V.
"What's your progress, Admiral Garrett?" asked the severe voice of the female standing across the desk from him. "I expected your experiments to be done weeks ago."
Garrett exhaled in an exasperated sigh. "Commander Teral, you know that finding adequate test subjects has taken longer than originally planned, and gaining access to Seven of Nine couldn't be rushed. This is a delicate operation and it has to be handled accordingly. If you can't understand that, then perhaps it is time to end our partnership."
"Yes," Teral agreed. "Perhaps it is. And I'll take the cloaking technology that hides your station from the rest of the Federation with me when I go."
Garrett winced. Sometimes he forgot that the Romulan commander could be just as cunning as he was. "That won't be necessary, Commander."
Teral crossed her arms over her grey military uniform. "The Tal Shiar doesn't like to be kept waiting, Admiral Garrett. Perhaps what you need is a little motivation."
"No, no, that won't be necessary." Garrett had heard stories about the Tal Shiar's motivational tactics, and they weren't something he cared to experience himself. "Besides, I'm not sure how much 'motivation' you could provide. We both know the Romulan Empire was severely weakened by the Dominion War, and all my intelligence indicates that you haven't recovered."
Teral's eyes narrowed. "Don't doubt the power of the Tal Shiar to offer motivation, Admiral. We may have lost some operatives during the war, but that hasn't reduced our ability to be ruthless."
"All the same, Commander," Garrett said, sitting back in his chair, "you have to admit we need each other. I need your cloaking technology to hide the station until my project is complete. And you need the results of my project to rebuild your empire."
"You speak the truth, Admiral." Teral gave Garrett a long look. "At least for now."
The admiral's comm beeped. "Zupanich to Garrett."
"Garrett here."
"I'm ready to add the next two drones to the collective."
Garrett smiled a thin smile. "Excellent. I'm on my way." he ended the call and turned his attention back to Teral. "You see, Commander?" he asked. "Now that we're on our way, everything is progressing just as we had hoped. In a few weeks, I'll have my collective working for me, and you'll have the technology you need to create a Romulan collective of your own."
Teral leveled Garrett with a stare. "Let's hope so, Admiral, for both our sakes."
Janeway and the Doctor crept along the corridor, Seven's bio-sign looming closer and closer on the tricorder. They had managed to evade passing officers and had ducked into Jefferies Tubes and turbolifts as they had followed the signal to Seven of Nine. Now, they stood outside a door. "Seven is in this room," the EMH whispered. "There are five other human life signs inside."
Janeway looked over the Doctor's shoulder at his tricorder. The life signs were grouped together on the opposite side of the room. She hoisted up her phaser rifle. "They aren't expecting intruders. We can use that to our advantage."
The Doctor nodded, and the door swished open, revealing a sickbay. Garrett and Zupanich were standing over a biobed. Seven of Nine was next to them, along with a man in a Starfleet security uniform. A nurse hovered nearby. Before anyone inside the room knew what was happening, Janeway was pointing her phaser rifle at Garrett. "Admiral Garrett."
He whirled around, and Janeway had the satisfaction of seeing the admiral's shock. "You! What the…"
"Let Seven of Nine come with us, and no one gets hurt," she said.
"How did you…" Garrett began, but he stopped mid-sentence and looked at Zupanich and then at Seven. He recovered from his momentary surprise. "Captain Janeway," he began again, "I'm surprised to see you here." He narrowed his eyes. "How did you find us?"
"A little help from a confidential source," she replied, hoping to arouse Garrett's suspicion that one of his people had betrayed him.
"Now, let Seven go."
"Ah, my dear captain," said Garrett in a patronizing tone, "I believe you're too late. You see, Seven is no longer Seven."
Janeway looked at Seven closely for the first time since entering the room. Her expression was blank, and her eyes showed no recognition. "No," Janeway whispered.
"Dr. Zupanich, perhaps you'd like to explain to the good captain and her companion," Garrett suggested. "Voyager's EMH," Garrett said, looking the Doctor over. "I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting."
"What have you done to Seven?" the Doctor asked, glaring at Garrett.
"I'm happy to explain it to you, Doctor," replied the chubby, balding doctor standing next to the admiral. "I've reactivated Seven's myo-neural cortical array," he said smugly. "Her Borg circuitry has taken over. She is no longer the human individual that you knew."
"State your designation," Garrett said to Seven.
"My designation is Drone Zero One," she replied.
"I don't care what you've done to her," Janeway spat. "Let her go or I'll shoot." Her finger hovered over the phaser rifle's trigger.
While Zupanich and Garrett focused on Janeway for a moment, the Doctor looked closely at Seven. He knew that what Zupanich was saying was impossible; he had worked with Seven to ensure that no one would ever be able to use her Borg circuitry to override her human free will again. For one second, Seven met his eyes. She blinked twice in rapid succession, and the EMH knew that Zupanich was wrong; Seven's Borg circuitry hadn't taken over, but for some reason, she obviously wanted Zupanich and Garrett to think that it had. "Captain," the Doctor hissed, unsure how to communicate this to Janeway without revealing Seven's duplicity.
"You won't shoot, Captain," said Garrett confidently. "My drones won't let you."
"Drones?" Janeway echoed, feeling a shiver go down her spine.
Garrett and Zupanich stepped away from the biobed, and a second man in a Starfleet security uniform sat up on the bed. He stood mechanically, seemingly unaware of the conversation that had been going on around him. Looking at him more closely, Janeway noticed that both he and the other security officer had the same blank looks on their faces that Seven did. "Watch and learn, Captain," said Garrett. "There's no need to give clumsy orders or to explain what you mean. My subordinates simply follow my will without question."
The two security officers walked in tandem so they were surrounding Janeway and the Doctor. "Haven't you ever wished that your crew would enact your wishes without you having to explain your motives or reply to their questions?" Garrett asked.
"No!" Janeway replied "I want to work with minds! Minds that can invent something new, innovate, create, question my orders! Not drones that obey blindly."
"But watch how seamlessly they work," Garrett said. In the blink of an eye, both security officer drones were pointing weapons at Janeway and the Doctor.
"Drop your weapon, Captain," one of the drones said.
Instead of following the drone's command, Janeway pointed her phaser rifle at the drone and fired. As he crumpled to the ground, unconscious, the other drone fired at her. The blast from the drone's phaser rifle sent a shock through her system, and she crumpled to the floor, unable to move her limbs, but still conscious. The EMH stepped towards Janeway, but before he could help her up, he heard Seven's voice. "Stay where you are." When he looked up, Seven was pointing a weapon at him.
"You see, Doctor, my drones are most obedient," said Garrett.
The EMH met Seven's eyes. Again, she blinked twice. He understood. She wanted him to comply, not to give away her secret to Garrett and Zupanich. He froze, watching helplessly as Seven and the other conscious drone hauled Janeway up onto a biobed.
"Doctor, you will make an excellent addition to my team," said Garrett, "once I have you reprogrammed. I'm sure Dr. Zupanich could use an assistant of your capabilities."
"I think you'll find reprogramming me easier to say than do," the EMH replied. Lieutenant Torres had installed several failsafes in his program, and he doubted any of Garrett's men would be able to get around them.
"We shall see," said Garrett. "Perhaps I'll have Drone Zero One do it. Or would you prefer I refer to her as Seven of Nine?"
The Doctor did not reply, but watched Garrett with a glare.
Garrett turned back to Janeway, who was now lying helplessly on the biobed. "And you, Captain. I should have known better than to think you were cowed by my threats. But now you're here, and instead of defeating my collective, as you hoped to do, instead you'll become part of it."
"No," Janeway replied, looking down at her limbs which still refused to move. "Dr. Zupanich, do you have enough modified nanoprobes for another drone?"
"I do," replied Zupanich.
"Proceed," said Garrett.
"No!" the EMH shouted. He lunged towards Janeway, but Seven turned her weapon on him.
"Stand down, Doctor," she said. The EMH froze, complying. He had to trust that Seven would have the situation under control.
Zupanich was loading the modified nanoprobes into a hypospray when Garrett held up a hand. "Wait. Move away from the nanoprobes, Dr. Zupanich. I think it's time to show Captain Janeway just how loyal my drones really are. Drone Zero One?"
Zupanich moved away from the nanoprobes, and Janeway watched in horror as Seven moved towards them.
"You see, Captain, not only have I removed all sense of individuality from Seven of Nine, but she is going to bring you into my collective herself. Her will has been bent to my own." Garrett watched in satisfaction as Seven deftly prepared the nanoprobes. "I had originally hoped to keep you away from here, but now I see that I couldn't have been more wrong in my approach. This is my triumph, Captain Janeway. You, the champion of individuality, will become one of the first drones in my collective."
"One of?" she asked anxiously. "What about Chakotay? Have you made him a drone, too?"
"Don't worry, you'll be reunited with the commander soon enough," Garrett said with a self-satisfied grin. He looked over at Seven to make sure she was still following his orders and smiled when he saw she was approaching the biobed with a hypospray.
"Seven, don't do this," Janeway warned, still powerless to move her arms and legs. "Doctor!" she cried, "Help me!"
The EMH took a step towards the biobed, but one of the drones shoved a phaser rifle in his path. He could do nothing to help the captain; he could only hope that Seven knew what she was doing.
"Seven, it's me," Janeway pleaded as Seven's face loomed over her. "It's Captain Janeway. Please, don't do this to me. Listen to me, Seven. You are Seven of Nine, a member of my crew. You are not a drone." Seven looked down at Janeway and blinked. For a moment, Janeway thought she saw a glimpse of the Seven of Nine she knew, but then she felt a hypospray pressed against her neck. Her last thought before everything went black was that she had failed. She had failed Chakotay. She had failed Seven. She had failed Braxton. She had failed all humanity, and the future of individualism was in jeopardy.
Tuvok and Torres had managed to make it through the corridors without major incident. They'd had to stun an unsuspecting officer who crossed their path and had stuffed his body into a Jefferies Tube. They hoped they would be gone before he awoke and had a chance to warn anyone else about intruders. "The Borg signatures are coming from this room," said Tuvok as they approached a doorway. "There is also one human life sign."
When they entered the room, they saw it was a modified cargo bay lined with a dozen Borg regeneration alcoves. Only one of the alcoves was occupied. "Chakotay!" B'Elanna breathed. She ran over to the alcove and prepared to deactivate the regeneration cycle.
"Wait, Lieutenant," Tuvok warned. "If Commander Chakotay has been assimilated into Garrett's collective, we may not want to wake him. He could alert Garrett to our presence." Tuvok scanned Chakotay with his tricorder. "It seems that his neural pathways have been rewritten. He has been injected with nanoprobes which appear to have created a myo-neural cortical array attached to his brain stem."
B'Elanna looked at her friend. His outward appearance had not changed, but his skin seemed a little pale, and the green light of the Borg technology cast an eerie glow on his features. "Can we reverse the process?" she asked, walking over to the cargo bay's computer console.
"The Doctor may be able to modify nanoprobes to repair the damage," said Tuvok.
"We have to sever him from that collective," said Torres. "The Doctor can worry about undoing the damage later."
"But we need to be within three meters of Admiral Garrett to activate the dampening field," Tuvok reminded her.
"We'll just have to find Admiral Garrett then," said B'Elanna, her fingers working over the computer console.
Suddenly, Chakotay opened his eyes and stepped down from his alcove. "Chakotay!" B'Elanna exclaimed. His expression was blank, unlike the man she had known for so many years. He showed no sign of recognizing her.
Tuvok pulled out his phaser and aimed it at Chakotay, but before he could shoot, the commander lunged forward and knocked the weapon from his grasp. Tuvok grabbed for Chakotay's arm, but Chakotay spun around and hit the Vulcan hard in the jaw. Tuvok stumbled backwards as Chakotay reached for the phaser. He fired it at Tuvok, and the Vulcan slumped to the floor, unconscious. Then Chakotay turned back to B'Elanna. "Step away from the controls," he said in a voice that was barely recognizable as his.
"Chakotay, it's me."
"My designation is Drone Zero Two." He gestured at her with the phaser, and she followed his instructions, stepping away from the controls.
"Chakotay, it's me, B'Elanna. Don't you remember me? B'Elanna Torres? You're like an uncle to my daughter, Miral. My husband Tom likes to joke that your life belongs to him." The drone did not reply, and she tried again. "You're not a drone. You're Chakotay. We met in the Maquis. Don't you remember the Maquis, Chakotay? Fighting against the Cardassians?" His eyes still showed no sign of recognition. "I'm here with Captain Janeway. Voyager. You remember Voyager. The Delta Quadrant. Captain Janeway. Kathryn Janeway." Even mention of Voyager and Janeway seemed to awaken nothing within the drone Chakotay.
"B'Elanna Torres," the drone said, "you are an intruder."
"I'm here to help you." She tried to step back towards the computer controls.
"Remain where you are," the Chakotay-drone ordered. "We must wait for the others."
"Others?" B'Elanna asked. "What others?"
But the Chakotay-drone did not reply, and B'Elanna had little choice but to follow his orders. A few moments later, a group of security guards arrived in the cargo bay. Roughly, two of them grabbed her by the arms. "Get your hands off me!" she shouted, struggling against them.
A third guard pointed his phaser rifle at her. "Freeze!" he shouted. Then, he tapped his comm badge. "Commander, we have apprehended two intruders. One is unconscious. The other is in our custody."
"Good," a female voice replied. "Take them to the brig."
"Yes, Commander."
The two guards who were holding Torres began to drag her roughly toward the door as she saw two other guards pick up Tuvok's unconscious form. As they were escorted out, B'Elanna glanced back at the cargo bay in time to see the Chakotay-drone re-enter his regeneration alcove. Obviously the drone had reported their presence to some higher authority. As she and Tuvok were dumped unceremoniously in the brig, she could only hope that Captain Janeway and the Doctor had been more successful than she and Tuvok had been.
Everything was dark, and the only sensation she could distinguish was pain. Her mind couldn't grasp what was happening, but then a voice cut through the darkness. Captain? Captain, can you hear me?
Seven? Janeway was confused. She was trying to remember where she was, but the memory was fuzzy. She struggled to open her eyes.
Keep your eyes closed, Captain. You are still in sickbay. It is essential that they believe you are still unconscious and that the nanoprobes are doing their work.
Nanoprobes? They? Janeway tried to piece together what Seven was saying, and slowly, it came back to her. Garrett's drones, Zupanich, Seven injecting the nanoprobes into her body. You did something to the nanoprobes before you injected me? Janeway asked.
Yes. While Garrett and Zupanich were distracted by their bragging to you, I reprogrammed Zupanich's nanoprobes. You will still feel the link to the hive, Captain, but the nanoprobes will not rewrite your neural pathways and erase your individuality.
Seven, thank you.
It is essential that Garrett and Zupanich believe their plan has worked, as they believe it has worked with me. You must act as you saw the drones behaving and follow Garrett's orders immediately and without question.
I understand. When will I feel the link to the hive?
Soon.
How did you prevent Zupanich from erasing your individuality? Were you able to modify the nanoprobes he injected into you as well?
No. The Doctor installed failsafes in my neural circuitry some time ago, after I had been manipulated by the Borg, to ensure that my remaining Borg components could not be used against me.
How have you kept your true thoughts hidden from Garrett? Isn't he linked to the hive mind? Janeway asked.
Yes, but only through a neural transceiver. He doesn't have a cortical node attached to his brain stem. This is how we have the ability to hide our thoughts from him. Janeway felt a sudden pain lance through her mind, and she could not help but gasp and open her eyes.
Relax, Captain, Seven's voice in her head soothed her. Remain still. You are now connected to the hive mind.
She stared at the ceiling of sickbay, fighting her instincts to move. She heard a new voice in her head, a voice that seemed unaware of what Seven was saying to her. Welcome, drone. Your designation is Drone Zero Five. It was Garrett's voice. She fought to show no recognition or distaste. What is your designation?
Drone Zero Five, she repeated back emotionlessly.
Very good, Drone Zero Five, said Garrett's voice in her head, and then she felt his focus shift away from her. "Doctor, can you extract more nanoprobes from Drone Zero One?" Janeway heard Garrett ask Zupanich.
"Tomorrow, Admiral. We must be patient. The drone's nanoprobes must replenish themselves before I extract any more."
Garrett sighed. "Is that really necessary?"
"If you want a continuous supply of the modified nanoprobes, yes. It is."
"All right," Garrett said, almost more to himself than to Zupanich. "I suppose I did find quite a prize for my collective today." He looked at Janeway and smiled. "The others can wait until tomorrow."
Janeway wondered and feared just how many more Garrett was planning to add to his collective, and then, what nefarious plot he was planning once he had an entire army of drones bent to his will. Seven sensed her thoughts. We will stop him, Captain, she said.
We must, Janeway replied.
Janeway heard Garrett's voice in her head again. You may retire for regeneration until I need you.
Janeway sat up, expressionless, and stood. She heard Seven tell her, Follow me. We will go to the cargo bay now, where the regeneration units are. The two women walked out of sickbay and down the corridor, flanked by one of the other security-guard drones.
Janeway connected the puzzle pieces as they walked. The cargo bay with regeneration units was where their sensors had picked up Borg technology. Tuvok and Torres went to the cargo bay to investigate, she told Seven.
They have been captured, Seven replied. It happened while you were unconscious. I'm sorry.
Are they… Janeway didn't even want to complete the thought. Have they been turned into drones?
No. They are in the brig. You heard Garrett ask Zupanich to extract more nanoprobes from me? He needs them to assimilate Torres and Tuvok.
We have to stop him before he can assimilate them. You may not be able to pull the same stunt you did with me again.
Undoubtedly I will not. Both Seven and Janeway made an effort to keep their eyes straight ahead and their faces expressionless as they entered a turbolift. The third drone could not suspect anything abnormal about them.
Where is the Doctor? Janeway asked. The last thing she remembered was him being in sickbay before Seven had injected her.
I do not know. Zupanich took him somewhere. I believe they are trying to rewrite his program. Seven's thoughts were tinged with worry.
We'll find him, Seven, Janeway assured her. Her head was pounding. Will this headache ever go away? she asked.
Your link to the hive mind is growing stronger, was Seven's only reply.
Yes, I can sense the presence of three others.
The two drones from sickbay, and Chakotay, Seven replied.
Chakotay!
You will see him in the cargo bay. He is regenerating. But, Captain, you should be warned, there is not much of his mind left. His neural pathways have been rewritten by the nanoprobes.
He's still there, Seven. He must be.
Seven did not reply, not knowing what to say to Janeway. She would have to see Chakotay's condition for herself.
They entered the cargo bay, and Janeway had to fight not to react to seeing Chakotay's form standing still in one of the alcoves. His skin was pale, his eyes open but vacant. He looked nothing like the man she knew. It was as if his spirit had been taken from him. She knew that she had been spared the same fate only by Seven's quick thinking and ingenuity. Each drone settled into their regeneration alcove.
You can reach out to him, Captain, she heard Seven's voice in her mind again. Don't be afraid, Garrett can't hear you talk to Chakotay any more than he can hear me speaking to you now.
How do I do it? Janeway asked. Seven had initiated all of their contact, and she wasn't sure she knew how.
Feel each drone through the link, Seven said. Imagine the hive is a sea and each drone an individual fish swimming just below the water's surface. You can see where you are, and where I am. Distinguish Chakotay from the other two drones. Find his mind, bring it towards you, just above the surface.
Kathryn concentrated, picturing each drone as Seven had instructed. Soon, she found it was easy to distinguish Chakotay's mind from the rest. Chakotay, she reached out to him, but there was no response.
Try to find his memories, Captain, said Seven. The nanoprobes haven't completely rewritten his memory centers. I was able to reach him once like that, said Seven. I am going to leave you alone with him now. I do not wish to… pry.
And with that, Seven's voice was gone from her mind. Chakotay? she tried again, but again there was no response. His memories, Seven had said. How would she access them? Perhaps she should start with shared memories, experiences they'd had together.
Chakotay, it's me, Kathryn. Can you hear me? She heard no response, so she tried a recent memory. She evoked the image of her standing in Voyager's transporter room, wishing him and Seven all the best as they began their new life together, but there was still no reply.
She went further back. "So what would've happened if you hadn't turned our deflector dish into a lightning rod?" she was asking him.
"We've been down this road before," Chakotay replied.
"Have we?"
"You wanting answers to questions you shouldn't ask."
She wondered what he meant by that. "But something did happen," she persisted, "outside the normal space-time continuum. It's strange, thinking there's a part of your life you don't know anything about."
"Sounds a lot like the future." They shared a smile and sipped their cider.
Chakotay? she asked. And this time, she felt… something. It wasn't a response, exactly. It wasn't a word or a sentence. It was a feeling. And the feeling was pain. Chakotay? Hang on. I'm here to help you. Hang on.
The words evoked another emotion, and she followed the trail of that emotion, this time to a memory of Chakotay's.
"Don't you die on me now, Kathryn!" he was shouting as he pressed his hands against her chest in rapid compressions. "Breathe, dammit! You've got to breathe." Tears were streaming down his cheeks as he pressed his mouth to hers, trying to breathe life into her.
I'm here, Chakotay, she said, trying to reach him, but the memories were too intense.
"Kathryn!" he shouted as he ran through the forest, heedless of the plasma storm that raged around him. "Kathryn!" He was looking frantically for her, and nothing could mask the relief that he felt when he finally saw her, kneeling on the ground, clutching a case of scientific equipment, using her body to shield it from the storm.
He was standing in sickbay, looking at her still form on a biobed. Sickbay was dark. No one moved; no one made a sound. He stood there in the dim light taking stock of her, looking at the Borg implants that still protruded from her skin, at the cold grey color of her face, at her bald scalp. He moved closer to her bedside and gently pulled the medical blanket a little higher over her shoulders.
She paused. She had not known he had been there, then, after her brief assimilation. She did not know he had stood there looking at her, had not known how much he still cared. She felt his mind slipping away from her and delved back into the memories.
He was looking down at her unconscious form, again she lay on a sickbay biobed. Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she propped herself up on her elbows, feeling his hands supporting her as she did. "My crew!" she exclaimed worriedly.
"Easy," he assured her, his hand remaining on her arm. "They're sleeping. No serious injuries. Everyone's all right, though you gave us a good scare for a while."
Now, experiencing the memory with him, she could feel how scared he'd truly been, although she had not known it at the time. Chakotay? she tried again.
She felt something from him, again. It was a vague fear, and a deep pain. She went back to the memory where she had first felt that response, the memory of the night he had burned out the deflector dish, and they had shared two bottles of Antarian cider. She tried to access it again, but from his point of view.
He was walking back to his quarters, a little drunk off the Antarian cider. They had talked and laughed late into the night, but he was still feeling strangely lonely as he walked into his empty room.
Another memory surfaced. He was looking at a much younger Kathryn Janeway, her hair still up in a tight bun. Her body was pressed against his as he put a hypospray to her neck, and even when he released his grip on her, she did not move away from him immediately. The electricity ignited between them, and he felt the stirring of arousal in spite of their dire circumstances. Then later, he found himself looking at that same young Kathryn. She was looking up at him with hopeful eyes asking him just how close they got. He took a breath, and he answered her, "Let's just say there are some barriers we never cross."
As he sat in his lonely quarters that night, those were the words that ran through his mind. And we never will, he thought. When he went to bed that night, the last thought that ran through his mind was, It's over. I have to move on. It's time to let go. And he held that thought, in spite of the heavy pain it caused in his chest.
Kathryn felt an answering pain in her own heart. No, Chakotay, she thought. Don't let go, not now, after everything we've been through… Please, I'm here. Answer me. She waited. She thought she felt a vague flicker of recognition, but then, it was gone.
B'Elanna Torres paced back and forth over the length of their cell. She was scowling. She wanted to kill someone. She wanted to kill Garrett and whoever else had helped turn Chakotay into a mindless drone. She growled under her breath.
"You are expending needless energy, Lieutenant," said Tuvok, opening his eyes from his Vulcan meditation to look at her. He was seated calmly on the floor, cross legged.
"Aren't you angry, Tuvok?" she asked.
"Vulcans do not allow themselves to experience anger."
She growled again. "Well I am angry, and I need to do something more than sit on the floor and meditate!"
"There is nothing we can do from inside this cell."
"I know," she admitted, slumping onto the floor beside him. They couldn't even contact Tom and Harry. All their equipment had been confiscated when they had been captured. B'Elanna shuddered. She couldn't get the image of Chakotay's vacant eyes out of her mind.
"Do you think the captain and the doctor…"
Tuvok shook his head. "Given that it has been over twenty-four hours since our capture, it seems likely that they have been captured as well."
"Then why aren't they in the brig with us?" B'Elanna asked.
"I do not know. Perhaps Garrett plans to turn the captain into another one of his drones."
B'Elanna shuddered, and then lowered her voice. "If we could just get out of this cell for a few minutes, I could send a message to Tom and Harry," she said, eying the guard who constantly kept watch over them. She knew from watching carefully that there was another guard outside the door.
Tuvok nodded, keeping his voice low as well. "We must look for the right moment."
"Or create one," B'Elanna whispered. "One of the guys who guards the door is lazy. Have you noticed?"
"The one who does the night shift."
"Right. He always leaves his post a few minutes early and comes a few minutes late, so at shift change, there's only one guard."
"You will only have a few minutes, at most," Tuvok warned her.
"That's all I need."
"Hey!" the guard watching them shouted. "Break it up in there. Unless you want to share your conversation."
"Sure," B'Elanna said, turning around to face the guard. "Qu'vatlh guy'cha b'aka!"
"What the hell does that mean?" the guard replied.
"Look it up!" B'Elanna spat back. "If you really want to know."
"Lieutenant," Tuvok warned, "it is not logical to threaten the guards."
"Your friend has a bit more sense than you," the guard told her.
B'Elanna's instinct was to retort again, but Tuvok's calm gaze held her back. She didn't want to ruin their chance for escape because of her hot head. Besides, by her calculation, the changing of the guard would be soon, and that lazy guard was due to come on next. She found a seat on the bench in her cell and tried to be patient. Tuvok returned to his meditation. Sometimes it was infuriating that he could be so damned calm, she thought as she drummed her fingers against the bench and watched him sit there with a serene expression on his face.
Fortunately, she was right about the changing of the guard, and soon, the one who had yelled at her was changing places with another guard. She heard the one leaving say, "Where's Ensign Alfred?"
"Probably on his way," said the one coming on duty. "You know Alfie. He's always a few minutes late."
"The commander's going to get wind of it sooner or later," said the first guard, "and she's not going to like it."
The second guard shrugged. "That's Alfie's problem, not mine."
"All right. Goodnight, then." And they were alone with the single guard.
Tuvok opened his eyes and looked at Torres. He gave her a small nod and then promptly collapsed onto the floor, as if unconscious.
"Hey!" Torres called to the guard, picking up on her cue immediately. "Hey, you! Get in here, I need some help!"
"What happened?" the guard asked.
"He just collapsed. Get in here and help me!"
The guard deactivated the forcefield and hurried in to kneel next to Torres and Tuvok. He reached down to feel Tuvok's neck for a pulse when the Vulcan suddenly came to life, grabbing the guard and pulling him down. "Hey!" the guard shouted. "What the…" He reached for the weapon on his belt, but before he could get it in hand, Tuvok grasped the guard's neck in a Vulcan neck pinch, and the man fell unconscious.
"Grab his weapon," Torres said as she hurried over to the console in the center of the brig. Her fingers flew over the controls, accessing the station's communications array to send an encoded message to the Delta Flyer. As she worked, she covered her tracks as best she could, wiping the evidence of what she had done from the system. She had just completed the message when the door to the brig opened.
"Hey, Lieutenant, I'm here," Alfie said. Then he realized that his lieutenant was not standing at the communications console where he should have been. Alfie reached up to tap his communicator, but before he could touch it, he crumpled to the ground, stunned by a blast from the weapon in Tuvok's hand.
"Did you send the message?" Tuvok asked as he dragged Alfie's body next to the other guard's inside the cell.
"Yes."
"Good." Tuvok activated the force field, trapping the guards inside the cell. "We don't have much time before Garrett knows we have escaped."
B'Elanna examined the console in front of her. "It looks like our tricorders and weapons are being held in a weapons storage locker on deck six. We need to get them so we can mask our biosignatures from the station's internal sensors. We also need the forcefield generator, so we can disrupt the link between Garrett and his drones."
"Agreed," said Tuvok. "I suggest we use Jefferies Tubes as we are less likely to run into any of Garrett's men."
They quickly located the closest Jefferies Tube hatch. Tuvok pried it open and gestured to her. "After you, Lieutenant."
B'Elanna crawled into the Jefferies Tube and grinned. They were back in action.