Altruistic Motives
Written by Janet, Christina, and Rocky
Story by Janet, Christina, Penny, and the Season 7.5 staff
Summary: Kes undertakes a mission to find a new home for the Ocampa where they can thrive beneath the sun. On her journey she enlists the help of some old friends, including Dr. Denara Pel of Vidiia, where the cure for the Phage has created as many problems as it has solved.
Spoilers: Many episodes, but especially "Cold Fire" and "Fury"
Dedicated to all the space explorers, those who have returned safely home as well as those who sacrificed their lives helping mankind reach for the stars.
Author's Note (jamelia): This story was planned in the summer of 2002 and has its genesis even further back, during Voyager's season 6. When we developed VV7.5 we discussed whether or not "Fury" would be considered part of our canon or not. We finally decided the split would occur after "Shattered," which meant that "Fury" was (regrettably) part of our series history and cried out for the VV7.5 "we feel the need for a fix" treatment (all events of "Fury" are assumed to have occurred).
Prologue:
Stardate 56271.2-April 8, 2380
Ocampan homeworld
"Please, Kes. Let me come with you."
Kes stopped midway up the stairs to the next landing, taking advantage of the chance to take a "breather" from their laborious climb up the stairs to the surface. "I appreciate your offer, Josan, but I'll be fine, really."
"It might be a good idea for someone to accompany you, Kes. If you become ill or..." Council member Vertris hesitated, clearly reluctant to give Kes reasons. Vertris didn't need to; Kes knew what she was trying hard not to say.
"You're afraid my Morelogium will occur en route?"
"Well, it's always a possibility," Vertris replied.
"You don't need to worry about that," Kes said, shrugging her shoulders carelessly. Vertris was trying to assure the success of the mission. It was her job to raise concerns, even if the Ocampan Ruling Council had previously aired them. Kes had answered them well enough to gain the council's somewhat reluctant consent to travel alone. Kes didn't see why she should go over it all again now.
Kes would not change her mind now, Vertris knew that. Kes suspected she was "covering her back," as Harry Kim sometimes said (Tom Paris had used a more colorful variant), preparing for questions from the council should the mission go awry. ("I tried to stop her from going alone, but Kes wouldn't listen. Lyrial and Josan, you heard her...")
A quick glance in her friends' direction changed Kes' mind about addressing the issue again. Lyrial and Josan had also been vocal about the dangers of traveling by herself. Kes reminded them that she had journeyed alone in a shuttle all the way back to Ocampa had not assuaged their fears for the safety of the woman they called "Auntie" in private. Kes never had anticipated finding strangers on Ocampa who would become family to her, but she should not have been surprised. It was, after all, what happened when people married and gained new "in-law" family members. And it wasn't the first time Kes had seen it happen on a much larger scale.
Lyrial and Josan's generosity of spirit reminded Kes of how the people of Voyager had enclosed Kes and Neelix within the family ties Captain Janeway and her crew formed after the Caretaker had pulled them immeasurably far from the ones waiting in the Alpha Quadrant. The crew comforted and supported each other as they adjusted to new lives in the Delta Quadrant, teaching Kes that the warmth of family did not need to be of blood to become a vital part of a person's existence. After she exiled herself from Voyager, she apparently forgot that lesson.
In the same way, Lyrial and Josan had become much more than friends to Kes in the months since she returned to Ocampa. The young couple shared their small cubbyhole of an apartment with her, providing Kes with a family circle, something which Kes had already lost by the time she chose all those years ago to climb to the surface of Ocampa to "see the sun" for herself. By letting Lyrial and Josan "adopt" her, Kes had turned them into her relatives, too. As such, they deserved far more than a cursory, "Don't worry about me," before she left them, possibly for the last time. She was confident she would be successful, but who knew what might happen to prevent her from meeting Lyrial and Josan again? Bitter experience had taught Kes just how uncertain life could be.
Turning to the couple, Kes caught a hand from each of them and gave them a gentle but emphatic squeeze. "Please, trust in your 'Auntie Kes.' Everything will turn out all right. I know you want to protect me, but you don't need to worry. I've taken on this task of my own free will, and it *will* be completed successfully. The Morelogium will not be a factor, I'm sure. Truthfully, I'm concerned Josan would miss your Elogium if he travels with me. It will be here very soon now!"
"How can you be so sure, Kes?" Lyrial asked plaintively.
"About my Morelogium, or your Elogium?" Kes responded with a wink. Since Lyrial did not respond to Kes' gentle teasing with a smile, as Kes had hoped, she continued in a more serious vein. " I don't want you to miss out on the chance to become a mother, as I did, Lyrial, because I had no mate near me when the time of my Elogium finally came."
Lyrial's face flamed with embarrassment, but she whispered. "We both could come."
Kes replied gently, "We've already discussed that. There isn't room in this shuttle for three people to occupy it for an extended amount of time. It's even smaller than our apartment!"
Lyrial did smile at that, but Vertris had grown impatient with this diversion from her own agenda. "The status of Lyrial and Josan's family life is not the issue here. Kes, we all know your Morelogium cannot be far in the future now. If you should die on the journey, all alone, the Council..."
"The Council did not seem all that worried about losing me to the Morelogium when they tabled my proposal for over a week, Vertris," Kes stated severely, but she quickly regretted her rigid stance when Vertris flinched visibly.
Even before Kes' return Vertris begged the council to hollow out more habitable areas beneath the surface of the planet. The others had been too short-sighted to listen to her. She was the one to present Kes' plan to search for a new home for the Ocampa to the Council, arguing that food would eventually run out, as comfortable dwellings had, if something was not done to increase, or at the very least, replenish, the dwindling supplies of energy in storage. Vertris, of all the council members, did not deserve Kes' scorn.
Kes patted the council representative on the forearm and continued, in a more placating manner, "I know that delay wasn't your fault, Vertris. You tried to make them see the merits of my suggestion right away. But I'll be fine. I'm sure of it."
Kes briefly considered whether she should confess why she was so sure the Morelogium would not be a factor. Kes actually went through it years ago, when she left Voyager for the first time. It was then the great secret had been revealed to her. The Morelogium was not really a death. A way back existed for one who knew the techniques for shifting in and out of a corporeal form of life and felt she still had "unfinished business" on this plane of existence.
Almost as soon as she thought about mentioning it, Kes dismissed the idea. Vertris and her young friends Lyrial and Josan were not yet ready for that knowledge. Turning away from her friends, Kes leaned against the handrail, surreptitiously probing the strength of the supports and wall fastenings of the stairway. This set of steps had been the least damaged from the Caretaker's final barrage, sealing the entrances to the Ocampa's subterranean hideaway ten years ago. It had been repaired and maintained by her people ever since as the only safe route to the surface. Kes wanted to make sure the way was still sound. It would be terrible if it failed when her friends were on their way back down to the caverns. They would surely perish after such a fall.
Once reassured the stairway and railing were sound, Kes resumed her upward climb, only to be interrupted by Josan. "What if you become ill or incapacitated?".
Kes glanced back over her shoulder at him but didn't stop climbing. "I thought we'd already settled this, Josan. If I were incapacitated, would you be able to pilot the shuttle back here? It took me three years to learn how to fly one properly, and I took lessons from one of the very best pilots in Starfleet. I'm afraid I couldn't do half as good a job teaching you as Tom did, even if I had twice the time. And if I did pass away, stranding you somewhere out in space wouldn't help our people. I'm sure I'll be fine, but even if I'm not and I can't return, our people won't be any worse off than before I came home last year."
"We would be far better off, thanks to the technologies you brought back with you. Finding out how to use paragithium to stretch our power resources has been a blessing," Vertris agreed. "Still, you can't blame us for feeling a bit nervous, Kes. we would be heart-broken never to see you again. And you've raised hopes that the Ocampa will see the sun and stars again!"
"It will happen! I'm sure of it! I just have to do it my own way." Kes smiled.
Vertris nodded her head. "That was always your way, if the stories about 'Kes the Adventuress' are even half true."
Kes' throaty laugh echoed in the stairwell. Tales of Kes' leaving Ocampa with her friends from the other side of the galaxy had become legendary in the years before her miraculous, unexpected return. She couldn't very well deny that!
Reaching the next landing she waited for her friends, who gathered around her. "I'm confident of success. I wish I could tell you why, but I am. Just have faith!"
Vertris, Josan, and Lyrial could not totally erase the signs of worry from their faces, but they had no alternative. Each gave her a hug in turn, letting her know they had accepted Kes' decision.
The rest of the ascent passed quickly, ending where the shuttle from Voyager was hidden, wedged within pores of the rock. Only because of Kes' ability to transform herself and the shuttle between corporeal and non-corporeal form could it be freed from its hiding place to fly again between the stars.
After all they'd discussed on the climb up, their farewells were brief, which Kes preferred. Quickly, before the good-byes could turn maudlin, Kes expanded into a fog that seeped between the molecules of the shuttle's rocky hanger. Slipping inside the shuttle, she rearranged her subatomic particles back into her usual solid form and prepared the small craft for take off.
At last the shuttle "Benaren" lifted off, disguised as a dust devil to fool any scavengers who might mark its rise, and disappeared into the night sky. After achieving orbit above the world within which she had born, Kes caught a quick glimpse of Ocampa's sun. As she aimed her craft towards the outer reaches of the system, she whispered a fervent prayer to all her forebears to help her make her promise a reality. Kes would find another home for the Ocampa, one where they could live the lives they deserved, or die in the attempt. She could not bear the alternative: the Ocampa people, huddling inside overcrowded warrens-turned-mausoleums, slowly dying off as their resources were exhausted. Kes refused to accept that fate for her people.
ACT 1:
Stardate 56271.8-April 8, 2380
outside the Ocampa system
Although Kes had successfully convinced Vertris, Josan, and Lyrial she'd be better off if she didn't have to worry about anyone else riding with her in her shuttle, she didn't expect to be alone in space for long either. Her expectation was quickly fulfilled. Within two hours of leaving orbit around the planet of her birth and bidding the dusty brown world farewell, her comm crackled with the command to "Cease forward motion and prepare to be boarded!"
The ship which hove suddenly into view bristled with projections on its hull, clearly a formidable weapons array. The ugly ship was so large, Kes was sure few flying vessels the size of hers would have the temerity to disobey.
Of course, none of those vessels were piloted by Kes of the Ocampa, once a member of the Federation starship Voyager. She'd learned a thing or two from her time with Captain Kathryn Janeway. One of these was "talk when you can to buy time." Another was, "Don't back down in front of bullies; they'll never leave you alone if you do."
Kes opened the channel. "My name is Kes, a representative of the Ocampan people. I have no intention of doing anything to harm you or..."
Kes knew they were going to attack several seconds before a blaze of light reached out of their ship. The light arrived; the blast of their weapons did not. Using all her considerable mental strength, Kes bent the energy from the blast back against the shields of the attacking ship, shoving it in the opposite direction and out of sight. Kes gathered herself together and mentally 'pushed' her little shuttle not quite three light years in the direction she had sent her attacker.
A few seconds later she saw the craft hanging motionless in space before her, silhouetted against a brightly glowing yellow star. Several of the ugly projections from the port side had been sheared away. The ship must have had a too-close encounter with some sort of planetary body during its unexpected trip in reverse and looked a good deal less threatening now.
Kes opened a channel to the ship again, this time forcing the controls of the opposing ship to send back a visual of its bridge.
She couldn't keep a vaguely predatory smile from her lips. As efficient as a ship's inertial dampers were in protecting its crew from being harmed whenever the unimaginable speeds it traveled increased or decreased abruptly, there was always that initial microsecond before they flared into action. Kes had learned on Voyager that was just enough time for the residual inertia to bounce her away from her duty station, off her feet, or, if she were fortunate enough to be sitting at the time, to grab onto her seat and hang on for dear life.
The dampers on this ship worked the same way Voyager's had. Through the view screen, Kes watched as several heads popped into view at irregular intervals, hands rubbing against them as though to check if those all-important humanoid appendages were still fastened firmly onto their necks.
Kes engaged her comm once again. "Unidentified vessel, if your species is subject to danger from head injuries, I suggest you seek medical attention if you feel at all dizzy or lost consciousness..."
"How dare you attack us!" called out a voice from the face which swam into the central viewing area of the screen.
"Not an 'attack,' a defensive action," Kes corrected sternly. "I did nothing more than deflect the energy beam you directed at *my* shuttle back at you. Why did you shoot at me? My little ship clearly would be no threat to yours!"
"The damage to our ship says otherwise!" the alien growled.
"You have only yourselves to blame if your aggressive actions cause damage to your own ship. You don't have to bother getting your weapons systems back on line immediately. I'd concentrate on fixing your drive and your protective shielding if I were you. I have no plans to retaliate unless you fire on me again, and I wouldn't recommend it. If there is another attack, I'll gladly shove your ship back through that star, and in their present state, I don't believe your shields could prevent your hull from burning away before you came through the other side."
Orange eyes gleamed fiercely in the light green face staring back at her. He grunted as he glanced down at his instruments. She knew the tale they told. This crew had several hours of repair work to complete, at the very least, before they could endanger her again-if they were so foolish as to try again after the demonstration she'd just given them.
As he made no further effort to speak with her but did not attempt to cut off communications, Kes made a few quick adjustments to her sensors and confirmed that the colors of his face were being accurately conveyed to her. "You are of the race known as the Krowtonan Guard?" she asked.
"We are! And you are trespassing within the borders of our space," he declaimed in an imperious tone.
That fit in with the little she'd heard of the Guard. She'd never seen them face to face before but had heard they had green skin. Neelix had described them as nasty types who usually shot first and asked questions later. She should probably be grateful they chose to demand her compliance before attacking; it had given her enough time to sense their intentions. At the moment, however, Kes wasn't in a particularly forgiving mood. She was about to say so when she noted several beings in the background who were of a race Kes had encountered in the past.
"You have Haakonians traveling with you?" Kes inquired.
The alien froze so briefly it might be barely detectable to most. Kes caught it and knew that whatever he said next, he would be dissembling.
"You must be mistaken. Only the Krowtonan Guard travel on this ship."
"I can see two Haakonians clearly, standing next to one another and behind your left shoulder," Kes persisted.
The scope of the visual transmission shrank until only the face of the Guard to whom she was speaking was completely visible. Even so, one Haakonian had to step away to the right to prevent his forehead from remaining in view.
Kes laughed. "Keep your secrets, then. I'll find out what I need to know about the Haakonians and the Krowtonan Guard elsewhere, if that's the way you want it, although I doubt others will describe you to me the way you would."
The Guard officer grunted but declined to say anything to Kes.
"Then may I ask you a few questions about other races in this sector? What is happening among the Kazon sects, the Talaxians, the Trabe, and the Vidiians?"
Apparently gossiping about other races was not quite as threatening to the Krowtonan Guard as direct questions about themselves. After turning away and mumbling to someone now out of sight, he began to lecture stiffly, as if to a lesser officer he didn't much care for.
"Several Kazon sects are active in this area. They are as vicious and as disorganized as ever, but you would be well advised to avoid them just the same. Vidiian vessels have been seen, but rarely. There have not been any confirmed attacks by Vidiians on other vessels for the past four years. The Trabe have not been seen for the past two years, although rumors abound they are in hiding, waiting for chances to strike the unwary. The Haakonian Protectorate continues to provide for the defense of Talax. Several vessels have disappeared near Talax under mysterious circumstances in the last few years, however. You would be wise not to travel in that direction. Two derelict Borg vessels were found recently, apparently abandoned and filled only with corpses of drones. No living Borg has been active in this vicinity in over a year. I have answered your questions. Is there anything more you require?"
His frosty tone made it perfectly clear he'd already supplied more than he wanted to share with Kes. While she would have liked to learn much more, she decided not to waste any more time asking him about a planet for the Ocampa. Besides, it was obvious the Krowtonan Guard and/or the Haakonians would "protect" any planet settled in this vicinity. The Ocampa had already been "protected" in that sense of the word almost to extinction. As graciously as she could, Kes answered, "No. You've been very helpful."
As she leaned over break contact, the Krowtonan Guardsman surprised her. "Kes of the Ocampan people, I warn you: be vigilant when strange vessels are sighted, as we are! They are more likely to be enemies than friends."
So that was how they justified their behavior, Kes mused, although, considering those in the immediate neighborhood, the advice might be warranted. Rather than trying to push him into any further disclosures, Kes said, "Thanks again for your advice. Now, do you need any help to repair your ship, Captain...?"
"NO!" the Krowtonan Guard yelled, declining to give his name.
"I'll be leaving then, Captain. Thanks again for the information." Kes smiled at him sweetly, then cut the transmission abruptly. Closing her eyes, Kes concentrated upon herself and her shuttle, her awareness slipping down to the subatomic level where it must be for her to "play," as she thought of it, when she shifted from one state to another.
Kes' smile disappeared like the Cheshire Cat's in a book she'd read once on Voyager as her shuttle melted around her and she turned into a being of energy and light. She could imagine the Krowtonan Guard and their shadowy Haakonian compatriots/allies falling all over themselves in consternation at her sudden disappearance, trying to figure out what sort of drive she was using to create that particular visual effect.
"Let them puzzle over that a good long time," she thought smugly as she headed out into the dangerous region of space in which she found herself, one which Kes and the Ocampa could leave soon for a safer area-she hoped.
