• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"No!" He clung to his delusion like a drowning man to a floating log. "No, they're dead."

"They're all right," Janeway repeated. "We can send you the data."

"False! We have records, we-"

"Your memories and computer systems cannot be trusted. Think about it-you can't even remember what you did to decimate an entire system! We have dealt with this crisis ourselves. Our ship was damaged, and so were our minds and bodies. Our scanners indicate that you are carrying a great deal of this matter. We know how-" She paused, then chose the word deliberately,"-how evil this matter is, how it corrupts mind and body. Please, trust us. Let us help you."

For a moment, hope brightened the strange face. Then he lowered his head. "We are beyond help. We can only hope to rid the galaxy of our corruption. I intend to give the order to destroy every vessel in the fleet, and then I will begin to attack my homeworld.

Only when we are utterly destroyed as a race can the universe be free of our... our..." He stopped, obviously unable to find the word to express just how horrible a blight his people were.

Janeway had heard what she needed to know. This being was the one to give the orders. She would begin with him.

"Their shields are still down. Tuvok, drop ours on my command. Kim, lock on to him and beam him directly to sickbay, then terminate communication. Now."

Tuvok dropped the shields. Kim immediately executed his captain's order, and Janeway watched as the alien disappeared from his own bridge. His crew jumped up in horror, then the screen was filled with stars and ships. At once, Kim's station began to sound with a frantic beeping noise.

"Tuvok, you have the bridge. Mr. Kim, don't answer their hails until I tell you to. I'm betting that they're not hostile. They want to kill themselves, not us. At least, I hope so." She headed for the turbolift It seemed to take forever to get to sickbay, but at last she reached it.

"Captain, what are you doing? Please, I must be allowed to complete this!" The alien was seated on a bed while the Doctor ran a tricorder over him. He looked confused and upset, but didn't appear to be fighting.

Janeway ignored him. "Any resistance?"

"None," the Doctor replied. "Would that all my normal patients were so amenable to being told what to do."

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Ulaahn," he said, "but-"

"Janeway to engineering."

"Torres here."

'Torres, lock on to the alien Ulaahn in sickbay. Dematerialize him and keep his pattern in the transporter buffer."

Ulaahn opened his mouth to protest. But for the second time in the space of a few minutes, the baffled alien was dissolved into molecules without his consent.

"Khala, you said that you could separate the dark matter from the true matter at this point?"

"Yes," came Khala's excited voice.

"We're working on it right now," said Khala, her blue fingers flying over the controls. "I'm instructing the computer to locate and isolate all the dark-matter particles. It seems to be working."

Torres hovered over her. At another station, Telek and Seven watched the process, their heads bent over the console and almost touching. They all knew that if the computer missed a single particle, or if a single normal molecule was mistakenly culled, their visitor would be dead sooner or later.

"Got it," said Khala. 'Torres, would you check?'

The other three examined her work. "It appears to be complete and accurate," said Seven.

"All right, Captain," said Torres. "We're as ready as we'll ever be. Khala, reassemble Ulaahn in sickbay." Under her breath, she said to her team, "Cross your fingers."

Seven frowned. "What purpose would it serve?'

"More than you might imagine," Torres shot back, and waited to hear from her captain.

Janeway held her breath as the familiar whine of the transporter filled sickbay. She wondered if it was taking longer than usual, if the image that was manifesting before her eyes would have some terrible flaw.