The BLTS Archive - Cupid Capricious
by ILuvKate

---

"I'll be in my Ready Room, Commander," Kathryn said, rising from her
command chair where she'd been fidgeting for the last thirty-five
minutes, and tugged her jacket down. She knew she was driving everyone
on the bridge crazy with her restlessness. At least in her Ready Room
she could pace and prowl and fidget all she wished without worrying
about disturbing someone else.

The doors of ther Ready Room slid closed behind her and she stood,
shoulders slumped, face in her hands. Damn it, being Captain was hell
sometimes. No, she amended, being Captain and being married to the
Chief Engineer was hell sometimes. Particularly when the Chief
Engineer had to go away on a mission that only she could complete.
There was danger involved, so there'd been no question of Kathryn's
tagging along. The danger inherent in the mission was bad enough, but
B'Elanna was skilled enough to keep herself safe. No, the big problem
with this particular mission at this particular time was that B'Elanna
was going to be gone on Valentine's Day. They both agreed that it was
strictly gratuitous mush that had made them plan a romantic
Valentine's Day, complete with flowers, candy, romantic gifts, in a
setting strictly for lovers.

They had found out about a pleasure planet here in the Delta Quadrant
that was said to rival Risa in the Alpha Quadrant. Kathryn and
B'Elanna had spent hours making plans, some secret one from the other,
others made together.

Now B'Elanna was ten light-years away on a mission to disable a weapon
very similar to the Cardassian dreadnought she had had to disable last
year. That was why she was the only one who could go and why there was
danger involved. This missile was not one she had reprogrammed, but
one that had gone awry. However, the owners of the missile, the
Quibridians, who inhabited a small planet in a star system Voyager was
passing, had been unable to shut the missile's systems down and it
posed a threat to a small inhabited moon nearby. So they had contacted
Voyager and asked for help.

Kathryn and B'Elanna had sat on the couch, both deeply disappointed at
the disruption of their Valentine's Day plans. B'Elanna wrapped
Kathryn in her arms and rocked her soothingly. "I'm sorry, baby," she
murmured, stroking Kathryn's silky hair. "You know I'm the only one
who can do this."

"I know," Kathryn sighed. "It's just one of those things, but I hate
it." B'Elanna kissed the top of her head.

"I do, too, dear," she said. "I had a terrific surprise planned for
you." Kathryn reached up and nuzzled B'Elanna's neck.

"Me, too," she said. "We'll just have to celebrate Valentine's Day
late."

"And on the holodeck," B'Elanna grumbled. "I was really looking
forward to making love to you on a real beach." Kathryn sighed again.
They sat in silence for a minute and then B'Elanna's hands began to
roam. Kathryn shifted to reach up and kiss her and as the kiss
deepened and became more searching, B'Elanna began to divest her of
her uniform. They slid down to the floor, hands pulling at clothing,
stroking and caressing bare flesh, mouths devouring. Kathryn was
finally naked, and B'Elanna was nearly so when Kathryn began trailing
hot wet kisses down across B'Elanna's flat belly, up the inside of one
thigh, and down the inside of the other one. Her tongue swirled around
B'Elanna's throbbing clit, eliciting a ragged moan from her lover's
throat.

"Oh, God, Kathryn, yes!" she gasped, her hands grasping Kathryn's
shoulders. "Ohh, yes, baby. Do it to me! Hard, lover!" Kathryn
complied with pleasure, licking, sucking, and stroking vigorously with
her busy tongue. B'Elanna's body spasmed in rhythm with Kathryn's
ministrations, and she continued to murmur wordlessly with pleasure as
her orgasm mounted. Kathryn shot her over the top and she cried out in
sensuous delight as the climax racked her from the pit of her stomach
to the tips of her toes. Kathryn propped her head on one elbow as she
watched her lover come, taking as much pleasure in the sight as if she
herself were experiencing orgasm.

Now, in her silent, empty Ready Room, Kathryn sighed in frustration.
Suddenly the room she'd sought as haven, seemed claustrophobic, and
she found she didn't want to stay in there. Memories of the times she
and B'Elanna had made love in here were crowding around her. God,
Kathryn, she thought, get a grip! She's just on an away mission.

Abruptly, she turned and left the Ready Room. She'd walk through the
ship. That would dissipate some of this pent-up energy. As she walked
down a corridor, she met a young ensign carrying a toolkit. He nodded
in greeting to the captain and stooped down in front of an access
panel. She stopped to see what he was doing and saw that it was some
minor repair work for some damaged circuitry.

"Ensign," she said impulsively. "Why don't you go to the Mess Hall and
have a cup of coffee, or whatever you'd like. On me. I'll do this."
The ensign looked at her curiously.

"Captain?" he enquired.

"I'm feeling antsy at the moment, Ensign," Kathryn admitted. "I need
something to occupy my attention for a while. This should do it."

"Uh, yes, ma'am," he agreed, glancing at the damaged circuitry, "I'd
say it'd keep you occupied for a while, yes."

"And I'll bet you've got something else you'd much rather be doing,
wouldn't you?" the captain said, smiling. "Go on, Ensign. You do think
I'm capable of completing this repair, don't you?" she added archly.
He flushed slightly.

"Of course, Captain," he said hurriedly. "That never entered my mind."

"Good, then," Kathryn said. "I'll take over." He rose and tugged his
jacket down.

"Thank you, Captain," he said. She nodded absently, already poking
around in the circuitry. He hurried off down the corridor and as soon
as he was out of sight, tapped his commbadge. "Morris to Cmdr
Chakotay."

"Chakotay here," came the First Officer's response. "What can I do for
you, Ensign?"

"Er, Commander," the young man began, and proceeded to explain what
had just taken place. When he finished, Chakotay laughed.

"She's right, Ensign, she's feeling restless. If she wants to do scut
work, let her. Go enjoy your coffee. Don't look a gift horse in the
mouth."

"Aye, sir," Morris replied. "Uh, sir? Gift horse?"

"Ancient Earth saying," Chakotay responded. "Chakotay out."

Kathryn, unaware of this byplay, immersed herself in the job at hand.
The work was intricate and demanding enough that she had to
concentrate wholly on what she was doing and with that to occupy her
mind, forgot about her depression and frustration with B'Elanna's
being away. She finished the task, closed the access panel, and
returned the tools to the toolkit. She walked back to Engineering and
replaced the toolkit.

Well, she thought, that was a nice little interlude. Restlessly, she
prowled Voyager's corridors, stopping by the Science lab to survey the
progress of some experiments. She even sat down at a station, ignoring
the curious stares of the technicians scattered around, and puttered
around with some experiments herself, recalling nostalgically, the
days when this was her job. How much simpler my life would be right
now if I'd stayed in Science, she reflected, putting away the
equipment she'd been using. If I were just a science officer or
something, I could've found an excuse to go with B'Elanna. She sighed,
tidied up the station and meandered on out to continue her aimless
trek through the ship.

She left a trail of puzzled querying among her crew as they watched
their captain prowl her ship. Most of them did not even know of the
ancient Earth tradition associated with Valentine's Day, so they did
not know why Kathryn was more dispirited over her spouse's absence
than she would normally be.

She returned to the Bridge, determined to sit quietly. You're acting
like some over-age adolescent, she scolded herself as she entered the
turbolift. "Bridge," she instructed the computer. Get a grip, she
continued lecturing herself. You're the captain of this ship, and
you're supposed to set an example for your crew. The turbolift halted
and squaring her shoulders, she stepped onto the bridge and went to
her command chair. She nodded to Chakotay.

"Tell me something exciting happened while I was gone," she said
humorously, settling herself into her seat.

"I'm afraid not, Captain," her First Officer replied. "It's been as
quiet as the Arizona Desert at sunrise." She nodded absently.

"Lt. Paris," she spoke to Voyager's helmsman, "what is our ETA to
Eerzahn?" Eerzahn was the fabled pleasure planet they were going to.

"Twelve hours and twenty-nine minutes, Captain," Paris replied, "at
our present speed." Kathryn nodded.

"Maintain course and speed, Lieutenant," she ordered unnecessarily.

"Aye, Captain," Paris responded.

Kathryn managed by an effort of concentration and will, to remain
still in her seat without squirming and fidgeting, although it had
been difficult and by the time her shift finally, eons later, ended
and she could escape to her quarters, she was ready to break
something.

She entered their quarters with relief and threw herself into a chair.
She realized that since she and B'Elanna had fallen in love, they had
never been separated for this long. That was part of her problem. The
other was the fact that this was their first Valentine's Day together
and they were apart. She sighed. They would be arriving at Eerzahn in
a few hours. She'd seen couples throughout the ship over the last two
or three days discussing their shore leave excitedly, although she
doubted many of them were planning anything around Valentine's Day.
She sighed. That's what you get for being such a sentimentalist,
Kathryn, she told herself.

"Oh, 'Lanna," she said aloud. "I miss you so damn much!" Her arms
fairly ached to be holding her lover's slim curvaceous body. With a
frustrated exclamation, she got to her feet and went into the bedroom
where she sat down on their bed. She reached for B'Elanna's pillow and
buried her face in it, inhaling B'Elanna's scent. Oh, baby, I love you
so much, she thought. Just be safe and come back to me as soon as you
can. She lay down across the bed, hugging the pillow.

---

B'Elanna gritted her teeth and for the third time, recalibrated the
navigational array. Dripping with sweat inside the cramped interior of
the rogue missile, whose speed she'd at least managed to slow by one
third, she forced herself to concentrate on entering the right key
sequences. She sighed in relief as the green lights on the keypad all
glowed brightly. She dragged the sleeve of her uniform across her
streaming brow ridges and sat back on her haunches to rest a bit. The
missile of course did not have environmental controls and only the
most rudimentary life support which she estimated would be gone in
another eight or ten hours. Bad enough to be doing this against a
deadline, but having to worry about her oxygen giving out was an added
worry she didn't need.

Damn, she missed Kathryn. That was the reason it had taken her three
tries to recalibrate the navigational array correctly because her mind
kept wandering to a slim figure in crisp red and black, and rich
auburn hair that she loved to tangle her hands in--stop it, Torres,
she warned herself, leaning forward to begin the task of either
correcting the missile's course and head it toward an unoccupied moon,
or set it to self-destruct out in space. You do not need any
distractions at this point. This next bit is going to be tricky work.

Her agile mind ran fluidly over the options available to her for
solving the thorny problem. She had already shed her uniform jacket
and the turtleneck was beginning to make her feel as though she were
smothering. She rose to her feet and hauled it off over her head, and
unbidden, the thought of how it felt when Kathryn did that flooded her
senses, infusing her with a heat totally unrelated to the lack of
climate control on the missile.

Muttering an irritated curse, she flung the sweat-damp turtleneck on
top of her jacket and paced away from the control panel, trying to get
herself re-focused on the task at hand. Dammit, Torres, she lectured
herself, the longer you take to do this, the longer you're going to be
away from her. Get a grip! She snatched up her water canteen and drank
thirstily, cursing the heat and close atmosphere. She tapped her chest
where her commbadge would be and then swearing, realized it was on her
jacket. Muttering more curses, she retrieved the badge and affixed it
to her tank-top. She tapped it. "Torres to Redman," she hailed the
crewman who'd accompanied her on the shuttle on this mission.

"Redman here, Lieutenant," he replied.

"I'm almost out of water, Howie," she responded. "Beam me over another
canteen, will you?"

"Sure thing, Chief," he replied. "Hot over there, I'll bet."

"You don't even want to know," B'Elanna said tiredly, eyeing the
waiting control panel sourly. "Also, get ready to beam over those
loose torpedoes. Might as well get them out of the way."

"Will do. Water's on its way," Redman said.

"Thanks, Howie," she said as a water canteen materialized into view.
At the same time, six dull gray cylinders she'd stacked in a heap
vanished as per her orders. Sighing, she walked back over to the
control panel and stooped down in front of it.

Of all damn times to be sent on an away mission, she thought, scanning
the controls with her tricorder and studying the readout. She and
Kathryn had had a romantic Valentine's Day planned on that pleasure
planet and they had both been looking forward to it like a couple of
teen-agers. Now here she was ten light-years away, and tomorrow was
Valentine's Day. While the rest of Voyager's crew frolicked about on
Eerzahn, she would be stuck in a hot, nearly airless missile, trying
to keep it from firing three armed torpedoes at an occupied moon.
Kathryn would no doubt remain on board Voyager while her crew took
shore leave. B'Elanna knew her. She blew out her breath in an
explosive sigh and experimentally keyed in a sequence on the missile's
control panel. The blinking red lights kept on blinking instead of
turning green as she'd wanted them to, and she muttered a curse.
"C'mon, you stupid piece of junk...."

She'd replicated a sexy little number of a nightgown that she knew
would blow Kathryn's socks off. That was what she'd planned to wear to
bed after they returned to their lodgings on Eerzahn after making love
on one of its beaches all day. It was black, and so sheer as to be
almost transparent, and Kathryn would have loved the sight of her dark
nipples and dark patch of hair nearly visible through the thin fabric,
Kathryn would have had the most fun getting it off of her.

With an agonized grunt, B'Elanna threw the tricorder aside and jumped
to her feet again. Gods, she had to stop this! If she didn't, the only
way she was going to get back to Kathryn was in pieces because this
damned missile was going to blow up because she couldn't keep her mind
on the business at hand. Burying her face in her hands, she tried to
bring her inflamed senses back under control. You are a grown woman,
B'Elanna Torres, and the Chief Engineer on a starship. Whether or not
you complete this mission successfully depends entirely on your
getting this missile under your control! Now snap to it!

She worked steadily for the next several minutes and succeeded in
getting partial control of the missile, but she still wasn't finished.
She had to disable the firing mechanism, the trickiest part of all,
and the most important. She focused her concentration hard on on the
control panel and studied her tricorder.

---

Kathryn awakened in the grip of an intensely erotic dream, soaked in
sweat, clutched B'Elanna's damp pillow, her heart pounding, and her
vagina throbbing. She was soaked down there, too, she realized
ruefully, as she rubbed her eyes and tried to return fully to the
waking world. She looked around, momentarily confused, and then
remembered lying down across the bed holding B'Elanna's pillow. She
sighed and laid the pillow on the bed, scooting forward to sit on the
side of the bed and rest her flushed, damp face in her hands. The
longing for B'Elanna washed over her and she stood up, unzipping her
uniform jacket. She was going to take a shower and go to bed like a
normal person. Better make it a cold one, she thought wryly as she
tossed the clothing in the recycle slot and headed for the bathroom.

Standing under the hot steady spray of water, she wondered what
B'Elanna was doing at this moment. Probably cursing a blue streak
because she hadn't gotten the missile under complete control by this
time, she thought grinning. I hope you've been able to concentrate
better than I have, my love, she thought as she soaped herself and
picked up a washcloth. B'Elanna tended to be pretty single-minded when
confronted with a technical challenge, so she was probably immersed in
the job at hand, barely even remembering that tomorrow was Valentine's
Day.

---

"By the sword of Kahless, I don't believe this!" B'Elanna roared,
hurling the coil spanner she was holding at the missile's far wall.
Not only had she failed to disable the missile's firing sequence, but
somehow the firing time had been accelerated. Now instead of seven
hours until the torpedoes were fired, she only had three. She swore
again. It hadn't happened because her attention had been wandering,
thank the spirits, but her tinkering had activated something that
moved the firing time up.

Hell, she thought, turning to study the missile's reactor chamber. The
only way I'm going to stop the thing in time now is to get into the
reactor chamber and shut it down manually. Risky at best, it would be
a delicate, time-consuming procedure, and time was something she
didn't have in abundance. Phasering it was out of the question. Not
even Voyager's powerful phasers could have cut through the strong
alien alloy, and besides, since she couldn't scan it internally, she
had no way of knowing if she would fire on something critical that
would trigger the missile's defenses. She moved over to the reactor
chamber and removed the access panel. As if it wasn't hot enough out
here, it was going to be worse in there. In addition, there was barely
room to work. She slapped her commbadge.

"Torres to Redman," she said. Redman responded. "Howie, I need a
radiation suit. I'm going to have to shut the reactor down. Keep a
lock on me for emergency beam-out, and be ready to go to warp at
once."

"Understood, B'Elanna," he said. "Be careful." The radiation suit
materialized and B'Elanna got into it quickly, and then crawled inside
th cramped chamber.

---

"Bridge to the Captain." The hail pierced the thin mantle of Kathryn's
restless sleep, and she sat up.

"Janeway here," she said. "Go ahead." She was already out of bed and
heading for the closet.

"Captain, there is an armada of ships heading in our direction,"
Tuvok's dispassionate voice came over the channel. "Their weapons are
powered and they appear to be on an intercept course."

"Any response to hails?" Kathryn asked, pulling on her clothes.

"No, Captain," Tuvok responded.

"I'm on my way," she said. "Janeway out."

She and Chakotay arrived on the bridge together. "Report," she said to
Tuvok who rose from her command chair and headed for his security
station.

"There are twelve ships, Captain," he told her. "All smaller than
Voyager, but their weapons are at least as powerful as ours. Their ETA
is eight minutes, seven seconds."

"Try hailing them again," Kathryn said. "We've done nothing to provoke
anyone. This may be another species that doesn't like people in their
space."

"No response, Captain," Tuvok told her. She scowled.

"Battle stations," she said tersely. "Red alert." The klaxons began to
wail.

"The ships are in visual range, Captain," Tuvok reported. Janeway and
Chakotay both leaned forward slightly in their seats, studying the
approaching fleet of ships. "We are being hailed, Captain," Tuvok
said.

"On screen," she said, rising, hands behind her back. "I am Captain
Kathryn Janeway of the Starship Voyager," she said. The image of a
willowy alien female with skin the color of walnut,and hair as black
as a raven's wing appeared on the screen. Her bearing was imperious
and she stood tall and straight. Her face was an inscrutable mask. She
wore what appeared to be leather and metal armor of brown and brass. A
scarlet sash bisected the upper half of her body from shoulder to hip.

The two women studied each other appraisingly for a minute. Then the
alien responded to Kathryn's announcement.

"I am Hah-lu'rah of the Nakronian Alliance," she said. "You are
trespassing in our space."

"We apologize for any intrusion," Kathryn said, "but we are on our way
back to the Alpha Quadrant, and--"

"That is an implausible excuse," the alien interrupted rudely. "The
Alpha Quadrant is 54,000 light-years from this position."

"I realize it must sound like that," Kathryn explained, "but we were
brought here by a powerful entity four years ago, and we've been
trying to get back home since that time."

"I have no wish to stand here and listen to improbable explanations
while you are no doubt assessing our capabilities and preparing to
attack," the other woman said suspiciously. She glanced at someone
standing next to her just out of Kathryn's line of vision. "End this
transmission and go to Alert Status Priority One." The screen went
black and Kathryn turned back to her chair, glowering.

"Maintain Red Alert," she said. "Mr. Paris, evasive maneuvers, Psi
Seven." The helmsman nodded.

"Aye, Captain," he replied. A blinding blue flash irradiated the
bridge as the aliens fired their weapons at the ship. Voyager rocked
slightly.

"Shields holding," Kim announced.

"Return fire, Mr. Tuvok," Kathryn snapped, her face thunderous as she
stared out at the diving swooping ships of the Nekron Alliance.
"Target their weapons array." The Vulcan sent two sizzling phaser
blasts across the distance separating the two ships. There was an
explosion of light as the blast found its target.

"Direct hit, Captain," he said calmly. Kathryn nodded with grim
satisfaction.

"Hold your fire for a moment, Mr. Tuvok," she said. "Let's see what
their next action is."

"Aye, Captain," Tuvok replied. They waited for the alien ship to hail
them, but there was silence on the comm channel. Neither did the
Nekronian ships move away from Voyager.

"Mr. Paris," Kathryn said after five minutes of nothing. "Reverse
course and take us away from this sector of space. Warp Six."

"Yes, ma'am," Paris replied, bringing the ship about and laying in the
course.

"We can't get too far from the rendezvous point where B'Elanna and
Redman are supposed to meet us," she explained to Chakotay, who
nodded.

"Understood," he said. They both watched the Nekronian ships dwindle
away as Voyager sped away from them.

"I have no desire to get into a pitched battle with these people,"
Kathryn continued. "They outnumber us ten to one." She got up to pace
away from her chair. One thing about a crisis, she thought. It focuses
you. She hadn't thought about B'Elanna at all for the past fifteen
minutes.

"Captain, the Nekronians are in pursuit," Kim said to her from Ops.

"Confirmed," Tuvok said. "Ten ships, weapons powered on an intercept
course."

"Dammit," Kathryn muttered irritably. "We left. What more do they
want?"

There was no time to answer as weapons fire raked the ship, sending
several people, the captain among them, sprawling to the deck. Kathryn
clawed her way back into her chair.

"Hail the--" Her order was interrupted as seven forms suddenly
materialized on the bridge. How in hell did they get through the
shields? she wondered as she grabbed a phaser and prepared to go to
hand to hand combat. Voyager's bridge crew engaged the invaders, and
for several tense minutes, there was only the sound of grunts and
thumps as they attempted to subdue the Nekronians.

Kathryn rolled around on the deck with the woman who had identified
herself as Hahlu'rah struggling fiercely to land a telling blow but
the alien's larger size and body armor was protecting her more or less
and Kathryn was getting the worst of it. The woman fought with a knife
that rivaled a Klingon dagger for size and sharpness and blood poured
from a slash in her shoulder. The rest of the bridge crew was
similarly engaged with their own combatants and no one could come to
the captain's aid. One eye was almost swollen shut, a ragged cut lined
her left cheekbone and her face was one purpling bruise.

Kathryn balled her two fists and clutched one in the other driving
upward with all her draining strength and felt a satisfying crunch as
they made contact with the Nekronian's jaw. The alien slumped and
rolled off of her bonelessly, out cold. Kathryn scrambled to her feet,
fighting a wave of dizziness. Fumbling for her phaser she fired at two
aliens who had attacked Tuvok.

Now that she had raised the odds in the bridge crew's favor, the tide
began to turn and the rest of the crew combined with the arrival of
Security, made short work of the rest of them.

"Round them up and get them to the Transporter Room," Kathryn told
Tuvok, panting from pain and exertion. "Beam them back to their
ships." The Security chief nodded and motioned to the rest of the
Security squad to begin gathering the Nekronians. Kathryn felt the
bridge spin around her and she grabbed at the railing for support.
Dimly, she heard Chakotay's urgent voice, but couldn't make herself
respond. All of a sudden, it hurt like hell to breathe.....

---

B'Elanna worked feverishly to gain access to the insides of the
missile's reactor, sweat pouring down her face in the close, hot
atmosphere, which was growing closer and hotter as the minutes passed.
There was only one thought in her mind: shut the reactor down and shut
it down in the next ten minutes.

"Gods," she muttered, working to free the panel covering the reactor's
circuitry and controls. The bolts had been tightened with a power tool
and even with her superior strength, she was finding it hard going
getting them loose. Three had given away and there were five more to
go. The makers of the missile had not intended for anyone to be
tinkering with the reactor's insides, so they had not made access
easy.

Two more of the bolts broke loose under her ministrations and she
attacked another one. Sweat streamed down her face, in the radiation
suit and it was only the minimal environmental controls that kept her
face-plate from fogging up.

When the last bolt rattled across the metal surface of the chamber
floor, B'Elanna jerked the cover off and tossed it aside. She stared
in dismay at the circuitry, a mass of wires, cables, connectors, and
terminals. What a tangled mess. It would take her an hour to sort
through this thicket. She fumbled for her tricorder, flipping it open
and scanning the mass of wires and cables. She grimaced at the passage
of time.

Groping in the pocket of her radiation suit for some snips, she
grappled them into position and maneuvered her hand inside the tangle
of wires, aiming for a bright red one. The tricorder had indicated
that cutting that one might do the trick.

It did do the trick. With a sizzling snap, everything shut down,
including what environmental controls had been left, lights, oxygen,
and inertial dampers. The missile suddenly did an end over end flip
and she was tossed about like a rag doll in the clutches of a
malevolent child. She fetched up hard against a structural support,
and saw stars, her head ringing and tears coming to her eyes at the
crunching pain. Gasping, she tried to claw her way across the deck to
clutch something that would keep her from tumbling about in this crazy
cartwheel in space, but before she could gain a handhold, the
out-of-control missile went into a long yawing roll.

"Unnngggghhh," she grunted in pain as her cheek made painful contact
with the side of the reactor chamber with an agonizing smack. Dazed
she lay sprawled on the deck as the missile somersaulted, sliding
helplessly around, unable to grip anything to keep herself still.

Suddenly pieces of the the missile's interior began to break loose,
showering down from its ceiling and caroming off the sides. She curled
herself into a ball, grunting with pain as fragments of metal thunked
into her.

"B'Elanna!" Howie Redman's shout came over the comm. "B'Elanna, are
you all right?"

"N-no," she managed to reply groggily. "I'm being b-bombarded in here.
Can you beam me out?"

"Some kind of shielding has been activated around the missile," Redman
said. "I can't get transporters through it, but I'm working on it. In
addition, I'm having to evade this crazy thing, whirling around as it
is. Can you hold on?"

"No choice," B'Elanna replied, dodging a huge chunk of bulkhead flying
her way. "But I'm going to be running out of air if you don't get me
out soon."

"I'm working as fast as I can," Redman said. "Just hang on." B'Elanna
could feel the strain in her lungs as her oxygen began to give out. It
didn't help any that she was having to exert herself so much. As the
missile continued to tumble crazily, she tumbled along with it inside
it. Unable to protect herself, she hit anything in her way, hard.

"B'Elanna, if it's any comfort to you," Redman came over the conn
again, "you did it. The missile's warheads are dead, disabled. No
longer a threat."

"Good," B'Elanna mumbled, finally catching hold of a strut and
clinging to it for dear life as the missile went into a roll. Pieces
of its interior continued to fly around and some found her as their
target. She felt as though she was a mass of bruises, cuts, and
scratches. She was sure a rib was broken, and it hurt to breathe.

Something smacked into the back of her head and she began to lose her
grip on consciousness. "Kathryn!" she cried as blackness descended.

Howie Redman turned to look as B'Elanna's crumpled, bleeding form
materialized on the shuttle's transporter pad. Bringing the small
craft about, he set course for Voyager and headed for her at maximum
warp. Putting on the autopilot, he grabbed a medikit and knelt down
beside B'Elanna.

---

"Mmmmh," Kathryn murmured incoherently as she slowly returned to the
waking world. She blinked her vision clear and saw that she lay on a
bio-bed in Sickbay. She didn't move for a few minutes, getting her
bearings. She was afraid to move too much, afraid the pain would
return in her chest and stomach. Her face throbbed faintly and she was
still aware of her swollen eye and cut cheek. Her right hand was a
throbbing mass of pain. She turned her head as she saw who lay on the
neighboring bio-bed, she almost shot upright, but a warning spasm made
her keep still. "B'Elanna?" she whispered. "Baby?"

B'Elanna stirred as something tugged at her consciousness, and pain
shot through her arm. "Uhhhh," she groaned. She looked around
blearily, and heard someone saying her name. She turned her head and
saw Kathryn on the bio-bed next to her. "Kathryn?" she said
wonderingly. "Kathryn?"

"Yes, my love, it's me," Kathryn said warmly, rising carefully so that
she was on one elbow. Simultaneously they each reached out a hand,
B'Elanna moving cautiously so as not to reawaken the pain in her arm,
and their fingers brushed.

"Oh, baby, it's so good to see you!" Kathryn exclaimed. "What
happened?"

"I might ask you the same thing," B'Elanna said, studying her lover's
bruised and battered face. "What does the other guy look like?"
Kathryn scowled suddenly, remembering.

"Damn Nekronians," she growled, pushing herself upright and grimacing
at the discomfort. "They---"

"Here, here, Captain, what are you doing?" the Doctor came hurrying
over, his face dark with disapproval. "You mustn't be thrashing about.
Li--"

"I'm not thrashing, Doctor," Kathryn said patiently. "I just sat up."

"I haven't had time to treat your injuries yet," the hologram said
fussily. "There were some crew whose injuries were more serious."

"Is everyone all right?" Kathryn replied. "The Nekronians must have
been all over the ship!"

"They were," came Tuvok's voice behind the Doctor. "They have all been
gathered up and beamed back to their ship, and our shields have been
remodulated to keep them from transporting aboard again."

"Good," Kathryn said. "Thank you, Mr. Tuvok. Good work. Keep me
informed. Is Chakotay all right?"

"The Commander was only slightly injured and has returned to the
bridge," the Vulcan told her. Kathryn nodded.

"Good," she said again. "Get us out of here, maximum warp."

"We are already on our way," Tuvok said. He turned and left Sickbay
and Kathryn turned back to B'Elanna whom the Doctor was scanning with
his instruments.

"What happened, d--B'Elanna?" she asked. "How did you get so banged
up?" B'Elanna related the tale of the missile's going out of control
after she cut the wire in the reactor chamber and Kathryn listened
sympathetically.

"Poor dear," she said. "This is a hell of a way to spend Valentine's
Day, isn't it?"

"We're both okay, and we're together," B'Elanna pointed out. "What
more could we ask?" Under the Doctor's scowling disapproval, Kathryn
slid down off the bio-bed and went over to B'Elanna's bed. Taking her
hand, she bent and kissed her gently.

"I missed you," she said softly. "I couldn't sit still, couldn't think
about anything but you."

"I know," B'Elanna returned feelingly. "I might've gotten that missile
disabled sooner if I'd been able to keep my mind on it instead of
you." Kathryn glanced at the Doctor who was listening to their byplay
avidly while trying to give the appearance that he was uninterested.

"Doctor," she said pointedly. "Would you excuse us please?" He looked
at her and blinked, and then looked at B'Elanna, and then turned and
walked away toward another bio-bed. Kathryn bent and kissed B'Elanna
again, and smoothed her hair back from her face with her good hand.
"My dear love," she said. "This is going to be the best Valentine's
Day ever. I'm going to see to that."

"It's going to be the best," B'Elanna said, "because it's our first
together, and we are together. We don't need a pleasure planet to
enjoy each other." Kathryn leaned over and whispered.

"You've got that right," she said sultrily. "Wherever I am is a
pleasure planet as long as I'm with you." They kissed again, oblivious
to the bustling sickbay around them.

---

Kathryn was dressed in a shimmering satin robe of luscious pink that
cascaded off her body in shining sensuous ripples. Belted loosely
about her slim waist, it revealed a tantalizing peek at her breasts
whenever she moved, and exposed her creamy thighs every time she
shifted her position. She held a fragile crystal goblet of Brut
champagne, and nibbled at a triangle of toast spread with Beluga
caviar.

B'Elanna wore a robe of deep crimson and she had not bothered to belt
it, so that it lay pooled about her lithe body, draping a hip, falling
off a shoulder, exposing a firm, round breast, its nipple dark, and
erect.

Tiny waves lapped at the warm sand, creaming frothily as they crested
and dispersed across the golden grains covering the beach. A huge moon
hung in the black velvet sky and here and there, diamond specks of
stars glittered.

B'Elanna sipped at a goblet of champagne as she, too, ate caviar on
toast. She considered the last bite before she popped it in her mouth.
"This is very good," she announced. "I've never had it before. Fish
eggs, huh?" Kathryn giggled.

"Fish eggs," she agreed. "Very expensive, very hard to get, but I'd
been saving for a special occasion." She smiled lovingly at her
spouse. "And I can't think of anything more special than you, than
this, than now." They leaned toward each other, kissing, tasting the
wine and the caviar on each other. As they drew apart, B'Elanna
drained the rest of her champagne. Kathryn reached out to cup a breast
bared when the robe fell away, and B'Elanna purred with pleasure at
her touch.

"This is the best Valentine's Day I've ever spent, you know it?"
Kathryn nodded as she caressed B'Elanna's creamy skin.

"I agree," she said. "All the more special because we came so close to
being hurt, or worse." B'Elanna nodded.

"All's well that end's well," she said. She drew Kathryn's face down
to hers for a long, deep, hungry kiss, and Kathryn slid over to lie on
top of her, kissing her back urgently.

The waves lapped gently at the sand and the moon spread its glow,
gilding bodies and limbs in a pool of pink satin and crimson silk.

---

Copyright 1997 ILuvKate

---

The End