Ethical Considerations 1
Author: J.A. Toner

Spoiler: Right, wrong, or gray? What are the moral issues when fighting the Borg? Meanwhile, Harry Kim leads an away team to a derelict ship.

Prologue:

If the computer had been working the way it should have been, Naomi Wildman would have known her quarry was on Deck 5. She would not have needed to stop on Deck 8, at Astrometrics, where Megan Delaney told her that Seven and Icheb had gone to Engineering to help with the repairs. Or Deck 11, where a harried Lieutenant Torres told her to try Sickbay, because the Doctor had asked for Icheb's help again.

As it was, Naomi had to climb through the Jefferies tubes between Decks 11 and 8 twice, bypassing the section of turbolift damaged during the Borg attack that the engineering staff didn't expect to be able to get a chance to fix until tomorrow. They were spending the bulk of their time on the computer core and Engineering, where Borg modifications and stray bullets had played havoc with the ship's systems. They also had quite a time undoing their own "lock down" procedure, which made such unpleasant and unanticipated changes to the systems that a pregnant half-Klingon Chief Engineer was forced to work more overtime than she usually did. Little wonder, therefore, that by the time Naomi reached Deck 5, she stomped down the corridor.

All that changed when she reached the doorway to Sickbay. Remembering who was inside, Naomi's feelings of irritation washed away, into the category of "insignificant," as they deserved. There were heroes lying in there, and no one could say for sure if some of them would ever get down off their beds and walk away again. Not even the Doctor.

This door, at least, was still working right. Naomi stepped inside and stood by the door, watching the bustling medical staff for a few moments to see if she could sense when she might be able to approach without interrupting something they were doing. After a few minutes, she felt bold enough to say, "Hello, Doctor. How is she?" not bothering to define who "she" was. They would know.

"Much the same," the Doctor said quietly, checking the readouts on his medical tricorder.

In a way, she really had not needed to ask her question. The biobed, with its halo up and lights signaling that breathing support was being administered to the waxen form on its surface, provided enough of an answer. The fact that the EMH and Lieutenant Paris were both standing next to Marla Gilmore where she lay in her unnatural sleep, concerned looks upon their faces, confirmed her assumption.

"She's not breathing on her own yet?" Naomi asked in a soft undertone. It was hard to come in here, the way things were, and speak in a normal voice.

"Not yet, but we've been able to cut back on the percentage of oxygen without any ill effects. That's a good sign."

She was about to say more, but just as Lieutenant Paris turned around to check on Crewman Pierce, whose biobed was next to Marla's, an alarm went off. Lieutenant Paris frantically waved, and the Doctor whisked himself to the other side of Pierce's biobed. The young crewman's body was jerking in convulsions.

Naomi waited patiently while the Doctor and the lieutenant worked on their patient. She wished she could help in some way, but she was acutely aware of her own limitations when it came to helping with medical procedures. She thought about slipping off to look for Icheb elsewhere, but she was tired of wandering fruitlessly all over the ship. She could see he wasn't in Sickbay.

For a few feverish moments, it looked like Pierce had lost his battle to live, but finally, with the EMH and the senior medic both working on him, the crewman's condition stabilized-for the moment. As she observed both the Doctor and Lieutenant Paris relax, she asked, tentatively, "Do you know where . . . ?

"He's in the medical lab," Tom Paris responded with a smile.

"How do you know who I'm asking you about?"

"You were looking for Icheb-weren't you? B'Elanna commed me and said you were looking for him."

"She commed you? Is the system back up again?"

"Not totally, but B'Elanna managed to get it fixed first between Engineering and here. Funny, huh? Anyway, since she contacted me just before you came in, I figured that was why you were here."

"Yeah, it was," Naomi admitted sheepishly. "I didn't realize everyone was tracking me, that's all!"

As he moved from Ensign Golwat's bed, where he had been working, to the next in line, to check the vital signs of Ensign Bronowski, Tom said, kindly, "We're not tracking you. B'Elanna was bugging me about when I was going to be free for dinner. She mentioned you were going to nag Icheb about eating, too."

"Of course I am! He never eats a meal unless I make him eat." She said indignantly, then hesitated. "But if he's doing something really important, I guess I could come back and bother him about it later."

"You're not bothering him at all, Naomi. Eating is something he hasn't been doing of his own volition lately," sniffed the EMH. "In fact, I told him he should go to the Mess Hall over an hour ago, but he didn't want to go until he finished with an experiment."

"Then you can spare him for an hour or so?"

"Two hours, at least. Demand that he regenerate for an hour afterwards as well. It should refresh him. It's been almost a week. And then he can come back to the lab to work at his project."

"Two hours off, huh? You're all heart, Doc," Lieutenant Paris drawled, but his wink at Naomi reassured her that he was kidding. As she turned to go, she could hear the two of them bickering about duty rosters. Joking-and bickering-were par for the course when the two were together in Sickbay. And after all they'd been through together for the past few days, probably necessary.

As she entered Med Lab 1 and caught her first sight of her friend, Naomi felt her heart skip in that peculiar way it had developed lately whenever she was around him. A little flustered, Naomi slipped into what she and her mother both called her "busybody mode."

"You look exhausted, Icheb, and hungry, too. Time for dinner!" she scolded cheerfully.

He raised his head slightly. A second later he put it down again, as if he were too fatigued to hold it upright for longer, and said quietly, "I have two more samples to examine before I leave, or I will have to redo the experiment."

"Is there anything I can do? If both of us are working, maybe you'll be done faster."

"The equipment is doing the work now. Thank you for the offer." Naomi, encouraged by the wisp of a smile he sent her way, sat down at the work station next to his to wait for him.

"The Doctor told me he let you go to dinner an hour ago."

"I believe that would have been the last place you would have looked for me."

"You've got that right," she laughed. "The Doctor also gave me strict orders to tuck you into your regeneration cubicle after you've had a chance to eat. He wants you rested up so that you can work even harder after you get out of it. He's such a slave driver," she confided.

"That seems to be a popular condition on board this ship," he replied, with a sideways glance that made her laugh again. She enjoyed those few seconds of attention, even though that was all she got from him. A beeping sound from one of the control panels in front of him snatched it away from her again. As his fingers nimbly performed a series of procedures, followed by a second beeping, lower pitched than the first, Naomi watched him, stifling a little sigh. From the intense way he was working and with all of the people still needing treatment for injuries because of the attack, she knew it had to be a very important experiment.

She waited patiently until he raised his head again and stared in front of him, oblivious to her presence. His stare unnerved her a little. Finally, she broke the spell by asking, "Are both of your samples analyzed yet?"

He blinked and moved his head slightly, as if awakening from a deep sleep. "Not completely. However, I can recalibrate the instruments to finish by themselves now. Then we can leave."

"Well, then, recalibrate them, and let's get out of here! I'm hungry!"

"I will need only seconds to do what I need to do."

"OK," she said, mollified, and stood up to wait by the door while Icheb instructed the instruments to continue doing whatever he was having them do. She really needed to find out more about medical procedures. Both her mother and Lieutenant Paris were considered vital to Sickbay operations, she knew. She would have to add Medic courses to her "classes I need to take" list. It would be one way of spending a little more time with her friend Icheb. The thought cheered her up even more.

Naomi was unable to see Icheb's face as he worked. If she had, her upbeat mood may have vanished once again. The set of his mouth was grim; and just before he turned towards her, the far away look returned to his eyes. At that moment, Naomi had no idea that Icheb was not merely helping out the medical staff and caring for those still needing medical treatment after the Borg Elite Force attack. He was a Young Man with a Mission. And that mission would be successfully completed somehow, even if Icheb had to sacrifice more than he wished to accomplish it. It was his destiny.