Star Trek: Voyager: A Pocket Full of Lies

by Kirsten Beyer

  “He’s dead,” someone shouted from down the hall. “He has to be.”

  “Silence,” Tuvok said, cutting through the din. “Can anyone here offer me definitive intelligence regarding Dayne’s current whereabouts?”

  “What’s in it for us if we do?” N19471 demanded.

  “I’d like to know the same thing,” a new voice called from down the hall. Tuvok looked immediately back toward the cell block’s entrance where the guard he had first subdued now stood jacket-less, leveling a fierce-looking rifle directly at him.

  “Your freedom,” Tuvok replied without hesitation.

  As expected, this brought a fresh round of raucous cheers from the inmates, who began banging on their doors with fists and metallic objects—likely cups, bowls, or possibly waste receptacles.

  The guard turned to be sure the doors all around him weren’t about to swing open. Tuvok used the momentary distraction to raise his phaser and stun the man. He dropped to the ground and Tuvok charged forward as the second guard he had disabled stepped into the doorway, lifting his weapon hurriedly.

  The second guard fired, but his shot went wild. Tuvok had thrown him to the ground, taking the rifle in both his hands and thrusting the side of it into the guard’s face before the next shot hit the wall beside them opening a large, fuming hole in the stone.

  They wrestled briefly to the cheers and jeers of the residents. Tuvok eventually landed a strike with the butt of the rifle into the man’s nose, leaving him bleeding and unconscious. Tuvok rose from the ground, assessing the situation. The cell block was in chaos. Even guards as lazy as these Zahl would have to respond momentarily. He required a diversion. The only one available was likely to severely compromise his team’s ability to escape, but less likely to result in his immediate capture.

  Tuvok returned to the main office and again linked his tricorder to the main computer system. After bypassing a series of overrides, he gained access to the security grid and simultaneously unlocked every single door in the cell block.

  Turning, he saw six guards come through the main door. One looked immediately to the office where Tuvok stood. The glance was brief, as his attention was suddenly captured by the flood of prisoners now evacuating their cells and pouring into the hallway. They formed a living battering ram. Those in the front, seemingly heedless of the danger, ran forward like wild raging beasts. They were fired upon. A few fell and were immediately trampled by the momentum of those who followed.

  Tuvok watched the chaos he had just unleashed work its will. Alarm buzzers cut through the air all around him and the sound of boots running in unison toward the cell block was soon clear.

  Tuvok joined the rear of the fray. Once outside, he saw prisoners fighting guards hand to hand. Some who managed to avoid being shot claimed a few weapons of their own and the result was tumultuous confusion. Tuvok used it to slip again into the shadows of the wall, hoping that he could somehow find Seven and Lieutenant Kim.

  VESTA

  The next Krenim vessel to intercept the Vesta was a third of the size of the Brevmon and configured quite differently. Commandant Irlin’s ship was considerably smaller than Farkas’s while still quite formidable. The main body was a long tube large enough to hold ten decks. The nacelles affixed almost at the midpoint of each side were a similar shape, but shorter and angled slightly toward the control module.

  The new vessel was a small disc surrounded by a superstructure connected to the disc at eight points. On one side the structure extended like a lattice around a long strut terminating in a luminescent sphere of energy. The purpose of this appendage was not immediately clear but it brought to mind a much smaller version of Annorax’s weapon ship described in the logs Admiral Janeway had reviewed. A shorter, thicker strut extended from the other side of the superstructure. The computer’s analysis indicated this was the smaller ship’s single propulsion array.

  As soon as the disc ship arrived, the Brevmon departed without so much as a farewell. Vesta was hailed by the newcomer and when the channel was opened, the bridge of the ship was revealed as a small circular room filled with a wide variety of computer displays but apparently manned by a single individual who stood at a low railing. An empty chair was secured to the deck behind him.

  His face had a certain boyish charm. Fine, golden hair sat atop pleasantly arranged features and all but hid the characteristic temple protrusions. Bright hazel eyes beamed at Admiral Janeway, but every muscle below them was taut with tension.

  The admiral’s stomach lurched. She had only seen this man once in a tattered photo, but there was no mistaking his true identity. His intentions were another matter.

  “Greetings to the Federation Starship Vesta from the Krenim Temporal Defense Agency vessel Truon.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Admiral Janeway said, stepping toward the main viewscreen.

  “Hello, Kathryn,” the man said.

  “Dayne,” the admiral said with obvious disgust.

  The faint smile that answered her was replaced immediately by mingled regret and embarrassment.

  “I am certain you have as many questions for me as I have for you. Permission to come aboard?” Dayne asked.

  “Granted,” Janeway replied without hesitation.

  SORMANA

  Lieutenant Harry Kim wasn’t certain why Seven had so easily acquiesced to the sudden wrench Tuvok had thrown into their carefully planned infiltration of the citadel. Although he hadn’t participated in all of the high-level briefings regarding Denzit Janeway, Chakotay had included the broad strokes of her past during their current mission prep and Tuvok had filled in the blanks during their journey to the coastline. While finding a way to convince the denzit to abandon Sormana was a goal Kim shared with the rest of Voyager’s senior staff just on principle, it did not take priority over the only part of this mission regulations actually permitted them to undertake—locating any temporal technology the Zahl might be using to alter the timeline. Tuvok’s choice to add finding a potential Rilnar prisoner to their agenda, coupled with the distance he had maintained from his former friends since he had returned to Voyager, only served to raise more questions about Tuvok’s priorities than Kim was comfortable with.

  Seven had concurred with Tuvok, but then she was not bound by Starfleet’s rules the same way Kim was. True, she always did her best to follow them, but it wasn’t as if she could lose her commission should she stray a little outside the lines.

  Kim would definitely bring this to Chakotay’s attention later. For now, his duty lay elsewhere.

  Their tricorders displayed a schematic of the building and noted several pockets of anomalous energy readings. The smallest would be easiest to investigate. They originated on the roof of the building, which could only be accessed from one of four internal stairways. The others were located on the five lowest levels of the structure, three of which were below ground level and shielded by small internal force fields.

  As it was still the wee hours of the night, there was little activity around the building. A direct assault on the main entrance seemed foolhardy, even in their Zahl disguises. The north-facing side of the structure could be accessed in two ways. A set of formidable, metal double doors sat at one end. At the other was a wide rolling door that was currently raised. One of the automated transport vehicles was backed into the opening and four Zahl soldiers could be seen offloading its cargo.

  Timing their ingress perfectly, Kim and Seven waited until the officers’ backs were turned, moved swiftly to the vehicle, and retrieved the two smallest crates they could find. Each took one and followed the others into the building. They met no resistance. Depositing their crates on the first available stack, they continued deeper into the storeroom, a vast rectangle that took up a quarter of the square footage of this level. Along the far wall another set of double doors sat open. Kim and Seven hurried through them after consulting their tricorders and confirming that the adjacent hall was empty. They made their way briskly to the nearest stairwe
ll and used it to ascend to the roof. The access door required a security key. Kim used his tricorder to override the panel and spring the locking mechanism.

  In the center of the roof sat a massive shield generator. It was protected by a series of overlapping force fields, almost strong enough to protect a starship. A single square room sat at one corner of the roof and likely contained the shield system’s primary control mechanism.

  From the safety of the stairwell, Kim and Seven studied the assembly to their satisfaction, then retraced their steps, descending to the lowest level they could access. They reached the first sub-basement and exited the stairs into a hallway lit by a sickly orange glow. Again studying their tricorders they found the central staircase that accessed the three lowest levels of the structure. Twice, they passed other Zahl officers hurrying about their own business. None of them paused to question the unfamiliar faces. Clearly they were not terribly concerned that anyone who was there might not belong. Kim was beginning to believe that they might complete their work with time to spare when, upon unlocking a door to a storage room on the second sub-basement, a voice behind them shouted, “You there. You know this level is restricted.”

  Seven did not hesitate. She turned calmly and began to walk toward the Zahl officer as if prepared to take him to task for his insolence. When they were no more than a meter apart, Seven fired a single shot from the phaser concealed by her uniform jacket, stunning their new acquaintance. Kim dutifully dragged him into the storage room as Seven began to study its contents.

  The room housed enough arms to sustain the Zahl’s efforts on Sormana for another ten years. Crates of hundreds of rifles were present along with additional stocks of power cells. Smaller disruptors, grenades, and other explosives were also in abundance. It was a singularly depressing sight.

  “Why so many?” Seven asked softly.

  Kim did a few mental calculations and immediately understood the problem. “This island is too far away from the Zahl settlements for it to be easy to ship these to where they are needed most,” he agreed. Kim looked past the crates and found a data control board near the doorway. After studying it for a few moments and applying his tricorder’s translation matrix he said, “Stores one-one-nine-six and one-two-seven-eight are scheduled to be distributed tomorrow. That’s four hundred rifles and sixteen hundred power cells.”

  “Where are they going?” Seven asked.

  “Here,” Kim replied. “Four hundred new recruits will be arriving here tomorrow and will be armed from this stock.”

  “This is the access point for the Zahl’s temporal transporter,” Seven said. “It’s here, somewhere.”

  “Something like that would give off massive chroniton radiation,” Kim noted. “But I’m not reading any.”

  “You shouldn’t be,” Seven said. “Even a small leak would render the island uninhabitable.”

  “So how do we find it?”

  Seven studied her schematics further and said, “This way.”

  Kim followed her back into the hall. She led him past another large storeroom to a dead end.

  “Seven?” Kim asked.

  She responded by tuning her phaser and cutting a hole in the wall just large enough for them to crawl into. She did her best to pull the large piece of metal back into place, although it would not fool anyone who inspected it closely. She had led him into a ventilation shaft and they crawled on hands and knees through the claustrophobic space for several minutes until Seven cut another access hole.

  Wiping the sweat dripping from his face onto his jacket, Kim followed Seven out of the hole and onto a small catwalk. Below them was a massive space that took up most of the two lowest levels of the building. In the center of it, four doorways had been erected on discrete octagonal platforms. Glowing orange crystals burned in the pediments of each, and the sides were covered with blinking panels and tubing that ran into the ground beside the clear raised platforms. Directly beneath each was a pool of liquid, a complex energy source of swirling orange whorls reminiscent of a warp core. Along the far wall, a set of data control interfaces stood abandoned. Kim was searching for a path that would lead them down to those panels when Seven began to move in the opposite direction.

  “Where are you going?” Kim whispered. “Those have to be Rahalla’s pools.”

  Seven responded by gesturing impatiently for Kim to follow. In the corner they found a large trunk of interconnected cables. She ran her tricorder over them and then pointed to a ladder imbedded in the wall which led to another catwalk one level above. Once they had reached the next level, Seven began to follow the path of one series of cables breaking off from the main trunk. Kim knew her well enough not to argue. Instead he took a quick reading of the cables and noted the odd patterns of energy flowing through them.

  The cables ended at a transparent window. Through it, a harsh yellow light could be seen. Leaning closer, Kim saw space almost as vast as that which housed the temporal transport system he thought they should be studying. In the center of that space, suspended by a massive energy field were dozens of pallets. Each of them held hundreds of torpedoes.

  Kim swallowed the panic that surged through him at this sight.

  “Are those?”

  “Chroniton torpedoes,” Seven said flatly. “Enough to destroy this entire planet and an area of subspace several billion kilometers beyond it. This entire system will be rendered uninhabitable should a significant portion of these be detonated.”

  “Who the hell would be dumb enough—” Kim’s words were drowned out by a piercing wail that suddenly began to sound all around them.

  It paused long enough for a harried voice to report, “Attention all personnel. Security breach in cellblock Beta-One. Repeat, security breach in cellblock Beta-One. Dispatch armed containment teams to ground level and subdue with deadly force.”

  As Kim wondered whether or not Tuvok might have triggered the alarm, Seven’s gaze shifted from her tricorder to Kim’s jacket, her eyes wide.

  “What?” Kim asked.

  Seven’s head cocked to the right. This gesture was traditionally followed by a request that he explain himself. Instead, Seven pointed to the opalescent buttons of his jacket.

  They were now lit by a faint red pulsing light.

  Kim looked immediately at Seven’s jacket and saw the same luminescent display.

  Both of them immediately removed the jackets and dropped them into the open space below. Then they started to run.

  • • •

  Denzit Janeway could not believe what her eyes were telling her. After allowing more than thirty-six hours to elapse with no sign of movement from the shuttle the Starfleet team had taken, she had activated the personal tracers embedded in their Zahl uniforms.

  The signal that came back to her was intermittent, indicating that something was jamming it at the source. It gave her coordinates that made no sense. According to her readings, Tuvok, Seven, and Lieutenant Kim were floating just above sea level several miles off the southern coast of the continent.

  The denzit immediately ordered a recon team dispatched. Within half an hour she had her answer.

  “An island?” she demanded of Tilzitar Limlesh.

  “Yes, Denzit. It is located in a remote area, several thousand kilometers from the nearest Zahl settlement. Scanners are unable to detect it. It is heavily shielded. However, visual recognizance has confirmed its presence and noted a single large structure at its center.”

  “Dispatch infiltration teams. Low air approach. I will take the first shuttle. You will coordinate our efforts from here.”

  “Very good, Denzit.”

  19

  VESTA

  When Dayne entered the Vesta’s briefing room, his eyes lit first on Admiral Janeway before glancing toward Captain Farkas and Counselor Cambridge, who stood on either side of her. He appeared puzzled by their presence to the point of disconcertment.

  “Welcome aboard the Federation Starship Vesta,” the admiral greeted him. “This is
her captain, Regina Farkas, and this gentleman is one of our fleet counselors and first-contact specialists, Lieutenant Hugh Cambridge.”

  “I see you finally found your people,” Dayne said, stepping forward to shake hands with Farkas and Cambridge. “A pleasure to meet you both.”

  Janeway had wondered, until this moment, if he truly believed her to be the denzit. She had her answer. While cognizant of the vast intelligence she might gain from Dayne by allowing him to continue their conversation in error, the thought sickened her, perhaps even more than her discovery that the Rilnar man Denzit Janeway had loved and married was actually Krenim. At some point the truth was going to come out. There was no telling how he might respond to intentional duplicity on her part, but she doubted it would help. The answers she sought were likely ones he would never share with the denzit.

  “I am surprised to find you among them again,” Dayne continued when he finally took Janeway’s icy hand in both of his. “I thought, as did the Rilnar leadership, that when you renounced your Federation citizenship, you meant it.”

  “Forgive me, Commandant, is it?” Janeway asked, retrieving her hand.

  “Agent Dayne,” he corrected her gently.

  “Agent Dayne,” Janeway repeated cordially. “I believe you have me confused with Denzit Kathryn Janeway, the current commander of the Rilnar forces on Sormana.”

  Dayne’s face lost its polite deference. He failed miserably to hide his shock. “Are you telling me there is more than one Kathryn Janeway still alive in this timeline?”

  “Yes,” Janeway replied.

  “That’s not possible.”

  “And yet, here I am,” Janeway said.

  “Agent Dayne,” Counselor Cambridge interjected, “what branch of the Krenim military forces do you serve?”

  “Might we sit?” Dayne asked. There were more than two dozen chairs in the room resting idly before four conference tables. Janeway gestured to the nearest small one and the group assembled themselves around it. Normally the admiral would have called for refreshments, water at the very least. She found herself strangely immune to the niceties of hospitality in Dayne’s presence. He hadn’t done anything to her. But his multiple betrayals of the denzit had already soured her stomach.