Migration

Migration
by Liz Barr
July 2001
rated [PG-13]
sorta Ka, but not quite.

So we're challenged to write a fic where Kashyk is eaten by a dinosaur. O-kay … and how the hell am I to fit a dinosaur into the Voyager universe. Oh. Oh! God bless you, Brannon Braga!

Pretty much a sequel to "Distant Origin".

Migrate or die.

Some said it was the thought which had brought them here. The Council of Elders called it heresy, but the Distant Origin theory was still whispered on the colonies and ships of the Voth.

Migrate or die. Heresy or not, it was true again. The Borg were powerful and dangerous, and they were growing ever closer to Voth territory.

Migrate or die.

The Councils and Circles studied the records of Voth exploration, and a few even studied Gegen's forbidden notes. And the decision was made: they would move in the direction of the Homeworld. It was far away, but they would find something. Surely they would find *something*…

The Military Circle led the Migration, clearing the way for the civilian ships to follow. They set a course for the Homeworld, and the words were whispered: Migrate or die.

***

The Devore were less than welcoming when the Voth announced that their migration had ended in the middle of the Devore Imperium. Truth be told, the Voth weren't thrilled to be sharing territory with a bunch of endothermic *mammals*. The mutual xenophobia quickly found an outlet in an old fashioned territorial war.

The Voth's transwarp drives were easily a match for Devore weaponry. The Devore created energy fields which rendered the Voth's personal cloaks useless. It came down to dirty tactics and willingness to abandon moral stances.

A massacre of Devore civilians. The destruction of a Voth colony ship. And so on, and on.

***

Voth morale was lowest when the Devore, in a desperate planet-based battle, managed to destroy food replicators, technology and most of the natural food chain. It was a pyrrhic victory -- all but a few of the Devore soldiers were killed -- but it was effective.

General Hulak of the Voth Migration Forces stared at his hungry, demoralised soldiers. The earliest rescue ships wouldn't come for another three months, if at all.

"Some here have suggested a mass suicide," said Hulak's Second. "To avoid starvation."

"We won't starve," said Hulak. He looked down at the body of a Devore soldier, an officer by his looks. He was muscular; the meat would probably be tough. But they would live.

"I'll have someone begin preserving the bodies," his Second said.

"Meat, Reten. Not bodies."

***

The Voth forces survived and prevailed, and their people made their home in the former Devore Imperium.

In the end, only legends suggested that they had ever lived anywhere else, until the ever-expanding Federation appeared on their doorstep, and someone recalled the ancient cry:

Migrate or die.

END

(Not my fault. I take no responsibility. And remember, it's not cannibalism if it's not your own species.)

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