Things with the Romulan went as I predicted. There was some disappointment in the crew, of course, but there was a noticeable spring in everyone's step. Life went back to the daily grind of duty shifts and training, though it only lasted for a week before I was called to Janeway's Ready Room.
"Rebecca, you made me an offer when you forced your way onto join my crew," Janeway said with a light smirk, that I knew well from the show, which meant that she was just teasing me.
"I guess it's going to take some time to live that down," I chuckled. "What can I do for you, Captain?"
She chuckled as well, "Well, this little mission will help you show your good will, especially if you can keep things within Starfleet guidelines... You're ship has cloaking technology, correct?"
"It does indeed," I agreed.
"We have a broken collimator and, despite the best efforts of Ensign Kim, Lieutenant Torres, even your Raven, we are just going to have to rebuild the device from the base code up," Janeway explained.
"Ah, this is probably what caused Raven's trip to Sick Bay yesterday. Katye and she would only tell me that she overextended her mana when I asked about it. Kes accidentally mentioned that she had seen Raven while I was helping her get some vegetables from the Aeroponics Bay. I hope you aren't asking me to fix it because I would be better served as a battery for Raven than doing any of the work myself."
She chuckled again and passed over a data pad with information, "That's not exactly what I had in mind. Neelix knows of a race in a nearby star system that is willing to help us for a minor trade, but they are at war with a race known as the Numiri. I wanted to ask if you could take Ensign Kim and the design specs to the Banea home world. I've talked with their Prime Minister, and they would be happy to help us, but we need to get past Numiri battle lines."
"And you are hoping that my ship can sneak past those lines?" I retorted and looked over the information that she had complied about the mission.
There was a picture of the Prime Minister along with other information about the Banea, but it was the image that kept my interest. I knew this man from some episode, I was sure, but I could not quite put my finger on it. The thoughts and memories kept playing in my mind as I tried to remember, but unfortunately, my brain and mouth seemed to be a little too connected.
"Banea... war with the Numiri... collimator," I mumbled while looking over the information.
"Rebecca?"
"Sorry, Captain... an old habit when I try to remember something," I apologized, but then realized that this might be a chance to plant a seed in her mind of the possibilities that came with my 'powers'. "My people's abilities are quite hard to define, changing from person to person to suit the individual... Chiporofita, the exact translation is 'dream of the future', but prophecy also fits. The problem is, while I've had these experiences before, it's not something that I can exactly call upon and, when it does happen, events are not always in sequence. Names, images, and even smells can trigger these events like how memories can be triggered in normal humans..."
"You can see the future?" she asked with some doubt.
"Eh... it's more like a strong hunch than any true 'vision' of the future because the more Vazukuru involved, the more things can deviate, so I tend to treat them as I would an honest Ferengi merchant," I chuckled. "I doubt it's anything too dangerous since those hunches are usually much stronger, but the mission might have had some excitement without us."
"From what Neelix has told me about their war, I'm sure that it might have."
"Well, back to the matter at hand, of course you can send the Fae Dragon, cloaked, to the Banea home world. Is there anyone else that you would like to send with us?" I asked.
"Just Ensign Kim, he is the most familiar with the project and what we need while B'Elanna can work on some general repairs while we wait for you to return."
"Sounds good. I can have my ship ready within the hour and I would like to take Raven with us, possibly Echo too, but that's more to save myself from her complaints about not being able to train properly."
"That's fine; they can join, but this will probably take a few days. Will Katye also need to join you, or should we prepare quarters for her here?"
"She doesn't need to go, but she might like to; I'm not really sure," I replied.
"Then ask on your way back to the Shuttle Bay; Chakotay can have quarters arranged by the end of the day if she decides to stay. I'll send Ensign Kim your way at 1300 hours," Janeway said.
"Thank you, Captain," I replied, standing up.
"And thank you for your help."
I gave her a nod and then walked out of her Ready Room. I made my way to the nearest turbo lift and took it down to Deck Eight. Katye was scheduled to be on duty in Sick Bay and, when I got there, I found Kes and Katye studying with the Doctor in his office as he quizzed them over the material. They all heard the door open and saw me walk in.
"Well, I doubt that you're sick, so what brings you to Sick Bay?" Katye asked after she excused herself from Kes and the Doctor.
"You, of course. Captain Janeway has an away mission for the Fae Dragon, and she gave me permission to bring you, if you would like to come. That little project that Raven has been working on with B'Elanna and Harry is being outsourced to a race known as the Banea, but the problem is, that they are in a war with another race. We are supposed to sneak over and meet with them while the Voyager stays here and out of the conflict. I asked for Raven to come with me and figured that Echo would be mad if I took away her ability to train for a few days, so that just leaves you. The captain offered to arrange a room for you on the Voyager if you wanted to stay here," I explained.
"Do you think you'll survive alone with those two for a couple of days?" Katye teased.
"Harry is coming too, so I'll have someone to talk to when they lock themselves away in the training programs."
"Then I think I'll stay. The Doctor is a great teacher and there is plenty that I can work on here while you all are away. There are bound to be more missions where our ship is needed while a few of us should stay onboard in the future. It wouldn't hurt to set up some permanent quarters for us," Katye replied.
"I'll leave it to you then. I think it's Commander Chakotay that you need to talk to, to arrange the room."
"If you are setting up your quarters on the ship, I'd be happy to help you out," Kes offered from the doorway of the Doctor's office.
"Thanks," Katye said.
"I hope that Katye isn't giving you too many problems, Doctor. We really appreciate that you were willing to teach her along with Kes," I said when the Doctor joined Kes.
There was a bit of awkwardness in his expression as he said, "There haven't been any problems. Katye has been an excellent student."
"Good... well, I still need to tell Raven and Echo the plan, so I should get moving. I'll see you in a few days, ai hodnes," I said then brushed Katye's cheek with my fingers.
"Don't get the ship destroyed and don't have too much fun with Echo and Raven while you're gone," Katye replied.
"I'll do my best," I chuckled. "See you guys later."
I left Sick Bay and headed back to the turbo lift. Engineering was on Deck Eleven, I headed there next since Raven should be working there. Although she was not in the Main Engineering, B'Elanna told me that I could find her in one of the Jeffries tubes working on some repairs. The Jeffries tubes themselves were a maze of small tunnels and narrow ladders that were spread out all over the ship, following along the power conduits to give easy access to repairing damaged systems. I had not gotten close to memorizing all of them, but thankfully, my ability to sense mana could lead the way to Raven.
"Mulchaey, you didn't need to run back here," Raven called over her shoulder without looking in my direction.
"Guess again... Lieutenant Torres is probably assigning him to cover the rest of your tasks. We've got our first away mission," I said, leaning into the crawl space, but not climbing in.
"Becca? What's up?" Raven asked with surprise and curiosity.
"Broken collimator," I chuckled. "Janeway found an alien race that is willing to help us build a new one, but we need to sneak over to their planet to avoid getting ourselves drawn into their war. Harry is going to join us on the trip, and I figure that Echo will want to come along too so that she can keep up with her training. Katye said that she wanted to stay on the Voyager, so it will probably be just the four of us."
Raven groaned, "That headache only went away an hour or so ago, and it was useless since that was all that I got for my effort."
"This is an episode, so I'm not surprised that it happened," I said in Trigedasleng, which we had found out the Voyager's universal translator had a difficult time understanding, thankfully.
"So, what's the big problem then?" she asked, also in Trigedasleng.
"That is what I can't remember," I chuckled. "It's been twelve years and memory was never my strong suit. I don't think this is anything groundbreaking or a danger to the ship... Star Trek used what I like to call 'filler' episodes which can have their own importance, but did little to advance the 'core' story, granted Voyager and DS9 had more of a centralized story than TNG."
"Becca, you're spiraling again. I don't understand most of what you are saying," Raven sighed as she packed up her tools.
"Short version, I'm not too worried that we will face the same problems, if any, but we still need to pay attention to our surroundings and make sure that we keep Harry out of trouble while we are there."
"Then it sounds about as straight forward as anything that you draw me into," Raven retorted in English.
"Thanks," I said sarcastically.
"So, when are we leaving?"
"1300 hours which should give you enough time to take a shower and change into a clean uniform," I chuckled.
She climbed out of the Jeffries tube with a smirk and said, "Well, at least the technology here can get out grease stains a lot easier and better than the one back in Eden."
We headed back to Engineering with Raven leading the way, so that she could drop off her tool kit, and then to the Shuttle Bay. Echo had the day off, so she was on our ship already, training as usual. Raven went to take her shower alone since I was still in minor trouble with her and Echo, but she was starting to give in more and more with each day.
"Fae, can you tell Echo to wake up? I need to tell her about the away mission," I asked as I sat down on the couch across from her.
::Affirmative.::
A moment or two later, Echo opened her eyes and looked at me questioningly as she took off the Mind Linker.
"I know you don't care about the full explanation, so I'll keep things short. Raven and I are taking the Fae Dragon to a nearby world to get their help with fixing a part for the Voyager, but Katye decided to stay here. We'll be gone for a few days, but it's your choice whether you want to stay as well or come with us," I said.
"What would I be doing on the ship if I go with you?" Echo asked.
"Well, you aren't going to be any bigger help to Raven and Ensign Kim than I would be, so you can stay with the ship, keep the power level topped off as much as you can while you train or whatever you want to do. Things should be peaceful while we are there, so I should be able to manage to keep the others safe."
"So, my choices are to go with you and train almost exclusively for the duration of the mission, or stay here where I can't train and will have to write more reports for Tuvok?" she asked with a look that said I was dumb.
"Look, I knew that you would want to train, but I thought that I should at least give you the option."
Echo sighed, "Thank you for asking... Do you need me to do anything before we leave?"
"Not really, but you have half an hour if you want to run to Sick Bay and say bye to Katye before we go. 1300 hours, don't be late," I said.
"I won't be. Nyka, come on," she said, standing up.
The three-tailed fox had been sleeping on one of the other couches, but hearing her name, she yawned and stretched her body as she stood up. Echo walked by and the fox hopped up on her shoulder, and then draped herself across both of them, around Echo's neck. She disappeared down the stairs while I reclined and started rereading the mission briefing from Janeway. Everything seemed pretty straight forward, so either my hunch was wrong or it involved someone on the planet that we would meet once we got there.
For now, I could only put the matter aside and get the ship ready, though there was little that I needed to do since Fae would do most of the work. Still, I headed to the bridge and input the coordinates into the helm to chart a flight path. Our sensors could pick up a few Numiri patrols, despite being within the Voyager's Shuttle Bay, but Fae accessed them as having no threat of discovering our cloaked ship.
::Ensign Kim is approaching.::
"Thanks, let him in," I said, standing up. "Is Echo on her way back?"
::Affirmative, she should reach here in two minutes.::
"Good, start the preflight procedures and let Raven know that we are getting ready to leave," I instructed as I walked to Engineering.
Harry was walking up the short ramp into the ship while I made my way around the core. He was a young man in his early twenties and wore a yellow accented suit, since he worked in Operations. There was a small bag hanging on his shoulder, and a case in his other hand.
"Captain Cox, reporting for the away mission," Harry said, standing at full attention.
"Relax, Harry. Starfleet may have given me the rank of captain, but I gave that up when I joined the Voyager and I don't really run things like a Starfleet vessel either. Just do your job, and give a good report to Captain Janeway," I chuckled.
"Yes, sir… I mean, ma'am," he replied.
I sighed, shaking my head wryly, and retorted, "However you wanna play this 'Ensign Eager'… Let me show you where you can sleep while we wait for Echo to get back; follow me."
He let out an embarrassed sigh and followed me up the stairs. Raven stepped out of the bedroom as we made it to the second floor. I could hear the sudden change in his breathing when he saw her and a quick glance confirmed my guess. I nearly facepalmed because it was a running joke in the show that Harry always went for the wrong girl which Tom loved to tease him about, and it seemed like Raven would become the first one on Tom's list during this version of Voyager's journey.
"Harry! Ready for our first away mission?" Raven asked with a smile.
"Y-yes, I am," he replied with a bit of awkwardness.
"I was going to let him have the bedroom since we don't really need to sleep, if you want to show him around," I suggested.
"Sure, this way, Harry," Raven said, motioning for him to follow her.
I chuckled evilly, thinking about when I would undoubtingly break his heart by revealing that I was with Raven, but I would be nice enough to wait until the end of the mission. I headed back downstairs and found that Echo had just returned.
"Harry is upstairs with Raven. I'm going to tell Voyager that we are ready to take off. You can go back to training if you want, I shouldn't need you while we are cloaked," I said.
"Alright," Echo replied simply.
I headed for the bridge while Echo went upstairs. I sat down at the conn station and sent the message to Voyager. After receiving their approval, the Shuttle Bay doors opened up and our ship lifted off the ground before it zoomed out. I turned on the cloak with a few buttons then jumped to warp, heading for the Banea home world.
Just as I had hoped, we faced no difficulties sneaking over to the planet. After hailing the Prime Minister, we got coordinates to land and touched down in one of their major cities. Echo stayed onboard while the three of us met with the Baneains. The Prime Minister introduced us to Professor Tolen Ren, who again looked familiar to me, but it was not until he invited us to his home for dinner and we met his wife that I finally remembered the episode.
Originally, Tom Paris would have been accused of murdering the professor, having the victim's own memories condemning him. Of course, Tom did not kill him, but proving that was the difficult matter of the episode. He did not help himself since he admitted to kissing the professor's wife, but he had no memories of killing him and was even backed up by ARA scan that he was telling the truth. Tuvok followed a number of leads before the only option that he had left was a mindmeld, so that he could see the crime from Tom's perspective.
Once he did, all of the pieces fell into place. The murder had been done to not only kill the Banea's top creator of warship technology, but also as a means of secretly transporting information to the Numiri by using Tom's brain as the carrier. It had been a fun episode watching Tuvok revealing each layer of the plan and then, he even proved the spy and murder by using the professor's own dog to identify the doctor who had performed the procedure on Tom.
It was actually one of my favorite episodes in the first season, so I was a little sad that I would not be able to watch the events play out, but I was not about to let Raven or myself fall into the temptress's trap. The night went quietly with Raven, Harry, and Professor Ren working on the specifications for the new collimator while I meditated off in a corner, watching over them with my senses.
Although I wanted to warn the Banea about the spy, the Prime Directive of Starfleet would not allow me to meddle in the affairs of alien cultures. It would also be fairly hard to prove my claims without letting the events repeat, so I would just have to leave the doctor alone and let him be lucky that I was not as foolish as Tom.
They finished the new collimator at the end of the next day, so we returned to the Fae Dragon and plotted a course back to Voyager. Echo was happy with her uninterrupted progress over the past two days, so with Raven's and Harry's success, we decided to treat ourselves on the flight back. None of us cooked, of course, but the replicator could prepare food nearly as good as Katye's and I had a few bottles of Spirit Wine.
"Come on, Harry, one glass… Rebecca can even purge the effects when we get back to the Voyager if it's too strong," Raven insisted after we finished dinner.
"I shouldn't. Drinking late at night gives me heartburn," Harry replied.
Raven downed her glass and said, "Meh, Becca can handle that too."
"Not everyone is as comfortable with our powers as our last home, Raven. If I was to heal him, he is bound to be put through as many tests as the vegetables that I'm growing. Janeway doesn't trust us fully yet, so I'm not going to heal one of her senior officers just because you want a new drinking buddy," I chided with a chuckle.
"Fine, you wanna have some fun in the Mental Plane, Echo? I'll even let you start five points ahead," Raven offered with a smirk.
"Underestimating me is a bad idea," Echo warned as she sipped her wine.
"Oh? Figured out something new?" she teased.
"Can you two flirt in the Mental Plane? I've been sleeping alone for nearly a month and poor Harry doesn't need to be pulled into our drama," I complained.
Echo smirked while Raven laughed, "Fine… you have been really good so far in this dimension, maybe you won't be sleeping alone for much longer."
Raven and Echo got up and headed for the couches. I grabbed Raven by the wrist and she chuckled before leaning down to kiss me. We parted after a moment and, while she joined Echo on the couch, I glanced over at Harry who was looking particularly down.
I waited until they were both using the Mind Linker, before I said, "Sorry, Harry, but the crew of the Fae Dragon won't be getting super close to any of the Voyager's… well, at least the men."