To Tell The Truth Series 04 Sunfire Read online

  "Are you ready to tell me what you did with the information you took from us."

  He remained silently staring ahead.

  "I will not stop until I have it," he reminded, pressing a hypospray of buyrate to Tom's neck. "You know that. And the longer you wait, the more painful it will become for you."

  Setting aside the hypo, the Vulcan went over to the computer panel in the wall and entered a command. A hologram of Alpha Three appeared. "She could not make the trip herself, too much to do back home, but she sent this along. Alpha Three was rather upset she was unable to break you last time. I think she has hopes that at least this facsimile of her will redeem her. Personally, I doubt it will."

  He grabbed Tom's chin in his hand. "You remember the last time. When I had to step in and drag you back to us myself. If I had not, Alpha Three probably would have killed you trying to subdue you. And right now you probably wish she had. If not, you will by the time her hologram and I have finished with you." Leaning closer, he stared into Tom's eyes. "Do you remember how I brought you back to us?" he whispered. "How I forced my mind into yours?"

  'I remember how much you enjoyed it,' Tom wanted to say. 'How you seemed to get off on mentally raping me. How I finally realized what a sadistic bastard you really are.'

  Of course he did not say these things since he knew getting him talking was Alpha Two's goal. Both of them knew, once Tom gave in to his opponent's gibes the door would be open for him to say more. If he caved to pressure once, it was only a matter of time before he did it again.

  "You are the only one I ever have melded with who was still able to hide things from me even when we were so connected," Alpha Two continued. "This time, though, there's no urgent need for you to appear elsewhere so we have plenty of time for me to discover all of your secrets. By the time I am done you will tell me where you went during those six weeks we could not find you, what you did with the information you copied from our databanks, and who you told about it."

  He stepped back. "But I doubt that will be any time soon, will it? No matter. We will permit Alpha Three's hologram to have some fun in the meantime."

  As he moved to the far side of the room, the hologram approached Tom with an evil grin.

  -------

  Fresh from her shower, B'Elanna sat on the side of her bed in her bathrobe, staring at an image of her and Tom at one of Neelix's luaus. Unbeknownst to the couple, Harry had taken the image then presented it a copy to each of them the next time the pair had had a fight. Exactly as Harry had hoped, Tom and B'Elanna each had taken a look at the moment he had captured forever -- the two of them in each other's arms, smiles on their lips, their love for each other shining in their eyes -- and hostilities between them had been halted.

  Now she sat there, staring at the face of the man she loved, wondering why he had not contacted her. Usually not more than a few hours would go by without a message from him appearing on her terminal here or in her office or wherever she happened to be working at the time. Some sweet little line or two "to remind you I exist," he would write. Since he had been on The Diogenes there had been nothing. She still had trouble with the fact he had not sent any sort of word to her the he was okay after his abrupt

  disappearance. Were it she who had done the disappearing, she would have.

  'Would you?' her conscience nagged her. 'Tom is so much like you sometimes. When work consumes him, he forgets everything else.'

  'But he never forgets me,' she reminded stubbornly.

  'But this is different. Tom is such a white knight. Here he has the opportunity to help Special Ops to capture a criminal they have been after for sometime. Naturally he's going to do everything he can to help them to the exclusion of all else. You know how focused he can be when he's involved with something like that.'

  B'Elanna stroked her thumb over Tom's face. 'If there was some way he could help protect people, then he'd do it.'

  'That *is* what you find so attractive about him so stop complaining that he's too absorbed in what he's doing with them. He'll be back as soon as he's done.'

  "But I want him back now," she whispered sadly.

  As if in response to her desire, the door made two chimes in quick succession, drawing her attention from her thoughts. Hope leapt within her. That was Tom's signal. He was back. Setting the silver-framed image behind her on the bed, she hurried to the centre of the living area, smoothing down her uncombed hair. She should have spent the time after her shower brushing her hair and putting on the negligée he had surprised her with only days earlier, instead of mooning over his picture like some lovesick school girl.

  "Come," she invited, trying to restrain the urge to fly into Tom's the moment the door opened. 'Don't forgive him right away for forgetting you all day. Let him work for it a little,' she decided, clearing the grin from her face.

  Only it was not Tom who entered her quarters.

  B'Elanna tightened the sash on her robe. "Raven."

  Displaying all the signs of discomfort, he stepped back a pace. "Oh, I'm sorry. I never thought... I should go."

  "No, no it's okay." She nervously smoothed back a lock of hair. "Um, what can I do for you?"

  "I wanted to discuss something with you, but you're not dressed to receive visitors. I'll-"

  "It's fine. What did you want to discuss?"

  "The modifications," he answered, stepping forward to pass her a padd. In doing so, his bare hand brushed hers.

  Startled brown eyes leapt to navy ones. All thoughts of Tom or anything at all vanished from her head as she became lost in his eyes. Unconsciously, she swayed towards him. Seconds later the padd clattered to the floor as he pulled her to him, mouths crushing one another as she matched his desire. She moaned as his hands parted her robe to touch the naked flesh beneath.

  Neither said any words as he pushed the robe from her shoulders then swept her up in his arms and carried her to her bed, mouth still fused to hers. As he lowered her to middle of the comforter, her hands searched for the hidden fastenings on his uniform, a growl of frustration coming from deep in her throat when she could not find them.

  One hand stroking her face, he sat beside her on the bed and reached for the fastenings himself, eyes never leaving hers. She shifted slightly under his eyes then reached under her and withdrew what had been sticking into her back. B'Elanna would have tossed whatever it was away if his eyes had not darted to it and his hand had not lifted from her skin for only an instant. That moment was long enough for his spell over her to be broken and her head cleared. She scrambled off of the bed, image of her and Tom in hand,

  and scrambled for the throw lying across the foot of her bed.

  "You should go," she said in a monotone, wrapping herself in the small blanket. As she hid herself, the image slipped from her hands and onto the comforter.

  The eyes of the woman before him and those of Tom Paris seemed to mock Raven from the image. Angrily clenching his fists behind his back, Raven glared at the image of the man he so hated.

  "Please go," she repeated, still refusing to look at him. "This isn't right."

  "Of course," he assented and left the woman to wallow in self-recriminations.

  In the corridor, he permitted the anger to seep back in. Tom Paris was not going to best him at this too, not after all the other indignities he had suffered at that man's hands.

  He touched his combadge and called for beam back to The Diogenes.

  -------

  Sunfire had taken to watching what was happening on Voyager as well as on The Diogenes and she was not enjoying what she was seeing on either ship. It was plain the AlphaOmegans were attempting to gain the confidence of Tom's nearest and dearest and succeeding to an extent. The technicians on The Diogenes meanwhile were analyzing the Voyager crew's logs, personal and professional, every byte of data stored in the ship's memory core, all in an attempt to find a clue to anyone in whom Tom may have confided. Even Yana's search for someone who may have had their memory erased had yielded nothing so far.


  The results of the latter were as expected. He was too smart to let slip some information and thereby endanger someone.

  'But maybe he did,' the devil's advocate part of her pointed out. 'That's why they're watching Tuvok so closely. He may have given himself away when they were of one body.'

  'No, not him,' she countered. 'He is too intelligent to have done something that stupid, even accidentally.'

  -------

  "So Tommy plays with you a lot, huh?"

  Seated on the floor next to her new coloring partner, Naomi nodded and traded Souris crayons. "Some of the others play with me too, but I have a lot more fun with Tommy. We play here or in his quarters or the gym or something, but sometimes we play on the holodeck. I like that best."

  "What kind of things do you play on the holodeck?"

  "All kinds of fun games. And Tommy shows me different planets he's been to back home. And parts of the ship I'm not allowed to see because I'm too little. And for my birthday he made me some playmates and a teacher so I can go to school like the kids back home do." She got an excited expression on her face. "Do you want to meet them? They're really fun. Except Mor. He's Klingon. He's mean sometimes. Calls me a baby. But I'm not a baby."

  "No, you're not."

  "Right. Allegia says that's just the way Klingons are though."

  "I think I very much would like to meet your new friends."

  "Right now?"

  "Naomi, we'll have to see if there's holodeck time available," her mother lounging in a nearby chair reminded.

  "But everybody's fixing the ship. They won't be playing on the Holodecks."

  "We'll see. Computer, is there any free holodeck time at the moment?"

  "Holodeck One is free until 1315," the computer responded.

  "Reserve time for Sam Wildman."

  "Time reserved."

  "Well, then young lady, if we are going out, you'd better clean up, hadn't you?"

  As Naomi bustled about stowing away her crayons and other toys she and Souris had used, her mother smiled at their guest.

  "I don't know quite what I was expecting when you asked to have a session with my daughter and I, but this was okay."

  "You thought perhaps I would analyze your every word for hidden meanings?"

  Sam laughed. "Maybe. But you were very good with my daughter. I never knew she was apprehensive about meeting her father for the first time or about having to leave Voyager to live somewhere else and possibly not see any of the crew ever again."

  "This is why these sessions are important, to learn these things beforehand and reduce anxiety."

  "I'm ready!" the little girl called as she rushed in from her bedroom.

  As the two women stood, Naomi took her new friend's hand and led her out of her and her mother's quarters.

  -------

  B'Elanna Torres could not figure out what was going on with her. She loved Tom. That was the one thing in the Universe she had thought she knew for certain. Just a couple of short nights ago she had all but agreed to bear the man's children and spend the rest of her life with him. She had pictured that future with him and their offspring with a little fear and a lot of anticipation. So what had changed? Why was she suddenly thinking less and less about the man she considered her soulmate and more and more about

  Raven?

  Shaking her head, she forced her concentration back to her work. This thing with Raven, whatever it was, was nothing. Mere interest in someone new who had entered Voyager's community.

  Then why was she not as intrigued by the others who had come on board from The Diogenes? They were new faces too. Why was she not anticipating their arrival at the beginning of each shift? Why was she not finding their presence so comfortable that when it was absent it was missed? Why had she not nearly had sex with any of *them*?

  "Busy, Lieutenant Torres?"

  B'Elanna looked up from her desktop to see Raven in her office doorway. He frowned for a moment then smiled in a self-deprecating manner.

  "Of course you're busy. Silly question. Will we start again?" He disappeared only to reappear a moment later, waggling the padd in his hand. "Hello, Lieutenant Torres. I've come to bother you with some terribly routine, I-can't-believe-they're-making-me-ask-these-stupid-questions questions. Knowing that, may I still come in?"

  "Yes," she sighed, "we have to talk."

  Smile fading, he nodded and entered. Coming to stand in front of the desk she stood behind, he shrugged. "About last night," he guessed.

  Staring down at her desk, she nodded.

  Raven cleared his throat. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "Last night... I know it was wrong, especially since people say you're with Tom, but that doesn't stop me from wanting you."

  Her eyes widened as they shifted up to his.

  "I know it shouldn't have happened and I should not feel this way since we barely know each other...."

  "Let's forget it ever happened," she insisted. "It won't happen again."

  "Won't it?" He reached out to touch her cheek. "It's happened twice now."

  Unconsciously, she leaned into his touch.

  "You're very beautiful, B'Elanna," he murmured.

  Ordinarily, she would have denied such a comment or blushed and dropped her eyes. Now all she did was stare into his eyes as his thumb caressed her jaw seemingly of its own accord.

  "You really are quite lovely," he whispered. "Quite lovely indeed."

  Her lips had just melted into his when her combadge chirped. Reluctantly, he drew back and lowered his hand as he broke the eye contact. Like a hypnotist's subject being woken, B'Elanna blinked rapidly and shook her head to clear it. The chirp sounded once again before she answered it.

  "Yes?" she answered somewhat breathlessly.

  "B'Elanna?" Chakotay's voice called. "You okay?"

  She snapped back to normal. "Yes, yes, of course. What can I do for you, Commander?"

  "The Captain and I were wondering how things were going down there."

  "Things?"

  "You know, the repairs?"

  "Oh, they're coming along."

  There was a pause. "B'Elanna, when was the last time you took a break?"

  "I..."

  "Take one, Lieutenant. That's an order. Chakotay out."

  Self-consciously, B'Elanna began shifting things around on her desktop.

  Clearing his throat, Raven caught one of her hands and laid into its palm the padd he had brought with him. "Perhaps if you could complete this for me," he said, not relinquishing her hand, "I'll... I'll make myself scarce. In fact, I'll find one of our engineers to take my place here. It probably would be better that way."

  "No!" He vehemence surprised both of them. "I mean, I- We need you here. Your expertise has been invaluable and you already know everything that's going on here. We'd be wasting time if we had to explain it all again to someone new. What just happened... It won't happen again."

  "As you say," he said without certainty, dropping his hand and walking out.

  Sitting heavily in her desk chair, B'Elanna reached up to touch her lips with trembling fingers.

  Striding down the corridor outside of Engineering, Raven smiled to himself.

  -------

  Kneeling, Souris looked at the hologram named Allegia and some half-formed memory fluttered through her unconscious. Two little girls, both with her and Allegia's coloring, laughing and playing in a garden as she watched them through the kitchen window. 'Where was this coming from?' she asked herself. 'I have no children or nieces. No relations at all.'

  "You look like me," Allegia marveled.

  "You could be her mommy," Naomi giggled.

  "Do you have children, Souris?" Sam asked in a friendly tone.

  "Yes," the AlphaOmegan whispered, not realizing what she was saying. Allegia touching the wetness on Souris' cheek was the only way she knew she was crying.

  "Souris?"

  "Excuse me."

  She scrambled to her feet and dashed out of the holodeck only to
run straight into Harry Kim's chest. Automatically, his arms came up to catch her as she bounced off of him.

  "Souris? What's wrong?"

  Through watery eyes, she gazed up at him. "I don't know," she whispered.

  "Come on."

  Holding her close to his side, he helped her to his quarters, amazingly without meeting a soul. Once inside, he settled her in a chair and kneeled before her.

  "Want to tell me what happened?" he asked again.

  Shaking her head, she reached out to wrap her arms around his neck to pull him close. Rubbing circles on her back, he willingly held her close as she cried until there were no more tears.

  "Let me stay," she softly begged the side of his collarbone.

  It took a moment for Harry to understand what she meant, but when he did he nodded.

  Lifting her head, she offered him her mouth and he took it.

  -------

  Gerron Tem stumbled into Megan Delaney's quarters in a daze.

  "Tem? You okay?"

  He blinked at her a few times. "I don't believe it," he whispered. "I just don't believe it."

  She sat next to him on the couch. "Don't believe what? Tem, what's happened?"

  "Torres and Raven...."

  "What about them?"

  "I was in Engineering. There was this report she'd been wanting and I said I'd drop it off."

  "So?"

  "So when I got there they said she was in her office. She wasn't alone. Raven was there."

  "Hardly surprising. They're working closely together on the repairs."

  "Oh, they were close all right. They had their lips plastered to one another, they were so close."

  "What?!"

  "I didn't believe the rumors when I heard them. Obviously they were true."

  "What rumors?"

  "About Raven flirting with her and her not smashing his face in for it. Engineering noticed it immediately. He's always finding some excuse to be there-"