You know the drill, all good things belong to Paramount.

DAY 33

For Their Eyes Only

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The Doctor noticed the flagging of spirits in which the living trio of his new family prepared their dinner. Clearly, all of them had entertained high hopes of finding more manna in the surrounding area. Despite their careful tricorder scans and visual surveys, the only manna in evidence was the one they had eaten. And they had eaten ALL of it.

After scanning the manna's bones to make sure there was nothing harmful in them, they had cracked open the longbones and eaten the marrow. The Doctor was quite proud of them for this. The texture of marrow was not exactly appealing, although an acquired taste for spiders may have made the substance more palatable. The organs, too, had been fashioned into meals and consumed. The vitamin, caloric, and overall health levels of Janeway, Chakotay, and Noss had jumped during those three days, and then quickly lowered to the usual sub-par level of their spider diet.

"I'd kill for another manna right now," Chakotay sighed, leaning against the wall and eyeing his empty bowl. The Doctor had watched the commander dutifully consume three spiders. He was certain that a big man like Chakotay could have easily eaten twice the quantity of food, but when it came to their current diet, he didn't want to. He had lost a few kilos, and it showed. His jawline had become more pronounced, and his shoulders seemed overly broad in proportion to his slimming stomach. Even Janeway, whom the Doctor hadn't thought was capable of losing weight, was markedly thinner. When she bent over he could see the rib lines under her gray tank.

"I hope you mean you'd kill the manna and not us, commander," the Doctor chipped in jokingly.

The big man smiled and shrugged. "I don't know why you're worried, Doc, I don't think I'd be a threat to a hologram even if I did go on a homicidal rampage."

Janeway and Noss chuckled from the other side of the table, and the Doctor felt something knock at his knee. He glanced down.

"Sorry, Doctor," Janeway apologized, and he saw her rest her boot on the commander's knee.

"I believe we just established that I am incapable of being physically damaged," he joked, briefly wondering when Chakotay's knee had become an ottoman.

"Now you sound like Seven," Janeway said, leaning against the wall opposite them and running her hand through her hair, which the Doctor noted had grown four centimeters since they had arrived.

At the mention of Seven, a stab of pain hit the Doctor. "I did spend a great deal of time with her. I consider her one of my closest friends." He paused and looked about distractedly. "I…miss her."

Janeway's face clouded. "I'm sorry," she said huskily. The Doctor could almost see her turn inward.

Chakotay jumped in. "We all miss our friends," he said quietly. "And I'm sure they miss us."

Noss nodded. "And they…move…yelt? How do you say it?"

The Doctor smiled sadly at her. "Move on. Continue with their lives."

"Just as we have here," Chakotay said firmly. "I don't know about any of you, but this is one of the best groups of people I could think of to be marooned here with."

The Doctor had the feeling that Chakotay was running distraction to keep Janeway from feeling guilty unnecessarily. He picked up the cue and ran. "I agree. However," he grinned at Janeway, "I must say that Tom Paris' commentary would lend an interesting note to our proceedings."

Chakotay leaned forward and met the Doctor's eyes. "Can you imagine Tom having to live off of spiders for a month?"

"He would never complain about Neelix's cooking again."

Thankfully, Janeway laughed and leaned forward too, her eyes alight. "Forget Tom, can you imagine Tuvok? Every meal would be a lesson in the logic of survival."

All three of them laughed, and Noss smiled at their glee. "Your shipmates?"

"Yes," Janeway supplied. She looked over at Chakotay, the mischievous glint not quite gone from her eye. When she spoke, it was with her command voice. "Commander, I want you to assemble five possible away teams for our current mission. See if you can find a good balance of crewmen with humor, survival skills, and a stomach of iron."

Chakotay's chest hitched and he stifled a laugh. "Aye, Captain. Tuvok and Tom would be my first pick for survival and humor. For the stomach, I'd have to throw in crewman Chell."

Janeway doubled over in a totally uncharacteristic a fit of giggles.

"Or, we could have B'Elanna and Seven with Neelix."

Janeway hit at Chakotay with her empty cup. "I think you may have gone too far there. I'm afraid I'll just have to command this away team."

The Doctor turned to fill Noss in on who Chell and Neelix were, as she already knew about most of the others. Janeway and Chakotay continued to argue good-naturedly over whom would be best on this away mission for another five minutes before Chakotay said he wanted an early night.

"Goodnight, commander," the Doctor told him pleasantly as he rose from the table.

"I am tired too," Noss said. "Kathryn, would you please…"

Janeway held up a hand. "I've got the dishes, don't worry. You two get some sleep." The Doctor swore Janeway winked at Chakotay as he left the room.

He smiled briskly at the captain and began gathering up bowls. "Shall we?" he asked.

"Let's do," Janeway agreed with a deep nod, and rose from the table and scooped the cups into her arms.

The two of them busied themselves with the pot of hot water, rinsing and wiping down all of the plates and cooking utensils thoroughly in the absence of soap. Somewhere between hygiene and immunity building, the Doctor was pleased that none of them had gotten sick yet. As they finished, Janeway glanced at him.

"Would you like me to deactivate you for the night?"

The Doctor imitated taking an invigorating breath. "No thank you. I think I'll take a stroll around the ship and look at the moon. If that's all right with you, Captain."

She raised a hand in protest. "I'm not sure 'captain' is the right term anymore, Doctor. We've been here over a month now. Voyager is gone, I'm sure of it. Tuvok would have tried everything he could have, and then done exactly what I would have: set a course for the Alpha Quadrant. I'm afraid we have the rest of our lives to explore Arachnos very thoroughly."

The Doctor tried to be supportive. "Well, should any passing Starfleet ships sixty years from now drop by, I'm sure they will find a very thorough report on Arachnos."

They shared a sympathetic smile. Then the Doctor decided to ask. "I know why Commander Chakotay decided to call the planet Arachnos…but why did you let him?"

Janeway smiled and shook her head. "Why, Doctor? Well, why not? After all, I am Queen of the Spider People."

The Doctor chuckled and gave in. "And I'm the President of Earth."

"Well, Mr. President, I'll see you in the morning," Janeway told him, giving him a mock salute and heading down the galley and into the hallway.

"Certainly, Your Highness."

The saucy glare Janeway gave him as she turned the corner would have brought a lesser hologram to his knees.

The Doctor turned on his heel and went outside where he sat down against a boulder, looking up at the moon and listened to the wind rustling through the stubby grasses. It was soothing, if a hologram needed soothing, and he stretched his legs out and pondered what would become of him. Janeway, Chakotay, and Noss would be alive and kicking for quite a while unless there was a famine or illness struck. What would he do after that?

His silent musings were interrupted a few minutes later by quiet voices just inside the hatch.

"Kathryn?"

"I thought you went to bed," came the amused reply.

"You were talking to the Doctor."

The Doctor frowned at the non sequitur.

"Not for very long."

There was a beat. Finally, "thank you."

"Does it…will it work?" Hesitant.

The Doctor wished he could see what Janeway and Chakotay were talking about.

"Yes," Chakotay said softly.

"I wasn't sure…but I knew you would have wanted…"

Unable to control his curiosity, the Doctor shifted silently on the ground and peered through the shadows into the ship. Janeway and Chakotay were standing several paces apart, somewhat awkwardly, given their earlier behavior. Chakotay was holding what appeared to be a small length of cloth in his hand. As the Doctor looked closer though, he recognized it as the manna skin, the grey, soft pelt that Chakotay had cleaned and then surrendered to Noss and Janeway as a "supply."

"You're right. If I'd known this was the last away mission I would go on, I would have brought my medicine bundle. I've missed it."

"I know it's not the same, and I realize there's not much here -" Janeway gestured vaguely around, "but I had hoped it might help you sleep."

Chakotay looked down at his hands and ran his fingers through the soft pelt. "You noticed?" he asked quietly.

Janeway stepped a bit closer. "You toss and turn more than some dogs I've had," she finished a bit wryly.

He chuckled. "Thanks. I'll find something to put in it, I'm sure."

"Would it be prying to ask what besides rocks and spiders you could find?"

Chakotay stepped in too. "If you're worried about me bringing home a pet spider, don't. It's all I can do to keep from vaporizing them with a phaser."

Janeway laughed lightly and closed the last of the awkward distance between them so they were standing closely, just as they usually did.

"And as for rocks," Chakotay continued. "I do have a couple set aside. One of them is a nice flake from the purple stone I used to make your spear."

Janeway's head bowed and the Doctor saw the soft light glint red off her hair.

Chakotay raised her chin with a finger and looked intently at her. "I think you should get some sleep now, Kathryn."

She nodded mutely, and their hands found each other's, and they walked back into the galley and out of sight. The Doctor resettled himself against the boulder and turned back to the sky. He couldn't quite put his finger on what he had just seen, but he was certain that it had not been meant for his eyes. He would keep this to himself.

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