SYMBOLS

CHAPTER 13

"Neelix, can you help me?" Kylani poked her head through the partly open door of Harry's quarters and stopped Neelix in his tracks. "I've been summoned to the bridge. But I can't leave Tayna alone. She's asleep. Could you possibly stay here and just watch her?"

"I don't see why not," Neelix replied, as Kylani thanked him, before she set off down the long corridor. Suddenly she turned around, her legs still walking backwards. She'd never been to the bridge before and realized she had no idea of where to go.

"Neelix, can you direct me to the bridge? Please keep it simple," she said.

Neelix pointed down the long corridor, shouted the words turbolift and bridge and then she was gone, disappearing from sight in a matter of seconds, while Neelix stepped inside Harry's quarters to keep watch over the little girl.

***

The Anawin ships continued their steady flight pattern until the space station came into view. Only then did they break away from Voyager.

Kylani stepped onto the bridge. The viewscreen showed three bronze ships and the huge black spider-like form of the Anawin space station.

"It's even bigger than I thought it would be," Kylani said, her gaze fixed on the space station. She mentioned her home had been lined with many pictures that depicted the battalion sailing out of the sky, with the intimidating black sentinel keeping watch in the distance.

"Where did they go?" Janeway asked suspiciously, as the triad of bronze ships sped out of visual range. As if in direct response to her question, the three ships doubled back and simultaneously fired at Voyager's main navigational deflector, and two transporter emitters, and then a section of deck three.

The bridge crew reeled forward.

"Inertial dampers are offline," Torres reported from main engineering.

"Now might be a good time to return fire," Chakotay said.

"Tuvok, power the forward phaser banks," Janeway ordered. She located the ships on her personal target scanner and waited until the closest ship was centrally located before giving the command to strike.

"That seemed a little too easy," Paris said. The nearest vessel was disabled with only a short phaser burst. Tuvok then locked onto the second vessel, targeted the ship's propulsion system, and set it adrift with another phaser burst.

"I'm picking up traces of a plasma trail," Harry informed the captain. They continued to track the third bronze vessel. They were also nearing the Anawin planet, with its distant sun, one large moon and formidable space station in geo-synchronous orbit.

"Scanners indicate the plasma trace is getting more concentrated the closer we get to the station," Harry said.

Janeway was unsure of what might have produced such an emission. There were no ships nearby venting plasma, or floating debris that might indicate an explosion. She was not willing to commit to a guess and decided that, for the moment, they would defer firing on the remaining ship that had sped off to hide behind the armor of the space station, and instead get ready to transport their Anawin passengers to the surface.

Voyager was on course for the planet. Soon they would be within transport range. Again Harry reported the plasma particle readings were continuing to climb.

Janeway reflected on Harry's words. She intuitively sensed something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on the problem, although she did feel an inclination stirring about what might have caused the phenomenon. It was a thought that worried her immensely, as she played it over in her mind, until she was sure she had the right answer and a decision rushed to her lips.