Chapter Eight - Watching The Signs....Penny Robinson could scarcely believe the words Harry Kim was saying.
"How can you even say that? I know that wasn't the best experience you ever had, Harry, but I was nervous. I can be better."
Harry grinned, and it was a cruel grin. Had it actually been Harry Kim behind that grin, it would have been quite out of character. But it was not. Called back from the dead by means as yet unknown, that grin was generated by the hateful spirit of the traitorous Mister Jonas.
"Little girl, not only were you not the best I've ever had, you were the worst. With you, even rutting doesn't begin to describe the wooden, mechanical, passionless act it all became. Now--go away."
Penny would have cried, but for something her brilliant mind picked up on. So she simply left with a glare, while Jonas chuckled.
Will Robinson had almost been with a woman both older and younger than he. But Kes's beauty plus his nerves cooled things off. Kes was no more kindly disposed about all this than Harry.
"Look--I was trying to make Neelix jealous, and it worked. You were used, Will. And if I should feel like it--I'll simply do it again--understood?"
Will walked away sullen, but having noticed the same discrepancy. For Kes was not Kes, either. She was the vicious, accusatory entity called the Second Caretaker.
Despite the awkward kiss and untoward feelings that had passed between the two, brother and sister were quick to compare notes on what was wrong.
"Didn't you say that you and Harry Kim never got around to....."
"Right. And you said that you and Kes went the same."
Penny looked down the long corridor, and spoke out loud.
"So why are those two talking like we went all the way?"
Will changed the subject, though to one actually more uncomfortable.
"Look, I don't think there's any way Mom and Dad are going to accept Captain Janeway's offer. That means we have to be ready--to be alone for a really long time. I was thinking of ways we could handle it better."
Pulling them over to a dead-end section of the corridor, Penny nodded.
"Go on."
Will knew this was a tender subject, but also knew that he would have no better chance to speak plainly and thereby maintain his current relationship with his sister. They would have to draw the line at that awkward kiss, or lose everything.
"We need rules. Rules just between the two of us. So here are some of them. We can revise them as we go. First--we need to replace those stupid sliding curtains with real doors. Doors with simple locks, that can be gotten through, but tell anyone outside to leave us be. Second-- we need soundproofing for our rooms. Just something to make privacy a real option again."
She looked down."Will---I---I---I---"
She felt like a pervert.
"I like listening to you--at night."
He swallowed hard.
"We--we need a sound dampener--then."
Penny folded her arms.
"Thick robes---not clingy ones."
Will thought of something.
"We have to keep out of earshot of Doctor Smith. I have a feeling he's been listening in on--our talks."
She put her finger under his chin.
"We're going to get through this. Nothing will change between us."
He looked at her.
"Can you guarantee that?"
Of course, she could not. Space travel, as Janeway could have told them, had this way of rendering even the vilest acts somehow contemplatable.
-------------------------------------------------
Captain Janeway was quite plain with her two officers.
"What in the *hell* has happened to our EMH? In a single heartbeat, he's gone from being a slightly insufferable 24th Century holoamalgam to being a wholly insufferable 20th Century hologram based on one doctor whose name I've never heard of, even once!"
Since Tom had worked with their EMH, and Belanna was familiar with his program, this all had fallen squarely in their laps.
"Captain--I don't yet know how this happened. But I will. I just hope this isn't his long-promised revenge for those alterations I did to his holo-family."
"What about you, Tom?"
"Well, Ma'am--I know who this Doctor Winchester is. He's not as obscure as you might think. That said, it took me a while to find out why he was in the EMH's amalgamated base."
Janeway sat back, and calmed a little, some answers beating none by a longshot.
"Explain."
"He is Doctor Charles Emerson Winchester, of 20th Century Boston."
Torres held up a finger.
"Boston, Massachusetts?"
Janeway and Paris stared at her for a moment. Then Tom continued.
"Y-hes, Boston---Massachusetts. Anyway, originally, he wasn't slotted to be part of our Doctor. He was a brilliant surgeon, to be sure, and even made a few breakthroughs in thoracic surgery."
Janeway nodded.
"That's cutting to the heart of the matter."
Now, Paris and Torres stared at her.
"Keep going, Mister Paris."
"Yes, ma'am. Now, there didn't seem to be any reason why the Doctor's crowded persona base should have this man in it. If anything, he's more dismissive than the amalgam we know. Then, I checked his whole history. Our man Winchester served ten months at a frontline medical unit in Korea, during the 1950-53 war. Specifically, he served at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, where he often chafed at the fact that the Chief Surgeon was a brash maverick named-----"
Janeway took notice. Her face showed the surprise, and even the wonder in her eyes.
"Hawkeye Pierce? That officious boob served with the man who brought down Khan Singh?"
Belanna picked up from there.
"Pierce and his wife, Margaret Houlihan, broke Khan's power in a speech they heckled in 2003. But they couldn't be used in our Doctor's base for the same reason that they became famous."
Kathryn closed her eyes."The Eugenics Wars. Of course. History records Houlihan and Pierce as being patients zero in the earliest experiments conducted---without their consent. Something to do with some influenza shots, if I recall correctly."
Belanna nodded.
"Yes. But---the very enhancements that helped them bring Khan and his
followers low--and in some legends, keep them alive to this day---also prevented them from being used as holo-templates. Even 400 years later, Eugenics Laws are super-tight and sacrosanct. The Pierces' had enhancements, so they can not be used as role models."Tom shook his head.
"Which is just about as ridiculous as it gets, since the Pierce family is one of history's great dynasties."
Belanna nodded quickly.
"I had an action figure of Blake Pierce, their daughter, when I was a kid."
Tom remembered.
"My sister had one, too."
Belanna winced.
"Your sister had a lot of things, didn't she? Including her own BROTHER!!"
"Do not--Do *Not*---Start in again, Torres! We settled all that."
Belanna put on a phony grin.
"That's *right*! Sadie's seduction didn't have any long-term effects on you at all, did it? Gee, Tom. Some people might regard that as traumatic. But not Thomas Super-Paris. He just glides on through."
Tom stood up.
"It was traumatic. It was traumatic, slimy, sleazy and wrong. She should never have asked, I should never have said yes. I had something special before all that. I had a sister. Not someone who was like a sister. But a sister. My sister. Now, all I have is the equivalent of an angry ex-girlfriend, and I have a pile of those."
Belanna seemed on the verge of making a fist.
"Why didn't you tell me that I look like her?"
Tom turned to Janeway, hoping that she would cut this off. But the Captain just shook her head.
"Sorry, Tom. But I'd like to know that as well."
Paris seemed on the verge of collapse. The words were difficult.
"Because maybe, just maybe, I've found something special again. I didn't want to let someone I'll probably never see again continue to push me away from some remote possibility of happiness. In a way, I was glad when she wouldn't speak to me, after I told Dad. Cause my words to her would be awfully choice."
Belanna now sat down.
"Family--can be very cruel, Tom. Remind me--remind me never to tell you about it."
Tom smiled.
"I'd call that for a deal."
------------------------------------------
Chakotay limped slightly as he walked into Sickbay. The love-making sessions Kathryn had sworn were over had left his leg in what felt like tatters.
"Computer, Activate EMH."
A man Chakotay hoped he would not have to get used to appeared in place of the template of the remote Doctor Louis Zimmerman.
"Ple-hease state the nahture of the emergahncy. Ahhh, Commander Chakotay. Looking out for Number One, are we? Heh."
The regular EMH had a hard time with humor, Chakotay mused. But at least he didn't think comments like that were actually anything more than merely amusing.
"Doctor Winchester, I seemed to have sprained my leg. What can you do about it?"
"Well, let's have a look, shall we? Give you a--leg up--on your high-ranked paramour."
Chakotay openly glared at the hologram.
"Doctor, I'll thank you not to speculate on my or anyone else's private life, and direct you to keep to your main concern, that being the health and well being of this crew."
'Winchester' shrugged, almost uncaringly.
"All right, then. I hadn't realized the session had gone that well. But then-- we-hell, you know redheads. The English didn't go to all the trouble of conquering Ireland for its potatoes, you know."
Chakotay saw 'Winchester' merely looking his leg over, giving it a tap, then nodding.
"Its--mahrly a pulled muscle. You'll be fine, Commander."
Chakotay rolled his eyes.
"What about your medical equipment--Doctor?"
'Winchester' gestured dismissively at the array of scanners, tricorders, and such.
"I sir, am a Doctahr. I hardly need to scan a man who's sneezing in wintahr in order to tell him he has a cold."
Which struck Chakotay as both refreshing and ignorant.
"Well, then how do you intend to treat my leg's injury?"
The hologram looked at him as though he had requested the tools for a self-lobotomy.
"Commandher, yahr leg is not at all injured. You've pulled a muscle or two, that is all. Soak in a bathtub or spa. That will have you back to trim within three days, maximum."
Chakotay held up his hand.
"So you're not even going to realign the muscles and tendons?"
"N-ho! I rather suspect nahture will do that--isszz in fact, doing it halready. Commander, may I be frank?"
Chakotay nodded.
"Go ahead."
'Winchester' seemed to be smiling at a hidden joke Chakotay missed.
"All day lhong, I have had the rawther dewbyous pleashure of tending this crew's ills---and finding out that a greaht mahny of th-hese so called ills were minah things that in no way threatened their lives ohr well-being. They chiefly seemed cahncerned with re--injuhring themselves in trivhial parsuits on the holodeck. Where I come from, when one plays rough, one should be ready to live roughly, as whell. Yahr crew, sir, seems hardly ready to handle a good hike with a boy scout troop."
Chakotay was now fed up.
"Doctor, tell me, have you ever been trapped an impossible distance from home, thrown together with friends who might once have been enemies, trying to do your job, survive, and find whatever three minutes worth of amusement all in an ultimately futile effort to keep yourself from using the ceiling as a crawlspace? To keep yourself from drawing a weapon and picking who lives today? To keep yourself mere inches away from total chaos and insanity?"
'Winchester' nodded.
"Indeed I have."
Chakotay wasn't expecting that answer, and so made for the door.
"Just so long as you do."
Outside, he whispered.
"Doctor--where the hell are you?"
------------------------------------------------------------
Doctor Smith relayed his sordid tale.
"You will understand, this was merely one of many such concerns I had a hand in. Not always the guiding hand. But always a hand."
In Neelix's body, the undead Seska nodded.
"Of course, Doctor. I often had many such going concerns, when I was with The Obsidian Order. One time---we tricked the Federation forces into retaking a truly worthless piece of territory while we fully seized a worthwhile one under dispute. We then ended negotiations on it, of course."
Smith sipped the tea he had tellingly prepared himself.
"Not too soon after, I hope, Miz Seska. That would be close to telling, after all. But in my case, I sought not so much territory as continued terror. Yet the people I sought to terrorize--were themselves terrorists!"
-----------------------------------------------
ARLINGTON ROAD, WASHINGTON, DC -- EARLY 1997
The fool was only too eager to please.
Smith knew this as he began."So that driver was our rather inquisitive college professor?"
The man who thought he was a secret master of knowledge and a true patriot but was merely a small bigot with connections to other small bigots nodded his head.
"Yes, sir! The fool was playing to our tune the whole time. He never saw it coming til he was well inside the FBI Building. Another piece of our country taken back."
Smith shrugged.
"Was it truly, my good man? In fact, the new FBI Building will not be in the city of Washington at all. It will not be named after Mister Hoover, and Congress has vowed to oversee every dime they ever get--and Congressmen know their dimes, after all. Some might say that you've given this fetid corrupt government a chance to start over. And from the point where they were formerly most vulnerable."
The operative looked horrified.
"But sir---this only makes people out there more suspicious of one another. Suspicious of just who's who. That was our goal, after all."
Smith looked at the man with deadly seriousness.
"Actualllly, our goal was to *almost* blow up the FBI Building, and pin it on our late college professor. We would have still retained a target in the old FBI, but kept creating the feeling to the average fool that: your paranoia is real. So how was it compromised? How?!"
"Sir---I swear that my loyalty----"
Smith raised an opened palm to reassure the now less sure man.
"Your loyalty is not in question, my friend. It was your lovely wife who changed the orders you received through channels. I must speak with her--alone. I may be a few days before taking action. I trust that I am understood?"
The man looked lost, but nodded again.
"Just make it quick, sir. She's earned that much."
As he left, and his wife entered, Smith relished the odd looks the two now began to exchange.
A few minutes later, he spoke words to the woman that sounded very familiar."Your loyalty is not in question, m'dear. It is your husband who took it upon himself to expand the parameters of this mission..."
-------------------------------------------------
VOYAGER, 2374
Seska smiled through Neelix.
"Tell me, Doctor. How long before you heard the gunshots inside the house?"
Smith thought back.
"Two days. Most people take months to destroy in such a manner. But terrorists are so very gullible, its something much like shooting fish in a barrel. I took care of their two accomplices in a like manner. The blonde girl's smirk--irritated me to no small end."
Jonas, wearing the form of Harry Kim, noted a problem with what Smith was saying.
He asked his question.
"I'm alive, and I'm happy and grateful to be alive, even in Kim's body. But some of your stories just don't wash. Like you, Doctor Smith. You claimed to have worked for several groups on Old Earth that don't necessarily like each other, and not as a merc. So who is it that you were really with?"
Smith shrugged.
"The group was called simply: Witten. Funded by a group of royal exiles and their hangers-on, Witten sought to restore the world to its status before Earth's First World War. My task was to make certain that the many and varied terror groups remain fringe groups, dangerously unsuccessful and thus more desperate by turns. This would in turn make people ever more wary of both democracies and dictators. The Age Of Monarchs would start again by acclimation of the common sheep. I have an sizable fortune waiting for me on Earth---excuse me--my own little version of Earth."
Jonas nodded.
"Okay---but why---"
He pointed to the possessed Kes.
"---is the Second Caretaker working with us? She has power enough to wipe this ship out of existence, easily and on her own."
'Kes' shook her head.
"Once, I did. But this little Occampan cost me dearly. Her attack was subtle, and cumulative. I was forced to absorb my followers. Then, as years passed, I sought out her precious Janeway and tried to kill her. Kes prevented this by forcing me to recorporate in her own aging body. She continued as energy. I was dying."
Smith raised an eyebrow.
"Years? I was made to understand that all happened recently."
Seska/Neelix smiled.
"Time-travel, Doctor. Here on Voyager, its something like monthly swelling."
'Kes' continued.
"But though confused and weak, I still boarded Voyager and wrecked havoc. I even killed Torres. Absorbing the energy from their warp core, I traveled back in time and attempted to give them to the damned Vidiians--another of our little Caretakings gone wrong. Janeway killed me. Then, to add insult to injury, she took the information about the attack into a new timeline. Torres was restored. I died once by Janeway's phaser. I died the second time of old age when Janeway turned me around, confused and gullible. I--don't quite know how Seska found me."
Seska/Neelix stood up.
"Wellll, I found my way in when Janeway ordered that Tuvix's combined life be ended. She spilled the blood of an innocent who begged to live. That enabled my sponsors to help me set this plan in motion. You see--we're all going home. And as we pass through a new wormhole, the souls aboard this ship--present company excluded, of course---will be used to build a new Celestial Temple in honor of the true gods of Bajor and Cardassia--The Pagh Wraiths. Tain himself never believed in the faith. But they found me while I was secreted onto Bajor when the real Seska Marlis was killed. The Pagh Wraiths made me offers of power, no matter where I ended up. The Obsidian Order, you see, used to regulate the old Bajoran solar sail traders. In their lonely life, many traders- -turned traitor, if you will, and embraced The Pagh Wraiths. So I was familiar with them before they were with me."
S/he pointed around.
"That's how I dragged the lot of you back. And that's how we'll win. But--"
S/he looked at Smith.
"We will need a sacrifice to prime the pump, as it were."
Smith shrugged.
"Oh--my. I hadn't expected betrayal. Oh, wait---yes I had."
Kes, Harry, Neelix, and the calmer but Suder-possessed Tuvok felt no pain. Their invaders did. Neelix/Seska winced.
"What did you do?"
Smith smirked.
"The hypothalamus and the hippocampus are the most disparate and extreme portions of the humanoid brain. By my word, you were all administered light shocks to both areas. Quite harmless, really--unless one has a second set of brainwaves. Then---"
He mock-frowned.
"Ohhh---the pain! The pain!"
Smith then turned deadly serious.
"Now---do not cross me again. I have made good use of the limited computer access you gave me. Very good use."
Seska/Neelix was angry, but respectful of the accomplishment.
"Point taken, Doctor. But we still need a sacrifice. The Pagh Wraiths want to shatter a power they refer to as The Funnel. Something is contained there, and they want it free. Which means I want it."
Smith smiled gently.
"My dear--why in the stars would they want *my* soul? Have they even looked at it lately? Why, my soul must be nothing but skin and bones. Now, on board this very ship is the Wildman girl, William and Penelope
Robinson---not to mention the soul of an unborn innocent. Major West's first child by dear, sweet Judy. Now, whose souls would prime their pump better--hmmm? These wraith-types do tend to prefer purer wares than such as we may easily provide."Seska/Neelix regained his/her smile.
"Doctor! I just *knew* we could do business."
But inside Tuvok's body, a Suder shaken by these revelations made a desperate choice.
"Tuvok? Its me--Lon Suder. We need to talk, sir."
-----------------------------------------------------
Captain Janeway had taken a bold step. While this was her wont, this one in particular bespoke the courage that would one day see her crew home.
"Maureen--let me first say that I'm sorry. As a rule---I don't do---what it is I did with your husband. I never seek out to destroy a family."
Maureen Robinson looked out a spaceport that no alien could simply drift in front of.
"Your own office, Kathryn. This alone could make me want to stay on Voyager. A place to be alone? I'd forgotten how very necessary this is. John and I--we have to time ourselves. I can't and won't go wild when my children are within earshot. And my children are always within earshot. At least, that's how it is on the Jupiter 2."
Kathryn pressed the moment.
"Then stay. I'm no threat to your marriage. Nor is Chakotay."
Maureen shrugged.
"Begging the Captain's pardon, but we've survived much worse than you, Kathryn. And not just the aliens. We survived scorn from every political group on Earth --our Earth-- as we built the Jupiter 2. They told us---they told us that we broke faith."
Kathryn shook her head.
"My father would call those fighting words. But the fact remains---you built it, Maureen. You and the man you love. Reverse engineering or no, she's an amazing ship. You two have every right to be proud."
Maureen seemed a bit dazed by it all. Suddenly, she asked a shocking question, though not of Janeway.
"Computer--please calculate the percentage probability, assuming the Jupiter 2 and its crew leave Voyager, of my children, Penny and Will, eventually beginning a se----"
Kathryn's eyes went wide.
"Computer! Belay that!"
Maureen sat down, and sighed.
"What's the difference? I'm a scientist. Isolate two young people of the opposite sex, and what eventually happens between them? My babies are going to end up together, Kathryn. Thank Heavens we never told them about the adoption. Because its only God's law keeping those two apart."
Janeway shook her head.
"It could also be a strong moral upbringing. They're good kids, Maureen. Never doubt what you and John built there, either."
Maureen got up.
"I want us to stay, Captain. But John may have trouble working under a woman---"
They replied as one as Maureen left for the Robinson family meeting.
"So to speak."
---------------------------------------------
Don West looked about, a bit confused."Why do they have a second galley?"
John Robinson shook his head.
"They don't. This is the original galley. When Voyager was stranded, Kathryn says that it was wrecked, and then before she knew it, Neelix had converted her private dining room into a new galley. So they use this one for the folks who can prepare their own food, or who want to avoid someone else."
Don looked at his friend and CO.
"Sounds like kind of a pressure valve. Wish we had room for one. John---I'm sorry. A baby does change everything. But you usually play your role so gently, hearing you give an order like that to Judy made me crazy."
John asked Don a question.
"Am I a dinosaur, Don? A creature incapable of changing until he sees the meteor coming?"
West smiled.
"Hell, yes! But that's why you're so good at your job. John, in the old pulps, a spaceship captain was part scientist, part preacher and part parent. I've met exactly two people who really meet those criteria. And you're one of them."
John seemed thrown by the blatant compliment.
"So who's the other?"
Don now seemed a bit hesitant.
"Kathryn Janeway. And no, that was not an effort to make your mind up. But shrew or stalwart, this crew looks to Captain Janeway the way I looked to my DI in Boot. And I liked my DI."
John raised a finger.
"*Nobody* liked their DI."
Don looked his CO straight in the eye.
"John, I've had two families in my time. The Air Force--and yours. And none of you ever threw me out for finishing off the Iraqui Republican Guard."
"That did make life interesting. After the Iranian takeover of Baghdad, we all predicted the end. Then, the moderates took over from the mullahs. Stabilized everything. If we hadn't had the Tehran Observatory giving us telemetry, then the Jupiter 2....."
Doctor Robinson stopped.
"Don, wait a minute. You just said two families. What about your own?"
Don West shrugged.
"John, I changed my name from Westorellini for two reasons. One, an early CO of mine had a hate on for Italians. Two----my family was a fraud from the start. The product of old-line 'they have to get married' thinking combined with new-line 'who gives a damn' unthinking. When I got sent off to Boot by the Judge---I thanked him. I like order. Stability. A real home."
John now knew his future son-in-law a lot better.
"Well, that's why we're all gathered here, isn't it? To see whether or not we now could use a new home. We've found friends aboard this ship. Maybe things are already decided."
As Don ciphered out these words, Judy Robinson and John's wife Maureen came in.
John smiled."Will the three of you let me play tin dictator---one last time?"
As Will and Penny walked in, together as always of late, John put his plan into action.
"All right--now your mother, Judy, Don and I will debate this--and then we'll let you two know what we decided. You sit over there til we're done."
John had perhaps expected his little joke to be answered by a small frown. It was not. Penny threw up her arms.
"Dad--how can you do this to us? How can you decide the rest of our lives for us without even knowing what our opinions are?"
"Penny, calm down. This is all...."
A suddenly-livid Will did the unthinkable and interrupted his father.
"...all for our own good, sir? No! Homework is for our own good. Safety drills are for our own good. Ignoring 97% of what Doctor Smith says is for our own good. Sending us to the folding card table is *not* for our own good. Its for yours."
Penny shook her head.
"After all, you all can't be the adults if we're not always the kids--right?"
John pointed over at the table that was appropriately located---in the corner.
It was no longer a playful joke."Be certain that we are going to discuss this."
Will walked away, then turned.
"No, sir. You'll talk and we'll listen. Same as always."
Maureen jumped at that statement.
"That'll do, Will!"
The two walked away and sat down without another word. John sat down with his wife, elder daughter, and Don.
"That--that level of willfulness. Has being here on Voyager brought that on? I mean, Kathryn's command style leaves a little to be desired, but if it brings out that kind of insubordination in two good kids, then we almost have to leave."
Judy disagreed.
"Dad--that's not insubordination. Its rebellion. Subordinates are insubordinate. Kids rebel. Mind control incidents aside, they held their tongues for five years. Besides--wasn't this supposed to be part of a small joke?"
John shrugged.
"They sure weren't joking, just then. I can't handle that kind of backtalk."
Maureen looked at the man she loved.
"Kathryn can. And I expect she will. Since she won't be both their CO and their parent, she might never have to face it at all. Her command style tends toward brusque, to be certain. But its what a ship in a vague, undefined situation needs."
Don brought the point home.
"John, you tried to play a game of peek-a-boo with two young adults, and they didn't laugh. Are you really that surprised?"
John Robinson said some words he had been dreading.
"If we stay here--I won't be CO anymore. I won't even be XO. If we go--we're still stuck in our universe's Delta Quadrant, more lost than ever. And little arguments like that one will eat us alive. We'll all end up like Smith!"
While that sobering thought sank in, Penny and Will flatly sulked and stewed.
"Penny--did we give up getting along with them to get along with each other?"
"No. Will--they gave up getting along with us. You can't lay down those kinds of terms and expect someone to like it and thank them for it."
Will looked over at the debate they had kicked themselves out of.
"I never spoke to Dad that way before. Even when that spectre-thing made all of you disappear that time."
Penny thought back.
"You were acting like a brat. But Dad and Mom do not handle deviation from the schedule well at all. Say, what was that thing, anyway?"
"He was like Trelane on Star Trek--he called himself a bad little boy."
"Sounds more like something out of the Twilight---Will?"
"Yeah?"
Penny looked about.
"That was a loud argument we just had with Dad, right?"
Will nodded on his folded hands.
"Way loud."
Penny looked about again, pointing as she did.
"So why didn't a single crewmember even look up as we did?"Will now looked, as well.
"Penny, you don't think we're..."
But both questions and debate were stifled by seven figures who beamed in from nowhere.
Their menace and identity were obvious. Maureen looked on in horror."Chakotay mentioned we were nearing their space, but I thought we were safe here!"
Don shook his head.
"Tom said they blew away 39 starships in less than half a day. Maybe there is no safety anywhere."
John and Judy said nothing, as each worried for families started and starting.
Crewmembers began to fall, one by one, as a dread tinny echo filled the galley.
"We Are The Borg. You Will Be Assimilated And Made To Serve Us. Resistance Is Futile."
John Robinson smashed a chair at them, only to see it batted away without effort.
Maureen Robinson was luckier. Her salad fork went right into a circular, mirrored object. The sick pale thing jerked mightily and fell, but there were many others.
Don West did a split a little ballerina had taught him, and used a move he had seen in a movie. The attacker was punched in that one place no bipedal male could withstand without wincing. Then, Don realized--this one was female. He then uttered a line he had seen an android use in another movie, as planetfall came.
Judy Robinson made no move at all. The Borg were blocking the door, and severe exertion was out for a young woman in her first pregnancy. The Borg scanned and analyzed her.
"Subject Female Human In Early Stage Of Reproduction. Move To Assimilate."
The wires popped from the thing's fingers, til it was grabbed away by Will and Penny.
"Stop this!"
"We won't let you hurt her!"
The Borg stopped cold.
"Subjects of indeterminate humanoid species. Extremely High PK/Psi potential. Assimilation would be wholly rejected by auto-immune response. Move to destroy."
Will shouted again, but not at the Borg.
"Stop this! It isn't funny."
John wondered if his boy had gone insane, til he ciphered out exactly what he was saying. A quick nod from Penny confirmed his suspicions, and raised John's blood pressure inordinately.
He said three words, in great anger."Computer---End Program."
The 'second galley' fell away, and the sparse walls of a holodeck replaced them.
The arch opened, revealing Captain Janeway, a commander very much convinced of the correctness of her efforts. Behind her were Chakotay and Paris, two men very much unconvinced of that same thing--and looking like it.
"You seemed to be leaning towards staying. To my mind, that meant you needed to be shown exactly what lies ahead of us. Once we enter Borg space, we could be dealing with them all the way home. Now, I realize the manner in which this was done was somewhat harsh...."
Judy suddenly seized her stomach.
"Oh...Ohh nooooo....please...someone..."
Janeway hit her Commbadge, her heart clearly in her throat.
"Janeway to Winchester! Doctor, we need an emergency beam-out for Judy Robinson!"
But before the replacement hologram could respond with another Boston-esque accented phrase, Judy straightened out, and smiled at a Janeway who was now frowning.
"Now, Captain--you may find my method of giving my opinion of your little game harsh...."
Kathryn bristled openly.
"Doctor Robinson, if you expect to serve under my command as anything other than a crewman, you won't pull something like that again. Understood?"
Judy walked up, and into Janeway's face.
"How did you know for certain that the stress of seeing that Borg ready to take me wouldn't cause me to really miscarry?"
John now felt a bit of a shift, and looked briefly at his two younger children.
"It was a grade-school joke, Kathryn. There were other, better ways to make us aware of what we might face. Don't pull rank to make yourself right. It didn't work for me."
She looked over at a man who had shared her bed in a moment of pure weakness.
"John--I did the right thing. Nobody likes ambush simulations, but their value is undeniable and valid. Now, when you're all calmed down, you can continue your debate. But you'll be a good deal more fully informed than you were before."
Maureen took Janeway's hand.
"Its already decided, Kathryn. We're staying. There's no reason for us to go back, when we have no prayer of ever reaching our Earth. I'll be helping in creating our crew assignments, just as soon you let me out of the brig."
Janeway shook her head, confused.
"Maureen--you're not staying in the brig."
Maureen held Kathryn's one hand tightly in her one hand, and slugged her unconscious with the other.
"Oh, yes, I am!"
------------------------------------------
LATER THAT DAY......
It was far from being the first tender moment between Torres and Paris. That had occurred when a Tom never seen by Belanna before had given her the strength to go on, when she had almost literally been sundered in two. But there and then, something approached them that only the cold vacuum of space would finalize, some months later.
"I still love her, Belanna."
She took the picture of the young woman who really did look eerily like the human Belanna once created by rapacious organ harvesters. She had been too weak to survive without Belanna's Klingon half. This woman, Mercedes 'Sadie' Rosanna Paris, had been too weak to fight off the mental illness that drove her to cajole her confused younger brother Thomas into an inherently unhealthy union.
"I still hate her, too."
He wasn't crying. He didn't need to. His pain was hideously apparent. Sadie had destroyed a relationship of light, joy, and pure friendship. Belanna pulled him up, and off the seat.
"Tom--talk to Will and Penny. Help them to see what the cost is. Tell them why its wrong. You may be the only chance those kids have to keep from thinking its all just another choice."
"Belanna---I don't know if I can. Besides-- you can see they're not mentally ill. Sadie was. They're both ten times more mature than I was at that age. They'll get through."
She turned away.
"Tom, the loneliness can make you insane. Trust me, there were times, when, if I had had a brother, I----"
Ignoring her temper and her strength, Tom grabbed her and shook her.
"Don't! Don't you *ever* say that! He would have been a warrior, with honor and all that stuff I hear you hold in contempt so often. You would have had a perfect, uncomplicated relationship. Barring out-and-out madness, you have a God-given duty to hold onto that at any and all costs! Because it is the one gift that every parent, from the perfect to the monstrous ones, give to their children. You don't have the right to even speculate about that. It goes by all kinds of names, Belanna. But it eats families alive--whole."
Belanna did not push him away, or threaten him in some way. She only spoke six words.
"Then talk to Will and Penny."
He looked at her, and did not kiss her. He didn't need to.
"You know---your father was kind of an undependable sort, who didn't stick around. A drifter who ran--that's what you told me."
She pointed at the door, but not in anger.
"Similar doesn't mean the same, Tom. If and when we find out about us--we'll keep the good and just deal with the rest as it comes. And it will come."
He walked towards the door.
"I'm counting on it."
--------------------------------------------------
Smith prepared to press the button.
"We, Mizzz Seska, have reached our denouement. Ashes--ashes--they all fall down."
In Neelix's body, Seska Marlis smiled.
"Doctor Smith--you have an almost Cardassian way with words."
"My dear--I'll choose to take that as a compliment."
On viewer, Smith took in all the players, as he had always taken them in.
--------------------------------------
GALLEY
With Torres by his side, Paris spared the younger Robinson siblings the details. The basics were quite gory enough.
"So guys--that's why I got you onto those holodeck programs. I was projecting one of the worst times of my life onto your situation. Can you forgive me?"
Torres saw Will and Penny look at one another. Penny spoke.
"Tom-you did the right thing. In a way, what you were trying to stop from happening between us--has already happened."
Will saw Torres almost blanch, and so added quickly to his sister's words.
"It was only a kiss---a big kiss. But it had us really worried--worried that we were some kind of freaks."
Belanna tried slightly to pretend that this whole subject didn't corrode her nerve endings.
"I'll tell you what's freaky. Penny's holo-friend and Will's holo-bathing beauties. They should have been able to pick up on what you two wanted without so much resistance."
Will thought of something.
"Belanna--is your regular EMH supposed to keep things secret, like a regular doctor?"
Tom answered, being a bit more of a holo-maven, despite Belanna's prowess.
"Absolutely. If you have a medical secret that doesn't affect ship's security, then he's the man--sort of--to tell."
Penny knew where Will was headed.
"Then why did he tell Judy--and maybe Captain Janeway--about Will and me kissing?"
Belanna shook her head.
"Seska."
Tom was confused.
"I thought you and me and Tuvok rooted her programs out, finally."
Torres explained her suspicion.
"We thought. But the same 12 kilogigs of read-only memory that keep the holodeck responding to a program's evolving needs also contains the Doctor's secondary ethical directives. The primary ones all contain a thousand thousand permutations of 'First--Do No Harm'. But the secondary ones contain guidelines on other more vague concerns, like keeping secrets."
Paris groaned.
"Good place for her to hide. The holodecks always give us grief, anyway, and The Doc's tongue is never noted for its grace and flow. Of course, that still doesn't explain why he vanished and Winchester showed
up like---""Tom! The kids!"
And as the officers watched in horror, Will and Penny Robinson were beamed away, quite against their wishes.
------------------------------------------------
BRIDGE
As they watched a smiling Harry Kim leave, Chakotay and John Robinson got to talking.
"John, as Tactical Officer, you'll be Third-In-Command. But please keep all Command disagreements private. This ship may look bigger than your Jupiter 2, but rumors of dissension travel faster than warp 17, if we had a warp 17."
Robinson looked around, and nodded.
"You really gave up a lot to make this work, didn't you, Mister Chakotay?"
Chakotay shrugged.
"Early on, a much angrier man decided that he could take this ship and play pirate or get the crew home. To get home, a ship needs one Captain. One."
John smiled.
"As long as Captain Janeway tries not to cut me off too often, I'll leave the 20th Century Male Ego in my cabin."
"Good to hear. Now--pick a panel and we'll start your training."
Robinson shook his head.
"Are they supposed to be cycling orange?"
"Orange? They only cycle orange when..."
Chakotay barely had time to get them both into The Ready Room before the explosion occurred.
-----------------------------------------
BRIG
Captain Janeway was fuming.
"Maureen--why did you punch me over a simple disagreement in tactics?"
The other Doctor Robinson looked equally angry.
"Aside from the sheer childishness of using those Holo-Borg against my family for your little prank, Kathryn, did you hear what they called Will and Penny?"
Janeway shrugged.
"They called them human."
Robinson rolled her eyes.
"They called them 'humanoids of an indeterminate species'. Those Borg all but broadcast that they aren't from Earth!"
Kathryn now felt a bit reduced.
"I--I didn't think. But the program should have caught it. For example--it didn't just up and identify that they weren't yours by birth. Plus--their holo-sensors shouldn't have been sensitive enough to detect such subtle differences."
The deck rumbled beneath them. Janeway looked about.
"Unless someone's been hiding in the holodeck's lower program nodules. Computer--transport myself and Doctor Maureen Robinson into Shuttle 14!"
Once in, Janeway and a confused Robinson were soon out--and through Voyager's bay doors.
"Kathryn--did we just abandon ship?"
"No, Maureen. We just beat a strategic withdrawal, for now. My own Smith just showed up again--for the last time, if I can help it."
The bay doors were now opening and closing at such a pace, they were like pulverizers. Captain Janeway had barely left her ship before once again losing control of it.
--------------------------------
SICKBAY
Doctor Winchester bemusedly saw Robot B-9 roll in.
"Go--haway. I don't do cahrbeuraytors!"
A different voice than normal issued from the silvery sentinel of The Jupiter 2.
"Winchester, just shut up and help me to take back this ship!"
The Bostonian Hologram smiled.
"Ahhh--if it isn't the main EMH Mark One. Looking good as ever---not, that you really ever looked all that good, in the first place."
The displaced EMH groaned.
"They couldn't have given me Hunnicutt or McIntyre, could they?"
--------------------------------------------
JUPITER 2
Don West had watched his pregnant girlfriend get whisked off by a transporter beam, but he did not cry out. Instead, he pulled out a knife, his laser, and a phaser he'd been issued. Dressing in colors meant to match Voyager's grey halls, he finally said a few words, a vow to the one he knew to be responsible for all this.
"Yippee--Kai-Yay, Smith!"
But as he departed, Tuvok was waiting. The Vulcan seemed to be unthinkably nervous.
"Please--let me help."
Lon Suder had begun the battle for his soul.
----------------------------------------------
HOLODECK FOUR
Smith smiled at his unconscious hostages.
"I simply knew that I'd find real use for you urchins at some point."
Seska continued chanting in Neelix's body.
"Let the souls of Voayger be offered up; Let the dweller in The Funnel be released! Let a new Celestial Temple offer prayers to the lost brother of The Pagh Wraiths. These two children have escaped his just wrath before. But now, The Funnel shall be shattered, and The Tricephalan, Master Of Lightning, Will Reign Over All."
A self-satisfied Jonas asked Smith a question.
"Doctor--what the hell is a Tricephalan?"
Smith mused on that for a moment.
"I believe it is, my dear boy---some sort of creature that has---three heads."
The Funnel, a multiversal drain on all bad fortune, built to contain and destroy a great evil, stood as much at risk as any of the souls aboard The USS Voyager.
--------------------------