The lights flickered on and consoles reactivated as main power returned. Captain Park wiped her face with a warm cloth, clearing away the dust, dirt, and blood. Four hours had passed since the USS Perseverance had been nearly torn apart. She groaned at the muscle aches and the dull headache. The vision that greeted her now balanced out the pain. A halfway cleaned-up bridge filled by her senior staff in various states but still alive. Commander Rowan Hale was down in engineering, working on the latest in engineering and operations miracles, which included main power and warp engines. Park handed the dirty cloth to a passing orderly and made her way to where Hazel Wallaker sat, eyes brighter than they had been four hours ago. “Good to see you back on the bridge, Wallaker.”

An assortment of medical bandages adorned her arms, legs, and the back of her head. She’d refused to be kept below in sickbay if there was a way for her to report to her station. Park felt impressed, but also a little worried. Wallaker was intense on a good day. She made a note to monitor her chief science officer. “It’s good to be back in the seat, Captain.” Her hands coaxed the data from the limited sensors. “Cadet Williams was right. We’re in the same space we were four hours ago, but this place is different in enough ways to confuse the computer and us. Sensors are still a work in progress, but the limited range we have is picking up unusual fluctuations in quantum resonance along with small amounts of tachyon readings that are above normal. Those readings only appear in the immediate sector around Perseverance. And they are fading fast.”

Park’s eyebrows went up. “You rarely find those two things together. Except….,” she stopped, an icy chill of realization rattling her spine. “When things in reality change. There’s a reason for the confusion with the maps. Another reality.”

Wallaker blinked her eyes in muted shock. She’d read plenty in her academy days. Even studied it a little recently. They weren’t in their reality. They were somewhere else. She blurted out, “Then where are we? And how do we get home?”

Park remained focused on Hazel’s science screen. “Somewhere else. As for getting home, if Voyager can do it, so can we.”

Wallaker turned back to her station, swallowing her reply as Park returned to the center chair. Voyager took seven years.

Seven years was a long time.

“Warp 5 is our current limit.” Rowan sat back in the chair in his office in Main Engineering. His eyes were bloodshot, and his uniform a mess of dirt, burns, and blood. Captain Park sat opposite him, sipping her fourth cup of coffee. “We’ve got all decks back on the grid and the EPS conduits are holding. We’re working on sensors now. Whatever we hit or whatever hit us made a mess of things. One section of deck three buckled, and they’ve stabilized it for now. The computer tells us the hull is undamaged.”

Park leaned forward, a flash of worry crossing her heart. “You don’t believe it?”

Hale eyed the steaming cup of coffee just near his console on the desk. He was on his fifth. “The computer’s been a touch unreliable since we got…to wherever here is, Captain. I’ve got my team checking every inch of the thing. I don’t want us to jump to warp speed and find out the hard way why you should have your hull at one hundred percent. Our deflector isn’t fully functional as it is, and shields are down the list. ”

Park met his tired eyes with her own. She asked, “We’re not going anywhere until we get those two things back in the green. Estimates?”

Hale glanced up as Doctor Ada Josephs stepped into the office, a medical kit in hand. She glared at him. “Don’t push this off again.”

Park looked at Ada and then at Hale, who groaned and shrugged his shoulders. “I was going to get to it, Doc Josephs.”

The chief medical officer rolled her eyes and went to work on scanning the executive officer. “Keep talking. I’m just here to keep him alive.”

Park smiled. Ada had a tone of voice that was not unlike a cantankerous mother who had reached her limit and was done with excuses. She asked again, “Estimates?”

“Deflector and shields are at two days. Part of that time is going to be figuring out how it happened. Every time we make progress on a fix, another question gets added to the pile. The pile is getting big.” He flinched at a hypospray.

Ada gave him a worried look. “Did that hurt?”

“I don’t like needles, even the ones I can’t feel.”

Josephs scoffed. “We’re going to get along great. I need you to visit sickbay in 12 hours, Commander Hale. Don’t force me to find you.” She smirked a quick smile at Park and swiftly left the office, headed for the engineering team as her next target.

Rowan groaned and asked, “How do you keep your friendship with her?”

Park gave him a fake look of annoyance with some pretend outrage at the end. “I’ve known her most of my life, Rowan. She’s the better of the two of us. She and Captain Walton are the reason I’m here with four shiny pips to my name. Ada Josephs is the best chance any of us have of living to see another day when things are at their worst. Ignore or dismiss her at your peril.” She stood, stretching her fatigued muscles. The pain felt oddly warm as it forced her eyes wider. “Thank you for keeping the Perseverance alive, Rowan.”

She made it to the door before he asked, “We going to make it back home? Heard you said something about the Voyager on the bridge. Seven years is a long time, Captain Park.”

She turned, leaning in the doorway. “We can’t go home in a broken ship, Commander Hale. Let’s focus on getting the Perseverance back into one piece.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Not an answer to the question, Captain.”

Park sighed and fell silent in the doorway. Her eyes looked from the ceiling to the crew working in engineering to the carpet and back to Rowan. She replied quietly so only he could hear. “You’re right. Truthfully, at this moment…I don’t know exactly how we’re going to get home.” Her eyes softened as she continued. “But we will get home. One way or another.”

His nod of respect was his reply, and she departed, heading for the turbolift. Rowan watched her go. He wondered if they would get to the point of ‘or another’.