Flashback - Diane Carey [47]
Her vision cleared, and she could discern her dog galloping through a familiar corn field, even though she was standing on the Johnsons' hill next to their pole barn. She could usually see alm ost any movement from up here . . .
What was Tom Paris doing on the Johnsons' farm?
"I have no problem helping you track down my friends in the Maquis, Captain," he said. "All I need to know is, what's in it for me?"
She almost hit him.
In fact, she reached out. If she were only closer, she could help him get the girl back up over the cliff. Maybe she could change what had happened . .. but she wasn't even alive when this occurred. The plateau-Tuvok as a child-almost a hundred years ago...
"Tuvok!" The child's pitiful scream pierced Janeway's mind.
His hand was so small, almost as small as the girl's. He couldn't possibly have the strength to pull her up.
But he could let go now-Valtane was dead, and nothing could help. Tuvok looked up and saw Janeway, and stared in abject shock.
Janeway reached out to him, but she may as well have been a hundred feet away. She wanted to help, but her mind wouldn't allow her access to the memory.
Memory? Or had this turned into some kind of weird time travel? Was she really here? Were psychic transferences possible? Could she be proving a thousand-year-old myth here and now?
"Tuvok!"
The little girl shrieked again. And Tuvok lost his grip.
As Tuvok and Janeway watched helplessly, the tiny Vulcan child tumbled into the jaws of the rocks below.
If this was a dream or a vision, it was one hell of a vicious one.
Kes felt weak but aware as the engineer dragged her back to the sickbay and hustled her to where the Doctor was rushing from console to console, trying to settle the captain's and Tuvok's brain activity down.
"Kes," the Doctor said, "what's wrong? Did you have another of those episodes?"
"She came onto the bridge," the engineer said, "and fired the phasers at our own shuttlecraft. Said something about firing at Klingons and B'Elanna was a Klingon."
"B'Elanna Torres is half Klingon," the Doctor mentioned pointlessly.
Carey huffed and said, "But she's our own chief engineer! Mr. Chakotay says for you to keep Kes in sickbay. I suggest you use the sickbay's automatic bio-security system."
"Yes," the Doctor agreed, eyeing Kes. "I'll do that."
"I've got to go." Carey headed for the door. "We've got a rescue on our hands, and it's gonna be a bitch."
"I didn't mean to," Kes murmured. "I was trying to help!"
"You helped, okay? We'll handle it."
"But B'Elanna and Tom . . . what've I done!" Fear charged through her for her shipmates-not just fear, but dementia. What must Tuvok be going through? She tried to imagine having done what Tuvok had done, spending nearly a century training his mind, only to have it turn on him.
After Mr. Carey was gone, she turned to the Doctor. "I have to hold on," she said with passion. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone. If I try anything else, you have to stop me."
"I understand," the Doctor told her. "You're not responsible for any of this. I've activated the selective bio-security system. If you attempt to leave
sickbay, you'll be mildly stunned. Do you understand?"
"Oh," she said empathically, "believe me, after what just happened, I don't even want to leave."
"Kes," the Doctor added, "medical ethics don't require you to sacrifice yourself for a patient. Perhaps we could-"
"But I've learned," she interrupted, "that sometimes they do demand I risk myself for a crewmate. Now that others have been hurt, we have to try even harder to fix all this. I wish I could help B'Elanna and Tom somehow-"
"You can't. You'd do them a favor to stay here and let Mr. Chakotay and the others do their own jobs to save those two. You and I will concentrate on our own problem. After all, this is the one we perhaps can solve."
Steadied somewhat now, Kes nodded and turned her attention to the place where she could do some good. "Why are the alarms going off on the captain