I know they aren't mine, I'm just borrowing them for a little while.
Killing Time
Three days, honestly Tom wasn't sure how much time passed, but they both agreed it felt like three days, and once a day one large bowl of... food... and a large fountain of water was placed in the middle of the room. "Pretend its cereal." Tom suggested after they started at it for a while. Without a tricorder they couldn't tell what was in it, but with the other option being to go hungry, there wasn't much of an option.
The bowl contained small round pieces of... Tom picked up a piece and smelled it. It didn't smell like anything. "What do you think?"
B'Elanna looked at it with disgust. "Not me."
With a deep breath, he popped it in his mouth and chewed. It crunched. "Tastes like oat bran." He said, now ready to test the water. It looked and smelled okay. He took a drink. This at least tasted like real water.
"I knew someone with a dog once." B'Elanna said slowly as she eyed the food. "His food looked like this."
"So?"
"Do you have any idea what they put in dog food?" She cast a glare in his direction.
"It isn't dog food. It's better then Leola root."
B'Elanna took a piece. "Ugh, I don't know, at least Leola root had a taste to it."
They ate about a quarter of the food, and after five minutes passed and neither of them touched it, the bowl disappeared. That was their first indication that they were being watched.
B'Elanna paced. She explored every inch of the damn room, but could find nothing. No panels, no doors, just the one vent below the bunks too small to even fit her hand into. And the clothes, bad enough being kidnapped by something, but she woke up wearing some kind of cotton jump suit, which meant it had to be put on her somehow, and having some alien playing dress-up with her unconscious body sent creeps up her spine. It made her want to break something, but even that seemed to be impossible as their bunks, the table, and even the chair were all fastened to the ground. Even the damn food bowl and water fountain were immovable. It made her want to scream.
"You're making me dizzy." Tom muttered from the bunk. Unlike B'Elanna he'd hardly moved at all.
"I intend to get out of here, and if you could think of doing something more constructive then just sitting there and watching me, maybe we'd find a way out!"
He grinned at her. "I can think of worse places to be confined."
B'Elanna just about answered him before it dawned on her that he wasn't joking.
He stood up and took a drink from the fountain. "Look at it this way, we aren't injured or dead, we have food and water, so obviously they don't intend to kill us, yet. Voyager is going to know we're missing by now, and it's only a matter of time before they find us." He shrugged and looked around the room. "I'm not saying we shouldn't be trying to escape, but don't drive yourself nuts about it either."
"Fine." She sat down on the bench by the table. "What should we do then?"
Tom grinned. "You want suggestions?"
"Pig." But she couldn't help but grin just a little in return. "We're being watched remember?"
"I know." He looked at the ground a second, trying to be serious. "Well, we could discuss the merits of incorporating Borg technology into the navigational systems."
"But we're both against that." B'Elanna pointed out.
"Okay. So which one of us should pretend to be Seven?"
B'Elanna decided to let Tom play the part of Seven. It was a stupid discussion, but it killed time, and that seemed to be the only thing for them left to do.
B'Elanna noticed the hiss first and saw the gas crawling along the floor. "Tom." She said quietly and moved away. Tom stared at it for a moment. B'Elanna watched him, and she could see the emotions that played across his face. Confusion, fear, anger, anger won, but he didn't do anything, there was no enemy to fight. He simply stood and watched as the gas clouded the room.
The gas slowly and insidiously filled the room, and Tom proved to be more susceptible to whatever poisons it contained. He felt heavy; his eyes burned and watered, and eventually it became difficult to breath. B'Elanna helped him sit down, but she felt it too. Neither of the said a word, simply held hands and tried to stay awake. The same thoughts raced through both their minds, what if this is it? The end? B'Elanna held Tom as his eyes slowly closed and he slipped into unconsciousness. Not dead; under her hand she could still feel his chest rising and falling, she could still feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. Not dead yet…
When B'Elanna woke up, she was alone. A headache throbbed behind her eyes, and as she struggled to her feet, her coordination felt off. She didn't start screaming threats or demands she didn't make a sound. No answers would come to her here; all she could do was wait.
Let me know if you think the story is worth being continued…
But please, if you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague. J