Final Frontier
Chapter 2
Kathryn leapt off Chakotay's lap as if she'd been caught reaching into a bank vault. He shook his head and stood with less panic, but a similar air of urgency.
"It's okay," Kathryn said, yanking down her uniform jacket and smoothing her hair. "I'll handle this." Behind her, Chakotay focused on not laughing at her split second transformation from the siren in his arms to the captain on the bridge. She strode to the door and opened it to reveal Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram.
"Captain," he greeted her, brushing an imaginary hair off his impeccable uniform.
"Doctor. Is there a problem?"
"Aside from a Holographic Research staff that considers me its latest plaything? Yes, as a matter of fact. May I come in?
"Of course." Janeway stood aside as he entered and shut the door.
"Commander," the EMH greeted Chakotay. "I hoped you might be here. This concerns you both. It's Seven."
"Is she okay?" Janeway asked, returning to Chakotay's side. Just as they'd sat in their command positions in the chairs, they automatically resumed their accustomed pose before the Doctor, Chakotay solid and protective at her shoulder.
"I have her sedated at the moment, in her temporary alcove in the Cybernetics Lab next door. I was activated earlier this evening because she was having something of a… panic attack, and I am the only physician familiar with her physiology. Or, might I add, experienced enough in Delta Quadrant technology to understand what might be affecting her." He gave them his most supercilious smile.
"Yes Doctor," Janeway answered with a wry glance at Chakotay. "I'm very glad they called you. What triggered this panic attack?"
The Doctor paused and looked between the two officers, taking in the darkened room, the wine glasses, the chairs facing each other, and no doubt details of their physical condition as well. Janeway unconsciously smoothed her hair again.
"This is awkward," he said, "but she was waiting for Commander Chakotay in his quarters. When he didn't arrive at the expected time, she begin pounding on the doors of other crewmembers along the hallway, demanding to know why they were keeping him from her. She's insisting that…" the Doctor trailed off, staring at Chakotay with evident anxiety on his rather inexpressive face.
"Insisting what?" Chakotay asked, stepping forward to stand next to Janeway.
The Doctor took in Janeway's softened downward glance as Chakotay's hand brushed hers. He sighed and stood even straighter. "Commander, she's insisting that you and she are a bonded pair. She told me that you're engaged to be married."
"Married?" Their exclamation was loud and simultaneous.
"That's what I said!" the Doctor replied as Janeway turned to examine Chakotay.
"Do you know anything about this?" she asked, her hands moving to her hips.
"Me?" His hand slapped his own chest in a gesture of amazement. "I'm the one who's been trying to get her to talk to someone else for the last week! I certainly wouldn't have proposed as a way to make her more independent!"
"Well for some reason, she thinks you did!" Janeway roared back.
"Wait wait wait," Chakotay waved his hands and turned to the Doctor. "Doc, you said she was having a panic attack. She's obviously delusional. Did you scan her for unusual activity in her neural implants? Could she be malfunctioning? It wouldn't be the first time," he finished, with an emphatic look at Janeway.
"You're right," Janeway acknowledged, clamping a hand to her forehead as she began to pace. "Any signs of malfunction, Doctor?"
"As a matter of fact," the Doctor said, shifting on his shiny holographic feet, "I did recently make a few more changes to her neural inhibitor. She may be experiencing more intense emotion than she's accustomed to. But nothing that would explain this kind of behavior, I hasten to add! I'll need to run more scans." He pulled out a medical tricorder and began to make notations.
Chakotay began to speak, but Janeway cut him off.
"You mean to tell us," she said, wheeling to advance menacingly on the Doctor, "that in the middle of debriefings, at probably the most emotionally trying moment she's ever experienced, you've been tinkering with Seven's neural inhibitor?" Her voice rose to a shout as she spoke. "We're lucky she hasn't thrown herself out a window! No wonder she's been driving Chakotay crazy!"
"I wouldn't put it that way," Chakotay soothed, then turned to the Doctor. "She's just been very intense. The captain and I were talking about how to persuade her to talk to a counselor."
"That would be advisable," the Doctor agreed. "But I think there may be something else at work here. My brief scan of her implants indicates heightened activity. I almost wonder… but surely I would be notified."
"Notified of what?" Janeway asked.
"If Starfleet were, well, evaluating her Borg capacities in some way." The Doctor looked very uncomfortable. "And even if they didn't, surely Seven herself would have come to me. Did she say anything to you, Commander?"
Chakotay shook his head. "Nothing about that, or about changes to her neural inhibitor. But she seemed to be experiencing far more human reactions than normal. Or – not normal, we don't really know what normal is for her. More than she usually reacts to events, I should say. If it had been anyone else, I would have said she was manic, or using some sort of stimulant. It was like some of the episodes she's had in the past, like she was sped up somehow."
"That would be consistent with stimulation of her implants. But what you're saying is very worrying. It's as if – well, as if something has been done to her without her knowledge."
Those words brought the conversation to a halt. The three stood staring at each other, absorbing the idea. Janeway spoke first.
"Doctor, go to Seven. Stay with her, find out as much as you can about any alterations made to her implants or her human physiology. Any drugs in her system, that sort of thing. The Commander and I will sort this out if we have to drag a few admirals out of bed."
The Doctor nodded with satisfaction. "Yes, Captain. I'll report to you as soon as I have any new information."
"Doctor," Janeway added, "don't let her out of your sight. And set an alarm to notify me if your program is shut down for any reason. I don't like the sound of this."
"Aye aye, Captain."
As soon as the Doctor was out the door, Kathryn turned to Chakotay. "I knew something like this would happen. I should have seen it coming. They're experimenting on our crew already!" She jabbed a finger toward the door.
Chakotay stepped forward and gripped her gently by the upper arms. "Just wait a minute, Kathryn. We don't know that. The Doctor only has preliminary scans. It's possible that Seven's bodily chemistry is off-kilter because of something about returning to Earth's atmosphere, or just the trauma of so much change over the last few weeks. I don't think we should jump to conclusions."
Kathryn looked into his eyes and he forced himself to show her a calmness he didn't feel. She could very well be right, but it wouldn't help the situation for them to go charging out accusing people of nefarious medical experiments. They needed to reflect on the best course of action. He could persuade her of that. Her eyes shut and he knew she was considering his words. It was a better reaction than he'd gotten from her in any dispute in many months. Maybe it was the contact, his hands on her. He should've tried it earlier.
"That's true," she said, letting out her breath. "We've all been on edge, and Seven has more reason than any of us to panic about returning to Earth. Her evaluation team is led by Lieutenant Commander Hernandez. She's a medical doctor. Let me see if I can reach her." Kathryn moved a hand toward her com badge, but Chakotay's grip still restricted her. She settled her hands on his waist. "It's okay," she said with a nod. "We'll get to the bottom of this without getting us both cashiered out of Starfleet. I promise." He rubbed her arms and let her go with a soft kiss on her cheek.
When the com system put Janeway through, the voice that answered sounded young and enthusiastic.
"Seven of Nine is such an interesting case!" Lt. Commander Hernandez exclaimed in response to Janeway's first few questions. "We've been learning so much from her!"
"An interesting case?" Janeway repeated. "I thought you were debriefing her."
"Well, of course," Hernandez said with a nervous laugh. "It's just that she's not like anyone I've ever worked with. I've been staying here late every night writing up my notes and forwarding them directly to Admiral Hayes."
"Admiral Hayes has requested nightly briefings?"
"Yes. I - " Hernandez hesitated. "I thought you would know, Captain. I thought it was part of the approved debriefing protocol."
"Forgive me, Commander. Some of the details may have slipped my mind. Would you mind if I came by the lab this evening to discuss your findings?"
"Of course. I'm in the Cybernetics Lab next door to the officers' quarters." Hernandez gave directions and the Voyager officers set out on foot.
Seven was regenerating in her temporary alcove, the Doctor hovering nearby, when Janeway and Chakotay arrived.
"Your guess was correct," the Doctor said, showing them a tricorder readout. "Her implants have been altered and she's heavily medicated. Dr. Hernandez refuses to speak to me about it. She claims I lack the proper security clearance!"
"I'll speak to her," Janeway assured him. "Where is she?" The Doctor pointed toward a closed office door at the far end of the lab.