A Voyager story started after 'State of Flux', then continued after 
'Maneuvers', and because I am such a slow writer a lot of things won't 
ever happen like this anymore, but I hope it's still a nice story to 
read :)
If you don't know who Leena is, read my story 'Unexpected Meetings' 
first -this one might be a bit confusing at times, otherwise.

TRUST ONCE BROKEN
BY MYRANYA 

	Janeway looked at the readings the away teams had sent up
to the ship. There, that trace might mean a mineral deposit. She
took another sip of Neelix's latest 'coffee'. She grimassed. Slightly
better than the last batch, but it wasn't coffee. She looked back
at the padd. *I wish I could go down to the planet and take a look
for myself. But there is just so much to do.*
        As she tapped instructions for the away team on the padd, she
made her decision. She enjoyed some of the hands-on science, and
she did not like giving it out of her hands, but she could not give it
the time it needed and deserved. Their science department was small;  
the nature of their mission had not required it to be large. And now 
here they were, in an unexplored part of the Galaxy, where there was 
so much for science to discover, and it always got pushed somewhere 
in between other assignments. Neither she, nor Chakotay, nor any of 
the other senior officers had time to double as a full-time science 
officer.
        They were going to be in this quadrant for a while -after almost 
2 years she had to admit that much- and while they were here they had to 
continue their mission of exploration. In a way they had done so from 
the beginning, but right after their arrival in the Delta quadrant their 
first priorities had been repairs, energy reserves, and supplies. Although 
she had prepared for a long journey, she knew that deep inside she had 
made herself believe they would find a shortcut, and they would be home 
in a few months, a year, a year and a half... But it became harder and 
harder to believe they would be home soon, and more permanent measures 
had to be taken. Not only to survive for the day of tomorrow, but also 
to make life on board Voyager more suitable for the long-term assignment
this had turned into.

        "So I think we should set up a full-fledged Science Department," 
Janeway told her senior officers at that afternoon's briefing. "I am 
taking suggestions for a Chief Science officer."
        "Leena."
        Janeway looked at Torres in surprise. Six months ago, her Chief 
Engineer had exploded when the Cardassian had been assigned to her 
department, and now she was suggesting her for a senior staff position? 
Obviously, Janeway thought, she had been too busy to keep up with what 
went on in the crew. 
        "Leena?" she echoed.
        Torres nodded. "She's been working hard in Engineering, but it
is not her department. Science is. And she is the only one on board who 
is working far below her former station _and_ her capabilities."
        Chakotay shook his head. "I do not think that is a good idea."

        B'Elanna looked at him. She had seen the way Chakotay looked
at Leena, whether it was in Engineering, at Sandrine's, or in the mess 
hall. She also probably knew more about his reasons to dislike Cardassians 
than anyone else on the ship. She had been there when he and Seska had 
been lovers, back in the Alpha Quadrant. And then to find out she was a 
Cardassian spy... B'Elanna could understand it took him more time than 
anyone else on the ship to be able to trust a Cardassian again. Still, 
she felt like Leena was the right person for this position, and had been 
working hard to prove herself to the Voyager crew. She herself had been 
given that opportunity when she was made Chief Engineer over Carey, at 
the beginning of their journey. Now, Leena deserved the same chance.
        "Because she is a Cardassian?", she asked him.

        "That isn't the point." Chakotay answered immediately. *But it
is*, he knew. He didn't like to admit it, even to himself, but he just
could not make himself trust a Cardassian. Especially a Cardassian woman. 
He had fought the Cardassians with the Maquis, after his father had been 
killed in a Cardassian raid, but that had been war -he had killed 
Cardassians when he had blown one of their ships out of the sky. What 
Seska had pulled on him was far more personal. When Leena had come on 
board, he had tried to avoid her as much as possible. He had known Torres 
would keep an eye on her, and he had half-way expected things would not 
work out, that she would not stay on the ship. He did not like feeling so 
biased about anyone, but every time he saw the Cardassian he saw Seska. 
So he had avoided her. At first it had been easy, as Leena had not made 
many friends yet and did not spend much time in the common areas, off duty. 
She had spent a lot of time in Sickbay, socializing with the Doctor and 
Kes. After several weeks, she had started to come to Sandrine's with some 
others from the Engineering crew. Still, the junior officers didn't often
mix with the senior officers, even at Sandrine's, and she did not play
pool. After she and Kes had arranged for the Doctor to come to Sandrine's, 
a few weeks ago, and they'd mixed in with the bridge crew more often, he 
knew the distance he kept of the Cardassian had become obvious. Some day, 
he would have to face it and start to heal the wounds Seska had left him 
with. But as long as he did not have to work closely with Leena, he could
put off dealing with it.
        "Then who do you suggest?" Janeway asked him.
        "There are several good people in the Science department.
Jenny Delaney." Chakotay answered.

        Janeway studied her First Officer. While Jenny Delaney was a good 
officer, she was young and relatively inexperienced. Under normal 
circumstances, she would not be up for promotion for at least another 
year. Although Janeway did not know all of the details about Chakotay's 
relation with Seska, she knew enough to guess what the problem was. She 
was not going to press him here, though, with the other officers present.
        "I will be taking suggestions, and I will give all applications 
for the job full consideration. Dismissed." Janeway said.
        "Commander, could you stay for a minute?" she added, as
Chakotay moved toward the door.

        *I wonder why I bothered getting up*, he thought. He had known 
this was coming since he could not come up with a better suggestion than 
Jenny Delaney. He turned and sat back down again.

        Janeway waited for the door to close behind the other officers
before she spoke. She picked her words carefully.
        "I know only a part of what happened between you and Seska.
I do know she hurt you on a much more personal level than anyone else on 
the ship. But Leena is not Seska, and you are going to have to face her 
sooner or later." She put a hand on his arm. "If you want to talk about 
it..."
        "No." He pulled back.
        Janeway started at the anger in his voice. She had seen his
anger and hurt before, but then the wounds had been fresh. She felt
saddened at how raw those wounds still were, months later.

        He saw the sadness in her eyes. He knew that she was trying to 
help him, not just because she needed her crew to work together, but 
also because she wanted to help _him_. *Then why does it only make me 
feel more angry?* he wondered.

        Janeway sighed. She did not like what she was going to say.
But she had to keep the ship running, and she could only give so much 
room to problems of a personal nature.
        "I understand your anger. But I can not let it interfere with
the ship's operations. I suggest you work with Leena, take her on the 
next away mission. See if she really is as good as B'Elanna says she is."
        "Is that an order?" Chakotay asked.
        "If I have to make it one, yes." Janeway said. She was quite
definite about it, but she kept her voice low.
        Chakotay nodded. "Okay. Is that all?"
        Janeway knew it would do no good to press her First Officer
further, at this time. She nodded. "Dismissed."
        As Chakotay left, she went over to the replicator. *I wonder
how many replicator rations it's going to take before this is
resolved*, she thought as she asked the computer for a cup of coffee.

        Two days later Voyager was in orbit around an M-class planet.
Sensors had shown lots of native vegetation, some of which might well be 
a good addition to their food supplies. As Chakotay got ready to call a 
team together, Janeway shot him a look. He returned her gaze and sighed.
        "Mr. Kim, come with me please. Chakotay to Leena, report to
transporter room one, please." As he got on the turbolift, he caught
the Captain giving him a quick encouraging nod. *Why does it make me 
feel worse instead of better?* he thought as the turbolift took off 
toward the transporter room. He did not have much time to think about 
it, as they arrived at the transporter room.
        Leena came from the other side of the corridor, clipping her
tricorder on her belt as she walked.
        Chakotay, Kim and Leena stepped onto the platform.
        "Energize." Chakotay said, and they felt the transporter take
a hold of them.
        A moment later they were on the planet surface. Before they
had fully materialized they knew something was wrong. The planet they 
had orbitted had been uninhabited, showing lush vegetation. The planet 
they had just landed on, however, was definitely inhabited. Not far from 
them buildings rose, and they could see a road running toward the city.
        They immediately grabbed their tricorders. A ground vehicle
sped along the road, not stopping or showing any sign the driver had 
noticed them.
        Chakotay hit his combadge. "Chakotay to Voyager." Nothing.
        Kim and Leena tried theirs, as was procedure in such cases,
but neither really expected an answer. Nor did their tricorders give
them any sign of Voyager in orbit.
        "Where are we?" Kim voiced the question they all had.
        "I don't know." Chakotay looked around. "It is a class M
planet. Were there any inhabited class M planets close to the system 
we were orbitting?"
        "No, sir. No class M anywhere except for the one we intended
to beam down to. And there just is no way we could have missed a
civilization like this one." Kim said.
        "Then where are we?" Chakotay wondered.
        Leena looked up from her tricorder. "Commander? I think we
might be on the right planet after all. These plants are the ones we
beamed down to collect, or at least, these readings are quite close
to what the ship's sensors gathered on them. I would say that we
are in the right place, but in the wrong time."
        Kim made a few adjustments on his tricorder. "Leena is
correct, sir. Tricorder readings are showing a rapidly dissipating ion
concentration. My best guess is that there was a small time rupture,
and we were beamed right through it."
        "Is there any chance either we or Voyager could open it up
again?" Chakotay asked.
        "Negative, sir." Leena said. "The remaining ions react with
the elements in the atmosphere, eliminating any possibility of another 
rupture on this spot for days to come."
        "We will try to gather as much information as we can, and work 
it out later." Chakotay said. He knew that if the signs were fading, 
they had to get the readings before it all dissipated. They scanned 
he area for several minutes until everything had leveled out.
        Kim shivered. It was cold here, much colder than the ship's
sensors had shown for the time they had intended to beam down to.
Chakotay noticed. He was cold, too. He looked around. If the weather 
conformed to the same patterns as on most M class planets, it would get 
much colder at night.
        "We can not stay out here. It will get cold tonight. We
will go to the city and see about finding some shelter." He looked
them over. "I am afraid we will not be able to pass for anything but
aliens, whatever they look like on this planet."
        He did not like to expose themselves to an alien culture, but
he saw no other choice. They did not carry any supplies, as they had 
not expected to be on the planet for any length of time.
        "Still, if at all possible, we won't give any details about
where we came from." he added.
        Kim and Leena nodded, and they started to walk toward the
city. They reached the closest buildings after only about a fifteen
minute's walk, but as this looked like a residential area, they kept
going. 
        The people looked humanoid, with ridges that were somewhat
similar to the Kazon, but still different enough to distinguish, even
from a distance. Even though they saw no other aliens, few people
looked twice at them.
        They walked on toward the city center. Here there were shops,
cafe's and other businesses. As they passed a bar, Chakotay decided to 
go in. They were all shivering, and they needed to get out of the cold 
to discuss where to go.
        As they entered and looked around. Chakotay cursed. "Damn.
They still use money."
        So much for a warm drink. In the back, a group of people
was playing a game not unlike pool, although the table was triangular, 
with five pockets spaced along the sides. One of the men sank three 
green balls in succession, followed by a bright yellow one, and several 
of the spectators cheered. Some coin changed hands. 
        "Perhaps that could get us some money." Kim suggested, but
Chakotay shook his head. He'd watched the man play, too, and knew he did 
not stand a chance.
        "I could never match that. Perhaps the Captain could, but I
can't win from that guy. Besides, we'ld need something to start with."
        As they stood looking around, the bartender watched them
uncertainly. "Are you going to watch, or are you going to order
something?", he finally asked.
        Chakotay approached the bar. "We are not well known in these
parts. Is there any place we can find shelter for the night?"
        The bartender looked them over again. "You don't look like the
street people. Lost your money, or did you get robbed?"
        "We got stranded here, we had not intended to stay long."
Chakotay answered. It was always best to stay as close to the truth as 
possible.
        "There's the town shelter a couple of streets over. But you
really don't want to go there, with all the street people. If you've
been robbed you should try the police station. It's right over on the
other side of the street, about a velna further up town."
        With that, a few of the pool players came over to the bar, and
the bartender excused himself to take their orders. Chakotay thanked him, 
and they went back outside.

        Although they had no idea what a velna was, they found the
police station a little less than a kilometer from the bar. They went
in.
        The officer at the front desk was quite friendly as he, too,
looked at their clothes and decided they did not look like the 'street
people' the bartender had mentioned. Still, he was of little real
help.
        "I am sorry to hear you got stranded. The best thing to get
money would be to get a job, if you can find one. The shop owners at 
the Promenade sometimes take people on to run errants or unload their 
supplies. If you have any money at all, you can go to the shelter. They 
charge only 2 bac a night, and they serve a warm meal for one more.", 
the officer told them.
        "I am afraid we do not have any money with us." Chakotay said. 
"Is there any way we can borrow some, we could pay back in a few days."
        The officer shook his head. "With the number of street people,
no one will lend you any." He looked at their thin uniforms. "You can 
try to get credit at the shelter. Tell Lady Roon that officer Fanio
sent you."
        That was all they got from the police station. They thanked
the police officer, and walked to the shelter, asking for Lady Roon.
The lanky man who had opened the door called her.
        "Lady Roon! Folks to see ye!"
        A big woman emerged from the back.
        "Whatdoyewan?", she grumbled.
        "We are looking for shelter for the night," Chakotay
explained. "Officer Fanio sent us."
        Her expression softened somewhat as she heard the name.
        "We have no money, but he said you might give us credit."
Chakotay continued.
        Lady Roon shook her head. "I'm sorry. If Fanio sent you I'ld
help you any other time, but with this weather we are packed with
people who pay up front. We might have to sent people away as is." She 
looked at their uniforms. "Still, you've got to get off the streets.
You should try the Promenade, doing odd jobs for the store owners."
        "The Promenade?" Kim asked. That was the same thing officer
Fabio had mentioned.
        "It's the covered shopping mall in the center of town. It'll
be warmer there, although you can't stay there over night."
        They got directions from Lady Roon, and went on.

        As they entered the Promenade, they noticed the people
wandering or sitting along the sides of the passages. Here someone
sold small pieces of jewelry, there someone played an instrument
somewhat like a lute. *These must be the street people*, Leena
thought. Most of the people shopping did not even notice them.
        They tried many stores, but had no luck.
        "With this weather, everyone wants a job on the Promenade.",
they heard many times.
        As they came to one of the exits of the mall, Chakotay looked
through the glass doors. It was late afternoon.
        "I have no idea how these people measure time, or when the
mall closes, but we'd better find some money fast.", he remarked.
        Leena looked around. She walked over to the next corner, a
little farther from the entrance, and far enough from any of the
street people who were making music as to not interfere with them. If 
they could make money with music, she sure should be able to. She just 
hoped her voice would hold. She hadn't sung much since she had gone 
to the Military Academy, and not at all for the last two years. She 
started with a simple song her mother had sung when she was young.
        Kim and Chakotay looked at each other in surprise. After a few
moments, some of the passers-by slowed. They were used to the music of 
the street people, but Leena's songs were different.
        She switched between songs she had heard on Voyager, at
Sandrine's or in her quarters, and songs from her native Cardassia.
        As more people slowed, and some even stopped to listen,
Chakotay and Kim watched.
        "Did you know she could sing?" Chakotay asked.
        Kim shook his head. "We never talked about music. I told her I
played the clarinet, but she never mentioned she sang. She's good,
too." He looked around. "I wish I had an instrument to accompany her."
        Slowly, Leena started to collect money.

        But it had been late afternoon when she started, and after
about an hour the people left, as the first stores started to close.
They counted their money.
        "We just got enough to pay the shelter, but we won't have
anything left to eat." Kim reported.
        A young man, one of the street people, who had watched them
silently for most of the last hour, addressed them for the first time.
After introducing himself as Set, he said, "You can come with me to
the Pass. I've been watching you, and you don't look like ocs."
        *Ocs? Pass?* "The pass?" Chakotay asked.
        "Our hide-out. It's not warm, but we have plenty of blankets,
and it's free. You can eat from that tonight and have left for
breakfast tomorrow from what you've got there."
        The Voyager officers looked at eachother, not sure if they
could trust this man. They did not look forward to spend the night
outside, but neither did they look forward to going hungry. If they
could find shelter and food for what little money Leena had made, that 
would certainly be a better choice. This Set was the first person
they had met who actually offered them some real help, and they
decided to take it. Chakotay nodded.
        "Okay. Show us the way."
        The man jumped up. "Alright. We'll have to hurry to hit the
store before it closes."
        As they wanted to go into the store, a man stopped them.
        "You got money, Set?"
        "Yeah." Set answered. The man did not budge.
        "Well, show him." Set said.
        Kim showed them the coins they had collected.
        "Hm. No reason for all four of you to go in, though. Two of
you can buy food as well as four can.", the store owner said.
        "I'll go." Kim said. Chakotay nodded.
        "We'll be right back." Set assured them.
        Barely a few minutes later they came out.
        "We got some kind of bread, vegetables for a stew, and milk
from the local dairy animals. Set says it's good hot, too." Kim
reported.
        The store owner was ready to shut his doors, so they did not
stick around. They followed Set outside, where they walked quickly. 
It had started to snow, and the wind had picked up.
        Fortunately, Set's Pass was not far. Underneath a large overpass 
a few blocks from the Promenade was a large section which was protected 
on three sides from the wind, dry underneath the road above it.
        A group of people was gathered around a number of fires at the 
entrance, while further back they could see piles of matresses, blankets, 
and the shapes of some people sleeping.
        Set walked up to one of the fires and addressed a young boy.
        "Kee, get these people some blankets!"
        The boy jumped up and dug around in the back. Soon he returned 
with his arms full of blankets, and the Voyager officers gratefully 
wrapped themselves in them -it had gotten very cold.
        As the evening progressed, people came and went. They cooked 
the stew over one of the fires, and ate it with large hunks of the 
bread. Set had been right, they had enough left for breakfast the next 
morning.

        After they had eaten several of the street people gathered
around. One of them, a man called Elah, surprised them by asking,
"That you are here, does that mean they're trying to use transporters 
again, in the future?"
        "Transporters?" Chakotay asked.
        "You did not come here by transporter?" Elah asked. "I know
you are not from here, we figured you'ld be from the future. Your
clothes, the way you look, it made sense."
        "You have transporters to travel through time?" Chakotay
asked.
        "No, no." Elah said. "Or, they weren't intended to. That's why
they stopped using them, fifty years ago."
        The Voyager officers listened closely, now. Chakotay did not
want to give these people too much information as to where they came 
from. Still, this information could be vital to their return to their 
own time.
        "So you tried to use these transporters to cross distance, but
you travelled through time, instead?"
        Elah nodded. "Yes. Or, they did get to the place they tried to
transport to, but they travelled through time, as well. From what we 
learn about it in our schools, they figured it was something in the 
atmosphere that caused time travel as a side-effect. They did not find 
any way to eliminate the time shift, so they finally canned the project."
        "Are any of these transporters still around?" Chakotay asked.
        Elah nodded again. "They've got one in the Museum of Science
and Technology. But it does not work anymore."
        He looked at them. "Why are you so interested, if you did not
come here from the future?"
        Chakotay thought hard of something to say. But he was taken by 
surprise again. A woman who'd been quiet up till now, sitting a little 
back from the others and not even introducing herself as the others had, 
spoke up.
        "You're from the past." She lapsed into silence again, but
Elah had caught on.
        "Of course. If you had been from the future, you would have
known all this.", he said.
        There was no use denying it.
        "If these transporters can take someone into the past, perhaps
we can use them to get back." Kim said.
        "How far into the past did these transporters take your
people?" Chakotay asked.
        "Not far. A few hours, days at the most." Elah answered.
        That wasn't nearly enough. Still, Chakotay wanted to see this
technology. He asked Elah.
        "Is there any way we can get a look at this transporter?"
        "Sure", Elah answered. "The museum is open every day. You
could see it there, but as I said, they took it off-line. They won't
let you touch it or anything."
        Chakotay hadn't expected they would. But with his tricorder,
he did not have to touch it. He could take readings just being in the
room with it. He would go over there tomorrow. Now, they needed to get 
some rest.
        "We have much to do tomorrow. Let's try to get some sleep.",
he suggested.
        Leena and Kim agreed. They had quite a few questions, but with 
all of the street people gathered around them, they could not talk 
freely. They didn't want to give away even more about their origins.
        Set showed them where they could sleep.
        "Commander, do you want to set a watch?" Kim asked.
        Chakotay considered. He'd thought about that, too.
        "You don't have to worry about ocs, here." Set said.
        "That's the second time you use that, what are ocs?" Chakotay
asked him.
        "Outcasts, from other sities.", Set explained. "There's places
like our Pass everywhere. We live on the streets, making money by
doing odd jobs, selling things we make, making music like you do. Some 
of us make money in less honest ways. What people do outside, we do not 
care. But we need a place to sleep, and eat, and we need to feel safe 
here. No one here will steal from other street people. Anyone who breaks 
that code is cast out of any of these places. They become outcasts, and 
when they have no place to go, they move to another city. But they won't 
come here. There's always someone awake, and no stranger comes in alone."
        The Voyager officers nodded. It made sense. Still, they slept
with their phasers and tricorders close to their bodies.

        The next morning they rose early. Not many people were up,
just two men who talked quietly near one of the two fires that were
still going.
        They sat down around the other fire, where they could talk.
        "I'm going to have a look at that transporter today." Chakotay
said. He had thought about the various options. Leena had to go sing
and make money, that was certain. He would have liked to take Ensign 
Kim along to the museum, but he did not want Leena to go off on her own.
He'd also considered sending Harry to the museum alone, but although the 
young ensign was very bright, he lacked experience, and could easily run 
into trouble if he was caught gathering the information they needed.
        "Ensign Kim, I want you and Leena to go to the Promenade and
earn money again. I will go to the museum as soon as we have enough to 
get in. I'll get tricorder readings and as much additional information 
as I can. I might be back late, so get food before you leave, and we will 
meet back here, tonight."
        Kim and Leena nodded. They ate a breakfast of bread and
left-over stew, and as the stores opened, Leena was back at her post.

        After a few minutes, Elah showed up. He went over to Chakotay.
        "You planning to get a look at that transporter today?"
        Chakotay nodded.
        "Let me come with you." Elah said. Chakotay looked at him.
        "You'll never get near it without someone to distract the
museum guards." Elah explained.
        "I thought you said it didn't work anymore." Chakotay said.
        "It doesn't, but that doesn't mean they'll let you get really
close, and it'll attract attention if you show too much interest in
it. Besides, it's quite a walk, I brought you a coat."
        Chakotay gave in. He'ld have to hide his tricorder from Elah,
but he'ld have had to hide what he was doing from any museum guards, 
anyways, and Elah would be distracted himself while distracting the 
guards.
        The passers-by were in more of a hurry at this time of the
day, on their way to work or school, and did not stop to listen to
Leena, but they did notice the alien music. Soon Chakotay and Elah
were on their way to the museum.

        Leena kept singing. After a while, Kim went off to look
around. The instruments the stores carried were expensive, but he
found an ingeneously made clay flute one of the street people sold
elsewhere on the Promenade. He tried it out and found it well to his
liking. It wasn't like having his clarinet here, but it would do. He
bought it, and soon he was playing along with Leena.
        As the day progressed, the people who walked by took more time 
to listen. When they stopped that night they had quite a few bac left, 
after buying their food.
        "We can sleep at the shelter, tonight." Kim suggested.
        Leena shook her head. "The Pass isn't that bad, and I think we
will need the money if we want to get back to Voyager. I'm eager to
see what the Commander learned at the museum, but I doubt it'll be the 
last trip."
        Kim nodded.

        Chakotay had followed Elah to the museum. He was glad for the 
coat -it was quite a walk, and it was still snowing.
        Not surprisingly, the guard at the door wanted to see their
money before even letting them into the hall with the ticket counter.
        Once inside, Chakotay took his time. He did not want to be too
obvious about his interest in the transporter, and he took the
opportunity to collect some information on the other technologies of
this planet, which might also be of help in understanding the workings 
of the transporter. He held his tricorder underneath his coat, taking 
readings as he could. When he needed close-ups, Elah watched for the 
guards.
        Finally, he made his way toward the transporter. It was on the
far end of a large room, and looked surprisingly similar to the
earlier models of Federation transporters. Here, he definitely wanted 
to take some detailed readings. He told Elah so, and the alien nodded.
        "I'll keep him occupied." Elah said, glancing in the direction
of the guard. He walked over, and asked the man a question about a
piece of equipment in the next room. Chakotay listened just enough to 
know that the guard was still busy, but he did notice Elah asking deeper 
questions, displaying quite a bit of knowledge of these technologies.
        He quickly took his readings, and as he had collected all
information he could, they left. It was still mid-afternoon.
        Chakotay considered going back to the Promenade, to see how
Leena and Kim were doing, but he knew that there, with all the people, 
he would have no chance to go over the readings he had on his tricorder. 
He went back to the Pass with Elah.

        Kim and Leena came back to the Pass as the stores had closed.
        Chakotay was pleased to see they had done well.
        After they ate, they started to go over the tricorder
readings. Chakotay pointed out how every transporter test had resulted 
in the opening of a small rip in time. Leena studied the readings closely.
        "There.", she said. "The rips in time do not appear to get
any _larger_, but they do go further backwards in time as the distance 
in space increases. The testing was done at short distances and low levels 
of power, so the time shift was always short. But if we had enough power, 
and transported far enough, this could get us back."
        Chakotay nodded. He could notice a similar pattern. Still, he
kept re-checking all of Leena's work. For some time, she tried not to
notice, and worked on, bend over her tricorder. Eventually she sat back.
        "Okay, what is the problem?", she asked Chakotay.
        He'd known this was coming, but he feigned ignorance and tried 
to wave it off. "Nothing."
        For a long moment Leena considered to let is rest, but she
knew they had to better work this one out now.
        "Permission to speak freely?", she asked.
        Chakotay considered saying 'no', but he knew he couldn't put
it off forever. *Might as well get this over with*.
        "Granted."
        Leena took a deep breath. "Commander, you have checked on my every 
step. You have avoided me on Voyager, you never say a word you don't have 
to. A lot of people reacted that way when I came on board, but you are the 
only one who still does. What is your problem with me?"
        "Why didn't you ask someone?" Chakotay wanted to know.
        "I did. Several times." Leena said. "They said it was your
story to tell."
        *I guess it is*, Chakotay thought. He sighed.
        "Okay then." He closed his tricorder and put it down.
        "You have heard about Seska, giving the replicator to the
Kazon."
        Leena nodded.
        "She was part of my Maquis crew. She joined the Maquis a full
six months before the mission that ended here in the Delta Quadrant. She 
passed as a Bajoran at the time, claiming experience from the Kohn-Ma. She 
came on my team, and was quick to impress me with what she knew about the 
Cardassian defenses. No wonder she knew all these things -she fed me just 
enough information to gain my interest. Soon, she started to drop by in 
off hours. We spent several months together, working and getting to know 
each other on a personal level. Or, at least I thought I got to know her."
        Leena listened closely. She had known it had to be something
personal, from the way the other crew members had refused to tell her 
about it. Still, this was the first time she heard him talk about it.
        "A few weeks before that last mission, things got pretty
hectic in the Demilitarized Zone. As we had the ship to run, I decided we 
could not go on having a relationship and flying the ship at the same time. 
Seska said she agreed, but she kept popping up, 'coincidentally' running 
into me everywhere."
        Chakotay stared into the fire. He was back in the Alpha Quadrant 
again, planning Maquis missions while Seska interrupted with little 
messages, or with what had appeared to be geaneous interest and concern 
for him. *Yeah, she was interested, alright*
        "We went on a mission, should've been simple enough. We were 
chased into the Badlands by a Cardassian warship. Next thing we knew, we 
where here in the Delta Quadrant. The Maquis vessel was destroyed, the 
Array blown up to keep the Kazon from controlling it, and we joined the 
Voyager crew." Chakotay skipped over the details as Leena knew most of 
this already.
        "I did not see much of Seska for several weeks, as we were all
very busy. We had repairs to make, supplies were much lower than they are 
now, we were converting some area's of the ship for uses they'd never been 
intended for."
        "One morning we had beamed down to a planet to collect food and 
supplies when a Kazon ship arrived in the sector. The Captain ordered a 
beam-up, and Seska was missing. I ordered the others to return to Voyager, 
while I stayed behind to look for her. I found her in a cave where she 
claimed to be collecting mushrooms. She must have been meeting with the 
Kazon right there."
        "The Kazon saw us and fired. I was hit -now I know it wasn't
the poor shooting of the Kazon which kept me alive. They just wanted to 
put on a good show." Chakotay paused. *No reason to go into details of 
the soup-fiasco* "To make a long story short, the next day we found a 
disabled Kazon vessel. Turned out they'd tried to install one of 
Voyager's food replicators, using insufficient shielding. We knew someone 
on board Voyager had given it to them. As Seska tried to cover her tracks,  
she was injured. The Doctor discovered she was not really a Bajoran."
        Chakotay felt his anger rise. This was the first time he had
really talked about any of this. "She tried to deny she was a
Cardassian, claiming she had had a Cardassian bone marrow transplant 
as a child. When the Doctor informed her that did not explain all of 
the Cardassian traces in her blood, she admitted to her heritage, but 
she denied being the one who had given the replicator to the Kazon." He 
paused. "With Tuvok, I set a trap for her, telling her we did not know 
where the replicator had been taken from." He paused again.
        "Even though I now knew she was a Cardassian, I still did not
want to believe she had betrayed us. She kept up pretense as long as 
she could, but when she fell for the trap and knew she had been found 
out, she finally showed her real face. She called the Captain a fool, 
and me a fool for following her. 'If this were a Cardassian ship, we 
would be home by now.'" Chakotay quoted.
        Leena grimassed. She'd been in a Galor class warship when she
had been pulled to the Delta Quadrant, and she knew exactly how untrue 
that statement was.
        "She beamed out of sickbay", Chakotay continued, "With a special 
override command she had installed. We were in no position to pursue." 
He paused. *If only that had been the last we had seen of her*, he 
thought.
        As he remained silent, Leena softly said. "But that wasn't all
of it."
        Chakotay slowly shook his head. "No, it wasn't." He took a
deep breath. "We knew she was with the Kazon. We heard her name
mentioned, or references to her. But we did not see her again for
some time. Not long before you came aboard, we ran into her
again."
        "We were met by the Kazon. Seska used her knowledge of Voyager 
to board the ship and steal more equipment. I went after her, trying to 
stop her." Chakotay's voice was hard. "It did not work out the way I 
intended. Seska got her hands on me, instead."
        Chakotay clenched his fists. His voice was more harsh than at
any other time. "As I was on the Kazon ship, Seska took some of my
DNA, and used it to impregnate herself."
        Chakotay stopped, and stared in the fire. Nobody spoke. Leena
had listened to him in utter silence. The first part of his story
struck her as typical Obsidian Order tactics. Despicable, if you
asked her, but typical. But this?
        After a long silence, Chakotay looked at her.
        "Now you know."
        Leena honestly did not know what to say. She'd known something 
had been going on, but this was more than she'd been able to imagine.
        "I'm sorry.", she said, knowing it sounded lame. "This is
extreme, even for the Order."
        "You don't seem to like the Obsidian Order much." Chakotay
observed.
        Leena shook her head. "Not many people do. Oh, you would never 
hear me say that back in the Alpha Quadrant. But the Obsidian Order 
has some pretty fanatic members. Especially the undercover department. 
Those people have to be extremists -to be surgically altered like that. 
I don't know the details, no one outside the Order does, but they even 
mess with the mind sometimes. Seska must've been a fanatic to get into 
that in the first place. Obviously, she's a fanatic in other things, 
too."
        "You can say that again." Chakotay said. "You know, I don't
even know her real name. I had a relationship with the woman, and 
I don't even know who she was."
        It wasn't really a question, but Leena answered it anyway.
        "I couldn't find out even on Cardassia. Tain knows; two, three
others. I'm sorry."
        Chakotay looked at the Cardassian sitting across from him. He
did feel better now he had told this all to someone. Strange, the
Captain had invited him to tell it several times, and he never could.
Here, he had told it to the last person he'd wanted to tell it to
this morning. Why had he been able to tell Leena what he couldn't
tell Janeway? He shook his head.
        "No, I am sorry. I have not treated you fairly. It's just...",
he took another breath, "I keep seeing her when I look at you."
        "It is hard to trust again once your trust has been broken."
        Kim jumped. Nobody had noticed the slight woman sitting down 
behind the Ensign. She was the same woman who'd remarked they were from 
the past, the previous day. Chakotay stared at her, and she studied him 
closely.
        "It is not that you can't trust Leena. You're afraid to love
again. To get hurt again.", she stated. And, at his questioning look,
she added, "Oh, I don't know who. Someone back where you came from." 
She looked at Chakotay intensely. "Yes. Definitely someone on Voyager, 
whereever that is."
        *How much had she heard?* They had definitely told these
people a great deal more than they had intended, but no one had
noticed the quiet woman as she sat down.
        Chakotay's first reaction was to deny her observation. But as
he thought about it, he realised she was right. He just hadn't
admitted it to himself, before. That was why he had not been able to 
talk to Janeway about Seska. He had tried to keep his distance, afraid 
of what might happen. *Afraid to get hurt again.* So instead he asked, 
        "How do you know?"
        But the woman had stopped talking and was staring off as if
she didn't pay any attention at all to what was going on.
        Set and Elah came over to the fire. Set had just heard the
last question.
        "En passes herself off as a medium, a fortune teller. That's
how she earns her money. She doesn't have any real supernatural
powers, of course, but she observes people, and she listens more
closely than anyone I know. She often notices things other people do 
not." And, taking in the scene and coming to a conclusion of his own, 
he added, "Sometimes she even notices things people did not know about 
themselves."

        Kim, who had remained silent during all this, closed his
tricorder as the two men approached, and now was about to clip it 
on his belt. Chakotay stopped him.
        "I had not intended to, but we might as well let them in on
this. They know we're not from here, they know we're from the past, 
and after what she just heard there's not much left. Besides, we need 
them to learn more about the history of this planet -I can not figure 
out how far in time we did travel."
        Set and Elah sat down. Elah looked as he had fully expected to
be included in their efforts since they first walked into the Pass,
just like he had shown up that morning. Chakotay felt himself
wondering if perhaps these people were low-level telepaths. *They sure 
seem to have an uncanny feeling for what is going on*  They picked up 
their tricorders again.
        Elah picked up quickly. He obviously had some scientific
background, even though he now made his money doing all kinds of
unschooled work, as he had told Chakotay when they walked to the
Museum.
        "It is hard to reacon how far in time we have travelled as we
have no idea what time frame we are talking about. You obviously did 
not originate on this planet -no really old buildings, for one thing- 
but it would help if we knew how long you had been here."
        "We colonised this world 347 years ago. We didn't have space
travel at the time, and only a few FTL ships now, but we were brought 
here by the Tari, who have large transports. We still trade with them 
on occasion."
        "So we travelled more than 347 years." Kim mused. He checked 
his tricorder. "If these records are the ones showing the ion readings 
at the times of your experiments, we could use them to calculate it more 
precisely."
        "Between 430 and 380 years, that is as close as I get." Leena
said after a while. "Were there any more of these experiments than the 
ones the Museum has information on?"
        Elah looked at the list on her tricorder. "I would think there
were more." He thought about it. "The Museum would not have every 
single report, as some would have been quite similar. They would be at 
the Institute of Technology. That's where the transporter was built."
        "Those are the ones that might tell us what we need, if they
are close to the other readings. We have to know exactly what time we 
came from, and find a way to go back to exactly the right time."
Chakotay said. He knew it would have to come very close, indeed. If
they went to a time only a little too far into the past, they risked a
paradox. They would risk running into themselves, or perhaps not even 
beaming down at the time and place they had, as the ship's sensors 
would pick them up. And although he was certain the Captain would do 
everything she could to find them, and wouldn't leave orbit soon, she 
would not stay forever. Once Voyager was gone, there would be no way 
to travel back further in time. They would aim for one hour after their 
beam-down. He could only hope the Captain and B'Elanna had been able 
to figure out enough from the readings on their side of the time 
rupture not to try beaming anyone else down. Readings seemed to be 
far stronger and clearer on the 'far' side of the transporter beam.
        "They might not be open for the public. There is a library
where anyone can access the Institute's records, but a lot of the
details on the transporter technology is classified." Elah said.
        "If it is in the computer, I can probably get it out."
Chakotay said. Here, his Maquis experience would help him -he had
broken into some of the Federation computers back in the Alpha
Quadrant, getting information on ship movements on their side of the 
Demilitarized Zone.
        Elah nodded. "I'll take you there tomorrow."
        As Leena and Kim could not get any closer to the exact time,
without more information, they had set to working on the transporter 
itself.
        "The transporter in the Museum will get us far enough, and I
can get it in working shape again, but there is no way the power
grid in there will be able to handle it. Even if it is the minimum
of 380 years.", Leena reported. "There wouldn't be another one,
anywhere?"
        "The other prototypes were destroyed," Elah said. "You really
think you can get that one working again?"
        Leena nodded. "It is really a lot like our Federation
technology. So much that it could somehow be left here from our journey 
through this quadrant." She frowned. "Or... We _are_ 400 years in the 
future..."
        Kim picked it up. "Perhaps travel between here and the
Federation is much faster!"
        But Chakotay shook his head. "Even if there is a way, we can't
take it with us to the past."
        Kim sighed. He'd known that, of course, but even after two
years, he hadn't really given up on finding a way to get home soon.
Whatever it would be, they would have to find it in their own time.
        Chakotay decided to call it a day. The nights were cold,
even here in the Pass, and they wouldn't gain anything by getting
sick on this planet.

        In the morning Elah was already awake. The Institute for
Technology was located on the outskirts of the city, too far to walk,
but Leena and Kim had made enough money the previous day that Chakotay 
and Elah could take the public transportation system right from the 
Pass, not going to the Promenade first.
        At the Institute, Chakotay easily located the files he needed
in the computer. He downloaded everything concerning the transporters 
to his tricorder, and they were back at the Pass before midday. He had 
not wanted to work on anything on the Institute's computer. 
        With the additional information, he could soon pinpoint the
time they had travelled. Now he set to calculating the power needed 
to travel the 416 years. Leena had been right -it was more than the
Museum could handle. It had never been built to actually run things in 
there, just to exhibit them. He explained the problem to Elah and Set.
        "You could use a power unit like the ones used in personal air
vehicles. They are light enough to be portable, and they are
compatible. They pack a lot of power." Set suggested.
        Elah agreed that would be possible, but he wasn't sure where
to get one. "Those things are expensive, though.", he remarked.
        "I still know a few people at one of the repair stations near
the space port. I'll do some checking. I can get one for a less than
a thousand."
        Less than a thousand. That'ld take weeks to get together, and
that was if they didn't need anything else. Still, Chakotay saw they
were going to need the power pack. At least with time travel it did not 
matter how long they spent in this period. They would be going back to 
an hour after they originally beamed down, taking the hour as a safety 
margin if their calculations would be off a bit. Well, if they were 
going to make money, he might as well do his part. He did not play 
music, but he had seen several of the street people selling hand made 
objects. He had learned to carve stone and wood from his father, and 
he decided to put that skil to use. He set out to look for some 
suitable pieces of material.

        That night, as the stores at the Promenade closed their doors,
Elah suggested they go to Lady Roon's shelter to bathe and wash their 
clothes. The Voyager officers gladly agreed. Their uniforms were made 
to repell dirt, but they had been wearing them for two days straight 
        Lady Roon remembered them. She approached Leena.
        "You are the one who's been singing, right?"
        "Yes." Leena nodded.
        "Why don't you come here on Ramvenday. The Promenade will be 
closed and many people will be in all day. I won't be able to offer 
you much, but you can all eat here and I won't charge you for the 
washing.", Lady Roon said.
        Leena agreed -they could use anything they could get.
        After they had washed up, they walked back to the Pass. Set
joined them there.
        "I found a good power unit. They want 950 for it, but I can
get it for as little as 800.", he told them.
        That was still a lot, considering they only made about 70 each
day, and they had to eat from that, too. Still, they were going to
need that power unit. It would take them several weeks to raise the
funds.

        After dinner, Chakotay brought Kim and Leena up to date on
what he had found out that day.
        "I found exactly how far we have to go back in time. With the
power unit we can get the transporter working, but we will have to
make exact calculations.", he told them.
        Leena took her time studying the tricorder readings. "I think
I can adjust the time within minutes, but I would like to get a look
at the transporter before we make the actual attempt, so I know what 
to expect. From what I understand, the Museum staff is not going to be 
cooperative in this, so we might not have much time when we do go in to 
make final adjustments."
        Chakotay nodded. He didn't like her loosing a day of income,
as he really wanted to get the funds together as soon as possible, but 
he knew she was right. He had already planned on doing some scouting 
on the security of the Museum, himself. It looked as if they would have 
to break in at night. Fortunately, there did not seem to be a high 
frequency of break-ins on this planet, and most buildings did not seem 
to have sophisticated security systems.
        Chakotay did not like planning a break-in on this quiet
planet, but Set and Elah had made it clear that they would not get
permission to use the transporter to tamper with time, even if it was 
really only un-doing the tampering they had done accidentally.
        "Okay. Go to the Museum tomorrow, and take Set to keep the
guards busy. Neither Elah or me should go again if we don't have to.
And borrow some clothes from En or someone -they might notice two 
people in similar uniforms taking interest in the transporter."
        "Understood. We will go as soon as the Museum opens. I will
gather all information I need, and return to the Promenade as soon as 
I can." Leena said. She, too, wanted to get back to Voyager as soon as 
possible. They had found shelter here, but it was far from warm and 
comfortable.
        Leena stood and walked over to one of the other fires, where
En and a couple of other women were sitting, to arrange for clothes.
        Chakotay selected one of several pieces of wood he had
collected earlier that day, and started carving it with a knife set
had dug up for him.
        Kim had seen Chakotay's work before, but Leena was surprised 
when she returned with the clothes she needed for her mission to the 
Museum the next day. She was hesistant about asking the Commander 
about it, even after their talk yesterday evening. For some time she 
watched as the head of a wolf took shape under his hands. Finally, 
she did comment.
        "That is very beautiful."
        Chakotay looked up, surprised. "You like it?"
        "Yes." Leena said. She added, "I did not know you did wood
carving."
        "I did not know you could sing." Chakotay said.
        Leena heard the deeper question in his words. "Cardassians
have art, too. My mother was a professional singer."
        Chakotay reflected on that. He realised how little he knew
about Cardassian society, apart from military intelligence.
        "On Cardassia?", he asked.
        Leena nodded. "Oh, she isn't famous or anything. I doubt
anyone in the Federation would have heard of her even if the
Cardassian society was more open. She was well liked in the regio,
though."
        She fell silent and stared into the fire. After a while she
spoke again.
        "I guess the Federation knows even less about Cardassian
civilian life than we do about the Federation."
        Kim only now realised how true that statement was. He had
spoken frequently with Leena over the past six months, but he had
never heard her speak of her family, even when others spoke about
theirs. This was the first time she mentioned anything about her 
life on Cardassia.
        "What does your father do?", he asked.
        "He's a civilian scientist." Leena said. And, as she had
started to tell of home, she felt easier about continuing. "My mother
would have liked me to stay on Cardassia, my family does not have a 
military history. But I looked at my father, how he got to study
those things the military and the Order pre-selected for him... I 
knew if I wanted to get into the important work, have a chance to 
make some real discoveries, I would have to join up and go off 
planet. My father knew he only gets to work on what the military 
tells him to, and he understood. I don't know that my mother ever 
did."
        Chakotay had stopped carving to listen to her. "You miss
them.", he said.
        "Yes.", Leena simply said.
        "We will get back, you will see them again." Kim knew he was
saying it to reassure himself as much as her. But Leena shook her 
head slowly.
        "My father, perhaps. My mother... She was sick with Tenaf's
Disease when I left Cardassia. There is no cure. She would not have
lived more than a few months after the Stavos disappeared."
        "I'm sorry.", Kim said.
        "That is why you never sung on Voyager.", Chakotay realised.
        Leena nodded. "It would have been hard to explain. Too many
people who never realised there even was such a thing as singing, or 
dancing, or painting, on Cardassia. Too many memories to want to
explain it to 140 people."
        "Yet you did start to sing here.", Kim said.
        Leena shrugged. "It was the only thing I could think of.
Besides, it has been two years." She said it lightly. "Time heals all
wounds."
        "Time alone won't do it."
        It was Leena's turn to jump at En's voice. *Is she going to
drop in on every conversation we have?*, she felt herself thinking.
        "Time helps, but you have to heal your own wounds. If you
don't deal with them, they stay. Time can make it easier to deal with 
them, that is all."
        Leena stared into the fire and realised En was right. She
would have had to talk about it eventually, to deal with it. She
glanced at Chakotay, sitting across from her. Perhaps some good would 
come out of them getting stranded here like this. If they could get 
back to Voyager, of course. 
        The next morning Leena and Set left early for the Museum. They 
went in, and Leena took her time scouting out the transporter and the 
room it was kept in. Still, she was back at midday. She was feeling 
pretty good, confident she could hook up a power unit and make precise 
adjustments without any problems. Of course, there would be no way to 
test their final settings; any object they would normally use to send 
through first would end up in the past with no way of telling if it 
got there, and at exactly what time. And if they were only a little 
bit off, they might be stranded here forever, in a time where the next 
ship was due in 69 years. She cut off that line of thought abruptly. 
The controls would allow for precise adjustment, and their calculations 
would just have to be correct.
        She had also discovered something else, and this she had to
discuss with the Commander, as she did not know if it was anything
they could tell Set and Elah. When the three Voyager officers walked 
to the Pass that night, she brought it up.
        "Commander, I think I know what caused the time rifts.
Comparing this transporter in the Museum with the one on Voyager, I 
think I found a way to eliminate the effect."
         Chakotay looked at her. "You found what the scientists of this
planet couldn't find in all this time?"
        "It would be really hard to find working with just one of the
transporters. I don't think we could have found what exactly causes
the time travel on Voyager, with the whole ship's computer at our
disposal, if we didn't know about this transporter here. But the
transporters are very much alike, and with the schematics of both of 
them, knowing they create the opposite effect, it becomes obvious." She 
showed Chakotay the schematics on her tricorder.
        "A few adjustments in the pattern particle phase beam is all
it would take. Adjust it up or down until the effect is zero."
        Chakotay took it all in. It certainly looked as if it would
work. It was as Leena had said, almost ridiculously simple when you 
had all the information, and almost impossible to hit upon when 
looking at just half the picture. The problem was, what could they do 
with this information. Could they tell Elah? Or was this a case of the 
Prime Directive? He knew that as the leader of the away team, the 
decision would be his. But he knew the value of discussing these kind 
of dilemmas with the others, and hearing their suggestions. He asked 
them.
        "On any other planet they would have had transporters for years,"
Leena said. "But here they might never develop them any further without 
help."
        "They aren't even native to this planet. They colonised it.
So it is not like it is natural for them to live here in the first
place.", Kim argued. "I say we show them our findings."
        Chakotay nodded. That was what he had wanted to do. He still
valued his team members' opinions. The one question that remained was 
how this knowledge could affect their return to their own time.
        "If we make this knowledge public, we might not be able to get 
access to the transporter anymore, at least not for a very long time.", 
he said.
        "We can talk to Elah about it. He will be able to follow the
technical explanation, and he can also tell us what to expect if we
bring this out in the open.", Leena suggested.
        "Agreed.", Chakotay said.

        That night, they told Elah. He studied the tricorder
read-outs in detail. When he spoke, his voice was calm, but his eyes
glittered.
        "With this, we'll be able to transport safely. This will mean
a great deal to our society." He looked at them and came to the same 
conclusion they had. "We'll have to get you guys back first, though. 
Once this gets in the news, you'll never be able to gain access to the 
one in the Museum again."
        "You do not think they will let us use it to get back, even
with this new information?", Chakotay asked.
        Elah shook his head. "No, I don't think so. They are very
strict about time travel, this will not change that. We've waited for
fifty years for a working transporter, a few more weeks will not make 
a difference."
        Chakotay looked at the man sitting across from him. "Thank
you.", he said.
        Elah looked at the Pass, then turned back to Chakotay. "You
have a home. Just make sure you get back to it."
        Chakotay nodded. "I intend to."

        They worked hard to earn money for the power unit. They tried 
to think of other ways to make money, but there were not a lot of jobs 
to be found, and what there was was very lowly paid. Set explained the 
economy had been like this for years. Many people were out of work, 
living on the streets.
        When Kim asked if there was no social security or other help
for people to fall back on, Set shook his head.
        "People have to take care of themselves. Anyone who can't hold 
a job in society ends up in the streets. We take care of ourselves out 
here, in groups like the Pass. We have a safe place to sleep where no 
one bothers us, it works. Maybe if it didn't work, if we did not have 
any place to go at all, people would help us back into the real society 
again."
        "Maybe, but I would not bet on it.", Chakotay said. "In many
human societies there was no such thing as the Pass, and very little
in the way of safety or shelter for the homeless, and it took till
after the Bell Riots before a real solution was found."
        Leena nodded. "It's the same on Cardassia. We still barely
help any people who do not manage to stay within the main society -we 
keep them out of sight so most people don't know about them."
        Set stared in the fire. "Our planets are not so different. 
If your Earth managed to take care of its people, perhaps our planet 
can too, some day."

        The day they went with Set to pick up the power unit came.
They looked it over, and everything checked out. On the way back, they 
made another surprising discovery.
        The weather had been clearing up for some days, but this
morning the wind had picked up and temperatures had dropped again. As 
they passed a cafe they went inside to warm up. They had not gone into 
any cafe or bar before, but with the power unit in their possession, 
they now had less financial concerns.
        Most of the names of the drinks were unfamiliar, the universal
translator had no context to place the single words, and most worlds
had their own concoctions people preferred. As soon as the serving
lady put the cups of warm liquid on the table, Chakotay smelled the
aroma. He blinked as he looked at the cup. Across the table, he
noticed Ensign Kim staring at his cup, as well. Slowly he picked it
up, and tasted it. "Coffee. Real coffee."
        He wondered how coffee had ever made it this far from the
Federation. Was the Federation spread this far? Maybe crossing distances 
from here to the Alpha Quadrant on a regular basis? He cut off that line 
of thought. A coffee plant could have made it here a million other ways. 
Twohunderd years since the Federation was founded in his timeline, and 
now fourhunderd years further in the future, was plenty of time for a 
coffee plant to cross 70,000 light years, and who-knows-how-many hands 
and cultures in between. Any information about the Federation in this 
time line, even just whether it still existed or not, could be dangerous 
to know this far into the future, and he would not be able to take any 
information or technology back to Voyager. He could, however, take some 
coffee.

        Two days later they were preparing to leave the Pass. Set and
Elah insisted on coming with them to the museum. They had prepared the 

power unit as far as possible without actually hooking it up to the 
transporter. They wore non-descript clothes, carrying their uniforms in 
a bag with them. While no one had looked twice at them, they did stand 
out too much for sneaking around. Also in the bag were Harry's clay flute, 
and a pack of coffee. They even carried a few young shoots for the 
hydroponics bay. Chakotay had no idea where Set had produced live coffee 
plants from, in this climate and this time of the year, and he knew that 
when asked, the man would name a long string of connections no one from 
off-world could follow. He carefully set the plastic tray holding the 
shoots on top of the other belongings.
        While at first Chakotay had tried to keep their mission to the
museum silent, over the last weeks the whole Pass had found out. they all 
said their goodbyes, wishing them luck on their way home. Although none of 
the people from the Pass, not even Set and Elah, knew any details about 
Voyager, all knew that they, at least, had a chance to get out of the Pass 
and make their way home.
	  Some they had hardly seen or spoken to in their time on the planet,
others, like En and the young boy Kee who had brought them the blankets 
when they first arrived, they had talked to frequently, at dinner or at 
night around the fire, after those first days when the calculations on 
the transporter had been done. 
	  Chakotay looked at the small gathering, shaking hands and 
exchanging a few last words. Then he motioned for Harry and Leena. "Time 
to go."

	  Set had arranged for a ride to the museum. A man Chakotay had never
seen before had arrived in a vehicle so old Chakotay would not have 
thought it still moved, but he trusted Set. 
	  A few blocks from the museum they parked the car and the man drove 
off without a look back. Chakotay picked up the power unit with Elah, 
Harry carried the bag with their uniforms and supplies, while Leena and 
Set scouted out the way. 
	  The streets were quiet, even most of those who lived on the streets 
would be in shelters like the Pass at this time of the night. As they 
came to the back entrance of the building, Chakotay carefully openend 
the panel next to the door. Leena had volunteered for the job, claiming 
more recent engineering experience, but he had picked up a few skills as 
a Maquis. In less than a minute the door slid open, without a sound. 
	  They slipped inside, carefully checking each inner door for 
security systems as they went along. There were none -this was a peacefull 
planet where no one had thought a museum needed heavy security. 
	  Still, Chakotay kept watch at the back, and Set at the front 
entrance, while Leena, Harry and Elah hooked up the power unit and tuned 
the transporter. 
	  "Commander?" Chakotay twisted around. He had been concentrating on 
any movement or sound outside so much that Leena's voice, sounding loud 
through the empty halls even though she had spoken softly, startled him. 
	  "Yes, Leena?"
	  "We are ready.", she reported.
	  He nodded in acknowledgement. Taking one more look outside -all was 
quiet- he followed her into the room where the transporter stood. 
	  The ropes holding people back from touching the exhibit had been 
carefully curled up and laid to the side. The power unit hummed softly, 
and the main console of the transporter was lit up. 
	  Chakotay looked at the readings programmed on the panel. This time
Leena did not comment about him checking her work, or Harry's -this was 
far more delicate than anything they had done before. 416 years, and if 
they arrived a little too late, they might find Voyager gone and themselves 
stranded on this planet forever, without anyone due to arrive for over 
50 years. Arriving early was even worse; he did not claim to understand 
the details of time travel paradoxes, but he knew enough to avoid them 
at all cost. 
	  They had been over the calculations many times in the Pass; now 
every one of them was precisely entered in the console. There was no way 
to test if their work was correct, no way to check if any test pod they 
send would indeed arrive in the narrow time frame they had. Chakotay 
nodded at Harry and Leena. They looked tense, and he wondered if the same 
was reflected in his face. He made himself relax, at least on the outside. 
They would have to be confident in their own abilities. 
	  Set had also come in, although he still looked over his shoulder 
at the exhibit hall entrance, still watchful for any sound or movement. 
They shook hands, and said their goodbyes. Set and Elah would dismantle 
the transporter once they were gone. There would be no way to find out 
if they had made it back safely. 
	  After a few brief words of goodbye Chakotay walked over and took 
place on the transporter pad. Leena and Harry joined him. Elah took the 
controls of the transporter.
	  "Ready when you say so", Elah said.
	  Chakotay glanced at the two officers standing next to him and took 
a deep breath. "Energize."
	  He saw more then heard Elah's last "Good luck."

					-0-

	  It had all seemed routine on Voyagers bridge. Chakotay had left 
the bridge moments before, together with Ensign Kim, and Captain Janeway 
had watched as the turbolift doors closed. Sure, it was obvious he had 
not been happy to include Leena on the Away team, but she was confident 
he would overcome his difficulties with the Cardassian once he had to 
work with her. 
	  As the lift carried them away she had turned back from the doors 
and sat down in her seat. Turning on the console set between the command 
chairs, she had called up some routine reports -food and engineering 
supplies, energy usage charts... On reflection, she did not know why she 
hadn't gone to her readyroom to review them. Could it have been she had 
a feeling something would go wrong? No, that was ridiculous. 
	  She had barely made it through the first report when the call came 
from the transporter room.  
	  "Transporter room to the bridge"
	  Ensign Davis' voice had been tight, and she had been instantly 
alert. She carefully kept the worry she felt inside of her out of her 
voice as she answered. "Go ahead Ensign."
	  "Captain," the Ensign hesitated. "I've lost them."
	  She saw Paris twist around in his seat, looking at her, and she 
felt Tuvok's eyes on her back. She barely registered either, though.
	  "What happened?" She kept the worst snap out of her voice, not 
wanting to upset the Ensign when she needed him to think clearly.  
	  "I don't know. I beamed them down, when suddenly they were gone. I 
tried to reverse the beam, but the according to the console the transport 
was already completed.", the Ensign reported. He sounded shaken. Ensign 
Davis was one of the younger crew members of the ship, and, like many 
Ensigns, assigned to the transporter room on rotation to get experience 
in many different areas of shipboard operations. The kind of officer who 
would be on duty during a routine mission, like this one was supposed to 
have been.
	  Captain Janeway gave orders without pausing to take a breath. 
	  "Tuvok, try to contact the Away team on all frequencies. Paris, 
check the scanners. Janeway to Engineering -B'Elanna, the Away team just 
disappeared while beaming down and I want to know what happened. Ensign, 
work with B'Elanna -we'll get them back."
	  "Yes Captain." Ensign Davis' voice sounded stronger already. 
B'Elanna acknowledged, sounding as if already on the run -which she no 
doubt was- and Paris turned back to his console, fingers flying over the 
touchpad. A short look over her shoulder confirmed Tuvok, too, was 
working to try and raise the missing team. 
	  It did not take Tuvok and Paris long to report back. 
	  "There is no response from the Away team, Captain.", the Vulcan 
reported moments before Paris confirmed the sensors could find no sign 
of humanoid life on the surface. 
	  The new confidence she had felt when her crew responded quickly 
and capably to her orders threatened to slip away. She glared at the 
planet on the main viewscreen. The lush vegetation that had seemed 
beautifull only a short time ago did not look near as pretty anymore. 
What was it that had caused her officers to disappear? She hated not 
knowing, having nothing to work with or fight against.
	  "Janeway to Engineering. B'Elanna, do you have anything yet?", 
she asked, even though she knew it was not long since she had first 
given her orders.
	  B'Elanna surprised her though. "Captain, I was just about to call 
you. I can tell you what happened, but I do not know how to reverse the 
effect yet."
	  "Go ahead.", Janeway said.
	  "The planet has a specific ion particle concentration. Our 
transporter effect caused a rupture in time. The Away team beamed right 
through it.", B'Elanna explained.
	  "Is there any chance we can open this rupture in time and beam 
them back?", Captain Janeway asked.
	  "Not at this same location.", B'Elanna reported. "Besides, the 
way our transporters work, they would only be beamed further into the 
future. I will try to find a way to reverse the process, but I do not 
know how long that will take."
	  "Do you have any idea how far into the future they have been 
transported?", Janeway asked.
	  "I can not tell yet, Captain. Too far to wait for them -years, 
maybe much more. When I find out what exactly causes the time shift 
I will know more."
	  That wasn't all good, but at least it was something to work with. 
"Good work, B'Elanna. Keep working on it. Paris, go down to Engineering 
and help B'Elanna." 
	  Paris quickly got up and entered the turbolift. Captain Janeway 
watched him go, then turned back to her console. She knew B'Elanna and 
the rest of the crew were working hard to find out the details of the 
transporter incident. She had confidence in her crew, and this was 
hardly the first time an Away team had been missing, but still a 
mixture of anger and worry flowed through her. Anger at the planet, 
the ion particle concentration, that had turned this routine mission 
into a far more dangerous one, and worry, stemming from those times 
when Away team members had not made it back, no matter what her crew 
had done to help them. 
	  She turned to her console and tried to read more of the reports, 
but her eyes kept darting to the planet on the main viewscreen.

					-0-

	  As he materialized, Chakotay strained to take in his surroundings. 
Transport was instanteneous, they said, but whenever he beamed to a 
tense situation, whether it was into a battle, an unknown hostile 
location, or 400 years into the past, he was sure he could feel the 
time it took to materialize and be able to move again. 
	  They were standing in a large, grassy, open spot, but it was a
natural open space, not made by any humanoid civilization. 
	  He hit his combadge. "Chakotay to Voyager."

					-0-

	  Captain Janeway could not tell who she heard first, her First 
Officer calling the ship, or her Security officer's report that the 
sensors picked up humanoid life on the surface. She did know who she 
answered. 
	  "Janeway here. Commander, are you alright?"
	  "We are fine, Captain. Glad to be back.", Chakotay's voice came 
back. He sounded like he meant every bit of it.
	  "We had some transporter trouble, we will have to send a shuttle 
to get you. Stand by.", Janeway told him. She knew she sounded relieved, 
too. 
	  "We know. We have data to modify the transporters if we need any 
more use of them, but for now I think I prefer a shuttle.", Chakotay said.
	  "You know?" Janeway did not try to hide the puzzlement in her 
voice. "Commander, where have you been?"
	  "It's a long story. I'll tell you when we get back up to the 
ship.", Chakotay said. "Oh, one thing... How long have we been gone?"
	  Janeway checked the chronometer, although she really didn't have 
to; she'ld glanced at it often enough. "43 minutes."
	  On the planet surface, Harry let out a breath he hadn't noticed he 
was holding. "That must've been the longest 43 minutes of my life.", he 
said, shaking his head. 
	  And that comment triggered the tension they all three had been 
holding inside for all that time. Leena snickered, Chakotay looked at 
her and grinned, and moments later they all three laughed out loud. 
	  Up on Voyager's bridge, Captain Janeway listened to them laughing. 
She heard Leena make some comment and Chakotay's laugh in return -whatever 
had happened down there, she looked forward to hearing the report. As she 
turned off the comlink and walked to the briefing room to wait for them, 
she found that she was laughing, too.


Since Dec 4, 1999

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