The food in front of her didn't look very promising, in fact, Sarah Barrett, thought miserably, nothing had looked promising since Tom Paris' abrupt confession of his love for her a week ago. She had been very uncounselor like the past week, mostly keeping to herself, only giving her opinion when addressed, she was sure Janeway was beginning to suspect something else was going on, especially with Tom's insistence to join every away team that came along. Pushing her fork around in her food, Sarah frowned even more. Tom had only volunteered to lead the mission for energy supplies because he was trying to avoid her and get off of Voyager for a while. Sarah found she was more melancholy than before he had left since he had left.
Someone cleared their throat and she looked up into the warm eyes of Neelix, their self proclaimed morale officer. "You haven't touched your food, Counselor. Is everything alright?"
Sarah shrugged her shoulders, eyes looking down at the meal with contempt. "Guess I'm not hungry." She was aware that Neelix was pulling up a chair and settling in to sit at the table with her. Is he going to spoon feed me or something? She knew how possessive he could get of mealtime.
"It appears that you need an ear," he said.
"An ear?" she repeated.
"Yes, someone to talk to," Neelix replied. "I've watched you the past hour sit here, looking down at the food like its poison. Now, I know it's none of my business, but you've been walking around with a storm cloud above your head for days now. And in my experience that can only mean one of two things, either you're having romance problems, or you're coming down with something. I heard Michael Janeway was in his quarters all day with the flu. Perhaps you should go see the Doctor."
Sarah shook her head sadly. "I'm not ill, Neelix. The Doctor is going to have nothing to make me feel better."
"Ah, so romance problems then," Neelix replied.
"I didn't say that," Sarah retorted hotly. She would rather not have this discussion. She could barely think about Tom without feeling awful, let alone talk to Neelix about him and what had happened in her quarters a week ago. And the reality that everyone on the ship knew something had happened between them was not making matters better. She closed her eyes for a moment, burying her face in her arms. "Neelix," she groaned, "why do I do this to myself? I am a masochist or something? Do I enjoy pain so much that I purposefully go looking for situations to cause it?"
Neelix patted her arm affectionately. "We all make mistakes, Counselor, especially when it comes to love."
Sarah raised her head, staring a head. "I seem to make more than most."
"If you ask me, it's Lieutenant Paris that's making the mistake, if he lets a girl like you slip through his fingers."
Of course the crew had the wrong idea, that it was Sarah who had confessed how she had felt and that it had been Tom to turn her down; what they didn't realize was that Sarah had ran because she was afraid. She was afraid of falling so quickly and so deeply for someone she barely knew. And what if it didn't work out? What would happen then? She had tried a relationship with a fellow officer once, when she had been on her first assignment before the Explorer. When they had both been transferred to the Explorer, the relationship had gone south and in a hurry. It had crumbled by the time she was arrested and thrown in the brig. The final blow had been when he didn't even show up for the trial. She didn't want to walk down that path again with Tom. They were a long way from home, could Sarah stand seeing Tom with someone else? Would she be able to work alongside of him if things between them didn't pan out the way they both were hoping? What exactly are you hoping for Sarah? So many questions and no answers.
Neelix watched as her eyes closed, thick lashes fanning out over her cream colored skin, concealing azure irises. Those eyes had been the first thing he noticed about her when he had come on board Voyager. They held so much emotion and with a signal look she could make any man do her bidding. He wondered if that was something all Starfleet women could do, because he was quite certain that Captain Janeway possessed the same skill. Just as he was about to offer some more comforting words, she gasped, eyes flying opening. "Lieutenant?"
"I…Captain Janeway…I need to see her," Sarah said, frantically, getting up quickly which caused the chair to crash to the floor. Several startled crewmen looked up while Neelix futilely tried to calm her. "The away team, they're in danger!"
"I'm sure everything is fine, Counselor," Neelix tried to sooth.
"No!" Sarah yelled forcefully. "No, it's not! I have to see the Captain!" Her hands shook while she tried to find the right words to explain what she had just seen, but she couldn't even explain it to herself. The vision had happened so fast, like a sudden chill on a hot day. She had seen Viidians, the shuttle under fire, dark chambers, and organs in glass jars. Then before her two women, one human the other Klingon, but they had both looked like B'Elanna Torres. And then Peter Durst had been screaming in pain before the vision exploded into a bright flash of light. It could only mean one thing; the away team was in danger, or already in trouble.
Neelix had very little experience with telepaths, even though Kes herself was one. The abilities that both women held scared him at times. But his fear couldn't deter him from the fact that her senses were trying to tell her something. In one quick motion he took his apron off. "Well, what are we waiting for, let's go to her quarters."
Sarah gave him a puzzled look. "We?"
"Yes," Neelix pointed out. "I'm your resident expert on this area of space aren't I? The Captain is going to need me to find the away team."
"I didn't say they were missing…" Sarah began to protest, pretty sure that the Captain wouldn't be too happy if she brought him to the woman's quarters. She's not in her quarters. The young lieutenant didn't know why, but she knew Janeway wasn't in her quarters. Tuvok had said that her abilities worked best when she was calm, at peace. Neelix's decision to join her on her visit to Captain Janeway had steered her away from the frantic thoughts and made her focus for a moment. In that instant she had fully become aware of Janeway's presence. And she wasn't in her quarters. Something was wrong. "We don't have time to argue this point; the away team might not have it," she snapped, making her way out of the mess hall and into a turbo lift, Neelix scampering excitedly behind her.
Panic began to settle back in, the distraction gone. She could hear Durst screaming again; see the two women who resembled B'Elanna, chambers of rock and metal. A thousand different emotions assaulted her, she tried to calm herself, knowing that was the only way she could channel her senses, but it wasn't working. She stumbled out onto the bridge, with Neelix behind her like a lab puppy. Janeway was standing in the middle of the command station, Chakotay besides her. They were in deep conversation, possibly about a course of action to take next, but Sarah disregarded that. Neelix and the rest of the bridge crew watched as she slid her way between the two commanding officers; Chakotay looked shocked, Janeway annoyed by her breach in protocol. "The Viidians have the away team!"
Her harried statement made the look of annoyance disappear from Janeway's face. They had just begun the scans for the shuttle's ion trail. The Captain and First Officer had barely laid plans for what they wanted to do next. "Can you be certain?"
"The shuttle, it was under attack," Sarah gasped, hands starting to tremble again. Clear you mind, Sarah, clear it if you want to help Tom and the others. She drew a shuddering breath. "There were Viidians and chambers, Lieutenant Durst was screaming, and I saw…I saw two women, one human and one Klingon that both looked like Lieutenant Torres."
Janeway pondered this for a moment. Glancing up at Tuvok she wondered how much merit she should take into Sarah's statement. Tuvok himself was in doubt of her abilities, but Janeway had seen them work before, even when Sarah wasn't aware that she had them. She had been the one after all to find Tom Paris and Michael trapped in a burrow after they had been caught in a terrible storm during a camping trip. And right now she had no leads other than Paris' message buoy that was sent out hours ago. Her options were few here and she knew that Tuvok would say it was illogical to follow an assumption rather than by the concrete evidence they had before them, which was nothing more than a message buoy and perhaps an ion trail. Her eyes now fell onto Chakotay's face. "The Viidians will do whatever possible to hide from Voyager; they'll know we'll be looking for them."
"What is your plan then Captain?" Chakotay asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We're going to hang a carrot in the horse's face," Janeway replied, with that little smirk of hers that Chakotay loved and hated to see at the same time.
"I beg your pardon, Captain," Neelix sputtered. "What do you mean by that?"
She slid her hands onto her hips, her grin growing. "We're going to infiltrate their little operation."
"By infiltrate am I to assume, Captain, that you want to send a team undercover?" Tuvok questioned from tactical.
"No, not undercover, the Viidians are going to know exactly who they are."
This surprised everyone on the bridge, including Tuvok. "Captain," he said, "I think you have finally managed to surprise me."
If Janeway didn't know any better, she could have sworn that he had just told a joke. Of course he would tell her that he was simply stating the obvious. "I told you I would some day," she answered, eyes shining with mischief. "Now," she said, becoming serious and looking around the bridge. "For this plan to work, the Viidians have to believe that whoever is on the ship is no longer apart of the crew of Voyager. Tuvok, you're going to fabricate some files for Neelix's ship. Harry I want you to install a homing beacon on the ship so the Viidians cannot detect it, perhaps we should put some of that technology we obtained from the Gerroan to good use. Chakotay, Sarah," she paused for a moment, "Neelix, how do you feel about suddenly becoming dissatisfied with your lives here?"
For a moment the two officers and one Talaxian blinked, looking at their commanding officer in utter shock. None of them knew how to address her. The plan was daring with no guarantees that it would work. Tuvok was the one to break the silence, "Captain, with all due respect, I don't believe that Lieutenant Barrett is a logical choice for this. Starfleet protocol declares that a security officer should be present on an undercover mission. Wouldn't Miss Barrett's talents be better served here, in case negotiation becomes necessary with the Viidians for the release of our people?"
"No," Janeway answered simply. "Chakotay is going to need her telepathic abilities; she maybe the only one who can lead them to the away team."
"Captain," Tuvok pointed out, "I needn't have to remind you that Vulcans possess the same abilities."
"I appreciate your concerns Tuvok," Janeway said, turning about to face him. "But I need your tactical expertise here, on Voyager. While Chakotay and the others are pursuing the Viidians, and hopefully getting caught by them, we are going to have to come up with some defenses for Voyager to get close to them to rescue them. No offense to Lieutenant Barrett, but I don't think her area of knowledge is weapons and tactical. Besides, I don't think a Vulcan would become dissatisfied with their life."
Tuvok knew she had a point and merely nodded his head.
Across the bridge Harry Kim was getting exceedingly nervous with the whole idea of this mission. The technology they had obtained from their encounter with the Gerroan would surely hide Voyager from the Viidians and help track Neelix's ship through this part of space, but there was nothing they could do if the away team got captured while trying to find another. This was a decision that Harry knew his professors back at the Academy would be screaming at Janeway to reconsider.
But Janeway had made up her mind and when she had her mind set there was very little that could be done to persuade her to change it. "I want to be able to launch at zero six hundred, that gives us eight hours people to get everything prepared, understood?"
There was a chorus of "yes ma'am," around the bridge. Janeway nodded her head, handed command of the bridge over to Tuvok and asked that Chakotay, Sarah, and Neelix join her in the ready room. She may have seemed outwardly confident that this was going to work on the bridge in front of the crew, but behind the privacy of her ready room doors she could fully disclose how dangerous she truly believed this to be. But who better to put on this mission than a former Maquis leader, a Borg expert, and a man who had only had himself to depend on for years. She immediately went to the replicator and ordered a cup of coffee. She hadn't had any all day, which was surprising considering how tiresome her day had been.
"I won't lie to you," She began, looking at the three of them. "This mission is extremely dangerous."
"It's the only plan we have at the moment, Captain," Chakotay pointed out.
She took a sip of coffee. "What do you think of this plan, Commander?"
"Me?" he repeated. "I think it's a bit on the crazy side, perhaps a little unStarfleet like, but I think it can work."
"Lieutenant?"
"Our other options seem to take time, Captain," Sarah replied. "The ion trail could take us all over the sector. We're better off following the Viidians, tracking their movements. The longer it takes to find the away team, the shorter time they have on their lives. We all know what's going to happen to them in the end if we don't find them; they'll become nothing but jars of organs."
Janeway shivered, visibly. "Neelix, you're not an officer, I can't order you to go on this mission. If you want, you can step out now and I can send Harry in your place."
Neelix shook his head. "No ma'am, I want to help. If it means bringing Paris, Torres and Durst back to Voyager alive then I'm all for it."
A gentle smiled etched across Janeway's face. "Alright then, it sounds like we're going ahead with this. I'll work with Tuvok to get the faulty files into the computer about your leaving Voyager. With any luck the Viidians will be intrigued by two humans and a Talaxian trying to make their way through the galaxy without the help of a…more powerful ship."
She dismissed them with the hopes that she wasn't making a fatal mistake.
Name, what was her name? It was one of the simplest of questions and yet she couldn't recall it. She couldn't even recall how she had gotten to this point in time, lying on her back restrained on some form of bed. It wasn't a very comfortable bed so she could easily assume that she was contained not because she was going crazy but because she was a prisoner. Captain Janeway will come for you. Who was Captain Janeway? She tried to bring a picture of this person to mind, but found nothing but foggy images at first, and then, that's right, she's the one who stranded you here in the Delta Quadrant.
Delta Quadrant, she had called this part of space home for the past three months, on a ship called Voyager. Had their ship been attacked and the crew being held prisoner? Anything seemed possible to her at this moment, she was after all serving on a Federation vessel. A Federation vessel that had pursued them into the Badlands. Of course they weren't the ones responsible for bringing her ship of rebels here in the first place, but Janeway had been the one to make the decision, using almighty Federation principles as her reasoning for destroying their only way home. Prison had been the only thing that was waiting for you anyways.
She had been an enemy of the Federation, dissatisfied with her own life; she had joined a group called the Maquis, looking for a fight, but with a good cause. The Starfleet bigots couldn't see the whole picture, couldn't understand what allying with the Cardassians would do. They were idiots and she had treated them like so for the majority of her time as a rebel. Voyager had changed her opinion slightly. One person in particular had changed her opinion. Harry.
Who is Harry? A friend on Voyager? Starfleet? Yes that's right, she always called him that. At first it had annoyed him, and then caused him to blush slightly, now he just smiled and called her maquis in return. She had wondered about those little looks between them before, hadn't she? Wasn't there a part of her that wondered, is it possible he likes me?
Ridiculous idea considering you aren't human. If she wasn't human what was she then? Klingon, you're Klingon. But only half. Half a Klingon always full Klingon. The arguing with herself had been some thing that was always present, each personality, the Klingon half of her and the human half of her were always battling to be the more dominate party. However, she concluded there was something different about this time. The voice was one voice, not two different ones, screaming at the other. Now there was nothing but one voice, and it was steady, strong telling her a truth that she had quite possibly always known; that her Klingon half had been the one to dominate over the years. Her human half had hated it, but now as she lay in restraints, she found that she was considerably proud of that Klingon heritage. When did that change?
She had always hated that part of her growing up; maybe it was because the human children teased her. She suddenly had a desire to see her face. Twisting about so she could move her head, she caught the sight of her reflection in the metal console to her left. At first it seemed like it was a distorted image, her whole face looked…Klingon. The more she stared at it the more she realized that it was not distorted, that she was indeed somehow fully Klingon. B'Elanna.
Her name. She recalled it clearly now, it was B'Elanna Torres.
And she was being held against her will on some Viidian ship after her shuttle, carrying herself, Tom Paris, and Peter Durst had been attacked and boarded by the aliens. She had been separated from the others and this wasn't the first time that she had been awake.
The first time some horribly deformed scientist had told her that he had completely extracted her DNA, making her fully Klingon. She had demanded to know why. Apparently in his sick and twisted mind he thought that her DNA had some resistance to the Phage, the illness that was slowly killing off his entire race. He had infected her with it, she recalled clearly now. But her body was fighting it, better than the Viidians, perhaps his strange theory held some merit.
But B'Elanna didn't want to lay there like a guinea pig anymore. She was getting out, whether that meant killing Sulan or not.
