Title: The Deltabury Shipping Lanes, episode 1
Author: Amiroq. the KiTfox
Email: fitchett@netaccess.co.nz
Size: 8K
Rating: PG for implied sexual situations
Codes: H

Summary: It's time for a different view of the Voyager... Inspired by daytime soaps I watched all holidays, especially in the week when the rest of my siblings - the ones I talk to at least - were off at school and I wasn't. Bittersweet blessings...



Shot of stars going past. VO begins.

"Somewhere, far far away, in a different time and place; a lone ship warps through the endless stars.... Its mission: to get home. Somehow. Someday.

"But in the meantime, the USS Voyager will encounter many strange, bizarre, and just outright weird things. Just one of the millions to come is on its way... right now."

Voyager moves on screen, and we zoom in to see:

"This is the last straw, Eugene! I've had it with you," sobs Biancabella. "I put up with you when you got drunk and started a bar fight; I waited when you got put in the Brig; this time, this time..." She breaks into a new lot of tears, and Eugene tries to put an arm around her, giving up when she shakes him off.

"Hey, babe, I'm sorry," he says.

"And don't you call me 'babe'! It's over, Eugene! Just get out!" She shoves him out of the door, ignoring him when he loses his balance and falls against the opposite wall, and locks the door. "Will I ever find the right man?" she sighs.


THEME MUSIC.

DELTABURY SHIPPING LANE; STARRING...

Captain Janeway as Katie
Commander Chakotay as Chaz
Lieutenant Tuvok as Russell
Lieutenant Torres as Biancabella
Ensign Paris as Eugene
Ensign Kim as Harris
The Doctor as Doctor Ya Who
Kes as Kassandra
Neelix as Neil
Seven of Nine as Annika

PLUS SPECIAL GUEST STAR...

The Computer as The Computer


Kassandra and Chaz are walking down the corridor, chatting amiably as they approach the holodeck on Deck 6. "Yes, I know," Kassandra says, "but still, I think if we asked Bianca to help us we could get it done quicker. You should know more than anyone else how good she is at Engineering."

"Maybe," he answers doubtfully. "Computer, activate Sandrine's."

"That program is already in use."

"Eugene," Chaz decides. He is dark-haired and tall, with a totally plutonically handsome tan and some thin lines on his forehead: a tattoo. "Come on, maybe he has those rations he owes you."

They walk into the holodeck, and see Eugene shooting pool by himself, a glass of dark amber liquid sitting on the edge of the table. "Eugene?" Kassandra asks. He looks up.

"Kassandra. You look good," he says. She frowns. He's drunk.

Chaz looks even more unhappy. "You're drunk, Eugene. You know what the Constable will do if she finds out."

"I don't give a f*ck," he declares. "Katie can go round the corner and-"

"Eugene, stop this!" Kassandra demands, picking up his drink and tipping it into the sink. She stops him before he can protest. "I want to know what happened. Now."

He sinks into a chair, leaning his cue on the pool table. "I don't want to talk about it, 'Sandra. Just leave me alone. Please."

"I can't do that, Eugene. You know that." Her voice is softer; there's something wrong. "Is it Biancabella? Did you have a fight?"

He snorts. "I wish it were as easy as that. She dumped me."

The look on Kassandra's face is classic.


In a dark, shadowed room, someone is leaning over a console. There's just enough light to see that he or she is wearing a uniform, but we can't see what colour. The figure whispers, more to the viewers than itself, "You're going to wish you never crossed me, Harris. Yes, you are. Just you wait and see."

We zoom in to the screen, which reads, 'Keep out of my way, Harris, or you will regret it. I think you know what a machete can do...'

"Computer," murmurs the shadowy villian, "download message to a PADD."


"This is odd," a voice informs us. We are looking at some piles of PADDS and things, and the camera is sweerping through the sickbay until we see...

Doctor Who is leaning over his desk console, frowning. "This is *very* odd. I have to speak to Chaz and Bella right away!" He quickly downloads some data into a PADD and exits, leaving the console on accidentally. We zoom in to find a flashing message across the screen: "DNA comparison results: positive match."


We're in another set of quarters: similar to Bianca's, but different. More masculine somehow. A shower is going in the background; the camera pans toward the main door. A light flashes as the chime goes. "Coming!" a voice yells from the bathroom. After a moment, Harris comes out wrapped in a white flannel bathrobe, hair wet from the shower. He walks to the door and presses the button to open it.

There is no one there. He looks one way, then the other, then frowns. As he is about to pass it off as a prank and go back to his shower, he notices a PADD on the ground.

As he reads it, his face forms a shocked expression.


ROLL CREDITS