"Enter," Kellin called from inside.

As the door slid back, she jumped up from the sofa and ran to him, a bright smile welcoming him. She all but wrapped her arms around him. With both hands on his chest, she leaned against him.

A flash of memory exploded in his mind. Kathryn's head tucked under his chin, her cheek warm against his chest, and her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Then nothing but pain filled his head. Chakotay stumbled away from her and slumped into a chair.

Kellin hurriedly offered him a glass of water. "Chakotay, are you all right?"

He took the glass and drained it. Chakotay took deep breaths and with each one the throbbing lessened. "Thank you. I think I'll be okay now."

Taking the empty goblet from him, Kellin disposed of it. "Do you think you should go to see the Doctor?"

Chakotay looked up but she didn't meet his gaze. "Not right now. I'll be fine."

"Did you come to hear about our last night together?" She smiled flirtatiously.

He ignored her coyness. "Captain Janeway would like you to help us to do more to defend ourselves against the tracers."

Kellin set down opposite Chakotay, crossing her legs. Through half-closed lids, she surveyed him. "We won't have to worry about them for at least a day or so. Tuvok took out their weapons, and those repairs will take that long. Besides what we did today will give us the advantage."

"Are you sure?" Chakotay asked, not trusting the look of satisfaction on her face.

"Chakotay, my love, why don't you believe me?" She put both feet back on the floor and leaned forward. "I don't think you're even trying. Just let me tell you the story of our last night together."

Since Kellin seemed so determined, Chakotay merely nodded, hoping to she would be quick about it, so he could leave.

"Excellent!" She beamed as she began her account. "We came back here to celebrate finding my runaway. You were instrumental in his capture."

"Me? What did I do?" Chakotay was skeptical.

"You came up with the idea of using a magneton sweep, to disrupt his polarisation cloak. It worked very handily. After we found Resket, I used the neurolytic emitter on him, and he was more than ready to go home."

"Neurolytic emitter?"

"We use it on runaways. It wipes their memories of the outside world," Kellin told him proudly.

"What other kinds of devices do you have like that?" The feeling of nameless unease he felt before was back, even stronger.

She ignored his question and continued, "We came back here to celebrate. We had something to drink, something with bubbles." Kellin reached over to pick up a tall thin vase and gestured as if to toast with it.

"Champagne?" he filled in.

"Yes!" She smiled happily before she continued her tale. "You'd become much more than a friend to me. But I knew I had to go home and you'd forget about me within hours. So I took the initiative."

Chakotay tensed as Kellin stood up and closed the space between them, while keeping up her running narrative. "I moved closer to you. I thanked you profusely for all your help, told you that I couldn't have done it without you. Then I touched you." Sitting on the arm of his chair, she caressed his cheek. "And I told you I cared very much for you, and I wanted something to remember you by, and then I did this." She pressed her lips to his.

She's lying! He was certain, though not sure why. I feel nothing except guilt when I'm with Kellin. But, why guilt? Another pinpoint of memory filled his mind for a brief moment. He was kissing Kathryn and he was at peace.

Chakotay pushed Kellin away and stood, putting space between them. His head began to ache once more, but he ignored it. She lunged at him, grabbing at his arm. Avoiding her grasp, he said, "Goodnight Kellin."

Without another word, he left Kellin's quarters and hit his commbadge as he hurried along the corridor. "Chakotay to Janeway."

"Janeway here."

"I need to see you right away." Chakotay gasped as the full force of original headache hit him once more.

"What happened, Chakotay?"

"My head," he ground out "It started to hurt again after I listened to Kellin's latest story."

"Go to sickbay, Chakotay, I'll meet you there."

"Yes Captain, Chakotay out."

The pain became so intense that as he made his way to sickbay, Chakotay nearly ordered a medical transport. However, he finally staggered through the door and over to a bio-bed.

"Commander, I was just going to contact you." The Doctor was going to say more when Captain Janeway entered the room.

She hurried to where Chakotay stood leaning against the bed. Kathryn helped him to lie back on it. Suddenly, her face turned pale and she grabbed her head.

The Doctor caught her before she hit the floor. He settled her on the bed next to Chakotay and gave them both hypo-sprays to dull the pain.

"What's going on, Doctor," Kathryn demanded breathlessly.

"Give me a few moments to run a diagnostic on you, Captain. I need to confirm that you are suffering from the same problem as the commander."

He ran the tricorder over her head and Chakotay's again, before he turned to the monitor and pushed buttons. Changing the position of the screen so that they could see it, the Doctor began to explain, "I studied all of the data I complied from examining the commander earlier. Captain, you do have similar symptoms."

Pausing for effect, the Doctor pointed to the screen. "These are just a portion of the scans I performed on both of you. Each of your memory engrams is different just as they should be until this section here." He indicated a segment.

"It looks like they are missing something," Janeway observed.

"That's precisely what I thought at first. I figured it might be evidence of the memory loss this Kellin person told us about until I magnified it. For want of a better term, this is a cloaked memory engram. From what I can tell there are many bits of your memories that have been cloaked."

"Are you saying that the memories are still there, just hidden?" Chakotay leaned up on an elbow to get a better look.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying." The Doctor nodded his head. "From what I can tell, the headaches result from the actual memories trying to resurface."

"That would explain what has been happening to me," Chakotay said. "Vivid scenes keep coming to me, but they don't seem like they could be correct given what I think is true."

Kathryn gasped. "I've had several of those, myself."

"It would seem my theory is on track." The Doctor puffed out his chest.

"How does the cloaking device work?" Kathryn asked impatiently.

"Using reprogrammed nanoprobes. I don't know how it was done, but I found hundreds of tiny nanoprobe cloaking machines."

"I can answer that." The deep voice startled them as someone materialized next to the Doctor. He held his hands in front of him to show that they were empty. "I promise I mean you no harm."

"Who are you?" Chakotay had moved to stand between the man and Kathryn.

"My name is Curneth. I've been sent to retrieve Kellin. She's a rogue tracer and wanted on Ramura for the murder of the tracer sent to retrieve her, destruction of Ramuran property, and criminal memory manipulation." He shook his head at the incredulous looks on the others' faces. "I know that you must think poorly of all Ramurans by now, but I'll explain a little about our edicts.

"Although we are an extremely private people, we have strict rules to govern our rare dealings with outsiders. The pheromones that make it impossible for memories of us to stay in the minds of other races do only just that. Other than the computer virus we leave that deletes any reference to our being on alien ship, we are forbidden to change any other recollections.

"Kellin spent weeks observing you before she allowed herself to be discovered. Something she saw on Voyager gave her the idea to make the memory cloaking devices. Using Resket as an experiment, she perfected the technology. She cloaked his memories of his family. We discovered this after she left Ramura on another tracer assignment."

Curneth paused as he rubbed his face and frowned. "It is so egregious an offense that I'm having trouble believing one of our well-trained tracers would do such a thing."

"Why did she do it? What did she have to gain?" Kathryn asked pointedly.

"We'll have to ask her for sure, though I have a pretty good idea," Curneth said.

"Tell us why she did it." Chakotay reached out for Kathryn's hand and squeezed it. The proverbial lyrics were becoming clearer to him.

"I would prefer to take her into custody first, if you don't mind." The Ramuran sighed. "I don't want her to escape."

"Of course," Kathryn agreed.

She raised her voice a notch. "Computer, locate Kellin."

"Kellin is in her assigned quarters."

"Computer, beam Kellin to a brig holding cell and erect the force field."

"Acknowledged."

"Janeway to brig security, a new prisoner should have just beamed there. Watch her until we arrive. Ask Commander Tuvok to join us there," she ordered.

"Yes, Captain."

The captain was the first to enter the brig. A visibly upset Kellin paced her cell.

"Captain, what is the meaning of this?" she yelled.

"Hello, Kellin." Curneth came into her view. "I think you have some idea already."

Kellin made a sound in the back of her throat that could only be called a frustrated growl. When she saw Chakotay, she brightened. "Oh darling, I'm so glad to see you. Please make them let me go. Your captain said I would receive asylum."

"The captain only promised to look into it, and that was based on you telling us the truth."

Tuvok arrived and stood to the side, observing.

Kathryn turned to Curneth. "I'd like to ask your prisoner some questions before you take her back to Ramura."

He nodded. "Of course, although I can tell you what you need to know. You already have the means to reverse what she has done." Curneth waved his hand toward the holding cell. "Ask her whatever you'd like."

Kellin glared at her fellow Ramuran. Dropping onto the bunk behind her and crossing her arms, she refused to look at Chakotay or Kathryn.

"Why did you try to convince us that you wanted to leave Ramura and join us? And why try to get Chakotay to believe you two were in love?" It was the first thing Kathryn thought to ask.

Everyone was surprised when Kellin snorted out a laugh. "You would ask about that. The two of you were so cozy, so involved that he —" she stopped and pointed at Chakotay and continued, "he didn't even notice me. It didn't matter what I did. I even broke into his quarters and crawled into his bed."

She raked her hands through her hair. Her eyes narrowed as she snarled, "He was so upset when he woke up that he nearly called security on me. He told me to take my runaway and go back to Ramura."

Chakotay moved until he stood in his usual position behind Kathryn. His head was throbbing, but he put his hand on her shoulder. It felt so natural.

Kellin leaped to her feet as she saw Chakotay touch Kathryn. The scowl on her face made his flesh crawl. "I decided to use what I found out about you to my advantage. I didn't want to erase your memories, so I cloaked them. The nanoprobes I found in sick bay and Ramuran polarization cloak technology were easy to combine. I wanted you to fall in love with me, and then I was going to expose your infidelity. Your precious Kathryn would find out that you'd betrayed her. You are so noble that even if she knew you were brainwashed, it would come between you. I wanted to enjoy your humiliation."

Chakotay froze as a memory shot through his mind. A ring made of three shades of gold entwined in a braid lying in a bed of white satin. He'd replicated it for Kathryn. He looked down at Kathryn at the same moment she looked up at him. Even as the pain overwhelmed him, he knew he loved her. It was the last thought he had before he passed out.