Ethical Considerations 1

Author: J.A. Toner

Act 3:

"There are some power systems running on the ship, but it appears to be on minimal standby," Seven reported crisply from her favorite post, next to the viewscreen in the conference room.

"And you're sure that no one is on board?" Janeway asked. "Some forms of life are so different from ourselves they don't always register, especially from this far away."

"We'll continuously make contact with the vessel as we approach, Captain. That shouldn't be a problem," Harry said.

Stifling a yawn, B'Elanna said, "We're not approaching anything until the ship repairs are finished. That won't be for a couple of days, unless I skip . . ." -this time her yawn was unstifled- ". . . certain diagnostics that I won't skip."

Tom, not even bothering to try to stifle his grin, added, "The Delta Flyer is ready to go. We could take a team over there to check it out, Captain, to see what might be salvageable for Voyager to use."

From the viewscreen of the conference room, as he used to in the days before his mobile emitter when he had no personal access to areas outside of Sickbay and the holodecks, the EMH said, "Mr. Paris, If I can't even spare the time to leave Sickbay for this meeting, I can't spare you. With six patients still requiring treatment here, two of them comatose, and another dozen resting in their quarters needing periodic monitoring, I need a full medical staff. Your services in particular will be required for the next several days."

A subdued Tom replied, "Of course, Doc. That 'we' was figurative. He's right, Captain. I really can't be go on this mission."

Harry cleared his throat. "Ops is in very good hands. Lang and Peterson worked with me on the computer repairs all day. They're very competent to finish up anything that needs to be done without me. I'd like to volunteer to command this mission," Harry offered, then suddenly remembered himself. "Unless Commander Chakotay can be spared, of course."

Janeway exchanged a quick glance with her first officer. After almost seven years in the Delta Quadrant, his minuscule nod of agreement and the glint of amusement in his eye was all she needed to know his stand. Turning to her security officer, she took Tuvok's steady gaze and absence of comment for his assent, as well. "I don't believe I can spare having either Chakotay or Tuvok off Voyager at the moment, Harry. The mission is yours. Assemble a team and prepare to depart as soon as you're ready.

"Aye, aye, Captain," Harry replied enthusiastically.

"We'll announce that we're looking for volunteers, Harry, but you might want to consider taking Noah Lessing," Chakotay casually commented. "I believe he can be spared. There probably won't be a lot who can go who have his amount of experience."

"I'll do that, Commander," Harry agreed.

Janeway refrained from adding anything to Chakotay's suggestion, although her first impulse had been to nominate someone else. Truthfully, he probably was one of the few whose duties would permit him to go on a mission like this. Janeway thought about offering Harry a few other possibilities but was interrupted by an odd noise from the side of the table where Lieutenants Paris and Torres were seated. Everyone's attention was drawn in that direction, just in time to catch a glimpse of a dozing engineer's head being caught, thanks to the quick pilot's reflexes of her husband, just before her forehead banged into the conference room table.

"May the chief field medic have permission to accompany the chief engineer to her quarters, Captain?" Tom asked as muffled guffaws erupted from Harry. "I've just prescribed several hours of sleep, and she seems more than ready to begin her therapy."

"I think that's my cue for ending this meeting. Harry, if you need anything, just let the commander or me know. Dismissed."

"What?" B'Elanna said blearily, as Tom helped her out of her chair and out the door.

After a few whispered words with Tuvok and Chakotay before leaving the conference room, Harry stopped by his quarters to fetch his flight bag and hustled to the shuttle bay. It was still rare, although no longer unheard of, for him to command a mission. There were other officers of higher rank not on the senior staff the captain might have assigned instead. If he let his true feelings show, he'd be dancing to the Delta Flyer.

When Harry arrived at the shuttle bay, he had a surprise waiting for him. His volunteers were there: Noah Lessing, Angelo Tessoni, Brian Sofin, and James Morrow, all of the Equinox crewmen, minus Marla Gilmore, of course; Tal Celes; and William Telfer. Harry couldn't help being surprised. After Chakotay's comment, he more or less expected Lessing and was pleased about it, since he had experience as an officer, although he was only a crewman now. He hadn't expected the others, and he had at least two more volunteers than he could reasonably take on the mission. At least there was one he could weed out without hurting any feelings.

"Brian, aren't you still on injury report from that shattered ankle?"

"Don't worry, Ensign Kim. Even injured, I'm all the 'muscle' you would want."

Everyone laughed.

"Seriously, I want to go along. This is the first away mission that I've had a chance to go on for a long time. I'd like to do what I can for the ship . . . and for Marla. She'd want to go along, too, if she were able."

"That's sort of why we want to come, too, Ensign Kim. We want to do whatever we can-after Mortimer-" Tal seemed on the verge of tears, gulping audibly, and unable to finish out her thought.

Harry pondered the situation for a moment. He understood their motivations, but he couldn't take all of them. He didn't have much trouble making the decision on whom to take, however. Even though Telfer had participated in several away missions successfully in recent months, he almost never volunteered for any. The fact that he was asking for this mission was a definite plus, even if it was prompted by the loss of Mortimer Harren. Now might not be the best time for him to be off the ship, however, and he couldn't take the chance on Sofin right now.

"Lessing, Morrow, Tessoni, Tal, you're with me. I'm sorry, Brian. Our readings about this vessel aren't complete enough for me to be sure about the degree of danger to the mission. Until your ankle heals, you might be a liability. I'd rather you stay here and work on ship repairs-and to keep Marla company. With Noah and me gone, who's going to read to her?"

Although obviously disappointed, Brian smiled weakly. "Okay, Ensign. I'll take that as an order."

"You do that, Brian. Mr. Telfer-your talents would be better suited to staying here and working with Lang and Peterson on the computers-and anything else Lieutenant Torres has for you to do. She's got plenty to do."

"Yes, sir. Umm, is it true she fell asleep in the middle of your staff meeting?"

"You heard about that? Already? Boy, news sure gets around fast on this ship. Who told you?"

"Seven." Telfer replied.

"SEVEN! Now I've heard everything," Harry exclaimed, as the rest laughed.

Tal Celes remarked casually, as the laughter was winding down, "There hasn't been enough 'funny' to gossip about lately, you know? I think we all needed it."

The chuckling became more subdued, but there was no denying that the spirits of everyone seemed much brighter than they had been for the past few days. Having something positive to do did that for a crew, Harry decided, as he dismissed Telfer and Sofin and briefed the rest of his team on their duties for the mission. Going out into space and exploring the unknown-that's what this crew did best. He felt confident, seeing the enthusiasm that his team was displaying, especially the Equinox people. They would be ready for anything.

So far, the trip had been routine. Harry was alert but relaxed, listening to his team joking with one another in between reports about the status of the Delta Flyer and the vessel towards which they were headed. They seemed more comfortable with each other than Harry had suspected-certainly more comfortable with each other than Harry was with any of them-but then, that made sense. The "Lower Decks" people spent more time with each other than they did with anyone on the senior staff. Harry felt the distance of being the one in command rather than being "just another one of the team," as he usually was. It wasn't a wholly pleasurable feeling.

From tactical, Noah asked, "May I ask you something, Tal?"

"Sure. Don't promise I'll answer, though," she said teasingly.

"Why does Captain Janeway call you Crewman Celes all the time? I thought Bajoran family names come first."

"They do."

"So . . . " Noah continued.

She sighed. "Somebody at Starfleet goofed when I came on board Voyager. The crew manifest listed me as 'Celes Tal.' Everybody called me 'Crewman Celes' for the longest time."

"Didn't you ask them to correct the mistake?" asked Angelo Tessoni, from his seat at the engineering station.

"I just let it go. I didn't want to cause a problem."

Angelo said, "But they got your name wrong! Didn't it bug you?"

"Well, yeah. But eventually, Tabor told Lieutenant Torres my name was reversed, so she had the manifest corrected."

"So why do you let the captain still call you 'Celes'?" Noah asked.

"Hey, the captain can call me anything she wants. I'll bet she calls you 'Noah,' doesn't she?"

"Not that I know of. Not to my face, anyway," Noah replied pensively. "But you're right. If she wanted to call me by my first name, I wouldn't object."

Celes, oblivious to the change in Noah's mood, turned to Harry. "What about you, Ensign Kim? Does she call you Harry?"

"Occasionally."

"There you go," Celes said. "She can call me what she wants, but the rest of you better call me 'Tal' unless we get really friendly."

"That's fine with me, Crewman Tal," Angelo drawled. "Better that way. Calling you 'Celes Tal' would be very distracting. Makes me think of Celes-T-al bodies. And . . ."

"Don't start, Angelo!" Noah groaned. "If you let him get to flirting with you, Tal, next thing you know, he'll be giving you flowers and candy and sending sickening love notes on your computer . . ."

"And this is supposed to be a problem?" Tal giggled, glancing towards the engineering station, where Angelo was leering, but with a big grin on his face. "But not now! We're on a mission!"

"It's about time somebody noticed, people!" Harry said, but with a chuckle, to let everyone know he wasn't really bothered by their banter. "Any more ideas about the energy readings from our target, TAL?" exaggerating her name to let her know that, despite the humorous exchange, he knew she was deadly serious about how she wanted to be called by the crew.

Crisply, she answered, "They're still fluctuating, sir. It could be from back-up generator power that's starting to run down. Whatever it is, I can't identify the type of energy source. It's either something very different from what we're used to, or it's being masked in some way. It almost looks like there's some sort of dampening field operating, now that we're getting close, but I can't tell for sure."

Noah added, "This ship is very badly damaged. If the original configuration is like most we've seen, what I think used to be the bridge seems to have been ripped right off. There's definitely some sort of shielding and energy-force activated hull integrity protection in that part of the ship. And I agree with Tal-I can't tell what kind of energy source they're using, either. And this thing is even bigger that we thought. You could fit three, maybe even four Voyagers inside of it, even without the bridge area."

"Can you tell what caused the damage?"

Noah was silent for a few seconds, and when it came, his reply was subdued. "I'm getting Borg weapons signatures, sir."

The mood in the cabin changed palpably to one of heightened alertness. Tal was the first to speak. "I'm not getting any sign of Borg life signs or vessels in the vicinity, but shouldn't we warn Voyager?"

"The weapons fire doesn't seem to have been recent," Noah observed. "From the rate of residual energy decay, I'd say it's been a few weeks since the damage occurred. At least thirty days, probably more."

Harry nodded, relieved, but he felt compelled to signal down to the lower compartment, "Morrow, we've detected signs of Borg involvement as a cause of the vessel's damage. It's not recent, so it's not a surprise to us, but we'll be approaching with due caution."

:::Understood, sir::: Morrow replied.

"Tal, send your message advising Voyager of our findings-but make sure to include there's no sign of Borg activity in the area now. We're about due to check in with the captain anyway."

"Aye, sir."

Quelling an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he switched to external communications, Harry followed mission protocols and called, "Alien vessel-this is Ensign Harry Kim of the Federation vessel Delta Flyer. We are willing and able to render you any assistance you may require. Alien vessel-this is the Delta Flyer . . ."

If any of the away team had been inclined to perceive humor in the way Harry referred to the Delta Flyer as a Federation vessel rather than a shuttle, no trace could be seen on their faces. The magic word "Borg" had ruthlessly destroyed the pleasant mood of camaraderie, transforming them all back to a team of professionals, at work in a dangerous galaxy.