Tom woke to the sound of scraping. He didn't get up right away, for he hurt too much to even open his eyes. He moaned quietly as he slowly crawled off the bed, and toward the food.
What happened? he asked himself, Why does my whole body ache?
He tried to think back as far as his aching head would let him. He finally remembered two pair of glowing eyes hovering above him. He suddenly felt intense pain, and he closed his eyes against the onslaught. He continued to see the glowing eyes before him.
He quickly opened his eyes, and snatched up the ball of fur that served as food. He took a bite out of it and concentrated on how bland it tasted in order to keep his mind occupied.
It didn't help, though as he remembered being strapped to a metal slab. The glowing eyes seemed to have been the center of his attention as if they had hypnotized him.
Paris brought his hand up to his mouth to take another bite of the food when he realized that his hand was empty. He had eaten the whole thing without noticing it. He shrugged it off, and drank the water.
Realization hit him when he went back to the glowing eyes. He concentrated harder on remembering, risking more pain in his head.
They must have hypnotized me, Paris thought, rubbing his temples, It makes sense. But what did they do?
His head began to ache. He closed his eyes against the pain until he saw stars.
Stars!? His eyes flew open at the thought, They took to me into another room at the other end of the corridor. They put me on a slab, but what did they do?
He punched his thigh in frustration, and winced in pain. Not knowing what else to do, he crawled over to the right-hand wall, and knocked on it.
"B'Elanna?" he asked loudly, "are you awake?"
Torres jumped awake at the sound of his voice. She waited till her heart settled before she answered him.
"Yes, Tom, I'm awake," she tried to keep the hint of relief from her voice, "What do you want?"
Paris ignored the irration in her voice, and answered her, "There's a corridor at the other side of the door. It leads to another room. I think it's a lab."
Torres' eyes opened wide. She turned around, and said, "That's where they took you? Do you remember what they did?"
"No. I do remember staring at a pair of those glowing eyes. I think I was hypnotized. I woke up aching all over."
"I woke up to feeling pain, yesterday," Torres mentioned.
"Yesterday?!" Paris was suddenly confused, "You mean we've been here for five days now?"
"Yes. You slept the rest of yesterday away. I guess I fell asleep worrying over you."
"Thanks," Paris whispered.
Torres smiled, "Don't mention it. Maybe now, they'll give you a variety to your meals."
Paris laughed, and Torres took comfort in that. They were both being put through hell, but having Tom laugh made her feel a whole lot better.
"Do you remember what they did to you when they took you in there?" Paris suddenly asked.
"They pricked my skin. I don't know what they took or even if they gave me something."
"We both woke up to pain," Paris mentioned, "so they must have done the same thing to us. I just don't know what."
Torres could hear frustration and anger in his voice. In the predicument they were in they could not waste energy on anger.
"Tom," she whispered soothingly, "don't worry about it. We can't..."
"Don't worry about it!?" Paris shouted, "They kidnap us, refuse to tell us why, and they take us to a lab, and perform who knows what on us! Don't tell me not to worry about it!"
Torres let him shout. She knew his anger must have been building up. She understood what he was saying, and it made her furious as well, but she found a way to calm her Klingon half. She noticed that Paris had quieted down.
"I know how you feel, but we can't waste our energy being angry."
"Sounds like something I would have said had you been the one ranting."
Torres smiled, "I know, but we've been here too long. I believe my Klingon half is tired of showing muscle."
"Probably agrees with your logic. I guess I'll go meditate and calm my nerves."
"I'll do the same," Torres agreed.

Chakotay drummed his fingers against his thigh. They finally found the ship's signature, but the Lyante had gotten a head start. It would take hours to catch up to them, even at warp eight.
I wished I had thought about the back-tracking earlier, Chakotay thought angrily to himself, We've lost so much time.
"Are they still heading in this direction?" Chakotay asked, "I don't want them to get away again."
Kim's fingers flew across his console. After a moment, he looked up and said, "No sign that they've changed coarse."
Chakotay nodded, "Good."
"Chakotay to Janeway." "Any progress on the Lyante?" He asked, a little concerned about the tiredness in her voice.
"Come to my ready room," she answered, "I've found something."
Chakotay stood up, gave the bridge to Tuvok, and headed toward the ready room.
He entered the room, and saw that the captain had not moved from her desk. He noticed that she was indeed tired, but telling her she needed a break was like telling Tuvok he needed to have some fun.
He moved to stand in front of her, "Captain?"
Janeway took a sip of coffee, "The Indryns told us that the Lyante can't stand the light. The report they gave us says that they live on a planet that has such a thick cloud cover that sunlight can not penitrate. It must be extremely dark on that planet."
"Their eyes must be very senstive to light. Even more so since they glow."
Janeway nodded, "This report doesn't tell what kind of experiments they perform or why. It does say, though, that their main subjects were the Indryns."
"When they saw us, they have thought it a great oppertunity to have brand new subjects."
"Yes, but why Tom and B'Elanna?"
"That, only the Lyante can tell us," Chakotay answered, "And we don't know if they can be communicated with."
"We'll just have to find out when we catch up with to them."

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