Vulcans & Other Strangers, Part 2

SUMMARY: Another in my painfully protracted series of “Connect the P/T Dots” stories, picking up with “Fair Trade.” Before now, it was just the fates conspiring against them. Somehow, this time it feels a little more...orchestrated. And what in the heck is wrong with Harry? Watch as three best friends learn that getting help from Vulcans can be more trouble than it’s worth.

TIMELINE & SPOILERS: “Fair Trade,” “Alter Ego,” and “Blood Fever” (Missing some background on an episode? Click on the link above to read Jim Wright’s excellent summaries & review.)

RATING: R (though probably actually PG13)

CODES: P/T, with guest appearances by everyone else

DISCLAIMER: In my view, Joe Menosky was probably the most talented writer to work for Voyager with the exception of Michael Piller. He wrote “Alter Ego,” on which the majority of this story is based. Aside from our favorite ‘smashing’ scenes, this is an interesting and complex episode about loneliness and the nature of love. So don’t just fast forward to the P/T parts. Watch the whole thing.

Complete writing credits for the above episodes are listed at the end of this story. Suffice it to say, I didn’t write any of them and Paramount owns all things Star Trek. But they don’t own the stuff I’ve written to connect their puny little ‘dots.’ That’s all mine.

NOTE: The Vulcan words used throughout this story were acquired from several internet sites, most of which were not the original sources. My apologies to anyone who created or compiled these names uncredited or anyone who finds them to be inaccurate. I did my best, not being a Vulcan and all...

The cell was small and filthy, but at least it was private. Two benches, a grimy sink, and metal bars to keep them confined, just like he’d seen in those old cowboy movies. Appropriate, Tom thought, since this whole space station reminded him of something out of the Wild West. If the analogy proved apt, then he and Chakotay were probably about to get a taste of frontier justice: no legal counsel, no real trial. Just a quick guilty verdict and a swift sentence. Fifty years in cryogenic suspension was the rumor. He tried not to think about it.

On the Paris ‘Scale of Jails’—where the Akritirian prison barge was a one and the Federation rehab colony a ten—this place rated about a five. On the downside, it smelled like a septic wound, the walls seemed to be growing some kind of fungus, and the words ‘presumed innocent until proven guilty’ weren’t registering with the universal translator. Oh, yeah, plus the prospect of fifty years in the deep freeze. In its favor: no rodents—other than the bipeds in the cell at the end of the corridor. No need to fight a horde of insane, starving men for a cardboard food bar. And no ‘clamps.’ At least this time he was protected from the other inmates.

It had been less than four months since he and Harry Kim had been trapped in that hellhole of a barge. They’d barely escaped with their lives. And while they never talked about it, Tom suspected Harry’d had the same kinds of nightmares that had plagued his own dreams for weeks after they were rescued. Paris was grateful that his best friend was safe aboard Voyager this time, and not forced to face the memories that were running through his own mind at the moment.

But this place wasn’t as bad as Akritiri. For one thing, Captain Janeway knew exactly where he was and was working to get him freed. To get them freed.

Tom stood up for the fifth time in ten minutes and began pacing the cell. “What time is it, do you think?” he blurted out.

Chakotay looked up at him. “I don’t know. I’d guess a little after 2200 hours. Why? Is there somewhere else you have to be?”

Tom crossed his arms and leaned back against the bars. “Well, actually I’m already over two hours late...” His dinner with B’Elanna. He’d been thinking about it all day. His good suit—already laid out across his bed to save him time after he got off duty—was probably still where he’d left it, untouched. He didn’t know what she had planned—she said she wanted to surprise him—but Tom knew that her request that he dress up for the occasion had to be a good sign. Of course, just like all their other best-laid plans of late, this one hadn’t exactly worked out.

They’d never actually discussed it in those terms, but Tom hoped tonight would have been their first real date, after months—hell, almost a year!—of dancing around each other. ‘Dammit!’ he thought. Why couldn’t he just once catch a break?

“She’ll understand,” Chakotay said out of nowhere, and Paris wondered for a second if it was just a lucky guess. Not that it mattered; he wasn’t about to unload his romantic woes on the man. He knew B’Elanna’s former captain had appointed himself her guardian of sorts and—despite the fact that they’d been getting along pretty well lately, including a rather spirited game of volleyball in the resort the night before—Tom knew he had never been Chakotay’s favorite person. The commander probably would have preferred Harry—or anyone else aboard Voyager, for that matter—as a potential suitor for his ‘kid sister’.

“You don’t know this woman,” Tom tried to cover. “She’s not exactly the patient type.”

Chakotay chuckled, then looked him in the eye. “Oh, I’d say I know her better than most people ever will. And she’s probably spitting fire right now, but she’ll understand that it wasn’t your fault.”

Tom averted his gaze for a moment, then looked back sheepishly. It had been stupid to try and pretend he was talking about anyone other than B’Elanna. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But I feel sorry for the poor guy who had to tell her.” He took his first officer’s grin as a good sign, and returned it with one of his own before taking a seat on the bench opposite him.

Chakotay was watching him, Tom noticed, as if sizing him up, trying to decide what to say next. “So...what are you late for? Pool at Sandrine’s? Another game of beach volleyball?”

Tom wasn’t sure if the commander was just making conversation or pumping him for information. But it was an opening to have a real conversation—and a way to keep his mind off of their confinement—so he decided to play along. “Actually, I don’t know. Some big surprise she’s been working on for a while now.” Paris decided to turn the tables just a bit. “I don’t suppose you know what’s she’s been up to, locked in her quarters every night for eight weeks...?”

Chakotay chortled. “Sorry, I don’t have any idea. Last night was the first time I had seen her socially in weeks, and she stayed around for, what, twenty minutes?”

“Yeah,” Paris sighed. “She had to get back to finish this secret project of hers. I was hoping she might have clued you in about what she’s been working on.”

The older man shook his head. “I wish B’Elanna and I got to spend more time together. But you and Harry seem to keep her pretty busy when she’s not on duty.”

Tom searched for some hint of anger, some accusation in Chakotay’s tone, but there was none. His voice was perfectly even. Still...

“Does that bother you?” Paris finally asked flatly. “That she spends so much time with us?”

He watched as his first officer got that all too familiar look that said he was choosing his words carefully. “Honestly,” Chakotay started slowly, “there was a time when I worried about it. B’Elanna has always had a hard time getting close to people, and some of the friends she thought she could count on when we came aboard Voyager ended up hurting her pretty badly. I didn’t want to see that happen again.”

Tom knew the ‘friends’ in question were Mike Jonas and Seska, but he didn’t see the point in saying their names out loud. The two Maquis traitors were open wounds for Chakotay. But he wasn’t sure he liked being lumped into that company. “What about now?” Paris wondered.

Chakotay began slowly. “Actually, I’m glad to know she found other people she can count on. And I’ve been amazed at how content she seems to have become with her life these days. As a matter of fact, all three of you seem to have risen to the occasion of this mission better than anyone might have expected considering...” He didn’t finish the thought, but Tom knew what he meant; considering the fact that Harry was bright green, B’Elanna was chronically furious, and Tom was an ex-con screw-up. The man had a point. “Let’s just say you all seem to have been a good influence on each other.”

Paris was now reeling from the fact that this man—who would have killed him as soon as look at him just over two years earlier—was paying him a compliment of sorts. “Well, I think you have Harry to thank for that,” he said, still unsure of where this conversation was headed. “He likes to rescue strays. Don’t ask me why...”

Chakotay laughed, then his expression softened. “Maybe he just sees qualities in some people that others are too quick to judge.”

Tom wondered for a moment if that wasn’t almost an apology.

An instant later he wasn’t so sure. Chakotay’s expression was changing again. “But if you’re asking me if I still worry about B’Elanna getting hurt, then I guess I’d have to say yes. It’s not easy for her to trust people. If she were to get close to someone, only to have that person betray her trust...”

“Then you and I would have to flip a coin to see who got to kick their ass first,” Tom said forcefully. “Because I’m not about to let anyone hurt her.”

Chakotay looked at him for a moment, as if trying to size up his sincerity. It was soon clear from the slight smile on his first officer’s face that Paris’s message was received, loud and clear. “Good,” he said evenly. “It’s a deal.”

B’Elanna stormed into her quarters, ripped off her commbadge and threw it full force against the wall. Who in the hell did Harry think he was, kicking her off the bridge like that? So what if the captain had left him in charge. So what if she’d been pacing around like a cat. ‘You’re making me nervous,’ her friend had said to her. Well, how in the hell did he think she felt?!

It was almost 0200 hours and there had been no word from the captain about Chakotay and Tom all night. Now they were picking up com traffic that said there’d been a plasma explosion somewhere on the station. Janeway had called to say that she and Tuvok were fine and that they were checking it out, but no one had heard from her since. What the hell was going on over there?

Her door chime sounded, startling B’Elanna back into the moment. The ship was on yellow alert. Who in the hell would be dropping by her quarters? “Come in,” she barked.

The doors parted and Kes took a step inside. “I just wanted to see if you were all right,” the young woman said softly. “I heard about Tom and Chakotay.”

B’Elanna was grateful for the gesture, but she really wasn’t in the mood for a long heart to heart. Ever since Kes and Neelix had ended their romantic relationship, Torres had felt uncomfortable around the young woman. It was obvious to everyone that ending the couple’s long affair had been Kes’s idea—and she also knew that Kes and Tom were close friends. Almost more than that. Tom once thought he was in love with their pretty Ocampan medic, Harry had told her a long time ago. Feelings like that didn’t just go away. Did they?

Still, B’Elanna didn’t want to be rude. “Thank you, Kes. But I’m fine. Really. As a matter of fact, I think I’d like to be alone for...”

Kes interrupted her. “I had a feeling a little while ago—about Tom. I got this sense that he and Chakotay are all right. I know that might sound silly, but ever since...well, for the past few weeks, I’ve been working with Tuvok to develop my telepathy. I’ve never had this kind of thing happen before. But I thought you might like to know.”

Oh, great. Now Kes was getting some kind of psychic signals from Tom. If it were true, it would be reassuring to know that he was okay—and more than a little unsettling to think he’d been sending telepathic messages to another woman. “Well,” B’Elanna said carefully, “I hope you’re right. But why are you telling me this?”

Kes walked over to the spot on the floor where Torres’s discarded commbadge now lay. She stooped down to pick it up and handed it back to B’Elanna. “Because I got the sense that he was thinking about you. He seemed worried that he’d disappointed you somehow. Wishing that he could tell you that they were fine and not to worry. I thought maybe you’d want to know.”

Before B’Elanna could answer, they heard the EMH’s voice over the com. “Doctor to Kes. I need you in sickbay right away. There’s been an explosion on the station and we’re about to be sent several casualties.”

“On my way, Doctor,” Kes said before heading for the door.

“Wait for me,” B’Elanna shouted as she put her commbadge back in place and darted into the hall. Casualties. The captain and Tuvok had checked in to say they were okay. That only left two other crewman on the station. It suddenly looked as if Kes’s ‘sense’ may have been wrong...

They burst through the sickbay doors—and found the Doctor in the surgical bay standing over a badly-burned Neelix. Another Talaxian, his friend Wix, was resting on a biobed nearby. B’Elanna was ashamed at how relieved she felt to see that the wounded didn’t include Tom and Chakotay. Especially since Neelix’s injuries looked so serious.

“Dermal regenerator,” the Doctor was calling out to Samantha Wildman as they entered. “Kes, see to the other patient. His injuries aren’t as severe but he needs immediate treatment.”

B’Elanna watched as Kes stopped for a moment to look at her ex-lover’s scarred face. “Neelix... Will he...?”

“He has third degree plasma burns, but the captain got him here quickly. His injuries aren’t life-threatening.” Torres noticed that the EMH stopped what he was doing for a moment to look at his assistant. “He’ll be fine, Kes. I promise you.” B’Elanna had never seen the Doctor so concerned about someone’s feelings before.

The young medic immediately composed herself and headed to the biobed where Neelix’s friend Wix was waiting for treatment. B’Elanna knew it must be difficult for Kes to keep her professional detachment when her ex-lover was lying just a few feet away, gravely injured. Somehow, it made Torres embarrassed at the childish way she’d behaved on the bridge just a few hours earlier.

She knew it was just accumulated stress—not only from learning that Tom and Chakotay had been arrested on murder charges, but also from her own disappointment at having missed out on an evening she’d planned so carefully for so long.

She’d spent the better part of two months working on a surprise holodeck program for Tom—only to watch helplessly as a malfunctioning subroutine begin to decompile the whole thing line by line. It was almost totally destroyed by the time she found the problem. There was nothing she could do to fix it.

Of course, that was about the same time she’d learned of Tom’s arrest, along with Chakotay, as they’d completed a trade agreement on the space station. B’Elanna had been pacing the floor like a maniac ever since. Now it was the middle of the night, and there was still no news about Voyager’s two imprisoned officers. Her feelings of anger and helplessness were threatening to overwhelm her once again.

Then she looked at Kes, working with efficiency and professionalism as Neelix was treated for grievous injuries less than two meters away. For a woman who knew and felt things so deeply, Kes was unbelievably composed. B’Elanna decided in that moment that she needed to be, too. Without saying a word, she left the sickbay and decided to get back to work.

As she got into the turbolift, B’Elanna thought about Kes’s visit and the message the young woman thought she’d received from Tom. She hoped it was true.

“Bridge,” she called out.

When the doors to the lift opened, Harry was in the captain’s chair talking to someone over the commlink. “Understood. Kim out.”

B’Elanna walked to stand in front of him. “Permission to take my station,” she said formally. “And I’m sorry about before. I’m fine. Let me get back to work.”

Her friend stood up and met her gaze. “Request denied,” he said before breaking into a grin. “That was the captain. Tom and Chakotay have been cleared of the charges against them. They should be beaming back in about fifteen minutes. I thought maybe the three of us could grab a late dinner—or an early breakfast—and we could find out what the hell happened down there.”

B’Elanna closed her eyes for just a second and let herself enjoy the feeling of relief in knowing that her friends were about to be released. “Good,” she then said to Kim. “And thanks, Harry.”

He smiled at her. “Why don’t you head down to the transporter room and do the honors. I’ll meet you guys in the mess hall as soon as the captain relieves me.”

“Aye, sir,” she said with an intentional formality. “See you there.”

As she walked back to the turbolift, B’Elanna let herself breathe deeply for the first time in hours. Once more, Tom Paris had stumbled into some crazy misunderstanding, ended up in a prisoner of some alien culture, and then managed to find his way out the other side. She couldn’t figure out anymore if he was cursed or blessed. All she knew was that—once again—he’d defied the odds and was coming home. And this time, she’d be there to meet him.

It would take only a few minutes for the constable to process their official release, but to Tom it was feeling like hours. He was anxious to get off this filthy hellhole and back to Voyager. Somehow, he had the feeling that he’d dodged another bullet, and he didn’t want to hang around long enough for something else to go wrong.

So he paced the small room, jumping at any sound he thought might be the captain and Tuvok coming to set them free. Somehow, his nervousness seemed to be amusing his first officer. “You’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Chakotay said, smiling. “The hard part is over. Try to relax.”

Before Tom could answer, they heard the clang of a metal door, and saw two familiar faces coming toward them, along with the smelly guard who had escorted them to their cell when this whole mess started. “Gentlemen,” Janeway said as she reached them. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Paris said with more enthusiasm than he’d intended.

She didn’t seem to notice. He realized in that moment that his captain’s complete attention was fixed on his cellmate. “Commander,” she said softly. “How are you?”

“We’re fine,” Chakotay said reassuringly, as if she’d been asking about both of her imprisoned officers. Nice save, Tom thought, as he watched the two of them together.

They walked to the unshielded outer chamber, then waited while the captain called for their ‘ride.’ “Janeway to Voyager,” she said as she tapped her commbadge, “four to beam over.”

Tom was happy to see the grimy walls of the jail slowly morph into the spotless bulkheads of Voyager’s transporter room. He was even happier to see who was standing behind the console. “Welcome back,” B’Elanna said as she stepped off the control platform and walked toward them.

Tom let his three senior officers go ahead of him before he stepped down off the pad to join her. “Hey,” he said softly. “Sorry about dinner.” He was reining in the impulse to pull B’Elanna into his arms and hug her, since somehow—this time—it felt strangely like he was coming home to her.

Torres looked equally tentative, but he wasn’t sure how to read that. She always seemed to pull back from him every time he returned from some unexpectedly dangerous situation, and Tom hoped it wouldn’t once again take them weeks to recover from this stupid little interruption to their plans. He was getting impatient with the ‘one step forward, two steps back’ nature of their relationship, and he wasn’t sure he’d have the patience to start over once again if she withdrew from him now.

It became clear pretty quickly, however, that B’Elanna was anything but distant. “It’s okay,” she said nervously. “But, uh, Harry and I thought you might want to grab something to eat now. I mean, well, I know it’s late and everything, but...” She hesitated for a moment. “Well, I think he was worried about you, and just wants to make sure you’re okay.”

Yeah, right. Harry was worried about him. Tom smiled at her transparency. “Sure. I’m starving.” He looked up, suddenly worried that the captain or Chakotay would be expecting him at some kind of debriefing. When he caught his first officer’s eyes, however, he relaxed.

“Go ahead, Tom,” Chakotay said, clearly suppressing a grin. “As a matter of fact, I might grab something to eat, myself.” He looked over at his captain, who eyed the whole group a little suspiciously, as if there were some conversation going on she hadn’t been a part of.

For his part, Tuvok only raised his eyebrows. “If you all will excuse me,” he said curtly, “I will go relieve Mister Kim.” The security officer headed out the door without waiting for a reply.

Janeway still looked confused, Tom thought. “Well, don’t let me keep you two,” she said to him and B’Elanna before turning back to Chakotay. “Commander, dinner in my ready room?” Then her expression turned more serious. “We should discuss Neelix’s situation before he regains consciousness.”

Chakotay nodded, and the two headed out into the hall.

Finally left alone in the transporter room, Tom stood there for a moment, distracted by his captain’s last comments. “This is all so unbelievable,” he said softly. “That Neelix would get himself involved in something like this.”

B’Elanna looked confused. “I saw him in sickbay. He was hurt pretty badly. What the hell happened?”

Tom hesitated for a moment, wondering if they should stop by the medical bay on their way to the mess hall. It was a silly impulse; there was nothing he could do for his friend. “I don’t know all the details,” he finally answered B’Elanna’s question. “But I’ll tell you everything the captain told us over dinner.”

He stood there for a moment, looking into her eyes, feeling very grateful to finally be home and spending a few precious moments alone with her. “I know this night didn’t exactly turn out like you planned,” he said softly. “I’m sorry if I disappointed you.”

As he said those words, B’Elanna got a strange look in her eyes. “I know,” she said, a smile quirking then leaving her face. “It wasn’t your fault.” Her expression changed again, and there was a look of uncertainty. “Tom, do you ever think sometimes that maybe this whole thing...this, um, dinner...just wasn’t meant to be?”

“No,” he said without a moment’s hesitation, determined not to let her imply that fate or destiny intended for them to be apart. “I don’t. We’ve just had a run of bad luck. And I have a feeling that’s about to change.” He spent a moment examining her face, staring at her perfect skin, her lips, then looking her in the eyes once again. “Besides,” he said mischievously, “you owe me, Torres. And I’m gonna make sure you pay up. You’re not getting off the hook that easily.”

She smiled, then, and headed for the door. “Oh, yeah? Well, you had your shot, Lieutenant, and as I recall you stood me up.”

Lieutenant. That was a good sign. “Hey!” he said as he chased after her. “Wait for me!”

~*~*~*~*~

A’Kweth Shau’kaush—The Hidden Passion

Vorik was lost. He had been on Vulcan practicing the Tu’Lan, a breathing exercise his father had taught him as a child to help him gain control of his emotions. But now, suddenly, he found himself walking along a dirt path, the air fragrant with unfamiliar and overwhelming aromas: damp wood, salt, strange foods. His ears were being assaulted by the din of hundreds of people laughing, singing, calling out to one another. And there was strange, dissonant music—behind him a calliope, in front of him the unmistakable wailing of horns and woodwinds. On either side of the path were wooden shacks covered in lights, each one more garish than the next. He wanted to run, wanted to find a quiet place where he could regain control of his now-pounding heart. But he couldn’t leave. Not as long as she was here.

It was hard to find her in the maelstrom of people and music, but he focused his mind on filtering out everything but the sound of her voice. Slowly, one by one, the noises faded until he could hear her speaking, hear her laughter, and it called to him like a beacon.

Pushing through the crowds, he followed the path past a city of machines, which loomed over him like mechanical monsters. The giant creatures swirled above his head, occasionally reaching down as if to grab him in their great claws. But he felt no fear; he was focused only on her.

He could see it now: an impressive wooden structure on an ocean shoreline, a large, covered veranda encircling its base. A band was playing, and people were dancing, men and women holding each other as they swayed in time to the music.

As he approached, the crowd parted, leaving only one couple standing there, holding each other in their arms, oblivious to the others, oblivious to him. He recognized them. It was her, his t’hy’la, the woman who would be his life partner. And she was with Him.

‘No!’ his mind screamed. ‘No!’

The intensity of his rage overwhelmed him, and he knew, then, that he must destroy this place, he must stop this Man—this Qomi—from taking what was his. He would fight for his mate, to the death if necessary...

Vorik sat straight up in his bed, his heart pounding so hard he could feel the rush of blood in his ears. He’d been having a dream—a nightmare—yet somehow, as his mind came to consciousness, the details were slipping away.

The realization, however, stayed with him. Emotions—raging emotions—had been coursing through him, and with them the sense that he’d done something...something prohibited. His mind struggled to find order among his chaotic thoughts, yet all he was left with was the strange sensation that he’d betrayed someone’s trust, hurt someone who had relied on him. He found the entire concept profoundly disturbing.

As he had for as many nights as he could now remember, the ensign slipped out of his bunk and walked quietly to his bathroom, gathering his meditation lamp and taking great care not to awaken his sleeping roommate.

Once inside, he closed and locked the door, dimmed the lights, lit the lamp, and began his Koh’l-Tor, his meditation. ‘Control,’ he repeated to himself as he pulled his hands together. ‘Must regain control...’

~*~*~*~*~

Why did the morning seem to come so damn early?

B’Elanna knew she was a nocturnal creature by nature. She’d spent her entire childhood staying up well past her bedtime, hiding under the covers reading. At first, it had been fairytales: myths and legends of noble men and beautiful women. White knights on tall horses, princes who always behaved honorably, and always came back for their princesses. And she’d felt like a princess once, when she was very young and the apple of her father’s eye.

Then just before her sixth birthday—after months of tension between her parents, and a camping trip where she’d overheard some things she would just as soon have forgotten—her father packed a duffle of his belongings and left Kessick IV to return to Earth. She never saw him again.

There she was, almost six—well, almost twelve in Standard years—and left behind, waiting for her prince to return for her, so she could apologize and ask for his forgiveness.

But he never came back.

By her next birthday, she’d switched to books on mathematics, mechanical engineering, and rudimentary physics. The fantasy world she’d lived in for most of her childhood had let her down; from that point on, she’d ground herself in the finite, in a world with immutable laws that could always be counted upon. She wrapped herself in science.

Still, she stayed up past her bedtime, making every sleepy morning before school another excuse for fighting with her mother. She was lazy, she lacked discipline, she was contrary. The father who once loved her unconditionally had left her alone with a mother that didn’t seem to love her at all. Somehow, it seemed so unfair.

Only recently, since coming aboard Voyager, had B’Elanna resigned herself to the early morning duty shifts that went along with being a chief engineer on a Federation starship. But waking up on time was no easier now than it had ever been. Particularly after a long evening on the second shift waiting for news about her imprisoned friends. And while her late-night ‘welcome home’ dinner with Harry and Tom had been a huge relief from the stress of the evening, it had kept her up even later—until almost 0400. Now it was a mere three and a half hours later and she was expected to be awake and alert and ready for work in thirty minutes.

All she wanted to do was sleep.

But duty called. Replicating a cup of raktajino and sitting at her dining table with her eyes closed, B’Elanna wondered how she’d ever make it through an eight hour shift. At least Tom’s night in prison had earned him the day off...

Mustering all her strength, Torres pushed herself out of her chair, got dressed, and headed out the door.

She stepped out of the turbolift and headed for Main Engineering. B’Elanna was exhausted to the point that—when the doors opened—she walked smack into Ensign Vorik on his way to his station.

“Oh, excuse me, Lieutenant,” he said flatly. Her reaction was hardly so reserved.

“Vorik, dammit! Watch where you’re going!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. She was the one who was preoccupied. And she knew better than to blame one of her staff for something that was her fault.

She tried to recover her composure. “I’m sorry, Ensign,” she said evenly. “I should have been paying more attention.”

B’Elanna knew Vulcans had emotions; they just buried them under layers of carefully crafted mental discipline. She wondered if Vorik was silently cursing her for her outburst, but quickly realized that he didn’t seem bothered in the least. On the contrary, he seemed kind of...sweet.

“No, Lieutenant, I was distracted. I hope you’ll accept my apology for being so careless.”

If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn he almost smiled. “Fine, um, thank you, Ensign. Carry on.”

As she watched him take his seat, it occurred to B’Elanna how isolated Vorik must feel, trapped on a ship full of humans—mostly: the only other Vulcans were his senior officer and a former Maquis—neither of them engineers. She knew Joe Carey, kind soul that he was, had tried to lure the ensign out of his shell, inviting Vorik to play pool with him and Mike Ayala. But still, it must be lonely. B’Elanna felt a sudden pang of sympathy for the young man.

He’d also been a big help in refining her holoprogramming skills. If not for Vorik she never would have finished her program for Tom in time for...

Well, it wasn’t Vorik’s fault she’d screwed up the algorithm for the final resequencing and deleted the whole damn carnival. And she was grateful for his help, even if it hadn’t quite worked out the way she’d planned.

No, Vorik was a decent guy. So she’d keep an eye on him, she decided—include him in some of the larger alpha shift projects, help him develop his confidence. He was a better-than-average engineer, too, and she could use all the competent crewmen she could get.

Besides, despite her exhaustion, she was feeling surprisingly gregarious these days. Maybe playing ‘big sister’ to Vorik would a nice way to repay him for helping her out.

She walked over and stood behind the young man’s chair. “Listen, Vorik, I have to do some work on the ODN relays today. Why don’t you give me a hand?”

His face seemed to light up. “Certainly, Lieutenant. Lead the way.”

Tom Paris woke up to a comforting realization: he loved his bed. Not that it was particularly comfortable or unique. In fact, it was identical to a few dozen others on Voyager, and hundreds like it on other similar starships. But this one, this particular bed, represented something to him that he hadn’t had in a long time. When he was in this bed, he was home.

And, after yet another away mission where he’d come to wonder if he’d ever see home again, he was keenly aware of how happy he was to be lying on this mattress, staring up at his nondescript ceiling, and breathing in the purified air of his own cabin.

As a matter of fact, there was only one thing he didn’t like about his bed: he always seemed to be in it alone.

That thought invariably led him to wonder: if he hadn’t gotten arrested, if his dinner with B’Elanna had gone off as planned...

Nope. He wasn’t going to think about it. He meant what he’d said to B’Elanna in the transporter room the night before: he refused to believe that there was some kind of cosmic conspiracy keeping them apart. What was supposed to happen would happen, all in its own time.

And, after all was said and done, they had finally had dinner together. Granted, it was more like a midnight snack, and Harry had tagged along, but they’d had a good time anyway, sharing a pepperoni pizza and talking about what had happened down on the space station. Tom had finally tumbled into bed at 0400—stopping only long enough to put away his unused good suit—and was unconscious before his head hit the pillow.

Now it was going on noon, and he was still feeling a little fuzzy. He considered rolling over and going back to sleep, to take advantage of this unexpected day off, but suddenly remembered an impulse he’d had the night before. There was something he wanted to do before any more time passed.

Grabbing a quick sonic shower and pulling on a clean uniform, Tom headed out on a mission of mercy and to get some answers to a question that had been bothering him all night.

Of all the places he might have thought to look for Voyager’s chef, the bowels of the ship’s engineering decks wouldn’t have been anywhere near the top of the list. Tom was relieved, though, to discover the sickbay empty when he’d gone to check in on his friend. But it seemed that the rumors of Neelix’s involvement with the death on the space station had been true. Obviously; no one ever volunteered to clean the exhaust manifolds. The man was clearly being punished for something.

“Hey,” Tom said as he let the maintenance bay doors close behind him. “You missed a spot.”

Neelix looked up from his work and immediately closed his eyes. When he finally opened them, Paris could see the shame and pain they held. “I wasn’t sure you’d ever want to see me again,” he said so quietly that Tom could barely hear him. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about getting you mixed up in this.”

Tom took a seat on a stool near his friend. “I’m fine. Hell, a night in jail is old hat to me by now. But I heard you got hurt pretty badly. Are you okay? Do you want to tell me what happened?”

Neelix’s face contorted. “I’m fine. And I’d rather just forget the whole thing, if it’s all the same to you. But if I can ever make this up to you in any way...”

Tom laughed. “Put peanut butter and jelly on the lunch menu next week and we can call it even,” he joked. “But if you really want to do something for me, you can tell me what happened. Who was this Wix character, and how did you get involved with him?”

Paris wondered if all Talaxians had such expressive faces; Neelix was clearly wrestling with what to say, and every conflicting emotion seemed to play upon his features. “Wix was an old friend,” he finally said. “At least, I thought he was my friend. You see, there was a time a while back when I had to do some things—things I know now were indefensible—just to survive. Wix helped me out back then. And so I owed him. I didn’t know what he was up to until it was too late.”

“So you were just helping out this friend of yours?” Tom was still a little confused.

“Yes,” Neelix answered. “But it was more than that. You see, this expanse we’re approaching, I don’t know anything about it. This is as far as I’ve ever traveled from Rinax. I wasn’t sure the captain would want me on board if I couldn’t guide you all any longer. So I was trying to trade for a map. Something to help you navigate the space up ahead. I guess I got in a little over my head.” Tom shook his head and started to laugh, but his friend cut him off. “I know how silly that must sound. But you don’t know what my life was like before Voyager. I owe Captain Janeway and the rest of you so much. I wonder sometimes what I’d be doing now if this ship hadn’t come along when it did.”

Tom took a deep breath before he answered. “I know what you mean,” he said quietly. “I’ve wondered the same thing myself. But, Neelix, you’re more than just our guide. You’re our friend, you’re a part of our family...”

“Some friend I turned out to be,” Neelix said, looking away. “Tom, if I had known you and Commander Chakotay would be blamed for what Wix...for what we did, I never would have lied. I’m sorry. Truly.”

Tom stood up and looked his friend in the eye. “Apology accepted. Let’s just say I’ve made my share of bad decisions in my life. But the most important thing is that you face up to them and move on.” Then he looked around the room. “Now hand me that other manifold degausser, and let’s get to work. I know a few tricks that will have this thing sparking like it was brand new in no time.”

He could see the light start to come back into Neelix’s eyes. “I don’t deserve a friend like you, Tom,” he said.

Paris smiled back at him. “Then we’re even.”

The work on the primary ODN relays had taken a little over three hours. Major components had to be replaced as a part of normal maintenance on the network, and B’Elanna had taken her time showing Vorik the proper sequence of parts to replace. They discussed the reasoning behind some of the modifications she had made to the data pathways since they’d been trapped in the Delta Quadrant, and she tried—unsuccessfully—to explain the concept of improvisation to a man who was hard-wired to do things by the book.

After they’d finished, they stopped by engineering to pick up some tools and a quick cup of coffee before heading down to the lower decks to finish the job. B’Elanna was surprised when Vorik seemed to want to make small talk while they took their break. She had never known such a talkative Vulcan before—his behavior was bordering on friendly. He’d practically grilled her about the engineering projects she was working on, her preferences in recreational holoprograms, and her favorite foods to eat for dinner. It was strange, but not all that uncommon, she knew, for Vulcans to take a level of intellectual curiosity in the lives of the others around them. Maybe because they rarely did anything fun themselves. But this was different somehow. Still, she was grateful that he hadn’t mentioned the carnival. That subject was a little too sore these days.

She was glad, though, when their break was over and they got back to work. The secondary ODN relay junction wasn’t the most accessible of Voyager’s key systems, but it was critical to the smooth running of all the ships communications and computer functions, and B’Elanna knew it was overdue for maintenance. Normally, it was the kind of project she saved for days when she wanted some time to herself, but today—on an impulse—she’d invited Vorik to help her out. Only after they arrived at the Deck 13 maintenance hatch did she realize that the tight quarters would make working together on this part of the project a little difficult. Still, she couldn’t very well send the ensign back to his station. So she’d just have to make do and get it over with as quickly as possible.

She climbed into the Jeffries tube and indicated for Vorik to hand the engineering toolkit up to her. Then she began the half-deck climb up the vertical shaft to reach the junction control panel. As Vorik followed her up the ladder, she noticed that he seemed to be breathing heavily. “Are you okay, Ensign?” she finally asked when it sounded like he might hyperventilate.

“I’m fine, thank you,” he answered, his voice sounding perfectly calm. Still, she wondered if he was coming down with something. No matter. Young or not, Vorik was still an adult and perfectly capable of deciding if he needed medical attention.

B’Elanna pulled the cover off the panel and ran her tricorder over the instrumentation. While there were minor variances in the optical data transfer relays, they were nothing to be concerned about, and could easily be realigned with a quick diagnostic program and a few codes to the central processor. She began the procedure then leaned back to wait for the computer’s internal diagnostics to complete.

As she rested her head on the wall of the tube, Torres thought she heard voices—two voices to be exact—neither of whom belonged on the lower engineering decks.

“Lieutenant, I was hoping to talk to you about...”

“Shhh!” She silenced Vorik and leaned her ear against the ventilation duct that ran along the wall behind her.

‘Don’t get me wrong, Neelix. I like her a lot. More than that; she’s one of my best friends. But that’s all there is to it. There’s nothing going on between us.’

B’Elanna held her breath. She was right. The voices were very distinctly Tom Paris and Neelix. But what in the hell were they doing down on Deck 13? She immediately decided that she didn’t really care; she was more interested in listening to their conversation than solving that particular mystery at the moment.

Neelix seemed confused. ‘But I thought...I mean, you told me you had feelings for her.’

“Lieutenant Torres, I...”

She looked down the ladder and barked at the man beneath her. “Shut up, Vorik!” Then she put her ear back against the wall.

‘...care about her a lot, sure. But not that way. I mean, maybe once. It’s just that...’ Tom’s voice had gotten softer and she could hardly hear him. B’Elanna’s heart was pounding, and she was desperate to find out who the men were talking about. Desperate...and a little bit afraid.

‘I just thought that, well, you’re not involved with anyone else, and she’s certainly not involved with anyone else. And you two do seem to care a lot about each other. I guess I just thought...’

Tom’s voice was louder now. ‘You just thought that maybe I could take care of her if you couldn’t. But if you ask me, Kes seems more than capable of looking out for herself these days.’ Kes. They were talking about Kes. B’Elanna let her breath out slowly and closed her eyes. ‘Besides,’ Tom continued after a moment, ‘I am involved with someone else. Well, I’m not actually involved. But I want us to be involved. I mean, I will be involved with someone, if everything works out right.’

Oh, now, this was getting interesting...

‘She’s resisting, but I think I almost have her won over. Just a little more of that old Paris charm and I’ll have this woman eating right out of my hand.’

B’Elanna’s heart was beating just as quickly now, but for an entirely different reason. ‘Eating out of his hand,’ huh? Why that arrogant little pig!

“Lieutenant, I just wanted to ask you...”

“Vorik, dammit! What the hell do you want?” Didn’t he know that there was an important conversation going on here? Didn’t he know that she was getting a chance to hear the uncensored thoughts of a man whose head she’d been trying to climb into for over a year?! What the hell could be more important that that?!

“The diagnostic is complete,” the ensign said. “The computer is asking for the next command sequence.”

B’Elanna took a deep breath and realized she was behaving like a child. “Thank you, Ensign,” she said quietly before leaning over to punch in the new sequence. In thirty seconds, their work was finished.

As they descended the ladder, B’Elanna was left with two contradictory thoughts. Tom had come right out and admitted that his feelings for Kes were only friendship, and he’d practically confessed his interest in her at the same time. But he was getting cocky. And as charming as she found him, no man was about to have her ‘eating out of his hand’ without working a hell of a lot harder for it than Paris had so far.

Two could play this game, she realized. And at this moment, she knew she had the upper hand.

~*~*~*~*~

The Nekrid Expanse.

Well, that wasn’t what he called it privately, but they were in a staff briefing and Tom didn’t think the captain would appreciate a play on words even he realized was infantile. He had spent the last two days working out of stellar cartography, helping to chart the uncharted region—and catching up on all the ship’s gossip with Jenny Delaney. Rumor had it that a certain Betazoid security officer had begun picking up signals from a Bajoran astrophysicist and that a passionate affair was now in bloom. All of Deck 8 was apparently buzzing about it. For his part, Tom was glad to know that someone onboard was getting some action. Somehow Voyager’s ‘maiden voyage’ had started to take on an unintended double meaning.

Paris had also spent a fair amount of his time with Neelix, trying to convince his friend that he didn’t blame him for the circumstances surrounding his recent—and mercifully brief—imprisonment. As he thought about it, however, Tom wondered if he wasn’t living some other, more subtle kind of sentence these days: a prisoner of his affections for a woman he almost never got to be alone with.

Right after he’d returned, things seemed to being going well with B’Elanna. She was waiting for him when he and Chakotay were set free, and had stayed up half the night to welcome him home. She had even looked annoyed that Harry had invited himself along, and—like Tom—seemed anxious to spend some time alone together.

Now it was three days later and they’d yet to reschedule their long-awaited private dinner. As a matter of fact, every time Tom suggested they make time for each other, B’Elanna was either busy or went out of her way to invite Harry along. She wasn’t being cold or distant—not really—but she had a look in her eyes Paris had never seen before. Like she was testing him, making him work for her attention. And she had locked onto Harry with her own invisible tractor beam. Where they went, Harry went. It was getting strange.

So they were a threesome once again. But at least he and B’Elanna were regularly seeing each other. Even if she was suddenly playing hard to get—as if impossible to get weren’t already enough. He wondered what the heck he’d done this time.

Now here they all sat, in a particularly boring Monday meeting: Harry appearing surprisingly distracted, Neelix looking like he wanted to crawl under the table, and B’Elanna...well, B’Elanna looked like a cool drink on a hot summer’s day.

She was in the middle of a discussion with Chakotay about the warp coils, and her face was animated. Tom enjoyed watching her give her report. Normally she would have been sitting next to him—which would have made looking at her during the meeting a little difficult. Today, however, she’d deliberately passed up the open seat at his left and walked instead to the far side of the table—which disappointed Paris at the time, but which now allowed him an unobstructed view and an excuse to enjoy it. And she looked particularly good this morning; something about the way her hair...

“Mister Paris.”

He realized he must have been staring at B’Elanna. Now everyone was staring at him—including the captain, who clearly expected him to know what she was asking about. He didn’t have a clue. “Yes, ma’am?” he said tentatively.

“Your report...?”

Tom could feel the blood rushing to his face, but he was an old pro at covering these kinds of lapses and was careful not to let the tone of his voice betray his embarrassment. “The mapping project is going as well as can be expected considering how changeable the Expanse seems to be,” he said evenly. “And I think we might have come across something interesting on the long-range sensors. We’d have to alter course to verify it, but I think we could be about to pass by an inversion nebula.”

He watched the captain’s jaw drop and saw Chakotay lean forward in his chair. Tom wasn’t surprised; this was potentially a major discovery. Janeway was clearly intrigued. “Federation scientists have theorized about them,” she said, “but there’s not a single reported sighting in all of recorded history.”

The first officer clearly shared the captain’s mix of enthusiasm and skepticism. “How close is it to cascading?”

“That’s the strange thing,” Tom added, knowing how hard it would be for them to believe him. “This one looks pretty stable. And the energy signatures from the radiation it’s emitting show it to be pretty old—decades or even longer.”

Tuvok was skeptical—big surprise. “That’s a theoretical impossibility, Lieutenant. The cascade reaction inevitable in such a nebula would cause it to burn itself out in a much shorter period of time.”

‘Freakasaurus,’ Tom thought to himself as he answered. “Well, Lieutenant Delaney and I checked the readings three times. But you’re welcome to check them again.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary, Tom,” the captain interjected. “I say we go take a look.” She was getting that ‘Janeway gleam’ in her eye. “First a supernova, now an inversion nebula. This could be our year for unusual stellar phenomena.”

Tom was glad that the captain had confidence in his findings. While he might be ‘only a pilot,’ Paris prided himself on his knowledge of stellar geometry, and knew he was a better-than-average astrophysicist—his major at Starfleet Academy. He recognized the signs of an inversion nebula, despite the security chief’s doubts. Besides, after two years in the Delta Quadrant, Tuvok should have known that the impossible happened on a fairly regular basis.

As the briefing ended, B’Elanna stood up from her chair and headed for the door without so much as a glance in Tom Paris’s direction. She’d started to take a strange sense of pleasure in the game she’d begun to play: keeping him interested, but keeping him working for it. She’d see who had who eating out of the other’s hand.

Still, she wondered how long she’d be able to keep up her little act. Because, the truth be told, she really did want to spend some time alone with Tom. Working on that damn holoprogram had already wasted two precious months they could have been spending together, she realized. Part of her wanted to just surrender her pride and get on with it.

Torres dawdled to let the Doctor get ahead of her in the corridor, then slowly walked to the turbolift by herself. “Deck 11,” she called once alone inside. The lift started its decent.

Why time felt so precious these days was a bit of a mystery. Voyager had been flying at high warp toward the Alpha Quadrant for over two years, and they were still decades away from reaching home. But somehow B’Elanna sensed a kind of urgency to her interaction with Tom these days. As if they were both sitting on the edge of a high cliff, knowing that at any moment one of them might jump off, daring the other to follow.

The unanswered question: who would make the first real move? And she had considered it. But after overhearing Paris’s little fantasy about the effects of his charm, she just couldn’t let herself confirm what his overactive ego seemed to know: that she was interested. Very interested. No, if there was a first move to be made, self-respect dictated that it was Tom who would have to make it.

So, she’d wait for the pilot to navigate a clear path to his courage. In the meantime, she’d try to figure out where she’d stowed her nerve in case he ever located his.

The turbolift stopped at Deck 11, and Torres headed back toward her station. She was still worried about the misalignment she’d found in their warp coils, and was contemplating a total overhaul. It was a fantasy without some gallicite, she knew, and the odds of them finding any of the rare mineral were about the same as the odds of Tuvok declaring his undying love for her: slim didn’t begin to describe it.

The doors to Main Engineering opened and she noticed Joe Carey bent over and leaning against the bulkhead near the phaser relay station. For a moment, she thought he might have been injured: he was taking in heaving breaths and wiping away tears from his eyes.

“Carey,” she said as she got close to him, “what the hell happened?!”

The lieutenant pulled himself upright and straightened his uniform. “Oh, sorry, Chief,” he said, looking a little embarrassed. “But Vorik just told the funniest story. I guess he caught me off guard.” Joe quickly composed himself. “So I guess you’re here to relieve me, then?”

She nodded. “Anything I need to know before you go?” she asked.

Carey nodded. “We’ve got a vibration in the coolant assembly. I think it’s tied to the misalignment problem. That’s about it.” He started to head for the door. “See you tomorrow morning,” he said as he went, still laughing under his breath.

B’Elanna shook her head to test her hearing. Vorik? Told a funny story? Had she stepped into some sort of mirror universe where Vulcans had a sense of humor?

What was it, suddenly, with all the men aboard this ship...?

Tom knew crew discipline was none of his business, but he also knew that kicking a man when he was down wasn’t like Captain Janeway. And Neelix was nothing if not down.

Hoping his astronomical discovery might buy him a little influence, Paris pressed the buzzer on the ready room door and waited for his captain to acknowledge him.

He was surprised to see her sitting not at her desk, but on the couch that wound its way along her viewport. She and Chakotay were sharing cups of coffee and apparently a funny story, since they were still laughing as he approached.

“Nice work in detecting that nebula, Mister Paris,” Janeway said as she turned toward him. “Was there something you left out of your report?”

Tom took a deep breath. “No, ma’am. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Neelix.”

He notice that her face suddenly looked pained. “What about him?”

Paris blinked to focus his mind before making his argument. “I just wondered if you were aware that the exhaust manifolds are now clean enough to eat off of,” he said evenly, not mentioning his own role in helping his friend finish a sentence in two days that would have taken anyone else ten. “He’s probably down there now, spit polishing the floor. I just thought maybe you’d want to know.”

Janeway smiled sadly. “You understand, of course, that his assignment was to last two weeks,” she said carefully. “And that the actual cleaning of the manifolds wasn’t the point.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tom answered. “And believe me, I don’t mean to second-guess your decision. I was just thinking, though, that if you really wanted Neelix to atone for his mistakes, maybe there was something else, something he could do for the whole crew that might make him realize that he still has something valuable to contribute around here.”

Tom could see that Chakotay was smiling now, and he watched the man bring his coffee cup up to his lips to hide the fact. For her part, Captain Janeway was looking a little unconvinced. “I’ll take your recommendation under consideration, Mister Paris. Thank you.”

Tom smiled. “Thanks.” He took a step toward her and extended the arm that had been tucked behind his back the entire time. “I’ve taken the liberty of making a few suggestions,” he said, handing her the PADD. Just let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”

“I’ll do that,” Janeway said, shaking her head. “Dismissed.”

As she watched her helmsman make his way back to the bridge, the captain shook her head. Here was a young man—who had been falsely imprisoned because of someone else’s lies—not only encouraging her to show leniency toward the guilty man, but volunteering ways to help lift his spirits. Hardly the same hardened Tom Paris she had met in an Auckland prison just over two years earlier.

When the doors closed, she took a glance at the PADD in her hand and smiled. “So, Commander. Have you ever been to a luau?”

~*~*~*~*~

His duty shift had been over for an hour, but Tom had lingered behind on the bridge to bring Baytart up to speed on the tricky navigation that would be required for the next few days. They’d come across the inversion nebula just as Paris had predicted that morning, and had already learned that this particular stellar phenomenon was as beautiful as it was fascinating. Tom had even considered volunteering for a second shift—then immediately came to his senses. They’d be studying the nebula for days, he realized, and there was another equally beautiful phenomenon on his mind at the moment.

He and Harry had arranged to meet B’Elanna in the resort at 1800 hours for a quick dinner and a game of volleyball. That gave him less than an hour to get back to his quarters, get changed—and to come up with a way to ditch his best friend so he could finally spend some time alone with his favorite engineer.

As soon as he walked through his door, Paris took off his commbadge and began to peel away the layers of his uniform. If he timed it right, he’d even have time for a quick sonic shower. He threw his dirty clothes into the refresher and opened his wardrobe, grabbing his pale blue tank top and a pair of swimming trunks. He also pulled out the patterned blue and white shirt he’d replicated for his trip to 20th Century Los Angeles. Tom knew B’Elanna hated that shirt—at least it would give them something to talk about.

Twenty minutes of non-stop rushing and he was ready to go: ten minutes early. Perfect. Just enough time to take a leisurely stroll down to Deck 6 without looking too anxious to get there. Tonight, he thought as he headed out the door. Tonight would be the night...

B’Elanna pulled out her regulation tank suit and held it up. Boring. Industrial. Sexless. Perfect...

Her new strategy to make Tom Paris work for her attention seemed to be succeeding. His eagerness, both at breakfast that morning and later in the briefing room—where she knew he’d been staring at her as she gave her report—only made her more resolved. Besides, she thought to herself as she got dressed, it was cute, having him fawn all over her, desperate for any kind of reaction.

But she wouldn’t react. Wouldn’t pick her clothing to stoke his fantasies, or laugh at every silly joke he told. She’d just sit back and let him twist himself into knots trying to convince her to go out with him. One day, when he was properly chastised, she’d surprise him and give in. One day. But not today...

Of course, Harry was already in the resort when Tom arrived. Paris considered asking his friend to hit the road, but B’Elanna walked in the door only a few seconds later. No, if he were going to spend any time at all alone with her, he’d have to find a less direct way to unload his best friend.

“Well,” he said as she approached, “you’re looking lovely tonight.” Actually, she looked like she’d thrown on whatever was laying in the bottom of her closet. As a matter of fact, there was a fairly obvious coffee stain on the shorts she was wearing. Still, it never hurt to turn on the old Paris charm...

“Thanks,” she said, suddenly looking at him like he was crazy. “What’s for dinner. I’m starving.”

Well, so much for the charm. Maybe chivalry would do the trick. “Why don’t you and Harry find us a table, and I’ll see what Neelix is serving.”

B’Elanna shrugged. “Fine. Come on, Harry.” Tom watched as they walked over to the edge of the terrace and picked out seats overlooking the lake. Good. At least the setting would be romantic.

As he walked over to the bar, Tom wondered if he’d done something to make B’Elanna angry. He replayed every moment of the last three days in his mind, searching for anything that could have caused her to take offense. He walked over to the warming dishes—self-service until Neelix was officially returned to his duties as chef—and started preparing three plates of a very unappetizing pleeka casserole.

“Excuse me,” he heard as he tried to balance the third plate. “Do you need a hand with that?”

Tom turned around to see a statuesque woman with strawberry blonde hair standing next to him. She was clearly not one of the crew, so she must be a hologram—a character in the simulation—though Paris didn’t recall seeing her in the resort before. No matter; crewmen were always creating and saving new photonic friends to suit their fantasies. Of course, whoever had created this woman had exceptionally good taste.

“Sure,” he said as he handed her the two plates he’d already topped off. “Thanks.”

She smiled at him and Tom sensed intelligence in her eyes. “You’re welcome. May I join you?”

Paris was about to say no, when he smelled an opportunity—in addition to the pungent aroma of his dinner. “Sure,” he said as he smiled back at her. “As a matter of fact, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

“Wonderful,” she said as she handed him back one of the two plates. “Lead the way.”

B’Elanna looked out at the water and sighed. She almost hated to admit it, but she loved this resort, especially the view of the lake from the terrace. It was nice during the day, but she particularly enjoyed the way the sun was programmed to set over the horizon. And the moon, she noticed, was always bright and full. They had about another two hours of sunlight, she estimated, and the breeze off the water felt wonderful.

She thought for a moment about another lake she’d visited once. Another chance she’d missed to spend some time alone with Tom as he tested out a sailboat he’d designed and built—well, programmed—from scratch. For a fleeting second, she wondered if she was doing the right thing now, pretending to be disinterested and letting him fall all over himself to impress her. Maybe she should just put an end to this silly little game, and...

“Harry, B’Elanna, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve invited someone to join us.”

Torres turned around to see Tom standing next to a tall blonde woman who was spilling out of her tangerine bathing suit, and whose legs seemed to go up to her armpits. B’Elanna just sat there for a moment, unable to stop blinking.

Harry, on the other hand, looked like he’d been shot out of a torpedo tube. “Harry Kim,” he stammered as he rocketed onto his feet. “And you are...?”

“Marayna,” the woman answered. “It’s nice to meet you, Harry Kim.”

The men stood there for a moment before Harry finally pulled out the chair next to him and motioned for this woman—this tall, voluptuous woman—to sit down. “This must be for you,” she said to Harry as she sat the plate she was carrying down in front of him.

“Yes, I guess so,” their friend answered. “But I’d be happy to share it with you.”

B’Elanna almost spit out the water she was drinking as she heard Marayna’s polite response. “Actually, I’m not hungry,” the woman said, choosing not to point out that she was a hologram and didn’t actually eat. Torres heard Tom clear his throat as he sat their plates on the table, and she resisted the urge to smack him when he sat down next to her.

“So, Marayna,” Tom was saying, “what do you do here?”

“I’m one of the entertainment directors,” she said sweetly. “Mostly, I teach hydrosailing.” The woman turned to Harry as she continued. “Do you like hydrosailing, Harry?”

“Love it,” B’Elanna heard him say. It was apparently Tom’s turn to choke on his water.

“Well, then,” Marayna continued, “maybe after dinner I can give you a few lessons!”

Suddenly, it was all becoming clear. This was a plan, she realized, a ruse to keep Harry occupied so Tom could be alone with her. B’Elanna turned to look at him, and noticed that he refused to meet her eyes. Well, it was a nice try.

“Great,” B’Elanna chimed in. “I think we’d all love a few lessons.”

She felt the temperature of the man sitting next to her drop by a good ten degrees. “But I don’t like hydrosailing,” Tom leaned over and whispered to her. “Neither does Harry.”

B’Elanna paused for a moment, but then grinned right at him. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little water, Tom.”

In that instant, any hesitation she’d felt about the game she was playing disappeared in a sense of victory at the expression on Paris’s face. Once again, he’d thought he’d outfoxed her. Once again, she’d proven who was really in control.

“Fine,” he finally said through his teeth. “We’ll all go hydrosailing.”

They ate the rest of their dinner in silence, as Harry and Marayna happily carried on their own conversation. B’Elanna was surprised to realize, a little while later, that she’d actually eaten most of the food on her plate. Tom, on the other hand, had done a pretty good job of sculpting a little castle out of his own casserole. He’d barely taken more than two bites.

Feeling a little guilty now, B’Elanna reconsidered her impulse to go along on Harry’s lesson. As they finished their meal and walked down to the shoreline, she made a split-second decision to change her mind. “Actually, Harry,” she called to her friend and his new date, “I think I’ll pass on the hydrosailing. I want to take a little walk before the sun sets.”

She turned to Tom, who was almost pouting by this time. “Want to come with me?” she said evenly. She was willing to let him off the hook for the little stunt he’d pulled, but she wasn’t about to surrender her entire victory by flirting with him.

“I guess,” he said, perking up a bit. “Too bad, though. I was starting to look forward to the hydrosailing...” Tom rolled his eyes so that only she could see him, then gestured toward the trail that led down to the swimming beach. “After you.”

B’Elanna walked to the end of the grassy trail then stopped to kick off her sandals. She loved the heat of the warm sand on her feet—almost as much as she hated the feeling of it inside her shoes. Tom was walking next to her now, alongside the water’s edge.

She decided in that moment that the first words out of his mouth would be a test. If he talked to her—really talked to her like an adult—she’d let him off the hook he’d been dangling on ever since she’d overheard his conversation with Neelix. But if he played some kind of angle or used some kind of patented line from the Paris playbook...

“The lake looks really beautiful this time of day,” he said as they walked.

Okay. So far so good.

“But it pales in comparison to you tonight.”

Ugh! Dammit! Why did he have to blow it?! Without even thinking about it, B’Elanna dropped her shoes to the sand and turned to face him. With one strong shove, she’d thrown him off balance and right into the warm water of the lake—not hard enough to knock him down, but enough that he was now ankle deep, his shoes soaking wet. Suddenly, the realization of what she’d done—as well as the totally shocked look on Tom’s face—made her laugh out loud.

He didn’t say anything, but she could hear the heavy sigh that escaped as he wondered, no doubt, why complimenting her had been the wrong thing to do.

Before she knew it, he was lifting her off the ground, and tossing her unceremoniously into the water. B’Elanna knew she probably deserved it, but she was still shocked—both by his sudden move and by the unexpected sensation of being soaked to the skin. Probably sensing that it was only a matter of time before she returned the favor, Tom kicked off his sopping wet shoes, stripped off both of his shirts and took a running dive into the lake.

“You should have told me you wanted to go swimming,” he said when he surfaced next to her. Then she saw his arm swing back, and a torrent of water rained over her. If she wasn’t soaked before, she was now.

She tried to splash him back, but he must have sensed her movement and grabbed her arm, pulling her toward him. Suddenly, B’Elanna found herself held tightly against his chest. For a moment she thought he might kiss her. And, for a moment, she thought she might let him.

Instead, she smiled at him, put her hands on his shoulders...and pushed his head under the water.

Somewhere, some day, some how, Tom thought as he surfaced, he’d find the instruction manual that explained B’Elanna Torres and he’d read it from cover to cover. For now, it was enough to look at her, her hair dripping with water, her eyes gleaming, and her lips curled into a wicked smile, and to try to burn that face into his memory. He still had no idea where this relationship was going. But, at least for tonight, he didn’t care. “I’ll get you for that, Torres,” he said as he caught his breath. Someday.

~*~*~*~*~

Shon-Ha-Lock: The Engulfment

He’d never felt so alive. For some reason, the past few days had brought a flood of sensations that Vorik had never expected to feel. Full of energy, and with a level of focus and concentration he’d yet to achieve through meditation, the young Vulcan had spent the last forty-eight hours replaying a basic mathematical equation in his mind:

1 + 1 = 2.

The simplicity of it. The way it seemed to underscore all subsequent mathematical constructs. And in its simplicity there was beauty. Art. Focus.

He knew he should be sleeping now. Even without checking the chronometer, Vorik could tell that it was 0300 hours, yet he felt refreshed and renewed. So what if there were entire hours in the evening for which his mind could not account. So what if he’d begun to have cravings for foods and experiences he’d never tried before. This was a positive development. He was expanding the narrow horizons of his Vulcan heritage. He was evolving into something new and better than he had been. At first, the metamorphosis and the memory lapses had been unnerving, but gradually he’d begun to embrace the transformation.

Among the changes was a level of certainty that he should consider taking a mate. He’d given it much reasoned consideration, and had come to only one logical candidate: B’Elanna Torres.

Of course he was aware that, as a human/Klingon hybrid, she was accustomed to certain cultural rituals and traditions that must be obeyed. Unlike a Vulcan woman, who would understand the logic of his proposal without question, B’Elanna would need to develop a level of comfort with him. Learn to trust in his sense of reason. Become acquainted with him outside the confines of the command structure.

In other words, they would need to begin dating.

The past few weeks had been a time of learning for Vorik. He had developed friendships with several of the engineers and security officers and had watched the ritual mating behavior of his human shipmates. While there were variations according to personal preference and personality type, the majority of courtship rites began with a private meeting in a social setting—usually over a meal.

He decided in that moment to look for an opportunity to ‘ask her out.’

~*~*~*~*~

The invitations arrived in each crewman’s personal database on Wednesday morning:

‘Aloha, Voyager! Mister Neelix and Captain Janeway cordially invite you to join them for an authentic Polynesian luau. When: Friday, November 9, 2373, at 1600 hours. Where: Holodeck 1 Resort. Appropriate period attire is requested. R.S.V.P. to Neelix by Friday morning, 0800 hours.’

Tom immediately opened the cultural database and started searching. He enjoyed any opportunity he could get to wear clothing from historical eras, particularly from 20th century America. By slipping on the ‘costume’ of the period, he could pretend for a few moments that he was back in that time, living the life of a character from one of the movies he had seen, and stepping out of the sometimes unpleasant reality of life as Tom Paris.

Not that the reality was all that bad these days. But, remembering all those nights—first in the Maquis and then in Auckland—when he had laid awake wondering what the hell he was doing with his life, Tom was grateful for the second chance he’d been given, and was keenly aware of how lucky he was.

There was only one piece missing from the puzzle, and he was working on that one, too. Things had been strange between him and B’Elanna ever since—well, hell, they’d always been strange. A never-ending series of gains and losses, closeness and distance, and dancing to a tune that seemed to change every few measures. Sometimes, he wondered if it was all worth the effort.

Then he’d see her—half-asleep across the breakfast table in the mess hall, covered in grime after a long shift, dressed to the nines at a party, or in a pair of coffee-stained shorts at the resort—and he’d know immediately that he didn’t have a choice in the matter. There was something about her—something chemical—that he’d never be able to resist. So he’d dance to whatever tune she played for as long as he could and hope for the best.

He realized after a moment that the computer was sitting there waiting for a command. He knew exactly what he was looking for. “Scan historical database and display all recorded images of authentic rayon Aloha shirts, Earth circa 1960 to 1966.” Instantly, he narrowed his choices down to two: a red floral pattern nicknamed ‘Honeymoon Hibiscus’ and a scenic/floral/pattern combination with the memorable name of ‘Big Daddy-O’. Both were classic surf specials right out of ‘The Endless Summer’ or ‘From Here to Eternity.’

But a shirt named ‘Honeymoon Hibiscus’ just seemed to be screaming ‘jinx’. That thought sealed his decision.

“Computer, replicate image 15 Alpha in my size.” He jumped out of his chair and ran to the replicator. It was a beauty, a real work of art. Tom slipped his arms into the sleeves and enjoyed the feeling of the slick fabric as it slid over his shoulders. Yep, this would be his lucky shirt. And, if everything went according to plan, Friday would be his lucky night.

The entire event smelled of Tom Paris’s handiwork: a party in a tropical setting, where everyone was required to dress up in period clothing and pay homage to a culture that was all about leisure, comfort, and food. No matter; it would sure beat the hell out of the way they had spent the previous Friday night...

After their dinner and impromptu swim in the resort the night before, B’Elanna knew it was only a matter of time before Tom was able to charm her into forgetting why she was upset with him. And, if she were honest with herself, she would have to admit that she was now manufacturing excuses to keep him at arm’s length. It seemed that, no matter how much she wanted to close the distance that remained between them, part of her was terrified of the prospect of truly letting him in.

Still, this luau might be a good first step. Dinner in a non-threatening romantic setting with a hundred of their closest friends making sure things didn’t get out of hand...maybe it would at least make up for the lost evening in her now-ruined holoprogram. And maybe, if he behaved himself and let her get comfortable with the idea, she might finally admit to him that she wanted to be ‘involved’ too. Whatever that meant.

B’Elanna scanned the database looking for just the right outfit. She was surprised to find that the majority of the authentic clothing for Polynesian women involved little more than a length of colorful fabric strategically wrapped around the body or a two-piece straw monstrosity called a ‘hula skirt’.

She switched instead to clothing designed for tourists visiting the islands, and immediately came upon a series of tailored dresses from the 1940’s and ‘50’s. One in particular caught her eye: cream-colored silk with a large red floral pattern, sleeveless, with a straight skirt, and narrow straps. It had more of a classic look to it and yet it was so...tropical.

She replicated it and tried it on. ‘Not bad,’ she thought as she looked at back at herself in the mirror. ‘Not bad at all...’

~*~*~*~*~

Tom spent most of Thursday contemplating the duality of beauty and mystery.

They’d been studying the inversion nebula for almost three days, and had found some things that stymied even their best scientists. This mass of plasma was undeniably magnificent, a vast expanse of gold, pink, and purple gases that radiated light and energy over the entire area. Yet it seemed to defy the immutable laws of physics. For the plasma that was so lovely was also unquestionably volatile. One stray spark and it could ignite in a chain-reaction, turning the nebula and the space around it into an exploding torrent of energy. All of that beauty belied the strength and power it surely possessed. And how it had kept its fury in check for so long was enigmatic to say the least.

It reminded him of a certain woman he knew.

Yet, there was more to it, even, than that. Theory stated that this kind of unstable nebula could exist for a few months—a few years at most—before the inevitable cascading reaction began, extinguishing itself almost instantaneously. Yet their radiographic scans seemed to show that this one, this nebula, had survived for over three hundred years.

Tom heard the captain make a similar observation as she recorded her log from the chair behind him. When she finished, she stepped down next to his station to get a closer look at the viewscreen.

“Maybe the theorists were wrong.” He observed to her. “After all, they had a chance to look at the real thing.”

It was unusual to hear Chakotay’s voice coming from the science station. “Not entirely wrong. These plasma strands we’re approaching look ready to ignite.” The first officer had requested to monitor the energy signatures personally. He didn’t like to admit it, but Tom knew the man was as big a sucker for exploration and scientific discovery as their captain.

Her patience for experimentation only went so far, however. “Tom, back us off two thousand kilometers,” she instructed him. “That’ll give us a safety margin.”

“Aye, Captain.” His fingers keyed in the sequence to engage the reverse thrusters and he could feel the almost imperceptible movement as Voyager obeyed his commands.

Janeway turned past him and looked over her shoulder. “Harry, set the sensors for full spectrum scans, continuous sweep. If that nebula does flare up, I don’t want to miss a beat.”

Tom was mortified when he didn’t hear a response. “Mister Kim,” the captain repeated herself. “I need your attention on the sensors.”

Harry sounded almost dazed. “Sorry, Captain. Full spectrum scans; I’m on it.”

Tom wondered what the heck was going on. As long as he’d known Harry, the man had never used one of his accumulated leave days, yet yesterday—in the middle of exploring a once-in-a-lifetime stellar phenomenon, Mister Starfleet, Mister ‘Wow-isn’t-this-cool’ had asked for and taken the whole day off. Now, instead of being rested, he seemed to barely notice the fact that he was on the bridge and on duty. Something was wrong.

Luckily for his best friend, their captain was too wrapped up in the wonder of it all to care. “Astrotheory never predicted this would be so lovely,” she said as she stood next to him. “Beauty and mystery: a tantalizing combination.”

It was as if she read his mind. “No argument here,” he said, equally impressed. As he turned to look at Janeway, Tom caught what he was sure was their tactical officer rolling his eyes. “Right Tuvok?”

Paris wondered why he took so much pleasure in picking on their stoic security chief. Something about Vulcans these days; they just got under his skin. The feeling seemed to be mutual. “I am fully capable of appreciating this phenomenon without the extraneous sentimentality humans find so necessary.” Typical. Tom wanted to roll his own eyes at that point, but insubordination was a little further than he was willing to go to make a point.

Thankfully, Chakotay saved him the trouble. “Being moved by an emotion isn’t always extraneous,” the commander chimed in. “Sometimes it’s the whole point.”

Tom caught the twinkle in the captain’s eyes as she looked over to the science station. What was it with the sexual energy flying around the ship these days? Paris took a chance and snuck a look over his other shoulder just in time to see the dimpled grin of his first officer start to wane. Maybe it was radiation from the nebula, he thought to himself. Or maybe they’d all just been alone together in space a little too long...

~*~*~*~*~

Friday morning dawned full of possibilities, and Tom had decided to make the most of every last one. Something told him that the evening’s luau would change everything between him and B’Elanna, and the thought put him in a great mood. And, as always, a great mood made him hungry.

He showered and dressed in record time, then stopped at Harry’s quarters on his way to breakfast. He’d been trying without any luck for the last two days to grab a few minutes alone with his friend to make a plan for the evening. They hadn’t discussed it, but Tom wanted to make sure Kim knew exactly when to disappear and leave him alone with B’Elanna. It would require a little careful timing so as not to look suspicious—Paris didn’t want to take any chances that a bad acting job might give them away.

He reached Harry’s cabin and sounded the buzzer. Nothing. After two more unsuccessful tries, Tom keyed in the security code and let himself in.

The bed was rumpled, though it didn’t really look slept in, as if someone had tossed and turned on top of the covers without actually getting underneath them. A dirty uniform was draped over the couch and a towel was lying on the floor by the bathroom door. In anyone else’s quarters, the scene might have looked perfectly normal. For the compulsively meticulous Harry Kim, however, it looked like a typhoon had struck.

“Harry?” Tom called as he walked toward the bathroom. There was no reply. “Computer,” he called out, “locate Ensign Kim.”

‘Ensign Kim is in Holodeck 1.’

Again. That’s where he’d spent his entire day off on Wednesday, and just about every off duty moment ever since. Harry had seemed distracted on the bridge the following morning, and Tom had tried to catch a few minutes with him on their lunch break. But Kim never showed up in the mess hall, and had skipped out on their dinner plans, too. Tom finally found him in the resort that evening, but his friend never came in off the lake the entire time. It had been odd to see Harry on a hydrosail board—until Paris caught a glimpse of the tall, shapely woman next to him and the silly grin on his friend’s face. Suddenly it all made sense.

But that had been almost midnight the previous evening. Now it was almost 0630—and they were due on the bridge at 0800.

“Computer, what program is currently running in Holodeck 1?”

‘Neelix Talaxian Resort Alpha 1.’

Paris sighed. Didn’t Harry know he needed him? Didn’t he know how much was riding on this luau?

No matter. They had the whole day on the bridge together and, if necessary, a few minutes at the end of their shift. That was all it would take to orchestrate Kim’s perfectly timed exit.

There was only one other thing to go on Tom’s morning checklist: the set-up. Taking a moment to throw Harry’s towel and the dirty uniform into the refresher, he shrugged his shoulders and headed to the mess hall.

B’Elanna was famished as she made the trip up to breakfast. After pulling a double shift the day before, she was looking forward to the abbreviated workday the luau afforded her and a chance to firm up her plans for what she’d come to think of as her ‘make-up date’ with Tom. She’d already gotten her new dress out and reworked the duty shift to give herself enough time to get ready. Now all she had to do was get through this day.

She walked into the mess hall and looked around, a little disappointed to see that Paris and Kim weren’t there yet. She hadn’t seen either man since dinner on Tuesday, though she and Tom had traded ‘have you seen Harry?’ messages the day before. Grabbing a cup of coffee and a tray of something that looked like scrambled eggs, she scoped out a table by the viewport, sat down, and started scanning a PADD with the latest reports on her problematic warp coils.

When she saw the dark haired ensign in gold approach, she let her peripheral vision fill in the blanks. “Hey, Starfleet, where the hell have you been hiding...?”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. Were you expecting me?”

The voice was way too deep. “Vorik,” she said as she finally looked up. “I’m sorry, I thought you were Harry.” He had a strange look on his face, she noticed. “Is there something I can do for you?”

There was a moment’s pause as he seemed to think about what he was going to say. She half expected a nervous question about the day’s assignments, but instead was met by a gentle, confident young man she didn’t remember seeing before. “I was wondering if I might join you for breakfast,” he asked evenly.

The question took her totally off guard. “Um, sure,” she said without thinking. “Have a seat.”

B’Elanna expected him to take the chair opposite her at the empty table, but instead he sat to her left at her side. “I was hoping to get the chance to talk with you privately,” he started, never touching the assorted fruits on his tray. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to...”

“Well, good morning.”

B’Elanna looked up into the quizzical face of Tom Paris. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said as he sat down.

“Well, actually...” Vorik interjected before Tom instantly cut him off.

“B’Elanna, did you see Harry yesterday? I’m getting a little worried about him.” Tom had reached over, picked up her fork, and was helping himself to her eggs.

“No,” she said, crossing her arms and wondering exactly where he got his nerve. “I was stuck in engineering until 0100, and he never answered the message I left him about the luau.” She wondered if Tom even noticed that she wasn’t thrilled to be sharing her breakfast. “Taste good?” she asked as she grabbed his hand and retrieved her utensil. “You know there’s plenty where this came from,” she said, absentmindedly putting the fork he had just used into her mouth before realizing she hadn’t picked up any eggs...

Tom was smiling that distracting little grin and leaned over conspiratorially. “I’d rather eat yours,” he said as he grabbed her coffee cup and took a drink. “Besides, you owe me a meal. And if I can’t get dinner out of you, then you ought to at least share your breakfast with me.” B’Elanna wasn’t sure what annoyed her more: that he was trying to charm her or that it w