When Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok got to main engineering, they asked Lieutenant Carey if anyone had seen B'Elanna. Carey replied "She went to repair some mildly ruptured conduits in various Jefferies tubes. She should have been back by now, though."

"We'll go look for her." said Janeway. "I'll take tubes 1-4, Chakotay will take tubes 5-8, and Tuvok will take tubes 9-12."

The three of them then split up and went crawling through the Jefferies tubes looking for B'Elanna.

Back on Deck 5, Crewman Tabor was making his way to sickbay. He had a huge bleeding gash on his arm that he had acquired just a few moments earlier. Crewman Gennaro had been standing guard at the primary entrance into sickbay. He showed him his arm and he let him in right away. Inside sickbay, Ensign Swinn was standing guard by the bio-beds. Kes was giving Tom his hourly injection to keep him stabilized.

Tabor approached the EMH and said "Doc, do you have a dermal regenerator? I got a huge cut right here on my forearm."

"I see." said The Doctor, somewhat surprised by the size of the mark. "How did you acquire this injury?"

"I tripped in the mess hall against a table." Tabor replied a little quickly. "It created a large scrape on my arm."

"Alright." said The Doctor. He went across the room to find a dermal regenerator in a medicine cabinet.

At that same time, Chakotay, Janeway, and Tuvok were searching through the Jefferies tubes for B'Elanna. Finally, Chakotay found her- she was unconscious.

He tapped his combadge and said "Chakotay to Tuvok and Janeway. I've found B'Elanna. She's been knocked out."

"We'll move to intercept you." said Janeway.

While Tuvok and Janeway made their way to Chakotay and B'Elanna's position, Chakotay tried his hardest to revive the chief engineer.

Back in sickbay, The Doctor was running the dermal regenerator over Tabor's arm. Slowly his skin was regenerating in place. When it was fully regenerated, Tabor said "Thank you for your help, Doctor."

"It's no problem, Crewman." The Doctor smiled, taking the dermal regenerator back to its place. While he did that, Tabor stepped closer to the bio-bed that held Lieutenant Paris' unconscious form. The oxygen mask was still in place, and he had a blanket over most of his body; for The Doctor had said that it would be useful to keep a patient in his condition warm.

Kes had removed his jacket in order to extract some of his DNA cells from his arm. She was using the cells as test subjects in her research for finding a cure. She had made excellent progress, but she and The Doctor still had a long way to go.

Tabor asked her "How is he?"

She had her back to him and as she worked, she said over her shoulder "His condition is getting worse. The Doctor estimates that he'll be dead in just over sixty hours."

Tabor slowly pulled something out of his uniform jacket. He did it without Kes, The Doctor, or Swinn noticing. It was long and thin, and most of it was made of metal. At the end of one side, there was a small opening. A button and revolving knob were on the front of it. Tabor took another step closer to Tom, and he was standing directly over him at that point.

In Jefferies tube 8, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Janeway had succeeded in reviving B'Elanna. She opened her eyes with minor difficulty and asked "What happened? Where's Tabor?"

"Tabor?" said Chakotay. "We just found you unconscious."

"That's odd." said B'Elanna. "One moment I was repairing this conduit and then Tabor comes along, volunteering to help. The next thing I know, I feel a sharp pain on the back of my head. Then I wake up here with you three kneeling over me."

B'Elanna then started looking around the small crawlspace for no particular reason. When Chakotay asked "B'Elanna, what are you doing?", she answered "I had a modulation stabilizer here a moment ago. It's gone now."

"What do you need it for?" Janeway asked curiously. "And what does it look like?"

"I was using it to even out the elemental concentrations in the bio-neural gel packs." she explained. Then she told them what the gadget looked like. Its dimensions and appearance were identical to the piece of equipment Tabor had taken into sickbay."

Janeway's eyes then lit up. She said "B'Elanna, which elements does the stabilizer work on?"

"It works on all 247 of them, Captain." was B'Elanna's response. "It improves the concentration of whatever element or compound it comes in contact with."

"Including terionium and sulfur?" asked the Captain.

B'Elanna then realized what Captain Janeway was implying. The color seemed to drain from her face as she replied "Terionium and sulfur are two of the elements it works best on."

Tuvok immediately said "Computer, locate Crewman Tabor."

The response was "Crewman Tabor is in sickbay."

Tuvok asked "What is his position in relation to Lieutenant Paris?"

"Crewman Tabor is approximately 0.94 feet from Lieutenant Paris."

"Is there a modulation stabilizer in Tabor's hand?" said Tuvok.

The computer beeped "Affirmative."

Tuvok rammed his hand against his combadge and almost yelled into it "Tuvok to sickbay!"

"Doctor here." answered The Doctor. "What is it, Lieutenant?"

Tuvok yelled so loud that everyone is sickbay could hear him. He yelled "Doctor, Tabor's the assassin! Stop him before he can succeed!"

The Doctor whipped around and saw Tabor with his arm over Tom's unconscious form. He shouted to the security guard "Swinn, stop him!"

The ensign whipped out her phaser, but before she could aim it at Tabor, the Bajoran crewmember took a phaser out of his jacket, turned to her, and shot her. She groaned and fell unconscious to the ground.

Tabor turned back to his front and shot Kes in the chest. She collapsed against a cart and fell to the ground.

The Doctor ducked behind the cart as Crewman Gennaro came running into the room with his phaser in hand. But before he could realize what all was going on, he was shot by Tabor. He jumped a few feet backwards, hit the wall, and passed out.

Back in engineering, Chakotay, Janeway, B'Elanna, and Tuvok had gotten out of the Jefferies tube network and were making their way to sickbay. On their way, Janeway asked B'Elanna "What would happen if Tabor were to use the stabilizer on Tom?"

B'Elanna explained "Well, I'd say that after just one minute of usage on the terionium disulfide, such a large amount would have built up that Tom would die within seconds afterwards."

"Then we have to make sure that Tabor does not get away with this attempt on Tom's life." Chakotay concluded.

The four of them made it to a turbolift. They all stepped in and Tuvok said "Sickbay." The turbolift doors closed and the turbolift ascended six decks.

Ensign Parsons had been posted at the other entrance. He entered with his phaser in hand and aimed it at Tabor. He fired one shot, but he missed. From across the room, the two of them fired repeatedly at each other. While they did this, The Doctor grabbed a hypospray and loaded it with the most effectual sedative known to Bajorans.

Finally, Parsons was hit by Tabor and he fell onto the floor knocked out cold. Tabor then said "Computer, activate level 10 forcefields around all entrances to sickbay, and generate a dampening field to prevent anyone from beaming in or out. Authorization Janeway-omega-beta-6-4-3-5-3."

The computer complied with his order. He then locked control of sickbay out of the command functions.

Tabor then focused his attention on Tom Paris. He slowly approached him with his phaser in one hand and the modulation stabilizer in the other.

Before he got within a meter of Tom, The Doctor lunged at Tabor with the hypospray in his hand. He had Tabor in a chokehold and tried to inject the contents of the hypospray into his neck. But just before he could, Tabor gasped "Computer, deactivate the EMH!"

The Doctor vanished and the hypospray dropped to the ground. It landed just in front of Kes.

By then, Janeway and the others had made it to the sickbay doors with a security team. But when they approached the doors, they would not open. Janeway said "Computer, open the doors to sickbay."

The computer beeped "Unable to comply. All entrances to sickbay have been sealed off."

"On whose authority?"

The answer was "Captain Kathryn Janeway's."

Chakotay and B'Elanna glared at the Captain, but Tuvok knew what the problem was. He said "It would appear as though somehow Mr. Tabor knows your command codes, Captain."

"We have to get inside somehow." said Janeway.

At that exact same time, inside the sickbay, Tabor had approached Tom's bio-bed. He was standing less than a foot away from him. Tabor unhurriedly raised his right hand- the one with the modulation stabilizer- and held it over Tom's throat. He then rotated the knob on the gadget so that it was on its maximum output. Then he brought his thumb over the button. He gradually but firmly held down on the button. Soon, a bright blue light appeared on the end facing Tom, which signaled that the device had been activated. Tabor started moving it a few inches above Tom's neck, and the stabilizer began doing its job increasing the concentration of the residual terionium disulfide inside his throat.