"Hey, look at that."

"What is it?"

"Alright, everybody, show's over." With an exasperated expression, Tom Paris shepherded the other gawkers out the doorway. "It's extremely interesting, but you will find out all about it later." The door slid closed.

"Well that was close," he remarked to Harry Kim. Harry didn't even look up from where he was slumped on the floor, head in hands.

"We're dead," the ensign murmured. "We're absolutely, positively dead."

Tom laughed. "Oh, it's not that bad."

"Yes it is."

"Come on! It's not as though we… as though we…" Tom paused, as though trying to think of something worse than what was now covering every surface in the room. "It's not as if we accidentally ejected the warp core or anything, right?"

"I guess." Harry stood up and looked around.

"We just have to get this all cleaned up, and we'll be home free. No one will ever know."

"We'll be home free? This was completely your idea. I'd never even heard of this, um, whatchamacallit,"

"Silly string."

"Yeah. I'd never even heard of the stuff, until you thought it would be a fun idea to have a party with the stuff." He shook his hand, which had some of the string on it. "Does it even come off?"

"Oh, I'm sure it does. Look, don't worry."

"I'm in charge of the night shift. She's going to blame me."

"I'll explain everything." Tom picked a piece of string off the wall. "See, easy!"

"Yeah, easy. Take a piece. Get rid of it. Repeat ten thousand times."

"Well, if we don't finish in time, we can just pin the crime on somebody else."

"Like who?"

Tom pondered for a second. "Well, no one higher ranking than us, for one."

"That narrows it down. Everyone is higher ranking than me."

"Yeah, yeah. Hmm… it's also gotta be someone that the Captain would take our word or his. Or hers."

Harry laughed ruefully. "Oh, that'll be easy. She's going to see this mess and know it's us. Who else could it be?"

"Hello?"

Both men froze for a minute, and then relaxed. "Oh, hi Naomi."

"Hi. What's all this stuff?" The little girl walked in the room, looking around.

"Oh, that." Tom grinned and handed Naomi an unused can. "It's called silly string."