Author's Note: during "Resolutions" for the next few chapters


"This is where I'll spend the rest of my life."

Somehow, murmuring the words out loud did not make them seem any more real in her mind. Kathryn Janeway gazed around at the verdant landscape surrounding her and sighed. If it hadn't been for those damn bugs…

It had started innocently enough. Chakotay had come to her ready room to tell her about an M-class planet on sensors that promised to provide them with plenty of produce for Neelix's pantry. Then came the fateful words: "shore leave".

"We've been out here for over a year now," Chakotay had said, "and in all that time I've hardly ever seen you take time for yourself. So what do you say we go down to the planet together – just you, me, and a picnic basket. Take some time to unwind."

"That sounds lovely, but I can't," she replied with an apologetic smile. "I have too much work to do."

"The reports will still be there tomorrow. It's okay to relax for just one day. The world's not going to fall apart just because the captain takes a break."

And so she had found herself standing on the most beautiful planet she had seen in this quadrant, miles away from the other away teams with the birds singing around her and her gorgeous first officer at her side. They had spent a lovely day exploring the woods and wading in the river and picnicking on a bed of wild daisies. The only thing that dampened their mood was the bugs swarming up from the ground to bite them. None of the other away teams later reported bugs, so it must have been a localized occurrence. But how those bugs had pestered them!

Of course, they hadn't realized the true extent of the bugs' interference until they tried to beam back to the ship. First Kathryn and then Chakotay felt dizzy after they materialized on the transporter platform. Then they fell unconscious and were rushed to sickbay where the Doctor found the toxin in their systems - the fatal toxin that he eventually determined could only be neutralized by something in the planet's atmosphere. And the end result of all of that meant that Kathryn was now standing in a beautiful meadow on a gorgeous day feeling the most depressed she had been in a long time.

All because of bugs.

"Captain? Are you alright?" Chakotay appeared beside her.

"Yes," she said. "I'm just fine. Thank you."

He did not look convinced. "Look on the bright side, you won't have to see another Leola root again."

This time she smiled. "True."

"And I promise to be a considerate roommate."

"Thank you."

The whine of the transporter sounded behind them and a giant pile of crates and boxes appeared in the field.

"Well," Kathryn said, "I guess this is it."

Chakotay placed a hand on her shoulder consolingly.

Behind them, hidden in the trees, an unseen presence silently observed the two intruders.


The weeks passed slowly, and Kathryn slowly grew accustomed to living with a roommate. They began to develop a routine, which Kathryn found to her delight often included waking up to find a steaming cup of coffee on the box beside her bed. She had noticed that about Chakotay almost from the beginning – he was good at making her feel at home, no matter the circumstances. She just hoped she wouldn't get too used to it before she found a cure for their illness. And she would find a cure, she knew. She had to. The alternative was too much for her to bear.

Things could have been worse, she supposed. If she had to be stranded with someone, she couldn't have chosen someone more kind, more considerate, more useful, or more handsome… She shook the thought out of her head as she got up to face another day.


Light-years away, Voyager flew among the unfamiliar stars, retreating farther away from the paradise planet with each passing moment. In one of the windows, Ensign Kayla Hayes stood, carefully setting a candle down on the windowsill. She focused her eyes on the flickering flame and clasped her hands together.

"If you're listening to me, invisible helper," she whispered. "Please find a way for us to bring our captain and commander back. The crew is lost without them. Please bring them back to us."

For a long moment, the silence rang loud in her ears. Then came a whisper that was barely audible above the racing of her own thoughts.

I'm trying, it said. I'm trying.