The ship had settled into lockdown mode. The faint hum of recalibrated systems filled the room, dim lighting shifting as Voyager's defenses came online. Redundant shielding. Secondary protocols. Silent tension woven into every corridor.

Janeway held Astrea close, feeling the baby's small, steady breaths against her chest. Her body was still. Her mind wasn't. Something felt wrong.

Across the room, Chakotay stood near the couch, arms crossed. He was watching her, reading the tension in her shoulders, the way her grip on Astrea hadn't loosened.

"You feel it too," he said quietly. It wasn't a question.

Janeway exhaled, the sound low and tight. "We're being watched."

Seven of Nine stood at the wall console, scanning the internal sensor logs. Her fingers moved fast, efficient. Her expression didn't shift, but her posture did—tense. Alert.

"There is no direct evidence of surveillance," she said. "However..." She paused, looking up. "I do not believe we are alone."

That was all Janeway needed to hear.

She tapped her combadge. "Captain Janeway to Ensign Wildman. Report to my quarters. Bring Naomi with you. Starboard."

Samantha's voice came back immediately. "Aye, Captain."

Janeway looked down at Astrea, now awake in her arms. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, tracking every movement, every shift in tone. Her small hands flexed with quiet tension, her body unusually still for a child so young. She wasn't crying. She was listening. The baby was sensing it too.

She turned to Chakotay. "Get to the bridge. Keep an eye on long-range sensors—I want to know the second anything changes."

He hesitated for half a second. Then nodded. "Be careful, Kathryn."

She gave the barest smirk. "I always am."

Chakotay left without another word.

As soon as the door slid shut, Seven tapped her combadge. "Seven of Nine to Icheb. Report to Astrometrics immediately."

"I'm on my way."

She turned back. "If someone is searching for us, we must determine who—and how."

Janeway shifted Astrea in her arms. The baby stirred, curling closer, her breath brushing against Janeway's collarbone.

"Find them, Seven."

Seven nodded and left without another word.

Janeway stayed there, rocking slowly, the hum of the ship steady in the background. She listened for something. Anything.

But all she heard was the silence before something breaks.

The chime at the door broke through the quiet. Janeway turned as it slid open to reveal Samantha Wildman and Naomi.

Without a word, Janeway pressed a kiss to Astrea's forehead. The baby blinked up at her, calm but watchful.

"She's been quiet," Janeway murmured, her voice almost tender. "But she knows."

Samantha stepped forward, arms out. Janeway passed Astrea over carefully, her hand lingering for just a second longer on the baby's back.

Then she turned to Naomi, kneeling slightly to meet her eyes. From the folds of her uniform, she pulled out a small phaser and placed it gently in Naomi's hands.

"Remember your classes with Tuvok."

Naomi stared down at the weapon, then up at Janeway. "Captain?"

Janeway's voice was low but steady. "Remember to breathe. And aim. And Naomi, the third most important rule of being a captain is?"

Naomi straightened slightly, gripping the phaser. "Yes, Captain. Never abandon a member of your crew."

Janeway gave a small, proud nod. Then, without hesitation, she pulled Naomi into a hug—firm, steady, the kind that said everything words couldn't. Naomi didn't flinch. She held on just as tight.

Janeway straightened, her eyes meeting Samantha's. They didn't need to say much. One look held it all. Trust, responsibility, fear, and something stronger underneath—resolve.

"Keep them safe," Janeway said quietly.

"I will," Samantha answered, arms already wrapped protectively around Astrea.

One last look at all three of them, and Janeway walked out the door.

The corridor was dim, emergency lighting casting sharp shadows as she moved. Crew members passed her, each nodding but saying nothing. Everyone felt it now. The pressure. The silence before the break.

She tapped her combadge. "Janeway to the bridge."

Tuvok's voice came through, calm as always. "Bridge here."

"Status report."

"Long-range sensors show no change. However, there are increasing fluctuations in our outer shielding—subtle, but abnormal."

"I'm on my way."

She stepped into the turbolift. "Deck One."

The lift hummed to life, but Janeway's mind wasn't still. She kept hearing the silence back in her quarters, the weight of Astrea in her arms, Naomi's brave eyes staring up at her. She'd handed them phasers and promises.

Now she needed to make good on both.

The doors parted onto the bridge. Tuvok turned from his station.

"Captain."

"Any changes?"

"The energy variance is shifting frequency. It may be an active scan—covert. Possibly Vaadwaur."

Janeway's jaw tightened. "Raise primary shields. I want every system monitored in real time. If something tries to sneak past us again, I want to know before it breathes."

Tuvok nodded. "Understood."

Thirty minutes passed.

Samantha paced slowly with Astrea in her arms, her motions steady, keeping the baby calm.

Naomi stood nearby, gripping the small phaser in both hands. She was alert, quiet, but tense—just like Tuvok had taught her.

Then the lights flickered. Once. Then again, it wasn't like a normal fluctuation. But interference.

Samantha's head snapped up. She turned, scanning the room. "Naomi. Stay close."

Naomi didn't answer, just stepped in beside her mother, phaser raised slightly.

A hum passed through the air. Then, three figures shimmered into view.

Vaadwaur.

They phased in without a sound. No words. No warning. Just intent.

Samantha acted fast. She moved toward the crib, placing Astrea down gently before turning, drawing her phaser and firing all in one motion. Her first shot struck one of them. He stumbled, but his armor absorbed the hit.

Another Vaadwaur raised his weapon. Fired.

The shot caught Samantha in her right shoulder. She collapsed, hard.

Naomi, brave as ever, hand trembled, but she fired. The beam went wide. Too wide. They were already moving, slipping out of her line of sight, phasing slightly in and out.

One of them stepped forward. Tall. Unreadable. His gaze moved from Naomi to the crib. Then back.

Naomi dropped the phaser, ran to the crib, and scooped Astrea into her arms. The baby clung to her, silent, but alert.

The Vaadwaur surrounded her, but they didn't fire. The leader stepped forward, eyes scanning Naomi and the baby in her arms with something disturbingly close to curiosity.

"You are brave," he said, his voice disturbingly calm.

Naomi stood frozen, breathing hard, her tears carving silent trails down her cheeks. Her grip on Astrea tightened as she lifted her chin. "I am Naomi Wildman, Captain's Assistant to Captain Janeway of the USS Starship Voyager. You will leave us alone!"

The lead Vaadwaur tilted his head. "You protect her. You were willing to fight. That is... interesting. For a humanoid as small as yourself."

He looked to the others and gave a nod.

Without a word, they moved. Naomi felt the air shift before she saw them phase. She opened her mouth to scream, to run—but the shimmer had already swallowed her.

In a blink, Naomi and Astrea vanished.

The room went still, the silence deafening.

Samantha didn't move.

—-

"They're inside."

Harry Kim's voice snapped through the tense silence of the bridge. He was already standing at his console, brows furrowed as he pulled up the readings. "Deck Three just registered phaser fire—short burst, concentrated. But the signal's scrambled. It bounced across four junction relays before it even hit the main system."

Janeway was out of her chair in an instant. "What do you mean scrambled?"

"I mean someone's rerouting internal sensor data," Harry said, tapping furiously. "Our readings are fragmented. I can't tell what's real and what's a looped feed."

Before Janeway could respond, the comm crackled again.

"Seven of Nine to the bridge." Her voice was clipped and urgent. "We are under attack. Internal scans are failing across multiple decks. Security feeds have been overridden. I've lost contact with Astrometrics—every system I access reroutes me three sublevels away."

Tuvok turned from Tactical. "Confirmed. Phaser discharge detected on Deck Three, but no active life forms appear on sensors. Weapons are being discharged... but we cannot identify who is firing."

Janeway's jaw clenched. "They're using phased cloaking. Like the last time. They're avoiding detection and they're controlling what we see."

She turned to Harry. "Can we restore sensor integrity?"

"I've already started recalibrating, but they've buried false signals in our sensor grid. Every time I isolate one, two more pop up." His voice dropped a bit, tense. "Captain, I think they've been in the system longer than we realized."

Janeway inhaled slowly, then tapped her combadge. "Seven, pull all available power into environmental controls and route it through a tertiary feedback loop. If they're moving through bulkheads, we flush their signal with heat variances."

"Understood. Beginning reroute." A short pause. "But I must warn you, doing so may disable localized life support in non-essential areas."

Janeway didn't blink. "Do it."

She turned sharply back to the bridge. "Tuvok, activate rotating shield harmonics on interior sections. If they try to phase, I want them to hit something solid."

Tuvok was already entering the command. "Shields recalibrating now."

Her hand flew to her combadge. "All hands, this is the Captain. Evacuate all non-essential areas immediately. Secure access to critical systems and move to designated emergency zones. This is not a drill."

The order echoed through the ship like a pulse. Red lights intensified, and the quiet murmur of the crew turned into motion.

Her mind moved fast. These weren't random attacks. They weren't trying to cripple Voyager.

They were hunting. Purposeful. Tactical. They were here for someone.

"Harry, reroute all sensor feeds through Astrometrics. Tell Icheb to isolate power fluctuations and map them deck by deck. If they're interfering with our systems, they're generating a signature. I want to know where they are and how many."

"Aye, Captain."

Seven's voice came back over the comm, lower now, but no less urgent. "They're targeting key areas, command lines, engineering subroutes, crew quarters. Captain, this is not a raid. It's an extraction."

Janeway's voice dropped, quiet and dangerous. "They're not here to disable Voyager. They're after technology—something they think belongs to them."

Astrometrics was dark, lit only by the soft glow of scattered interface lights. Seven of Nine moved quickly across the central console, her eyes narrowed as she studied the data streams unraveling in front of her. Icheb stood beside her, mirroring her focus.

"There," Seven said sharply, isolating a line of scrambled telemetry. "A slight delay in the masking pattern. Barely perceptible."

Icheb leaned closer. "A temporal jitter. It lasted less than a millisecond, but it's not random."

Seven's fingers flew across the interface. "It's a gap. Whoever altered our internal feeds made a mistake."

More data spilled across the screen. Icheb frowned. "Captain Janeway said we were looking for power fluctuations... but this isn't energy-based."

"No," Seven confirmed, her voice tight, but quieter now. "It's biometric. A transport signature." Her fingers hovered for a moment over the console. "Only one profile is partially registered. Naomi Wildman."

She didn't move. Didn't blink. Then she added, softer, "She was just with her mother."

Icheb's face went pale. "There's no exit log—no departure from the ship."

Seven stepped back, processing. "Whatever technology they used bypassed standard transporter protocols. But the signal is clear. She's gone."

"I'll alert the bridge." Icheb tapped his combadge, voice tight. "Icheb to—"

"No." Seven was already moving. "You'll go there, no more comms. I'll verify the situation directly."

"I understand." Icheb turned, already hurrying out the door.

Seven watched the screen for half a second longer, then turned sharply toward the exit. Her pace was fast, precise.

She didn't need confirmation from the bridge.

Something was very, very wrong.

Seven didn't hesitate. She moved fast, rounding the corner and entering Janeway's quarters without announcing herself.

The lights flickered faintly as she stepped inside.

Samantha lay on the floor, motionless, a burn mark singed into the shoulder of her uniform. The crib was empty. The room was still.

Seven crossed the room in three strides and dropped to her knees beside Samantha. She checked for a pulse. Alive.

Seven's hand hovered over Samantha's forehead for a moment, fingers twitching as if unsure whether to reach for something comforting. Then she pulled back, jaw tight.

She stood slowly and turned to the crib, now glaringly vacant. Her breath hitched once—just once—then she pressed her combadge.

"Seven of Nine to the bridge. Emergency. Captain—"

But she didn't finish.

Because she didn't need to as she heard Icheb burst onto the bridge, nearly out of breath. His words tumbled out in one sharp gasp, "Naomi Wildman has been taken."

Silence fell like a weight.

Janeway turned, her heart dropping.

Tuvok stepped forward, already moving toward tactical. "Confirm location?"

"Seven is verifying. She went to your quarters Captain, I..." He couldn't finish the sentence.

The comm crackled again.

"Torres to bridge."

Janeway's voice sharpened. "Go ahead."

"We've got one of them," B'Elanna said. "Vaadwaur operative here in engineering. He didn't make it out when the internal shields rotated. We've secured him. Transporting to the brig now."

Janeway looked at Tuvok. "Prep for interrogation. I want that cell shielded, reinforced, and monitored. No one talks to him but me."

"Understood," Tuvok replied before leaving, the bridge fell silent again.

Janeway stood at the center, every instinct screaming.

The comm channel chirped once more. "Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway."