=/\=

"It’s a gas known as chlora-corzine," the Doctor announced as the eight stood around the console. "It’s relatively harmless to humans, though in some races, such as the Vulcans, it can cause extreme drowsiness."

"If it harmless to us, then why is it even in the air?" Andy asked.

"They probably thought it would make us fall asleep," Natalie answered. "Only since this chlora stuff doesn’t do anything to us, it didn’t work."

Pictured on one of the Doctor’s console screen was a magnified version of the chlora-corzine particles. He tapped one button, and the image turned off. He wandered over to his office and sat down at his desk, resting his feet on the table. The Doctor’s casual manor irked Natalie but she remained calm.

"The Mandorians wanted to put you to sleep and then come back for you later," the Doctor hypothesized. "Presumably after the crew have told the Mandorians all they need to know about how to work the ship. But, you’re not asleep."

"That’s right," Natalie added. "We’ll be awake and ready to fight." Natalie’s fists were clenched tight. Anna looked up at Natalie surprised.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, slow down, back the shuttlecraft up," Anna said, putting up her hands up. "What do you mean fight? I’m not going to fight anyone who blasted a whole through Captain Janeway’s chair." Natalie rolled her eyes. Typical nine-year-old reaction. Anna was just a kid. She probably didn’t realize the importance of what they were going to do.

"We’re fighting, Anna, don’t be such a baby," Blake mocked.

"Yeah, Anna, show some courage," big brother Noah said.

Anna gaped. "Courage? This isn’t courage, this is suicide!".

=/\=

After hours and hours of cleaning up the debris and fixing the computer consoles, Naomi and the others had finally fixed most of the computer systems on the ship. The shields were still a bit low, and Seth was a concerned the thrusters would break down at any time, but otherwise systems were up and working.

The other children were put into a holographic day care center to keep them occupied and happy while Naomi and the others repaired the ship. Naomi was concerned they were going to get into trouble if no one kept an eye on them, so she created a place where the children would be able to play games and learn. Occasionally she went down to check on them and to make sure everyone was there, but otherwise there were no problems. During one visit, little Heather told Naomi that it was the best holoprogram ever.

At the third day, the systems were functioning, but the group was exhausted. Save for the Doctor, everyone was sweaty, dirty, and fatigued. With only nine people repairing the ship, they had to work for almost eighteen hours a day to get anything operational, and there was still more to do.

"I think we’re in way over our heads this time," Natalie whispered as she sat down in the now hole-free captain’s chair.

"When are we not?" Blake groaned. Natalie smirked and leaned her head back against the chair. She closed her eyes. Even through her closed lids, she could see the lights and shadows of the bridge.

"What’s the status of the ship?" Natalie asked weakly as she relaxed her muscles.

"Most of the systems are operation," Noah replied. He had taken control of the Ops station. His dream was to take over his dad’s, Harry Kim’s, job on either Voyager or another similar Starfleet ship. "It was mostly bulkheads and stray wires that caused most of the damage. None of the systems were seriously damaged beyond repair. Volunteers were able to clear up most of the damage and help Emily and the Doctor fix the systems." By volunteers, Noah meant the older children who knew what they were doing when it came to specific systems on the ship.

In order to keep things in order and functioning, Natalie decided to form her own mock senior staff. Natalie was the captain, of course, with Naomi as first officer. Andy thought Naomi should be captain because she was older, and Naomi felt the same. Natalie vetoed that because she was the daughter of both the captain and the first officer. Blake was pilot, Noah was Operations officer, and Emily was chief engineer. Seth was helping out Emily as second-in-command. Anna took control of Astrometrics, and Andy, although he was more familiar with the workings of sickbay, took control of Security. Andy told them that he was multi-talented and could handle both systems with as much efficiency as any ten-year-old could. The Doctor, of course, was in control of sickbay and was busy taking care of the bumps and bruises that were incurred.

=/\=

After a several hour break, Natalie and the senior staff were refreshed and ready for their hunt for the real crew of Voyager. Seated in the conference room, they began to assess the situation, with the guidance of the Doctor. Although the Doctor would technically have been in charge during the situation, Natalie pointed out that this was a good opportunity to test their abilities, and there really wasn’t anything he could do that they couldn’t. He would take over in case of an emergency, but so far, they just need to locate the crew.

"It’s going to be difficult to detect the ship," Noah began. "The Mandorians don’t use a typical warp drive system, so it’s not going to be like finding one of our own." This was disappointing news to Natalie and Naomi, but they tried not to show their concern.

"Is there anyway we can detect the mark they left in subspace?" Blake asked. "Any ship that travels through space has to enter subspace to do it, at least, any ship that doesn’t want to destroy everything around it." Noah perked up at that thought.

"That’s a good idea," Noah said slowly, not wanting to get anyone’s hopes up. "Ships normally leave a small subspace wake in their path that isn’t detectable unless you’re looking for it."

Anna nodded, adding, "I think I can modify Astrometrics sensors enough to find the wake. I believe I can use something Mom showed me a few months ago to do the trick." Natalie smiled. Finally, something was going their way. She believed it would only be a matter of time before they would be able to locate where the Mandorians had taken their parents. Natalie just hoped the crew was still alive when they got there.

"Let’s get started then," Natalie finally said after a long silence. The senior staff got up and went to work.

=/\=

Down in Astrometrics, Anna and Noah began their work on modifying the sensor grid. It was tedious work, and they had to rely on much of the information from the ships computer, which wasn’t very helpful.

After almost electrocuting herself, Anna whimpered, "I wish Mom was here". She looked away from Noah, eyes brimming with tears, embarrassed to be crying. She was a big girl, she told herself. She had faced the Borg and gone to another dimension and she had never cried then. But she has also never faced the prospect of losing her mother, someone she was very close with and very much attached to. Anna tried to shake off the feelings of loneliness and hopelessness and tried to focus on re-modulating the sensor grid.

"I think I’ve almost got it," Anna whispered as she tweaked some wires. "Let’s see if the computer recognizes the sensor array now."

"Understood," Noah replied in a very formal manner. Noah liked to pretend he was an officer like his parents, even though he was ten years too young to even think about going into Starfleet Academy. "I’m bringing on the new sensors." Tapping a few button, the viewscreen in Astrometrics changed. It showed a picture of space with a map placing Voyager on one end and stars and planets all around. Noah tapped a few more buttons and the image changed show several lines running away from Voyager, though all following a similar course.

"Is that it?" Anna asked, unsure of what she was seeing. Noah nodded.

"Those lines are the wakes in subspace left by the Mandorian ships," he continued. "I believe from these lines I can extrapolate the planets in the surrounding areas. Mostly likely at least one of these will be an M-class planet."

Noah and Anna smiled at each and bolted out of Astrometrics.

=/\=

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