Just about everyone else in JetC17 wrote a "Chaotica" story, so I felt
like I had to write one, too. There is nothing terribly original in here
either among "Bride of Chaotica!" riffs or among my own writings. Enjoy,
anyway.

SHOOTING PROTONS
by Your Cruise Director

Tom Paris felt guilty.

OK, so he hadn't really been fantasizing about the Captain; he'd been
dreaming about Queen Arachnia, who didn't exist. It wasn't like that
counted as being unfaithful. It wasn't like he hadn't fantasized about
fictional aliens since he'd been dating B'Elanna--even in bed with
B'Elanna, who had herself once cried out the name of a holographic
Rigellian whom Tom himself had created for the spa program. They could
both laugh about that. It was one of the reasons his relationship with
B'Elanna was as good as it was.

But having a wet dream about Queen Arachnia seemed much worse than
having the hots for someone with an artificial face. Tom was sure
B'Elanna would think so, even though he knew she suspected him of having
impure thoughts about Seven of Nine, Megan Delaney, Kes (which was OK
since she wasn't on the ship anymore), Seska (same thing), and Harry
(let's not even go there). Tom didn't mind that his girlfriend thought
he had a crush on his best friend. He even thought he could handle
having a crush on his best friend, though fortunately he'd never had a
dream about Harry in black stockings and an incredibly tight black dress
with fingernails that could kill. It was just that Arachnia was the
CAPTAIN.

He hadn't expected her to look so...well, hot. In the original
holoprogram, Arachnia was twenty years younger than Janeway and not
quite as confident; she certainly didn't have that throaty laugh Janeway
had let out right after the maniacal cackle of Chaotica had stopped
reverberating through the holodeck. Tom knew that he could have modified
the costume design without arousing the suspicions of Chaotica, who was
so horny he'd have taken Arachnia in a potato sack, but the ensign (god
he still hated that) had been rather pleased at the idea of forcing
Janeway to walk around in that tighter-than-sin dress that showed her
panty lines, with a slit so high it showed her actual panties when she
had to hitch up the skirt to walk. The opening over her cleavage was
entirely his own idea, and he hadn't been quite sure the captain could
make it work. But in spite of the too-tight middle which made her look
as if she'd been pregnant recently, in spite of the horrible plastic
wig, in spite of the raccoonish eye makeup, she had looked...well, hot.
That was the only word for it.

Which wouldn't have been such a terrible thing, if he hadn't just woken
up from a dream about Arachnia tying him up in a giant spider web and
threatening to drink his blood. Even that wouldn't have been so bad if
the web hadn't been made of transparent aluminum cable, and if she
hadn't been spinning it out of her...ahem, and she hadn't bitten off a
pip as she moved in to suck his neck. And even that wouldn't have been
so bad if he hadn't stood there in a stupor and liked it. Loved it.
Begged her not to stop. He could smell her...pheremones...which smelled
exactly like, well, he hadn't realized he'd ever gotten such a clear
whiff of an aroused Captain Janeway before, but that scent gave him a
definite sense of deja vu. It was almost like spying on your mother. But
not quite.

He'd been looking forward to rescuing her; he should have known that
she'd beat him to the punch, and rescue them all, just as he'd scripted
it for her in her ready room. Tom had a mental image of Captain Proton
carrying Queen Arachnia out of the wreckage of Chaotica's fortress,
except that if he'd done it, his vision wouldn't be from the perspective
of a viewer: he'd have been right there holding her, breathing her
scent. Boy, would Chakotay have been jealous. Tom knew the first officer
had been secretly pleased by his demotion--vindicated, even, though
you'd think the guy could give up a grudge from more than two years ago.
These days Tom wasn't sure what Chakotay was thinking, not even whether
he still wanted the captain the way it had been obvious to all of them
he had wanted her then...but he still had his pride. He'd love to save
Janeway from some evil alien menace just once, doing things his way.
Wouldn't they all.

Tom rose and threw his sheets into the recycler, thankful for once that
B'Elanna had had third shift and hadn't been sharing his bed. Even she
might not have been able to stop his dream, and if she got it into her
head that he had a thing for the captain, he'd be a dead man. Of course
he didn't have a thing for Janeway--it was all Arachnia, who was mostly
his creation, with some B-movie projections thrown in--but she still
looked like Janeway, and oh god did she smell like Janeway.

The holographic controls would have a record of Janeway's pattern as
Arachnia. When she came back in chapter forty-one--the chapter in which
she turned on Proton and ensnared him on her spider-ship--Tom could use
her image. If she hadn't already erased it. Or if she weren't on the
holodeck herself, toying with Chaotica and her own version of Captain
Proton. Caught in her own web. Tom smiled.