Chapter 2: Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows
Valerie's POV:

After getting lost countless times I tried my old approach, something that seemed to have worked throughout all my childhood and hopefully would also work now. I sat down.

Now sitting does seem to waste time and isn't the most productive manner of finding your way around but trust me, it works better than most people expect it will. Here, why would anyone not wearing the uniform be sitting around this so called 'star ship'?

For one, I attract attention, and for two sitting helps with that!

Someone finally walked past and noticed me just sitting there. I told you it works!

"Do you need help?" he asked smiling at me.

"Um… could you please give me directions to the Captain's ready room?" I asked sheepishly, grinning as I pushed myself off the ground.

"Considering the computer and I give horrible directions, and I'm headed close to that way I might as well walk you" he said jokingly but I couldn't help the overwhelming urge to hug him.

"Thanks, I'm Valerie by the way, Valerie Chase"

"No problems Valerie, I'm Tom, Tom Paris" he said as he grinned at me, beginning to lead the way to wherever we were going. And he was right, I would've gotten lost if he'd just given me directions, but I didn't understand what he meant about the computer giving horrible directions. Internally sighing I promised myself I'd figure it out at some later point in time, for now I had to focus on my meeting and trying to figure out how to get back home!

With the pointless chit-chat going on he somehow managed to keep me laughing, and time passed extremely fast. So the next thing I realized was we were in an elevator (or turbo lift as he referred to it as though I reckon they're the same thing with just a fancier name for this!) and we got out at the 'bridge'.

Immediately I was aware of the people sitting around here, and standing, walking and just mentioning things that I couldn't wrap my head around. Yellow, blue and red uniforms, my guess was they all symbolized something.

"The Captain's ready room is right over there" Tom said, pointing me towards the door and sadly attracting a bit more attention to us. Or probably me because I was 'new' here, but still I smiled slightly at Tom, nodding meekly and walking, or rather slightly running to what would be the safety of this ready room. Then I wouldn't hear what they'd say about me either!

"Hello Miss Chase… would you like something to drink?" she asked me, smiling as I entered.

"Um… a hot chocolate with marshmallows please ma'am" I said, trying to be as polite as I could for now. I knew nothing about her, yet there was something that told me she knew more about me, more about this situation than I'd like!

"Computer; two drinks, one coffee, black, hot and one chocolate milk, hot with marshmallows" she said and I raised by eyebrow before jumping and letting out a slight yelp as I saw two things just… just… appear. The Captain laughed slightly, carrying the drink over to the desk. "Please sit"

Nervously I sniffed the hot chocolate, feeling heaps calmer already. Chocolate has funny effects on people… especially me!

"So tell me a bit about yourself" she said, I could tell there was a sense of curiosity, so what harm could it do telling the basics? This had to be a prank of some kind as I doubt kidnappers would go to these lengths so I complied.

"I'm Valerie Chase, born 1994 in London on my parent's vacation; we went back to America a couple of months later… um… what do I call you?" I asked awkwardly, I didn't want to continuously call her Captain, or ma'am.

"Kathryn will do" she said, drinking a bit of her coffee. I never understood how people managed to drink their coffee black.

"So what kind of joke is this anyway?" I finally asked, unable to contain the question.

"Oh, I can assure you this is no joke, as much as I'd like to tell you it is… perhaps it would be best if you were informed about the situation we're in"

"That might be helpful" I stated bluntly.

"We're in the year 2371. We encountered problems shortly after first leaving and ended up here in the Delta quadrant, 70 000 light years from earth. We've been trying to make it back there ever since we arrived. But about you… well honestly we can't work out how you ended up here let alone in the condition that we originally found you in. We found you on an away mission on another planet, it may've been finding you that distracted Neelix long enough for whomever, or whatever it was that took his lungs, or you came off lucky as Chakotay and Harry came as quickly as they could and found the two of you"

I remained silent after her explanation, and during it. It couldn't be true… that… this… this was over 300 years in my future? That was beyond impossible… it was more than that!

Then something else caught my attention.

"Someone's lungs were removed?" I half yelled.

"Yes, unfortunately; thankfully the doctor has come up with a temporary solution but for now we're in a pursuit course of the other vessel to retrieve them in hopes to keep him alive and return his mobility"

"He can't still be alive though…" I trailed off quite seriously.

"Thankfully he is, the doctor created a pair of holographic lungs to temporarily solve the problem but we don't know exactly what's going to happen considering that's an unprecedented case… much like yours"

I didn't bother questioning how it might work, what mattered was it obviously did. Besides, I probably wouldn't understand it anyway!

"I realize that it's a lot for you to take in for the moment but…" she was cut off as another voice sounded through the room, I couldn't place it though. Some strange walky-talky though probably… I remember having them as a little kid to keep in contact with my best friend and next door neighbour before he moved away.

"Captain, we've completed our diagnostic on the alien device" I heard a woman's voice say.

"I'm on my way" she replied quickly, standing up and beginning to walk towards the door, motioning for me to follow her out to the bridge again. She began talking to a woman, and another man talking about some sort of device. I didn't exactly follow but I highly doubt I was expected to. What I did understand was that she was saying that they were designed to tell you about the anatomy of a person, including the DNA.

"Captain" another man interrupted, catching my attention as well. The tattoo on the side of his face really was the part that caught my attention. "The alien ship's dropped out of warp, heading for a large asteroid"

"On screen" she ordered, and I both confused and amazed as the image of a ship heading towards the large asteroid. That was a really cool TV screen. Or at least that's what I thought it was, I was going to prove that this was nothing but an illusion soon enough. Something just wouldn't fit soon enough.

Hearing them speak about how this asteroid was probably made and they couldn't 'scan' the inside of it I didn't really care, though I was grateful that this 'asteroid' and this so called 'creature' or whatever were taking the attention off of me.

There were times and places for attention, now wasn't one of them!

"Red alert" I heard her say and suddenly the lights seemed to darken, a beeping and flashes of light showing vaguely what was happening inside the ship along with the lights from all the electronic equipment around us. "Mr Paris lay in a course"

A/N: Horrible cliff hanger I know because we all know what happens but over time the cliff hangers will have more to do with Val. I'm just still trying to set this up so please excuse this, and thanks to both CallHerVictor and Liberty Girl In the Sky for reviewing so feedback and critiques are welcome, have fun.

FaelwenofLothlorien