The door swung open. The first one through was Seven of Nine. The next was Captain Janeway along with two other security officers that were also technicians. The four women had phasers drawn as they found the Forlocci. She was sitting on her bed and on the table was a tiny blonde haired man.

  "Stand down..." Janeway said reflexively. But the pale faced monstrous was already sitting.

  "Captain?" She asked shying away from the weapons aimed at her.

  "Captain! No!" The tiny man insisted putting his arms up to get their attention better.

  Janeway stepped closer. "What happened?"

  "I was just chatting with her. We were comparing home worlds!" It was funny. Janeway could see that Smitherman was alot more afraid of her and her phaser than he was of the fanged monstrous. She waved the guards away with a sigh.

  "I owe you an apology." She looked at the Forlocci diplomat, she holstered her phaser immediately.

  Seven did not.

  Janeway didn't notice Seven anyway. "We were worried when the computer found one of our men missing." Janeway explained. The wrinkles on Celina's head began bobbing up and down as they did during their trade agreement.

  "No apology necessary. I would equally be alarmed if I had such an asset go missing." She bowed a bit to Smitherman. "And I was just about to ask him to let me sleep. I am VERY tired and need to rest."

  "Yes. Of course. I'll see you again at your leisure." Janeway indicated that Seven should 'get her man'. The tall blonde Borg looked at him pensively, then finally took Smitherman in her palm as if he were an egg and dropped him in her empty phaser pouch.

  Janeway and Seven made their getaway together. The Captain felt super relieved and annoyed at the same time. If everyone had just followed ORDERS, none of this would have taken place! She said not another word to Seven as they parted ways on the turbo lift.

-     -     -

  "C'mon Neelix. How do I make the icing ripple like you do?" Naomi was trying to texture the icing with her fingertip with disastrous results.

  "Oh, no. You coat the cake like so." Neelix had a tiny duplicate of a cake to show her his cooking class. He expertly massaged on icing with a rubber spatula. "And then, the frills." He was ever so happy teaching food to such an eager student. He had the computer make him a copy of his favorite icing gun. "Now you select the shape, and viola!" He began ridging the cake with the desired ripples.

  Naomi took her rubber spatula and cleared off her previous efforts, and found the real life size icing gun to load and trim her cake.

  Naomi was also covered in chocolate before her first cake was done.

  "Yes, that's right." Neelix said just as Naomi knocked him off the counter with her elbow. "Aaahhh!!" He fell face first into her new cake.

  "Neelix? Neelix, where are you?" Naomi pushed the cluttered cooking tools into the big pot sink and came back to look for Neelix, and found him face down in her fresh icing job. "Neelix! You can't have any yet! I was going to show it to my mom!" She huffed and pulled him out. But she could see that he didn't JUMP in. He was trying to get icing out of his mouth. If it was one thing that the Talaxian had never been, it was athletic.

  "Uhgh! No. Aguh." Neelix finally got a breath and scooped away icing with his hands as if it were the most vile of mud.

  "Oh, Neelix." Naomi licked his face and removed a huge portion of the chocolate goo. The Talaxian wasn't sure if he appreciated the help, then another voice interrupted.

  "Well, well." It was Lieutenant Gaines from the armory. She'd been forced to help out in the kitchen in a pinch before. Now she was coming in early for the next meal time and found Neelix in his current 'predicament'. "That's not how you do it, here." Susan took Neelix from Naomi and put him inside her mouth and closed it.

  "Neelix?!" Naomi was shocked. The tall dark haired woman rolled him around and finally spit him out into the dish water. Neelix couldn't swim in the bubbly mirth, but Susan was there to pester him, not to do him harm. She scooped him out and presented him back to Naomi Wildman. He was completely soaked and degraded.

  The exact effect Susan wanted to put upon him.

  "OH! You get so DIRTY playing with KIDS you know." She scoffed at Neelix evilly and strode to the back to put on her apron.

  "Why is she so mean?!" Naomi wanted to hit the adult, but that was something she simply couldn't do. She had to do nothing. Neelix was cold and wet in her hand.

  "Mean just to be mean I suppose. I'm going to beam home if you don't mind." He was shivering but at least he'd been thoroughly cleaned. Too thoroughly. He'd been bounced around like a leaf in the wind in Susan's mouth. Now he was shaking like a leaf thinking how easily she could have messed him up. He dematerialized in Naomi's hand and she took off home to try and beat him there.

-     -     -

  The main scanning lab was quiet.

  Lieutenant Tania Morris was all by herself for hours. She'd kept everyone in her department at arm's length during the whole Delta Quadrant ordeal. She had made sure that her "reputation" was untainted. She'd made sure that absolutely no man aboard would choose her to look after them. Pete and Mark were now with Seven of Nine somewhere else aboard the ship as she sat and looked over the scan logs for anomalies.

  Her mind wasn't on her job.

  It was payback for all the times she'd "turned down" any friendly contact with the men. She was a good looking women, no one would deny it, but it also meant that she would have to work overtime not to have a tainted reputation for being easy. She was actually trying to be just like Seven of Nine. And in the end, Seven still got the men. It just simply was not fair!

  Tania couldn't smile as more orders came down from engineering. They wanted to use a sensor array directed toward the warp core. She switched over an auxiliary system and watched the data go by. All of the other women she knew aboard the ship had a man of their very own. Or in Seven's case, her own harem.

  Again her brain screamed that it just wasn't fair. She got up from the console and took a walk. Somewhere aboard ship there had to be something going on.

  Of course, there wouldn't be any male chauvinism what so ever.

  That was awkward.

  That was the only thing she was geared to deal with.

  Tania saw only women as she walked. Most of them smiling to themselves as they traveled, even though their duty shifts had been doubled. She sighed to herself and on a whim began walking toward Seven of Nine's lab. Perhaps she'd get a few pointers in case this ever happened again, she might have a boyfriend by then that she could look after.

  Then she remembered that the possibility of all the men on board the ship shrinking to a few inches tall was almost overwhelming. A once in a lifetime deal. Once in the lifetime of the UNIVERSE deal. And she'd missed out.

  She came up with an excuse to see Seven as she walked.

-     -     -

  Neelix was disturbed and confused as he washed again. He'd talked with some of the other men with his communicator and found that they were having temporary shelters replicated at their scale. He did the same and was cleaning up. He felt extremely shot down. There was no news that they might become full sized again.

  He could be this way for the rest of his life.

  To him, it seemed as if he should have just been killed. Going on like this seemed more and more unacceptable. He'd just been totally humiliated by a woman that could care LESS about his feelings. And he was powerless to stop her. The Telaxian had never considered himself a male egoist, but what male ego he had was lying in pieces at the bottom of the pot sink in the kitchen.

  Neelix was hardly ever one to contemplate suicide, but it was becoming too much to bare.

  He looked out the window of the temporary shelter and saw Naomi Wildman's teddy bear. It was nothing but a toy, and it was ten times bigger than Neelix himself. He sat on a fold up chair and wallowed a bit in self pity. He didn't know if he could wait. If news came that it was permanent after waiting so long...

  He heard footsteps. Naomi was upon him. The ribs of her forehead appeared in the window. "Neelix? Are you in there?"

  She was innocent. None of this was her fault.

  He was contemplating ending it all. But he'd have to do it in such a way that it wouldn't effect Naomi when she grew up. He'd have to do it quickly and quietly.

  A mystery disappearance. At his present size, he could just go down a garbage chute and be ejected into space. But that might take too long, and the computer would know where he was. He'd have to take off his badge and jump off of something.

  "Neelix?" Naomi asked again. Her hands wrapped around the little structure he was in. He felt as if he were being attacked by a giant sea serpent in a ship in the ocean. He was swayed around as it was picked up and Naomi tore off the door with her fingers and dumped Neelix out onto her palm. He fell with several other items including the fold up chair.

  "Neelix! Why didn't you come out?" She peered down at him. He was so tired.

  "Naomi Wildman. Please just give me time to think."

  "Are you still thinking about Susan? I wish she was your size, I'd make SURE she never hurt you again!"

  "I appreciate the concern Naomi Wildman, but I think I just need some time alone." Neelix was about to blow his cool. Naomi shrugged and put him down to go see her mom who was in the living room reading a real paper book. Neelix walked back into the temporary structure dragging the chair behind him. "Woe is me," actually had a meaning to him as he tripped on a single strand of Naomi's hair that had wrapped around one of his feet. He could use the single strand of hair to hang himself. He began coiling the single strand around his arm to take it with him. It was funny how he could use a single strand of a child's hair to end his life. "Woe is me."

-     -     -

  Janeway was thoroughly exhausted when she returned to her quarters. In her haste, she'd ALSO left her man unattended. She shrugged to herself. "Captain's Privilege." She was too tired to care at the moment. She went in and found her tiny man asleep on her desk. She didn't want to bother him so she slid onto her bunk without worrying about changing. She was so used to the uniform, she often slept in it without a second thought. In her sleep she dreamed of strange things and giant monsters that sometimes had human heads. They weren't nightmares, but visions to be looked at as art.

  Even Janeway's dreams had class.

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