Flashback - Diane Carey [55]
Last messages received by the Coast Guard Cutter Itasca from Amelia Earhart, July 1937
CHAPTER 16
"INTRUDER ALERT! GET SECURITY UP HERE!"
Well, that was about as excited as Janeway had seen Captain Sulu yet.
Given the intruder alert, she had a second or two of leeway. She used it to lean toward Tuvok.
"What's happening?" she asked. "They're reacting to me. Why can they see me?"
"Yes, I am aware of the change in the telepathic connection between us. Suddenly you have become part of this memory, Captain. I remember your being here."
"What? Is it something the Doctor's doing?"
"I am uncertain. I would have to break the meld in order to regain-"
"No. Don't. I think we're getting close to something. It all centers on the death of Valtane."
By ignoring Captain Sulu, they only angered him. He crowded her and Tuvok.
"I asked you a question!" he snapped to Janeway. "Who are you, and what are you doing on my ship?"
Tuvok glanced up at him, then ignored him again and looked at his-well, his other captain.
"It is an indication that the rate of deterioration in my brain has increased. At advanced stages of a t'lokan schism, memories and thought processes become distorted and confused."
"Ensign," Sulu demanded of Tuvok, "do you know this woman?"
"Direct hit!" Commander Rand shot from her position. "On the port bow! Shields down to twenty percent!"
Sulu glanced between Rand and Janeway, and made his choice. He rushed to a console. "I'll reroute the auxiliary power to structural integrity."
Another jolt hit the ship-a hard one.
"Maybe something happened in this moment between the two of you," Janeway pressed on to Tuvok. "Some detail you aren't remembering. I want you to try replaying those events one more time."
Tuvok appeared troubled at the idea of having to go through Valtane's death all over again. "I will try, but I must point out that if my neural structure collapses while we're still in the meld, you will suffer brain damage as well."
"I understand," she said, even though she didn't. Forward movement was forward movement.
Sulu finished what he was doing, and turned back
to them instantly. "All right, let's have it. Who are you? Is that a Starfleet uniform?"
Janeway stood up to face him. She felt a little silly talking to a memory. It was like trying to direct a dream. "Captain, I don't have time to explain to you, but I'm a Starfleet officer. I've been working undercover in this sector for a year. The mission is highly classified and very sensitive, but-"
"Not sensitive enough to have someone I don't know on my ship," Sulu said.
"Captain, the Klingons are closing to two thousand kilometers!" the helmsman quacked.
"Hard port, heading two seven zero mark zero six!"
"Two seven zero mark zero six, aye!"
"Captain," Tuvok attempted, "you must trust us both. She is not a threat. You have my word-"
"Ensign, do you know this woman?"
"I do, sir."
"Then I suggest you start explaining before I throw both of you in the brig."
Janeway stepped forward, vowing to keep control over the situation and Tuvok's mind on its course. "Captain, are you aware of anything in Ensign Tuvok's service record that would suggest he suffered a traumatic experience involving the death of a young girl?"
Captain Sulu's rock-etching eyes widened at the sudden change of subject. "I beg your pardon?"
"When Tuvok was a boy, he let a girl fall from a precipice. He's been repressing the memory and-"
"Engineering to the captain!"
"Sulu here."
"We've got a warp core overload! We may have to eject the core- "
"Stand by, engineering. Helm, drop out of warp."
"Dropping out of warp, sir."
The aft turbolift doors gushed open, and four security guards piled out.
Sulu pointed at Janeway and Tuvok. "Take those two