Snowblind By: Kat Silbernagel (Wrpspdahd@aol.com) Disclaimer: Voyager and all characters other than Ensign Karina Arnio belong to Paramont. I'm just taking them for a short spin and promise to bring them back relatively unharmed. This was written for fun not profit. Tom slowly became aware of his surroundings. He was laying face down in something cold and wet. As he moved his hand toward his face to clear his eyes, he realized that it was snow he was laying in. A groan escaped his lips as the various scrapes, cuts, and bruises that he had suffered pushed their way to the foreground of his consciousness. "Oh, man! How did I get here?" he wondered as he started to pick himself off the mountainside where he was lying in a pile. With that his mind slowly began a backwards journey to where it had all began . . . Tom's fingers flew across the helm console as he made a slight course adjustment. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small solar system start to come into view on the sensor screen. "Hmm.. this looks like it could be interesting." he said quietly. "Harry, what do your long range sensors show regarding that solar system just coming into range in sector 3?" "Nothing yet." answered Harry Kim, the young ensign assigned to Ops. "We're too far out of range. Give me at least another 15 to 20 minutes before I can give you a complete update." Just at that moment, Captain Kathryn Janeway entered the bridge from her ready room. "What have you gentlemen found?" "We're not sure yet, Captain." answered Tom, throwing a boyish grin over his shoulder at her. "We just started to scan a small solar system that could have the supplies we've been looking for." Kathryn smiled back without thinking. It was hard to resist one of Tom's good natured grins. "Sounds good, don't forget to scan for life signs, and check the weather patterns as well. If we're lucky, we might find a spot for some R & R. In the meantime, you can find me in the mess hall. I'm going to get a cup of coffee." Kathryn shuddered as she got on the turbolift. She really hated the thought of having to drink Neelix's coffee, she kept remembering the time he had offered her a new blend which had poured out of the pot like a thick blob of tar. It hadn't smelled much better either. But, as the Captain she had to set a good example. Even if it gave her indigestion. An hour later, the Captain and her senior officers were gathered in the conference room, discussing the plan of action regarding the solar system that Tom had spotted. "Mr. Kim, report." stated Janeway with a motherly smile for the overly eager ensign. "The solar system has a single sun being orbited by five planets. The first four planets are too close to their sun to be of the right temperature variance to grow edible plant life or animal life for that matter. The fifth planet is M classed and is similar in size to Earth. It does have an abundant plant and animal life. No sentient beings have shown up on the scans however. Initial scans have shown the plant life to be of an edible variety and the animal life is small and seemingly harmless. The weather patterns are quite varied. We have everything from arctic to tropical." Harry stated in his most p rofessional voice. "Do you have anything to add, Mr. Tuvok?" "Yes, Captain. I would suggest that even though no sentient life forms were recorded, that our shore leave personnel stay in groups of no smaller than four people." "Very well. Mr. Neelix, please assign personnel to gather fruits, ve getables, and seedlings.", "Mr. Tuvok, please set a rotation schedule for shore leave." the Captain quickly scanned the padd she held in her hand, "Oh, and B'Elanna, did the scans show any useful metals that Engineering might be interested in?" "No, Captain," B'Elanna Torres the exotic half-Klingon Chief Engineer, frowned slightly. "The metallurgic scans showed everything to be of a lower quality than could be of use to us." "Wonderful!" thought Tom Paris. "Now if only I can convince her to take shore leave with me and Harry, I've got to try to get her to loosen up." The Captain glanced around the room, surveying her top people. She had a wonderful sense of pride in all of them. She smiled slightly when she noticed how they had arranged themselves around the table. Chakotay was at her right, beside him was Tuvok, and on Tuvok's right sat Neelix with Kes beside him. To her left was Harry Kim, a large space then B'Elanna and Tom, who in the past few weeks had gotten suspiciously guilty looking whenever anyone happened to encounter them. Janeway wondered if they realized what was beginning to happen to them. "Dismissed. And have a good time." She smiled fondly at the group. "B'Elanna!" shouted Tom, trying to catch up to her as they left the conference room. B'Elanna turned slowly toward him. "Yeah, what, Paris?" she snapped. She really wasn't mad at Tom, it just took an effort to be nice to anyone sometimes. Her Klingon side seemed to always have her at war. If not with herself, then everyone else. "Harry and I were thinking that maybe you'd like to take shore leave with us and Ensign Arnio. We're going skiing on some mountains we saw in the northern hemisphere. The snow pack looks pretty good there." "Snow? As in ice and snow?" snorted B'Elanna. "No, I don't think so. Besides I don't ski." "Oh, come on B'Elanna, it'll be fun, we'll take it easy and I'll teach you. They really aren't mountains, more like big hills. Pleazzzzze!" Tom put on his five-year-old pouting face for her. At that B'Elanna had to laugh, Tom did look like a picture of a little boy whining because he couldn't have a treat. "OK, ok, ok, I'll go. But . . . I really don't like to be cold so I'm making it your responsibility to see that I'm not." Although she hated the cold she would be willing to do almost anything to gain Tom's respect even if it meant freezing to death. Tom smiled brightly, "Uh, just what did you have in mind, B'Elanna? I'm sure there's a large rock or two down there you could chuck at me." "That's not what I meant, Paris!" she glowered at him balefully. "What I meant was that I expect to have a shelter, fire, and hot chocolate waiting for me at the bottom." "Oh, sure no problem. I can do that. So, zero eight hundred hours tomorrow? We'll make a day of it and I'll even pack lunch." Tom grinned at her. "You'd better. Starving is not my idea of fun. I'll see you in the transporter room then." With that B'Elanna headed for Engineering. As the disorientation from the transporter left him, Tom found himself at the top of a gently slopping hill with B'Elanna, Harry, and Ensign Karina Arnio beside him. Karina was of medium height and of Finnish descent. Her Nordic ancestry showed in her pale blonde hair and ice blue eyes. "Harry," smiled Karina, "let's go set up the shelter while Tom introduces B'Elanna to the basics of skiing." "Yeah," Harry agreed. "they should have transported the stuff we asked for by now." With that, the pair quickly put on their skis and headed to the bottom of the hill where the supplies were to be waiting. Tom and B'Elanna spent most of the morning getting B'Elanna used to the equipment and the various necessary movements. Harry and Karina had gone further up the hill to where the terrain was more challenging. Finally Tom pulled up and motioned B'Elanna to stop also. "Let's go to the shelter and see what Neelix packed us for lunch. We can get it ready for when Harry and Karina show up." "Great, I'm starving." B'Elanna laughed joyfully. "This has really been fun!" At the shelter, they worked together in silence to get the lunch laid out. As Tom handed a steaming cup of hot chocolate over to B'Elanna, he thought once again how beautiful she was. The hot pink ski jacket she wore only enhanced her good looks. "Say I was wondering," asked Tom with a sly smile on his face, "why did you pick hot pink for your jacket's color?" "Well, I figured that with my luck I'd fall in a snow bank somewhere and I just wanted to make it easy to find me." "I wouldn't worry about that, you're doing really well out there. Would you like to try something a little more difficult this afternoon? We don't have to be back until seventeen hundred hours." "Sure, if you think I'm ready." B'Elanna smiled to herself. She had a vision of herself in her hot pink ski jacket stuck in a snow bank and her skis wrapped around a tree. A snort came out of her nose and she turned sharply away from him and busied herself at the table. "Uh, yeah, you're ready." Tom looked at her quizzically. But before he could say anything else, the door to the shelter burst open and Harry and Karina stumbled in laughing. As they prepared to make their final descent of the day, Tom looked over at B'Elanna. Her face was glowing with fresh air and happiness. He was glad that she had agreed to come along. It had really made his day perfect. "If I can keep this up, maybe she'll actually agree to a real date with me. Just don't rush it." After the experience they had during her bout with pon farr he didn't want to scare her off. As long as he didn't push, he might have a very good chance at a relationship with her. "Ok, Helmboy, Harry and Karina should be almost down. Let's get going." Laughing, they both pushed off on their poles and started down the hill. They hadn't gotten very far when Tom noticed a strange rumbling sound in the air. The first thing he thought was, "Avalanche! But, no, the terrain wasn't right for that." " Oh my god!" he yelled, "Earthquake!" As the ground rushed up to meet him, he heard a scream rend the air. As Tom struggled to regain his feet, a thought occurred to him, "B'Elanna! Where is she? I don't see her anywhere!" As his blue eyes scanned the mountain, they spotted something that wasn't there before . . . a hole gaped in the ground about 20 meters down the hill. A tree trunk was sticking out of it at a crazy angle. Without thinking, Tom raced for the hole, he knew that was where B'Elanna must be. As he neared the hole, his heart hit the bottom of his stomach with a lurch. He could see a piece of pink material clinging to the branch of the tree. "B'Elanna! Can you hear me?" he shouted. A moan filtered up through the branches of the tree. "Yeah, I can hear you." B'Elanna's voice sounded strained. "I'm in some kind of hole." "Are you ok?" Tom asked anxiously. "I don't know, I think I hurt my ankle." B'Elanna said with a tight quality to her voice. "Just hold on. I'll get some help." Tom quickly tapped his commbadge. "Paris to Voyager." Before he even got the sentence out, he knew that the commsignal did not open. Hitting his badge again he said, "Paris to Kim." Still nothing. "Listen, B'Elanna, there seems to be some kind of EM disturbance that is blocking my signal or the darn thing is broke. Can you try yours?" "I already tried. There was no response." B'Elanna gave another small moan. "I'm going to try and get to you. Does this tree go all the way down?" Tom asked. "Don't try it. I don't know how stable that tree is and I don't want you to get hurt too." B'Elanna called back. Tom grasped the tree and tried to move it. "Feels solid enough." He thought. "Can't hurt to try." With that he started to slowly climb down the tree. "I'm coming down, try to get out of the way." called Tom. "Oh, sure. No problem. Just where would you like me to go?" B'Elanna's tone was more that a little sarcastic. Tom grinned to himself from his "ladder" among the branches. "Well, just do the best you can." Finally, Tom reached the bottom of the tree. There wasn't much light filtering down through the branches. As his eyes got used to the dim light, he was aware that there wasn't a lot of room in the hole. A hand grabbed his ankle. "Oh, there you are." Tom laughed. "I thought you might have left without me." "Like I said, Where would you like me to go?" B'Elanna snapped back at him. "Ok, now that I'm here, if I help, do you suppose you can climb up this tree? You have to be careful though, there's a lot of dead branches." asked Tom as he gently helped B'Elanna to her one good foot. "Yeah, I think I can make it if we go really slow." "No problem." Tom grinned. They were going to make it out of this ok after all. B'Elanna and Tom started up the tree, making tortuously slow progress because of B'Elanna's ankle. They had only gone a short way when the ground began to shake again. "Hang on, B'Elanna! It's an after shock!" cried Tom. They held tightly to the tree but, suddenly they were falling through the air. As Tom hit the ground the air was expelled forcibly from his lungs. He barely had time to draw another breath when B'Elanna landed on top of him. Reflexively, his arms wrapped around her and he rolled with her. At that moment the tree landed on the very spot where they had been. Dust and tree branches filled the air. For a moment B'Elanna had trouble breathing but, she forgot about her trouble when she felt more than heard a gasp beneath her. "Tom? Are you ok?" she asked. "I can't breathe! Get off!" Tom wheezed. B'Elanna rolled off of him. As he struggled to his knees, he felt a sharp pain lance through his side, which intensified when he tried to fill his lungs with air. "Ohh, I think I broke some ribs." he groaned. "And, what's really great is our "ladder" is gone." "It'd be nice if we had some light," B'Elanna mused, "then we could see if there's anything down here to help us." "I think I can help out there." countered Tom, "I'll just take one of these dead branches and light it on fire." He started to tug on a branch which gave way easily. "Hey what about a bonfire? At least we'd be warm then too." "Sure, and just how are you going to light this fire?" B'Elanna asked. "B'Elanna, I'm disappointed in you. "Standard operating procedure: "When on an away team to unfamiliar territory, always carry a phaser."You know that." Tom smirked at her. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out a Type 1 phaser. Tapping in the lowest setting, he aimed it at the dead branches he gathered and fired. The wood began to glow, then burst into flames. "Oh, Tom, look!" B'Elanna's voice was filled with a sense of wonder. They found themselves in a large cavern. The stalactites that had formed on the ceiling were made of some kind of sparkling crystal. "It's beautiful!" "Yeah, it's gorgeous," said Tom wistfully, "just like Kibberian Fire Diamonds. Now, how do we get out of here? You know, it's too bad my tricorder got ruined. Maybe we could've found out what's causing those EM disturbances." "You had a tricorder too! Tom, I'm really impressed! What happened to it?" "It was in my hip pocket when I fell, it kinda got mashed." Tom pulled the remains out of his jean's pocket. The casing was indeed smashed and broken wires fell out of it. "Wow, you really did a number on it. Help me to get closer to the fire and I'll see if there's anything I can do with it. By the way, you wouldn't happen to have a medkit in those pockets of yours?" Tom reached down and extended his hand to B'Elanna. She pulled herself up and hopped over to the fire with his help and then slid back down to sit on the ground. "No, sorry to say, the medkit was in the shelter at the bottom of the hill." Tom sighed as he dropped down to sit beside B'Elanna. "Is there anything I can do to help?" "Yeah, you can hold these wires out of the way for me." Tom scooted closer to her and as his hand reached out to take the wires from her, his fingers brushed hers. A jolt of electricity shot through his body and his eyes went automatically to her face. His eyes locked with hers, azure blue melded with chocolate brown. Without thinking his lips descended on hers to meet in a hungry kiss. The broken tricorder fell between them as B'Elanna let it slide between her fingers. She reached to twine her fingers in the hair on the back of his head. A low moan escaped Tom's lips as she pressed closer to him. A throaty growl came from B'Elanna as she pushed him backwards which cumulated in a real cry of pain from Tom as he hit the ground. "Oh," cried B'Elanna, "I'm so sorry, I forgot about your ribs!" "It's ok," said Tom nuzzling her ear, taking small nibbles from it, "it's not that bad." "But . . ." "Shhh . . . it's ok." Tom's arms tightened around her and his mouth once again met hers in a devastating kiss. "Tom! B'Elanna! Can you hear me?" Harry's voice came eerily from above. For a moment neither Tom nor B'Elanna could focus their thoughts enough to say anything. Their whole concentration had been on each other and the abrupt bounce back into reality was more than they could handle. Finally, Tom cleared his throat and yelled back, "Harry! We're down here!" He was reluctant to release his hold on B'Elanna even though he knew that this interlude was over, disrupted by his friend's concern for them. "Are you alright? How's B'Elanna?" "We need a little medical attention but, we're ok." "At least we were." Tom said under his breath. "Come on, we'd better get this fire out. I guess I don't need to fix the tricorder anymore." B'Elanna smiled up at him. "Listen," Harry shouted, "we can't get the transporter to work here. I'm going to throw a rope down. Tie it around B'Elanna and we'll pull her up. Then we'll do the same for you. The rope came snaking down from the ceiling, attached to the bottom was a simple harness that could be wrapped around a person and used as a sort of chair. Tom helped B'Elanna into the sling and made sure she was secure. She smiled softly at him and reached out her hand to touch his face. His hand went up to cup hers and he softly whispered to her, "Later." "Ok, Harry. Bring her up." Tom watched until he was sure they had her at the top. He walked over to the fire and began to throw dirt on it to put it out. When he was sure it wouldn't come back to life, he went to where the rope was hanging down in readiness to bring him to the surface. He climbed into the sling and gave a tug on the rope. "Ok, Harry. I'm ready." As he was slowly being lifted up he looked down into the gloom of the cavern with an expression of regret on his handsome face. "You know I really think I'm beginning to have a real affinity for caves." he laughed to himself. The air at the top was much cleaner and crisper than he remembered. Blinking to get his eyes used to the bright sunlight on the crystal snow, he was mo mentarily blinded. A shuttle sat about 50 meters away with the side hatch open. Harry grabbed his arm and began to steer him in the direction of the shuttle. "Come on, lets get you both to Voyager. B'Elanna tells me you might have broken some ribs in that fall." Fifteen minutes later, Tom and B'Elanna were both ensconced on biobeds that were placed side by side in Sickbay. "You were both very lucky." the Doctor clucked as he worked over B'Elanna's ankle. "This fracture is bad enough but, you could have easily been killed. And you, Mr. Paris, are very lucky indeed that one of those broken ribs I repaired didn't puncture a lung. Didn't anyone think to scan for tectonic disturbances? I wouldn't have been able to help you if the fall you took had been much greater. I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker." "Yes, we did and no there weren't. I guess we were just lucky." grinned Tom. "Lucky indeed. I would like you both to spend the next eight hours in Sickbay. I am prepared to sedate you to keep you here if necessary. You need to rest. Aside from your injuries you were suffering from shock." "Oh, that's what that was!" grinned B'Elanna with a teasing look at Tom. "If that was shock, I'd like to try it again. Maybe after dinner to morrow?" Tom looked at her with real sincerity in his eyes. "Lets just start with dinner and see what happens, ok?" "I'm willing to wait as long as it takes, B'Elanna." he smiled at her as her eyelids slowly crept downwards and with a soft sigh she let herself fall asleep with her hand in his.