STRIKE

Star Trek: Voyager
STRIKE
By
T.R. Orton
"Carey, there's a plasma leak on deck 15!" Ensign Cal, snapped overly excited from the operations console.
"Conceal the area of the leak and make a life signs sweep to make sure nobody's caught in the leak," the engineer called from the captains chair. "Then call up the senior officers."

"Thankyou for coming at this early hour," Carey spoke professionally. "At 02:23 hundred hours I picked a plasma leak on deck 15." Cal glared at her fellow crewmember as Carey trailed on. She knew Carey did this all the time, taking the glory trying to show the senior officers how much of an 'asset' he would be as Chief engineer. The officers never buy it though; Cal could care less if Carey claims he detected the plasma leak ". and with the leak cleared I feel I should investigate the cause of the leak," Carey finished triumphantly.
"Sorry Lt., that's B'Elanna's job," the Captain said and nodded her head to the Chief engineer.

"Computer, confirm that section Alpha 3, deck 15 is clear for all gases and fumes and all other fatal substances," Torres asked the computer.
"There are no fatal substances located in the area specified; force field must be attained for best inspection results," the computer said in its same lifeless tone.
"Very well. Computer, lower shield power enough for a humanoid to enter past it," Torres ordered as the force field's power lowered. Torres walked through the force field, as it's light blue surface lit up as she went through. Once B'Ellana entered the section, the force field immediately recharged leaving B'Ellana choking as plasma fumes invaded her body.

"Kes, monitor Lt. Torres's condition and apply 12 cc's of Florid Cyleoid 3 times in the next 4 hours with a minimum of 62 minute gaps. In 53 minutes apply a Chrotosone Amplifier to her temples," the doctor asked.
"Yes doctor," Kes quietly replied as she looked over her wounded friend. As Kes applied the first dosage of Florid Cyleoid Lt. Paris entered the Sickbay clearly distressed though obviously trying to keep his cool.
"How is she Doc?" Paris asked very agitated. "She shall recover, in the mean time let us treat her, Mr. Paris," the Doctor said.
"How long until she's okay, Doc?" Paris asked.
"She in hailed a lot of plasma gas residue, and at this point it is really hard to tell," the Doctor offered.
"Well can I at least see her?" Paris asked.
"Mr. Paris, the best thing you can do at the moment is let us do our job," the Doctor stated, issuing for Paris to leave.
"Okay, just let me know when I can talk to her, Doc?" Paris asked.
"Of course, Mr. Paris," the Doctor said and Paris left.

"Do you mean to tell me the computer was lying to B'Ellana?" Janeway asked.
"Not lying, but rather misdirecting," Carey said as he re-accounted what happened through the L-CARS at the computer terminal in the Captain's ready room. "It seems as if the computer was re-programmed to misread voice commands, resulting in the computer not completely cleaning that section of the ship and misdirecting Torres into entering into that area of the ship."
"You said re-programmed. Is someone sabotaging the ship?" the Captain asked.
"Well, we've gone through this before, with Mike Jonas and Seska. And from what I've seen I think someone is. The only way I can know for sure is if I inspect the section, I'll were an environmental suit and take all precautions needed, Captain," Carey eagerly offered.
"Well guess that is the acting chief engineers job. I also want you to get a manual clean-up team to rid all of the remaining plasma residue gas and have the section opened by 13:00 hundred hours," the Captain ordered.
"Yes ma'am," Carey said and left.

Lt. Carey, Crewman Q'ul and Ensign Cal entered the force cautiously and slowly with their environmental suits closely secured to them.
"Q'ul, Cal start amplifying the plasma de-engaging unit. I'll take a look at the gel pack console," Carey turned around and took a look at the remains of the console. The console was fried with a deep, long gash in the middle of it. As Carey bent over to pick up a tool to examine the console he noticed a small, dark golden gelatinous form the size of his thumb. He bent down to take a closer look at it, as it seemed to be living. Not really living but pulsating in a very strange way, like dying. He noticed that the underside of it seemed to be drying. "Hey, Q'ul, Cal. come take a look at this thing I found," Carey called to them.
"What is it?" Cal asked.
"How am I supposed to know?" Carey ignorantly stated not noticing that Q'ul's mouth had been hanging open ever since he saw the gelatinous goo. Cal, just noticing Q'ul's facial expression, "Q'ul, what is it, what's wrong?"
"That, goo. it's, it's a. changeling, or at least a piece of one," Q'ul stammered.
"What. how do you know?" Carey asked.
"When I was serving aboard the Defiant, a changeling infiltrated the ship as an Ambassador, we had to take blood samples and what the changeling gave off was that stuff," Q'ul explained.
"We should get the Doctor to check this stuff out and see if it really is a piece of a changeling," Cal suggested.
"Okay," Carey agreed.

"From what I can tell," the Doctor continued, "This is a piece of a changeling."
"How did it get on the ship?" Janeway asked in the sickbay after the Doctor requested that her, Lt. Tuvok and Commander Chakotay urgently report to the sickbay. "We're thousands of light-years away from the Gamma Quadrant and the Alpha Quadrant, I don't see how a piece of changeling could get on the ship."
"I haven't had much time to make any theories about how, but at first I thought that be could be a piece of a baby changeling that somehow got transported aboard the ship during one of our resent missions. I ruled that out when I ran a test and found out that the changeling piece was over 1200 years old. I ran another test and found out that it has had a Voyager signature, like the entire crew has, on it for nearly 3 years. So either there has been a piece of changeling sticking to the carpet for the last of couple years or. we are being infiltrated by a changeling," the Doctor stated.
"My, god," Janeway replied cold of any expression, "Is there any way to tell who the changeling is?"
"I can a blood test of every member of the crew, but if we do that I'm sure that the real changeling will catch on and find a way to work through it. But what I did find in the changeling piece could help us greatly," the Doctor proclaimed.
"What is it?" Chakotay asked.
"Every humanoid shares some sort of similar chromosome patterns as proved in 2370. Now in the piece of changeling, I found that it had some of those patterns, but changelings are not humanoids. I believe that at one point the changeling came in contact with the crewmember he is impersonating, and took those patterns so its DNA would show up on control panels and other things that a humanoid would leave its DNA on. Now what I can do is match the DNA patterns up of the changeling's and previous L-CARS files of the all members of the crew and find out who the infiltrating crewmember is," the Doctor suggested.
"Do it," Janeway ordered, "And I don't want any other members of the crew to find out there is a changeling on the ship. I feel too many people know already," Janeway ordered.
"Yes, Captain," Tuvok, Chakotay and the Doctor agreed.

The Doctor sat anxiously working at his desk. He was close to the identity of the changeling.
"Computer, access bio-file of subject 119, recorded physical from 2367," the Doctor requested.
"File, open," the computer answered back.
"Now compare pattern Alpha K-sssss," the Doctor was interrupted by the hiss of the door, "Hello. is anyone there," the Doctor asked. There was no answer. It was late in the evening and only an 8th of the ship was up.
"Beep-beep, beep-beep-beep, beep-beep," a control panel chimed. "Who's th-," the Doctor was cut-off, as he was shutdown from the computer.

"Chakotay, Tuvok, in my ready room, now," Janeway called from her ready room.
"The Doctor has been shutdown with his archived memory lost somewhere in the computer. God, this changeling is a lot faster than we are. We are going to have to inform the crew about the changeling soon, because at this point the changeling knows we're on to it and it's just not safe for the crew especially since they have no idea what's going on and anything could happen to them. We've already lost the Doctor and B'Ellana is just barely clinging to life. I'll have to let Kes continue on with the Doctor's work-," Janeway was interrupted by Chakotay.
"Captain, I strongly disagree with letting anybody else know of the changeling. It will create paranoia amongst the crew and what happened to the Doctor could have just been a system's error as well as what happened to B'Ellana," Chakotay stated.
"Commander, I am the first person to try and look on the bright side of things, I am also the first person to look on the dark. Now these are mighty fine circumstances for us to find a piece of a changeling on board this ship the same time a plasma conduit explodes as two members of our crew have either been lost or fatally injured. And if you thi-," the Captain was cut-off by her com-badge.
"Kes to Captain Janeway," Kes called.
"Janeway here, what is it," Janeway said tapping her com-badge.
"Carey, Q'ul and Cal have been injured," Kes replied.

"What the hell happened to them," Janeway asked Kes in the nearly full Sickbay.
"From reports in engineering, the three of them were working at their consoles when the consoles exploded. Vorik said he would investigate the cause of it and call when finished," Kes explained.
"Vorik to Sickbay," Vorik called from engineering.
"This is Sickbay," Kes answered back.
"I have disturbing results, is the Captain there?" Vorik asked.
"I'm right here, Mr. Vorik, what is it?" Janeway asked.
"It seems that any console in the ship that Carey, Cal or Q'ul was working at was set to explode when their infrared signature touched the console," Vorik explained, "Making it impossible to do any thing in the ship, such as ride a turbolift or enter their personal logs. I will repot more information when it arrives. Vorik out."
"Sickbay out," Kes ordered.
"Mr. Tuvok, I will make a ship-wide announcement in 10 minutes informing the crew of the changeling. I want security teams to make pulse phaser rifle sweeps through Jefferies tubes, and every member of this crew to have a phaser by their side in the next half-hour," Janeway ordered.
"Yes, Captain," Tuvok replied and left.
"Kes, an organism originating from the Gamma Quadrant with the ability to take nearly any form it chooses has infiltrated Voyager. It is a hostile life form and is responsible form the injuries of B'Ellana, Carey, Cal, Q'ul and the Doctor. There are few ways to decipher whom the being is impersonating; one of which is to take blood samples. I want you to get 6 volunteers to take blood tests and see if any of the blood samples resemble that of the sample that the Doctor was examining yesterday. Set the teams up in Cargo Bay 2,3 and Shuttle Bay 2. I also want you to continue the exams the Doctor was working on yesterday, it will determine who the organism known as the Changeling is primarily impersonating. Oh, and make that 9 volunteers, we'll need a security officer monitoring each blood test," Janeway ordered as Kes started calling up names on her com-badge.
"Kathryn," Chakotay started, "You are really jumping to conclusions and I suggest-."
"Mr. Chakotay," the Captain cut him off, "On my ship you will do as I say and not second guess me. Your job as 1st officer is to help advise me and take my place when I cannot, if I want your opinion on something as serious as this, I will ask it not have it shoved into my face."
"Yes, sir," Chakotay replied resentfully.

Janeway walked through the corridors, phaser at her side, chin in the air. She noticed Tuvok had more than just security officers carrying phaser rifles around. There were engineers, science officers, maintenance crew, just about any type of crewmember was carrying one, paranoid. She walked briskly into her quarters, noticing the rhythm of pulse phaser shots echoing through the Jefferies tubes as she sat down by her replicator using the last of her weekly rations before having to eat at Neelix's.
"Coffee cream ice cream," she called to the replicator, not noticing a large gelatinous form shaping into something humanoid behind her.
Fully formed the Changeling called in a familiar voice behind her, "Kathryn." Startled, Janeway stood up point blank to reveal the face of the changeling.

TO BE CONTINUED. . .

Copyright 1997 by T.R. Orton. All rights reserved. Star Trek: Voyager and all characters relating are property of Paramount and Viacom Communications. No infringement intended.