"What happened?"

  "I can explain..." B'elana began. The Doctor had a miniature bed for miniature Tom Paris as he fixed him up. Tom was at least conscious now. The Doctor butted in with the details.

  "It seems that Mr. Paris was blasted from the sky by our hot headed engineer here." He began with the common aloof tone. Janeway looked at B'elana.

  "He was getting away in the Delta Flyer..." She had the small broken ship still in her hands to show to the Captain. It clearly had alot of damage to it. The Captain set her heels and leaned forward.

  "Tom. Can you hear me?" She asked quietly.

  She guessed her normal talking voice was more than enough volume for such tiny ears. He nodded weakly. The Doctor had healed the flesh, but the concussion was still weighing on his mind. "I want you to hear this: It was foolish for you to run from B'elana after she accepted looking after you. Don't ever do it again. Is that clear?" Her voice could take on a deadly tone that meant business so quickly it was no wonder no one aboard wanted to be her enemy.

  Her thin lips got even thinner as she squinted to make sure he nodded his reply.

  "Good. B'elana is to care for you. And you shall act like a Starfleet Officer no matter what size you are. You take orders from her..." Then the Captain got the idea to make sure NO more screw ups occurred.

  She'd order the REST of the men to do the same.

  For the time being, the men would be demoted for their own protection. That way no one would be defying their protectors. She chatted with the ship's computer on her way back to the trade negotiations to make sure it would be so.

-     -     -

  "I don't understand Romulan pastries!"

  "Naomi Wildman. You've only begun the basics. Perhaps you should let the replicator prepare things by program for a while."

  "NO! You're supposed to be teaching me!" She pleaded. Her big eyes were the size of serving trays to Neelix as he stood in front of her frustrated face. It was time for him to call on all of his 'diplomatic' capacities again.

  "I'm SURE you'll do fine when you get the hang of it. Let's try it again..."

  Just then the next watch took their dinner break and Naomi along with a tech from sensors lab began dishing out food for the largely diminished crew. It took alot less food than usual. More than one passing woman looked at Neelix with Naomi and just shook their heads with knowing disgust.

  "What's wrong with them? What did I do?" Naomi asked a bit hurt. She'd felt the same knowing that she wasn't completely human all along, but the officers never scoffed at her this way before. Neelix was highly hesitant to tell her the 'REASON' so he tried to brush it off. Naomi's mother was the last to come in. She was a bit surprised to see her daughter there, and surprised the Neelix was now her responsibility. Of course, she KNEW Neelix. It was fine with her, but she was a bit wary of the situation with the NEW orders.

  "Have you read the latest on the news line?" She asked Neelix as he stood on the counter next to an old fashion pair of salt/pepper shakers. He just shrugged. He'd never been one to monitor the ship's news at any size.

  "The Captain has just made a new order..." She began. She patted her daughter on the head as she quoted the order verbatim. Neelix was trying to take it well.

  "Naomi will be... my superior?" He asked a bit confused.

  "Every male that selected a protector will be under their protector. It seems Tom Paris was nearly killed trying to get away from B'elana Torres and the Captain wants everyone to be safe." The middle aged woman looked just as serene as ever even though her duty watch had been increased 30%. Naomi was perky about it.

  "I've never been promoted over anyone before."

  "Well ... I'm in good hands!" Neelix gulped as Naomi accidentally dropped the mixing bowl of Romulan pastry batter.

  "Oops."

  "Oh... frag." Neelix gulped again.

-     -     -

  Seven had been so wrapped up in the repairs that she forgot what awaited her in her rejuvenating chamber. She counted and there were exactly 21 of them now. She wished silently that the Doctor WOULD commit them to sick bay. She had no time for further distractions. She HAD to get a handle on the nanoprobe function that did this.

  "I require time alone to think." She told the men as they looked up at her. They'd been having the computer replicate them a few miniature items and beam them to the work bench. They had temporary quarters already set up like the ones used on planets where science teams camped out. The little white spheres and tubes were familiar to Seven, but it reminded her that her "problem" was there to stay until she fixed it.

  Tuvok stepped forward. "I've made a preliminary study of the computer log. It appears that your dream was successful in manipulating matter through the transporter conduits..."

  "I'm highly aware of how the situation occurred." She snapped at him. But was sorry again. "I require time alone. Please leave." She told them all and went to work at her customized console. The men looked at each other and back at her. They had read 'the latest'. Harry Kim spoke into his comm badge.

  A clip board type data interface appeared in front of Seven. She looked at it as if it were another nuisance. But as she read the text her jaw dropped a bit and she turned to face them. They COULD NOT leave. They were ordered to be with her. And she was now every last one of their superiors. It was a bit of a blast. From girl, to Borg, to half human half Borg, to commanding a crew of men that had all out ranked her just a few months ago. She put down the tabulator and resumed with a bit of relief in her voice.

  "You may not leave my presence. You will stay on that work bench and do not disturb me. That is all." Now she didn't have to ask them to do any thing. She could simply order them to do anything she said. The punishment if they disobeyed (also stated in the new orders) was a direct reprimand from the Captain herself. She knew none of them wished to disobey her now. She continued on with her research with no further distractions.

-     -     -

Chapter 6

  "I'm certain there is a commodity you'd like to trade for dilithium. Perhaps some power converters?" The Captain knew that the Forlocci would by dying to get their hands on some real technology. She had to make sure that it didn't happen.

  The matriarch was in charge of the negotiations from beginning to end, but had to confer with her consort on the value of each item. She did not "bother" herself with details such as how her ship worked. Her consort eventually had to go "see" what was worth trading for since he didn't know what their power converters and biaxial conduit could do. She called the duty watch security guard chief to conduct the "tour" for him.

  This left Celina alone with the Captain for a while. Again she wished Neelix was there. The pointed teeth of the monstrous Forlocci female was as sharp as her mind. As soon as the doors closed she began a new discussion. "You're completely without males aboard?" She asked noting the Captain herself was testimony to the "female" position in their society. Janeway had to recover from this strain of thought.

  "The Federation is our leader. It is comprised of men and women from all over the Alpha Quadrant. This is but one vessel." She tried to detour the sallow faced trader wondering to whom she could trade her off to for the time being. B'elana and Seven would have their hands full about now, and the rest of the female crew was spread paper thin throughout the ship already. "Shall we adjourn to the cafeteria?"

  "Captain? Ah, food." the Forlocci understood that subject very well. They walked to the mess hall with Celina looking around to confirm her suspicions that there were only women aboard.

-     -     -

  The Forlocci consort looked puzzled. The technology was unlike theirs. There was little chance of integrating Federation parts into their own systems. But the stand alone units worked well. He was especially interested in their weapons.

  That was always a gray area. They had phaser type weapons already, but theirs were bulky, too big to be carried by a person. Yeoman Richards had to confer with the Captain, but phasers were allowable for trade. What the Forlocci didn't know was that they would be replicating the weapons using power drawn from the dilithium they would be trading for. Their replicator technology and computer technology were STRICTLY off limits.

  "Your beaming technology. We would like to have it as well." He said as if asking the young blonde officer for another slice of pie or cake. She shrugged.

  "Sorry. That is not permitted."

  "May I at least know how it works so that we might build one of our own one day?" He asked. His forehead kept bobbing up and down faster and faster.

  That may be allowed. She had to confer again. She was NOT in any position to do the task at hand. If it was up to her, she would have let Neelix show the male Forlocci around.

  Funny, she'd never thought of Neelix as "valuable" before. If and when he got back to normal size she vowed to be nicer to him in the future. Babysitting foreigners was far more difficult than she'd ever dreamed.

-     -     -

  B'elana was sorry for what she'd done to Tom. But she was not sorry for what the Captain had ordered. She now had Tom literally in the palm of her hand. If she played her cards right, when he was returned to normal, he'd be alot more attentive to her, and he'd have a FULL understanding of NOT pissing her off. Her temper was something that she'd been working on for years and was unable to correct. Now it was nice to know that Tom would have to ADAPT to survive. She didn't want to giggle in front of him, so she walked in silence back to engineering.

  "I suppose since you're not to leave my side, I'll have to carry you everywhere." she knew that would be a new inconvenience. She had alot of work to do now that the warp core was cold and was about to go back on line as soon as the 'trade negotiations' were over. She was going to put him on her tabulator.

  She realized he'd probably just fall off. Not an option.

  She next tried to just lay him on the console. But he still looked out of place. He could slide off of it, or might get punched instead of a button if she got in a hurry. Not advisable.

  "Here." She finally allowed her little charge to see her grin. She'd discovered the best place. The neck line of her uniform was snug fit. A tight fit almost. She could put him under her neck band and wear him like a chainless pendant. He was staring at her hands still working with his arms lying over the front of her uniform. B'elana didn't mind having someone watching her work knowing that she could watch over him at the same time. He tried to look up at her a few times, but her face was above his head and his little neck was sore from the crash. She knew the new arrangements would be "adequate".

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