by Melanie
"He lied to us for years about who he was-"
"He has not known about his past for years," Tuvok clarified, "only a few months."
"He still didn't tell anyone. We could have been prepared had we known what was coming."
"He could not tell anyone without endangering the crew. If no one was attempting to hide any knowledge they possessed and nothing appeared in the logs, the AlphaOmegans would have to take longer to find out if everyone actually was in the dark and his plan would have more time to work."
"He still endangered the crew though, didn't he? Or are you forgetting he shot the Captain?"
"That was a hologram of him. Not really him."
"But it was because of him, wasn't it? In some twisted way, it was done for his benefit, wasn't it?"
"Yes, but he did not know it was going to happen nor did he wish it."
Ver focused narrowed gaze upon the Vulcan. "You shared a body for some time. How much of him did you take away with you, Tuvok? Isn't that how mindmelds work? Each comes away with a part of the other? Is that why you're defending him, because he essentially has brainwashed you into agreeing with everything he says?"
"I can assure you, Crewman, he did not 'brainwash' me. Other than what he inadvertently revealed to me in his dreams and what he told me, I took nothing away with me other than that knowledge. As for my faith in what he says, it stems from the fact I could tell he was telling me the truth and what he had told me has been verified through the events of the past few days. He said the AlphaOmegans would come for him and they did. He said he had information they wanted and they would try to get it from anyone they thought he might have told and they did. He said they only were interested in the information and not us and we would not get home and we didn't."
"That last one was only because of his escaping."
"Actually, gentlemen," Sunfire's voice said over his combadge, "your fates had been settled before The Diogenes ever left the Alpha Quadrant."
"Who is this?" the Commander asked.
"I am Sunfire. I apologize for eavesdropping, but until Sunbird is well enough to repair me, I cannot sever the link I established with your systems. You are wrong, Crewman. You weren't ever going to get home."
She replayed for them the confrontation between Raven and Tom outside of the Re-Education Room.
"Only Alpha Two was not dead," she said when the recording was finished. "We were able to maintain control of The Diogenes until I was hurt too badly. You know what happened after that."
"What was this about drugging B'Elanna?" an angry Chakotay questioned.
"For some species, skin to skin contact with one of Raven's species causes a chemical reaction resulting in a strong physical attraction. Raven did this to Lieutenant Torres to steal her from Sunbird more than any desire to place her in a position in which she would not hesitate in answering his questions."
Not really listening to Sunfire and Chakotay's exchange, Tuvok was focused on the danger they had been in and had not even known it. "Why was the biobomb on board?"
"According to Sunbird's file, when Captain Janeway suggested using Tom Paris to help find you, Mr. Tuvok, The Protectors thought it was a great idea. They arranged it so she received permission to approach him in New Zealand. They made sure he said yes to her deal and arrived safely on Voyager."
"Why did they want him here?"
"His mission was to lead Voyager to a specific place in the Badlands, a planetoid called Delcorus. He was programmed that halfway there he was to trigger the biobomb. By the time the ship reached Delcorus, all of the crew would be dead."
"Why did they want the Starfleet crew dead?" Chakotay gasped.
"Simply because they wanted the Maquis to have this ship. The Protectors had a Mission for their people in the Maquis to accomplish and they needed a powerful ship to do it. Since Starfleet was sending Voyager after Tuvok, they decided she would do for their plan."
Ver gritted his teeth. "There are AlphaOmegans in the Maquis?"
"The AlphaOmegans are everywhere, Crewman."
"And your precious Protectors thought some Maquis ship would stumble across Voyager and take her along home with us? That we'd never think it was a trap? They can't be that stupid. And we had no bases near Delcorus anyway. It could have been a long time before anyone found her.""
"One, it was not a trap and, two, a Maquis ship would have found her and taken her back to their base with them as per instructions."
"Instructions? From whom?"
"From The Protectors of course. The head of the team who was to find Voyager was one of their soldiers."
"So they'd just wander back to base with a Federation starship and that would be that? No one would ask questions?"
"Not once Voyager's logs were read. They would show the crew began dropping like flies from a virus supposedly picked up on DS9. The cure for it would have been found and released into the air on the ship only after it was too late to save anyone. By the time the Maquis party arrived, the virus would be eliminated but no one would be left alive."
"What about Mr. Paris?" Tuvok queried. "They were not going to kill him too, were they?"
"Of course not. He was their best soldier. A Chosen One."
"A what?" Chakotay broke in.
"That is the name they apply to one who is in line to become a Protector him-, her- or itself one day. No, he was going to survive. He was immunized against the virus before he left Earth. Four hours after Voyager reached Delcorus, an AlphaOmegan transport was to rendezvous with her with a clone of Tom Paris was on board. At the exact moment Voyager was to have reached the halfway point where AlphaOmegan 41783 was to Awaken and release the virus, the clone would have been subjected to the
virus as well. By the time the transport met Voyager, the clone would be dead. He would be beamed here, Sunbird would have been taken to their ship and Tom Paris would have been no more. The Damocles made the rendezvous with one dead clone, but there was no live AlphaOmegan 41783 there to replace."
"So that's why Tom beamed Yana and the Doctor samples of his blood. The antidote was in it?"
"Yes."
"And he would have done it, wouldn't he," Ver continued, his anger hotter than ever. "If the Caretaker hadn't brought us here, he would have triggered this little surprise for the crew."
"'Free will' and 'AlphaOmegan' form an oxymoron. If an AlphaOmegan is given an order, they follow it to the letter. So the answer is, yes, if Voyager had remained in the Alpha Quadrant and reached the half way point to Delcorus then he would have Awoken and carried out his Mission."
"And the Starfleet crew would be dead and this ship would have ended up in the hands of the Maquis." He clenched his fist. "Could Voyager's presence in the Alpha Quadrant have turned the tide in the war?"
"Ver!" his former Maquis captain spluttered.
"I don't like the idea of the loss of lives, but if it would have won us the war -"
"No," Sunfire interrupted, "the presence of Voyager could not have won the war."
Ver was silent for almost five seconds then he spoke again. "It was no accident Chakotay heard of him just when we needed a pilot, was it?"
"No, it was set up that way. The Protectors needed him placed inside of the Maquis so they arranged for him to get there."
"Convenient for them then, our pilot being hurt in battle and being out of commission for some time.
"The length of his recovery was no accident."
"Someone deliberately made his injuries worse than they initially were, didn't they? I always thought he seemed a little worse off than he should have been." His mouth set into an angry line. "They did it all so Paris would get inside the Maquis? Why?"
"The Protectors had lost contact with one of their people and needed to re-establish contact. He had worked with her in the past so he was sent."
Chakotay frowned deeply. "But he wasn't with us long enough to- She was in my Cell? He didn't meet anyone from any other Cells so it had to be one of my people."
/> "It doesn't matter who it was, Commander. She died not long after Sunbird was captured by Starfleet."
"So he *let* himself get captured, didn't he?"
"No, it was an accident," Tuvok corrected.
"But Starfleet put him in prison. The Protectors couldn't-"
"If he hadn't gone to prison it would have provoked too many questions," Sunfire explained. "Everyone would have thought his family had had a hand in any light sentence he received. At the same time, his family would wonder who actually did, since they didn't. Questions would have arisen they did not want to have to deal with."
"Doctor to Commander Chakotay," the EMH interrupted over her combadge.
The First Officer steeled himself against anymore bad news from Sickbay. Already he had been informed of the deaths of all but one of the AlphaOmegans as well as had it confirmed that Tom's claim there was a deadly virus inside of the biobomb, one which would have done precisely what Sunfire only moments ago had stated it would. He really did not want to know what further bad news awaited him, not when Kathryn, Tom, and Souris were laying in Sickbay at that very moment in such bad shape.
"Go ahead," he reluctantly invited.
"I thought you would like to know there still has not been any change in the conditions of Mr. Paris and Souris. I have discovered something interesting about these Implants. Mr. Paris left the AlphaOmegan file on them open, unintentionally I'm sure, and I've been reading up on them. You might want to come to Sickbay and see for yourself. Sunfire temporarily has disconnected the protocols so their security measures won't kick in at our unauthorized entry. It's fascinating reading."
"I'll be there soon. Chakotay out. Computer, resume. Deck Five." As the lift began to move, he focussed on the seething crewman. "We will finish our discussion at another time. Once we have had a chance to talk to him about all this, *then* we will know what really happened over the past few days and in the past. In the meantime, I don't want to hear of you talking about Lieutenant Paris behind his back. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
The doors opened at Deck Five and the Commander left Tuvok and Ver to travel on without him. Neither male said anything further, though Tuvok -- while he would never admit it -- secretly was as angry with the Bajoran standing stiffly beside him as Ver was at Paris, the AlphaOmegans, and the Universe in general. Try as he might, Tuvok could not think of a way of making it all go away. What he feared most was that it would not go away and that the rest of the crew was sharing his feelings. He himself did share the anger towards the AlphaOmegans, at least in part, but all of them were dead or gone except Souris and Lieutenant Paris. Silently, he sighed. The resentment towards them from the crew was going to be unbearable, especially for Tom Paris, who had been an outcast amongst the crew before because of his past. Now that they knew there were even more reasons to hate him, it would be even worse for him. And there was little he could do for him.
-------
"We're in the Alpha Quadrant, sir," Raven announced over the Comm channel. "We'll reach Base 14 in twelve minutes."
In his quarters, Alpha Two acknowledged in a calm voice then severed the connection. Though his outward appearance was that of calm, it was taking all of his Vulcan training to hold inside the seething anger he felt. Wishing it would not destabilize space for them to attempt so soon to jump back to where they had been, he wanted to return to the Delta Quadrant and ensure all of them were dead. According to some, AlphaOmegan 41783 had ninety-nine lives. 'If by some miracle he still had enough lives left to save
himself and the others from-'
Mentally, he shook his head at that thought. True, yet again his star pupil had out smarted him, but he could not have survived, not in the condition he had been in. Alpha Two opened the small case on the table before him. He withdrew the DNA sample he had ordered a technician to take from an unconscious AlphaOmegan 41783. Turning it over in his hand, he very nearly smiled. Sunbird may have failed him yet again, but this one would not.
Carefully, he returned the sample to the case.
-------
"So it *was* Lieutenant Paris and not your akoonah that caused the malfunction after all, Commander?" Joe Carey nodded. "That is what Vorik and I wondered at the time when the akoonah and every thing else we checked came out okay."
"It was this Implant thing of his," Chakotay confirmed, looking around the bustling Engineering for someone expected yet unseen.
It had been over an hour before he had been able to extract himself from the EMH's lair. First there had been the discoveries he had made regarding the Implants, then there had been the updates on Souris and Tom, and finally, a discussion about how long he planned to keep the Captain unconscious. Chakotay agreed rest was the best thing for her recuperation and were she awake it would be Hell trying to keep her confined to bed while others undertook repairs. So they held off on rousing her from her nap.
However that did not preclude *his* overseeing the repairs and his destination upon leaving Sickbay had been the same one he had had when he had received the Doctor's summons -- Engineering.
Joe checked a padd a crewman handed him then handed it back with a nod. "If you're looking for Lieutenant Torres, she's not here, Commander."
"Where is she?"
Engineering's second-in-command hesitated then reluctantly answered. "Her quarters. She's taking this thing with Lieutenant Paris very hard. After The Diogenes left... she was a wreck, Commander, so I talked her into going to her quarters to rest. She didn't even put up a fight. She just left. But when she didn't show up for her shift today, I left Vorik in charge and went to check on her. She's not good. I think you should go see her."
Nodding, Chakotay strode out of Engineering.
All the way to B'Elanna's quarters, he tried to think of what to say. He knew right now, no matter what he said, the words would come out sounding like "I told you so" to the half-Klingon and that was the last thing she needed to hear right now. Not that someone with the temper of B'Elanna Torres ever wanted to hear even a hint she was wrong about something, but this was a particularly bad thing to appear to be gloating over.
When he walked in after four unanswered door chimes, he found her huddled on her couch, a blanket draped over her lower half, trying to pick a hole in the arm of couch. She did not acknowledge Chakotay even as he carefully sat down next to her.
"If you're here to tell me I told you so, don't bother," she muttered. "I already know."
"I'm here because everyone's worried about you."
"How could I be so wrong?" she asked the ceiling. "About not one, but two of them."
Chakotay narrowed his eyes. "Two?"
"Raven and Tom. How could I have fallen for two liars?"
He sighed and explained what Sunfire had told him about Raven's species and his "drugging" her to get her to fall for him. Unfortunately, the news that her falling for Raven was not really "falling" did not make her feel any better, only worse to find out yet another man had used her like so many in the past.
By the time Chakotay was called away, B'Elanna was in as deep a funk as she had been in when he had entered.
-------
"But, Mommy, I want to go play with them."
"Naomi, please, honey. Not now."
"But why?" the little girl cried.
"Because I said so. Now go get into your pajamas. It's naptime."
"But-"
"Go."
As her daughter stomped into her bedroom, Sam ran her hands through her thick blonde hair. She hated this fear she felt, this uncertainty. Only days earlier, she had told people Tom Paris was one of the few people on the ship with whom she completely trusted her child. Now she just did not know what to do.
Tom Paris had given Naomi an amazing gift in the "kids." He had managed to do something even she, Naomi's own mother had not been able to do -- find a way for Voyager's only child to be with kids her own age when there simply were none available. But in light of what was being said about him, about how
much of the AlphaOmegans' stories might be true, she was at a loss. She could not forget those holograms had been programmed by a man who, for one reason or another, might be emotionally and mentally
unbalanced. As Naomi's mother she had to protect her little girl. The worry, no matter how unlikely, that he might have created something that might harm her child mentally or physically would not leave her.
'Subconsciously, he could have been trying to turn her into something like him,' a little voice whispered. 'Remember what you heard. He was in training to be one of their leaders. Pardan claimed it is their leaders who create them and make them be what they are. All those things he was trying to teach Naomi. The survival skills. Were they only so she could protect herself or were they something more? What his mixed up mind trying to indoctrinate Naomi?'
She shook her head. 'No way. He loves her. He wouldn't want her to turn out like him. He as much as said so.'
'But he was not a well man. What he wanted and what he was doing could very well have been totally different things.'
"'Damned AlphaOmegans," she cursed. "First they mess with Paris' mind and now they're messing with mine. What the Hell am I supposed to do now? I can't keep her from them or him for the next fifty some odd years."
Yesterday, Naomi had overheard enough of a conversation to know Tom Paris had returned to Voyager. Immediately, she had wanted to go see him. Only her mother's insistence that Sickbay was not the place for her unless she was sick had prevented her daughter from hurrying to him. That had bought Sam some time to think yet she still had not decided what to do.
How she was supposed to explain to her little girl what her favorite playmate had been made to do in the past. She even had considered erasing the "children" and Siobahn and telling Naomi it was a result of the Gherop attack and their program couldn't be saved. She would have believed that, but it would have solved only half of Sam's problem. The rest -- how much of a role he was going to play in her daughter's future remained.
'Provided Ver and the others don't get their way,' she sighed. 'Having him and Souris confined to Sunfire for the rest of the trip like some of the crew had been whispering amongst themselves would keep him from Naomi, but was it fair? How far gone was he? Was he a threat to them?'