Chapter Two
TWO DAYS LATER
Exhausted and weak from lack of sleep and nourishment, Kathryn sat in her office and ploughed through Voyager's archives in the hope of finding something that would shed light on what was going on. For two days Dr Loraska and her team of specialists had been scanning Voyager's crew members, and of the seventy members who had been examined so far, only three more had proved to be CBRs...Chakotay, Seven and Tal Celes.
Suddenly, the door chime sounded and Kathryn looked away from her monitor. "Come in".
The doors opened and Voyager's former EMH entered. "If you don't mind me saying so," he began, "you look awful."
"I don't feel so good either," Kathryn replied, rather sarcastically, "but quit the small talk. What's the latest?"
Despite the reservations of Starfleet Command, Kathryn had insisted on the Doctor being brought into what was being dealt with as a classified investigation. Tests had shown that his program had not been tampered with, and his knowledge and experience of the Delta Quadrant would be of invaluable assistance. Starfleet Command had decided not to tell Voyager's crew the truth of what was happening, only that they they were being screened for a Delta Quadrant virus, and Kathryn had been obliged to play along. All who tested negative could go home.
"Dieter Willis has tested positive," the Doctor informed her, "but no one else so far."
"I see," Kathryn said, not sure whether she should be grateful only one more had been found or alarmed that there was yet another.
"And I don't think there will be any more," the Doctor stated.
"What makes you think that?"
The Doctor stepped closer, eager to share his thoughts. "If memory serves me rightly, and the memory of a hologram serves impeccably, five months ago Seven, Tal Celes and Dieter Willis accompanied Command Tuvok and Commander Chakotay on an away mission to an abandoned planet."
At those words, a bulb lit up inside Kathryn's foggy mind. "You're right," she said, getting to her feet. "Chakotay wanted to go there to explore ancient ruins. We lost contact with them for several hours."
"Perhaps because they'd been captured by aliens. A few hours may have been all the time these aliens needed to copy them."
"It certainly all makes sense...and would explain why both Seven and Tuvok suffered medical problems in the past few months that they never had before." The light in her eyes extinguished as suddenly as it had appeared, and she turned frustratingly to the window. "Damn it, why didn't I remember that away mission? It's not like Chakotay and Tal Celes went on away missions together every week!"
"Because, as always, you're pushing yourself too hard," the Doctor told her. "You haven't eaten or slept in two days.You must rest, Admiral."
"I know," Kathryn conceded. "I just...it's all too much to take in. For months, maybe longer, Chakotay and the others have been subjected to God knows what, while we've been getting on with our lives accepting bio-robots in their place."
"Very sophisticated bio-robots," the Doctor reminded her. "You can't blame yourself for this."
"No?" Kathryn asked, turning back to him. "Then who is to blame? I was closer to Chakotay, Tuvok and Seven than anyone else on Voyager. How could I not notice they'd been replaced? How could I not tell the difference between the real McCoy and a toy?"
"None of us could tell the difference," the Doctor answered. "If you want to blame someone, blame me. I was their physician. If someone should have realized they were CBRs, it should have been me. None of this is your fault, Admiral."
"I've betrayed them," Kathryn went on. "First, by not realizing they'd been replaced, and secondly by getting the crew home without them."
"Tuvok, Seven and Chakotay were part of the reason you risked everything to get Voyager home."
"For the genuine articles," Kathryn retorted, "not for breathing computers!" She paused, wiped her tired brow with her hand. "No matter which way you look at it, I'm at least partly to blame. We wouldn't be here now if I, at some point in some future, hadn't jumped back in time on an almighty crusade to get Voyager home earlier. In that future I clearly had no more idea that those I cared most about were copy-cat machines than I did in this one. If we blame her...the Admiral...for us being home, the blame lies with me, because in some God forsaken future, I was her. If we don't blame her, because she didn't know those she was trying to save were bio-robots, the blame still lies with me for going along with her plan. Either way, the fault is mine. If she hadn't turned up, we'd still be in the Delta Quadrant, and if I hadn't listened to her, we'd still be there."
"And still ignorant of what has happened," the Doctor reasoned. "As you yourself said, it was clearly never discovered in the Admiral's future that Seven and the others had been replaced by CBRs. We only know now because Tuvok went to see Dr Loraska. In the Admiral's future, he evidently did not."
"Well," Kathryn continued, "now we know, we can do something about it."
The Doctor frowned. "How do you mean?"
"We can work on finding them."
With infinite sadness in his eyes, the Doctor reached out and put a kind hand on her shoulder. "We've lost them, Admiral."
Kathryn shook her head and shrugged him loose. "I'm not accepting that."
"You have to," the Doctor cried. "Even if they're still alive, even if we knew where they were, they're on the other side of the galaxy. There's no way we can reach them."
"So we do what?" Kathryn asked angrily. "Give up on them? Forget about them?"
"I cared about them too," the Doctor answered sincerely, "more than you know. But there's no way of helping them, Admiral. It's impossible."
"That is not a word in my vocabulary," Kathryn replied. "There's always a way when there's a will, and I have a will of iron."
"But Admiral..."
"I don't want to hear it," she interrupted. "I'm not giving up on them, Doctor. And thanks to you, I now have a lead. If they were abducted on that away mission, it's just possible that someone on Neelix's settlement will know something about the species that took them." She turned back to her desk, studied the time on her monitor, and spoke again. "Not yet ten hundred hours. I haven't missed our daily window to the Delta Quadrant. I'll see if I can catch Neelix as soon as it opens."
"I really don't think you should entertain this..."
But before the Doctor could finish, Kathryn interrupted again. "I told you, Doctor, I don't want to hear it. If you can't say anything useful, don't say anything at all."
"Admiral..."
"Good day!"
Realising he was fighting a losing battle, the Doctor gave up. "I'll be with Dr Loraska if anyone asks for me."
"Understood," Kathryn said, sitting down at her desk and beginning to work.
As she did so, the Doctor watched her in concern. For seven years he had seen her respond to a crisis this way, by going into denial and working herself to the bone, but at least then there had been some hope of deliverance. Never had any situation been as hopeless as this one. Determination and courage could win a battle, but will-power alone could not whisk them thousands of light years across the galaxy to rescue those who could, as much as he hated to think on it, be long dead. As the Doctor left the room, all he could hope was that Kathryn would see the folly of her reason and accept what had to be accepted.
"Admiral," Neelix smiled as he finally responded to a hail Kathryn had been sending him for the best part of five minutes. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you today...was just getting ready to go swimming with Brax...but I'm glad to hear from you any time."
"This isn't a social call," Kathryn said, more abruptly than she intended as precious minutes of communication time were ticking away. "I need your help."
"Glad to be of assistance in any way I can. How can I help?"
"Can you find out if anyone on your settlement knows anything about a species in nearby space who abducts members of other races and puts bio-robots in their place?"
"As a matter of fact," Neelix answered, "Cartin...that's a new friend of mine...was telling me only the other day of stories he'd heard as a boy about beings who..." Alarm filled Neelix's eyes as a thought occurred to him. "Have some of Voyager's crew been taken and replaced with bio-robots?"
"Just tell me what your friend says," Kathryn said, avoiding the question. "We're running out of time."
"They have, haven't they?" Neelix continued. "Who, how many?"
Seeing she would get no further information from him until she obliged him, Kathryn yielded. "A handful. But it's classified, understood? You must not tell anyone."
"Understood," Neelix said quietly.
"Now, please," Kathryn begged. "Tell me what your friend said."
"Not much," Neelix informed her, "just that he'd heard stories as a boy of beings who roam this region of space collecting specimens of other races and putting lookalike robots in their place. The Collectors, he called them. But it's just a story. No one has ever seen them."
"Right now, a story is as good as a fact. Try and find out all you can about these collectors."
"I will, Admiral," he answered. "And will send you..."
He never had a chance to finish his sentence as the connection terminated.
Feeling as though she was a robot herself, Kathryn stood beside Chakotay's techno-counterpart and gazed at his sleeping face. In every way he was identical to her former First Officer, from the lines on his face to the shape of his fingers. It was so hard to accept that this Chakotay, who she had been talking to only a few days ago, was nothing more than an imitation, an empty vessel. As she gazed at the image of the man who had been her rock, her harbor, her shelter, a man who she had silently loved for so long, a lump closed her throat and tears stung her eyes. But she would not cry, she would not grieve. There was every chance that Chakotay was still alive...Tuvok, Seven, and the others too. And until she knew for certain they were not, she would believe that it was only distance, and not death, that separated them.
"Uncanny how lifelike they are, isn't it?"
The voice belonged to Admiral Maylor. For a moment Kathryn made no reply, then she spoke. "What is to become of them?"
"Once we have finished studying them, which won't be for some time, they will be destroyed."
It was the answer Kathryn had expected, but the words still hurt her heart. Even though the CBRs were not real, they had seemed so real, and had been as real a member of her crew as those they imitated. "It's a shame," the Admiral continued, "as they are a marvel, but we don't know who made them or for what purpose. We can't risk the security of the Federation." He paused. "As everyone thinks, including the media, that Commander Chakotay and the others have been isolated here at the Sanatorium due to a virus, in due time we'll tell their loved ones they've died. They'll never be any the wiser."
Kathryn turned to him. "Why not tell them the truth?"
"What would be the point? It's better this way...for us and for them. There are bound to be questions about this virus, but when no civilian catches it, interest will fade. But if we inform the media that Commander Chakotay and the others were abducted by aliens and replaced with bio-robots, there's no telling what the reaction would be. Mass hysteria, unlikely, but a media frenzy, certainly. We'd also be setting ourselves up for years of people claiming to be bio-robots or know those who are. As to the families, it's kinder to let them think their loved ones came home and they got to spend some time with them before they died."
He was right, Kathryn knew he was right, but she was still not ready to accept any of this.
"Don't stay too long," the Admiral said, putting his hand on her shoulder in a farewell gesture. "Access is meant to be restricted to myself and medical personnel only."
With that, he left the room, leaving Kathryn alone with the shell of her former First Officer. When he was gone, Kathryn tentatively reached out and brushed her fingers over the robot's temple tattoo. "I won't give up, Chakotay," she said quietly, "I promise. Where ever you are, whatever it takes, I'll find you and bring you home."