Title: Something of an End
Author: Captain Katie
Rating: NC-17 for language, homosexual content, violence, and other such things
Pairing: uber J/7
Summary: Sequel to Days of Open Hand
Disclaimer: Paramount owns anything relating to Star Trek, and the writers and actors/actresses
own a few of the words. I own the angst!
Feedback: Yes please!
And then the earth starts shaking
Yeah it's so crazy
Heaven and hell come crashing
They come crashing
It's so beautiful and terrible
So beautiful and terrible
It was something of an end
Of a lovely and a wild thing
So beautiful in the morning
You're beautiful
So beautiful
You're beautiful in the morning
And I can't seem to get it through your head
No matter what I do
I can't seem to get it through your head
That I always love you
- My Brightest Diamond
PROLOGUE
The planet was dying, she knew this and she smiled at the thought despite knowing that she wouldn't be around long enough to see Earth's demise. She had to move on. She was hungry and this planet could no longer sustain her. She wanted to be nourished and satiated. She wanted a new planet. And Kathryn Janeway always got what she wanted.
CHAPTER 1
"You know what I want."
Kathryn's voice was rich, guttural and oh so arousing to Annika's ears. Annika arched her back and released a long cry as her climax washed over her in an awesome wave. She felt Kathryn's fingers gently depart from where they had been nestled deeply within her when Annika's long naked form eventually stilled.
"Come here, you." Annika grinned languidly as she held her arms open. Kathryn was slick and warm as she moved up her body. She felt soft and wonderful in Annika's embrace. "I love you, Kathryn."
"Mmmm," Kathryn's lips parted against the smooth skin of Annika's upper chest as she smiled blissfully. "I like hearing you say that. It makes me feel like I'm yours. I like that feeling, my love."
"Good. Because I intend to keep you, forever." Annika held Kathryn securely with one arm around the petite woman's waist as she pulled the tumble of sheets and blankets around their cooling bodies. They relaxed within each other's arms where both felt safe and infinitely loved.
"In a few days it'll be official." Kathryn's smile grew brilliant as she played with the platinum ring on her finger and felt warmth suffuse her chest. Her idle touch was stopped when Annika entwined their fingers and placed her lips upon Kathryn's responsive mouth.
Annika moaned as she tasted Kathryn's lips and her own essence upon them. She wasn't surprised when she felt hot arousal shoot through her body despite them having made love for the last several hours. She never seemed to be able to get enough of Kathryn. Her smooth skin, her husky voice, her enraptured features and avid response to her touch made her intoxicating to Annika.
"Oh, Annika." Kathryn smiled and closed her eyes after Annika rolled her onto her back and began trailing hot kisses from her lips to down past her navel. "Oh God!"
Annika had just plunged her tongue into Kathryn and continued to thrust the small muscle repeatedly until she had the writhing woman beneath her bucking and screaming her name. Kathryn's climax released a flood of moisture into Annika's greedy mouth and over her lips. Annika brushed her hand across Kathryn's flat stomach as she soothed the shuddering, glowing woman and continued to lap up the warm fluid that coated Kathryn's inner thighs. A gentle touch to her shoulder brought Annika's pale blue eyes up to look at elegant features and the naked love in Kathryn's eyes. She moved up Kathryn's body depositing kisses as she went. The heat of the golden glow surrounding Kathryn electrified Annika.
Annika's voice was wishful. "Are you tired?"
Kathryn's dark blue eyes blazed with warm, soft energy that glowed white. "No."
"Good."
Annika woke slowly as dawn broke and light began to stream in through a part in the curtains. The empty space next to her on the bed was warm and she smiled as she lifted herself from the bed before she pulled a robe around her slim form and went to the window. She opened the dark blue curtains followed by the window and watched as her fiancée soaked up the solar energy cast by the rising sun. Kathryn's small form was suspended in mid air, surrounded by blazing golden light.
In Annika's mind Kathryn Janeway was without a doubt the most magnificent being in the world, universe, in all of existence. It wasn't just the beauty of the woman, which Annika thought was quite amazing and desirable. Nor her powers that made Kathryn appear like a benevolent goddess at times or a vengeful angel, especially when innocent people were being threatened. What Annika was awed by most was Kathryn's heart. It was vulnerable yet resilient. Annika knew some of the horrors Kathryn had endured and yet she was still kind, compassionate and selfless.
Kathryn was charismatic, drawing people to her unconsciously. She was a natural leader, trust and loyalty was given to her unconditionally by those who called her 'Captain' or 'Professor'. Annika felt overwhelmingly privileged to know this woman. The brilliant woman had immediately captured Annika's heart even when she didn't even know Kathryn's name. When she had seen Kathryn for the first time in the gardens of the late Voyager Institute in San Francisco she had fallen in love immediately. She kept falling in love a little more with each day. It was astonishing to Annika that Kathryn loved her in return.
Annika watched with her chest suffused with love and heat as Kathryn returned to her. Kathryn smiled as brilliantly as the light encircling her as she held her arms out to Annika.
"Fly with me?"
"Kathryn, I'm too heavy." Annika knew the metal contained within her caused her to weigh considerably more than her slim frame would suggest. Besides she was a bit afraid to fly.
"I won't drop you. I promise." Kathryn was not used to having things denied her. Annika knew this and so with a few more moments of futile hesitation she placed her hands in Kathryn's and trusted her completely.
"Oh my God!" Annika clung to Kathryn after she was unceremoniously hoisted out of the window into Kathryn's arms. She told herself repeatedly not to look down, but it was no use. She did and seeing the ground continuing to move farther away made her dizzy.
"Look at me, Annika." Kathryn held the woman she loved completely in her arms securely as she propelled them higher into the morning sky.
Annika did after she pulled her wide gaze from the grassy earth that seemed impossibly far away. What she saw made her breath catch. The immense love she saw in Kathryn's blue eyes and her open, elegant features caused the anxiety Annika had been feeling to wash away. She pressed her lips against Kathryn's and felt the heat that radiated from the glowing woman; it mirrored the energy field glowing around her as well. Annika understood intellectually that like a force field Kathryn was able to extend her energy to allow Annika to defy gravity as well, but she didn't care to be intellectual as Kathryn moaned and intensified the kiss.
"Kathryn?" Annika eyes flew open as she felt Kathryn's hand nudging her robe apart enough for fingers to touch her skin.
"I won't let you fall, Annika." Kathryn smiled as she brushed the pads of her fingers across Annika's erect nipples and relished in the moans of pleasure that elicited. Her smile broadened as she brought her fingers to the wet heat between Annika's naked thighs. "Oh my."
"Kathryn!" Annika's eyes closed as she arched her back. It seemed unreal to her that she was being made love to several hundred feet in the air, but it seemed that since she was saved by Kathryn and the others of the Voyager Institute, the idea of anything being impossible no longer rang true. The slim fingers thrusting into her certainly seemed real enough.
"My God, Annika, you're beautiful. So beautiful." Kathryn held Annika tightly against her with one arm as she continued to plunge into Annika's sex. The energy field surrounding them became brilliant and cast a golden fire across the horizon as Kathryn continued to murmur words of love and devotion as Annika moaned in pleasure.
When Annika came she saw stars and thought she might pass out. But as her body stopped shaking she was able to breathe again. Her lips parted before she ravished Kathryn's mouth. She needed this woman. Now.
Sensing Annika's need, Kathryn pressed the woman in her arms closer to her before she swooped down from the sky. The open window of their bedroom shook as they propelled into the room and then onto the bed. The dimly lit room was set aglow by Kathryn's morning absorption and to Annika she looked like a goddess incarnate.
"Get naked. Now." Annika pushed her own robe completely off of her as she heard Kathryn's amused 'yes, ma'am'. She watched with unrestrained desire shining in her light blue eyes as Kathryn stood from the bed and quickly peeled off her tightly fitted suit.
"I did what you commanded." A sparkle of challenge showed through the dark desire in Kathryn's hot gaze as she stood gloriously naked before Annika. "Now what?"
Annika grinned as she abruptly pulled Kathryn on top of her. "Now, you're going to scream my name while I make love to you with my tongue inside of you."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good morning." Kathryn held her coffee mug in her hands as she greeted the male members of her staff with a brilliant smile and received warm greetings in return.
She gingerly took a seat at the dining room table. Kathryn flushed lightly at the soreness she felt but didn't regret. Annika had "punished" her for the early morning flight by giving her multiple orgasms, forcefully drawn from her body until Kathryn had to admit she could take no more. She smiled softly at the remembrance of Annika's smug grin at the fact that she had sated the voracious and seemingly insatiable Kathryn Janeway.
"Kathryn?"
"Hmm?" Still distracted by thoughts of Annika, Kathryn didn't hear a thing that was said after she had sat down. Her blush increased as she looked around the table and saw knowing looks and mostly amused expressions. "I'm sorry, Chakotay, what did you say?"
"I just said the combat suits from the Pentagon arrived today." Chakotay carefully bottled up his jealousy to where it was just a hard lump sitting cold in his stomach. His dark features betrayed nothing. At least he hoped they didn't.
Kathryn's relationship with Annika, the fact that the two were going to be married soon was like a gaping wound in his chest that wouldn't heal. He knew he would never make Kathryn his, but that still didn't stop him from being in love with her. He often wondered if he was a masochist for not requesting a transfer, but he knew he was anything but a coward.
"Tell me again why we can't just wear our own." Tom had to be blind not to notice Kathryn's distraction and Chakotay's distress, but he kept his smug smile to himself.
Tom's satisfaction at knowing how much Kathryn and Annika's relationship pained Chakotay was spiteful. He knew that but it didn't stop him from his enjoyment though he didn't go out of his way to make Chakotay angry anymore. The big guy was injured enough just by having to see the evident love between Annika and Kathryn every single day.
"The military needs to know who not to shoot at, Tom." Kathryn's voice was teasing, but there was seriousness to it as well.
Metahuman and human relations in the United States had progressed, but it wasn't perfect and a lot of hostilities still existed. Especially regarding the recently reelected President Bacco, whose inauguration the Voyager team was assigned to safeguard. Threats against the President were unfortunately many and frequent, from humans and metahumans alike. Bacco had barely won her reelection bid after vetoing a bill that would require all metahumans to register with the United States government or face judicial punishment.
"I've seen them, they're not so bad." Always a beacon of optimism, Harry shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't one for the military, but if wearing matching uniforms appeased people then he figured it was worth it.
"Style is irrelevant. We must determine if they are functional." Tuvok's impassive features and voice cut through Harry's optimism completely. It was strange that a seemingly unemotional man could be so consistently condescending. At least that's what Harry thought.
"We'll test them out after breakfast." Kathryn sipped her coffee as she acknowledged to herself some of the tensions between her staff members.
She knew they were all suffering from cabin fever. With the dismantlement of both the Obsidian Order, a metahuman group which believed humans were a plague upon the Earth and the Friends of Humanity, the most powerful anti-metahuman group there wasn't a whole lot for them to do. Kathryn felt her own restlessness at times, but then Annika would make her forget how to even speak and her wish to do something useful seemed irrelevant.
"We lost her again." Tom's teasing voice broke through Kathryn reverie and she blushed again as she tried to hide her flushed features behind her coffee mug. "Where is your wife to be, Kate?"
"Last minute dress fitting. Kes insisted that I couldn't go." Kathryn's grumble of discontent was betrayed by the blissful glow in her eyes. "I know better than to go against the wishes of the maid of honor."
"Well, you do value your life." Tom smiled brightly.
He knew only too well how much Kes and B'Elanna were worked up into frenzies of oddly girlish delight for the upcoming wedding. Tom was happy of course, but he didn't understand why it matter what the cake looked like. A cake was a cake, who cared? He had said this to B'Elanna and was subsequently given a scathing look and the cold shoulder. Kes had also been miffed with him that day as well.
"What will you be wearing, Cap—Kathryn?" Neelix's voice was jovial though he still stumbled over using Janeway's first name. He stumbled because he was delighted.
"I—my mother's dress." Kathryn's smile was touched with sadness, her voice was softly reverent. "My Aunt Martha had it stored in her attic and I thought it would be… special."
"Very special." Neelix nodded in agreement and smiled kindly at the emotions emanating from Kathryn Janeway. She was such a strong person, but at times so vulnerable, almost fragile. It was one of those seemingly incongruent aspects that made the woman so affecting. "I'm sure it will be perfect."
"Yes, well," Kathryn knew talk of her upcoming wedding was not a pleasant topic of conversation for everyone at the table, namely Chakotay who sat somberly next to her with unease radiating off of him. She decided to go to a less volatile topic. "Let's suit up, shall we."
"I still don't know why I couldn't wear a suit." Annika fidgeted in the extravagant dress that was being pulled up her body by Kes and B'Elanna. Wearing such a frilly dress seemed odd to Annika when she was much more comfortable in pants. She couldn't really recall the last time she had even worn a skirt much less a dress.
"You're crazy." B'Elanna snorted derisively as she laced up the back of Annika's magnificent wedding gown. "Sorry, but you can't be butch with that rack."
Kes giggled next to B'Elanna as she tightened the lace that held the bodice of the white dress together. She heard Annika's indignation in her mind as she finished enclosing the bride to be in the strapless, corseted dress that fit her like a glove. The full skirt and chapel train was overlaid with silk organza that gleamed brightly under the lights of the large dressing room.
"Holy crap." Annika's eyes went wide when she turned and saw herself in the mirror wearing the finished dress. She had to admit the dress was magnificent and she looked beautiful rather than gangly and awkward.
Kes smiled brightly as she came around Annika with B'Elanna in tow to take in the bridal gown in its completeness. Kes' violet eyes were sparkling with delight. "You're gorgeous."
"See what I mean?" B'Elanna smirked as she crossed her arms over her chest and nodded her head towards Annika's milky white breasts. They spilled over the top of the dress giving Annika ample cleavage. "I think Kate's going to have a hard time not ripping that dress off you the moment she sees you."
Annika blushed hotly at the thought. Her cheeks reddened even more when she heard Kes' soft giggling when her carnal thoughts were inadvertently being revealed to the telepath. Annika's embarrassment made her voice sharper than she intended. "Can I get out of this dress now? I'd like to breathe sometime today."
"Of course." Kes kept her amusement to herself as much as she could, but Annika's thoughts of Kathryn were powerful and filled her mind. She blushed herself as she moved once again behind Annika to undo the laces. "Then we'll pick out some lingerie to go underneath this dress."
Annika wondered not for the first time why she and Kathryn hadn't just eloped as she groaned aloud. "Oh God! What am I, some sort of life sized Barbie Doll to you two?"
B'Elanna snorted indelicately as she spoke under her breath. "You have about the right proportions."
"I heard that." Annika sighed before she took a few deep breaths once the tight fitted corset was pulled free of her body. It wasn't that she didn't want to do everything for this wedding; she just wondered why she was the only one having to endure the preparations. Kathryn was a bride to be as well but she wasn't spending hours in a bridal shop.
"Oh, stop your bitching." B'Elanna punched Annika's arm good-naturedly, but the contact did send Annika's shoulder back which caused her to scowl at B'Elanna in return. "We're doing this all for you, you know. Show some gratitude huh?"
"I am grateful. But I think you're just having fun torturing me." Annika's left eyebrow rose as she crossed her arms over her bare chest. "Besides this day isn't about the dress or the bouquets. It's about Kathryn and me. Our love for one another being—oh my."
Annika's eyes went large as she looked at the lingerie Kes held up for her inspection. She instantly imagined Kathryn in the lavender lace that left little covered and her eyes glazed over at the arousing thought. She thought she heard soft snickering but the images her thoughts had conjured were far too distracting for her to care.
"A present for your wife to be it is." Kes grinned triumphantly after she blocked out Annika's sensual imaginings. "See it's not all bad."
"No, not bad at all." Annika gently took the lavender material in her hands that was offered to her by Kes. She massaged the material between her fingers before she spoke again, her voice low and hopeful. "Do they have anything in red?"
CHAPTER 2
One universe over
Her red eyes blazed with power, stolen power as her gaze bored into the simpering man before her. An inhibitor collar bit into Harry Kim's neck and a long chain attached his collar to a steel bolt imbedded in the stone floor by Kathryn Janeway's bare feet. He didn't dare look upon her fiery, naked form. He didn't want to see the terrifying and hateful woman who beat him daily and who had killed his wife two years ago when they had been caught by Janeway's hounds.
"I have a little job for you." Janeway looked upon the naked, bloodied man with false warmth as she stroked his lacerated back in a grotesque parody of a lover's caress. "You want to make me happy don't you?"
Harry bit his bottom lip until blood was drawn in order to not whimper beneath the searing touch of Janeway's blazing hand. He knew he would be punished even more severely for making any noise as she continued to leave a burning trail across his skin.
Harry would do anything for her because he knew exactly what would happen to him if he didn't. It would be the same thing that had happened to his wife, Libby. Kashyk and Culluh had held him as he screamed and thrashed against their strong hands while Janeway had ripped Libby a part slowly and fed on the psionic energy expelled from his wife's body that had burned orange and red.
He felt bile rise to his throat as he remembered how he had been forced to watch Janeway satisfy her lust with Kashyk, then Culluh and then... Harry pushed out of his memories. His words rasped from pain but he spoke his acquiescence loud enough to elicit a sadistic grin from Janeway.
"That's my good boy." Janeway smiled toothily before she raised Harry's face to meet hers. She pressed her hot, bruising mouth hard against his and shook with pleasure as Harry's energy began to fill her. He whimpered as she bit his lip cruelly before she withdrew. "Mmm, delicious. Now, lie on your back like a good boy."
Harry's throat filled with blood from biting his tongue to keep from screaming in agony as the fiery woman writhed on top of him. And for the first time in his life he was glad Libby was dead. At least her pain had only lasted a night. His had continued for nearly two years and would continue until the day he died. All because his powers were useful to Janeway. He found her worlds like theirs to devour, metahumans to eat and suns to absorb. Harry was the gatekeeper to the Sun Eater, Red the Destroyer… the Queen as Janeway called herself.
He tried to ignore how his skin blistered under hers as he hoped he would finally find a universe that had someone powerful enough to defeat Janeway, but he knew it was a lost hope. He had seen Janeway destroy five Earths now and despite an abundance of metahumans on each one she could not be defeated. Harry wanted to die so no one else had to. He wanted to die because Janeway wanted him alive. He wanted to die because it hurt so much just to breathe.
CHAPTER 3
T'Pol couldn't breathe; the pain in her mind was too strong as she collapsed on the floor of her bedroom. She barely felt Trip's strong hands grasping her shoulders or hear his Southern twang of a voice calling her name desperately.
Air pounded into her lungs painfully as she gasped and shuddered until finally her seizure stopped and she expelled one word from between her lips before she fell unconscious. It was a name that was said as a warning. "Janeway."
"How are you feeling?" Trip handed a glass of water to the seated woman before he sat down on the couch next to her. He had seen her experience a powerful vision before but he had never seen T'Pol so strongly affected by it. It worried him. He placed a warm hand on her shoulder for support and reassurance.
"Better." T'Pol sipped out of the glass before she set it on the coffee table in front of her and Trip. She pulled her robe closer around her as she looked seriously at the worried man. "It was similar to my last vision of Kathryn Janeway, after the incident in Antarctica."
Trip nodded his head in acknowledgment. He remembered how Kathryn had lost her fiancé and nearly her own life in Antarctica and then the ominous vision T'Pol had had of a vengeful, power hungry Kathryn Janeway whose thirst was insatiable where the sun itself couldn't satisfy her. He had met Kathryn and continued to see her at functions sponsored by the United Federation of Metahumans and his mind still boggled that the woman could even be capable of such actions. But he knew better than to question T'Pol's premonitions. The only thing they could do was try to prevent them from happening.
"Charles, what I saw was worse, far worse. She didn't inadvertently destroy the world, she was fully conscious of her actions. She killed us, she killed us all because she wanted to. Because it gave her pleasure. What I saw was… we have to stop her." Hot tears flooded T'Pol's eyes as she gripped Trip's arms tightly in her hands. "If we don't, she'll come for us. And we won't stop screaming until we're dead."
"W—what do we do?"
T'Pol's eyes blazed with serious intent and her voice was strong and sure. "We have to kill her."
"Are you bloody mental?" Julian Bashir looked at the two beings on his viewscreen as if they had just sprouted antennae with eyeballs on the end of them. "Kill Kathryn Janeway?"
"Julian, my vision was clear. She'll destroy this world and soon. We can't allow that to happen." T'Pol's voice was modulated and clear. This was no time for emotions. This was the end of the world. "I'm sorry, I like Kathryn too but this must be done."
"This isn't a matter of liking anyone. You're talking about killing one of our own over a vision that frankly I'm not sure is that reliable." Julian didn't try to leave out his indignation out of his tones.
He never trusted something as subjective as precognition. If a fluttering butterfly could cause a hurricane then the slightest thing could probably change a vision of the future. T'Pol had been overzealous before. In fact this wasn't the first time she suggested them killing Kathryn over the same sort of apocalyptic premonition.
"You know she won't go down without a fight. Us trying to kill her or even capturing her might be the thing that sets her off. Preservation and all that." Julian had seen Kathryn in action and though she was certainly powerful and impressive he had his doubts that she was even capable of what T'Pol spoke of. Eating the sun? It seemed like rubbish to him.
"At least speak with the others. I agree that killin' is extreme but we shouldn't just ignore T'Pol's vision." Trip placed a hand on T'Pol's rigid back as he tried to be the mediator. "If we at least… contain Janeway perhaps that would be enough to offset the chain of events."
"Fine, all right. I'll talk with the others, but don't do anything without my consent or you two will be the ones imprisoned or worse." Julian wondered sometimes why he had even wanted to head the Jupiter Station with people like T'Pol and Trip under his purview. Perhaps it was because he really didn't like children or schools. "Understood?"
T'Pol's nostrils flared and anger set her jaw stiffly as she answered sharply. "Yes."
Julian sighed with relief as his screen went black. He drank his scotch while he tapped his communication console which put him in touch with Jean Luc Picard. "No time for pleasantries, Picard. We have a situation on our hands. T'Pol had another vision regarding Kathryn Janeway."
"Kathryn?" Picard's voice was rich and gravelly, but a hint of worry seeped in the staid man's tones. "What did T'Pol see?"
"The end of the world, my dear man."
"She's going to destroy the world?"
"Yes, Beverly." Picard sat with his staff that had matching countenances of worry after he had relayed what Julian had told him of T'Pol's vision. A vision that had a sadistic Kathryn Janeway destroying the world, viciously killing all of them and then devouring the sun. "T'Pol's premonitions can be averted, we've done it before but it's never come upon her this strongly. And she told Julian she saw the Earth destroyed within the week."
"I just don't understand how it's possible." Riker's brow was creased as he tried to reconcile his knowledge of Kathryn with this nightmare vision T'Pol had foreseen. "We're talking about Kathryn Janeway here."
"I understand it's difficult to imagine, but…" Picard wondered how much he should tell his staff, people he trusted with his life. He knew he owed them the truth despite his wish not to have to betray Kathryn's confidence. "She has the ability to become addicted to energy, to covet it beyond all reason. I have seen this ravenous thirst for myself and I can tell you that she is not herself when under the influence of this insatiable hunger. She is fully capable of killing for it."
The conference room was absolutely silent. Picard could feel the tension in the room and didn't need to be a telepath to know that he had just shattered several people's assertions of who Kathryn Janeway was. He knew Riker, Barclay, Beverly and even Deanna would never look at Kathryn the same way again. He was sorry for that because he knew what a tortured soul she was.
"I—I don't know what to say. I had no idea." Deanna looked around the room and knew her words were what the others were feeling as well. Her heart ached for Kathryn despite the fear that was crawling icily across her back.
"But why doesn't she… hunger for energy all the time?" Beverly had only met Kathryn a few times. She thought her intelligent, warm if a bit shy, but nothing about the other woman seemed dangerous in the least.
"She does. But has learned to control it, mostly. She came to me after she lost control after Justin Tighe's death. T'Pol had had a vision then as well and told her to come to me." Picard took a deep breath before he revealed what he had done. "I—I placed mental barriers in her mind to prevent that hunger from reigning freely, but it's still there. It's always there. It remerged again after the incident with Regina McQueen, but Kes was able to contain it once again."
"After Tighe… when you had me erase Kathryn's memories of her meeting with you. That's why." Riker felt violated and then he felt sick that he had violated Kathryn even when he was ordered to do so. "So what T'Pol warns us about could happen?"
"Yes."
"W—what are we going to do?" Barclay was pale. He couldn't believe it. Not Kathryn Janeway. She was too kindhearted, too… perfect to be something so evil.
"The rest of the chairpersons have agreed that T'Pol's vision should be taken very seriously." Picard remembered the anger that had exploded from both Lwaxana and Nechayev, but even they had to finally acquiescence to the dangers in letting Kathryn remain free, if not alive. He felt no better in what must be done than they, but he knew the fate of the planet was hanging in the balance. "Our orders are to capture Kathryn Janeway, by any means necessary."
Riker grimaced and it looked like a pained smile. "Dead or alive you mean?"
Picard's gaze was hard and his voice sure. "Yes."