The Meaning of Family – Chapter 1: Another Day, Another Briefing…
Summary – An away mission goes horribly wrong and provides an opportunity for reflection and restoration for the senior staff.
Rating – K+
It was 0800 on Voyager, time for the regularly scheduled senior staff meeting, or at least the meeting that was supposed to occur regularly. Frequent away missions, alien attacks, and any number of the other events one experienced in the middle of nowhere sometimes got in the way. Right now at least, they were traveling through what seemed to be a fairly quiet area of space.
Harry Kim and Tom Paris had spent the evening before looking for a new holodeck program to occupy some of their free time. They had been up late in the holodeck previewing some they had discovered in the computer archives and they were still animatedly discussing them when they entered the briefing room. B'Elanna Torres walked in shortly after them shaking her head at their behavior. They were acting just like over-exuberant ten-year-olds with a new toy.
"Will you two ever grow up?" Walking quickly past Harry, she took the seat between them. "I'd better separate you this morning or you'll probably get yourselves in trouble."
Tom displayed a wicked grin, "You know B'Elanna, you can be a real pain in the..."
Luckily Tom stopped himself as Commander Tuvok entered the briefing room.
B'Elanna leaned close to Tom and whispered to him, "You'll pay for that later Helmboy," she said, taking advantage of the less than flattering nickname he had acquired some time ago during a visit by the Q.
"Promises, promises," Tom said quietly to her with a wink.
Tuvok took a seat on the opposite side of the table from the rest of them and decided to inquire into what he had overheard of Tom's comment. "Did you have something to share Ensign?"
Momentarily startled, Tom replied, "Ah... no... just discussing something with Lieutenant Torres."
"Very well," said Tuvok in his usual stoic manner knowing full well he had interrupted a private conversation, and in his own way, Tuvok rather enjoyed watching Tom Paris squirm a little.
Neelix and Seven were the next to enter. They had apparently just come from the mess hall and seemed to be discussing one of Neelix's current culinary creations.
"Seven, I told you, it's called Farek Egg Pate, made from only the finest ingredients," Neelix said, clearly agitated.
"It was offensive," replied Seven.
"Well," Neelix exclaimed in a tone of utter amazement. Even after all this time with these people, he could not understand how anyone could find his cooking anything other than spectacular, "several other members of the crew seemed to enjoy it."
He and Seven took seats at the table and Seven continued. "As I recall there was only one other member of the crew present in the mess hall at the time. Apparently the smell had driven several others away. And I would not consider Crewman Chelle's opinion to be an appropriate measure for the rest of the crew. Bolian's are known for their somewhat less than discriminating taste buds. To put it kindly, they'll consume almost anything."
Tom, B'Elanna and Harry could barely contain their laughter, and they could have sworn that even Tuvok was slightly amused as he had raised his right eyebrow high on his forehead.
Everyone was so preoccupied with Neelix and Seven that they hardly noticed when Chakotay entered the room. He passed all of them to assume his customary seat near the head of the table and decided that he should break up the bickering before the captain arrived. "Is there a problem?"
"No problem Commander, it's just that Seven doesn't appreciate my culinary abilities," said Neelix in a huff.
Chakotay tried to suppress his chuckle. As the crewmember in charge of the mess hall, Neelix really did try, and his cooking had gotten better over time, but every once in a while he still managed to come up with something that the crew simply could not stomach, well most of the crew anyway. As Seven so aptly pointed out, Chelle didn't really count. "Maybe we should temporarily discontinue the debate until after our meeting, alright?"
Neelix simply grunted in response and looked at his hands.
The doctor was the last of the staff to arrive and following closely on his heels was the captain. "Good morning everyone," she said as she and the doctor took their respective seats. She was answered by greetings from the others gathered around the table. As she sat, she noticed that several of her officers were trying very hard to suppress their amusement of something. Smothered grins were quite evident on almost every face. She leaned to her right, raised her eyebrows, and said quietly, "Commander Chakotay, have I missed something?"
The man actually winked at her where no one else could notice and then replied in an equally soft voice, "Nothing important Captain, just a little difference of opinion over breakfast."
She knew he would fill her in later, and she was sure it would be worth the wait so for the moment she took Chakotay's subtle hint that she should drop that particular subject and continued. "Let's get started shall we. As you all know, we are again in need of replenishing our food supplies. B'Elanna has also informed me that our reserve supply of dilithium is becoming critical. Harry, Seven, what have you come up with in Astrometrics?"
Harry spoke first. "Captain, we are entering a system containing several habitable planets. There is one planet that shows signs of a warp capable civilization and significant agricultural development. It would seem to be the best bet to restock our food supplies as none of the other planets in the system show signs of abundant plant or animal life."
"Any possible sources of dilithium?" asked the Captain.
"Not in this system. However, long-range scans of a planet in the neighboring system look promising."
"So, it looks like at least one new first contact situation. When we get home, Starfleet may very well have to come up with a new commendation for diplomacy just for us," Janeway said with a smile.
"Yeah, they can nickname it the 'The Janeway Award for Frequent and Meaningful Alien Encounters', or better yet, 'The Alien of the Week Award'," replied Tom.
Janeway looked at him trying hard to suppress her amusement. "Keep it up Ensign," she said, emphasizing his rank, "and I'll make you sit through all those boring negotiation sessions we're bound to be doing shortly. I'm sure the commander and I would be happy to take a break from the usual routine." Tom Paris could be the most annoying, pain in the neck jokester on the ship, and he could use an infusion of better judgment from time to time, but Janeway wouldn't trade him for the world.
"Oh no, not me," said Tom, "you both handle negotiations like this so well. Far be it from me to break up the team. Besides, I'd likely negotiate us into nothing but a stock pile of Leola Root and Blood Worms."
Everyone chuckled, with the exception of Tuvok, of course, and Neelix, who never would understand everyone's complaints about Leola Root.
"Good point Mister Paris, I'll keep that in mind." Janeway appreciated the fact that they could enjoy an occasional joke in these briefings. Sometimes the mood here was, out of necessity, extremely serious. She much preferred things this way, but she had to be a bit careful, if you let him, Tom could take things way too far, time to bring them all back to the business at hand. "Well, it seems we have two planets that can supply us with the items on our shopping list. Anything you can add Seven?"
Seven gave her report in her usual matter of fact manner. "Our present course will take us in close proximity to the inhabited planet. The other planet is on the opposite side of the next system and there is an extensive asteroid field between the two."
'Why is it that nothing is ever easy in the Delta Quadrant?' Janeway thought to herself. For the most part, their experience here had been one trial after another and they were far from their trip being over. Although this hurdle wasn't a large one, it was another in a long line of inconveniences that seemed to plague them at every turn. "So our choices would be to go around the asteroid field or through it. Can you estimate how long it would take to make the trip?"
"I believe it would take approximately three days to traverse the distance by going around. I am unable to estimate the time required traveling by the more direct route through the asteroid field at this time. While there is a possibility that a faster route could be found, it is difficult to determine that from this distance. It is highly dependent on the fluidity and overall density of the field, and the relative size of the asteroids in any given area. The data available is inconclusive."
Harry shifted in his seat and decided it was his turn to add something to the discussion. "Captain, this field appears to be one of the largest we've encountered since arriving in the Delta Quadrant, I'm not sure we would save much time if we attempted the direct route even if we had better data, not to mention how dangerous it could be."
"Thank you Harry. I appreciate the warning, and I'm well aware of the potential hazards of flying headlong into an asteroid field. At any rate, it looks as though that decision can wait. Given our proximity to the first planet, it appears we deal with food supplies first, mining later. Tom set a course for our first destination, best possible speed. Chakotay, I'd like to meet with you in my ready room at your earliest convenience. We can make some advance preparations for our first meeting with 'the aliens of the week'," she said, tilting her head and looking briefly at her conn officer. "Tuvok, see if you can evaluate whether or not the inhabitants of this planet are hostile in any way, I'd hate to set them off right from our opening hail. Seven, continue your scans from Astrometrics, the more information we have going in, the better off we'll be. Alright, that's it then, thank you people, dismissed."
The captain had quickly and efficiently given them their marching orders and everyone filed out of the briefing room and off to the tasks they had been assigned, and within only a few minutes of the end of the meeting, Tom had them headed toward their new destination and a new chapter in their excursion through the Delta Quadrant.
TBC