Title: Twentieth Century Boy
Author: ZorroRojo - zorrorojo@slashcity.com
Series: X-Over Voyager/X-Files/Highlander
Part: 1/16
Rating: R?
Codes: C/P
Archive: Anywhere
Disclaimer: yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah - not mine.
Summary: I don't want to give one.
Warnings: Non-Graphic Slash - Cussing -  a little violence (not
anything worse than what you see on American TV.

********
 

"Load up and all aboard. Let's get a move on..." Lt. Tom Paris
directed traffic in Voyager's shuttle bay, determined to get his
flight off the deck and on the move on time, and with the utmost
efficiency.

"Commanders," Tom called out, "it's only a short trip; you don't need
all those bags." Tom muttered under his breath, "and I'm not playing
baggage boy. I don't care if you both outrank me."

Commander Tuvok finished loading his sample containers and joined Lt.
Paris in the crew section, "Lt., I fail to see why you are in a hurry.
We are ahead of schedule."

"And we're staying that way, Commander. I may be a lowly Lt. but I'm
in command of the flight and I have a schedule to keep. How come the
only one on time is the crewman?" Tom turned back into the Delta Flyer
and nodded his approval at Gerron, already at his station. "Gerron,
you do have everything you need, don't you?" With the young Bajoran's
nod, Tom stuck his head through the door of the shuttle and glanced
around the cargo bay. He turned back inside and asked no one in
particular, "Now where did Chakotay go? I swear if he's late I'll..."

"What will you do, Lt.?" Chakotay asked softly from right behind Tom's
shoulder.

"Ahhh!" Tom yelled as he jumped and banged his head against the hatch.

Chakotay just grinned at him and smirked, "What were you saying Lt.?"

"Good. You're here. Everything stowed?"

"Yes sir, oh Delta Flyer captain," Chakotay laughed. "Your wish is my
command."

"Oh, you are going to regret you said that, Cha." Tom retorted as he
slid into the pilot's seat.

"May I remind you that you are not on your vacation yet?" Tuvok added.

"Relax, Tuvok, you're on vacation too. Starting right now." Chakotay
ordered. "Tom, let's get the pre-flight done and get out of here."

"Already done, your Commanderness. Way ahead of you there." Tom
fiddled with his controls for another minute before hailing the
bridge, "Delta Flyer to Voyager."

Janeway's voice floated over the COM system, "Tom, are you all set?"

"Oh yes ma'am. See you in four days, Paris out."

"Lt., are you in a hurry?" Janeway laughed as she questioned Tom, but
she recovered quickly, "Tom, Chakotay, enjoy your honeymoon. And
Tuvok, have a productive vacation. Gerron, can I count on you to
remind Commander Tuvok that he is *on* vacation?"

"Oh yes ma'am," Gerron answered nervously.

"Very good, Voyager out."

"Oh, this is going to be great!" Tom enthused as he steered the Delta
Flyer out of Voyager's shuttle bay. "It's definitely going to be worth
the wait."

**********

Marfa 70 miles

As the black Ford Taurus sped past the small sign on the side of the
highway, Special agent Fox Mulder turned the air conditioner up to
high and fiddled with the radio station. "Nothin', nada, zip," he
complained to his partner. "Not even a country music station."

"Try the AM dial," Scully suggested. "We should be able to get
something, even way out here."

"Yeah, true believers and doomsday cults." Mulder looked to his
partner, taking his eyes off the road for a long minute. It didn't
matter; the road was flat, straight and empty. No, not empty,
deserted. Not even deserted - it was dead. Brown for as far as the eye
could see, only intersecting with the blue expanse of the sky -
atmosphere holding in the color. Summer in the deepest desert of Texas
was not a beautiful or a pleasant place to be.

Mulder hit the seek button on his radio and turned his eyes back to
the road. Yup, still empty. The radio crackled with life and the rich
baritone of a public station weatherman floated through the car.

"And for those of you west of the Pecos, no rain in sight.
Temperatures in El Paso are expected to reach 115 by noon. The heat
wave is only going to intensify over the next week, reaching highs of
over 120 degrees in some areas. Down by Big Bend we're expecting a
record week of temperatures over 130 degrees. Stay indoors and wear
sunblock. Drink plenty of fluids and make sure your animals have
shade. This is KKXO, San Antonio. And you're listening to the voice
of..."

Scully reached across the front seat and snapped the radio off.

"What? I finally found a station."

Scully swept her hair off her neck and held it on top of her head, her
hands reaching toward the roof of the car. "I don't want to hear about
how hot I'm going to be until we manage to leave this area. Are you
sure that air conditioner is working?"

"It's 112 degrees out, what do you expect. Hey Scully?"

Scully dropped her hair and turned to face her partner, "Yes?"

Mulder quirked a small smile, knowing Scully expected him to say
something serious. "I figured out why the rental agent apologized
about the color of the car."

She nodded, too tired and frazzled from the long drive across flat
plains to manage anything more. "I think a white car would have been
much more practical in this heat. How far to Fort Davis?"

"Another 96 miles, slightly over an hour."

"Mulder, slow down."

"Why? We haven't seen another car since Van Horn. No one lives here
Scully. No one smart anyway."

"Who do you think all these cows belong to, Mulder."

"Like I said, no one smart. Their brains evaporated in the sun
generations ago."

Scully pulled her briefcase from beneath her seat and pulled out a
folder, intent on taking her mind off her discomfort. "Do you think
these reports are valid?"

"I don't know. We're less than 100 miles from the last incident. But,
this area is not known for its stable residents."

"That's a pretty broad generalization."

"Let's see. You want empirical evidence? The Unabomber lived in a cave
about 100 miles south of here for three years. The republic of Texas
nuts live just up the road, the Cheerleader killer lives about 150
miles north of here, the Church of the Apocalypse is in Alpine, just a
few miles from where we're headed... should I go on?"

Scully sighed and replaced her briefcase; "The only common thread I
see is individualism."

"How do you explain the Cheerleader killer mom?"

"This is west Texas, Mulder, land of hanging Judge Roy Bean and inside
the no-man's land of the border corridor. You could make a case for
anything here."

"Aliens?"

"Maybe. Like you said, we're not too far from the last occurrence."

"Scully, I'm so proud of you," Mulder drawled.

"That's enough, Mulder. I'm taking a nap now. Let me know when we get
to Fort Davis."

"Don't you worry, Scully. I wouldn't want you to miss out on all the
fun."

**********

Tom switched the Delta Flyer to autopilot and leaned back in his seat.
The only drawback to his design was the fact that he was alone at the
front of the craft. He couldn't keep his eyes on the controls and look
at his passengers at the same time. He settled for turning sideways
and keeping one eye on his readouts, the other on his crew. "Hey
Chakotay?"

"What?" Chakotay asked from the rearmost station.

"Did you remember to pack the sunblock?"

"You were supposed to do that. You're the one who needs it."

"I had a flight to plan and get off the deck, you were supposed to get
the personal stuff."

"Lt.," Tuvok assured, "I packed it for you."

Tom huffed and turned forward, absentmindedly fiddling with the
controls and checking his flight path again. He turned to his left
where Tuvok was manning the tactical station, "Thank you, Commander.
It's nice to know someone cares."

But Tuvok didn't get the joke. "As security chief, the safety of the
crew is my responsibility."

"You're on vacation," Chakotay reminded, ignoring Tom's playful dig.
Tom was already riding the high of being off the ship and on vacation
for the first time in months; he didn't need any encouragement.

"Commander, I do not require a vacation."

"Maybe not, but the captain ordered you to take one." Vulcans,
Chakotay snorted to himself.

"Commander Chakotay? I think you should take a look at this," Gerron
insisted from the operations station. "It appeared on long range scans
less than a minute ago, the fluctuations are interesting."

Chakotay called up the sensor report and stared at the sudden anomaly.
"Tuvok? What do those distortions look like to you?"

Tuvok transferred the data to his station and studied the readouts
before reporting, "I am not aware of any similar phenomena,
Commander."

Chakotay tapped the communications array and called, "Commander
Chakotay to Voyager."

The Captain herself answered the hail, "Yes Commander? We didn't
expect to hear from you for the next four days."

"Captain, we're reading a distortion in the Space Time Continuum on an
N-class planet approximately three light years from our position. The
readings are not familiar. There's a hole in the planet's lower
atmosphere. The readings are similar to a wormhole, but I repeat, they
are in the lower atmosphere of the planet. We'll send you the data.
Should we investigate?"

"Are you reading any signs of civilization?"

"No, not even rudimentary life forms. It is N-class."

"Hold position, let us study the scans from here."

"Aye Captain. Delta Flyer out."

Tom's full attention back on the con, he called over his shoulder,
"You don't really want to go investigate do you?"

"Come on Tom," Chakotay teased, "where's your Starfleet spirit? We'll
take a quick look and Voyager can change course if it's something
worthy of attention. It'll only take an hour off our vacation."

"Where have I heard that before," Tom muttered.

Janeway's voice again invaded the small craft, "Voyager to the Delta
Flyer." With Chakotay's answering hail, she gave her instructions.
"Enter the upper atmosphere of the planet and send us your scans.
There's some type of interference blocking our long-range scanners.
Ready a probe to send into the disturbance."

"Understood. We'll have the data to you in half an hour. Perhaps even
sooner, our pilot seems to be in a hurry. Chakotay out."

Tom looked at his flight path, the planet they were to spend their
shore leave on at the end, and muttered, "So close, yet so far
away..."

**********

Mulder swung open the connecting door of the suite and called out,
"Don't unpack Scully, we're heading south."

Scully dropped the skirt she had been smoothing back into her
suitcase. What good would arguing with Mulder do. "Where?"

"Lajitas on the Rio Grande, then into the National Park."

"Right now?"

Mulder zipped Scully's suitcase and hefted it. "The ranger station at
Panther Junction just reported activity."

"What about the MacDonald Observatory?"

"Too much cloud cover. A nasty storm started rolling in while you were
in the shower." Mulder was halfway out the door with Scully's
suitcase, his own already in the car when he called back, "NWS reports
an atmospheric disturbance appearing from nowhere. Looks like we'll be
seeing some rain after all."

Scully fished her shoes out from under the bed and slipped them on.
"Good, maybe it will cool off."

Mulder just shook his head, "Think flash floods, intense lightening
and hail the size of grapefruits. Come on, I'll drive."

"How far?"

"Only 160 miles. Right next door as far as this area goes."

**********

"Captain," Chakotay called over the open COM link, "we're descending
into the upper atmosphere now."

Tom steered the Flyer into the planet's stratosphere and pulled up
into a high orbit. "This planet reminds me of Mars. How about you
guys?"

"I've never seen it, Lt.," Gerron answered. "I'd never been very far
from Bajor when we were pulled into the Delta Quadrant. Is Mars as
beautiful as this planet?"

"Well, it's red," Tom explained.

"And barren with very little atmosphere and no moisture. That's about
as far as the resemblance goes," Chakotay added.

"Commander, I am reading signs of a deep space capable ship hovering
over the equator."

"Life signs?"

"Yes. Over seven thousand individual life signs, Commander."

"Take us out of here, Tom. Looks like this is not an unoccupied planet
after all."

"What about the distortions?"

"Commander," Janeway broke in, "You can continue on your original
flight plan. We'll contact them from Voyager; we don't want to seem
like trespassers. Have a nice vacation, Janeway out."

"Commander? We're being scanned."

Tom was the first to see movement. "Four small craft have just broken
out of the crust of the planet. Shit, there are thousands of them down
there! There's only four coming after us."

"Get us out of here, Lt."

The intercepting craft split formation and began to surround The
Flyer. As Tom instinctively kept the craft away from the pursuers, he
was herded toward the bigger craft.

"See what they're doing?"

"I suppose they want us over there. Chakotay to Voyager."

"Go ahead."

"Captain, we're being pursued by hostiles. Tom's keeping us away from
them, but we're reading too many ships to count hiding under the
planet's crust. Keep Voyager away from here."

"Tom?" Janeway asked, "Can you get out of there?"

"I'm trying Captain. Four more ships heading our way. They're trying
to herd us toward the mother ship."

"Hold on, we're coming for you."

Tuvok, getting the reports from tactical before anyone else saw them,
insisted, "Captain, do not approach this planet. Voyager is no match
for this number of ships."

The four pursuers rapidly gained ground while the four coming in from
straight ahead didn't slow down. Tom sighted his target and warned his
passengers, "Everyone hold on, we're threading the needle here." He
took them in between the two front-most ships, barely making it
through without a head-on collision. "Didn't even scratch the paint
job, dad." Tom crowed. "Shit, four more coming in on the starboard
side now."

Weapons fire strafed through the air as soon as the pursuing ships
were able to fire without catching each other in the crossfire. Blue
light tracked the fire, but Tom managed to evade the energy beams.
Each time he did, he was nudged closer to the large craft still
hovering over the equator.

"Chakotay to Voyager! Captain, permission to fire?"

"Disable them Commander and get out of there. We'll regroup and send
our apologies as we exit gracefully. I know when I'm not wanted."

Gerron called out from ops, "There's a fissure opening a mile over the
planet's surface right over the equator. It's in flux with the earlier
distortions. I can't tell what it is!"

Tuvok, the only calm officer left on the Flyer reported, "The large
ship is attempting to tractor us."

Chakotay ordered, "Tom, keep us away from them!"

"I can't, not without running into their weapons fire. They're herding
us, Chakotay. I can't do anything but keep us alive and look for an
opening."

"Tractor lock." Tuvok reported

Tom shouted as he struggled with the controls, "Shit! Everyone hold
on, they're pulling us into the fissure! Impact in five seconds..."

Chakotay's last frantic words invaded Voyager's softly humming bridge,
crackling over the comm system and sending every nerve ending in
Kathryn Janeway's neck into overdrive. "Captain, stay away from this
planet. We'll contact you when we can."

"Voyager to the Delta Flyer... Chakotay? ... Seven of Nine... meet me
in astrometrics. Let's find out what the Hell just happened to our
crew."

End Part 1