Horror Days- Chapter 15

Day 9 (Petrin)

"Commander, please, can we just search one more area?" Harry pleaded with his superior officer. They were in the Delta Flyer scouring around the area they had been to earlier in the day.

"Harry…" Chakotay started. He also wanted to keep searching, but they were already past their due back time. Over the years, Tom and Chakotay had become friends. When Tom married B'Elanna he almost became family, and nothing would make him happier to get Tom back to B'Elanna.

"Chakotay, please, just one more area." Harry asked. Chakotay was silent for a moment.

"Fine, send a message to Voyager saying that we're checking out one more area." Chakotay replied giving up. "But that's it, only one more."

Harry smiled a rather big grin. "Thank you, sir." Chakotay smiled to himself, too.

The Delta Flyer started towards an area two hours from the building they had visited before. It was farther than where the others had gone, so there might be something there. Suddenly, the skies opened up and it began to pour rain. Chakotay looked back at Harry.

"I don't know. It just started raining out of nowhere." Harry replied. His fingers were dancing over the panel. "Commander, there are many people on the ground a few minutes from here."

"Any humans?" Chakotay asked.

"Not from what I see here." Harry replied sadly.

"Let's investigate anyway, this might be important." Chakotay answered.

Chakotay piloted the Delta Flyer towards the mass of people. Once there, he landed the Delta Flyer on an open porch. From what they could see outside, there were many people on porches trying to avoid the rain. Suddenly, they saw two people emerge carrying a much larger man towards one of the porches.

"We should get out to find out what's happening." Harry said.

"No, it's getting too bad out there." Chakotay responded. "Let's wait for a little bit."

Harry wanted to say something, but knew he was already pushing it. He was right; it might not do them any good to get caught up in something very dangerous.

Tom was looking around for Riken. In doing so, he saw something off in the distance that looked a lot like a shuttle. More specifically, the Delta Flyer. He didn't know if he was going crazy or what not, but Tom had to find out what it was. Tom started going down the stairs of the porch when Riken grabbed his shirt.

"What are you doing? It's pouring rain!" Riken yelled.

"I'll be right back, stay with him." Tom replied.

Tom stepped off the steps and ran towards the apparition of the Flyer. He started getting closer and closer. There's no way…, Tom thought as he got closer. There's no way that can be the Flyer, no way in hell. Tom was almost standing right in front of the Flyer when the back door of the Flyer opened.

Harry and Chakotay were looking outside the front of the Flyer. There was a person running towards them. Someone had seen them and they didn't know if it was a good thing or bad thing. The person came closer and closer. Soon they could make out that it was a tall man, taller than both of them…The man was almost in front of them when they realized it was Tom.

"That's…" Harry started.

"Get the door open!" Chakotay yelled. They both raced to the back of the Delta Flyer to open the back door. The door didn't open soon enough because both men ran out of the shuttle to greet Tom.

Harry ran up to Tom and hugged him. Tom was a little taken aback at the strength of the hug, but hugged Harry back. Tom eventually had to push Harry away to begin breathing again. Chakotay came up to Tom and held out his hand. Tom shook it heartily. It was probably the first time Tom was ever happy to see his former enemy before in his life.

"We need to get out of here." Tom said to them both.

"Couldn't agree more." Harry replied, he and Chakotay turned around and started to walk back to the shuttle.

"No, wait, we need to bring a couple people with us." Tom called out to them both. Harry and Chakotay looked back at Tom. "It's only four people." Chakotay thought it over for a few minutes, but then nodded. "Good, can you guys help me, though?"

The trio made their way back to the home that Phil, Locke, and Shon Faber were. Harry and Phil carried Shon back to the shuttle. Locke walked with him. There was nothing he could do for most of the men with no tools, so the only other hope would be to get them somewhere else.

Chakotay stayed back with Tom. Tom stood in the middle of the houses trying to get attention to him while standing in the rain.

"I know you are all wondering why we are leaving you all." Tom yelled out to the crowd. "My people have come for me and I need to go. I want you all, once the rain has stopped, to make your way to wherever you can. Spread the word about what happened. They will believe you." The crowd nodded in their approval. Tom decided to keep his weapon with him, just in case Shon decided to wake up. Soon after Tom stopped, he saw Riken running towards him.

Tom picked Riken up and turned towards Chakotay. "Let's go." Chakotay nodded and they made their way back to the Delta Flyer. Once getting into the shuttle, Tom put Riken down in a seat. Locke was in the back trying to save Shon's life, Harry and Phil were at the Communications console.

"Can you get all the video from the beginning to all available channels and Voyager?" Tom asked Phil.

"Yes." Phil answered; he began to work at the console.

"Even from the one inside my stomach?" Tom asked. Phil nodded.

"What did you eat?" Chakotay asked.

"A camera the size of a golf ball." Tom answered. "We'll discuss this later, right now, let's get the hell out of here."

Tom walked over to the helm controls and started up the pre-flight sequence. Soon, the Delta Flyer was ready to leave and was off the ground quickly. The rain had stopped almost at the same exact moment the Flyer took off. Tom took one last look at the group of people that would hopefully get back to their families soon. They were the revolution and he was lucky enough to be apart of it.

"Done." Phil said. "Voyager, every news station, and all open channels received the video of the ordeal."

Voyager

"Captain, I am receiving a signal from the Delta Flyer." Tuvok called out to Janeway. Janeway looked over. "It is a video signal that apparently covers the span of six days."

"Put a piece of it up on the viewscreen, Tuvok." Janeway said.

On the viewscreen appeared the image of Tom Paris. He looked ruffled and dirty. Janeway stood up and walked closer towards the screen. Everyone on the Bridge looked at the screen in awe. Tom was holding a weapon not of Starfleet design up to the throat of a Petrinnen.

"You just pissed me off enough." Tom continued. It was silent for a moment or two. "I have no problem pulling this trigger and blowing your brains out right this moment." Tom stopped to let that sink in. "But, I'm smart enough to know that I need you to take us to the headquarters of that man so this never happens again. So I won't kill you…now." Tom let the man go so he could stand up by himself. But Tom came closer and whispered into the man's ear. "But if you make one wrong move, I will kill you."

"Captain." Tuvok said aloud. "The Delta Flyer is two thousand meters off our port bow. They are hailing."

"Put them through, Tuvok." Janeway replied.

On the viewscreen appeared Tom Paris at the controls. Chakotay was behind him at the tactical station and Harry at the operations station.

"Let's just say, Captain, that you can hold off on that funeral." Tom said smiling. Tom was obviously tired; it didn't take a genius to figure that out. He still had the raggedy appearance as they had seen just seconds before.

"Tom?" Janeway said in disbelief.

"The one and only." Tom replied.

"Kathryn, we're going to beam Tom and three other's to Sickbay." Chakotay called from the back. "One person we brought back is in serious condition and Tom here needs some surgery himself."

Janeway nodded and smiled. "Our shields are down…Welcome back, Tom." Janeway replied still smiling. This would be the best news B'Elanna ever got in her lifetime.