And a child shall show the way.......

It's a long night of half baked theories, bad coffee, and frustration. Everything that they seem to try does not work. Finally, a frazzled human Captain Janeway stands up.......

"Wait a minute," she says in a tired voice. "We've been trying to come up with ways to make handheld weapons WORK on, and been having no luck whatsoever. Even if we could pump up the output power of the and phasors and any other energy weapons we could can manufacture....... we still have to worry about the destructive effects it would have on the Voyager......to put it mildly."

"So we can't go on the offensive . . . . .," Scott sighs. "Sure we can blast the monster to atoms with the ship's weapons, we have to be able to detect it. And the only way to do that, is Mulcahey and a few others."

"Dad, are you almost done?" Naomi asks. People turn in surprise, they hadn't heard the little girl entering the room (which just goes to prove how tired they all are). Naomi is wearing some type of silver skullcap. Scott chuckles a little bit, remembering that Naomi stumbled across a recording about space aliens and the unusual, gaudy outfits the human heroes wore in early scifi flicks. Naomi had taken Scott's advice, and began to replicate tinfoil to make all types of interesting costumes.

"Hi, pumpkin." Scott smiles tiredly. "How's the defense against those microwaves from the Evil Empire?" Scott scoops her up onto his lap, and Naomi's tail flicks about as she kisses Scott goodnight.

Tom Paris, the human one, looks thoughtful as he seems to be remembering something about how madmen on the streets had put tinfoil on their heads to block the mind control lasers of the Russians. He suddenly shouts, and the others look at him.

"I've got it!" human Paris shouts. "Doctor, you have the data from Mulcalhey's exam, right?"

"Of course I do," the furry Doctor says. "Why?"

"If we can isolate the wavelengths that suppressed those centers in Mulcahey's brain, we can modify the shields to block them!" furry Paris says, catching on. "And . . . . maybe we can modify some equipment to make portable shields for away missions for the crewmembers who go down onto the planet!"

This gets a flurry of excited discussion. They all feel like cheering when test via computer show that the modifications could be done. As for personal forcefields, a less elegant solution is found. They borrow a suggestion from Naomi, and special helmets with special minerals found to block those nasty little wavelengths from effecting the crewmembers mind. The only complaint about the helmets is . . . . helmet hair . . . . .

That done, with scanners looking for tell tale signs of malignant energy beings reaching out to touch the Voyager, the Voyager head back to the barrier.

1. Defiantly they pass through the barrier, and find the . . . . . Defiant of Kirk's time?!

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