章節 25: Suspiria, the Female Caretaker
A/N: Everything has been edited now, but still wanted to mention GnomeBob because he has two great stories on the site.
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Just as I had predicted, a new character had been added to the improved holo-deck after we left the world. It was the Opec'atii that Raven had worked with going over the designs for the Crystal Distiller, who had a complete understanding of his people's mage-tech, though they called the devices Artifacts. Since then, Raven had become obsessed with the holo-deck and requested as many hours on it as Chakotay would allow. I insisted to him that she did not need priority over the rest of the crew, but with a request to B'Elanna to change her duty shifts, she was able to secure two to three hours every day, which translated to ten to fifteen hours with the settings set to full. If I was not careful, I could lose her to her obsession with creating new Artifacts, much like Zahe in my past life; she was still a long time off from that happening, but I just needed to keep the possibility in my mind.
I had only gotten a week after that event before the next episode popped up, and it was one that I had been fearing. While the challenges in 'The 100' had been much harder to avoid, we had time to plan for them, and I was quickly growing tired of the fact that so many different things could happen at such a quick pace in this universe. We barely had time to rest before some unrelated problem could spring up, and this danger threatened us more than the Q Continuum since it was not directly controlled by Tori's subordinates.
I had been working in the Aeroponics Bay, collecting fresh vegetables, when Katye, followed shortly by Janeway, called me through the comm system with the same request. Somehow, the remains of the Caretaker, the individual responsible for bringing the Voyager into the Delta Quadrant, came to life for a few moments. With Katye working in the Sick Bay, I told her long ago about the remains that the Doctor had hidden away in a storage cabinet and what it meant if the rock-like material started whistling and shaking. The female Caretaker was nearby, and nothing that I could tell Janeway would dissuade her from searching for her.
"...but before I could analyze them, the life-signs simply ceased," the Doctor was explaining as I walked into Sick Bay.
"I'm scanning the remains on all biospectral frequencies. It's completely inert. Dead," B'Elanna retorted then closed her tricorder.
"Somehow, I find it hard to believe that this rock suddenly came to life for several seconds," Janeway said.
"I concur. However, dead or alive, these are the remains of an alien entity we never fully understood. It may be prudent to place them in a level-three biohazard containment field," Tuvok suggested.
"Agreed, but now that Rebecca is here, I want her to take a look at..." Janeway started but was cut off by the sound of the remains whistling and shaking yet again.
B'Elanna quickly pulled her tricorder back out and started scanning it. "I'm picking up life-signs. They're sporocystian."
"The Caretaker was a sporocystian life-form," Janeway said.
"But, according to my readings, the life signs aren't coming from the remains. The remains are simply resonating in response to an external energy source... some other life-form," B'Elanna explained.
"Where?" the Doctor asked.
"Let's find out," Janeway replied then tapped her badge. "Janeway to Bridge. Mister Kim, begin scans for a sporocystian life-form."
"Aye, Captain. Stand by," Harry said through the comm system, and then a moment later continued, "I've got it, Captain. A sporocystian energy burst, approximately ten light-years distant, but I can't get a precise fix on its location."
The whistling stopped and B'Elanna tapped a few buttons on her tricorder then said, "The life-signs are gone."
"These remains could be responding to the Caretaker's mate," Janeway said with restrained excitement.
"If that's true, maybe we could use them to track her down," B'Elanna added.
"And if we can find her, she might have the ability to send us home," Tuvok continued the snowball of hopeful ideas.
I could not hide my frown which was out of place compared to the rest of the room, aside from Katye, but she was better at hiding her emotions than me. Janeway noticed, of course, but I managed to make my face neutral before anyone else did. She instructed B'Elanna to get started on coming up with a way to track down the female Caretaker then asked me to follow her.
Once we got onto the turbo lift and before she could instruct it where to go, I suggested, "If I may, Kathryn, I think this would be a conversation best held on my ship."
"Fine," she agreed, "computer, Deck Ten."
I led Janeway back to my ship, and we headed up to the second floor. I motioned towards the couches then walked over to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of Spirit Wine and ordering her a cup of coffee. She sat down while I brought over our drinks and sat down across from her.
"I believe that you are still on duty for another twenty-three minutes," Janeway remarked as she picked up her cup.
"I'll work a double tomorrow if you insist," I retorted then pulled the cork out.
She chuckled, "What's wrong, Rebecca? This is a little much, even for you."
"Is there anything that I can say to you that would convince you to not search for the female Caretaker?"
"Chiporofita?" she asked with a serious tone now.
"The greatest danger of knowing the 'future' is that you can only see one outcome, and that outcome is as if my crew and I were not a part of the events. I firmly believe that you and the ship survived because she looked down on you all and you were able to catch her off guard, and then seal her behind a force field. She was ready to destroy your ship and was expecting you to kill her, but instead, you released her. The compassion that you showed her was enough to convince her not to destroy the ship, but she won't be sending you back to the Alpha Quadrant.
"She blames you for the death of the Caretaker because of the lies that the Kazon have spread and is beyond reasoning with. Now imagine that she will take the Voyager as a serious threat because it is likely that she will be able to sense the power within me and my crew. Do you think that we can still catch her off guard, or do you think that she is going to come at us with her full strength to enact her revenge?"
Janeway sighed and took a drink of her coffee. "I can't let this opportunity pass us by. You said it yourself; you've only seen one possible future. If I gave up when things seemed difficult, we would have settled on New Earth when John Evansville offered."
"Which I know, and that's why I wanted a drink," I replied then took a sip. "The best thing for the ship would be to send us out and try to contact her by yourselves, but there is a space station filled with Ocampa that have full use of their mental abilities between you and her. I don't know if they can read your mind or sense your suspicion, but the chance remains, so I could have already ruined that vision by simply telling you. The best, real solution that I can give you is to have my group be restricted to our ship with the cloaking device active. It should hide us from the Ocampa, but I'm not confident that it will hide us from her because she should be much more powerful than them. Even cloaked, if I focus hard enough, I can sense the ship's core, and I've had thirteen years of practice while she has had hundreds."
Janeway sighed and took a few drinks of her coffee while she weighed her options. The smartest thing that she could do was keep the ship flying towards the Alpha Quadrant and ignore the (doomed) chance of finding the female Caretaker, but that was not her character. Like she said, if she was scared of challenges, we would have stayed on New Earth. She literally played chicken with the Borg, using only a medical treatment that the Doctor created to save Harry from Species 8472 as a proof of concept, and then demanded that they took the Voyager across their territory, which would have been a ten-year journey, for that information. Unless I promised that there was no way to survive the encounter, she would follow her gut instinct, and even if I did, there was still a good chance that she would ignore my warning.
"I'll have the duty shifts of you and your crew covered for the next few days and ask that you all remain here with the cloak on. After I discuss things with Chakotay and Tuvok, I'll return and tell you what our plan is," Janeway said after a while.
"Yes, Captain," I replied. "One last suggestion, you may only want to tell Tuvok the full story at the moment. If my fears about the Ocampa are correct, his Vulcan nature, combined with his position as Chief Tactical Officer, would explain why he would be suspicious of them."
"That's a good idea; I will," Janeway agreed, standing up.
We said goodbye and then I gave a heavy sigh once she was gone. I knew how this conversation would turn out; Katye and Raven were even betting on the outcome since we had gone over what could happen numerous times. This was the downside of us not being in charge because the final decision was Janeway's and going against her meant that we could lose our place here. I called back my group through the comm system and waited until they all arrived before I started to explain.
"So, who gets the ten crystals?" Raven asked as she sat down next to me.
"You do," I replied. "Sorry, Katye. I told her that the ship was nearly destroyed but saved because she managed to catch her off guard, and that our presence would likely make her far more cautious. I even told her that the female Caretaker had no intention of returning them to the Alpha Quadrant, but she did not change her mind."
Katye sighed, shaking her head, and said, "It's stupid. She's risking everyone's life on some futile hope that is far too dangerous."
I smirked, "It's a seventy-year trip back to the Alpha Quadrant, and ten years through Borg Space. The entire mission to get back home is a futile hope that is far too dangerous; we simply know that they make it back, so you don't see it that way. Janeway is doing what she believes is best and gives her people the best chance to get home. Unless Heda wants to challenge her for the role of Captain, we have to deal with her decisions and hope that we can handle whatever superpowered dangers she drags us into."
She crossed her arms with a huff but did not argue.
"So, what's the plan now?" Echo asked.
"We have the next few days off until all of this comes to a head. Janeway will be by later to tell us what she has decided to do after consulting with Tuvok, possibly Chakotay, but I did suggest that he be left in the dark in case the Ocampa on the station can read their minds or emotions. Those two can be suspicious for natural reasons, but anymore, and the Ocampa could get suspicious of Voyager," I replied.
"I guess that gives me some time to work on a few things in the real world," Raven sighed.
"Your toys can wait," I said, pulling her into my arms, "so that I could get some of your time."
She gave a sheepish chuckle, like she did any time I called her out on devoting more of her attention to technology than me, but she also knew that I was not mad about it either. We all had our own interests, borderline obsessions, so none of us could really complain when another was lost in something new as there were two other people in our relationship where we could get attention. I simply missed the brash mechanic that I had fallen in love with and wanted to spend some quality time with her.
The night went on. Katye made a wonderful dinner, and just as we sat down to eat, Janeway returned to our ship with an update. Katye and I, of course, insisted that she joined us for the meal which she agreed to after enough prodding. It took more work to get Janeway to talk about her decision and plan with the female Caretaker over the meal, but thankfully, Katye's ability with people was a natural one and not related to mana.
The plan was not too dissimilar to the episode in certain parts. Tuvok and the Doctor were going to develop a weapon that could paralyze her that anyone could use. She also wanted me to join her when talking with the Ocampa, but instead, I convinced her to have Katye join her. With her mana sealed by one of Tori's Pantheon, we figured that there was little chance that the female Caretaker could see through it, not that anyone told Janeway our logic and just said that she was better at concealing her true strength.
Katye could still sense other people's mana, so she would be able to get a read on the Ocampa without drawing too much suspicion to herself. It meant possibly putting her in harm's way, but by the time that Janeway had arrived, she had already used her twisted logic to convince me that she was right, like she had done quite a few times before in our past life. What I had the most trouble accepting was that I could only watch her through Fae's sensors while also keeping my finger over the button for a site-to-site transport that would switch us out within seconds.
The Voyager was able to track down the Ocampa space station about fifteen hours after the Caretaker's remains first reacted. Echo was training upstairs using the Mind Linker while Raven was building something in Engineering. I sat on our Bridge behind the science station with the screen changed to two different feeds, one of Katye and the other of the Voyager Bridge. Janeway would probably give me a long lecture, and possibly some disciplinary action, if she knew that I had tapped into the Voyager's systems to spy on what was happening, but I would deal with the consequences if she found out.
Things unfolded much like how they had in the episode, with the addition of Katye. Janeway tried to hail the space station, but they opened fire first before they opened a channel to basically say 'go away'. That was not enough to stop Janeway, of course, so she asked Kes to come up to the Bridge and try talking to them. She was successful and got the leader to agree to come over to the ship.
The nice part about using the ship's sensors to watch the Ocampa that beamed over, was that I could get quantifiable read outs on the strength of their mana, rather than having to go off my impression. Most humans would average between ten and fifty units while telepathic races like the Vulcans could have anywhere between a hundred and five hundred which was enough to cast simple spells like telepathy. Raven and Echo both started with fifteen hundred units of mana while Katye's and my personal reserves were over twenty thousand when we first entered the Voyager universe.
Tanis, the leader of the Ocampa space station, averaged around fifteen hundred and his companion around twelve hundred, but there was something strange about the readings that they gave off. The energy inside their bodies seemed to rise and fall like ocean waves crashing on a beach, while normally a person would stay at a constant level unless they were casting a spell or meditating, but they changed back and forth too quickly for that to be the case.
"Fae, do you have any idea what is going on with these Ocampa?" I asked.
::I am unable to provide a specific explanation as I do not have enough information to narrow down the possibilities.::
"Can you display a list of the possible reasons and a short description of them on the other screen?" I requested.
::Affirmative.::
A long list of spells, curses, and even poisons appeared on the screen next to the feed of Kes and Tanis, who were talking privately in the Briefing Room. I started reading through the list and was honestly surprised by the sheer number of possibilities, because it was the 258th possible reason that stood out to me, which also aligned with the episode.
The Všetci za Jedného spell could link a group of people together, allowing them to share a mana pool, but it required someone much stronger to create the initial link. Why this one stood out among the dozen other linking spells was because the practitioners of this spell would need to absorb the Life Force of outside forces. There was a scene where Tanis showed Kes how to 'know' the plants in the Aeroponics Bay then told her to 'bring the fire' which killed all of the plants. With the information about this spell, I could see that this is what allowed him to make the connection to the rest of the Ocampa, which she sensed when he tried to take her away from the Voyager. He had planted a seed within her during that moment, and if he had not underestimated her loyalty to Voyager and Neelix, he would have been able to subtly coerce her into joining them, but the female Caretaker was too determined to kill everyone which Kes was able to sense.
With the spell in place, the female Caretaker could take from the mana pools of every Ocampa that was bound to her, so I had no delusion that my group could match her strength, especially with Katye's mana sealed. There was nothing that I could do to disrupt the spell since it linked their Souls together unless I was willing to kill one of the Ocampa with a curse, but none of my group had any practice with curses. If it could not be pulled off perfectly the first time, it would undoubtedly cause a true battle between the Ocampa and the female Caretaker against us, and it was doubtful that we could win.
The next two days passed just like they had in the episode, though it did little to calm my nerves. Tanis showed Kes a number of things that he could do, and even what she could do with enough mana. I wanted to warn Katye or Kes about what I had discovered about the spell, but I quickly realized that this had been the catalyst for Kes's explosive growth throughout the end of the third season while dealing with Species 8472. Tanis had channeled a bit of his mana into Kes while he taught her in the Mess Hall, but what was unique about her was that by the next morning, her internal reserves had grown by the same amount that he had channeled into her. Despite the advantages that Raven and Echo had, channeling our own mana into them could only refill their personal energy, not increase it. I was not sure if it was something about the Ocampa as a whole, or just Kes, but I was leaning towards it being something special about Kes, since Tanis was so determined to recruit her.
The moment of truth came as Suspiria, the female Caretaker, manifested in Main Engineering, looking like a little girl in a frilly dress. Raven and Echo had joined me in watching the security footage and, if they had not been there, I likely would have teleported there when Suspiria lashed out at B'Elanna. Fae confirmed that B'Elanna was only knocked out, so I could not rush in while Suspiria's mana reserves were climbing by the hundreds every moment and were already over thirty thousand units. Tuvok entered a few minutes later, but she did not spare him a glance and knocked him unconscious just like B'Elanna.
Suspiria's attention was devoted solely to the remains of the Caretaker. She ripped apart the container that was holding the crystallized remains with her mind and picked them up. She held them to her chest as she started to cry in the corner. Part of me felt bad for her, but I was too concerned that she would hurt Katye and the others on the ship to have any true sympathy towards her.
When Janeway walked in, Katye was by her side with Filigree on her shoulder. Again, I nearly hit the button to transport into the room, but Echo stopped me, saying that we needed to give them a chance before we did anything crazy. With both feeds showing Engineering, I switched one to the Mess Hall, so that we could see what was happening with Kes as she had been the one to disrupt the linking spell in the episode from the inside which had given Janeway the opening to stun Suspiria.
"Who are you?" Janeway asked as she and Katye approached the young girl.
"Suspiria," she replied in a sweet, child-like voice.
"I've been looking forward to meeting you."
"Why?"
"Because I had the opportunity to talk to your companion before he died."
"Yes, I know."
"He told us that you were curious and went off to explore the galaxy. We're explorers, too, but your friend brought us to this quadrant against our will, and we haven't been able to find a way back."
"Is that why you killed him?" Suspiria asked, sounding angry.
"We didn't kill him."
"You destroyed the Array and you took his remains."
"I assure you..."
"No!" she snapped, standing up, and then her voice changed to that of an adult woman. "You killed him. And now, I will kill you." Her telekinesis locked around Janeway and started squeezing her.
"Please, stop. He died of old age, not by anyone's hand," Katye said, drawing Suspiria's attention.
She tried to turn her telekinesis on Katye, but Filigree threw out her hands and Katye was covered in a golden light.
"Do you think that will be enough to stop me? No, I will show you how frail and small creatures you truly are!" Suspiria growled.
The power of her spell doubled in strength which made the golden barrier around Katye dim, but she did not stop there. Her mana kept growing and she channeled even more power into her spell, wanting to break Katye, but even the Voyager was beginning to be affected by the amount of force she was channeling into the spell. Raven grabbed my hand just centimeters above the button to do the transport and pointed to the screen with Kes.
Tanis had just launched Neelix across the Mess Hall with his telekinesis. Kes screamed for him, but Tanis kept telling her to forget him which just turned her anger towards him. She used the same pyrokinesis spell that he had taught her on him. His blood started to boil, and he could no longer hold her as he collapsed to his knees with blood dripping from his nose and eyes. When he called out for Suspiria, the chain reaction of Kes lashing out against the linking spell caused a backlash that broke Suspiria's concentration, releasing all of the spells that she was using.
Filigree collapsed, completely drained from trying to fight Suspiria, but Katye caught her before she could fall. Janeway, now free, grabbed the device that Tuvok had created and stunned Suspiria. Tuvok and B'Elanna hit the ground then he quickly got his feet under him and rushed over to a nearby console, activating a force field around the child-looking being.
"So, now you kill me as you did my mate," Suspiria said without the slightest bit of fear.
"No. I told you; we didn't kill him. Please try to understand. We don't want to hurt you. We don't want to hurt anyone. We just want to get home," Janeway said then placed the device down. "Tuvok, release the force field."
"Captain..." Tuvok started.
"Do it," she ordered.
Begrudgingly, Tuvok did as he was told and disabled the force field. Suspiria was surprised as she stood up and took a few steps towards Janeway.
"You'd show me mercy after what I did to you?" Suspiria asked.
"Yes, I would," Janeway replied.
Her eyes turned to Katye and she asked, "And the others watching us, will they show the same mercy?"
"We only want to protect our people, and you have killed no one. If you stop your attacks against us, we have no reason to fight you," Katye replied.
She looked between Janeway and Katye for a moment before staring straight into the camera that let us watch them. The entire time she had known we were here but ignored us because we were too weak to pose a true threat to her. Now, her mana was only slightly higher than my own, so with Raven and Echo, we could probably take her, but we would likely destroy the ship in the process. She waited for a few moments before her body changed from a young girl to a purplish-blue translucent mass with small tentacles and then she stretched out, moving through the bulkheads like they were not there.
I sighed with relief, leaning back in my chair. Raven placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile. Things had turned out just like they had in the episode, but if I had jumped into the fight, I likely would have pushed us into a fight because of my temper. Katye had been the best option as she was the calmest of all of us and also the least threatening currently. It was clear that not everything could be solved with violence or threats, which was not my specialty, but something that I needed to learn.
A/N: Becca is going to make a group of character that will help teach her and spar against her. Current list is below, but I'm looking for some more suggestions!
Joker and Harley Quinn
The Three Musketeers
Doomsday (sparring only)
Taskmaster/Wolverine
Deadpool
Hisoka
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