Title:
Divided
Author: SisterPet
Pairing: C&T
Rating: G for now. R later.
Disclaimer: I don't own them
Summary: Chakotay and Torres, separated from Voyager and thrown into an adventure.
DIVIDED
Part 1
"Captain I'm reading a fluctual disturbance on long range sensors. It's heading this way." Harry stated, madly working the panel in front of him, he knew the captain would be demanding a more detailed description.
"What kind of disturbance?" Captain Janeway rose from her chair and stalked towards him.
" I don't know sensors can't make it out. All I can tell you is its huge and fast, it should hit us in about 2 hours"
"On screen" The space around looked peaceful and normal, there was no visual sign of anything.
"The away team?" She threw the question at Tuvok,
"They are not yet in sensor range but, if they are heading this way they will fly right into it."
"Janeway to Seven of Nine, can you get me a better reading on what this thing is"
"No, but I will continue trying." Came the clipped reply.
"Come on people, I need more information, Chakotay and B'Elanna will need all the help we can give them when they hit that." She nudged Harry aside and started running diagnostics.
"Captain, maybe if we got closer to it we might be able to get better readings and be able to contact the shuttle before they hit it." Paris suggested.
"I do not agree, Mr Paris, it is doubtful that our communications will penetrate that cloud, and at the speed it is doing it is highly likely that we will be engulfed." Tuvok's Vulcan logic was, once again, undeniable.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing! Please Captain!" He begged, rising to his feet.
Kathryn raised her hand, she knew and sympathised with his agitation, but could not let his feelings or her own growing fear sway her now.
"Can we go around it?"
"Negative Captain, it spans 20 light years by the time we got even halfway around it would be upon us."
"Captain we must move away from it."
"No I won't abandon my people! Can we out run it?"
"If we leave before it gets too close we could, at high warp." Tuvok was already making the calculations that would answer her next question.
"How much time have we got "
"1 hour 15 minutes."
"Harry send a signal out to the shuttle, wide band and continuous relays, as soon as they are within range they will pick it up. I want to know the moment that happens. Transporters get ready for an emergency beam out. If they get through that in one piece, I want to be ready to get them on board as quickly as possible. Tom, lay in co-ordinates away from this thing and prepare to jump to warp as soon as we have our people."
"Aye Captain" Tom returned to his seat.
The two figures in the shuttle were silently working at the console, neither of them aware of the danger that was just minutes away.
"I don't know if I will have a chance to thank you before we get back so I would like to do it now. When you forced me to come with you, out into space to meditate and try and make peace with my animal guide, I thought you had lost your mind but, these last few hours have helped me come to terms with the terrible tragedy that killed all our friends. So thanks." B'Elanna growled, uncomfortable with the feelings of respect and gratitude this man always seemed to draw out of her. No one seemed to know her as well, or be able to cut through to her soul quite that cleanly.
"I did not force you, I merely gave you a choice. Come with me or take two weeks rest leave. You were badly hurt a number of times on the holodeck and these things take time to work through but, you are welcome." Chakotay hid the grin, knowing that if she saw it she would break at least one, if not all, of his bones.
"Some choices, " She muttered.
The console in front of them started beeping and wailing,
"Shields up! " He shouted, lights flashing as their fingers worked in unison to try and find the cause for the alarm. Before either of them could even wonder what was happening, something powerful hit the ship sending it spinning madly. They were suddenly engulfed in a vortex that drew them helplessly into its centre and swallowed them.
"What the hell is that thing? " Chakotay roared, pounding on the console and ignoring the sparks flying from it. B'Elanna fought with the controls trying to draw the last drop of power out of a dying ship. In seconds the console exploded sending both of them flying backwards off their chairs. B'Elanna bounced off the back wall of the class 2 shuttle and landed in an unconscious heap. Chakotay landed not far from her, he could feel the darkness moving in on him and, with his last conscious thought, threw himself on top of her to shield her, before he too succumbed do oblivion.
"I have the shuttle Captain. They are being flung out of the cloud and should be in transporter range within seconds. The shuttle is badly damaged and the warp core is about to explode!" Harry exclaimed.
"Tom, get ready to head out at my command! Transport our people out now!" Milliseconds later the view screen was engulfed by a blinding light as the shuttle exploded.
"Tell me you have them."
"We are on board and fine Captain,"
"Good to have you both back, I would suggest a visit to sickbay just to be safe."
"Roger that. Chakotay out." Chakotay nodded to B'Elanna and they headed out the room.
It was less than an hour later that Commander Chakotay strode back onto the bridge and resumed his seat next to the Captain.
"That was a close one Commander." Janeway frowned.
"Too close. Do we know what that thing is we hit?" He asked, looking around the room.
"Negative, we were hoping to be able to get some readings from the shuttle, but that will be impossible now." Harry shrugged.
"Tom, set a course that will move us out of that things way then hand the helm over to Ensign Wayne. Your duty shift ended over an hour ago." She had not missed the way he had been fidgeting at the helm since B'Elanna was beamed back aboard."
"Aye Captain." He grinned at her gratefully.
***************************************
Pain. Her body ached with it but it was something she knew and did not fear, like an old friend she had lived with most of her life. B'Elanna slowly came back to consciousness. At first, as the blackness faded, she thought she was back on Voyager having gone through another holoprogram without safeties. But, as the darkness moved further away, the last few moments came back to her and her eyes sprang open. She discovered two things instantly. She was lying face down, in a shuttle, engulfed in smoke and she was pinned under something big and heavy. Calling on all her klingon strength she pushed up and managed to dislodge the heavy object enough to wriggle out from under it. It was only when she turned back to look that she discovered that she had been lying under Chakotay.
The first fission of fear ran down her spine, he was lying so still. A spasm of coughing doubled her over and the smoke was burning her eyes like acid. She realised that she could not take the time now to examine him as they had to get out fast. Fighting fear, she crawled to the smouldering control panel and, heaving herself up on a chair, she hit the emergency door open. Luck was with her. The back wall of the shuttle groaned and screeched like a tortured animal, but it opened. Pushing through the smoke and pain, she grasped Chakotay under the arms and pulled. Though he was not a small man and most of his size was pure muscle, as a dead weight he was almost more than even her strength could manage, but move they did. Inch by painful inch she managed to drag him out of the shuttle and over the grassy ground. Ten feet away she stopped. Her muscles screaming in agony, the breath burning in her lungs she collapsed on the ground next to him fighting to stay conscious.
Finally, when the dizzying sickness had passed, she looked around. Though she had never been to Africa, she imagined that it must look very much like this. The flat grassy savannah was broken in the distance by interlocking mountains of wind-smoothed granite, surrounded by a jungle like forest of trees. She judged, by the placing of the sun, that it must be late afternoon. A deep groan next to her snapped her back into action and she shifted closer and lifted Chakotay's head in her lap, gently tapping his face.
"Come on Chakotay wake up, sleepy time is over."
Chakotay groaned again and tried to sit up, only to flop back down painfully when the hammering in his head increased to pounding. "Who ever poured the klingon blood wine will be on charges for the rest of his life." He hissed, getting a surprised snort of laughter out of B'Elanna.
"You're a teetotaller, Chakotay, or has the bump on your head changed that."
The rather pungent stream of Klingon curse words that followed his next attempt to sit up were ones that even she knew well.
"Hey take it easy, I don't know what damage you have done to yourself. Judging by the size of the lump on your head, at the very least you have a concussion."
She helped him up and braced his shoulders until he seemed steady enough to hold himself up.
Chakotay forced back the red wave of pain. Memory surfaced and he swung around searching for the shuttle, a move he sorely regretted almost instantly.
"The shuttle?"
"Down. I am not sure how badly damaged it is but from what I saw, it is not good."
"We need to get supplies, medikit, blankets, and food rations. Help me up." He ordered, but B'Elanna shook her head, pushing him back down when he tried to stand up on his own.
"I'll do it. You stay put at least until I get the medikit and figure out how badly hurt you are."
With the door being open the smoke had cleared out of the inside of the shuttle and she was able to see that the emergency fire extinguishers had put out the fires. The damage was extensive and she could tell at a glance that the shuttle would need heavy repairs before if ever it would fly again. Taking the medikit, tricorder and phasers she took one quick reading around the shuttle and headed back out. Stopping once more to take another reading around the outside hull then pointing the tricorder at her phaser before shaking her head and throwing it back into the shuttle.
"The phasers are useless! It's strange but there seems to be a total lack of antimatter."
Something rang a feint bell in his memory, but the harder he tried to grasp it the further away it got.
"Why does that ring bells?" B'Elanna murmured.
"Me too, but I can't get a fix on it. Leave it for a bit, maybe it will come to us."
B'Elanna nodded and, taking out the medical tricorder, she ran a reading over him.
"As I thought. You have a severe concussion but no damage, this hypo spray should decrease any brain swelling and help with the pain."
"I had a look around the shuttle and it seems to be safe for us to use as a shelter, but the systems and warp core are badly damaged. Communications are down I won't even be able to send out a signal to guide Voyager to where we are."
"We are not even sure where here is, or if Voyager survived that cloud. We need to get all the sensor data on that cloud from the moment it hit us until we crashed." Chakotay rose painfully to his feet, swaying dangerously.
"Hang on. Here lean on me, you're still very weak."
Grabbing their equipment and bracing herself under his arm she took the brunt of his weight with only a slight grunt, and they stumbled drunkenly back to the shuttle. The light was fading when they reached it.
"It will be dark soon, I think we should close the door. We don't know anything about this planet or its predators and I would rather not find out when one of them crawls in here with us." Chakotay said, as he sank onto the bunk.
The door closed a lot easier than it had opened and the interior lights flickered to life weakly. Taking a blanket out of the compartment above him, Torres covered him with it. His eyes were closed and she felt panic well up but fought it down, placing her fingers on his artery she felt a strong and steady pulse. The tricorder showed that he was sleeping, exhaustion washed over her and she sank onto the other bunk, in minutes she was also asleep.
Chakotay rose, the headache and dizziness from yesterday was gone. He imagined, looking across at B'Elanna, that she would be the one needing a hypo spray today. The early morning sun was beating down on the shuttle and it was already hotter than a sauna in there. Not Starfleet uniform weather. Removing his jacket he made his way over to the control panels.
"You were not joking, this is a mess." He murmured to his still sleeping crewmate.
Two hours later B'Elanna awoke, groaning in agony. She looked over to where Chakotay sat with pad in hand, gazing out the view screen. She knew instantly that something was very wrong and, when he turned to look at her, the gut wrenching tragedy in his eyes shot arrows of fear down her spine.
"What? Tell me."
He shook his head and handed her the pad. Some inner voice screamed at her not to read it, the same instinctive voice that warned her whenever something terrible would be revealed to her. They looked at each other a long time before she dropped her eyes and started reading. It was the sensor log he had managed to salvage from the computer and download onto the pad. It showed her exactly why they had crashed and also why the lack of antimatter had rung such bells in both their minds. They had experienced this once before on Voyager.
"The Kempton Experiment?" she asked quietly, her eyes begging him to tell her she was wrong.
Chakotay nodded, tapped a few keys on the console and a picture of the shuttle flickered to life.
"Here we are as we entered the cloud." Suddenly the shuttle blurred and when it cleared she could clearly see the outline of a second shuttle superimposed over the first. The two shuttles divided and drifted apart
"One got flung out of the vortex and exploded moments after it cleared the cloud, this one getting sucked down is us."
"Then the second shuttle was destroyed, they will investigate and they will find out what happened." She said firmly.
"No, they won't because the cloud is moving in the same direction. If Captain Janeway was waiting for us to clear the cloud she would have had transporters ready to beam us out of that shuttle before it exploded and, without the data on the shuttle she won't be able to get any readings on what happened. Even if she did not get us out she would still not have had the time to pick up the pieces before the cloud got Voyager. She would not risk putting the whole crew in danger just to find out what happened to one shuttle".
B'Elanna shook her head, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.
"They wont be looking for us because we are already there." She murmured, defeat slumping her to the floor she pulled up her knees and buried her head in her arms.
"You lied to me Chakotay. Once again I have lost everyone I care about." She sobbed, jumping to her feet and running out the door.
"Not everyone. I am still here." He murmured to the empty space.
To be continued…