Points of Interest

"Captain" Katherine Janeway stood in the middle of chaos; red alert sirens blaring and emergency lighting casting a hellish glow over her crew. Before her on the main view screen was a nightmare - four Romulan ships, fully armed and firing on her ship.

"Get those shields up, Mr Kharal, *NOW*!. Engineering, I need those phasers back online. Geller, bring us about to heading..."

A shrill buzzer cut her off, mid-command. Seconds later, the Romulan ships, consoles, and even the seats disappeared leaving nothing but a yellow on black grid and a group of unhappy young men and women.

Lt. Commander Veris strode forward, smirking, miming applause. "Oh, very good Cadet Janeway, it only took 20 minutes to get yourself and your ship hopelessly out gunned, out maneuvered and out classed. You may just have set a new record." He turned away, dismissing the Starfleet cadets with a wave. "I see no reason to continue this. Mr Paulson, next class we'll start over with you in command. Dismissed."

Janeway stood rigidly, waiting for her classmates to leave before speaking, "Sir,..."

Veris turned towards her, annoyed, "Little wonder you can't get through the battle simulation, Cadet, when you apparently don't understand a simple command like dismissed." He eyed her coldly, arms crossed and foot tapping until she turned and fled the holodeck.

Janeway barreled down the corridor muttering every foul name and curse she knew. She never saw the woman in science blue until they collided in a shower of padds.

"Whoa, did someone get the ID of that freighter?"

Janeway pulled back, disentangling herself from the mess. The other woman scrambled for her belongings, and it finally registered with Janeway that this redhead was a cadet too. Jarred out of her anger, she joined in the retrieval of her padds.

Overhead, the warning bell sounded telling cadets there were 3 minutes left to report to class. The redhead cursed and scrambled faster.

"I'm sorry..." Janeway started to apologize. The other cadet stopped her.

"Save it, I've got to get to class. Just try not to do it again. Okay?" She shoved one of the padds at Janeway. "Here, I think this is yours." And then she was gone, long-legged strides carrying her quickly down the hall.

*****

"Hey Kath, how'd the battlesim class go?"

Janeway dropped her padds on the desk and groaned, "Don't ask."

"Yeah, I heard Veris ripped into you today."

Janeway shook her head, freeing her long hair from the uncomfortably tight bun she always wore. "No, he didn't seem to think I was worth that kind of effort. He just *dismissed* me. He's not even going to let me finish the sim."

"How could ...oh, that man's a ... a..."

Despite herself, Janeway had to laugh at her lanky blonde roommate. Once Sylvie got herself riled about something she was an unstoppable force, but Katherine just didn't have the energy to deal with that right now. Not with all this homework. Instead, she straightened her back, ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"Save it, Syl. You'll need that energy for Drejaan's class."

Sylvie snorted indelicately. "That's not until tomorrow, Kath."

Janeway shot her a warning look.

"Ok, ok, so you don't want to talk about it. Fine. Can I at least borrow your notes from Housemann's class?"

"Why? I thought you...Syl!" Katherine rolled her eyes. "Never mind, I don't even want to think about it. Here." She tossed a padd to her friend. "Make it quick, I've got a spaceload of homework tonight."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, welcome to Starfleet Academy First Year, Cadet Janeway."

"Syl."

"Yes Kath?"

"Shut up."

Sylvie stuck out her tongue. "Is that an order, future captain Janeway?"

"Yes it is, future ensign in charge of turbolifts."

Sylvie clutched her heart dramatically and fell back onto the bed, blonde hair haloing her pretty face. "Run through by my roomie's rapier wit. Alas, I'm done for."

Janeway cast a glare at the sprawled form across the room and muttered, "Well thank the stars for that. Maybe now I can study."

And it was quiet - for about 10 minutes, when Janeway determined what that sound was. Sylvie was laughing - snickering actually, but very, very quietly.

"I had no idea that the History of Federation Trade Relations was so funny."

"Trade Relations, my foot. You get on me for being, ah, distracted in class then you drag around a padd filled with gooey love letters from some guy named Jack." Sylvie sat up and waved the padd accusingly towards Katherine. "You been holding out on me, Kath?"

Janeway was off the bed and across the room at warp speed. "What are you... give me that." She snatched the padd away from her roommate and started tapping through the contents, her face growing paler.

Sylvie stood, laying a tentative hand Janeway's arm. "Kath?"

Janeway looked up, dropping the hand holding the padd to her side where it hung limply. "I was so mad, after Veris gave me that dressing down. I never saw her until we collided. Padds went everywhere. This must be hers. Sylvie, how am I ever going to find her?"

"And more importantly. How will you get your notes back?"

The feeble joke lay there for a moment before Janeway turned and started frantically pacing. "Okay, she was a cadet, sciences, second, maybe third year."

"Kath."

"Red hair, skinny, tall."

"Kath"

"Shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Janeway."

Kathryn stopped her frantic pacing. "What?"

"Check the padd. There's got to be an ID of some kind on there."

"But...that would be violating her privacy."

"Violating nothing. Look, Kath, you don't have to read the sloppy stuff, just scan for a name or some means of identifying who this belongs to."

"Well..."

"Look, Kath, there's no espers at the Academy, and you wouldn't want to explain that little collision even if there were. You need your notes. And she, for some reason I couldn't begin to fathom, probably wants the bad poetry back."

Janeway looked down at the padd clutched in her hands. This was the last thing she needed - having to read someone else's personal love letters to find the padd's owner. Breathing a frustrated, "I do not have time for this." She settled into a chair and started to read.

*****

"Russ. Russ?. What kind of name is that?" Janeway dropped the padd into her lap with a snort of disgust. She'd scanned every file on the padd, desperately trying not to read anything and finding it almost impossible. In the last 53 minutes she'd learned far more about this Russ and her would-be poet than she knew about most of her friends. The only thing she hadn't learned was the woman's name.

Abandoning that method of detection, she rose and went to her computer terminal. She was paging through the database frowning at the number of red haired female science cadets when Sylvie breezed back into the room and tossed a padd onto Katherine's desk.

"What *would* you do without me?"

Kath spared the padd a glance. "What's that?"

Syl dropped into her desk chair and wheeled it across to Kath's desk. "I've only just saved your sorry hide."

"My hide thanks you. What is it?"

"Kath," Syl purred dangerously. "I just exercised my considerable charms on the most attractive Cadet Harrison. The poor man couldn't offer me a copy of Horsemann's notes fast enough."

"And what kind of sacrifice will you be making to repay Harris's kindness? Dinner at a fine restaurant? Dancing?"

"Both, thank you. This Saturday. Don't plan on waiting up."

Katherine rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer terminal. "I wouldn't dream of it."

*****

The red alert sirens were first followed by lights at full daytime illumination. Katherine Janeway was on her feet instantly and fully dressed in just over 1 minute. She'd practiced.

Moving with confidence, she strode down the corridor towards her duty station. Around her, other cadets moved just as quickly, deftly avoiding collisions as people moved in and out of the side corridors. One right turn, then a left and she was at her designated turbolift. A brief descent then a quick exit and down two more corridors into the depths of the research area. Unlike the crowded corridors above, these floor seemed deserted.

Fifteen meters away from her destination the deck rocked beneath her feet. Just ahead, down a side corridor, smoke poured from one of the research labs. Picking up her pace she hurried to the pair of cadets lying in the hall. A tap to her communicator brought a disquieting *blip* meaning that, for the moment, cadet Janeway was on her own.

Kneeling beside the first person, she took his pulse. Strong and steady. A visual exam revealed nothing more serious than a few cuts and scrapes. A meter away was the other cadet, a woman, her leg twisted beneath her body at an odd angle.

Katherine knelt beside her, smoothing the woman's hair away from her face, as she checked her pulse. Spying a tricorder lying near the woman, Katherine retrieved it and ran a medical scan. Broken leg, some cuts and bruises, possible head trauma but overall she was stable enough to wait while Katherine checked the lab for other wounded crew.

The doors' controls were fused, but the manual hand crank still worked, although it was very stiff. By the time the doors were opened enough for Katherine's slim form to enter, enough of the smoke had cleared to allow her to make out shapes in the dimly lit room.

A quick survey revealed the room to be empty. Well, that's something at least, Kath told herself. Returning to the corridor, she tried her communicator again, then the comm panel on the wall both with no result.

Hearing a groan, she turned to the woman and realized for the first time that she was looking at the red head she'd been searching for. Two days of combing the database with no success and now she was here. Katherine really wished she had the padd with her. She'd be glad to be rid of the thing.

The red head opened her eyes slowly, then coughed. "What happened?" she gasped.

"Explosion in the research lab." Kath responded, then wished she hadn't when the other cadet tried to rise. Catching her arm, Janeway restrained the other woman. "Hold it. You may have a concussion."

"Ahhh." the red head lay back down again, the sudden dizziness and nausea much more persuasive than the cadet tending her. Getting herself under control, the science cadet turned to look at the man laying near her. "Is he?"

"He's fine. I did a visual scan. No serious injuries."

"Visual? What about a tricorder scan?"

Katherine's face reddened. "Running one now." She waved the scanner at the man, then studied the results. "Nothing. He's fine."

"Ok, then, wake him up. And what about the lab?"

"There was no one in the lab and why should I wake him up?"

"Because if there's nothing wrong with him, he should be conscious." There was a moment of consideration then Katherine moved away to wake the man. The red head studied her. "Do I know you?"

"What? Oh, um, not really. I just sort of ran into you in the hall between classes the other day."

"Oh, you're the one. You didn't happen to find an extra padd, did you?"

"Ah, yes I did. But I couldn't find your name on it. I didn't know how to get it back to you. He's not waking up."

"Here, help me over to him."

Katherine stood, placed her hands under the woman's arms and dragged until she was within arm's reach of the unconscious man, then helped her sit up. "Sorry, I know that must have hurt."

"I'm okay." She pushed a strand of red hair away from her face and looked at the younger woman. "The name's Beverly Howard. Third year medical."

"Katherine Janeway, first year command." Kate smiled and shook the woman's outstretched hand. "Sorry about running into you the other day."

Beverly smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's hardly the worst thing that's happened to me. But I would like that padd back." The whole time she talked, Beverly ran scans of the man beside her. "That's odd," she announced at last.

"What?"

"He's reading as Betazed, but his vitals are more Kelborian. That could explain why he's unconscious." She tapped another command into the tricorder and took another reading. "Did you call for help?"

"Communications were down. I'll try again."

"Don't bother. Look, my leg needs attention soon, and this fellow needs a full diagnostic. He's got so many conflicting readings, I can't begin to determine his condition. Can you get to the turbolift? See if it's working and go get some help."

As soon as Janeway left, Beverly set the tricorder down and braced herself upright with both hands. Willing away the surge of pain, she reached out and touched the wounded man's wrist, looking for a pulse. She needed to touch the patient, to have contact with him to help block out her own injuries. Nana had told her that, and Beverly Howard never disputed any medical advice her Nana dispensed.

"The turbolift isn't functioning, and the access hatch to the Jeffries tube is fused. I tried the communicator and comm panel again - nothing. But," her voice rose with excitement, "I did find a first aid kit."

"Good," Beverly said, almost snatching the kit out of the cadet's hand. Then, realizing her mistake, she looked up at the woman and smiled. "Thank you."

Janeway relaxed a little and dropped to the floor, kneeling on the other side of the wounded man, carefully watching the medical cadet's every move. Emergency first aid was not one of her strongest skills.

An intense period of time later, Janeway leaned back, breathing easier. Beverly had discovered the problem, a slight concussion masked by his atypical readings, and administered the proper medication. Studying the improved tricorder readings, Beverly pronounced the man stable.

Katherine noticed the other woman's pallor and reached out to take the hypospray. Moving as if to study it, she switched it's setting for a painkiller, then, before Beverly could react, Kath gripped her arm and gave the injection. Fire blazed in the red head's eyes for about 30 seconds. Then the medicine took effect and she was suddenly too tired to do anything but lay down.

Katherine was ready and helped Beverly lay down, careful not to jar her wounded leg. Looking up groggily, Beverly frowned. "You used too much."

"No, I used enough to let you rest. So be quiet."

"I don't take orders from tin-plated little commandettes."

"And I don't take abuse from wannabe quacks who don't understand..." Janeway's tirade drifted away as the medical cadet stretched out beside her fell asleep.

*****

"Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic." Lt. Veris walked down the line of cadets rating their performance on the latest emergency procedures simulation. Coming abreast of Janeway he paused, then turned to look directly at her. He was frowning. "Janeway, would you care to explain to me why it took you so long to determine the turbolifts were not functioning? And why it took you significantly longer to try the comm panel in the research lab? And why the stars you overdosed the med cadet on pain killer? She slept through the entire rest of the simulation."

Janeway opened her mouth to respond, knowing she really had nothing to say, but Veris interrupted.

"I'll tell you why. You were overly concerned for the health of a crewman who was not seriously injured. Pathetic. I can only assume you'll do better on the next sim as there is no conceivable way you can do worse."

Turning away with a sneer, Veris waved his hand in dismissal of the entire room. "Dismissed. Get out of here and review emergency medical procedures. There will be a test. Soon."

*****

Katherine Janeway didn't have the energy to storm down the hall again. Once was enough. Instead, she practiced counting backwards in as many languages as she knew. Coming up to the intersecting corridor, she was nearly run over by a slender red head.

"Beverly."

The red head turned, startled. "Katherine?" Then they got a look at each other's expression. "I take it you got picked apart over the sim?"

"Lt. Veris strikes again."

"Veris? Oh he hates everybody. I got shredded by the Dragonlady herself."

"Sounds painful."

"Not as bad as pretending I had a broken leg for an hour. Those injury simulators they use hurt. My muscles are still sore. I won't be dancing for a week."

"You dance?"

"Mmmhmm, tap and jazz with a little ballet." She caught the cadet's expression. "You too?"

Kath shrugged, "Not since I got here. No time or place."

"I can fix that." Beverly assured her. "I've got class in about 1 minute and I really can't be late again. Not after the other day. Can we meet for dinner?" She lowered her voice. "I'll give you some dirt on Veris."

Janeway smiled. "I wouldn't miss it. Today at 1700 in the main cafeteria? I can return that padd."

Bev smiled. "Yeah, I missed all that bad poetry. Jack's been asking what I thought of it. I've had to stall him."

"Jack? Is that Mr Bad Poetry?"

"The one and only. "Beverly and Katherine had been moving down the hall as they talked, and Beverly stopped in front of a classroom door. "Hey, Jack will probably join us for dinner tonight. I'll ask Jean-Luc to come too. He's always like a third wheel when we go out, but this way there'll be four of us."

Katherine shook her head vigorously. "No. I don't..."

Beverly kept talking as if she hadn't heard. Lowering her voice and leaning close to Katherine, she said, "Oh it'll be great. Jean-Luc is wonderful. I'd take him myself if I didn't already have Jack. Besides," she added in a whisper, "He's got a great butt."

And with that, Beverly Howard smiled, did a graceful half turn, and disappeared into the classroom.

:::end:::

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