Author: Christy Anderson
You can contact me at kittyunlimited@go.com.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Paramount minus Ensign Christy Anderson and a few selected insignificant characters.
Nearing the end once again… Enjoy!
Stars of Night (Sterne der Nacht): Part 8
A twig snapped.
I awakened with a start, and for the first few moments I could not remember where I was. I noticed that the sun had already risen with its bright yellow hues, and the morning air began to spread its contagious chill. Shivering, I drew the thick, warm blanket in close and then wondered where it had come from. With warm memories flooding back, I looked up to see Tre'kent, still resting peacefully against the bench. My head was in his lap, and his hands were resting on my head as if he had been stroking my hair. Wistfully, I watched him sleep on; a smile came to my face as I remembered the previous night under the stars. Desperately I tried to block out the mental images of leaving him so soon. In just two short days, Voyager would be pulling out of orbit to resume its course to Earth. Seien Sie hell! Jene zwei Tage sind die in der Freude an seiner Firma aufzuwendenden Tage... Be cheerful, those two days are days to be spent in the joy of his company.
Gently, I nudged him in his side. I heard a soft moan as he stirred, and repeating my action brought him to full alert. "Good morning, Christy," he said sleepily. "I trust you slept well," he added as he bent down to kiss my forehead. Our lips found each other, and I sat up beside him on the bench.
"Very well," I belatedly answered.
He glanced over at me. "Can you stay today?" he asked with his eyes bright and expectant.
I wholeheartedly nodded. "I'll have to call in for shore leave first," I said matter-of-factly.
"You can do it right away," he suggested. But not one of us made a move. I wrapped the blanket around Tre'kent as well, suddenly noticing how cold he was. Quietly I rested my head back on his shoulder, content just to be in his company.
Another twig snapped, and the loud crackling sound was unmistakable. I could feel my adrenaline levels rising as I remember what had awakened me. I clung to Tre'kent like a frightened child as the sound of feet, millions of feet, trampling and stamping the ground moved closer and closer. Then came the sounds of shouting, yelling, and random orders that cut through the air unbelievably. Tre'kent stood up, the terror all too evident in his eyes. "The forcefield must have went offline," he said under his breath. "Christy, stand up… try to move as quickly as you can. And be silent!" he hissed. "We have to find new shelter."
I dropped the blanket and bounced to my feet, but as I heard the sound of a gun cocking I knew it was already too late. "Run, Christy!" Tre'kent shouted. He allowed me no time to adjust to the situation as he grabbed my hand and dragged me along at a furious pace. I stopped in my tracks as I felt an unbearable pain sear through my arm. My stop was indefinite as I saw my own red blood oozing through my rumpled uniform. Tre'kent reached out to grab me again. "We have to keep moving!" he barked. But I had already hesitated too long.
Tre'kent was violently struck down by a bullet. Men in camouflage began to converge on our position. In a frenzied daze I tapped my Comm badge. "Ensign Anderson to anyone. Two to beam directly to Sick Bay… Now!" I yelled in hysteria. A commando officer reached out and grabbed me just as I felt the transporter beam reach me and take me away. I materialized on biobed 2, Kes standing over me with a medical tricorder.
"Relax, Ensign Anderson, you'll be just fine," she said comfortingly as she injected me with a hypospray that immediately eased my pain and sedated me.
I suddenly came to, and jerked up on the biobed. Sick Bay was dark now, and the Doctor stood over to my left. Across the room laid Tre'kent on a different biobed, motionless. "Lay back down ensign, I haven't completed the surgery on your arm," the Doctor informed me emotionlessly.
I nodded and allowed him to push me gently back down onto the biobed. "How is Tre'kent?" I questioned, the oncoming tears constricting my throat.
The Doctor looked down at me. "He is in a coma, but when he comes to he'll be just fine. Now I must sedate you again, ensign, to complete the surgery," he said soothingly as he injected another hypospray.
I came to again, this time more groggily than the first. I found it hard to piece together shreds of memories of my last experiences: soldiers with guns, the bullet in my arm, and Tre'kent… I craned my neck to see him sitting up across the room, talking with the Captain. I strained to hear what they were saying.
"Every member of my crew is precious to me. And I don't take kindly to the fact that one of mine was shot like wild game this morning," she said as she pointed at me. "Now what do you know, Tre'kent, about these soldiers?"
Tre'kent shook his head. "I know nothing of them," he said grimly.
"You obviously knew enough to run," she mused.
"I know by experience that the crowds can become extremely violent, Captain," Tre'kent said evenly. "I didn't know what was going to happen, Captain, or I swear that I would never have taken her there."
"You were put in responsibility of one of my crew…" Captain Janeway began.
The Doctor suddenly stepped out of his office and loudly interrupted, "Oh, Ensign Anderson, you're up! How are you feeling?"
"My arm tingles…" I said uncertainly.
"It's no wonder," the Doctor said sarcastically. "The bullet you were hit with shattered your bone. You'll need to rest it for a few days."
I nodded hesitantly. Tre'kent painfully stood off his biobed and brusquely brushed his way past the Captain. He came over and cautiously embraced me. "I'm so sorry, Christy," he said as he kissed my cheek. He looked up earnestly into my eyes. "Do you forgive me?" he whispered. I solemnly nodded as the Captain stepped back into the situation.
"Doctor, is Tre'kent able to leave Sick Bay?" she questioned harshly.
"As soon as I run some subsequent tests, he may leave; I have already removed the bullet fragments from his shoulder."
Captain Janeway nodded. "Within the hour, I'll send a security detail to retrieve him and escort him to the brig," she told him as she turned to leave.
"The brig?" I questioned hastily. "He's not the enemy, Captain," I objected in disbelief.
She turned to me, her stony glare rampant on her face. "He is as far as I'm concerned," the Captain said. She stood there for a moment as if to dare me to question her actions again.
"That's not fair, Captain!" I erupted again.
One look at her face and I knew that I had pushed it past the limit. "I think that this issue has become too personal for you, Ensign. You are hereby restricted to quarters. As soon as you are finished in Sick Bay, I'll send a second security detail to escort you to your quarters. You will remain there until further notice, understand?"
Resentfully I nodded. "Yes, Mam," I said softly.
The Comm system suddenly interrupted the current episode. "Tuvok to Janeway."
"Janeway here," the Captain responded.
"Captain, we are detecting advanced bio weapons signatures from the planet. The present situation has worsened."
The look on the Captain's face dropped. "How is the crew's evacuation of the planet coming?" she questioned with concern.
"We are still missing twenty crew members," Tuvok's steady voice informed us.
"Initiate the emergency beam outs," the Captain commanded. There was an uncomfortable pause, and it was evident that he had made sure that the orders were being carried out.
"Captain, there is another issue of extreme importance," Tuvok said. "The Ambassador is hailing us and demanding that we turn over Tre'kent."
"On my way," the Captain said as she leapt into action. "Tre'kent, come with me to the Bridge now."
Sadly I watched them exit Sick Bay, Tre'kent's gaze slowly leaving my face. The Doctor came over with his tricorder and ran it up and down a few times. "Ensign Anderson, you will be fine. I'm requesting that you report to your quarters now. It will be one less thing for the Captain to worry about," he said amusedly.
In a resentful haze, I stiffly thanked the Doctor and then headed for the turbolift. A few moments later, I entered my quarters on Deck 3 without any emotion. The anger built up inside of me- anger at the Captain for treating Tre'kent so unfairly, and anger at myself for losing my tongue in front of the Captain. I could hear my Father reprimanding me once when I was a young girl, "Ein sollte ihre Öffnung halten geschlossen, wenn man nichts hat, das nützlich ist zu sagen…If you have nothing constructive to say then do not say it and hold your tongue."
I lied down in my bed, expecting the tears to come, but to my surprise, they did not. During that moment, I could not put my emotions into words. I felt nothing but anger and resent, fear. My emotions were widespread, and I was in a state of inner turmoil. For a moment, I had no desire to be home with my family, no desire to be here on Voyager. It was not hard to realize that I really wanted to have Tre'kent with me, the happiest thing that had occurred in my life since the beginning of this harrowing adventure on Voyager.
The door chimes rang and Samantha stepped in. "Guten Tag," the familiar greeting came. "How are you doing?" she asked.
"My arm is better," I answered softly.
She nodded. "That's wonderful, but it doesn't explain why you blew up at the Captain," she replied knowingly. I kept my face even and made no reply. In a feeling of betrayal, I looked up at her to see what she really wanted. "Christy, I'm concerned about you," she divulged. "This isn't like you."
"She had no right to put Tre'kent in the brig," I almost yelled at Samantha.
"You are not being open to how she sees it. Christy, Tre'kent is a wanted man on his planet. He broke Tradition. Dr. Migfay put both you and Kes in his care. He should have kept you away from the crowds. He may be able to brunt the stones and the insults, but he should have never subjected you to that…" Samantha let her voice trail off. Inwardly, I gasped; there was no way she could have known about that unless Tre'kent confessed. "Kes told the Captain when she questioned about the large bruise on your right shoulder," she answered as if she had known what I was thinking. Silently I turned away, but Samantha wasn't finished. "I know we may not agree that what he did was wrong. In fact, I support him in his decision to go against Tradition, but there is a war on his home world between the resistance and the loyals. Captain Janeway has no idea if he is involved, and putting him in the brig was a security precaution. Christy, I am aware that you are fond of him, but when you are on duty, you have to put that behind you and go about doing what is best for Voyager."
I stifled the oncoming tears, and she came over and gave me a hug, knowing that her point of disapproval had come across. My voice began to shake as I nodded. "Samantha, will the Captain turn him over to the authorities?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," she said softly. She sat with me for a while on the couch, and we talked. Suddenly a voice came over the Comm system.
"Doctor to Ensign Wildman," the flat voice said.
Samantha's eyes grew large. "What is it, Doctor?" she responded.
"Lately I've been monitoring the scans that the cortical monitor has been taking. I'm reading an anomalous agent in your blood stream. I need you to come down to Sick Bay so I can see if everything's all right."
"On my way," she said grimly. She turned to me and gave me one last hug. "I'll stop by later," she said softly.
"Lebe whol… Good bye," I said as she walked out the door.
I sat in silence for the next several minutes, thinking of the things that I could have done differently. But I remembered what my Father loved to tell me, "Was getan wird, rüber getan wird und beendet. Vergeuden Sie nicht die Zeit, die rückseitig schaut, aber schauen Sie voran und sehen Sie, was Sie anders als tun können… What is done, is done, over, and finished with. Do not waste time looking back, but look ahead, and see what you can do differently now."
If there had been one thing I learned from this it was controlling my tongue. Usually it was so easy, and I was unsure of why I had slipped so suddenly in front of the Captain. Samantha was right when she said that I had to put my emotions behind duty. I replicated a new PADD and began to write a report on the away mission to the Moheelean home world for the plant samples. I wrote what I had worked up mentally already and sat back to review it. The door chimes suddenly beeped.
"Come in," I said preoccupied.
The doors swished open. "Good Afternoon, Ensign Anderson," I heard a voice say. I jumped up from the couch and stood up at attention to face B'Elanna Torres.
"Good Afternoon, Lieutenant," I said softly.
"I need you to look over this data," she began. "Voyager is being hit with bio weapons, and they are cutting through our shields and damaging our warp core slowly but surely. I've been trying to compensate for an hour now, and the Captain thought you could help."
She stepped over and handed me the PADD. Slowly I reviewed it, as perplexed as B'Elanna seemed. I shook my head silently, and then had sudden inspiration. I went back over to the couch and picked back up the report I had been working on.
"What are you doing, Christy?" B'Elanna asked.
"I think I may have solved your problem," I said slowly. I skimmed my own report for the natural radiation frequency of the Moheelean foliage. I found it and entered it into the PADD as I made several quick calculations. "Eureka! They made the weapons out of their own foliage!" I yelled.
B'Elanna's face scrunched up. "What does that have to do with anything?" she asked impatiently. I handed her the PADD and let her take a look at the work I had just finished. "I see…" she said slowly. Hurriedly she turned to exit. I saw her hesitate before she began, "Thank you, ensign. I must go down to Engineering and begin working on this right away."
I nodded and watched as she stepped out to leave. "Uh… B'Elanna?" I called after her.
She peeped her head back in through the door. "Was there something you needed, Christy?" she asked swiftly.
"Do you have any news about Tre'kent?" I asked sadly.
She nodded knowingly. "The Captain granted him temporary asylum. He's talking to her in her Ready Room now. I'll be sure to send him down here later on."
My smile beamed three miles wide as she left with that promise. Danke… Thank you.
To be continued…