Kes to Paris.
Well, that was new at least. Nonetheless, Tom stayed in bed and pretended to sleep. He was currently testing out a theory that maybe, if he didn't get up all day long, then the day wouldn't actually be happening. It was a sign of how far gone he was that he actually sort of thought it might work.
Tom, it's Kes, I'm outside your quarters. The captain wanted me to check on you. Let me in, please.
Tom didn't answer her. He didn't want to be disturbed, least of all by Kes. He should have known that not answering Chakotay's hail would result in Nurse Kes checking up on him, just in case his unresponsiveness was some kind of deadly illness and not just chronic laziness.
Tom heard Kes speak briefly to Tuvok, then the doors to his quarters swished open. Security override, of course. They couldn't just leave him to die, could they. He didn't open his eyes and listened to her walk to his side and kneel next to the bed. "Tom? Tom, are you alright?"
He didn't answer, still feigning sleep. She gave up and produced a medical tricorder. He knew he couldn't keep up the charade when she was scanning him, so Tom cracked his eyes open and focused on her face. She smiled down at him and he couldn't resist a tiny smile back. She looked so pretty, he mused. An angel in this little hell he'd gotten stuck in. A blonde angel...
The penny that had been poised ever since the looping began finally dropped. Pieces, random thoughts and observations, that Tom had made and forgotten fell together and he finally got it. With a yell that made Kes squeal in fright, Tom leaped out of bed and charged out of his room. He knew what was causing it! He was right, he had to be!
He bounded into the corridor and ran up to an engineering ensign lounging against the wall. "You've been standing here for the past fifteen minutes, right? Have you seen a blonde science crewman walk by?" The ensign just stared at the apparently crazy man assaulting him. "Science crewman, blonde woman, did you see her?" Tom pressed urgently.
The young man shook his head nervously. "N-no, sir, no science women have been by this way." Tom whooped in triumph and took off for the turbolift. People either got out of his way or were run down. Everyone who passed him heard his disjointed muttering: "Solved it, solved it, be in engineering, people who aren't in the same place twice, get to engineering, solved it, finally!"
Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok entered engineering in response to B'Elanna's urgent call to 'get down here before Paris kills somebody!' They found a mob of people crowded around Tom Paris. Who had a crewman by the throat, pinning him against the wall. "Mr. Paris, stand down!" Janeway exclaimed immediately upon taking in the situation.
"Can't, Captain," Tom replied, never taking his eyes from his prey's face. "Not until he lets us go."
"Lets us go?" Chakotay echoed. "What are you talking about?"
"This ship's stuck in a time loop," Tom explained. "This day's been repeating over and over again about a million times and I want it stopped!" he growled the last bit at the man he held, tightening his grip threateningly. Everyone in the crowd stepped forward reflexively, wanting to save the man before the lunatic Paris did something drastic.
"Don't hurt him!" a voice cried out. The mob parted to let a slender woman in a red uniform through to Tom's side. "Please, let him go," she pleaded. Tom glanced at her, then looked back again in shock. It was the woman he'd run into on the first day.
"You!"
"Yes," she said. "Please don't hurt him. We really didn't mean any harm." Tom released the man he'd been holding and the crewman wasted no time in scampering to the blonde woman's side.
Janeway came closer. "What is going on here?"
"My name is Elen, First Minister of the Tilowa Science Council," the woman said, inclining her head to the Captain. "We're very sorry to have disturbed your people, Captain Janeway." Elen turned and addressed the entire crowd. "Tom is right. You have all been looping in time. That is how Tilowans study other cultures: by trapping a single day in a loop."
"To study the culture without changing variables," Janeway supplied thoughtfully. Elen smiled and nodded at her.
"Precisely, Captain. Your ship is a wonder to us. We've never seen anything like it, we could not help but study you. You were never meant to know and you would have been allowed to continue when we were through with our study." Her eyes traveled to Tom. "But there was a variable we did not expect."
Tom's heart sank. "Me," he said glumly. "You didn't expect me to know about it."
"No," Elen confirmed. "We'd never met anyone who was immune to the loop. We were all very intrigued."
"So you just kept it going, around and around, seeing what new things I'd try every day," Tom whispered. Elen nodded and Tom bowed his head in shame. "And when I tried to run away?"
Elen responded, "We simply brought you back. We could not lose our single most interesting subject." The crowd sent up a murmur of anger at being referred to as subjects in an experiment.
Tom felt sick. He'd been right. He was the reason the loop had continued after all. "What happens now?" he asked in a small voice. He was half afraid she would say that the loop would just keep going. He didn't think he could handle that.
"Our laws dictate that if our presence is ever discovered, we have to abandon the project." Elen looked sorrowful, but resigned. "A pity, but a necessity. Voyager has been released. Again, we're terribly sorry for the inconvenience."
"Inconvenience is the understatement of the year," Tom muttered.
"Wait," Janeway said urgently. "Stay, please. Maybe we can continue to learn about each other." Chakotay gave her a sideways look. Tom wasn't all that surprised. Even when dealing with the arrogant, god-complex Tilowans, Kathryn Janeway was an explorer and a diplomat first and foremost.
But Elen shook her head. "I'm sorry, Captain. It can't be done." She lifted her hand and spoke briefly into a communications band on her wrist. Then, without a sound, Elen, the man with her, and several other people from around the deck disappeared. And that was very much that.
The crowd slowly began to disperse, talking animatedly about the encounter. Chakotay snagged Tom's arm as he tried to make a discreet getaway. "We're going to need to have a very long talk, Lieutenant," the first officer said.
"But first," the captain cut in, "perhaps Mr. Paris could change out of his pajamas?"
Tom Paris didn't really want to be in this briefing, because he only half believed Elen that the looping was over. However, the captain insisted on him filling in the senior staff on what that whole experience had been all about, so Tom was compelled to tell the whole sorry story over again. With the craziness conveniently edited, just to be on the safe side.
"How did you discover the cause of the repetition?" Tuvok asked after Tom caught up to that morning. The lieutenant sighed and looked longingly at his long-empty coffee cup as if he could will it to magically refill itself. No such luck.
"On the very first loop, I walked out of my quarters and ran over Elen just outside my door. That never happened again. There were other people who weren't in the same place loop after loop. I noticed, but never put two and two together until this morning. Kes triggered my memory." He and Neelix both smiled proudly at the Ocampan woman.
"My thought was that if there were other people immune to the loop, and who weren't as... well, as freaked out as I was, then they must be causing it." Tom shrugged self-consciously. "I figured I could find at least one of them down in engineering, and I was right. I guess I went a little crazy," he said sheepishly. "Sorry about that."
Janeway nodded thoughtfully. "It's alright, Tom. You got us out. Good work, Lieutenant. We owe you a debt of thanks, it seems."
"Not hardly," Tom snorted. "If it hadn't been for me, it never would have lasted as long as it did."
"But if it wasn't for you, we may never have gotten out at all," the captain pointed out. "So thank you, Tom." She stood up, causing the rest of the room to do the same. "I still expect a full report about the entire incident," she told him firmly. "But for now, dismissed."