New: Twentieth Century Boy
Author: ZorroRojo - zorrorojo@slashcity.com
Series: X-Over Voyager/X-Files/Highlander
Part: 16/16
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.

**********
 

Chakotay sat in Cochrane's jeep, parked in the shade of the trees around the natural spring. Tom was taking the opportunity to go for a swim. The vehicle was loaded down with equipment salvaged from the Delta Flyer, their last link to their own time.

The creature Tuvok melded with did not know anything of use to them. It was an embryo and damaged at that. So they were basing their
strategy on the pilfered information from the alien fighter. Chakotay and Tom would monitor communications from the two teams and Tuvok was handling Mulder and Scully.

Chakotay felt bad for what he was about to do to the FBI agents, especially Mulder. Chakotay got to know him during the mission to the fighter. He'd been searching for his sister for twenty years. She was one of the first known, at least to Mulder, victims of the invasion. Mulder was a tremendous source of information to Chakotay. Not only did he know government secrets, but also he knew of humans using alien technology to their own gain. He only shared his information because he thought he had an ally in Chakotay. The Consortium would be the first wiped out in he and Tom's intended purge. What Mulder wasn't aware of was the fact that many of the Consortium conspirators were most likely infected by the alien sybiants. And Chakotay wouldn't be the one to tell him. Neither would Tom.

"Tuvok to Chakotay."

"Go ahead Commander," Chakotay answered.

"We are in position."

"Inform me when it's time to transport."

"Aye."

Tuvok cut the com link and walked up behind the two FBI agents.
Cochrane, MacLeod and Mark were on the other side of the cargo hold, sharpening their weapons and waiting for the signal. They had been instructed exactly how to plant the bombs and were ready. Tuvok and Gerron would handle the warp core. The Immortals were in charge of the photon torpedoes and other smaller armaments.

"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully?" Tuvok inquired.

They both stood to greet him, ready to get on with their part of the plan.

"I am sorry." Tuvok stated flatly as he placed one hand on each of the agent's faces. He began the mantra that would allow him to mind meld with them and let his mind flow into theirs. He would plant the same information, the same false memories so their stories would match and they would believe them. It went against Tuvok's principles and
beliefs to meld with the unwilling, but one sometimes had to make an exception. This was one of those rare times.

"What's he doing?" MacLeod demanded as Tuvok began to chant, "My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts."

"He's taking care of a problem," Gerron offered. "They are too great a risk," he mimicked Tuvok's tone and words to Chakotay for the Immortals.

"He better not try that on me," MacLeod warned.

"If he wanted to, he could. Vulcans are ten times stronger than humans and much faster. Chakotay trusts you - you're not a government agent."

And he knows something about us, as well. Mac stifled the urge to share Chakotay's ulterior motives with the Bajoran. But he hero- worshipped his older shipmates and MacLeod knew he would get nowhere with him.

"Chakotay to MacLeod..."

"Go ahead."

"Prepare to transport."

"Aye," he answered.

Chakotay worked the transporters through the handheld link he set up with the Delta Flyer. First he transported the Immortals and their munitions to the cargo hold of the alien ship. Tom, back from his swim, would watch for life signs approaching their position and signal an emergency beam out if necessary. Once the Immortals were finished planting bombs in the main hold, they would move to the smaller
laboratory areas where the largest concentration of life signs were housed. Each alien life form took up only inches of space. Millions could transport on one ship, and once gestated, they were fully
mature. And ready to reproduce.

After he transported the Immortals, all Chakotay had left to do was wait for Tuvok's signal. He watched quietly as Tom studied the
sensors. While not physically with the away teams, their role was just as important. Chakotay, used to being a field general and not a desk general, couldn't shake the feeling that he should be there with them.

"Tuvok to Chakotay. Energize."

Chakotay tapped his controls and Mulder and Scully were transported one hundred and fifty miles away. They appeared in their car on a dirt road on the southern most end of the national park, convinced they had been searching for lost hikers and chasing ghosts since the day after they first encountered the alien ship. Their interaction with the Starfleet men and the Immortals was replaced with memories of
searching empty landscape - and finding nothing.

"Tuvok? Are you ready?" Chakotay asked as soon as he was positive the FBI agents were where they were supposed to be.

"Yes Commander, Energize."

Chakotay beamed Tuvok and Gerron to the deserted bridge of the alien craft. Intelligence gathered from the smaller fighter's computer convinced them there would be no one about. The symbiotic life forms sought out bodies immediately upon landing and only came back to deliver food in the form of humans to their offspring. Tuvok sat at the controls and began to enter commands, preparing the ship for departure, while Gerron waited for the Delta Flyer's warp core to materialize.

"MacLeod to Chakotay."

"Go ahead."

"We're ready."

Chakotay beamed the three Immortals to the core of the ship. The holding tanks were located in the center of the ship, well protected from enemy weapons. Or that was the idea.

"MacLeod," Tom called, "Four mature life signs approaching your position. Twenty yards to your left and through a door. Be prepared."

"Got it." MacLeod whispered. He nodded to Cochrane to guard the only door on that particular wall and set about arming the grenades and torpedoes he planted. Within minutes, they were done. "Get us out of here," he whispered through his combadge.

Seconds later they materialized next to the vehicle. All that was left was Tuvok and Gerron's mission.

"Commander," Tuvok called fifteen minutes later. "I can open the rift. I am setting the automation sequence now."

"Is the warp core in place?"

"Affirmative."

Chakotay transported Tuvok and Gerron into the small fighter and waited for the next signal. Within minutes, he had it.

"The rift is beginning to open."

"If the rift does not open, I will transport you here and then detonate all of the charges. The temperature inside the ship should reach high enough levels to completely destroy the invaders. If you do go through, you have it on your side. Confirm."

"As soon as we are clear of the rift, I will detonate the warp core while the larger ship is still within the rift. We should arrive precisely .792 seconds before the larger ship."

"Confirmed. Good luck Mr. Tuvok. Gerron. Send my regards to the crew."

"Aye Commander, Mr. Paris." The Vulcan paused while he set the controls. He tapped his combadge for the last time, "Live long and prosper."

The rift opened in front of him and Tuvok steered the alien craft, anticipating the move from underground into atmosphere. Seconds later and the gray blue of atmosphere was visible. Tuvok was ready. He tapped the control, identical to the one Chakotay held, and
accelerated the small craft. "Brace yourself Crewman," he ordered.

They flew out of the atmosphere at maximum speed and less than a second later, the warp core breech inside the massive alien craft began. Nothing happened at first, then the ship seemed to expand, then contract. Then it shattered into trillions of pieces, a fireball consuming everything in its path.

"Tuvok to Voyager."

"Go ahead," Captain Janeway's voice floated through Tuvok's combadge.

"We are in an alien craft, there is a warp core breach in progress on a ship in the lower atmosphere of the planet."

"Bateheart, get us out of here, maximum warp!" Janeway barked.

Tuvok maneuvered the fighter into deep space, pushed and battered by the shock wave, but in one piece. The thousands of small fighters on, under and just above the planet of the surface weren't quite so lucky. The first matter-anti matter explosion set off a chain reaction, thousands of smaller explosions cascading around the planet as the small ships joined the conflagration. The only surviving fighter held Tuvok and Gerron.

"Voyager to Commander Tuvok. What happened to the Delta Flyer? We're only reading two life signs on your ship."

"I will explain once we are aboard, Captain."

**********

"Tom? Do you want to do it? You did build it after all."

Tom nodded and took the detonator from Chakotay. With the touch of one button the link to their own time would be buried deep inside a
mountain. He held the control in his hand and stared at it. No more transporters, no more replicators, no more computer core. He smiled reassuringly at Chakotay and pressed the button. The rumble of the explosion took a few seconds to reach them but once it did, they both realized just how final it all was.

"MacLeod, Cochrane?" Chakotay called after a minute. "Are you ready?"

The three Immortals joined Tom and Chakotay in the Jeep and they all headed back to town together. Once on the paved road again, MacLeod broke the silence. "Where will you go?"

Chakotay answered, "I'm not sure. Our mission isn't complete."

"You can stay on with us for awhile," Warren offered. "You can use this area as a base. It's unpopulated and out of the way."

"Thank you for the offer, but we can't stay here."

MacLeod tried to be reasonable, "But you have no one, no resources. You don't know the system. You should stay here until you learn."

But Chakotay would not be swayed. "We can't. We've been seen in the area too much already. We risk anyone making a connection between us and the strange goings-on." Chakotay had other reasons, but he would be jeopardizing his own life if he shared them. One day, he would meet Warren Cochrane, but he would know him as Walter Collin. He would recruit him into his Maquis cell. In turn Collin would introduce him to a down on his luck Starfleet reject by the name of Thomas Eugene Paris - setting in motion a chain of events that would lead them all to the Delta Quadrant and then back in time to twentieth century Earth. No, they couldn't risk spending too much time with Warren Cochrane. They would find their way.

**********

Crewman Gerron, late of twentieth century Earth, now back on Voyager was finally allowed to return to his cabin. He felt as if he had been answering questions for a week, but it had only been two days. The debriefings were thorough. And varied. Every single member of the senior staff was present and every single one of them wanted to know about Commander Chakotay and Lt. Paris. They wanted to be reassured that there was no other way but to leave them behind. They went
through the entire three-week mission over and over and over until each was satisfied Chakotay made the right decision.

They wanted to lay blame, wanted someone to be responsible, but in the end all they were left was the grief of losing their friends. Harry had come up with the idea of checking the computer systems for any type of clue to their ultimate fate Chakotay and Paris might have left for their shipmates hundreds of years in the future. But even with Gerron's help remembering every aspect of the mission, defining search parameters and just plain old guessing, they found nothing.

Gerron dragged himself over the threshold as soon as the door to his quarters opened. They were small, but they were his and best of all they were climate controlled. He allowed himself tears for the first time since his return. He was going to miss Tom.

"Gerron?" A voice called from near the window.

"Lights fifty percent," Gerron ordered, wiping away his tears. "Warren."

"Aye, 'tis I."

"Have you been waiting long?"

"Oh no, only about four-hundred years."

"How could you let us leave on that mission without saying anything?" Gerron cried out, the stress of the mission, then the debriefing leaving him drained and shattered.

Cochrane crossed the small cabin and gathered Gerron in his arms, "Shhh. It's all right. It's all right." He pulled back and looked into Gerron's eyes, "I gave a man my word four hundred years ago. No matter what, I would not change anything. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Remember, I did not know if you and Tuvok ever made it back to Voyager. You were only gone ten minutes, yet those ten minutes were longer than any century I've lived. Six hundred seconds of agony. I swear I relived those long ago weeks all over again while I waited. It all flashed by so quickly, then when I heard Tuvok's voice over the com system I nearly fainted. Ach, I'm happy to make you laugh, but I did nearly faint!"

Gerron hugged him tight and asked in a small voice, "What happened to them? We're still here, so they must have finished the mission."

"I can't tell you, I'm sorry. I'm still bound by my word. And I will never break it. Gerron, I have to ask you something important. Come, sit down." Cochrane led Gerron to the couch and sat him down, pulled of his shoes and brought him a drink from the replicator.

"Yes?" Gerron finally asked.

"Do you think Commander Tuvok will tell the captain that I am not who I appear to be?"

"I don't know. But I won't, I promise you. I won't tell anyone."

"I'm going to have to talk to him. I've been thinking about this day since I met Chakotay on Deep Space Nine seven years ago. However, if I knew we were going to be stranded in the Delta Quadrant I would have packed more. I always did wonder how he became Starfleet again. It was odd, when I met all of you. You and Chakotay were Maquis when we met, then I introduced him to Tom. Then Tuvok came aboard. We were all Maquis together. It was a very strange time, to know that we would all become Starfleet, yet not knowing how. Especially when Tom disappeared from our ship."

"I wouldn't have been able to keep it to myself. You're a better man than I."

"Don't say that, Gerron. I was afraid to say anything. I knew the moment I met Chakotay that I would stay alive until at least the time of this mission. I was afraid I'd change that if I said a word. See, I'm not altruistic in the least."

"What happened to MacLeod? And to Mark?"

"Mark lost his head about fifty years after you left. It's a risk my kind lives with daily. I got over him a hundred years later. As far as I know Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod is alive and well, though I don't know where."

"This is almost too weird. Do I call you Warren or Walter?"

"We'd better stick with Walter, don't you think?"

Gerron stifled a yawn, exhaustion catching up with him. "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, I've been waiting for this day for years. I was afraid to get too close to you before. Now, I don't have to worry anymore. But how about, right now, you go to sleep. I'll be here in the morning."

**********

"It's about time I heard from you," Methos complained loudly over the phone line. "I was about to send out a search party. A phone call to say, 'I'm still alive Methos, I haven't lost my head Methos,' would have been the polite thing to do."

"I'm on my way home right now. We're about half an hour away. Will you meet us?"

"Who, may I ask, is 'us'?" Methos sniffed. "MacLeod, I haven't seen you in almost a month. They aren't staying in the loft with us, are they?"

"I've made some new friends; they'll only be with us a few days, I promise."

"Right, that's what I get for living with a boyscout; stray puppies constantly following him home and he can't say no. Don't expect me to welcome them with open arms. What's your flight number?"

"We're on a charter. We couldn't fly commercial. Bring your car, they have a lot of stuff."

"MacLeod...!"

Mac quickly cut the line, not anxious to hear the rest of whatever Methos was about to say. He settled into his seat, not totally
comfortable with what lay ahead. Methos would want to know all about them and Methos was not the type to let something go.

The plane suddenly lurched and dove and Mac gripped his armrest. Because he was Immortal and would likely survive did not mean he liked the idea of being the victim of a plane crash. "What's going on up there?" he shouted into the cockpit.

Chakotay came out a minute later, followed closely by Tom. "That was fun," Tom enthused, his eyes sparkling and excitement practically crackling off of him. "I've only flown something like this in sims before."

"You let him pilot!" MacLeod yelled at Chakotay. "I would like to get home in one piece, thank you very much."

"I'll have you know I am the best pilot in the entire galaxy," Tom boasted. "I can fly anything. I've flown ships you couldn't even imagine. Relax," Tom waved away MacLeod's concern, "you can't be killed anyway."

"Let's make a deal," Mac said, still gripping his armrest, but now in agitation instead of fear. "You don't mention my Immortality again and I won't mention when you are from again."

"Tom, he's right," Chakotay broke in. "MacLeod, we won't be with you any longer than it takes for us to set up histories for ourselves and get settled in."

"Keep him," Mac pointed at Tom, "away from Adam. Don't leave them alone together. Adam will have the entire story from him in under an hour."

Tom managed to look insulted, "I've been tortured for days and not broken. I can handle your lover."

"No, you can't. Trust me. And, you're going to have to get used to a few things about this time period. You can't just run around searching out aliens without understanding the way things work."

"We will be able to handle ourselves." Chakotay insisted. "Look, it's not that we don't appreciate your help, but what we need most is for you to forget about us."

"That won't happen." MacLeod stated. "I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine. He belongs to an organization that might be the
perfect cover for the two of you. I'll also always be available if you need help. I'll be one phone call away."

"What is this organization called?" Chakotay asked, suspicion invading his tone.

"The Watchers."

**********

The End