Trials 04 Shadow's Trial

by Terri Zavaleta

  sensor----"

  "How can you be so calm?" Kim hissed. "Anything could have

  happened---"

  "And my worrying about it isn't going to accomplish a damned thing,"

  Torres snapped. She wanted to scream from frustration herself, but was

  trying to funnel all her energy into finding a solution. She took a

  deep, calming breath. "Harry, you know Tom will take care of Malista.

  To the best of his ability."

  "I'm not just worried about Malista! I'm not that selfish. Who will

  take care of Tom?" Harry muttered. "I know he thinks he can handle

  anything, but there are some things that---"

  "I don't want to think about it!" B'Elanna announced, a little more

  loudly than she'd intended. Not only was Tuvok looking their way, but

  she'd drawn Chakotay's attention as well. She frowned almost

  insubordinately at the two senior officers until they turned back to

  their own duties. Lowering her voice once more, she continued, "Harry,

  all we can do is try to find a way to help them. Now, what exactly

  happens when we use the sensors on that dome? Are the readings not

  making sense? Or is that the sensors can't get through?"

  With an effort, Kim focused once more on the control panel readings.

  "No. It's more like the sensor beams are reflected back."

  "What about passive sensors?"

  "I thought about that an hour ago," he said impatiently. "They bounce

  off too."

  "Bounce off? Reflected?" Torres repeated. She clutched his upper arm

  between both her hands and squeezed tightly in her excitement. "Harry!

  If you want to prevent bounce back, what do you do?"

  "What? What are you talking about?"

  "You change the angle! If you change the angle of approach, you might

  prevent the reflection. The dome is deflecting the sensors. If we

  change the angle...."

  Two voices raised simultaneously. "Captain!"

  *********************

  There was no force field between the top of the wall and the domed

  roof of the---building? This had been determined by the simple measure

  of throwing Ethan Simms' left boot over the wall. It passed over

  without any noticeable interference or reaction on the part of their

  hosts.

  The next obstacle was to get Malista to the top edge, approximately

  fifteen feet above the floor. Even standing on Tom's shoulders, she

  would be three to four feet short of her goal. They shoved the bed

  against the wall. Tom stood atop the bed and looked at Ethan.

  Simms estimated the distance and shook his head once more. "Not

  enough. You need at least another two feet."

  "I could jump," Malista volunteered. She sat down on the edge of the

  bed to remove her own boots since it would be easier to get a sure

  foothold in her bare feet. She took the knife and its sheath from her

  boot and tucked it into her waistband.

  "No," Tom vetoed. "You might lose your balance and fall."

  Sven Haldersen stepped forward. "If I get on my hands and knees and

  Lt. Paris stands on my back, then Malista climbs on his

  shoulders----would that be enough, Ethan?"

  Simms estimated the measurements with a quick look and nodded. "That

  would do it."

  Paris jumped off the bed to let Haldersen get into place. Tom

  hesitated, pulled Malista in for a quick hug, then frowned down at her

  warningly. "Last minute instructions, Sis. If anything goes wrong,

  forget the whole thing. Come back here. If you get caught, surrender.

  I don't think they'll hurt you if you don't put up a fight. Don't use

  that knife on anyone. Use it as a tool to open doors or whatever if

  you need to. I think if you don't hurt them, they'll just bring you

  right back to your cage. That's what they do with zoo animals anyway.

  Remember, your job is to gather information. Not to start a fight."

  Her smile was brave, but her eyes betrayed her misgivings. "I'll do my

  best, Tom."

  He forced a smile of his own. "I know you will. Be careful!" He

  waggled an admonitory finger in her face.

  She made a snapping motion as if she was going to bite him. "Yes, big

  brother. Now can I get on with it?" She was bouncing on her toes with

  nervous energy.

  Megan came forward and gave her a one-armed hug. "Good luck."

  Under her breath, Malista whispered, "Megan, if anything should

  happen---"

  "It won't," Delaney said adamantly, as if her insistence could insure

  a positive outcome.

  "But if---tell Harry I love him. And help B'Elanna take care of Tom,"

  Shadow begged.

  "Of course." The redhead smiled and stepped back, her mind boggling at

  the image that last request had brought to her mind. Her friend

  Malista was still very naive in some ways. Torres accepting HER help

  in dealing with Tom Paris? Not bloody likely. Not in this century. Or

  the next.

  "Okay," Paris said. He took his position standing squarely on

  Haldersen's back. Ethan on one side and Lamont on the other, helped

  Malista balance as she climbed onto the bed, then with Tom's help up

  to his shoulders. From there it was an easy reach to pull herself up

  to the top of the wall.

  Paris climbed off the other man's back and jumped off the bed, craning

  his neck up to watch her. He was poised to try to catch her if she

  fell. He only hoped that if she fell, she would fall in the right

  direction. Towards him.

  Shadow was taking her time, balancing herself carefully on the

  partition. She looked down at the others. "Hey, it's wider than I

  thought. About five inches."

  "What can you see?" Haldersen asked, getting to his feet and joining

  the Malista watchers.

  "There are lots of rooms, but from here I can't see down inside them.

  I'm going to start walking in this direction and see what's there,"

  she announced. She took the first step and frowned down at the group

  when both Janine and Megan groaned aloud.

  "I hate heights," Megan moaned, frowning up at her friend. "Be

  careful!"

  The Greek woman wrinkled her nose at the redhead. "Oh, it's plenty

  wide. Don't worry so much."

  "Five inches isn't that wide!" Lamont protested as she cringed at the

  thought of risking a bad fall by trying to balance on a strip five

  inches wide.

  "Sure, it is." To prove her point, Malista quickly did a forward flip,

  landing with perfect accuracy in the center of the partition. It might

  have scored a ten in a gymnastics competition, but it only served to

  make her audience more anxious, the opposite of the effect she

  intended.

  With a gulp, Paris managed a weak smile. "Show off. Don't get too

  cocky, woman. Remember what happened to Icarus? Get to work. Don't

  forget, if you run into any problem, either come back here or give up.

  If they point one of those sticks at you, do what they want. There's

  nothing to be gained from trying to fight them directly."

  "Yes, Tom," she said indulgently. "I know. 'To withdraw is not to run

  away, and to stay is no wise action, when there's more reason to fear

  than to hope.' I remember. I will be careful, I promise."

 
; "Oh, great, now she's quoting Cervantes," Paris grumbled. "I knew I

  should have left him off that reading list. He's going to fill her

  head with all kinds of fantastic ideas."

  "Hey, if you can quote Milton, I can quote Cervantes," Malista teased

  as she began her journey.

  "Who?" Delaney asked, bemused.

  "Miguel Cervantes. Don Quixote. The Man of La Mancha in the musical

  version," Paris replied, his eyes fixed on Shadow as she walked along

  the partition until she disappeared from sight

  "I really should read more than starcharts, I guess," Megan sighed.

  "Maybe I'll borrow Malista's reading list when we get back to

  Voyager."

  A few minutes later, the five humans suddenly found themselves

  staggering as the room shook.

  "It's some kind of seismic tremor!" Simms shouted, grabbing Lamont

  protectively and pulling her to the side of the room near the doorway.

  As quickly as it had begun, it was over.

  "Malista!" Megan exclaimed. "Could she keep her balance through that?"

  Paris turned stricken eyes towards the top of the wall. "Malista!" he

  shouted. She should still be in hearing range, shouldn't she?

  There was no response. The humans traded glances.

  "We should give her some time," Lamont suggested. "Maybe she'd already

  found out where they're keeping our equipment. She may not have even

  been on the wall." That argument was weak and she knew it, but she

  couldn't help trying to keep positive thoughts going.

  Paris flashed a grim glance at the petite blonde. Without a word, he

  began to pace, silently counting the seconds with each measured tread.

  He would give her an hour. No, thirty minutes. No, make it an hour.

  Then he was going after her.

  He could rationalize it as a rescue mission. Or as a second patrol

  going out since the first failed to report in. But the truth was

  simple enough: there was no way he could or would stay here or leave

  the planet without knowing for certain what had happened to Malista

  Shadow.

  He knew, as surely as he knew his eyes were blue, that he could not

  live with uncertainty about her fate. And he couldn't bear to think he

  had neglected any slim possibility of helping her.

  ************

  "Captain, we're reading seismic activity on the planet's surface

  again," Chakotay announced as he peered at the console between their

  command chairs.

  Janeway quickly returned to her seat. She'd found herself hovering

  over Pablo Bateheart, the pilot in Tom's absence, as he made the

  course corrections necessary to bring the ship's sensors to a

  different angle. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, she told

  herself. She just would have been more at ease if Tom Paris had been

  at the helm during the tricky maneuver of attempting to enter the

  planet's turbulent atmosphere.

  "Incoming," Chakotay announced. "All hands brace for impact."

  The entire ship shimmied as Bateheart fought for control as the ship

  was hit by a shock wave. Janeway lurched to his side and anchored

  herself to the back of his chair with one hand as she assisted him

  with helm control with the other as Voyager rode out the shock wave.

  With its passing, alarms made themselves heard as those on the bridge

  regained their footing and busily got to work at their assigned

  stations.

  "Damage reports are coming in from all over the ship," Kim noted. "No

  casualties or serious injuries. Minor damage to the starboard shields

  which took the brunt of the shock wave."

  B'Elanna Torres was quickly and methodically reviewing engineering

  systems from her station. "Inertial dampers are off-line. Guidance

  control is off-line."

  Janeway acknowledged the information with a nod. "What was that?"

  "Evidently when they have seismic activity, it has very serious

  consequences," Chakotay mused wryly.

  "According to my readings, on this occasion the planet's crust

  ruptured simultaneously in two locations and emitted powerful

  discharges of detritus, gases, and thermal energy," Tuvok stated. "The

  resulting conflagration propelled debris into the atmosphere with a

  high magnitude of force, which in turn was responsible for----"

  "You mean two volcanoes erupted at the same time and the gases and

  shock wave pushed the ship out of the atmosphere?" Chakotay

  interrupted.

  The stoic Vulcan's demeanor did not betray any hint of annoyance or

  amusement. "That is what I said, Commander."

  Turning her back to the Vulcan, Janeway rolled her eyes, then fixed

  them on her first officer. "Have you been taking smart mouth lessons

  from Tom Paris, Commander?" she murmured as she resettled in her

  chair.

  Chakotay's dimpled flashed briefly in her direction though he kept his

  eyes on his monitor. "Captain, we will discuss that remark at a later

  date," he murmured. "The force of this seismic quake was much more

  severe than the one we monitored an hour ago. About twice as

  powerful."

  Janeway let that one go. "Mr. Kim? What's the condition of the dome?

  Can you tell from your readings if this quake had any affect on the

  city?" Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of bright

  light and spun toward its source even as the intruder alert sounded

  once more.

  Standing between the conn station and the forward viewscreen were four

  astonished, bedraggled human beings. Four of Voyager's six missing

  crewmembers.

  *****************

  Megan Delaney had been watching Tom Paris pace for almost an hour.

  There wasn't much else to do for entertainment. And she was puzzled

  and slightly put out. At one time, she'd thought she knew him pretty

  well. They'd dated, flirted, even necked on occasion. The relationship

  hadn't gone any further because Tom had constantly backed away with a

  laugh, a smile, a flirtatious remark. Now she was beginning to think

  she'd never scratched the surface. Never understood him at all. He'd

  never allowed her to see him the way she'd seen him in these

  circumstances. Vulnerable. Angry.

  Emotionally involved.

  Every few minutes, Paris would stop for a moment, listen intently,

  then begin his march once more. Megan didn't think he was aware that

  he was muttering under his breath, a continuous flow of numbers. She

  thought he might be counting his steps though it seemed like an

  exercise in futility to her. Still watching the pilot, she stepped

  nearer to the bed where Ethan Simms and Janine Lamont were seated.

  "What do you think we should do, Ethan?" Delaney whispered. "I'm

  getting worried about him. If Malista doesn't show up soon---" She

  left the rest of that thought unspoken. She was trying to starve her

  imagination, which insisted on feeding her gruesome mental pictures of

  her friend being tortured in the name of science by some alien, and

  therefore, scary race.

  "That's it!" Paris announced emphatically. He spun on his heel and

  faced his team. "By my count, it's been almost an hour since she left.

  If she didn't run into trouble, she'd have reported back by now."


  "So what do you---" Simms didn't get the question half out of his

  mouth before Paris pounced.

  "I'm going after her." He paused, waiting for the arguments. The other

  four looked at each other and back at him. Their tired expressions

  told him nothing. "What?" he exploded impatiently.

  "What do you want us to say, Tom?" Megan asked, her blue eyes

  searching his.

  The tall blond man combed his fingers agitatedly through his hair. "I

  don't know. I know I have a responsibility to you, to all of you, but

  I---"

  "We won't be any better or worse off with you here," Lamont commented

  matter-of-factly.

  "Janine is right," Simms agreed. "We can't escape. We can't

  communicate or negotiate with our captors. We're obviously outclassed

  in terms of technology. We're going to be stuck here until Voyager

  finds us and rescues us---or until we find a way out for ourselves."

  The ensign smacked his good knee with his fist. "Damn it, if my leg

  wasn't so---I feel so useless."

  "Join the club," Delaney muttered unsympathetically. "Go, Tom. It may

  not help, but it couldn't hurt either."

  "I just wish I could predict what the aliens will do," Haldersen

  grumbled. "If we only had more information."

  "That's what Malista and I are looking for," Tom averred, his firm jaw