B'Elanna started to choke on the tea she was sipping as Chakotay shifted uneasily on his side of the table. Before Kathryn could do more then let her jaw drop slightly Paris returned with two trays.
"There we go," he set each one down and glanced at the members of the table who looked as though a Kazon had suddenly appeared on their plates. "What?" he asked. Tom noted that Harry's face was blue and that it seemed as if he wasn't even breathing. Something had gone wrong . . . terribly wrong.
Before anyone could make amends their attention was caught by voices raising at the far end of the mess hall.
"Take it back, Carter!" Kyoto was standing now, his stance rigid.
"Take what back?" Carter stood as well, "The truth? Everyone knows that you can't even program a module to . . ." before Carter could finish Kyoto's tray of food hit him square in the face.
"Uh huh," B'Elanna shoved another spoonful of her dinner into her mouth and muttered, "I knew it. I just knew it."
The Captain was standing up and moving past the Commander before he could even set down his fork. He watched her start to walk forward and noted that she was standing directly behind Kyoto. He stood and tried to look beyond the crowd that had gathered.
"Uh, Commander" Tom Paris' voice spoke up over the hum of the mess hall gossip, "I think Carter is armed and ready to fire."
Kathryn made her way to Kyoto's side and stood with her hands on her hips, raising her voice angrily, "Enough!"
"Captain!" Chakotay called out and Kathryn turned her head just in time to receive Carter's dinner on the front of her uniform. Gasps were heard all over the mess hall as things went dead quiet.
Kathryn stood there a moment, unable to move. She sighed and looked down at the front of her uniform covered in red glop.
"Oh . . . oh my," Neelix was flustered and started moving forward. He grabbed the kitchen towel which he had flung over his shoulder earlier and moved towards the Captain. "Captain Janeway, are you okay?" He took the towel and started to wipe at the front of her uniform in some very personal areas.
Kathryn jumped back and smacked at the towel, and turned to look at the two men, "This is unacceptable behavior for *any members of my crew." Her gaze filtered around everyone nearby.
"We . . . we didn't see you," Carter started but stopped as Janeway turned her attention to him.
"You will consider yourselves on report," she barked out angrily as Chakotay came to stand by her. "You *both are to be in my ready room tomorrow at 1300 hours where we will discuss . . . ," she shook off some glop from her left hand, ". . . *this further." When she failed to get anything out of them, not even a glance from downward turned eyes, her voice held a deadly tone, "*Is* that understood?"
"Yes, Captain," they said together.
The crowd started to dispersed with a low level of discussion as Chakotay took Kathryn by the arm, "Here, Captain," he took the kitchen towel from Neelix who seemed troubled as well and handed it to her, "let's get you back to your quarters so you can change."
"So much for a calm evening," Janeway said sadly.
CONTINUED IN PART 4!
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