Star Trek: Voyager®: Full Circle

by Kirsten Beyer

  “I understand,” B’Elanna grudgingly admitted. “But I’ll never leave Miral with you. She’s my daughter. She deserves a normal life, no matter what fate might have in store for her.”

  “I have a suggestion I would ask you to consider,” Logt said.

  “What?”

  “Join us.”

  B’Elanna took the suggestion like a slap across her face. She had the good sense to realize that Logt seemed to believe she was bestowing a great honor upon her. Pity was, there was no way B’Elanna would ever be able to accept. If Tom had been like a caged targ on Boreth, she couldn’t imagine what it would do to their marriage to take up residence here.

  When B’Elanna didn’t answer immediately, Logt rose from the table and said, “Perhaps you should take some time to consider it.”

  “I will,” B’Elanna agreed.

  As they made their way back toward the far end of the cavern, B’Elanna was struck by something she hadn’t noted at first, so overwhelmed had she been by the many surprising details of the sanctuary.

  Before she could ask Logt about it, the overhead lighting dimmed and a soft alarm began to sound.

  Logt quickened her pace, B’Elanna rushing behind, until they had cleared the work stations. To the right was the staircase leading down to the holding cells. To the left was a small archway, leading to another tunnel. At the entrance was what looked like a small decorative sculpture, a circular base with a small stone monument extending up from its center. The stone was now pulsing with a bright white light at regular intervals that matched the sound of the alarm.

  “What’s happening?” B’Elanna asked.

  “Something has triggered the planet’s orbital security perimeter,” Logt replied as shouts and orders erupted around them. Workers poured out of their research spaces and hurried into the tunnel past the miniature version of Hal’korin’s obelisk, and from the distant sound of clanging metal, they were arming themselves for battle.

  Voyager, B’Elanna thought, hope giving her a new rush of adrenaline.

  Logt hurried B’Elanna back to her cell and pushed her inside. There B’Elanna found a plate of fresh bread and dried meat waiting for her beside a large pitcher of water. B’Elanna gingerly set the sleeping Miral down on the stone bench where she had awakened, thinking Logt gone, but just as she had done so, Logt grabbed the child with one hand and leveled a disruptor at B’Elanna with the other.

  “What are you doing?” B’Elanna shouted, waking Miral.

  Logt backed from the room, and the force field sparkled into place.

  “Consider my offer, B’Elanna,” Logt said grimly before disappearing from view.

  B’Elanna could have wept with rage. Instead, she settled for slapping the force field, and received a healthy shock and singed flesh for her trouble.

  She paced back toward the bench and in her anger, tossed the plate of food to the ground. Logt had lulled her into trust and once again betrayed her.

  At least she’s consistent, the voice of reason managed to pierce the dissonance of B’Elanna’s mind. It sounded eerily like the voice of Counselor Cambridge.

  B’Elanna stopped to collect herself. Howling at the fates or berating herself for her stupidity was of no use to Miral. If Voyager had found them, or worse, if the Warriors of Gre’thor were at the door, B’Elanna would do well to prepare for battle.

  She dropped to the floor and collected the food she had discarded. She forced it quickly down her gullet, devouring every last morsel and washing it down with the water.

  As she ate she considered her options. Wherever they had taken Miral, it was undoubtedly the most secure location within the compound. Much as she hated to admit it, B’Elanna should at least try and join the fight if the Warriors of Gre’thor were at hand.

  As she imagined the battle and saw Logt leading her forces, she remembered the question she had wanted to ask Logt before the perimeter alarms had sounded.

  Every face she had seen when they toured the sanctuary was female. She had been trying to imagine Tom there with her and realized how lonely and out of place he would surely feel.

  Where are all the men?

  “Another big tree…some more pretty flowers…” Kim said, cataloguing the results of his visual scan of a sector of Cygnet IV.

  “Are we boring you, Lieutenant?” Seven asked.

  Seven, Harry, Kahless, and Cambridge were standing in Voyager’s astrometrics lab, scrutinizing every square millimeter of the planet Hal’korin’s obelisk had told them was the location of the hidden qawHaq’hoch sanctuary. Everyone present had expressed both awe and relief when the bat’leths B’Elanna had provided them had worked exactly as she described, once they were placed at the monument.

  The ship’s initial sensor sweeps of the surface had revealed nothing to suggest that any humanoid life-forms were present on the planet, but as Harry had mentioned—perhaps one too many times for Seven’s patience, he decided silently—this verdant, lush world sure was pretty.

  Seven, what am I looking at?” Harry asked, staring at a geothermal scan the sensors had just spat forth in a three-dimensional holographic representation at one of the adjacent terminals.

  Seven moved from Kim’s side to examine the findings. “I recalibrated the sensors to look for geothermal anomalies. If anyone is operating from a hidden location, it is likely to be buried either within a natural rock formation or perhaps beneath the surface of one of the planet’s oceans. As there are no obvious power sources present, I concluded that they are most likely tapping into the planet’s core for sustainable resources,” Seven advised him.

  “Or they’ve got one hell of a cloaking system,” Harry added.

  Seven ignored him, studying the display for a moment as Cambridge took the opportunity to better study her lithe and obscenely well-proportioned frame, which was quite gloriously accentuated by her deep red one-piece body suit. For reasons Harry wasn’t tempted to analyze too deeply, the counselor’s harmless appraisal and obvious appreciation of what he saw sent a tinge of jealousy shooting up from the depths of Harry’s psyche.

  It’s none of your business, Harry’s better angels advised him as his cheeks began to redden. It was true that any man with a pulse—and probably some women, come to think of it—couldn’t help but admire Seven’s physical attributes. Harry had barely been able to speak in complete sentences in her presence for the first several weeks she’d been aboard Voyager. But his initial attraction had become brotherly affection over the years. She might look like every man’s fantasy, but once you got to know her, Seven was much too complex to simply relegate to the realm of eye candy. In many ways, she was as innocent as a child. She was still learning what it was to be human. This brought out Harry’s protective side, and that seemed to be kicking in with a vengeance as he observed Cambridge.

  “Anything worth taking a closer look at, Seven?” Kim asked in a brisk tone, which had the immediate effect of redirecting Cambridge’s attention from Seven to him.

  “Perhaps,” Seven said, altering the display to zoom in on a particular sector. “Bring up the surface scan of sector 347,” she said imperiously, moving back to the main screen.

  With an inward smile Harry noted that she hadn’t even observed Cambridge’s interest. Of course, Seven was like that when she was working. She could focus with an intensity unknown to most humans.

  Harry then turned his attention to sector 347.

  “Pretty rocks and a mountain,” he said.

  Seven obliged him with a sidelong smirk.

  “The thermal scans of this area show anomalous readings. These spikes are higher than other comparable rock formations on the surface,” she said, watching carefully as the display panned over the area.

  “What exactly are you hoping to see?” Cambridge asked, clearly not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

  “I’m not sure,” Seven replied.

  “Go back,” Kahless’s voice interrupted.

  Harry jumped at the urgency
in the emperor’s tone. The entire time they’d been standing in this room, he had seemed content to merely observe their progress. Kim didn’t think that Kahless had moved a muscle in the last hour; Harry had actually forgotten he was there.

  Seven reversed the scan to retread the ground it had just covered.

  “There,” Kahless said softly, stepping closer and pointing to an outcropping of rocks near the base of the area’s highest mountain.

  “I don’t see anything,” Seven said, pausing the display.

  “Magnify that section,” Kahless commanded.

  Harry studied the rocks for anything that might explain the emperor’s sudden interest.

  This is a waste of time, he thought, frustrated.

  “There it is,” Cambridge said almost reverently, moving to Kahless’s side.

  “There what is?” Seven asked pointedly.

  Harry was relieved to know that he wasn’t the only one in the room who couldn’t see whatever had caught the emperor’s attention.

  “Computer, overlay this grid with an image found in my personal archive: file Cambridge, Klingon mythological studies, qawHaq’hoch, mark of Hal’korin,” the counselor ordered.

  The computer complied and a sloping vertical line, intersected by twelve smaller lines, appeared over the rocks.

  “Scale to size and look for comparable pattern in the rock face.”

  A few moments later the computer completed the operation, and the mark of Hal’korin was shown to match perfectly with what looked like a natural scarring of the rocks.

  “Wow,” Harry said, impressed.

  “Computer,” Seven requested, “calculate the likelihood that this pattern occurred naturally. Cross-reference all planetary scans.”

  The computer’s cold feminine voice responded, “Probability that the pattern is naturally occurring are forty-six million seven hundred thirty-nine thousand to one.”

  “We’ve found them,” Kahless said assuredly.

  Turning to Kim, he said, “Collect a security team, Lieutenant, and have them ready to transport to the surface immediately. Make sure your team is comprised of your finest warriors.”

  Despite the fact that Harry didn’t actually report to the emperor, he found himself starting directly for the door when Cambridge interrupted, “Pardon me, Emperor, but that would be an incredibly bad idea.”

  “Why?” Kahless demanded, clearly shocked at the insolence.

  “Is it your intention to overwhelm the hundreds of warriors in the sanctuary below with the force of a handful of Voyager’s finest, or did you have a more subtle attack in mind?”

  Kahless simply stared at Cambridge in wonder.

  “As we do not possess sufficient numbers to overwhelm them, at some point we must consider entering into negotiations. And for that to succeed, we might not want to offend them right off the bat,” Cambridge went on.

  “Offend them how?” Seven asked.

  “How does it go?” Cambridge mused. After a moment he quoted, “‘Beyond the gate she joins in noble stead, the path where only men must fear to tread.’”

  Kahless glared hard at the counselor until his lips broke into a wide, ferocious smile.

  “Your studies do you credit, human,” Kahless nodded approvingly, “though it is a dubious translation of Brach’Tun’s letter.”

  “I’ll admit the Klingon text doesn’t rhyme, but the meaning is unaltered. And Brach’Tun was, arguably, the last Klingon to actually speak directly with a member of the qawHaq’hoch, and live to tell the tale,” Cambridge replied. “His daughter, wasn’t it?”

  “Excuse me,” Harry interrupted. “What’s the problem?”

  Kahless answered his question with one of his own.

  “Who among your crew are the fiercest women warriors?” the emperor asked.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Lyssa Campbell had barely closed her eyes when Kim’s voice came blaring over the comm system, ordering her to the transporter room. She’d completed two full duty shifts on the bridge before turning over ops to Ensign Lasren, a Betazoid who was far too young and eager to please for Lyssa’s tastes.

  Unfortunately, as soon as he had assumed his station, Lasren had discovered a strange energy reading, a subtle gravimetric displacement, which Lyssa had first noted some nine hours earlier and quickly relegated to the realm of “odd things often encountered while scanning space.” Lasren had insisted on running a full spectral analysis, which had, as Lyssa anticipated, yielded no new information. But given the fact that the anomaly had first appeared on her watch, she’d felt duty bound to see the quest through to its end. After advising Lasren not to take the disappointing results of his snipe hunt too hard, and grabbing a quick dinner in the mess, she’d hurried to her quarters more than ready for the three hours of sleep she now desperately needed before alpha shift began.

  She’d arrived in the transporter room to find Admiral Janeway already briefing Lieutenants Samantha Maplethorpe and Vanessa Waters. Seven of Nine was conferring with the transporter operator on duty, a soft-spoken, burly man, Ensign Donner, suggesting that she was already apprised of the mission’s specs.

  Lyssa was quick to grasp the broad strokes. They had located what they believed was the entry to the qawHaq’hoch sanctuary, and theirs was the first team being sent to breach the perimeter.

  Only after they had beamed down to the surface and begun the short hike to the plateau that they believed concealed the entrance did it dawn on Lyssa that she was surrounded by only female officers.

  Sure, it happened from time to time. But it was a little odd, especially considering the fact that Commander Paris should have been leading the charge to recover his wife and child.

  “Is it me, or are we a little estrogen heavy this trip?” Lyssa quietly remarked to Waters.

  “Weren’t you listening?” Waters asked a little petulantly. The trim, white-haired security officer seemed to be having a little more trouble with the climb than Lyssa, who was a passionate and frequent hiker.

  “I’m running on about fifteen minutes of sleep, Waters. Want to cut me a little slack?”

  “The qawHaq’hoch are supposedly all female,” Waters advised her between heavy breaths. “Kahless says if we send men to the sanctuary, it adds insult to injury. Any man who enters is killed on sight. Women, they might at least talk to. It’s like a rule or something.”

  “Sounds like a dumb rule to me,” Lyssa replied. “I mean, how do they…or what do they do when…I mean…that’s just no fun at all.”

  Before Waters could reply, Admiral Janeway had reached the crest of the plateau and signaled for the team to halt. After a quick scan and a brief conference with Seven, the message was relayed down the short line for everyone to stay put while Janeway and Seven approached the entrance alone.

  Lyssa’s phaser was already in her hand, and for good measure she scouted the terrain. At first blush, it looked like an excellent spot for an ambush. And given the fact that sunrise on this part of the planet was about a half hour away, the dim twilight only enhanced her sense that they were being watched by one or many, who had them at a considerable disadvantage. Still, Voyager’s sensors were no doubt trained on the away team, and should be able to alert them to any imminent threat.

  At the entrance, which appeared to be nothing but a wall of solid rock, Janeway and Seven were arguing. It wasn’t the first time Lyssa had seen these two butt heads over the years, and depending on the circumstances, they could be entertaining to watch. Back in the Delta quadrant, Seven of Nine had always been the person on Voyager who didn’t seem the least bit awed by their formidable leader. Right now, between her exhaustion and the uncomfortable squatting on the side of a mountain, Lyssa just wished they’d get on with it.

  They seemed to reach a consensus, and Janeway tapped her combadge quickly and spoke into it so low that Lyssa couldn’t make out the words. Lyssa then heard the hum of a transporter beam, and a bat’leth appeared on the ground at Janeway’s feet.

 
The admiral claimed it and attempted to wedge it into the rock face. As Lyssa found herself wondering if the admiral hadn’t gone round the bend, the solid wall actually vanished, revealing a small opening.

  I’ll be damned, Lyssa thought, remembering that Starfleet didn’t just give those extra pips away.

  Janeway signaled for the rest of the team to join them.

  “All right,” she said, once they were gathered. “I’m going to take point. Seven, you’ll bring up the rear, weapons at the ready. Our tricorders can’t penetrate this rock. There’s either a natural or technological barrier scattering our signals, so we really don’t know what we’re going to find in there.”

  A lot of really frustrated Klingon women, Lyssa surmised, but refrained from saying it aloud. Actually, the thought was more than a little disconcerting. Klingons, male or female, could be formidable adversaries, and none of them could afford to forget that.

  Lyssa fell into line directly behind Janeway as they entered the tunnel. Almost immediately her nostrils were assaulted by a gust of rank air. Janeway switched on her palm beacon. They cleared the tunnel, which led the team into a much larger space.

  Maplethorpe had already exited the tunnel and Waters was huffing behind her. Seven was probably irritated no end, Lyssa thought with a grin.

  As Lyssa took a few steps farther into the cavern, she was searching for the switch to her own beacon. She realized that the sound of heavy breathing she’d first thought was Waters, was actually coming from the wrong direction.

  As a whip of adrenaline rushed up Lyssa’s spine, she turned to Janeway, who was playing her light slowly over the cavern in the direction of the disconcerting sound, which was now mingled with a metallic clank Lyssa couldn’t place.