Carefully climbing the ladder bridging to the next deck, B'Elanna Torres had to decide what she could do during her temporary freedom. She could possibly help the Maquis in the Brig. If she managed to get them free too, together they could do some damage. But it was all too likely that very soon the idiot Brig guards would notice her absence if not told even sooner by Wildman, issue a Security Alert, and then the first thought would definitely be that she would be trying to free the Brig prisoners.
So she decided instead to make Chakotay's and the other escaped Maquis' job a little easier. In the end, that would help all the Maquis on and off Voyager.
It took an agonizingly long time for B'Elanna to reach the deck she wanted to be on. It would have taken under two minutes in a Turbo Lift, but she couldn't risk it. She put up with the burn that developed in her shoulders rather than slow her speed and take even longer.
She heard movements and voices at the workstation below her.
This section was staffed, although not by many. And they certainly wouldn't be expecting her.
B'Elanna crawled further into the Jefferies Tube, until she heard nothing below her. Ever so carefully, she silently pried open the hatch.
She let her legs drop through, wishing that she hadn't changed her uniform. In her old uniform, if the crew didn't see her face and only saw the ordinary engineering uniform coming through the ceiling they would assume she was part of a repair team and pay no attention until it was too late.
As it was, she was incredibly conspicuous. Almost no one walked around in civilian clothes, especially into areas like the one she was about to drop into.
She couldn't do anything about it now.
B'Elanna let go of the hatch and dropped down onto the floor. Before she even landed, B'Elanna was looking sharply around the room for any occupants.
There was no one. Around the corner, she could hear voices and computer noises, but no one walking into the deserted section where she was now.
She still didn't have any time to waste.
B'Elanna raced over to appropriate console and went to work.
She could do what needed to be done from here, but once they figured out what had happened, it could easily be reversed from the very same console.
She could make sure that the job was done and that anyone who wanted to repair it would have to manually fix what she was going to manually break.
It helped that she could do the necessary damage safely out of sight. Safely wasn't the word. Should the system be activated while she was trying to disable it, she would definitely be killed.
Which was why she deactivated it, in a way that the Bridge wouldn't notice it was off-line unless they tried to use it. They could get it back on-line easily while she climbed out, and hopefully they wouldn't be suspicious.
Because using it would accomplish exactly what B'Elanna wanted.
And she could trust Chakotay to take full advantage of the result.
It was the mental image of a horrified, enraged yet helpless Janeway standing on the Bridge that accompanied B'Elanna inside the cramped space, where she went quickly to work.
It was twenty minutes later-nearly an hour since B'Elanna had been free and just as she was finishing an impressive amount of sabotage-that there was a ship-wide announcement of a Security Alert.
B'Elanna Torres was free and very dangerous.
They were right about that. Late, but right.
She climbed out and shut the panel behind her.
There was still no one in the section. She boosted herself up into the open hatch and pulled herself completely into the Jefferies Tube. She closed the hatch firmly.
There was no sign she'd ever been there. Of course, nothing had exploded yet.