Chapter 21.
Twisted.
(Scott POV)
We were in the holodeck for Kes's birthday surprise and we were just waiting for her to come.
Everyone but Tuvok and Harry were there. Even Neelix. I knew that Kes no doubt told him about us. Not that I minded.
Then the doors opened, but as we had the lights off before Kes came in.
"Hello?" Kes said. "Anybody here? Scott?,"
Then the lights came on and we surprised her.
"Happy Birthday Kes," I said.
"Imagine 2 years old today. if you ask me you don't look a day over 1," Neelix said.
"Why was everyone hiding?" Kes said.
"Oh, it's an old Earth custom called a surprise party," Tom said.
"You like it," I said.
"Yes, It was very exhilarating," Kes said.
"How about a glass of my special birthday punch? Garcon?" Neelix said.
"On the rocks or straight up," Doc said turning around.
"Doctor, I'm so glad you're here," Kes said.
"My new bartender," She said. "Handsome isn't he?"
"You can keep him," I said Making us laugh again.
"You don't that on purpose Captain," Doc said.
"Some one has to doc, Would you rather it be Tom?" I said.
"That being said. No. I'm here in an official capacity, of course, in case of a medical emergency," Doc said.
"Emergency?" Kes said.
"Surprises have been known to cause acute hyperventilation esophageal spasms and in extreme cases, even coronary arrest, One can never be too careful," Doc said. Making us laugh again.
"Wait till you taste this cake," Neelix said. "7 layers of Jimbalian fudge, and the icing is made from pureed L'maki nuts, Kes' favourite,"
Which then Kes blew them out.
"Birthday gifts are also an Earth Tradition," Tom said.
"Thank you, Tom," Kes said. "You didn't have to,"
"Hey, who am I to fly in the face of tradition?" Tom said.
"To right," I said.
Then Kes opened it. It was a locket.
"Tom, It's beautiful, It must have cost you a week's worth of replicator rations," Kes said.
"2 weeks, Actually, But who's counting, I'm just glad you like it," Tom said.
"What is it?" Kes said.
"It's a locket, you put little photographs in here, it keeps the people you love close to your heart," I said.
"Bridge to McCall," Tuvok said.
"Go ahead," I said.
"Captain, we've encountered an unusual phenomenon," Tuvok said. Then It started to echo, then distorted even louder.
"B'Elanna what the hell is going on?" I said.
"It might simply be a localized malfunction but I've never heard anything like it, My guess is," B'Elanna said. Then it stopped. "It's a problem with the con system itself.
"McCall to bridge," I said but nothing, "Get down to Engineering and run a diagnostic. Sorry Kes but we going have to cut your party short, Stations, everyone, Let's move,"
Then we went to the Turbolift and ordered it to the Bridge.
"The first thing I want to do when we got to the bridge is establish a remote com link to Engineering. I want to know exactly what's going on," I said. Then we stopped and heading out but it wasn't the bridge. "Where are we?"
"Deck 4," Tom said.
"If the com system's malfunctioning, the computer could be misreading our voice commands," Chakotay said.
"That might explain why it took us here instead of the Bridge," Tom said.
"We'd better try setting the control manually," I said.
XXX
Then we tried against it again.
"And have someone look at the Turbolift, Voice receptors, Commander," I said.
"Aye captain," Chakotay said.
"This is Engineering," I said. As it stopped and walked out. "What's going on here?"
"Look like we're dealing with more just a con system Malfunction," Chakotay said.
"Computer, Bridge," I said. "This is really starting to tick me off,"
Then the Turbolift stopped and we found B'Elanna, Kes, Neelix and Harry.
"I don't suppose anyone here knows the way to the Bridge," Tom said.
"In there now, Ensign tell me what the hell is going on?" I said.
Then Harry told me everything.
"So let me get this straight. This distortion thing has completely immobilized us, we have no means of communication with the Bridge or any other part of the ship, and no matter where any of us have tried to go the Bridge, Engineering, Kes' quarters," I said. "We've all eventually ended up here, Right back at Deck 6,"
"The bridge is on Deck 1. Engineering is on Deck 11. Deck 6 is halfway in between, right?" Harry said.
"So?" Chakotay said.
"So if we're being surround by this ring, maybe it's pushing us all to the center of the ship," Harry said.
"But it's not just that we're being led back here, I mean, room are in the wrong place, Is it possible that this distortion ring is somehow changing the layout of the ship," B'Elanna said.
"There is another possibility, Exposure to some types of EM radiation has been known to cause hallucinations, Perhaps it's not the ship that's undergone changes but rather your perception of it Unfortunately, without my medical equipment to analyse your optic nerves, there's no way to tell," Doc said.
"We'll never figure it out sitting here, We need more information about this phenomenon. Sensor readings computer analyses, we have to find a way back to the Bridge," I said.
"If we can't get back on foot or on the turbolift, maybe we can rig a site to site transport beam ourselves to the bridge," B'Elanna said.
"We'd have to get to a transporter room first," Chakotay said.
"Or to Engineering," B'Elanna said. "Where ever that is?"
"When we tired to get to the Bridge, the one places the turbolift took us was Engineering," Tom said. "Maybe if we repeat our steps it'll take us back there,"
"Worth a shot, Tom, You're with B'Elanna," I said.
"Maybe we can get to the Bridge through a Jefferies tube, if I remember my ship specs correctly, there should be an emergency access conduit which leads directly from this deck to Deck 1 right behind the Bridge," Harry said.
"I'd like to keep trying to get to the Bridge on foot, If the ship has been reconfigured somehow, I can get a deck by deck picture of what it looks like as I go," Chakotay said.
"What's going to keep you from getting lost?" Tom said.
"I'll get a tricorder from the storage locker, rig it to emit a protoplasmic trail," Chakotay said.
"Right, we should all get tricorders, Set them on active scan, gather as much information as we can about what's happening to the ship," I said.
"May I request that Kes be allowed to stay here with me? Besides helping stave off the predatory advances of that woman, she may be able to help me find a way o transfer myself back to Sickbay," Doc said.
"I'll assist Commander Chakotay, Captain, As you may have heard, my tracking skills are legendary throughout the quadrant," Neelix said.
"That all right with you, Commander?" I said. Who nodded. "Harry, You're with me, Let's go," Then we went and got the Tricorders and then Harry and I proceeded to the Jeffries tubes.
XXX
"I don't know about you, but this is bugging me," I said.
"If it wasn't for this ring I off put this off as a bad dream," Harry said.
"Me too," I said.
"I don't understand it, We should have found the hatch to the Bridge 10 minutes ago," Harry said. "I feel like we're crawling in circles,"
"But we haven't at least not according to this tricorder, Odd," I said.
"What is it?" Harry said.
"A very faint Electromagnetic reading, Which now is gone," I said. "There it is from another direction,"
"Yeah, I'm getting it too," Harry said.
"It comes and goes," I said. "Jumps from place to place,"
"Could it be evidence of the ships reconfiguration?" Harry said.
"Possibly, We'll have to compare this data with readings the others get," I said.
"Wait a minute," Harry said.
"What?" I said.
"I think that's the conduit leading to the Bridge," Harry said.
"Good work, Maybe now we'll get some answers," I said.
"That's the hatch Captain, This should let us out in the cargo hold directly behind the Bridge," Harry said.
But it wouldn't open.
"It's not working," I said.
"We'd better try it manually," Harry said.
Then I though I heard someone else in the Jeffries tubes, but I still went and tried to open it. "It's stuck," I said. Then it opened and my arm what inside whatever that was.
"Captain," Harry said. As he tried to pull me back.
"I can't get my arm out, whatever this is, it's getting closer to us," I said.
"Scott," Clara said. showing up and helped pull me out and then Harry sealed it. "Are you alright,"
"Least my arm is back to normal," I said.
"I'm reading an intense Electromagnetic charge on the other side of that hatch," Harry said. "That must have been what was pulling you in,"
"It's as if everything on the other side is in a state of structural flux, the walls, the Atmosphere," I said.
"Scott, Talk to me, What is happening?" Clara said.
"There's another thing, that matching the readings from the distortion ring," Harry said. "This phenomenon isn't just occurring in space, It's definitely inside the ship as well,"
"Is there any sign of damage," I said.
"Nothing," Harry said.
"We're going to have to regroup and come up with a plan for combating this thing," I said. "Damn it,"
"Captain, What's wrong," Harry said.
"I don't know, My eyes," I said.
"Scott, Talk to me," Clara said.
But it was too much.
"We need to get him back out of here fast," Clara said.
"Let's go," Harry said.
Then I felt myself being lefted and pulled out of the Jeffries tubes.
"Gave us a hand here now?" Clara said.
"What happened to him?" Doc said.
"He came into contact with the spatial distortions in the Jeffries tubes, He seemed fine for a couple minutes, But then he started to fade in and out of consciousness, Is he going to be alright," Clara said.
"I don't know but I'm going to find out," Doc said.
Setting me down on a sofa.
"Scott come on talk to me," Clara said.
"Tell us you've been to the bridge and you've come back here to give us a status report," Chakotay said.
"We locked onto the Bridge coordinates, but this is where we ended up," B'Elanna said.
I could hear them but that was it I couldn't see them.
"None of you had any luck either?" B'Elanna said.
"Not only has no one been able to reach the Bridge, but the Captain came into contact with the spatial distortion and is now unconscious, " Tuvok said.
"I sure he can hear us but can't do anything else, I can't even get in to find out," Clara said.
"That's not all, We lost Neelix too," Chakotay said.
"Lost him?" Neelix said.
"He turned a corner and he was just gone," Chakotay said. "We think the spatial distortions are continuously changing the configuration of the corridors,"
"It's not just Neelix who is missing, Where's the rest of the crew?" Harry said.
"It is likely that they, too, are trapped in other parts of the ship, cut off from communication and unable to find their way out," Tuvok said.
"So what do we do now?" Tom said.
"This wave is obviously causing some kind of radical reconfiguration of the ship, We've got to try to reverse it," Chakotay said. "If not, we may never be able to get to the Bridge,"
"How are we supposed to reverse something we don't understand?" B'Elanna said. "No matter where we go, we end up here, Corridors are realigning, rooms are in the wrong place what's the pattern?"
"We would certainly benefit an accurate picture of what the ship currently look like," Tuvok said. "That way we would have a better chance of getting where we want to go,"
"Maybe we could make a map," Harry said.
"Ensign?" Chakotay said.
"One good thing about all the wandering we've been doing is that we've been collecting a lot of Tricorder data about the structural changes taking place," Harry said.
"And if we fed all that information into the central database, the computer might be able to extrapolate a schematic of the ship as it's configured now," B'Elanna said.
"What are we waiting for?" Chakotay said.
"Is this implosion ring some kind of weapon?" Tom said. "Are we under attack?"
"Who'd want to attack us and why?" Harry said.
"There is no clear evidence of an intelligence behind the phenomenon, It is still possible we are dealing with a naturally occurring anomaly which doesn't conform to the Known laws of physics," Tuvok said.
"It's too late to be speculating on who or what this thing is," B'Elanna said. "The important thing now is that we find out some way of stopping it,"
"B'Elanna's right," Chakotay said. "It seems to me we've got 2 options one we find a way to get ourselves out of this implosion ring, or 2 we find some way of reversing it,"
"Invert the effect, Turn the implosion into an explosion," Harry said.
"Exactly," Chakotay said.
"If I can get back to Engineering I may be able to generate a shock pulse strong enough to do just that, I'd have to raise Warp core pressure to near critical," Torres said.
"A Shock pulse that strong would make a subatomic particle shower all over the ship," Harry said.
"Which could set off a chain reaction that would cause not only the ring to explode outward but Voyager along with it," Tuvok said.
"Not if I can precisely tune the shock pulse to the distortion frequency of the ring," Torres said.
"That will be exceptionally difficult," Tuvok said.
"If we don't give this a try, we're going to get crushed anyway," Torres said. "Personally, I'd rather go down fighting,"
"I must remind you, that with the com system down, we will have no effective means of alerting the rest of the crew to a potentially lethal particle shower," Tuvok said.
"Do you have another suggestion, Tuvok?" Chakotay said.
"I believe it would be safer to attempt to access the navigational array and from there engage thrusters to steer us out of the ring," Tuvok said.
"Can't we try both?" Harry said.
"It's much too dangerous to have someone working at the navigational array during a shock pulse," Torres said.
"Besides, this ship is so contorted, there's no reason to expect we'd have any navigational control," Tom said.
"All right, B'Elanna let give your plan a shot, You," Chakotay said.
"Commander Chakotay," Tuvok said.
"Yes, LT," Chakotay said.
"I must point out that in my many years of experience as Captain McCall technical officer, he often demonstrated a tendency to follow," Tuvok said.
"In case you hadn't noticed, Captain McCall not in any condition to make decisions, I'm in command is that understood?" Chakotay said.
"Yes sir," Tuvok said.
"Good, Now id you both have stopped bitching get on with it," Clara said.
"B'Elanna, you and harry get down to Engineering," Chakotay said. "Evacuate anyone who is on duty then initiate the Warp pulse,"
XXX
"They charging up the warp core, They must be close to initiating the Shock burst, Everybody take cover," Chakotay said.
Then I felt Clara hold into me.
Then I felt it,
"You're okay," Clara said. "I'm not losing you,"
Not much longer I could see it there, at the door.
"Hey, Scott, Look at me," Clara said.
But I couldn't.
Eventually it went through all of us, then it vanished.
Then everything was back to normally.
"Damn my head," I said getting up.
"Captain," Doc said.
"I'm all right," I said.
"You were delirious," Doc said.
"No it was weird, It was some sort of message," I said.
"What was?" Chakotay said.
"That ring, it was trying to communicate with us," I said. "Let's get to the Bridge and find out how is going on," Then Got up and went to the Turbolift and went to the Bridge even got there.
"I want a full systems report, and Harry, Tuvok I want every iota of information that was recorded regarding that phenomenon," I said.
"The distortion ring is directly ahead, Captain," Tom said. "It's moving away from us at 2000 KPH,"
"We've got a full crew complement, Captain, No injuries reported," Chakotay said.
"No damage to the hull or Ship's systems," Torres said.
"Incredible," I said.
"You're not going to believe this, captain, But 20 million gigaquads of new information have been input into the ship's computer," Torres said.
"From where?" I said.
"My guess is it came from the distortion ring," Torres said.
"Somebody's definitely trying to tell us something," I said.
"That's not all, captain, Our entire database has been copied and downloaded into somebody else's system," Torres said.
"I guess whoever they were, they want to know everything they can about us too," Chakotay said.
"Maybe it was their only way of communicating with us. They were trying to say hello," I said. "Tom resume course for home,"
"Aye captain," Tom said.
"Cake anyone," Neelix said.
Then we went and finished off Kes' party.
Then we went to Warp.
That's all for this chapter.
More to follow.
Stay tuned and safe.
Love Y'all
PEACE!