The ship had been on Yellow Alert for hours already. Everyone was able to keep the ship in order, but they were becoming increasingly more anxious over the security of the ship. A few people had begun to wonder if perhaps Tom was only the first victim of the replicator sabotage. The Starfleet crew was being very cautious around the Maquis crew, but they were not yet to the point of being unable to exhibit signs of friendship towards them.

In the conference room, the entire senior staff had assembled. Captain Janeway sat at the end. Ensign Kim sat to her left and Commander Chakotay sat to her right. Lieutenant Torres sat on the other side of Chakotay; Lieutenant Tuvok sat to her right in turn. Kes and Neelix sat across from them. There was an empty seat between Harry and Kes. That would have been Tom's seat had he shown up that day. Even though he was absent, they still left it empty as if they were half-expecting him to walk through the door and announce that The Doctor had miraculously cured him.

Finally, the meeting began. Captain Janeway had each of the department heads submit a brief but thorough report on the efficiency of their work on the ship.

Tuvok's security report concluded with a rather unusual twist to it: "To summarize everything, Captain, all security measures have been uncompromised and well-taken… with one unfortunate exception."

After all of the reports were finished, Janeway put her hands together, leaned back in her chair, and said to her staff "Now, on to a more pressing matter. As all of you are probably aware, there is a reason why Lieutenant Paris is not here right now. Today at approximately 0846 hours, he ingested a lethal dosage of terionium disulfide. We have no doubts now that someone attempted to murder him."

Everyone in the room felt very uneasy at that moment. Everyone except Tuvok, however. But all the same, he was concerned for Lieutenant Paris' life.

The captain activated the viewscreen on the wall. The terminal in sickbay was activated and The Doctor was standing in the middle of the room facing the room's viewscreen in turn.

"May we have a progress report, Doctor?" said the Captain.

"The lieutenant's condition is constantly deteriorating." The Doctor reported sadly. "I've increased the amount of each injection I give him, but I fear that won't be enough."

"How long does he have?" asked B'Elanna.

"About four days." said The Doctor. "Six at the most. But I'll keep working to keep him alive. However, I'm afraid I will not get far without a cure."

Captain Janeway turned to Neelix and said to him "Neelix, do you know of anyone who deals with terionium disulfide? If you do, perhaps they could help us find a cure."

Neelix shook his head and said "I'm sorry, Captain. I've never even heard of terionium until now."

Janeway sat down in her chair, thinking about other options. Finally, she said to Chakotay "Commander, did the Maquis ever work to develop a cure for the compound's deadly effects?"

"No, I'm afraid not, Captain." Chakotay admitted. "It worked so well against the Cardassians that we saw no reason to create a cure."

"Did you even begin some research on developing a cure?" Janeway hoped for better luck in the answer to that question.

The viewscreen on the wall was still showing sickbay. The Doctor was attending to Tom again. While everyone else buried themselves in conversation and discussion, she just watched Tom. He was lying on the bio-bed so still, so peaceful, and yet he was dying. B'Elanna was experiencing a strong desire to help The Doctor cure Tom.

She remembered the day the two of them had met on the Ocampa homeworld. He was part of the team that had saved her and Harry from the Ocampa. Tom had even gone out of his way to get her to safety before he had gotten himself to safety.

Months later, there was the incident with the Vidiians on Avery III, when she had been split into her Human and Klingon halves. She remembered that Lieutenant Durst had been killed on that planet. After he had been separated from Tom and B'Elanna, the two of them were left alone to look out for each other. Later when two other Vidiians had threatened B'Elanna, Tom had stood up for her without a twinge of fear in his eyes. It was then that she fully realized that Tom would willingly sacrifice himself to save her.

While she was watching Tom, Captain Janeway said "Well, we should concentrate some more on eliminating suspects. We still have eleven people who had the opportunity to pull this off."

"Actually, Captain, we only have seven left." Tuvok clarified for her. He approached her and handed her a PADD. It had eleven names on it. But four of them had an X next to them.

"I overviewed some more of the evidence myself just an hour ago." Tuvok explained "I noticed certain details that most would consider to be insignificant. However, as a Vulcan, I know that there ARE no insignificant details."

"Good work, Mr. Tuvok." Janeway complimented her Second Officer. She looked at the names and announced "At this rate we'll have discovered the assassin's identity in…"

She stopped right there. She felt too uncomfortable to announce the names on the list because of the last one. So she said "Chakotay, Tuvok, and I will look into this. You're all dismissed. But in the meantime, I want the rest of you to keep doing your jobs, same as ever. I promise you, we won't let Tom die."

Everybody except for B'Elanna got up and left the room to return to their stations. Concerned for her, Janeway asked "Is everything alright, Lieutenant?"

Her eyes still focused on the viewscreen, B'Elanna said "Captain, I have a request."

"What is it, B'Elanna?" asked Kathryn.

The chief engineer turned to the captain and said "I want to work with The Doctor to find a cure for Tom."

"Why?" inquired the Captain.

B'Elanna lightly shrugged and answered "Tom has saved my life twice in the past year. I feel that I owe it to him."

There was silence for a moment, and then Janeway said "I admire your devotion to Lieutenant Paris, but I'm afraid I must deny your request, B'Elanna."

"But Captain, I know all about this compound." B'Elanna insisted. "I am sure I could adapt some engineering tactics to develop a cure."

"B'Elanna, I'm sorry, but I need you down in engineering during today's maintenance overhaul." said the Captain.

B'Elanna felt a strong urge to roll her eyes at that moment, but she fought the urge. She said "Captain, Lieutenant Carey can manage the engineering crew well enough without me."

"The answer is no." Janeway said sternly. "Now please return to your place in main engineering."

B'Elanna was becoming very impatient at that moment, but she decided not to argue with the Captain. She knew that doing so would most likely get her thrown in the brig. So she just stood up and left the conference room.

…

B'Elanna stepped off of the turbolift onto Deck 11 and headed for main engineering. She found Chakotay headed in the same direction, and subsequently ran to catch up with him. She told him about how the Captain had denied her request and how she felt that there was something that she was not telling her.

As they walked, she noticed Chakotay had one arm behind his back. She asked him "Chakotay, are you hiding something?"

He nervously replied "Umm… No, B'Elanna, I'm not hiding anything."

"Nice try." she said. Chakotay sighed and showed her what he was holding. He told her "It's a list of the remaining suspects we have in this mystery."

"Who is left?" asked B'Elanna.

"They are Suder, Jarvin, Ayala, Tabor, Jonas, and Gerron." replied Chakotay.

"That's only six names." noted B'Elanna.

"I know." said Chakotay.

"Tuvok said there were seven."

"No, he said there were six."

"Chakotay, let me see that PADD."

"What, you don't believe me?"

She snatched the PADD out of his hand and glimpsed at the bottom of it. She saw that there was indeed a seventh name, but she was shocked upon seeing it. She looked up at Chakotay and almost shouted "I cannot believe you would think that I would do something as horrible as what's happened to Tom!"