Disclaimer – Star Trek belongs to Paramount/CBS not me. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter three
After checking with Tuvok that he was still willing to command the forthcoming night shift, Chakotay headed down to holodeck two. Chakotay had worked the roster so that the maximum number of crewmen were off duty for the evening. He'd been concerned that the captain might seek to replace one of the unlucky few who'd drawn the short-straw herself. She wouldn't like the thought of anyone missing out.
Luckily, Tuvok was taking Harry Kim's bridge duty and several of the other non-humans aboard had volunteered to switch shifts with their human comrades. Chakotay had incorporated the changes where possible. It was, after all, only New Year's Eve on the Earth calendar. The Vulcans, Bajorans and other non-Terran species would have a chance to honour their own cultural traditions when the time arose.
The captain's demeanour concerned her first officer. He'd noticed a subtle shift in her mood over the previous couple of days. It was unlike her not to get off the ship when an opportunity presented itself. She usually jumped at the chance to visit a new planet.
Initially, she'd appeared heartened at the distance Voyager had gained using the slipstream but now it seemed the feeling had worn off and she was mulling over what might have been. Chakotay wondered if it wouldn't be better to resign themselves to spending the next sixty years getting home. Surely that had to beat building up hopes only to be crushed time and time again. He thought of the discovery of the transwarp drive, the Barzan wormhole, and all the other possibilities for a faster trip home that hadn't worked out.
He'd not had a chance to speak to her at length since the incident with Arturis and the slipstream drive. Their weekly dinners had become less frequent over the last few months; since the messages from the Alpha Quadrant had arrived, now that he thought of it. She'd found time to play velocity with Seven and run her Da Vinci programme on the holodeck, but various events had cropped up to disrupt their dinner schedule. He was going to have to make a concerted effort to get them back into their routine. He'd alter the duty roster if he needed to, to make sure of it.
In the days following the letters from home, he'd expected to follow up on the conversation he'd had with her in the ready room, when she'd told him her engagement was over. But she'd not mentioned her letter since and hadn't asked him again about his, the letter in which he'd learnt that the Maquis were no more. Then again, he and B'Elanna hadn't spoken much either since hearing the dreadful news.
In the holodeck, Chakotay found Tom Paris looking rather pleased with himself. Tom's handiwork had transformed the room into an Edinburgh public park. Ornamental shrubs and borders of vibrant flowers surrounded lawns and paved areas. Recreations of ancient statues and monuments taken from images in Voyager's library, were dotted around. Picnic benches were laid out on the grass and a large pile of tinder and logs formed an unlit pyre in the central plaza. Chakotay had seen Tom's initial plans sketched out on a PADD, but they didn't do justice to the completed program.
"It looks great," Chakotay said.
"Of course, it'll be simulated night-time for the party," Tom explained. "And colder than it is right now. I'm just putting in the finishing touches."
Tom scrolled through a read-out on the PADD in his hand. "Computer, display primary control port."
An access panel appeared in place of a wrought iron sculpture to Chakotay's left, making him jump. Tom keyed in commands and an ice rink materialised, complete with skating holograms. Suitably impressed, Chakotay told him, "I'll leave you to it."
It was not essential for the first officer to make the rounds of each department on the ship but Chakotay felt that a personal appearance showed he was taking an interest in the work of his subordinates. The exercise didn't do him any harm either. So, after leaving the holodeck, he paid a visit to cargo bay one, where engineering and science teams worked on processing the ore that filled the bay. Assured that everything was running smoothly, he moved on to sickbay, where he found the Doctor treating Harry Kim and was relieved to find that the young ensign's head injury was less serious than his bloodied uniform suggested.
Neelix was hard at work in the galley and the ebullient Talaxian became even more so when Chakotay relayed to him the captain's approval of his requisitions. That left engineering and astrometrics. Chakotay and B'Elanna had worked together long enough that he knew better than to check up on her without good reason. He was sorely tempted to bypass astrometrics as well, but as much as Seven rankled him, she was still new to working in a hierarchy and a periodic reminder that she was accountable to others wouldn't go amiss.
He found her waist deep in the floor, rearranging power conduits under the deck plating, grey carpet tiles stacked up neatly to one side. She glanced up to see who had forayed into her territory and seemed eager to see him, hauling herself up and to her feet in one fluid motion. Her enthusiasm at his presence was an ominous sign.
"Commander," she greeted him. "I have encountered a problem."
Chakotay steeled himself to hear what she had to say then shook off his trepidation. It couldn't be that serious or Seven would already have summoned the captain down to the lab.
"I must inform Captain Janeway at once," she added.
And there it was. Chakotay raised a hand to stop her as she went for her combadge, suddenly very glad that he'd bothered to check in on the former drone and marvelling at his timing. If he could deflect any aggravation away from the captain then he'd do so. Thankfully, Seven picked up on his signal before she uttered a word.
"Wait," he told her, stepping around the hole in the deck plates to her side. "What sort of problem?"
She turned to the workstation that controlled the display on the holographic wall screen. "I am having difficulty compiling the astrometric charts that the captain requested."
"For our course ahead?"
"Yes. Sensors are only functioning at sixty-nine percent efficiency. I have isolated the source of the problem. It appears there was a feedback surge in the power conduits as we exited the slipstream. I am attempting to bypass the damage but I will need to take the sensor grid offline for approximately twelve hours. Please assign an engineering team to assist me."
Chakotay frowned, taking in the implications of what she'd told him. The work she had planned was essential but not urgent. "It'll have to wait until tomorrow, Seven," he said. "I can't let you take the sensor grid offline now. The party starts in just over three hours. There'll only be a skeleton crew on duty tonight."
She raised an eyebrow. "Then perhaps some off-duty crewmen can be called upon."
"They're off duty for a reason. The captain wanted everyone to have as much R and R as possible after last week."
"Then perhaps the party can simply be postponed until tomorrow night."
Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. "It's a New Year's Eve party. New Year's Eve is tonight, not tomorrow."
"Then you are refusing to provide me with the resources I need to perform my duties," she intoned.
"I beg your pardon?" he said, incredulous.
"I cannot finish my work without taking the sensor grid offline. It would be inadvisable to take the sensor grid offline while Voyager is travelling at warp. Therefore, it is only logical to use the time that Voyager remains in orbit of this planet to complete the work."
Seven looked at him as he considered his next action, with no evidence in her posture of the impatience her voice was betraying. The mismatch between her body language and her speech was disconcerting - at times, even eerie.
He shook his head. "Don't misunderstand me, Seven. I realise your work is important but a few hours won't make much difference. Tomorrow, you'll have all the resources you need."
He wasn't being intentionally obstructive. All non-essential personnel were scheduled to go off duty at nineteen hundred hours. He couldn't let Seven go ahead with her plans without telling at least a dozen crewmen that they would have to work tonight, after all.
"I understand that Captain Janeway wishes Voyager to resume course for the Alpha Quadrant at oh-eight-hundred tomorrow," Seven snapped. "If you do not allow me to proceed, there will be a delay in Voyager leaving orbit. Captain Janeway will not be happy. I must speak to her."
"The captain also gave everyone strict instructions to take some time off for recreation. That includes you."
Seven would not relent. "I do not understand," she said, her ire rising further. "There is a problem. The region of space ahead is particularly opaque to sensor readings. I need the sensors to be functioning at optimal in order to provide-."
Chakotay cut her off, his patience wearing thin. "And they will be," he interjected. "Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow is not good enough. The captain will wish to know about this!"
He wondered how someone so knowledgeable and quick to learn could fail to master basic human niceties and control her tone of voice. Well, he could be blunt too.
"Listen! You may not be disappointed that the slipstream drive didn't get us home, but in case you hadn't noticed, the captain and most of the rest of the crew are. Tom and Neelix have worked hard to organise the party tonight and I don't want anything short of a red alert situation getting in the way of the captain and her crew enjoying themselves. Do you understand?"
"I understand," she replied. "You wish to bury your head in the sand."
"What?" he said, raising his voice for the first time.
"Like an ostrich," she said, coolly. "The Doctor has been teaching me some human idioms. Humans often ignore obvious signs of danger in the futile hope that the problem will go away."
She was completely missing his point. Chakotay bit back a less than diplomatic retort, took a deep, calming breath and decided that the next time B'Elanna came to him with a gripe about Seven's behaviour, he'd be more sympathetic.
"Nothing you've told me suggests that Voyager is in imminent danger," he said, evenly. "And it's not critical that you understand my reasoning as long as you follow my orders." He backed away from the workstation and prepared to leave before she riled him up any further.
She relented, climbing back down into the pit in the floor and going back to re-routing cables, as if he was no longer there. She must have calculated that it was a more efficient use of her time to stop talking and get on with her work. That suited him just fine. He was going anyway.
He decided not to inform the captain of tomorrow's delay. He didn't want to risk her deciding to curtail any of the crew's recreation, or her own for that matter. She might be a little peeved with him in the morning but he could justify his actions. She had insisted on extended R and R.
He hoped Seven was over-reacting. The captain had told him that she and Seven had been butting heads, recently. It seemed that Seven had decided to test the first officer's patience as well.
