"EMH to Captain Janeway!" The Doctor said cheerfully, beaming at Kes as she sat
"You were right to meet me in a cargo bay," The Doctor said to Kes. I was, in fact, with a patient at the time. A Mr. Roy, as I recall. A bit jumpy that one, I am quite afraid you would have given him quite a fright had you appeared there.
Kes giggled a little.
"Yes doctor. I probably would have."
"Yes, Doctor?" Janeway responded, sounding tired.
"Please report to sickbay. I have quite a surprise for you!"
"Can't wait," Janeway said, cutting off the connection.
"Why, she sounded downright unpleasant, "The Doctor scoffed.
"You probably woke her up," Kes said.
"But this is quite extraordinary!"
"She doesn't' know that," Kes said immediately. She found her hand was shaking a bit.
Not because of her powers though. For another, more emotional reason.
"Well of course not, that would ruin the surprise!"
A minute later, Janeway walked into sickbay, holding a cup of coffee.
"Alright, Doctor, this better be-"
Janeway looked up and saw Kes.
The cup fell from her hands and shattered across the ground.
Boiling hot coffee spilled over her feet.
She just stood there, staring.
"I'm back!" Kes said, her hand drifting behind her back to grab her other arm.
"Kes!" Janeway said, running forward to draw her in a hug.
"Are you OK? Are you in one piece? What happened?"
"I'm OK," Kes said. "I have control now. That's why I'm back."
Janeway drew back from the embrace to regard her, clearly trying to process."
"It just took a little practice," Kes said. "And I found a few people along the way to help. It's hard to explain really. It felt like something had been unlocked in my head, and I just had to learn the knack of keeping everything in the "off" position, if that makes sense. Once I learned how to do it, then it wasn't so hard, I just keep the switch down, and I could do it all the time, even while sleeping. Even under stress."
There were a few beats of silence.
"I hung out in a volcano to make sure I could maintain some power without losing control," She offered, cheerfully.
Janeway nodded slowly, not seemingly ready to respond yet.
"I'm quite stable now, Captain," Kes said. "I'm sure of it. I am OK, and I can instantly leave the ship whenever necessary, if there is a problem, see?"
With a flash of purple and white light, Kes vanished.
A moment later, she reappeared.
Without saying anything to Kes, Janeway contacted the bridge, and asked them a few pointed questions about whether anyone new was on the ship. Whoever was on duty, someone Kes didn't recognize, said that they had just detected a minor energy fluctuation that seemed to appear just aft of voyager, but it vanished so quickly they were sure it was just a glitch.
"Please report any further 'glitches' to me immediately," Janeway said.
Janeway rubbed the bridge of her nose.
She threw her hands up.
"OK, I admit it. To all appearances it looks like you have control. Do your tests doctor, and I'm going to bring B'Elanna in here too, in order to make sure you don't destabilize the ship again. But, if it all checks out, and they're sure, then of course you can stay. We missed you." Janeway said, smiling.
She jumped forward suddenly, and held Kes in a tight grip.
"I missed you. It was like admitting you were dead, but no one could grieve."
She broke off with Kes again and smiled at her.
"I'm tired still, and I still need to process, all of this. It was hard enough when you left!"
"But I can't have you messing up my ship!" She gave Kes a finger waggle that appeared at least partially serious, and with that Janeway vanished back from where she came, presumably to go sleep again.
"I thought that went really quite well," The Doctor said cheerfully after Janeway had left.
"You didn't even say anything," Kes said.
"I didn't want to get in the way of the homecoming," The Doctor said loftily.
Kes just nodded, giving him a bit of a weak smile.
Tuvok prepared his report of the strange and inappropriate behavior Mr. Neelix had displayed this week, same as every week for almost as long as he could remember.
He found that it helped clear his head. He wrote the same conclusion that he always wrote, a recommendation of removing Mr. Neelix from all major ship functions. He wasn't pushing it anymore the way he had, once. He would allow Janeway to ignore it without additional comment. This was the balance that they'd struck.
He could not, however, not write the report. He was voyager's security chief, and this was his main concern, and Mr. Neelix remained a liability due to his incompetence. That was a fact.
What their captain did with that information was up to her, as always.
Finishing his report with lines like "dangerous and stupefying lack of self-control" Tuvok sent it off to Janeway. Having completed this, he headed to the bridge to begin his shift.
Chakotay had the conn as Janeway was not present. With a look of acknowledgment, Tuvok began his routine security scans.
NO sooner had he started doing so when he noticed something strange. Several monitoring device had start accruing errors that-
"Seven to Tuvok"
Tuvok's comm badge chirped followed but seven's voice, a bit of a surprise to both himself and, looking around, a few others on the bridge.
"Tuvok here. Go ahead," He responded after a moment to compose himself.
They had an audience now. Nothing else was happening in the bridge, and the crew were all watching his Tuvok lifted his head up a bit, preparing for Seven.
"Ple-ase- Rep-ort to-" Her voice began, heavy with static.
Then it abruptly went dead.
"That didn't sound good," Paris said.
"No, it did not," Tuvok agreed.
"Tuvok to Seven. Come in."
The only response was static and a buzzing sound.
"Computer, locate Seven of Nine," Tuvok said, raising his head and speaking clearly.
There was a pause, and then the computer said-
"Seven of Nine is in the Cargo Bay,"
Tuvok nodded, making his way towards the door quickly.
"And in the Astrometrics lab. And on the bridge," The computer's voice said.
Tom and another crew mate, a trill woman, shared confused looks as they looked around the open bridge.
Cutting back a smart joke, Tom stood up.
"Something's wrong," He said, a bit lamely.
"I agree," Chakotay said, holding up his hand. 'However, we don't know what it is yet Tom, so stay here. Tuvok?"
What information do I have with which to hypothesize? Tuvok asked himself.
Very little.
She had contact him in distress, which gave him information all on its own, for which he was grateful. However, she had given him no information beyond that besides telling him he needed to change locations, presumably to where she was, which he did not know.
Just then, there was a power surge near the crew quarters according to his station, and monitoring devices aboard the ship near there were showing malfunctions. Not enough to affect bridge functioning, but enough to be highly suspicious.
"Seven to Tuv-"
His badge chirped again, sounding very strange this time, as it was more of a warble than a chirp. It echoed loud in the tense, dead air of the bridge.
every eye was on him.
Strangely, he realized he had heard seven's voice before the chirp.
Her voice had sounded quite tense.
"Seven! Name your attackers or state the situation first!" Tuvok said, interrupting her words.
However, it was too late. The line had gone dead again.
Tapping his badge, and racing towards the turbolift, Tuvok said,
"Tuvok to Security teams 5, 7, and 9. Begin security sweeps of major ship decks. We may have an intruder."
"Chakotay to Seven of Nine," The first officer said, saving Tuvok from needing to try again.
There was no response.
"Commander, I'm reading some serious power surges from all over the place," Harry added.
The light on the bridge dimmed and flickered back on again.
"Yes ensign, quite observant. Now if you'll excuse me, I am unfortunately needed elsewhere."
The doors on the turbolift shut, and Tuvok had to hope that the power surges wouldn't kill the power while he was in the middle of the lift. However, it was a risk he knew he needed to take. Seven was in some distress, and seconds would count.
All he could do, given the dearth of information he had access to currently, was start with the normal places Seven would be. These included Astrometrics and her regeneration device in the cargo bay.
Whatever was happening, Tuvok would have to hope he got there in time.
Deep within unconsciousness, for some reason, Seven's mind drifted to that short blonde woman she had just seen with The Doctor, just for a moment. She felt a strange pulse in her body and reached out.
A small window opened up and Seven had no idea where it was leading. She had no idea whether any of this was even happening. Something had disturbed her from blackness, and her body was telling her that she had to wake up and get away from her at all costs.
Kes was talking to the Doctor about this and that, catching up, when-
An unnatural window appeared, directly in the middle of the room. A low muttering voice said,
"Waking up eh? Well we can fix that,"
The rectangular window had a silver edge to it, but it was completely black. Before either of them could react, there was the sound of moving cloth, and then the window suddenly closed.
There was a tearing sound, and a single piece of cloth fluttered into the room.
"It isn't me! I swear it isn't me!" Kes said, in protest. "I didn't do anything! I've been concentrating so hard!"
The Doctor put up a hand.
"It's OK Kes. It's OK. I believe you."
She shook her head.
"I'm sorry Doctor, I don't usually get so emotional, I don't know what happened."
"You're trying to come home. The only home you've ever known. I understand you don't want anything to jeopardize that. Now. I believe that you didn't cause this to happen. However, is it possible it's connected to you in some way?"
She shook her head again, drawing a hand across her eyes and wiping them clean of moisture.
"I don't know? I don't think so? Maybe? It's all so confusing!" She took a breath.
"For a second, I thought that-it was almost like I saw someone. As if someone was moving their hand onto that switch in my head. You know, the one I was telling the Captain about?"
The Doctor only nodded, putting a hand on his chin thoughtfully.
"It was like they were hitting the switch themselves, somehow, if only for a moment, but then I immediately turned it off, instinctually, to make sure nothing happened."
"Well then, at least you've got nothing to worry about on that score!" The Doctor said brightly. "That indicates it's an outside source, Kes. It's not you. IF anything this proves even more that you have control."
Kes took a breath and nodded.
"Thank you, Doctor," Kes said, breathing a little easier.
"Of course, that answers little and brings up even more questions. For starters, who was that voice? It almost sounded like-someone familiar," Kes began. "But no, it wasn't quite right. Too-"
"I agree. It sounded familiar, but I'm not sure who," The Doctor said.
Kes and the Doctor stood there thinking a minute, neither speaking, both minds racing.
"Still giving me trouble, eh?" Neelix said. His voice was dead calm, and he was quickly rewrapping Seven into the special Vidiian bag, his movements quick and efficient, but he had to admit he was unnerved. His scanners told me something had happened in the room. Some spacial disturbance. Had this Borg Monster done something else while unconscious? How much could she possibly do?
No matter, no matter. There's no time. Go Neelix, Go.
"I was hoping the bag could break your bones and rearrange you in ways to make you nice and compact so that you didn't look like a body at all, that is what it's for, you know," He said, conspiratorially. "But, you almost woke up again while it was working its magic! I had to sedate you, again. That wasn't very nice now, was it? So fine, you win, Miss Borg Lady. The bag would've made sure it could undo any real damage after. You would've been completely unspoiled. Not worth much to me elsewise, are you?"
Making a few configurations on the bag, he configured it to force Seven's legs towards her chest as much as possible without making any kind of break. Then, he covered her and activated the holographic controls to make it look like it was carrying heavy equipment. A few more button presses and the bag changed into a wheeled cart that he could push from one end, completely hiding what was actually at the bottom of it.
Then, he put on his best vapid, friendly expression, and began pushing the cart as quickly as he could towards the transporter room.
His secret hack of Voyager's sensors indicated that people were beginning to move all throughout the ship. A security sweep, just as he had anticipated after Seven had gotten her little messages out.
He had to get out of here right now.