Don't Worry

by Harriet Vane

B'Elanna is accused of a murder she can't remeber

Disclaimer: You know the drill, the people arn't mine byt the story is so don't send money and don't steel ideas. Get it? Got it? Good.

Prolog

"Tom, Tom!" B'Elanna said anxiously as she shook him awake. She had been woken up by a slight moaning. When she looked she realized that Tom was the one doing the moaning. He was in the middle of what appeared to be a very vivid nightmare. His face contorted slightly at whatever he was experiencing and a thin film of sweat covered his brow. Her gentile shaking was not having the desired effect, so she shook harder. "Tom," she insisted. "Your dreaming, wake up."

She was playing with the idea of replicating a glass of ice cold water and throwing it on him when all of a sudden he gasped and his eyes flew open. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, regaining his bearings and taking deep breaths, before he noticed B'Elanna looking down on him.

"Hey," he managed to gasp.

"Hey," she replied casually. "That must have been some dream."

Tom licked his lips and exhaled sharply. "Yeah."

"Wanna talk about it?"

He pushed himself into a sitting position and considered the question carefully, which sent B'Elanna's curiosity ablaze. In the end he realized that keeping it to himself would cause more trouble than that particular secret was worth. "Do you remember, years ago, when we had only been out here a couple of months and Harry and I went to this planet where I was tried and convicted of murder?"

"Of course," she said, putting her hand on his arm. She hadn't actually expected him to tell her.

"And the punishment for murder was . . ."

"See the murder through the eyes of the victim," B'Elanna said, remembering. "But I thought they took those memories out of you."

"They did," he assured her. "Kind of. I can't actually remember the events. But for weeks after the whole thing happened, I would remember them in my dreams. I told the doc about it, he said it was a residual effect, some kind of scaring of my subconscious, and there was nothing he could do."

"So in your nightmares you see yourself kill . . . yourself?"

He took a deep breath, "Pretty much, yeah."

She rubbed his arm softly, letting him know that she supported him. She had no idea how much that ment to him. "That's horrible," she offered.

Tom tryed to smile, to prove to her that he was fine. "It dosn't happen very often anymore. In fact I haven't had that dream for almost a year."

"Why do you think you had one tonight?"

"I have no idea."

Don't worry

B'Elanna's form materialized in the center of the sick bay. The doctor and Tom had been waiting, ready to jump to her aid, but they were not prepared for what they saw. B'Elanna had her Bath'lith in hand and was swinging it violently and recklessly in all directions. She must have seen that she was no longer in the Haases palace, and that the Haases guards were no longer attacking her. She was screaming badly slurred and indecipherable Klingon. Well, not quite indecipherable. Tom recognized a few choice words and he was very relieved that the universal translator decided not to catch them.

"B'Elanna!" Tom said, loudly, not daring to get close for fear of the Bath'lith. "B'Elanna, calm down!"

She continued to curse in Klingonese and blindly wage war with enemies only she could see.

"B'Elanna," Tom tried again.

"She can't hear you," The Doctor yelled, to be heard over the Klingon profanity. He had his medical tricorder pointed in her direction and a scowl on his face. "She's worked herself into a frenzy."

"What should we do?" Tom yelled back.

"Wait until she exhausts herself," the doctor replied, "and stay out of her way!"

Tom nodded and swallowed hard. B'Elanna was the one with the Bath'lith but still, to Tom, she looked helpless. She had a lost, frightened, look in her eyes. B'Elanna might lose her temper, but she never lost control like this unless something was seriously wrong. Add to this, she was cut in several places and Tom thought her right arm might be broken, or at least sprained, by the way the Bath'lith didn't quite flow when it was in that hand.

Finally, B'Elanna seemed to come into some sense of who and where she was. The Bath'lith clattered, harmlessly to the floor. Her eyes immediately found Tom's, and she started to say something, his name perhaps, but before she could force any sounds out of her mouth her knees gave way and she collapsed, falling to the floor in much the same manner as her Bath'lith.

In a heartbeat Tom ran over and pulled her in his arms. The Doctor was there a second latter scanning the Klingon as she trembled in Tom's embrace.

"Shhhhh," Tom said softly, pushing her disarrayed hair out of her face and trying to steady her quaking body. "It's ok, you're safe." If his voice was calm, his face was anything but. He looked at the Doc with eyes that were terrified for the well being of the woman he loved. He didn't ask what was wrong, at least not with his voice.

The Doctor was very professional, but not coldly so. Tom could tell by the tone of his holographic voice that B'Elanna would be fine. "Take her to a bio bed and cover her with a blanket," he ordered curtly.

"A Blanket?" Tom asked, as he scooped B'Elanna into his arms. She was a lot lighter than Tom would have guessed. A blanket seemed like a very simplistic medical treatment to a seemingly complicated medical problem.

"She's in shock." The doctor informed his medic. "We need to keep her warm."

Tom laid her down on the diagnostic bed and pulled the blanket folded at the foot of the bed over her still trembling body. He pulled the blanket up to her chin and then, in the same motion, brushed her cheek softly with the back of his hand. Like prince charming's kiss, that small touch broke the spell, at least in part. Her eye's fluttered open and she managed to say, with a voice strained from Klingon curses, "Tom, I'm sorry."

Those were not at all the words he had expected her to say. He assumed that she was apologizing for mindlessly swinging the Bath'lith in his general direction. "It's fine," Tom said. "We got you back, everything's great."

"No," B'Elanna said, shaking here head weakly. "No, Tom, please, I'm sorry."

Her eyes became frightened and distant again. Tom licked his lips in a near panic, "Doc! This blanket isn't cutting it!"

The Doctor walked up quickly and started drawing the Medical scanner over B'Elanna's body. The engineer didn't even acknowledge the doctor's presence.

"Tom, please. I'm sorry. Please."

Tom was too frightened by B'Elanna's weakness to answer her, or even look at her in the eyes. "Come on, Doc, what's the treatment?"

"*Mr.* Paris," The doctor said with a sigh. "I can't develop a treatment until I've discovered what is making her ill."

"Tom, please, Tom," B'Elanna called, reaching, with her voice, for support Tom wasn't sure he could give. "I'm so sorry, please, Tom."

"For God's sake," The doctor said, "Forgive her."

"I don't know why she's sorry," Tom shrugged.

"Well forgive her anyway!"

Tom looked at the Doctor, begging to be sent away from the situation. The Doctor's gaze made it quite clear that leaving was not an option. Tom took a deep breath and kneeled so that his eyes could meet B'Elanna's. "I'm so sorry, Tom," she whispered. Tears were flowing down her cheeks.

"For what?" Tom asked softly as he brushed some to the tears away.

B'Elanna paused for a moment, and blinked. Her eyes became a little more focused as she struggled to see something just beyond his shoulder. "I . . ." she rasped. "I don't know."

When Tom stepped onto bridge, he had the weight of the world, or at least the starship, on his shoulders.

"How's B'Elanna?" Harry asked, nervously. Tom's body language made it clear that 'good' would not be the answer.

"Sleeping," Tom responded, keeping his eyes far away from his best friend's.

Harry knew that it was an honest and, relatively, positive response, so he didn't pursue it any further.

Unfortunately, Captain Janeway would not let sleeping Klingon's lie. "Mr. Paris, do you think you could be a little more specific?"

Had any other person in the galaxy asked, he would have said 'no'. But his captain, who trusted him, had asked, and he wouldn't let her down. He took a deep breath and looked up at her. "She's in a state of shock, the Doctor doesn't know what caused it. The only thing we know for sure is that her brain chemistry is . . ." He paused, looking for a good word. "Erratic. All he could do is sedate her."

"Brain chemistry," The captain muttered. She was tempted to ask Tom to explain further, but even if his medical understanding made it possible to explain, Janeway doubted her medical understanding would make it possible for her to understand. "What types of behaviors would 'erratic' brain chemistry cause?"

"I'm not quite sure," Tom said. "My understanding is that it exaggerate emotions, makes them more powerful." He chuckled, trying to release the tension and dread he felt, but failing miserably. "Of course, B'Elanna's emotion's are usually pretty extreme to begin with."

The Captain nodded. She hadn't wanted to believed the obvious, but it was hard to deny. "Do you think her emotions could be so, imbalanced as to, commit murder?"

Tom's gut reaction was to say 'No!' B'Elanna couldn't have murdered anyone because he loved her, and she loved him. Tuvok would not have seen these as viable reasons, but they held firm with Tom. Or at least usually they would. But there were plenty of times that Tom had seen his lover a hair away from physical violence. Murder was not a stretch for B'Elanna Torres, especially if she was not working with a full deck. "Murder?" he asked, the unnamed fear suddenly found a title. "Who?"

"I just want to know if it could be possible?"

Tom blinked a few times and kept eye contact with the viewscreen. "Maybe," he said. "With B'Elanna's temper and her brain off kilter . . ." he turned his eyes back to his camptain, "Why, who was murdered?"

"The son of the royal Cartar of Haas."

"You're telling me that she killed that bastard prince Sen?!" Tom couldn't help but feel proud, and relived. Janeway scowled, probibly at Tom's refering to a planitary noble as a bastard and his obvious excitment over a murder, but she let him slide.

"That is what the Haases authorities are claiming." Tuvok supplied dryly.

"But that's not murder!" Tom told the Vulcan. "He kidnaped her, it was self defense."

One of Tuvok's damned Vulcan eyebrows shot up, "Was she kidnaped, Ensign? At this time, only yesterday, she informed the captain that she intended to leave the ship in favor of living with Prince Sen of Haas."

Tom remembered that all too well. Twenty-four hours ago he had been sitting at his station trying very hard not to worry about B'Elanna. She had been sent down on the away team to one of the largest markets on the bustling planet of Haas to shop for anti-matter and dilithium. Neelix had gone down to acquire food items, and the Captain and Seven of Nine to exchange information with some of the professors at the planet's most prestigious universities. The four were supposed to meet at the beam-in site three hours later. B'Elanna didn't show. Chakotay, Tuvok and a search party of security guards had beemed down to find her as Tom worried himself sick on the ship. The search parties hadn't even been gone for fifteen minutes when the transmission had come in. It was B'Elanna, and, according to her, She and Sen were going to be married. It had been surreal, even as it was happening. B'Elanna had been sitting there, talking very formally, thanking the captain for everything she had done, for all the opportunities she had given her, but she had meet some one she truly loved, a soul mate, and she wasn't going to leave him. Those words only took a few seconds for her to say but they took an eternity for Tom to hear. He had a thousand questions, including why. But his mind was so overwhelmed that he couldn't find words.

The Captain had been less than satisfied with B'Elanna's little announcement. "Are you serious?" Janeway had asked.

"Very serious."

"Naturally I don't want too just let you go."

"Will you try to stop me?" It had been an honest question, not a challenge. Ordinarily, Tom would have picked up on the remarkably uncharacteristic tone, but he was too distracted by the content of her message to bother with it's form.

Thankfully, Captain Janeway had been more doubtful. "No," she admitted casually. "But what about getting home, you're job, friends and family here on Voyager" she paused, "what about Tom?"

"I chose to stay here."

"You didn't answer any of my questions."

That's when Sen, who had been hovering near by throughout the transmission, stepped forward, "Captain, it is obvious that B'Elanna has made her decision. Why question it?"

"I'm not questioning her decision," Janeway lied, "I just want an explanation."

"She's happy!"

That comment had cut Tom like a knife. He loved B'Elanna, and she had said she loved him, maybe she had, maybe she hadn't, but she had said it. But he knew that he never really made her happy, at least not the reckless endless happiness that this guy, Sen seemed to give her. And despite himself, Tom wanted her to be happy. He wouldn't threaten that happiness by fighting for her. All he could do was close his eyes, bow his head, and pray he didn't burst into tears while still at the conn.

B'Elanna had requested that her things be transported to the surface, and she gave her fondest regards to the entire crew, not mentioning any one person. The screen had blipped back to the view of the planet. The captain didn't want to comply with her chief enginers wishes, but she knew that she had no choice but accomidate her. Regardless, Janeway had been seething while Tom had been crushed.

It occurred to Tom that maybe that was what B'Elanna had been apologizing for.

"That's something we're going to have to figure out," The Captain said stiffly. "The Haases government is demanding that we extradite B'Elanna for a trial. If we don't they're threatening an attack."

"Are they a threat?" Tom asked. He was willing to fight to the death to protect her, but he knew he couldn't expect anyone else to. Well, maybe Harry and Chakotay, but Tom wouldn't dream of asking.

"No," Tuvok clipped. "Voyager is twice a advanced as their most sophisticated technology. At warp eight we will be out of their territory withing an hour."

"Then let's go!" Tom urged. "With any luck we'll be out of their territory before they realize we're gone. And even if they did send ships after us they'd be no match for Voyager."

"No," the Captain said, giving Tom a scolding look. She remembered discussing Tom with his father when she was first considering the idea of taking him along on the mission to the bad lands. Admiral Owen Paris had just looked at her and said one thing. "Three things are true of my son; he finishes nothing, he respects nothing, and he will disappoint you. If that is the sort of man you want leading you, Kathryn, then you are welcome to him." With very few exceptions Kathryn Janeway had found her mentor to be dead wrong about his son. The present situation being one of the most notable of the exceptions. He wanted to run away and shrug the responsibility that B'Elanna, and the ship by proxy, had in the murder of a member of a key political figure. His Captain couldn't help but find herself disappointed in him. "*Ensign* Paris, if B'Elanna is truly guilty of murder, We'll have no choice but to give her over to the Haasses."

"You've got to be kidding me," Tom said resentfully.

"I'm dead serious. I can't afford to have a murderer on this ship."

"This is B'Elanna."

"I know who it is," the captain said in a hushed voice that was more frightening than a raised one. "And that's why it's so important that we find the truth about what happened down there."

Tom sighed and nodded. "Yes Captain," he said, mixing bitterness and respect perfectly, as only Tom Paris could.

"Now, when do you think she'll be able to tell us her side of the story?"

"It'll be a while. The Doc gave her a pretty large dose of axonaol. And even before that she was too traumatized to talk, her vocabulary didn't consist of much more than five words."

The Captain was about to ask what those words where when her com badge beeped. "Sickbay to the Bridge,"

"Janeway here, what is it doctor."

"I've found something very interesting. It may be the cause of B'Elanna's chemical imbalances."

Janeway nodded, even though the doctor couldn't see her. "I'll be right down, Janeway out." She looked at Tom, silently ordering him to accompany her. He silently obeyed.

"Oh my god!" Tom exclaimed as the door to the sick bay slid open and he could see how worse for wear B'Elanna really was. B'Elanna had been beat up when she was beamed up, but those had mostly been minor lacerations, Tom couldn't even tell where they had been. She should have looked normal, just sleeping, She was nothing like that.

Her trembling had turned from violent to muted, Tom assumed because she didn't have the energy to shake violently. She was pale, almost white, with the exception of multiple bruises. They were huge and roughly circular, varying from one to three inches in diameter. There was a bruise on the palm of each of her hands, ones on her chest and neck as well as a few smaller ones on both of her arms. The most frightening by far was a huge bruise that stemmed from her right temple and spread across her face like a spider web. They were a greenish gray color and looked frighteningly dark against her pale skin. "Doc what happened?"

"I gave her a dose of Arothormimean," the Doctor explained, annoyed at being blamed for B'Elanna's maladies when he was the one trying his best to heal them while Tom got to go to the bridge and report on her condition. "It was supposed to help stablise her brain's chemical production. And it did, however, within seconds these started forming."

"An allergic reaction to the Arothormimean?" Janeway asked.

"Not quite," The doctor said. "It is an adverse reaction to something in her body, but it's not anything that should be there in the first place. In the center of each bruise is a small puncture mark. Upon further investigation, I discovered an *unknown*, *biological* compound."

"And that's what upset her brain chemistry?"

"It stimulated parts of her brain that were not meant to be stimulated." The doctor said passionately. "Her erratic behavior is probably only one of the side effects."

"What could have injected her?" Tom asked, examining one of the bruised hands with an odd combination of concern, affection, and medical curriosity. "An insect? Thorns on a flower, maybe?"

"Captain, you were on the away mission." The Doctor said, apparently ignoring his medic. "With your permission I'd like to scan you for similar puncture marks

"I wasn't with B'Elanna."

"I realize that, but I have to assume that these scars are from something indigenous to the planet, and if it was an insect or some type of flora, as Mr. Paris suggested, I need to make sure that you were not infected as well."

Janeway sighed and nodded. The Doc swept her with his tricorder's scanner twice before giving an ominous 'hummm' and going over to his medical counsel. The two humans followed him, curious and concerned.

"Well Doctor?" Janeway asked nervously.

"You have a prick on the palm of your right hand, the exact same place B'Elanna was pricked. Yet there is no evidence of the compound in your body."

Janeway held her right hand up to her face, examining it more intensely than a palm reader. She didn't see anything.

"Do you have any idea how you could have gotten this?"

"No," Janeway said, baffled. A prick on the side of her arm or even the back of her hand she could conceive forgetting. But the palm of her hand . . . she felt she should remember.

Before the subject could be explored any further the ship was rocked with what could only be enemy fire. "Red Alert!" Commander Chakotay's voice cut clearly through all inter ship comm channels, "Battle stations. Captain to the bridge."

Janeway and Paris shared a quick glance that said 'we should be on the bridge,' before the Captain turned to the Doctor. "Keep monitoring B'Elanna." She said as they walked out the door. "Notify me if there are any new developments."

"We want B'Elanna Torres!" the Haases Captain said defiantly over the open comm line. He was a formidable looking figure, with greenish-gray skin that was the same tint as B'Elanna's bruises and a face and body that seemed to be entirely made of sharp points and hard edges. Regardless, his ship, and in fact the armada his ship lead, was less than threatening to Voyager. "She had murdered the son of our Grand Cattar we demand you hand her over to us."

Janeway looked at the viewscreen with a gaze as sharp and penetrating as a phaser. "I'd be perfectly willing to do that, as soon as I have proof that my crewmember did, in fact, commit murder."

That surprised the Haases Captain, "You have question? When you helped her escape did you not see that her body was covered with the son of our Grand Catar's blood!"

"Yes, and I also saw that she was covered in her own blood. Now, I believe that a horrible crime was committed, but until I know exactly what that was, I'm not going to hand her over to anyone."

"We will attack!"

"Go ahead," Janeway provoked, "You've scanned the ship. You know it would take over twenty of your ships to damage Voyager, not to mention destroy her." The expression of dread on the Haases Captain showed that he knew attacking Voyager would be suicide. "I don't want to fight you, and I don't want to harbor a murderer. But I do want to know what happened."

The Haases Captain took a beep breath, "What do you propose?"

"I want to send two people down to investigate the murder. If they find her guilty, then I'll turn her over to you."

"They are your people, of course they will find her innocent."

"Couldn't I say the same thing to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Haas obviously have a stake in proving that Torres is guilty. All I want to do is even the odds."

"You would have to speak to the Catar about that," the Haases Captain said.

"And until then?"

The Captain reset his jaw, as if he were trying to hold onto slipping dignity. He didn't need to for Janeway's sake. She respected his dignity and dedication immensely. "We'll stand down."

"Thank you," Janeway said.

The Captain blinked out only to be replaced by the view of the orangish red Haas. Janeway turned to her crew with determination. "Tuvok, Tom, my ready room."

Both men followed her into the room unquestioningly. Once they were in and the door slid shut behind them the Captain turned to them and started talking. "I want you two to go down to the planet and try and clear B'Elanna."

The two men were silent for a moment, both thinking that the Captain had made a mistake. But neither said a thing.

"I want you to find out exactly what happened to B'Elanna, everything she did and said during her day on the planet. More happened than the Haas are willing to admit, and I want to know what, and why."

Tom and Tuvok exchanged glances. Finally Tom licked his lips and stepped forward. "Captain," he hesitated for a second, utterly afraid of the response he thought his words would get.

"Yes, Mister Paris?" She said, drawing on his hesitation.

He smiled, laughed, looked away, took a deep breath, and returned his gaze to the captain, "I really don't think I'm the right person to send down there."

"We know that B'Elanna's medical condition factors into this. We need someone familiar with her condition to assist in the investigation."

"With all due respect, Captain," Tuvok said flatly. "Why not send the doctor?"

"I want to keep him up here to keep an eye on B'Elanna."

"I could do that," Tom insisted.

"Mr. Paris," the Captain said looking at him curiously, it wasn't a piercing look, but Tom couldn't stand up to even that. "I'm getting the impression that you don't want to go on this mission. May I ask why?"

"I'm not exactly an unbiased person where B'Elanna is concerned."

Janeway gave him a knowing smile, "We're looking for the facts, nothing else. I trust your integrity, Tom. You're going to pursue the facts, no matter where they lead." Her vioce softened, "But don't worrie, I have every faith that the facts will prove B'Elanna's innocence."

Tom wasn't sure that anyone had ever even implied that he might have integrity before. Janeway had trapped him with a complement, as she knew she could, and he would rather die than not live up to that standard. "Yes sir," he said soberly.

B'Elanna opened her eyes, it didn't gain her a thing. Sick bay was pitch black and she couldn't even see that she was in sick bay. "Hello?" she called out, her voice hourse and scratchy. There was no answer. "Is anyone there?" she said, just a little louder. Still no answer.

B'Elanna licked her lips and took a deep breath, trying to remember what could have happened to bring her to a place where she was utterly alone in the dark. She remembered, going down to the planet and haggling with a merchant about a couple of dilithium crystals. And then meeting a very charming, if a little pushy, arrogant, and self promoting, man and then . . . She was frightened, she found a communications panel she called Voyager and asked for help, and then she was attacked. She had fought them . . . with her Ba'th'lith. Then . . . Tom, he had been near her talking to her, stroking her hair. B'Elanna blinked several times, nothing made any sense. A person with cooler blood might have waited for a while, hoping the memories would come back eventually, but B'Elanna was anything but cool blooded. She pushed herself up and her head seemed to explode. Still, she pressed on. She pushed herself to a sitting position and became breathless in the process. After re-gaining her breath and her sense of balance, B'Elanna moved to stand up. Unfortunately, she didn't have as much balance as she thought she did. She pushed herself off the bed and in the next second she found herself on the ground. "Ahh," she cried, from surprise and frustration. At this point a door slid open and clear white light hit her like a brick wall.

"B'Elanna!" the doctor scolded as he rushed over to her. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"Why were all the lights off?" she demanded, blinking frantically as she tried to bring the doctor's face into focus. The door swished shut behind him and the room was darkness again.

"Computer lights," the doctor sighed and Sick bay was instantly illuminated. "You were sleeping," The Doctor told B'Elanna crossly as he hauled her to her feet. "I was trying to show you some courtesy."

"Tom," B'Elanna said desperately. "Where's Tom?"

"He's not here right now," The doctor said. "Now please, lie still, you need to rest."

"No, no," B'Elanna insisted, "you don't understand. I need to see Tom."

"I understand that you are severely injured and that, at present, Mr. Paris is on the planet trying to clear your name."

"Clear my name?" She, quite obviously, was confused.

When the doctor looked up her was not nearly so cross. "For murder."

It took a moment for the ramifications of what the Doctor said. "Murder?" she whispered.

"I'm afraid so."

B'Elanna was silent for a long time, trying to remember. She remembered being attacked, she might have killed someone, but that was self defense, wasn't it? The more she tried to remember the more confused she became. Her memories were clouded, confusing, and almost all emotions.

"B'Elanna," The Doctor said softly. "Can you remember anything?"

"No," she said softly as she shook her head. "Do you think I could talk to Tom . . . I have something very important to tell him."

"Well, If it's that your sorry," The doctor said as he put a neural stimulator on her neck and set it to monitor the chemical balance in her brain. "You've said it already."

"No," B'Elanna insisted, her mind slowly becoming less clouded. "There was something else but . . . I need to see him to remember."

The Doctor sighed. "I'm afraid that that's impossible. As I said before he's on the planet."

B'Elanna paled. "Which planet."

"The Planet Hass."

"NO!" B'Elanna practically screamed as she tried to throw herself off of the Bio-bed, thankfully, The doctor was much stronger than he looked. He did what only a few other crew members would have been able to, hold her back. "No, he can't be down there. That place is evil." She gasped desperately.

"Evil?" The doctor said skeptically.

After a moment, B'Elanna ran out of energy. She took a shaky breath and looked at the Doctor with passionately intense eyes. "I can't remember what happened, but I do remember how I felt."

"Oh really?" the doctor asked, with what most people would consider a rude tone. But B'Elanna knew him well enough to know that he was just distracted, trying to make her well. "And how would that be?"

"Fear," she said softly. "And pain."

"Wow," Tom said as they materialized in the Grand Catar's quarters. It was a huge room, made, apparently, entirely out of translucent crystals, so that the walls seemed to be made out of light. The light fell onto a floor that seemed to be made of fountains and islands of cushions, with only a few crystalline paths woven through them. The fountains were filled with colorful fish and the cushions were filled with people who, from the general murmur, seemed to all be holding intimate conversations. Tom could tell from a glance that most of the people on the cushions were women, scantily dressed women, but they didn't interest him one bit. In fact, he found them a little repulsive, because he knew that's how B'Elanna would see them.

"This is indeed impressive," Tuvok said, not sounding one bit impressed.

The pair didn't have much time to be impressed. A tall, husky, Haasen bounded up to them, smiling broadly. "Greetings and Welcome!" he said, as he grabbed each of their hands, respectively, and sandwiched them in between his. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Shanock the Grand Cartar's minister of extra-planetary affairs. I have been assigned to assist you in any way possible."

"I am Lieutenant-Commander Tuvok, and this is Ensign Paris."

"Most delighted to make your acquaintances!"

Tom licked his lips and looked at the man skeptically, "I don't mean to be rude Mr. Shanock, but we came down here to prove that B'Elanna Torres didn't murder Sen, the grand Cartar's son."

"I understand perfectly," The minister of extra-planetary affairs said, smiling. "Why would that make you rude?"

Tom laughed nervously, he felt like he was dealing with a hybrid Ferangi Cardassian. "If we succeed, someone on your planet is going to look pretty bad."

Shanock sobered, "We want the murder found and punished, if it is not your Torres, than we would rather look foolish than let a murderer run free."

"That is a very sensible perspective," Tuvok said, with some admiration. "But I am curious, what is the punishment for the murder of a Grand Cartars son?"

The Haasen smiled a cruel, almost Cardassian, smile. The kind of smile that sent chills down Tom's spine. "Insanity."

"I don't understand," Tuvok said flatly. The smile bothered him too, but not like it bothered Tom.

"We will inject the murderer with a serum that will drive them insane. It is a cruel punishment, but it is reserved for only the most heinous crimes."

An injection that drove a person insane, undobtabley because it distiurbed their brain chemistry. "Do you think I could get a sample of that stuff?" Tom asked, eagerly.

"Naturally, I'm here to provide for all your needs. We could provide you with a lab, if you need, so you could examine it for yourself."

Tom had planed on scanning the stuff with his tricorder and figuring out if it was the same stuff that B'Elanna had in her bloodstream. If they weren't the same, then he would have to bark up another tree. But if he had a lab he might be able to find a link between the stuff and what was in B'Elanna's body and then, maybe, find a cure. Tom felt fairly sure that he could do that, he had minored in bio-chem. "Sure, that'd be great."

"While Mr. Paris is doing that, I would like to see the scene of the murder and talk with some of the other investigators as quickly as possible."

"Of course," Shanock said, smiling a more Frirangi, less Cardassian smile. "I'll take you there right away, and then, if you don't mind the wait Mr. Paris, after that we'll find you a lab."

Tom nodded, "sounds good." It felt wrong, but it certainly sounded good.

They walked off of the platform and into the main rooms following the crystal paths around fountains and cushions. Once they were betwixt the cushions, the two starfleet officers got a better look at the people surrounding them and discovered that the slight murmur they had heard was not from having intimate conversations, but intimate relations. Each island of cushions had at least two, and up to five, women on it all caressing each other in sensual ways, moaning in ecstasy and pleasure. Tom found himself reminded of the cheap holo-porn his non-academy friends had shown him when he was on leave during his late teen years. He had been amused, if not aroused, then, now he was just disgusted. Tuvok, being less emotional, did not find himself repulsed but he would have admitted to feeling some somewhat uncomfortable had anyone asked.

"What are they doing?" Tom finally demanded of the extra-planetary minster once they were half way out of the huge room.

"Grieving."

"I've seen grieving before," Tom said, "And I've never seen anything like this, anything real anyway."

"They lost their husband," Shanock explained. "They were linked with him mentally as well as physically. When he died that link was broken. They must re-establish the link, or else they will become mad. They fall to each other because they do not know whom else to turn to. We asked you to materialize here so you could see one of many tragedies that have resulted from Sen's murder."

Tom had decided that the Haases were very much a cross between a Feringi and a Cardassian. They had all the smoothness and the sexual perversion of the Feringi and all the cruelty, cunning, and manipulative abilities of the Cardassians. The Haas were the worse of both worlds.

"Are you saying," Tom asked, "that all these women were Sens wives?"

"Yes, he had a harem of 120 when he died."

"And B'Elanna Torres was one of them?" Tom demanded, praying that the answer was no and he was just confused.

"Not quite, They didn't have a chance to get married."

"And she knew about all the rest of them?"

"Of course. It is the greatest of honors to be in the Catar's harem."

Tom looked out on the women who were acting obscene in order to cling to their sanity. B'Elanna could have been one of them, she had gotten damn close. That thought frightened Tom more than just about anything.

Chakotay popped his head into sick bay. The doctor had been on the bridge a mere twenty minutes ago, reporting on B'Elanna's status. Her brain had equalized itself and apart from some memory loss and disorientation, she had a full bill of health.

He could tell by Janeway's fidgeting that her first impulse was to run down and check on B'Elanna's condition herself. But the Captain restrained herself. It had been established a long time ago that Janeway would take care of Tom and Harry as long as Chakotay took care of B'Elanna. The arrangement worked, and while it was no longer needed it was still comfortable and expected. The Captain understood that B'Elanna would tell Chakotay anything, but she would try to tell the Captain what she wanted to hear. And if she couldn't do that, B'Elanna would say what she had to say in a way that the Captain wanted to hear. Right now Janeway felt the need for brutal honesty, so she took a deep breath and contented herself to wait as she sent Chakotay.

B'Elanna was sitting on bio-bed one with her back propped up against the diagnostic readout. She was looking at a padd, frowning, still covered in bruises, although they were much less defined. She didn't notice the door slide open and shut. The Doctor did however. He looked up to ask the Commander to 'please state the nature of the medical emergency' but he could see that Chakotay was there for a patient visit so he just smiled and went into his office as to allow them some privacy. B'Elanna was in desperate need of a visit. She was becoming testy and irritable, her blood pressure and heart rate were rising as a result. The Doc had scanned her and determined that her medical condition was anxiety induced. She was worried about the murder . . . and about Tom. She needed someone to calm her down, and short of the object of her worries, Chakotay was the perfect person to do that.

"So," he said lightly as he walked up to her. "What'cha reading?"

She jerked her head up from the padd, obviously startled. But once she saw who it was her expression softened, "Where the hell did you come from?" she demanded.

"The bridge." He replied, "I heard you were feeling better so I thought I'd stop buy and see if it was true."

B'Elanna nodded. "It could be true."

"Could be?"

"The question is, better than what? Better than I had been feeling, then I'd have to say yes. Better than normal, or even up to normal," she shook her head ever so slightly. "I'd have to say no."

If Chakotay wasn't the second in command he would make a damn good ships councilor. He looked at her with understanding eyes that couldn't help but be trusted. "You want to tell me about it?"

B'Elanna looked up at the ceiling, trying to get her bearings straight, figure out words that would be able to express what she was feeling and why she was feeling it without cheapening the emotion. Finally she managed to say, "I have this picture, in my head." She shifted her eyes to his, to accent the intensity of what she was about to communicate. "I don't know how I got it, but I know I didn't have it before I went down to the planet. Its almost as if I am remembering a dream I had on the planet. And now it's all I can think about. I close my eyes, and there it is."

"What's the picture of?"

She smiled, slightly ashamed, and glanced away. "Tom," she admitted. "I see him sitting at the helm and he's *looking* at me through a view screen with those damn blue eyes," she hesitated a split second, caught in the memory of his eyes. When she resumed her voice was much softer and she couldn't look Chakotay in the eye. "And he didn't say anything, he didn't have to. We both knew that, somehow, I had betrayed him and he is crushed. He keeps blinking, trying not to cry. And the worse part is I . . . I want to make things better, but I can't. It's too late."

Chakotay took the vision very seriously. B'Elanna had broken Tom's heart while she was on the planet, he had been on the planet when the transmission came, but he knew that the pilot had been on the bridge. He knew that conn was visible on transmissions from Voyager. B'Elanna could very well remember watching Tom after she told him, and the whole ship, that she was leaving.

"B'Elanna, I don't think that was a dream," Chakotay said kindly.

She blinked a few times in disbelief. "What are you talking about, I couldn't possibly have seen Tom."

"I realize that your memory's fragmented,"

"Fragmented," she scoffed. "It's non-existent."

"You contacted the ship and told us you were going to stay on the planet."

B'Elanna looked at him disbelievingly.

"I wasn't there at time, but it is my understanding that you told the Captain that you intended to stay on Haas," she still looked clueless, "And marry the grand Catar's son, Sen."

At that B'Elanna laughed. "You've got to be kidding," she said. Chakotay didn't break into a smile: B'Elanna started to feel very sick.

"Tom was on the bridge when you talked to the captain. He saw, and heard, everything. That has to be what you remember."

After a long period of silence where B'Elanna tried very hard to remember something and Chakotay stood next to her, silently offering her support. Finally she found something to say, "Chakotay, what happened down there?" She wasn't a brave Klingon warrior, or a brilliant starfleet engineer, she was a frightened girl a long way from home.

"Tom and Tuvok are on the planet trying to figure that out. I don't think I have to say that anything you can remember would help."

B'Elanna shook her head, "All there is is Tom's face." When she looked back up at him she had regained some of the fire in her eyes. She had discovered a problem, something that she could explore and possibly fix, and that was exactly what she needed. "How could a real memory like that seem like part of a dream?"

Chakotay's brow wrinkled with concern, because he had an answer to her question, and he didn't want to say it. B'Elanna, like any good friend, picked up on his hesitation. "Chakotay, what is it?"

He licked his lips and quickly collected himself. "I can remember everything I did while I was under the power of the Cooperative,"

"The group of Recidivist Borg?" B'Elanna asked, for clarification.

Chakotay nodded. No one blamed him for his actions, except himself. "But I remember it as if I were acting in a dream, only I couldn't wake up."

"You're not saying that you think I was connected with the Borg, are you?"

"No, but considering the situation I can't help but think that your selective amnesia could be caused by some sort of mind control."

"Wait a minute," B'Elanna said. She was quick with a warp drive, but when it came to herself she was usually one step behind. "Are you saying that, for some unknown reason, someone decided to, somehow, take control of my brain? They made me tell the Captain that I was leaving the crew, and then suddenly broke the telepathic hold on me only to have me attacked by a gaggle of palace guards? Forgive me if I don't think that sounds very probable."

Despite the engineer's tone, her scenario made a little too much sense. "What your forgetting," Chakotay insisted. "Is that you committed murder while you were down there." Some of the fire in B'Elanna's eyes were extinguished. "If someone wanted to kill a prince, but couldn't get close, or was afraid of being caught . . ."

"Getting weak-minded, little me to do it would be a chance too good to pass up." B'Elanna commented bitterly.

"Now all we have to figure out is who used you."

"And why."

"You witnessed the murder?" Tuvok asked, with some interest. Her name was Tine and she was the only witness. That was all Tuvok knew. They sat in a gray interrogation room with soft light. It was as drab and unemotional as any room could be, and suited the two people in it perfectly.

"Yes," the woman breathed. She was wearing all black, obviously grieving, but she did not seem consumed by the desperate need for some sort of connection, as all the other grieving women he had seen were. He assumed that she was not one of Sen's harem

"Would you mind explaining to me what you witnessed?"

"She had this . . . curved, metallic weapon of some kind. He tried to calm her down but she was set in her actions. She moved her weapon and slit his throat with the weapon's tip." She told him this with a voice almost as unemotional as his own. Accordingly, Tuvok was predisposed to trust her a little more than he trusted B'Elanna's emotional, fragmented account.

"Why were you present at all?"

"I went to meet the alien."

"Lt. Torres." Tuvok promoted, he was ignored.

"They had just finished making love. Sen and I talked, when she awoke . . ." her head tilted, silently implying that her first account picked up right about their.

"If I may be blunt . . ."

"I would expect no less."

"Why did you go to meet Lt. Torres during such an intimate time?"

"I could feel that Sen was upset, I knew I could help."

"Could you clarify that statement?"

She smiled for a moment, but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared. "I forgot that you would not know. I was Sen's first wife and the mother of his son and heir. As such, I have certain privileges, comforting Sen, no matter what the situation, is one of them."

Tuvok's eye brows shot up, "Than may I ask how you managed to keep you're sanity?"

"Excuse me?"

"All the other grieving wives I saw were suffering from what Mr.Shanock described as a broken link. You are obviously not suffering from any such thing."

"I am the only witness to the murder and the mother of the hair to the seat of Catar. I am far too valuable to let slip into insanity. The Catar authorized one of his priests to link with me."

Tuvok, like a good starfleet officer, did not judge. But he couldn't help but think that, this section at least, of the culture was not a culture he wanted to live in. Regardless, he had an investigation to complete. "May I ask why Sen needed comforting?"

"He was linked with her, he must have sensed her malicious intent." She looked at him, almost accusatively. "I doubt that you could understand."

"On the contrary," Tuvok said dryly. "Vulcans share a telepathic bond with their lifelong mates."

"Does your bond reach across the thousands of light-years between you and she?"

He took a sharp breath, he would never admit that what he felt when he thought about her and his children, and the seemingly insurmountable distance between them. "I can sense her presence at times, but those thoughts are . . . strained by the distance."

"I understand," she said candidly. "I can hear echos of Sen's voice every now and then. I've been told they will die down, but until then . . ."

"Janeway to Tuvok," his com badge blipped.

"Answer," Tine prompted.

Tuvok didn't hesitate to wonder if the beautiful woman in front of him, with whom he had found himself sharing intimate details, would consider the intrusion rude. "Tuvok here captain."

"How is the investigation going?"

"So far I have been gathering preliminary facts. I do not have enough information with which to formulate a hypothesis."

"We might be able to help you with that," The captain said. "Comander Chakotay thinks that B'Elanna was under some sort of telepathic control."

"Humm, that could account for her brain's imbalance as well as her uncharacteristic behavior."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Thank you Captain, I shall keep that under advisement."

"One more thing Tuvok."

"Yes sir."

"How is Tom's side of the investigation going?"

"I have not talked to Lt. Paris since we separated. However, I can tell you that he was investigating a Haases injection which allegedly causes insanity."

"I guess I'll just have to find out what kind of progress he's made myself. Keep up the good work, Janeway out."

"I apologize for the interruption," Tuvok said.

"T-ha-omm," Tine pronounced clumsily. "It's a name."

The Vulcan considered that a curious observation. "Indeed. Ensign Thomas Eugene Paris is the name of Voyager's chief Conn officer and supplementary medic. He is also the other starfleet officer investigating the murder."

She nodded. "The alien, Lt. Torres, said many words, vulgar, harsh sounding, words as she slaughtered my husband. Tom was one of them." She didn't sound cold or bitter or as if she were feeling any of the feelings she would be expected to feel. "I assumed they were words from her native tongue. I never guessed it would be another man's name."

Tuvok didn't quite know how to respond to that. "It is."

"I don't mean to pry, but may I ask the relationship between Tom and her?"

Tuvok paused a moment to consider how to answer that question. It was common knowledge on Voyager that the two were lovers. But still, he did not feel it was his place to explain that to this alien woman. "I would advise you to go ask him yourself."

"If you don't have any more questions, Mr. Tuvok, I would like to go talk to Tom."

"I have no more questions for you at present. However, I do request that you remain available for futher questioning."

"I live here in the palace. You'll be able to find me." She stood and started walking towards the door. As she was about to close it she turned, "It was very nice to meet you Mr. Tuvok."

Before he could reply she slipped out the door and left the Vulcan to sit and ponder the very unusual woman who had just left.

"Take a deep breath," Chakotay advised B'Elanna. She did and the sweet sent of pine filled her lungs. They were still in the sick bay, the captain wouldn't let her leave it, but the doctor had allowed Chakotay to burn therapeutic incense and dim the lights in order to create a relaxing mood where B'Elanna could remember more effectively. Once they realized that she had lived in a dream, or a nightmere, for the past day, the tacktects to make her remeber them had changed.

"Now," Chakotay said softly. "What sort of feelings did you feel while you were on the planet?"

B'Elanna took another deep breath of the pine-air and tryed to brake past the mental barriors she had erected to protect herself. "I'm not sure where to start."

"Why don't we start with you're memory of Tom," Chakotay sujested. He saw B'Elanna wince at the memory but to her credit she didn't stop.

"Ok," she said nervously.

"Can you discribe the seen for me?"

"I'm looking at Tom," she said, voice strained. "He lookes like I just killed him."

"The frist time you told me the story you said you were looking through a veiw screan."

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Can you expand from there, see the rest of the room?"

B'Elanna paused for a long time. As an enginer it was very importent for her to be able to visutalse things, little things, and expand from them to gain an understanding of not only how things work but why they worked. That was essentualy what she was doing now, only she was peicing together her life, not a warp core. "Ok," she sighed. "It's in a . . . bed room. . . . The room is huge, a circle with a diamiter of . . . about 20 feet." She started out slowly, remebering bits and pecies, but her naritive speed up as she remebered more and more. "It was made of . . . crysetl, and the light was coming through the walls. The only things in the room were a comm panel, and a bed." B'Elanna suddently relized that she had memorys of being in the bed, with a man that had to be Sen. She didn't vocalise those memorys. But Chakotay could hear the pain that they braught in her voice. "I remeber the man. He keept touching me, and I couldn't stop him. Every time I felt myself come to some . . . realization of who and where I was he would grab my hand and it would all disolve again. I felt like I was invisable. Standing there, waching everything, screaming for it to stop, but no one heard me."

"How much do you remeber?" Chakotay asked softly.

"To much," she managed to choke out.

"The murder?"

B'Elanna nodded, obviously trying not to cry. She took a deep breath, her sences had become numbed to the pine smell. "I remeber waking up, lieing in the bed. For some reason, everything was clear, clearer than it had been sinece I beemed down. The man was there and he was talking to another woman. I didn't really understand what was going on, but I had that image of Tom and I saw the comm panel and I knew I had to contact Voyager and get away. I mannaged to sneek out of the bed and get to the comm panel."

"That's when you contacted Voyager?"

B'Elanna paused. Her shaky memory started overlaping on itself. "I think so, but that dosn't make any sence."

"Why not?"

"Because when I contacted Voyager I had already killed him. I had his blood on my hands, I got some on the com panal."

"So then what happened."

There was a long time while B'Elanna tryed to remeber, but faild. Finally she sighed. "I don't know."

Chakotay nodded, supportitivly. "That's all right. Don't force yourself to remeber. It will come in time."

"Chakotay?"

"Yes?"

"What if it does and I remeber that I did . . . kill him."

"I'm not quite sure what your asking me."

"What if I did murder him, in cold blood? What if that's what Tom and Tuvok's investigation proves?"

Chakotay had an idea of the answer, but he didn't want to tell her that. "I'm sure that their investigation will find you fault less."

B'Elanna pushed herself up on her elbows and looked him straight in the eye. "I'm not so sure. I can't remeber much about what happened down there, but I do know that I would have done anything, including kill, to leave."

"If it was cold blooded murder, and not self defence, then the Captain would have no chioce but to hand you over to the Haases authoritys."

She would have a choice, they both knew it. Voyager could out fly and out fight an entier armada of Haases ships. And B'Elanna was already safe in the bowls of Voyager, they wouldn't even have to brake her out of prison. But there were rules that were both writen and implyed that the Captain could not brake, and that B'Elanna and Chakotay could not expect her to brake or resent her for not braking. In a very real sence the futer was out of Janeways hands. Everything was going to be determeind by Tom and Tuvok's investigation, and accrodingly by acctions B'Elanna couldn't even rember doing.

"Janeway to Paris," his comm badge chirped. "How's it going tom?"

"Slow," Tom admitted as he held a test tube of the clearish insanity serum up to the light. "I don't know enough about bio-chemistry on this planet to say anything for sure."

"Tuvok told us about a sort of injection . . ."

"Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. It's not what was in B'Elanna, but it's similar. I'm pretty sure that it works the same way once it's in a person's system. I sent the lab assistent they gave me to find out how they make the injection. I'm pretty sure once I know that, I'll know what happened to B'Elanna."

"Good. Commander Chakotay has an interesting theory I think you should keep in mind."

"I'm listening."

"He belives that while B'Elanna was on the planet someone somehow gaind telapathic controle over her."

"Makeing her commit the murder?"

"That would follow."

"It would also explain the unusual brain chemistry and memeory lose."

"Exactly."

"Looks like I have a-whole-nother road to investigate."

"Will that be a problem Tom?"

"I don't think so," he said as he, through his tricorder, attempted to brake the insanity syrum down into is base componets. "This kind of thing is a lot easyer to do than it sounds."

"Good then, Janeway . . ."

"Oh, and captain."

"Yes Mr. Paris?"

"Could, ah, could you tell B'Elanna . . ." he hesitated a moment, trying to figuer out just what of the one hundered and one things he wanted to say and she needed to hear was importent enough to have it conveyed throuhg the captain. "That she shouldn't worrie and I'll do what ever it takes to get her out of this."

Tom thought he could hear a smile in Janeway's voice when she answered. "I'll do that Tom, Janeway out."

Tom took a deep breath, for a moment his mind was set on B'Elanna and the last time he saw her. She was asleep, pail, with miscoulered bruses. His determination so set, he was about to dive back into his work, but was inturupted by someone at the door clearing her throught.

"Excuse me," she said, somewhat suductivly. Tom turned around to see a very beautiful Haasen dressed in a black catsuit standing in the doorway so he could see just why she should be whereing a cat-suite. Because of where his mind had been a moment before, he couldn't help but juxtapose this perfectly formed, exotic, seductress, with B'Elanna in her battered and brused state. The suductress didn't have a chance, but Tom wasn't going to let her know that until he knew just why he was worth seducing.

His eyebrows shot up in what he thought was an expression of causious intrest. "Can I help you?"

"You're name is Tom Paris."

"Yes, and what's yours?"

She giggled, but didn't answer. Instead she walked into the lab, looking at everyrhing but Tom, touching unused equipment and wall paneles indiscrimitly. "So, you're from a half a galixy away?"

"Yes."

"And you knew the Allian that killed Sen." She was circling him, Tom had to continualy turn around to keep her in his line of sight.

"Yes. Would you mind standing still? You're making me dizzy."

"Oh," she said softly as she quit turning circles and took a step towards Tom. "I wouldn't want to do that." She smiled up at him, and he smirked back.

"You can quit playing games," he said, looking down at her. She was invading his personal space in a major way, but he wasn't going to back away from her. "I've got too much work to do."

"Don't you want to relax?" She said putting her hand on his chest, making it very clear what acctivitys she considered relaxing.

He laughed nervously as he took her hand and pulled it off of his chest. "I'm afraid I don't find you very relaxing."

She drew away, and almost looked jelous. "You know that the allian . . ."

"Her name is B'Elanna," Tom corrected tursly.

"And Sen were to be married."

"Yeah," Tom said, nodding, setting up emotional deffences for the attack he could see coming a mile away. "I heard that."

"The were lovers. Did you know that?"

Hard blow, but not unexpected. "I kinda assumed."

"You and she, you two were lovers too. Weren't you?"

"I don't see how that's any of your buissness."

"Don't you want revenge?"

"You know, right now I'm currious about what *you* want."

"A conection."

Tom shook his head, thinking of the countless women in the room he and Tuvok had beamed-down into. He felt sorry for her, but not that sorry. "I'm afraid your going to have to look somewhere eles."

She looked away, almost on the verge of tears. "You don't understand."

Tom let her hand slip out of his, his pitty getting the better of him. "Look, I'm sorry." he said, holding his hands out infornt of him appoligeticaly. "But . . ."

His gaurd was down, and she took advantage of it. She turnd around quickly, and grabed one of his hands. He was so surprised that he didn't think to pull his hand away. He felt a prick on the palm of his hand that he should have conected with the pin pricks all over B'Elanna's body. But before that idea had a chance to enter Tom's brain it was pushed out by a bomboderment of sensations and thoughts that weren't unplesent, but neither were they his. He tryed to pull his hand away, and couldn't. "NO!" he insisted forcefully, resisting her phisicaly as well as mentaly. Unfortunetly, he was unprepared and inequiped and all his resistence was quicly overcome.

"The question is," Janeway said as she looked at the remaining comand staff. Chakotay, Harry, Seven, and Neelix filled out the tabel, and Tuvok through the comm panal. "Do we leave you down there, or bring you up here?"

"You know how I feel about mind-melds as a medical tequnique," The doctor said, his arms crossed and a frown on his face. "I don't want Mr. Tuvok to procied unless I'm there to monitor him, for his sake as well as Mr. Paris's."

"I agree with the doctor," Chakotay said nervously. "I don't like the idie of them staying down there. It's to dangerious."

"Are you talking about the medical prosiduer or the situation on the planet?" Tuvok asked.

"As far as I can tell, they are one and the same thing," Chakotay insisted. "The more I talk to B'Elanna the more I'm convinced that she was under some type of telapathic controle. After what's happend to Tom I think we can safely say that the Haases have menteal abilitys that, when inflicted on the human brain, can be very damaging."

"I've been going over the Haas phisiology," The Doctor said, "and as far as I can tell they do not have a brain structuer sutied for telepity."

"From my understanding of what the Haases have told me," Tuvok interjected. "They do not practaice Telepathy in the way we commoenly think of it."

"Well then how do they practiace Telepathy?" Janeway asked.

"If I understand it correctly it is a bond that accompanys marrage. Onec a man and woman join in marrage a telapathic link is formed between them."

"Captain," Seven of nine inturupted rather rudely. "That fact concures with our experiences at the Hasses University."

Janeway nodded, remebering her own trip to Haas. "Yes, we met two scientist and they were married. They never talked to one another but they seemed to always know what the other was thinking."

"They constently finished eachothers sentences," Seven suplimented.

"I assumed it was just because they had lived with eachother for so long and knew eachother that well."

"But in fact," Tuvok said. "They were communicating telapathicaly."

"How does this telapathic bond work?" Chakotay asked.

"My understanding is that the two parties involved inject eachother with a bio-chemical compoind which intigrates itself in their partners brain chemisty." Tuvok supplyed. He had been given a medical report on Tom's condition, which had quite clearly pointed to the bio-chemichel compound in his system as the problem. The doctors were surprised by Tuvok's inqueries as to the natuer of the bio-chemical compound, but they didn't think anything about his asking questions. They had nothing to hide. "This eventualy results in identical brain chemistry."

"Which resaults in a poor mans telepathy," The captain said filling in the rest.

"I do not understand what socio-echanomic status has to do with telepithy," Seven interjected, she was ignored.

"Doctor, I submit that the unusual biological compound you found in B'Elanna's brain when she beamed maches Sen's Bio-chemical signituer."

The Doctor nodded, things were beguining to make sence. "The prick marks all over B'Elanna's body must be where she was injected."

"She told me that every time she started to regain controle of herself he would touch her and she would lose it again. He must have been continuily injecting her with this compound in order to keep the telapathic link."

"This knowledg is all very useful in understanding what happend to B'Elanna," the Captain said. "But right now I think it's more importent that we discover what happened to Tom."

"Captain," Tuvok interjected. "I belive they are one and the same thing."

"But Tom's unconcious," Harry reminded them all. "B'Elanna wasn't."

"Regardless, Ensing Paris has a similer Bio-chemichal compound in his brain as well as pricks from injections on his left hand and right tempel. It is my belife that someone attacked him, knowing the influence Haases telepathy has on the human brain."

"So someone wanted to take Tom out of the pictuer," Harry suplied. "But why?"

"Perhaps he found something incriminating," The capatin suplyed.

"Doubtfull," Tuvok said. "He was attacked only moments after his communications with the ship. If he had found something, he would have told you."

"Maybe he found something, but didn't know it," Janeway said, her eyes lighting up with realization. "Harry, go over Tom's last comuniqe and see if there is anything that, in light of what we now know, could be considered a clue."

Harry nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"This still does not solve the problem of what to do with Mr. Paris," The doctor reminded them. "Even if their mallidies were caused by the same thing, the efects are drasticaly diffrent. I need to observe Tom before I can recommend a treatment. Expesualy a treatment as dangerous as a mind meald."

"Doctor, may I ask you a question?" Seven asked.

"Of course."

"What would be the advantage of monitering Commander Tuvok while he conductes the mind meld?"

The doctor looked nurvious for a second, "I would be able to moniter for any abnormalitys?"

"And if you detected abnomalitys, what would you do?"

The doctor simmulated a deep breath. "Mind melds are very delicat proseduers, I doubt that I would be able to do anything." He finally admitted.

"In wich case," Seven said cooly. "You're presents would not be requiered."

"Seven, what are you getting at?" Janeway asked.

"Ensing Paris's condition will not change if we beam him to the ship, nor will the only treatment currently availabel be any safer or more effective. It would be most efficent to leave him on the planet." She concluded, "that way he would not be detained in his investigation."

"You must be jokeing!" The Doctor yelled.

"I assuer you I am not."

"Even If Mr. Tuvok's prosiduer is totaly sucsessfull with no harmful side effects they will both need to recoperate."

"And while they recoperate, whoever perpitrated the crime will have time to hide the evidence," Chakotay pointed out. "I don't like it, but Seven is right. We can't afford to take them off of the planet."

"Captain," The Doctor said passionetly. "B'Elanna is signifigently better, but she is by no means well. Considering the man who assulted her was not intent on causing harm, and did, it's very unlikely that Mr. Paris would be in any condition to continue his investigation after he was violently assulted."

"If it dosn't work, we'ed just have to beam them up anyways." Harry pointed out, "It can't hurt to give them a chance."

The Doctor wanted to say that it could, but he saw in his captains eyes that that would be a mistake. He had lost the battel, and it was quite possible that Tom and Tuvok would be the ones paying the price.

"Go a head Tuvok," Janeway said. "But be careful."

The bridg was dark, eluminated only by a flashing red allert lighs and a staick filled vewi screan. Tuvok was slightly surprised to find himself on Voyager, but each mind meld experience was diffrent so his surprise did not make him hesitate.

"Computer," he called out, not knowing what kind answer he would get if he got an answer at all. "Locate ensing Paris."

"Go Away Tuvok!" Tom's voic said clearly.

"I'm here to help you."

"I never asked for your help," Tom insisted. "Go away."

"Where are you?"

There was no answer.

"If you do not come out willingly, I will be forced to find you."

There was a dry laugh. "Don't even try."

However, Tuvok was not about to be detered. Voyager was dead, but everything was working. The terbo lifts took him where he wanted to go and the door opened infront of him. It was as if the ship had been abandoned, not distroyed. The only signe of any violence were occasional schrached on the hall that looked as if they were made by some sort of big cat. They were random, and erratic, and had been most prevolent on the bridg, where eveyr station had been scrached, ruined.

After eliminating the bridg, the ready room and the confrence rooms from his list of where Paris could be hidding Tuvok was forced to use psychology and his understanding of the young piolet to figguer out just where he would be most likely to hide. There was his quarters, a nateral place for anyone to hide, somplace that was his-own, fimiler and safe. The Mess Hall, some place closely assosiated with others, and an open, easaly deffendable position. Sickbay, a place to be healed. The shutel bays, a place to excape. Than it accured to Tuvok that of all the people of the crew, Tom was the most likely to try and excape at any given time, and he rearly took a shutel. Tuvok didn't hesitate on his way to the holodecks, and he was even a little relived when the doors swished open before him and he was greated by Sandrien herself.

"What are you doing here?" the woman with a slight fench accent demanded. "This is a privet party."

"Could you please tell Mr. Paris that Commander Tuvok is here to see him."

"Tom is buissy, come back another time."

"I'm afraid this is ergent."

Another woman walked up, "Tom is very upset, I don't think he'll like getting a viator."

"He's not getting a visitor," Sandrine assured the second woman. "Mr. Tuvok, good buy."

"I will not leav until I see Mr. Paris."

"Then you will not leave. But don't expect me to feed you."

"Oh," a fimiller voice said, Both girls turnd around to see Tom limping up to them. He was leaning on a pool que and winced every time any wight was put on his right leg. But that appered to be the least of his ingerys. He had greenish gray bruses, just like B'Elanna's spreding accross the right side of his face and his left hand, wich looked like it had been smashed under a two tun bolder. The left side of his face had obviously been scrached by whatever beast attacked Voyager. In short he looked like hell, but that did not put a damper on his usuial calivler deminor. "You can let Tuvok in, he's a freind."

"It could be a trick Tom," the second girl reminded him.

"It's not." Tom said, his voice too firm to argue with.

"In that case," Sandrein said with a sigh, "What can I get you to drink?"

"Nothing," the vulcan said, walking past the imaginary holograms and towards the battered Paris. "I won't be staying long."

"Really?" Tom looked like his eye brows would have raised and his mouth form into a half smile if his face had been less damaged. "Then why stop in at all?"

"I've come to bring you back."

Tom lowered his head, shaking it slightly as he laughed but when his eyes became level again their was no mirth in them at all. "I'm not leaving."

"You have no choice."

"You can't drag me out."

"That is true, I can not."

"So it looks to me like I do have a choice." Tom replyed, definetly. He turned and started limping towards the pool table. A third very lovelly girl came up and helped him. Once at the tabel he looked at the balls, and added, "And I chose not to move," before making his shot.

"Surly you realisse this is not reality."

Tom didn't look at his commanding officer, instead he was focused on the game infront of him. "I realize that I was attacked by some sort of vicious black cat thing. I tryed to run, I tryed to fight, and in the end all I could do was hide out here."

"The Cat was not real. This is all in your mind."

"Funny, it doesn't feel like it's all in my mind, it feels real."

"If this is reality, where are the other members of the Voyager Crew?"

Tom looked up for a moment, then sruged and turned back to his game. "You're here."

"I am the only other *real* person you have seen since the cat attacked, am I not?"

"I don't see what that proves."

"It proves that you are now lieing unconcious in a medical center on the Planet Haas and I am currently communicating with you through a mind meld."

That got Tom's attention. He let the que slip out of his hands and leand on the table for support. "B'Elanna," he said softly as he started to remeber.

"She is counting on you, but you cannot help her from here."

"Look at me, Tuvok!" Tom said with an anger fuled by helplessness and pain. "I can't help anyone like this."

"That is not your true state," Tuvok said. "In reality your phisical body is fine."

"I'm confused," Tom said, his sholders slumping.

"If you accompany me to the bridg I will explain it all to you."

Tom took a step forward, then hesitated. "How do I know your who you say you are? You could be the cat in discise."

Tuvok walked down the few steps and came face to face with the ingered Tom. So close that he could see the pain and fear dancing accros his eyes. The Vulcan offered his strong arm for support. "You cannot. You will have you trust me."

"You've got to be kidding me," Tom said, his face almost smileing, his eyes not changing a bit.

"I assure you I am not."

Tom scaned the bar, wich was mostly filled with women, looking for some sign. "Don't go Tom," Sandrien warned him. "You can't trust a man with a poker face."

"Mr. Paris, may I remind you that if you stay you stand to lose your own life, as well as the life of the woman you love, but if you go all you will lose is an illusion of an illusion."

Tom blinked a few times, he stood to lose more than that. He could lose safetly and sicurity, comfort and wellbeing. He could quite easaly lose himself. But all in all, he felt that the payoff out wighed the potential loss. Besideds, Tuvok had always made him feel lucky. He took the vulcans hand and suddently the world exploded into light.

The light dimmed and Tom could see The vulcans face looking down on him, and he could feel the presuer of Tuvoks hands and the lingering remnets of multiple thoughts and feelings that wern't his. He blinked several times before he said the first thing that came to his mind. "Thanks."

B'Elanna sat in her bio-bed reading the reports on the warp engines for the last two days. She would set into it, and then her mind would start to wander, but she would continue to read. She couldn't help but think that the whole mess on Haas was her fault. Her eyes were fixed on the reeport but her mind strugeled to find some place where she could assing blaim on herself. It was eniterly imporbible in her mind that she had been victomised just because. She must have shown some weekness somewhere, a flashing red light that said, 'I'm an easy target'. She needed to figuer out what that flashing red light was, so she could turn it off. B'Elanna had always dispised weekness, she knew she shouldn't but it was a side effect of being natueraly strong.

The sick bay doors swished open and B'Elanna looked up from her pad, loosing her place. It didn't matter, she hadn't really read anything for the last two pages.

"Hey B'Elanna," Harry said with a smile as he walked with the Doctor behind him. "How's it going?"

"Absolutly nowhere," The enginer griped as she put down the pad. She took a deep breath and looked up, "how's Tom?"

"Back on his feet," Harry said with a smile, behind him the doc was obviously perterbed that he had been wrong. "We could set up a comm link with him if you'd like."

That had been a totaly unexpected offer. It shouldn't have been but B'Elanna was still acclimating herself to her life. She didn't feel like she had controle over herself, or any understanding of what had happend. She wasn't composed enough to know what to say or what to do. She wanted to see Tom, desperately, but over a comm line wouldn't be enough. She needed to acctualy see him, touch him, cry on his sholder and feel his arms around her. She also wanted him to lean on her and relax in her arms. She wanted to talk with him about the Haas, and the effects of their particular forms of telapithy. But she couldn't do any of that through a veiw screan. And it would only frustrate her to have that quasi-connection. "Thank's Harry," she said smileing. "But I think I'll pass."

"Suite you're self," Harry said. "We're going to be contacting him anyways, I just thought that you would want to say hi."

B'Elanna didn't asnwer him. She just sat still and quiet, reatreating into herself.

Harry looked at her, obviously consurned. But he didn't know what to do. She wasn't giving him any clues so he decided to do his job. He pushed a few bottons and then within a few seconds, a none-the-worse-for-weare Tom Paris was smileing up at him through a comm panel. B'Elanna could only see his forehead over Harry's sholder, but she could hear the conversation.

"So?" Tom asked casualy, "How are things up in orbit?"

"Pretty good," Harry admited. B'Elanna could tell by his voice that he was smileing. "The doctor and I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Oh, I'm fine. That is if you don't take the memory losse and the spliting head ach into consideration."

B'Elanna closed her eyes and lied down on the Bio-bed. She listed to Tom's voice very carefully, trying to imagain his expressions and movements.

"That's why you should be up here, not down there." The Doctoer mused bitterly as he looked at a record of Tom and Tuvoks present medical condition which had been sent to them by the Haases.

"How's B'Elanna doing?" Tom asked, his voice less jovile.

Harry glanced over his sholder to where B'Elanna was lieing, watching her minds eye intently. On Haas Tom was trying to see past Harry and get a glimps of his favorie enginer, but the veiw screan's resolution wasn't that good.

Harry tunrd back, "I think she's asleep."

Tom was obviusly disapointed, "Oh."

Licking his lips, Harry decided to press on. "Tom I was wondering if we could go over some of the information you colected before you were attacked."

Tom blinked a few times, as if coming out of a dream before replying, "Sure, but I didn't really colect much information."

"You mentiouned some sort of injection that leads to insanity?"

"Oh, yeah." Tom said, trying very hard to remeber. Everything that happend on the planet was fuzzy since his mental assult. "It was a bio-chemical compound . . . just like the stuff in B'Elanna. It stimulated the exact same part of the brain. As far as I can tell, the stuff in B'Elanna stumulated her (part of the brain A), when it wasn't supposed to be stimulated, wich was why she was so . . ." B'Elanna squeezed her eyes shut, affraid of Tom's choice of words. She didn't have to be. "Confused," he said at last, his voice soft and sad but he pressed on. "The insanity syrum, on the other hand, is desingned to distroy that part of the brain. For the record," Tom continued a hint of bitterness in his voice, "that was the part of the brain that my assailent attacked."

"The Haases brain has a very unusual structer," the doctor said from his office. "The (part of the brain A) is over developed."

Tom must have over heard because B'Elanna heard him respond. "Well isn't that normal? For a telapathich spiceies."

The doctor sighed in frustration about how little his medic knew. "No, Mr. Paris. Telepithy is usualy a result of a highly developed peracortex. A Haases'es brain is no more developed in that reagen than a humans."

"Tom, we think that the Haases telepithy is part of their maiting retulals. They inject eachother with the bio-chemical compound. In the Haases brain it results in the two parteners having the exactly same brain Chemistry."

"In humans the effect is a little diffrent." Tom replyed.

"We don't know this, but it's a working hypothisis."

"Grate, but that dosn't prove B'Elanna inocent."

"It proves that she was temporarily insane," Harry said. "She didn't know what she was doing."

There was a pause as Tom digestied that information. Finally he said, "Hey, doc."

"Yes,"

"What would it take to totaly erase a memory?"

"Totaly erase it?" the doctor looked up, accsessing the breadth and width of the federation medical data base. "Severe trauma would do it."

"How severe are we talking?" Tom said. B'Elanna could imagain the look in his eyes, the excitement that he was reighing in in fear of leting his hopes rise to high. "I can't rember my attack, or the five muinets prociding, and the entier time on Haas is fuzzy. And, last time I checked, B'Elanna couldn't remember the murder."

"Those are signifigantly traumatic experiences," the doctor said. "They could be easily repressed."

"I didn't say repressed, Doc, I said erased." Tom insisted. "Tuvok was in my mind, poking around. He would have stumbled accross memorys like that, it was erassed."

"Mr. Paris, I hardly think that you can . . ."

"Haven't you done everything you could think of to get B'Elanna to remember?"

"Look Tom," Harry started.

"Haven't you?"

"Yes," the doctor finally said.

"And she hasn't remembered a thing. I'm telling you doc, someone down here is commiting crimes and then erasing the victomes memorys."

"Are you sujesting that B'Elanna is the victome in this."

"She's lost a lot more than she gained," Tom said. B'Elanna could just emagian the way his head would tilt slightly to the left as he said it. "I think that's a desent deffinition of a victome."

Harry smiled, "I think I'm going to have to give you a dictionary for Christmas."

"Mr. Paris," the doctoer interjected. "How do you propose these memories were erased?"

"You're the doctor, not me."

B'Elanna could hear the doctor's frustraited sigh. It took all her self controle not to burst into laughter.

"Well," Harry said, ever the peace maker, "If this was Voyager, and the compuer's memory were errased, we might not be able to retrive the information, but we *would* be able to figuer out who errased it."

There was a moment of silence while all three men considered what Harry had said. "Doc, do you think you could reexamin the Bio-compound you found in B'Elanna," Tom said.

"What would I be looking for?"

"I'm going to send you the bio-signituer of my assailent." I'll bet you a week of replicator rations that you find the same signituer in B'Elanna."

"I'm a hologram, I don't have replicator rations," the doctoer informed his medic. B'Elanna could see the smile on Tom's face. No matter how bad the situation was, B'Elanna could alway count on him to make a joke and smile about it. She had hated that when they first met, it was so diffrent than how she reacted to problems. But now she found it oddly comforting to know that, no matter how bad things got, someone could always find a reason to smile, even if it was because things couldn't get worse.

"I'll be damned," Harry muttered as he looked over the doctor's sholder at two identical bio-chemical paterns, one from Tom, one from B'Elanna. "But that dosn't make any sence, I thought that Sen was the one who injected B'Elanna."

"Didn't you say that when people got married they'er brain chemistry became the same?"

"Yes," The doctoer said.

"What if one of Sen's wife attacked Tom," Harry pointed out. "Hypetheticaly she would have the same bio-chemical signituer."

"Great, we'ev narrowed it down to 120 people." Tom said with mock optimism.

"120?" Harry asked, amazed. "Sen had 120 wives?"

"Are you jellous Harry?"

Harry chuckeled, not betraying a thing. "We'ed better let you go, Tom, you have a lot of suspects to weed through."

The piolet sighed, obviously wanting to avoide returning to the investigation. "I don't suppose B'Elanna woke up?"

Harry glanced over his sholder. B'Elanna was sorrly tempted to pretend to wake up. Tom's voice was so longing, he wanted to see her, even over the comm screan, very badly. But she had set up the rues, and she didn't feel like she could step away from it.

"No, she's still sleeping."

B'Elanna tryed not to imagen Tom's disapointed nodd, but failed. "Alright, you'll take care of her until I get back, won't you Harry?"

"You bet."

"Thanks, Paris out."

From her position on the Bio-bed, B'Elanna took a slow shakie breath and heald back tears by shere force of will.

"Ok, Tuvok," Tom said rubbing his hands togerther. "Harry and the Doctor just made your job easyer."

"May I ask what you are talking about?" Tuvok said dryly as he sipped his tea. He was siting causiualy in front of a large window that looked out over the city in one of the countless guest swiets in the Haases royal palice. They had given it to the two starfleet officers the suiet in aticipation of a long investigation, Tom had been on the planet for ten houers, unconcious for six of them, and he had no intention of staying long enough to need to sleep.

"They think that the person who assulted me was one of Sen's wives."

Tuvok's eyebrows shot up. "That would fit with the informations we have presently. The question is" he paused as his mind started working. "Why?"

Tom shruged. "She was probibly just crazy, looking for someone to link with."

"Or she was trying to erase any evidence you might have found," Tuvok said. His voice was flat, but Tom could tell that he thought he was on to something.

"I didn't *find* any evidence. Harry's got a better idea of what's going on down here that I do."

"You did find evidence, most importent evidence," Tuvok assured him. "Not surprisingly, you were unaware of that fact."

Tom managed an insulted smile. "What do you mean, not surprisingly?"

"The information you uncovered did not seem vitel to us, becuas we did not fully understand it's signifigance, but the person who perpitrated the crime, and framed B'Elanna for it, did."

"B'Elanna was framed?" Tom felt like it was christmas, and Tuvok was Santa.

"I belive so, now we must arrange a meeting between all of the interested partys to see how the plot unwravels."

The transporter beam let go of B'Elanna and she wished it hadn't. She and the Captain were in a courtyard somewhere in the bowls of the Haases crystaline palice.

"Are you alright?" The capatin asked.

"I don't want to be here." B'Elanna breathed.

"Tuvok said you have nothing to worrie about," The Captain suddently remebered a forgoten message. "Come to think of it, so did Tom."

One of the Haases gaurds walked up to them and led them through a maze of hallways and passagways.

"Any of this look fimillier?" The captain asked.

"No," B'Elanna said softly, shaking her head. "I was only in one room, maybe two. I didn't exactly see the best side of the palice."

They were lead to a large set of wooden doors that could only, and did, lead to a large library with over stuffed chairs and a crackiling fiere in a huge fier place. But B'Elanna didn't see any of that. She saw the people who were standing there waiting for her: the Sen's first wife who had witnessed the murder, a man that looked a lot like Sen, who could only be the Grand Catar, A person whom B'Elanna didn't recognise, who happend to be Shanock the minister of extra-planitary affairs, a couple of sicurity gaurds, Tuvok, and the one person B'Elanna wanted to see most.

Their eye's met and, almost ironicly, Tom and B'Elanna were thinking the exact same thought. But they both had enough self restraint not to act on it.

"Now that all the intrested partys are present," Tuvok said, "I would like to review the facts."

"I thought you said you knew who had murdered my son!" the Grand Catar grunted authrotivly.

"I do."

"Then come out an tell us!" The Catar ordered. "Do not delay us with your over developed sence of drama."

Tom couldn't help but smirk at the Grand Catar's phrasing. It was true, Tuvok did have a flare for the dramatic, although he would never admit it. It was highly illogical.

"Very well then," Tuvok said, It was obvious that his whole de-vailing was thrown ofkilter by the Catar's demands. "Lt. Torres did not kill Sen, In fact it was his first wife, Tine."

"What?" the grand Catar said, voicing the words that were in almost everyone's mind. "How dare you accuse the mother of the futer grand Catar of murder!"

"I dare because it is the truth."

All eyes turned to the berived widow, who was apropriatly outraged. "I refuse to sit here and listen to you defain my name so you're crewmember may go free, no matter what she has done!"

"Ms. Tine," Tuvok said cooly, "You may claim inocents in the murder of your husband, And because of the surprising lack of evidence, you would be able to get away with it. However, you're assult on Mr. Paris revieled you're desier to surpress eveidence. And who would want to surpress evedence other than the guilty party."

"Do you have evedence, Mr. Tuvok?!" Tine demanded, obviously upset. But before he could respond, she started her own investigations.

"Mr. Paris, have you ever seen me before?"

Tom hated being put on the spot, "No," he finally stuttered.

"How could I have assulted him if this is the first time we have ever seen eachother."

"But it is not the first time you have seen eachother," Tuvok pointed out. "You were the one to discover his body."

"The fact remains, if I assulted him he would remeber me."

"Unless, of coures, you erased his memory. As you did Lt. Torres's." he turned to the Grand Catar. "Is it not suspisious that she was the first to discover both of these crimes?"

"Sircomstainiel," Tine said with a calm fuled by panic.

"True," Tuvok admited. "However, I would like you all to consider the following facts. We know that one of Sen's wives attacked Mr. Paris, because the bio-chemical signituer in his brain was identical to that of Sen, who could not possible have attacked him."

"My son was flippant," The Grand Catar said grufly. "He had over 120 wives."

"I am well aware of that fact. But could you please tell me how many of them were provided with a new mate to keep them sane?"

"Well, only Tine," Shanock said. "Not even the Grand Catar has enough preist for all of Sen's wives."

"She was the only of the wives who's thought prosses was clear enough to commit the crime."

"Mr. Tuvok," Tine said. She had been upset at first, now she was angry. The heat from the fier couldn't ward off the icey chill she was eminating. "The most likely identiy of Mr. Paris's assailien is one of those unfortunet women who had no one to bond with."

"I have alread considered that option. If that were true, his state should have been similler to that of Lt. Torres when she was forced to bond with Sen. Instead he was lieing unconcious, with all memorys of who had attacked him errased, just as all memoryes of who truly murdered Sen were erased from Lt. Torres's mind."

"Wait!" The Grand Catar said, standing up. He was a huge man, and had an imperial presents that could not be denighed. "All this talking is confusing me. What exactly are you accusing my *daughter*-in-law of doing."

Tuvok took a deep breath, finally able to revile his facts dramaticaly. "Your *daughter*-in-law murdered your son, fraimed Lt. Torres for the act and then errased the memory from the Lutenint, and then, when Ensing Paris conected the injection which causes insanity in your people with the bio-chemical compounds that are part of your mateing rituels, she knew that she would eventualy be found out. And so she assulted Mr. Paris in an effort to hide his findings."

"But why would Tom making that conection make a diffrence?" B'Elanna asked, she was terribly confused and her brain was still not up to par.

"Because, that would prove that you were not in sound mind when you commited the murder. If that was known, it would eventualy be discovered that you did not remeber the event, not because you commited the murder and chose not to inriminate youreself, but because you're memory had been erased. What Ms. Tine did not know was that we already had surmised that information. So her attempts were firutless."

"That's ludicrise," Tine said, some of her panic was showing through her calm.

"Is it?" Tuvok chalanged. "Mr. Paris, do you remeber your deffinition of a victome?"

"Yeah, sure," Tom said, a little mistified by the question. "Someone who lost more than they gained."

"Ms. Tine," Tuvok said. "Can you please tell me what you've lost?"

"My husband!"

"And what have you gained?"

"That is a horrible question to ask a widow!"

"You are no longer one wife amoge a hundered and twenty, you have defeated all of your rivels. You are now the main influence in the life of your planet's next leader. You have an honnord position in the corte, being the only widow who managed to remaine sane. In short your power has increased expidentialy while you're loss is minamal."

"It is still all sircomstantial," Tine insisted.

"You have motive, means, and oppritunity, to commit not one, but two crimes. No other person has those. You are the only logical suspect."

Tine knew it would be futiel to argue with Tuvok, so she turned to her father in law. "Grand Catar," she said, not quite despreatly, but with much more emotion than she had yet displayed. "You know that I could never do the things he has accused me of. My loyalty to your son, and your grandson is second to none."

"Considering the evedence, I have to wonder if it *was* second to your loyalty to yourself," the Grand Catar said. Hurt was apperent in his gruff voice. "Gaurds, please take her to her quarters and see that she does not leave them."

Tine did not make any acction to resite her escort, no did she spit out any bitter last words. But the look of contempte she gave Tuvok was cold enough to chill the entier room.

"Thankyou Mr. Tuvok," The Catar said half heartedly. "You sone light where there was darkness, and I can't say I'm happy but I am appricative." He turned to the Captain and B'Elanna. "Tine was my favorite of my son's wives, and I was very . . . upset when he told me he intented to add you to his harem. But, we pride ourselfs on being a just race. Even if I am not conviced that things occured as you say they did, Mr. Tuvok, I do belive that you, Mrs. Torres, are not at fault in the matter."

B'Elanna wasn't quite sure how to take that. In the end she nodded her head and said, "Thankyou."

With that he, and a train of his gaurds, left the room.

The exet of the grand Catar seemed to be a sign that the trouble was truly over. Tuvok satrted to strole towareds his captain, and Tom all but ran to B'Elanna. They didn't kiss, but he wraped his arms around her in an embrase that was much more affectionet and she returned it whole heartedly.

"See," Tom said softly, his head bowed so that his breath tickled her ear. "I told you not to worrie." B'Elanna's head was burried in Tom's chest, so no one saw how large her smile was.

The End