HADES -------------------- disclaimer : you know the drill paramount owns it all I'm just in it for fun no profit note: this story has a bit more action than my last one that's if you've read my last one and if you haven't, you should. DELTA DAYS III not the movie, still the story copyright HADES 1998 "report " captain kathryn janeway yelled as the bridge shook again under the fire from the other ship. " shields are holding at 93 %, it would seem that the other ship is firing randomly they haven't nor have they tried to hit any main system " tuvok replied. "hail them" janeway said. within moments their was a beep and harry told her that they were responding " on screen " she said. everyone looked up at the screen to see a creature with light brown skin and three slits on each cheek. and eyes the deepest reddest eyes she had ever seen. they looked worried, sad, fearful. "y-you must l-l-leave this area we don't want t-t-trouble but we w-will fight you if we h-h-have to " "I am captain janeway of the starship voyager, we are sorry to disturb you but we are looking to trade ,can you suggest people who will trade with us ?" "you want trade?" the creature started to calm down a little " yes we will trade with you I am officer betal of the beelangian territories please follow my ship captain " voyager followed the beelangian ship to an M-class planet with two moons and great hospitality they docked at a station orbiting their planet that was almost the size of deep space nine. ___________________________________________________________________ once their, captain janeway was able to set up a meeting with the high commander, the leader of the beelangian high council. the four sat in a large room. tuvok and janeway and the high commander and one of his aids. "...again I apologize that we fired on you so quickly, we have had many hostile visitors in the past so we get edgy " "no need to keep apologizing, we are just glade that we can trade now what are you interested in" she asked him he paused in deep thought then answered "you 'phases' they are much more accurate and more powerful than ours where as our shields are much more advanced than yours we..." " I'm sorry to interrupt but what do you mean advanced ? " "well they are a little bit stronger than yours and they have their own defense system within them " " please explain " "well I can't tell you everything until we have traded but they send a reverse power surge to the source of the weapon and disables it, quite effective really " the four discussed trade agreements for another half hour and then captain janeway returned to the ship for the staff meeting. " I have worked out an agreement with the high commander, they will help us upgrade our shields and engines as well as giving us all the shore leave we want..." that alone brought a few sighs of relief and a low 'yes' from several people including tom paris. "... we will show them how to upgrade their phasers as well as how to make holodeck technology, b'elanna the engineering crews will be here tomorrow at 0800, so you need to get maintenance crews and upgrade details ready their commander of planetary engineering will need to discuss the upgrades with you but then you will be free for shore leave if you wish, for the rest of you tuvok will assign who will have shore leave and when, dismissed " after the group dismissed harry stopped tuvok on his way to his station on the bridge " tuvok ugh, if you can ugh, I would like to have the same time of shore leave as seven of nine, if that's possible, sir " harry was obviously nervous and barely stuttered out his question "I will consider your request while I make the schedule, but I cannot promise you that you will share shore leave with her " tuvok replied harry walked off with a smile on his face, though tuvok rarely made promises when it was something this small he could count on him. ___________________________________________________________________ harry was right, tuvok did come through, there were three five day shore leave shifts. b'elanna, and tom had the first. tuvok and neelix had the second, and harry, seven, the captain, and chakotay had the third. ___________________________________________________________________ "... ahh ha ha ha , I love this guy ,oh ha ha hee hee ha" tom had almost fallen out of his chair he was laughing so hard. they were visiting a comedy club, one of tom's requests for things he and b'elanna had to do on the planet. they had run into three or four locals who suggested they should go to this one and so far they hadn't let him down yet. " '... well sure of course that, must be it' I tell her , 'thanks so much for allllll your help' " the comic on stage finished up his bit about his past girlfriends, at least I hope he's finished. " come on b'elanna how can you not like this guy, he's hilarious " tom patted her on the back trying to get her into better sprits " what could he do to be funnier ?" "as much fun as I'm having, well lets see " she said sarcastically " he could be aiming a phaser right at my head " " hey now your choosing what we do tomorrow aren't you " "yeah but dose that mean I have to sit through this ?" " yes now quite down I'm missing the jokes " he turned back to the comic as b'elanna thought 'missing his jokes, big loss' she sighed and started to think on how to get him back tomorrow. tom and b'elanna had five fun filled days and even better nights, but I can't go into to much detail on that. ___________________________________________________________________ tuvok, spent little on the surface. he thought that the best use of his time would be watching the ship, getting ahead on his reports, and at the end of the day, meditating. neelix spent most of his time doing what he did best, bargaining and trading with local merchants he picked up several supplies to cook new delicacies with he also took a trip to one of the planets beautiful tropical beaches and enjoyed a real sunset, ' this beats the holodeck any day ' as he stood their he kept thinking about kes, how much she would enjoy this, and so on. he sat their most of the night just thinking of days gone by. ___________________________________________________________________ "...hey seven you coming ?" harry asked her on his way out of astrometrics " no, shore leave is ineffectant, I feel that I should stay and get ahead on my duties here in astrometrics "she turned back to the panel in front of her. "why are you trying to get ahead, so you can rest later, come on your way ahead already, you've earned shore leave as much as anyone else on this ship, you deserve a break " he grabbed her arm to try to pull her away from the control panel but she jerked her arm right out of his grip. that's when he realized she was hiding something from him. " seven is there something you're not telling me ?" " shore leave involves social interaction, i do not feel comfortable in social settings " she looked down as she said this almost embarrassed to admit it even to him. harry put his hand on her chin and raised it until they looked each other right in the eye " seven, your never going to get any better if you never try, you'll be great, I know you will " " but what if they do not like me ?" seven almost couldn't believe what she was saying. what people thought of her was irrelevant, she knew that. yet something inside of her told her it was important, and recently she had become more and more worried about her 'image' if she even had one. " i promised my self i'd never use this word, what others think is irrelevant, all that matters is what you think " harry saw seven's eyes brighten a little, " come on meet me in transporter room 2 in 15 minutes, we'll beam down together " then he waved good-bye and left. seven finished shutting down any system that would not be used while she was away. she didn't really know what she would need on shore leave so she just went to the transporter room and waited for harry. when he arrived he looked startled, " seven where is your stuff for leave ?" " I did not know what 'stuff' was required for shore leave " she looked baffled by the idea that she might need any more than her regular attire. " well most of the necessities we could find on the planet, but what if you wanted to go swimming, or dress up ? " " I have had no need to 'dress up' in the past and I do not know what I would need to dress up " "hey could you wait a few minutes we'll be right back " harry said to the ensign at the transporter control panel. " sure I have to wait for commander chakotay anyway '' harry thanked him as they went to the ' borg bay ' , they easily found her bathing suit that she used on the holodeck the week before. however they had to replicate a dress for her, luckily she rairly used her rations so she had plenty of them. " i still am not sure if this is the most effecting use of my rations " seven said as she held up her new dress to inspect it. the dress was a deep red, reaching the floor with two thin straps to hold it on her shoulders. they found a luggage bag just large enough to hold what they had made they were on their way out when the ship shook most likely under more phaser fire. ___________________________________________________________________ " report " chakotay yelled as the ship shook again. " two unidentified ships are coming out of warp an our starboard side " tuvok said, surprisingly calm as an explosion of gas shot up in front of him, but then again his coolness was no different than any other vulcan. " tom, imbasic maneuvers, tuvok get our sheilds up, lock... " chakotay wasn't able to finish his sentence as three beings with lite red skin and blue hair on the very top of their head. despite his lighting quick attempt to reach a phaser under his console but one of the creatures fires a small beam of light blue. hitting him in the shoulder sending him spinning to the ground. another ensign made an attempt to charge one of the other being only to be thrown down with the same glowing beam. chakotay stood up from the command chair. "who the hell do you think you are ?" " the new commanders of this ship... oh, by the we have some of our finest fighters on this ship on almost every decks, so don't think you can try anything " he waved the weapon in his face and pushed past chakotay and eased into the command chair. had chakotay's face been any redder one might of thought that he was being held upside-down. one of the aliens pushed tom off his chair at the conn and sat down. the other stepped up to tuvok's tactical station and began pressing buttons. the rest of the crew stood staring at tuvok and the ensign on the ground, to powerless to stop them. ___________________________________________________________________ a few decks below the intruders wished they had never seen voyager. seven landed a paralyzing chop to the side of another one of the species she had called 7503 after assimilating over three million of their kind she was well aware of the three weak points of their body, the scull as was true with most humanoid species and the side of their chest, where the nerve cords for that side of the body ran through. harry and seven had seen one of 7503 beam on to the ship and they took him by surprise. they had met lt. carey one deck up and helped him and some other crew members break free of their armed escort. carey joined them in the fight and the three were searching each deck and stopped them with little resistance. seven suggested that they should go to engineering because it would be a logical place for several aliens to head. harry reminded them that anyone stupid enough to do that had it coming if b'elanna caught them. ___________________________________________________________________ seven was right, but then, so was harry. ___________________________________________________________________ another alien charged at b'elanna she stood her ground right until he was almost on top of her than in a quick motion she leaned to the side and sent her fist full force into her attackers chest knocking his feet out from under him. he fell to the ground gasping for breath. ' weren't much for fighting but they were fast at the gun' . she recalled seeing three of her engineers fall almost as soon as she saw four figures beam into her territory. she looked past the tranquil blues of the warp core and saw lt. fergus shot down. she was happy to see that the alien responsible was being subdued by vorik and another ensign. she didn't have long to dwell on this fact, as another assailant grabbed her from behind and held her in a bear hug. she shot her foot in-between his legs and his grip loosened almost instantly. 'some things are universal I guess' she thought to herself as she pushed his head onto the metal banister in front of her. his body fell unconsciously to the ground about the same time the other alien worked up enough energy to get up. " ready to give up or are you thirsty for more " b'elanna said with a grin that only a klingon possessed. " lets go " the alien was either stupid, or egotistical. 'maybe a bit of both' she thought ready to take his challenge. they circled each other for a moment staring, studying, planing. her tried to kick her but she saw it in time to grab his foot. she pushed his it up quickly taking his other foot out from under him. he flew backwards and landed with a loud 'clang' to the floor. where he lay motionless. b'elanna let out a sigh and brushed her hair out of her face. "sure beats the holodeck " she stated as she leaned against the banister. ___________________________________________________________________ after a quick stop to the weapons locker, harry seven and joe carey stood on deck two each cradling a phaser rifle. they asked the computer how many intruders were on the bridge they were happy and surprised to know it was only three. they formed a plan that each would take a different turbolift to the bridge and try to take the aliens by surprise. they agreed on who would take which turbolift. then the three put their plan into action. ___________________________________________________________________ as the turbolift doors opened the alien at the tactical station turned expecting a report by one of his kind he hardly expecting to see the phaser blast from lt. carey's rifle. once hit he fell against the nearby bulkhead and laided there lifelessly. he didn't have long to bask in his small victory as he was pushed back into the turbolift by the beam of light emanating from the device held by the intruder at the helm who flew over the panel after a blast from the rifle held by harry who stood in the entrance of the lift next to his own ops terminal. he didn't see the figure in the command chair who started to raise his own weapon. but seven saw it. she had come in the turbolift in the conference room. and had been the last to arrive. "HARRY" she yelled at him as she dove to knock him out of the way. everything seemed to slow down, the alien pulled the trigger then only darkness. ___________________________________________________________________ with a hiss from the hypospray seven awoke and let he eyes adjust, she looked up and saw the captain and the doctor looking down at her. she sat up immediately " slowly seven your in sickbay, I am treating your phaser burn from the tecalga weapon" " who? you mean species 7503 " seven knew who he was talking about but she had never heard them refereed to as the tecalga. " if that was their borg number than yes, but the beegalian high council calls them the tecalga " the doctor replied now running a tricorder over her. " how do you, feel " kathryn paused before finishing her sentence. she was often careful not to mention emotions to much around the former borg. " I have a slight burning pain in my side she looked down to where the pain was coming from. that area of her suit had a small scorch mark no doubt from the tecalga phaser. " she will be fine captain " the doctor answered, " of course she could use a bit of shore leave " he hinted. she looked around the room now and saw harry and chakotay standing near to the entrance. when she looked at the two biobeds to her right she saw tuvok get off the bed and inspect the scorch mark in the center of his chest, and past him joe carey laid still sleeping one the biobed at the end. a voice came over the comm. " transporter room 2 to EMH " " doctor here, go ahead " " I've got one more beaming in from engineering " "understood" the doctor replied as he walked over to the operation bed expecting his new patient. seven watched as two figures shimmered into existence, one laid on the bed the other stood at the foot of the bed and soon seven saw it was b'elanna. the doctor turned back their way " seven, you are free to go " she got off the bed as janeway walked over to chakotay. "well commander, I leave my ship for 15 minutes and this is what happens " if you had only heard janeway say that you would have assumed that chakotay was in big trouble, but the look on her face clearly said that she didn't blame him at all. harry walked up to seven redirecting her attention "seven why did you try to save me ?" "if you had been hurt I thought it would take you longer to recover and I did not want to wait to beam down with you" he might have been the only one but he knew she was trying to make a joke, and in a vulcan logic way it was pretty funny. he smiled acknowledging one of her rare attempts at humor. "well be that dist may I am grateful for your attempt to 'save time' and I'm in debt, thank..." he didn't have time to finish his sentence. seven pulled him right against her and pressed her lips to his. his eyes went wide in confusion but almost immediately he eased into the kiss, intent on savoring every moment. as she was with all things she had to be in control of the situation. as quickly as she had pulled him in she let him go. he could only respond with one word. " yikes! " " the debt has been paid " seven stated plainly. she started to walk away, but he grabbed her arm and swung her back into his grip. he pressed his lips to hers, this time he made sure he was in control. they stayed like that for longer than most anyone should kiss in public when they finally broke apart everyone in sickbay, b'elanna was smiling from ear to ear, and tuvok's eyebrow looked like it would never come down from his head. " now it's paid " he said firmly. as she walked out b'elanna walked up to him, a smirk on his face. "not bad starfleet, not bad at all " " well that's how tom said you kiss " her smile quickly turned to anger. either that tom said that, or that he had the nerve to say it. seeing that her face was getting redder by the second he decided to head out of sickbay. he saw the captain talking to seven in the corridor. janeway spotted him leaving and stopped him. " harry, I'll need a report from everyone involved in the tecalga incident, including you " and for one of the first time in his starfleet career he defied her order. " I'd love to help captain, but my hands are tied, I've got shore leave " then he turned and put his hand around her waist, and walked away. and for the first time in a while, kathryn janeway laughed, it felt good to laugh.