String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [44]
“I’m fine, Lieutenant,” she said. “Continue your work.”
B’Elanna uttered a faint, “Aye, Captain,” and moved away, leaving Janeway and Phoebe somewhat alone.
“If the Key poses a danger, give it to me, and I’ll remove it from the ship,” Phoebe offered.
“I can’t do that,” Janeway replied, still hazy, “and neither can you. I need to know…”
“What?” Phoebe asked.
“When you were in my cabin earlier… did you see anything unusual?”
“Of course not,” Phoebe lied.
“Phoebe, this is important…” Janeway persisted.
No… the voice insisted… it isn’t.
It was obvious that Kathryn was strong. Her resistance, even now, was impressive. But that resistance was inflicting subtle and potentially serious damage to the tissue of her brain. Phoebe knew that she could force the captain’s mind to accept her words. But the more she shrouded the captain’s actual thoughts and inserted those required to meet her ends, the greater the risk she ran of damaging Janeway beyond repair. Though saving Janeway’s life was not of any ultimate importance, she had to keep the captain alive and functioning for the time being.
For the moment, however, the priority was to divert Kathryn’s attention from the Key. They had detected the disruption. This was frustrating, but not completely unexpected. It was unacceptable, however, that they had also learned that the Key was, as they crudely understood it, “alive.”
In the interest of getting Janeway as far from the Key as possible, Phoebe suggested, “Kathryn, you don’t look well. Perhaps you should see your doctor.”
“There isn’t time…” Janeway said with forced deliberateness. “Have to get to the bridge.”
“Kathryn,” Phoebe said softly, “you are under a tremendous amount of pressure. You haven’t had a good meal or a good night’s sleep in days. Let me take you to the Doctor, on your way to the bridge. It won’t take any time at all.”
Of course the moment they arrived in sickbay Phoebe fully intended to incapacitate the captain in such a way that she would remain confined in the ship’s medical bay for at least the next forty-eight hours. That should be just enough time.
“Will you come with me?” Phoebe asked, demanding internally that Kathryn comply.
“Of course,” the captain nodded.
As Phoebe helped Janeway to sickbay, a firm arm circling her waist, she gently began to remove some of the manipulative threads she had been using to exert her will over the captain.
She was at first shocked, then enraged when they arrived and found Naomi Wildman sleeping quietly on a biobed, her mother and Neelix standing tensely on either side of her, each holding one of her hands and taking turns patting her head lovingly.
She seethed within as all thoughts of further incapacitating the captain fled from her consciousness.
This was impossible. The hybrid girl had obviously survived. Though Phoebe’s powers were vast, there were only so many battles she could fight at once. Releasing Janeway’s mind completely, she moved closer to Naomi. Though the child posed no immediate danger while she was unconscious, Phoebe would have to find an appropriate time to finish what she had started. For the moment, however, she would have to bide her precious time.
Once Janeway’s mind was again her own, the captain stood for a startled moment wondering how she had ended up in sickbay. It was as if a thick mist had lifted before her eyes, and to her vast relief, her stomach too seemed much calmer. She wanted very much to know what had just happened and how she had gotten here, but at the first sight of Naomi’s frail figure resting on the biobed before her, all concerns for her own well-being evaporated. She approached Naomi and asked of no one in particular, “What happened?”
Ensign Samantha Wildman’s face turned to hers, her milky skin awash with bright red blotches, her eyes rimmed with tears. “We don’t know.”
“Where’s the Doctor?”
Neelix gestured with a nod to indicate that the Doctor was in his office. As Janeway turned toward the partition that divided sickbay from his workspace, she saw through the window