looked deeply into her eyes reading from her soul. She seemed so shy but he was definitely getting a nagging feeling that she was not as innocent as she appeared. He could see a spark of clear interest in her eye, and if he wasn't mistaken, some lust. No, definitely not as innocent as she at first appeared, "I ran" he hedged, "Like a big bouncing bunny of fear" he said laughing.
A collective chuckle was taken up around the fire
Janeway watched the scanners intently. The bridge was on red alert, the lights dimmed to a red wash. The crew collectively holding their breath as they waited and watched and hoped.
"Tuvok?"
"I am not registering anything except the gas" he replied.
Janeway shook her head in annoyance, she had a team down on the planet, and she wasn't happy about leaving them to their own fate in this way. Added to that she suspected that the Hirogen had sent down a hunting party and it was a recipe for an ulcer.
She turned to the replacement Ops officers, "I want a way to communicate with the commander and his team," she said curtly. The officer, knowing her captain, just nodded and set out to do the apparently impossible.
Then she settled back to watch and wait. Waiting, was not something that Janeway was very good at, and that was to say the very least.
Xander's eyes snapped open and a feeling of danger shot through his blood stream like an ice-old knife. He didn't move a muscle other than his eyes moving them around the largest area he could using peripheral vision as much as he could.
The fire had died down somewhat leaving it as an amber glow that did little to heat the camp. He briefly wondered where Jo was; by his calculations this was her watch. He wasn't allowed to take one, due to his non-fleet status. 'If only they knew' he thought privately with no small amount of ironic amusement.
Slowly he sat up, moving smoothly and slowly, looking like Bela Legossi coming out of his coffin, and looked around.
Nothing was visible, but there was still that tangible feeling of danger. He spotted Jo, slumped against a tree fast asleep and stifled a snigger. He'd better wake her before Chakotay found her. Moving silently, his long nights of hunting had perfected the ability, he moved over to the slumbering scientist.
He couldn't quite figure out why the scientist was here, she obviously wasn't cleared for away team missions, and being a specialist she could get away with that glaring oversight, but this was a dangerous situation fraught with the possibility of going wrong. It did not make sense to him that neither Janeway nor Chakotay would have picked her for a team. The one saving grace was that it appeared it was she that improved the tricorder readings.
Which reminded him.
Looking around carefully making sure the others were asleep he picked up Jo's tricorder and brought it on line, his hands flew over the small device as he programmed in some enhancement parameters that Riker had learned from his father and a few that Xander himself had learned from Data and Seven. He could only imagine that Seven had yet to find the trick, otherwise it would already have been done.
Once his reprogramming was complete he placed the tricorder back in Jo's belt and gentle shook her shoulder.
Light brown eyes snapped open and locked onto his and he smiled into her dazed expression, "You fell asleep," he whispered in a voice just above a breath.
Her eyes widened further as she realized her gross dereliction to duty. "Don't worry, you're awake now" he said consoling her, "I won't tell anyone if you don't," he continued, looking around and checking the area. "There's something out there though so I'm going to stay awake with you okay?" he said.
Jo nodded, "How do you know?"
"I can feel it" he answered honestly, "I've always been able to feel danger coming, and it's coming!"
"Should I wake the commander?"
Xander shook his head, "Leave them sleep, I don't think it's coming yet"
"You seem so sure?" she said in wonder, "What the hell did you do before the Briori snatched you?"
"A little bit of this, and little of that" Xander said with a smirk.
"You seem military, but you don't seem to like authority figures" Jo analyzed her face thoughtful.
Xander smirked, "Not military, at least not for long, and I don't have a problem with authority figures"
Jo smirked back at him, feeling strangely confident in this personal conversation, "its just Chakotay then?"
Xander nearly laughed, "No the commander seems like a nice guy, I just thought he was picking on you before is all. Turns out he wasn't, my bad"
"You don't like to see people picked on?" she asked him, pressing for more information on this strange man.
Xander shook his head, but was distracted; the feeling of danger had just gone through the roof.
Just then, an animal that resembled a Sabre tooth cat but on steroids and with eight tails instead of one, stalked silently into the clearing. "Fuck" Xander breathed watching the powerful predator, #Q? #
#Dol'Xerx# Q replied, #Deadly, watch out for the bite#
#Why#
#It's a muscle inhibitor#
#Fuck#
#Indeed, I was hoping that you wouldn't come across one# Q replied a sigh in his voice, #There aren't many on the planet and they have large hunting grounds#
#Kill it or tame it? # Xander asked
#Kill it if you want to live# Q replied, #Unfortunate, but to save your friends, necessary#
#How#
Q paused thinking, #me#
#I was hoping to save that surprise# Xander replied with a laugh.
#Phasers would work, but not on stun#
Xander nodded and his hand reached for his boot before he remembered what he was doing. He turned to the white and gibbering Jo and grabbed her by the shoulders and looked forcefully into her eyes, "Do you have one of those funky laser's?"
Jo shook herself and got control back, prompting a smile from Xander, "Yes" she said reaching for a her phaser. The Dol'Xerx was creeping towards the campfire, silent death on furred paws.
"Good, now whack it onto the highest setting?"
Jo nodded and followed Xander's commanding tone, doing as she was asked. The Dol'Xerx was now right by the camp and was sniffing the prone forms of Chakotay and Seven. They had ended up close to each other during the night and that sight prompted a pang in Xander's heart. "Kill it"
Jo brought up the phaser her hand shaking all over the place. Xander reached up and held her arm firmly, stilling her shake, "Calm down, this is nothing, it's shooting fish in a barrel" he breathed.
The Dol'Xerx was now drooling. Luckily they were some way from the camp and off to the side.
Jo took a deep breath and took careful aim. She felt Xander moving her arm slightly and he smiled at her, "It's eight foot long you don't need to aim for the head!" he told her.
Nodding slightly, Jo let her breath out slowly and caressed the firing stud. The orange and red fire from the Star Fleet issue phaser leapt across and smacked the large cat in the side causing it to howl for a microsecond before it's atoms lost cohesion and it was phasered out of existence.
The cut off howl was enough to wake the battle-hardened officers and they were on their feet in a flash, including Seven whose phaser was out even before the Officer's.
Xander smirked to himself and then nodded, "Well done Lieutenant"
"Jo, you can call me Jo" Jo said her heart pounding in her chest.
Xander shot her a sexy lopsided smile, "Well done Jo. That was a classy shot" he paused his eyes dancing, "And hey, you just saved the commander's life, maybe you'll get promotion"
"It was you…"
"…No it wasn't, you did the work, I was just couldn't sleep" Xander cut her off. "You're the one that conquered their fear and saved the camp from danger"
"I was asleep" Jo said her voice dropping in volume as Chakotay and the others made their way over.
"Not for that you weren't" Xander said reasonably, "and you acted accordingly, so don't worry so much"
"I should…"
"…Enjoy the praise" Xander said smiling and leaning forward and down to plant a kiss on her forehead, "Because you did well" he said pulling back from the furiously blushing woman and faded slightly into the background of the night. "While it lasts," he said before leaning back against the tree and smiling in the darkness.
"Lieutenant, report" Chakotay said as he arrived.
"A large predator just tried to eat you all, commander. I shot it"
"Well done" Seven put in surprising the brunette scientist.
"T.T.T.Thanks" Jo said nervous of the praise.
Chakotay was also nodding, "Yes well done Lieutenant, how did you know it was a predator?"
Jo chuckled slightly; "It was a huge Sabre toothed cat" she said, "There was nothing else it could have been" she finished with a slight shrug.
Tom smiled at her, "Thanks Jo"
"Yeah Thanks Jo" Harry backed it up, "That was close, where is it"
"I used setting 16, it's gone" Jo replied.
"Why did you let it get so close?" Chakotay asked figuring out the angles of shots.
"I'm not a very good shot" Jo replied self-consciously. "I didn't trust my aim out any further"
Xander smiled in the darkness; that was a good bit of thinking. #I like her#
#You would, she's female# Q put in causing Xander to smile even wider.
#Don't you start, Mrs. Troi was always telling me I couldn't go a day without a woman with me#
#She was right# Q told him, #Like most of your pitiful race, you're all hormones and no brain#
#Thanks Q# Xander replied cheerfully.
#Tut, tut# Q tutted laughingly.
"Where's our visitor?" Tom suddenly asked looking around.
Chakotay and the others looked around as well. Jo looked back wondering where Xander had hidden himself.
Xander stepped out of the darkness, which had been in plain view of everyone yet invisible due to the blackness of night, "I'm here. The Lieutenant and I were talking when toothy came visiting"
Chakotay eyed him suspiciously, there was something about the dark haired Xander that didn't add up and it was grating on him. "Really, she was supposed to be on guard"
"And she was, I just couldn't sleep so I chatted to her, don't worry, as you can see, or not because it's gone, she was on guard enough to save your butts" Xander said with a shark like smile.
Chakotay realized that Xander was grating on his nerves and not just his curiosity and quashed the feeling with professionalism, "You must be exhausted, I'm surprised you were unable to sleep. This whole experience must be very trying for you"
Xander smiled, "Never was one for sleeping, too much to do, not enough time to do it. My life's been full of weird stuff" then he chuckled, "although I will admit this is certainly the weirdest so far"
"What was it you did on Earth Mr. Harris?" Seven asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"I asked him that" Jo put in turning to look at Xander, "He replied a bit of this and a bit of that, or something wasn't it"
Xander smiled at her, "That's what I said, and yes I was urh… In the military for a while" he told her knowing that it would go some way to allaying Chakotay's fears. Having been in the military would help to explain why he was so relaxed and capable in a strange situation.
Chakotay nodded as Xander's hedge worked. After all it wasn't a lie, he had been for an entire night a US Marine and retained some memories from that, and afterwards he'd been in Starfleet. Although, he could hardly tell them that!
"Yeah, what area" Tom asked, his interest for the twentieth century alight in his eyes.
"US Marine Corp" Xander said snapping off a perfect salute, "Lieutenant Harris, jg"
Paris nodded, knowing that the Marine's were elite, even in this day and age. "Impressive that explains a lot actually"
"I wasn't in for that long, never really liked it much" Xander told him, "I really do prefer being my own boss, but that doesn't mean I can't take orders" he said with a smirk, "…occasionally!"
"Well, this is all very well but we should try to get some sleep before dawn, then we'll move positions try to find cover" Chakotay said/ordered.
"Urh, I don't want to step on anyone's feet" Xander began slowly, "But do you think entrenching with those Hero Gems around is a good idea"
"Hirogen" Seven corrected again then met Xander's dancing eyes and realized she'd just been had.
"Yeah, I mean if you want cover I know where there is some, I saw it when I was up there" he said pointing up to the tree, "But I think entrenching ourselves with the Hirogen around is a very bad idea, they'll just seal us in"
Chakotay nodded, "Normally I'd agree, but the Hirogen have a code of combat and hunting that will preclude that from happening. They prefer to meet in the open"
Xander just nodded to that, acceding to Chakotay's greater knowledge, "Then I can lead us to the shelter I spotted in the morning if you like?"
Chakotay nodded with a smile, "We'd be most grateful"
Seven in the meantime had picked up Jo's Tricorder from the ground; it must have fallen in the confusion earlier. She flicked it open with a movement of her wrist and her eyes widened, "Lieutenant did you make any changes to the scanning parameter's on your Tricorder"
Jo nodded vaguely, "Yeah I was toying with the settings earlier, why?"
"You've improved resolution by 50% and range by…" Seven trailed off her eyes flying wide open, "200%"
Jo looked surprised, "Really, did I, it wasn't working earlier" she said her lips pursed in thought, perhaps the random decoder took a while to get going" she theorized while Xander laughed internally. Seven smiled slightly, high praise from the ex-Borg, "That's very good Lieutenant"
"Well done" Chakotay added with a smile for the shy woman, "I'm impressed"
#You realize that they now think the sunshine's out of her backside# Q offered helpfully.
#So, it's a dazzlingly nice ass# Xander shot back causing the deity to laugh as well.
{Prepare an away team} Thang mentally commanded. His crew leapt to fulfill his request. He looked at the class N planet with a curious mix of excitement and dread. There could also be all sorts of things down there, and in his heart he liked to explore; the only trouble was that the Briori central command forbade such things.
His Secondis, Jazta looked at him expectantly. Keeping his thoughts to himself Thang looked at his second in command warily. He was a last minute adjustment to his crew and one that he did not approve off. He wasn't trustworthy. The rest of his crew he had commanded since the ship had been built, but the Secondis was an unknown, and a risk he felt he could not take with such a cultural and historical find as the Slave pod.
{I'll be leading the away team myself, remain in orbit until my return} Prima Thang commanded and moved from his chair in graceful movements.
The Secondis watched him go with no expression on his face, the Briori were not capable of such things as facial expression their smooth faces not made for such visible communication. But in the black almond eyes of the Secondis there was a fire burning, a fire of jealous hate and rage. He hated Thang, for his crew's utter loyalty, and for his experiences, which Jazta could never hope to achieve now that Thang was in charge. No the day would soon come when Jazta would have to remove this hurdle in the way of his progress.
And that day would be today.
The Hirogen Alpha looked out on the dawning day with a smile of grim satisfaction, he could feel the old fizz in his blood, something sadly lacking of late, a challenge, had entered his life. Now all he had to do was meet his challenge and defeat it, and most importantly lay his hands on that gleaming weapon the dark haired human had been wielding. Then perhaps, he might retire and let his more than worthy Beta take command of his ship and crew. It was about time he allowed his second in command a chance to lead the hunt.
"Ow" Jo said rubbing her ankle; she was starting to think that the forest had something against her ankles personally.
Xander looked back to find that Jo was rubbing her ankle again and smirked slightly, before walking back and steadying her, "You okay?" he asked her.
Jo looked up and smiled at him, "Yeah, thanks, I just think this planet hates me"
Xander chuckled slightly, "Yeah I know what you mean, I sometimes wonder if the creator has it against me as well"
#If he had, you'd not no about it# Q snorted into his mind.
#Yeah, well, this isn't actually a walk in the park either# Xander shot back.
"The Creator?" Jo asked, wondering about his strange terminology, "What religion do you follow?"
"Eh, I dunno that it's got a name, it's just a personal belief really" Xander answered honestly. He did believe in an ultimate deity, it was kind of hard not to when you'd met the guy. Even if he did look like Alice Cooper, which was just plain weird despite what Q had told him about his mind creating the image!
He helped Jo stand on her own two feet and pointed to a ridge, "There's not far to go now, it should be just the other side of that ridge, then we can rest… If the commander agrees of course," he said to the approaching Chakotay.
Chakotay looked mildly surprised, he had after all been walking up behind Xander, there was no way he could have seen the native American commander's approach, "That sound like a good idea" the commander said, "Is everything alright here?"
"Yes Commander, I'm fine" Jo said slightly embarrassed. "My ankle is just a little sore"
"We'll run a medical tricorder over it when we camp" Chakotay said moving back to the front of the procession, "Just over the next ridge?"
"Yes Commander" Xander replied formally, "I couldn't see much except the ridge and the pyramid looking thing the other side, but it should be"
Chakotay nodded and moved off towards the ridge with his team trailing behind him.
Jo took a step and limped slightly stumbling in the process. Xander's arm snaked out and stilled her fall before she'd moved an inch.
"Good reactions" Jo said in surprise.
Xander shrugged helping her to walk forward, "What can I say, I've been fighting a long time, it sharpens you up"
"I thought you said you weren't in the military anymore"
"I'm not, but it's a recent thing" Xander said, truthfully, and not.
"Oh, so what have you been doing since" Jo asked trying to strike up a conversation with the attractive man.
"A little of this…"
"… A bit of that, I see" Jo finished for him and smirked.
"Mr. Harris" Chakotay called out from the top of the ridge.
Xander winced, "I hate being called that" he said under his breath then looked to the injured Jo, "You'll be ok?"
Jo nodded and shooed him off, "I'll be fine, the academy doesn't accept a sprained ankle as an excuse to get out of a route march, this is a walk in the park in comparison," she said with a laugh.
Xander smiled charmingly at her and ran over to the commander. He didn't even have to ask before he realized why he had been hailed, "Shit" he said looking down into the gorge below with a torrent of white water blasting down it. "I didn't see that!"
"Did you see anyway around?" Chakotay asked
"No, as I said, I didn't see that either" Xander replied looking around for a solution to his problem. "Huh" he said thinking furiously.
"What is it Mr. Harris?" Chakotay asked politely gaining another wince.
"Please, call me Xander, I hate being called Mr. Harris"
Chakotay nodded, "Okay Xander, what are you thinking"
"Nothing much at the moment, give me a minute…" Xander broke off when he spotted a Hirogen soldier a long way down on the same side as them. He grabbed Chakotay and pulled him back with a finger to his lips, "We've got company, they're a fair way away, but the Hirogen are close enough" he said looking around again.
Chakotay nodded and pulled out his phaser checking it over. Xander's eyes came to rest on the type II and he smiled, "Say, can I borrow that"
"Urh… We don't really lend them out" Chakotay said with a note of amusement.
Xander met Chakotay's eyes, "Trust me"
Chakotay was about to refuse, then he spotted Seven was watching intently with her own phaser trained not quite at them. He knew that she'd gun him down if Xander tried something and he couldn't see any other problem at the moment. "Here" he said passing the Phaser over.
"Okay, can I get a fine beam?" Xander said restraining himself from reprogramming the phaser. His knowledge of this centuries weapon systems would not go down too well, he wagered.
Chakotay nodded and pointed to the controls, "That controls aperture and that is the intensity setting" he coached.
Xander nodded and tapped out a few commands, "Okay stand over there, all of you" he said and pointed the phaser at a huge red wood like tree, the only tree in the area that looked long enough for what he had in mind.
Chakotay realized what he was up to at the last moment and was about to step in when Xander unleashed the cutting beam and sliced it in such a way as to control where the huge tree fell. His face was a mask of concentration as he carried out his task with careful precision. The beam lanced through the tree setting fire to the end as it toppled slowly at first over the chasm.
Xander smiled triumphantly as the tree landed exactly where he had wanted, "Move, they would have heard that" he said waving them through with the Phaser. "Go, Go"
The officers glanced at their commander who nodded and reached for his phaser, "I'll cover you, just go" Xander said keeping a hold of the device, "Just trust me; GO" He ordered the note of command in his voice was such that even Chakotay was moving before he realized it.
A few Hirogen hunter's peeked out from their position and fire started to rain down on their position. "Go" Xander yelled again and returned fire, the setting still high it drilled through a Hirogen hunter and pieced its heart and put a hole in the tree behind him.
When Jo came up beside him he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her to his side, her legs dangling, "Hey what are you doing?" she asked furious.
"Saving time" Xander said and set off running over the wide trunk and popping off shots to keep the Hirogen at bay. Once he was at the other side he turned back and took careful aim. The beam lashed out again and he sliced slowly through the trunk slicing the tree in half and sending it toppling down into the gorge below.
The Alpha stepped out from the forest into the space made by the now destroyed tree his rifle pointed down and his eyes locked onto Xander's. He gave a small nod and Xander found himself smiling and nodding back. Then he hauled the still complaining Jo backwards into the cover of the trees with the Alpha still glaring across the gorge with a slight smile on his reptilian face.
The Briori appeared in a cascade of emerald green lights as soon as they were released form their transporter two of the four immediately leveled long slender tube like weapons onto the surrounding area and started to look around, another flipped out a slender tricorder like device and it started to scan the area. The Prima just watched his team do what they did best and with an air of professional satisfaction he noticed that they were very good at their jobs. He knew his crew well, and had the crew since the vessel had been made and knew each and every one of them by name.
{Sensor sweeps are limited} the science officer informed his Prima.
{See what you can do} Prima Thang replied casting around mentally as they spoke. Their telepathy was unaffected by the anomalous readings the Scanner was blighted by.
{Area secure} one of the security members said, his mental voice clipped and professional.
{Very good, any sign of the pod?} Thang asked the science officer.
{I believe I'm picking up residual trails to the north}
{Then let us investigate} the Prima said and set off with long graceful strides.
"Report" Janeway said as alarm systems wailed all across her intrepid craft.
"Damage reports coming in from all departments, nothing serious, mostly minor" the ops officer reported crisply.
Janeway let out a slight sigh of relief. This damnable fog was making it almost impossible to see anything, including the medium sized asteroid that they had just run into. "Helm, change to your second but stay on the bridge. We need you both to stay fresh with these conditions," Janeway ordered curtly.
The officer nodded and was replaced by a fresh officer. His quick reactions had saved them form more serious damage but he'd been tired. If he'd been fresh he may have avoided it completely.
"What about our communications effort?"
"I'm trying a new boosting method, if that fails I have a few other ideas" the Ops officers said, her nimble fingers flying across the board.
"Just do your best" Janeway said sparing a smile for the hassled officer. "Tuvok" the one word was enough to convey her question to her old friend.
"No sign of the Hirogen vessel at this time" he replied gravely.
Janeway let out a sigh of frustration this time, "This is getting ridiculous"
Xander set Jo down on a nearby log and rolled up her trouser leg testing the ankle. Jo looked down at his bowed head a shot of lust running through her system quickening her breathing. "What are you doing?" she asked in a breathy voice.
Xander looked up into her brown eyes with his much darker orbs, "Checking you've not done anything serious" he told her smiling sexily. Jo was doing a good job of distracting him away from Seven. Every time he looked at the Ex-Borg he felt a pang of heartache and it was not a pleasant feeling. He knew to a certain extent that he stood no chance of a relationship with her at this time and as such he NEEDED a distraction.
Jo blushed slightly and wet her lips, and then flinched as Xander pushed a sore spot on her slender ankle, "Huh, I think you've sprained it, got a bandage?"
The last part was said to Seven who had walked up behind him. It was an unnerving knack he had of feeling when someone was coming up on him. A good old-fashioned survival instinct when you're from Sunnydale. "We no longer use bandages," she informed him.
"Got something else?" Xander replied looking back at her with a smile.
Seven nodded and knelt down beside him fishing in her slender pack for a medical tricorder and Hypo-Spray. Her time spent with the doctor had leant her a wide range of first age skills and medical knowledge.
She pushed a small vial into the Hypo-spray and it hissed against Jo's leg as she ran the medical scanner over the wounded area. "That will suffice," she said with a cool analytical tone.
Xander frowned slightly, "Interesting bed side manner you've got there" he said ironically. #Who is this#
#You know who it is# Q replied
#That's not Seven, that's a Borg Drone playing at being a human#
#You forget she has yet to undergo her corrective surgery, her emotions are being inhibited# Q told him softly.
Xander let out a sigh, physically and mentally gaining a look from the two beautiful women around him. #I know, it's just hard ya know#
#I understand my friend, I really do#
"Is anything the matter?" Jo asked of the dark haired man on his knees at her feet. It was a position that was causing her to smile in the privacy of her own imagination.
"Yeah, just thought of someone I miss from back home," Xander said, as Seven looked at him her head titled to the side.
"Girlfriend?" Jo asked.
"Almost" Xander replied with a dazzling smile, "Just someone I cared for, I'm just wondering if I'll ever see her again," he said looking Seven in the eye.
The emotion in those chocolate depths took her breath away for reasons she couldn't quite discern.
"Oh well, Tempus Fugit, let's get to the funky Pyramid see if King tut left anything we can use?" Xander said his heavy mood lifting magically. He stood and held out a hand to both Seven and Jo. Seven smiled but stood under her own power but Jo was only too willing to take a hold of anything of Xander's.
"Thanks, you keep looking out for me," she said as Seven walked away to report to Chakotay.
Xander just smiled at her and led her gently over to the others. Harry glanced at Tom as they came up to them, hand in hand, and an unspoken conversation passing between the two friends. They both turned away for fear of making the other laugh, their eyes dancing.
Xander smirked at their expressions and held up his hand twirling Jo, she moved almost instinctually into the twirl as he let go he winked and smiled.
Chakotay smiled at Xander's antics, "The tomb is just on the other side of these trees"
"Tomb?" Seven asked curiously
"From what I can tell, it appears to be one" Chakotay said, he had an interest in archeology that he'd had to abandon of late but the tomb had rekindled his interest somewhat. So, the spark of interest was in his eyes as he spoke. "I think I found the entrance and it appears that we'll be able to close the door behind us. I'm hoping that we'll be able to remain hidden until Voyager finds a way to pick us up"
Xander was already shaking his head, "No way, uh-uh, not going to happen. The leader of those Hero Gems"
"Hirogen" Seven said before she could stop herself she glanced at Xander to find him smirking at her with a twinkle in his eye. He knew just what to do to get her, because he knew her better than she currently knew herself.
"He's a pro, I've seen that look before, he'll find away across and he's coming for me"
"What makes you say that" Chakotay asked as they all started to move out of their temporary camp and walk slowly towards the Pyramid like structure.
"When I shot down that tree he was there, we…connected" Xander replied with a smirk, "I know it's me he's after"
"What happened that first time you ran into him," Chakotay requested, in a commanding voice.
"Not much, they just found out I wasn't easy prey" Xander said shrugging and removing any importance from his comment.
"How so" Chakotay pressed
#Gee… let me think, I Obi-Wanned his blaster bolt and chopped down some of his party# Xander said to his ever present friend.
He heard Q's distinct laughter in the back of his mind as Chakotay looked at him, requesting his answer with his expression. "I beat a couple of his guys up" Xander replied.
"You beat up a Hirogen" Chakotay said dubiously.
"Two" Xander replied with no hint of irony in his voice.
Chakotay frowned and turned back to the clearing they were entering, the one that held the large tomb like Pyramid. "It looks almost Aztecan" he commented.
"What-tecan" Xander asked
"A member of the Nahuatl people who established an empire in Mexico that was overthrown by Cortes in 1519" Chakotay said reading from a dusty book many years ago.
"Oh right, that's SO much clearer now, thanks" Xander said rolling his eyes.
#You know who they are# Q told him, #Stop winding the good commander up#
#You of all people is telling me to stop winding someone up! # Xander asked incredulously.
#I did it with STYLE# Q told him, #besides, you need to keep Seven on side if you want to stay as close to the original time line as you can#
#Fuck that# Xander told him drawing a surprised intake of incorporeal breath from the former deity. #That's a migraine in the making, and Lucy will know what I'm planning, no… I've got a better idea, though I still want Seven involved#
#What are you planning? #
#Take a look, you're in my head after all#
Q did as he was asked and came back with a shocked voice, #Please… Please, tell me your kidding#
#Nope# Xander smiled beatifically as Chakotay watched him from the side wondering what he was thinking.
Xander looked out across the eerily quiet courtyard arrangement just before the Tomb with a wary eye. The wind had picked up slightly and the trees swayed with its passing weight. The sun was high in the sky signaling that it was about midday. They hadn't heard hide or hair of the Hirogen's since well before. Xander was slightly worried about that fact.
He watched the other members of the team cross the distance hanging back slightly to watch their backs. Normally they would have kept him in their midst but he was obviously able to look after himself and had proven to them that he also wasn't a threat so the protocol's were relaxed. That said, Chakotay and Seven kept darting looks back to make sure he wasn't up to anything nefarious. Jo also kept darting looks at him but for an entirely different reason.
She had never met anyone like Xander Harris in her life and it was making her heart race and blood boil every time she caught his eye. She wouldn't mind if it was a first love type of thing, or even an instant attraction kind of thing, well the last one was closer. It was pure unadulterated lust; she wanted Xander Harris more than the noble prize at this point. Which was saying something, since it had always been her dream. She forced herself to concentrate on her sensor readings and try to keep a professional head on her shoulders. She blamed her lack of self-control on her habitual institutionalization. She just didn't have the mental shielding to deal with emotion on this level. She'd been attracted to people before, and had her share of relationships; most she herself had caused to destruct. That said, she wasn't used to dealing with people and in her scientific career path had not actually met a man like Xander before, a heroic man, a brave man.
She was between the main away team and Xander so was the only target available to them. As the two Hirogen dived out from under cover she froze and screamed and was taken into a pair of powerful arms straight away.
Xander came to a full stop his eyes glued to the Hirogen holding Jo whilst the other covered its partner and kept the away team at bay with his rifle. They had hidden buried in the sand, until the last moment, short-range scanners giving them a view of what passed above. Their Alpha had ordered them to take this very woman captive and trade her for the dark haired man.
"You" The Hirogen said with a nod towards Xander, he was the one that had a hold of Jo who was struggling to free her self. Her Aikido expertise failed her for a moment against the strong hold of the large alien.
Xander smirked and pointed at himself, "Me?" he asked sarcastically. Luckily for him, Q acted as the ultimate Universal Translator.
"Yes you, come with us or the girl dies," the Hirogen told him pushing the barrel of his rifle up against Jo's head causing her to wince.
Xander looked at him for a moment then shook his head, "No I don't feel like dying today, take her," he said holding his expression still and cold.
Jo suddenly felt her world tilt and fall away from her feet. She could only look at Xander in shock, the man she had thought of as Brave had turned out to be just like the other 'Hero's' that she had ever fallen for in one form or another. She was bitterly disappointed whilst at the same time scared out of her tiny mind. She wasn't cut out for this sort of work, she decided; give her a nice quiet lab with none of the aliens she had to study.
Xander winced at her look but kept the emotion from his face. He had to, or this would quickly turn into a fiasco.
The Hirogen hunters were at a loss as to what to do, their Alpha wouldn't want this puny human female - he wanted the warrior.
"We will kill her," the hunter said angrily once again pushing his rifle painfully into the slender humans side.
Xander shrugged at him emphatically, "That would be a terrible waste, but what's a guy to do?"
"No!" Chakotay said, "Take me, I'll go with you" he continued shooting Xander a slightly disgusted look.
Xander stifled an impressed look, instead keeping his face carefully blank until the hunter turned to the commander.
"Puny human, we don't want you the Alpha wants the Sword Bearer, no other will suffice" the bunter said angrily.
Xander cursed under his breath but was already moving, a blessed silver dagger was removed from his boot and was sent flying straight into the now facing him Hirogen's eye. The timing had been perfect catching the hunter just where he wanted and killing the hunter instantly. Jo was released from his grasp but was then trapped under the large aliens falling body. His partner leveled his rifle on Xander only to have the human dive off to the side and roll, extracting his other dagger and throwing it with equal precision into the hunter's throat.
In less than a second it was over and Xander was back on his feet and brushing himself off, "Damn sand, look at these pant's," he said with a sigh. He walked over to the kicking and squealing Lieutenant Andrews and hauled the heavy alien off of her body. "Hey Jo" he said with a disarming smile.
He reached down to help her up and suddenly found himself airborne when she used the hand to throw him in a deceptively simple looking Aikido move, "BASTARD!"
Xander landed on his back and all the air in his lungs was expelled in a rush. "You complete Bastard" Jo repeated stalking towards him. "You scared the hell out of me"
He scrabbled backwards to his feet, "Oh hey Jo, now come on"
"Lieutenant, stop" Chakotay said or tried to he was actually laughing too hard to actually be understood. Jo Andrews mad was a sight too good to miss despite the danger they had just faced.
Xander reached out a hand, "Come on" he said charmingly, but warily, he was actually kind of impressed. He'd pegged her as a bit of a damsel, her throw had just disproved that assumption.
#To make an assumption is to make an Ass out of U and ME# Q told him with a chuckle.
"He nearly killed me!" Jo said reaching for Xander's out stretched hand and moving to throw him. Xander had a feeling she was going to do that and landed on his feet grasping her hand and swinging it up and round behind her back.
"But he didn't, I killed him" he said in a low voice.
Jo reversed his grip spinning up and round freeing herself and reversing the position, "You utter bastard I thought you meant it"
Xander chuckled slightly and moved his hand up and round and turned to the side unlocking his arm and pulling Jo down to face up at his waist level, "Of course I didn't mean it!" he said in a doh voice, "If I'd meant it I would have run now wouldn't I?"
"Lieutenant enough" Chakotay said finally getting a hold of his amusement enough to trust his voice, "I think Xander has learnt his lesson," he said with a straight face.
Tom and Harry were currently leaning on each other watching the show with an amused look on both their faces. Seven was standing off to one side with an eyebrow cocked and Chakotay was at her side his eyes dancing with laughter. "That was a nasty trick to play Xander" he admonished him.
Xander would've shrugged but all his limbs were currently tied up with Jo at that moment, "Had to do something… Now do you believe me Commander?" he added
Chakotay sobered and nodded, "Yes, I see what you mean now" he said looking at the downed hunters, "Nice aim" he commented.
"Thanks" Xander said extracting himself from the panting Jo her eyes still alight with fire. He walked over to the first dead body and pulled out the silver dagger wiping it on the dead Aliens clothing. He walked over to the commander and held out his hand for the one the Native American man had extracted.
"Interesting dagger's, are these silver?" the commander asked curiously.
"Yep" Xander said still with hand out, "A friend gave them to me, so if you don't mind"
"You'll have to give them up when you come to voyager with us" Chakotay said handing the dagger over.
"As long as I get them back" Xander replied honestly. He didn't much mind having them locked up on board. He wasn't likely to meet a demon on board Voyager, at least not for a while yet.
"Of course," Chakotay said realizing that he'd just scored a slight victory, or rather been granted a slight accord. He couldn't quite understand why Xander didn't seem to like him because he certainly liked Xander. He seemed a brave and capable man, the sort of man that he liked to have under his command back in the marquee, a man that you could rely on. However, he wasn't about to cry about it, he was old enough and experienced enough to realize that sometimes people just didn't like you. He did realize though that Xander seemed to be making an effort to get over it, for which he was grateful.
"Shall we?" Chakotay said indicating the tomb.
"If you still want to go with the entrenchment" Xander said with a resigned voice.
"More so now than ever, we have to keep you safe from the Hirogen" Chakotay said reasonably.
Xander frowned at that thought, "Keep me safe?" he muttered, #Oh boy, they are screwed#
He felt, rather than heard, Q's chuckles as they walked into the tomb entrance and darkness flowed around them like a silken cape. He smiled under its forceful light heartedness.
Then a scrabble of boot on hard floor alerted him to the presence of something behind him and he spun and dropped, his foot lashing out as he sank. He connected with a hard unyielding surface and was sent to the floor. He looked up to find a large Hirogen form silhouetted in the doorway.
"Welcome warrior, to my trap for you" the alpha growled out with satisfaction.
Xander glared at him as he heard his teammates being rounded up by the other three Hirogen, then finally he raised his hands, "Okay you got me, now what you going to do with me?"
The Alpha smiled
Janeway smiled as she heard the Ops officer's announcement, "I've managed to clear sensor's, and the gas density is lifting"
She turned to Tuvok and watched him play with his board as he uploaded the improved code from the operations board, he gave a satisfied nod and started to scan the surrounding area, "The Hirogen are ten thousand meters off of our port bow" he said with a raised eyebrow. The only indication that he was surprised, "And they are charging weapons systems"
Janeway didn't have to call for a red alert as they were already at that station, "Brace for impact" she said as she watched the incoming photon torpedo coming in from the Hirogen vessel.
"I want options," she said as it hit and shook them.
"Shields at 70% and holding" Tuvok report by route.
Janeway nodded, "Hail them"
There was a pause, "No answer to our hails, Captain"
"Then the time for diplomacy is over" Janeway decided out loud. She walked purposefully over to an empty science station calling, "Return fire" over her shoulder as she went.
With practiced movements of her fingers she called up the scans of the surrounding area and viewed the telemetry and data on the gaseous nebula. Her intelligent blue eyes gazed at the quickly scrolling data for a long moment until she smiled ferally.
"Tuvok, target co-ordinates 03-30-20" she said walking over to the security station with a brisk stride. "Wait for my signal, then fire" she said as Tuvok programmed in the pattern into his targeting computers.
"Hail them on a broadcast" she said to the Operations Officer, when she received a nod she started to talk, "Hirogen vessel, cease your attack immediately or be destroyed"
She made a cutting motion across her throat then showed that she and Riker had a-LOT in common. She waited ten seconds during which they were fired on five times, the shield sinking at 1% a shot, "Fire" she said her voice firm.
Muscular phased energy weapons unleashed their energy into a pocket of gas that lay just off of the Hirogen ships bow and ignited the gas.
There was a chain reaction as that pocket lit another, and another and another surrounding the ship in fire and battering it badly. Then the ships shields gave way with a flash of blue light and the hull itself was put into a super heated oven. Even the extremely tough Monotanium hull plating couldn't compete with the super heated gas and it ate through the tough composite in a manner of nano seconds breaching the atmospheric containment of the ship and granting access to the fire.
Inside the ship the Beta had time to growl at the main viewer and hit a button before a super hot fire spread through the ship breaching bulkheads and frying the crew alive.
Janeway winced as the mighty Hirogen vessel became a flower of light and exploded into tiny fragments. She felt a stab of regret at having to waste so much life but then firmed up her resolve. They had been trying to kill her CREW, which was not something she could ever allow to happen.
The fragments of hull plating and other more organic material flew towards them and bounced harmlessly off of their navigational shielding. "Survivors?" she asked glancing back at Ops.
A shake of her head was enough to tell Janeway what she had already surmised for herself. "Damn" she whispered, only Tuvok's sharp Vulcan hearing able to pick out the muttered curse.
Janeway took a deep breath and sighed, "What about the away team can we make contact?"
"Captain!" Tuvok broke in, "There is an unidentified…Flying saucer coming into the range of sensors," he said. If he'd been human it would have been said bemusedly.
"Hail them" Janeway said walking down to her captain's chair and taking a seat, hoping that she could find a more diplomatic solution to any problems now posed to her.
A strange humanoid alien appeared on the screen, it's tiny mouth moving slowly like a badly dubbed movie, "Greetings great captain"
Janeway's lips quirked slightly, "Greetings…" she trailed off letting the alien fill in the blanks.
"I am Secondis Jazta my Prima is on the planet below so I am making this contact in his absence"
"I'm pleased to meet you Secondis, what is it I can do for you today?"
"You can leave our system peacefully and not force me to destroy you," the Secondis said calmly.
Janeway frowned, 'Damn' she thought, "Are we in your space then Secondis, and if we are who lays claim to this area?"
The answer she received sent chills up her spine, "This area has been claimed by the Briori"
Xander looked up at the smiling alpha with no expression on his face whatsoever waiting for his answer.
"I challenge you to our ritual hunt, if you refuse I will put you and your pack to a humane death, but if you accept and win then I will allow you all your freedom"
"Huh, groovy, what's that entail then" Xander said slowly getting to his feet and facing the large alien eye to well, neck.
"Groovy?" the alpha repeated, tasting the word then ignored the alien expression, "The hunt will consist of you and I, I will give you…" he trailed off looking out at the sun still hanging high in the sky. "…Until the sun reaches there," he said pointing to an area of the sky that would equate to around two hours. "Then I will hunt you down and claim my prize"
"What's your prize" Xander said, as if he didn't know.
"You're head, and your sword" the hunter replied looking for a sign of the gleaming blade that had so taken his fancy.
"You want my sword, I don't think it'll like you much" Xander commented gaining agreement in the form of a snort from Q, "But you don't really leave me much choice do you?"
"Xander no" Chakotay called out, "I'm the commander here, I'll meet you in combat"
The alien leader gave the commander a look that said 'I don't think so' as surely as Cordelia saying 'Puh-leeasse'. "I have made my challenge human don't try to interfere or suffer my wrath"
#Oh boy# Xander thought then smiled, "Okay big guy, let's do it"
The Alpha smiled, "I am pleased," he intoned gravely.
Then he stood back and cleared a path to the door for Xander, "Your not going to shoot me in the back as soon as I walk out that door are you?" Xander said brushing past the large hunter.
"I will honor the ritual hunt," the alpha told him with angrily flashing eyes.
"Cool" Xander said and sauntered out into the sunlight. He blinked a few times to clear his eyesight. Meanwhile the alpha stepped out behind him and his two remaining pack members shepherded out the Voyager crewmembers.
"Xander!" Jo called out despite herself, Xander turned back and caught her eye and smiled, "Be careful" she finished.
His eye flicked closed and open again in a wink before he cricked his neck from side to side and looked around.
"Your time slips away human" the Alpha replied.
"If we're going to be hunting each other Hero Gem…"
"…Hirogen…" Seven said automatically then cast a baleful glare into Xander's laughing eyes.
"…Then you can at least call me Xander" Xander finished with a laugh.
"Xander" the Hirogen said carefully then nodded, "My name is H'tera"
"Okay then H'tera, good luck" Xander said and with that he turned and walked slowly into the forest walking several meters in and out of sight before he took to his heels.
Exactly three hours later and when the sun was precisely where he said it would be, the Alpha looked up at the sun and made to move off.
"Good luck" Chakotay called out stilling the hunter's progress.
The alpha turned back, "Human?"
"I said, good luck!" Chakotay repeated, hoping that the universal translator would change what he'd said into a comparable expression for the Hirogen.
"I do not need luck!" The Alpha replied then paused again, "You wish this human killed, he is perhaps competition for your mate?"
Chakotay shook his head, "No, I just no you're going to need it" he told the hunter, knowing that warfare was 60% psychological and wanting to get a blow in on Xander's behalf.
"Your race is strange" The Alpha commented. "Why do you think that I the most supreme of all hunters in this quadrant would need luck against a human?" he sneeringly asked.
Chakotay just smiled at him, "Xander is also a great hunter" then he remembered a snippet of the Alpha's conversation with Xander earlier, "He has our greatest weapon"
The alpha snorted, "I have already seen this weapon in combat, this is why I have called the ritual hunt because I desire it"
Chakotay frowned wondering what the hell the Hirogen meant by what he had said but pressed on, delaying the hunter further, "That weapon will be your undoing, it is a magical weapon" Chakotay said, unwittingly, but truthfully.
"Save your stories for your offspring, you have delayed me enough" the hunter said and stalked off in the same direction that Xander had.
Paris leant back against the rock tomb they were arranged against and smiled at the guard but spoke to Chakotay, "Do you think he'll make it?"
"Xander, I have no idea," Chakotay admitted.
"What do you think of our time stranded guy Jo" Harry said teasingly.
Jo just raised and eyebrow, "He seems very capable"
"Of what though?" Seven said thoughtfully, "He is unlike the other humans I have met"
"He's from the past, we've grown a lot since then, matured" Paris replied.
"Well some of us have, anyway" Harry said after a snort.
His best friend just glared at him mildly.
Jo looked out to the forest with a worried expression on her face. Chakotay noticed and smiled slightly, "I'm sure he'll be fine"
"Me too" Jo admitted, "But I have to admit to being worried anyway"
Chakotay nodded still smiling, "You seem to have become rather attached to him" he commented carefully.
Jo blushed slightly then looked at the Commander with a nervous expression, "Commander, since we eh… could you know"
"We won't but go on"
"I eh… I have to admit to something" Jo began her nervousness growing.
"You can tell me anything Lieutenant"
"The other night, when the urm, predator attacked…" she trailed off blushing furiously.
Chakotay had to wonder what she was going to admit to with her furious blushing, was she up to something with Xander? "Go on" he said slowly, not sure he wanted to know.
"I fell asleep on duty" she said in a rush, "I'm sorry, so very sorry, but I've never been on an away mission before and I was tired"
Chakotay pursed his lips thoughtfully, "I see"
"I'll hand in my resignation if, when, we get back to Voyager, I'm just sorry I let you down"
"Did you? It was you that killed it wasn't it?" Chakotay said after a moment's silence.
"Yes, but Xander was the one to wake me up"
"But you did save the camp and kill the tiger?" Chakotay asked, almost stated.
Jo nodded, "I did, but even then Xander had to help me"
Chakotay frowned, knowing that he'd had to show him how to use a phaser not long ago. "How so?"
"I was shaking so much, he steadied my hand"
Chakotay nodded thinking quickly. Since coming down to the planet Jo seemed to have grown from the shy shrinking violet she had been into a shy but capable member of the team. She had shown flashes of inspirational genius both with the Tricorder and in her thoughts on the planet. She was too good a crewmember to loose over something like this, and at the end of the day, she had saved his team, him self included. Which was something that he had been going to log on her record as a commendation. He took a deep breath and then smiled at her, "In which case, you still saved your team members and kept your head, I was going to log a commendation on your record, but I won't now and we'll call it quits. That is IF you agree to training with me on away missions until I'm satisfied" he said his eyes intently looking into hers.
Jo nodded and smiled slightly, "I think I would like that Commander" she paused, "Thank you sir"
"Think nothing of it Lieutenant I think you have promise as a more active member of away team missions, and you'd have the chance to view the things you study up close and personal as it were." Chakotay said smiling again, and leaning back on the wall his face facing up to the sun. 'Now all we have to do is wait for Xander to pull a rabbit out of his hat and get back to Voyager' he added in his thoughts.
Xander stalked through the living forest his every sense stretched to the maximum, his skin felt like it was on fire and his eyes were alight with adrenaline. He felt more alive than he had in a long time, why, because he could die. It was a strange part of being a human that they felt more alive at the edge of the abyss than they did day to day. Xander felt VERY alive at that moment. He was facing a hunter of, what he guessed, was large experience and deadly skills.
All he had were some vague Marine memories, Star Fleet training and the fact he'd been fighting for close to Seven years to back him up.
The forest itself was alive with creatures scuttling about their business and birds chirping at him, so he knew in some baser part of his ID that he was safe. It was only if the creatures went quiet that he had to worry.
Glancing around he came to a decision and drew his dagger to make good on that decision. It was time to up the stakes and prepare a small surprise for his hunter and turn from prey into the other one.
The alpha stalked thought the forest without creating a ripple in the wild life, he was at one with his surroundings, totally aware of the life that was abundant all around him, his bright alert eyes picked out nuances of light and color. Which was the only thing that saved him.
As his foot moved forward he felt a snap and reacted without conscious thought catapulting himself backwards and down. A heavy axe like arrangement snapped through the space he had just occupied and buried itself in the trunk of a tree at head level. Then as the hunter flew backwards he felt another similar axe arrangement swish just over his head and hit where the main trunk of his torso would have been if he had only ducked.
He smiled even in mid flight even knowing he would be landing hard he continued his smile. This was truly worthy prey, at last. Then his smile changed from a smile into a grimace as the floor came up and met his back hard driving the air from his lungs in a whoosh.
After a few moments the smile was back flashing elongated canines in the process. The hunter's rifle led the way as he kipped back to his feet landing softly without sound and already looking down on his scanners. He had a feeling that his prey was close. In fact he was sure he could feel that special tingle he always felt when hunting a particularly intelligent prey, the ones that knew enough to attempt to turn the tables on him.
His scanner showed nothing but the vegetation around him, but he wasn't sure that it was correct. Normally he would trust the advanced scanning abilities of his weapon but this planet was shrouded in a field that affected even their technology.
Jo glanced up at the sun, trying to use her rudimentary survival skills to work out how long they had been waiting. The Hirogen had actually been fairly accommodating, apparently the ritual hunt was an almost religious thing for the Hirogen and as such they were being treated more as guests than prisoners. Which allowed them freedom to spread out a little and seek shade from the blazing suns above them.
"Three Hours" a female voice said from behind her.
Jo turned to look into the intelligent and beautiful eyes of Seven Of Nine. "I'm sorry"
"It has been three hours since the Alpha's departure, and six since Xander's"
"Thank you, I was just wondering that, oh that's the point," Jo said with a smile. She hated to admit it but she was worried about the dark haired man upon whom she had found herself 'crushing.'
"He is a singular individual is he not" Seven said finally, summing up Jo's thoughts with her own.
Jo nodded, "He sure is"
"He is unlike the other Briori abduction's. He seems more rugged from a more violent time, yet they are from further back in Earth's history, that is strange"
"He was in the armed forces Seven" Paris said walking up behind the pair of attractive women, "He's cut from a totally different mold than the other people from the past you've met"
"How so?"
Paris paused trying to think of a way to phrase his thoughts and studies, "In some ways the twenties were a violent time, there were minor skirmishes all across several borders and even some fairly large conflicts, wars even. The military had to be tough and were often battle hardened. The weapons of the time and the way that war was waged was different from now…" Paris cast around for a word, "Dirtier" he said with a puzzled expression, "That's not quite the word I'm looking for, but close enough" he finished with a charming smile, "So the military had to be ruthless in some respects"
"Yet there was the U.N." Seven said drawing on her copious information stores.
"The U.N. was a joke, a good try but as you know it eventually fell apart when more and more countries pulled out leaving just the US and UK. After that it was more of a dichotomy than a peacekeeping force, which went against its doctrines totally so it was disbanded in early 2010. Xander told us he's from 2001, which is during some very nasty fighting in the gulf"
"You believe that Xander saw 'action' during that war?" Seven asked as Jo watched on caught up in the discussion rather than her worry, something for which she was grateful.
Paris shook his head, "No actually I don't, but he's seen action I've seen that look in his eye when I was briefly in the marquee, it's the look of a man that's stared into the abyss one too many times"
"Huh?" Jo asked, or rather Huh'd.
"Look not into the Abyss for fear that you may find it looking back" Paris smirkingly said.
"What's that mean though?" Jo asked, "I've heard it before I just don't get it"
"I hope you never do Lieutenant" Chakotay said walking up with Kim, "I truly do" his voice was grave as he talked. "But I agree with Tom, which is why I think we just might see him walking out of that forest with the Hirogen in tow"
"Why?" Seven asked with a lifted eyebrow.
Chakotay laughed slightly, "Because he doesn't just look like he's stared into the abyss, he looks like he's spat in the devils eye!"
The Alpha suddenly spun 180 degrees and eyed the forest with narrowed eyes, taking in every detail with his sharper than human eyes. He could still FEEL the presence of his prey but his scanner was insisting that he was not there.
The first sun was just now starting to dip below the horizon casting the area in a red tinted hue, the second and final sun not far behind it, distilling the tint into an orange fire. Creating black shadows in the tree's that not even the Hirogen's sharp eyes could penetrate.
In one such shadow a dark haired man stood hardly breathing, as still as a statue and with as much expression as one of the ones from Easter island, yet his eyes glittered darkly and glared a hole into the Hirogen's back. Inside of those eyes was the inky blackness of the abyss itself. Xander was a man who had seen too much too soon, he was lucky to be sane let alone alive, sometimes, at times such as this, he felt the cold heart of a hunter enter his body. It was now that one was able to see why Xander Harris had been the Alpha of his own pack, how he had stared down a serial killing vampire and lived to tell the tale of both. This was the man who had indeed spat in Lucifer's eye.
The alpha felt the sudden hush of the jungle and froze on the spot. He was almost perfectly camouflaged against the trunk of the gray tree he was standing beside.
"I know you are there human, let us finish this" the hunter said sure that he was correct.
The forest remained still as death and a sudden chill went through the experience hunter. Something didn't smell right about the situation. He backed away from the source of the strange feeling.
Then he whirled around to stare into two pools of almost black darkness - then there was a flash of gleaming blade and oblivion. One of the best Hirogen hunter's felled with a single stroke. Xander looked down at the headless corpse his eyes glittering darkly, "Shouldn't have threatened my friends asshole" As Xander turned and melted into the gathering darkness a nearby sapling, only a few years old yet still three inches thick drooped over and fell to the floor where Xander's sword had also passed through it.
Jo shivered as the night took a hold of the courtyard chilling the air enough that her breath fogged in to it. She looked around at the other officers, Chakotay was off to one side negotiating with the Hirogen for some heating whilst Seven, Paris and Kim were huddled together using the heat of each other's bodies to ensure that they didn't loose too much.
"Come on Jo, join us, you'll just get cold otherwise" Paris said with a smile, that was only visible as a flash of teeth, "I promise… Harry will keep his hands to himself"
"Hey…" Harry trailed off realizing that he had just been had, again!
Jo nodded and moved over to the group huddling into Seven and leaving a gap for Chakotay between herself and Kim. Harry glared mildly at his friend seeing her placement, incorrectly, that Tom had made her think he would be less than a gentleman. Truth was that Jo couldn't have cared less; she just had a bad feeling that she couldn't shake.
Chakotay walked over with a few medium sized boulders and A Hirogen guard heated them with his rifle until they glowed an angry red before taking up his guard once again.
"I don't like this" Paris said suddenly, "They've been gone too long"
The 'They' in question was obvious.
Chakotay nodded feeling the same thing, "The Hirogen have much better eyesight than us, I'm not happy this has run into the night" he admitted, "I just hope that Xander has figured that out for himself"
"Yeah though I walk through the valley of death " a voice came out of the darkness.
The Hirogen guards suddenly became highly alert their guns scanning around and expressions set.
Suddenly a guard just visible in the night dropped to his knees before falling forward. As he did so, his head toppled off of the top of his torso and rolled away into the night.
"I will fear no evil," the voice intoned again. The remaining guard was now looking around in complete confusion and no small amount of fear.
"For I am the badest Mother Fucker there" Xander said appearing out of the darkness like a spectral vengeance spirit. He ran past the remaining guard before taking off into the darkness again.
The guard touched it's hand to it's throat and brought it away with blood, it looked down and made it's last ever mistake. That guard then joined its partner on the floor headless in a growing pool of blood.
The away team looked at each other with slight frowns, they had seen nothing, only heard Xander's voice and two thuds.
Then Jo happened to look to her right and let out a yelp when she came face to face with a smirking Xander, "Hey toots" he replied to her yelp of surprise
"Say; have you got room for another one? I'm freezing!" he said into the Fleeters shocked expressions.
Janeway sipped from her steaming Coffee with an equally hot rush of anger. The Briori had given them three hours to leave. It was that or to be destroyed and after the battle they had just had with the Hirogen, and the nebula itself, Janeway knew that her ship was in no fit state for another fight.
"Damn Them!" She muttered her voice low, despite the fact she was in her ready room, "Damn them all to hell" she continued in a slightly louder voice.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you" an arrogant and familiar voice told her from the sofa, "You never know who might be listening."
Janeway's head snapped round to find the female Q, Q's consort and mother of his child sat with one leg draped over the other on her couch.
"I had wondered where you had gone" Janeway said calmly, yes she'd just had the hell scared out of her but she'd be damned if she'd show it.
"I was seeing to another matter of equally great importance" Q said calmly lounging back further into the plush couch.
"Where's little Q?" Janeway asked, having only seen the female Q without her son once in all the time she'd known her.
The female Q smiled, "He is with his other godmother, or should that be honorary godmother?" she said airily, "Don't fear he is safe in her hands, she has a way with him, the key to dealing with children." She said with a smile.
Janeway shrugged off that strange comment, "What can I do for you today, I've got rather a lot on" she asked cutting to the chase.
"I just popped in to see how you are doing" Q responded rubbing her temples, "and believe me, you've got no idea what having 'A lot on' really feels like. Unless you've tried to take up Q's crusades"
Janeway actually smiled slightly at that, "I imagine not" she agreed, "as to how we are doing…" she paused and let out an exasperated breath to tired not to be truthful, "Not brilliantly"
"I'm surprised, I would have thought it was a relatively simple matter, even for a primitive species such as yourselves. After all, how much of a problem can one small pod be?"
Janeway laughed causing Q to raise a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, "Apparently a lot more than we bargained for!"
"How so?"
"I've got a team on the planet, cut off with no communication, I suspect that a Hirogen hunting party is with them, I also had a Hirogen hunting vessel to deal with, which unfortunately I had to do so in a rather permanent way, and now I have a huge Briori vessel demanding that I leave the system. So all in all I'm not having a very good day"
"Communications…Hmmm, Oh yes the protective field around the planet would disrupt your communications and the gases must be playing havoc with those simplistic scanning devices you use" the Q tittered slightly, "Dear me, what a pickle. I'm surprised about the Briori though, they are rather peaceful now a day's"
Janeway cocked an eyebrow at the female deity, "You're a lot more straight forward to deal with than your… erh… Husband?"
"The word will suffice for now, I don't believe you have a word in the grunting you call a language to describe mine and Q's relationship…yet. As for what you said, I don't like to play around, I'm sure I don't know how Q managed it"
"I often wished he didn't" Janeway admitted freely and with a small smile.
The two females shared a smile forgetting for a moment that millennia of evolution separated them.
The female Q suddenly looked out of the window at her side with a small smile playing at her lips, "I have to go, my child needs me. I will return shortly" she raised her fingers to click them, and then paused, "your communications problem..."
Janeway raised an eyebrow, "Yes…"
The female Q paused as if battling with herself, but she knew what was on the planet and what was at stake, "The field protecting the planet oscillates at 15,000 Gigahertz" she said and then clicked her fingers disappearing in a flash of white light before the sound had even finished.
Janeway's eyes flew open, had a Q actually just freely given away information that would actually help them!
She flew out of her office and across the Ops board, the officer there moving to one side to allow her captain access. Janeway's hands flew across the LCAR's interface changing the scanning parameters first to try to find such a field and then finally moving on to the frequency. "Well I'll be…" she said finally finding that the Q had been telling the truth. From there it was a fairly simple matter to program a quick algorithm to match the field and thus penetrate it.
"I don't believe it!" she said finally as a scan of the planet finally came through. Communications would take a little longer to fix but not too long now they had breached the field.
"Captain?" Tuvok asked one eyebrow cocked inquisitively.
Janeway turned to her security officer and one of her dearest friends and smiled warmly, "I've just been given a little help for a change" she admitted, "I'm sending the new parameter's to you now"
Chakotay looked up and around him smiling like a giddy schoolboy. They had entered the tomb at first rise of the sun to take shelter from the driving rain. What they had found once they had entered had made him smile. The tomb was an amazing find, even if one didn't know of the history of the D'Lorean's one could still be fascinated by their culture and the artistry that had gone into some of the relief's on the corridor wall.
"It's amazing" Chakotay said with a smile at Seven, "don't you think Seven?"
"The artistry is quite complex and the construction is above normal parameters for a culture in this stage of their evolution" she said coolly, her photographic memory storing the details for later study, as her tricorder took readings for the same reason.
Chakotay glanced back to find Tom, Harry and Xander laughing and joking as Jo took high resolution scans for her own studies. The time-stranded man had shown himself to be highly capable last night, dispatching their guards with a coldness that Chakotay had rarely seen before. Yet this morning and last night in fact he had seemed back to the jocular man he had seemed to be. Chakotay had already logged in his own mind some time with the Federation Database's when they got back to Voyager. He wanted to know what had happened to Xander to make him the strange collection of conflictions he seemed to be. Although, he didn't hold out much hope as records pre the eugenic wars were sketchy at best and more often than not were in fact utterly useless. Then there was the strange mystery of the Weapon the Alpha had been so interested in. From what had been said, it sounded like a sword, yet there was no sign of it anywhere on Xander's person and they had seen neither hide nor hair of it. Also the two Hirogen guards had been beheaded. Xander had told them he had done it with his highly sharp Dagger's, yet the cut had seemed two clean for such small blades.
Chakotay knew when someone was keeping something back from him, and he was sure that Xander was, but without further proof there was little he could do about it. Especially since the facts seemed to bear out his story. The long jacket he wore could have concealed a sword, but he had taken it off that morning to wash, something that had caused Jo to blush, there had been no sign of it.
Curiouser and Curiouser!
Chakotay forced his attention back on the startling tomb and dredged around his memory to draw up comparisons with other cultures. The Aztecan comparison he had used before was borne out so far, which was a strange correlation. Several species across the galaxy seemed to have similar cultures within them; and at this point some 75,000 light years from Planet Earth, there was a culture that was similar to the Aztecs on Earth! Truly amazing!
"Commander" Seven said pointing down the corridor to where it opened out into a wide chamber.
Chakotay followed her finger and saw the chamber a slight smile gracing his rugged features, "Well, whoever's buried here they must have been important" he commented leading he way into the chamber.
"Why is that?" Seven asked looking at her tricorder. As they reached the chamber she split away from Chakotay and walked the opposite way around it.
"Because of the size of this chamber, and the decorations. I think they may have been royalty," Chakotay said looking around at the fine carvings and colorful designs.
Xander meandered in to the chamber as the two friends, Tom and Harry, walked over to the commander to inspect the relief he had just found. He wasn't all that interested in the ancient; he had too much invested in the here and now for that.
Jo walked up beside him, her entire being concentrated on the readings from her tricorder and not even sparing him a glance. "I'm getting some unusual energy level readings Commander, we should be careful," she counseled.
Chakotay nodded, "Noted Lieutenant. Thank you," he said pulling out his own tricorder.
Xander sauntered over to where Seven was running her tricorder over a wall her hand just lightly running down its surface. "Hey"
Seven glanced up at him; "Hello" she replied her attention returning to the Tricorder.
"So you guys do this a lot?" he asked leaning back against the wall, his posture ready for action but appearing to be relaxed.
"Not this exactly, but we often explore such cultures since the voyager arrived in the Delta Quadrant"
"Huh, must be interesting work"
"Sometimes, occasionally it can be uninteresting," Seven told him with a slight smile playing round her lips.
"Yeah, I know what you mean, I'm more of an action oriented person as well" Xander said replying with a smile of his own.
"So we have seen" Seven said snapping her tricorder shut and looking at him, "You appeared to be highly action orientated"
Xander shrugged, "Not all the time, sometimes I like to just kick back and relax with my friends. Failing that I like to settle in with my 'bone and play some jazz"
"Bone?"
"Trombone, don't tell me you don't have those anymore" Xander said with a mock horrified look, it wasn't like he didn't know already.
"I believe we have many such musical instruments, I myself have found I like to sing"
THAT was something Xander hadn't known previously and caused his eyebrows to rise in surprise, "Huh" he said carefully getting a hold of his surprise.
"You seem shocked" Seven commented.
Apparently, he hadn't been careful enough, "Singing…It's very urh…emotional" he said grasping at words.
"I have emotions" Seven said her eyes darkening slightly.
"Of course, I didn't mean that, you just seem like a very controlled person, and singing is all about letting go and going with the flow. Well, for the most part anyway. What sort of thing do you sing?"
"A particular favorite of the doctors and myself is 'Be My Sunshine'"
#HA! # Q choked into his mind making it even harder for Xander to stifle his own amused reaction, he could just see seven singing that, he really could, NOT! "The doctor?" Xander asked managing to keep a straight face, even if his eyes were alight with merriment.
"The chief medical Officer and I, he helps me in my quest to become more…human"
"You seem very human to me" Xander said smiling gently. Seven cocked an eyebrow at him.
"That sounded like such a line, I know, but I wasn't talking about your looks. I can see that you're a warm person under all that control, and you sure seem to like him…" Xander said nodding his head towards Commander Chakotay.
"I am unable to feel great depth of emotion, I… am limited in that regard"
"How so?"
"A suppressor from my previous…life"
"There is no mechanical do dad that can truly repress human emotion, only hide it. The heart is much stronger than any other force in the universe, believe me, I've seen it" Xander said passionately. "Just because your emotion is muted, doesn't mean it's not there Seven" he said with warmth in his eyes and something else that Seven found difficult to place.
She ducked her head slightly in a nod, "Thank you…Xander, that was a most enlightening thought"
Xander shrugged, "What can I say, I'm full of them, or should I say it"
Seven cocked her eyebrow again with a puzzled look, "I'm sorry?"
"Forget it, just an old joke, and one that apparently isn't around anymore" Xander said with a charming smile, "Just remember what I said Seven and think about your options" with that Xander walked away leaving Seven to wonder what he had meant by that?
#What are you up to? # Q asked his voice sly.
#Just letting her know that her options aren't as limited as she thinks, at least I hope I did# Xander replied glancing back at Seven's now hunkered down form as she inspected the wall.
#You realize that you are totally polluting the time stream#
#So? # Xander replied with a chuckle, #Lucy did that when he toe punted us out here. I'm just … exploring the avenues available to me#
#With what you have planned I'm thinking you've already decided upon the particular road you want to go down#
#Maybe, maybe not, I'm not entirely certain what to do yet, I'm not even sure if they'll get home the same way now that I'm here, can you imagine what would happen if it took another 75 years to get home, Lucy would have the key open and we'd arrive home to a dead ball of rock#
#Would we, are you so sure. Your friend Rupert Giles set that spell up with remarkable foresight, the planet would have survived, but they would have gone through a lot of slayer's. You're only one small cog in the machine Xander, and as important as your function is, the world will continue without you#
#Gee, thanks Q, way to make a guy feel good# Xander said sarcastically into his own mind.
Q snorted slightly, the verbal equivalent to a shrug, #I'm merely pointing out that without you the Earth may survive, it would suffer and eventually our dear friend Lucifer would eventually win the day. It is with you that we hold out the most hope, don't forget that now I am bound in such a fashion, I have no way of checking this, but I still believe that you are our best hope for success#
#Thanks Q# Xander said warmly, #That DOES make me feel better#
Just then several things happened in very quick succession. Firstly two slender humanoid aliens stepped into the chamber with long poles leveled at the entire team, and a surprised yelp erupted from behind Xander.
Xander looked at the aliens and heard Q say #Briori# into his mind before diving, literally diving backwards and twisting in mid air. He found that Seven had fallen through a wall and was on his way to joining her the wall looming in his vision as he flew through the air, then he passed through solid rock and the chamber was lost to him.
Chakotay looked back to the Briori from where he had heard Seven scream, and turned just in time to watch Xander dive after her. Then he frowned and raised his hands, realizing that the gray skinned aliens had them dead to rights.
A third and fourth figure entered, one holding something that vaguely resembled a tricorder and the other with nothing in his hands. He raised a narrow hand elegantly and held it palm facing them.
Chakotay flinched.
Chakotay flinched expecting an attack but none came.
"We come in peace" the tall slender alien said its small mouth seemingly too small for such a deep and rich voice.
Chakotay slowly lowered his hands, "I'm pleased to hear it, who are you?"
"I was about to ask the same thing. We are the Briori, I am Prima Thang in command of the Briori Command ship Zetzna, and you are…"
'The Briori' Chakotay thought to himself. Logically he knew he was in trouble, but the posture of the aliens sent no threat. Of course their body language could be totally different, but even the poles had lowered slightly, apparently he had guessed correctly that they had been weapons. "We are from the Federation, my name is Chakotay, Commander Chakotay"
Thang regarded the human in front of his with dark eyes for a long moment before nodding his overly large head, "I am pleased to make your acquaintance Commander Chakotay, and we wish you no harm. We merely wanted to meet the survivor and his trial led us here"
"Survivor" Chakotay asked, knowing the answer.
"From the slave pod"
"Why, what do you want with him?" Chakotay asked looking around trying to form a plan.
"We only wish to meet him, to ask a few questions. A find of such cultural significance could not be ignored."
"We humans do not like to be slaves" Chakotay warned.
"We have no wish for slaves, once we were ousted from our planet we learnt from our mistakes. We Briori are now self sufficient" the Prima said proudly, "But the slave pod is a symbol of what we used to be our technological advances during that time. Those, and not our treatment of other species, are what interests us"
Chakotay nodded with a smile, "An enlightened outlook" he commented then looked over to where Seven and Xander had disappeared, "Prima Thang, we have lost two of our number and…"
The Prima was already nodding, "Of Course, perhaps we could be of some assistance?"
Chakotay smiled, "That would be most kind"
Xander reached out in the darkness and came in contact with a jumpsuit covered leg, his hand traveled up wards slightly, making sure to keep away from any area's that would be considered personal. The feel of her body under his palm was bringing back memories of their time together at the Janaran Falls at which time there had been no jumpsuit in the way. It was a sad thought to him that whilst his body knew hers, hers didn't know his.
"That is quite far enough Mr. Harris" Seven commented wryly.
"I was just trying to see if you were alright" Xander said his voice firm, "are you?"
"I am"
"Good, and don't call me Mr. Harris, I hate it" Xander told her leaving no room for argument, "Please" he amended, slowly standing up and feeling around him. He came in contact with no walls and no ceiling, so he figured they had to be in a good- sized room or cave. "God I hate caves" he muttered.
Sven followed his example standing to her full height and directly in front of him. He could feel her presence and it's closeness and shivered slightly. Luckily the room, or whatever, they were in was pitch black.
"Those torches you all have would be useful about now" Xander commented wryly.
Seven nodded, even as she realized the same thing herself. The twin powerful beams lanced through the darkness lighting up a small area around them, but reaching no walls.
"Big place" Xander said looking around, he glanced back at Seven to find that the fall had dislodged her hair slightly and it was hanging in wisps around her face. He felt a pang in his gut and heart at the sight of her but ruthlessly quashed his feelings. "Come on, we'd better find a way out"
"It would be better, would it not, to wait for the away team to find us?"
Xander let out a sigh, "Doesn't anyone save them selves in this century?" he asked in exasperation.
"We use our minds a little more than just jumping into situations" Seven shot back her eyes flashing slightly.
Xander smirked at her, "Told you" he said before walking into the darkness and leaving Seven with a puzzled expression on her face.
"Told me what?" she asked following him.
"That you still had emotion, if you didn't you'd not have felt anger just then would you?" he asked turning back slightly and smiling at her with a damnably handsome smile.
Seven frowned and kept her own counsel, "I still believe it would be better to remain close to where we fell. Commander Chakotay is sure to look there first"
"I'm guessing you didn't see the X-Files aliens then?" Xander asked, "Two came in with weapony looking sticks just before I dived after you"
"Dived after me, why would you do such a thing?" Seven asked in confusion.
"Because I look after my friends"
"We're friends?"
"We will be Seven, I'm sure of it"
"Perhaps I do not wish to have a friend"
"Why wouldn't you, besides just because you're not my friends doesn't mean I can't be one to you" Xander told her looking down at the ground as if he were trying to find a pattern to the rocks.
"Then I thank you and I think perhaps I would like a friend," Seven said looking at the back of Xander's head intently.
"I'll always be that Seven" Xander said softly before walking forward. #At the very least#
#I'm so sorry Xander# Q said softly into his mind, comfortingly soothing the suddenly weary young man with his words. He felt affection for this young human that he had never felt for any other living being with the exception of his son and wife.
Xander was glad that he was facing away from Seven at that moment, because his eyes were filled with water that he just couldn't hold back. Despite his bluster Xander was a very emotional man, and this was wounding him keenly. #I'll be okay# he said to Q.
#I now that Xander, I picked you because you are a survivor, but that doesn't mean I don't know what emotional pain is like and can do#
#I know, we'll see your son soon, I'm sure, and I'm sure that your wife misses you#
Q remained quiet, receding into Xander's mind in silence to cover his own response. He had to think that it had something to do with being bounded to Xander, but he was feeling emotional a lot more intensely than he had once done. USS Voyager
"Any luck" Janeway asked.
The Ops officer smiled slightly, "I'm close, I can feel it"
"Just keep trying" Janeway said returning the smile. They were coming dangerously close to their deadline and had yet to make a move towards leaving the nebula. There was no way that she was leaving her away team alone down on that planet. From what their scans were showing them, they were currently in a cave system, and one that they couldn't just use the Transporters to pluck them from.
"I will Ma'am"
Janeway's mouth twitched slightly at the 'Ma'am' in that sentence but let it pass for now.
"We're being Hailed" Tuvok informed her; he had taken over the communications while Ops looked after scanning for and reaching the away team.
"On screen" Janeway said sitting up a little straighter in her chair.
"You have not left the system" Secondis Jazta said sneeringly.
"If we could just have a little more time, we're close to finding our away team"
"They will be found and dealt with accordingly, if you do not leave now I will destroy you!"
Janeway narrowed her eyes, "I'm afraid I can't allow that Secondis" she said with an edge to her voice. "I cannot leave my team down on the planet to rot, you must realize this as a commander yourself"
"My team has already been lost to your treachery"
Janeway's eyes flew open, "I'm sorry?"
"We received word sometime ago that our great Prima was lost to enemy fire" the Secondis smiled internally keeping himself shielded form his crew. It had been a masterstroke of duplicity that had allowed him to create that false transmission and free him to take control of the ship. "We believe it was to your so called 'away' team, I believe I've given you more than enough latitude, you will leave now or be destroyed"
"No, Secondis, please just an hour more"
"No" the Secondis virtually screeched and terminated his communication. A moment later and Voyager rocked from a phaser volley.
"What the HELL is he up to?" Janeway demanded of thin air, "Return fire, evasive pattern Alpha Gamma 2" she paused then frowned, "Tuvok" she ordered and once again the single word held a conversation. Tuvok knew what was expected of him and targeted the nearest pocket of gas to the saucer and opened fire.
Once again the area of space around the enemy ship conflagrated into a bright light of fiery rage. The powerful explosion blanking out the view screen slightly. Then as it faded back into focus Janeway was somewhat alarmed to find that the Briori ship remained in space looking as fresh as a daisy, "Damn" she muttered, and realizing that they were hopelessly out gunned for the moment she gave an order that she hated almost as much as the crew, "Reverse course, take us away from the planet"
Chakotay ran the scanner over the area of wall through which both Seven and Xander has fallen with a frown on his face, "Lieutenant" he called and Jo was at his side in a flash. "Are these energy readings what you reported before?"
Jo nodded, "They are sir, they are almost like a photonic life form reads, but there is not evidence of that sort of technology here. I cannot find any projection nodes or anything of the sort, just this strange bio reading"
Chakotay nodded, "Very well, thank you Lieutenant"
Jo nodded back and moved off before frowning and moving back to look at the wall, lost in her inspection. Chakotay studied her as her eyes creased in concentration, "Something Lieutenant?"
"I'm not sure sir, but the engravings on that wall are slightly different from the rest. Perhaps added later on?"
Chakotay ran his hand over the wall, "Perhaps, what do you deduce from that?"
"I'm wondering if perhaps another race existed here for a time, after the original makers of this tomb left" Jo said thoughtfully, "That's not unheard of. They must have been an advanced one though because this projection is solid to most of our readings. It's only the additions I made to the programming that picked it up at all"
"A way around it would be good right about now Lieutenant"
"I'm sorry sir, I'm not sure I can help you there, but I have a suggestion"
"Go on Lieutenant"
"Perhaps if I stayed here, you and the others could search for the exit"
"The exit?"
"There must be one, there always is. I believe that the makers of this projection merely found a secret entrance and used this projection to further hide it"
"Why?" Chakotay asked interested in her thought processes. He had a feeling he'd been right on the button in relation to Lieutenant Andrews, she would make a fantastic away team member. She had a very wide grounding in the sciences, some totally unrelated to her Xenobiology passion. It was good for an away team operative to be a sort of modern day Renaissance man.
"I'm not sure, it could be that they based their own throne room here, as you can see from the decoration it was certainly an important place, perhaps the leader of the time wanted another way out in case of an emergency" Jo hypothesized.
"Very well Lieutenant, I get your point, however, I'll leave Tom with you and take Harry out searching." He leaned into her slightly, "our new friends seem honorable but it never hurts to make sure"
Jo smiled back at him and nodded curtly, "Of course sir"
"Well done Lieutenant you've shown some very good thinking here, I may just change my mind about that commendation after all" Chakotay said with a smile and stood fluidly.
"Harry you're with me, Tom, help Jo" Chakotay said informally, "We're looking for the other side of the rabbits hole"
Xander leaned back against a rock looking around into the inky blackness his eyes not piercing the darkness but he still hoped he'd see something.
"We have been walking for several hours, do you think it wise to continue this action?" Seven asked him as she came up to his position.
Xander smiled at her, "Sure why not, I mean it's better than sitting on our ass getting cold"
Then he noticed something he'd been feeling for the last few minutes, but it wasn't until he'd said cold that it twigged, "A draft!" he said apparently out of the blue.
"I'm sorry?" Seven enquired.
"I can feel a draft, that's gotta be coming from somewhere"
"Systems such as this could well create eddies in any current moving through them that would lead you to believe you can feel a draft…"
"Seven" Xander cut in, "Enough with the YakietyYak, lets get to the walkie-walkie" he said setting off into the cool draft he could feel on his skin.
Chakotay and Kim worked their way around the outside of the tomb first, hoping that the exit would be close at hand. It turned out to be a fruitless hope, but then Chakotay had been fairly certain it wouldn't be that easy. If it had, then Seven would have already reported in. He wished the communicators would work then it would be a simple matter of tracking their signal or just hailing Seven. As it was they were forced to use short range scans, even enhanced as they were by Jo's changes they still couldn't pierce the rock.
"Come on Harry, we're going to have to go into the Forest" Chakotay said finally leading the way into he wooded area at the back of the Tomb.
"Always liked walking through the trees back on Earth" Harry commented as they walked together their tricorder's out and scanning back and forth.
Chakotay smiled and nodded with a slight chuckle, "Me too Harry, Me too. This reminds me a little of the colony I grew up on actually. The same sorts of vegetation; that tree there looks just like a redwood that one of my forefathers planet himself"
"It has the same characteristics as well," Harry said pausing in his main scan to study the large tree; "In fact I'd say it was" he paused again, thoughtfully this time. "I wonder how old the Briori are?"
Chakotay looked back to find the ensign looking at the tree with his lips pursed, "What makes you ask that?"
"It's just…" Harry paused with a shy smile.
"Go on Harry" Chakotay said, he'd known the young man for Seven years now and it never failed to amaze him how the ensign's mind worked. Harry had an amazing ability to chain together things that left even Vulcan's staring in puzzlement.
"The Trees, the plants and animals could all be from Earth, the Aztecan layout and culture that was here is almost exactly like the ones on Earth. Add that up and it makes you wonder if the Briori, or someone like them picked up some Aztec's and some of their environment and planted it here. Perhaps to see how they grew or to find out if they would make good slaves, I dunno why exactly they'd do it, but it sure seems possible to me"
"That's good thinking Ensign, you could well be right. Perhaps when this mess is sorted out we can study it further and find out for sure"
"I'm not sure we could" Harry said after a few moments looking down at his tricorder, "The culture is long gone and I'm betting the ones that put it here are too"
"Perhaps, but it wouldn't hurt to look" Chakotay said with a smile.
"Commander, I think I've found something" Harry said his eyes alight with excitement.
"Damn" Xander said looking at the body of water visible by Seven's twin torches.
"We should go back," Seven said looking at the same thing.
"No way, this is the way, I'm sure of it" Xander said straining to see the other side of the lake. If he looked for long enough he was sure he could see a slight lightening in one area of the water. "Look there" he said pointing, and knowing that Seven's Borg enhanced eyesight was better than his, "Can you see it?"
Seven walked up beside him with a slightly annoyed expression, and then as she looked at the water she could make out a light patch, "Yes I believe I do"
Xander smirked at her, "Race you"
"You can't seriously think what I think your thinking?"
"What…can't swim?" Xander asked teasingly
"Of Course, but that could just be a refraction from a light giving plankton or a similar natural occurrence. There is no proof that it is the way out?"
"Nope" Xander said moving to the edge of the water and looking out. #What do you think? # He asked his ever-present expert.
#As usual you show signs of actual intelligence streaked with moments of pure idiotic genius. The water may not even be water? Had you thought of that? # Q replied.
#Worth a shot then# Xander said diving neatly into the water and creating only a small splash.
Seven glared at the ripples for a long moment before diving perfectly in behind him, either to save him or kill him. She wasn't sure herself at that moment.
Xander dived down and down and down, his lungs aching slightly before he finally hit the bottom of the lake and felt his way around the base of it. He used small movements of his arms to bring himself perpendicular to the bottom and looked out. What they hadn't seen from their position due to the darkness was that there appeared to be a ridge of rock between them and the exit, which from this position was clearly what it was. Glancing back Xander saw Seven's touch light approaching and waited for her to catch up. Then he pointed out and made she that she saw what he did.
Finally he moved forward as fast as he was able, already feeling that familiar sensation of his chest trying to take a breath. He controlled it through force of will and swam quickly down under the rock cropping and looked up to find the sunlight glaring down at him.
He moved as slowly as he was able making sure that Seven was at his side before breaching the surface of the lake and taking a breath of cool crisp air.
They swam together through the cold water reaching the beech of the lake after a minute. Seven was first to get out of the water and Xander was struck dumb for a moment.
#God damn she looks good wet# he thought.
#Rein in those hormones and get out of the ice-cold water before you die! # Q admonished him with a chuckle, #Save the ogling for later, when you're dry#
#Hey, think she'd go for taking off her jumpsuit until it dries# Xander said with a laugh.
Q laughed and tutted him as Xander pulled himself out of the water and onto the shore, trying not to stare.
A rustle alerted him that they weren't alone and Xander reacted instantly throwing himself in front of the dripping Seven as the Hirogen Beta exploded out of the bush with a roar of rage and his energy weapon blasting out shots. One of which would have hit Seven if it had not been for Xander leaping in front of the shot.
Xander dropped to the ground bleeding as Seven came face to face with the snarling Hirogen.
The beta had managed to transport out at the last moment from his doomed ship and had arrived on planet. From there he had traced the course of his alpha through the forest using every trick he had been taught until finally he'd come across the headless corpse of his beloved leader. From there it had been all red, and divine intervention had allowed him the honor of avenging his Alpha's death when the humans came out of the pool. He didn't know which human had done the deed and he didn't care, he planned on killing them all.
He raised his rifle and took a bead on Seven's shivering body with a gleam in his eyes, "Die Human" he snarled and caressed the trigger.
Seven found she was falling to the ground, her legs swept out from under her as Xander yanked her feet away. His other hand snaked out of his jacket a single dagger-twirling end over end to embed itself in the Hirogen's forehead.
Seven landed with a thumb, bruised and jarred but still alive as the Hirogen dropped to the floor, bruised, jarred and dead.
"I really don't like those Hero Gems" Xander decided, in fact he could honestly say he liked them even less than Klingon's, which was saying something.
"Hirogen" Seven corrected automatically with a slight smile gracing her lips.
Xander let out a laugh, but cut off when he felt pain lance through his torso, "Oh damn, don't make me laugh" he managed before letting out a sigh and sinking back to the ground.
Seven looked over at him to find his eyes had closed, "Xander?" she said scrabbling to her knees to check him over.
Tuvok looked at his scanners intently, watching for any sign of the Briori command ship. From his brief scans of the saucer like space ship he had found that their shielding technology was second to none, and from little he knew about the offensive capabilities he did not want to engage them in direct combat. That didn't, however, stop him from trying to find a way to succeed if they were drawn into combat and he was pouring over his scans to try to find a chink in their armor.
"Any luck Tuvok?" Janeway asked moving over to walk around the console and be at his side.
Tuvok looked at one of the few humans he allowed this close and said, "Nothing so far Captain, however I believe that the answer lies in their shield harmonics"
"How so?" Janeway asked looking at the sensor scans.
Knowing that his captain had started life as an exemplary scientist Tuvok was not offended by her question and didn't fob her off, instead he laid it out for her knowing that her sharp mind may pick up something that even his Vulcan logic may have over looked, "There is a fluctuation in the cycle of their shields that suggests the shield harmonics are being affected by the nebula. I believe that given study I will be able to ascertain what it is that is effecting their shield from the nebula and use that to breach their security"
Janeway nodded, "Good thinking Lieutenant Commander"
Tuvok didn't react to the praise other than a slight inclination of his head, instead turning his attention back to the scans and his analysis of them.
"Ops?" Janeway called out from her position.
"One moment Captain" the officer said staring at her board. That was an unusual response for a fleet trained officer and it got Janeway's interest. She left Tuvok's side and walked over to the Ops Panel.
"I think…" the officer broke off again then suddenly smiled, hitting her board with a finger. The distinctive sound of a communications channel being opened was music to Janeway's ears. Since that first call from the commander, they had been unable to breach the field; she strongly suspected that it had a lot to do with solar spots from the sun, weakening the field for that short time. A million to one chance that had not worked in their favor leaving her team stranded on the planet for now nearly four days.
"Commander Chakotay, do you read me Commander"
Chakotay walked into the small clearing to find Seven hovering over Xander's prone form, her kit out and tricorder in hand as she scanned him for injuries.
"Seven, report" he said curtly, quashing the jealous reaction he had at her intimate placement over Xander's body. He knew that it was just Seven checking him over, but he was still a man and with the weaknesses inherent of his gender.
"Xander sustained a wound from the Hero Gem rifle" Seven blinked and corrected herself, "Hirogen"
Chakotay would have smirked if it had not been for the pale pallor of the man in question. Xander was laying back his eyes closed and expression clear, his skin was pale and glistening slightly. Seven also looked damp so he was hopeful that it wasn't fever and was in fact from the cool blue lake sized pool they were beside.
Harry walked carefully over to the dead Hirogen, his tricorder leading the way, but his phaser just behind it.
"What happened" Chakotay asked watching Seven work.
"I am unsure of that myself. We had just found our way out from the cave system that lays beyond that rock face" she said pointing to exhibit A, when that Hirogen" she said carefully, " attacked from the bushes over there. Xander protected me with his own body and took the shot meant for me. He saved my life, twice in fact."
"Twice?" Chakotay asked, making a mental note to thank Xander later.
"The Hirogen then leveled his weapon at me once again, hoping to kill us both I believe when Xander pulled me down and…"
"Did his Dagger trick" Harry interjected tossing the silver dagger to the floor at Seven's side.
Seven nodded slightly, "That he did, I believe he will be happy that we've retrieved this weapon."
"I bet you're right there seven" Chakotay said eyeing the dark haired man, "A warrior never likes to loose his weapon"
It was as well Xander was unconscious after a comment like that, but the Star Fleeters missed the double meaning. "Will he be okay?" Harry asked moving over to them once his check on the Hirogen was complete.
"Normally I would say that he would be, but without the doctors expertise…" Seven trailed off unwilling or unable to finish the thought.
"Can we move him?"
Seven nodded, "I believe it will make very little difference"
"Then lets take him to Tom, he's got the full kit, perhaps we can…"
"Commander Chakotay, do you read me Commander" crackled from his commbadge startling him slightly.
He slapped his chest, almost too hard, "Captain! I read you loud and clear, and we're happy to hear from you"
"As I am you Chakotay" Janeway said, her voice backing up her words, "Report"
"We've found the pod, and have its occupant with us now. Unfortunately he's taken damage from a Hirogen hunter. Can you beam him up?"
"I'm sorry, we're having some problems with the Briori and have our shield up at the moment Commander"
Chakotay frowned, "The Briori?"
"I know, it's a long story…"
Chakotay broke in, "Captain, we've met the Briori down here and the Prima is friendly towards us. I'm surprised you're having any problems"
"You have" Janeway said, "I'll contact you shortly Commander, I have to make a call"
Chakotay heard his line go dead and nodded to Harry and Seven, "Come on, lets get Xander some help"
Janeway cut the communication with her commander and glared into space, "Hail the Briori Vessel"
A few seconds passed until finally the Secondis appeared on the main viewer, "Captain Janeway, I hope you have decided to surrender"
"No, I just have a question for you Secondis Jazta" Janeway said with a sly smile.
"This bores me, prepare for your extermination"
Before he was able to cut off his communication Janeway leapt in, "Your Prima sends his regards"
"The Prima is dead," The Secondis said, unfortunately not shielding his treacherous thoughts from his crew.
"I have it on good authority that you're lying Secondis" Janeway said smiling like a shark.
"You lie, and you'll die for it" the Secondis said and cut the communication.
"The Briori vessel is approaching, they used our signal to triangulate our position" Tuvok said his fingers dancing across his board. "They are charging weapons"
"Red Alert, All hands brace for impact," Janeway said, her voice piped out to the entire ship.
"Captain" The Ops Officer said, her voice laced with shock, "We're being hailed"
"On screen"
The screen came alive and an alien that was almost identical to the Secondis except had a slightly smaller head came into focus, "Captain, We come in peace"
"Like I've never heard THAT before," Janeway said.
"They have charged down their weapons captain and their shield has dropped to navigational capacity only," Tuvok reported from behind her and to her right.
Janeway's eyebrows hitched up together; "Indeed" she said a slight smile curling her lips.
"There has been a most grave occurrence of events, we were deceived captain, and beg your forgiveness" the alien said, "We have relieved Secondis Jazta from his position and have placed him under arrest for treason and are attempting even now to reach our Prima"
Janeway pursed her lips in thought for a moment, "We may be able to help you there"
"Seven did a great job of patching him up, there's really not a lot more I can do. He needs to see the Doc" Paris said with a frown, "He's lost a lot of blood, that wound has ruptured a major artery, I'm surprised he's not already dead" Tom continued his voice grave.
Prima Thang walked over to them, "Is there anything we can do?" he asked.
"This man needs medical attention, immediately" Chakotay said.
The Prima pulled out a small pooch from his belt and held what looked to be a medical tricorder. It whirred for a few moments until the Prima nodded, "Yes, it is a most grave condition. However, I am unable to contact…"
{Prima Thang}
The prima cut himself off mid sentence when he received a mental communications cast form his ship.
{Report Principle Omal, what has come of Secondis Jazta?}
{The Secondis has been arrested; he committed treason against your command}
{I see, is there another vessel with you, they have wounded here}
{There is Prima; it is they, who helped us to contact you,}
"Commander" Janeway called out across space to Chakotay's chest held communicator.
Chakotay smiled and tapped his commbadge, "Captain"
"Prepare for beam out"
Chakotay glanced at the silent Prima, "We'll talk more later I hope Prima Thang"
The Prima nodded as the sparkle effect of the transporter system came online and retrieved the Away team.
{Prepare to teleport us back Principle Omal} Thang broadcast.
{It will be done Prima} the principle said as the Briori's own transporter device retrieved them and left the tomb empty and as silent as the proverbial.
The senior staff were assembled in the conference room, with Seven and the doctor present, and one other, their newest guest Xander.
Janeway opened her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the now familiar flash of white light that heralded the arrival of the member of the Q continuum. Xander felt a rush of emotion flow through his mind at the sight of the regal auburn haired woman that was deposited in place of the light and knew that it didn't originate with he.
"Q, welcome aboard again" Janeway said wryly.
"Thank you Captain" the female Q said looking around the room. Her gaze halted on Xander for a moment and he smiled at her in a friendly fashion, trying not to give anything away by his expression.
So far since his treatment from the slightly grouchy EMH he'd been scanned, propped and in all other ways inspected to make sure he was who he said he was and what he said he was. Tuvok himself had undertaken the security scan and had found Xander's stash of weapons, bar one, and Xander suspected his findings would be a part of this conference.
He wasn't personally surprised to see Q's wife here, but he could see that Janeway and the other officers were. He knew better than any the way a Q's mind worked, or in this case their heart.
"What can we do for you today?" Janeway asked her gaze resting on the female superbeing.
"I just came to see what all the fuss was about" Q replied moving over to sit next to Xander, "Hello"
"Hi" Xander said once again smiling. He could see the ghost of a smile on the female Qs lips and in her eyes as well. Which, was good, he knew he would more than likely be seeing a lot of her and her currently AWOL son.
Janeway sighed, knowing that Q wasn't going anywhere and deciding just to get on with it. "I've called this meting today to talk with you Mr. Harris"
"Xander, he likes to be called Xander" the female Q said, "I can read it from his simplistic mind that calling him Mr. Harris is…Painful"
Janeway just sort of blinked at that, "Xander then, we have a proposition for you and a decision for you to make. As well as several questions if you feel up to it?"
"The Doc. cleared me A…Captain" Xander said inwardly wincing at his slip, "So I'm good to go"
Janeway nodded, "First things first then, I'm told by Chakotay that you do not remember being taken by the Briori, has any memory surfaced since you spoke?"
"No Captain, I'm afraid not I don't remember going in that pod" Xander replied honestly. The truth was the last thing he remembered was a flash of light, then waking up in the pod.
"I see, and you're from the year 2001?"
"That I am" Xander said then added belatedly, "Captain"
Janeway nodded, "May I ask..." she said reaching into her pocket and retrieving a wooden stake, "…What this is?"
"Prop, for the costume party I was going to." Xander chuckled, "Guess I'm a little late for it hey"
Janeway smiled slightly.
Seven broke in with a question, "You said you were going on a 'Date'"
Xander nodded, "I was, at the party. Damn shame too, I think we'd have been good together" his eyes glittering slightly.
Seven just nodded, her problem solved.
"I also wanted to thank you" Janeway interjected smoothly.
"What for?" Xander asked with a frown.
"For saving Seven's life, as well as Lieutenant Andrews's"
Xander shrugged, "Think nothing of it Captain, all part of the service"
Janeway did smile at that, "Now for the offer and decision"
"No more questions?"
"Not yet" Janeway said with a chuckle then she became serious, "The Briori have offered you a place with them. You would be well treated; I am assured that you are in fact very important to them. A symbol of how far they have come. I am told by the Chancellor that you would be their most honored guest"
Xander frowned slightly, but Janeway hadn't finished, "Or, you could join us. I can't guarantee when we'll get to Earth, but I'll do my best to get us there" Janeway smirked slightly, "You wouldn't however be quite as revered, you would be expected to pull your own weight"
Xander smirked, "Not a problem Captain" he paused acting thoughtful, "I think if anyone could get us home, it'd be you Captain, I think I'd like to hitch my wagon to you" he said looking her directly in the eye, "I'll come with you, if you'll have me"
Janeway nodded, "Of course, if you're sure?"
Xander nodded, "I am"
"We thank you for your hospitality Chancellor Gomm" Janeway said with her best diplomatic smile.
The chancellor almost replied telepathically, before remembering himself and his guest, "It is the least we can do after the actions of Secondis Jazta. For which I once again apologize"
Janeway held up a hand, "We hold no grudges over that Chancellor Gomm, I can assure you. We're just happy to make a friend in this quadrant of space"
The Chancellor inclined his head, "That you have done Captain, if there is anything else you require, please let us know and it will be done"
"You've already done so much Chancellor, I'm sure we have everything that we need. We must now continue our journey to our home"
"We understand only too well the wish to travel home" the Chancellor replied, "and wish you luck in your quest."
Chancellor Gomm turned to the other occupant in the room, who had yet to speak and was watching the proceedings with a wryly- amused look in his dark eyes, "Will you reconsider Xander, you would be held in high regard here" the Chancellor said.
Xander shook his head, "Sorry Chancellor Gomm, I want to go home as well, even if it's not really my home anymore"
Chancellor Gomm inclined his head again, "Very well, then I also wish you good journey and I hope that you find YOUR home"
"Thank You Chancellor Gomm" Xander said formally bowing slightly at the waist.
Janeway looked at the Voyagers newest addition, "Shall We?"
"Yes Captain, let's go"
Xander flopped down on the bed with a groan. He'd been shown to some guest quarters in the ship after a long examination and told that he was welcome to stay there for the time being. He wasn't sure what that meant, but figured that it just meant he would be reassigned when he was placed in the crew in some fashion.
There was a flash of light and Xander smirked up at the ceiling ignoring the female Q's presence for a second before finally sitting up and smiling at her warmly. That seemed to take her aback a bit but she nodded her greeting to him all the same.
Xander's Katana and now the home of Q appeared from his jacket in a flurry of motion, "Here" he said passing the Katana to her.
She smiled her thanks and took the weapon in her hand lovingly stroking the blade and handle.
"You two need some privacy," Xander said without humor and walked into the sonic shower.
Lieutenant Jo Andrews - Kate Beckinsale