Exploratory.
By
Serena Aris.
Disclaimers: Paramount and other big organisations own Star Trek: Voyager, the ship, its crew and the whole trek universe. I'm just borrowing some of it for a short amount of time.
Pairing codes: Mostly P, 7, Kim with crew.
I'm sorry about the delay on this chapter the assignments have just kept coming but I've finally finished them for now! For fans of the TV series Angel there's a few references within this chapter inspired by that much missed show, see if you can spot them! Thanks to everyone that reviewed.
Exploratory.
By
Serena Aris.
Chapter 10.
He had woken from a feverish dream finding himself still sprawled on the floor by the door. The drug-filled tremors had ebbed away with sleep, leaving behind a dull throb in his head. His mouth was dry and he pushed himself up into a sitting position. As he looked round his eyes locked onto another pair. It was the blue alien from the opposite cell. It must have been returned while Paris was asleep, but not in a good condition. There was evidence of a beating, with its blue marked skin like an oil spill on the sea. Tom was deeply grateful for what it did for him and hope that he could convey that somehow. So he expressed it the only way he knew how, "thank you."
The bluish alien continued its intense stare and tilted its head to the side and then back again. When Paris looked on silently it gave a frustrated expression and made gestures with its hands. As it did it revealed flaps of material, torn from its jump-suit that seemed to be a silver reflective material on the inside and skin blue on the outside. Paris perplexed said, "thank you I'm grateful for what you did." It repeated the gesture again. "Do you want me to keep saying thank you?" He said thinking out loud. Maybe it's their custom to say it a number of times he mused. In Tom's silent pause the gesture became more frantic. "I don't understand what you want." The alien looked pleased and nodded. Then an idea dawned on him, "talking? You want me to carry on talking?" Tom pointed to his mouth as he spoke to which the fellow prisoner nodded.
Starting to lose feeling in the leg twisted awkwardly beneath him, as he was poised between a crawl and a lying down position. Swinging his legs round in front of him he sat cross-legged and focused his attention. "Ok, I'm not quite sure what to say, shockingly for the first time in a long while." He paused, suddenly having an urge to have an answer to the questions that spun inside his head. Due to the language barrier he simply had to swallow that urge and take it slow. Holding a hand to his chest he said, "my name is Tom Paris."
To Tom's surprise the alien spoke, "Kareesh." It did as Paris had before tapping its chest it repeated "Kareesh." It then pointed at Paris and said "Tom Parrees." The voice he decided sounded masculine and he could now put a gender to the alien, unless he later found the species to be genderless.
"Not quite but it will do." Tom said with a grin. "Hello Kareesh," he said pleased with the breakthrough, they now knew each other's name. Looking intently and not receiving any more gestures or words he continued talking. He talked for a long while, about everyday things, things that if overheard would not risk a security issue for Voyager and his friends. Not surprisingly the main bulk of his talk concerned food. Food eaten by the people in his favourite period of time - the twentieth century. Pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hamburger and fries and a milkshake, 'comfort food' he had told Neelix one day as a hint for the cook to produce something similar as a meal. The result was far from comfortable for Paris, especially where the main ingredient was leola root. All the talk of food made his stomach rumble and with his mouth so dry he had to stop for a drink. Slowly making his way to the wall where the water trough was positioned he took a tentative sip from his cupped hand before drinking further. It tasted ok and as he continued drinking he instantly felt better as the water ran down his parched mouth and throat. He continued drinking, slowly losing the 'furry feel' from his tongue and quenching his thirst. He was just wiping away the stray drops of water from around his mouth when he heard something. "Excuse me?" He said in surprise as he turned to face the sound.
"You're welcome." Paris stood there, mouth open. "Do you understand me?" The words spoken in his native language was unexpected without the use of the universal translator. The way the being implored him with his eyes snapped Paris out of his trance.
"Yes. I can understand you, but how?"
"My race are a very quick study especially at languages." Paris chuckled, earning an inquiring look from Kareesh.
"I'm sorry, I was just remembering an ancient myth on my planet." When his companion still looked interested Tom continued. "It was said that some sea creatures could mimic the voices of sailors and lure them into the sea."
"Interesting, I hope to hear more about your culture," he said sincerely. Paris' injured leg began to feel stiff so he started to pace his cell, hoping to restore circulation to it.
"As I do yours. How long have you been here?"
"I am not completely certain, there is no real concept of time without the use of windows. However judging by the block's 'light-out' routine… I lost count after 300 'days'."
I guess we'll be learning a lot about each other thought Tom, out loud he said "how did you end up here?"
"My ship was just passing through on our way home when we noticed this anomaly. When we got closer to investigate, the ship must have attracted an ion storm from the atmosphere and we crashed. My co-pilot died instantly I was the only survivor." Kareesh said the last sentence in a whisper, grief taking his ability to say it.
"I'm sorry." Kareesh nodded in acknowledgement and the two took a moment' pause. Tom thought about his own friends, stranded on this planet and he worried about them. He dared to not even hypothesise what could be happening with them. Then before he had chance to push the thought away Caldik Prime surfaced. Taking a deep cleansing breath he pushed it back down, but it was never deep enough.
"What happened to you?" Tom was glad of the question and the attention he could fully divert to it. Although he felt he could trust Kareesh, his surroundings he could not so he would adapt the truth.
"I made a detour hoping to find fuel and any other useful resources. I came within orbit of this planet and there must have been a storm, which knocked all of my systems off-line, and I crashed. Luckily I was able to get the engines back on for a few seconds enabling me to perform an emergency landing. This was my welcome party." He said gesturing around him.
"Did you say a storm caused you to crash?" Kareesh asked leaning forward.
"Yes an ion storm…wait it happened to you too…that means…" Tom said coming to his own conclusion.
"…That two points make a line, not a pattern. Its something to consider, if our fellow captives also experienced this storm then that will tell us if what happened to us was natural or artificial."
"Well they don't seem to want us here, being so xenophobic in nature it seems." He said remembering his treatment in the circular room previously. "Lab rats come to mind." At the perplexed look in return Paris shrugged saying "sorry native Earth phrase."
"I understand, but before we continue any more discussions explain to me one thing…what is pizza?"
To be continued…