After our conversation with Kurros, the alien who never properly introduced himself, Janeway thankfully went to bed. I made my way back to the Fae Dragon, where the rest of my group was using the Mink Linkers to train. Instead of bothering any of them, I headed back to the bathroom and took a long, hot shower, then spent the rest of the night topping off the core and meditating.
Surprisingly, we had a guest for breakfast, Janeway, though I should have known. Not only was Katye an amazing cook, but the good captain also wanted to know what to expect before she met up with Kurros, so I gave her a rundown of the episode, including what would have been Kurros's price, Seven of Nine, as well as who arranged the Hazari to hunt Voyager down, Kurros himself. Needless to say, Janeway was no longer entertaining the idea of being polite with them, so she agreed to Katye's first plan to skip drawing things out.
"You know what... Do you think you can handle this with minimal danger to Voyager and needless death?" Janeway asked, rubbing her forehead.
"Yes, Katye's first, and fastest acting, plan should cripple their ship before they even know what's happening," I replied.
"Then do whatever you need to have it ready. We should reach the coordinates Kurros gave us by ten hundred hours. I would prefer if this doesn't drag on," she stated, and then finished off the last of her coffee.
"That's all? You don't even want to hear the plan first?" I asked, surprised.
"No," she stated as she stood up. "I don't need to hear the plan, but once this situation is handled, I'll need you to pull a few doubles on the Bridge; I'm going to a small vacation."
"Of course, Captain," I chuckled.
"Don't make me regret this, Rebecca," she said as she walked away.
"I won't," I agreed, then chuckled again once she had disappeared. "I hope the Doc never finds out that we can drive Janeway to relax, or he is going to pester us. I think there were half a dozen episodes where Janeway was resisting his advice to rest."
"What was with that? I didn't think Janeway was the type to 'go with the flow'," L'Naan questioned.
"Normally, she isn't, but whenever things cross a certain line of craziness, she is much more willing to let me handle it," I answered with a shrug.
"So, how are you going to 'handle' Seven?" Katye asked.
"I'm not; you are," I retorted with a smirk. "She likes me, probably even considers me a friend, but you? Even Janeway and the Borg Queen could only hope to be second in importance compared to you."
"It isn't that complicated. Seven agreed to be the bait in the episode, so why would it be any different now?"
Glancing over at Echo, who smirked, I chuckled, "The episode is about coercing Seven to join a foreign crew... while the episode failed to pull her into the 'Think Tank', that doesn't mean she wouldn't consider a different ship."
"You want me to recruit her into our group?" Katye asked, surprised.
"You were the one that wanted her to join us originally. While we could wait until the end of the trip, getting her allegiance now might give her the chance to come along with us on whatever challenge Sancu throws at us next, which could mean an early start for practicing magic before we go into the next 'universe'," I explained.
"Whenever Becca is suggesting good ideas, it's usually better to just go with it," Raven chuckled.
I rolled my eyes at Raven's little jab while Katye sighed and nodded her head, "Yeah, Becca's right... and even if she doesn't get her magic early, I can still start teaching her some basic Arcane spells as her foundation with the Borg language will allow her to advance faster on that path. Fine, I will talk to Seven and then get everything ready for sabotaging the Think Tank."
I chuckled with a smirk, having pushed off the majority of the responsibility over to Katye. With our breakfast finished and our duty shifts starting soon... well, Katye's, Raven's, and mine did, we did not lounge about for much longer since our plan was in place. I headed to the Aeroponics Bay for my scheduled shift and focused on boosting crop production until I was called away.
"L'Naan to Rebecca. Janeway and Seven just teleported over to the Think Tank; time to head back to the ship," L'Naan's voice chimed from my comm badge.
I yawned, waking from my meditation, and tapped my badge, replying, "On my way. Be sure to keep transporter lock on both of them, we can't afford getting blocked."
"We're on it. Raven and Echo are already here and waiting on the signal. Katye is on standby in Sick Bay," L'Naan retorted with a tone that made me visualize her smirk.
"Understood, I'll be there in two minutes," I said, standing up.
I stretched as I walked out of the room and headed for the Shuttle Bay. Since Janeway had green lighted us to handle the matter, I really was not expecting too much excitement. Katye was waiting for Sick Bay's sensors to pick up that Seven was connected to the Think Tank's telepathic communication system, so that she could disable it, making it impossible for them to speak to each other. We would then beam over the moment Katye gave us the signal. Everything was planned out and seemed simple... so, I was just waiting for Sancu to pop up and make a mess of it.
Raven and Echo were waiting on the transporter pad while L'Naan leaned against one of the consoles in the room. All of them turned and smiled at me as I walked onto our little ship.
"Ready to steal all of their tech?" I asked with a chuckle, walking over to the group.
Raven smirked, "Just the interesting pieces."
"Well, don't forget about the rest of us when you get your new toys," I replied as I joined Raven and Echo on the transporter pad.
She chuckled and kissed my cheek, "I'll do my best."
"Katye to L'Naan. I just sent the signal," Katye's voice chimed through the comm system.
"Understood," she replied, tapping her badge.
"Time to go," I smirked.
"I'm going on the next away mission," L'Naan grumbled.
"Then don't pull the short straw," Echo taunted. "Fae, energize."
L'Naan only managed a rude gesture before we were transported over to the Think Tank's ship, right next to Janeway and Seven. Kurros was tapping away at a tablet in his hand while a strange-looking alien stood next to him, looking confused. Behind us, there was an aquatic creature floating in a tank, which I knew was yet another member of the Think Tank group, with a fourth member off to the side, which was an artificial intelligence. The fifth, and final member of their group, was a giant bioplasmic life-form that was hidden behind a wall, but I could sense him all the same... he was an Elemental Creature.
With a wave of her hand, Raven teleported the device in Kurros's hands to her own while I released my full aura and warned, "Don't get any crazy ideas and surrender peacefully."
"We offered you our help, and you attacked us without reason, and now you want us to surrender!" Kurros snapped angrily,
"And you sent the Hazari after us, disguised as a Malon," I retorted dryly. "Tit-for-tat."
"Ridiculous! Why would we..." he started but was interrupted by the tablet in Raven's hands, which was playing a recording of his initial conversation with the Hazari.
With a light sigh, she passed it over to Janeway, so that the Captain could see it for herself. Although we skipped hearing their demands, the price that they placed on Seven, and possibly members of my group, was several thousand kilos of different minerals and metals, only a handful of which I had heard of before. The amount of dilithium would fuel Voyager for the next year and a half, so it seemed like it was a decent amount, but honestly, my concept of value in the universe was limited.
"So, now that we have the obvious truth of the matter, are you going to be good boys and girls and cancel the bounty on Voyager, or would you prefer that we turn you over to the Hazari to pay for our freedom?" I asked, crossing my arms.
Things seemed to be going our way, so I was not surprised when I heard a loud, almost whale-like screech… as did the rest of the ship. The fifth, and founding member of the 'Think Tank', transported himself off the ship.
I barely had time to realize that the Elemental Creature left before L'Naan shouted through our comm badges, "Something just appeared on the portbow and is charging up a big attack!"
"Move me in front of it, now!" I ordered, shifting into my Dusa form.
I was transported just as I had asked and into the line of fire between Voyager and the Elemental Creature. Whatever attack it was charging nearly finished in that time, but I appeared before Voyager before the attack could land.
Instead of drawing a dagger, a short sword, or a spear from the sheath on my waist… I drew a giant buster sword, like something straight out of Final Fantasy and still larger than me in my Dusa form. I barely had the time to infuse my mana into the sword and swing it before the yellowish plasmatic beam was in front of me. My sword released a smoky, gray crescent-shaped blade of energy, which slammed into the plasmatic beam. For a moment, it seemed like they were matched in strength, but then, my blade cut through the beam with the gray mist eating away the remaining energy.
"Do you need a more direct demonstration of my strength?" I asked, pointing my buster sword at the creature.
The creature started building up its mana, so I expected that it was about to attack again and charged my weapon properly this time. My posture shifted so that I was ready to swing my sword horizontally as I rushed forward with a flap of my wings. Just as I started the swing, the creature completed it spell and... fled, shifting into a different Realm. It was not the Yin Realm, maybe something tied to the Space element with the shift in his aura, but whatever it was, he was able to escape at incredible speeds that were likely on par with high warp.
I pulled my mana out of my sword and rested it on my shoulder with a frown. "Well, that was anticlimactic. You must be pretty scary since he was still willing to try to threaten Voyager," I mused, tapping the blade of the Chaos Shard with a finger.
With a flap of my wings, I flew back over to the Think Tank's ship and teleported myself back onto it. Things were mostly the same since I left, but Kurros and the other bi-pedal alien were intimidated by my transformed state and the massive weapon on my shoulder. I grinned, thoroughly enjoying how scary I knew I looked at the moment, then I sheathed my weapon and transformed back to my normal appearance.
"Welp, your friend decided to run. Not sure if he's coming back," I chuckled. "So, are we turning them over to the Hazari or crippling their ship?"
"I still say that crippling their ship isn't enough. What's going to stop them from re-hiring them after they fix their systems?" Echo remarked angrily.
"Aside from the memory of this situation, they should have adjusted their probabilities to know that they have no chance of recruiting Seven or anyone else related to Voyager... right? Or would you prefer to see how the Hazari treat their guests?" I asked, giving a mocking look at Kurros.
"We... would not like to be handed over to the Hazari," Kurros replied.
"Well, it's Janeway's call," I stated.
"How do you intend to cripple the ship?" Janeway questioned.
"Encrypt their computer core, locking them out of all of their systems except for life support and shields, and then directly breaking their communication system. If they can't break my encryption, it will unravel on its own in a month. Smart as they are, the Borg would take a week or so to break my code, so we should have enough time to put a lot of distance between us and them since I don't plan on reactivating their telepathic communicator," Raven explained, making Kurros frown.
Janeway sighed and nodded her head, "That will work. How long will you need?"
"Three hours," Raven replied with a hidden smirk.
"Please start... Now then, Mister Kurros, you are going to contact the Hazari and call off the bounty that you've placed on my ship," Janeway said, her voice turning serious as she spoke to Kurros.
Although I had to deal with Echo's silent grumblings, she was smart enough to not show her displeasure at Janeway's decision. Kurros attempted to delay the call, saying that he needed to use the tablet that Raven was holding, but she shot him down in the next moment and set up a remote station for him to make the call. The tablet was the main connection to the computer core, so he had likely been hoping to sabotage our plan.
After calling off the bounty, Janeway and Seven returned to Voyager. Echo and I kept an eye on Kurros and the rest of his group while Raven raided their computer core, stealing the specifications for over twenty different types of devices and downloading a few petabytes of information about the region ahead of us. Raven could have her fun trying to create the tech and Janeway would appreciate the information, even if she would not be too happy about us taking it without permission.
Overall, things turned out well. Janeway was more than satisfied with how we handled things. The Hazari never appeared on our sensors again. Raven got some new toys, I had a successful field test of using my Chaos Shard, and Sancu kept his nose out of our business, which all of us were thankful for.
A/N: Sorry for the delay. It's been a busy month for me.