String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [73]
When the door opened, Phoebe was seated with her feet curled under her on a low bench running under the room’s only window. Only the faint blue glow emanating from the docking bay outside illuminated her features.
In a low voice she said, “Kathryn, I’ve been waiting for you.”
Harry heard the words, but did not see a human woman saying them. Instead he saw a mass of undulating translucent tentacles rising from the floor of the cabin and extending outward and upward for several meters. They writhed and danced in the eerie blue light, and for a split second he hesitated to fire into the terrifying spectacle.
“Harry?” the captain said softly.
“That’s not your sister,” he replied simply.
As Phoebe moved toward them, calling Kathryn’s name, Janeway and Harry leveled their modified rifles and opened fire.
B’Elanna felt certain that this day was never going to end. It had started well enough. Though their entry into the array had damaged several crucial systems, she checked regularly with her engineering staff and was satisfied with their work. The energy reserve transfer they had received had buoyed her spirits as well. The sight of those green bars at maximum was one she had never dared allow herself to hope to see as long as Voyager remained in the Delta Quadrant. So much of her time in the past four years had been devoted to squeezing every last ounce of energy from their systems, finding creative ways to bypass Starfleet regulations, and just making the best of what they had. A complete restock felt like an embarrassment of riches.
Of course, since returning from the Betasis she’d had less time than she would have liked to let her mind roam freely through the myriad problems that had just been solved for her, and the new possibilities that were now spread before her. She had never been a patient person, but even she had to acknowledge that at the moment her efforts were best directed at more important and less pleasurable tasks.
“Excuse me, Lieutenant,” the Doctor asked in a patronizing tone she had thought forever banished to the realm of bad memories.
“Yes,” she replied, without bothering to hide her annoyance.
Just a few more subroutines to locate and integrate…
“Are you one of Voyager’s senior officers?” he asked.
“I am.”
“Then would you mind using your security authorization codes to erect a level-ten containment field around this biobed?” he asked.
This caught her attention.
“Your program should allow you to do that,” she replied.
“In a perfect world, I suppose it would, but as I am only a supplement to your medical staff and your chief medical officer in name only for the moment…”
B’Elanna quickly pulled up a diagnostic display of the backup module that was running and realized that because this particular backup predated the Doctor’s initial activation, the upgrades that allowed for such decisions were absent. She dutifully added the appropriate subroutine and said, “Try it now.”
“Computer, erect a level-ten forcefield around biobed one,” he said, and the field automatically flashed into existence.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” the Doctor said, passing through the field and returning to Tuvok’s side.
As she was about to reintegrate the remaining subroutines that should restore the real Doctor, B’Elanna realized that there were few conceivable reasons why the EMH would require such a containment field. Given what she had learned on the Betasis, she asked, “Doctor, why is the containment field necessary?”
“Because this man has ingested an alien parasite,” he replied as if he were commenting on nothing more serious than the weather.
An icy chill shot down B’Elanna’s spine.
“Can… can you remove it?” she stammered.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” he replied.
B’Elanna had often wondered whether or not her mercurial temperament was a Klingon or human