Survivors - Past and Present
by
Nicol Leoraine
and
Anon
aka VirtualQueens
Disclaimer:We do not own any of the recognizable/original characters, places or made no profit off of this story and meant to disrespect to the writers/owners of said do own this plot and any new characters/places/things.
Title: Survivors - Past and Present
Genre: Adventure/Angst/Action
Warnings: None
Rating: PG (possible some cursing)
Archive: Sure, but ask the authors first
Chapter 1 - 'Out of the Fire'
"Way to go Paris," thought Tom as another fist landed on his chest, knocking the wind out of him with brutal force. He fell to the floor, pulling his furious opponent with him, and as he fell Tom caught sight of the smirk upon their audience´s face. That half Klingon monster was enjoying this!
The fight stopped suddenly, Grange´s fist halfway to Tom´s face, with the arrival of former Maquis Captain Chakotay.
"What the hell is going on" the demoted captain shouted, and Tom, with some effort, straightened his bent form. He wouldn't show pain, not to them.
B´Elanna Torres didn´t even try to wipe the hate from her face, though the other Maquis, the one who'd been beating the crap out of Tom, looked a little troubled. Tom noted his adversaries quickly swelling nose and smiled every so slightly with satisfaction. At least he'd been able to get in a few good punches.
"Well" asked Chakotay, glaring at Tom.
Chakotay took his position of Commander seriously and he felt it necessary to stop his former crew from initializing any unneeded conflicts with Voyagers original members. Besides, Tom had saved his life not so long ago and Chakotay had never been one to leave debts un-paid.
"Nothing, sir" mumbled Tom, his torn lip stating different. Chakotay caught the satisfied grimace on the other opponents face, and frowned at him.
"Grange! What happened to your nose"
"Bumped into the wall, captain" said Grange, his face reddening with the mention of the blow he'd been unable to avoid. Chakotay didn´t even try to remind the man that he wasn't captain anymore. Perhaps if he was still seen as a captain, they'd listen to him more attentively.
"And you Paris? Don´t tell me you bumped into the same wall."
"No, sir. I fell" Tom replied promptly, a small smirk showing from behind his swollen mouth.
"I take it you saw how clumsy they both were, B´Elanna"
"Paris fell, and pushed Grange on the way down. It seems common for him to bring down anyone who's near" B´Elanna said in a scathing tone. Tom instantly felt his chest constrict in anger at her words. The painful part was, she was right, at least about his affect on others.
In truth Tom couldn´t remember who started the fight. They´d brushed past each other in the corridor and moments later they were on the ground, throwing wild punches and insults at one another. Torres had appeared behind Grange a few seconds after the fight started, goading them on. As she´d watched savagely from the sidelines Tom had thought she might join in, but apparently fighting with mere humans was beneath her Klingon heritage.
Now B'Elanna looked more than a little unsatisfied about the fact that she had passed up an opportunity to hit him. Paris almost laughed.
"I don´t care what the two of you have going on, but it stops now." Chakotay ordered, looking at Grange and Paris, and then throwing one warning glance at B´Elanna. She snorted and turned away.
"Get cleaned up, Paris. Grange, I think you´re needed in the environmentals." Chakotay waited till both men walked there separate ways, then headed for the Bridge. It seemed that Captain Janeway had some assignment for him.
xxxxxxx
Three hours later Tom stood in the shuttle bay, thinking that this was not a good way to start an away mission. Janeway had ordered an away team to take a shuttle down to a nearby M-class planet and mine some of its dilithium while Voyager investigated a possible wormhole, a three day flight from the planet. Janeway had also hinted that while on the planet some fresh food would be a welcome change from some of Neelix´s more ´exotic´ dishes.
The away team consisted of none other than Tom Paris himself, and Commander Chakotay. Paris doubted that it had been the commander´s decision to go on this mission with him, but there hadn´t been much of a choice.
Despite his past Tom was the best pilot on the ship, and the scans of the planets surface had shown the possibility of electrical storms, something only Paris had experience flying through.
If they'd had more time, or a different planet, Janeway probably wouldn't have chosen ex-prisoner Pairs, but supplies of dilithum with dwindling and no other worlds suitable for mining showed up on scans, even long range ones.
Perhaps it wouldn´t have been so bad, mused Tom, had the situation not gotten entirely out of control. He´d welcomed the chance to spend a few days away from Voyager and a crew that despised him. Remembering the earlier conflict with bitterness Tom touched his still throbbing lip. It wasn't worth the visit to sickbay, knowing he'd have to listen to that annoying hologram.
Who was he kidding? Everyone on board, with a very few exceptions, hated him with a passion. If it were possible, the crew would have formed an 'Anti-Tom Paris club'. He was sure both the Maquis and Starfleet crewmembers would join. With the hostile atmosphere in mind, Tom had readily agreed with Janeway´s order to pilot the shuttle. Janeway however failed to mention who the other members of the away team were. Had Tom know in advance who his traveling companions would be, he would've jumped out the airlock rather than suffer their company.
He´d arrived in the shuttle bay right on time and met up with Ensign Harry Kim. Though inexperienced, Harry was nice enough and hadn´t yet been openly hostile to Tom, so it didn´t seem too bad. Tom was midway through a speech about the attributes of certain female crewmembers, and Harry was just starting to blush, when a loud cough interrupted him. It was Chakotay, regarding them with a frown, as if he'd just discovered a pair of exceptionally ugly aliens sitting in his shuttle pod.
"Everything ready" Chakotay barked, shoulders stiff.
"Yes sir" Tom muttered in a barely audible voice, his cheerful mood having evaporated at the sight of the commander.
As he moved to the front of the shuttle, Tom comforted himself with the thought that it could´ve been worse. That part Klingon woman could be there. He shuddered at the mere thought.
"A little cold for you, Paris" the voice of his nightmare asked with malicious delight. Tom spun around, coming face to face with B´Elanna Torres. This mission had officially turned into a disaster. And they hadn´t even left Voyager yet.
xxxxxx
Twenty minutes later, Tom had upgraded the mission´s status to 'catastrophe'. He could hardly control the little shuttle as it was thrown about by the powerful storms that had hit the planet as soon as they entered the atmosphere. It was too late to turn the shuttle around and head back to Voyager, not to mention the fact that Chakotay wasn't to keen on the idea of informing his 'new captain' that they didn't even reach the surface.
So Tom gritted his teeth and flew one handed, using the other to type in commands that would hopefully keep the little ship aloft. B'Elanna was making a point to drop suggestive remarks about his lack of piloting skills every few moments, but Tom resolutely kept his mouth shut, making no mention of the fact that they'd been assured the storms would cause no problems.
SOMETHING was definitely creating a problem, and Tom doubted it was his skill, or lack of there of, as a pilot. As the shuttle jerked again, sending its occupants sprawling, the main lightning flickered out, leaving only the dim blue glow of the emergency back up. For a single, almost comedic moment, the ship seemed to hover in mid air. Then it began to drop, speeding towards the earth in a nose dive.
Somewhere amid the screeching of over stressed metal Chakotay yelled"Brace for impact" , but then the time ran out and the little shuttle hit the ground, crumpling like an old fashioned aluminum can, crushed under the weight of someone´s foot. With the final jolt, the shuttle's emergency lights went out and the occupants lost their fight with the darkness.
-T-B-C-
A/N - Anon:
So this is our first story together, but all in all I thought it wasn't to bad. -) Reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated. -)
A/N - Nicol:
Well, like Anon said, Read and Review, we´re waiting. The second chapter should be up very soon, depends on what we get-)