Child of Night (Kind der Nacht): Part 5

Author: Christy Anderson

You can contact me at kittyunlimited@go.com.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Paramount minus Ensign Christy Anderson, Tre'kent, and a few selected insignificant characters.

An apology goes out to everybody for the time that it took me to come up with the next part, but finally it is finished. And so embarks Part 1 of eventful and momentous away mission to the unknown depths to chart a course home to the Alpha Quadrant…

Child of Night (Kind der Nacht): Part 5

I gave a sleepy yawn and stretched. Outside my window were millions of bright stars just standing still. With a contented smile, I rolled to my other side and sat up in bed. The events from the previous night were a blur. I remembered falling asleep on the couch in Tre'kent's arms. That only left the question as to how I got here.

Slowly I began to become more alert and I noticed a note on the pillow beside me. "Christy- you fell asleep, and I had to carry you to bed. I'll see you in the morning- at 06:00 in Shuttle Bay 2; I know you'll be there extra early to set things up. Love you, Tre'kent," the note read. With a gasp I sat straight up.

"Computer, confirm the current time," I commanded.

The computer beeped. "The time is 05:45 hours," I stated impassively.

"Computer, what is the status of Anderson 'Pre-Launch' file?" I asked in confusion.

The computer beeped again. "Inactive."

I shook my head as I realized that I had fallen asleep before I had activated the file. "Begin program," I commanded.

Immediately the computer began to do its job. "Confirming the current time… forty five minutes behind schedule… combining beginning processes," the computer droned.

Lethargically I stood up out of bed and headed to the sonic shower, the program in full swing. Nearly ten minutes later I was preparing to head to the Shuttle Bay. "Computer, give me a full report," I demanded.

"All items within inventory are confirmed to be in the cargo hold of shuttle 2. Initiating third wake up call to Lieutenant Paris. Checking on Lieutenant Torres' bio-sign… confirmed… Lieutenant Torres is in the sonic shower in her quarters; status: conscious and alert. Wake up calls for B'Elanna Torres postponed indefinitely. Scheduled departure check… status: pending," the computer began to report. "Simulation analysis…"

"Computer," I interrupted. "Belay auditory sub-processes for five minutes and resume in Shuttle Bay 2," I ordered as I walked out the door. With a smile, I realized that it had been a good idea to check for B'Elanna's bio-sign before initiating the wakeup calls. I had spared myself an agitated Klingon.

"Acknowledged," the computer intoned.

I hastened my pace in order to be ahead of time. My thoughts were jumbled and confused, and the nervousness was beginning to catch up to me. Outside of the Shuttle Bay stood Tre'kent, with a boastful smile on his face. "I thought you would have been here hours ago," he joked lightly.

I stepped up to him and gave him a kiss. "I slept in," I said with a laugh. Without another thought, I grabbed his hand and stepped into the Shuttle Bay just in time to hear the computer kick back into its report.

"Initiating fifth wake up call to Lieutenant Paris," the computer said as it brought me up to date.

I sighed and shook my head. "Computer, cut time between the wakeup calls in half," I said hurriedly as I boarded the shuttle with Tre'kent in tow. He leaned over my shoulder and gave me another kiss. "Stop it," I whispered angrily, "I'm already late."

He gave me a hug and gently apologized. I smiled weakly and began to tap the controls of the console in the shuttle. "Computer, display the analysis of the simulations that I ran yesterday." Immediately a computer generated report filled the screen. Quickly, I scanned down the first few lines.

"Good Morning," came another voice from the back of the shuttle. I turned around to find B'Elanna.

"Good Morning," Tre'kent answered politely. Without hesitation, B'Elanna came up from behind me and began to read over my shoulder.

"What is that?" she asked while raising her eyebrow.

"Nothing much," I said as impassively as I could. Truthfully it contained some very negative and slim results for the outcome of our mission. With a sigh, I pulled a PADD from a shelf and interfaced it with the console. "Computer, transfer the report to the data PADD," I commanded as I headed out of the shuttle leaving Tre'kent and B'Elanna behind. "Computer, update," I said as I grabbed the bag that I had left in the Shuttle Bay the previous day.

On command the computer began an updated report. While listening, I continued to search through the bag for the PADD that contained some valuable scientific information from Voyager's database about quantum foam, singularities, neutron stars, and nebulas. There were also some beginning hypothesizes and calculations that I had made from the shuttles simulations yesterday. Suddenly, I heard footsteps come up behind me.

"What is all this?" B'Elanna shouted over the computer's voice. Rapidly I explained to her what I had designed my program to do. She nodded as if she was impressed.

"Not bad," she said softly.

The computer sounded a small short alarm. "Initiating 15th wake up call to Lieutenant Paris," it informed us.

A wicked smile formed over B'Elanna's face. "Trying to wake up Tom, are you?" she asked with a smile. She took in a deep breath. "Computer, cut the time between wakeup calls in half and increase volume to maximum."

She turned and looked at me. "He should be here shortly," she said as she shrugged her shoulders and headed back to the shuttle.

I looked up at Tre'kent and tried to resist laughing at B'Elanna's uncompassionate solution; unfortunately we both broke out into uncontrollable hysterics at the thought of Tom being blasted into another universe by the computer's voice.

B'Elanna raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes as she watched us. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the computer.

"Wake up calls have been terminated," it announced.

"Why?" she interjected.

"Lieutenant Paris has initiated a security override."

I shook my head. "Tom can do all that, but he cannot wake up on time," I said in a surprised tone.

"Computer, what's the security clearance?" B'Elanna asked.

"A security clearance of level 6 is required."

B'Elanna gave a coy smile. "He's on to you Christy, but he didn't figure in me," she said mysteriously.

"Computer, override. Security clearance Torres 6-9-4," she commanded.

The computer beeped. "Wakeup calls resumed," it stated.

A few minutes later a very disgruntled Tom trudged into the Shuttle Bay. Sleepily he opened his eyes and started over to me. "You know," he began, "I could turn you over to the Captain for compromising Voyager's security systems."

I smiled. "It wasn't me," I said sweetly, innocently.

Silently B'Elanna exited the shuttle where she had been working and sneaked up behind Tom. "I did it," she said pleasantly.

Tom jumped up and spun around to see the half Klingon. "I should've guessed," he joked.

At that moment the doors to the Shuttle Bay swished open and the Captain walked in. "Time to get to work. Christy, I need to see you, now," she announced hotly as she marched over towards me.

Tre'kent saw her coming and gave me a hug. I guess I should get going, he transmitted telepathically. I'll see you when you get back…

I turned and gave him a kiss. Auf Wiedersehen… Goodbye, I answered.

He stepped away to avoid crashing into Captain Janeway who was on an intercept course. Slowly he turned and walked away. I love you, he transmitted as he exited the room. Wistfully I stared off after him and sighed inwardly to myself.

"Christy?" the Captain questioned again. She looked confused and worried.

I snapped out of my reverie and equaled my gaze to hers. "Yes, Captain?" I responded.

"Is everything ready?" she asked after a time.

I mutely nodded.

"Good," she said with decisiveness. She cleared her throat and motioned me to a secluded corner. Expectedly she ducked her head before she began. "I read your report," she whispered harshly.

I acknowledged her with another nod. Without anything more the Captain continued. "I also found an analysis in your database of your shuttle simulations you ran on the holodeck yesterday."

My head sprung up. "You were searching in my database, Captain?" I asked cautiously.

The Captain gave me a hard stare. "I actually caught the computer finishing the analysis up. I snatched the report from there," she said matter-of-factly.

I let out a breath of air and relaxed a little, but the Captain's face showed that she still had more to say. The silence was becoming deafening and the tension was thick. Finally the Captain drew in a sharp breath of air. "Why didn't you tell me?" she finally exploded.

I tried to look for an appropriate comment that would not get me into any trouble. "Sie schienen auch mit dem Erhalten wir Haupt, Kapitän in Anspruch genommen… You seemed too preoccupied with getting us home, Captain," I replied steadily and respectfully.

The Captains eyes bore down upon me when she heard the German and she gave me a strange look as my words began to sink in. She softened the strong features on her face and gave me a genuine glance of concern. "I was wrong," she stated simply and apologetically. "I rethought some issues last night and I decided to leave it up to you. Do you still willingly want to send this away mission?"

I did a double take and took a few steps backwards. "Are you asking me if I still want to go?" I restated, uncertain of whether or not I would find myself dreaming.

The Captain's face remained straight. "Yes, I'm giving you the choice to send or cancel the mission…" her voice trailed off.

Amazed, I looked up at her. Captain Janeway's eyes were expectant yet concerned, and she tried her best to not convey any of her own feelings towards the matter that would instigate any partiality in my judgement. Yet deep in her eyes, almost too small to see, was a haunted, tortured expression, and at this moment I realized how much I had rattled her the previous night when I had suggested that we might die attempting to complete the mission.

Over my time on Voyager I had learned many different things, but one of the first was the fact that the Captain was a complex person. In a flash, I thought back to her pained confession- the masked guilt- the grotesque fact that we were estranged from our families for perhaps an immeasurable amount of time. Amazingly, there was a window of opportunity that lied before us; it was only heavily guarded and armed, but there was a chance, a small chance. Still, there was a chance… a chance to see Father and my family again.

I stared back up at the Captain. Her shoulders were straight and her head was lifted high, a proud Starfleet Captain trying her best to get her crew home. Haupt, Masse… Home, Earth… a planet I had not seen in almost nine months, yet it was inhabited by a minority of people that held onto parts of my life and my heart. The homesickness and the suffering I had been through over these months would be soon put to rest if I was only but home. Not only I, but there were nearly 150 more people on Voyager that wanted to go home too.

Wir teilten ganz den Traum von nach Hause gehen. Er war venspoken Wunsch, einen unterdrückten Wunsch, ein verstandenes Ziel, und er blieb mit uns während unserer täglichen Lebensdauern und Aufgaben… We all shared the dream of going home. It was an unspoken desire, a suppressed wish, an understood goal, and it remained with us throughout our daily lives and duties.

Yes, we all had common ties and a common dream… a dream to get home. However, in spite of everything, we had been 'here' before.

There was a time, not too long ago, when we had found a wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant. I remembered how happy I had been. The hopes and dreams that had come within my reach had lifted up my spirits indefinitely, it had seemed then. Satirically there had been a Romulan on the other opening who had slowly been coaxed to help us. After a time, we had found out that the wormhole indeed led within 15 light years of the nearest Starfleet base, only twenty years before Voyager ever existed. Even though we gave him a chip with our letters to home to give to Starfleet twenty years later, we found out from the computer's database that he died four years before he would have ever given the chip away.

Yes, we had been 'here' before. 'Here' was the dream of going home that made us instantly drop our guards and defenses, only to be brokenhearted when the dream suddenly ended. With a heavy heart I realized the impact that this must have made upon the Captain, my Captain. If I was pained, then she was pained 150 times more.

She endured all of our pain, and she suffered with us, her crew. If we were happy, she was joyous with us. If were sick, she was strong for us. If we were worn from the tremendous journey, she carried us along with her. In this woman, whom I at 18 was nearly taller than, was the vast strength that carried the burdens and baggage of life that had surpassed all of our emotional capacity.

Unexpectedly, I looked up at her with a renewed sense of courage and exploration. The aura that surrounded her had that knack for spurring up the best in each of us. It was an indescribable force that pushed us to believe wholeheartedly in whatever we set our minds to. Without fail, the expectancy in her eyes was still there though, stronger than ever. It was a desperate plea, "please keep 'here' alive".

A faint smile began to play upon my face. I straightened my shoulders and attempted to stand as proud and tall as she did. I drew in a decisive breath. "Captain, we're ready for take off," I said optimistically with an understanding gaze.

At first she gave me a doubtful stare as if she was unsure of I had just said. After all the resistance I had offered her, I stood here in the Shuttle Bay and contradicted all of my previous decisions and arguments to risk my life for an astronomically small possibility of getting home. Still, a look of relief spread over her face when she recognized that I was serious. "I know you can do it," she encouraged me softly. "Prepare to launch," she said as she twirled around and went out the doors headed for the Bridge.

"I won't let you down," I inaudibly called after her.

The shuttle rocked slightly as Tom eased us out of the oncoming turbulence from the galaxy. We stood by waiting for the 'go' signal from Voyager. I was still in the small cargo hold carefully bringing in some of the instruments that I had brought along. From her console, B'Elanna eyed me as she saw a few of the strange structures and designs. I handed her a jar like object. "When we first enter the quantum foam, I want you to fill this up with a sample using the transporters." She nodded and watched as I stacked some objects that resembled tricorders.

"Voyager to away team," the Comm system crackled. "You are cleared to enter the galaxy. If we do not hear from you in two hours we are going to come in after you. Try to keep communication open."

I saw Tom give a nod and begin to tap the controls on the helm console in front of him. "Acknowledged," I replied as I shut the link. "B'Elanna scan for anything out in front of us," I requested gently.

B'Elanna shook her head. "Can't see anything but this foam," she replied.

"Take us in Tom," I commanded with my heart in my throat. "Slowly," I reminded him.

It took less than five minutes to reach the outer perimeter of the galaxy. B'Elanna momentarily stopped to strategically plan what we would do first.

"Now Tom, you will keep us steady and then get your butt back here to help us. I'll use the transporters to take a sample of the foam. Christy will study it and come up with something from there… At the same time, we will need to try to keep shields, sensors, and communication with Voyager intact and operational," she said speedily.

Tom turned around to face her. "Whoa, B'Elanna, slow down. Let's take it one step at a time."

"Unfortunately we might not have that long," I reminded him.

Tom turned back around to his console as if he were ignoring me and began to tap on the controls again. "Three seconds until we enter," he informed us. "Two… One…"

Immediately the shuttle lurched and I was flung down to the floor. I struggled to push myself back up again.

"Shields at 95% and failing," B'Elanna announced from her console.

"Tom, get us steady," I yelled as I picked up one of my instruments that had fallen to the floor.

The shuttle shook again, and I could hear a large explosion from the back.

"The quantum foam is clogging our nacelles," Tom announced in a panic.

"Diverting full power to the shields and the deflector," I told both of them as I tapped my console. Momentarily the shuttle stopped shaking, and Tom was able to balance us out.

"Initiating transport," B'Elanna broadcasted to us. Within seconds she handed me the jar full of bubbling foam. "I'm going to work on some basic algorithms to stabilize our shields, ok?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Tom! Get back here to help me!" she yelled.

From my corner, I ran my triaxle scanner over the sample of foam. Without warning, the shuttle dangerously lurched again.

"I can't keep our position stable," Tom declared, the panic once again rising in his voice. "The gravimetric waves outside the shuttle are increasing, and the scanners are malfunctioning… shields down to 54% and failing…"

"Versuch... Versuch! Hurry!" I cried. The German was the only thing that could come to my mind in this fast pace situation.

"English!" B'Elanna yelled as she moved up to meet him. "Here let me help you," she said calmly.

Deciding that they could get the situation under control I turned back around with the triaxle scanner to pick up the exact acidity. Unfortunately the readings were slow coming and jumbled. "Come on," I whispered. "You never failed me at home."

Finally the readings began to clear up. "2.72193!" I exclaimed with excitement. Quickly I made some mental calculations. To neutralize the acidity I needed to combat it with an alkaline solution of 9.72193. I thought of all the possible ways we could coat our shield frequencies with an alkaline solution. From the helm, B'Elanna and Tom were about to lose control of the shuttle. I rushed over to the security console and began to tap violently on the controls.

"What are you doing?" B'Elanna asked as she hurried over to where I was working.

"I'm neutralizing the acid," I said gradually as I tried to keep my focus on what I was doing.

"What?"

"Watch," I gritted through my teeth.

Silently she watched over my shoulder. "Your rerouting our antimatter recycling through the shield generators and configuring it to decay to a frequency of 9.72193… enough to reduce the acid to a p.H. of 7… stable…" she said slowly as she began to understand what I was doing.

"I'm bringing the modifications online, Tom. The shuttle might be upset by the graviton waves. Try to keep us as steady as possible," I advised.

"Will do," Tom replied.

The shields sputtered, and the shuttle lurched for a final time. I tapped the console to confirm that the shields were stable and holding.

I stepped out of the way and let B'Elanna take her console. With a sigh of relief, I sank back into the seat at the back of the shuttle. B'Elanna double-checked my work before she voiced her approval. "I'm going to plug the frequency into our scanners to compensate for the interference. You should be able to see farther out in front of you, Tom, in a second," She told us.

"Do it," I said immediately.

You could hear the succession of the tapping of buttons before Tom called out, "Ahh, that is much better, B'Elanna."

I stood up. "Do we still…"

All at once I was interrupted as the shuttle made another dangerous heave to the side. Straight away B'Elanna was giving us a report from her console.

"Cosmic dust is leaking through the sensor modifications Christy made," she announced.

"We just dropped out of warp," Tom shouted.

"The dust is clogging our nacelles," I told him. "B'Elanna, can you patch the holes?"

"I'm trying…" her voice trailed off. "Almost have it…"

The shuttle swayed again. "Done!" she exclaimed.

The shuttle steadied once again. "Our nacelles are still clogged, and I can't expel the gas…" Tom intoned.

"How fast can we go?" I asked him.

"I can give you three quarters impulse," he suggested.

"I'll take it. Give me a full sensor account, Tom," I replied.

Tom took in a deep breath. "We have a standard spiral galaxy with over 300 globular clusters that are distributed spherically about the center in a radius of 500 parsecs. There are eight planets here. I'm also detecting the composites of neutron stars and Q stars, and there is enough to support hundreds of singularities!" he exclaimed. "You need o take a look at this…"

I interfaced my console with his and looked at the readings. "They're a little sketchy, but I have to agree with you. There is enough material here to support hundreds of singularities. I'm also picking up a strange energy reading from the fifth planet."

"Yeah, me too," B'Elanna said perplexed.

I realized that she too had interfaced her console through Tom's. "Lay in a course for the planet, Tom," I told him after some thought. I turned to face B'Elanna. "Communication?" I asked hopefully.

She shook her head. "We've lost communication indefinitely. The foam's too thick- we'll never get any message out. It will take me hours to compensate."

"Is there anyway we could equip a probe with the shield modulations and get it to transmit a message to Voyager?"

B'Elanna raised her eyebrows. "I suppose I could reconfigure one. Give me a few minutes," she said as she went back to the cargo hold. I sat back down and looked up at Tom.

"I hope that was the worst of it," I said aloud.

Tom smiled. "The pressure of command getting to you?" he joked.

I gave him a large sweet smile as I sat back down again. "All I want to do right now is take a nap," I complained softly.

Abruptly a computer alarm went off. I jumped up to my console.

From his position at the front of the shuttle, I could hear him muttering under his breath. "And the nightmare from hell continues," he whispered just loud enough for me to hear.

"What's the matter?" B'Elanna asked as she rushed from the back.

"I'm reading massive amounts of gravitational redshifts off our port bow…" I said aloud.

Suddenly the shuttle rocked violently and there was a series of explosions. "We were hit by a massive energy discharge," B'Elanna announced. "Somebody's firing on us!"

"From where?" I snapped.

"I don't know… but I can't detect anything," she said as she trailed her voice off.

The ship rocked again. "Our shields are failing," B'Elanna announced.

"Fire phasors and torpedoes blindly, full spread," I commanded.

"No effect."

"They're hailing," Tom called to us.

"On screen," I decided hastily.

Immediately an image of a bulky tan alien flooded the screen. He had black beady eyes, and strong protruding spikes on his nose and forehead. "We are the Briikortian," he said haughtily. "Your shuttle will be captured and commandeered… Prepare to be boarded."

"I'm afraid not," I said as I hit the button to close the link. The shuttle rocked again.

"Shields down to 15% and failing," B'Elanna yelled.

"Keep them up!" I yelled as the alarm within me began to rise.

B'Elanna began to hit the buttons desperately. "I'm detecting an bionuclear surge within the neural circuitry. It's rerouting itself to the consoles. Everybody get away!" she yelled.

But I wasn't fast enough. Immediately I felt the burning pulse go up my arms and throughout my body. My legs instantaneously went limp and crumpled beneath me. "Tom," I said in distress as I fell towards the ground. The long fall was endless. I seemed to be falling and falling, and I wasn't sure if I would ever hit anything. But the sickening thud came, and a sharp pain went through my head. When I opened my eyes, I saw my auburn curls of hair resting on my shoulders and the comb that had held it up in a tight style a further distance away. Within seconds there was a pool of blood around me. "Tom," I weakly called again.

I felt a strong hand on my shoulder and the beeping sounds of a tricorder. "Her DNA is altering!" Tom shouted to B'Elanna. Suddenly I began to wretch. "She's going into synaptic shock and having seizures. There's severe trauma to her brain and nervous system!"

"Tom, I need you at the helm!" B'Elanna yelled.

The shuttle dangerously rocked again.

"Our shields our down! They're locking on a tractor beam," she yelled. "Transferring to auxiliary power…"

"B'Elanna," I called.

She heard her name and looked over to where I still laid on the floor.

"Fill the nacelles completely with cosmic dust, then expel them at a high rate all at once. Have Tom fire phasors on the concentrated cloud of particles. It will set off a series of explosions to disable the other ships." My breathing became more labored and I collapsed back onto the floor.

"It can work," B'Elanna shouted. "Tom, prepare to fire phasors at a large concentration of dust particles on my mark. Then get us out of here as fast as you can…"

I saw Tom weakly nod and gulp. "Collecting the particles… and expelling them," B'Elanna said aloud as a chain of explosions rocked the shuttle. Lock onto the target and fire phasors now!" she yelled.

"Firing phasors," Tom replied. "Getting us out of here, Warp 2…"

The explosions became more violent. "We just lost the starboard nacelle!" B'Elanna screamed. "The port nacelle is overloading!!"

Behind us, I could hear a large spatial explosion. "Looks like the enemy just exploded," Tom commented. "All I can see on sensors is bits of hull fragments."

The shuttle rocked again. "Our port nacelle is damaged beyond repair," B'Elanna announced.

"I can't slow us down!" Tom yelled back.

Eventually the turbulence began to quiet down, and B'Elanna checked sensors.

"We're stuck in a forward trajectory, and I can't stop us. See if you can find what's pushing us forward," Tom declared.

"There's nothing out there!" she exclaimed.

"I can't maneuver us anywhere… we're stuck going with whatever's pushing us. B'Elanna, see if you can get me thrusters."

"I can't, Tom. We completely lost our starboard nacelle, and the port nacelle has taken heavy damage. The warp engines and thrusters are inoperable without at least minimal nacelle cooperation," she replied in return.

"We'll have to ride this out then until we're rescued. I should have us stabilized enough; now we need to help Christy," Tom said as he flung himself to where I still laid. "B'Elanna, come over here to assist me."

I could hear here clambering to the back of the shuttle.

"Oh my God," B'Elanna shrieked suddenly. "Tom, look at how much blood she's lost, can you stop it?"

"I can try," Tom replied. "B'Elanna, see if you can replicate me a stimulant… we have to keep her awake if we want to save her," he said calmly. Gently he shook my shoulder. "Can you hear me?" he asked.

My vision was blurring, but I nodded. All I could see above me was a two-headed 'Paris' monster. "Tom," I whispered.

He let out a sigh of relief. "Do you know who she is?" he asked as he pointed at B'Elanna.

I nodded. "Lieutenant Torres," I said weakly.

Carefully he ran the dermal regenerator up and down the side of my head to heal the wound and stop the bleeding. "Tell me something about B'Elanna," he requested in attempt to keep me alert and conscious. B'Elanna came over with the hypospray and handed it to him. Gently he injected it into my neck.

"She's half Klingon," I said slowly.

Tom nodded. "Good, now tell me something about myself…"

"You're an overconfident jailbird," I said with a weak smile. Suddenly I winced and regretted trying to smile.

"Hey…" he protested lightly.

B'Elanna gave an impatient sigh. "This is getting nowhere," she said as she shook her head. "Christy," she said a little more forcefully, "what's the square root of two?" she challenged.

"1.4142135623730950488016887242097…" I said at a snail's pace.

"Well we haven't lost her yet," B'Elanna lightly joked. "I'm going to try to establish communication with Voyager."

Tom ran the tricorder over me again. "Christy," he began, "I'm not going to lie to you. You've lost a great deal of blood. I've taken care of most of your internal and external bleeding, but your DNA is progressively changing in all of your cells, and I have no idea why. I'm going to record both base nucleic sequences into this tricorder so when we get you back to Voyager the Doc can fix you up, but at the moment, I can't do anything for you but keep you stable and awake."

I bit my bottom lip and nodded like a frightened child. Tom's strong arms lifted me up off the floor and sat me in the back of the shuttle. "I want you to rest, Christy, but don't fall asleep… Do you understand?" he asked.

I could only nod.

"This is imperative to your life," he added morbidly. "Do not fall asleep."

I did my best to nod again.

From where B'Elanna stood, she was working fast and efficiently. "I'm transmitting out a distress call now. Voyager should be able to pick it up in a few minutes…"

Suddenly, I couldn't hear B'Elanna anymore and my distorted vision became worse. Although I was trying, it was becoming progressively harder to stay awake. My brain was screaming for sleep and rest.

I could see my Father suddenly in my mind. His head was in his hands, and he was sobbing violently. "Ich wußte, daß dieses würde geschehen… Meine arme Tochter… I knew this would happen… my poor daughter," he said to himself. I wanted to rush over to him and ask him why was he crying, but the image faded away and left me surrounded by a mob of angry people suddenly. "Laborexperiment! Laboratory experiment!" the shouted.

The voices became louder and more violent. Sounds and memories that resounded in my head became chaotic.

Kind der Nacht… Child of the Night… that phrase flooded my mind out of the blue. I could hear my Father singing the exact lullaby I had sung to Naomi. His voice was soothing, and a half step flat, just like normal. But the words became softer and softer and finally the screaming enraged voices made me completely lose track of the melody. It was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe, and I wanted to call out to Tom and B'Elanna for their help, but I couldn't move. I suddenly couldn't move my arms or my legs. I could not move my face or my mouth. I couldn't concentrate on the right words. I was so tired, so sleepy. It was becoming darker and darker… the loud screaming memories in my mind threatened to tear me apart.

Suddenly I couldn't think anymore and everything shut down. "Christy!!" was the last thing I heard.

To be continued…