Title: Twist of Fate: Comings and Goings
Author: Whoa Nellie ([email protected])
Series: Voyager
Rating: NC-17
Codes: C/f, K/7
Synopsis: An away team mission to a
seemingly-uninhabited planet raises interesting issues for Chakotay and his
wife as well as Harry and Seven.
Originally posted to ASC on August 29, 2003.
As
always Paramount owns all the marbles, we just have a lot more fun playing with
them.
Feedback
is always appreciated, posted or
e-mail.
Whoa
Nellie's Romance Star Trek Fan Fiction Stories
http://whoanellie.fortunecity.com
COMINGS
AND GOINGS
Ceshlyta tossed her husband an apple
before selecting a peach for herself.
Now that the garden was in full production, fresh fruit was in abundant
supply. It was actually much easier to
get away for lunch with Chakotay on a routine basis since the garden was
finished, basic maintenance was not really time-consuming. She followed him to a small table near the
center of the room. That was mostly for
her benefit she knew; even after the many months that she'd been aboard
Voyager, the view from the windows was still unsettling. "So, when's the briefing?"
Chakotay froze, his fork in mid-air. "What briefing?"
"The mission briefing for the
expedition to that Class M planet tomorrow," Sassy said. Her first away mission--not counting that
horrible experience on Techora--so she was getting excited.
"This afternoon," he answered
her initial question. "Why?"
"So I know what time to be
there."
"You're not going," he stated
flatly.
Sassy laid her fork on the table. "Because?" she queried in a
deceptively soft voice.
"It's an uninhabited, unexplored
planet," Chakotay replied as if that statement was self-explanatory.
"Kathryn said that it was a jungle
environment and that this would be your first real opportunity to analyze the
botanical aspects of a planet."
"Kathryn," he mimicked her use
of Janeway's name, "is not in command of the away team. I am and I'm not taking you down
there."
"Why not? It's not like you have dozens of qualified botanists to choose
from," she pointed out. She was
torn--on the one hand, he was being protective and that was so sweet and
endearing; but on the other hand, she was an intelligent woman whose knowledge
could be useful and he didn't respect that knowledge enough to trust her in her
own element. Finally, a chance to do
more than take up space and resources aboard Voyager and her husband was too
concerned about her well-being to utilize her expertise. Granted, the garden was already producing
more than a third of Voyager's food resources and had reduced energy
requirements for the oxygen filtration system by ten percent. Chakotay would tell her that the garden was
a significant contribution to the ship, but this was a real opportunity to
contribute to their acquisition of knowledge on unexplored regions of space.
"We've gotten along just fine without
a botanist on away teams this far."
The man was being impossible. "But you don't have to get along
without one anymore," she pointed out.
"No," Chakotay said, his command
tone brooking no further discussion.
"Why not?" Sassy reiterated,
ignoring his authoritative tone. "As
enjoyable as that incident with the freaky oysters was, are you seriously
telling me that you would prefer taking Neelix rather than me?"
"That's different; Neelix is a
m--"
"I know you weren't about to say that
gender has anything to do with your feelings," she warned him. "Would you prefer that I was a
man?"
"No," he assured her. "But--"
"But what?" she demanded, her
voice louder than she'd intended.
Chakotay leaned forward and dropped his
voice to a bare whisper. "Neelix can
fire a phaser and pilot a shuttle; but yes, he's also a man and not my
wife."
"You asshole!" Sassy stood,
yelling. "How dare you throw my
beliefs back in my face like that. As
for my being a woman--if it weren't for women, men would still be hanging from
trees and picking fleas off their ass."
Tom and B'Elanna were getting their
lunches when Sassy's voice rose over the muted din of conversation. They watched the scene with amused interest
along with everyone else right up to where Sassy stormed out. Sauntering over to the table where Chakotay
sat, Tom casually commented, "My, that was vivid, wasn't it,
Chakotay?"
"Shut up, Tom," Chakotay
growled. Ignoring all of the looks and
whispers, he stalked out. He started
toward their quarters, assuming that she'd be there and they could finish this
discussion. When the turbolift doors
closed, he suddenly changed his mind.
There was another discussion he needed to have first. "Bridge."
Even Tuvok seemed mildly surprised at his
appearance on the bridge. His lunch
break wasn't even half over and since he'd started having lunch with his wife,
he was rarely back early. Chakotay
walked straight to the captain's ready room and entered without waiting for
Janeway's response to the door chime. He stopped short when a fencing sword nearly sliced through his
uniform jacket.
"Sorry, Commander," Janeway
said. She slid the epee into the sheath
at her waist. "I was just
practicing. Sassy's teaching me to
fence; we're going to play musketeers on the holodeck."
Chakotay strode into the room and stopped
in front of her desk. "Speaking of
my wife, we just had a rather public--actually, she just got very publicly
angry with me."
"You don't appear to have a broken
jaw or knives protruding from your body anywhere," she observed with
undisguised amusement.
"She's mad because I'm not including
her on the away team tomorrow and she seems to think I am in desperate need of
a botanist on this mission."
Unbuckling the scabbard, Janeway laid the
fencing foil on the sofa and settled in behind her desk. She stared expectantly at her first officer
and waited.
"It's a primitive, unexplored
planet," Chakotay argued.
"Who knows what dangers are there?"
"Here there be dragons," she quoted.
He began pacing the room. "She's a civilian, an academic..."
"An Indian who can start a fire
without technological aids or my hair," she couldn't help but point out.
Spinning to face his captain, he asserted,
"an alien planet is no place for a--"
"Botanist?" Janeway interrupted,
the corners of her mouth twitching. She
could just imagine how Sassy reacted to that attitude.
"You think I should take her down
there?"
"I think that I was wrong to discuss
the away mission over coffee with her and infer that she would be going,"
she acknowledged. "You are in
command of the away teams; the composition of the away team is your
choice."
"But," Chakotay prompted her to
drop the other shoe.
Janeway shrugged, straightening items on
her desk. "Personally, I have more
faith in her analysis of plant life than Neelix's."
Muttering to himself, he turned away.
"What was that, Commander?"
He shot her a dirty look. "I said that's the same argument Sassy
used."
"She was working in the jungles of Earth when she was sent
here," Janeway reminded him.
"No," she held her hand up to forestall his next comment. "This is between the two of you. The away team is your responsibility and so
is your marriage. I've already gotten
more involved in this than I should be.
You deal with it."
Chakotay nodded and started to leave. "Who's your third?"
"Pardon?"
"You said that you and Sassy were
going to be musketeers," he reminded her.
"Weren't there three of them?"
Janeway grinned. "I asked Seven but she declined participating in such a
frivolous endeavor." She pointed
to her fencing foil. "As if
learning how to wield a sword is frivolous."
Chakotay chuckled.
"And," she continued. "I didn't think it would be prudent to
put Sassy and B'Elanna in the same room, both armed with sharp objects."
"No," he concurred quickly.
"You volunteering, Commander?"
she asked with a smile. "Tights,
feathered cap, cape..."
"No."
...........................................................
"According to scans of the planet's
surface," Seven was saying, "there are no indications of humanoid
existence on the surface for at least several centuries. "Life signs do not indicate animal
life, but there is a pervasive energy reading that could indicate small animal
life, unlikely to be of significant size."
Harry deposited the last of the dinner
dishes in the replicator and activated the recycle sequence. "We covered all of that in the mission briefing
this afternoon," he told her.
"I am aware of that; however, I have
done additional scans since then," she informed him.
Pulling her into his arms, he began
swaying gently to the music playing softly in the background. She molded her body to his easily, the
flimsy fabric of his shirt not shielding the curves or warmth of her body. It was hard to believe that they'd been
involved for two months and intimately involved for nearly a month. While Seven still preferred quiet evenings
alone with him, they had also become a regular item at social events on
Voyager. She didn't get all emotional
like some women, but the emotions she did express were genuine and deep. He felt her fingers dig into his
shoulder. "Hey, are you all
right?"
"I am fine," she assured
him. Then she remembered that Harry
wished her to be open about her feelings toward him. "I am simply concerned for your safety on tomorrow's away
mission."
Twining his fingers in the blond hair
flowing down around her shoulders, he tilted her face up to his. "Why?"
"It is most anomalous for a Class M
planet to show no indication of humanoid existence. I have been unable to even formulate theories as to why this
planet is uninhabited."
Harry lowered his head to capture her
lush, full lips in a tender kiss. One
hand cupped her head while his other hand skimmed down the length of her
body. The catsuit fit like a second
skin, he could feel her muscles tightening under his fingers. Kneading the firm flesh of her buttocks, he
rocked their hips together. "I'm
sure you did your best, Seven," he rasped when the kiss ended.
She caressed his face. "I do not wish to be responsible for
any damage to you."
"This is a routine exploration,"
he reassured her. "We know more
about this planet than others we've visited."
"But we were not intimate then,"
Seven whispered.
Harry dropped a quick kiss on the end of
her nose, "I love you, Seven."
"I love you as well,
Harry." She wanted to do more than
say the words. She wanted to show him
how she felt and feel him express his sentiments. Tugging on his shirt, she nuzzled the sensitive section of skin
just below his ear while her hands slid underneath the fabric to explore the
smooth expanse of his chest. He always
made the same small sound--sort of a moaning sigh--when her fingers found his
nipples. He would soon desire to strip
off her clothing, he had become quite adept at removing her biometric outfit. She pushed his shirt up and over his head,
discarding it on the floor. Initially,
their clothing would be left strewn about the room and occasionally they were
still left lying about; however, lately Harry had been putting them away prior
to their intercourse. It was amusing to
hear his frustrated groan before he tore himself away to pick up whatever item
of clothing she had dropped to the floor.
Her small hands felt so good against his
skin and he knew when she bared his chest that he would feel her mouth
next. Reluctantly, he stepped back. If he left the clothes on the floor, he
would have to pick them up later. By
putting his clothes away and piling hers neatly on a chair beforehand, he could
linger in bed with Seven. When he got
up afterward, she would get up too and go back to the cargo bay. Since he'd been putting everything away
first, she'd spent the entire night beside him and had even begun to sleep a
little. She still needed to regenerate
on a regular basis, but waking up with her in his arms was the absolute best
way to start the day.
Seven watched him remove the rest of his clothing. The bronze hue of his skin, revealed a small
amount at a time, was a most pleasing view.
She wet her lips, recalling the feel of those muscles under her hands
and her mouth. Her body flooded with a
warm rush at the memories of the hours spent familiarizing herself with every
inch of his body. The dark skin was
soft to the touch yet the muscles underneath were rock-hard. His hair was thick but silky; although the
other area of hair on his body was more wiry and curly. Her nipples tingled as her gaze settled on
his erect length.
Anticipation building, he turned to
her. "You're still dressed."
Her eyebrow arched. "In circumstances where you do not
remove my clothing first, you wish to watch me remove it."
"Well, it's not the best part,"
Harry noted, stretching out comfortably on the bed. "But it's definitely in the top two." He clasped his hands behind his head,
resisting the urge to let them wander over his throbbing body as he watched
Seven undress. Cool air brushed across
his skin in a tormenting caress. She
moved gracefully to the foot of the bed and placed one foot on the blanket. Mentally, he applauded her ability to
balance on one impossibly high heel like that and imagined her performing a
sultry strip tease to music like the dancing girls back home did. His hips jerked at the image of Seven as a
femme fatale. She finished unfastening
the boot and drew her foot up and out, her toes nearly as high as her head at
one point. He shifted uncomfortably and
tightened his hands, resolutely refusing to give in to his body's demands.
Once she had removed her footwear, she
turned her back to him and reached up to begin unsnapping the closure to her
outfit. The difference was noticeable
and quite intriguing with regard to how her clothing was removed. When Harry removed it, his hands increased
her level of sensory awareness significantly which provided pleasurable
sensations prior to the actual intercourse, a slow, lingering build-up. When she removed her own clothing as he
observed, she became flushed and her hands began to tremble. Her body ached deep inside and continued to
intensify in magnitude so that when he touched her it seemed to explode and
initiate a powerful urge to copulate.
Pulling the snaps open slowly, she attempted to steady her
breathing. Although she was reluctant
to discuss the matter with Harry, she preferred the occasions when she removed
her own clothing. Once the snaps were
all open, she turned to face him. His
eyes were extremely dilated and his own respiration was rapid and
unsteady. Drawing the material down,
she exposed her breasts before removing her arms from the sleeves. She stood still for a moment, enjoying the
pulsations at the juncture of her thighs.
When Harry groaned her name and dropped his hands to grip the blanket,
she slid her suit off and removed her undergarments. Folding the items neatly, she set them on a chair and strode back
to the foot of the bed. Her body was
consumed with an erratic pounding, the build-up to what would be a most
enjoyable orgasm. She placed a knee on
the bed and crawled up his body allowing her nipples to graze his skin. The sharp twinge of sensation that it caused
served to intensify her arousal and it seemed to effect his as well.
He couldn't wait any longer. Grabbing handfuls of silky, blond hair, he
drew her up and rolled so that she was under him. His mouth came down, his tongue delving in to the moist cavern to
caress and play with her tongue. With
his knee, he nudged her creamy thighs open and settled his body more
comfortably onto hers. He broke the
kiss and raised his head; he enjoyed watching her eyes as he slid himself
slowly into the hot depths of her body.
Her blue eyes locked with his, getting bigger and bluer with every
breath. When he reached his full
length, her eyes drifted shut and a beautiful smile accompanied her soft sigh
of satisfaction. Their bodies felt so
good together, they both enjoyed the feeling of perfect union. Eventually, however, their bodies demanded
more. He drew her knees up to encircle
his waist and, cupping her sweet hips in his hands, began thrusting into
her. The wet heat of her body gripped
him, completely open to him, and he wished that it would last forever.
It was times such as this, Harry's body
driving into hers with his arms around her and his mouth on hers, when she
truly felt human. Most of the time it
seemed as though she belonged nowhere--no longer Borg, but not really
human. Safe in the warm, intimate
embrace of Harry, she belonged.
Shifting her legs further up, she urged him to increase his tempo. Her hands guided his mouth down to her
breasts and held him tightly as he latched onto an aching nipple and began
sucking on it. High-pitched whimpers
rose from her larynx and her head pressed back into the pillow, arching into
his mouth. Her body was beginning to
prepare for orgasm, muscles contracting and the ache in her body increasing
exponentially.
Her soft sounds of passion caressed his
ears, goading him to a harder, faster pace.
His mouth moved to her other breast, enjoying the way she gave herself
to him so freely and unreservedly. He
paused to clamp down on his control, her pleas for him to continue nearly his
undoing. Beginning again, this time he
thrust hard and slow, drawing out their pleasure. As he withdrew, her body spasmed, pulling him completely back
into her. He stroked into her several more
times, her muscles quivering around him before his own release ripped through
him. Collapsing onto her, he gently
nuzzled the delicate skin along her throat.
Seven savored the aftereffects of their
intimacy for several moments. When he
showed no inclination to move, she tapped his shoulder. "I should return to the cargo bay. You are scheduled for the away mission at
0800."
"No," he tightened his hold on
her soft, yielding body. "Please
don't, I want you to spend the night here." Reversing their positions, he settled her against his chest with
his body still inside her.
"I will comply."
..................................................................
The garden lights were dimmed and the
holographic sky projected the glow of a full moon over the garden when Chakotay
entered. Sassy's message had said that
she was working late and would meditate in the garden afterwards; but now it
was getting late and they hadn't spoken since that scene at lunch. He found her sitting cross-legged on the
rock slabs surrounding the holographic waterfall, apparently deep in
meditation. She looked so serene, so
beautiful, even in her utilitarian jumpsuit with her long, black hair pulled
back in a single braid. Her graceful,
slender fingers were idly caressing her bracelet. "Sassy?" he said gingerly.
"Yes," she replied without
opening her eyes.
He sat down beside her, reaching out to
toy with her braid. "It's getting
late; are you almost finished?"
"No."
"Am I interrupting a vision
quest?" he asked quickly. Sassy
didn't use the akoonah, so it wasn't always easy to tell. Her ancestors had adopted Japanese
traditions into their ways and used Zen meditative techniques to communicate
with their spirit guides.
"No, I finished that a little while
ago," she replied.
Chakotay sat quietly for several moments,
watching the holographic water fall down to play at the foot of the projected
cliff. "Can we go home now?"
Sassy sighed and opened her eyes to look
at him. "I'm finished with my work
for the day and I'm finished speaking with my spirit guide. What I'm not finished with yet is being
angry with you."
"Mi aalm," he began.
"No," she cut him off. "Nothing will change how much I love
you. I just need to be mad for a while
longer before I yield to your decision."
Chakotay brought up the compromise that
he'd suggested at the briefing earlier.
Apparently he was the only one on the ship who didn't think that Sassy
should be part of the away team.
"After we've done an initial survey of the planet, we'll bring down
science personnel--including you."
Sassy tried to explain her feelings. "This isn't about whether or not I go
down to that planet. I understand that
your refusal to include me on this, or any, away team comes from your love for
me and your desire to protect me. I
love you for that. It's just that my
skills as a botanist and herbalist are all I have to offer here on Voyager and
my own husband doesn't respect those abilities enough--"
"That's not true," he insisted.
"If I were a member of this crew,
Starfleet or Maquis, you wouldn't hesitate to include me on away missions where
a botanist could be useful," she countered. "I know that my gender isn't an issue to you; I was angry
and said things before that were unfair."
"But colorful."
Sharing a tender smile with her husband,
she continued. "I know that you
treat everyone the same, regardless of their gender. Look at B'Elanna, she's frequently part of away teams and you
rely on her engineering knowledge a great deal. You've accepted Kathryn's authority, serving under her for nearly
six years now. So, the difference must
be in your feelings for me; specifically in the amount of respect you have for
my knowledge, skills and abilities."
She reached for his hand, stroking her thumb across the mark of their
wedding rings in his palm. "I
don't doubt that you love me, Chakotay; but right now I don't feel that you
respect me and that hurts."
"You're right," he sighed then
immediately realized what he'd insinuated.
"I mean you're wrong--no, you're . . . " he broke off, raking
his fingers through his hair in frustration.
"Let me try that again. I
love you and just looking around at this beautiful garden and remembering the
sparse hydroponics bay that used to be here, I am in awe of your botanical expertise. My reluctance to take you on the away team
came from the memory of how it felt when I thought I'd lost you on
Techora." He cupped her face in
both of his hands. "I go through
my days happier than I've ever thought possible just knowing that you're here
in the garden and that I'll be coming home to you when my duty shift is
over. Part of me just wants to lock
that garden door and put a level ten forcefield around this room to keep you
safe."
Sassy nuzzled the large, warm palms
holding her. "A bird in a cage
will forget how to sing," she whispered.
"I know."
Placing a kiss on each strong, brown palm,
she uncrossed her legs. "I think
I'm finished now. Let's go home."
Torn between duty and desire, Chakotay
pulled her against him, his lips claiming her in a searing kiss. "Promise me that nothing will happen to
you," he begged against the full, yielding lips.
She pressed her body closer to his, her
fingers entwined in his thick, dark hair.
"I promise," she whispered back.
Breaking the kiss, he searched her
eyes. "How can you make that
promise?"
"The same way you can ask me to make
you that promise," she said fingers playing with the short hair at the
nape of his neck.
He buried his face against her throat, kissing
the soft flesh as his hands found the tie for her braid and combed through the
long, black hair until it cascaded around her like a silken waterfall. Mindless of where they were, he needed to
feel the warmth of her beautiful, tawny skin against his body. He reached down to swiftly pull off her
boots, discarding them in the middle of the holographic pool. Her jumpsuit fell open easily under his
hands revealing the simple, white brassiere, stark against her honey-toned
skin. His body, already tight with
desire, hardened painfully at the innocently erotic vision. He shoved the jumpsuit down and tossed it
away, leaving her clad in only her bra and underwear. She never tried to be overtly sexy but she was so naturally
sensuous that it didn't matter what she wore.
Sassy moaned, arching into the hands
running feverishly over her body. Their
sassy and contrary natures made it surprising that they didn't clash more
often. She gasped when the wet heat of
his mouth enveloped the tip of one breast, unsure of when he had removed the
last scraps of her clothing. Her hands
pulled weakly at his uniform, gripping the material more than trying to remove
it as his fingers stroked and inflamed the pulsating juncture of her
thighs. She squirmed restlessly, the
cold rock under her back and fire moving from one breast across to the other
with pleasure coursing through her from the ministration of his hand
below. Suddenly the fire was gone and
she opened her eyes to protest.
Chakotay was standing over her, stripping off his uniform. Surrounded by the plants and trees of the
garden, his tanned skin bathed in moonlight, he was the most incredible vision
that she had ever seen. She was
reminded of their honeymoon on Voyager's holodeck after their Starfleet wedding. They hadn't worn clothing much that
week--they hadn't needed clothing.
Shadows and soft, glowing light danced across the muscular lines of his
body, the broad expanse of his chest tapering down to his waist and, below
that, the pulsing, throbbing evidence of his arousal.
Kneeling between her supple thighs, he
hovered over her, his body grazing against the glistening mound and relishing
each gasp that it brought to her lips.
His mouth sought hers, crushing her lips beneath his in a demanding
kiss. Her arms and legs pulled at him,
drawing his body to hers. They fit
together, their bodies and souls always a perfect harmony; it had left an
emptiness in his heart when they argued earlier and he needed to feel complete
with her again. He felt her small hand
grip him, guiding him into the hot, pulsating cavern of her body even as she
coaxed his tongue into the moist depths of her mouth and began sucking on
it. She was tightening herself around
his hard length at the same time that she suckled his tongue, stroking him at
both ends and creating delicious electric pulses shooting through his
body. With one particularly sharp
twinge, he shivered violently and began moving. His strokes were long, slow and deep, enjoying the feel of her
body under him and around him. As the
pressure mounted, he thrust harder and faster until he was pounding her, her
hips twisting up to meet his every drive.
Need dominated her every sense. The feel of his body slamming into her,
slamming her down against the hard rock.
His skin tasted of salt, perspiration beading on them both to trickle
down and intermingle. Brown eyes,
almost luminescent under the lights, held her gaze with the sounds of their
bodies frantically striving to reach the ultimate pleasure wafting through the
room. The musky odor of sex mingled
with the sweet essence of the flowers in an olfactory feast of nature. Her body clutched at him more intensely, the
muscles tightening in anticipation. His
thrusting stopped for just a second, his hands urging her legs up onto his
shoulders and she gasped at the sensation of his body driving into hers even
deeper than before. She urged him to a
faster tempo, the burning pleasure of his body stroking hers sending her into
new heights of desire. An uncontrollable
spasm tore through the length of her body, a strong release ripping a cry of
satisfaction from her throat.
Burying himself deep inside her one last
time, he let the contractions rippling through her body bring him to orgasm,
calling out her name as his body jerked.
The hiss of the door startled him out of his haze, snapping his
attention to the door. Nobody was in
the room, whoever it was must have beaten a hasty retreat when they realized
that they were interrupting something.
"Damn," Chakotay swore softly, reaching for his clothes.
Sassy giggled and sat up. She watched her husband struggling to get
dressed, in no hurry for her own clothing since no one was there. "They're gone now; that's a little like
closing the barn door after the horse is gone."
"Who was that?" he ignored her
wry comment. "Did you see?"
Shrugging, she replied. "I don't know and I don't really want
to know. Do you truly want to know who
just witnessed their First Officer's bare ass--adorable though it is--waving to
the world?"
He closed his eyes at that mental
image. "Probably not. Besides, I need to get you briefed if you're
going to be on my away team in the morning."
"Are you sure?" her question was
soft, tentative. She stood, reaching
out to fasten the top buttons of his uniform jacket.
"Yes, you and everyone else on this
ship were right and I was wrong. You
are the ship's sole botanist and we could use that knowledge on the away team
tomorrow."
Sassy traced the lines of his tattoo. "Thank you." Her lips covered his in a long, tender
kiss. When they finally separated, she
looked down at her still-nude body.
"I guess you'll have to rebrief me from your earlier debriefing of
me so that I can be properly briefed."
Chuckling, he dropped a kiss on the end of
her nose. "You are--"
"Sassy," she waggled her
eyebrows up and down irrepressibly.
"Yep."
.................................................................
Entering the transporter room the next
morning, Harry, Tom and Neelix were already there. "There's been a slight change of plans," Chakotay told
them. "Sassy's coming along after
all."
"Wonderful," Neelix gushed. "Will you still be needing me then,
Commander?"
Sassy stepped in quickly. "Of course, I'm just along to provide
botanical expertise."
Chakotay motioned toward the transporter
pad, "let's get going."
"Just one thing, sir," Crewman
Henley said. "The vegetation is
extremely dense and there's a low level of interference. I might be able to beam you through
it--"
"But we could end up in the middle of
a bog or something," Harry finished nervously. "Maybe I should take a look at those readings before we beam
down."
Henley stepped aside to let Kim view the
display. "I've located some
clearings where the trees thin out enough to get a clear lock," he
informed Chakotay. "If you get in
trouble, I can try to use Lieutenant Torres' skeletal lock to pull you out, but
a clearing will provide an easier transport."
"Understood," Chakotay
acknowledged. He stepped onto the
transporter pad beside Sassy; this was it, he was taking her down into an
unknown environment where they might not be able to beam her back quickly. His hand brushed the phaser he wore,
reassuring himself that he had the means to protect her if need be. He would feel better if she had a phaser
also, but he couldn't ask her to violate her beliefs just to make him feel
better. She was every inch an Inihasa,
something she had never compromised and, in fact, trusted a great deal to in
deciding to come to Voyager. Checking
to see that the other members of the team were armed and in their places on the
transporter pad, he exhaled slowly.
"Energize."
Five forms materialized on the surface and
simultaneously reached for their tricorders.
Chakotay resisted the urge to draw his phaser, settling instead on a
quick 360 degree scan with his tricorder.
"No life signs," he announced.
"No life signs?" Sassy echoed
incredulously. "Just look around,
there's life everywhere." It
reminded her of the rainforest back on Earth.
Lush, green vegetation, a cornucopia of trees, flowers and plant life
everywhere she looked. She immediately
began scanning, activating a personal recorder to take notes of the
surroundings. "Soil has a very low
pH, but I don't think it's acidic enough to eat through the soles of our
shoes."
"Acid?" Neelix gulped, quickly
looking at the bottom of his feet.
Tom checked the pH reading of the soil on
his tricorder. "She's right, it's
not going to eat through inorganic material.
It might burn organic material, though, so try not to fall down or
anything."
Harry gave a barely subdued shiver. "Gee, thanks for the advice."
"Is anything growing here going to be
edible with that kind of soil?" Chakotay asked.
Sassy shrugged. "Hard to make that kind of generalization. If I'm reading this right, there should be
birds of some sort around here which might mean edible fruit. The readings from the soil show copious
amounts of uric acid."
"Why does that mean birds?"
Neelix asked.
Harry pulled an arcane bit of knowledge
from an academy biology class out of his memory. "There's a lot of uric acid in bird waste but none in
mammals."
"Right," Sassy confirmed. "Sensors couldn't detect any large
mammals and it would take a whole lot of birds to turn the soil this acidic,
but I don't know how else this much uric acid would get into the soil
otherwise."
Chakotay scanned the tree line nervously,
visions of a flock of birds large enough to black out the sky coming at them in
waves flashed before his eyes.
"Stay sharp. Harry, you,
Tom and Neelix go fifty meters that way," he pointed east. "Sassy and I will take this
direction. Stay in touch."
"And don't touch anything,"
Sassy added. "Preliminary scans
show a high percentage of potentially toxic plants."
The group split up, each moving in their
assigned directions. Sassy took the
lead, scanning all of the plant life for hazards before moving through. She stopped frequently to take samples of
various plants and flowers for analysis.
When one plant in particular actually bent toward her, she jumped
back.
Chakotay had been scanning the tree canopy
overhead for animals when Sassy backed into him. "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine," she murmured
absently, intrigued by her tricorder readings.
She reached for her communicator, "Sassy to Harry."
"Go ahead," Harry's voice
instantly came back through the communicator.
"Do you see plants that look like a
bulb on a thick stem with leaves?"
"Yes, do you want me to pick you
one?" he asked.
"No," Sassy said sharply. "In fact, I want you to stay at least
ten centimeters away from the plant. It
can reach around itself for the length of the stem and it appears to be a
carnivorous variety. One very nearly
bit me."
"Understood," came Harry's
reply.
Chakotay took a closer look at the plant
in question. "Is it
poisonous?"
Sassy frowned at her tricorder
readings. "I don't know. These readings are confusing; on the one
hand, it has a complex root system, capitulum form, more likely asexual
reproduction through the use of runners."
"Asexual as opposed to?" he
asked curiously.
"Sexual," she replied
succinctly. "Many varieties of
plants require sexual reproduction to propagate."
Chakotay chuckled. "Gives a whole new meaning to the birds
and bees thing."
"There's a lot more to botanical sex
than what we did in the garden last night," she grinned and shot him a
suggestive wink. "Orchids in
nature, for example, are known to seduce male bees into pseudocopulation in
order to achieve pollination. Sexual
reproduction simply means that the plant needs something from another plant in
order to reproduce. Pollen grains are
sort of like sperm to a flower, add them to the stigma and seeds begin to form
in the ovary."
Chakotay watched her working, completely
in her element. "If I'd known
botany was that interesting, I might have taken a few more classes in it at the
academy."
Sassy began recording her observations on
her personal recorder. "These
carnivorous plants appear to be a cross between the plant kingdom and animal
kingdom. It displays a musculature
reminiscent of Dionaea muscipula or
Utricularia vulgaris, but with both more control and more advanced sensory
awareness of its surroundings. It moved
toward me even though I was not in physical contact with any portion of the
plant."
"Did you just say that these things
are animals?" he asked.
"I said I didn't know if they were
plants or animals," she clarified.
"Active carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap or bladderwort
show rapid movement in capturing their prey, usually small insects and such who
land on the flower. These plants showed
rapid movement as well as awareness and control in that I wasn't touching the
plant to stimulate the response. "
"Paris to Chakotay," Tom's voice
broke into the conversation.
"Go ahead, Tom," Chakotay
replied.
"We've found something, a structure
of some sort. Definitely artificial,
but it's overflowing with those plant things that Sassy told us to stay clear
of," Tom reported.
Chakotay checked for their location on his
tricorder. "Acknowledged, we're on
our way."
Sassy shifted her sample bag to her other
shoulder and followed him back in the direction they had come from. Something was wrong; she could feel an
imbalance around her, she just couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. Continuously scanning as they walked, she
studied the readings. Several times
they had to quickly step out of the way when the animal-plants snapped at
them. "Oh look," she pointed,
"teeth, enamel teeth."
"Fascinating," Chakotay mumbled,
carefully picking his way through a batch of them.
At the structure, Tom edged closer in an
effort to peer inside the window. Harry
and Neelix waited well back from the mass of carnivore plants. "It looks like it might have been used
for research," he said.
"Tom, be careful," Harry
warned. In the next instant, he was
moving toward Tom who was yelling and stumbling backward. "What happened?"
Tom looked down at his foot, wide-eyed
with surprise. The toe of his boot was
gone and judging by the blood gushing from the opening, so were his toes.
"Oh my goodness," Neelix gasped.
All around them, the carnivore plants were
going wild, waving madly and shooting fluid through the air. Harry hit his communicator. "Kim to Voyager, initiate emergency
transport. Three to beam up this
location."
Janeway's voice came back through. "Harry, what's wrong?"
Taking aim with his phaser, Harry stunned
a nearby plant and sidestepped the liquid arcing out of the bulb. "We're under attack, sort of; the
plants are trying to slime us."
"There's a lot of interference,"
Henley's voice cut in. "Attempting
skeletal lock transport, protocol Torres 1.
Standby."
Neelix watched a spray of liquid flying
toward him just as the transporter beam engulfed the trio.
Aboard Voyager, Tom pulled out his
tricorder, scanning Harry and Neelix to check for injuries and seeming not to
even be aware of his own. Satisfied
that nobody else was injured, he started to step off the transporter pad and
slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Harry knelt beside Tom and hit his
communicator. "Doc, incoming
wounded. Tom got bit by something down
on the planet." He nodded to
Henley who transported Tom to Sickbay.
Down on the planet's surface, Chakotay and
Sassy had been making their way toward the structure that the others had
located when the plants went wild.
"Watch it," Sassy warned.
"They're spitting poison, highly acidic and highly
concentrated."
Chakotay's commbadge chirped. "Chakotay here."
"Prepare for emergency
beam-out," Janeway informed him.
"The others came under attack; Tom's in Sickbay."
.......................................................................
Janeway settled into her chair and
surveyed the table. There were the
usual people in their customary seats with the exception of Ceshlyta in place
of the unconscious Tom Paris.
"Doctor, how is Mr. Paris?"
"I had to place him in stasis,"
the EMH reported. "He lost half of
his big toe and part of several others.
The biggest problem is some sort of venom that's spreading through his
body."
Janeway looked over at Sassy. "What are we dealing with?"
Pulling up an image of the carnivore
plant, Sassy began her report.
"From a preliminary analysis of the tricorder readings, I'd guess
that this is a genetically engineered animal-plant hybrid." She switched the view to a schematic of the
plant's structure. "It actually
has a more advanced physiology than any invertebrate in the animal kingdom;
although it's not as complex as vertebrates.
There's no skeletal system, but there is an advanced muscular system and
a sensory system that reaches beyond its surface. If you look here, it appears to have a respiratory system--plants
do take in oxygen--or respirate--they just don't normally use rudimentary lungs
to do so. These plants are the source
of the uric acid in the soil, they have an excretory system that processes both
liquid and solid waste. There's also a
much more advanced circulatory system than expected for plant life."
Neelix interrupted with a question. "Plants have circulation?"
"Phloem or xylem are networks that
carry food or water from one part of the plant to another--sort of a plant
circulatory system. These plants have a
circulatory system with a pulsing organ near the middle of the stem pushing
fluid that is not water through the plant structure."
"Can we communicate with it?"
Chakotay asked.
Sassy shook her head. "Unlikely; the nervous system is
connected to a mass of cells that is sending out minor electrical impulses
comparable to a brain stem of sorts.
There's no indication of sentience, at least not on any scale that would
allow more than instinctive behavior.
Those electrical impulses multiplied by a factor of ten when Tom was
bitten and a chemical was released through the plant's structure--an endocrine
response possibly. The fact that they
have roots, reproduce asexually and engage in photosynthesis make them plants
in a technical sense of the word even though the internal organs and other
attributes are more animal-like in nature."
"Reptilian to be precise," the
EMH provided. "I analyzed the
poison in Mr. Paris' blood. It bears
many similarities to snake venom with a much higher pH."
Tuvok wanted something clarified. "You stated that these plants were
genetically engineered. Please
elaborate."
"I wasn't entirely sure at
first," Sassy began. "But
nature is a balance and these plants do not require outside elements to
reproduce themselves, have what I'm guessing is a reasonably long life
span and they do not appear to have any
natural predators to keep their growth in check. In fact, there are no animals of any kind--not even insects--on
the planet surface. I'd need the doctor
to review these readings but if I'm right, these plants are suffering from malnutrition--they're
starving to death, slowly since their photosynthesis provides a buffer against
the lack of food. They were probably
created to guard or to deal with pests of some sort and their creators lost
control. At least that's my best guess
based on what I've seen."
B'Elanna snorted. "So they just packed up and ran."
"Or, and more likely, were killed and
eaten along with all other life on the planet," Sassy countered. "They appear to be strictly carnivorous
which is why the other plant life on the surface is so abundant."
Janeway got back to the present
dilemma. "What about Tom?"
"I need one of these plants to study
so I can develop an antivenin," the EMH said.
Sassy looked across the table at the
EMH. "Can't you do that with just
a sample of the venom?"
"I'd like a chance to study this
plant more closely beyond the venom," he replied. "We could beam one up and put it back
when we're done with it."
Sassy regarded Chakotay carefully. "I'd advise against that. I don't have the facilities to handle
hazardous plant life aboard Voyager.
Besides, the entire reason I didn't take any samples of that plant was
because I couldn't say with any certainty whether it was a plant or an
animal. The root system appears to be
interconnected and, based on the behavior on these 'piranha' plants near
Chakotay and me when the others were attacked, I'm guessing that the roots
serve as a communication system of some type.
I'm not going to dismember an animal just for the sake of curiosity. I'm fascinated by it, too. I just think that the risks and the ethical
considerations are too great to justify any information we may get."
"So just what do you suggest we
do?" B'Elanna snarled at her.
"Let Tom die?"
"Of course not," Janeway said.
Sassy appealed to the captain. "This may be an abomination that nature
never intended, but it is alive in some sense."
Chakotay spoke up. "What if we go back and get a sample of
the poison?"
"That would be enough for me to help
Tom," the EMH conceded. "I
could beam down, the plants couldn't harm me."
"They were spitting," Harry
warned.
"Acid," Chakotay added. "What if some of that acid hit your
mobile emitter?" He couldn't
believe what he was about to suggest.
"Sassy and I will go."
Everyone, including Sassy, gaped at him in
stunned silence.
"But, Commander," the EMH
argued. "This is an animal, a
doctor would be a better choice for the job."
"It's also a plant," Chakotay
countered.
Janeway made her decision. "Botanist trumps doctor on this
one. Chakotay and Sassy will return to
the surface and take just what we need without harming it unless absolutely necessary. A botanist would have a better chance of
success."
"Harry," Chakotay said. "You shot at them with your
phaser. What happened?"
"They sort of dropped over,
drooping," he described.
"Phasers were set on low stun."
Chakotay nodded, meeting Sassy's
gaze. This was it, how much did he
trust her skills and abilities? "If
I stun one of these plants, can you extract what we need without harming
it?"
"Who cares!" B'Elanna
exclaimed. "It's killing Tom; just
kill one and cut it open."
Janeway started to respond, paused and
tried again. "I realize that
you're worried about Tom and when you were being used as a host to that alien
parasite, Tom was willing to go to any lengths to save you. We were fortunate that a decision between
your life and the alien's life wasn't ultimately necessary. In this case, artificially-created or not,
these plants are alive in some weird sense.
If we can get what we need without further conflict, then that's what
we'll do."
"The venom sac should be near the
teeth," Sassy said. "Once
Chakotay's stunned it, it shouldn't take me long to get a sample of the fluid
from the sac. How are we going to deal
with the others spitting acid at us?"
"Tough it out," B'Elanna
suggested sarcastically.
"Encounter suits," Harry
suggested. "They should protect
you long enough to get what you need."
.......................................................................
"What you need is my sister the
zoologist," Sassy was muttering to herself a short time later. 'Be careful what you wish for,' the old
adage was annoyingly true. She had
wanted Chakotay to respect her as much as he loved her. Now she found herself being helped into an
encounter suit so she could beam down to handle an acid-spitting plant without
harming it.
"Ready?" Chakotay asked,
ensconced in his own suit.
Sassy took a deep, steadying breath and nodded. "Let's go," she said as she
grabbed the special container for the highly acidic venom. B'Elanna was handling the transporter
herself, not something that gave Sassy much comfort. Being ripped apart molecule by molecule wasn't a comforting
concept under the best of circumstances; given who was doing the dismantling,
it was even more unsettling. Looking at
the container in her hand, she reminded herself that B'Elanna loved Tom and the
material she would be carrying was essential to Tom's survival. She tried not to think about the fact that
B'Elanna could just pluck the canister out of her hands with the transporter if
she wanted to.
It was quiet when they materialized on the
surface. Chakotay located one of the
plants nearby and pointed his phaser at it.
"Wait," Sassy yelled, her voice
muffled by the suit.
Reaching over, he showed her where the
intercom button was so they could talk.
"What?"
"That's a baby, Tom was bitten near
the apparent source of creation which would mean an older plant." She started off toward the trees in search
of an appropriate specimen. "They
must have a sense of smell," she noted.
"They're aware we're here, but they don't appear to see us as
food."
"Good," Chakotay murmured, his
phaser at the ready.
Sassy pointed at a plant near the edge of
the tree line. "Here's an
adult."
The plants reacted when he fired, frantic
movement as if they were craning to see the source of the danger. He watched Sassy kneel beside the plant and
begin carefully prodding it's 'mouth.'
She had replicated special rubber gloves used for handling poisonous
snakes to use for this mission.
"I kind of hate to cause trouble by
bringing this up," Sassy said as she worked. "Oh--can they hear us on Voyager?"
"No," he replied. "What's wrong?"
Carefully milking the plant so that the
venom dripped into the container, she searched for the right words. "I'm not all that experienced with
beaming so . . . well . . . couldn't Harry or anyone else have handled the
transporter for this?"
"B'Elanna will do fine. Has she given you any trouble since
Techora?" Chakotay moved closer,
trying to shield her while she worked.
A couple of the plants were sending experimental streams of venom
through the air, trying to find them.
"No," Sassy replied. "It's just the idea of trusting my life
to someone who very nearly ended it is a bit much. The fact that you thought of me first for this job was
wonderful. I would just prefer that the
person dismembering my molecules is someone I'm confident is planning to
reassemble my molecules."
Chakotay sighed, those two would probably
never get along well. "We need to
trust one another out here. B'Elanna's
our Chief Engineer, if anything goes wrong she can get us out faster than
anyone."
"Got it," she announced,
shrugging off his prior comment.
"You know, since they don't seem to be able to sense us through
these suits, maybe we could check out that research facility that the others
found."
"No," he stated firmly. He activated his communicator. "Chakotay to Voyager, we've got it. Ready to beam back up."
........................................................................
Harry picked at the food on his tray,
resisting the urge to call Sickbay for an update on Tom. The Doctor had his hands full with B'Elanna
hovering in Sickbay while he worked on the antivenin. A soft touch on his hand brought him out of his contemplation.
"You are not eating," Seven
observed from her seat across the table.
Flipping his hand over, he held the long,
slender fingers and gently traced along the metallic lines of her Borg
components. "I'm just worried
about Tom."
"The Doctor will not be able to
concentrate on treating Tom if you are transported to Sickbay due to
insufficient blood glucose, electrolytes--"
"I get your point," Harry
chuckled. He took a bite of his
dinner. "See?"
Seven studied the dark, handsome man
listlessly eating dinner on the other side of the table. She had tapped into the away team's
communications on the surface earlier.
Frustrated at being in Astrometrics, unable to do anything to assist
Harry, she had felt an overwhelming fear at his call for an emergency
transport. Tears had actually been
released from her eyes at the sound of phaser fire in the background. She knew that feeling relieved upon learning
that Tom was the injured member of the team was inappropriate, but it was preferable
to the feeling she experienced when she thought it was Harry.
"Penny for your thoughts," he
said, noticing her intense stare.
Confused, she started to ask for
clarification before recognizing the colloquialism. It occurred to her that he had changed over the past two months;
before, he would have inquired if there was something embarrassing about his
appearance. He had more confidence now,
a trait that was most appealing.
Suddenly she desired to be alone with him. "I was concerned for your well-being on the surface."
Harry raised her hand to his mouth and
kissed the tip of each finger.
"I'm fine; you gave the rest of the away team, including me, a
clean bill of health yourself while the Doc was working on Tom, remember?"
"I do recall the performance of my
duties," Seven remarked. "I
was merely contemplating the wisdom of examining you more thoroughly in private
to ensure that your skin is indeed unmarred."
Catching the sexual innuendo, he started
to push his tray away.
"After you have had sufficient
sustenance," she finished pointedly.
Harry stabbed into the food on his plate
and brought up a large forkful. He
grinned and shot her a suggestive wink.
"I will comply."
........................................................................
Sassy exhaled slowly and stretched. She had just completed her report on both
trips to the surface and the samples that she'd collected on the initial survey
were catalogued and safely in stasis.
Tom was recovering with a little input from her, she grinned to herself. The Doctor had created an antivenin and
requested a couple of the herbs from the garden for the serum feeling that they
would be more potent than a synthesized version. He was becoming quite the herbalist since their fight over her
medicinal herbs. He had even added some
herbs from some of the planets they'd been to so that he could study their
effects on various humanoid races and entrusted her to tend to 'his'
plants. At any rate, it was now the end
of a very long day.
She was expecting the quarters to be dark
when she entered, so she was surprised to find a light still on. She was even more surprised when large,
strong arms encircled her and swept her off her feet. Her mouth eagerly met the firm lips that covered hers, welcoming
the questing tongue that slipped in to play with hers. Resting her hands on broad shoulders as she
was carried into the bedroom, she kicked off her boots. No matter what else was going on, alien
threats to the ship, imminent warp core failures or other assorted disasters,
being with Chakotay made her life aboard Voyager worth everything she had given
up to come here. She was gently set on
her feet next to the bed and she closed her eyes to savor the feeling of his
fingers nimbly unfastening her braid to comb through her hair. She couldn't imagine going through her
entire life back in the Alpha Quadrant never meeting her soulmate or knowing
this sense of wholeness. He wasn't
wearing his jacket, so she had only to tug on his shirt and pull it up over his
head to bare the smooth, bronze expanse of his chest. Her hands caressed the warm skin, following with her lips kissing
and licking in a leisurely journey to find the small, dark nipples.
Twice he had taken her into danger today
and twice she had returned safely. He'd
been waiting for her, anxious to feel her body under his, her sweet softness
yielding to him without restraint. His
hands gripped fistfuls of her silken, black tresses and pulled her mouth closer
to his chest. Her tongue was flicking
at a stiffened nipple, sending sharp twinges echoing through his body. Already painfully hard, he urged her to take
it in her mouth and groaned his pleasure when she began sucking on it. Tonight was for them, for the pleasure that
their bodies felt together and the completeness that came when their hearts
were beating as one. He rocked his hips
against hers, his hands gliding down to slip her jumpsuit off her shoulders
without letting her mouth lose contact with him. Caressing the tawny skin, he quickly dispensed with her bra. He shuddered when her teeth grazed across
his chest while she moved across from one nipple to torment its twin. His hands reached down to cup the full
mounds of her breasts, his thumbs massaging the hardened tips.
Stepping out of the jumpsuit pooled at her
feet, she stripped off her underwear and reached for his pants. She arched into his hands, the circles that
his thumbs were moving in was creating a hypnotic pleasure radiating through her. Her mouth moved down the muscled lines of
his torso as she dropped to her knees in front of him, whimpering at the loss
of his hands on her. She slid his pants
and underwear down his body and quickly tugged off his boots to dispose of the
clothing. His belly button was so
inviting, her tongue dipping in to torment the sensitive indentation. She cupped the firmness of his backside and
began kneading it. His masculine scent
filled her nostrils and her mouth watered at the memory of his taste. Just before her tongue reached out for him,
his hands gripped her arms and drew her up the length of his body.
He encircled her trim waist and carried
her with him onto the bed, pressing her body into the softness of the
bedding. Settling himself between the
soft, tanned thighs, his hands trailed along her arms to find and clasp her
small hands in his larger ones. He slid
their entwined hands out to the side as his mouth covered hers, his tongue
disappearing into the hot, moist cavern of her mouth in a kiss of desperate
desire. Her breasts were crushed
against the wall of his chest and he could feel their hearts beating in unison
even as his hardness throbbed against the glistening wet opening below. She rocked her hips against him, her body
erotically stroking his length and sending shudders of need through him. Unable to hold back any longer, he shifted
his body to slide all the way into her heated depths. Their hands still clasped and outstretched with their tongues
intertwined, he stroked in and out of her body with long, easy thrusts. He resisted the urge to speed up, reveling
in the knowledge that they still had a lifetime together. A slow spiral of sensation began building
deep within his body but he continued the slow, deep thrusting, allowing their
pleasure to rise gradually. He broke
the kiss, lifting his head slightly to watch her face reflecting her own
arousal. Her eyes were open, almost
black with desire and gazing at him with more love and passion than he'd ever
thought possible. The delicate features
of her face were flushed with need, the stiffened tips of her breasts rubbing
against him as she gasped for breath.
He felt her pleasure burgeoning, her body beginning to shudder
uncontrollably around him and still he kept his pace slow and easy. Her fingernails bit into the back of his
hands, grasping at him desperately, her body caught just short of ecstasy.
"Aalm," Sassy cried when an
overwhelming orgasm finally exploded and crashed through her. Her body was still trembling in the
aftermath as thrust into her one last time, his release a pleasant warmth deep
inside her body. She lay cocooned in
the warm haven of his arms and relaxed into the tremors racing through
her. "Well, that's certainly an
enjoyable way to be met at the door at the end of a long day."
Chakotay nuzzled the soft skin along the
side of her throat, his hands still holding hers. "I was watching some vids while I waited for you to finish
your work and they had an interesting effect."
"Should I ask what the vids
were?"
"Just some educational vids on
botany," he said, his lips brushing hers tenderly. "Reproduction in the plant
kingdom."
Sassy kissed his nose. "Botany turns you on?"
"What man wouldn't get turned on by
watching dirty sex?"
**FINIS**