Francis Kelly 'The Deep' - I took an oath to preserve this crew from grave and desperate circumstances, and in that duty I have singularly failed.

- Captain Kathryn Janeway - Basics -

Seska.

That dirty, rotten, two-faced, back stabbing Cardassian and her Kazon friends were at it again.

Kathryn felt ashamed as one of her Kazon minions ribbed the commbadge off her chest, shoving her towards her crew.

They were on some deserted planet, somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, stranded in even worse circumstances than when the day had started.

And it was all Seska's fault.

They were on this deserted planet with no food, water or shelter, with only their wits about them and their survival training.

As they broke off into their teams, Kathryn knew she had to rely on Tom Paris and his piloting skills if they had any chance of being rescued, but on the surface, everyone had to rely on themselves and their crew mates.

Every person counted, every action had an equal and opposite reaction, and everything mattered if they wanted to live.

As they gathered around the small fire they had manage to light, Kathryn stood in front of her crew, a part of her hair donated to the greater good, she looked every bit as dishevelled as the rest of them.

'I'll have you know that each and every one of you are conducting yourselves with distinction, despite the situation we're in, and when we are back on the ship, I plan on putting a citation in each of your service records to reflect this,' she started, running a hand through her hair.

The crew were a silent bunch, the only sounds coming from the crackling of the fire, the various noises of the night, and the occasional whimpering of baby Naomi Wildman in her mother's arms.

'I want you all to know, the minute the array was destroyed and we were resigned to our fate here, I took an oath to preserve this crew from grave and desperate circumstances, and in that duty I have singularly failed. Despite my best efforts, and the best efforts of all of you, were have been betrayed by someone we thought was one of our own, and we are suffering for it.'

She looked around, making eye contact briefly with her senior officers and other members of her crew, taking in the sight before her.

'But, we must not give up, we must not lose hope. We must fight for survival with every ounce of our training, and make the most of what we have available. We will be rescued, I have every faith in that, but we must survive until that happens.

'I have faith in all of you to help each other, to succeed where I have failed. We may be alone on this planet, but we have each other, and we will survive.

'Failure in that is not an option.'

As she sat down, Kathryn Janeway only hoped that everyone else believed her speech, because she found it very hard to believe in herself.

Not when she had failed everyone.