Marooned - Christie Golden [11]
A pause, then: "I confess, I share his concern."
"We all do, Doctor. Please tell the away team to report to the conference room the minute you're able to release them. Bridge out."
No doubt the doctor sensed the urgency of the matter, for within five minutes the senior officers were gathered in the conference room. Janeway took a few seconds to size them all up before voicing her concems and suspicions. Tuvok's dark visage was as calm as ever. Paris looked a little haggard, but the predominant expression on his handsome face was worry, a worry that was nakedly manifested upon Neelix's plain, blunt features. Torres was silent and thin lipped with controlled anger. Kim and Chakotay looked puzzled but expectant.
Janeway took a deep breath, then summed up what had happened to her on Oasis. Neelix, Torres, and Paris each took a turn, explaining the mysterious attacks perpetrated upon them.
"I suspect I narrowly avoided such an encounter myself," said Janeway. "If it hadn't been for the holograms of the two young lovers and their argument, I'm sure I would have gone to the back of that shop without even thinking about it. Mr. Kim, any progress on translating the information that Yashar gave us?"
"Yes, and it's puzzling, given what's happened," Kim replied. "It's exactly what he said it would be. Star charts. No message, nothing."
"It could be that Aren Yashar thought we might translate the information at once," volunteered Tuvok. "He would not want to tip his hand by delivering a gloating message without being certain of his success."
"What happened while we were away?" Janeway asked Chakotay. "Anything unusual?"
"Absolutely nothing," her first officer replied. "None of the ships made any hostile moves. We weren't even scanned."
"So the only thing that's happened is that three of us were temporarily put out of commission-and clearly they would have had the captain, too, if they could have-and Kes was taken," said Paris. "Is that it?"
"Isn't that enough?"
The voice was Neelix's, the words a hurt, aching cry.
:,Neelix-" Janeway began, gently.
"No! I won't be calmed down by being Neelixed, not this time. Kes and I may not be together as we once were, but that doesn't mean she isn't dearer to me than life itselp."
"Neelix," said Janeway, more harshly this time, "Everyone here cares about Kes a great deal. And we'll do everything we can to find her once we figure out just what is going on."
"It's so odd, so elaborate," said Torres. "All the holograms, the shops, each of us being attacked but no attempt made to kill us, no attempt to take the ship. It just doesn't make sense."
"It makes perfect sense!" Neelix exploded. "Don't you see? We travel along as if Voyager is the best ship in the quadrant. We assume that everyone is like the Kazon, that they all want a piece of our wonderful technology. And it is wonderful, but it is not everyone's ultimate goal."
Everyone was staring at him now. Janeway held her tongue. Neelix obviously needed to speak and she was wise enough to let him air his grievances before they moved on.
"Someone set a very elaborate trap, that's for certain. But you know what? It wasn't for our technology. It wasn't for Voyager. This whole thing was orchestrated for just one purpose, a horrible purpose that was completely achieved. And that one purpose was to kidnap Kes!"
CAPTAIN'S LOGSTARDATE 50573-2. A SECONDAWAY TEAM has confirmed our first theory. Nearly everything on Oasis, save the most dilapidated of internal structures, was holographic. It would appear that no one save Kes's abductors had been on Oasisfor years. Wefound hundreds of emitters, each programmedfor a different scenario. Some, like my pair of young lovers, were very straightforward and never designed to interact with living beings, while others, such as Lieutenant Paris's bar, were extremely complicated. Though this indicates an extremely high level of technology, the fact that some of the holograms were so simple indicates