Title: Twist of Fate: Rights and Wrongs
Author: Whoa Nellie ([email protected])
Series: Voyager
Rating:
NC-17
Codes: C/f
Synopsis: When Voyager encounters an unusual situation
on a planet, Chakotay finds himself caught between a rock and a hard
place. Originally posted to ASC on
September 8, 2005.
Author's
Notes: This story does stand on its
own, not necessary to have read the previous stories except for more detailed
background information on Ceshlyta and how she got there.
Previous
stories from the Twist of Fate storyline (in order): Blessings of the Sky Spirits, Wyrd, What Comes Naturally, Fresh
Perspective, Culinary Delights, Chaos Theory, Unforeseen Circumstance, A Matter
of Definition, Love and Copulation, Million Kilometer High Club, Comings and
Goings, Bare Necessities, Vulnerability, When in Rome and Reporting for Duty.
Background: Ceshlyta is Chakotay's wife and
soulmate. She is descended from the
Inheritors through a different tribe and was joined with Chakotay in a wedding
at the Temple of the Sky Spirits before they put her on Voyager. She was a Professor of Botany on Earth when
the Sky Spirits joined their souls, intertwined their life paths and put her on
Voyager. Her nickname, used by most of
the other crew members, is Sassy.
Acknowledgements: 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
RIGHTS
AND WRONGS
Chakotay looked up from where he was
setting the table for dinner when the door slid open. He couldn't suppress a grin at the sight of his wife, Sassy, and
Captain Janeway. The women had
obviously come from the holodeck and were still in costume. "Dare I ask?"
"Bow before Hippolyta, Queen of the
Amazons!" Janeway commanded.
"Amazon warriors?" he
laughed. "Does it occur to the two
of you that a disturbing number of your holodeck adventures involve
swords?"
Janeway arched an eyebrow and gestured
imperiously at her First Officer.
"Off with his head!" she commanded.
"I think that's the Queen of Hearts
from Alice in Wonderland," Sassy pointed out.
Snapping her fingers, Janeway pursed her lips. "Damn."
Chakotay took their swords and set them in
the chair. "You do realize that
the only reason I let the two of you play together is that Kathryn outranks
me."
"It's good to be the queen," Janeway
quipped.
"Now I know my darling husband didn't
just insinuate that he outranks me," Sassy said pointedly, the twinkle in
her eyes softening the challenge of her words.
Chakotay threw his hands up in mock
capitulation. "I surrender; the two
of you together is more than one mere man can handle. Now, if you ladies are finished drawing and quartering me, dinner
is ready."
Janeway looked over at Sassy
conspiratorially. "I think I'm
done. What about you?"
"Maybe after dinner, we could tar and
feather him," Sassy suggested.
Holding first Sassy's then Kathryn's
chair, he was still shaking his head in bemusement when he took his seat. He had never joined them in their holodeck
adventures. They seemed to have such a
good time that he didn't want to spoil their fun. He listened to them recount their exploits as Amazon warriors
battling the great Heracles, laughing along with them as they finished each
other's sentences and added in details that the other forgot. Sassy loved life and, for all of her
spirituality, truly lived in the moment--in every moment of her life. She smiled as often as possible and took joy
in every little thing. It was hard not
to share that sentiment whenever she was around; Kathryn certainly relaxed and
laughed a lot more around Ceshlyta.
"Chakotay," Sassy got his
attention. "Have you remembered to
talk to Kathryn about the quarters?"
Janeway arched an eyebrow. "No, he hasn't remembered to talk to me
about quarters."
Chakotay swallowed and dabbed his mouth
with his napkin. "We had talked at
our wedding reception about remodeling some of the crew quarters to accommodate
families, but we never got around to working up any concrete plans."
Janeway finished her dinner and laid her
napkin on the table. "Is there
suddenly a rush?" she asked with a grin.
"No," Sassy said, "at least
not yet. Chakotay and I have decided to
start working on a family, but we've just started."
"If we're going to re-model the crew
quarters, we should draw up some plans and start working on policies. It would be better if these things were in
place before anybody needed them," Chakotay added.
Sassy gestured toward the sofa and Janeway
followed her over while Chakotay retrieved the pot of coffee and cups. Curled up on one end of the sofa, Sassy
pointed out. "It's not like we'd
need more space within the next year even if I did get pregnant quickly, but I
don't know what considerations would need to go into a construction project
like that."
"We'd probably need to land on an
uninhabited planet for a lot of the re-modeling," Janeway mused. "But we'll be needing to set down for
some routine maintenance pretty soon anyway."
Chakotay poured the ladies some coffee and
then a cup for himself. "I've been
working on some ideas for moving bulkheads around to create a number of small, two-bedroom suites without creating
any inconvenience for the rest of the crew."
Janeway nodded. "I'll put that on the agenda for the next senior staff
meeting. We'll get some plans on the
drawing board so we can look at resource requirements and be on the lookout for
a good place to land. Speaking of
planets, I take it there have been no new developments with the current planet."
Chakotay shook his head. "Still no response to hails and no
indication that they're even aware of our presence."
"I reviewed the scans of the surface
that Celes brought me from Astrometrics," Sassy said. "Aside from pretty generic trees, grass
and some shrubbery, there's remarkably little botanical life on the planet's
surface. I didn't see any indications
of flowers or food-producing plants."
"Theories?" Janeway asked.
Sassy shrugged. "Just a guess; it's possible that they depleted the natural
resources and built the floating city as a result."
"An entire civilization just floating
nearly three kilometers above the surface of the planet," Chakotay
observed. "I'd love to know more
about them; why they live up there, how it started . . . "
Janeway concurred. "Unfortunately they're either
xenophobic or not capable of sending and receiving transmissions."
"But the city's position is
maintained through some type of anti-gravitational generators," Chakotay
pointed out. "That would suggest a
technologically-advanced culture."
"Nevertheless," Janeway
replied. "Starfleet regulations
are very clear about contact with non-warp capable societies. Without an invitation and lacking any
evidence of warp capability, we'll have to avoid the city. Sensors haven't shown any movement on the
planet surface, so as long as we stay on the other side of the planet, we
should be able to check out those mineral deposits without incident."
Sassy had a thought. "Can sensors scan for signs of ancient
civilizations on the surface? If they
did live on the planet's surface at one time, there may be some clues as to
when and why they built their floating city."
Chakotay shook his head in
disappointment. "Sensors have
combed every land mass; if they did live on the surface, they took everything
with them when they moved up. As far as
we can tell, their floating city is their original city just elevated."
"All things considered," Janeway
said, "I think I'd like to lead this away team. It's just a routine geological survey and it's been awhile since
I got some fresh air. I'll stretch my
legs a bit and you can baby-sit the ship for me," she told Chakotay.
Chakotay sat back in the chair. "Objection."
"Noted."
Chakotay snorted with disgust. "But you're going anyway. Fine, as far as the away team, Tuvok is a
given and you might want to consider taking Tassoni. He was a geologist onboard the Equinox."
"Good thinking," Janeway
nodded. "Given the lack of
botanical characteristics, I think Ensign Wildman would be the best fourth;
nothing personal, Sassy."
Sassy grinned. "I understand; you don't need a botanist on this
mission."
Janeway put her empty coffee cup down and
stood up. "I'll drop the necessary
information off tonight for Tassoni and Wildman to review for the away mission
tomorrow. Thank you both for a
delightful evening."
"May a humble servant make a
suggestion?" Chakotay asked.
"Yes."
"Queen Hippolyta may wish to change
her clothes before she takes those PADDs to crew quarters."
Janeway chuckled. "You know, I'd almost forgotten what I
was wearing."
Sassy retrieved Kathryn's sword and walked
her to the door. "Good
night."
As the door to their quarters slid shut,
Chakotay walked over to slide his arms around his wife's trim waist from
behind. Nudging her long, black hair
aside, he started nibbling on her earlobe.
"I believe you said something about tarring and feathering me after
dinner."
Sassy closed her eyes and leaned back
against the solid warmth of his body.
'The level of every day's most quiet need' was so much more than a line
in a poem to her now. In spite of their
occasional clashes, the utter serenity that she felt when she was in Chakotay's
strong arms was the epitome of that line.
She turned around to face him, winding her arms around his neck and
pressing herself closer to his body.
Her life, for all of the dangers and unforeseen circumstances lurking
around them, was absolutely perfect.
"I believe you mentioned adventures with swords," she replied
seductively. "If you'll clean up
out here, I'll put my sword away, get ready for bed and then we can get your
sword out to play with."
"Deal."
Ten minutes later, she emerged from the
bathroom to find the lights already dimmed in the bedroom and the bed turned
down. Chakotay was just starting to get
undressed and she couldn't resist leaning against the doorframe to watch
him. He wasn't wearing his uniform
jacket, so all he had to do was strip off his shirt which sent a ripple through
the muscles of his back and shoulders and an answering shiver through her. When he sat on the bed to remove his boots,
he noticed her in the doorway and shot a dimpled grin in her direction.
"Enjoying the show?"
Sassy crossed the room to stand in front
of him and delicately trailed a fingernail down the front of his broad
chest. "I was waiting for you to
get to the good part."
Still sitting on the bed, he put his arms
around her and pulled her against him.
Before he responded to her statement, he licked the bare, honey-colored
skin of her abdomen. "You do
realize," he murmured against the soft, warm flesh, "that when we
have kids, you won't be able to sleep naked."
"All the more reason to enjoy it
now," she pointed out. "It
occurred to me when I was watching you get undressed that, while I've danced
naked for you on a number of occasions, you have never danced naked for
me."
Chakotay kicked off his boots and stood up
without letting go of her so that she was off-balance, his arms the only thing
keeping her from falling back. Her body
stayed pressed against him and completely relaxed, secure in the knowledge that
he wouldn't let go. One large hand held
her firmly and his other hand stroked the length of her back, pausing to knead
her firm buttocks. "I've performed
naked for you quite often," he corrected her. "There have even been more than a few double features."
She grinned and nuzzled his chest,
breathing in his clean, masculine scent.
"I'm referring to solo performances."
Spinning them around, he lowered her
gently onto the bed. "It's more
fun with a partner," he said with a wink.
Sassy moved herself up on the bed to rest
her head on the pillow without taking her eyes off of her husband. He was deliberately toying with his
waistband, not exactly a strip-tease but definitely taunting her. Her heart jumped at the look of intense
sensuality on his face. When he jerked
open his trousers, her body responded with a flood of liquid heat rushing to
the juncture of her thighs. She
squirmed restlessly against the soft bedding as he slowly peeled the trousers
from his hips to let them fall to the floor.
Her breath caught in her throat from the overwhelming eroticism of the
moment. The bed dipped slightly when he
put his knee beside her, crawling in to cover her with his body, his welcome
weight pressing her into the bedding.
She cupped his face in her hands and brushed a tender kiss across his
full lips. "I love you," she
whispered, the simple statement belying the depth of the sentiment.
"Mi aalm," he whispered back,
lowering his head to gently cover her lips with his. The kiss was more of a caress, a slow massage of her lush, red
lips with his own. His body settled
between her legs, his arms cradling the most precious part of his life. He broke the kiss and nuzzled his way down
the slender column of her throat to where her neck joined her shoulder. His body was throbbing, heat coiling in his
hips in anticipation of pleasure. Her
hands gripped his head, her long, slender fingers entwining in his hair to pull
him closer.
The hard length of his body was pulsing
against the glistening entrance of her hips in a sweet torment. She writhed beneath him, held securely in
his powerful embrace but craving the feel of his body buried deep inside
her. She slid one hand down his back
and across his hips, slipping it between their bodies to guide him to her and
took him inside herself easily, sighing with contentment at the sensation of
fulfillment. Wrapping her legs around
his waist, she idly traced lazy circles on his back as their bodies pulsed in
unison. Their spirits were completely
at peace just being joined, but ultimately their bodies demanded more and so,
slowly at first, their hips began rocking together in an age-old rhythm of
carnal pleasure. Tendrils of desire
began flickering; there was no urgency, just the easy passion of long-time
lovers comfortable with one another.
She gasped, arching into the pressure of his hand when he began kneading
her breast and rolling the sensitive nipple between his fingers.
Need was building low in his hips, soon it
would spur him to a faster pace. He
could feel her body responding more frantically to his caresses and he moved
his hands down to grip her hips. The
wet heat of her body clutched at him with every long, slow stroke and welcomed
him back with every thrust. The feel of
her fingernails digging into his back told him that she was getting more
aroused; he closed his eyes, concentrating on the sensation of their bodies
coming together over and over. His
heart was beating rapidly against the wall of his chest and it was almost as if
her heart was answering back, reminding him of ancient drums pounding messages
across vast distances. He was lost in
pleasure, savoring the sweetness of the moment when he heard her gasp and felt
her hips buck in his hands. His body
jerked in response and he drove into her several times in rapid succession
before shuddering with his own orgasm.
He rolled to his side and waited for her to cuddle up against him before
pulling the comforter up around them both.
"Good night, aalm."
"Good night, Chakotay," she
muttered drowsily.
..................................................
The next morning, Janeway and her away
team materialized on the planet's surface.
The first thing that struck her about her surroundings was the lack of
color--variety of color, rather. As scans
indicated, there were no flowers; oddly, the greens and browns of the grass,
bushes and trees seemed almost monochromatic.
She scanned with her tricorder as the others did the same.
"No life signs within tricorder
range," Tuvok reported.
"The soil contains a significant
percentage of minerals," Tassoni said.
"I'm also reading a large, concentrated vein about a half of a
kilometer from here." He knelt
down to collect a sample of the soil for further analysis.
Wildman nodded in agreement and added,
"Environment conforms to sensor readings, there are no measurable toxins
or radioactivity in the soil or air."
Janeway gestured for Tuvok to take point
and waited for Wildman and Tassoni to follow before taking up a position at the
rear. "Janeway to Voyager, we're
heading for a vein of mineral deposits a half-kilometer from our beam-down
coordinates. Everything's quiet down
here, Janeway out."
Onboard Voyager, Chakotay acknowledged her
message and closed the channel. He sat
in the command chair, watching the panel in the arm of the chair for
indications of trouble. "Harry,
keep a close eye on that city and report any signs of unusual activity or
energy signatures."
"Yes, sir," came the response
from ops. Just as Harry replied, a
light on his console began flashing.
"Incoming message from the away team; opening a channel."
"Away team to Voyager,"
Janeway's hail was ragged and sounds of a scuffle could be heard in the
background. "Emergency--" her
voice suddenly cut off and a blast of phaser fire filled the channel.
"Transporter Room One, get the away
team out of there," Chakotay ordered.
"Harry, what's going on down there?"
Kim, meanwhile, was working feverishly at
his station. "I don't know, sir,
sensors don't pick up any other life forms in the vicinity of the away
team."
"Confirmed," Ensign Lang
reported from the security console.
"Ayala, report," Chakotay
barked.
"Transporter Room One," Ayala
began. "I have three members of
the away team, Commander."
"Who?" Chakotay was already on
his way to the turbolift. The reply
stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Captain Janeway didn't beam back and
I can't find her life sign anywhere."
...........................................................
By the time Chakotay reached the
transporter room, Tuvok had taken over at the console. He joined the Vulcan behind the console and
scanned the displays.
"Captain Janeway's communicator
materialized along with us," Tuvok reported. "It is possible that it came off in the struggle; however,
we are unable to locate her life sign on the surface. I have scanned the area and her body is not there. It is likely that the captain has been
kidnapped."
"By who?" Chakotay asked. "There were no other life signs
anywhere near you."
"Indeed?" Tuvok arched an
eyebrow.
Chakotay hit his communicator. "Mr. Paris, report to Sickbay to give
the Doc a hand. Mr. Kim, report to
Astrometrics, I'll meet you there."
He gestured for the away team's tricorders as he addressed them. "Report to Sickbay."
"Commander--" Tuvok began.
"Those aliens may have left traces
behind when you fought with them," Chakotay said. "We'll start running scans and brief as
soon as you've been cleared by the Doctor," he paused for a full second
before looking at Crewman Tassoni.
"You and Ensign Wildman will join us in that briefing."
"Sir," Tassoni spoke up. "I took a soil sample down on the
surface. I'm not sure what--"
"Ayala," Chakotay interrupted
Tassoni, taking the container that he was holding out and handing it to the
other man. "Get this to Professor
Ceshlyta and tell her that I want an analysis as soon as possible."
............................................
By the time everyone had assembled in the
conference room, word that Captain Janeway was missing had spread around the
entire ship. Chakotay started to take
his customary seat only to realize that he had to run this briefing. He sat in the chair at the head of the table
and looked at Tuvok. "What
happened down there?"
"We were attacked," Tuvok
replied. "I was in front with
Ensign Wildman directly behind me followed by Crewman Tassoni and then the
captain. Non-humanoid aliens appeared
to rise directly from the ground all around our position. They were unresponsive to greetings so
Captain Janeway suggested that we return to Voyager. They attacked her when she reached for her communicator and then
attacked us as we attempted to come to her aid. She managed to get a distress signal to you, but she must have
lost her communicator in doing so.
Phaser fire appeared to have little, if any, effect."
Chakotay looked from Harry to Seven. "Are there any readings that would
suggest the presence of an energy field underground; something that might
explain why they don't show up on sensors and why the captain doesn't
either?"
"No, sir," Harry replied. "I've reviewed the tricorder readings
that the away team took on the surface.
They didn't even register the aliens who attacked at all and there's
nothing that would suggest an energy field."
"Sensors have recorded more than six
thousand individuals residing in the city," Seven noted. "Therefore it is unlikely that they are
involved."
Tom nodded in agreement. "They would have shown up as a life
form on the tricorders at the very least."
Harry passed a PADD to Chakotay. "I was monitoring the city the whole
time. There wasn't so much as a blip
during the away team's time on the planet."
"Commander Chakotay," Tassoni
spoke up. "This is going to sound
odd, but, when Commander Tuvok said that they seemed to come up from the
ground, they did literally appear out of the ground."
"Meaning what?" Chakotay's tone
sounded harsh, even to him; but, there was a nagging feeling that he couldn't
quite put his finger on. It got worse
every time he looked at the former Equinox crew member.
Tassoni thought for a second. "It was like they formed from the
ground. I'd swear that the one who
attacked me had a nose that looked like a metamorphic rock similar to
slate."
Chakotay tapped several controls on the
panel in front of him. "Sassy,
what have you got?"
At her workstation in the garden, Sassy
adjusted the viewer so she could talk while she worked. "I've got a bit of a mystery. Preliminary analysis revealed minerals and
proteins in the soil, but that doesn't make sense with the lack of vegetation
on the surface. This soil should be
extremely fertile, as in tomatoes the size of cantaloupes, yet there's no plant
life to speak of growing down there.
I'm running a more detailed analysis to see if there's any indication
that the soil ever supported plant life.
I'm sending the DNA profile of the protein markers to Sickbay so the
Doctor can run an analysis of that."
"Could we be dealing with something
similar to those animal-plants we ran into before?" Chakotay asked.
Sassy looked at the screen in
confusion. "What are we dealing
with? I was told you needed a soil
analysis."
"I'll come down and fill you
in," Chakotay said. "I'll be
bringing Crewman Tassoni with me, I want the two of you to review tricorder
readings from the surface, sensor logs and run a thorough soil
analysis." He closed the channel
and got back to the briefing. "Doctor,
work with Ensign Wildman on your own analysis of the soil. Look for traces of energy that routine scans
might miss and run that DNA profile that Sassy sent you. Harry, you, Tuvok and Seven get to
Astrometrics and refine the sensors, do whatever you have to do, but I want to
know the location of every life form bigger than an ant on the planet surface
by the time you're done. Tom, you have
the bridge. Let's find the
captain."
......................................................
Chakotay was wandering the corridors. He had been in the garden for a while until
his wife had gently reminded him that 'you can't help shoots grow by pulling
them higher.' Getting the message that
his hovering was not helpful, he'd started to go to Astrometrics but something
stopped him. He couldn't shake the
image of Tassoni alone in the garden with Sassy. They needed Tassoni's geological expertise, but there was a
strong, inexplicable urge to throw the man in the brig. He located Dalby and Tabor and asked them to
just hang out in the garden and discretely keep an eye on things there. Feeling a little less apprehensive, he
stopped by Astrometrics and Sickbay only to be told in both places that there
wouldn't be anything to report for at least an hour, probably more. The turbolift stopped at Deck Eight and he
started to exit. Changing his mind, he
re-entered the turbolift to go to his quarters. Tom reported everything quiet on the Bridge, so he pulled his
medicine bundle out. The agitation and
restlessness that he was feeling came from something his spirit was trying to
tell him. Before it interfered with the
business that his mind needed to attend to, he decided to take the next hour to
talk to his spirit guide.
""Akoochimoyah," he began
the familiar ritual. Idly it occurred
to him that he'd performed the ritual far more often since Sassy had come into
his life. "I am far from the
sacred bones of my ancestors. I am far
from the sacred places of my grandfathers, but perhaps there is a spirit who
will embrace me and give me the answers I seek." Everything swirled around him for several seconds and when his
world came back into focus, his spirit guide was right in front of him. "What is it?" he asked
impatiently.
"Everything and nothing," the
spirit guide replied.
"You sound like you've been spending
too much time with Sassy's spirit guide," Chakotay grumbled.
"Perhaps the fault lies in the
question and not the answer."
Sitting on a nearby log, he took a deep
breath. Slowly he emptied his lungs of
air, settling his spirit. "Fine,
Captain Janeway is missing so I don't have a lot of time. I feel agitated, like there's something
wrong but I can't bring it into focus."
"Agitation is not a synonym for
blame," his spirit guide pointed out.
A surge of annoyance flashed through him
followed closely by truth. "You're
right, I blame myself. I shouldn't have
recommended Tassoni for the away mission.
Given his track record with alien races--"
"No one else can represent your
conscience," his spirit guide interrupted.
"What do you mean by that?" he
demanded. "I take responsibility,
I shouldn't have trusted an Equinox crew member on an away team with Captain
Janeway. He was the closest one to her
when they were attacked and she was the only one who didn't come back. I should have . . . " his voice trailed
off.
"The sun rises," the spirit
guide observed.
"I should have been leading the away
team. I should have put up a stronger
argument, objected more strenuously to her leading the away team. I only made a token objection; I failed in
my duty as First Officer and I was projecting that guilt onto a man who did
nothing to deserve it."
"Anyone can become angry--that is
easy, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right
time, for the right reason and in the right way--that is not easy."
"Aristotle," Chakotay
sighed. He sat on the log beside his
spirit guide quietly mulling things over.
He knew Captain Janeway was headstrong and, given what they knew at the
time, she would have gone no matter what objections he'd raised. Then again, he would have insisted on being
part of the away team if Sassy had been part of it. Did he value her and everything she represented more than his
duty to his captain and crew? His life
was supposed to be a balance between the two worlds that he straddled; which
world would he choose if he was forced to decide between them? Deep in thought, he was startled when a face
appeared in the ground at his feet. He
jumped up and looked over at his spirit guide dozing on the log and then he
looked back to the face in the dirt.
There was a sound like the face was trying to speak, but no words
formed. He knelt down to touch the face
and his finger sank into the cheek easily.
The face disintegrated, dirt once again. The spirit guide hadn't stirred at all, which meant that the face
had nothing to do with his inner turmoil.
If it wasn't a personal demon, what did the face mean?
..........................................................
Sassy heard the door to the garden open
and knew that it was Chakotay without looking up from her work. She waited until he was almost directly
behind her before addressing him.
"We don't have any theories yet.
We're still running a comparison between the sensor readings and the
tricorder scans."
"I need to talk to you,
privately," Chakotay said. He led
Sassy over to an unoccupied bench in a corner of the garden. Keeping his voice low, he asked, "Is it
possible that those aliens on the planet surface are telepathic?"
"Because telepathy is such an integral
part of botanical sciences," she noted somewhat sardonically. "Chakotay, that is so far out of my
expertise I have to wonder why you came to me with that question instead of the
doctor."
Pulling his medicine bundle out from under
his arm, he laid it on his lap before beginning his explanation. "I was talking with my spirit guide and
I saw something."
Now they were in an area she was
comfortable with. "What did you
see?"
"A face in the dirt at my feet,"
he said. "I was thinking over what
my spirit guide said when it just rose up in the dirt like it was made of
dirt."
"What did your guide say?"
Chakotay gestured toward his medicine
bundle as if it held his guide inside the rolled-up blanket. "That's just it, my guide didn't react
to it at all; it didn't even acknowledge the face."
Sassy understood what he was saying. "If it had anything to do with your
vision quest, your spirit guide would have been aware of it. So you think it has something to do with the
soil sample brought back from the surface."
"Maybe there's some sort of
telepathic residue that I picked up on during my vision quest," he
suggested.
"Why don't I try a vision quest of my
own," she mused.
"What will that accomplish?"
Sassy caressed his cheek. "No offense, aalm, but I've spent more
time on the spirit plane than you have; I might be able to make a connection or
at least get a stronger sense of what you experienced." She noted the defensive set of his jaw and
tried to make him understand.
"Have you ever actually touched your spirit guide? It's part of you, Chakotay, not something to
be worshiped or idolized or even consulted like a sage in a temple on a
mountain. Touching your spirit guide
forges a stronger connection to yourself; I have a close connection to my guide
which makes me stronger on the spirit plane than one who has never touched
their guide."
He pulled away from the touch of her hand
and stood up. "This is hardly the
time or place for a lecture on my spirituality."
Standing up, she faced him, keeping her
voice low. "Your spirituality is
not in question; I wouldn't even be here on Voyager if you didn't have a strong
connection to your heritage. Your
nature is divided, mine is not. If
you're right about these aliens, they may turn out to be like those aliens in
chaotic space who could only communicate with you; but, we won't know if I
don't try. At the very least I might be
able to confirm your theory and since time is of the essence, I need to borrow
your akoonah--meditating would take too long.
While I'm trying to find the connection you felt, you can see if the
Doctor has anything that would indicate whether the aliens are
telepathic."
Chakotay pulled the akoonah out of the
bundle and handed it to her.
"Thank you, mi aalm."
"Angelo," Sassy said. "Take what we've got to Sickbay and
compare notes with the Doctor. I'm
going to stay here and try something else."
Nodding to Tassoni, Chakotay gestured
toward the door. "You can fill me
in on the way, Angelo."
....................................................
After a non-productive meeting with the
Doctor in Sickbay, Chakotay left Tassoni with Wildman and the EMH to review
their collective findings for anything that might have been overlooked. He went to Astrometrics to see what they'd
come up with.
"I regret to inform you that we have
been unsuccessful in isolating the life forms who attacked us on the
planet," Tuvok informed him the minute he entered the room.
Joining the three behind the computer
station, Chakotay gestured toward the large display screen at the back of the
room. "Pull up the most detailed
scan you've done."
Seven efficiently complied. "Do you know what you are looking for,
Commander?"
"Not exactly," Chakotay
replied. "Is there anything
unusual about what's not there?"
"What do you mean, Commander?"
Harry asked.
Chakotay turned away from the display to
face them. "I think they may have
some sort of telepathic power. Is it
possible that they're mentally deflecting our scans somehow?"
Harry started working at the console. "What's not there might be where we
start looking."
"What is the basis for this
hypothesis?" Tuvok wanted to know.
"Something I saw during a vision quest
earlier," Chakotay said. "Did
you pick up on anything down on the surface?
Did you have any sense of them before they attacked?"
"I did not," Tuvok replied. "Are you suggesting that they attempted
to make contact with you?"
Chakotay thought back to the face in the
dirt. "No, it wasn't really a
communication, more like a ghost of a presence; it was very faint. The Doctor and Ensign Wildman isolated
genetic markers in the soil that contained fragments of double helix
strands. They're working with Tassoni
on the results of the multivariate spectral analysis of the soil." He was interrupted by the arrival of
Ceshlyta carrying the soil sample and the akoonah.
"The computer said I could find you
here," Sassy explained.
"Well?" Chakotay prompted her.
She set the soil container down on top of
a work station. "You were right,
there's definitely something in the soil.
It didn't show up on any of our scans, but it's there."
"What exactly," Tuvok asked,
"is 'it'?"
"It felt like a presence, but it was
almost as if there wasn't enough of it there to coalesce. It was trying to convey something, to
communicate. It didn't feel violent or
aggressive to me, I got more of a sense of desperation from it."
Chakotay reached out to her for his
akoonah. "I'll beam down to the
surface and attempt to communicate with them."
"No, sir," Tuvok stated calmly.
"Tuvok?"
The Vulcan arched an eyebrow in an
expression of long-suffering patience.
"I cannot permit you to leave this ship under any
circumstances. With Captain Janeway
missing, you are the acting Captain which would logically make me acting First
Officer with the commensurate responsibility for your welfare. After the incident on New Earth, I cannot,
in good conscience, allow both Captain Janeway and you to be off this ship at
the same time. Your place and
responsibilities are here."
"Not bucking for your own command,
Tuvok?" Chakotay noted wryly.
"No."
Harry stared at the dirt in the
container. "So what do we
do?"
Seven offered an observation. "We do have another individual capable
of attempting communication."
"Absolutely not!" Chakotay
snapped. "They've already proven
themselves hostile, I will not send her down there."
Sassy reached out to take his hand and
discretely squeezed it reassuringly.
"I didn't feel any aggression; I think it's worth trying to
communicate with them. This might be
nothing more than a misunderstanding."
Only the fact that they were not alone
kept him from responding. He tried to
find a suitable way to voice his objection, but the lump in his throat kept the
words from coming out.
"Kathryn is my friend, Chakotay, if
there's anything I can do to help get her back safely, I have to try. If I return the soil to the ground the
instant I beam down, they may understand that we mean them no harm and want to
talk."
"You're anthropomorphizing these
things," Chakotay argued.
"There's no evidence that they're anything but violent, stupid
animals."
"Respect for life is never the wrong
foot to step with," Sassy said.
"Tuvok is right about you not leaving the ship. With Kathryn missing, the crew needs to know
that you're here on Voyager. If it
doesn't work, you can beam me back and try something else. Right now there is nothing else to
try."
Chakotay looked at Tuvok. "Yes, there is. Mindmeld with it."
Tuvok looked back at Chakotay. "The dirt?"
"You're a Vulcan, there's a mind in
that soil so do a Vulcan mindmeld with it."
"With the dirt?"
"That's an order," Chakotay
commanded.
Harry picked up the container and handed
it to Tuvok. "If I remember
correctly from history class at the Academy, Ambassador Spock once did a
mindmeld with a rock."
Tuvok took the container. "To be precise, it was a Horta."
.................................................
Chakotay paced the length of the
transporter room, the set lines of his tightly-clenched jaw keeping Ayala from
saying a word. Every Vulcan onboard had
attempted a meld, every crewmember with any predisposition toward telepathy had
tried--with and without the akoonah; while a couple of them had gotten a sense
of something, no one had been able to make as much of a connection as either
Sassy or he. Inevitably, Sassy had
beamed down accompanied by Tuvok. They
both had subdermal transponders implanted in their arms as a precaution and
Tuvok was maintaining an open comm link, but there was no way to know how Sassy
was doing on the spirit plane. This was
his punishment for allowing his worlds to fall out of balance, for becoming too
comfortable in his traditional world and neglecting the responsibilities of his
modern world. Now both worlds were in
turmoil. He checked the ship's
chronometer again; they had been down there for more than an hour.
At the sound of her voice over Tuvok's
comm link, he spun so quickly that he nearly fell. He sighed with relief and nodded to Ayala at Tuvok's request for
transport.
"I made contact," Sassy
exclaimed the instant that she materialized.
"You are not going to believe this, it was so incredible!"
Chakotay held out his hand to help her
down from the transporter pad.
"Where is Captain Janeway?"
"She's fine."
Tuvok finished checking the sensor data
from the planet for the Captain's lifesign with no success. "That was not the question."
Sassy closed her eyes and sighed. "I know, it's just kind of
complicated."
Chakotay hit his commbadge. "Senior staff, report to the conference
room." He gestured toward the
door. "Let's see if we can
un-complicate it."
Ten minutes later, everyone was settled in
their seats at the conference table with Chakotay once again at the head of the
table. Ceshlyta took a deep breath,
trying to organize her racing thoughts and began. "The energy that we were picking up from the soil wasn't
residue, it was the life form--just not enough to make its presence
known."
Tom was lost. "You're saying the aliens are dirt?"
"No, the planet itself is
alive," Sassy tried to make them understand. "I can't explain it and it doesn't know where it came from
or how it came to be, but the planet is a life form."
"Where is Captain Janeway?"
Chakotay asked.
"It was just trying to communicate,
they weren't attacking to hurt the away team."
Chakotay looked at her.
Sassy's gesture was a mixture of an
expression of futility and an attempt to soothe the others, "I don't know
where she is at the moment, but I know she's fine."
Tuvok sat forward. "Did you see or speak with the
Captain? Did they say anything about
where she was?"
"No," she sighed. "It's not really an individual or even
totally sentient; we didn't talk, it was more like a communion of our spirits. We connected and it was unbelievable. My entire life I've strived to be one with
the natural world and for the time that I was communing with the planet, I was
in an incredibly literal sense."
"Ceshlyta, please," Chakotay
interrupted. He could see that she was
excited about whatever had happened on the planet, but there were more
important things to consider at the moment.
"The people in the city are taking
life-force from the planet," she said tersely. "They're killing it little by little. When our away team beamed down, it tried to
make them understand that it was there so that they would stop."
Harry spoke up. "But we're not the ones--"
"It can't understand that,"
Sassy replied. "It has no sense of
past or future, it simply exists; time has no meaning to it. Self-awareness is one thing, the ability for
abstract thought is another and, while it is self-aware, it doesn't seem to
have abstract thought processes. All it
knows is that the 'place up there' takes energy from it and that energy is part
of what makes it alive. It knows that
it's dying, but it doesn't know how to stop it and it can't communicate. It's trying to survive, it doesn't want to
die and that makes it alive whether it can add two and two or not."
Chakotay laid his hand on hers, tacitly
quieting her. Her voice had gotten very
emotional as she spoke and it was obvious that she'd make a powerful connection
with this life-form. He couldn't afford
emotion until Captain Janeway was back aboard Voyager. "Nobody is saying that it isn't a
life. Did you ask about Captain
Janeway?"
"Yes and it sort of wants to
negotiate."
"Negotiate?" Chakotay echoed.
Sassy looked down at the surface of the
table. "It wants us to stop
killing it. It will return Kathryn when
we make the others stop destroying it."
Tuvok spoke first. "Did you agree to that?"
"I didn't have to," she said
softly. "We were connected, it
could feel that I wanted to make the killing stop but that I didn't know how. I told it that I knew others who might know
how to stop the death and that I would come back after I talked to . . .
you."
"Harry," Chakotay looked over at
the ensign. "What's the status on
your scans?"
"Still running," he
responded. "It's like looking for
a needle in a haystack."
Tom
spoke up. "What about
phasers? If it's alive, we can hurt
it."
"NO!" Sassy yelled. "All it wants is to live, why can't we
help it survive? Why can't we just send
a message into the city telling them that they're killing a life form?"
"Perhaps they already know and do not
care," Seven suggested.
Harry agreed. "That might be why they elevated the city to begin
with."
"Unless someone goes in," the
Doctor pointed out, "There'd be no way we could be sure they even
understood the message much less believed it."
Neelix offered another viewpoint. "They might not stop even if they did
understand and believe the message."
Tuvok steepled his fingers in front of his
body. "Regardless, the Prime
Directive precludes making contact with the city."
"Chakotay," Sassy began.
"I know!" he snapped. His tone softened but didn't entirely lose
the frustrated edge. "I just don't
know what we can do about it right now.
I'll consider everything and inform you of my decision. Harry, you and Seven keep working on giving
me another option. Dismissed."
Everyone filed out to return to their duty
stations leaving Chakotay alone with Sassy.
He avoided her gaze. "I
need a report on everything that happened down there, the sooner the
better."
"This planet is everything we believe
in," Sassy said quietly.
"It's the embodiment of our spirituality, the Gaia Hypothesis in
living color and it's being massacred little by little."
Chakotay steeled himself against an
emotional response. He had
responsibilities to consider beyond what was right or wrong. "Put it in your report and have it on
my desk as soon as possible. I'll take
it into consideration."
..................................................................
Chakotay was reviewing files on the
computer in his office. He knew he
should be in the ready room, but he had a serious decision to make and wanted
the more familiar surroundings of his office.
The Prime Directive stipulated that the life of a Starfleet officer was
expendable in order to adhere to non-interference with a culture. They weren't in Federation space, but
Captain Janeway had insisted on strict adherence to Starfleet regulations from
the very beginning--it was important to her that they not lose their way on
their journey back; by everything on the screen in front of him, they should
break orbit and leave. He had to find a
solution. He didn't know how long they
could just sit in orbit, but he could hear Captain Janeway's voice telling him
that he had to keep going and get the crew home; just like she ordered Tuvok to
do when they were trapped on New Earth.
The door chime sounded and he shut off the screen with a disgusted sigh. "Come."
Sassy entered carrying a tray, which she
set on his desk. She picked up a PADD
from the tray and handed it to him.
"Everything about the away mission from the instant I arrived. I also brought you something to eat and your
medicine bundle."
"Mi aalm, . . . "
She held a hand up to forestall his
objection. " 'Ask questions from
the heart and you will be answered from the heart.' Your heart is where you find balance between your mind and your
soul; that is where you will find the answer to this. The mind will not see beyond an empty stomach, however, so you
need to eat if you want to think clearly.
I'll be in the garden."
He nodded but didn't reply as she
left. Almost mechanically he started
eating, his mind on the PADD detailing her experience on the surface. A life form in pain and crying out for help
couldn't be ignored; even Captain Jean-Luc Picard had acted to intervene on
behalf of an alien life form at Farpoint.
The difference was that the humanoids there had invited the Federation
to the planet. Here was a comparable
situation but without the invitation--not even an acknowledgement of their
existence. There were many examples of
how violations of the Prime Directive had been disastrous to a society. Sigma Iotia II, Ekos and Omega IV were
drilled into every cadet at the Academy until they could recite the details in
their sleep. There had been situations
where intervention had been warranted.
On Drema IV and Boraal II, the very existence of the entire population
had been at stake and the situation was resolved without cultural contamination. Here was a life whose continued existence
was in question, but how could Voyager resolve the problem without cultural
contamination?
Finishing the meal that Sassy had brought
him, he reached for the medicine bundle, his hand resting on it while his mind
and spirit wrestled with the idea of a vision quest now. His heart finally made the decision and he
picked it up. Dimming the lights, he
moved to an open area on the floor and carefully opened the bundle.
................................................................
Chakotay heard Sassy before he saw
her. He walked into the garden and
heard her humming along with the ever-present music playing softly in the
background. She was up in one of the
trees pruning back some of the excess growth.
Careful to not startle her, he got her attention and helped her
down. "I'm ordering you to beam
down to the planet and say whatever you need to in order to get the planet to
physically take you to Captain Janeway.
As soon as you're with her, you'll hit your transponder and we'll lock
on and beam you both out. Once you're
back onboard, we'll break orbit and leave."
"You can't order me to do that,"
Sassy replied softly.
"Ceshlyta--" he began.
She covered his lips with her fingers. "You cannot take this burden away from
me and that is the only reason you made it an order. The decision was yours to make, your burden to bear; the
deception and betrayal of a life is my burden to bear. I will not part from my chieftain's path, no
matter how short or beautiful the byway may seem. It is not the decision I would have made, but it is the decision
you feel is the best course of action and that is all I need to know."
Chakotay sat down and pulled her down to
sit beside him. "I can't find a
way to resolve this situation without making things worse. The easiest thing to do would be to relocate
the life asking for help except that moving the planet out from under the city
is just not feasible, even for B'Elanna's talents that's asking a bit
much. I hate the idea of turning my
back on any life asking for help, but anything we do to intervene will affect
the people in the city. We won't be
here to monitor the situation afterward so whatever we do, they'll be left to
deal with things on their own. If we
disable their energy-gathering technology, it could cause a resource shortage
that might result in innocent deaths.
If we disable the city and force them to land, they're at the mercy of
the planet--a life that you, yourself, says has no higher cognitive
functions. We can't know how it would
act if those people weren't out of reach.
Even if we do contact the city, we can't know what effect that would
have on their beliefs or society; it could cause mass rioting for all we
know. I don't like this situation, but
we didn't cause it. All I want to do is
get Captain Janeway back and get away from here without causing any harm to any
living thing involved in this mess. I
wouldn't ask you to go back down there if there were any other way to get the
Captain back without hurting the planet.
I know what I'm asking--"
"But it's the lesser of the evils
facing us," she finished his thought.
"It's not what I was hoping to hear and it also means that you
won't get a chance to connect with it yourself. It was an unbelievable spiritual experience."
"My responsibility is here."
Sassy leaned over to brush her lips
against his. "The greater the
power, the more gently it should be wielded.
For all of the power you can wield from Voyager's bridge, you chose the
gentlest solution possible. I'll need
the akoonah to make contact. Tuvok can
come down with me and beam back with the akoonah before it takes me to
Kathryn."
"I have the akoonah here and Tuvok is
waiting in Transporter Room One."
......................................................
Sassy opened her eyes and exhaled slowly,
a solitary tear trickling down her cheek.
It was done, the planet was going to take her to Kathryn. She suspected that it knew--it was hard to be
deceptive on the spirit plane and yet it had agreed to take her to Kathryn
anyway. She stood up, wriggling her
toes in the dirt. It had been a long
time since she'd felt ground beneath her bare feet. Removing that barrier between the planet surface and herself
seemed appropriate so she had left her shoes sitting beside the transporter
pad. Tuvok was waiting patiently and
accepted the akoonah when she handed it to him. She answered his unasked question with a single nod and waited
while the Vulcan beamed back to Voyager.
Alone on the surface, she knelt down and
swiftly sketched out the ancient symbol of protection. The chamozi complete, she laid her hands
flat on the ground and uttered a brief prayer in the ancient tongue. "May a benevolent spirit see this and
have mercy on you."
Standing back up, she closed her
tear-filled eyes and waited for the planet to swallow her.
...........................................
As soon as the Doctor released her from
Sickbay, Sassy went to her quarters expecting to find Chakotay. She'd been a little surprised and worried
when he hadn't been in Sickbay to meet them.
He had called to verify that both Kathryn and she had transported
safely, but he had talked with the EMH, not even asking to speak with her. When he wasn't in their quarters, she used
the computer to locate him in the garden.
He was sitting on a bench, staring into the holographic waterfall.
"We broke orbit and resumed course an
hour ago," he said numbly in response to her hand coming to rest lightly
on his shoulder.
She reached around to cup his chin and
gently urged him to look at her.
Tracing the lines of his tattoo with her other hand, she whispered
softly. "I'm sorry,
Chakotay."
"What for?" he asked,
momentarily confused. "Captain
Janeway's back and unhurt; you accomplished your mission."
Kneeling at his feet, she looked up into
his gentle, brown eyes. "No, I
helped get Kathryn back but I failed in my mission here. I'm supposed to be your help-mate, your spiritual
comfort as you travel your path. I made
your decision more difficult than it needed to be. Instead of being a source of comfort, I was a source of
discord."
Chakotay reached for her braid and began
unbinding it. "You are always a
source of comfort to me and, as you have frequently reminded me, I am of two
worlds, you are not. You live your
spirituality in every minute of every day.
You are your own person, a strong woman; you're not a mere reflection of
my soul and I wouldn't want you to be.
You didn't fail me. I condemned
a life to a slow, lingering death and you accepted that decision."
"There's one more thing," she
confessed, her eyes downcast.
Lifting her chin with a single finger, his
voice was soft. "What is it, mi
aalm?"
"After Tuvok beamed back to the ship,
I drew a chamozi in the dirt and prayed for the mercy of a benevolent
spirit."
His eyes closed and his lips tightened for
a second. He took a deep breath and
shook his head. "Well, that's not
technology or interference with the situation," he reasoned, cradling her
face in his palm. "There's no way
to know if the people in the city will even see it. Of course, if the planet decides that it's a means of
communication and starts re-creating it all over the place, it could cause
quite a mystery to anybody who does find it.
You'll have to include that in your report and it'll be up to Captain
Janeway to determine if you violated any Federation law, but I don't see how it
could be wrong. A part of me is very glad
that you thought to do that."
Sassy kissed his palm. "Let's go home."
"Not yet," he said. "I've been sitting here thinking. I know it isn't Earth's winter solstice or
Treban's or even that planet's and it's not much, but a prayer of guidance and
direction for this system's sun to give of its strength is the only thing I can
offer that life."
"Do you want to be alone?"
"I'd like you stay, if you
want," he replied.
She put her hands on his knees to push
herself up and held her hand out to him.
"I haven't had a chance to recycle the cuttings yet and I'm pretty
sure there are some twigs of just the right size. We can substitute leaves from healing herbs here in the garden
instead of using replicated tobacco."
Chakotay laid his hand in hers and
smiled. "I'll get the rest of the
necessary supplies and meet you under the apple tree."
**FINIS**
1