i don't do halloween, so this is NOT a halloween story, but it is in response to Nigel's story challenge. all i remember of the rules is that it be about Tom and Harry, and that something i'm really afraid of be in it. well, my biggest fear is not knowing what i'm doing. i HATE trying anything new unless i have someone to walk me through it every step of the way. at least three times. i'll do it wrong, and i'll look stupid, or get fired, or horribly lost if it involves travel, or something equally terrible. it sounds trivial, but then i guess i blow it all out of proportion, so it really seems like a major deal to me. riding the bus for the first time almost gave me a panic attack. so anyway, here goes. at this point, i have no idea what i'm going to write.

Story Challenge: Untitled

"Just relax, Tom," Harry's voice over the comm sounded frustratingly calm.

"Relax, he says," Tom muttered, "I'm stuck in a shuttlecraft with a bomb we don't know how to disarm, and he tells me to relax!"

"We've disarmed more sophisticated weapons than this before," Harry replied.

"Tuvok has disarmed more sophisticated stuff than this, I, personally, haven't touched a real bomb in my life. I haven't even handled a simulated one since the academy!" Tom replied, trying not to panic.

"Ok, wait a minute, Tuvok has an idea of what we're working with..." Harry's voice grew muffled with distance as a brief conversation was held out of range of a communicator.

Tom wasn't really very encouraged by the idea that Harry had removed his communicator to talk about the bomb. Exactly what did he not want Tom to hear?

"Ok, Tom. Tuvok says there should be five wires, all of them different colors, right?" Harry asked.

"Right," Tom agreed, double checking the wiring.

"Good. One of them should be attached to the timer, one from the timer to the trigger mechanism, and the other three to the explosive itself. Can you find three wires attached to the same part of the bomb?"

Tom thought vaguely that it would be more efficient if Tuvok relayed this himself, then was absurdly grateful that it was Harry, instead. Maybe the captain thought he'd snap under the pressure without Harry there to hold him up. Then again, she could be right.

"Yeah. Got 'em," he said shakily.

"Ok, don't touch them. Trace the other two, and describe the mechanisms they're attached to," Harry suggested.

"Uh, there's a greenish one connected to a small flat box; got a couple of circuits showing, and a light. The other is run to a dial of some sort. i can't tell what's on it tho. it might not even be writing." Tom responded, carefully examining the bomb without touching it. God he hated this. HATED the feeling of helplessness; of being trapped in a situation he couldn't control. If he screwed something up and this shuttle blew, he'd have no-one to blame but himself, at least he could say that much.

There was a brief spurt of conversation on the other end of the comm, and then what sounded like an argument. Tom's stomach began tying itself in knots, loosening only a little when Harry's voice emerged to say, "Cut the green wire, Tom, the one that goes from the timer to the trigger. Cut it, and the bomb should be disarmed."

"Should be?" Tom asked nervously. Nevertheless, he took the cutters and positioned them over the green wire, waiting for his hands to steady enough to cut.

"No guarantees, Tom. You're in the wrong profession for that," Harry replied, a smile in his voice.

He seemed confident enough, anyway. Tom cut the wire, flinching slightly. Nothing happened. He turned his tricorder on the instrument of mass destruction, and it registered inert explosives.

Tom blew his breath out n a sigh of relief, hoping he never had to do anything like this again, and glad that he'd had Harry there to walk him through it this time.

"I love you, Harry," he said reverently.

"I know," Harry replied, sounding a bit smug. "And i love you, too."

end