Title: Twist of Fate: Unforeseen Circumstances
Author: Whoa Nellie ([email protected])
Series: Voyager
Rating: NC-17 (for some violence as well as the
usual sex)
Codes: C/f, K/7, crew
Summary: When B'Elanna decides to play a prank on
Ceshlyta, things go horribly wrong.
Meanwhile, Harry takes Sassy's advice regarding Seven of Nine. Originally posted to ASC on June 13, 2002.
Helpful
tidbit of information: Aalm is a Mayan
word meaning heart with a connotation of soul --the essence of a person so to
speak.
As
always: Paramount owns all the marbles, we just have a lot more fun playing
with them.
Feedback
is always appreciated.
Whoa
Nellie's Romance Star Trek Fan Fiction Stories
http://whoanellie.fortunecity.com
UNFORESEEN
CIRCUMSTANCES
"Seven, do you have a
minute?" Harry Kim saw the Borg
leaving the mess hall as he exited the turbolift.
"My duty shift in Astrometrics begins
in precisely six minutes. As it will
only require four minutes to arrive there, I have two minutes," she
calculated and apprised him.
Catching up to her, he paused to collect
his thoughts. He had finally finished
his computations the night before and was ready to make an absolute idiot of
himself. "I have something I'd
like you to look over." He held
out a PADD. "According to my
calculations, we are 88.3% compatible with each other. I based the computations on a model of
intrinsic and extrinsic qualities further broken down into sub-categorizations
such as intelligence, personality traits and biological characteristics under
the intrinsic group and professional and social interests in the extrinsic
category."
The Borg drone accepted the proffered PADD
and began scanning the data as she listened.
Harry took a deep breath before
continuing. "I had to guess at
your score on some of the items. I
calculated the probability of your interest based on the degree of mathematical
intricacy and precision required. My
scores are there as well as a regressional means analysis of compatibility for
each factor, sub-category and overall groups.
The intrinsic group yielded a higher score at 92.7% overall than the
extrinsic group at 83.9%. The
sub-category of professional interests, further broken down by both areas of
expertise and areas of interest yielded the highest individual rating at
98.3%--I had to deduct for differences in career ambition," he offered as a side note. "The area with the lowest ranking was
in the extrinsic interests at 69.5%, but if you divide them into solo and group
activities, the majority of the difference falls into the group
factor." He took another deep
breath, absently hoping that he wasn't hyperventilating, and concluded his
speech. "Based on my computations,
I believe an interpersonal social relationship between us makes statistical
sense." That was quite probably
the most he'd ever said to her at one time, not to mention the least romantic
request for a date he'd ever made.
Seven had also done an analysis of their
compatibility although her own estimate, revisited and revised after their
interesting encounter in Sickbay previously, had yielded an 86.1% match. It might prove beneficial if she were to
compare their analyses. "I will
review your data," she informed him before turning to stride down the
corridor.
Watching her walk away, Harry resisted the
urge to dance and shout. That was
definitely a possible maybe, no doubt about it. With a bit more spring in his step, he entered the mess hall for
a quick breakfast.
.......................................................................................
"Are you heading down to the surface
for some shore leave, Sassy?" Tom
swallowed a bite of his breakfast before asking. He had steered a reticent B'Elanna over to join Chakotay and
Sassy at their table. He knew that the
two women weren't entirely comfortable together, but all B'Elanna needed was to
get to know the commander's wife a little better. For all of her tough independence, the Klingon was a fiercely
loyal friend; once she got past her distrust of the botanist, everything would
be fine. This was a great opportunity
for that since Voyager was in orbit around Techora, an M-class planet with a
friendly, humanoid species and a thriving culture. The captain had authorized shore leave while they conducted some
business and was planning to remain in orbit for the next week, so everyone was
in an upbeat mood.
"Not today," Ceshlyta answered. "Chakotay's on duty all day today. We're going down tomorrow. It'll be nice to set foot on solid ground
again."
A wonderful idea occurred to the
pilot. "B'Elanna's off and she's
planning to go down with a couple of others today. Why don't you tag along with them?"
"No," the women answered almost
simultaneously.
"Why not?" Chakotay looked to his wife. "It would give you more time on the
surface. It would also give you a
chance to scope out the local flora before you meet with their botanists at the
end of the week."
Tom
pushed his plan to B'Elanna. "It
would give the two of you a chance to get to know each other better."
The chief engineer's reply was drowned out
by the arrival of Harry Kim.
"Is this seat taken?" The ensign indicated a seat next to B'Elanna. He sat down amid the chorus of 'good
mornings'. "I wanted to thank you,
Sassy. I took your advice."
"Did it work?" Given the redness around the young man's
ears, Ceshlyta guessed that it had something to do with Seven of Nine.
Taking a bite of his breakfast, Harry
simply shrugged questioningly and nodded yes.
Suddenly B'Elanna was struck by a
thought. "We're going to be
heading down to the surface in about a half an hour, Sassy." Actually she was supposed to meet them in a
few minutes, but she needed some time to plan.
"You should definitely head down with us."
"Great," Chakotay patted Sassy's hand. "Then it's settled."
'Apparently', she thought to herself, 'I'm
the only person at this table who doesn't want me to spend the day with Torres
and her friends'. Guilt stabbed at her,
'grudges are heavier than a mountain of boulders,' the old proverb colored her
thoughts. "You're right, Tom,
B'Elanna and I should get to know each other better." She smiled across the table at him before
turning to the chief engineer.
"Thirty minutes, B'Elanna?"
Standing, her tray in her hands, Torres
nodded. "Transporter Room 1."
"Well," Chakotay stood and eyed Tom. "If we don't get going, we're both
going to be late."
"See you tonight, my love." Sassy watched the two men exit just behind
B'Elanna. She waved Neelix over with
the coffee pot, she was definitely going to need more caffeine.
..................................................................................
Thirty minutes later Sassy stood in the
corridor outside Transporter Room 1.
She had changed into the jumpsuit and boots that she had been wearing
when she'd first arrived on Voyager. It
was more utilitarian than her usual outfits, but since she'd only been working
in the hydroponic garden aboard Voyager, once the renovations had been finished
she hadn't really needed the sturdy, serviceable outfit. She had also braided her hair and she
flipped the end off her shoulder as she entered the transporter room. Other than B'Elanna, she only recognized one
other member of the foursome--Mariah Henley.
Mariah spent a great deal of time in the garden, usually early evenings. The ensign had even programmed several
holoemitters to project nature images such as a waterfall near the sitting area
to improve the ambience of the garden.
Mariah looked a little discomfited and Sassy hoped that the other woman
wasn't upset at her presence.
"All ready?" B'Elanna chirped. "Do you know everyone?"
"Just Mariah," Sassy indicated.
Pointing to the other two, the chief
engineer made quick introductions.
"That's Olandra Jor and the guy there is Tabor." She clapped her hands together and
announced, "that's that. Everyone
on the transporter pad."
"Who's handling transport?" Sassy didn't see anyone else there.
B'Elanna waved nonchalantly. "I've got it programmed. Computer, program Torres Alpha,
energize."
Materializing on the surface below,
Ceshlyta got her bearings and looked beside her for the others; they were
nowhere to be seen. She reached up to
call the ship but her fingers encountered only the smooth fabric of her
jumpsuit. "Oh, very funny Torres," she muttered in irritation. "I guess I should be grateful that you
let me keep my clothes on."
While she tried to decide what to do, she
surveyed her surroundings. She was
standing in an open compound, encircled by various stands. There were maybe six pathways that led into
the open, common area. It was a market,
of sorts. It didn't look like the type
of place that visitors frequented, more like the neighborhood farmer's markets
she remembered her great-grandfather telling her about as a child. Many of the buildings appeared to be
improvised from miscellaneous materials, while some of the stands were nothing
more than a board sitting on crates with goods piled on every square
millimeter. Children ran and played
throughout the market as both men and women of all ages bought and sold and
even bartered various items amongst themselves. People glanced at her, trying to seem like they weren't staring
at her. At least they didn't act
afraid, they just didn't act as if they got all that many strangers. Deciding that there was nothing she could do
about her situation for the moment, she began to browse around the stands.
"What is this?" Sassy asked the man at one particular
booth. It was a potted plant, a
beautiful teal color; not exactly a flower but there were no obvious
indications that it bore produce either.
Idly she wished that she'd thought to bring a tricorder with her.
"Q'ta mo hada kixn?"
Realization dawned at the confused face of
the vendor and the unintelligible string of words from his mouth. Without her comm badge, she also had no
universal translator. Exhaling sharply,
she just shook her head and waved at the man to forget it. She turned around to view the entire
area. There were other crew members on
the planet for shore leave; if she could just find one of them, she could have
them contact Voyager to have her beamed back up.
East looked like the most promising
direction, rugged hills rose up along the north-westerly edge of the market and
to the south was a fairly desolate view.
Already formulating the choice words that she planned to share with the
Klingon over her concept of fun, she set off.
She hadn't even made it out of the common area of the marketplace when
men at each path into the compound threw off the robes that they had been
wearing to reveal weapons. They began
yelling and brandishing their knives, swords and one, at least, had a
projectile weapon of sorts which they used to herd everyone in the marketplace
toward the open common area. Sassy
tried to slip past the two directly in front of her, but one of them grabbed
her, shoving her back toward the center of the compound. Regaining her balance, she saw other men
separating out women and driving off the children, old women, and men. There were only about eight of the
attackers, easily twice as many men had been in the marketplace a few moments
before. 'So much for chivalry,' she
thought, watching the men fleeing in front of the children and elderly. Instinctively she slapped at her chest to
call for help, remembering belatedly that she didn't have a comm badge on. "Damn it to hell."
The stand beside her was full of some type
of tools. There were some heavy wooden
sticks, about the length of an epee with one end sharpened to a point. She grabbed two of them, probably stakes for
something, and whirled around to knock the knife from the hand of the man who
had grabbed her and knocked him unconscious with a follow-up blow from the
second stick to the side of his head.
"This isn't funny, B'Elanna!"
she yelled as two of the raiders rushed at her. "Get me the hell out of here."
The first man to reach her had a large
dagger in his hand. She used the sticks
to deflect his intended blow just as she noticed the projectile weapon in the
second man's hands. Cracking one of the
sticks across the knee of the closer opponent, she forced him between that
weapon and herself. It was just in time
too, in that instant, the weapon popped and the first man stiffened and dropped
to the ground. Shifting the stick into
her hand like a javelin, she breathed a prayer of gratitude for having taken
the elective physical education course as an undergraduate. She heaved the impromptu spear as hard as
she could and quickly turned to locate the knife that the other man had been
holding. It felt like an eternity
before she got it pried from his fingers underneath his body and stood, bracing
for the next attack. The image that
greeted her brought a wave of horror and nausea. Her shot had been straight and true--the stick she had thrown,
pointed-end forward, was buried in the second man's chest. He was lying on the ground, his hands weakly
trying to pull it out and finally dropping, lifeless, to his sides.
The noise and chaos swirled around her,
but Ceshlyta was frozen. She had taken
a life, ended the existence of another being.
For all of her training and practice in the ancient arts, she had never
used them against another outside of sparring and tournaments. "I'm a college professor," she whimpered as he died right before her
eyes.
A fleeing woman jostled her out of her
shock. "Come with me!" Sassy yelled, survival instincts kicking in.
The young woman, Akala, didn't know what
the stranger had said but she'd taken down three of the raiders so she must be
a powerful fighter. Following the
dark-haired woman out of the marketplace, she saw two of her friends, Tilki and
Zathra, and called to them to join her.
Korl noticed the four women escaping into
the wooded hills beyond the market. He
had just decided to let them go, there was a strange ship in orbit and he
wanted to be gone long before the authorities even knew that they'd struck,
when one of his men reported in. Rage
filled him as he learned that the woman leading the three others had killed
Sofex, his only son. This was Sofex's
first raid, he had only recently reached the age of manhood. Pointing to three of his men, he sent them
after the four with instructions to capture them and rejoin the ship or return
to base but to save the strange-looking one for him. He directed the
others to load their captives onto one of the two shuttles hidden beyond the
market--they'd leave the other for the men heading into the hills after the
escapees.
.......................................................................................
"Well?" Tabor asked curiously when B'Elanna
reappeared at the cafe.
Shrugging, Torres sat down and started
eating her lunch. "She was gone,
no human lifesigns anywhere near the coordinates we put her down at."
"Do you think she's all
right?" The whole thing bothered
Mariah, the commander's wife was pretty nice.
"She probably used some old Indian
trick to get back to Voyager," B'Elanna sneered sarcastically. "Or she started crying so hard that
someone called the authorities and they sent her back to the ship."
"Then why aren't we being chewed out
by Chakotay right now?" Jor spoke
up between mouthfuls.
"Who cares?"
......................................................................................
Just as her lungs were about to burst,
Sassy caught a glimpse of a relatively secluded grove a short way off of the
path. She veered off, holding her arms
up to protect her face from the thorny brambles that she crashed through. Reaching the grove, she collapsed onto the
ground gasping for breath, her entire body trembling from the exertion of her
panicked flight up the mountain. They
had kept running, stopping to rest only briefly from time to time. From the angle of the sun it looked like it
was almost noon now and they needed to get their bearings.
Akala and her friends entered the grove a
minute later and dropped, exhausted, to the soft loam at the base of the
trees. Nobody had ever escaped the
raiders before, none of them knew what to do next. People didn't go up into the mountains either, the terrain was
rugged and treacherous and wild animals hunted at night. How would they ever find their way back?
Slowly catching her breath, Sassy sat up
and looked over at the three local women who had followed her into the
woods. They were bleeding from scratches
that covered almost every area of exposed skin. She held her arms out and realized that her hands were also
covered with scratches; her jumpsuit had protected the rest of her body. The wounds were stinging slightly and blood
oozed out making her hands slick.
Slipping the dagger she held into her boot, she began investigating the
nearby plants. She knew that nature
provided almost everything one would need to survive, often putting plants with
complementary or opposite properties near one another. If there were thorny bushes in this area,
there should be something to soothe the scratches and prevent infection with
nearby. There it was, right at the edge
of the brambles. The acidity of the
soil was right, the physiological features of the plant looked right. Breaking off a leaf, she tore it open to
reveal the viscous fluid inside. She
carefully smeared one of her scratches, biting her lip as it stung slightly but
then immediately faded taking the pain of the cut with it. Satisfied that it was a natural antiseptic
and topical anesthetic, she motioned to the others.
"Over here, this will help your
scratches."
The blank faces reminded her that she had
no way to communicate. She held up the
leaf and exaggeratedly rubbed the liquid over the rest of her scratches. When the three women joined her, she pointed
out the plant that she had used. While
they were tending to their injuries, Sassy decided to take a look around.
The trees seemed fairly sturdy so she
picked what was most likely the tallest one around and shimmied up into the
foliage. Hoisting herself from one
branch to the next, she tested each branch thoroughly before trusting it with
her weight. About three quarters of the
way up the tree, the branches thinned out too much for safety. As high as she was able to get, she surveyed
the vista below. The four had actually
made it almost a quarter of the way up the mountainside, bless the Spirits for
the effects of adrenaline. A flash of
light caught her attention. Focusing on
that area a little ways further down from where they were, she saw a couple of
figures coming up the path. There might
have been more, she thought she saw a third shadow on the ground when the group
passed across an open section of the path.
With the adrenaline worn off, they needed to find someplace to hide from
their pursuers.
Swiftly climbing down, she dropped the
final meter or so, landing easily on the soft mulch. The other three had finished treating their wounds and the one
who had bumped into her in the market turned to her with a questioning
expression. Pointing to the ground
Sassy went down to one knee and brushed away the groundcover to bare a patch of
dirt. She sketched out a mountain with
four dots a quarter of the way up, indicating the four of them. Then she drew two circles further down,
shrugged and added a third to indicate their pursuers. Wishing that she could reassure them, she
took solace in the knowledge that Chakotay would come for her as soon as he
knew that she was in trouble. He'd
already know if that Klingon half-breed hadn't pulled her little stunt. Of course, if Torres hadn't pulled her
stunt, she wouldn't have been in that marketplace, wouldn't have killed . . .
Sassy quickly banished that train of thought.
They just had to stay ahead of their pursuers until she was missed on
Voyager. The path was definitely out
but she had seen some caves off to their left and further up a distance. She quickly grabbed a handful of the plant
leaves and stuffed them in her jumpsuit pockets, just in case. Motioning to the others, she started off
through the underbrush, carefully scrutinizing the trees and plants that they
passed for anything else that might be useful or edible.
.................................................................................
"Incoming message, sir," Ayala
announced from the ops console. Beta
shift had just begun barely five minutes before.
Tuvok put the PADD of reports he'd been
reviewing down. "On screen."
The familiar, compressed features, short,
bristly hair and swirled skin mottling of the Security Minister appeared on the
viewscreen. "Ah, Commander Tuvok,
it is nice to see you again although I do regret the circumstances."
The Vulcan acknowledged the curious
greeting. He had spent several hours
reviewing the laws of the Techan culture as well as Starfleet regulations with
the minister before the crew had been granted shore leave. "What can we do for you, Minister
Grisk?"
"Actually, this is an official
notification. Raiders struck one of the
local markets on the outskirts of the capital earlier today." The security minister paused, he hated
making these calls.
Tuvok rose from the command chair. "Do you have reason to believe that
Voyager crew members were involved?"
"According to the reports, there was
a stranger in the market just before the attack. Descriptions of her arrival suggest the use of your transporter
method and the description of her appearance suggests that she was one of your
kind--like your captain." It had
taken most of the day to sort the disjointed reports out. The children and elderly were easily
confused but the men rarely gave complete reports, not wanting to admit how
easily they fled.
"Human?"
Grisk nodded yes. "I'm sorry to inform you that your crew
member has been abducted. My
condolences on your loss."
..................................................................................
Chakotay arrived at his quarters, opening
his uniform jacket as he strode down the corridor. It had been a long shift and he'd been glad when the time came to
turn the Bridge over to Tuvok for Beta shift.
The captain was having dinner with the Commerce Minister and the Science
Minister to discuss possible goods and information exchanges. He was surprised that Sassy hadn't called to
let him know when she'd returned to the ship.
Entering their quarters, the lights were still out so she obviously
hadn't been back there since that morning.
He figured that she had gone to the garden and lost track of time. He was about to activate his comm badge when
it chirped under his fingers.
"Chakotay here."
Tuvok's voice came through. "Commander, could you return to the
Bridge? We have just received a report
from the Techan Minister of Security regarding a possible missing crew
member."
"Who?" Alarm sparked in the pit of his stomach.
"Unknown, I have issued an order
recalling all crew to the ship," the Vulcan replied.
Already fastening his jacket, he
asked. "Has B'Elanna and her group
reported back?"
"Lieutenant Torres and her party
returned almost two hours ago."
The reply came after a brief pause.
Relieved, Chakotay left the quarters and
headed for the turbolift. "Contact
the captain and assemble senior staff in the conference room. I'm on my way."
.......................................................................................
"Ensign Kim."
Harry paused in the doorway of his
quarters. His shift was over and he'd
been planning to head down to Techora for a little while.
Seven of Nine briskly closed the distance
between them. She had reviewed his data
and found them to be within an acceptable error range. Immediately following her duty shift, she
had sought out the ensign to apprise him of her analysis.
"Seven . . . hi." He was surprised to see her and wasn't sure
what it meant.
Handing him back the PADD that he'd given
her that morning, she stated, "I corrected some of your values; however,
the results still indicate an overall compatibility of 87.49%, a satisfactory
result." She was uncomfortable but
uncertain as to why. The thought of
spending significant amounts of time in the company of Ensign Kim was pleasing,
even something to be anticipated given their pleasurable interaction in Sickbay
and her dream. Then why was her heart
beating 3% more rapidly than normal?
"I have not had the opportunity to review the database regarding
human relationships," she offered, somewhat hesitantly. "So I am unsure as to the next appropriate
action."
Meanwhile, Harry was stunned. If he was hearing this right, she was
agreeing to a relationship with him.
"All senior staff report to the
conference room." Tuvok's voice
over the intraship communications system interrupted their conversation.
'No!'
Kim's mind screamed. 'Five more
minutes, I just need--'
"Perhaps we can discuss this
later?" Seven asked, disappointed.
She wanted to know what his response was but this was a personal
conversation and being summoned to the conference room meant that this was no
longer personal time.
Morosely, he nodded and followed her to
the turbolift. Just his luck it would
be a temporal anomaly and this whole incident would get wiped from everyone's
memory. Standing beside the beautiful,
blonde perfection in the lift, he muttered, "a date. Next we go on a date."
"That would be acceptable," she replied as she exited the turbolift.
........................................................................................
A
muffled scream broke Sassy's concentration.
This section of the mountain was rocky with juts of sharp crags and deep
clefts within the rock face. The four
had rested a bit before picking their way up toward the caves. Turning back, two of the women were looking
over a ledge.
Akala could only watch in horror as Tilki
lost her balance and fell into the darkness below, listening to her screams of
fear. Zathra was right behind her and
neither of them could catch her in time.
The stranger came and immediately figured out what had happened.
Peering down the side of the mountain,
Sassy could just make out where the third woman had landed approximately
fifteen meters below. The woman was
moving, trying to get up. It just
didn't seem right to leave her down there like that, somehow she'd become the
de facto leader of this group. It
looked like a fairly routine climb down to where the woman lay. She motioned for the other two to stay put
and swung herself over the ledge.
"I'm just a college professor," she whimpered softly, inching her way down the face of the rock.
.......................................................................................
Everyone on the senior staff was at the
table in the conference room except Janeway and Tuvok.
"Harry," Chakotay addressed the ensign while they
waited. "Were there any
interrupted communications from the surface during Alpha Shift?"
"No, sir."
They all turned to look as the door slid
open. "What do we know?" Captain Janeway strode in briskly and
immediately started the briefing.
Chakotay filled her in. "The Security Minister notified us that
one of our crew members was abducted during a raid earlier today."
"Who?"
"That is, apparently, still
unknown." Tuvok had entered the
room just as Janeway asked her question.
Taking his seat, he explained.
"All of the crew have reported back, no one is unaccounted
for."
Neelix looked from the captain to the
security chief as he voiced everyone's confusion. "Then what makes the Techans think that a member of
Voyager's crew has been taken?"
"Minister Grisk received reports of a
human female in the marketplace which was attacked," Tuvok replied.
"Where?" B'Elanna had a bad feeling about this.
Pulling up a sensor chart of Techora, the
security chief zoomed the image in to focus on the capital city. "This market on the western outskirts
of the capital."
Harry watched a curious mix of reactions
cross the chief engineer's face.
"Something wrong, B'Elanna?"
Not wanting to see the look on Chakotay's
face, B'Elanna locked her gaze on the surface of the table. "It was just a joke, nothing was
supposed to happen to her."
"Nothing was supposed to happen to
who?" Janeway addressed Torres.
"I went back and scanned for her a
couple of hours later but I couldn't locate any human readings so I figured
she'd found her own way back."
Tom made the connection. "Sassy?"
The Klingon's response was a silent nod.
"Where is Sassy?" Chakotay didn't wait for an answer,
accessing the computer instead.
"Computer, locate Ceshlyta."
"Professor Ceshlyta is currently in
her quarters."
"Her comm badge," B'Elanna
clarified, still focusing on the table.
"She was in the market that was raided."
Everyone flinched when Chakotay slammed
his hands on the table. "YOU PUT
HER ON THE PLANET BY HERSELF?" He
rose from his chair and leaned over the table toward the chief engineer. "She's a civilian with no space travel
experience and she's been unaccounted for, without communication ability, for
over eight hours?"
"I never meant--" she started to
explain.
"That doesn't do Sassy much good now,
does it!" the first officer
interrupted. "If anything's
happened to her . . . "
Janeway put a restraining hand on his arm. "Tuvok, have Lieutenant Torres secured
in the brig. We'll decide what to do
with her once we've found our missing member."
"Let me help find her," B'Elanna
requested as the door slid open to admit two security officers. "It's my fault she's missing, let me
fix it."
"You've done enough." Chakotay's jaw twitched, the muscles tightly
clenched in barely restrained fury.
"Get out of my sight."
"Bridge to the captain." The exchange was overridden by a call from
Ayala. The security officers quietly
escorted Torres out of the conference room.
Watching her first officer sit back down,
Janeway responded. "Go
ahead."
"Minister Grisk is hailing with more
information," the ensign informed her.
"Put him through."
The Starfleet symbol on the monitor was
replaced by the image of the security minister sitting at his desk in the
Ministry of Security. "Captain
Janeway, may I once again offer my profuse condolences in your time of
sorrow."
"What can you tell us about these raiders?" Janeway wasted no
time on pleasantries.
Grisk hesitated before answering. "They're slavers, Captain. They strike randomly at all of the planets
in this system, taking women but leaving behind the very young and the very
old. It's been going on for
generations."
"Where do they live?" Chakotay just wanted to find his wife.
"We don't know. Our ships are cargo and passenger vessels
with a top speed of Warp 2--on a good day." The minister pointed out.
"Their ships can do at least twice that. All of the planets in this system are inhabited and regular
targets for the slavers so we have determined that they do not inhabit our
system."
Tom had a question. "If it's been going on for so long, why
haven't you just built faster ships?"
"Cost effectiveness," came the
chilling reply. "They alternate
planets, never hitting the same one twice in a row. A handful of women every few years just isn't worth the expense
of designing or building a ship just to catch them."
"It's cheaper to be hunted,
apparently." The Doctor's remark
was only loud enough for the Voyager crew to hear.
Janeway shot a silencing glance to the EMH
and addressed Minister Grisk. "Our
ship is faster. What can you tell us
about their vessel and when they would have left the area this morning."
"Don't waste your time,
Captain." Grisk shook his head to
emphasize his words. "They've been
in the hands of the slavers for more than seven hours now."
"What's your point?" Chakotay's tone was short and clipped.
"They're the property of the slavers
now," the Minister explained.
"By now they've gotten to the next system and been marked and
claimed; once that's done, the women are their legal property according to the
laws of the other systems. Your own
Starfleet rules, as your Commander Tuvok explained them, require you to abide
by local law. By the property laws of
any other system in this area, she is no longer a member of your crew. She'll probably be sold at auction in one of
the neighboring systems at some point in the next few months."
"NO!" Chakotay's response was loud and immediate.
Janeway motioned for her first officer to
calm down. "We are required to
respect local laws but by your own admission she committed no crime. She was abducted against her will and the
Federation has not recognized slavery for centuries. We will retrieve our missing crew member, Minister, with or
without your help." Her tone left
no room for discussion.
"Could I meet with the representatives from the other planets
in this system?" Neelix jumped
into his ambassadorial role. "Perhaps
they have some information that could help."
Yielding to the inevitable, Grisk
sighed. "I'll contact them and
have all of their information on the slaver ship transmitted to you as well as
all of our information." He
reached forward on his desk and closed the transmission.
"We'll find her, Chakotay,"
Janeway assured him quietly. Addressing
the rest of the staff, she began issuing orders. "Harry and Seven, review the sensor logs from this
morning. Account for every ship within
sensor range focusing on all traffic to and from the planet surface from 0700
to 1500. Plot probable courses for any
ships leaving the area or even passing through the area. Neelix, you and Tom start meeting with the
representatives from the other planets.
They may be able to provide something not in the reports that might
help. Tuvok, work with Minister Grisk
to compile a report on these sl--raiders." She quickly corrected herself, thinking that Chakotay didn't need
to hear the word slaver any more right then.
"I want to know as much as possible about what we're dealing
with."
"Is there anything I can do,
Captain." The EMH hated feeling
helpless.
"Work with Tom and Neelix," she
advised. "Time is of the essence
here, people. The faster we get this
information together, the sooner we get Sassy back. Dismissed." As
everyone filed out to get to their assignments, she studied her first
officer. "I'd ask if you want to
be excused but I know the answer to that already. Sassy needs clear heads right now, not rash emotions." It would probably make more sense to relieve
him of duty, no doubt Tuvok with his Vulcan logic would recommend that she do
just that. In her opinion, however,
right now he needed to do something.
"I know."
"Then take the Bridge and coordinate
everyone's efforts. I want options as
soon as possible." Janeway stood. "I'll be in my ready room."
For
a long moment Chakotay sat there in the empty room feeling more alone than he'd
ever felt before. He turned his hand
over and traced his wedding ring marking.
"Aalm a aalm, seek and find," he whispered in the
silence. "I'm coming, sweetheart,
just hold on."
...................................................................................
Letting go of her fingerhold, Sassy
dropped down beside the injured woman.
She had landed on a trail lower down that appeared to wind up and around
the face of the mountain. Kneeling, she
began skimming her hands along the other woman's body to check for broken bones
and trying to be gentle over the scratches and fresh abrasions from the fall. The Techan was alert, that was a good
sign. The bad news was her lower left
leg--it was badly broken, the bone piercing the skin. Even though she knew that the other woman couldn't understand,
she laid her hand on the woman's shoulder and reassured her. "I'll be right back. I need to find some sticks for a splint before
I set this."
On this section of the trail, the treeline
ended only a dozen or so meters back.
Jogging the short distance, she reached the trees in no time and began
looking for two short, sturdy and relatively straight sticks among the broken branches
and twigs scattered on the ground.
Cutting the sticks directly from the trees was an absolute last resort,
she resolved. A large limb was lying at
the base of one of the trees, probably felled by a storm. It would be dark within a couple of hours
she guessed, judging by the patches of sky that she could see through the tree
tops. Just in case Chakotay couldn't
her by then, she should probably prepare to spend the night. Quickly gathering roots, herbs and some
fruits that looked safe, she tied her belt around the tree section and pulled
it along to the trail.
When she returned to the injured woman,
she discovered that the other two Techans had found a way down and were sitting
with their friend. Wasting no time, she
set out the sticks for the splint and carefully cut strips from the bottom of
the injured woman's dress for binding.
None of the women looked like they had any clue as to what she was about
to do. "Damn you,
B'Elanna," Sassy muttered about
the lack of communication.
Akala had been horrified at Tilki's injury
when Zathra and she had arrived below.
They were so far away from the medical clinics and no way to call for
assistance. The stranger returned then,
her pockets bulging and dragging a large tree limb behind her. From the gestures that the stranger made, it
seemed like she was going to try to fix Tilki's leg and wanted them to hold her
down. She nodded to Zathra and the two
held tight, cringing as the stranger wrenched the leg viciously. Tilki screamed and struggled but the bone
was no longer jutting out through the skin.
Sassy found the moss and medicinal herbs
that she's collected among the other items in the pockets of her jumpsuit. Adding herbs to the moss, she laid the crude
poultice on the jagged gash where the skin had been pierced. She tied it in place with a strip of cloth
and applied the splint around the bandage.
With the two Techans on each side helping the injured woman hobble along
the trail, she scouted ahead and located a cave about an hours hike from where
the woman had fallen.
The sun was almost gone and Techora had no
moon, so nighttime was pitch black.
Working by feel, Sassy used the knife against the cave wall to spark the
dry leaves from the tree limb that she'd piled up for tinder. In a short time she had a small fire going
inside the cave. It was far enough back
in the cave that it wouldn't blow out so she left and headed back down the
trail to find the three women and lead them to the cave. Stars twinkled against the black canvas of
space as they worked their way up to the soft glow of the fire that she'd
started.
"Chakotay, mi aalm, where are
you? I need you." The plea was whispered into the night before
she turned her attention to emptying her pockets of the food and herbs that
she'd collected. They needed to get the
injured woman settled and all of them needed to eat, it had been a long
day. If they were still here in the
morning she'd have to erase their trail to the cave, find a water source and
collect more food. She'd also have to
find more of the moss and herbs for the poultice. "I'm just a college professor," she sighed.
..........................................................................................
"Any luck?" B'Elanna sprang from the cot when Tom
entered.
Nodding to the security officer on duty,
he excused the man to give them some privacy.
"No, nothing yet. None of
the delegates were able to tell us anything useful. We're going to have to chase down every ion trail in the area and
hope we get lucky."
"Have you--?"
"What were you thinking? Do you hate her that much?" He hadn't been able to make sense of why
she'd done this. He also hadn't been
able to shake the feeling that it was all his fault for even suggesting that the
two spend the day together. "Jor,
Tabor and Henley have all been confined to quarters for their part in
this."
"It was all my doing, they weren't
responsible." She paced the length
of her cell. "I didn't want
anything to happen to her, I just wanted . . ."
"What?"
Frustration exploded. "I don't know!" Taking a deep breath, she continued. "She's just so . . . Sometimes I want
to . . . I just don't like her."
Tom stood next to the forcefield
separating them. "Why?"
"She's taking my place." She hated the petulant tone of her voice.
"You're an engineer, Voyager's best
engineer, and she's a botanist. How can
she be doing that?"
Plopping back down on the cot, she
shrugged. "Not like that, I mean .
. . on the ship, socially. Before she
got here, next to Janeway I was the top woman on the ship; people came to me
about things. Now SHE's having coffee
and spending time on the holodeck with Janeway and calling her Kathryn, people
go to the garden and talk to HER--even Harry went to HER for advice about
something. And she's so simpering and
omniscient about it." She did an
exaggerated impersonation of Sassy.
"All planets are merely bodies among the stars."
Tom wished that she'd told him this before
he'd suggested their shore leave.
"Was that when you decided to do this? When Harry thanked her?"
The Klingon silently nodded.
"B'Elanna, she's just trying to fit
in, to make a life here." He held
his hands out to forestall the outburst that he could see coming. "I'm not taking her side but I can't
take your side either. Whether you
meant it or not, Sassy is missing and in trouble. Chakotay's pretty upset and so is Janeway."
"Ensign Paris, report to the
Bridge." Chakotay's voice came
through his comm badge.
Tom had one parting comment. "Take it from an experienced
troublemaker, think about what you did and why. Chakotay will want an answer and I don't think he'll like that
one." Just as the door slid open,
he turned back. "I love you,
B'Elanna, no matter what."
She ignored the security officer who had
unobtrusively returned to his post and laid down on the cot.
..................................................................................
"Take the helm, Mr. Paris." Janeway had resumed command and, while
Chakotay should have been resting,--he'd been up for close to thirty-six hours
at this point--he was determinedly sitting at his post to her left. Tuvok and Harry also manned their usual stations.
"Do we have something to go
on?" Tom quickly commandeered the
pilot's chair.
Harry answered. "We've narrowed it down to eleven possibilities along four
different vectors. One of those vectors
leads deeper into this system and toward more populated areas so that's the
least likely option. That still leaves
us nine ships in three different direction.
I'm sending you the first set of course coordinates now." His fingers danced across the console. "Four of the nine went in this general
direction."
"Engage, warp six," the captain ordered.
"Yes, ma'am."
..........................................................................................
Sassy searched the night sky. "Chakotay, where are you?" She sat outside the cave in the darkness of
the night. A soft glow emanated from
the cave entrance a few meters behind her.
Involuntarily the muscles of her mouth twitched, remembering the story
Tom had told about the time that Chakotay hadn't been able to get a fire going. Score one for the Inihasa.
It had been a long day, but a productive
one. She'd located a stream nearby with
fronds on its bank large enough to bring water back for the injured woman. She had also located more of the herbs and
moss necessary for changing the poultice.
One of the other women had started to develop an infection in one of her
scratches but Sassy was fairly sure that she had gotten to it in time. All day she'd been expecting to see
Starfleet uniforms or the inside of a transporter room at any instant. Now, after night had fallen and still no
rescue, she was exhausted. She felt
like breaking down and having herself a good cry but there were three women in
that cave who needed her to be strong.
"Akoochimoya, I am far from the
sacred bones of my ancestors," she fingered her bracelet as she
prayed. "But perhaps there is a
benevolent spirit who will guide mi aalm in his efforts to find me." Sitting in the quiet blackness, she also sought
answers. Should she stay put until she
was found and rescued? Or should she
head back down the mountain with the other women and risk getting caught in
whatever conflict had begun in that marketplace? Maybe if she knew what had happened in the market she could make
a better decision; but without being able to communicate with the locals, she
was on her own.
..........................................................................................
"Leave." Chakotay stood in the doorway, staring
intently at the prisoner in the cell as he spoke to the security officer on
duty.
Ensign Molina fidgeted nervously. "I'm sorry, sir. I can't do that."
Turning his angry expression on the
ensign, he barked. "That was an
order."
"You're not to be left alone with
Lieutenant Torres, Commander's Tuvok's orders."
"I outrank him," the first
officer pointed out sharply.
"Yes, sir. Why don't I call him down here?" Molina definitely wanted some back-up.
Chakotay exhaled slowly. "Never mind." He walked over to stand in front of the
cell.
"Have you found her yet?" B'Elanna
asked softly. She could face just about
anything except the silence of her friend and former captain.
"No," he shook his head never
taking his gaze from her. "We've
just wasted eight hours on a dead end and it'll take another six to alter course
to run down the next possibilities."
She couldn't stand to see the coldness in
his eyes any longer. She spun around
and began meandering around her cell aimlessly. "I'm sorry, Chakotay."
"Why?"
The one word asked a multitude of questions
and B'Elanna heard them all. "I
never meant for anything like this to happen.
I just wanted to rattle her, give her a life experience. I did try to beam her back after a couple of
hours but she was gone by then. I
figured that she'd found her own way back." She paused to sneak a glance at the stoic Indian. "Sassy's just . . . I don't think she's
good enough for you. She's too weak and
I thought if I showed her--and you . . . " There really wasn't any way to end that sentence since she'd
never thought that far ahead.
"So you were doing me a
favor." His tone was icy flat.
Put like that it didn't sound right. "No," she sighed. "I was
doing something stupid and impulsive. I
don't like her and I let it get out of hand."
"What about Tabor, Jor and
Henley?" He hadn't talked to them
yet.
"They thought it was a practical
joke. Mariah wasn't really comfortable
with it but all they did was keep their mouths shut. I reprogrammed the transporter and set everything up." There was no point in getting the other
three in trouble too.
Chakotay almost wished that the others had
played a more active part in all of this; it would have been less of a betrayal
somehow. "They conspired to place
a civilian from this ship in danger. They'll
be disciplined appropriately."
B'Elanna couldn't bring herself to ask
about her punishment.
"You'll remain in the brig until we
find Sassy. Once we've got her back,
we'll decide how to deal with you."
He wanted to deal with her now, but the captain had convinced him to
wait. "She's my heart, my
soul." His voice cracked.
"It was just a joke," she whispered.
He spun sharply on his heel to leave. "It wasn't funny."
...........................................................................................
Sassy reached the wooded grove that she'd
discovered the day before. She was
starting to worry about Voyager. It
shouldn't have taken them a day and a half from when they discovered her
missing to find her and yet this was their third day in the mountains. Maybe there was something in the planet's
geology that was interfering with their sensors. At least the injured woman was doing all right. The poultice was helping with the pain and
preventing infection, there'd been no fever or pus from the wound. A small animal crossed between a couple of
trees just in front of her. She'd
thought about doing some hunting the day before and had even found some supple
wood that would make a perfect bow and arrows with her bootlace for a
bowstring. Her maternal grandfather had
taken all of the kids in her family, at different times, down to the jungles on
Earth to teach them the old ways-- survival, hunting and respect for nature's
beauty and danger. As soon as she'd
started working on the bow, an image of the man she'd impaled with that crude
spear in the marketplace had flashed across her mind. Nausea turned her stomach and she'd flung the wood into the fire. They could survive on a vegetarian diet
until they were rescued, assuming that they hadn't given her up for dead and
left orbit. Maybe, she surmised,
digging up some tubers at the base of a large, old tree, something had happened
to B'Elanna and they don't know what happened to me. Something had better have happened to that Klingon bitch or
something would happen if and when she got back to Voyager. Stabbing the knife into the ground, she
decided that they'd start back down the mountain the next day. It would probably take them a couple of days
to make it back to the city because of the injured woman.
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that
it was a complete shock to feel someone grab her left shoulder tightly and bark
out something unintelligible. She'd
forgotten about their pursuers! The
knife was in her right hand and she twisted to her left, intending to slash his
thigh. Unfortunately, her move threw
the man off balance and, instead of her original target, the knife drove into
the bulge at the juncture of his thighs.
To judge by the high-pitched squeal that he let out, his kind must be
fairly physiologically similar to human males.
She jerked the knife free and the raider dropped to the ground holding
himself and whimpering. She wiped the
blade clean on his pants and slid the knife into her boot.
Frantically, she stuffed the tubers into
her pockets and gathered the moss and herbs that she needed to change the
poultice. She was out of breath when
she finally reached the relative safety of the cave. The three Techans eyed her hesitantly when she entered and she
glanced down to see bloodstains along her right sleeve and across the front of
her jumpsuit. Too shaken and tired to
even attempt an explanation in the cross between sign language and charades
that they'd been communicating with, Sassy just slumped down against the wall
of the cave. "I'm a college
professor," she mumbled, tears blurring her vision.
.................................................................................
The garden was silent and dark at the
early morning hour. The lights were
programmed to a twenty-four hour cycle and would begin increasing the lighting
in a few hours. Chakotay wandered
through the maze of trees, plants and flowers.
He had been in the garden at the beginning of the daytime cycle a few
times. It almost looked like a sunrise
with reddish-orange light rising slowly and brightening gradually to a sunlight
ambience. Thinking back to the crude
hydroponics bay that they had before Sassy came, it was hard to believe how
much she brought to the ship--to his life.
There was a PADD sitting on her workbench
and he picked it up, scanning the information that it displayed. Notes from several crewmembers were there,
detailing the chores that they had completed in the garden. People were coming in on their own time to
take care of Sassy's garden in her absence.
He set the PADD back down, tracing over the display screen in unspoken
gratitude to those individuals listed.
He wondered where she was, what was happening to her. The image of his soulmate, stripped, beaten
and bound while those animals--
His fist pounded the workbench as he
forced his thoughts away from that gruesome picture. Instead, he focused on a memory of her wild and unrestrained. The first of many times that they'd gone
horseback riding together. He'd met her
in the holodeck expecting an afternoon of riding horses and a picnic
lunch. Sitting down on a bench in the
garden, he let his mind wander.
She had ridden up, her long, black hair
blowing free in the breeze. Wearing a
strapless sundress, she coyly informed him that she'd planned for them to ride
double. After he'd mounted the horse,
she swung up in front of him. Her small
hand slipped between their bodies to deftly unfasten his uniform pants. She'd stroked the hardening length with
long, firm caresses. Stripping his
jacket and shirt off, she'd run her hands up his arms and along his chest. He shuddered as he remembered how her
fingernail felt as they lightly grazed his nipples. She had found his mouth with hers, slipping her tongue between
his lips to explore and tantalize him.
Without breaking the kiss, she'd shifted herself up and mounted him in
one fluid motion.
He still couldn't recall how he'd managed
to stay on the horse let alone nudge the animal into a walk. Every step rocked them together, creating a
slow, erotic tempo. The hardened tips
of her breasts stroked against his chest even through the fabric of her dress. He vividly remembered the feeling of her,
hot and tight around him, moaning in his ear, her hand running up and down his
back restlessly, sparking his sensitized skin with each caress. He'd pulled her strapless bodice down
easily, baring her breasts. He buried his
hand in her hair and bent her back, forcing the ripe, full mounds up to meet his
hot, questing mouth. Her small hands
rested on his arms, he remembered, a knot of emotion in his throat at the
complete trust she had shown for him to hold her securely. She had come as his mouth closed over a
straining, tawny peak, his tongue lapping at the hardened nipple. Her lithe body had bucked against him as she
cried out with pleasure. He hadn't
stopped, continuing to lavish her body with erotic pleasure as their bodies
rocked together in time with the pace of the horse.
After a second release gripped her, the
frantic movements had spurred the horse to a trot, forcing him to release her
and concentrate on riding. She'd sat
back up and wrapped herself around him, her breasts crushed against the wall of
his chest. She had been whimpering
ceaselessly in his ear even as her body still quivered, the pace of the horse
driving him into her even faster. Her
nails dug furrows down his back in her mindless ecstasy. Then he'd urged the horse into a
gallop. She was trembling
uncontrollably around him, release after release rippling through her. When her mouth found his shoulder, her
sharp, white teeth digging into his skin . . .
"Chakotay."
Lost in his reverie, he hadn't heard the
door to the garden slide open.
"I thought I sent you to your
quarters." Janeway had gone to
give him an update and discovered that he wasn't there.
Starting to rise from the bench, he sat
back down at her gesture and motioned for her to join him. "Actually, you relieved me of
duty."
"You need to rest," she urged, worried about her first officer.
Chakotay rubbed his face briskly with his
hands. "How can someone who's been
part of my life for such a short time make those quarters feel so empty with
her absence?"
Yet another time that she wished for a
ship's counselor. "We got a
message from Techora, they were able to eliminate the question of two of the
ships, that leaves us three probables and two possibles. That should cut a few hours off the
search."
"How soon?"
"We should intercept our next target
in about three hours."
Interpreting his question, she gave the latest ETA.
He stared at the strawberry patch in front
of him. "I never said goodbye, I
didn't even kiss her before I walked away from her that morning."
She
didn't know how to respond to that. If
they ever got back to the Alpha Quadrant, her first recommendation would be
mandatory psychology courses for all command level officers.
"It's all my fault," he sighed.
Turning to him, Janeway put her hand on
his shoulder. "How can you even
think that?"
"I've been pushing Sassy and B'Elanna
together since she got here, including the shore leave on Techora
together. She wasn't planning to leave
the ship without me." He had been
mentally castigating himself for that since her absence had been
discovered. "Of course, if it
weren't for me, she wouldn't be here anyway.
I left my path to pursue vengeance, that's how I got here. She doesn't deserve this life."
"She's very happy here," Kathryn spoke from experience after spending
long hours in Sassy's company over coffee, herb teas and holonovels. She, too, was concerned about the loss of a
woman who had become her only real friend on a ship full of subordinates.
"It's only recently that she's been
able to have the viewports open without feeling uncomfortable," he pointed out. "She's never lived aboard a ship before."
"We'll find her," Janeway wished that she felt as certain
about that as she tried to sound.
Chakotay turned his palm over to eye his
wedding rings. "But what they're
doing to her . . . she's been so sheltered her whole life. She's a college professor, she won't be able
to handle it."
Kathryn forced his eyes to meet hers. "Then she'll need us to help her."
"I pulled up her listing on the
ship's roster," he strayed from
the subject. "There's no record of
our marriage. If I lose her now--"
"You won't."
"If we can't find her," he
reiterated. "Officially our union
would never have existed. None of what
we have would have been real."
She had never considered their marital
status. When Sassy had come aboard,
appearing in Chakotay's quarters with a matching mark of intertwined circles
from their ethereal wedding, it had just been accepted that they were husband
and wife. He was right, though; without
witnesses or any documentation, there couldn't be an official record of their
marriage in the ship's log. "What
the two of you feel for each other is real, an entry in a log can't change that."
Searching the face of his friend and
captain, he went on. "If--when we
get Sassy back, I want an official wedding with witnesses and everything. Would you perform the ceremony?"
Kathryn had never seen her first officer
as happy and content in their first four years together as he'd been since
Ceshlyta had been in his life.
"I'd be honored."
Chakotay nodded, managing a brief smile,
and returned to his contemplation of the ripening strawberries, still slightly
green.
"But first," Janeway stood. "We have to find the bride and you," she leveled her
gaze at him. "You have to get some
sleep, even if I have to get the Doctor to sedate you. Am I clear?"
"Yes, ma'am." He rose from the bench and followed her out
of the garden. "Kathryn," he stopped her before the door opened. "Thank you."
"It's not often I get to give fate a
helping hand," she noted, exiting
the garden.
..................................................................................
Sassy tested the bindings on the makeshift
travois one last time. She wanted to
get an early start down the mountainside, although it would take them the
better part of two days to travel the distance they'd covered in a matter of hours
in their flight from the market. In her
pocket were a couple of rocks with flint-like qualities--she never thought
she'd have ever needed the geology/mineralogy course she'd taken as a college
freshman. Her other pockets were
stuffed with herbs for the medicinal poultices and some tubers and roots for
food in case they were forced to camp in areas with limited foraging. Convinced that she was as ready as she'd
ever be, she woke the other women and put out the fire, scattering the ashes.
Three days on this mountain and beginning
a fourth, she tried to not think about what it meant that Chakotay still hadn't
come for her. What would she do if
Voyager had left orbit and abandoned her on this planet? She gazed wistfully at her wedding bands on
the palm of her hand, at least she had their marriage and the memory of their
time together. No matter what happened,
nothing could ever take that away.
Shaking herself back to the moment, she
motioned for the two Techan women to help her move the injured woman onto the
travois. It had taken hours the
previous night to explain that she wanted to go back down the mountain and how
they would get the woman with the broken leg down the mountain with them. Carefully sliding her over, she checked to
make sure the woman was comfortable and gestured for her two friends to grab
the litter. She picked her way down in
front of them, seeking a path that would jostle the injured woman as little as
possible. She would scout ahead as much
as possible for places that they could stop, rest and change places at the
front of the travois. The grove that
they had stopped at in their panicked flight before would make a good place to
stop for the night once they got there.
Briefly, she remembered the last time that
she'd been lost in the wilderness.
Well, not lost really, she'd gotten separated from the rest of her party
during a sabbatical studying endangered plants in the jungles of Central
America. She'd taken shelter in the
ruins of an abandoned village, made camp and settled in to wait out an unusual storm. Instead, she'd gotten married at the temple
of the Sky Spirits and ended up on a starship in the Delta Quadrant. Her life was a far cry from the simple
existence of the Professor of Botanical Sciences for the Ohio State University
that she once lived.
...................................................................................
"According to the sensors, the ship
that traveled along this course, most likely landed on the class M planet
approximately two light-years away," Harry announced from ops.
Chakotay perched forward in his
chair. Four days, four agonizing,
frustrating days since Sassy had disappeared.
This had to be it, this ship had to be the one that had taken her. After some fitful hours of sleep and a hot
meal, Kathryn had relented and allowed him to return to duty. "Life signs?"
"Unable to scan, sensors are
detecting one settlement but they've got some sort of energy field around the
entire site."
Janeway emerged from her ready room during
their exchange. "Let's have a chat
with them. Hail them."
"Captain," Tuvok interrupted from the security
console. "If they are involved in
the commerce of females, perhaps our conversation would be more efficacious if
you were not part of the discussion. No
disrespect intended."
The Captain turned to her security
chief. "A Vulcan suggesting
deception? Tuvok, I'm impressed." She nodded to her first officer. "Can you handle this?" Her look held a myriad of unspoken concerns.
Steeling himself, Chakotay stood
resolutely.
After a brief delay, Kim nodded to the
captain. "They're
responding."
As Janeway moved back into the shadows,
the commander took charge. "On
screen." When the alien captain's
face filled the viewscreen, he adjusted his uniform jacket and introduced
himself. "I am Commander Chakotay
of the Federation Starship Voyager."
"Korl."
When no other information was forthcoming,
he surged forward. "I'm looking
for a woman. I understand that you
might be able to help me."
"Well, we don't normally do private
sales, but for the right price we may be able to work something out. I'll have the barrier lowered so that you
can come down to look over the merchandise.
It'll just take a few minutes."
The viewscreen suddenly went black.
"He cut the transmission at his
end," Harry explained.
Janeway was already working at one of the
secondary consoles on the bridge.
"As soon as he lowers that shield, Harry, give me a full sensor
sweep of the base. Tuvok, locate their
shield generator and analyze options for disabling it."
Chakotay was already heading for the
turbolift. "He's invited us
down. Tuvok, I'll need a couple of male
security officers to meet me in Transporter Room One."
Exchanging glances with the captain, Tuvok
motioned for another security officer to take his place and removed a phaser
from the console. "Mr. Paris and I
will accompany you."
Tom was out of his seat in a flash. "I'll run by Sickbay and pick up a
medkit and meet you in the transporter room."
A short while later, they materialized in
the center of the compound on the planet.
Chakotay looked around, noting the arrangement of the buildings and
defensive capabilities. The alien who
had answered their earlier hail was walking toward them with two other
males. Nobody seemed to be paying them
much attention, but the ones who looked to be on sentry duty did take note of
their numbers and weapons. There were
women from more than a half dozen different races, naked and trembling, chained
to posts ringing the compound. All of
them bore long, red welts crisscrossing their backs and parts of their arms and
legs. Surreptitiously, he searched
every face hoping that he'd find Sassy but not wanting to see her in such a
condition.
On
Voyager, Janeway listened to every sound from the surface. The away team had an open comm link so that
if there was any trouble, they could be retrieved.
"The energy field went back up as
soon as they appeared," Harry reported.
"It doesn't seem to interfere with our communications." He sighed in disappointment. "There were no human lifesigns detected
while the barrier was down."
"At the first sign of
trouble," she commanded the
officer manning the security station.
"Target their shield generator and fire phasers."
Down on the surface, Korl bowed in
greeting to the strangers.
"Commander . . . Chakotay, I believe."
"Yes."
The slaver gestured around. "Do you see anything you like?"
"The Commander's tastes are very unique,"
Tom spoke up quickly. "Perhaps a
private place to discuss the specifics?"
"Of course, come with me." Korl led them across the compound to his
private residence.
Alone with the slaver, the images of what
those women had been through haunted Chakotay's thoughts.
"Now, what did you have in
mind?" The slaver brought out the
catalog of their current inventory.
"You raided a planet in the Quel-car
system approximately a week ago. Where
is the human female you captured there?"
Tuvok wasted no time with pleasantries or subterfuge. He gestured silently to Tom who slipped over
to the door to guard it, his phaser drawn.
"How dare you make such
accusations," Korl spluttered,
standing. "This is a legitimate
business operation. You have no
right--"
His indignation was cut short by a massive
fist connecting with his jaw. Reeling
back, he stumbled and fell but was hauled back to his feet by an enraged
Indian. Chakotay held the hapless
slaver by a fistful of his shirt in his left hand.
"Where is she?" he roared. "What have you done to my wife?"
Without waiting for an answer, he slammed
the man against a nearby wall. Visions
of Sassy in the same condition or even worse than those women he'd seen outside
drove his rage as he pummeled the man's face over and over with his fist.
"You filthy animal, where is my
wife? Where is she?"
Korl's face was bleeding in numerous
places and broken in a few before Tuvok managed to pull Chakotay off of him.
"I would advise you to provide the
information that the commander desires," Tuvok pointed out to the
slaver. "If you would rather
discuss this with him further, I can certainly release him." The Vulcan's tone was matter-of-fact.
"She's not here!" Korl yelled,
spitting blood and teeth.
"Where?" Chakotay roared again,
struggling against the hands holding him.
"The stranger on Techora, she escaped
into the mountains. I sent some of my
men after her but they haven't returned yet." One woman was not worth his life, regardless of what she'd
done. "They should be on their way
by now."
"Tuvok to Voyager."
"We heard," Janeway
confirmed. "I'll have Seven boost
the long range sensors to see if their ship is within sensor range yet."
Chakotay had calmed down enough to pick up
on something that the slaver had said.
"Captain, Chakotay here.
Sassy's a botanist and she was raised on the old traditions of our
people. If she got into the mountains,
she'd have an advantage. She may have
been able to evade the men chasing her."
The same thing had just occurred to the
captain. Why hadn't she ordered a
planet-wide sensor sweep for human life signs before breaking orbit? "It's not really our business but I
don't like the idea of leaving those women down there under those
conditions. We'll contact some of the
governments from the Quel-car system and see if any of them are interested in
the whereabouts of this place. It's the
least we can do. In the meantime, I'll
send a security team down to your coordinates.
You and Tom take the Flyer back to Techora to look for Sassy while we
take care of things here. If you locate
her, contact us; otherwise, we'll set course to join you as soon as we
can."
During the exchange, Paris had located
some controls for the energy field and disengaged it.
"Acknowledged." Two security officers materialized in the
room and shortly after that, Tom and he were enveloped in the shimmering of a
transporter beam.
..........................................................................
She knew something was wrong as she
approached the campsite, there was a
male voice talking softly in an indecipherable language. She had been gone about an hour scouting
ahead and gathering some food.
Approaching cautiously, she tried to figure out how many there
were. She found a melon-sized rock on
the ground and slipped it into her jumpsuit before quietly climbing into a tree
near the glade.
There were two of them, one about four
meters away and one a scant meter from the tree she was perched in. They hadn't heard her coming, both men were
relaxed and apparently taunting the women judging by their sobs. Pulling out the rock that she had picked up,
she held it over her head with both hands and slammed it down, aiming for the
nearest raider. As he collapsed to the
ground, the other man came over to investigate. Sassy jumped from the tree to land on the raider and began
pummeling him on the head and shoulders with the hilt of the knife. "I'm a college professor of botanical
sciences," she yelled, punctuating
each word with a blow. The impacts
barely fazed him. He managed to grab
her left arm and jerked on it, trying to pull her off.
Struggling to maintain her balance,
desperation finally won and she used the blade of the knife to slit the man's
throat. Blood sprayed out everywhere
for what felt like an eternity before he slumped to the ground. Scrambling away, she sat, trembling, against
the trunk of a nearby tree for a long time.
Eventually she roused herself to check on the man she'd hit with the
stone. What she saw made her gag. The rock had caved in his skull.
"I'm a college professor," she tried to explain to the two corpses and
the three women staring at her in horror.
"I study plants and trees and flowers and other botanical life
forms." Tears streamed down her
face as she rocked back and forth willing herself to wake up from this
nightmare.
'Necessity is the mother of
invention.' Her mother's favorite adage
urged her out of her shock. She slowly
rose to her feet and went to wash the blood off of her hands in the nearby
stream. Necessity, she decided, is a
bitch.
.............................................................................
"Time to reach Techora?" Chakotay completed the last of the systems
checks. Neither Tom nor he had been
inclined to spend time on pre-flight before they had launched. They'd checked the basic systems first and
launched the Delta Flyer, setting course for the Quel-car system while the
first officer completed the pre-flight checks.
Tom checked the navigational sensors. "At current speed, it'll take us about
ten hours."
"I'm putting the sensors at maximum
output. If those men that Korl left
behind to hunt her has caught her, they'll have to pass somewhere near here
enroute to their base."
"Chakotay, about B'Elanna." Paris wasn't really sure what to say, but he
had to say something. "There was
no way she could have foreseen this happening.
She didn't think there was any danger, just a harmless prank."
Logically he knew that, he didn't need the
pilot to point it out. In his heart,
however, all he knew was that the woman who made him feel complete was gone and
B'Elanna was the reason. "We're in
a quadrant of space where no Federation ships have gone before. Our being here is an unforeseen
circumstance; everything that happens to us is unforeseen. People need to realize that and stop acting
as if this were just a three hour tour."
"Everyone does understand
that," Tom offered. "You know that B'Elanna would never do
anything to hurt you. She may not be
fond of Sassy but she knows that you are.
You can't think that B'Elanna would ever intentionally . . . "
"I know." But if they didn't find Sassy, he wasn't
sure he would ever be able to forgive the Klingon.
.......................................................................
She was numb. Her body was going through all of the motions, but her mind was
still in shock. Something had to be
done with the bodies, they couldn't just be left to the wild animals no matter
what kind of men they were. Without
knowing what their particular beliefs regarding death were, all she could do
was to take care of the bodies according to her beliefs. Digging graves with nothing but a knife was
impractical so she built two funeral pyres a distance from the glade that they
had camped in. The Techan women had
just sat silently, staring as she dragged the bodies one at a time and placed them
on the pyres. The whole time that she
spent gathering wood and clearing an open area for the fires, she sobbed
freely. It took forever to get the
fires lit and burning strongly enough to completely incinerate the corpses but
even then it didn't seemed right to just walk away. She forced herself to watch as the bodies of the men whom she had
killed were licked by the flames.
Waiting for the fire to burn away the blood from her hands, she sought
strength from her own spirituality. The
parting ritual wasn't appropriate since she hadn't known them, so she offered a
simple prayer that their souls travel in peace through whatever afterlife they
believed in. As horrible as she felt at
that moment, she couldn't help but wonder where the third man, the one she had
stabbed a few days earlier, was. Would
she have to kill him as well? Or had
the stab wound that she'd inflicted on him already been fatal?
Nothing would make her regret her choice
to travel to her soulmate along a new path but at that moment she was thinking
wistfully of the familiar security of her classroom and lab back on Earth.
.......................................................................................................
"I've got human life
signs," Chakotay informed Tom as
the pilot entered orbit around Techora.
"It's Sassy, I'm picking up the silver and gemstones from her
bracelet."
Paris set the autopilot to maintain
orbital integrity. "I'll send a
message to Voyager, let them know."
"There are three other people with
her, Techan from the readings."
The first officer took out two phasers and tossed one to Tom. "You'd better grab a medkit
too." While the pilot and chief
medic went to the back to retrieve an emergency medical kit, Chakotay set the
transporter coordinates.
The control panel beeped and Paris stopped
at a secondary panel to check the readings.
"It's Voyager, they've received the transmission and are already
enroute. They should arrive in a little
over nine hours."
"I've set the transporter to put us
down about five hundred meters from Sassy.
It's night on the planet so we'll have some cover." He handed Tom a wrist light. "Let's go."
Down on the planet, Sassy was sitting
against the trunk of a tree and staring up at the sky wondering if Chakotay was
looking out of a viewport at the same stars.
The knife had become a permanent resident of her hand, always at the
ready in case there were more of them.
They had camped in the clearing, none of them eager to do any more
traveling after the earlier horror. The
funeral pyres had burned themselves out a short while ago. All she wanted to do was to get home, back
to Voyager and Chakotay's strong arms.
Tears blurred her vision and she closed her eyes, picturing him. When he smiled, his dark eyes sparkled and
the precious dimples in his cheeks gave him a boyish quality. His warm embrace made all of the loneliness
and awkwardness of adjusting to her new life melt away. She could almost feel his fingers combing
through her hair and telling her that everything was all right.
Chakotay and Tom approached the campsite
quietly, the fire a clear beacon in the darkness. Using the tricorder, the first officer motioned to Paris. "The Techans are laying on the ground
near the fire," he whispered. "Sassy is sitting against a tree on the
east side of the clearing." They
split up, Tom approaching the campsite from the west and Chakotay circling
around to enter the clearing as close to Sassy as possible.
She should probably try to sleep but every
time she closed her eyes, she saw dead bodies piling up in front of her. There was too much fear and turmoil in her
mind to allow her to meditate much less achieve the Zen state to speak to her
spirit guide. Nevertheless, she
attempted to slow her breathing in an attempt to find some semblance of inner
peace. Without warning, a large hand
clamped over her mouth. She squealed in
terror, the hand holding the knife was pinned by the muscular body beside her.
"Shhh," Chakotay tried to calm her. He put his phaser down and drew her behind
the tree that she was leaning against.
Leaving her there, he found his phaser and provided cover for Tom who
entered the clearing yelling for the Techans to stay where they where.
A brief glimpse of the wonderfully rugged,
handsome face was all Ceshlyta needed to know that her husband had finally come
for her. Slipping the knife into her
boot, she leapt up and threw herself into his arms. "Mi aalm, Spirits but I was starting to think I'd never see
you again."
"She all right, Chakotay?" Tom kept a wary eye on the three forms in
the middle of the clearing as he called across to the commander.
For a long moment, the first officer
couldn't answer. His mouth was seeking
and claiming the soft, full lips of his wife, his tongue reacquainting itself
with the moist warmth of her mouth. One
arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her luscious curves against his
body. Eventually, he reluctantly broke
the kiss when his lungs demanded air.
"I'm okay, Tom," Sassy answered,
still a little breathless. "But
the women could use some medical attention.
One of them has a broken leg and some of their scratches have been
trying to develop infections. I've been
treating them the best I could with herbs and poultices."
"Women?" Chakotay lowered his weapon. "They're not part of the raiding
force?"
She couldn't bring herself to tell him
about the men whom she had killed. She
dreaded the look that would cross his face when she told him how she'd
violently ended the lives of others. For
the time being, she just concentrated on the immediate necessities. "No, they escaped from the marketplace
with me. We've been hiding here in the
mountains. I didn't know what was going
on or who any of them were."
"I've got a compound fracture here," Tom had put his phaser away and was running
the medical tricorder over the women.
"It's okay, I'm Tom Paris and that's Commander Chakotay from the
Federation Starship Voyager. We're here
to help. I'm going to do what I can for
you until our ship gets here with our doctor." Soothing the frightened women, he prepared a hypospray of
painkiller for the woman with the broken leg.
"Should we beam everyone back to the
Flyer and meet Voyager?" The first
officer loosened his grip on Sassy, but didn't release her. He wasn't quite ready to let go of her after
agonizing so long over whether or not he'd ever see her again.
The medic pondered the timetable. If they left orbit to intercept Voyager,
they'd get medical attention only a few hours sooner. They were reasonably comfortable at this campsite and none of
their injuries were life threatening.
It would probably be just as easy, certainly less traumatic, on the local
women if they remained here. "No,
we'll need a few things from the Flyer, but we can wait here."
"I am Akala," finally able to understand what was being
said, she took the opportunity to make introductions. "The woman you are treating is Tilki and the other woman is
Zathra. Your friend over there saved us
from the raiders and has been taking care of us here in the mountains."
"My name is Ceshlyta, but most people
call me Sassy." It was nice to
know the names of the women she had spent the past week with. Firmly clasping her husband's hand, she
walked over to them.
"How is it that we can understand
each other now?" Zathra was
curious.
Chakotay pointed to his comm badge. "Universal translators are built into
our communications devices."
"I was beamed down to the planet
without my comm badge." Sassy put
in. "Speaking of which, where's
B'Elanna?"
"She's been in the brig since we
discovered you missing," the
commander informed his wife. Closer to
the fire, the light clearly showed bloodstains all over the front of her
jumpsuit and smears of dried blood on her hands, face and throat amidst smudges
of dirt. "You're hurt. Tom, Sassy's bleeding."
"It's not mine, well most of it
isn't," she waved Paris off when
he opened the medical tricorder.
Rising, the medic approached her and began
scanning her anyway. "Humor
me." He snapped the tricorder shut
and reassured his commanding officer.
"Just scratches on her hands mostly, mild shock, a few bruises here
and there, same as Akala and Zathra. I
can fix the scratches with a dermal regenerator but Tilki's broken leg will
have to wait for the Doc."
"Water," now that she knew everything would be all
right, she could feel herself losing control.
If she didn't keep busy she'd break into hysterics. "There's a stream not too far
away. If you've got something to carry
water in, I can--"
"Sit down," Chakotay admonished her. "I'll find it and bring some water back
if you're thirsty." He toyed with
her braid, tendrils of hair escaping all along its length after a week in the
wilderness. "You've had a long
week and you're exhausted. Let me take
care of you." He shrugged out of
his jacket and wrapped it around her. "Sit
over by the fire and relax. Tom can
beam back up to the Flyer and bring food and blankets down. I'll get some water."
Sassy didn't remember falling asleep, but
she must have. She was standing in a
field, dead bodies piled up all around her and covered in their blood. Chakotay was approaching her, wearing the
outfit he had worn at their wedding.
The look of horror on his face was unmistakable. There weren't any words to explain to him. .
.
"Sweetheart, Voyager's
here," he helped her to her feet,
reluctant to see the time end. He'd
been just watching her sleep, her features illuminated by the light of the fire. The feeling of relief when his beautiful
wife had thrown herself into his arms, safe and sound, was indescribable. "Tom beamed up to the Flyer to land it
back in the shuttle bay. They're going
to beam you and the women directly to Sickbay.
I'm going to report in to Kathryn and then I'll come down to Sickbay to
take you home."
"But--" Sassy didn't get to finish her objection
because a transporter beam enveloped her and the Techans.
Back aboard Voyager, Tom entered Sickbay
just as the women materialized.
"Mr. Paris, report." The Doctor was already putting the women on
biobeds and beginning his scans.
"Tilki, the one with the splint on
her leg, has a compound fracture of her lower leg. Sassy set it and has been using an herbal poultice for the pain
and infection. I've given her two doses
of painkiller. The rest of them just
have contusions and abrasions. I've
started using the dermal regenerator on the worst of them." The medic picked up a dermal regenerator to
continue working.
"What, no leeches readily
available?" The EMH grimaced as he
peeled away the moss and unbound the splint.
"I'll have to disinfect this before I get started with the
osteo-regenerator."
Sassy bit back her comment even though
tears stung her eyes; she had handled everything the best she could. It wasn't her fault, she hadn't asked to be
stranded on that planet.
"Where do you think you're
going?" The Doctor noticed the
botanist leaving.
She ignored the EMH and stopped at a computer
interface station outside of Sickbay.
"Locate Lieutenant Torres."
She'd been through hell for the past week, taken three lives by her own
hand and seriously injured other men.
All because of that Klingon.
Clutching the knife that had become so important to her safety, she
erupted from the turbolift when it stopped on the Bridge.
"Sassy," Harry was startled by her sudden
appearance. "I'm glad you're
back."
She spared a quick nod of acknowledgement
before heading toward Kathryn's ready room.
"Do you want me to let them know
you're out here?" 'Apparently
not,' the ensign thought to himself as he watched her storm off the Bridge.
..............................................................................................
". . . carelessly and with no thought
to any consequences, you put a civilian in danger without any ability to call
for help." Captain Janeway was
lecturing Torres on the error of her ways.
"You are a command officer and, quite frankly, I expect better than
that. What should I do about
this?"
Her disciplinary action was
interrupted. "You bitch!"
Sassy yelled, spotting her quarry. Her momentum carried her across the room and
before anyone had a chance to react, she landed a solid punch to the engineer's
jaw. Watching the Klingon fall to the
floor, she flipped the knife from the hand she had just punched with to her
left hand--blade up. Her right hand was
broken, that she could tell, but she was too angry to let that stop her. "Do you have any idea what I've been
through because of you?"
Chakotay moved quickly to put himself
between the two women. He knew Ceshlyta
was upset but he didn't want her to do anything she'd regret later. "An angry word is like striking with a
knife." He immediately cringed at
his choice of wisdoms given the large dagger that his angry wife was
brandishing.
Watching B'Elanna pick herself up, still
holding her face, Sassy replied.
"Speak softly but arm yourself well."
"Do not seek trouble, it will find
you in its own time." That was
better, although he didn't have time to congratulate himself as she came right
back.
"When you see a rattlesnake poised to
strike, strike first."
Unfortunately, her well-meaning husband was preventing her from getting
in another shot. She didn't want to
risk hurting him.
"Knowledge cannot be gained through
conquest but by understanding."
Chakotay countered with, trying not to think about what would happen if
he lost this round.
She shook her head, shrugging her shoulders
as she waved the knife. "One must
learn from the bite of the fire to leave it alone."
He held his hands up warningly. "The greatest strength is
gentleness."
Taunting B'Elanna who was standing
silently behind the first officer, Sassy almost sneered. "It is easy to be brave from a safe
distance."
Her barb had the desired effect, Torres
screeched and launched herself at the other woman. As Chakotay held the two women apart, he shot back, "In
anger a man becomes dangerous not only to others but himself."
Wishing he would just shut up and get out
of the way so she could kill the conniving bitch who got her into that whole
mess to start with, Sassy threw back, "The way of the troublemaker is
thorny."
"No one else can represent your
conscience." Maybe he could keep
her exchanging proverbs long enough for her to calm down.
B'Elanna was still trying to get at
Ceshlyta, blood trickling down her chin.
Kathryn came around the desk and
restrained the chief engineer.
Her husband's last comment hit closer to
home than he realized. "Show
respect for all but grovel to none."
Sassy really wasn't in the mood for this and tried to slip past Chakotay
to finish the fight. Her wrist was
caught in an iron grip as he intercepted her.
"If a man is as wise as a serpent, he
can afford to be as harmless as a mouse," he offered calmly, not releasing
his grip.
The man was trying her patience, but she
couldn't bring herself to hurt him.
"Even the small mouse has anger."
"The mightiest beast cannot survive anger's poison."
Glaring over his shoulder at the Klingon
fighting against the Captain's grip, she bit out. "Only two relationships are possible--to be a friend or to
be an enemy."
"She who wears the captain's pips has
the last word--Enough!" Janeway
decided to end the exchange. She shot a
glare at B'Elanna who immediately stopped fighting. She understood that Ceshlyta was furious and had every right to
be but she couldn't allow physical violence on her ship. "We were just discussing Lieutenant
Torres' punishment for her actions. I
was going to assign her to work duty shifts in the garden but now I'm not so
sure."
Still breathing heavily, Sassy relaxed in
her husband's grasp. She nodded,
somewhat reluctantly, her capitulation and he released her. The right hand was definitely broken, as the
adrenaline began to wear off she could feel sharp, throbbing agony working its
way up her arm.
"Regardless of provocation, Sassy,
you cannot attack members of my crew.
If you were part of my crew, I'd put you in the brig for
fighting." Kathryn contemplated
the situation. "I'm inclined to
leave the decision up to the two of you.
Professor Ceshlyta, what would you consider a fair punishment for
B'Elanna with regards to stranding you on that planet alone? Lieutenant Torres, what would you consider a
fair punishment for Sassy for punching you?"
The two women exchanged long, angry
stares. Stepping back from Chakotay
slightly, Ceshlyta flung the knife across the room, burying it in the control
panel by the door to activate it. As
the door slid open, she spoke up.
"I'm done. It's over."
Startled and silently impressed with the
throw, Janeway looked to B'Elanna who nodded in agreement, not able to answer
because of her jaw. "All right
then, the matter is closed. Any further
problems between the two of you, I will resolve. Am I understood?"
After the two women acknowledged her, she looked at her first
officer. "I'm going to escort
B'Elanna to Sickbay so the Doctor can examine her face. I'll leave you to finish up here and follow
in a few minutes since it doesn't appear that your wife waited for the Doctor
to treat her much less check her out after her time on the planet and I think
she may have injured her hand anyway."
Once the other two had gone, Chakotay
strode over to retrieve the knife.
"Not that I condone it but nice throw. Where'd you learn to do that?"
"Lucky shot," she shrugged, still breathing heavily. "My sister and I used to throw for
chores, the loser did the winner's chores in addition to her own. It was good incentive for accuracy."
"The zoologist?" He made a mental note to have maintenance
repair the panel.
"Surgeon."
Chuckling, he crossed back to stand in
front of her and gazed down into her impossibly soft, brown eyes.
Before her husband had a chance to speak,
Sassy blurted out, "I'm sorry. I
know she's your friend and I probably haven't helped her feelings for me any
but she put me down there--helpless--on purpose."
"Somehow I don't think you're ever
helpless," Chakotay muttered in admiration.
Stroking his cheek softly, she
continued. "I didn't want you to
get caught in the middle of this,"
her voice rose as she completed the sentence, "but she almost got
me killed! I know, she never intended
for this to happen--let me guess, it was just supposed to be a joke. She sent me to an alien world without any
means of communicating with them much less Voyager; what did she think would
happen?" She took a quick breath
and jumped back in. "I know she
doesn't like me, she's made no secret of that, but she went too far. I admit that I've baited her in the past, I
just never dreamed things would get so . . . "
"Why didn't you tell me about this
before?" He had been silently
cursing himself for days, remembering all of the times he'd thrown the two
together, the double dates that Paris and he had spent duty shifts planning.
Tears brimmed her eyes. "I figured she'd warm up to me eventually,
especially when she saw how happy you were.
That's not happening. I don't
want you to fight my battles for me, I can hold my own for the most part. It's just that B'Elanna's a lot tougher than
I am. I'm just a college professor in
botanical sciences, she's a half-Klingon former resistance fighter and she's
playing for keeps. Before my little
adventure on that planet, I'd never even been in a real fight outside of
tournaments, now I've killed three men."
The tally of dead just slipped out, a bare whisper. "I don't think I could beat her in a
serious fight."
"You were giving it a pretty good try
a few minutes ago," Chakotay noted dryly.
That explained her behavior earlier, he still remembered the first time
he'd been forced by circumstances to kill.
He wished that she'd told him on the planet about the men she'd
killed. If she had, he'd have left
B'Elanna's discipline to the captain rather than leave her alone.
"I was upset, mad, tired, sore and
scared; besides, I think her jaw broke my hand." She cradled the injured hand gingerly against her chest.
"If it's any consolation, I think
your hand broke her jaw," he
offered. Reaching out, he tilted her
chin up. "In the future, if you're
having problems with a member of this crew I want you to come to me,
okay?"
Sassy relaxed into the welcome warmth of
his embrace. "The Doctor is a pain
in the--"
"He's not programmed for
violence," Chakotay interrupted,
"just annoyance. Speaking of
which, let's get you back to Sickbay."
"Oh goody," but she allowed him to lead her out of the
ready room.
................................................................................
"B'Elanna, what happened?" Tom hurriedly finished treating the last of
Akala's scratches when the captain brought Torres in bleeding from her mouth.
Janeway helped the Klingon onto a
biobed. "She had an altercation
with Professor Ceshlyta in my ready room." Leaving Tom to tend to B'Elanna, she turned to the Doctor for a
report on their guests.
"The Techan women have all been
treated. I'd like to keep Tilki here
overnight but the other two can return to the surface at any time." The EMH indicated the woman whose leg he had
just finished treating as he spoke.
"Mr. Paris, what's Lieutenant Torres's condition?"
"Hairline fracture along the left
side of the mandible, no signs of concussion." The medic called out, already reaching for an osteo-regenerator.
Just then the door slid open to admit the
first officer and his wife.
"Ah, the prodigal patient returns," the Doctor observed.
Chakotay lifted Sassy to sit her on a
biobed. He kissed her softly on the
cheek and whispered for her to wait there.
Crossing over to where the captain stood with the EMH, he grabbed the
holographic doctor by the arm and dragged him into the office. "Not today, Doctor, she's had a very
long week. Those slavers who stayed
behind to hunt her, found her and she was forced to kill them. She's never been in a real fight much less
taken lives before and she's still in shock.
Just do what you need to do and let me take her home; skip the acerbic
wit."
"Is she all right?" Kathryn couldn't even imagine what her
friend was feeling. Killing someone in
hand-to-hand combat was much different than shooting them with a phaser.
He looked through the window where his
wife sat nursing her hand. "It'll
take some time but she'll be all right."
"Perhaps I should sedate her and keep
her in Sickbay for a while," the
Doctor suggested. His offer was met
with a withering glance from the commander.
"Perhaps not."
"Just be nice."
Picking up the tricorder sitting on his
desk, the EMH managed to sound insulted.
"I am perfectly capable of being sensitive to the needs of my
patients. " He brushed past the
two officers, ignoring the look they exchanged, and crossed the room to where
Sassy waited.
"I got the bracelet unfastened, but I
can't get the ring off." Ceshlyta
looked up at the hologram when he approached.
Chakotay was right behind the doctor and
heard her. "Let me try to get a
lock on it with the transporter and beam it off." He swung around the computer workstation and
tapped a few keys. In less than a
minute, the ringed bracelet appeared in front of him, on top of the
console.
She shot her husband an expression of
gratitude before addressing the EMH.
"How are my new friends doing?" After the past week, she felt a sort of responsibility for the
three local women.
The Doctor scanned her as he replied. "Actually, quite well. In fact, I was very impressed with the
condition of that broken leg. I was
expecting a serious infection and complications after a week in primitive
conditions with no medical treatment, but she was in fairly good condition all
things considered. They said that you treated their injuries with local herbs;
if I may ask, how did you know which herbs to use without a tricorder to
analyze them with?"
"I'm a botanist," she
shrugged. "My areas of expertise
are plant physiology and plant pathology.
You don't receive advanced degrees
in those areas without being able to analyze plant properties to a
certain extent without technological assistance."
The captain, meanwhile, had gone over to
check on her chief engineer. "How
is she, Tom?"
"Her jaw is all fixed." The medic snapped the osteo-regenerator off
and set it on a nearby tray.
"Sassy broke her jaw?
Sassy, the gardener married to Chakotay?"
Janeway motioned for him to keep his voice
down. "That knife she threw," Kathryn met B'Elanna's gaze, not noticing
the astonished expression on Tom's face at that tidbit. "She apparently used to kill several
men down on the planet this past week.
She was a little upset."
Addressing both of them, she continued.
"I don't think anyone should say anything to her about it for the
time being. Am I clear?"
The first officer had picked up the
bracelet and moved to the other side of the biobed. He slipped the binding off her braid and combed out her long,
black hair with his fingers.
"I would be interested in learning
more about the medicinal properties of plants at some point." The hologram what wasn't willing to admit
that he was entirely wrong about herbal potions and concoctions, but what was
the use of an adaptive matrix if not to learn new things.
"Anytime," the botanist
nodded. It felt so good to have
Chakotay near her. Even after what
she'd told him, he still wanted to touch her.
The Doctor prepared a hypospray. "You've crushed two phalanges and
broken the other two in addition to the broken metacarpals. About the only thing in your right hand that
you didn't manage to break is your thumb." He pressed the hypo to her neck.
"This will help the pain until I can repair the damage. If you'll lie down, I also need to run a
full bio scan on you after your time on the planet surface."
Sassy swung her feet up and stretched her
legs out on the biobed. The painkiller
worked fast, the sharp throbbing was already starting to fade. Before she laid down, she raised her left
hand to caress her husband's strong jaw.
She moved her hand around to cup his head and drew his face down to her. His firm, full lips were warm against hers,
opening pliantly to her tongue as it slipped into his mouth to stroke the
coarse texture of his tongue. He
responded passionately to her kiss, she could feel that and almost cried with
relief. It was probably ridiculous to
think that he wouldn't have been able to even look at her after what she'd done,
still it was comforting to know for sure.
His hands entwined themselves in her hair, pulling her deeper into the
kiss.
"I would advise you to not get too
excited, either of you." The EMH's
voice intruded on their passion.
"Ceshlyta is going to be in Sickbay for several hours at least
while I repair her hand and finish my scans.
I would restrict her from any strenuous activities for a day or so if I
thought she'd listen."
Breaking the kiss, the first officer
heaved a deep sigh. "Understood,
no strenuous activities." He
brushed his lips across the tip of her nose and eased her back onto the
biobed. "As long as we're
together, we have all the time in the world."
Safe, warm and back aboard Voyager, Sassy
quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Chakotay saw B'Elanna getting up to
leave. He stopped her at the door.
"Don't say anything," the Klingon cautioned him. "You've got her back and it's over. I can't promise that I'll ever like her but
I will admit one thing." Torres
rubbed her jaw. "She's not as soft
as I thought she was."
"You have always been a loyal friend
to me and a valued crewmember. She is
my soulmate and my wife. Don't ever
force me to choose between the two of you." With those soft words, he let her walk out.
..............................................................................................
In her cargo bay, Seven prepared her
alcove for a regeneration cycle. She
had forgone regeneration during the search for Commander Chakotay's missing
wife. With Professor Ceshlyta
successfully recovered, she felt fatigued and in need of regeneration. Making the last adjustments to the cycle
duration, she stepped into the alcove.
Before she could initiate the cycle, the cargo bay door slid open.
"Seven, I know you're probably tired
and need to regenerate, but this will just take a minute." Harry was on his way to the Bridge for his
bi-weekly night shift command. He
hadn't meant to stop by the cargo bay, a voice sounding a great deal like his
had stopped the turbolift on Deck 4 and his feet had just walked themselves
here.
She knew she should have delayed
regeneration long enough to research human courtship rituals. Perhaps Ensign Kim had altered his
perception of her suitability and wished to rescind his request. Trying to appear composed, she inclined her
head in tacit encouragement for him to continue.
He crossed the cargo bay and stood on the
floor looking up at the blonde Borg.
"Our personal discussion was interrupted earlier." 'Keep it cognitive,' the nervous ensign
reminded himself. "There was one
thing which I did not have the opportunity to properly complete."
"Please explain," Seven
requested, her voice modulated to a lower decibel than normal. They had spent hours together working on the
sensor logs during the search for Professor Ceshlyta. She had been somewhat concerned that her performance would be
adversely affected by the personal relationship that they had begun to
negotiate; however, they had both worked with their usual skill and
efficiency. Mr. Kim had, in fact,
worked with noticeably greater efficiency than he generally did.
Harry stepped up onto the alcove platform,
standing bare inches from her. He
swallowed hard, steadying himself.
"It is customary to seal an agreement for a romantic date with a
kiss."
"I wish to experience a proper human
courtship, Ensign. If it is customary
to kiss, then perhaps we should proceed."
His physical proximity was affecting her sensory functions. His scent was clean and masculine, the
tanned skin of his face was perfectly smooth as if he had just recently shaved
and his brown eyes appeared larger and darker than normal. A sense of anticipation sparked in her
stomach.
"Call me Harry," he whispered as
he reached around to find and remove the pins holding her silky, blond
hair. Her hair fell down around her
shoulders, framing her big, blue eyes.
Entwining his hands in the satiny tresses, he cupped her face and gently
tilted it up to him. He brushed his
lips over hers in a barely-there promise of a kiss to come. When he heard her sigh softly under his
feather-like caress, he captured her full, lush lips in a gentle, warm
kiss. His tongue licked at her lips,
softly urging them apart.
Seven found the sensations from his tender
attentions immensely pleasurable. She
moved closer to him, enjoying the feeling of her body pressed into his at every
point, from her breasts crushed against his chest to the intertwining of their
legs. Unsure of what to do with her
hands, she rested them on his hips.
Their firmness intrigued her and she explored them, sliding her hands
around to test their tautness. As her
lips and tongue began to respond to his urgings, the fluttering in her abdomen
increased in intensity, the sensation spreading throughout her body causing the
tips of her breasts to harden and throb uncomfortably.
Blood roared in his ears as he felt the
lush, fullness of her lips open pliantly under his own, her body pressed against
his. His tongue began a thorough search
of the warm, moist depths of her mouth to find and coax her tongue out of
hiding. One hand moved around her back,
pulling her tighter into his body and deepening the kiss. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew
he'd have to stop this soon but her innocent response to his kiss was firing
his desires. Her soft curves fit
perfectly against his painfully hard body, every muscle straining to be closer
to her. The physical contact wasn't
enough.
Tentatively at first, but then steadily
getting bolder, her tongue began to answer the demands of his. Everywhere that their bodies touched felt
like an intense heat was consuming her.
His hard, muscular form was a welcoming anchor in the swirl of eroticism
that was overwhelming her. She pulled
his hips closer, feeling a curious bulge at the juncture of his hips that
pressed into her in a most exciting manner.
A tight knot in her stomach was aching, sending streaks of electricity
through her body with every beat of her heart.
Wanting more of this delicious sensation, she caressed his tongue with
hers before plunging it into his mouth to caress and explore the moist orifice
as he had done with hers. This desire
was beyond her experience, but she felt certain that he knew what he was doing
and that this was right.
When his lungs demanded air, Harry forced
himself to break the kiss but didn't release her. His heart was pounding, with each gasping breath he could feel
the full roundness of her breasts crushing into his chest. He nuzzled the soft skin under her ear as
his breathing slowed to normal.
Seven moaned aloud at the lost contact
when he pulled his mouth away from hers.
She started to open her eyes but then his lips and tongue found a spot
near the pulse point at the top of her neck which was apparently extremely
sensitive to stimulation. Her eyes
drifted shut, lost in yet more intense sensation. She was gasping and whimpering at the passionate onslaught of his
tongue as he flicked it against the sensitive skin. Her small hands were clutching and kneading the hard muscles of
his posterior, pulling him into her.
Her hips rocked forward in synchronization with the motions of her
hands, instinctively pressing their bodies together in an erotic simulation. Instead of alleviating her frustration, her
actions only inflamed the need that Harry had caused.
Dropping one, last, brief kiss on those
swollen, red lips, he reluctantly released the soft, incredible body and
stepped off the alcove platform.
"I'll get back to you with details of our date."
Opening her eyes when she felt him leave
her alcove, she could feel her breasts tingling, the hardened crests visible
through her clothing. Still breathing
hard, she could only nod at his statement and watch him turn to leave.
"Oh, and Seven," Harry paused
and turned back toward her.
"Pleasant dreams."
**FINIS**