Ragnarok by Nathan Archer

worlds to conquer not out of any vicious need to dominate, but just so they could rebuild their own ruined cultures.
    The Kazon-Ogla or some other local power might well prove to be a match for the P’nir or the Hachai, whichever the winner might turn out to be, but still, the rampage and eventual destruction of such a fleet was hardly anything to look forward to. If she were to just change course and travel on past, without at least trying to end this obscene slaughter, Janeway knew that she would be unable to live with herself—and all that was quite aside from the more personally important question of the tetryon beam’s origin, or the nature of that strange spheroid. Had the scanning beam come from that globe? Was the Caretaker’s companion in there?
    Janeway had to at least attempt to intervene, to stop the slaughter and to get in there for a look at the globe—but what could she hope to do, with a single, relatively tiny ship?
    All she could offer would be words. And before she started talking, it would help if she knew what to say, and knew whether any of these people were even slightly interested in listening to her.
    Neither side had signaled the Voyager, or made any threatening moves toward the new arrival. What did that say about their intentions?
    “Ensign Kim,” she said, “is there any evidence that either the Hachai or the P’nir have detected our presence here?”
    Kim hesitated. “I don’t see how they could miss us, Captain; we aren’t doing anything to hide, after all, and we’re well within sensor range.”
    “They may be too busy with more immediate concerns just now,” Janeway said dryly. “I know they could have seen us, but have they?”
    “I don’t know, Captain.”
    “No one’s scanned us, or attempted to contact us?” Janeway asked.
    “Not since the tetryon scan.”
    Janeway nodded. That was as she had expected. The Hachai and the P’nir were totally focused on each other. All the rest of the universe had ceased to exist, as far as they were concerned.
    She would just have to remind them that there were other people out here.
    “Hail them,” she said.
    Ensign Kim hesitated. “Hail who?” he asked. “There are thousands of ships out there!”
    “Hail all of them, Mr. Kim,” Janeway replied. “Hail them all, and let’s see who answers.”
    Harry Kim turned unhappily to his controls.
    “Hailing frequencies open,” he said.

Chapter 10
    “This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager,” Janeway said, speaking loudly and clearly. “May we offer our services as a neutral party willing to help you negotiate your disagreements?”
    Her message sent, she sat down and waited for a response—any response.
    She didn’t really expect the combatants to trust her, or to take her up on her offer immediately, but she did hope to stir up some sort of a reaction. If this message didn’t work, then she would try something else. She was not willing to just fly on past, continuing on the Voyager’s long, long journey home and leaving this insane war to drag on to its sorry conclusion—and also leaving that unidentified object trapped in the midst of the combatants, leaving the origins of the tetryon beam a mystery.
    She knew that she might eventually have to do just that, to go on past; she knew that she might not be able to get the combatants to listen to her.
    But to live with herself, she had to give it every possible effort first, and she knew that if she eventually did give up and move on, she would spend the rest of her life wondering if there were something more she might have tried.
    “No reply, Captain,” Harry Kim said.
    She sighed. “Direct a hail to the nearest ship, then, on a tight beam—I don’t care which side.”
    “There’s a P’nir heavy cruiser that’s moving along…” Kim began.
    Janeway cut him off before he could finish his sentence. “That will do fine,” she said.
    “Hailing…” He waited, bent over his console,