valkryies12

Ship of the Valkryies (Part Twelve)

A Star Trek crossover fanfic by Lt Taya 17 Janeway (TaTTooGaL™)

Kira materialized on the transporter platform onboard Voyager and was immediately swamped by Torres, who was at the controls. "Medical-"

"That won't be necessary," said Kira tersely, cutting her off mid-sentence. "She's already dead."

Torres stared at Kira in shock, then checked Janeway's pulse in disbelief. "Oh gods." She grabbed Janeway's hand. "Captain!" There was no response, and Torres sucked in a deep, shaky breath. "What happened?"

In response, Kira merely shrugged fluidly. "It's a long story. We'd better get this into a stasis unit as fast as possible, so we can still reintegrate her later. That's going to be Dr. Crusher's problem entirely."

"Reintegrate? What are you talking about?"

"Her ghost… spirit… soul… or whatever you want to call it… is still stuck on the planet." Kira shook her head. "This game is becoming quite screwed up, isn't it?"

"Ghost?" asked Torres vacantly. "What in the world-?"

"As I said, long story. Bottom line is, Q was in a funny mood, decided that this was his idea of helping us, turned Captain Janeway into a ghost. I should have known better than to trust that… jerk." She handed Janeway's body to Torres, who held it clumsily at an arm's length as if it was a dead fish. "Take care of this- I've got to take a shuttle down to the planet. The mission still needs to be completed."

Torres glanced at her imploringly. "And the captain?"

"We'll sort that out later," said Kira over her shoulder as she strolled out of the doors of the transporter room.

*****

Less than half an hour later Kira was seated at the controls of the small wonderful ship they called the Delta Flyer. It wasn't anywhere nearly as remarkable as the Defiant, of course, but the Defiant was the Defiant, and this ship had been envisioned, designed and built by a group of less than hundred and fifty, all by themselves. Kira was suitably impressed.

She skimmed over the planet's surface, seeking their last coordinates. As her altitude dropped near the cliff where the accident happened, she thought she saw a small little figure on the ground bobbing up and down. Apparently the captain had learned how to fly.

Or not. As Kira brought the Delta Flyer closer she could make out that Janeway was in fact, trying valiantly to fly by jumping up and down and trying to continue the propelling motion by flapping her arms up and down in a frenzy. And, truth to tell, she looked rather amusing doing that. Not to mention ridiculous. Kira stifled a small chuckle. The things humans do when they're desperate…

As the Flyer prepared to land Janeway stopped bouncing and waved to Kira. Kira waved back, still smiling. Her fingers dexterous on the console, Kira landed the Flyer on the ground, carefully avoiding Janeway. Not like it would have made much of a difference, though. Kira cycled the airlock open and stepped out. "Had fun?" she asked Janeway innocently.

Janeway was delighted to see her, judging from the wideness of her smile as she greeted Kira. In the back of her mind Kira thought, Dammit, why does everyone smile better than I do?

"For a moment back there I thought I was going to be trapped on this planet for the rest of my life… or afterlife." She took Kira's hand and shivered slightly as it went totally through.

Kira ignored it. "Come on. Do I look like someone who'd abandon her captain on the surface of an alien planet?" She waved Janeway towards the Flyer. "Let's go. We need to finish this silly mission fast, and I think we're entitled to cheat a little."

Janeway followed her inside the small shuttle docilely. "I'm not so sure if this is entirely legal in the whole scheme of things," she informed Kira. "Surely using a shuttle to complete and obstacle course is pushing the rules a little to far?"

"When you've become used to pushing the rules like I do," Kira told her, "you start to get a feel of when too much is too much. What we're doing here is perfectly fine. We have a case to fight: Delmar clearly said that we definitely have to get the two contestants to the end of the race, dead or alive, by hook or by crook. So we'll do crook. This is about the only way you can get to the other side, isn't it?"

Janeway nodded in affirmation. "I can't even leave footprints in the sand; I just rest on it, and I think that's mostly because of my illusion that I'm solid enough to stand on it without sinking through. Of course, I could easily walk through all the obstacles while you surmount them, but then I have a lazy partner."

"Fine, rub it in," said Kira dryly as she prepped the Delta Flyer for takeoff again from the pilot's seat. "Not like it's my fault that you're in this predicament. I did warn you, remember? But of course, being typical Starfleet, you chose not to listen to the protests of a cranky Bajoran major like me."

"Nerys, please…" sighed Janeway, sinking into the station at the back of the ship. "It's not that." She curled up on the seat, drawing her knees up to her chin as the Delta Flyer rose with a barely perceptible tremble. "I seem to have this recurring problem… never listening to my first officer."

"Too stubborn, I assume?" Kira asked as she steered the Flyer above the sheer cliff.

"Most likely. Every time we run into some major problems, every time I need to make any kind of controversial decision, he always objects. And I never listen."

"And if he persistently presses with his opinions till the point where one has to take action?"

"He usually ends up in the brig. More or less."

"Ouch. Well, I can imagine," said Kira with empathy. "That always happens when two or more opinions clash. The one with the most number of pips wins out. Is it some sort of Starfleet directive which I'm not aware of?"

"Number forty-seven, clause Q," she jested in return. " 'All captains must be thick-skinned enough to assume the fourth pip adds an additional fifty points to their already impressive intelligence quotient.' "

"Must be the only part of the Prime Directive that every captain adheres to," Kira mused, chuckling.

"I wonder where Chakotay is," Janeway suddenly remarked, as the Delta Flyer flew over a wide, flat plateau that they were supposed to be crossing on foot.

Kira caught the wistful subtext in Janeway's voice, and turned around to address the captain, a twinkle in her eye. "Say, about what we were talking about that last dinner…"

Janeway rolled her eyes. "Please don't remind me."

Kira returned her attention to her console as the plateau ended abruptly, plunging hundred of meters down into a steep, narrow valley. The floor of the valley was made of coarse gray gravel, sharp and gritty. Along the precipitous walls of the valley ranged several hundred lean brindled animals, almost canine in appearance, and most likely predatory. The number of white bones scattered around the valley seemed to be testimony to that. Kira was fairly glad she wasn't down there, fending off coyotes with a pointed stick. "Remind you? I'd have thought you would find it unforgettable."

Janeway merely snorted.

"We're alone now, just the two of us…"

"So?"

"Which means you can tell me what you were blushing about."

"I wasn't!"

"There you go again, denying the truth. Come on, we all know. Seven even noticed the rise in temperature in your cheeks. So there is a man?"

"Not a chance in hell."

Kira shook her head as she twisted the Flyer to avoid an outcropping of stone. "This Chakotay… he's your first officer, isn't he? The one you never listen to." She turned around to see Janeway looking slightly pinker than normal again. "You must really miss working with him."

"Oh, keep quiet," laughed Janeway, sticking her fingers in her ears.

"Ah, no denial this time?" teased Kira as she wove the Delta Flyer through the end of the valley and into the hall of flame. It was essentially a large circular patch of marble dotted with flame generators at regular intervals. The flame generators produced huge plumes of fire periodically and all out of phase of each other. Kira wove the Delta Flyer back and forth, avoiding the shafts of fire. They wouldn't have hurt their shields the least bit, but they might have blinded her and caused her to crash the ship, a situation she wasn't really eager to get into. "So how close are the two of you, actually?"

"Our relationship is strictly professional," insisted Janeway.

"Really. And Elvis Presley is one of the Prophets," retorted Kira.

"Believe what you want. At the end of the day it only matters that I get all my men back."

"Especially Chakotay, hmm?"

"Keep quiet and focus on piloting," said Janeway, waving her off. "Or you're going to suffer for it. I'll start singing… doing a backseat driver imitation…or doing something you're not going to like very much."

"O-kay," said Kira, grinning. "Subject change: how does it feel being a ghost?"

"Well, there's the usual frustration about being intangible," Janeway replied at last. "It takes some getting used to the fact that you can go through just about anything if you want to." She let out a small sigh, looking faintly aggrieved. "At least this time I can see and talk to the rest of my crew."

At the risk of incinerating their ship, Kira turned back to Janeway again. "At least this time? What do you mean? You sound like you have out-of-body experiences every other day."

"Hyperbole," remarked Janeway. "Only once… and it wasn't real."

"You've died before," said Kira, mildly astounded.

"I imagined that I did, several times over," Janeway affirmed. "Or at least, I hope that it was all imaginary."

"You must have more lives than a cat," said Kira. "So, what happened in the end?"

"I didn't die."

"That much is obvious," said Kira dryly, clearing the last plume of fire and heading straight for the end line. "Let me guess: Chakotay rescued you from whatever predicament you were in."

"You should count yourself fortunate that I'm intangible," drawled Janeway, "else my boot would be flying at your head by now."

"Thank Q for small favors. I'm sorry for my persistence in the subject. I picked it up from Jadzia… that girl has such a one-track mind sometimes."

Janeway sighed patiently, then waved her hand in acquiescence. "Alright, alright. I'll admit it. You are… partially correct on that last point you made."

"Hah. Are you sure it's only on the last point?"

"You're pushing it, Major…"

Kira laughed and cut the engines and used the ventral thrusters to land the Delta Flyer on the flat circular patch of grass beside the judges' table. "Enough of small talk," said Janeway, casting her a dirty glance. "Now we have to see what the judges have to say about our use of shuttles to complete the obstacles."

******

Three hours later, Janeway and Kira were still stuck in the small circular waiting tent next to the judges' table as they quibbled outside about whether to qualify the duo or toss them out of the nearest airlock for their cheek. The tent was hot but airy, made of white canvas material. The open top still revealed the angry reddish sky to the two women- well, one woman and one ghost, at any rate. Kira was tracing patterns in the red dust floor in her boredom. Janeway, much as she wanted to do the same, was unable to. For that she was fairly annoyed.

Finally she sat beside Kira at the circumference of the tent. "What are you drawing?"

"Drawing? I'm cursing in Bajoran."

Janeway scrutinized the stylized loops in the sand for a moment, then said, "I can't read Bajoran."

"Don't bother. There's nothing worth reading there."

"Do you honestly think we'll get disqualified?"

"I hope not. We can't fail any of our stations… and I think disqualification qualifies as an all-out failure. I shudder to think what would happen if we did."

"We'd never get our lives back. Q would just leave us this way."

"I'm sure he was joking."

"He's never lied before."

"There's always a first time."

"Either way, I sincerely hope that those silly four idiots out there decide to be merciful on us."

"We could always play on their compassion." Kira put on her best wounded puppy look and said, "But our captain died. It was so bad that we had no other choice. What is our ship going to do without a captain?"

Janeway fought the impulse to laugh. "They will never buy it."

At this point the tent opening flapped open, and one of the judge's pages stood there, a young child no more than thirteen years old. "Come," he said. "It is decided."

Kira and Janeway stood and followed the page to the judges' panel, gazing down at the two of them impassively with all the pompous air of a gathering of Grand High Admirals. "Human contestants." said the head judge as he started to address them. Kira and Janeway said nothing as he launched into a long fable of similes and imagery, extolling the virtue of fair play. It was a heavy-handed diatribe of morality witch slammed Kira and Janeway for using a shuttle to finish the game first. But finally he snapped shut his little booklet of ruled and shrugged. "But you have not broken any of the extensive rules set in here. We see no other conceivable way to bring an intangible person to the finish line. So we have decided that…you win."

Kira and Janeway glanced at each other, then back at the judge, in disbelief. "Really?"

The judge gave them a dirty look, then opened the book again. "Well, I could always change my mind if you want…"

Alarmed, Kira shook her head. "No, thank you! We'll be fine!" She reached out to grab Janeway's hand, and growled in frustration when she found herself clutching empty air. "Come on, let's go."

Janeway needed no further bidding. The duo scurried back to the Delta Flyer as fast as their legs would let them, thinking in disbelief, We won? We won!