Chapter 15

"So, wait, he asked you on a date, not the other way around?" B'Elanna asked. She was so jealous of Seska. She was in a great relationship with Captain Chakotay. In her year on the Zola, B'Elanna had had another string of lovers, but nothing as serious as Seska had with Chakotay. B'Elanna didn't want to admit it, but she had a small crush on Chakotay since she had come aboard the small freighter. She didn't tell Seska that, though

"Yes, he was so romantic, too." Seska told her as they rounded a corner. B'Elanna caught sight of Chakotay talking to some guy he'd paid to pilot them through the Badlands.

"Seska, I'll catch up to you later, I have to go ask Chakotay about something." B'Elanna told her friend. Seska nodded and headed in a different direction.

"Chakotay! There you are!" B'Elanna yelled as she headed toward him. Chakotay looked up at her then turned back to the man he was talking with and finished his conversation. Then he turned towards the direction B'Elanna was heading at him from.

"Chakotay, we have a small problem. We're leaking plasma coolant into space. It's not much, but if a ship were to spot it, our cover would be blown awfully quickly."

"And you'd like me to do what about it?" He asked sharply. His voice told B'Elanna this was not a good time to bring this up.

"Uh…nothing. I just thought you should know." She lied. It looked like she was going to have to fix the coolant leak without help from the Captain.

She left Chakotay and headed for Engineering. If the coolant keep increasing its rate of filtration, it wouldn't be long before somebody found them.

"Two Cardassian vessel approaching." Someone's voice called, echoing over the noise of Engineering. B'Elanna cursed, she didn't have an ace up her sleeve to get them out of this one. She set off for the bridge of the little beaten ship.

As she stepped onto the bridge, phaser fire rocked the small ship, causing her almost to lose her balance. She grabbed a console for support.

"Return fire." Chakotay ordered from the helm. A few weeks back, Chakotay's hired pilot had transferred over to the Kai.

"Torres, I need more power, as of 10 seconds ago." Chakotay yelled over the explosions.

"Damn it, Chakotay. I'm an engineer, not a magician. What do you want me to do? Pull power out of the air?" She screamed back. Slamming her fists into a console, she exploded into a string of Klingon and human curses.

"Can you give me anything?" He asked her. He was hoping she'd get control of herself and not smash him into something. It was a risk, but one he had to take.

"OK, wait, I'm transferring power from transporters and tractor beam. That's all you get. Now, get us the hell out of here." She exploded at him. Chakotay's risk had paid off. The little ship shuttered then shot off into space. Luck was with them and the Cardassians didn't pursue.

***

We are planets to each other

Drifting in our orbits

To a brief eclipse

Each of us a world apart

Alone and yet together

Like two passing ships

-Entre Novs

-Rush

***

Tom spent the next year flying shuttles for people. Fly there, deliver this, fly here, deliver that. He was paid for his services, than turned around and spent it all at a near-by bar. That was how he spent his time.

At some points, he even smuggled stuff, and that was about the only thrill he ever got. He had a lot of woman, but none ever stayed long. They all left, sometimes because someone or something better came along, or they learned Tom had no past, no family, and was accused of murder. And none of the woman was ever or had ever been in Starfleet. Tom made sure of that.

One day, while drinking up the last of his money at a bar, a man approached him. Tom had never seen him there before, but he looked like he needed a favor.

The man was tall, with short-cropped brown hair and a tattoo over his left eye. He stopped in front of Tom and, eyeing him suspiciously asked, "I heard you're a pilot. Is that true?"

Tom shrugged, already a little intoxicated. "Depends."

"On what?"

"How much money you got."

The man frowned. "I got enough. But what I actually need is a long term pilot."

Tome studied him. "How much?"

"How much do you charge?"

"Depends. What's the cargo?"

"There is not cargo." By now the man was sitting across from him. "Tell you what. I'll pay you 50,000 credits in assorted alien money if you'll pilot my crew and I through the Badlands."

Tom stared at him, mouth agape. "The Badlands? For 50,000 credits? Are you insane?"

"90,000 credits."

Tom stared at him. The guy was either desperate or insane. "Alright. You got yourself a deal." Tom reached across the table and shook the man's hand. "Tom Paris."

"Captain Chakotay. Tell me, Tom, have ever heard of the Maquis?"

Tom nodded. "Yeah. Read a paper about them at Academy before I was kicked out for homicide."

Chakotay raised an eyebrow. "I think you'll do fine. The Maquis is a group of 'rebels', I guess you can say. Most of us are from Starfleet, but joined because they didn't like the way my people are treated. We're fighting for our land against the Federation and the Cardassians."

Tom's ears perked up. Fighting against the Federation? That sounded like a dream come true. "When do we leave?"

"Right away."

"Fine with me." Tom stood up and grabbed an old duffel bag that he carried everywhere with him and followed Chakotay out of the bar.

The ship was an old Federation ship that must have been 30 years old.

"Here it is, the Zola." Chakotay proudly pointed to the ship.

"Very nice." Tom muttered. "Why don't you show me the helm."

Chakotay side-glanced at Tom. "Right this way."

He led Tom to the bridge and Tom raised his eyebrows. He had served on many other ships better than this one. Why this Indian was so attached to the piece of junk was beyond him.

Tom looked around the bridge. It was old and falling apart and Tom wandered where the engineer was and why he had neglected his work on making the ship more presentable. No one wore a uniform and Tom felt oddly…not at home here.

"Lauren." Chakotay called out to the bridge crew.

A young Bajoran woman poked her head up above a console and Tom almost stumbled. She was shorter than he was, with short brown hair and brown eye. "What?"

"Show him around. He's piloting us through the Badlands." And Chakotay disappeared into the turbolift.

Lauren crossed her arms and looked at Tom up and down. "Hm. You're pretty brave to pilot through the Badlands."

"Well that's me." Tom put on his goofy lop-sided grin. "The risk taker. I'm Tom Paris."

"And I'm not interested." Lauren replied.

Tom raised an eyebrow. He'd received worse rejections. "Are you by any chance Betazoid?"

Lauren didn't smile. "Helms down there." She pointed to the console at the front of the bridge. "Your quarters will be on deck 2, room 017."

"Thanks." I think, Tom wanted to add. "Um, have you always worked for Chakotay?"

Lauren shook her head. "No. I'm only on the Zola for a few more days before I go back to work for Captain Grant Allen."

"Captain Allen?" Tom mused as he headed for the helm. How far would Tom go to get Lauren?

Two hours later, Tom had piloted the Zola to the edge of the Badlands. He started at the swirling mass of nebula. "You want me to pilot that?" He asked, turning around in his chair.

Chakotay smiled. "Don't worry. There hasn't been any ships destroyed here lately."

"Oh yeah, that makes everything better." Tom grumbled and fired thrusters.

Later, Tom was walking to his quarters, when he noticed Chakotay up ahead. Tom and the Indian hadn't gotten along very well since Tom came aboard, and knew that Chakotay hated him. Which was fine with Tom. Hopefully, after this talk, he would never have to see him again. "Hey Chakotay!"

The big Indian turned around. "Yeah?"

Tom walked over. "I was talking to Lauren earlier. I think…I'd like to join up."

Chakotay raised an eyebrow. "Join up? And how much money are we thinking of?"

Tom tried to look shocked. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know your type, Paris. You'll fight for anyone who will pay your bar bill."

Tom snorted. "Please. I feel like I could help out the Maquis, that's all."

Chakotay studied him uneasily. "We're rendezvousing with the Kai. That's were Lauren is stationed. I'll talk to Grant Allen about transforming you there. They need a good pilot." He smiled tightly. "Don't worry, you'll still get your money."

Tom smiled. "Great." He started to walk away.

"Paris!"

Tom turned around.

"If anything goes wrong on the Kai, I'll come looking for you."

The two men stood facing each other, staring each other down.

"Chakotay! There you are!" A shout rang through the halls. Chakotay broke his stare at the female's voice.

"Don't worry, sir." Tom said sarcastically, saluting in a mocking manner. "You won't be disappointed." And he headed off to the bridge.

To Tom, the Kai was an almost exact replica of the Zola.

Tom had gotten permission to join the crew of the Kai, much to Lauren's surprise.

The night before they left, Tom managed to somehow get Lauren to eat dinner with him. During that dinner, Tom found out a bit of information from Lauren.

Her full name was Ro Lauren and she fought in the Resistance against the Cardassians on Bajor before she joined Starfleet. She served aboard the Federation ship U.S.S. Enterprise-D, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard before leaving to fight with the Maquis. She also felt that Starfleet was too strict and Tom was glad someone agreed.

The next day, they beamed over the Kai and were met by Captain Grant Allen.

For a month, Tom fought beside the Maquis. In that time, Tom had managed to win Lauren's heart.

Captain Allen hadn't liked Tom from the moment he had laid eyes on him, he just didn't trust him. But Tom was a great pilot, and Allen needed him.

At the end of the month, the Kai came under attack by a Federation ship. This was the 5th battle for the Kai in less than 10 days. And the Kai was under construction when the Federation ship attacked. Many of their major systems were down but weapons, impulse and shields were still up.

But the small Maquis ship was no match for the huge Starfleet vessel.

In only a few minutes, half the crew was dead, they had no weapons and were getting hit pretty badly.

The bridge crew was down to four: Tom, Allen, Lauren and a young Bajoran named Shakan.

"We've lost impulse!" Tom called out as another proton torpedo hit the Kai.

"Hull breach on deck 6." Shakan said. "Force fields are in place, but I don't know how long they'll stay active."

Allen bit his lip.

"We lost forward phasers." Lauren called.

"Reroute power from all systems, including life support!" Allen ordered, turning to look at Lauren.

Tom swiveled around in his chair. "Are you crazy?" He shouted. "Rerouting life support to phasers? Why don't you just abandon ship? Then the crew can have a chance!"

"Do you have a problem with my orders?" Allen barked in his direction.

Tom was on his feet. "Yeah, I do."

"I don't care what you think, Paris, your job is to sit behind that helm and look cute!" Allen turned to Lauren. "Reroute power from the force fields to the weapons."

She hesitated. "Grant, if anyone is alive down there, the force fields-"

"Damnit Lauren!" Allen walked to her console and tapped in the order. He turned to Lauren. "Next time, don't-"

He was cut off as the console exploded in their faces.

"Lauren!!" Tom screamed, jumping from his console, but Shakan stopped him.

"Wait." He hissed. And it's a good thing, too. The entire console erupted into flames and Tom could smell burning flesh.

He knew that Ro Lauren was dead. But to his surprise, he felt no tears, but more of a stunned surprise.

Shakan reached over and pushed the 'abandon ship' button. Sirens roared through the ship and Shakan ran to the Jeffries tubes. "Tom! Come on! We've got to get out of here!"

Tom stared at the fire. Could this day get any worse?

Before Tom made it to the tubes, he heard the unmistakable sound of a transporter. As he crawled into tubes, he felt the searing pain of phaser fire strike his left shoulder and he was collapsed into darkness.