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Not your Token Maquis.
Chakotay glowered angrily at Janeway, furious with the woman who refused to even give him and his fellow Maquis a chance. He didn't give a fuck about going over her head, he didn't care if she was upset with how he saw his crew. They would always be her crew, and if she even thought for a moment he was going to simply stop… well, he would give her a dose of reality.
This meeting was already a horrible one. He had gradually become angrier as the meeting went on, having to argue with Janeway to start trusting his crew despite the fact the Federation wanted to stamp out the Maquis simply because of the crime of leaving Paradise and going against her precious Federation and way of life.
Chakotay honestly did not see the difference it made if suddenly Starfleet graduates became jealous or outright hostile because they would suddenly need to respond directly to a Maquis although he could see the drawbacks it would pose. Janeway might have argued back by saying he was qualified because of his Starfleet experience and skills, and as a result, the Starfleet crew would listen and take his orders to the letter, but if the Fleeters did not like working with his people then they could talk to him about it, he wasn't frightened of teaching people the needs of their current journey now the Caretaker had stranded them here.
"Permission to speak freely?" He asked.
He didn't really care if she gave him permission or not, even if the pair of them were currently at odds given how she refused to even think if she made the effort to allow him to integrate his crew into her own and instead threw out one stupid Starfleet rule up after another. This was one of the reasons Chakotay had been eternally grateful to leave Starfleet in the first place, he had gotten sick and tired of their constant rules and their quoting of them when they could have done more.
But he still asked because he knew she would be trained to listen to language like that and she would listen to him, even if she refused to like what he needed to say.
Janeway visibly sagged under the question, easily sensing she was not going to like what she was about to hear. She was smarter than he'd given her credit for. "Go ahead."
"I have no intention of being your token Maquis officer."
Janeway reacted as if she had just received a slap that knocked out two of her teeth, and she gaped at him in frank surprise at how bitingly he had just said that to her. But Chakotay was unaffected; ever since he had been approached with the suggestion the two crews merged together as one Starfleet crew, with him as her second in command in order to prove to everyone the pair of them would command the two crews in harmony, and the brief time he had been on Voyager, he had gotten the hint more than once Janeway viewed him as some kind of a pet. A rehabilitation project to be proud of. A former Maquis who could be a Starfleet officer, unthinking and accepting of the stupid rules and regulations which made as much sense as the Federation-Cardassian treaty where Cal Hutchinson, himself a former high ranking Starfleet commander, saw it as a bad one where too much was given away.
Janeway appeared to want to get rid of that from him. But it was not going to work. It was going to take more than a few Starfleet regulations and rants about how the chain of command worked to make him into her pet.
"Show me another qualified Maquis candidate and I'll consider him."
Chakotay wasn't going to give up. "B'Elanna Torres."
But Janeway once more jumped down his throat. "Who cannot control herself and who could not make it through the Academy!"
What difference does it make if she went to the Academy or not, and didn't get through it because she was sick and tired of how she was looked down upon? What difference does it make now? We're not in the Alpha Quadrant now! No-where near Starfleet! Chakotay thought to himself while he glowered at the woman who was still not listening to it; this was not the Alpha Quadrant, they needed all the help they could get, so why did it make any difference to the Voyager crew if they had a Maquis supervisor?
Okay, he could see things from Janeway's point of view. In her mind B'Elanna was an uncontrollable force of nature with a bad temper, she had proven it a few times already, and Tuvok had had enough of the complaints of B'Elanna's stupid temper and need to lash out at everything and everyone around her. But Janeway was blinded by her Starfleet lifestyle, her inability to recognise and appreciate somebody else's opinions. In her mind, because Torres had dropped out of her precious Academy, that meant she was an undesirable element.
A part of Chakotay wondered and asked himself at the same time if the recent mess with Carey would have caused this much grief between himself and the captain, but he killed it. There was no way of knowing for certain. But it had certainly not helped their cause one little bit. It had ruined his day since he had needed to stop the Maquis from setting up a mutiny which would not have helped them at all.
Mutiny was not going to get them home magically, was it?
Mutiny was not going to magically allow the Maquis crew the means of running the whole ship by themselves, was it?
No, but unfortunately too many of his crew had been prepared for it.
"She's the best engineer I've ever known! She could teach at the Academy!" Chakotay managed to get out without bellowing his head off, but it was a near thing. He had learnt quickly Kathryn Janeway was a stubborn piece of work, and while he would likely feel better at blowing off some steam he knew it would do no good. If he shouted at her, it might make things harder for the pair of them. They both needed to present a unified front in order to get home, and if they shouted at each other regularly it would cause all kinds of problems in future.
And that was the last thing they needed right now.
He needed to find another way of getting his points across, and hopefully, with B'Elanna accepted as Chief engineer, it might allow her to prove to the crew she was generous and flexible as the needs must. But right now he needed to get out of here, and while he deliberately did not seek permission to leave right now, he would do so out of spite more than anything else. But he had one more thing to say before he was close to the door to the Ready Room.
"You're right, Captain. I do consider these 'my people,'" Chakotay deliberately put in a mocking tone as he quoted the earlier argument to shove it down the captain's throat, so she'd understand what it was between them, "because no-one else will look out for them like I will. And I'm telling you, you're going to have to give them more authority if you want their loyalty."
It was truly sad he needed to say that. And telling at the same time. Many of the Maquis were good at what they did, and while some of them were trying to go out of their way to follow his instructions to integrate themselves into the crew, they had a lot of trouble because they were from an organisation that was unafraid to go up against the Federation.
But some of them were capable.
B'Elanna was a damn good engineer. Dalby wasn't a slouch, either, even if his temper needed work. Ayala was a good technician with his hands, and he was a capable fighter. But why did Janeway have to carry the stupid views of the Federation with her into her decisions?
Because she was out of her depth. She has never been trained to be on her own, commanding a ship and crew in an unknown part of the galaxy, cut off from everything she's known. She's scared, so she is looking to rules and principles to help reassure her.
Chakotay pitied her for that. But if she wanted his help, she would need to politely ask and trust him and the others. They were having problems adjusting as well.
"Theirs or yours, Commander?"
And just like that, the pity withered and died although a speck of it remained. But he didn't argue with her, because she had just scored a point and they both knew it. She was right, he did want to be loyal to her, but only for a good reason and it would take more than being shoved into some stupid Starfleet uniform and having to sit next to her on the bridge, sitting near her in staff meetings and putting up with her moods before that happened.
No, the best and only way he could be loyal and trust her as if she gave something good in return.
Trust would be a good thing, but so too would respect towards his people. He was hardly asking for much.
"I'm trying to help you," Chakotay replied quietly without even needing to mask his tired frustration that she refused to listen and heed his advice, adding with genuine pity, "I'm sorry you don't see that. I strongly recommend you get to know Torres before you choose a new chief engineer."
That was the crux of the matter. Janeway only knew B'Elanna in passing, listening more to hearsay and rumour, and what was in her Academy records without knowing the woman at all. She didn't know B'Elanna, deep down, had a heart of gold even if she masked her sensitiveness with a facade of anger and bravado.
"Permission to leave," Chakotay finished, icily using his Starfleet training to fall back on without just storming the room.
"Dismissed," Janeway replied softly, her voice showing how troubled she was.