Detox
A Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction by Andrew J. Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation et al are the property of CBS Television, Paramount and the creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
Written with Fanboyimus Prime...
And now for something completely different...
Though she wasn't as massive as a Galaxy-class starship, Voyager was still a pretty big vessel and even the thorough clean up in the asteroid belt post-Detox there were many things left unchecked or unexplored.
B'Elanna and Seska had decided to bond a bit by using their off hours to crawl around in the Jefferies' tubes... Though naturally the conversation kept coming back to one point.
"So... You and Paris? I knew it from the start," Seska said as the two women crawled through a junction. "You had a thing for him."
"I did not," B'Elanna said testily, checking the markers on the Jefferies' tube to make sure they were in the right spot before they went on. "We... Grew into each other." She scowled at her friend over her shoulder as she crawled behind her. "Not a word!"
"You left such a wide opening though," Seska said with a smirk. B'Elanna rolled her eyes.
"Yeah yeah yeah... I'm going to catch nothing but hell from you, aren't I?"
"What are best friends for? Besides, I'm the maid of honor," Seska said with a chuckle. B'Elanna huffed as they rounded a bend.
"I don't remember offering you the position."
"You didn't, but who better? Besides, you owe me Torres," Seska said. "I mean who else was helping make sure your crazy repairs on the Val Jean or whatever we were calling it that week worked?"
"They weren't crazy if they worked," B'Elanna said. Seska shook her head as they trooped past a shield emitter.
"Just keep telling yourself that, Torres."
"Come on," B'Elanna said as they came to another junction. B'Elanna sat up and looked to Seska with a wry smile. "Some of my repairs have paid off, right?
"Yeah and you also plugged in a piece of alien tech that could have gotten us home and turned it into a paper weight Icheb is studying," Seska noted.
"You were the most gung-ho for that," B'Elanna remarked.
"I thought Carey would have talked you into something a bit more sane than plug and pray," Seska said with an annoyed expression. "Because the Kazon did the same thing with a replicator I was trying to set up. And we know how that went for them."
"Give me a break, the ship's been held together with chewing gum and wire," B'Elanna snorted. "I did at least keep things going... Right?"
"To be fair, yes," Seska said with a nod. "You're a good enough engineer you kept us going. Icheb didn't have nearly as much to do... Save for when we ran across experimental technology or fruit pulp."
B'Elanna sighed. "We're never going to get over this, are we?"
"Not really," Seska stated. "Though still better than one fool who it took this being he had as his assistant to get ships going faster. He didn't have the excuse-He was just an asshole."
"I had to write a paper about that," B'Elanna remarked with a wry smile. Seska smiled back. "Look... We're all indebted to you. More times than I can count. And I... I can't tell you how happy I am you're not..."
"A traitor?" Seska asked with a smile. "I know the feeling..."
B'Elanna reached out and squeezed Seska's hand, a gesture the Bajoran returned.
"So," B'Elanna said, turning to the hatch on the next junction, "let's see what's behind this door..." She hit the control, and frowned. Seska frowned with her.
"What is it?"
"Not responding," B'Elanna said thoughtfully. She opened the manual control hatch, and yanked on it. The doors opened out into a maintenance junction, with a ladder running up to Deck 11 and down to Deck 12. That wasn't what caught B'Elanna and Seska's attention though.
"Oh Prophets," Seska muttered. Paper littered the deck, sheets of it all over the floor and stuck to the walls. Red, blue, black and green paint formed various words and images in multiple languages across the bulkheads. Drawings and broken padds littered the space, as did fruit cores, ration wrappers and empty water bottles. A kind of nest had been formed in the bottom of the section, with scraps of clothing reinforcing the crude bed. A few flowers were painted on the bulkheads, most of them black, red or a dark, unhealthy green.
"Well," B'Elanna said wryly. "Seems we missed someone."
"This isn't anything Lon would make," Seska noted. "He might be crazy, but rather not live like this."
"He always did have the cleanest and neatest bunk on the Val Jean," B'Elanna commented as she scanned the "bed" to see who had used it.
"But who are we missing?" Seska asked.
"Well, let's take this to the Doctor and see what he can make of it," B'Elanna said, switching her tricorder to "record" as she scanned every item in the room. She gingerly stepped into the middle of it and made a full sweep... And looked up. She blinked and cringed a bit at the words on the ceiling.
"B'Elanna? What is it?" Seska asked. She looked up and gawked.
A mural composed of anything and everything the anonymous maniac could find formed an elaborate image of two objects. One was recognizable as Voyager, barely. The dark colors and jagged textures revealed fractures and breaches across the entire hull of the vessel. Blue and orange paints formed plasma leaks and fires that billowed out of the ship, like Voyager was bleeding to death. Her port nacelle looked about to come off, and the whole vessel was enshrouded in shadow.
Above Voyager, several times her size and looming menacingly was what looked like some kind of bizarre monster. A great shining eye, burning with purple and blue fire and focused squarely on the tiny, crippled Federation ship. Around the eye were giant black and purple tentacles, reaching out for Voyager and wiping across space. Anywhere they touched was rendered blank and white, which against the dark background seemed all the more frightening. In fact... The white was overwhelming the dark colors of the shadows, and that terrible creature, whatever it was, seemed to be closing in around Voyager.
The work seemed to have a title. Painted underneath this scene were two words, drawn in dried blood:
TIME'S UP
It was equally artistic and disturbing. For some reason, B'Elanna felt... Afraid.
"... Yeah, let's tell the Doctor," B'Elanna said with forced calm.
"And hose down whoever made this is with a phaser set to stun," Seska added, eyes never leaving the portrait as though it might do something.
"Ah, Lieutenants," the Doctor said cheerfully, as Seska and B'Elanna entered sickbay. "What can I do for you?"
"We found something we think you should look at," B'Elanna said, walking past the Doctor into his office. Seska followed, her eyebrows raised. The EMH, a bit confused, followed and settled into his chair behind his desk.
"What seems to be the trouble?" He asked.
"Well... We were thinking you could study these and tell me about the psychological state of... Of whoever made them," B'Elanna said. She handed her tricorder over. The Doctor took it and plugged it into his desk computer. He reviewed the scans and images... And his face fell.
"Doctor, I know it's not... Standard protocol, but whoever did this could... Well... Maybe they need some help?" B'Elanna said. "I mean, our scans indicate it was last accessed a few weeks ago, and even with the detox..."
"Kes is the closest thing to a counselor we have on this ship," Seska said. "She's held it together all this time, she's psychic... You two together could probably find and help this-"
"Ah... That's just it," the Doctor said. "I know who did this."
"You do? Who?" B'Elanna asked. The Doctor frowned.
"It's a private matter... Doctor Patient confidentiality. I can't breach it."
"But Doctor, if someone's been doing this all alone-" Seska tried, but the Doctor froze her with a glare.
"The matter has been settled," the Doctor said. "And I would advise you both to drop it."
The two engineers frowned. The Doctor remained silent, unmoved. B'Elanna left reluctantly, still disturbed by that haunting image. Seska guided her out, patting her on the back. The Doctor sighed, and reviewed the images once again.
"Added to it again, I see," the Doctor said, almost dully. "I think we're going to have to have a talk." He hit his commbadge. "Doctor to Kes? Please come in, we have some work to do."
"Right away Doctor."
The next visitor to sickbay, as expected, was Janeway. The Doctor was doing a workup of cultures for vaccine purposes even as he flipped through the pages of his latest novel. He looked up and nodded to the captain.
"Captain, what can I do for you? As if I didn't already know," he said flatly. Janeway frowned.
"Doctor... I'm not here to ask who it is," she said. The EMH nodded.
"That's good."
"And I have every confidence in you to handle the situation," Janeway said further. "As long as the individual in question isn't a powder keg waiting to go off."
"No, said individual isn't," the Doctor said testily. Janeway nodded slowly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Good," she said with a nod. "Though at this rate, it's likely their identity will come to light sooner or later." She held her hand up at the inevitable sputtering. "I am not saying you should tell me anyway, Doctor. I'm just pointing it out and asking if you are prepared for it."
"I am," the Doctor said. "You have to understand though, given how you all have been acting..."
"We wouldn't be the first choice for someone to go to in order to talk about their feelings," Janeway sighed. "That said... All of those writings and drawings and that... Mural. Was it something that actually happened?"
"Hmmm..." The Doctor pulled out his tricorder and scanned her. "Elevated levels of adrenaline, high blood pressure, low blood sugar... Actually this is fairly normal for you, Captain-"
"Doctor," Janeway growled.
"Right, sorry," Doctor said apologetically. "You've been like this ever since you saw the scans?"
"Yes," Janeway said. "I don't know what it is... It's just so disturbing."
"Ah," the Doctor said. "That's complicated."
"Can Kes help us?" Janeway asked. At the Doctor's silence, Janeway cocked an eyebrow. "Or is she the one who is suffering?"
The EMH said nothing, but sighed.
"It isn't my story to tell Captain."
"No, but maybe it's time I did tell it," Kes said softly.
Janeway and the Doctor were both startled. They looked about.
"Kes? Where are you?" Janeway asked. A blonde head poked up from under the Doctor's desk, making the EMH yelp.
"Kes!"
"Why were you under there?" Janeway asked. Kes sighed and rubbed the back of her head.
"I wondered if by being invisible, as in, hidden, you'd notice me," she admitted. "Also it's kind of fun."
Both Captain and EMH stared. Kes smiled and shrugged.
"To be honest, I was pretty close to losing it before the Doctor came up with the cure..." She sighed. "And I kind of did."
"Because of what happened with the...?" Janeway asked.
"The Year of Hell," Kes said in a dull tone.
"You told us about that," the captain said. She shook her head. "It didn't happen... We met the Krenim and just went around their space."
Kes laughed hollowly. "Yeah... Yeah, we did," she said. "And we didn't."
Janeway blinked. "... Is this going to involve temporal mechanics?"
"In the words of your species? Oh hell yes," Kes said with a haunted look.
"Well at least we're united in our bad mood," Janeway said, standing up and offering her chair to Kes. The blonde Ocampan sat down in it, and took a deep breath.
"Sure you want to do this, Kes?" The Doctor asked. Kes nodded...
"No," she said. "But after you've made a Crazy Junction, I guess you should probably explain yourself... Now that your friends are sane again..."
It was the year everyone started seeing me again...
"I don't think it's going to work again," Tom said mournfully as he fiddled with an ODN junction. He was filthy and sweaty and exhausted. The Krenim had been hunting them for the last few days, and already the ship was running low on spare parts. Replicating new ones were taking up power supplies. But, they needed to get this system running again for navigation, and he was the pilot. And all the other pilots were in sickbay due to burns suffered from a plasma conduit that burst in the shuttlebay and everyone else was on repair duty in other sections of the ship...
Come on... What was he missing? He could reroute this easily... He just needed...
A hydrospanner slid into his hands from above.
"Try splitting the junction," said a voice from above. "It'll function just fine with a bit of treated silicon bridging the circuit."
"Oh thanks." Tom looked up... And blinked repeatedly. Above him, sticking to the wall and looking resigned, was Kes. Braced against the bulkhead like a spider, she was as dirty and filthy as he felt. There was a mournful look in her eyes.
"Kes...?" He asked. The blonde Ocampan's eyes shot to his face. They widened in disbelief.
"Tom...? You... You can see me?" She whispered. Tom grinned.
"Oh come on! Of-Of course I can see you!" He said. "I..." He frowned. "Am I dead?"
"No," Kes said, tears at the corners of her eyes, "but I thought about making it so following you around all this time!"
"Wait, wha-MMPH!" And Tom Paris was bowled over by the tearful Ocampan, who was hugging him tightly while shoving her tongue down his throat.
"What do you mean you're back?!" Janeway demanded in the ready room, which looked about as trashed as the bridge. "How? Did you get ejected from the Q Continuum?"
"What?" Kes asked in disbelief. She shook her head. "I... Well... Yes! Sure! Let's go with that!"
"Okay," Janeway said, rubbing her forehead. "That works for me... Did you bring any of those super Q weapons that can kill ascended beings?"
"Ah, sorry," Kes said. "They're fresh out... Look! I wrote down logs about the Krenim, remember? We can use those to-"
"To chart a course to a hiding place? Sounds good to me, go with Tom over to the conn and plot it out!" Janeway said. She kneeled down and scrounged the floor. "I need to find my lucky tea cup."
"... Riiight," Kes sighed, turning and walking back onto the bridge. Still, she wasn't being ignored... Entirely. That was a step up.
Now she wouldn't have to just steal rations. That tended to make everyone scream there were ghosts onboard now.
"Right, ready?" Tom asked with a smile, at the damaged conn. Kes sighed and began scanning through starcharts.
"This gas giant should provide some cover for a few days," she said. "We'll need to reinforce the shields though due to the radiation levels."
"Well, they haven't been much use lately, in case you hadn't noticed," Tom said dryly.
"Ah. That explains why my quarters now has a new open window in the bulkhead," Kes replied, just as sarcastic.
The hiding spot worked out for a week before they were discovered. Then, another assault hit the ship. Even while tending to wounded crewmen in the messhall, Kes was thinking this entire 'being noticed by the crew again' thing wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
Plus seeing Neelix made into a security officer disturbed her.
"Isn't it great, sweetie?" Neelix said cheerfully, as she ran a dermal regenerator over the bloody forehead of a cross-eyed ensign. "I'm moving up on the ship!"
Kes shot him a look. "Not really dear." with "dear" so icy it'd flood Vulcan. Neelix looked a bit hurt.
"How can you say that? I-I'm being productive and helpful as never before!"
"Neelix, sweetie, trying to keep this man from having an aneurysm," Kes replied testily. "Mind letting me work for five minutes?"
"I was just thinking, you know, since you've returned and all," and here Neelix moved in front of her with a smile, "we could think about... Things. Between us. Ya know... Giving things another... Chance?"
Kes very slowly looked up from her patient, extending her telekinetic powers to keep his blood vessels from bursting. She still had enough power to cause Neelix's commbadge to shatter. Neelix coughed, and the ship rocked from another torpedo strike.
"I think I'll just go see if the security teams need my help, ta!" Neelix said, rushing off. Kes rolled her eyes as the Doctor walked up behind her.
"Kes, Crewman Jenkins has suffered plasma burns," the Doctor said. "Can you alleviate his pain with your powers?"
"I'll give it a shot," Kes said, finishing the repair work on the artery in the ensign's brain. "There... You'll be fine, relax," she said with a strained smile. The ensign smiled back, and the Ocampan and the EMH turned to the suffering crewman. Kes laid her hand over the burned woman, who was trying not to sob. Kes closed her eyes and focused.
"Don't worry... Don't worry," she said. The pain was screaming in Jenkins' nerves, but Kes was able to soothe her agony. The Doctor got to work with analgesic cream and his dermal regenerator.
'Has anyone tried to teach Mr. Neelix manners?" The Doctor commented. "This is surgery, not some after hours get together."
"He's trying to act like we're not under constant attack by homicidal maniacs with unstoppable weapons," Kes muttered. "Jenkins? How is that?"
"B-Better," the crewman gasped softly. "Was... Was that Neelix... In a security officer's uniform?"
"Yeah," Kes said with a sigh. "I'm as worried about that as you are."
"As anyone with a working brain should be," the Doctor remarked. The intercom sounded.
"Evasive maneuvers, everyone hang on!" Harry shouted. The ship's inertial dampeners screamed through them as the ship accelerated. Kes immediately knelt down, and tried to hold onto the floor. The Doctor went around, checking the restraints for all the injured. The ship then flipped over, and Kes was sent tumbling head over heels to the other side of the mess hall.
"WAAAHHHH!"
There also was a loud clang as several of Neelix's pots and his wok fell to the floor. Kes struggled back up to her feet... Only to be sent tumbling forward, right through the Doctor's holographic body.
"AAAHHHH!"
"Kes? You all right?" The Doctor asked. There was another impact and explosion, and the ship shook from the strike. Kes groaned as she got back up, bruised and a bit bloodied. The EMH was filled with alarm.
"Kes!"
"It's not as bad as it looks," Kes said with a sigh. She rubbed her eyes. "I haven't been... Getting as much sleep-"
"You haven't been getting any sleep," the Doctor said flatly.
"Can't sleep or Kremin will eat us," Kes said in a dead tone. The Doctor gave her a flat look.
"This is no joking matter!"
"I wasn't," Kes replied, the lines under her eyes darker.
"You're not going to do me any good falling apart like this!" The Doctor admonished.
Kes scowled.
"It's a little hard to get sleep when we're under constant-"
The ship shook and rattled from another explosive torpedo.
"unrelenting-!" Another hit, which blew out some ODN lines in a nearby bulkhead.
"ATTACK!" Kes shrieked, almost throwing her tricorder. Rather, she just smashed Neelix's oven with her psychic powers. The Doctor looked over at it, and then back at Kes.
Kes was acutely aware of everyone staring at her in fear and shock. Kes looked down a the deck, taking deep breaths.
"Kes," the Doctor said, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry," she said softly. "It's... It's just wearing on me... I have to keep up with you or everyone's going to..."
There was yet another impact on the hull, and Kes shut her eyes tightly. She flinched instinctively, waiting for the boom.
... But there was no explosion.
Kes opened one eye... And blinked rapidly. She then smiled. She hit her commbadge.
"Kes to bridge! Where did that torpedo impact?!"
"Somewhere around Deck 11," Harry said. "Why do you want to-?"
"Doctor, take over!" Kes said, turning and running out the doors of the messhall. "I'll be right back!"
Kes got to the Jefferie's tube hatch she recalled from her future memories. However, she was surprised to see Seven of Nine already there.
"So they finally figure out you'd be the best to figure out how the damn thing worked?" Kes asked.
"The Borg have encountered temporal weapons before," Seven noted.
"And the Krenim haven't figured out how bad waving this stuff around is?" Kes remarked. "Given that has to be the brightest and shiniest toy for the Collective to want."
"Use of time manipulation as a weapon tends to escalate rapidly," Seven replied as she crawled into the Jefferies' tube. Kes followed.
"So basically more trouble than its worth when everyone is throwing it around," Kes mused.
"Correct," Seven said with a slight nod.
"That doesn't fill me with confidence," Kes remarked.
"Nor should it," Seven stated.
"Time travel wrecks havoc on the fabric of time," Kes mused. "With the way the Krenim are treating it I'm surprised we haven't seen the 29th Century Federation get involved. I mean that prick took shots at us and told us to kill ourselves over far less." Kes usually didn't resort to profanity but to be honest, it had been a pretty lousy year.
"Their absence is somewhat worrying," Seven observed. "We will adapt and prevail."
"Wish I shared your confidence," Kes said, sounding worried. "They made Neelix a security officer, and that means things are not going well."
"The massive destruction to the vessel is another, substantial clue to that," Seven remarked. Kes raised an eyebrow as they rounded a corner around a tractor beam emitter.
"Huh! You're coming along well, you know."
"Explain," Seven said tersely.
"With human relationships. Your sarcasm is admirable," Kes said. "Used that against Janeway lately?"
"It is hard to use something against a target that doesn't register the attack." Seven admitted.
"She's been under a lot of strain," Kes allowed.
"Not as much as Ensign Kim has been," Seven noted. "I believe he is the term her...butt monkey? Which is a very odd term."
"I've found most humans to be very odd," Kes said as they turned another corner. A faint yellow glow, familiar to the Ocampan, was coming from far down the Jefferies' tube. "That's it..." She pulled out her tricorder, and Seven did the same.
"Now, we just need to scan the temporal frequency and we can modify the shields to protect us," Kes said. Seven frowned.
"You have done this before."
"Nope," Kes said cheerfully. "First time."
"... I see," Seven said sounding not quite sure on that.
"So, what's the temporal frequency on this torpedo?" Kes asked, staying behind Seven as the Blonde Ex-Borg began to scan it. She wasn't keen on getting exposed to chroniton radiation and jumping through time... Again.
She didn't need another timeline of memories in her head. Too often and she'd never be able to sort out what happened in the one she was living in.
"The temporal frequency is 1.245 seconds," Seven reported. "The calibration is inexact... I will have to scan further."
"That's inexact?" Kes asked in disbelief.
"We are dealing with a temporal weapon," Seven noted. "It isn't fully in our time even now." A metallic-covered eyebrow rose. "Is there a reason you're pressing up behind me?"
"... I'm shielding myself from the chroniton radiation with your body," Kes said honestly.
"A wise decision. I possess internal shielding that protects me from it," Seven said.
"Oh! Good," Kes said with a nod. "I knew that."
"Your reticence suggests otherwise."
"I'm a telepath. Of course I knew," Kes said quickly. Seven stared at her.
Kes cut off any further awkward questioning by hitting her commbadge. "Right then... Kes to bridge! We know the temporal frequency for the temporal torpedo..."
Static. Kes tapped Seven's commbadge.
"Bridge? Bridge, please come in," Kes said, leaning her head close to Seven's breast. "Bridge?"
"Chroniton interference from the torpedo," Seven ascertained. She checked her tricorder as the warhead began to glow more brightly. "It is becoming more active. The radiation will spike, and then dissipate."
"Right, let's get out of here," Kes immediately decided. She turned and began crawling out the Jefferies tube... And looked behind to see that Seven wasn't following. "Seven!"
"I have yet to lock down the exact frequency," Seven said. The warhead began making a hissing sound, and Kes's eyes widened in fear.
"And it's about to blow up! We've got to go, now!"
"If I do not determine the frequency then we can not..."
"Let's just go!" Kes yelled using her powers to pull the Exborg along. Seven slammed her feet into the Jefferies tube bulkhead, her enhanced strength keeping her still.
"I am not finished!"
"That thing goes off and we're finished for good!" Kes shouted. She physically wrapped her arms around Seven's waist and pulled with all her strength and her telekinetic power. Seven gritted her teeth and bent the metal under her feet. The warhead began to shake.
"Tuvok to Seven and Kes," the Vulcan's voice came through. "There is an unexploded warhead-"
"Yes Tuvok, we know, it's about to blow!" Kes shouted. "Use the forcefields!"
"They are down. I am rerouting shields to surround the device. Evacuate immediately," Tuvok ordered.
"SEVEN! Let... Rrr... Go!" Kes growled, the metal of the bulkheads bending as she exerted her telekinetic powers to their limits. Seven's tricorder beeped... And she pulled her high heeled feet back. The abrupt loss of resistance sent both blondes flying backwards through the Jefferies' tube, just as the warhead exploded.
The flash and roar of the bomb going off was contained, however, by the protective envelope of the shields. The force was still massive, and Kes managed to guide their flight just enough that they tumbled out of the Jefferies' tube into the darkened corridor at non-lethal speeds.
"Haa... Haa... Haa..." Kes panted, lying on her back her head feeling like spikes were being driven inside. Seven was lying atop her, calmly examining her tricorder.
"I have obtained the temporal frequency," she reported.
"Wonderful," Kes muttered.
"Kes! Seven! Are you two... " The Doctor's voice trailed off into a weak cough. Kes looked up, seeing Tom, the Doctor and Harry all staring at the two women. The Ocampan sighed.
"We uh... Interrupting something?" Tom asked. The Doctor smacked him over the back of his head. "Ow!"
"Thank you," Kes said flatly.