CHAPTER THREE:
MARRIED, WITH HOLODECKS
The Starship Voyager, somewhere in the Delta Quadrant
24th Century CE
B'Elanna crouched as the bat'leth swung towards her head and lashed out with her own weapon, catching her opponent around his leather-clad legs. She had been infuriatingly distracted today and was not at all happy with the way her training session was going. "Focus, B'Elanna" she urged herself as a flashing blade narrowly missed her once more, but the images kept sparking in her brain and when she was caught full in the stommach by a dagger she had not noticed she cursed loudly and froze the programme. Hating herself and her inability to get that dammed woman out of her mind, she stood in the middle of the cavern, hands on her hips, and let the images and memories play themselves out in her mind.
Damm Kathryn Janeway! Damm her beauty and her strength and her sexy smile and damm the fact that she was the captain! Why did she have to go falling in love with her captain, of all people? Why couldn't she have picked someone of her own rank or lower to dream about every night? The situation was hopeless. Even though she was sure Janeway felt the same way, she was also sure that the Starfleet captain would never allow anything to happen between them.
Kathryn had all but said as much when she had invited her to diner in her quarters the previous night. "I never would have dreamed, when you first came onto this ship, how close we would become, B'Elanna. I never would have guessed that you would end up being one of my best friends." Friends! She had wanted to scream at the captain there and then 'I don't just want to be your friend, Kathryn; I want to be your lover, your partner, your wife', but instead she had given some soothing, concilliatory reply and buried her feelings yet again. She had thought that some hard, demanding physical excersise would enable her to let it go, to concentrate on something else, to lose herself in battlelust, but now here she was unable even to defend herself against a level 3 hologram.
She took a deep breath and fought to regain control of her mind. She would raise the stakes and force herself to concentrate. "Computer," she said calmly, "increase level and disengage safety protocols."
"Disengaging safety protocols is not advised" stated the cool voice of the computer.
"Do it" she ordered. Now she would put Kathryn Janeway out of her mind, and concentrate, or she would die.
* * * * * *
Xena and Gabrielle stepped alone into the cave, for a few seconds tingling with a strange sensation of lightness. The cave looked just like many others they had encountered in their travels, a large cavern, lit by flaming torches held in wall brackets.
"Well, it doesn't look any different so far," Gabrielle observed, "this isn't where Ares brought you, is it?"
"No, nothing like it," replied the warrior, "I'm not even sure we've gone anywhere." Suddenly, coming from a little way off, there was what sounded like a clash of swords and the two looked at eachother in silent agreement. Xena grabbed a torch from a wall sconce and, drawing her sword, led the way toward the sounds of battle.
They hurried through a couple of small chambers and found themselves in another large cave where three big men were attacking a small woman warrior with strange curved weapons. The woman was holding her own against the trio but was unable to get in an offensive blow. Xena watched for a couple of seconds, but when another woman appeared out of thin air and joined the men in their onslaught she decided to even the odds. She recognised the small woman as one of the crew of Voyager and headed into the fray to help her, closely followed by Gabreille, who was ready with her knives.
B'Elanna was taken aback by the couple's arrival and lost her focus momentarily, giving her opponent a chance to wind her with a heavy punch to the gut. She was lucky that she had already disarmed him or it would have been a bat'leth blow that was her punishement for losing her concentration again. As she crouched on the floor, clutching her ribs, she looked up to see a shining blade descending towards her, but it was blocked by the bizzare newcomer's sword. She watched as the tall woman in the short skirt shoved her adversary backwards, leaving him sprawling on the floor and plunged her sword into his chest.
Gabrielle had dealt swiftly with the remaining Klingon and now, with all four out of the picture, Xena sheathed her sword and stretched her hand out to help B'Elanna up. Torres, though intrigued at this unexpected addition to her programme, took the offered hand and was helped to her feet. She had created the programme to generate random elements but this was certainly unexpected. "Thanks" she said as she dusted herself off.
"No problem," replied the warrior, smiling warmly at B'Elanna, "so who were those people?"
"Oh, just some friends of mine" the Klingon said with a snarl.
"They didn't seem much like friends," observed Gabrielle, "in fact they seemed pretty pissed off with you."
"Yeah, well. You know Klingons."
"Uh, no actually."
Torres bent to retrieve her bat'leth from the floor of the cave. "Who are you two anyway?" she asked.
"I'm Xena," the tall warrior told her, "and this is Gabrielle."
B'Elanna froze in a kind of half crouch and smile of understanding crept over her face. She straightened up the rest of the way and looked at the two women. "Xena the Warrior Princess and Grabrielle, Queen of the Amazons?" she enquired innocently, barely holding back a giggle.
"Yes" confirmed Xena.
Tom Paris! He had taken to playing tricks like this on her lately, altering her programmes to include bizzarre characters and situations. She knew he meant it in good heart, but the joke was wearing a little thin and she wasn't in the mood today. Shaking her head and sighing in frustration she said to the air "computer, end programme" as she turned towards the exit.
The cave disappeared around her, leaving her in the middle of the gridded holodeck, striding towards the door. But when the astonished tone of the Amazon said behind her "what happened?!"
she froze and turned back to see the couple still standing there, looking around the holodeck with expressions of amazement on their faces. Another malfunction to take care of! The engineer sighed and tried again. "Computer, I said end programme."
"No programme is currently playing"the computer informed her.
"Then who're these?" she huffed, motioning at the confused pair that still stood before her, "delete characters."
"No programme is currently playing"repeated the computer without a hint of confusion in its voice.
B'Elanna sighed with exasperation and asked sarcastiacally "well how many lifesigns are there on this holodeck?" fully expecting the answer to be one.
"Three" came the cool reply.
"What!"
"Three" repeated the computer.
"Computer, has Tom Paris altered the paramaters of this programme in any way, or tinkered with your subroutines in the last few days?" asked the Klingon suspiciously.
"Negative."
"Run a self-diagnostic."
"Self-diagnostic now running. Please wait............self-diagnostic complete. No errors detected."
B'Elanna had now passed from anger and frustration into cunfusion. She stared at the speechless couple and tapped her commbadge. "Torres to Janeway."
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"Uh, Captain. I'm in Holodeck Two. I....I think you'd better come down here ma'am."
* * * * * *
"Are you telling me," asked Janeway with a look on her face that fell somewhere between incredulity and amusement, "that the ancient gods were all Q?!"
"Of course," replied Q matter-of-factly, "what did you think they were?"
"Well, like most humans, I thought they were mythological."
"And I suppose you thought we didn't exist either" Xena accused gently.
"Well, there has been some debate about you over the centuries, but generally....yes, I'm afraid most people regard you as legendary rather than historically based characters.....I'm sorry" replied the captain sheepishly.
Q was belligerent. "Well isn't that just typical human arrogance!" he observed huffily, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why do you people always assume that just because you can't see, hear or prove the existance of something it must be a figment of some poor, misguided fool's fevered imagination? Really, Kathy, I've always liked your species but sometimes you can be infuriatingly obtuse!"
"Sorry" she retorted sarcastically, with a twitch of her eyebrow.
When the captain had arrived on the holodeck and B'Elanna had explained the situation, she had immediately surmised that Q was somehow involved, calling on him to show himself. "What are they doing here, Q?" she asked irritatedly as the omnipotent being appeared at her command and smiled ingratiatingly.
"Q...Ares misled them appalingly" he explained. "In a facile attempt to win Xena back to his perverted cause, he brought her here in the middle of a battle and tried to fool her that life in the twenty-fourth century was all about war! Call me old-fashioned but I thought they should see what it's really like, that's all. I just thought you could put them up for a few weeks so they can see for themselves."
"A few weeks!" the captain repeated, exasperation beginning to show in her voice, "what about the prime directive? The things they learn here could change history!"
"Oh, don't worry about that, Kathy. They know all about that and they won't reveal a thing. These aren't ordinary women here, you know, they can be trusted on that score. Besides, Xena going back to Ares would change history too, and not for the better."
The captain frowned suspiciously and asked, "why do I get the feeling you have something to lose if I refuse, Q?"
"Paranoia? distrust?.....I don't know, Kathy."
The captain fixed him with a level ten glare that could make even the Q whither. "Alright, alright," he aquiesed finally, "I have a little bet with Ares."
"A bet?!"
Janeway listened stonily as Q explained his wager with the god of war. "Oh, come on, Kathryn. You wouldn't really inflict me on them as a god, would you? I don't look good in leather and this will get Ares off Xena's back forever, then there'd be no chance of her ever going back to her old ways. Come on, what do you say?"
* * * * * *
Gabrielle gasped as the doors to her temporary accomodation swished open and she was presented with the best of Starfleet's guest quarters. "Wow!" she gasped as she took in the surroundings, "this is great!" and she flung herself down on the enormous sofa, making Xena laugh indulgently. "I'm glad you like it, Your Majesty," the captain smiled graciously and, indicating the door at the back of the room, continued "the sleeping area is just through there and there's a bathroom adjoining."
"A bathroom!?" Gabrielle exclaimed, her eyes wide with pleasure as she ran to investigate the marvel.
"Now, Princess," Janeway asked "there's another empty quarters just next door if you'd like, or would you prefer to share?"
"Of course we'd prefer to share. We are married, you know?"
"You are?! I mean....of course you are," and a broad smile crept over Kathryn's face as her fondest suspicions were confirmed.
"Don't tell me," sighed the warrior as she removed her sword sheath and layed it on a table, "there's been some debate about that over the centuries too, right?"
"Yes," the captain admitted with a nod, "some people refuse to believe you were even lovers, but that's mainly insecure men who feel threatened by strong women and can't bear to think they might be completely redundant." She smiled and continued more quietly "I...I've never understood how someone could read those scrolls and not realise how much you loved eachother." Before Xena could reply, however, an excited squeal emanated from the room next door and Gabrielle called "Xena! You have to see the size of this bed!!"
End of Chapter Three
