Chakotay wakes with a start, to a medical ward in functional chaos. He's disoriented, but recovers quickly, and is soon able to take in what's happening around him. In the neighbouring bed, Kathryn is convulsing. Alarms are going off, and the Doctor and Tom are taking turns barking at each other.
"Cut the damn restraints!" Tom shouts. "She's going to break her wrists!"
"Which is better than a fractured skull!" The Doctor snaps back.
Tuvok is holding her down, both hands on her shoulders, in an attempt to protect her from the clusters of electrical activity that keep her body seizing. The Vulcan looks exhausted, but his grip on the captain never waivers.
"15ccs of anetrizine!"
The hypospray has little effect.
Chakotay makes it off the biobed.
"Commander, please—" the Doctor tries to object as Chakotay pushes Tom away. He grasps Kathryn's head, trying to hold her still. He doesn't notice Tom at his back, desperately trying to drag him away.
"She'll break her neck if you hold her like that!" Tom yells, but Chakotay doesn't hear him. He holds Kathryn as her body bucks underneath him, his mouth hovering close to her ear.
"We have a deal!" he whispers forcefully. "I know you can hear me, and I know what you want. We have a deal!"
The effect is immediate. Kathryn's body stills, and so do the alarms. The sudden silence is almost uncomfortable after such a litany of sound.
The Doctor is the first to move. Tuvok and Chakotay both release their hold on the captain as the EMH starts scanning her. Before he can get any viable readings, Kathryn's hand strikes out, closing around Chakotay's arm in a vice like grip. Her head twists unnaturally to look at him, blood trickling from her left nostril towards her mouth where it stains her lips.
"Captain?" the Doctor asks, with alarm.
"No," Chakotay shakes his head slowly. He recognises the metallic gleam in the eyes that look at him. "It's not the captain."
The Queen licks away the blood and speaks with Kathryn's voice. "The virus is mutating. The more it adapts to her physiology, the more access I'm granted."
"If you harm her any more than you already have..." Chakotay doesn't need to finish. His intention is clear, and the threat is not idle.
"Yes," the Queen smiles. "I do believe you would try to hunt me down if your precious Kathryn were to parish."
"He won't be hunting alone," says Tom, stepping into the Queen's vision.
The Queen scans him. "The helmsman. What a devoted flock she leads."
"Was there anything else?" Chakotay growls, the hard edge to his voice drawing the Queen's attention back to himself.
"She's dying, Chakotay." the Queen tells him, eyes glinting as she speaks. "Time is of the essence."
Chakotay gives her a clipped nod. He doesn't have to be told that Kathryn's life is dwindling away, least of all by her. "I need your word that you will leave her be, and that you'll release the antiserum when the time comes." He ignores the looks he's receiving from the other men in the room. He'll explain soon enough.
"I can't keep the virus from mutating, not indefinitely. But, per your request, I will do nothing to accelerate the process," the Queen concedes. "When what's mine is delivered, you'll have what's yours."
"Then leave so we can get this over with."
The Queen closes her eyes. "A brief parting gift," she says, and when she opens her eyes again, metallic orbs have turned blue.
"Chakotay?"
The grip on his arm loosens, and he immediately grabs Kathryn's hand, moving closer. "What has she made you do?" she croaks.
He shakes his head. "Nothing," he promises. "She hasn't made me do anything. Are you okay?"
"Promise me," Kathryn says, ignoring his question.
"I promise," he squeezes her hand.
"We... don't..."
He can see she's slipping away. Falling, yet again, under whatever spell the Queen has put on her.
"...negotiate..."
She doesn't finish her order. She slips back into her comatose state, and to Chakotay, it's a blessing in disguise.
Because while she sleeps, he's the captain.
And he has work to do.
"She wants the sphere?" Neelix asks. "But there are 7000 people on that ship?"
"7000 drones," Tom corrects him.
"7000 drones waiting to come into their own," Neelix counteracts. "To regain their individuality."
"They won't know what they're missing," Tom argues. "They're dormant. They have no idea what's happening. "
"Mr. Korok isn't dormant."
"I can't believe we're even discussing this," the Doctor interjects. "We're talking about genocide."
"Technically, no, we're not," Chakotay states calmly.
"As you well know, Commander," Tuvok says, "this course of action would violate the Prime Directive in the most basic of ways. It goes against everything Starfleet stands for. Captain Janeway will not thank you for it."
"At least she'll be alive to dress him down," Tom argues heatedly.
"You'll be court-martialled," B'Elanna says, her dark, expressive eyes on Chakotay. "If you do this, if you allow the Queen to retrieve the sphere, the captain will have no choice but to strip you of rank, and throw you in the brig."
"But she'll be alive to do it," Tom repeats, irritated. "Why is everyone ignoring that?"
"On the contrary, Mr Paris," Tuvok clarifies, "We are all aware that what the commander is proposing may cause the Queen to release the captain. The question is, what life will she have knowing what was sacrificed in order for her to continue leading hers?"
"And there's nothing to say that the Queen will actually administer the antiserum," Harry adds. "We can't trust her."
Tom glares at his friend before addressing Seven. "What do you think?"
"I believe the Queen will keep her word," Seven offers. "Whatever you may think of the Borg, they do not kill for sport. If Captain Janeway can't be assimilated, the Queen has no use for her. The captain's biological and technological distinctiveness cannot be added to her own without a body."
The Doctor looks shocked. "I can't believe you, of all people, are advocating this, Seven."
"I am not advocating anything," the former drone says, calmly. "But I would be lying if I said that the lives on the sphere meant more to me than that of Captain Janeway. To choose between the two is... unpleasant."
The Doctor's look of disdain softens.
"Surely, there must be another way to get the captain back," Harry says.
"If you have any ideas, I'm all ears," Chakotay answers. The prospect of sacrificing the sphere sickens him, and he knows Kathryn wouldn't even consider it. He's run a thousand different scenarios in his head, all of them as far-fetched as the next, and he's at a loss as to what to do. All he knows is that he can't lose her. Whatever that means. "We're working under a serious time constraint," he informs the rest of the senior staff. "We need options, and we need them now. Doctor?"
"The captain's cellular degradation is advanced," the Doctor confirms. "According to my calculations, at present rate, permanent damage will occur anytime within 36 and 52 hours."
"We'd better get to work then," B'Elanna says, standing from her seat. She's kept her focus on Chakotay for the entire briefing. He doesn't want to look at her. She will see right through him, and not like what she finds. He gives her a quick smile, which he hopes will convince her he's not about to do something idiotic. That he's not using this meeting as a way to distract them from a decision he's already made.
He addresses the room. "You have 24 hours. I want hourly updates."
"And if we can't find anything?" Tom asks.
"We'll cross that bridge when, and if, we get there. Dismissed." Chakotay turns his back on them, to face the briefing room viewport. He hears them all scurry out, and he releases a tired breath.
"Are you going to give it to her? The sphere?"
Chakotay is surprised to find that Tom's the straggler, not B'Elanna. Yes, the pilot, has been the most vocal about the captain's retrieval, but B'Elanna has been by his side for years, ready to follow him wherever he wanted to go.
Or tell him he's a targ, depending on the plan.
"I don't know," Chakotay answers, turning when he hears Tom scoff. "Something you want to say to me?"
"Just that if it was B'Elanna trapped with that chunk of walking metal, I would tear through every Borg ship I could find, compromise every last shred of honour and dignity I have, if it meant I'd get her back in one piece."
"My relationship with the captain isn't exactly the same as what you have with B'Elanna," Chakotay counters.
"Isn't it?" The look on Tom's face is openly challenging, and Chakotay is struck with the thought that despite all his jokes and lofty attitude, Tom observes and reads people better than anyone he knows, bar Kathryn.
"You're walking a very fine line, Lieutenant," he warns.
"She's dying, Chakotay. I'll skip, hop and run past that line at warp speed if it'll get her back."
Chakotay can't help but ask. "Why?"
The younger man shrugs. "Because she believed in me when no one else did? Because she's changed my life? Because she's like that annoyingly perfect older sister I never knew I wanted? Take your pick. But mostly because we won't make it back to the Alpha Quadrant without her. I don't pretend to know what your relationship is like, not really, but I'd hazard a guess and say that if she died, you would too. And then where would we be? We need her. We need both of you. So I'm gonna ask you again – are you going to give the Queen the sphere?"
Chakotay doesn't answer. Instead, he activates the door sensors and speaks, leaving no room for further argument.
"You're dismissed."
TBC