Title: Colony Author: Jemima Contact: jemimap@crosswinds.net Series: VOY Part: 1/20 Rating: PG Codes: crew, J/C Date: November 2000 Disclaimer: Copyright has expired on the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson quoted herein. Certain of the names below have been trademarked by Paramount; be assured I am not conducting trade with them. ***** Section I: Land Part 1 ***** Droops the heavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree-- Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea. Captain Janeway hadn't intended to get involved in a war. Voyager, as usual, had her own problems. They were low on dilithium again, and the Doctor claimed the bio-neural gelpacks were suffering from 'premature middle age'. Come to think of it, so was she. He'd made that clear enough at her last physical - "You're not getting any younger, Captain." She had a Vulcan and half a dozen ex-Borg to state the obvious; she didn't need the EMH getting into the act. Somehow, Voyager had ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, again. Any day in the Delta Quadrant was the wrong place at the wrong time, but that particular day in orbit around Leigus Fifteenth - the fifteenth colony world of the Leigus Union - seemed like atrociously bad luck, even for her star-crossed crew. At first the Leigus Union had been a dream come true - a peaceful, warp-capable society spread across two hundred star systems. It was the closest thing to the Federation they had seen in the Delta Quadrant - eerily similar, in fact, but they'd gotten used to it after a month or so. Her crew had adjusted all too well; if it weren't for the Periti, she might have had a mass desertion on her hands. This Quadrant was one long, unwanted lesson in irony. She'd have to ask Tuvok what Vulcan Poetics had to say about irony, if she ever saw Tuvok again. The Captain contemplated the carnage around her. Leigus Fifteenth had been, until today, the trade center of the Leigus Union, and a jewel of a planet to boot; its glistening purple island-continents scattered across a turquoise-blue sea made for a breathtaking view from space. Nor had the surface disappointed. Half the crew had been on shore leave or occupied with the delivery, a shipment of highly unstable medical supplies Voyager had brought from Leigus One-hundred-twenty-second. In return, they had been promised a generous dip into Leigus Fifteenth's ample dilithium stores. Unfortunately, the dilithium stockpile was the least of the things that hadn't survived the Periti surprise attack. ***** Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue; "Commander," Harry shouted, that ill-fated day on the bridge, "there's an unidentified ship decloaking to starboard. It doesn't appear to be Leigan." Voyager reeled underfoot. "Shields!" Chakotay barked, and "Report!" "Shields at eighty percent. Heavy damage to the starboard nacelle - we can't go to warp." "Can you get a lock on the Captain?" "No - I can't reach any of the landing parties. There's too much interference - artificially generated, by the looks of it," Harry replied. "Hail that ship." Another shot rocked the ship as Harry replied, "They're not responding, Commander." Chakotay looked grim. "Tuvok, arm phasers. Target their weapons systems. Mr. Kim, keep trying to raise the Captain, and that ship." "Shields at fifty-seven percent," was all the response he got. Phaser light lashed out at the still-unidentified attackers, dissipating across their shields. "Their shields are holding. Arming photon torpedoes," Tuvok said. A blinding white light filled the viewscreen before the computer could compensate for it. The ship reeled again. "What was that?" Chakotay asked. "A high-powered antimatter torpedo, Commander. Inertial dampeners are off-line. Shields at ten percent." Tuvok spoke over Harry's report. "Firing photon torpedoes." Chakotay's eyes followed the silver streaks hopefully across the viewscreen to the alien ship, while his ears took in the background noise of damage reports, sizzling consoles and the occasional soft oath from Tom at the helm. "No effect, Commander," Tuvok reported. "Their shields are holding. Incoming!" He could see that well enough himself. "Helm, evasive maneuvers." Tom's hands flew across the console, but Voyager continued to drift along its original orbital path. "The helm is not responding, Commander," Tom said. Whether Paris slammed both hands into the console out of frustration, or because of the impact of the incoming torpedo, or from the force of the explosion of the science station behind him, Chakotay couldn't have said. The Commander glanced from the chaos before him to Harry at Ops. Fortunately he wasn't dead - yet - but he looked like he had bad news. "Shields are down, Commander," Harry said as he opened a comm link. "Ops to Engineering. Report." The unfamiliar hiss of Engineering's fire suppression system was the first sound the bridge crew heard over the communications channel. "Carey here," but barely, judging by the sound of his voice. "I don't know what just hit us, but it made a mess down here." Another voice shouted to Carey, "We're losing containment, sir!" "Get it back!" Carey yelled in reply. "Bridge, we've lost phasers, but I can give you more photon torpedoes." "Tuvok, fire at will. Lieutenant Carey, we need shields and helm control up here." "I'm on it, sir." Chakotay steeled himself. Why didn't they fire? As if in response to his silent question, a single beam of phaser light sliced into the ship. "Hull breach on decks six, seven and eight," Harry reported. "Engineering to the Bridge," Carey's voice drifted up to them. "We're losing antimatter containment. Permission to eject the core?" "Hold on a second, Carey," Chakotay answered. "Paris, do we have attitude thrusters?" "Yes, sir." "Point the warp core at them, then, will you?" "Yes, sir," Tom replied enthusiastically. The ship rotated until the core ejection chute was pointed at the mysterious ship. "Eject the core, Carey." The fickle heart of Voyager flew out into space. An energy pulse from the alien ship obscured it for a moment, then a glowing green beam locked onto the warp core. "Damn," Harry announced, "the reaction has been contained - they've got the core in a tractor beam. They're hailing us, Commander." "Put them through." They were ugly - mottled tan cylindrical things. Or maybe they just seemed ugly because they were trying to destroy Voyager. Though they didn't appear to be speaking, the Universal Translator found something to render: "Humanoids. You are not welcome here. We will open your ship to the vacuum of space in which your weak bodies will explode. So will we treat all of your kind until you go back where--" An explosion cut off this odd tirade before Chakotay could get a word in edgewise. "Commander," Harry reported, "a ship just dropped out of warp and fired on the alien vessel. It appears to be a Leigan patrol ship." "It's about time," Tom commented. "Keep an eye on the warp core, Mr. Paris." The aliens' tractor beam had failed and Voyager's engine was now riccocheting into deep space. "Ensign, try to restore shields. Tuvok, if we still have photon torpedoes then lend our friends a hand." Phaser light was glistening around the Leigan ship's shields. Their new allies were more of a match for the belligerent tan creatures than Voyager had been. They carried on the battle in white flashes of antimatter weaponry. The Leigans couldn't spare Voyager much attention - "Can't talk now," they answered Harry's hail, and cut the link. Tuvok was down to two photon torpedoes when their new allies suddenly disappeared in a white blaze of glory. "The Leigan patrol has been destroyed, Commander - I detect no escape pods and no life signs," Harry reported angrily. "The enemy's shields appear to be down, Commander," Tuvok added. "Throw whatever we've got left at their weapons array. Ops, I want those phasers back on line." Tuvok announced a direct hit. "I believe their weapons are off-line." "Forget the phasers. We need shields, now!" Harry looked mystified, but did his best to comply. "Shields at thirty percent." Tom glanced over at Harry in time to see his look of dawning realization; "Commander! I'm detecting a power buildup in the alien vessel." "All hands, brace for impact!" "Diverting all power to shields and structural integrity, Commander," Tuvok reported calmly as he braced himself. Yellow light flooded the bridge - a nice change, Tom thought, as he was being thrown from the helm halfway to the viewscreen. Gotta work on that bracing thi-- ***** --ng, though, he completed the thought later when he woke up in sickbay. "Ah, Mr. Paris, you're awake," the perpetually chipper holographic Doctor greeted him. "Please lend me a hand here - I'm about to perform surgery on Ensign Bronowski." Tom assumed his position beside the instrument tray as he asked, "What happened?" "Scalpel. You should know better than I," the Doctor answered. "The last thing I remember was a blinding yellow light." "That would be the Periti ship self-destructing. Ten cc's thoroyaxanine." The Doctor held out his hand and Tom handed him the hypospray. "You were thrown across the bridge, but fortunately you have a hard head." "Is everyone OK?" "There were some casualties in Engineering, and on deck six. Get a bone-knitter on that rib, please." At least B'Elanna had been down on the planet. "What about the landing parties?" Tom asked once he finished with the fractured rib. For the first time, the Doctor looked worried. "There's been no word from them. The planet is in pretty rough shape from the looks of it. Of course it's hard to tell just by looking out a viewport." "You mean we don't have sensors?" "No. Even life support was touch and go for a while there. It made me glad to be a holographic life form, I must say." "Chakotay--" "He was last seen headed for the shuttlebay with a security detail. I don't know whether he went to collect the remains of the warp core or the Captain. Subdermal regenerator, please." *****