Manipulation of the Mind

[Anubis2k4]

AUTHOR'S NOTES
This story is based in the Star Trek Voyager universe and takes places in before the events of Unimatrix Zero, during the show's sixth season.

Story[U]
Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager straightened up into a sitting position in her command chair for what seemed like the umpteenth time, her hair was a mess and oil among other compounds were streaked across her face and uniform. When she spoke her voice was crisp and impatient,
"Damage report."
The first to respond was Ensign Harry Kim who looked in as terrible a state as the Captain herself. The console behind him indicated that the main EPS relay was offline and the console next to that was charred and no longer functional. However Harry was not concerned with those consoles, it would seem that they were old news. Instead his hands skimmed across the control panels in front of him, tapping the controls, his eyes took note of everything they saw and within seconds he was giving a report to the Captain.
"Plasma conduits on decks seven through eleven have ruptured....."
The ship shakes violently obviously from an impact, Captain Janeway is thrown sideways and once more begins to pull herself up into a sitting position whilst Ensign Kim is thrown to the floor, he slowly pulls himself to his feet whilst a loud voice rings out across the bridge. It is that of the tactical officer Lieutenant Commander Tuvok.
"Shields are offline."
By now Harry has scrambled to his feet and once more he is busy at the consoles that surround him, once more his voice rings out.
"Hull breach on Deck 10, emergency forcefields are offline."
Janeway's response was crisp, just like before.
"Send a repair team to seal it. Divert all auxiliary power to the shields."
Before Harry could perform the order Tuvok spoke.
"Captain, all auxiliary power is currently routed to engineering, it is likely that if we divert it we will lose impulse engines."
Janeway didn't hesitate, she tapped the comm badge pinned to her uniform and spoke out, her words being relayed through the comm system to Engineering.
"Bridge to Engineering, we need more power for the shields."
After Janeway spoke there was almost twenty seconds of silence, silence that was only broken by the hissing of gases escaping from broken conduits and the beeping of consoles as fingers tapped them. After these twenty seconds Janeway once more tapped her commbadge.
"Bridge to Engineering, respond."
Once more silence fell upon the bridge, but this time for no longer than five seconds. It was Harry's voice that broke it,
"Captain, internal scans show no lifeforms in Engineering."
Compassion surged through Janeway as she heard this, her mind recalled images of those crewmembers who had been stationed in Engineering, B'ellana, Vorik, Nicolleti.....she mentally shook herself. Now was not the time for grief, they had to get out of this in one piece first. She turned her mind to the issue of the shields, but before she could come up with a solution to their problem a voice rang out from next to her. It was that of Commander Chakotay, like the rest of the crew both his face and his uniform were smeared with oil, and as he spoke there was a note of desperation in his voice.
"They're firing again."
Instinctively the crewmembers on the bridge gripped the supports near their station, these were different for each person. For some the supports were bars surrounding their consoles and for some they were armrests on their chairs. As Janeway's hands clasped the armrests on her chair she spoke out an unnecessary command, after so many impacts it had become second nature to the crew.
"Brace for impact."
A splitsecond later a shockwave ripped through the ship, far more powerful than the last due to the fact that the shields were down. It was so forceful that Janeway was thrown from her seat to the floor, at the rear of the bridge one of the consoles exploded in a burst of flames and the Ensign who had been working at the station was thrown backwards to the floor. The Lieutenant who had been working next to the Ensign rushed to his side, he turned his lolled head towards him and recoiled slightly at the sight. The explosion had caught the Ensign full on and if the console had come of badly it was nothing compared to what had happened to the Ensign, his skin was charred a deep red and it was obvious that he was dead, however the Lieutenant pressed his fingers to the Ensign's neck before announcing to the bridge.
"He's dead."
Once more Janeway felt that pang of compassion due to the loss of life, but once more she pushed it out of her mind. With Chakotay's assistance she pulled herself back into her chair once more, whilst she had been doing this the crew had been using their consoles to learn of the damage to the ship, she didn't need to ask for a damage report this time. The man at the helm was first to speak, Tom Paris usually tried to brighten any situation using some small joke or simply using a light voice and acting as if he hadn't a care in the world but on this occasion his voice sounded deadly serious, none of his usual lightheartedness could be found in his voice.
"Helm control is offline."
Tuvok followed up with his report.
"As are all weapons and sensors."
The next to speak was Harry Kim,
"Life support is failing to everything below deck three."
Before Janeway could fully process this information another voice rang out, Chakotay's.
"They're loading their torpedo tubes. Captain, we won't survive another hit."
Janeway hesitated for a moment, her head turning as she looked at each member of her bridge crew who were all watching her and awaiting her orders, finally she made her decision. Her had reached upwards and once more tapped her communication pin. Her voice shook slightly as she spoke, yet she knew what she was saying was the right thing to do.
"All hands, this is the Captain. Proceed to the escape pods and abandon ship immediately. Repeat, all hands abandon ship."
Janeway sighed as she closed the communications channel, no-one on the bridge had moved. Tom spoke out first,
"Captain, i think i speak for us all when....."
Her voice was sharp when she interrupted, it had to be to show them that she meant business. These were good people, all of them, and she wouldn't ask any of them to give up their lives.
"Now Mr Paris."
Tom looked her dead in the eyes for a moment before finally standing.
"Yes ma'am."
The rest of the senior officers began to head to the turbolift, at the rear of the group was Ensign Kim, before he entered he turned and looked at the Captain,
"Captain, we have to go now."
"Get out of here Mr Kim and that's an order.....I'm staying."
"But Captain....."
"But nothing Harry, a Captain always goes down with her ship."
A few seconds passed where Harry, as Tom had done, looked the Captain in the eyes,
"Aye Captain."
Janeway watched as he entered the turbolift and the doors slid shut, blocking her bridge crew from sight. A tear trickled from the corner of her eyes as she realised that she would not see them again. Slowly she turned her head to the panel at the side of her and tapped the controls, the viewscreen flickered and an image of a large vessel appeared on it. Four red balls of light suddenly appeared from the ship, it had fired. The four torpedos sped towards Voyager and Janeway could do nothing but watch as they brought destruction towards her ship. Seconds later the torpedos ripped through Voyager's hull, destroying large chunks of the starship, it was the fourth torpedo that impacted Engineering. Fire swept through the entire Engineering section and reached the Warp Core, the computer did not even have time to issue warning of the fire. Within milliseconds the Warp Core had breached and an antimatter explosion engulfed the ship. Just before before the explosion occured more tears trickled down Janeway's face, this was the end. Then the explosion ripped through the bridge, tearing it apart. Voyager exploded, scattering debris throughout space, but leaving no trace of any human remains.
Tuvok let out a very un-Vulcan like gasp as he awoke from his slumbers.......

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!

[superwoman]

Ooooo! Good one!

[Mac Harm]

Looks good!

[ParLawGod]

I was on the egde of my computer chair the entire time...good story!

[Anubis2k4]

Author's Notes
Please note that none of the characters in this story belong to me. They, along with the show Star Trek Voyager, belong to Paramount. They are merely being borrowed for this fic. I am making no money from writing this so please don't sue me!

Story
Tuvok let out a very un-Vulcan like gasp as he awoke from his slumbers. He immediately noted that his heart rate was abnormally high and cold sweat trickled down his forehead. For a few moments he remained silent, pushing the fear that he felt as a result of what he had seen into the recesses of his mind. He was puzzled by the fact that he was feeling fear intense enough to make him sweat, usually emotions such as this would automatically be subdued by his mental barriers, but his current state would suggest that they had not subdued his fear on this occasion. It only took a few seconds to re-establish his emotional control, after all he was Vulcan. Slowly he pulled himself into a sitting position and when he spoke aloud no trace of any emotion could be detected in his words, once again he was the calm, emotionless Vulcan.
"Computer, lights. Half illumination."
The computer complied and the room lit up. Tuvok blinked for a few seconds, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting. Once more he spoke.
"Computer, what is the time?"
The artificial voice calmly replied.
"It is currently 0300 hours."
He had not been asleep long, he had only retired to his bed at quarter past twelve after finishing his tactical review, which he would be submitting at 0800 hours the following morning. After listening to this response he pulled the covers from him, by the state of the sheets that covered him whilst he slept he assumed that he had been tossing and turning in his sleep. After extracting himself from the tangled covers and re-arranging them so that they were once more neat and tidy he made his way over to his bathroom. Once in the bathroom he proceeded to the sink in the far corner of the room. He filled the sink with cold water and lowered his head into the water, washing away the sweat that lingered on his skin. After a moment he raised his head from the water and reached for the towel placed on a hook near the sink, he dried his face with the towel before walking over to the replicator and recycling it, he then returned to the sink and drained the water. Whilst it drained he looked into the mirror which was hung above the sink, he stared at the image of himself that was reflected outwards, thinking of what he had seen whilst he slept. What had he seen? Was it a dream? If it was a dream it was more intense than any dream he had ever experienced, it had felt as if he was truly there. It was then that he heard them. Voices rang out and echoed throughout the small bathroom, at first they were almost whispers but they slowly grew in volume until they were at normal speaking level.
"Internal scans show no lifesigns in Engineering........Brace for impact.........Hull breach on Deck ten!"
Tuvok turned and looked around him cautiously before calling out.
"Who is there?"
No response came, Tuvok tried again.
"Is there anyone there?"
Once again there was nothing but silence, after a moment he realised that it was probable that he had been imagining the voices, it would be illogical for any crewmember to sneak into his quarters at 0300 hours merely to shout phrases at him. Slowly he turned back to the mirror intending to once more stare at his reflection and reflect upon what he had seen. Yet when he looked into the mirror it was not himself that he saw, instead he saw the face of the Ensign who had been caught in the console explosion during his dream, once more the Ensign's face was charred a deep red. The face stared out at him with the charred cinders that rested where its eyes had once been. It was horrible to look at. Tuvok took several steps back from the mirror, his face blank as always apart from his eyebrows which where raised almost into his hairline, yet his body betrayed the emotions that he felt within his mind behind all the emotional barriers he had in place. The mere fact that he was retreating from this sight indicated that he was afraid. He continued to stare at what was being reflected. Then came another voice, however this one was louder and angrier, it did not sound as it had in the dream.
"HE'S DEAD!"
Tuvok spun round this time to face the empty quarters.
"Identify yourself."
Once more the room fell silent and after several moments Tuvok left the bathroom and moved into the main room of his quarters. As he crossed his quarters his eyes roamed the room, searching for anyone who could have spoken those words but after several minutes investigation he found no-one. He reached the windows which looked out into the blackness of space and reclined on a chair which faced them. Whenever he was troubled he would stare out of those windows into the space that surrounded Voyager, the peace of space calmed and comforted him. In the silence he began to reflect upon what he had seen in the mirror and the voices that he had heard. He must be imagining things, logically none of what had happened was possible. Dreams did not follow you to reality. The hallucinations were probably caused by his lack of sleep that night. He merely needed to lock the dream away where he would not think of it again.....but had he not already done that when he was in his bed? He had attempted to push the memories into the recesses of his mind, that should have been enough to subdue them until he wished to study them further, however this attempt had been unsuccessful, his thoughts continued to linger on the dream and the result of this was the hallucination he had seen and heard. After a few moments he came to the decision that he would once more attempt to push the dream to the back of his mind where his thoughts could not linger on it. Slowly his eyes closed whilst he concentrated on pushing the memories to the back of his mind. After several minutes they re-opened, his attempt to subdue the memories had been successful, at least that was what his mind seemed to indicate, he no longer felt the fear in the depths of his mind that he had felt upon his awakening. His mouth opened and he yawned loudly, it was then that Tuvok realised how tired he was, he had gained little sleep that night and he had had a busy day running training simulations to keep the security personnel in shape. Slowly he rose and made his way back over to his bed. Once he reached it he climbed inside and arranged the covers so that they covered him comfortably, his eyes flickered closed as he spoke.
"Computer, lights off."
The computer complied and the room fell once more into darkness and silence. For the remainder of that night Tuvok slept peacefully.
*******
"Sorry I�m late Captain......"

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!

NOTE: Please read and review everyone. Thanks to anyone who has already done so; your comments can only improve my writing.

[Voy_Girl]

Good story so far,