"Well, there's good news and bad news," Tom announced, when he returned to his quarters and found Greg pacing anxiously in his bedroom.

Any further comment was temporarily cut short as the sound of his voice caused Greg to spin around, take two wide strides and envelop him in a fierce embrace. Tom gave a heart-hearted attempt to break free, as Greg's tongue invaded his mouth to gag him, only to feel his knees weaken as their hips ground together and the evidence of Greg's arousal pressed insistently against his own.

"Where were we?" Greg teased, when he finally released Tom's mouth and moved his questing lips back to the dark bruise on Tom's neck. "Oh, yes," he purred. He latched his teeth gently against the already swollen skin and his sure fingers started to unfasten Tom's uniform.

"No time for this," Tom gasped, as a shudder of arousal rocked his whole body. He tried to pry Greg's fingers from his groin even as his own treacherous cock battered hungrily against his pants, attempting to make its escape.

"There's always time enough for love," Greg whispered and swirled his tongue lightly over Tom's neck, leaving a glistening sheen from earlobe to collarbone.

"Oh, shit," Tom groaned, "no fair." 

Greg grinned and continued his assault on Tom's most erogenous zone until the pilot was writhing and mewling with reluctant excitement.

"Please, Greg. I just came home for a quick...quick shower and change. I've got to be in the Captain's ready room in...oh, shit...fifteen minutes," Tom gasped, although he'd long since lost the ability to physically resist Greg's attack.

"No problem," Greg laughed, starting to peel the clothing off Tom's now pliant body. "We can do this in the shower."

~~~

Captain Janeway looked impatiently at the time, glared at the empty seat, considered sending a comm. message to light a fire under Tom's butt, then decided to allow him five more minutes.  The flight through the wormhole had been a wild ride and by the time they had emerged safely on the other end, the pilot had been so drenched with perspiration that his request for a shower before their meeting had been more than reasonable.

It had been unrealistic of her to imagine he would make her fifteen minute deadline.  So she'd give him twenty, and then she'd kick his butt.

"More coffee, Captain?" Chakotay asked smoothly, rising to his feet and approaching the replicator without waiting for a reply.

By the time he gave her the cup, and she had inhaled its fumes greedily, he had managed to distract her for two minutes past the new deadline and, fortunately, Tom took that moment to stumble through the door.

His hair was still wet, as was a good proportion of his clean uniform, but he smelt clean, he was smiling and although the bruise on his neck was a good deal darker than it had been twenty minutes previously, Chakotay was reasonably certain that the Captain wouldn't notice.

"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Paris," Kathryn snapped waspishly, her eyes fixing on Tom's neck until his cheeks flushed almost as dark as the bruise.

Oops, Chakotay thought to himself, but the Captain merely tipped her head pointedly at the empty chair and Tom scrambled to seat himself before she changed her mind. Chakotay saw Tom wince slightly as he sat down and stifled a grin.

"Now we're all here," Kathryn said, "I'll get straight to the point. The wormhole has taken us 19.78 thousand light years closer to home. I don't need to tell any of you what that means. It's a wonderful achievement and I'd like to personally thank Mr. Kim for finding the wormhole, and Mr. Paris for taking us through it without any broken bones. Neelix would like to discuss a large amount of broken crockery with you, however."

She grinned at the pilot and a chuckle of amusement rippled through the room. Kathryn waited until the laughter died down then, satisfied that the mood was relaxed, she broached the subject of concern.

"Traveling through the Delta Quadrant has been problematical, to say the least, because we've been moving through unchartered territory. For the last eighteen months, the problem has been considerably eased by Seven's work in the new Astrometrics Department. We've become accustomed recently to the fact that we have a good idea of the space ahead before we reach it.

"The wormhole has changed that. We've suddenly found ourselves in a totally new part of space and our initial scans suggest that once we pass from this star system it will take us over six months before we reach the next one. It's not the first time that we've faced the prospect of 'dead space', and because it's only six months, I don't believe it justifies use of the cryogenic pods.

"On the other hand, our experience has taught us that boredom becomes the worst danger to the crew during long periods of inactivity. We need to be prepared for high usage of the holodecs, and the fact that when people have little work to do, they need more rations to keep them preoccupied.

"We can use this opportunity to continue with our active program of retraining people to new roles on board the ship. We've already benefited from people becoming multi-tasking. I'll leave that with you, Commander, to work out an appropriate training program.  Mr. Paris, you've already had some measure of success in training relief pilots. Take this time as an opportunity to give those people more hands on experience at the helm, and spend more time with the Doctor. I think it's past time that you took your skills as a medic and began to study seriously for more qualifications."

Tom groaned dramatically, but his eyes sparkled. It was becoming a real possibility that he could return to the Alpha Quadrant as a fully qualified Doctor, and as much as he had originally protested the idea, now there was a real chance that they might get home he was beginning to daydream about the moment he would reunite with his father. To return home, not only as a Lieutenant, but as a Doctor too, would surely impress the Admiral. Maybe even enough to make that proud man reconsider his decision to disown his own son.

"Our immediate problem, however, is that Voyager is already low on resources. We barely have enough food and energy to survive the journey to the next star system, even if we are frugal. Fortunately, we have identified an M-class planet nearby that seems to be rich in natural resources. Our scans show no sentient life forms on the surface although there is a heavy population of mammalian-type animals that roam in vast herds. They appear similar to old-earth Bison and as far as we can see, they are vegetarian and pose no obvious threat except for their sheer numbers.

"I suggest that we send away teams to the surface to collect food and minerals but that, in view of the native animals, we shouldn't attempt to land shuttles. I don't want to risk stampeding one of the herds."

"Can't we land away from the animals?" Harry asked.

"The only regions that aren't swarming with the 'bison' are the ones that they have already stripped bare. They seem to work like a voracious mowing machine, working their way from one side of the continent to the other. There is a small amount of growth resuming back where their migration started, but not enough to harvest."

Kathryn swung her terminal around so everyone could see the schematics of the planet.

"So," Chakotay said thoughtfully, "They have stripped all the vegetation from elsewhere, and now are heavily congregated in this last remaining area, so we have no choice except to land amongst them."

Kathryn nodded.

"But what happens next? It doesn't make sense, does it? By the time the 'bison' have finished grazing this last region, I assume the vegetation will have recovered back at their starting point. But how do they get back there? If they turn around, they'll starve before they get back to the new growth. A one-way migration doesn't make any sense." Chakotay pointed out.

"He's right," Tom agreed. "Look at the map. The animals have worked their way in a straight line from east to west. They've left a virtual desert behind them. Their only option now, as the Commander said, is to turn around and starve, or continue into the sea."

"Perhaps they are amphibious," B'Elanna suggested. "The planet has only got one continent. Perhaps they travel in a circle around the planet, harvesting the land, then surviving in the sea until they reach the continent again, by which time the vegetation has regrown."

"It would be nice to see one of the creatures close up," Kathryn replied. "It never ceases to amaze me how life manages to exist in so many different types of environment.  However, no matter how fascinating the creatures are,  the important thing is to get down to the planet and harvest some of the food for ourselves before the animals have eaten it all themselves. It's fortunate that we came through the wormhole when we did. Given their rate of progress, we probably only have about three days before they reach the coast.

"Chakotay, I want you to take a small away team to check the planet out. Then, as long as there's no obvious danger, we'll beam down a large harvesting team to get the maximum amount of food in the least possible time."

"How large?" Tuvok asked.

"No more than thirty people," Kathryn clarified. "I don't want more people on the surface than we can beam up quickly just in case of an emergency.  If we change the team every three hours, we'll get more efficiency and everyone will get a chance to spend a little time off the ship before we enter the 'dead space'.

"Any questions?" She looked around the room, then rose to her feet. "Right, let's get on with it."

~~~

"Since when have you known anything about animals, Tom?" Harry teased, as they entered the transporter room.

"I'm not saying I do," Tom protested. "It just seems weird, that's all. Chakotay and Tuvok said the animals look so similar to earth cattle that it's uncanny. They certainly don't appear capable of swimming."

Harry shrugged.

"I heard that whales were cows that got fed up of walking and decided to return to the sea," he said.

"Really?"

"Well, I think so. I never paid much attention to historical biology classes, but whales are mammals, aren't they? Besides, the sheer number of the animals proves that they must be adapted to this world. If every migration ended with most of them starving to death, there wouldn't be so many of them, would there?"

"No," Tom agreed reluctantly.

"Maybe they transport back," Harry laughed, stepping onto the transporter pad.

"Very funny," Tom snarled, but he shivered slightly. There was a vague thought hovering at the edge of his consciousness, and Harry's joke had somehow struck a resonance.

Before he could focus on the errant idea, he was bussed from behind. He spun around in confused outrage, all thoughts of the cattle fleeing from his mind, only to see Greg's grinning face.

"What did you do that for?" Tom hissed, rubbing his ass cheek and flushing at the realization that the whole landing party had witnessed Greg's action.

The normally taciturn Greg gave a chortle of amusement.

"I don't like being ignored, Tom."

"I didn't see you," Tom protested. "I was thinking about something."

"Well, now you're thinking about me," Greg replied smugly.

"Bastard," Tom whispered, turning his back pointedly on the other man.

Greg stepped forward and pressed himself against the length of Tom's back. Tom squirmed, but didn't dare protest because it would simply draw more attention to what Greg was doing.

Besides, there was a part of Tom that relished Greg's small act of jealous possession. Although it had been his own idea to keep their relationship private, because he was terrified that the other Maquis would take Greg aside and talk him out of his decision to give Tom a new chance, he had been dismayed by how readily Greg had agreed to the secrecy.

So this semi-public display by Greg was as reassuring as it was embarrassing, especially since most of Tom's discomfort was about the very prominent erection that he was now sporting. Starfleet uniforms just weren't designed to conceal hard-ons. He willed his cock to calm down, despite the way Greg was teasing him by grinding slowly against his butt. The last thing Tom wanted was to materialize on the planet in an obviously aroused state.

The first fifteen members of the first harvesting team were already on the planet, headed by Commander Chakotay himself.

Although Tom didn't really care what anyone else thought about his relationship with Greg. His only terror was that if Chakotay learned that he and Greg were back together, he would somehow put a stop to it.

Chakotay and Greg were so alike that it was sometimes difficult for Tom to separate them in his mind.  They were both dark, strong proud men. Both gorgeous and enigmatic. Both so sure of themselves that they made Tom feel rudderless and lost by comparison.

And Chakotay despised him.

He didn't make it obvious. To be fair to the Commander, after the initial tension of the first year, Chakotay had made every effort to treat him fairly. But there was no getting away from the fact that Chakotay obviously thought he was scum.

So it seemed impossible to believe that Greg, who was so like Chakotay, had genuinely decided to give him a new chance.

Tom couldn't bear the thought that it would all blow up in his face but every time he thought of Greg, he thought of Chakotay, and was sure that the days of his current happiness were numbered.

Chakotay would bring Greg to his senses, and then both men would despise him.

Sometimes, Tom wasn't even sure which man's disapproval would hurt most.

Go to Part Four