II.
"I would have destroyed your shuttle if necessary."
They had been words spoken in anger, or at least in pique, bent on eliciting a reaction and punching through that infuriating Paris mask of unconcern. (She remembered the same mask on another face from her first tour of duty. Then, it had been equally unassailable, but had inspired confidence rather than annoyance.) She had wondered afterward if those words had been the truth, or if he had believed them to be. One way or the other, they were likely unnecessary on top of everything else.
Everything else: loss of rank and thirty days in the brig.
It wasn't as if she had thrown the book at him, exactly. He had disobeyed a direct order, commandeered a shuttle, threatened relations in a first contact situation and broken the Prime Directive. In the Alpha Quadrant, his actions would have had him drummed out of Starfleet. As Tom knew better than anyone. He'd already been cashiered for less.
She hadn't thrown the book at him, but she hadn't given him a pass either. And she had done so before. B'Elanna, Tuvok, Seven, Chakotay – all had been the beneficiaries of some generous Delta Quadrant wiggle room. Tom hadn't left her with that option.
They hadn't exactly been avoiding each other over the last few months. There really hadn't been any need. Her helmsman had become conspicuously popular, and she had seldom come upon him off-duty without company. Whenever possible, B'Elanna was at his side, not bothering to hide a particularly protective posture towards her mate when the Captain was also present. More often than not, Harry was there as well, rounding out the trio or pairing up with Tom for some adventure on the holodeck. If not those two, Megan or Jenny Delaney could be found with the pilot, or, more surprisingly, one of the former Maquis crew members, Jarvin, Dalby or Ayala – men who wanted nothing to do with Tom at the beginning of their journey – hovered nearby.
The message was clear: Tom's friendships and his standing on the ship had only solidified after his stint in Voyager's brig, number of pips be damned.
The one time they had been alone for any length of time was when she had been drafted into his Captain Proton holoprogram in an attempt to save the ship and he had briefed her for her role as 'Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People'. That conversation had been...odd, and not just because of the nature of the information Tom had been imparting. Even as he loquaciously filled her in on the details of his creation, something had felt off. It hadn't been until later that she put words to what had been missing: that particular, irresistible Tom Paris spark to his eye – that promise of mischief with its invitation to join in the fun. Only at the end of the program, as they stood over Chaotica's holographic corpse, had Tom's defenses slipped as he watched her bid goodbye to their shared nemesis. The moment had been short-lived, however, as B'Elanna had met the pilot at the holodeck doors, fingering that leather jacket with none-too-subtle suggestiveness.
As a consequence of all of that, she hadn't exactly been looking forward to this away mission.
The Abiteri had colonized a moon replete with dilithium, a fuel source for which their technology had no use. The colonists' interest was in the moon's natural caves where the dilithium happened to thrive - the ideal habitat for the photosensitive race. When Voyager had contacted them about trading for mining rights, the Abiteri had been happy to discuss a possible deal, but only with Captain Janeway herself and only on their home turf. Since it would be necessary to determine the viability of extracting the crystals without damaging the colonists' home, B'Elanna and Harry would need to accompany her. And since the strongly ionized atmosphere of the moon precluded the use of transporters and would make flying a shuttlecraft tricky, Tom was the natural fourth to the away team.
The triumvirate was not exactly the portion of her senior staff in whose company she would have chosen to spend a few hours time.
As opposed to all the members of your staff with whom you are currently on such good terms, Kathryn?
She had let the thought pass without too much reflection as she climbed into the Delta Flyer minutes before their scheduled departure. She also allowed the sudden cessation of the chatter that had filled the cabin before her arrival to go unremarked upon. The silence lasted only a few seconds before Tom and Harry gamely launched back into conversation; B'Elanna busied herself with the final flight preparations at the engineering station.
Kathryn took the open seat across from Harry, only half-listening to the steady banter between the two men. Chakotay commed in from the bridge with their clearance to depart and wishes for a safe and fruitful journey. After a final pre-flight check, Tom expertly launched the Flyer up and out into open space.
While Tom was occupied with setting their course, conversation again lapsed into a less than comfortable silence. Kathryn could hear Harry fidgeting beside her until finally he burst out with, "So, I hear the Arbiteri are an entirely subterranean species."
Gleaning that the comment was being volleyed in her general direction, Kathryn responded with what little enthusiasm she could muster: "It seems so. They tell us that their home planet's crust is over ninety percent calcite and aragonite and is riddled with extensive caves. Their species apparently evolved within those caves."
"I wonder what we'll run into next?" Harry babbled, building momentum. "In the last few months we've seen a twenty-ninth century Borg drone, a race of photonic beings, a re-creation of Starfleet Academy being used as an alien training ground, a planet that was entirely ocean..." and she watched, fascinated despite herself by the inevitable train wreck, as the ensign's brain caught up with his mouth. "Or...what I meant...um..."
Inexorably, her eyes were drawn down to the pilot's chair. Tom's face was taut and still, but he otherwise gave no reaction. "Harry," B'Elanna broke in from the engineering station behind them, her voice as tight as the helmsman's expression. "I need a check on the lateral stabilizers before we enter the moon's ionosphere. If you aren't otherwise occupied." Harry gratefully turned his attention to his console.
So, in summary, her ops officer was so nervous that he was tripping over his own words, her chief engineer was ignoring her with an air of undisguised hostility and her helmsman's expression was as guarded as Earth's old Fort Knox. It was hard to escape a less than pleasant feeling of deja vu.
Fortunately, the flight down to the moon's surface was not a long one, and, once they hit the atmosphere, the turbulence that rocked the Flyer even under Tom's steadying hand discouraged further conversation.
Despite the rough flight, their landing was refreshingly uninteresting, and Harry set about determining whether the moon's ion-heavy atmosphere would require environmental suits. His conclusion that the air would be tolerable to their lungs met with an open sigh of relief from B'Elanna – a sentiment that Kathryn shared, considering the nearly two kilometer-long trek through a series of caves that they would need to make in order to reach the meeting site.
Whatever their current feelings towards their commanding officer might be, Kathryn could not fault the professionalism of her officers. Phasers, tricorders and wrist lights were distributed, and B'Elanna and Harry put together the more specialized equipment they would need to determine how best Voyager might go about extracting the dilithium. Once the Flyer was secured, they were ready to make their way out onto the moon's surface. As an afterthought, Tom grabbed one of the emergency medkits stowed in the shuttle. Kathryn caught the questioning look B'Elanna shot him, but the pilot shrugged. "It will earn me some brownie points with the Doc."
Gusting, punishing winds generated by the ionic storms combined with generous amounts of free-flying, gritty dust greeted them upon their descent from the Flyer. For a moment, Kathryn almost regretted leaving the environmental suits behind. With all possible alacrity, they pushed their way through the gale and into the protected entrance to the Arbiteri's caves.
"Lovely vacation spot," Paris quipped as soon as he recovered his voice, drawing two pairs of rolled eyes. Kathryn merely glanced down at her tricorder to confirm the path to their destination and replied shortly, "One I'll be happy to leave as soon as possible. Let's get moving."
The cave narrowed into a winding tunnel, lower than was strictly comfortable by human standards. Kathryn and B'Elanna were able to walk fully upright, though barely. Harry shuffled along at a slight stoop, and Tom sighed and stretched gratefully whenever they moved into one of the more spacious caverns that dotted the trail at semi-regular intervals. Harry and B'Elanna entered those spaces with an entirely different kind of appreciation.
"I've never seen so much dilithium in my entire life," Harry intoned incredulously. The unmistakable crystals glistened across the walls even in the dim illumination offered by their wrist lights.
Pausing mid-stretch, Tom looked toward the middle of the open space. "Is that a dilithium stalactite?"
B'Elanna followed his light and gaze to the pointed mound rising from the floor. "Stalagmite," she murmured half to herself.
"What?"
"Stalactites form down from the ceiling. Stalagmites are the ones on the ground. Though if that one is there..." and the engineer played her light over the ceiling above the stalagmite, revealing half a dozen columns of dilithium hanging like icicles above their heads.
"The Starfleet Corps of Engineers would have a field day with this place," Harry remarked.
"Only if they were able to secure the rights to mine it," Kathryn pointed out, bringing her officers back to their immediate task. "Our rendezvous is in this direction," and she led them through the cavern and back into the tunnels.
When at last they arrived at the meeting coordinates, the Arbiteri's reception was formal but not unfriendly. Diminutive in stature, the aliens' markedly large, dark eyes gave a feeling of solemnity, and they appeared to be a reserved, almost shy, people. Nonetheless, they were open to barter, and the negotiations began well. After the initial pleasantries and offers had been made, the Arbiteri withdrew to one side of the meeting area to talk amongst themselves, and Kathryn gathered her people to get a more detailed report on the feasibility of extracting the dilithium.
That's when the cavern began to shake.
It was subtle at first, and Kathryn would almost have passed it off as her own imaginings were it not for the matching frowns that appeared on each of her officers' faces.
"Mr. Kim?" She kept her tone calm, measured. "There was no indication of seismic activity on this moon, was there?"
"No, ma'am," Harry replied with assurance, though his frown only deepened.
The second tremor hit with much less subtlety just as the head of the Arbiteri's delegation rushed back to them, concern obvious even on his unfamiliar features. "You must leave now. The waves have begun. They will only get stronger. You must get back to your ship."
"What about your people?" Kathryn didn't press for specifics about what was happening: 'waves' and 'will only get stronger' combined with the movement beneath her feet told her what she immediately needed to know.
The alien shook his head. "We are cave-dwellers and have our own ways to last out the waves, but you surface-dwellers will not survive. You must go."
Wasting no more time, Kathryn nodded her understanding and motioned sharply to the others. It had taken them nearly a half an hour to descend through the caves; she doubted that they would get as much time to make the return trip.
Despite the steadily increasing movement of the surface underfoot, they made quick progress back up through the tunnels until they once again entered the cavern with the stalagmite marking its center. There, the ground began to roll and pitch beneath them. Kathryn lurched back as the others were thrown forward. Looking up as she regained her balance, she saw one of the larger stalactites, damaged and now hanging precariously above them.
"Watch above!" she managed to shout before, with the next roll of the earth, the dilithium came crashing down. She sprang for the nearest wall, instinctively covering her head against the shattering crystal. When her vision cleared, she saw that Tom, Harry and B'Elanna were nearly at the far opening to the passageway leading up to the surface.
"Go!" she shouted to them across the heaving floor and over the deafening sound of crashing rocks and dilithium. "I'll be right behind you." And, seeing their collective hesitation, "That's an order – go now!"
Then the world went black.