Chapter Thirteen--The Disease

Sickbay-1608

Lucille Huntley calmly entered Sickbay, unaware of what she would soon see. She almost immediately saw why she had been summoned. Lu rushed to the side of the bio-bed where her husband lie unconscious. She gripped his hand tightly and stared into his cold, unconscious face. "What happened?" she breathed.

"He's going to be fine. The Doctor's working on it."

"What happened?" she asked again.

"He collapsed on the Bridge. From what I can tell there is no internal or external injuries. I believe that his brain shut down its higher functions, forcing him into a coma. I don't know why, but I will find out," The Doctor said, reassuring her.

Lu seemed somewhat relieved, but also very concerned. She threw herself at Tom, crying. He wrapped his arms around her and patted her back gently.

After a moment, she backed away. "What am I doing?" she asked herself aloud. "He's going to be fine," she told herself. Lucille headed towards the door.

"Lu," Tom reached out to her. "I have to get back to work," he lied. "Why don't you stay here with him?"

She smiled, content with the suggestion. She pulled a stool up next to Owen, and sat down, staring at his comatose face.

Tom walked out of Sickbay. He headed towards his quarters; he thought B'Elanna would be there. She said she would meet him at 1630. He was a little early, so he thought he would wait for her to get back from Engineering.

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Tom and B'Elanna's Quarters-1619

"B'Elanna?" Tom called as he walked into their quarters. "B'Elanna?" He looked around for her briefly. He concluded that she wasn't there yet. He shrugged and sat down on the couch and turned on the television.

Tom watched for about fifteen minutes, then looked around, distracted. "Where is she?" he asked himself aloud. "Tom to B'Elanna." He waited for her to respond. "B'Elanna, please respond." There was no answer. "Computer, locate B'Elanna Torres."

"B'Elanna Torres is in her quarters," the Computer answered.

Tom rocked off the couch at escape velocity, most likely straining a muscle. But he didn't care. "B'Elanna!" Tom ran through their quarters as fast as his bad knee would take him, looking frantically for his wife.

He found her sprawled on the floor of their bedroom. "Paris to Sickbay, Medical Emergency. Paris to Transporter Room One, two to beam directly to Sickbay!" He grabbed B'Elanna as they dematerialized. He watched her face rematerialize and he helped the medics lift her onto a bio-bed.

"What happened?" Naomi asked.

"I don't know, I just found her." Tom looked over at the other bio-bed, containing his son. It suddenly occurred to Tom that he had no idea where is daughter was. "Tom to Miral." He waited, but no response. "Miral, this is your father, please respond." There was no response. "Computer, locate Miral Paris."

"Miral Paris is in Turbo Lift Four."

"Site to site. Beam Miral directly to Sickbay."

Miral materialized on the floor of Sickbay, unconscious. The medics lifted her onto the third bio-bed.

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2389

Uninhabited Planet

"Hey, Harry! Come look at this!" Tom yelled and waved his arm for Harry to join him.

A young, black-haired, Harry Kim walked over. "Tom, I have to keep scanning for terelium."

"Look," Tom pointed to a small primate playing below the thirteen foot cliff they were standing on.

"Wow, a monkey," Harry said sarcastically, walking back to where he was working.

Tom smiled at the creature and decided to slide down the steep cliff to look at it.

"AHHHH!"

Harry turned and saw a cloud of dust rise from where Tom had been standing, "TOM!" he yelled. He ran over and slid down the slope swiftly. "Tom, are you alright?"

"My knee," he groaned, gently holding his right knee.

"Kim to Voyager, two to beam directly to Sickbay."

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"Congratulations, Mr. Paris," the Doctor smiled. "You shattered your right patella."

"My knee cap?" Tom asked in a 'bummed out' tone.

"Yes, I doubt it'll ever be the same."

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2418

Sickbay-1900

"Chief Medical Officer's Log. About three hours ago, three patients were brought to Sickbay with the same symptoms. They are all comatose at the moment, for reasons I do not know.

"As I research the cause of the problem more, I am going to inform the Captain of their condition. There is one thing that I do know: There is one similarity between all of the patients. They're all Klingon."

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