The Littlest Rogue, Chapter 6
Puzzled as to why the person he thought was Torres was in sickbay, the doctor looked at her curiously. He considered that she may be too keyed up to sleep and had come for a remedy. He smiled, being more than happy to oblige, now having a nearly inexhaustible supply of sedatives, thanks to Neelix. To his surprise, she declined, stating that she was just a little curious about their little guest, who was now enjoying a plateful of spaghetti and meatballs, her favorite food, compliments of the doctor's replicator. The doctor then considered that the chief engineer's sleeplessness might be a cultural thing, being that she was half Klingon. Perhaps she was trying to test her stamina, and had come to sickbay to see if that would harm her human half. The child had called the pasta dish "pahsketti", and they puzzled over that for a moment, until Seven of Nine corrected her. Alice was calmer now, sensing that these people were not going to harm her. The doctor commented that spaghetti looked very much like dead Klingon gagh, but from the little girl's happy expression, figured that it probably tasted a lot better. The captain thought it smelled delicious. The doctor told the little girl that they wouldn't care if her last name was Kodos or Singh. She was not responsible for her father's behavior. Little Alice did not know who those people were, but from the context, figured out that they had been bad men like the people that she had eluded on Babylon Five. She was still, however, reluctant to divulge her last name, and did not know how to explain to them how she got on their ship. The Voyager crew did figure out that her father was also telepathic; but from her description, brutal, cunning and oily, and would probably stop at nothing to find her and bring her back to wherever it is she came from, forcing her to eventually join that group of telepathic police officers they had never heard of before. For the moment, though, she was perfectly safe. She was also reconsidering her fearful reaction to her mother's statement to her father after he awakened from the phaser stun. Her mom had never before gave her any cause to be frightened of her, and now Alice was beginning to realize that she had probably misunderstood her. She looked up from her meal, and, for the first time, got a good look at who they all thought was the chief engineer. Her jaw dropped in astonishment.
"Mommy? What happened to your forehead?"
The others present looked at each other in equal astonishment. "Torres" spoke quickly, so as not to arouse further suspicion from those present. Tuvok, now considering that little Alice was not a threat to security, had gone back to his post on the bridge. He had, of course, sensed that there was something a bit odd about "Torres", but he did not deem it worthy of pursuit.
"No, Alice. I'm not your mommy. My name is Lieutenant B'Elaana Torres. I'm the chief engineer. Welcome to the starship Voyager."
"But…but you look just like her!" She had placed a forkful of spaghetti on her plate after swallowing and continued to stare at the woman with wonder.
The real chief engineer of the starship Voyager came to her senses after a good sleep. Startled by her surroundings, she leapt off the plain white cot. She remembered that, when she was younger, she had had a precognitive dream about a featureless white room exactly like this. At that time, she had been frightened, not knowing what to make of the dream. Now, as an adult, she was astonished that the vision had come true. Where she was, however, was a mystery. The last thing she remembered was being in her quarters, getting ready for bed. She had heard a strange noise from behind her…then she was here in this weird cell, wherever "here" was. She heard a low hum of a force field at the entrance to the cell, and figured that she had been abducted by some unknown alien race. The first duty of a Starfleet officer when being abducted in such a manner was to attempt an escape. Being an engineer, she decided to put an ear to the cell wall to see if she could detect the power source for the force field. To her disappointment, she heard absolutely nothing. She heard another low hum from behind her and turned quickly, ready to defend herself. She blinked, seeing the face of a rather young human girl on a seamless viewing screen.
"Who are you and why have I been abducted?" Torres demanded to know, staring menacingly at the young blonde lady, who appeared to be a little frightened at her reaction to being imprisoned in such a manner.
"My name is Roberta Lincoln. Relax, Miss Torres. We have placed you in this cell for security reasons. You will not be harmed, I assure you. My employer, Mr. Seven, instructed me to talk to you once you awakened from his servo happy beam." The young human female paused, and seemed to be looking her over. "Forgive me for staring, but I have never seen a Klingon before. My employer told me that your people react violently to being kidnapped and forcibly confined in this manner. I apologize for that, but it was necessary. We did not know what your reaction would be, and we could not risk a violent altercation. You are here because one of our operatives is on your ship, posing as you. She is there to rescue the small child that your Vulcan security officer discovered. She needs to return to her own universe. It just so happens that you bear an uncanny resemblance to her mother, who is also here."
"I see." Torres responded, now calming herself, but still wary. "Where exactly is here?"
"You are on twentieth century Earth in a cell adjacent to Gary Seven's apartment."
After the child had finished eating, the doctor released her from sickbay, and Scarlet/Torres was asked by the captain to accompany her during the remainder of her stay on Voyager. She had also asked the woman she thought was the chief engineer to introduce the child to the ship's youngest resident, Naomi Wildman. The captain thought that having someone nearer to her age would set the new arrival more at ease, and also took Naomi aside and asked her to find out if she could what her last name was and how she got on the ship. Naomi agreed to do it, more than happy to be thought of as a crew member. She felt very grown up and glad to be asked, and thought it would be fun to meet someone her own age for a change. She thought it would be fun to introduce the new arrival to her favorite place on the ship, the holodeck.