K’Taul frowned, accenting his cranial ridges to a new degree.  Obviously, the only two ships he knew of with equipment capable of handling time…were the Paris and…

Wait a minute…

“What ship is equipped with special sensors and capable of special shielding to handle temporal anomalies…and capable of planetary reentry and leaving again after words?”

He looked at the Admiral, who furrowed her brow for a moment…then took on a stunned look.

“Voyager!” they exclaimed at the same time.

Seven of Nine was still reading over the data collected from the ruined Dragon’s database.  Her eyes moved slowly back and forth, taking it all in.

Voyager’s ready room was just like the Dragon’s, with some minor differences…specifically in furniture coloring.

Both K’Taul and James were sitting on Captain Janeway’s couch while Janeway sat in her chair.  Seven, on the other hand, remained standing in front of Janeway’s desk.

“I see one flaw in their shielding system,” she suddenly stated, breaking K’Taul out of his thoughts and observations.  She looked over to Janeway and finished, “they do not have sensors capable of telling them precisely what they should set their shields to.”

Janeway nodded.  “Where as with Voyager’s Borg-enhanced sensors, we would know precisely how to modulate our shields, allowing us to retain full power.”

Seven, her head tilted to the side, nodded.  “Precisely.”

Janeway grinned a little and looked over to K’Taul.  “Well, Captain, I think you chose the right ship.”

K’Taul nodded.  “I figured as much.”

She looked down at her desktop computer, then back up.  “You’ve already cleared our departure with Admiral Perkins?”

He nodded again.  “I have.  However, we must move quickly.  The anomaly is showing signs of collapse.”

Janeway’s eyebrows went up when she heard that.  She jumped up onto her feet and started moving towards the exit.  “Then we better get going.”

K’Taul and James also stood up and followed both Janeway and Seven out.  He noted as they entered the bridge just how empty it was.

“We don’t have a lot of crew on board,” Janeway said.  “Most are still on shore leave or haven’t arrived yet.”

She sat down in the command chair as K’Taul sat down next to her in the first officer’s chair.  “Then perhaps you would like Lieutenant Trikal to pilot the ship?”

She nodded to the helm and said, “Be my guest.  I’m not so sure Tom will be coming back…”

James quickly moved to the helm and started keying in commands, getting the ship ready.

“Harry,” she said, looking back to the ops station.  “Get us cleared for departure.  Release umbilical and docking clamps.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied.

She looked back to her own console and started keying in a few commands.  “Lieutenant, as soon as we’re clear, engage thrusters and take us out.”

“Aye, Captain,” James replied.  “Engaging thrusters now.”

“Engineering.”

“Go ahead, Captain,” a cool, calculating voice that could only be a Vulcan’s replied.

“We’re going to need full impulse power here,” she said.  “We need to get to Earth as fast as possible.”

“Understood.  Impulse generators are online and functioning normally.”

“We’ve cleared dry dock,” James reported.

“Get us clear of Utopia and set course for Earth.”

“Setting a course.”

Chris noted that, as expected, impulse power was now below the amount it would need to be to break Earth’s gravity well…even if only by a little bit.  It was expected…and it was at the time they thought it would happen…which meant they were still unsure as to whether or not they would make it.

The ship started to slow drastically as fluctuations in main power started to increase seemingly exponentially.  That was happening far too soon…

He looked up, and was shocked to see just how close they had come to the anomaly…but knew that it was too late.

“Chris, the anomaly is fluctuating!” Vendar stated.  “I think something’s coming through!”

Suddenly, something did come through.  Specifically, an Intrepid class starship flew out of the anomaly, screaming towards the Dragon.  Who ever the pilot was, he or she was good.  He had maybe two seconds to move the vessel out of the way, but he or she did.

Before he had a chance to check his sensors, the Dragon suddenly lurched hard, nearly throwing him from his chair.

“It’s Voyager!” Vendar shouted above a droning sound of some sort.  “They’ve locked onto us with tractor beams!”

“Bridge, this is engineering!  We’re losing main power!”

“We don’t have enough power to maintain the tractor beam!” Harry said.

“Reroute all available power to the tractor beams and the engines,” Janeway ordered, never taking her eyes off of her console.

“I don’t think it’ll be enough!  They’re just too heavy and we’re too close to Earth!”

She shook her head, frustration hitting her.  Come on, Kathryn, pull it together!  She opened a channel to the Dragon herself, which came up on screen.

On the Dragon’s bridge, she could see that there was no one at the command chair; instead, Chris was sitting at the helm, shocked to see Janeway’s face.

“Commander, we need you to help us out.  Use whatever power you have left and activate your lateral thrusters.  Try to help in the direction of the tractor beams.”

He nodded his head and already moved to key in the commands.  “Understood.”

The ship lurched suddenly for a moment, pushing K’Taul down further into his seat.

James looked around, as if stunned to see the ship in one piece.  “Well, that certainly helped!”

“Strain on the tractor emitters has decreased,” Harry added.  “We’re gaining altitude.”

K’Taul sighed and slumped back into his chair.  They had done it!  They had saved the Dragon…  It certainly would have looked bad to lose my first command already…

First Officer’s Log, Stardate 55197.1

            With the help of Captain Janeway and her crew, we pulled out of this alive.  I must say, though, that it is quite unnerving…sitting in the Meridian, staring at the Dragon as it erodes away on the bottom of the ocean floor.  Just thinking about it…had Captain K’Taul and Voyager not helped, we would have crashed to the ocean below…

No one knows what they are going to do with the ruined Dragon.  I’ve heard rumors that they are going to take out everything they need to and let the hull erode the rest of the way, as it basically it useless now.  It’s somewhat difficult to see that in my mind: the great USS Dragon…reduced to billions of particles…basically reduced to nothing.

As for the person we rescued, we were relieved of her by Starfleet and I’m told that she’s been revived and brought up to speed.  In all honesty, I’m curious as to how she’s going to live her life in this century.  Where she comes from, warp five was something new and exciting, and ships didn’t use binary coding as its primary console language…

Chris sat down in the couch and stared out at Earth.  The lounge in the Starbase was very luxurious, making him wish he were aboard the Dragon class again…  The lounge had been this spectacular…and if this were the Dragon class…he would truly be at home.

He missed his ship.  It had carried them all through so much…and in the end, he felt like they had somehow betrayed it by abandoning it…

“Commander Harriman?” a soft, quiet voice asked, breaking him out of his memories.

He looked over to see who had called his name to find a familiar Bajoran.  Her brunette hair and slender face told it all.  “Ensign Celes, correct?” he asked, standing up.

She nodded her head ever so slightly as she tried to avoid his look.  “Yes…Tal Celes, sir.  I’ve been assigned to the Dragon.”

He nodded his head.  “I know, I’m the one who requested you be brought on to the team.”

She frowned and looked into his eyes for the first time.  “But why?”

He motioned to the couch and then sat down, Tal slowly following him.  She felt the cushion of the couch, as if she needed assurance that it was there, then finally let herself relax…somewhat.

“I would have thought that…well, because of your experience on the Dragon and in another galaxy, you would expect a better person to work in astrometrics.”

He shrugged a shoulder.  “Well, we already have plenty of ‘the best’ working here from my original crew.”

He looked around to make sure no one was in earshot, then leaned over to her.  “And in all honesty,” he said, “I wanted someone who actually has a personality in astrometrics.”

She looked at him curiously, then smiled and looked down at the deck.  “Well, I don’t know if my personality will be worth the errors in data.”

He shrugged easily again.  “Not from what I’ve heard.”  He then frowned curiously.  “A question, though: even though Voyager will be launching again within a month, you decided to accept a position on the Dragon.  How come you didn’t stay with Captain Janeway?”

She looked down at the deck again for a moment, then looked back up at him.  “She said I should go with the Dragon…because I might have an easier time there.”

He frowned.  “Easier time with what?”

She shrugged.  “Everything.  People, learning how to interpret data.”

He narrowed an eye at her as he considered that possibility, then raised his eyebrows.  “Well, I don’t know if she’s right or not…but I guess we’ll both find out.”

She smiled and nodded her head.  “All right, then.”

When she broke eye contact with him again, he looked out at Earth.  He noticed that the Starbase was rotating, giving him only a view of half of Earth as well as the moon.

He sighed and shook his head, standing up and stretching hard.  When he looked at his chronometer, he saw that it was past twenty three hundred hours.

His eyes widened when he saw that.  He looked down at Tal.  “Well, I think I’m going to get some sleep.  I’ll see you in probably a week, Ensign.”

She nodded sharply.  “Commander.”

He smiled, then started walking.  Well, he thought.  Vendar has already befriended her and she seems to have an easy time getting along with me.  It looks more and more like Janeway was right…maybe we can help her.

He shrugged the thoughts away as he passed through the double doors into the corridor beyond.  Right now he didn’t care too much.  What he cared about was that warm, soft bed in his temporary quarters…

Sleeeeeeeep……