Star Trek Voyager: The Loving Game

Star Trek Voyager: The Loving Game (Chapter 71)

“I’m in.” Tom confirmed, uneasily shifting his playing between his fingers as he picked up a small handful of replicator ration tokens with his other hand, “Three days worth.”

“Three days?” Harry echoed in disbelief. “You’re going to be stuck eating the “delicacies” from the Fallonians if you’re not careful!”

“That’s my problem Harry, and besides the Captain might appreciate my efforts at cultural integration.” Tom replied with an amused smirk as the other two away mission members, Chakotay and Neelix, both chuckled. Tom’s expression then became more serious, quirking a questioning brow in Harry’s direction, “So, you in or out on this round Harry?”

Harry stared longingly at the stack of tokens before his gaze drifted down to the cards spread in his hands, his tongue sliding nervously over his lips before a determined sigh left him. “I’m in.” He answered, but not without a note of trepidation in his tone.

Tom gave Harry a grin of approval before turning to Chakotay. “What about you Chakotay?”

“No, it’s gotten a little too rich for me.” Chakotay admitted without a hint of regret, easily putting his cards aside as he stood up to stretch his legs after more than an hour crouched around the console they’d been using as a makeshift poker table while the shuttle made its way back to the rendezvous point on autopilot. “Besides…” He continued lightly as he headed back towards the comm. to check their progress, “…the number of times Celeste has beaten me at Snap lately, even my own wife has declared that I “do not have a good aptitude for card games”, her words not mine.”

“Of course!” Tom laughed, “I’ll need to remember that my angelic little goddaughter is a card shark in the making!” he joked as he turned to Neelix, “What about you Neelix?”

Neelix beamed with naïve eagerness. “I’m all in Lieutenant!”

“Are you sure?” Tom pressed, smiling to himself as the Talaxian nodded. “I have four kings.” He told them simply, flashing the cards in front of them as proof.

Harry gave an incredulous laugh and slammed his own cards down on the console. “Every time!” he exclaimed as Tom gathered up the tokens.

“But you looked so nervous about your hand Lieutenant…” Neelix started in bemusement.

“That’s what’s called a good bluff Neelix.” Tom explained, “You haven’t learned that yet, I could read your hand from your face alone…” He was interrupted by a loud thud and a dim green light illuminating the shuttle’s tiny cabin. “What the hell…”

“It’s a tractor beam!” Chakotay shouted back at his crewmates. “Get us out of it Lieutenant!” he ordered Tom sharply.

“Yes sir!” Tom gasped out as he stumbled back to the comm., “I can’t go to warp and the impulse engines are working against us!”

“Can you dissipate the beam?” Chakotay asked Harry urgently.

“I’m trying to sir, but the signal keeps re-modulating…” Harry began to report hurriedly before all colour drained from his face, “It’s a…Borg tractor beam…”

Chakotay didn’t even have time to turn to face Harry for further confirmation, it confronted him in the form of a huge Cube directly in front of them, its tractor beam reeling them in as a fisherman would use a line to bring in a fish. Dread consumed Chakotay’s body as he recalled from Seven’s memories that this view of a Cube was the last thing many millions of drones had seen as individuals. “Send a distress call to Voyager…” He started to shout in desperation as a shot hit the bow, but before he could end the order his mind descended into the black abyss of unconsciousness.