Chapter 2

If it wasn't for the fact that he had made an oath (okay, it had been made for him during his programming, but he would gladly make it if it was required) not to harm a person, he just might have done some serious damage to Reg Barclay. Who had been the idiot who had thought it a good idea to declare the man space-worthy?

It had not taken Reg too long to realise he was the only man (except for the Doctor) on the ship. The Doctor reflected that this discovery would have had Tom Paris jumping for joy. But not Reg Barclay. For the past day – since his recovery and subsequent discovery – he had been cowering in the sickbay, annoying the Doctor.

The Doctor didn't have time for this. The ship had lost about half its crew with all the men gone and the Doctor was one of two who knew about it. Reg was the other one, but he was no help.

For the past few hours the Doctor had been going through the logs, trying to discover where everything had gone wrong. So far he had found little, but then again: he was a doctor, not a detective.

What he had found was not so much evidence as anomalies. The first anomaly was that seven days ago there was a gap in the logs. For three-point-two hours there had been no computer entries made throughout the ship. It was almost as if everyone had gone to sleep for that time. The second thing was that after that gap there were no further entries made by male members of the crew. Whatever had happened here had happened in that time.

"But why would they leave the ship?" he wondered out loud. Reg – who had been hovering – bent over to look at the screen.

"You should take this to the Captain and let him deal with it," the man said in a small voice.

The Doctor sighed. "I told you, the Captain is one of the men that has disappeared. You," and he looked at Reg while raising his eyebrows, "are the only man left on board." He returned to his workstation. "Unfortunately for me."

Now Reg was in a flat spin. "If the Captain is gone, then who is in charge of the ship!" he shrieked.

The Doctor sighed. "Admiral Janeway. Now please, calm down."

Reg wasn't placated. "But she isn't Captain!" he stressed.

The Doctor shrugged. "She has done this before, you know. It's not as if being the Captain of Voyager is something new to her." Really, why did it have to be Reg Barclay? Perhaps he could knock him out with a sedative, the Doctor wondered for just an instant.

Then he sighed. No, he had more important things to do. He had an idea, but it would take some time to put it together.

"Reg, perhaps we can save this, but I'm going to need your help," he told the nervous man.

#####

In the end the difficult part had not been setting the scene for the meeting, but getting the Admiral, B'Elanna and Libby to come to holo-deck 1. But finally the three women were seated at what was a precise replica of the briefing room just off the bridge. He could see the three women were a bit confused, but that was only to be expected.

"You are probably wondering why I have brought you here," he started his speech. "Seeing as a dedicated Doctor like myself hardly need any theatrics to prove a point." He saw B'Elanna roll her eyes, but he ignored her. "The thing is..."

"Just get on with it, Doctor," Janeway interrupted. He frowned a little bit. There it was again: that subtle hint of aggression he had noticed before in her. Janeway had always had the penchant for being a bit brusque, but now – as well as when he had been on the bridge earlier – she had seemed almost rude. And even he could feel the air of suppressed violence surrounding her.

So he nodded, having learned long ago not to annoy her if he wanted to keep her attention. She had muted him once – and that had not even been a bad day for her!

"Very well," he amended his speech. He paced a little. "I have gone back over the logs and found a couple of anomalies. The first is a gap in the logs. On stardate 57840.1 there had been no entries in the log for more than three hours. And after that time the crew had been depleted by half." He took a deep breath. "After that time only the female members of the crew remained." He thought about that for an instant. "As well as Mister Barclay," he amended.

"Mister Barclay?" Janeway asked.

"Yes. He was in sick-bay in stasis at the time."

"Please, Doctor, we do not have time for any more theatrics. The ship is understaffed and all of us have too much to do to sit around here, listening to your speech." By the end of the sentence Janeway seemed angry. There was definitely something wrong with her; and it was more than just stress.

He tapped his com-badge. "Reg, you can come in now," he said. Nothing happened. He sighed, rolled his eyes and tapped his badge again. "Reg!" he snapped.

It took a moment, but then the door opened and a careful Reg Barclay entered. He came to stand next to the Doctor.

"Hello, Admiral," he shyly said.

Janeway frowned. "Who is this?" she demanded, gesturing at Reg.

The man cringed; a look of utter misery on his face. "Admiral, I am Reg Barclay," he told her. "I am your assistant."

Janeway looked at him, still frowning. "I have never seen this man before," she informed the Doctor. He nodded.

"Actually, you have. As well as this man," he said. As he and Reg had programmed the holo-deck, the holographic doppelganger of Chakotay appeared the moment the Doctor snapped his fingers. A bit dramatic, he knew, but he needed to capture their attention.

The holographic Chakotay greeted Janeway and went to sit on the seat to her right – where the real Chakotay had sat for seven years. The Doctor had decided he needed to jolt the human's memories, so he had programmed this scene to have elements of both the past and the present.

"This is Chakotay," the Doctor explained. "A Maquis rebel you chased to the Delta quadrant. There he became your first in command and recently you – um – became lovers," he stumbled over the last part.

"I have never seen this man, either," Janeway said.

"I know," the Doctor replied. He turned to B'Elanna and snapped his fingers. Tom Paris appeared, holding a bunch of flowers. The hologram gave them to B'Elanna and sat down next to her, smiling. "This is your husband, Tom Paris," the Doctor told B'Elanna.

The woman frowned. "I sincerely doubt that," she snapped. "I think I would have remembered marrying someone," she continued in a sneer.

"Nevertheless," the Doctor told her, "this is your husband; and Miral's father."

The half-Klingon sneered at the Doctor. "Leave Miral out of this!"

So, the Doctor reflected, it wasn't just Janeway that was overly-sensitive and aggressive.

Finally he turned to the last person he had invited here: Libby Kim. He snapped his fingers and Harry appeared. He too had a bunch of flowers, which he gave to Libby.

"This is your husband," the Doctor told Libby.

Before he could say more, Janeway suddenly exploded in rage.

"Enough!" she commanded. "I will hear no more of this nonsense. Doctor, I expect you to report to your station immediately!" She turned to B'Elanna and Libby. "You as well," she told them. She looked slightly up. "Computer," she demanded, "delete characters!"

Chakotay, Tom and Harry disappeared. She looked at the Doctor. "End program!" she said. Instantly the four women, Reg and the Doctor stood in the empty holo-deck.

This had not gone as well as he had hoped, the doctor reflected.