String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [9]
“What could Tuvok possibly be thinking?” she asked rhetorically. “There are several crew members I could easily see charging off on some foolish errand if they felt there was no alternative course of action, even some of our bridge officers, come to think of it. But we’re talking about Tuvok. He spent the better part of our early years together making sure I lived up to every comma, semicolon, and period, never mind letter of Starfleet regulations. Tuvok doesn’t leave this ship without reporting to at least one of us where he’s going and why.”
“There was that incident with the Sikarians,” Chakotay reminded her.
“I haven’t forgotten,” she replied, sadness and anger warring for dominance on her face. “But he wasn’t the only one who tried to bend the Prime Directive that day. Hurt as I was by his choice, I understood why he did it.”
“And you’ve been absolutely certain, since then, that he would never disappoint you like that again,” he finished her thought.
Janeway nodded in silent assent.
“Then you might be a little relieved to hear that the Doctor has completed his report,” Chakotay continued, placing a padd in front of the captain, before crossing to the replicator and ordering a cup of orange juice while he waited for her to read its contents. “That’s why I stopped by this morning on my way to the bridge.”
Janeway scanned the Doctor’s findings related to Tuvok’s stay in sickbay just prior to the time he left Voyager for reasons unknown. “A neurochemical imbalance in the mesiofrontal cortex?”
“That’s the part of the Vulcan brain that regulates their ability to suppress their emotions.”
Janeway cast a suspicious eye toward her first officer. “Studying up on Vulcan physiology in our copious spare time?”
Chakotay cleared his throat before offering, without a hint of defensiveness, “I know things.”
“This made as much sense to you the first time you read it as it does to me, right?” she asked.
“Right. I asked the Doctor for some clarification.”
“What’s this about music?” she continued.
“When Tuvok went missing I accessed his personal logs for the past few days. Shortly after we destabilized the Blue Eye, Tuvok noted that he was hearing something he could only describe as music. The Doctor couldn’t explain it, though its occurrence seemed to correspond to the decrease in neuropeptide production in the limbic system. He was particularly alarmed by this specific neurochemical imbalance because he’s only seen it in Tuvok once before.”
“When was that?” Janeway asked in a way that suggested she was not certain she really wanted to know the answer.
“A little over two years ago, when Tuvok initiated his series of mind-melds with Ensign Lon Suder.”
“Well, terrific,” Janeway said, tossing the padd to her desk and taking an extra-large sip of coffee before rising to her feet. “I mean aside from turning Tuvok into a homicidal maniac, that worked out okay, so I guess there’s really nothing to worry about.”
“The Doctor believes the ‘music’ Tuvok was referring to might have been some sort of telepathic communication.”
“From whom?”
“He’s not willing to speculate at this time.”
“Anyone who could force Tuvok to ignore his duties to this ship, never mind altering his normal brain functions…” Janeway said before pausing long enough for Chakotay to see at least a dozen possible scenarios and their probable outcomes play out across her face. “If the circumstances were different, I’d just as soon give them a nice wide berth. In any event, I’ve seen enough of the peculiarities of Monorhan space and subspace to last me a good long while.”
“I agree,” replied Chakotay. “But since that’s not really an option.”
“Take the ship to yellow alert.”
Chakotay assented with a slight nod, and started toward the door that accessed the bridge, pausing at the threshold to say, “Don’t worry, Kathryn, we’ll find him.”
Janeway replied with a wan smile