Flashback - Diane Carey [32]
"Yes, she does!" Neelix pounced. "I'm her next of kin!"
"Neelix . . ."
"It's true! I love her, and she loves me! She asked me to be the father of her child someday! Who else knows her better or cares more about her? Who else? Who on this ship or anywhere?"
The Doctor's very human manifestation of a face
twisted over trouble upon trouble as he tried to think about this and find the keyhole. Loophole.
Neelix clenched his fists and held his breath. As he watched the Doctor try to sort this out, he thought he might as well have been discussing this with a real live person. Wh at an amazing computer thing! An echo of a living person so very real that it felt as if it were alive, and everyone around also felt as if it were living.
Finally the Doctor nodded. To Neelix's fabulous relief, he said, "I accept that."
"Wonderful! Now, tell me what's happening to Kes!"
"Yes ... well, it has its complicated elements, but I'll try to encapsulate. Mr. Tuvok is experiencing some kind of mental aberration in the form of a little girl's being dropped over a cliff by Tuvok when he was a boy."
"How terrible-what an awful thing to live with."
"Yes, but we're not certain it actually ever occurred. He doesn't have a real memory of it, yet this episode keeps replaying in his mind, sending him into massive physiological and mental reactions. When he first came here, Kes found him and was somehow mentally linked to the same image of the tragic event. But, curiously, her role was different. She actually saw herself as the little girl, while Tuvok saw himself as ... well, as himself, but as a boy."
Pausing, the Doctor narrowed his eyes and grew quizzical. "Curious . . . perhaps Kes was given the role of the little girl because, in Tuvok's mind, the
role of the boy was already taken. What an interesting clue . . ."
"Doctor," Neelix prodded, "what does this have to do with Kes? And what was that you said about the sedative maybe being dangerous for her? Is that what you meant?"
"Yes, I meant that." The Doctor snapped out of his hypothesizing and moved again to Kes's side. "She is an Ocampa. I have no medical records other than those of Kes herself with which to judge Ocampa physiology. I have no comparisons to make, therefore my judgments will be crippled. It seems that sometimes-but not every time-Tuvok experiences a surge of mental activity on this deep level, Kes is drawn into the excitement with him. Probably because of her natural telepathic abilities."
"But she can't even control those! It's like a twitch!"
"I know, but that in itself could be why she's vulnerable. Neelix," the Doctor said, turning to him, "a decision has to be made. With what you know of the Ocampa, you may be able to help make it. Do you accept the risk if the decision is wrong?"
A chill washed through Neelix's body and ran down to his toes. "Yes . . . yes, I accept."
"Very well." The Doctor seemed relieved, if that was possible. "Sedation might be harmful in the case of psychic phenomena. I don't know the peculiarities of Ocampa telepathy. Being sedated might allow her mind to rest, or it may free her to concentrate too heavily on the visions in Tuvok's memory. If she's drawn too completely into the memory, she
might actually be overwhelmed by whatever happens to that little girl." "Like falling off a cliff," Neelix said dimly. "Yes, like that. We know from past study that dreams can kill. A subject may become so deeply involved in a fantasy that physical reactions occur. Heart attacks, strokes, psychogenic or anaphylactic shock... a person can die from this. We must definitely guard against it."
Neelix tried to understand, but these things were not his area of expertise. He was very much a person of the moment, satisfied if the next day or so went well and content not to think beyond it. The idea that one's own mind could actually kill was frightening