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It was the end of alpha shift and Tom Paris was hungry. Starved, in fact. Lunch had been mostly unmentionable and he was hoping for something better for dinner. His hopes sagged when he entered the mess hall and he got a good whiff of tonight's choices. Damn! He fell in line behind the others coming off alpha shift.
Tom reached his turn at the serving counter.
Neelix, cheerful and colorful as always in his plaid tocque and "Kiss the Cook" apron, turned and asked, "Leola Root Gratin or Leola Root Fricasse?"
Tom shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot and leaned in closer to the little Talaxian, pitching his voice low so only he and Voyager's cook could hear. "Don't you have anything else? Leftover plinka rind casserole? Some hair pasta ala bosk? Something?" Tom's voice was plaintive.
The Talaxian spread his hands in a gesture of mute apology. "Leola Root Gratin or Leola Root Fricasse," he repeated.
Sighing in defeat, Tom answered, "I'll take the Gratin."
Tom stepped away from the counter, his tray now laden with a large serving of the pungent entree. He surveyed the room. Harry was moping in the corner booth by the window. Tom considered joining his friend, but he already had a bad meal on his tray, he didn't need to make it any worse by having bad company to go with it. He altered his course to the left slightly and joined Joe Carey at a table.
The affable engineer surveyed Tom's tray and silently handed him the bottle of catsup. "Helps cover the taste," he explained matter-of-factly.
Tom poured a small puddle on his tray and tentatively dipped a forkful of gratin into it. It did help mask the taste. He grabbed the bottle and glopped catsup all over his dinner. "Damn. I'm tired of this stuff," he grumped to the engineer. "It's been what? Three weeks? Leola root every night. Stores can't be *that* low."
Carey grunted in sympathy. "Tell me about it. Even the stuff coming out of the replicators tastes like leola root. Engineering has been fielding alot of complaints and Torres has been chewing my ass off over it. I've been over the processors a dozen times and there's nothing wrong with them. The pattern buffers are stable and the materializers all check out OK. So I don't know what's going on. We're not using leola root anywhere in the system." Carey pushed himself away from the table. "Gotta go, Lizard Woman has got us all on double shifts."
Tom grinned."Tell B'Elanna I said 'Hi'" He returned to his meal with distinct lack of enthusiasm. It never occurred to him that he hadn't seen or spoken to the Chief Engineer outside of duty in almost three weeks.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Night. Or at least as close as it ever got to night aboard Voyager. Neelix finished wiping off the counter and carried the last of the leftovers back to refrigerated storage. Ensign Kim still moped in the corner booth and Neelix carried the coffee pot over to him. "Top that off for you?"
Kim looked up from his bleak contemplation of the starry expanse ouside. "No thanks, Neelix. I just want to think…" and then he sagged down asleep on his crossed arms.
Neelix shrugged and went back to his closing up chores. Behind him the messhall doors swooped open and closed again. "Sorry. The galley is closed, " Neelix called out. A hand landed heavily on the squat Talaxaian's shoulder and he startled upright with surprise. "Ahh!"
"Calm down, Mr. Neelix, it's just me," came the familiar voice of the ship's doctor.
"Oh, Doctor, you gave quite a scare there… I was just on my way down to Sickbay."
"In that case, I saved you the trip…Hand it over." The doctor extended his palm toward the Talaxian.
Neelix reached into one his capacious pockets and placed a padd in the doctor's hand. "There you go. Menus for the next two weeks. I trust they'll meet your specification…"
The doctor hmmmed as he looked over the information.
"I was wondering, " continued the Talaxian, "just how long… I mean, is it really necessary, I mean…well, I know you have the crew's best interests in mind and all, but well,… I'm getting alot the complaints about the food." He looked at the hologram hopefully and played his trump. " Even the Captain was in here today, asking if I could go a little easier on the leola root…"
The doctor harrumped and drew himself up, "Are you questioning my medical judgment?"
Neelix wrung his hands nervously, "No."
"Good, " replied the Doctor as he punched in some changes to the cook's menu and handed it back , " I'd hate to think you were." The hologram's posture softened slightly and he looked at the other man with a bit of sympathy. "I realize that it's difficult to be butt of so many jokes, Mr. Neelix, but you can take comfort in the fact that you're doing this for the good of the ship. Would you really want to see them all end up like Mr. Kim?" The hologram gestured toward the sleeping ensign in the corner.
Neelix shook his head.
"Good." The doctor clapped the shorter man encouragingly on the shoulder. "Keep it up.You don't know how fortuitous it is that leola root makes an excellent replacement for salt peter."
The End.