Hello! Sorry for the wait, and I'm sorry if this seems rushed, I wanted to get it up before Xmas. Thank you everyone whose fav/followed/reviewed, please continue to do so! (ESP review, think of it as a free Xmas pressie, it'll make me happy lol) this story will carry on in the new year, so in the mean time, merry Christmas!
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Kathryn awoke in sickbay, silent tears running down her face, the feeling of her fathers arms lingered. "Daddy." She whispered, had it all be a dream? Though she couldn't remember all of their conversation, parts of it stuck. She slowly began to sit up, her body aching, her head throbbing, just as the Doctor came out of his office and toward her.
"Ah Captain, it's good to see you're awake. How do you feel?" He ran a tricorder over her, seemly satisfied with the results he stood, waiting for her to reply.
"My head hurts a little." Her voice was raspy, her throat was dry. She swung her legs off the side of the bed, unsure if she'd be able to stand given how she felt. "How's Tuvok?"
The Doctor got a hypospray from the medical table and pressed it against her neck. "That should help." He return the instrument from where he got it, then back to Kathryn. "Tuvok was fine, he was able to return to duty when I had finished treating him. Captain, you must know that you had plasma burns to your thoracic region, and internal bleeding. You also suffered neural injuries which I treated, but I had to induce a coma to help heal the injuries." His tone went somber with his next statement. "There was a few times I thought we had lost you."
*Stay here Golden Bird, don't let yourself get tired. Fight it.*
Kathryn stared at him, wide eyed, what had happened to her alliance. "How long was I out?"
The Doctor hesitated before answering. "About 5 hours."
Kathryn jumped off the bed and headed toward the door, stopping when the doctor called out to her, she turned back to face him. "Is it important Doctor? I really must get to the bridge and find out what's happened."
The Doctor picked a glass of water off the main console and headed it to her. "Here drink this, I imagine your throat must be dry, going by the sound of how rough your voice is."
Kathryn glared at him, but did as she was told, the cool liquid soothing her throat was actually welcoming. "Was that it? Or is there something else?" She handed the cup back to him, slightly irritated, though grateful.
The Doctor casually placed the cup where it had been. "No, I thought you might like to know the current state of this alliance before charging to the bridge and having it out with the Commander."
Kathryn slowly nodded and walked back to the bed from where she had just come from, feeling that given the Doctors tone, she'd probably need to brace herself. "What's happened?"
"Well, unless blowing your guests out of the ship is considered to be welcoming, the alliance is pretty much over."
"He did what?" Kathryn seethed, she placed her hands on the bio bed, she should have expected something like this, he was against the idea from the start.
"All but one of the drones were blasted out into space. The female drone only survived because she was in a Jeffries tube at the time." The Doctor stood beside her now. "Do you want me to notify him that you're awake?"
Kathryn nodded, too angry to talk. She listened as the Doctor spoke to Chakotay over the comm link, her hands were now clenched in fists of anger. How could he - how dare he - throw out everything she had been working hard to do, to keep them safe, to ensure that they made it through Borg space.
A few minutes, Chakotay arrived in Sickbay, clearly pleased to see she was up and about, after a very brief word with the Doctor, who deactivated himself, he stopped by the main console and looked at Kathryn, who clearly didn't feel the same about seeing him.
As she spoke, she casually walked towards him. "The Doctor brought me up to speed, but he couldn't tell me what I really wanted to know." She was know leant against the console, looking directly at him. "Why?"
"The Collective ordered me to reverse course, travel forty light years back the way we came. What would you have done?" He asked.
"I probably would've reversed course. Maintained the alliance as long as possible."
Chakotay was honest with her. "In my mind, the alliance was already over."
Kathryn couldn't believe what she just heard, keeping her temper in check she answered. "You never trusted me. You never believed this would work. You were just waiting for an opportunity to circumvent my orders."
"Trust had nothing to with it. I made a tactical decision." Chakotay replied.
"And so did I." Kathryn snapped.
This time it was Chakotay getting angry "They have taking advantage of us from day one."
"We made concessions, so did they." Kathryn found her voice raising more then she intended it too.
Chakotay decided it was time to hit her with the truth. "They lied. The Borg started the war with Species 8472." He watched her mind start racing, that one face should have changed everything, as she moved away from the console. "We've only got one Borg left to worry about. We should try to disable her and get back to the Delta Quadrant. We might be able to duplicate the deflector protocols they used to open a singularity.
Kathryn stood with her side facing him, was he telling the truth, or a reasonably good lie just to justify what he had done. "No. I won't be caught tinkering with the deflector when those aliens attack." She then turned to face him, full Captain mood in place, the command coming through in her tone. "There's no other way out of this, Chakotay. It's too late for opinions, it's too late for discussion. It's time to make the call, and I'm making it. We fight the aliens in full cooperation with the Borg." She made it clear that was their option.
Chakotay was getting frustrated. "I was linked to a Collective once, remember? I had a neurotransceiver embedded in my spine. I know who we're dealing with."
Kathryn rolled her eyes, that again. "Yes, I remember. Would you like to get to know this drone personally as well?" It wasn't until after she spoken that Kathryn bit her tongue.
Chakotay stood wide eyed and mouth slightly gapping at her response. "Is that what this is about? Because I slept with someone else?"
Kathryn shook her head, kicking herself, yes she was still jealous, they hadn't spent the night together since the shuttle crash, and she had to admit, she did miss him. "No, everything I've done, I've done for the crews safety. Not for my own emotional welfare."
Chakotay felt a smile tug at his lips, he knew she had been jealous at the time, despite what she said, he gave him some satisfaction to know she still felt that way. "We've got to get rid of that last Borg and take our chances alone." He tried diverting the conversation back onto topic.
Kathryn gritted her teeth, she would let him win this time, where her jealously was concerned, but it didn't make her less angry. "It won't work. This isn't working either. There are two wars going on. The one out there, and the one in here, and we're losing both of them."
"It will be your undoing." Chakotay told her, remembering what the Borg had said.
Kathryn was surprised. "What?"
"Our conflicted nature. Our individuality." Chakotay clarified. "Seven of Nine said that we lack the cohesion of a Collective mind. That one day it would divide us and destroy us. And here we are, proving her point."
Kathryn was slightly softer in her voice now, though her anger still bubbled away. "I'll tell you when we lost control of this situation, when we made our mistake. It was the moment we turned away from each other. We don't have to stop being individuals to get through this, we just have to stop fighting each other."
Chakotay sighed and nodded, she was right, they did have to stop fighting, and take this stand together, as they had many times before. "I might have an idea."
Three Days Later...
"Captain's log, stardate 51003.7. Three days, and no sign of Borg or bioships. We appear to be out of danger, but the entire crew is still on edge and so am I. Not even the calm of Master Da Vinci's workshop is enough to ease my mind."
Kathryn sat at a desk in her Da Vinci holo deck program, writing her Captains log on paper, she had needed someplace calm and quite, but even having removed the Da Vinci character she could still not find it. The candle light flickered, the quill scratched at the paper, she didn't even hear him approach until he spoke.
"Am I interrupting?" Chakotay asked.
Kathryn smiled slightly at him. "Not at all. Just finishing up my log." With that she put down the quill and replaced the lid to the small pot of ink.
"The old-fashioned way." He commented.
"I wanted to get as far away from bioimplants and fluidic space. And this feels more human somehow."she told him, keeping her tone soft.
"I hate to spoil the mood, but you might want to look at this Engineering report." He handed a pad over, which Kathryn started skimming through. "It'll take at least two weeks to remove the Borg technology from our systems. B'Elanna did note that the power couplings on deck eight work better with the Borg improvements."
Giving the pad back, Kathryn replied. "Leave them. How is our passenger?" She asked, referring to Seven of Nine.
"The Doctor says she's stabilising. Her human cells are starting to regenerate." Chakotay informed her.
Kathryn watched as he spoke, the light casting shadows across his face, she couldn't help but think it made him look more handsome then he already was, even though they hadn't talked about the argument they had in sickbay, she still cared deeply for him. "I wonder what's left under all that Borg technology. If she can ever become human again." Bringing herself back to the subject at hand.
Chakotay was somewhat surprised. "You plan to keep her on board."
"We pulled the plug. We're responsible for what happens to her now." Kathryn got up and walked over to the fireplace, watching the flames dance, scattering shadow as the room.
"She was assimilated at a very young age. The Collective's all she knows. She might not want to stay."
He could be right, but Kathryn didn't want to think like that. "I think she might. We have something the Borg could never offer." She turned back to face him, wanting the next word to have some sort of impact on him. "Friendship."
It did, Chakotay felt bad about what happened with them, he didn't lie, arguing with her, not to the point that she felt alone, that she thought he didn't trust her, but he might have lost her. "I want you to know that disobeying your orders was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do." He told her truthfully.
Kathryn nodded slightly. "I understand. And I respect the decision you made, even though I disagree with it. What's important is that in the end we got through this, together. I don't ever want that to change."
"Agreed."
Kathryn started walking back towards the desk. "Good. Well, I think it's time we get back to our bridge." She was about to pick up the paper with her log on it when Chakotay caught her hand.
"The doctor has actually given us some time off, in light of what's happened, only today and tomorrow." At her questioning look he quickly added. "Along with Tuvok and Harry if they choose to, he knew there was no point in offering it before, as we were still in Borg space, but now we're clear..." He let his voice trail off.
"Oh, well that was thoughtful of him." Kathryn glanced away, and shifted slightly. "Did you have something in mind?"
Chakotay shrugged, he hadn't given it much thought, he just knew he wanted to spend his time off with her, his eyes drifted over to the fireplace. "Maybe we could stay here a bit longer, sit beside the fire."
Kathryn aloud herself to smile properly at him. "I'd like that very much." When he smiled back at her, a genuine smile, she felt sure everything was going to be ok with them.