FRIENDS

by ardavenport

They heard both women's voices as the door slid open. They entered. Torres stared, open mouthed at the captain's desk. Unnoticed behind them, Harry Kim peeked around them at the scene.

Spread out on the half-circle desk must have been a week's worth of replicator rations in coffee, cake, chocolate and pie. Chakotay, next to Torres, smiled at the familiarity of the setup, curiously similar to mess on the bar on the planet where he'd found Janeway that afternoon.

"Oh, did Yorgal get here already?" Seepa complained, looking up from Janeway's computer terminal. With the rest of the large room—the conference area where the replicator, the sofa, table and potted plants were—empty, they sat shoulder to shoulder in two chairs crammed behind the desk.

"Yes, Commander?" the captain asked while Seepa plucked a spherical cake from a tray on the desk and popped in her mouth, her lips fondling the treat for a moment before it disappeared.

"Seepa's ship is ready to dock with Voyager. We thought you might like to meet it."

"And see me off of this one it looks like," Seepa said out of the side of her mouth, fluttering a hand at Tuvok, Chakotay and Torres (with Kim just behind them). Janeway and Seepa looked at each other.

"Yorgal's a bit sleazy, but he really can be too efficient sometimes with space ships. I think they're the only things he really loves."

"Very well, Commander. We'll be right there." Janeway noticed Torres still staring at the desk like a Klingon expecting to enter to a fight and ending up at a tea party. "Oh, have something, please. We're not going to be able to finish it, now."

"Why not?" Torres randomly picked up something and took a bite out of it.

"Thank you, Captain." Chakotay helped himself to a cup of coffee. Tuvok raised a single hand, politely declining.

"Oh, Janeway, I don't know how you stand that horrible black stuff." Seepa scrunched up her face as Janeway took a sip from her own cup.

"It's an acquired taste."

Chakotay surveyed the selection of goodies, and picked out a chocolate cream to go with the coffee. A small one. Middle age—around the same time as when he noticed his first gray hairs—had made it disparagingly easy for him to gain weight, and because of that, he had long ago sworn off snacks, no matter how tempting. But, on the other hand, it would be foolish to pass up a free replicated dessert on the captain's rations. And Neelix's erratic cooking made it easy for him to cut back at the mess hall. He handed a plate of pie back to Kim. Defeated by the ridiculous, Torres rolled her eyes upward and looked for something harder to bite into.

Janeway and Seepa got up and came around the crowded desk.

"We'll be in the shuttle bay, Commander. You have the bridge." Janeway paused in the doorway, a parting glance cast toward the dessert remains. "Oh, and have someone take the rest of that down to the galley. Might as well not let it go to waste."

"I'll see to it." Chakotay raised his cup at her as they left. Tuvok right behind them. When they entered the turbolift, the security chief went with them.

"Well, it's a shame you have to leave so soon." Janeway patted Seepa's arm, on her sleeve, the silvery chrome suit she wore masked the usual tingling effect.

"Oh, I've been coming and going for so long now, it's hard to tell where I am anymore. But I'll remember this for awhile, dear." She patted Janeway's arm in return.

Janeway smiled back, but anything else she might say in return dried up. After they got to the shuttle bay, Seepa would leave and they would likely never see each other again. What could she say?

Next to her, Seepa had settled into looking over Tuvok, who stood apart from them in the lift. Seepa tapped her pale, smooth chin with her equally smooth fingertips as she first tilted her head to look at his perfectly polished boots and up the black pants of his uniform to the mustard-gold shoulders. A crisp, neat sentinel, only Tuvok's dark eyes acknowledged Seepa's scrutiny. When the lift stopped at the hangar deck, he waited for them to exit, before following.

"Yorgal!"

A stout, handsome male with metallic copper hair turned from the two crew members he'd been speaking to. Seepa's ship, already docked, occupied the center of attention in Voyager's hangar. The ship's polished, chrome exterior reflected light in all directions, stirring up the normal shadowless lighting just enough to notice. It created patches of light and false shadows where they shouldn't have been.

The ship matched Seepa's outfit perfectly.

"Oh, Yorgal, you're just too efficient sometimes." Seepa waved her hands in mock disgust, her silver bracelets jingling with the belts at her waist as she walked.

Yorgal grumbled something about gratitude, but Seepa sailed right past him and went to the open hatch of her ship. Janeway and Tuvok followed, leaving Yorgal and the two Voyager crew behind.

The captain was surprised by the modest craft. Seepa's ship wasn't really much more than a shuttle craft, seemingly designed for only interplanetary, perhaps even orbital, travel, and now re-built for its owner's special needs. The portal of the hatch was peaked, allowing Seepa, and her tall hair, to enter without bending over. Even so, Janeway ducked her head as she entered, out of habit and from the memory of bumping her head on too many things inside Federation shuttles.

The interior was nothing more than one big room, slightly tapered at one end where the pilot's controls and one small view port were. In spite of the high ceiling, Janeway felt a little claustrophobic. It was like a big, dark box, with three pink chairs by the controls and boxes and boxes of Seepa's cargo filling more than half of it. And it was heavily scented with Seepa's favorite perfume. Tuvok, Janeway noticed, did not enter, but watched them from the hatch.

They went around the boxes and Seepa plopped down in front of the small square window and controls. Janeway sat next to her and, shocked, realized that none of the chair's, not even the pilot's seat, were fixed to the floor. But since Seepa generated her own gravity field, then the usual accommodations for acceleration would be superfluous. Janeway wondered what it would be like, piloting from a lawn chair, but she knew it was impossible for her. Seepa could not take passengers. The intensity and variations of the fields that she generated would kill any other living creature on the ship. Seepa had told her that a long time ago, a very clever engineer had tried to build a shielded box for her so that could transport small animals, but the power source for it had been too big to fit on the ship.

"Oh, Yorgal," Seepa grumbled and opened a compartment next to her knee. She took out a cloth and wiped the controls off, an antiseptic smell joining the pervasive floral scent of the ship. "He's a good engineer, but he forgets sometimes and leaves a film." Janeway leaned forward, hands in her lap, as Seepa tidied up. Seepa was very particular about dirt or residue, not that she ever had to worry about it much. Most particulates and biological substances didn't stand a chance against Seepa's everyday force fields.

Seepa finished and tossed the cloth back into its compartment. Then she looked back at the cargo, stacked behind them. "These Ee'Roos are really desperate to get this stuff to their home world. It's supposed to be sacred or something like that. Those are the best and the worst kind of customers. You should watch out for them," she advised.

"Seepa, we don't take cargo."

"You're out here in the middle of nowhere, Janeway, dear. Don't waste time on pride if it comes to that."

Janeway silently mulled the truth of that statement. Starfleet ships were not ships of commerce. There were regulations governing necessary barter trade, especially for deep space explorers, but generally Starfleet relied on provisioning its ships well, and avoiding the problems that this kind of interaction could create.

Janeway loathed the idea of going to these regulations for her ship's survival. Tuvok would have called her feeling illogical—of course, all feelings were illogical to Vulcans—but she strongly wanted to stay away from them as long as possible. Using her ship for trade, even under Starfleet regulation, would be just further acknowledgment that they were alone, far from home, in this part of the galaxy.

Seepa noticed her companion's long face. "Oh, it's not such a terrible thing. I've been doing it for millennia. You've got to do something with yourself if you're around as long as I am." Janeway's thoughts shifted away from her ship's longevity to Seepa's unusual condition.

"What's it like?" she asked. "To live so long, when you never expected to?"

Arms folded before her, Seepa sat still before answering. "It's like I'm always going to death rituals. I love being with people, but I can't bring myself to ever get to know them; I'm always remembering the ones who're gone. There are so many more of them." Her eyes went to Janeway's. "I'm not sorry you're leaving and not coming back. I don't have to worry about missing you the usual way." Her hands and bracelets silent, her introspection stretched on. "I never really get used to it. I suppose that's why I'm still around. So many of the others have just gotten tired of it all and gone on. Supposedly, if I just stop eating the fields will collapse and I'll be squeezed into some nether dimensions." Her hands flexed, hugging her middle. "I've heard some pretty convincing stories that it's supposed to be some higher form of existence, but I just can't get used to the idea of not being me," she confided.

Janeway remained silent in response, but they exchanged a look of understanding. Finally the moment of seriousness became too weighty for Seepa and her eyes flicked toward the open hatch and the ever present shadow partially blocking the light from the hangar bay, Tuvok. She leaned close.

"Does he always follow you around like that?"

Janeway grinned back. "It's his job, Seepa."

"Don't you get tired of him being around? Trying to listen in on what you're saying?"

"Oh, Tuvok can hear us from here." She raised her voice. "Can't you Mister Tuvok?"

"Perfectly, Captain."

"Those pointed ears aren't for nothing, you know." Janeway waved a hand back toward the Vulcan standing at parade rest at the open hatch.

For once, Seepa seemed speechless, her mouth opening in shock. Then it closed, her hand going up, covering her lips and she laughed. The captain joined her. Tuvok, by himself, raised an eyebrow. Humor was difficult enough to understand by itself, but the source of this mirth completely eluded him. His attention was drawn by a crew member's voice, speaking to Yorgal, who seemed overly curious about the contents of the shuttle bay. The wide door of the echoing bay opened and two of his people arrive. Tuvok went to them.

Janeway saw Tuvok's shadow leave and she knew she would have to leave as well. It seemed such a shame that Seepa couldn't stay, there was so much that they could learn from her. Then it suddenly dawned on the captain that she could prolong their time together by simply taking Seepa to her destination. Seepa was her own transportation, but she couldn't travel any faster than warp 4 or so. Voyager could make her trip in a fraction of the time.

The captain frowned at her own self-indulgence. She simply could not justify a detour like that. Then Voyager really would be playing the part of a cargo ship. She supposed that it might have seemed like a good idea over the green haze of lunch, but the memory of that seriously put upon expressions of her crew on the bridge told her that taking Seepa on would be stretching the captain's privilege too far.

And by Seepa's own admission, she was not a good passenger on any other ship but her own. On the planet, she'd told a string of tales about how badly she did on other people's ships; accidentally wiping control systems, interfering with the ship's shielding and such. She'd told one hysterical story about putting her hands into a cleansing slot in a restroom and inadvertently closing a circuit that caused the ship's VIP quarters, engine room and all the other restrooms to be flooded with salt water. Seepa did not belong on anybody's crew or passenger list.

"No point in dragging this out any more. Time to go." Seepa declared, and Janeway blushed that her thoughts were so obvious.

"I suppose it is," she agreed and they both got up and went to the hatch. Seepa sighed as she looked down at the well lit hangar bay where Tuvok dispatched Yorgal to the transporter room between two black and gold uniforms. Yorgal kept looking from one to the other of his unresponsive guards and then one last suspicious glare to Tuvok before he left. Seepa waved goodbye to him before turning back to her companion.

"I don't know what your people do for parting rituals, Janeway, dear, but whatever it is, I've seen it all." Janeway spread her arms in a 'how about a hug' gesture and they did. It was like hugging a perfumed, insulated power conduit for the captain. "You're so alive, Janeway. I wish I could still feel things when I touch them," Seepa whispered, quiet enough so that even Tuvok couldn't hear it.

Seepa's hands were on Janeway's back, one touching her collar and bare neck, but the captain knew that Seepa couldn't tell the difference between the uniform and skin. Nerve endings had been among the first things to go when her body was changed. That was one reason why a force field covered her skin, to prevent her from accidentally injuring herself since she had no sensation of touch to warn her. That and it also prevented her from irradiating the people around her.

"Aha! There you are!" The two women separated to find Neelix and with Kes entering the cargo bay. Voyager's self appointed cook hustled forward with tray in hand. "I couldn't let you get away without letting you sample just one more of my specialties." The captain stepped back as Neelix climbed up into the hatchway.

"Oh, I'm always ready to try something new." She savored a juicy morsel and then offered one to the captain. "They're divine." Janeway declined. She already knew that their tastes differed greatly. On Zabos they'd ended up sampling nearly everything edible for a Human on the menu trying to find some things that they both liked. Seepa had eaten the excess. Janeway couldn't imagine what it would be like, tasting everything through a force field, but Seepa had claimed to still be able to taste things—Janeway privately wondered about that since Seepa seemed to like everything. And with Neelix's cooking, there was an even chance that she wouldn't like them.

"Please, take them with you," Neelix offered and Seepa accepted, she put the tray on top of one of the cargo boxes and then hugged Neelix.

"Oh my!" Neelix exclaimed at the warmth and tingle of contact. "You must keep some lucky guy warm at night." He beamed at her.

"Oh, don't I wish."

No one but Janeway, and perhaps Kes, seemed to notice the edge of sadness in that admission. Neelix smiled happily in place for a few more seconds before he realized he was in the way and stepped down from the hatchway.

"I just wanted to say that it was a pleasure to meet you," Kes said up to woman with tall, pink hair. She wore the bracelet that Seepa had given her.

"Oh, it wasn't so bad meeting you, and your scanners." Kes smiled back. Seepa put her hand on the captain's. "I had a wonderful time. I never ask for anything more than that."

She turned and her silver outfit dimmed in the gloom of her ship as she made her way back to the controls. Janeway stepped down to the hangar deck and the three of them went to the door, Tuvok joining them. Neelix congratulated her on her choice of friends all the way to the turbolift.

On the bridge, Janeway and Tuvok returned to their stations. Seepa's ship was ready to leave. Sitting in the command chair, Janeway gave permission for launch.

"You look sorry to see her leave."

Janeway turned to her first officer, seated on her left. He inclined his head toward the view screen. She put her elbow on the arm of her chair closest to him and rested her chin on her hand.

"Yes, I am." Her fingers rubbed the underside of her chin before she lowered her hand. "There's so much out there that we don't know, so many experiences that we just don't have time for in the span of one lifetimes. But Seepa's been through so much...history. There would be so much we could learn from her."

"You might have asked her to come with us," Chakotay suggested, leaning toward her on the arm of his own command chair. Surprised, Janeway looked back at him carefully, but the expression on his pleasant, rounded face seemed quite serious. "She could be useful. And you seemed to get along well together," he added.

With a very amused smile in return, Janeway slowly shook her head. "I think Seepa would be the first one to tell you that she is not a team player. She's fun at parties, but not good in groups," she paraphrased Seepa's own description of herself.

The captain's eyes shifted to either side of them, to the others on the bridge, but no one seemed to be paying much attention. "Commander, I also wanted to...thank you for what you did on the planet today, and when we returned to the ship."

Chakotay gave a little shrug. "Just following regulations. I wasn't doing anything different from what I'd do for a friend. And I suppose you'd do the same for me."

"You think I'll ever have to, Commander?"

His eyes turned mischievous. "No."

"We're receiving a signal from Seepa's ship," Harry Kim announced. "She's leaving orbit."

"On screen," Janeway commanded. She stood, stepping forward into the command area, just behind Tom Paris's station. She felt Commander Chakotay just behind her.

On the main view screen, Seepa's ship glinted and spun over into space, away from the planet below. Most notable of all was the bright, glowing field surrounding the small craft. The gravity field that Seepa's life and body had been altered so long ago to produce. It was pink.

"Look at that." The captain smiled at the image.

"It's really something," Chakotay agreed.

"Yes." Janeway turned to him and then back to the screen, the departing ship on it. "She is."

Note: This story was written by me and first printed (under the name 'Anne Davenport') in 1996, in Delta Quadrant 3, a fanzine back in the hard-copy and snail-mail days of fan-fiction, when the internet was just taking off.

Disclaimer: All Trek characters and the universe belong to Paramount; I'm just playing in that sandbox.