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By Root 678 0

the shell began to dissipate, her universe shrank proportionately. She thought she was aboard her ship. Yet when she reported a drastic reduction in the number of crewmen, her captain thought she was mentally damaged in some way. Piece by piece, the ship's crew and the size of the vessel grew smaller, until Crusher was trapped alone."

"This does not bode well," said Telek,

"Dr. R'Mor, you have a gift for understatement." As Torres watched, the shell flickered again. Please don't collapse. Please don't collapse.

She tapped her combadge. "Torres to Janeway. We've got a situation."

Ten minutes later, the senior staff had assembled hi the meeting room. Janeway listened intently to Torres's bad news. "Options?" she asked.

"Well, we're going to see if we can't create another bubble universe and transfer the dark matter into that one. I don't know. It's never been done before. And if the dark matter is released all at once on this ship-"

"I understand," said Janeway briskly, before her imagination could take the dreadful thought any further. "Is there time to run any scenarios on the holodeck?"

"I would not suggest it," said Telek R'Mor, surprising her. "When we ran scenarios earlier, when we were trying to unlock the key to the Shepherds' technology, they proved to be almost useless to us. In each scenario, we failed somehow. Yet when we actually attempted a transfer, it was successful. We are dealing with things so far beyond what your holodeck and your science can comprehend, Captain, that there seems little point. And we do not have a great deal of time. The warp shell is destabilizing far too quickly for comfort."

"I understand. One more thing." She glanced quickly at Harry. "We have learned something new about our visitor, Khala. The Doctor has determined that her molecular structure is so different from ours because she comes from another universe."

Her crew was too well trained to gasp, but everyone was startled.

"We suspect that Commander Chakotay and Ensign Paris are now presently in Khala's universe, as she is in ours. All three of them need to return to their proper universes or else they won't survive. Similar to what happened with the two Romulans, cells in Khala's body are disappearing, in all likelihood destabilizing in this universe and reappearing in her own. The Doctor is working on preparing something for Khala to retard the progress of the disintegration. Dismissed."

Her senior staff was unusually quiet as they left to take up their various positions. Janeway sank into her chair and announced to anyone who would listen, "You know, just once I'd like to be really, thoroughly, and completely bored. No lives at stake, no shore leave for excitement, just good old-fashioned boredom."

"We do appear to have more than our share of events," acknowledged Tuvok.

"And we've got one right now," said Kim. "There's a wormhole opening at coordinates seven zero three mark eight. It's huge, Captain."

"On screen," snapped Janeway, fully alert. There it was, another giant wormhole. Telek R'Mor, who had not yet left, moved to a console without Janeway having to utter a word.

"It's one of mine," he said, referring to the technology the Shepherds had given him back in the Alpha quadrant to increase the efficacy of his wormholes.

"Red alert. Shields up," ordered Janeway. If a wormhole with Shepherd technology was opening right in front of them, it could mean one of two things: a Romulan attack, or the appearance of Tialin and her benevolent Shepherds. Janeway didn't dare hope for the latter.

"Ships are coming through," said Kim.

"Four warbirds-" Tuvok broke off and looked over at R'Mor. "Four warbirds and Dr. R'Mor's vessel, the Talvath."

Even as he spoke, the ships emerged from the wormhole, which closed without a trace behind them. They were not cloaked, not this time, and loomed before Voyager in all their proud, lambent green glory.

"We're being hailed," Kim said.

"Put them on, Ensign," said Janeway, puzzled as to why the warbirds