Title:  Hell Shuttle
Author: Shayney
Email: ShayneyL@aol.com
Size: 18K
Rating: PG
Codes: F; P, K
Summary: This is my answer to the "Halloween" challenge (story
must involve a ghost, blood, and chocolate).  

The "rituals" mentioned in passing in this story are
completely fictional.  It's just a story, and not a very
serious one.  Nothing practitioners of the Craft would
ever do!

Any resemblance to other haunted shuttlecraft stories is
strictly coincidence.  ;-)  

Mild spoilers through "Innocence."

===================

HELL SHUTTLE

by Shayney


     "Mr. Paris, I do not understand your reluctance
to accept the shuttlecraft you have been assigned."

     Tom squirmed under Tuvok's implacable gaze,
and tried to come up with an excuse a Vulcan would
find acceptable.  "It's just that I'm more used to flying a
Class 3 shuttle...."

     Tuvok raised an eyebrow.  "You are saying that
your skills are inadequate?"

     "No!"  Tom sighed heavily.  "Look, the truth
is..."  He hesitated, knowing how it was going to
sound, then spit it out.  "The =Magellan= is haunted."

     Tuvok's eyebrows rocketed upward. 
"*Haunted*, Mr. Paris?"

     "Tuvok, no one in the crew wants to get
anywhere near that shuttle.  It has a reputation."

     "Explain."

     "It's *jinxed*.  Missions always go wrong in that
shuttle.  And...there are strange sounds.  Things move
on their own.  Lights go on and off by themselves. 
Harry and B'Elanna have put it through complete
diagnostics again and again, and everything checks
out...but the weird things keep happening."

     "I have flown the =Magellan= myself, and
encountered no unusual phenomena."

     "But Ensign Bennet died," Tom couldn't help
pointing out.

     That didn't go over well.  "Mr. Paris, there is no
evidence suggesting that Ensign Bennet's death on the
=Magellan= was anything other than unfortunate
coincidence.  The atmospheric interference around the
Drayan moon was to blame, not a 'jinx.'"

     "That's not what Deirdre Cormick thinks."

     "Ensign Cormick was close to Ensign Bennet. 
She is distraught over his death, and is not thinking
rationally."

     "Look, Tuvok, would it kill you to let us take
another shuttle instead?  For Cormick's sake?"

     Tuvok paused, considering that.  Finally, he said,
"=Voyager='s shuttlecraft are rotated according to a
pre-planned schedule.  To deviate from this for no
other reason than crew hysteria is illogical.  Besides, no
other shuttlecraft are currently in serviceable condition. 
I regret causing Ensign Cormick distress, but perhaps a
mission on this vessel will help her recover from her
irrational fears."

     "All right," Tom said, giving up.  "The
=Magellan= it is.  Just keep those pointed ears up, in
case we need bailing out."  

     Dismissed by Tuvok, he went down to the
shuttle bay.  It would be all right, he told himself.  Just
a routine asteroid scanning mission, close enough to 
=Voyager= that they could be quickly rescued should
anything go wrong.  Nothing to worry about.... 

     When he reached the shuttle bay, he was
surprised to find Harry Kim waiting for him.  "What
are you doing here?" 

     "Taking over for Ensign Cormick," Harry said. 
"She's feeling a little under the weather."

     "Really?"  Tom asked.

     "No," Harry admitted.  "She didn't want to get
into the jinxed shuttle.  And neither did Ayala, who was
next on the list.  Which left me."

     "You're not afraid?" Tom asked.

     Harry seemed totally unconcerned.  "I'm not
superstitious."  

     Yes, well, Tom hadn't been either, when he was
twenty-three.  But he was very glad to have Harry Kim
as a companion on this run.  Tom had a feeling
Cormick would have been too nervous to get much
done.  And Ayala hated him.  Harry, on the other hand,
was his best friend.

     They got into the shuttle, Tom in the pilot's seat,
Harry at co-pilot, and began the pre-flight checks.  The
bay doors opened, Ops cleared them, and they launched
without a hitch.

     "So, what about you?" Harry asked, once they
were clear of =Voyager=.

     "Huh?"

     "Are you afraid?"

     "Not afraid, but a little..nervous," Tom answered
honestly.  "I know it's not logical, but anyone who's
been spacing for any length of time will tell you...some
ships are just bad luck.  It's been that way ever since the
days of masted sailing ships."

     "Well, so far...."  Harry broke off as a series of
loud thumps sounded from the back of the shuttle, as if
they'd hit something.  They looked at each other,
startled.

     "Now I'm afraid," Tom said.

     Harry began scanning.  "Nothing," he said,
puzzled.  "Must be a malfunction." He got out a
tricorder, and found nothing with that, either.  "I'll go
have a look.  Watch my console."  He got up and went
aft, tricorder in hand.

     More thumps, louder.  "Harry?" Tom called
anxiously.

     "I don't see anything," Harry called back.  "The
noise is so loud the deck is vibrating, but there's no sign
of what's causing it."  The banging stopped, and Harry
came forward again.  "Can the shuttle's sensors and this
tricorder both be on the fritz?"

      "This thing has been jinxed since the day we
started constructing it," Tom said uneasily. 
"Remember?  Parts and tools kept going missing, there
were all kinds of freak accidents and injuries.  We used
to joke that it was possessed by demons."

     "That's what Deirdre Cormick thinks," Harry
said, still fiddling with the tricorder.  

     "Seriously?"

     "Yeah.  She came to warn me this morning,
when she found out I'd be going in her place."  

     Cormick hadn't tried to warn *him*.  But it
figured.  Everyone liked Harry, while Tom was still
"that damned traitor" to many of the crew, both
Starfleet and Maquis.  

     Harry gave up, putting down the tricorder.  "She
and some of her friends had some kind of seance or
something, here in this vessel."  

     "A seance?  One of those parties where you try to
talk to dead people?"  

     Harry nodded.  "They're into the occult.  They
wanted to try and contact Bennet."

     "Did they succeed?"

     "Yes, according to her.  She said...it's ridiculous,
but...she said Bennet warned them that this ship was
possessed by a demon."  

     "She really believes that?"  

     Harry's answer was cut off as the lights went out. 
"Damn!" Tom cursed.  
     
     Harry's eyes were wide in the dim emergency
lighting.  "I just checked all systems yesterday.  This
shouldn't be happening."  

     The pounding started up from the back of the
shuttle again, making  Tom's skin crawl.  "Bennet? 
That you?"  It was a feeble joke.

     The lights came on again.  Harry shivered.

     "Scared?" Tom teased.

     "No, I'm cold," Harry replied.

     It *was* cold.  "Computer, temperature?"

     "Twenty-five Celsius," the computer replied. 
Normal room temperature.  But it felt much, much
colder than that.

     "Raise temperature five degrees," Tom said.  

     "Acknowledged."

     "Harry, what else did Cormick tell you?" Tom
asked.

     "She said Bennet asked her to destroy this
shuttle."

     "What?!"

     "I don't think she's going to do it," Harry added
quickly.  "But...during the seance, Bennet told her he
was trapped here.  By the demon.  His soul can't go free
until the demon is destroyed.  And the only way to do
that is to destroy the shuttle." 
          
     Tom's first impulse was to scoff, but sitting there
in the dark, freezing, he didn't find the story as silly as
he might have otherwise.  "Do you believe any of it?"
he asked.

     "No," Harry said firmly.  "She's a grieving
woman with unusual religious beliefs, that's all."

     The pounding started up again, making both of
them jump.  Then the lights came on again.  But it was
still freezing.

     "Computer, temperature?" Tom asked.

     "Thirty Celsius."

     That was positively toasty, but he and Harry were
still shivering.  

     "That can't be right," Harry said.  He reached for
his tricorder  --  and gasped.  It was floating in midair,
as if held by someone invisible.  Tom gaped stupidly,
unable to believe his eyes.  

     Ever the technician, Harry immediately checked
his readouts.  "Artificial gravity is functioning
normally."

     Heart thudding, Tom reached out slowly toward
the levitating tricorder.  It was icy cold.  As soon as he
touched it, it fell to the deck.

     Harry stared at it as if it were a venomous snake. 
"There has to be an explanation," he said.  "Some kind
of malfunction.  An alien energy we can't detect."

     "Either way, I think we should call this mission
off," Tom said.  He turned to plot a course back to
=Voyager=...and the lights went out again.  This time,
the console went dead as well.  "Call the ship," he told
Harry.

     Thankfully, the comm was still working.  "Kim
to =Voyager=."

     "Tuvok here."

     "The jinx strikes again," Tom couldn't resist
saying.  "You're going to have to come pick us up."

     "We've suffered some technical difficulties,"
Harry explained.  "Systems are working only
intermittently.  Currently, we have no engine power."

     There was a pause.  "Are you in immediate
danger, Ensign?"

     Harry looked at Tom.  "We're being pulled
toward a type-H star, but it will be several hours before
we'll be in any real trouble," Tom reported.

     "Life support is functioning, except for the
temperature.  We should be fine for a few hours,"
Harry said.

     "We'll be in range in forty minutes," Tuvok said.

     "Acknowledged," Harry said, and cut the
connection.

     Tom got up and opened the emergency supply
bin overhead, fishing out a couple of blankets.  He gave
one to Harry and wrapped the other around himself.  
          
     "What are we going to do for forty minutes?"
Harry asked.  

     "We could always talk to the ghost," Tom
suggested, only half-joking.  

     "I don't speak ghost," Harry replied.  

     "How did Cormick and her friends do it?"

     "They had a ouija board, I think.  Oh, and she
said Bennet answered yes-no questions by...rapping. 
Once for no, twice for yes."

     "Hear that, Bennet?" Tom called.  "Once for no,
twice for yes.  Are you here?"

     Two loud knocks sounded from the back of the
shuttle.  "A coincidence," Harry said weakly.

     Tom decided to test it.  "Am I taller than Harry?" 
Two knocks.  "Am I younger than Harry?"  One knock. 
"Am I better-looking than Harry?"  One knock.  "A
ghost with no taste, obviously," he joked.

     Harry wasn't laughing.  "There has to be an
explanation," he repeated.  

     "Yeah, how could anyone, dead or alive, think
you're better-looking that me?"

     "You know what I meant," Harry said, glaring.

     Tom turned his attention back to the ghost.  "Do
you love Deirdre Cormick?"  Two knocks.  

     "Is what you told her true?  Should we destroy
this shuttle?"  Two knocks.  And then an alarm
sounded.  

     "There goes life support!" Harry said, turning to
his console. "But there's enough air to last until
=Voyager= gets here."

     Tom slid his chair close to Harry's.  "Do you
think we should do it?" he whispered.  

     "What?"

     "Destroy the shuttle."

     Harry looked shocked.  "You really think it's
possessed?"

     "We've seen so many weird things since we got
to the Delta Quadrant.  Why are you balking
now?"     

     "I'm...keeping an open mind.  But destroying a
shuttle seems awfully...drastic.  We're so low on
resources...."

     "What else do you suggest?"

     "I'll get back to you on that," Harry said, and
began searching through the shuttle's computer
database.  

     Well, at least it would keep him busy.  There was
nothing else to do, except sit in the dark and freeze. 
Tom tried to ask the ghost a few more questions, but
this time, there was no answer.  So they waited, while
Harry combed through the folklore database.

     "There are a lot more ways to conjure a demon
than to get rid of one," Harry reported.  

     "Isn't it always that way."

     Harry continued.  "Demons are apparently partial
to the blood of a virgin, spilled on Samhain.  That's
some kind of holiday in October.  Or the flesh of a
newborn baby, offered during a new moon.  Or the
heart of a --"

     "Please, Harry," Tom said.  "We don't want to
conjure a demon."

     "Unfortunately, all the recipes for getting rid of
one involve ingredients we don't have.  Like holy
water.  Or a live goat."  Harry sighed.  "=Voyager='s
database is larger. Maybe there will be something
there."

     Tom doubted it.

     "=Voyager= to Paris."  Janeway's voice sounded
from the comm, and suddenly the lights came on.  

     "Paris here."

     "Life support and engines are back online,"
Harry reported.  

     "Ready to tractor you in," Janeway said.

     "Hold a minute, Captain," Tom said.  He cut the
connection.  "Harry, it's now or never.  Should we do
it?"  Two loud knocks sounded, and the lights started
flickering.

     Harry looked unnerved, but he said, "No, Tom. 
Look...how about if we just take it apart?  We can use
the parts for the rest of our shuttles."

     "If we do that, they *all* might end up
possessed."  The lights were still going on and off, and
the rapping was reaching ear-shattering levels.  There
was a smell, too -- horrible, like the recycling system
was backing up.  Tom wondered briefly if he would
even be able to destroy the shuttle.  

     In the end, the decision was easy.  Maybe all this
was only coincidence or a computer malfunction or
mass hysteria...but what if it wasn't?  If he was wrong,
they'd only be out one shuttle.  The captain wouldn't be
pleased, but she'd get over it.  

     "Bennet, help me if you can!" he yelled.  The
shuttle shook violently, but systems stayed online.  He
set the warp core to overload, and programmed the
autopilot to fly the shuttle directly into the star ahead. 
"Emergency beamout.  Now!" he called as the thrusters
kicked in.  

     They materialized safely in transporter room two. 
Immediately, a voice came over the intercom. 
"Janeway to Paris and Kim.  I want to see you in my
ready room.  Now."  Harry looked like he'd rather face
the demon. 

     "Look," Harry said as they headed toward the
turbolift.  "We'll tell her it was just another malfunction. 
No one has to know that you--"

     It was tempting, really tempting, but he couldn't
let Harry do that.  "No," he said.  "I don't want you
lying to the captain to save my sorry butt."

     "Tom--"

     "I said no.  Besides, you're a *terrible* liar, Harry
Kim."     

     A short while later, they stood at attention in
front of Janeway's desk.  "It was my decision, Captain,"
Tom said.  "Ensign Kim had nothing to do with it.  In
fact, he tried to talk me out of it."

     Janeway looked at Harry.  Harry looked as if he
wanted to say something, but didn't.  "Very well,"
Janeway said.  "Dismissed, Ensign."  Harry went,
casting an anxious glance at Tom as he left.

     "Care to explain your actions, Lieutenant?"
Janeway asked.

     Tom thought carefully.  Finally, he said, "I know
Lieutenant Tuvok doesn't agree with me, but...that
shuttle was evil.  I destroyed it for the good of the
ship."

     "Lieutenant Paris.  I'm aware of the rumors about
that vessel, but shuttlecraft are inanimate objects.  They
can not be good or evil."

     "I respectfully disagree, ma'am."

     "Vandalizing Starfleet property is a serious
offense, Mr. Paris.  I can't let this go.  And I don't want
a member of my senior staff, fourth in command,
encouraging wild superstition.  You have to set a good
example."

     "Yes, Captain."

     "You'll pay for replacing the shuttle out of your
replicator rations.  And if you ever pull anything like
this again, I'll bust you down so far you'll be saluting
Naomi Wildman.  Got it?"

     "Yes, Captain."

     "Dismissed."

     Tom fled, relieved.  He'd gotten off light.  Getting
rid of the devil shuttle and possibly saving Bennet's
soul was well worth a few rations.  

     Janeway may not have approved, but Tom found
himself something of a hero to the rest of the crew. 
Word had gotten around fast, and several people
congratulated and thanked him as he passed through
the turbolift and corridors on the way to his quarters. 
Including Ayala.  And pretty Ensign Cormick, who was
so grateful she even hugged and kissed him.  He had a
feeling he'd be getting a lot of free drinks at Sandrine's
tonight.
     
     He'd only been in quarters a few minutes when
the door chime sounded.  "Enter," he called.

     It was Harry, bearing gifts.  He put a large bar of
Risan chocolate on the desk in front of Tom.  His
favorite.  "Thanks," Tom said.  "But what's it for?"

     "I figure you won't have any rations for awhile,
and I owe you," Harry said.

     "No, you don't, Harry.  I was in command, I was
the pilot--"

     "I'm not talking about that. I...I think it might be
my fault that shuttle was possessed."  Harry sat on the
couch, looking uncomfortable.  "Assuming you believe
in this stuff, which I'm not sure I do," he added.

     "What?"  Tom said, confused.

     "Remember when we were first building the
=Magellan=?  That day when I cut my hand?"

     "Yeah," Tom said.  "You bled like a stuck pig.  I
was trying to drag you off to Sickbay, but you wanted
to wipe up the blood first.  Even though the way you
were bleeding, you were just making more of a mess..."

     "I checked the date on the injury report," Harry
said.  "The day it happened was October 31 on Earth. 
Samhain."

     Tom stared blankly for a moment, then it clicked. 
//The blood of a virgin on Samhain...//  He looked at
Harry in surprise.  "You mean...?"

     Harry blushed furiously and glared, daring him to
make something of it.  

     Tom laughed.  "Now *that's* scary," he said.



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-- Shayney

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