Hue and Cry (this isn't a full story yet) Get this:Finished!

[Voy_Girl]

I'm going to post a part of a very long story I wrote a couple of months ago.

I'd appreciate if you could tell me the flaws so I can change it.. if there is anything to change.

[Voy_Girl]

Author: Tha1n0nlYVoYGirl

Title: Hue and Cry

Written between: 5/4 2002 and 9/5 2002

AN: Set immediately after Day Of Honor. A strange species has been aboard Voyager while B'Elanna and Tom retrieved the warp core.

Story including:
Tom Paris
Harry Kim
B'Elanna Torres
Kathryn Janeway
Chakotay
Neelix
The Doctor
Naomi Wildman
The fine ship Voyager

All above belongs to Paramount (www.paramount.com).
'Star Trek' created by Gene Roddenberry.

Stuff that belongs to me:
Scrich
Bral
Ecbel Ecbal
The Sprai-koo homeworld
The Sprai-koo people
The Taali people
The shuttles

Thanks for beta-/proofreading: Put the name you want here... pen name or real.. doesn't matter! ~ E-mail too if you want!

**

HUE AND CRY

***

"I have to tell you the truth."

"The truth about what?"

"I - I- I love you."

B'Elanna's words tortured Tom as he manually opened the shuttlebay hatch, the only thing between the shuttle and open space.

He wanted so badly to tell her that he felt the same way, but he couldn't. Not yet.

***
The following morning Harry pressed the chime at Captain Kathryn Janway's door.

"Good morning, Harry," she greeted when he stepped in.
"However, if you want to complain about extra duty assignments, you can leave again. Everyone will have to pull double shifts until we're through this, according to Naomi, creepy space."

Harry prepared to explain why he was there, "Tom won't."

The truth, wrapped up, but yet the truth.

The Captain grew suspicious, her eyes narrowed for a while, thoughtful.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't find Tom anywhere. He's not at the Holodeck, not in his quarters, not in Sickbay, not at the Bridge, not in the Mess, he's not responding to hails, and the computer can't locate him. There's also a shuttle missing. Cochran 2. Do the math, Captain."

"Are you implying that Tom ran away tonight?"

"It doesn't look better."

"Meet me in Sickbay as soon as you can, and bring B'Elanna. We've got no time to think."

***

Harry immediately hurried to Engineering, to get his friend. A tricky task, according to that her shift just had begun.
Getting her out of her precious work after twenty minutes on duty, wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. However, Harry succeeded. He only told the Chief Engineer three words. "Tom is missing."

***

A moment later, in Sickbay, the Doctor considered himself informed.

"You have any idea about what might caused him to leave?" Janeway asked.

"Well, there's many possible reasons to his departure. The real reason knows only Tom. When we find that particular reason, we'll find Tom."

"How?"

The Doctor wore his 'professional face' and ignored B'Elanna's question.

"Reasons such as...?" The half- Klingon continued, this time, the Doctor answered.

"A fight, a break-up, a misdeed, traumatic memories, or he simply didn't like it here."

"Doctor, would you let me strike out the 'reasons' that I don't think we should count on?"

"Sure, Mr. Kim. Go ahead, the more you don't find possibly, the closer we get to the real reason."

"How do we know that that's the real one then? It might very well be another. As you said yourself; the only one who knows is Tom!"

"Lieutenant... you interrupted Mr. Kim."

B'Elanna looked angry, Harry took a deep breath, preparing to talk non-stop.

"Okay, here it goes. I'll begin with your first possibility." He cleared his throat.

"Tom's stronger than that. If he'd cared that much about fights, he'd left long ago. Right after joining in. I mean, all the Maquis fought with him,"
He shot a certain Maquis a look.
"Some Starfleet personnel did too. The second one; Tom didn't have a girlfriend, so he can't be devastated by a break-up. And running for the sake of a misdeed, I don't think so.
He stands for his actions, how stupid they might be. And as late as a month ago he told me that Voyager was the best home he'd ever had. Then the only thing left I traumatic memories."

"I agree with you, Harry. Tom wouldn't go because of such-"

A commbadge chirping interrupted Kathryn.

::Tuvok to Janeway::

::Janeway here. Go ahead::

::We've located the shuttle::

:: Where?::

:: At an I-class planet 200 000 kilometers ahead, the homeworld of the Sprai-koo::

::Not the one's we tried to make business with just yesterday?::

::I'm afraid so, Captain::

::Any sign of Tom?::

::Negative::

::Alright. Janeway out::

"Harry?"

"Captain?"

"You want to see your friend?"

"Of course!"

"Then take the Coulee and head for the Sprai-koo homeworld."

Harry smiled widely, it wasn't every day he got such a mission on his shoulders.

"Yes, Captain."

"Doctor?" B'Elanna asked. "Can a sudden message regarding a friend's deadly disease or, let's say, an unexpected confession of love, be other possible reasons why Tom Paris left?"

"Yes, it might very well be."

B'Elanna moaned.

Harry grabbed his friends left arm. "Why, Maquis? Are you sick?"

She shook of his hand, the sudden concern in his eyes almost scared her.

"I'm just exploring other possibilities."

"Oh." Harry looked embarrassed away. 'He must have heard the sheer desperation in his voice too,' Torres thought. She turned to the Captain.

"May I assist Harry at this mission?"

"Janeway placed a hand on her Chief Engineer's shoulder.

"I hoped you'd say that, B'Elanna."

She did hope so, but yet, for a brief moment Kathryn hesitated. She didn't really want to send her best engineer away on a dangerous rescue, along with one of her best Ops tactics, to get her mostly skilled pilot back from his crazy desertion.
And rescued, that was exactly what she thought Tom Paris needed to get. The brown skinned, fair-haired Sprai-koo had proved to be both violent and hostile during their short meeting.

"Then I can go."

"Of course you can."

Janeway tried to look like she'd never considered anything else. Receiving the Doctor's weird looks, she understood that her brief hesitation had unveiled her. This rescue mission was going to be dangerous, and now both Kathryn Janeway, the EMH, Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres knew it.

***

[Lxe]

hey Voy_Girl loved the story.
feedback don't change it.

[Voy_Girl]

Okay, tthanks!

Anybody wants to read to 2nd chapter?

[Lxe]

YES! PLEASE POST.

[Voy_Girl]

***

Chakotay, who's shift just had started, headed down a hallway when he suddenly ran into...

"Kathryn!"

"Good morning to you too. Why do you looks so shocked?" She looked amused, holding the usual cup of coffee.

"Why have you assigned Michels this shift? I thought Harry was supposed to take it."

"He was. But I send Harry and B'Elanna to the Sprai-koo's homeworld, to get Tom back."

Chakotay violently strook his brow in dismay while he practically yelled.

"Oh no! You can't have done that Kathryn!"

"I am the Captain on this ship. I do what I find suiting the situation. In this case a pilot leaving his ship, for an unknown reason. What better can I do than to send his friends to look for him?"

"I'll take this from the beginning. Last night, after you finally went to get some rest, I saw two beings from the Sprai-koo ship downloading information from our Computer.
Later I managed to find out that they copied the warp core's blue-prints.

I also overheard them talking. Something about that they only needed a few more things.
One of them mentioned that it 'was time for another visit to their generous neighbors', the Taali. At first I planned to arrest the two thieves, but I realized that they only were a part of something real big.

They are planning something, and out warp technology is a vital part of it. As you might recall, they didn't yet possess Warp speed.

So I ran to the Bridge, hoping that you'd still be there. However, the Bridge was empty, except Tom Paris. During those few weeks when he was in the Maquis, I admired his ability to sneak in and out without being seen. I actually thought he was a Starfleet spy for a while.
Yet today, I'm stunned over how silent he can walk, if he just want's to.

Back to last night, I knew that something had to be done right away, the aliens were about to beam off Voyager, back to their own ship. So I sent Paris to follow them. To infiltrate their organization and report their plans to me. Hopefully we'll be able to scatter them for the wind.

I was on my way to tell you right now, so we could wait and prepare for that information, if Paris succeeds. I certainly didn't count on you sending a na�ve Ensign and a hot-tempered engineer to 'retrieve' him!!"

Janeway removed the hand she held over her mouth and exclaimed,

"What have I done?!"

***

Meanwhile, aboard the shuttle 'Coulee'. Two friends worried about a third.

"You know Maquis, you really freaked me out for a moment."

"In Sickbay?"

"Yeah. You chose two strange reasons, you know that?"

"One of those reasons are true! It's my fault that he left, Harry!"

The man wearing the mustard colored shirt paled.

"You mean you really do have a deadly illness!"

"No, Starfleet! I'm not sick."

"Then what-"

Harry interrupted himself.

"You told Tom that you love him?"

Meeting the former Maquis' guilty gaze, Harry started to smile.

"This is not funny! He left because of me!"

"If I was Tom I'd be thrilled."

"Well, apparently he wasn't! Keep your eyes on the viewscreen! There's a place where you can land."

***

[Lxe]

COOL IT KEEPS GETTING BETTER. THIS IS A REALLY GOOD STORY.
FEEDBACK DON'T CHANGE IT.

[Voy_Girl]

***

Bypassing the password control was a mere trifle for Tom. He fooled the system to believe that he'd already written an affirmed password, before a major software error had occurred.
A few minutes after entering the large, white building, he already was about to crack their security code. It proved to be a difficult task, instead of developing their own warp drive, they seemed to have concentrated on security.

Tom had learned a few tricky in prison, but to solve all of their complicated codes, he needed time. The heavy steps which approached him didn't buy him a lot more time, actually no more time. He slammed his fist at the console he worked on and shut it down. Doing that, he loosed all the information he'd managed to gather for the past fifteen minutes.

When he noticed that those steps were utterly close he turned around and tried to look lost.

A high ranked Sprai-koo male rounded the corner next to Tom.

"Are you one of those 'hunans' from the warp capable starship?"

"Yes, I'm a 'human.'"

"What do you want here then?"

Tom leaned closer to the officer and looked around, acting like he was going to reveal an important secret.

"I want to see your superior. The one single at the top."

"Why should I take you to her?"

"I'm looking for a job."

"Here?"

'Boy, does this one need time to put two and two together,' Tom thought. He decided to explain his errand real slow.

"Voyager bores me out. I need action in my life. Adventure! This seems to be the right place."

"I'm not sure..."

"I've got lots of information about Voyager, the ship I came with. You might find it... useful."

The Sprai-koo turned Tom around, grabbed his arm and began to walk.

"Very well. My name is Ecbel. Supervisor of the Third Squadron."

"Nice. I'm Tom... Supervisor of the... Helm."

Ecbel led him through several long, gloomy hallways. They didn't meet anyone before Ecbel stopped in front of a pair of doors, with two aliens in front, apparently guards.

'Finally,' Tom thought, 'Other living beings.'


One of the guards asked for; "Name and errand?"

"Ecbel Ecbal, Supervisor of the Third Squadron. I wish to see Scrih."

The guards whispered to each other. Tom could hear and understand only fragments such as; 'The Third Squadron is very small...' or 'What's that thing he's bringing... maybe another toy for Scrih...'

"You may pass." They finally announced.

Ecbal and Tom walked past them, towards the two doors, when the second guard grabbed Tom's shoulder.

"Third Supervisor, leave the trash on this side."

Tom snorted.

"This is my errand," Ecbal explained.

When they were allowed to walk again the guards began to whisper again. "I told you it was another toy."

Tom snorted again.

Ecbel Ecbal practically dragged the 'Starfleet flyboy' through the doors the gossiping guards watched.

Behind the doors they found themselves inside a big room, but yet even more gloomy than the hallways.
A beautiful female Sprai-koo sat behind a desk.


"Ecbel, leave us." She commanded after a look at Tom and a brief conversation with her minor officer. Ecbel obeyed and went out through a door to Tom's right.

"I am Scrih. The Superior Head of this organization."

"Then I came to the right place after all, I doubted for a while. By the way, you can call me Tom."

Playing charades in front of women, now that was something Tom was really good at.

"The right place for what?"

She seemed to take the bait.

"I'm looking for a job."

"I see. And I understand that you've got much useful information about your former ship and her crew?"

"Yeah, I can confess that I do know one thing and another."

"At least about the women aboard, I guess..."

Tom flashed her a wide smile, inside he wondered if she flirted with him.

"I'll settle for pretty much any job..."

"Okay, I'll give you a job. But,"

'Oh, great! There's always a 'but'! ' Tom thought.

Scrih continued, "To prove that you, in the future, will be loyal to me, only me. Not to your former Captain, you'll tell me the password to your main systems."

"Like life support?"

"And to your weapons."

"Sure, I can do that, but you can't get aboard and use it now anyway. The main alarm will set off immediately."

"I don't plan to access all of your systems 'now', you fool! I'll use it later."

Hot-tempered. But for B'Elanna she wouldn't be a match. B'Elanna. Tom closed his eyes for a brief second.

"Alright. You can use mine."

"What is it then?"

She looked more and more excited.

"Paris17A6-52."

Scrih flashed him a wicked smile.

'She couldn't possibly have 'believed' that one?'

"That was very kind of you... Tim. You've got a new job, kid. Sector 57. The town of Morekay. I'll inform my, and now also your, contact there. Shiral, she owns a little bar in Morekay. Cozy, I've visited it once. I usually let my contacts come to me. You'll work there, at the same time you'll be on the lookout."

'Tim? Kid?!', Tom thought, but said, "On the lookout for what?"

"That'll vary. Right now, you'll look out for any other hunans. Tell me, do you have any experience in bars?"

"I've visited a few in my time."

Scrih laughed, a short, genuine laugh.

"Can you serve drinks?"

"Sure."

"Good. Then you're the new bartender."

"What happened with the old one?"

"His eyes weren't... sharp enough."

Her smile made him downhearted.

"Ecbel will take you there, tonight."

***

[shrek man]

Very Nice.

[Lxe]

Cool someone else is flirting. I like it.

[Voy_Girl]

***

Inside Cochran 2, B'Elanna and Harry have found it.

"It's no use trying to figure out what happened to Tom by looking in or at the shuttle, Harry. Everything in the computer has been deleted."

"Great! Now what?"

B'Elanna looked questingly at him.

"I mean, what are we going to do now?"

"Calm down, Harry. We'll find him."

"How? We don't know where to look!"

"Did you expect this to be easy? That we'd land and Tom would walk up to us and ask to be fetched? The hardest thing isn't to 'find' him, it'll be to convince him to 'come back'!"

"I know! But to be able to convince him, we need to 'find' him!"

"We'll just have to think like Tom."

"That's easy."

"What would you do if you were here, if you were Tom Paris?"

"You're just messing everything up, Maquis."

"I'd at least try to get a job, if I was Tom."

"We still don't know if Tom would."

"How else would he survive? Like you said; he's smart. "

"Okay, okay! What kind of job would you take, if you were Tom Paris?"

"Well, what does he like to do?"

"He loves to fly."

"He's smarter than looking for a job as a pilot here, when Voyager still is in this planet's orbit."

"Yeah. Hey! Another thing he loves to do is to hand around bars!"

"Harry, you're a genius! He's got a job at a bar!"

Harry laughed t his friend's expression, sheer joy mixed with hope.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'm not. I'm just trying to convince myself that I'm right."

"Well get yourself back down from those clouds you're up in. Cause we're gonna search through every little brawn at this planet!"

Now it was B'Elanna's turn to laugh, at Harry's sudden enthusiasm. She had to take him down from those same clouds she'd been up in just a second ago.

"At least the ones close by. He can't have gotten that far without the shuttle."

***

[Lxe]

I like the story Voy_Girl keep writing.

[Voy_Girl]

Thanks, I intend to.

[Voy_Girl]

***

Two days later, B'Elanna and Harry walked planless around in a small town, they looked for a bar.

"I'm really tired, Mauqis. For the past two days we've visited fifteen different bars."

"And yet no sign of 'Tommy Boy'."

"Gaunt Gary-talk, huh?"

"I've been to so many bars, and had so much different alcohol that I'm beginning to actually understand the 'official bartalk'."

"Oh no! Not another one!"

Starfleet and Maquis both laughed, B'Elanna looked down at her stumbling feet for a moment and when she looked up again she saw something. A small, no, a very small bar, almost hidden next to an alley.

"There."

"What?"

"Another bar."

"Oh no! Not another one!"

"Why not? I surely could use some liquor. And didn't you say those exact words a few steps away?"

B'Elanna grinned, and they started to laugh again as they stumbled towards the little bar.

Stuffy air hit B'Elanna as soon as she walked in, close after Harry. It smelled like alcohol and smoke. Very much of it.

"How come that they've got two things at almost every planet we visit? Alcohol and stuff to smoke."

Harry grabbed her upper arm.

"There's Tom!" He sounded tense.

"Where?"

"The bartender."

"Are you sure?"

"B'Elanna, I might not see very well in this dim light, but it's the only one in here without a tail."

"Oh."

Harry and B'Elanna zigzagged towards the bardisk, the bartender had his back towards them.

"Hey, bartender!" Harry called.

"What do you want?"

'It surely sounds like Tom', Harry thought and called again.

"How about a missing Starfleet pilot?"

The bartender turned around, it really was Tom, shocked.

"Will a Bloody Mary due... Harry? And how about you, B'Elanna? Can I get you some Raktjino?"

"No, I want my best friend." Harry answered.

The female Starfleet officer ogled at Harry Kim and noticed that he had tears in his eyes.

Tom apparently saw it too, because he opened a small door in the corner of the disk.
He motioned to his friends to step in to him on the other side.

When they did, Tom opened another door, which was right behind the bardisk, in between many shelves full with oddly shaped bottles and jars, and shoved his friends inside a small office.

Tom closed the door behind them, he used a small knob in the middle.

"All the doors at this place you have to open manually, much similar to 20th century doors."
He explained.

"Then you must be very pleased."

Tom laughed at B'Elanna's comment, when he noticed the other two people staring at his outfit.

He wore an odd, black hat, a white shirt, black slacks and a scarf lazily draped over his shoulders, also in the same black color.
Everything was made out of a very light and thin fabric.

"Hey, guys, stop staring like that! This is my uniform!"

Harry giggled. "I can see that. You look like you usually do early mornings at the Bridge."

"Which makes the Captain, 'so' happy."

"It might, but she can't really chew up her own little proteg� completely, can she?"

"Thanks, but I've never before had a scarf, and I'm not the Captain's proteg�! Now, let's leave that and talk about more important stuff. Exactly when did Chakotay loose his faith in me and send you too?"

"Chakotay? The Captain sent us." B'Elanna reluctantly replied.

"The Captain? Does she know why I'm here?"

"I told her that I couldn't find you anywhere, and that Cochran 2 was missing. She, B'Elanna, Doc and I came to the unison conclution that you finally was tired of us and ran away."

"What? I'm not tired of you! I haven't fled from my ship! Chakotay discovered Sprai-koo's stealing at Voyager, so he send me to expose their conspiracy. A big organization involving Voyager and hundreds of other innocent ships."

"What a relief! I thought it was my fault that you left." B'Elanna exclaimed.

"Awww. Cheer up, Torres!" Tom put a finger under her cheek, pushed it upwards, mildly forcing her to look up at him.

"It was absolutely not your fault, and I am planning to return again. As long as I manage to survive long enough to transmit the information Voyager needs to burst this dirty bubble."

"So you didn't need us?"

"Actually, Harry, I was feeling quite lonely. After three days seeing nothing but 'Koo's and their long, awful tails. This is a planet that doesn't like strangers, as you might've notice."

Tom laughed, and startled his friends by hugging the both of them. All of B'Elanna's thoughts about guilt quickly ran off her.

"Besides, I can use you. Harry, you're good at cracking codes of all sorts, especially on time. You seem to handle stress very well. That I can really need."

Harry almost blushed at the sudden praise.

"And I can't think of one mission when you don't need a big, strong Klingon to knock down the enimies in your way to the glory of victory!"

"Calm down a bit, I'm not that strong, and definitely not big either, but sure, I'll help you. One or two I can always handle."

"TIM! I'm going away for a few days!"

The door flung open and a middle-aged, female Sprai-koo appeared in the small doorway.

"More hunans?"

She said, while she scrutinized Torres and Kim.

"Humans. They're tired of Voyager too, and they could use a job each."

"Have you informed them?"

"No, they will not join."

"Good. One hunan is one too many."

Harry felt like his best friend and the unknown female talked above his head, like he and B'Elanna weren't there. He didn't like that belittle feeling.

"I'm in a hurry so..."

The female said, and shoved a finger decorated with a long, red-brown nail up in Tom's face.

"You! Go back to whatever you were doing."

She turned and pointed at Harry, her stretched finger shivered with repressed anger. Apparently she wasn't too thrilled to see the two newcomers.

"You clean up this place! And you..."

She approached B'Elanna, who was ready to knock her pronounced cheekbone in. The Klingon genes didn't have to take control, the approachers voice changed and she suddenly looked very mild, gentle and friendly.

"You are in charge when I'm gone."

"Me? But I just got here-"

"See that these two do their jobs! One thing all three of you should know, is that I have only one rule. Do not develop deep feeling for any customer."

"Oh, poor me! I've been watching that dirty drunk hunk sitting in there."
B'Elanna's voice dripped with sarcasm, she had definitely not any thought on falling in love with one of those people.

"Well, there'll be nothing with that! You hear me? Nothing!"

And she was gone.

"Who was that?" Harry whispered as soon as her footsteps were completely faded. He had no desire to get a finger like that between his eyes again.

"Shiral. She's the owner, as you might have figured out. My 'contact' here to the Organization."

"Why did she call you 'Tim' and us 'hunans'?"

"The Sprai-koo people have a very hard time remembering names, you can really confuse them," he chuckled.

"Why did she leave me in charge? You've been here three days now, right? You should be much more qualified. Doesn't she have anyone else working here?"

"No, it'll be just the three of us. I reckon she can go to a grand meeting tonight, thanks to me. If I hadn't been here 'working', she couldn't leave without closing the bar. Which would be a plain bad idea, since these drunkards would break in anyway as soon as she'd left."

"But why 'me' in charge?"

"Ah. At this planet the women's got the upper hand. Men are looked at as replaceable trash. That's why this race utterly seldom marries."

"And how about Earth?" B'Elanna asked.

"Earth? There it's equal between men and women."

"Oh, really? How come Janeway is the first female Captain in Starfleet history then?"

She said, with a slight tone of triumph hidden in her voice.

Tom and Harry both found themselves speechless. Something very unusual in Tom's case.

B'Elanna smiled while she opened the door which Shiral had slammed close where she left.
B'Elanna took a step backwards, and stepped at something. A broken bottle. 'Shiral has strong arms,' she thought.

"Come on, thrash boys! We've got a bar to run!"

***

[Lxe]

OOH B'ELANNA IS IN CHARGE, I LOVE THIS STORY.
I'M A BIG FAN CAN'T YOU TELL?

[Voy_Girl]

Thank you very much!

[Voy_Girl]

***

That night Tom invited a female singer, she'd asked for a gig the day before.

Tom and B'Elanna stood behind the bardisk. She counting Z'wera, the Sprai-koo currency, he wiping the oval bowls used to drink from.

The singer began with her first tune.

B'Elanna learned how to hide her commbadge beneath her outermost article of clothing. Which was very good, and completely necessary, cause without it she wouldn't get a word anyone, except Tom and Harry, uttered.

The first song was about a war, fought many years ago between the Sprai-koo and the .
B'Elanna didn't like it, the pointless violence remembered her of the early Klingon wars. Thankfully the singer ended the tune and began singing another.

"Can you keep that look
In your eyes for me
Forever
And ever
Forever
Only for me

When we met the sky's were grey
My life was empty
You brought the sunrise
Changes to my heart

I hope tomorrow you'll be there
With me
Facing all the world
The crowded cafes
Knowing that you'll stand
By me

Can you keep that look in your eyes for me
Forever
And ever
And ever
I hope so
Forever
Only for me"

As the beautiful words faded away, Tom laid down the rag he used beside him.
B'Elanna stopped counting long ago, the profit wasn't at a high rate that evening. She looked at the entertainer with a distant, dreaming look in her eyes.

'She looks so beautiful!' Tom thought, staring at her.

B'Elanna felt his burning gaze and looked up, puzzled.
Tom found the puzzled look even more gorgeous and leaned his head slightly. She copied.

Almost painfully slowly they came closer to each other. The air between them bound them together, loaded as it were with silly expectations, with fear.
And finally, their lips met in a soft brush, lasting only a second.

After a few more of those seconds, they kissed each other deeply when a customer abruptly shouted,

"Hey! Can you get a little service here!"

B'Elanna desperately wanted to stay as she was, so she reached up behind her and took a full bottle down from a nearby shelf.
Still involved in the kiss she detailed moved the bottle from her left hand to her right.

The customer had leaned forward over the bardisk.
B'Elanna raised the bottle, still with her eyes closed, and hit.

The sound of a material similar to glass falling to the floor at the same time as a muffled thump reached her ears, assured B'Elanna that she'd hit a good spot.

***

[Lxe]

Voy_Girl I love this story. Honey please don't leave me hanging, what gonna happen to B'Elanna?

[Voy_Girl]

***

Voyager had docked with a tremendous Taali ship since an hour.

Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay and Tuvok looked around inside the Taali Commanders Quarters.

Bare walls to every side, a single viewport and nothing in sight to sit on.
Kathryn doubted that the Taali ever sat or laid down and took a break.
They were really busy as bees.
Starfleet personell at least retsed once in a while.

"They'll make good allies." Chakotay whispered.

"A fine Starfleet officer once said the same about the Maquis."

"Really? What happened, did he try to talk the Maquis into it?"
"He tried. A month later he was picked by a Maquis." Janeway finished and looked down, Chakotay frowned. Tuvok didn't move a muscle.

An invisible door opened from nowhere and the Commander of the Taali ship greeted the three Starfleeter's.

"What do you like my ship?" He asked, and looked at them with a strange glint in his eye.

"It's fascinating, a good work. In other words; a perfect ship."

"Thank you. Every Taali usually asks his visitors what they think about his ship, even before introducing himself. If they don't like it, they aren't worthy his time. However, if they do, they are welcome as his special guests. I am Bral, the commanding officer at this ship, the PNX-1.
Once again, welcome to my 'fascinating' ship."

"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway, master of the ship docked at your starbord side, the U.S.S. Voyager. This is two of my senior Bridge officers. Commander Chakotay, first officer, and Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, Security Chief."

"Nice to be here." Chakotay smiled.

"Good morning," said Tuvok.

"What brings you here, Captain Kathryn Janeway?"

"You pronounced my name exactly right. Not many of the Sprai-koo managed to."

"Remembering names, and faces, happens to be one of my people's specialties. In opposite to the Sprai-koo, as you noticed, they are terrible at names outside their own species. It surprises me that they can say 'Sprai-koo' at all."

"The Sprai-koo are actually the reason we're here."

"Oh? They've stole something from your ship? Stupid little thieves."

"Blue prints of out engines and warp core."

"Warp. Something neither the Taali or the Sprai-koo have been able to master. Uncountable tries have been made. Did they get away?"

"I'm afraid they did." She glanced at Chakotay, he tried to look cool in front of the Captain's accusing glare. Apparently she didn't think it was smart to let them get away with the blue prints.

"That was bad. Really bad. They have stole many things from us through the years. Vital pieces of technology. Some missing items have been so important that we've been forced to stand still in space for several days. I believe they're building a warship. The warp engines will make them invincible."

"That's why we are trying to stop them. But we'll need your help."

"Mine? Nobody has ever asked for my help before."

"Now somebody is. Will you help us? We don't have enough time for careful consideration."

"An alliance?"

"Exactly."

"I'll join in." He straightened himself out. "But two ships aren't enough to fight a powerful warship. Not close to enough."

"Voyager is classed as a warship too."

"A small one."

"According to you, maybe. If we install a few weapons here, you'll be able to defend yourself better."

"I'll join to win. Not to defend myself. Even that won't be enough, I tell you!"

Kathryn tried to calm down, she couldn't afford to use this help.

"I know. If you just could scrape together a few more ships..."

"I'll do my best."

"It might calm you a little to know that Voyager has won quite many battles, even ones that seemed hopeless in the beginning. We've even fought the Borg."

"Did you win?"

"If we hadn't, I'd be assimilating Talaxian's, 'talking' to billions of others, or regenerating right now."

"Your humor is... special. Returning to our mission, I have a few friends that might want to help..."

"I truly appreciate it."

Captain Janeway said and shook Bral's tall fingers.

"The whole crew appreciates it." Tuvok corrected.

Bral nodded and bowed. "My whole people appreciates your efforts to stop these robbers."

Chakotay cleared his throat, as a sign for Bral, that a bow wasn't necessary.
Bral looked up and then bowed again.
Voyager's first officer groaned and got a sharp glare from Janeway.

Bral finally stopped his bowing. "I hope you wish to stay for dinner?"

"Absolutely, Commander."

Kathryn tried to perform a curtesy in her Starfleet standard uniform. It looked more like she fought not to loose her foothold.

Chakotay cleared his throat once again, this time to choke an improper giggle.

***

[Lxe]

LOL I love this story. Definetly enjoying it Voy_Girl.

[Voy_Girl]

***

Tom threw the elastic rope across the wall, like he'd done once before.
The double staple collided with the high wall, making a hollow noise, which echoed across the deserted area.
At least it seemed deserted, Harry truly hoped it was, but deep down he, along with his two friends, knew that it wasn't. And if it was abandoned, they'd have to keep searching for the enemy hide-out, find it, and try to get in there.

Tom slowly pulled at the end of the rope until the staple hooked on to something, a protruding piece of the wall.
He began to climb the approximately eight meters to the top, using the rope.

Both Starfleet and Maquis wondered in they had underestimated Tom Paris, the man who seemed to stand right between both 'Fleet and Maquis, seriously.

At the top Tom tied another rope to the one he'd used to get up.

Harry was the next one up, he hadn't many positive feelings about climbing in ropes. To help himself, he imagined that this mission was the one going to get him up the promotion ladder, symbolized by the rope.

Harry had quite an unusual style, he grabbed the rope and pulled himself a bit up from the barren ground. He then did something resembling to swimming upwards, his crawling reminded B'Elanna of a worm.

He also made it up. When he looked down at Tom before grabbing the other rope, he suddenly got a feeling that he'd fall back and land, hurting on the side he just was about to left.
But Harry didn't fall on his back, he made it over the wall's top and jumped the last two meters down.
An incredible stupid thing to do, when he thought about it afterwards.

His usual bad luck struck again and he landed on his toes, felt his right foot twitch forward abruptly with an unpleasant sound.

Kim looked up from where he sat, crouched down, his foot ached a little and he felt pearls of sweat break out at his forehead.

Deep inside he knew that he'd sprained his ankle, or worse, yet he was a little surprised it ached so little. Scanning his head for the little medical knowledge he had, he came to the conclusion that he was in a mild chock.

Tom was a few feet away, trying to scream instructions low to B'Elanna, if anyone can scream low.
He hadn't noticed his friends unfortunate accident.

The Ensign stood up and tried to walk at his foot. It worked, even if it looked a little bumpy.
He decided to not tell his friends, aswell superior officers, about what happened.
He broke the Starfleet rules by keeping such a thing from anyone superior, but if he talked, they'd just keep his pace or leave him behind.

Harry didn't want to be left alone at the place they were, in his condition. Nor did he want to slow all of them down.
He decided to walk the best he could, and if either Tom or B'Elanna noticed, he'd stay voluntarily and take his punishment when they got back to the ship.

'So much for that promotion,' Harry sighed.

B'Elanna was alone at the outside, she could hear Tom tell her what to do, and it made her mad. It couldn't be that hard, she was a Klingon, at least she had Klingon blood in her veins, on the whole she could do almost everything.

This stupid exercise, to climb over a wall, was probably a part of the Starfleet training she'd missed out on by dropping out.
If she recalled boot camp's tracks correctly, this was a part of them.
In the Maquis she got training, boot camp's stayings, a lot of them, but she'd never seen this particular stupid moment.

'This moron exercise could have been scheduled to the Freshman year!' She angrily thought, while she grabbed the rope with both hands.

Pulling herself up, using only her armstrenght, various crewmember's whispering commentars flew through her mind. 'Torres must have very strong arms.'
'Look at her muscles, I'm so lucky I've never been mangled by her.'
This morning she had a chance to prove how true it really was.

Torres managed to pull herself all the way up. She straddled the three feet thick wall and rested her heavy feet and legs against the cool sides.

On her way down, which she believed should be much easier than the horrible way up, she suddenly lost her foothold after only a meter.

She slipped down the wall, cursing at Klingon. The rope slid painfully fast beneath her fingers, penetrating even the hardened skin covering her palms.

B'Elanna thought that she'd soon feel the ground, hit her back and lay unconscious.
She fell out-of-control, her body always brushing towards the wall passing by in slow-motion. If she only knew where her feet were, she would have pressed them hard against the material, and try to slow down.

Her unoptional rope-sliding lucky enough came to an end, as everything else in her life had, though not to her advantage.

It ended, everything that happened only took a few seconds.
B'Elanna didn't lay unconscious, instead she found herself, lying like a baby, in Tom Paris' arms. Still holding the rope.

Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres felt very humiliated, falling, incapable to stop herself, and then ending up in the arms of a human.

Not that she disliked it, but she knew she could stay there forever, not with the two men staring at her.
Harry had that look he always got when someone, anyone, was in severe danger. He looked like a scared, hunted rabbit.
Tom's concerning, questioning blue eyes pierced her.

She made herself free rather fast. "I'm okay."

Standing on the firm ground, her palms and fingers burning with pain, B'Elanna wished that she could show herself a little vulnerably, just once.

A pressing silence spread around them.

Tom left the two ropes hanging, he wouldn't get them down anyway, not if he either got a ship or sprouted wings and learned to fly on his own.

The small break out group silently prepared to walk the, according to Earth measures, good two kilometers to their goal.

Tom and B'Elanna, one by one, checked their equipment, that they had a backpacker each, and so on.

Harry tried to bandage his ankle with a dark scarf without being seen.

"We need to get there as soon as possible." Tom broke the silence,

"Before the second sun goes up."

In the west shined a pale sun. Two of the three officers walked, another one limped, in the opposite direction.

***

[Lxe]

i love the story Voy_Girl
feedback don't change anything
i enjoy ur stories

[Voy_Girl]

~

***

Voyager's Captain picked in the odd food before her. The Taali's national dish, Muurha, was something that made Leola root stew look tempting.
She coughed discreetly. This was a good opportunity for her to bring up the coming alliance.

"So, Bral-"

"We do not talk while enjoying a meal."

"Enjoying." She quietly muttered in Chakotay's direction. His wine was long gone, but his food also remained untouched.

Bral continued to eat his meal with hunger, Tuvok also ate, though only to be polite.

Kathryn had planned to ask Bral if he had any luck in his search for other species capable to make war.
It was an important question, sadly it had to wait until later.

Instead, Janeway let her mind wander, still spinning the fork around in her food.
She thought about earth, Mark, her family and dogs.
But most of all she thought about her three officers, stranded at the planet several civilizations, and her own ship, were going to attack.
She'd made a horrible mistake, and by suggesting an alliance, she was going to make one more.

***

[Lxe]

WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN? PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING
WAITING FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER

[Kathryn_Janeway_Jr]

hey Auntie voy_girl!!! i love it!!! are there still more??? please post some more... please....