A/N: I've got a few fun things planned between episodes. After all, we have at least a month of in universe stuff once this episode is done and Timeless' events. Hope you all stick around for the ride.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Crystals

"It's called what?" Fiona eyes widened and she smiled.

Tom laughed at her. "Not it, he. Flotter."

The four members of the away team worked in the back of the Delta Flyer. After spending the previous several hours in space, they now approached a promising Class M planetoid. Tuvok decided that he would take Samantha Wildman down to the surface to investigate a few readings of Benamite, a rare material Seven had theorized could create a quantum slipstream drive.

"Flotter T. Water the Third," Sam clarified with a small chuckle. She pulled on her scanning supplies and holoimager and turned to Fiona and Tom. "I'm sure Lieutenant Paris can explain it while we're on the surface."

Fiona smirked and turned to her mentor. "Oh?"

With a scoff, Tom shrugged and folded his arms. "I may remember a thing or two."

Tuvok interrupted, "We'll return to the Delta Flyer in one hour. Ensign."

Sam and Tuvok moved to the back of the ship. Tom energized the transporter and sent them down to the surface. Fiona waved as they dematerialized. Once they had left, she moved to the front of the Flyer and flopped down at the Ops terminal.

"Sitting there?" Tom asked in surprise.

Fiona smirked back at him. "Well, B'Elanna and Harry have taught me some things. You're not the only one teaching me stuff."

"Fair enough." Tom made sure their orbit was holding steady before kicking back, feet on the seat adjacent to him. When Fiona sent him a skeptical look, he shrugged. "I'm the ranking officer in here right now."

Fiona laughed at his explanation. "Aye, sir." After a moment, smile growing to where she couldn't control it, she finally added in her best impression of Tuvok, "There is a certain...logic...to your statement."

Tom cracked up and nodded. "Not bad. Though I still think Ensign Hickman's interpretation of the Captain is the best impression I've heard in awhile."

"His what!"

Tom cracked a smirk. "You heard what I said."

"The nerve!" She cackled and tapped away at her console, monitoring the ship absentmindedly. With a small shake of her head, she turned her attention back to Tom Paris. "So, Flotter."

Tom's dramatic eye roll didn't deter her enthusiasm, and her interest only increased as he began explaining it. "There's this "Forest of Forever" holodeck program used for kids in the Alpha Quadrant, specifically by humans. Flotter is a water humanoid, and then you meet Treevis, a wooden humanoid. It's silly, a bunch of adventures for children."

"But you used it?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Yeah, my mom got me the program when I was little and would take me to the local Holosuites while my father was away."

After they fell silent for a few moments, Fiona broached the topic again. "What are their names?" Silence met her request, and she looked over the console to see Tom had found something extremely interesting on the panel before him. She sighed, and rambled, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't ask. It's got to be hard being away from them, but I don't remember my parents so-"

"Admiral Owen Paris and Julia Paris," he said to her, stopping her nearly incoherent apology. After a short pause, he turned the question to her. "Did you ever look into your own family?"

Fiona nodded. "Commander Leslie Bishop, my mother, was the commanding officer of the Shenandoah, and my father Max Bishop, was the chief science officer, specializing in Exobiology." She sighed. "Apparently, according to what Seven told me, they were part of a highly classified first test of the Luna class starship. Since it never became a mainstay in the Federation, their loss in the Delta Quadrant must've been mistaken as a failure of the test phase."

"Do you have any family still alive? Extended?" Tom turned back to her, face serious. "I know Myral looked into her family."

With a grimace, Fiona nodded. "She did, and found they were all dead. I on the other hand decided not to check."

Tom smirked, "Too scared you'll find a long lost aunt?"

With a quiet mutter, she nodded. "Something like that." After a few minutes of trying to distract herself with the Ops console, she frowned. Tom had hit the nail on the head with his joke. "What if… I mean if we do get back-"

"We will."

"-then what happens? No one back there, if there is anyone, knows that I'm even alive. I was born here." she threw her arms up. "Hi Aunt Jane, how are you? Remember that sister you thought had died, well she didn't. She had a daughter and now you're my only remaining relative! Love you!"

"Jane?" laughed Tom

"I had to make something up. It was the first thing to come to mind."

With a shrug, he turned to face her. "Listen, I don't want to see my family any more than you, clearly. Just stay in Starfleet, go through proper Academy testing. Then you can get posted somewhere and never have to see 'Aunt Jane' again."

She pouted. Another hour passed. Tuvok and Sam checked in again, saying they had indeed found a small pocket of benamite crystals surrounded by Selenite. Sending down a container for the Benamite, Tom asked why they were bringing back the Selenite as well.

"I'm going to give the crystals to Naomi."

After another half hour, Tuvok called for transport. He and Samantha returned to the Flyer with a case of Benamite and a case of Selenite, but there was no deuterium to be had on that planetoid. After putting the crystals away in the cargo hold, Tuvok and Tom took a shift in the bunks leaving Sam in charge and Fiona at Conn. It only lasted about four hours, as they traveled to the next viable planetoid. But Fiona enjoyed it immensely.

When Tom and Tuvok switched out with Fiona and Sam, the women were told they had about five hours until the next system. They took whatever time they could and Fiona climbed into the fold down cot she had chosen.

When Sam woke her up later, the Flyer was approaching their second planetoid. They had picked up a deuterium signature while they drew closer to the star system. Tom nodded to her as she walked into the cockpit.

"We've narrowed it down to an area with a twelve kilometer radius in the southern hemisphere of the planetoid." Samantha pulled up some coordinates and displayed them on a Padd. "Class M planetoid, deciduous plant life, no inhabitants."

Tuvok perused the information. With a nod he turned to Fiona. "Cadet, please accompany us to the surface. Another set of eyes will be useful for this search."

She felt her smile growing. "Of course, Commander!" Turning back to Tom, she apprehensively gave him a tiny nod, which he returned, smirking.

Sam handed her a tricorder and a phaser. "You've had basic combat training, right? We shouldn't need these but you never know."

"Some," replied Fiona, examining the phaser before hooking it onto her belt.

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "I will find someone to give you more tactical training once we return to Voyager. If you are going to be joining away missions, you need to be trained beyond piloting a shuttlecraft."

"Yes sir."

As they moved to the back of the Delta Flyer with their equipment, Tom wished them luck. "Bring back lots of deuterium!" He punched in the coordinates into the transporter system and energized the machine.

When they rematerialized on the planet, Fiona closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A gentle breeze blew through the air and she suddenly felt entirely homesick for Xenil 5. Fiona hadn't realized how much she missed the feeling of solid ground beneath her feet that lacked the gentle, ever present rumble of the warp core. Blue skies, gentle breezes, the holodeck offered some selection of these but in her head she always reminded herself it was fake. Here it was real.

"Come on, cadet," Sam said quietly with a smile. "Let's start scanning for the deuterium deposits."

"Keep in regular contact," Tuvok ordered as they planned to split up. "As far as we are aware, there aren't any inhabitants on this planet, but fauna is unknown."

Fiona felt herself shuddering in excitement. Her first away mission where she wasn't just a pilot had finally started and she couldn't wait. They looked around at their surroundings. A small forest lay south of their position in an open field with many large rock outcroppings. East lay a cliff face and to the west, a river and massive rock formations.

"Cadet Bishop, work west of this position. Ensign Wildman, proceed south. I will make my way east." Tuvok pointed each direction. "Report back here in thirty-five minutes."

She nodded, straightening her cadet uniform. As she turned to head west, she gripped her ponytail in two and pulled apart, tightening it. It was time to get to work. As she opened her tricorder and scanned as she'd been taught by both Harry Kim and more recently Samantha Wildman. The tricorder's systems were fairly intuitive, and she knew the reading to look for that would signal a deuterium deposit.

The grass crunched beneath her feet, a pleasant sound that she had almost forgotten since spending so much time in space. Even her holodeck hours were typically spent on the beach or playing Captain Proton, not on open fields. The gurgling brook she approached wound its way slowly in and around massive boulders. Here the ground became more rocky with short shrubs and grass interspersed amidst the stones. Fiona crouched down and scanned the water to make sure it was safe. Confident it was, she stuck a finger in the small river.

Fiona jerked her hand back with a light laugh. The cold surprised her. Even though the air was comfortable, she looked off in the distance and saw mountains. Snow melt? With the tricorder open again, she started scanning the rock formations.

"Paris to Bishop."

"Bishop here."

"Do you miss me down there by yourself?"

Fiona could practically hear the smirk in his voice. "Now why would I miss you, Lieutenant? Clearly you miss me. You called me and not the other way around!" She continued scanning, but most of her effort was spent trying to figure out a way across the river.

"Find anything interesting? Certainly nothing as cool as the Flyer. You're missing out down there."

"Is that so?" She rolled her eyes in something akin to disbelief. "I'll have you know that it's been nice to actually feel a breeze."

"Get to work finding us that Deuterium!"

Fiona didn't even dignify his order with a response. She went about her scanning, hoping to find some way into a cavern system near her where they might find a deuterium-rich pocket of water. She looked at the time on her tricorder. Twenty minutes passed and still no sign of deuterium.

"Tuvok to Cadet Bishop. Please report to the original coordinates."

"On my way." She folded her tricorder up and stuck it in her pocket. Using a few stepping stones to cross the shallow stream, Fiona bounded back over to the other side and set off. It didn't take long and soon she found herself standing beside Tuvok.