UNFORGOTTEN

by ardavenport

- - - TUVOK

SUBJECT: Record of Ramoora incident.

PURPOSE: To establish a physical record of Ramoora incident. All memory, computer and sensor record of our encounter with this species is to be erased by the Ramoora – with consent of Captain Janeway.

RECORDED BY: Lieutenant Commander Tuvok

STARDATE: 51814.2 (51813.4)

ACTION ITEMS:

- Discuss this handwritten record with Captain Janeway who is also recording experiences.

- Examine EMH memory as well as all ship's computer records for any remains of this incident. Seven of Nine may also be able to retrieve some memory of this incident through her Borg implants. Commander Chakotay must be considered a security risk for this effort.

CHRONOLOGY:

On approximately stardate 51794.0 Voyager unknowingly picked up two stowaways from Ramoora, an intensely isolationist civilization who shield all knowledge of the existence from all outsiders. The stowaways intended to use Voyager to escape their world since leaving their world is forbidden to all members of that society.

On approximately stardate 51804.0 Commander Chakotay captured one of the stowaways, Kellin. She claimed to be a tracer whose mission was to capture the other stowaway.

On approximately stardate 51806.0 the second stowaway was captured with Commander Chakotay's assistance. The following day Kellin departed with her prisoner after initiating memory loss in her prisoner of his encounter with Voyager. We have no confirmed record of this since all memory and record of this was erased at the request of the Ramoora.

On approximately stardate 51813.0 Kellin returned to Voyager requesting asylum. Because all memory of the previous encounter had been erased, we initially accepted Kellin's knowledge of Voyager and its crew as proof of the previous encounter. However I considered her story questionable and pursued my own inquiries, with the captain's consent. We did not discuss any of these inquiries with anyone else, except the EMH.

Kellin claimed to have established a romantic relationship with Commander Chakotay on her previous encounter with Voyager and she openly pursued this relationship after claiming asylum. Commander Chakotay did not reject her advances.

With the help of the EMH and Captain Janeway, we were able to verify that:

- The Ramoora were able to block all our bio sensors.

- The Ramoora were also able to chemically block all long term memory in other humanoids. We determined that they had voluntary control over this part of their physiology. The EMH confirmed that this ability would also allow Kellin to directly affect the emotional state of any member of the crew, particularly Commander Chakotay.

- Captain Janeway, the EMH and I surmised that Kellin was using Commander Chakotay to achieve her original goal, escaping her home world.

- While intensely secretive, the Ramoora did not show any overtly hostile intentions toward Voyager. Because of this, Captain Janeway accepted their demand to erase all knowledge of their existence on Voyager.

ADDENDUM: Commander Chakotay demonstrated a serious lack of judgment with respect to the alien, Kellin, though it should be noted that he was being chemically affected by her. I did not initially take note of it, but curiously, Seven of Nine accurately noted and cataloged the physical evidence of attraction between Commander Chakotay and Kellin. I advised Seven not to pursue these observations, though I did report this to Captain Janeway.

However, I discovered later that Seven of Nine had not heeded my advice and that she had noted Commander Chakotay and Kellins' behavior to Ensign Kim, the EMH, Neelix, Lieutenants Paris, Torres, Ensigns Parsons, Nicolletti, and most of the third shift in Engineering. I suspect that she also mentioned this to Captain Janeway, but the captain did not consider Seven's observations to be relevant. It is unfortunate that Seven of Nine chose this particular incident with which to study and practice her skills at ship's gossip. I advised her that this practice is not a desirable human trait for her to develop. She replied that she would consider this, but I do not have any confidence that her conclusions on the dissemination of rumors will coincide with my own.

I will now meditate on this incident and attempt to retain some personal memory of it. This handwritten record will be used to evaluate my success in this.

- - - KATHRYN

To Kathryn Janeway

I'm writing this down as a message to myself, so I will have some personal record of what happened. Lieutenant Tuvok recommended writing this log down by hand, since we can't trust it to the computer. All records of this incident will be erased from our computers and our memories. Tuvok is writing down his own record as well.

Apparently several weeks ago, Voyager took on a stowaway. He was from an intensely isolationist race inhabiting the region of space that Voyager was traveling through, the Ramoor, Ramora? Something like that. I can't be sure exactly where their home system or systems might be and when or how we picked up the stowaway. Their cloaking technology is far above anything we've ever seen before. I wonder if the only reason why they've developed space flight technology is to just keep people away?

Our long range sensors picked up several potential systems, but at this point it doesn't really matter where they came from. We did not know about the stowaway until a second alien, a tracer whose job was to retrieve runaway people from her world, turned up to collect him. Chakotay captured her after she'd been on the ship for a only a few days. Then it took a few weeks of us working with Kellin, the second alien, to find the stowaway. Tuvok thought that it was odd that it was so much easier to find Kellin than the original stowaway, but we learned more about that later.

Apparently we did find the stowaway and Kellin removed his memory with a neural energy emitter they use on anyone leaving their world. Kellin took him away, though none of us remembers this and we haven't found any direct evidence of it in our logs, except for a few fragments that B'Elanna found in the main computer. We didn't know anything about it until Kellin turned up a second time claiming asylum. Her story was that it was forbidden for any member of their race to leave and that she was trying to escape. We had no reason to deny her sanctuary at the time, so I allowed her to stay. Right from the beginning she targeted Commander Chakotay.

She had been on Voyager before, that was clear by her familiarity with us and the ship. She did have some knowledge of her people's cloaking technology and showed us how to detect the ship's pursuing her. I do believe that Kellin did not have any useful knowledge of their personal cloaking technology and that she did not intend to be captured. But I could be wrong, since I'm relying on what I was told by the person who came to collect Kellin. I suppose it won't really matter which, if any, of them was telling the truth if we're going to forget it all in a few hours.

What I do remember, right now, is that Kellin came to us (the second time) because she wanted to leave with us, specifically to be with Commander Chakotay, whom she claimed to have established a relationship with during her first stay on Voyager. She told us about her people's ability to affect the short-term memories of other humanoids. The doctor was not able to verify this, since these aliens don't show up on our medical scanners, or our ship's scanners, even without their cloaking technology. Ensign Kim was able to recalibrate the internal sensors and the medical sensors so that we could at least detect them. The doctor, of course, was not affected by their memory-loss pheromones and was later able to confirm their effect and that Kellin and her people had conscious control over them. They had to since Kellin was able to remain on the ship for days at a time without us having to re-introduce ourselves to her. The doctor strongly suspected that this ability was a genetic modification of the aliens.

The doctor also confirmed that their abilities extended toward affecting the emotional states of other humanoids around them (again probably a genetic modification).This was how Kellin targeted Chakotay, though I have to admit that Chakotay already has a weakness for this sort of thing. I can't remember any of the technical details. I'm not sure if any of them will survive the computer virus that will erase everything. Are we able to save any of that? I need to hurry with this.

Kellin started a relationship with Chakotay right away and he was susceptible to it. Probably because she had already been working on him the first time she was aboard Voyager. Even if his memory of it had been erased, it still must have had some effect on him. Tuvok came to me right away when he noticed their interactions.

I was contacted by a third alien, Curit?, or Current? I don't have time to check what his name was. I can't remember how he got on the ship. The same way the others did I suppose. It was pretty obvious that these people could slip aboard when they needed to, and they didn't have any directly hostile intent, so I didn't see any reason for us not to cooperate with them. They could have destroyed us a long time ago, if that is what they'd intended.

He had been sent to capture Kellin. His story to me and Tuvok was that Kellin and the original stowaway had been working together, or more likely Kellin was using the original stowaway all along. Her intention from the beginning was to leave her home world. The original stowaway was her cover for leaving her planet. While she pretended to try to capture the stowaway, she stayed on Voyager for long enough to take her and her partner beyond the point where escapees were normally caught by her world's security force. Once they were past that point they had intended to complete their escape under the guise of her taking the stowaway into custody.

What were they escaping from? I can't remember. I don't have time to stop and try to think about it. It wasn't from any type of crime, I'm sure of that. I don't think it was ever really explained, but it didn't have anything to do with Voyager.

The third alien told me that Kellin had been under suspicion. While she stayed aboard Voyager the first time the others had simply shadowed our ship from a distance and waited for her to leave with her partner and then they were both captured. But Kellin must have anticipated this, since she escaped them and returned to us. Her relationship with Chakotay had been her contingency plan in case her first plan didn't work. I suppose her original partner was expendable.

I did not speak to Commander Chakotay about any of this. It was obvious to me that Kellin was influencing him and since the plan was for us to all forget about everything, I didn't see any reason to complicate it by telling him.

Since the only thing that these aliens want from us is to completely forget them, I can't see any reason why we shouldn't accommodate them. I'd rather do that than fight with them about it. Even Tuvok agreed with that though he didn't like it. Nobody likes it, but I've made my decision on it, so I am going to follow it through. They removed Kellin's memory of her time on Voyager and they've left. We're not coming back to this part of space, and they understand that. I did demand that Ensign Kim and Lieutenant Torres have access to the computer virus code that would wipe out any records of what happened. And I think the doctor will retain something. I must go speak with him.

Have I talked to Commander Tuvok about that? I can't remember doing it, but I can't imagine that I wouldn't have done it.

I think I'm losing my memory on this. I know I'm writing about aliens who boarded Voyager, but I can't remember any of their names, or where they came from. Damn. I hate this. What's wrong with me? If I can't remember what happened, how do I know what they were really up to? They were using Commander Chakotay, at least the woman was. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised about that.

To be honest, I was angry with him. I don't want to forget that, so I'm writing it down here. This is the second time this has happened with Chakotay. The third time if I count Seska. I still trust Chakotay as an officer and I know that there were extenuating circumstances in both cases, but this keeps happening.

I shouldn't write this down, I haven't even put it in my personal logs, but I'm writing down everything I can remember while I still can.

I avoided Chakotay during this whole incident with the female alien. It certainly looked like she was using him to me and it made me angry. Even Seven noticed it, so it must have been pretty obvious to everyone. But Tuvok was watching them, so I left the situation to him.

This thing with Chakotay has worked in my favor for so long now. I guess it was inevitable that it would cause problems. It's obvious to me now that his feelings toward me had a lot to do with how relatively easy it was to integrate the his crew onto Voyager. I guess if I gave in to having a relationship with him he might have enough motivation to not get himself entangled this way. He made it pretty clear that he wouldn't mind having one with me when we were together on New Earth. It didn't look like such a bad idea at the time. I guess I would have if we'd stayed there. But out here alone, no relief, no home base, hardly any leave from the ship, that's a recipe for disaster for any relationship. I'm not that easy to get along with.

I still suppose it would be easy to do, even now. I guess I could have Chakotay anytime I wanted if I made an effort. I don't think I'd have to do much. And it wouldn't be all that unpleasant, either. But do I have to sleep with my first officer to keep him in line? I don't think that it would make Chakotay any less vulnerable to being manipulated like this anyway. And then I wouldn't just be angry about him putting the ship in danger over his personal feelings. I can't afford that kind of indulgence. It's bad enough that Chakotay lets his feelings get out of hand. We can't have both of us doing it. I guess it's not so much his fault, just a weakness. I've seen worse problems in other officers I've worked with. I've never put this even in any of my personal logs. Why am I writing it down here?

I'm wandering. What did Chakotay do? I'm writing about it because I know I'll forget and we won't be able to keep the record in the computer, but I can't think of what it is. Some alien used him. It didn't endanger Voyager, much. No one tried to attack the ship. Have they? We don't have any damage. I need to go check.

I've just checked with the bridge and engineering and the bridge. There's nothing wrong. What ever has happened has come and gone. There isn't anything I can do about it, and it's not coming back.

I've just re-read the beginning of this and it doesn't make any sense to me. I don't even know why I'm writing this down here by hand like this, but I'm sure there's a good reason. It's not late, but I'm tired. I'm going to bed. I should be able to think more clearly about this in the morning.

Captain Kathryn Janeway

Note: This story was written by me and first printed (under the name 'Anne Davenport') in 1998 in the print fanzine 'Delta Quadrant 8' – the Tuvok part under the title 'Recall' and the Kathryn part under the title 'Unforgotten'.

Disclaimer: All characters and situations belong to Paramount; I'm just playing in that sandbox.