Chapter 12
On his way back to Gianfar, Chakotay was talking with B'Elanna over an open channel with Voyager. Before he'd left Maradibaya, Kiam had given him the information Chakotay had requested, including reports on most of the Maradib's weapon power sources. Which meant that they now had a comparative baseline to analyze the weapon's signature and compare it with Maradib technology. And now that Chakotay was close enough to Gianfar to be within range, he had contacted Voyager to forward them the information.
"You will find information on two kinds of power sources," Kiam explained to B'Elanna from his own Maradib shuttle. Given the nature of Chakotay's findings on Maradibaya, and the state of the alliance, Lyat'ib had asked Kiam and Tibeya to return with Chakotay to Gianfar to speak to Kathryn on his behalf, while Lyat'ib recuperated. It was a lot of back and forth, but hopefully this would be the last trip for a while. "One has occasionally been used by Restorationists in the past and is Kiradil-powered. The second one is the current technology the Maradib use. Esheeyab is not used in their manufacture, so there should be no trace of Kiradil."
"Okay, I'll take a look. Thanks!" B'Elanna replied, her face on Chakotay's viewscreen. "Where are you now?"
"Actually we've just started entering Gianfar's atmosphere," Chakotay replied, "I told Kathryn I would meet her-"
Suddenly there was a new alert from his communication console – it was a direct transmission from the surface, but not from any of the settlements. "Hold on, B'Elanna. I'm picking up something." Frowning, Chakotay pressed his console to hear it.
"…Please, I need help! Am'ral Janeway is in trouble!" Chakotay felt the blood drain from his face the instant he recognized Emani's small voice, and he jumped to his feet on instinct. Emani sounded terrified, crying in fear. "Please! Come find us. I'm scared, I don't know what to do. Please, please, please…" She begged between sobs.
Chakotay didn't waste a second. "B'Elanna, did you hear that?"
"Loud and clear. I'll alert the captain right away."
Chakotay hurried to respond to Emani's call, blood suddenly pounding in his ears. "Emani, this is Chakotay, I'm on my way. Are you hurt? Are you safe?" She responded with whimpers, but Chakotay assumed she was nodding. "Emani, listen to me. I'm only a couple of minutes away. Just stay right where you are, okay? The combadge you're using will help me pinpoint your location. Keep talking to me. Can you tell me what's going on? You said Admiral Janeway is in trouble, what did you mean?"
Emani told him what she knew, but her voice was so filled with tears and her story so disjointed, it took Chakotay a while to put all the pieces together into a coherent whole. Chakotay reassured her as well as he could while his own heart was hammering with fear for Kathryn and Emani, and made sure to keep that channel open with her so that she would continue to hear his voice while he organized. On cue, Captain Peres hailed him from Voyager – she told him about Kathryn's reconnaissance mission to FarTech, and how Voyager had been on standby as backup, filling in the blanks in Emani's story. "We tried contacting them," Peres went on, "but there now seems to be some kind of violet energy barrier blocking the signal. I've never seen anything like it."
"We have," Kiam's voice interjected. Chakotay was glad to hear the Maradib had been monitoring the conversation, he'd almost forgotten about them. "If we are correct, those are Kiradil-powered energy barriers. Matter particles or communication signals will not be able to penetrate them, keeping anyone within – or out – and blocking all signals."
Chakotay blinked, thoughts racing. "Kiradil. Does that mean you can disable it?"
"Hm, yes, I believe so. Give us a moment to verify that we have the proper equipment." Chakotay anxiously wiped a hand over the lower half of his face while he waited. What the hell had Kathryn been thinking to go there with only a small away team? As her first officer he'd seen her take such risks (or wanting to take such risks) several times, but then he'd always been there to temper her recklessness. Heart still hammering in his chest, but doing his best to control his fear, Chakotay took the opportunity to check up on Emani again, to make sure she was still there. She replied in a small voice, but when he asked she assured him that she hadn't moved and that she was still okay. It sounded like her crying had subsided too.
They were getting close enough to Emani's combadge coordinates to see that sleek, white building in the distance, right on top of the cliff overlooking the sea.
"Yes, Mr. Chakotay, we can disable that energy barrier," Kiam confirmed, "but we will need to go directly to the source to do so."
"Are you able to locate the source with your sensors?" Because Chakotay couldn't detect much with his, which only added to his frustration.
It was Tibeya who replied. "Yes. It is located inside the facility. Our sensors can pinpoint its location with high degrees of precision. We can also detect several life forms. Most life signs are gathered directly outside the facility – but it looks as though twelve individuals remain inside the facility; four of them are clustered within one specific room. It looks like that particular room is the only one within the compound that is encased within the Kiradil energy barrier." So in all likelihood Kathryn and the others were trapped down there…
"So we should have access to the rest of the facility," Chakotay said, thinking to himself out loud.
Tibeya went on. "Yes. Given Admiral Janeway's inability to contact Captain Peres, it is possible that the four life signs within the blocked room belong to her and her companions. The good news is that if they appear on our sensors, then they must be alive," she added, anticipating Chakotay's next question.
Chakotay nodded in relief. He'd take every good news he could get. He made sure that the channel opened wide enough so that the Voyager and KJ bridge crews could also hear.
"What are your recommendations, Mr. Chakotay?" Captain Peres asked. "Unfortunately we can't transport down and all of our shuttles are in Dråkin-Mati, but they're only a call away and they could be at your position within twenty minutes or less. Whatever you need to pull the away team out and complete their mission, we'll provide."
Chakotay nodded as he considered his options. "Alright. Here's what I'm thinking..."
oooOooo
Kathryn kicked herself as she walked around the room with Ng's tricorder to scan the violet energy barrier that surrounded the room and blocked their exit. Her readings had confirmed that it was Kiradil-powered. Damn that man! She was looking for a breach, a weakness, anything that they could use to disable it from the inside, and get the hell out of there. Seven and Ng had woken up a few minutes before, thankfully, and Tuvok and Seven now worked on trying to disable the Maradib explosive device, using their own tricorders to scan it and figure out how it worked. Seven's ocular implant appeared to be helpful as well. Fortunately, Jaidan had set it up on a timer, no doubt to give himself more time to escape, but luckily that also gave them a chance to disarm it before it went off. Kathryn had no doubt that the energy barrier that he had erected after he'd left the room not only trapped them here, but also that it would contain the explosion to this room.
She cursed mentally at Bakar again. True Kathryn had rushed this mission – perhaps more so than she had been comfortable with even at the onset – but she still believed that not waiting had been the right thing to do. Lieutenant Ng was currently going over the stuff that Jaidan had been getting ready to get rid of, and it was a goldmine of evidence against the man, and FarTech. There was too much to process on the spot, but at first glance it did look like the research he'd been working on matched the weapon's signature that B'Elanna had identified. The question that nagged at Kathryn now was why: why target the settlement? If his target had been the Prime Minister, surely a man like Jaidan Bakar would have access to less theatrical means of doing the job. But perhaps theatrics was what he'd wanted. She had seen the cold, calculating light in his eyes. Perhaps he enjoyed feeling all powerful at the expense of others.
But all that evidence and wondering would be useless if they didn't make it out of this room. Kathryn refocused on her task and the readings on the tricorder, but her head hurt like hell, thanks to Bakar's blow to her face, and she found the letters swimming in front of her eyes more often than not.
And her thoughts kept going back to Emani. She was so worried about her. Kathryn's combadge was still useless, so she had no way of knowing whether Emani had gotten to safety or if she'd been able to call for help. And not knowing was killing her. If she got out of this alive and found that something had happened to Emani, because of her… The thought was too painful to think about.
And where had Jaidan gone? Would they have a chance to catch him before he disappeared? They had been so close.
Her thoughts flittered to Chakotay of their own volition. It seemed like every time her life was threatened now she thought of him. Would they get a chance to have that conversation about kids that she had been so worried about? Her fears seemed so trivial now. She loved him more than she could express, and she could have no doubt that he felt the same, so they would find a way to work through the future together, no matter what it entailed. Or didn't entail. They'd been through too much to let this come between them now. Her heart squeezed as she pictured that crooked smile she loved so much, or recalled the heightened hue on his face after he realized the bridge officers had witnessed their parting kiss. She closed her eyes for a second, holding on to those images despite the ache that accompanied them.
"Admiral." Kathryn turned her attention to Seven and walked closer to where she and Tuvok had been sitting, bent over the explosive device. "We've determined that we have 12 minutes left on the countdown."
Kathryn pursed her lips, but it was actually more time than she had hoped for. "Can you disarm it?" She wondered whether Bakar had meant to leave it ticking for so long, or if he'd just been in too much of a hurry to make sure that the countdown was just right.
"I believe so," Seven replied. "But I've never encountered this technology before, therefore the odds of me setting the explosive off instead are high."
Kathryn raised an eyebrow. "How high?"
Seven held her eyes. "High." The fact that she wasn't admitting to a specific percentage didn't bode well.
"Tuvok, what do you think? Do we have any other options?"
"Not while the energy barrier remains enabled. In fact, I would suggest that while Seven works on disabling the device, we use whatever we can find in this room to set up a barrier to protect us from the blast in case she fails."
Kathryn saw Seven's jaw tighten at this, but she nodded at Tuvok. It was a long shot that anything would protect them if the bomb went off, but she needed something to occupy her mind. "Alright. Let's get started."
oooOooo
As soon as Chakotay landed his shuttle a short distance from the one where Emani was hidden, he stormed out and ran toward it. It was sitting behind large, rocky boulders, hidden from the facility, yet, the shuttle had been discovered because there was a man in Starfleet uniform lying next to it – one of the security officers from Voyager. Chakotay hurried and knelt to feel for his pulse. His heart sank when he recognized him: Ensign Fharad. Nothing. He wasn't much older than Harry had been when he'd first joined he Voyager crew. Biting down a rush of dread and anger, Chakotay stood again. The shuttle hatch was opened so he barged in, phaser in hand. "Emani? Emani!"
"Chakotay!" Emani was suddenly rushing toward him.
Chakotay bent down to catch her and sweep her up in his arms, holding her tight, breathing hard with relief. "Sh, you're okay, I've got you. I've got you." Emani sobbed into his neck.
"Mr. Chakotay, come in." Tibeya.
Chakotay pulled away to look at Emani's face. Her cheeks were wet with tears, but she seemed unharmed. He thought he could detect a slight odor of urine and his heart went out to her. How scared she must have been. Still holding her, he hit his combadge. "Chakotay here. I've got Emani. She's okay."
"That is a great relief. Kiam and I are ready to make the jump. If all goes well, we have calculated that the energy barriers and the force field surrounding the facility will fall in 10 minutes."
Chakotay opened his mouth, but it was Tom who replied first. "Understood. The Flyer and the other shuttles will be there in 5. We're already on our way." As per Peres' offer, Voyager and the KJ had organized the mobilization of crewmembers who were already on the surface, so Chakotay was expecting five shuttles worth of reinforcement. In 5 minutes, Tom had said.
Chakotay nodded. "Understood. Good luck Tibeya." He put Emani down in the co-pilot chair, holstered his phaser, and started walking toward the back to check on the hatch. "Hang on for a second," he told Emani when her eyes widened, "I just need to-"
Emani screamed and when Chakotay spun around he found a man skidding to a halt at the entrance of the shuttle. Despite the backlit silhouette, Chakotay had spent enough time in his company on Voyager to recognize him at once: Jaidan Bakar. They both blinked in surprise at finding the other in their way.
"You!" Bakar blurted in utter surprise.
Knowing what he knew about Bakar and piecing the rest together in half a second, Chakotay recovered first; he took his phaser and shot, but Bakar had recovered by then too, and he ducked out of the way before lunging for Chakotay's arm to make him drop the phaser. They collided against the shuttle wall, struggling to overpower the other. Chakotay took those valuable few seconds to assess his opponent: the man wasn't a fighter, but he was taller and desperate. Chakotay on the other hand had the advantage of experience and strength. So, knowing that Bakar would need the phaser if he had any hope of overpowering Chakotay, he let it drop to the ground and kicked it to send it sliding across the floor. That distracted Bakar and, drawing from years of boxing training, Chakotay punched him hard enough to make him stumble back. Struggling to find his balance, Bakar scurried to get away from Chakotay and get to the weapon, but Chakotay pursued him and tackled him to the ground. They tumbled and rolled out of the shuttle through the still open hatch, and Chakotay found himself pinned down with Bakar over him, muscles straining to keep the man's arms from lowering and aiming the weapon at him. He must have picked it up as they rolled. Chakotay was able to slip in a punch to the man's ribs, but Bakar didn't release his hold on the phaser.
Out of nowhere Emani appeared above them and with all the strength that she possessed in her small body, she swung a medkit case at Bakar's head, hard. It wasn't enough to dislodge him off Chakotay, but it did distract him for an instant, giving Chakotay an opening. He didn't hesitate. In a swift move, Chakotay used his legs to roll from under Bakar and, twisting his arm behind his back, made him drop the phaser with a yelp. Chakotay turned him on his stomach, so that he could hold him there. Jaidan fought him for a moment, cursing and spitting dirt, but Chakotay held him firmly. Panting from the effort, he looked up at Emani. She was standing there, holding the medkit against her chest, mouth agape, and then she dropped herself to the ground in relief. She was shaking.
Chakotay smiled at her. "Thank you, Assistant Emani," he panted, smiling. "But next time, please stay in the shuttle." She giggled shakily.
At that moment, Voyager's reinforcement appeared in the sky and landed around them. Tom, Tal and several others poured out of the Flyer and ran toward them, phasers out. Chakotay quickly apprised them of the situation as he looked at the time. They only had a few minutes before Tibeya and Kiam reached the power source and disabled the force field. He had to get the teams ready.
As if reading his mind, Tom nodded at him. "You lead the away teams inside, we'll take it from here," Tom said, gesturing for the security officers to take Bakar into custody and then took care of Ensign Fharad's body.
Chakotay called Ensign Celes over. Then he stepped up to Emani and bent at the waist to place his hands on her shoulders. "Emani, I have to go help Kathryn now. She needs my help, but I don't want to put you in any more danger, do you understand? Ensign Celes here will take care of you."
Emani started shaking her head in sheer panic. "No, no, no…"
"Emani listen to me," Chakotay insisted, cupping her small cheek, forcing her to meet his eyes. "This won't be like last time, I promise. You won't be alone. Tal here will fly the shuttle up high in the air, so you'll be safe – no one is going to threaten or harm the shuttle this time, I promise you. And then when it's safe for you to come back down, she'll bring you back to us." Chakotay glanced at Celes, who nodded resolutely, understanding the weight of the trust he was putting on her.
"No, please! Please don't go! I can help! I know the way! I can still be your assistant!"
"Not this time. Be brave. Just for a while longer. You just have to trust me a little while longer."
She grabbed onto to his arm, still crying for him not to go without her, and it took everything he had for Chakotay to steel himself and not be swayed. To ensure that she wouldn't run after him, he lifted Emani up and dropped her in Celes' arms before she could fight him any more than she already was, or worse, follow him.
"Alright, let's go!" He bellowed at the officers who had been awaiting his command.
As Chakotay walked away, Emani started screaming, blood-curling sounds of despair, while Chakotay jogged in the other direction. He willed himself not to look back, but damn him if it wasn't one of the hardest things he'd ever done.
oooOooo
Tibeya and Kiam's shuttle was hovering above the water, just a short distance from the clifftop where the facility stood. Chakotay had suggested that the two crews raid the compound from two different directions in order to increase the advantage of surprise. So Tibeya and Kiam would come in from the ocean side (which would also take them closer to the energy source they were to disable), while Chakotay and the Starfleet away teams would go in through the main front doors, drawing the attention of any security guards remaining within, opening the way for Kiam and Tibeya.
Kiam strapped the shuttle's remote control to his wrist so that he would be able to pilot it remotely. Meanwhile, Tibeya grabbed every equipment they would need to disable to energy barrier generator and tossed them into a backpack. Once they were ready, they stepped all the way to the edge of the shuttle's open hatch, and dove. The Maradib were almost as comfortable in water as they were on land, so this was something that both of them had done a number of times before.
Tibeya hit the water first and immediately started swimming toward the cliff. She resurfaced when her fingers touched its rocky wall. Kiam was next to her in an instant, and together they started the ascend up the cliff. Over the last several months training with Kiam to control her mindreaping abilities, he had had insisted that to train her in mental discipline, he had to first work on improving her physical discipline; so he had made her go through grueling exercises to improve her strength and endurance. Now she was glad, because it seemed that the training was paying off at last. When they reached the top, they quickly ran to one of the windows and broke it without ceremony. They were both inside the facility within seconds, dripping water on the shiny floor.
A security officer spotted them, but he had no sooner raised his weapon that Kiam was disarming him in two swift moves and stunning him into unconsciousness with his own stunner. Tibeya used her wrist scanner to identify any lifeforms coming their way, while keeping an eye on their destination. So when they reached the energy barrier generator, they were in fact two minutes ahead of schedule.
oooOooo
Kathryn, Tuvok and Ng had built a barricade with flipped-over tables and metal panels – anything they could get their hands on. Only three minutes on the countdown remained, so Kathryn hurried to check up on Seven.
"How's it coming? I hate to pressure you, but…"
Seven didn't look away from the explosive. "This is an intricately-designed device. Sensitive. I don't want to risk setting it off." She very gingerly pressed a series of the small round lights that covered the surface of the device, and with a hiss, the device opened. Kathryn flinched away out of instinct, but it only exposed the explosive mechanism. Seven looked at Kathryn over her shoulder then. "You better step back."
Kathryn placed a hand on Seven's shoulder as they shared a look. "I'd wish you good luck, but you won't need it."
At that moment a tremor ran through the entire building, almost like a low-grade earthquake, and an instant later the violet light of the energy barrier disintegrated with a whoosh. She exchanged a stunned look with Tuvok, who immediately ran to the wall and cautiously reached out with his hand, but there was nothing. The force field was no longer active.
oooOooo
Chakotay hurried through the corridors of the facility with the group of armed Starfleet crewmembers, his eyes on the tricorder even as he held a phaser at the ready with his other hand.
"The energy barrier is now down," Tibeya's voice resounded through Chakotay's combadge.
"Well done. Time to rendezvous as planned. We're almost there."
oooOooo
"Seven, forget about the bomb, let's go!" Kathryn said as she started running toward the door.
But Seven didn't move, her eyes still fixed on the explosive device. "We won't have time to get far enough. You must get to safety, I will attempt to complete the process."
Kathryn opened her mouth but at that moment her combadge crackled to life. "Kathryn come in? Admiral Janeway, if you can hear me, please come in."
Chakotay! Kathryn's heart skipped a beat as she hit her combadge. "Chakotay, I hear you loud and clear. Where are you? How…?"
"I'm in the building, along with several away teams. The force field has been disabled. We're almost at your position, what's your status?"
Seven's gaze snapped to Kathryn's at that, her eyes widening. Kathryn felt her blood turn cold. "Negative – Chakotay, get out of there! I repeat, get back outside. There's an explosive device in the main lab, do not approach. Seven is working on disarming it, but there's no telling what damage it could do if it blows. With the barrier off, the blast won't be contained to this room. Get the hell out of here, that's an order!"
oooOooo
Chakotay stopped abruptly at her words, halting the rest of the group at the same time. He quickly ordered the away teams to run back the way they'd come and evacuate the perimeter.
He, however, kept going. "Tibeya, are you monitoring?"
"Yes, I am almost there."
oooOooo
25 seconds.
Despite the fact that they had built a barricade, Kathryn and Lieutenant Ng rushed to crouch around Seven instead. To her credit, her fingers didn't shake as she focused on the tiny wires that connected to a pulsing blueish-purple light in the center of the device.
Tuvok frowned, and opened his mouth to speak, "Admiral, we should now able to-"
"Kathryn!"
Kathryn felt her stomach drop as Chakotay strode inside the room. No! He wasn't supposed to be here! She was on her feet in a second, stomping toward him angrily. "I thought I told you to get the hell-" She didn't get to finish because he hadn't slowed his advance on her and now his lips pressed hard on hers, quite effectively shutting her up. When he pulled back, his hands still gripping her upper arms fiercely, his resolute expression matched hers. "Save it, because if you think I'm going anywhere…"
"Last wire," Seven said.
"As I was saying," Tuvok started again, "with the barrier down, we should now be able to-"
He got interrupted again, because at that moment the doors actually burst open. It was Tibeya's turn to storm in this time; instead of rushing to them, she ignored them altogether as she shot her Maradib energy weapon across the room, aiming at the large windows in the back of the room and firing until the glass shattered. Everyone ducked on instinct, but not taking the time to acknowledge any of them and not slowing down, she snatched the explosive device from Seven's hands as she blurred by. She sped up for the last four paces, her legs powerfully propelling her forward – and jumped out through the hole she'd made in the window.
All the rest of them could do was gape as she disappeared from sight.
Lieutenant Ng was the first to blink. "Um. What the hell just happened?"
oooOooo
Based on her sensory readings, Tibeya already knew that the laboratory was directly overlooking the water. And she also knew that disarming those explosives was nearly impossible, whereas there was almost no risk in what Tibeya did now – not for the Maradib.
So as she jumped through the window, she repositioned herself in mid-air so that she would be diving head-first in the ocean below instead of falling feet first. As she flipped, she hurled the explosive device as high and as far as she possibly could. And just as her hands and then the crown of her head hit the water, she heard and felt the roaring boom of the detonation, high above.
oooOooo
The explosive device detonated over the water in a blinding flash of blue light. Everyone in the lab had to raise their arms to cover their eyes. The building shook for an instant as the shockwave rocked the cliffs, but after a stunned second or two, everything settled again. Kathryn and Chakotay ran to the shattered window to look down at the sea below, searching for Tibeya among the waves. It took a few seconds, but eventually they saw her resurface and they both let out a relieved chuckle. They saw the Maradib shuttle get down to the water – Kiam at the helm – and Tibeya climbing in. She was safe. They were all safe.
It took a second for that to sink in, but when it did, Kathryn's legs almost buckled from under her. She reached out blindly and gripped Chakotay's arm so tight her knuckles turned white. In response his arm went around her, both to support her and to tug her closer. She felt his heartbeat pounding against her back, as strongly and as fast as hers.
Tom's voice suddenly resounded through Chakotay's combadge. "Chakotay, what's your status? We heard the explosion. I repeat, what is your status?"
"We're okay," Chakotay replied, still breathing hard. "The bomb exploded far enough that we didn't sustain any damage. The facility should be safe to move back in and make sure it's all clear."
"Understood," Tom replied. "We're going back in now." The transmission ended.
"As I was trying to say," Tuvok repeated calmly again as he joined them to peek over the edge. "There was no need for such theatrics; with the barrier disabled we could have simply used the transporters."
Four pairs of eyes snapped to Tuvok.
Snorts and quiet chuckles echoed across the room as they all realized he was right. Chakotay let out a quiet laugh. "Let's not tell Tibeya that."
"Well I disagree! Let's give Tibeya the credit she deserves," Kathryn countered. "If we'd just transported out, that bomb would have gone off and destroyed all the evidence in here. Which reminds me," Kathryn turned to Ng. "Lieutenant, do not let the contents of that bin out of your sight. We'll need more officers in here to sort through all that as well," she indicated with a wave around the room.
He gave a stern nod, a half-smile curling his lips as he pressed his combadge to call in reinforcements
Kathryn's eyes returned to Chakotay. "Emani?"
Chakotay nodded. "She's safe. Terrified and in shock and probably very angry with me, but safe," he told her quietly, his eyes now roaming over her face. His fingers came to gently touch her jaw to make her turn her head so he could have a better look at her bruised cheekbone. He winced, his thumb barely brushing against her cheek as he inspected it. "Ensign Fharad was dead when I got there though."
Oh no. Kathryn closed her eyes for a moment. This explained why Emani had left the shuttle then. "Bakar must have sent his goons to investigate the shuttle when he found out we were here to confront him," she muttered under her breath.
Chakotay nodded. "I think he planned to use the shuttle as an escape."
Kathryn's eyes snapped up to his at this. "He planned to use the shuttle? What do you mean, he planned to use the shuttle?"
Chakotay's lips curled into a crooked smile. "Let's just say his plan got thwarted when we ran into each other. Literally. I caught him trying to board it."
Kathryn's eyes widened. "You caught him?"
"With Emani's help, actually," Chakotay replied, that smile still tugging at the corner of his mouth. Oh she could kiss him! "I think maybe in another life she was a professional tennis player. Or maybe a baseball player. She has a pretty mean swing."
Kathryn beamed at him in relief and pride, her hand coming up to rest on his chest, amazed at the turn of events. But then she lifted curious eyes back to Chakotay. "How did you get here?"
"Emani used her combadge to call for help. I'd already started my descent into Gianfar, so I picked up her signal first."
Kathryn smiled. "Good girl."
Chakotay nodded, then frowned as his eyes returned to her bruise. "Kathryn," he shook his head, half-chiding half-sympathetic.
"It's fine. I'm fine."
His fingers were gentle against her skin, barely grazing. He leaned forward to touch his lips to her brow, featherlight. At the rush of emotions swelling inside her at his unbearably tender touch, Kathryn snaked her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek on the way to hug him. He stepped into the embrace, wrapping his arms around her and holding on tightly.
They pulled away when a group of security officers stormed in – part of Chakotay's raiding teams, with Tom among them. They reported to Tuvok as he was the first to approach them and request it. Kathryn was fine with it – she'd had about enough of this place.
As if reading her mind, Chakotay returned his gaze to hers. "Let's get out of here."
oooOooo