Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't own Star Trek Voyager!
A/N: This was actually two chapters originally, but they were short and since there was a delay in posting I went ahead and combined them. After this the pace will pick up a bit, but first comes the the last few hints to the mystery.
"The planet's empty. The only living things down there are the plants and animals. There's ruins and deserted towns so there used to be a civilization, but the inhabitants are all gone now." Harry explained as he, B'Elanna, Tuvok, the Doctor, and the Captain stood around the still motionless Tal Celes.
"What about the surrounding planets? The scans revealed at least two of them are habitable." Janeway asked thoughtful, moving away from the biobed to the computer station a few feet away.
"The same." Harry answered. "This whole system seems to have been abandoned."
"You mean assimilated." B'Elanna stated while looking over a PADD.
"Maybe." Harry shrugged, pulling at the sleeves of his uniform.
Janeway glanced up at him, noticing the tired expression and pale features of the young ensign. She knew he needed rest, just like the rest of the crew, but at the moment she couldn't give any of them a break. Tal Celes was getting worse, her life signs fading with each hour, and they still didn't have any answers.
"So, we aren't going to be getting any help from the locals." She said, looking back down at the readings for environmental. "What about internal sensors? Have you been able to reconfigure them?"
"Not yet." Tuvok answered, stepping closer to the computer console. "Seven is attempting to use her ocular implant to isolate any life signs not recognizable to our own eyes."
Janeway nodded distractedly as she continued reviewing the computer read outs. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that she didn't like at all. The problem was she didn't know if it was those instincts of her kicking in again or just the effects of…whatever the hell was going on around here.
Glancing up again she was about to ask her security chief another question, but as she caught a glimpse of his glazed eyes staring straight ahead the words stopped in her throat. To most people he may appear mostly fine, but she had known him long enough to tell when something of wrong. She noticed the barely perceptible traces of emotions swimming in his dull, glazed over eyes, the way his posture was even stiffer then usual, and how his left hand was now gripping the console.
She knew this situation must be exceedingly difficult for him because, even though she knew that Vulcans had emotion whether they admitted it or not, they didn't express those emotions for a reason. And they prided themselves with their ability to control any emotional feelings they did have, but now he was being forced to endure one of the most powerful and overwhelming emotions there was. Add that to the cold temperature, which couldn't be comfortable for a desert native, and you got one hell of a bad week.
She watched covertly for a few more seconds until his hand slipped from the consol and his eyes cleared of the haze that had webbed itself in his eyes. Realizing that she had seen what just transpired, Tuvok looked her in the eyes and tilted his head just slightly to confirm that he had in fact just experienced one of those cold wind phenomenons.
She gave him a quick nod in return before going back to the monitor. Only a few seconds passed before her concentration was interrupted by the Operations Officer standing near Celes' biobed.
"What about heat?" Harry asked, staring thoughtfully at a blank wall. "We're cold, right? So maybe the virus or creature, whatever is doing this, needs the coldness to survive."
"I can't just subject my patient to something that for all I know could make her condition worse." The Doctor exclaimed, moving over to place his tricorder on a nearby stand.
"Ensign Celes will be dead within a few hours if her condition remains the same. You stated that yourself, Doctor." Tuvok said, turning to face the EMH. "The rest of the crew is slowly declining as well, therefore it would be in everyone's best interests to attempt anything that might possibly help."
"Tuvok's right." Janeway stated quickly before the Doctor could start arguing back. "We don't have many options here, Doctor. We need to try everything we can." She added before turning to address Harry. "Get back to the bridge and help Chakotay scan the planet for any power sources. B'Elanna, help the Doctor get set up." She ordered.
With a quick glance up at Tuvok she tapped her comm badge. "Janeway to Seven." She said and waited for the expected greeting, but it didn't come. Brows furrowed she tried again. "Janeway to Astrometrics." Still no response. She was beginning to think that gut feeling wasn't a side effect of what was happening.
"Computer, locate Seven of Nine." She ordered, now gaining the attention of the Doctor who was watching curiously.
"Seven of Nine is in Astrometrics." The even voice of the Computer stated.
"Tuvok." She said with a tilt of her head towards the door. The security chief immediately understood and turned to make his way to Astrometrics.
With a quick glance at Celes she walked around the console, taking the Doctor with her, to help B'Elanna set up for heat tests. The seconds ticked by, the three occupants of the room working mostly in silence as they each tried not to think about why Seven wouldn't be answering.
Finally, the Doctor's comm badge beeped, but it wasn't what they wanted to here. "Doctor, stand by to have Seven beamed to sickbay. She is unconscious." Came Tuvok's deep voice over the comm. It seemed the 'mythical creature' had claimed another victim.
Four hours later...
Captain Janeway paced back and forth, arms crossed and head bent slightly as she considered the options before her. Her senor staff, or what was left of them, were seated at the briefing room table. As she turned around to walk back in the other direction she glanced up to check on them.
B'Elanna was huddled next to Tom, a blanket thrown over her shoulders along with Tom's arm which was trembling every few seconds. Harry sat not far away, periodically looking around with wide eyes while Chakotay, on the other hand, sat completely still, head resting back against his chair as his eyes drooped closed. The rest of her senior staff; Tuvok, Neelix, and Seven, where all down in sick bay along side Celes and two other crewmembers who had recently been attacked.
And she was convinced that's what this was. An attack. Something, or someone, was attacking her crew. Her crew! When she got her hands on the whatever the hell it was she was going to…
She stopped pacing, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Now wasn't the time to get carried away. First she had to find the attackers and then she could kill them…or lock them in the brig. Whichever she felt like at the time.
She was just about to take her seat when there was swishing noise from the far wall. Her head snapped up, body tensing in anticipation as the others began looking frantically around as well. It was only the doors sliding open to admit the Doctor though.
Chakotay's head fell back against the chair again, Tom slid closer to B'Elanna and Harry's eyes began to droop closed like Chakotay's. She rubbed her temples, hoping to ease the headache bouncing along in her head. It didn't help. Just like everything else they'd tried.
The sensors still didn't pick up any foreign life signs, even with borg enhancements, the heat idea hadn't done anything at all, and no amount of stimulants would wake up those lying in sickbay. Nothing worked!
The crew was degrading fast now. Paranoia and edginess ran rapid one moment just to be overshadowed by an extreme tiredness. The cold was the same, but the chilly breezes, or 'Terror Winds' as they had been dubbed, had increased in frequency yet again. And it had only been seven hours since Celes had been attacked. By tomorrow she may not even have a crew.
"Have we tried light yet?" Tom asked thoughtfully as he flexed his shaking hand.
"Light?" Chakotay half-stated, half-asked with an edge of confusion as he raised his head.
"Yeah, monsters don't come out in the day light, you know." The tired helmsman muttered. "So maybe light would frighten them away."
"Actually…" B'Elanna began, brows furrowed as she straightened just a bit. "Aside from the ridicules way he just said that, it's not a bad idea. Heat didn't work, but maybe we have to use light, or maybe both together."
"Whatever we're going to do, it needs to be done soon. I have the patients on stimulants and life support, but Celes still isn't going to last much longer. The others are degrading rapidly as well." The Doctor informed them. "And there's something else…my program…it flickered."
"What?" Harry asked, a bit more awake now.
"I was just standing there and suddenly the holo-emitters flickered and the hypo I was holding fell right through my hand." The Doctor exclaimed dramatically. "It only lasted a second, but it was a bit disconcerting to say the least."
"I checked the EMH system not even an hour ago. There was nothing wrong with it or any other system on the ship." B'Elanna stated, shrugging out from under Tom's arm and the blanket before standing and moving over the monitor on the wall.
Janeway watched the engineer for a second before looking back at the others. "It could be that the ship is being drained now as well." She started, moving around her chair to finally sit down. "We need to figure out who or what is doing this so they can be stopped, but we also need to find a way to help those down in sickbay."
She looked around at the exhausted and depressed crew. They could hardly stay awake let alone completely focus on the task at hand. "Tom, help the Doctor with that light idea. B'Elanna I want another full system maintenance scan. I'm going to keep analyzing what data we have so far and working on the sensors. Harry, go get a couple hours of sleep then switch with Tom." She ordered before turning to her First Officer. "Start working up a continues rotation shift for the crew."
"Captain…" Harry began, obviously not wanting to just go rest.
"Mr. Kim, you're about to fall over, along with everyone else on board. Get some rest so that Mr. Paris can get some sleep too. That's an order." She stated firmly which seemed to do the trick since the young ensign nodded reluctantly, but moved out of the room along with the others.
Janeway stood, shivering slightly as a cold wind blew through her. With a deep breath she forced back the uneasy feeling and marched towards the bridge. She had a crew to protect and she'd be damned if some invisible force would keep her from doing that.
A/N: Next chapter coming soon! What do you think so far?