From the Beyond

His only answer was a hum of agreement as he dove into soup with his spoon. Sighing, she looked down at her own tray to see the same dish before her – what she assumed was Neelix’s best approximation of a classic vegetable soup. Only, several of the ingredients were quite unrecognizable, making her the slightest bit hesitant.

“I’m assuming it’s good?” she asked without looking up, logic suggesting that it had to be at least passable in quality, given Ned’s inability to come up for air for five seconds.

Then again, he did that at almost every meal.

His answer was accompanied by a shrug as he finally leaned back, wiping at his mouth with his napkin. “Not his best, not his worst. At least it isn’t overloaded with jalapenos this time.”

“Thank God,” she muttered, distinctly remembering the Talaxian’s spicier concoctions that sent even some of their toughest crewmen racing to the replicators for milk. One taste of his recent attempt at a meat-and-bean chili had left her lips and tongue burning for hours afterwards.

But, she realized, she wasn’t exactly the best person in the galaxy to assess the quality of spicy foods; she’d always been something of a wimp in that regard.

There are worse things to be a wimp about, she felt the need to remind herself.

Finally digging in to the bread and soup, she found Ned’s appraisal to be correct, much to her relief. It wasn’t spicy and it wasn’t bad. A win-win.

“Got room for a third Ensign at this table?”

Tabitha glanced up, so immersed in her thoughts she hadn’t noticed her roommate standing right next to her.

“Sure, Kat,” she answered hastily. “How’d things go with Kes, today?”

The short, slightly heavyset Japanese-American huffed out a sigh, plopping down in the chair opposite Ned. “As good as a day spent examining plant leaves in the ‘ponics bay can go.”

“Ah,” their operations-assigned friend said with a sly smile and a wave of his spoon, “it’s times like these I’m thankful I didn’t pursue my fleeting interest in the sciences.”

“Shut up, Walker.”

His only answer was a close-mouthed chuckle as he continued his meal, his comrades joining him in companionable silence.

Tabitha’s thoughts darkened a little, though, as she contemplated Ned’s comment and began to wonder if she herself had made a mistake in her own career. She and Katsumi were microbiologists by profession, the only two assigned to Voyager’s crew of roughly one hundred and fifty members. And though it was obvious to anyone that such specialists would be a necessary asset on board a science exploration vessel, the two women saw little action related to their field – so little, in fact, that they had been trained as supplemental field medics for away teams, spending more time in sickbay helping Kes and the Emergency Medical Hologram than they did analyzing any collected particles in engineering or the science lab.

Even amidst such an uncharted place as the Delta Quadrant.

Shaking her head, Tabitha forced those thoughts to the back of her mind, something that had become easier in these last few months. The fact that they were all stuck out here, trapped together aboard this little Intrepid-class starship going as fast as her state-of-the-art warp engines would let her go – and even then knowing it would take them most of their lives to return home, if she could get them there in once piece – had been a bitter pill to swallow at first. And the addition of Commander Chakotay’s rebellious Maquis crew hadn’t helped matters much. But slowly, over time, with Captain Janeway’s stalwart leadership, Kes’s gentle counseling, and even Neelix’s overly-enthusiastic efforts to give the crew a taste of home, the long eight-hour shifts had become less tense, the nights less tearful, and the moments in-between less hopeless.

Ned had done his best to help with that last part.

As if reading her mind, the engineer stuffed the last bit of bread into his mouth before spinning the PADD that sat beside his tray towards her. “Here, I got something to show you.”

At least, that was how she interpreted his muffled words, judging from the inflection of his voice around the chunk of soggy roll.

The translators in their combadges couldn’t help with everything, it seemed.

Katsumi exchanged looks with Tabitha. “What, another holofilm of yours?”

“Yeeeeep,” he confirmed after washing down the last of his food, the beaming expression on his baby-faced countenance whilst he pushed his tray back and laced his fingers atop the table, betraying his pride. “And I think it’s my best one yet.”

“You said that the last time,” Tabitha said flatly as she took the PADD in hand. Squinting, she tried to read the title aloud, “‘Sicut In Cælo Et In Terra’? That’s Latin, right?”

“‘On Earth as it is in Heaven’,” Ned translated, grinning widely.

“The Lord’s Prayer,” Tabitha remarked, her brow furrowing as she recognized the phrase. “I didn’t think you were the religious sort.”

“I’m not, generally speaking,” he replied with a noncommittal shrug. “Go on, keep reading.”

Katsumi looked over her roommate’s shoulder. “Historical fiction… Catholic Crusades… based off of… Kingdom of Heaven, 2005…”

“Kingdom of Heaven,” Tabitha repeated, her brow furrowing. “Never saw it. Sounds like something my father would have enjoyed, though.”

Ned scoffed. “It’s only one of the most popular films of the twenty-first century. Due in part to Orlando Bloom, as far as I understand it.”

“Who?” the two women asked simultaneously, which resulted in both of them snorting their amusement.

The engineer sighed. “Leading man. Girls went gaga over him, back in the day. Don’t ask me why, I can’t tell you. All the other actors were better than him in it, in my opinion.” He shrugged. “Anyway, I’ve always been fascinated with the era it’s set in, and this particular film is more than worthy of an interactive remake to give participants a… well, semi-authentic experience.”

“And lemme guess,” Katsumi leaned back in her chair and cast him a knowing look, “you want us to be your beta testers for this ‘semi-authentic experience’?”