CHAPTER 6 – Bits and Pieces

Naomi wasn't sure exactly when it happened, but at some point she started to notice that people on the ship, many of whom she barely knew, were being nicer to her. Much, much nicer. Having been the only child on board it stood to reason that people were usually friendly. After all, she was pretty darn cute. There were some people who weren't entirely comfortable with children, but even they were smiling at her now. Something had definitely changed in these last few days. People she had never met were stopping to talk with her, introduce themselves even. She was actually being overwhelmed by names and faces. No one directly spoke of the various things she had been doing to help others in the course of her trading. But she got the feeling that word was spreading quickly, as word on Voyager tended to do.

Three days later, again in sickbay for a lesson – this time on fungal physiology – Naomi listened as an officer in a blue uniform asked the doctor for advice. She knew his name was Murphy and thought that he might have worked with her mother. After eavesdropping a bit she knew that he was having problems. The doctor used the term "insomniac." Which, she learned after looking it up, meant that he couldn't sleep. And Naomi knew exactly what to do.

It took her two evenings to complete her second dream catcher. It wasn't quite as perfect as the one in her bedroom, but overall she was happy with how it had turned out. This one was a teal color with dark blue gems that she had replicated to be more of a solid finish than opalescent. It was very stunning, and quite manly if she did say so herself. She instructed the computer to notify her to when Ensign Murphy returned to his quarters after work and when the alert came in at 1755 hours, she was on her way.

Ensign Murphy, whose first name was Peter but he preferred 'Pete', was all too pleased to see the pint-sized visitor, even if he did look rather tired. He was genuinely pleased by her thoughtfulness. She figured that even if the dreamcatcher was a bunch of hocus-pocus, a term she had learned from Tom Paris, that maybe the sentiment behind it would help Murphy sleep better. This time for her efforts she was gifted a nice warm feeling inside.

Possessing no further items with which to trade, Naomi Wildman focused her attentions elsewhere. She had started spending time with Natalie Harper. It turned out that Natalie was an excellent checkers player and loved to do jigsaw puzzles.

She also had breakfast one morning with Tom and B'Elanna. They had long since patched things up and B'Elanna offered her a wink and a smile, then whispered "pilots aren't so bad after all," before leaving for engineering. Naomi always liked B'Elanna. She admired the woman's strength and intelligence. But the Klingon was also compassionate in her own rather direct way. Naomi surmised B'Elanna would someday make a great mother, but she wasn't entirely sure that Tom would live to see it.

About a week after gifting the dreamcatcher to Pete Murphy, Naomi asked the doctor if the ensign had been back for more hyposprays. Unfortunately, she learned that he had been. As had another insomniac Ensign, Leslie Swinn. Leslie. Naomi knew Leslie. She was a Beta-shift engineer and one of the nicest people on the ship. Naomi loved her dark skin and her matching thick hair that was often worn in intricate braids. The girl hadn't seen her in a while and thought she might stop by to say hello.

As she walked down the corridor to Leslie's quarters a strange awareness hit her. She had been down this hallway recently. Leslie's room was right next to Pete's. What a strange coincidence, she thought. When she rang the chime, no one answered. So she went back to her quarters and started on another dreamcatcher, this time a yellow one.

Leslie, it seemed, was almost never at home. After two days of trying to reach the ensign in her quarters Naomi decided to find her on duty. The computer informed her that Leslie was in Cargo Bay 1. So, that's exactly where she went.

"Naomi!" Leslie said, a giant smile on her face when she saw the girl. "It's so good to see you!" Naomi gave her a hug in return. When she pulled away, she noticed that the woman looked stressed. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," she replied. "The doctor told me that you weren't sleeping well. I wanted to see if you were okay."

"That's very sweet of you Naomi, but I'm fine."

The girl eyed the engineer a bit. She did look tired, but not nearly as tired as Pete had. Maybe the hyposprays were working better for her.

"What are you doing?" She asked curiously.

"Oh, things have been slow in engineering so I'm just doing a little bit of inventory work. Trying to see what spares we have and what we should be replicating. That kind of thing."

"Find anything interesting?"

"Actually…." Leslie turned and walked a few paces down the long isle of black storage containers. "Do you like to take things apart?"

Naomi crinkled her brow. "Um…I'm not sure."

"When I was a little kid, all I did was take stuff apart and try to put it back together again. I used to drive my mom crazy," she laughed at the memory. Naomi liked her laugh, it was genuine and clear like a bell.

"I guess I've never really done that," Naomi replied a bit confused. She thought it was an odd sounding activity.

"Oh, it's great fun! And a wonderful way to learn how things work," the engineer continued. "I started with a chronometer and never looked back. Of course, my parents were none too pleased when I took apart the replicator." Leslie scratched her head. "Now which bin…" She was peaked in each container of a row about halfway down the aisle. "Ah, here it is!" She pulled the one down and set it on the floor. Then turned her attention back to the child.

"When my parents had finally had enough of me destroying their things they took me to a reclamation facility. That's a fancy name for a junkyard."

"Like the one that Tom got that crazy shuttle from?"

Leslie smiled, "More or less, but this one wasn't in space." The engineer suddenly looked very far away. "Oh, Naomi, it was simply the most incredible place ever. All the broken down old things you would ever want. And the man there, Mr. Todd was his name, he was all too happy to let me have any of them. I learned more about engineering from that junk than I would have ever learned in the academy."

Leslie opened the container and slid it toward her. "And now it's your turn."

Naomi was now the proud owner of a big bin full of, well, junk. A microscope, a small computer terminal, some depleted power cells. There were also old combadges, flashlights and some other things she didn't recognize. And not one of them worked.

According to Leslie, Lieutenant Carey was a hoarder of epic proportions. And she "didn't know how his wife put up with him." Naomi wasn't quite sure what to do with all of this stuff. It was too much to bring back to her quarters, so for now, she took the microscope and went home with it under one arm.

Leslie had also given her something else. Slung over her should was a toolbox. And much to her excitement, inside that toolbox was her very own tricorder. Hers. Not one that she had to return to the doctor or her mother when she was done. The thought made her very happy indeed.

By the time Alpha shift was over, Naomi had taken the microscope completely apart. There were bits and pieces everywhere. Naomi was fairly certain it would never function again, but then if it had been worth saving it probably wouldn't have been in a container in the back of the cargo bay. Naomi had learned a little about the device. Mostly, she learned it had a lot of tiny parts.

She swept them into an empty toybox and stuffed them, you guessed it, under her bed.