DUST

by ardavenport


- - - Part 3

"We're entering transporter range with Voyager," Ensign Kim announced next to him.

"We'll have to put a hold on that. Let me talk to the doctor again." Kim looked puzzled as the com brought the doctor's voice back.

"We might have a contamination problem, here. Captain Janeway crawled out of the Senk'vasi mountain through one of the air vents. She said that the vents were filled with dust colonies and she was covered with it when she got out."

"Yes, you mentioned that, Commander," the doctor responded impatiently.

"She thinks it has something to do with what went wrong with the Senk'vasi in the mountain. That it contaminated their air supply and drove them mad somehow."

"Hmmmmm. That would be plausible."

"I want you to beam up samples of it from the coordinates where we found the captain and find out if it's any kind of threat to Voyager. We'll wait to beam over until you can tell us it's safe."

"A sensible precaution. I'll get right on it," the doctor agreed and signed off.

Ensign Kim had his tricorder out and was aiming it at a big piece of lint on Chakotay's shoulder. He plucked it off and gave it to the junior officer. He had tried to brush the stuff off when they'd first gotten back to the shuttle, but it was useless; it clung like cobwebs.

Chakotay waited. A star on the planet horizon under them grew large and became Voyager. He lined the shuttle up with the starship, but not too close, so that the other two shuttle search teams returning from the planet could dock ahead of them. Next to him, Kim continued to study the bit of lint that now rested on the tricorder, his dark hair bowed over it. Chakotay finished matching the shuttle's orbit with Voyager's, making minor adjustments to the controls and then looked out at the space-and-stars over white-clouded-planet scene around their craft.

"Well?" he finally asked. Kim shook his head.

"It's similar to the other primative lifeforms on the planet. There's definitely an organized structure to it. It's not random bits of dust; the microscopic organisms interlock with each other into a kind of lattice. And it's formed around specks of dirt that make the lattice stronger."

"Is it harmful?" Chakotay asked, wanting him to get to the point. Kim shook his head again.

"Most of the organisms here are dead; it doesn't look like they live long and the dead ones just go into reinforcing the lattice structure. But there isn't anything here smaller than five microns. The transporter should filter it out easily."

"Well, that's something."

Kim's head turned back to where the captain lay. They had both heard the doctor when he'd declared Janeway's condition non-life-threatening, but serious enough for them to need to get her to Sickbay as soon as possible.

"Do you think the captain's all right? That this stuff caused the colony to go bad down there on the planet?"

Chakotay shrugged without looking back. "I guess it's possible."

Kim got the hint that his senior officer wasn't interested in conversation and he went back to studying his lint.

Chakotay checked all the status indicators on the shuttle's engines and thought about going back to check on the captain again. He glanced that way, but she wasn't moving.

"Voyager to Commander Chakotay," the doctor's voice finally broke the wait.

"Chakotay here."

"Are you seated at the controls, Commander?"

"Yes."

"And Captain Janeway is in the back of the shuttle and cannot hear this?"

Frowning, Chakotay glanced back that way. "Yes."

"Good. I want you to get the hypospray from the medical kit." Chakotay and Kim looked at each other, puzzled by the doctor's strange line of questions.

"Just a minute." The commander got up. Kim had tidily put everything in it away and left it on the opposite bench from Janeway. He saw Janeway watching him out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't look back as he picked it up and headed back to the front of the shuttle to his seat again.

"I've got it," he answered, taking the hypospray out of the kit. Concerned, Kim glanced back toward the captain and then to the commander.

"Good. I want you to set it for seven cc's of pethoramine and inject the captain with it."

"Why?" Chakotay demanded, having no intention of treating the captain for anything he didn't know about first.

"It seems that the captain was correct about the effects of the dust in the Senk'vasi ventilation system. It's harmless by itself if either live or dead specimens are inhaled, but if the live ones die in a wet environment, such as the mouth or esophagus of a humanoid, their decomposition produces a psychoactive substance. I presume that the Senk'vasi have been ingesting small quantities of it in their air supply and have suffered its effects over time. The captain however, has been massively exposed and I estimate that the effects of this exposure to become manifest at any time. I frankly recommend that she be sedated now before she becomes psychotic, if she isn't already. But first, I do want you to confirm the presence of the psychoactive agent, now that I know what to tell you to look for."

"Is this stuff some kind of mutation? Is it something the Senk'vasi brought with them to the planet?" the commander asked.

"No, it appears to be native to the planet. The colonists don't seem to have been very careful in surveying this world and its possible hazards before making themselves at home."

"All right." Chakotay swallowed, set the hypospray and got up. Kim, eyes wide with alarm, got the medical tricorder from the kit, instructions from the doctor, and followed him.

Janeway looked up at them as they knelt down. Her eyes glinted from the lights above her. Her hands, still clutching the edge of the blanket, trembled, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Wha...?"

Chakotay laid his hand on her shoulder, the hypospray hidden in his other hand. "Shh, the doctor's still checking. He wants us to check you out again while we're waiting."

"Oh." She nodded while Kim passed the scanner over her lint-covered head. Chakotay's impatient glare stayed on the ensign while he fiddled with the tricorder. Kim bit his lip, his eyes meeting Chakotay's and he nodded. Playing medic to the captain's injuries had been bad enough, but this was worse. It just didn't seem right to Kim to do this to her.

"Uhh . . . ?" Janeway's eyes widened when the hypospray hissed against her neck. Then they closed, her head lolling to the side. Both Kim and Chakotay exhaled. Chakotay tapped his com badge.

"All right, Doctor, she's out. Can we transport the captain to Sickbay now?"

"Yes," the doctor answered cheerfully. "The transporter will filter out all the dust. You and ensign Kim will have to transport directly to Sickbay as well since you've been exposed."

"Fine. Prepare for transport."


- - - End Part 3