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Interactive Story
Disclaimer: This Interactive Story is a work of fiction. Paramount own everything Star Trek.
As it says below, hit Enter TWICE to start a new paragraph, but do this first as well.

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Kes goes back to her quarters after a very long day. She had her usual shift in sickbay but Neelix had gained a tonne of new supplies so she helped put those in storage and then there was also a reception in the Mess Hall for an alien species, the Yoina, to learn about one another.

She entered her quarters ready to collapse when stood there to her absolute amazement was... 9   there stood her father. he was just as she remember him...

"kes arent you going to give your father a hug?" he ask her.

Kes Steped forward when she...

10   noticed he was starting to fade out of our reality.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I need your help my sweet." he said as he continued to fade away.

"How is this possible?" Kes asked.

"I have no time to explain, please there is a blue nebula nearby that you must go to, I..." he faded away completely.

Kes headed to the Bridge as fast as possible. 11   On the bridge Captain Janeway stood looking at the viewscreen. When the turbolift door sighed open, Kes stood still and looked at the screen. Against a perfectly black background shone a blue nebula spreading delicate, iridescent tendrils of dust and gas across thousands of miles of space.

The Captain's voice brought Kes' attention back to the bridge. "Commander," she turned to Chakotay, "beautiful it certainly is, but we'll just have to note it for future study. Right now we have to set course for our target, a planet that will provide us food, water, and other supplies we need desperately."

Chakotay sighed and smiled. "Aye, Captain. It's a shame the planet we need isn't in that nebula."

He fixed his eyes on Paris, who sat at the pilot's station. "Tom, let's take her away from that nebula and toward our planet. Half-speed."

Tom nodded and punched buttons. The ship swung away from the nebula in a long, graceful sweep.

Kes inhaled deeply, squared her shoulders, and stepped forward onto the bridge. 12  

Janeway turned as she heard the turbo life doors close and smiled when she saw who it was. "Kes, hello, is everything okay?"

"May I speak with you Captain?"

"Of course, come on, you have the Bridge commander."

They headed into the ready room and sat down in the window area.

"What's wrong Kes?" asked the Captain, knowing something was obviously troubling her.

"I just saw my father. I can't explain it. It was like a ghost image, that's the only way I can put it. He asked for my help and said to go to this nebula."

"Well... we've done well to trust you mental abilities before. But it could be part of an alien deception, which has also happened before... Janeway to Bridge."

"Yes Captain." came the response from Chakotay.

"Take us back to the nebula and run a complete scan for ships or anything out of the ordinary."

"Aye Captain."

"Thank you." said Kes and they headed back to the Bridge.

"Anything to report Mr Kim?" asked the Captain. 13   Kim glanced up from his control conosole. "Yes, Captain. Sensors detect a spacecraft, bearing 090, range 12,000 kilometers. Weapons signature, negative. Active energy output, negative. Passive energy output, minimal. Life signs....negative."

Janeway frowned at that. A derelict ship floating dead in space.

"Take us there, Mr. Paris!" she commanded.

Minutes later, the derelict ship came into view. The dark hulk of the ship spun slowly, meaninglessly, while tendrils of off-blown material and detritus spun slowly off the ship into space.

Janeway's studied the scene. Her face was a mask of concentration. What happened here? she thought. She turned her attention to Kim, who stood at his console. "Mr. Kim, any life signs yet?"

Kim's mouth pursed in a frown and he shook his head slowly. "Negative, Captain. Seems that no one's aboard."

Janeway turned her gaze back to the image on the viewscreen. Odd, she thought. A ghost ship. No crew. Janeway sank deeper into consideration of the strange mystery presented to them.

A soft, shy tap on Janeway's shoulder broke her reverie. She turned and looked down at Kes, whose look of worry and bemusement tugged at the Captain's heart-strings. She had always a soft spot for the little Ocampan orphan.

"Kes, what is it?" she asked.

Kes' mouth was a straight line of worry and concentration. She had thrown her sense perceptions toward the derelict ship and what her senses found there caused shivers of grief and fear to run along her spine.

"Captain," she said quietly, "there is a crew aboard."

Janeway's eyes widened. She spoke quietly to the beautiful young woman beside her. "What happened to them, Kes?"

Kes's voice came in a whisper. "They're dead, Captain. All dead......murdered."

14   Later that night Kes lay sleepless in her bed on Deck 8, turning restlessly first onto one side, then onto another, her eyes peering into the shadows thrown by the dim lighting in her sleeping area, her mind pondering the mystery of the derelict ship and its murdered crew. And as the ship's crew prepared for a shuttle rendezvous with the derelict spacecraft, ship's sensors detected an energy surge in the form of a high-energy beam.

Lieutenant Kim, on duty at his control console, frowned and stated punching buttons. The ship responded to his manipulations with information, information of a decidedly alarming nature.

Kim raised his eyes from his console to Commander Chakotay, who had the bridge and stood at Tuvok's station discussing bridge business with his security chief and his friend. "Commander, I'm detecting a high-energy beam coming from a source near the blue nebula."

Chakotay left Tuvok, went down the 2 steps to the lower, middle bridge area the crew affectionately called 'The Pit', and turned to look at Kim. "Danger, Mr. Kim?" he said, his voice betraying a touch of alarm but nevertheless held in iron control.

Kim shook his head and softly bit his lower lip, a sign of concern Chakotay had long ago learned to respect. "I just don't know, Commander. It's vague, a weak source. One moment!" Kim's voice registered alarm. He swept hard, bright eyes up toward Chakotay. "Commander, it's a tractor beam, and it's directed at this ship. It seems to be searching, probing!"

Chakotay now stood squarely in the middle of the bridge, facing the back tier of officer stations, hands at his sides, his back to the empty viewscreen. From this position his vision took in both Kim and Tuvok, vital officers both and men in whose experience and competence Chakotay had full confidence.

His voice was hard, firm. "Red alert! Alien presence detected! Def-con 1!" He tapped his comm-badge. "Captain Janeway to bridge!"

Then he turned toward Tuvok, who stood at his security console already punching buttons. "Tuvok. Can you interfere with the tractor beam, disperse it somehow?"

Tuvok, calm, collected, the exemplar of professionalism and poise, continued punching buttons, then said, "Negative, commander. The beam is resisting interference. I cannot lock onto the source carrier wave and I cannot modulate the beam's resonance such as to scatter and dissipate it's energy."

Kim blurted out. "Commander, the tractor beam has focussed on one area of the ship! And it's energy output is increasing!"

Chakotay approached Kim's station. Urgency now lay just beneath his cool exterior like a current of warm water flowing just below the surface of a calmly flowing river. "Location, Mr. Kim?"

Kim punched buttons. He glanced up at his Commander. Deck 8, sir. Suite# 8. Kes' quarters!"

Tuvok was already in the turbo-lift. He tapped his comm-badge. "Security team to Kes' quarters, Deck 8, Suite # 8. Red alert! Personnel in danger!"

A mere 15 seconds passed before a security team was at Kes' door. A man, holding his phaser at the ready, barked at the computer. "Computer, open Kes' door, security over-ride Alpha 5!" This code overrode any door lock Kes might have activated before retiring for the night.

The door to Kes' rooms hissed and slid open. The team spilled into her living room, spread out, eyes darting everywhere, phasers held ready before them.

Tuvok arrived shortly after the team entered Kes' suite of rooms. He glanced around sharply, his eyes alert, every sense and muscle tensed for action. His eyes searched for Kes.

But Kes was nowhere to be seen. "Computer, locate Kes!" he commanded.

The computer spoke, it's voice cold, emotionless. "Kes is not aboard the ship, Commander."

Afterwards Tuvok could not recall whether he had actually heard the computer's voice hesitate a fraction of a second before delivering the next few words, or whether his mind, alarmed for his protege and friend, had played a psychological trick on him. In the days that followed this incident would provide much food to the Vulcan's mind. Computers didn't hesitate, did they? If not, then how was it that Tuvok's mind would be so affected by alram and fear? Did a Vulcan feel fear?

But these ruminations came later. Now, as Tuvok stood at the foot of Kes' bed, his feet sprread apart in the combat-ready stance, his phaser out and ready, the computer went on remorselessly.

"Kes' whereabouts are unknown. No further information is available." 15  

Kes awoke in complete darkness. She was a light sleeper and her transportation had certainly woken her. She was unsure of whether to call out. Just as she was about to, a hand touched her shoulder.

"Kes, try not to be alarmed." said a deep unfamiliar voice. "You will not be harmed."

"Who are you?" Kes calmly asked.

"My name is Wumi, and I apologise for taking you from your ship. I did not think you would help us without drastic measures."

"How could I possibly help?" asked Kes, doubting herself. 16   Kes looked around with quiet desperation at her surroundings. The room increased in luminosity until she could distinguish the man who called himself Wumi and three men stationed behind him apparently subordinates. They were human type with a ridge in their center forehead.


Wumio explained himself,"Don't be alarmed, you are sitting on a transportation pad and with good reason you were transported from Voyager."


"Oh, exploitation doesn't seem to be a good reason!",exclaimed Kes as she glanced at the banks of instrument panels that surrounded the room.


"Exploitation is not the reason at all," said Wumi. 17  

"we are from a rather highly developed race that, I judge is significantly one step ahead of Voyager and its human crew. We have what you call col-axial drive or advanced warp drive and can traverse the galaxy in days if we need to. For you see, indirectly, that is why you are acquired. We are on a mission that requires condescendence and mercy. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Kes stared at him,"Well, maybe I am inconvenienced. What is it that you want."

"Their was an accident by one of us on-board a few weeks back but she also happens to be my wife. 18  
"There are two ships",Tom exclaimed as he looked at his instruments,"There's another sitting in the center of the nebula."


"Yes, I see it", said Kim as he worked the console."It's massive. Must be one kilometer long and one quarter that wide. Whatever it is, it decloaked and activated a power signature. It is moving straight for the other ship."


Indeed that was the scenario as it gained power and speed in an attack vector. With two separate flashes of white light it ejected two torpedoes that within moments exploded brilliantly against a planular shield that materialized in front of the attacker. This seemed to be all done with a subtleness which Wumis ship exhibited as a quiet defensive gesture.


The attacking ship suddenly ceased motion. For several seconds the hulks hung there in outer space within the fringes of the nebula. Both are silent, one towering over the other. The smaller ship disappears leaving a dispora of vented fields and particles. The massive ship followes two seconds later in a trans-warp conduit.


"The're gone." Tom said staring down at the console. "One moment it's there and than nothing!" 19  
The doors to the bridge open and the captain enters. Tom tells her about the two ships.Janeway looked at the main view-screen. "Kim, get a reading from long range scans. Where are they going?"

"No known drives in the data base can go that fast except for the Borg,"Kim said. "But neither ship carried a Borg signature and they disappeared from long-range sensors with-in seconds."

At that point Tuvok entered the bridge and heard the news. Replied Tuvok, "The smaller ship was no derelict by all means. Besides the masked-frequency to transport Kes it beamed and enveloped Voyager in a mind-probe that we could not detect. Delicate to say the least."

"And also a ruthless transgression," added Janeway -brow lines creased with perplexion. "And why Kes? Who would want to take Kes?" 20  
Kes was being led to temporary quarters amidst the rumblings of the ship and emergency klaxons with the throng of corridors jostled by the crew running to stations. Once inside she walked to the far side of the cell by the wall. With a look of mild consternation and with one hand against the wall she waited. Her mind was slowly flowing back to memories of what just happened and to old memories of life with the Ocampans and her introduction to Voyager. Suddenly the wall gave a small shake and heave like the settling down of heavy equipment. All becane silent. Kes pushed away from the wall and looked around. The room was a conferance hall or meeting place with nesting accomadations. To her left was a console. Experimenting with the keys brought her to the history of the Chaneth culture. They have an advanced civilization with a technology 2500 years old. Birth control has kept their population to 3 billion or so all on the home planet and some on space-faring stations. With nothing else to do in outer-space they develop fast-propulsion. A device that made a trip to an outpost an everday occurance. After assimilating this Kes sat on one of the plush chairs and waited for the next thing to happen. Three hours after the attack Wumi stepped in through open doors.

"So sorry for the disturbances my dear. Though, I don't think you are very disturbed. For you see, we know much more about you than you do of us."

"I have been studying your scriptures." Kes said nodding at the console. "I downloaded some of your history."

Wumi looked credulous with forehead ridge. His head there looking like a child holding a toy.He looked down at his translator and then at Kes's suspended around her neck. "These things sometime can be baffling. So you are saying, what you have learned are you not?"

"I have learned some of your history", said Kes more flatly. "I also notice their are simularities between yours and mine."

"The cultural parallelisms between the Chaneths and the Ocampans everyone must learn about in advanced learning institutions", said Wumi. "Then their are cultural parallelisms everywhere, believably. It is the Voths who share no distinction with us I am afraid. It is they who attacked us, or to put it more precisely, the Voth ministry. A branch of their government that is decadent and un-immaginative as the surface of a distant asteroid."(Distant Origins 3-23)

"Let me see, they don't believe in your warp-drive - thinking it's offensive", said Kes.

"Quite right", said Wumi. "I see always quick to charm."

"It is also the only reason we slid past your home-world and my home-world to the gamma-quadrant and leave the disorientated Voth in some other place. 21  
"Let us take a walk to our engineering room where we keep all the physics and the simulator to run the drive for our ship"

They exited the meeting room with Kes following and Wumi continueing with every pace his expressive description about how they contacted the Ocampan and how they alloted the eventual assignment.

We knew the general whereabouts of Voyager and we knew you are the Ocampan that was adopted at the beginning of Voyager's 'Voyage'",Wumi continued. We waited in the nebula for Voyager's vector to reach us and also to wear a mask to avoid direct contact. Besides all these preliminaries it was just a simple task to see if you are that Ocampan we are looking for. This involved some low-level investigative transimissions to determine if your temporal power is as true as our recording indicate- and indeed she is or you wouldn't be here like this !"

Wumi stopped, turned around, and looked at Kes. "The probe was powered down and then we transported you."

As captain of his ship Wumi had appeared much more powerful and forceful next to Kes. In intonation he was never less than altruistic, so Kes took a moment to adopt his playful resignation. Wumi turned to his left through a door motioning for Kes to follow.

Kes lips parted slightly in a hint of a smile, "Wumi I do trust you and will follow in all capacity, but I never left Voyager and was never happier with Neelix and being a member of their crew."

Wumi looked steadily at her through the door. A small frown formed on his face. The frown deepened then became exagerated.

"Later my dear - we won't detain you long."

22  

Wumi took one step forward and gently took Kes's hand and beckoned her to follow him into the room.

"This is engineering," he began. Kes paced and followed Wumi's footsteps all the while listening.

"Most of this I will show you here few people are allowed to see or understand except for our officers and engineering crew. I grew-up embracing the advanced concepts of the physical universe and its laws so-governing. May this be for a more distinguished captain-I trust."

Wumi stopped in mid-stride and took from his pocket a brightly colored Kerchief to wipe his face and with some imitation of fatigue. They were before a large diadem and cylinder much like the one served by Voyagers' consoles in engineering.

"This instrument houses the chamber of sub-atomic particles that are converted intrinsically to exist as exotics for awhile than are expelled." He pointed at a circular array of guns all converging upon a common center object in the chamber. Wumi raised his arm and Kes followed it to a second array that mimic'd the first. "There can be no common telling of the power we evolved for ourselves," said Wumi.

Kes looked to her right and walked a few paces and stood there exuberating a countenance of awesome wonder. Wumi also turned to look upon their creation. The room they were in was just an edge to a long hall that extended the length of the ship. There were fantastic combinations of flat planes. Some were disks, others squares and others oblongs all tethered to be in parallel to their likeness. Down the wall and 2/3 up and as far as the eye could see jutted a row of perfect triangles suspended in a zero gravity field.

Kes said in a low, forceful tone that ended in a whisper. "They do care about you-but you do not hear them. 23   Kes said, "How can you possibly make a static setting both workable and powerful. It must be more then edges but 3-dimensions and time to power a starship."


Wumi answered,"Hmmm, yes for a human it would be a valid question. For us the fourth dimension isn't time but a splendid basket of fruitful and boundless ideas of a planular surface with a designated thickness intercepting an absolutely perfect three-dimensional object."

"Humans and Ocampans have dreamers with similar visions but their ideas won't work," said Kes.


"Believe me it works! Or you wouldn't be looking through a window at the gamma quadrant this evening while banqueting with me and my officer retinue."


Kes stared at him for awhile, then displaying a standing curtsey said, "Yes- that is most final of you Wumi. I would be glad to."


That evening Kes departed her visitor quarters with Wumi as escort. "Here is to be food especially designed for the Ocampan pallette,' Wumi said.


Kes sat by the window which encompassed the entire wall to her right. The table was enhanced by the brilliant colors and shades of the nebula, gas and star fields projecting itself through the window. Kes started to feel at-ease with herself. With Wumi's emerging campaign for her help and with new sights to affect the senses, she began to feel a oneness with Wumi and the ship. She was abhorred with the thought that any resolution to return to Voyager might be weakened.


Eventually Wumi chortled. "Indelibly, this is the time to convey to you what happened a few weeks back to that unfortunate crew member who is also my life partner. Why a travesty should be placed so near the sentiments of the captain and not with some other part of the ship?"


"As wife of the captain she was self-assigned to crew duty in engineering. While there she lost her balance, put her arm through a containment chamber of particles that regulates our col-axial drive, lapsed into a dilirium and, well you see, the results were disastrous! She is in a coma while her material self if caught-up in a parallax with another dimension. It is difficult to explain. Physically she is in danger of fading from us,so we have her suspended in a special area at our hospital. Eventually even that won't be an option. Her conditon is irreparable and is worsening unless she recieves some very specialized help."


"I might be able to help unless we become too hampered by intense radiation," said Kes.


Wumi sniffled and brought out his Kerchief, "Your qualifications say you can do something. Only you have the right type of mental powers to meld and bring her back from the parallax that is slowly eating away her existence."


She reached out and touched Wumi's hand. I can sympathize with you Wumi, but my super-normal powers have only recently evolved and been proven. Under these precedents I would be glad to do my best, but I can't quarantee it. When is the time to go to her?"


Wumi stopped and looked ahead and then raised his gaze and looked beyond Kes out the angle of the window into the spacious stars and galaxies and answered at his discretion.


"Tomorrow mid-morning you can accompany me to the hospital where we will meet with the specialists in the stasus field area."


Kes returned from Wumi to her guest quarters that night. She remembered leaving the Taresian planet six days ago (3-20). She remembered how Voyager had to fight through its atmosphere to transport Kim from imminent death at the hands of the Taresians. How she helped filter his DNA so he could continue as a healthy crew member. Isn't perfection in this setting that so surrounds us just another fancy to be dealt with, used, and thrown away? Here is one star-ship drive with far more import then a trans-warp, existing here and placent as the noon-day sun. Feeling avanti-garde her eyes narrowed and a small hint of wizardry crept into her features that became a permanent stamp. Now, again, she was totally sure of her stay on Voyager and in the days ahead all her actions will reflect this momentous course. A momentous course where only she could be its confident. To absolve the threat of the borg who will fall from their shaky pact with Janeway. To annihilate all this helplessness. To give an edge for freedom. To give an edge to a deserving crew that may yet find a warm and happy life at home. Before reading more Chaneth culture at the console she decided to ask Wumi more questions about Chaneth physics and its ship. 24  

The next morning before appointment time she sent an urgent auto-message to Wumi requesting that they meet in engineering as soon as possible so to gain more knowledge and familiarity with the drive. As much as possible with so limited time. Within a half hour Kes and an officer escort met Wumi in engineering at the edge of a long hall. Kes asked questions concerning the sub-atomic particle creation and quantum field dynamics.


"The fact that we fly that fast just has more advanced field dynamics, my dear. Much more brilliant then you can ever encounter," said Wumi. "The activation of our planulars to make a field would require more digression."

Thereupon he gave brief explanations of each section of the engineering room that was an edge to a long hall.


Kes's eyes sparkled and brightened with acknowledgement intermittently as Wumi enhanced and remonstrated the various intricities of main drive and the ship.


We have a transmission cable from the 'Hall of Planulars' that is fully justified to 2.993. A universal achievment for us galaxy dwellers. In fact all the returning conduits that houses it are porous chromium with a dual layer elastomeric absorber that is 100% reflective. Be assured that this is a very solid ship."

Asked Kes, "The containment chamber that disabled your wife-- is it in the room?"


Given Wumi's directions she walked to the chamber and gazed upon its contents, her eyes reflecting its' emitted glows and ripples.

She inquired of Wumi,"Do you have planulars that I can take with me?"


"Of course-of course," replied Wumi. "But what for?"


"I find myself in a line of action where only immense powers of conflicting sorts will determine its' results. I'm confident your state of technology could also offer a premium." said Kes.


Wumi put his hand to her shoulder and she turned to him.


"Wumi, I know what I'm doing. In the next few moments I have to he ready. I will be all alone with a few harbored powers that within me are called."


Wumi nodded,"I shouldn't complicate matters. It just seems such like a big task that a small person might get hurt." He kisses her. "I wouldn't want that to happen."


"Wumi, its your wife that needs to be saved," advised Kes. "Being non-genuous could just make that complication."


"Oh, I forgot!" answered Wumi shaking his head then raising his chin.


"Well, for her benefit,let us hurry and get the planulars and run to the stasis field room in the hospital."


Kes followed Wumi to the stasis field room. Upon entering their was a startling sight! Off on one corner of the room filled with instrumentation hovered the woman in question; arms and legs extended and in her officers uniform. In front of her was a force-field that glittered with expended energy and was behest with an immense power that shook the air and room itself.


Wumi explained, "She couldn't be saved except for advanced field dynamics that only we could provide. There she is suspended appearing the same as at the moment the accident happened."


Off to her left were jets that radiated three beams contacting each main part of her; her torso, head and feet.


As Kes kept looking their came a buzzing sound increasing in volume accompanied by his wife slowly fading away until she disappeared completely. Then she re-appeared and with-in one minute the process repeated itself over and over with all its laborious profoundness.


Wumi took out his Kerchief, "I amy assure you the neural damage will be too great unless someone or something intercedes. Just being here to see her is almost too much to bear." He wipes his eyes and brought the Kerchief to his cheek. "I will stand on the far side. Is their anything else you want Kes?"


"Can you turn-off the stasis force shell long enough for me to step near her?" asked Kes.


"Yes, but only for two seconds, so run through while the assistant toggles it.


Kes steps through and the thunderous force shell is again activated. She turns to face the captain woman who if just two feet away and three feet above in a hovering attitude.


Kes put her focus on the woman and immediately gained a stance that said whe was attempting to control something. All deliberation came to a blinding halt however when her entire frame became enveloped with-in a bright light that radiated forward from where she was standing. Trying to find the right path she raised two planulars above her and the third she sent under the hovering woman. In a configuration that was both partially speculature and knowledgable she held the planulars so they were just contiguous at their sides above her between her face and Wumi's wife. This position was held for 1/2 minute and then something happened that was no longer the thunderous whine of the field and the three beans that was ejected from the side. It was a brightening, so to speak.


The bright light that interfuzed with Kes went away. She brought the planulars down slowly and Wumi's wife opened her eyes and looked down on Kes and Wumi at the far corner. Through a series of trips his wife slowly lowered to the ground and the field decreased in crescendo and then the 3 beams and the field was turned-off completely.


Kes was somehow strong enough to step-out of the way while the assistants and Wumi hurried to take away the woman. Wumi was stealing away tears and asking how she was feeling and soon they were gone.


Kes was left alone sitting with her back to the wall hunched over in a conditon of complete exhaustion. Eventually a doctor walked-in and helped her to her room where she rested acouple days and after good as new.


epilogue:
In those two days she remembered all too distinctly stepping up- to Wumi's wife and the forces that enveloped her. The memory of it all guiding and healing her. Still their must be something else- she thought -something else.


When the two days elapsed Wumi came to her and shook her hand and then hugged her, for his wife was already healed as if the intervention was one of Gods angels.


Kes insisted that she return to Voyager as soon as possible but Wumi wanted her to wait. Kes finally yielded and spent some hours studying their culture and warp-drive, enough as her knowledge could command.


On the fourth day the Chaneths drove to Voyager. Within a 10 second span of time the ship siddled-up next to Voyager and deposited Kes on the bridge. Then the ship vectored itself away out of sight and sensor range.
25  

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