Author: Zappy Zaps 

Category: P, T (Action/Adventure)

Summary: Janeway is missing for a brief period on a planet. She soon returns and B’Elanna pieces together what really happened on the planet after she heard what Tom did on his shore leave on the same planet. I was inspired to write this series by SnoopMary’s story ‘My Grown Up Christmas Wish’. It is a really cool story. If you haven’t read it you really should.

Author’s note: You don’t need to read this to understand the rest of the series. This is just a short little piece I felt like writing.

Rating: Uh…PG 

Sept 01

Disclaimer: Paramount, A Viacom Company, owns the Star Trek Universe. I’m not getting any thing from this. I’m just borrowing the characters for a little adventure.

Tom Paris walked out of a small shop with a little souvenir in hand. He shook it and watched as the crystals in the glass sphere sparked as they collided. He smiled. Another trinket to add to the others in his quarters on Voyager. He walked further into the heart of ‘Square One’. It was the main trade and commerce centre for this county. Voyager was in orbit while the crew took a short shore leave. The planet’s name was Ekyel. The species on the planet were called Embel. They looked exactly like humans but they had a more…violent demeanour. The crew had been warned to be on the look out and be careful when they were down here. The smallest infraction could send tempers flaring. They were only staying for three days and this was the last day for shore-leave and Tom decided to visit the dull planet. From space the atmosphere is a dirty brownish colour and from the planet it’s not much different. The sky was always a cloudy brown colour. Just enough to light passed through the atmosphere to illuminate the land and distinguish day from night. 

Tom walked through the crowded square with no destination in particular in mind. He passed two suspicious looking characters and he over heard one of them say Voyager. He turned and discreetly followed them. Things were about to get interesting.

Three hours later Voyager got a transmission from what of the shuttles leaving the planet. Commander Chakotay was acting Captain while Janeway visited the planet. Tuvok’s face appeared on the viewscreen. "Commander, there has been some sort of terrorist attack on the square. Captain Janeway has gone missing during the panic that ensued the attack." Tuvok said as calm as ever.

Chakotay was shocked and didn’t say anything for a moment. He shook himself out of it and addressed Tuvok "I’ll take a shuttle down below the interference and recall all the crewmembers. When you get back contact the government of the area and ask them for there help. You’ll have to use the high frequency communication link." Tuvok nodded. Sommunication with the surface was difficult due to the high amounts of ionized particle radiation in the atmosphere. Transmissions on the surface are done close to the ground where there is less interference but with all the transmissions more powerful signals are being used and further obscuring any comm. signal or transmissions. Voyager could beam people down but they had to be shuttled back up since the targeting scanners couldn’t break through the interference. There were special uplinks in the county where transmissions could be made to outside the atmosphere but most were controlled by the government. "You have command until I get back." Chakotay concluded the communication. Tuvok would be on Voyager in a matter of minutes. Chakotay left the bridge in the capable hands of Rawlins while he headed to the shuttlebay. He commed and told B’Elanna to meet him in the shuttlebay.

The shuttle left Voyager and flew just below the atmospheric interference of the planet. They could contact the crewmembers that were on the planet if they used a boosted signal and if they were in the area below the ionic interference and above the transmission interference from the surface. Chakotay contacted all of the Voyager crewmen in a mass communication from the shuttle while B’Elanna scanned for the Captain’s commbadge. She didn’t expect to find it, but she did. She verified and told Chakotay. 

"Chakotay to Janeway"

"Janeway," came the response. She sounded a little confused maybe tired.

"Captain are you alright?"

"Yes a bit of a headache but I’m fine."

"What happened to you?"

"I’ll tell you all about on Voyager."

"Aye, Chakotay out."

Three days later Voyager was speeding on its way back to the Alpha Quadrant. Tom, B’Elanna and Harry were in the Mess sitting at the couches talking like friends do. They were discussing what they did when they were on Ekyel and speculating on what happened to the Captain while she was there. "I mean who would go through all that trouble and then just let her go?" B’Elanna asked loudly. They had all heard about Janeway’s brief abduction but she was found minutes later bruised but fine. She didn’t know what happened since she was barely conscious for those few minutes so she could not answer their questions.

"B’Elanna not so loudly." Tom laughed as the people stopped looking in their direction. "The Captains fine so let’s just put it behind us." Tom took a sip from his coffee. Harry shrugged.

"What did you guys do while you were down there?" Harry asked.

"Not much: looked through the Square, saw the local attractions…" she trailed of.

"You mean the Embel Dirt Monument?" Tom asked smiling. Harry and B’elanna stared at him quizzically.

"I don’t remember seeing a Dirt Monument." Harry said slowly. B’Elanna looked at him sharply. //How could he be so gullible?//

"Harry, there is no Dirt Monument on Ekyel." She told him.

"You don’t believe me?" Tom asked, one eyebrow raised. B’Elanna just glared at him a bit. "The entire planet is a monument to filth and dirt." 

"It wasn’t that bad." Harry said.

"Really, well you’ve obviously never been to Dem County."

"Dem County?" B’Elanna was trying to think which county they had visited. "Wait a minute. We didn’t go to Dem. We were in Samell. We weren’t supposed to go any where else except Samell, Tom."

"Oh really. That order must have slipped my mind." He excused his violation of orders.

"Yes as slippery as your mind is," B’Elanna said wondering what Tom had done. So she asked.

"What did I do? Nothing much-visited here and there, bought a souvenir, which I promptly lost,"

"What was it?" Harry asked.

"Just a little sphere that had some crystals in it. When they collided they would spark into different colour." Tom described his lost treasure. "I didn’t do much; just looked around."

"And visited the neighbouring county." B’Elanna added. Tom put a finger to his lips and then glanced over Harry and B’Elanna’s heads and smiled innocently to whoever was there. Harry and B’Elanna, who had their backs to the entrance of the mess hall, turned to see who was behind them. Chakotay gave Tom a warning look and proceeded to get his meal. Tom exhaled audibly.

"Do you mind not talking so loudly. Sheesh! If the Commander found out about my little sojourn he’d have my head on a silver platter."

"I thought that things were better between you two since you and the Doc saved us from that planet the Kazon left us on." Harry said.

"Let’s just say were at an unofficial cease-fire." Tom flashed his grin.

"Tom tell us what you did on Ekyel or I’ll go over there and tell Chakotay what you did." B’Elanna threatened, leaning forward with an evil grin on her face.

"You don’t have any proof." Tom said leaning and mimicking her facial expression.

"Harry heard you say-"

"Oh no! I’m not getting into this." Harry raised his hands.

"Fine but do you really think that Chakotay would need proof of you disobeying orders to believe it." B’Elanna shot at Tom. Tom sighed and leaned back knowing that she was right. Things with Chakotay where better but the Commander still didn’t have much faith in Tom, especially when in was on issues like his personal safety. It was pretty much a known fact among the crew that Tom was rather risky with his life but never with anyone else’s. Tom leaned back into the cushions of the couch and was about to speak but B’Elanna interrupted. "And don’t leave anything out." Tom smiled briefly at her.

"I beamed down looked through some of the stores bought a little…something. Walked around a bit more. Caught a transport to the next county and visited a couple of buildings including a pub. I went with these two guys who thought I was someone else. I met this woman at different bar in Dem. She was…very …forward." That earned him a look from B’Elanna "Nothing happened though and I went back to Samell county. Took a transport to Macwa county where I had a little…fun and then back again to Samell." He smiled as he ended his brief tale. 

"Twice! You disobeyed orders twice." Harry stated.

"I didn’t recall that we weren’t allowed to leave the county. Sue me." Tom shrugged.

"Sue?" Harry asked his face mirroring B’Elanna’s confused expression.

"Nothing." Tom dismissed with a wave of his hand. "Let’s say we adjourn to the holodeck and see what programs are being run." Tom suggested getting up.

The next day B’Elanna sat in her quarters with Harry waiting for the Commander to show up. At exactly 1400 the chime sounded and B’Elanna let him in wondering how he always showed up right on time for everything. The three of them had the afternoon off and B’Elanna had been adamant about having to talk to them that afternoon. So they conceded and here there are. "So what is so important that you would make us give up our afternoon off?" Chakotay asked as he sat down in a vacant chair. B’Elanna was pacing. Never a good sign.

"Remember what happened on Ekyel?" B’Elanna asked not looking at either of them. "Well I’ve been doing some of my own research and I think that I’ve been able to piece together what happened to the Captain and it involves one of our crewmen."

"Who?"

"Lt. Paris. I think that he was the one that freed Janeway from her captors." She stopped pacing and looked at them. They looked at her, scepticism written clearly in their features. "I’m serious."

"And how did you come to this conclusion?" Chakotay asked smiling. He though that this was a product of B’Elanna’s over active imagination. By the end of the next hour though, he would not be so quick to dismiss B’elanna’s theory.

"It’s all backed up by facts. Information from the detailed scans of the cochrane, maps and information about the layout of the country given to us by the local government, Janeway’s account of what happened, the information given by the terrorist when they were caught and Tom’s list of activities he engaged in when he was on the planet." B’Elanna was convinced that she was right and it came through in her voice.

"Let’s hear this then." Harry said, now interested in B’Elanna’s theory.

"Okay," she breathed and sat down, collecting her thoughts. "Chakotay, first you have to promise me that you won’t take any action against Tom for his disobeying orders." He nodded. //What did Paris do now?// He couldn’t help thinking. "Alright. First Tom went down to the planet two and a half hours before the attack on the Square One happened. He said that he also went to Dem and Macwa county. Here’s what he left out…"

Tom carefully followed the two men and listened in on their conversation. They didn’t say Voyager again but what he heard could have implied a lot of things. He chose to interpret what he heard as threat to Voyager and the crew’s safety. They were talking about plans being set for the ‘event’ that was happening soon. They said that they had to find the man they were meeting, he was supposed to be near the small traditional pottery shop. Tom took off in a sprint weaving through the crowd and got to the location before the other two men did. He saw a tall slim man leaning against a building. "Are you the one I’m supposed to be meeting?" Tom asked in a strong slightly menacing voice.

"You’re late!" the man barked. "Where is the other? I was told there would be two."

"Yeah well you see…" Tom turned slowly, pulled his arm back and looked over his shoulder as if looking for someone. Turning quickly back to the tall man Tom swung hard and punched him. The man fell hard to the ground unconscious. "He had other business to attend to." Tom finished. He looked around to see if anybody had noticed. Nobody was paying attention to what going on in this dark corner. He pulled the man further into the shadows where he would not wake of be found for a couple of hours, which ever came first. Tom searched the man’s pockets. He found some sort to access card. He pocketed it. Found a padd with some information. Pocketed that too. Tom looked over his shoulder and saw the two men where almost there. He found the man’s weapon, an old phaser. It would have to do. He took that too. Tom stood and took off his commbadge and placed it in his pocket.

"Are you Lapar?" Tom turned around and saw the two men he had been following.

"You’re late."

"We were held up. Do you have the information?" The second man said quickly.

Tom reached slowly into his pocket hoping that it was the padd they were talking about. He brought it out and showed them. He watched them carefully.

"Excellent. We must go now. Come." The first man ordered and began walking off. Tom followed the two men to a large hover vehicle. It was some sort of transport that shuttled people between counties. Tom got on the with the other two men and they sat at the back where they could see everybody. Tom watched everyone carefully and tried to make a plan, but with his limited knowledge about what was going on, it wasn’t much of a plan.

Ten minutes later the transport stopped and they exited. Tom looked around. This last county was a little dingy but this one was just filthy. Debris and garbage littered the street and the air seemed more polluted in this area. Tom looked around and saw the super-stacks spewing some sort of gas. This must be the old industrial sector. This civilization had warp technology but they weren’t quite as advanced in the other areas as the Federation was. 

Tom waited until the other two men began walking to a small building and followed them. He was careful never start walking before they did. Since he didn’t know where he was going he didn’t want to have to be corrected by them. It would make him look suspicious. He followed the men into the building and past a large guard. Tom was hesitant about going in. He did not know they lay out and did not have contingency plan or a plan of any sort for that matter. He could hear Arrow’s voice in his mind ‘Never go in without knowing how you are going to get out’. 

Tom walked in anyway. He was good at doing things by the seat of his pants. This would be no different. They entered a room where there were a few chairs set up in front of a large screen. A man walked up to Tom and held out his hand. Tom assumed that he wanted the padd and gave it to him. The man walked away with the information without a word. //Looks like I assumed right.// The man that took the padd, loaded the information onto the screen and an image appeared on the screen. The man went to another man and whispered something to him. This other man was short but heavily built. He walked to the front of the room and began the meting. 

The people in the room took a seat. Tom deliberately took on closest to the exit and on the edge so that he could make a quick escape if necessary. The meeting began and the short man introduced himself as Ulam. The image on the screen was a bird’s eye view of Square One. Ulam pointed out some old structures that surrounded the city. He talked about some sort of plan but he never got into details so Tom was kept mostly in the dark. The other men seemed to know what the plan was but Tom had yet to determine what was really going on. 

One man that was standing on the opposite side of the room got up and went to a computer in the next room. Tom watched him suspiciously. Tom had noticed him earlier staring at him. He seemed a little suspicious about Tom when he first entered. The room with the computer was separated by a transparent wall and Tom could see the glances that the man kept throwing in his direction. Suddenly there was a startled expression and Tom knew that he had been discovered. The man quickly made his way out of the room and up to Ulam who was still explaining the layout. Tom decided it was time for him to leave. 

The man whispered to Ulam who was angry for being disturbed. Ulam’s expression changed after the man had explained. "Who?" Ulam asked. The man pointed to the seat where Tom was sitting. It was now vacant. The two men both looked around trying to find him but couldn’t see him anywhere. 

Outside the building Tom was walking quickly away from the building. He periodically looked over his shoulder checking to see if they had noticed his absence yet. Tom ducked into a alley and a moment later six men came running from the building and ran right past the alley where Tom was hiding. Tom sighed in relief when they were out of sight.

"Wait a minute!" Chakotay interrupted, "You think that he was able to infiltrate a group of terrorists?" 

"Tom matches the description that the terrorist gave of the unknown man that they thought was a spy."

"So could a lot of people, B’Elanna." Chakotay said back. 

"I know it sounds crazy-"

"You bet it does." Harry said.

"But It’s true. Just let me finish." They both nodded. If nothing else this would be an interesting story maybe it would be a good holonovel. "Tom takes a transport back to Samell and then takes one to Macwa…"

Tom stepped off the transport and took a quick look around before heading of in an arbitrary direction deeper into the heart of the county. In the meeting that he left prematurely they said that there was a woman that they had to meet later in Samell but she lived in Macwa running most of the local liquor establishments. Tom hoped to find her first and get some information from her. After trying three different bars he finally located the woman in the fourth bar. 

He walked into the smoky establishment and scanned the faces in the bar. He spotted her at the far end of the bar counter where some of the locals sipped their drinks and drowned their worries. She was staring at Tom running her eyes up and down him. Tom walked to the bar and sat at a stool while ordering a drink. The woman was the bold type; afraid of no one. She would come to him.

The woman got up from her seat and walked over to Tom seductively. She grabbed Tom by the shoulder and spun him around on the stool. Tom looked up and down her, leaned back on the bar and flashed her his flyboy grin. "And you are…" Tom began.

"Maysar." She smiled enticingly. She walked up to him, invading his personal space and moving in between Tom’s spread legs. She pressed her self up to him until their faces were only a few scant centimetres apart. "And you are…?"

He could smell the alcohol in her breath. "No one of any consequence." Tom replied, not willing to give his name. Maysar didn’t seem to care. She was too busy running her hands up and down his chest and running her fingers down the side of his face. "Any plans for tonight?" he asked knowing very well that she was getting together the terrorist to offer her ‘services’ as a pyrotechnic/demolition expert but Tom had to wonder if that was all. She was all over him and she doesn’t even know his name.

"Just a little something." She said distractedly still running her hands down his legs. This was beginning to irritate Tom, but he knew better that to upset the bar owner. That would only be asking for trouble. 

"Is it opened to visitors?" Tom leaned forward and whispered into her ear.

"Maybe." She wasn’t really listening.

"Is it exciting?"

"Most definitely. You might be able to join us." She looked up into his eyes. "By this time tomorrow I’ll be the Captain of the most powerful ship in the sector." 

"Really? Well that sounds like quite the job. How do you lpan on getting this ship?"

"Oh it will be so easy. We have something that they want and they’ll just hand it over to us."

"Something they want?"

"Uh huh." Tom sighed. It looked like she was done with that topic.

"Sounds like a big job. Are you in charge?"

"No, I just set up the transmitters and…stuff." This is the information that he wanted.

"Where?"

"Up."

"Up?"

"Yeah! Up really high!" Just then the doors to the bar swung open and Tom’s old gang walked in. Time to go.

"Well Maysar, it’s been a pleasure but I have to go know." He said trying to get up." She violently pushed him back against the bar.

"No!" she said harshly. Tom pushed off against the bar and flipped their positions.

"Yes!" he said forcibly. 

The commotion at the bar caught the attention of Ulam and his group. As soon as they saw Tom they ran towards him. Tom jumped over the bar and ducked as Ulam and his friends shot at him. He managed to stay low enough to keep from being shot and he made it to the exit. He managed to loose them in the hustle and bustle of Macwa. 

"That seems more believable." Chakotay said. "Tom Paris, a bar and a woman," 

"Chaktoay be serious for a few more minutes. The terrorists that were caught said that the man the screwed up their plans got information from the woman who did the explosives. They also said that they didn’t see him again until the plan went down and Tom said that he went back to Samell after he left the bar in Macwa…"

Tom walked through the busy square. //Back to Square One// he chuckled. The double meaning wasn’t lost on him. He wasn’t sure exactly what the details of the plan where. He looked around the square. Maysar said that the transmitters or explosives were put up high. The explosives being up high wouldn’t do as much damage as if they were closer to the ground… Tom recalled the image of the Square that he saw while in Dem with Ulam. There were five marks outside the perimeter of the city and a few on the inside. He went to the closest location that he could recall and looked carefully for anything suspicious. He found an odd panel under some crates. He tried to remove the cover but it had been welded on. Tom had hoped that he would be able to disarm the explosives or even better that the terrorists had yet to plant them but no such luck. He stood up to his full height and looked around. There were so many people. He wouldn’t be able to warn them in time. Tom walked out of the square and went to a more notorious neighbourhood where he hoped he would be able to find some sort of weapons shop. He found one. Tom walked in and using the rest of his money he bought the items that he would need. Tom walked out looking the same but he had a knife, two phasers, wires and a few other things he could modify for a greater purpose concealed in his clothing. 

Back in the square Tom saw Ulam briefly before he lost him in the crowd. They were here. Tom had to work fast. He took out the combadge in his pocket and tried to contact Voyager to warn them but he got nothing but static. Static! The detonating signal would not be able to reach the explosives unless the transmitter was above the interference. Tom looked around for a tall object. Through the thick smog Tom saw some sort of tower. He turned and found four more all stationed around Square One and all high enough to transmit a signal to the explosives. They only needed one transmitter to detonate the majority of the explosives and they had five locations. Tom wouldn’t have enough time to disable them all. He would have to strategically place some sort of interference device to cancel out the signals. He had to do that before Janeway came down. She and Tuvok were scheduled to meet some of the government officials in twenty minutes. That’s not long enough. He would need at least an hour to find and set up the interference devices. He went to work. 

He was setting up the fourth of seven devices he had made when he felt a disrupter against his back. "Turn around slowly." The feminine voice ordered. Tom turned and saw Maysar looking very angry. 

"So this is what you’re like when you’re sober." Tom smirked. She backhanded Tom across his face. Or at least she tried to. Tom grabbed her wrist and disarmed her. The gun now pointed at her Maysar was still seething anger. Tom pressed the last button to activated the interference device. "Three more to go." He said. 

"Put your weapon down." Tom looked over Maysar’s shoulder but didn’t see anyone in the direction from where the voice came from. He looked down and saw the short form of Ulam. 

"You are in no position to be giving out orders." Tom smirked. "You must be at least this tall." Tom said rasining his free hand to a height above Ulam’s.

"Well you should know-" just then a blue transporter beam deposited two figures into the center of the square and a series of explosions rang out through the square. Out of the twenty or so explosives, eight of them still detonated and managed to cause enough panic that the terrorists were hoping for. "You’re too late." Ulam sneered. Tom quickly phasered him and before she could react he phasered Maysar. Tom saw that they were still breathing and didn’t even give them a second glance as he ran towards where Janeway and Tuvok were located. 

Tom tried to weave through the mass of people that were running in every direction. He saw some men closing in on Tuvo and Janeway. He tried to yell over the screams to warn Tuvok and Janeway but he wasn’t loud enough and the terrorists struck. They took out Tuvok and Janeway and took Janeway with them leaving Tuvok on the ground about to get trampled. Tom reached Tuvok and checked his condition. He picked the Vulcan off the ground and moved him to an area where their were less people. He lay him down. Tom saw a crewman from Voyager and managed to call him over. "Gibson, stay with him!" Tom ordered the Ensign and then dashed off in search of Janeway. 

He found what he assumed was the getaway vehicle and the driver waiting nervously. He didn’t see Janeway or her captors anywhere but they probably didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention by carrying an unconscious woman in full view of everyone. 

Tom walked up to the man and tapped him on the shoulder. The man quickly spun around and continued to spin when Tom punched him hard and knocked him unconscious. "Welcome to Square One." Tom disarmed him and put him into a large dumpster like container. Now he had to wait. The terrorists would move slowly to avoid detection so he had a wait ahead of him. 

Fifteen minutes later Tom saw them coming. Tom was sitted in the hover van. He could see them but they couldn’t see him. Four, he could take out four. They approached and banged on the side door. Tom courteously answered the knock with a kick in the face for the man knocking. He didn’t notice the small sphere fall out of his pocket and roll on the ground. The other three where startled and didn’t have enough time to react when Tom took out the two of the phasers he had and shot two of the other terrorists, leaving the one who carried Janeway standing. "You’ve got two choices. Give her to me and leave or try and run and I’ll kill you." Tom smiled charmingly. The man layed Janeway on the ground and ran away into the crowded square. He wouldn’t have killed him but the terrorist didn’t know that. The pahser was only set on high stun.

Tom picked up Janeway and moved her away from the unconscious forms of the terrorists. Tom checked her pulse and breathing to make sure that she was alright and called her name until she finally awoke. He spun some story about finding her here, which was partially true. A moment later a wide band transmission was heard from Commander Chakotay ordering the Voyager crew to return to the ship. With Tom’s help Janeway was on her feet and they made their way to the coordinates. Before she got up though Janeway saw a shiny sphere and put it in her pocket.

"That’s a little farfetched B’Elanna." Chakotay said sceptically but still considering her words.

"No it is not! Janeway said that when she woke up, Tom was there with her."

"He may have just found her after the person who freed her left."

"I don’t think so.

"Have you talked to Tom about this?" this question from Harry. He was still a little sceptical but B’Elanna had a convincing story.

"I did but he just laughed. I think he’s hiding something." B’Elanna speculated.

"As interesting a story as this was I’m going to salvage the rest of my afternoon off. I’ll see you two later." Chakotay walked to the door. "And B’Elanna, don’t go spreading this." Chakotay said before the doors closed.

The next morning Voyager was the same as always. At the moment the Captain and B’Elanna were in the ready room discussing something. B’Elanna exited the room alone and Tom was called in. "Captain," Tom greeted.

"At ease. Have a seat." Tom sat down in the offered chair and waited for her to continue. "I hear that you had quite an adventure on Ekyel." She said with a light smile. Tom was beginning to worry that B’Elanna had told her about how he visited the neighbouring counties. "Don’t worry Tom you’re not in trouble." She said, "But I would like to thank you."

"For what?" Janeway just smiled at him and dismissed him. As he walked to the exit Janeway called him and he turned around. She tossed him a sphere. He caught it and examined it. It was the same one he had bought and lost while on Ekyel. Janeway must have found it. Eh looked back at her and she just smiled at him. She might know but she can’t prove it. Tom walked to his station passing the engineering station where B’Elanna was working. He paused and she turned waiting for him to say something. He smiled and shook his head. He walked back to the helm, verified their course and looked at his souvenir from his latest adventure.

End