Chapter One

"Tell me, cadet, do you especially enjoy the interior of the brig?" Commander Chakotay slammed a tricorder down onto his desk, his face thunderous.

"No sir," Lilli replied calmly. "Why do you ask?"

He looked at her incredulously.

"Are you serious? Are you really that arrogant?"

Lilli frowned.

"Do you think you can use your own access code to lock a senior officer in a turbo lift for fifteen minutes and get away with it?"

"Sir, if I were going to lock a senior officer in a turbo lift, I wouldn't use my own access code to do it. That's not arrogant, that's stupid."

"So is being caught on camera, but you appear to have done that too," he barked, pointing to the screen next to him. It was displaying a picture of her, crouching next to an open turbo lift electronics panel. She was holding a screwdriver.

"Sir… I didn't…"

"I don't want to hear it, cadet," his voice boomed. "This is the second time this week that I've had to call you in here. I understand that practical jokes are common among cadet intakes, but they will not, under any circumstances, be tolerated when they involve senior officers and directly affect the work of this ship and its crew. Your little stunt kept me off of the bridge at a time when I was needed."

Lilli narrowed her eyes, clasping her hands together behind her back.

"Did someone put you up to it? Or were you acting alone?"

Lilli remained silent. There was no point telling him that she hadn't been anywhere near the electronics panel at the time and location the picture displayed, and there was even less point claiming that she'd had nothing at all to do with the incident. He simply wouldn't believe her.

"Lie, or tell me the truth – I don't care," Chakotay growled. "But either way, you will answer a commanding officer when you are asked a question."

She looked up at him carefully.

"Sir, I apologise for my actions, and will accept the consequences," she said, only just refraining from gritting her teeth. Chakotay was, understandably, irritated, and the evidence was stacked against her. It made sense to back down and find a way to prove her innocence once he'd calmed down.

"Should I go to the brig?" she asked quietly. Chakotay shook his head slowly, a muscle in his cheek twitching.

"If it were up to me you'd be there already, but it would appear that the Captain would like to speak to you. Sit down – she's on her way."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I heard you got into trouble again." The door closed with a swishing sound, and Ensign Megan Deniston slumped down on her bunk with a sigh.

"What did you do this time?"

Lilli didn't turn around or look up, and instead continued to gaze out of the wide window, her legs drawn up under her. All her life she'd dreamed of working in space, and now it was her permanent home. It didn't matter how many hours she spent staring at it – and those hours were great in number after several months in the Delta Quadrant - it never got any less beautiful.

"Lil," Meg said gently. "You alright?"

"I think you should ask for a new roommate," Lilli replied after a moment's silent deliberation. "It's not good for you to be associated with me anymore."

Meg sighed again, this time through gritted teeth.

"Not this again. I don't want a new roommate."

Lilli looked around sharply.

"Don't be stubborn and stupid," she snapped. "You know I'm right."

Meg narrowed her eyes.

"Call me names if you want to, Lilli, but don't pretend that this is about me. If you're hell-bent on ruining your career before it even really begins, and on pushing everyone away all the time, then go ahead – but don't say that nobody ever tried to help you."

She stood up, folding her arms.

"Did Janeway send you?" Lilli asked, unfazed by her friend's obvious irritation. "She said all of that too. It's like you're a clone of her sometimes."

"You know why?" Meg snapped back. "Because she cares like I do. She's a good captain, and if you had a shred of sense you'd see that she wants the best for you." She moved to stand in front of the mirror, letting her long, dark hair down.

"I'm not having this conversation again. I'm not asking for a new roommate that that's the end of it. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to keep annoying you by trying to be a good friend, and one day you'll realise that I'm not going anywhere."

Lilli smiled, looking out of the window again.

"You are a good friend, Meg. Thanks."

"Are you going to tell me what you did? When Chakotay came back to the bridge he looked like he was going to explode."

Kicking her boots off, Meg disappeared into the bathroom.

"Believe it or not, I didn't actually do anything. He was in the turbo lift and it jammed between levels three and four. Turns out someone stopped it there on purpose, for around fifteen minutes, and they think it was me."

"What?" Meg's head popped around the bathroom door, and she frowned. "Why would you do that?"

"Well I didn't, but he and Tuvok seem to think I was playing some sort of practical joke."

"Why do they think it was you?"

"Because… my access code was used. I tried to tell Chakotay that I wouldn't be so stupid as to use my own, but… he had a picture of me messing with the lift's electronics."

Meg came out of the bathroom, holding a coat hanger with her uniform on it. Lilli glanced at the shiny gold pip on the collar, and then looked away. It didn't go unnoticed by Meg, who hurriedly hung the uniform in the wardrobe and closed the door. Lilli frowned, trying to ignore the surge of emotion in her chest.

"I worked hard, Meg," she said quietly. "For years. All I wanted was to become an officer in Starfleet. I didn't think it would go like this." She leaned her head against the window, hugging her knees to her chest.

Meg sat down beside her and squeezed her shoulder.

"Lil, no-one could predict what happened. I'm sure if the captain and Chakotay knew…"

"No," Lilli snapped. "No-one is to know. You promised you wouldn't tell anyone." Her eyes flashed for a moment, and Meg nodded silently.

"I did, and I won't. But you have to know that it will come out sometime. It's inevitable."

"And I'll handle it when it does." She turned back to her view. "You know I'm happy for you, don't you?" she said quietly. "You're making a brilliant ensign."

Meg smiled.

"You'll make one too, someday soon. You won't be a cadet forever – you're too good at your job. If you could just stop locking the commander in the turbo lift."

"I didn't," Lilli growled. "Someone took my code and accessed the system as me. I have no idea how – it certainly looked like me, but it wasn't. I swear."

Meg stared at her for a moment, reading her face.

"I believe you," she said, frowning worriedly. "But it's a problem that someone is convincingly impersonating you to do things like that. What are you going to do?"

Lilli took a deep breath, and then sighed slowly, leaning her head back against the glass.

"Neither Janeway nor Chakotay believed me when I told them it wasn't me. I told them to look at the cameras for the mapping lab – that's where I was at the time Chakotay's turbo lift went down, but when they drew up the footage, it didn't show me. I wasn't there – even though I was. I don't know what's going on, or why someone needed Chakotay out of the way, but I'm being framed."

Meg nodded.

"After what happened on Tuesday, you make a good candidate to frame – it worked, didn't it? Chakotay was already on the warpath, and he didn't need much of a reason to believe it was you this morning."

"Exactly."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"What's Janeway decided? You being thrown in the brig again?"

Lilli shook her head.

"No, I get one last chance, apparently. I have to figure out what's going on here Meg. I didn't do this."

"Right," Meg said cheerfully. "Let's get cracking then."