B'Elanna was furious. Furious at herself, for agreeing to this competition, and furious at Tom for suggesting it. "Way to go, Tom. Wonderful job, now we're stuck at the top of a tree, on an unfamiliar planet, and we can't be beamed out! Thanks a ton."

"Don't put all the blame on me, you agreed to do it! It's not my fault we're both so good at climbing trees!" Tom was more annoyed than angry. "And you won, so what's there to be mad about? I never should have challenged you. This was a stupid idea."

"Yeah, it was!" B'Elanna crossed her eyes and looked the other way. "How long do you think it'll be before they find us. Minutes? Hours? Days?"

"B'Elanna, stop being so dramatic. They'll find a way to contact us soon enough. What's your problem?"

"My problem is that we're stuck at the top of a tree for god knows how long!" B'Elanna's temper was back to full strength.

"Hey, it's not so bad. As a last resort, we could always start eating the bark and the leaves. We could always drink the sap as well."

"If you haven't noticed, Tom, we're in the Delta Quadrant. Anything and everything could be poisonous." B'Elanna's temper was starting to quiet back down.

"You know, if we were back on Earth in the old days, they would've had to send a 'Fire engine' to get us down."

That piqued B'Elanna's interest. "A fire engine? What is that?"

"It's a type of vehicle they used to transport water to a fire. Some of them had ladders that were tall that they could use to rescue people from a burning building. It's quite interesting. They even named a color after it, 'fire engine red'."

"So you're telling me they didn't have a fire suppression system back then. Only trucks that would transport the water?"

"Kind of. But someone invented it later on"

Just then, Chakotay hailed them. "Chakotay to Lieutenant Paris"

Tom tapped his com badge, "Here."

"You alright Tom?"

"We're fine. Lieutenant Torres is here as well. How soon until we can get down?"

"We're sending a shuttle down now. This ought to make a good story for Naomi."

"Chakotay, this is B'Elanna. If you breath a word of this to anyone, I'll throttle you."

Chakotay chuckled. "Alright Lieutenant. I won't say anything. I can't account for Mr. Neelix, though. Chakotay out."

B'Elanna looked over at Tom, who was grinning like a madman. "What?"

"Nothing."

"What!?"

"If only the Doc could have a picture of this for his monthly slideshow.."

B'Elanna resisted the urge to smile as long as she could. "Alright, I admit this must look pretty funny." They both chuckled for a few minutes before she spoke again. "But truly, if you tell Neelix, I'll kill you."

Tom looked further amused. "Yeah, but how will you do it? Will you throttle me like Chakotay? Or will I get a crude method, like getting stabbed in the back."

"I'm thinking I'll peel your skin off and eat your heart."

"Perfect."