Chapter 10

The Kazon pt. 9

Voyager

Captains Quarters

Harry started to dry heave as the last of what he had in his stomach went into his toilet. On shaky hands and knees, he sat on the floor as his chest went up and down in a tightened rhythm. He had just listened to his friend Lyndsay Ballard's last message. Her last message to him and it broke his heart.

Standing to his feet, he walked out into the bedroom and noticed that the cabin lights were low. At the moment he really appreciated that. Looking up, he saw Tom sitting on his bed.

"How are you feeling?" Tom asked, already knowing the answer.

"They were waiting for it." said Harry, ignoring Tom's question. "They didn't just know how to block a transporter bomb, they knew how to throw it back at us."

"How did they do it?"

"They varied their power-up timing."

Tom nodded. That's what he would have done. "They're backwards, but they're not stupid." he said. "You know the difference between a tactic and a trick?"

"What's that?"

"A trick only works once."

Harry sighed. "I killed her... them."

"I know how you feel, Harry." Tom replied sadly. "But the people I killed didn't have a choice in the matter. This wasn't your fault."

"Tom..."

"Let me finish." Tom demanded, suddenly looking serious. "Lyndsay and Adam died in the line of duty to buy us time and to save our lives. There's no higher honor then dying like that Harry. I'm going to give you some advice that I learned from somebody who didn't even know they gave it to me. Stop making their sacrifice all about you and honor the people who died by doing the right thing. You wanna know who gave me that advice?"

"Wh... who?" Harry asked barely holding on.

"You did Harry." Tom said as he stood up and put his hand on the other man's shoulder. "You taught me that when you decided to become my best friend and when you made me this ships first officer. You gave me a second chance at redeeming myself for the people I killed and I'm going to take it. Now pull yourself together because this ship needs it's Captain to get us home."

"Do you... do you think about the people who died?" Harry asked quietly.

"Everyday." Tom admitted, his voice low and almost inaudible.

"How do you cope with it?"

"By taking this second chance you gave me." The words hung in the air as Tom said it. Even though when I get back to the Alpha Quadrant that will all be gone.

"Because of Lyndsay and Adam's sacrifice they bought us time. You said the Kazons have fallen back deeper in the Kuiper Belt, and their scouts are advancing slowly."

"A few hours at most." Tom replied turning all business like.

"That's better than what we had." Harry realized.

"We can't hide forever."

"Then let's not. Get the warp core back online and let's show them what this ship can really do."

Tom shook his head. "There's not enough time. Vorik's working as fast as he can, but they'll be here before he's finished."

I waited too long, Harry thought. My fault. Everything's my fault.

Tom had an answer. "Let B'Elanna help."

Well, Harry thought, What's the worst that could happen? We'll all die? He laughed, once, a short bark that he refused to explain to his first officer.

"You shouldn't laugh Harry." Tom took offense. "B'Elanna might have been in the Maquis but she's one of the best engineers I've ever seen."

"I wasn't laughing at her... I... Computer where is B'Elanna Torres?" Harry asked into the air.

'B'Elanna Torres is on deck six in the armory room.' The Computer replied.

The armory room. Damn that doesn't sound good, Tom thought to himself. "I'll go and get her."

"No, I will." Harry replied as he walked to the door. "Report to the bridge." and with that he was out the door.

"Aye sir." Tom mumbled to himself.

Deck Six

Armory Room

B'Elanna picked up a couple of hand phasers and stuffed them into a grey duffle bag. She was heading to Engineering earlier but a thought occurred to her halfway to the room. They'd never fucking let me help anyway. Wondering around aimlessly for awhile, she suffered from an old saying. Idle hands and idle minds are the devil's workshop. Especially after she heard about two more Starfleet officers dying at their hands. She was consumed with thoughts of what the Kazon had done to her and it was time to open up shop on them, whenever she got the chance. Maybe she'd even steal a shuttle-craft if she had to. Seeing a med-kit stuffed in a corner locker, she picked it up and put it in there too before selecting a phaser rifle.

"Where do you think you're going with all of that?" a voice asked behind her. Startled, B'Elanna turned around and brought her weapon up. "Hey relax." Harry said as he threw his hands up.

"What the fuck do you want!?" B'Elanna growled, her hand twitching on the trigger.

"I just want to talk to you."

"Then start fucking talking." B'Elanna replied as she put the phaser rifle on kill.

"B'Elanna, Tom told me... Tom told me that you were the best engineer he ever met." Harry started off nervously. "That's why I came to ask if you would be my new Chief Engineer."

"You're kidding, right?" B'Elanna asked with wide eyes.

"No, I'm not," said Harry. "Everyone on board needs your help. I need your help."

Barely controlling her anger B'Elanna glared at him. "Why should I risk my life to help the Federation?" In her mind's eye, she could see the discharge letter from Starfleet: Unfit for service...lacks emotional maturity and self-control...unrelated to Klingon physiology, despite Cadet Torres's claims…psychological treatment strongly recommended. She'd been holding together for more than a year; finished top in her class in mathematics, aced the entrance exam, had no problem with the psych screening. She'd cruised through boot camp when "tougher" cadets crumpled under the strain. And then she started classes, and in a few months, she'd come apart again. They promised they'd reconsider admitting her if she went through treatment and passed another psych screening.

"Tom told me how stubborn you were. Why don't you think about someone besides yourself for once?" Harry asked.

"I did! Fat lot of good it did me." B'Elanna told him. "And what the fuck gives you the right to try to judge me? You don't know shit about me."

"B'Elanna, if you don't help me, everyone on board is going to die." said Harry.

"Why should I give a flying fuck?" she asked. "For the first time in my life, I actually agree with my mom. Today is a good day to die."

"Look deep into her eyes Harry." Captain Janeway said to him as she started circling behind B'Elanna, never taking her eyes off of the other woman. "The Kazon hurt her and violated her in a way a woman should never be violated."

After a moment of thought, Harry thought about what Janeway said and he indeed looked into her eyes and he knew what the Kazon had done to her and why she was so angry.

"What the fuck are you looking at!?" B'Elanna asked, snapping him back into reality.

"Hopefully, I'm looking at someone that will one day be my friend." Harry admitted as he inched closer to her. "But right now B'Elanna I need you to be my Engineer." Clearing his throat he went on. "B'Elanna, I know what the Kazon did to you."

"Who told..."

"No one did." Harry said as he extended his hand for her to take. "I know what the Kazon are like... because... because of what the other girls told me they did to them. B'Elanna, I can't offer you a lot, but I can offer you something a lot better then death."

"Which is..."

"Revenge." Harry told her seriously. "And we can't seek revenge on the Kazon unless we fix this ship and get the hell out of here. What I'm saying is... I need you."

With shaking hands, B'Elanna looked into Harry's eyes and knew that he was as green as shit. But there was one thing she did see in him and that was that he was telling her the truth. Not really wanting to die today, she handed the rifle over to him.

"Damn you Tom." she mumbled to herself, not knowing that he was lurking in the shadows watching them. Having seen that they had found their strength, Tom went to the bridge. "Remind me to kill him later."

Harry wondered how literal she was being, before he spoke. "I wanted to say how sorry I was about your friends... the Maquis."

"Don't talk about..."

"I know how you feel." Harry cut her off. "I lost a good friend today."

"I'd better go." said B'Elanna, not wanting to get caught up in emotion again. "One more thing, though. I have some advice for you."

"What is it?" he asked, expecting some tactical insight that would help them if the Kazon suddenly rushed to Ocampa. She was in the Maquis and she would know what to do.

"Get some sleep." she simply said.

"That's it?" Harry asked incredulously. "But there's so much to do."

"Trust your crew to do it, Starfleet." As she gave him that nickname it seemed to have just rolled off of her tongue. "They're trained just like you; they can look after themselves for a few hours."

"Will a few hours make any difference?"

"Like Chakotay once told me, it could be the difference between the right decision and the wrong one. Or the right decision in time and the right decision too late."

Harry wanted to argue with her, but after all the talk of sleep, it was suddenly as if his mind was full of pancake syrup. He was holding off fatigue by sheer willpower and running out of it fast. Voyager was, for the moment, immobile and hidden. If anything was going to go wrong, it would go wrong with or without him on the bridge.

"Okay." Harry replied with a nod. "Before you go to Engineering, I want you to change into a proper Starfleet uniform. Have Tom arrange it so you're officially with the crew... Lieutenant."

"I don't really see the point of making it official when I'll be arrested when we get back to the Alpha Quadrant."

"Before we go back, I'll have Doctor Zimmerman do facial reconstructive surgery on you and you can escape in a shuttle pod as soon as we get to the Alpha Quadrant." Harry told her. "After all that's happened that's the least that I can do for you."

"I'm sorry about your friend and that I almost shot you." B'Elanna said in surprise that he would do that for her.

"It happens." Harry replied with a sad smile.

They parted with a salute. Harry started wandering in the direction of his cabin. He paused a moment to lean against the wall to rest, and was startled to wake up on the floor five minutes later, having fallen asleep standing up.

Main Engineering

Having changed into a proper Starfleet uniform, B'Elanna walked into Engineering and her eyes went wide and she wanted to drool as she saw the warp core and all of the high tech equipment. She loved the Val Jean to death, even though it constantly fell apart, but this was a definite upgrade. Taking her eyes off of the engine room she'd already fallen in love with, she scanned the room and saw a Vulcan working on something on a bench.

"Hey you, Vorik?" she asked as she walked up to the man.

"Yes." Vorik answered as he turned around and looked at her and then at the pips on her collar. The Captain told him to expect a new arrival.

"Good, I'm B'Elanna and I'm in charge down here." she went on. "We have a lot of stuff to fix and a short amount of time to fix it in. Now get the lead out and let's get to work."

"Yes ma'am." Vorik answered with a raised eyebrow as he handed the woman a Padd with a list of things that needed to be fixed.

"What the hell have you been doing all this time?" she said.

"Making repairs to everything else that's broken on this tub," said Rodriguez, the senior chief petty officer. "And inspecting the system. The good news is, we can still get warp speed from the portside nacelle. Unfortunately, the starboard plasma injector is completely shot, so we'll have to run on one nacelle."

"Do you have a spare injector?" said Torres.

"No," said Rodriguez.

"Typical Starfleet," sneered Torres.

"The plasma injectors for an Intrepid class starship weigh twenty-six tons each," said Ensign Vorik. "It would not be practical to carry a spare, as we have no way to install it in the field."

"All right, what about the core itself?"

"There doesn't appear to be any cracking or spalling in the reaction chamber or the dilithium matrix," said Rodriguez. "And the antimatter injectors themselves are working."

"Then are we ready to restart?" said Torres.

"No," said Rodriguez. "The antimatter constrictor valve is shot."

Torres rolled her eyes. The ACV weighed less than a kilogram and could be installed in fifteen minutes. "So replace it," she said.

"I checked the cargo manifest. The spares were delivered to DS9 but they were never loaded on the ship. And we can't replicate the force field relays, so don't even ask."

Torres cursed in Klingon.

"It's such a simple part," said Torres.

For the first time, Rodriguez seemed sympathetic. "Yeah, it is," he said. "Until it breaks and you don't have a replacement."

"Broken down..." Torres mumbled to herself. And then it hit her like a bolt of lightning. "Neelix."

Wrath, en route to Ocampa

"That fucking cunt!" bellowed Jabin. "That fucking cunt and that fucking ship! How could Kim have possibly escaped Ocampa without our notice?"

"He couldn't have!" said the radio operator. "Our advance probes are covering every escape angle. Unless Voyager can make itself invisible, it couldn't possibly have taken off without being seen."

Jabin clenched his fists and tried to calm down. Screaming wasn't going to find Kim. "What's the disposition of our forces?"

"Scout Group Seven is still hunting for Voyager's light cone, approaching Maje Tulley. Maje Cozak's subspace transponder reports they're approaching the main fleet at faster-than-light. There's still no sign of Voyager."

"I want to speak with Group Seven."

"Putting them through now," said the operator. The frightened face of some junior officer appeared on the tele-screen.

"Report!" said Jabin.

"We never saw Voyager on any of our sensors, my lord."

Anger was building in Jabin again. "Get me Group Leader Sankur. On video."

The young Kazon captain's face appeared on a video screen. "This is Sankur. How may I serve you, Lord Jabin?"

"Tell me you've found Neelix."

"We've found nothing, my lord. It's as if he disappeared into the black."

"You mean to tell me that a junkman eluded you?" Jabin asked. Before he could answer the operator handed him a script-pad.

"My lord, I have Maje Cozak's sensor logs." said the operator.

"Find me the part where Voyager shows up."

He did, and Jabin studied the tracks. The visible light, infrared, and radar signatures all looked like Voyager...but the gravitic sensors were blank.

"Tell Sankur I want his gravitic sensor logs, too."

"He claims he sent them," said the operator.

Jabin stared at the flat line on the gravity sensor.

"Small Group Leader Sankur, would you please summon your first officer?"

"Of course, my lord." He disappeared off screen for a few moments, and returned with his deputy, a man who looked rightfully terrified to be summoned before an angry Maje.

"What's your name, Deputy Small Group Leader?"

"Sorzar, Lord Jabin."

"Sorzar, do you have your personal weapon with you?"

"Yes, Lord Jabin."

"Good. Take it and execute Small Group Leader Sankur for cowardice."

"What?" said Sankur.

"I'm not going to ask you again."

"My lord, wait-"

Sorzar placed the barrel of his gun against Sankur's head and pulled the trigger. Sankur dropped.

"Thank you, Small Group Leader Sorzar. Cozak is your ship. I suggest you put it to better use than Sankur did."

"I will, my lord. Thank you, my-"

Jabin cut off the signal. "All ships, make best speed for Ocampa."

Razik waddled onto the bridge. "What's this I hear about an execution, Maje Jabin?"

"I had Small Group Commander Sankur shot for cowardice and stupidity."

Razik grunted. "No terrible loss there. But why are you looking for Neelix?"

"Because, I have reason to believe that Voyager's warp core is offline. If it is then they never left Ocampa. With Neelix helping them he might have a part they need to fix their ship. Either way we'll be on top of it in half an hour."

"Then perhaps Neelix isn't in the black." Razik reasoned. "He's probably been on Voyager this whole time cowering like the worm he is."

"Then it's for the best." Jabin spoke up. "Now all of them can die in one crippling blow."