Title: To The Whirlwind Nebula (or: If Elyne Mitchell wrote ST VOY fanfic)
Author: Ghosteye99
Main Characters: Janeway, Chakotay, Maje Culloh. A touch J/C
Theme: Humour/Drama/Parody
Rating: PG 13+ (T)
Summary: A Kazon Maje desires some prize additions to his... 'herd'. Set sometime before Deadlock.
Notes: Inspired by Lori's classic "Kirk & Spock Go Ice Fishing " challenge from many years back, where one writes a Trek-Verse fanfic in another author's (or person's) style, 'warts' & all. Look it up, it's worth the read.
I decided to try a Voyager fic in the style of Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby series, and to tick a few boxes I used plot pieces picked out and gaffa-taped together from several of the books. This fic will work best for you if you're familiar with the series (and for those who are, yes, I even managed to fit in a classic Thowra jump :D).
Many thanks to singing violin for the beta – all remaining errors are my own.
Warning: Purplish prose, a fair amount of Ooc (Janeway as Thowra the brumby & Tuvok as Benny the kangaroo come across as a bit odd... but Neelix kind of works as the emu). Oh, and Chakotay thunders at some point. Once, I think.
Disclaimer: Characters and settings from Voyager belong to Paramount Pictures, not me. No profit or harm intended. The Silver Brumby books belong to Elyne Mitchell. This is a fanfiction, not Canon.
To The Whirlwind Nebula
Once, there was a dark and stormy stretch of space in the Delta Quadrant where, deep in their star lanes, the Talaxian trader ships knew not to stray out, the Q stayed quiet in their continuum, and the great Kazon warships that plundered the galactic arm never stirred. On this stretch of space, some of the starships, such as the USS Voyager, silver daughter of the Alpha Quadrant's Federation, seemed to draw strength from the void and the stars, or the fierce winds of the tachyon currents.
Within the silver starship Captain Kathryn Janeway stood, still, fine-boned and elegant, her hand raised, holding a hot mug of coffee... listening. No officers were with the proud captain, not like they had been nearly two years ago, when she had destroyed the Caretaker's Array, defeating the plans of the Kazon Ogla, making her silver ship the mightiest of all the Delta Quadrant.
Janeway felt a surge of pride, but the pride was followed by fear. Her silver ship would be hunted, hunted since it was so advanced, and strange-looking in the wilds of space.
A hot gust of air from the mess hall kitchen stirred her auburn mane, touched the sensitive skin on her ears - and she heard a soft whisper of movement between the pots and pans. Nothing to fear... but her eyes searched the turbolift door, her coffee cup raised mid-sip... listening.
Perhaps the Kazon presence would thin out soon... it would be good to be able to take her crew to the M-class planet down in the Quambat system to resupply, and to run, and to play on its great open spaces with Chakotay, her first officer - without fear of her crewwomen being stolen by the likes of Maje Culloh, who travelled near these parts.
Her straining eyes and ears detected a presence behind the door... a Vulcan strode out of the turbolift and stood tall, the light of the mess hall reflected in his wise, gentle eyes, showing the few silver hairs in his eyebrows.
"A sect will come in the night," Tuvok said, "It is whispered on the transmissions."
Janeway barely noticed, so glad she was in his company. For how many years of Starfleet service, and for how many times of struggle and discovery had these two been friends? Through how many swift, wild, upsurging adventures had they lived?
The captain of the silver starship gave a half-nod of greeting to her old friend. Tuvok's gentle hand touched her on the shoulder.
"In the nebula, the whirlwind blows," Tuvok's words came out of the mess hall gloom. Janeway stood like a pale glimmer of light taking shape. Tuvok faded into the shadows of the bulkheads. The shift was ending. "And you will dance with living spirit," he continued, "there, you will run with the first born son of sunlight and moonlight blending beneath the rubber trees."
Janeway heard, almost as though the words were not Tuvok's, but words in the whisper of the interstellar winds.
"An anomaly is the beginning," Tuvok went on, "and in the anomaly is the end. Yet, the seed is in the whirlwind anomaly, and in the kiss of the stars."
Out of the darkness, his hand touched Janeway's shoulder again, a soft, lingering touch, and then he was done, striding back to the lift as he had always done. Janeway stood quite still in the centre of the mess hall, and Tuvok had gone. The mess hall was empty, the air had grown cold on her skin.
Then, she knew someone was moving towards her...
She raised her rapidly-cooling coffee mug, and stood as though she were a bulkhead or an oak tree, for, after all, even if she had been brought to this Quadrant by the Caretaker, she, herself, was profoundly a part of the ship and the stars, the stellar winds, the quantum strings and gravitational currents of energy and matter. But she stood there too, like a great and spirited captain ... waiting ... listening to what her own blood told her. Boots were stepping quietly on the mess hall floor, closer, closer.
Closer ... closer.
"What news flies on the wind, O wise Talaxian?' she asked Neelix.
"I heard Maje Culloh is headed for the Quambat system, O noble Captain" he replied, wiping the last leola crumbs from his ruffled whiskers."Kes has become a beautiful Ocampan. She is far more beautiful than the women the Maje stole. If Haliz of the Ogla come..."
"True, O wise one" she said, "I too have heard the transmissions. He could give Culloh... or us... plenty of trouble."
From a window, she looked out through the streaking stars to the whirling nebula where the Quambat system was. A captain that keeps the most beautiful women in the Delta Quadrant on their ship must either keep them hidden, or be so splendid and strong themselves that none can take them. Janeway knew this. She could hide them still, on her ship, but the time had come to roam wide and free, and there was only the thought of the Kazon stopping her – Maje Culloh, who she wanted to avoid. Culloh, who still had Seska on his ship. She shifted uneasily, remembering Seska's designs on Chakotay...
"O noble Captain," Neelix said, "I know all secrets of this part of the galaxy. Your crewwomen might be safer on the other side of the whirlwind nebula. Over by the Crackenback system, the Dilithium is sweet, and the Kazon aren't so many."
Janeway flexed her muscles, standing before the gold-glittering nebula, and dreamt of running with Chakotay on the Crackenback plains, but it was no good standing in the mess hall, dreaming. She had been shipbound too long, and now everything was telling her the time was coming to run and play, see new worlds, see new people. She would go!
Nodding to Neelix, she whirled around, auburn mane (and cold coffee) flying, and went with great swinging strides to the bridge.
-o0o-
Janeway, Captain of the silver starship Voyager, led her away team through a valley forest, moving silently through the trees, their boots stepping lightly on the loose, dry soil of the forest floor, leaving no tracks, making no sound when they crossed a patch of grass. "Remember the Prime Directive," she'd ordered, when they arrived. "We must go silent as shadows, and leave no trace!"
Janeway stepped proudly in the lead, head and phaser held high. The Delaney sisters followed, working to keep up with her great strides. Chakotay, like a shadow, brought up the rear with Ensign Wildman. It was a slow journey, for Wildman could not travel very fast, being very heavy with child.
Then, a sudden whirlwind sprang up around them, and Janeway heard a bird cry:
"Trouble! Trouble!'
A shrill, mocking laugh rang out. The away team stopped, and looked around.
Maje Culloh was standing on an outcrop on the valley's wall, gazing down at the away team. "I shall take the blonde," he sneered, "for if she throws a fine filly, all the better for my harem!"
"She is not yours!" Janeway's ringing call of defiance echoed down the valley. "It is not for one such as you to decide, woman!" Culloh trumpeted in reply, as he cracked his knuckles and rolled up his sleeves. She drew her phaser as she watched the Kazon saunter lazily down a rock face, disappearing into the trees. A flock of the birds circled overhead in the suddenly darkening sky, calling:
"Trouble! Trouble! Trouble!"
"That thing won't work here!" Culloh cried out from the forest: he was getting closer ... closer... Janeway pressed the trigger, and saw that he had spoken right. "There must be some random interference field," she quietly said, to Chakotay.
"We're lucky, we must have landed the shuttle in a good spot," Chakotay replied, his voice no louder than the whispering leaves. Searching the trees, eyes and ears straining, Janeway made out the shape of the shuttle, like a silver ghost through the trees. But there was a flash of lightning, and Maje Culloh hurtled out of the forest, screaming, mocking... then sprang onto Chakotay, who nimbly dodged the slower Kazon.
Jenny Delaney gave a little cry, and silently edged behind her captain. Chakotay roared his defiance, reared up and swung his fist around in one move, but the Maje was already attacking...
Distracted by the melee, Janeway didn't notice until too late another sound behind them, and in a crash of thunder she heard a scrabble of boots and a desperate cry from Wildman. Janeway bounded over to her in the dimming light, even as her hands found a grip on the abductor's jacket, she heard a shout from Chakotay... then, something hissed through the air over her head, and tightened like a lasso around her hands.
A snake of light came down the sky, showing every line on the Kazon's face as something heavy struck the side of her head, and she was gone...
-o0o-
Chakotay heard Wildman's cry of terror as he ducked a heavy blow from Culloh's boot. Risking a glance at the forest edge, he saw the Captain, wrestling with another Kazon, who had Wildman in his grip. "Kathryn!' he screamed, as the Kazon reached with his free hand to something hanging coiled from his belt ... "Beware!"
A white sheet of light lit up the sky, and the following crash of thunder drowned out his last word. Culloh had been blinded worse by the lightning, and he'd reeled away, giving Chakotay a few precious seconds to rally, bleeding and exhausted, heart pounding. Taking another look at the forest, he saw the Delaneys racing into the trees. Wildman was free, and following them, though unable to match their speed. There was no sign of Janeway ... or the other Kazon ...
"Kathryn!" his scream, wild and shrill, echoing through the trees, drowned by an immense crack of thunder. A heavy blow rained on Chakotay's shoulder, felling him before he could dodge. "The red-haired one's ours now," Culloh hissed in triumph as he danced, mockingly, "or do you want us to take all your women?"
"You shall not!" Chakotay thundered, sliding out from under Culloh's death-grip on his withers (er... shoulders?) as another river of light flashed, and, like a furious storm cloud, he reared (to his feet) to return the Maje's blows.
[snip four-page blow-by-blow thunderstorm fight scene]
-o0o-
...Janeway came to, aching, stiff and tired, with a thumping pain in her head, and as her vision cleared she saw Ensign Wildman's anxious face appear above her. "Was I not the one to be protecting you?" she asked, as the Ensign struggled to undo the Kazon lasso tightly wound around her wrists. "I had help from the Delaneys," Wildman said, nodding to a dark shape on the ground nearby. "You were out for quite a while, they..."
A streak of lighting flew across the sky, highlighting a sturdy tree-branch club by Wildman's knees ... and the stark outline of a bound and unconscious Kazon in bluish light, burning an after-vision of the now empty battle ground down the valley into her eyes.
The battle... the battle... the Maje... Chakotay...
Thunder rolled and the lightning flashed again, and with relief she saw Chakotay limping up the valley, snorting (into a cloth) and tossing his fine head, a dark stain of blood on the side of his face. The Delaneys were with him, shafts of sweet mountain Dilithium poking out of their satchels. Janeway called once, and he answered: then at last, she was with him. He came and stood, a huge bleeding statue in front of his Captain.
Meg Delaney flinched and looked away when she saw the lasso trailing from Janeway's hands, but Chakotay put his hand on her shoulder for a second, the warmth flowing from one to the other, then he set to purposefully, with his strong fingers* (and Wildman's help), to undo the tight knot.
She was free! The sharp, citrusy scent on the breeze was sweeter, the cold glitter of the three moons in the waxy purple leaves, the touch of the rust-red grass underfoot – all perhaps better than they had been before as, heart pounding, she rose to her feet, and trotted her way back to the shuttlecraft down the valley, Chakotay beside her and the away team stringing behind.
As they threaded their way through the trees, Chakotay told the tale, of how – exhausted, he'd realised the Kazon wouldn't give up until either he or both were dead. How he'd remembered seeing a certain ledge below a cliff, hidden from the top, on their way, and made a plan. With the last of his energy, he'd broken from the fight and run for the cliff - Culloh fast behind him. Chakotay jumped for the ledge, landing safely while Culloh saw the cliff and tried to stop, but his speed was too great and he hurtled over, roaring in rage. Whether he'd landed in the bushes or not... Chakotay couldn't tell.
The Delaneys, returning after raiding the Kazon shuttle, had then found Chakotay, exhausted on the ledge, and helped him back to the team.
The storm faded as the shuttle loomed closer, like an outcrop of silver rock. A bird circled over them, winging free of a passing whirlwind as its carving flight spun the air-spinning spells of the rhythm of life.
"The silver ship" it called, "The silver ship, her captain returns, she walks with the son of the rubber trees".
"They will run together" the leaves in the whirlwind whispered in reply. "Forever: Forever"
The silver starship waited for them high above the dome of the sky, swift, far swifter than the wind, and those that would desire her, and hunt her. There would be many more chances for the captain and her commander to run together, free and unconquered, on the Holodeck plains.
-o0o-
A/N: *- in the passage from the first Silver Brumby book I borrowed this from, Golden undoes Thowra's lasso with her teeth. I was tempted to find some reason to have Chakotay do likewise (like, you know, really sore knuckles or something), instead of using his fingers... but then I'd probably have to hike the rating up. Maybe another time... :-D