Things with B'Elanna were handled quick enough for her to avoid the engramatic purge thanks to my tip. Guill was captured by Tuvok and traded back to the Mari government to prove that B'Elanna had been baited into making the 'violent' thought. Her crimes were forgiven, and she was allowed to return to Voyager, with Janeway leaving orbit shortly after she was returned.
It took five days for us to catch up to Voyager and, thankfully, nothing sprang up on our way. We had a week or so to settle back into our duties. It was my second shift on the Bridge as acting Captain, so I had not expected anything to happen... which was why an episode popped up.
Half a dozen ships approached Voyager at high warp, but dropped down to the low warp speed we were traveling. Immediately, they opened fire, launching electrical torpedoes, all over Voyager's shields. While they did minimal damage to the ship itself, the shields were taking a heavy beating and disrupting the flow of them, making the ship vulnerable.
"Janeway to the Bridge," came through the comm system.
"We're under attack, Captain!" I replied.
"I'm on my way," she said.
"Tom, evasive maneuvers. Harry, hail them. Tuvok, prepare the weapons, but don't fire yet," I ordered. "Rebecca to Katye, Echo, and L'Naan, get to the Fae Dragon and prepare for launch."
"None of the ships are responding to hails," Harry said.
"No surprise there," I scoffed as the ship rocked yet again. "Tuvok, status report."
"Shields have dropped by two percent," he replied.
"Not bad," I remarked before hearing the turbo lift doors open.
"Who are they, and why are they shooting at us?" Janeway asked as she stepped onto the Bridge.
"Don't know, Captain. They're not responding to hails," I answered.
"Damage?"
"None," Tuvok said.
"I'm reading a slight destabilization along the shield perimeter," Harry added.
"Attempting to compensate," Tuvok stated, typing away at his console.
Janeway and I sat down in the Captain's and First Officer's chairs, respectively.
"I ordered my crew to our ship; do you want me to launch?" I asked.
"Not yet, their weapons don't seem to be a threat to us," she replied.
I nodded my head since the raiders seemed to be of little threat to Voyager, making me wonder why they had bothered to attack us at all... until we got a message from B'Elanna.
"Uh, Torres to the Bridge."
"Go ahead," Janeway replied.
"We just lost the warp core diagnostic assembly."
"What do you mean 'lost'?"
"It disappeared," she stated simply.
I clicked my tongue with annoyance, remembering the episode, but thankfully, it should not be too hard for my group to sort it out. The raiders were using a unique transporter beam that was programmed to steal objects of high technological value, including the main computer processor which crippled Voyager. Tuvok was able to destroy one of the raiders ships with manual targeting, driving off the rest of the vultures. Just like in the episode, Janeway called for a report of everything that was taken and convened the Senior Staff in the Briefing Room an hour later.
"They were employing a high-energy transporter beam designed to locate objects of technological value and remove them," Tuvok explained then handed his data pad to Chakotay.
"They removed a lot," he remarked. "Five tricorders, three phaser rifles, a couple of photon torpedo casings, two antimatter injectors, a month's supply of emergency rations."
"No great loss there," Tom commented, making me smirk while Janeway gave him a deadpan stare.
"Excuse me. You're forgetting the most important thing of all, my mobile emitter. Without it, I'm stuck in Sick Bay. I can't go anywhere!" the Doctor exclaimed from the display screen.
"We'll do the best we can, Doctor, but our top priority is the main computer processor. B'Elanna, I want a defense against another transporter attack. Rebecca, do you think your group can track down those ships and get back what they stole?"
"Echo should be able to, but we should hurry. If the pirates are smart, they will divide up the goods and sell off whatever they don't need quickly. They seemed like seasoned pros at this kind of raid," I replied.
"Go and get back everything that you can, especially the computer processor. Dismissed," Janeway ordered as she stood up.
The rest of us stood up as well and made our way out of the room. While the majority headed for the Bridge, B'Elanna and I took the back exit and made our way to the turbo lift. I got off first at Deck Ten and, since the corridor was empty, I decided to teleport myself down the hallway instead of walking; waste of mana, perhaps, but I had long accepted my lazy Draconic nature.
Flashing down the hallway, I made it back to the Fae Dragon in record time and strolled onto my ship. After getting on the ship I walked to the bridge with no real rush. Katye was sitting at the Conn Station, but no one else was in the room.
"Let me guess... After the fight ended, Echo and L'Naan decided it was a good time to spar since nothing was happening," I remarked.
"Pretty much," Katye chuckled.
"Take off and have Echo woken up, she can give us a heading to follow before our sensors do the work."
"She beat you to it. Echo has already set the course, and their warp pattern is locked into the sensors. We were just waiting on you," she said with a smirk.
I shook my head with a wry smile as I sat down at Tactical and responded, "Then by all means. Fae, message Voyager and ask them to transmit the list of what all was stolen; it's always good to have a checklist."
::Understood.::
Katye chuckled and tapped a few buttons on the console in front of her. The ship took off slowly and flew out of the Shuttle Bay before jumping to warp quickly afterwards. With nothing else that required her attention, she stood up and walked over to me before sitting happily in my lap, resting her head on my shoulder.
I chuckled at her antics as I ran my fingers through her hair and asked, "What have I done to get this side of you?"
"Nothing in particular... Echo and L'Naan really aren't the type to let you pamper them and I certainly don't mind it. I know that you've been missing Raven and haven't caught her during your regeneration since we've come back from Sancu's game. I can't replace her by any means, but I can give you some of the closeness that you've been missing," she replied softly.
I smiled gently and continued running my fingers through her hair, enjoying her warmth. "I want to go after her... There is a chance during one of the two-parter episodes. Janeway gets cocky and steals a trans-warp coil from a Borg ship, but what she doesn't realize is that the Borg Queen lets her take it, so that she can convince Seven to rejoin the Collective. They get her back by raiding Unimatrix Zero One and taking her out from under the Queen's nose. Obviously, I don't think it will be that easy with Sancu pulling strings in the background, but it's a real chance to find her."
"We can discuss it later today, if you want; I don't think anyone would argue against it, and L'Naan's knowledge on the timeline is fresher than yours. Raven is one of us, no matter what, and the sooner that she is home the better," Katye replied.
"Mmhmm," I hummed.
There was not much for us to do while we were flying towards the pirates planet, so Katye and I simply relaxed and watched the stars streak by. We stayed like that for a few hours before we got up and headed upstairs. Katye started cooking dinner while I grabbed some cups and a bottle of Spirit Wine. Echo and L'Naan conveniently woke up from their training session as I was filling their cups, and they walked over, joining me at the kitchen counter.
"So, how do you two want to handle the pirates?" I asked when they sat down next to me.
"You're asking us?" Echo remarked with surprise.
"Well, the episode solution is out since we don't have Janeway, and it's not likely for what we do to get back to Voyager, especially if we don't announce that we are 'Starfleet'. Your power is the key to finding everything and the two of you could probably take down their whole operation by yourselves without too much difficulty. We've had fights about me not letting you handle things on your own, so might as well throw you a bone," I chuckled the last part then took a drink.
Echo smirked at my taunt while L'Naan chuckled as well.
"So, you are going to let the two of us handle this alone?" Echo asked.
"Well, I'd like to hear some kind of a plan first, and I'll keep an eye on you through our link, but it should be a good workout for you two. It's not often that we can handle things how we want, with little worries about it getting back to Janeway, so you might as well enjoy the chance," I replied with a shrug.
"Gou gon lid in faya! (Time to bring the fire!)" Echo laughed, showing a rare side of her.
"Chilnes, Echo, der ste a kol au, (Peace, Echo, there is a challenge,)" Katye chided. "The computer processor can't fit on our ship, but it's an absolute need for Voyager. That has to be your first priority along with securing a place for us to store everything safely until Voyager makes its way here."
L'Naan clicked her tongue with annoyance and unwillingly agreed, "She's right. The main computer processor is too tall to fit in Engineering, the tallest room, and even the storage rings that Raven made you all."
"Then how are we going to get it back to Voyager?" Echo asked with confusion.
"Your challenge, ai homplei," I chuckled.
"If you want the mission, you have to do the work that goes along with it," Katye said with a smirk.
"We need to message Voyager to meet us and secure a location on the planet where we can store everything. The Fae Dragon can transport everything between the sites, once we tag an item," L'Naan stated.
"Sounds feasible, so far so good towards a plan," I said.
"Don't forget, we don't need anyone to steal everything while you two are gathering things," Katye reminded.
"Can't you guard it?" Echo asked.
"It's your mission; Katye and I won't always be there to hold your hand," I retorted with a smirk.
"Lazy dragon," she grumbled. "Fine, we can create a bunker underground. Would we need pattern enhancers for Fae to be able to beam everything below ground?"
::My transporting capabilities will allow for transportation up to five kilometers below common M-class planetoids' crusts, unassisted.::
"Then we won't need the enchancers," L'Naan stated. "If we create a bunker that is a kilometer under the surface, I can rig up a dispersion field with the computer processor and a few of the other components to hide everything while we wait for Voyager to catch up. By giving Fae the frequency, it shouldn't disrupt her sensors or complicate our mission."
"Alright, good plan... all that's left then is what you plan to do with the pirate prince," I said.
"Kill him, of course," L'Naan scoffed.
"Too easy... After we get everything back, we destroy his transporters, ships, weapons, and take away anything else that has value until Voyager gets here," Echo said with an evil grin.
I laughed then kissed her cheek and said, "That's my girl, the one who used to beat me black and blue."
Echo chuckled, but L'Naan was obviously confused.
"I thought you didn't meet before you got your powers," she commented.
"We didn't; my goal was to learn how to fight without them then how to fight with them. There were five months that we were undercover in Azgeda, and we'd spar every night where she regularly beat the crap out of me unless I used my mana. It wasn't until I got my Dusa form that I could beat her without relying on magic," I explained.
"And I still would if you were a normal person," Echo huffed.
"And then we never would have met," I chuckled.
We were an hour behind the pirates as we chased them back to their world. Although we could have overtaken them if we traveled at maximum warp, I liked Echo's idea to fully crush the pirate prince's operation, so we wanted him to lead us straight to his home. It took about a day of flying at warp six before the raiding party landed their ships on the planet.
Just like in the show, the things were split up between two cities on different continents. Due to our quick arrival, they were still in the process of unloading their ill gotten goods, and Echo and L'Naan were able to grab a bulk of the items quickly, including the computer processor. Despite saying that they had to do everything, when I saw that most of the stuff was still together with the computer processor, I offered to create the bunker for them to maximize the time that they had to destroy the pirate prince's assets.
By the second hour, Echo and L'Naan had gathered everything that had been stolen from Voyager, thoroughly abusing the Yin Realm to pop into locations unseen and disabling any defenses that the building had, so that Fae could transport everything from Voyager to the bunker. I had to admit it, I was surprised by their efficiency and restraint as no one was killed. Of course, that only lasted until everything from Voyager was secured, and then they had their fun.
Deaths were kept to a minimum, but that did not mean that any guard unfortunate to come across them was left uninjured. Echo and L'Naan managed to destroy all of their ships, countless weapons, and any form of transporter was disabled within a dozen kilometers of the two cities in twelve hours. After that, they scattered every piece of tech and treasure that they could find across the continents; I could practically hear Echo's laughter as they stole everything from Tau's different palaces. While I knew that she was adept at killing, it was almost comical listening to her thoughts as she acted like a thief, and was happy to know that all of his group would live and suffer due to her actions.
When Voyager reached us, they had 'redistributed' most of the prince's wealth, much to my enjoyment. We gave Voyager the frequency of the jamming signal which allowed them to beam everything back to the ship. All in all, Janeway may not have gotten her flight with the DaVinci holo-program, but things ended up a lot better than it had in the episode.