Chapter Two
Two months passed, two months during which Kathryn's plan didn't seem to bear fruit; two months during which B'Elanna's quick thinking and taking charge at a critical moment had saved the ship from destruction; two month during which the Human-Klingon Hybrid stubbornly refused to answer the question she asked every week with anything else than "There is nothing to say, Captain." But it also were two months during which she more than once had had the distinct impression that not only Harry Kim but also Seven of Nine and Tom Paris had been on the brink of talking to her, of telling her. None of them had, however.
And then there was the day when Naomi Wildman asked to speak with Captain Janeway.
"What can I do for you, Miss Wildman?"
"Captain, I wanted to give this back to you." The girl stood at attention in front of the desk. She took a step forward and put the pip the captain had given to her on the desk.
"I no longer want to be your Captain's Assistant," she said and started to leave.
"One moment, young lady, the least I expect is an explanation. I know that I didn't spend enough time with you during the last couple of months and that your position is more honorary than anything else, but I still thought that your sense of duty was more developed." Kathryn said in an effort to get the girl to really tell her the truth.
The girl looked angrily at her but then her back straightened even more and she said calmly, "The polite thing to do would be to tell you that I no longer want to be your assistant because my schoolwork takes up too much of my time, but that would not be honourable. It would be a lie. The truth is that I don't want to be your assistant because you are not the captain I thought you are. The way you have everyone treat B'Elanna is petty and not honourable. She did nothing wrong. Captain, may I be dismissed now?"
Kathryn only nodded. Of all the things she had expected this had not been it. Over the last two months she had received petitions for a more lenient treatment of Crewman B'Elanna Torres from almost every single crewmember, including Neelix and the Doctor, but nothing had been able to change her mind. If the only way to get the stubborn engineer to talk to her was to break her first than that's what she would do. She would out-stubborn her.
Now, for the first time, her eyes on Naomi's pip, she began to question her decision and her determination to see it through. Kathryn felt the deep need to break open her last bottle of whiskey but she knew that getting drunk wouldn't change the girl's words and it wouldn't change how much they had hurt.
The door chimed and she automatically invited whoever was waiting outside in.
"Captain, are you alright?"
"Not really, old friend. Is something wrong? Why do you ask?"
"When Naomi Wildman just left your Ready Room she was crying, I had expected you to follow her to calm her down again," Tuvok said.
"It seems that I no longer have a Captain's Assistant. Miss Wildman basically told me that I was an honourless p'taq for the way I treat B'Elanna," Kathryn answered, "the way I ordered everyone to treat her."
"You ensured that Starfleet regulations are adhered to, Captain. I know that Crewman Torres understands that." Tuvok answered.
"Yes, but they are regulations even you did not seem necessary to enforce when you gave your parting orders to Lieutenant Ayala."
"Those regulations were written with regard to prisoners who are liable to destroy equipment or injure other crewmembers, and they never were meant for long-term confinement," he said.
"Then why didn't you come to me and questioned my motifs? I told you once that you are my moral compass; that still stands, now more than ever," Kathryn said almost plaintively.
"I only would have had the right to interfere if the prisoner had filed an official complaint or if Crewman Torres would have otherwise indicated that she feels treated unjustly. Though I admit that I'm curious as to why you were so adamant about this."
"I'm afraid that my reasoning is not very logical, though at the time it made perfect sense." Kathryn answered.
She was well aware that they had fallen back into their roles of old, when she still had been a wet-behind-the-ears science officer doing her first tentative steps at command school, and he had been teaching advanced tactical strategies at the Academy. He had become her mentor but they had not spoken like this for years.
"So, why does your reasoning not make sense anymore?"
"Would you believe that it's because a young girl just told me that I'm not the captain she thought I was and because she gave me something back of which she once had been very proud? She also told me that B'Elanna did nothing wrong."
"Yes, Captain, I would believe that, but I also know that it will not change your course of action if you're convinced that it's the right thing to do," Tuvok answered.
"And herein lies the crux, my friend. The least I can say is that it's not working. I didn't give those orders just to uphold Starfleet regulations. She has done enough for this ship to warrant leniency. Only three weeks ago it was only her presence in Engineering that kept us from losing our warp core and being destroyed. I gave those orders because I want to get her to talk. She admitted that she doesn't feel remorse for killing Chakotay but she refuses to tell me why she did it. I'm sure that if I know the why I could come up with extenuating circumstances and would maybe even be able to revoke the sentence."
"Were you not bound by Starfleet regulations and Federation law, Kathryn, would you have given her a free pass?" Tuvok suddenly asked, and proved once again how well he knew her.
"I'm looking for a reason to do exactly that, Tuvok, within Starfleet regulations and Federation law." Kathryn rose and began to pace the length of the Ready Room. "I know it sounds as if I give little weight to the violent death of three crewmembers but deep down I know that regardless of the provocation B'Elanna would never kill anyone without a damned good reason. So, I thought if I put enough pressure on her she sooner or later would break down and tell me the truth, but at the moment it seems as if all the good it does is to bring up the crew against me."
"If you want to put pressure on Crewman Torres you'd need to do more than Starfleet would allow. Cut down on the number of visitors and the length of the visits, reduce her time to exercise in the gym to an hour once a week and most importantly, don't let her work, and in another month or three you might see some results, though I sincerely doubt that," Tuvok said.
"I want to get her to talk, not destroy her personality, Tuvok. Why do you think that would not work? What you propose is liable to destroy anyone, much more someone with Klingon blood in their veins."
"Did Crewman Torres ever tell you how she met Commander Chakotay?"
"She only said that he saved her life and Chakotay also never spoke about it. Why?" Kathryn asked.
"Crewman Suder told me about it when he asked me to keep an eye on her and protect her should it become necessary. He said that the commander had always been jealous of B'Elanna Torres and that they only got along because of her total lack of interest in command.
"Commander Chakotay saved her life when he killed a Cardassian prison guard aiming a disruptor at her. He was the last one of the guards still alive after the prisoners had rebelled under her command. Miss Torres had been held there for almost six months and they tried their best to break her. They tortured her, put her in solitary in an icy, dark cell, whipped her in front of the other prisoners, raped her, but in the end her perseverance inspired the other prisoners.
"Suder was one of them, a new arrival then. B'Elanna created a diversion and managed to kill the commander and his guards. The other Cardassians fell quickly after that. Chakotay and his crew had initially only come there to steal supplies, but suddenly had to deal with three thousand prisoners."
"The labour camp on Caessik III?" Kathryn asked. "Chakotay told me that he and his crew infiltrated it and freed the prisoners. He told me he killed Ghul Canak."
"No, Captain, he only tried to reap the benefits, but the former prisoners made sure that everyone knew who really did it."
"That makes me even more convinced that B'Elanna acted out of self-defence. Ever since our disagreement over the Borg he feared that he was losing my trust, and he knew that in case of an emergency I would count one hundred percent on B'Elanna and Seven. With you, me and Seven gone, he might have seen his chance to get rid of a rival."
"It's one of the theories that crossed my mind, but without Crewman Torres' statement all we have is conjecture. We lack evidence."
"Did you find anything in Chakotay's files?" Janeway asked.
"No, Captain, his logs were strictly professional, and since he was not suspected of any wrong-doings by regulation I had no right to go through his personal belongings, and since no one of the command staff made a claim to it everything is still as he left it," Tuvok answered.
"Then do it now," Janeway ordered.
"We still have no legal concourse to search his personal belongings, Captain. There's not even a single shred of evidence or a witness statement to cast doubt on Commander Chakotay or his actions."
"That would have been too easy, wouldn't it?" Janeway said with a resigned shrug of her shoulders. "I want this done by the book. So, for now, I want you to give me all the information you have about the labour camp on Caessik III and the Ghul commanding it as soon as possible. I think it's time to do some investigating of my…"
A sudden jolt ran through the ship, strong enough to throw Tuvok off his feet and Janeway out of her chair. They had just come back up to their feet when the ship rocked again. Janeway hit her head at the edge of her desk but didn't lose consciousness. Tuvok helped her up again and they staggered over to the bridge where everyone was still picking themselves up from the floor.
"Report!" She barked.
Harry had a deep gash on his forehead but still tried to obey. He pulled himself back to his console. "Emergency energy only, life support and inertial dampeners are holding. We have no warp, no impulse and no thrusters. Shields and weapons are also down, as well as the environmental controls. Readings are intermittent but indicate that there has been an explosion in Engineering, a series of explosions it seems. The comm. system is down too."
"Tuvok, you have the bridge, see what you can repair from here; priority is the defence system, then internal communication. Tom, Harry, get down to sickbay. The doctor might need your help, Tom. And Harry, have him patch you up, then join me in Engineering."
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The turbolifts were also not working; so, it took Captain Janeway more than fifteen minutes to get down to deck eleven via the Jeffries tubes and ladders. The big double doors to Engineering were closed and in front of it was utter chaos. There were crewmembers treating each other with dermal regenerators; others were just sitting on the floor and stared at the closed doors and two engineers were trying to open them. Susan Nicoletti leaned heavily on Vorik while directing their work. Her face was ashen and she had a gash at her temple and an obviously just healed wound in her thigh.
No one paid her any attention.
"Report! What happened?"
"Captain, I'm so glad that you're here. We can't get the doors to open and we have to get in. If we find B'Elanna in time she still stands a chance. Our authorisation codes don't work."
"What are you talking about, Lieutenant? What happened?" The captain insisted.
"Captain," Vorik answered.
He kept his arm around Nicoletti's waist and held her right hand with his left. As touch telepaths Vulcans were usually very careful about touching other people, especially if they were as emotional as Susan undoubtedly was at the moment. So, in Kathryn's eyes, this uncharacteristic behaviour was either an indicator of the gravity of the situation or the young Vulcan and Susan Nicoletti were closer than she had thought.
"There was a series of explosions in the engine room. We had four serious injuries after the first set, but we still thought that we could get it under control. The second explosion occurred just when Lieu… Crewman Torres returned from sickbay. She had carried Seven there. She was among the first injured. After the second round of explosions we had plasma and radiation leaks and had to evacuate. The warp core started to overheat and Crewman Torres stayed behind to do a controlled shut-down, but the emergency procedures for the plasma leaks and those for radiation poisoning had already been activated and the doors were sealed."
"And B'Elanna? What's the status on Seven?" Kathryn Janeway's command mask was firmly in place, inside, however, she was praying: 'Let them be alright!'
"Seven is in sickbay. We'll get word as soon as the doctor knows how serious it really it, but she looked very bad. We don't know what happened to B'Elanna. Sensors indicate that the leaks are under control, but that's about all the information we can get. We read a breathable atmosphere inside, so the cleaning procedure must have been successful but the other readings are intermittent at best, and there are no life signs. That's why we have to get in there, and your command override should do it," Susan answered. She was still holding on to Ensign Vorik.
"Computer, open main doors to Engineering on deck eleven. Authorisation: Janeway-Alpha-Phi-One-Omega."
The computer beeped but nothing happened. She typed in her code manually, but the doors stayed shut. Taking a closer look she found that the door mechanism was blocked with Borg encryption codes, no, those were Borg encryption codes with a twist.
"Mister Vorik, what are the chances that Crewman Torres is still alive?"
"Considering her physiology I estimate 1:100,000. However, experience has taught me never to bet against Lieu… Crewman Torres," he answered.
"Captain, you can't just give up on her, regardless of how angry you are at her about this… about Chakotay," Susan burst out.
"Lieutenant Nicoletti, watch what you're insinuating. Keep two men here, but with the way the door mechanism has been encrypted it would take hours to break it down, at best. Susan, I want you and a team over at the entrance to the lab. Try to get in there. Vorik, you are with me. We'll try the Jeffries' tube accesses on deck ten. Bring your tools and a medkit. The rest of you… Go to sickbay to get treated or split into teams. I want the whole ship checked for hull breaches, manually. And send someone to the bridge to tell Commander Tuvok what's going on."
Vorik and Susan exchanged a glance in which profound relief warred with surprise, but Kathryn didn't see it. Her mind was already running through ship's schematics to find the best access route.
They went up to deck ten and checked the entry points there, but their tricorder readings warned them of a still existing plasma contamination. It was one of the security features she had found lacking from the beginning but the ship designers at Utopia Planetia had assured her that there was no way to include the Jeffries tubes into the decontamination protocols, and ever since being stranded in the Delta Quadrant they had not had the time or the opportunity to think about improving Voyager's design. Not that she did not have a whole drawer filled with padds proposing one improvement or the other, mainly from B'Elanna or Seven or both of them.
Janeway groaned internally; that left her only one other option, "Come, Mister Vorik, if we can't get in from the side, then we'll come from above."
"Captain?" He asked.
"Follow me."
Kathryn led Vorik two more levels up. The tricorder found no indication of danger. They followed it through two hatches that had to be opened manually. Janeway stopped in the middle of the third segment and removed two of the floor panels. The space underneath was filthy and barely big enough for Naomi Wildman to wriggle through. She swiped the dust and grime away and uncovered a hatch Vorik had not even known existed.
He always had thought that next to the Chief he was the one who knew this ship best.
"The hatch has been sealed completely shut. There's no easy way to open it up. I hope you have something in your tool box to do that, otherwise we have a problem. Even your Vulcan strength wouldn't move it," Janeway said.
Vorik looked down, checked something in his toolbox and answered, "I can get it opened in twenty seconds, provided you don't care for the damage."
"Do it," Kathryn ordered neutrally, but inside she was screaming, 'I don't care for the damage. I care for B'Elanna.'
Vorik pulled a small container out of his tool box and unscrewed the cap. He removed the small vial inside of it and opened it. With the help of the pipette he let single drops fall into the seams of the hatch and cautioned her to turn her face to the side.
A few seconds later there was an explosion which resulted in both sides of the hatch hanging half open. Vorik kicked them in completely and looked down into some sort of tunnel.
"I'll take point. Be careful what you touch, Vorik. There are open wires all through this area, and I don't know how many of them are still live. It would not kill you but could possibly do some temporary damage to our nervous systems." Janeway said.
"Then it would be logical for me to take point. That way you would know what not to touch," he answered.
"Nice try, Ensign, but you would not know where to go, and I won't get one of my people unnecessarily injured. There are a few tight spots and it'll take us at least ten minutes. So, let's go."
They made it to the exit they needed in eight minutes.
"Give me your tetrazine drops, Ensign," Janeway ordered.
"Starfleet regulations forbid the use of tetrazine. We use modified nitro-glycerine, Captain," Vorik answered and handed over the vial.
"Nitro-glycerine?" Janeway asked while she selected the appropriate spots where to drop the liquid explosive.
"The Chief came up with it while watching one of Ensign Paris' old movies. It's an explosive from the 20th Century, highly unstable but very effective. The Chief took the basic chemical composition and made it stable, but we are only to use it in emergencies, like last year when you were stuck in the turbolift with your leg broken."
Janeway's answer was cut off by the detonation and Vorik heard the sound of metal hitting metal.
His tricorder beeped a warning. "Captain, there's still some low level radiation."
"How much time before it gets dangerous?" She asked.
"About two hours." He answered.
"Good, keep an eye on the time and our bio-readings. We're right above the second level of Engineering."
Janeway let herself glide through the opening and steadied herself at the railing running all around the inner side of the second level of the engine room after landing with a hard thump. Vorik's landing was much less noisy, but Janeway was already too busy assessing the situation to muse about it. And it looked like a war zone.
"Vorik, find out if the radiation is residual or if there is still a radiation source around. I'm looking for B'Elanna."
With her eyes firmly on her tricorder readings Kathryn stalked off towards the ladder leading down to the ground level of Engineering.
Vorik noted the ease with which his captain slid down the ladder, an ease speaking of long familiarity. He filed it away with all the other incongruous facts he had learned about his captain in the last two months, but especially in the last hour.
The radiation readings led him down to the ground floor. He passed the warp core and ended on the far left side of the engine room. Captain Janeway was kneeling on the floor next to the prone body of B'Elanna Torres. The radiation leak was right behind them, and B'Elanna's left hand was still holding the hyper spanner needed to seal it, one not usually found in a tool kit.
"The radiation is residual. It was coming from over there. It looks as if B'Elanna had fixed the leak before she lost consciousness."
"Thank you, Vorik. Get the transporters back on-line. We'll need a site-to-site transport. She needs to go to sickbay." Janeway ordered and pressed a hypo-spray in B'Elanna's neck while her other hand gently pushed a strand of hair out of her face.
Vorik hurried off to one of the few consoles that didn't look completely fried. It was only about three yards away, not far enough for his Vulcan hearing not to pick up the captain's whispered words. "Don't you dare die on me, B'Elanna Torres. We need you. Damn it, I need you."
B'Elanna's eyes fluttered open. "Captain… get out… radiation… dangerous… protect you."
It was evident that it hurt her to speak. Her eyes closed again.
"Look at me, Lana," Kathryn ordered.
Brown eyes opened and she tried to speak again but Kathryn put her finger on B'Elanna's lips.
"Listen, Lana, listen well. I know your lungs are damaged, Lana. I want you to take small breaths, slow, small breaths. Focus on your breathing. We'll get you to sickbay in time. I, we all need you to stay alive. Don't die on me. The ship needs you, Seven needs you, I need you."
B'Elanna's eyes had closed again, but her breathing was less laboured and her vital signs had stabilised. Still, Kathryn didn't stop talking and despite his best intentions Vorik didn't stop listening.
"You're a pain in the neck, B'Elanna Isabella Torres. You have been from the first day we met, but without you this ship would have been lost dozens of times already. Without you I would have drowned in the guilt of stranding us here. Even when you left the Academy you did it for a purpose; so, despite of what you may think you never were a quitter. So, don't give up now. Don't you dare. That's an order; and as soon as you're back on your feet, we'll sit down and get to the bottom of this whole mess. I'll find out what has really happened and then I'll get you out of that cell. I know you care for this ship and its crew. You never would have killed Chakotay just because you were angry. You must have had a damned good reason, and I'll find out what that was."
Kathryn was aware that she was babbling, but she didn't care. She put her hands on B'Elanna's cheeks, surreptitiously checking the pulse at her throat to make sure that she really was still alive. For a moment she closed her eyes and when she opened them again her command mask was firmly back in place.
"Status report on the transporters, Ensign Vorik."
"The main control panel is fried. I'm trying to divert energy to the cargo transporters and tie them into the internal targeting system. It's a highly irregular procedure and even if it works it'll take at least an hour," he answered.
"I see. Keep working. I'm going to the lab and try to give Lieutenant Nicoletti and her team a hand from the inside."
When Kathryn stepped into the lab she heard the distinct sound of a plasma torch coming from the door. A heartbeat later she saw a first spark and then a continuous stream in the upper left corner of the door. At the same time she saw a plasma puddle right in front of the door. Should the beam from the torch hit the puddle they could call themselves lucky if only the lab was destroyed. Then another stream of plasma light appeared in the upper right corner of the door. In contrast to the first one which was slowly moving downwards this one moved to the side, and another few moments later a third plasma light indicated that Lieutenant Nicoletti was really pulling out all the stops to get this door opened. Working with three plasma torches in such close proximity in and of itself was a high risk procedure, with most of the systems out of order it bordered on suicidal, but Kathryn also knew that the young engineer did not have much of a choice.
Janeway looked around the lab and finally located the drawer with the emergency supplies or where the emergency supplies should have been. The packet that should have contained a plasma absorbing blanket only held some sort of gauze. The plasma soaked through it in moments and the two plasma torches were already halfway down. She hastily rummaged through the supply cabinet and came up with a mixture of ingredients her teachers at Starfleet Academy would have outlawed as too unstable and thus too dangerous. For once her chemistry lessons, not one of her stronger subjects, by the way, paid off, and when the first torch reached the floor level nothing happened.
It took another ten minutes for the rest of the door to be welded open. Someone kicked it in. Two volunteers were already waiting with a stretcher and Susan Nicoletti snapped to attention, "Captain, we were able to get one of the turbolifts to work. It doesn't yet go all the way up to the bridge but we can reach sickbay."
"Finally some good news then. We found Crewman Torres; for the moment she's stable but she needs urgent medical attention. Your first priority will be internal communications; I'll need a damage report as soon as possible, then the transporters, turbolifts, and the rest."
"I understand, Captain, emergency protocol Torres-Alpha-Four. We know what to do. Where can we find you?"
"Via my comm. link, I hope, if not, start in sickbay."
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