A Day On The Ice By: Lowell "Jarhead" Houser(atomicfrisbee@hotmail.com) Rated: PG Archive: If you think it's worth it… Disclaimer: Ah, no.. do we really have to go over *this* again? Spoilers/Summary: That would be telling. Oh all right, I got the idea for this from "Ashes to Ashes". This is almost an episode addition. Almost, but not quite. Just missed it. On with the show... *********************** Another day almost done. Soon she would be getting some much-needed rest. The children were a handful, as the expression goes. But they were also worth the trouble, usually. Seven looked forward to conversing with them over dinner tonight. It pleased her for them to share their experiences with her. But first she had to pick them up. Ensign Wildman had offered to watch the children while Seven caught up on her workload. Seven would be arriving at her quarters shortly. She rang the chime for the door, and entered when told. "Hello Seven. I hope you don't mind but Tom and Harry offered to take the kids for a while." "And you allowed them?" "Seven, this is Tom and Harry we're talking about. Do you really think that they would do something to endanger children?" Seven had to think about it for a second before replying, "No." Five minutes and a largely irrelevant conversation later found Seven on her way to holo-deck one. She was in no real hurry though. At least not a panicked hurry. What trouble could they possibly get into? *********************************** Seven's face fell as soon as the doors "swisssshed" open. She could not see the children, or Ensign Kim or Paris. She could hear sporadic cheering going on down the cavernous passageway. She also noted a slight chill in the air. Seven continued past vendors offering nutritionally deficient foods and rounded a corner. The sight of forty thousand screaming sports fans greeted her; all of them watching what was happening below on a relatively large ice-skating rink in the center of the stadium she now found herself in. Not giving the rink a second thought, the former drone used her ocular implant to scan the crowd, hoping to find the children. She soon spied Mezoti and Naomi Wildman sitting in the front row and began to make her way to them. It took her approximately two-minutes to navigate down to their position. "Good evening." Seven was shouting to be heard over the roar of the crowd. "Hey Seven", said both girls. "Where are Icheb and the others? "On the ice playing hockey. " Naomi pointed. Seven momentarily glanced down at the players gliding around inside the rink. "How is this game played?" "Two teams try to hit a small cylindrical object into the net of the opposing team using long paddles while ice-skating," Mezoti answered. "Understood." Seven looked at the two girls inquisitively, "Why did the two of you choose not to participate?" As if on cue, a red jersey-wearing player plastered another player from the opposing team into the wall directly in front of them. Seven watched in horror as the player, wearing a white jersey slowly sunk from view beneath the glass without any apparent disciplinary action towards the red jersey-wearing player. "We read the rules," Was Mezoti's reply. Seven wasn't listening to the eight-year old at the moment. She was busy frantically trying to spot Icheb and the twins. The color started to return to her cheeks as she spied the twins outmaneuvering the bigger opponents in the rink. Then she found Icheb and Ensign Kim in a small closed section just off of the ice; both of them were in red. Neither one looked pleased. Perhaps they were sensible, after all, and had seen the danger in this… game. Once the twins were off of the ice, she might not even have to suspend this activity entirely. "Have Ensign Kim and Icheb decided not to continue?" "Oh, no," Naomi explained calmly, "That's the penalty box. You get put in there for starting fights and stuff." Snap. Straw, meet thoroughly overloaded camel. ************************** When the Captain spoke, it was in a matter-of-fact tone, "So let me get this straight. The two of you took a fourteen year-old, a pair of ten year-olds, and two even younger children to play full contact hockey." Harry and Tom stood at attention in front of the Captain's desk. They exchanged uneasy glances before Harry spoke up. "Yes ma'am. That is correct." Janeway pinned them both with a glare. She got up and walked around her desk to stand in front of them. Seven stood in a corner with her arms folded, pleased that the two overgrown children known as Ensigns Paris and Kim would be properly dealt with. Especially Ensign Kim. He should know better. Would he do something this stupid with their future children? She had to concede that them having children together did not appear probable anymore, given his predisposition to pursuing only women with no interest in him, who made him "glow", or who were walking corpses, but, Seven could still dream, for lack of a better word. "Were they any good?" Seven's jaw dropped. Harry answered the captain, "Uh, well... uh, the twins were pretty nimble and didn't hog the puck. Icheb needs more practice on the skates, but it looked like he throws a mean right. How about it Tom?" Ensign Paris stood there in his white jersey and smiled with pride, then grimaced as his recently blackened left eye flared in pain, "Definitely a mean right. We ought to see if the first officer wants a sparring partner." "Very well. That will be all gentlemen. Dismissed." They turned and quickly headed for the door. "Oh and boys make sure you keep the safeties in place, and get that eye looked at Tom." "Yes ma'am." The door closed behind them with a "whuusssshhh". The captain turned to address Seven. "Seven, have you ever heard the phrase, boys will be boys?" End.