The Counsellor | A Star Trek: Voyager/Tom Paris fanfiction

Chapter 11-Phage

"Captain's log, stardate 48532.4. We're on our way to a rogue planetoid which Mister Neelix tells us is an extremely rich source of raw dilithium. If he's right, this could go a long way toward easing our power shortage." said Kathryn in her log.

Kathryn and Chakotay are walking in the hallway to Kathryn's private dining room "assuming we do find dilithium on this planetoid, we're going to need a refining facility on the ship to process it." said Kathryn. "Lieutenant Torres has already asked permission to start modifications to the auxiliary impulse reactor. It could be converted into a crude dilithium refinery." said Chakotay. "The impulse reactor? Sometimes I think B'Elanna goes out of her way to find solutions that ignore Starfleet procedures." Kathryn stated "Her arguments are quite convincing. She thinks it can be done safely." said Chakotay. "I'm sure it can. Tell her I want regular reports on her progress every step of the way. Are you sure you won't join me for breakfast, I was thinking of having eggs Benedict with asparagus, strawberries and cream." said Kathryn. "Ah." said Chakotay "I said I was thinking about it. I'm actually having ration pack number five. Stewed tomatoes with dehydrated eggs." said Kathryn. "Mmm. Sounds delicious, but I've already had my vacuum-packed oatmeal this morning." said Chakotay. "I'll see you on the bridge." said Kathryn.

Kathryn walks through the door into a steam-filled room, and her jaw drops open. Neelix has a pair of large pans sizzling away on blazing braziers. He seasons them, then puts some food onto a metal tray and hands it to a crewman across a serving counter. "Hope you enjoy it." said Neelix "what is going on here?" asked Kathryn. "Captain, you caught me by surprise." said Neelix. "I could say the same thing. What are you doing?" Kathryn asked "well, I know how you and the other senior officers have been, excuse me, disappointed with the rations lately, so I thought I'd use a few of the vegetables from the hydroponics bay and whip up a little breakfast." said Neelix.

"You have turned this into a galley?" Kathryn asked "it wasn't easy. I had to completely re-route the mess hall power conduits and scrounge a lot of supplies from all over the ship, but that's my specialty, making something out of nothing. I know it doesn't look like much now, but in a few days you'll swear there'd been a galley here for years. Be careful, that one is a little spicy." said Neelix. "Neelix, who approved this?" Kathryn asked still in shock "ah, well, no one." said Neelix. "Well, you might have asked me first. This used to be my private dining room." said Kathryn. "Your? Your dining room?" asked Neelix. "If you had checked the ship's directory, you would have noticed that cabin one two five alpha deck two is designated as the Captain's private dining room." said Kathryn. "Oh! Then I guess that you'll be wanting me to move all of this stuff out of your way." said Neelix.

"Bridge to Captain Janeway." Chakotay said over the comm. "Go ahead." said Janeway. "We're approaching the rogue planetoid, Captain." said Chakotay. "On my way. I want you to come with me. We will deal with this later." said Kathryn. "Ensign Parsons, would you mind keeping an eye on things until I get back and er, rotate the darvot fritters every ten minutes until they turn a deep chartreuse. And remember one, one to a customer." said Neelix.

Kathryn and Neelix walk onto the Bridge, Tessina hadn't arrived yet, as she was neither in her seat or beside Tom. "What have you found?" asked Kathryn, as Tessina walked onto the bridge, her hair extra wavy, it seemed Tessina had slept with a plait the night before "we're picking up definite dilithium signatures, Captain. The strongest readings are originating from ten to twenty kilometres inside the planetoid." said Harry. "It also looks like there's a series of subterranean caves with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere." said Harry. "Class M. It'll make mining a lot easier if we can go in there without environmental suits." said Chakotay. "How much dilithium are we talking about?" asked Kathryn. "It's hard to get a precise reading. It could be anywhere from five hundred to one thousand metric tonnes." said Harry "just as I said. I bet there are a few Yallitaian engineers who'd give all three of their spinal columns to know where this planet is." said Neelix "Commander, take an away team down into those caves and do a preliminary geological analysis. B'Elanna, you'd better get your dilithium refinery on-line." said Kathryn. "It'll be ready to go in three days." said B'Elanna from engineering. "Ensign Kim, Commander Sevira." said Chakotay gesturing to Tessina, who was the science officer on board, as medical is a type of science but before she was a counselor or even a chief medical officer, Tessina was a junior science officer on the USS Enterprise under Capt. Picard. Neelix moves to join Chakotay, Tessina and Kim. "Where are you going?" asked Chakotay. "With you. I've been studying my tricorder operations manual. Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres has brought me up to date on dilithium geophysics. I've been preparing for this mission all week." said Neelix. "Very well, Mister Neelix." said Kathryn, Neelix joins Chakotay, Amanda and Kim in the turbolift. "I think you'll find me extremely helpful, Commander. I remember the first time I flew past this planet, it was about three years ago..." Harry and Tessina shared a look, Harry spoke cutting Neelix off "Deck four." he said.