Title: DISPLACED (4/20)
Writers: PATTI KEIPER (Kim, EMH & Suspiria), NICK LEWIS (Cavit, Paris & Torres), FARI MOHAMMED (Janeway & Lefler), SONYA BRINKMAN (Tigan)
Edited by NICK LEWIS
Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager and it's associated characters are trademarks of Paramount/Viacom. This is a fan-run venture, making no money. Please leave our lawyers alone ;-)
V-Trek: The Alternate Adventures @ http://www.virtual-trek.fsnet.co.uk
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Stadi's breathing at that moment suddenly becomes strident and desperate. The woman loses consciousness again. Harry looks over to the EMH who is still wrist deep in the surgery of Nurse T'Prena's throat repair. "Doc, we need you over here. Lieutenant Stadi's having trouble breathing."
The EMH speaks without glancing up. "Well then, now's your chance to shine. I can't leave just yet."
Harry frustratedly grabs a cart full of medical equipment and pulls it near Tom who has raced over. Harry notices that Tom doesn't move Stadi's head and neck positioning straight away, but first scans her C-spine with the med tricorder, looking for injury. "There's no sign of displacement. Go ahead Harry, see if tilting her head back helps any while I get this ready.." Tom prepares an EOA airway, fitting it to a laryngoscope. He gets a good airway, but notices that she has blood and other fluid bubbling thickly in her trachea. Then she gives up breathing altogether. Harry looks at Tom in alarm. Tom gives him a slender tube which hisses air into itself by a vacuum pump. "Suction that out, quickly"
Harry doesn't like what he's seeing as the Lieutenant's pallor starts to darken with hypoxia. Desperately he does as Tom orders, grimacing at his own ineptness. "I got it... I think."
"Good" Tom says. "Now make sure her head doesn't move an inch while I get this in place." Tom deftly threads the EOA into Stadi's esophagus and inflates the balloon syringe. "We need this to keep her from vomiting and getting debris into her lungs from the digestive tract." At Harry's paling features he adds confidently, "And then we can ventilate her without problems. Tape that up will you Harry?" He points to her mouth. "Around the tube so it doesn't slip... Yeah, that's it." Harry awkwardly finishes the task. Tom turns back to the EMH. "Doc, how long has Stadi been in arrest?"
"Two minutes, five seconds. She still has a pulse" the hologram responds calmly. "You're doing fine, Mr Paris. I'll be there shortly." The Doctor is finally suturing up the incision in T'Prena's neck.
"Hurry" Harry urges.
"I've stabilised the Commander" Ezri announces from across the room.
The Doctor strides over and looks Cavit in the face. "How are you feeling?"
The Commander winces. "Like hell!"
The Doctor nods without missing a beat. "You will, but you're over the worst." He tells Ezri to move onto other patients, then walks across to where Harry is now delivering breaths through Stadi's airway via an ambu bag, squeezing life giving oxygen into her lungs. Harry smiles when her skin starts to pink up and her vital signs improve. Tom is elsewhere, dealing with the new arrivals. Casualties are coming in from all over the ship and sickbay is rapidly filling up.
"I see you're taking care of the matter nicely, Mr Kim. Good work." He looks at Stadi's readings though and frowns. A hemathorax on the left side, collapsed lung and she's bleeding internally into her chest cavity. The IVs won't hold her for long. "She needs surgery" he announces. Harry is alarmed and momentarily stops his ministrations. "Keep going" the Doctor tells him. "If she stops breathing again, even surgery won't save her."
Harry attends to Stadi with renewed effort as the Doctor preps for surgery. Hang in there, Stadi, he thinks to himself. I got you covered. Don't even think about dying on me.
********************
Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Carey work for what seems like an eternity, but eventually the last micro-fracture is sealed. "Ensign Lefler, if you'd do the honours" Kathryn says hopping up onto deck again.
As Carey gets clear, Robin restarts the core. After a few moments she smiles. "Preliminary readings indicate it's stable."
Kathryn allows herself a sigh of relief. "Lieutenant Carey, you're in charge for the moment. Inform me of any new developments. I'll be on the bridge." But first she has a detour to sickbay to make. Kathryn walks out of engineering, back towards the turbolift. That was a bit more than I'd have liked on my first day, she muses. She steps into the turbolift and the doors are about to close when a crewman hurriedly enters. "Deck five" she says as the doors do close this time. As she idly glances at the crewman beside her, a sparkling effect suddenly envelops him and the man vanishes right in front of her eyes. What the...?
********************
The skeleton staff in sickbay are inundated as more and more people flood in. Soon there are too many to handle. People begin to die, including two officers on either side of Harry and the Doctor. Through it all though, Harry never leaves his place, breathing bagged oxygen into Stadi like a robot. He tries not to see or hear anything but the life in his hands. Death isn't going to come to his patient... not today. Then fate reveals her hand. Janecea Stadi expires ten minutes later despite the Doctor's best efforts.
I tried so hard, Harry thinks as he massages his cramped hands and the Doctor draws a sheet over the Lieutenant's features. But it just wasn't good enough. His eyes narrow with anger. Just wait until I get at whoever's responsible for this.
Tom returns, unaware that they've lost Stadi until he sees her covered body. He immediately regrets the verbal barrage he'd given her in the shuttle. She didn't deserve this. "It's not your fault, Harry" he says gently. "I saw you breathing air into her like a trouper." Harry shrugs despondently. "Give yourself a chance" Tom continues. "You are making a difference here you know. We'll save the next one, you'll see."
"Maybe" Harry replies mechanically. When he looks up though, Tom is gone. He looks around. "Tom?" Then a startled expression comes over him as he sees a crewman vanish in a stream of light. The effect is not unlike a transporter, but faster and more fluid in nature. Around him, other people begin to disappear in the same way, then he feels an unusual sensation coming over him. "Doct-" But the effect spirits him away before the word can be spoken.
The Doctor, perplexed at this anomaly, taps his commbadge. "This is the Emergency Medical Hologram speaking. I gave no permission for anyone to be transported out of sickbay." When he turns around he finds sickbay empty save for himself. "Hello?" he asks when he receives no reply. "Sickbay to bridge?" He sighs. "I believe someone has failed to terminate my program. Please respond."
********************
One minute Tom is trying to give Harry a pep-talk, the next he finds himself in what appears to be a garden. A pair of horses graze nearby and what looks like a large farmhouse can be seen in the distance. "Doctor?" he shouts when he sees no-one around. "Harry?" He checks the tricorder which is still in his hand. Odd... very odd. He fixes it back to his belt and jogs over to the farmhouse, hoping to find somebody who can tell him just what the hell is going on. If he doesn't get back to Voyager, more people are going to die.
********************
Ezri is in the middle of running a tissue regenerator over a burns victim when she feels a strange tugging sensation. Her head starts to swim and she collapses to her knees, her eyes screwed up. When she opens them again she finds her surroundings have changed, drastically. Jumping to her feet quickly, she looks around and finds that she's standing in a grassy field next to what looks like an old Earth farmhouse. "Hello?" she calls out, turning in a complete circle. "Anybody here?" She's about to give up on finding anyone when she spots a tall man in Starfleet uniform walking through a nearby garden. It takes her a second, but she manages to place him as one of the people helping her and the EMH in sickbay. She waves her arms over her head to gain his attention. "Hello!"
Tom turns as he hears a woman's voice in the distance. He eventually spots the speaker on the other side of the garden, just past a tall cedar tree. He runs over and sees she's wearing a Starfleet science uniform. Her face looks strangely familiar. "Are you from Voyager?" he asks. Any other time and he'd be thinking how pretty she looks, but his appreciation of the female form has taken a back seat in his mind considering they were at medical emergency alert before he was brought here... wherever here is.
Ezri nods in answer to the question, relieved at not having to be alone in this strange place. "I'm Ezri Tigan. I was helping the Doctor in sickbay when suddenly I felt giddy and then... then I was here."
Sickbay, that's where I remember her from. She stabilized the Commander. "Have you seen any more of the crew?" he quickly asks her. Inside, he's wondering if the whole crew has been transported here or if it's just the two of them.
"No, I haven't seen anybody..." Ezri trails off when she realizes that she's hearing some kind of musical instrument playing nearby. "What's that?" she asks, starting to walk towards the sound.
********************
The Doctor sighs once more. "Computer, state the location of Captain Janeway."
"Captain Janeway is no longer on this ship" the computer replies.
"Where were my patients transported to then?"
"Unable to determine based on available data."
The Doctor gives up. All he can do is busy himself with determining the extent of casualties. He locates each deceased crew member on board Voyager and has them beamed to sickbay to determine the cause of death and update the information within the medical database. He idly wonders what to do when the task is completed though. What can a computer program do to pass the time?
********************
B'Elanna Torres is sitting on a stile, surpringly calm amidst the unreality she's been wandering for the past few hours. Sure she'd been a bit pissed at first, kicked a cow or two... got kicked back. But she'd eventually run out of things to take her temper out on. Soon after she'd found this farmhouse. The people had seemed welcoming, so she'd decided to rest up a bit and wait for the others to find her instead of busting a gut for them. She sips a tall glass of clear liquid which has a lemon tang to it as she watches the farmhouse's occupants get their little party underway. As she puts her glass down, B'Elanna at last sees something familiar in the distance. To her irritation though, it's not one of her Maquis colleagues. Starfleet... it figures.
Harry glances at the banjo player sitting on the farmhouse steps. It's eerie. His fingers are moving faster across the strings then his own could ever do over the oboe keys. "Thank god I've found someone real" Harry says as he walks up to the woman. "According to this, all of the people here are holograms."
"You've only just found that out?" B'Elanna's voice drips with sarcasm.
"Well... yes" Harry tells her, embarassed. "I only just woke up in the barn though." When the woman doesn't reply, he sticks out a hand thinking introductions are probably in order. "The name's Harry Kim."
B'Elanna rolls her eyes, but decides to play along. "B'Elanna Torres." She grips his hand and squeezes it hard.
Harry flexes his fingers a little as she releases him. Ow! Firm handshake. "Listen, you haven't seen any ah... starship crew like me around here have you?"
B'Elanna is about to tell him 'no' when she sees two more uniformed people come from the gardens to her left. "There's two behind you right now" she tells him sagely.
********************
Ezri looks a little surprised as she descends on the farmhouse. A huge party is going on with people laughing and dancing to some sort of guitar sounding music. It reminds her of something she read about in her Earth history class... a square dance? Looking back over her shoulder at the other officer behind her, she hisses. "Hey... um... whatever your name is, come take a look at this!"
"My name is Tom Paris" he informs her, walking over to see what she's looking at.
Ezri smiles. "Tom, got it." She points to the throng of people dancing. "What do you make of this?"
Tom pulls out his tricorder and begins to scan the area again. "Well one thing's for sure, they're not alive. This scan says they're holograms, but the technology looks different from anything we have."
Ezri frowns. "Why would someone make some elaborate hologram and beam us right into the middle of it? It makes no sense." She looks over Tom's arm at the tricorder. "Look, it's picking up life signs. Two of them over there." She looks over to where her finger is pointing, squinting against the sunlight. She can make out two forms - what looks like a klingon woman and a human man... and the man is wearing Starfleet colours. She nudges Tom. "Do you recognize either of them? The man looks familar, but I can't quite place him."
Tom smiles as he hears the man shout out. "It's Harry." Seeing Ezri's bewildered look, he explains. "Harry Kim. He was helping out in sickbay too." As they both walk over, Tom recognises the Klingon in Maquis garb too. B'Elanna Torres. Only half Klingon really - fiery, but good fun to be around. During his time on the Liberty he'd seen her pull them out of enough scrapes to know she's an engineering wizard. "Harry, glad to see you made it in one piece." He smiles in B'Elanna's direction too before turning back to the Ensign. "Do you have any idea where we are? This looks like Earth, but my tricorder's giving off some weird readings... like we're in some kind of giant holodeck."
A slightly disoriented Captain Janeway walks up to them un-noticed. "That's a question I'd like an answer to as well." She's not glad to find that there are other members of her crew here. Although she could've guessed by the way the others had started to vanish around her once she'd reached deck five. "I'd also like to know just who has the nerve to beam us off our ship." Kathryn glances over to B'Elanna. "At least we've found what we were looking for. B'Elanna Torres of the SS Liberty I presume." Now where is Tuvok, she thinks.
"How do you know my name?" B'Elanna asks, immediately suspicious.
"Long story and not one I have the time to tell." Kathryn turns to her crew. "Now, let's see what's under this simulation." Pulling out her phaser, Kathryn fires at the wall of the farmhouse. Either she'll get a look at what's behind that wall or she might make whoever created this fantasy irate enough to illicit a response. Neither of these things happen though. As the energy beam hits the wall, she disappears once again.
"Captain!" Ezri cries, taking a step forward. But she's gone. She looks from Tom to Harry who are the only ones that seem to have their own tricorders. "What happened to her? Were there any energy readings?"
"Already on it" Tom says, flipping open his tricorder again. The device is certainly getting its use today. He shakes his head. "Wherever the Captain's gone, it's beyond the tricorder's range. Possibly beyond the hologrid... assuming this thing works like the holographic systems we're used to."
Harry nods. "Confirmed. I can't get a reading on the Captain's lifesigns at all. They're being masked somehow and I'm detecting interference from the barn. Just what the hell is going on around here?"
"I honestly wish I knew, Harry" Tom says. He looks around. "We need to work out a way to get out of this thing. Any ideas?" He directs the question to all three people, but looks at B'Elanna to see if she's still the wizard he remembers.
Ezri shrugs. "Maybe it's a little silly, but has anyone tried simply ending the program? If this really is some sort of hologram, then it's got to have a stop button or something, right? Maybe some kind of command override..." Ezri sighs. This kind of thing isn't really her forte. She's much better with people than with machines. If only they knew who was behind this, then she might be able to do more to help. She could figure out motives and reasons with people, but feels a little outclassed right now. Maybe it's just left over insecurities from DS9.
"Computer, end program" B'Elanna says suddenly. Nothing happens, as she expects. "I tried that six hours ago" she tells Ezri simply. "As for the barn, there may be some sort of dampening field coming from there which limits scanning range. I can go over and take a look... that's if you trust me to."
Tom is about to reply when Harry pipes up. "Tom, I'm getting something here. One of these people is exhibiting positive lifesigns. I don't know why I didn't detect it before." He turns the tricorder and looks up. "There! The one with the banjo. All the holograms seem to be congregating around him. Maybe he has a hand in all of this."
"If not he might at least know something" Tom agrees. He turns back to B'Elanna. "See what you can do with the dampening field, we'll question the natives." He realises he hasn't actually got any authority to give orders, but hopes he sounds like he knows what he's doing. B'Elanna nods once at him and sets off towards the decrepit looking barn.
Harry sees the Captain's phaser lying in the straw and scans it. The weapon shows evidence of transporter trace signatures on the handle from when her captain's grasp was torn away from it. The tachyon decay is minimal, which means the beam orientated on a destination not too far away, within a couple hundred metres radius or so. He shows the readings to the others, then they make their way over to the steps of the farmhouse where the banjo player is sitting. Harry clears his throat. "Excuse me, but could you tell us exactly why we're here and why all of this" he gestures around them, "has been created?"
There's no answer.
"Our Captain has just disappeared in a transport beam to a location nearby" Harry tries again. "Do you know anything about that?"
The banjo-man shakes his head in irritation as if a fly is buzzing his ear. It's like the beings in front of him aren't completely there in person and he has to work to understand what's being spoken to him. After a long moment, the man's eyes finally rest on the three Starfleet crew. "Too impatient. The mistress will see you when she's ready."
Tom steps forward. "Look" he tells the banjo-man impatiently. "If you know something, you'd do well to tell us."
The man stops playing and looks at the three through narrowed eyes. "If that is how you want it." With that, he swipes the air with his hand and Tom, Harry and Ezri are suddenly whisked away in the same frighteningly alien transporter effect.
********************
The three reassemble into a nightmare. As far as the eye can see, Voyager crew are strung on sterile lattice work-lab tables and draped with meshing. Their arms are flung out and dangling with an unnatural unconsciousness. The new arrivals find themselves immobilized in the same manner and each face a descending needle probe, unerringly zeroing in on their abdomens. Harry looks at the oncoming needle in horror. "What's going on here?" he yells, fighting his bonds. He sees the Captain still alive and breathing next to him on another table. "Captain? Can you hear me?" She doesn't reply.
Then he sees a face, looking into his own with a clinical detachment. The face looks like that of a young girl. "More specimens? We shall see if you prove to be as useful as the Vulcans."
"Who are you?" Harry asks in trepidation as the needle gets ever closer.
"I am Suspiria" she says simply and disappears from Harry's sight. He desperately tried to shift his body away from the instrument but it relentlessly drives in, pushing against mesh and skin, then finally stabbing inside his body. Harry remembers screaming in primal terror before blacking out in a strange sedative's artificial night.
********************
B'Elanna turns her nose up at the smell inside the barn as she rechecks her readings. Yes, there's definitely faint signals coming from some kind of matrix processing device behind the back wall. "Looks like I've found your hologrid power source, Tom" She smiles. It's good to see him, but she wonders why he's wearing that uniform again. He never went into any great detail as to why he was thrown out of Starfleet, but seemed sure he'd have nothing more to do with them. As she considers the implications she turns to leave, but stops as she sees a young woman from the farmhouse at the entrance.
"Why are you still here?" the woman asks.
"I don't know, you tell me" B'Elanna throws back flippantly. She tries to walk out but the woman throws her arm out, blocking her exit. "Move aside" B'Elanna tells her dangerously.
"I don't think so." And with that the woman backhands her, throwing B'Elanna across the barn with impossible strength. She slams into a wooden support beam, cracking it.
She gets up giddily. "Want to play rough?" she snarls. "I'll show you rough." She charges the woman and succeeds in wrapping her hands round her throat. The woman headbutts her though and her grip loosens.
The woman forces B'Elanna to her knees. "Do not interfere" she hisses and slaps her. B'Elanna suddenly feels the ground disappear and drops down, landing heavily on what feels like deckplates. She sits up, feeling the salty taste of blood in her mouth. Blinking and shaking her head, she looks around to see the familiar sight of the Liberty's bridge once again.
