Copyright 2000, Susan S. McCrackin  Reprinted with permission of the author.

She was out of the bed, pulling on her uniform before the call could come over the communication system.

"Bridge to the Captain." It was Chakotay.

"Report."

"We have taken a severe electrical charge. Systems all over the ship are being disrupted."

"I am on my way. Janeway out."

She was fixing her top as she made her way hurriedly through her living quarters, her head slightly bowed. She looked up, just as she walked through open doors of the living quarters. Only, they weren’t open.

She caromed off of them and landed flat on her back, grabbing at her nose as she did, already feeling the flood flowing. She could tell she had broken her nose.

"Captain."

She managed a muffled reply, "What?"

"Reports over the ship indicated none of the automatic doors are working. Be careful."

Her reply was heavily nasal, "Thank you for the warning, Chakotay, but it came a little late."

"Captain?"

"Can you override the system and get my door open?" She was trying to get to her feet, woozy from her collision.

"Negative, Captain. Those systems aren’t working either."

She staggered to the door and used the magnetic clamps to force the door open, "Never mind, Chakotay, I’m out. I’m on my way."

She entered the bridge through doors that had been propped open, her shirt already wet with the blood from her nose. As soon as he saw her, Tom rushed toward her, medical tricorder in hand.

"Just stop the bleedi’g."

He grimaced but followed her orders, treating her only long enough to stop her bleeding, then moving out of her way as she quickly moved to the center of the bridge.

Her nose was swelling, and her eyes already starting to blacken as she took her position. "Rebo’rt."

Chakotay gave her a funny look, "What?"

"I sa’d rebo’rt."

"Oh." He had to quickly turn away from her. "We were moving through two areas of intense electrical activity. It seems we managed to act as a conductor between the two areas.

"What is our dabbage."

"What is our…damage?" When she nodded at him, he continued, "We seem to have intermittent outages all over the ship, but most of the systems appear to be correcting themselves. The doors have malfunctioned and the turbolifts don’t always function, but impulse engines have stayed on line and we are continuing to move through the nebula. We don’t see any other electrical areas as close as the two we just passed through. We also did not seem to set off any cascading affect within the nebula."

"How lo’g udtil we’re out of the debula?"

Chakotay was trying hard not to let her see his expression, "We should be through the nebula in another five hours."

She nodded, not noticing the expressions of the people around her, "Do you thick we cad speed up?"

"Yes, Captain," Chakotay cleared his throat, "Lieutenant Paris, another one-quarter impulse."

"Yes, sir. Another one-quarter impulse."

They watched as the ship moved forward, now faster, with no indication of problems caused by the increased speed. Finally, the Captain relaxed and turned around toward her chair, stopping as she saw Ensign Kim at his station behind her chair.

"Edsi’d, you are looki’g better."

He could not look at her. Pretending to be busy with his console, he said, ‘Thank you, Captain. I feel better."

"Captain."

She turned to look at him, "Yes, Chabtotay."

"Captain, I think we can manage things now if you would like to visit the sickbay."

"Sickbay?"

He gingerly touched his own nose, "Yes. I think you need to see about your nose."

"Oh. Right."

Allowing himself a small smile at her, he touched his combadge, "The bridge to the Doctor." When he did not get an answer, he called again, "The bridge to the Doctor. Doctor, come in." Puzzled he looked up, "Computer, where is the Doctor?"

"The Emergency Medical Hologram is offline."

"Ensign Kim, run a diagnostic on the Doctor’s program."

They waited while Harry ran his scans. He quickly looked up, "Looks like that charge has created some problems with the holographic systems. The Doctor and Meloka are offline, but the holodeck is running," he was quiet a few moments, "and I can’t override the program. It seems whatever is running on the holodeck is pulling all of the resources of the system."

"Captain," Tom had turned to face her.

"What?"

"The Doctor was staying with KB tonight while Seven regenerated."

She reached up to tap her combadge, "Jadeway to Ketaria."

"That authorization is not recognized."

She looked up in surprise and Chakotay put up his hand, "Captain, allow me." Tapping his own combadge, he spoke, "Chakotay to Ketaria."

"Yes, Commander."

"There is a problem with the Doctor’s program. Can you see about Kathryn B’Elanna?"

"Of course, I am on my way."

He turned back to look at his Captain, "Captain, I think you should go with Lieutenant Paris to the sickbay. Ensign Kim, please take over the helm." He watched as Harry moved to take over the helm and as Tom moved to stand beside the Captain. Chakotay looked back at her, "Captain, we can handle this until you return."

She looked at the faces of the two men standing beside her and dropped her voice to ask, "Is it that bad?"

Chakotay just nodded his head, the laughter in his face starting to break through. Without saying another word, she turned and led the way to the turbolift with Tom following her. Once inside, she stood, and he moved to stand beside her. After a moment he looked down at her, and she gave him a glaring look. Quickly, he gave the command to send the turbolift toward the sickbay deck.

Chakotay finally allowed himself a chuckle, and turned to Tuvok, "Can you determine what program is running on the holodeck?"

"Negative, Commander."

"Who is in there?"

"I cannot determine that. Whatever program is running is preventing our sensors from reading inside of the holodeck."

Chakotay frowned, "Are there any crewmembers missing?"

Tuvok concentrated on his scans, then raised an eyebrow, "Yes, Seven of Nine cannot be located."

Chakotay glanced at Harry’s back, noticing the Ensign had stiffened at Tuvok’s report, but did not move from his position at the helm. "Send a security force to the holodeck, and see if they can determine what is going on."

"Aye, Commander."

Chakotay turned as Tuvok sent his commands and moved to his command chair, eyes focused on the nebula in front of him.

She sat on the biobed, waiting for Tom to finish treating her. As soon as he finished, she took a deep breath and carefully tried to speak.

"Feels better."

He grinned at her, "Sounds better, too."

She gingerly touched her nose and was relieved that it was only slightly sore. She picked up a tissue and carefully blew her nose. "Well, Mr. Paris, it seems to work."

He turned to her, a dermal regenerator in hand, "Once I finish with this, I think you will be as good as new."

He started to work. After a few moments, she spoke, "I was surprised to see Harry on the bridge. I thought he would still be here in sickbay."

"Well," he started, rather distractedly, "I was staying here with Harry so the Doctor could keep KB and allow Seven to regenerate. Harry was getting restless and hungry, so we were on our way to the mess hall when the charge hit. We decided we’d better get to the bridge."

"How is he, Tom?"

He stopped his work for a moment and looked at her, "Something about him has changed. He didn’t seems quite as…tortured."

"That’s good. Do you have any idea why?"

"No," he moved back to work on the bruises under her eyes, "he wouldn’t talk to me about it."

She sat still for him a minute, then asked another question, "Did you see Harry and the Doctor together?"

"Yes," he cut his eyes to her, knowing what she was asking, "They seemed okay together."

"Just…okay?"

"Well, they didn’t act like best friends, but they didn’t act as if they wanted to kill each other either."

"That is an improvement."

"I’ll say." He finished and stepped back, "Looks pretty good. I’d think even the Doctor would be pleased."

"That’s good enough for me. Thank you, Tom."

He grinned at her, "Anytime, Captain."

"The bridge to the Captain."

She slapped her combadge, "Go ahead, Chakotay."

"Captain, we have identified some visitors."

"I’m on my way." She gave Tom a quick glance and together, they rushed from the sickbay.

Seven looked up as the program around her sputtered, then solidified again.

"What happened, Mama Seven?"

"I do not know, Flotter. Something must have happened with the holodeck program.

He patted himself on the chest, "I seem to be fine now.

She reached up, tapping her combadge, "Seven of Nine to the bridge." She listened, frowning, then tried again, "Seven of Nine to the bridge." After another period of silence, she tapped her combadge one more time, "Seven of Nine to engineering." Finally, she raised her head, "Computer, is the communication system functioning?" When she still did not get a response, she said, "There must be a malfunction in the system." 

She pushed herself up from the rock and walked back to the holodeck door, surprised when it did not open for her. She accessed the control panel to the side and keyed in the override command. Nothing happened. Finally, she took the magnetic clamps, attached them to the doors and tried to force the door open. When the doors did not budge, she placed her feet wide apart and pushed with all of her strength. Even her Borg enhanced strength could not budge the doors. Frowning, she backed away. Then, she raised her head, "Computer, end program."

She waited, but nothing happened. She cut her eyes from side to side, taking a quick breath. The computer would not respond to her. The door would not respond to her. It was as if she did not exist.

How appropriate, she thought.

"What is going on, Mama Seven?"

"I do not know, Flotter." She looked around, an uneasy feeling starting to grow. They should still be in the nebula, and she wondered if something had happened to the ship that had trapped her here.

Suddenly, a growling sound came from the depths of the forest, and Seven saw Flotter’s eyes grow wide in surprise.

"What is it?"

"That sounds like the Grobdab." 

"The Grobdab?"

The growl came again, and Flotter ran to hide behind Seven, his hands grabbing her waist, pressing himself close to her body. She twisted her head trying to look at him, then looked toward the source of the growl, trying to see if she could see the creature making the sound.

"Flotter," she said as her eyes searched forest in front of her, "what is the Grobdab?"

"It is a monster."

She sighed, "Can you be more specific?"

He peered around her, his head bobbing as he looked out at the forest, "It is a mean creature with bad temper. But it is not supposed to be in this adventure."

She frowned, "Which adventure is it supposed to be in?"

"It is supposed to be in Flotter’s Long Journey Home."

She stopped, trying to remember if she had read that one to Kathryn B’Elanna. If she ever had, that memory was gone. She closed her eyes for a moment, then said, "I am not familiar with that story."

"It is a story Naomi made up."

"Then," she said, starting to feel somewhat relieved, "the Grobdab cannot be such a bad monster."

"You haven’t met the Grobdab."

She stood silent for a moment. In all of the adventures she could remember, there was always a safe place to hide. If they could go there, they could wait until the problems with the holodeck were fixed, and someone would get her out. "Flotter, where does the story end? We will simply go there and wait."

"That’s the problem."

"I do not understand."

"We have never gotten to the end of the story."

"Why not?"

"Because," the blue head was frenetically bobbing up and down as he peered at the woods in front of them, "Voyager has never gotten home. So Naomi has never written the end of the story."

She raised her head and sighed deeply. This might be more of a problem than she had first thought. She looked back at the control panel and moved back toward it with Flotter clinging to her. She studied the control for a few minutes, then kneeled down to remove the panel over the wires and connections under it. For the next five minutes, she tried bypassing the controls to terminate the program, but nothing she did worked. Frustrated, she stood.

"What is it, Mama Seven?"

"It seems the program is running via the main holographic system and not from this holodeck. I cannot override the program."

They heard the growl again, and Seven could tell the creature was getting closer to them.

"Mama Seven," she could hear the fear in Flotter’s voice, "I think we should try to hide."

It did not feel natural to her to hide, but she realized she knew nothing about this creature, and that put her at a disadvantage in dealing with it. Also, if the holodeck program was malfunctioning, there was no guarantee that the safety protocols were on. Reluctantly, she nodded her head, "I think you are correct. Do you have a suggestion as to where we should hide?"

He did not reply, but nodded his head and grabbed her hand, pulling her into a dark area of the forest, away from the sounds of the growling creature.

The Captain walked quickly to the center of the bridge, her eyes on the view screen as she did. She joined her Commander and stood silently next to him.

He started talking immediately, "We picked them up on sensors about five minutes ago."

"Any idea of who they are?"

"No."

"Have you tried to contact them?"

He hesitated, "No, Captain."

She heard it in his voice, cutting her eyes to him. He looked down at her and neither spoke. Then, she slowly nodded her head and turned her head back to the view of the ships in front of them, "Do you think they know we are in here?"

"We have picked up some kind of scanning signatures, but we can’t tell if they were able to lock onto us or not."

"What is our status?"

"I ordered an all stop."

"Good." She stood quiet, looking at the scene on the view screen. She counted at least fifteen ships waiting outside the perimeters of the nebula. They were just…sitting as if waiting. She frowned. Why did she think they were waiting for Voyager to emerge from the nebula. "Have you tried to scan them?"

"No, Captain."

She slowly nodded her head, "Good." She turned to him slightly, "Go to yellow alert and call all senior staff. I think we’d better talk this one over." Glancing at the screen again, she said, "Have everyone assemble in the meeting room in ten minutes."

"Aye, Captain."

She walked into her ready room and ordered a cup of coffee from the replicator. Picking up the mug, she walked up to look out of the windows, seeing nothing but the gassy nebula. She laughed, thinking that suddenly, what she was seeing looked friendlier than she had thought it had before. After a few minutes, she walked from her ready room to meet with her senior staff.

They were waiting on her, faces looking at the screen on the wall, all concerned. She went to her chair and sat down.

"Well," she started, "any one have any ideas?" When her question was met with silence, she turned to her Chief Security Officer, "Tuvok, can you tell us anything about our visitors?"

"Negative, Captain," he replied, "nothing that I have been able to identify about those ships matches anything in the ship’s logs."

She stood quiet, her mind racing. She glanced around the table at the faces looking back at her. It was obvious they were as concerned about their situation as she was. Finally, she said, "Maybe we should interrupt Seven’s regeneration and see if she can identify the ships." 

Chakotay jerked his head in her direction, "Captain."

Her eyes narrowed, "What, Commander?"

"We think Seven is on the holodeck."

"So?"

"We have not been able to gain entry into the holodeck."

"What?"

"Apparently, the charge we took has corrupted the holodeck program. There is a program running that we cannot stop, plus we have not been able to open the doors." He looked around the room, "We haven’t even been able to get in through the Jeffries tubes."

"Have you been able to talk to her?"

"No, Captain, we aren’t even certain she is in there. We think she is because we can’t find her anywhere else."

She gave him a puzzled look, "I think you’d better start from the beginning."

He took a deep breath and started, "Whatever happened has blocked our scans of the holodeck. We cannot determine what program is running or who is in there. Communications are not going in, and they are not coming out. None of the access points can be opened."

"And you think Seven is in there?"

Tuvok spoke up, "The computer has identified her as the only person on the ship who cannot be located. We checked the cargo bay, and she was not regenerating in her alcove. I checked her alcove and determined that her regeneration had been disrupted prior to completion of the cycle."

Janeway frowned, rubbing her forehead with her hand, thinking. Finally, she said, "Lieutenant Torres, I want you to work on seeing if you can break through the hologram programming, and get Seven out of there." She hesitantly looked in Harry’s direction, "Ensign Kim, do you think you are up to helping Lieutenant Torres?"

He nodded at her, his look steady.

"Good. You two work on that." She turned her attention back to the other faces around the table, "Anyone have any suggestions for what we do about our friends out there?"

"Captain." Chakotay waited until she turned her eyes to him, silently giving him permission to speak, "I suggest we hold our position and continue to monitor the ships, give them time to make a move of some kind. Maybe they will communicate their intentions to us in some means or another."

As she considered her suggestion, Harry Kim spoke, "Captain?"

"Yes, Mr. Kim?"

"I have been studying Seven’s work." He took a breath, "She mapped out a path that took into consideration the probable flow of the areas of high electrical energy."

"And?"

"And," he looked down at the PADD in his hand, "she projected the movement of those areas as they moved in front of us and behind us once we moved along the path. According to her work," he stood and walked over to the computer screen on the wall and keyed in a program so a diagram of the ship’s path and the movement of the high electrical charged areas could be seen, "at least three of those areas should converge on us in sixty-three minutes."

She walked up to the computer screen, looking at it carefully. Then, she turned around to face the people sitting around the table, "Then we have an hour to figure out what we are dealing with and find a solution. I suggest we get to it, people."

B’Elanna and Harry were standing side by side, intently studying the console in front of them. Harry glanced over at B’Elanna, noticing the look on her face.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, but he could see she was struggling. Finally, she turned and ran for the small bathroom in engineering. He waited a moment, tempted to follow her, but instead stayed where he was, continuing their work. She rejoined him after a few minutes.

He glanced up at her, "Feeling any better?"

She nodded again, and he noticed she had a little more color in her face than it had before. "Yeah, well, if you think I’m bad, you should see Tom."

He grinned at her, "I have."

They shared a short laugh, then she looked at his console, "Anything?"

"No. It’s like the holodeck isn’t even there. Now, the computer isn’t even indicating there is a program running."

"Can you tell what was running before the charge?"

He concentrated on the program, "No. It’s like the entire program has been deleted. I can’t tell what is going on in there, or what has gone on in there."

She checked her own program, "I can’t identify any personal codes used to access the program since I took Kathryn B’Elanna there the other day. I know other people have been in and out of there." She looked up at him, concern in her face, "There is no telling what program is running in there."

He nodded, then glanced at her, "Do you think you can figure out if that is where Seven is?"

She did not react to the concern she saw in his face, "No."

He thought for a moment, then, without looking at her, said, "Maybe Ketaria could try to find her."

Her forehead went up, "Good idea." She slapped her combadge, "Torres to Ketaria."

The voice came back to her in a whisper, "Ketaria here. Go ahead B’Elanna."

"Did I wake Kathryn B’Elanna?" B’Elanna had lowered her voice and was speaking just above a whisper.

"No. She is still sound asleep."

"Are you where you can talk?" 

"Just a minute." B’Elanna and Harry watched each other while they waited on Ketaria to continue. Then, her voice came back, louder, "Now, we can talk."

"Ketaria, we think Seven is on the holodeck, but there is a problem with the holodeck program. We can’t get in, and we can’t scan inside either. So far, we haven’t been able to access the program, so we were wondering if you could see if you could make contact with her."

It was quiet for a moment, then her answer came back, "I will try. I will let you know in a few minutes."

While they waited, they continued to try to access the program. As the minutes ticked by, B’Elanna became more and more frustrated. Finally, she slapped the console with her hand, "I can’t even turn off the program."

Harry nodded, understanding her frustration. He had never seen anything like the problem they were dealing with now. A search for the holodeck’s program turned up various components of the file, but no program. Finally, he said, "It looks as if the program itself has been broken down and is totally fragmented or incorporated into other systems of the ship."

She frowned. She had just come to the same conclusion. "Well, we could restore the program."

"Yes, but that could be damaging to the Doctor and to Meloka and," he hesitated, "we don’t know what might happen on the holodeck if we do that."

She sighed, knowing what he meant. Without knowing if Seven was on the holodeck or knowing what program was currently running, suddenly restoring the holodeck program could prove dangerous. She looked up, anxious to hear from Ketaria.

The voice coming over the communication system broke the silence, "Ketaria to B’Elanna."

"Yes, Ketaria."

"I cannot get through to Seven. I cannot find her anywhere on the ship." Even through the communication system B’Elanna could hear the concern in Ketaria’s voice. There was a pause, then Ketaria continued, "Are we certain she has not left the ship somehow?"

B’Elanna and Harry exchanged glances, and B’Elanna had to lower her eyes. She knew what Ketaria was asking. They both knew Seven had grown more and more depressed. They had talked about their concern for her, each worried about what her growing depression might mean. But neither thought she was a danger to herself. 

Finally, B’Elanna replied, "No, Ketaria, we are not certain of that. We are not certain of anything right now."

It was quiet another moment, then they heard Ketaria again, "Should I wake Kathryn B’Elanna? She might be able to help us."

B’Elanna bit her lip, thinking. Right now, her father was off line and her mother was missing. She thought back to the Ikora. "No. Let’s not do that right now. Harry and I are working on the problem. We will keep that in mind as a last resort."

"All right." Ketaria sounded relieved.

"We’ll keep you informed."

"Thank you."

She looked over at Harry, and he shook his head, "Start rebuilding the program?"

She slowly started nodding her head. Rebuilding the program would take hours, but it would preserve the program’s integrity and hopefully, would not cause any problems with whatever was happening on the holodeck at this moment. That is, if anything was happening on the holodeck at the moment.

They turned to the console and started to work.

Seven and Flotter had traveled deep into the forest. At least, they could not hear the growling sound anymore. But, ahead of them, she could hear voices.

"What is that, Flotter?"

He stood and listened. "That is Princess Kes."

"Princess Kes?"

"Yes." He turned to her, "We are at the beginning of Flotter’s Long Journey Home. It starts with Princess Kes leaving the realm."

She cut her eyes between Flotter and the source of the sound, "Princess Kes is leaving the realm?"

He nodded, then waved to her with his hand, "Come on. I know where to hide so we can watch." He moved slowly through the forest, ducking behind rocks and trees as he did so. She sighed and followed, walking carefully, but not mimicking Flotter’s ducking motion. Finally, he stopped and peered out from the tree he was hiding behind. She walked up to stand beside him, watching the scene that played out in front of her, listening.

There were two figures standing in a clearing in the woods, and she recognized them immediately, although they were dressed in unusual garb. Princess Kes was wearing a glowing white gown that flowed softly around her. She seemed to be lit brightly in the dim forest. The figure standing opposite her was Captain Janeway, wearing red and black, but not her usual uniform. It was a pants outfit of some kind, but much more formal and…regal. She recognized the style from some of the illustrations from the children’s books she had read to Kathryn B’Elanna. She stood and listened to their conversation.

"I do not want you to go, Princess Kes."

"But I must leave, Queen Kathryn. You know I cannot stay here."

Seven could hear the tears in the Captain’s voice, "I know. I will miss you."

Seven watched as Princess Kes lifted her arms, "I will miss you and my family of Voyager. I leave now, but my gift to you is to send you safely from the land of your enemies. I will watch over you, always."

Then, there was a flash of light, and Princess Kes was gone. So too, was the scene Seven had previously seen. While subtle, it was a different forest, but the Captain was still standing in the center of it, dressed the same as she had been before. Seven watched as the Captain moved around the clearing, talking to herself.

"We are now safe from our enemies, but one stands in our midst. Can she be made friend, or will she always be foe? Her face is hard and her hate firm, but I believe there is still a human heart that can be warmed."

Seven frowned as she watched the hologram walk slowly around the clearing, then turn to walk in her direction. The figure approached the edge of the clearing and stopped, looked directly at her and spoke.

"Warrior, you are invited to join the land of Voyager. You will find a family here."

Seven’s eyes widened in surprise, and she looked quickly to Flotter. She could tell he was already involved in the playing out of the story. He looked at her, excitedly. "You are the Warrior, Mama Seven." He pushed her forward, "You need to answer her." When she did not respond, he encouraged her, "Go ahead. You have to play out the adventure."

She looked around her and breathed deeply in frustration and indecision. She was still trying to decide what to do when the holographic captain spoke again, "I pledge you my help, Warrior. I will be a friend to you. I will help you find your way. You should trust me. I will always be there for you."

She started trembling. The words touched something inside her, but she did not know what. She could not speak, only stand, her eyes wide, her breath coming quickly. The holographic captain started to smile and slowly approached her, reaching out her hand.

"Let me help you. Give me your hand."

Seven’s eyes slowly looked down at the outstretched hand, and she watched as her own hand reached forward. Then, she saw them clasped together – the hand of the holographic Kathryn Janeway and her own Borg hand. She felt the holographic hands tighten around the metal of hers and felt the comfort that flowed through the connection.

"Come." The holographic captain gently pulled, encouraging her to follow, "I will take you to our Great Healer, The Doctor. He will help you. We will all help you."

She stumbled as she moved, and the captain quickly grabbed to help her right herself. She stood, feeling the hands of the captain on her shoulders and found herself staring into the hologram’s face, seeing the kindness in the eyes that looked back at her. She saw the smile that came into the face of the captain and felt the hands release their grip on her shoulders and one arm wrap behind her back as the captain led her into the forest.

Behind her, Flotter clapped his hands in excitement, "Oh, boy. The adventure has begun."