CHAPTER 10

The mysterious sensor echo didn't make a reappearance, and while they didn't know what it was, Hoshi couldn't help but think it had something to do with Violet.

Several days of shipboard routine passed in relative quiet with no major incidents. There also hadn't been any major accidents, although there had been an assortment of mild injuries all attributable to Violet to some degree or another. Trip had grabbed for a plate Violet had bobbled in the mess hall and had burned himself when two of his fingers slid into the hot gravy on her mashed potatoes. Jon had given himself a nasty cut on his forehead when, in his surprise when Hoshi told him about Malcolm bursting in on Trip and Violet at gunpoint, he had forgotten to duck as he was pacing in his ready room and had cracked his head on one of the support struts.

And Malcolm now had matching bruises on his cheeks. In addition to the one he'd gotten when he'd fallen after he'd been stunned, yesterday Violet had opened the door to his office and had smacked him in the face as he was approaching from the other side. With the vivid black-and-blue marks just under his eyes, Hoshi thought he looked a bit like a raccoon.

Hoshi considered herself lucky that the only thing Violet had inflicted on her were meandering vocal ramblings. It had taken her a while to realize that she didn't really need to respond to Violet when she was in a talkative mood. She could continue to concentrate on whatever it was she was doing if, detecting a pause on Violet's part, she responded with "Is that so?" or some other noncommittal statement.

The only time Hoshi's new-found serenity in dealing with her roommate was threatened was early one evening when she had returned to the cabin from her duty shift. Violet had been reading a novel on a padd when Hoshi went in the bathroom to put on some civvies, but when she came out she found her roommate playing with her bunny slippers.

"Those are off limits," Hoshi said as she snatched them from Violet, who had inserted a hand in each slipper and was making them hop up and down on the end of her bunk.

"Sorry!" Violet said.

Hoshi put the slippers back where they belonged -- on the deck with their little bunny faces and ears poking out from underneath the end of her bunk. She looked up, intending to tell Violet to keep out of her stuff, but the sad expression on Violet's face stopped her.

"I didn't mean to make you mad," Violet said. "It's just...I'm bored to tears."

Resisting the obvious response that Violet was easily moved to tears, no matter what the situation, Hoshi said, "I suppose there's not much to do in the armory. But what about all those novels I downloaded onto a padd for you?"

Violet gave her a crooked smile. "I speed read. I finished them. And to tell you the truth, I'm rather tired of reading."

Hoshi bit her lip. They'd agreed it would be best to stay in her quarters, but she was getting a bit of cabin fever herself.

"Tell you what," Hoshi said, moving over to the comm panel. "Let me check first with Lieutenant Reed to see if he thinks it's okay, and if he does, we'll take a jaunt down to the gym and do some exercise."

"I'd rather visit Engineering," Violet said hopefully. "That nice Commander Tucker said he'd give me a tour if I wanted."

Engineering was a dangerous enough place without accident-prone Violet stumbling around in it. Hoshi could only imagine what might happen if Trip gave Violet a tour there. "Don't push it," she said, adding severely, "We're supposed to be protecting you, not running a dating service."

Violet's hopeful expression fell and a slight blush tinged her cheeks. Hoshi realized she was taking out her own frustration on the other woman, and relented.

"Maybe Commander Tucker will be in the gym," she said. "Lots of times he works out right after his shift before going to dinner. Why don't you get in some civvies and we'll head that way, provided Lieutenant Reed gives us the green light?"

Violet jumped up from the bed, hurried to the closet, and grabbed a pair of casual pants and a T-shirt. Heading for the bathroom door, she spun around, a big smile on her face, and said, "This is going to be fun!"

Hoshi wasn't so sure about that. But at least they'd be getting out of the cabin for a while.

When Hoshi had comm'd him to see if he thought it was permissible to take Violet to the gym, Malcolm's first inclination was to say no. But something in Hoshi's voice informed him she needed this break as much as Violet did. He'd told her to go ahead, but that he'd be joining them.

Not that he wanted to. He'd already spent the whole working day with Violet...in a way. She'd been in his office the entire shift, just as she had the past several days. The only time he'd let her out had been for lunch or when he'd had to escort her back to Hoshi's cabin. He had been out in the main armory most of the time, but he was very aware of his duty to protect her, and that she was very close by, sitting in his office reading some tawdry romance novel that Hoshi had downloaded for her.

Plus, with Violet in his office, he wasn't about to spend any time in there he didn't have to. His workplace sanctuary had effectively been taken away from him, and his staff was feeling the brunt of his dissatisfaction as he constantly looked over their shoulders as they went about their jobs.

Entering the gym, he saw Hoshi and Violet by the weight station. Hoshi was instructing the other woman on the proper way to use weights. Violet had what looked to be a five-pound barbell in each hand and was working on alternating curls.

Malcolm prudently stopped a safe distance away and waited as Violet finished her set. It had only taken being stunned and two bruised cheeks for him to learn his lesson. Sure enough, just as he anticipated, when Violet looked up and saw him, she was startled enough that she dropped both barbells.

Hoshi, he noted sourly, seemed to be immune to Violet's accidental tendencies. The barbells hit the padded deck a good meter from her.

At least Violet didn't try to apologize. She just smiled weakly and bent over to pick up the weights.

"Maybe you'd be more comfortable doing something else," Hoshi suggested tactfully. "How about the treadmill or one of the exercise bikes?"

"One of the bikes, maybe," Violet said, and put the barbells back on the rack.

As the women went by him, Malcolm gave Hoshi a smirk. Better her than him, he thought. He'd put on some boxing gloves and have a go at the punching bag. He could keep an eye on Violet while he was doing that. He went over to the locker where the gloves were kept and was taking out a pair in his size when Trip walked into the gym.

Malcolm could see Violet's face light up from across the room. Uh-oh, he thought. Trip's got another female admirer -- and a potentially dangerous one at that. He pulled the gloves on, looking forward to seeing what exactly would befall Trip in Violet's proximity. The engineer was already wearing bandages on his two burned fingers, but he still had another perfectly good arm and two good legs that Violet could maim.

"Hey!" Trip said as he walked over to where Violet was sitting on one of the bikes. "What's goin' on?"

Hoshi straightened up from where she was trying to adjust the tension on the wheel. "Nothing yet." Addressing Violet, she said, "Try it again."

Violet began pedaling and Hoshi leaned forward to look at the resistance meter on the handlebars. Hoshi shook her head and motioned for Violet to stop pedaling, and said, "I just can't seem to get it set right."

"Let me try," Trip said. When the wheel stopped turning, he fiddled with one of the connections near the spokes' hub. "Sometimes this thing gets loose and doesn't--Ow!"

Malcolm made sure the punching bag was between him and the others. It wouldn't do for Trip to see him laughing at his pain. But the other man should have known better. Right when Trip had stuck his hand -- the undamaged one -- between the spokes, Violet had shifted on the bike. Her feet were on the pedals, which had moved, which in turn had started the wheel spinning. Trip would be lucky if he got away with only pinched fingers.

Malcolm peeked out from behind the punching bag to see Trip sucking on his newest batch of injured fingers and waving Violet away with his other hand as she hopped off the bike, trying to apologize. Unfortunately, her foot caught on one of the pedals and pulled the bike over on her. She fell into Trip, and they and the bike went down like a row of dominoes.

As the sounds of the metallic crash and thud of bodies hitting the deck died away, Malcolm stepped out from behind the punching bag and went over to the scene of the accident, stripping off the boxing gloves as he walked.

Hoshi was staring in bemusement at the tangle of bodies and bike on the deck. "I don't think I'd believe that if I hadn't seen it. Are you two all right?"

On his back where he'd fallen with Violet sprawled sideways across his stomach, Trip groaned. He let out a string of curses, ending with, "I think one of my fingers is broken."

Violet issued a muffled sob. Her hand on Trip's chest, she pushed herself up to her hands and knees, causing him to grunt as the air was forced out of his lungs. Still on hands and knees, she scooted away from him, and somehow managed to kneel on his burned fingers. Trip yelped at this newest infliction of pain, and Violet broke out in a round of inarticulate apologies.

Hoshi gently pulled Violet away from Trip, and Malcolm went to help his friend get up. Mindful of Trip's damaged fingers, he didn't off him a hand up, but rather got his arms under Trip's and hoisted him to his feet.

Trip swayed for a moment before gaining his balance. He held both hands up before his face, looking from the one with bandaged digits to the other with one very obviously bent finger. He turned an incredulous stare on Violet where she was watching apprehensively from the shelter of Hoshi's protective arm.

"Lady, you don't need to worry about anybody tryin' to kill you," Trip spluttered. "You'll get them first."