Title: Absumption 2/5
Author: The Emu
Email: emu@zip.com.au
Size: 21K
Rating: R
Codes: Au of 'Timeless', A; J/P
Summary: 'Timeless' could have been worse. Someone might
have survived.

	=/\=

Tuvok was scanning the patients when they returned, but it
was clear there was no change. Vorik was lying on his back,
hands steepled in a healing trance. Tom was out cold on a
pile of grey carpet by the fire.

"How long?"

"Lieutenant Paris has been asleep for 72 minutes. I
persuaded him to take a mild sedative."

"Good. Any sign of Dalby and Delaney?"

"They have not yet returned."

Janeway piled the clothes they'd collected on top of a table
near the sickbeds. "I don't want to leave until we've had time
to catch up with those two. How's the food situation?"

"There is adequate food stored here for the near future, and I
imagine that the stock in the hydroponics bay can be
maintained. The snow outside is composed of pure water, so
that will not be a problem."

"First good news I've heard."

"I'm glad someone has some." Dalby trudged in, Delaney
close behind. "There's no one left." The pair of them flopped
into the first chairs they found.

Janeway looked over the group. Everyone was exhausted.
They all needed to rest and regroup before they moved on.
"There's nothing more we can do today. We need to compile
our crew lists and then we rouse Tom and Vorik and
organise a plan of action for tomorrow over a proper meal."

Harrison cleared his throat. "I'm a passable cook, Captain. I
could organise a hot dinner from the fresh supplies while you
sort through the names."

"Good work."

The remaining four gathered around a table and began to
trade the names of the dead. Janeway uploaded the names
on Delaney's PADD to her own, plus eight officers present.
That left sixty two people who still hadn't been accounted for.

"We need to try to remember who we've seen while we've
been moving about the ship. Has anyone seen Chell?"

Silence.

Janeway hit 'unconfirmed'. "Jerron... we saw. Rollins?"

"Dead."

"Golwat?"

"I haven't seen her, but I know she was in Engineering."

Janeway listed her as dead. "Tabor?"

"Dead."

"Nicoletti"

"Dead."

"T'Rahn."

"Dead."

"Sam Wildman?"

No answer.

"Naomi?"

There was a long silence, and Janeway was just about to hit
'unconfirmed' when there was a soft "Dead," from Dalby.
Her finger lingered for a moment, and then pressed
'confirmed'.

"Bridge crew... Seven, Ayalla, Jarvin, confirmed, confirmed,
confirmed."

Ensign Harry Kim.

Delaney leaned forward to see why she'd paused. "Do you
think they made it?"

"I don't know."

"Risk analyses indicated a 15% likelihood that the Delta Flyer
would complete its journey if Voyager was knocked out of
the slipstream. The odds are against them."

Janeway's lips thinned. "I'll choose to believe that they made
it."

"Claiming they survived will not make it so."

She glared at him, a hundred retorts flooding through her
mind. And then she marked them as alive and moved on with
the list.

For an hour they sifted through names, itemising their
colleagues, until they'd exhausted their memories. Finally,
Janeway rested back in her chair, watching the names scroll
through her PADD. "Tom should be able to clarify a few
more names."

"Captain?" Harrison leaned over the counter. "If someone
can lend me a hand, dinner will be ready in a few minutes."

"I'll go." Jenny pushed her chair back and disappeared into
the kitchen.

"Tuvok-"

"I will rouse Vorik and assess our patients."

Janeway left Dalby to clear the table and crossed to crouch
beside the sleeping pilot. "Tom." She shook his shoulder, but
he didn't stir, so she pressed a counter-sedative into a
hypospray and put it to his neck.

She shook his shoulder again. After a long moment his eyes
fluttered and he groaned slightly, shifting. "Captain?"

"Dinner's almost ready."

He nodded, and she dropped her hand as he pushed himself
onto his elbows. "Did you find anyone?"

"No. Take a minute if you need it."


Dinner was a thick stew and bread. Janeway let everyone
settle into the meal for a few minutes before she brought the
meeting to order. "We need to set an agenda for tomorrow."

Tom slid into the seat next to her, fresh from checking the
patients. "We need to get the Doctor online. I can keep those
two stable for a few more days at most."

"Understood. Delaney, did you find those extra powercells?"

"There are four undamaged units, but we'll need to clear
some corridors before we can get them through."

"That's our first priority in the morning. Congratulations,
Vorik. You're our new Chief Engineer."

"I will endeavour to fulfill the role to your satisfaction."

"Get the Doctor online and I'll be satisfied. How are you
doing, Tuvok?"

"I will be perfectly capable of fulfilling my duties tomorrow."

"Excellent. You're going to lead Dalby and Delaney to
retrieve the powercells, then I want you to take Delaney and
get the environmental controls online. Dalby, when you've got
a cell to sickbay, you're to assist Vorik. Harrison, you'll stay
here to see about organising our food supply and play nurse.
Tom, you're with me. We need to find out what state the
shuttles are in. We might even be able to resurrect the comm
system through a shuttle, so I want you all to make sure you
keep your badges with you. Is there anything else?"

Vorik spoke up from his bed. "Should we organise a distress
beacon?"

"Yes, but that's a low priority. Survival is our first. Any more
questions?" She barely paused. "If we're finished, then I
suggest we get some sleep. I'm setting the tricorder to wake
us six hours from now. Make the most of it."

They made mattresses from the sheets of carpet, and
someone fetched sleeping bags from a nearby storage room.
As the temperature dropped further, they decided it would be
best for the humans to sleep in pairs to conserve heat. Tuvok
and Vorik declined; the control required to counteract the
touch telepathy would have overridden any benefits.

So Janeway found herself set to share a bed with Tom Paris,
while Dalby and Harrison curled up either side of Delaney.
Janeway would have preferred to sleep with Jenny for
appearances' sake, at least, but their two slight bodies would
have had little heat to preserve. And at this point,
appearances seemed to be of little consequence.

So they slid into their shared sleeping bags in their dirty
uniforms. Tom did one last scan of the patients and then
turned off the lights, finding his way to her bed by the glow of
the embers. He felt his way cautiously into the sleeping bag,
no doubt wary of brushing something he shouldn't.

For a few minutes they shifted, trying to find a way to settle
without too much bodily contact, and then Janeway sighed
into the air. Sharing body heat was the whole point. She felt
across until her hand brushed Tom's chest. He was on his
side, facing her. Without thinking too much, she rolled over to
put her back against his chest. Reassured, he settled a hand
across her ribs to pull her closer.

His knees rested in the backs of hers, the weight of his arm
immobilising her in the curve of his body. She wriggled, trying
to find a more comfortable angle for her shoulder, and his
arm lifted, waiting until she settled before curling around her
again.

Janeway lay perfectly still, listening to the periodic rustling in
the other bed.

A few minutes later it was Tom's turn to shift. He moved
back, stealing away their pooled heat, and she instinctively
shuffled back into it. He shifted again, and she felt an
erection prod her tailbone. They both froze.

She took a long breath, and then moved back against him and
laid a hand on his hip, stilling him. When he finally curled
closer, she placed her hand over his and they faded into
sleep.

	=/\=

The beeping of the tricorder woke everyone. There was the
unmistakable groaning and muttering of interrupted sleep
from the other beds, and from under her head. Janeway was
lying across Tom with her head on his chest.

She reached out of the sleeping bag to turn off the tricorder
and cursed. The air was icy, dangerously cold even through
her jacket sleeve. She picked up the phaser, glad she'd left it
within reach, and aimed the beam at the fire. "Take a few
minutes, everyone. I want this room heated before we get out
of bed."

She pulled her arm back into the sleeping bag, shivering
already. Tom wrapped his arms around her, passing her his
warmth.

Ten minutes crept by before Janeway pulled away. It was
still cold, but not unbearably so, and there was too much to
do. She climbed out of bed, quickly followed by Harrison.

"I prepared some porridge yesterday. It should only take a
few minutes to heat."

Janeway nodded, teeth already chattering. "Not my favourite
way to start a day, but it's a good choice. We're going to
need whatever it takes to get warm this morning."

	=/\=

Janeway dropped through the hole, and turned to catch the
equipment Tom threw down before following himself.

She shone her wristlight up the dark corridor; even the
emergency lighting had given up far behind them. "There isn't
much damage here. It seems the front of the ship took the
worst of the crash."

"That's not much good to us. We can hardly get half the ship
off the ground."

She pulled her pack back onto her shoulders and started
walking. "Maybe not, but if the shuttlecraft are intact we may
be able to find a better planet to settle on."

Their lights bobbed strangely in the abandoned corridor,
making everything freshly strange. Yesterday morning they
might have walked this same carpet while discussing the
latest mining mission or bantering about Academy escapades.

"I never thought I'd hear you say that."

It took her a moment to remember what he was talking
about. "I never thought I'd find myself hiking through
Voyager's frozen remains."

They let the conversation lapse, until they reached the
shuttlebay doors. Janeway slapped a manual release on and
heaved, but the frozen door wouldn't budge. Tom added his
own release, and with their combined weight swinging on the
door they managed to crack it open.

Janeway let go, shaking her arm, and paused. "Is that a
draught?"

Tom peered through the crack, and his eyes widened. "It's
snowing."

They levered the doors open, and stood in wonder. There
was a thick white carpet where the shuttlebay used to be,
and a wide grey sky above them. Janeway took a few steps
out, marvelling as she sank to her knees.

"Don't go too far, Captain. We don't have the resources to
treat pneumonia."

She took a deep breath from the frigid air, feeling it tingle in
her throat and lungs. She looked around and back at him,
where he hovered cautiously on the door ledge. "Where are
the nacelles?"

He leaned out, swinging from the door jamb, and then gave
up and waded out to join her.

"My, god."

There were a few shreds of metal in view from the port
nacelle mooring, silver ribbons like stars from warp. To the
left there was nothing but sky.

"I guess all that cross training in sickbay was fortuitous. I
won't be piloting again."

Janeway pulled out her tricorder and scanned the trail
Voyager had left. "There's a lot of debris that way, but too
much interference to be sure if any of it is intact. Either way
it's no good to us now. We'll have to come back with
environmental suits and time to spare." She wrapped her
arms around herself, shuddering, as the cold penetrated. "We
may as well be getting back."

Tom gave her a hand up into the ship, and shoved the door
closed against the wind.

	=/\=

The fire was still crackling when they returned. They dumped
their packs by the pile of supplies at the door and Janeway
headed to the table where Delaney was sitting quietly with
Harrison, peeling off her outer jacket as she went. "I take it
the environmental controls are still offline."

"Commander Tuvok spent hours repairing circuits one by one,
but it's not going to do any good. The base junction is
destroyed."

"It's not retrievable?"

Delaney shook her head. "The wall from the deck below was
pushed up through the back wall of Environmental Controls.
The base junction has been sheared away. Tuvok said there
was nothing salvageable."

Tom was already tending to his patients, rifling through the
medical supplies, but he paused at Delaney's tone. "Where is
he?"

She looked at Harrison, and then to Janeway. "He collapsed.
There was nothing I could do."

Janeway ran her hand over her mouth. Now there were six.

Something clattered in the medical bay corner. "Why didn't
you fetch me?"

Delaney returned her gaze to the table. "He was dead, Tom.
A cranial haemorrhage."

"But I thought I-"

"You told me yesterday that you'd done all you could,"
Janeway interrupted. "You admitted he needed the Doctor.
We've got better things to do than sit around claiming blame."
She turned to Harrison, who was heading towards the
kitchen. "Any word from Vorik?"

"Dalby dropped in an hour and a half ago to pick up lunch.
He said they were having some problems. A lot of the
circuits burnt out, and Vorik said he'll have to repair them all
to be sure to retrieve the Doctor intact." He began to pull out
plates. "Did you reach the shuttlebay?"

"What's left of it. The rear of the ship has been ripped clean
away."

Harrison shook his head, barely even registering surprise.
"Chicken or tomato soup?"

Approaching footsteps pulled their attention to the door just
before Dalby stuck his head in. "Oh, good, you're back.
Captain, we have a problem."

Janeway felt her eyebrows crawl upwards.

"Another one. The cold is starting to creep into the ship's
systems and the gel packs are going to freeze. If we don't get
the Doctor out soon, we won't be able to retrieve him at all."

"How long?"

"Vorik said thirty six hours. Forty eight at best. We could use
a couple of pairs of hands."

"Delaney, Harrison-"

"We're on our way, Captain." They pulled on an extra layer
of clothing and followed Dalby out.

"Looks like you're babysitting again, Mr Paris. You should get
some rest. I'm going to have another look around
Environmental Controls, see if I can't find a way around the
problems."

"What are we going to do if they can't be fixed?"

Janeway put her hands on her hips. "You're the historical
expert.