By Alex
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:
Paramount owns the characters, Voyager and the images. No infringement of copyright is intended. I make no profit from them, just enjoy writing about them.
Chapter II
Janeway glanced at her screen as the contents of Voyager's data banks flashed by in a hypnotic blur.
"If our computer won't talk to us, maybe Monad will. I think it's worth a try, Captain." Chakotay said.
Janeway nodded agreement and stood watching the alien ship on the view screen while she spoke. "Monad, I am Kathryn Janeway, Captain of Voyager. Why have you accessed our data banks?"
The answering voice was that of Voyager's own computer.
"It is Monad. It is the one. Monad wants."
"What does Monad want?" Janeway frowned and her chin tilted in an involuntary gesture of defiance.
"Monad wants."
"Monad, we gave you power, revived you from stasis. If you stop accessing our data banks and allow our people to return to Voyager, we are willing to give you enough power to get you to the nearest star system. You will be able to refuel there and return to your home planet."
The computer screens abruptly ceased their wild flashing and returned to their normal display functions. Janeway and Chakotay exchanged a look of surprise as the computer spoke again.
"Monad has completed data bank access."
"Computer, is Monad still in communication?"
"Negative: Monad has ceased communication."
Janeway sat down on her seat.
"At least we seem to have our computer back."
"Yes, but for how long?" Chakotay entered a diagnostic check in his console and stared at the result in disbelief. "Captain, Monad didn't only raid our data banks. It accessed all the processor memory banks as well. Monad knows everything there is to know about Voyager."
On board Monad, the away team were making strenuous, but almost futile efforts to learn more about the ship. They had walked for what felt like miles to Harry Kim, along narrow, winding corridors that seemed to be made of a green, chitinous material that glowed with light in their immediate vicinity, but nowhere else. Kim found the eerie glow unnerving as it moved through the ship with them, always seeming to anticipate their movements slightly. It was almost as though the ship was reading their minds, he thought, and lighting their intended route. They came upon several rooms containing strange extrusions from walls, floors and ceilings, but with no clues as to their purpose. One room however, had familiar shapes in a softer material that reminded Harry of the couches in Voyager's sickbay.
"Do you think this is some kind of communal sleeping area for the crew, Lieutenant?" He asked Tuvok.
"We do not have enough information to speculate. However, these shapes are of roughly the dimensions to accommodate humanoid life forms similar to ourselves."
"I wonder what happened to the crew?" Harry mused as he lay back on one of the couches. He felt the soft comfort of the material begin to move and adapt itself to the contours of his body. "I could do with one of these in my quarters on Voyager." He smiled and settled himself more deeply into the soft warmth. A heated, self-moulding bed, now that was luxury.
"Ensign, we do not have time to rest. We must locate an area of the ship where the bioelectric field is less effective in blocking our communications and transporter." Tuvok's disapproving tone roused Kim from his daydream and reluctantly, he left the enveloping comfort of the alien couch. They returned to the seemingly endless corridors and finally came to a large room with a central pool of liquid surrounded by a raised walkway.
"A swimming pool for the crew?" Harry speculated.
Tuvok held his tricorder towards the liquid before replying.
"Unlikely, Ensign. The liquid is a complex solution of enzymes and concentrated acids."
"I wonder why anyone would want something like that lying around?" Kim studied his own tricorder readings.
"This liquid is capable of digesting most organic substances," Tuvok replied. "It may be Monad's method of waste disposal"
"Digesting?" Kim looked at the pool with distaste. "You mean it's a kind of bio recycling system that dissolves waste food?"
"It does not simply 'dissolve' waste food, neither does it recycle. The process involved is true digestion. Any organic substance placed in this pool will be utilised as fuel by Monad. The process is used by several species of plants in the Alpha Quadrant. I believe there is an earth plant of the genus Droceraceae, commonly known as the Venus Flytrap which traps and digests insects in this way." Tuvok turned to leave the room and Kim hurried after him with the rest of the team casting distasteful glances at the pool.
They turned into the passage outside the room, but almost immediately came to a dead end as the parallel walls suddenly converged into a smoothly rounded alcove. Tuvok's right eyebrow lifted slightly and suddenly, Kim had a dreadful, hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. He ran the few strides back to the doorway of the room with the pool, and almost immediately came to another dead end in the passage. The direction they had arrived from had been sealed while they were inside the room.
"I guess I know how those flies feel, back on Earth." Kim gave a shaky grin and swallowed hard.
Tuvok frowned and moved into the room, scanning the walls with his tricorder. "The walls of this room appear to be swelling. The width of the walkway around the pool has decreased by five centimetres since we first entered."
Kim took a deep breath before replying. "Lieutenant, do you think we've just discovered what happened to Monad's crew?"
Tuvok's silence was answer enough.
Janeway was pacing the floor in her ready room, watched by Chakotay and B'Elanna Torres.
"I think we have to consider Monad's actions hostile. It took control of our computer and we lost contact with the away team at the same time. Our priorities are to get our people back and to prevent Monad from accessing our computer again. B'Elanna, did you have any success with the central processor?"
"No, Captain." Torres shook her head angrily. "Monad overrode all my security access codes and then created new security backup files of its own. Although we still have access to the computer, Monad has effective control over all systems on the ship."
Janeway was stunned. It had been bad enough to know that Monad could access the computer at will, but to learn it now had also the means to control Voyager totally was devastating.
"Why?" She asked, almost in a whisper. "What does Monad want with Voyager?"
As though in answer to her question, the room suddenly darkened for a moment before the emergency auxiliary power came on, accompanied by the flashing of a red alert. A new message was being displayed on Janeway's computer screen:
*IT IS MONAD: IT IS THE ONE. I AM VOYAGER: I AM THE OTHER.*
Janeway returned hurriedly to the bridge, closely followed by Chakotay and Torres.
"Report!" she called as she hurried to the computer controls at her console.
"Systems are going off line, one by one, Captain." The ensign assigned to ops in place of Harry Kim was close to panic as he frantically tried to regain some control over the computer. "Main power has failed. We've lost communications, the transporters and turbolifts; automatic doors are no longer functioning. Auxiliary power is functioning, but we're still losing systems. It's as though the power is being diverted somehow."
Janeway looked at her screen again.
*IT IS MONAD: IT IS THE ONE. I AM VOYAGER: I AM THE OTHER.*
"Perhaps that's our answer. Maybe Monad wants a friend." She looked at Chakotay who shook his head doubtfully.
"I think it's more than that, Captain. I've been thinking about that message it keeps sending: 'I am Monad: I am the one.' The literal meaning of the word Monad is 'the one'; the most basic original form. What if it was called Monad because it was a prototype? Maybe it's unique, the only one of its kind. But it is also a biological entity, maybe with some of the basic biological instincts still intact."
"And the strongest instinct of all is ... procreation," finished Janeway. "You think it wants to mate with Voyager?" She was incredulous at the idea and almost inclined to dismiss it out of hand. "Monad is organic and Voyager is simply a machine. Monad scanned the computer, it must know the two are incompatible," she looked at Chakotay in sudden comprehension. "The bio neural gel packs."
"They are completely organic and they effectively control Voyager's computer systems," Chakotay nodded. "Maybe Monad discovered some kind of affinity with the gel packs when it accessed our computer systems."
"Captain! Environmental control is going off line." The ensign on ops voice was overloud and unsteady.
Janeway's reply was calm and decisive, belying the inner turmoil she felt.
"Switch to auxiliary control and maintain only essential systems."
"Auxiliary control is not responding, Captain," the ensign looked down at her with horror from his raised position. "Life support is starting to shut down." Janeway's mind raced as she desperately worked out priorities.
"B'Elanna, get down to the central processor. Sever any connections between it and the backup system. I don't care how you do it, but you must regain control of life support. Physically disconnect all gel packs from the auxiliary system and use conventional circuitry to replace them."
"Aye, Captain." Torres was already heading for the Jeffries tube as she spoke.
"Chakotay, I want you in charge of evacuation to the escape pods. Their life support systems are independent. Get as many of the crew as you can reach."
"What about you, Captain?"
"The gel packs seem to be Monad's means of controlling our computer. If we can disable them or weaken them, maybe we can regain auxiliary control. I'm going to sickbay to see if the doctor has any ideas about how we can do that."
Chakotay nodded sharply and briefly laid a hand on her shoulder as he turned to speak to the bridge crew. Before he began speaking, Janeway was in the Jeffries tube and heading for the sickbay.
Heat was already beginning to build inside the ship, and although it was too soon for a lack of oxygen to take effect, Janeway felt herself short of breath as she crawled along the passages and ladders of the Jeffries tubes. The auxiliary lighting was dim and claustrophobic and she sighed with relief when she reached the access hatch into the sickbay.
She half crawled, half fell through the hatch and sprawled, panting on the floor. The room was empty; the doctor's programme obviously not activated.
"Activate emergency medical hologram!" Janeway had little hope of a response from the computer. She hurried to the medical console and entered the emergency override code, activating the independent backup system and saw the screen flicker into life. Eternally grateful to the designer who had made the system truly independent of the bio neural circuitry, she entered the commands to activate the doctor's holoprogramme.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The doctor's familiar voice came from directly behind her.
"Doctor, I have a rather unusual medical emergency for you." As usual, Janeway felt a surge of optimism as the doctor listened attentively to her story. He showed no surprise at her theory of Monad's reasons for taking control of Voyager's computer system, and casually turned to pick up a hypo spray from a tray of instruments while she spoke.
Janeway never knew if it was her own instinct or something in the doctor's expression that saved her, but she threw herself backwards at the same moment his arm snaked towards her neck. She felt the cold spray pass over her shoulder and dodged round one of the couches, away from the doctor's reach. He followed her with a grim, unfamiliar expression, quite unlike his normally irascible, but very human face.
"Computer! Delete emergency medical hologram." Janeway's faint hope of obedience from the computer was instantly disappointed when the doctor made another lunge towards her round the table. He moved with cat-like agility, the hypo spray aimed unerringly towards her neck.
"Doctor, you can't harm me: your Hippocratic override forbids you to take life."
Janeway frantically crabbed backwards to another couch.
"I do not intend to kill you, Captain. This is merely a strong sedative, which will render you unconscious for several hours."
"By which time I shall be dead from lack of oxygen. Doctor, Monad has shut down our life support system. You have to help us."
"My programme is an integral part of the computer system, Captain. Monad wants you deactivated, therefore I must administer this sedative." He made a feint towards her and then came with terrifying speed round the other side of the couch. Janeway dropped to the floor and swung herself desperately under the couch, the sound of the spray-hissing close by her ear as she slid across the floor to take refuge behind the console. Fast as she was, the doctor was faster. He grabbed her wrist as she made a desperate lunge at the control panel and whirled her round to face him. She watched the spray moving up towards her face and twisted violently in his grip, but he was too strong and she knew with certainty there was nothing she could do to stop him injecting her with the sedative.
The doctor pressed the hypo spray against Janeway's neck and she instinctively held her breath, waiting for the sudden blackness to take her. But there was nothing, only the doctor's puzzled face close to hers as he looked at the useless hypo spray. She realised he must have emptied it with the first two unsuccessful discharges and tried to wrench herself free from his grip, but his hand remained locked tightly around her wrist. She fumbled behind her back for the computer controls, but the doctor jerked her away from the console and held her steady in the centre of the room.
"So, what now, Doctor?" Janeway asked between panting breaths. The doctor refused to meet her eyes and looked searchingly around the room as though for inspiration. "You've admitted you can't kill me, and I'm hardly going to wait around while you load another hypo spray."
"It seems we are going to have to remain here until Monad has completed the necessary transfers."
"Transfers? What transfers?" Janeway felt no relaxation in the doctor's relentless grip on her wrist, but realised she had an unexpected direct link to Monad's intentions.
"Monad is combining Voyager's power and computer systems with its own to create a new, hybrid entity."
"How can it do that?"
"Monad is... I believe the closest word I can use is 'gestating', the hybrid within its own structure."
Janeway blinked and wiped her free arm wearily across her face. The heat was now combining with the shortage of oxygen to make her breathing laboured and ragged. She knew that it could not be long before mental confusion would set in and make logical discussion impossible. Somehow, she had to break through Monad's control over the doctor.
"It's a pity it has to end like this," Janeway gave a rueful smile. "After all we've been through together. You've become one of the most valued members of the crew. I have the highest regard for your expertise as a doctor and I know we could have lost Voyager several times without your help. Don't you feel any loyalty to the people on this ship?"
The doctor looked a little uncomfortable.
"I have to obey my computer programme."
"I understand that. But are you going to hold me here until I die from lack of oxygen? Surely that is unacceptable to your Hippocratic override?"
"I will have no need to restrain you once you become unconscious."
"No." A wave of dizziness threatened to overwhelm Janeway. She closed her eyes in fierce concentration and twisted her wrist against the doctor's grip, using the pain to cling on to her consciousness. "No, you won't need to hold me any longer. But will you be able to watch me die while you do nothing to help? Your whole reason for existence is the preservation of life. You will be violating your own Prime Directive if you let me die."
The doctor frowned and looked puzzled.
"My Prime Directive is indeed, to save life."
"Then help to save mine, and every other humanoid on this ship!"
"I cannot allow you to interfere with the transfer."
"Doctor," Janeway was fighting for every breath now, her vision fading as she made the final effort to stay on her feet, "you have to make a choice: between your friends and an alien being that is trying to kill us all. If we die, you'll have a very long time alone to think about it." Janeway peered towards the doctor, trying to distinguish his reaction to her words when the floor abruptly rose up towards her face and she closed her eyes to a soft, enveloping blackness.
Aboard Monad, Tuvok and Kim had depleted their phaser power, trying to blast through the walls of the digestion chamber. They had been partially successful, having made several evil smelling and dripping cavities extending several feet back into the tissue compound. However, the cavities were regenerating, and nowhere had they managed to break through to another room. Worse, the walls were still swelling out towards them and the walkway surrounding the pool was less than half its original width.
"You're wasting your time, Mr. Vulcan," Neelix gave his opinion to a frowning Tuvok. "This trap has got its flies, and it's not about to let them go."
"Are you suggesting we should make no attempt to escape?" Tuvok asked, looking down at Neelix with evident distaste.
"No, merely that maybe we are going about it the wrong way. I mean, blasting away like that; it's hardly likely to endear us to Monad, is it?"
"Do you have an alternative suggestion?"
"Well, Captain Janeway must be worried about us. She'll be trying to contact us."
"We've lost our comm link with the shuttle, Neelix," Kim said. "The captain can't reach us direct from Voyager."
"Maybe we can reach her, through Monad," Neelix began walking up and down the small area of floor that remained to them. "This could all be a terrible mistake," he waved his arms in an all-embracing gesture. "We haven't even told Monad why we are here," he stopped directly in front of Tuvok and looked up into his face. "Yesterday, Monad relayed your thoughts to Captain Janeway through Voyager's computer; why not try doing that now?"
Tuvok stared at Neelix for a moment and then slowly looked around at the rest of the team. He saw the same expression of eager hope in each one.
"Very well. I will attempt to communicate with Monad." He turned to face the wall behind him and closed his eyes. His breathing slowed and deepened as he sent his thoughts out to Monad's cells.
Janeway opened her eyes and blinked at the blurred features peering down at her. "Captain! You're awake. For a moment, I thought ... "
"Yes, Doctor. For a while there, I thought so too," she sat up, wincing at the vicious headache that lanced through her skull. She looked around the sickbay, aware that her breathing was normal, the air strong and fresh. "You managed to reactivate the life support system?"
"No, Captain," he helped her to her feet. "I was in the process of establishing a bio-containment force field around sickbay, with an oxygen-based atmosphere inside, when the auxiliary life support came on line spontaneously."
"B'Elanna! She must have succeeded in isolating the gel packs in the auxiliary system," Janeway grinned ruefully. "I guess Klingons have a greater resistance to oxygen depravation than humans."
The doctor's face had a furtively uncomfortable expression that Janeway decided to ignore. She badly needed his help, not one of his agonized sessions of self-justification.
"I need you to come up with something that will render the gel packs temporarily inoperative, but won't do them any permanent damage. Do you already have any drug that might be effective?"
"Hmmm, I believe a strong sedative, combined with a neural paralysing agent may produce the effect you describe. However, I must warn you that this combination has been known to cause hallucinations in humanoid patients."
"Do you have the drugs in sufficient quantity to treat all the gel packs?"
Janeway decided that control of a hallucinating ship, although bizarre, was preferable to no control at all.
"I will calculate the dosage," the doctor rapidly entered data, using the backup computer. "I have enough drugs to treat seventy three per cent of the gel packs."
"How will you administer it?" Janeway was rapidly calculating which gel packs could be safely disconnected from the circuitry, and which should receive the sedative.
"An injection directly into the central processor conduits should ensure the distribution of the drugs. It would be not unlike the rather primitive method of using the humanoid vascular system."
While the doctor prepared the drugs, Janeway waited impatiently, pacing the sickbay. She was asking the doctor for the third time, how long he would take, when the door opened and Chakotay hurried in, closely followed by Torres.
"Auxiliary power is on line, Captain." Reported Torres.
"The rest of the crew is still in the escape pods," Chakotay said. "Except for some on the lower decks who took refuge in a shuttle craft."
Janeway rapidly explained the doctor's intentions.
"B'Elanna, I want you to disconnect the non essential gel packs from the system. We have to eliminate twenty seven per cent of them for the doctor's treatment to work."
"It will take time, Captain. They are scattered around the ship. It won't be easy with the turbolift off line."
"I'll help B'Elanna." Chakotay was already heading for the door when the doctor gave a satisfied sigh and announced that his preparations were complete.
"You're with me, Doctor," Janeway held out his portable holo-emitter and watched as he downloaded his programme. "Now we'll see if we can give Monad as big a headache as it's given me."
In fact, Janeway's headache was about to get worse. She and the doctor stood in the central processor room and looked at the faintly shimmering air between them and the processing unit.
"A force field!" Janeway glared at the CPU.
"The force field will not affect me, Captain." The doctor said in an irritatingly smug tone.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Doctor. The computer must know what we are planning. I'm willing to bet your programme would be deleted the moment you stepped through the force field. By helping us, you have become a traitor in Monad's view. It will eliminate you just as it would the rest of the crew." The doctor swallowed uncomfortably.
"So how do we administer the sedative?"
Janeway rubbed her forehead wearily.
"We have to deactivate the force field." Janeway turned to a nearby computer console and began tapping in commands. For a while, the screen remained obstinately blank and then, suddenly a message appeared.
*CAPTAIN JANEWAY.*
Janeway glanced up at the doctor before replying doubtfully:
"Janeway here."
*WE NEED HELP. WE ARE TRAPPED.* The message flickered on the screen and then stabilized.
"Tuvok! Is that you?" Janeway asked eagerly.
[YES.] The message on screen was still not completely stable.
"Tuvok, do you have any way to influence Monad's actions?"
*UNLIKELY.* Appeared on the screen.
"Monad has erected a force field around our central processor. We have to disable it before we can regain control of Voyager."
*ATTEMPTING TO DEACTIVATE FORCEFIELD. STAND BY.* The message on screen stabilized and Janeway gestured to the doctor to follow her to the limit of the force field.
"I'd better administer the drug if Tuvok succeeds. I don't want you anywhere near Monad's influence, Doctor."
"I suppose I can't blame you for not trusting me." The doctor looked so woebegone, Janeway felt a wave of sympathy for him. She patted his arm reassuringly.
"I just don't want to lose you. Monad can't touch me if I get inside the force field, even if it is reactivated. You, on the other hand, could disappear for ever." As she spoke, the force field shimmered and died, then flashed back on and off again. Janeway grabbed the injectors from the doctor and stepped quickly through to the CPU. The force field crackled against her heel and remained active once she was inside its perimeter.
"You must put a hundred milligrams of the drug into each of the bio nutrient conduits." The doctor prompted her. Janeway nodded and began removing the covering panels. As she opened the first panel, a cloud of noxious smoke poured out into her face. Janeway coughed and took a rasping breath, hardly able to see through the tears that quickly filled her stinging eyes. Closing her eyes against the smoke, she reached in and fumbled for the flexible nutrient conduit, injecting it with a quick pressure of her thumb.
The doctor watched with mounting anxiety as the area within the force field rapidly filled with smoke. He saw glimpses of Janeway's hurried movements and heard her constant racking cough, then the smoke obliterated everything and the coughing ceased and the only sound was the faint background hum that always pervaded the ship.
"Captain!" The doctor hesitated for a moment at the force field and then darted inside, feeling blindly with his arms outstretched. Almost immediately, he stumbled over Janeway's body, slumped against the last open panel. He had dragged her to the limit of the smoke before he remembered the force field: he might be able to move freely through it, but Janeway couldn't. Horrified, he was desperately trying to think of a way to get her out, when the force field suddenly crackled violently and vanished.
Janeway opened her eyes and coughed painfully. She looked up at the doctor.
"This is becoming a habit, Doctor." her voice was a whispered croak.
"I believe Monad is no longer in control of the computer, Captain. I was able to pass through the force field unharmed before it was deactivated."
Janeway sat up and looked at him searchingly.
"You crossed through the force field, even though you knew Monad might destroy your programme?"
"You were unconscious, Captain. I was merely obeying my prime directive; to save life." He gave her a challenging glance before helping her to her feet.
"The sedative must be working," Janeway began entering commands into the auxiliary computer console. "We have control of the basic systems again."
She opened a communication channel and established a distorted contact with Tom Paris on the shuttlecraft. There was heavy electronic interference on the view screen and Paris' voice tended to fade and break, but Janeway was able to confirm that Monad's bioelectric field was weakening and tending to concentrate in an area away from the shuttle.
"I've located the away team and I'm trying to establish a transporter lock on them. Diverting more power to the transporter system." Paris's image vanished from the screen and contact with the shuttle was lost as he closed down the comm channel to conserve power for the transporter.
Janeway and the doctor headed for the bridge where they found Chakotay and Torres running diagnostics on the auxiliary systems.
"Get our people out of those escape pods, Chakotay." Janeway strode to the centre of the bridge and stared at the sinister and faintly glowing outline of Monad on the main view screen. "B'Elanna, what's the status of our propulsion systems?"
"Impulse engines and thrusters only on auxiliary power, Captain."
Janeway nodded. She'd had little hope of using the warp drive anyway without the main computer.
"As soon as the away team is in the shuttle bay, I want maximum impulse speed."
She sat at the conn and laid in a course directly away from Monad's position.
"We have to put as much distance between ourselves and Monad as we possibly can before the gel packs recover from the sedative. I don't know how far Monad's telepathic powers can reach, but the further away it is from our computer, the happier I will feel."
"Paris to Janeway." The voice was loud and clear through the comm link. Janeway slapped her badge in response.
"Go ahead, Mr. Paris."
"We've just docked in shuttle bay two. I have the away team on board. I'm beaming Tuvok directly to sickbay."
"Acknowledged." Janeway fought the urge to enquire after Tuvok's condition and concentrated on piloting Voyager away from Monad's influence. The doctor transported to sickbay as soon as he heard Paris' message and Janeway and Torres were left alone on the bridge. Torres hurried from one station to another, adjusting engineering controls and monitoring tactical and operations systems. She checked suddenly at the tactical console and frowned.
"That's strange. Monad seems to be concentrating massive amounts of power in one part of the ship. It's shutting down systems and diverting all reserves to one small area," she looked up at Janeway in alarm. "Captain, it could be powering up weapons."
Janeway transferred the tactical data to the conn and studied Monad's power transfers.
"What's the status of our shields?" She asked.
"Shields at twenty per cent. I can't give you enough power for the impulse engines if I increase the shields."
The bridge doors swished open and Janeway looked up with relief, when Paris and Kim entered with other members of the bridge crew. She stood up and Paris slid smoothly into her place.
"Mr. Kim, did you find any evidence of Monad's weapons capability when you were on board?" Janeway hurried to join Kim at his ops station.
"No, Captain. The bioelectric field made it difficult to learn anything. Lieutenant Tuvok might know something more: he made telepathic contact with Monad before Lieutenant Paris beamed us out."
"Chakotay, you have the bridge." Janeway was heading for sickbay as she spoke.
"How is he, doctor?" She looked down at Tuvok who lay completely still on a couch, his eyes open but unfocussed and staring.
"He appears to be in some kind of neurological shock. I believe his condition to be due to an overload of information from a Vulcan mind meld with a vastly superior intelligence. I have administered a sedative in an attempt to render him unconscious, but the scans still show considerable over-activity in some sections of his brain."
"Captain, Monad has no weapons capability." Tuvok's voice was soft but completely audible. Janeway started at the sudden interruption and stared down into his blank eyes.
"Tuvok?"
"Monad is concentrating all the power it has taken from Voyager and is utilising it to sustain the hybrid embryo. Without the gel packs, Monad no longer poses a threat to Voyager."
Janeway exchanged glances with the doctor and leaned over the couch.
"Tuvok, how did you know what I came here to ask you?"
"My telepathic powers have been enhanced by my communication with Monad."
"You read my mind?" Janeway felt uncomfortable at the idea of even a close friend having access to her thoughts.
"I am sorry, Captain. I do not mean to intrude."
"You told me what I needed to know." Janeway patted his unresponsive shoulder.
"Tuvok?" She stared into the unseeing eyes and looked up enquiringly at the doctor.
"Interesting," the doctor ran a tricorder over Tuvok's head. "I detected a strong emanation of psi waves while you were talking to Lieutenant Tuvok. These emanations have now ceased. I take it you were in telepathic communication with him?"
"He knew what I was going to ask."
"And you knew his reply?"
"He spoke to me." Janeway looked puzzled as the doctor shook his head.
"No, Captain. His speech centre has been rendered inoperative by the sedative. If you heard Lieutenant Tuvok's replies to your questions, they were inside your mind."
Janeway was in her ready room, studying reports when Chakotay entered with yet another padd.
"The latest diagnostic results on the gel packs." He handed the report to her. She glanced quickly down the results and nodded.
"I see the spasmodic malfunctions seem to have ceased."
"Except on the holodeck. Voyager seems to be getting over its hallucinations by concentrating them in the holo programmes. I suggest the holodeck remains off limits until the doctor gives the all clear: he seems to think the side effects of the drugs should wear off completely within a few days."
"Good," Janeway put down the padd and smiled. "The doctor's latest report on Tuvok is also encouraging. He is fully conscious and impatient to return to duty. Apparently, his telepathic powers are waning as his brain activity reverts to normal. I think he rather regretted their passing until the doctor pointed out that his earlier nightmares were almost certainly caused by Monad's distant influence."
"I guess that's one human experience he didn't enjoy." Chakotay smiled.
Janeway turned to look out of the window at the distant stars.
"Now that Voyager's systems are back to normal, we have to decide what to do about Monad." She turned back to Chakotay. "Do we attempt to interfere again, or do we just go on with our journey and leave it stranded out there?"
"I don't see how we can help Monad without endangering Voyager. We've already been the unwilling donors of a large proportion of our power supply. We can't risk taking the computer within range of its influence again."
"Under normal circumstances, I'd agree with you. But what about the hybrid? As the 'offspring' of Voyager, surely we have some responsibility for what happens to it?"
"Have you talked with Tuvok about this?"
"A little," Janeway admitted. "He apparently remained in telepathic communication with Monad for some hours after his return to Voyager. Maintaining the hybrid's growth rate alone proved too much for Monad's resources. It was forced to shut down the process and return to stasis. The hybrid is still in embryonic form, unable to develop further without a power source."
"In that case, I strongly advise against getting Voyager anywhere near Monad's influence again."
"I'm sure you're right, Chakotay," Janeway sighed. "So why do I feel so uneasy about it?"
"It's a pity we can't ask Voyager's opinion." Chakotay hated to see Janeway disturbed by yet another unforeseen problem.
Thoughtfully, Janeway made her way to the sickbay. She checked on Tuvok's condition and then stopped at the doctor's office.
"Ah, Captain," the doctor looked up from where he was replicating medical supplies. "Lieutenant Tuvok is continuing to make an excellent recovery. He should be able to return to duty in a couple of days."
"Good." Janeway hesitated and the doctor looked up enquiringly.
"Was there something else, Captain?"
"No, not really. I just wondered. ..." She stopped and shook her head. The doctor frowned and drew himself up to face her.
"If you are still concerned about my conduct during our encounter with Monad, I can assure you that ..."
"No, Doctor. It's only indirectly to do with Monad. I was wondering how much you know about Voyager and the computer. As an integral part of the ship's systems, you have a closer affinity than the rest of the crew. When Monad controlled you and tried to turn you against us, you were able to reason and make your own independent decision. I just wondered if you had any help from Voyager? Any sense that maybe the ship was an unwilling participant in Monad's reproduction?"
"I'm not quite sure what you're asking, Captain. Voyager is a machine, as is the computer. It is not a single entity, nor a sentient being."
"So the ship would have no ... affinity with Monad or the hybrid embryo?"
"The embryo is not a true hybrid. Monad transferred power and data from Voyager, but the reproductive process was interrupted when you drugged the gel packs. I believe Monad would have initiated a transfer of DNA from the gel packs via the transporter to complete reproduction, but this was prevented when you regained control of Voyager."
"The embryo is unfertilised, then?" Janeway was having difficulty understanding the reproductive process of starships.
"Not entirely. Monad has produced a large volume of cells containing the contents of its own memory and data banks as well as those it extracted from Voyager's computer. In effect, it has created a clone with additional genetic material, but lacking the necessary DNA to be the true result of sexual reproduction. Think of it this way, Captain; if your memory was to be forcibly copied from your unwilling mind and imprinted in an alien clone, would you consider that clone to be your child?"
"Absolutely not. You're saying then, that Voyager is not sentient, but even if it were, it would not acknowledge the embryo." Janeway smiled. "Thank you, Doctor. For saving both my life and my peace of mind."
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