Second Chances: Chapter 76
Stardate 53672
December 2376
San Francisco, Earth
Lt. B'Elanna Torres checked her chronometer for what had to be the fourth or fifth time in the last ten minutes. Just her luck; her weekly window to talk to Voyager just happened to fall in the middle of the Academy Ball. As if it wasn't weird enough that the ball was always on a Thursday night.
"You should probably just go," Nicki said with a roll of her eyes. "You're going to fidget yourself to death if you stick around here much longer."
"I still have about fifteen minutes until I need to go," B'Elanna protested.
"I honestly don't even know why you're arguing," Nicki replied as she took a sip of her wine. "There will still be several hours of this nonsense after you get back, and you don't even like parties."
"Good point," B'Elanna replied as she rose from her chair. She finished her glass of wine and returned it to the table. "I'll be back in less than an hour."
"I'll believe that when I see it," Nicki commented.
The CRC was never completely empty, but the evenings were pretty quiet. Torres greeted the crewman at the duty desk and headed up to Pathfinder, where she found the usual group of comms techs setting up the daily connection. "You're early, sir," Crewman Aet informed her. "We won't go live for almost twenty more minutes."
"I know," Torres assured him. "I'll be in my office until a few minutes before we connect."
"Aye, sir," Aet acknowledged.
As promised, she returned to the comms section about a minute before the connection. *I didn't realize we were putting on airs tonight,* Lt. Joe Carey joked when the connection went live. Torres frowned, then remembered that she was wearing her dress uniform for the ball and rolled her eyes. From the back of Astrometrics, Tom smirked but didn't say anything, as per their agreement that he could sit in on B'Elanna's meetings with Joe, but couldn't interrupt.
"It's the Academy Faculty Ball tonight," Torres explained.
*I like the new dress uniforms,* Joe commented.
"They're a lot more comfortable than the old ones, too," Torres replied. "I'm sending you the latest updates from the Curie's experiments. They've successfully sent a probe to the location they were aiming for, which is encouraging. It looks like it's going to require some changes to the deflector array that are going to take some time to make, though."
It was quiet for a few beats on Voyager as both men studied the data. *That's going to affect the navigational controls,* Tom commented. *I would feel a lot more comfortable if we do some actual experiments on this ourselves.*
*You know why we can't,* Joe said.
*We can't to Voyager,* Tom retorted. *What about the Flyer?* Torres frowned, then realized he was talking about his shuttle.
*The Flyer can't handle these kinds of modifications,* Joe said in a tone of voice that suggested they had had this argument before.
Torres got them back on track, and they spent the next 18 or so minutes going over the necessary modifications to the deflector array before ending with what each party would get done before their next call the following week. Torres heard the door open behind her, but as accustomed as she was to Pathfinder personnel coming and going, didn't think anything of it until Joe said, *That is a strong family resemblance.*
She was already rolling her eyes as she turned to face Nicki. "I came to make sure you got back to the party when you're done," the pediatrician said lightly. "Hi, baby brother. And you must be Lt. Carey."
*I think my role here is done for the week,* Joe commented. *Have a good evening, Torres. I'll see you next week. It was nice to meet you, Dr. Sanders.* He didn't wait for a reply before he left the astrometrics lab.
*To what do I owe the pleasure?* Tom asked with a sarcastic smile as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"I got bored at the party, and B'Elanna's never invited me to these little chats," Nicki said with a smirk of her own.
"There's a reason for that," B'Elanna replied, rolling her eyes.
*Yeah,* Tom chimed in. *You're obnoxious.*
"Aww, you're so sweet," Nicki said. "So, I'm thinking about leaving Starfleet," she said abruptly. B'Elanna blinked in surprise; Nicki hadn't said anything to her about that, and as far as she knew, Nicki and Jason hadn't been fighting about her career the way they did the previous year.
*B'Elanna mentioned that you've been traveling,* Tom commented. And Nicki had been; for someone who had sat out the majority of the war, she had spent more time away than at home since the war ended. Mostly Cardassia and Betazed as she worked on rebuilding their medical systems, but she had taken several side trips to other worlds as well.
"Yes, but that's not why," Nicki said. "Well, it is, but not in the way that you think. I want to be traveling. I want to keep doing this humanitarian work and healthcare infrastructure rebuilding, but there's not a place for that in Starfleet."
*Why not?* Tom asked in that simplistic way he had. *If Dad can create a pet project to look for a ship that everyone thought was destroyed years ago, during a war, why can't you create a humanitarian medical program?*
"Because Dad's an admiral, and I'm a lieutenant commander in the medical corps," Nicki said with a laugh. "I barely have the authority to sign my own notes."
Tom snorted. *Maybe you should leave Starfleet,* he commented. *It's clearly changed you. I've never seen you take no for an answer before. Especially before you even asked the question.*
Nicki narrowed her eyes at her brother. "I've forgotten how annoying you are," she finally declared.
*Says the sister who barged into the five minutes I have every other week with my wife?* Tom asked. He made a point of turning to B'Elanna. *How's the ball?*
"As boring as ever," she replied. "Navi's wind quartet was selected to play a 20 minute set during dinner. Other than that, same as always." Ainsley was also there on a holophotojournalism internship with the Federation News Network, and Kajsa was there as Ainsley's date, but that was more information than he needed. "Too many admirals, not enough escape routes."
He grinned at that. *You managed to sneak away this time,* he commented. B'Elanna snorted and jerked a thumb toward Nicki.
"Not that I've had any luck getting very far before someone sends a Paris after me," she replied. He grinned; a decade ago, that had been him.
*With any luck, I'll be able to keep you company next year.*
"Be careful what you wish for," she said warningly. "I hang out with the engineering faculty most of the night, and you know how exciting a group of engineers is."
*In that case, maybe I can be there to chase after you when you try to make your escape. Besides, I'm friends with Joe,* he asked. *I'm very accustomed to hanging out with engineers by now.*
"I'll be sure to thank Joe for the charity work," B'Elanna commented. The last time she and Tom had been at the Academy ball together, her firstie year, they had had dinner with Owen and Alicia, and then spent most of the time with his fellow flight instructors. She wasn't quite sure if that was a step up or down from spending the evening with the engineering faculty.
The timer dinged with the 30 second warning, and on the monitor, Tom smiled ruefully. *I guess that's time,* he said. *I'll see you next week.*
"I'll be here," B'Elanna replied. It was Joe and Sarah's week the following week, so they wouldn't have the extra time to talk, but it was nice just seeing him when she could.
*Glad you could join us, Nicki,* Tom said to his sister. *No doing that again.*
"I'll save it for when you get home," Nicki replied. "Take care of yourself. I love you, little brother."
*Love you, too,* he said, then turned back to B'Elanna. *I love you. Give Izzy a kiss for me.*
"I will," she promised.
They didn't say good-byes at the end of their chats, just like they never said good-bye when they parted ways when they were together. Normally, B'Elanna would go directly from the communications lab to her own office, to jot down everything that had come up during the comm and get started on the next steps. However, Nicki was still standing there, and B'Elanna suspected that she really was there to make sure that B'Elanna returned to the party. "Ready to go pester my obvious daughter?" Nicki asked.
"She's working," B'Elanna pointed out, but did follow Nicki out of the lab.
"I know, right?" Nicki said. "Baby's first job. I get emotional thinking about it." B'Elanna tried rolling her eyes, but the smirk on Nicki's face made her chuckle. It was neither her first job—she had been coaching kids' soccer for several years already—nor was it the first time her holos had been published—FNN had run two of her pictures to accompany the article Jake Sisko had written about Starfleet's role in the Cardassian reconstruction. But beneath the sarcasm and jokes, B'Elanna knew that Nicki was proud of Ainsley, the same way T'Pana was proud of Navi, even if neither mother could remember when her daughter had grown up to the point that she was preparing for the career she could have as an adult. Sometimes she looked at Izzy and wondered how she would handle it in another decade or so.
Back at the Ball, B'Elanna complimented Navi on her quartet's performance before she was swept up by the usual batch of engineering faculty. "How's Pathfinder going?" Admiral Chapman asked as he handed her a glass of whiskey.
"Everything's still on track," she replied. "I'm happy to give you a tour of the lab and our experiments, whenever you want to come over." It was a playful ribbing, mostly at his statement back when she started at Pathfinder that no self-respecting propulsion engineer would ever step into the CRC voluntarily. He chuckled and shook his head slightly.
"Now, you know I can't do that, Lieutenant," he said, just as playfully. He took a drink out of his own glass before saying, "I have good news and bad news, Torres."
"Okay," she replied with a slight chuckle, knowing he wouldn't be giving truly bad news while surrounded by other faculty members at the ball. "I'll take the bad news."
"Nobody takes the bad news first, Torres," Commander Tucci protested.
"She's Klingon," Commander Ao pointed out. As if anybody had forgotten.
Chapman smiled slightly at the exchange. "I need you to cover one of the classes of Engineering 2," he said to Torres, and she coughed at the whiskey she was sipping at that.
"Seriously, sir?" she asked. The first and second engineering courses were required of all Academy plebes, regardless of major, and covered little more than the difference between a hyperspanner and an optronic coupler. The classes were either taught by full-time faculty, like Admiral Chapman, or graduate students. Torres had avoided it while she was working on her master's degree because of her time teaching at the Technical Academy and the wartime need to quickly educate as many engineering cadets in Dominion technology as possible.
"I know it's not your cup of tea," Chapman said, and sounded genuinely apologetic. "But Kaila got called up to the Motlholo at the last minute. It's a standardized lesson plan with standardized exams. You won't have to create anything new to teach the course, and lab assistants will be teaching the lab portions."
Torres sighed. She wanted to argue but didn't. Admiral Chapman kept her on the tenure track despite the fact that she only taught one class a semester, which should have classified her as adjunct faculty. "What's the good news, sir?"
He looked confused about the question, then laughed. "I expected you to pick the good news first," he admitted. "And that was that karma was about to visit you." She must have looked confused, because he said, "You're going to get to find out how your first professors felt when you were in your plebe classes."
She groaned. "That's not good news, sir!" she protested. "And you were my first engineering professor!" He grinned and winked, and she groaned again. "I don't know why I let you talk me into this," she grumbled. "I already have a full-time job. I really don't need another one."
"When Nina told me, back when you started in her lab, that you would someday end up paying Starfleet back in dividends, I don't think this is quite what she had in mind," Chapman continued.
"Sir, you are enjoying this way too much," Torres protested, and he grinned and nodded.
"Did your parents ever tell you that someday you would have a child just like you?" he asked. She rolled her eyes.
"I seem to remember being told that," she said dryly. She didn't know if it was fortunate or not that she had somehow received Tom's karmic punishment instead of her own.
"It's the same thing with teaching," he continued. "And oh, I hope you have fun."
"I should have quit," she said. "After how much you argued with me my plebe year, I should have dropped out of the Academy."
"And deprive me of this moment?" he teased, then became serious again. "If it's too much, just let me know."
She sighed and shook her head. "I can handle it, sir."
"I know you can, Torres," he said. "That's why I never would have let you quit. Despite how much of a pain in the ass you were in class."