Disclaimer: I don't own these guys, all credit to Paramount. The story's only loosely mine, but I highly doubt Mother Goose will fight me for copy writes.
Sleeping Beauties
Once upon a time in a quadrant far, far away . . .
"Tom?" B'Elanna asked nervously as she entered his dark quarters. He had invited her over for dinner at 1900, but she was ten minutes late and the room was dark and, apparently, deserted.
She thought she heard someone clear their throat, B'Elanna took another step into the quarters before she was blinded by a sudden abundance of light, and deafened by about thirty booming voices.
"Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday B'Elaaaaaaaaaannaaaaaaaa
Happy Birthday toooooooo You." The room erupted into applause. B'Elanna seethed.
Tom walked up and kissed his beautiful engineer on the cheek. "Surprise," he said, smiling sweetly.
"I'm going to kill you," B'Elanna muttered under her breath.
"Yea, well," Tom muttered. "I think you should wait until the guests leave."
The Captain and Chakotay walked up, both smiling broadly. Tom took that moment to slip away from his angry girlfriend.
"Happy birthday, B'Elanna," the Captain said with an audible smile.
"Thank you, sir," the engineer said tersely.
"Thirty," Chakotay said, offering her a fatherly smile. "Does it feel any different?"
B'Elanna replied with a smile she hoped did not appear too forced. "No, not really."
The Captain patted her shoulder, "I'm sure that will come in time."
There was a general commotion in the background, the commanders turned around to see Tom generally herding people into a circle in the middle of the room. He was filling up champagne glasses with what, B'Elanna hoped, was replicated champagne and getting ready for a toast. Dread suddenly filled B'Elanna's chest. She hated public displays of affection, at least if they were meant for her.
The Captain glanced behind her and noticed the people gathering, "Looks like we're going to have a toast," she said as she turned and joined the group.
"Having fun yet?" Chakotay asked, amused. He could tell quite clearly that she wasn't.
"I swear, I'm going to kill him."
The commander laughed. "Don't do it here, you'll make a scene."
"I hate this."
"Come on," He said, taking her arm and leading her towards the larger group. "Just pretend you like it."
"It's going to have to involve both physical pain and public humiliation."
"What will?"
"My revenge. Do you think I'm going to let Tom get away with this?"
Chakotay just laughed.
"I'm serious," B'Elanna assured him.
"Shhhh," The commander said smiling. "People are going to toast you."
Grudgingly, B'Elanna complied and stood still. A viable target for all the love and good nature in the room.
"Ahem!" Tom said, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. He was standing in the middle of the circle, like a ringmaster. "I don't have to tell any of you why were here. To celebrate the thirtieth year of," he looked at B'Elanna she offered him a murderous look, his cool was shaken for a split second, but he regained it and said the words he knew would enfuriate and please her. "The most remarkable, beautiful, interesting, wonderful, in a word amazing woman that I have ever known." He smiled at her and raised his glass. The words I love you were painted so clearly in his eyes that B'Elanna's forced smile slowly became genuine. "To B'Elanna."
The room chorused with "Here, here's" and "To B'Elanna's" and then, if on cue Neelix took a step forward. "B'Elanna," he said happily. "May not a day go by that you don't have a smile on your lovely face."
B'Elanna was about to thank him, but he stepped back and Harry, who was standing next to him stepped forward. "I want to wish you true friends and friendships, for this next year, and all years to come."
Harry stepped back and Tuvok, who was conveniently stationed on the other side of Harry, took a step forward. "Lieutenant, I wish you a long life."
"And prosperity" Vorik, who was next in line, said. Most of the party burst out in laughter, the Vulcans, however, didn't get the joke.
Once she was done laughing, Jenny Delaney, took a step forward. "B'Elanna, in the Klingon tradition, I want to wish you grace, with a Bath'Lith."
"Forget the Bath'lith," her sister Mehgan said, taking her step forward. "I wish you grace with Tom."
The room once more erupted with laughter. B'Elanna was truly beginning to enjoy herself.
Not to be outdone, the doctor took a step forward. "Lt. Torres. I wish you a year free of various injuries and maladies." He was genuinely surprised when no laughter followed his behest.
Seven of Nine, who was on his right, had figured out the appropriate behavior in this situation, took a step forward. "I . . . wish . . . that you will be efficient at your post." The former Borg said, as good naturedly as could be expected.
"And that you'll be blessed with skill," Ensign Wildman added.
"And tools that never break," said crewman Foster.
"And a warp core that never malfunctions," Lt. Carry said.
The Captain was about to step forward and give B'Elanna her good wishes for the year when her com-badge beeped. "Bridge to the captain."
The whole room stood still and listened as the captain focused on ships business. "Janeway here."
"Captain, there is an alien ship on long range sensors, it's hailing us."
"Understood, I'll be up in a minute. Janeway out." She turned to B'Elanna, an apology, instead of a blessing on her lips. "I'm sorry B'Elanna, I'm afraid your party will have to wait."
"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Starship Voyager," the Captain said once she and her staff were at their stations and ready for anything.
"I am Captain Bro'thos Grimm, of the Storia. You have entered the space of the F'Ahries."
"I'm sorry if we're trespassing in your space. We mean you no harm. We're simply trying to find our way home."
"Through our space?"
"It's the shortest way. Like I said, we mean you no harm."
"But you harm us, nonetheless."
That caught Janeway off guard. "Excuse me?"
"Your fuel emissions will pollute and your warp nacelles will damage our space."
"The damage done will be so minute that . . ."
"There will be damage done," Grimm said darkly.
The Captain licked her lips, nervously, "What do you suggest?"
"We can forgive you the pollution you will cause, but be warned, you will come across the fold and when you do you will enter the Eternal sleep."
"What?" the Captain asked, totally bewildered.
"You cannot avoid it."
Janeway was confused, but not enough to let her guard down. "Are you threatening us?"
"It will not be our doing, but your own."
The Captain was not liking this new race. "We'll defend ourselves."
"You'll fail."
"We'll take that chance," the Captain said, her voice hard and unmovable.
Captain Grimm smiled, almost evilly, "You have a few days left until you seal your fate. Enjoy them."
"End communication," Janeway clipped. The view screen blipped and the F'Ahries captain was replaced with a starscape. "Mr. Paris, get us out of here, full warp."
"Aye Captain," Tom said. Everyone except Tuvok felt the ship lurch underneath them. Tuvok was not susceptible to such psychosomatic feelings.
"That's a pleasant people," Tom said once they were a few light years between them. "Awful enigmatic."
"To throw out death threats and not say why or how to avoid them, that's more than enigmatic," B'Elanna Siad. "That's just sadistic."
"Yea, well," Tom said, placing everything serious behind him like he so often did. "They must have just wanted you to have a surprise on your birthday."
"Some surprise," B'Elanna muttered.
"Captain, perhaps you should head their warning." Tuvok said dutifully from his post.
Janeway's voice was chilled, and very concerned. "I'm not entirely sure how."
They had flown through F'Ahries space for seventeen days and twelve hours, the threat of Eternal Sleep had yet to be realized and for some reason, that made Janeway more nervous, not less. So, when Seven of Nine asked her to go to Astrometrics and offered her no more explanation than, "there is something here you should see," she was anxious.
"Commander, would you care to accompany me?" She said, glancing at Chakotay. He couldn't say no, because she was his commanding officer, but then again, they both knew that he would have said yes regardless.
"I'd love too," he said, smiling up at her. She didn't smile back down at him, Chakotay noticed. It was only one of many little things he had noticed in the last seventeen days.
He followed her obediently into the turbolift and waited until the doors were safely shut and they were sliding towards Astrometrics before taking a deep breath and jumping into the breach. "What's wrong Kathryn?" He asked kindly.
"Nothing," she said dismissively. He didn't push, but he looked down at her making it clear that he wouldn't believe a lie. "It's just . . ." she started, then she took a deep breath and tried again. "The Eternal sleep has been on my mind a lot lately."
"The F'Ahries' threat?"
"There hasn't been any attempt to enforce it yet."
"Perhaps it was an empty threat."
"Perhaps, but it doesn't feel like an empty threat."
Chakotay nodded. "Is there anything we can do about it?"
The Captain shook her head, "That's the worse part, not now, we've already broken their laws and directly challenged their power. I can't believe they'll just let us pass."
The door opened and Janeway hesitated, almost waiting for Chakotay to take the first step. He subtly nodded at her, supporting her without a word or even a conscious thought. She accepted that support unquestionably and lead him out of the turbolift.
"I'm sure whatever happens you'll be able to handle it."
Janeway smiled, "Keep talking like this and you just might get a promotion."
Chakotay smiled back relieved, "Is that a threat?"
They were chuckling as they walked into Astrometrics. Seven looked at them inquisitively, but didn't say a word.
"Captain, Commander, I have something to show you." She punched a few bottons and the screen zoomed from a wide, almost beautiful, chart of all the stars the sensors could pickup to a close up of, what looked like a fold in space. It was hard to see, at first, the darkness was overlapping upon itself, and the starlight seemed only slightly smothered.
"The fold," Janeway said in a hushed voice.
"That is quite plausible," Seven replied. "It is over 30 light-years long and over 20 parches high."
"How could it be that big?" Chakotay asked, bewildered by the shear size.
"It does not appear to be a natural phenomenon." Seven said. "There are beacons posted at regular intervals of one light-year at the base of the fold."
"Pins," Chakotay muttered.
"What?" The Captain asked.
"When I was a child, my mother sewed some of our clothing by hand."
"That is inefficient." Seven interjected, just in case they were curious.
Chakotay ignored her. "She would fold the fabric on top of itself and pin it together so it wouldn't move."
"Are you suggesting they are trying to sew space together?" Seven asked skeptically.
Chakotay sighed, "I don't know."
"How are they doing this at all?" The Captain asked, staring at the screen. "Or I suppose more importantly, why?"
"That is unknown, I suggest we send a shuttle craft to investigate. It could get closer and gather more accurate readings."
"No, we are going to avoid it." Janeway said, there was dread implied in her voice.
"It's too big," Seven said matter of factly.
"We would have to backtrack to avoid it," Chakotay noticed.
There were times she hated being the Captain. "How much would that add to our trip?"
"Not long," Chakotay said, "Two days at most."
"Two years, five months and thirteen days," Seven said without inflection.
"What are you talking about?" The Captain demanded.
"We would not only have to spend two days back tracking around the fold and 891 days to fly through the space that was folded over."
"Two years," Janeway muttered.
"Or the eternal sleep," Chakotay added softly.
Janeway felt herself trembling ever so slightly, there were days she absolutely hated being captain. "You sure you don't want that promotion?" She asked Chakotay, because she knew that he would smile down at her and say whatever she decided was right. Founded in that belief she took a deep breath and made a decision. "We'll stop and try to figure out what those pins are and just how they're keeping space folded. Maybe if we figure that out we'll be able to avoid the F'Ahries' mysterious eternal sleep."
"Aye, Sir," Chakotay said, saying so much more.
The shuttle cleared Voyager and sailed gracefully towards the huge fold in space, or more accurately, towards the nearest pin. It was an epic view from the shuttle's windshield, but Tom preferred to watch the spectacle as it reflected off of B'Elanna's eyes.
"You know I can't quite figure it out," he said as they drifted closer to the abnormality.
"Figure what out?" B'Elanna asked, all business. She was taking readings an analyzing data and totally oblivious to Tom's state of mind.
"What color your eyes are."
B'Elanna didn't look at him. If she had, she would have realized that he was in a wistful romantic mood, as it was she was just mildly annoyed. "What are you talking about? They're brown."
"Brown?" Tom scoffed. "That's such a average color. Tuvok's eyes are brown. Yours are something else entirely. Something between mahogany and chestnut with just a shade of ginger, to give them a vibrant effect."
B'Elanna caught on. She turned on him with her mahogany, chestnut, and ginger eyes and smiled coyly. "Perhaps you'll be able to examine them more closely later." Tom's interest was perked. However, he would much rather have examined her lips, but he correctly assumed that would follow.
"But first," B'Elanna said, being the grown-up, "We have to gather information on that pin."
Tom sighed and smiled. "Right," he looked down at his instruments for the first time in a minute and realized he should have been paying more attention.
"I'm reading a subspace disturbance here, almost a rip, extending from the pin."
"What?"
"The stress it took to fold the space must have damaged subspace somehow. It ripped. There's no other way I can describe it."
"What does that mean?"
"Right now, nothing. But if we ran into that thing at warp it would be like slamming into a brick wall."
There was a pause as the violence implied in that metaphor sunk in. "We're approaching the pin," B'Elanna said, just to say something.
"We should be within transporter range in thirty seconds."
"Scans show a sort of command center inside of the pin, but there's no life support."
"Maybe the F'Ahries don't breath."
"Yeah, or maybe they don't want people snooping around in their equipment."
"Understandable," Tom said, a thread of apprehension wove its way through his voice. He knew what B'Elanna was going to do.
"I'll put on an environmental suite and you can beam me over."
"I don't like this idea," Tom said. "We don't know what's over there."
"My point exactly," the Chief engineer insisted as she pulled one of the shuttle's suits out of storage and started putting it on. "If I go over there, then we'll know."
"Couldn't we just try and upload the data?"
"I tried, it didn't work."
"You tried, where was I?"
B'Elanna shrugged as she started putting on her environmental suit, "Lost in my eyes I suppose."
"Apparently," Tom grumbled.
"Look," B'Elanna said, laying down the line fairly clearly. "You can maintain a transporter lock on me at all times if you want, but the only way for us to get any accurate information to take back to the captain is for me to go over there and take a look."
Tom didn't say anything, his worry didn't really need to be voiced, it was making itself known in his eyes. She leaned forward and kissed him sweetly on the cheek, because his mouth was in to straight a line to accept anything. "You're sweet." She put her helmet on and her next words were raspy through the suits com system. "Now, energize."
Wordlessly, Tom pushed the button and watched her fade before his eyes.
Within a second her voice crackled over the com channel and informed him that her molecules had made it safely over that great distance. "Torres to Paris, do you read me?"
"Loud and clear. How are things over there?"
"Cold and dark."
"Sounds pleasant."
"I don't see how anyone could do any work in this environment."
"Well, they probably don't do any work in it."
"But they would have to, routine maintenance at least . . . Hold on, what this?" There was an eerie pause.
"B'Elanna?"
All hell broke loose.
Tom suddenly felt the shuttle violently pushed by some sort of wave away from the pin and B'Elanna. He was riding on top of it, almost as if he were surfing, until he hit the rip in subspace, and his shuttle craft stopped, as if it hit a brick wall. And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The world was black.
The first thing Tom noticed was that his head hurt. This was the fact foremost on his mind for some time, and even after he realized where he was and remembered what had happened, getting rid of his pounding head ache was still at the top of his 'to do' list.
"Computer," he groaned as he pushed himself out of his chair and started looking for the med kit, a task that would have been much easier if the universe would have stopped swaying. "How long have I been out?"
"Thirty-hours, ten minutes, and fourteen seconds," the computer supplied helpfully.
Tom had found the kit and was injecting himself with pain killers. "Could you repeat that?" he asked once the drugs were in his system, making the pounding headache a mere banging one.
"Thirty-hours, ten minutes and fourteen seconds."
"Over a day," Tom muttered. A million questions flew into his head, the computer couldn't have answered them all fast enough to subside his desperate curiosity, so he decided to just ask the really important ones.
"Computer, where are we?"
"We are at coordinates four-seven mark two-eight mark nine."
"And where are the pins?"
"The nearest pin is at coordinates four-seven mark two- six mark nine, two parsees to starboard."
"And where is Voyager?"
"Voyager is at coordinates four-seven mark four-one mark nine, thirteen parsees to port."
"Thanks," Tom clipped, ordinarily he would add, 'I can do the math', but presently his head hurt too much for addition. "Computer, hail Voyager," There was a blip showing that the computer had complied.
Tom wanted to say 'where the hell have you been, I've been unconscious for thirty hours on this little shuttle, I could be dead, why aren't I in sick bay?' but he curbed that impulse. "Paris to Voyager," he waited for the Captains 'go ahead, Tom' but it didn't come. "Paris to Voyager, please respond." Nothing.
"Computer, what is the status of Voyager?" He asked, afraid of the answer.
"It is not receiving our hails."
Tom took an exasperated breath, "WHY aren't they receiving our hails?"
"They have lost power."
"What?"
"Rephrase the question."
"Are you saying Voyager is dead in space?"
"Please rephrase the question."
"Ok, try this one on for size, hail Lt. Torres."
Again the computer bleeped in compliance. "Paris to Torres, B'Elanna are you alright."
There was no answer, but he could hear raspy breathing. "B'Elanna!" he said just a little bit louder, "B'Elanna answer me." Only the breathing. Tom took a deep breath and forced himself to remember that breathing was a good sign. "Computer, close channel and set a course to the pin at coordinates four-seven mark two-six mark nine."
She was asleep, according to the medical tricorder. Not knocked out, like Tom had been, from the force of whatever that was. She was just asleep. That scared him, because to his knowledge, there was no cure for sleep.
After he had beamed her off of the pin and removed her from the environmental suit he expected her to wake up, but she hadn't. So he had pumped her full of stimulants, and put on a neural simulator and yelled at the top of his lungs, all to no avail. But still, when he took her in his arms and ordered the shuttle to transport them to Voyager's sick bay, he was filled with an odd feeling of disproportion. As if his panic was a severe over reaction.
He had certainly seen her asleep before, eyes gently closed, breathing softly. She was very expressive when she was asleep, he could always tell if she were dreaming, and the general mood of the dream. But she wasn't dreaming, and that fact solidified his determination.
"Computer," he said as he took B'Elanna in his arms. "Transport us straight to Voyager's sick bay, and keep an open com channel, ready to transport us back at any time."
The computer blipped.
Tom took a deep breath. "Energize." The shuttle started to shimmer and then fade to back. Tom kept waiting for the black to dissolve into sickbay. It didn't though, it was dark and cold and Tom couldn't see anything. He took a deep breath and swallowed hard. He didn't know of any transporter mistakes that could result in this sort of thing, but if no one ever came back from this cold black oblivion then there would be no way to know at all. Furthermore, if he were dead he could very plausibly be in a cold blackness, but then it occurred to him that if he were dead he should not be feeling the weight of the sleeping B'Elanna in his arms. "Paris to shuttle," he said, his voice seemed so small in the darkness. "Transport me back."
The blackness started to shimmer again, and soon he found himself in the comparative warmth and brightness of the shuttle. "Computer, where did I materialize?" He demanded as he lay B'Elanna down on one of the benches.
"The sickbay of Voyager."
"But it was so dark, not even the emergency lights . . ." suddenly he remembered what the computer had told him about its mother ship. "If there was no power throughout the entire ship, there would be no lights in sick bay at all." The whole concept of Voyager having no power was frightening. Without power for environmental controls it was a floating coffin, not a community. Tom didn't think about that for long, it frightened him too much.
He took a deep breath and decided to do some exploration. He grabbed a tricorder, wrist light, and power cup (to open the doors). "Ok computer, can you beam me to Voyager's bridge?"
"Affirmative," the computer responded.
"Energize."
The cabin, with B'Elanna's sleeping form, faded away and Tom found himself neatly placed on the bridge of Voyager. It would have been totally dark, just like sickbay, had his wrist light not been on. The darkness had been less unsettling.
Everyone was sleeping. But unlike B'Elanna, the were frozen in their last positions. Chakotay was in the captain's chair, Tuvok and Harry were at there post, only they had fallen to the floor. Ensign Wildman was at the helm, sleeping on the controllers. The room was cold. He could see his breath. He scanned them all with his tricorder, they had been sleeping for approximately thirty-five hours at this point. Soon the cold would get to them, and the malnourishment, and unless he could get the ship up and running by himself, they would suffocate.
The first thing Tom did was figure out just how long he had to get the ship back up and running. According to his calculations, which he didn't trust as much as if they had been Harry's or Seven's, he had approximately one hundred hours worth of breathable air in the ship. After that people would start suffocating, as he was working to figure that out it occurred to him that they could freeze long before that if the temperature got low enough. Tom stopped doing calculations and start running through the ship, doing a head count.
He found the captain in her ready room, and he found Seven in her alcove. He tried to wake them both up and failed. By the time he got to engineering he didn't waste his time trying to arise Vorik or Carrie, he yelled for the computer twice before remembering that it wouldn't respond. He checked the Dilithium chamber and scanned the matter anti-matter containers and all the other vital systems that were needed to turn on a Starship and make it run. They seemed fine, they simply weren't running. Tom had no idea how to start up Voyager, he was sure there were procedures, and he was sure that the computer would have been more than happy to tell him, but the computer was silent. What he needed was B'Elanna. He started to get a worried sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Accordingly, he decided to go to sick bay.
He had to crawl through quite a few jeffries tubes to get there, and when he did it was totally dark. He nearly called, 'Computer activate EMH,' but he knew it wouldn't work. However, one idea did, suddenly strike him. He started scanning the sick bay looking for the mobile emitter. He didn't know what turned the ship off, but there was a chance that whatever it was hadn't affected twenty-ninth century technology. And as far as he could tell, once he found it, the hollow transmitter was fine. He pressed the little button that was, more or less, the on/off button and lights went on and things blipped and the doc was no where to be seen. He pushed more buttons, all the buttons in various orders. The lights turned on and blinked, but still no Doc. Again he needed B'Elanna.
"Paris to shuttle," Tom said, with a hollow voice. "Beam me back." He was not sorry to watch the dead Voyager to fade into the bright shuttle, that was only slightly more alive.
"Well, B'Elanna," he said, striving for normalcy. "I went back, and uh, everyone seemed to be sleeping, just like you. How the hell you all fell asleep and I stayed awake, I don't know, but . . ." he looked down at his sleeping-without-dreaming Klingon. She was so beautiful, but not in her normal vivacious way. She was beautiful like women in fairytales are beautiful, enchanting, graceful, weak and helpless. She needed to be rescued, the whole ship needed to be rescued. And Tom couldn't do it. He didn't even know how to start.
"Computer," he rasped. There was a hint of tears in his voice, but he cleared his throat and blinked his eyes and got rid of them immediately. "How far away is the nearest F'Ahries settlement?"
"Two light years," the computer chirped.
"Anything closer?"
"Negative."
"Two light years," Tom muttered. At the helm of Voyager he could get there in no time, but it would take nearly a week in the little shuttle, they would all be dead by then. He needed something faster. "Computer, start sending out a distress call, to anyone who can hear it."
The computer chirped an affirmation.
Tom looked around the shuttle, a short term plan to keep his crew mates alive was forming in his head, he needed to be sure that he had everything he needed. His head was starting to hurt again, he had spent nearly twelve hours on Voyager and the pain medication had worn off. However, the headache was keeping him awake, and considering the state of the rest of the crew, he didn't think he could risk going to sleep.
"Computer, if anyone answers my hail, send it straight to my com badge," the computer bleeped. "And transport me to Voyager's cargo bay one. . . . Energize."
Tom had been up for seventeen hours after a severe head trauma, before he started really working. So, when he beamed back to his shuttle, nearly twenty four hours after he had left, his body finally convinced his mind that rest was more conductive to long term survival at this point and he fainted before the tractor beam let him go.
Tom had been a busy boy. He had beamed into Cargo Bay one because that is where Voyager kept all its emergency survival supplies, like blankets. Federation survival blankets were the most uncomfortable things in any quadrant, they were like sleeping in tin foil, they crackled when you moved and they were not soft to the touch, but they captured body heat and they could keep you warm in the coldest of temperatures. And unless Tom got the ship up and running pretty soon, it would soon be the coldest of temperatures. His hands were numb almost before he had finished packing his knapsack with all the blankets he could find, approximately a hundred and twenty, and he couldn't feel them the rest of the day. After he got the blankets, he started raiding the emergency med kits for their vitamin supplements. He found approximately sixty. He threw those in his sack too and headed straight to sick bay, where he found about twenty more. He figured he could give each crew member about half a dose of vitamins and wrapped them up in blankets. It wasn't much but it should increase their chance of survival, besides it gave him something to do while he waited for help, or the air on the ship to poison them all.
Armed and ready, Tom headed for the bridge. He took the ship deck by deck. Wrapping people in blankets and giving them their shots. By the time he reached deck five his mind was playing tricks on him. He would hear people talking, see instrument panels light up. At first it distracted him, but eventually he just ignored the hallucinations and they went away. By deck ten his head hurt and he felt waves of dizziness, grogginess and utter confusion, but his job wasn't that hard and his mind slowly became numb. He was like a robot, performing a task without thinking. He knew what he was doing had meaning, but if someone had asked him what it was by the time he reached engineering, he wouldn't have known. His brain shut itself off and he was on automatic pilot.
He knew he didn't have enough blankets for everybody, so when he found someone in their quarters, he wrapped them up in the blanket from their bed. And when he found two people who were conveniently close together, like they had fallen while walking down the hall together, or sitting side by side eating in the mess hall, he would push them closer and make one blanket do for two. He crawled through the ship top to bottom, and then bottom to top to ensure that he did not miss anybody. Once he reached the bridge again and looked at Harry, Chakotay, Tuvok and Wildman, all snug in their blankets, his brain suddenly worked again, abet slowly. He remembered that he hadn't taken care of B'Elanna. He felt a quick panic through the numbness, but then he realized that she was not taken care of because she was not on the ship. It took a minute for that fact to sink in, but once it did he had to remember where she was. He wanted so badly to curl up with someone in one of those foily blankets and just rest and think about it later, but this was important, this was B'Elanna. He forced himself to remember that she was sleeping, warm and cozy, on the shuttle. The shuttle, warm, cozy. Why wasn't he on the shuttle, warm and cozy. Because he needed to take care of everyone on Voyager, but as he looked around, everybody looked more warm and cozy than he felt. "Paris to shuttle," his voice cracked. "Beam me back."
Tom pushed himself onto his hands and knees. He was confused and disoriented. Why was he sleeping on the floor? Why was he in a shuttle? Why did his head hurt so much? There were foggy answers, like Voyager was cold and the shuttle was warm. But very little seemed concrete, as if he was looking at the world through a frosted window. Slowly he pulled himself into a kneeling position, and saw B'Elanna.
He stared at her for a long time, she was sleeping, breathing in and out calmly. She was so beautiful, like a vision. Tom didn't even think, he leaned over her and started kissing her tenderly on the mouth. The kiss was a part dream and surreal. Tom felt her lips under his, but he could not feel his lips press on hers. He was so far gone that he didn't notice when B'Elanna started to kiss back. He pulled away slowly, for no other reason than moving quickly hurt.
"Tom?" B'Elanna asked, as her eyes fluttered open.
Tom had ignored hallucinations for hours as he worked on keeping those on the dead Voyager, alive. He ignored this one as well. Keeping his eyes closed because it would have taken too much strength to have them opened, he leaned backwards until he hit the back of the other bench. His head collided with the bench's cushion and his consciousness was seconds from dissolving into sleep when his hallucination came back. "Tom," she insisted, as warm hands started touching his face. "Tom can you hear me?"
The hallucination was too persistent. Tom opened his eyes to see B'Elanna, fully awake, looking down at him with concern. Tom was so shocked he didn't answer her, he just stared.
"Tom," she sounded relived to see his eyes. "Are you all right? What happened? You look like hell?"
Too many questions for his tired mind, "B'Elanna?" he finally managed to croak.
"I'm right here."
"Am I dreaming?"
"Do I look like a dream?"
"Yes," Tom said honestly.
B'Elanna rolled her eyes and caressed his cheek. "What happened, Tom?" She asked gently.
Tom took a deep breath and tried to find words, "You were asleep, everyone was, is, asleep. Voyager is asleep."
"Voyager?"
Tom nodded, but that made his head hurt. He winced and stopped.
B'Elanna could see that he wouldn't be much help in his present condition. She didn't have any idea how he got into his present condition, but she knew a sure fire way to get him out of it. "Go to sleep Tom," she said softly.
"I'm not asleep?"
"No, you're not."
"Oh," he said softly, obviously confused.
She helped him climb onto one of the benches, which was much more arduous than it should have been, and he was asleep before his eyes were closed.
"Computer," B'Elanna said softly so as not to wake Tom. "What is Voyager's status?"
"Voyager has lost power."
"Lost power?" B'Elanna asked mystified. "How much power?"
"All power."
The chief engineer laughed. "That's not possible."
The computer didn't contradict her, nor did it amend its statement.
"Computer, how did Voyager lose power?"
"That is unknown."
"Great, just great," B'Elanna mumbled. She wanted to ask Tom what was going on, but when she glanced down at him she realized just how cruel it would be to wake him up. She licked her lips and started acting before she fully knew what her plan was. "Computer, can you beam me to Voyager's Engineering."
"Affirmative."
"Good," B'Elanna said, "Energize."
The shuttle faded into black, but it stayed black, black and cold, and B'Elanna started to have trouble breathing. "Torres to shuttle," She gasped in a panic, "Transport me back!"
The shuttle complied and within seconds she found herself back in the warm shuttle with a sleeping Tom. "What the Hell just happened?" she asked no one in particular.
"Please restate the question."
B'Elanna took a deep breath. "Computer, how long has Voyager been without power?"
"That is unknown."
"All right, how long ago did we leave Voyager?"
"Four days, one hour, twenty minutes, and thirty seven seconds."
"Four days," B'Elanna muttered, amazed. She looked down at Tom's cut, bruised, baggy eyed, slightly bearded face and suddenly understood a few things. He had said she had been asleep and Voyager was asleep. Somehow, he had been awake, and busy. She wanted to talk to him, ask him what he had done, what he thought she could do, but she didn't have the heart to wake him.
Instead she grabbed his tricorder and wrist light. She found a knapsack on the floor with a power cup and a few emergency blankets and a spent Hypospray in it. She took the cup and put one of the blankets over her sleeping lover. Thus armed, she told the computer to energize again and found herself back in a cold dark stuffy engineering.
The first things she noticed were all the bodies. It was bizarre. Her engineers were everywhere, just sleeping on the floor, wrapped up in blankets like it was a slumber party. She had to concentrate very hard not to stare at them. The air was thin and B'Elanna felt light headed on top of being freezing to death, but she didn't have time to think about that. "Ok," She muttered to herself. "Let's see if we can start you up."
She cheeked to make sure that the matter and anti-matter were still contained, the dilithium was still solid, and all the other energy generating materials were in place, then she started the to turn the Starship on. She had never done it before, but ignition procedures were things that every engineer memorized. They were in her blood. First she manually initiated the matter, anti-matter reaction, because that was the basic source of all the energy. She channeled all power to life support. Almost immediately she thought she noticed a difference, but that was all psychological. She knew it would take nearly an hour for the environment to change noticeably on a ship that size with so little power.
There were dim lights throughout the ship and the doors opened, but the turbo lift was not working, so she crawled through the jeffries tubes all the way to sickbay. The computer was not fully operational, it didn't respond to voice command, but she was the only one present with a voice, so it really wasn't worth the energy. Once she was there, she started punching buttons furiously. Within seconds the space right before her crackled.
"Pleas state the nature of the medical emergency." The holo doc said crisply, then he looked at B'Elanna in an incredulous way. "I don't remember being deactivated!"
"You weren't, the ship lost power."
"What do you mean?" He asked walking around the consol. "I don't remember any problems with power."
"I'm working on that. But you have a problem of your own to deal with."
"What are you talking about?"
"Where's your mobile emitter?"
The doctor looked around concerned. "I don't know, I left it in its container. It should be right there."
"Damn," B'Elanna said hitting the counsel. "It would take forever to scan the whole ship for it with a tricorder."
"Why not just use the ship's scanners?"
"It would take too much power."
"Oh," the doctor said softly. He hated being confined to the sick bay, and he hated not knowing what's going on. But from B'Elanna's clipped responses and obviously anxious demeanor, he could tell that now was not a good time to ask the woman who maintained his program for more information.
"Maybe Tom knows were it is," she said, before hesitating. "But, then I'd have to wake him."
"Mr. Paris is sleeping?"
B'Elanna nodded. "He was exhausted. And if what I think happened happened, he has good reason to be."
"I'm afraid I'm a little confused."
B'Elanna took a deep breath, reminded herself that she needed a doctor and couldn't kill a hologram, and started explaining. "Voyager has been powerless for almost a hundred hours, and as far as I can tell, all the people on the ship have been asleep for nearly as long."
"The eternal sleep?"
The thought hadn't crossed her mind, she was far too busy. "I . . . I guess so," she said slowly, things were beginning to make sense.
"So Mr. Paris is sleeping eternally?" Despite his playful contempt for his medic, The doctor was obviously worried.
"No, as far as I can tell Tom was the only one awake."
"But you're awake, and you said he is sleeping."
B'Elanna nodded, "The last thing I remember, I was on one of those pins. Somehow I must have activated some sort of . . . pulse . . . that hit the ship, which drained the power and, somehow, put everyone to sleep."
"But you were not affected."
"No, I told you before. I was and Tom wasn't."
"But he's asleep?"
"Now, yes."
"Do you realize how little sense you're making?"
"Look," B'Elanna said forcefully. "Tom was somehow able to stay awake while the rest of us fell asleep."
"How?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "My best guess is that he got caught in a subspace rift and the pulse washed over him."
"So he was the only one awake?"
"Yes, and it would seem that he was busy. He went all around the ship and put thermel blankets around all of the crew."
"Why?"
"It was cold! People could have frozen to death, or at the very least caught hypothermia or frost-bite."
The doctor was silent as he considered what his medic had done. "That must have been an arduous task," he said uncomfortably.
"Like I said, he has good reason to be exhausted."
"I agree, however, I'm still confused."
"What about?"
"You were infected, if you will, with the eternal sleep. And yet, you're here, awake, in front of me."
B'Elanna shrugged. "I don't know how, but I fell asleep on that pin, and I woke up four days latter."
"Perhaps if you told me exactly what was happening when you woke up, I would be able to develop a treatment."
The half-Klingon engineer blushed, "Ah, Tom was," she took a deep breath, "kissing me."
As embarrassed as she had been to admit that fact in the first place, her chagrin doubled under the doctor's critical stare. "He was kissing you?"
"Yes," she quickly added, "he was very delusional at the time, I don't think he quite knew what he was doing."
"Oh, you're right, that makes it so much better."
B'Elanna didn't like the way the conversation was heading, so she quickly changed the subject. "Tom might have taken your emitter with him to see if he could make you work on the shuttle, but your program was here, not in there."
"And knowing Mr. Paris, he wouldn't think to put it back," The Doctor said bitterly.
"I'm going to beam back to the shuttle and try to find it. I'll wake Tom up if I have to. Then we can really start working." She looked up at him with her, intense 'don't get in my way or you'll end up bleeding on the floor' eyes. "I want you to turn off your program until I activate you again. You can't do any work without a patient and quite frankly, with you off, more power could go to getting life support up to standards."
The Doctor straightened himself, acting more noble than was necessary. "Anything if it will help the crew."
"Thanks," she said, her eyes much kinder. She pushed two buttons and the doctor crackled and dissolved.
The conscious trio sat in Sickbay. The Doc was scanning Tom with their one working tricorder. So many indicator lights flashed on that it took even the doctor a minute to sort out what was really important and what could wait. Tom insisted on being injected with pain killer first and foremost, the doc complied, but added scoldingly. "Aside form countless cuts and bruises, you seem to be slightly concussed, this along with sleep deprivation and malnourishment should account for the delirium you reported."
Tom blinked his eyes and tried to make the Doc come into focus, "Who said I was suffering from delirium?" He was, or at least he knew he had been, but he didn't remember telling anyone that.
"Lt. Torres did," the doctor said crisply. Tom swung his head to look accusingly at his beautiful shipmate, and instantly regretted it as someone decided to set fire crackers off in his cranium.
"Well, I didn't actually say delirium." B'Elanna said, trying to defend herself.
"She said you were delusional," the Doctor supplied.
"And on what information did you base that diagnosis?" Tom demanded of B'Elanna, completely ignoring the doctor, who had moved on to scan her.
"One the fact that you kissed me when I was sleeping."
Tom blinked a few times, "I kissed you?"
"And I woke up, remember?"
His eyes focused inward as he tried to find a memory that he had no doubt he had, yet could not bring to mind despite himself. "No, I don't."
B'Elanna didn't say anything because it wasn't really his fault and she knew it, but he could tell that upset her.
"The pulse," Doc interrupted. "How did it work?"
"My guess is that I somehow activated it while I was in the pin and then it was sent out from there, somehow draining all the kinetic energy out of everything it encountered, while somehow leaving all the potential energy." The boys looked confused. "That's why the ship was powerless when all the systems that made the power were undamaged."
"Yes," the doc exclaimed. "That would also account for the fact that everyone is sleeping, they had the kinetic energy drained out of them,"
"Hold on," Tom interrupted, his brain was not nearly up to par yet and he was struggling to keep up. "Wouldn't that kill them?"
"No," the doctor said, quite annoyed at his medic's medical shortcomings. "Unlike a warp core the human body will not sit still and let itself be turned off. Even after all the kinetic energy was drained from it, the body immediately started creating more."
"Well, how come I wasn't affected?" Tom asked.
"I'm willing to bet you somehow fell into the rip in sub space," B'Elanna said.
"It slid right over me."
"Right."
"So then, how come you weren't affected?"
B'Elanna looked confused. "I was, I was asleep for four days."
"Your environmental suit was also functioning thirty hours after the pulse hit it."
B'Elanna was silent for a moment, this she didn't quite understand.
"The environmental suit's power supply is quite well guarded," the Doctor supplied. "It is quite possible that, if the pin was the source of the pulse, it was very weak, and grew stronger as it accumulated more kinetic energy.
"Of course," B'Elanna said, understanding where they were and where they were going just a little better every second. Despite the fact that everyone she knew and loved had very nearly died, this was the part of the job she loved. "The pulse was weak, and only took my bio energy, because it was not guarded. As it moved across space it was able to pick up light rays and moving dust and a hundred other things and eventually it grew so strong that it could overpower Voyager's shields. Now, people are sleeping to get that energy back but they can't wake up because they need more than just sleep. They need . . ." she was an engineer, not a doctor. She motioned her hands vaguely, coxing the two medically trained men in the room to finish the thought.
"A jump start." Tom said, a little bit of sunlight breaking through the clouds over his eyes. Both B'Elanna and the doctor gave him utterly confused looks. Tom decided he had better elucidate. "A jump start, an extra burst of energy supplied by someone else. When I kissed you, I offered you that extra bit of energy, and you woke up."
"So you remember the kiss?" B'Elanna asked, smiling.
Tom returned her smile, "Its coming back."
The Doctor cleared his throat and made it apparent that this was not a romantic interlude. "So all we have to do is pump everyone full of stimulants and they'll wake up."
"No," Tom said. "That won't work, it's still just potential energy. I gave B'Elanna a huge dose of stimulants . . ."
"Well, that explains a few things," the doctor mumbled.
Paris ignored him, not missing a beat. "Plus I injected everyone on the ship with a vitamin supplement. That doesn't work, they need actual . . . energy."
"We could have you go around the ship and kiss every crew man," the doctor suggested helpfully, he was ignored.
B'Elanna nodded and talked to Tom "We could do that. If I were to send another pulse, ah, an energy giving pulse, instead of an energy draining pulse throughout the ship it should be enough to make everyone wake up."
"Could you do that?"
"As soon as I get the warp field back online, it should be no problem."
"Great, let's do it!" Tom said, jumping off the bio-bed and immediately regretting it, the pain killers either hadn't taken effect yet, or his head really hurt.
"Wait!" The doctor said, nearly in a frenzy. "Not so fast. Now I don't want to sound like Mr. Neelix, but the fact of the matter is that neither of you have eaten in four days. I absolutely refuse to let either of you leave this sickbay until you've received some nourishment."
The pair looked at the hologram, looked at each other, and then turned and walked out of the sickbay doors where they knew he could not follow.
"You go to the bridge, I'll go to engineering." B'Elanna said as they walked down the corridor at a rapid clip.
"What should I do on the bridge?" Tom asked.
"Well, the captain will be there. I imagine she'll want a full report on what happened.
Tom smiled, "Yes ma'am."
She whapped him playfully on the arm before they went their separate ways.
Captain's Log, stardate whatever . . .
With the help of Lt. Torres and Lt. Paris, we were able to overcome the F'AHRIES's eternal sleep. We have been able to analyze the information they gathered on the pin and the sub-space rift, and have determined a way to fly over the fold, cutting over two years off of our trip.
As far as the ships moral goes, Voyager has never been more rested, with one notable exception . . .
Tom Paris was fast asleep, and he was dreaming.
It wasn't a coherent dream, it consisted chiefly of him ridding a bicycle through the hallways of Voyager, he was looking for B'Elanna, trying to get to engineering, but he just kept riding in circles beginning and ending in Sickbay. It was nonsensical and bizarre. He was not at all disappointed when he heard B'Elanna's voice in the halls. "Tom," she said frankly. "Tom, wake up."
Usually that would do it, but Tom was extremely tired. He kept dreaming.
He rode his bike towards the voice and ended up in . . . Sickbay. He was exceptionally disappointed. He was about to go out and try again when the ship was rocked with some unknown attack. 'What's going on?' the dream-Tom asked the doc, who was juggling the scanning units from medical tricorders. 'Come on lazybones get out of bed,' the dream-Doc informed him in B'Elanna's voice. 'What?' dream-Tom demanded, utterly confused. 'It's oh-nine-hundred, we're already late for the staff meeting, get up' dream-Doc/B'Elanna practically yelled. Tom just looked at him? her ? it? them?, bewildered. Suddenly, B'Elanna's voice changed tone, she was no longer annoyed. 'Maybe this will work,' she said seductively, as the Doctor walked around a bio-bed towards Tom. The piolet was so confused and bewildered that he didn't even try to stop the doctor as the hologram planted a passionate open-mouthed kiss right on his lips.
Tom woke up with a start.
B'Elanna jerked back, perplexed at his adverse reaction to her kiss. When he had kissed her while she was asleep she found it very agreeable. "Tom?"
He took a deep look as the shock of the situation washed over him, "B'Elanna?"
"Are you all right?"
"Ah, yea, fine, why?"
"Well," B'Elanna said, making it clear that she would be rolling off a list of offences "First of all, you slept through your alarm, second, you're, as of now, fifteen minuets late to a staff meeting, third, I've been trying to wake you up for five minuets, and last but not least, when I kissed you, you woke up screaming."
Tom looked at her, blinking. "I thought you were the Doc." He said, before he realized that was not a smart thing to say.
"You thought I was the Doctor?" B'Elanna asked tersely.
Tom suddenly realized what his half asleep brain had done. He looked up at her and smiled to make amends. "Let's just say, I'm glad I'm awake."