Standard Questionably Useful Disclaimer:
Sailor Moon and all related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi;
and are copyright to Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, DIC and whoever else.
Star Trek Voyager was created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri
Taylor; and is owned and copyrighted by Paramount Pictures. Based upon
Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry.
This story (such as it is) is MINE!!!
This fanfic is intended solely for entertainment purposes and no
violation of said copyrights is intended or implied. Permission granted
to copy this to other web pages as long as this disclaimer is attached,
and the text of the story is unmodified.
Timeline note: Occurs during Voyager's fourth season, between the
episodes "Concerning Flight" and "Mortal Coil"; and during the early part
of Sailor Moon S, approximately one month after the events depicted in
"Sailor Trek TNG".
Somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant
The planet was barely habitable and nearly lifeless. But this was
understandable being that it's physical characteristics were just within
the bounds for a class M world. The only sign that any civilized life
had ever touch it's surface was a small lithium cracking station; an
automated plant that had been used at one point to refine raw dilithium
into crystals suitable for use in warp engines. But this too was still
and lifeless, having long since been abandoned, the need for it's output
supplanted by more modern, more efficient methods.
Not far from the refinery, there was an outcropping of rocks. There
was nothing to distinguish it from the dozens of others like it
surrounding the plant, save for the fact that this had once been a
battlefield. Not a battle between armies, but a mortal struggle between
two men.
Two men that had once been friends.
A distortion appeared in the air above it, something that seemed to
be a hole in the universe. Or perhaps a tunnel into another one.
Among the rocks, a glow of energy formed and coalesced into a
globe, seemingly attracted to the distortion. Not caring where it led or
what it was, the energy globe floated up towards it and finally entered.
Seconds later, a smaller and dimmer glow formed and, like the first,
floated up and entered the spatial tunnel. The distortion hovered over
the surface placidly for several minutes, then there was a flare of light
and it vanished as if it had never been. Only the low moan of the wind
remained.
Delta Vega was peaceful once more.
The Delta Quadrant
"Captain's Log, Stardate 51404.7: While en route to investigate a
possible spatial anomaly in a nearby star system, our sensors have
detected a small and seemingly derelict Borg vessel. We have stopped to
check it out, as anything that could so seriously damage a Borg ship --
even a small scout vessel -- is something we need to be aware of."
Captain Kathryn Janeway stared at the image of the pockmarked and
mangled Borg ship on the viewscreen with one question in her mind. It
was the same question that had been taking up her thought ever since
they had come across the derelict.
What could so badly damage a Borg ship and not leave a trace?
The known candidates were few. In fact, she could only think of
one offhand -- Species 8472. All the other races that they had thus
far encountered in the Delta Quadrant didn't possess the firepower
necessary to damage even a small cube such as this, at least not without
massing a large armada. And even then, she would expect that the
resistance put up by the Borg would leave some tangible evidence as to
who was responsible.
She turned to Seven of Nine. Being that she had once been part of
the Borg collective, she would have a unique insight into the motives
and methods of the Borg. "What would a Borg ship be doing in this
system?"
"Examining the system and it's inhabitants," she replied curtly,
"If their biological and technological distictiveness was remarkable
enough, they would be marked as candidates for assimilation."
"If the locals did this to a Borg ship, that probably marks them
as unique enough to assimilate," Janeway observed.
"Correct," Seven replied. "A larger Borg ship is likely on the way
here. If that fails, then others will be dispatched."
Janeway grimaced at this thought. The last thing she needed right
now was another confrontation with the Borg. Behind her, the hiss of
the turbolift informed her that the away team had returned to the
bridge. Getting up, she saw Chakotay exit, followed shortly by Tuvok
and Ensign Kim. "Report."
"If anything, it's even more of a mess on the inside," Chakotay
responded, stepping down into the bridge center. "A good part of the
ship is exposed to vacuum, and virtually every subsystem has been damaged.
But the good news is we didn't find any trace that Species 8472 was
responsible for this attack."
Janeway heaved a sigh of relief. The extradimensional aliens had
been hard enough for them to handle even with the assistance of the Borg
collective. "That's something, at least. Any sign of survivors?"
"None," Tuvok said. "In all, we discovered a total of twelve Borg
drones, all dead."
"We did find the body of an unknown species," Chakotay added. "It
could be a member of the race that attacked this ship."
"Have it beamed to Sickbay. I want the Doctor to perform an autopsy
on it," Janeway ordered.
"Already done."
Janeway nodded. "Any indications of what weapons were used?"
"That's the odd part," Chakotay admitted. "We found no residual
weapon signatures."
"None?" the captain asked, obviously puzzled. She turned to Harry
and Tuvok for confirmation.
"Nothing we could identify, anyway," Harry said. "The only thing
the alien had on it was a large staff."
"An analysis of the ship and the drones indicate that they were
damaged by what appears to be a kinetic energy weapon of some sort,"
Tuvok added. "However, there were no indications that projectile weapons
were used."
Janeway turned and regarded the derelict Borg ship. "What kind of
beings could damage a Borg ship like that without conventional weapons?"
"Maybe they used large hammers," Paris suggested wryly.
Janeway smiled, but otherwise ignored the pilot's wisecrack. "Could
this have anything to do with the spatial anomaly we detected in the
system?"
"It's possible," Chakotay admitted. "But at the moment, we have no
way of knowing."
"We did manage to download the contents of a Borg distribution node,"
Harry put in. "The data was badly garbled, but we should be able to
clean it up and get something out of it."
"Let me know the moment you have anything," Janeway said. "Seven,
give him a hand." She nodded and followed Harry over to the operations
station where they set to work. As they did so, the captain turned to
her first officer. "Well? What do you think?" she asked him in a low
voice.
"The safest approach would be to give this system a wide berth," he
said. "At least until they have a chance to recover some of the data."
"It would be," she agreed. "But is it the best approach? For all
we know, that anomaly may be a shortcut to the Alpha Quadrant. I don't
think we can afford to ignore that possibility. Plus there's also the
chance that we may find whatever did this," she gestured to the derelict
ship on the screen, "following us at some point in the future.
Personally, I'd rather find out what it is now." She paused and regarded
the derelict thoughtfully. "Besides, Chakotay, the Borg know something
attacked this ship and they'll be sending another one here. I'd like to
be long gone by the time that happens." Resuming her seat in the command
chair, "Tom, lay in a course for that anomaly. Warp two."
"Course and speed set," the helmsman responded.
"Captain, I agree we should check this out," Chakotay said as he took
his own seat. "But I recommend we maintain a defensive posture until we
know what's down there."
"Agreed," she concurred. "Tuvok, sound yellow alert." Around the
bridge, the alert lights flashed on as the ship went to a higher state
of alert. "Mr. Paris... engage."
Earth
The sudden beeping sound startled Amy, so engrossed she had been in
her studies. Carefully, she marked her place in the textbook and pulled
out her computer. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was
nearly time for her to leave and meet the others for their daily study
sessions. Though she usually ended up doing more tutoring than studying.
Not that she minded, anyway.
But first, she had to check on what her computer was so insistently
trying to alert her about. More than likely it was picking up another
daimon sighting. There had been more than enough of those lately... and
they were still no closer to understanding their motives than the first
time one of them had appeared.
A quick examination of the data display soon put that notion to rest,
but her brow furrowed in puzzlement as she perused the readouts. She
tapped on the controls, refining the results, and her expression deepened
into a scowl.
How could there be any signs of activity *there*?
Sailor Trek: Voyager
Where No Sailor Scout Has Gone Before...
by Bill Harris
([email protected])
Chapter 1 -- Starship Down
"Where *is* she?!?"
Raye slammed her book closed, got up and began pacing back and
forth across her room impatiently. Still seated at the table, Lita and
Mina exchanged knowing looks, but wisely chose not to say anything to
the hot tempered priestess. By now, they knew better than to get in
Raye's way when she was in one of these moods.
Her "I'm-tired-of-waiting,-Serena-is-late" moods.
However, another decided to speak up. "I'm sure she'll be her
soon, Raye," Luna's voice came from beneath the table where she and
Artemis were half dozing. "Besides, you should be used to Serena being
late by now... Especially to these study sessions."
"I wasn't talking about Serena!" Raye snapped.
This statement caused several confused looks, both at and below
the table. "Um... then who *are* you talking about, Raye?" Lita
eventually asked.
"Amy, of course."
There was another awkward moment of silence as the two girls and
two cats tried to figure out how to respond to this. "Maybe something
came up?" Mina finally ventured.
"Yeah, maybe she was reading a book and just lost track of time,"
Lita added.
"Come one, you two," Raye said, shaking her head. "Amy's never
late, unless there's something wrong."
Moving out from under the table, Luna spoke up, "Don't worry too
much, Raye. If something had happened, I'm sure that she would have
found a way to get in touch with us."
The door chose the moment to slide open suddenly, and Serena ran
breathlessly into the room. Raye turned to glare at her, arms
crossed. "Well, if it isn't Miss Punctuality."
To the delight of all present, Serena didn't quite catch the
sarcasm laden into Raye's comment. "Hi!" she said, still catching
her breath. "Sorry... I'm late... but..." Her voice trailed off as
she suddenly realized that one of their number was still absent. "Hey,
where's Amy?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Lita answered.
MIna nodded in agreement. "You didn't happen to see her on your
way here, did you?"
Serena shook her head. "No. I figured she would have been long ago."
"I don't like this," Raye muttered. "When Amy is later than
Serena, something is seriously wrong."
"Yeah, that's..." Serena paused, then glared at Raye. "Hey!"
Again fate intervened, as they all heard the door slide open
again. "It's about time you got here," Raye said, turning around.
"What --" She stopped suddenly upon seeing who was standing in the
doorway.
"Darien? What are you doing here?" a puzzled Serena asked.
"Amy called me," he explained. "All she told me was to get here
ASAP. I assumed it was an emergency of some type, so I hurried here."
He looked around at the girls. "So what's the problem?"
"Good question," Raye said. "I wish we knew."
"Amy's not here yet, Darien," Luna tried to explain. "If there
is a problem of some type, she hasn't told us."
Mina looked out a window. "I don't see her... Wait a minute, there
she is!" The other joined her and sure enough, Amy was slowly approaching
the temple.
"Come on, let's find out what this is all about!" Lita said just
before racing out the door, the others close on her heels. Before Amy
could even acknowledge their presence, they started asking her a barrage
of questions, each of them wanting to know specifically what was going on.
A loud whistle silenced them. "Come on, give her a chance to
answer," Darien said, adding, "What's going on, Amy?"
"I'm sorry for not telling you when I called, Darien, but I wanted
to recheck the scans and be sure there was no error." She hesitated
briefly and glanced at the computer screen before continuing. "Just
before I called Darien, my computer detected signs of extra-dimensional
activity."
"That's not all that unusual," Mina said. "For us, anyway."
"That's true," Amy conceded. "Most of the threats we have faced
in the past have been from other dimensions, or times. But what has me
worried is where the activity was detected."
"And where is that?" Darien asked.
Amy took a deep breath. "The northern polar regions. Specifically,
D point."
Silence gripped the group as what Amy had divulged sank in. "Are
you sure?" Serena finally asked. "I mean, it *is* a long way from here."
"Yes, I'm sure, Serena," she replied. "The program is left over
from when Mr. Spock and I linked my computer to the Enterprise's main
computer to scan for dimensional anomalies. The program had been put in
the background after that, but it was still running even long after I
had forgotten it." She grimaced, "The distance factor is why I can only
say that there is some form of extradimensional activity there. I can't
provide any other specifics."
"Meaning if we want to know what's going on, we're going to have to
go up there ourselves," Raye said. Amy replied by way of a nod.
"Then it's no use putting it off. You're going to have to check it
out," Luna said. "Transform now!"
"MOON COSMIC POWER!"
"VENUS STAR POWER!"
"MERCURY STAR POWER!"
"MARS STAR POWER!"
"JUPITER STAR POWER!"
A flash of multicolored light illuminated the courtyard as they
triggered their transformations while Darien triggered his own silently.
Moments later, five Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask stood in the place
where five girls and Darien had been moments before. "OK, get ready for
the Sailor Teleport," Artemis said.
They began to arrange themselves in position for the teleport.
"Do be careful, Serena," Luna told her charge.
"Hey, have I ever let you down before?"
The black cat snorted. "Do you want a list?" she asked.
"HEY!!" Sailor Moon protested loudly.
"Come on, let's get going," Mars said, sounding somewhat impatient.
They nodded in a group agreement, and began concentrating, building
up the power for the teleport. When it reach it's peak, they cried out,
"Sailor... Teleport!" and the group vanished amid a blinding flare of
light.
"There they go again," said Luna. She turned a worried gaze to
the north. "I hope they have better luck there than the last time."
"Look at it this way. Could it be any worse than then?" Artemis
asked, then cried out a loud "OW!" as Luna promptly smacked him with her
paw.
"Of course it could be worse, you ninny!" she chided the white cat.
A somber and very worried expression formed on her face. "This time they
could not come back at all."
Not knowing what to say, Artemis settled for giving Luna a
reassuring nudge as they settled down to wait. "Don't worry, Luna.
They'll come back. They always do."
Sailor Moon shivered, gazing about her at the frozen icepack.
"Yeah, just like I remembered. Cold and snow!"
"What did you expect, meatballhead?" Mars exclaimed sharply.
"Palm trees?!?"
In their earlier days, this would have prompted a wail from Sailor
Moon as well as a complaint that Mars was being mean to her. But now,
she turned to glare at the raven tressed Scout and growled warningly at
her, "Mars..."
Amazingly enough, Mars chose not to escalate matters. Instead, she
held up one hand. "Sorry. I'm... a little on edge," she said. She
looked around and added, "This place brings up some bad memories."
"For all of us, I expect," Venus agreed. "Except maybe Tuxedo
Mask."
"No," Darien replied. "I've got my share of bad memories from
that time."
Silence gripped the group as they gazed around the area,
remembering the last time they had been here. During that final
confrontation with Queen Beryl. Remembering how they all had fought
on against overwhelming odds... and how each of them had died and were
reborn through the power of the Silver Crystal.
All except Mercury. She diverted herself by analyzing the readings
from her visor and computer. Finally, Sailor Moon looked to her.
"Anything, Mercury?"
"I'm afraid not," Mercury answered, grimacing. "There's some sort
of low level energy field that's interfering with my scans. From what I
can tell, it appears to be a Nega-energy field."
"Nega-energy?!?" Sailor Moon exclaimed. Around her, the others
looked similarly shocked.
"I wouldn't be too alarmed," Mercury reassured them. "As I said,
it's a low level field." She took a moment to consult her computer. "I
think it's a residual effect of the battle between Sailor Moon and the
Beryl/Negaforce combination."
"I thought that would have faded by now," a puzzled Venus said.
"Not necessarily," Mercury pointed out. "Both Beryl and Sailor Moon
were employing massive amounts of energy -- both physical and magical.
When powers of that level are unleashed, it could take years or decades
for the effects to fade completely."
"Maybe it was that energy field you picked up," Mars suggested
hopefully.
Mercury was already shaking her head. "I don't think so, Mars.
There were definitive signs of an interdimensional shift in this
vicinity. *Something* crossed over from another universe and into our
own. The only problem is that I can't seem to locate it now."
"Maybe we should split up and search the area," Tuxedo Mask suggested.
"I'm not to keen in the idea, but I haven't got any better ideas,"
Jupiter said. The expressions on the faces of Mercury, Venus and Mars
said that they agreed with the tall Scout.
"Uh, guys?" Sailor Moon said uncertainly.
As one, they turned and looked up. Sailor Moon was standing at the
top of a nearby ice ridge, staring at something in the distance. "What
is it, Sailor Moon?" Mars asked.
The leader of the Sailor Scouts pointed over the ridge at something
in the distance. "Could somebody tell me what *that* is?"
The others hurried to the top, and they gaped themselves. "Whoa,"
Jupiter said, then echoed Sailor Moon, "What is that?"
None of them needed to be told that it was a spacecraft of some
kind. That much was obvious. But it was a large ship, being over one
hundred meters in length. The upper section was an elongated oval shape,
attached to a lower section. And toward the rear were two large nacelles,
set at the same height as the lower section. The landing struts extending
outward from the bottom and the lack of ice debris around it told them that
it had landed on it's own volition and had not crashed.
"There's some lettering on it, but I can't make any of it out," Venus
observed, squinting at the spaceship.
"Neither can I," Tuxedo Mask added.
"Hold on," Mercury said, deploying her visor. After a moment she
read, "NCC-74656. USS Voyager. United Federation of Planets."
The others goggled. "F-Federation?" Mars said in a strangled
voice. Mercury nodded.
"It's a Starfleet ship," Tuxedo Mask said, his voice awed.
"Well," Venus said, a slight smile on her face, "Here we go again."
The others nodded in agreement with Jupiter adding, "Yeah, but I'm
wondering if there's a highway between their universe and ours. First
Kirk's ship, then Picard's and now *this*."
"Q was responsible for our being on the Enterprise D," Mercury
pointed out. She regarded the starship in the distance. "As for how
this ship got here, as yet I haven't got any idea."
"Probably through that quantum flux they mentioned," Mars suggested.
"I don't think so," Mercury said. "From the design, it looks more
like it's from Captain Picard's era. The quantum flux Spock and Data
talked about would only get us to that universe in Kirk's timeframe."
She paused and glanced down at her computer. "However they got here, I
can tell you that there's something going on aboard it. I'm getting some
odd readings from it from inside the ship."
"What kind of odd readings?" Sailor Moon wanted to know.
The blue haired scout frowned. "I'm not sure," she admitted
reluctantly. "My scans aren't entirely clear. There's an energy field
around the ship... and it looks like the same kind of energy field that's
interfering with my readings of this area." She shook her head and sighed.
"About all I can say for sure is that there are about two hundred or two
hundred fifty life forms on board it."
"Wait a minute... I thought you said the Nega-energy field was
leftover from when we beat Beryl?" Venus pointed out.
"I did," Mercury responded, looking somewhat grimfaced. "But it
seems that I was mistaken. Something on board that ship could very well
be the source."
"Sounds like we're going to have to go aboard and find out what's
up," Mars noted.
"Can you find us a landing point for the teleport, Mercury?" Tuxedo Mask
asked.
"I think so," she answered, and set to work on her palmtop.
Minutes late, a bright flash illuminating the darkened areas of
Cargo Bay Two announced the arrival of the Sailor Scouts inside Voyager.
"Gee, this is awfully dark for a Starfleet ship," Jupiter said after
they had a moment to take in their surroundings. "Did they forget to
pay their light bill or something?"
"They don't use money, remember?" Mars reminded her.
"Oh... right."
"At least it's warmer in here," a still shivering Sailor Moon
commented, which drew the obligatory sarcastic comment from Sailor Mars.
Ignoring the small but escalating argument going on behind her,
Mercury scanned the nearby walls and soon located the computer access panel
in the rear of the cargo bay. "I found something," she told the others,
which had the desired effect of silencing the combatants and the others
drew around her. Drawing upon her memories of their stay on the
Enterprise D, Mercury tried to work the controls, but instead of the
usual responding beeps should have sounded, the terminal was dark and
decidedly unresponsive. "Computer, activate terminal," she said,
frowning slightly.
The panel remained stubbornly blank.
"What's wrong?" Venus asked. "Why won't it work?"
"I'm not sure," Mercury responded. "The main computer may be down,
or it could be the crew disabled the terminal for some reason. But I have
no idea as to why."
"Maybe..." Mars began, but her speculation was cut off by a sharp
gasp of surprise from across the room, followed by a small cry of "No!"
Tuxedo Mask was the first to realize that one of their number was
missing. "Serena!"
Sailor Moon had been watching while Mercury tried to access the
ship's computer, but the lack of success on her part rapidly became boring
to the blonde. Striving to find something interesting in the darkened
room, she looked idly about the room.
A slightly brighter patch of illumination from across the room
caught her eye. Leaving the others clustered around Mercury, she went
over to get a closer look. As she moved around several cargo containers
and drew nearer, something about it seemed oddly familiar to her...
She could tell that it was an alcove, designed as if for a single
individual to stand in. At the top was greenish, circular device, with
an varying electrical pattern radiating outward from it's center.
She gulped as the realization struck her. It was a Borg alcove...
Immediately upon hearing her cry out, the others rushed to Sailor
Moon, Tuxedo Mask reaching her first. She didn't react to their
approach, but remained staring forward, her face pale and her expression
one of shock. "Sailor Moon, what's wr-" Mars began. A touch on her
shoulder interrupted her.
"Mars, look," Venus said, pointing ahead of them.
Mars looked that direction and saw the Borg alcove nearby. "Oh,
no..."
Sailor Moon was lost in a rush of memories -- of Rubeus gloating
over her shortly after she had been captured by the Borg; of the
nanoprobes being injected into her and assimilating her into the
collective; of her individuality being crushed by the weight of the
Borg unimind.
And the worst memory of all was the helplessness she felt as
the collective used her to try and strangle Darien.
Similar thoughts were going through Tuxedo Mask's mind, from a
different perspective of course. The central one being the horror he
felt upon racing into that central chamber finding...
***
"Yes, she's in here!" Heedless of the danger to himself, Tuxedo
Mask raced into an adjoining chamber but stopped short when he saw what
was in there. "No..." he whispered, horrified. The Scouts likewise
halted, aghast at the sight before them.
Only Mars was able to find her voice. "Serena, what have they done
to you?" she whispered.
The Starfleet officers stood silent behind the Scouts. Worf and
Data had seen this before.
Picard had been it before.
This was what he had feared they would find, but had hoped not to.
Sailor Moon stood before them, having been implanted with Borg
cybernetic devices much as Picard had been over a year before.
Serena had been assimilated.
***
Darien shook himself back to the present. "It's all right, Serena,"
he whispered, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's not
going to happen again."
Similar thoughts went through the minds of the other Scouts --
remembering the shock and horror they all felt upon seeing Sailor Moon
with those Borg implants. It was Jupiter who finally spoke, asking,
"Could this ship have been taken over by the Borg?
"I don't this so," Mercury said. She cast her gaze about, scanning
the alcove and the surrounding bay with her visor. "While this alcove
is undoubtably Borg in origin, the technology in the surrounding area
still seems to be of Starfleet design. I doubt that would happen if this
ship had been assimilated." She looked once more to the alcove. "In
fact, it seems as if this was been placed in here. It's as if the
entire assembly was just teleported into this cargo bay."
"She's right." All eyes turned to Sailor Moon. She was still pale,
but seemed to have recovered from her initial shock. "If the Borg were
in control here, there would be more than just this one alcove. And
there'd be several... drones here as well." She looked around, as if
seeing through the bulkheads. "In fact, I'm sure there aren't any
Borg nearby."
"How can you be so sure?" Mars asked uncertainly.
"I was part of the collective, remember Raye?" Sailor Moon
regarded her friend with a sad smile. "Believe me, if any of the
collective were here, I'd know."
"Well, we not going to find out anything by staying here," Venus
said, looking uncomfortable at the turn the conversation was taking.
"Let's go." Cautiously, the six of them exited the cargo bay and moved
slowly out into the corridor. The design seemed somewhat similar to
the Enterprise D, if less luxurious, but it was much darker than that
starship.
"Geez, what is it with this ship?" Jupiter ventured. "Everything
so far is either dark or not working."
"The main systems must have been damaged," Tuxedo Mask said. "I
remember the Enterprise being this dark after... the Borg ship nearly
destroyed it."
"I think Voyager was in a fight, and a big one," Mars guessed.
She pointed down the corridor,indicating what was unmistakably a
motionless body. "Look!"
They raced down the corridor, Mercury reaching the crewmember first.
As they approached, they could tell that it was a human female. And
though the uniform was slightly different, the overall design and the
comm badge were definitely Starfleet. "How is she, Mercury?" Sailor
Moon asked.
"Alive, but unconscious," the blue haired Scout replied while
still conducting her examination. "I can't find any sign of injuries,
but there are indications of some form of anesthetic in her bloodstream."
"A knockout gas?" Jupiter said. "How come it's not affecting us?"
"It's not currently present in the air," Mercury stated after a
moment. "It must have been filtered out before we came on board."
"So what happened?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Yeah, did the bad guys use the gas to knock out the crew or did
the crew use it to fight off the bad guys?" Venus added.
"We could stand here and guess all day and not figure it out,"
Tuxedo Mask said. He looked up and down the corridor. "We need to get
to the bridge. We should be able to find the answers there."
"If it's laid out similarly to the Enterprises, then it should be
on the top of the ship," Mars said.
"There's the turbolift," Sailor Moon pointed out and headed for
the door.
And promptly ran smack into it when it failed to open
automatically. "Owie!" She took a step back, glaring at the offending
lift while painfully holding her nose. "Why didn't it open?"
"Those must be offline too," Mercury said with a sigh.
"We could try the manual controls," Venus suggested, and quickly
went to work on the control panel, much to her friends' consternation.
"I saw Will Riker do this once."
"Mina, I'm not sure that's a good --" Jupiter began but was cut
off by the turbolift door opening.
Venus uttered a triumphant cry and flashed them the "V for Victory"
sign. She was in the process of taking a step into the turbolift when
the control panels both inside and outside the turbolift erupted into a
shower of sparks. Everyone jumped backwards out of range of the
pyrotechnics and watched helplessly as the fireworks display continued
for several seconds before the turbolift went dark.
"So much for the elevator," Mars observed, giving Venus a look.
The blonde Scout shrugged, unrepentant. "Nothing ventured, nothing
sprained," she said. A puzzled look came over her face, "...er, wait a
minute..."
Mercury spoke up, saving Venus the trouble of trying to correct
herself, "I think I've got the local layout mapped." She peered down at
her computer through her visor and quickly tapped the keyboard. "We're
only four decks down from the bridge, and there is an access route we can
take through the Jeffries tubes."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jupiter said, impatient to do
something. "Let's go!" With that, the tall Scout opened the access
panel leading into the Jeffries tubes just as they heard a loud *thwack*
from down the corridor, followed by someone crying out in pain. With
barely a glance among themselves, they rushed down the corridor towards
the source.
Only a few seconds later, Venus, who had taken the lead, stopped
suddenly as she rounded a bend. The others halted their own flights just
as quickly, but not before it caused several minor collisions among them.
But none of them asked Venus why she had stopped, for the reasons were
abundantly clear. Lying prone a few meters away was another of Voyager's
crew, obviously injured though still semiconscious. Instinctively,
Mercury ran over to him. A brief glance told her that the crewman was
still alive, but determining the severity of his injuries would require
a detailed scan. Absently she noted the gold color of his uniform,
indicating that he was either with the security, engineering or
operations departments. He looked young (she guessed about twenty five
or so), which was in accord of his rank of ensign.
In the meantime, the others were watching a figure further down
the corridor, evidently what had attacked the ensign. It was roughly
human shaped -- bipedal with two arms -- but there the resemblance
ended. It's skin seemed to be a green, chitinous substance, while the
eyes -- if that's what they were -- were enormous in proportion to the
head.
And it had seen them as well, for it hefted the staff it was
holding and flicked it in their direction, sending a bolt of dark energy
hurdling at them. Still intent on examining the crewman, Mercury was
caught unaware. There was a small flare of light that temporarily
illuminated the corridor as the bolt struck, slamming her against the
bulkhead.
"Mercury!" cried out Sailor Moon. From down the corridor, the alien
chittered something and started, seeming to recognize them now. It turned
and started to flee down the corridor.
"Oh, no you don't!" Venus shouted. "VENUS LOVE CHAIN ENCIRCLE!"
The golden band of energy lashed out, snaring the fleeing alien.
Desperate, it struggled against it's bonds as best it could, trying to
severe the chain with it's staff.
"You're going down!" Jupiter growled, invoking her own power.
"JUPITER THUNDERCLAP ZAP!" Her aim was true and the powerful electrical
blast struck the alien, rendering it unconscious. "Gotcha!" Jupiter
cried out triumphantly as the alien dropped to the floor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
While Venus and Jupiter dealt with the alien, their compatriots
checked on Mercury. "Are you OK, Mercury?" Sailor Moon asked.
Mercury nodded somewhat shakily, but otherwise seemed none the
worse for wear. "Yes, I think so. I'll be alright in a minute."
"If that's the biggest threat around here, we should be able to
clean up this ship in no time," Jupiter observed as she and Venus
rejoined the others.
"We managed to surprise him. It may not be so easy next time,"
Mercury stated, eyeing the alien intently through her visor and frowning.
She was still a little unsteady from the blow she had taken, but that
didn't affect her analytical abilities any. "In fact the energy readings
I'm getting from it are most troublesome, and may be indicative of a
much greater threat."
"Amy, when you start talking like that, I worry," Venus said warily.
"I am worried," Mercury responded, "Very much so. Unless I'm very
much mistaken, the dark energy we saw this alien employ through it's
staff are not native to his species but are a result of being empowered
by Nega-energy. Specifically, the same type of energy used by the
Negaforce."
Next: What's going on aboard Voyager? Some of the answers are revealed
in the chapter 2 as the Scouts consult the Doctor in "Please State the
Nature..."
Author's Note: The mention of the Sailor Scouts meeting Captains Kirk
and Picard are references to two of my previous stories, "Sailor Trek"
and "Sailor Trek TNG". Both are available at the following fanfic
archive sites:
A Sailor Moon Romance
http://www.ctd.nwu.edu/~aerdnahu/
"Tuxedo" Will's Fanfiction Archive
http://log.on.ca/users/helm/anime/index.htm
The Best Sailor Moon Fanfiction on the Net
http://www3.sympatico.ca/john.hitchens/MAINPAGE.HTM
Sailor Moon and all related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi;
and are copyright to Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, DIC and whoever else.
Star Trek Voyager was created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri
Taylor; and is owned and copyrighted by Paramount Pictures. Based upon
Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry.
This story (such as it is) is MINE!!!
This fanfic is intended solely for entertainment purposes and no
violation of said copyrights is intended or implied. Permission granted
to copy this to other web pages as long as this disclaimer is attached,
and the text of the story is unmodified.
Timeline note: Occurs during Voyager's fourth season, between the
episodes "Concerning Flight" and "Mortal Coil"; and during the early part
of Sailor Moon S, approximately one month after the events depicted in
"Sailor Trek TNG".
Somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant
The planet was barely habitable and nearly lifeless. But this was
understandable being that it's physical characteristics were just within
the bounds for a class M world. The only sign that any civilized life
had ever touch it's surface was a small lithium cracking station; an
automated plant that had been used at one point to refine raw dilithium
into crystals suitable for use in warp engines. But this too was still
and lifeless, having long since been abandoned, the need for it's output
supplanted by more modern, more efficient methods.
Not far from the refinery, there was an outcropping of rocks. There
was nothing to distinguish it from the dozens of others like it
surrounding the plant, save for the fact that this had once been a
battlefield. Not a battle between armies, but a mortal struggle between
two men.
Two men that had once been friends.
A distortion appeared in the air above it, something that seemed to
be a hole in the universe. Or perhaps a tunnel into another one.
Among the rocks, a glow of energy formed and coalesced into a
globe, seemingly attracted to the distortion. Not caring where it led or
what it was, the energy globe floated up towards it and finally entered.
Seconds later, a smaller and dimmer glow formed and, like the first,
floated up and entered the spatial tunnel. The distortion hovered over
the surface placidly for several minutes, then there was a flare of light
and it vanished as if it had never been. Only the low moan of the wind
remained.
Delta Vega was peaceful once more.
The Delta Quadrant
"Captain's Log, Stardate 51404.7: While en route to investigate a
possible spatial anomaly in a nearby star system, our sensors have
detected a small and seemingly derelict Borg vessel. We have stopped to
check it out, as anything that could so seriously damage a Borg ship --
even a small scout vessel -- is something we need to be aware of."
Captain Kathryn Janeway stared at the image of the pockmarked and
mangled Borg ship on the viewscreen with one question in her mind. It
was the same question that had been taking up her thought ever since
they had come across the derelict.
What could so badly damage a Borg ship and not leave a trace?
The known candidates were few. In fact, she could only think of
one offhand -- Species 8472. All the other races that they had thus
far encountered in the Delta Quadrant didn't possess the firepower
necessary to damage even a small cube such as this, at least not without
massing a large armada. And even then, she would expect that the
resistance put up by the Borg would leave some tangible evidence as to
who was responsible.
She turned to Seven of Nine. Being that she had once been part of
the Borg collective, she would have a unique insight into the motives
and methods of the Borg. "What would a Borg ship be doing in this
system?"
"Examining the system and it's inhabitants," she replied curtly,
"If their biological and technological distictiveness was remarkable
enough, they would be marked as candidates for assimilation."
"If the locals did this to a Borg ship, that probably marks them
as unique enough to assimilate," Janeway observed.
"Correct," Seven replied. "A larger Borg ship is likely on the way
here. If that fails, then others will be dispatched."
Janeway grimaced at this thought. The last thing she needed right
now was another confrontation with the Borg. Behind her, the hiss of
the turbolift informed her that the away team had returned to the
bridge. Getting up, she saw Chakotay exit, followed shortly by Tuvok
and Ensign Kim. "Report."
"If anything, it's even more of a mess on the inside," Chakotay
responded, stepping down into the bridge center. "A good part of the
ship is exposed to vacuum, and virtually every subsystem has been damaged.
But the good news is we didn't find any trace that Species 8472 was
responsible for this attack."
Janeway heaved a sigh of relief. The extradimensional aliens had
been hard enough for them to handle even with the assistance of the Borg
collective. "That's something, at least. Any sign of survivors?"
"None," Tuvok said. "In all, we discovered a total of twelve Borg
drones, all dead."
"We did find the body of an unknown species," Chakotay added. "It
could be a member of the race that attacked this ship."
"Have it beamed to Sickbay. I want the Doctor to perform an autopsy
on it," Janeway ordered.
"Already done."
Janeway nodded. "Any indications of what weapons were used?"
"That's the odd part," Chakotay admitted. "We found no residual
weapon signatures."
"None?" the captain asked, obviously puzzled. She turned to Harry
and Tuvok for confirmation.
"Nothing we could identify, anyway," Harry said. "The only thing
the alien had on it was a large staff."
"An analysis of the ship and the drones indicate that they were
damaged by what appears to be a kinetic energy weapon of some sort,"
Tuvok added. "However, there were no indications that projectile weapons
were used."
Janeway turned and regarded the derelict Borg ship. "What kind of
beings could damage a Borg ship like that without conventional weapons?"
"Maybe they used large hammers," Paris suggested wryly.
Janeway smiled, but otherwise ignored the pilot's wisecrack. "Could
this have anything to do with the spatial anomaly we detected in the
system?"
"It's possible," Chakotay admitted. "But at the moment, we have no
way of knowing."
"We did manage to download the contents of a Borg distribution node,"
Harry put in. "The data was badly garbled, but we should be able to
clean it up and get something out of it."
"Let me know the moment you have anything," Janeway said. "Seven,
give him a hand." She nodded and followed Harry over to the operations
station where they set to work. As they did so, the captain turned to
her first officer. "Well? What do you think?" she asked him in a low
voice.
"The safest approach would be to give this system a wide berth," he
said. "At least until they have a chance to recover some of the data."
"It would be," she agreed. "But is it the best approach? For all
we know, that anomaly may be a shortcut to the Alpha Quadrant. I don't
think we can afford to ignore that possibility. Plus there's also the
chance that we may find whatever did this," she gestured to the derelict
ship on the screen, "following us at some point in the future.
Personally, I'd rather find out what it is now." She paused and regarded
the derelict thoughtfully. "Besides, Chakotay, the Borg know something
attacked this ship and they'll be sending another one here. I'd like to
be long gone by the time that happens." Resuming her seat in the command
chair, "Tom, lay in a course for that anomaly. Warp two."
"Course and speed set," the helmsman responded.
"Captain, I agree we should check this out," Chakotay said as he took
his own seat. "But I recommend we maintain a defensive posture until we
know what's down there."
"Agreed," she concurred. "Tuvok, sound yellow alert." Around the
bridge, the alert lights flashed on as the ship went to a higher state
of alert. "Mr. Paris... engage."
Earth
The sudden beeping sound startled Amy, so engrossed she had been in
her studies. Carefully, she marked her place in the textbook and pulled
out her computer. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was
nearly time for her to leave and meet the others for their daily study
sessions. Though she usually ended up doing more tutoring than studying.
Not that she minded, anyway.
But first, she had to check on what her computer was so insistently
trying to alert her about. More than likely it was picking up another
daimon sighting. There had been more than enough of those lately... and
they were still no closer to understanding their motives than the first
time one of them had appeared.
A quick examination of the data display soon put that notion to rest,
but her brow furrowed in puzzlement as she perused the readouts. She
tapped on the controls, refining the results, and her expression deepened
into a scowl.
How could there be any signs of activity *there*?
Sailor Trek: Voyager
Where No Sailor Scout Has Gone Before...
by Bill Harris
([email protected])
Chapter 1 -- Starship Down
"Where *is* she?!?"
Raye slammed her book closed, got up and began pacing back and
forth across her room impatiently. Still seated at the table, Lita and
Mina exchanged knowing looks, but wisely chose not to say anything to
the hot tempered priestess. By now, they knew better than to get in
Raye's way when she was in one of these moods.
Her "I'm-tired-of-waiting,-Serena-is-late" moods.
However, another decided to speak up. "I'm sure she'll be her
soon, Raye," Luna's voice came from beneath the table where she and
Artemis were half dozing. "Besides, you should be used to Serena being
late by now... Especially to these study sessions."
"I wasn't talking about Serena!" Raye snapped.
This statement caused several confused looks, both at and below
the table. "Um... then who *are* you talking about, Raye?" Lita
eventually asked.
"Amy, of course."
There was another awkward moment of silence as the two girls and
two cats tried to figure out how to respond to this. "Maybe something
came up?" Mina finally ventured.
"Yeah, maybe she was reading a book and just lost track of time,"
Lita added.
"Come one, you two," Raye said, shaking her head. "Amy's never
late, unless there's something wrong."
Moving out from under the table, Luna spoke up, "Don't worry too
much, Raye. If something had happened, I'm sure that she would have
found a way to get in touch with us."
The door chose the moment to slide open suddenly, and Serena ran
breathlessly into the room. Raye turned to glare at her, arms
crossed. "Well, if it isn't Miss Punctuality."
To the delight of all present, Serena didn't quite catch the
sarcasm laden into Raye's comment. "Hi!" she said, still catching
her breath. "Sorry... I'm late... but..." Her voice trailed off as
she suddenly realized that one of their number was still absent. "Hey,
where's Amy?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Lita answered.
MIna nodded in agreement. "You didn't happen to see her on your
way here, did you?"
Serena shook her head. "No. I figured she would have been long ago."
"I don't like this," Raye muttered. "When Amy is later than
Serena, something is seriously wrong."
"Yeah, that's..." Serena paused, then glared at Raye. "Hey!"
Again fate intervened, as they all heard the door slide open
again. "It's about time you got here," Raye said, turning around.
"What --" She stopped suddenly upon seeing who was standing in the
doorway.
"Darien? What are you doing here?" a puzzled Serena asked.
"Amy called me," he explained. "All she told me was to get here
ASAP. I assumed it was an emergency of some type, so I hurried here."
He looked around at the girls. "So what's the problem?"
"Good question," Raye said. "I wish we knew."
"Amy's not here yet, Darien," Luna tried to explain. "If there
is a problem of some type, she hasn't told us."
Mina looked out a window. "I don't see her... Wait a minute, there
she is!" The other joined her and sure enough, Amy was slowly approaching
the temple.
"Come on, let's find out what this is all about!" Lita said just
before racing out the door, the others close on her heels. Before Amy
could even acknowledge their presence, they started asking her a barrage
of questions, each of them wanting to know specifically what was going on.
A loud whistle silenced them. "Come on, give her a chance to
answer," Darien said, adding, "What's going on, Amy?"
"I'm sorry for not telling you when I called, Darien, but I wanted
to recheck the scans and be sure there was no error." She hesitated
briefly and glanced at the computer screen before continuing. "Just
before I called Darien, my computer detected signs of extra-dimensional
activity."
"That's not all that unusual," Mina said. "For us, anyway."
"That's true," Amy conceded. "Most of the threats we have faced
in the past have been from other dimensions, or times. But what has me
worried is where the activity was detected."
"And where is that?" Darien asked.
Amy took a deep breath. "The northern polar regions. Specifically,
D point."
Silence gripped the group as what Amy had divulged sank in. "Are
you sure?" Serena finally asked. "I mean, it *is* a long way from here."
"Yes, I'm sure, Serena," she replied. "The program is left over
from when Mr. Spock and I linked my computer to the Enterprise's main
computer to scan for dimensional anomalies. The program had been put in
the background after that, but it was still running even long after I
had forgotten it." She grimaced, "The distance factor is why I can only
say that there is some form of extradimensional activity there. I can't
provide any other specifics."
"Meaning if we want to know what's going on, we're going to have to
go up there ourselves," Raye said. Amy replied by way of a nod.
"Then it's no use putting it off. You're going to have to check it
out," Luna said. "Transform now!"
"MOON COSMIC POWER!"
"VENUS STAR POWER!"
"MERCURY STAR POWER!"
"MARS STAR POWER!"
"JUPITER STAR POWER!"
A flash of multicolored light illuminated the courtyard as they
triggered their transformations while Darien triggered his own silently.
Moments later, five Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask stood in the place
where five girls and Darien had been moments before. "OK, get ready for
the Sailor Teleport," Artemis said.
They began to arrange themselves in position for the teleport.
"Do be careful, Serena," Luna told her charge.
"Hey, have I ever let you down before?"
The black cat snorted. "Do you want a list?" she asked.
"HEY!!" Sailor Moon protested loudly.
"Come on, let's get going," Mars said, sounding somewhat impatient.
They nodded in a group agreement, and began concentrating, building
up the power for the teleport. When it reach it's peak, they cried out,
"Sailor... Teleport!" and the group vanished amid a blinding flare of
light.
"There they go again," said Luna. She turned a worried gaze to
the north. "I hope they have better luck there than the last time."
"Look at it this way. Could it be any worse than then?" Artemis
asked, then cried out a loud "OW!" as Luna promptly smacked him with her
paw.
"Of course it could be worse, you ninny!" she chided the white cat.
A somber and very worried expression formed on her face. "This time they
could not come back at all."
Not knowing what to say, Artemis settled for giving Luna a
reassuring nudge as they settled down to wait. "Don't worry, Luna.
They'll come back. They always do."
Sailor Moon shivered, gazing about her at the frozen icepack.
"Yeah, just like I remembered. Cold and snow!"
"What did you expect, meatballhead?" Mars exclaimed sharply.
"Palm trees?!?"
In their earlier days, this would have prompted a wail from Sailor
Moon as well as a complaint that Mars was being mean to her. But now,
she turned to glare at the raven tressed Scout and growled warningly at
her, "Mars..."
Amazingly enough, Mars chose not to escalate matters. Instead, she
held up one hand. "Sorry. I'm... a little on edge," she said. She
looked around and added, "This place brings up some bad memories."
"For all of us, I expect," Venus agreed. "Except maybe Tuxedo
Mask."
"No," Darien replied. "I've got my share of bad memories from
that time."
Silence gripped the group as they gazed around the area,
remembering the last time they had been here. During that final
confrontation with Queen Beryl. Remembering how they all had fought
on against overwhelming odds... and how each of them had died and were
reborn through the power of the Silver Crystal.
All except Mercury. She diverted herself by analyzing the readings
from her visor and computer. Finally, Sailor Moon looked to her.
"Anything, Mercury?"
"I'm afraid not," Mercury answered, grimacing. "There's some sort
of low level energy field that's interfering with my scans. From what I
can tell, it appears to be a Nega-energy field."
"Nega-energy?!?" Sailor Moon exclaimed. Around her, the others
looked similarly shocked.
"I wouldn't be too alarmed," Mercury reassured them. "As I said,
it's a low level field." She took a moment to consult her computer. "I
think it's a residual effect of the battle between Sailor Moon and the
Beryl/Negaforce combination."
"I thought that would have faded by now," a puzzled Venus said.
"Not necessarily," Mercury pointed out. "Both Beryl and Sailor Moon
were employing massive amounts of energy -- both physical and magical.
When powers of that level are unleashed, it could take years or decades
for the effects to fade completely."
"Maybe it was that energy field you picked up," Mars suggested
hopefully.
Mercury was already shaking her head. "I don't think so, Mars.
There were definitive signs of an interdimensional shift in this
vicinity. *Something* crossed over from another universe and into our
own. The only problem is that I can't seem to locate it now."
"Maybe we should split up and search the area," Tuxedo Mask suggested.
"I'm not to keen in the idea, but I haven't got any better ideas,"
Jupiter said. The expressions on the faces of Mercury, Venus and Mars
said that they agreed with the tall Scout.
"Uh, guys?" Sailor Moon said uncertainly.
As one, they turned and looked up. Sailor Moon was standing at the
top of a nearby ice ridge, staring at something in the distance. "What
is it, Sailor Moon?" Mars asked.
The leader of the Sailor Scouts pointed over the ridge at something
in the distance. "Could somebody tell me what *that* is?"
The others hurried to the top, and they gaped themselves. "Whoa,"
Jupiter said, then echoed Sailor Moon, "What is that?"
None of them needed to be told that it was a spacecraft of some
kind. That much was obvious. But it was a large ship, being over one
hundred meters in length. The upper section was an elongated oval shape,
attached to a lower section. And toward the rear were two large nacelles,
set at the same height as the lower section. The landing struts extending
outward from the bottom and the lack of ice debris around it told them that
it had landed on it's own volition and had not crashed.
"There's some lettering on it, but I can't make any of it out," Venus
observed, squinting at the spaceship.
"Neither can I," Tuxedo Mask added.
"Hold on," Mercury said, deploying her visor. After a moment she
read, "NCC-74656. USS Voyager. United Federation of Planets."
The others goggled. "F-Federation?" Mars said in a strangled
voice. Mercury nodded.
"It's a Starfleet ship," Tuxedo Mask said, his voice awed.
"Well," Venus said, a slight smile on her face, "Here we go again."
The others nodded in agreement with Jupiter adding, "Yeah, but I'm
wondering if there's a highway between their universe and ours. First
Kirk's ship, then Picard's and now *this*."
"Q was responsible for our being on the Enterprise D," Mercury
pointed out. She regarded the starship in the distance. "As for how
this ship got here, as yet I haven't got any idea."
"Probably through that quantum flux they mentioned," Mars suggested.
"I don't think so," Mercury said. "From the design, it looks more
like it's from Captain Picard's era. The quantum flux Spock and Data
talked about would only get us to that universe in Kirk's timeframe."
She paused and glanced down at her computer. "However they got here, I
can tell you that there's something going on aboard it. I'm getting some
odd readings from it from inside the ship."
"What kind of odd readings?" Sailor Moon wanted to know.
The blue haired scout frowned. "I'm not sure," she admitted
reluctantly. "My scans aren't entirely clear. There's an energy field
around the ship... and it looks like the same kind of energy field that's
interfering with my readings of this area." She shook her head and sighed.
"About all I can say for sure is that there are about two hundred or two
hundred fifty life forms on board it."
"Wait a minute... I thought you said the Nega-energy field was
leftover from when we beat Beryl?" Venus pointed out.
"I did," Mercury responded, looking somewhat grimfaced. "But it
seems that I was mistaken. Something on board that ship could very well
be the source."
"Sounds like we're going to have to go aboard and find out what's
up," Mars noted.
"Can you find us a landing point for the teleport, Mercury?" Tuxedo Mask
asked.
"I think so," she answered, and set to work on her palmtop.
Minutes late, a bright flash illuminating the darkened areas of
Cargo Bay Two announced the arrival of the Sailor Scouts inside Voyager.
"Gee, this is awfully dark for a Starfleet ship," Jupiter said after
they had a moment to take in their surroundings. "Did they forget to
pay their light bill or something?"
"They don't use money, remember?" Mars reminded her.
"Oh... right."
"At least it's warmer in here," a still shivering Sailor Moon
commented, which drew the obligatory sarcastic comment from Sailor Mars.
Ignoring the small but escalating argument going on behind her,
Mercury scanned the nearby walls and soon located the computer access panel
in the rear of the cargo bay. "I found something," she told the others,
which had the desired effect of silencing the combatants and the others
drew around her. Drawing upon her memories of their stay on the
Enterprise D, Mercury tried to work the controls, but instead of the
usual responding beeps should have sounded, the terminal was dark and
decidedly unresponsive. "Computer, activate terminal," she said,
frowning slightly.
The panel remained stubbornly blank.
"What's wrong?" Venus asked. "Why won't it work?"
"I'm not sure," Mercury responded. "The main computer may be down,
or it could be the crew disabled the terminal for some reason. But I have
no idea as to why."
"Maybe..." Mars began, but her speculation was cut off by a sharp
gasp of surprise from across the room, followed by a small cry of "No!"
Tuxedo Mask was the first to realize that one of their number was
missing. "Serena!"
Sailor Moon had been watching while Mercury tried to access the
ship's computer, but the lack of success on her part rapidly became boring
to the blonde. Striving to find something interesting in the darkened
room, she looked idly about the room.
A slightly brighter patch of illumination from across the room
caught her eye. Leaving the others clustered around Mercury, she went
over to get a closer look. As she moved around several cargo containers
and drew nearer, something about it seemed oddly familiar to her...
She could tell that it was an alcove, designed as if for a single
individual to stand in. At the top was greenish, circular device, with
an varying electrical pattern radiating outward from it's center.
She gulped as the realization struck her. It was a Borg alcove...
Immediately upon hearing her cry out, the others rushed to Sailor
Moon, Tuxedo Mask reaching her first. She didn't react to their
approach, but remained staring forward, her face pale and her expression
one of shock. "Sailor Moon, what's wr-" Mars began. A touch on her
shoulder interrupted her.
"Mars, look," Venus said, pointing ahead of them.
Mars looked that direction and saw the Borg alcove nearby. "Oh,
no..."
Sailor Moon was lost in a rush of memories -- of Rubeus gloating
over her shortly after she had been captured by the Borg; of the
nanoprobes being injected into her and assimilating her into the
collective; of her individuality being crushed by the weight of the
Borg unimind.
And the worst memory of all was the helplessness she felt as
the collective used her to try and strangle Darien.
Similar thoughts were going through Tuxedo Mask's mind, from a
different perspective of course. The central one being the horror he
felt upon racing into that central chamber finding...
***
"Yes, she's in here!" Heedless of the danger to himself, Tuxedo
Mask raced into an adjoining chamber but stopped short when he saw what
was in there. "No..." he whispered, horrified. The Scouts likewise
halted, aghast at the sight before them.
Only Mars was able to find her voice. "Serena, what have they done
to you?" she whispered.
The Starfleet officers stood silent behind the Scouts. Worf and
Data had seen this before.
Picard had been it before.
This was what he had feared they would find, but had hoped not to.
Sailor Moon stood before them, having been implanted with Borg
cybernetic devices much as Picard had been over a year before.
Serena had been assimilated.
***
Darien shook himself back to the present. "It's all right, Serena,"
he whispered, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's not
going to happen again."
Similar thoughts went through the minds of the other Scouts --
remembering the shock and horror they all felt upon seeing Sailor Moon
with those Borg implants. It was Jupiter who finally spoke, asking,
"Could this ship have been taken over by the Borg?
"I don't this so," Mercury said. She cast her gaze about, scanning
the alcove and the surrounding bay with her visor. "While this alcove
is undoubtably Borg in origin, the technology in the surrounding area
still seems to be of Starfleet design. I doubt that would happen if this
ship had been assimilated." She looked once more to the alcove. "In
fact, it seems as if this was been placed in here. It's as if the
entire assembly was just teleported into this cargo bay."
"She's right." All eyes turned to Sailor Moon. She was still pale,
but seemed to have recovered from her initial shock. "If the Borg were
in control here, there would be more than just this one alcove. And
there'd be several... drones here as well." She looked around, as if
seeing through the bulkheads. "In fact, I'm sure there aren't any
Borg nearby."
"How can you be so sure?" Mars asked uncertainly.
"I was part of the collective, remember Raye?" Sailor Moon
regarded her friend with a sad smile. "Believe me, if any of the
collective were here, I'd know."
"Well, we not going to find out anything by staying here," Venus
said, looking uncomfortable at the turn the conversation was taking.
"Let's go." Cautiously, the six of them exited the cargo bay and moved
slowly out into the corridor. The design seemed somewhat similar to
the Enterprise D, if less luxurious, but it was much darker than that
starship.
"Geez, what is it with this ship?" Jupiter ventured. "Everything
so far is either dark or not working."
"The main systems must have been damaged," Tuxedo Mask said. "I
remember the Enterprise being this dark after... the Borg ship nearly
destroyed it."
"I think Voyager was in a fight, and a big one," Mars guessed.
She pointed down the corridor,indicating what was unmistakably a
motionless body. "Look!"
They raced down the corridor, Mercury reaching the crewmember first.
As they approached, they could tell that it was a human female. And
though the uniform was slightly different, the overall design and the
comm badge were definitely Starfleet. "How is she, Mercury?" Sailor
Moon asked.
"Alive, but unconscious," the blue haired Scout replied while
still conducting her examination. "I can't find any sign of injuries,
but there are indications of some form of anesthetic in her bloodstream."
"A knockout gas?" Jupiter said. "How come it's not affecting us?"
"It's not currently present in the air," Mercury stated after a
moment. "It must have been filtered out before we came on board."
"So what happened?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Yeah, did the bad guys use the gas to knock out the crew or did
the crew use it to fight off the bad guys?" Venus added.
"We could stand here and guess all day and not figure it out,"
Tuxedo Mask said. He looked up and down the corridor. "We need to get
to the bridge. We should be able to find the answers there."
"If it's laid out similarly to the Enterprises, then it should be
on the top of the ship," Mars said.
"There's the turbolift," Sailor Moon pointed out and headed for
the door.
And promptly ran smack into it when it failed to open
automatically. "Owie!" She took a step back, glaring at the offending
lift while painfully holding her nose. "Why didn't it open?"
"Those must be offline too," Mercury said with a sigh.
"We could try the manual controls," Venus suggested, and quickly
went to work on the control panel, much to her friends' consternation.
"I saw Will Riker do this once."
"Mina, I'm not sure that's a good --" Jupiter began but was cut
off by the turbolift door opening.
Venus uttered a triumphant cry and flashed them the "V for Victory"
sign. She was in the process of taking a step into the turbolift when
the control panels both inside and outside the turbolift erupted into a
shower of sparks. Everyone jumped backwards out of range of the
pyrotechnics and watched helplessly as the fireworks display continued
for several seconds before the turbolift went dark.
"So much for the elevator," Mars observed, giving Venus a look.
The blonde Scout shrugged, unrepentant. "Nothing ventured, nothing
sprained," she said. A puzzled look came over her face, "...er, wait a
minute..."
Mercury spoke up, saving Venus the trouble of trying to correct
herself, "I think I've got the local layout mapped." She peered down at
her computer through her visor and quickly tapped the keyboard. "We're
only four decks down from the bridge, and there is an access route we can
take through the Jeffries tubes."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jupiter said, impatient to do
something. "Let's go!" With that, the tall Scout opened the access
panel leading into the Jeffries tubes just as they heard a loud *thwack*
from down the corridor, followed by someone crying out in pain. With
barely a glance among themselves, they rushed down the corridor towards
the source.
Only a few seconds later, Venus, who had taken the lead, stopped
suddenly as she rounded a bend. The others halted their own flights just
as quickly, but not before it caused several minor collisions among them.
But none of them asked Venus why she had stopped, for the reasons were
abundantly clear. Lying prone a few meters away was another of Voyager's
crew, obviously injured though still semiconscious. Instinctively,
Mercury ran over to him. A brief glance told her that the crewman was
still alive, but determining the severity of his injuries would require
a detailed scan. Absently she noted the gold color of his uniform,
indicating that he was either with the security, engineering or
operations departments. He looked young (she guessed about twenty five
or so), which was in accord of his rank of ensign.
In the meantime, the others were watching a figure further down
the corridor, evidently what had attacked the ensign. It was roughly
human shaped -- bipedal with two arms -- but there the resemblance
ended. It's skin seemed to be a green, chitinous substance, while the
eyes -- if that's what they were -- were enormous in proportion to the
head.
And it had seen them as well, for it hefted the staff it was
holding and flicked it in their direction, sending a bolt of dark energy
hurdling at them. Still intent on examining the crewman, Mercury was
caught unaware. There was a small flare of light that temporarily
illuminated the corridor as the bolt struck, slamming her against the
bulkhead.
"Mercury!" cried out Sailor Moon. From down the corridor, the alien
chittered something and started, seeming to recognize them now. It turned
and started to flee down the corridor.
"Oh, no you don't!" Venus shouted. "VENUS LOVE CHAIN ENCIRCLE!"
The golden band of energy lashed out, snaring the fleeing alien.
Desperate, it struggled against it's bonds as best it could, trying to
severe the chain with it's staff.
"You're going down!" Jupiter growled, invoking her own power.
"JUPITER THUNDERCLAP ZAP!" Her aim was true and the powerful electrical
blast struck the alien, rendering it unconscious. "Gotcha!" Jupiter
cried out triumphantly as the alien dropped to the floor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
While Venus and Jupiter dealt with the alien, their compatriots
checked on Mercury. "Are you OK, Mercury?" Sailor Moon asked.
Mercury nodded somewhat shakily, but otherwise seemed none the
worse for wear. "Yes, I think so. I'll be alright in a minute."
"If that's the biggest threat around here, we should be able to
clean up this ship in no time," Jupiter observed as she and Venus
rejoined the others.
"We managed to surprise him. It may not be so easy next time,"
Mercury stated, eyeing the alien intently through her visor and frowning.
She was still a little unsteady from the blow she had taken, but that
didn't affect her analytical abilities any. "In fact the energy readings
I'm getting from it are most troublesome, and may be indicative of a
much greater threat."
"Amy, when you start talking like that, I worry," Venus said warily.
"I am worried," Mercury responded, "Very much so. Unless I'm very
much mistaken, the dark energy we saw this alien employ through it's
staff are not native to his species but are a result of being empowered
by Nega-energy. Specifically, the same type of energy used by the
Negaforce."
Next: What's going on aboard Voyager? Some of the answers are revealed
in the chapter 2 as the Scouts consult the Doctor in "Please State the
Nature..."
Author's Note: The mention of the Sailor Scouts meeting Captains Kirk
and Picard are references to two of my previous stories, "Sailor Trek"
and "Sailor Trek TNG". Both are available at the following fanfic
archive sites:
A Sailor Moon Romance
http://www.ctd.nwu.edu/~aerdnahu/
"Tuxedo" Will's Fanfiction Archive
http://log.on.ca/users/helm/anime/index.htm
The Best Sailor Moon Fanfiction on the Net
http://www3.sympatico.ca/john.hitchens/MAINPAGE.HTM