Episode 3: Exposure
"First officer's log, Stardate 48527.4. We have left the Bitani homeworld. The ship is in far better condition than it was when we arrived. All systems are fully functional except for the transporters. The Bitani also gave us medical supplies and enough real food to last three months off that alone."
"You know, you don't actually have to keep logs like that," Chakotay said, leaning against the doorframe and looking over with amusement toward Janeway at the desk.
Janeway chuckled. She hadn't heard him come in. "Force of habit."
"I suppose some organization doesn't hurt," Chakotay said. "But do you really want to leave records of all the Starfleet regulations you're violating?" He grinned at her.
"At least they'll know which things to court-martial me over," Janeway replied.
"Care to head to the mess hall and have a cup of motchi?" Chakotay asked.
"Oh, yes," Janeway said, standing up and following him out. It wasn't coffee, but much sweeter. Although she prefered her coffee black, she'd certainly take what she could get. "Has there been any luck in growing our own?"
"Kes and Gerron have been working on it," Chakotay said. "Have you seen the new airponics bay?"
"Shouldn't that be 'aeroponics'?" Janeway replied.
Chakotay shrugged. "Whatever it is, they're looking to see if they can cultivate some of the plants the Bitani gave us in order to supplement our food supplies. Who knows how long before the replicator goes out? B'Elanna tried fixing it with some parts from the cannibalized transporter, but it didn't seem to help much."
"Captain," came Tuvok's voice over the comm. "I've picked up a distress signal from a nearby system."
"Well, it's not really our business, but we might as well see if we can help," Chakotay said. "But be cautious. Any sign of more trouble than we can handle, and we're gone."
"Understood," Tuvok replied.
"I guess the motchi can wait," Janeway said.
"A small vessel," Tuvok said. "One lifeform on board. The vessel does not appear damaged, but the being's lifesigns are weak."
"Perhaps wounded, and escaped," Chakotay said. "Bring it on board."
Since the ship wasn't responding to their hails and appeared to be adrift, they tractored it on board into the shuttle bay. Chakotay wondered if the alien had been fleeing from the Kazon, or had been injured in some way.
Chakotay went down to the shuttle bay, along with Janeway, Tuvok, and Neelix. Dr. Smithee joined them there as well. The vessel they'd picked up was smooth and rounded, smaller than a shuttlecraft, perhaps little more than a glorified escape pod. Without any warp engines, there was no way that it could have originated from out of system. It must have launched from a larger ship that had been in the system, or from a base somewhere nearby.
"Open it up," Chakotay said.
After a bit of poking at it, they got the craft's hatch to whoosh open. Laying on the floor inside, there was a gray-skinned alien with four curved horns on top of his head. There were no visible signs of injury, although he did not appear to be conscious. Off to one side, there was a small tray of red flowers sitting on a shelf.
"A Kunar?" Neelix said, looking at the alien.
"What's wrong with him?" Chakotay wondered.
Smithee approached with a medical tricorder as Janeway went over to examine the flowers. "I'm detecting no signs of external injury, however, his internal organs appear to be shutting down."
"What, is he sick or something?" Chakotay asked.
"My best guess would be that this is some sort of disease," Smithee said.
"Is it contagious?" Janeway asked in alarm, looking up from the flowers.
"If it is, we may have already been infected," Tuvok said. "I would like to point out that it is for reasons like this that Starfleet safety protocols exist."
Chakotay grunted in annoyance. "Get our guest to sickbay and try to find out what's wrong with him."
"Of course," Smithee said, nodding to him.
"We should also quarantine ourselves to ensure that we will not infect the rest of the crew," Tuvok said.
"I'm not going to argue, this time," Chakotay said. "But if it's airborne, there's not much that can be done. The air in this room is already being circulated."
Smithee did thorough scans of them and shook her head. "I'm not detecting any sort of bacteria or viruses that might cause problems for the species on board the ship. No need to panic."
"Good," Chakotay said.
"I would feel more comfortable if we had an actual doctor on board the ship," Tuvok said.
Chakotay glared at the Vulcan in irritation. "Right, let's just request one from the nearest starbase, why don't we?"
Damned Starfleet. He might have a point sometimes, but Chakotay didn't need to be criticized over what he had no control over. Ann Smithee might not be Starfleet trained, but she knew more about medicine than anyone else on the ship, even if that might not really be saying much.
Janeway sneezed, and everyone present looked to her in concern. "Relax, it was just a sneeze."
"Just a sneeze," Chakotay repeated.
Janeway sniffled a little as she looked over the data on the Kunar and his vessel. What a time to get a cold. She was stuck in sickbay with everyone afraid that she'd caught some alien disease. She supposed that she couldn't blame them, but there was work to be doing!
"Do we have any idea where the craft originated from?" Janeway asked Chakotay over the comm.
"There's no habitable planets in this system," Chakotay replied. "We did a thorough scan, and didn't come up with any nearby bases, either. He must have been on a ship passing through the system."
"And, what, they just left him here because he was dying or something?" Janeway said.
"Perhaps trying to minimize contamination among their own crew," Chakotay said.
"Tuvok's right, you know," Janeway said. "Without a medical expert on the crew, we're going to need to be especially careful."
"We can't be spending hours checking and decontaminating every time we come to a new planet," Chakotay said, sneezing.
"Why can't we?" Janeway said. "And don't tell me you're sneezing now, too?"
"I do hope this is nothing serious," Chakotay said, sighing as he turned away from the screen to glance about himself. "Because everyone on the bridge is sniffling now except for Tuvok."
"This isn't good," Janeway said, frowning worriedly. "And if that's the case, then I have no reason to be stuck in here. Whatever this is, it's already out of the bag."
Kes's voice came over the comm. "Kes to sickbay. Gerron just collapsed in the airponics bay."
"I'll help bring him in," Janeway said toward Smithee, who nodded back.
Janeway left sickbay and hurried out down the corridor. The space that had been converted into the airponics bay was on the same level as sickbay, in an unused laboratory. In between the rows of small plants, the Bajoran man lay prone on the floor.
"He's having difficulty breathing," Kes said.
"Come, help me get him to sickbay," Janeway said.
Between the two of them, they carried the man back down the corridor, and put him on a biobed in sickbay.
Smithee came over and scanned him with the medical tricorder. "This is no good. He needs oxygen!"
"I'm on it," Janeway said, pulling out an oxygen mask and placing it over the Bajoran's face.
Smithee injected him with a hypospray. "Whatever is wrong, it seems to affect Bajorans more strongly than humans. Doesn't seem to have affected Vulcans or Klingons at all."
Janeway pulled up the crew manifest and glanced over it. "There are three other Bajorans on the ship. We'd better make sure they're alright, and haven't passed out alone in their quarters."
She notified Chakotay, and quickly arranged to send small groups after each of the Bajorans, leaving Janeway and Kes to go see to Seska. They found the Bajoran woman in her quarters, reading a datapad and coughing a bit, but otherwise seeming alright.
"Is there a problem?" Seska asked.
"We need to get you to sickbay, Seska," Janeway said.
"I'm fine," Seska said. "It's just a bit of a cough."
"Still, best to be on the safe side and get you checked up," Janeway said.
"Gerron passed out while we were working," Kes said.
"Absolutely not," Seska said. "It's against my religion."
Janeway stared at her, and raised an eyebrow. "The other Bajorans don't seem to have any problems with being examined by a human."
"Well, of course Gerron couldn't complain, if he were unconscious," Seska pointed out.
"Look, people could be dying here," Janeway said. She could respect an alien culture's beliefs, but had to wonder at the dangerous and self-destructive lengths some took them to.
"I'd rather not see you die just because you refused to get examined," Kes added.
"Is it really that bad?" Seska said.
"We don't know yet," Janeway said.
"Gerron was pretty bad, though," Kes said. "He could hardly breathe."
Janeway hoped that Seska could see reason. They had few enough crew members left as it was. They didn't need anyone dying for no good reason. Janeway hoped that the woman's foolishness didn't cost her her life.
Seska coughed heavily. She didn't sound good. "A little cough isn't going to kill me. But alright, alright, I'm going."
Janeway and Kes helped her to sickbay. At least she could still walk.
Once in sickbay, Smithee came over to examine her, giving her a thorough scan with the medical tricorder. "Hmm..." Smithee said.
"How are the patients doing, Doc?" Chakotay asked.
"Recovering a bit once I got the masks on them," Smithee said. "But I'm getting peculiar readings from this one. How odd."
"Peculiar how?" Janeway wondered.
"She's not Bajoran at all," Smithee said. "She's Cardassian."
"What?" Chakotay exclaimed, looking accusingly toward Seska.
Janeway frowned deeply and turned her gaze back to Seska's semi-conscious form. A Cardassian? Really?
"No, no," Seska insisted through coughing. "I had Orkell's disease when I was young. I got a transfusion from a Cardassian woman named Kattell."
"Really," Smithee said. "So they slurped up the entire Cardassian and shoved her into you, did they?"
"Come on, Chakotay, you know me," Seska rasped.
"And that's why it hurts all the more to think that you're a Cardassian spy."
"She could have been surgically altered in order to infiltrate the Maquis," Smithee said. "I'm detecting too much Cardassian in her for her to really be what she appears to be."
"Damn this," Chakotay muttered.
"No wonder she was so reluctant to come to sickbay," Janeway said.
Chakotay turned to Smithee and said, "Don't waste our drugs on this traitor. Nor your time."
"I wasn't going to," Smithee said, turning back to tend the Bajorans. "Damned Cardassians. I'm a scientist, not a doctor. I don't have any oaths or obligations to help anyone I don't want to."
"You're just going to leave her to die?" Kes said incredulously.
"I can't say I was ever fond of the Cardassians myself," Janeway said, looking between Chakotay and Smithee in shock. "But she's sick and needs help!"
"Your damned Federation gave over our worlds to the Cardassians," Chakotay said. "And then declared us outlaws when we refused to accept that. But I'm not about to find myself bowing to the Federation all the way out here in the Delta Quadrant."
"Kes, help me out here," Janeway said, grabbing an oxygen mask and putting it over Seska's face, and Kes moved to assist her. She wasn't about to stand by and allow someone to die like this, and Seska was barely conscious as it was.
"If you save her, her life is on your hands," Chakotay said. "You're going to take full responsibility for any harm she might cause in the future."
"Fine," Janeway said. "I'm not going to let her die."
Janeway was no doctor herself, but even she could tell that Seska's condition was starting to stabilize once the mask was on her. At least she wasn't getting any worse, for the moment.
B'Elanna looked through the Kunar ship, irritated that she was having to do this with Tuvok. Just because they were both immune to whatever was going on, why did she have to work with the traitor Vulcan? It's not like there weren't other Vulcans on the ship!
And while she was busy at work on the ship's computer, he was scanning the stupid flowers that the alien had been carrying. "Stop smelling the flowers and help me with this, Starfleet!"
"I am merely examining all possible avenues of infection," Tuvok replied smoothly.
"They're flowers," B'Elanna snarled.
"They are also emitting a pollen that-"
"If you're not going to help, then get out," B'Elanna snapped.
Tuvok gazed at her for a few moments, before turning and quietly leaving the craft with the box of flowers. B'Elanna, grateful for the momentary peace and quiet, went back to examining the vessel's computer for any indication of where it might have come from. Damned Vulcans. Damned Starfleet traitors.
Janeway glanced up from her patient as Tuvok came into sickbay, carrying a box of red flowers. Those were the ones from the ship, weren't they? He put it down and set up a containment field around it.
"Something about the flowers, Tuvok?" Janeway asked, frowning as she looked over.
"I am not certain," Tuvok replied.
Janeway went over and ran some scans over the alien flowers herself. They were definitely letting off some sort of pollen, but she couldn't see how that would cause this. Then again, the symptoms she'd seen exhibited by the human crew members seemed more akin to allergies than anything else. Could this have been the problem?
Frowning thoughtfully, Janeway sent off a message to B'Elanna. "Torres, could you see about getting the air filters cleaned up?"
"I'm busy, damn it," the half-Klingon woman growled back over the comm. "Chakotay sent me to decipher the alien craft's computers to figure out where it came from."
"The ventilation on this ship is atrocious," Janeway said. "Get your engineers on it. You're not the only one on the ship."
"Fine," B'Elanna snapped. "I don't see what the point is, but I suppose it couldn't hurt."
"Given that we've apparently got an airborne infection of some sort loose on the ship?" Janeway said. "I'm frankly shocked that this wasn't done sooner."
"Whatever," B'Elanna replied.
This was ridiculous. Adhering to Starfleet regulations was one thing, but this was almost like the Maquis wanted to get themselves killed by one thing or another. Utter carelessness. For space exploration, this simply would not do. Once this situation was resolved, she was going to have a good, long talk with Chakotay about this.
"This was not a disease," Janeway said firmly. "It was a severe allergic reaction to an alien substance, exacerbated by improper decontamination measures and air circulation that allowed it to spread to the entire ship within a short period of time."
Chakotay rubbed his forehead. He didn't need to be lectured, even if he had to admit that she was right. "How are our patients?"
"Recovering," Smithee said. "Gerron, Tabor, and Kenn should be fine soon. I just... I can't believe I didn't even think of something like that. I'm clearly not cut out for medicine."
"It wasn't your fault, Ann," Chakotay assured her. Just because the poor woman didn't have any formal training didn't mean she wasn't doing the best with what she knew.
"I don't think the Kunar is going to make it, though," Smithee said. "All four of his lungs are in bad condition. He's barely holding in there still."
"I found records in his ship's computer of the origin of his vessel," B'Elanna puts in, bringing up the location on the map in the conference room. "Two days' journey away, and not far out of our way."
Chakotay nodded. "We'll head there. Maybe, with any luck, we might be able to get a new ally for our trouble."
Seska slowly woke, and opened her eyes. She wasn't in sickbay anymore, but in a small side room. Probably someplace that could be more easily secured. She didn't doubt that the door was sealed and there were guards posted outside. It's what she'd do. Janeway was sitting beside her, monitoring her condition.
"Janeway?" Seska said, looking up at her in confusion. "Why did you save me?"
"I didn't think you deserved to die like that," Janeway replied. "Chakotay disagreed, of course."
"Of course," Seska said, sighing. All that work, dashed to nothing. And then she was spared by Starfleet altruism. Fine, she could work with this still, somehow.
"So, this is why you were so leery of going to sickbay?" Janeway said. "Chakotay certainly wasn't happy about discovering a Cardassian on board his ship."
"I can imagine," Seska said, frowning deeply. "You know, before this, the Orkett's disease excuse had fooled most people who didn't look too closely. I'm surprised the ruse worked this long, frankly."
"Cat's out of the bag now," Janeway said. "There's no use trying to hide it anymore."
Seska absently wondered what a cat might be. "So, what are you going to do with me now?"
"That all depends upon you, I suppose," Janeway said, folding her arms across her chest and looking down at her.
"What do you mean?" Seska asked.
"We can hardly keep you locked up forever. We could always drop you off somewhere. Or... you can find a way to reconcile."
"Reconcile?" Seska scoffed. "They're Maquis. They hate my kind."
"And they aren't terribly fond of Starfleet, either. And yet I saved your life."
"If you think that's supposed to make me feel grateful toward you, when I'm sure you have your own agenda on why you did it, then think again." Seska paused, and shook her head. "Still. I have no desire to be left behind, or worse. I want to get home again as much as anyone else on this ship."
"Then perhaps it's best to come clean and apologize to those you deceived," Janeway said.
"You think an apology is going to make this better?" Seska said, looking at her incredulously.
"No, but it's a start," Janeway replied. "Maybe if you're convincing enough, they might even believe you're sincere."
"Hmm..." There might still be some way to salvage the situation. She'd just need to put on some very good lies. "I'll give it a shot."
Janeway left her alone for a while, and Chakotay came in to speak with her a little later. Chakotay, for his part, didn't appear happy at all to be talking to her. But Seska knew what she was going to say. Just what she needed to do to tug at his sympathies.
"This had better be good," Chakotay said.
"Oh, Chakotay," Seska said, putting on all the charm she could muster. "I'm so sorry that this had to come out like this. I was so afraid that you'd hate me if it ever were discovered, and I couldn't bear the thought of that."
"Who were you really working for, Seska?" Chakotay said. "Assuming that's even your real name."
"At first, I was spying for Cardassia," Seska replied. "But over time, I slowly came to know and care for the Maquis, and especially for you."
If Chakotay believed that, he'd believe anything. But Seska was good at bending the truth. She wouldn't have gotten as far as she had if she weren't.
"Seska..." Chakotay sighed heavily and put his hand to his forehead. Seska knew she could get to him that way.
"Please believe me. I don't want to lose you now, not after all we've been through together. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"How do you expect me to ever trust you again?" Chakotay said, looking at her plaintively.
"You seem to trust those Starfleet well enough," Seska said bitterly. "Even the Vulcan, who was doing no differently than I was at first, and he's unrepentent about it."
Chakotay paused for a few moments. "I suppose you have a point. We do need all the help we can get... and I'm not just going to abandon you, whatever you've done."
Victory. Seska grinned inwardly, but turned the expression on her face into a warm, grateful smile. "Thank you, Chakotay. All I can hope for is that you can forgive me for my deception."
Chakotay said, "Tell me, what would you have done if we hadn't found out that you're a Cardassian?"
"I'd remain a member of the crew, helping us all to get home by any means necessary."
"And once we were home again?" he pressed. "Would you have delivered us into the waiting arms of Cardassia, or would you tell them to piss off?"
"I wouldn't betray you. I could never just turn over my new comrades."
Maybe she would have, maybe she wouldn't. It was a moot question now. By the time they got home, the entire situation was likely to change. There might not be any Maquis anymore. There might not even be any Cardassia anymore. Who knew what could happen? The only thing that mattered was the situation on her hands now. And she was willing to say whatever she had to in order to regain their trust.
"I'm going to need to think on this," Chakotay said.
"Of course. Just remember that I do still care about you."
Chakotay still wasn't sure what to make of Seska, but he had other things to worry about right now. The Val Jean had arrived in the system of a Kunar colony, which Neelix identified as Seronia.
"Be warned, they're pretty strict," Neelix said. "They like everything to be neatly in order."
"Bring us into orbit," Chakotay said.
Before they even got into orbit, Tuvok said, "Captain, we are being hailed."
"Put them on."
The image of a Kunar male appeared on the viewscreen. "Unknown vessel, identify yourself."
"This is the Maquis starship Val Jean. I am Chakotay, the captain of this vessel."
"What is the purpose of your visit to Seronia?"
"We have a sick Kunar on board our ship," Chakotay explained. "We came to deliver him back to his people for treatment."
"What is the name and caste of your passenger?"
"We don't know. He's been unconscious since we found him."
"What was he wearing?" the Kunar on the screen pressed impatiently.
Chakotay couldn't remember. He glanced aside to Tuvok for help.
"He wore deep blue clothing, with a dark red sash," Tuvok answered.
"You should have left him where he was, then. Was there no beacon informing you of his status?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you are talking about," Chakotay said. "We followed a distress signal..."
"Perhaps you mistook the marker beacon for a distress signal. I assure you that it was not. This is not a matter that we speak of with outsiders. Return him to his ship at once, along with the Morlesian death flowers. You should feel fortunate that they did not kill you as well."
"Pardon me. Death flowers?" Were they intentionally trying to kill this man? Or was it a suicide? What was going on here?
"Did you not find a pot or box full of red flowers on the ship? They emit a pollen that is fatal to our kind. I do not know how they affect your species."
"We did," Chakotay replied, frowning deeply. "If we have interfered with some custom or ritual of your culture, I apologize. We were merely attempting to help."
"Your help has disrupted the honorable death of a high-ranking noble. You may place the funeral vessel in orbit of the red gas giant in this system, if you do not wish to return to the system where you found it. But be certain that this is done, and do not interfere with our rituals any further."
The viewscreen went back to displaying the system before them as the transmission was cut off from the other side. Chakotay turned to look at Neelix. Again, the reality of the situation wasn't quite as the Talaxian had warned of.
"Neelix..." Chakotay said.
"I swear, they've never behaved like that for me before!" Neelix insisted.
Chakotay sighed and put his face in his palm. "You're lucky that Kes is proving to be more useful than you."
He took a deep breath as he turned to head down to sickbay. He should give Neelix the benefit of the doubt. If this matter was something that the Kunar didn't talk about with outsiders, how was he to know about it?
"How's the Kunar, Doc?" Chakotay asked once he got to sickbay.
"Dying," Smithee replied. "And I don't know enough about his biology to save him, nor particularly care enough, either."
Chakotay nodded. "We're putting him back in his ship, along with the damned flowers."
Janeway looked up from where she was examining a readout, probably on Seska's condition. "What happened?"
Chakotay briefly explained the bizarre encounter with the Kunar over the comm. "And I don't really care to argue over it."
"What, you're actually respecting another's culture now?" Janeway said.
"This has all been more trouble than it's worth," Chakotay said. "We all could have died here, and for what?"
"For the sake of good intentions," Janeway said.
"I say, to hell with good intentions," Smithee said. "We need to take care of our own."
Chakotay couldn't really argue with that sentiment at the moment.
"So, have we learned a lesson here?" Janeway asked as they saw the dying Kunar away.
"Look before you leap?" Ayala suggested.
"Beware of Cardassians in Bajoran clothing?" Chakotay added.
"Institute proper quarantine and decontamination procedures?" Tuvok put in.
"Well, that's something, I suppose," Janeway said.
