"Thundery Rain" (Voy, all crew)

Voy_Girl · **Sun Jun 22, 2003 4:13 pm "Thundery Rain" (Voy, all crew)**

�THUNDERY RAIN�

Prologue
-----------
~*~

Raindrops came falling down, like heavy, glistening sacks filled with microscopic diamonds.
Two women stared at each other, a pained route which connected their hearts through their eyes. It was like they were frozen in time. Like the alley and the backstreets which sprouted from it never would change, never be set foot on again.

A new cascade of raindrops tumbled over them; the element wasn�t frozen. The water flowed from their - hair. But neither of them broke the clasp of eyes. Neither of them could bring her eyes to the ground.

Then, in less than a second, a wink changed it all, and the taller one of the women turned around an walked away. As the distance between them grew, inch by inch, foot by foot, the walking woman knew that she was the only one who moved. She told herself that what happened was for the best. Water dripped from the tip of her pointed nose, her eyes were
coated with foggy forlornness.

If she had walked straight into one of the stonewalls that made up the silent buildings around her, she wouldn�t have noticed. Her mind was elsewhere, a part of her was thankful; wishing she�d always keep that feeling as a reminder. She quickly slipped round a corner and turner
into one of the many backstreets.

When the shorter woman�s gazes no longer could reach her, it was like the night had fallen over the community forever.

*****

Kyle Reese · **Sun Jun 22, 2003 11:14 pm**

who are they and whats this fanfic about?

Voy_Girl · **Mon Jun 23, 2003 3:29 pm**

You see, that is what this prologue is all about; to catch the reader's interest and make him/her go on reading. The explanation will come when the "real" story begins. Then you'll learn just who they are, what they did and why they did it. Satisfied?

Kyle Reese · **Mon Jun 23, 2003 6:20 pm**

Sure

i'll be waiting for the next part

Voy_Girl · **Tue Jun 24, 2003 2:46 pm**

Just realized I'd written 'epilogue'! FYI; I meant prologue and ahve edited it to avoid confusion.

Here's a piece of the 1st chapter:

Chapter 1
------------

”What a perfect example of the Rogalian melon!” Neelix chirped an held up a big orange fruit, round as a ball.

”That doesn’t look so bad!” Harry Kim said, while quickly drawing his hand back from a basket filled with something green and slimy.

”Just wait until you see the pulp! It’s purple and delicious.”

”Wonderful,” Harry’s smile faded as he gave Neelix usually colorful breakfasts a hardly flattering thought. He noticed vaguely that the chef left; probably to find the alien who ran the picturesque exotic fruit booth.

Captain Janeway had granted Harry a much anticipated shore leave, provided that he helped Neelix with shopping for supplies. And now, somehow, Harry and Neelix had ended up on a busy marketplace, which oozed with paltering people. Some were tall and strong, and wore
long, dull coats while others were slender men and women, short of stature, who all wore colorful clothing which reminded Harry of bathing suits, of all things.

Aliens bumped into him from right to left, a pair of middle-aged male twins in big hats and russet overalls even tried to sell him a gray fillet of some sort.
In short; the place was bubbling with life, and Harry enjoyed every second of it. Every sound, every smell, every ray of the single sun he could catch when he didn’t find himself trapped under one of many awnings.

”Excuse me sir, would you be interested in buying this?”

Harry looked down at the little boy who shamelessly tugged at his uniform pants. ”Excuse me,” he said and took the boy aside, to a spot next to an empty booth.

Lxe · **Fri Jun 27, 2003 3:50 am**

ooh Voy along waited story has made it's debut. I love it!!

Voy_Girl · **Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:25 pm**

Thank you,

You new avatar is great, btw.

Melodramatic · Rear Admiral Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Posts: 4577

I really like the story

Voy_Girl · **Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:41 pm**

Voy_Girl · **Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:48 pm**

[The next part of Chapter 1]

He squatted and studied the thick, light-blond hair which covered the boy’s head. He wore a T-shirt and a pair of huge pants, way too big for his thin, short legs. The clothes were beige, and when Harry looked the serious boy in the eye, he was amazed to find that they also had a
dull, sandy color.

After much trouble, the boy finally managed to get his little hand into a very small pocket, placed way down on his knee. Harry was shocked to realize that the pocket was meant to be up at his hips. ”This!” The little one proudly announced and help up ring with a big, red stone that shimmered in the sun.

”I can’t buy that!”

”But no one wants to!” The boy stared up at him with big, sad and otherwise indecipherable eyes.

”What’s your name? What species are you?” Harry was pleased to see that the little boy restored the ring to his narrow pocket.

”I’m Agi. An I’m Ceruhel.”

Voy_Girl · **Sun Jun 29, 2003 3:05 pm**

”Hi Agi. My name’s Harry. I’m human.”

”You look funny!” The little boy giggled with eyes very alight with mischief.

Harry studied the milled nose section, Bajoran like. He had a couple of the same on the high cheek bones too, close to the little, helical ear. From the spot where his jaw line ended, under the ear, he had a soft blue shimmer. It scattered over his cheek bones and ended just before the
nostrils. ”I have to say the same about you.”

”Agi! What are you doing?!” A hand flew down to the little boy’s shoulder. He turned around, startled but strikingly calm. ”How many times have I told you not to --” The young woman’s eyes was suddenly torn from the boy’s obligatory appearance, to the young ensign who still sat on his heels. She continued to speak, but aimed her words at Harry.

”I hope you weren’t offended by my son, sir.” She held the boy’s shoulders in a tight grip, as if she feared he would run into Harry’s arms if she just gave him a chance.

Harry smiled politely, mostly not to worry the child, and began to rise, planning on shaking the woman’s callous little hand. But when he had gotten up, Agi and his mother was nowhere to be seen.

She’d been on of those short, slender persons he’d seen. Without the bathing suit, though. Instead, she’d worn a tunic of the same color and fabric as Agi’s pants. A Ceruhel.

”Ensign! There you are! I have found everything we need for a varying diet for at least three months.”

”Great, Neelix. Should we carry it to the shuttle?” Harry didn’t pay the beaming chef much attention. Instead, he kept looking around while he and Neelix made their way through the lot of people, not that it was very likely that the two aliens would show up again.

”The things we can carry, yes. But I got my hands on a couple of large boxes filled with lovely crabs of some sort. I bet they will be delicious together with the melon!”

”How many boxes are there?”

”Four completely full ones, and one that isn’t even half. Can you believe that was their whole stock? So I’ve arranged with Chakotay to beam them up in about five minutes.”

”Good,” Harry skillfully avoided a fruit which soared through the air, probably not without qualified help. Then, since they had reached Neelix’ pile of containers, he bent down and took a few of them. ”Should we get back to the shuttle? I think it’s getting darker.”

”Probably, but there is just as much people here anyway. This street is a gold mine for any chef with my ambitions. Oh, that reminds me!” Neelix stopped short in the middle of the street.
After rummaging around in almost every one of the containers he carried in straps over his shoulder, he found what he looked for.
”Here! Fillet of the best sort! I bought two full containers from a pair of very social twins.”

Harry didn’t answer, nor did he pay any attention to the raw meat which had caused him to feel sick only a little while ago. He was much more interested, downright lyrical enchanted, by something he’d found in the whirling sand under his feet.

*

In that exact second, Agi picked off the lid of a big, blue box which stood sheltered in the middle of two busy market stands. Almost as soon as he’d closed the lid again, the whole pile of things, including the box, dissolved and disappeared in a strange blue, shimmering light.

Too far away, on the other side of the wide street with the constant stream of people and merchandise, a pair of shoulders rose and fell as their owner sighed deeply.

If you’re forced to observe a shocking, life-changing event like that, you are an observer. And if it concerns you, you are as an observed totally unable to interfere. When you are in that helpless situation, even the most hardened eyelashes flutters.

***

Chapter 2
------------------

Neelix and Harry were carrying the supplies into the back of the shuttle. While Neelix went back for the last things he’d left outside the shuttle, Harry checked that the systems of the Flyer, and found that it was ready to go.

”There!” Neelix said, obviously relieved. ”Now were finally ready to return. I can’t wait to start creating!”

”Sounds good to me. I’ll shut the hatch.”

But just as he was about to, a slim hand took hold of the frame of the hatch in front of Harry. ”Where is he?”

***

Captain Janeway buried her head in her hands while Chakotay, who stood on her left side, nursed her untouched cup of coffee.

From a chair on a long side of the conference table, the young woman peered at the Captain with her strikingly peculiar eyes. A dark fringe that someone really needed to tend to covered her entire forehead. The rest of the hair was tied back in a tousled ponytail, which gracefully
caressed her neck when she occasionally turned her head from one side to the other.

A move which she practiced when she turned to the rest of the senior staff, who were standing all together in the other end of the room. No one except the Captain herself had directly spoken to her since she had been pushed into the little room to tell her story.

Even though the second-in-command put in a word every now and then, she was greatly confused by the pose of the eight others. All she wanted was to take the boy back and leave. She had been foolish. She felt trapped. Nervous.

The Captain rubbed her temples. ”Let us go through this again. Your five-year-old son crept into a box full wit our supplies, and was beamed back onto our ship. You saw the course of events, but couldn’t stop him. Then, you quickly found your way to our shuttle and followed my crewmen back to retrieve the child.”

”Yes.” The woman nodded so vigorously that the ponytail danced behind her. ”I only want to go back to my planet.”

Captain Janeway placed a hand on the cup Chakotay had put down on the table, prepared to take a sip, then quickly changed her mind when she realized it was cold. It had been a long time since she’d brought it in. Instead, she drew back her hand and stood up.

”The child is called Agi and your name is Tessa. Right?” After receiving another ardent nod, Kathryn continued, slowly approaching the woman in the chair. ”He is in our sickbay. I would like you to accept an escort there, too. Just standard... tests.”

”Sure,” Tessa stood reluctantly up and wiped her hands off on the tunic. She was getting more and more nervous; the last drop had been the cold expression in the older woman’s eyes.

A tall, stern man with pointy ears placed a firm hand on her shoulder, and as Tessa was led out of the Ready Room, she couldn’t help but wonder whether she really was going to the sickbay - or to the smallest confinement on the ship.

***

Voy_Girl · **Tue Jul 01, 2003 2:37 pm**

A few minutes later, when Tessa sat and dangled her legs from the long side of the bio bed, while a little of her tension finally begun to wear off. She could see Agi perform the same carefree oscillate movement on the bed next to hers.

He had, according to himself, the Doctor and the chef, been briefly examined with some sort of scanner. Other than that he’d also been fed and offered a new change of clothes.
All during the short period of time she had been questioned in front of what seemed to be every uptight senior officer on board.

Tessa smiled faintly and winked at the boy as the Doctor checked her readings. Suddenly, the Captain entered the quiet sickbay, with Chakotay and Tuvok in tow.

”Captain...” The Doctor acknowledged dryly, almost as if he stated a dull, but always present fact. Then he nodded at her, and she held up an accepting hand.

That was when Tessa made an uncomfortable discovery. The two silent new-comers had some sort of weapon in their belts. So did Janeway. Instinctively, she stumbled up to the other bed to clutch Agi close to her tense body. He hadn’t noticed anything except his mother’s sudden
desire to hug him, thus he unaffected continued tugging at a seam in his new pants, which fit him extremely well.

”Miss Tessa. Ever since we received the hail from the shuttle, together with the news about you and the boy, I started to wonder.” Janeway begun. ”I hoped I would be wrong, but it seems my suspicions were true.”

*

Little Agi finally looked up from the dark green fabric. He gave his mother a questioning look, but received no response except more pressure from her arms around him.
She crouched at the side of the bed, while he still sat there, light-heartedly dangling his short legs.

Chakotay made a swift motion, a little too swift, because it brought Agi’s attention to the officer. Mere seconds later, he turned and fixed his eyes on Tessa.

”Mom,” he began with a broken and brittle voice. ”Mom, they have guns.”

”Your plan didn’t work quite as well as you wished, did it?” Janeway approached the two tense figures. When she noticed the panic written all over the boy’s slender face, she quickly added, ”We won’t hurt you.” She hated to inflict this upon the child.

She placed her phaser at the empty biobed closest to her, and motioned to Chakotay and Tuvok to leave. ”I suggest we return to the Ready Room.”

***

Lxe · **Thu Jul 03, 2003 7:33 am**

hey I was reading that what did you stop typing for

honey quit leaving me hanging, I'm trying to read the brilliant story

Voy_Girl · **Thu Jul 03, 2003 3:09 pm**

Oops... I must have pressed 'submit' while I was typing...

nah, actually, I'm going to type the next part, about... now!

Voy_Girl · **Fri Jul 04, 2003 3:29 pm**

This time they all were sitting around her. Tessa felt increasingly nervous for what was about to come, she felt it like she was trapped in a cage where she could do nothing than let them stare at her.
She couldn’t help to scratch herself a little on the shoulder though, even if they looked. the fabric of the tunic stretched uncomfortably over the bone. If she could have gotten new clothes, she would gladly have accepted. Immediately after she’d thought it, she realized how foolish it was to be jealous of the boy. It was for his sake. Everything was for his sake.

”According to the scans the Doctor did...” Janeway stared from her chair, and immediately the officers around the table showed her full attention, while Tessa, on her side, merely shook her head in a silent give-up.

”You are not the boy’s mother after all. Your DNA isn’t resembling enough to his.”

”The closest she can be is an aunt,” the Doctor put in from the screen, as he was listening faithfully from the confinements of Sickbay. Someone had to take care of the child.

Tessa repressed a sigh and squirmed in the chair. ”I might not be his biological mother, but I have taken care of him all his life! My... A close friend give him to me for his own good, when he was only a couple of weeks old.”

”A friend? Or your sister?”

She looked at Chakotay, her fingers twitched, entertwined with each other. She looked about just as well as someone who’d just crawled into safety after being caught in a merciless storm.
”My big sister, enough?”

”Why did she--” Harry began, he was curious and did not think before he spoke.

”That is none of your business!” Tessa stood up and howled in Harry’s direction.

The officers were dumbstruck, taken aback, as Tessa whirled around and placed herself behind her seat.

”Nothing is any of your business!” She balled her fists and pounded furiously at the back of the chair. ”I can’t deal with you butting in!”

”This is a request to all of you,” Janeway said calmly as she stood up. She focused her eyes on each senior officer in turn. ”If you feel like escorting this young woman to the Brig until she has calmed down, please feel free to do so.”

***

Seven of Nine · **Fri Jul 04, 2003 4:23 pm**

OMG Voy_Girl... you really know how to write!

I'm glad you help me mod this place, you're really talented

Voy_Girl · **Sat Jul 05, 2003 3:06 pm**

sorlak · **Sat Jul 05, 2003 4:45 pm**

* Feels like a child who has just had candy waved in front of her face. *

I can't wait to read more. I wish I could write as well as this.

Voy_Girl · **Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:50 pm**

Voy_Girl · **Wed Jul 09, 2003 3:12 pm**

”I’m curious... Why did Tessa take care of her sister’s child?”

”And why was she so desperate to get on board Voyager?”

”Shh!” Chakotay held up a finger to warn, over their evening sandwich with tea respective coffee, when he noticed that Kathryn was going to say something more. ”Little pitchers have long ears,” he stated and shot little Agi a look. He was pacing their floor next to the little table, placed smack in the mess hall.

The mess was practically empty, except a quintet of crewmen that played cards who occupied a table in the other end.

The captain’s troubled features immediately softened when she laid eyes upon the young boy who tapped his fingers together while he, unwearied, paced a span of three tables back and forth. Kathryn and Chakotay’s table happened to be the one in the middle.

”Agi?” Janeway said softly when he passed the two officers’ table again. ”What are you doing?”

”Walking,” came the brittle, but heart-rending depressed reply.

”Thinking about something special?”

”No.”

”Then you don’t mind if I join you.” Kathryn stood up, and barely a second later, she started walking in the direction the boy was heading. When she had passed the one and a half table left of the route, she turned around. ”Aren’t you coming?”

When Agi realized that she was serious, he quickly fell in next to her, strutting with balled fists and an almost merry look. Only a few steps later, though, his appearance descended to ‘down in the dumps’ again.

”Are you sure you’re not thinking about anything?” Janeway carefully asked as the two turned right about behind the table at Chakotay’s left for the second time.

Slowly, and not so little embarrassed, Agi sneaked his hand into the Captain’s. They both stopped immediately, and Agi looked up at Janeway, with round eyes and knitted eyebrows.
”Are you going to take me and Tessa to visit my mother?”

***

-_-VoyagerFanatic-_- · Rear Admiral Joined: 20 Jun 2002 Posts: 4126

ooooooo... nice story... wait understatement... perfect cure for my cold ;P

Voy_Girl · **Thu Jul 10, 2003 8:38 am**

Voy_Girl · **Thu Jul 10, 2003 3:37 pm**

Kathryn found herself in a very rare situation. She was speechless, lacked the right words to lay on the tip of her tongue to please the child before her. For a moment, she would have said anything to give those extensive deserts his eyes harboured a little liquid relief. But she couldn't.

However, she suspected that the scale of balance between golden sand and water only could be on a par until he was wrapped up in the arms of his mysterious, and long-awaited mother.

For Tessa, who had been a maternal figure for so long, Agi had not an ounce of curiosity left. No, only his real mother could make the deserts bloom.

***

Voy_Girl · **Thu Jul 10, 2003 3:38 pm**

Chapter 3 - Passive Risk
----------------------------------

The fork reveled around on the tray, making Harry wish he could beam it into some deserted nebula and then still serve the chicken salad with good spirits. He doubted, however, that he'd be able to look Tessa in the eye while assuring her that humans ate with their hands.
So, he stumbled forward with the tray, the plate full of salad, a cup - and the renegade fork.

Next to the force field controls to the Brig, Harry met a woman newly promoted to lieutenant junior grade, who frantically fingered at the grey turtleneck above the yellow jacket. Security.

"Good afternoon, Lieutenant. I bring dinner for the prisoner. Captain's orders."

"Of course. I'll lower the field. Do you wish to stay in there?"

Harry shot Tessa a quick look, and noticed, with some satisfaction, that she looked back. "Yeah, I want to stay."

"Isn't it very warm in here?" The young lieutenant squirmed while her fingers danced over the turtleneck. It occurred to Kim that she was scratching herself.

"I don't think so," he retorted and shifted the plate in his hands. His discomfort increased when he realized that his elbows had become stiff from carrying the food from the mess hall.
"You might be coming down with something." He hurried to add, hoping that she would lower the field and let him put the tray down as soon as possible.

"Probably the same thing that has gone deck by deck ever since we left the dry-dock - at Earth," she snorted and pounded a few commands in. "There, it's down.”"

"Thanks. I'm Harry Kim, by the way."

"I know. You rule the Ops," she smiled. "I'm Judith Grake Steele."

After assuring herself that the field shimmered back in place again after Ensign Kim had entered, Judith asked the computer for the time. She found out that it was another hour until her shift ended - and thereby an hour until an analgesic and bed.

***

Voy_Girl · **Thu Jul 10, 2003 3:39 pm**

Tessa stood up from the deplorable bunk bed when Harry came with the food. With a start and a shudder, she watched how the force field shimmered back in the opening again. Its only purpose to block her out - or seal her in.

Harry placed the tray on the little table and tried to stretch his arms without her noticing it. "You don't like it here, do you?"

"Actually, it's not so different from the last place I shared with Agi."

"No one likes the Brig. No one even says as much as that about it," he breathed with amusement and sank down, reluctantly, on the bed. Hearing that he’d said something stupid, he sat quiet and studied his boots.

The famished prisoner took the tray from the table, and carried it like it was a bale of silk until she sat down in the bed next to Harry, placing it in her lap. "What is this?"

"This is chicken salad with dressing, and this is warm milk," he pointed at the plate, respective the cup. "The Doctor has made sure that the meal is compatible with your digestion. He especially recommended the milk."

She moved a piece of chicken around on the plate with the fork, which she held between her thumb and forefinger, at the absolute end of the steel. "If I would have eaten with my eyes, I would have been full already," Tessa smiled and looked up, pleased to see that Harry returned
the smile.

"Listen... The Captain wanted me to ask you a couple of questions. For Agi's best."

"Sure," she crinkled her nose and quickly turned away from the full cup of milk.

"Okay. Where does... his mother live?"

***

"It's only a slight deviation from the already plotted course," Seven of Nine confirmed from her station.

"Very well. Helm, set a course for Platik Two."

"So you will offer this woman assistance, Captain?"

"We can't turn around and just dump her off at that planet she came from, Seven. She informed us about the conditions they lived under there. I don't want a little boy to grow up in that kind of environment. Not if I have a big ship and a loyal crew, and can do something about it!”

Kathryn finished her concluding speech with sinking down promptly in her chair on the bridge.

"Tessa wasn't certain that her sister has remained there for these five years."

"I'm aware of that, Harry. We can't expect her to know exactly where her sister is now."

"Estimated time of arrival: 0804 hours." Seven piped up, only to immediately fall silent again, giving the console her undivided attention.

"Harry... You can bring the news to Tessa. It’ll fall upon her to tell Agi when he wakes up from his nap."

"Captain? Does that mean she can leave the brig?" Harry knew that he sounded hopeful; he was aware that he walked closer to her chair while he talked. But he couldn't help it.

"Only for an hour or so. If she doesn't tell me what I want to know, that is."

***