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CHAPTER 2


"Hey Torres, you're supposed to eat that, not kill it for the umpteenth time."

"Paris, this ' food ' is filled with leola root. I don't want to know what it is doing to our insides but at least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that I hurt it back."

"Okay, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, B'Elanna, you've sulking the whole day, nearly biting people's head off. I say that something is bothering you and I want to know what it is."

"Paris, there is nothing wrong with me, okay? Listen, I've had it with this crap. Let's get out of here."

"Yeah, this food makes proteinbars look like gourmet cooking. What do you have in mind?"

"Let's go to my quarters. I'll treat you to ice cream sundaes. At least it will get the taste out of our mouths."

"Sounds good."

Torres had no idea why she had invited Tom to her quarters, but she dismissed the thought angrily. A short time later, they were comfortably seated on the sofa, eating their desserts, talking and generally having a good time. Tom had moved to the floor while Torres was lying on the sofa, their faces just inches apart. After a particularly crude prison joke Tom had picked up in New Zealand had send them both into fits of laughter, they found both their faces directly opposite of each other. Paris looked straight into her eyes and she saw the slightest hint of danger, mixed with passion and lust in there. As if being led by an invisible hand, she was drawn to him and their lips met. Suddenly, a random thought popped into her brain,

'This one is for you, Harry Kim, this is my revenge.'

Paris wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down on the floor. They didn't stop kissing as the sat up and started to remove the constrictive uniforms.

" Let's go to the bedroom, it's more….. more comfortable…. there…", B'Elanna murmured between kisses. Paris lifted her up, carried her to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed. She pulled him to her and they started kissing again.

Harry had just finished his repairs and was planning to go to meet Paris on Holodeck one but he wanted to talk to B'Elanna first. He stepped into the turbolift and gave his destination after having the computer confirm that she was indeed in her quarters. When he had walked up to her door, he rang the chime several times without a response. A worried look crossed his face and asked the computer again to confirm
Lt. Torres' presence. As the computer answered in the affirmative, Harry put his ear to the door and heard faint pounding sounds coming from the room. He immediately used his command override to unlock the door and entered, fearing the worst. As the door closed behind him, he could hear heavy breathing and panting coming from the bedroom. He looked inside and immediately his blood went cold at the sight before him. There was B'Elanna, the woman he loved, naked in the arms of Tom Paris his best friend who was also naked. It was pretty obvious what they were doing. Suddenly, Tom looked up and spotted Harry.

" Oh…oh, Harry, …. I'm sorry, I forgot…..our ap- appointment…."

Up to that moment, Torres had not noticed Harry's presence in the room, she had been too busy with Tom. But upon hearing Tom, she quickly turned around and gasped as she saw him standing in the dooropening. A sudden feeling of deep shame like she hadn't felt in years ran through her as she realized what she had done. Before she could say anything, Harry turned around and walked out of her quarters without saying a word. She quickly jumped up, put on a robe and ran after him, calling his name, but by the time she reached the door and opened it he was gone. She closed the door and rested her back against it, slowly sliding down until she had reached a sitting position. All the anger at his marriage proposal had left her; she realized now that with one stupid, childish action she had lost her one chance at happiness and started to cry. Paris was immediately by her side.


"Lanna, what's wrong? Tell me, please?"

"Oh, Tom, this should never have happened…. Harry and I…."

She tried to get the words out but was choked up by the tears that were now streaming freely down her face. Paris suddenly had a cold feeling in his stomach, fearing he knew what had happened and fervently hoping it wasn't so. In his gut he knew that that was an idle hope but still…..

"He…He asked me to marry him yesterday and….and…"

"What? But…but have you and him been…been seeing each other then, I mean in that way?"

"Yes, for eight months", she said in a small voice that sounded foreign to her own ears.


Paris stared at her in disbelieve and feeling like he was lower than dirt. Oh man, just what he needed, to become involved with one of the most beautiful women on the ship and finding out, in a very embarrassing way that his best friend had been already asked her for her hand. This was bad.


"But why did you ask me here, let this happen, B'Elanna?"

"I don't know, Tom, I'm sorry. I didn't know what happened. It just happened and I wish to God it didn't happen, that there was a way to turn it all back, but there isn't….."

With that, she began to cry again, with Paris trying to comfort her. She wanted to kill herself right then. How could she have been so stupid? She knew the answer to that one; she had wanted to punish Harry but now it was her and by extension Tom who where punished. With one act of immature defiance, she had not only lost the man she loved, but also her best friend, who had been there for her, ever since that day in the Ocampa hospital. But just as worse was the fact that she had destroyed the friendship between Kim and Paris. They had been the best of friends ever since they met on DS 9 and because of her that friendship was now dead and buried. She had no illusions about what would happen. Harry would not forgive either of them, ever. He would see it as the worst form of betrayal and the sad thing was, he was right. She wanted nothing more than to crawl under a rock right then, feeling like her heart had been cut out and knowing that she was the one who had wielded the knife.


Harry Kim was stalking through the corridors, his face a mask of pure rage. The few people he encountered quickly moving out of his way, terrified at the sight of his unrestrained anger. How could she do this to him? He had thought that she loved him, but he had seen it with his own eyes. She had been playing him for a fool, seeing his best friend on the side. His best friend, he thought contemptuously. Ha, they say that only your best friend can hurt you so deeply. Well, they where right.

'I bet they are having a good laugh now, about how they snookered me', he thought angrily. Suddenly, he found himself in front of the entrance to Holodeck 1 where he would have met Paris. He didn't know how he had gotten there but went in without giving it a second's thought. Sandrine's was playing and several crewmembers were playing pool, drinking and talking. He felt his anger grow even more at the sight of them. He wanted them out of there, he wanted to break something, preferably Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres but that would only land him in the brig. Lt. Carey noticed him standing in the doorway and smiled at him, but the smile froze on his face when he saw the anger in Kim's eyes. Compared to Kim, the chief engineer's wrath was like a gentle summer rain. Carey had never seen him angry before and did not want to know what had gotten the Chief of Operations mad enough to look like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

" Carey, I want everybody out of here, now."


Even though his voice was deceptively calm, Carey could practically feel the anger like being hit with a sledgehammer.


"Ensign, is there something wrong with the Holodeck? Maybe I can help."

"Lt. Carey, I will say this only once, you and everybody get out of the Holodeck, NOW."

"Yes, sir. Everybody, we are leaving the Holodeck. Come on, move it!"


The gathered crewmen had been watching the exchange between the two officers with interest and had all noticed the demeanor of their Operations Chief. They knew that they did not want him to turn on them; it was like he was possessed or something.

"Computer, override entry-code to Holodeck 1, Authorization Kim Sigma 4-9 Alpha. Save Program and enter new program, parameters as follows: barren landscape with no humidity, 20 Klingon warriors with edged weapons, highest skill levels. And disengage safety interlocks on this program."

"Regarding the newly input parameters, it would be hazardous to disengage safety interlocks", the computer responded.

"Computer, I repeat, disengage safety interlocks, Authorization Kim Delta 7-4 Epsilon Gamma."

In a second, the dark, smoky bar was replaced by a desert wasteland caught in a clouded twilight. Smoke was everywhere and the signs of battle were obvious. Harry willed himself to relax, calling upon the ancient prayers of his people his grandfather had taught him so long ago. As he cleared his mind, he felt his senses sharpen and he became aware of everything around him. He could hear the sand moving as the soft wind blew, could hear the movement of the sparse grass as it swayed. His grandfather's lessons came back to him even though he had not practiced this form of martial arts for years, instead focusing on those taught at the Academy. But he did not want to use those, they were too soft and all he wanted right now was to strike out with all the power and anger he could. Just then he remembered something his grandfather had taught him,


"Striking in anger is not wise when facing an opponent. It will let you make mistakes. You have to become one with the wind, banish it from your mind, let your body and mind become one. Be like the dragon, who waits and watches for an opening to strike the decisive blow, not like the tiger who attacks without thinking."

Thinking of his grandfather's words calmed him down further. He was ready now. He felt the movement of the Bath'Leth even before he heard the sound it made as it moved towards his neck and rolled forward. He quickly rose into a crouch and saw the big Klingon come menacingly toward him. Without thinking, but with mind and body completely centered, he counterattacked, performing a flawless maneuver, called a Kokyu, pushing himself out of his crouching position towards the Klingon warrior and hitting his legs with his back, causing the warrior to fly over him and land hard on the ground. Immediately, Harry was on his feet, rushing towards the Klingon and with his knuckles crushed the warrior's larynx, the subsequent swelling blocking his trachea, making him gasp for air that would not enter his closed off windpipe. The warrior thrashed from side to side for a few moments and then went completely still, his eyes turning into lifeless orbs. This one had just been a scout, the others would come soon and he was ready for them.


Chakotay was on his way to the Holodeck when he saw a number of crewmembers, standing with their ears against the Holodeck doors. He spotted Carey as being one of them and motioned him over.

"Carey, what is going on? Why are you listening at the door?"

"Well, sir, ensign Kim came in, looking like he was going on a berserker rage if anyone said anything and ordered us to leave the Holodeck. I thought he would snap my neck when I asked him what was wrong."

"Harry Kim, you say? But that is not possible, he wouldn't hurt a fly", Chakotay replied, his brow creasing in astonishment at the engineer's words.

"That might be true, Comdr., but he is really pissed of, if you pardon the expression. Somebody has made him mad as hell. I have seen Lt. Torres in her worst moods and nothing comes closes to the one he's in. And if you don't believe me, listen through the door."

As Chakotay put his head against the door, he could hear the sounds of battle, the sound of steel on steel, the screams of men dying in agony. He immediately ordered the doors to open but was surprised when the computer replied that a security lockdown was in place. In frustration he used his command override to open them. After ordering Carey and the other crewmembers to stay outside, he entered. As he heard the doors close behind him, the sounds of battle grew louder. He looked through the smoke but it was hard to make anything out. Carefully picking his way through the rock-strewn ground, he looked about to see if there where any potential enemies lying in wait.

Before entering, the computer had friendly informed him that the safety-interlocks had been disengaged, meaning that the holographic opponents could kill you as easily as the real ones could. Suddenly he became aware that the battle sounds had ceased. Somehow, the quiet seemed more deafening in intensity, as if whatever was out there was waiting for him to tear him to pieces. He rounded a huge boulder and gasped at the sight before him. Harry Kim was standing on a relatively flat piece of ground, with the bodies of more than fifteen Klingons in battledress around him. His uniform was torn and he had a gash on his forehead. Chakotay was speechless; Kim had taken on 20 Klingons without the safety interlocks and with maximun skill level and had taken them out. There was nothing in his file that had indicated his abilities in this field. This was an entirely different side to the man and it was frightening to say the least.

"Harry, would you mind explaining what the hell is going on here?"

"Comdr., I was just- I was just blowing off a little steam. Sir", Harry said, coming to attention, his body screaming in agony.

"A little steam. Well, if this indicates how you blow off a little steam, I don't want to know how you blow off a lot of steam. What is going on, Harry? This is not like you."

"There is nothing going on, sir. Absolutely nothing."

Chakotay noticed the determination in Kim's eyes and knew he wouldn't tell him anything, so he admonished him on his rude behaviour and the fact that he had broken Starfleet regulations as pertaining to unnecessary endangering the lives of other crewmembers. When he was finished he tried one last time to find out why Kim had acted so uncharacteristically, to no avail. As he send Kim to sickbay to get his head treated, he vowed to find out what was happening to Kim.