Chapter 5 – Recovery

"Okay, that's Crewman Chell," Chakotay said, checking the last of the stasis pods. "How many do we have left?"

Ayala checked the crew manifest. "Thirty-two unaccounted for."

Chakotay shook his head. Still a lot of people missing, but where could they be? The injured in the stasis pods had lined the corridors on the same deck as sickbay, and they had meticulously checked each one. The other decks hadn't contained any, nor had the others encountered anyone on the upper decks on their way to the bridge or the lower decks on their way to engineering. "Do we start checking quarters?" he wondered. "Perhaps there are some locked in their rooms, similar to Naomi Wildman."

Ayala shrugged. "That's possible I suppose." He then looked more thoughtful. "I would suggest we check places where most of them could be together before a room by room search that would take time."

That sounded reasonable. Something Ayala might suggest if all his memories were intact. It was evident that many memories or traits were not suppressed by the Hirogen device, only the memories that related to the person's identity and history. Chakotay looked further down the hall. "We're close to the shuttle bay," he stated. "That's a good place to start. We'll then check the two cargo bays and the mess hall. I'm afraid after that, it's room by room."

"Lead the way," Ayala replied. After a few steps down the corridor, he stepped up next to Chakotay so the two were side by side. He cleared his throat. "I was wondering, were you and Annie married before all this started?"

Chakotay turned to his friend and shook his head. After getting phasers, communicators, and a tricorder at the armory, they pulled up the crew list to account for everyone, starting with those who they remembered in the Santa Lucia holodeck program and then started checking the stasis chambers in the corridors near sickbay. Only now did Ayala ask his first question, somewhat reserved in both the Santa Lucia recreation and in real life, and the question was not even about his own past. "No," Chakotay replied. "We were colleagues, of course, but um… I guess perhaps…" He wasn't quite sure what to say. Explain to him about the Borg and how Seven came to be aboard Voyager?

Ayala frowned. "The two of you seem so natural together," he said. "Made for each other, as is often said."

Chakotay paused at the threshold of the shuttle bay. It did seem so obvious now. "You're right, but it's strange," he finally said. "I have two sets of memories. We were completely different people before, and yet not really. There seems to be a continuity as if I've always felt this way, but also a discontinuity due to the suppression of our memories."

Ayala nodded, seeming to accept the muddled explanation at face value. He then touched the panel to open the shuttle bay doors. It was dark inside, but the lights came on when they entered. The Delta Flyer and shuttles were exactly where they were supposed to be, but the place was unoccupied. "Onto the cargo bays then," Ayala commented, and turned to follow Chakotay out.

"The entrances to the cargo bays are one deck down on either side," Chakotay remarked. "We could access them through the shuttle bay's freight lifts, but this way we'll see more of the ship." Just in case more statis pods were located further from sick bay, although that seemed unlikely. The two made their way to the turbolift.

"What about me?" Ayala asked as they reached the turbolift. "Am I really a preacher? Are Mary and I…" He smiled and shrugged. His friend's curiosity about his own suppressed memories had finally been articulated.

Chakotay paused. He had been waiting for Ayala to ask and had been formulating what to say about his friend's past. Soon enough his memories would be restored, but he did deserve to know something about himself. "No, you're not a preacher, and I don't believe you're involved with anyone aboard Voyager. Mary's name is actually Marina Jor. She was with us in the Maquis and on the Val Jean before we all came to Voyager, but you were just friends."

Ayala nodded, a little disappointed.

"Let me tell you a little about who you are," Chakotay went on. "For one, you are my best friend. One of the first to join me in a resistance movement to protest some injustices happening around us back in the alpha quadrant where this all started for most of us."

"The Maquis," Ayala replied. More a statement than a question.

"Yes. Your world was invaded. Your wife was killed. When I met you, I was intent on revenge. Most all of us were. But you were a more measured temperament, more concerned with justice. You made me, and all those around you better for it."

Ayala shrugged and scratched the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable at receiving praise. "I don't remember any of it," he confessed. He then sighed. "A wife? Did I have any children?"

Chakotay nodded. "Two sons," he said. "They were staying with family on Earth. They'd be teenagers by now."

Ayala winced. It felt like a gut punch. "I don't remember any of it," he repeated.

"You will," Chakotay assured him. He put his hand on Ayala's shoulder. "You will."

The two exited the turbo lift and started in the direction of the cargo bay before Ayala spoke again. "Who is the preacher aboard Voyager? One of the other people in Santa Lucia?"

They paused outside Cargo Bay One. Chakotay frowned. "Voyager has no preacher," he said. "There are many diverse views and religions represented on board. Many, perhaps most, have no religion at all or even a belief in a Great Spirit, or God."

Ayala appeared confused. "That's difficult for me to believe," he replied.

Chakotay hadn't really thought about it, having grown up in a diverse, mostly secular culture. Knowing how it had been in Santa Lucia, the only memories his friend currently had, he could understand Ayala's point of view. Everyone in the recreation had attended the local church. This seemed like another conversation that might take time, and would obviously be much different once Ayala regained his memories. Time, unfortunately, was something they didn't have. "We'll have to revisit this conversation another time," Chakotay said and then gestured to the cargo bay door.

Ayala nodded, but again seemed a bit disappointed.

Chakotay touched the panel to open the cargo bay doors, but it beeped instead. The door was locked. He examined the control more closely and then entered in his security code. The doors slid open. Instead of the interior of the cargo bay, however, they appeared to be at street level in a city. Rubble littered the immediate area, and what they could see of the skyline showed ruined buildings and desolation. Chakotay drew his phaser and stepped inside and Ayala did the same. Behind them, the cargo bay doors closed and now looked to be the side of a building with no exit evident.

Chakotay examined the buildings around them. "If I were to guess," he said, "this looks to be the aftermath of World War III on Earth."

"Another recreation, like Santa Lucia," Ayala commented wide-eyed. The cities in his implanted memories were nothing like this. He shook his head in disgust. "Three world wars?"

Chakotay frowned. There was a lot of history that Ayala didn't remember either, and there was simply too much to cover right now to explain it. Focus on the here and now. "The Hirogen must have transformed the cargo bay into another holodeck to host more of their games," he answered instead. As he was speaking, five people exited from their hiding places about the square. Chakotay recognized them all. Five of the thirty-two still missing crewman.

"Where the hell did you come from?" one of them asked. He held a pipe with a ragged edge, obviously fashioned to be a crude weapon. It was Cathal O'Donnell, another ex-Maquis. The other four stood on either side of him also holding weapons. The Delaney sisters, Megan and Jenny, on his right and Crewmans Kelly and Dalby on his left.

Chakotay wasn't quite certain how best to play along with the situation, but Ayala beat him to the punch. "We're here to… help the survivors," he said. "I'm a minister. We would very much like to speak with you and the rest of your group here. See how we can help you."

Cathal looked confused, as if that was the last thing he had expected to hear. "A minister?" he repeated.

"Do you mean a priest?" Crewman Kelly asked.

Ayala shrugged. "Sort of," he replied. "A preacher. A man of God."

"We don't need no preacher. What we need is a doctor." Cathal said.

"We can help you with that as well," Chakotay added.

"How'd you get through the radiation," Crewman Kelly asked.

Chakotay and Ayala glanced at one another and hesitated. Chakotay realized they were both still holding out their phasers and got an idea. "These devices enabled us to find a path through the city to get to you while avoiding the radiation zones. We could lead you, and everyone else in your group, to safety."

Cathal glanced at his companions, and then back to Ayala and Chakotay. "I'd very much like to have me one of those," he said ominously.

"Like I said," Ayala replied. "We can help you. That's why we came here. To find you."

"How many of you are there in this enclave?" Chakotay added.

Cathal shifted and lowered his weapon slightly. He shrugged. "About thirty or so, I'd guess. A couple are real sick, though."

"Are you nearby?"

"Yeah. We've been trapped here for weeks. We haven't found a way out past the radiation. Our food and water are running out."

"Can we go talk to everyone?" Ayala said. He raised his phaser. "We can lead you all away from here. To safety, like my friend said."

"Are you really a preacher?" Jenny Delaney interrupted, speaking for the first time.

Ayala hesitated, but then nodded.

"If there is a God, why did he let this happen?" She gestured to the destruction around her. "So many people have died. And those monsters that hunted us. Who were they? Where is God? Why did he abandon us?"

Ayala rubbed the back of his neck. "Those are good question," he said. "Why does God allow suffering? If God is omnipotent and omnipresent, why does he not intervene and prevent us from destroying ourselves?" He gestured around as Jenny had done. "Allowed all of this." He put out his hands and glanced to Chakotay. "We're here to help. I am certain we can help you and the others. Take us to the other survivors and we can talk about it. Maybe we can figure out some answers together."

Cathal appeared to make a decision. The broken pipe was down at his side and he waved them to follow him with his other hand. "Let's go then."

###

The turbolift doors opened and Captain Janeway and Tom Paris stepped out onto Voyager's bridge. Both had their phasers out and ready, but the bridge was deserted and lit only with emergency lighting. The ship was operating with minimal power throughout. The main view screen was deactivated and only a few of the bridge stations appeared to be up and operating. They had expected to at least find some of the Hirogen along the way, even if they were dead, but so far their path from the armory to the bridge had been uneventful. Janeway holstered her phaser and stepped over to one of the active bridge stations. She examined the readings. "We appear to be dead in space," she commented. "Unclear if we're in orbit about a distant star or planet, or simply drifting."

Tom moved to the back of the bridge and opened the door to the conference room. He ducked in for a moment and then came back out and shrugged. "Nothing in here," he said. "Everything still squeaky clean."

Janeway looked about and shook her head. "How did I let this happen Tom," she sighed. She eyed the empty Captain's chair, reluctant to approach it.

Tom moved over beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Captain, you didn't let this happen. The Hirogen had superior weapons and overwhelmed us in their surprise attack." He shrugged his shoulders. "It just happened."

Janeway frowned. She felt as if her command had been one disaster after another. Years now in the Delta Quadrant. Scratching their way home and now her ship disabled and most of her crew injured and in statis pods. Tom's reassurance didn't make her feel any better about the situation. But, they were still alive, and she was determined to do whatever it took to restore her ship and crew. She turned and moved towards the other side of the bridge towards her ready room. One last place to check before returning to sick bay. Tom followed behind her. When the door opened, they were struck by the smell of decay, and both moved their arm up to cover their nose and mouth. As the lights flickered on, it was evident that a body lay slumped over the Captain's desk. From the size, whoever it was was obviously a Hirogen hunter. From the smell, they had been dead for some time. After a moment's hesitation, they both moved cautiously inside the room. It was pretty much as Janeway remembered. There weren't any added mementos from the Hirogen, nor did anything seem to be out of place. That wasn't entirely true. Janeway moved over to the desk and picked up an item she recognized but hadn't been there before. It was exactly what they had been looking for. She turned and handed it to Lieutenant Paris. "Tom, see if you can activate this," she said.

Paris reluctantly took his arm from his nose and examined the Doctor's mobile emitter. He pressed a few of the buttons, but nothing happened. "Its energy appears to be depleted," he said. "We'll have to take it back down to sickbay to recharge."

Janeway motioned for them to leave and they quickly exited her ready room and returned to the bridge. The door swished shut behind. Janeway moved towards the turbolift, but then turned to face Paris. "How long will that take?"

"A few hours to fully recharge it," Tom replied, "but I think we could do a partial recharge in about twenty minutes so we can reactivate the Doctor and get some answers."

Janeway nodded. "Let's hope he wore it sometime after all this began," she commented and then motioned to the turbolift. "We'll be getting that version of the Doctor. Let's get out of here."

They retraced their steps and made it down to sickbay. Tom moved over to the Doctor's office and placed the mobile emitter in its charging station and adjusted some of the settings to maximize the transfer of power to the unit. Tom stepped back and turned to Captain Janeway. "Now we wait."

###

Seven of Nine and Marina Jor entered Engineering. The warp drive appeared to be offline, but next to the warp drive and powered directly from the dilithium crystal chamber was another mechanism that was not supposed to be there. It appeared to be the only thing operating. Seven moved over cautiously and used her tricorder to scan the device.

"What is it?" Marina asked.

Seven adjusted the scan. "Whatever it is, it is blocking my scans to examine the interior."

"But it's not supposed to be here, right?"

"You are correct," Seven replied. She studied what readings she could more closely. "I do detect that it is emitting some form of radiation, however, and so I would suspect it is the Hirogen neural interface we've been looking for." In addition to the device, there appeared to be a barrier set up surrounding it to prevent someone from getting too close. Seven extended her arm to move the tricorder over the barrier to attempt to get a better reading, but as she did a spark of blue light arced between the device and the tricorder. Seven had to drop the tricorder onto the floor of Engineering and it fizzled with electricity, apparently destroyed in the discharge.

"Don't get too close sis," Marina said with alarm.

Seven paused. Marina had rebuffed her attempts to explain their true relationship on Voyager or anything else from before the Santa Lucia recreation. "Marina," she began again, but was cut off by Marina's raised hand.

"I know, I know," Marina said. "You're going to tell me we aren't sisters. I told you, I don't want to know about my memories and anything else that might be different about the two of us. When my memories are restored, I'll know then and we can deal with it then. For now, we're sisters. Let's just leave it at that for now. It's not going to interfere with what we have to do. So, let's just finish this."

Seven sighed. She had been wanted to ease Marina out of the mindset and delusion of Santa Lucia. She was uncertain how the other woman would react finding out she was supposedly the sister of a former Borg drone. "I'm not who you think I am," Seven confessed. "I just don't want you to be disappointed."

"What on Earth are you talking about," Marina shot back. "Are you saying you don't care about me?"

Seven shook her head. "That's not it at all," she said alarmed.

"What about you and Chris?" Marina continued. "Is that all just made up too?"

Seven hesitated. She remembered Chakotay's reassurance after the two had regained their memories. There obviously was something more now than was there between them before. "No," she finally said. "I do love him. And you. This is all very confusing for me."

Marina stepped up and hugged Seven's shoulder. "So let's just finish this," she repeated. "It will all work out. You'll see."

Seven nodded, and then looked around engineering. Without a tricorder, she would have to figure it out in another way. The dilithium chamber was active, so she went over to check its status. The energy output was dangerously low.

Marina was studying the device. "I think that barrier is not so much to protect the device," she observed, "but to make sure you don't get too close." She then pointed over to an engineering station close by. "It seems like it must be connected to something over there."

Sure enough, Marina had pointed to the only engineering station that was still active besides the dilithium chamber display. Seven moved over and studied the configuration. "If I understand this correctly," she said, "I believe you're right. The device is being controlled from this station. I think I can simply disengage it by terminating the link."

"Then do it," Marina replied.

Seven hesitated. They hadn't heard from the Captain or Chakotay for several minutes, and it seemed prudent to inform her of their intentions. She then tapped her comm badge. "Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway. We have located the Hirogen neural interface in engineering and can disengage power. Should I proceed?"

"Good work Seven," Janeway replied. "We're in sickbay about to activate the Doctor's program in his mobile emitter. Go ahead and deactivate the neural interface and then join us here."

"Understood," Seven said. She turned to Marina, and then back to the panel. A few keystrokes and the panel went blank. The device itself seemed to stay on for a second, but then it too powered down. Seven turned back to Marina. Just as with Chakotay in sickbay and the others in the Santa Lucia recreation, she could almost see the memories return by her expressions.

"Seven," Marina said. Her mouth remained open for a moment as she processed the old memories with the new. She seemed both surprised and happy. Marina then moved over and wrapped her arms about Seven. Seven instinctively returned the hug as she had done numerous times in the Santa Lucia recreation as Annie, not quite sure what to think. "Disappointed," Marina laughed. "Oh Seven. As far as I'm concerned, we're still sisters."

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Author's note: Not getting many reviews lately. Would love to hear from those in the C/7 fandom still out there. I'm envisioning three more chapters for this story. Might take a break for a bit, but do plan to finish this story in the next month or two.