To Tell The Truth Series 04 Sunfire

by Melanie

  "Yes, I thought I was. I thought we had a bond."

  "I thought his mate was Lieutenant Torres."

  "Not that kind of bond. I don't know how to describe it. It was like he was my son and my mischievous little brother and my friend and -" She half laughed. "And my personal reclamation project, as the Commander calls him. I honestly thought I knew what kind of man he was. Now, it seems I didn't know him at all. None of us did."

  "There was no one in whom he confided? No one who may perhaps know him better than all the others?"

  "Tom wasn't much of a one to do the confiding. Others could and did confide in him, especially if they were having romantic problems, but he didn't reciprocate. Not really. That drove B'Elanna crazy actually. Harry too. They'd open up to him, yet he wouldn't to them."

  "So he kept things to himself."

  "Pretty much."

  "That is unfortunate."

  "Yes, I always thought it was. Rather sad he always felt he could give to others and not to himself."

  "No, I meant unfortunate because that means no one here actually has a true insight into his character therefore probably cannot be of much assistance in his recovery."

  "I don't think that's true, exactly. We have observed how he has been. We've seen him interacting with everyone for five years. I think we know what he's been like. Granted, we have no idea what he was like before The Protectors put this thing in his head to control his behavior, but we can tell you about how he has been over the last five years."

  T'Kara took a seat before her. "And how has he been?"

  For close to ten minutes the Captain told the young Vulcan female about the AlphaOmegans' prisoner. Trying to prove her argument that the AlphaOmegans mistaken a good and decent man for an evil and disturbed one, she recounted all the good things he had done. Not swayed by the glowing report, T'Kara tucked every detail away for future reference.

  "But you didn't come here to listen to me go on about him. Why did you come?"

  "Alpha Two has invited you over to The Diogenes to see Mr. Paris."

  She eagerly shifted in her chair. "When?"

  "As soon as you could come."

  "Fine."

  T'Kara rose. "I'll inform Alpha Two then contact you."

  She tapped her combadge and was gone.

  -------

  After hearing her news, Alpha Two dismissed T'Kara, ordering her back to Voyager.

  'Janeway is coming,' he thought, rising. 'It is time for the next act.'

  -------

  "You're what?" Chakotay gasped. "No. No way. They've done nothing but lie to us. How do we know you'll be safe over there?"

  Ignoring the presence of the crewwoman at the transporter controls, the only other person in the transporter room, the Captain laid a hand on her First Officer's arm to soothe him. "First of all, I'm taking Tuvok and the Doctor with me. And, yes, they did lie about their identities and about their interest in Tom, but right now he's over there being interrogated for things he probably did not do. Or if he did them, he isn't that same man anymore. Regardless, I want to see him, face to face to see he's okay. I know him. I know if I

  can talk to him, he'll tell me the truth, good or bad. And if it is good, maybe, just maybe I might be able to talk some sense into this Alpha Two's head. Tuvok says he's Vulcan. He will see the illogic in all this. I'm sure of it."

  Chakotay stared into her eyes and recognized the look in them. Determination. Even if it was dangerous, she was determined to beard the lion in his own den. He looked over his shoulder to the crewwoman. She was pretending to be absorbed in checking her console, not watching her superiors. "You will keep a transporter lock on them."

  She looked up and nodded. "Aye, sir."

  The doors opened to admit the Doctor carrying a medkit and Security Chief with a phaser at his waist. The First Officer relaxed only slightly at seeing the phaser.

  Kathryn gave his arm a reassuring squeeze then headed up to the platform to join the others.

  -------

  The party from Voyager beamed not into The Diogenes' Transporter Room, but into a corridor. According to T'Kara, given the sheer size of the AlphaOmegan ship, it was far easier for them to beam to this location only down the corridor and around a corner from the secured area where they held Tom than to walk all the way there. The Captain had sensed the tacit approval of Tuvok in Security Chief mode at hearing they had a dampening field around Tom's possibly temporary home prevented them from beaming any closer to the secured area. She even shared the sentiment about their caution, only to mentally stumble when she remembered the prisoner they were attempting to keep from beaming out of his cell was Tom.

  The first face they saw when the beam released them was that of a tall Vulcan in a uniform like those of the AlphaOmegans except his was all in white. Instantly, Kathryn guessed this had to be the infamous Alpha Two.

  "Captain Janeway, Doctor, Mr. Tuvok," he said slightly inclining his head to each as he spoke. "I am Alpha Two. If you will follow me this way?" As he led them down the corridor, he apologized to his counterpart. "Our meeting is long overdue, Captain. I should have been the one to meet you and explain our presence. However, I felt beginning Mr. Paris' treatment immediately was more urgent. Raven has been adequate in my stead?"

  "Yes," she assured him from at his elbow as they strode down the corridor, "but you can understand our reluctance to believe his assertions regarding Tom."

  "Yes, I do understand, Captain. He was with you for over five years. It is understandable you would have come to believe you know him."

  "All due respect, Alpha Two, we do know him."

  He shook his head. "I doubt that you do."

  "How is Mr. Paris?" the Doctor asked.

  "He is in excellent physical condition."

  "And mentally?"

  "Mentally, he is alternately confused, belligerent, and withdrawn. He has been experiencing flashbacks to his former behavioral patterns."

  "We still don't believe you have the right man," Janeway informed him.

  "Yes, Raven told me as much. I can assure you we do have the correct individual. If you wish, I can show you some of his file while we wait for the doctors to finish with him."

  "Doctors?" the EMH and Captain gasped together.

  "Nothing dire, I assure you. He has been on a hunger strike and has grown listless. Our doctors are in with him now to administer a vitamin shot and examine him."

  Before they reached the junction of the two corridors, they heard a commotion in one of the rooms down the corridor followed by phaser fire. As they rounded the corner and Tuvok drew his weapon, a door five doors down slid open and a medical technician tumbled out clearly dead. Another one came flying out through the open door, impacting on the facing wall then slumping to the deck, also deceased.

  Before Alpha Two's party could take cover in the nearest room, a disheveled Tom Paris appeared in the doorway and fired upon them. Janeway went down almost immediately with a severe chest wound. Under a barrage of blasts from the escapee, the others dragged the Captain off towards a nearby door. They were almost inside when there was a cry from Tom and the sounds of a scuffle. The four paused long enough to see Paris pinned to the deck by four technicians who had tackled had him.

  Danger passed, the Doctor motioned for the others to lower the Captain to the deck where he whipped out a tricorder and began checking her injury. "I need to get her back to Voyager right away."

  "No," the patient declined, grimacing in pain, "I want to see Tom."

  "Captain, as Chief Medical Officer of Voyager I am ordering to Sickbay."

  "I want to see-"

  Alpha Two turned from watching what was happening down the corridor. The technicians on Tom had relinquished their writhing prisoner to three well-armed soldiers who had arrived to take charge of the situation. Immediately they had snatched him up, turning a deaf ear to the rotating volley threats he was delivering in the native tongues of his captors.

  "Alpha Two to Security,
" he called, touching his combadge. "Drop dampening field around detention area and beam Voyager's party to their Sickbay."

  The last thing the three from Voyager saw was the soldiers dodging the team of medical personnel who swarmed their fallen comrades and taking Tom into another room, across the corridor and three doors down from his previous accommodations.

  -------

  "What happened?" Chakotay demanded over the Comm from the Bridge.

  While the Doctor worked on Janeway, Tuvok filled in the First Officer. In the background, there were gasps from the Bridge crew who were listening in.

  "I find it difficult to believe he intended to shoot the Captain," the Security Chief announced.

  "But he's one of the best shots on Voyager," Chakotay murmured. "It's hard to believe, even under such stressful conditions, he'd missed his logical target."

  "The logical target being Alpha Two and he hit the Captain accidentally."

  "Exactly."

  "If you can take this discussion into Mr. Paris' bizarre behavior elsewhere?" the Doctor interrupted. "Ensign Wildman and I have work to do. Yana, we could use a hand."

  "I will be on the Bridge momentarily, Commander. Tuvok out."

  -------

  Tom could not believe what he had seen on the monitor. His eyes leapt to Alpha Two's as he entered the Re-Education Room.

  "I wonder if the designer of the first holodeck ever dreamed how it was going to be used in the future?" He shut off the display that now showed only the familiar gridlines of a holodeck. "What is it the Terrans say? 'Turn about is fair play'? They used their Holodeck to fool you with their parole test. I used ours to fool them into thinking you have lost complete control. Poetic justice perhaps?"

  It took what little strength of will he had left not to shout 'But they didn't try to kill me!' He knew the charade he had witnessed was as much for the Voyager crew's benefit as it was for his. He only wondered if the hologram of himself who had shot Janeway with a very real phaser had killed her or not. At times like this, he wished he were religious so he could pray to some god or gods for intervention in saving her life. But he was not and fate of one of the two most important women in his life rested in the holographic

  hands of the Doctor.

  "I told you it would be better for Janeway if you submitted to me. But you did not and I was forced to move on to this. Before, they were reluctant to believe our story about you, but now that you have shot the Captain, whom everyone knows you would die to protect, they will be closer to being convinced you are as mentally unbalanced as we say you are. I will permit them a few moments for what you've done to register then the play my final card as you would say."

  He picked up a hypospray from the instrument tray near Tom's chair. "In the interim, will we see if you are ready to talk?"

  -------

  Crewman Ver Faran could not believe what he was hearing, so much so, he asked the gossiping ensign who had just come down from the Bridge to repeat what he had said.

  "Paris faked being weak from hunger and when they dropped the forcefield so the doctors could come in to give him a shot he tried to escape, killed them, and shot the Captain in the process. She's down in Sickbay now. She must be bad. The Doctor, Wildman, *and* that Orion all are working on her."

  "I can't picture Paris doing that," one of Ver's colleagues said, shaking her head. "I mean, everyone knows he's probably the most loyal person on board to her, next to Tuvok."

  "Not anymore, obviously. Alpha Two -- the head AlphaOmegan guy -- he contacted us not long after Tuvok reached the Bridge and made his report. Apparently they've got Paris locked up in their Brig now."

  "He wasn't in the Brig before?!"

  "No. Some nonsense about keeping him in quarters, not a cell to attempt to put him at ease. 'We have found a Spartan cell is not conducive to engendering a sense of trust in the detainee therefore willingness to talk to the investigators,'" he quoted. "Garbage if you ask me. A cell clearly was the best choice for him." He shook his head, sadly. "He showed him to the Commander, some remote surveillance thing so he did not know anyone other than his guards were watching him. You should have seen him. He was in this cell, shouting how he knew Janeway and all of us were in on it all along. Then one of the guards asked him if he didn't have any remorse for the people he'd just killed or even Janeway and he told him to drop the forcefield and he'd show him how remorseful he was. It was scary really. Alpha Two's right. He has gone right over the edge now. You could tell just by watching him pacing back and forth like a caged animal."

  "He is an animal," Ver declared, "so don't feel any sympathy for him. He's finally right where he belongs."

  Without another word, he walked away.

  -------

  After leaving his office from where he had sent the "surveillance of Paris in his cell" to Voyager, Alpha Two returned to his subject in the Re-Education Room. He only had been there a few minutes before his combadge suddenly gave a chirp.

  "What is it?" he demanded.

  "Emergency in Computer Lab One," a female voice responded. "Two technicians down."

  "On my way." He severed the connection. "I will be back later," he promised his semi-conscious prisoner. "Think about answering my questions. You know how much worse things can get for you."

  -------

  The EMH shook his head at the woman in the bed. "Captain, I must insist you stay here. You've had major surgery. You are in no condition to leave Sickbay."

  "But-"

  "I will order you relieved of command if necessary."

  The mutinous glare she offered him only lasted until the strain of holding her head up off of the bed became too much.

  "I can't believe Tom did this," she whispered.

  "Neither can I," he sighed, "but it happened all the same."

  Walking up to the bed, Yana smiled comfortingly down at the patient. "You need to rest, Captain. I am certain Mr. Chakotay can take care of everything until you are recovered."

  Reluctantly, the exhausted Captain closed her eyes as a hypospray was pressed to her neck.

  The Doctor headed for his office. "I'll contact the Bridge and tell him she is going to recover."

  -------

  "What happened?" Alpha Two demanded.

  "I don't know yet," a harried Vassanji muttered. He remained hunched over a console in his lab next door to the site of the current chaos on The Diogenes. "I know they were going to open that program that Bartoq had brought from Voyager. The one he caught their Security Chief attempting to transfer to us. But I had to come here to check on some test results so I don't really know what they did. I'm calling up the surveillance log now."

  As they watched the scene from only moments earlier, they saw The Diogenes' two head computer experts, a pair of Bynars, take the data chip containing Tom's program and insert it into the appropriate slot on their computer. They tapped out the commands to open the file and seconds later, they fell to the deck unconscious.

  "Naturally, the moment their life signs deviated from the norm and the computer sent out the alert, I checked to see what was wrong, but the sensors already listed them as in a coma."

  "Find out exactly what happened to them. I am going to talk to the undoubted architect of this little mess."

  Vassanji was at work before Alpha Two even turned to leave the room.

  -------

  "We need to talk," Bartoq growled as he entered Tuvok's office without announcing himself.

  In marked contrast to his counterpart's apparent anger, the Vulcan calmly abandoned his reports to focus on his visitor.

  "We need to know everything you know about this program of Paris.'"

  "I already told your Alpha Two everything I know of it. Mr. Paris said if the AlphaOmegans came for him, the program was our only hope for survival. I was to breech your computer and upload the program. I have no idea as to the contents of the program. Mr. Paris said it was best that I remained uninformed in case I was captured and interrogated."

&nbs
p; Bartoq growled softly under his breath.

  "Is there some problem?"

  "Our experts who attempted to open the program and they now are in our Sickbay, seriously ill."

  "I see. What happened?"

  "We don't know for certain. All the logs show is they fell to the deck, in a coma, seconds after opening the program. The lab they were in automatically sealed itself the moment the sensors detected a change in their vitals. Since then, we've thoroughly checked out the lab they were in and everything is normal. No viruses or gases or equipment malfunctions or anything we can identify as being responsible for their condition."

  "Perhaps it has nothing to do with the program at all. Perhaps the cause is something else entirely."

  The Klingon mulled this over. "It *is* possible. They are Bynars after all."

  "Ah. Yes. If something happens to one, it happens to both."

  "But it seems entirely too coincidental," he insisted.

  "Yet as my crewmates have told me repeatedly, 'coincidences do happen on occasion.' As maybe the case right now."

  Reluctantly, he nodded at Voyager's Security Chief. "But if you do remember anything-"

  "If I remember anything new, I will inform you."

  "Good."

  As the door closed behind the Klingon, Tuvok nearly smiled.

  -------

  "Voyager has been sighted," the young Rachar male announced to the lead Gherop ship's first officer.

  The Gherop male turned his attention to him. "And the other ship? Is it still with them?"

  "There is a ship matching the description with them."

  "Communications!"

  The female Rachar at the Communications station sat up a little straighter.

  "Alert the rest of the fleet that the enemy has been sighted. They are not to deviate from E'Arte's orders. Voyager is not to be destroyed. As for the other ship, take her if possible. If not, destroy her."

  As she did as ordered, the First Officer called his Captain to the Bridge.

  -------

  "Commander?" Harry called across the Bridge. "We have a fleet of ships incoming. Some of them are of Gherop design." His voice lowered. "And one of them is huge. Almost as large as The Diogenes."