A/N: I don't own "Star Trek: Voyager."
Tom and Harry were both buzzed long before Chakotay and B'Elanna arrived. The four had arranged a game of pool, and were meeting at Sandrine's, for old time's sake. Since they all had the next day off, they decided to have the holodeck replicate real alcohol for them, rather than the regular holographic stuff. If you wanted to eat or drink real food on the holodeck, you selected the "real food" option when activating the program, and the computer took it straight from your replicator rations.
"I feel like I haven't been here in ages," Harry said. "I think the last time I was here, Kes was still aboard!"
"Well I don't know about you Harry, but I could use a drink tonight." Tom took a long swig from his mix drink of whiskey, Blood Wine, and lemonade. "You think Kes would've sensed that space-slug wasn't really a wormhole home to Earth?"
Just the night before, Seven of Nine, the Doctor, and Naomi Wildman had rescued the entire crew from a creature that tried to devour them, by deluding them into thinking that its gullet was a shortcut home.
Harry thought it over, and shook his head. "No. I mean, it fooled Tuvok and all the other telepaths on board. And Neelix isn't even from Earth, but it got him excited enough to rope him in. Kes probably would've thought she was meeting some Star Fleet doctor who told her he knew how to extend her lifespan, or something."
Tom nodded. The conversation didn't continue. They'd both told each other as much as they were willing about what they'd each hallucinated while under the control of the "pitcher plant" (as Seven, the Doc and Naomi were calling it).
"Aaah," Tom shook his head. "This whole year Harry…I mean, first the Captain locks herself in her quarters for a month. Then, Seven gets split personality disorder. Then the Doc had that freak-out over the Ensign Jetal incident…"
Harry added, "Chakotay losing it and trying to punch Tuvok."
Tom grinned and threw his head back. "That's a fight I'd pay good money to see again!"
"You know how long I've been wanting to punch that damned Vulcan?" Chakotay's voice suddenly cut in.
Chakotay and B'Elanna were walking towards the pool table, the holodeck doors shutting behind them. Chakotay was laughing, but Tom strongly suspected that there was a bit of truth in that joke. Everyone knew the Commander and Tuvok didn't get along.
B'Elanna took a seat in a chair, and began to undo her uniform jacket, stripping to her tank-top. "Maybe the next time we fly through a toxic nebula, they can finish the fight and blame it on radiation."
Chakotay shook his head. "I think swinging at the security officer is the kind of thing you can only get away with once."
"Oh come on Commander," Harry said, "I'll give you half my replicator rations to see you go another round with Tuvok!"
Amidst the friendly laughter, Tom added, a bit too loudly, "Hell, I'd pay good rations just to see you show as much emotion as you did there!"
Chakotay glanced at Tom, looking slightly amused.
Tom cleared his throat. "Sorry. I might be a little drunk."
"I wasn't planning on staying sober all night myself." B'Elanna said, folding up her uniform jacket.
After Sandrine brought B'Elanna and Chakotay their drinks, Tom brought the subject back up.
"Seriously though, Chakotay. You have these…I don't know…attacks of the monotone every here and there. I remember one time you were telling us to abandon ship, and you sounded like you were reading the ingredients on a…on a," Tom shrugged, drunkenly. "…thing,"
Chakotay's eyes darted, as they often did when he was embarrassed. "It's a quirk I have." He sipped his drink. "Sometimes when I'm trying to concentrate on something, my voice will freeze up a bit."
Tom took another sip, savoring the warm drink as it went down. He put a hand on the pool table to stay steady. Man, he was honest-to-god drunk right now.
Chakotay, after taking another sip of his drink, licked his lips thoughtfully. "I haven't told a lot of people this, just Kathryn and—well you B'Elanna. I'm Autistic."
Tom squinted at him. "Like musically, or more drawing and sketching?"
B'Elanna pronounced it more clearly, for her drunken boyfriend. "Autistic."
"Oooh." Tom said. Then his eyes bulged, and he looked back at Chakotay. "Wait you—you have a mental disability?"
"That's a matter of opinion." Chakotay said. "What I have is called Asperger's. I never had any trouble learning to talk or walk. Just social situations, some anxiety problems. They caught it pretty early. My parents had to option to get it corrected, if they wanted,"
Harry frowned. "I thought altering someone's genetics was outlawed, after the Eugenics Wars?"
"There are loopholes." Chakotay said. "Anyway, my parents wanted to let me decide for myself when I was older. By then I'd already worked out most of the problems. The anger, the social awkwardness…maybe if I did get it fixed, I wouldn't have been a 'contrary' in the tribe, but I didn't want to try fitting in. I wanted to get out into space."
"Well you accomplished that pretty nicely." B'Elanna joked.
"But my 'monotone,'" Chakotay continued. "People with Asperger's sometimes have difficulty showing emotion." He took a gulp of his drink, and Tom knew the Commander was getting buzzed. "My mother used to tell me to listen to how other people used their voices, to get better at it. She had to teach me to swing my arms when I walk, like normal people."
"So," Harry looked around awkwardly. "You know how to show emotions, but it just doesn't come naturally?"
"It does now. I've been doing it long enough. But I slip up now and then."
Tom swayed where he stood, trying to decide how to respond to this confession. "Interesting."
"You knew, B'Elanna?" Harry asked.
"He told me way back in the Maquis. And even before that," B'Elanna narrowed one eye. "I sort of suspected."
"You were acting sort of strange," Harry pointed at B'Elanna. "The second year we were lost out here, I remember, you suddenly seemed less…Klingon."
Tom was afraid B'Elanna would get offended and turn the table over. To his relief, she just looked at Harry dubiously.
"You're drunk, Harry!"
"Sure, I'm drunk." Harry shrugged. "But I'm telling you, you were different that year. You weren't losing your temper, you didn't break anybody's nose, you didn't insult people as much, you just…weren't you. And I mean Seska, who was your best friend, she was attacking the ship, and captured Chakotay, and you…took it surprisingly well."
B'Elanna looked away, her arms folded. "Seska's lucky she picked that year to jump ship to the Kazon." Her voice got slightly vicious. "If she were here now, I'd have a few things to say to her…"
"Wait," Tom said, "So, what happened that year? I noticed it too, but it was too afraid to ask."
Chakotay was looking down at his drink, like he already knew.
"Well," B'Elanna rolled her eyes. "Since we're all making confessions tonight. The reason I seemed less Klingon was because I was less Klingon." She looked at Tom, almost sadly. "You remember when we were captured by the Vidiians. When that sick p'tach split me in half. One human, one Klingon."
Tom nodded. "I remember." He didn't like to, but he remembered. "You weren't as pretty as a human."
The corner of B'Elanna's lip poked up for a second, at the compliment. "You know the Klingon me was killed. The Doctor had to take some of her DNA and implant it back into me, to make me myself again. Well, my body returned to normal almost overnight. I went to sleep as a human with a hell of a headache, and rolled out of bed the next morning a half-Klingon again." She shook her head. "I even remember the dream I was having, while I must've been transforming. I was in those tunnels, running, terrified, and then suddenly…I felt stronger, and started killing Vidiians left and right, with my bare hands," She shrugged. "It was a dream! Anyway, my body returned to normal, but not my mind. The Doctor told me that it could be over a year before my brain chemistry returned to normal." Harry's jaw was slowly dropping, as she spoke on. "Aaand it did. Just in time for Vorik to make his marriage proposal."
The laughter returned.
"The Maquis don't like Vulcans, do they!" Tom said, absentmindedly picking up his pool stick. "You punched Vorik, Chakotay punched Tuvok!"
"Tried to punch Tuvok." Chakotay corrected him. "I missed."
B'Elanna squinted, and shook her head again. "Why did we have to bring up Sesksa! I'm gonna spend the rest of tonight wishing I could slam something into her ugly—" she stopped herself, biting her lip.
"What the hell was Seska trying to accomplish anyway?" Harry asked Chakotay. "Stealing your DNA…?" Harry blinked suddenly. "I'm sorry Commander, that was a personal question. I…might be drunk too..."
"It's alright Harry, I'm not far behind you." Chakotay said, eying his own almost-empty glass.
"You've had one drink!" Tom exclaimed. "You Indians really can't hold your liquor!"
"Tom," Chakotay closed his eyes a moment, "It has been too long since I've heard you crack an Indian joke."
"Was Seska crazy or something?" Harry slurred. "Or is that a stupid question?"
"Seska was definitely crazy." Chakotay slammed his drink onto the pool table—not out of anger, just inebriation. "I doubt she ever even took any of my 'DNA,' as she so politely worded it. Maybe she thought she did…" he rubbed the tattooed side of his forehead. "In the Maquis she used to leave the ship about once a month, to get medicine from a Bajoran physician, or so she said. When we got lost out here and she started to worry about it, I told her to tell the Doc, and she didn't like that idea. Now I know why."
B'Elanna turned, looking at Chakotay. "I knew Seska had something…I always assumed it was something physical. I had no idea it would affect her mind. All this time, I just figured she was acting strangely because she was a sick sadist, like a lot of Cardassian."
"Could be." Chakotay sloshed his drink around. "But I think she had a screw loose. She wasn't just cruel to others. She did things that weren't in her own best interests. Allying with the Kazon, a people who'd look down on her for being a woman…deliberately impregnating herself at a time that can't have been convenient for her…messing with Tuvok's holoprogram to make it randomly kill whoever entered it…She was too smart to just be doing all that out of stupidity. She had to have been suffering some kind of delusions."
No one said anything for the next few moments, as everyone relived unpleasant memories of the days when Seska's Kazon were attacking Voyager on an almost regular basis.
"Don't you hate that." B'Elanna said suddenly.
"What?" Harry blinked tiredly at her.
"Uncomfortable silences." B'Elanna rubbed her neck. "Weren't we going to play pool?"
A/N: If any of these revelations sounds familiar, it's because I myself have posted these theories on the "Wild Mass Guessing" section of "Voyager's" TV Tropes page.
Apologies if the dialogue wasn't right on. I found it very difficult to make everyone sound in-character, when discussing things that are normally never discussed on "Star Trek." And I couldn't resist letting B'Elanna steal a line from Uma Thurman in "Pulp Fiction" at the end.
Also, apologies for writing this, instead of continuing one of my many un-finished stories. I've had a long week, and needed to set my mind loose.