Sorting Out Problems

After things with Jetrel were handled, I had hoped that we would have a couple of quiet weeks, but we did not even reach a full week before the next episode popped up, though I did not remember it right away. I had been working in the Aeroponics Bay, so I did not realize anything was wrong until I was called to Sick Bay. I had been expecting to see a patient when I got there, but instead, there was a gel-pack on the main bio-bed. The Doctor and Katye were running some tests on a few samples as I walked up.

"You called, Doc?" I asked.

"One of the gel-packs has an infection, but I haven't been able to figure out what is infecting it. Filigree managed to purify a sample, so Katye thought you might be able to provide more insight," the Doctor said as he handed me a sample dish filled with a blackish gel.

"Hmmm…" I mused as I slowly channeled my Yang mana through the sample.

I felt like this might have been an episode, but it was the background problem for some kind of character development. Unfortunately, I still did not understand a lot about my healing spell, so the only insight that I could provide was my knowledge of the show, but I could not remember much right now. With a sigh, I handed the sample back to the Doctor, which was now a blue color, and shook my head.

"Sorry, Doctor, I'm afraid I can't help too much. All I can tell you is that it has an infection which you already know. My senses aren't trained enough to pick out exactly what's wrong," I said.

"It's good to see that your abilities have some restrictions," he replied with a light smile on his face.

I chuckled. Since I had made a point of treating the Doctor like any other person, just like Katye and Kes, we had developed a bit of a friendship and some playful banter between us. I could only cringe for the fate of future me once he got his mobile emitter and became much more outgoing, but it was just that he would become that annoying friend who always had to show you all his pictures and tell the same boring stories over and over. It was a good problem to have, albeit tiresome.

Although Filigree could help out, there was a limit to how much she could do, so I left her behind and headed down to Main Engineering alone. Things were busy down here as people tried to figure out what was causing the gel-packs to fail. There were also a couple of small groups that were collecting gear, including Raven.

"Hey, I'm going to be working a few shifts back-to-back to help convert some of the major systems over to isolinear circuitry," Raven said as I approached her.

"I figured that you would be busy. I came down to offer my assistance to B'Elanna, since I can purify any gel-packs that are found," I replied.

"Oh, that would be helpful. Do you know what the source of the infection is?" Raven asked.

"No, I don't remember the main details."

"That's enough to know we can handle this. B'Elanna should be around the corner; I'll see you later," Raven said, before heading for the Jefferies tubes.

I watched her walk into a side room then continued into Engineering. B'Elanna was handing out a couple of assignments and noticed me right away but did not stop what she was doing since I was waiting on the side. When she sent off the last crewman with orders, she walked over to me with a sigh.

"I'm guessing that you have some way to help, or you wouldn't be here," B'Elanna said.

"I'm able to purify the gel-packs and should be able to do it without interrupting Voyager's systems, but the drawback is that it has to be done at close range and one at a time," I explained.

"So what? You're offering to examine each gel-pack one by one?" she asked.

"I assumed that you could point me towards any anomalies in the power grid, but if you want me to just wander around, I can or just go back to my ship," I retorted, crossing my arms with annoyance.

B'Elanna let out another sigh and said, "Sorry, it's been a long week and now this. There is a certain Klingon that has been making a lot of things difficult for the rest of us and I happen to know why."

I sighed, "What do you want me to do, B'Elanna? You should know how hard it is to control your Klingon temper, now multiply that by a hundred and you are getting into the range of what it's like living with a Dragon side. I can blackout and attack her if I lose focus."

"Well, ignoring her isn't the solution," she replied.

"I know," I sighed again.

B'Elanna grabbed a nearby data pad and placed it on the console before tapping a few buttons. She picked it up a moment later and passed it over to me. "I've got a few teams checking out some issues while the majority of them are working on converting systems over to the chips. I've listed the current locations that look suspicious as well as the team assignments. Before you start doing whatever it is that you do to purify the gel-packs, I want you to report your location to Engineering so that we can monitor your first few attempts."

"Understood."

"Thanks for your help, Rebecca."

"No problem," I replied, before heading out of Engineering.

I scanned through the pad as I headed for the turbo lift and took it down to Deck Fifteen. Most of the engineering teams were working on the upper decks, so I decided to work backwards. I found the first area and there was a dark gray gel-pack in the center of a set of three. After reporting the area that I was in, I channeled my healing spell through the gel-pack and restored it to normal bright blue. There were no negative effects, so B'Elanna asked me to keep going, which I did.

Sometimes, the gel-packs were off a corridor, so they were easy to get to, but more often than not, I would have to crawl through a Jefferies tube to reach my target. It was not too bad, but it did slow me down. I worked for a few hours, moving throughout the lower sections of the ship, before I returned to Engineering where the other teams had brought the infected gel-packs that they replaced.

B'Elanna had set up a workspace with all of the gel-packs spread out on a table up on the second floor. Engineering was practically deserted with only Suder working a single console on the first floor, so I headed up without a word. I started purifying the gel-packs one at time, but there were over two dozen, and it took some time for each one, so it took another hour, leaving me tired from the long use of Yang mana.

When I made my way down to the main floor of Engineering, I should have been more surprised to see L'Naan, but I had a feeling that it was bound to happen after my chat with B'Elanna earlier today. She must have replaced Suder as she was the only person in the room and was working away at a console when I rode the lift down. Her eyes turned up and locked onto me, so I sighed and walked over to her.

"Not going to run away like a frightened tika cat?" L'Naan mocked.

"If you think that I'm intimidated by you, Klingon, you're far more foolish than I thought possible," I retorted.

She slammed her hands on the console and stood up with a slight growl. I did not even flinch as I stared back into her copper-colored eyes with boredom. My energy was low and she was no true threat to me, so my Dragon side was content to simply ignore her, but my Human side knew that I had been doing too much of that recently.

"What is it that you want from me, L'Naan?" I asked with a sigh.

She glared at me for a moment before she let out a loud huff and sat back down at her console, grumbling softly, "I don't know."

"Do you understand what it is that is drawing you to me?" I asked.

"No, I don't," she replied, annoyed.

"It is a bloodline issue between us. Somewhere in the Klingon line, there is a Dragon ancestor that could predate Kahless for all I know. Dragons don't play well together without developing some sort of hierarchy and ranks simply don't cut it for us," I explained.

She gave another annoyed huff and looked away. "So, how do we handle this? Your scent keeps invading my mind and I can't help but want to seek you out."

"The easiest and simplest method would be for you to return to your half-human state."

"I refuse," she growled.

"Why? Before the Vidiians did this to you, you hated your Klingon side. What is suddenly so important to you that you need to stay this way?" I questioned since it was the truth from the show.

"What's so important?!?" she spat. "Who am I?!? B'Elanna has her life to live while I have nothing! People try to pretend that they aren't bothered by me, but I can see the truth in their eyes. Friends that I have had for years look at me with pity and discomfort! All I have left is my Klingon blood!"

I sighed and ran my fingers through my short, shaggy hair. This was as much my fault as the Vidiians since she had been the one that died in the episode. The idea of having two B'Elannas onboard was great because she was simply so smart and resourceful that having two of them would be incredibly helpful during numerous encounters in the future, but I had not thought about how much of a struggle it would be to deal with a second copy of yourself, especially when you were the one that was pushed into the background.

"I'm sorry, L'Naan," I said softly.

Her copper eyes looked up at me and I could see the anger in her eyes, but it was from her thinking that I was pitying her.

"I don't need your sympathy, petaQ!" she growled.

"No, I suppose you don't… Well, the next time that you are drawn to the Shuttle Bay, why don't you come on into the ship? I can't say that it will help with the tension between us, but it's better than sulking off in the distance and Echo isn't the type to pity anyone," I replied calmly.

L'Naan gave a huff and refused to say anything else, returning to her work.

"Well, the offer stands unless you are too scared after seeing my Dragon side," I taunted before walking away.

It was a cheap blow to use on a Klingon by mentioning fear, but if she was causing tension with the other members of the crew, then I needed to at least try to help. I owed it to L'Naan for saving her life, plus Janeway was bound to step in if things got worse.

I headed back to the ship with Katye and Echo already being there and in their training programs, with Filigree and Nyka sleeping between them. Instead of bothering either of them, I made my way through and walked into our small bathroom to take a shower. One of the best features about this bathroom was that Fae remembered the temperature that we liked, and it was far hotter than what I could manage back in Eden. The tension in my body seemed to melt away as the hot water poured down my back.

A short time later, a pair of hands slid around my waist, and I leaned back into Katye's embrace with a happy sigh. Despite my eyes being closed, I already knew that she was approaching since the water temperature dropped a moment before she stepped in with me. I did not mind and turned around a few moments later. She gave me a smile which I returned before kissing her and turning her into the stream of water. Her smile grew as she enjoyed the warm water while I enjoyed the view of her naked body. I could not resist the urge to run my fingers down her chest and lower, but she grabbed my wrist before I could get to where I wanted.

"You seem eager," Katye chuckled.

"When am I not?" I retorted.

She shut off the water and said, "Save it for later. My next shift starts in two hours, and I would rather not need a second shower."

"You're no fun," I teased.

She stepped out of the shower and tossed a towel over my head with a chuckle as she retorted, "And you're a horndog."

I laughed and started drying myself off as she did the same. We got dressed, plain clothes for me while Katye put on her uniform, then headed out to the living room. Katye walked into the kitchen area and started gathering things to make breakfast while I pulled over a chair and sat down at the counter.

"Well, I talked with L'Naan earlier," I said.

"Oh? That's a surprise. How did it go?" she asked.

"About as well as I had guessed it would, but I did tell her to come in next time that she's stalking the Shuttle Bay. I doubt that she will actually show up though."

"It's a start at least," she replied with a smile.

The next couple of days passed the same. I would help out Engineering by checking any problem spots on the power grid while the Doctor, Katye, and Kes tried to figure out what was causing the infection. Thanks to my efforts, the problem never became a major danger before Tuvok discovered it was the spores of the cheese that Neelix had made which infected the gel-packs via the ventilation system. Once the cheese was contained, it was just a matter of Filigree and I purifying the last of the infected gel-packs.

Things finally started to calm down and Janeway gave the four of us the next day off for Raven's and my hard work keeping the ship running. We all had our own means of relaxation, Echo spent most of her time in some training program, Raven was tinkering with a secret project in our Engineering room, while Katye and I read in bed. It was nice and relaxing, but I never expected to get the chime from Fae that we did at dinner.

::L'Naan is approaching the ship.::

The others all looked at me, but I was just as surprised as them.

"I guess she took me up on the offer. Got food for one more?" I asked, standing up.

"Yeah, I'll make a plate for her," Katye replied and stood up as well.

I gave her a grateful nod then placed a hand on Raven's shoulder before I headed downstairs. I walked out the back door and stood in the doorway, catching L'Naan off guard. She stopped about ten feet short of the ship and stared at me with those copper eyes.

"We had just sat down for dinner if you would like to join us. Katye is a good cook and the real Spirit Wine I make can give Blood Wine a run for its money," I offered.

"I doubt that," L'Naan scoffed.

I chuckled, "What I served at the party was significantly diluted, I assure you. You won't really know unless you try it though."

"You better have a real bottle of the Roban wine then," she said as she walked past me, onto the ship.