Dark Planet

Dark Planet (sequel to Howl) 
Part: One

The shuttle Tiberius glided into range of the spatial distortion. A large area of space showed up- or rather, didn't show up on Voyager's sensors, and the Tiberius had been sent to find out why. All alone the border of this grid, small distortions riddled the fabric of space. It was unusual, even for the Delta Quadrant.

The sensors swept past the distortions; nothing.

"Not space, not cosmic dust." Harry Kim said from his console. He looked up. "Tom. What do you make of this?

Tom Paris could only shake his head. "Weird. It's like there's nothing there. Unreal."

"Nothing unreal exists." Seven stated. She viewed the same readings at her ops console.
Harry Kim shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He liked Seven, but to hear her quote a Vulcan law of metaphysics gave him the creeps. Chances were she'd assimilated that knowledge in her time as a Borg. He shook it off.

Seven adjusted their heading.

Tom noticed immediately, "Hey, who's the pilot here?"

"You are, Mr. Paris." She stated, looking up at Tom who was twisted in his seat and obviously irked. "However, we were about to collide with what might only be called a microsingularity, which is moving in and out of real space. There was no time to inform you."

"These readings don't look like any singularity I've ever seen." Harry said. "Maybe we should contact Voyager."

"Transmissions are not getting through. Subspace interference. Attempting to compensate." Seven wouldn't mention that the void in space ahead of them had even her perplexed. There were small tears in subspace here and there all along this grid. Space with distortions resembling microsingularities, but like none she'd ever seen. And the knowledge of millions she carried wasn't giving her the answers.

Tom had turned back to his piloting. "Stars. It looks like any other region of space. What is-"

The Tiberius lurched, alarms went off, shrill as the crew braced for balance. The Tiberius groaned and bucked and Tom tried to take control of the shuttle.

"Inertial dampers are offline!" Harry Kim yelled above the din of the many alarms, "We've lost thrusters! Rerouting power-" The Tiberius bucked again and he barely caught himself before flying over his console.

Seven took her readings, and loudly, if not calmly reported, "Hull breach is imminent. Adjusting shield harmonics."

Tom shouted to his crewmates, "Rerouting emergency power to thrusters. What the hell is going on?"

"We're being pulled!" Harry shouted.

"By what? To what?" Tom called out, "Full reverse! Harry, I need more power"

Seven tried to open a channel to Voyager. "Tiberius to Voyager."

Nothing.

Tom tried, "Voyager, come in!"

Seven saw the flashing light at her console. "Life support offline." She saw that the data transmission had been sent. But had it reached Voyager? She could only hope they were getting it.

Tom swore under his breath.

Blackness.

***

Captain Kathryn Janeway put the final touches into the holomatrix.

New Orleans, circa 1850. The hotel was lush, and this room would perfect for her and Seven to celebrate their three-month anniversary. The four-poster king size bed would be perfect for their first time making love together.

Kathryn went to the window and looked down into the sunny street, at the horses and buggies, at the people strolling along. She could smell the salt air, and mingled in it was the scent of decay from the nearby cemetery. She'd have to cut that out of the program.

Her mind wandered to the trees across the street. She watched the leaves flitter in the breeze as she thought about Seven. She'd been wonderfully patient about Kathryn's insistence that they wait for sex. Three months seemed like a lifetime to Seven, but she'd understood Kathryn's wish. She'd discovered the fine art of self-pleasuring, and never pressured Kathryn.

Of course she didn't. It was Seven. Big blue eyes and a big heart to match.

Tonight. Kathryn smiled to herself. Seven would return from the away mission, and she'd go to Kathryn's quarters. There she'd find a note, attached to a red rose. The note would say, "Meet me in Holodeck Two'.

And Kathryn would meet her, here, in the French Quarter, in period costume. They'd dine, and Kathryn's anxiety made itself known. She hadn't made love to a woman in so many years, since the academy. And that was restless, fast, passionate and over so quickly.

It was ironic that Seven was more experienced in the sexual arts than Kathryn.

Kathryn glibly thought, Thanks to Caela.

She let the thought go. Time to think about what she'd wear tonight.

She was interrupted by her combadge chirping. "Chakotay to Captain Janeway."

She answered, trying not to sound too terribly annoyed by the interruption. "Janeway here. What is it commander?"

Chakotay paused. His voice was serious. "Please come to the bridge, Kathryn."

She heard his voice; she knew something was very wrong. "On my way, Janeway out."

She'd leave the room as is. She left, sealing this holodeck for now. She headed for the turbolift.

***

The lighting in Holodeck One was low. The woods were calm tonight, and the lavender sky was darkening.

In the center of the main clearing, Caela sat nude and cross-legged, as Tuvok had instructed. She was both aware and unaware of the high-powered force field surrounding her, of the Vulcan security officer standing just outside it. She listened to his words, her eyelids fluttering as she did so.

Tuvok stood looking down at her. She had been doing well over the past two months. When Caela had come to him to ask his aid in controlling her empathy, he was impressed. When she requested his help in learning to control her cycles of change more effectively, he found respect for her. She could give into the Howl, and all the wild and abandoned pleasure that came with it. But instead she chose control.

Her own attempts at controlling the beast inside her failed once she'd come to Voyager. Once her planet was gone.

However, Tuvok was certain, he could guide her to a place where she'd find the restraint she sought.

He saw her eyelids, could see her heart rate and her other vitals on the small console he'd erected next to the force field. The Howl was fighting her. It wanted out.

"The moon," Tuvok said, "Calls you. It beckons the Howl to run and hunt. It smells prey on the air."

Her heart rate rose. He watched as her ears elongated, pointed. He watched the concentration on her face as she pulled the Howl back, and her ears appeared human again. Her mouth had visibly changed, her teeth growing and receding. The strain in her was apparent; she was losing.

"The Howl is smaller than you, Caela. It is inside you, under your control. You are in complete control. Your mind is strong, your body is strong. It is the Howl that is weak."

Her respiration had increased, beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. She slowed her own breathing, using a technique Chakotay had taught her. She swallowed the saliva building in her mouth. She felt her body changing.

Before him, Tuvok watched as Caela lost the fight, and the Howl took form. He expected it to sit up, restlessly look for a way out of the force field, but it didn't. The large, black, wolf-like creature lay on the ground, it's pink tongue hanging out from between its sharp teeth. It was breathing hard, and in a moment, it had changed back to the human form of Caela.

Caela opened her eyes in astonishment. She looked up at Tuvok. Quietly, in disbelief, she spoke. "I did it." Her eyes were wide. "I did it."

"Yes." Tuvok said, reading the console. "The Howl DNA has receded. Congratulations, Caela."

She stood. Her eyes wandered, as she felt what was going on inside her. "I don't feel it."

Tuvok clasped his hands behind his back.. "Well done. Were you aware of the Howl when the change did occur?"

She nodded emphatically, "I knew. I was there still I had control. I did it."

"Caela, there is no need to be surprised by your success. You have endeavored to achieve this very thing."

Caela motioned to the console. "How am I doing now?"

"Human DNA is still at the fore. However, I will allow more time before we take down the force field."

"Of course."

There was silence. Caela knew Tuvok wasn't one for talking.

He surprised her now by speaking, "I would like to hear of your progress regarding your empathy."

"It's been better. "Caela answered. "I'm no longer flooded by impressions from all over the ship. I'm able to give the crew more privacy, when they're near. I wish they knew that." She thought about how the crew still thought of her. She knew they thought of her as an outsider still. She looked up at Tuvok and went on. "I am doing well except for what I need to control most."

"Your life-bond with Seven." Tuvok knew. Caela had told him everything about her life-bond with Seven, her choice to leave Seven for the sake of Kathryn and Seven. He and Chakotay were the only people on the ship who she had told.

Caela nodded. "Maybe I can't change it. I still sense her wherever she is on the ship. Whatever she's doing, whatever she's feeling." Caela's emerald eyes focused on a small holo-arachnid crawling near the force field. "I though it would fade with time. It's only grown stronger. When I see her, it's worse there is a fire beneath my skin. I cannot hear and I cannot think, and my mouth and my sex go moist. My heart swells to receive her love, but it's only given to Kathryn." She closed her eyes against the pain. "Tuvok, I cannot go on like this. I need her so badly her friendship at the least, and yet it's torture to be near her. She has become suspicious that I'm avoiding her, and she's correct."

"We will attempt a more direct approach."

Caela was relieved. "Thank you."

The console beeped, and Tuvok reported the readings. "Howl DNA is once again forming."

Caela sighed and lay down on her side, to allow the change to occur this time. "See you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, at the allotted time." Tuvok said, "Computer, remove console." The console disappeared, and Tuvok walked away from the clearing. "Computer, exit."

The exit opened, and once outside, he lowered the small force field, and allowed the holodeck to erect the usual security protocols.

He would be due on the bridge soon, and as he made his way down the corridor, Tuvok thought about his unlikely student. Caela had become a diligent pupil. But as diligent as she was, he wasn't sure if it was possible to circumvent the life-bond she had with Seven. It was a very powerful part of her biochemical and emotional makeup; possibly more powerful than the Howl. Only time would tell.

***

Kathryn, Chakotay, B'Ellana and Tuvok gathered in the conference room. They sat at the table as Chakotay went over the details of the disappearance of the Tiberius.

"We lost contact just as the ship came within two hundred meters of the distortion. The shuttle went off sensors shortly thereafter."

B'Ellana turned to the Captain. "I believe the void is some king of cloaking device. Unknown technology, and possibly deteriorating."

Kathryn asked B'Ellana, "A cloaking device for what?"

"Well," B'Ellana looked to Chakotay, and back to Kathryn. "We can only hypothesize at this point, but we think it may be a planet."

"Think? Might be." Kathryn wasn't happy, that much was obvious. She calmed herself quickly; she was the Captain, and she couldn't let her feelings for Seven affect her choices now. She wouldn't. But the crew had to know that. "B'Ellana, the sun is nearly burned out in this sector. All the other planets have died. If there is a planet out there, it's probably not much better off. If there is a cloaking device, and it's deteriorating, we should be able to devise a way through. "

"The data which was sent back by the Tiberius before it disappeared has given us some idea of what we're dealing with." B'Ellana said. "Seven believed it was a space-time distortion."

Kathryn nodded. "A cloak using temporal mechanics. That's ingenious."

"Exactly." B'Ellana said, "It must be ancient. There are tears and distortions all throughout the fabric of that grid. I think we can use warp particles, as we did in the singularity Voyager was stuck in all those years ago? Let the particles show us a tear big enough to get through. I want to send a probe ahead once that's accomplished, to determine if it's safe to take Voyager in. If it is a planet, we can orbit and use modified sensors to sweep until we find the Tiberius."

"Get right on it." Kathryn said, and looked to Chakotay. "I'll be in my ready room. I want to study the data Seven sent back." She stood, dismissed the crew. "Keep me informed."

She left the conference table.

Once in her ready room, she sat at her desk, her hands over her face. They'd find the Tiberius. The away team would be well. They'd soon be back on Voyager. She had a good crew.

They'd find the Tiberius.

***

Seven's head pounded. She lay on something soft and wet, and didn't open her eyes at first. She could hear nothing familiar. There was a sound like wind, and small animals. She felt something crawl on her leg, and she quickly turned onto her back, shaking it off.

Eyes open now, Seven took in the darkness around her. She was in a swamp like area, and was sitting up in mud at the edge of a bog.
She quickly diagnosed her injuries. Bruises, small lacerations that her nanotechnology would begin to repair soon enough. Her sleeve was torn where a deep cut had stopped at her bicep implant. Her combadge hung from the torn fabric over her breast. Here, another deep cut. It was painful. Her nanoprobes should heal that as well, at least enough to make the pain bearable until she could get to sickbay.

Seven took her combadge in hand. It was split nearly in two, and looked to have prevented something- she did not know what- from doing deeper damage. She pressed it. Nothing. Seven decided she should stand, and as she moved to her feet, the pain in her head throbbed. Her hand went to her brow, and she felt the blood there. She looked at her hand in this darkness.

The blood was thick, already coagulating.

There was no moon. Seven could see the trees around her, fog rolling in slowly. Only her Borg vision allowed her this sight in such conditions. She saw no sign of Harry or Tom, no sign of the shuttle.

She tried to remember what had happened after they'd been pulled into the darkness. She couldn't remember.

This was unacceptable. She had an eidetic memory. She must remember.

But she didn't. There had been a cerebral injury, she thought. Very well, she'd be concerned about that later. Right now, she was alone and injured, and she must find her crewmates and the shuttle.

She slowly turned in a circle. She determined that she must have been thrown from the shuttle somehow. The mud beneath her feet, where her body had impacted, was indented to an angle which suggested she'd landed at a trajectory of- Seven grabbed her head as the pain seared. She felt dizzy, and knew then she had a concussion. She must walk, now. She must stay conscious. She faced the direction she must walk, and moved, her boots sinking inches down into the bog as she went. She listened to her surroundings, kept her eyes on everything around her.

***

The lights on the navigation console of the Tiberius blinked feebly as Tom's hands grabbed hold and he hoisted himself up.

"Harry? Seven?" Tom held his hand against his stomach. He'd taken quite a beating against the navigational console, but it wasn't too bad. He turned around, and looked up.

"Oh my God-" The roof of the Tiberius was gone, as was the rear half of the shuttle. His eyes adjusted to the darkness a little more, and he saw that the Tiberius has been nearly ripped in half. The ops console was gone. As were Harry and Seven.

Scuffling sounds from outside.

Tom's hand went to his phaser, only to find it gone. He imagined it was somewhere around here. He knelt and quietly searched for it.

"Tom?" Harry's voice came from outside, and Tom let out a held breath.

"Harry-" Tom went to the opening in the port side of the shuttle, and looked out into the dark. He couldn't see a thing, but thought he saw Harry limping toward the shuttle. "Harry, is that you?"

"If it wasn't for the shuttle's lights" Harry said, pausing where he was. He kept his eyes on the few lights still glowing on the hull. "I never would have found you." He moved closer, "I was thrown. I woke up in a tree."

Tom quickly moved to help him. He winced as he jumped down from the remains of the shuttle, and quickly put his arm around Harry. There were scratches all over his face, tears in his uniform, but it looked as if he was fine, other than the limp. "Broken leg?"

Harry nodded, but was quiet as they approached the shuttle. He whistled low. "Damn, that was some impact." He let Tom guide him to sit him down on a tree trunk near the shuttle. "How's Seven?"

Tom had reached through a hole in the wall and pulled out a medkit. "I don't know." Tom said, and took a osteoregenerator to Harry's leg. "We can only hope she's nearby."

Harry looked around. "She must have been thrown, too. It's hard to know what happened in there. It was so loud."

"You should see the inside of the shuttle now. Her station is gone, Harry." Tom and Harry looked at each other in silence.

"Seven!" Harry called.

Tom pulled a tricorder form the medkit, and scanned around them. The tricorder picked up no life signs. Tom could hear the animals or insects or whatever it was in this area, so the tricorder was obviously malfunctioning. He replaced it in the kit turned, cupped his hands around his mouth, and called out to the distance. "Seven!"

No answer came, and Tom handed Harry the regenerator. He tapped his combadge. The response was static.

"Tom, we've got to look for her." Harry said, setting the regenerator back in it's case, and standing to test his leg.

"Of course. But we also have to try to contact Voyager."

"She's out there alone." Harry said. "We don't even know where we are." Harry limped toward a group of large stones, naturally piled together. "Seven!"

"Harry, she'll be okay." Tom said, as much to convince himself as Harry. "She's ex Borg, remember? I feel sorry for anything that runs into *her*." He waited as Harry limped back. "Help me repair the damage to the comsystem on the shuttle. Then we'll send a signal, and we'll look for Seven together. I don't think either of us should go out there alone."

"You're right." Harry said, "Let's get started."

***

An hour or so had passed, and the comsystem was barely functioning. There were all sorts of strange energy readings here, and they were interfering with the shuttle technology.

Tom was halfway into the navigation console, on his back. He threw his hands up in exasperation. "It's pointless. I have no idea why this won't work. This system wasn't directly affected by the crash."

"Everything's intact." Harry shook his head. "What kind of planet is this?" He had rerouted all he could reroute; he had realigned, adjusted and readjusted. "I hope they know we're down here."

"They'll figure it out." Tom said. "And B'Ellana will find a way to get through to us." Tom slid out from the console. "Let's look for Seven now. I don't think there's anymore we can do here."

Harry held his hand up, listening. "Do you hear that?"

Tom listened, and whispered, "What?"

The sound came to his ears now, a humming. A tune, hummed by a small voice, high pitched. It had to be a sentient being. Possibly humanoid.
Tom put his finger to his lips, and Harry looked at him as if to say, "Well, duh." They were quiet as the sound grew closer.

The tune stopped. Someone was outside.

A voice came then, and the Universal Translators in their combadges crackled and whined as they came to life.

Again the voice, "Is anyone there?"

Tom took a deep breath, and wondered if the childlike voice really belonged to a child.

Footfalls made their way around to where the shuttle had been torn apart, and a small, round face with big eyes slanted upward at the edges like teardrops peeked inside. Her- or his- eyes met Tom's and the childlike creature was in awe. Small thin lips opened in amazement, and the pale freckled skin reflected the lights that still shone inside.

"Oohh" The small person looked to Harry.

Tom spoke first. "Hello."

The little person stepped back, and called, "MAMA!" Little footsteps ran from the site.

Tom and Harry looked at each other. Tom stepped to the opening. "Wait! What is this place?"

Harry closed up the console. "Let's hope mama's friendly."

"Yeah" Tom began to search for his phaser again. "Do you have a weapon?"

Harry found his still attached to his uniform. "Right here."

"Good, I don't know where mine went." Tom was having no luck finding it on the ground. "Hand me that light."

Harry handed him the small light, "We should test our phasers. Be sure they work here."

Scuffling from outside again, and the small voice, "Here, mama, like I told you."

An older, high but smooth female voice. "Oh, my, you weren't making up stories were you?" The voice came closer. "Hello in there?"

Tom stood, held his light up to see the face peeking in the door now.

She squinted her eyes, held her hand up. The woman stepped back out of view again. "The light-"

Tom turned it off. "Sorry. Hello?"

She looked inside again, her face also reflecting the few dim lights from inside the shuttle. "I can see you're not from here." She smiled. "Is everyone all right?"

Harry stood, and tried to see the woman standing outside. "We'll come out." Harry motioned, and Tom shook his head. Harry went ahead, and carefully, favoring his still sore leg, he hopped out of the huge hole that had been the hull.

Tom followed, and took in the sight ahead of him.

The woman appeared young. She was very thin, and about six feet tall. Her skin, as well as that off her child, was almost luminescent, and each had a scarf worn on their heads. They were clothed it rough fabrics which looked to be hand woven. The woman and child both held baskets, covered with a cloth.

The woman spoke again. "Is everyone all right?" She then rolled her eyes at her child. "And here I am talking to them as if they could understand me."

"Yes, we can understand you." Harry said, tapping his combadge. "Universal translator."

The woman's eyes grew wide as she heard Harry's voice translated into a rough but understandable version of her own language. "Oooh."

"We need your help." Tom said. "We need to contact our ship, and we have a missing crew member. Do you have any kind of radio transmission system, or anything we could use? Our systems won't work. I think it's this planet of yours."

"That wouldn't surprise me." She answered. "But that's a long story, and you need to get out of the woods before dark."

Tom and Harry both balked and in unison, they spat out, "Before dark?"

The child was clinging to the woman's skirts. "Mama, they have a friend lost in the woods."

The woman sighed. "I'm very sorry about your friend." She shook her head. "You'll have to look for him in the morning. It's far too dangerous out here once night falls." "Why?" Tom asked, "What happens after nightfall?"

The woman said a word, "Vrolaka", and the translators groaned. She said it again, looking down at her child. "Vrolaka."

Harry flicked at his combadge. "It can't find a translation."

"Either that or it's malfunctioning like most of our equipment." Tom said, his eyes on the child who was looking around in fear now.

Tom said the word, "Vrolaka?"

The woman nodded. "And it's a far walk to the homestead." She was looking around now, too. "We must start back. Come with us. You'll have food and drink. In the morning, the villagers will help you search for your friend."

Tom hated to admit it, but they didn't have much choice. He didn't want to leave Seven out here. "What is a Vrolaka?"

The woman spoke quietly, as if afraid one might hear her. "Predator. Evil."

Harry shook his head. "Tom, we can't leave her out there. With this Vrolaka thing? We have phasers, we have lights. Let's search for Seven."

The woman understood the dilemma. "Your friend could be anywhere. Dead or alive. I can see you're not suited to this world. If you go out there, I fear the worst for you both." She took her child's hand. "Come, it's time to go." She glanced back up to the men as she adjusted the basket in her free hand. "It's your choice."

Tom didn't like this one bit.

"Tom, let's at least stay here, with the shuttle in case Seven comes to us." Harry said. "Let's find your phaser." He climbed back into the shuttle.

Tom nodded, and his eyes scanned the darkness. His eyes had adjusted, but it still wasn't enough to see past six feet ahead of him. He muttered, under his breath. "Vrolaka." Still, the translator found no word.

The mother and child turned, and the child looked back at Tom and Harry. "Goodbye." They disappeared into the pitch.

Tom pursed his lips. He thought of Seven, her commitment to becoming fully human. He whispered, "If there was ever a time to be Borg, Seven. It's now."

He watched the silent darkness for another moment, and joined Harry inside.

***