Author’s Note: I know nothing about fencing except what I read in an encyclopedia. So, for all you duelists out there, forgive an ignorant fool. And for the fencing ignorant:
riposte = attack immediately after a parry
feints = false attacks
fleche = running attack
It was another boring day in Engineering. Not that exciting days in Engineering were a good thing.
“Computer, what time is it?”
“It is presently 15:57.”
Great, thought Torres. Only three more minutes of staring at the walls. Why couldn’t the ship just keep falling apart? At least then she had something to do.
Oh, she had tried the holodeck programs, but none of them satisfied the energy building up inside of her. She saw Carey walk through the door with the rest of Beta shift and nearly bolted from her position. It wasn’t that she didn’t love the thrum of the engines, but the constant lights off the panels, rarely changing, was enough to drive anyone mad.
^\/^\/^
B’Elanna strolled to the gymnasium, hoping that she would be able to vent off there. Or, even relax a little.
As she crossed the gym, she noticed two figures fencing. One was aptly deft with the foil; the other was definitely not. After winning another point, the deft man backed off, allowing the other to concede defeat.
“All right, all right,” the one man said, taking off his head gear. The broad smile characteristic of Voyager’s best pilot, Tom Paris, emerged even in his defeat. “You win this time, Harry. But next time…”
“Sure, Tom, sure. Whatever you say,” said the victor, Harry Kim, now removing his own gear.
“Trust me, Tom. This is one thing you’ll never beat me at.”
“Well, as long as you don’t start beating me at pool too.” Tom put away his stuff. “See ya later, Harry,” he said, and left.
Harry shook his head as he put away his stuff. He had warned Tom. Thirteen years of fencing lessons weren’t going to be stifled by thirteen minutes of instructions. At least now he had something to hold over Tom.
“Fencing, right?”
“Huh?” Harry turned to face B’Elanna Torres. “Oh. Yah.”
“Where’s the challenge in it?”
“Where’s the…Why the whole sport is a challenge, of reflexes and of the mind. You have to anticipate your opponent’s move, challenge or evade them, and then make moves of your own that your opponent won’t anticpate.”
“Like I said, where’s the challenge?” Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.
Harry stared at B’Elanna astonished. Maybe if she learned first hand…
“Would you like to give it a try?” he asked.
“Perhaps.” B’Elanna struggled to keep the laughter from her face.
“You’ll need some gear, and a foil,” he finished, raising his own. B’Elanna slipped into her own gear quickly enough, and joined Harry on the mat.
“Okay, first you…” and he started to give another lesson in the basics of fencing. “Got it?”
B’Elanna nodded, although she had only really understood half of what Harry had said.
“I’ll try to be better than Tom,” she added before they started.
“That shouldn’t be hard,” sighed Harry.
Behind her mask, B’Elanna grinned. Hopefully he was right.
“En guard,” announced Harry, and so it started.
^\/^\/^
Two weeks later, B’Elanna Torres was indeed better than Tom Paris at fencing. In fact, she was almost as good as Harry.
Must be the Klingon blood in her, thought Harry.
B’Elanna was enjoying herself immenself. Fencing allowed her to vent her emotions while maintaining control. By channeling her energy to her reflexes, the rest of her melted away. She could feel a fire inside of her, burning away all the stress and monotony built up inside herself. She could see why Harry enjoyed it so.
Today was no exception. They were deep in combat, neither gaining enough advantage to score a point. B’Elanna countered every move Harry made without even thinking about it. Her blood raced through her veins. It was a good thing they had to wear masks, otherwise the adrenaline-fueled fire in B’Elanna’s eyes might have just convinced Harry to call it a day. Finally, Harry scored.
B’Elanna knew she would score next. It was like a premonition. Parry, thrust, blocked. Thrust, parry, riposte, lunge, blocked. The fire was growing. Parry, blocked. Feint, parry, thrust, blocked. Harry was beginning to second-guess what he had gotten himself into. B’Elanna had her eyes closed nows. She didn’t need to see. It only confused her. Parry, thrust, blocked. Now! Parry, parry, thrust, fleche, only this time it wasn’t blocked. But, something was different. B’Elanna heard Harry’s foil hit the ground, and a stifled gasp. She opened her eyes, and stared in horror.
“Let go, let go of it,” gasped Harry. B’Elanna’s hand immediately did just that. Harry fell to his side, clutching to the foil run through him.
^\/^\/^
“Oh, great,” she said, dropping down to Harry’s side. “Told you that Klingon blood in me is more trouble than it’s worth.”
“I suppose I have to keep this thing in me for awhile, huh?” joked Harry.
“That’s a good idea. C’mon. Let’s get you to sickbay.” B’Elanna moved to help him up. As they headed for the exit, Harry paused.
“Wait a minute. Please don’t tell me you’re gonna make me walk through the halls with this foil sticking out of me like this.”
“Sorry, Harry, but you don’t have much of a choice.”
Harry groaned. Not so much from pain, but from the embarrasment he knew would be trailing him around for quite awhile.
^\/^\/^
“Computer, activate emergency holographic doctor.”
The doctor appeared.
“Please state the nature of the…Oh, never mind,” he said as he saw both Harry and B’Elanna looking at him with a look that said, Are you blind, or something?
“Kes, I believe I’m going to need your assistance.”
“Coming, Doctor,” she answered from somewhere in sickbay. “Oh, Harry! Are you all right?”
“Does he look all right?” answered B’Elanna. Harry just smiled apologetically.
It took the Doctor quite awhile to figure out just exactly what to do. But soon, Harry was resting, foil-free on one of the med-beds.
“Is he going to be all right, Doctor?” B’Elanna asked after Harry was asleep.
“Well, despite the fact that he’s been run through with a blunt piece of metal, I’d say he’s doing fine.” B’Elanna rolled her eyes. Somebody really needed to fix this doctor’s attitude. “He’s going to need a lot of rest. There was a lot of internal damage. Nothing major, but enough to keep him off his feet for awhile. Now, I have some work to do.”
B’Elanna sighed with joy that he was finally going somewhere else. She pulled up a chair next to Harry, picked up a nearby PADD she had retrieved from her room, and decided to do a little reading.
^\/^\/^
She must have fell asleep because the next thing B’Elanna Torres realized was that the Captain was gently pulling her away from her seat. The Doctor and Kes were fervently working to save Harry’s life.
“Wha…what’s going on?”
“Harry’s gotten worse, B’Elanna. It’s pretty bad.”
B’Elanna remained silent. If he died, it would be her fault.
The readouts all fell simultaneously, and Harry’s body fell silent.
“Doctor…” started B’Elanna.
“He’s dead. There was just too much damage.”
B’Elanna struggled with herself, half wanting to cry, half wanting to howl. In the end, she did neither. Instead, she turned to the captain.
“Captain, I’d like to turn myself in for murder,” she stated.
“B’Elanna, this wasn’t your fault. It was an accident, nothing more.”
Torres shook her head.
“No, it was my fault and I take full responsibility.”
Janeway sighed.
“All right. You’re confined to quarters for now.” She paused. “Don’t make me have to do anything more.”
B’Elanna nodded, and left sickbay.
^\/^\/^
B’Elanna sat in her quarters, paced in her quarters, mourned in her quarters. She didn’t even allow herself to go to the funeral. She felt she didn’t belong there. And as long as she didn’t see him dead again, didn’t see anybody, she could pretend that it wasn’t real, that it was all a dream. She sat down in a chair and stared at the walls.
“B’Elanna.”
“Who’s there?”
“B’Elanna.”
She looked around the room and saw no one.
“B’Elanna…
B’Elanna…
B’Elanna, wake up.”
B’Elanna woke up and stumbled back out of her chair, for there staring her in the face had been Harry Kim.
“About time. I’ve been trying to wake you up for five minutes. Sickbay’s deadly dull,” he said, flashing a smile.
“Harry?” Her voice was hoarse. “You’re alive?”
“Last time I checked. Why, something wrong with that?”
“No, it’s just this dream I had. You died, and it was my fault.”
“Oh, you mean like this?” and Harry Kim laid down and died.
B’Elanna stared at him, at the non-existant readings, and blinked in disbelief. He wasn’t going to die on her this time. She looked at his young face, and yelped. It was decomposing before her very eyes. She screamed, for the first time in a long time, in horror and…
…sat up in bed. Her breathing was erratic, her pulse likewise. She looked around, gaining her surroundings.
“What is it, B’Elanna?”
She started at the voice next to her. She looked over to see the concern and worry in his eyes.
“What’s happening to me?”
“I don’t know; why don’t you tell me?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re dead, or at least you were.”
Harry blinked back at her in disbelief.
“I’m dead? Hate to disappoint you, but I think I’m alive.”
B’Elanna refused to believe him.
“Look, if I were dead, wouldn’t I look like this?” And again B’Elanna stared in disbelief as his face grew decrepit, moldy, grotesque.
She jumped from the bed, willing it not to happen again. Willing this madness away. Instead, she found herself…
…waking up sickbay. She heard voices, but what were they saying?
“We had to restrain her. She was getting restless.”
“Are you sure it was necessary?” The Captain’s voice. B’Elanna opened her eyes, and screamed again as both voices turned to face her. They were missing their skin, their flesh, their muscles. All there was left were their skeletons.
“No!” She struggled against the restraints and…
…heard another voice. She tried to close her ears off to it. Not again, not again.
“B’Elanna, wake up. B’Elanna, it’s Harry. Wake up.”
The worry in his voice forced her to open her eyes, one at a time, to look upon him. He seemed normal, for now.
“Wha…what happened?”
“We were in Engineering. One of the plasma conduits blew, and you were thrown from the upper level down to the lower. You’ve been out for about a day.”
“From a fall?”
“The burns didn’t help you either. Kes said they caused some kind of delerium.”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Harry, what would you say if I said you didn’t look dead?”
“I’d say Thanks, I guess. The dead always lay like this,” and Harry laid down on the bed next to her.
“HARRY!” Not again, not…
“What?!” he answered, hopping up from the bed. B’Elanna’s entire body racked with relief. Finally, it was all over.
^\/^\/^
It was another boring day in Engineering. Not that exciting days in Engineering were a good thing.
“Computer, what time is it?”
“It is presently 15:57.”
Great, thought Torres. Only three more minutes of staring at the walls. Why couldn’t the ship just keep falling apart? At least then she had something to do.
^\/^\/^
B’Elanna strolled to the gymnasium, hoping that she would be able to vent off there. Or, even relax a little.
As she crossed the gym, she noticed two figures fencing. One was aptly deft with the foil; the other was definitely not. After winning another point, the deft man backed off, allowing the other to concede defeat.
“All right, all right,” the one man said, taking off his head gear. The broad smile characteristic of Voyager’s best pilot, Tom Paris, emerged even in his defeat. “You win this time, Harry. But next time…”
“Sure, Tom, sure. Whatever you say,” said the victor, Harry Kim, now removing his own gear.
“Trust me, Tom. This is one thing you’ll never beat me at.”
“Well, as long as you don’t start beating me at pool too.” Tom put away his stuff. “See ya later, Harry,” he said, and left.
Harry shook his head as he put away his stuff. He had warned Tom numerous times by now. Thirteen years of fencing lessons weren’t going to be stifled if Tom didn’t practice.
“Fencing, right?”
“Huh?” Harry turned to face B’Elanna Torres. “Oh. Yah.”
“Where’s the challenge in it?”
“Where’s the…Why the whole sport is a challenge, of reflexes and of the mind. You have to anticipate your opponent’s move, challenge or evade them, and then make moves of your own that your opponent won’t anticpate.”
“Like I said, where’s the challenge?”
Harry stared at B’Elanna astonished. Maybe if she learned first hand…
“Would you like to give it a try?” he asked.
A pallor washed over B’Elanna.
“Are you okay?”
“Yah, Harry, I’m fine. I don’t think I want to give it a try, not today, not ever.”
“Well, okay, it was just a question.”
B’Elanna walked out of the gymnasium. Men were deceivers ever. Perhaps Engineering wasn’t that boring after all.
^\/^\/^