Disclaimer: They're not mine, but they should be.

Chapter Rating: T plus, maybe. Mention of graphic violence. Language.

Notes: This will get worse before it gets better…

Chapter Two


Only relief at having met little resistance in reaching her injured crewmen counterbalanced the blazing hurricane of anger upon which Kathryn Janeway stormed into the enemy stronghold. That she was here at all was incredibly stupid, she reminded herself again – stupid and ultimately selfish. She stared down the leader of the hideous gang of aliens, holding them all at bay with her single phaser, refusing to show even an ounce of fear.

She was afraid. Not so much for herself as for her ship…and crew.

Thus far, her plan had simultaneously succeeded and yet somehow failed horribly. Her ship was safe but two of her officers were in imminent danger of losing their lives – or worse.

Damn Chakotay, anyway, for refusing to let me go this alone. I should have ordered him to drop it instead of backing down as usual.

The Oncaveat, presumably, were also safe, but the knowledge she carried for them was not. Later, she resolved. Later I'll beat the living hell out of myself for this but not now.

She'd taken the Delta Flyer and headed straight for enemy territory – hoping to draw enough fire for her ship and its passengers to escape the Jehnz-yin fleet's stranglehold. And, though Harry was an able enough pilot, her plan had been perhaps too successful in the end, for their departure had drawn the attention of practically the entire battalion.

That, alone, had been enough to confirm her suspicions regarding the Oncaveat Senate's prized impenetrability. The reputation had proved false; there was no doubt, now. Those noble senators suffered a traitor in their midst. It was either that, or one of Janeway's own senior staff members had set her up to be killed. Somehow, she'd have bet even credits on the former.

With Harry dodging eight ridiculously armed battle cruisers, Neelix had provided sensor data at an incredible rate, helping the Asian ensign avoid a net of ships which drew an ever-tighter circle around the Flyer. It had been out of character for what she'd observed of the Jehnz-yi not to simply disable the small shuttle in a blaze of weapon's fire. To Janeway, the strong-arm containment tactic had seemed like a hangman's noose closing in about their throats.

Of course she had bet their lives on the hunch that the Jehnz-yi would not outright destroy the Delta Flyer. The Jehnz-yi clearly were informed on a sufficient level to realize what she knew – and to want her alive until they could extract that information from her. And, as she'd predicted, capturing the tempting prize she'd suddenly become to the Jehnz-yi won out over their obsession with obliterating Voyager from existence.

So, personally manning tactical, she'd thrown everything she had at the marauding vessels, finally managing enough damage to provoke the lead ship into firing.

It had not been enough to prevent their forced landing scant kilometers from the enemy base, one engine spewing plasma all the way. She'd planned for that contingency though; B'Elanna herself had made the modifications to the Delta-Flyer's ion and warp trail signatures. The resulting emissions served to shield the small craft from the inferior Jehnz-yin sensors. The Jehnz-yi would have to find the ship by way of a manual search party. Even if, as was nearly the case in the end, Voyager's best shuttle had touched down directly atop the major military compound, they would remain undetectable so long as the ship maintained its grey-mode status.

She'd meant to evade them, to hide until Voyager's mission came to completion and then to power up the ship and have Harry and Neelix run like hell for the rendezvous coordinates; it was not yet time to fulfill her ultimate mission. But with one engine critically damaged, she'd been forced to allow her crewmen to enter into the nearby city and attempt a trade for the necessary plasma, and the plans had had to be altered, and now…

"So, this is the mysterious captain of Voyager." Xi's words drew her attention like a tractor beam, slamming her back into the present. He positively preened his triumph. "I'd call it a pleasure, but we both know it won't be. Not for you, Janeway – as it has not been for your poor Mister Neelix there." Jerking his thick neck forward, he indicated his unfortunate victim.

Her narrowed eyes snapped back to the brutalized Talaxian for an instant. He still slumped in his restraints, his wounds bleeding and oozing dangerously with each passing nanosecond. Kathryn's stomach heaved treacherously at the sight of her friend's severed digit lying discarded in a congealing pool of his own blood. Though she'd infiltrated the underground chamber in which Harry had been held by the time the general had ordered Neelix's finger removed, the captain had seen and heard everything. The cruel bastards had abandoned the weaker Harry Kim until they could break Neelix, but they'd provided the ensign with a small screen. "They didn't want me to miss all the fun," Kim had whispered to her as she'd phasered through his shackles and freed his bloodied arms and legs from their harsh restraints.

Ironically, it was the ceaseless screaming of the agonized Talaxian that had provided the cover for the rescue of Harry Kim; the few soldiers close enough to the crude cell to hear the phaser blasts had been easily felled by the same weapon.

The only blue eyes in the room blurred with the involuntary threat of tears. She'd had to order the young man to return to the shuttle to complete the repairs she hadn't time to finish. The blatant accusation in normally shy, reverent Kim's face had burned her…physically burned her, she thought. He'd understand later why she'd had to rescue Kim first, as he was the certain success, but just at the time of his rescue, he hadn't the perspective to be able to forgive her for leaving Neelix to suffer any longer than necessary.

Really, it didn't matter if either he or Neelix managed to forgive her cold command decision. In her heart of hearts, she knew she was ultimately responsible for every scratch of yellow, brown-spotted skin and every single second of terror he'd endured.

The rage she needed to see her drastic recovery plan through returned full force, sweeping back all guilt and uncertainty.

She forced herself away, swiveled again to confront the cautiously advancing aliens. The one in charge, Xi…Garan Xi if she recalled correctly from the broadcasts…was frankly more intimidating in person than he had been on the enlarged public view screens. The inscrutable black eyes, slitted nostrils and dagger-sharp talons were bad in themselves. Added to this, the large, thick greasy skulls and wide, pointy-toothed grins all managed to invoke the image of some large mythical gargoyles which had evolved humanoid form and suddenly sprung to life.

Kathryn Janeway had faced fear too many times in the Delta Quadrant – and before – to succumb to it now. Alternating her purposeful glare between Garan and his approaching minions, she swiftly calculated a span of about thirty seconds before the group reached her. She swung her arm slightly to the left and took aim with the phaser she'd drawn at the entrance. When she spoke, her voice clipped authoritatively, "You won't touch him again."

"Won't I? I'd say that's entirely up to me, wouldn't you, Captain?"

20 seconds…

"Stay where you are or I start shooting." And her tone, her rigid stance, her deadly expression dared them to call her bluff.

To her credit, they did pause. But the general's deep chuckle sent little chills tickling up her backbone in spite of herself.

God, even those voices are demonic.

His amusement sparked a ripple of laughter within the room until an ominous chorus of guttural clicks and hisses filled the chamber. "Go ahead," he challenged. His eyes remained locked onto her face as he scrutinized her appearance for the first time. "You can't hit them all before they reach you. And even if you managed it, there are twenty more on their way as we speak."

She'd known as much. This chamber, directly at the entrance (or exit) to the prison facility, was the most heavily guarded area of the building. The only way she'd been able to surprise them into letting her near Neelix had been to do the last thing they expected; she'd simply strode to the entrance and pounded on the door. Their stunned reaction confirmed what she'd suspected; no one had ever had the audacity to demand entry into the prison before. It was going to be getting out this way that proved nearly impossible.

The snarling band of Jehnz-yi began moving towards her again. She fired without hesitation. Once, twice – more and more aliens hit the stone floor, cut down by the red, streaking energy of her weapon. The scent of burned flesh hit her nostrils at an increasing rate.

But Garan had been correct, of course. There were too many of them, and she finally couldn't afford to give Harry any more time to finish repairs. He'd just have to be done by now or else likely face recapture and death at Jehnz-yin hands. Slapping the commbadge clasped firmly in the cloak's deep left pocket, she shouted, "Harry, now," and held her breath…

They were almost on her, so close that she could smell the stench of the rotting animal hides proudly sported beneath their decorative armor.

Just as the first one reached her, she caught the blue tingle from the corner of her eye and hissed out her baited breath in relief. There came the faint, familiar hum of the transporter…

And Neelix vanished.

Sheer pandemonium broke out among the aliens as each man began shouting questions at once. Without Neelix to protect, she allowed herself to back slowly away, listening with only one ear while she waited for Kim's confirmation of success.

"What happened to the dampening field?" one screamed, drawing back along with the rest of his comrades in fear.

"She's disabled it! It's a trick; there are more of them coming!"

One of them, however, figured it out immediately. Snarling, he stretched a pointed finger in accusation. "No, she touched him! She put something on him! A localizer or something!"

He was right, but there'd been enough time to rig only one of them.

Kathryn's back touched the wall. She stood still, not bothering to hide her absolute contempt for these howling creatures who took such obvious pleasure in the suffering of other beings.

"Search her! Get that the communications device – find it," the general howled over the chaotic mutterings of his men. "Strip her if you have to!"

Her eyes flashed fire. Oh, I don't think so. Not without a fight, you won't, she vowed silently, clutching the metal even more tightly in her hidden palm.

A very brief silence fell over the room during which the mob of Jehnz-yin soldiers (having doubled now with the advent of reinforcements) reorganized themselves into another half-circle. Kathryn took the opportunity to fire her phaser point-blank into the closest Jehnz-yin's belly, staring coldly into depraved black eyes mere centimeters from her own. She hardly recognized herself as she watched the life seep from those eyes – life she had taken – and realized she felt absolutely no remorse.

She hadn't taken any chances with the dampening field so strong around the perimeter of the prison; the phaser was set to kill.

The distant voice of one of Xi's men carried easily over the relative quiet in the chamber: a quiet punctuated by more clips of energy from Janeway's phaser. Idly, she wondered why the hell they didn't simply draw their weapons and shoot her. Unless…

Of course. What would beasts like the Jehnz-yi want with a stun setting on a weapon? As Neelix had helped demonstrate, they liked the blood, the burning of flesh. The screaming of their victims. Stun settings were far too light and painless to satisfy such a lust for violence.

"The boy, General – he's gone! She – that bitch, she killed three of my men!"

Ah, finally, Kathryn thought. The incompetent bastards have noticed Harry's absence. She flashed a bright smile at General Xi's startled face, taunting him. Bitch, am I? You don't know the half of it yet.

Another giant uproar erupted among the Jehnz-yi, who howled with impotent outrage at the sudden loss of both their newest playthings, and the phaser was finally wrenched from her grasp. "Harry," she called into thin air, jerking back from the fierce claws digging into her wrist. Knowing her time was almost up, she kicked out at the offending Jehnz-yi…

Kim read her mind. "Sorry, Captain, I had some trouble with the imaging scanners. I've got him – God." The young voice dropped softly. "Neelix." A brief pause in which a fist knotted itself into her short hair and yanked her head back forcefully, then, "I've got him, Captain, now you need to get clear of the dampening field and–"

There was no way she could do that now. Not without a weapon and twenty or more stocky aliens blocking her exit. She hadn't really expected to in the first place. Yet the comm. line remained active, all that she needed to complete this last phase of her rescue plan.

She forced the words out in a superhuman rush, determined to finish the command before they could silence her. "Computer, initiate emergency protocol Janeway Delta One Nine, authorization Janeway Pi, two nine–"

"Shut her up!" Xi's voice rose somewhat uncontrollably as another hard fist slammed into her jaw with alarming force. Kathryn hit the ground with an unforgiving thud, but they were too late.

"Zero," she choked, tasting blood and coughing up the dust she'd inhaled upon impact.

"Captain," Harry Kim's voice took on a slightly hysterical edge, floating out from the communicator in her pocket for all to hear. "What are you – the Flyer is powering up. We're lifting off from the surface!"

Xi was striding towards her now, screaming into his wristband at someone she couldn't see, "Shoot that vessel down! Ground it, NOW!"

Janeway ignored the talons digging into her flesh through the heavy cloth she wore, but the surrounding bustle of furious aliens muffled the response from the subordinate Xi addressed. Have they managed to get a lock on the shuttle, despite the modifications?

The cloak gave little resistance, ripping easily away from her at the Jehnz-yin guards' insistent snatching, and a tiny glint of gold and silver shone in the bright spotlight just before the metal struck the ground in front of her.

"We're going to warp, Captain! I can't stop–"

"I know, Harry." She wasn't sure if he heard her response before the Jehnz-yin boot smashed down upon the tool with a sickening crunch, silencing the badge.

It didn't matter. They were gone. The Jehnz-yin fleet would follow, of course, but without the ability to track the shuttle…

Even as Xi's furious countenance descended upon her crouching form, she met his enraged assault with a tiny smile. And as her cranium was grasped, slammed full-force into the ground, she went willingly into the darkness which rose to claim her.

They were gone.