Ghost of a Chance - Mark Garland [62]
"One day I will be again, and I will demonstrate my skill."
Paris looked up at her, his expression softer than any that Chakotay was used to seeing. "I believe you," he said. "And I think you'll get your chance, just as I have."
Chakotay turned at the sound of the turbolift door opening behind him.
Lieutenant Torres stepped onto the bridge and stopped in mid-stride.
Her eyes narrowed, and she pursed her lips.
Chakotay followed her gaze to Paris and Mila, who were engaged together in what was becoming a special moment. Mila bent over, her nose nearly touching the lieutenant's as he raised his face to hers. They whispered briefly to each other, grinning frivolously.
When Chakotay looked back, he found B'Elanna still rigid, fists clenched at her sides, only she was looking at him now. He felt Tassay behind him then, her warm breath on the back of his neck.
One of her hands gently touched his side. "I hope things work out perfectly," she said softly, "for all of us."
Chakotay felt a little chill, and perhaps he also felt guilty, as if he'd just been caught in a lie. He gently brushed Tassay's hand aside.
"You have something to report, Lieutenant?" he asked Torres, hearing his voice crack as he spoke. He cleared his throat and waited. The answer seemed to take a while.
"Not right now," Torres said stiffly.
"Then why are you on the bridge?" Chakotay asked, feeling slightly annoyed. After all, she wasn't helping anyone just standing there casting a dark mood over the bridge. At least, he didn't want to think she was helping...
Again she paused. "Just checking the image on the main screen," she said. Which made no sense. It wasn't any different from the monitor screens in engineering.
"Checking for what?"
"It's a long story, I guess," she answered. "It's just..." She looked away from the screen, looked at everyone on the bridge.
"Just what?"
B'Elanna let a look of sad frustration cross her features for just an instant, very different from the strict expression she had brought in with her. "I have a lot to do right now. Duties.
You understand, or at least I think you do. I know you used to."
She spun on her heel and tromped back toward the lift door.
"Where are you going?" Chakotay asked.
"I'll be in Engineering," she said, "doing what needs to be done." And then she was gone.
Chakotay stood silently contemplating B'Elanna's last words. He could hear Tassay trying to talk to him again, continuing the same conversation, as if nothing had happened. "I have such plans," she continued. Something about taking a shuttle through the rest of the Drenar system in a couple of days to do some sight-seeing. He was trying very hard not to listen.
"Commander," Rollins said, "those ships are approaching optimal sensor range. I'm scanning now."
"Excellent," Jonal said, moving toward Rollins in the tactical bay as the ensign worked at his consoles. The Drosary stepped closer and attempted to look down at the readings, but Rollins waved him off as if he were a fly buzzing too close.
"Those are definitely Televek reactor signatures," Rollins reported.
"They are such punctual people, these Televek," Tassay said, her voice loud in Chakotay's ear.
"And nearly as friendly as we are," Mila told Paris, again nose to nose.
"Commander," Rollins said then, looking up, wide-eyed. "This is odd.
They don't look much like transports or supply ships. Any of them.
I'm trying to verify tonnage, configuration, and energy curves, but as far as I can tell, those ships are all identical to that--" Jonal wrapped his arm around Rollins's neck, cutting him off in mid-sentence.
At almost the same instant Mila wrapped an arm around Paris's neck and tightened it, nearly lifting him out of his seat. Chakotay tried to move, but he felt hands grabbing him, reining him in. Before he could utter a sound, Tassay had one hand over his face, an arm firmly around his middle. She bent him backward far enough