A/N A ficlet courtesy of a challenge by the lovely ladies over on VAMB. I don't own Star Trek Voyager, which you can easily tell because I wouldn't have ended it like they did. As it happens, Paramount is in charge. Ha.
"Well, you know what they used to say about Friday the thirteenth," Captain Janeway overheard Tom telling Harry and Neelix in the mess hall that morning, "My dad once told me we had an ancestor who flew commercial airplanes and he'd always take Friday the thirteenth off."
Smiling at the horror stories Tom always seemed to have ready to scare Neelix with, she headed to the turbolift and another day on the bridge. No one had believed in the silly superstition of this day for at least a hundred years. As the lift door opened, just for a minute, her brain didn't register the sight of Chakotay and Tuvok huddled near the ops station but the rabbit – in – headlights look her first officer shot her as she breezed past to her ready room did catch her attention.
"Is something wrong, Chakotay?"
"I'm afraid so, captain."
"Can it wait until after my coffee?"
If it was possible for a Vulcan to look nervous, Tuvok managed it right then. Chakotay glanced at the Vulcan for support and, finding none, shook his head slowly.
"I'm afraid that we lost the replicators in the middle of the night. B'Elanna thinks they can be back online by tomorrow morning but I'm afraid there's no coffee today."
The only sign she allowed herself that something was wrong was the slight tightening of the lips. She gracefully ignored the looks on their faces as she headed into her ready room and sat down heavily at the desk. Tom's words echoed in her head as she stared ruefully at the replicator, "Well you know what they used to say about Friday the thirteenth..."
But then the replicators hadn't been right for a long time and it was only a matter of when they would give up, not if. It just so happened that they had managed to do it on time to add depth to Tom's stories. He'd be delighted, but the rest of them knew it was only a coincidence.
Tuvok's voice over the comm was the last thing she wanted to hear at that moment, "Captain Janeway, please report to the bridge."
"What's the problem, Tuvok?"
"Three Kazon ships on long range sensors, captain. And the away mission has just come into comm range – Lieutenant Ayala reports that they were unsuccessful in their attempts to-"
"I'm on my way, Tuvok," she groaned, massaging her temples and trying not to think about coffee.
"Friday the thirteenth," she murmured to herself, "Well you know what they used to say about Friday the thirteenth..."