A/N: ok here it is, the seventh chapter. It could be longer, I know, but I
was tired and I just wanted to get something out there for you guys.
Hopefully its sweet as well as short, if you know what I mean, I hope you
do cause I don't. Enjoy.
"Ok, this couldn't be smaller." Hoshi said as she once again got a little too close to Trip who was crawling ahead of her with all the speed of a turtle on a depressant drip.
"Could we speed this up a bit?" Malcolm asked from behind her.
"Something wrong with your view?" Trip asked.
"Ok, we have been in here far too long, time to find the exit, ASAP." Hoshi said meaningfully to Trip's backside.
"What you two fail to realize is that, much like yourselves, I have never been inside this ship's Jeffries tubes. This fact makes split second decisions and pinpoint accuracy just a bit difficult." Trip was in snarky mode at this point.
Hoshi figured he was really missing his engines about now. She, however, just missed her bed and the opportunity to use it at this point.
"We are parallel to Engineering's second level, I can still hear the core vibrations, so we need to find a junction to the right." Trip was more talking to himself rather than to them.
After an hour of wandering through cramped tubes on hands and knees and breathlessly avoiding the two crewmen who had almost stumbled upon them, the inside of this ship had lost its novelty. As it was, Hoshi knew more about the inside of Voyager then she did about the mess hall on Enterprise.
"Are you quite certain its right, commander?" Malcolm asked.
"Would you leave the man alone, I would like to reach our destination before rheumatoid arthritis sets in." Ok, Hoshi now realized she was entering her own disagreeable place, which left only Reed in sensible-land, god save them all.
"We go right. I hear the vibrations, Malcolm, and they are to the right," Trip said.
"Ok right it is." Hoshi said in Malcolm's stead. They were still crawling straight ahead. "There is no junction is there?" She asked.
"Nope." Replied Trip, still at the lead.
"Ok, so long as I know." Hoshi apologized to her joints as she jostled forward on them with anything but a smile on her face.
"Well, it's only one ship, where can they be?" Janeway was definitely not pleased with the lack of progress in locating the missing time travelers.
"They have not left the ship. Not in anyway we would be aware of." Tuvok added, not so helpfully.
"Captain, they were in no shape to go non-stop. They have to have found a place to rest. They could be sleeping or napping anywhere on the ship. The sedative I gave them was retroactive." The doctor was all but pleading his medical skills to her.
"Doctor, no one is blaming you for their dash from sickbay. I would simply like them returned there," Janeway turned her gaze meaningfully to Chakotay.
"We're still looking." He responded.
"I'm still detecting the temporal disturbance, so they are definitely on board." Harry Kim chimed in.
"Well, that narrows the search. I want teams on this immediately, everyone you can spare. For all we know their temporal displacement could desintegrate the ship, or it could pull us back from the inside out, or it could do nothing at all. Unfortunately, we need them here for study in order to determine exactly what it will do. So, lets get them back," the captain never raised her voice, but she didn't have to, they got the point. "Dismissed."
"So, we have three missing pre-federation members of Starfleet, who are most likely exhausted, confused, and looking for a way home." Tom Paris ticked off the points on his fingers as he walked with Harry towards the shuttle bay. "One is an armory officer, so probably wants to blast his way out of the situation; but the weapons locker is clear and there are no unaccounted for firearms on board, so he's not in charge. The other is a linguist and so probably wants to talk or reason her way out of the situation; but we have heard nothing from them, so she's not in charge. The last is an engineer, he would want to fix the problem, and so, would need to know as much about it as possible. He is more than likely in charge."
Harry opened the bay doors and the walked in together. "The problem is, they are unfamiliar with the ship, so they could be anywhere trying to gather that information," Harry said, finishing his friends thought.
"Right, but the shuttle bay, Harry really, we're talking about the most acclaimed engineer next to Montgomery Scott. He would know there was nothing in the shuttle bay."
"Ah, but the shuttle bays used to be located near engineering." Harry said, holding one finger in the air like a mock Sherlock Holms.
"So, you think he would come here as a short cut or what?" Tom asked as he walked toward the control panel.
Harry sighed as he started checking crates and Tom checked the control panel for unauthorized access. "I don't know. At this point they could be anywhere."
"Well, they weren't here." Tom said as he shut down the panel. "No access was made to this bay since the last fact finding sweep we did two weeks ago."
"Fine," Harry said, by-passing the last two crates and the Jeffries tube entrance. "We're off to rec-room two."
"Yippy," Tom said, without even a trace of enthusiasm as he followed his friend out of the bay and the doors closed behind them.
"Well, it's an honest mistake, as far as I knew the shuttle bay was near engineering." Trip said in his defense to the glares that where thrown his way after the near miss with the two bored officers. How they had gotten this off track he had no idea.
"We'll just have to turn around. We were right parallel to it, maybe we should have gone down instead of up, that could have led to a first level entrance." He was squishing himself to face the other way as he spoke. When he was, face the other way that is, he was also nose to nose with an annoyed and very tired Hoshi Sato. Not the best place for one to be.
"How far back is the wrong turn?" she asked in an even voice.
Malcolm, obedient to the tee, was already facing the other way when he answered on Trip's behalf. "About two junctions and a level down."
If Trip didn't know better, he would have sworn Hoshi had growled as she turned slowly to resume crawling in the opposite direction.
**Its really late and I'm too tired to write anymore, but you begged and begged and begged, so here is what I got...(
"Ok, this couldn't be smaller." Hoshi said as she once again got a little too close to Trip who was crawling ahead of her with all the speed of a turtle on a depressant drip.
"Could we speed this up a bit?" Malcolm asked from behind her.
"Something wrong with your view?" Trip asked.
"Ok, we have been in here far too long, time to find the exit, ASAP." Hoshi said meaningfully to Trip's backside.
"What you two fail to realize is that, much like yourselves, I have never been inside this ship's Jeffries tubes. This fact makes split second decisions and pinpoint accuracy just a bit difficult." Trip was in snarky mode at this point.
Hoshi figured he was really missing his engines about now. She, however, just missed her bed and the opportunity to use it at this point.
"We are parallel to Engineering's second level, I can still hear the core vibrations, so we need to find a junction to the right." Trip was more talking to himself rather than to them.
After an hour of wandering through cramped tubes on hands and knees and breathlessly avoiding the two crewmen who had almost stumbled upon them, the inside of this ship had lost its novelty. As it was, Hoshi knew more about the inside of Voyager then she did about the mess hall on Enterprise.
"Are you quite certain its right, commander?" Malcolm asked.
"Would you leave the man alone, I would like to reach our destination before rheumatoid arthritis sets in." Ok, Hoshi now realized she was entering her own disagreeable place, which left only Reed in sensible-land, god save them all.
"We go right. I hear the vibrations, Malcolm, and they are to the right," Trip said.
"Ok right it is." Hoshi said in Malcolm's stead. They were still crawling straight ahead. "There is no junction is there?" She asked.
"Nope." Replied Trip, still at the lead.
"Ok, so long as I know." Hoshi apologized to her joints as she jostled forward on them with anything but a smile on her face.
"Well, it's only one ship, where can they be?" Janeway was definitely not pleased with the lack of progress in locating the missing time travelers.
"They have not left the ship. Not in anyway we would be aware of." Tuvok added, not so helpfully.
"Captain, they were in no shape to go non-stop. They have to have found a place to rest. They could be sleeping or napping anywhere on the ship. The sedative I gave them was retroactive." The doctor was all but pleading his medical skills to her.
"Doctor, no one is blaming you for their dash from sickbay. I would simply like them returned there," Janeway turned her gaze meaningfully to Chakotay.
"We're still looking." He responded.
"I'm still detecting the temporal disturbance, so they are definitely on board." Harry Kim chimed in.
"Well, that narrows the search. I want teams on this immediately, everyone you can spare. For all we know their temporal displacement could desintegrate the ship, or it could pull us back from the inside out, or it could do nothing at all. Unfortunately, we need them here for study in order to determine exactly what it will do. So, lets get them back," the captain never raised her voice, but she didn't have to, they got the point. "Dismissed."
"So, we have three missing pre-federation members of Starfleet, who are most likely exhausted, confused, and looking for a way home." Tom Paris ticked off the points on his fingers as he walked with Harry towards the shuttle bay. "One is an armory officer, so probably wants to blast his way out of the situation; but the weapons locker is clear and there are no unaccounted for firearms on board, so he's not in charge. The other is a linguist and so probably wants to talk or reason her way out of the situation; but we have heard nothing from them, so she's not in charge. The last is an engineer, he would want to fix the problem, and so, would need to know as much about it as possible. He is more than likely in charge."
Harry opened the bay doors and the walked in together. "The problem is, they are unfamiliar with the ship, so they could be anywhere trying to gather that information," Harry said, finishing his friends thought.
"Right, but the shuttle bay, Harry really, we're talking about the most acclaimed engineer next to Montgomery Scott. He would know there was nothing in the shuttle bay."
"Ah, but the shuttle bays used to be located near engineering." Harry said, holding one finger in the air like a mock Sherlock Holms.
"So, you think he would come here as a short cut or what?" Tom asked as he walked toward the control panel.
Harry sighed as he started checking crates and Tom checked the control panel for unauthorized access. "I don't know. At this point they could be anywhere."
"Well, they weren't here." Tom said as he shut down the panel. "No access was made to this bay since the last fact finding sweep we did two weeks ago."
"Fine," Harry said, by-passing the last two crates and the Jeffries tube entrance. "We're off to rec-room two."
"Yippy," Tom said, without even a trace of enthusiasm as he followed his friend out of the bay and the doors closed behind them.
"Well, it's an honest mistake, as far as I knew the shuttle bay was near engineering." Trip said in his defense to the glares that where thrown his way after the near miss with the two bored officers. How they had gotten this off track he had no idea.
"We'll just have to turn around. We were right parallel to it, maybe we should have gone down instead of up, that could have led to a first level entrance." He was squishing himself to face the other way as he spoke. When he was, face the other way that is, he was also nose to nose with an annoyed and very tired Hoshi Sato. Not the best place for one to be.
"How far back is the wrong turn?" she asked in an even voice.
Malcolm, obedient to the tee, was already facing the other way when he answered on Trip's behalf. "About two junctions and a level down."
If Trip didn't know better, he would have sworn Hoshi had growled as she turned slowly to resume crawling in the opposite direction.
**Its really late and I'm too tired to write anymore, but you begged and begged and begged, so here is what I got...(