Free Mosaic by Jeri Taylor

reading-this one far
    more disturbing. Ile hit his commbadge.
    "Neelix to Tuvok."
    "I'm here, Neelix."
    "I'm reading humanoids on the planet. A sizable group, no
    more than two kilometers from here, and moving toward us."
    "I read them, also."
    "Perhaps we should return to Voyager to be on the safe
    side."
    "That would be the prudent course. But we have lost
    communication with the ship."
    This was disquieting. Was there damage to the comm system?
    Or did the humanoid presence on the planet indicate that
    Voyager was under attack?
    Neelix hoped Tuvok had been thinking of the problem and
    already had a plan in mind. He was not disappointed.
    "Mr. Neelix, do you have a fix on our location? I believe
    we should unite our groups."
    "I have your coordinates, but we'll be taking an indirect
    route. A direct line to you would take us through a thick
    grove of trees I'd prefer not to wade through."
    "Understood. Bring your group around it."
    And that's what Neelix intended to do. But almost as soon
    as the group had been collected and given their orders,
    that possibility was snatched from them.
    Ensign Kale moved toward him, freckles standing out on her
    pale face. "Mr. Neelix, my readings show that if we move in
    an easterly direction around the trees, we'll run into a
    deep ravine. It'd be pretty tough to get across-maybe
    impossible. If we go in a westerly direction we'd be moving
    directly into the path of the humanoids."
    Hesitating before making a decision, Neelix scanned in the
    direction of the humanoids once more, didn't like what he
    saw, and checked his readings again.
    Now the life signs could be read clearly: they were Kazon,
    and they were moving quickly. Neelix stared into the
    tenebrous depths of the copse of trees, ominous and
    foreboding. He pointed. "This way," he said, and instantly
    trotted into the murky, tangled corridor of trees before he
    could think better of it.

6
    KATHRYN RACED THROUGH THE HERB FIELDS, HEART pounding and
    lungs burning.
    How could she have lost track of the time? One minute the
    morning had been fresh and cool, sun low in the sky and dew
    still clinging to the herb gardens. What seemed like
    minutes later the sun was overhead and beating mercilessly
    down; hours had gone by and now she had only minutes to get
    ready and meet the team at the transport site. She clutched
    the padd in her hand as she ran. That's what had betrayed
    her, of course. She'd gone out to her favorite study spot,
    a hilly knoll between herb fields, with a willow tree that
    cast delicate shadows on the ground below. Kathryn had
    climbed the tree several years ago, when she was nine, and
    discovered a comfortable "chair" of tree limbs, against
    which she could sprawl comfortably and read, study, or just
    daydream. She loved the tree. If she was troubled, she came
    to it.
    If she was faced with a problem, an hour in the tree
    frequently provided the solution. If she faced a difficult
    test in school, the leafy bough of the tree provided a
    tranquillity that cleared the mind and made study
    efficiently easy.
    She'd come there early this morning because she was
    determined to understand the derivation of the distance
    formula.
    She was convinced that if she did, Daddy would be so proud
    of her that he'd spend more time at home, more time with
    her, the way he used to when she was little. She didn't
    know what had happened lately, why Daddy had to be away
    from home so much. It used to be that he would transport to
    Starfleet Headquarters once or twice a week, staying at
    home the rest of the time to work. But something was going
    on; she had sensed it about a year ago, when Daddy began to
    transport to San Francisco almost every day. Occasionally
    she heard him talking with Mommy, and she had heard him
    mention a species called Cardassians. And when he talked
    about them, he seemed very worried. He began staying in San
    Francisco for days at a time, then weeks at a time. It had
    been a month since she'd seen him, but he