Champion in the Light (Part Two)
A Voyager fanfic by Lt. Taya 17 Janeway (TaTTooGaL™)
Chakotay didn't know how much longer he could take being cooped up in the darkness. Already he was beginning to hallucinate the strangest things, seeing shadows and intangible dancing figures where there should have been none. He was still wearing his commbadge, but the Voyager persistently remained out of range.
In the meantime he occupied himself by brooding over his current situation. He was beginning to suspect that the Voyager might actually be ignorant of his plight, since he hadn't made any attempt to communicate with them in the first few hours anyway. That had just been plain stupid. It might take them days, even weeks, to realize that something had gone seriously wrong. They might never find him. He wanted to run his head against a wall, but he didn't dare move in this uncertain blackness. He remained where he was, sitting cross-legged on some sort of cold metallic surface, brooding.
Why had he acted so childishly? He wondered of himself. So she was angry with him. She had every right to be. How many times had she herself stressed that the relationship between them was strictly professional? And he should have known her better: any advances he made, no matter how small or unobtrusive, would inevitably bring down those emotional walls he'd come to dread. Stupid, stupid, stupid…
In frustration he leaned back and found another hard metal surface, this time at right angles to the one he was sitting on. Perfect for head bashing. He experimentally thumped his head on it a few times. It made an odd reverberating sound. Intrigued, he tapped on it with his fingers. Then he wandered around, tapping to hear if he could detect any weaknesses. About half a foot away from where his head was his fingers abruptly encountered a material which gave a duller sound. More like acrylic than metal. A porthole, perhaps? He craned his neck backwards to see it he could make out any difference between the darkness here and the the nothingness there.
Then the Delta Flyer flashed across his vision briefly.
Another hallucination, he thought in disgust. He went back to bashing his head against the wall.
******
Janeway approached the ship slowly, scanning her way through. She was painfully aware that the pitch-black backdrop made the approach of any ship highly obvious to its occupants, but she needed all the information she could get on this mysterious starship. She noticed that its luminous white skin was broken in even rows of jet-black squares, almost like portals. On board the ship were many concentrated pockets of the odd neutrino flux densities that she'd been reading. She assumed, for now, that they belonged to the owners of this ship.
She managed to pinpoint Chakotay's location within the ship by seeking his commbadge signal- assuming, of course, that he was still wearing it. Now she needed to find a way in. There was a docking bay of sorts near the aft vents of the ship. Scans confirmed that it contained a breathable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. A forcefield protected it, but it was weak and she could drill into it without much difficulty.
The interior of the ship seemed to be made of the same luminous material as the outside. Ceilings blended into bulkheads into decks into a white infinity. If she was scanning right, Chakotay was incarcerated in a cell of some sort about fifty meters away from the bay. She had to hurry.
******
It was all very abrupt. One moment he'd been sitting in utter complete darkness, and in the next a blinding white light had enveloped him. His eyes stung at the sudden intensity and he squeezed them shut with an involuntary cry.
Someone was pulling him up by the arm. He risked squinting one eye open to see who it was. The captain. Relief flooded him as she led him out of his dark cell into the bright, painful light.
"Where is this?" he asked, opening his eyes in stages as they gradually grew accustomed to light again. He seemed to be standing in an endless infinity of pure white light now. He could have been in a cell a meter square or a chamber large enough to hold the entire Voyager- he couldn't tell.
"You were kidnapped," replied Janeway tersely. "This is the kidnapper's ship. It seems to have been modified and masked to resemble a dark matter nebula, probably so that nobody would come looking for it."
"But you did."
"Obviously. I wasn't going to give in to their requests for our warp core just to get you back." She began walking. "They already know I'm here. We have to move fast- the Delta Flyer's just parked south of here."
Chakotay kept pace with his captain, trusting her to navigate him through this featureless white world. "So I guess this means you're talking to me again?"
"I don't know what you mean."
He stepped in front of her. "You know, Captain." He shifted slightly to block her way as she tried to continue walking, and she folded her arms with a vaguely annoyed expression. He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday night, alright? I shouldn't have done it, but even so… it was just a platonic gesture! It meant nothing!"
"Then why did you do it?"
"I just thought it would be nice!"
"Nice? Is that all you have to say about it?"
He was the annoyed one now. "Yes! And I don't know why you're so worked up about it! In fact…" he waved his arm slightly expansively. "I don't know why you're so tense about this whole… situation between us."
"Chakotay, we've been through this so many times…"
"And I still don't understand it." His voice rose as he gathered momentum. "As a matter of fact, I've decided that there's only one reason for this. You're afraid of me."
Her eyes narrowed. "I beg your pardon?"
He stood his ground. "You're afraid of me- or more precisely, getting committed with me."
She folded her arms. "That's not true."
"Yes it is. Why else would you be hiding?"
"Protocol-"
"-be damned. We're in the Delta Quadrant. How many Starfleet rules and regulations have you bent so far just to make our journey through easier? And I've read the whole rulebook from end to end. There's nothing in there that specifically says you can't get involved with another member of your crew."
Her voice hardened. "As captain of the ship, I think it's my prerogative to set the rules and as long as you are a member of my crew you will follow them!"
"But it still doesn't hide the fact that you're afraid!"
She pierced him with a look of iron. "I'm beginning to regret coming for you!"
"You can't say it," he taunted, ignoring her. "Go ahead. Look me in the eye and say it loud and clear. Say that you aren't afraid of getting committed."
They were standing face to face now, and she looked so angry that for a moment he thought he'd pushed his luck slightly too far. But still he stood his ground.
Then she laughed.
It was the reaction Chakotay had least expected. He frowned. "What's so funny?"
She paused for breath and burst out laughing again, leaning against in him in mirth. "Oh, Chakotay…. here we are, stuck on a hostile ship in the middle of a false nebula 30,000 light years away from Earth, and we're arguing like a couple of children." She gazed up at him. "Isn't it funny?"
He began to laugh too, the tension between them broken. "Okay, so I was rather off-point. I guess that's what you get for locking a man up in a dark room for hours with nothing to do but let his imagination run wild." He sighed. "And I guess I haven't exactly been… behaving well these few days."
Her mouth quirked slightly, then she too sighed and looked down at her feet, carefully considering what she should say next. When she looked up again, her eyes were filled with regret and the merest hint of embarrassment. "Actually, I should be the one apologizing. I … overreacted when it was nothing but a trivial matter." She blinked. "And maybe… just maybe, you might have a point there."
He offered her a hand. "We're quits, then?"
She chuckled. "Whatever you say. A truce." She grasped his hand. Then her tricorder started beeping. "Damn."
"I gather that this isn't a good sign."
"It isn't." She began walking again. "I programmed it to alert me when one pocket of those neutrino flux irregularities grows too close."
"Which means?"
"One of your kidnappers is near." She glanced down at her tricorder. "And gaining."
They began to run.
As Chakotay slammed himself into the seat of the Delta Flyer he risked a look outside. "I don't see anyone coming."
"Chakotay, with a ship built like this, do you honestly think that the occupants of this ship are going to be humanoid in form?" She glanced at him with an eyebrow raised.
He considered that fact. "I guess not."
"Then we'd better get moving." Her fingers danced over the consoles. "I'll pilot the ship, and you can shoot."
"Got it." He secured himself down as the Delta Flyer moved out of the ship. With alarm he noted two previously unseen diaphanous white shapes following them out of the bay. "And those are?"
"Pockets of neutrino flux irregularities," she replied, shifting the Flyer into evasive maneuvers.
The Delta Flyer was rocked violently as one form elongated and lashed out at their port nacelle. "Nasty," commented Chakotay. He fired a spread of phasers at the shape. "It doesn't seem to be having any effect."
"Just keep at it," ordered Janeway as she piloted the ship out of the dark cloud. "The Voyager should be here by now."
The other shape moved to attack the Flyer, and Chakotay fired phasers at it again. He kept up his pattern of alternately firing at one shape and then at the other, tracking them as they darted across his field of vision. It worked at least; their energy levels were dropping and they were keeping a certain radius from the Flyer.
Then abruptly they were out of the cloud, and the comforting shape of the Voyager loomed in the vicinity. The two shapes seemed to realize they were outnumbered, and retreated back to the darkness of the cloud. Chakotay slumped in relief. "Well, that's that." He gave the captain a funny glance. "Who were they anyway?"
"I have no idea. They didn't even identify themselves when they hailed us. But it's a safe bet that we won't be having much problems with them in the future again."
Chakotay grinned in spite of himself. "Well, we certainly make a great team, don't we?"
She smiled back. "I'm not denying that." She patted his hand. "Come on. Let's go home."
******
Things had mostly returned to normal on the ship, now that the momentary conflict between the captain and the commander had been resolved. It had slipped out of the memories of the crew almost immediately as other more pressing concerns had arisen.
But Chakotay hadn't forgotten. A week to the day found him outside his captain's quarters with a bunch of flowers and an enigmatic smile.
When he entered, she was lounging on her couch with a book and a cup of coffee. She looked up. "Is there anything wrong, Chakotay?"
He handed her the flowers, a bunch of white roses with red edges. Her eyes widened as she accepted the bouquet. "What's this for?"
"An apology. For my… boorish behavior last week," he told her with a dry smile.
Her features melted. "Oh… they're beautiful, Chakotay. You shouldn't have spent so many rations on this."
"And for whatever I said to you on that ship… " he added.
"Oh. That." She didn't seem to enjoy the memory. "Well…" she said, gingerly putting down the bouquet, "I have been thinking about that a lot these few days." She sighed and folded her arms. "And I guess that you're probably right."
"I am?" Seeing the look on her face he held up a hand to stop her barrage. "No, seriously. I just said it on the spur of the moment. I wasn't really thinking."
"But you were right, nonetheless." She picked up one exquisite bloom and fingered the petals. "Taking charge of one ship, no matter how big or small, is a big responsibility, Chakotay, and I don't want to compromise my duties just because I'm getting carried away with my personal life. So, yes… I guess I am afraid to commit myself. In a way." Her mouth quirked slightly. "If you think I'm pushing you away too much, I probably am. It's all my fault."
"I'm not blaming you for anything, Kathryn." He gave her a warm smile. "You've been a wonderful friend. Except…" his smile took on an evil touch. "When you're trying to get me out of the way."
She swatted at him with her padd. "Low blow!" she protested, laughing.
He laughed. "Thankfully, you don't do it often."
She smiled, her tone growing wistful. "Of course not. It's lonely enough out here for anyone to lose a friend." At Chakotay's rejoining smile, she added, "And it detracts from the spirit of harmony we've cultivated so carefully on this ship for six and a half years. I'll try to avoid doing that in the future, I promise." She looked up at him, mischief twinkling in her eye. "But only if you promise not to try to kiss me anymore."
"Of course not. In fact," he said, his evil smile expanding, "you could test me on that right now. I've booked the holodeck for the next two hours."
She shot him a playful look. "Was it my imagination, or was that an invitation?"
"Would you accept it if it was?"
She put down the padd, her smile growing wider. "Well, I don't know. I certainly don't want a repeat of last week. Even being kidnapped by the Borg might not save you then."
"Oh, I'll behave myself this time, I promise," he chuckled. "I don't fancy being sold off to the Borg for a few pounds of decent coffee."
"I'll be sure to keep them on the line just in case," she joked back, and he laughed.
She gazed at the man standing before her, and for a brief moment she seemed to see him in a new, odd light. She looked at him and for the first time in a long while didn't see her first officer, her subordinate, or what she expected from him in terms of work and relationships. All she saw was him. Her friend. That smirk on his face, the dimple in his cheek, the way he held his hand out to her. Always there when she needed someone to depend on, when she needed to love, to laugh, or to be comforted. Always there for her. Feeling light and closer to home, she took her friend's hand as they left her quarters together.
_________THE END_________
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