Chapter 11 "A Typical Day"
Harry Kim
A sinister racket meandered throughout Voyager. It was a high pitched screeching furor that no one could neglect, and I immediately reported,
"Captain, we are being scanned by an unknown entity."
The noise made my ears feel like they bled, but I strived to resist the pain to concentrate.
"Can you isolate the scan, Mr. Kim?" Janeway interrogated.
As I shifted the settings at my console to decipher it further, I put my hand over my right ear to mute its' volume.
"Affirmative, Captain. It's coming from the fifth planet, past the three moons," I recognized, wincing from the sound. I noticed that the officers on the bridge, other than the Vulcan Lieutenant Tuvok, were agitated with the noise and endeavored to insulate their ears from it using their hands, too.
"Nothing seems to bother Vulcans," I drily thought.
"Thank you, Mr. Kim. Mr. Tuvok, are there lifeforms?"
"Negative, it appears to be a class M planet," he countered in the usual Vulcan impersonal voice after browsing his console.
"Plot the course, Mr. Paris," Janeway ordered.
"Aye, sir," my lanky blonde friend responded from the navigation center.
"Engage," the female Captain commanded instantly.
"Lieutenant Tuvok, prepare a team to beam down to the planet," Janeway ordered ten minutes later.
"Aye, sir," the Vulcan security officer responded without looking up from his console.
"Captain, is that a good idea," First Officer Chakotay questioned, facing Janeway.
"Our mission is to explore and learn, Commander Chakotay," Janeway reminded.
"Aye, sir," he replied, giving our red-headed captain a wink. The chemistry between Chakotay and Janeway was a topic of discussion and speculation on Voyager in one's leisure time. Crew members were engrossed in their "will they or won't" story. Especially now, with Voyager trapped in the Delta quadrant, they were far away from their respective significant others.
Ultimately, the scan halted, and the uproar left me feeling shaky and bewildered. My brain seemed scrambled, like eggs during one of Neelix's breakfasts. As the leaders discussed the origin of the scan, I uncovered a building in the planet's southern hemisphere.
"Captain," I declared.
Janeway and Chakotay quit their discussion and turned their attention to me.
"Our radars detect a pyramid object in the middle of a desert area on the planet," I informed.
"I suggest we follow your initial idea and investigate what has scanned us," Chakotay affirmed.
"Agreed," Janeway crisply said, nodding slightly. She turned to her close friend, Tuvok, and ordered that he and his team go to the transporter room in five minutes, then awaited her instructions.
Ten Minutes Later
"Torres to Janeway," B'Leanna proclaimed on the com.
"Janeway here."
"There is a problem with the transport to the planet below," Torres responded; there was a hesitation in her voice.
"Please specify," a taken-back Captain Janeway asked.
"There are two bodies on the planet below but without life signs. I don't know the reason yet, but I am running a system diagnostic program," the chief engineer asserted.
"I'll be right there. Commander Chakotay, you have the comm," Janeway determinedly rose from her chair and sped walked to the lift with fierce determination.
With that, the Captain withdrew, leaving us to speculate. Chakotay did not allow us anytime to do so, expecting us to act as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
A day later, Janeway had contacted Tuvok through their communicator devices, but nothing came from it. She was relieved that he was alive, although missing. We all were.
During the officer's meeting in the captain's ready room, we dissected the strange pyramid's power based on the research we conducted in the last twenty-four hours.
"There is powerful energy coming from the structure that is dissimilar to anything we had seen before," B'Leanna reported matter of fact.
"Can you derive the source?" Captain Janeway inquired anxiously.
"Negative, Captain. Harry and I had thoroughly dissected the pyramid's properties but without success," B'leanna answered, with a look in my direction.
"Keep at it," Janeway directed. There was silence as we sat at the large conference room table.
"Did anyone else's brain feel shuffled after this entity scanned us yesterday?" Tom Paris anxiously questioned. We both experienced it, and we discussed it yesterday afterward. We were not sure of its connections to the disappearance of the landing party.
"Yes, come to think of it," Commander Chakotay revealed reluctantly.
The others at the briefing conceded that they had a similar situation.
"Is it connected to Lt. Tuvok's disappearance," Captain questioned.
"It's not much to go by," B'Leanna hesitantly concurred. Her expression displayed doubt on her half Klingon and half Human face.
"True, but that is all we have right now. We may have to beam down near the pyramid to examine it. There is a door on the south side," the Native American first officer wryly suggested.
"Yes, I am not ready to send more crew members down there yet. Let's explore the other options," Janeway articulated after numerous moments of stillness.
How will Janeway rescue Tuvok and the other crew members?