Chapter 3 – The Discovery

Annie and Chris walked down the arroyo that led east outside of town just before sunrise, their first full day as husband and wife. They intermittently held hands, or put their arms around each other's shoulder, or simply walked side by side. Annie couldn't imagine being happier, despite the impending abandonment of the town and depletion of supplies. Whatever happened, they were now together. Two becoming one flesh. They came to a clearing where Annie had driven in a pole that extended about four feet above the ground. She had been here many times in the past month, although not for the past week. The site of her 'experiments.' The area around the pole was flat and cleared of debris. Around the perimeter of the clearing were other stakes and on the ground about the pole were some carefully placed stones where she marked the rising and setting of the Sun, Moon and stars. Annie directed the two of them to a particular spot on the western perimeter of the clearing.

"Why did we have to get up so early again?" Chris asked with a smile.

"Right here," she said. "If we line ourselves up between this stake and the central pole, the Sun will rise from there." She pointed towards the east and the mountain range on the horizon. "Since we're leaving tomorrow morning at about this time, it's our last chance to take a measurement."

Chris yawned and stretched bit, and then squatted down to test out the alignment of the stake and pole. On the horizon in the far off range, the stake and pole aligned to a point between two of the peaks. At just about this spot the horizon was brighter indicating the Sun was soon to rise. "And what's the problem again?"

Annie shook her head. "You're acting like you got no sleep last night," she protested.

Chris smiled and then shrugged.

Annie rolled her eyes and pointed back down to the stake. "We did get some sleep," she replied. "Just keep looking. The Sun will be rising any moment a little south of that pass in the mountains. I told you, in the week or so I took measurements, I didn't see any deviation as to the point where the Sun rises, or sets, or its track across the sky."

"Hmmm. That is odd," Chris remarked. He lined up again between the stake and the pole. "You might expect something like that near the solstice, but not at this time of year."

"Exactly," Annie said. She was pleased that both of them had an appreciation of astronomy. "I haven't taken any measurements in a week, but if it's the same, there's definitely something wrong."

Chris glanced back up at Annie. "What could be wrong? It's not like the Earth can get stuck at a single point in its orbit."

True. If her suspicions were correct, it was hard to imagine what would reconcile the measurements. Annie gestured down to the stake again. "There, the Sun is rising. Take a look."

Sure enough, the bright limb of the Sun was just peaking up over the horizon. Chris lined up the stake and pole, and moved his head back and forth to make sure. He then stood up and placed his hands on his hips. "Exactly in the same spot," he confirmed. They stood there a moment in thought. "Or the tilt of the axis has gone to zero," he suggested.

"But how?" Annie protested.

Chris looked around. These measurements didn't make sense and he was at a loss for how to explain it. The day was looking to be another near cloudless day. The same sort of day they've been having the past month during this drought. A chorus of birds were chirping in the brush nearby, and a slight wind was picking up from the east. If it wasn't for the impending depletion of their supplies, he would call it a beautiful morning. And then he became aware of something else, very faint. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

"I hear the birds," Annie replied. "They are over there in the brush every morning."

Chris walked about the perimeter of Annie's clearing and then a little more to the east, tilting his head as if straining to hear something. "Over here. Do you hear that?"

Annie stepped up beside Chris and concentrated. She tried to filter out the sounds from the birds and the wind through the brush, and then she heard it. A very faint and short whine of some sort that kept repeating. "What is it?"

Chris took a few steps further east and Annie followed. "I think it's getting louder over here," he said. They continued east and south, and every few steps adjusted their course. After ten or so meters, they could both hear it more clearly, whatever it was, but still faint. They looked at one another and Chris shrugged. "Let's keep going until we don't hear it anymore."

In their next step, however, something unexpected happened. Out of thin air, a door appeared to slide open. What once was just part of the featureless desert now contained a gaping hole. The inside of the hole was darker and mostly illuminated with a flashing red light. In fact, the light flashed at the same cadence as the whine, which was now quite loud. But not a whine at all. More like an alarm. Chris stepped forward tentatively but Annie paused at the threshold. A sense of foreboding swept over her.

"Are you okay?" Chris asked with concern.

Annie shivered a bit. "Just a feeling," she whispered. "I think we might not like what we find in there."

Chris stepped back. "We don't have to go. Perhaps we should go back to town and tell the others what we've found."

Annie slipped her hand into Chris's and shook her head. She had been here many times before and had never heard this nor seen evidence of this gateway before. What if they did leave only to come back and it was gone. There was no reason they couldn't investigate now. "Together," she said with determination. "We do it together."

"Always," Chris replied, and then the two of them stepped through the threshold. They entered what appeared to be a corridor that stretched off on either side and eventually curved out of view. When they were both completely through, the door shut behind them blocking out their view of Santa Lucia. The red light still flashed, and the alarm still blared, echoing up and down the corridor. "Which way?" Chris wondered aloud.

"Look at the markings on the wall over there," Annie pointed out. Some of the walls on either side of the corridor appeared shiny and smooth, and on these portions were self-illuminated markings. Some of the markings were clearly arrows pointing them to move off to the right. Chris nodded and started in that direction. "Wait," Annie stopped him. She still held on tight to Chris's hand. "How will we find our way back?"

They both looked around the perimeter of the door they just come through. "Holodeck one," Chris read aloud. The two of them glanced at one another, not exactly sure what that might mean, and then headed down the corridor in the direction the arrows indicated.

At each junction, the arrows on the wall guided them in a particular direction. Eventually, however, they came to a point between junctions where the next arrow appeared to have them turn around and double back. "Now what?" Chris wondered. They both looked back and forth between the current arrow turning them around and the previous arrow leading them to this point. Between the two was what appeared to be a door, but it didn't have any handle. Chris stepped up to the door and knocked. After a moment, he turned to Annie and shrugged.

"Try knocking harder," Annie suggested.

Chris leaned forward and pounded his clenched fist against the door in three loud thumps. Almost immediately they heard a voice from inside. "Help! Help! I'm locked in here. Please open the door." It sounded like a child's voice. That of a young girl.

Chris looked again at the door. "I can't," he called out to the girl behind the door. "There's no handle on this side of the door."

There was a pause for a few seconds, and then the child replied. "Try unlocking it using the outside buttons."

They located a panel of illuminated buttons beside the door. Without thinking Annie touched the button that was illuminated red and it turned to green. She then touched the white button below it. The door slid open, and on the other side stood the young girl, perhaps five years of age. Human in appearance save for a row of bumps down the center of her forehead. She looked up at the two of them and then lurched forward to hug Annie about her legs. "Seven! Commander Chakotay!" she squealed. "I had almost lost hope that anyone would rescue me."

Annie squatted down and returned the child's embrace. "You're alright now," she soothed. She glanced up to Chris and then returned her attention to the child. "You know us?"

"Of course," the child said. "Do you know where my mother is? Is she okay?"

Annie again looked up to Chris. "What's your mother's name?" Chris asked.

The child now looked a bit confused. "You know her name," she said. "Samantha Wildman."

"Could you show us a photo of your mother?" Annie suggested instead.

The child hesitated for a moment, but then retreated into the room and came back a few moments later with a framed photo. The image was of the child with a young woman whom Annie did recognize. She passed the photo up to Chris and then returned her attention to the child. "We do know your mother," she said. "She lives with us in Santa Lucia. Her name is Amy."

"Santa Lucia? I don't understand," the child said.

"When you first saw us, you called us by particular names," Chris ventured. "What were they again?"

The child nodded, seeming to now understand. "Your name is Commander Chakotay. You're the first officer of Voyager." She then turned to Annie. "And your name is Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One."

"That doesn't sound like a proper name," Annie protested.

The child shrugged. "It's your Borg designation. Usually people just call you Seven of Nine, or Seven." Annie wasn't quite sure what she thought about that. "Is it that something has happened to your memory? What do you think your names are?" the girl asked.

"My name is Annie," Annie said and then took Chris's hand back in her own. "And this is my husband, Chris."

The girl nodded slowly and glanced down at Chris and Annie hands as Annie's response began to register. "Are you…?" she began to ask.

"Yes, we're married," Annie said. "If that's what you're wondering."

The girl's eyes lit up. "I didn't even know you liked each other," she said with glee. The thought definitely seemed to please the girl immensely.

Annie smiled. "We love each other," she confirmed.

"You know, I think your real name is Annika, and that's kind of like Annie," the girl said. She then looked out beyond them now into the darkened corridor. The red lights still flashed, and the alarm still blared. "Was the ship taken over?" she asked. "Were your memories changed or erased by spores or something and you were trapped somewhere and now you're retaking the ship? Where's everyone else?"

"The… ship, seems to be deserted," Chris began. "We came here through a door marked Holodeck One, and these markings on the wall led us to your room here." As he spoke, he motioned up towards the closest arrow.

"Chris," Annie said with a start and stood back up. "The arrows have changed direction."

Chris glanced back and realized the same. All the arrows pointed back in the direction from which they first came. They both turned to look down at the girl. "It wasn't me," she said. "I've been stuck in my quarters for almost two months. I haven't seen my mother in almost that much time. The only thing that works in the quarters is the replicator, and that's been acting funny for a couple weeks now. I can't access the computer or anything. About a week ago, the ship was put on red alert and has been going ever since."

So that's what the alarm was, and it has been only going for a week. Chris and Annie weren't quite sure what to do. Do they follow the arrows again, or go back to this Holodeck One and get others from the town.

"What's happened?" the little girl asked, sounding scared for the first time.

Annie knelt back beside the girl. "Now you know our names," she said. "What shall we call you?"

"Naomi," the girl responded meekly. "Naomi Wildman."

Chris reached out his other hand. "Come with us, Naomi. We'll find your mother."

Naomi took his hand and they started back down the corridor. "I think we should go to sickbay," Naomi suggested. "Perhaps the Doctor can help you with your memory." That sounded reasonable. If they took Naomi back to Santa Lucia, it was likely the woman she thought to be her mother wouldn't recognize her. At the first two junctions, the arrows indicated the direction that would take them back to Holodeck One. At the third junction, however, it indicated a different direction. "That is the way to the turbolift that will take us to sickbay," Naomi confirmed. "And the holodecks are in the other direction on this deck," she added, answering their unasked question.

Annie and Chris exchanged a look and then followed Naomi's lead away from the holodeck. They entered the turbolift. "Deck Five," Naomi said confidently. There was a longer delay than usual, but the turbolift moved to deck five and the doors reopened. Naomi was already starting out the door, but then recoiled back into Annie's legs. In front of them was an enclosed table, and on top of the table was a body. They all stood stock still for a moment, and then tentatively moved closer to examine what appeared to be a corpse of a human male dressed in some sort of armored costume. The body appeared to have suffered a fatal wound to the chest from a sharp instrument that tore through the clothes and skin. Naomi stifled a sob and turned away.

"I don't recognize him," Chirs whispered. He then noticed some lights flashing near the head of the enclosed chamber. Two were a solid green, one flashed green, while another flashed amber.

"Might he still be alive?" Annie asked.

Naomi turned to look. "It could be a medical stasis chamber," she said hopefully, finding her voice. "Mom has told me about them, but I have never seen one." She looked up and down the hallway. Other such chambers lined both sides for as far as they could see. "Perhaps they're all still alive?" she added.

Annie put her arm about the child and drew her in closer. "Stay close to me," she said. "Keep your eyes looking forward. You don't have to look."

Naomi guided them in the direction of sickbay. Most of the space in the hallway was taken up with the stasis chambers. Most of the bodies inside appeared to have suffered some sort of trauma. Suddenly Annie stopped at one of the chambers. Chris turned to look. "I recognize him too," he said.

"I think his name was Harold," Annie confirmed. "He was one of the prospectors staying at the boarding house, before that night."

They moved quickly on to the next, and sure enough, he too was one of the townsfolk they had lost in their fight with the creatures the month before. They found all of their missing people, and then arrived at sickbay. The door appeared to be locked from the outside, similar to the way Naomi's quarters were locked, and so Annie unlocked the door and opened it. A few lights flickered on when they entered, but there was no one inside. Against the opposite wall were some empty tables and what appeared to be another stasis chamber, although this one appeared larger. They couldn't see from their vantage if it was occupied or not. Naomi looked up to the ceiling and said, "Computer, activate EMH."

There was no response at first, but then an artificial voice replied, "Unable to comply. The Emergency Medical Hologram is offline. Insufficient power to initialize matrix. All available power being directed to the holodecks."

Chris moved off towards what appeared to be an office of some sort while Annie with Naomi in tow went to investigate the stasis chamber. When Annie finally saw the chamber's occupant, she recoiled and stumbled backward. "Chris!" she shouted.

Chris came running over to comfort Annie. She grabbed hold of him and breathed heavily. "What is it?" he asked

Annie pointed towards the stasis chamber. "One of the creatures that attacked Santa Lucia is in that chamber."

Chris looked over, but didn't go any closer. He then guided Annie and Naomi back towards the office area he had just been looking in. "I think I found something over here," he said. He went to a desk and lifted up a sheet of paper. "It's a message, from the doctor." He cleared his throat and began to read.

"I hope someone finds this letter in time. It's been three weeks since all the Hirogen have either died or left Voyager. They had me working on a cure for whatever the pathogen that has swept through their ranks might be, but I was unable to isolate it, let alone find a cure. Despite the disease, they continued their barbaric games in the holodecks and cargo bays, but didn't allow me to treat any of the wounded. The Hirogen leader said they were preserving the injured crew until I found a cure for them, and I can only imagine the broken bodies that wait outside for treatment. My calls have gone unanswered these past three weeks, and I'm locked inside sickbay. A prisoner in these walls. If only I had access to my mobile emitter, but alas it was confiscated. I've attempted without success in gaining access to the greater ship-wide systems, and with ship power dwindling and directed to the holodecks, I have no choice but to take myself offline and pray that someone finds this message in time. With what limited computer access I had and an ingenious use of environmental controls, however, I was able to put the ship on Red Alert and program directions to both unlock Miss Wildman from her quarters and to find sickbay for anyone who found themselves outside the holodecks. If you are reading this, my efforts have not been as futile as I fear.

"On the desk, next to this letter, are hyposprays with an injection that will neutralize the effects of the neural interface and restore the memories of the Voyager crew. If you take down the neural interface grid, everyone's memory will be restored. I was working the Ensign Kim to do just that, but when the pathogen's lethality became clear, the Hirogen stopped their expansion of the hologrids, ended the St. Clare recreation and put Harry into a recreation of a western frontier town instead. Once the neural interfaces are down, the priority will be to stabilize ship's power and either bring me back online or find my mobile emitter so I can treat the wounds of anyone who has survived the Hirogen games.

"Good luck. The Doctor."

Chris placed the letter down and picked up one of the hyposprays.

"You place the end with the silver knob on your neck, and it will inject the medicine into you," Naomi instructed. "It might sting, just a little." She seemed very pleased with herself, since it was her suggestion to come to sickbay in the first place.

Chris turned to Annie. Annie was reluctant to pick up her own hypospray. She had the same terrible sense of foreboding she had earlier. But, she also didn't like the idea of thinking she couldn't remember all of her past. All those memories, locked up inside her. She took a deep breath and exhaled quickly, and then picked up the hypospray. "Together," she said. "We do it together."

"Always."

They each injected themselves with the hypospray. The effect was almost immediate. The memories flooded into her mind and threatened to overwhelm her. Worlds on fire, the destruction of civilizations, the Borg's Hive Mind. Assimilation, conflict, Voyager, Annika the little girl, Seven of Nine the woman, and Chakotay.

She remembered … everything.