Meet Lt. Zariel Sindile, temporarily assigned to Voyager for its rescue mission in the Badlands. Now she's stuck in the Delta Quadrant, her children are at home without her, she has no one to depend on, and her darkest secret is about to be laid ba...
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Stardate 53955.2
"It appears to be a Class L moon, captain. Thin nitrogen oxygen atmosphere." Harry announced. "You could breathe it, but it would give you a headache."
"What's that ring around it?" the Captain asked, pointing.
Harry bent to his scanners for a moment, then answered, "It's not a naturally occurring ring system. Too many metals, mainly tritanium, and trace elements. It seems to be made up of constructed items." He looked at the captain. "I'm also not reading any power signatures within the ring."
B'Elanna leaned away from the engineering station. "A garbage ring?"
"Looks more like derelict ships than debris," Harry answered. "Only one energy reading from the planet, and it's a type and configuration neither I nor the computer have ever seen before."
"Let's check it out, then," said the Captain. "One-quarter impulse."
Zariel, at the science station, had begun feeling profoundly uneasy, as though a headache were pounding to get inside her head rather than pounding to get out. She turned her head from side to side, noticing that the effect was directional toward their newly discovered little planet. The sensation intensified the closer they approached to the unprepossessing yellow orb. She turned to address the Captain. "Recommend we don't approach any closer, Captain, there's some sort of effect from it..."
Before the Captain or anyone else could react, however, Tuvok clutched his head and began to shriek in what was obvious pain. He staggered away from his station to collapse on the floor, writhing, green blood dripping from his ears and nose. Chakotay ducked under the bridge railing and was kneeling beside him within two seconds, but before he could summon the doctor to the bridge, something similar began to happen to all the members of the crew. Zariel looked around and within another five or six seconds, everyone was clutching their heads, folding to the floor, dizzy and gagging. Zariel bolted from her station down to the helm, where she grabbed Tom Paris by the shoulders and tugged him out of the chair. After easing Tom to the floor, she flopped into his seat and immediately reversed Voyager's course at full impulse, retreating to a distance where she no longer felt the effect of the whatever-it-was from the little planet. She slapped her hand onto the comm panel and hollered, "Bridge to sickbay!"
The Doctor's even voice answered her. "Sickbay here. Captain?"
"No, it's Lieutenant Sindile. Some sort of psionic disturbance has affected the entire bridge crew."
"Yes, it seems to be shipwide. I got reports about the Vulcans first, then everyone seemed to succumb."
"I've moved Voyager away from the effects, which seem to emanate from a Class L planetoid about thirty thousand kilometers distant. I'm unaffected, but everyone else on the bridge is unconscious." She took a deep breath. "This is now primarily a medical emergency, Doctor, so what are your orders?"
"Leave the comm open, and check everyone for airway and circulation. Get a light and shine it in their eyes and make sure their pupils react equally to it."
"Yes, sir." She got up from the helm and went to Tuvok first, grabbing a small penlight she knew B'Elanna carried in her pocket, and it turned out to be a wise decision. Tuvok's left pupil was expanded to such a degree that almost no iris was visible, and it reacted not at all to B'Elanna's little penlight.
Zariel reported this to the Doctor over the open comm, and he instructed, "Activate his comm badge. I'm going to have him transported directly here, and the other Vulcans as well."
"Yes sir." Zariel pulled Chakotay's limp form away from Tuvok, and slapped Tuvok's comm badge. Its familiar cheep was followed by the whine of the transporter, and Tuvok disappeared. Zariel went to B'Elanna next. After making sure the chief engineer was moving air and blood, she peeled back B'Elanna's eyelids one at a time and watched as the pupils in the engineer's dark eyes contracted quite satisfactorily in response to the light. She checked on the Captain, then Chakotay and Harry, then down to the helm to take a look at Tom. They were all in the same condition – unconscious but in no immediate danger.
Zariel reported this to the Doctor as well, and he didn't respond for several minutes. Zariel slid back into the helm station, turning around to look around the bridge and thinking about T'Lin. The Doctor had said all of the Vulcans had been affected first...?
Presently the Doctor's voice came over the comm. "Lieutenant Sindile?"
"I'm here, Doctor. Is T'Lin all right?"
Zariel could hear the slight smile in his voice. "She will be fine. She was in Xeno, and apparently either Ensign Wildman or Ensign Hall had already activated the emergency beam out signal on her comm badge before they passed out. I've got all the Vulcans here and stable."
Something clenched in Zariel's chest seemed to loosen, something that loosened even further when she saw movement to her left, and reported to the Doctor that B'Elanna was beginning to stir. Zariel knelt by her with a few soft words, and then went to each of the bridge crew in turn as they began to struggle toward consciousness. One by one they groped their way upright and slowly back to their stations. The Captain waved at Zariel to remain at the helm while Tom went to assist in sickbay, and Zariel did so, first reporting to the Doctor before closing the comm.
Captain Janeway pulled herself painfully into the captain's chair and looked around at her bridge crew. "Okay, people, what the hell was that?"
