The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad
Voyager fantasies by Taya 17 Janeway @ Nimgil
when push comes to shove
"Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouc—OW!!"
"If you would just sit still and let me treat the burn, the procedure might be less painful! Now, don't move your arm!"
Kes couldn't hide a smile as she entered Voyager's Sickbay. Josh was perched on the edge of a biobed, squirming furiously as the Doctor tried to treat a plasma burn on his arm. "I'm fine now! I can get this treated back planetside!" protested the boy.
"Kes is busy enough as she is—ah, here comes the proverbial devil." The Doctor paused to smile at the Ocampan as she stopped beside the biobed, yet his grip on the fidgeting child never wavered.
Josh turned to Kes with a pathetic expression. "Please tell him that you can fix this too?" he implored Kes.
Kes smiled gently at the child. "The Doctor taught me almost all there was to know about Federation medicine," she said. "You should let him treat you."
Josh made a face, but allowed the Doctor to continue treating him without further protest.
As he ran a dermal regenerator over the burn, the Doctor asked Kes, "So, you had something to tell me?" He put down the regenerator and summoned a medical tricorder from across Sickbay. The object whizzed past Kes with a few millimeters to spare.
"Actually, no." Kes glanced furtively around Sickbay for a moment, then continued. "I wanted to ask your advice."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows briefly, as if pleased that Kes had acknowledged his supposed superiority in various affairs. "What about?" He gave her a glance from under furrowed brows. "You're not pregnant, are you?" At the look Kes gave him, he rolled his eyes. "It was a joke."
Kes shook her head. "A rather tasteless one, I'm afraid."
The Doctor snapped the tricorder shut. "There, all done now. You may go."
"Thanks," said Josh grudgingly, but not without a touch of relief. "I'll see you planetside, Healer," he said to Kes as he walked past.
Kes waited till the Sickbay doors had slid shut before turning to address the Doctor. "I have some bad news."
The Doctor frowned. "I thought you wanted advice."
"Yes." Kes sighed patiently. "I need to break this news to the captain. It's been a while since I've been on Voyager, and I was hoping that you might be able to suggest a way to break it to her gently. You know her better than I do."
The Doctor made a deferential gesture, then: "What kind of bad news?"
Kes took in a deep breath. "Myriam has been studying the space-time structure of the anomaly which supposedly transported Voyager to this plane of existence. The fabric of space-time is changing, Doctor. As we grow further from the point of its origin, speaking in terms of multiple dimensions, reopening the portal to send Voyager back would start to cause dangerous instabilities in the fabric of space-time. The damage caused to the higher dimensions may be irreparable."
The Doctor paused to consider the implications. "Which means that your- our- magical abilities will be affected." He strode around Sickbay purposefully, thinking. "To send Voyager back to its original plane of existence would entail interfering with the lifestyles of millions..." he turned back to face Kes. "I can see why she would have a problem with that."
Kes nodded. "Especially since she is so determined to get this crew back home." She paused, then added. "But there is one other way."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"
"Myriam calculates that if Voyager leaves within the next two days, the damage done to the space time fabric will be negligible enough for the continued manipulation of the higher dimensions."
"Leave? Now? At this critical moment in the war?" The Doctor waved his hand and started pacing again. "These people- your people- are depending on Voyager 's participation in the final battle to win this war! If we pull out now, who knows what will happen! Captain Janeway will never agree to that!"
"I know... between one hard choice and another." Kes sighed.
The Doctor faced Kes squarely. "But when push comes to shove, she'll choose the welfare of the many over that of her crew. We have no right to make your people suffer; and we have already pledged to stay and fight this war."
Kes sighed in resignation and nodded. "It is as I feared, then. Which brings me back to the point: how best shall I break the news to her?"
The Doctor frowned deeply as he considered the question. "There is never any good way to break bad news; but as for the best way… Captain Janeway has never been one to mince words. The best approach would be to tell her the facts straight."
Kes took a deep breath, looking hesitant. She looked down at the floor for a brief moment, and when she looked back up her eyes were shining with anguish. "I can't tell her, Doctor, I don't have the courage to do it." She twisted her fingers together tightly, as if the momentary pain it caused could ease the suffering that the captain would have to go through. "She doesn't deserve it."
The Doctor took her gently by the elbow. "I'm sure she doesn't. But since when did life care about what we deserve and what we don't? Captain Janeway has faced setbacks before. She's extremely hardy, she'll live through this."
"By living on false hopes that Voyager might one day succeed in returning to her universe? I can't have that. I must make it clear that she if doesn't leave now, she doesn't leave at all."
The Doctor stared at her, uncharacteristically at a loss for words. Then he said, "No matter what the consequences, there can be none worse than that if Captain Janeway is kept in the dark. This crew might not deserve its fate, but they at least deserve to know it."
Kes met his eyes. "Yes. They do, don't they?"