To The Journey

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. This is an AU story.

Chapter Twelve: Problem and Solution

"Excuse me, sir?"

The team leader, a recent full commander, barely spared her a glance. "What do you want, Ensign?"

"I observed that we are encountering difficulty with the emergency backup systems for the Sovereign-class starship."

"Yeah," he acknowledged. "What's it to you?"

"I believe I may have come up with a solution."

"What did you say?" she had his full attention now.

"I believe I may have come up with a solution to the problem, sir."

"You." He eyed her skeptically. "You mean the team?"

"I mean me."

"Right. Let me tell you something, Ensign. You may think those pointy ears and upswept eyebrows give you superiority, but the truth is you're the greenest person on this team and we both know it. Do us both a favor, Ensign. Take your solution and forget about it. The designers and lead engineers, of which I am one, can solve this problem without your help."

"But sir -"

"Are you always so contrary?"

"I try not to be. However -"

"Listen, Captain Scott himself is coming to inspect us tomorrow. Do us all a favor and keep your mouth shut."

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"...everything's going quite well for the most part, though the Sovereign-class is still being held up by that problem with the emergency systems -"

"Excuse me, Captain." She wasn't at all sure why she was defying orders from a senior officer, except that Scott and the others were clearly desperate for the answer she could provide.

"Ensign?"

"I have a theory on how to solve this problem."

The Commander opened his mouth, most likely to shut her up, but the Captain spoke first. "Really?" He sounded impressed more than skeptical. "Let's see it."

"If I may?" She indicated the terminal, and Captain Scott nodded. "The problem is that when you try to switch the primary power relays to emergency backups, it overloads and incapacitates other key systems."

"Exactly. But unfortunately, everything is too well interwoven. Try to reassign that power and something else goes wrong."

"Yes. However, if you -" her fingers were flying over the console - "realign the entire power relay system like so -"

The computer console beeped. "Data input. Parameters of design altered to conform."

"Hypothetical situation. Primary power failure. Switch to emergency backups. Analyze any potential effects on unrelated systems."

"Working. No effects to unrelated systems detected."

"Computer, detailed analysis. Compare to records of all starships engaged in battle in the past ten years. Analyze all system commands. Hypothetical situation, no damage to ship's systems. Would any command or series of commands given cause an adverse reaction in any unrelated system on board ship?"

"Working."

It seemed that everyone in the room was holding their breath.

"Negative. No adverse reactions."

A large amount of sputtering ensued. Scotty was the first to get his voice back. "By the Devil, Ensign. How in blazes did you come up with this?"

"When all traditional solutions fail, it is logical to, as humans say, return to the drawing board. I was assigned to projects that did not occupy all of my time on shift. I used the remaining time to return to the schematic and restructure the power relay system."

"I'm very sorry, Captain." The Commander had recovered his voice. "Ensign Asil is a junior member of the team. Very inexperienced. I had spoken to her on the matter of keeping her theories out of this meeting. Apparently, she did not listen."

"And a damn good thing she didn't! Commander, this solution has been eluding our team for weeks! Ensign, who else was involved in this?"

"No one, sir."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I created the solution independently."

"Ensign, can I see you privately for a moment?"

Her Commander looked smug as he indicated a hallway where they could speak privately, and she followed the legendary Captain.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why in blazes are you still an Ensign?"

"I don't understand, sir."

"Ensign, you just solved a problem that's been eluding our best engineers for weeks, on your own, without any support from your department. Why hasn't a person like you been promoted yet?"

Realizing he was reacting to the level of her rank and not her status as an officer, she gave him the most concise answer she could. "I do not yet have the minimum time in rank."

Much as his old shipmate had, he looked almost dazed. "Being Vulcan, I assume you're fully aware that minimum time in rank for an Ensign is only eighteen months?"

"Yes, sir. I have seven."

"Straight from the Academy?"

"Yes, sir."

It was an admiring smile that crossed his face. "Welcome to the club, Ensign."

"I'm sorry, I do not comprehend."

"You are, you realize, only the second person ever to be offered a position here out of the Academy."

"I believed I was the first." Not bragging, just stating fact.

"You were the first to accept. I decided I'd rather see the galaxy."

"You, sir."

"Aye. Your commanding officer seems irate with you."

"He resents me. He believes I am 'showing off'."

"Are ye?"

"No. I believed that Starfleet officers were expected to perform to the full extent of their capabilities. That is what I have done."

"And a damn fine capability it is. How would you like a transfer?"

"A transfer?"

"My personal team. And a provision for a promotion to Lieutenant in eleven months for solving this little problem, barring a major change of circumstances."

"For the first time in my life - I do not know what to say."

"Say yes."

"Very well. I accept."

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"He did what?"

"He offered me a position on his personal staff."

Tasha shook her head in shock. "Tell me you said yes."

"Of course. I believe it will be what humans would call - a better fit."

"A better fit? That's all you can say for it?"

"It is a more prestigious position, but I was speaking on the personal level. My commanding officer at the moment is not someone I work well with. He does not respect my abilities, I believe because of my inexperience. He believes that my efforts to complete my work to the best of my abilities are merely 'showing off' and assigns me projects that do not occupy all or even most of my time on shift. It was when he refused to increase my workload that I began working on a solution to the problem with the emergency systems."

"Looks like not giving you enough work was the best thing he could have done for you."

There was no question that she had a tiny smile on her lips. "Perhaps."

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"There is another facet of information I must convey."

"What's that, Tuvok?"

Captain Janeway was understandably upset about the discovery of Federation technology aboard an alien ship, to say nothing of the fact that the ship belonged to the Kazon, their worst enemies to date in the Delta Quadrant. They all knew that it was next to impossible for them to have gotten it from anyplace other than Voyager - or, more specifically, one of Janeway's own crewmembers.

"I have additional, albeit not concrete, evidence to suggest the possible identity of the spy."

"Let's hear it."

"Several months before we arrived in the Delta Quadrant, a small Maquis ship carrying Commander Chakotay," he gave a nod in the former Maquis captain turned Starfleet first officer, "Lieutenant Torres, Ensign Seska, and myself crashed on a planet in the Badlands. A Federation ship crashed on the same planet."

"Yeah, I remember." Chakotay nodded.

"The leader of the Federation team was someone I have known for a long time and trust absolutely. She told me that she believed Ensign Seska to be a spy."

"On what grounds?" Chakotay demanded.

"A study of personal behavior. An imprecise science, but she is quite gifted in it."

"So you expect me to condemn one of my officers based on your friend's intuition? Has it occurred to you that she might have been feeding you false information?"

"She was aware of my own allegiances. She was attempting to convey a warning."

"Gentlemen, please." Janeway raised her hand to call for a ceasefire. "I see what both of you are saying. Tuvok, I'll take your friend's suggestion under advisement. But don't worry, Chakotay. We won't be making any accusations until we know something for sure."

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"You really trust this woman's intuition, don't you?" B'Elanna Torres asked, somewhere between awed and irritated.

"Indeed I do, Lieutenant. It may not be a precise science, which is one of the reasons I never attempted to master it, however she is singularly gifted at it. She has, to quote her, never been wrong."

"Still, where do you learn something like that?"

"Her roommate was a psychology major."

Chakotay, Tuvok and B'Elanna turned to see the Chief Pilot standing over them. "You don't even know what we're talking about."

"I caught most of it, and I can put two and two together. I happen to know Tuvok knows my second cousin, who was trained in this art by her half-Betazoid psychology major roommate. Also known as my ex-girlfriend." He grinned. "She offered to teach me too, but I didn't have the patience. Now I'm kinda wishing I'd taken her up on it." He grew serious. "Anyway, I agree with Tuvok. If Tasha says we can't trust Seska, I'm inclined to believe that we can't trust Seska."

Tuvok gave him a small nod before turning back to the console he was reading.

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"Well, it looks like your cousin was right after all."

"Yeah, she was."

"We won't be dealing with her hunches this whole trip, will we?"

"Chakotay, what is it you have against her?"

"You know I met her?"

"Yeah, so?"

"She's just too Starfleet. Acts like the service is her life."

"It is."

"See what I mean? People like that are the ones who tend to think that what the Maquis did was just some act of rebellion. They don't understand pain or hardship."

"That's not fair."

"Oh really?"

"You don't know Thing One about her if you think she doesn't understand pain. She spent ten years of her life living on the streets and struggling to survive. Her personal details are private, but most people would crack after going through a tenth of what she had to deal with."

"You expect me to believe that the illustrious Paris family would let a relative struggle without doing anything to help?"

"There was nothing anyone could do. Ships wouldn't go near the system, there wasn't even a way to send messages back and forth. The only thing my dad knew was that he didn't know anything, that and that his cousin was in danger, being from a powerful Federation family. The first time I met Tasha, I didn't know who she was and she didn't know who I was. We became friends in the Academy. Wasn't until years later that we finally pieced her story in with my dad's story of his cousin and figured it out. But to get back to the original point, no one who knows her could ever say that she doesn't understand struggle. She's not devoted to Starfleet because she was groomed for it, she actually believes in what Starfleet stands for."

"I suppose I misjudged her."

"If she was here, I think she'd forgive you."

They exchanged a tentative smile, possibly the first they'd ever shared.

I know this chapter jumped around a little, but neither piece of it was long enough for its own chapter.

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