“Hello baby.” Chakotay strolled up to Seven in Astrometrics and put his arms around her waist, pulling her against him. “I hear you’ve been naughty today.”
Seven disgustedly pulled away. “You again?”
“What was that?”
“Shouldn’t you be off doing some ritual for Akoochie-hoochie, or whatever?” Seven uncharacteristically waved him off and turned her back, which only angered him more.
“How dare you,” he said through clenched teeth. He grabbed her arm and twirled her back around to face him. “You are never to speak that way to me again, understood?”
Seven returned his hard stare, then smirked. “Or what? You’ll set your animal guide after me?”
Chakotay raised his hand to slap Seven, but her Borg reflexes and superior strength allowed her to catch his hand before it made contact, and crush it.
Chakotay let out a scream of pain as the bones in his right hand made sickening cracking sounds, but Seven ignored it and shoved him hard enough that he went flying across the room.
Casually, she turned back to her work and listened as Chakotay picked himself
off the ground and shuffled towards the door. Without turning around, she
called, “By the way, our relationship is terminated.”
“How did this happen?” The Doctor ran his tricorder over Chakotay’s right hand, finding that nearly every bone had been fractured.
Annoyed, Chakotay asked, “Does it matter?” He wasn’t about to let anyone know he’d been beaten by a woman, even if she was a former Borg drone.
“With an injury as bad as this, I’ll have to report it to the Captain.”
Chakotay glared at the hologram, wanting to delete his program if only he weren’t the only doctor on board. “A container in the cargo bay fell on it.”
The Doctor looked skeptically at the Commander. “Well, you’re going to need
surgery. Lie back.” The Doctor retrieved a hypospray and pressed it to
Chakotay’s neck, almost instantly putting him into a deep sleep.
Two hours later:
“Aha!” The Doctor smiled triumphantly. “There you are you little monsters.”
After receiving numerous trauma cases and two nervous breakdowns, the Doctor had been running every test possible on his latest patient, Commander Chakotay, trying to determine the reason behind the crew’s recent behavior. And that reason turned out to be cleverly disguised as a neuron, making it easily overlooked at first. But now, here it was in front of him.
The image on his computer displayed a magnified scan of Chakotay’s brain, and the microscopic pathogens that were affecting it. They were especially situated in the basal ganglia and limbic system, which the Doctor determined is why Chakotay, and probably every other member of the crew, had suddenly become easily agitated and susceptible to paranoia. Similar symptoms were linked to Schizophrenia, but that disorder was wiped out in the twenty-first century on Earth.
He zoomed further in on the image to show a single pathogen, never ceasing to be amazed that such a tiny molecule could have such a huge effect on organics. Now, I just have to figure out how to get rid of it before the entire crew ends up killing each other. He hesitated calling the Captain, knowing in the crew’s present state, getting them to listen to reason was like talking to Lt. Paris. And with paranoia going around, she may not even trust me.
The Doctor frowned and picked up a PADD which displayed the small amount of
data he had collected thus far on the pathogen. This may take a while.
“Are you going to get that, Ensign?” Harry Kim sat in the Captain’s chair, rolling his eyes at Ensign O’Dell who was manning the tactical station.
“Oh, um.” O’Dell stopped biting his nails and turned his attention to the beeping console in front of him. “There’s a ship off our port bow hailing us.”
“On screen.” Harry straightened his uniform and put on his command face.
A humanoid male dressed in a green lab coat appeared on the screen. “Hello, I am Klerick, a Scientist of the Divadi Empire.”
“Ensign Kim, of the Federation starship Voyager. What do you want?”
“You passed through our territory a few days ago and may have been infected with a virus. We traced your warp signature here, to check on you.”
“What kind of virus?” Harry studied the man skeptically.
Klerick bowed his head in what appeared to be embarrassment. “It’s a long story. Suffice it to say, it was an experiment that got out of hand.”
“Explain.” Harry fidgeted nervously in his seat. This guy was giving him the creeps.
“Uh,” Klerick began pacing back and forth, clasping his three fingered hands in front of him. “My people have always been known for our peaceful nature. Well, at least until a few years ago. After attacks on our world by aliens, we determined that it is ok to fight as long as it’s a last resort.”
“And this explains the virus how?”
Klerick sighed and stopped pacing. “Recently we’ve been having trouble with one of our trading partners that has severely threatened our economy. All attempts to peacefully negociate have failed, but to strike first would upset many of my people, despite the fact that some are dying of starvation. As a last resort, the government ordered my team to come up with a way to get around that rule and make it look like we were attacked first. So, we developed a virus that attacks the minds of living animals and makes them susceptible to violent outbursts. It worked, and they attacked us, giving us the right to finally use force against them. But we didn’t think the plan through enough. The virus was more contagious than we thought. It’s spread to millions over the course of a few weeks. We have developed a vaccine, and are trying to fix our mistake.”
“How noble,” Harry said with sarcasm. “Thanks for checking up on us, but we’re fine.” Very clever. Give us a so called “vaccine” which is really poison, and then take over the ship when the crew is dead. Nice try. “Now, if that’s all, we’ll be on our way.” Harry started to signal for O’Dell to cease the transmission.
“Wait! Are you sure you haven’t noticed a change in the crew’s behavior?”
“Nope. Everything’s been going normally,” he lied. Give up the act already. “Nice meeting you.” Harry motioned to O’Dell and the view screen reverted back to displaying to the passing stars. “Tom, increase speed to maximum warp. O’Dell, keep an eye on our friend and make sure he doesn’t follow.”
“Why don’t you do something yourself for a change instead of just bossing everyone else around?” Tom increased ships speed then leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
“Excuse me, Lieutenant?”
“Yeah, exactly. Lieutenant.” Tom whirled around in his seat to face Harry. “I outrank you, so why aren’t I in charge of the bridge?”
“Maybe if you’d showed a little more responsibility the last few years, the Captain would have a reason to trust you.”
“Whatever,” Tom turned back to his console while muttering, “Captain’s pet.”
“What was that Lieutenant, I didn’t hear you?”
Tom bolted to his feet, “Oh, stop with the act. You’re no leader. Remember the last time you were given command of a ship? You nearly got both it and Voyager destroyed.”
Harry stood face to face with his so-called friend. “I did what was right! Even Captain Janeway agreed she would’ve done the same thing in my shoes.”
“And we all know she always makes the right decisions. Have you forgotten where we are?”
“She’s only human. I suppose she has made some mistakes. Like busting you out of jail and making you a part of this crew!”
“At least she hasn’t had to hold my hand every step of the way! Face it
Harry, you’ll never be half the man I am.”
“Who is it?” The Captain sat behind her desk and looked anxiously at the door.
“Seven of Nine.”
Kathryn gasped. “I’m busy, go away.” She gripped the edge of her desk and waited a few seconds. Silence.
Janeway let out a breath thinking her stalker had gone, but jumped when she heard a sudden thud against the door. She looked up to see Seven pulling the door open manually. Once inside, Seven removed the manual release and the doors slid shut, locking them in together.
“Captain,” Seven spoke with restrained frustration and slowly moved towards the desk.
“Seven. What do you want?” Kathryn tried to keep her voice calm and even, but her heart was trying to break out of her chest.
“I just had an excellent idea. If I were to assimilate you into a small collective with myself, then you would never have to worry about disappearing again. I would always be aware of your location and whether or not you were in any danger.”
“I can handle myself Seven, thank you.” The Captain rose on shaky knees.
Seven snickered. “Like you handled yourself two weeks ago? The almighty Captain Janeway was tricked into aiding criminals and then turned into a slave.” Seven moved around the desk and stopped directly in front of Kathryn, her expression turning serious. “I can prevent that from happening again. Not only will our thoughts be one, but you will also gain superior strength, as I have.”
Janeway began backing up slowly, but Seven matched her step for step. “I appreciate your concern, but I’d prefer to remain an individual.”
“What you want is irrelevant, it is for your own safety.” Seven raised her hand embedded with Borg implants.
Janeway backed into the wall that separated the lower and upper sections of her room and gasped as two snake-like assimilation tubules slid out from the back of Sevens fist.
“Don’t worry, this won’t hurt much. And besides, you know the adage.” Seven
smirked. “Resistance is futile.”
The Doctor took a deep breath before administering the stimulant that would revive the Commander.
Chakotay groaned, then opened his eyes, blinking at the brightness. “Doctor?”
“How do you feel?” The Doctor retrieved another hypospray which contained a sedative in case his newly developed vaccine had failed.
“Kind of,” Chakotay paused, looking for the right words. “Like I just woke up from a nightmare.” Slowly, he sat up.
The Doctor sat the hypospray back down and grabbed a tricorder. He took several readings, but there was still no signs of the pathogen.
“What’s going on Doc?” Chakotay swung his legs over the edge of the bed.
“I’ll show you.” The Doctor led Chakotay into his office and displayed Chakotay’s previous brain scan. “Apparently I found the reason why the region of space we just passed through was filled with so many warring races. This pathogen,” he pointed to the area where it was most concentrated. “Attacked parts of the brain that induce fear and allows your body to respond to threats, and caused you and the rest of the crew to experience heightened emotions, primarily the negative ones, and paranoia.”
“So my fight with Seven wasn’t just a dream then?” Chakotay asked, subconsciously rubbing his restructured hand.
“So that’s how you got the crushed hand?”
Chakotay sighed but didn’t respond. “I take you you’ve developed a cure?”
The Doctor nodded. “But you were the first person I tested it on. Now that I know it works, I just need to program the computer to release it into the environmental system. Easier than trying to get close enough to all hundred and forty-one grumpy crew members and administer it by hand. It will cause a sudden, but brief, chemical change in their brains however, which will result in a momentary loss of consciousness.”
Just then, a crewman Jewarski stumbled into sickbay holding what looked like a phaser wound on his side. “Doc...”
The Doctor went rushing to his new patient and helped him to a biobed.
“Better release it soon Doctor. Things are really starting to get out of control.” Chakotay watched the Doctor as he examined junior crew member.
After giving him a pain killer and determining the crewman wasn’t in immediate danger, the Doctor ran to sickbay’s main computer, thankful that after the Macrovirus incident a few years ago the Captain had routed environmental controls into sickbay.
He punched in some commands while ordering, “Computer, set dispersal nodes to one part per thousand and release vaccine nine alpha throughout the ship.”
The computer chirped in response. “Acknowledged.”
Janeway quickly reached up and grabbed Seven’s arm, straining with all her might to keep the tubules at a safe distance. But Seven was stronger, and was easily overpowering the smaller woman.
At once, Kathryn released Seven’s arm and ducked away, causing Seven’s fist to slam forward and make a dent in the wall. Janeway rolled underneath her desk and stumbled to the door, but it didn’t open. “Computer, release the lockout on this door, now!”
The door hissed open only a couple inches before shutting again. Kathryn spun around to see Seven standing directly behind her, her hand on the door panel.
Without another word, Seven once again raised her hand as her assimilation tubules slid towards the Captain’s neck.
Kathryn waited for the burning sensation of the nanoprobes entering her bloodstream, but was hit with a wave of dizziness instead. B