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Janeway wiped a hand across her dripping forehead. For not the first time, she wondered why she kept her hair long. Short hair certainly would have helped right now. At least it was bound in a neat bun on the back of her head. She breathed through the specially treated cloth the doctor had ordered they all wear and was grateful for it. The air was thick and heavy and filled with ash.

The planet had no humanoid inhabitants, and as far as they could determine, no sentient life-forms at all. The study of the volcano and how it affected the rain forest environment could therefore be undertaken without concern for the Prime Directive. The air was filled with the cries of animals, though, and as a bright scarlet-and-purple winged creature flew overhead in a panic, Janeway felt for the beasts.

Beside her crouched the rest of her away team, Ensign Pakriti and Lieutenant Yvonne Harper. She could hear their labored breathing-or was it just her own that she heard?

Janeway tossed in her bed, aware that she was dreaming, yet unable to stop it. She did not want to see this, not again, not able to do anything to stop it, to change her decision....

She studied her tricorder. "If my calculations are correct, there won't be another seismic tremor for another twenty-two point seven minutes." She

glanced at her crew. "That's enough time for us to split up and get three different readings on that unusual radiation at the center. Harper, you go there. Pakriti, head for.that area over there. I'll go right for the heart of the thing."

They adjusted their tricorders to emit a warning sound halfway though their allotted time and agreed to reconvene at this spot.

Then they took off running.

The earth tremor hit six minutes later.

Janeway was thrown hard, but the only debris that showered her prone form was dust and small chunks of earth. Her protective mouth covering was torn away and she coughed, her lungs seared from the smoke.

She heard a faint cry of pain. No, two-one closer than the other. She stumbled to her feet and went to the closer one. Pakriti, his elongated features twisted in pain, was trapped beneath a fallen tree. Grunting, Janeway pushed and struggled, and finally managed to shove the tree off the wounded Kiltarian. A human would have been killed, but Pakriti's stronger bone structure had saved him. Even so, he was injured.

"Come on," Janeway said. She pulled Pakriti's arm around her shoulders and walked with him to the cleared area. The radiation closer to the volcano interfered with the transporter. "Lock on to Pakriti's signal and beam him to sickbay," she said, then headed back out in search of Harper.

A second tremor shook the earth. A huge gap opened up almost beneath Janeway's feet and she hurled herself clear. She felt as if she were riding a

wild beast. Nothing was certain, when you couldn't even trust the earth you walked on.

Her tricorder had fallen into the chasm that had opened a scant meter from her left arm. Janeway got to her feet and grimly went in the direction from which she had last heard Harper's cry.

She found the ensign a few moments later. Yvonne was unconscious, and for a bad few seconds Janeway thought the younger woman was dead. Debris and rocks covered almost all her body. Grimly Janeway began to remove the pile, stone by stone.

She'd gotten the girl safely back to the Billings. She herself had to be treated for radiation poisoning, smoke inhalation, and minor lacerations. The doctor predicted a full recovery for all three members of the away team and sent Janeway to her quarters for a day or two.

Let it end here, the sleeping Janeway pleaded with her subconscious. / know what happened. I don't want to live it again. Please.

"Commander."

The voice was soft and feminine, and Janeway stirred, frowning. That wasn't her title. She was captain now, captain of the U.S.S. Voyager.

"Commander Janeway."

The soft voice had an edge to it Janeway trembled on the verge of recognition and opened her eyes.