The light rushed down from his brain to his extremities. It wrapped around him like a blanket becoming part of him. The last thing he remembered was intense burning in his throat and lungs as he struggled for breath but now his respiratory system was calm. The pain was gone. Harry had gotten him back to the ship in time. Either that or he was dead.
He opened his eyes. He was in a bed. The stern face of Voyager's Doctor floated over him. The EMH was part of his afterlife? The Klingons had sent him to Gre'thor and had given him his own personal Fek'lhr.
"It worked." Harry's voice resonated a bit differently in his ears. Richer. Deeper. Not dead. No Gre'thor. Unless Harry was an angel.
"Do you know who you are?" asked the Doctor.
"I am Tom Paris" he said. His voice emanated from an undefined place. He could hear himself but couldn't feel the words forming. He pushed himself up on his elbows. He was in sick bay. B'Elanna and Harry stood on the side of the bed opposite the Doctor.
Seven was across the room in front of a monitor. He could tell by the way she raised her eyebrows and the set of her lips that she was pleased about something. B'Elanna was a different story. He thought he could interpret every one of his wife's facial expressions and corresponding moods but now she was completely unreadable. Harry radiated pure joy.
"Do you remember what happened?" The Doctor asked.
"Harry and I were investigating the moon. Something set off a loud noise there was a flash. "Tom said." I inhaled something. My throat, my lungs were on fire." Tom shuddered at the memory.
"That moon is uninhabited but its ownership is in dispute." Harry said. You accidentally triggered a bomb that was intended to release a lethal gas. A booby trap. The reason our sensors didn't pick it up is because the ingredients used were natural to the planet. They were just combined in a way to prove lethal to the Ketvians."
"Who?" Tom asked. A vague memory tried to surface.
"A member of one side of the conflict." Harry continued.
"I tried so hard to breathe." Tom said. "It was torture."
"Fortunately for you it was not intended for the human respiratory system so you didn't succumb right away. Harry was able to get you back to the shuttle..." the Doctor said.
"I remember Harry dragging me. You were talking to someone" Tom said.
"I met a Ketvian" Harry said. "He'd been hiding. He was very helpful. Gave me a device similar to our tricorder. It held all the information the Doctor needed to treat you."
Tom pushed himself to a sitting position. There was something wrong with his hands. His wedding ring was missing. He was still getting used to it because it hadn't been that long ago that B'Elanna had placed it on his finger He wasn't wearing a uniform. He wasn't even wearing the sick bay blues. He was wearing casual off duty clothes which included the blue silk shirt that his wife always insisted he wear whenever they went for a holodeck outing.
"Why am I dressed like this?" he asked.
No one would look at him. They were all staring at the Doctor.
"What's going on? Where's my ring?"
More silence. His whole being felt lighter. Was this some residual effect of his experience on the moon or the after effects of alien medicine?
"What did you use to treat me?"
The Doctor's face had that scrambled look that meant he was unsure how to proceed.
"The device the alien gave us included the treatment but it also automatically downloaded your neural functions It happened without warning. It was incompatible with human brain waves and they were starting to degrade. We tried utilizing Seven's implant but that didn't work but since I had done this before we came up with the idea of…"
"I'm a hologram" Tom said. That explained why his senses were a bit off. He touched the back of his hand and he could feel it but there was the almost perceivable impression of tiny shocks. He needed to ask the question but was unsure if he really wanted to know the answer.
"Where's...the rest of me?" he asked.
"In stasis. Doing fine. Breathing a gaseous medicine if you will. If all goes well you should be all healed in about two weeks" replied the Doctor.
"Two weeks." He ran his fingers through his hair. That sensation was familiar but his hair was a bit longer than regulation. His chest rose and fell but he had no lungs. There was no need to take in oxygen. He put a hand up to where his heart should be and discovered a steady rhythmic pulse similar to a heartbeat. There was no need for blood, for nerve endings or for his sense of taste or smell. He took a minute to wrap his mind around the idea. His crew mates stared at him, their eyes full of concern.
"And then you will be able to put me back together?" he asked.
"I see no reason why not." replied the Doctor. "I have done this before you know. Now that I have done it twice I believe this proves that I have pioneered something that will truly transform medicine as we know it. With my impressive recreation of a set of holo lungs and my experience with Denara it could be said that I am now an expert in this particular experimental but promising field. I intend to pass this along during our next communication with the Alpha Quadrant. It goes without saying that I will be in great demand when we finally return…"
"I am sure you will be Doctor" Seven said dryly. "In the meantime I would like to study this device." The large white disc she held up resembled one of the Doctor's cortical monitors. Green lights flickered around the perimeters like a Christmas tree.
"Of course. Be careful with it. Fascinating bit of technology." He turned back to Tom. "Ordinarily after an ordeal like this I would say get some rest but since you don't need rest I suppose I could put you to work. You'll have to change of course. While I'm sure that outfit is quite comfortable, or it would be comfortable if you were solid, it's hardly conducive to a professional atmosphere."
"If I were solid" Tom said to himself quietly. This was more than weird. Too many adjustment to be made. So many new sensations. He was having difficulty sorting them out and right in the middle of all that a harsh truth reached out and stunned him.
"I'm stuck in here...with you?" he asked. A long buried dark thought resurfaced. Long ago he realized what imprisonment meant. He knew what would happen. The walls of the sickbay would close in around him. He would slowly retreat inside himself again to a lonely place where anger and bitterness would take hold. Life would become meaningless.
Harry laughed.
Best friend or not, Tom felt an urge to reach out and smack him for taking joy in his obvious discomfort but the sound of his friend's laughter chased the dark thoughts away. Maybe that was why he had agreed to this unusual friendship during the first weeks of their journey home. Even after all these years Harry could still innocently break up a somber moment.
B'Elanna managed a smile. That was a relief. He wanted to take her hand, look into her eyes and let her know he was fine, it would all be even if he had no idea if it would be or not. Their relationship had survived mind control, severe depression, post-traumatic stress, and everything else the Delta Quadrant had thrown at them. They would survive this. He needed to reassure her even though he had no idea himself if things would work out or not.
The Doctor cleared his throat.
"I can assure you there are much worse things Mr. Paris." He said.
"Yes. You are right. Prison is not a new experience for me." Tom said. "Not so sure about having you for a warden though." He said. He smiled at his friends because he had to make light of the situation. That's what he did. The reality was this was frightening but he would be damned if he would let anyone see that.
"We'll give you some time out in the Holodeck, won't we, B'Elanna?" Harry said. Tom wished she would say something.
"About that. It takes time to create a holodeck character. Especially one as detailed as this one as this." He said.
"Yes. We were about to put you into one of your Fairhaven characters but B'Elanna had this one already in the Database" Harry said.
"You created a holodeck character based on me?" Tom asked. "It's very detailed. I even have a heartbeat." He didn't know whether to be offended or flattered.
B'Elanna was not one to blush easily. Her human side would giggle when embarrassed which would sometimes give way to Klingon frustration. Now her face was bright red.
He decided this was a conversation for later.
"Well I'm glad you did." he said in what he hoped was a breezy manner. "Could you program a ring for me? I don't want word to get out that since I'm a hologram that means that I'm somehow available. Things might get a bit messy."
Harry laughed again. Seven allowed herself a small smirk and relief was all over B'Elanna's face. She was obviously happy that he was not going to make a big deal out it in front of everyone.
"I'll see what I can do" she said.