Flashback - Diane Carey [59]
"I'm surprised you two are alive," Chakotay commented. "Pretty nasty in there, but you locked down the leak. How'd you do it?"
"Funny thing," Paris choked out. "With all our technology ... we couldn't come up with anything better than . . . stuffing a sock into a hole."
He winced and choked, his head heavy and breathing labored as they lowered him to the deck under the whirring vents. Sure enough, one of his boots and one sock were missing.
"That's porous," Kim said. "How'd you-"
"We patched it with a sterile bandage," B'Elanna rasped, her voice craggy from the irritation of a
contaminated atmosphere. "I was going to bandage his arm, and bandaged the coolant instead."
As Harry held Paris up in a sitting position so he could breathe easier, Chakotay checked for bleeding.
"Not a very attractive wound on your arm."
"I hope it leaves a scar." Paris gasped fitfully, "Girls like scars."
"We can arrange for the doctor to leave you a scar. What else, Tom?"
"Ribs . . . terrible, shattered, smashed . . . never be the same . . ."
Kim smiled, mostly with relief. "Don't worry. You'll fuse. I think it's all an act. You're really made of rubber."
B'Elanna pointed at Paris and started to speak, but was clutched by a fit of coughing and slumped back against the wall, her face cramped with frustration at not getting a barb in when she had a chance.
Chakotay said, "Harry, let's get these two to sickbay before we get into a conversation we'll all regret."
"What's the prognosis? How are they?"
Chakotay faced the Doctor in an anteroom of sickbay, around the corner from where Tuvok and the captain were still locked in their mind-meld. The Doctor, being a holograph, had no problem monitoring both situations through th e ship's computer, so they decided to keep Paris and B'Elanna away from the captain, to minimize any disturbance.
All they needed was another disturbance.
"Lieutenant Torres has some first- and second-
degree burns on her hands and legs," the Doctor said. "She's bruised and has a pulled ligament in her left leg. Mr. Paris is more severely injured, with some spinal trauma, seven fractured ribs, and an open gash on his upper arm. However, I can fuse the bones and close the wound rather easily. The ligament and the bruises will take longer. Some things simply have to rebound on their own. They both have lung damage from inhaling the coolant and other contaminants, but that too can be cured. They'll both be sore for a few days, but the prognosis is good. I would say they were both most fortunate."
"Good." Chakotay folded his arms in a deliberately imposing manner. "Now that we have those two taken care of, Doctor, is there something I should know about Kes?"
With a contemplative pause, the Doctor admitted, "Yes, there is."
"Well?"
"Kes requested that I not inform you of her condition."
He tried to step away, but Chakotay moved in front of him-as if that would matter if a holographic display really wanted to get around him. "Kes came onto the bridge and started firing the phasers at 'Klingons.' The phaser fire ignited the trace siril-lium left in that part of the nebula and almost killed Torres and Paris."
Obviously troubled, the Doctor worked through the problem for several seconds.
"I'm very sorry," he said. "Perhaps Neelix can shed some light on the situation."
Chakotay leaned into the ward and quietly called, "Neelix."
The Talaxian looked up, spotted Chakotay in the anteroom, patted B'Elanna on the shoulder, kissed Kes, and crossed the ward into the smaller area.
He was immediately faced off" by a not particularly accommodating first officer.
Chakotay pulled him into a place where they couldn't be seen. "All right, Neelix, what's going on with Kes?"
The worried Talaxian glanced back into the other part of sickbay, where Kes was hovering over their two injured crewmates, applying burn treatment