It was the siren that woke me from the haze of sleep. Sharp, keening wails that kept time with my throbbing head.

I wanted to put my hands up to block the sound, but I couldn't gather enough energy to even twitch my fingers. In fact, my entire body from the neck down felt like dead weight. I opened my eyes, but I could only see half the world. It was blurry and moving so fast that I was forced to close them to keep from getting sick.

Eventually the wailing stopped, and I groaned as someone lifted my head off the floor, then dropped it back down into a slick puddle of something warm. It smelled peculiar, like metal and stale air.

"Injuries?"

"Head trauma, a laceration at... I stopped the bleeding but-"

A jolt rocked my body and I could feel my fingers for one glorious moment before the void returned.

"You did the right thing. Ensign..."

"The Captain... sent her a comm."

"...good."

I was laid on my back, and my head was gently placed on it's side. I coughed and tasted something sharp, like the tang of a copper penny. Suddenly it felt as if a weight had been set on my chest, and I struggled to catch my breath.

"She's lost her... functions!... We need to-"

There was a painful prick in my neck. The pounding in my head receded as I slowly drifted into the arms of sleep.

---

"She's coming around."

"At last."

My senses were assaulted with the smell of alcohol and refrigerated air as I took in a deep breath and slowly opened my eyes. It had to blink a few times before the faces hovering above my head began to swim into focus.

"How are you feeling?"

The man was stern faced and balding, his eyebrows drawn together into a deep frown. He was looking at something out of my line of sight.

The younger man standing next to him looked concerned.

"Where am I?" I croaked. There was something familiar about the two men, though I couldn't quite place why. My brain was a little foggy.

"You're in the infirmary ma'am," The younger man said. "You've been in a coma for days."

In a coma? I frowned at the thought. "Who are you?"

The older man was quick to reply. "I'm the Doctor, and this is my temporary assistant Mr. Kim. May I ask your name?"

"Donna Winters." I muttered and attempted to sit up. I was somehow prevented, and tried again without success.

"Please try not to struggle against the restraints. You've just been through a pretty traumatic ordeal. Your body needs time to recover."

The muddy images in my mind were beginning to clear up, but only slightly.

"If you're feeling a little disoriented, don't worry. It's customary for patients who undergo such delicate surgeries to experience some confusion upon awakening." He took a light and shined it into my face.

I squinted. "Surgery? I don't understand."

"You don't remember?"

"No..." There was something, some inkling of a bright light followed quickly by unconsciousness. "Was I hurt?"

"Badly."

I took a moment to take stock of my body. I could wiggle my toes, clench my fists, squirm inside my restraints. "Well I don't feel bad now."

"I am glad to hear it, but you were extremely close to death when you were beamed inside Sickbay. And lucky for you I'm a brilliant surgeon."

Mr…. Ensign Kim? Rolled his eyes.

Engineering... beamed...

Ensign Kim's attention was drawn across the room. "Doc."

The Doctor and Mr. Kim both disappeared from view. Once I was alone, I recognized the sound of other people in the room. There was a quiet buzz of conversation, and the gentle hum of machinery.

"Is she going to be okay Doctor?" The voice belonged to a child.

"Of course she is!" This voice who replied was cheerful. "I know your mother Naomi, and she's a fighter. Isn't she Doctor?"

"Neelix, I'm afraid this really isn't really the time for a friendly visit. As you can see I'm terribly busy at the moment."

Neelix?

"Well I just thought it would be nice for Naomi to see her mother. She was getting worried when we didn't get any updates."

"As I assured you during your last visit, your mother's injuries were relatively minor. If you have any questions feel free to ask Ensign Kim. He was taking care of her, while I have been dealing with my more seriously injured patients..."

"Ah yes, the mysterious stranger everyone's been talking about," Neelix's voice held immediate interest. "Well, uh, now that we've determined that Naomi's mother is going to be alright, may we...?"

"May you what? Talk to the patient? Absolutely not!" The Doctor sounded affronted. "We're under strict orders from Captain Janeway that no one may speak to our guest until..."

Captain Janeway!

I gasped as a thrill went down my spine. It just couldn't be!

I'm hallucinating. I'm dreaming. I'm in a coma.

There could be no other reasons why I found myself strapped to a table, listening to crew members of the Starship Voyager have a conversation about me from across the room.

There was a beep on my monitor and The Doctor immediately reappeared. Ensign Kim arrived soon after. "Her heart rate has elevated. Is that a bad sign?"

"It's a sign of anxiety Mr. Kim, nothing more. You'd be pretty anxious yourself after waking up from a coma in an unfamiliar place."

The Doctor's smug grin was oddly comforting. "How did I get here?"

"We'd like to know the same thing. You were obviously in a critical condition before you appeared in Engineering."

My chest tightened painfully. "What was the damage?"

He folded his hands behind his back. "Guessing by the manner and extent of your injuries, my theory is that you were caught in an explosion. The left side of your head was badly damaged. Burst eardrum, damaged retina, and there was a laceration three inches long at the back of your skull. Your T1- T3 vertebrae were also cracked."

I blinked a few times, surprised to hear such gruesome details while I felt better than I had in my entire life.

"No need to scare her Doc," Ensign Kim said, exasperated. "She's gone through enough already."

I tried to raise a hand to feel the back of my head, forgetting that my arms were restrained. "If that's what happened then… How did you… how am I… why am I..."

"Not dead?" The Doctor nodded. "I'm glad you're asking such intelligent questions. It shows that your cognitive functions are operating correctly." He disappeared from my vision, leaving Mr. Kim in my line of sight. "I was able to repair most of the damage with Borg nano-probes."

"Right, nano-probes..." It was surreal, talking about fictional medical phenomenons with fictional characters. The Doctor was exactly like I imagined he would be in real life, and Harry seemed to be an exact replica of the kind, enthusiastic, and warmhearted Mr. Kim I'd come to know and love from the tv-series.

It just didn't make any sense.

I must be in a coma.

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"More than 72 hours." Harry quickly volunteered.

72 hours of real time? Or coma time?

My heart was pounding madly in my chest when I felt a pinch in my left arm.

"Please don't excite yourself Donna."

I wasn't sure 'excited' was the word I'd use in this situation.

The Doctor reappeared with a tricorder, and I had to fight back a hysterical laugh as he began waving it up and down my body in smooth, practiced motions. "You have one of Voyager's crew members to thank for your full recovery. It was because of Seven's genetically modified state that I was able to synthesize and inject a sample of the nano-probes to repair your damaged systems. And it's a good thing too. It may very well have been the thing that saved your life."

"Seven's here too," I murmured absently. "That means I'm in season…. season 4, Season 5? Gosh, you guys have been through so much already."

The Doctor and Harry looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

"Is she going to be alright? She's not making a lot of sense."

"We need to give the nano-probes a little more time to work. I think it's time we call-"

"Captain Janeway?" I finished for him.

"Do you know the Captain?"

"I know almost everyone on this ship actually. There's Chakotay, B'Elanna, Tuvok, Tom... Doctor, you like to sing opera and Harry plays the clarinet."

Harry looked shocked. "How can she know that? Do Seven's nano-probes have the ability to transmit memories?"

"Well no, not to my knowledge. But I suppose it's possible. I'll need to talk to Seven to know for sure." The Doctor appeared fascinated by the idea. He started typing on a data pad. "Well Donna, I'm almost done with my examination then I will release you from your restraints... so long as you promise not to attack either me or Ensign Kim."

"I promise."

A few minutes of silence prevailed, during which The Doctor brought forth a number of strange and unfamiliar devices to poke and prod me with. I struggled with wanting to ask more questions, but I wasn't entirely sure which questions to ask. Besides, I wasn't so sure that if I opened my mouth a scream wouldn't emerge. Being stuck to the table was making me feel itchy all over.

"You seem to be mending quickly," He said after an eternity. "And besides your unforeseen ability of clairvoyance, everything else seems perfectly in order."

After a moment of messing with something out of my line of sight I was free of my bonds. I sat up slowly, rubbing my wrists as I got my first good look around.

The Sickbay looked so familiar, I wasn't so sure I hadn't been here before. My bed was nearest to the semicircular control panel that was covered in useless colorful screens, knobs, buttons, and dials. The Doctor's office seemed different, but maybe that was because the surface of his desk was littered with data pads.

A search of the rest of the room revealed Neelix and Naomi Wildman next to Samantha Wilsman's bed. All three were gawking at me with obvious interest.

I suddenly got the impression that Neelix and Naomi didn't exactly come to Sickbay on account of Naomi's mother.

"What is- ouch!" I'd moved to scratch the back of my head, but quickly withdrew my hand. I could swear I'd pricked my finger on something.

"No need to worry, it'll grow back in a couple of days."

My stomach dropped. "Could I have a mirror please?"

"Of course."

The Doctor handed me the mirror, and I had to steal my resolve before raising my eyes to my reflection. The hazel eyes were the same, the long, thin nose and full lips were the same, but the hair…

"I'm bald."

"Yes. I'm afraid most of your hair was burned off in your accident, which goes hand in hand with my theory that you were caught in an explosion. What was left was so matted with dirt and blood that it seemed the best course of action to remove it. But as I said, it should grow back in a few days, thanks to Seven's nano-probes."

"Okay." I couldn't stop staring at my strangely alien face in the mirror. My head looked small and pointy without my usual thick mop of hair to round it off.

I finally lowered the mirror, mostly because my hands were shaking. If this was a coma induced dream, it was an incredibly lucid one.

I patted myself down just to see what else had changed. There were no bandages or lingering pain, and when I twisted around to feel along my spine, there were no raised scars. I felt healthy and strong. Besides being bald, nothing else appeared to be out of order.

This was not the work of a few days. Then again, Borg nano-probes were known to work quickly.

Just like how quickly you've adopted the idea of being on Voyager. I told myself blandly.

The entire room was watching me with interest.

I crossed my arms across my chest, suddenly aware that I was only wearing a flimsy hospital gown. Despite the fact that this probably wasn't my real body, I still felt strangely vulnerable. "Can I have some clothes please?"

"You will have everything you need soon, but first the Captain has a few questions to ask you."

As if conjured, the Captain strode through Sickbay doors closely followed by Chakotay and Tuvok. Though Janeway wasn't armed, her fellow officers were. I took an involuntary step back on instinct. I hadn't realized just how intimidating the bridge crew could be when they walked side by side with their weapons drawn.

Janeway put on a strained smile. "My name is Katheryn Janeway, Captain of the USS Voyager. I'd like to ask you a few questions about how you came aboard my ship."

I choked on a giddy laugh. Seeing her face to face was nothing short of crazy. On screen her personality was so big you didn't really notice her height, but she was definitely much smaller in person than I imagined. Though perhaps she just seemed that way because Chakotay was towering so close behind her.

"I'm not sure how much sense you're going to get out of her," The Doctor spoke up. "She seems a little disoriented. I imagine it'll take some time for her to recover from the shock."

She nodded curtly. "Miss..."

"Donna Winters." The Doctor supplied.

"Miss Winters, can you tell us why and how you materialized into our Engineering room while we were in the middle of that anomaly?"

"I don't know anything about an anomaly, but... I remember waking up. There was a siren, people talking. I couldn't feel my fingers..." I looked down, momentarily reliving the strange sensation.

"But what about before that? How did you get onto my ship?"

"I don't know. I was at home... No, I was running." I pressed my fingers into my eyes, my head suddenly aching from the effort of trying to remember.

"Perhaps this had better wait until she's had some time alone to think," The Doctor said at last. "After all, we don't know how well Seven's probes are acclimating to her system. She may remain disoriented for a couple of hours before her memories begin to clear."

At some point sweat had begun to run down the side of my face, despite the cool air of the sickbay. I started to shiver.

"We should let her rest, Captain." Chakotay spoke for the first time. I looked up at him gratefully, and he gave me a small smile. "It's clear the girl is no threat. I think we should listen to the Doctor and give her a little more time. I'm sure this is just as difficult for her as it is for us."

Janeway didn't look particularly pleased at the idea, but she eventually nodded. "Very well. Neelix, please lead our guest to her personal quarters, and when you're finished meet me in my ready room. Bring Ensign Ford back with you."

Neelix, who'd been hovering in the back ground during the conversation, practically jumped into action. "It would be my pleasure Captain!"

Janeway addressed me once more. "I'm sorry to welcome you onto our ship with such in-hospitality, but recent circumstances have required us to act with a little more caution than usual. I wish I didn't have to press the issue, but for the safety of this crew I'm going to need some real answers. I'll have Tuvok deliver you to my private quarters in a few hours so we can have a little chat."

"Am I a prisoner, Captain?"

Her frown eased a little, and her voice softened. "No, but I'd rather not let a stranger have free access to my ship until I can determine their intentions."

Before I could do anything more than nod, Neelix whisked me away. "Donna Winters, was it? My name is Neelix. I'm Voyager's ambassador and morale officer."

"It's nice to finally- I mean, it's nice to meet you."

Neelix didn't seem to notice my stumbling response. "So Donna, what planet do you come from?"

"I'm from Earth."

"Really? Well you certainly picked the best ship to hitchhike on. This is the only human occupied ship in the quadrant!" Neelix chuckled.

The corridor was a very pleasant temperature, but my feet were cold. It was strange wandering around Voyager, shoeless, with the hospital gown flapping loosely about my knees. I felt like a child playing make-believe in an over sized t-shirt.

"I'm sure this must be difficult for you. Waking up with no memories in such a strange place."

"You have no idea."

"Some of the crew seem to think you're here to sell Voyager's secrets."

"Why would I do that?" I frowned. "Do you think I am?"

"You don't seem like a bad person to me, and I'm a pretty good judge of character." He gave me a wink.

I couldn't help smiling in return.

"Take a look there," He pointed out the window. "The helix nebula. It's one of my personal favorites, and not just because it sounds so much like my own name."

I came to an abrupt halt. My eyes were dazzled by the stunning swirl of acid green and glimmering red.

"It's beautiful." I whispered, and laid a hand against the cool window.

If this was a dream, it was an extremely inventive one. I hadn't realized my imagination was capable of producing such vivid, detailed images from memory.

"Ah Mr. Ford! What good luck, I was just about to go and find you. The Captain would like a word with you in her Ready Room."

I turned, and when I met the gaze of Mr. Ford I froze like a deer in the headlights.

"Donna, this is Mr. Tucker Ford. Tucker, this is Donna Winters, our recent stowaway you were asking so many questions about. She was only just released from Sickbay."

To say Mr. Tucker Ford was attractive would be an understatement. He was much too attractive for my poor, overactive brain to process.

I could feel a blush burning my cheeks as he stared at me with heavy lidded eyes. His lips were pursed, a questioning frown formed between caterpillar eyebrows. His jawline was sharp and darkened by a five o'clock shadow that disappeared into a head of dark, curly hair.

He was, by all accounts, the perfect man.

He wasn't real, of course. There was no man alive who could possibly look as good this guy in a grease smeared Voyager crew uniform. He was just a fantasy.

But oh, what a fantasy...

He was the first to extend a hand. It was warm and callused, and completely engulfed mine.

"Hi." I tried to smile, but I think it came out looking a little sick because his frown deepened into concern.

"If you wouldn't mind accompanying us to Donna's new quarters, I can give you an update on the state of Engineering on the way to the Ready Room."

"Alright."

I quickly learned that Mr. Ford was not a man of many words. Neelix, however, had so many words he could hardly contain them.

We must have been a strange group, if anyone had been there to watch us walk by. The very cheerful, very alien Neelix chattering away to a tall, handsome, mute man on one side, and a barefoot, bald, asylum patient on the other.

I couldn't quite get over the fact that this was all fake. It looked and felt so real, but perhaps things did in lucid dreams. I wouldn't know. I'd never had one.

"Now Donna, you and I both no you're no threat, but I hope you'll forgive the Captain for her suspicious nature. She's had a very trying month, what with the strange anomalies and unknown entities that have been wrecking havoc on the ship and crew. So long as you don't have any bad intentions, I know the Captain will welcome aboard Voyager in no time."

"I hope so." I managed to say. If I were being honest, the Captain's suspicions were the last thing on my mind at that moment.

"And if you decide to stay on board with us, I'd be happy to give you a tour of the ship."

"Thanks, I'd like that."

Neelix beamed, and immediately started on another topic of conversation. By the time we reached my quarters, I was ready to be alone.

"Here we are!" Neelix motioned to an open door and waved me through the threshold. "Right next to Mr. Ford. You'll have a few hours before dinner, so take your time and rest. The replicator can make you clothes and any drinks you'd like while you wait."

"Alright, thanks Neelix." I gave him my best smile, as paltry as I knew it was, feeling Tucker's heavy gaze from over his shoulder.

"It's my pleasure! Well then, we'll leave you alone so you can have your privacy."

He stepped back with a final smile, and the door closed between us. As soon as I heard the hiss of the lock, I dropped onto the nearest chair and stared hopelessly up at the ceiling.

What the hell is going on?