Harry made his way through the decks of the ship, toward the captain's ready room. The ensigns nodded to him in the hall, and he politely nodded back. After two turbo lift trips and a few hallways later, Harry had arrived in front of the ready room. He rang to bell.
Captain Janeway looked up from the PADD she had been inspecting. "Enter," she said, her eyes locked on the doorway.
The door slid open and the young ensign stepped in, nodding to the captain. He stood in the doorway for a moment, feeling suddenly shy. Janeway made a gesture for him to sit down.
"Come in, Ensign," she said. "Can I get you anything?" She stepped to the replicator, her eyes still locked on Harry's young face.
"No, but thank you Captain," Harry replied, settling into the chair across from the Captain's chair.
"Coffee, black," Janeway said to the replicator, which complied with a small chirp and materialized the black coffee. Kathryn carried it over to the long table and perched on the edge of her seat. She took a sip of the coffee, and looked expectantly at Harry. When he didn't say anything, she sat back and folded her arms. "Well, what did you find out?"
Harry was galvanized into action, "Captain, from the way she tells it, all I see that was unusual was the alien's curiosity. She said that she was transported there, and he was apparently going to show her around, but of course he had security precautions so he used a tranquilizer on her. She doesn't remember anything after that, but remember we made contact not long after she was taken over, so it could be that they just didn't have time to revive her."
"She didn't see any other crew members walking about the ship?" Janeway asked.
"No ma'am, I asked her that and she insists that the only one she saw was the man we talked to over the view screen." Harry watched as the Captain rose and walked over to the huge windows on the side of her ready room. She slammed her fist down on the sill and turned around to face him, one hand resting on her hip.
"What is going on here?" She asked no one in particular. "This makes no sense." Harry couldn't help thinking that most things that happened aboard Voyager didn't make sense, but of course he didn't have the courage to say that as the Captain continued. "I need an explanation of this," she started to march to the door when a beeping sounded at her console. She stepped up to it and answered.
"Captain, please report to sickbay right away!" The Doctor said almost breathlessly.
"Doctor, I'm very busy right now," Janeway replied. "Can it wait?"
"I'm afraid not, Captain," the Doctor replied. "Ensign Wix went into convulsions about ten minutes after Mr. Kim left." Over the console they could hear sounds of Kes trying to calm the fairie down. The Doctor hurried on, "please, Captain, this is of the upmost importance."
"I'll be right there, Doctor," She said, shutting off the view screen. "Mr. Kim, come with me." Harry jumped up and followed Captain Janeway to the turbolift. The turbolift halted and opened to sickbay.
"What's the situation now, Doctor? The Captain asked the minute the doors opened. The Doctor gave her a look that said she didn't have to ask, as he was still trying to hold down the convulsing fairie.
"Why don't you give her a tranquilizer, Doctor?" Harry asked, stepping up to assist Kes in holding the Ensign down.
"Because the alien that she told you about was the one who gave her the last tranquilizer," the Doctor replied huffily. "Who knows what was in it? And who knows what another one would do to her? Besides, she's calming down a bit."
Harry glanced in alarm to the Captain, but continued to hold Danni down until her convulsions slowed and ceased. They all let go with a sigh of relief. The Doctor was shaking his head, however.
"I don't understand this," the Doctor said. "She seems to be perfectly fine one moment, and then she goes into convulsions the next. There was no sign of change in her vital signs." He checked the screen above the bed. "In fact even now nothing looks wrong, aside from the increased heart rate from the convulsions. No fever," the Doctor said, checking her temperature wonderingly. "And she has no record of epilepsy." He shook his head, trying to think of another explanation.
"Doctor, I want an explanation for this," Janeway said. "Run as many tests as you like. In the meantime I'm going back up to the bridge to hail that ship." She turned back to the turbo lift, stepping inside. "Mr. Kim, I need you on the bridge."
Voyager was hovering in the same place it had been ever since Danni had been transported off of the ship. The other vessel was hovering off the port bow, and remained on Voyager's visual. Captain Janeway arrived at the bridge and slid into her Captain's chair.
"Mr. Kim, can you hail them?"
"Yes ma'am," Kim said, tapping on his console. "I've established a link, Captain."
As K'Vosh appeared on the viewer, Captain Janeway rose from her seat. "Sir, we've experienced some trouble as we brought our crewmember back on board. There was a transporter incident and she has gone into convulsions-" Janeway heard Chakotay suck his breath in behind her "-if you have any explanation for these occurrences, I demand to know."
K'Vosh nodded slowly. "I am not sure what exactly is hap- hap- ennn- inng…" The transmission slowed, blurring the alien's voice and began to static. The transmission was cut short.
Janeway looked back toward Harry for an explanation. Harry shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his console. "Captain, that transmission was not cut short due to communications failure. He severed the connection and made it look like a comm. malfunction." He looked up, "he's a genius with it, Captain. Even Voyager's updated sensors thought it was a comm. failure at first."
"Captain," Tuvok spoke up, "the ship is moving away at a speed that is approximately warp eight."
"Lay in a course to pursue, Mr. Paris," Janeway said, retaking her seat.
"Aye Captain, laying in a course to pursue and overtake," Mr. Paris wheeled his seat around to focus on the ship that was now seemingly Voyager's enemy. He shook his head and sucked his lips in. "Captain, they're gaining velocity. I don't know if we can keep up with them." He turned to look at her. "If we follow them now, we'll be breaking Starfleet warp codes."
"Since when have you cared about Starfleet?" Chakotay asked, griping the handles of his chair.
"I don't, but I know that the Captain does," Paris replied, his eyes still fixed on the Captain.
"Slow down," the Captain instructed. "We'll pursue him at a pace that suits us until we lose his trail or get some answers."
"Captain…" Chakotay said softly. "Are you sure that's wise? How do we know there will even be any answers here to find?"
"I don't know what that being intended, but I'm betting on the fact that he'll be back," Janeway said. "He obviously knows that he can get away from us, so he'll have no fear that we are any threat to him."
"Whatever you say, Captain," Chakotay lowered himself back into his seat slowly as the rest of the crew exchanged nervous glances.