Star Trek Voyager: Their Human Errors

Chapter 15

B'Elanna shifted uncomfortably, the ripened swell of her abdomen weighing heavily on her thighs as she crouched down beside the charred and bent sheet of metal crumpled on the floor of Engineering. This forlorn fragment was the only salvageable sign, after a long night of searching, of Chakotay and Seven of Nine since their disappearance and as such B'Elanna was willing to tolerate anything if it would help find her missing crewmates, her friends. "Well..." She started with a sigh as she lowered her tricorder, "It's definitely was part of the shuttle."

"Yes." Icheb, who was crouched along the opposite side of the fragment, agreed quietly before wiping away some of the blackened residue along the edge with his hand to reveal a faded section of the shuttle's identification code which normally would run across the starboard side. A grimace ran briefly over Icheb's face at the discovery, mirroring B'Elanna's own, but when he spoke his voice was level. "It appears to have been part of the starboard stabiliser."

"Yeah." B'Elanna confirmed with a nod, "But the fact that it seems to have been sheared off fits with our theory that the main body of the shuttle managed to get through the shield..."

"B'Elanna!" Captain Janeway's strident call echoed through Engineering as she hurried briskly towards them. Her face visibly paled as she saw the half melted segment of metal and her eyes shot to B'Elanna's. "Report Lieutenant?" she asked tightly.

B'Elanna awkwardly began to try to rise to her feet, giving Icheb a grateful look as he automatically reached out his arm to steady her. "As I told you Captain, we managed to find a piece of the shuttle resting on the shield and beam it up for examination..."

The Captain gestured sharply at the metal lying in front of her, "That's all that's left?" she muttered thickly, "Is there really any chance..." She stopped herself as she noticed Icheb, blanching guiltily as she touched his shoulder in concern, "Icheb, I don't think this is a good place for you right now..."

Icheb was normally unfailingly respectful to the Captain, and to everyone else on the ship, but B'Elanna could see that Janeway had touched a painful nerve. He flinched back from the Captain and hot emotion flared in his eyes even as he regarded her stoically, "My place is wherever I can be of most use in assisting the search for Seven and Commander Chakotay." He replied stiffly.

The Captain looked at him sympathetically, "Of course, but..."

B'Elanna decided it was time to intervene. "I need his help here Captain, that's why I let him stay." Taking a deep breath she continued her explanation, "As for whether there's a chance that they're down there on the planet, I'd say it's a big one Captain." She indicated the burn marks along the wreckage, "From what we've been able to tell, this piece was torn away from the shuttle and left resting on the shield..."

Hope filled the Captain's features as she interrupted, "And that would only happen if it got caught by the shield as the shuttle was passing through it, right?"

B'Elanna nodded eagerly, "We think so, the damage certainly doesn't fit with the rest of the shuttle vaporising like the Ledosians argue."

"That still doesn't answer the question of how they could've managed to get through the shield." The Captain mused thoughtfully, "From what our own scans of the shield, as well as what the Ledosians have told us, it's impenetrable."