Chapter 2

Harry was crouched down next to the large holodeck console with his tricorder. "Confirmed, they're here. All of them."

Tuvok sat down as well. "If the physical patterns are stored here, and the neural patterns in all the other systems, how can we bring them together again?"

Harry frowned. "Theoretically it shouldn't be a problem. I can repair the damaged coils. But I'm afraid all the people with extensive knowledge about transporter resequencing are currently not available."

Tuvok stood. "We will make do with what we have, Ensign. Go to engineering and round up anyone who might be able to help. Have all the other departments report to me as soon as possible."

With that, he returned to the bridge. Harry felt like the entire ship had just been loaded off on his shoulders. Now I know what Commander Chakotay usually feels like.

Captain Janeway had changed her dress, and was now fidgeting with her hair. The Doctor was exploring the house, since he was somehow invisible to everyone else. A knock on the door startled her and made her drop some pins.

The Doctor slowly crept back into her room. "Don't worry, it's just me." When she returned to her grooming, he walked around a bit and started, "Captain, maybe you should fill me in on the story we're playing here. I'm not familiar with it. Are you a guest, like all the others?"

"Others?" Janeway turned in surprise. That was news.

"There is a large number of people about in the rooms downstairs. Apart from the servants, I mean. Other Lords and Ladies, I presume?"

"The hunting party..." Janeway whispered. "Of course! Well, Doctor, this should be interesting." I wonder who's who.

"Captain?"

"You see, in this era, all the nobility lived in their own manors, like this one. But for company, the largest and richest estates usually invited everyone else to stay for a few weeks. Around this time of year, the gentlemen meet to go hunting in the grounds."

"I see. And you...?"

"I live here... as the governess to Lord Burleigh's children. Beatrice and Henry," she added. She was now finished with her hair and looked out of the window. Windswept moors and crooked trees surrounded the old manor, a small brook went through the grounds and a small glade was situated just at the edge of the estate. In front of the house was a large and well-kept lawn. "They're quite extraordinary you will find..."

"So what is the plot of this novel?"

She turned. "What?" She knew exactly what he meant.

He stepped next to her and surveyed the grounds. It was obvious he did not see anything romantic in it at all. He wrinkled his nose. "If anything ever happens in this dreary place."

She sighed. "Well, you see... it's a romance novel."

He raised his eyebrows to hitherto unknown heights. "Oh... I see."

She tried to make it sound like it was nothing. "Lord Burleigh falls in love with the governess, although society would prefer him to marry someone his equal in standing," she said very quickly.

The Doctor looked doubtful. "Barbaric times," he huffed.

"But there's a lot more going on in this house than that. I am not entirely familiar with the plot, or all the people, for that matter. I was simply letting it play out. There's the thing about his wife, for example."

"He's married? Even more scandalous," the Doctor added sarcastically.

"She's dead."

"Oh."

"Or at least she's supposed to be. Beatrice thinks she's still alive. And that girl is strange as well. She can play the piano marvellously, but her father is unaware of it. I am guessing the mother could play. Then there's the housekeeper, Mrs. Templeton. She doesn't like me, in fact, she would like nothing better than to kick me out. And little Henry, well, he inherited his title as well as his arrogance."

"Pardon me, Captain, but you do this for recreation? No wonder you get headaches."

"Well, Doctor, you play golf, Tom Paris saves the world, and I like a little mystery."

He only rolled his eyes. "So how far along are we, in this little mystery?"

Janeway tapped a finger against her chin. "I only used it three times, the first time I was introduced and explicitly forbidden to go to the fourth floor. The second time I met the children. I started teaching them properly after that, and during that some time passed, I'd say a few months. Then Lord Burleigh..." she reddened a little, "declared he loved me. Shortly after that I never used it again."

"Fascinating," he said. "So, what do we do today?"

"First, I should make an appearance downstairs. After that, I teach the children. The men will be out hunting by now. Later, we have tea and dinner, and after that the guests assemble in the drawing room or the library. Nothing special, Doctor."

"I should certainly hope so."

"Kim to Commander Tuvok."

"Tuvok here."

"Could you come to the bridge? I think I'm making progress."

"Acknowledged."

Seconds later, the doors of the ready room opened, and Tuvok walked over to Harry's station. It looked weird, him using the Captain's ready room so naturally. But then again, he had a lot of reports to go through, so it was probably more comfortable than sitting on the bridge.

"It seems that communications is back online. Good work, Ensign."

"That's not all. With the help of Lieutenant Carey and some of his people from engineering, we've found a way to reassemble the away team members."

Tuvok nodded in appreciation. "Carry on."

"The only problem is, the data transfer is going to use a lot of energy – virtually everything we have. In order to maintain constant power during the procedure, we think it would be best to evacuate certain areas of the ship and cut life support there. With the rest of the ship on minimal energy, it should work." Harry pointed at several decks of the ship. "We can relocate most people from their quarters to the mess hall. We only need one transporter room from deck 4, the rest can be shut down; deck 8 is expendable as well. And that," he looked up, "should do the trick."

Tuvok looked over the schematics. "Proceed as soon as you're ready."

"Aye, Commander. Oh, and we have also distributed people on critical stations to replace our missing officers. Ensign Wildman is standing by in sickbay."

"Very good." He hit his combadge. "Tuvok to Janeway, do you read?"

Janeway jumped. She had just left her room, but now she dashed back into it and slammed the door shut. "Janeway here. Am I glad to hear you, Commander."

"Are you all right, Captain?"

"Yes, I'm fine. The Doctor told me what happened."

"Mr. Kim has found a way to bring the away team back. But it may take a while before we are ready."

"We don't have a lot of time. We just found out that the time speeds up when nothing relevant is happening. It was the middle of the night a minute ago, and now it's morning."

There was a pause. "Interesting. Can you keep the programme running for now?" Janeway rolled her eyes at his stoicism.

"I think that shouldn't be a problem..." she said, somewhat hesitant. She and the Doctor shared a look.

"Very well. I will contact you again when we are ready."

"Acknowledged. Janeway out."

A small smile played around the Doctor's lips. "We'll just have to make sure your day is full of relevant incidents, won't we?"

She threw him her best death glare.

Captain Janeway descended the large staircase. She tried to relax, but part of her was extremely nervous. It wasn't exactly like anything in the programme itself had changed, but knowing that she would run into one or the other from the away team any time soon made her heart race. The Doctor stayed in her vicinity, but had promised not to interrupt her in her routine, lest she should do or say something out of character. Everything was to run as smoothly as possible.

She turned towards the drawing room. The first thing she saw wasn't even such a big surprise. Naomi Wildman was sitting in a large armchair, needlework on her lap. Her hair was done up exactly the same way Beatrice's had been, she wore one of her usual dresses; the biggest distinction were obviously her Ktarian spikes.

She looked up when Janeway entered. "Good morning, Mrs Davenport."

"Good morning... Beatrice. How are you today?"

"I am well, thank you. Henry bids me tell you that our father took him along for the hunting party."

"He did! Isn't he a little too young for that?"

Naomi's voice took on a colder note than Janeway had ever heard. "That is for my father to decide. Now, what are we going to do for the day?"

Janeway was taken aback a little and swallowed. It was really strange seeing Naomi like this. "Well, I thought we should go upstairs to read... or maybe you would like to play the piano again?" she asked with a smile.

Beatrice started to say something rough, but checked herself. Seeing as they were alone, she answered quietly, "I would like that." She left her needlework on the chair and followed her governess out into the hall. When they reached the staircase, Janeway stopped abruptly.

Mrs Templeton stood at the top of the stairs, and the look she sent them over her thin glasses was one to freeze plasma. "Good morning."

Janeway mentally exhaled, seeing that at least one main character had stayed exactly what it was before. "Good morning, Mrs Templeton." The only problem was, if neither B'Elanna nor Seven had gotten the part, who were they?

They slowly ascended the stairs, and without another word turned into the school room. Janeway closed the door and Naomi – no, Beatrice – ran over to the bookcase. "I shall read first, Mrs Davenport. I am still not finished with The Odyssee."

How fitting, Janeway thought. She settled down on a large pillow in one of the window alcoves, and the girl sat down opposite her to read aloud from the book. The window faced south-east, so the sun was just starting to flow through the room. It was a beautiful day in late summer.

They stayed like this for a while, and she thought she could probably wait out the whole crisis just sitting there, listening, watching the dust float in the sun. But the programme was merciless: even now, during the day, time seemed to fly by much faster than it should. Before long, the Captain was startled out of her reverie by barking of dogs and men's voices downstairs. She tried to blink the sun and her weariness away.

Naomi's clear voice, endowed like the others with a strong English accent, still rang through the dry air. "O blind to fate! What led thy steps to rove the horrid mazes of this magic grove? Each friend you seek in yon enclosure lies, all lost their form, and habitants of sties. Think'st thou by wit to model their escape?"

"Fitting, indeed." Janeway jumped at the Doctor's quiet comment. She had a way of forgetting his presence, just as he had a very ungentle way of reminding her of it. When she looked up, she just noticed a dark form by the door disappear. She would recognise him by his movements, she realised, even if it wasn't truly him.

The Doctor followed her eyes. "He stood there for a while, actually."

Janeway silently rolled her eyes, but he continued. "And, if I may be so bold, you looked radiant just now. You should have no trouble... charming his Lordship. I must revoke my earlier opinion: the repose seems to become you."

Janeway brushed a stray hair behind her ear self-consciously. Too bad she couldn't answer him right now and tell him... well, what? He wasn't finished though. "However, I would appreciate it Captain, if you could try to keep this as professional as possible. I'm not sure how much his change in appearance affects your performance, but I..."

"It's part of the programme," she hissed.

Beatrice looked up. "Madame?"

The Doctor grinned rather smugly at her embarrassment. She recollected herself. "Oh nothing my dear. It was... just a stray thought that occurred to me. And I believe your father has returned. But carry on, if you please."

As the girl went back to her story, Janeway tried to spend as little thought as possible on the fact that the Doctor was right. Before, this had just been another holodeck character. But with Chakotay playing the part, the 'game' was taking a rather uncomfortable turn. Over the last few years, she had wondered a lot what it would be like to kiss him, knowing that she would never let herself get the chance. Now she knew she would, sooner or later, and she wasn't sure if it was such a good thing to know just what she was missing.

"Good morning, Mrs Davenport," came a rather dark voice from the door. Janeway's mouth fell in surprise. Henry?

"Icheb..." she whispered. Okay, this was becoming truly strange. At least Naomi was the right age. But Icheb?

"I am ready for my lessons. As my sister must have informed you, our father took me hunting."

"Y-yes, she informed me... thank you... my Lord."

He bowed slightly and squeezed himself behind one of the small school tables. Beatrice closed her book and joined him without a word. They both looked at their teacher expectantly. She still had trouble accepting Icheb as the tiny Henry she remembered.

"All right," she began, rubbing her temple for a moment. "Let's continue with mathematics today."

But Beatrice piped up, "I'd rather play the piano now."

"Beatrice!" hissed her brother. "Stop saying that. You cannot play."

"Yes I can," she spat. "Mother taught me. Just because she never taught you..."

"Mother is dead, Beatrice!"

"Children, please." Janeway raised a hand, but to no avail.

"No! She's not dead! I visit her! I know she's alive!"

"Children!" She tried her Captain's voice. This time it worked. They both looked at her sulkily. But then Beatrice said something new, something unexpected.

"Just come with me next time, up to the fourth floor, and I'll show you." She tried to say it quietly to her brother, but was still too angry to keep her voice down. Janeway pretended not to have heard and tried to begin with her lesson. Again, time passed quickly. Janeway had hardly started talking before they were disturbed again. It was getting a bit annoying, really.

"Beatrice? Henry?" Mrs Templeton leaned into the room. "You are wanted downstairs with the guests. It's time for tea." When Janeway started following them, she sneered, "Oh, Mrs Davenport, you needn't bother yourself today."

It was obviously just another infringement on courtesy, but this wasn't the time to argue. Janeway simply nodded, albeit a little arrogantly, and sent the children – or rather one child and one very misplaced adolescent - off with Mrs Templeton.

The Doctor followed them to the door. "Charming woman."

Janeway rolled her eyes. "At least you're enjoying yourself," she murmured.

"Aren't you?" He grinned. "It's your recreational programme after all."

She silently wished she could simply deactivate his programme just so he would shut up. But she was the captain, she would handle this professionally.

"You know what, Doctor? You're right. I'm not simply going to spend this entire time hidden away up here. And I don't care what that housekeeper says, I think it's time I mingled a little."

"Now you're talking," he said grinning, and followed her out of the door. He was already a few steps down the stairs when he noticed she wasn't following. She stood fixed, staring at a door at the end of the corridor. It was the staircase that led to the fourth floor. She wondered what had her so transfixed – and then it hit her. The door had been hidden; usually a large tapestry concealed the entrance, but not very well, and she had always known what was behind it. Someone had used that door recently. It stood slightly open.

"Captain? Are you coming?"

"Yes, yes, go ahead." She collected herself. It was not yet time to go up there; in fact, she had to avoid it as long as possible.

Her thoughts still occupied, she took the first step; the Doctor had reached the landing leading to the second floor. He turned around, as if in anticipation of what was about to happen.

Janeway felt the hair on her neck stand on end, she felt she was being watched. And just as she wanted to turn around, she heard the Doctor shout a warning; then she fell.