Evolutions I: An Act of Betrayal
Part Fifteen
The tension between the crew and the hybrids was still running high the morning after the disastrous welcome home party. Most of the crew had believed that party would be the quick fix they needed to make things right with their betrayed crewmates. In the end it had backfired. If anything the hybrids felt even angrier with the rest of the crew.
"Torres and Seven are late." Janeway said after waiting fifteen minutes in the conference room.
"I don't think that they're coming." Chakotay said, hoping that Janeway wouldn't kill the messenger.
"Janeway to Torres," Janeway said as she slapped her comm. badge in irritation.
"...Torres here," replied the sleepy voice of B'Elanna.
"The senior staff meeting started fifteen minutes ago." Janeway snapped. "Why aren't you here?"
"How many times do I have to tell you I quit before you get it through that thick head of yours?" B'Elanna asked, growing angry herself.
"Well I just don't accept that!" Janeway shouted. "I want you and Seven here on the double."
"Seven and I aren't taking orders from you anymore." B'Elanna replied as she closed the link.
"I want those two working again." Janeway said in frustration. "Isn't there anything that we can do?"
"Perhaps if we were to take away some of the privileges accorded the crew of Voyager it would act as an incentive to return to duty." Tuvok offered.
"That could work." Janeway agreed. "From now on Seven and B'Elanna will no longer have replicator rations, all of their command codes will be revoked and they no longer have use of their quarters." Janeway said maliciously.
"Captain, do you think that this is the best way to handle this?" Neelix asked. "What we have done to them was horrible. I don't think that taking their home from them will make it any easier for them to forgive us."
"Irregardless of the new technology we have we are a long way from the alpha quadrant Neelix. Everyone on this ship needs to do their fair share in order for us to make it home." Janeway said choosing her words carefully.
Neelix nodded, knowing that trying to reason with the captain in this mood was hopeless.
"Doc, have you finished with the inoculations yet? You still haven't even told us what they were for?" Harry asked.
"Yes, they're finished now." The doctor said looking a little hot under the collar. Now that he was human he was finding it harder to lie convincingly. "It was just a routine flu vaccination."
"We all got inoculated at least three times in the last week." Tom thought out loud. "It doesn't sound like any routine vaccination I've ever heard of."
"Now that you mention it, it does seem strange." Chakotay agreed. "Doctor, I want a formal report on the vaccinations given us."
"Is that really necessary?" The doctor asked in a calm voice that belied his internal panic. "I have more pressing concerns to deal with now that I am human."
"You have until tomorrow morning Doctor. It's only a simple report. It should only take a couple of hours." Tom said, not understanding why the doctor had such a big problem with it.
"Alright," the Doctor relented, knowing that he had no way out of this.
"Tuvok please inform the 'civilians' that they must leave the Chief Engineer's quarters no later than noon today." Janeway said as she brought the meeting to a close.
Tuvok left the conference room and gathered a few of his security officers. If the hybrids were going to put up a fight he would be ready.
Tuvok and his five officers had their phasers drawn when they reached B'Elanna's quarters. Tuvok rang the entry chime and waited patiently for an answer.
After a few moments, B'Elanna opened the door and looked at the security officers with a guarded expression.
"What do you want?" B'Elanna said, eyeing the drawn phasers.
"What is going on?" Seven asked as she came to the door as well.
"We are here to inform you that as you are no longer Starfleet officers you no longer have replicator rations, your command codes have been revoked and you no longer have quarters aboard Voyager You have until noon to vacate." Tuvok said calmly.
"What?" B'Elanna asked in shock.
"Since you are no longer productive crewmen aboard Voyager you will receive none of the benefits." Tuvok said as he and his team left.
"It does not matter B'Elanna." Seven said in a comforting tone. "We still have the ship. Once it is completed we may live there."
"You're right Seven." B'Elanna said, giving her a kiss. "In fact it will give us the perfect excuse to spend our extra time working on our ship."
'What the hell am I going to do?' the Doctor thought to himself. 'How do I explain the inoculations?'
The Doctor had been pacing around sick bay for the past hour with the same thoughts running through his head.
'If I can just alter the report enough to take the suspicion away from me I might be able to get past this. After I give Chakotay the report it will be looked over and forgotten. No one will even bring it up again.'
The doctor hoped that his desperate plan would work. He quickly set to work creating a report that contained enough components to give the desired side effects and still provide a vaccination for the flu.
Seven, B'Elanna and Naomi had finished transporting all of B'Elanna's personal things into the shuttle bay and aboard their ship. All that was left to do to complete repairs was replace all the damaged components of the ship with the replacements parts they had acquired from the space station.
"It's going to take a lot of work, but I think that we can get it done in a few days." B'Elanna said optimistically.
"I believe you are correct B'Elanna. The only major repair that needs to be completed is replacing the damaged sections of the hull, and those we can replicate."
"I don't know about that Seven." B'Elanna said worriedly. "Janeway took away our replicator rations. I don't think that it's likely that she'll give them back to us any time soon."
"Have you looked in the sub-space pocket?" Seven asked in a teasing voice.
"No. But by the look on your face there's probably something good in there." B'Elanna said as the hybrids walked into the ship.
When they entered Seven flicked the switch for the sub-space pocket and the hidden sections of the ship blinked into existence.
"Look at this." Seven said as she pointed to a device in the far left corner.
B'Elanna approached the device and carefully began to examine it, a smile slowly spreading across her features.
"It's an industrial replicator!" B'Elanna nearly jumped for joy.
"With it we can disassemble all of the parts we salvaged from the space station and replicate them to the specifications for the ship." Seven said happily.
"We'll be finished in no time." B'Elanna said as she hugged Seven and spun her around.
"Captain something very strange just happened." Harry said as he examined the new sensors.
"What is it?" Janeway asked curiously.
"The hybrids were in the shuttle bay one minute, the next they just disappeared." Harry said, clearly confused.
"Tuvok get a security team together. I want to know-" Janeway began to say.
"Wait a minute Captain." Harry interrupted. "They just re-appeared again."
"Perhaps they have some type of cloaking device aboard their ship." Tuvok said as he brought up the readings on his own console.
"Tom, Harry, go check it out." Janeway ordered. "But don't let them know what you're up to."
"On our way," Tom said for both of them. 'This is going to be the perfect time to ask Seven out again. She probably misunderstood me at the party,' Tom thought.
'I know that B'Elanna is going to say yes this time.' Harry thought confidently. 'I just have to let her know that I'm interested.'
As the two friends left the bridge they began to talk about how they were going to approach the women.
"The party didn't work as well as I thought it would." Harry conceded.
"I'm sure they like us, they just don't want to admit it." Tom said adamantly.
"Maybe if we can talk to them separately we'll have a better chance." Harry thought out loud.
"That's easier said than done. B'Elanna hasn't let Seven out of her sight from the moment that they came back to Voyager."
"It's still our best shot." Harry said as they walked into the shuttle bay.
As Tom and Harry looked around the shuttle bay they were shocked. They expected Seven and B'Elanna to be working on an old beat up shuttle, but what they saw was a sleek, very powerful looking craft. Sure, it still needed a lot of work but at the rate Seven and B'Elanna were going it wouldn't take too long.
"Is that the new ship?" Tom asked as he eyed the ship with a dreamy look.
"It is." Seven said as she looked up from the hull plating that she was attaching.
"That junk yard actually had something like this in it?" Harry asked in wonder.
"What are you doing here?" B'Elanna asked suspiciously as she moved closer to Seven and Naomi.
"We just wanted to see how you were doing." Harry said as he remembered that he was not supposed to tell them that they were spying.
"When do you think the ship is going to be ready?" Tom asked, still not taking his eyes off it. "I can't wait to take it for a spin."
"What are you talking about? What makes you think you're even going to be allowed to set foot in it?" B'Elanna asked, growing angry.
"We're eventually going to need it for an away mission, and I am the best pilot on the ship." Tom boasted.
"This ship is private property." Seven said as she hopped off the side. "The only people authorized to fly it are B'Elanna and my self."
Tom's face fell as he heard what Seven had to say. "That isn't fair!" Tom said in a whiny voice before he could stop himself.
"Life isn't fair." B'Elanna said with a smirk. "What did you really come here for?" she asked.
"We wanted to know if the three of you wanted to get some dinner." Tom said in what he thought was a sexy voice.
"Janeway took away all the replicator rations we'd saved up." B'Elanna said angrily.
"Dinner's on us." Harry intervened quickly.
Seven pulled B'Elanna aside. "Perhaps we should. It will take time to program the industrial replicator to create meals, and Naomi has not had anything to eat since breakfast."
"Alright," B'Elanna relented. "But I don't trust them. We'll have dinner, and come back here straight after."
Seven nodded her head in agreement as the pair turned to face Tom and Harry.
"Alright, we'll have dinner, but that's it." B'Elanna said as she led Seven and Naomi out of the shuttle bay.
Tom and Harry followed them happily. It wasn't all they wanted but it was at least a start.
In the mess hall a hush fell over the crew members still having dinner. They all felt guilty for what they'd done and they didn't know how to fix things. With the entry of the hybrids, all the guilt and shame over the conspiracy they had taken part in came rushing to the front of their minds.
Seven, B'Elanna and Naomi ignored the stares they were receiving as they made their way over to one of the empty tables. Tom and Harry quickly joined them, Harry sitting to the left of B'Elanna and Tom on Seven's right.
Seven began to feel uncomfortable at how close Tom was sitting beside her and called Naomi over. "Lieutenant, will you please change seats with Naomi?"
"There's a seat right over there for her." Tom said, dismissing Naomi.
"I would feel more comfortable with Naomi next to me." Seven tried to be tactful.
"Sure Seven, whatever makes you feel more comfortable." Tom said as he realized that upsetting Seven would not help him reach his goal. He got out of his seat and pushed it in for Naomi when she sat down.
B'Elanna was nowhere near as eloquent when she told Harry to give her some breathing room. "Get back before I throw you back."
"Sure B'Elanna." Harry said, trying to pass it off as a joke as he blushed in embarrassment.
"So what happened to you on the space station?" Tom asked. "How did your looks change so much? You don't look a day older than nineteen."
"I do not wish to discuss it Lieutenant." Seven said in a calm voice.
"It can't have been that bad Seven. You look great, and younger to boot." Tom said, not noticing the angry glare on B'Elanna's face.
"Don't talk about things you know nothing about." B'Elanna said angrily. "What Seven went through was horrible. It's a miracle that she's still alive."
"What would you like for dinner?" Neelix asked as he rushed over. "It's good to have you three back." Neelix added, trying to dissolve the tension in the room.
"That isn't what you said when you let them take us away." Naomi said as she looked at the man she'd once thought of as a father.
"It was a mistake Naomi. What can I do to make it up to you?" Neelix asked in a sad voice.
"That is the million dollar question, isn't it?" B'Elanna said with a snort. "What can you all do to make it up to us? And even if you could, what would be the point?"
"What we all did was wrong." Harry said, speaking for the crew. "We'll regret it for the rest of our lives."
"If you regret it as much as you claim, why are you still participating in this conspiracy?" Seven asked. "We have discussed it and have only been able to come to one conclusion: you need us to return to the Alpha Quadrant. Does this mean you wish to apologize because you regret what you have done or because you know that if we forgive you we will go back to work?" Seven asked.
Her questions were met with silence. Not even Neelix was able to refute Seven's claims.
"Let's get out of here." B'Elanna said as she stood up. "We can have dinner in the shuttle bay."
"Yeah," Naomi agreed. "I suddenly lost my appetite."
The hybrids left the mess hall without even a backward glance.
"Captain, things can't continue the way they are." Chakotay said. "Seven and B'Elanna won't even talk to anyone and, as it stands, they may never go back to work."
"I'm sure you're exaggerating things Commander. They may be very good at their jobs but they can be replaced." Janeway said in a bored tone. "Besides, how long can they last without food or a place to stay?"
"That's just it Captain. With all the different technologies on the ship, we need B'Elanna or we're the ones that are going to be the ones wondering what to do without food or a safe place to stay. She's the only one that can keep the ship running smoothly, and the one that can get it working the fastest after a battle. Carey tried to do a sensor scan yesterday and couldn't get anywhere. Seven is the same. Astrometrics was specifically upgraded for her. She's the only one that can tell us if we're going in the right direction and if we're going to run into any hostiles." Chakotay complained.
"Eventually they will give in Commander. We can not be the first to cave in." Janeway said sternly. "If they don't show up for tomorrow's staff meeting we'll go down to the shuttle bay and try to work something out." Janeway relented.
To Be Continued...