Beth 6787

February 2018

The Purge

Ever wondered about all that data that was downloaded to Voyager at the end of the episode 'Twisted' ? Couldn't resist adding a little twist of my own!

B'Elanna Torres stood up and walked over to the conference room wall monitor to aid her report. "As you can see, almost every system has been compromised. The data has overloaded both the hard drive storage capacity and working memory of nearly all critical systems. Not only that, but the corrupted script had integrated itself into the bio-neural network. Every single gel pack will have to be purged individually. So far, I've managed to isolate life support and prioritised clearing those systems. That was the relatively easy part of the operation. I've no idea how we are going to remove the rogue script from the EMH program without compromising its clinical functions. Normally, I would recommend taking it off line for the duration, but with no other medical staff on board..." the Chief Engineer let the implication hang in the air. She didn't need to spell it out to anyone.

Janeway and Chakotay looked at each other then the Captain spoke. "Are you absolutely sure that there is no way to isolate the alien data script for further research later? We have no idea what information it contains. Perhaps stellar maps of this region of space which could be invaluable to us."

"Or their recipe for Leola Root soup or their species clothing fashion recommendations." Chakotay raised an eyebrow before the Captain could reprimand him. "Yes I'm being deliberately frivolous, but the point is we have no idea whether the information is of any use whatsoever and no way of finding out. Bar leaving our systems paralysed for months on end. I honestly can't see any alternative to a complete purge and re-initialisation with the back up operating system."

B'Elanna piped up with "And, thank goodness, that was unaffected. Probably because it was archived and non active when we were hit with that distortion wave."

The Captain's instinct was to preserve at least some of the script for further research at a later date but scientific curiosity would have to take a backseat to survival. Sadly, out here, they did not have the luxury of indulging her curiosity when they were alone and vulnerable in hostile space. They were still far too near to both Kazon and Vidian territory to allow their guard down for even a few hours, yet alone the months it would take to create and stabilise storage for billions of gigabytes of potentially ...nothing of worth. She turned to address her Chief Engineer "I concur. Alright Lieutenant, go ahead and purge all the alien data from the bio-neural gel pack network. Once you are sure that there are no remaining contaminated packs on the ship I want a maximum gamma burst throughout the network and then a complete shutdown and re-initialisation. Liaise with Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Tuvok as to which systems to sterilise first. Ensign Kim, I want you to work with Lieutenant Carey and the two of you to focus entirely on purging and repairing the EMH. Commander Chakotay, you have my permission to re-assign as many appropriately trained staff to engineering as are required for the duration. Dismissed."

With that the senior staff started to file out of the conference room. Only Commander Chakotay remained behind. "Captain, for what it's worth, I agree. It would be prudent to retain just a small sample of the data. I've always had an interest in xeno-anthropology and am as keen as you are to attempt to de-code the information. Even if it does only contain an improved recipe or two for Leola Root : after all Neelix could do with all the help he can get!"

She had to laugh at that. But Chakotay was right. If they could devise a remote storage device that was sufficiently isolated that the alien script could not invade any of their systems again... Then she had an idea "Commander, ask Neelix whether we can use one of the spare CPU's he has stored aboard his ship. Those are all totally isolated from our systems and also Delta Quadrant technology. Perhaps some of Neelix's old junk will come in useful after all. There may even be a unit that is compatible with the alien language."

He grinned at her "That's a fantastic idea. I'll get B'Elanna onto it. If anyone can marry all these disparate systems together and make any sense of it all, it's her."

The Captain just nodded and dismissed him.

After Chakotay had left she sat and pondered for a while. There must have been some point to that alien incursion. It would have taken considerable energy expenditure on their part to transfer and integrate all that data. And the aliens had seemed pretty determined, having overcome every obstacle that her crew had devised to resist the inevitable.

—

Five days later...

B'Elanna Torres was just wrapping up her last report. She would be glad to see the back of this particular project. The entire crew had worked, non stop, around the clock and all they had to show for it was being back in the position they were in before encountering that...whatever it was. "So, I can now confirm that the Gamma radiation burst followed by the complete shutdown and re-initialisation has cleared all systems. All departments report that ship's systems are operating within standard parameters. Although, I should add" she did her best not to sound annoyed and exasperated "that standard parameters are sub-optimal for our current circumstances. Lieutenant Carey and I will spend the next twenty three days re-instating all the enhancements and modifications I have made to Voyager's systems up until we encountered the anomaly. With your permission, of course." She looked at the Captain, hoping she was not glaring too much, then went to sit back down.

Captain Janeway couldn't blame her. As well as having to undo all her hard work she had been tasked with integrating a sample, approximately one percent of the total data bytes, into an isolated CPU from Neelix's ship stores. Neither she nor Tuvok or Chakotay could determine any pattern to the data so it had been a purely random sample from the stellar cartography hard drive in the end. Based on the assumption that if there was any logic to the distribution of the alien data stream then any navigational data would have been downloaded there. It was a very big "if" but...nothing ventured, nothing gained...

—-

Six years later...

Having collapsed on the Bridge, the Captain and Tuvok had insisted on transporting him back here. To sickbay. He had seen enough of this place to last him a lifetime, though he knew the Doctor was only trying to help. Help keep him sane. After his traversal through chaotic space accompanied by that alien inside his brain, he wasn't sure that he would ever feel completely normal ever again. Wait until he told her how he had finally come to understand what those aliens were trying to tell them all along...

"Chakotay, how are you feeling?" She was standing over him with her hand over his heart. He reached up and covered it with his own.

"Better thank you. Though I'm still very disorientated and nauseous. Kathryn..."

He did not normally use her given name in front of the crew, not even in sickbay with only the Doctor present. He was looking at her meaningfully now. She understood. "Gentlemen, could you give the Commander and I a moment alone please." With that Tuvok and the Doctor discreetly withdrew. Tuvok presumably heading back to the Bridge and the Doctor to his office. Both safely out of earshot for now.

Once he was sure they were alone he looked back at her. Would she believe him or think it was just another product of his compromised mind? "Kathryn, do you remember ...towards the beginning of our journey...when the ship became distorted by that alien entity and we all kept being drawn back to the holodeck?"

She nodded, wondering what that had to do with now. That incident had happened just over six years ago and they never had deciphered that data. After a few months she had finally given up and stored the old CPU somewhere in Cargo Bay 2. She doubted that she could even find it very easily now.

He didn't know how she would react but it needed to be said. He couldn't in good conscience keep it to himself although he knew she would add it to the list of regrets that she would guilt-trip herself over for the rest of their time out here. He took her hand again and made sure she was looking him in the eye before he spoke "Kathryn, the chaotic space aliens : they are the same race that we encountered during that incident. They are so alien to us that they knew they could not make first contact in the usual way. So they compressed a data stream and pushed it towards Voyager. Only we could never decipher it."

She felt an icy shiver starting to radiate along her spine. She almost wished he would never tell her but, deep inside, she had a strong inkling of what was coming next.

Chakotay squeezed her hand and she noticed how bright his eyes had become. He was using all his remaining strength not to cry in front of her. "When I was in that boxing ring, arguing with...them...they wanted to know why I kept repeating myself. If we didn't want to be in chaotic space why didn't we just leave? I was frustrated, I had to keep telling them that we didn't know how. Eventually my opponent...he showed me again...how to configure the navigational array on the Bridge. I saw the text in my mind and the language was the same."

She felt sick to her stomach. But she had to hear it vocalised. "So what was in that original datastream...all two billion gigabytes of it?"

"The way home Kathryn. Passage through chaotic space all the way back to our point of origin."

And as they looked at each other neither could contain the flow of tears.

THE END.

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