GreenSlugg - Science, Reason, Faith

The Voyager, Part 2

The Ocampan woman helped me to find my balance. I ran my hand across my forehead, nursing my headache.

“We’re coming out of slipstream captain.” T’Pel announced

I looked up, terrified. We’d only escaped the Borg a few moments before. If we’d lost our ability to go faster than light after only a few moments, we’d be attacked like a bleeding rabbit running through a large pack of wolves.

But instead of Borg cubes, a planet appeared on the screen in front of us. It was blue and green, with ivory cities. Streaks of red across the forests complimented the green vegetation, especially towards the North, and two brilliant moons with shades of red gracing their mountains and landscapes hung in the sky.

I turned to Seven.

“This is Nahor” She said, referring to the planet in the holoscreen

“The Borg!?” I asked

The Ocampan Woman responded “Nahor is in the heart of the Beta Quadrant, seventy thousand light years from the Borg world you saw a few moments ago.”

I was stunned. I looked around the room, in shock. Men and women were working at their stations, as if nothing unusual had happened.

I looked at the Ocampan Woman.

“Seventy thousand light years in two minutes?” I asked

“That’s right.” She said, unperturbed. “The Borg can’t reach us here.”

My head began throbbing again.

“Let’s get you back to sickbay.” She said

I followed her, looking back at Seven for a moment and those who were serving aboard the bridge of the ship.

I saw faces on the way back to sickbay, some I recognized, most I did not.

We emerged inside the sickbay. It was larger than I’d remembered.

“What’s your name?” I asked the Ocampan woman.

“Sarah” She responded.

I sat on one of the bio beds. She bent over, pulling out a drawer with a series of medical tricorders, and when she did, a small necklace, a gold cross fell out from the front of her uniform.

This was a rare sight, even on Earth, where Christianity had originated.

“Can I help you Doctor?”

There was an unspoken implication that I’d been looking down the front of her shirt. Immediately I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

“I … uhm ...I”

“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before doctor. You’ve given me my monthly and quarterly physicals since I was a little girl.”

“No! That’s not … where did you get that necklace?”

She looked at me, eyeing me with suspicion.

“It was my grandmother’s. She gave it to me when I turned one.”

Just then Seven entered the room.

“Harry, how are you doing?”

I hesitated.

“I’m … I’m not really sure.”

“What do you remember?”

I thought for a minute.

“I remember getting stuck in the Delta Quadrant. I remember Neelix’s cooking. I remember you being Liberated from the Collective, but beyond that my memory is in patches.”

Seven nodded “That was twenty one years ago. Do you remember the upgrades you just received?”

I shook my head.

What did she mean by upgrades?

“Your brain is still adjusting to the implant. Your memories will return soon. It’s a normal part of the process.”

“What process?” I asked, demanding an answer

“Doctor, perhaps it would be easier for both of us, if we start at the beginning, and that will help your memory to recover more naturally.”

I sighed, and reluctantly nodded.

“Sarah will fill you in, but keep in mind that your memory will not recover all at once. It will take time.”

“Okay” I said, sighing deeply, not really wanting to wait for whatever time it would take for my memories to recover.

Seven left to attend her duties as ship’s captain.

Sarah offered me a cup of tea. I declined. She set it aside, and sat on the bed across from me.

“Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant after seven years of being lost in deep space. The Borg suffered severe loss with Voyager’s destruction of the transwarp conduit, but the Alpha Quadrant had already been devastated by the war. Hundreds of worlds lost throughout the quadrant.”

“Earth?” I asked

“Earth was still intact, but the crew was immediately ordered to StarFleet headquarters upon returning from their long journey.”

A beeping noise came from a nearby console. Sarah stopped talking.

“Do you mind walking with me Doctor?”

“I’d prefer if you’d call me Harry.”

“Okay, … Harry.”

I followed her down the corridor to a nearby crew quarters. She knocked on the door, and waited for an answer before giving a voice command to enter.

“Augustine, are you here?”

Sarah walked around in the dark room. I followed her.

“Augustine?”

My heart jumped at the sight of a man sitting in the dark, silently.

“Computer, turn up the lights by one quarter.”

The lighting increased.

I was surprised to see the Doctor, the real Doctor, sitting in a corner, not even looking in our direction.

“Augustine, can you hear me?” Sarah asked, with the same gentleness of her grandmother.

The Doctor looked at us.

“Captain Janeway and I are going to play a game of golf this afternoon.”

He smiled.

Of all the things I’d seen, this more than anything broke my heart.

Sarah held the Doctor’s hand, and turned back to me.

“When Voyager returned to Earth, Kes suggested sharing the technology that Voyager had collected with the rest of the Federation, and with other Alpha Quadrant species.”

“Kes?” I asked

Sarah nodded “She’d returned twice to Voyager, once in anger, believing the Voyager Crew had betrayed her, and once to return as a full member of the crew.”

Sarah continued “Her most controversial proposal was to violate the Prime Directive and share technology with every species that would agree to help to resist the Borg, including those who had not yet achieved warp drive.”

My eyes widened. The Federation was seriously entertaining the notion of violating one of our most deeply held principles, and not just in a moment of mercy, but in a complete reversal and intentional onslaught against the core of everything we once held dear.

I didn’t know how to take this in.

“Tensions grew high within the Federation ranks, but in less than two years it became clear that the Federation had no choice. The Alpha Quadrant was already shattered by war, and then the Borg attacked.”

Kes stood up.

“Captain Janeway agreed to lead Voyager, in an onslaught against the Borg invasion, by sharing Federation and Borg technology with anyone who would agree to resist.”

“My implant?” I asked, pointing to my head

Sarah nodded.

“Captain Janeway and I are going to play golf.” The Doctor said

“That’s right Augustine!” Sarah assured

“Your implants assist your higher brain functions. They connect with the ship’s computer, and allow you instantaneous access to the medical databases.”

Sarah exchanged nicities with the Doctor, before we left.

“Are you saying that the only thing that qualifies me as a ‘doctor’ is a glorified Borg implant!?”

Sarah shook her head, as we walked down the hall passing various crew members.

“You studied under the highest minds at Denobula’s most renowned medical university.”

“Then why don’t I remember ANY of this!?” I asked the last part in a loud tone, that caused a few people to stop and stare.

Sarah’s tone changed “Once your brain adjusts to the upgraded implant, the connections to your memory engrams will reform around the device.”

I closed my eyes, holding back tears. “And what if they don’t?”

“Then we will figure out what needs to be done, like we always do, Doctor.”

She looked at those around us before looking at me and adding “We will adapt.”

We entered the mess hall where a crew of Ferengi in white robes wiped down tables, and were preparing a meal.

“Is there anything I can get for you my friend?” Asked a young Ferengi woman in a soft and gentle voice.

“I could use some tea, I guess.” I said, rubbing my right temple.

She gave a slight bow, and walked away towards the kitchen.

We sat down at a table by the window, the jewel of a planet hanging in space above us.

“Tell me what happened next.”

Sarah looked out towards the planet.

“The Federation agreed to send out ships, scarab class. Inspired by the Delta Flyer, these small vessels would transport small crews and allow them to share our technology across the Alpha Quadrant. But after the Rochester Revival, tensions rose. Missionaries requested passage aboard these ships, and the Federation reluctantly agreed, as long as these missionaries agreed to share our technology, and to not convert any native by force.”

Our conversation was put on a brief pause as the Ferengi woman brought us two cups of green tea, and to my surprise, placed a small rice bowl in front of me, along with a platter of stir fry vegetables mixed with slices of pork, beef and chicken.

I looked at the Ferengi woman.

“Please Doctor, you must eat. You need your strength.”

My stomach was in knots, but the smell of the meal filled my nose and crept inside my mouth.

I picked up a pair of chopsticks, and before I realized what was happening, I greedily shoveled large portions of rice, vegetables, and slices of meat dripping with sauce into my mouth.

I realized the young woman was still standing next to me, quietly.

I looked at her, feeling awkward.

“Is there anything else I can do for you Doctor?”

“No thank you.” I responded

The woman, gave a slight bow and left.

“You act like you've never seen a Ferengi before.” Sarah observed

She stirred the contents of her small teacup.

“You said that we shared our technology with pre warp civilizations? What happened after that?”

Sarah took a sip of her tea.

“Most races have begun to adapt. Many excelled well beyond our expectations. The Han were dismissed as a race of primitive cave dwellers, far too early in their evolution to contribute anything to Federation society. Starfleet was reluctant to spare even a small ship.”

“Did they?” I asked

“Four years after the missionary Josiah West landed on their world, the Hann developed a working stimulation of the slipstream drive that now powers Voyager.”

I stopped eating for a moment, forgetting entirely about the food in front of me.

She reaffirmed “The Han did all of this having never seen a warp drive before the missionary’s arrival. Now they are one of our greatest allies in our fight against the Borg. They teach at our greatest universities, and lead centers of science and economics. They also serve as some of our greatest philosophers and theologians.”

A bright light shone through the window. Glowing red streaks the color of hot metal stretched around the planet like long fingers. The mess hall fell silent. The planet fell apart like a cracked egg, and molten continents flew into space in all directions. A bright white wave flew in our direction.

There was no time to run, no time to panic, and no warning. The wave hit the window of the mess hall shattering metal and glass. The air was sucked out of the ship, men and women screaming as they were pulled into space.

I managed to grab a twisted metal bar that was jutting out of the side of the hull. My lungs ached at the loss of air pressure, feeling like they had been punched from the inside.

I looked down in terror. The side of the ship was gone, nothing between the mess hall and empty space. The planet was gone, replaced by a violent field of debris, and a ship was approaching us. I recognized it. It was a ship from Species 8472, a wormhole from fluidic space growing behind, but the ship was embedded with the green and black upgrades of a BORG vessel.

The red and orange walls of a slipstream gateway grew around Voyager, and soon the nightmare hybrid ship was gone.

A force field formed around Voyager, and I was pulled back into the mess hall by the artificial gravity. I could breathe again, even though the wall was still damaged.

I struggled to catch my breath.

“Doctor are you okay?” Seven’s voice echoed inside my head.

It was some sort of com in my Borg implant.

“I - I … they’re dead! Sucked out into space!”

“Doctor, I need you to focus, save the patients you can, don’t waste time on those you can’t. I’m arranging a site-to-site transport.”

Large, solid metalic gold rings appeared around me making a mechanical noise.

The mess hall dissolved around me and was replaced by the inside of sickbay. Patients were being rushed to the biobeds. Some wore civilian clothes, others wore Starfleet uniforms, and a few wore uniforms that I did not recognize.

The back wall opened up revealing rows of rooms with basic biobeds. The ships was rearranging its internal structure, creating extensions for the patients being flooded into sickbay, an ability Voyager had been upgraded with. The makeshift biobeds being created by the ship were not as advanced as those built into Sickbay, but they were going to be enough to save lives.

Medical knowledge came flooding back to me. Treatments and procedures from thousands of cultures were resurfacing in my mind.

Amidst the screams of panicking voices I managed to collect my thoughts. “Computer, can we put any of the patients into medical suspended animation for the time being?”

A gentle female voice responded “Negative, ship’s systems are damaged. Medical suspended animation not possible at this time.”

“Can we use a transport beam and save any of the patients?”

“Negative, all transport buffers are at full capacity.”

A young man, was carried through the doors, his left arm was hanging around another crewman, and with his right he was holding the contents of his stomach inside his body. A three foot piece of metal shrapnel protruding from his stomach.

“Unless you are dying, or have medical experience, everyone out!” I yelled.

Several people with broken arms or legs began exiting the sickbay.

I looked at the patient. I grabbed a pair of medical scissors, and cut off his uniform shirt. The shrapnel wasn’t coming out of his back. I lifted him, the patient screaming, and placed him on his back on one of the biobeds. Apparently the Borg implants gave me enhanced strength as well.

“I need an auto suture, we need to stop this bleeding.” A crewwoman handed me the small device.

I held the device over the patient. Blue light beams began closing blood vessels around the jagged metal. I was almost finished when blood started pouring out of the patient’s mouth, coughing sounds and bubbles of blood spewing four feet into the air.

“We’re losing him!” I called out

I thought of what Seven said, of the other dying patients. The transports and suspended animation were out of commission, and I wasn’t willing to lose so many lives.

A memory came flooding back! The image of a vial with two metal tubes inside in the shape of a double helix. I ran towards the center of sickbay, feeling like I was moving through molasses.

I pushed the button, entered the pass code, and the vial slowly emerged from it’s storage container.

I grabbed the vial, and ran towards the patient, injecting the nanites directly into his heart. The patient screamed, blood pouring everywhere, but within a minute, he was breathing normally.

I looked at the other patients, more than fifty lives in my hands, dying. Some were missing an arm or a leg, one man was only half a body, and unconscious. I ran to each of them, injecting the nanites from the vial, injecting the patients in the worst condition first.

While injecting a patient I put in a command to the computer to make a ship-wide announcement “Attention all hands. This is the Doctor. If there are any patients requiring immediate treatment for life-threatening injuries, please report to sickbay immediately.”

I stopped before adding “And if there are any bodies of recently deceased crew or passengers, please bring them immediately to sickbay as well. … I may be able to save them.”