Chapter 2

Kathryn ran to the bridge, heart pounding in her ears so loud she barely heard anything else. The lights were flashing from the red alert, eerily illuminating the stern and anxious expressions of the hurrying crewmembers she encountered on the way.

"Captain, report!" Kathryn ordered as soon as she stepped onto the bridge and hurried down the steps. She'd been in the middle of a meeting with the three deputies from the Gianfarian settlements to help organize the summit when Voyager's captain had called Kathryn to the bridge, saying something about an explosion on the surface of Gianfar.

Captain Sara Peres gave Kathryn a curt, acknowledging nod before returning her attention to her officers and their consoles. "I'm afraid we don't have clear answers yet, Admiral. Our sensors can't seem to get past the interference caused by the blast."

The blast. Kathryn swallowed with difficulty as she moved closer to the viewscreen, exchanging a look with Tom who sat at the helm, before returning her gaze to the view of the planet. A terrible sense of dread coiled her stomach as she stared at it, hoping the screen would actually show what she desperately needed to see (and yet didn't want to see): which settlement had been hit and what damage it had caused. Because Seven and Harry were down there. Along with thousands of civilians, the colony's prime minister, and Lyat'ib's Maradib delegation.

And Chakotay. Oh god… Kathryn felt bile rise up in her throat as the knot in her stomach intensified.

"Sirs," the officer at tactical interrupted, "the sensors just picked up something from the upper atmosphere of the planet – a signature from a cloaked ship." Kathryn's head whipped around to meet Sara's alarmed gaze. "The ship is gone now, but it looks like they're the ones responsible for the explosion. We have a weapon signature launched from low orbit. It was specifically directed at Dråkin-Mati."

Dråkin-Mati. This was where Chakotay and the delegation were touring this morning. This couldn't be happening.

"Who was it?" Sara asked, but Kathryn barely heard her, sounds and voices muffled by the sudden buzzing in her ears. It was specifically directed at Dråkin-Mati. Kathryn couldn't rid her brain from the horrific images that popped into her mind: Chakotay's body incinerated. Chakotay stuck under rubble, calling for help. Chakotay in pools of blood. She hadn't even kissed him goodbye when they'd parted this morning and she hadn't had a chance to ask him about how his trip had gone the night before. That seemed a silly thing for her brain to focus on at time like this, and yet, that was all she could think about.

"Who would have the gall to do this, right under our noses?"

"The ship signature is unknown."

"Have we heard anything from the away teams?" Kathryn dimly heard Peres ask the officer at operations. "Seven? Harry? Chakotay?"

"Negative. Whatever is interfering with our sensors is also impeding communications. And transporters."

"Keep trying," Captain Peres instructed after her eyes had slid to Kathryn's face briefly and noticed her distraught expression. "And get Commander Torres on the bridge. We'll need her assessment on the sensors and… everything else."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Suddenly Captain Peres was at Kathryn's side, speaking in a lower tone. "Admiral, how would you like us to proceed?" Sara pressed. The direct question snapped Kathryn out of her trance at last, and she blinked, tearing her gaze away from the viewscreen to look at her. Kathryn forced herself to get a grip, to focus, to act.

Right.

She jumped into action mode, relieved to occupy her mind. "Our priority is to organize search and rescue parties, anyone you can spare should head down there. We'll use our shuttles, since our transporters are ineffective through the interference. Make sure the Doctor prepares radiation prevention for the rescue teams, and treatment for those who survived the explosion." Hopefully the force field would have absorbed most of the blast and radiation, but it had been malfunctioning recently…And if the shield hadn't been working properly… Kathryn didn't dare finish the thought.

Let him be alright. Please let them all be alright.

Tom stood to his feet, bringing Kathryn back to the moment. "With your permission, I'd like to help with that."

Both Kathryn and Sara nodded, so Tom darted off with an encouraging nod for Kathryn's benefit.

Kathryn turned to Sara. "See what you can do to find out about the assailants," she said as she started making her up the steps as well.

"What about you, Admiral?"

"I'm calling in reinforcements, we're going to need help. And then I'm going down there," she said resolutely, pointing at the viewscreen.

oooOooo

Chakotay woke up when the urge to cough and clear his lungs became overpowering. Dust and smoke filled the air and he coughed into his sleeve as he sat up to assess the situation. From the looks of it, some kind of building had collapsed on top of him, beams and architectural debris filling the space all around him. Given the strength of that shockwave, it was a miracle that he hadn't been crushed under the weight of rubble or hadn't broken his neck in the fall. Dazed and still coughing against the dust, Chakotay carefully hauled himself to his feet as he tried to orient himself. He was relieved to find that he wasn't seriously injured – his shoulder joint was painful, there was a ringing in his ears and his head hurt, but he was able to move around somewhat painlessly – if stiffly.

They had been attacked. He didn't know how or by whom, but he'd seen enough torpedo blasts and orbital bombardments in his life to recognize it when he saw it. Thank goodness the force field had been in place. If Seven was the reason why the shield had been turned on and working this morning, since she was in Kop with Ensign Vorik to fix it, then she had probably saved countless lives, his included. What was it with this damn system? Every time they showed up here chaos ensued.

Though he couldn't hear much through the buzz in his ears, he pressed his combadge to request immediate assistance – his thoughts immediately going to Kathryn aboard Voyager. Sending a silent prayer for her to be safe. As if on autopilot, his hand felt for his bag and the book he'd gotten for her earlier. His satchel was still at this hip, the bulky weight of the book comforting. There was no response from the combadge, even when he took it in his fingers and brought it closer to his ears. Either the blast had completely deafened him or something was keeping the signal from reaching Voyager.

The cold voice of fear whispered in his ear that Voyager would have fought to stop whoever had attacked the settlement, so if the attack happened anyway, perhaps Voyager had failed. Perhaps the ship had been destroyed by whatever force had targeted the planet.

He violently shoved the thought out of his head; instead he closed his eyes and focused on filling his mind with happy memories from that morning, when he'd woken up in their assigned quarters on Voyager only to find Kathryn already up, at work at her computer. Chakotay had padded his way to her, grinning. She'd smiled when he placed his hands on her shoulders in a warm caress.

Already at work? I was rather hoping you'd have your way with me. He'd whispered huskily in her ear.

Were you now? She'd laughed, her hand coming up to touch his head as he'd slowly, playfully nuzzled his way from her ear to her neck, breathing her in, his lips leaving behind a hot trail of kisses in their wake. He'd dreamed of doing that for weeks, of hearing that sigh escape her lips.

Now Chakotay latched onto the memory with fierce desperation, like a drowning man to a lifejacket; the sound of her laughter, the warmth, the quiet merriment – they helped him get his fear under control. Draw strength.

Survivors. He had to look for survivors. He had been walking with Lyat'ib, Prime Minister Kumara and two other Maradib delegates at the time of the explosion. Where were they? They had to be close. As he made his cautious way through debris, paying close attention to any moving parts or active fires, Chakotay kept talking into his combadge, just in case someone was listening: describing what he was seeing, repeating his need for assistance. It kept him focused. The more he spoke, the more the buzzing in his ears seemed to diminish, which was reassuring that his eardrums hadn't suffered permanent damage. "Kathryn, if you're listening to this," he said at some point, pausing his movements to catch his breath and wipe sweat and grime off his face, knowing that she would be worried about him, looking for him. "Know that I'm alright. Focus on finding the others. No one's answered my communications, so I don't know if Harry and Seven are okay. I'm still searching for Lyat'ib and Prime Minister Kumara. I'm-"

His words faltered when his eyes fell on a body buried under a pile of cement blocks. He hurried, but found the woman already dead, caught under a pile of rubble. Swallowing with difficulty, Chakotay made a mental note of the location and kept going.

Chakotay stilled when he thought he heard something – a faint sound, or an echo. He strained his ears, looking around carefully for any sign of movement. There it was again, a muffled cry for help coming from deeper in the debris. As he got closer, he eventually identified the voice of a man, and an occasional shrill shriek. A child, crying. The man's voice tried to soothe the child, but to no effect.

Chakotay quickly set to work to clear a path to reach them, calling to them as he worked, grunting against the pain in his shoulder when he used a lever to move the larger pieces of debris. Eventually he was able to clear a small passage through the rubble and he squeezed his way through. He stopped short when he saw that the man had most of his lower body stuck under debris. He was an older man, with gray hair and a face lined with old age. Blood streaked down his head, caked with dust. A little girl of about four or five was tugging on his hand relentlessly, sobs wracking her body, as if she could get the man to stand up if he only willed himself to do it. She was dirty and there were scratches on her arms, but she seemed otherwise uninjured.

"Emani, hush now," the man told her girl quietly but sternly, his voice hoarse with pain. "Help is here, see? We'll be alright."

"I'm Chakotay, I'm going to get you both out, okay?" Chakotay said as he approached, biting his lips as he assessed the situation.

"I'm Travid," the man rasped between choked breaths. "Travid Jenkana. This is Emani."

Chakotay nodded, rubbing his chin. He wasn't sure he'd be able to get Travid loose, not by himself, and by the look the man sent his way, Travid knew it too, despite his reassuring words to the girl. But Chakotay had to try. He searched around for another sturdy beam he could use as a lever.

As he started working, Chakotay spoke to take the girl's attention away from their predicament and calm her crying. "Emani, that's your name, right? Emani, I need you to do something for me, you see all those little rocks? I'd like you to move them out of the way…Just like that, that's good. You're doing great, keep going." He kept talking as he worked, not really registering what he was saying, so long as it kept the girl too busy to give into her fear. She obeyed and eventually her crying subsided into quiet sniffles as she focused on the task. But despite Chakotay's best efforts he was barely making progress at all. Travid hadn't been in a great shape when Chakotay had arrived, and he seemed to be growing worse by the minute. His naturally darker skin tone, already dirty from the explosion, was turning ashen and his lips paled dangerously. Chakotay doubled his efforts.

"I think I hear something," Travid croaked suddenly through his heavy breathing, pausing Chakotay's effort with a hand on his arm. The old fingers shook but still gripped fiercely, desperately, and with surprising strength.

Chakotay strained his ears against the slight buzzing that continued to muffle his hearing, but sure enough, a moment later he heard the faint sound of someone shouting. As the voice got closer, he recognized it: Harry! Chakotay exhaled in relief, squeezing Travid's shoulder. "Just hang in there. Emani, take Travid's hand, okay? I'll be right back." Before he could turn around to leave, the girl grabbed Chakotay's arm with both hands instead, her dark eyes wide with fear, her cheeks dirty and tear-stained. Chakotay smiled at her. "I'll be right back, I promise. That's my friend out there. I need to go get him so that he can help us clear the debris. Do you know how to count to 20?" He asked her as he gently unclasped her fingers from his arm.

She frowned, but nodded.

Chakotay nodded in encouragement. "Great, you count to 20, as loud as you can, and I bet you I'll be back before you even get to 19. Okay?" He exchanged a quick look with Travid, who nodded. When the older man started counting and called her to him, Emani joined him, her voice low and shaky.

Chakotay tossed her a challenging smile. "Oh I think you can do louder than that. I have to hear you all the way to the other side," he added as he started making his way back through the passage he'd cleared, occasionally calling Harry's name to help them locate each other. In the background, Emani's muffled and shaky voice kept counting, sometimes in concert with Travid's. Eventually Harry appeared through the debris, dirty, but apparently uninjured.

"Harry!" Chakotay greeted him in relief. "I'm glad you're okay! I need your help, come on."

The girl was at 17 when the two of them returned. She smiled as she ran to hug Chakotay's legs. Exchanging a look with Harry, Chakotay crouched to be at eye level. "You did great. Now, you go sit there while my friend and I get Travid out, okay?" Making it up as he went, he added, "Do you know any songs? I want you to sing to us and Travid, okay? We need some good songs to keep us going."

As they got to work to clear Travid, Harry told Chakotay how he had just gotten off the pod in Kop when the ground and the air had rumbled like a quake before a loud boom sound had shaken the earth. Kop and Jenit had been untouched, but interference impeded communications to get through to Voyager (which explained why no one had responded to Chakotay's requests for assistance). Seven was already working on a way to boost the signal from her location in Kop. Meanwhile, help was starting to pour in from the other settlements. This was good news, so Chakotay latched onto it all, anything to keep his fears from taking root in his gut.

After what felt like hours – though it was probably only a fraction of that – Harry was finally able to pull Travid from under the rubble while Chakotay held the block above with a lever. They fell back with relieved chuckles, but Chakotay didn't wait a second before directing Harry to drag out Travid, who was now barely conscious, while Chakotay took care of the girl.

She had fallen quiet a long time ago, sitting in a little ball, hugging her knees to her chest, her arms covering her head and her ears. Chakotay approached her gently, recognizing the paralyzing shock that had taken hold of her while he'd focused on the older man. He extended both his arms toward her, much as he'd learned to do with Miral, putting a calm and reassuring smile on his face. "Emani? Come on. We can get out now." When she didn't move, he licked his lips, feeling an instinctual urgency taking root in his gut. Something told him that moving all of that debris to get Travid out had destabilized the rest of the structure – the sound of metal groaning above them was deeply worrying. "I'm tired of being stuck down here, aren't you? Wouldn't you rather see the sky and the clouds? Play outside?" He prompted as he slowly edged closer, though in truth he had no idea what they would find once they did find open skies.

After a long second – during which Chakotay was starting to think he might just have to grab her whether she wanted to or not – she suddenly nodded rapidly, before she crawled to him and wound her arms around his neck. Chakotay smiled and gave her small frame a light squeeze before standing to his feet, taking the girl in his arms.

oooOooo

"Let us through. Make way. Let us pass," Seven kept saying as she attempted to weave a path for herself and Ensign Vorik through the panicked and frightened crowd. Though the detonation had been felt even here, news that it was likely an attack from orbit had reached Kop only moments before. Frightened residents had instinctively gathered in the main public square of the town and the surrounding administrative buildings for shelter and news. Seven grimaced as she made her way through what felt like hot, stifling chaos; children were crying, adults were loudly demanding answers, public servants were attempting to calm the crowds standing up on ramps and benches, while nearby a group of people was chanting for revenge against the Maradib, who were – according to them – the only culprits possible.

At the time of the blast, Seven and Vorik had just finished rebooting the settlements' force field power grids to study their responses and programming on behalf of the Gianfarian government. The force fields had been malfunctioning lately, so Seven had volunteered for this mission, since she had helped the Gianfarian scientists improve the force fields the year before, after the colony had barely survived a severe meteor shower. She was therefore familiar with their design.

When the detonation had happened, the shockwave had made the ground and buildings shake all around them, as if in an earthquake. Harry Kim had run in breathlessly moments later, saying something about an explosion in Dråkin-Mati. Seven had immediately attempted to contact Voyager, without success. In fact, as of now, there had been no successful communication from Captain Peres or Admiral Janeway, so she and Vorik had determined that their priority should be to reestablish communications, not only with Voyager, but with the other settlements as well, as she not been able to communicate with Chakotay either. She had suggested to Lieutenant Kim that he return to Dråkin-Mati to report on the damage, and hopefully locate Chakotay and the other members of his party.

The settlement of Kop spanned over a number of small interconnected rolling hills, and from the central square of the largest agglomeration, Seven could still see a dark cloud of dust still hovering over the horizon. The distance was too great to clearly assess the damage, but from the quake that had been felt even here, she knew it must be great. But idle speculation was irrelevant, she reminded herself sternly as she pushed her way amid the crowded square, sweating from a mix of heat and anxiety. Seven willed herself to adopt a clinical, detached, frame of mind that stopped her thoughts from wandering beyond the tasks at hand, but this undisciplined crowd made it challenging.

"Let us through," Seven said one more time as she attempted to find a passage through the anti-Maradib chanting group. Someone grabbed her elbow and when she turned to free herself Seven found herself face to face with an angry looking young woman, barely older than Icheb, judging by her appearance.

"Hey, I know what you are!" The young woman said as she gestured for her friends to gather closer. "Maybe it's not the Maradib we have to worry about, but the Borg! You might look like us but you're not fooling-"

"Hey, cut it out, Maddy!" A male voice said over the background noise of the crowd, and soon a young man, also barely older than Icheb, stepped between the young woman and Seven, forcing the woman to loosen her grip on Seven (though Seven had been more than capable to break free without assistance). "She's from Voyager, she's here to help, you idiot!" The young man told the woman. Seven raised an eyebrow. He turned to Seven and Vorik. "This way, I'll help you through. They're not bad people, they're just scared, confused," he said before leading them through the crowd, making sure that people parted before them, sometimes bodily shifting people out of the way. Seven and Vorik both got several suspicious looks but at last they reached the edge of the crowd at the entrance of the communication building.

Seven couldn't refrain from letting out a sigh of relief when they emerged from the stifling heat and turmoil of the crowd. She turned to the young man. "I appreciate your assistance, though it was unnecessary, I assure you. We can take care of ourselves." The young man looked a little disappointed, and realizing that she had been abrupt, Seven softened. "But still, we thank you. How did you know we were from Voyager?"

"I was transported to Voyager last year, during the meteor shower evacuation. I remember seeing you there. And he's wearing the Starfleet uniform," he added with a gesture to Vorik. "Voyager's return has been in the news lately, because of the upcoming summit." He pointed at a number of signs stuck to one of the walls that called for Gianfarians to oppose the summit with Maradibaya. Seven exchanged a frowning look with Vorik as the Vulcan took one of the signs down from the wall to study it more closely. Seven had been unaware that some Gianfarians opposed the summit; she dimly wondered whether Janeway knew. "Hey, some people disagree with it, but I think it's great," the young man said. "I think we need to get out of our shell. I'm Devin," he said after a moment. "Do you know what's going on? People say it was some kind of attack."

"This is Ensign Vorik, and you may call me Seven. Unfortunately, we know as much, or as little, as you do. However, we are looking for access to the main communication controls in order to reopen transmission with our ship – they will likely have answers, and we need to let them know what has been happening here. Can you lead us there?" They'd had a guide when they had first transported to the planet, but they had left Seven and Vorik to work when they had settled to study the shields.

Devin nodded slowly as he considered it. "Yeah. I think so. This way. Actually, I'm an engineering student at the university, only a block from here. I have some background in communication technology, maybe I can help."

"Good," Seven agreed as she and Vorik followed him. They encountered little resistance from officials once they explained who they were (their combadges were efficient identity markers), and eventually they were inside the main communications building, looking at a new set of power grids, panels and computer controls. Seven exchanged a look with Vorik before they both settled their equipment down and opened cases to access their tools.

"You said you wanted to help," Seven gestured for Devin to step closer. "Then hold this."

oooOooo

More to come in a couple of days!