Star Trek Voyager: The Forgotten Episode

Chapter One

It had been six and a half years since Voyager had been lost in the Delta Quadrant. Six and a half years of longing, and waiting. The crew of Voyager had settled into a normal-ish routine of life, all believing that it was going to take them the rest of their lives to get back home; so they made the most of it, taking care in doing the little things that had never seemed to matter much before.
The Vulcan tactical officer Lieutenant Commander Tuvok had picked up some strange radiation signatures emanating from a nearby planetary system, so Captain Kathryn Janeway, ever the explorer, had requested a short stop to check it out.

"Commander, you have the con. Tuvok, Kim, you're with me. Let's go do some exploring." Commander Chakotay caught her eyes briefly, and a small smile spread over his rugged features when he saw the girlish delight shining there in the sapphire depths.

"Aye Captain. I'll keep an eye on Voyager while you're gone. Keep her out of trouble for you." Janeway smiled, and patted Chakotay on the shoulder gently. The contact sent small sparks running across his chest, and he could almost hear the Doctor freaking out over how high his heart rate had just went up. The three away team officers left the bridge, and Chakotay watched them go.

He was suddenly conscious of eyes drilling into the back of his head, and when the Commander turned to look, icy cold blue eyes met his.

It was the ex-Borg Seven of Nine, nicknamed Seven by the crew of Voyager. Seven had expressed romantic interest in Chakotay, a few months back, and even though their relationship had tapered off to just being friends, he still felt as though Seven was still silently judging him in everything he did. He had never really understood what had happened between himself and Seven, and both officers were reluctant to talk about the experience.

Refusing to let the past overtake him, Chakotay returned his focus to the task at hand; keeping his promise to Janeway, and by extension, protecting the away team as well. He turned and sat down in the Captain's chair, still feeling the warmth from Kathryn sitting there.

Chakotay and Kathryn Janeway weren't a "thing" so to speak. They were just. . . friends. Kathryn had told him so, back when she had finally given up on ever seeing her fiancé Mark again. "I'm the sort of woman men avoid. . . I'm too independent, and I undermine their authority." She had told him in the safety of her ready room. Chakotay had nodded, almost feeling the pain radiating from the slight, red haired woman. That wasn't entirely true though, that very strong will and ferocity was what had drawn him in when she made the agreement between herself -- a by-the-book Starfleet Captain -- and himself -- a rogue Marquis bent on wiping out the Cardassians. She hadn't intimidated him, oh no, at five foot five he doubted she could scare off a mouse, but rather, that fight in her eyes had touched something he thought was long dead in his heart.

Chakotay shifted uncomfortably in the chair. Those feelings crept up on him, cracked through all the barriers he had put up around his heart, like a sliver of wood that was jammed under his skin that didn't want to come out. For now, it wasn't the time to deal with these feelings, he had a ship to take care of for Janeway.

=/\=

Three pillars of blue fire materialized on the surface of the M-class moon. Janeway was the first to have her gaze unscrambled, and Tuvok and Kim were milliseconds behind her. Tuvok unclipped the tricorder from his side to search for the radiation, as did Ensign Harry Kim.

"I estimate the radiation is thirty kilometers in that direction." Tuvok stated, as he gestured with his tricorder to someplace slightly to the right of the landing party.

"Even when we get close, the radiation is well within the safety range." Kim added, taking several notations on his own tricorder.

"Excellent." Said Janeway, looking around at the rugged, but beautiful landscape. "Let's go, and Tuvok, make sure to let me know if there are any lifeforms at all in the vicinity. I don't want to be surprised."

"Of course Captain." Tuvok answered, as he has already done that very thing, but didn't say anything to Janeway.

The three Voyager officers wound their way across a hillside covered with lush green grass, and the alien version of flowering lupin. The very sunlight seemed to have depth, casting perfectly edged shadows of the flora and starship officers. The wind seemed to have a life of it's own, tugging at the fragrant purple blossoms around Janeway's feet, and teasingly pulling at a strand of her auburn hair which had escaped from it's bun.

"Captain," Tuvok said abruptly, snapping both his fellow officers back to attention. "I am reading a rather large energy pulse coming from a place near where the radiation is. It does not appear to be a life sign, but you could never know." Six and a half hard years of surviving in the Delta Quadrant had given the Vulcan a wariness that was quite understandable.

"Keep an eye on it." Janeway warned, her fingers brushing against the phaser she wore at her hip. She removed her own tricorder, and began scanning, stopping near a tall rock that might have been left by glaciers thousands of years ago.

"I'm reading a small cave that seems to center around the radiation. I wonder if it might be coming from inside."

"Affirmative," Kim agreed, resetting his own tricorder. "And the radiation has changed as well. I'm reading it as a form of epsilon. . . no, gamma radiation now. Before it was just off the charts."

"I wonder if it has anything to do with the energy pulse that we noticed." Janeway said, almost to herself. "I am going to contact Voyager and see if they are tracking the change. This could be used as a source of extra power if we could harness it."

"That would be wise." Tuvok agreed, stalking around the rock next to them. Kim followed, leaving Janeway to contact the ship alone.

"Janeway to Voyager, are you recording the variations in the radiation?"

"Aye Captain." Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres Paris answered promptly. For some reason, Janeway felt a little disappointed that the half Klingon officer had answered her hail. Shoving the thought away, she replied;

"Good. I want to see that if this is a natural source of radiation, we might be able to harness it for our own uses."

"I'll get to researching on it right away." A lighter, more serious voice broke in, and Janeway recognized Seven's tone.

"We have almost reached the source, Ensign Kim tells me that the radiation at its present rate will not harm us."

"No taking unnecessary risks anyway Captain." A deep baritone answered, and Kathryn felt her mouth twitch up in a smile as she recognized Chakotay's voice.

"Of course not Commander. I'm sure with Tuvok and Harry, plus all of you ready to beam me out of here at any second, I'll be fine. I'll contact you as soon as we can. Janeway out." She closed the com, and followed after Tuvok and Kim, down a slight rise towards the cave emitting the radiation signal.

"Nothing has changed Captain, and we are clear to enter the cave."

"Good work you two. Now, let's see if we can solve this mystery once and for all." With that, Janeway lead the way towards the cave in question, eager to find out it's secrets.