Well, that's one way of getting away from it all....

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 17740

Now, some scientist have said that it would only take an ounce of antimatter to destroy a world the size of the Earth. Given enough distance and full sheilds, the Voyager COULD EASILY shrug off the the exploding probe. However, what we have here are several strikes against the Voyager. The probe is ATTACHED to the the Voyager....well within the confines of her protective defense shields. Also, this probe is warp powered....and few warp powered vehicles out there are not antimatter powered. Voyager has a problem. Even the small antimatter warpcore of the probe is more than enough to shred the valiant ship at such a short range!

However.....

Time freezes, and between the ticks of the clock, a familar slightly snobby man walks around in his Star Fleet uniform (that hadn't been existence a few "momments" before) and tsks the Bridgecrew. The looks of panic that shows on the furry and the human faces is almost comical to Q. What happens next, Q knows, is going to be a real knee slapper!

Vixen Janeway blinks and looks around. While she herself didn't scream as the last few microseconds right before the probe went supercritical, she understood why the young human male ensign....an Ensign Coolige, is now giving off a small scream every few seconds. A shell shocked furry Ensign Kim reaches over from his post and slaps the screaming man, stunning him into silence.

"That....wasn't called for, Ensign." the vixen manages to say after a few false starts. Amazing how dry her mouth suddenly is....and how loud her heart is pounding in her ears!

"Yes Captain," furry Ensign Kim chrips, glaring at the shaking human.

"I....think we should find out where we are," furry Chakotay croaks from Janeway's left. The vixen glances at her second in command and sees tat he still looks a bit stunned (understandably) and then she and he quickly recover....they need to set an example for the crew!

Buttons are pushed, and the main screen comes online. Initial cheers soon turn to groans of confusion as conflicting readings are gathered and analysed on the planet below.

**********************************************************

"So....this is Earth....and this is the Alpha Quadrant...." human Janeway begins, looking around at the assembled Bridgecrew....noting that Scott and furry Ensign Wildman seem to have worked out whatever differences that had occured on the holodeck. "Just not the one from the any universe we were in before?"

"That's exactly right, Captain." furry Lt. Paris says, eyebrows raised at the readings he sees on one data padd. "Not only that, but we have....disturbing indications that this is one of those.....mythological universes that your universe's Borg wanted to assimilate after Scott's memories took It over."

"That's the strange energy readings we get from just about every astronomical body in sensor range....with the some notable exceptions," human Chakotay chimes in. "This place is lousy with it! And we know that it's 'magic' because....."

"Of what we've seen and scanned on this Earth below," sighs vixen Janeway, shuddering at the memory of small groups of....dragons flying around....and other strange....bizarre occurances she had witnessed on the main screen.

The room is silent for a momment, with each person alone with their own thought and feeling on the matter. The human Doctor breaks the silence.

"What I and my counterpart found most disturbing was the readings of a massive phage that has covered the entire world below!" he says, shuddering. "Readings show millions upon millions of dead....cities that have no human life within them. I estimate that only something like 15% of the initial population is left. Those who are left seem to be immune....somehow....."

"And it isn't like we can really get a good fix on the disease," mutters the dog eared Doctor. "The organism shows up barely on scanners, and it seems magical.....but what is most disturbing is that it seems to be artificial in origin....."

This brings shocked murmurings from the Bridgecrew.

"But...that's absurd!" blurts out human Torres. "The natives down below are still running around in wooden ships.....how is germ warfare possible?"

"Magic appears to make it possible, Lt." furry Tuvok says in a calm, but somehow grim, voice. "What is also disturbing is indications that we are not the only high tech group of people who've visited this world. There are indications of massive plains of fused glass.....and residual fallout indicative of nuclear explosions. Also, several anomolous readings indicate high tech powersources in various places....one of which is a cryo-unit located in a city that is now populated by what initially appeared to be furries....but now prove through several days of observation..... to be like the were-creatures of old....but somehow not a rapicious as their legends portray them."

"Also, their are several observational satellites in orbit around the planet that let the Voyager know that close examination of their inner workings was unwanted....by firing primitive but effective directed energy weapons across our bow." human Tuvok finishes. "Be that as it may, we will find no home here. The Doctor's can't even begin to understand how this phage works....much less protect the humans of the crew. A less remote examination is needed for an effective cure, but the Doctores have made it clear that it would take decades before results come."

"Very well," the vixen says. "We will set course for the Guardian of Forever and HOPE that this universe has one....and it can get us home!"

Several "aye, Captain"s are made as the Bridgecrew leave after dismissed. Scott lingers over the image of a hauntingly familiar, but totally alien Earth. Some of what the breifing had gone over.....was disturbingly familar. Was there a dragon down there, who after concluding that his creations were the next logical step in the evolutionary scale....create the plague that wiped out so many humans below.... Was there a knight down there who had been changed into a were-fox.....still dreaming of regaining his rightful form AND finding a cure for the plague that could kill him and his beloved at the momment of their regaining their human shape? Scott figures that he doesn't want to know..... One thing that is pretty certain, is that with magic available.....the art of science on many worlds might be very blunted in it's progress...or not developed at all! One thing that Scott fears though, that down below on the ravaged planet....that forces down there might not be so dismissive about nonmagical means of getting things done....after the destruction that has befallen them.....

So....onward, Voyager, to what awaits her.....

  1. This is not a dream.....this is all to frighteningly real....

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11/15/2001 10:48:40 AM

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