I know it has been a while, I guess I just needed something to get stuck into again after I lost my enthusiasm for writing. I hope this story is it, seeing as the plot has been going round my head for months. Please enjoy.

ALL THE HORSES

Janeway didn't know what on Earth had possessed her to agree to Tom's little side project, and she certainly had no idea why she was here right now listening to him spew endless reams of tecnobabble at her. Sure she was kind of interested, and in the long run a faster, better armed shuttle would be beneficial. Right now however Voyager had bigger things to worry about. Including a distinct lack of Dilithium, seriously low food supplies and according to B'elanna a couple of dangerously overheating engine coils. Maybe Janeway thought as Tom continued to talk blindly to her, oblivious of her wondering thoughts, that this was simply a distraction, some good news in a long line of bad and worse.

"So you see, a couple more weeks and she will be up and running, I just need to get some more supplies to finish her off." Tom concluded as the light from the single lamp illuminating the cargo bay flickered for a moment. The shadows grew and Tom couldn't see Janeway's face as she stood not two meters in front of him. Her silence though had him worried, but just as he was about to take a step closer to her the light returned, casting its eerie glow across them once more. Tom tilted his head to the side as Janeway continued to stand before him in silence. Her own expression one of concern as she slowly moved her head around the room as if looking for something.

"What is it?" Tom enquired as Janeway's finger made it to her lips, silencing him without a single word. Tom listened along with her now, and at first he heard nothing, just the slight hum from the lamp behind him, and the ever present throng from Voyagers engines. Now tuning into that noise he realised that something was indeed wrong. Normally Voyagers engines sounded smooth constant, but now the pitch was higher and wavering. Before Tom could voice his thoughts on the matter Janeway had reached for her communicator, its chirp reverberating around the cargo bay.

"Janeway to engineering, B'elanna what's going on down there." Janeway's voice was clipped but not yet panicked, her chief engineer had not thought the situation bad enough to call her, and so far the ship was still making its way though the Delta quadrant.

"Not sure yet captain, but I think it maybe as simple as we are running low on fuel I suggest we cut all main power apart from life support, we need to get to a planet and find supplies." B'elanna, replied, Tom noted that her voice, although held its usual clipped tone also contained a slight air of urgency, one Janeway was obviously going to take seriously.

"Janeway to Chacotay, I want you to issue orders to everyone we are now flying on minimal power only, everything goes except life support, we will run sensor sweeps every half an hour for two minutes, and head for the nearest M class world." Janeway said not even bothering to issue a goodbye to her chief engineer before getting in contact with her XO. Janeway was sure B'elanna probably wouldn't even have noticed, and getting this ship and her crew safe was Janeway's main priority.

"Understood, I will also move the crew into a few decks so we can shut down life support to the others." Chacotay replied as Janeway headed for the door. Tom followed her quickly switching off the lamp and casting them into almost complete darkness, now only the green emergency lighting illuminated their way as Janeway told Chacotay that she would be arriving on the bridge shortly.

Walking though Voyagers corridors Janeway could sense Tom just behind her, she knew she didn't have to talk to him, no orders would have to be issued and no conversation needed. The darkness was almost a God send right now, for Janeway knew if Tom could see her face he would ask her if she was ok, and right now she was far from ok, in fact Janeway wasn't even sure if she would even see ok again. Stepping onto the turbo lift she waited until Tom was inside before she barked the order for the lift to take them to the bridge. As they began to move Janeway lent back against the wall and took in a deep breath, she surprised herself when her lips shook slightly and the exhale shuddered from her, looking over at Tom Janeway saw him looking right back at her. His eyes the only bit of him she could see clearly, were telling her that he wanted to ask her if everything was all right, yet he said nothing, the words stuck somewhere between is brain and his mouth. Just as his lips fell apart and Janeway stiffened ready to snap of the standard reply that she was fine the lift bucked, sending its occupants into the walls. Janeway felt her head snapped back connecting with the hard bulk head, dropping to her knees she felt the deck plates below her swing and sway as Voyager seemed to be spinning in space. Unable to recover her footing Janeway crawled on her hands a knees towards the control panel. Suddenly something hard and pointy smacked her in the side of her head. Taken down onto her back Janeway threw her arms up to cover her face as a flaying Tom Paris landed right on her midsection. Winded and still being thrown about by the turbo lift Janeway could only clutch at her stomach and pray that it would all stop soon.

Tom wasn't sure what had happened after he came crashing down on Janeway, all he could think was she was not a soft a landing as he had expecting. The wall that had also intercepted his head on the way to the floor had not helped with him remaining conscious, the world had blacked into a swaying world of pain, and now he could here his name being called. Checking to make sure everything was in working order, Tom was surprised to find it was. Allowing his eyes to slip open a crack Tom was then panicked by the total darkness that surrounded him.

"Oh God I'm blind!" Tom exclaimed reaching up to his face to rub his eyes, hoping to get them to work. Before he could get there however a pair of hands grasped his wrists, long tapering fingers held his hands away from his face. Their grip far stronger than the thinness of them would suggest, and what's more they were cold, for a moment in the total darkness Tom wondered if he had indeed died and this was the cold hand of death.

"Tom you are not blind its just dark in here, something has happened to Voyager."

Tom would have known that voice anywhere his body relaxed immediately, his hands dropped away from his face as Janeway's grip retreated and he could here shuffling coming from beside him.

"We need to get out of here and see what has happened, and make sure everyone else is ok." Janeway said her voice now coming from above him as Tom carefully got his feet. Reaching out in the darkness to find something to hold on to his hand came into connection with something soft and pliable. A soft grunt came and Tom snatched his hand away and muttered an apology, retreating backwards he finally connected with the wall as Janeway began moving in front of him again.

"What about the communicators?" Tom said suddenly, but before he could reach up and tap his own Janeway spoke up.

"No use I already tried, no one is answering, probably something wrong with them." Janeway said, she didn't need to air the thought of no one being left alive and able to reply, that thought right now was far to horrible, and a little dangerous.

"We need to get out of here, can you locate the hatch on top of the lift?" Janeway enquired in a not so subtle change of conversation, but right now Tom welcomed it. Reaching around Tom swayed slightly as his fingers met with the ceiling. His hands finally brushing the latch to the hatch, it was however to high for him to get a good grasp of it so he could open it. Stumbling slightly he threw out a hand and steadied himself against the wall.

"I can feel it, but I can't get a good hold, if I boost you up though, you might be able to get it open." Tom said slightly out of breath as his bruised ribs protested slightly at all the stretching.

"Ok get a good position and I will use the wall to steady myself." Janeway said her voice coming closer in the darkness.

At first it was just hard to get the balance with no vision what so ever, then once Janeway was up she couldn't quickly find the latch and they had to start again. It was like throwing a dart at a board from twenty feet away blind fold, and both of them were becoming exhausted by the effort.

"Ok this is ridiculous, we need to think of another way to do this." Janeway said finally, sitting on the ground and pulling her knees up to her chest. It was cold in the turbo lift, this suggested that something was wrong with Voyagers environmental controls, or worse, that somewhere she was venting atmosphear into space.

"How about you get on my shoulders and I can then walk around until you find the hatch." Tom suggested a moment later, Janeway remained silent for a moment it was risky, if they fell in that position they could be seriously hurt, on the other hand they had little option.

"Fine bend down slightly." Janeway said standing up and feeling around for Tom, going careful to avoid hitting any sensitive areas, still feeling slightly embarrassed by Tom's earlier mistake of thinking her right breast was a wall, she finally managed to find the right spot in the dark.

With some effort Tom got off his knees to his feet, it wouldn't have been so hard if it were not pitch black, and his ribs were not so sore, but right now even Janeway's light frame was causing him sufficient problems to send his balance off.

"Have you got it yet?" Tom huffed as he could feel her moving around on his shoulders.

"Yes I have it stop." Janeway called as Tom stood still as a rock, even as his knees began to shake. The sound of the hatch opening and the dim glow of the shaft lighting peaking in through the opening was like heaven as Janeway grasped on to the edge of the hatch and climbed up.

"How does it look?" Tom called as Janeway's face appeared in the gap.

"Not to bad, but an emergency bulk head has closed right above us, luckily we are only a few feet from the next level." Janeway said as she extended her hand downwards offering Tom help to get himself up. He took it gratefully as he heaved himself up and over the edge, for a moment he was breathless and Janeway said nothing to get him moving. She knew he needed time to recover, that he was probably covering up some injury, and for right now she would let him continue to pretend he was ok. There wasn't much she could have done for him anyway, Janeway thought as she surveyed the surrounding area, trying to gain as much information as she could. There was however little to no clue as to what had happened to Voyager. For Janeway was now sure it was the entire ship, and not just their turbo lift that had suffered some kind of disaster. She knew because Voyagers engines were silent, and everyone inside appeared to be silent as well.

"Ok it says here we are on deck eleven, we need to try and make it to the bridge, but if as I think, there has been some kind of disaster the computer would have locked it down, hence that emergency bulk head." Janeway said piercing the silence with her voice as Tom got off the floor and stood beside her.

"Then we should take the access conduits that run alongside the ships sensor systems, one opens out behind the oops console on the bridge." Tom suggested as he saw Janeway nod.

"Just what I was thinking Mr Paris, but first we had better get out of this lift shaft." Janeway smiled at him slightly, and Tom was grateful for the reassurance. He had no idea what lay beyond that door to deck eleven, is worst fear was that everyone else was gone, and they were the only two people left on Voyager, and yet they had to leave, they had to try and find the others and see if they could get Voyager going again. With his heart pounding in his chest, he watched as Janeway took the panel off the wall and pulled the manual release leaver. The door hissed open half way and then stopped, but it was just enough to see the carnage beyond.

TBC...

Hope you enjoyed that, will be attempting to update this week as actually have some time off. Thank you for reading XxX