Authors Note: I don't own the ship, the characters, or anything at all.

Chapter 17 – Death's the end of all

Elizabeth had spent most of the day wandering aimlessly around the ship. She now knew every nook and cranny, not to mention every Jeffries tube in this ship. Now, she was stood outside the shuttle bay, preparing for her first flying lesson since the accident. She had steeled herself for this moment, but now her resolve was quickly dissipating.

"Liz, you coming?" Tom asked, appearing through the doors.

"Oh, uh sure", she said, not moving.

"Nervous? It'll be okay," Tom tried to reassure her.

Elizabeth nodded, and followed Tom through the doors. On entering the shuttle bay, Elizabeth spotted the delta flyer immediately; it certainly was as impressive as Tom said. She walked over to it, circling it once, before following Tom inside.

"Welcome to the delta flyer", he grinned.

Elizabeth smiled, surveying the interior of the ship – it certainly was far better than the shuttles in the Alpha quadrant.

"The pilots seat", Tom, indicated to the seat at the front of the flyer.

"I'll take us out, and find a place for us to start the lesson", he said.

Elizabeth nodded, sitting down behind the tactical station. Tom nodded approvingly, before sitting down himself and initiated take off procedures. Once they had been given the all clear, they were off.

Tom flew for about half an hour, the two of them chatting easily the entire time. He was about to hand over control to Elizabeth, when the ship shook violently from a phaser blast.

"Sensors haven't detected a ship, it must be cloaked", Elizabeth stated, nervously.

"Okay, let's send a warning shot", Tom replied, keeping his voice even, so as not to scare Elizabeth.

"Wait, they're de-cloaking off port", Elizabeth cried.

The flyer was rocked again, more violently this time; the other ship was using photon torpedoes. Elizabeth was thrown from her seat, but quickly scrambled back up.

"Fire Liz, we can't take another hit like that", Tom, shouted.

Smoke was filling the cabin. Deja-vouz, Elizabeth thought. Putting the thought from her mind she attempted to concentrate on the problem.

"Tom, phasers are off line", Elizabeth shouted back.

"Okay, can you see anywhere we could set down?" Tom asked, hopefully.

"There's an asteroid field about 5 minutes up ahead. Will we be able to hold them off that long?" Elizabeth asked.

"We can try", he replied. He knew Elizabeth believed him to be one of the best pilots ever, but he didn't have as much faith in himself when it came to crunch time.

Another torpedo hit, and Elizabeth was thrown from her seat onto the console in front of her, which exploded throwing her to the floor severely injured.  Tom didn't look around, but he knew what had happened. A tear fell down his cheek, but his anger fuelled him to survive.

After dodging a few more hits, he managed to set down in a crater on a large asteroid. Sighing as the flyer landed, he turned in his seat surveying the damage. Elizabeth's lifeless body lay on the floor next to the tactical console, her body had severe burns. Oh god he thought, getting up and heading for her. Don't be dead; don't be dead, he whispered to himself. He had promised the captain he would take good care of her – she had been concerned for Elizabeth after her last experience in a shuttle, and she had almost come with them. However, Tom had managed to persuade her it was unnecessary for her to come, reassuring her he was perfectly capable of taking care of his little sister. The captain had left it at that, trusting Tom's skill as a pilot.

Now, Tom thought, what had he done? Hovering over Elizabeth he bent down and took hold of her wrist. Please let there be a pulse, he thought. Don't let her die now she has so much to live for.

-Fin-

Please review. I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but I wanted to give you guys a cliffhanger, so I split it in two. I promise you'll find out the Liz/Janeway connection in the next half of this chapter. Tell me what you think of the story so far, do you think I'm going to kill Elizabeth off, etc.