The Collectors
Chapter One
2378
In a state of the art office at Starfleet Headquarters, Kathryn Janeway sat at her desk and went through a pile of reports that were awaiting her attention. She and the crew had only returned home six weeks ago, but already she was back at work, quickly getting to grips with her new life as an Admiral. The promotion had come as a surprise, but it was not unwelcome. After seven years in the Delta Quadrant, the last thing she wanted was to jet off into the unknown again, and appreciated the opportunity working on the ground gave her to spend time with her family and to catch up with old friends. When she was not working, she was busy renovating an old Gothic style mansion she had been fortunate enough to acquire in Bloomington. It was over two hundred years old and needed a lot of work to reflect its former glory, but it was a challenge she was more than ready for. When restored, the house would have five ensuite bedrooms, two living rooms, a music room, a study, an observatory and an extensive garden. As her mother had pointed out, the house went far beyond the needs of a single person, but after seven years of having to sacrifice want for need, she was going to indulge herself without guilt. Besides, she didn't intend to live there alone. Once the house was habitable, she planned on getting herself a dog, a furry friend who would no doubt appreciate the huge garden. In the meantime, she was living alone in an apartment in San Francisco.
Just as Kathryn was about to start reading her umpteenth report, the door chime sounded.
"Come in," she called, putting down the padd in her hand.
The silver doors slid open and Tuvok came in.
"Tuvok," she said, getting to her feet. "This is a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting to see you until the autumn."
Tuvok, like so many other former members of the Voyager crew, had taken time out of Starfleet to spend with his family.
"All has not gone as expected," Tuvok announced in his usual serious Vulcan manner. "My family and I have performed several mind-melds in the hope of curing my neurological disease, but to no avail. My condition is unchanged."
Kathryn closed the gap between them, concern and pity in her eyes. "Oh Tuvok..."
"Perhaps," he surmised, "a mind-meld is only effective in certain individuals."
"I'm so sorry," Kathryn said sadly. She had hoped with all her heart that a mind-meld with a compatible Vulcan would heal him. "But you can't give up," she went on encouragingly. "This disease is still in the early stages. Now we're home, there may be a specialist in the Federation who can help."
"That is my only remaining hope," Tuvok answered. "I have an appointment with a Vulcan neurologist this afternoon, Dr Loraska. Her methods are unconventional and controversial, but she has had a lot of success in treating conditions deemed incurable by conventional medicine."
"I've heard of her," Kathryn declared. "Unconventional or not, her methods get results, and that's all that matters." She paused. "Is someone going with you?"
"I am going alone," Tuvok informed her.
"Would you like me to accompany you?"
"I would not," he answered plainly.
Kathryn tried not to smile at what would have been a rude rebuff from anyone other than a Vulcan. "Then would you like to join me for lunch?"
At that, Tuvok's tension eased and he almost smiled. "I would like that very much."
Unable to concentrate on her work, Kathryn stood at her wide office window and watched vacantly as soft spring rain fell over the city she had once thought she would never see again. It was no doubt a miracle that they had got home, even with the Admiral's help, but getting home had not been what she had always imagined it would be. To have accomplished a goal she had dedicated every part of her being to for seven years, unloading her of an overbearing burden, had brought immeasurable relief, but there was also a sense of anti-climax. The new beginnings she had dreamed of, when she had dared allow herself to dream, were an impossibility now. When they were first stranded, she had dreamed of being welcomed back by Mark's loving arms, but as her relationship with him had faded into history, and it was Chakotay she had found commanding her heart and senses, she had dreamed of a life with him... of boat trips down real rivers, of moonlight sails on the real Lake George, of picnics in rainforests, of log-cabins in snow-kissed mountains, of swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, of visiting his homeworld, of giving him a tour of her hometown, of candlelight dinners in romantic venues, of starlight kisses, of setting up a home together, perhaps even welcoming a little bundle of joy into their lives who had dark hair just like his father. But, like so many dreams she had dared to dream over the years, they had been shattered by time, leaving her with only the thought of what could have been. Chakotay was with Seven now, and as they had married in the Admiral's future, there was no reason to suppose they would not in this timeline. It hurt profoundly to think of Chakotay with anyone other than herself, but she had to accept that she had lost him. The dreams she had dared to dream of a future with him belonged now, like so many others, to yesteryear.
Suddenly a bleep sounded and the computer spoke.
"Incoming transmission, visual and audio."
Kathryn turned away from the window and looked at her monitor. "On screen."
In seconds, Admiral Maylor, her superior, appeared on the screen.
"Good afternoon, Sir," Kathryn said formally.
"I've had better," the man replied less stiffly, "and I dare say you will have had too. I must ask you to report to HQ Sanatorium immediately."
At that request, Kathryn put down the cup in her hands. "On my way."
Minutes later, Kathryn was at the Sanatorium. As soon as she arrived, Admiral Maylor greeted her and lead her to one of the Sanatorium's secure rooms.
"What's going on?" Kathryn asked, looking around the sterile room, hoping her eyes would yield some answers, but finding they did not. All she could see was a patient lying on a biobed with a brunette female Vulcan doctor close by.
"This is Dr Loraska," Admiral Maylor said, gesturing to the woman, "a specialist in Vulcan neurology."
"I've heard a lot about you," Kathryn replied. "In fact, Commander Tuvok, my former chief of..." her words trailed and her face paled as a thought occurred to her. Anxiously, she moved closer to the biobed to see the patient better, and at the sight of a familar black man, her fearful thought was confirmed. "Tuvok," she said in alarm. Quickly, her eyes scoured his body, desperately looking for any sign he was still alive, and relaxed when she saw his chest move up and down with the rhythm of life.
"As you may know, he came to see me today," Dr Loraska began, "hoping I could find a way to help his condition. While I was performing a series of intensive scans, more intense than any currently done by Federation specialists, I made a disturbing discovery." The woman paused and then spoke the unthinkable. "This is not Commander Tuvok."
At those words, Kathryn's eyes flew from Tuvok's face to the neurologist's, hardly believing her ears. "What did you say?"
"I said this is not Commander Tuvok. It is a CBR...a computerized biological replica."
Kathryn stared at the woman incredulously. "You mean... a flesh and blood hologram?"
"That''s right," the doctor replied.
"But how?" Kathryn cried, turning again to look at Tuvok. "I don't understand? How can he not be Tuvok?"
"Please, have a seat," Admiral Maylor said, concerned at Kathryn's distress.
"I'm fine standing," Kathryn answered and quickly addressed the doctor again. "Tuvok was examined many times and regularly by our doctor on Voyager, and has been examined by other doctors since we returned. If he's a CBR, why didn't any of them detect it?"
"No Federation Doctor at present uses my techniques," the woman explained. "I scan deeper and more intensely than anyone else. This is why I have so much success. I treat cellular damage that other doctors can't even detect. Conventional scans would identify this CBR as a normal humanoid, which was no doubt the intention of the designers in the first place, but my scans discovered microscopic implants in the brain too small for the naked eye to see and standard tests to reveal. Further tests revealed that these implants are responsible for cognitive processes, aswell as all other functions usually controlled by the brain."
Admiral Maylor spoke now. "Dr Loraska reported her discovery to us right away, and we sent two of our most qualified scientists to assess her findings. They fully concur with her conclusions. This is not Commander Tuvok, but a CBR. We had him transported here and Dr Loraska is going to help us perform further tests." With sadness in his eyes, the Admiral put a kind hand on Kathryn's shoulder. "I'm afraid every single member of Voyager's crew must be examined, including yourself."
"Of course," Kathryn said quietly, her head swimming in a confused daze. Could this really be happening? How could Tuvok, her friend and confidant, be no more than a bio-robot? How could it have happened? When could it have happened? Could she be a bio-robot too, the entire crew? No, she would not think it. Any moment now she would wake up and find this was nothing more than a terrible nightmare.