DIFFERENT PATHS
By: Lauren and Julia

Part Eight
By: Lauren

The shuttle flew in dead silence for about an hour, Tom and B'Elanna refusing
to speak to each other. B'Elanna, having nothing to do until they made it to
the surface of the moon, stared out the window, thinking about everything. Tom
kept busy flying the shuttle. 

"A girl, huh?" Tom said, breaking the silence.

"Yes, it's a girl." she snapped back, not looking at him.

"Any names picked out yet?" he asked, desperate for conversation. He missed
the past, when he and B'Elanna were in a shuttle together, there was never a
dull moment.

She sighed. "We like Lindsay, and maybe JoAnna for the middle name." she told
him, obvisously not wanting to talk to him.

"Sounds good. I hear that Harry's the-"

"Look, Tom, just stop talking and fly the shuttle so we can get this mission
over with, and I can get back to Scott." she interrupted him.

"Of course. Wouldn't want to miss a minute with Scott." he whispered to
himself.

"What?" she questioned.

"Nothing. It was nothing." he mumbled.

The shuttle was once again in silence. B'Elanna looked out the window some
more, then, looked over at Tom. She was surprised to see that there seemed to
be a hint of a tear in his eye. He wiped his eye with his hand, and
concentrated back on the flying. 

"I'm sorry." she said quickly. He turned to her.

"What?" he asked, wondering if he'd just imagined her saying that.

"I'm sorry for being so rude to you just a minute ago." she told him. 

"Oh." he answered back, a bit let-down. He thought she would be apologizing
for everything. 

The shuttle was, once again, arrested into silence. Tom could now see the moon
in the distance, and he took down the speed of the shuttle. Just as he did
this, the shuttle rocked a bit heavily. 

B'Elanna gripped the edge of her seat tightly. "What happened?" she asked,
scared. She took one arm off of the chair, and placed it on her stomach.
Lindsay kicked as if to say "hello". 

"I don't know!" he answered, panicking. He searched like mad over his conn
panel to see what the problem could be, but everything looked normal.

"What did you do?" she screamed as the shuttle rocked even more violently now.
The moon was getting closer and closer a lot faster than it should have been.

"I didn't do anything!" he yelled. Sparks were flying out from the back of the
shuttle, and the replicator in back exploded. Luckily, the fire started by it
was small. 

"TOM!" B'Elanna screamed as she saw a tiny meteor, about the size of a
baseball, headed for the glass right where Tom was sitting. He saw it just in
time, and threw himself down on the floor. The meteor crashed through the
glass, and landed on his chair. If B'Elanna hadn't noticed it, it would have
hit him right in his face, killing him instantly. Now, they were losing oxygen
in the shuttle due to the hole in the glass, Tom pulled on B'Elanna's arm,
gesturing for her to get down on the floor, where there was more oxygen. She
slowly did so, and gripped his hand as they waited. 

*

Tom woke up with a horrible headache, and his whole body aching. He looked
around slowly to see that the shuttle made it to the moon, just not in one
piece. The back of the shuttle was about twenty meters away, covered in
flames. 

*B'Elanna* he remembered. He glanced beside him, where she had been, holding
on tight to him. She wasn't there. He moved, and almost slid down the floor
where the shuttle had landed sideways. He grabbed onto the pilot's chair, and
then gasped in horror. 

B'Elanna was laying against the ground, unconscious. She was trapped
underneath the co-pilot's chair, which was laying dangerously close to her
stomach. 

"B'Elanna!" he screamed. There was no response. He tried to get to her the
best he could. The problem was that if he let go of his chair, he would fall
right on top of her. He grabbed a section of the wall behind the chair, and
hung on to it. He then let himself drop the few meters from there, so he
wouldn't land on her. He put his hands on her head, screaming out her name. He
checked her pulse. It was weak, but there. She was still unresponsive. He hit
her comm badge, since he couldn't find his anywhere.

"Paris to Voyager." he called out. 

There was no response.

TO BE CONTINUED

Comments can be sent to fiddleritw@aol.com AND frostyu@geocities.com

Paramount owns them, we just borrow them. We own Scott.