"This is Enterprise to the away team", Chakotay suddenly heard Picard's voice via his combadge. "Away team; response."
"Riker here".
"The gravitational field just collapsed. Your status?"
"We are under attack. Beam us up!"
"Acknowledged. Stand by."
Chakotay closed his eyes and pressed Kathryn against him. She was still warm, but otherwise lifeless. She wasn't here with him anymore. Chakotay tried to breath, but suddenly there was no air. And he knew for certain that there wouldn't be air again. Not for him, not anymore. Not without her.
.
.
B'Elanna ran for her life. She ran without looking back, continued running even though a sharp pain in her legs and feet told her to stop. She ran in the merciless heat and continued running, even though her throat was as dry as the desert around her and a taste of blood filled her mouth. She ran, even though she was ready to burst in tears.
"Catch her!" she was still able to hear the yells behind her. "Kill her! KILL HER!!"
So she ran. She ran thinking her little daughter. She ran for her, for her future. If she died here on this barren planet today, at least she knew she had done all she could for the better future of her baby.
.
.
Doctor Beverly Crusher sighed as she closed her medical tricorder.
"I am sorry", she said.
"No…", Chakotay managed to whisper.
"What ever was in that arrow, did this in minutes", Beverly said quietly. She wondered what else she would be say besides cold medical facts to the man next to him who was hurting. She wanted to choose her words carefully, because she saw the pain in Chakotay's eyes. She knew that pain; she had seen it many times during the years. But she had once felt that same pain herself as well.
"I don't know what to think", Chakotay finally said. "Or what to say…"
"It's alright", Beverly told and put her hand on his arm. "Just tell me if there is anything I can do for you."
Riker observed them few meters away. The death of Janeway had been unexpected and unnecessary, so therefore Chakotay's unwillingness to accept it was more than understandable. But there was something else in the man that had caught his eye. Riker couldn't help but wonder how he would have been beside Picard's deathbed. Of course he would have been shocked, Picard was his captain and they had known each others many years by now. But this… what he witnessed now in Commander Chakotay was something he didn't find in his relationship with Captain Picard. No… this was much more personal. Instead of shock, he saw devastation. Instead of losing a comrade, he saw him trying to let go of a friend… or a lover.
Riker decided to leave. He didn't want to intrude since obviously this moment was very personal for Mr. Chakotay. Even his former subordinates, Tom Paris and Harry Kim, had already left him alone with the admiral. So Riker tapped Chakotay on the shoulder and left the sickbay. As he walked down the corridor, he thought of Deanna. If he was ever to lose her, there would be similar pain in his eyes that there was now in Chakotay's. If he would ever lose his willing to live, even momentarily, it would be the death of Deanna. She was his world like apparently Janeway had been Chakotay's.
Perhaps Deanna could help Chakotay somehow. If there was anyone who could, it would be her.
"Riker to Troi", he called once activated his combadge.
No response.
"Riker to Troi", he tried again, but without succeeding. "Computer; locate Counselor Troi."
"Counselor Troi is in her quarters."
Riker walked to the nearest turbolift, which took quickly him to the deck of his beloved. Once he reached Deanna's door he noticed that she didn't open.
"Computer", he called again, "locate Counselor Troi."
"Counselor Troi is in her quarters."
Riker sighed and started knocking. "Deanna?" he asked. "Are you in there?"
No response.
He started to get frustrated and ordered computer to open the door. Once the doors opened and he entered Deanna's quarters, all he saw was the emptiness of the room.
"Deanna?" he asked. "Are you in here?"
Nothing.
Suddenly he stepped on to something. He looked down and saw a Starfleet combadge on the floor. A cold sensation filled his chest as he picked the small object on the floor. Then he took his hand to his combadge and said: "Riker to bridge. Counselor Troi is missing."
.
.
B'Elanna was laying against the hard ground beneath a large flagstone, which had hid her from the Cardassian troops. She didn't dare to leave, even though her hiding place was most uncomfortable. And where would she go? Se knew that once the night would fall, the temperature would drop quickly, and all that was around her was endless desert. She had no means to start fire, and even if she had, it would most likely reveal her location to the Cardassians. If they still were on the planet.
B'Elanna tried to swallow, but the dryness of her mouth made it difficult. She closed her eyes and started to recall all the things that had happened earlier today. When the Romulans had finally met their Cardassian 'friends', and some kinds of negotiations had taken place. She had been too far away to hear what was going on, but she had seen that they had been in serious disagreement.
Then she had remembered the cold fact of her current situation. She knew that this little trip of hers with the Romulans wouldn't last forever. She knew she had to do something before it would be too late. So when she had finally seen a Cardassian warship further away, she had spent remarkable long time wondering how she would be able to get in there. She had believed the device that had kept the Romulan ship on the orbit had to be inside the Cardassian vessel, and if she was to destroy it, Cardassians would most likely have nothing to give in return for the Romulan cloaking device they currently had in one of their ships. If that was what the Romulans were after. That was a pretty big 'if', but it was the assumption she had to take seriously. Either way, she knew the device had to be destroyed, since it had also kept a Starfleet vessel on the orbit. That's why they had organized a warp breach with Horak on the Romulan vessel, which had led to the self-destruction of the ship.
It had been almost too easy to gain access to the Cardassian vessel. Romulans obviously had a serious dispute with their Cardassian friends, which had worked for B'Elanna's benefit. So all she had done was walking in the ship with a rock in her hands, and once she was there, she had destroyed as many devices as she had been able to break. Of course she had got caught almost immediately. So then she had started running. They had tried to kill her, shot her down with their energy weapons, but she had managed to escape somehow.
And now she was here; alone in desert planet in the middle of nowhere. She would most likely die here, but at least she would die in her own pace, without any Cardassian or Romulan help. It might have not been the preferable way for a Klingon to die; more honorable would have been in a battle with Cardassians and Romulans. But she honestly didn't care right now. She too often forgot her human-half, which was often dominated by her Klingon-half, but not this time. This time she wanted to die in human way, with dignity, in peace.
.
.
Chakotay looked out of the window in Kathryn's guest quarters. He felt empty. This was a familiar feeling for him, though he had already succeeded to forget it during his years in Delta Quadrant. Suddenly another familiar sensation filled his heart, which he had tried to repress. But he wasn't able to deny it anymore and therefore a familiar anger returned to his heart. Before he knew it, his fists were ready to smack something as broken as his heart now was.
But broken wasn't necessarily the right word to describe the current condition of his heart. Non-existent was more precise. He had never loved anyone like he had loved Kathryn, and he knew he would never love like that again. Now that she was gone he knew his was emotionally starting to fall apart. Kathryn was the first thing in his life he had gotten right. Why did he have to lose her now? How the hell would he ever be able to life like this? Why had they wasted so much time before expressing their love to each other? All the reasons they may have had felt like pathetic excuses right now. He had wanted to live with her for the rest of his life. But she had chosen to take the arrow instead of letting it hit him. She had done it for him, because she had loved him. And he hadn't even been able to tell her that he loved her too. That's why he wasn't ready to let go of her. There were just too many unfinished things between them. He had been robbed, and it was not right. Her death lacked justice.
Chakotay wiped a tear from her cheek. He decided to kill Admiral Pearlman. He knew it most likely didn't make him feel any better, but it was at least something to look forward to. Kathryn didn't deserve to die, but Pearlman did. He had created this mess, and while he was sitting comfortably in his chair behind his shiny desk in the Starfleet Headquarters, they were here paying the price of his actions. It wasn't right. So he would have to pay a price, too.
Suddenly the ship shocked violently. Chakotay looked out of the window and saw a Cardassian warship nearby.
"Another?" he asked by himself.
"Red alert! All hands to battle stations!", captain announced via comm.
Chakotay left immediately. He wanted to be on the bridge. It was in his blood to be there when the battle took place. He rushed out of Kathryn's quarters and ran to turbolift. Once the doors opened on deck 1, he stepped out, but remained on the side. Enterprise crew was more than able to handle one Cardassian ship without him getting in the way.
"They are dropping their shields", an officer suddenly said from tactical.
"Fire!" Riker commanded.
"Direct hit. They are raising shields again."
"They are withdrawing", Picard noted then. "Why?"
"We did too much damage", Riker suggested.
"You hit it near the engine room", Chakotay, who knew Cardassian warships by heart, said then. "They want to protect their engines. That ship is most likely the one with the cloaking device."
"How could it already be here if the Romulans had limited their maximum speed at warp 2?" Riker asked.
"It is possible that they still have their own Cardassian engines in use as well", Data theorized from the ops.
"And they use the cloak when necessary", Picard finished the thought.
"Captain", Data said then, "I detect lifesigns from the surface. Something was transported on the planet. That would explain why they dropped their shields."
"Can you be more specific?" Picard asked.
Data tapped the panel for a while until said: "I detect human lifesigns."
"Human?" Picard asked and approached Data to see the reading on his console himself.
" There is at least one human there", Data continued, "but there are also three Cardassians."