by ALM_Voyager
© September 10, 2000
Disclaimer: Voyager belongs to Paramount Pictures. No infringement intended.
Dedicated to RISPC. "Jingle bells, Neelix smells, Tuvok laid an egg . . . . the Voy-mobile has lost its wheels and Seska got away!" Tom Paris sang cheerily, to himself, as he walked down the near-empty corridor toward main engineering. Moving one swift hand through his hair that held some untamed, blond locks, he didn't think twice before entering main engineering with a knowing grin on his face. Stepping quickly aside for an Ensign who was rushing toward the console behind him, to do another needed diagnostic, Tom was able to observe, from a distance, the person he had been looking for. The one woman onboard who could get the warp core going again.
B'Elanna wasn't very hard to miss; if it weren't for the grease, dirt and grime covering every inch of exposed skin then it would've been her loud, yelling voice pushing out orders that would've gotten even a Borg drone's attention.
"Get that diagnostic finished, Henley!" she charged out as she moved toward the warp core console to take another reading and recalibrate the previous ones. "I've been waiting through half your shift to see it come through correctly. I promised the Captain we'd be OUT of thrusters and into warp speed by the end of *your* shift."
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant," the man, who had rushed passed Tom earlier, gritted out the words through teeth that clenched themselves together in stress.
"We don't have time to be sorry," B'Elanna said quietly, but her voice still carried to every single ear on her engineering team. She'd be damned if they failed Voyager yet.
Tom wasn't surprised at the mayhem, in fact, the entire ship was in its usual uproar. For days on end there was tension between the Starfleet and the Maquis, inquiring minds leading to dangerous gossip about whether Carey or Seska had been stealing and bartering Voyager's technology with the Kazon. Though the path that had been set up had led them straight to Carey it had, nevertheless, been Seska with the traitorous heart. Her traitorous heart had caused more than one . . . malfunction.
Tom watched as B'Elanna's shoulders sagged at what he assumed was yet another faulty diagnostic reading. Whatever it was, wasn't going to be fixed by the time her shift ended.
"Damn you!" she roared at the machinery and dipped her clenched fist at the firm surface that was the console.
"Woah," Tom started forward and was noticed by the Klingon-Human woman for the first time. "If you're trying to fix the thing I wouldn't recommend breaking it."
"It's already broken, Paris," B'Elanna eyed him, wondering what in the hell he wanted. "What do you want?" she voiced those exact thoughts.
"Uh, I thought--" Tom started, pointing slightly at her then himself, "we had that . . ." he trailed off knowing he shouldn't, in the company of this woman, presume it to be a date, ". . . that we?" How was he going to say it? Especially since it involved Harry and Neelix.
"Oh right," she stated to herself but for him to hear as well. She nodded her head, and as quickly as the rage at the core had come, it was gone.
Tom shrugged, "But if you're busy . . ." He knew how much these engineering things meant to her.
"No," she turned to an Ensign who had just shown up directly by her side. B'Elanna didn't say anything nor did she give the other Ensign a chance to say anything either . . . the chief engineer just pushed the PADD into her crewman's hands and walked toward the door.
Paris offered a smile up to Ensign Carter, who glared at her new assignment on the PADD, and then he gave into following B'Elanna out the door. Show time.
To Kathryn & Chakotay, With Love -- The Crew of Voyager
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Ho! Ho! Ho!