AN: Very big thank you to northernexposure for the superspeedy beta read at an incredibly busy time for her, and to Photogirl1890 for her incredible eagle eyes. And thanks to everyone who has left a review.
Chapter 4
For the last twenty-four hours, the Captain has done her job with empty efficiency. She's spent time working in engineering and hours on the bridge overseeing the work of others. She's eaten the small meals Neelix has begun delivering to her at regular intervals no matter where she is.
Once she finally made it to Chakotay's bedside, it took everything she had to leave again, and since then, she's been back more than she should. In fact, it seems to have become very hard to stay away. Slumped uncomfortably in the chair next to his bed is the only place she's actually slept. The few fitful hours she spent in her quarters the previous night brought neither sleep nor rest. And today again, her feet keep taking her back to his side, as if she believes her presence alone will be enough to stop him slipping away.
Somewhere deep in her heart, she knows that this is just a different form of denial.
Repairs are progressing well – they're almost complete now – and so, after a cursory review of the morning's reports, she heads for the science lab to see if there's been any progress. Everywhere she goes, silent watchful eyes are on her. The mood on board Voyager is sombre. Everyone is well aware that time is running out fast for Chakotay.
XxX
As she enters the lab, the Doctor looks up from his work and greets her. Seven is in engineering right now, filling in for B'Elanna, and the young engineer is here, perched awkwardly on a stool that looks too small for her, hunched over a screen beside the EMH.
The Captain comes to stand behind them and the Doctor tilts the monitor so she can see the most recent data. When she's up to speed with as much of it as she can understand, she asks him for an update, to fill in the blanks.
"All my simulations have ended the same way, Captain," he eventually concludes. "I'm still unable to stop the nanoprobes from over compensating. I've even programmed them with Chakotay's most recent healthy transporter pattern, but it just isn't proving enough."
B'Elanna brings up another screen of fragmented information and gestures towards it with obvious frustration. "The nanoprobes are doomed to fail because this is all the data we have on the radiation level in engineering. If we had precise data it could make all the difference."
"B'Elanna's right. Ideally I'd like a test subject who had been exposed to the exact same conditions."
Kathryn frowns, about to responds when the door swishes open and Seven strides purposefully in holding something out in front of her at arms length. The object is wrapped in a small grey blanket, forming a bundle about the size of a football.
Seven nods curtly to the Captain and to B'Elanna, turning immediately to address the Doctor.
"I believe this may be of use, Doctor."
"What is it?" he asks, frowning sceptically.
Seven deposits whatever it is on the top of the workstation, tipping a small fluorescent blue ball of fur out of the blanket. Kathryn jumps. The fur ball startles her further by shuffling to the edge of the surface and making a loud squeaking noise.
Voyager's captain is stunned. She can't believe what she's seeing. Perhaps the stress of the last few days has finally gotten to her? Perhaps she's starting to hallucinate?
"FruFru!" B'Elanna suddenly shouts, unnerving the Captain even more.
"I hardly think cursing in Klingon is helpful right now, Lieutenant," the Doctor reproaches with a scowl.
B'Elanna snorts, irate, "I'm not cursing! I'm telling you what it is. It's FruFru." The engineer hauls herself off of her stool and takes several steps back to stand behind Kathryn. "That's her name."
The ball of fur in front of them begins to make a series of high-pitched squeaking noises.
"Its designation is irrelevant," Seven replies coolly. "But it may be of use in our search for information, Doctor. I discovered it behind a loose panel less than two metres from the warp core. As you can see it is alive. It appears to have survived the breach."
"It looks like a fluorescent tribble!" Kathryn exclaims. "What on earth is it doing on Voyager, B'Elanna?"
"Fascinating!" the Doctor cuts in, clearly excited now. "You were right to bring it to me, Seven." He tentatively prods the small furry ball in front of him, and it squeaks louder, edging slowly away from his fingers. "If I'm not mistaken, examining it may well prove useful in our work in more ways than one – if it is what I think it is." He gently nudges the small beast back to the centre of the console.
Seven raises a perfect brow in question. Kathryn struggles to keep up, and B'Elanna starts to cough.
"What do you mean, Doctor?" Kathryn asks.
"It looks like a rare subspecies of tribble called a Turray tribble, Captain, named after Professor Lucius Turray. Not long before we left the Alpha Quadrant, he discovered that these remarkable creatures produce a regenerative hormone that has proved effective in treating degenerative neurological diseases in humans. I might be able to adapt the technique to treat Chakotay."
"That's… that-" Kathryn breaks off, as her mind stalls. She tries again. "You're telling me you may be able to use a hormone produced by…this, to treat Chakotay?"
"Well, I don't want to jump the gun here, Captain. But if I'm right, and this creature proves to be a Turray tribble, then there's cause for real hope. The regenerative hormone is extremely powerful."
"I really hope you're right, Doctor," B'Elanna replies, looking at the creature with a frown. "Ugh, I can smell her from here!" She violently wafts her hand in front of her face, and starts backing away towards the doors. "Go ahead and examine her. I need to get out of here."
"Not so fast, Lieutenant," Kathryn interjects sharply, turning immediately and wagging a warning finger. "You're not going anywhere until you explain what a rare fluorescent tribble was doing behind a wall panel in your engine room."
"She's not mine, Captain! I can't bear the things."
"So where did she come from then?"
"She belongs to Rafael Yosa. Well, actually she belonged to his sister," B'Elanna adds. "But that's another story."
Kathryn puts her hands on her hips. "What the hell is she doing here, on my ship?"
"I told them this'd happen one day," the engineer mutters under her breath.
Kathryn fixes the young half-Klingon with an authoritative stare. "An explanation, now, B'Elanna."
"Of course, Captain." B'Elanna finally has the good grace to look a little sheepish. "Could we maybe walk and talk, though? She's making me start to itch, and all that squeaking drives me crazy."
"The Doctor and I will examine the creature," Seven states.
"Don't go dissecting her, Seven," B'Elanna cautions.
"Of course we won't harm the animal, Lieutenant," the EMH bristles. "Frankly, I find that suggestion insulting."
"Right," B'Elanna backtracks. "Although, if it were up to me, I'd say go ahead and dissect her if you need to. But Yosa'd kill me if I let anyone harm her. We thought she was dead. He'll be really relieved she's still alive – not to mention pretty shocked and delighted if she can help treat Chakotay in some way."
Kathryn has just been standing in mute astonishment, listening to this exchange as her mind races forward and hope for Chakotay reawakens. She snaps out of it, however, and herds B'Elanna out. They start down the corridor towards the 'lift.
"I want answers, B'Elanna. Now," Kathryn demands. "What was that thing doing on the ship in the first place? And where the hell did Crewman Yosa find a phosphorescent blue tribble in the Delta Quadrant?"
"He didn't."
"He didn't?"
"I told you. FruFru belonged to his sister. He brought her with him when we beamed over from the Val Jean."
Kathryn's brain stalls again. "You're telling me that thing has been a stowaway on my ship for seven years? Living behind a panel in engineering?"
"No. Well, sort of."
Her voice dropping in volume and pitch, the Captain enunciates very clearly. "I want to know exactly what and who was involved in this. Then I'll be having a little chat with Crewman Yosa."
Once they've stepped inside the lift and she's asked for deck five, Kathryn turns expectantly to B'Elanna, who cautiously meets her gaze.
"It's a long story, Captain."
"Oh, believe me," Kathryn replies, quirking a brow. "I'll make the time." She instructs the computer to hold the 'lift.
"The tribble belonged to Yosa's youngest sister," B'Elanna begins. "Just before his sister died, she made him promise he'd take care of it. You know about what happened to his family, don't you?"
"Chakotay told me something of his history."
"Well, he persuaded Chakotay to allow him to keep FruFru on the Val Jean – she's been neutered. Obviously."
This news sets Kathryn's jangling nerves off again and her scientific brain starts whirring. Would neutering the creature affect its ability to produce the rare hormone? Putting these concerns aside for now she presses on, holding B'Elanna's gaze. "So, Chakotay knew full well that Mr Yosa had brought this 'pet' aboard Voyager?" Then she exhales and looks to the floor, her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. "In fact, let me guess; all of the former Maquis are in on this little secret?"
"Well, um..."
"They would have to be, wouldn't they? Since someone has clearly taken the trouble to expertly mask its life-signs for seven years. And if it's been living in engineering, then someone must have been feeding it and- " Kathryn breaks off, exasperated by all the ramifications of this revelation. "But Tuvok? How on earth have you managed to keep Tuvok from discovering it in all this time?"
"Well, there have been a few close calls," B'Elanna admits. "But she's very quiet – except if she's scared like just now. And Yosa says she doesn't eat much. A few of his friends look out for her when he's off duty. And Captain, I promise she hasn't been in engineering the whole time," B'Elanna insists earnestly – as if this somehow makes a difference…
"Yosa says she likes the vibrations of the warp core, and that panel was her favourite spot. As long as it's closed I couldn't smell her, so I turned a blind eye. I'm sorry, Captain. I take full responsibility for allowing him to bring her into my engine room."
"It's not for you to apologise, B'Elanna." Kathryn sighs. "Chakotay is your superior officer, and it's clear he condoned Mr Yosa bringing his 'pet' on board in the first place. You were simply following his lead. It was up to him to deal with this more… appropriately."
"Well, I'm still sorry. Some of us already knew the regs about pets on board Starfleet ships, and we didn't want Rafael to have to get rid of her, so we all just kind of decided to keep quiet."
Kathryn takes a long appraising look at her chief engineer for a moment, wondering just what other secrets factions of her crew have been keeping from her for the last seven years.
B'Elanna shifts uneasily under her gaze.
"What I still don't understand is that you don't seem all that surprised that the creature is still alive, after being exposed to all that radiation."
"I am, a little, I suppose," B'Elanna says, raising an eyebrow. Then she frowns. "But FruFru's tough. We always joked that she seemed pretty much indestructible. She used to sleep inside the casing of the warp core itself on Chakotay's ship, so I guess it's possible she's developed a tolerance for radiation. And, if she produces this hormone the Doctor mentioned, then that makes even more sense."
"I see," Kathryn replies. "I've never seen a tribble that colour," she muses. "She's positively luminous!"
"Yeah. Me neither. But I can't say I know much about them. FruFru is the only one I've ever seen up close. I'd managed to avoid them pretty successfully until I joined Chakotay's cell."
"Well, I'm going to sickbay, and then I will have to pay a visit to Mr Yosa. Computer resume. I'll leave it to you to give him the good news. And the bad news."
"Yes, Captain."
XxX
Making her way through the corridors of deck five, for the first time since she watched Chakotay slump into oblivion against the console in engineering, Kathryn feels a flicker of hope. Perhaps the Doctor will indeed find a way to use this regenerative hormone. If it's been successful in the treatment of degenerative neurological diseases in humans, then it's not impossible it could prove effective with Chakotay's tissue damage. At the very least, it might inspire the Doctor to devise a new approach.
Once she arrives, the sight of Chakotay lying there silent and still quickly puts an end to the light relief of the tribble-inspired optimism.
She stands at his bedside for a while, holding his hand between hers once again and praying that he will somehow miraculously regain consciousness, so that she can speak to him again. His last words to her replay in her mind.
He said he didn't want to force her to give an order she found painful – which, now that she thinks about it, could be interpreted as him saying he was changing his mind about refusing to undergo experimental treatment. There's a chance, she tells herself, that this is what Chakotay was about to say…
As she considers this, wondering whether it's just wishful thinking, suspecting it is – just sophistry really – her fingers stray to his hair and she gently touches it. It occurs to her as she does so, that in seven years of daily life together side by side, she's not actually sure she's ever touched his hair.
But then she's proved wrong by a memory that suddenly surfaces. She can see his broad frame as he crouches in front of her. He reaches forward to part the thick undergrowth and point out where the sweet purple berries he'd found were growing, close to the ground not far from their shelter all those years ago. As she'd listened to him talk, a flying insect had landed on his head and she'd brushed it away, her fingers surfing through the ends of his thick brush cut. He'd turned and looked up at her in surprise. "Flying bug," she'd said in explanation, and he'd smiled and thanked her.
Suddenly, Kathryn returns to the present with a jolt, because when her fingers emerge from sliding through the thick hair on the side of his head, some of it sticks to them, and a few strands fall onto the pillow.
Kathryn gasps.
Tom Paris appears by her side.
"Here, let me," he says, carefully brushing away the fallen hair. "That's better."
"His hair…" she says.
"It's amazing it hasn't started to fall out before, Captain," Tom remarks quietly.
Kathryn brushes the last few strands from her fingers and closes her eyes for an instant. Paris remains at her side.
Then the silence is broken by the Doctor's voice.
"Doctor to the Captain."
"Yes, Doctor?"
"I'm pleased to be able to confirm that my suspicion was correct, Captain. Our Maquis stowaway is indeed a Turray tribble - one could almost call them super-tribbles. I've already reviewed the most recent of Professor Turray's research that we have access to. He documents how they have a more complex physiology and a longer lifespan than their common relatives."
"Tribble?" Tom Paris stutters.
"That's fascinating, Doctor, but what about the hormone you mentioned?" Kathryn asks.
"Indeed, that's what's of particular interest to us, Captain. I'm optimistic I can adapt some of Turray's treatments using this hormone to combat Chakotay's radiation sickness. The hormone extraction's a painless procedure, which won't harm our super-tribble."
"That's wonderful news, Doctor. And was it this regenerative hormone that allowed the creature to survive exposure to radiation?"
"It was, Captain, yes. FruFru has been exposed to the same high intensity radiation as the Commander, and yet already her cells have almost totally repaired themselves!"
As the physician closes the channel, Kathryn turns to Tom Paris. His eyebrows are chasing his hairline and his mouth is open.
"FruFru?" he tests in disbelief.
She turns back to her prostrate first officer and lays her hand on Chakotay's shoulder a moment and smiles.
"Excuse me, Commander. I think I need to fill Lieutenant Paris in on a few things."
[TBC]