=/\=
Despite his disappointment about his employment status, Icheb liked working at the daycare center. While he didn't have a lot of memories from his life on Brunal, before emigrating to Quarra, he knew his only experience with babies had been with his foster sister Aimee. He'd traveled to Quarra with Aimee and Marla Gilmore, along with Samantha Wildman and her daughter Naomi. The families had come to this planet to find work, since the opportunities for advancement were so much better on Quarra than on Brunal. He was happy Naomi Wildman was assigned to the day care center to spend her after school hours, since she still very young to stay in the Wildman's apartment alone. Besides, the day care center was a good place to be. He'd discovered all the little children were fun to play with, and Naomi admitted she enjoyed her work there as a childcare-aide-in-training, too.
Icheb hadn't qualified for work in the power plant. He'd thought he would, since he had a lot of technical knowledge, but once the family arrived on Quarra, they found out there was a minimum age requirement to work in the plant, because of the radioactivity present. He wouldn't meet the standard for another half-annual rotation. Icheb could obtain additional training in power plant technology, but he wanted a way to help support himself in the meantime. He didn't want to depend upon his foster family forever. Because of the severe labor shortage on Quarra, however, the day care center's director Varin Leothos had begged Icheb to work with them while he completed his courses at night, and Marla agreed he could.
The Gilmores lived in the same building as Naomi and Sam Wildman. Sam often cooked for all of them, because sharing meals was very pleasurable. It seemed right, somehow. Once Icheb reached the age to qualify for a position in the plant, and he had more money to spend, he promised himself that he'd take all of them out to dinner at least once an eightday, to pay them back for their kindness towards him, since he was an orphan. Of course, he had to be an orphan. His facial features were different from the others. Actually, it seemed all of the children must be orphans, since none of them resembled their mothers exactly.
It was strange. As soon as they'd arrived on Quarra, he'd experienced odd dreams and the disquieting feeling that "something wasn't right." He couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but until he did, he needed to make sure little Aimee was safe during the hours they were at the center.
Most of his work days were spent feeding toddlers, changing diapers, and playing with the little children in the nursery. After midday nap time, he read stories to older children, but he always made sure he knew exactly where Aimee was, every time unit. Once Naomi arrived after school, he could relax a little, since she always looked out for Aimee, too. The children's books really fascinated him. It was odd, but he couldn't remember reading any stories from when he was a child. Dr. Kadan told him there had been an accident with the ship transporting them from Brunal to Quarra, and that was probably why his early memories had been disrupted.
One day, he'd seen a person walking by the center who seemed familiar. When he asked, he found out it was Annika Hansen, the new efficiency monitor for the plant. He asked Marla if she remembered her, but Marla didn't. After that day, Icheb always looked out for Annika Hansen when her shift ended. He finally decided the reason she was familiar to him had to do with her metal facial plates, which were very similar to his. When he learned she'd started work at the plant on the same day Marla and Samantha did, he realized they probably met on their ship. Annika must have been damaged in the ship's accident, too.
=/\=
A day came when everything changed. Director Leothos came to him in the middle of the afternoon and told Icheb that information had come to her attention earlier that day. He needed to bring his sister and Naomi Wildman to the Gilmore apartment until their mothers came home. An Inspector Yerid would take them to the apartment. Once they arrived, he'd assign one of his staff to remain with them until Marla and Samantha arrived home from their shift.
As it turned out, Icheb, Aimee, and Naomi had barely entered the home when their mothers came in. Icheb was surprised to see the efficiency monitor from the plant walk in with Marla and Samantha. Inspector Yerid had not left yet, so he stayed and told them a fantastic story about how their memories had been tampered with, and they weren't who they thought they were. Icheb wasn't sure what to think, but he was really confused when Annika Hansen came over to him and said, "Icheb, Marla Gilmore isn't your mother. I am."
Icheb examined her face intently. The metal plates did seem to be very much like the one on his nose. "I admit you seem familiar to me, but I'm sure Marla is my mother."
"Think back, Icheb. Close your eyes. There's a huge space ship, in the shape of a cube. It's a Borg vessel. The corridors had many mechanical projections. The lights shone green, and there was a lot of mist floating by."
Since Icheb had always been obedient, he closed his eyes and tried to access his memories. And there they were. "We were dressed in leather and metal implants. I didn't have hair on my head like I do now. Six of Six . . . " He opened his eyes and saw little Aimee in her mother's arms. "Aimee! She almost died! And First did die!" He glanced at Annika. "You came. You rescued us. Seven . . . Where are the others? Where is Mezoti? And Azan and Rebi?"
She gently clasped her hand on his shoulder. It was the arm with Borg appliances still supporting implants within her arm, he realized. She said softly, soothingly, "They're all right, Icheb. Several months ago we left them on a planet a long way from here. Mezoti is safe with Azan and Rebi. They live with the boy's grandparents. But we need to go back to Voyager, so we can get the rest of our memories back and resume our journey to the Alpha Quadrant."
"Wait. You're not taking Icheb away from us! Aimee and I need him!" Marla cried out, holding her daughter close and stepping between Icheb and Annika, to keep him safe with her.
"Marla Gilmore, Icheb is my adopted son, but Aimee really is your daughter. You belong on Voyager, too. And so do you, Ensign Samantha Wildman, and you, too, Naomi. We all belong there. A lot of the people who are on Quarra were stolen by pirates and really belong someplace else. Our ship mates have been searching for us for the past few weeks, and now we're found. We're all going home. To Voyager."
=/\=
"How are you doing, Icheb?" Lieutenant Torres asked, putting down her lunch tray as she took the seat across from his in the mess hall.
'B'Elanna asked how I'm doing,' Icheb thought, as she sat down. 'That's what I should be thinking. It might take a while before I feel comfortable calling her by the name she told me I'd used for her in recent months.'
"My memories are returning, but slowly," Icheb replied aloud, before taking a chip from his nutritional supplement nacho plate. He liked watching the cheese strings stretch out as he lifted the chip towards his mouth. This was a treat he didn't get while on Quarra, and the Doctor had prescribed extra nutritional supplements for the next week to strengthen his body systems.
After taking a few bites of her own lunch, the lieutenant asked, "Are you reading your Personal Log, Icheb? That's helped Tom and me remember. Look at the ship's official visual logs, too. That will bring a lot back."
"Yes, I have. And the Doctor has been letting me view his image library."
B'Elanna rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Wonderful. He's found a captive audience. I'll bet it's even worse than one of his 'educational' slide shows."
Icheb felt his mouth quirk up in a slight smile. "It is helpful to me, though. I haven't been on Voyager very long, so the captain is not allowing him to show me images from any stardates before I arrived on the ship."
"Be thankful for small favors! He wanted to show me five years' worth of pictures when I got back! Since I was the only one he was treating at the time, he really took advantage." Icheb noted that she seemed more amused than upset, despite her words.
"Is it true? Your husband Tom was kind to you while you were on Quarra?"
"Yes, it's true. We were drawn to each other. He said he wanted to find the guy who left me alone and pregnant and punch him on the nose. Little did he know at the time he would've had to punch himself in the nose! I guess some of those feelings we have for each other were still there, despite what that witch doctor Kadan did to our memories."
"I think that's true. I felt something wasn't quite right from the first day I was on the planet. I always made sure I knew where Aimee was the entire time we were in the center. I knew I needed to protect her if anything happened. Naomi, too, when she came by after school."
"You know, Tom offered to link me up with some other couples who were having babies, and he told me once about this woman with a baby who could recommend a child care center to me, when I needed one. Was that your center?"
"Probably. We took care of a lot of babies there. I'm very qualified now in changing diapers, so when your baby comes, I can babysit her."
"Good to know, Icheb!" B'Elanna laughed. It came to him then that she didn't usually laugh a lot, possibly because she kept a close rein on her Klingon nature. It was nice to see her happy.
"Tom's memories are coming back, too?"
"Personal Log entries and pictures are helping him, too, but I think the best therapy for him is the TV set I built him. He's watching 2D Bugs Bunny cartoons and action adventure stories half the night! Maybe he should have gotten a job in that day care center, too."
"He was a successful bartender, I heard."
"Yes. Lots of opportunities to flirt. I can't say I blame him. He's always been a charmer, and we didn't remember each other down there. He did what came naturally - including starting a fight in the plant that got him fired the first day he was there!"
"Tom knows a lot about technical things, but he's a pilot, not an engineer."
"Very true." B'Elanna smiled indulgently at Icheb. That was the right emotion, he was sure it was. He was starting to get the subtle things back. He'd only been back on board for a few days, but he was eager to get where he'd been before being stolen by the Quarrens. That prompted another thought. "Lieutenant Torres. B'Elanna," he corrected himself. "We weren't the only people who were stolen by the Quarrens, were we?"
B'Elanna sighed deeply and took a sip of her prune juice before replying, "No, thousands were taken by the pirates and had their memories altered by Kadan. They'd been at it for several years before they caught us. The man the captain was friends with - Jaffen - said he'd really come for the job opportunities, but there were others who were eager to go back to their real homes. They were just travelers, like us, who were abducted. Many of them had families who had no idea what had happened to them. It's very sad, really. I hope the ones who want to go home actually get there. And the Quarrens will have a real problem staffing their power plants now, since they're losing so many employees at once."
Icheb had heard the captain had been a lot more than just friends with Jaffen, but he didn't think it was a good thing to mention to the lieutenant at that moment. "Maybe some will decide to stay to help out anyway, for a little while, at least."
B'Elanna shrugged, then waved to someone coming from behind Icheb. He turned and saw Tom speaking with Neelix and choosing his own lunch from the chef's offerings.
Icheb started to pick up his tray. He still had some of his nachos left, and most of his shake, but he thought he should move to another table to give the couple some privacy.
B'Elanna stopped him. "Don't get up, Icheb. I'm sure Tom would like to get the chance to visit with you again, too. It's nice to have a simple meal with friends - especially now that we know who those friends really are!"
"To help us remember?" Icheb replied.
B'Elanna smiled. "Yes. Just chalk it up to some memory therapy."
When Tom arrived at the table, and they chatted easily over some of the less consequential details of ordinary life on Voyager, Icheb knew B'Elanna had been right. Visiting with friends was therapeutic, now that they were all back home. No wonder sharing meals with the Gilmores and the Wildmans when they were on Quarra had always seemed so right to Icheb.
=/\=