Outside sickbay, Janeway and the others were frantically trying to break in. They had tried transporting in, but the dampening field around sickbay was rendering it impossible to beam in.

Janeway then told B'Elanna "There is a central commands console two hallways down. Try to access the main power database from it. If you do access it, shut down all power being routed to security on this deck."

B'Elanna nodded and started running as fast as she could to the commands console.

Inside sickbay, Tabor had been running the modulation stabilizer over Tom's throat for twelve seconds. It seemed that there was no hope for Tom, but fortune ended up landing in his direction.

Kes was still conscious on the ground. She quietly reached across the floor and grabbed the hypospray filled with the sedative. She also grabbed a closed tricorder. She graciously crawled around the bio-bed until she reached Tabor's feet. Then she jumped to her feet and grabbed Tabor by his shoulder. They struggled for a moment, and in the chaos Tabor dropped the stabilizer. Tabor almost overpowered her, but she had basically won over him when she bashed him on the head with the tricorder. Tabor dropped to his knees and touched the part of his head that Kes had struck. Finally, Kes got the hypospray up to his neck and injected the sedative into his body.

Tabor collapsed to the ground unconscious. Kes tapped her combadge and said "Kes to Captain Janeway."

"Janeway here." said Kathryn. "What's going on in there, Kes?"

"I've managed to knock Tabor out." she informed the Captain. "Crewman Gennaro and Ensigns Swinn and Parsons have all been shot, but they're only stunned."

"How is Lieutenant Paris?" asked Janeway.

Kes walked over to Tom and examined him with the tricorder. She announced "He's still alive, but the terionium disulfide in his esophagus is thirty percent more concentrated."

"We need you to shut down the forcefields that are preventing the doors from being opened." said Janeway. "Pick up a phaser and shoot at a small panel to the right of the door. That should deactivate the matrix."

Kes looked around and picked up the first phaser she saw. It was Ensign Swinn's phaser. She set it a little higher than stun, aimed at the panel by the door, and fired. The panel short-circuited and subsequently shut down. The door quickly opened. Janeway and the others entered the room. Three members of the security team went to revive Parsons, Swinn, and Gennaro.

Janeway tapped her combadge and said "Janeway to Torres. B'Elanna, don't bother with shutting down the forcefields. We've already got the doors to sickbay open again."

Chakotay then said "Computer, activate Emergency Medical Hologram."

The Doctor reappeared and said "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He looked around and said "Where is Mr. Tabor?"

"Kes managed to incapacitate him." said Tuvok. He turned to Crewman Lang, who was in the group of security guards that had accompanied him and ordered him "Lang, take Tabor to the brig. We'll question him later when he regains consciousness."

Lang nodded and picked the unconscious Bajoran up by his shoulders. He was about to half-carry, half-drag him out of sickbay when The Doctor noticed the huge bruise Kes had made on his head when she struck him. By then it was bleeding. The Doctor turned to Janeway and said "Captain, I must request that you temporarily leave Mr. Tabor here in sickbay. That wound on his forehead may be serious."

"Doctor, I appreciate your concern for every member of the crew," the Captain told him, "but Tabor just tried to kill our helmsman. Again."

"I know, Captain," the EMH said, "but I have a responsibility to provide health care for every person on this ship."

After thinking over The Doctor's request several times, Janeway said "Very well. You may treat Tabor. But first there are some precautions we must take. Tuvok, I want a security guard posted at either side of the bio-bed you set him on, and I want another one standing in close proximity to Lieutenant Paris."

"I will assemble more guards, Captain." Tuvok reassured her.

"Oh, and tell them one more thing." Janeway added. "If Tabor regains consciousness and puts up a struggle, they have total authorization to use their phasers. And tell them that they may use the 'kill' setting, but only if it is absolutely necessary."

Tuvok was a little surprised to hear Captain Janeway's last order. But he knew better than to question her orders. More security guards assembled in sickbay and assumed their positions. Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok left the room and returned to the bridge.

The Doctor ran a few scans on Tabor's forehead. Tabor had a slight concussion from the blow to his head, and he was bleeding steadily. The Doctor ran a dermal regenerator over his head and the wound sealed itself. While operating on Tabor, The Doctor found that the injury on his arm had actually been self-inflicted. The Doctor concluded that Tabor had injured himself in order to get into sickbay. It would have made the situation all the more easy for Tabor to get closer to Tom.

The Doctor scanned Tabor's head again and found that it was totally healed, but there was some significant discrepancy in his neural pathways. He focused his tricorder onto the region of his brain the discrepancy originated from, and found that whatever was causing the inconsistency was not organic. He was unsure what it was, but it was definitely not organic.

…

B'Elanna and Chakotay were in the mess hall, eating lunch. Chakotay feasted well on his spinach salad and salmon. But B'Elanna had barely even touched her pot roast with rice. She just poked at it with her knife and fork. Neelix walked over to the two of them with a pitcher in his hand. He asked Chakotay "More ice water, Commander?"

"Fill 'er up, Neelix." said Chakotay, lifting up his glass to Neelix. The Talaxian grinned and filled the Indian officer's glass. He turned to Lieutenant Torres and asked her "How about you, B'Elanna?"

She appeared to be lost in thought. But Neelix caught her attention. She said "What? Oh, no thank you, Neelix, I'm fine."

Neelix set the pitcher on the counter and then came back to the table. He said "Is everything alright, B'Elanna?"

"No, Neelix, everything is not alright." she answered sternly.

Seeing the alarmed look on Neelix's face, Chakotay enlightened him: "We found the assassin. It's Tabor. He just tried to kill Tom again."

"Oh yeah, How is Tom?" asked Neelix.

"He's still in critical condition." Chakotay responded. "We won't know all the details until The Doctor's submitted his daily report."

While the two of them talked, B'Elanna held her knife off of her plate and held it up vertically on the table. Then the thought of Tabor doing something as terrible as murdering Tom whilst in a coma haunted her thoughts. She started pressed down on the handle of the knife as the thoughts went on. She remembered all that her mother had told her about honor and how it is acquired on the battlefield. B'Elanna had never really been one to uphold the traditions on the Klingon side of her family, but she did agree with the idea that killing someone in their sleep demonstrated cowardice and weakness. The thought of such a dishonorable act being done to one of her friends by another of her friends made her blood want to boil.

"B'Elanna!" Chakotay yelled to catch her attention.

B'Elanna suddenly realized that she had dug the blade of the knife almost entirely into the table. She looked down at it, mildly shocked and embarrassed. She quickly pulled it out and said "I'm sorry about the table, Neelix. I'll repair it as soon as I get back on duty."

Neelix just grinned and said "Not to worry, B'Elanna. I can easily cover it up or get a replacement table."

The three of them were laughing then. A minute later, Kes walked into the mess hall. She went up to the replicator and said "Hot plain chicken soup." A bowl of hot chicken broth materialized in front of her. Ever since she had come on board, Kes had been developing quite a taste for Human foods. She picked up the bowl and went to look for a table.

Chakotay and B'Elanna waved her over. She sat down next to Chakotay and started eating. They also invited Neelix to sit down and eat with them. He decided to accept their offer and had Crewman Blain take over for him until he had finished eating. After giving Blain his hat and apron, Neelix put together a small bowl of vegetables he knew to be Kes' favorites. Then he grabbed a pot of leola root stew for himself and went to join the others. Kes thanked him for the vegetables and placed them next to her soup. Neelix sat down next to B'Elanna, who had finally decided to eat her food instead of poke at it.

After about six minutes of silence between them, Neelix broke the silence when he asked Kes "So, how's Tom holding up?"

Kes had a sullen look on her face after hearing that question. She just looked down at her soup and said "He's getting worse every minute. This morning, The Doctor estimated we would have sixty hours to save him. But after what Tabor did to him, we'll be lucky if we even have forty hours left."

Chakotay patted Kes on the back. She looked at him as he assured her "We have you to thank for the fact that he is still alive anyway. Had you not sedated Tabor, Tom would be lying in the morgue right now instead of sickbay."

"And Tabor would be long out of the airlock." B'Elanna added tensely. Chakotay looked at her, surprised. Concerned for her, he asked "Is everything alright, B'Elanna?"

"No, that filthy petaQ just tried to murder an unconscious, unarmed man." said B'Elanna. "I may not have upheld the customs on the Klingon side of my family, but I do agree with the concept that killing someone in their sleep is a horrendous action."

"B'Elanna, is there something personal going on between you and Tom?" asked Chakotay.

She looked at the Commander and asked him "Whatever gives you that impression, sir?"

"Well, when we were still in the Maquis, you and Tabor were always getting along rather well." Chakotay recalled. "But now you seem to be getting closer and closer to Tom."

"Chakotay, Tom has saved my life twice within the past eight months." B'Elanna explained her feelings. "On Avery III, when I was split into my Human and Klingon halves, I was scared. For the first time in my life, I felt uncontrollable fear. The fear itself scared me; it was so strong. But Tom helped me through that nightmare and watched over me until we were rescued."

"I understand how you feel for Tom, B'Elanna." Chakotay smiled, patting her on the shoulder. "He saved my life on the Ocampa homeworld, too. He risked his own life to carry me from the caverns to the surface."

"The Doctor and I are doing everything we can for him." Kes assured them. "But we are going to have to find a cure soon, or he will die within the next two days."

Just as they were finishing their meals, Janeway's voice came over the comline: "All senior officers, report to the conference room immediately."

Neelix quickly cleaned the table up and left the room with the other three.

…

In the conference room, Tuvok, Harry, and Kathryn had already assembled. After everyone else arrived, they got right down to business. Captain Janeway announced "The Doctor just made a very unpleasant discovery a few moments ago. I'll bring it up on the viewscreen."

She stood up, walked over to the terminal on the wall, and activated the viewscreen. The terminal in sickbay was activated once again and The Doctor was standing by the main computer in the room. He announced to the rest of the senior staff: "When I was treating Crewman Tabor for the bruise on his forehead, I ran some scans on his entire head. I discovered something rather disconcerting."

He turned to the panel on the wall and typed in a certain computation. An image of Tabor's head on an infrared scale appeared on the screen. The Doctor pointed to a small speck located just above Tabor's left eye. He asked the senior staff "Do you see that?"

They all nodded. Harry asked "What is that?"

The Doctor enlarged the grid that contained the speck so that the rest of the senior staff could get a closer look. Then he isolated the speck itself. He explained to them "What we are seeing now is a type of microchip imbedded in Crewman Tabor's brain. Based on its position, I have been able to conclude that it is used to suppress freewill and transmit control of Tabor's voluntary muscles to another source."

"You mean someone is brainwashing Tabor, Doctor?" said Chakotay.

"And whoever is doing it is controlling his mind in the process?" said Harry.

"That is exactly what I mean." The Doctor told the staff. "While Tabor may have appeared to be the assassin, he was not in direct control of his actions. He was essentially being used as a puppet by someone else. The real assassin is still at large on the ship."