Tom. I am really disappointed in you. I never thought that any son of mine…

The Doctor turned off the monitor and sighed. He hated roadblocks and surprises. There was no way anyone could have predicted this. He also hated passing on bad news because The Commander already had a lot on his plate getting the crew back together but he had insisted on updates.

"Sickbay to Commander Chakotay."

"Chakotay here. Any change?"

"I'm afraid not. I just received disturbing news from the planet. I will need to speak to you and Lieutenant Torres," The Doctor said. He was not looking forward to this. One after the other the members of the crew had responded to the treatment except one and that one was now lying sedated in his sickbay.

Even though the possibility was slight he rechecked the scan to see if there was something he could have missed. It told him nothing new. Something was preventing him from realigning the engrams into their proper sequence. If he didn't know any better he would think someone had put up some kind of protective barrier around them but why? New procedures floated around in his databank but the possible side effects made him dismiss them automatically. Playing around with memory could be tricky. Nightmares and dreams could be translated as actual events and real memories reduced to dreams or forgotten altogether.

The opening door interrupted his thoughts. Chakotay's was still in command of the ship. The Captain was resting from the after effects of the treatment but the Doctor was confident her mind would stabilize by the end of the day. Her second in command had endured a great deal over the past few days but B'Elanna's trials were even worse. She had come in here time and time again in expectation of a happy reunion only to be met with disappointment. She immediately rushed to Tom's side.

"What is wrong? Why isn't it working?" She asked. She clenched her jaws and pounded her fists against the side of the bed. Tom didn't respond. The Doctor considered giving her a sedative but then brushed the notion aside. Dealing with mixed species individuals was risky. Anything he gave her might affect her unborn child.

"According to the investigators on Quarra Tom was sent back to the hospital multiple times. They don't know why. It's possible that since they knew nothing about human neural functions they may have used him for experimentation," he said. He considered his next words carefully. "It's possible his memory functions may have been permanently damaged."

"But he knew me. I'm sure he did. He was always looking out for me...he was in there!" B'Elanna insisted. Her voice was strained. The Doctor felt for her. As the memories of the rest of the crew had returned she had been forced to stand on the sideline witnessing their reawakening as her husband remained in a state of neural lockdown.

"His memories should still exist but unfortunately for some reason his engrams are not responding in the same way as the rest of the crew," The Doctor said. "I'm going to need permission to visit the planet and look over their research. In the meantime I'm doing some experimenting myself," he said. B'Elanna's face turned to stone. "Nothing that will harm him I assure you," He added quickly.

"You have my permission to do anything you need to do fix this," Chakotay said. "I'm confident the Captain will agree as soon as she is able to resume command." Walking over to B'Elanna he placed a hand on her shoulder gently guiding her away.

I'm sorry. Tom. The rest of them didn't make it."
Lt. Thomas Eugene Paris is hereby resolved of any wrongdoing…"
Tomas Eugene Paris is hereby dishonorably discharged…

Tom groaned in his sleep. His body jerked. Shaking his head back and forth he put hands up against the light. Only then did he open his eyes. The EMH removed the cortical stimulator that he had fine-tuned for this experiment. Consciousness was usually a good sign but he held a hypospray full of sedatives in his other hand just in case.

"Doctor!" Tom said. The EMH smiled.

"Well at least you know who I am. Do you know where you are?"

"I'm on Voyager."

"What is the last thing you remember?"

"I think I was being transported."

"Good. Good. Do you know what happened?"

"I...had some weird dreams."

"We can talk about that later." He said. "Suffice it to say that your memories have been scrambled and I'm just trying to put them back where they belong. I just did a little tweaking. You are in no danger."

"I'm sorry Doctor."

"Sorry Mr. Paris? For what?"

"I...I know you wanted me to take things in here more seriously and I didn't. I know...it was frustrating for you. I could have had a better attitude about it. I'm sorry. I'll do better."

"Mr. Paris. It's alright I assure you. You needn't worry about that right now."

Tom's hands started to tremble. His eyes were watering.

"I'm really really sorry," he said.

"I accept your apology Mr. Paris," said the Doctor. He glanced over at the monitor. The screen displayed an erratic scan. He had never seen anything like it. He did another quick search of his databanks and came up with a theory. "Why don't you...rest for a while?"

"I think I will. It goes quiet when I'm asleep."

"What goes quiet?" Asked the Doctor.

"The bad things."

"What 'bad things' Mr. Paris?"

Tom did not reply. His eyes darted about the room. He was clearly becoming more agitated by the second.

The Doctor screwed up his face in frustration as he administered the sedative.

"Bad things," He mused to himself.

Thomas Eugene Paris, you are hereby sentenced…