Sweet Dreams, Voyager (Part 5)
A Voyager fanfic brought to you by TaTTooGaL aka fROzen Lt. 17 of 26 (MERSTS)
It is approaching five hours since the men have taken Kathryn. Everyone is jumpy and nervous. We don't know if our plan is going to work, but I am hoping so. The dim red alert lighting on the bridge makes everything seem scarier. I turn the lighting up, just a little bit.
At precisely four hours forty-five minutes after Kathryn has been taken, Chakotay hails the Trinity. Noswad answers, his face stretched into an expectant grin.
Well, he says, have you got her?
We're having a little difficulty with that, says Chakotay. She refuses to go.
Do I care? If she isn't over here in fifteen minutes, your captain is dead.
I need your help to distract her. Fire at her, something, so we can transfer her program over into a storage buffer.
Fire at her? Engage her in battle?
She'll fire back, but there're nine of you and only one of her. We'll get her soon enough.
How do I know this isn't some kind of trick?
Please, listen. We desperately want our captain back as much as you want this girl. If we work together, we could both get what we want more easily.
You'd better be sure. Bring her here, he tells someone offscreen. Then he faces Chakotay. Any hanky panky of any sort and she dies immediately.
Understood, says Chakotay.
Noswad holds up a hypo. I have five milligrams of an extremely powerful acetylcholinesterase inhibitor in here. It causes total failure of nervous function. Death is almost instantaneous.
I quickly run through a list of such possible inhibitors and find that they can all be disabled by a dose of tripropylflouroethene. I feed the information to the Doctor in Sickbay so he can get all prepped for an emergency.
That's all I need to disable your captain, says Noswad.
You won't need to use it. Everything here is under control.
I recognize my cue at once. Without warning, I turn so fast that inertia dampers can't compensate, tossing everyone to a side, for dramatic effect.
What the-? Report! Chakotay exclaims.
The ship is headed for the plasma storms! Helm is not responding! Paris shouts.
What's going on over there? Noswad demands. He turns to the back. Where is she? He shouts.
Voyager is running, says Chakotay, as I dart behind Seven's console. I need your help to get her captured!
Noswad nods. Very well.
The nine ships break formation to pursue me. Accelerating to full impulse, I speed for the glowing orange rivers of ionized gas that are the aachi moridoka. Behind me the nine ships weave and bob, firing.
The battle is joined at ten minutes to five hours.
I am awakened by a shift in the ship's rumbling. The ship is moving. I sit up and see that Nayr is approaching my cell. The forcefield snaps off and he gestures to me with the large rifle he is holding. "Get out."
I rise stiffly to my feet and step out of the cell. Nayr shoves me forward in the small of my back with the rifle. I stumble slightly but make no other response.
Nayr guides me to the bridge of the ship. Like the rest of the ship, it is a slipshod affair, damp and dimly lit by yellow glow-lamps arrayed along the floor and the ceilings. Out-dated consoles with manual turn-dials and push buttons circle the bridge. The floor is dark burnished metal that creaks as we walk across it. Noswad stands on the raised center platform, presumably the command platform, barking orders to a dozen or so other crewmembers scattered around the bridge. The view on the central viewscreen is split into two: one half shows Voyager's bridge, the other shows Voyager fleeing into the heart of a plasma rivaling anything I've ever seen in the Badlands. She's going to do it, I think, my heart sinking.
Chakotay's eyes widen slightly as I step up onto the central platform. "Kathryn…?"
Do I really look that awful? I think. Noswad seizes me roughly by the arm and pulls me beside him. He jams something cold and metal to the side of my neck. "Listen, you stupid girl," he growls at the viewscreen, "if you don't stop running, she dies!"
I tense, but I make no change in posture. If I'm going to die, I intend to so with a measure of dignity, standing proud and tall. I will not allow thugs to intimidate me.
Chakotay grits his teeth. "I'm afraid pointless death threats aren't going to help much. You're just making her more agitated."
"They may be death threats, but they certainly aren't pointless." He tightens his stranglehold on me. "I mean it, you hear me!"
Voyager fires a fierce volley of phaser bolts in return. The ship shudders under the barrage. Noswad sways in the resulting imbalance, but remains standing. When he next speaks his voice smolders with unrestrained anger. "Target their warp nacelles and fire!"
I wonder what he is doing, announcing his strategy to the enemy over an open commlink. Or maybe his anger has rendered him unable to accommodate any logic or common sense. Either way, Voyager is fully prepared for the retailiating strike. She dives gracefully downwards with a dexterity that I suspect is more than just Paris' piloting skills.
Noswad snarls in anger.
Voyager is taking us into the heart of a violent plasma storm. Arcs of actinic orange energy coruscate around the ships, their bright fingers brushing against the hull as if to suck the life out of it. I can almost hear the crackling and spitting.
One of Noswad's sub-lieutenants reports nervously. "Sir, the aachi moridoka are draining our energy reserves. Soon the shields will fail and expose us to lethal amounts of radiation!"
Noswad seethes. "Voyager, I am losing my patience. I don't have time for your silly games of hide and seek. I demand that you hand yourself over at once!"
There is no mistaking the core of duranium under his words. He means business this time, and time is something we're rapidly running out of. My eyes dart around, trying to find something which will help as a diversion. Noswad has my hand phaser clipped to his belt. If I could seize it, there would be a high chance that it'd distract Noswad for some time-enough for Voyager to get past their shields and beam me out- and get away before anything undue happens to her. I hope.
My head hurts. It feels like there are thousands of exploding stars in my mind. The plasma storm attacks my bioneural circuitry with a vengeance, and I can hardly focus on controlling myself. For now I leave the piloting mostly to Tom and almost everything to everyone else. Except monitoring the renegade ship's shields. They are weakening very fast. I think I will be ready to beam Kathryn out within the minute, which is good, because I don't think I can't hold on out here much longer.
Noswad is very angry. His ship's shields are draining and he has even less time than we do. This isn't good. I fear that he'll do something rash before that happens.
Voyager, he shouts angrily, I am losing my patience. I don't have time for your silly games of hide and seek. I demand that you hand yourself over at once!
He means it. I have to stop him, somehow. So I do the only thing that I can: I jump out from my hiding place behind Seven's bank of consoles. Glaring defiantly, I march up to face Noswad.
Noswad blinks in surprise.
Why should I? I demand of him. You're nothing but a big, mean bully and you're picking on me only because I'm smaller than you! I can't stop my barrage of angry words; the pain in my head only fuels the fire. Well, you know what? I think you're a coward. Nothing more than a awful yellow-livered lout and you only have the guts to hurt defenseless people and you violated Kathryn, you-
As quickly as they come my words break to an abrupt halt. A particularly fierce bolt of ionized plasma strikes my starboard nacelle, and blinding pain sears me. I ignore it, burning holes into the viewscreen with my eyes.
Noswad isn't put off by my display of anger. She's on you bridge! He shouts to Chakotay. Do something! You can't let her get away.
Chakotay doesn't respond. He stares at Noswad in pure hatred. You bastard, he growls.
Noswad's pupils constrict in anger. His grip tightens on the hypo, and he prepares to administer it-
-and Kathryn jams her elbow hard into his stomach. He gasps in pain and doubles over, and she swiftly kicks him in the head. Noswad keels over.
Thirty seconds to shield failure on the renegade ships.
I feel a perverse sense of satisfaction as Noswad crumples under the impact of my heel. Here's to sweet justice, I think, slamming a boot into his cheek. He staggers to the ground, blood flowing from his nose. In one swift gesture, I seize my phaser from his belt and arm it.
Some of the crewmen on the bridge have drawn their own hand weapons and point them at me. One fires but misses me. I drop into a barrel roll and fire at the one who tried to shoot me. I have much better aim, and he crumples to the floor.
I sense Noswad's presence behind me and duck. His fist narrowly misses my head, and his momentum drives him forward a little. He staggers.
Something on the bridge overloads as the ships receive a solid pummeling from the plasma storms. Both ships stopped exchanging shots several minutes ago when they realized that the storms were doing all the work for them. The deck has begun shuddering uncontrollably, as if undergoing a seizure.
Someone from the back of the bridge exclaims, "Ten seconds to complete shield failure!"
I begin a mental countdown. Ten… nine… eight…
The bridge is filled with noxious black fumes, smelling strongly of ashes and burning plastic. I cough, and try to peer through the smoke. Seven… six…
Something grabs me roughly by the throat and I feel the cool spray of a hypo at the side of my neck. Belatedly I remember Noswad and his death threat. My vision begins to cloud. Still I countdown. Five… four…
Four is far as I get before I lose consciousness. The world fades into blackness as I crumple to the deck.
I live in a world of pain. B'Elanna was right- the Suhtoma radiation is too much for my bioneural packs to handle. I am dimly aware of the rest of myself, system damages reports, the warp core, the bridge… My focus is all on the shield status of the renegade ship that Kathryn is on. Ten seconds till shutdown… I must hold on for ten seconds.
Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…
Breaks begin appearing in the shields of the ship. I frantically scan and try to search for the nanite probes.
Five… four…
Almost subconsciously I plot a direct course out of the plasma storm once the beamout is complete.
Three… two… one…
Zero.
I lock onto her signal and do an emergency beam-in to Sickbay. My engines engage as the world flares painfully white and fades away. I think fleetingly, we did it, Kathryn, as I resign myself to the inevitable.
The first thing I hear is chirping. It's the birds singing outside my window, I think. Soon Mommy will come to wake me up for breakfast. Toasted bread with eggs and ham, freshly brewed coffee-
"Captain?"
Someone is calling me, tapping on my shoulder. I wrench my eyes open and find myself staring at a face. A man, middle-aged, balding, somehow looking both disgruntled and concerned at the same time. He seems familiar… the memory seeps back slowly to me. I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager, stranded thirty-five thousand light-years away from breakfasts at home. The console beside me chirps again. I try to sit up slowly. "What happened?" I ask.
"Noswad tried to kill you with an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor," he says. "Fortunately I had an antidote on hand." His face wore that ever-present smug look as he evidently congratulated himself on a job well done.
Chakotay is standing behind him, looking vaguely amused. But his amusement has a touch of something else in it- poignancy, perhaps?
"Commander," I say, interrupting the Doctor as he begins to speak again, "do you have something to tell me?"
The Doctor looks highly affronted at being ignored, but he allows Chakotay to continue.
"We have left the Esabrats system," he says. "Trebor Nartleb left us a message, claiming that 'the people of Esabrats Eno are forever in your debt.'"
"So I assume that the threat of the renegades has been dealt with?"
"Most likely." He hands me a padd. "Damage report."
I skim through the padd, taking in reports of superstructure stresses, minor containment leaks, systems disruptions. But none of it interests me. "What happened to Voyager?" I ask.
"Voyager is fine. Repairs should take a few days up to a week, but we are no worse for the wear."
"You know what I'm talking about, Chakotay. What happened to her?"
Chakotay's expression sobers considerably. "You know, Captain."
There is a bitter taste in my mouth. "She's gone, isn't she?"
Chakotay bows his head briefly. "We've looked everywhere… and we can't find a trace of her."
I think of the last few things she said to me. "I wasn't expecting you to," I say softly.
Chakotay takes my hand gently. "The crew is meeting for lunch in the mess hall now. We thought you might like to join us. Doctor?"
The Doctor grumps. "She's going anyway, no matter what I say… but for the record, yes, she is physically fit enough to be discharged."
Chakotay chuckles a bit. "I was asking if you were coming along too."
"Oh." The Doctor looks mortally embarrassed for a moment, but quickly regains his composure. "Very well, then," he says as nonchalantly as he can.
Voyager seems different as I walk down the corridors on the way to the mess hall. I look for signs of her everywhere, but I find nothing. The corridors seem colder, emptier, than ever before. Already I miss the girl.
Everyone is gathered around the long table when I enter. They smile at me, but the smiles are tinged with a touch of sorrow. The three of us take our places at the usual spots. For a while nobody says anything as Neelix serves drinks.
Paris breaks the uneasy silence. "Well, at least we got through this is one piece… isn't that something worth celebrating, at least?"
His query breaks the tension, and sorrows seem to fade away in the laughter that follows. "Yes, I guess it does merit a toast," says B'Elanna.
"A toast," says Neelix emphatically, smiling.
Chakotay nods. "Seven, will you do the honors?"
Seven stands, casting only a momentary glance at her mentor, the Doctor. She taps the side of her cup with her metal-capped fingers, producing a clear ringing tone. "For the past few days, our ship has been placed in various situations of mortal danger and peril. Most others would not have been able to weather the difficulties, but Captain Janeway did. Even under duress and with her life on the line, she did not fail to hold on to her courage and sanity. She has brought us through this crisis like she has countless times over. It is because of her tenacity and belief in all of us that we have pulled through the past years in one piece, as one crew.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I thus propose a toast to our captain, for her unflagging strength and faith in humanity, and all of us."
Everyone raises his or her cup. "To the captain!"
"To a wonderful ship and a wonderful crew," I rejoin.
We drink up.
Later that night, I return to my quarters to rest. The ache from missing my ship has already started to fade, although I suspect that it will be a long time before it totally disappears. And perhaps we will meet again. I think of her, and smile. My child. Chakotay tells me that he can't help but see the similarities between the two of us. I have to agree with him. After all, isn't it the captain who is responsible for thre running, and in every sense, the upbringing of her ship?
As I step out of the sonic shower, ready for bed, I notice something sitting in the replicator tray, which is odd, since I haven't ordered anything. I walk over to the replicator to see what it is.
It is a clay rose, painted in exquisite colors. I pick it up, and it feels warm in my hand, as if freshly baked from the kiln. One small corner of my mouth twitches upwards. I gaze out of the observation window, looking for the bright spot that might be Earth, where we might meet again. I set the rose down fondly on the table beside my bed with all the other pictures from home. "Sweet dreams, Voyager," I say softly.
I don't know what's going to happen to me now. Maybe I'll get home, maybe I won't. I think I will. And maybe I'll see Kathryn again, and all the other crewmembers. But whatever the future holds, I know one thing for sure. I am Voyager, and we will prevail.