Disclaimer: Star Trek: Voyager and all characters therein are the property of Americans who are not me. No infringement of copyright is intended.
This story is set approximately around Season 3-4, but no particular spoilers other than this happens before Thirty Days. Rating M/15 for mature themes. Thanks to Star Trek Voyager: Lower Decks for all factual/technical information pertaining to the layout of the USS Voyager, and Star Trek: Technobabble for the correct spelling of "Jefferies Tube".
FEEDING THE FURY
Chapter 8
The atmosphere in the senior staff conference room was tense, bordering on the uncomfortable.
Tom had briefly described what he'd seen and how, once he'd realised an undetected alien was generating the hallucinations to provoke an extreme emotional reaction, he had come up with a plan to snare the entity. He explained how he'd been concerned as to just how much the alien could 'read' him and so had not brought his suspicions to anyone else, passing off the scalding incident in the Mess Hall as a genuine accident caused by his distraction as to how to best counter the infiltration by an invisible enemy. Tom related how he'd deliberately broadcast his 'intent' to kill Chakotay there and then to lure the alien to the Bridge so as not to miss the bumper feast of emotions that would be unleashed by such an attack; he'd activated the confinement field pulse from the Con while the alien was off guard, expecting him to jump up and attack Chakotay instead.
The uptight body language of those assembled was thus perfectly understandable, but Captain Janeway decided it was best to move things along rapidly. "Seven, was the Polaron wave effective?"
"Yes, Captain," the ex-Borg confirmed, "emitting the Polaron particles enabled Lt Tuvok and I to recalibrate Voyager's sensor array. We located a number of very small and previously undetectable ships heading in our direction, but when we emitted the Polaron wave, they turned about and headed back towards a G-type star system."
"So there were more of these…emotional vampires on the way," Harry muttered.
"Indeed," commented Tuvok, "and given the emotional volatility of the human species, their depredations amongst the crew would have been dire."
Ignoring her long-time friend's comment with the ease of long practice, though she saw Harry roll his eyes, Captain Janeway instead said, "What we mean to say is thank-you, Mr Paris. Were it not for you, we would be in a great deal of trouble about now…"
Tom shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "I wish I could I say it was all down to intuitive brilliance on my part but I was just being honest when I told the alien it overplayed it's hand. It didn't fail because I was clever enough to figure it out, it was just arrogantly stupid."
"How so?" enquired Seven of Nine, raising her eyebrow in a manner similar to Tuvok.
Tom shrugged. "I've been on the receiving end of infidelity before, and sure I was angry, but I was also hurt and confused and forced to examine how I could have contributed to the situation. I have to admit on one occasion I'd been neglectful and taking the woman in question for granted. When I thought B'Elanna…I was furious but whenever I attempted to cool down and try to think about maybe talking things out with B'Elanna I was just swamped with feelings of murderous rage. Once I'd realised that wasn't natural I immediately thought of Betazoids, and since Crewman Jurot's a teddy-bear with no reason to have a homicidal vendetta against me, the next logical deduction was empathic alien of the not-nice variety."
"Nevertheless, you saved all our hides," Janeway emphasised.
"Mr Paris may have exceeded even that accomplishment, Captain," Tuvok stated at that point, making them all look at him in surprise.
"Oh, really?" She looked at Tom who was as clearly intrigued as everyone else by this commendation.
The Vulcan inclined his head towards Tom in a manner that veered dangerously close to approbation. "Due to Seven's recalibration of our sensors I also picked up two disparate vessels of unknown configuration that had apparently been tracking our progress for some time. They were on the very edge of sensor range. When we began emitting the Polaron wave, the small ships initially veered towards their positions before turning back towards the G-type star system, as Seven has said. I ran a spectral analysis of the ships and was able to determine that both appeared to have suddenly begun emitting Polaron particle waves. I would submit that the secret is out of how to neutralise the threat of the empathic aliens, thanks to Lt Paris."
"I want you to keep emitting the wave continuously until we're well past that G-type star system," Janeway ordered. "If that's everything…?"
"Lt Paris, I am curious," said Seven as she paused in the act of rising from her chair.
"About?" Tom asked.
"Would you have cut down the alien creature if Lt Tuvok had not had a method of forcing it to immediately leave the ship?"
There was an absolute silence; Tom was aware of the way B'Elanna kept her gaze on his face, as if to monitor for the slightest hint of dissembling; they were all watching his reaction intently.
"I'd like to think that I wouldn't have…but I know myself too well." He looked at them all sombrely. "In all honesty, I don't know. The Tom Paris that was sprung from New Zealand penal colony to come on this ride would certainly have had no hesitation in killing it, unarmed or not, but I'm not that Tom Paris anymore, which, all things considered, is probably a good thing."
"I see," Seven nodded sharply in the manner which indicated she would mull over his statement for quite some time.
"Dismissed," Captain Janeway excused them all, but she did not immediately get up and return to the Bridge, instead taking a deep breath.
It had been a close run thing, too close. Those empathic aliens could and would have wreaked havoc had it not been for Tom Paris and a large dollop of pure luck. If the aliens had 'read' her own carefully concealed emotions and starting projecting mass hallucinations of her kissing and embracing Chakotay all over the ship, the consequences would have been catastrophic.
It was even possible that the aliens would have been even more sophisticated and projected hallucinations such as Naomi Wildman in danger or dying, which would have caused a massive emotional response from the entire ship's complement. There was not a member of the entire crew, including Seven, who would not undertake any necessary measure to protect the only child born on Voyager to date.
It was fortunate that Tom Paris had retained enough rationality to know something was wrong, and to recognise Chakotay's general decency of character made it highly unlikely he would engage in such reprehensible behaviour regardless of the fact that the two men occasionally still clashed on certain points – in fact she strongly suspected both of them secretly rather enjoyed their wittily acerbic exchanges and ongoing game of subterfuges and counter-ploys; Kes had once claimed that half the time Tom Paris undertook some harebrained scam simply because he knew how happy it made Chakotay to 'find him out'.
She permitted herself one loud, wistful sigh, for she knew how jealous she herself was whenever Chakotay showed a romantic interest in a woman, regardless of the fact that as long as she was Captain Janeway and he was First Officer Chakotay any personal relationship was impossible and indeed would be deeply damaging to Voyager's chances of making it home intact. Had she been in Tom Paris's place, she doubted she could have shown such restraint…
Concluded in Epilogue
© 2005, Catherine D. Stewart