=/\=

Outside, they were able to talk in peace. Unfortunately, none of them were able to come up with a suitable plan. The only things they knew were how to keep out of trouble, but not necessarily how to rescue themselves. None of them had really ever researched 21st century Earth, save for Blake who practically grew up around 20th and 21st century artifacts. But even he was having a hard time figuring out what to do next. The crew had rarely taught them anything about time distortions and what to do if they encountered one. Natalie had to practically bribe her mother to let her go into the records on temporal anomalies.

"Everyone on board is probably looking for us," Andy commented. "It’ll just be a matter of time before we’re back on Voyager." Naomi sighed inwardly.

"And we’ll be dead meat for a second time," she replied. "Do you know what Captain Janeway is going to do to us?".

"At least you aren’t her daughter," Natalie said. "I get Captain punishment and Mother punishment." Naomi grinned at that statement.

"Have fun," she said, as she patted Natalie on the shoulder. Suddenly Anna stood up. Her blue eyes were wide with excitement. Anna took after her mother, while Noah resembled his father. Everyone looked at her expectantly.

"I know we can’t get back to Voyager," Anna started, "but what if we made it easier for Voyager to find us?". Blake looked at her curiously.

"What are you suggesting?" Blake asked. "We don’t have any technology with us. No tricorders, no phasers…" Anna held up her hand, quieting him.

She grinned, "But we have our communicators." Naomi chuckled, realizing what Anna was suggesting.

"Anna, it’s a nice idea, but there is no way Voyager would be able to track our signal through time and space," Naomi replied. Anna shook her head. She paused for a moment, forming her words in her head, before continuing.

"I know we can’t technically talked to them," Anna said. "But maybe there is some way we can enhance our communicators for them to pick up on. They’re going to need as much help as they can get." They pondered this hypothesis for a moment. It was conceivable to track a communicator frequency, but the question was, would Voyager be able to pick up on it? None of them had very much knowledge on subspace frequencies, though Anna and Noah’s mother worked heavily in the area for a time.

"Well, we have our communicators and I suppose if we dissected them we would be able to enhance the comm frequency enough so that if they are able to patch through to our time, they’d be able to pick us up more easily," Natalie suggested. Blake nodded in agreement.

"And if we can pinpoint exactly what happened to us, maybe we’ll be able to find out how to get back," he added. Noah wasn’t too sure on this one.

"We don’t have any tricorders," he replied. "It would be difficult to analyze the area without tricorders." Natalie sighed.

"Is there anything in this time period we could scan with?" Seth asked. He turned to Blake, their resident expert on the past. He thought for a moment, but nothing came to mind.

"I can’t think of anything," Blake replied. "The technology here is about three hundred and fifty years outdated." Anna, feeling rather dejected now, flopped down on the sidewalk.

"I wanna go back to Voyager," she whined. "I don’t even care if I have to spend the rest of my life cleaning warp core manifolds." The others nodded in agreement. The day was waning and people began to exit from the building. Emily could see in the distance the Captain Janeway look-a-like exit from the side of the building. The woman got into a black vehicle and the vehicle drove away.

"I think the expo is over with," Emily noted. "What are we going to do now?". Naomi, as the oldest, took charge.

"We have to find a place to stay," she said. "At least for tonight. We can deal with tomorrow night in the morning. Blake, where do you suggest we go?". Blake stood up and surveyed the area, knowing they wouldn’t be able to travel too far away from the building.

"Well, I would suggest going to a hotel," he said. "But hotels cost money, and we don’t have any. We could sleep on the street." Natalie looked horrified.

"We are not going to sleep on the street!" Natalie exclaimed.

"I don’t see another option," Blake replied.

"There is always another option," Seth piped up.

"Yeah," agreed his sister, Naomi. "We should be able to come up with another place if we just think about it hard enough. Maybe we should go for a walk. Explore the area, so we know more about what we’re dealing with." The others seemed willing, and they started off towards the street.

"But we should go to far," warned Natalie. "We don’t know when Voyager will be able to rescue us." Everyone agreed as they walked down the street into the unknown.

=/\=

"Damn it!" B’Elanna cried. Several ensigns glanced over, but generally no one was surprised at B’Elanna’s vulgar outburst. "I am sick to death of this wild goose chase. Every time I get a frequency for one of these temporal distortions, I try to lock on it and then it changes again. This is impossible."

"Nothing is impossible," Seven of Nine replied. "Not if you want it badly enough." B’Elanna looked over to one of her best friends and smiled appreciatively. B’Elanna had not been getting her usual amount of sleep since her children’s disappearance and she was more irritable than normal. She made a full Klingon look like a Bolian. B’Elanna composed herself and continued her scans.

"Commander, I believe I may have found what we’re looking for," Seven of Nine announced. B’Elanna quickly turned to her co-workers console. Various erratic readings were displayed on the panel.

"I don’t understand," B’Elanna replied. "What is that blue line?". She pointed to the squiggly line on the screen.

"That blue line is the time displacement index for the temporal distortion that quite literally moved the children into a different time and space," Seven of Nine clarified.

"Huh?" B’Elanna said. "Not wanting to sound like an idiot, but what exactly does that mean?". Seven of Nine sighed. Although she preferred her human side more now that she had children and was married, her Borg intelligence was still highly active.

"Let’s just say I know where they landed," Seven simply put.

"Oh," B’Elanna replied. "Okay, now what do we do?". Seven smiled slightly.

"Contact Captain Janeway."

=/\=

It was near dawn. The sun was just peeking over the horizon. The street was silent. Birds were softly chirping in the nearby trees. All the stores and businesses were closed. The convention had ended hours ago and the celebrities were already on their way back to Hollywood. Seth opened his eyes slowly and he remembered where he was. His sister was laying on the other bench, her head resting comfortably on Natalie’s lap. Natalie’s head was leaning Blake’s shoulder, while his head was on top of hers. His best friend Andy laid on the picnic table next to him, and Noah and Anna were sleeping on the play structure. He got up and checked his portable chronometer to see what hour it was. It wasn’t barely after six o’clock.

Seth and the others were up late talking about how to get back, so he didn’t have the heart to wake them up so early. Careful not to make to much noise, Seth wandered over to sidewalk and walked a little ways down the street. The street was empty except for a few passing cars. They frightened the nine-year-old, and he hid behind the bushes whenever one came near. After ten minutes of exploring the neighborhood and finding nothing of interest (well, everything was of interest, but nothing was of much use since everything was closed), Seth decided to head back. When he returned, he faced the deadly glare of his much older sister, Naomi.

"Seth Ryan Carey, where in the universe have you been!" she barked. She and Natalie glowered at the young boy. Seth looked over at Andy, hoping for some help. Andy shrugged his shoulders.

"I…I’m…uh…I mean…well…uh…sorry," he said meekly and looked at his feet, hoping to be pardoned out of sympathy.

"Don’t ever do that to me again," Naomi warned. Seth nodded.

"Okay, now that that little crisis is over with, now what?" Anna piped up from behind. Her blond hair was tousled a bit, as was everyone else, and her eye were a bit red. Fortunately, Noah and Anna did not require regeneration like their mother, but Noah found short regeneration periods to be quite helpful when dealing with headaches and other small ailments.

Naomi shrugged. "I’m open to suggestions." There were none.

"I have to believe that Voyager is making progress in rescuing us. They’ve got the technology with them, we don’t have anything," Natalie replied. "I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they come up with something."

"I hope you’re right," Noah muttered.

=/\=

After Seven of Nine’s discovery, it took only a few hours before the crew was able to successfully determine where Naomi and the others had landed. Captain Janeway gave Seven of Nine permission to start the rescue operation. Without much work, Harry, B’Elanna, and Seven were able to artificially create a temporal distortion.

At the senior staff meeting, the adrenaline was running high.

"Are you sure it safe?" Chakotay asked.

"We have determined the coordinates and Voyager should be able to transport us up once we’ve located the children," Harry confirmed. "There is really no cause for concern. At least not yet." Chakotay nodded, but he still wasn’t completely confident. He trusted his crew, however. They had been through a lot in the last twenty-five years. Even still, Chakotay wanted to make sure everything was safe. He had already lost his daughter twice in the last three weeks, and he didn’t want to take the chance of losing anyone else.

"I can assure you, Commander, that we have taken every precaution in preparing for this mission," Seven added. Well, we’ve got the Borg seal of approval, Chakotay thought, must be alright. Chakotay glanced over at his wife to see what her reaction was. She had an optimistic smile plastered on her face. Always the optimist, he noted, that’s what I love about her.

"Captain?" he asked. She nodded her head knowingly.

"Let’s do it."

=/\=

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