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around without a word. "Well," she
said, when it was obvious he wasn't going to comment on her improved
appearance. "What do y'all do around here for fun?" she asked,
momentarily slipping back into her southern accent.
    Before anyone could answer,
she walked to the side of the bridge and touched the glass. "This is
really amazing. It's practically invisible. How does it stay so clean?" She
pressed both hands against the glass then stepped back. Her prints remained
visible for only a few seconds before they vanished. "Self-cleaning, huh?"
She turned to see Mar grin at her and she smiled back.
    Cherry circled the bridge,
looking out from every angle possible. "It's so dark. How can you tell
where you're going?" When she received no answer to this question either,
she walked up behind Gallant and tried to read what was on the monitor in front
of him.
    Gallant tensed as he felt
her hovering over him. It was bad enough that he had made the mistake of seeing
what she looked like out of costume, with her this close he could practically
feel the energy radiating from her body. She was making it extremely difficult
to think of her as an inanimate object. "Perhaps you would like to read or
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 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
aloud 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 notes on a pad.
    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 Spartan 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.' 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