Title: Coffee and Computers Don’t Mix
Author: Sally
Rating: PG
Summary: Broken equipment and an officer pulling double duty
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to Paramount along with the good ship Voyager.
"Commander?" She queried. "Just what are you doing?"
"I've come to fix your computer."
"My what?" she asked.
"That," he gestured to her workstation which sat on her desk. "B'Elanna called it a computer. Blame Tom." He shrugged and then walked over to her desk and squatted down so that he was eye level with the machine.
Kathryn continued to stand by her viewport. "What's B'Elanna got to do with anything?" She shook her head. "Oh, right, I mentioned to B'Elanna that it needed adjusting. But why are you here? I was expecting someone from engineering."
He paused briefly from removing a back panel. "You've got someone from engineering," he replied, twisting his head to look up at her.
She laughed. "Chakotay, last I checked you were on the command team."
"Yeah," he said through clenched teeth. "Well, she's short staffed in engineering thanks to Carey and the others getting that poison ivy stuff on the away mission, so I volunteered to take a shift since we were in a quiet area of space." His face continued to contort as he wrestled with an unseen entity. "Good grief, Kathryn, what have you done to this thing?"
"How come I didn't know about your change of assignment?" she asked, ignoring his question.
"Because I'm the one who sets the duty rosters and you barely look at them anymore," he answered. "Argh, Kathryn, this is impossible."
"Oh."
"What did you do to it?" He leaned in closer and his eyes appeared to narrow in on something. "Don't tell me," he groaned.
"Okay then, I won't."
He twisted his head to look at her again. "Besides, I think I can guess. You were working on it with a cup of coffee in your hand, things got a bit turbulent and the cup got spilled. Am I correct?"
She grimaced. "Unfortunately."
He leaned back from the desk. "And just how the hell am I going to tell this to my boss? Sorry, Chief but the Captain spilled her coffee over it? She'd first kill me and then she would come seeking you out. I doubt even Tom would be able to stop her."
"So what do you suggest we do?"
"We?" he asked. "Oh no, this is one battle I won't fight for you. You're on your own here."
"But Chakotay…"
He stood and picked up the small engineering case that he'd brought with him. "You're the one who claims to be the scientist, and the engineer and the captain. I'm sure you can think of something." He grinned. "See you later," he said as he walked out the door which led to the bridge. "Captain."
FINIS