Redemptions of the Heart

By Oprelia

Rating: PG-13

Code: P, J/P

Category: VOYAGER

Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance

Disclaimer: STAR TREK: VOYAGER and all its characters contained within this story are owned exclusively by Paramount Pictures Corporation. No copyright infringements are intended.

Chapter Five

Damage Control

*****

Tom's collapse spurred them all into action.

"Bridge to Sickbay! Medical Emergency! Doctor, Tom reports that he has been infected with a contagious pathogen. Set up a quarantine field in sickbay and prepare to receive him"

::: Understood, Sickbay out! ::: was the doctor's reply.

His words were short and succinct but it belied his concern for his friend. On one hand he was relieved to know that they had been in contact with his medical assistant but on the other hand the report about a pathogen was disturbing. Since his activation, he felt that Tom spent too much time in sickbay. This was not including his shifts in sickbay. Since the death of his wife and daughter, Tom's time in sickbay had increased dramatically as he struggled to control his grief. It was during those times when Tom's meditation sessions with Tuvok were unsatisfying and inadequate that he usually ended up in sickbay, catching up on his studies as a medical assistant. Five years have now passed since that terrible incident and their friendship was as strong as ever. They still bickered but that was the nature of their friendship. He had really learnt about the true Tom Paris during these last few years and it actually hurt to know that Tom was infected with a pathogen and it was up to him to treat it. Even though it was contrary to his programming to feel pain, he knew that the sensations he felt when the thought about Tom was in fact pain and sorrow for his friend.

Everyone on the bridge heard the manner in which the doctor spoke and they all knew the reason for it. The bond that had been forged during Tom's grief had been strong and special, and they knew that the doctor will do anything in his power to find a cure for his friend and colleague. Lieutenant Vorik was the first to speak after the Captain notified sickbay of the situation.

"Captain, should Commander Paris be unable to regain consciousness, we will need to somehow gain control of the shuttle before we can beam him aboard. Despite Lieutenant Torres' success with warp speed transports, I am not comfortable with the procedure". Although Vorik was concerned about Tom's safety, he would not allow any procedures which might cause him more harm. He was adamant about the transport. Unless the shuttle dropped out of warp, he would seriously protest against any order to use the transporters.

"We will cross that bridge when we get there Vorik. We will need to set up a quarantine field within shuttlebay. Let's get some engineers suited up in EVA suits. I want you to examine the shuttle. Check the sensor logs and fully scan every inch of that shuttle. Find out what has happened and where he has been" Janeway ordered. "Seven, I would like you to assist Vorik. Harry, what is the time to intercept?"

"He is 21 minutes away at present speeds" reported Harry. Concern was fully evident in his tone and by his facial expression. Tom looked terrible on the screen. He knew that he would do anything within his power to ensure his best friend's safety.

"Keep a scan on his lifesign. Alert me immediately if there is any change in his health. Chakotay, my ready room please, Tuvok the bridge is yours"

"Yes Captain" came the synchronised replies of Harry, Tuvok and Chakotay.

* * * * *

The moment the doors closed behind them she immediately rushed to the couch and collapsed onto it. She had waited so long to see her beloved again but she had never envisaged this scenario. But the first sight of him made her heart shatter instead of healing. Tom's face was gaunt and pale. He was extremely thin with his high cheekbones jutting our prominently. There were cuts and bruises all over his face and he had a black eye. The sores on his face had split, making his face look terrible. But that was not what was troubling her. It was the look in his eyes. They were clearly glazed. He was clearly in a state of shock. Obviously Tom had been tortured these past few weeks. Judging by the grimaces he made as he spoke, he must have passed out from the pain.

"Oh Chakotay, did you see him? There were bruises and lacerations all over his face. What has he endured? I've been waiting for so long to see him but now he looks terrible. Oh the pain he must be in!" Kathryn cries out to Chakotay. Chakotay was on the verge of crying too. His enmity towards Tom had long since vanished, and the friendship that was built out of mutual grief over B'Elanna's death showed that he had indeed, 'Buried the hatchet', using Tom's phrase of the situation. Now here he was comforting the fiancée of his friend when all he wanted to do was rush to the holodeck and pound his holographic boxing partner into oblivion. He wanted to howl out about the injustice of the universe, moreover he wanted to seek vengeance on those who have cause him and his people pain. But he knew that he wouldn't. It was against his beliefs to seek revenge so he forcefully calmed down and tried to do what he could do and that was to comfort his friend and colleague.

He used soothing rubs and lots of tissues to calm her down. He kept telling her that she had to be strong. not just for her sake but for the ship. They had to know that she was in control. She had to be strong for Harry as well. His gasp on the bridge was almost as loud as hers. But most of all, she had to be strong for Tom. The pilot clearly needed medical help and they were going to disregard Tom's plea. When he inevitably woke up, he would need to see a strong partner to help him recover.

"Come on Kathryn, you need to pull yourself together. Tom will need you when he wakes up. How is he going to feel when he sees you like that?" asked Chakotay, using all his experiences as an unofficial counsellor to persuade the Captain.

"You're right Chakotay" the Captain reluctantly conceded. Let me just freshen up and we'll go out to help Tom".

Twenty minutes after the Captain and her First Officer entered the Ready Room, they re-emerged from the room to an anxious bridge. The viewscreen was still active showing Tom's body slumped over the pilot's seat. She was about to speak when she saw him begin to stir. Her heart wept for him when he began to groan.

"Harry, time to intercept? she asked.

"Forty seconds Captain" reported Harry.

"Lieutenant Baytart, bring us around and match his course and speed. Lets see if he can bring the vessel under control". she ordered, remembering Vorik's reluctance to initiate a transport while the vessel was moving at warp speed.

"Yes Captain" replied Baytart as he turned the vessel around and adjusted his course to intercept the shuttle that had passed them. "We have intercepted the shuttle Captain"

On the viewscreen Tom was still groaning and muttering under his breathe. Suddenly he stiffens and bolts upright as though he was not aware of his location. He then sees the bridge of Voyager on the shuttle's viewscreen through glazed eyes and visibly relaxes although he still looked like he was in a lot of pain.

"We are right beside you Tom. Can you drop to impulse?" Kathryn asked as she visually assessed his condition.

"Yes Captain, I'm dropping out now" said Tom through clenched teeth.

"Okay Tom, will be right behind you. It's good to see you" Kathryn replied. The two vessels then dropped to impulse. Tom slumped onto the back of his chair as his strength ran out.

"Tom, we will beam you directly into sickbay. The Doctor has set up a quarantine field so you don't have to worry about infecting us. Everything is all right now".

"Captain!. The Luzwai do not know that I have escaped. You must be extremely careful. They have a weapon that disrupts the molecular cohesion of the armour" Tom desperately explained. His need to warn the crew outweighed his personal pain.

"We understand Tom. Let's just get you safe first. We'll be careful" reassured Kathryn as the bridge crew looked on in concern. They could visibly see his pain by his facial expressions.

"Kim to the Doctor, I'm transporting Tom to sickbay now" said Harry, and as he spoke they could see Tom dematerialise from the shuttle on the viewscreen.

::: I have him. Quarantine field has been established. Purge the transport biofilters Mr Kim :::

"Understood Doctor. Filters purged" Harry reported as he cleared the filters of any trace of the pathogen.

::: Good. Sickbay is now off-limits to everyone except the Captain. I need to run some scans. Do not disturb me, Sickbay Out!" ::: said the doctor.

"Tuvok, tractor the vessel to the shuttlebay and erect force-fields around the bay. Tom said that the pathogen is contagious and we should be careful" ordered Janeway as she started walking towards the turbolift. "I'll be in sickbay. Commander Chakotay, the bridge is yours"

"Yes Captain" replied Chakotay. The door closed on the Captain who was wearing a perfect mask of nonchalance when the bridge crew knew that her insides were withering away.

"Do you think that he is going to recover Commander?" asked Harry. He was still feeling the effects of seeing his best friend in that terrible state.

"I hope so Lieutenant. Not just for the Captain's sake but for our own. It has been too quiet on this ship without him" said Chakotay softly.

* * * * *

Inside Sickbay

Kathryn watched silently as the Doctor ran multiple scans on Tom's sedated body. Even in his sedated state, the tension never left his body. The movements of the doctor looked anxious and her trepidation increased. It was not looking good.

Finally the doctor left the main surgical bay with a frown on his face. He had been running continuous scans over Tom's inert form for at least two hours while treating injuries that looked even worse on his torso and limbs. His whole body was covered in bruises and lacerations.

"Captain, may you please follow me to my office? I have some bad news" The doctor moved towards his desk and switched on the monitor. He waited for her to sit down and then swivelled the monitor so that it was facing her.

"What's wrong Doctor? What have you found?" she asked with trepidation. The doctor's evolved programming included an entirely new set of facial expressions. The look he gave her increased her foreboding.

"I have been able to determine that the Commander was being held captive by a race that is very technologically advanced. Maybe even more advanced than the Federation. He is severely dehydrated and malnourished, there are bruises, cuts and burns to over sixty percent of his body. I believe that he has been brutally tortured. I have healed all the physical evidence of the torture but that is not the worse of it" the doctor reported as he showed her some of the data of his scans.

"What?" she demanded

"The pathogen that the Commander spoke about, it's worse than I thought" he said.

"In what way? Can you find a cure?" asked Janeway. She spared a glance through the glass window to the inert form of her fiancé.

"I'm afraid that I have not been able to find an immediate solution to the problem. Here is a scan of Tom's genetic code during his last physical" He brought up a display of Tom's DNA onto the screen.

"This is it now" said the doctor. She gasped as she saw the display. The scientist in her stared with abject horror as she her mind grasped the enormity of the problem. "This pathogen is literally eating him alive on the genetic level. The pathogen is attacking Tom's DNA code and destroying them strand by strand. What code doesn't get destroyed gets damaged by the pathogen so that his chromosomes become corrupted. It is different from the Species 8472 attack on Mr Kim and his body is deteriorating quite severely. His organs are slowly shutting down, one by one. If I cannot halt the process, Tom will be dead within the week. He will die a slow and painful death. Even sedated he can still feel the effects of the pathogen. if I cannot find a solution within the next few hours, the pathogen will have caused irreparable damage that I would not be able to repair" stated the doctor to his Captain.

"Why is that?" demanded the Captain.

"Because his genetic structure is being destroyed, Captain. There comes a certain point where there will not be enough genetic code left for his body to recover. His DNA will literally unravel. I will ask for Seven's help with her nanoprobes but I do not know whether I will be able to halt the pathogen.

* * * * *

Ten Hours Later

The crew were subdued one again. Just when they thought that everything was fine, fate dealt them another bad hand. They thought that he had been saved but now they knew that he enduring something even worse than before. Something that he might not live through. The Captain had made a ship-wide announcement about Tom's condition. When the Captain announced to the crew that he had been found, the crew were all cheering, but the cheering stopped when they heard her continue her announcement.  They listened with disbelief as she described his illness. Some openly wept will others hugged each other in comfort as she finally finished her announcement.

Sickbay was closed off to everyone except the senior staff. They were doing everything they could to try to halt the pathogen but every treatment they devised failed. Even the use of reprogrammed Borg nanoprobes would not halt the process. Whenever the nanoprobes came into contact with pathogen, the programming of the nanoprobes were always disrupted, preventing the nanoprobes from destroying the pathogen. The pathogen was almost sentient with its ability to adapt to any treatment they devised. They tried everything but nothing was working. They were interrupted from their research by a call from the main surgical bay.

"Kathryn!" a soft voice called out to them.

"Tom!" exclaimed Kathryn and she rushed to the edge of the force-field.

"Kathryn, it's so good to see you. I've been dreaming about you for these last few weeks. The thought of getting back to you was what kept me alive while I was imprisoned" said Tom. His voice was harsh from the pain and his eyes were glazed.

"Tom, can you tell us what happened?" asked Kathryn gently. She longed to hold his hand but she knew that she could not go into the main surgical bay.

"Is Tuvok here?" asked Tom. "I don't want to have to repeat what I have to say". He needed to make his report before he lost the ability to think coherently. Already he was having difficulty concentrating.

"I am here Mr Paris" reassured Tuvok as he stood beside the Captain. "You may begin your report when you are ready". Tuvok was troubled by the pain Tom was experiencing. He had come very close to Tom during these last few years and he was one of the few people on Voyager that really understood him. Tom's pain during his mourning had found a chink in his rigid armour surrounding his emotions and Tom had unwittingly breached it during his calls for help. Tom was now one of only a few people that Tuvok felt any emotions for and so he was affected by Tom's pain.

"Thank you Tuvok. I'm so glad to see you all again. I have missed you all" confessed Tom.

"And I you Mr Paris" was the reply from Tuvok. It was the closest he would admit that he missed Tom. If anyone was listening clearly, they would have noticed the un-Vulcan-like reply.

"I was already vigorously testing the shuttle when I detected a large vessel. I had only been out for about five hours. When they hailed me, they informed me that I was trespassing into Luzwai territory. I tried to apologise to them and explain that I only had peaceful intentions but they would not listen. They moved their ship in front of me and they tried to tractor me. I was able to deflect the tractor beam using the new shuttle enhancements... well we know they work... and I left at high warp. They were able to easily catch me though. When they started firing, I knew that I was in trouble. Their weapons were quite advanced. They were somehow able to destabilise my hull armour but I was able to initiate a lockdown on all systems before they transported me onto their ship. There I was forcefully interrogated. They wanted to know why I was there, who I was with and what type of technology we had.

"When I didn't tell them, they started beating me. I still didn't reveal anything so they tossed me into a cell. I wasn't given much food or water when I was in there. It was just some disgusting slop that they served me. Every day during my entire stay, they would drag me into an interrogation room and beat me up. When I continuously refused to answer, they would threaten to inject me with a deadly pathogen, one that caused extreme pain. They also said that it was reserved for the worst prisoners and that there was no cure. I obeyed the Starfleet Code of Conduct Article V to the letter Captain. I did not reveal anything except my name, rank, service number and date of birth. I just kept on repeating these things while thinking of you. I think that they were finally fed up with me. They injected me with the pathogen and left me in my cell. I didn't see them for approximately three days. Through the pain I was able to tap into the power grid that controlled the force-field. You don't go to prison without learning a few useful tricks. That time I was actually glad that I went to Auckland as I was able to deactivate the field. It was a bit difficult through the pain but I was able to sneak up to the guard and I fought with him before he could raise the alarm.

"Thanks to Tuvok's insistence that I learn some self defence techniques during these past few years, I was finally able to subdue him. I was able to locate the shuttle and I left the ship. You can't imagine how arrogant those Luzwai are" said Tom with a laugh which turned into a grimace. He was having difficulty breathing now. "I was able to tap into their ship's main computer with the tricorder I found in the shuttle. I disabled their sensors and flew away. Captain! We must leave this area of space now. They should have realised that I have escaped by now and they should now be searching for me. We must leave now" warned Tom.

As Tom was describing his experiences, the rest of the senior staff slowly moved forward until they too were standing next to the Captain and Tuvok. Tom's report was interrupted by a call to the bridge.

::: Bridge to Captain Janeway :::

"Janeway here" she replied.

::: Captain, we have detected three large vessels on an intercept course. They will be within communications range in five minutes. One of them match the vessel that is recorded in Orion's logs :::

"Understood, we'll be right up. Janeway out!" She looked at her senior staff and ordered them to leave their research and report to the bridge. Harry was obviously the first to protest.

"Captain, we can't stop finding a solution. Tom doesn't have a lot of time left!" Harry exclaimed. His best buddy was dying from a very virulent pathogen and he did not want his friend to leave him again. He had missed Tom terribly but that was only for three weeks. This would be forever.

It was Tom who silenced him though. "Harry, we all have a duty as Starfleet Officers to do our jobs. That job has been intrusted to you and you must protect all those that trust and depend on you. Those vessels are the Luzwai. We will need the everyone at their posts. Go, I'll still be here when you get back. I have the doctor here who is doing everything within his power to find a cure for me. Please go now!" pleaded Tom, who rose himself up to look directly at his best friend. The Doc was alarmed at the act and went straight into the surgical bay to force Tom to lie down. Any exertions counteracted whatever little the sedatives could do.

"Okay Tom, but I'll be right back buddy, okay?" Harry reluctantly conceded.

"Okay Harry" replied Tom through clenched teeth as the Doc gave him another painkiller. "I hope that there is a ship left to come back to buddy" Tom whispered as he laid back down. Only the doctor heard his mutter and his face became grim.

*****

    Next: Chapter Six