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.

But they both needed rest, she reflected 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...

---

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 as 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 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.

---

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