To Tell The Truth Series 05 Turning Point

by Melanie

  Her "smile" increased. "Yep."

  As he passed through the doorway, he rubbed a wall affectionately and Sunfire moaned inaudibly.

  -------

  Chakotay knew something odd was going on with B'Elanna the moment he entered her quarters the next morning. The near hyperactive way she was moving about, the flush to her skin, the brightness in her eyes, a part of his mind dimly recognized the signs as something important yet could not remember why or what they meant.

  "B'Elanna, are you okay?"

  "Yes. Fine," she insisted, not halting her furious scouring of her already spotless dining table. "Now what did you want to talk about?"

  He took a deep breath. "B'Elanna, the reason I'm here is you've been working your staff too hard."

  That caused her to pause and look at him. "What?"

  "I was in the Mess Hall last night after Beta shift. Three of your staff literally fell asleep at their table. One of them ended up face first in his meal. When I woke them up and asked for an explanation, they finally told me about the hectic pace you've been expecting everyone to keep up lately."

  "There's a lot to do," she argued, returning to her scrubbing.

  "But is the situation down there so desperate you and your staff need to work double shifts? I thought there was not much more you could do until we get supplies."

  "Well-"

  "Right?"

  "Yes, but-"

  Chakotay removed the cloth from her hands. "Then there's no need to ride your staff into the ground."

  "What?!"

  With his back to her as he walked over to the reclamation chute to dispose of the cloth, he heard, yet did not see her respiration increasing even further.

  "Look, Chakotay," she angrily growled, sweat beginning to breakout on her ridges, "there *is* a lot to do. Who knows when the Gherop or someone else will come along and attack again? This ship has to be ready when they do. The fact a couple of people can't manage their time adequately enough to get some sleep when they're off duty hardly is my fault!"

  When he turned, he regarded her with concern while he continued to defend his argument. "It should be your concern when it's hardly a couple. You've been acting like a slave driver for the past couple of days.

  Even Vorik's starting to show the strain."

  "Look, once we get to this planet..." Panting, B'Elanna braced herself against the table as she began to sway. "Once we get...."

  "B'Elanna!" Chakotay dove for her, barely catching her before she hit the deck plates. "Chakotay to Transporter Room. Two to beam directly to Sickbay."

  -------

  For almost a minute Sunfire debated with herself. Should she tell him after how his so-called mate had treated him? Would he really want to know? Unfortunately, the answer to both questions was "yes."

  "Sunbird?"

  With nothing to do on Voyager, Tom had remained on Sunfire, picking up work on his project where he had left off the night before. This time, however, he was not in his lab, but wandering around the corridors of the ship, muttering to himself as he glared at the padd in his hand. As he had expected, he had slept little and his mood had not been helped at all by encountering a snag in his project.

  The muttering he was doing drowning out her first call so she tried again.

  "Sunbird!"

  "What?"

  "Lieutenant Torres has been beamed to Voyager's Sickbay."

  Head snapping up, he gave her his full attention. "How is she?"

  On a monitor, she displayed the young woman's current readings.

  "Damnit," he swore and tossed his padd to the deck. "Beam me straight there."

  -------

  "I don't *know* what's wrong, Commander, or I'd be treating her, not talking to you!" the Doctor replied in his most sarcastic tone as he worked.

  "Surely you must have some clue as to-"

  "Well, I don't. Her hormone and adrenaline levels are fluctuating wildly. Her respiratory and cardiovascular systems are being heavily tasked. Frankly, if I didn't know better I'd say-"

  "She's going through Pon Farr," Tom finished for him. "Or at least a version of it."

  Blinking at the pilot's sudden materialization, both turned to him.

  "But Vorik-"

  Tom cut the Commander off. "This has nothing to do with Vorik," he clarified as he went to the counter in the corner of the room, "and everything to do with Raven." He loaded a hypospray with a sedative then approached the biobed where his mate lay.

  "What are you talking about? Raven wasn't Vulcan. And anyway he's gone. Returned to the Alpha Quadrant with The Diogenes."

  "But all the hormones B'Elanna unknowingly absorbed into her system are still here. I was hoping our bond and her Klingon DNA wouldn't let this happen, that the hormones would be flushed out of her system once he wasn't here to keep administering them to her. Clearly, I was wrong and she was exposed to enough of them to cause problems."

  Before they could form any further words, Tom neatly slid his thin stiletto out of its sheath in his boot and sliced a gash in his thumb with nary a wince. After re-sheathing his knife, he used his uninjured thumb to tip her chin down, parting her lips, then applied a smudge of crimson to the inside of her lower lip. Releasing her chin, he stepped back and curled the scored digit into his palm, eyes on her readings.

  Almost instantly, she began to stabilize. Nodding to himself, he administered the hypo to the side of her neck then returned it to its place on the counter.

  "I don't understand," the Commander finally admitted, staring first at the now peacefully sleeping woman then at the man waving a dermal regenerator over his cut.

  "It's very simple, Commander," the EMH assured. "So simple, I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself. Raven tried to bond Lieutenant Torres to him, but since she already was bonded to Lieutenant Paris, the bond was not taking. However, I'll wager she and Lieutenant Paris have not mated since before Raven appeared...?"

  Tom did not acknowledge the intrusive question.

  Somewhat miffed, the Doctor continued. "It finally did take, only Raven was gone. His absence meant things could not be taken to their logical conclusion and she began to have an adverse reaction because of it. Same way Vulcans will if they are denied their mate or ritual combat during their Pon Farr."

  Not having the same preoccupation with mating practices as the hologram, Chakotay still was attempting to wrap his mind around what he had just witnessed. "So you... 're-bonded' her to you?" He made a vague gesture to Tom's hand then B'Elanna. "That's what all that was about?"

  "Unfortunately for her, it was the only option other than letting her possibly die." Tom drew more blood -- this time without the using the stiletto method -- then walked back to them to hand the red vial to the Doctor. "The last of the hormones should have been eradicated from her system once she tasted my blood so I doubt she'll need it, but there's more in case she does. When she awakens, she should be okay."

  The EMH set the vial of blood carefully aside. "Does this happen every time he does this?"

  "Only when dealing with a member of a species in which mates actually *bond* to one another. Klingons, Vulcans, Heroon, and the like. For a time, the hormones he excretes overwhelm the victim's bond with his, her or its mate and something like Vulcan Pon Farr is induced. I'm only aware of once before this that he's failed to mate with his intended partner and he died."

  Chakotay, still vainly attempting to keep up with the conversation, tried not to look too confused or lost when he made his next comment. "The intended partner did."

  Though the Commander was not aware of it, the look of utter disbelief Tom now gave him was the first honest and unguarded reaction the younger man had offered anyone in days. "Of course the intended one. Raven can do a lot of things, but rise from the dead is not one of them."

  "Well..."

  Ignoring him, Tom lifted his hand to his combadge. "Sunfire, I'm ready to beam back."

  "Just a minute, Lieutenant," the Doctor interrupted before Sunfire could
initiate the transport. "Don't you have to... stick around?"

  It was the blond man's turn to be confused.

  "She's tasted your blood, re-bonded to you. Isn't that usually a precursor to-"

  "I sincerely doubt that will be the case this time, Doctor."

  It was the second time in as many days that Tom had called him anything other than the friendly "Doc" he usually used and the hologram stiffened.

  "Since you obviously have forgotten, I shall remind you. She knows about my past -- not all of the details, but enough to despise me because of it. Even if her hormones subdued her logic and we were to mate, as you tend to phrase it, when it was over, she'd kill me with her bare hands for letting it happen. She's mad enough at me as it is. Don't expect me to compound it with yet another cruelty."

  As Sunfire beamed him out, both Chakotay and the Doctor heard the pilot's last, whispered words. "To both of us."

  -------

  "Commander!"

  Chakotay stopped and turned as the Captain jogged down the corridor towards him fifteen minutes later.

  "How's B'Elanna?" she asked once she was beside him.

  He checked to see they were alone then told her what had happened. Understandably, she was taken aback.

  "She'll be okay?"

  "The Doctor seems to think so. I stayed with her for awhile after Paris left and she showed no signs of anything other than resting comfortably."

  "But when she wakes up..."

  He shrugged. "The Doctor doesn't know what... mood she's going to be in. The sedative Paris gave her seems to be keeping her calm, but who knows how long that'll last."

  She sighed. "Life's never easy around here, is it?"

  "Nope."

  "Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway," Kathryn's combadge chirped.

  "Go ahead."

  "Come to the Astrometrics lab immediately. Ensign Kim and I have found a supply of yatelite."

  Shaking her head at their resident Borg's authoritarian manner, Kathryn left Chakotay.

  -------

  "Seven, you really need to learn more... polite speech patterns. It's the Captain's ship. You can't keep ordering her and everyone else around."

  Seven neither spared Harry a glance nor made any comment.

  Harry inwardly sighed. She had been acting like this -- cool, aloof, and almost sulky -- for days and it was beginning to get on his nerves. At first he had thought she merely was disappointed at not getting to the Alpha Quadrant or angry over what The Protectors apparently had had in mind for her. But that was before he had seen her with others and realized she was acting her usual self with any of them. For some reason, he was the only one being subjected to the cold shoulder.

  "Seven, when are you going to tell me what's wrong?" He knew he was all but whining yet it was how he felt. For months he had enjoyed a fine working relationship with this woman and he hated to see it slipping through his fingers, especially without him knowing why. "Did I do something? Not do something? Say something? What?"

  She straightened and at last looked him in the eye. For a moment he actually thought she was going to answer him. The opening of the door and the entrance of the Captain nipped that in the proverbial bud.

  "So, you two, what have you found?"

  "There is a small, uninhabited moon containing large deposits of the ore needed," Seven told her. "The largest deposit is only three point two meters beneath the surface and extraction will not be overly strenuous."

  "Any indications of anyone having claimed it for their own?"

  "None and the system is uninhabited. There is evidence of a long dead civilization on a planet two orbits in from the planet the moon orbits but that is all."

  "Good. No one to argue with us if we start mining. Once we've got what we need from the planet ahead, we'll go get the ore."

  "We can't wait that long, Captain," Harry interjected.

  Janeway frowned and it only deepened as the ensign called up a computer image to show her the moon's problem. On the screen, there appeared the system containing the celestial body in question and right next door to it -- galactically speaking -- was a binary star system containing a runt of a white dwarf in the process of going nova.

  "Is that system inhabited?"

  "No, Captain."

  "How long before it goes nova?"

  "Four days, more or less."

  "And how much of the surrounding space is going to be effected when the star goes?"

  Another graphic was overlaid and a simulation of what was to come began. Even the simulation was breathtaking for Janeway who had seen novas before. There was the growing "bubbling" of the dwarf's surface then the brilliant flash of light and the star's collapse. The wave it sent out incinerated the closest planet to the dwarf, shattered the next three and their moons, and sent the last two planets careering wildly while -- mercifully for the other systems -- remaining inside its home system.

  "It is spectacular, but-"

  The Head of Astrometrics interrupted her. "It is the radiation which is of the greatest concern, Captain."

  "The yatelite ore is not the only ore in the moon," Harry explained. He tapped out a command and a close up view of the moon appeared then blotches of many hues were overlaid. "The blue are the yatelite deposits. Purple is allemite."

  "And when allemite is exposed to radiation it amplifies the radiation to dangerous levels," Janeway sighed.

  "Yes. No matter how well shielded we are or how much hyronalin we pump into the ship's ventilation to counteract the effects of the radiation, it won't be enough."

  "Precisely, Captain."

  Staring at the screen, Janeway rubbed the back of her neck. "Under ordinary circumstances I'd order a course change and take us there."

  "However the engines are not at optimum," Seven continued for her. "At their current performance level, the ship would arrive only minutes before the nova was at its height."

  "And our largest shuttle would not hold enough of the raw ore to be useful," Harry added.

  "Have you detected any other sources of yatelite?"

  "I afraid it's like deuterium is to this quadrant, Captain. In short supply."

  "So we're at an impasse."

  "Not exactly," Tom said.

  Somehow none of them had noticed him beam in and take a position holding up the wall near the door.

  "Sunfire's cargo hold is large enough to hold twice what's needed. And her engines are in perfect working order."

  The Captain looked from Tom to the screen and back again. "How many people and how long would it take to set up this operation and mine enough of the ore?"

  "If they were to open one of the larger veins, three would be sufficient to do it in nine hours, Captain," Seven supplied.

  Tom nonchalantly folded his arms. "So who get to be the unlucky stiffs?"

  Janeway frowned at Tom's phrasing.

  "I doubt you'll find many who'll volunteer for the job," he clarified.

  "Why not?"

  "The moon's a little less than two days travel. Be generous and give a half a day to do the work. By that time Voyager will already be at the planet so two and a half days to rendezvous there. That's about five days alone with me." He gave her a pointed look. "You figure it out."

  "I think the crew can set aside any personal animosities and work on this."

  Tom did his best Tuvok impression and one golden brow headed for golden hair.

  "I am willing to accompany Mr. Paris," Seven declared gaining the attention of both the Captain and Harry who had been glaring with hostility at his former best friend.

  -------

  In the end, Neelix also consented to joining the mission. His previous mining experience made him the logical choice to go, though it did take him a few seconds to think about the Captain's request. Those few seconds might well have been an eternity to Tom who stood off to one side in the Ready Room and hid the hurt he felt at reluctance from the normally eager-to-assist Talaxian. Instead, when Neelix finally agreed to g
o, Tom turned to him and informed him they would be leaving in thirty minutes and he should contact

  Sunfire when he was ready to beam over and she would collect him.

  As the cook/morale officer made a hasty exit, Tom attempted to do the same only to be waylaid by the Captain.

  "That hurts, doesn't it?"

  "Captain?"

  "The way everyone's reacting to you."

  He stood up straighter, if that were possible. "It's nothing more or less than I would expect."

  "Tom..."

  "If you will excuse me, I would like to check on B'Elanna before I go. We shall see you in five days at the planet."

  He was out of the room before she could figure out what it was she had wanted to say.

  -------

  "Naomi, Neelix is here."

  At her mother's call from the sitting area, the child ran out of her room, one of her stuffed animals being dragged along with her by its snout. "Neelix!" As soon as he squatted down next to her, she hugged his neck him. "You going somewhere?"

  "Yes, I have to go away for a few days."

  "Can I come?"

  "No," Neelix said, shaking his head. "This isn't shoreleave, Naomi. We're going to be doing some digging for some ore we need."

  "I like to dig. Tommy and I dig when we build sandcastles. Moats and stuff."

  "This is a little different than that. And it's in a very dangerous area. You're much safer here on Voyager. I'll be back in five days then maybe you and I can go build some sandcastles. Maybe this planet we're going to will have some beaches and we won't have to go to the Holodeck."

  "Maybe," she conceded, clearly disappointed. "Are you going in a shuttle?"

  "We're going in Sunfire."

  She brightened. "Tommy's ship?"

  "Yes."

  "Is Tommy going too?"

  "Yes, and Seven." Neelix stood, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as he rose. Immediately, the little girl raced out of the sitting area of her and her mother's quarters and into her bedroom.

  "You're sure you want to do this?" Sam asked him worriedly. "You're sure it's safe?"

  He nodded. "We'll be in and out of there long before the star -"

  "I meant safe with him."

  He thought about it for a moment then sighed. "I don't know," he sighed. "I mean he seems okay, but..." He shrugged. "We'll have to see."