Seska paced her quarters. She had to get rid of Paris. Without revealing herself. Which left out simply pushing him out the airlock. Pity. Then her comm chimed. A message from the captain. She and Paris were going to go down the planet together. She smiled cruelly. Perfect. There were hundreds of �accidents� that could happen on an alien planet. Her eyes lit up in glee as she contemplated the possibilities. And wouldn�t it be great if she could make it seem as though Tom had betrayed them again. Then Chakotay wouldn�t fantasize about that too-damn-good-looking human, Tom Paris.

Tom powered up the engines of the shuttle, humming to himself. He loved piloting shuttles. Seska boarded the shuttle and sat next to him. He gave her a cocky grin. He wasn�t very comfortable around her, but he did his best to hide it.

�Ready to go?�

�As ready as I�m going to be.�

�Hey, don�t worry, you�re flying with me after all.�

�How reassuring.� Miffed Tom focused on flying. Seska got up and went to her stuff. Checking to be sure his attention was focused elsewhere she took out her laser and moved it up to the highest setting. All set.

The door opened. Tom picked up his laser and belted it on. Politely he picked up Seska�s and handed it to her. She gave him an odd smile, making him wonder if she was feeling alright. Maybe he�d suggest the Doctor look her over when they got back to Voyager. They had landed right on the ridge of a cliff. Curiously he walked up to the ridge and looked down. �Neat. Hey Seska, look at this.� There was no answer. He turned around, �Seska?� She was pointing her phaser at him. �WHOA!� He stumbled backwards and narrowly missed going over the cliff. �Hey Seska, can we talk about this?�

�Talk about what you human Bastard? Did you think you could take him from me without a fight? Did you?�

�What the hell are you talking about?�

�He�s mine, you soft skinned scum, too sexy. Too damn sexy. That�s what you are. He�ll forget you quickly enough. I�ll see to that. Who would want to be attracted to the filthy traitor who tried to kill you girlfriend?�

�Um, aren�t we getting it a little backwards. You are the one with the Phaser.� She was insane, Tom was certain about it.

�You tried to kill me, tried to kill me and steal the shuttle, but I was faster. I stole your phaser and shot you. Unfortunately it was set on the highest level. I�ll be devastated, he�ll hold me, and love me, and hate you. It�ll be me he dreams about. Me who makes him moan in need. You�ll just be a memory. An unpleasant one.� She shot him, he fell limply, over the cliff. Smiling cruelly she threw the phaser after him. No sense taking chances that someone might realize it was her phaser. She could always claim to be overwhelmed by grief at having killed someone. Even a traitor. Humming to herself she reentered the shuttle and prepared to act grief-stricken and shaken.

Tom rolled over the cliff, before he could hit the bottom, which would have surely killed him, a colorful piece of cloth opened up, catching him. He bounced and was lowered, unconscious, to the ground. Seska�s phaser still tucked into his belt. He�d gotten them mixed up.

Chapter 3