Madness (part 4)

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 5865

In that train of thought, she almost sees too late the danger one small person is in before it's too late.

The holodeck had been brought back into shape after the beating it had took under the influence of the Pa'gh Wraith, but it still had a few bugs in it, unknown to the Engineering crew who had worked so hard and long on it. This time, another character from another holodeck program is disoriented to find himself suddenly inside the Loveboat holodeck program.

The small boy looks around, wanting to know how he suddenly found himself here. Where is that fat tub of lard, Carmon, and his other friends gone. They had been patiently waiting for the bus, when he suddenly found himself here. Not only here, but he suddenly found himself uncomfortably warm in his parka, something that he had NEVER felt before, even in the hottest of weather. The boy reaches up, and begins to remove his bulky outfit . . . . which strikes him as suddenly odd. He never remembers wearing anything else . . . . . never remembers taking this outfit off.

Kathy, looks up, and sees that the scaffolding that the boy in the is standing beside is shaking as the worker is moving around on it. Almost like it . . . . .

"LOOK OUT!" she screams as she dives and knocks the boy out of harms way as the scaffolding collapses. She and the boy look back and see that the worker is muttering, and picking himself up. If Kathy had been a hair slower, the boy would have been seriously injured, or worse.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asks unnecessarily.

The boy blinks, looking up at Kathy, and then silently nods his head, surprised. His parka lies under the scaffolding.

"Thank you," the boy says. "I would have been killed by that thing."

"Well, you look okay," Kathy says, looking over the strange boy. "But I need to get you down to Doc's. Just for the insurance reasons, you understand. Oh, by the way, what's your name, kid?"

"Kenny." the character from South Park says, smiling.

On the way down, Kathy and Kenny bump into the strange passengers from the Voyager.....

Kenny says something about the furries being unusual, even though the holodeck was programmed to not notice such things.

While Kathy and Kenny encounter Voyager crew belowdecks, Ensign Solomon (furry) is on the outside hull of the ship. He groused to himself as he sweated in the suit. Surely someone else was more qualified to investigate minor energy readings from a spot on the hull. There wasn't even enough energy detected to power a phaser!

Solomon came to the very tip of Voyager. He pulled out the made-for-vacum tricorder and scanned the absolute nose of the ship. There it was. The weak energy stream. Wait. It was being directed into the ship. Solomon frowned. This wasn't right. He extended the tricorder forward. A yellow beam shot out from in front of him and struck the device. Solomon backed off, pulled his phaser and fired on the point the beam came from.

The beam struck something flat and metal. The energy washed spattered away. Then space changed as something once cloaked came into view.

Solomon looked up. And up. And up.

Clamped to the nose was a brown vise. It was ten feet wide and gripped the top and bottom of the ship simultaneously. Dozens of black, corrugated tubes as thick as a man extended from the clamp. They reformed at a silvery metal tube which rose about five feet. This met more brown metal which curved for miles upwards. Solomon saw the side of the device, whatever it was, flared out then went straight up. Solomon aimed his tricorder at the tip and detected warp engines. Then Voyager beamed him inside.

Back inside the holodeck...

On the way down to Doc's office, Kenny McCormick stops dead in his tracks, looking with undisguised shock at what he's just seen.

"Wha....What is THAT?!" Kenny gasps, pointing at the small girl in front of him.

"Kenny, it . . . isn't nice to point," admonishes Kathy. In a quieter voice . . . .

"You . . . actually see what's wrong here?" she whispers. Kenny looks at her like she's an idiot or something.

"Well, of COURSE I do!" Kenny says in a somewhat quiet voice. "That girl looks like a cat, for God's sake! Never mind the bumps!"

"Mommy, why are they talking about me like that?" the little cat morph asks her parents who had just come into the scene. They are glaring at the blinking ship stewardess and boy.

Oh @$@*, they heard us! is the thought that goes through Kathy's and Kenny's mind. It hadn't occurred to them until now that the humanoid animal's senses might be well above the human norm!

"I don't know, Naomi," the human man says, still glaring at the the holographic people. "But I'm going to find out, one way or the other!"

Scott comes up to them and asks: "What's the meaning of this?! The holoprogram's not supposed to see the furry's as anything else but normal human beings!"

Somehow, this leads to an argument between Scott and his wife. Somehow, she has forgotten the fact that she herself had suggested that a problem with this simulation only see the furries as ordinary human beings. Every other method at remedying the odd behavior by the holodeck characters upon seeing an anthropomorphic character had either lead to more glitches....or something less than entertaining. Since that was the whole point of this thing was entertaining the crew....the holodeck had been modified as she had suggested.

Somehow, she flew off the handle.....

"And just why isn't the computer supposed to see us as Furries?" Scott's wife asked. "Because! We're supposed to be on a cruise! A late twen-cen cruise!" "As if we didn't have cruises in our world, Scott!" Samantha cries, then storms off.

Later, the crew visiting the holodeck is gathered around the pool. Samantha stands as far away from Scott as possible. "Tuvok says it was some random program garbage that got leaked into the system." human Janeway said to the crowd. "He assures us that the code has been eliminated and everything is back to normal. Now go. Go and have fun. That's an order. Don't think I'm kidding. I mean it." The crowd chuckles, then spreads out. Scott looks for his wife but she had taken the momentary distraction to vault over a nearby wall. Scott wanders off, depressed and unsure of himself.

Meanwhile...the device on the tip of the ship glowed brighter, blocking communications to the crew inside. Scott plods down a carpeted hallway. Behind him the wall shimmers and flows. Words are spelled out in dimples that form on the surface. "Scott." it read. "It's Lt. Torres. You must all leave the holdeck now! Scott! Scott! Dammit!"

Furry Samantha and human Samantha sit in a women's washroom and talk. ".....and that's what he said!" furry Samantha Wildman finishes up, plainly still furious over the whole affair. She then blinks in surprise at the funny look that her human counterpart is giving her.

"Uh....Samantha," human Wildman begins, trying to break the news to her still angry counterpart easily. "I seem to remember somewhere being told that the designation 'furry' wasn't used.....wasn't even thought up until your unfortunate encounter with Baldy?

"Wasn't it....up until that time from time since the dawn of time, that 'furries' from your Earth called themselves 'human beings?' In fact, for every corresponding 'furry' from your universe called themselves by the same name as my universe did....BEFORE Baldy came around and threw your universe into chaos?"[see episode 89956]

The fact that the designation of "furry" was coined by Bald Janeway as a DERAGATORY name to differentiate the.....and latter taken up by the furries of the Voyager as a badge of pride....just to spite the psychotic Captain. Fact was, the tag of "Furry" had been kicked around since that time that thinking herself as a 'furry' was almost second nature for the furries of the Voyager. All that flashed through the puma morphs mind, leaving her less sure of herself....but.....

"But what about the....." furry Wildman begins. Human Wildman cuts her off, impatient that her analog HAD not made the simple connection. Heck, Scott had always tried to accommodate his wife's feeling....and calling her human.....

"Sam," the human begins in an even voice. "You know that nobody from the 20th really had an encounter with alien species....at least nothing that was really published. You know that the characters from that sitcom that the 'Love Boat' was based upon is just chuck full of the the.....character of the mindset of a 20th century. Sure, Scott could have modified the flippin' holoprogram to include the holocharacters not even batting an eye, but when he and I did the the trial runs with that parameter in there, it just wasn't the same......the holocharacters just weren't funny. We didn't have the time to track down the little factor that was causing that.....there was nothing wrong with the holodeck that we could find.....so we did a simple dodge.....and that should have worked."

"You.....made the holodeck character see us only as ordinary human beings?" furry Wildman says, with a trace of dawning comprehension. "Wait, I was there when we you guys were hammering out that modifications. I SUGGESTED that modification.... And then I go and fly off the handle when Scott starts shouting at those characters..... Why?"

A dawning look of horror, and embarrassment, crosses furry Wildman's face. Yes, in the past she and Scott had gotten into arguments....that was just part of being married. Sometimes, the fault layed on Scott's shoulders. Sometimes, it was her fault. Sometimes, nobody was totally to blame. This case, however, Samantha was seeing that while something was definitely strange here.....while Scott could have done a better job at handling that angry situation.....Samantha had little real justification for getting angry at Scott for programming the holodeck for seeing 'furries' as ordinary 'humans' when.... before this madness with Bald Janeway.....when that was what she had called herself. Scott had been trying to accommodate her and the other furries.....

Before this can go any further, a message flashed up on the wall besides them. The Wildmans blink, and then get scrambling. They had to get out of the Holodeck ASAP! Just as soon as they get the others nearby out......

Meanwhile, back on the probe......

Various bits of it began to explode.

(The probe really was just an alien version of the holodeck and it was trying to meld with it's 'sibling' but the simple fact it was alien was causing all the chaos. Too bad nobody knew this until it was way too late...).

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 anomalous 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 rapacious 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.....

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

They do make it to that versoin of the Guardian of Forever, find out that if they shoot around the sun....they can get HOME!

To make a long story short, they even appear back in the Badlands (of the Human universe). Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine is delighted to see the Voyager back...and shocked at the furry versions of the crew.....

To make a long story short, it boils down to this. Star Fleet command is estatic that Voyager is back, but stunned at the appearance of their furry analogs. It's finally agreed that these furries could very well join 'this' Star Fleet (don't ask how they went through the process of deciding THAT one). However, with the way things were....Star Fleet wasn't just about to hand out a new starship to the human crewmembers of the Voyager! The highly unusual matrix like chain of command set up aboard the Voyager is left standing. Voyager is ordered to pull into a nearby Star Fleet base for retrofitting. It's weapon systems would be upgraded to lattest spec. The life support and other secondary systems would be upgraded, also, so as to better support the three hundred crewmembers. This would take something like a month in drydocks. Oh, and the "Crimes against the Federation" by the former Marquis members would be swept under the rug and the field commissions would be left standing....just like the Marquis officers had actually attended Star Fleet Academy.

"Shoot," sighs human Chakotay, smiling. "I think that we could ALL use a vacation after all that mess....then it's back to getting the Voyager back in shape for a visit out to the borders of known space....doing what we do best."

At first, plans are made for the Voyager to go out and explore the newly opened Beta Quadrant, but......the Q have other plans......

Scott leaned over his grape-flavored synthehol drink. At least the bar was relatively empty this time of the day. A lone Klingon sat with an unfamilar alien at the bar. The bartender was at the far end of the counter, repairing a tri-corder. The muted brown colors and the dark shadowy corners fit Scott's mood perfectly. Sure, after all that they went through they had gotten home. All that difficulty, pain, terror... It had been a week, though. Just yesterday, Scott had learned of the death of Lts. Johnson and Horath, two friends he had made while being de-briefed by Stafleet. They had been assigned to a starship protecting a food convoy for a disease-stricken Bolian colony. They had been attacked by a handful of Dominion ships. The convoy and the starship had destroyed all of the attackers but the two Lts. and four ensigns had been killed when a photon torpedo broke through a weakened hull-section.

Scott squeezed his drink. The veins on his hand stood out against his skin. One week back and already some friends had died.

"Yes, I know it hurts, Scott. And it's about to get worse. You're going back." Scott jumped in his seat and looked up. Across the table was...Q. "Not good." said Scott.

"You got that right." Q said. He was wearing an Voyager style Starfleet uniform. "Don't try calling security. They won't hear."

"Fine." said Scott. "What's this about going back?"

"Well, your mission is done. You've stiched up reality. Now you have to head back to the relative postion you and Voyager started out at. You still have things to do in the Delta Quadrant."

Scott's insides rolled. "I don't know what you're babbling about, Q, but we're not going back."

"My dear boy," Q said. "Do you think you have a choice? You must go back. Do you know what you have changed simply by going with the Voyager crew? So many new episodes have happened that you aren't part of but they are!"

"New episodes?"

"Oh, don't fool me, Scott. I know of your home dimension where this is all just a TV show. After all, what do you think Roddenberry was?"

"So...you're sending us all back to the Delta Quadrant because my influence on things changed what reality for Voyager was supposed to be?"

"You got most of it on the first try! You're not as stupid as you look. Yes, you're presence changed things. But it was mostly for the better. Voyager's skipping through multiple dimensions has stiched up the universe. That chaos energy of yours was slowly tearing things apart. But I attached it to Voyager (that's why all the crazy stuff happened) and drew the ship across multiple realities. Now the chaos energy is keep the universe from falling apart much like stiching keeps your clothes from falling apart. Although, that is a terribly simplified way of looking at things."

"Whoopy ding." Scott said. "We are -not- going back."

Q sighed. "Let me explain this to you one more time. You are going back. Voyager has things it must do in the Delta Quadrant! Now, close your eyes. Oh yeah. Forget about your furry friends. They have things to do in their own quadrant."

Scott's heart lurched. Not Samantha! He was going to take Samantha away! Scott dove over the table and ... sunk into Q.

"Greetings, Scott." someone said. Scott's eyes were closed. He was floating. Zero-G holodeck exercises? "No, Scott. Not Zero-G. This is Q. No, not Q. I suppose your primitive senses would classify me as 'his wife'. Ick. Gender. "But the reason you are here is because of Q. He wants to seperate you from your wife. We can't have any of that."

"I don't understand."

"I've seen your love, Scott. I've been showing you and Samantha's caring for each other to litte Q. You two have been most helpful in teaching him how sentient beings should act towards one another. Why, just the other week he changed the course of time so those two humans Romeo and Julie something-or-other should meet."

"I see." Scott said, secretly relieved a Q qas going to bat for him. "What do we do now?" "We? Scott, you're in no position to do anything."

"My apologies. May I ask what you will do now?"

"Yes you may. And my answer is...I don't know."

Scott's heart sank once again.

Scott is still feeling down when Q suddenly gets a personal call. Being the powerful being he is, the abruptmess of the call takes him totally by surprise....then again, the Wormhole Aliens can do that to a person. The discussion between the Aliens and the Q is less....disjointed and stiff than it would be for a human, but a true translation of all the nuances would take up several hundred pages..... This rough translation will have to suffice.

"Greetings Q!" a chorus of voices with a trace of what could only be considered interest. "So glad we could get in contact with one of you so soon! And we couldn't help but notice the little problem with our friends from the Voyager!"

"Who are you?!" sputters Q in outrage. "How were you able to....bring me to this barren plain without me even.....Where's my wife and child?! And....you consider these limited creatures your FRIENDS?"

"Well, friend may be a too strong of word," a female voice says in the air to Q's left. "Let's just say we feel a bit of gratitude for making us aware of the Q continuum. It got so DULL over in the old universe.....and the antics of these 'humanoids' is really something to see! And....we wanted to make the acquantice of the Beings who threw the Voyager OUR way."

In less time than it takes an electron to make a hundreth of it's orbit around the nucleus of an atom is all that Q needs to make the connection.

"You are those Prophets from the universe where those Preservers never made their rounds," mutters Q to himself. "I recognize the aura of you guys....and that's the only reason why you folks are outside that 'Wormhole' of yours!"

"That's correct," says a male voice to Q's right. "We never got trapped in a Hole due to any disagreement with the Pagh' Wraith....and now know to keep a weather eye out for any tricks they might try! But that's another issue. We think we can help you with this Voyager problem that would benefit the Q's concerns to a point and these human's interests."

"Okay," drawls Q. "This I've just GOT to hear!"

A small black box forms and hovers at eye level. The voices start to speak in unison as they explain. After they finish, Q has to admit that what they propose is rather interesting.

"So....you are proposing that I give this box to Scott," Q begins slowly. "It's a device that can create a small wormhole that can transport the Voyager....and ONLY the Voyager and her shuttlecrafts to the Delta Quadrant and back so they can EXPLORE? You want me to bring this up to the Council's attention, get their approval, and then just give it to Scott?"

"It should work," the female voice says. "It satisfies the Q's needs of the Voyager to be out in the Delta. It would be more 'humane' than just throwing them out there...and wouldn't get some parties angry with you and the Continuum....it isn't like the Q and the Prophets are the baddest kids on the block. I mean the......"

"NO!" shouts Q, paniced. "Don't even mention them! It might....bring their attention on us!

"You....really think that...'they' might be angy if....?" whispers Q.

"One in particular," a male voice says quietely. "So...if you could....?"

"I'll...do what I can." Q says, shaken. Then, gathering himself...

"Oh, before I go," Q asks. "How did you....do this? I thought that only humans could be taken like this!"

"Oh, that's simple," laughs a young sounding female voice. "We can do that to anyone who ties themselves to linear time....even if it's only for a short time!"

"Oh...." mutters Q. "I'll....have to remember that." That was more than a little humiliating for the proud Q. That was an issue for LATTER.

Q goes out to talk with the Q Council. Who knows what they'll say about this.....

The Q go for it, basically. The Voyager is presented with this offer...and what do you know. The Q are right about how the humans will react (for once). The Voyager now finds itself out in the Delta Quadrant......

"Captain's Log. We are now thirty-five years away from the Alpha Quadrant. The human's Alpha Quadrant.

But I still don't understand why the furries want to stay here. Wildman I can understand but the others? Is there something they aren't telling us?"

Captain's Log. Katherine Janeway.....Vixen Katherine Janeway speaking, computer. Where to begin.... I and my original crew are now back out in the Delta Quadrant again! If someone had said that after reaching the Alpha Quadrant I would willingly return my ship and my crew BACK to the Delta Quadrant I would have laughed! I'm not lying. But.....after Ensign Scott arrived with a small device that could be used to take the Voyager and her shuttlecrafts back and forth from the Alpha and the Delta Quadrant, so we can voluntarily explore out there instead of making a mad dash back home and taking decades to do it really.....was surprisingly tempting! Then, when it was revealed that the Q says that that the Voyager's presence could play a pivotal role in the continued existence of an intelligent race out there.....I swear that Q was reading our minds and hearts! Of course my human counterpart leapt at the chance to go out! Of course the majority of the human contingent of the Voyager crew jumped to go out! What seemed to surprise our human counterparts was the fact that we, the furry contingent, wanted to go out.

As for why I and my furry shipmates are not clamoring to return "home" is....something that I haven't told my counterpart. It isn't that I don't trust her....Lord knows that that isn't the reason! It's.....just painful.....

  1. The vixen takes a deep, steadying breath...

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree


Grimm Reader

11/23/1999 1:52:23 AM

Linking Enabled

Extending Enabled

The Never Ending Quest Home

Extend-A-Story Home

21320419 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.

Do not click me.