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transfer of knowledge and technologies. I don’t want to give away any of Voyager’s secrets to a race that probably shouldn’t have them—perhaps this race more than most.”
    “Of course not,” Paris said, “but information, to some extent, would have to flow both ways, wouldn’t it?”
    “The lieutenant makes an excellent point, Captain,” Chakotay noted.
    “As it stands, we are at a severe disadvantage, and it will only be a matter of time before the Televek fully realize that.”
    Despite the weight of the situation, Janeway felt a slight swell of satisfaction as she listened to this exchange between the members of her strange crew. Thrown together by fate and circumstance, seventy-five million light-years from home, their ship lacking half of its major systems, and hostile aliens hanging in orbit off the bow, and still they functioned well—as well as any captain could expect. Far too many of her decisions in this quadrant were difficult ones, but it helped to know she had the people to back them up.
    “If we are to help anyone on Drenar Four, or help ourselves, it seems dealing with the Televek on some level is the only logical course,” she said, acknowledging Tuvok with a nod.
    “Couldn’t we just leave the system?” Neelix asked.
    “No, not yet,” Janeway said. She stood silent for a long moment.
    Then: “Mr. Tuvok, you will see to security arrangements. We don’t want to appear unfriendly, but I’d rather not take any chances. I’ll be stopping off at Engineering if you need me.
    Let me know when they arrive. Mr. Kim,” she added, turning to the younger officer, considering him a moment, “you’re with me.
    I want you to go down to the shuttle bay. I may have a job for you.”
    She turned on her heel and headed for the turbolift with the ensign close behind.

CHAPTER 4
    B’Elanna Torres held her lower lip between her teeth as her eyes scanned the data on the main engineering console. “Lieutenant Carey, how are those magnetic constrictor coils coming?” she shouted. He was on the upper level, somewhere out of sight. She saw him peek down at her through the railing, a look of exasperation on his face.
    “They’re coming.”
    B’Elanna took a deep breath, then nodded to him. Her greatest regret was that she couldn’t do everything herself, but Carey was a good man, as were the others working with him to get the warp drive back on-line.
    Let some of it go, she told herself.
    But she had to keep everyone pushing hard right now, including herself.
    Partly because the captain required it, partly because she couldn’t help it. Not with so many systems so badly damaged.
    Not when at any moment Voyager’s survival might well depend upon the work they were doing here. Still, there were limits, and some of them applied to everyone.
    She bent over the panel and began touching keypads. Schematics flashed one after another on the dark glass screens above the console. She had so many people crawling in conduits that she’d lost track of some of them. Then there was the crew assigned to the transporter subsystems, ll of which needed work and none of which seemed to be improving according to the red indicators on the display she was looking at right now. She’d been after them on the intercom not ten minutes ago, but she hadn’t gone up there and personally… inspired them. Not yet, anyway.
    Another grid appeared as she touched the control. More red flags.
    “The captain isn’t going to like this,” she muttered, thinking out loud.
    “Like what?” Janeway said.
    B’Elanna looked around to see the captain standing just behind her.
    She made a sour face. “Plenty.”
    “Tell me what’s going on.”
    B’Elanna took a deep breath, tried to think of a good place to begin, decided there wasn’t one. “I’ve got Carey working on the warp drives; that’s our number-one priority right now.
    Life-support is stable. The transporters are still down, but we’re making progress there. The