Prologue

'Lieutenant, can you manoeuvre behind them? That ship is a whole lot less mobile than ours, if we can get the weak part of their stern their shields will go down and we can transport him out of there.'

Captain Kathryn Janeway leaned forward in her seat, watching the view screen closely, trying to analyse the situation.

'I don't think I can, ma'am,' Lieutenant Tom Paris turned to look at her, his face apologetic. 'We're surrounded.'

'Then figure it out,' she replied. 'Tuvok, any input?'

She stood up, unable to stay seated any longer, the amount of anxious energy building up inside her was far too strong for sitting.

Her eyes strayed to the empty seat by her side, a reminder of why they were in this situation in the first place.

She crossed her arms and paced across to have a better view of her Security Officer.

'I believe Lieutenant Paris is correct,' Tuvok replied. 'I do not see a way out of this.'

'That's not good enough, either of you,' she snapped.

They both seemed surprised, their normally rational Captain seeming to behave entirely irrationally.

She hated to admit it, but the identity of the person stuck on board the Ki'jan vessel was affecting her judgement.

For a moment she could see his smiling face.

'It'll be fine, Kathryn. There's no need to worry.'

'I didn't say I was worried.'

'You didn't have to.'

Well she had been right. She had good reason to be worried.

'We're getting a transmission from the Ki'jan ship,' Ensign Harry Kim spoke up.

Kathryn turned her attention to him.

Every attempt she had taken to speak with the Ki'jan had only made things worse, but this was the first time they had made contact with her.

She nodded to Harry Kim and turned back to the view screen to face her enemy.

Instead she saw Chakotay. His face beaten, blood trickling down the side of his head and his cheeks scraped.

'Chakotay,' she breathed in as she said it.

'Kathryn, you need to go, stop fighting,' he commanded. 'It's not safe for you to stay.'

'What about you?' she asked.

'Don't worry about me,' he smiled.

And as he did so she watched in horror as a blast appeared from nowhere and hit him square in the chest.

In slow motion he seemed to fall backwards and collapse on the ground.

Her eyes went wide, tears instantly filling her vision and she seemed to freeze inside, unable to move.

'Chakotay?' she spoke just loudly enough for the name to travel on the comms.

There was no response.

Then the camera tilted and a familiar face appeared.

Captain Uri.

'Your Commander is dead, Captain. Leave or the rest of your crew will join him.'

He cut the transmission.

Her arms seemed frozen to her chest and she couldn't breathe, she wasn't even sure her heart was still beating.

Chakotay was dead.

If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes there's no way she would have believed it.

The silence on the bridge was overwhelming, and while part of wanted to scream, she had gone through training for this.

She knew how she was meant to respond.

And while she was able to resist her urge to scream, she couldn't find the ability to make her next order.

'Captain?'

She didn't know who spoke, the loud buzzing in her ears getting louder, her vision blurring over.

'Captain, what do you want us to do?'

'Destroy their shields and extract Commander Chakotay,' she commanded.

Her command was met with silence.

She turned to look at Tom, who was looking at her in surprise.

'Is there a reason you're ignoring my order, Lieutenant?' she asked, calmly but even she could hear the rage simmering underneath.

Or perhaps it was grief.

'With all due respect Captain, there's eight of them and one of us…' he said quietly. 'And I think what we just saw was pretty clear.'

'I don't care, Lieutenant,' she snapped. 'You will do as I say.'

'Captain, I believe what you are asking of the Lieutenant is impossible,' Tuvok stepped forward. 'My advice would be to escape from their space.'

She knew the gaze that met Tuvok's eyes was cold, but she couldn't understand her crew's inability to follow her command.

Chakotay always did what she asked.

Chakotay had always done…

The tears took over and she felt her legs collapse beneath her, as though they were controlled directly by her heart that she could feel shattering to pieces inside her chest.

Someone was there beside her, arms around her, asking if she was okay.

She could hear them but she couldn't register what they were saying.

Chakotay was gone.

And as though the thought was too much for her system to handle, she blacked out.