CHAPTER ONE:
Captain's log supplemental:
For the past two weeks, Voyager has been passing through an area of space that belongs to a species called the Gerald. For the most part they have seemed to be a peaceful people, but are uninviting of strangers. We are currently trying to make our way through their space as quickly as possible.
Captain Janeway sat in her command chair after a restless nights worth of sleep. She looked over at Chakotay and saw his worried expression, "I know what you're thinking, and I'm fine... bad night." She said.
He leaned over toward her and whispered, "You can get some more sleep if you want me to take the bridge for a while."
"No, that's alright. I just need some coffee; I'll be in my Ready Room."
"Yes ma'am."
Janeway stood from her chair, and walked to her Ready Room. As the doors closed behind her she walked straight to the replicator, "Coffee, Black." She commanded the replicator in a rather mono toned voice. After the coffee had finished materializing she grabbed the steel cup and sipped from it. As soon as she took that first sip she slightly moaned in pleasure of her favorite beverage. She looked up from the cup, and walked over to her desk and sat down. She set the coffee cup on the desk and tapped her desk Monitor on and started reviewing the sensor logs from the night before. As she studied the sensor logs, she drank more of the coffee, feeling no more alert than she did before, but despite that something in the sensor logs caught her eye, "What the hell?" She said to herself. "Computer, analyze sensor records from time index 2100, are there any discrepancies in the entries?"
"Affirmative, there is a 2 hour, 47 second gap in the sensor logs."
"Cause?"
"Unknown."
Janeway tapped her communicator that sat firmly against her uniform, "Janeway to Seven of Nine."
"Go ahead."
"Seven, report to my Ready Room."
"On my way."
Janeway had waited for almost five minutes running diagnostics, and analyzing the records when she finally heard the chime of her door. "Come in."
The doors slid open and Seven entered the room, as they closed behind her she walked up in front the Janeway's desk and just stood there with her hands behind her back, "You wished to see me."
"Yes, have a seat." As she sat down, Janeway turned her terminal to face Seven. "What do you make of this?" She asked.
Seven looked at the monitor slightly confused, but knowing the answer, "It appears to be a sensor discrepancy."
"Yes, but look a little closer. What else do you notice about that discrepancy?"
"It appears to last almost three hours."
"Exactly! Any sensor interruption should have only lasted at most 15 minutes, even with them in diagnostic mode. I want you to check over the astrometrics sensors, see if you can find anything unusual."
"Understood."
"Dismissed." As Seven stood and walked toward the doors Janeway said, "And Seven... for the moment, I would like to keep this between you and me."
Seven turned, "Captain?"
Janeway looked down for a moment, and rubbed her forehead with her hand and looked back up, "It's probably nothing, but I would like to go on the side of cauti..." Janeway looked down once more.
"Captain, are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Janeway got up from her chair and just stood there for a moment, Seven looked at her face and saw small sweat droplets on her face. Janeway started to walk around the desk, but before she could make it even half way she collapsed to the ground.
Seven rushed over to her side and turned Janeway onto her back, she was unconscious. Seven tapped her communicator, "Seven of Nine to Sickbay, Medical Emergency! Stand-by to receive the Captain."
"Acknowledged," said the voice of the EMH over the COM system.
She tapped the communicator again, "Seven of Nine to transporter room 1! Medical Emergency, beam Captain Janeway and myself directly to Sickbay!"
Just a few moments went by as a stream of blue engulfed Janeway and herself where for one moment they were in the Ready Room, and next in Sickbay, with the EMH standing over them. The doctor grabbed Janeway's arms, "Grab her legs!" He ordered Seven. With Seven's assistance they carried Janeway over to the Surgical Bay and laid her down on the Bio Bed. As the doctor grabbed his medical tricorder and began to scan Janeway he looked at Seven briefly, "What happened?"
"We were talking one moment, and then she just..."
The EMH's eyes became widened as he looked at the tricorder, "She's going into synaptic shock, but that's impossible! There's no neural damage!" He looked at seven while still scanning Janeway, "Seven, quickly! Go and get a neural stasis unit!" The EMH continued to scan Janeway, he sat the tricorder down for a moment, and quickly turned, and grabbed a hypo-spray. He turned again to the side of the Janeway and injected her neck. "Seven!" Shortly after yelling out her name, Seven came out of the Analysis room with the unit, and handed it to the doctor. He attached it onto the head of the Bio Bed, lowered it over Janeway's forehead, and walked over to the Medical display. As the doctor worked the console quickly he looked at Sevens face for a brief moment and noticed her concern, "I'm suspending all neural activity, it should stop... whatever this is." The monitor just to his left started blinking red indicating that Janeway's was still slipping away.
"What's wrong?" Seven asked with much anxiety.
"With her neural pattern suspended the rest of her body is starting to shut down, I'm going to have to put her on complete life support." The EMH walked back over to the bio bed and activated the bio bed cover. The two back covers started to raise, one from the left, and one from the right side of the bed until they finally met in the center at which point they stopped and held in position. The EMH tapped a few buttons on the side the bed and soon there after the sound of the alert monitor stopped. He walked back over the console, and sighed in relief, "She's stabilized... for now."
A few moments went by in silence as the EMH and Seven just stared at the Captain, but were disturbed by the chiming of the COM system, "Chakotay to Janeway."
"Go ahead, Commander." The EMH answered.
"Doctor?" Chakotay asked out of curiosity, but quickly the curiosity in his voice turned to tension, "Where's the Captain?"
"Commander... you better get down here, and bring Mr. Paris." He said in a grim voice.