Not the easiest set of conversations I've had lately--and I'm not referring to the (repeated) admonishments given to me by
emh at my most recent physical. My earlier talk with B'Elanna
paristorres in Sickbay, instead of alleviating my concerns, made me even more concerned. Particularly when she didn't even protest my removing her from the Delta Flyer project. I have never seen her so apathetic, so, I don't know...*defeated*. This is not like her at all.
And then came the even more eye-opening discussion in my Ready Room with
chakotay and Tom. Apparently Tom had no idea what B'Elanna has been up to lately, and he could give us no hint as to how to proceed. I felt sorry for him of course, but more importantly, I am disturbed that anyone on the crew, let alone key personnel like my Chief Engineer, could have been behaving so erratically for so long and without it being noticed and acted on before it went this far. Damn, I wish, and not for the first time, that we had a counselor on board!
After Tom left, Chakotay admitted he's had a feeling for some time now that there was something going on with B'Elanna. He believes the holodeck is the key--and has a method of 'treatment' in mind. I gave him permission to go ahead with his idea; I haven't heard anything further from either of them and don't know what this means.
Meanwhile, time has run out as far as the Delta Flyer is concerned. The Malon just launched their shuttle (while simultaneously launching a diversionary attack on Voyager). I have no choice but to send out the Flyer, potential (I hope) hull structural integrity problems and all, if we're to have any hope of salvaging our probe before the Malon get to it.
harrykim,
seven_of_nine and Tom will comprise the crew. I hope between the three of them they will be successful, and we will get our probe--and our crewmembers--back safely.