Second Officer of Voyager | A Star Trek: Voyager/Tom Paris fanfiction

Chapter 7-Parallax

"Report." said Kathryn walking onto the Bridge "it looks like we're running into more spatial distortions." said T'Rina, walking over and looking at Tom's screen, he looks at her, she looks at him, trapped in the memories of their past.  "I'm picking up a highly localised disturbance off the port bow." said Harry snapping the Second Officer and her former lover out of their own thoughts, "on screen. Mister Tuvok?" asked Kathryn "it is another type four quantum singularity. Physical and temporal dimensions are identical to the one we encountered earlier." said Tuvok "Captain, according to these readings, we've returned to our previous co-ordinates. This isn't another singularity. It's the same one." said Tom "check the navigational logs. Confirm our position." said Kathryn "well, they show we've travelled one point four light years away from the anomaly, but I've confirmed our position against the star chart. We're definitely back where we started. Doesn't make sense." said Harry. "They can't both be right. We're either still at the singularity or we're not." said Tom "well, we can see the singularity so I tend to believe that the external sensors are correct." said Kathryn "that would imply there was something wrong with the warp drive and the navigational logs." said Tuvok "Mister Paris, lay in a course away from the singularity. This time at maximum warp. Ensign Kim, I want you to keep a sensor lock on the singularity. Verify that we're moving away from it. Engage." said Kathryn "distance from the singularity is ten million kilometres and increasing." said Harry "warp engines holding steady. All systems report normal." said Tom. "Eleven million. Twelve million. (beep beep) I don't get it. Mister Paris, have we altered course?" Harry asked "no. We're still steady on three one zero mark two one five." said Tom, T'Rina looked at the screen "he's right" she said to Kathryn "then something's really wrong here. It's ahead of us again." said Harry "confirmed. We're back at the same co-ordinates." said Seska. "All stop. Ensign Kim, transfer all the data on spatial distortions we encountered to my ready room. I'm going to begin my own analysis. Commander, have all departments run complete system diagnostics. I'll expect a full report from all senior officers at fifteen hundred hours." said Kathryn. "Who will represent Engineering?" asked T'Rina curiously "Lieutenant Carey." said Janeway, Kamisa nodded accepting the answer "you should invite B'Elanna Torres as well, unless you've removed her from consideration." said Chakotay "fine." said Janeway.

Tom and Tessina looked at each other, honestly they didn't care who became Chief Engineer so long as someone competent got the job but Kathryn and Chakotay insisted of having different people rather than compromising, "honestly" huffed T'Rina annoyed "you could do it" said Tom, T'Rina tensed, she forgot she taught Tom how to communicate with her telepathically while they were dating, she raised an eyebrow but listened all the same "I've seen you do engineering, the little trinkets that move on your desk you invented, I've seen you help students in our engineering class, because you finished before them" Tom stated, T'Rina just shrugged and smiled slightly, Harry who was watching their interaction smiled slightly, he might just win the betting pool about when the two get together, the only person on board who knew about T'Rina and Tom's former relationship was Kathryn Janeway, also no-one knew that the reason T'Pel existed was because of T'Rina and Tom's former relationship.

In Engineering Carey walks over to B'Elanna slightly miffed at her coming to the Staff Meeting "the Captain says she wants you to attend the staff meeting this afternoon." said Carey annoyed "oh. Well, I'll give you a full report on what happens." said B'Elanna "I'll be there too. Just remember, Torres, I'm the senior officer and I speak for Engineering. Try not to say anything unless someone asks you a question. Fifteen hundred hours, deck one. Don't be late." said Carey. He walks away and Seska walks over to B'Elanna "you should have broken more than his nose." she said, B'Elanna tries not to smile slightly.

"I've taken a look at every major subsystem and there's no sign of any trouble." said Harry walking in the hallway with Tuvok. "What about the navigational array?" asked Tuvok. "I'll have the results in about an hour. So, I hear there's been some trouble down in Engineering." said Harry "there was an altercation, but it has been resolved." said Tuvok "that's not what I hear. I hear that the whole department's up in arms, that the Maquis and Starfleet people are almost at each other's throats." said Harry. "I will never cease to be amazed by the human capacity for hyperbole. The situation may be characterised as tense, but one could hardly say that they're about to become violent." said Tuvok "I just hope you're right. Things are bad enough around here without, ow!" said Harry stopping "Are you all right?" Tuvok asks "Yeah. I just have this splitting headache and..." Harry said before stopping, he falls to his knees. "I'd better get you to Sickbay." said Tuvok "Dizzy. Can't, can't focus." said Harry.