To Tell The Truth Series 05 Turning Point

by Melanie

  Naomi unfortunately had overheard some crewmembers talking about their situation and now knew her godfather and beloved Tom were in peril and could not be comforted.

  Seven, too, seemed abnormally distracted though any who noticed it were discounting it to some weird effect of the nebula or the yatelite she was helping refine or something. Certainly none guessed the truth that she was concerned about the safety of not only Lieutenant Paris, but about that of Ensign Kim. The only one who might have guessed the truth was the Captain and she was having her own problems.

  In public, Kathryn was wearing her brave face. She pretended she had total confidence Sunfire and the rescuers and they would return home, a little late, but safe and sound, despite their lack of contact with them since they had received the warning from them about the approaching Gherop days earlier. In private, she continued to wallow in self-pity and Chakotay's comforting embrace. She was in mid-wallow in her Ready Room and all but seated in his lap when word came that Sunfire and a Gherop ship were

  approaching the nebula and hailing them.

  "It's Commander Tuvok," the officer at Ops was saying when the two Senior Officers stepped out onto the Bridge.

  The Captain frowned. "With a Gherop ship in tow?"

  "Yes. Apparently the Rachar are in command of it now. All of the codes check out. It is Sunfire and it is him."

  "On screen."

  Tuvok appeared on the main viewer with a somber Neelix and Harry in the main viewer. The Doctor and Tom were nowhere in sight and Chakotay placed a hand on the centre of the Captain's back as she began to sway.

  "Tom..." she whispered.

  "Is on the Gherop ship with the Doctor at the moment, Captain," Tuvok explained.

  Chakotay felt the tension melt away from the back under his hand and he worried more than ever that her knees would give out on her as the relief coursed through her. As usual, she surprised him and found some strength from somewhere and continued on.

  "So, then everything went well?"

  "Not exactly, Captain. Rachar has been destroyed. We were able to take control of the Gherop vessels and evacuate twenty-seven thousand, nine hundred and fifty-eight Rachar. The others and the Gherop are dead. Mr. Paris and the representatives of the Rachar would like to speak with you in the Conference Room at the earliest convenience."

  She nodded and her smile was eager yet sad at the same time.

  "I'll inform Mr. Paris. Sunfire out."

  "Take us out of the nebula, Mr. Baytart."

  "Aye, Captain," he said happily.

  "You okay," Chakotay whispered to her as the swirling colors on the screen resolved themselves into a star pattern as they moved back out into open space.

  Grey eyes met his and he had his answer. No, she was not. The time had come to face the music. She had what she had both prayed for and dreaded. Tom was back and now she had to face him and her own conscience. Resolutely, she drew away from his hand and walked towards the Conference Room.

  -------

  It did not take one of Tom's powers of observation to see the Captain was uncomfortable with his reappearance. She sat silently at the head of the Conference Room table where she and Chakotay sat with the four rescuers and listened as Tom introduced Sme and Mksa and briefly explained what had happened on Rachar after Voyager and Sunfire had left. Frankly, he had not known what he was expecting from her, but he had hoped there might have been at least a touch of relief at seeing he was alive. The Doctor had

  told him, before he had begun to suspect Tom might still be alive, everyone had thought him dead and even had been planning his wake. That he could understand, given the circumstances, but still, even a smile at seeing him would have been nice.

  "So," he continued in an emotionless voice worthy of Tuvok, "the convoy went to a large, uninhabited moon a few hours from where Rachar had been and disembarked. There is evidence of an abandoned civilization there and the planet New Rachar orbits, but no indications of any other claimants to the system. There is a silicon-based life form evolving on one of the planets closer to the suns, but it will be a few million years before it's ready to complain about anyone else living near them."

  He slid a padd towards the Captain. "What the Rachar need now is what's listed there. First of all, the indigenous food is suitable for their ingestion, but there are certain things that are necessary to the Rachar diet that aren't available on New Rachar or any of the other worlds in the system as far as we've been able to detect. According to some Rachar who were in the know, E'Arte sent Voyager the food you requested along with all but a few of the Engineering supplies so you'd think he was dealing straight with you. We'd like to take enough samples from the food from Rachar so we can start growing the foods need to supplement the foods already growing on New Rachar and take some replicators be used to make up for the short fall until the first crops come in."

  "That would be against the Prime Directive," Chakotay interjected. "Giving them technology-"

  "This ship has overlooked that fact in the past when it deemed it necessary. I'm asking that this be considered one of those times."

  Chakotay gave Janeway a look and he nodded, seeming to understand the message in her eyes. "We'll table that for the moment. There was more the Rachar need?"

  "Medical supplies and clothing but the replicators could supply those. Also they could use help in establishing defenses and living spaces. The homes of the former inhabitants are fine, but have been abandoned for some time and need much structural work." He made an expansive gesture with hands that now were their proper color and not that of the blue sweater and blue jeans he wore once more. "They need pretty much everything you'd need to settle a new world. There wasn't any time or space to take anything more than them."

  "We'll discuss this," Janeway finally said, padd in hand. "Sme, Mksa, Commander Tuvok can show you to quarters where you can wait until we've reached our decision."

  The two Rachar shot Tom a look and he nodded reassuringly. He had warned them about the dilemma of the Prime Directive but they still were worried their appeal would be rejected. The Rachar had had very little satisfaction with authority in the past few years since the Gherop usurpation and they logically were very concerned at the delay. The look from Tom reassured them slightly.

  Tuvok rose and the two Rachar followed him out.

  "Are you feeling that pain again?" the EMH asked Tom as he noticed him press a hand against his chest.

  "Yeah," Tom nodded, eyes scrunched up in pain as everyone turned to him. Suddenly, he began to relax and breathe normally.

  "I want you in Sickbay now," he insisted, rising.

  "But-"

  "I'm sure they can debate the ramifications of breaking the Prime Directive without you. This is the fourth time I've seen you have this trouble and I doubt that's been the only times you've experienced it. I want you in Sickbay where I can check you out. Now let's go."

  Reluctantly, Tom left with him, not knowing the Captain immediately had stiffened at seeing him in pain and got to her feet the moment he had. He also did not know she indecisively stood there, not knowing whether she wanted to go with them or stay.

  Finally, Chakotay reached out and caught her hand in a public display of intimacy that surprised both her and Neelix.

  Harry never even noticed.

  -------

  "What does it take to kill this guy?" Ver Faran was grumbling to Gerron Tem in the turbolift half an hour after the three ships had rendezvoused.

  "I don't know," Gerron shrugged, "I heard the Doctor ushered him to Sickbay after the meeting with the Rachar."

  "Hurt yet again. A hero, yet again."

  Gerron gave him a look. "You really hate him, don't you?"

  "Don't you? After what he did to Megan?"

  The younger of the two Bajorans looked away.

  "The man's lied, killed, you name it, he's done it. Frankly, I don't see how anyone cannot hate him."

  The turbolift doors opened just then and Gerron strode out
and towards to Sickbay to have his pinched fingers seen to.

  He did not know what to think about what Ver had just said. It was nothing he himself had not thought from time to time. And the part about whatever the guy had done to Megan, that had part was dead on. He still did not know what he had said to Megan to make her cry, but once Paris was out of Sickbay, he meant to find out. Maybe then, he and Megan could find their way passed whatever had happened and they could get back together. He had missed her terribly since she had begun avoiding him because he kept trying to find out what had happened between her and Paris.

  "So he'll be okay, right?" Gerron heard Megan asking the EMH when he entered Sickbay via the door near the office.

  "Yes, now that I've properly healed all of his injuries. After a few hours' rest he should be fine."

  "Can you call me when he wakes up? I'd like to see him."

  "Of course."

  After smiling her thanks, she leaned down to kiss Tom's high forehead prior to leaving Sickbay.

  Neither even noticed Gerron, who had been quietly fuming in the other doorway, turn on his heel and leave the way he had come.

  -------

  "I am sorry," the Captain concluded to the Rachar whom Tuvok had escorted to her Ready Room where she and Chakotay waited.

  People who had experienced many disappointments in their lives, they took hearing the Captain could find no way around the Prime Directive to give them replicators with an attempt at stoic acceptance. Sme was better at it than the hot-tempered Mksa, but she kept him in line as best she could.

  "These vitamin tablets that your doctor has created," the physician began, "how potent and how many could you supply?"

  "He says they should be taken once a day and there should be enough to last all of your people a year."

  "That should give our crops a chance to grow and our bodies become acclimatized to the new foods."

  "But-" Mksa tried to interrupt.

  "Tom warned us there was this possibility, Mksa," Sme reminded him. "We'll have to just learn how to survive with what they are able to provide for us and with what we have on New Rachar."

  Reluctantly, he nodded to his elder.

  "Thank you, Captain. You have been most kind."

  "I'm sorry it's not allowed to be more," Janeway repeated, standing. "The other items will be ready to beam to your ship within the hour."

  "Good. I would like to get back to New Rachar. And we would like to see Tom before we go too."

  The Captain paused.

  "I'll show you to Sickbay," Chakotay offered, saving her the need to see Tom before she was ready. She had confided in him that she could not stomach seeing him in there, that she wanted to wait until he was out of there and feeling better before she saw him again and he quite agreed with her. With a nod, he escorted their guests out.

  "We truly are sorry," he reiterated after a moment's silence in the turbolift.

  Sme patted his arm. "We know, Commander. Rules are made and put in place for a reason. We will survive. If we can survive so long under the Gherop, we can rough it as Tom called it for a while on New Rachar."

  He smiled and nodded and they fell silent again until they reached Sickbay.

  "How is he, Doctor?" Sme asked her colleague.

  "Resting comfortably," the EMH approved. "Should be waking up soon."

  Smiling down at him, she brushed the unruly locks of blonde hair from his face. "This one needs his rest. He's more than earned it." Withdrawing her hand, she stepped back and looked expectantly at the Doctor.

  "We have an hour to wait for our supplies to be ready and you and I still have not finished our discussion."

  "Yes, come to my office and I'll show you what I meant."

  Chakotay, left alone with Mksa, was about to ask the Rachar a question when Mksa walked closer to Tom's bedside, slowly laid a hand in the middle of Tom's torso, and bowed his head. Seeing he was not going to have any sort of conversation with this one, Chakotay went into the office.

  Sme held up a hand to halt the Doctor's explanation for a moment and looked at Chakotay. "An old Rachar custom," she explained, gesturing to Mksa and Tom. "When one has wronged another, the one who did the wrong asks forgiveness from the heart of the other," she said, laying her hand over the middle of her torso where the Rachar heart lay as she said the word "heart." "Mksa distrusted Tom. Probably a sensible precaution at the time, but now he feels guilty because Tom is a big reason for our people being free from the Gherop and so many lives having been saved." She sighed, thinking of the horrible fact he blamed

  himself for Zji's death. "Mksa feels guilty for many things. But now he will not feel guilty about how he treated Tom. He will be there for a while. Perhaps, if you have things you need to do, you could come back for us when everything is ready to transport to our ship?"

  "Fine. I'll see you in an hour."

  -------

  Word of Tom's return quickly had travelled throughout the ship and had B'Elanna not been stuck with Nicoletti in a Jefferies tube, she would have known this and rushed to his side. However, everyone thought everyone else had told her already so no one contacted her to make sure she did know. Out of sight was out of mind and they quickly became absorbed in their work of assembling supplies for the Rachar, forgetting all about the one who most needed to know of his return.

  After he had been back for two hours and the Rachar gone for almost fifteen minutes, she and Nicoletti reappeared in Engineering, covered in gel thanks to a slip of B'Elanna's hydrospanner when she had experienced chest pains two hours earlier. The gel pack, around which they had been trying to make delicate repairs, had blown, covering both women in gel. At the time, neither woman put two and two together to realize it was Tom's pains she was feeling. Instead, she cursed overwork for the pain and then the gel pack for being so fragile and sent the other woman scurrying off for another pack while she continued with the repairs. Due to the urgency of the repair and the temper of her superior, Nicoletti literally had run through the corridors to and from the gel pack storage unit and no one had stopped the sticky woman to gossip about the triumphant return of the rescue party. So as it was, there was over a two hour delay between his return and their resurfacing in Engineering.

  The engineers were about to ask Sue why the Chief was with her and not Paris when another problem reared its ugly head and the chaos began all over again.

  Another three hours past before that was settled and someone finally remembered there was something they all had wanted to tell the Chief. Vorik was the one who was elected to do the honors for no other reason than he was a Vulcan probably could hold his own in a fight with the half-Klingon. None of those who had been present on Sakari ever had spoken about what had happened there so no one in Engineering knew she could *beat* him in a fight. Still, he went.

  "Lieutenant?"

  "If it's another problem, Vorik," growled the woman who still had not found the time to clean up herself or change out of her uniform covered with dried gel, "I swear I'll-"

  "Sunfire has returned."

  She whirled around to face him.

  "About five hours ago now."

  "Why wasn't I told?!" she demanded, shoving passed him. "Computer, location of Tom Paris."

  "Tom Paris is in Sickbay."

  B'Elanna raced out of Engineering, forgetting everything as she ran to Tom.

  -------

  "Lieutenant, I'm no fashion critic, but I must tell you the gel really does nothing for your skin tone. May I suggest something in a deep red?"

  B'Elanna ignored the EMH and rushed to Tom's bedside. The man she had wanted so desperately to see still was sound asleep.

  "I had to perform some additional surgery, Lieutenant," he said, coming to stand beside her. "He'll be fine now, but I gave him a sedative so he'll sleep for a while. He's had some major injuries over the past week and he needs to recuperate. Why don't you go to your quarters and shower and change and maybe he'll be awake when you come back."

  She
shot a glance first at him then at her gel encrusted self.

  "Besides, knowing you two, I'll probably have to be prying you two apart with a tritanium bar once he wakes up," he smirked, "and, though I've heard him comment about 'eau de plasma coolant,' I don't know how he'd feel about gel."

  Normally, she would have glared at him for that veiled remark about her and Tom's difficulty in keeping their hands to themselves at times. This time she only smiled softly to herself as she leaned over to give Tom a brief kiss and caress of a gel covered hand over his stubbled cheek then left.

  "Better charge up the osteogenic stimulator while I'm at it," he muttered to himself, taking a corner of the blanket covering Tom and wiping the flakes of gel from the man's cheek.

  -------

  "Hey, Starfleet. I'm so happy to see you."

  A sleepy Harry briefly snapped out of his funk as a warm, slightly sticky, and funny smelling body enveloped him in a big hug. Automatically, his arms went around his hugger so they did not fall over. He blinked furiously a few times then realized who it was. "B'Elanna?"

  "Harry, you brought him back to me. I don't know how to thank you," she told him, pulling back slightly then hugging him again.

  "Who?" he asked, his mind not working as it should.

  She pulled back a bit and frowned at him. "Tom. Who else? What's wrong with you?"

  "I..."

  Her smile faded a bit as she picked up on his mood. "Something bad happened, didn't it?"

  He nodded.

  "You want to talk about it?"

  He thought for a moment then nodded again.

  "How about your quarters? They're closer."

  -------

  Tom opened his eyes to see the Doctor checking his vitals. "Hey."

  "'Hey' yourself, Mr. Paris. How do you feel?"

  "Better." He pushed himself up to a sitting position. "I need to go see if the Captain's made her decision about the Rachar and-"

  "She already did, about four and a half hours ago."

  "What? What did she say?" he asked slowly, guessing from the look on the EMH's face that he was not going to like what he heard.