Shadow, it was this morning. Apology accepted. We'll deal with
everything else after your---situation has been dealt with. You need
to go to Sickbay now. We'll talk later."
Harry Kim was amused by his besotted love's attempt at formality, but
still overcome with relief at her safe return. He directed an
apologetic look for his own unorthodox behavior toward the captain. To
his relief, she nodded understandingly.
It took some effort and a good sense of balance, but the ensign
managed to get out of his chair and up on his feet with Malista in his
arms as he prepared to carry her to Sickbay if need be.
Slithering bonelessly out of Chakotay's and Tuvok's grasp, Paris hit
the floor with a thump, sprawled, and began to laugh. "Hey, B'Ella!
You look taller from down here."
Captain Kathryn Janeway sighed ruefully as she took off her commbadge
and stuck it on Paris' chest. She activated it and said, "Transporter
room. Mr. Paris is wearing my commbadge. Please lock onto it and to
Mr. Kim's comm signal and transport three directly to Sickbay."
As the trio disappeared, Torres shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I
can't wait to hear this debriefing."
******************
By the time Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay, Lieutenant Torres and
Lieutenant Tuvok arrived in Sickbay a few minutes later, the doctor
had a sleeping, shirtless Tom Paris lying face down on a biobed. The
EMH was in the process of healing the numerous puncture marks along
the lieutenant's spine. A concerned Torres went to stand next to the
holodoctor, looking over his shoulder as he worked.
"Doctor?" The captain's tone requested a report.
"It seems that someone has been using Mr. Paris as a test subject,"
the holodoctor responded. "Tissue samples, fluid samples---beings of
advanced technology, perhaps, but their grasp of medical procedures is
questionable. They seemed to have used some form of 'hypodermic
needles'," he explained indignantly. "Our science abandoned that
particular brand of torture over----"
"Yes, Doctor. I understand. They used old fashioned methods," the
captain interrupted. "How is he? How are they?" Her eyes traveled
quickly around Sickbay seeking the other patient.
"Kes is helping Malista get cleaned up. Mr. Kim went to meet Mr.
Neelix in the messhall and get them something to eat." The doctor
answered the unspoken question first. "He seems to be fine. My
preliminary scans showed no permanent damage to either of them. Mr.
Paris is not unconscious. He fell asleep almost the moment we got him
on the bed. They do seem to be exhausted, but I haven't been able to
ascertain the cause. I have given each of them a dose of
tricetylmylanacol. That will speed up the process of metabolizing the
alcohol in their systems. There should be no side effects. They should
be coherent and able to answer questions within a few minutes."
Malista teetered unsteadily into view. She was wearing blue Sickbay
pajamas and leaning heavily on Kes' shoulder for balance. The Ocampan
settled her much taller charge on a biobed a few feet from Tom's.
Shadow winced as she eased up onto the bed and allowed herself to
stretch out. "Ow. I'm so sore," she mumbled, not really complaining
but analyzing her current health status.
Though he'd managed to ignore everyone else, Tom's eyes popped open at
the sound of her voice and zeroed in on her location. "Why are *you*
sore? I'm the one who got poked and prodded by inefficient alien
doctors." He sounded perfectly sober now.
She frowned vaguely in his direction as her right hand went up to
massage her left shoulder. "Zeus, Tom! I fell off a wall! I think it's
natural to have a few sore spots."
"You didn't tell me you fell! You said you jumped!" Paris accused.
Ignoring the doctor's attempts to keep him lying flat, he swung into a
sitting position and glared at Shadow. "If you'd told me you'd fallen,
I'd have been more careful, not let you exert yourself so much! Of all
the irresponsible---"
"Oh, for crying out loud! How did you *think* I really got off the
wall? There was a seismic disturbance, you nitwit!" she grumbled back
irritably, returning his glare with a pout of her own. She sat up and
swung her legs off the edge of the bed so she sat facing Paris.
Chakotay and Janeway exchanged amused glances. Something positive had
occurred on that planet. Malista was no longer automatically deferring
to Tom in order to avoid a confrontation. They were treating each
other as equals. 'Equal siblings, at that,' Janeway thought. Their
bickering reminded Kathryn forcefully of Phoebe and the way she and
her sister had carried on when they got wound up about some trifling
difference of opinion.
"What did I tell you? I told you not to---"
"I don't want to hear 'I told you so' from you. You don't know
everything. You didn't know about the quakes---"
Kathryn Janeway cleared her throat. It was sufficient. Both parties
subsided into a guilty silence for an instant. "Sorry, Captain," the
pair chorused and exchanged sheepish glances.
Ensign Kim arrived with a tray and set it on the biobed next to Paris.
Grabbing one of the purplish fruits they'd gathered during their tree
climbing activities on Foster, he took it to Malista Shadow, leaving
Tom to fend for himself. She scooted over, and mutely tugged on his
arm.
With a glance at Janeway for permission, which was granted by a nod,
Kim hopped up to sit next to Malista on the bed. He held onto the
fruit when she tried to take it from him, offering it to her as if
intent on feeding her himself. She smiled her thanks and took a bite,
her eyes never leaving his as he fed her.
Torres, seeing that Tom was now sober and in control of himself and
his libido, came around the biobed to stand next to him and make a
visual inspection of his injuries herself. Paris grinned at her
knowingly and snaked an arm around her waist. "I'm fine. Really." She
selected a piece of fruit from the tree and offered it to him. His
grin widened. "Now what does this remind me of?"
Unsure of what he was referring to, but distrusting the mischievous
glint in his blue eyes, Torres settled for a glare rather than a
verbal response. Using rather more force than was strictly necessary,
she shoved the fruit between his lips. He clenched it in strong teeth
and took a large bite, then captured the rest of it in his own hand.
Captain Janeway cleared her throat once more. Assured of being the
center of attention, she fixed Tom with a steely gray glance. "I would
like a report, Mr. Paris. We've heard from the other four away team
members about the events leading up to their return. We'd like to hear
what happened after that."
"Were you able to communicate with the aliens? Is that why they
returned you to the ship?" Chakotay added.
Paris looked at Shadow to see if she wanted to offer an explanation of
her own. Shadow returned his regard and with a hand gesture indicated
he should
answer.
Finishing up his snack, the lieutenant shook his head. "I wouldn't
exactly call it communicating. At least, not two way communication.
I'm glad to hear the other four made it back to Voyager. I wasn't sure
where they went when they disappeared. I started off to look for
Malista. When I found her, she was in a room......"
Fifteen minutes later, Janeway was shaking her head in bemusement.
"Dancing? As a form of communication? Well, Mr. Paris, I've always
said that you are an original."
"Of course, I did all the dancing," Shadow whispered to Harry,
throwing a teasing look at Tom.
"Of course," Harry replied. "Tom let you do all the hard work. He
tends to take advantage of you, you know."
"I resent that," Tom replied saucily. "I danced that last dance with
you."
"You almost dropped me!" she retorted indignantly. "Don't ever dance
with him, Harry. He's a klutz."
Tom shrugged. "I have no intention of dancing with Harry. Besides,
it's not my fault you're heavier than you look---"
"Are you calling me 'fat'?" Her voice rose in indignation.
Eyeing her tall, slender form and wondering how she could even ask
that question, Tom shook his head. "That's not what I said. I said---"
"Could we get back to the point?" Janeway said with mild exasperation.
"The point at which the larger aliens made their reappearance?"
"Sorry, Captain," they said simultaneously, then each scowled at the
other. This tandem speaking thing was getting to be annoying.
"So who were the larger aliens? Why were they larger?" Torres
interjected. "Some kind of evolutionary divergence?"
"The larger aliens were the grownups," Paris said smugly. He paused
for a moment, to let the others absorb that remarkable statement then
continued, "The small aliens were evidently their children. When
Malista fell off the wall, she landed in their day care center, for
lack of a better description." He smirked.
"They must have had us under observation the whole time," Malista
added. "I'm sure their security systems would have been designed to
protect their children. Maybe it was just another test. To see how
we'd react."
"And you reacted by teaching their children to dance?" Commander
Chakotay's dimples were fighting hard to make an appearance. He'd
taken the first contact training course at Starfleet Academy, but he'd
never heard of anything quite this bizarre. "Exactly what kind of
dancing were you doing, Malista?"
To the first officer's surprise, Shadow blushed a rosy red and tried
to hide her face on Harry's shoulder. Harry's eyes flew to Tom's.
Paris shrugged and waved a hand, indicating he would explain later.
Harry's eyebrows flew up. He would hold Tom to that.
"Commander," Janeway said warningly. "I don't think that's relevant."
Hastily changing the subject to save Malista further embarrassment,
Paris speculated, "I think when we couldn't understand their
language---if that's what the colors and lights actually were---they
tried to use some form of telepathy to communicate. But the adults
weren't able to get a clear signal through. When they saw us
interacting with the young ones, they must have seen that we managed
to communicate sufficiently to get them to meet our needs. They didn't
understand our language, but the kids picked up enough from us
telepathically to know we were thirsty and to respond to that. The
children seemed to be able to read us better. Maybe they were more on
our wavelength. It was the children, not the adults, who figured out
we were thirsty and provided us with, uh, refreshments."
"The *kids* got you drunk?" Torres raised her eyebrows suspiciously.
She knew Tom's sense of humor occasionally got the better of him, but
she didn't *think* he would joke around to this extent during an
official report.
"I would speculate that the differences in physiology would play a
part in the effect this so-called 'juice' had on Lieutenant Paris and
Crewman Shadow," Tuvok stated firmly. "It is quite possible that the
liquid refreshments were not intended to be intoxicating for the
aliens who created it."
"At the time, it didn't matter. We were thirsty enough to drink leola
root stew. We were that desperate. But the greatest thing about that
jungle juice is there's no hangover," Paris remarked brightly. "Too
bad we couldn't get trade negotiations going for some of that stuff.
Stronger and more flavor than synthale---"
"Mr. Paris," Kathryn sighed. "Get on with your report."
"Yes, ma'am," the pilot replied, an impudent grin teasing at his lips.
"Once the adults arrived, they seemed to be trying to use the children
as translators. We went back and forth for about thirty minutes, but I
never did get a definitive idea of what they were trying to say. Just
general impressions."
The EMH finished healing the damage to the pilot's back and handed him
a clean Sickbay pajama shirt. "Did you understand them better than I
did, Sis?" Tom asked as he pulled the shirt over his head.
"It was sort of like talking baby talk or using word pictures,"
Malista said thoughtfully. She flinched when everyone's eyes turned
towards her.
Harry bestowed an encouraging smile. "Go on. What did you think they
were saying?"
Keeping her eyes on Harry, she continued, "Tom and I haven't had a
chance to discuss it, but I think they were telling us we'd---Voyager,
I mean, had trespassed in their territory."
"The planets in this system we were harvesting?" Kim asked.
Malista nodded, then turned her eyes back to Tom, hoping he would take
over again. Her new found self-confidence was being stretched to its
limits right now.
Paris was smiling in her direction. He tugged the waist of the shirt
into place before returning his attention to the captain. "Yeah.
That's the impression I got. They weren't exactly happy about it, but
they didn't seem too upset."
"They just want us to go away," Shadow interjected impulsively. "That
came through pretty clearly."
Tom nodded his agreement with her assessment. "I think Sven hit it on
the head. We're so different from them that they weren't really sure
if we were non-sentient animals or sentient beings. That's why the
sampling, the testing, and the attempts to communicate."
"Then the satellites belong to them?" Chakotay mused. "They must have
been intended as warning beacons."
"As I theorized when we first became aware of them," Tuvok stated
blandly.
"Is that a Vulcan version of 'I told you so'?" Torres inquired of
Paris, a twinkle in her brown eyes belying her serious expression.
He nodded sagely, throwing a teasing look toward the Head of Security.
"I believe so. Is that what you mean, Tuvok?"
Kathryn Janeway sighed---loudly. When had she lost control of this
debriefing? Again. This had to be the strangest....."Let me get this
straight, Mr. Paris. The aliens have no hostile intent and no interest
in interacting with us further. They
just want us out of their
territory?"
"Yes, ma'am. As I said, we didn't communicate all that plainly, but I
believe that was the gist of it. Right, Sis?"
"Yes," Shadow replied.
"I'd like a written report from each of you on your perceptions. You
may recall more details after you've gotten some rest." Janeway
stepped closer to Malista, regarding her intently. "Crewman Shadow, we
still have the matter of the sexual harassment charges to deal with."
Malista visibly flinched back into Harry's welcome embrace. Taking a
deep breath, she straightened her shoulders, slid off the biobed and
came to attention in the prescribed Starfleet manner. "Yes, Captain?"
"I will not allow that kind of abuse to occur on a ship under my
command, Crewman. I am seriously disturbed that you failed to report
such behavior at once." Janeway's gray eyes studied the younger woman
sternly. "Do you have an explanation to offer?"
Her eyes flew to Harry, then to Tom as if hoping they would answer for
her. When no response was forthcoming, she took a deep breath and
said, "Cowardice, ma'am. That's the only---"
"You are NOT---"
"That's not fair---" Both Kim and Paris began to argue at the same
time.
"Gentlemen!" The whip crack of the captain's tone settled the issue.
"This is not an open debate. I'm sure Ms. Shadow appreciates your
supportiveness, but there are some things she must do for herself. And
Trials 04 Shadow's Trial Page 48