She finally reached the top and squeezed through the last barrier. The young girl eased herself out of the hole and ran across the familiar stretch of desert. She was in luck; a Kazon ship sat right in front of her, as if waiting for her.
She glanced behind her, instantly regretting it. There were Kazon pursuers right on her heels.
She jumped into the ship, and her small fingers danced gracefully over the control panels. She was glad now she had waited until she could understand the controls before trying to leave. Although she had been running out of places to hide when the Kazon walked in on her. She was sure she had been seen several times, but had always managed to get away. Paranoid as they were, she wondered why the Kazon left the ship unguarded in the first place.
The Kazon-Ogla milled frantically as their ship
lurched away at the control of a mere Ocampan child.
"Weber," came Chakotay's calm voice.
"What?" Michael asked, snapping back into the real world.
"I need you to transfer all the weapons energy to the shields. We'ew headed into that asteroid field." Chakotay sounded calm and under control, but Michael wasn't so sure.
Michael pictured his terrified daughter hiding in the carge hold. He had smuggled her onto the ship; he wasn't going to lose her yet. "Chakotay, with all due respect, i think that's a bad idea."
"Just do it, Weber," Chakotay snapped.
Michael sighed heavily, but powered down the weapons and transferred the energy to the shields. "You'd better be the best darn pilot in this galaxy, Chakotay!" Michael shouted over the rumbling engines.
"Shut-up, Weber," B'Elanna shouted.
Michael opened his mouth to reply, but thought better of it when the half Kilngon Maquis glared chalengingly at him over her shoulder.
An asteroid slammed into the small ship, knocking Michael from his post. A high-pitched scream was heard from the cargo hold.
"Weber! What was that?" B'Elanna demanded as soon as she had reagained her post. "Weber!" She shot as close to a frightened glance as she wouls allow herself toward Michael Weber's post.
"Check it out, B'Elanna, i can handle this for a few minutes," Chakotay said, not moving his eyes from the screen in front of him.
B'Elanna glanced at the viewscreen one more time before making her way to the back of the bridge. She could hear faint crying from the cargo hold, but she bent to check Weber, first.
The ship jolted again, sending B'Elanna sprawling over the dead Maquis. "Chakotay, can't you keep this thing steady?" She screamed in frustration.
"Do you want to try this, B'Elanna?" Chakotay shouted from the fore of the bridge.
'yes,' B'Elanna thought rebelliously, 'and i'd be doing it already if you hadn't made me come back here.'
She moved into the cargo hold to investigate the sorce of the crying. She slammed open the door between the two areas, and came across a little girl sitting on the floor crying.
B'Elanna grabbed the child and yanked it away from a spreading fire. She tossed the little girl onto the bridge and grabbed a fire extinguisher.
The child crawled over to her father, sobbing.
The fire out, B'Elanna turned to the little girl clinging to the dead man. "Daddy!" she whispered between sobs.
Daddy?! B'Elanna thought in amazement. "Chakotay, did you know Michael Weber had a daughter?" she asked as she reclaimed her position from him.
Chakotay's graceful fingers danced over his panel. "Yes, in fact, i did. Her name is Kayla, she's at home with her mother," he replied without looking up.
"Wanna bet on that?"
Chakotay looked up at her, eyes wide.
"How large a colony, Ensign?" Janeway asked crisply.
"One-hundred, seventy three humanoid life-forms within the colony. And one forty kilometrs north of it.
"Just one?"
"Aye, Captain."
"And it's alive, right?" There was a familiar pause from the back of the bridge.
Tuvok looked up at her from his console. "Yes, Captain, it is alive."
"Reading another life form, Captain, non-humanoid," Harry said from his post.
"Then what is it?" Janeway asked.
"I believe the correct phrase, in this situation is, 'your guess is as good as mine'," Tuvok replied after a brief conference with Ensign Kim.
"We're being hailed from the planet surface, Captain," Kim informed her.
"On screen," she ordered. The viewscreen lit up and a shadowy figure stood before the captain. It's only facial feature were two blue, peircing eyes that seemed to search the depths of Janeway's soul.
"My name is Harbade. I was wondering if you would mind doing my people a small service?" he questioned delicately. His voice was as calm as Tuvoks, as dignified as Chakotay's, and as young as Ensign Kim's.
"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager, how can i help?"
"We have a runaway somewhere on the planet. Our sensors have been unable to locate the girl, we were hoping yours would be more successful."
Janeway smiled, and glanced back at Tuvok. "Harbade, we'll get right back to you on that." The transmission ended with a nod from Harbade. Or, at least, Janeway figure it was as close to a nod as the shadowy figure could produce. "Ensign Kim," she said, turning toward the Vulcan. "That humanoid life form you found should be the runaway, see if you can locate it. And hail the planet again."
"Yes, Captain," Kim said, bending his skills to the task.