III.

...takes place directly before "Alliances", mid-season 2

"So the higher the warp oscillations, the higher the structural resonance stress on the dilithium matrix. But, the higher resonance can give us the push we need to break into transwarp frequencies. We just need to get the balance right," Paris insisted as he grinned and leaned back precariously in the holodeck shuttle craft's pilot seat, hands resting behind his head. B'Elanna rolled her eyes at him and narrowly resisted the urge to kick up on the seat of the chair, sending him toppling.

They had been at this for hours, chasing their own thoughts in circles and that after the full day of their regular shifts. Thus far, they hadn't come up with anything concrete enough to bring to the captain, and so their work to create a stable transwarp field had been on their own time. Harry was covering a beta shift in Ops this evening, leaving B'Elanna and Tom to their project. The pilot had apparently had a slow day at the conn and was still full of an energy that in some other time and place might have been infectious. On the other hand, B'Elanna, who had spent another day patching engines in desperate need of a dry dock, was approaching exhaustion and both her nerves and temper were rapidly fraying.

"Thanks for the summary," she growled in the pilot's general direction. "Any contribution on how to accomplish that little feat?"

He blinked at her tone and glanced over, giving her an appraising look that reminded her he had been trained as a field medic. Whatever he saw made him sit back up, turning his chair towards hers and leaning forward. "Not much. I'm just a pilot, remember?" He gave a grin that was at the same time impish and self-deprecating, and she found herself relaxing just a bit. Over the last couple of weeks as they bounced around warp theories and engine designs, she had come to realize again how much more than "just a pilot" Tom actually was, and she was reminded of how glad she was that Harry had suggested having him join their project.

Massaging her temples and cocking her head, she gave him a small, apologetic smile in return. "Sorry. Long day."

His eyes sparked with concern. "Have you eaten? I have some extra rations. We could head down to the mess hall and grab some dinner – my treat. Maybe pizza?" he suggested hopefully, but then, when she didn't respond immediately, added, "Or if you want to call it a night, I'd understand."

Surprisingly, she found that she didn't. As tired as she was and as irritating as Tom's contrasting excessive enthusiasm could be, she found herself enjoying his company. "No. Food sounds good." Then, she grinned. "Even pizza," she added, baiting him into a look of mock horror. "How do you always seem to have extra rations, anyway?"

He chuckled, motioning for her to exit the holographic shuttle craft ahead of him and calling for the computer to save and close the program before adroitly changing the subject.


As they made their way through Voyager's corridors, Tom extrapolated in detail on the lengths that he had gone to in order to persuade the replicator to produce a decent pepperoni pizza. B'Elanna seemed more than slightly exasperated at his enthusiasm for this particular subject, but, at the same time, she appeared more at ease than he had seen her in quite a while. He dared to hope that he was even somewhat amusing her. On balance, he decided it was worth continuing and waxed poetic on the vices and virtues of a variety of pizza crusts.

It was still a couple hours before the end of the beta shift, and the mess hall was nearly empty when they entered. Considering the twitched eyebrows from the couple of crew members who were there at the entrance of the pilot and chief engineer without Harry Kim as their third, this was probably a very temporary blessing. The Voyager rumor mill being the ravenous creature that it was, Paris had no doubt that a colorfully enhanced version of the sighting would have circulated through the ship by morning. He winced inwardly as he considered B'Elanna's probable reaction but then shrugged: there was, after all, only so much he could control.

By the time he had replicated their food, B'Elanna had curled up on one of the couches in the lounge area. She eagerly accepted the coffee he handed to her but looked askance at the pizza. Tom had no such hesitations and picked up a piece appreciatively. "Just think – if we figure out this transwarp drive, we could be back on Earth eating real pizza in days."

B'Elanna grimaced, both hands encircling the warmth of her mug. "That's a pretty big 'if' at this point."

He shrugged, taking a large bite of pizza before responding. "I don't know – I actually think we are making some progress." Tom eyed her then, considering his next question. "What do you think about it? Going home, I mean."

She sipped her coffee, gazing ahead. "I'm not sure. I've never really had much of a 'home', certainly not since I left Kessik for the Academy." She paused and chuckled ruefully before continuing, "When we were first stuck out here, I was pretty furious at the Captain for giving the order to destroy the array. But now..." She shifted her gaze over to look at him and finished softly, uncertainly, "I'm not sure that there's much that I would be going back to."

He nodded. He knew little about her past beyond what she had confided to him in the Vidiian caves, other than that she had been at Starfleet Academy briefly and then had ended up with the Maquis. Curious to learn more, he pressed gently, "What about family? Friends?"

She shrugged, "I haven't spoken to my mother since I left for the Academy and haven't seen or heard from my father since he left years before that. As for friends," she considered the question, "most of the Maquis I was closest too are on Voyager...or were..." Seska, he interpreted. "So I guess that there aren't a lot of people in the Alpha Quadrant who would be lining up to welcome me home," she finished with a tone he couldn't quite read, somewhere between bitter and regretful. Tom found himself wondering about that father who had walked out on her, the mother who had let her go, the classmates and professors at the Academy who had watched her walk away. Didn't they realize what they were letting get away? Shifting the conversation away from the shadows of her past, he pointed out, "But you're still giving all your free time to this project."

"It's my job," she replied simply. Then she grinned wryly and admitted, "And I can't resist a challenge." Then the grin widened as she added, "Besides I needed to humor poor Harry, and this was the least improbable of his 'get home quick' schemes."

He grinned back, "Harry can be a bit irrepressible, can't he?" but further thought was cut short by the blaring of alarms across the mess hall followed closely by Chakotay's summons of all hands to battle stations. The sudden appearance of two Kazon ships outside the mess hall viewport added any further explanation needed and, after a hurried glance, both officers sprinted to the door.