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By Root 533 0

colleagues. After all, it was Lhiau and his kind who had initiated contact with the Romulans. The other Shepherds might be so distant, perhaps not even existing in this time and space, that it would be impossible to contact them. But that was a risk he felt was-

Suddenly Telek felt queasy. The room began to spin and bis stomach roiled. His vision darkened. He had never felt so ill in his life. He rose, and promptly toppled to the floor as the room seemed to turn upside down. He closed his eyes; that was somewhat better.

Taking slow, even breams, it was with trembling fingers that he pressed the combadge Captain Janeway had pinned on his chest

"Telek R'Mor to sickbay," he managed. "Medical emergency. Please send security guards to escort me."

In the end, they hadn't merely escorted R'Mor to sickbay. The two men hi mustard and black had been

forced to literally carry the Romulan, as Ms dizziness was so profound he hadn't even been able to stand on his own.

The Doctor scanned him with the medical tricorder. "I think you know what I am going to say."

Lying on the bed, his eyes tightly closed, Telek replied, "The dark matter has entered my cerebellum and is interfering with my balance."

"Precisely." The Doctor pressed a hypospray to the Romulan's neck. "This should neutralize the damage for a few hours. However, you know as well as I do that-"

"The dark matter is spreading and multiplying, and as yet we have determined no way to halt it." The overarching metal receded into die bed and Telek sat up. "Thank you for stabilizing the world for me, Doctor. It was becoming quite... distracting."

The Doctor's holographic lips thinned. "I'm seeing more and more of this every hour. Lieutenant Carey's bones are disintegrating. Ensign Wildman has a heart arrhythmia. Seven's implants are giving her trouble. And of course there's Neelix. The prognosis is not good, Dr. R'Mor."

The Romulan regarded him evenly. "And it will only become worse, unless we can find the entities who know how to control the dark matter. Thank you again, Doctor. Your treatment may have bought us the chance we need. Everything depends on my being able to find the Shepherds."

The Doctor hesitated, then said softly, "I have found critical errors in my program. For the most

part I have been able to bypass them. Lieutenant Torres has designed a subroutine that enables her to rewrite certain aspects of my program once an error is detected. But...."

He did not have to say anything more. The Doctor was a sort of firebreak for this imperiled crew. He might not be able to cure the ills caused by the alien matter inside their bodies, but he could mitigate the damage it caused. If he ceased to function, they were all doomed.

Telek rose, nodded, and returned to his post in Astrometrics. Fear provided the needed adrenaline now, fear at his own close call.

He fed information, clue by clue, to the no doubt exhausted Lieutenant Torres. Finally, after another two hours had passed, her weary voice floated to him from the combadge.

"Torres to R'Mor."

"R'Mor here."

"Well, it's as close as I can get it." A hint of defensiveness. "I don't know if it's going to do you any good."

"It could do us a universe of good, Lieutenant I thank you for your efforts. I will let you know when I have found any trace of Shepherd activity."

Silence. Telek knew that most of the Voyager crew thought his effort to find the Shepherds was a futile one. But it was the only thread they had to cling to. Otherwise, they would have to surrender to the ravages of the dark matter, and that was not an option.

"Sleep now, Lieutenant," he said, his voice gentle. "I will take over from here."

"Okay. Good night."

The sensors of this mighty ship, twenty years ahead of any technology he had ever known other than that of the mysterious Shepherds, were now his to command. Telek entered the data with hands that trembled. Calling upon his memory, he tapped in frequencies, resonances, any and all anomalies that