Captain Kathryn Janeway had stared at the PADD for so long the words had blurred. She finally set it down, and leaned back in her chair. She rubbed her eyes and let herself yawn.
Still don't know why they took Paris and Torres, Janeway thought to herself.
She could not keep her eyes open much longer, but she had to learn more about the Lyante. She closed her eyes for only a few moments when it hit her. Her eyes flew open, and she slapped her comm badge.
"Chakotay, Tuvok, and Kim to the conference room. I have an idea."
Tuvok, Chakotay, and Kim sat around the large table. Janeway looked at each of them, and she could feel the emptiness that her missing officers had caused.
"The only way we are going to find out why the Lyante wanted Tom and B'Elanna is to ask the Lyante themselves."
"But they haven't answered our hails," Kim mentioned.
"We'll go to their planet," Janeway stated, "There has to be someone on their planet, who is willing to discuss their ways with us."
"Where exactly is their planet?" Chakotay asked.
Janeway tapped at her PADD, then handed it to Chakotay. He looked at it, and shook his head.
"It's far off our coarse. We'll loose hours heading there.We'll be risking Paris' and Torres' lives even more if we do this."
"We would be taking an extreme risk going there," Tuvok mentioned stoically.
"I know the risks," Janeway said, "but what if it's Tom and B'Elanna's only chance?"

B'Elanna woke to the sound scraping. She slowly opened eyes. She found that she was lying on the floor. Shaking off the remaining cobwebs, she remembered that she fell asleep while meditating. That led to her remembering she had talked to Paris only a couple hours ago.
She remembered how angry he had been, and she thought she'd let him sleep for awhile longer before she woke him with asking him how he was.
Torres crawled over to where the food was. She reached out, and found that they had given her something different. It was smooth instead of hairy, and square instead of round. When she took a bite out of it, it tasted sweet.
Delicious, Torres thought, smiling,I wonder if Tom got the same thing?
B'Elanna didn't have long to wait, for she heard loud rapping on the far wall. She went over to it, and whispered, "You already up? I'd expected you to sleep for another hour or so."
"Food service woke me," Paris answered, "Guess what they gave me?"
"Was it square and sweet?" Torres asked, smiling.
She thought she heard him growl, then his frustrated voice floated to her ears.
"They gave me more damn hairballs, B'Elanna! There has to be a reason why they are feeding you more of a variety than they are me!"
"I don't think it has anything to do with favortism, Tom," Torres said, "Maybe a variety to meals is what their females eat for some reason."
Paris grumbled some more, "Good theory, but it still doesn't make me feel any better."
"At least they are feeding you," Torres added, "Be thankful for that."
She heard him sigh, and she took it as a hint that he did not want to talk about the food anymore. She turned around, and placed her back against the wall. She could tell he was getting irritable with each passing day.
Or was it by the hour? Torres thought.It had to be the food, and not being able to do anything, but eat and sleep.
"When I get back to Voyager," Torres said, "I'm going straight to Engineering, and work for days."
She heard Paris chuckle, and she smiled.
"They won't be able to get me away from the Helm," Paris added, "I'll chain myself to it if I have to."
Torres laughed as she imagined Paris chaining himself to the Conn.

"The Lyante planet is in viewing range," Kim announced.
"On screen."
The star field changed and a large dark planet appeared in its place. The thick cloud cover gave the planet a brown color.
"We'll reach the planet in two hours," Tuvok mentioned.
"We're being hailed," Kim announced suddenly.
The planet was replaced by a pair of glowing green eyes. Just like on the ship, everything was pitch-black. The eerie glow of the eyes unerved the crew, but they didn't show it.
"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the..."
"Why are you here?" An eerie voice filled the bridge.
"One of you ships has two of our crew members prisoner. We want to know why."
There was a long silence that grew tense. Janeway suddenly noticed that she was holding her breath. She slowly exhaled, and at that moment, the glowing eyes returned.
"Did they take a male and female?" The eerie voice asked.
Janeway nodded, "They were taken five days ago."
"For years, we have been taking pairs of a race called the Indryns. They have never lasted longer than three days. Each time, we took a male and female."
"Why?" Janeway was begining to sense that they really didn't want to tell her.
The green eyes seem to darken at the question, "We are trying to learn what attracts a couple, and what keeps them together, so we can better our own relationships."
"By torturing them?"
"We put them through ordeals that tests how close they are to each other. We also test them individually."
Janeway's eyes darkened. These people were ruthless. They were willing to kill others just to strengthen their relationships. She was not going to let the Lyante kill her crew members for their selfish needs.
"Tell your people to release our crew members now."
"You are in position to give orders," the voice turned harsh, "We have tens of ships travelling the area. Your people could be on any of them. We have no intention of stopping them all for two people. The experiments will continue, and if they survive they will be returned to you."
Janeway commanded all her strength not to lash out at the glowing eyes. She cut off the transmittion, and turned around, "At least we know more than we did."
She then sat in her chair and said, "Head back to where the signal was strongest, maxium warp."
Janeway leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes. Going to the Lyante planet was not a total loss, but they wasted valuable time.

Tom paris paced back and forth in the small room. He was tired of sleeping, even though that was all he could do, besides talking to B'Elanna. They ran out of things to talk about an hour ago. Actually, Torres fell asleep while he was discussing a new holodeck program he was working on.
I guess it is difficult to keep one's eyes open in this place. Especially since they keep it so cold in here. He went over to the right-hand wall for the tenth time, and leaned against it. His eyes were getting heavy, and he could feel the cold seep into his body.
Did they just turn down the temperature in here?He thought to himself, How much colder can it get?
He pushed away from the wall, and continued pacing. He had to keep moving or he feared he would freeze.
He paced for another two minutes before he went back over to the wall that seperated his room from B'Elanna's. He tapped on the wall and called, "B'Elanna?"
A tired voice answered, "What?"
Paris leaned against the wall, fighting baclk the drowsiness he felt, "Is it cold in your room?"
He heard Torres snort, "It always is. Yesterday, I think they turned down the temperature when they took you to their lab."
Paris' eyes opened wide, "They did!? I think they turned it down in my room. It's freezing in here!"
"There's no use in complaining, Tom," Torres said, "They'll turn it up sooner or later."
"I hope sooner, cause I don't think I can stand it much longer."
"You sound tired, Tom. Go to sleep. The temperature might be back up when you wake up."
Paris groaned, "That's all I do, B'Elanna. I've been pacing the room for the past hour just to have something else to do."
"We can talk some more," Torres suggested.
"Sure. If it'll help you fall asleep again," Paris whispered.
"Tom, you're the one that needs sleep."
Paris slid down the wall until he came to a sitting position on the floor. He rested his head against the wall, "Alright. You win," he whispered, "I can't keep my eyes open any longer."
"We'll talk all you want when you wake up," Torres said, "I promise."
Paris smiled as he let the world of dreams sweep over him.

Continue to Chapter Six
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