=/\=

When Natalie awoke that next morning, there was silence. There were no voices from her parents room. The phaser-fire had stopped and the space outside was empty. The Mandorian ship had left. Natalie assumed they had won.

Natalie stepped outside her room minutes later dressed in a maroon dress and leggings, over a pale yellow shirt. The quarters were empty. She checked her parents room, but the bed was empty and it appeared it was not slept in. Concerned, Natalie entered the corridor and walked towards the turbolift. The corridor was empty. With nearly 200 people on board, this was unusual. At all hours of the day, the ship was filled with activity. Natalie found the silence a bit disturbing and she quickly headed for the turbolift, anxious to find out what wrong.

As she stood in front of the turbolift, waiting for one to arrive, Natalie heard crying. A child was crying, not too far away. Alarmed, Natalie searched the corridor for the source. She found six year old Heather Bristow, huddled in a corner, her face red with tears. Natalie knelt down.

"Heather, what’s wrong?" Natalie asked, as she stroked her hair. "Where is your brother and sister?". Heather’s older sister was nine-year-old Kelly and her brother was three-year-old Hunter. They were the children of Freddy Bristow and Jenny Delany. A few drops of tears rolled down Heather’s pudgy cheeks. She sniffled.

"Where’s Mommy?" she asked. Natalie was confused. Jenny worked the afternoon shift, she was always in the quarters during the morning.

"Mommy isn’t home?" Natalie asked. Heather shook her head. Natalie picked her up and carried her in the direction of the Bristow quarters. Natalie hadn’t gotten very far before she met up with Naomi. Natalie was relieved to see someone older.

"Naomi, do you know what’s going on?" Natalie asked. "Mom and Dad never came home last night and Heather can’t find her mother." Naomi’s facial expression did not look hopeful.

"I can’t find my mother either," Naomi replied. "I asked the computer and she isn’t on board." Natalie was puzzled. She thought for a moment for a logical explanation.

"A sudden away mission?" Natalie suggested. "Um…" Natalie’s mind was drawing a blank. She shifted Heather to her other hip.

"An away mission where?" Naomi asked. "And after an attack? The ship suffered heavy damage last night, I could tell. Whoever was out there was a lot tougher than us." Natalie and Naomi shared a silent look of panic. They had to get to the bridge. Natalie rushed to the Bristow quarters on the other end of the corridor. She set Heather down inside.

"Stay here, ok, sweetie?" Natalie said. Heather nodded. "Go play in your room, I’ll be back later to check on you." Natalie didn’t wait for an answer, she was already running down the hall.

=/\=

There were bulkheads everywhere. Wires were hanging out of the consoles like snakes, and gel packs visible behind punctured walls, seeping with blue ooze. The conn chair had been flung on to the other side of the room, while the ops and tactical stations’ consoles had been blown through, glass shattered everywhere. Natalie stared in horror at the burnt hole in the Captain’s chair. Tears filled her eyes as her hand went to her mouth.

The turbolift doors flew open as Blake, Emily and Andy stepped onto the bridge. They, too, were taken aback by the destruction of the bridge. Empty of the normal crew, the bridge had an eerie ghost-town feel. They slowly walked down to the main level, observing everything.

"Oh Kahless…" Emily whispered as her eye caught the broken conn chair, lying half-hazerdly next to the door to the briefing room. "What…" Emily couldn’t finish her sentence. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she turned towards her brothers, their eyes sullen.

Naomi attempted to access the ops station to find out what had happened. The station was too heavily damaged to give her any straight readings, but it was obvious that something had gone terribly wrong last night.

"Computer, locate Captain Kathryn Janeway," Naomi asked.

"Captain Kathryn Janeway is not on board Voyager," the automated computer voice replied. Naomi glanced over at Natalie’s tearful eyes.

"Computer, are there any crewmembers on board Voyager at this time?" Naomi asked.

"Negative," replied the computer. Natalie gasped. The entire crew had disappeared. Only the children remained. Forty children, ages 1 day to 22 years, were left. Naomi suddenly had an inspiration.

"Computer, is the Emergency Medical Holographic program still active?" Naomi asked, her voice urgent.

"Affirmative." Naomi’s eyes brightened a bit as she ran for the turbolift, Natalie, Blake, Emily, and Andy following quickly.

The turbolift seemed to take forever before it arrived just down the hall from sickbay. The five raced down the hall, zipping past surprised children who were just wandering the ship, alone. They skidded to a halt inside sickbay.

"Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Holographic program," Blake snapped. The Doctor appeared a few meters in front of them.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," the Doctor stated automatically. "Mr. Paris, how many I help you?" He was grinning slightly as he picked up a PADD, but Blake’s grim eyes told him this was no laughing matter. The Doctor’s smile slowly faded. "What’s wrong?". His voice was cautious, preparing himself for the worst.

"The crew is missing," Blake started simply. "Only the children and you remain. The bridge is destroyed, as are probably other areas of the ship." The Doctor sighed.

"She never ceased to amaze me," the Doctor said, barely above a whisper.

"Who?" Natalie asked. The Doctor cleared his throat, setting the PADD down.

"Your mother," he replied. "Ever after twenty-five years and at nearly seventy years of age she’s still getting her ship kicked and beaten. You think she’d have learned to leave things well enough alone." Natalie looked like she was about to send this holoprogram to Timbuktu.

"From the looks of it, Doctor," Natalie said with just a touch of anger, "my mother had no intention of getting her chair blasted through." The Doctor turned to her, apologetic.

"I apologize, Ms. Janeway," the Doctor replied. "But I was only speaking the truth. Now, as for this disappearing act of the crew, I suggest we look through the sensor data and tactical information."

Naomi shook her head, regretfully. "I already tried to go through the sensor data but there was too much damage at Harry’s console. It didn’t look good. I’m going to try and see if I can get the information from the operations console in engineering, but if the damage there is as bad as it was on the bridge, I might not have much luck." She paused and turned to Emily. "I’m not whiz at the mechanics in engineering, so if there is a problem, I would like Emily to assist me." Blake chuckled a bit, and tried to stifle it.

"What’s the matter with you?" Emily asked, irritated.

Blake shook his head. "Nothing. It’s just…this reminds me of one of our tactical drills with Tuvok. You know, the simulations we do." Natalie’s expression remained grim.

"Only this time it’s not a simulation," Natalie replied. "It’s very real and our parents lives are in a very real danger." With that, she made a grand Janeway exit. Spinning on her heals, she marched out of sickbay.

=/\=

The Engineering door opened smoothly and presented engineering at its worst. The warp core was a solid blue, frozen in place. Bulkheads were scattered around, with pieces of wire still attached. Chairs were flopped over and consoles were black. It was like the bridge, only bigger.

Naomi and Emily entered carefully, stepping over pieces of metal that once made up their ship. Emily spotted the operations console, its lights flickering. Emily hopped over a chair and started to access its memory banks. Naomi watched carefully as Emily’s finger danced over the buttons like a professional. Loads of information started scrolling down the panel…weapons fire, ship overview, shield strength, life signs…it was all there.

"What does it say?" Naomi asked. Emily continued scanning for a moment before replying.

"It’s just records of everything that was happening in the ships systems when the battle was going on," Emily replied. She punched a few more buttons. "From what I can tell, the battle didn’t start out so well. There was heavy shielding damage in the first few minutes." She paused, reviewing the console as more data streamed down. "Apparently Tuvok didn’t hold them off too well, and Dad couldn’t maneuver around ships so big. There were too many and too far in. He didn’t have anywhere to go."

"So what happened? Why the big mess on the Bridge?" Naomi continued. Emily tapped a few controls, accessing the later sensor data.

"Well, it looks like systems overloaded," Emily answered. "That’s why there are wires and fragments of bulkheads everywhere. Then it looks like weapons firing stopped. At least on Voyager’s end. I can’t really tell if they were firing weapons though."

"That doesn’t sound good, Emily," Naomi said, worriedly. Emily shared her concern. She read a little ahead before relaying it to Naomi.

"Ok, so weapons firing stopped and it looks like we were boarded," Emily went on. "And then most everyone on board, I’d say, was transported off."

"The Voyager crew," Naomi added.

Emily nodded her head, "Exactly. Everyone except us kids. We probably weren’t valuable enough to kidnap so soon. Or they just didn’t know we were here. It was about midnight, so I’d say all the kids were asleep."

"With all the adults still awake and working." Naomi was beginning to the puzzle together. The scenario didn’t make much sense. Why leave the kids behind while they take the adults?

"Why would the adults be so important that they would leave forty children behind?" Naomi questioned.

Emily shrugged, "Got me. Maybe there wasn’t enough room, or maybe they were going to come back later, or maybe they didn’t know about us." They pondered this for a moment. Suddenly, Emily noticed something on the screen. She perked up.

"What is it?" Naomi asked.

"I’m looking at some data on the Bridge," Emily replied. "Apparently the weapons fire on the Bridge happened after the series of transportations. This means the hole in the Captain’s chair probably happened after she left. Natalie is going to be really happy." Naomi smiled. So the Captain probably wasn’t hurt. This was good to hear. The console beeped.

"What was that?" Naomi asked, leaning forward. Emily raised her eyebrows.

"I’m not entirely sure," Emily replied. "I’ve never heard that beep before. Ah ha! Found it. It looks like there was some tampering in the ventilation systems last night." Emily was confused. Who would be going into the ventilation system? Naomi looked over Emily’s shoulder.

"Something was put into the air last night…" Emily whispered.

=/\=

Transport to: Table of Contents | Chapter 3