Horror Days- Chapter 21

Day 13 (Night on Petrin)

It became very dark on Petrin very fast. Tom had the choice of both starting a fire and attempting to sleep for the night, or keep going. Though a rest would be great, the fire might lead Lerik and the others to him. To keep going would be the smart thing to do, but then of course, Tom Paris didn't always choose the smart course of action.

Tom sat down again to take a break from walking around pretty much aimlessly in the forest. It was almost completely dark and Tom had no clue where the hell he was. Even though the fire could lead the bad guys to him, Tom grabbed some sticks of wood and tried to make a fire. I bet if Chakotay were here he could make a fire with two sticks…Tom thought. After a few moments, Tom was able to get a fire going.

For some time, Tom sat next to the fire letting the warmth roll over him. Getting his mind out of the ravine it was in; Tom stood up and found a long stick. He put the top end of the stick into the fire and took it out after that part was on fire. Tom started to put out the fire when he heard noises from far away.

Tom put out the fire on the ground, but still had the stick in his hand. Doing what he thought was best; Tom put out the stick and tried to hide behind some of the trees. The noises turned out to be the crunching of leaves and calls of some of the local wildlife. Shaking his head in anger at his jumpiness, Tom decided to continue walking in the direction he was walking in before. At least it would be hard for others to see him in the dark.

Day 14 (Voyager)

It was 0500 on Voyager and the Bridge crew was still working from last afternoon. They wanted to find their friend and they wouldn't stop until they found him. Tuvok had pointed out several times to everyone that they were no good to Tom tired, but none cared. Harry Kim had found where they took Tom, but his lifesign wasn't there. They had tried to hail him a long time ago and Janeway wanted to try again.

"Harry, hail his comm. badge again." Janeway said from her chair. Harry nodded and said that the frequency was open. "Voyager to Tom Paris." There was silence for a few minutes. "Tom, it's the Captain, please answer."

"Captain?" They all heard over the comm..

"Tom?" Janeway asked. "Is that you?"

"The real one, yes." Tom replied. "We need to talk, Captain, that wasn't me who helped kill Faber."

The Bridge crew looked at the Captain. She hadn't told any of them except Tuvok of the evidence. The Captain shook her head…she felt another headache coming on.

"Tom, we'll talk about that later, just for now, where are you?" The Captain said.

"I just got out of this forest near the building where I was taken." Tom answered. "You know where that is?"

"Yes, we got those coordinates." Janeway replied.

"Good, I went north from the lake in the back of the building." Tom began. "Then I hit the forest and kept going. Now I'm in this big grass field."

Tuvok had been inputting the details that Tom had been saying into his console. The Captain told Tuvok to put up a map of the area and where Tom could be. A part of the map was sectioned off and enlarged. That was where they believed Tom to be. Harry informed her that they couldn't transport Tom; there was some sort of interference.

"Cap-" Tom started, but stopped. The crew looked around at each other worriedly.

Day 14 (Petrin)

Tom had been talking to Voyager. The one thing he was so happy to be doing in the two days he had been gone. He could tell by the silence after he said he didn't help kill Faber showed that Janeway didn't say anything about it to the others. This was sort of a relief to him since they didn't want them to think of him as a murderer.

"Cap-" Tom started, but he stopped. He had felt a sharp pain in his back and stomach. Tom looked down and saw 2 centimeters of a bloody knife sticking out from his stomach. He could only imagine how big the whole knife was.

Tom dropped to his knees and felt the knife get pulled out of him. Tom twisted around and fell on his back to the ground. His comm. badge fell out of his hand to the ground a few centimeters from him. Tom looked up at the man standing in front of him and the person looked very familiar.

"I was going to let you go, Mr. Paris, but I changed my mind." The man said holding the bloody knife in his hand. It was Lerik still masquerading as Tom. "You messed with the wrong guy, Paris, and you're going to pay for it."

That was it. That was how Tom was going to prove his innocence. The comm. badge was still picking up their voices. If the crew stayed quiet, they could listen in and if they noticed something was up, they could transport both him and Lerik off the planet. Tom kept looking back and forth between his wound which was now bleeding very badly and Lerik.

"Oh don't worry, Paris, I'll make sure I'm the last thing you see before you die." Lerik said in Tom's voice. "I guess now Voyager will find you dead. Too bad I guess, it seemed like they liked you."

Voyager

They were all able to listen in on another Paris voice talking. It was obvious now that there was seriously something wrong and there was more than one Tom Paris. Janeway walked over to Harry at his console.

"Have you been trying to get around the interference?" Janeway asked.

"Yes, I need two more minutes and we'll be able to transport Tom." Harry replied. There was a pause. "And whoever is with him."

"Good." Janeway nodded and went back to the middle of the Bridge where she joined Chakotay. "We'll be able to get him out in two minutes…Both of them." Janeway whispered to Chakotay.