Marooned - Christie Golden [33]
"Yes, Doctor," said Chakotay, curbing his own annoyance.
"As I was saying, a woman was held hostage by this robber of banks. By the time her freedom was finally obtained she had bonded with her captor. She became so attached to him that she broke her engagement with another man and remained faithful to her former abductor. Another woman who served passengers on early airplanes, I believe the term was stewardess, was held hostage at gun point. When the crisis ended and the man was imprisoned, this stewardess brought him gifts in jail. There are other examples that-"
"I see your point," interrupted Chakotay- "You're afraid that the longer this goes on, the more risk there is that Kes will bond with Aren Yashar."
"Precisely," replied the doctor.
Chakotay frowned. "That doesn't seem to me to be a real worry, with all due respect, Doctor. Kes is a pretty level-headed young woman, and she's been in tough situations before."
"One doesn't have to be feebleminded or psychologically impaired to suffer from Stockholm syndrome," said the doctor tersely. "The instinct for survival is very powerful. If a hostage bonds with his or her captor, the captor might come to see the hostage as a person, not as a bargaining chip, thus decreasing the likelihood that the captive will die. Few choose to do this knowingly. Stockholm syndrome is born of a very deep instinct. It could happen to anyone if the circumstances are right-you, Captain Janeway, Lieutenant Tuvok, me-well, not me, of course, actually. And we know so little about Kes's race. But it is a very real risk. I simply wanted to advise you to be aware of it."
"Thank you for your concern, Doctor. But I still don't think-"
He paused in mid sentence, all his attention suddenly diverted to the viewscreen, which showed a sudden flash of light from Mishkara. The doctor and his warningwere instantly put aside as Chakotay automatically severed contact with sickbay. "Harry, what was that?"
Kim didn't reply at once, as he was occupied with analyzing the readings. At last, he glanced over at Chakotay. "Some kind of pulse, Commander. It was as if all the energy from the ion storm condensed into one spot, somehow. I've never seen anything like that before."
"Were we affected at all?"
"Negative."
Chakotay tapped his console. "Bridge to engineering."
"Carey here, Commander."
"Did you register that ion pulse, Lieutenant?"
"We sure did. Everything down here jumped, but all systems appear to be undamaged."
"Any idea what it was?"
"No, sir. I've-"
"Don't tell me," sighed Chakotay. "You've never seen anything like it before."
A pause, then, "Aye, sir, that's correct."
"Well, you might get the opportunity to see it again.
Be prepared. I want to learn everything we can about it.
Apparently it's not the natural behavior of your typical ion storm, and that makes me nervous. And I don't like to be nervous, Mr. Carey. Is that understood?"
"Aye, sir!"
Chakotay smothered a grin at the tone of Carey's voice. "Good. Bridge out. Lieutenant Ngyuen, bring us in closer, slowly. And Ensign Kim, let's keep scanning as we go. The more we know about this phenomenon, the better I'll like it."
"Aye, sir," replied Kim and the slender young woman who sat at the conn. Her fingers flew over the controls, and the Federation starship moved closer to the planet.
"Any new information, Mr. Kim?"
"Nothing, sir. The sensors continue to be unable to penetrate the field. The level of ionic activity remains about the same as when the captain and the away team went down. No increase, no fluctuations, certainly nothing on the scale of what just happened."
"Keep me informed, Ensign."
But Chakotay didn't need Harry Kim's sharp eyes to see what happened next.
They had analyzed the three ancient vessels when Voyager had first entered into orbit; analyzed, noted, and dismissed. They were ancient, they were locked in a decaying orbit, there were no life signs.