Chapter 16. Amazing Little Shuttles

"Doctorr," Merrrshika began, entering sickbay with a determined step.

"Yes, Merrrshika, is everything alright?" he worried.

"Actually, no," she retorted in a bad mood. "I jusht shlept shixhteen hourrs in a rrow. Perrfectly averrage forr a Mirrresh, but thish does not fit at all in a crrew mainly composed of humans. I was wonderring if you could do anything."

The Doctor silently considered a moment the different options offered to him.

"I can try and design a metabolite that will change your internal clock, but you would need an injection every twenty hours or so. I cannot alter your diel cycles definitely."

"Doctorr, I don't carre about having an injection each 'day'. Actually, that would be even betterr; I could shtop the injections when I need to shtay awake longerr…"

"That wouldn't be advisable," the Doctor began. "Changing your metabolism back and forth could…"

Merrrshika smiled predatorily and cut off his recommendations. "Thank you, Doctorr. Call me when you need to tesht that metabolite."

And she exited the sickbay with the same purposeful step.

ooooo

"Captain."

Everyone on the bridge turned around to look at her with an intrigued air, which made her realize she might have been a bit too commandeering.

"Yes?" Janeway said.

"I would like to shpeak with you. Prrivately, please."

"Alright," Kathryn replied, getting up a little worriedly, "let's go to my ready room."

They entered and Janeway offered something to drink, but Merrrshika declined and started pacing back and forth. Kathryn sipped on her black coffee while waiting for Merrrshika to work up the nerve to explain what bothered her.

Suddenly, Merrrshika paused and looked at the captain uncertainly. "Have you everr felt attrracted to Chakotay?" she asked out of the blue.

Kathryn nearly choked on her mouthful of coffee. When she was done coughing, she considered her answer carefully.

"I was never given the chance to explore whatever attraction there might have been between us. We are good friends, but I am the captain on this ship, so it will never be more than that."

"Alrright," Merrrshika said, resuming her pacing, "but let'sh shuppose you would have been attrracted to him, rright frrom the starrt, beforre you even dechided to make him yourr firrsht officherr. Would you have named him firrsht officherr, overr each otherr Shtarrfleet officherr on thish ship, if you had been attrracted to him? Would you have done it, even if you knew he deserrved it?"

Kathryn swirled the coffee in her cup a moment, considering her answer.

"Probably not," she admitted.

Merrrshika sighed and sat down.

"Well, that'sh exactly what I'm about to do with Harry. I need yourr adviche, Captain, I don't know what to do."

Kathryn moved closer to Merrrshika and put a motherly hand on her knee.

"Tell me a little more. What are you trying to decide? Which pilot will be the leader of the organic shuttle team?"

"I'm trrying to dechide who will be the main pilot forr each shuttle. Harry is the besht with Zeta. Well, I shincherely believe he is," she quickly amended, "even though Tuvok might be betterr, but I don't want to shee it, because Harry is giving me shuch a good imprresshion, and I can't shee what'sh good in Tuvok, because I dirrect all my team telepathic abilities at Harry without notiching it, and maybe I'm about to make a mishtake, and maybe if the otherrs think that Tuvok is betterr they will accuse me of having a conflict of interresht and they could…"

"Calm down," Janeway interrupted her. "You think your telepathic abilities are tricking you?

Merrrshika glanced at her with a guilty look.

"No, I don't think they arre, but I'm afrraid it could happen. It'sh harrd to exhplain to non-telepathsh, but I'm beginning to… feel Harry, his opinions and perrcheptions. I don't hearr the otherrs as clearrly as Harry, not even Tuvok who is a telepath. I fearr that each time I feel shome good in Harry, I missh shomething I could shee in the otherrs."

"I think I see what you mean. If you were not… attracted to Harry, you would simply name him Zeta's main pilot without worrying so much about a hypothetical mistake you could make."

She nodded, grateful for the captain's understanding.

"It wouldn't matterr because everrybody, including me, could be surre I did it in good will."

"Maybe I can give you some insight. Try explaining to me what are the good and the bad points of Tuvok and Harry."

Merrrshika complied, exposing the strengths and weaknesses of each pilot, trying to be objective and to omit nothing. She even used the holographic recordings to illustrate the most important points.

"Tuvok'sh worrsht fault is to neverr shtop moving his head," Merrrshika summed up. "It'sh getting on the shuttle's nerrves on the long terrm. Harry's main weaknessh is the rrigidity of his hips. Both arre typical of unexhperrienched rriderrs, and I have to shay on Tuvok'sh behalf that he was the firrsht to run the tesht, and he did sho while the otherrs watched him. But shtill, Harry is technically superriorr, and is morre shpontaneoush in what he prrojectsh, which can be easierr forr a shuttle to underrshtand. Howeverr, Tuvok'sh shelf-contrrol and clarrity could be comforrting forr a frrightful shuttle. I really don't know, Captain."

"I can see your dilemma."

"I think…" Merrrshika hesitated. "To be perrfectly honesht, I have to add shomething elshe on Harry's shide." She paused, wriggling her hands.

"Let's hear it," the captain encouraged her.

"It'sh the way he actsh with me. He's always thoughtful and niche and always shays the rright thing. He's a gentle perrshon and I think that'sh the kind of pilot Zeta needs. Tuvok is niche too, but the telepathic feeling I get frrom him is morre like a shenshe of duty than jusht the verry tendenchy of his hearrt."

Kathryn smiled kindly.

"I think you already made up your mind. And you chose well, if Zeta really needs a thoughtful rider."

Merrrshika lifted her eyes and asked, only half convinced, "Yesh, but would it be rright to favorr Harry, in thish shituation?"

"Well, the captain approved, didn't she?"

The two women exchanged a smile.

ooooo

"Thank you, Doctorr," Merrrshika slurred.

She touched her throat, where the hypospray had vaporised under her skin the metabolite designed to influence her diel cycles. Lulled into carelessness by the absence of pain of the injection, she threw her legs off the bed and instantly felt dizzy.

"Take it easy," the Doctor warned her, "the metabolite might make you feel a little dizzy for the first days. Human days, I mean."

"Oh," Merrrshika whined, "and I'm shupposed to have that lasht warrp flight today, beforre we leave orrbit of the planet."

"I would not recommend it," the Doctor objected diplomatically.

"Well, I'll trry a holodeck shimulation firrsht to shee if I can handle it," Merrrshika said resignedly.

Said simulation confirmed that she could not, in fact, handle a warp flight, because a simple turn almost made her throw up. She was definitely not up to a fight with Epsilon. Making her way to the bridge, she informed Chakotay that she had to cancel the test flight and apologized to Janeway who had had to pull a few strings to get a flight window. She also asked the first officer to be relieved of duty for the day.

She had learned, since she was on board, that the humans' skin paled and became greenish when they felt sick to their stomach. The Mirrresh's fur did not change colour, but their tails tended to move in chaotic moves. Because the Mirrresh usually checked their balance with their tails, its erratic moves mirrored their impaired sense of balance when they experienced dizziness. Even not knowing the finer details of Mirrresh physiology, Chakotay willingly relieved her of duty when he saw how she swayed on her feet.

She spent the morning slouched in a chair, unable to either lie down or stand up. However, her condition improved notably over the afternoon, so she got up, drank her fill of water and ate a little.

Even though she felt out of sorts for three human days, she went back on duty the second day. She merely avoided holodeck acrobatics and was not up to her usual standards of lightning-quick programming. The morning of the fourth day, however, she was back on her paws and ready for some piloting action.

Her pilots had trained intensively during her indisposition, and proudly showed her the holo-recordings of the progress they had accomplished in her absence. To speed up the training, Chakotay assigned the pilots exclusively to training. They spent half their time in holodeck simulations and, the other half of the time, they discussed evasive and offensive manoeuvres, often seconded by Paris and Janeway. Sometimes, the acrobatics suggested by Voyager's pilot were impossible to execute for the organic shuttles, because of fundamental differences in design. However, the organic shuttles could execute surprisingly angled turns by turning and sliding sideways a little, which would be unthinkable for a mechanical vessel unequipped with propulsion capabilities on the entire hull. The shuttles could also modulate the intensity of their shield along the hull to modify the resistance against space, so they could make more abrupt turns or pass more closely to obstacles or ships.

Hearing this unexpected capability, Paris asked, "Couldn't you use that to disable a conventional shield?"

There was a moment of silence while everybody exchanged a look. Then they all started talking at the same time, about how to invert phase, impulsion or intensity of the shuttle's shield to destroy the forcefield of a mechanical vessel upon contact.

After long enthusiastic discussions, they established an attack plan and made their way to holodeck too. They abducted B'Elanna on the way, mercilessly seized the holodeck from the two crewmen sunbathing on a beautiful beach, and proceeded to program the specifications for a confrontation between Zeta and a hirogen vessel.

Before launching the program, the pilots strapped themselves down in their usual seats and B'Elanna and Tom sat in two supplementary seats that had been added to Zeta's usual design. Merrrshika activated the holo diffusion which projected her up in the cockpit behind her, and they started the simulation.

ooooo

"Captain!" B'Elanna exclaimed, bursting unto the bridge, followed by the four pilots, Merrrshika and Tom.

"Seven, you won't believe it!" Merrrshika added.

"It's great, Captain," Murphy compounded.

Before anybody had time to add anything, confusing even more the reason of their enthusiasm, Janeway lifted her hands to stop them.

"Would you mind explaining what's going on?"

They all started at the same time, and stopped immediately. Then Merrrshika gestured Tom to expose his idea and its results to the captain.

"I'll keep it short. One of these little shuttles down there in cargo bay one, can disable our shield in one touch."

Everyone shut up on the bridge, the consoles stopped emitting beeps indicating data entry, and everybody turned around to look at them. Chakotay and Seven hovered closer.

"How?" Chakotay asked.

"The shuttles can modulate the intensity of the shields to be variable along the hull, and even be offline at one place and full at the other," Merrrshika explained. "So, if a shuttle comes touching a phase-based shield with its forward shield at maximum and the bottom onffline, it creates a pulse distortion in the forcefield that shuts it down. It might even burn some relays and controllers in the mechanic vessel. The shield would be offline until the matrix is reset."

"As unlikely as it first appears, this has fair chances of success," Tuvok assented. "A few minutes ago, we ran a simulation with a Hirogen ship we fought against last month. We were able to shut the shield down for six seconds."

"I think what is customary to say under such circumstances is 'wow'," Seven of Nine said with all her customary seriousness.