Disclaimer: all star trek voyager characters belong to Paramount, the name Eldar (but not the race that comes with it) belongs to Games Workshop. I know I'm going onto details but I'm not taking any chancesSummary: Paris and Torres crash land on a planet and make some new friends, add some Kazon and you get the storyEldar PrincipalsBy Black Gem, PGIf you manage to finish this story, PLEASE E-MAIL ME at paul.manterfield@skynet.be and tell me what you think, if I get lots of feedback I might write a sequel (I'll probably write one anyway but feedback would encourage me to write one faster). Oh and by the way my name is Gemma Warren, the e-mail address belongs to my step-dad so please addressee any e-mails to me and not my step-dad or it might lead to confusion, now on with the story."B'Elanna, is that you?" asked a dazed Tom Paris, the last thing he remember was that he was piloting a shuttle down to the planet when they hit some ionic disturbance, he lost control of the shuttle then everything went blank. Good god B'Elanna he hoped that she was all right. He looked around the crash site for her; he spotted her near the back of the shuttle where she had been resting before the crash. She was unconscious but apart from that she wasn't to badly hurt. "B'Elanna wake up" "Tom is that you" she mumbled "Yes B'Elanna, it's me. How are you feeling" he asked her "Terrible, where are we?" "Stuck on some alien planet, again" he answered" and it's no use trying to contact Voyager, I've already tried it, it doesn't work, there must be some kind of ionic interference" he continued anticipating her next question and earning a scowl from her in response. "So I guess we're stuck here until the interference clears up," she concluded."Not necessarily, said a strange voice behind her, maybe we can help". They both turned in the direction of the voice "Who are you and what are you doing here" demanded Torres. The stranger smiled at her tone, she was about 2 meters tall and covered with a thick black fur, she had a black tail and triangular ears on the top of her head, in fact she look remarkably like a cat. "I am Colonel Eltharie Elthar and my people inhabit this planet" answered the colonel. "But our sensors didn't pick up any life singes" said Paris confused. "That is normal, we have a shield around our colony to protect us from the Kazon, but, she added with our smile, the ionic interference unfortunately isn't part of it, it is a naturally occurring phenonmun". She paused for a moment and looked around the crash site, then continued "seeing as your communications clearly aren't in working order, I can beam you back to our city so you can communicate with your ship". "That seems reasonable" said Paris in disbelief, it wasn't often that they met aliens who were willing to help them, in fact they'd given up trying to negotiate with other races. "Just a minuet, interrupted B'Elanna, did you say you'd beam us back to your city" they also hadn't met many no correction any races with transporter technology. "Yes that is correct, affirmed Elthar, we have transporter technology, but I can understand your scepticism we have found that not many races have this technology, now with your permission we'll beam you to our city". She waited for B'Elanna's approval and then touched a small sort of crown which was obviously a communicator and then spoke something in a strange language. Until then Tom hadn't realised that they were speaking without universal translators, but he didn't have time to ponder over it as the familiar sensation of a transporter beam caught him.****Paris gasped as he and B'Elanna materialised in a small courtyard with a fountain, it was beautiful. On the floor there were mosques and the fountain had a statue of some strange animal made out of gold on it.No sooner had they materialised than an Eldar male in a light blue uniform came rushing towards them, with him was another female in a dark blue version of Elthar's uniform on. "Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres and Lieutenant Tom Paris this is doctor Corollas Thalie and doctor Teltia Marlose" Colonel Eltharie Elthar introduced them. "First your going to go to the infirmary and get cleaned up, and then we'll go to the communications centre and call your captain" she said in a tone that didn't leave room to argue. Paris was amazed at how much her attitude reminded him of captain Janeway "If you will just follow Teltia" she continued then left, as soon as she had left Teltia gestured to them to follow and led them to the infirmary".****"Are you picking anything up yet Mr Kim?" asked Janeway hopefully. "Not yet captain, replied ensign Harry Kim, the ionic interference still hasn't cleared up yet" "Damn, any indication of when it will" "No captain, I still can't.... Captain we're being hailed by the surface" Kim said incredulously. "Hailed, from where, who by, is it Tom and B'Elanna?" asked Janeway disbilevingly, they hadn't picked up any life signs or advanced technology. "I can't pinpoint its location, but it isn't a Starfleet frequency". "Well we'll soon find out who it is, on screen" said Janeway "this is captain Kathryn Janeway of the federation starship Voyager, to whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?" Janeway asked the person on the screen. "I am Colonel Eltharie Elthar of the Eldar confederation and commander of defence of the Isha colony" the colonel replied. "It's a plesieur to met you colonel, but there's one thing that I don't understand, our sensors didn't pickup any life signs or buildings, can you explain that" asked Janeway puzzled. "That is normal, replied Elthar, we have a cloaking shield around our city to protect us, but the reason I'm calling you is because I believe we have someone here who wishes to speak to you" as she spoke the viewscreen swivelled to show the face of Tom Paris. "Mr Paris report, what happened and where is B'Elanna?" commanded Janeway. "B'Elanna's fine, she had a mild concussion so the doctors decided to keep her in the infirmary for a bit longer, you know doctors. Said Paris, as to what happened, well we lost control of the shuttle because of the interference and we had to crash land, luckily the shuttle wasn't to badly damaged. Just as we where figuring out how to repair it, Elthar arrived to and offered to beam us back to the city where we could contact you" finished Paris. "Just a minuet lieutenant did you say they beamed you back to the city?" asked Janeway just as surprised as B'Elanna had been earlier. "Yes captain, the Eldar have a technological level equal to if not superior to our own" replied Paris. "Well that's good news or else we might be facing a prime directive situation seeing as they found our shuttle" Said Janeway relieved. "But down to more important things like how are we going to get you out, we won't be able to beam you out until the interference clears up, can Elthar beam you back?" asked Janeway. She saw Paris turn and ask Elthar something but she shook her head. "No captain, they can't, with this level of interference they can beam us anywhere on the planet but not outside the atmosphere, but they can give us the materials to repair the shuttle, it's not very badly damaged" suggested Paris. "How long will it take you?" asked Janeway "I don't like the idea of you down there for to long seeing as the Kazon occupy the next system". "About an hour, maybe a bit longer, and the Eldar can always beam us back to the city if there is any trouble". "OK lieutenant, keep me posted, Janeway out"About an hour later"Captain a Kazon shuttle has entered the system, it's heading towards the surface of the planet" reported Kim "Hail the Eldar, let's hope they can beam them out of there". "Captain, the Eldar are hailing us, I'm putting it on screen" said Kim anticipating Janeway's next order."Captain, I'm calling you to report that the ionic interference has caused us to lose our lock on them, and at the worst possible time. I managed to warn them before we lost communications and I'll send out a shuttle to get them". "OK. Colonel, please keep me posted, Janeway out" said Janeway wishing that she didn't feel so helpless.****  Torres had gone back with Paris to try and repair the shuttle. They had just received a call from Elthar telling them that a Kazon shuttle had landed on the planet and that because on the interference they had had to send over a shuttle to pick them up. Just her luck, stuck on an alien planet with Kazon swarming all over them and the man of her dreams. A noise startled her out of her reverie; she looked up and saw Paris looking down on her. "The Kazon are here, we had better get going" he said. "Where to?" asked Torres as she gathered up her stuff. "There are some caves not very far from here, they'll offer better protection than if we're caught out in the open" he pointed to a nearby mountain "You up to climbing because they're half way up that". "More up to it than you are Paris, just led the way".Half way up the mountain the Kazon caught up with them and the air was immediately filed with phaser fire. She felt Paris push her out of the way of one of the blasts and was caught himself, he lost his footing and feel over the edge of the cliff. It was a long way down but luckily there was a ledge half way down. She looked over the edge and her heart sank as she saw his broken body, he wasn't moving. "You barsterds she cried as she charged, she managed to take two down but then the world turned black around her as she too was hit, just before she lost consciousness she heard them arguing. "Where's the male?" one of them shouted "I saw him fall down the cliff third Maj" replied one of them a tad scared. "What? You idiot the first Maj wants them alive, go get him and you had better hope that he survived or you will be following him over that cliff". "Yes third Maj" and that's all she heard before she elapsed into unconsciousness.****She woke up in a dimly lit cavern, 'damn' she thought as she realised the implication of this 'even if we had of made it to the caves, we would have walk straight into them, damn, damn, DAMN'. She looked around the cave for a means of escape but all she saw were the guards and 'Tom'. She went over to Paris's limp form, she could barley believe that he could still be alive after that fall, she felt for his pulse, it was weak but there all the same. "Tom wake up" she shook him as she tried to get him conscious, and was rewarded by a groan. "B'Elanna is that you?" he asked weakly, her heart leapt for joy when she heard his voice. "Yes Tom, it's me". "Where are we?" he asked as he looked around. "We're in a cave, we were captured by the Kazon" she replied. "Damn" he said as he tried to sit up but found that he couldn't because of the wave of pain that shoot over him as soon as he moved, seeing that he was about lapse back into unconsciousness she moved to help him. "What happened? He asked as soon as he had recovered "You fell over the edge of the cliff, you were lucky that you weren't killed" as she spoke she remembered his limp form on the ledge. "I don't think that lucky is the term that I would use" Paris quipped. "Oh my god Paris, you must be feeling better to make an awful joke like that". "Who said I was joking" B'Elanna glared at him but before she could reply, she heard footsteps approaching.The moment she saw who it was her heart sank, it was Maj Chullah of the Kazon Nistrum. "What do you want with us?" she spat "You know what we want, we want your technology". "And you know that we can't give it to you" she said defiantly. He smiled evilly "No not can't, but won't because it would take away your technological advantage and make you vulnerable, but with the necessary persuasion I'm sure you'll tall us all we want to know". "You can do what you want with me and I won't tell you anything" she spat defiantly, but inside she was quaking, the Kazon Nistrum were famous for being the most violent sect and she was sure that Seska had taught them some more Cardassian methods of persuasion. "That may be so but could you stand by and watch as we torture your friend, now that is another matter all together" as he spoke he signalled to a guard who came over and started to beat Tom up. Two more guards came over to restrain her as she tried to stop him. After a few more minuets Cullah motioned for him to stop and than put a small device on Paris's forehead. "This is a device that Seska gave to me, it delivers electric shocks of varying intensity, it's very slow and painful death, so are you going to let your friend suffer or are you going to coperate?". "I'll never give you anything" as she spoke Cullah pressed a button and Paris screamed in pain as it administered the shock. "So are you going to coperate?" he asked again. "B'Elanna don't say anything," said Paris before he lapsed into unconsciousness, B'Elanna kept silent. "Very well, I see that you need a bit more persuasion" but before he could press the button and administer another shock another Kazon ran in."First Maj" he said a bit afraid at having interrupted Cullah but the information was urgent "An Eldar shuttle has just landed outside". "What? How could you let them get so close you incompetent fool, get everyone in the shuttle, I'll deal with you later he" said to the frightened Kazon who had interrupted them. "Drag him, he gestured to Paris, and quickly, anyone not in the shuttle in five minutes will be left behind" he snarled. "Yes First Maj" said the guards before Cullah stomped out.****"Captain, we're detecting a shuttle being launched from the surface, it's Kazon". "Very good Mr Kim, Tuvok tractor them" said Janeway, glad at last to have something to do. "I am unable to get a lock on the, their shields are interfering" said Tuvok. "Damn" couldn't anything go right on this blasted away mission "then shoot their engines, I want them dead in space" said the captain. "Aye Captain, replied Tuvok, firing phasers, direct hit their engines are down". "Good job, lets see if we can get our crew back now," said the captain glad something was going according to plan for once."Captain, I'm detecting another ship being launched, from the surface, and it's not Kazon." reported Kim. "Mr Kim I need a better description than that, if it's not Kazon then what is it" said the captain frustrated. "I'm not sure captain, but I suspect it's Eldar". "That's a relief, let's assume they're here to help us". "Captain, if these readings are correct the Eldar vessel is capable of warp 10" Kim reported astounded, and a bit excited, if the Eldar had figured a way to travel a warp 10 without the unpleasant side-effects that they had discovered, then they might have found a way home. "Warp 10?" asked the captain equally astounded. "Captain the Kazon are hailing us". "On screen, this is Captain Kathryn Janeway...". "I know who you are Captain, and if you want to see your crewmen again you will not fire on us whilst we make our repairs" threatened Maj Cullah. "How do we know that our crewmen are still alive?" asked Janeway hoping to buy sometime, as she spook Cullah stepped aside to show B'Elanna and Tom, she didn't recognise Tom at first, he was so bloody and battered, she would have thought he was dead if it wasn't for the occasional movement "See your crewmen captain and remember that if you fire on us or try to hinder our repairs in any way then they die" with that final threat he closed communications."Captain the Eladar are hailing us" reported Kim almost as soon as the screen went blank. "On screen" as she spoke the colonels face appeared on the viewscreen "Captain, I've been monitoring your conversation with the Kazon and I believe that I have a solution, if you want, you can beam over to my ship or I to yours, to discus it" offered the colonel. "Certainly Elthar, I will beam over with two of my officers in ten minutes". "We look forward to seeing you, Elthar out" responded the Eldar. "Tuvok contact Carry, I want both of you to meat me in transporter room one in ten minutes" said Jane way as she exited the bridge. "Aye captain" responded Tuvok.****As soon as Janeway materialized, she was greeted by an Eldar female, "Greetings captain, I am Colonel Elthars first officer: major Lana Caly, the colonel sent me down her to greet you" she introduced herself. "This is my security chief lieutenant Tuvok, and my acting chief engineer whilst lieutenant Torres is absent, Lieutenant Joe Carry" Janeway introduced them. "Pleased to meet you, now if you'll accompany me to the briefing room, the colonel will tell you of her plan, please follow me" she gestured towards the door then left. As Janeway followed she couldn't help noticing how much like a federation ship it looked, the only difference being the fact that dark grey instead of light grey was the main colour.The bridge on the other hand, thought Janeway as she stepped onto it, followed a totally different design than the federation ones, it was, like Voyager built for speed, but unlike Voyager or any other ship she'd seen, it had no captain's chair, Janeway was vaguely puzzled by this until she heard a voice behind her. "The 'captain' sits at the station that s/he would normally occupy, it's like that because there is no set rank for commanding a vessel. You could have a captain commanding a vessel or a lieutenant colonel as a department head, so most commanders prefer to keep their original stations". "You read my mind," said Janeway a bit appalled at the idea but Elthar laughed "No, not really, for highly sensitive telepathes, like us, when your thinking about something fairly hard it's like your shouting, it's difficult not to overhear". "Sorry" Janeway started to say but Elther stopped her. "Sorry, for what? You can't help thinking can you" that time it was Janeway's turn to laughed. "No, Elthar continued, it is me who should be saying sorry, as a rule we don't like to pry into peoples personnel lives, but when we meet a new race it takes a bit of time to put up a mental barrier against stray thoughts. But more importantly I believe that introductions are in order. This is my first officer who you've already met Major Caly, this is my chief science officer captain Cale Masey, she gestured to a man besides her dressed in a light green uniform, and my chief engineer Sargent Taisho Lassen" she gestured to a women besides her in a dark green uniform. "This is my chief of security lieutenant Tuvok and my acting chief engineer Lieutenant Joe Carey" Janeway once again introduced her two officers. "Good now that that's over with we can get down to the more important things, if you will follow me into the briefing room, we don't have much time by my calculations the Kazon ought to have finished repairs in three hours" she turned and went into the briefing room with Janeway, Tuvok and Carey following."You said you had a solution" promoted Janeway as soon as she had sat down. "Yes Captain, our sensors have managed to penetrate their shields and we have located them, but unfortunately our transporters cannot, but we believe that we could create a phaser blast strong enough to take down their shield but without damaging the rest of the ship. But because of the power needed for such a blast we wouldn't be able to transport them out for five minutes, by which time they most probably would be dead, but if we transmit the co-ordinates to you just before we fired then you could beam them out as soon as we'd fired" finished Elthar. Janeway thought it over for a bit. "Carey what do you think?" she asked. "It'd be tight but we could do it and it's the best plan we've got so far". "Tuvok?". "Like Mr Carey said it is the only plan we have". "Right when can we do it?" Janeway asked Elthar. "As soon as Sargent Lassen has mad the necessary modifications to the phaser array". "By my estimate that ought to take an hour and a half" added Lassen "But it might take up to two hours". "OK colonel I'll beam back to my ship and you'll contact me as soon as you're ready". "Yes captain, that is right, now if you'll excuse us I'd like to get to work as soon as possible" and with that the Eldar officers left the room. "Janeway to Voyager, three to beam back"****"Lassen, have you and Mayla finished the modifications yet?" asked Elthar after a turn and a half. "No colonel" replied sergeant Lassen. "Well, you'd better hurry up, you've only got a turn left". "I'm doing it as fast as I can, I ought to have finished in half a turn, Lassen out". Elthar sighed, she knew that Lassen was probably doing it in half the time that any other engineer would take, but it still was a long time. She had often wondered why the sergeant hadn't gone to the academy yet, she could most certainly pass with flying colours, being the best chief engineer that Elthar had had and she had had quiet a few. Most NCO's went after serving 30 years, she had served for a hundred: which was almost unheard of, even with an average life span of a thousand years, a hundred was still a lot. She herself was 1432 years old but seeing as her mother was a counsellor (a group of immortal beings similar to the Eldar but immortal, who govern the confederacy) she had a much longer projected life span. She was going to have to talk to Lassens about going, she hated to see good talent going to waste. Just then her combadge beeped. "Lassen to Elthar", Elthar smiled it had only been 20 cycles, Lassen had a habit of beating her own projections. "Elthar here, let me guess, you've finished the modifications ahead of schedule". "Yes colonel, how did you guess?" Lassen replied slightly sarcastically, Lassen was one of the few people who could get away with that seeing as Elthar had known her for ages. "Thank you Lassen, lieutenant hail Voyager and be ready to transmit the co-ordinates, let's hope they don't decide to move them any time soon" she said to her chief of operations, lieutenant Acura Vall "Frequency open sir-colonel". Vall was new and still couldn't get over the fact she preferred colonel to sir. "On screen, Captain I'm pleased to announce that we have finished the modifications, we're ready to start when you are" she moved to take her seat at the helm, and than turned to her first officer at tactical. "OK let's get this show on the road, ready captain?" she than asked Janeway who nodded "Vall transmit the co-ordinates". "Co-ordinates transmitted sir". Elthar decided not to correct her, she didn't mind being called sir in a combat situation, "OK Major Caly, FIRE" she turned back to the viewscreen and saw the Kazons shields flash blue then disappear at the same time as Vall reported "Kazon shields are down". "Good go to red alert" just as the first Kazon shots hit the ship, then the Kazon must have realised that they were outnumbered because they promptly turned tale and ran.****Janeway smiled in relief as Kim reported that Paris and Torres had been transported to sickbay. "Commander, you have the bridge. I'll be in sickbay if you need me.""How are they doctor?" Janeway asked the EMH. "Lieutenant Torres will be fine, she's sleeping right now, but apart from a few bruises she'll be fine". "And Lieutenant Paris?" Janeway asked afraid of the answer. "Lieutenant Paris had sustained multiple injuries to his back and spine and a minor concussion". "How did that happen? Will he be all right". "Most of the injuries in question were sustained when he fell off a cliff, I had to operate but there is no permanent damage" replied the EMH "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a patient to attend to". "Of course doctor, could you please notify me if either of them wakes up""Captain, the Eldar are hailing us" Kim told the captain over her combadge. "I'll take it in my ready room, Janeway out" said Janeway as she headed towards her ready room."Colonel, how may I help you" Janeway asked Elthar. "Actually captain, I was just calling to ask you how your crewmen are?". "One of them, Paris was badly injured but he will survive" she saw the look of genuine concern when Elthar heard that Paris was injured. "Well that's good news, but theirs is another reason that I'm calling you. I assume the reason that you landed on our planet was to collect food and the dilithium in the ground". "Well yes, but we certainly wouldn't have done it if we knew the planet was inhabited". "Not at all captain, we have more than enough food and as for dilithium, we use a different power source which is similar in efficiency. No, I was actually going to offer our help in cultivating food. We asked only one thing in return". "And what may that be?" said Janeway hoping that it wasn't technology. "The first contact our race had with aliens were the borg, who ignored us after they found us resistant to assimilation, and a bit later on when we expanded our colonies, the Kazon, who only wanted to take our technology. As a result we haven't had much contact with aliens and we would like to learn about your race. I have to journey to a small colony about 300 light-years away in the direction that you are going in. All we ask is to be able to accompany you on your journey, and to learn about your race and the other races you've encountered on the way". "I would be delighted to have some company on our journey after all there is safety in numbers, and whilst you learn about us, we can learn about you" after all this was what Starfleet was meant to be about. "That is a wonderful, I estimate that it will take you about a week to collect all you want and then we can get going" this was going to be three months that they won't forget.FinisIt does of course scream out for a sequel that it will get when I get round to it. Please tell me what you think at the address at the beginning.