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watch a video. There's a personal viewer in my room you could use."
    "I'd rather take in the view right here. What's this?" she asked pointing to the grid on the screen in front of Mar-Dot.
    Dot turned to her with a smile. "That's the sector of space we're in now." She touched an illuminated blue spot on the grid. "There we are."
    Cherry bent over to get a closer look at the other spots and configurations on the grid. "Are one of those bigger shapes Earth?"
    Dot frowned and glanced at Voyager. "I am sure Captain Voyager would be much more capable of answering all your questions."
    With an abrupt twist, Mar faced his captain. "Please excuse us. It is past time for our rest period and you know Dot gets quite cranky—"
    "I do not get cranky," Dot insisted as she turned her face toward Cherry.
    "You do," Mar said, stepping away from the panel, "and we should not subject our guest to one of your moods."
    "My moods!"
    "You see, you are getting cranky."
    Cherry tried not to laugh at the he-she as they left the bridge, arguing back and forth in the same voice. A moment later their voices were cut off by the door to their room and Cherry turned to Voyager. "I guess you're used to that."
    He shook his head without looking at her. "I accept it. They're the best navigator in the galaxy."
    "So, tell me how all of this works," she said with a wave of her hand over the panel.
    "Wouldn't you rather take your rest now?"
    "You've got to be kidding. I just rested for twenty-four hours. I'm wide awake." She noticed that he appeared to be totally absorbed in whatever was on his monitor and she leaned over his shoulder to take another look.
    Immediately, he cleared the screen and turned his chair so that she was forced to move aside, while he made some adjustments on the navigator's side of the control panel.
    Cherry leisurely circled the panel, mainly to see if she could get him to follow her movement. So far, he had managed to avoid meeting her eyes except for the briefest moment and it was beginning to get on her nerves.
    Gallant let out an exasperated sigh. "If you think you could sit still for a few minutes, I'll answer your questions."
    Cherry smiled and looked around the unfurnished area. "I'd love to. Where would you suggest?"
    "Here," he said, and pulled a padded bench out from under the panel where Mar-Dot had been standing. "Mar-Dot doesn't sit often but when they have the need, they straddle this."
    Cherry sat down facing him instead of the unladylike position he suggested. "Okay, shoot." That almost made him look at her... but not quite.
    "Shoot?"
    "A Terran expression for go ahead, talk. Tell me how all of this works."
    Gallant turned his screen back on and punched a few buttons in front of him. His eye stayed on the monitor as he spoke to her. "Very simply, the computer oversees the basic operations and alerts me if anything is not functioning properly. As Dot told you, this ship was built for speed. It's lightweight and powered by a specially customized stardrive."
    He went on to explain how the stardrive worked but Cherry didn't understand enough about engineering to follow, so she let her mind wander. At any rate, for all the attention he was paying her, he could have been speaking to a piece of furniture. With every passing moment, it became more obvious that Voyager was purposely trying to ignore her presence.
    There was nothing she relished more than a challenge and with little else to do, she decided to accept the unspoken challenge to make him pay attention to her.
    "O-o-oh," Cherry suddenly moaned and covered her right eye with her hand.
    "What is it?" Gallant asked in a concerned tone, yet still kept his face averted.
    "I got something in my eye." She rubbed it, tugged on the lid then moaned again." Drek. It's probably just an eyelash but I can't get it out."
    Leaning closer to him, she pleaded, "Can you see anything?" She heard him take a deep breath before facing her and had to forcibly hold back her smile.
    "Move your