Tegan Chronicles STV Style 2:

Rolling in the Deep 13

The next morning they found themselves in orbit above a beautiful M class planet teaming with life. The journey to get them there had only been two hours and was a result of helping a stranded passenger vessel from the planet that had been adrift for a week. The indigenous people, the Torocans, were so grateful they invited anyone from Voyager to the surface. It had been too long since the Voyager crew had been on shore leave so after sending Tuvok and Chakotay to check things out Janeway agreed to stay for a few days to allow engineering to do some repairs that were better suited with the engines idle than even running at quarter impulse.

Tegan looked out the viewport at the planet Toroca as she stood in the mess hall, the sun was setting over the other side of the planet and it was mesmerizing.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Janeway's voice was soft and low.

Tegan nodded her discussion with B'Elanna the evening before tucked away and nearly forgotten. "I've never seen anything like it."

Janeway had never imagined after everything the adventurous woman had done that she would have never seen a sun set over a planet. "You should see the moonrise."

Tegan smiled. "I've seen that from a secondary moon, once."

"Of course." Janeway mirrored her smile. "Have you eaten?"

"I tasted several things while I was making dinner." She had taken over dinner service that night to give Neelix the night off and she'd already prepared a breakfast casserole for the next morning that she would bake before her shift and everyone would be left on their own for lunch to give him a full twenty-four hours to explore the planet.

"Tasting isn't the same as eating." She clasped her hand on Tegan's shoulder. "Let's see if Seven will serve us."

Tegan laughed, the former Borg had offered her services to Neelix as well and Tegan had put her in charge of dessert and serving. "I'm sure she will."

"Captain you must try the chicken cordon bleu Dr. Kiser made."

"It's Tegan." She growled lightly.

"I am sorry, Tegan." Seven bowed her head slightly and flushed to an indulgent pink.

"Kahless! Are you flirting with my woman?" B'Elanna poked Tegan in the ribs with her elbow. "I am never going to get the warp drive back to 100% if I have to worry about you trying to take her from me."

"I am not your property." Seven reminded her before Tegan could assure her she wasn't flirting.

"Three trays with a little of everything." Janeway shook her head at the interaction and held up three fingers. "Tegan get us a table close to the viewport."

"You aren't really jealous are you?" Tegan asked halfway through dinner breaking into the comfortable silence that had fallen over their table.

B'Elanna looked over Tegan's shoulder to see Seven standing at parade rest waiting for someone else to come into the slow dinner service. Many of the crew had opted to stay on the planet to partake in the local cuisine and Tegan was preparing for a long night working in the infirmary. "Yes."

"Really? Why?"

"You have seen Seven right?" B'Elanna narrowed her gaze on her. "Kahless, she is one of the most beautiful women I've ever laid eyes on."

"You're right. She's absolutely beautiful but so are you B'Elanna."

B'Elanna laughed, a quick self-depreciating laugh. "I've been called many things, beautiful isn't one of them. And next to a Goddess like you, I'd have no chance."

Tegan almost choked on the mouthful of food she was swallowing. She had been formulating a response when B'Elanna hit her out of left field with the compliment. She picked up her glass of water and took a gulp even as a fierce blush engulfed her face.

Janeway thought it was interesting that Tegan didn't see herself the way others did, but it was true she turned just as many heads as Seven and neither woman turned them because of the hardware they sported.

"I'm as Seven would put it, damaged." Tegan sat the glass back down and picked her fork up again. "I am far from being a Goddess."

"What I wouldn't give to look like you. I'm short, sorry Captain." She knew they were close in stature. "I've got these stupid ridges on my head and don't give me that crap about beauty comes from the inside because we all know we are talking in physical parameters here."

"I like your ridges, they give a certain appeal." Tegan smiled.

"Are you flirting with my girlfriend?" Seven spoke from behind as she approached with dessert bowls containing an orange and chocolate mousse.

Tegan shrugged her shoulders. "I can't win for loosing tonight. I give up."

"Do you really not see how beautiful you are?" Seven asked receiving a glare from B'Elanna as she put the desserts down in front of each woman. She'd been listening to the conversation with her Borg enhanced hearing. Eavesdropping was a bad habit she'd developed on Voyager to fill in the lack of voices in her head since being severed from the collective.

Tegan shook her head and pushed her empty tray back.

Sensing her discomfort Janeway let her eyes survey the tray and decided to save her from answering. "I don't believe I've ever seen that happen."

"What?" Tegan looked down.

"Your tray, it is empty." Seven observed. She noted the deliberate segue in conversation but followed the Captain's lead without hesitation.

"I know I haven't." B'Elanna dipped her spoon into the airy dessert and almost melted with it when it hit her tongue. "Oh Sev—"

Both Janeway and Tegan glanced at each other as they shared an inappropriate thought.

Tegan had just finished dessert when her com chirped. "Sick bay to Dr. Kiser."

Tegan raised an eye brow to no one in particular. "Go ahead doctor."

"I need your assistance."

"I'm on my way." She stood up and looked apologetically around the table. "If you'll excuse me it looks like the planetary cuisine may already be affecting some of the crew."

Janeway put her hand over hers as she reached for the tray. "Go, we'll take care of it."

"Thank you Captain."

Tegan walked into the infirmary to see an Ensign she didn't think she'd met before sitting on a bio bed. That was it, one patient. She'd expected the sickbay to be inundated with patients. Couldn't one holodoctor take care of one human patient? "What seems to be the problem?"

"Oh Doc." The Ensign groaned as she noticed a very red mark in the shape of a hand on his cheek. "Please tell her to leave."

Tegan watched as his hands went to cover his manhood. "Um, Doctor?"

"I need you to take a look at something." He turned to his patient, "Ensign Blain, we're going to step over into the lab for a minute."

Tegan followed him into the lab off of sickbay. "What's going on?"

"Our patient decided to break protocol and slept with one of the Aliens while he was on the surface. Before you say anything I know we have to report it to Captain Janeway but he begged me to wait until the symptoms abated."

"What exactly are his symptoms?"

"In his words he is 'extememly horny' and as you saw when you came in he went to full attention. Not that you don't have that effect on men normally," he cleared his throat.

Tegan followed his gaze to the electron microscope and walked over to it. "A virus?"

"It appears to be." He frowned. "I have him behind an isolation force field until we can be sure of how it is spread."

"What about his face?"

"He grabbed Nicoletti's rear and she slapped him."

"Good for her." Tegan grinned. "I'd like to inform the Captain just in case this isn't spread by exchanging bodily fluids. I mean it's possible he was infected by the virus on the planet and he acted out because of it."

"I think that's a stretch." The doctor rubbed his chin.

"Because of the short incubation period? We are talking an alien virus."

"This is true."