CHAPTER 3 - Nebulas

Naomi's alarm sounded softly at 0300 hours, just as she had programmed it to do. Quietly, she changed out of her pjs and back into her day clothes. She padded out of her room and into the living area with a quick check to make sure that her mother was still asleep. Then she sat at the desk.

"Computer, locate Crewman Biddle," she said softly.

Crewman Biddle is in main engineering.

Naomi smiled. Perfect, she thought. Then she silently left her quarters.

The ship was strange in the night hours. It was very quiet and even though she knew the light level was the same as during the day, it just seemed darker. No one was milling in the halls or moving from deck to deck. No voices could be heard from inside the closed rooms. She passed exactly no one on her journey.

The doors to main engineering hissed open but no one was there to see her. She walked in hesitantly and approached the railing around the warp core.

"Woah, hey there kiddo," she heard from a deep voice to her right.

Naomi turned. A muscular, dark skinned engineer was coming out of the small work area adjacent to the core. She recognized him but wasn't sure of his name.

"Are you lost?" He asked, concerned.

"No, I'm looking for someone. Who are you?"

"I'm Ensign Ashmore."

"Oh yeah," she said suddenly putting a name with the face. "You were at B'Elanna's birthday party."

The ensign nodded. "That's right. Who are you looking for?"

"Crewman Biddle," she replied confidently. So far so good, she thought. She half-expected that the first person she met would escort her directly back to her quarters.

The ensign tapped his combadge. "Ashmore to Biddle."

Biddle here.

"You busy?"

Nope.

"Come down to Main would you? You have a visitor."

Be right there.

Naomi smiled at the ensign. "Thanks!"

"No problem. But hey, does your mom know you're here?"

Naomi looked at her shoes. "Uh…. Yeah. She's the one that sent me actually," she lied. The ensign raised an eyebrow and Naomi worried he was on to her. Luckily crewman Biddle appeared, having climbed down from the landing above and broke the line of questioning.

"Hey. It's Naomi, right?" Biddle asked as he walked up.

Naomi nodded. "Sorry to bother you…."

Biddle looked at Ashmore with a smirk before replying; as if this was possibly the most exciting thing that had ever happened on night shift. "No bother at all. We're not doing much of anything tonight."

Naomi took this as a good sign but she was still rather uncomfortable. Engineering seemed very weird with these strangers working here. For some reason she imagined that B'Elanna, Joe Carey and Vorik were just always on duty.

"There was a crewman with you yesterday in sickbay when you hurt your arm."

Biddle nodded. "That's right. Henard. Danny Henard, why?"

"Henard," Naomi repeated, committing the name to memory. "Is he in engineering too?"

"Sure is."

Ensign Ashmore tapped his combadge again and in a few minutes Crewman Henard joined their little party. As he walked up, Ashmore had to smile. "There's only one more engineer on nightshift. Want me to call her too?"

Naomi frowned. "I don't think so…."

"What's going on?" Henard asked.

"Crewman Henard," Naomi began. "When you were in sickbay with uh…." She thought a moment. Too many names. "With him," she pointed. "Biddle. When you were with Biddle you said that you would give just about anything to have an hour in Astrometrics."

"That's right," Henard agreed crossing his arms over his chest.

"I may have a way to get you that hour."

Henard raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Now came the part Naomi hated. "Yes. If you want to make a trade…."

Another person interrupted her line of thought. "What do you want with Astrometrics?" This time it was a softer voice as a woman came around the other side of the warp core. "And why wasn't I invited to this party?"

"Harper, meet Naomi Wildman," Ensign Ashmore said with a chuckle. The humor of having all of the night-shift engineers together for a meeting by the warp core with a six-year old was not lost on him.

"I know Naomi," Crewman Natalie Harper said smiling, she kneeled down to the girl's level. Naomi liked Natalie's hair, it was blonde and long like her own and was tied up in a neat ponytail. She had been told that the woman used to babysit her on occasion, but she was too young at the time to remember.

"Does your mom know you're here?" Harper asked her.

"I'm um….yes. I'm going back to my room in just a minute," she replied quickly. It was harder to lie to someone she knew, and another girl at that.

"What do you say Mr. Henard?" Naomi asked, returning her attention to her target. "If I can get you an hour in Astrometrics…."

"What do you want with the lab anyway?" Ashmore questioned.

"There's a Class T nebula coming up," he explained. "My father took me through one once when I was a little kid. Not much older than Naomi here actually. I thought it might be fun to have a look with some of Voyager's advanced sensors. Nebulas are kinda my thing," he shrugged, and Naomi thought he looked a little embarrassed.

"That's sweet Hey," Harper replied genuinely.

"Yeah, real sweet," Biddle agreed, rolling his eyes.

Henard, now smiling, returned his attention to the little girl. "If you can get me an hour in astrometrics, I have the perfect thing to trade you."

Naomi settled herself back into her bed. Her late-night experience in engineering had left her an odd mixture of sleepy and very excited. She didn't know what Crewman Henard had to trade, he wanted it to be a surprise, but she thought it must be pretty wonderful because his smile was so big when he thought about giving it to her.

Naomi also realized that she wanted to spend more time with Natalie Harper. The woman was kind and gentle but she looked like she would also be a lot of fun. Naomi was glad that Natalie had walked her back to her quarters so that they could talk a little more. They had also arranged to have breakfast in a few days….thought it would be more like a bedtime snack for the crewman.

This trading thing was working out. Naomi was internally very proud of herself, not just for the items she was receiving, but for the experiences. She wondered if Neelix knew that during this process she would be making friends and helping others. He probably knew. Neelix seemed to know most things, at least, most things that were important to know.