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Chapter Text

    "Captain, I think I have a solution to the problem."

    Kathryn Janeway looked up to the engineer from her pile of damage reports.  "I'm listening," she said, etched with a grin as she flicked her fingers to that mess.

    Torres barely glanced at it.  Instead, she set another PADD in the captain's hand for review. 

    "We've gotten everything we could from this nebula," Torres told her, "including our full sensor array--so I asked Ensign Wildman to scan the plasma field we detected when we came in here to see if we could get anything out of that.  And there is:  There's enough raw sub-nucleic particle matter in there to repair and charge our injector coils and more than enough trace deuterium to collect and store.  The dilithium matrix is still going to take some work, but we can at least get the rest back in shape in the mean time."

    Her eyes still flicking over the readouts, Janeway found herself very interested--and glad to see her engineer excited about something positive for a change that week. 

    "That's going to be a rough trip, with all that spectral instability," she noted, though she knew well that B'Elanna Torres was set on her
idea and certainly wouldn't be put off by a few bumps.  "With the unstable gas streams inside the nebula, not to mention working inside a plasma field, you'll have to refit the shuttle's deflectors."

    "I've already set aside what we have left of backups."

    Janeway turned a wise, pleased look at the young woman before her.  "It looks like you have this all planned out, Lieutenant."

    B'Elanna pressed down her smirk.  Her captain was starting to know her maybe a little too well.  "I wanted to know we could get into the field before bringing this to you," she said.

    "The trip into it is still going to be a bit rough.  I'd like to have Voyager there as a backup."

    "I'm not afraid of the risk, Captain," the engineer returned, but remembered to whom she was speaking and thought quickly.  "Paris could navigate it.  He could get us through the field and hold a good position while we mine the energy streams."  B'Elanna grinned.  "And he's got nothing else to do until the engines are back online."

    Janeway nodded, having already mentally assigned Paris for the job, and knowing B'Elanna of all people would understand why.  She and Tom had been working with Harry Kim on the Cochrane project for a few weeks by then, constructing, proposing and running simulations in every ounce of their spare time.  Janeway had noticed a mutual respect for each other's ideas and abilities growing nicely from that...after a few initial mediations by Ensign Kim, as it were.

    Naturally, the captain was gratified to see the crews really working together after that fateful year they had been trapped in the Delta Quadrant.

    More, though, the captain smiled at the chief engineer's enthusiasm.  She had missed it during those recent dark days and the near constant attacks by the Kazon.  Determined and intent she had always been, but not so hopeful.  Just then, however, B'Elanna practically radiated for thinking she could do something.

    Janeway could hardly blame her.  She was feeling better just looking at those readings, herself.  And Torres' staff was well underway in their various repairs.  It wouldn't take too long to get what they needed and get back, provided the Kazon stayed out of their way.  Either way, Voyager would already be defenseless without that power...

    "Assign your away team, Lieutenant.  Keep an open channel with Voyager and collect what you can to repair what systems we need.  --But no more than that.  Voyager can come for whatever else you find once we're up and running."

    "Yes, Captain," replied the engineer with a crisp grin.

    "Good work.  Get going."

    B'Elanna took a victorious breath and tapped her commbadge.  "Torres to Engineering:  Nicoletti, Bendera, collect the storage canisters and portable refiners and meet me in the shuttle bay."

    Standing, Janeway stifled a laugh.  B'Elanna was just too efficient sometimes.

    Following the half-Klingon out to the bridge, she looked at Chakotay as she crossed.  "Looks like we might get out of here sooner rather than later," she told him.  "Lieutenant Torres has found a viable plasma and deuterium source in our little haven.  If all goes well, we'll be on our way within the week." 

    "Good work, B'Elanna," Chakotay said.

    "Thanks," was her reply--but she was already leaving.  She was already mentally collecting plasma particles and setting up the refiner units and had barely heard him.

    Janeway eyed Paris at the conn and gestured towards the quickly disappearing chief.  "Mr. Paris, you're with Torres.  Recheck the Cratow's shield inverters before you go.  Use what you need to make them resistant to a particle-rich plasma field."

    "Yes, Captain," Paris smiled with a nod and skipped from his seat to catch up with Torres, already ready and in the lift.  "Thanks, B'Elanna."

    "Don't thank me," she replied.  "The shuttle needs a pilot and you happen to be one."

    "Oh?  And here I thought you couldn't manage without me.  I'm hurt."

    Janeway glanced over only to see Paris' crooked smile--and Torres' responsive glare--just as the lift doors closed.  Snickering, she turned and took her seat, noticing Chakotay also enjoying the byplay.

    It felt good to laugh, even if it was at those two.

    Not an hour later, Tom gave Bendera a pat on the back as the two moved to pick up one of the refiner units.  Torres was already in the shuttle.  "Heard you and Annie had a nice time last night," he commented.  "Valada-three in the moonlight, was it?"

    Bendera cracked a laugh.  "Damn, I hate this ship.  Too small to have a life of your own here."

    Tom chuckled, too.  "Don't worry about it, Kurt.  Someone else'll have a great time soon enough and you'll be yesterday's news."

    "I need that stabilization unit," came a distinctively commanding female voice from within the shuttle.

    "Yes, ma'am," Tom responded then looked at Bendera again.  "Seriously, it's nice to know you were able to get out for a change...  Did it go okay?  I'm just curious."

    Bendera relented, having not put up much of a fight to begin with.  "Yeah.  It was real nice."

    Tom smiled at the admission.  Bendera hadn't had much of a social life since coming on Voyager, if not much longer, even if he was smart and easy going.  Despite his openly talking about his experiences and many losses in the DMZ, he remained upbeat and forward thinking.  He kept his eyes open all the same, and though he never caused any trouble, he never tried to look like anything but a Maquis working on a Starfleet ship, which had made his acceptance by the Starfleet crew almost as slow as Tom's had been.  It was good to see that change for the better.

    Jerking his chin toward the hatch, Tom said, "Come on, before the slave driver pulls out her whip."

    Nicoletti passed them both with another armful of equipment.  Turning a straight eye to the pilot, she said, "Knowing you, Tom, you'll probably tempt her to it."

    "You really sure?" Tom asked with mock enthusiasm as he and Bendera set the unit on the lift.

    Pulling her chin higher, she ignored his response and stepped up into the shuttle.

    Bendera had laughed at the quip, and now he regarded again the "traitor," with whom he'd formed a passing friendship and respected more than he'd expected to at first.  "You enjoy that a lot more than you should, you know," he said.

    "I usually do," Tom replied, visually checking off the load before tapping the lift controls.  He was in good spirits for being able to get out for a while, get something done.  He had been alternating between a dead conn and the guts of the navigational array for way too long.  "But you know she gets a kick out of the challenge."

    Bendera nodded, knowing its truth, but then reconsidered.  "Torres isn't that bad, you know," he told him, probably just to know he had said it.  "She can come down on you pretty hard, but she's a good person."

    "Oh, I know she is, without a doubt," Tom assured him. Amazingly, few details about their recent experience with the Vidiians had trickled down through the crew. Tom was glad it had remained that way for B'Elanna's sake, though the general understanding remained on the side of Tom's being ignorant of her. Glancing up to see Bendera's unaltered attention, his lips twisted up.  "I sometimes can't help that she brings out the worst in me."

    "As long as you don't bring out the worst in her, that'll be just fine."

    The chief engineer appeared a moment later in the shuttle door.  "I'd like to get out of here sometime today, Paris."

    The pilot instantly began to whistle an ancient requiem, easily sending the engineer back into the hatch.  He knew she'd really get on his case later, probably when they ran through another test on the Cochrane.  There, in their separate elements but working on a mutual dream, they could both be extremely annoying even without a reason to be problematic.  That time, it would definitely be her turn.  Tom could see Harry shifting around nervously already, and his resulting chuckle finally silenced him.

    The cases finally shoved into a wall bearing and activated, Tom slid into the conn and ran through some last systems checks.  Torres moved into the ops space beside him. 

    "Alone at last," he said, ribbing her only enough to acknowledge her presence.

    "I'm so honored," she replied, tapping her panels to life.  "Everything checks out."

    "Initializing impulse drive."  He looked back at Nicoletti and Bendera, who were still organizing the equipment.  "Fingers and toes in, kids."  With a series of communications with the bridge and a sweep of his fingers over the panels as the engines activated, Paris moved them out of the shuttle bay.

    Looking over, B'Elanna could see a particular look of contentment fall over his face as they moved in the bluish, gaseous clouds.  She had come to know it pretty well since she had met him, came to expect it the more they worked together and often wished he would show that part of his presence when he wasn't behind the controls.  Either way, she had begun to enjoy watching him fly, on the bridge or like there, in the shuttle--or best, in the holodeck when they were running simulations and he was getting a real challenge.  There was a kind of presence--peace--in it.  For her own love of her engines and skills with them, she understood it.  It was as if he truly belonged there.

    Knowing that, she had grown even less annoyed by his...

    "Where to, my lady?" Tom drawled, turning a raised brow her way.

    The corners of her mouth pulled inward for want of a smirk.  He really did like to push it when he thought he could, but she didn't feel like continuing it in front of her staff.  "Wherever I tell you, Lieutenant," she replied coolly.

    Behind them, Nicoletti's mouth pursed and blew the refrain of the same requiem.

    B'Elanna couldn't help it that time:  She grinned.  Tom caught it and laughed.  But she didn't really care, just rolled her eyes and looked ahead. 

    Somewhere within the surrounding nebula was a rich plasma field that would keep them busy enough for the time being.