The power relays were shot.
B'Elanna heaved a sigh as she stared at the sight in front of her. Harry looked beat, a lock of black hair flopping over his forehead.
"So, the transporters held out long enough to get everyone back and then the pattern buffer shorted out the plasma conduits which cascaded down into the relays and—" Harry held his hands out in a gesture of resignation "—now we're dead in the water."
It wouldn't be a difficult repair, just time consuming and tedious. Normally, B'Elanna would have assigned a junior engineer to take care of the task, but today, a fully staffed engine room was a luxury she didn't have. She pressed her hand to her aching back. Exhaustion caused her muscles to feel lethargic, but she forced herself to reach for her tool kit.
"Sorry," Harry said, genuine guilt crossing his face. "I wasn't really thinking about the possibility of a power surge when I was repairing the transporters earlier and I should have compensated for it."
"You were working under extenuating circumstances," B'Elanna said. In her current fatigued state coupled with the occasional bout of mental fogginess, she didn't feel like lashing out at Harry for overlooking such an outcome. He'd had enough to deal with over the last few days. "Let's get going, Starfleet."
Harry's lips curled up at the corners as he heaved his own tool kit onto his shoulder. "I've missed hearing you call me that," he said. "Have I mentioned how good it is to have you back?"
B'Elanna allowed herself a small smile. "At least a dozen times but I'm not tired of hearing it." She squatted down, pulled open the door into the Jefferies tube, heaved a sigh and then crawled in. It was harder to move now with her expanding midsection, but she willed herself to get halfway down the tube where the power conduit had shorted. Harry followed close behind.
For the next three hours, they moved panel to panel, pulling out all the charred components, and welding back in new capacitors, connectors, and where needed, a junction box. Some of the wires and electrical connectors had to be replaced as well. B'Elanna's fingers ached with the effort and the copper wires bit into her skin, but she gritted her teeth and continued. Next to her, Harry seemed equally intent on the task, his breath coming in short bursts as he wrenched out damaged components.
"Remember that time we were all in stasis tubes and Seven and the Doctor were in charge of Voyager for a month?" Harry asked at one point. "I have a new admiration for what they must have gone through."
"Yeah," B'Elanna huffed. She remembered Tom coming to help her in Engineering just before the crew was to go into stasis. He'd been his usual jovial self at first, but soon enough the façade fell away, and he'd confessed his nightmarish experience of going into stasis during his time at the Academy. They'd come out on the other side of the Mutara nebula a month later, and Tom's relief had been palpable as he'd folded B'Elanna into his arms.
"Let's not do that again," he'd said softly, his lips against her hair.
Remembering the post-stasis reunion caused B'Elanna to lose concentration and she shoved a connector too hard, bending a pin in the process.
"Ghuy'!" B'Elanna pulled the connector loose and then with some irritation, she attempted to hammer the pin back into shape with the back of her hyperspanner. At one point, she missed, hit her hand and yelped. Harry watched her with some concern.
"You could just use a new connector," he offered.
"Yeah," B'Elanna said, holding the damaged component up to the dim overhead light. She'd managed to hammer the pin to a point where there the chance of electrical discontinuity was minimal, but Harry was probably right; it wasn't worth taking the risk. "I don't know where my brain was."
"You need to take a break," Harry said and then he inhaled sharply, as if he knew he'd made a mistake. "I mean, you've been through a lot, B'Elanna. You've got to give yourself time to recover."
"Yeah, but in the meantime, we're sitting here like ducks in the water," B'Elanna said sharply. She pulled a new connector and popped it into place. "I want to put as much distance between us and the Quarrans as possible."
"You don't have to convince me." Harry wrapped a coil of wire around his hand as he shimmied himself to the next spot to yank out the panel. "I wonder how many people the Quarrans took and how long has this been going on?"
It was an idle, but good question, and not one B'Elanna had much time to contemplate since her return to Voyager. She knew she would likely never see her apartment on Quarra again, but the memory of it was a stark reminder of how her life had been before she'd allowed Tom into it: B'Elanna Torres, alone, against the galaxy. She choked back emotion and swallowed hard. She refused to lose her composure in front of Harry. She took a deep breath as she wrenched a coil free.
"There weren't many native Quarrans in the Power Facility," B'Elanna said finally. "I worked with a woman named Amina. She needed the inoculations too so I assume she wasn't there on her own free will." B'Elanna's mouth twisted as she considered the woman she'd worked with for three weeks. She was sure that somewhere out there, Amina's family was looking for her. Would they ever know what happened to their loved one? "There could be thousands of people who were ripped from their lives and depending on long they've been on Quarra—" she shrugged sadly "—would it even be possible for them to return?"
"I guess you could say the same thing about us and the Alpha Quadrant," Harry said softly.
"That's different," B'Elanna said shortly, even though she wasn't quite sure where or what home even was anymore. "We made the decision to make the journey back. We're not taking advantage of people, changing their memories, and then forcing them to believe they came to Quarra of their own free will."
"We didn't exactly come into the DQ by choice," Harry said.
B'Elanna knew he had a point, and for the second time in recent memory, she flashbacked to the anger she'd felt when Janeway had made the decision to destroy the Caretaker's Array to protect the Ocampans. Who is she to make those decisions for us?
"Our encounter with the Caretaker was a freak occurrence," B'Elanna said. "The Quarrans have been deliberately and systematically ripping people away from their lives, with absolutely no thought as to how it could affect them." She gave a bitter little laugh. Did she really expect the Quarrans would care about anything beyond the logistics of staffing their beloved Power Facility?
"Yeah, but depending how long they've been gone and how much their neural engrams have been altered, Quarra is home now. Ow!" Harry winced and he stared down at his bleeding thumb. His flesh was torn from the tip of the finger to the joint. "Damn."
"You'd better go get the medkit," B'Elanna said, eyeing the wound with worry. It was pretty deep, and it wasn't like Harry to be careless with the hyperspanner; he wouldn't admit it, but B'Elanna guessed exhaustion combined with the stress of the last few days was getting the better of him. "Why don't you go get some rest?"
"There's still a lot to do here," Harry said, gesturing down the length of the tube.
B'Elanna offered him a tight smile. "I got it," she said. "Get some rest."
Harry's expression was indecisive but after taking another look at his bleeding thumb, he nodded.
"I'll be right back," he said, tossing her the wire coil. "You need a break too."
"Get some rest, Ensign. That's an order." B'Elanna turned her attention back to her work. It was eerily quiet once Harry left the Jefferies tube, but she was glad for it. He hadn't been wrong about her needing to rest, but the idea of returning to her quarters without Tom was anathema. She wanted to contact the Doctor, find out whether Tom had made any progress, but she knew she shouldn't interrupt the treatments. Instead, she forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand.
Four hours later, B'Elanna snapped the last connection in Section 28A into place, her weariness was intense, and she felt like she could fall asleep on the spot. She carefully replaced all her tools into the carrying case and began the long crawl to the entrance. Back in Engineering, she wiped her hand wearily against her forehead. She was sweaty and she had grease spots on her hands and uniform, as well as a few dirty and chipped fingernails. A sonic shower would feel really good right about now, but that would have to wait until she completed running the diagnostic that would assure her the repair had been properly completed.
She pulled up a chair to the console, contemplated kicking off her boots, but instead, focused on the readings scrolling in front of her. Just sitting there reminded her of the Power Facility, and the long hours she spent just staring at the variances in a line. She pressed her hands to her face, sagging forward. She was furious at herself for this uncharacteristic weakness, but she was too tired to maintain her focus anymore. And there's no one here to care. All she could think about was that stupid line, a line the Quarrans thought so important that they needed to uproot and destroy lives so someone could watch it bounce between the required minimum and maximum levels. She was still thinking about that injustice when she heard a step behind her. Harry, ever true to his word, must be back.
She roused herself, took a deep breath, and rubbed the emotion out of her eyes with the back of her hand and then turned around, plastering an unnaturally bright smile across her face.
It was Tom.
She swallowed hard, pulled herself straight, and unconsciously, her hand fell lightly on her stomach.
"Hey," he said softly. He was still wearing the blue Sickbay pajamas and his feet were encased in slippers. He swayed slightly, and she wondered if the medications were affecting his balance. He put his hand down on the workstation closest to him. His face flushed as he caught his breath.
"Hey," B'Elanna said softly. "I-I thought you were Harry."
Tom's blue-eyed gaze was intense as he took a step towards her. "I hope you're not disappointed."
"Um, no. I thought- does the Doctor know you're here?"
"I was concerned you may have forgotten about me and as Voyager's medic, I declared a medical emergency in Engineering to check on you myself," Tom said. His lower lip trembled, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he stared at her. "You look tired."
"Three weeks without maintenance and an encounter with a space pirate or two can create a lot to catch up on," B'Elanna said self-consciously. Why was he looking at her like that? She reached up to tuck a strand of grimy hair behind her ear. "Let me take you back to Sickbay."
"There's no need," Tom said. His long-legged stride closed the gap between them, and his hands were on her face, tilting her head up towards him. His lips against hers were soft, warm, tentative, and as she snaked her arms around his neck, he pulled her closer. "I remember Voyager. I remember you. I remember us."
She rose up on her tiptoes, closing her eyes, and let herself melt into Tom. She inhaled that scent that was uniquely his, savored feeling his broad chest against her cheek, and the strength of the arms encircling her. It brought back the memory of another recent reunion. In a shaky voice, she said, "If this marriage is going to work, we've got to cut back on the traveling."
He chuckled softly, tightened his grip on her. "Let's go home."