All the Queen's Men

CW: Character death

I had assumed that when I officially handed off the Equinox to Captain Ransom the next day, it would be with a simple handshake as I joined the last of my crew on the transporter pad before beaming over to Voyager. It had never really been my ship. I had merely borrowed it for a while, and without his permission.

So, I was quite surprised when he insisted on holding a formal command transfer ceremony. It had been entirely his idea and his decision; Captain Janeway insisted she had nothing to do with it, and I believed her. It wasn't until I stood side-by-side with Ransom on his bridge, the ceremony being transmitted live to the entire ship, that I finally understood.

It was an olive branch, offered to the former Maquis from him and his crew. By publicly acknowledging me as a legitimate commanding officer on the Equinox, even going so far as to enter me and my crew into the ship's records, he was showing us right from the start that he considered us equals rather than traitors and criminals, and he was ordering his own crew to do the same.

It wasn't only for show, however. After the ceremony was over, and the ship-wide com link terminated, he grasped my shoulder and looked me squarely in the eyes as he said, "I cannot let you walk off this bridge without telling you that you clearly belong in a red uniform instead of a blue one. But, I also cannot say that without also acknowledging this: If counseling is what you truly love, you should never let anyone convince you that you belong anywhere else."

In that moment, the reason for the regret in his eyes became apparent to me. He missed science deeply, and he didn't want me to make the same mistake that he had. It wasn't that he was telling me not to switch to command; rather, he was advising me to weigh the decision carefully before I committed to it.

I smiled at him, hoping that my eyes conveyed my understanding and gratitude of that which remained unspoken between us. It was the highest compliment he could have possibly given me that I, a Maquis, had earned his respect as a person, a commander, and a senior officer. It was not something either of us would take lightly as we made our way home together.

After ensuring that my crew and their belongings had all been successfully transported to Voyager, I shook the hand of every officer and crewman I was leaving behind for the mission. When I apologized half-jokingly to Lyndsay Ballard for volunteering her, she grinned and replied, "Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam."

Today is a good day to die.

I slapped her on the shoulder and smiled back. "Today is a good day to live."

Then, at very last, I came to Harry. Briefly, I considered forcing myself to be just as professional as I had been with the others, but something told me not to waste the opportunity to say good-bye. Annorax could arrive in a day, or in a month; there was no way to know how long we would be apart. So, relaxing my bravado, I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him close, allowing the tears to escape my eyes as I breathed in his comforting scent. Without a word, we simply held each other for a long moment, just existing in our own version of timelessness.

But eventually, entropy came to tap me on the shoulder and remind me that she still governed my life, so I released my grip and stepped back. Bringing my hands to cup his face, I gazed into his dark, glassy eyes before lifting up on my toes to take his mouth with mine. "I love you," I whispered against his lips.

"I love you, too," he replied.

Sinking back onto my heels and allowing my hands to slide down flat against his chest, I met his eyes once more. "Come back to me," I ordered.

His hands found my face and wiped away the remnants of my tears. "Yes, ma'am."

It was a four-day trip to Kyana Prime. Because we had not the time nor the resources to build a cloak for Voyager, the Srivani had come up with a different plan. Aligning several of their ships protectively all around Voyager, they synchronized their cloaking frequencies so that they could form one large cloak around their ships and ours. They formed several other fleets to conceal the ships of our other allies, as well. It meant we had to travel very slowly and carefully, but it also meant we all went undetected.

After taking control of Kyana Prime, we tapped into the royal broadcasting system and transmitted a message to the entire region from Nessav Kyana herself; Queen Nilat Kyana was dead, General Annorax was a liar and a dictator, and she, Nessav, was the true heir to the Krenim Imperium. She stated that she had retaken the royal colony, her rightful home, and was prepared to take her rightful place of rule. She also informed the people of her plans to free occupied worlds and create a commonwealth instead. Finally, she encouraged everyone to stand up and fight back against Annorax and his oppressive armies, insisting that it was everyone's basic right to be free.

Two days later, the Solassat entered the Kyana system.

Captain Janeway used her every last diplomatic skill and negotiation tactic to try and convince General Annorax to surrender peacefully to Queen Nessav. Still, he refused. Nobody was surprised.

What left us all feeling uneasy was the moment when Annorax stepped aside during those negotiations to reveal Chakotay, bound and gagged and kneeling on the floor. Behind him stood Iliana, who gripped a clump of his hair roughly with one hand hand to expose his throat, and held an energy weapon of some kind in her other hand, jammed up against the underside of his chin.

"I have learned a great deal about you over the past few months, Captain," Annorax said smoothly over the com. "You are not like those savages you have allied yourself with. You're civilized, enlightened. You can accomplish so much more without them dragging you into their barbaric little rebellion.

"I could be your ally. I can help you reach Earth. End your fruitless alliance with these primitive aliens and I will show you how to modify your ship's technology so you can bend time and space to your will. You could be home tomorrow, Captain. You can marry the man you love, start a family, have everything you ever wanted. Or, you can watch him die. What will it be?"

Janeway's jaw tensed, but she jutted out her chin defiantly and crossed her arms in front of her. "If you really think that I can be persuaded by my personal feelings to overlook your obscene disregard for temporal integrity or your tyrannical oppression of others, then you clearly don't know me as well as you think you do. Disengage your temporal core, and surrender your ship, or we will destroy you."

"You know I will not do that, Captain."

"Then I guess we'll just have to do this the hard way."

"Indeed. Any last words to your beloved before I kill him?" Annorax was taunting her.

She did not rise to the bait.

"Nothing he doesn't already know," Janeway answered, her tone still confident but no longer biting.

Annorax gave Janeway a nod. "Very well, Captain. Good luck."

With that, the screen went black.

In the space of a breath, the Srivani fleet decloaked, revealing hundreds of Srivani, Zahl, Mari, and other ships already in formation to stand against Annorax's massive weapon. One by one, the fleets rushed at the Solassat, strafing the larger vessel just as we had planned. Though the Solassat's weapons were quite capable of obliterating the tiny ships with one shot, there were simply too many for him to deal with, and his ship was too clumsy to keep up. Normally, that wouldn't have mattered, but with the timeship's shield frequencies and access codes, it took mere minutes to disable the shield generator they had all been targeting, leaving a hole in the Solassat's defenses.

Next, came the truly dangerous part.

Truth be told, I would have given my right arm to be on Annorax's bridge when the Equinox dropped its cloak. Nobody on that ship knew anything about it— not Annorax, not Obrist, not Chakotay, and not Iliana. Were it not for the grave seriousness of the situation, it could have been amusing to think about the looks on all of their faces at that exact moment.

Yet, that brief, light-hearted thought was quickly snatched away from my mind by the worry that Annorax might order Iliana to kill Chakotay before she was able to reveal her deception to him. And I knew that if it came down to risking the mission by revealing herself too soon, or sacrificing Chakotay's life to save her own, she wouldn't think twice about shooting him.

I just hoped there was enough of Seska's love for him left in her to do everything she possibly could to save them both.

It was an agonizing wait as the Equinox grafted into the Solassat's bubble and carried out its part of the plan. Janeway barked out orders to various officers, Tom deftly guided Voyager around the timeship, and Tuvok strategically laid down fire in an attempt to distract the ship's operators as much as possible from the invading Zahl, Srivani, Mari, and Starfleet forces. Meanwhile, I focused every bit of my energy on monitoring the sensor readings I controlled from the bridge's science station.

I felt incredibly antsy just sitting on the bridge of a ship doing comparatively little for the cause. It was a maddening feeling, because I hated the realities of war, and I despised what I had to be on the field of battle. But in that moment, I realized that I had irrevocably become a soldier. I wasn't in the middle of the fray anymore, and it made me feel miserable.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally saw what I had been waiting for. "Captain," I announced, "I'm detecting a massive drop in the Solassat's chronomagnetic field."

"The temporal core?" she asked.

"It appears so," I replied.

"Confirmed," came B'Elanna's voice from ops. A few seconds later, she added, "Chronomagnetic shields are down. The temporal core has been deactivated, Captain."

"Open a channel to all fleets," the captain ordered.

"Aye, Captain," B'Elanna answered. "Channel open."

"Janeway to all resistance forces: Stand down attacks. Repeat, stand down attacks."

The Equinox followed closely as the Solassat broke orbit, moving safely away from Kyana Prime. Janeway ordered Tom to stay close, as well, ready to receive any casualties or prisoners that the Equinox might send our way. Indeed, almost as soon as the Solassat came to a stop, we got word that we would be receiving a number of both.

Then, Captain Ransom hailed to let us know it was time. Just as we reached Kyana Prime's closest moon, the Solassat's core breached, engulfing the timeship in a brilliant flash of white-hot light that lasted for mere seconds before being quickly snuffed out by the vacuum of space.

After that, there was only debris.

Captain Janeway barely had time to order Tom to return to Kyana Prime before Chakotay himself hailed the bridge from sickbay. My brief moment of joy at hearing him alive and safe and back on Voyager was quickly squashed by his reason for the com. He was requesting me.

Harry had been one of the first emergency transports sent to our sickbay.

I could hear my heart beating in my ears as my feet carried me swiftly through the sickbay doors.

The whole place was in chaos. Every biobed was occupied and surrounded by a privacy field. Emergency cots filled the open space in the middle of the room with more wounded, who were being triaged by the handful of nurses and medics that Schmullis and Kes had trained over the years. From behind the privacy field obscuring the surgical bay, I could vaguely make out the sound of Kes's calm but sure voice as she performed an emergency surgery on someone.

Meanwhile, at the biobed farthest from the sickbay doors, Schmullis was trying to save another member of the crew who was barely holding onto life by their fingertips.

"Talia," I heard Chakotay say from behind me, and I whirled towards the sound of his voice.

He was really there— right there in front of me— and I was frozen in shock at the sight of him healthy and whole and wearing strange civilian clothes. I stared at him with wide-eyes and a gaping mouth for a long moment before the cacophony of emotions slammed into me. Then, I threw myself into his arms.

Our reunion was short-lived, though, and I quickly pulled back. "Harry?" I asked breathlessly.

He shook his head. "I don't know. All I know is that he's here, and it's serious. Right now, we just have to wait and stay out of the way. But, I'll stay with you until we know."

I nodded and turned to look again at the room just as the patient Schmullis was working on began to code. Without thinking, I surged forward. If it was my husband dying on the other side of that partition, then I deserved to be at his side.

As if he had read my mind, Chakotay wrapped his hands firmly around my upper arms, bringing my forward motion to a jarring halt.

"No!" I shouted, but it was no use. His strong arms wrapped around me like a vice, trapping my own arms and holding me tightly against his chest. I started to cry just as I heard Schmullis grimly speak the words I feared the most.

"Time of death, 1923 hours."