Janeway Outruns the P'nir to Find the Shuttle
Star Trek: Voyager: Ragnarok
By Nathan Archer
ISBN: 067152044X
Published 1995
Chapter 27 splits the action in two. Up on Voyager’s bridge, Janeway is running a dangerous game of cat and mouse through the battle zone. Down in the wreckage, Chakotay’s shuttle is bleeding air and losing Harry Kim by the minute. The chapter ends the moment those two storylines finally touch.
Outrun, loop back, search again
“Captain, the P’nir ships are closing again,” Paris reports.
“Then take us out, Mr. Paris,” Janeway replies. “Outrun them, then bring us back in.”
Paris acknowledges. Heading one-zero-nine mark two-two, warp three. They have already proven twice that even the fastest P’nir cannot keep up above warp two. Voyager can sprint in, look around, and sprint out before the enemy closes the gap.
Janeway calls Evans at sensors. Any sign of the shuttlecraft?
“Not that I can see, Captain.”
She frowns. They have been doing this dance for a while now. Chakotay, Kim, Rollins, and Bereyt are somewhere in this mess, and the clock is not friendly.
A peculiar explosion
Tuvok speaks up. He has observed something curious. A P’nir cruiser at the far end of the combat zone has exploded, and spectacularly.
Paris glances up. There is a battle going on. Exploding ships are not exactly shocking.
Tuvok stays unruffled. No Hachai vessels had fired on that cruiser for several minutes.
Janeway asks if it could be old damage. Failed emergency repairs.
“Rather, it would appear to have been sabotage,” Tuvok says.
Janeway rises and moves to the security station. Paris asks angrily if she thinks their people did it. Tuvok has no conclusion yet, but yes, he considers it possible that Commander Chakotay is somehow responsible.
“Let’s go take a look,” Janeway says, studying the readings.
Paris turns in his seat. “Look at what, Captain? If it was Chakotay, he just blew himself up. We were not there with a transporter ready to snatch him at the last second this time.”
“He might have found some other way out,” Janeway says. “I want to see whatever is left of that ship, Paris, and I want us there five minutes ago.”
Paris mutters sarcastically about the shortest route being straight through the middle of the battle. Janeway is not in the mood. He lays in a course and engages warp.
Debris, life signs, and no time to hesitate
Moments later Evans reports that the debris cloud from that explosion is badly scattered. Much of it got caught in the perpetual crossfire and blended into the general dust. But there is a large chunk that might be the shuttlecraft, or most of it. Substantially intact, maybe. He cannot be sure.
“Get a tractor beam on it,” Janeway orders.
Evans protests. Too far away, and it is falling further into the battle.
Janeway asks about life signs. Evans starts to hedge. She snaps at him to use the sensors. That is what they are there for.
Four humanoid life-forms. One set of readings very weak. Someone badly injured, maybe dying.
Janeway’s mind races. Who? What will the Maquis say if Chakotay dies on a hopeless diplomatic mission? How does she carry on without a first officer? What if it is Harry Kim? How does she face his parents someday? Rollins? Bereyt? Voyager cannot afford to lose anyone, and it looks like they are about to lose at least one unless she acts fast.
“Mr. Tuvok, shields at full strength, please,” she orders. “You are free to return fire if anyone shoots at us. Mr. Paris, you have bragged about being a hot pilot, and you have done all right so far. Here is your chance to prove how good you really are. I want that shuttlecraft out of there and safely back aboard Voyager as fast as you can do it.”
Paris mutters that he already proved it getting them out the first time. Then he calls to Evans to have that tractor ready, because here they go.
Voyager shudders and charges back toward the battle.
The tractor beam lands
Aboard the crippled shuttle, Chakotay has shut down every system they can spare. It is not enough. He exhales and sees his breath fog. They are still losing air. If they do not get out soon…
The craft jerks violently. Bereyt and Chakotay stagger. Rollins, seated, holds on. Kim barely moves. Rollins punches sensors back on.
“It is a tractor beam!” he calls. “Got a good solid hold on us.”
Chakotay asks whose. Hachai or P’nir?
“Neither, sir,” Rollins says, grinning. “It is Voyager!”
For a moment Chakotay stares in disbelief. Then he shouts for Rollins to fire up the engines. They will want to help Voyager pull them in.
“Yes, sir!”
That is where Chapter 27 ends. Janeway found them. The hard part has not even started.
Getting a tractor lock in a war zone is one thing. Getting four people, one of them dying, back aboard a ship that cannot lower its aft shields without getting shredded is another. Paris is about to earn every sarcastic comment he ever made about his own piloting skills.
And somewhere in the debris field, the P’nir fleet just learned that Voyager is not content to dodge and run anymore. They are coming back for their people.
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