Cracks 02 Clear as Mud Read online

  Part 3

  B'Elanna had expected the worst from Paris: sly comments, innuendoes, whatever -- some "Paris" thing, but he had been remarkably quiet on the hike so far. So quiet that she had begun sneaking glances at him out of the corner of her eye, trying to determine what was on his mind. He seemed preoccupied. Just as she was getting up the nerve to ask him about it, she heard a surprised gasp from Harry, who had gone ahead. As she and Paris rounded a bend in the trail, they caught sight of him. Stopping in their tracks, they both burst into laughter. "It's not funny," Harry said. Tom and B'Elanna muffled their laughter, exchanged a look, glanced back at Harry and burst into laughter once again. Finally getting control of himself enough to spit out a few words, Tom said, "Harry, didn't they teach you anything at the Academy?" "Very funny," Harry said dryly, but his voice held humor. He stood, mud dripping from every inch of him, in the middle of a huge, deep mud puddle in the middle of the trail. "Harry," said B'Elanna, laughter still in her voice, "why would you put a mudhole into your program?" Kim gave her an indignant look. "I wouldn't. It's not supposed to be here. It wasn't here. The trail in front of me was clear when I turned to see where you guys were. Next thing I knew..." He held up his dripping arms sadly. B'Elanna and Tom, unable to help themselves, burst into laughter again. "Sorry, Harry," said Paris, "but you really should see yourself." He started forward to give Harry a hand when a startled gasp behind him made him spin round. B'Elanna, a surprised expression on her face, was sitting in a mudhole similar to Harry's. Paris didn't understand where the mudhole had come from. It hadn't been there moments ago. He opened his mouth to speak, but B'Elanna beat him to it. "Don't say it, Paris. Don't say anything." Tom wisely closed his mouth and approached her. He held out a hand. "Here, let me give you a hand out of there." B'Elanna seized his hand and before he knew what was happening, Paris was face first in the mudhole beside her. He sat up, sputtering. "What did you do that for?" he demanded. Torres shrugged. "You were too clean?" Getting to her feet, she extended a hand. Paris grasped it and let her pull him to his feet. They all stood staring at one another. Mud clung to their uniforms and dripped from their hair. Shaking his head ruefully, Paris said, "Harry, I think there are a few holes in your program." Two handfuls of mud hit a second later -- splat! -- against his chest. He looked up in time for a third round of mud to hit him square in the face. Wiping at his face, he said to B'Elanna accusingly, "You enjoyed that." Her smile slipped a bit as he knelt and hefted a handful of mud himself. He eyed her consideringly. "You wouldn't--" she said. He smiled. "Hey, guys," spoke up Harry. "Playtime's over. We're going to have to turn the holodeck over to whomever is next in line." B'Elanna breathed a sigh of relief when Tom dropped the mud to the ground without flinging it. "Computer," said Harry, "end program." Nothing happened. They were still surrounded by his holoprogram. Kim tried again. "Computer, end program Kim Four." Nothing. B'Elanna gave it a try. "Computer, Torres Omega override. End program Kim Four." Still nothing happened. "Computer, reveal holodeck exit." When the exit failed to appear, Paris tapped his comm badge. "Paris to bridge...Paris to security..." No response. "I think we've got a problem," Paris said. Mud forgotten, they stared at one another. For the first time all day, the ship seemed relatively calm. Chakotay leaned back in his chair, looking at the viewscreen. He let his mind wander. He thought about Lieutenant Paris' snide comment to him this morning after the meeting. *He seems even more touchy than usual lately, at least to me. Ever since the assimilation...I wonder what happened to him during that whole incident? And what happened to B'Elanna? There's something different about her now, too, and I know it has to do with Tom. She's been strange toward me lately. Not necessarily in a bad way, though, just different than usual. What did he do? Why would she and he get involved with each other?* The idea almost made him cringe. *I'll have to ask my spirit guide later. Maybe I should talk to B'Elanna.* His mind hadn't wandered far when his comm badge chirped. He waited for the standard greeting, but all he got was some strange static, and then it stopped altogether. He tapped his badge, and still nothing. "Computer," he said, "what was that?" "Please be more specific," the computer intoned. "Who just tried to call my comm badge?" "Unknown." "Where did the communication originate?" "Unknown." The other bridge officers looked at him curiously, and glanced down at their own comm badges. Puzzled, Chakotay said to the nearest ensign, "Ensign Lamont, can you detect anything wrong with the computer or the comm badges?" "No, sir." "Okay," Chakotay said, "Let's test them." He tapped his badge again. "Chakotay to Ensign Lamont." The message came through, loud and clear. Smiling, Ensign Lamont said, "Lamont here." "Chakotay to Engineering." "Carey here." "I just received a message on my comm badge, and it immediately terminated itself. Can you detect any problems ship-wide that might cause something like this?" Under the circumstances, Chakotay did not want to overlook anything that could cause problems later. Carey's voice came through the comm badge clearly. "Uh, Commander, there's a small glitch showing up in Holodeck 2." *Here we go again,* Chakotay thought. "Investigate it." "Aye, sir." "Somebody has got to figure out we're in here eventually, don't you think?" said Harry. The three of them, mud drying on their uniforms and in their hair, sat on the ground, contemplating their problem. They had just spent the better part of an hour trying everything they could think of to get out of the holodeck. Nothing worked. "Oh, I'm sure we'll be missed sooner or later," Tom replied. "If nothing else, whoever is waiting to use the holodeck will report a problem." B'Elanna sat staring at the ground, a frown on her face. "This makes no sense," she said. "The computer won't respond to us. Our comm badges aren't working. Strange glitches are showing up in Harry's program. And my engineering command overrides don't work." "Sorry," Harry apologized. "I invited you here to have fun." "Hey, don't worry about it, Harry," said Paris. "It isn't your fault. Besides, look at her." He nodded in B'Elanna's direction. "She's in her element. You've given her a problem to solve, and she's loving every minute of it. You should have seen her on the Borg ship, digging into their systems. She was great, even if it did turn out to be a simulation..." His voice trailed off, and Harry and B'Elanna looked at him curiously. "What?" asked Kim. Paris, looking suddenly uncomfortable, shrugged. "Nothing." But B'Elanna recognized that brief abstracted expression that had appeared on his face. She had seen it on her own a few too many times in recent weeks. "You remembered something," she said. "From the assimilation." Tom glanced at her before turning his troubled gaze to the ground. "I get...flashes of things every once in a while," he admitted. "They don't always make sense." Still staring at the ground, Paris missed her nod of understanding, but Harry caught it. "You've both had these flashes of memory from the assimilation, haven't you?" he asked. Tom and B'Elanna shared a look that was full of introspection. Neither of them answered Harry's question. Worried, he asked, "Have you talked to the doctor about this?" "It's no big deal, Harry," Paris said lightly, but his eyes said otherwise, as he continued to watch B'Elanna. "Of course it isn't," Kim agreed. "That's why the both of you have been so prickly lately. B'Elanna's buried herself in her work and you," he turned an accusing glare on Paris, "you've suddenly developed a penchant for spending a lot of time alone. You don't even come to Sandrine's as much as you used to." Surprised to hear this, B'Elanna's head shot up to stare at Tom. She knew her behavior had been a bit off since the assimilation. She'd been surprised Chakotay hadn't yet cornered her for one of their talks. Being so wrapped up in her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed that Tom's behavior had been out of character for him. Staring at Paris, who was suddenly avoiding her gaze, she wondered if he had dreams too. Dreams of the assimilation, of the Borg, and...of her, because he had certainly been haunting her dreams of late. As if reading her thoughts, Tom's blue eyes lifted to meet her dark ones, but before either of them could say anything, a deep rumbling filled the air. The ground beneath them began to shake as the rumbling grew closer. Alarmed, the trio looked around. "Harry," said Paris slowly. "You didn't program an earthquake into your program, did you?" "No, but then I didn'
t program the mudholes either." They climbed to their feet. Looking around, B'Elanna said, "Where is it coming from?" Turning toward the hillside at their backs, Harry replied, "It sounds like it's coming from up there." Shading his eyes, Paris looked up. "That looks like--" began B'Elanna, then the mudslide hit. Paris felt himself lifted off his feet and carried along like so much debris. The mudslide carried them all down the mountainside. Paris quickly lost sight of Harry and B'Elanna; it was all he could do to keep his head above the surface of the mud. Moments later, although it seemed like it had gone on for eons, the slide slowly came to a stop. Paris came to an abrupt halt as he slammed into a boulder. He didn't think anything was broken, but the impact had knocked the wind out of him. Harry pulled himself to his feet. He was bruised but seemed none the worse for wear. He scanned the area but saw no signs of B'Elanna or Tom. "B'Elanna! Paris!" he called. Listening, he heard nothing, but he caught movement out of the corner of one eye and turned toward it. Several yards away someone was moving. He or she was so covered in mud that, until he got closer, Harry wasn't even sure if it was B'Elanna or Paris. "You okay?" Tom looked up to see Harry approaching. "Yeah, I think so," he replied as Kim reached his side and hauled him to his feet. "Where's B'Elanna?" "I don't know," Harry's voice was concerned. "I spotted you first and headed over this way." Tom scanned the mud-covered hillside. In the near distance he spotted her, leaning against a large uprooted tree. "There she is," he pointed her out to Harry. "Come on." As they approached her, it became obvious that she was injured as she was favoring her left ankle. "Broken?" Paris asked as they reached her and he knelt down to examine the ankle. "Either broken or badly sprained," replied B'Elanna. "What happened to the holodeck safeties?" she demanded, frustration evident in her voice. "They're supposed to prevent accidents like these." She winced as Tom prodded at her injured ankle. "Ouch!" "Sorry." Tom stood. "I can't tell if it's broken or not with your boot on, but the way it's swelling, I'd say it needs tending to as soon as possible." He placed a supportive arm around her waist so she could avoid putting weight on the injured ankle. Sighing in exasperation, B'Elanna peered at the other two through her mud-covered features. "First we have to figure out how to get out of here."

  Part 4

  Janeway met Chakotay and Carey outside the holodeck doors. "What seems to be the problem, gentlemen?" Chakotay turned to her. "We think that B'Elanna, Harry and Paris are trapped on the holodeck." "You think? Don't you know for sure?" For an answer, Chakotay addressed Voyager's computer. "Computer, location of Lieutenant Torres, Lieutenant Paris, and Ensign Kim." "No such individuals exist aboard this ship," replied the computer. Brows raised, Janeway said, "Computer, who is in Holodeck 2?" "No such holodeck exists," intoned the computer. "So far, those are the only three crew unaccounted for," Chakotay told her. "We're assuming they are in Holodeck 2, but we've been unable to contact them directly. Carey's working on forcing the door open as we speak." Janeway asked, "What did you mean by 'so far'? Are you expecting more trouble?" "We've had reports of other minor difficulties around the ship, Captain. Nothing too serious, just...disconcerting. And the number of incidents, though minor, seems to be escalating." As Kes walked into Neelix's kitchen, she felt a certain sense of uneasiness. Every time the ship was in danger, she was always on the edge of her seat. She thought maybe a chat with Neelix would relax her a little. "Hello, Neelix," she said as she stepped behind the counter. "What are you working on?" "Oh, hello, Kes! Come here. This," he said, pointing into the giant pot sitting in front of him, "is a Talaxian treat. I can't believe I never thought to make it for the crew before." Looking into the pot, Kes tried to sound enthusiastic. "Um, what is it?" "Talaxian Vegetable Pot Cake. It's delicious. Would you like to know how I'm making it? It's quite an interesting process. It took me forever to get the replicator to produce the right vegetables, though. I had to manually put in the commands." "Manually? That's interesting. Why?" "It wouldn't accept my voice commands. I don't know why, but it probably has to do with that phenomenon we're so blindly sailing through right now. I knew it was a bad idea. Would you like to try some?" He motioned toward the substance in the pot. "Um, maybe later." Kes knew there was something she should have been doing, but she couldn't remember what. *There is something wrong,* she thought to herself, distracted. "Did you say the replicator won't respond to your voice commands?" "Yes." Neelix tasted a spoonful of his concoction. "Mmmmm." Kes remembered. "Voice commands! The doctor! I have to get to sickbay! I'll talk to you later, Neelix," she said as she hurried out the door. On the holodeck, Tom and Harry were trying to find something to stop the swelling of B'Elanna's ankle. "You're sure there isn't a glacier or something in this program of yours?" Tom said to Harry. "No, no glacier. Well, maybe. See, this," he said, gesturing around him, "is not my programming. However, I do remember a pond up ahead. If it hasn't turned to mud, like everything else in this blasted program, it should be pretty cold." "Well, why didn't you say so sooner?!" Tom asked tiredly, half- exasperated. "Sorry. Slipped my mind. It's hard to think when there's mud crusted this far into your ear canal." Tom snorted. "I know the feeling. Well, let's go back for B'Elanna, and see if the pond is even there. Maybe we can wash some of this mud off when we get to it." "Sounds like a plan." Meanwhile, B'Elanna had tired of sitting under a tree with nothing to do. Tom and Harry hadn't even been gone that long, but she was restless. She hated that Tom had insisted they go and find something for her ankle. It hurt, but she could handle it. And besides, wouldn't it be better if they were all putting their minds together to come up with a way to get out of here? Then they could just go to sickbay and take care of her ankle there. But wasn't it just like Tom to try to be the hero. B'Elanna quickly pushed away the thought of the sight of his face when he had seen that she was injured. She saw Harry coming towards her; Tom was not far behind. "How are you doing?" Tom asked, concerned. He knew it was stupid to be concerned about B'Elanna; she could fend for herself perfectly well. He knew she could handle almost anything just as well or better than he could. Still, he couldn't help but be concerned. He knew she'd hate that he was concerned for her, and he was right. "I'm fine," she said, irritated. "There's supposed to be a pond not far from here, where we can put your ankle in some cold water and wash off this mud," Harry stated. "Can you walk?" "Can I walk?" B'Elanna muttered. "Of course I can walk." She got up, took a few limping steps, and winced slightly, but not slightly enough, because Tom noticed. "Here." Paris offered himself as a human crutch. "No thank you," B'Elanna snapped, but she ended up taking his arm anyway, and discovered that it did hurt less when she leaned on him, although it was a bit awkward to walk. She noticed the I-told-you-so smile that flashed across Tom's muddy features. "Shut up, Paris." "You're welcome," he said coyly, as they headed in the direction of the pond. As Kes hurried into sickbay, she noticed a few people waiting there, but no doctor. "Oh, Kes, I'm glad you're here," Ensign Rockwell said to her. "We can't get the computer to turn on the doctor. It seems he isn't responding to voice commands." Kes walked over to a panel, and pushed a few buttons. Nothing happened. She pushed a few more. "So, what do you need?" "I've just got a scratch on my left arm, no big deal or anything," Rockwell said to Kes. "My cat is in a bad mood." "I've got two on my right hand. Rockwell's cat doesn't like me even when its in a good mood!" said Lieutenant Gabrielle, laughing. Kes continued at the panel, and after a few more tries, the holographic doctor appeared. "The please emergency state of the nature." A confused and annoyed expression crossed his face. Kes, Rockwell, and Gabrielle tried to suppress the laughter they felt rising in their throats. The doctor tried again. "Nature the please state the emergency of." He looked distressed this time, and Kes ceased to laugh inside. "Doctor?" she inquired. "Something with wrong program is my!" he exclaimed. "Going what on is???" "Doctor, Voyager is traveling through some sort of magnetic subspace field," answered Kes. "Activate my why did program then you?" he asked. Kes looked confused for a second, then said, "Ensign Rockwell and Lieutenant Gabrielle need your assistance. And I wanted to make s
ure you were okay, and tell you what's going on." "Well, not I okay am." The doctor took one look at the officers' wounds and said to Kes, "Treat them you can while I to fix try my program." She stared at him, and he handed her a medical tricorder, pointed to the equipment nearby, and went into his office. She shrugged, switched on the tricorder, and went to work with her fears confirmed. *Yes!* said Harry to himself. He called over his shoulder to his two friends lagging behind. "It's still here! Hurry up, you guys!" "Yeah, yeah," muttered B'Elanna. "We GUYS are going as fast as we can." "Take your time, guy. Looks like we're in here for the long haul," said Tom. The pond, when they got there, was deliciously cool. B'Elanna sat down on a rock by the edge, pulled off her boot, and eased her damaged ankle into the greenish water. "Harry," she said, glancing up at the sun, "how long does this program run?" "Oooh, good question. Well, I only set it for about an hour. I figured we'd be ready to quit hiking by then." "Oh, we've been in here longer than that, easy," said Tom. "The computer must have kicked out your command." He also glanced at the sun, then his uniform, then took a look at Harry, and a longer look at B'Elanna. "I need a bath," he announced to no one in particular. "Nothing you can do about that now," she said, splashing water up over her calf. "And I would like to know why not," he retorted. "If we're going to be stuck in here, I want to be clean. I'm already wet, and we don't have much daylight left." He sat down, pulled off his boots and slid off the low bank into the water. "Hey, this pond is pretty deep. Dang, Harry, this water is COLD." Captain Janeway had just stepped out of the shower, a hot water shower, not a sonic one, a rare treat she felt she deserved, when the door chime sounded. Wrapping her pink robe around her, she hurried to the door, expecting Lieutenant Tuvok, but finding instead her first officer. "What's happening, Commander?" "B'Elanna is still trapped in Holodeck 2 with Paris!" he said, then added, "and Kim. The doctor is malfunctioning, the replicators are malfunctioning, the transporter is malfunctioning..." he sighed. "EVERYTHING is malfunctioning." "Time to rethink our shortcut, then." She automatically reached for a comm badge that was not there, making them both smile for a moment. "Allow me," said Chakotay grandly. "Chakotay to Hamilton." "Hogan here, Commander." Chakotay glanced down at Janeway. "Uh oh," he said to her. "Never mind, Lieutenant. As you were. Chakotay to HAMILTON." "This is Hudson. Go ahead, sir." Janeway interrupted. "Maybe you should just go and tell him, Chakotay." "Right." Chakotay turned to leave, and strode straight into the door which did not open. "Hudson? Are you still there?" demanded Chakotay. *Great. Just great.* "Yes, Commander." "Good. I want you to go to the bridge and tell Hamilton to plot a course to take us out of this disturbance. Also, find Lieutenant Tuvok and tell him I'm stuck in the captain's quarters. Find Kes and make sure we're ready in case of physical injuries. Get Lieutenant Hogan in Engineering to get the doctor back on line. Then, I want you to tell Chief Cooper to report to Transporter Room 1 and see if we can't beam Kim, Torres and Paris out of Holodeck 2. If that doesn't work, go and see if Carey has the commands overridden and the door opened. If he has, go in there and bring out our missing crew. Better take someone with you. Got that?" "Yes, sir." *Good grief, now there is an unhappy commander,* Hudson thought to himself sleepily. Janeway strode to the replicator. "Hot coffee for two," she ordered, adding to Chakotay, "I think it's going to be a long night." The replicator hummed and a few objects appeared. Chakotay sniffed. "Your coffee smells like mushroom soup to me." Janeway lifted the lid of the pot. "Looks like it, too. I told you I can't cook. Well, we don't want it to go to waste. Dig in, Commander." "How's the ankle?" Kim voiced his concern for B'Elanna. "I don't think it's broken. It doesn't hurt quite so bad, and the swelling is leveling off. I'll live. He looks like he's having a good time," she said nodding towards Tom, who was splashing and sputtering. "Kim! Come on in! You too, Torres." B'Elanna looked at Harry doubtfully, then complained, "Will you look at the way mud is coming off him and polluting this beautiful water?" There was a sudden 'plop'. Something landed close by B'Elanna's rock, and both she and Harry whipped around, alarmed, to investigate. Tom's uniform lay half-in, half-out of the water. "Torres," he called, "spread that out for me and let it start drying, okay?" Harry opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get the first word out, Tom's turtleneck came out of nowhere and hit him on the side of the head. Plonk! Two socks landed nearly in B'Elanna's lap. "That stuff too, please." "Oh, my God," said B'Elanna. "Harry, I'm not even going to look. Thomas Eugene Paris, I had better not see any more of your clothes come out of that pond." "Don't worry, you won't," laughed Tom. "B'Elanna," Harry said. "Tom's right. We are wet already, and there just isn't enough Betazoid in me to enjoy being covered in mud." "Go ahead, I'll hold down the fort. It's-- " she gasped as Paris suddenly came up from under the water right in front of her. "Don't do that! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" "Hop in, Ariel," he said. "What? Who? Lieutenant, you are practically naked, and you're having entirely too much fun. You can completely forget it." "Oh? You think I'm enjoying freezing my -- oh, never mind. Ah, come on, Torres, lighten up. We're all friends here. You're one of the guys, remember? Look, if it makes you feel better, keep on your undershirt. You want to wash off, don't you? Think you can do that standing on one foot in the shallow part? Come on, B'Elanna, let me help you." He then added a hopeful, "Please? Besides, this water is too damn cold for any but the most pure thoughts." B'Elanna hesitated. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was not a smart thing to do, but deep inside she wanted to. *I want to do something dangerous again,* she thought. *Something Maquis. Something not Starfleet.* Tom unknowingly clinched it for her. He reached out and said, simply, "Trust me." "Oh, all right, for heaven's sake." She pulled off her other boot and tossed both her boots down next to Tom's. "Just until I'm clean, though." Reaching out she put her hands on his shoulders and let him gently pull her off her rock. He was right. The water was deeper than it looked; she could just barely stand on one foot. With Tom's help, she eased out of her jumpsuit, swished it out, and tossed it up to Harry on the bank. "If either of you ever breathes a word of this to anyone I'll have you both- -" "Court-martialed?" "Executed." Tom burst out laughing. Harry chuckled, and sat down on B'Elanna's vacated rock, pulling off his boots. "Do you two think you could--" he was cut off as a transporter beam grabbed him, taking Tom's and B'Elanna's uniforms, comm badges still attached, as well.