"Report," Janeway says.
"Seems to me likes its been getting darker ever since we went into this nebula," Chakotay replies.
"Yes it does, doesn't it? Harry, scan with long range sensors."
"Yes ma'am," Harry says at his console.
"Anything?" the captain asks.
"Nothing."
"Hmmm, Tom keep us on a course straight through this nebula," says Janeway.
"Yes ma'am," Tom replies.
"How long do you think it will take?"
"Well, usually maybe about three hours but the ship seems to be, ya know, holding back," Tom answers.
"Janeway to B'Elanna," the captain says over the comm.
"B'Elanna here," comes the chief engineers voice.
"Is there something wrong with the warp engine?"
B'Elanna rushes over and checks the warp engines. "No Captain, it's running normally."
"Well, run a full diagnostic and report as soon as you're done. Janeway out."
"Yes, ma'am."
Janeway turns to Chakotay. "Suggestions, Commander?"
"We could defenestrate harry," Chakotay says in a joking voice. Janeway looks confused.
"What, Commander?" Harry asks nervously.
"Look it up," Chakotay says.
Janeway looks it up on the monitor next to the captain's chair. "Commander!" she exclaims when she reads the definition, trying not to laugh.
"Just trying to lighten the mood, Captain."
"Captain, what does that mean?" Harry asks.
"We're not throwing Harry out the window," Janeway says to Chakotay.
Realization dawns on Harry and he stares at Chakotay.
Janeway laughs. "But it was funny."
Chakotay laughs too. "Yes, but really, no. No suggestions." Harry rolls his eyes and goes back to scanning.
Janeway turns to her pilot. "Tom, is the ship still holding back as you say?
"Yes, Captain, even more so as we speak," Tom replies.
"B'Elanna to Janeway," B'Elanna says over the comm.
"Janeway here."
"The results of the full diagnostic of the warp engine reveals that there is nothing wrong with them. They are the same they have been for weeks now," B'Elanna reports.
"Hmm, thats odd. Tom says were going slower and slower by the minute."
"Well, nothing that I can find is wrong with the warp engines, Captain."
"Well thanks B'Elanna. Janeway out."
"Doctor to bridge," comes the Doctor's voice.
"Yes Doctor?" Janeway says.
"I need you to send Harry down to sickbay. I promised him we'd work on his onychophagy problem," the Doctor says.
"My what problem?" Harry asks, confused.
"Oooh yes alright, we don't want any nail biting on the bridge. Harry, go to sickbay now," Janeway says.
Harry walks to the turbolift, mumbling ,"Why is everyone picking on me today!" Tom smirks at Harry and Samantha Wildman walks in and takes Harry's place at ops. Suddenly everything goes off.
"Tom, report! What happened!" Janeway demands.
"Stuff went off, Captain. Helms not responding," Tom answers.
Harry trips and falls down in the turbolift. "CRAP!" He tries to run back onto the bridge.
Down in engineering B'Elanna is screaming out orders to the engineering staff. "I'm going up to the bridge," she says, and starts running. The door to engineering doesn't open. "I guess I'm not going to the bridge."
Back on the bridge Sam reports, "Ops isnt responding, Captain."
Janeway walks to the turbolift and it doesnt open. "Turbolifts are offline also."
Harry knocks on the door from inside the turbolift. "House keeping. Let me in!"
"Sorry Harry, the door wont open. You have to stay in there," Janeway tells him.
"Well, where the heck am I suppose to go?" Harry says in a bit of a panic.
"Nowhere!" Janeway says. "Chakotay, have any sugestions yet?"
"Maybe if you use the door's manual override," Chakotay says.
"Why didn't I think of that," Janeway says. She uses the manual override and opens the door. Harry walks in and says, "Thanks."
A random crewperson screams and get eaten by something.
"What the heck," Tom says.
"Ummm..." Sam says.
Janeway looks very alarmed.
"Well, that was weird," Chakotay says. "An unhappy fate."
"True," Janeway says as she wipes away a tear.
B'ELanna runs onto the bridge. "All of engineering is offline, Captain."
"How are we gonna get it back online?" Janeway asks.
"Doctor to bridge!" the Doctor interrupts.
"Yes Doctor?"
"PEOPLE ARE coming in with injuries from SOMETHING big," the Doctor says dramatically.
"Okay I'll send an armed team," Janeway says. "Chakotay! Get a big gun and take whoever and get that &&^^ thing off my ship!"
Harry suddenly screams and gets attacked by something.
"Yes!" Chakotay shoots at the thing. He shoots again. Tuvok comes in from the ready room and shoots too. The thing runs off.
"Harry," Chakotay says, finding him unconscious. "Someone get Harry to sickbay."
"Get him to the Doctor, Tom," Janeway says. "Nobody's allowed to be alone!"
"Yes, Captain!" Tom says.
"I'll go with him, Captain," Sam offers.
"Okay," Janeway says.
Tom and Sam lift Harry up and head for sickbay.
"Tuvok, come with me and lets find this d #$ thing," Chakotay says.
"Yes, Commander," Tuvok responds. They leave the bridge.
"What are we going to do to get the power back up, Captain?" B'Elanna asks.
"I thought you might know the answer to that, B'Elanna," Janeway replies.
"Well, since we dont have any power other than emergency lights, there must have been a shortage in the wiring," B'Elanna says.
"Go to the jeffries tubes to rewire the wires but dont go alone!" Janeway says.
"Who do I take? Communications aren't online, are they Captain?"
"Our combadges should be."
B'Elanna taps her combadge. "B'Elanna to Seven, meet me at the entrance to the jeffries tubes on deck seven."
"Okay," Seven replies.
Tom and Sam are in sickbay with Harry. The Doctor and Kes are there too.
"Harry, can you hear me?" the Doctor says.
"Is that you, mom?" Harry asks.
"Of course not, Ensign. You're in sickbay," the Doctor says. "You've been attacked."
Harry feels drunk. "This is a weiirrrd feeeliiing."
"I'll give you a hypo to get rid of that sensation," the Doctor says.
Janeways voice comes from Tom's combadge. "Tom, report to the bridge. I need you here with me."
"On my way, Captain," Tom says.
"Tom, want me to walk back with you or wait here with Harry?" Sam asks.
"Let's play it safe, come with me, Sam," Tom says. "I'm not going alone."
"Yes, sir," Sam says, following him out the door.
On the bridge, B'Elanna is about to leave for deck seven. "Will you be okay if I go before Tom gets back?" she asks the captain.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Janeway says, getting a gun.
B'Elanna takes out her phaser. "See you soon, Captain."
Chakotay is walking down a corridor with Tuvok when a thing comes around the corner. Chakotay violently shoots it. Tuvok shoots too, and it runs away. "It's too strong," Chakotay says, running after it.
"This is creepy," B'Elanna says, walking by herself. She taps her combadge. "How the heck do I get to deck seven if the turbolifts are offline?"
"Use the emergency ladders," Janeway answers.
"Thanks, Captain. B'Elanna out."
Tom arrives on the bridge. "I made it in one piece with Sam."
"That's a good thing," Janeway says.
"Captain, I think I might know why the ship was resisting," Tom says.
"Well, don't keep it to yourself, Tom. Tell me why," Janeway says.
"It started right before the alien attacked, so it had to have something to do with them," Tom says. "They may have come in through the uni-dendritic plasma pathways, and they can't be blocked or else the ship does that"
"I see. So we have to unblock the uni-dendritic plasma pathways?" Janeway says.
"Yes, but it could be dangerous since they're hiding up there. Just a theory."
"We have to go up to the plasma pathways and unblock them, Tom." Janeway climbs onto an emergency ladder and Tom follows. Sam turns around to go back to Harry.
In sickbay, Harry has stopped feeling weird and returns to somewhat normal. "What attacked me, Doc?"
"Some odd creature we have yet to determine," the Doctor replies.
"Wow, that's creepy," Harry says.
"Yes, and judging from the injuries you sustained they are DANGEROUS," the Doctor says.
"Uhh, thank god I'm here then."
"Yes, but you are free to go, Mr Kim. Check in if you feel anything wrong," the Doctor tells him.
"Wildman to Kim, I'm on my way to sickbay," Sam says over Harry's combadge. "I'll be your buddy for now."
"Acknowledged," Harry replies. "I'll wait for Sam to get here, Doc."
"Yeah, don't go anywhere alone," the Doctor agrees. "...except that she's coming here alone. I'mma have a talk with her."
"Don't bust on her, Doc," Harry says. "This is probably her first emergency in a while. She probably isn't thinking straight."
"Mmmhmm," the Doctor says.
B'Elanna arrives on deck seven. She points her phaser forward and walks. When she finally reaches the jeffries tube entrance she taps her combadge. "B'Elanna to Seven. Are you on your way? This place is getting creepier alone."
Seven is standing there. "I am right here, Lieutenant."
B'Elanna jumps backwards and falls down. "Oh dear lord, Seven, you scared me!" She stands back up. "Let's get in here and re-wire everything so we can get our systems back online."
"Yes, we should probably start doing that now," Seven says. She goes into the jeffries tube.
B'Elanna follows. "Okay, up a few more feet is the main controls wiring." When they get there, B'Elanna shines a flashlight on the wiring. "It seems like our little beast friends had a snack on our wires..."
"Are they missing?" Seven asks.
"Ate would be the correct term."
"Then we require new ones."
"Yes, we need to go to engineering to get new wiring," B'Elanna says.
Seven heads toward engineering and B'Elanna follows, her phaser up.
In a corridor somewhere, Tuvok and Chakotay are still looking for the creature.
"Commander, our phasers are ineffective against the alien," Tuvok says.
"I've noticed," Chakotay says.
"Maybe we should set it on kill and amplify the blast with a phase distort force field," Tuvok suggests.
Chakotay considers it. "That may work if we compensate for the auto-anion constriction capacitent in the iso-neural reaction cluster of the weapon. Electro-generatively speaking."
Tuvok makes the adjustments. "It is done. Let's go test it out on the alien."
"Yes, but be aware, it could be anywhere," Chakotay warns him.
Janeway arrives at the plasma pathways.
"Umm, Captain, this is the polylinear power stimulators, not the pathways," Tom says.
"Oh, sorry. Guess I got a little turned around," Janeway says. "Maybe you should lead the way, Tom."
"Yeah, maybe."
"Sam is taking long to get here, maybe something happened. Oh NO!" the Doctor says.
"It's okay, Doctor. Should I go look for her?" Kes says.
Sam runs in at that moment. "Sorry, I got a little lost in the emergency ladders."
"I suggest you be a little more careful, especially at a time like this," the Doctor tells her.
"Sorry, Doctor," Sam apologizes.
"Where the heck is Neelix, just a thought," Chakotay says.
"Maybe we should look for him as well as the monster," Tuvok says.
"This is getting creepy, we should've found it by now," Chakotay says.
Tuvok points. "It is over there right near the doors to the mess hall."
"It looks like it's trying to get in for something," Chakotay says.
Neelix is hiding behind the counter in the mess hall.
Tuvok shoots it.
"We're in the right place now, Captain," Tom says,
"Good work, Tom" Janeway says, her hand on his shoulder. "Lead us in."
"Yes ma'am," Tom says. They go in to find a whole bunch of sleeping creatures.
"Shh, be quiet. Don't wake them up," Janeway whispers.
"HUH?" Tom says.
"TOM, I SAID BE QUIET!"
"WELL, I DIDN'T HEAR YOU!"
The creatures wake up.
"Oh #$%$," Tom says. "#$%#$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$%^."
"No cursing on my ship, Tom! *^^% ^&*," Janeway says.
" #$... sorry."
"RAAWRWRERIOHEIA!" the creature roars. It attacks Tom.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Janeway shoots it.
"Hmm, it's peaceful in here," the Doctor says in sickbay.
"Hold on to something, Tom! I'm gonna decompress this place!" Janeway yells. She pushes a button.
"Holding on!" Tom shouts as the room depressurizes and the creatures blow out.
"A little too peaceful..." Sam says in sickbay.
Janeway pushes the button again and it returns to normal.
"Whooo! I almost joined them," Tom says.
"Did we kill it, Tuvok?" Chakotay asks.
"I believe so," Tuvok replies, poking it.
"I honestly think we got the worst of this dilemma, Tuvok," Chakotay says.
"Most definitely, Commander," Tuvok agrees.
"I think I had the worst of it, whooo," the Doctor says.