VOY - String Theory 2 - Fusion (c)

by Star Trek

  B’Elanna didn’t care. As far as she was concerned, saving part of Tuvok was not an acceptable compromise.

  “Listen to me,” she said, glaring at him through the containment field so intensely that the Doctor took an involuntary step back as she began. “You will do everything in your power to remove this thing from his body, no matter what the cost. That’s an order.”

  “Can you give me orders?” the Doctor asked, his eyes seemed to focus on the provisional rank bars Janeway had assigned to the ex-Maquis crew members. “I am not certain that technically speaking you outrank me.”

  B’Elanna returned to the EMH programming panel. She was still several minutes away from completely restoring the Doctor who would not hesitate to act on her wishes or in Tuvok’s best interest, but time seemed like the one thing she was running uncomfortably short of. Instead, she altered one of the backup Doctor’s subroutines and said, “I said find a way to remove it…that’s an order.”

  “Yes, Lieutenant.” The Doctor nodded and immersed himself in the readouts of Tuvok’s vital signs.

  With a small sigh of victory B’Elanna refocused her thoughts and returned to her work, her fingers flying across the panel.

  Phoebe’s body was engulfed in the orange fire of Janeway’s and Harry’s rifles; but she did not dissolve on contact as pretty much any other solid matter would have.

  Instead, Janeway saw her sister fall to the ground and begin to transform into the massive amorphous shape that she could only assume Harry had seen all along. She forced herself to ignore the abrupt spark of pain firing in her brain as Phoebe’s hold upon her mind was completely shattered.

  “Computer,” she called, “erect a level-ten containment field around the nonhuman life-form in this room.”

  The computer complied, and with a chirp and buzz, Phoebe was surrounded by the strongest energy barrier at Janeway’s disposal.

  For a few seconds, it looked as if the situation was controlled, but just as Janeway was stepping haltingly toward the containment field, torrents of angry red energy shot through the field, disintegrating it. As Janeway watched in horror, the amorphous blob once again resumed its more organized flowing form and three tentacles shot toward Ensign Kim, enveloping him in a stranglehold.

  Janeway raised her rifle to fire again, but stopped as Phoebe’s voice, her sister’s voice, echoed through the cabin.

  “Put down your weapon,” Phoebe demanded.

  Harry had ceased to struggle.

  “Release him!” Janeway cried.

  “I have no wish to harm you or those you care for,” Phoebe said, “but I will if I have to.”

  Janeway considered her words and, cursing herself for not including a full security detachment on this escapade, tossed her rifle across the room.

  “Now let him go!”

  Phoebe complied. Harry slumped lifelessly to the floor as the flowing energy withdrew from him, and Janeway rushed to his side.

  She was able to confirm that he was still breathing and was about to call for an emergency medical transport when she looked up to see her sister, once again, standing before her.

  “He will survive,” she said simply.

  “Who the hell are you?” Janeway said, rising to face the creature who had stolen her sister’s form.

  “Your query is imprecise. I promise, I will answer your questions as best I can, but your limited understanding will make clarity difficult,” Phoebe replied.

  “Are you Nacene?” Janeway asked.

  Phoebe smiled as if she were humoring an impertinent child.

  “I am of the Nacene,” she replied, “but Nacene is what you have called us, not what we are.”

  “Then what are you?”

  “There is no word in your language to contain us.”

  Janeway was growing more frustrated by the moment.

  “Are you of the same species as the entity we encountered called the Caretaker, or his mate, Suspiria?” she asked.

  “As you understand them, yes,” Phoebe replied. “But you do not yet begin to understand us.”

  “Then enlighten me,” Janeway said petulantly.

  “Is that truly your wish?” Phoebe asked.

  Janeway paused. Something in Phoebe’s tone told her that this was a loaded question.

  “Tell me first, why are you here?”

  “I was called here by the object you refer to as the Key to Gremadia.”

  Janeway’s brow furrowed as she realized that almost every time she had spoken to Phoebe in the past few days, the subject of the Key had been raised.

  “What is the Key?” Janeway asked.

  “Again, there are no words,” Phoebe replied.

  “Well, find some!” Janeway shouted.

  “The knowledge you require cannot be transmitted through any means of communication at your disposal. If I were to enter your mind and attempt to transfer that knowledge to you, your fragile brain would be destroyed in the process. You must choose, Kathryn,” she said. “Agree to use the Key exactly as I instruct you despite your ignorance of its nature and purpose, and I will not harm you or your ship. Surely by now you realize that if I wanted you dead, you would be.”

  Janeway considered this. It was obvious that Phoebe wielded power that was beyond that of the Caretaker and Suspiria. Her gut told her that Phoebe was more than capable of following through on her threat. But she instinctively rebelled at the thought of being used to an unknown purpose by such an entity.

  “What will happen if I refuse?” she asked. “If you have the ability to destroy us, surely you can take the Key from us by force.”

  Phoebe’s smile faded and Janeway knew instantaneously that though Phoebe was strong, this was, at least, one possible vulnerability.

  “I could take it,” she replied harshly. “But without your…there is no word…I will be unable to use it.”

  “And that would cause you pain?” Janeway pushed.

  “Unless you agree, we, like you, will be always far from home.”

  Janeway wanted to believe her. It would be so easy simply to do as Phoebe asked and put an end to at least this much of the danger Voyager was facing.

  But she couldn’t.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, “I cannot agree to this unless you can tell me why you need the Key and what will happen if I do as you have asked.”

  “I cannot tell you,” Phoebe replied. “I can only show you.”

  “Fine,” Janeway said, wondering how much of this was a matter of semantics. “Show me.”

  Phoebe took the captain’s hand, and a moment later Janeway found herself standing before a door she had never seen. It was completely black, though faint swirls of varying hues were subtly visible on its surface.

  “Where are we?” Janeway demanded, turning to see several other similar doors decorated with more vivid splashes of color.

  Phoebe raised her hand and placed it on the center of the door. Janeway sensed movement in the pattern, and then the door was gone and she was staring into emptiness.

  “We are at the beginning,” Phoebe replied. “Do you still wish to be shown?”

  Janeway stared into her sister’s eyes. Phoebe, the real Phoebe, had never led her astray. They’d had their fair share of disagreements over the years, but the foundation of their relationship had been love and trust. Somehow Janeway suspected that the creature who was leading her into darkness would not have chosen this particular form if the bond shared between Janeway and her sister had not been significant and powerful.

  “To travel with me, you must take my hand,” Phoebe said. “If we become separated in the process, call my name and I will find you.”

  Janeway nodded.

  Phoebe gently grasped Janeway’s hand again, and led Kathryn into absolute nothingness.

  Tom and Chakotay materialized on Voyager’s bridge, almost colliding with Lieutenant Rollins, who had been left in command since they had boarded the array. The forward momentum generated when they threw themselves into the a
rray’s transporter was not dispersed by the transport process and they found themselves falling to the deck the moment they arrived.

  As Tom helped Chakotay to his feet, Chakotay stammered, “What the hell was that thing?”

  “I think I could live the rest of my life in peace even if we never find out,” Tom replied, then turned to Rollins and asked, “Did Harry and Tuvok make it back to the ship?”

  “Yes, sir,” he replied. “And B’Elanna and Seven have also reported in.”

  “Rollins, where is the captain?” Chakotay asked.

  “I think she’s in sickbay,” he replied.

  “Chakotay to Janeway,” he called, making his way toward the turbolift.

  When there was no immediate response he asked the computer to locate her and was temporarily stunned at the computer’s response.

  “Captain Janeway is not on board.”

  “Where did she go?” Chakotay demanded. “Is she on the array?” he barked in the general direction of the ops station, where Crewman Dalby was working a shift.

  “Scanning, sir,” Dalby replied.

  But if the computer’s reply to his first question had been shocking, Dalby’s answer to the second a few interminable moments later was like a sharp blow to the gut.

  “Captain Janeway is not on the array.”

  Chakotay struggled to rein in the panic that was quickly rising within him. This was impossible. She had to be one place or the other.

  “Computer, what was Captain Janeway’s last known location aboard Voyager?”

  “Deck eleven, section C-7.”

  “Have a security team meet us there,” Chakotay barked to Rollins as he entered the turbolift, Tom at his heels.

  When they arrived at the door to what had been Phoebe’s cabin, Chakotay dispatched Paris to get the unconscious Ensign Kim to sickbay and ordered a deck-by-deck search of the ship for the captain and her sister. All security personnel were placed on alert.

  Part of Chakotay knew that he had to get Voyager off of the array as soon as possible, and now he could. But there was absolutely no way he would do so until Kathryn had been found.

  When B’Elanna decided that she was finally at a point where she could begin recompiling the Doctor, she initiated the process, stood back, and held her breath. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could endure the presence of his less-evolved replacement.

  At that moment, the door to sickbay slid open and Tom entered, gently guiding a disoriented Ensign Kim to a biobed.

  B’Elanna caught Tom’s eye and he gave her a familiar half-smile and a wink. Crossing to them, B’Elanna helped him assist Harry, and in the process Tom reached for her hand and gave it a firm squeeze. She should have been comforted and reassured. She wasn’t.

  She loved Tom. In the past such a simple and familiar gesture would have buoyed her spirits immeasurably. But this wasn’t the first time in recent memory that she had been strangely unable to lose herself in the comfort of his love for her. There was something dividing them. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she was acutely aware that whatever was creating that distance was her doing, not his.

  Releasing his hand, she asked, “What happened?”

  Harry answered her question with one of his own.

  “Where is the captain?”

  “We don’t know,” Tom replied.

  B’Elanna turned on him more fiercely than she intended.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “She’s been missing from the ship for almost ten minutes.”

  “That’s not possible. Why would she board the array after I told her about the parasites?”

  “What parasites?” Tom asked with alarm.

  “It was her sister,” Harry interrupted as Tom dutifully ran a medical tricorder over him, verifying that he had suffered no permanent damage when he was rendered unconscious.

  B’Elanna was puzzled. “What does Phoebe have to do with this?”

  “It’s not Phoebe. Phoebe’s an alien, probably a Nacene,” Harry replied. “Phoebe Janeway has never been on Voyager.”

  “But…I remember…” B’Elanna started to say.

  “Your memories were altered. Everyone’s were. The captain figured it out.”

  “What parasites?” Tom asked again.

  Before B’Elanna could answer, Chakotay called over the comm, “All senior officers report to the conference room immediately.”

  Tom turned to Harry.

  “Are you up to it?”

  “Absolutely,” Harry replied, trying to jump down from the bed and almost stumbling into Tom’s arms.

  “Harry, maybe you should stay,” B’Elanna suggested.

  “Not a chance,” he replied.

  At that moment a chirp from the computer alerted B’Elanna to the fact that her recompilation process was complete.

  “Tell Chakotay I’ll be right there,” she said as Harry and Tom headed for the door. She took a moment to recheck the diagnostic display and turned to the Doctor.

  “Computer, deactivate EMH.”

  The backup Doctor turned on her, alarmed, and vanished. Taking a deep breath, she brought the remaining restored subroutines online, then called, “Computer, activate restored EMH.”

  The Doctor shimmered into existence beside her and said, “Please state…wait a minute.” Turning to B’Elanna, he demanded, “What happened? There was a woman here. The captain called her Phoebe. She said it was her sister but…”

  B’Elanna raised a hand to silence him. “We know. It’s a long story.”

  “Give me the short version,” he said sardonically.

  B’Elanna turned him toward Tuvok.

  “We’ve had an intruder aboard, possibly another Nacene, who altered the crew’s memories and pretended to be the captain’s sister. As you can see, we’ve recovered Tuvok, but apparently he’s been infected by an alien parasite. An earlier version of you who has been running for the past few hours doesn’t believe he can be saved. We’re still aboard the array and there is reason to believe that more parasites may be out there. Oh, and the captain is missing.”

  The Doctor raised a cynical eyebrow and retorted without missing a beat, “So in other words, it’s a pretty light day aboard the starship Voyager.”

  B’Elanna couldn’t help herself. Smiling broadly she planted a kiss on the Doctor’s cheek and said, “It’s good to have you back. I really missed you.”

  Only once Lieutenant Torres had left did the Doctor add quietly to himself, “Someday someone really ought to write all of this down for posterity.”

  He turned to Tuvok and thoroughly examined the notes already logged by his temporary replacement, then did his own analysis of the scans of Tuvok’s body. It didn’t take him long to see that the backup EMH had probably been right. It would take a miracle to save Tuvok now, and advanced as he was, there was no subroutine in his program that allowed for the existence of miracles.

  Chapter 10

  There were grim faces all around as the senior officers, minus their captain and Tuvok, assumed their places around the oval table that took up most of the space in the conference room. Chakotay arrived last and, taking the seat at the table’s head, began by informing them that a thorough search for the captain was still under way. Harry brought the room up to speed about Phoebe, and all were alternately shocked and disturbed to be told that memories of experiences with the captain’s sister spanning four years were nothing more than fabricated reality. Strangely, the more they talked about it, the dimmer those memories seemed to grow for Chakotay, as if the alien influence that created them was slowly but steadily dissipating.

  B’Elanna gave a brief synopsis of the backup EMH’s evaluation of Tuvok and expressed cautious optimism that since the real Doctor had been restored, Tuvok’s prognosis must be better. Chakotay briefly described the strange rooms he had discovered aboard the array, but before he or Tom had a chance to mention the hostile creature that had attacked them, Lieutenant Rollins entered and advise
d Chakotay that the search for the captain had been completed without yielding any new information as to the captain’s current whereabouts. Chakotay dismissed him with a nod and briefed the others as stoically as possible.

  “The computer’s logs show that approximately thirty seven minutes ago the captain left the ship. At the same time, the logs show a massive subspace dissonance field at her last known location, and that the entity we have known as Phoebe also disappeared,” he said. “Although the life-form readings aboard the array are still inconclusive, we do know that Voyager’s sensors were able to detect Tuvok’s life signs, as well as both away teams we sent into the array. So if the captain were there, we would know it.”

  “Are you saying the captain simply vanished into thin air?” Tom asked.

  “We suspect that Phoebe was actually a Nacene. We know very little about them or their technology, but based on what we do know, I don’t believe it’s outside the realm of possibility to suggest that Phoebe could have taken the captain just about anywhere.

  “So we are faced with a choice: Either we leave the array and hope that Phoebe returns the captain to us once we’re gone, or we stay here and do what we can to find them,” he finished.

  “Surely we have to stay,” Neelix said with obvious anxiety. “We can’t just leave the captain behind.”

  “If there were no other dangers present I wouldn’t hesitate to agree,” Chakotay said, “But there are.”

  “What dangers?” Neelix asked.

  “When Tom and I were aboard the array, we were attacked by an alien creature. Our phaser rifle had no effect on it.”

  “What was it?” Neelix was the first to ask.