Chapter Four
Captain Kathryn Janeway, along with the rest of the crew would soon be in mourning. Hours ago everything looked encouraging. Well, at least as promising as a day got in the Delta quadrant. They were testing the theory of transwarp that just might get them home sooner than expected. It had worked and Lt. Thomas Eugene Paris achieved Warp ten, only to fall to the ill effects of some, as yet, unknown cerebral event. The crews' hopes would soon be in tatters as word of Tom's demise spread. Then the despondency would start to insidiously creep through the crew.
All too soon the Captain would have to inform her people. The scramble to find a replacement for her Chief Conn officer and best pilot from a limited selection of personnel didn't bear thinking about. None had the innate ability of Lt. Paris, making their journey home significantly more precarious. Worse still, just when Kathryn Janeway's personal reclamation project was seeing results, this occurred. Life, the Captain knew, was never fair and always managed to throw a curved ball when you most desperately didn't need it.
Still, Janeway couldn't give into these melancholy thoughts just yet. Something, some inner sense that defied reasoning, continued to hope. Even without a general announcement of the Navigation Officer's demise, word would seep through the corridors of Voyager with stealthy swiftness. While Tom's body was being kept warm, any decisions could wait a day, or two.
At this very moment in time, Captain Janeway had to think like an angry, grief stricken half Klingon, who'd only just become aware of the depth of her friendship with Tom Paris. It took a moment's thought, and Kathryn knew where she'd find her Chief Engineer. Making her way down to deck eleven, Voyager's Captain knew this, whatever it was, wasn't over yet. Some latent instinct said they couldn't lose Lt. Paris so easily. Besides, the EMH managed to reintegrate Commander Chakotay's bioneural energy into his corporal being a few months back.
All we have to do, Janeway considered the similarities between these events, is find what happened to Tom's conscious. If it's wandering around the ship somewhere, we have to get it back into his body. Chakotay took over both Tom and B'Elanna's minds, stopping us from going back into that dark nebula. Why do I get the feeling it's not going to be that easy this time around? That Tom's consciousness is not floating around the ship waiting to be reintegrated into his body?
Seated at one of the main stations on the open lower deck, Lt. Torres was scrolling through the data logs from Cochrane's transwarp flight. She heard the soft hiss of the doors open and felt the Captain's approach. The young woman really didn't want to talk to any one. B'Elanna needed to be alone, to work, to forget, to find a rational explanation why yet another friend had abandoned her. The mental contact with Tom over the last hours continued to echo in her mind, making this loss feel both more profound and intimate than any she'd ever experienced.
"B'Elanna," Kathryn placed a gentle hand on the younger woman's shoulder.
"Harry made a good start," she stated indifferently, not taking her eyes from the screen before her. "There's no sign of any abnormality Tom might have encountered to cause the increased neurotransmitter secretion. Radiation was well within normal limits. There's nothing here to explain his death. Dam!"
Bringing her fists down on the console didn't help dissipate the built up rage currently cruising through B'Elanna's veins but it made her feel just a little better. The tears welled. She refused to shed even one in such a public area of the ship. Only when she gone through every possibility and uncovered the answer would she give in to the grief and truly believe Tom was actually gone.
"I've just come from sick bay," the Captain explained, recognising the moment B'Elanna understood her meaning. "The Doctor will keep Tom's physical body viable for as long as he's able."
"Do you remember that dark matter nebula we explored a few months ago," the Engineer suddenly asked, "when Chakotay lost his mind?"
"I was thinking about that situation on the way down here," Janeway confessed, "and how the Commander managed to overlay both Tom's and your thoughts." Pausing to collect her ideas, Kathryn blew out a long, steady breath and asked, "I need to ask you about your interactions with Mr. Paris in sickbay. There were a few times I was sure Tom said something I didn't quite catch. The Doctor and Kes said you sat by our pilot's side without a word for hours this afternoon. You told the medical staff when he was in pain. Harry asked Kes about telepathy after Tom mentioned it. Mr. Kim believes the communications you shared with Lt. Paris this afternoon…"
"It was nothing like that, Captain," B'Elanna broke in aggressively. Getting up from her seat, she curled her fingers into fists as her nails cut into her palms, keeping her fury from erupting. She wasn't ready to explain the connection but knew she had to tell someone. "I don't know how it happened or why I accepted the invasion so easily. I just started hearing Tom in my mind and found myself answering. Even when he was asleep, I knew everything he was experiencing. Tom's thoughts and feelings escaped and I could comprehend them. When I left sickbay, I could sense his mind brushing mine in the gym, and again in my quarters but that contact was, heightened because I was closer to him. In the Officer's mess, we were able to communicate in words and ideas. But there was more, the exchanges were completely honest and authentic, like we couldn't keep anything hidden. The mental contact was absolute and unconditional. There was no way for me to misunderstand him, no subtext or artifice."
"It sounds," Janeway searched for the word, "enlightening."
"I learnt more about Tom Paris in one minute, than I've allowed myself to understand in the last thirteen months," B'Elanna stated, large brown eyes turning on the Captain, pleading for acceptance. "I don't know how, or why?"
"Why Tom suddenly has this ability," Janeway asked pointedly, "or why he chose you to share it with?"
"Both," B'Elanna sighed and deflated back into her chair.
"Surely you know," Janeway watched the young engineer's reaction to her words. "The Doctor said the elevated serotonin levels could affect Tom's attraction towards the opposite sex."
Snorting, B'Elanna considered Lt. Paris's reputation as a flirt. It took a few seconds to understand the Captain's comment applied specifically to her. "Me," the engineer wanted to sound shocked but couldn't. The odd conversation with Tom came back instinatly.
I told you I love you.
You're wern't flirting.
With you, I wouldn't dare!
"Since the Banean's accused Tom of murder, he's changed, B'Elanna,"
Janeway spoke softly. "That experience, the memories caused by that alien technology inserted in his brain, gave Lt. Paris a very different perspective on his life. I've seen my Chief Con officer settle down and begin to value his relationships with you and Harry."
"That's it," B'Elanna sounded excited. Turning back to her console, her fingers started flying over the controls.
"I don't understand," Janeway sounded as confused as her tone.
"You felt Tom speaking with you," B'Elanna stated, her mind buzzing with ideas. "I need to know how the Doctor managed to reintegrate Chakotay's consciousness."
"Janeway to Sickbay," the Captain opened a channel, still not entirely sure what information the engineer required.
"Yes, Captain," the EMH answered immediately.
"Please turn on your emergency medical channel. Lt. Torres and I have some questions for you?" Janeway ordered.
"The procedure," the Doctor explained after understanding the direction of their thoughts, "involved three neural transceivers, two cortical stimulators and fifty gigaquads of computer memory. I would be happy to take you through the process, but it would take at least ten hours to explain. Needless to say, it was a remarkable procedure. However, I must warn you, Lt. Paris's situation is hardly the same."
"If we could find his dissipated bioneural energy signature," B'Elanna stated, only to have the EMH hold up a hand.
"Commander Chakotay's mind ejected after a dark matter discharge from the nebula. It was floating around the ship and we had evidence of his engrams remaining intact. Lt. Paris's mind faded away naturally, his entire neural network overloaded and the synaptic neurotransmitter system fell into dysfunction. Whatever Mr. Paris saw out there, to use one of his twentieth century caloupialisms, fried his brain," the Doctor explained. "Even if you could reconstruct Mr. Paris's consciousness and integrate it, which is highly unlikely due to both his serotonin levels remaining dangerously elevated and the neural pathways deterioration, the remainder of his autonomic nervous function is being artificially controlled at present. In short, without his brain, the body will fade, even with medical intervention."
"Why," B'Elanna asked, thinking of the bioneural gel packs and network used to control Voyager, "would only one system degenerate so quickly? Surely every cell in the body would suffer the same process? As I understand it, you're keeping Tom's body functioning because he's lost all brain function."
"Essentially," the EMH frowned. Recalling his conversation with Kes, he wondered if she ran the deep DNA sequencing scan and what the results demonstrated. Other issues had overtaken them at the time. "It's only a matter of time until the rest of the peripheral system begins to disintegrate. Captain, I see no value in keeping Lt. Paris' body functioning."
"You have your orders, Doctor. Janeway out," the Captain stabbed her com badge to terminate the call. Glancing down at B'Elanna, the young engineer's disappointment mirrored her own. "It looks like we'll have to find another way to bring Tom back."
Nodding, B'Elanna once again started wading through the data. "Harry's on the bridge," she reported, "analysing the operation logs. If he finds anything, he'll call."
"So let's consider this from a different perspective," Janeway commented.
"Captain," B'Elanna drew attention to the screens and screens of schematics flashing on her stations monitor. "This data describes literally every cubic centimetre in this sector. It's over five billion gigaquads of information. The shuttle stopped recording because the memory was full."
"It would appear that the theory of infinite velocity is correct," the scientist in Kathryn Janeway stated. Pacing, she considered the ramification of this discovery, especially in terms of her chief pilot's mind. "It may be possible to occupy every point in the universe simultaneously. That's what Tom was trying to tell me, before you entered sickbay. I remember his words so clearly."
I was, I was staring at the velocity indicator. It said warp ten. And then, as I watched it, I suddenly realised that I was watching myself as well. I could see the outside of the shuttle, I could see Voyager, I could see inside Voyager. I could see inside this room. For a moment, I was everywhere. I mean, everywhere, Captain. With the Kazon, back home, with the Klingons, other galaxies. It was all there. I don't know how else to explain it. It was like. Well, no, it wasn't like anything.
As B'Elanna listened to the captain recall Tom's words, an echo of that connection between them repeated the dialogue. It was as if, by verbalising Paris's thoughts, he was with her, in her mind, offering hope that he wasn't completely lost. The connection wasn't as complete, Torres could still hear him like an echo. Eyes unfocused as she considered this revelation, B'Elanna knew they'd missed something.
"Then it's just a matter of navigation," B'Elanna sighed. "If we could figure out how to come out of transwarp at a specific point, this could get us home."
"It could do more than that," Janeway stated, finally understanding the significance of Tom's discovery. "It could change the very nature of our existence. Think of it. There would be nothing beyond our reach."
"Captain," B'Elanna asked, hesitantly, "how do you think this will change our existence on an individual level? With this information at our disposal, how is a single mind to cope with all this data, even for a millisecond at trans warp velocities. I could understand a collective, like the Borg incorporating this technology." Shuddering at the thought, Lt. Torres had to take her theory to its logical conclusion. "One human mind, coping with this much knowledge, it's no wonder Tom's mind overloaded. But if there's nothing beyond our reach."
Keep going.
Tom.
Keep going.
Am I on the right tract?
Keep going.
"B'Elanna," a concerned Captain Janeway requested. "I thought I'd lost you for a moment there."
"If nothing was beyond our reach," she looked into the startled blue eyes of a fellow scientist, "might Tom's very existence have reached a new plane. I've read stories about Q and the continuum. Wouldn't that place humanoids on a similar evolutionary pathway?"
"I want you to continue with your investigations, Lt. Torres. See if you can find any evidence of your theory," Janeway ordered. "In the mean time, this telemetry is giving us an invaluable record of this sector. We can use it to make a star chart. Transfer the shuttle logs to Stellar Cartography for analysis."
"Aye, Captain," B'Elanna responded, allowing her fingers to dance over the keyboard. She was filled with a sudden hope, hope that Tom might come back to her.
"And B'Elanna," Kathryn offered in a soft, misty voice, "don't give up. I know Mr. Paris is out there somewhere. We just have to find him and bring him home."
"I know he is, Captain," smiling, B'Elanna let the tears fall. They were cathartic. "I can hear Tom encouraging me."
"You still feel the bond," astounded, Kathryn watched the expressions crossing the Lieutenant's face.
"It's not the same, but yes," B'Elanna's amazement gave her hope. "Just now, when we were discussing human evaluation, he told me to keep going."
AN: only one or two more chapters to go in this story. I hope you're enjoying.