Once in the turbolift, Janeway let her thoughts go back to what had brought them to the Klingon border to begin with.

It had been a wormhole, yet again. They came across one of those at least once every year. It seemed that wormholes were a lot more common in the Delta Quadrant than they were in the Alpha Quadrant. But it was a wormhole never the less and so they had stopped and studied it.

At first nobody had believed the results; they had been disappointed so often already, it just couldn't be. But they had run the tests a second, and then a third time; every time with the same result. It was a steady wormhole. And though it didn't end in the Alpha quadrant, it came darn near. For the tests said that it ended in the Beta Quadrant, inside Klingon territory, two days from the Federation border.

And that had made the Voyager crew suspicious.

If this truly was a fully functional wormhole, as the tests said, then why wasn't anyone using it? Why wasn't there someone making money off this stable wormhole? Especially one that was so close to Federation space. And why had nobody ever heard of this wormhole? Surly the Klingons should have known of its existence, since it was inside their own territory. And so close to the Federation border, Federation ships should have picked up its readings long ago.

But even if the Federation hadn't, it was no news to the Klingons that Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant. Surly they would have suggested traveling to the wormhole and going home from there. The gain of helping Voyager would have been tremendous. The boasting rights alone would have been worth it; that the Federation had needed the help of the Klingons to get its ship home. Things just didn't add up. And none of the senior staff liked it; not even the always positive Harry.

But in the end, they'd all decided that they couldn't let a chance like that pass them by. They had to try it. The journey through the wormhole had been an incredibly smooth ride and before anyone really had time to admire the beauty of the wormhole, they were already through it. They were in the Beta Quadrant, only a couple of days until they would be home. Janeway had agreed with B'Elanna's suggestion that it would be better to let the Klingons know how they got there, one never knew how... paranoid the Klingons might be so shortly after the Dominion war.

But just when they were to make radio contact, all hell broke lose. Suddenly a ring of ninety-three Klingon weapon platforms de-cloaked around the mouth of the wormhole and started opening fire on Voyager. Voyager was hit three times before Janeway could order a warp jump. The ship went from zero to warp 8.5 in three seconds flat. A dangerous maneuver, but Voyager survived.

They had made it just outside the reach of the unmanned weapon platforms before the computer initiated an emergency shutdown that had left them without warp until the engines had the time to cool off some. B'Elanna had estimated that it would be two hours at least before they could go to warp again. Janeway was absolutely certain that they had only survived the situation because Voyager was amongst the fastest Federation ships ever built.

They had gotten out of there after only a few weapon platforms had fired; she thanked the gods that Klingon technology had to de-cloak before it could fire. Those ninety-three weapon platforms were enough to destroy an entire fleet of ships. Normally only one or two were used to protect strategic places.

But they didn't have long to celebrate that they were still alive. Five minutes before those two hours where up, two Klingon Birds of Prey de-cloaked and started opening fire. They never answered the hails or showed that they had any other intention than killing them all. Voyager had no other choice than to defend itself.

Janeway stepped out of the turbolift and walked to sickbay; nodding to the occasional crewmember she passed on the way to the Doctor's realm. When she entered she was glad to see the Doctor treating relatively small wounds. A broken arm, some burns. And of course Neelix was there helping the Doctor; making up for the Doctor's bedside manners by taking good care of the patients with a gentle word or a comforting touch.

The Doctor saw Janeway enter and after finishing with his patient he first made sure that the others could wait for a minute before he motioned her over to him.

"Doctor, I heard that B'Elanna had to be beamed out of engineering, how is she?"

"We have relatively few wounded, considering what we just went through."

A burden fell off Janeway's shoulders when the Doctor started speaking about wounded. It meant that this time nobody had died. But when he continued she soon understood that not all the news was good.

"But I had to keep five people here because of severe wounds. Lieutenant Torres is one of those people. The other four should be alright in a couple of days, one of them will need a second operation in two days."

He moved to the only bed in sickbay that had been separated from the rest by a non-transparent force field. They both stepped through the low-level privacy field and Janeway could see B'Elanna lying on the bed, surrounded by machines that the Captain had never seen before.

"B'Elanna is another story. It's only because she is partly Klingon that she lived long enough for me to work on her. I was able to repair most of the damage. But I had to remove one of her lungs, her primary heart, some of her intestines, both of her livers, her right eye, and part of her reproductive system. There was more damage to other organs, but as I said, I was able to repair that damage."

Janeway could not believe the list of damage that the Doctor was listing, "But she looks only as if she's sleeping."

"That is because, thanks to my programming, you had the best doctor onboard that Starfleet has to offer... had to offer when we got stranded in the Delta Quadrant that is." For once the Doctor didn't sound as if he was boasting about his knowledge, but as if he was relieved that this knowledge had been at his disposal, "And also because most of her wounds are crush wounds, they are mostly internal. From what I understand, part of the second deck of engineering came down and B'Elanna, who saw this, jumped and pushed Nicoleti out of the way. This means that she was lying on the floor when the second deck fell on her. Besides the damage I just told you, I also had to repair thirty-seven broken bones, some with more that six fractures in them."

"Ok, now tell me the good news."

"Um, Captain... that was the good news," When Janeway's eyes shot from B'Elanna to him, he started to explain in more detail, "The organs I mentioned are fully Klingon. Because of that her heart, lung, and livers can easily be replaced with cloned organs. This is a standard Klingon procedure, and every major Klingon hospital usually has some cloned organs in stock. But even if we could not get cloned organs, I would be able to build some artificial ones, given some time.

"Her eye will have to be replaced with an artificial one. But as Seven can tell you, once replaced, the artificial eye functions just as a regular eye and over time the wearers forget that it is not their real eye. The damage to her reproductive system is such that she will need some medical help if she ever wants to get pregnant, but once she is there should be no problem with her carrying and giving birth to her child. And she will never notice the loss of part of her intestines."

"Do I want to know the bad news then?" The question had been voiced as not much more than a whisper, Janeway didn't trust her voice to function at that point.

The Doctor knew that the Captain had to be told, but that didn't make telling it any easier, "The bad news is that I could declare her dead at any moment. At this point she is only being kept alive by those machines. There has also been brain damage, but not the kind everyone is familiar with. If I were able to fix this then B'Elanna would wake up and be the same B'Elanna she was yesterday, so to speak.

"Of course, her other wounds would still need time to heal. But a metal splinter has penetrated her scull and brain, destroying the organ that produces stem cells. And no production of stem cells means no healing what so ever in the human body. The human body simply does not know what to do, how to heal without the unspecified stem cells giving rise to specified cells like muscle cells, blood cells, or nerve cells -which do not normally replicate themselves."

"But you were able to heal the damage, you just said so."

The Doctor sighed, trying to make a novice understand things that some doctors even had trouble understanding sure wasn't easy, "I healed the damage, but nothing else is happening. Captain, you are a healthy person. If you suddenly had no more stem cells, your body would no longer be able to repair itself."

"I'm afraid I'm still not following, Doctor."

"Alright, Captain. Have you ever heard of the disease hemophilia? How a person can bleed to death from a little scratch if they don't take their medication?"

"Sure."

"Well, this is different, but the same in the fact that basically they body doesn't know how to heal itself. People with the disease need medication to do the work that the body can't. But with B'Elanna there is no medication. She needs the stem cell organ to heal her. I healed B'Elanna's body for the most part, but the body doesn't know what to do with those healings. Her body is simply not healing itself.

At this moment there are thousands of cells that are dying off in your body, Captain, and they are being replaced by new cells at the same time. With B'Elanna, those cells are still dying off, but they are not being replaced unless I do it with a dermal regenerator. But I can't replace the cells dying off deeper inside her body."

"Ok, I think I understand what you're trying to tell me, so what can we do about this?"

The Doctor moved over to one of the machines, clearly stalling for time, "Nothing, I'm sorry to say. Her being part Klingon makes sure of that. It was that part Klingon that kept her alive long enough for me to heal her wounds. But that same part is preventing me from finishing my job. Had she been fully human or fully Klingon, then it would have been a relatively simple procedure of finding someone that was a close enough match and then clone the organ from that person. But because B'Elanna is a mixture of the two, there is nobody genetically close enough, not even another Klingon/Human hybrid. The only way to get a donor would be to clone B'Elanna; make a second B'Elanna.

"But beside the fact that this is highly illegal, it also is no longer possible now because you need some stem cells of a person to clone that person entirely. Understand the problem? I need a healthy B'Elanna to clone her stem cell organ, but I first need a stem cell organ that is cloned FROM B'Elanna before B'Elanna will be healthy enough to have the organ cloned. It's the famous 'chicken and egg' dilemma. I need the one to GET the other, but I can't have the one without first HAVING the other."

"How... how long before you have to pronounce her dead?" Janeway tried to swallow, but her dry throat would not allow it.

"Well, I can keep her like this and use a dermal regenerator to reproduce cells that are close to the surface of her skin, but because no new cells are being made inside her body... I would say that between two weeks and a month the damage would be too great to be repaired, even if the organ were to be replaced at that point."

"But can't you put her in a stasis field? Prolong that time indefinitely?"

"Sorry, Captain. I can't. Remember when we had to put the whole crew in stasis to get through the void? Remember how weak you felt when Seven and I woke you again? The reason for that is that stasis does damage the body, but a normally healthy person recovers from that damage in a few hours. But if I were to do that to B'Elanna, in the state she is in even now... She would die as soon as we'd taken her out of stasis."

"Okay, so that means that we have less than a month," Janeway took B'Elanna's hand between her own and squeezed softly, "We will find a way to save you, B'Elanna."

"You have an idea?" The Doctor knew that there was no real way to save B'Elanna, but that didn't mean that he couldn't hope.

"We have been gone from the Federation for a number of years, the first thing we are going to do is see what kind of advances there have been in stem cell research while we were gone."

The Doctor followed Janeway out of the privacy force field, "Captain, I wish it was so easy, but stem cell research has been done since the late twentieth century. I really don't think that suddenly after almost four hundred years they will have come up with a way to clone a living stem cell organ from a dead one."

Janeway looked around sickbay at the other patients still there before turning back to the Doctor. "As I said, it's a first step. All I can tell you now is that I'm not just giving up on B'Elanna. I will find a way of helping her," Janeway turned around and left sickbay, now even more convinced than before that she had to get Voyager home as soon as possible.

Janeway went back to the bridge and called a senior staff meeting before anyone could ask how B'Elanna was. Once the senior staff was in the conference room, Janeway gave the word to the Doctor who once again grimly told about B'Elanna's situation.

Once the doctor was finished, and all the obvious questions had been asked and answered, Janeway spoke up, "As you can see, our returning to the Federation has become top priority. Repairs just have to be made on the run; I'm not stopping until we are in orbit around earth. Harry, what did the Federation have to say about us being attacked by the Klingons?"

"Nothing, Captain," Harry answered uncomfortably.

"What do you mean nothing? Who have you spoken to?"

"That's just it, Captain. I didn't speak to anyone. There was no reaction what so ever to our hail. And I also couldn't hear any Federation messages what so ever."

Chakotay decided to help poor Harry out a little and spoken up, drawing that force ten glare towards him, "We picked up something else though. Something that makes no sense at all. Klingon and Cardassian massages, a lot of them."

"Given where we are I don't think that this that strange. The absence of any Federation messages is more disturbing."

"It isn't so much the messages that are strange, as the things they are talking about. They are talking about places, planets we never heard of. And other planet we did hear of, but the messages just don't make any sense. For instance, subspace was filled with messages talking about how the Bajoran Intendant has been killed and that nobody is sad to see the bitch go, um those are their words, Captain."

"What has Bajor to do with this? Maybe something happened at DS9..."

Janeway was interrupted by a hail over the comm. system, {Captain, sensors are picking up a Ferengi ship that will cross our path.}

"Ferengi? Maybe they are friendlier than the Klingons in this part of space. At the very least they might be willing to sell us some information. Set an intercept course, we are on our way. Janeway out," She took a quick look around the table to see if someone had something they desperately needed to say, but nobody spoke up, "Alright, let's get us some information."

Two hours later they were once again sitting in the conference room, this time trying to digest the information the Ferengi had sold them. They were indeed in Klingon space in the Beta Quadrant, but there was no Federation. They were so close, and yet so far from home. The wormhole had led them into an alternate universe. Of course, for the Ferengi it was Voyager that came from an alternate universe. In this universe things were so different. There was a Klingon/Cardassian coalition that ruled over everything that the Voyager crew had known in their Alpha and Beta Quadrant, and then some.

"Clearly we have to get back to our universe." Chakotay spoke up, "But we have two problems with that. The only way back that we know of, is guarded by Klingon weapon platforms. There is no way that we can go back through that wormhole. But even if there was, that would not save B'Elanna. The only chance we have of saving her is if we could get the help of the Klingons."

"Why would they help us?" Harry asked, "Those two birds of prey made pretty clear that they wouldn't help us."

Tom could only agree, "Especially since we destroyed those ships. I don't think the Klingons will take that very lightly. A bunch of humans, which are normally slaves here, destroying not one, but two birds of prey."

The Doctor was the third person to object, "And as I just pointed out, the Klingons can't really do any more for B'Elanna than I can."

Janeway let the arguing go on for a moment, wondering what kind of points would be made. But when no new points were forthcoming she spoke up, "Ok, calm down everyone. Chakotay didn't actually say that we should ask the Klingons for help, or that they would help us. He just said that it would be B'Elanna's best chance. And on that point I have to agree with him.

"We were about to go to the Federation to see if they could help us. But here there is no Federation here. The Klingons and Cardassians have ruled for the last one and a half centuries. So it stands to reason that the Klingons would also have the most advanced medical science. Who knows, maybe the Klingons here were not hampered in their research by the moral rules the Federation normally abides by.

But beside B'Elanna we also have another problem, the state that Voyager is in. We simply can't go on like this for much longer. We have to make some major repairs at some point. So for now I think it would be best if we try to find a smugglers hole somewhere.

"They might have some things we need to repair Voyager. And they might also be able to find out just what the standard of Klingon medical science is. And once we know whether or not they would be able to help B'Elanna, we can then make a plan dealing with that situation. Within the hour I would like some plans.

"Carey, I want to know what is needed to put Voyager back in the state she was yesterday. The rest of you concentrate on thinking on how we can find some smugglers. Questions anyone?"

"I do not have a question," Seven spoke up for the first time, "But I would like to point something out. The Ferengi are known for trying to make a profit on everything. It is very conceivable that they would first make a profit from doing business with us, and then make an extra profit from selling what they know about us to the Klingons. The Klingons might already know our present course and that our ship is damaged. I would strongly suggest changing course."

"Good point, Seven. We'll do that. I want plans in one hour, dismissed."

Two hours later, they were on their way to some of the old Maquis hideouts. Of course they knew that there wouldn't be any Maquis there. But the only real plan that they had been able to come up with was to go to these places and hope that some smugglers had found them to be just as convenient as the Maquis had.

The Doctor didn't try to stop the steady flow of visitors. It wasn't as if B'Elanna needed to rest from having too many visitors. How he only wished that this was the problem, that B'Elanna was healing and needed rest to do so. Instead he let them all be, hoping that this way at least the visitors would be able to handle this tragedy.

Seven came into sickbay just when the Captain was leaving. "Captain."

"Seven, how are you?"

"I am functioning."

"And how are you really doing?"

Even though it forced her to talk about feelings, Seven was glad to see that the Captain knew there was something wrong, "I am severely worried about Lieutenant Torres. She has to get better."

"We will find a way," Janeway stepped passed Seven and patted her on the shoulder, "Don't worry, Seven. If it takes too long, then we will find someone else to help you with the repairs. You shouldn't have to work that hard for much longer."

While Janeway left sickbay, Seven felt sick to the stomach. After all this time everyone still thought that she didn't have any real emotions, not even the Captain.

"Hi, Seven. I'm glad you came. B'Elanna will be happy."

Well, almost everyone, "Tom, do you think she will know that we are here?"

Seven and the pilot had become close to being friends after he and B'Elanna had broken off their engagement. He had tried to date Seven to get back at B'Elanna. But Seven had been smart enough to see right through that plan. She had told him that his chances of copulating with her were zero, and not likely to ever improve, and he had given up on his plan. But during the time that he had tried, he had discovered that he did indeed like Seven and slowly a friendship had started to form between them. Luckily for him, shortly after that incident, he was also able to call a truce with B'Elanna and they had gone back to being the friends they were before they got involved.

"The Doctor says no, but I like to think that she does. It makes me feel better to know that I'm really talking to her, you know?"

Seven moved closer until she was standing beside B'Elanna, "I think I do. It is... hard seeing her like this, knowing that my last words to her were me telling her that I thought that she was a mediocre engineer, at best. Now, I might never have the chance to tell her that this is not really how I feel. That in reality, I like her very much."

"Don't worry, she will get through this. And she also knows that you like her, she told me so."

"She did?" Seven was astonished to hear this.

"Come now, Seven. You know that B'Elanna is a smart woman. She discovered long ago that you like the fights you are always having just as much as she does. Heck she... um, this was going to be a little surprise for you, but seeing the circumstances I think I can tell you. She was going to invite you to her birthday party next month. Only five other people were invite, her five closest friends."

"She was going to..."

"As close as she can ever come to asking you to be her friend without actually saying the words. Don't you think?"

"Indeed," Seven agreed, making a vow to her self at that moment, and voicing it to make it more... real, "I will not say that she will get well, since the odds against it are phenomenal, but I will do everything I can to make sure she gets better. I give you my word. She has to get better."

The voice of the Captain interrupted them before Tom could ask what she was planning to do, which was good since Seven didn't have any plans, just a rock steady resolve.

{Red alert, all hands to the battle stations.}

Seven and Tom arrived on the bridge just in time to hear the demand.

"Surrender or be destroyed. You have five minutes."

Their eyes went to the view screen where the face of a Klingon was replaced by a huge Klingon ship.

"I'm not even going to suggest fighting that," Janeway said while Seven and Tom took their places, "But can we outrun them?"

Knowing that time was limited, Seven gave the answers that others would have to look up, "It is a Klingon Negh'var class ship. If Voyager was in good condition, we would be able to outrun them on speed, and also outmaneuver their weapons which re-target relatively slow. But what they lack in speed is made up in force. Their weapon strength is four times that of the Federation Galaxy class, and their hull armor is three times as strong. In the Federation universe, the original Negh'var is, to the last of my knowledge, currently serving as the Klingon Flagship. In our present state, we are no match for them."

"They are hailing us again."

"Short five minutes," Janeway mumbled before saying in a louder voice, "On screen."

The view screen changed once again to show the Klingon Captain, "If it was up to me, I would destroy you right now. But the Intendant wants to see the slaves that were able to destroy our ships. Surrender now, or die... now."

For a moment Janeway was thinking of initiating the self-destruct, but if this Intendant wanted to see them they still had a chance, "This is the Captain to all hands, prepare to be boarded. Cooperate and do not resist," She looked over to Tuvok and sighed before giving the final order, "Tuvok, lower the shields."

Tuvok had barely done as he was told or the sound of transporters could be heard when ten heavily armed Klingons appeared on the bridge; making the bridge suddenly seem a lot less spacious, and a lot more crowded.

One Klingon had appeared close to Chakotay's chair and he barked at the first officer, "Get up."

Chakotay looked at Janeway for a moment and slowly started to get up.

But this was apparently not fast enough for the Klingon. He gripped Chakotay and pulled him out of his chair.

In reflex, Chakotay took hold of the arm pulling him out of the chair, "Hey, easy."

The Klingon brought his second hand up and slammed his fist in Chakotay's face with enough force to break his nose.

Tom had turned around to the commotion behind him and when he saw how Chakotay was being treated, he jumped up from his chair and moved to the Klingon to intervene, "Hey, come on. There's no need for that."

But Tom had hardly taken a step when another Klingon took hold of him. He was spun around and a fist hit his face, breaking his jaw. But the Klingon wasn't done yet. The Klingons were clearly pissed, and they were taking it out on them. The Klingon took hold of Tom's arm, twisting it behind Tom's back with enough force to dislocate his shoulder. The Klingon pushed Tom forward, sending him flying six feet through the air. This was followed by a powerful kick to the crumpled man's stomach.

Seven started to move, wanting to interrupt Tom's treatment, but when she had almost reached him a voice stopped all movement of the Klingons on the bridge.

"Stop it you fools. The Intendant wants to see them. Do you want to stand in front of the Intendant and explain why the prisoners look like they do now? The Intendant will decide what happens to them, not you."

Seven looked at the voice and saw that it was the same Klingon that had been on the view-screen a moment before.

Janeway had already stood up to help Tom, now she turned to the Klingon who had just spoken, "Do you always treat you prisoners like this?" Janeway asked, wanting to radiate enough superiority to make the Klingons back down a little.

The Klingon stepped in front if Janeway and looked down at the woman he towered above, "You are damn lucky that the Intendant wants to see you first, that the Intendant wants to be the one to decide what should be done with you. If it was up to me, you would all die a slow and painful death. You destroyed our ships, you killed Klingons. You, deserve to die by torture."

"They attacked us. We had to defend ourselves. What would you have us do? Sit and wait do be destroyed ourselves?"

"Yes." The Klingon took hold of Janeway's uniform and lifted her of the ground, "You, are slaves. You shouldn't have a ship, and you do what ever you are told. And if we decide to kill you, then you as slaves should sit, wait and be happy to be killed. Don't speak to me again."

He turned to the other Klingons, "The Intendant wants to see the senior staff of this... scrapheap. Round them up, clean them up; it should not be visible that they have been mistreated. Bring them to a doctor if you need to. But the ones that aren't part of the senior staff..." The Klingon grinned, "...Well, the Intendant didn't say anything about them."

"What about the blonde?" Another Klingon asked while looking at Seven, giving the impression of licking his lips without actually doing it.

"Since she is on the bridge, I assume that she is part of the senior staff."

"Damn."

The other Klingon laughed, "You really didn't think that you would get her. If the Intendant is willing to part with her, I'll take her. Now, time to get going. Clean those two up," The Klingon pointed at Tom and Chakotay, "And take inventory of all the slaves onboard."

Chapter 2

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