First off thank you for all the feedback on this story, and apologies for the long delay in updates. Life unfortunately got in the way.
Not knowing what exactly Chakotay had heard, Kathryn could only stand and watch as he crossed the room. A deep blush appearing on her pale skin as he did so. Avoiding eye contact with either man in the room, she simply stood and looked passed them towards the images of her brain hanging on the illuminated surface behind Tom's head.
Tom was also feeling particularly uncomfortable, but he had no option but to look at Chakotay as it seemed the large man was making a bee line for him. The look on his face was unreadable, plus even if it wasn't. Tom had no idea what this man's face would look like if he was pissed off.
"Report Doctor." Chakotay finally said standing no more than a foot away from Tom, with his body between Kathryn's and himself. Pushing the urge away to pull at his collar, to try and alleviate some of the heat now streaming from his body, Tom turned to the pictures behind him and pointed to a region of the brain.
"Unfortunately not much, I have brought up a previous brain scan of Lt. Janeway here and compared it to one I have just done. I can see no discrepancies in the scan what so ever. This portion of the brain is associated with memory, and yet there is nothing wrong with it. Well nothing I can see anyway." Tom said pointing out the portion of the brain he was referring to. Chakotay leaned in for a closer inspection. In truth he had no idea what he was looking at, but he at least wanted to appear as though he did.
"Ok so what is the next step?" Chakotay asked now turning to both people standing in the room. He had noticed the blush covering the face of their third officer and now his attention seemed to be making her colour more.
"We could try more scans, see if anything turns up on those, but it is doubtful." Tom said trying to draw Chakotay's eyes away from Kathryn, who was now starting to fold her arms and tilt her chin. Tom could see the tense stance of the woman, and suspecting an outburst quickly intervened.
"Agreed, what about therapy's, is there anything you could try to bring back our memories?" Chakotay asked, glancing back at Kathryn once more before turning back to Tom.
"I haven't got a clue to be honest, but I am worried about how selective this memory wipe is. I mean if you wanted to completely disable a ship why not just wipe the entire memory, not leave us with the knowledge of how to run it. Further more how this was done without effecting any other part of the brain is amazing really. We don't seem to have any problem learning or remembering, only recalling our names and former lives." Tom concluded, virtually thinking out loud as Chakotay listened.
"I see, what I need to know is how do you plan on counteracting what has happened, and how long it is going to take?" Chakotay said stepping back slightly so he could view both people in the room at once.
"I don't know, maybe if I got hold of the weapon its self I might be able to determine how it works, then start on an antidote, but there may not be a cure, I hate to say this but looking at these scans, with nothing I can repair, our memories might simply have been erased." Tom said as the room fell silent, all three people pondering that fact for a moment. It was a lot to take in.
"Then I shall leave you to your work." Chakotay said turning to leave, as he did so he called over his shoulder.
"Lieutenant could you come with me please I require your assistance in engineering." With that Kathryn nodded. Glad to be out of the awkward situation, but slightly regretful that she had to leave Tom. Also from the tone Kathryn had ascertained that this was pretty much a direct order, and arguing would be pointless.
"Aye sir." she replied quickly falling into step behind Chakotay. With a single glance back over her shoulder at Tom, Kathryn exited sickbay and moved down the hall towards engineering.
"So what do you need my help with?" Kathryn asked as then entered the turbo lift. Chakotay called out the deck number before replying.
"Crowd control."
Harry Kim stood on the bridge, he really had nothing to do right now, as they were just hanging in space. Also he was one of the only crew members on the bridge who did not have a name. The Captain had taken to calling him Simon, claiming that he looked like a Simon. Harry didn't see it himself, but he was getting used to the name.
"Mr Simon, can I have your report on the long range sensor sweep." The Captain said walking onto the bridge as Commander Anderson sat more upright in his chair.
"Nothing on long range sensors sir, no other ships have approached our position since the first one." Harry answered as the Captain sat down and placed both hands on the rest in front of him. He took in a deep breath, and shut his eyes momentarily.
"I have made my decision, it seems that a lot of people are counting on us to make this final strike against the Lanterians, even incapacitated we need to at least attempt to complete our mission. I will however be re-evaluating this decision as our journey continues. Please note you were probably chosen for this mission because you are all excellent at your jobs." The Doctor said just as his flickered out and then back in again. The room around him gasped in surprise before the Doctor stood up and patted himself down.
"What was that." He cried running his hands down his arms to check he was real before coming into contact with the small triangle devise attached to his left arm. Pulling it off the rest of the crew watched as their Captain disappeared before their very eyes. Silence fell around the room before Harry placed his hands on his console and said.
"Well I've never seen that happen before."
Tuvok then turned to him eyebrow raised. "That may in fact be untrue, we all may have seen that before, we simply can't remember it. However it doesn't change the fact that we now have no Captain."
"Wrong, if the Captain is incapacitated, or in this case vanished, then command falls to me. And I think we should do what the Captain suggested, continue with our mission." Anderson said standing up and moving into the Captains chair. Sitting down he pushed the small metal object left by the Doctor under the seat and placed his hands in his lap.
"Lieutenant set course for the Lanterian home world, warp 6 engage."
Engineering looked like a scene from the ok coral, not that either person walking into the room could remember that particular situation, but right as they approached the threshold to the turbo lift, Kathryn had to duck as a rogue tool hit the back of the lift.
"Enough you are all useless, I will do it myself." B'Elanna shouted as a crew member in a gold uniform scurried across the room.
"What is going on in here?" Chakotay boomed turning all eyes onto him as the room fell into an uneasy silence.
"You have given me a bunch of monkey's too work with, that's what is going on." B'Elanna replied stalking over to where the pair now stood looking around at several crew members who looked ready to kill their chief.
"Maybe its the way your going about things lieutenant, maybe a calmer approach would be more beneficial,given the circumstances." Chakotay said as B'Elanna crossed her arms and Kathryn stepped forward.
"First of all what in the world is a monkey, and second what is the problem?" Kathryn asked wondering where that reference had come from, and secretly hoping it was a random memory returning. Kathryn hoped she would have a reason to go back and see Tom.
"I have no idea, and the warp manifest is out of alignment, I need someone to repair the upper level controls, while I work on the manifest, but no one seems to know what they are doing." B'Elanna said unfolding her arms and looking across at the petite woman who was not looking at her.
"Ok, have you asked around?" Kathryn suggested, knowing that she wasn't sure if she could do what B'Elanna was asking herself, but there must be someone on board who could.
"No I just assigned the task, I thought all of these people had engineering experience." B'Elanna said the anger now draining out of her as she realised her mistake.
"Ok well let's see if we can't get you some help. Janeway to all crew, does anyone know how to reconfigure the engineering consoles?"
"Hi yeah I do, its well Simon on the bridge." The man on the other end of the comm line sounded young, but also pretty sure he knew what he was doing. Janeway smiled slightly.
"Ok Simon we could use your help please come down to engineering."
"On my way." Harry replied, as he walked down the ramp he walked over to the Captain's chair to get his nod of approval. Spotting the small metal object on the floor just behind the Captain's chair, Harry walked around and back up the ramp. Pretending to drop his communicator he quickly bent down to retrieve it, picking up the small object as he did so. Turning to Tuvok he gave the dark man a weak smile.
"Must have come loose when I tapped it." He said offhandedly before walking into the turbo lift and calling out for deck thirty six.
Arriving at his detestation Harry stepped off the lift into a much calmer engineering. Chakotay had rounded up all the people who seemed to have limited knowledge of what they were doing and had ordered them to the mess hall. There was no other place to put them for now. Kathryn had been talking to B'Elanna about her reference to something called a monkey, but the hot headed engineer had no information on what it was, or why she said it.
"Are you Simon?" Kathryn said as Harry approached them and he nodded.
"Well I am for now." He said with a slight smile as the older woman nodded at him.
"Before I help could you take a look at this ma'am, I think its the Captain." Harry said handing over the mobile emitter, as Janeway looked shocked and turned the object over in her hand.
"What happened, how is this the Captain." She asked as Chakotay joined them and listened as Harry told his story.
"I think maybe you should take it to the Doctor, there is something about Commander Anderson I don't like." Harry said going a bit red in the face as he did so. Chakotay reached out and patted the young man's shoulder.
"I know the feeling Simon, but for now he is our commanding officer and unless he puts us or this ship in danger we have to obey him." Chakotay said realising that he was now the XO of this ship.
"I should go back up to the bridge and keep an eye on things. Kathryn take that to Tom and see what you can come up with." He said turning now with Kathryn back for the turbo lift, looking back quickly he saw Harry and B'Elanna set to work and was glad he had sorted that situation out now at least.
"Sickbay." Kathryn called out as Chakotay leant against the back of the lift and asked for the bridge.
"Let me know as soon as you have something. Simon is right, there is something off about Commander Anderson." Chakotay said as the lift stopped and opened at deck six.
"Ok I will." Kathryn replied with a small smile. Stepping out she caught a slight glint in Chakotay's eye before the lift doors started to close. His words now flowing out between the ever decreasing gap.
"Also if I have a say, I would put you in the middle."
in an instant Kathryn's blush returned, clutching onto the mobile emitter she practically ran for sickbay wondering how on earth she was going to live this one down.
Tom had been going around in circles, nothing he had tried had restored his memory. With no one else to test he had tried experimenting on himself. Right now he was having trouble controlling what he was saying. When Kathryn walked in the first words that came out of his mouth almost made her drop what she had brought to show him.
"Amazing breasts." Clapping his hand over his mouth before anything else came out, Kathryn went from anger to a small smile to almost breaking out with laughter.
"Sorry I injected myself with this. Pretty good, but has some unfortunate consequences. Kiss me, dam it!" Tom said once more as Kathryn walked over to him. However she had no intention of for filling his request. She set the mobile emitter on the table and pointed at it.
"This is somehow the Captain, maybe he is some artificial life form, but we need to figure out how to turn him back on." Kathryn said as Tom picked up the item and rolled it around in his fingers. There was something very familiar about it, not trying to force the memory, but to simply feel and recognise what he was looking at he fiddle with the object for a moment before it buzzed to life and an image appeared.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The Doctor said stepping forward to the two confused people and looking at each of them in turn.
"Extreme sexual frustration." Tom said before trying to hide his face behind his hands as the Doctor placed his hands on his hips.
"Nothing new there then Mr Paris. What about you Captain, same thing or were you just making sure he didn't hurt himself." The Doctor said as he watched Janeway's jaw slacken and her face pale.
"Captain, are you sure, we thought you were." She said stumbling over her words before the Doctor shook his head.
"No I'm a Doctor not a Captain."
TBC... Thank you for reading XxX