THE LOST VOYAGES
The "Star Trek – Voyager" that could have been
by Soledad
ALTERNATE RESOLUTIONS
Disclaimer: All Star Trek belongs to Gene Roddenberry and Viacom or whoever owns the rights at this moment. I don't make any profit out of this – I wish I would, but I don't, so suing me would be pointless.
Rating: varies from chapter to chapter, between G and R. Right now, it's suitable for all. I'll raise the rating as the story progresses.
Series: Alternate Voyager. This will most likely be Episode # 17 or 18.
Archiving: Sure, just ask first. I prefer to know where my stuff goes.
Warnings: This is an AU, and a rather radical one. Quite a few events are changed, and the character dynamic is vastly different from that in the show. Also, this is not a series for Janeway fans of for shippers of canon pairings. Please consider this before you start reading. Thank you.
Main events that – supposedly – happened in the alternate storyline so far:
– Not only Voyager and the Crazy Horse had been abducted in the Delta Quadrant during the pilot, but also the stolen runabout Shenandoah, with two very important Maquis operatives on board. No, I won't tell who they are just yet. You'll find out soon enough.
– They took – beside Neelix and Kes – a small group of other Ocampa with them; the doctor from the central clinic, his daughter, a nurse, and a couple of the young farmers, who work with Gerron and Kes in the hydroponics bay.
– Neelix and Kes had never been a couple in this universe; Neelix did have the interest, but Kes didn't; she chose Gerron to be the father of her child when going through elogium.
– Naomi Wildman was not born on Voyager; a fact I introduced because her canonical age and her appearance/behaviour just didn't match. In this AU, she was four years old already when Voyager set off to hunt down the Maquis, visited with her K'tarian father on DS9 and remained on board by accident, while hiding in her mother's labs. However, Samantha Wildman was pregnant and gave birth to a second child in the episode "Deadlock". This child is a boy and is named after Kes' uncle, Elrem.
– The most important change for this episode is, however, that in the previous one, Symbiogenesis (the Alternate Tuvix episode), the senior crew had revolted against Janeway's intention to forcibly separate Tuvix. They had actually managed to make her back off, so Tuvok and Neelix will remain a merged entity for a while.
PROLOGUE: IN MEDIAS RES
Chakotay of Dorvan V. formerly First Officer on the U.S.S. Voyager, ex-freedom-fighter, Maquis cell leader and captain of the Maquis raider Crazy Horse, before that instructor of advanced tactical training on Starfleet Academy, sat outside the Starfleet emergency shelter that would be his home for the rest of his life. He just sat there quietly and watched from afar the gentle-faced blonde woman who would share this life in exile with him. The woman feeding her baby, while her other, four-year-old kid was playing in the grass on her side.
Under different circumstances, this would be a dream come true. A whole planet, with all of its resources, accessible for them alone. True companionship, peace, rural beauty, children to raise… everything he had ever dreamed of during the long years of his struggle, during the brutal and ultimately doomed war against the Cardassians. If either of them were here voluntarily.
The planet was truly beautiful. With its lush forests, mild climates and untouched wildlife that excluded any large predators, it could have been the perfect paradise. Which, in a sense, it was. Complete with the snake. Only that in this case the snake was a small insect. An insect with a bite that ensured that whoever entered this paradise would never be able to leave it again. Not alive, that is.
What a bitter irony.
Beyond him, in the shelter, a comm badge chirped. The woman continued feeding her baby, as if she hadn't heard it, her face now cold and angry. She wasn't ready to talk to anyone just yet. Chakotay couldn't blame her. The circumstances of her parting from their commanding officer were less than amiable.
The comm badge chirped again. Chakotay suppressed a sigh and rose to answer the call. There was no reason to pout. This was not Janeway's fault… or anyone else's. This was a cruel joke of the universe itself – or, as Tom Paris would put it, an exceptionally tough case of bad luck – and nobody could do anything against it.
"Chakotay," he said in a clipped manner.
"This is the Doctor speaking," the voice of the EMH replied. Good. He could deal with the holodoc. Better than with any flesh-and-blood person, at least at the moment.
"I assume you have news," Chakotay said.
"Yes," the voice of the EMH answered. "Our sensors show your vital signs are normal. How are you feeling?"
"Physically, we are fine," Chakotay said. "Just as you have assumed when you took us out of stasis. As for the rest… we are doing as well as we can, considering the circumstances."
"Commander, I want to emphasize how sorry I am that I have been unsuccessful to find a cure," was that regret in the hologram's voice? Chakotay sighed.
"It's not your fault, Doctor. You've been working 24/7 for weeks. I'm sure if there were a cure you'd have found it by now."
"That is the current stand of things, yes," the EMH replied, "But I won't stop trying to develop a counteragent to the virus. I might still find other options to explore, and Lieutenant Ro promised that she or Lieutenant Riker will take the Shenandoah and get back to you as soon as I succeed."
"If you succeed," Chakotay corrected mildly. "You still think that keeping us in stasis aboard Voyager won't be a solution?"
"I'm afraid not," the EMH's voice said. "Something in the planet's environment is shielding you from the effects of the virus. If you leave, you risk a recurrence of the disease which would undoubtedly prove fatal."
"I see," Chakotay said after a brief pause. "When is Voyager leaving orbit?"
"According to Mr. Rollins, within twenty-four hours. After all your equipment has been offloaded and the crew had the chance to say their goodbyes."
"Understood. Thank you, doctor."
"You are welcome, Commander. I wish I could do more for you. Sickbay out."
Chakotay deactivated his comm badge and, after a moment of hesitation, pinned it onto his vest. His people might decide to call, as long as Voyager was in orbit. He wouldn't deny them that little comfort. They would need it.
Without their leader as second-in-command, they will be having tough times under Janeway's unquestioned rule. She had already selected Rollins as her new XO – the most narrow-minded, bullish officer Starfleet had produced in the last two decades. Would she still have Tuvok, she might have chosen the utterly reliable Vulcan, but with Tuvix, she couldn't be so sure. The merged being had Tuvok's logic and loyalty, but he also had Neelix' exuberant personality. He was an unknown factor, and Janeway wouldn't take any risks when re-establishing total control.
Hell, she didn't even allow Tuvix to perform his duties as chief of security, temporarily disabling all of Tuvok's security codes, until he declared himself to be ready for being separated again! At the moment Gregor Ayala was still acting as temporary chief of security, but Chakotay doubted seriously that the arrangement would last.
His comm badge chirped again. This time, it was Ro Laren.
"Chakotay, I must be quick," she said. "It's only a matter of minutes until the Fleeters discover this secure channel… in which case it won't be secure anymore. In any case, we – the Maquis and a few Fleet people who sympathise – will try to contact the Vidiians. They have the most sophisticated technology we've seen so far in the Delta Quadrant. It's possible that they might be able to help."
"No," Chakotay said promptly. "It's too risky. The Vidiians are not known of their willingness to help other people. If they knew where Voyager is, they'd attack the ship to harvest body parts from the crew."
"We mustn't flat out reject any possible alternatives," Ro insisted.
"Laren," Chakotay said gently; their long friendship entitled him to use her given name. "Do you think that either Samantha or I could live with ourselves knowing we sent Voyager into that kind of danger?"
"We are willing to take that risk!" Ro retorted stubbornly.
"But we are not," Chakotay said with calm authority. "Now, give me Ayala, I know he must be there with you."
"Go on, Cap," Greg replied immediately.
"Greg, I assume you're aware of Laren's suggestion," Chakotay said carefully.
"Sure thing," his old friend replied calmly.
"Good. In that case, I want you to know… I want all Maquis to know – that such an action would be unacceptable for both Sam and me. Do you understand it?"
"Sure I do," Ayala replied laconically. "It sucks, though."
"Yeah, it does," Chakotay agreed, "but that's how things are. And one more thing, Greg: I leave you in charge of the Maquis. You've always been my right-hand man; I want you to take care of them."
"Me?" Greg asked in surprise. "Not Ro or Riker? They used to be Fleet; they might have a better connection to the other Fleeters."
"No," Chakotay answered grimly. "Ro is too much of a loose cannon, and Riker… I don't trust his motivation."
"Concerning our case or concerning Torres?" Greg asked, with a hint of his rarely surfacing dry humour in his voice.
"Either of them," Chakotay said.
"Don't worry, Cap," Greg assured him. "I'll keep an eye on him… on both of them. Just in case."
"Good," Chakotay sighed. "I'm depending on you in this, Greg. Our people will need you, now that I won't be there more than they ever did."
"You can count on me, Chakotay. You know that."
"I do. And that's what makes this whole parting thing a little more bearable," Chakotay paused, seeking for the right words. "Take care, Greg. And should you find a way home, give Gina and the boys a hug from me. Chakotay out."
He cut the connection, unable to wait for Greg's answer. It was just too damned painful to say good-bye to the people who'd been his ersatz family for years.
Nursing her baby son but a few metres away, former Ensign Samantha Wildman kept pretending that she hadn't heard Chakotay's voice break with sorrow. Right now, she was fairly preoccupied with her own concern. She was contemplating the future from her own specific point of view. After all, the changes she was facing were drastic enough. They would have been drastic even without the added complication of a potentially deadly illness. The end of a happy marriage, of no fault of her own, was devastating enough as it was.
Her Gresk had been like a tawny lion in its prime: sleek and deceivingly strong and so very beautiful, with his thick, wavy straw-blond mane and golden, feline eyes, emphasized by the typical, lion-like K'tarian features of his high forehead. She had loved him very much. She still missed him badly at times: his soft touches, his low, throaty purr, the unexpected strength of those long, sleek muscles under his warm, smooth skin, the way his broad grin showed off his sharp canines, revealing the once violent origins of his people. The thought that she'd never see him again was killing her.
K'tarians were a very old and sophisticated race, and Gresk belonged to one of the most ancient Prides that kept the old traditions in many areas. When he had declared his intention to marry a human, his mothers and his father were every bit as outraged as Sam's simple, Earth-bound family had been when she'd told them that she intended to marry an alien. The fact that his birth-mother had been long dead and that the kater of the family was not the one who'd begotten him was irrelevant. They were his elders.
Like in the case of Terran lions, K'tarian families consisted of several females with their children, and one male – this practice had its origin in the fact that females outnumbered males in the K'tarian population four to one. But despite the relative rarity and thus the valued status of virile males, the leader of a family group was always the ranking female. To achieve that rank, the females often fought ritual duels – sometimes to the death – especially those from the ancient Prides.
Gresk had not wanted to subject Sam to the sometimes violent traditions of his people. As a Starfleet officer – and an anthropologist at that – he preferred to watch said traditions from a comfortable distance. They had taken up residence on Rigel VI, living in a twosome marriage in Terran fashion, except when they were assigned to different missions. They had been very happy together, even more so after Naomi's birth, and didn't care much about the disapproval of their respective families.
Nonetheless, Gresk had kept his K'tarian citizenship, which meant that specific K'tarian laws were still valid and bonding for him. And that meant that Sam and he weren't married any longer. K'tarian law stated that if there was no contact between married partners for more than a local year, the marriage got automatically annulled. And what was even worse, the law didn't allow such partners to get remarried to each other.
But for Sam, that was a moot point anyway. She'd spend her life on New Earth, without a chance to return home. Unlike Chakotay, she didn't hope that a cure might be found yet – not that she really minded. New Earth was a paradise, despite its metaphoric snake. She was used to living under such circumstances, being the spawn of a naturalist family and having lived with the natives on various planets for years. She had her children with her… and she had Chakotay.
They'd never been interested in each other sexually before. But now they were restricted to spend the rest of their lives with each other on this planet, and Sam was not willing to spend hers in celibacy. Not when there was a strong, handsome, intelligent man with whom she could share it. And Chakotay was a handsome man. She'd always noticed that, in a detached, impersonal way. But now this fact had suddenly gained a more personal – and more practical – meaning.
If Gresk had been a golden lion, Chakotay was like a bear: all bronze and mahogany and eyes like dark chocolate and dimpled smiles. He moved with surprising grace for a man so heavily built, and he had a deep, warm chuckle that could melt ice. But unlike many people, Sam didn't let herself to be fooled by his gentle, easy-going, soft-spoken persona. She'd heard stories about the "angry warrior" of the Maquis, and she could sometimes catch a glimpse of that warrior lurking under the calm surface. While she'd liked to think of Gresk as deceivingly strong, there was nothing deceiving in Chakotay's strength. The man literally radiated it – and considering the circumstances under which the two of them would have to live, that was a very good thing.
T'Prena had offered them anti-conception implants, "in case they wanted to turn to each other for comfort", as she had put it with her wonderful Vulcan bluntness. They had both refused, agreeing that – should that ever happen – they wouldn't want to live a barren life in their exile. T'Prena had found that logical; Janeway, on the other hand, had been shocked by the idea of setting children into the world on a planet they wouldn't be able to leave ever again.
"Mankind has spent thousands of years on the same planet, Captain," Sam had replied with a shrug. "I'm sure that we'll manage, too. Commander Chakotay has grown up under such circumstances. We'll live."
The captain had tried to fight her choice; tried to persuade Sam to leave at least her children behind, aboard Voyager, so that at least they could return to Earth, eventually. But Sam remained adamant. She and the children belonged together; they were family, despite the fact that her marriage with Gresk was irreparably over. If that meant for Naomi and baby Elrem to spend their lives on new Earth, that was unfortunate, but she wasn't going to abandon them.
Besides, they'd never have been accepted by Gresk's Pride. They were half-breeds, a dilution of an ancient, much-respected bloodline and the mere idea of them had been rejected from the beginning. K'tarians were strange in their ways. At least Gresk would be able to return to his people, now that he was no longer burdened with an off-worldler partner. They'd take him back in a moment; he was a virile male of an excellent bloodline, he'd have his new, K'tarian family in no time. Sam wished him luck. She'd lost him anyway; at least he ought to have a good life without her.
Still, the confrontation with the captain, who didn't seem to understand the reasons for her choice, had not been pleasant. Janeway had accused her of selfishness, of destroying the children's' future, and Sam guessed that in a manner, she might even be right. Perhaps the children would resent her for her choice one day.
But that was still in the future, and right now, New Earth was their life. Her strongest motivation to get back to the Alpha Quadrant was already gone. She'd never be reunited with Gresk, no matter what. The best choice was to cut her losses and look forward. Here. At least, she could raise her children in peace… and, perhaps, build a future with the man who was stranded with her on this deceivingly idyllic planet.
Somewhen in the future, she might regret her decision. But right now, it felt like the best possible choice of several less than ideal choices. Right now, she was as content as anyone living in exile with no fault of their own could be.
~TBC~