It was bad enough that the woman didn’t care for her. Worse enough still that she took to not only berating Sara in front of others, but standing over her until a job was done – to her satisfaction. The situation escalated when Sara caught Seska purposely breaking things for her to fix, and immediately told Chakotay. She had been told before by the same man not to tattle, and not to squeal, but she wasn’t going to just sit by and let someone make her life miserable. Of course, the fact that she had had enough grudge against the small telepath to throw her in an airlock months previous only slightly entered her mind as she related her story to her captain.
Chakotay had told Seska to back off on more than one occasion, which served to the Bajoran woman as nothing more than 24 hours of warning. For a day, Sara was fine, and then reality snapped back into place quicker than her hair fasteners when stretched. As if things weren't bad enough, Sara found Seska inside her compartment on more than one occasion. She had long ago acceepted that where she slept wasn't really 'hers', it was simply extra space, and there were still storage cannisters of parts (neatly organized and labeled) inside. However, they did NOT extend to her personal possessions. Things went missing to suddenly 'turn up' two or three days later on other decks. Telepathy wasn't enough to prove it was Seska doing it, either; Chakotay wasn't about to create a riot between the tensions already present on board with their occupations just because Sara couldn't find her hairbrush.
Finally, she’d had enough of it.
She jury-rigged the door on her compartment to emit a sensor beep, and rigged a tracking mechanism that would report any life signs in the room for the previous twelve hours. It did no good – Seska still went in and rooted through Sara’s possessions. What little she had was precious enough to her, and finding her things strewn about was almost incomprehensible.
Finally, there was nothing to do but let her get caught in the act. Using her newly-earned Maquis tricks, Sara booby-trapped her door. As soon as it opened (and it could be opened), without the proper access code entered in 30 seconds (Sara made sure that there was an audio warning 5 seconds before it sounded from the computer), a deafening klaxon would sound, complete with strobe lights and a somewhat softer Intruder Alert message.
It was effective enough.
The look on the Bajoran’s face was sufficient. Her body jolted visibly, and her earring was swinging from the lobe of a beet-red ear. Sara couldn’t stop herself from laughing. For that matter, neither could anyone on the ship. B’Elanna was laughing, and that took a feat of magic. Yuri Terikof, their navigator, was rolling on the floor, his legs having collapsed from under him. Even Dalby forewent his usual exoskeletal mask and cracked up.
Chakotay smiled the biggest, shaking his head at Sara, who looked at Seska with an expression ranging between satisfaction and triumph.
“That’ll teach you to pick on someone that’s smaller than you,” he said, much to the displeasure of a red-faced, humiliated Bajoran.
She didn’t say anything, but the look in her eyes told Sara that she was not through with her yet. And still, as she was practically knocked down by her leaving, Sara knew that the worst was over.
