Disclaimer and other such delights, see part I

Disclaimer and other such delights, see part I

Captor of your soul, part II: Plans of escape

The chime to the Captain's ready room sounded as Janeway was just about to sit down with a freshly replicated cup of coffee. "Yes, come in," she called. Janeway looked up from taking a long sip of coffee to find a very distraught looking Samantha Wildman standing on the other side of her desk. "What's the matter, Ensign?" she asked. "The Doctor may not have told you this yet, but Naomi is now in the same condition the Lieutenant Torres is in," Samantha replied. "Oh, Samantha," Janeway gasped, "I'm so sorry, is there anything I can do?" "Lieutenant Paris said that he and I are too close to the situation to be of any real help, but he also said that if I had any suggestions you'd probably want to hear them?" Samantha said tentatively. "Go on," Janeway urged. "I have a couple of ideas; the first is to recruit the help of Crewman Harren. He's a theorist and he might be able to come up with an idea of what's going on. The second idea is to tell everybody what's happening. I think there might be a possibility that they have been taken somewhere and not just erased. This will probably keep happening so if the people that are already there know what's going on it will at least make it so everybody knows what's happening," Samantha explained. "Both good ideas, I'll be sure to put them to use, in the meantime, is there anything I can do for you?" Janeway asked again. "I'd just like to get Naomi back," Samantha replied. The Captain gave her a reassuring smile for fear that anything she said might be counterproductive due to the tone of her voice. As Samantha left, Janeway put her head in her hands and let out a ragged sob before collecting herself enough to back to her cup of coffee. Samantha Wildman stepped onto the nearest turbolift and called out, "Sickbay… belay that, deck nine." Samantha soon found herself outside of her quarters. Keying in the entry code, she stepped inside and Got Naomi's Flotter doll of the sofa. She was just about to leave when something made her go back. She walked over to the table that Naomi was coloring on. Picking up the picture Samantha found a beautiful rose, a rose to be more exact, and a columbine as the background to the picture. Comparing the rose to the one that was dried and hanging on the wall in a picture frame, she saw the same rose only more full of life. It was the rose her husband had given to her just after they had gotten married. Looking above the flowers she saw the words, "I love you mommy." Below that was a picture of Voyager with the Golden Gate Bridge behind it. In front and to the side of Voyager Naomi, Samantha, and her husband, all with big smiles on their faces. 'Oh goodness,' Samantha thought, 'this is a picture of us when we get home. And she is lying in sickbay, and she may never get to see another day.' Samantha suddenly couldn't keep it all in anymore. She dropped to her knees and all the emotions she had kept inside all day came spilling out as tears. Unstoppable, uncontrollable tears. When she finally got control of herself, Samantha got up and walked over to the bathroom. Looking into the mirror, she winced at her own red and blotchy face. Splashing water on her face, letting out a ragged sigh, and picking up the Flotter doll again, she left the room with the destination being sickbay.

Naomi crawled out of the jefferies tube with B'Elanna a few seconds behind her. Handing Naomi her Flotter doll, which she had been holding since they started climbing down the ladder, B'Elanna said, "Welcome to engineering." Naomi, after taking a good look around, shied away and hugged B'Elanna around one leg burying her head in B'Elanna's hip, mumbling, "I didn't know it is so big." Though trying to decide if she wished she were shorter of taller, B'Elanna had to agree with her. Engineering could seem a little imposing, especially considering that the biggest room the little girl had ever been in was probably the mess hall. "Too bad I can't get into my office, she'd probably feel more comfortable in there,' B'Elanna thought, 'If only I could replicate her something to play with. Just a second…' Picking up Naomi, B'Elanna walked over to where Tal Celes was standing. "Report, Crewman," she asked. "I've asked everyone where they were and what time they were brought here, it appears to be random," Celes said while studying the records on a console. "Figures," B'Elanna muttered. Celes looked up at B'Elanna and after seeing Naomi had to work to keep from letting her jaw drop. B'Elanna could see that the only thing keeping Celes from commenting was Starfleet protocol, so she said, "You can speak freely." Breaking out of her trance, Celes said, "I'm sorry, with all due respect, I just never thought of you as the motherly type." "I didn't either," B'Elanna replied with a smile, "I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that Tom isn't here to see this." After an awkward silence, B'Elanna said, "This might seem like a strange question, but how long have we been here?" After failing miserably at trying to control a quizzical look, Celes replied, "From the time you got me out of the jefferies tube, about seven hours, why?" "I just wanted to check that with someone," B'Elanna said, "It occurred to me that I'm not hungry or thirsty. At first I thought that I might be too distracted to notice, but I've been paying attention." "That's more than just a little weird," Celes said thoughtfully, "How can we be here and yet be sustained without food?" "What if we're not really here?" B'Elanna thought out loud, "Like it's some kind of neural interface." "But it seems so real," Celes exclaimed. "The holodeck would seem pretty real if you didn't know it was fake," B'Elanna pointed out. "That's kind of disconcerting," said Celes, looking like she had seen a ghost. "We can figure this out later," said B'Elanna, becoming aware of the child that was still in her arms. Celes took the hint and nodded. B'Elanna and Naomi walked off.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" B'Elanna asked. Naomi shrugged and said, "I wouldn't mind a tour of engineering." "Well you've come to the right place, let me see if I can find someone to give you that tour," said B'Elanna, setting Naomi down and taking a scrutinizing look around the room. "I think I might have found the perfect person," she continued, giving Naomi an intimidating look. B'Elanna suddenly smiled and said, "Me! Looks like you've come to the right person too. Who better to give you a tour of engineering than the chief engineer herself?" Naomi giggled. "Now then," said B'Elanna, "do you want to walk or have me carry you?" "I'll walk," Naomi replied. As B'Elanna started the tour, she couldn't help but think, 'Good thing I didn't have to carry her, I thought my arms were going to fall off last time. When did I become such a weakling? It's time I got back to that Klingon battle simulation." Secretly, whenever Naomi's back was turned to her, B'Elanna would try to stretch out the cramps in her arms. "And last but not least, we have the warp core," said B'Elanna a little while later, "It powers the ship and the warp engines that make it so we can go faster than light with a matter antimatter reaction. The blue swirls you see are antimatter hydrogen. Any questions?" "What happens when the warp core breaches?" asked Naomi. "You sure you want to know?" B'Elanna questioned. Naomi nodded. "Okay, but if you want me to stop, just let me know," B'Elanna began hesitantly, "I suppose I should explain antimatter first. Regular matter has positive protons and negative electrons. Antimatter has negative protons and positive electrons. When a regular matter element meets and antimatter element of the same type, they turn into energy. I'm not just talking enough to run a light bulb for a couple of hours, energy from just a couple of atoms can power the ship for a month. So when the warp core breaches, the antimatter inside can escape. The problem is that regular hydrogen is everywhere, so when they come together, the energy is enough to destroy the ship. What we usually do to stop a core breach is eject the core. There isn't enough hydrogen in space to cause any real problems. There you have it, a warp core breach." "Wow," Naomi exclaimed, "that's so cool!" "I'm not sure that cool is the word to describe a core breach," B'Elanna pointed out. "That's just because you're the person who has to deal with it," Naomi replied. B'Elanna didn't have a chance to defend her position because Vorik came up behind her. Pretending that she hadn't noticed, she said to Naomi, "hold that thought." Then B'Elanna whirled on Vorik and exclaimed, "I told you not to do that!" "Do what?" Vorik asked calmly. "Not to self, you can't startle a Vulcan," B'Elanna muttered under her breath. Out loud she said, "Sneak up behind me like that. Now then, you got back sooner than I expected." "I can no longer open the doors," Vorik replied. "How can you be so sure?" B'Elanna asked. "I spoke with Crewman Dalby through a door, but could not open it," answered Vorik. "Well this just keeps getting better and better," B'Elanna muttered. "My apologies, Lieutenant," Vorik said. "We didn't even know what gave you that ability in the first place, it couldn't have been you fault that you lost it," B'Elanna replied. A sudden idea struck her and B'Elanna called out, "Everybody listen up. Most of you don't know what's going on here, so I'll give you the general idea, we are in a different reality. We don't know why or where or how. We used to be able to expand the places we can get to, now we can'. So we are going to establish communications with the bridge. The problem is that we have no main computer, and most likely will never get it. As you know internal the computer controls communications. We will have to route this through independent systems. Be creative, don't be afraid to bounce ideas off each other. Think outside of the box. Forget protocol, going by the book isn't going to get us out of this. Work with people who specialize in different sections, they compliment each other when we have the full crew and entire ship at out disposal, they will compliment each other here too. Report anything you might find to me. I'll be here to give and take suggestions. Just because I am in charge, doesn't mean that I am above you don't be afraid to talk to me. Well, let's get to work." After surveying the people group themselves into teams to begin discussing options, B'Elanna couldn't help but mutter to Naomi, "I wonder if this is how the people involved with Apollo thirteen felt when they had to make and air filter out of supplies that they had around the ship."

"So you really think they might be alive somewhere?" Janeway asked the Doctor via the monitor on the desk in her ready room. "Yes, if their neural patterns had been degraded it would have left some type of residual mark. They're no suppressed or not functioning either, a very advanced scan of my own creation told me that. It's almost as if their souls have been extracted somehow," the Doctor replied, his face grim. "Any ideas as to how?" Janeway asked. "Not really, it does seem that Vorik was possessed, however. Even though only five people had a Vulcan nerve pinch, that is an act that Vorik would never perform willingly. Also, Vorik has evidence of neurological trauma, something that no one except for Harry Kim has. Other than that, he is in the state as everyone else," replied the Doctor. "Harry has trauma too?" Janeway questioned. "Yes, and a lot worse than Vorik's. I would suspect that whatever possessed Vorik tried to take control of Harry, but it didn't work," said the Doctor, "I had to repair a lot of damage but he'll be okay if we get him back." "It's like someone kicked Vorik out of his own body and took control of it," Janeway thought aloud, "how many people has this happened to?" "Seventy one, I've had to convert the mess hall into a second sickbay, but we're running out of room," said the Doctor. "Where have you been finding these people?" asked Janeway. "In their quarters, which is a strange thing because some of them were on duty at the time. But everyone who was nerve pinched wasn't in their quarters," replied the Doctor thoughtfully. "Leave the people in their quarters there unless you can help them," said the Captain, "If that's all I'd like you to keep working on this. And Doctor, dot try to be more prompt in telling me of your findings." "I've had the computer monitor everyone's movements and tell me of everyone who hasn't moved for more than five minutes, I could have the names sent to your computer," the Doctor offered. "Make it so," replied Janeway and she cut the link. After taking a moment to massage her forehead and take a sip of now lukewarm coffee, Janeway tapped her combadge and called, "Janeway to Crewman Harren, could you come to my ready room." "On my way," he replied. Kathryn couldn't help but smile at how nervous he sounded. Harren arrived a few minutes later, tentatively stepping inside. "You called for me?" he offered. "Yes, sit down," Janeway replied. After he sat down he started rambling, "If this is about my actions during an away mission, you have to understand that…" Janeway cut him off with a wave of her hand and said, "ancient history, I have called you here on a completely different matter. You're a theorist, correct?" At a nod from Harren, she went on, "I have a situation for you to theorize." She handed him a padd that had all the data they had collected thus far. After looking at the information for a minute Harren asked, "Permission to freely?" "Granted," Janeway replied. "With all due respect, this is really weird," Harren blurted out. "Without wanting to sound too harsh, tell me something I don't know," Janeway said, once again massaging her forehead. "I'm assuming that you want me to try to figure out what is doing this and how they're doing it," Harren said. "Any ideas?" asked the Captain. "The best I can come up with is that what we're dealing with here is something supernatural," Harren theorized. "A ghost?" asked Janeway, slightly confused. "In essence. This thing has been on the ship for hours and no one has seen it. It can also probably pass through solid matter, like walls or people. I say that because there are no signs of trauma in most of them, if it had taken their neural patterns from outside of their head it would have left some type of mark. These abilities are almost like…" Harren paused for a second, "like those of a hologram." "You're not suggesting…" Janeway trailed off. "I don't think we should rule out the possibility that it could be the Doctor, or any other hologram," Harren stated flatly. "But that would never work, there are no holoprojectors in most of the places that the attacks have taken place and the Doctor's mobile emitter can't pass through solid matter, no to mention the fact that someone would notice it," Janeway pointed out. "So that puts us back at something supernatural," Harren moaned. "At least it's a start," Janeway reassured him, "I'll send you information as soon as we get it, see if you can come up with anything more." "Thank you Captain," Harren said as he got up and left. Janeway sighed and took a sip of coffee, and grimaced at how cold it was. She got up to get a fresh cup, then started writing exactly how she was going to tell the crew what was happening.

Samantha Wildman arrived at sickbay after wandering not so aimlessly around the ship for what seemed like an eternity. She stepped inside to find that sickbay was no longer the calm, quiet place that it had been when she left. There was now medical personnel running busily around and all of the beds were filled along with enough cots that it was difficult to find a place to walk. As she made her way across the room, she almost stumbled over Harry Kim, lying on a cot, looking like he was in pretty bad shape. Looking up at Tom, Samantha felt a twinge of sadness for the poor man. He lost his best friend all in the same day. Taking Flotter, which she was squeezing so had that if the doll were alive it would be dead, and setting him next to Naomi in her bed, Samantha walked over to Tom. Finding him asleep, Samantha shook him with the intention of waking him long enough to tell him to sleep in his quarters, but he didn't wake up. Confusion etched on her face, Samantha got a medical tricorder and scanned Tom with it. She was shocked to find that his soul was gone. She sighed and flipped the tricorder shut, and walked over to the Doctor's office. Stepping inside, she said, "Tom's gone." "Gone, gone or just gone?" asked the Doctor, holographic adrenaline rushing though his program. "Just gone, I was wondering if anything strange, or stranger than usual happened to him while I was gone," Samantha replied. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief and said, "He was sitting there, then they brought in Harry and he kind of freaked out. About a minute ago Tuvok came in and touched him on the shoulder, and that's about it. They got Vorik by the way." "Oh please," cried Samantha, throwing up her arms. "What?" asked the Doctor. "Oh, nothing, but next time you're planning to pull your head out of your rear, run the most detailed bioscan you can get with internal sensors on Tuvok," Samantha moaned. "What are you getting at?" the Doctor questioned. "Think about it for a minute, you'll figure it out," Samantha replied, "I'm going to talk to the Captain." Samantha left the Doctor with a definite dazed and confused look on his face.

Kathryn was just completing what she was going to say when the chime on the door rang. "Come in," she called. Looking up, Janeway saw Samantha Wildman walk into the room. "I believe that whatever possessed Vorik is now possessing Tuvok," Samantha said. "Do you have any evidence?" Janeway asked cautiously, knowing she was tickling the tail of the dragon. "I supposed it's not exactly what you would call hard evidence, but Tuvok was on the security team that apprehended Vorik. Whatever possessed Vorik went somewhere, and I don't think it was just around the ship. Also, the Doctor said that Tuvok came into sickbay and touched Tom's shoulder, the next thing I knew was that Tom no longer had a soul," Samantha explained. "This is all pretty far-fetched," Janeway said, "A good scientist doesn't jump to conclusions." "But a good scientist also doesn't ignore evidence until they are absolutely sure that something is true," Samantha pointed out. "You got me, any suggestions as to what I should do?" Janeway asked. "I would suggest that you warn the crew to be wary of him until you find evidence to the contrary. If he's not possessed then he'll most likely come and see you, and something tells me he won't have any hard feelings," Samantha replied. "A valid suggestion, I'll be sure to put it into effect," Janeway said, "You never fail to amaze me, Ensign. Samantha smiled and said, "Thank you," then turned and left, leaving the Captain to make some revisions to her speech.

Chakotay groaned and sat up, looking at the people around him, or lack thereof. "Where'd everybody go?" he mumbled to himself as he staggered to his feet. After a few wobbly steps Chakotay reoriented himself and took a good look around. He found that he was outside of the mess hall. Walking toward the door, he was surprised to find that it didn't open. Confused, he tried the manual override to no avail. Peering though the circular windows in the doors he found that while the lights were on, it was not the same busy place it had been before. Though he couldn't see much through the mostly crystallized window, he could tell that instead of a makeshift sickbay, the messhall was in its usual state. With a raised eyebrow and a shrug Chakotay turned and ran right into Tuvok. After struggling to retain his composure Chakotay said, "It's really not polite to sneak up on people like that." Chakotay the turned back around and almost jumped right back into Tuvok. The door to the messhall was open. Noticing that Tuvok was within sensor range of the door, Chakotay asked, "I couldn't get the door open before, how'd you do that?" "You couldn't open it?" replied Tuvok, answering his question with a question. "No I couldn't," said Chakotay as he walked into the messhall. They were both almost knocked over when Neelix came tearing out of the kitchen and tackled them. "How did you get the door open!" Neelix exclaimed. "Ask Tuvok," Chakotay replied, gesturing with his thumb. "As I was about to say before we were interrupted, I'm not sure, it opened like usual for me, but not the Commander and apparently no for you," Tuvok answered. They didn't have the chance to discuss the topic because behind them someone asked, "Where'd everybody go?" They all turned around to find William Telfer looking confused, a look that soon crossed their own features. Chakotay managed to get it together first and said, "That seems to be the question of the day, but I've got another. Where did you come from?" "I was in the mess hall with everybody who was effected by this, whatever it was, and then I blinked and everyone was gone and you people were here," Telfer explained. "I'm weirded out," moaned Neelix. "Join the club," agreed Chakotay, "Well, if Neelix was stuck in here, there's probably other people, we should get them out. Why don't Telfer and Neelix stay here, we'll send anybody we find back here," Chakotay said as he walked over to the door and found that it opened now that Tuvok had already opened it. "Yeah," he muttered, "Let's go Tuvok." "We'll see if we can figure out what's going on," called Neelix, "I'll contact you if we find anything." "Hey, I've got an idea," said Telfer and he tapped his combadge but it didn't respond, "Never mind." "I guess I won't contact you," Neelix mumbled. "We'll see you later," Chakotay called, and he and Tuvok left.

"I suppose if you just walk within sensor range of all the doors we can get them all," Chakotay suggested. "It will be more complicated than that," Tuvok pointed out, "There is also all of the doors that are on the other side of that door." "This is going to take longer than I thought," Chakotay moaned. "The I suggest that we get started," said Tuvok as he stepped into sensor range of a door. To both of their surprise the door didn't open. After Tuvok tried the manual override to no avail Chakotay asked, "Tell me, why won't the door the transporter room open?" "I have no explanation, logical or otherwise," Tuvok replied. "I suppose we'd better keep going and open what we can," Chakotay muttered, "Maybe we'll come across someone who knows what's going on."

"Janeway to all hands, I have some information that it is imperative that you know. If you think you might not be able to remember it all I suggest that you copy it down. Now then, as you probably know, most of our people have been found without a neural pattern. In essence their soul is gone. We have reason to believe that they have been stolen from their bodies by something, most likely supernatural in nature. That being is probably storing them within itself. I believe that we will all be taken by it eventually, except the Doctor, possibly Seven, and maybe Icheb. They will be working to uncover what is going on and rescue us. In the meantime, we think that Tuvok is possessed by whatever is doing this to us, he should be avoided and treated with caution unless either the Doctor or I tell you otherwise. Vorik used to be possessed by this being, but has since been incapacitated. Everybody who has been taken's bodies are still alive but is comas. When you are taken I cannot tell you what will happen of where you'll go. There are people that have been there for hours and they probably don't know exactly what happened to them or if we're trying to help them. When you do go, it will be important that you give the people there this information. Either the Doctor or I will keep giving you the latest information as we get it. We will figure out how to get out of this, stay strong. Janeway out."

"Any idea why the turbolifts aren't working?" Chakotay asked Tuvok as they crawled through a jefferies tube. "I'm not sure," Tuvok replied, opening a door and releasing an ensign. "Go to the mess hall," said Chakotay to the ensign. Eyeing the ladder that was inside the room they had just opened, Tuvok said, "With some luck we can get to the bridge from here." "I thought you didn't believe in luck," said Chakotay as he started climbing up the ladder. "It's a figure of speech," Tuvok replied, following him up. A few minutes later they were both surprised to find themselves outside the bridge. "You know, I didn't actually think we would be able to get the door opened muttered Chakotay as they stepped inside. From somewhere in the room they heard someone call out, "Engage!" The phrases "Fire at will," and "Evasive pattern omega fifty two and a half," soon ensued. Chakotay and Tuvok looked at each other in confusion. Whoever was there then said, "On screen," and stood up out of the Captain's chair. Looking at the viewscreen, which didn't even have any stars on it, he said, "I am Captain Gerron of the Federation Starship Voyager, why have you fired on us?" Chakotay, who was having trouble containing himself, motioned for them to go back into the corridor they had come through. As soon as the door closed, Chakotay errupted with laughter. He was clutching at his sides and doubled over with tears running down his cheeks. "It is far from professional to laugh at a member of your crew," Tuvok said calmly. Trying to recover, Chakotay said, "Last time I checked, they're still Captain Janeway's crew." "Until we find can find the Captain it would seem that they are your crew," Tuvok replied. Taking a deep breath Chakotay said, "Yeah, you're right." Then he snorted and collapsed in an undignified heap on the floor, laughing uncontrollably. "We need to devise a way of letting him know that we are there," said Tuvok rolling his eyes. Chakotay called from the floor, "Okay, I got it! He says something along the lines of 'shields' and one of us says 'aye sir'!" "Without embarrassing him into living out the rest of his days in his quarters," Tuvok said indignantly. "That changes things," Chakotay mumbled, finally getting control of himself. "I suggest that I go in first and announce my presence before he has the chance to say anything degrading. You could come later and pretend that you were held up for some reason or another," Tuvok said thoughtfully. "Lying to him for the sake of his dignity," Chakotay said, "Oh, well, I suppose it's better than having him go into hiding because of embarrassment. Let's go."

Tuvok walked back onto the bridge to find Gerron deep in a conversation with someone on the view screen, the Borg Queen, Tuvok later decided. "Crewman," he acknowledged in his usual indifferent way. Gerron was obviously startled because he turned around, almost tripped over his feet, and yelped, "Mommy," all at the same time. Tuvok was taken aback by his use of language. Gerron quickly dropped his eyes to the floor and mumbled, "About that mommy thing…" "It won't leave this room," Tuvok assured him. Just then Chakotay came running in. Out of breath he said, "Sheesh Tuvok, you could have waited for me, I can't help it if Lieutenant Carey wanted the entire low down on what's going on." "My apologies, sir," replied Tuvok, raising an eyebrow at him. "You, uh, you didn't hear that, did you?" Gerron asked tentatively. "Hear what?" Chakotay replied a little too quickly and mentally kicked himself in a certain pressure point. "I'm assuming you couldn't get the door open?" Tuvok asked. Gerron nodded sheepishly, his cheeks a slightly redder shade than they were before. "Proceed to the mess hall, everyone we have found is going there," Tuvok commanded. Gerron nodded and left. "Not bad," Chakotay exclaimed, "Give me five, Tuvok." He stuck out his hand, which Tuvok reluctantly slapped. "We should continue searching for people," Tuvok said, rolling his eyes. "Okay," replied Chakotay as they left.

Kathryn was sitting at her desk thinking about how they might be able to get out of this. Reaching for her coffee cup she found it empty. Getting up and walking over to her replicator she muttered, "I really need to switch to decaf." Placing the cup in the replicator, she called, "refill." When nothing happened she said, "Computer…" She was cut off when there was no resounding beep of the computer acknowledging her speaking to it. She tried tapping her com badge to no effect. Moving toward the door with the intention of going to another replicator, she was disturbed that both doors wouldn't open. Upon discovering this she threw her arms up to the ceiling and cried, "No!"

"So, that makes it me two hundred and seventeen, you, uh, three," Crewman Terek recounted concerning all of the games they had played on the holodeck. "Does that include parises squares, air hockey, hoverball, billiards, and that lightsaber match?" Harry asked tentatively. "We wouldn't be in the two hundreds if it didn't," Terek pointed out, "and who's program is that Jedi battle anyway?" "It's a good thing you're not Tom or else I'd owe you replicator rations until we get back home," Harry sighed and then snickered, "I think it might be Seven's program." "At least the holodeck is working better than the doors and communications or we'd probably have resorted to thumb wrestling by now," Terek replied. "So, what do you want to do now?" asked Harry. "Ooh! I've got it! Thumb wrestling!" Terek exclaimed. "I thought we already established that we aren't to desperate yet," Harry pointed out. "I changed my mind," said Terek as she grabbed Harry's hand, "Come on! 1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a thumb war! 5, 6, 7, 8, beat you at the starting gate!" "That can wait," said Harry, dislodging his hand from hers, "right now I've got an idea." "At least you're good at something," Terek muttered. Harry resisted the urge to give her his best version of the Janeway death glare, but just barely. Instead he said, "We could use a battering ram to punch a hole through the door." "Engineering won't be very happy with that," Terek pointed out. "As of right now it seems al if the only options are to stay here and go crazy or get engineering mad at us," Harry said, "Doesn't sound like a very hard choice to me." "Yeah, let's stay," Terek agreed, "What do you want to do?" "No, I mean it's not a very hard decision that we have to try to get out of here," Harry explained, "besides, we can fix the door ourselves if we have to." "Okay, so what program would have a battering ram in it that we can lift but will still have some effect on the door?" Terek asked. "Let's see, Tropical paradise," Harry suggested. "I'm surprised you'd want to go into that one again," Terek smirked. "Get over it, how about World War Two?" Harry asked. "I'm not going in that one again, besides, I think we deleted it," Terek pointed out. "I thought you were in the Dominion Wars," Harry said. "We all wound up in World War Two at one point or another, why not Insurrection Alpha?" Terek suggested. "What would we use as a battering ram there?" Harry asked. "Seska's head," Terek laughed. "I'm surprised with you," Harry gasped, "You don't seem like the type to hold a grudge." "She betrayed us all at least twice," Terek pouted, "Your going to have to forgive me if I have a vendetta against her guts. Why not Beowulf?" "No," Harry said strongly, "Ooh, I've got it! Why not the Klingon battle simulation? That has trees right?" Harry exclaimed. "I don't know about the trees, but it seems plausible. Won't Lieutenant Torres get mad at us for using her program?" Terek said doubtfully. "She'll get over it eventually," Harry replied. "Last time I checked, trees are usually stuck to the ground and I don't think that either of us are strong enough to cut it down with a bat'leth, how are we going to use it?" Terek pointed out." "I've got an idea," Harry said as he walked over to the access panel by the door and activated the program, "Just stay here." Harry picked up a bat'leth and proceeded to poke his finger with it. "What are you doing?" asked Terek. "Making sure that the Klingons out there won't be able to decapitate me," Harry replied as he tried to cut off his own hand. "If the safeties weren't on that hoverball probably would have killed you," Terek said. "Good point," replied Harry and he started walking into the forest, "get rid of the Klingons when I tell you to." Harry trod cautiously into the woods. He was soon confronted by a Klingon and just barely managed to deflect that was intended to relieve him of his legs. Held in a deadlock, Harry backed up until he was against a tree. The Klingon pulled back his bat'leth and took another swing at Harry. Instead of countering the move, Harry dropped flat on the ground. The blow intended for Harry cut the tree in half. "Get rid of the Klingons! Now!" Harry yelled. A second later the Klingon disappeared. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the fallen tree, and started dragging it back to the door. Upon reaching the door, Harry said, "We're going to have to pull off some branches if we're going to be able to pick this up. Make sure you have enough to hold onto though." "We're going to have to turn off the safeties if this is going to have any effect on the door," Terek pointed out. "That's should be fine just as long as you got all of the Klingons," Harry replied. They soon finished pulling off leaves and after turning off the safeties, began putting their battering ram to use.

In the corridor outside Chakotay was saying, "I've tried dropping hints both subtle and not so subtle, but she just doesn't seem to get it." "I believe I know her enough to tell you that it's not that she doesn't reciprocate, but she feels it would be inappropriate to pursue a relationship with a member of her crew, so she doesn't let on," Tuvok replied. "What your trying to say is it's a lost cause," Chakotay finished for him. "At least until we get home and she doesn't outrank you anymore," Tuvok concluded. "Do you hear something?" Chakotay asked, "Like a banging sound?" After a thoughtful moment Tuvok replied, "Yes, it seems to be coming from somewhere down the corridor, we should investigate."

"This doesn't seem to be working," Terek moaned. "Maybe we should back up and run at the door," Harry suggested. They backed up as far as they could while still keeping a straight course toward the door, which was about twenty-five meters. "Ready?" asked Harry. "Wait," commanded Terek, "we need a battle cry or something." "Good idea," Harry said, "Let's see…"

"That's weird," said Chakotay as he reached the outside of the holodeck, "I could've sworn that banging sound was coming from here. You should try to open the doors anyway." Tuvok nodded and set to work on the controls.

"Ready?" asked Terek. Harry took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay," said Terek, "1, 2, 3…" They started running at a breakneck pace toward the door, yelling at the top of their lungs, "SHUT UP AND EAT THE FRUITCAKE!!!" Just as they were about to run into the door, it opened and they ran through. The tree trunk disappeared as they went through the door. Narrowly sidestepping Chakotay, Harry and Terek slammed headlong into the wall on the other side of the corridor. They both almost cried, "Ow," but it hurt too much. Chakotay cringed and asked, "You guys okay?" Harry, who had tree trunks and bat'leths dancing around his head tried to shake them away with out much success and groaned, "Ask a stupid question get a stupid answer." "I'll take that as a no," said Chakotay as he looked into both of their eyes, "Neither of you have a concussion, if there's anything else, we can help you to sickbay, or at least try." Harry and Terek struggled to their feet. "I think we're okay," said Terek. "It's a good thing we've got such hard heads," laughed Harry. "Tuvok and I are going to keep searching for people," said Chakotay. "Mind if I come with?" asked Harry. "Yeah, go ahead," replied Chakotay, "Terek, everybody's in the mess hall if you want to join them." As Terek walked off Harry said, "Shall we go then?"