The BLTS Archive- The River by Blue Champage (rowan-shults@sbcglobal.net) --- This story is a sequel to my Voyager story "Heartwood". It is somewhat more complex, and a bit longer. It is not a sequel in the sense that the events of Heartwood continue, but in the sense that those events occurred less than a month previous to "The River", and there are some references, but the story's not based on them. But "The River" is a lot more fun if one reads "Heartwood" first. Paramount owns the characters and settings. I own the specifics of action, dialogue, and narrative. Have fun, everyone. :) --- "Captain Janeway!" Janeway blinked; not exactly awake, she slapped the switch next to her bed. "Janeway here. Go ahead." "This is Ensign Hausermann in Engineering," came a harried female voice. "There's been an accident. Lieutenant Torres is injured." Janeway sat bolt upright and threw the covers back. "Have you alerted sickbay?" "Kes is here, Captain, but she can't get to the Lieutenant." "Where's the Doctor?" Janeway was flinging her nightgown on the floor and yanking on the uniform she'd been wearing her last shift. "And if the Lieutenant's trapped--" "Kes says The Doctor is being reloaded after his regular self-diagnostic, and that she would come with the stretcher and have Lieutenant Torres in sickbay by the time he was back up. The Lieutenant isn't exactly trapped, but she won't--there she goes again. She's asking for you. Emphatically. Screaming 'Somebody get the Captain down here'." Janeway had been pulling her second boot on and nearly fell over on the rug. Hopping in place, she said "Kes is there, Torres is conscious and mobile, and she WON'T come out of wherever she is? Is she in a Jeffries tube, a crawlspace? How badly is she hurt?" "She's still standing up; the only other thing I can tell from here is that the blood around her boots is getting pretty deep." "I'm on my way." In the turbolift, she touched her comm badge and said "Janeway to Torres. Where are you?" She received the standard computer raspberry for "no link." She hadn't really expected otherwise; or Hausermann wouldn't have had to relay B'Elanna's request. When the lift halted, she left it at a sprint. The doors of Engineering swished aside; skidding to a stop, shoving her hair out of her eyes with one hand, Janeway glanced rapidly around. All but a few of those present were gathered against a bank of consoles over to the right of the core. "Let me through," she snapped, shouldering people aside, and everyone quickly gave way. B'Elanna was on her side, head and shoulders hidden under a console, very still. The border of the containment field around and behind the single console station could be detected by the snapping and sparkling of its lower few centimeters, where several liters of purplish-red blood churned against it, agitated by the repelling force. "Kes, is she breathing?" "Yes, Captain, she's not face-down in it." Ensign Hausermann, her face a pallor under braided red hair, said "Captain, it's that sensor modification she's been working on. The one to give us the ability to detect infinitesimal space folds, quantum filaments, and--" "--and other normally undetectable dangers, I'm familiar with the project, Hausermann. How was B'Elanna hurt, why is the field still up around this console and how long has she been unconscious? Since I was called?" "She was standing in front of the console, Captain," Hausermann elaborated, "and there was a flash--not like an explosion; more like a bright flicker, just once. I thought she must have shut her precautionary containment field off, but there wasn't any sound--I didn't even look her way until she yelled and almost doubled over. But she wouldn't lower the field--she said she was all right, that something unforeseen-- an emergent property of the configuration was manifesting, and she had to get it back under control first. Then her eyes closed for a minute while I was trying to tie off what I'd been dealing with and get down here. When she opened her eyes she had a really odd look on her face--not a flinch, not like she was in pain, but then she started cursing, and she asked for you. "We called sickbay, and Kes got down here with a pallet, but Lieutenant Torres still wouldn't lower the field. Then she started yelling at us to get the Captain down here NOW, sort of slid down the side of the console and pulled that panel off, then tried to get under the console. That was when she stopped moving." "God." Janeway stared. "How dangerous do you think this 'emergent property' from which she was protecting the area is? Something that could endanger the ship?" "Captain, I can't guarantee anything, but I doubt she was worried about the ship's safety by the time she fainted. I think she refused to lower it so that no one could make her stop what she was doing; she wanted you down here, and she wasn't going to give up until she got you here. She ordered us not to lower the field." Janeway stared at the immobile form of the Lieutenant for maybe half a second, then said "All right, I'm here. Let's get that field down and get her out of there." "I'm on it, Captain," one of the other engineers said, working back through the sparse nightshift crowd. "Was anyone watching when she yelled the first time? Does anyone know how badly she's hurt?" Everyone looked at each other, and Hausermann said "I don't think anyone saw her being injured, or if we did, we didn't realize it. Just the light, and then she shouted in Klingon." With a whiff of ozone and a buzz, the field flashed into ephemeral visibility and died; the blood gushed out in a miniature tsunami, soaking the carpet and nearly knocking everyone over with its odor. Kes braved the bloodsoaked rug in her long white nightgown, ignoring what her bare feet were squishing in. She beckoned to Henley where the Maquis woman had been hovering, and they pulled Torres free of the console as gently as possible. The Lieutenant was a gruesome sight, surely enough; uniform and all exposed skin running with blood, hair matted and dripping viscousness. It was impossible for anyone farther away than Kes or Henley to tell where her injuries were. "Deep lacerations through the abdominal and back muscles," Kes said as she scanned, "the last deep enough to reach the right rear brainfeeding artery. I know it looks horrible, Captain, but I think she'll be fine. By the time I get her to sickbay, the Doctor will be back up, his self-scan only take a few minutes. Don't be too concerned about the volume of blood--wounded Klingon bodies immediately step up blood production and redirect the flow through several redundant arteries into the brain." Henley and Kes were maneuvering the antigrav pallet to lift B'Elanna on. B'Elanna's eyelids fluttered. "Field....get...Captain..." "I'm here, B'Elanna," Janeway said quickly, leaning to lay her hand on the engineer's shoulder. "What is it?" "Field...up--get the field back up--" "Hausermann! Raise that force field again, quickly." "Aye, Captain." The cool metallic sound came, and the field flashed back to life. When B'Elanna heard it, she sighed and let her eyes close. "We're going to get you to sickbay now, B'Elanna," Kes said into the Klingon's ear. "You're going to be fine." People started clearing the way. Janeway walked next to the pallet as Kes started it moving toward the doors. "Lieutenant, what is it you wanted me for?" she asked softly. "What happened?" "It's..." B'Elanna's eyes unfocused, but not aimlessly; she seemed to be seeing something in her imagination. "...like a river...Captain, you have to see..." "B'Elanna, don't talk," Kes said softly, then "I'm sorry, Captain, but every time she inhales to speak, more blood is pressed out of her." "Understood. Just relax, B'Elanna; we'll talk in sickbay, when your wounds have been treated." B'Elanna met Janeway's look, and in her eyes was an expression of wonder and half-comprehension that the Captain would never have expected to see there. "Captain," she whispered. "...yes. Like a river..." "I'm sorry, Captain, but your presence seems to be counterproductive," Kes said in what was, for her, a firm tone of voice. "Right," Janeway agreed, backing away from the pallet. "I'll meet you in sickbay in...how long would you say?" "Make it an hour, Captain," Kes said. "We'll have her wounds closed and mostly healed by then." "One hour." Janeway used the time to go back to her quarters, note the hour--0120, for heaven's sake, didn't that half-Klingon automaton EVER sleep?--sigh, shower, have a cup of coffee and get into a clean uniform. All the while, Torres's words repeated in her mind. "...River...like a river... Captain...you have to see..." and the gritted-tooth insistence that she get the force field back up. She came into sickbay to see B'Elanna, wearing a sickbay smock, lying on a biobed, looking half awake, but still restlessly drumming her fingers on her stomach. Her hair was damp but clean, as was the rest of her, and there was a saline hypo-drip blinking softly on her arm, next to a med monitor. She started to sit up when she saw Janeway. From some alternate medical dimension, Kes emerged. She was still clad in the wraparound nightgown whose once-filmy hem now dragged the carpet, caked with purple-red blood that was fast drying to thick blue-brown deposits. They extended upward to mark where she'd knelt next to B'Elanna. She gently laid both hands on the lieutenant's shoulders. "Not yet, B'Elanna. If you start using those muscles to sit and move, you'll cause scarring, and then it'll take even longer to get you back to duty. So think of your torso muscles...as a billows to breathe with." "Sorry, Kes.... I'll be good. I just want to talk to the Captain." "That's fine, of course," Kes said softly. "But Captain--" she smiled at Janeway. "Don't say anything funny." Janeway smiled back. "I'll do my best." She approached Torres, took her hand, and with a demeanor totally at odds with that action, snapped "All right, what was so important that you nearly let yourself bleed to death and cost the ship her best engineer?" Torres grimaced. "I'm sorry, Captain. That first...cut wasn't bad enough to worry about. I didn't pass out until I got hit again, under the console." "Yes, Kes mentioned a couple of deep lacerations and a damaged artery. What were you hit BY? Rhea Hausermann described a flash of light just before you shouted. Do you know what it was?" "Captain..." Torres's eyes went distant again, and she said "I don't know what the light was--I don't remember seeing it. As for what I do remember...I tried to tell you...that you had to see it, I remember that that's why I wanted you down there. Something we're doing with the sensors is...making it possible to perceive...whatever it was that I perceived." "You said it was like a river." "A river, yes, but...a figurative river." "In what way?" Torres continued to frown at nothing, and Janeway tried "Like...a sequence? One event flowing into another." B'Elanna sighed. "No, but that's closer." "A mathematical progression?" B'Elanna shook her head dazedly. "Like that, but also..." The Captain considered, then said "Kes?" Kes appeared at Janeway's elbow. "Yes, Captain?" "The nature of the lieutenant's wounds...tell me--" she laid B'Elanna's hand down on the bed and began pacing around the room. "By what did they appear to be inflicted?" "It was odd, Captain. No blade, no matter how microscopically sharp--not even a phaser scalpel--could have made those wounds. It's even stretching a point to call them that. The tissues were cleanly separated on the cellular level, as though the cellular bonds themselves simply released..." Kes paused. "It was as if her body just decided to open at those places." "It sure as hell didn't check with me," B'Elanna muttered, eyes closed. Kes continued "We had to actually damage the cell walls ourselves in order to affect healing. Her fat layers, muscles, skin--it was all open, and all her blood vessels in the stricken areas. But we had to create minor cellular injury to alert her body and begin the accelerated healing regeneration. Her tissue-healing mechanisms didn't know there was a problem." "My mechanisms, maybe," B'Elanna growled. Janeway said "Kes, I was wondering if we could get your help with something. It involves your Ocampan mental abilities. I'm thinking of the time when Tanis, from Susperia's array, was teaching you to see and manipulate forces at the subatomic level." Kes looked taken aback, but said "I'll try, of course, Captain. What do you want me to do?" "Right now, just have a chat with Lieutenant Torres; it's possible you can help her describe what she experienced in proximity to that sensor node. I'll be back in a few moments; I'm going to go down and see about the situation in engineering." "Of course, Captain." --- "This is SO disgusting," one of the crewhands was muttering as the blood was extracted from the rug via a solid-liquid cleaner; the mess was too much for the automatic ship's systems to handle alone. The crewhand in question was lugging the machine's detachable chamber off to dump out in the recycling chute. "I'm gonna be off my rations for days." "It's only a...well, all right, more than a little blood," Janeway half-conceded as she squatted, holding her breath, to try to peer through the low opening into the interior of the console. "What I mean," the woman said, coming back for another containerful, "is that Lieutenant Torres's blood is going to be an integrated part of the molecular structure of everything we replicate for maybe a week." "Keep that under your hat, Keyes," the Captain said, "or we'll wind up with a run on the kitchen stores that would drain even the leola root supply. Looks like you've cleaned all that's outside the field." "Yes, Captain, and all I can say is I hope the Lieutenant lowers that field during somebody else's shift." "Where--ah, Hausermann, there you are. What have you found?" Hausermann came over to kneel next to the captain, having first checked the carpet for dampness. "Not a lot, I'm afraid. She's locked the instruments down, so all the diagnostics are getting is a static active reading. And with the field up, I can't get a good enough angle to even see anything important in the console. My next best idea is to recalibrate an engineering tricorder and scan through the field." "Any clue as to what effect that might have on whatever she's protecting with the field and the lockdown?" "No, Captain. I was planning to go ahead and recalibrate the tricorder, then see if I could get her permission for the scan. This is one of the Lieutenant's solo projects, and her work...a lot of the time, it doesn't make much sense to me, even looks crazy. But I've found that often she's just gone farther ahead in the scenario than anyone else. Skips steps, you know what I mean." Hausermann sighed. "But there could be blood seeping and crusting and doing God-only-knows in the components in there, and I can't overlook the fact that we don't have unlimited spare parts. Did you know that Klingon blood is mildly corrosive to the material the gelpack membranes are made of?" Janeway stared. "Really." "No one knew it until the Lieutenant cut her hand working with the biocircuits, and when we got the malfunction alert and looked back in a few hours later, the pack was damaged. We did a scan, and found traces of her blood on it. Something about the pH, combined with some blood element I can't remember the name of, I'm not a medic. Since then, she usually wears gloves when she works with the packs themselves." "Well." Janeway stood; so did Hausermann. "I'm going back to sickbay to see if I can get some clearer information from her. I'll relay your request, but if she feels the potential danger to the ship is greater if she lowers the field..." "I understand, Captain. Meanwhile, I'll start on the tricorder." "Good. Keep me posted, ensign; I'll do the same for you." When Janeway reentered sickbay, B'Elanna was sitting up and Kes was doing her best to bring an end to that situation. "B'Elanna, please don't make me activate the Doctor. You know how irritated he'll be." "This just isn't working, Kes. It doesn't sound like you and I are talking about the same thing at all, and I can't be any plainer than I've been." "No luck, you two?" Janeway came up to the bed. "Lie down, B'Elanna." "I'm afraid not, Captain," Kes sighed, and B'Elanna glowered, but laid back, slowly, shifting her weight to her elbows and then relaxing to the mattress. Kes had moved to assist her, but the half-Klingon pretended not to see. "Captain, this is pointless," B'Elanna said. "Kes hasn't ever had much luck receiving anything from my brain, and so far we haven't hit on any common ground talking about it. There's only one way to explain it, and that's to perceive it." "I'm not excited about lowering that containment field until we know why your body suddenly decided to unzip in two different locations. The next such event might dismember the individual in question. Even if there were no worse injury than yours, B'Elanna, a human couldn't have survived the sudden blood loss that you did. We'd simply drain, and that would be the end of any perceptions we might have had." B'Elanna sighed and laid a hand over her eyes. "I know, Captain." Janeway sat down on a stool near the head of B'Elanna's bed, and continued. "Try to describe it in more detail. Was it like a dream, a vision, did you perceive with your eyes, ears, center of balance, what?" "I think," B'Elanna said slowly, "that it might be...something similar to--you remember reading about the Traveler, the alien who took the Galaxy-class starship Enterprise into a spacetime that..." "That didn't differentiate between thought and thing, future and past, one place or another. Yes, we were all thoroughly briefed on that incident. You think you experienced something similar?" "Similar, yes; identical, no. The sensors I'm modifying to identify normally undetectable hazards in our path--it's something about the translation matrix. We have to get raw data that's spatially meaningless to our brains into a form of information we can recognize, quantify and react to. The main coordination node where that occurs is made almost entirely of biocircuitry--conspicuous consumption, but invaluable if the project works." "Yes, I agree. Go on." "I was in physical contact with the circuitry--I had one of the top panels open-- I hope nobody's gone in past the field and closed it?" "Of course not. Hausermann wants to modify a tricorder and do a scan, but no one has disturbed what you left." "I'm sorry, but you'll have to tell Rhea to sink the scan. I don't know what changes a through-field scan would precipitate in the main node." "Kes, would you mind calling Engineering for me?" "Not at all." Kes got up and went into the Doctor's office. Kathryn turned back to B'Elanna. "So you had the panel open, and you were in physical contact with the circuitry--what part? The main sensor node, or the translation matrix?" "The matrix." "And what specifically were you doing when you had this...experience?" "I became part of the circuit. I was adjusting one of the output leads--not a critical component, it's intended to help create images on a screen--and I was having trouble turning and setting the bottom half of the translation matrix unit into its cradle." "The bottom half?" "I was actually holding the top half. But I broke one of the first rules of engineering--never force anything. I dropped the clamp I was holding it by and grabbed the open matrix unit in my right hand." "What came next? That old standby, the Swift Kick?" "No, what came next was me thinking that maybe I should have dropped the output lead first. I came into contact with the input leads, holding the open matrix assembly, and the output lead with my other hand--no question of any kind of a shock, of course; I'd've been one dead engineer years ago if I let that sort of thing happen." "Agreed. So, you realized you had just integrated yourself into the circuit. What then?" "Then...Captain--I can't describe it." "A pleasant experience, unpleasant, gave you vertigo, made you nauseous, revealed the secret of life itself? Give me something, B'Elanna." "The only unpleasant part was my side splitting open. I admit I could've done without that. I screamed and dropped the lead and let the matrix land in the cradle, but there was...I was...your 'secrets of the universe' quip's actually not that far off, but it wasn't that encompassing. I became aware of...there were patterns--no, I can't describe them. I should have said 'aware of the existence of patterns'." "I was informed that you were on your feet for some minutes, at least, and you were saying something about an emergent property that you were trying to bring under control." "That's what I was doing, all right. And I started telling everybody in earshot to get the Captain." "You went under the console. Why?" "Because I wasn't having any luck above the console. The modified sensors that lead to the translation matrix are accessible from underneath. I was gonna try to shut the whole damn mess down at a different point, closer to the input source; I don't remember touching anything crucial or exposed, but obviously...well, I WAS covered with blood by then, including my hands. It could've been getting into things, and I thought of that, but I also didn't dare stop without reestablishing some kind of stability, although you usually want to avoid blood in your sensor leads. That may have contributed." "Possibly. And then..." "I was swamped by the perceptions again; I felt another of those...huge, empty pains hit me, even deeper, lower down. The last thing I remember was trying to think of a way to get the system shut down without letting anyone else near that carnivorous damn console." "You must have been very persuasive along that line before you fainted. No one on the deck would shut off the containment field until I arrived and ordered it." "Good. That was the idea." Janeway considered a minute, then said "B'Elanna, Hausermann is worried that your blood might be making a serious mess of the underside of that console. She'd like to get in there and see what's going on. You're sure that's out of the question?" "You want Rhea in here getting rezipped?" "No, but I told her I would see where you stood on the subject. The lockdown is keeping her from ascertaining the state of things under there with the diagnostics, and she has a point, B'Elanna. We're not going to be replenishing those parts any time soon. I won't send anyone behind that field until we have a way to make it safe--but we need to find a way to make it safe. Can I tell her she can cut the power to that console?" "She can cut the power to it, but the modified sensor assembly is on another power line--" Janeway sighed and lowered her head. "The main sensor line. Of course it would be. So cutting the power to the area in question would entail..." "We'd lose external sensors, definitely. Internal sensors, we'll lose any that aren't powered locally." "Wonderful. Does that leave us at a standstill?" "No. I don't intend to be in here much longer, Captain. I'll get to work on it. And if you don't mind...I know this request is out of the ordinary..." "Those holes the Doctor and Kes just rezipped were inflicted in the line of duty; I'll forgive an odd request or two, though I may not be able to grant them." "I'm going to need help on this project, someone with a background in general science, but thoroughly familiar with astrophysics. Obviously, there are factors I can't predict affecting my prototype. And I'd like that astrophysicist to be you." She hurried on, though the Captain hadn't drawn breath to interrupt her. "You're who I need--the experience and the specialties are all there. And like...somebody mentioned recently on Heartwood, we've always been a good team, shore each other up and like that." Janeway gazed at her a moment, then said "For how long?" "I don't know. I need to go back to the theoretical stage. I hope not more than a week or so. Plus, if we can find a way to make it safer, I want you to experience what I experienced. Without the gaping wounds, of course." "Well, THAT''s an argument in your favor. Why do you want me, in particular, to experience it?" "It...I don't want to raise any false hopes, Captain. But I need more experience with it, and with someone who understands chaos theory, the Heisenburg problem--hell, I don't know. Something tells me that the key, or keys, to this, are more esoteric than I'm equipped to handle. I need someone at the pure science end. There seems to be a level of perception involved, of existence, both simpler and...more *real* than our own. I wasn't physically IN it. But I was aware of it." Janeway leaned forward and took B'Elanna's hand again, staring into her eyes. "Are you saying this might be an avenue home?" "Might. A very, very conditional might, and then only in the long run. But we're looking for aberrant space, something we can get the ship through to wind up at least closer to home. I have no idea if this would lead to that, Captain, but it's the most damned aberrant space--or time, or pattern of ideas--that I'VE ever run through in my undershorts." "Yes, you did do that, certainly," Janeway mused. Then she said "In light of the possibilities...all right. We'll give it a provisional try. I'll speak with Chakotay and Tuvok; they'll need to split my routine duties between themselves for a bit." "What do you mean by provisional, Captain?" "For one thing, I can't let what happened to you occur again. If we can find some way to work with the components and systems safely--" "A hell of a lot of people got snuffed in the plasma stream back when they started working on building the first large warp drives, Captain. I wouldn't let anything happen to you, but it's new technology, and my getting hurt is--" "They had access to replacement personnel." "Mm. Yeah." "The first thing is to disassemble that console and its contents--" "We don't know what that would do to it--!" "But we do know what it did to you. I like you just the way you are, Lieutenant. Listen; if you brought the elements together once, then they can be brought together again, and this time we'll know at least one of the things we should avoid. Agreed?" B'Elanna's lips twitched. "Do I have a choice?" "Not short of mutiny." "Agreed, then." "We take it apart, one piece at a time. I suppose the field had better stay up until we're ready for that. In the meantime, I suggest you try to get some rest. In the morning, we'll--" "I'm not tired, Captain; if you don't mind, I'd like to brief you on the basic design specs--" "B'Elanna, your enthusiasm has been the salvation of us all on countless occasions, but there comes a time when you need to forget diagrams and specs and go to sleep. Why ARE you so chipper, anyway? You lost enough blood for three humans to be in coma." "We have B'Elanna's blood on file," came Kes's voice from behind them; as she approached, she continued "We were prepared for a massive plasma transfusion, but she only needed about two liters--in the absence of real tissue damage, the blood loss apparently isn't that serious. She does need rest and fluid, though the drip's taking care of the latter. She's also had two supplement injections to increase the production rate of the living elements in her blood." "So she's high on vitamin B-12." "Something like that," Kes nodded. Janeway sighed. "All right, Lieutenant. Have it your way--but we can't use the Doctor's office, we'd have to reset all his automatic routing..." "Easy enough to set it back," B'Elanna shrugged, earning a sharp look from Kes, and the engineer contritely let her shoulders relax again. Janeway shook her head. "As sure as we set up shop in there, someone will fall off a catwalk. We'd better not tie up his equipment. Kes, can B'Elanna be moved on an antigrav pallet?" "Yes, if she promises to stay either on it or in bed. But I don't recommend taking her from sickbay. She should be monitored--" "I'm WEARING a monitor!" "--if you take my point, Captain. Because if she...are you taking her to her quarters? "Ah...yes, I suppose so. She'll need privacy for a bit." "Privacy? I don't give the quintessential--" "If she should start hemorrhaging--" "What? She could hemorrhage? How did that bit of information slip past me?" "I'm not gonna hemorrhage! I want to show the Captain--" "Kes, you were obviously awakened from a sound sleep to come help B'Elanna," Janeway mused. "Why don't you pack whatever equipment you'd need in such an eventuality, come with us, and nap while B'Elanna brings me up to speed on the project?" "Kes can go to bed. I don't need--" "That's an acceptable compromise," Kes nodded, and left the area to put together whatever she thought B'Elanna might need. "Hey. I'm over here," B'Elanna growled. "Does my opinion count for anything here?" "Your opinion, last I saw it, had left you lacerated and semiconscious in a vat of your own blood. If I were you, I'd have a few choice words with it before I let it run loose again." B'Elanna growled again, but said only "If we're going to be a threesome, we should use your quarters so Kes can sleep as far from our noise as possible." "Good point." It was so arranged. Four hours later, Kes was draped in one of Janeway's nightgowns, legs and feet washed, somnolent on the bed; Janeway was starting to play "find the quickest way out" maze games in the diagram lines; and B'Elanna, floating in the antigrav pallet high enough to see the computer screens, was actually starting to wind down. "But I guess that'll be enough for tonight," B'Elanna sighed, and Janeway responded with a mechanical "Mm-hm." "Captain." "Mm-hm." "Your bra's on fire." "Mm-hm." A pause. "What?" Janeway's chin came up off her fist and she looked dazedly toward B'Elanna. "I said we're through for now. And you're not following me at all, are you?" The Captain chuckled and wiped a hand across her forehead. "I was, until about twenty minutes ago, B'Elanna, I swear to you. Ah...should I wake Kes?" "Well, she doesn't take up much room. You could just join her, then when she wakes up she can take me back to sickbay and give me the once-over with the Doctor, and officially release me back to duty." "Which reminds me, I'd better leave a message for the Doctor telling him where you both are, and that Kes will be in late. Is that pallet..." Janeway yawned hugely. "...comfortable enough to sleep on?" "No worse than a biobed. And It has some handy functions that keep me from having to get up to use the can." "Ah. A point. I'm going to get two hours sleep, then meet with Chakotay and Tuvok. I'd better leave a message with the conn officer." "Late for duty? You? I can die now." "You'd better not. Is there anything you need? Are you thirsty?" "Hand me that PADD. I may jot a few things down." "Better you than me. I'll see you in the...sometime later today." "Sweet dreams. Try not to roll over on Kes, she'd suffocate." "And who are you, Paul Bunyan?" "Who's Paul--" "Never mind." There was a soft chiming in the dimmed room. Janeway opened her eyes, started to sit up, and felt the warmth and mattress distortion of a body next to her. Her eyes flew open and she sat up, then slumped in an excess of adrenaline dispersal. Good; the soft alarm didn't seem to have wakened the Ocampan. Janeway started to slide out of bed. "Cap'hm?" A rumpled shock of pale hair and a pair of enormous eyes emerged from the tumble of covers and nightclothes on the other side of the bed. "Go back to sleep, Kes. It's just my meeting with Chakotay and Tuvok. B'Elanna's still asleep, and her monitor hasn't let out a peep." Kes said something indistinct and burrowed back under the covers. --- As Janeway entered engineering at about oh-nine-thirty with all the enthusiasm and bounce of a salted slug, she immediately noticed that Kes was standing next to B'Elanna by the still-erect force field and hurried over. "Kes, is B'Elanna all right?" "B'Elanna's fine," B'Elanna said pointedly, shifting the helmet of her envirosuit to hold under the other arm. "Kes just heard us talking last night and asked me to explain some things this morning in sickbay. She got interested, and the Doctor let her off duty for a while so she could observe." This being entirely in keeping with Kes's nature--Kes was interested in everything; among other things, she could now pilot a shuttlepod better than Janeway herself--the Captain believed it and nodded, relaxing. "Well, there may not be much to see, but you're welcome, of course, Kes. Is everything ready?" B'Elanna sighed. "Yes, I think so. I still don't like this. What if we CAN'T reproduce the circumstances of the first--" "I share your concern, but my decision stands. We haven't got a choice; anyone but you, or a bare handful of other crew, at that console--" "It was my project, there couldn't have been anybody e--" "--and I'd be in my ready room making funeral arrangements." "I know, I know...all right." The Lieutenant closed her tricorder. "I guess we're ready. Anyone who wants a filter mask, this is your last chance," she called up through the various levels of engineering. "The air circulation system may have a some trouble with this one." A number of people were already wearing masks. Janeway and Kes retreated across the deck as B'Elanna said "All right, Nicoletti, drop the field," and moved several steps back from the half-jumbled apparatus just visible to those at the correct angle through the open console panels. Nicoletti did. The stench that washed over the room made Kes start coughing immediately, and a few people, hands to faces, ran for the door. "Well," Janeway gagged, "I'm willing to bet none of those were Maquis. Thank you, Kes." Kes was handing her a breather, hastily fetched from the wall bins where they were kept. B'Elanna, meanwhile, was extracting the main components of the sensor coordination node and translator matrix; the leads could be removed later. Envirosuit or no, she was careful to touch only one component at a time, with the appropriate calipers. She deposited each into a separate containment box; she'd argued for regular storage cases--"Separately, they're just pieces of equipment, Captain, I handled them extensively before trying to put them together--" but Janeway had been adamant. The boxes closed automatically, locked, and small green lights came on around the lids. "Nicely anticlimactic, B'Elanna," Janeway said with satisfaction, fogging up her breather. "Have them taken to the holodeck and set up the programs we'll need. Nicoletti, I'm afraid you and Alpha shift have the unenviable jobs of finding out how many corners the Lieutenant's blood seeped into when we lowered the field to release her, and correcting any damage; and seeing about getting the area cleaned up. If you're not reading any problematical malfunctions that you can trace to the console's area, by all means get the floor cleaned first." "With pleasure, Captain." "B'Elanna, I'll meet you at thirteen hundred in the holodeck. Will that be enough time to set up the programs we'll need?" "Oh, sure, Captain. A lot of it's already on file, I just need to integrate the files correctly. If I need you, where should I call?" "My quarters. I've had so much coffee I'm seeing double. I'm going to take a nap." --- "Computer, open, authorization Janeway pi--" The doors opened. The Captain's brow creased. "Lieutenant?" "Come in and let the doors shut. I told the computer to open for the next request when you called and said you were on your way." "Oh." As the doors closed behind her, the Captain entered a completely realistic simulation of the main engineering deck. When she saw where B'Elanna was, reflex kicked in and she skidded an inch or two across the rug when she came down on her knees next to the engineer, seizing her upper shoulder and getting a hand under her ribs to lift with. "B'Elanna!" "Wh--" B'Elanna dropped something under the console with a clank and scooted out from under as fast as she could, considering the minor impediment of Janeway's grip. She rolled to face the Captain, winding up half in her lap, grabbing her shoulders in concern. "Captain! What's the matter?!" Janeway froze a second, then sighed and went lax, releasing B'Elanna and rubbing her own forehead, sliding over sideways to sit on the floor. "The matter is my nerves, I suppose. You did NOT make a pretty picture lying in a literal bloodbath, and when I saw you on that side, under that console..." B'Elanna, still uncertain, reluctantly released Janeway's shoulders. "...oh. I'm...sorry, Captain, I didn't mean to..." "The word you want is 'frighten'," Janeway said with a half-smile. "I know you didn't mean to frighten me. I'm all right. What ARE you doing under there?" "Setting up the components for testing with holographic analogues. One at a time, yes, I know, Captain." "Call me Kathryn for the duration," Janeway said absentmindedly, starting to roll over and slide under the console herself. "Which component are you currently checking?" "Remember the picowatt rings I showed you in the schematics?" "Yes, where...ah. The rings are the only real component under here?" "Yes, Kathryn, " B'Elanna sighed, rolling her eyes. "Is the configuration making sense to you?" "Yes, I think I've got the basic idea," the Captain said, inching back out from under the console. "Now that I have something practical to work on, I'll make use of all the time I've spent the last decade or so keeping up on my astrophysics. I'm going to access the files and put together a computer model of the theory, see if we can find any snags..." she started to say something else, then shook her head, got up and went to the library access station. "I know what you were going to say." "And what was I going to say?" Kathryn began calling up the relevant files, intending to work backward from them to make a computer model of the astrophysical functioning of B'Elanna's sensor modification. She'd probably need input from B'Elanna where there were gaps in the data. "That I should involve other people in my projects and I shouldn't skip steps like computer models." "Why was I going to say that?" "Because..." B'Elanna trailed off, and laughed, slapping the floor a couple of times. "Nearly walked into that. But if you wanna lecture me, you'll have to do it yourself. You won't finagle any involuntarily argumentative confessions." She plunked over onto her back and wormed back under the console, grinning. Janeway smiled. "Far be it from me, B'Elanna." A few hours later, B'Elanna was standing behind Kathryn's chair as they watched the computer run through a rough-hewn version of what would eventually be the finished simulation. Janeway explained her reasoning where she had written something not in keeping with B'Elanna's data; there was usually some point of obscure scientific lore involved. B'Elanna said "Some minor modifications, but you ended up in about the same place I did. We didn't deviate on any important particulars. Here..." She reached for the controls, and Janeway relinquished the chair. "Let me see your program." She altered the display and keyed it up. "Mother of Fek'lar," she muttered. "How did you write this so fast?" "I skipped steps." B'Elanna smirked, but said only "I really don't think there's anything left to explain to you, Kathryn. You've got it. Better than I do, maybe; let me make my own copy of this and do some modifications..." They spent an hour or so tweaking the program until they agreed they had a definite scenario to try for. Janeway stretched and got up from the neighboring chair she'd taken to walk around a few minutes. "How goes it in the trenches?" "Just like it did before. I keep telling you, separately they're nothing but a pile of parts. I understand your caution--at least, I think I do--but the containment boxes were a bit much, Kathryn. Those pieces aren't going to lunge out and bite anybody." "Not out of a containment box, no, you're right." "I could've carried them in my bare hands for all the danger they represent. Why are you being so...I don't know, rigid on this point?" "B'Elanna, why do you think?" Kathryn sighed, turning to lean against the rail around the warp core, smiling at her with a look of surrender. B'Elanna just sat there a minute, then said. "Oh. The, uh...blood thing." "I'm still waiting for my heart to stop fibrillating." "...you can use my redundant one until yours calms down," B'Elanna offered without looking directly at Kathryn. Heartwood, with its what-me-worry atmosphere and the comedy of errors that occurred down there, was one thing. This was aboard the ship. This was, in fact, Engineering, or at least a facsimile close enough for symbolism. Was she making a big mistake? Apparently not; Kathryn only laughed. "Thank you. I've been missing it; I'd almost learned to program a decent stack of pancakes." "Speaking of pancakes..." "Yes, I'm feeling peckish myself. Shall we see what culinary delight Neelix has prepared for the crew this evening?" B'Elanna grimaced. "I don't think I'm strong enough for that yet. I have some extra rations to blow; let's eat in my quarters." "Sounds good." "Let me box up the components..." While the Lieutenant did so, Janeway stored their reorganized data and the finished simulation. --- "What sounds good?" B'Elanna said, knocking a couple of things off the dining table and pulling out a chair for Kathryn. "Something that won't put a strain on your ration situation." "My ration situation is excellent. The Torres Pool lives on." "Still?!" Kathryn turned in the chair to look at B'Elanna where the younger woman was scrolling through a menu at the replicator. "I thought you said that so many people knew about it by now it'd HAVE to go the way of all things." "It's gone underground, much clubbier and more exclusive. Far fewer people are involved now, but the stakes are higher. What they don't know is that I have an informant, who lets me know when I stand to make the greatest kickback--at which point I peel back my lips and give a mighty roar sometime during Alpha shift." "I still think it's in poor taste." "I got three days' worth of extra rations this week." "Oh. Well, the hell with taste." They both cackled. "Do you scream AT anyone?" "Not usually, unless people are really ramming themselves up my nose or misbehaving to the point of deserving it. No, I just make sure my teeth are visibly bared where someone involved in the pool can see." Janeway sighed. "At least you get something out of it." "Only fair. Some of us are a little wacked down in Engineering, but we do have a strong sense of family. A harried and intense family, maybe." "How'd you manage to find an informant? Someone looking for a favor from the Chief Engineer?" "She's a plant from Tuvok." Kathryn chuckled. "I suppose if Tuvok knows all, I don't need to. Really, B'Elanna, whatever your preference. I'm not in a comestible-specific mood." They wound up eating a platter of chicken l'orange on a bed of wild rice and drinking a bottle of, as B'Elanna put it, "Chateau du Klingonblood '84, a very good year." (It was a red wine intended for meat dishes, but B'Elanna found white wine fairly tasteless.) "That did occur to you, then," Janeway said around a mouthful, scraping rice grains back up her chin with her fork before they could fall in her lap. "Of course. Once again, it seems only fair. It WAS my blood, and now in sort of a twisted way I get to put some of it back in." "It's a good thing I'm so hungry. Keyes said she was going to be off her rations for days." "You humans are so squeamish." B'Elanna paused in her steady forking-in and chewed thoughtfully, swallowed and asked "Cap--Kathryn, are you sure you want to be working with me on this? Everyone knows how you feel about your duty to the ship, and I COULD get somebody else from the science section. I was still pretty bleary when I asked if you would work with me; I probably wouldn't have had the gall otherwise." Kathryn patted her mouth with her napkin, considering. "Would you *rather* I assigned someone else?" She asked the question dispassionately, a simple request for information, and B'Elanna took it as such. "No, I meant what I said when I said you're who I need. I just wanted to be sure you were comfortable, off bridge duty for...days, a week. I want to know that you think it's the right thing to do, rather than being...worry, since you saw me and the blood and all. You CAN trust me not to react the same way again. If anything else should happen." "Of course. I know that. Actually," Janeway said, dumping a serving spoon full of rice on her plate, then scooping up more tangy orange sauce to pour over it, "I do feel a bit...not guilty, but overindulged. This supper notwithstanding. Heartwood was only about a month ago, and here I am again, getting to play science officer to the best engineer in four quadrants." B'Elanna looked at her plate, a smile tugging the corners of her full mouth, uncertain how to respond; but it turned out she didn't have to. Janeway was continuing. "If I were to abandon my post to Chakotay for any great length of time--of course I'd never do that--I'd feel guilty as hell. As it is, I only feel a bit wicked." She took a bite, chewed and swallowed it, and smiled. "If this might lead to a route home, then I have no business doing anything else. And perhaps I should mention that Tuvok and Chakotay were both pleased with my decision. Chakotay actually told me how much easier I've been to get along with since our Heartwood experience." B'Elanna grinned. "He's never been one to mince words." "And Tuvok expressed his...I suppose 'gratification' is the word they usually use in such circumstances--that I would be stretching my science legs again. He has genuine respect for me as a scientist, and as you can imagine, I have always been flattered and appreciative. Not that I tell him, of course; no need to make him uncomfortable." "I bet he knows." "I'm sure he does. He just wouldn't want it discussed." "By the way...does anyone know why you named the planet 'Heartwood'?" Janeway made an elaborate gesture of horror. "Not unless you've told someone. Oh, those jokes." "I know. They weren't any of my wittier moments either." They both sat there for a minute, looking at each other and thinking about the unbelievable puns. B'Elanna lost her straight face first this time, and then they both laughed as much as they were able with their stomachs so full. "Oh, heavens, B'Elanna." Kathryn brushed her bangs back from her forehead, then reached back and removed her hair clip. "How long did it take you to get all the gold out of your hair?" "Three washings. And I'm not sure there isn't still some in there. How about you?" "I replicated a shampoo comparable to industrial solvent." "Really? Your hair looks beauti--I mean, it doesn't seem to have...harmed your hair's appearance." "Thank you," Janeway said, sporting the Wry Look. "I'll cherish that sentiment." B'Elanna looked bug-eyed and strange, then Janeway, saving her, started to laugh again, and B'Elanna was able to smile too. "It does. Look beautiful, I mean." "So does yours. And so do you. If I weren't so full..." Janeway looked at the floor, then up again, her voice softening. "I think I'd be asking if you wanted me to stay." "I want you to stay anyway," B'Elanna said in a rush, and Kathryn smiled, got up and came around the table, taking B'Elanna's hands. She said "I don't want you to think that because we're...on specific assignment, out of the loop of ship's business as on Heartwood, that I...expect anything from you. I would enjoy it, so long as you enjoyed it, too. But my pleasure in this work will remain, regardless." "Voyager to Kathryn." B'Elanna stood, bumping the chair out from behind her with the backs of her knees, holding the Captain's hands. "I don't expect it. I just want it. I hoped for it." They looked at each other a moment, then kissed. Once again, as on Heartwood, there was no fanfare. It was simply the obvious thing to do. Kathryn whispered "I'd like to stay here with you, but I won't be doing much beyond sleeping." "Neither will I, I suppose," B'Elanna said, withdrawing one arm from around the Captain's back to lay her hand over her stomach. "I'm packed to the gills, and I don't think I should've eaten so much when I'm so newly put back together." "Pain?" Janeway said at once, frowning and running her hands, lightly probing, around B'Elanna's midsection. "No, no pain. But I feel stressed along the seams. Maybe I should lie down, and you should come along to make sure I'm all right." Janeway grinned. "I'll be happy to. It IS still a bit early, but I've been up, on and off, for a couple of days, and you're still recovering from...what you're recovering from. Perhaps we should just go to bed now." Janeway called the bridge, saying she'd be in Lieutenant Torres's quarters for the night, and call if there were any nonroutine disturbance. The only reply was a disinterested "Yes, Captain, so noted for the watch officer. Have a good night." So much for wild rumors. Everybody knew she and B'Elanna were working on a special project together; they'd have no reason to suppose anything beyond an entirely in-character late night of work. Kathryn helped B'Elanna clean up supper, and discovered that B'Elanna kept a spare sonic toothbrush. "Overnight company a regular occurrence?" she teased, smiling. "Well, you never know when you might get lucky," B'Elanna replied in the same spirit. "Do you want some pajamas?" "No, thank you, as warm as it is in here." "Sorry, I forgot. Should I turn the temperature down?" "No. I'll just kick the covers off if I get too warm." "I'll try to keep a solid grip on my half, then." They began getting out of their uniforms as B'Elanna ordered the lights to a quarter. Janeway stripped down completely, so B'Elanna did, too, cursing her own gluttony of a few minutes ago--not that it had any effect on her appearance, just on her ability to do anything about what the sight of Kathryn was doing to her hormone balance. The Captain was not a vain woman; she seemed to give little thought to her appearance beyond the proper level of grooming and neatness expected of a starship officer. But she had every damn right to be a complete peacock, in B'Elanna's opinion, and the Lieutenant knew she wasn't alone in that thought. But, just as there were things Tuvok didn't like discussed, so the Captain would not have been impressed by paeans to her beauty. Swinging her legs up onto the bed, under the covers, Janeway said "Do you always sleep with the lights at a quarter?" "No, but I don't ordinarily go to bed with anyone quite so..." B'Elanna paused, knowing that what she'd been going to say sounded suspiciously like a paean. She started getting in on the other side of the bed. "Frightening?" Kathryn asked, eyebrows on the rise, up on her elbow, leaning her head on her hand. Ah, hell with it. Paean time. "Beautiful," B'Elanna said, lying on her back. "I want the lights so I can see you." She touched Kathryn's face delicately. Kathryn kissed B'Elanna's fingertips. "You are the sweetest woman. It would be a shame if you never realized that." There was a silence. B'Elanna said, in a faint voice, "I think you're the only person who's ever made that particular observation." "Then I suppose not very many people get to see that side of you." "Not usually, no. It...there's never been much call for it." "Or much respect for it, I'm willing to bet, knowing how you were raised." "That either. I'm better served by...the rest of me." "I think you're perceptive enough to choose the appropriate times to let the inside out, B'Elanna." "If you mean like now, then yes. When I'm with you like this...I don't have to be..." "...the hull-punching, curse-screaming Klingon?" Janeway quoted B'Elanna, smiling. "Not quite so emphatic. More like the cynic, the wisecracker. I can be worse than Tom Paris, though if you ever tell him I said so I'll deny it." "No one will hear it from me." Kathryn leaned down to kiss B'Elanna's forehead, letting her mouth brush across the smooth, edgeless ridges softly. B'Elanna shifted to rest her head on Kathryn's shoulder, and they slid down onto the pillows, getting comfortable. "Why me, do you suppose?" Kathryn whispered against B'Elanna's hair. "I've been wondering that myself. Some Klingon thing, maybe; you're alpha female, I get to relax. Or something like that." "It did sound that way on Heartwood, when we finally stopped fencing... but whatever the specifics, I'm glad you can relax. I know how hard it can be. Alpha female, hell. I'm alpha everything on this ship." "And a commanding presence in general, pardon the expression." "Please. Not the puns again." "Yours were as bad as mine." "Oh, mine were worse." Katherine let her hand trail lightly around the contours of B'Elanna's torso, trying not to be too obvious about it. B'Elanna wasn't fooled for a second. "Looking for join lines?" "Yes, partly. That second...hit went through a number of your vital organs, backups or no. You're right; you probably shouldn't have eaten so much." B'Elanna yawned. "I'm fine. But don't stop." "My pleasure, I assure you." She continued her feathery stroking, drawing her fingertips along B'Elanna's warm skin, marveling once again how small the woman felt in her arms. B'Elanna's presence was so overwhelming that it was always somewhat surprising--though not unpleasantly--to realize that the half-Klingon was no larger than herself, maybe even slighter. She was told she had something of the same effect, a presence larger than her physical body. Well, good; Kathryn wasn't the largest woman on the ship either, not by a good margin, and they both held positions of authority. Presence was important to the reassurance of their people. That B'Elanna was still a bit weak from her ordeal was demonstrated by her falling asleep in about three minutes, stroked gently into relaxation by Kathryn. The Captain stayed awake a bit longer, becoming slowly hypnotized by the action of her own caresses. They were both uncovered to the waist, and B'Elanna's skin, in the softened lights, was dark, warm velvet, her full mouth and her nipples even darker, softer-looking; Kathryn refrained from touching these areas, knowing B'Elanna needed to rest. And she herself did, too, she finally admitted with a resigned sigh. She could indulge later in B'Elanna-appreciation. She gently slid the arm under B'Elanna to a position that wouldn't cut off the blood to it, and laid down, her other arm lightly across B'Elanna's waist, closing her eyes and letting herself bathe in the other woman's rich, tangible presence. Like smoke, incense...like the plush fur of an exotic animal...visceral, sensuous...beautiful... An unknown time later, B'Elanna woke slowly, dreaming still of the smooth, cool green current flowing over her, touching lightly and intimately as only a liquid could, held steady in the constant flow. Relaxed...the flow supported her... She slowly came closer to consciousness, wanting to hold onto the dream, knowing it was significant, or at least relevant, to...something...she realized she was warm, there was a pleasant burn low in her belly, all her exposed skin was acutely aware of the air currents touching her, her nipples hardened... Awake, she turned into the warmth next to her, lying against her, and pulled Kathryn closer. She wasn't sure if the other woman was awake at first; but wordless, eager, she responded with increasing urgency to B'Elanna's kisses. Tongues tangling and pressing deeper, they let themselves touch, bodies moving together, hands sliding over warmth, then heat; after a time B'Elanna was on the edge of roaring and throwing Kathryn onto her back, but she contained it, contained it, she wanted this to go on...she knew what Kathryn liked... But Kathryn knew what B'Elanna liked, as well. She rolled them over, shifting her hip to press between B'Elanna's legs and slide them gently open. No more than that yet, but B'Elanna's back was arching-- she groaned and seized Kathryn's arm, exhaling and tracing a pattern with her teeth down the human's wrist. She growled and clutched at Kathryn, pulling them powerfully together, bending her knees, raising her legs and running them slowly up and then back along Kathryn's body, clasping her. Kathryn responded by stooping like a hawk on B'Elanna's neck, biting; she yanked her arm free and slid her hand down between them, finding the blood-engorged softness of B'Elanna's sex, sliding a finger, then two, inside her. As B'Elanna made a desperate strangled sound, the slight pain of Kathryn's bite accentuating everything she was feeling, Kathryn withdrew her now-glistening fingers and began to massage the slick folds under her hand, slowly and lightly at first, and B'Elanna's whole body strained and shuddered, a growl rumbling deep in her chest. Then the careful, deliberate massaging grew firmer, more localized, and Kathryn slid down B'Elanna's body far enough to take one of those dark-velvet nipples into her mouth. Her tongue whorled against it, once again gentle at first, then more insistently, and her free hand slid up B'Elanna's side to her other breast, squeezing and stroking just short of the point of pain. B'Elanna's fingers were dug into the bed; she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if she let go of that mattress, she was going to flay Kathryn alive-- When B'Elanna climaxed, she managed to choke off the loudest of her wordless shout, but her body bucked in a spasm that might have landed a pure human in sickbay with a sprained back. It went on, and on, until she saw red, and finally she grabbed Kathryn's arms and made her stop, clasping the other woman tight with her whole body, every muscle taut; the spasms slowed, slowed...finally stopped, and Kathryn got back up on her elbows, still lying between B'Elanna's legs, and tenderly kissed her full, still-panting lips. "Kathryn." B'Elanna sighed the name, pulling her closer; Kathryn began stroking B'Elanna's hair, tracing the planes of her face with her fingertips. They stayed wrapped together like that for a while; neither of them was sure how long. Then B'Elanna's eyes slowly opened, and Kathryn could have sworn they were glowing. "My turn," the woman beneath her whispered, lips curving up into a tooth-baring grin. She seized Kathryn in her legs and rolled her over. --- Kes watched B'Elanna, who stood over the now-closed console on the holodeck that contained the integrated sensor modification assembly, tapping controls, noting results. "Input leads are ready to receive the computer-generated data. Main data coordination is up; translation matrix ready to send to the simulator. Just give the word, Kathryn." She settled the helmet of her envirosuit more comfortably on her shoulders. Janeway, at the computer station she'd been using, nodded and said "Computer, arch and set up a level four isolation field around the interior of the holodeck." The arch appeared. Kes was standing near it with a pallet and several items of emergency equipment; the Doctor, should his presence be required, could transfer immediately from sickbay. The Ocampan glanced up at the arch briefly; if something untoward occurred and neither B'Elanna nor Kathryn could stop it in time, or if either of them requested it, Kes would shut down the entire program. One of the components of the assembly being tested was actually a functioning holographic analogue; its removal should deactivate the device. The cessation of the synthesized data input wouldn't necessarily do it; there'd been no incoming data signal at all when B'Elanna had her accident. Of course, nobody was plugged into the translation process this time, either. "Ready here," Janeway said; she'd be monitoring the simulator's projection of the information relayed by the modified node and translation matrix. "Kes? All set?" "Set, Captain." "Remember, under no circumstances lower the isolation field without shutting the program down. B'Elanna, on my mark...now." Janeway and Torres were both quiet for so long Kes finally asked "Is it working?" There was a pause, and Kathryn said "B'Elanna?" "No, nothing's happening at this end, either. Maybe something's wrong with the configuration. I'm cutting the data signal." Kes asked "Is the simulation running?" "The simulation is on standby," Janeway said, abandoning her station to cross the deck, blonde hair bouncing loose across her back, to where B'Elanna was. "It's active, but apparently it's not receiving any data. What does it look like over here?" "Same. Data signal dead-ends at the sensor node. You know, we could have made a mistake in constructing the dry-run data. Maybe it's not a malfunction--we might not be giving it anything it can use. We could try using stored sensor data--it still might do us no good, if we've never passed anything that this setup is designed to detect, but I find that hard to believe." "It isn't hard to believe it might take forever to go through all that data. We need some flag to look for in the records that indicates there's a relevant astrophysical anomaly present; and you're right, there should be some. But first we'd probably better check the configuration again. If it turns out one of us just forgot to carry a two, we'll save ourselves considerable anguish." Kes sat down on the pallet and watched B'Elanna argue the Captain down about removing her envirosuit before she went under the panel. Eventually, the Captain was forced to admit that there was no way to get under there with the helmet on, and with it off the rest of the suit was pretty useless. The Lieutenant began climbing out of the suit as the Captain detached a top board panel, saying "It would be quite humiliating if this were only a malfunctioning switch." "Worse for me, I'm the engineer. You aetheric scientist types are supposed to forget things like putting your pants on in the morning." "Mm. I won't tell anyone if you don't." Kathryn finished whatever cursory check she was doing through the top of the console, then stood, weight on her hands at the console's edge, staring down into the circuitry. She pursed her lips, shook her head, and leaned down to detach the lower panel. While B'Elanna was dragging her second boot out of the suit, the Captain finished removing the panel, flopped over on her back, and scooted under to take a look. "Is a lack of claustrophobia a requirement listed on the Academy engineering--" "Captain! What the hell--" B'Elanna dropped the envirosuit and fell to her knees to drag Janeway back out. --- The first thing that struck her was how clear the water was. Then B'Elanna noticed the cold. She was wearing a wristlight, and it told her that she was in a rocky cave, but when she tried covering the light with her hand, there was only the red dimness that projected through her fingers. She rotated again in the water, thinking of the spring on Heartwood--she had almost been drawn in by the current, and now it looked-- She was seized by the arms from behind, and nearly lost her precious breath of air trying to jackknife away from the grip, but one of the hands in question quickly let go her arm and stroked her head once, twice. She relaxed, holding onto her last breath like it was... She felt a faint rocking motion from behind, and was propelled forward, and began rocking with it, kicking, scissoring the cold, dense water; she was being steered toward one of the dark openings. She kept calm. 'I can see, and I can hold this breath for as long as it takes...as long as it takes...as long as it--' She didn't know how long it had been, but she was seeing blooming black flowers and the remaining gases in her lungs finally rushed out in a gush and something was slammed over her face--she tried to inhale, but the water came up her nose--it was a breather, but with water in it, and-- The water was gone, she had snorted and splashed what was in her airway into the breather. Then she realized it didn't feel quite like a breather; it was heavy, cumbersome--attached to something. She desperately wondered what was happening and whether she was crazy, but all that came second to the flood of clear air that filled her lungs; her belly expanded, her shoulders, even her small third lung was filled with blessed air. And she kept kicking. No light was before them, no light was above them; yet B'Elanna could feel it as they rose, faster, less effortfully, faster yet and-- BREACHED The breather was ripped off her face. "B'Elanna, answer me! Are you all right? Are you faint?" Air was gushing over her face. "Capt--!" "Inhale, B'Elanna! In. Out, in, good, we're going to go to that shelf now. Come with me as you did before." "Where...are we...?" B'Elanna panted, stroking toward the shelf of rock the Captain was leading her toward and hoping they made it before all her limbs were numbed and immobilized by the cold. She'd swum in cold water, but this was unlike anything she'd ever encountered. "The Olympus Mons cave system on Mars." "HAH?!" "We seem to be stuck inside somewhere, I don't know where--here, up you go--" B'Elanna rolled, with a grunt of effort, onto the gravelly shelf at the edge of the water. She was dressed in her uniform and the wristlight she'd put on as soon as she got her arm out of the envirosuit's sleeve, preparatory to going back under the console, where the lighting was incidental and haphazard. Kathryn was in full diving ensemble, breathing gill and all. "You look like you have a better idea of what we might be doing here than I do." "I'm afraid not," the Captain said, hauling herself out next to B'Elanna. "Though I'm glad one of us was equipped to reach safety, if one can accurately call this safety. I have dived these caves; when I was a cadet, I had ambitions toward mapping the Olympus Mons cave system. Unfortunately my most vivid memory of being down here concerns Mark and I nearly being dragged into the bowels of the mountain by a powerful underground river we had neither the experience nor the wit to anticipate." "Then you don't know how to get out." "If I had some notion of how we got here, I might, but...get out of that uniform, B'Elanna. Your teeth are chattering." "No argument." Kathryn's diving suit, while feather-light, could keep her warm in temperatures as low as two degrees C. B'Elanna's uniform was not designed for that. "As I was saying, with you improperly garbed, to say the least, there's no way we can swim out of here, but there is air in this cave; that may mean an avenue directly to the surface. Here." As she helped B'Elanna peel off the uniform that was sopping with frigid water, the shivering half-Klingon said "Any channels like that probably won't be big enough to allow us through." "Yes, there is that," Kathryn muttered. "In any case, I don't think that leaving this place is a question of finding a way to the surface. When you had your experience with the translator matrix, B'Elanna--did you experience any sort of visions similar to this?" "No, I'd've remembered this. Or anything like it. Tell me this; why are you dressed for bear and I'm wearing what I had on in the holodeck?" "I remember feeling you grab me by the hand and the other arm before, between one blink and the next, I was here. Perhaps this is...my experience, I became part of the circuit, and you only connected in time to be brought along." "But I didn't physically leave engineering before. I only became aware of things that I hadn't been aware of--all around, things that seemed so clear, then vanished again. A spatial connection, a flow between time and space, interconnected patterns creating one phenomenon, one--river--" "Come here." Kathryn wrapped B'Elanna, now clad only in her underwear, as close as she could, rolling slightly to keep her bare, wet skin from contacting the cold rock. "Try to put your weight on me." "So," B'Elanna said with sarcastic casualness, gazing at the clear, black water where her wristlight, sitting on the gravel next to her, was shining into it, "now what? A little geology lesson, maybe?" "I hate to say this, but I think our only hope is that whatever is happening will cease to happen when Kes shuts the program down." "If we somehow ARE physically where we seem to be--or at least are physically absent from the holodeck--she may not dare shut it down for fear of losing us altogether." "And if we are where we physically seem to be," Janeway said slowly, heading off in a different line, "you may have been right. We may have found a way to return to the Alpha quadrant." "We'll need to work on aim." "Oh, no question there." There was a pause, and B'Elanna said "But if we're really still on the holodeck... Captain, I hope to hell you aren't splitting open anywhere." "I was trying not to think about that. Are you getting warmer?" "Yes. I'll be fine, Kathryn. Assuming we aren't stuck here, I mean." Kathryn tugged the gill mask farther around, getting it out from between them, and kissed B'Elanna's cold lips. "We won't be. Kes and the rest of Voyager will get us out of this. And if not...I'm dressed for exploring. Assuming I can find a way to mark the route, I can always start hunting for a way out myself. As I said, I doubt that's the approach to take, but it might be better than doing nothing. Don't say it--we'll argue about who wears the suit and who stays here and waits when and if it becomes an issue. Although I should point out that I have cave diving experience, and, to my knowledge, you don't." "Like you said, we'll argue about it when it becomes an issue," B'Elanna muttered, her tone of voice indicating she was giving no ground on the point. When B'Elanna collapsed full length across the supine body of the Captain, her arms extended under the console, Kes, snatching up a medical tricorder, leaped up and rushed over, stopping herself from touching them barely in time. Instead, she flipped the tricorder open and started scanning B'Elanna. At which point she raised her wide eyes, gazing at the patterns surrounding her. The tricorder continued to whirr in her hand, scanning... She could see, at first, a pattern of lights; then they fragmented into smaller patterns, and then she realized that she could not completely accurately call the...centers, patterns of space, lights. They changed constantly; seemingly random and yet contiguously, a single entity... Entity? She could not detect a life force, telepathically sensed no presence...none that she could be sure of. The thing was static, in space, but it flowed, constantly changing, always the same, like a standing wave, like..."A river," she whispered, leaping at the thought that this might have been B'Elanna's way of describing-- The Captain. The Captain and B'Elanna. Kes could sense them. They were here--they were THERE, merged into the patterns of space, of sequence...Kes was on the outside, observing this; she was aware, but she knew that Janeway and Torres were not at the same level she was. They were part of it, in a subjective state, while Kes herself remained outside. She tried to concentrate, to bring her trained telepathic power to bear to reach them, inform them that they were in and of the patterns, and that if they could find a way, and break free-- What if they broke free at another part of the patterns, at another point in the space/time dance? Where would they find themselves? Drawn back to their bodies? No, they were right here, right now; it was their level and method of perception that had changed. As of this moment, they had not "gone" anywhere. But if they didn't disengage from the sequences at the correct point...to their point of view, at least--and perhaps to everyone else's as well--here, now, where Kes was, would not be the state of perception to which they returned. She could think of only one thing to do. Leaving the scanner running, she reached out and laid her hand on the Captain's cheek. --- "Captain" Janeway's head jerked around. "Did you hear that?" B'Elanna pulled herself and Janeway closer, shaking her dripping head. "I didn't hear anything. What was it?" "Captain it's me Kes" "It's Kes!" "I still can't hear anything." "I can't really hear her, either. She seems to be speaking...she must be contacting me telepathically. Kes, I'm receiving you. What's happening where you are? Do you know where we are?" "I'm in the holodeck You and B'Elanna are here Captain this is very important You must follow my thoughts I'll lead you back" "Back? I thought you said we were still in the holodeck." "You aren't perceiving it You're in the space/time river If you drop out of it at the wrong point you may not return here There are too many possibilities to know where your perceptions would settle You might even be drawn physically to the point at which you left the space/time river" "How do you know this? Can you perceive this...river?" "I perceive it objectively I suspect B'Elanna did so as well in her first experience You are in the river not just perceiving it Captain you must try to focus on my thoughts I'm going to pull you away from your contact with the data translation matrix You have to concentrate" "What about B'Elanna? She says she can't hear you." "I believe B'Elanna is in a subjective state because she entered the circuit with you If she could enter it by connection with you we can hope she'll leave the circuit the same way Her body temperature is dropping yours isn't If you can try to keep her warm" Kathryn clasped B'Elanna with all her wiry strength. "B'Elanna, Kes is going to try to guide me out of here; I'm going to concentrate on her telepathic presence, and you will be drawn back with me. Are you ready?" "Whenever you are," B'Elanna rattled out. "Kes," Janeway said, composing her mind, clearing it as best she was able. "Begin speaking to me, without interruption, and guide me to the holodeck, on my mark...now." "Follow me Captain Very good Very good Keep listening Keep relaxed I can see you in the space/time stream You're moving against the changes Against the permutations Against the currents You're changing your perception You're changing your part of the river You're returning Your perceptions are changing Your perceptions are ready You're ready to return This next bend in the current Come out of the river Captain Come out of the water I have your hand You have B'Elanna's Step out Step onto the bank Step onto the "...bank," Kathryn heard Kes's throaty, flowing voice, and at that moment she'd never heard anything so beautiful in her life. She opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling of the Engineering deck program. She flung herself upright. Kes was holding her hand. "B'Elanna!" Kathryn gasped, "did she come with me--?" B'Elanna was pushing herself up. "Wow. Captain, I think you were right about the enviro--mmph--" Kes had let Kathryn's hand go as the Captain made a lunge toward B'Elanna, sliding her finger's into the Lieutenant's hair, turning her face up, and kissing her, all in about the space of a heartbeat. When Kathryn let their mouths separate, B'Elanna cleared her throat and said "I should go cave diving with you more often." Kes continued scanning them. "Neither of you have experienced any physical damage...and neither have I. Apparently one doesn't necessarily suffer an injury like B'Elanna's when perceiving the...the river objectively." "We're still not absolutely certain you perceived the same thing she did," the Captain removed her face from the Lieutenant's hair to say. "Although I tend to trust your judgment in this matter. B'Elanna wasn't hurt this time, either." "Maybe..." B'Elanna mused to herself a moment, then essayed "Maybe what happened to me was some sort of cross, or an in-between state--to the way you connected to the river and the way Kes did. I couldn't have guided us out like that; my perceptions were clear enough, but I didn't have the power to move--to... place rocks in the current, change the flow according to my will, like Kes did." "And the Captain entered into the river so subjectively her mind provided a symbolic context for what she was experiencing," Kes said, nodding thoughtfully. "But the wounds...I don't understand why you were injured, B'Elanna." B'Elanna's lips twisted as she assumed an expression that gave the Janeway Wry Look a run for the title. "I think I do. My mother was fond of Klingon literature. There are a lot of battles in Klingon literature. And at almost every battle, there was..." "...a river of blood," Janeway concluded, awareness widening her eyes; she nodded. "If one wasn't created purely by the blood, then at least an existing river was so filled with it that it ran red." "The Captain's analogy was entirely mental," Kes continued, "while yours, as you were in a state halfway between objective and subjective perception..." "...I made my own river, right here in the physical universe. And here I thought it would turn out to be some aspect of the spatial anomalies the device is designed to detect. I thought maybe I'd just got in the way of some warped space and got bent too far." "That was my first hypothesis as well, which is why I insisted on the envirosuit. Any contact with anomalous space and the automatic internal force field would have activated. A warning, at least, if not any real protection. I suppose we both wasted a lot of breath arguing over it," Katherine muttered, lips quirking. She continued "Kes, you have my profound thanks and yet another commendation in the record for this. I think we'd better keep you nearby during this endeavor. We can arrange the hours around your other duties; I'll speak to the Doctor about shortening your sickbay day, and find you some more support in the airponics and hydroponics bays." "Of course, Captain. I'm glad I can help." "I'm glad you could, too," B'Elanna muttered, experimentally standing up and hugging her arms, rubbing at her biceps. "I swear I still feel cold." Kathryn glanced up sharply at her. "You do? Kes..." "I scanned you both thoroughly, Captain," Kes smiled at her. "B'Elanna's remaining chill is psychological and entirely normal." Janeway nodded. "All right." She held out a hand to B'Elanna, and the Lieutenant gave her a commentless hand up. "Let's take a look at the simulation. Maybe there's been a change...perhaps we can figure out why this apparatus only seems to function when there's a sentient being integrated into the circuit." "How do we know the being needs to be sentient?" B'Elanna said. "Because the biocircuits themselves are alive but insentient. A central nervous system at a sentient level of sophistication would seems to be relevant here, though we'll have to test that hypothesis as well." "And maybe," B'Elanna muttered as they headed for Janeway's computer console, "we can find some way to drop out of the...patterns...hell, let's just call it the river--where we want to. We might be able to get at least closer to home, if we can figure out a way to involve the whole ship." "That's what I'm hoping," Janeway agreed, taking her seat at the station, flanked by B'Elanna and Kes on either side, all of them watching the screens and readouts expectantly. "Still nothing," B'Elanna said in disgust, slapping the console in frustration. "Well, it wasn't designed to function without the data feed, after all." "I was hoping our integration might have constituted a sort of data feed. With us as the source. It wouldn't have run the simulation properly, not the way it was designed to; but I thought there was a chance at some sort of effect, whether it was the effect we were shooting for or not. Could've told us something." "Yes, that would have been useful." "I shouldn't have cut the data feed." "Come now, B'Elanna. You could hardly have been expected to know what was going to happen." "Great, but from now on it stays up and running. And we'd probably better have the computer scan our sensor logs for some real, applicable data; like you said, we'll need to come up with a flag, some element for it to search." "All right. Here..." Kathryn moved to another station, and B'Elanna took the nearest chair. "Let's brainstorm. What common factor could our sensors, as they are, detect that would indicate the presence of the sort of spatial anomalies they cannot, as yet, detect directly and identify? Specifically, the ones the device is designed to pick up." They were able to reel off a list of factors fairly easily, but picking the best specific earmarks was going to be a stage-by stage process of hit and miss, and they were glad to set up the search program and leave the computer to it for the present. "I could use some coffee," B'Elanna asided, stretching. "For a figment of perception, that water was damn cold. Can I get anyone else anything?" "I'll get it," Kes said, getting up, and Kathryn protested, "Kes, there's no reason for you to be our gopher. You're here in a medical capacity, not as an errand runner." "I don't mind." Kes strolled off toward the nearest replicator, humming softly. Kathryn and B'Elanna looked at each other. "Have you ever thought," Janeway began carefully, "that Kes is...is--" "Too good to be true? Brave, resourceful, unshakable? Yes. With the exception of you, she's probably the best-loved person on this ship. She can deal with the DOCTOR all day. She's up for sainthood in my book." Kathryn chuckled. "I'll be sure to include those comments with her commendation in my log." Kes returned with a tray bearing three steaming mugs, and after distributing two, she took the chair to the other side of the captain and watched their work, with every evidence of fascination. --- That evening, in the Captain's quarters, the door signal sounded; B'Elanna glanced back to where Kathryn lay dead to the world in bed, then turned her chair back toward the door and said quietly, "Who is it?" "Kes." "Come in." The door responded to the verbal signal and slid silently open; Kes came over to the computer desk where B'Elanna was and leaned a hip against it, one small bare foot swinging. Her pink satin nightgown was enveloping, even knotted up at the shoulders. The Captain was much taller than Kes, and the Ocampan hadn't had time to alter the fit since the Captain bestowed the gown on her in recompense for her own ruined white one. The satin glinted in the quarter-lights. "Am I disturbing you?" Kes's normally deep, wind-in-grass voice was softened and deepened even further for the benefit of the Captain's sleep. "Not at all. It's awfully late; is the Doctor making you put in the time you miss during the day?" "No, no. I had a rest after we were done in the holodeck--I'd intended it to be a nap, but I couldn't sleep, so I meditated for an hour or two. Tuvok knows the most soothing techniques..." "'Soothing'. That's not a word I'd've associated with Tuvok. If you're curious about what progress I've made so far, I'll have to disappoint you; I'll gladly tell you what we've come up with, but mostly it's only more variants and factors." Kes shifted her weight, then pushed away from the desk and wandered to a sofa, hands clasped behind her back. B'Elanna took a last glance at the computer screen, then got up and followed her, sitting next to her. That must've been what Kes intended; talking across the room would surely wake the Captain. "Is anything wrong?" B'Elanna asked. "Your telepathic senses--are you receiving something? The river again?" "No, nothing's wrong. B'Elanna, are you in love with the Captain?" B'Elanna sat there with the wind knocked out of her, waiting for her brain to start working again. A large part of her was bellowing that it was nobody's damn business, but another part was nodding to itself, thinking that if this ship had anything approaching a counselor, Kes had to be it. "Um . Why do you ask?" "With the subjectivity factor so strong in the experimentation we're doing right now, I think you'd better have a solid idea about what exactly is happening between you." B'Elanna was still a moment. "You mean, if I didn't love her, would I have been drawn into the circuit with her?" "Something like that, yes. Your point of view--since you were the only one of us three in a halfway state, if it can be called that--appears to be very malleable in regard to the perception of this phenomenon. There could be many reasons for that--you're a composite of two species, your feelings for the Captain, or maybe just that you're B'Elanna. As the Captain says, you can't plot a curve from one point. It could be any or all of those things, or none." B'Elanna contemplated her fingers, clasped loosely between her knees, her head bent toward the floor in silence for a moment. Then she said "I love her, but we ALL love her. I don't think we'd have this relationship if it weren't for being where we are--we'd never have had the opportunity to know each other the way that we have. I mean, if you can call what we have..." "It's a relationship. You have a relationship with me, too, and with Carey and Tuvok and everyone else on board." "Then I suppose what you're really asking is whether the sex means anything significant." "I want YOU to know if the sex means anything significant." "I think..." B'Elanna paused. "I think she's great." She grinned; Kes smiled back, waiting for the real answer, and B'Elanna continued "She's strong, beautiful, commanding, a woman as full of tension and energy as an overcharged conduit. She excites me. She even overwhelms me, but I...can let down my guard with her, I trust her...in a way I'd find it very hard to trust anyone else." "Then you do love her." "Come on, Kes, how could you not love her? I like to think we have a special relationship, yes. And we make a great science/engineering team. That probably sounds like some sort of duck-out from your question, but it isn't. It's a rare, amazing thing. I can't explain it." "How do you feel about Tom?" "Tom!?" Hastily B'Elanna dropped her voice. "If you mean the way he chases me, well...let's put it this way. Tom Paris does NOT overwhelm me. To say the least. With him, my guard is up. We could probably be having sex and my guard would be up." "Then you do feel something for him." "Something, yes, but...it's not like the Captain and I want to be exclusive. If I started something with someone else, she wouldn't be crushed. Neither would I, the other way around. Hell, either of us could be sleeping with half the crew right now, we don't care about that. Sex isn't the *point*, what we are to each other doesn't hinge on it. Either way, she's got me, and I've got her. No matter who or what else is involved. Or if there's any sex, though I've got to admit I consider going to bed with Kathryn a very good thing." B'Elanna grinned suddenly. "Plus, she knows better than to ever try making a pet out of me, not that she would with any member of her crew she was sleeping with. Is all this making sense to you?" "It's making perfect sense; I'm glad you have such a clear picture of your situation with her. The Captain's picture goes without saying; she never lets her thoughts stay muddy about anything for long. One of the marks of the true scientist, I'm told. But I'm still worried about this research. I plan to stay very close to both of you from now until the culmination of this...how did the Captain put it, endeavor. I think that the river..." B'Elanna's head jerked up. "What about the river?" "I know it might be able to take us to the Alpha quadrant...but it's dangerous. It's not as though you could lose contact with your physical brains; but you might..." "Wind up as vegetables?" "No. You might wind up, with or without your physical bodies, somewhere other than here on Voyager, and considering the ratio of matter to vacuum in the universe, I'd suggest trying to keep focused here." "Can't argue with that. Do you think she and I should, ah, restrain ourselves?" "I don't think it makes any difference. It might even create a state of greater spatial sympathy between you, if you're wanting to be with her and holding back." "Then maybe I should wake her up..." Kes grinned. "I think you should join her and get some sleep." "Kes...I wonder if you'd consider sticking around tonight. If the Captain is the one responsible for the diving trip she and I took, she's the most vulnerable to...the state of spatial awareness and motion we've been calling the river. I know we're nowhere near the apparatus now, but..." "But you're worried for her. I'll take the sofa. I have a recommendation for you--pick a visual image, or some sort of analogy, that hasn't got anything to do with blood, to have ready in case you do find yourself being affected by the river again. I've seen enough of the inside of you for a while." She patted the half-Klingon's shoulder and added "I'm also a very sound sleeper, so if..." "I think I can keep my grubby mitts off her for one night." B'Elanna returned to the computer desk, smiling. "Let me just wrap this up." --- "MM..." B'Elanna felt the warmth of arms sliding around her from behind. She sighed, covering Kathryn's arms with her own. "We should be sleeping..." "Tired?" The Captain's whisper tickled her ear. She rolled in Kathryn's arms, smiling. "Not that tired," she whispered back, "but Kes is on the sofa." "Oops. Saved from a major indiscretion." "She says she's a heavy sleeper..." They both giggled, and the Captain slid down, resting her head on B'Elanna's chest. "Why is she here? Were you two working late?" "She's here because she's the only one who can bring you back if you fade into the river again." "But we're not working with the modified sensors." "I know. But I feel better with her here. She came over intending to stay, anyway." "If she's worried about anyone, it's probably you." "She did tell me to have a mental image ready that didn't involve blood." "Good idea." Kathryn lifted her head and kissed B'Elanna, then slid her shoulder under her to get better position and kissed her again, and within seconds they found themselves devoting great attention to the project. "MMm...we'd better..." "Mmmmwhat? We'd better what?" "Ah...stop...uh...before..." "In a...minute..." The hell with it, B'Elanna decided, and hoped Kes was as good as her word as she rolled Kathryn over, pulling down the straps of her nightgown. She also hoped she could keep her voice down; having sex without any roaring was going to take concentration. Blast it, she wasn't going to be able to bite very hard, either, lest Kathryn squeal. If only they hadn't started in with the kissing..."You had to start something, didn't you." "Your fault, you shouldn't feel so good..." "Shhh...Kes." "I know..." "Unnmh...Mother of Fek'lar..." "Let's leave Fek'lar out of this." "Kathryn...oh gods...Kathryn...Kathryn? Kathryn! Kes, wake up! Kes! The Captain--" Kes was there, jumping up to kneel on the bed next to them; the Captain had gone limp, seemed to be staring intently into space. "B'Elanna, move, let me touch her--" B'Elanna sat up, pulling Kathryn with her, holding her upright. Her head lolled. "Think WATER, B'Elanna," Kes was saying as she took Kathryn's face in her hands. "And let go of her!" Hastily the Lieutenant rolled away from Kes and the Captain, breaking their physical contact. From her point of view, there wasn't much to see; almost as soon as Kes touched her, the Captain's eyes closed and she inhaled; she tried to reach for Kes, and the Ocampan took her hand. Kathryn's eyelids fluttered; her eyes opened. "How did I...manage that? We're nowhere near the..." "I think we'd better take that apparatus apart and keep it that way when we're not working with it," B'Elanna said, deflating and resting her head in her hands. "Were you back in the caves?" "No. No, it was...perceptions...as you described, B'Elanna. An objective perception, as you two had. Evidently I wasn't pulled as far into the river this time." "The question is how the hell you wound up getting pulled anywhere near it to begin with. What are we going to do with you? You and that thing on the same ship apparently aren't going to work." "Relax, B'Elanna," Kes said softly, giving Janeway a cursory inspection. "The Captain is all right. I don't think I'd better go far until we figure out a way to keep this from happening." "Well, it's certain we can't hope to accomplish anything with this going on," Janeway muttered in disgust. "Obviously, that's priority one. And if we do find a way to control the river...I think we've found our pilot." She looked back at Kes. "Wouldn't Tom...?" Kes wondered, taken aback. "Tom'll get over it," B'Elanna said, edging toward the side of the bed. "I suppose I better be the one to take the sofa--" Kathryn's hand flew out to seize B'Elanna's arm. "Oh no you don't. If I'm susceptible to this, you may be, too," Janeway stated grimly. "Kes, B'Elanna, tonight we learn the real meaning of crew togetherness. You're in the middle, Kes." "It'll be a little crowded..." "It's the only way we'll get any sleep. You seem to be impervious to the phenomenon unless you're deliberately contacting it, as when the scanner's signal provided you an avenue. As soon as you touched me, I felt it--perhaps somehow a connection with YOUR sensory neurons to your central nervous system--and my perceptions returned to normal. I hope you aren't shy about this kind of thing." "No, it's not that. I mean, my people are telepaths. I just don't want to intrude..." "I don't think we have the luxury to consider that a factor. Here; we can't just hold your hands or some such; we're sure to let go in our sleep." Kathryn helped Kes pull her nightgown over her head, tossing it across the foot of the bed. "Here, take one of my pillows," B'Elanna said, "Kathryn needs two to keep her neck from cramping." When they got all arranged, Kes was lying on her back between B'Elanna and Kathryn, each of whom had an arm across her middle. They all laid there for a while, maybe thirty seconds total, before Kes's mouth started twitching upward. Inside half a second, they were all laughing like hyenas. "Can you just imagine what Chakotay would say if he walked in and saw this?" B'Elanna snorted. "Not a damn thing, if he knew what was good for him," the Captain assured her. "Or Neelix," Kes added, breaking into a fresh spate of giggles. "Harry would take one look and faint," Kathryn cackled into her pillows. "Or Tom Paris!" B'Elanna whooped, pounding the mattress with her free arm before plopping back down on her side. "He'd turn blue, screaming 'What a waste'!" "No," the Captain corrected her. "Red. I've seen him do it." "When?" "When he knocked me unconscious, took me to warp ten, turned us both into lizards and we reproduced." "Yeah, I can see how he'd be sort of embarrassed about that," B'Elanna nodded. "Did he turn red before or after he wasn't a lizard any more?" Kes wondered. "Well, I was thinking of after, when I made a comment about the reproduction; but he made a pale lizard, too. I suppose anything's possible." "Speaking of anything being possible, I...take it you two were--B'Elanna, when you noticed the Captain..." "Call me Kathryn for the duration, Kes. Such formality is inappropriate between people sharing a bed in the altogether, amorous intention or no. Yes, B'Elanna and I were making love, or getting there, at any rate. Why do you ask?" "I wondered if it could have contributed to what happened. It could easily be coincidence--I certainly have no theories that could indicate otherwise--but you both had extensive contact with the modified sensor components." "As you say, anything's possible. It's a moot point now, of course. We're hardly going to try to have sex across you." "No, I didn't expect you to try that." There was a pause, and Kes began giggling again. "Although it might be interesting to observe what strategies you'd come up with." "You're a sadist, Kes," B'Elanna grumbled, punching up her pillow with her free hand. "I'm stuck with a raging libido and no way to vent it." "I'd suggest a cold shower, but I don't think we'd all fit," Kathryn said, breaking into laughter again halfway through the sentence, the mental image reducing B'Elanna and Kes nearly to tears as well. "Uh, you know," Kes finally offered, sniffing and wiping her eyes, "this isn't really funny." "I have to laugh or I'm going to scream," B'Elanna sighed, simmering, and Janeway added "Same here. I'd rather appreciate the absurdity of the situation than dwell on the depressing aspects. We WILL get this worked out." She barely contained a smirk. "Or we'll get a bigger bed in here, one or the other." --- B'Elanna woke up shortly before the alarm signal. She found she had let go of Kes and rolled over, but her back was against a warm body; she slid over a smidgen and sat up. Kes had turned on her side and curled up against the Captain, who was holding the smaller woman almost protectively. Ironic, considering the situation. The Ocampan had a look on her face that made B'Elanna think of a kitten curled up against its mother's side with its littermates. Me and Kes, littermates, she mused. Who'd've thought. Maybe this all wasn't a totally bad thing; Kes normally had a sunny disposition, but right now she was radiating contentment. B'Elanna hated to disturb their picture, but they needed to get cracking on this problem so that Kes didn't have to orbit them constantly. "And so I can get a little for godssakes action," she muttered aloud, then reached out and laid her hand on the Captain's shoulder. "Kathryn? Kes. Morning." She leaned over Kes to kiss Kathryn's cheek, then after a brief hesitation, brushed her lips across Kes's temple as well. What the heck; the diminutive blonde was giving way above and beyond the call. As always. The other two stirred, Kes inhaling sharply and stretching like a cat, Kathryn blinking to consciousness and noticing her petite double armful. "Well. Good morning. Apparently my subconscious wasn't about to take any chances." "Good morning," Kes yawned, hand over her mouth, forehead against the Captain's sternum. "B'Elanna? You *were* still touching me somewhere, weren't you?" "Yes. My back was against yours. The only way to cease all physical contact with you would have been to fall out of bed, no more room than we have." "We've GOT to figure out a way to counteract this," Kathryn muttered, heading for the bathroom. Kes hastily slid out of the covers, too. "Uh, Captain--Kathryn...I should come with you." Janeway stood there a second, blinking, then started shaking her head, long tousled hair swinging. "This is past all bearing. Come on, then, it's time for some serious personal sharing." "Compromise," B'Elanna offered, raising her hand. "Leave the door open and we'll stay in verbal contact. That way Kes can keep an eye, or an ear, on us both." "Good idea. What shall we patter about?" Janeway said, continuing into the bathroom, as Kes pulled her nightgown back on. "How about how we're going to eliminate the need for all this?" "An appropriate choice." B'Elanna showered in the Captain's quarters and used some of her copious replicator rations to obtain a uniform, but they had to go by Kes's quarters so she could dress. Janeway had been talking with Chakotay over the comm while they waited for her, B'Elanna chatting with Kes through the open door, with the occasional pause when she heard something interesting from the Captain's area of the room. Kes emerged from the steam emanating from her open bathroom door, dressed, hair barely damp. "Captain?" She looked between the annoyed/bemused expression on B'Elanna's face and the look of resignation on the Captain's. "The rumor mill has divined the purpose of our work," Kathryn said, "which event I'd wishfully thought to avoid. As B'Elanna says, we shouldn't raise any false hopes. Not only that..." B'Elanna explained "It's just a particularly vivid example of the sheer speed with which things get around on this ship. The bridge crew, and therefore who knows who else--likely the whole ship--know we all came out of the Captain's quarters this morning, you in a nightgown, and proceeded immediately here." Kes looked impressed. "How long did it take us to get here? Two minutes? Three?" she shook her head and asked "Is anything making the rounds as to why?" "Probably," Kathryn said, "but the only actual comment Chakotay could report was Harry wondering aloud if we'd had some sort of matter-spatial accident while we were working and all become covalent." Kes laughed this time; she couldn't help it. "I don't think I've ever been compared to a submolecular component before." "It's a new experience for all of us. Let's get going," Janeway said, standing; "we can't stop the accidental plunges into the river until we know why they're happening, and at the moment we don't even know why the river itself is happening. I asked Chakotay to inform the Doctor of the situation, Kes, and Ensigns Wildman and Hausermann have volunteered to keep an eye on the crop bays. Wildman has some experience in botany." "Rhea doesn't," B'Elanna said as they left Kes's quarters and started for the holodeck. "She's great with a sputtering power relay, but I can't imagine her over an airponic tray full of plants. She's a complete wrenchhead." "She's a what?" Kes's eyes widened in surprise as they boarded the turbolift. "It's not an insult," Kathryn smiled, and gave the deck order, then continued "It's an expression engineers use among themselves to indicate their level of dedication to the profession." "Rhea's married to her tool kit," B'Elanna clarified further. "Oh. Well, maybe she just plans to assist Samantha," Kes supposed. --- "Captain." "Yes, B'Elanna," Janeway replied distractedly, not looking away from her control panels and screens. B'Elanna was under the console again, and Kes was sitting next to her, scanner out and running; they had been comparing data and drawing tentative conclusions for about two and a half hours. "We, uh," she scooted out from under the console, engineering tricorder in hand. "We ARE covalent. You and I are, I mean, not Kes." "We're what?" Then the words penetrated Janeway's concentration and she turned her chair toward the other two, eyes wide. "You're not serious?" "I probably wouldn't have used that term if it weren't for Harry's comment, but it'll do. Some good news; I've definitely isolated the effect's origin to the translation matrix. The bad news is that taking that damn thing apart is almost worth another swim. It took me a month and a half to design it and two weeks to get it put together so that it'd work. And actually, we still haven't verified that it works like I intended it to." "On that front, I think I'm onto something at the programming end, but first, tell me why you said we're covalent." Kes said "The biocircuits were connecting to your central nervous system through your sensory neurons. Your brain's perceptions are being augmented by the translation effect. Think of the matrix as an annex to your brain's own perceptive mechanisms." "I follow that, but that doesn't explain how I managed to take a header into the river while I was in my own bed and the matrix was on a different deck." B'Elanna spoke up, though her eyes and fingers were busy entering data on a PADD to transfer to the computer. "As you know, biocircuitry is never completely unpowered, or it dies. Since I built it, the matrix hasn't ever been as completely inactive if it were conventionally constructed. Not that it could be conventionally constructed, that's why I played so free with the biostock supply, but you see what I mean." "Yes. Go on; how was it able to affect me when I wasn't in contact with it?" Kes and B'Elanna looked at each other. Kes said "You are in contact with it, Captain." B'Elanna elaborated "We've apparently both had enough direct neural contact with it for the alternate spaces and phenomena it's designed to translate into, as I said the other day, data our brains can quantify and deal with, to be apparent to us through those same spaces and phenomena. I said we were covalent because at the moment, we're in a state of balance in the patterns of the river. A better analogy would be a Trojan orbit." "That sounds a bit circular. Pardon the expression." "I know, but I won't know specifically *which* of the types of spatial anomaly it's using--or, rather, our brains are using--to remain in contact with it for a bit yet. When I do, it'll probably clear up some of the apparent paradox." "All right. We need a way to isolate the matrix while we're not working with it; even better would be some way to simply interrupt the connection between it and our brains whether we're working with it or not. Kes is still joining us at the hip." "I'm on that now, Kathryn," B'Elanna said, going back under the console, "but," her muffled voice continued, "which do you want me to concentrate on? The problems are superficially similar--you can't put a force field around something that's contacting you through n-space or whatever--but isolating it completely may be unnecessary; the state of potential it creates so far has no avenue to affect anyone but us. Plus, it might turn out that isolation is a larger problem than finding some way to--" "Kes," the Captain said suddenly. "You were able to lead me out of my own experience, and the second time, when I was perceiving the river rather than in it, I sensed your presence so immediately it felt more like...simply opening my eyes than a reformatting of my perceptions. I know you can't guarantee anything, but do you think it could be possible to teach us to navigate the river safely?" Kes was quiet a moment, then said "From what we know now..." she picked up a PADD, dropped it and rummaged in the clutter for a minute, then found another PADD and tapped its keys. "B'Elanna?" "Yeah?" "I think it might be possible...to construct some sort of buffer, something that would...I don't think your brains have the inherent capacity to disconnect from the circuit, my ability to do it is apparently due to my differing psychic centers, and that's a physical factor. But maybe with some technological help..." B'Elanna emerged from the console almost too fast to avoid banging her head on the edge and clutched at Kes's shoulder. "Let me see that." "Bring your tricorder over..." the two got started comparing notes. "This might take a while, Captain." "Very well. I'll continue to look for the reasons the assembly isn't performing as B'Elanna intended, and keep trying to construct a functioning scenario." --- About three hours later, Janeway sat back in her chair, rubbing her forehead lightly with her fingertips, then stood up and stretched. "How are--gracious." There was a miniature scene of devastation surrounding the dissected console, and Kes and B'Elanna were nowhere to be seen. "Kes? Where have you two got to?" "Right here, Captain," came B'Elanna's voice from almost directly overhead. Janeway looked up, and saw that B'Elanna was at an upper work station; Kes was up there with her, but standing where she could see Kathryn on the level below as well. "What news?" Janeway asked, ascending a ladder to join them. "We need to make a parts raid," B'Elanna said. "I need to hit engineering, and Kes needs to get to the main science lab. Also I have to go to the bathroom." "Can we have someone bring the parts to us? That might cause a touch less comment than our Andorian marriage visiting both places and then returning here." Actually, Andorians always married in even numbers, but no one cared enough to comment. "The WC's here that mimic the ones in engineering are functional." "Yeah, but they're out of sight over that way." "Well, we're likely all feeling the pressure by now, so we'll deal with that first, then...do either of you think it could endanger a messenger to bring the parts we need here?" "Probably not, Captain," Kes said, "and I can ask someone to bring me what I need, but B'Elanna..." "I don't know exactly what I need," B'Elanna explained. "Well, I'll know what I need when I see what there is. I won't be able to match the holographic analogues we've been experimenting with exactly, I know already." Janeway nodded. "Let's take care of business, then we'll make our parts run." "Just a second. Nearly done here. Okay." B'Elanna locked down her station and they all started down the nearest ladder. --- "Did you see the look on Geron's face?" B'Elanna muttered as they were starting back to the holodeck. Kathryn told her "Everyone seemed bemused. Latest gossip news from Chakotay--while you were rooting in storage, B'Elanna, I called to check up on things on the bridge--and our latest appellation as a unit is 'The Ozone Molecule'." "Ah, that one's clumsy," B'Elanna shrugged it off as they stepped into the lift, her arms occupied with boxes of components and equipment. Kathryn had taken one box from her and one from Kes. "We shouldn't all three be the same element." "I rather liked the Fates," Kes offered, and Kathryn chuckled as B'Elanna snorted. "But since you explained it, Captain, I suppose the Sirens made more sense in the context of the work we're doing." "I don't care what they call us, as long as they don't get in our faces," B'Elanna muttered. "We could be on to something major here. Come on," she finished, disembarking the lift with all speed. "Let's get these buffer units built before we can't stand the sight of each other any more." Janeway tried to adjust her pushed-up sleeve comfortably over the little device strapped to her arm. It had to be in direct contact with her skin and sensory neurons, and finding someplace to put it while wearing a uniform that covered one from mid-neck to over the wristbones to the floor took effort. Kes had suggested the neck, but B'Elanna said she felt claustrophobic enough in a turtleneck. "They're not that big; let's just cram them up our sleeves. Here." She and Kathryn had both managed to shove one wad of sleeve up far enough to leave a wrist free. "Are we set?" Janeway asked. "I think so, Captain," Kes said, running the medical scanner over them both, and the matrix assembly, while B'Elanna did the same with an engineering tricorder. "We're as set as B'Elanna and I can make you." It was approaching ship's midnight. Janeway had stood over their shoulders as half-Klingon and Ocampan put the devices together, having to restart twice. She'd made occasional trips back to her own work, but eventually she'd get curious and have to come see how things were going again, though she had the good sense to keep her mouth shut while she observed. Do or die time. "Very well. Activate the buffers." She pushed the control on her own unit that B'Elanna had indicated earlier. A small flashing green light appeared. Kathryn asked "Is that what we're looking for?" The light was mirrored on B'Elanna's unit. "That indicates standby," Kes said. "Press the button again." Janeway did, and the light stopped flashing and held steady; Janeway felt a very slight shifting of balance and physical disorientation, but not enough to make her lose her balance, though she blinked a couple of times before she spoke. "And this setting?" "That means--or should mean--that you're shielded from the contact with the translation matrix. There should be no way for you to fall into the river now, even if you wanted to--unless you were touching the assembly." "A pair of gloves should take care of that," Janeway asided. Kes continued "I told you that what you asked me about--learning to navigate the river, to control the coming and going of the perceptions, enter and leave the river where and when you choose...that's beyond the scope of a device like this. The river is more a standing wave, if we're going to continue using verbal analogies--" "I don't think we have much choice. Go on." "It is infinitely more complex than the simple visualizations and metaphors we've been using to refer to it. But I don't have the medical vocabulary to use--there *is* no medical vocabulary known to Federation science--or the training, in astro- and hyperdimensional physics, to refer to it more precisely. And B'Elanna says the only language that might approach what we need is..." "Advanced mathematical systems," Janeway said. "And you're way ahead of me there, Captain," B'Elanna stated, wriggling her buffer a little farther down her wrist so her sleeve didn't scrunch so much. "I can follow you to a point, but after that, I've got to start mapping out a schematic." "So we have no common language to discuss this phenomenon--the river," Kathryn grumbled, sitting down in the chair she'd been in, off and on, mostly on, for nearly sixteen hours. She was starved, and the other two had to be, too. "That may be true," Kes said, sitting down on the floor by her knee, "but you've got to admit, we've made a lot of progress in spite of that." "Yes, no question; you've both performed more than admirably. I have a sinking feeling, however, that in learning to use the river as a means of transportation...I'm sorry, I can't think of another way to put it. We're going to be in over our heads." "I think you're right," B'Elanna said, leaning with a tired thunk of her hip against the station Kathryn was at. "And I think so because, even after all this--we STILL can't get the original configuration to run the simulation to our original goal. We--I--don't know nearly as much about what I'm doing as I thought I did when I built this thing to begin with." "It was an intuitive leap, B'Elanna. Sometimes those pan out, sometimes they don't. And sometimes they provide results totally unlooked for, as now. I told you, I think I've got the programming under control. We may yet get this pony to perform the trick it was originally set. Right now...did you two have a plan for testing these buffer devices? Waiting to see if B'Elanna or I fall in again is not an acceptable course." "We were talking about that," B'Elanna said. "Kes can still navigate the river enough to get in and out, even if she doesn't fathom all its permutations. She could deliberately contact it, then try to draw one of us in with her." "Kes?" "I don't think there's any danger to any of us if we try that, Captain." "All right, I volunteer. Hush, B'Elanna. You've been physically compromised through these experiences; I haven't. Maybe I can be, but we know that you can. Kes?" Kes got up and advanced on the disorder surrounding the sensor assembly console, unfolding her medical tricorder. She sat down at one of the console's open panels and activated the tricorder. After a moment, she looked up. "Captain?" Janeway stood up, concerned. "Yes? Is something wrong?" "You can't receive my thoughts?" Janeway shook her head, brow creased. Kes's eyes were faraway, but it was obvious from her exact tones of speech that she was as much right there with them as in contact with the river. "That should mean you're insulated from the effects of the river; without it as a medium, I'm not telepathic with you or any other humans. Now press the button under the first one that you've pressed twice." Kathryn did. "Can you hear me now" Kathryn's eyes widened. "Yes. Yes, I can." "B'Elanna says that at least two different types of anomalous space phenomena are involved It may be possible to teach you to navigate as I do But I know very little about the river I can engage and disengage from it at will but that doesn't constitute any real knowledge of what the river is I would need time" "Certainly. If you need--" "Think your answer Captain" Janeway frowned, and closed her eyes. She tried to form the words in her mind. She didn't know if their simple formation were enough, or if she needed to somehow transmit them through the medium of the outer pools and currents of the river. She saw a river in her mind, and imagined her thought sailing down a strong, smooth stretch of clear green water. "You will have whatever you need of course Time Now that you need not remain with B'Elanna and me every moment we will have more leisure" "Of course Captain Very good I don't see the images you are using to send your concepts to me but it seems to be working nonetheless" Kathryn opened her eyes. "That was certainly interesting." "What did I miss?" B'Elanna said. "Apparently I can use the fringe effects of the phenomenon to communicate with someone else who's aware of it, or perhaps in it." "We'll try you next, B'Elanna," Kes said, and B'Elanna promptly tapped the appropriate controls on her own unit. Janeway felt a confused muddle in her head, and pictured the smooth green current again. "B'Elanna can you hear me" "Captain she's in pain Set her buffer unit to isolation touch the same control that opened your own reception" Janeway grabbed B'Elanna's arm and stabbed the control; the indicator glowed a bright steady green. B'Elanna swayed, a hand to her side. "What the hell? There was a...roaring, like breakers, or wind blasting, and..." she sat down abruptly in Janeway's vacated chair. "Then I felt squeezed. I could hear you, Captain. Not Kes, if she said anything. But..." Janeway and Kes exchanged looks. "If this is going to be successful as a way to get us home," Kathryn said with calm finality, "we have to find a way to make it work for everyone. But for now...B'Elanna is safe from an accidental immersion?" "Yes, if you are; that aspect of it wouldn't change from individual to individual. But the ability to use the river as a medium, for whatever action, may be connected to species, to age, to individual aptitude..." Janeway was nodding. "Yes...we'll worry about that after we've had food and rest. Working in the river is quite a strain." Kes got to her feet. "I'd like to spend some time in sickbay and the crop bays tomorrow, if it's all right, since you're both out of danger now." "Certainly it is. Sleep a bit late, and take the morning for that; we'll meet here after lunch, fourteen hundred. B'Elanna and I would both have easier minds for taking some time at our regular work, as well. B'Elanna?" The half-Klingon was looking faraway and pensive, hand still pressed to her side. "B'Elanna, are you injured?" Janeway gripped the Lieutenant's shoulder. Kes had opened her tricorder and was at B'Elanna's side immediately, scanning. "No, I'm all right now...it just didn't feel--right. I can't get--I just don't have the grasp of it you and Kes seem to. The only experiences I've had of the river were yours, Kathryn, and the first one--I could *see*, the perceptions, the patterns, it was all there--but..." "But you were hurt...I'd thought you'd decided on a working hypothesis about that." "I don't know. Just now...I don't think I'm as at home in the river as either you or Kes, Captain. Which is a real joke, since I'm the one who designed the translation matrix and the rest of the modified sensors to begin with." She stood up, and looked around at the mess. "How about just locking this holodeck up until we get back to it? I'm not in the mood to store everything properly." "Of course. I'll lock it on my authorization," Kathryn said softly. --- The door of the Captain's quarters closed behind Kathryn and B'Elanna. "You're not happy," Kathryn observed. "No, I'm not. Chicken soup," the half-Klingon asided to the replicator, and picked up the mug that materialized. She plopped down at the table with it, and stared at the backs of her hands. "That sounds about right," Janeway said at the replicator. "I'm hungry, but I'm too tired to eat." When her own mug materialized, she picked it up and joined B'Elanna, taking a swig of soup. She laid her hand over B'Elanna's and said "Frustrated?" "I'm wondering if my Klingon DNA is going to rear its ugly head again in the form of making it impossible for me to get any use out of my own creation." "It might have nothing to do with that. We simply have no idea as yet." "I have a sneaking suspicion." B'Elanna took a spiritless swallow of soup. "B'Elanna, you blame your Klingon physiology for almost everything that ever goes wrong in your life. Your Klingon attributes are as much a part of you as anything else, and I happen to be very fond of you as a unit. You wouldn't be who you are without your mother's genetic contribution. Personally, I wouldn't want you to be anyone else." "Thanks," the Lieutenant sighed. "You're right, moaning is pointless, especially over something I can't change. I'm just tired." "That makes two of us." Kathryn finished her soup, then started toward the laundry chute, unfastening her uniform; she halted halfway there, saying "Oops." B'Elanna wavered back to the common universe. "Problem?" "Come here and pull on this sleeve," Kathryn said; B'Elanna obliged, and they managed to drag the arm wearing the buffer unit through the jumpsuit sleeve without activating any of the controls. "A mechanical difficulty we should have anticipated," Kathryn muttered. "Here, help me with mine." "All right...pull." "Ow! There." "Will it hurt these units to get wet, or can we save ourselves the experience of showering with one arm held outside the door?" "It won't hurt them. Computer, lights." They were in bed and unconscious inside two minutes. --- "Kes?" The Ocampan blinked, looked up to see B'Elanna standing over her. Her own scanning unit rested, humming softly, in her lap; her hands were lax at her sides. She picked the unit up and shut it off as B'Elanna leaned against the console Kes was sitting at, the processes monitored on the screens continuing to register with soft computer comments at intervals. "Were you with the current again?" Torres asked with a half-smile. "This is the second time today you've left us like that." The Lieutenant and the Captain had solved a minor mechanical problem they encountered last night, they said, by dressing in uniform pants and boots with only sleeveless grey turtlenecks over them. Except B'Elanna, having spent half an hour feetfirst up a Jeffries tube to see if she would be able to reroute power for a particular operation in the real engineering without causing a problem, was in her stocking feet at the moment. "I know..." Kes looked serious, faintly nervous, lines creasing the smoothness of her forehead. "Is anything wrong? *You* aren't starting to lose control over the phenomenon, are you?" "No, that's not it. I was...exploring. B'Elanna, where's the Captain?" "She went to grab us some more coffee, and stop by the bridge. She wants to do a little spin control on the rumors. People have a lot of faith in her; the way we've been in each other's pockets lately, some people are saying the Captain's found a way to return us to the Alpha quadrant and all she needs with me and you is nuts-and-bolts work and a way to make sure it's safe for all the crew." Kes smiled. "Someone is very creative." "Or several someones. Rumors don't always even GET started; they just spring full-blown from the hopes and fears of a crowd. You look dazed," the engineer said suddenly, touching Kes's chin with a finger to raise her face. "Are you sure you're not going to wind up lost in some paradimensional swamp?" "The...currents, you said...are very powerful. But they seem...incomplete to me. There should be more to this phenomenon than there is. When we were building the buffer units to shield you and the Captain, you said something--that it was odd that you were the only one who couldn't seem to accomplish anything useful in the river, despite your obvious sensitivity to it, couldn't...catch a current, you said." "Yes, I just keep getting knocked around like flotsam. I remember when my father taught me to swim, he kept telling me I was trying too hard. Maybe that's it." "I don't know." Kes shook her head. "Another thing is the fact that this apparatus, specifically the translation matrix, doesn't seem to function unless someone is--I was going to say integrated into the circuit, but it's more that our nervous systems integrate IT into our central systems, isn't it?" "Yeah, if you're talking about relative complexity. You don't attach a ship to a thruster, you attach a thruster to a ship." "Yes. Twice today--" she looked at the nearest chronometer, and added "for about twenty minutes both times--I've used the scanner to gain access to the river, and I've tried to follow the patterns. They seem very complex, very deep, and they are fascinating--but I'm not any closer to determining exactly what type of aberrant space they exist in, if that's the word. Even if we're only perceiving what we could not perceive before, the associations between time and space--I should be able to follow the patterns. I can, to a point, and I don't lose perspective. But past a certain point..." "Well...maybe there's only so far Ocampa can go. I know you're unusually sensitive and highly trained for your people, but we all seem to have a sort of limit--Kathryn can be completely absorbed into the river, become part of it, but her perceptions get reformatted into a symbolic representation of what she's perceiving, and she can't follow and make ultimate sense of the river from an objective viewpoint any better than I can. I seem to be able to penetrate to a deeper level than either of you without getting my perceptions subverted by symbolism--but it makes me sick or injured, and even though I'm at a deeper level, I can't control or make sense of things the way you do." "While I," Kes finished for her, "seem to completely lack the tendency to be subjectively absorbed--my perspective, while coherent and under my control, remains outside. I...just have a feeling, B'Elanna. We're missing some very important information. That's why I keep ducking back into the river. I try different scan patterns, connect with the matrix from different angles...and things do change, but only to a point. Whatever it is that's so important--and there is something--I don't think I'm going to be the one to find it." "If not you, who? Do you think we should get one of the other telepathic members of the crew in on this? Ensign Solonehk in exobiology--I know she's young, by Vulcan standards, but I was talking with her one day when I went to the lab to take a look at a minor board malfunction. She reached Venlinahr before she turned twenty standard years old, which is almost unheard of for Vulcans, because of her exceptional telepathic abilities. Her personal tutor--" "I don't know, B'Elanna. I have a feeling that a Vulcan might be...might have more difficulty in the river than I, rather than less." "Well," B'Elanna laid a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry too much, Kes; after all, you've only been working with this phenomenon for a couple of days. We've only even known of its existence for less than a week. Don't expect miracles from yourself." "I know. Thank you, B'Elanna." "Maybe you should take a break. Do one of those meditations Tuvok showed you that you like so well." "Maybe I will." Kes smiled as the door to the holodeck swooshed open and closed, admitting Kathryn with a tray of mugs. B'Elanna swooped on the tray. "Ah, the elixir of life. How are things on the bridge?" Kathryn went to Kes's chair so the Ocampan could snag a mug for herself. "Nothing unusual. Rampant speculation. A lot of inquiring looks at this." She held up the wrist with the buffer unit on it. "And rumor control? How did that go?" "Oh," Kathryn rolled her eyes, sitting in the chair at the simulation computer station. "For all the good it did. I became rather vehement in my insistence that there is as yet essentially nothing on which to base expectations of return home. As I was leaving my ready room, Chakotay called me 'Captain Alecto'." "Great, now we're the Furies," B'Elanna laughed, rubbing at her eyes with her knuckles. "The Furies?" "More ancient Greek mythology," Kathryn said, setting her mug down where she wouldn't hit it with her elbow as she turned to the console. "Earth's history, in many different cultures, has no shortage of triune goddesses and sets of three sisters and suchlike. The Furies were three minor goddesses who carried out justice on patricides--and matricides, I think--by cursing them with madness and hounding them to death." "Oh. I suppose you must *have* been rather vehement." "As I said, for all the good it did. Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" "Kes took another swim. Tell the Captain what you told me, Kes." Kes proceeded to do so, and Kathryn quickly dropped what she was doing and turned to give Kes her complete attention. B'Elanna disappeared somewhere, probably back to whatever she'd been doing when she found Kes. Kathryn said "The phenomenon...as yet, its very complexity, our inability to record or describe it adequately, has been a major stumbling block--and you say there should be more to it? Exactly what do you feel is missing?" "A...sense of...I don't know. Permanence. Reality. A sense of place, of space. I know that doesn't make any sense, given the river's characteristics--of course it hasn't got a sense of place, it isn't a place, or even in a place. But I can't describe this feeling any better than you and B'Elanna can describe what you experience in the objective state of perception." "Your instincts have proven invaluable before," Kathryn mused. "Do you feel endangered by this when you explore the river? Do you feel any change in it or in your ability to readjust your perceptions back to normal?" "No, not at all. It's the same. Perhaps I've just had enough contact with it now to...notice this aspect of it. It may not be new; as you said, it's a very complex phenomenon." "True. Very well; as long as you feel no sense of danger or change in the potentials that could affect you or anyone else, I want you to continue your explorations. If all it takes is time and exposure, you may find the answer to your question yet." "Yes, I might...but I think I'll rest for a few minutes. B'Elanna suggested a meditation; I think I'm going to follow her advice." "Of course. There's no reason to strain yourself, or risk losing your bearing on the near shore. B'Elanna and I will be right here when you get back." "I don't need to leave the holodeck. Quiet is helpful, not necessary; anyway, it's not as though there's a much noise going on in here. The chair will do fine." "We'll keep our voices down." Kes closed her eyes and began a visualization, the first step in a simple meditation designed to generally clear and rest the mind. --- "So how goes it up here?" B'Elanna glanced sideways to see Kathryn's head protruding above the upper floor level she herself was on. "Not great. I think our idea to hook into the secondary sensor grid will give us the advantage of me not getting stepped on and getting in people's way so much, but my dry runs are staying just that. No more response from the translation unit leads to the simulator than before." "No sign of simulator activation?" "I can't even get the blasted data stream properly aligned up here. The systems of the secondary grid are even harder to physically reach than those of the primary grid. I think I'll quit before I've wasted any more time." The Captain had ascended and was kneeling next to B'Elanna. "What do you think of Kes's discovery?" "Hard to call it a discovery when she doesn't know what it is and she can't explain it." "All right, her intuition. Here." Kathryn gave B'Elanna a hand up. B'Elanna used her momentum to take Kathryn's arms in her hands and give her a quick kiss; the Captain kissed back, smiled and waited. "She says she's not going to be the one to discover whatever this missing element she's intuiting is, and if it's not her, I don't know who the hell it'll be. It's not gonna be me, I can tell you that. But she didn't seem comfortable with the idea of getting another telepathic member of the crew involved." "I can understand that. Kes is very protective of the crew and their health." "So says Captain Kathryn 'touch my crew and you're dead meat' Janeway." Janeway smirked but continued "Right now, the only people who might possibly be compromised by the river are you and me. Get someone else in here, with as much access to and handling of the modified sensor components as we've had, and there's no reason to think you wouldn't have to build another of these buffers. It's only been a few days; let's exhaust our possibilities before we bring anyone else into contact with this." B'Elanna sighed. "I'm partly thinking how some help could speed things up a little. We could make them wear envirosuits." "Which would help them exactly as much as it helped you." "Yeah, yeah...hey, help me get all this pulled out of the secondary sensory systems before you go back down, would you?" "Sure." When they had it clear, B'Elanna said "Computer, reset circuitry of secondary sensory systems to normal." A kerbleep of assent sounded, and they started taking everything back down the ladder. "I'm going to Engineering and get Nicoletti's report; I think everyone is feeling neglected," Kathryn said. "Is Chakotay neglecting them?" "No, and Tuvok's not either, but if I put on some show of normalcy it might calm everyone down a touch. I'll be back in a few moments. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." "What wouldn't you do?" "Disturb Kes. I think she needs this." "I won't make much noise." --- Kes felt something odd in her state of neutrality...the image she'd been in, a cloudless night sky over a still lake of calm water, began to flicker. The water began to develop a current. She tried to smooth the riffling surface again, but the current would not ease. She realized she was losing her position over the water, falling toward the-- A hoarse scream cut through her attempt and she reeled back to normal consciousness unprepared, what was wrong, that was B'Elanna's voice-- --and the Captain's-- "Why is her buffer off?" Kathryn was demanding, lunging for the small device and scrambling over a collection of random parts toward B'Elanna with it; the Lieutenant was thrashing, struggling, eyes open, shouting. "Captain, NO! She's already half in the river--I don't know what suddenly cutting her contact would do, it could trap her or divide her perceptions, her mind might not--" "What's the thing doing off to begin with? Get the med supplies!" Kes grabbed the handle of the antigrav pallet loaded with the supplies and ran over to them. "I don't know why, Captain, I was coming out of the meditation and I heard her shouting--" "B'Elanna, can you hear me? B'Elanna!" Kathryn fetched the half-Klingon a healthy slap, but there was no affect beyond turning B'Elanna's cheek purple-tinged. "The buffer must've been interfering with whatever test she was trying to run. B'Elanna, you idiot--can you bring her back?" Kes fell to her knees next to the staring, grimacing Lieutenant. She tried to reach her face, but B'Elanna was flailing, maybe in confusion, maybe with an unseen antagonist. Kathryn seized B'Elanna's arms from over her head and used all her strength to hold them out of Kes's way. "She's--too strong--" "B'Elanna can you hear me" B'Elanna was tangling with something relentless, something that had all the depth of space, and the power potential of a white dwarf. She would think she could feel her feet against a surface, but then the surface would shift, crushed as with supergravity floating and she would be falling, feeling her insides twist-- --and then she HAD no insides, no sensory organs, she did not exist in three dimensions, she could not-- "B'Elanna answer Can you hear me" Meaningless noise, driving her farther into the berserker state, the changespotentialscurrents she was in the river and she was going to drown-- "I can't reach her, Captain, I think she can hear me, but she's incapable of responding. I don't know how much longer she can last like this--Captain, WAIT!" But Kathryn had already released B'Elanna's arms, hooked her fingers under the buffer that protected her from immersion in a tide of unknown space and ripped it off, then seized B'Elanna's shoulders in her hands. --- She hit the ground with a body on top of her, hard; the wind was knocked out of her and her ribs felt bent. Gasping, she scrambled for purchase, and the other body rolled off. B'Elanna, of course; as they staggered to their feet, Janeway said "We're in the river, the subjective state--you couldn't respond to Kes in the halfway state." "Then where we are now is only another...metaphor..?" B'Elanna had looked down at herself." "Is that full armor?" Kathryn asked. "Or some kind of mental joke?" "It's full armor," B'Elanna said. "Antique. Let's get down from here. Stay behind me." They were on a rise under a dark sky that was half-lit by the fires that raged all around them, the sounds of metal crashing, screams, the smell of burning flesh. As they scrambled down the ridge on the side that seemed to be away from the worst of the fighting, Kathryn shouted "Is that the only thing you're armed with?" "You mean the sword of honor, here? No, I seem to have a kut'luch and a couple of other knives I don't think I could name. If we run into--oh my God." Below them, in the darkness, was a reflective surface; moving, as they could see the flaming body of a Klingon dressed like B'Elanna floating past a prominence of rock and toward them. They were still above the level of the water... "Captain," B'Elanna called over the noise, "We're in deep here." "Obviously, if--that looks like another woman. B'Elanna, is this some specific battle you're familiar with?" "Have you ever heard of a Klingon novel called 'Women Warriors at the River of Blood?" "No, but I suppose that's the river in question, then?" "Yes, and we need to get the hell out of here. Why'd you come in after me? Kes is the designated lifeguard around he--this way!" She grabbed Kathryn's arm, switching back; their direction was now around the hill rather than down it. "Kes couldn't reach you in the halfway state, remember? You came out of that on your own. We didn't know what reattaching your buffer would do to you. Why the HELL did you take it off?" "Would you believe I had an itch?" "No, you're not that stupid. I came because Kes CAN reach *me*--and you came with me last time she pulled me out." "Then she better hur--" suddenly she shoved Kathryn down on the ground, took up a defensive stance over her with the large curved weapon, and bellowed something in Klingon. Out of the darkness she got a response, which she overrode with an even louder bellow. There was a silence, and B'Elanna shrieked something, shaking the sword over her head. A pause, and a surly but contained reply came out of the dark. B'Elanna stood there a second more; Kathryn wisely didn't move. "All right," B'Elanna said, hauling the Captain up by the arm. "Let's get moving. I doubt I'll be able to pull that off again." "What happened?" "That was a mop-up patrol of the soldiers of Dakhkan," B'Elanna explained tersely as they stumbled through the dark. "I said I was a soldier of Queen Hahgrathat, and you were MY prize, taken from the personal slaves of Khanchih; he just got defeated here. Hahgrathat and Dakhkan aren't allies; they just both happened to attack Khanchih at the same time. And if we meet any real soldiers of Hahgrathat, we're sunk." "Why? Tell them you're with Dakhkan." "Can't. I'm wearing Hahgrathat's insignia." "Can you take it off?" "Then I'd be nothing but some unknown sellsword, probably Khanchih's--his are the only people here who have any reason to remove their insignia now." They found a level stretch and picked up speed. "Fully dishonorable, of course, so *everybody*, including Khanchih's remaining soldiers, would cut us down like weeds. Well, me. You they might keep, and you wouldn't like it. I'm telling you, we've got to get out of this quick." "I take it you didn't have the peaceful scenario Kes mentioned prepared." "I think I penetrated farther this time. Your ability to go subjective--but unfortunately, my metaphor." "I don't think I know you as well as I thought I did." "I sure as hell wouldn't have expected this either. 'Women Warriors at the River of Blood' is the most godawful Klingon romance novel I've ever encountered. I don't know what possessed me to--up this way, if we can get over this rise--it leads away from the fires--don't hold my hand, let me hold your arm. You're an outworld prisoner." "Right. Forgot." "Captain Wait Listen to me You and B'Elanna are creating the place you are Creating the River itself It's growing It's more elaborate I'm having trouble navigating You must stop what you're doing The river is deepening Captain Captain I'll keep following and calling Eventually you must hear me Captain It's Kes Answer me Captain" "It occurs to me, B'Elanna--" "Watch out, scree slide--" "I see it. Is there any way we can escape from this metaphor, any more than I could have swum to the surface from the caves in Olympus Mons?" "There weren't battle-crazed Klingons everywhere in Olympus Mons." "A telling point, but my concern is this: the river of blood is the primary symbol that is causing our perceptions to--" "Duck!" B'Elanna shoved her into a small ravine that extended downward and to their right--actual directions were impossible to fathom, if they'd even been relevant. "Your concern? Your concern is what?" B'Elanna hissed, covering Kathryn with her body and a lot of dirt as they lay low in the ravine, a very good approximation of a troop's worth of hob-nailed boots tramping by overhead. "That river is the reason for this whole scenario. I don't think there will be any way to get away from it, or from this battle that's producing it, without changing our perception toward the objective so that--" "Maybe so, but meantime we'd better keep away from these figments of my imagination, or your imagination, until Kes can find the right place to dive to contact you and bring us out. Remember, the first time I was in a halfway state, I bled real blood." "But we're not in a halfway state, we're IN the river now--" "Remember how my body temperature dropped from the ducking under Olympus Mons? When we were IN the river?" "...hm. You have a point there." --- "Captain I'm going to try something I'm going to release my connection to normal perception I believe I can return without the lifeline In any case you're too deep to reach with me tethered to the bank I'm coming after you Captain hold on hold your breath wait for me Here I come Here I come" --- "All right, Kes, now would be a good time," the Captain was muttering as they backed farther into the ravine, B'Elanna in front, Kathryn to the right and slightly behind her with the kut'luch. "Hit that trigger with your thumb," B'Elanna shouted as she ducked the first swing. If it hadn't been for the ravine, they'd already be dead; the four Klingons could come at them only one, maybe soon two, at a time. The one farthest back had a torch, unfortunately; the odds were well outlined. "Are you a match for them with that, B'Elanna?" Kathryn hit the trigger with her thumb and two additional spikes snicked out the sides of the knife's hilt. "Hell no," B'Elanna yelled back, "barely ever picked one of these up. Kes doesn't find us soon, we're dead. Shouldn't have taken the knife and blown the--" duck, swing, duck, kick. "--prisoner illusion. Now they'll likely kill you too after they take me down." "I can live with that better than the alternative. If you'll pardon the expre--" One of the other Klingon warriors feinted past B'Elanna's guard, and Kathryn's knife deflected the larger blade with a clang that nearly disarmed her. The sting of the blow numbed her arm; there was a stab of pain in the wrist that had held firm against the blow. "Captain can you hear me" "It's Kes!" "Tell her to get the duranium out! AAHK! Oh, you'll pay for that, you--" "Kes We are in grave danger B'Elanna is hurt You must get us out of here now" "I'm trying To find you I had to let go of the line to the bank I'm not sure if it will be as easy to return us this time I have no contact with the shore either" "No choice We're both about to die Take my hand Wherever you wind up leading us lead us there fast" "Follow me Captain I'm changing the permutations Changing the potentials Rocks in the current Follow me Captain" The other Klingon's weapon was arcing toward B'Elanna's head. Kathryn leaped, one hand outstretched for B'Elanna's face; she could only hope the weapon would no longer exist by the time she landed where B'Elanna was now. --- "Kes what's happening" "I don't know Is B'Elanna with you" "I'm right here" "It's Kes B'Elanna you can hear me" "Loud and clear Which way do we go" "I don't know I can find the bank But it has to be the right part of the bank" "Voyager In Kathryn's quarters you said we should try to stay focused on Voyager" "Yes B'Elanna" "Then Voyager it is" --- Kathryn's eyes opened; B'Elanna was putting the buffer back on her wrist. There was a big pressure bandage on the engineer's shoulder, but she was upright and clear-eyed. "Kes?" Janeway sat up, holding her head. "B'Elanna, is Kes all right?" "I'm fine. I'm calling the bridge to tell them we're all right. We've all suffered metabolic reductions and the holodeck sensors sounded the alarm. I've already talked to the Doctor." "Metabolic reductions? Why? How long were we out?" "Two hours and thirty-seven minutes from the time I went in after you, according to the chronometers." "What?!" Kathryn levered herself up against a console. "I know," Kes said, walking unsteadily toward her to run a medical tricorder over her. "I don't understand it either." "I suppose we should just accept the lost time as part of the vagaries of interdimensional travel. You got us back here, even if we lost some time. Excellent job, Kes." "Thank B'Elanna." "All I did was find Voyager." B'Elanna sat down in a computer console chair, rubbing her head. She was wearing her buffer again, too. "Which was more than I could do. B'Elanna's ability to continue to perceive even in the river--although it would certainly have been inimical to her if it went on for long--enabled her to sense normal space--our space--well enough to find Voyager, even from inside the river." "And you proceeded to get us here," B'Elanna finished. "I got us back to a normal state of perception. It was you who made me able to see that we returned to that state inside Voyager, at the same location as our bodies presently occupied. Sit down, Captain, please." Kathryn obliged, in the simulation console chair. "You mean, without B'Elanna's unfortunate tendency to not be fooled the way you and I were, Kes, we might have wound up sucking vacuum somewhere? Physical bodies and all?" "We may never know that for certain," Kes sighed. "But considering that our brains, separately or together, coupled with the translation matrix, were creating the river and our perception of it, I think it's quite possible. The river was only as real as we made it, and it certainly couldn't be relied on as a means of transportation." "I'll have to agree with you on that. Further research toward that end is hereby terminated. This phenomenon, whether a simple reformatting of our perceptions or a genuine window into alternate forms of space, is far too dangerous to continue working with. And if it is ONLY a reformatting of our perceptions...we'll never be able to use it as transportation anyway. Well, B'Elanna might, but it would kill her before she could get anywhere." "Anywhere good, at least," the half-Klingon muttered. "Inside a star, or something, but most likely sucking vacuum, yes, Captain." Janeway sighed. "Who'd have thought...the river, an artifact created by a link between our brains and an astrophysical sensor device. One hell of an emergent property." B'Elanna said a word she was not wont to say, at least in front of a superior officer, and Kathryn got up and went to her, sitting down on the floor by her chair and leaning in her lap as Kes followed her with the scanner. "B'Elanna, you were only trying to make some augmentations to our sensor array. You didn't go into this trying to single-handedly get us home." "Yeah." B'Elanna sighed, adjusted her bandage, and smiled slowly. "But it sure would have been something, wouldn't it?" Kathryn grinned. "Yeah. It sure would." "Sickbay," said Kes, and neither of them were inclined to argue with her. But Kathryn held out her hand to the other two. "One second, Kes." She touched a control on the simulation monitoring console, resetting it to the beginning of the monitoring process. It was running. B'Elanna started laughing, made a bug-eyed face and stopped, but Kathryn continued chuckling, leaning heavily on the console. "The sensor augmentation," Kes surmised, smiling. "It's working." "You were right to keep that data feed up," Kathryn said. "Hasn't been a total loss, if we can find a way to make that matrix safe for the maintenance crew to handle. Buffers are only a stopgap. Let's get out of here." Leaning on each other, two of them supporting whichever third had taken the most recent misstep, they made their way to the turbolift. "Captain, why's my cheek burning?" "Ah..." "Never mind, I think I know." She squinted over Kes's head at Janeway and said pointedly "'Hits'." Janeway muttered "So much for sleep tonight." "Captain," Kes suggested, "you could always try to settle it peacefully." "How so?" Kathryn smiled tiredly. "Promise not to have her demoted two ranks for being so unbelievably indifferent to her personal safety--and importance to this ship--as to remove her buffer when I was not conscious and present to help if she got into--" "You couldn't have helped anyway!" B'Elanna said, then squawked softly and raised a hand to her pressure bandage. "We weren't sure of that then. Besides, would you have taken the buffer off if I was in any condition to notice you doing it?" B'Elanna steamed, then spluttered "I was just trying to find out if the main node--" "AH-ah-ah--" Janeway laid a finger over the Lieutenant's lips. "I won't ask...and you don't get 'hits'. Consider it a done deal." B'Elanna sulked. --- Kathryn looked up from her sofa when the door signal bleeped. "Come in." B'Elanna came in, plodded to the bed and fell over on it. Kathryn got up with her cup of valerian tea, in her pink satin robe, her fall of blonde hair loose over one shoulder. "How's the battle wound?" B'Elanna's eyes slitted open. "You could've stayed in sickbay to defend me." "I decided the Doctor could give you your lecture on recklessness, since I bargained out of the privilege. And he DID have to clean up the mess. You're not in the Maquis any more, B'Elanna; we need you, alive and whole, far more than we need heroic risks." "The Doctor, you...I should just have taken 'hits'." "Ah, but the Doctor can't bust you two grades. Your bloodied shirt befouls my bedspread." "So undress me. I'm too tired." "Are you too tired for a bath?" "Alone or with you?" "I've showered, but the extra effort you made, taking Hausermann down to the holodeck and taking all that apart..." "The translation matrix itself is deactivated, as a unit. Don't worry. Now it's just a bunch of biocomponents with no connection to each other." "Then you deserve some help in the bath, don't you." Janeway set her tea down and started working the sleeveless turtleneck over the light waterproof bandage B'Elanna would wear until tomorrow. She tksed. "Wandering the ship in your stocking feet...not what I expect from my senior officers, Lieutenant." The shirt came off. "Oh, just keelhaul me and get it over with." She caught Kathryn in her legs and the Captain fell over her, catching herself to either side of B'Elanna on the bed. B'Elanna hauled the robe over Kathryn's shoulders--bare underneath, as it turned out. Kathryn laughed softly. "There's that indomitable spirit that gave you the strength to throw me on the ground and declare me your own prize." "Don't be smarmy, Kathryn. But if you really want me to throw you on the ground, wait until I've had sleep and I'll make it special." "How about you throw us both there?" "Sounds great. I want my bath..." she squeezed Kathryn in her legs and arms and added "And then, God, I could sleep for a week." "You can sleep for a few days, if necessary. One day, certainly. Are you sure you want to do it here?" B'Elanna opened her eyes. "Is it...do you..." "It's fine with me. I'll be taking the morning off tomorrow, at least; the Doctor insisted on a full day, but I'm not injured. Just battered and tired." "That isn't what I meant." "I know what you meant. But think, B'Elanna...you and me. Would anyone believe it?" She smiled. B'Elanna returned the smile. Then she began to giggle. So did Kathryn. "At least we won't have to play sardines with Kes tonight." They laughed harder, but Kathryn defended the Ocampan with the maternal tone of her voice. "Kes is a very reassuring armful." "And not much bigger than a teddy bear." "Teddy bears don't have warm breath and heartbeats. How was she when you left sickbay?" "Asleep on a biobed. The Doctor said he was going to remain activated through the night to keep an eye on her." "Good. She's been so scrupulous...thoughtful and--" "--clean, thrifty and reverent, a regular scout. Oh, stop that--" she grabbed the Captain's hand where it had started to deliberately tickle her ribs. "I love Kes, you know that." "Mm. How could you not love Kes?" Kathryn was startled when B'Elanna burst into snorting giggles at the sentiment. "All right, come on. Bath time." That got B'Elanna moving much faster than she'd felt herself capable of only seconds ago. She kicked out of her pants herself, as the Captain started for the bathroom. "I'll turn the water--hey." B'Elanna had snagged the belt of her loosened satin robe as Janeway turned away, and the garment slithered abruptly to the floor. Facing B'Elanna in all her strong-yet-delicate glory, she raised an eyebrow over her own smirk. "You Klingons. So devious." "You didn't want to get it wet, did you? I take it you were expecting me?" "Not expecting." The smirk turned into a real smile as she quoted B'Elanna again; "Wished for it. Hoped for it. The tub will be ready in just a moment." As she strolled off toward the bathroom, B'Elanna watched the play of the dimmed lights across the smoothly shifting muscles under her ivory skin. "This is gonna be one short bath," she muttered, then quickly divested herself of her underwear. She listened to the water running in the tub-fill, splooshing and trickling, and Janeway 's voice making several soft requests to the computer. Then she hauled herself up, went to the bathroom door and peered in. Steam was shifting in convective spirals in the muted pink lighting. Four pillar candles burned out of harm's way on the high rim around the back of the tub; a classical guitar wove a complex, understated melody from the comm speakers. Some herbal scent, floral but not sweet, was carried on the steam. Kathryn was sitting on a fuzzy cream-colored rug with a bath brush in one hand, leaning an elbow on the tub. "Your chariot awaits," she smiled. Naked, sitting on the floor, she still had more dignity than anyone B'Elanna had ever known; it survived any situation because of its unpretentiousess. Kathryn didn't need to be in uniform, in her ready room or the command chair, to personify elegance. B'Elanna just stood there a moment, looking at her. The Captain rose in a single graceful movement, taking B'Elanna's hands. "Is anything wrong? I know all this pink lighting and flowers aren't exactly part of the face I show my crew," she joked gently, "but there's hardly any need to look that awestruck." "I'm awestruck over you," B'Elanna said, and kissed the other woman hungrily. Kathryn made an appreciative murmur and the kiss extended a while. When it finally ended, Kathryn whispered "Come on," and led B'Elanna toward the water. "I take it you do this a lot." B'Elanna stepped onto the fuzzy rug and the door closed behind her, trapping the scent and humidity. "The whole production is my reward at the end of a trying but successfully handled day. And in general, a hot bath relaxes me, helps me think." "Still," B'Elanna said, stepping into the water--excruciatingly hot; B'Elanna held her breath as the current pressed against the back of her leg--and then sank the second foot, inuring herself to the heat. She started the process of lowering herself into the tub. "I wouldn't've thought pink would be your style." She could feel the automatically cleaned and recirculated water as a pressure against her back, flowing around her, supporting her. "And why not? On my own time, I pick my own color schemes. Are you used to the heat?" "Mostly. If I didn't know better I'd say you were part Klingon, or Vulcan. You must be pretty pink yourself after these therapy sessions, pun intended." "I ran the water for what I assumed would be your preference." "You were right." She sighed as Kathryn began applying the brush to her neck and shoulders. The consistency of the brush was rough enough for B'Elanna, if not as abrasive as the deactivated engine systems brush Kathryn had used on her in the icy mineral-laden spring on Heartwood. "Take the bandage off," she murmured after a few moments. "If I do, there might be some scarring." "Kes will fix it for me later. Take it off." Kathryn set the brush down long enough to press the corners of the triangular pad all at once, firmly. The seal released; she set the bandage on the floor behind her. "But I'm not scrubbing there." "Use your hand." "That will do no harm, I suppose," Kathryn said softly, almost a whisper. Kathryn had done all of her down to the waist when B'Elanna said "Come in with me. You can't reach the rest of me from there." "It'll be..." "...a little crowded," B'Elanna finished with her, laughing. "But not very. This is bigger than my tub." "This class of ship only has the Galaxy accommodations for the Captain and first officer." "Yeah," B'Elanna snorted. "Rank certainly hath its privileges in Starfleet." "Don't be childish. Or I won't get in with you." "Yes you will." B'Elanna grabbed her shoulders and started to haul, but Kathryn yelped "The heat! I have to adjust the temperature!" "Oh, yes. Sorry." B'Elanna let her back over the tub edge, and Janeway said "Computer, decrease water temperature by ten degrees, in gradual stages." The computer kerbleeped. Kathryn helped pass the minutes of waiting by giving B'Elanna a shoulder massage, using an oil whose fragrance B'Elanna recognized. "The potpourri or whatever you have in here, it's that oil, or like it." "Rosemary, in olive." "I like it." "I knew you would." "I think the water's cooled down." B'Elanna was immediately supported by the computer's "Water temperature now reduced by ten degrees." "You're in league with the computer, aren't you," Kathryn said. "No, Harry's in league with the computer. Paris said once--" "Oh, Paris again." "He said that if the Voyager were a fifty-seven Chevy, and it wasn't working, Harry would be under the dash trying to get all the lights and the radio to work, and I would be under the engine, screaming 'Throw me a six-millimeter!'" Janeway's chuckles were almost swallowed by the water, as she laid out along B'Elanna's side, and both women turned in the water to face each other, a massive sploosh registering her arrival and increasing the reuptake rate of the intake vents. "Oh..." Kathryn stretched her shoulders and rolled her head. "Perfect." "Don't get too comfortable. You haven't finished my bath." "With great joy, I will finish your bath." As they floated in a loose embrace, the rough brush found its way across B'Elanna's lower back, her belly, and her thighs. "I need washing in between." "Not with this brush, you don't." "Then use your hand." Leaning her shoulders against the tub edge, she pulled the other woman up against her and kissed her again, and the utilitarian aspect of the bath was completely ignored from that point. They kissed like they were determined to devour each other, bodies meshing together in the heat and support of the water, wet skin sliding on skin. Lifting Kathryn a little, B'Elanna turned her attentions to the exquisite line of the Captain's collarbone; she was excited enough to draw blood, but she toned it down to more discreet sucking and nipping, then started up the side of the white, rapidly red-flushing neck. Kathryn was emitting that hissing moan that made B'Elanna dizzy with the urge to throw herself on top of the Captain, roaring with desire, and it didn't help that Kathryn was massaging B'Elanna's breasts with the care and skill of an artist. The half-Klingon grabbed the backs of Kathryn's knees and yanked, flipping her over onto her back, following to land on top of her, cushioned by the water; another sploosh ricocheted wildly from the sides of the tub. She was careful that Kathryn contacted the elevated rest behind her gently rather than banging her head on the back of the tub, which could've thrown a damper on even B'Elanna's mood. She worked her way back across the Captain's collarbone and down to her breasts, laving one nipple with her tongue and fingering the other breast with as much as she could manage toward the bravura performance Kathryn had given her. She arched her back against the nails Kathryn was sinking in it. In about five minutes, they had reached the stage of needing like hell to get out of the water. B'Elanna had already bitten Janeway twice, and had a healthy set of teethmarks just under her left breast. The bed was entirely too far away, so they wound up soaking the fuzzy cream-colored rug. B'Elanna heaved Kathryn over the tub rim and then rolled out and landed on her, sliding down her body and hooking Kathryn's legs over her own shoulders. The Captain spared a thought of gratitude to the rug--she knew she was going to be in a state of spasm in about three minutes and was glad she wouldn't be cracking her head against a tile floor. Kathryn returned the favor--B'Elanna just went ahead and roared; the hell with the inadequate soundproofing--and they finally collapsed in a tangled, sweaty heap. They just breathed for a few minutes; finally Kathryn observed "We could use a bath." "My GOD I don't have the strength." "I mean a real one, not one designed as an excuse to get our claws into each other." "So do I." "I admit, sex with you is sometimes an endurance event--" "Geez, Kathryn, love you too." "I didn't mean it like that and you know it. But I at least need a rinse. And I'd love some company." "Okay. But no getting me so turned on this time, all right? I'm all in." A bit later, dried off and in bed, B'Elanna stayed awake long enough to whisper into Kathryn's damp hair "Tomorrow. I promise not to be so abrupt." Kathryn stroked B'Elanna's back. "I happen to like fast and furious." "I know you like it slow and deliberate, too, and so do I. We don't always have to make love like ravening wolves." "Any style you want. Tomorrow. Go to sleep, Lieutenant." B'Elanna crashed, hard. But the Captain lay awake a while longer, thinking about perceptions, and currents of possibility; and B'Elanna defending her from four Klingon warriors with a weapon she barely knew how to use; and Kes's eyes, deep as a summer sky, as Janeway opened her own to realize that this most unassuming hero had saved the day yet again. As she drifted off, her mind filled with images of serene rivers, gently rolling brooks, a round Earthly moon rising over a shining ribbon of water. She slept, borne along like a leaf. --- The End