Flashback - Diane Carey [66]
Janeway slumped back, drew the biggest breath she could pull in, and let it out slowly. "I'm sure going to have more respect for the human mind from now on. Did you hear all those details? I only read that file one time! And I can't believe how much better I feel! These melds of yours, Tuvok-what a fabulous tool for therapy!"
Tuvok came forward out of the shadows. "You sense some progress, then, Captain?"
"Oh, yes . .. yes, I do! Oh, I think Amelia would've eventually learned to do some basic technical duties on board Voyager, but I understand now that she very likely might've spent her life as a middle-aged curiosity being shown up daily by a
crew whose average age is twenty-four. You know, I'm kind of sorry that conversation never really happened."
"It may have," Tuvok postulated, "but in a more subliminal way. Despite your desire to be the one who showed Amelia Earhart the galaxy, you may have sensed her reasons for staying behind. Perhaps that was why you never really encouraged her to come with us. She must have known or sensed what might occur, and that was why she stayed on the planet. There, she still had an entire world's worth of adventure awaiting her, rather than obsolescence aboard the Voyager. Captain, I believe, in some small way, I understand."
"So do I," Janeway agreed. She felt as if an anchor had been unstrapped from her back. "At least, I do now. Funny, isn't it, that I didn't before . . ."
Kes moved to the Doctor and looked at the monitor.
A third brain pattern was emerging from Tuvok's. Was it an aberration or combination of some kind?
"A third memory engram?" Kes echoed, as if tasting the concept. "How's that possible?"
"It's not," the Doctor said flatly. "Which means it can't really be an engram." He worked the console for a few seconds, read the results, then worked again. "From the neurochemical modulation, I'd say it's something masquerading as an engram. The way viruses sometimes mimic certain blood factors in order to avoid being destroyed by antibodies."
"You're saying it's a virus?" she asked.
"Whatever it is, it's reacting to the thoron radiation. It's been caused to manifest into an identifiable form. It seems to be an anomalous engram of some kind, some kind of biological agent. But I don't recognize the protein structures. It passed from Tuvok's brain to the captain's. When it did, it created a psychoneural connection between them that was separate from the mind-meld. Their memories are flowing back and forth outside the control of Tuvok."
Kes considered the actions of viruses, almost life-forms that attempted self-preservation. If this was a virus, and if it would continue to act like a virus-
"If it's acting like a retrovirus in the brain," she blurted, "maybe we can unmask it."
"How?"
"Flush it out with a neurosynaptic surge."
The Doctor lit up to the idea. "Yes ... but we'll have to modify the procedure to match the pattern of the new engram. If it's an infectious agent, increasing the dosage should drive it out. Increase to forty kilodynes . . . ten-second burst."
Kes started to comply, then said, "Doctor, those are very strong bursts. Can their brains absorb that much thoron radiation?"
"We'll see," the Doctor said. "If not, at least they'll be dead instead of in mental anguish for the rest of their lives."
CHAPTER 18
"FIRE!"
Janeway heard Captain Sulu's voice and the plaintive spewing of the ship's energy before her vision cleared. She was on the bridge again.
Clean, this time. Valtane still alive-this must be before the encounter with the three other Klingon ships, but after the encounter with Kang. The Excelsior was firing, igniting the sirillium.
Fooom-the blue sparkle filled every screen.
"The Klingon ship's been disabled," Valtane reported. "They're not pursuing."
"Helm," Sulu said, "set a course for Kronos and engage."
Wearing Rand's jacket, Janeway pretended to work a console on the upper bridge. She didn't even
know which console she was sitting before. And didn't