Chapter Nine
As time dragged on, Kathryn found herself growing increasingly tired. Chakotay already slumbered in the pilot's seat, but Kathryn was disinclined to rest in the seat next to him again. Her neck still had a kink from her earlier nap in the uncomfortable chair.
She searched the small vessel and located two makeshift bunks in the back room. She stretched herself out on the bottom one and drifted into an uneasy sleep.
After an interminable period of time, she was awoken by a vague rumbling sensation. Janeway lay there with her eyes closed, desiring sleep, reluctant to face another trial. She tried to identify the sensation. The ship's trembling was too soft for weapon's fire, too pronounced for mere turbulence. A tractor beam?
Kathryn opened her eyes and saw a large Bajoran glowering down at her.
She felt little surprise; truthfully, it had taken them longer to catch her than she'd expected. She just wished she'd thought of something more compelling to say than her simple, "Please don't hurt him."
The Bajoran grunted. She wasn't sure how to interpret his reply as he grasped her under the arm with a gloved fist and yanked her out of the bunk. He pulled her around and with a firm shove propelled her towards the navigational pit. Janeway followed his directives uneasily.
They emerged into the navigational pit, and she saw on the view screen a small vessel holding Chakotay's ship with a tractor beam. Two men already had Chakotay on the floor, one pinning down each arm. A third seemed to be in charge of the situation, and he looked over towards Janeway as she entered. Chakotay raised his head to see as well, and Janeway felt a knot in her throat when she saw his face, pummeled and bloody.
"Are they the only two onboard?" the leader asked the Bajoran gripping Janeway's arm.
"Yes. I conducted a thorough search."
The leader, a large Orion male, raked his eyes over her coldly for a moment before asking, "Did he assault her?"
"No," Janeway answered. "He didn't."
They ignored her as though she were mute. The man next to her grasped her pants around the waist and yanked them down to her knees. Janeway focused on the floor, humiliated, while he wriggled a finger into her. At the bottom of her vision, she could see her pale and gangly legs trembling in the cold air of the shuttle like the limbs of a scared child. She felt sick knowing that Chakotay was watching this.
"Doesn't feel like it," the man said gruffly. He pulled her pants back up with a firm jerk.
"That's fortunate," the Orion said, turning to glare down at the man on the floor, "For you. If you'd assaulted Admiral Durant's wife," he said slowly, "I would have severed your genitals and choked you with them."
Chakotay looked up at the Orion through one angry, glittering eye, the other too swollen for sight. His voice was jagged as he said, "I would never hurt her. I have respect for a woman's dignity, unlike you assholes--"
The Orion's foot swung out and connected brutally with Chakotay's jaw. A pained cry tore from his lips, and his head jerked sideways. He seemed to slump down, disoriented. Janeway, in a sudden rage, almost ripped forward to defend her friend. She caught herself. Cold reason stayed her charge. Chakotay might still have a chance to escape this alive. But if she gave her feelings away now...
Gods. Her next words could determine whether he'd live or die.
She cleared her throat to catch the leader's attention. "Excuse me, Mister--" she paused, uncertain what to call him. The Orion glanced over at her as though she were some fly, daring to speak.
"Don't worry, we'll get around to you, too, Janeway."
She ignored him. "Listen, you've found us. Please, you have me. He's no threat to you, why don't you just forget about him--"
"You asking me to let him go? Preposterous!" His eyes narrowed into small slits. "I don't want your advice, Janeway. You would be well advised to remain silent."
Janeway felt suddenly desperate, fearful. "He was a Maquis," her voice trembled somewhat as she spoke. Her nightmare was coming true. No, she couldn't lose Chakotay, not after all of this. "He was a Maquis," she said again, "And he still has friends. They'd be very angry if he were killed--"
"Maquis," the Orion scoffed, glancing down at Chakotay with undisguised contempt. "The Dominion obliterated the Maquis years ago. They have no influence." He looked up again to scrutinize her expression. "You seem rather upset at the prospect of his death, Admiral Janeway. You're fond of the man who abducted you?"
She knew he was trying to pry something out of her, and she steeled her expression. "It's nothing personal. I just hate violence. Please. I don't want anyone else to die on my account."
He sneered at that. "Such a humanitarian!" He looked down at Chakotay again. "Oh, don't worry. He has some time yet. We have quite a few questions for Mr. Chakotay here, don't we?" The Orion pressed his foot under Chakotay's chin and nudged the disoriented man's head up. "We'd like to know how this little abduction came about... We wouldn't want to rely on the good Admiral's word alone."
Janeway bowed her head, her heart pounding, a sense of hopelessness washing over her. It was too late. They were going to kill him. They were going to torture and then kill him, and it was her fault. There was no way to save him. Everything she'd tried, everything she'd done, for nothing. She was going to be Durant's slave for the rest of her days, and Chakotay... her love, her life was going to be dead.
She was too desolate for tears. For anything. She stood there, staring at the ground, hearing the voices buzz around her, trying not to look at her violently abused friend.
The voices suddenly grew loud, reached a crescendo, and Janeway looked up sharply to see what they were shouting about. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a bright flash, and when she looked over, she saw the ship that had been holding Chakotay's in a tractor beam bursting into a large ball of flames.
Her breath left her, her heart pounding violently in her ears again. Hope? Could there be a chance?
"Return fire!" the Orion hissed at one of his subordinates, and the lackey tapped futilely at the console before pounding his fist on it.
"I can't!"
Chakotay's ship abruptly rocked from the unknown attacker's phaser fire.
"Imbecile!" the Orion roared, lancing forward and ripping his lackey from the controls. "I'll do it myself--"
"The control panel's encrypted!" the subordinate shouted, and the Orion shortly discovered the same thing. Disbelief crossed his face. Janeway suddenly felt a smug satisfaction, proud of Chakotay despite her earlier irritation at the very same safety measure.
The ship rocked violently again, nearly sending Janeway to the floor, and raining sparks from a control panel behind her head.
The Orion leader staggered away from the console and swept over to Chakotay, grasping the half-conscious man by his collar and jerking him up to glare into his face. "What's the encryption--"
He never finished his sentence. The blue light of a transporter beam enveloped him. His subordinates disappeared with him.
Janeway stood there, hearing her own breathing in the now nearly- empty shuttle. After a beat, she rushed over to Chakotay. He was a mess. One eye was swollen shut; his nose looked to have been broken. There was dry, caked blood around it and a gash in his cheek. Kathryn could see that his lips were swollen, and the hint of blood at their corners told her that they might have knocked loose a few teeth.
"Chakotay?" she whispered, and she raised a hand to gingerly cup his cheek. Even that slight touch hurt him, and he winced. Janeway recoiled quickly, afraid to touch him.
"Kathryn?" his voice was thick and slurred, his jaw heavy.
"Chakotay, it's going to be okay. They're gone now. Someone--" she looked towards the view screen uncertainly, an unfamiliar ship hovering near them. "Someone helped us."
"M' sorry," he slurred. "Didn't detect them until they--"
"It's not your fault," Kathryn said.
He tried to sit up a little, but she put her hands gingerly on his shoulders to ease him back down. "Careful."
"Kathryn... Who were those people? What did they want?" he asked through gasps of breath.
Janeway's mouth felt suddenly dry. "Chakotay, I'm going to go in back and grab a dermal regenerator. And we have to contact that ship. We may have to get you to a hos--" she started to stand up, but his hand locked around her arm with surprising strength and pulled her back down.
"Kathryn--" His dark eye locked sharply upon her, and he seemed suddenly threatening despite his physical state. "Don't dodge the question."
She looked away from him, reaching up to try to pry his fingers from her arm. "Chakotay, you need medical care."
"Later!" he growled, gritting his teeth as he struggled to sit up again, this time successfully. He was out of breath when he propped his back against the wall, and clearly in a good deal of pain. Chakotay's bruising grip on her arm held her in place. His voice was exasperated. "Damn it, Kathryn, we nearly--"
"Hello?" A familiar voice called from outside the cockpit.
Janeway turned to see Tom Paris enter the room.
Paris looked slightly older than she remembered. He had a shadow of a beard and a confident set of his shoulders. There was a little less mischief in his eyes, a little more austerity in his expression. She knew instantly that this man was a far cry from the immature helmsman she remembered.
She realized her mouth was hanging open, and she quickly recovered his composure. Chakotay was smiling with strained lips as he said, "About time you came, Paris."
"What can I say. Heavy traffic," Paris replied with a smirk. His eyes fell on Janeway, and though he seemed unsurprised by her presence, there was shock in his eyes as he took in her exterior. His voice lacked its usual cockiness as he murmured, "Long time no see, Admiral."
She nodded warily. "It's good to see you, Tom." She threw a glance at Chakotay, still propped up against the wall, and quickly gestured for Tom to come over. "Tom, Chakotay's hurt."
Paris dug in back of a console for a med kit, and Janeway moved aside so Paris could take her place next to Chakotay. He whipped the dermal regenerator across Chakotay's various wounds and abrasions with startling precision and skill.
Janeway sat there watching, feeling useless and somewhat awkward. She sensed that Tom was privy to everything Chakotay was, and she felt uncomfortable knowing that the two men had communicated without her knowledge.
"So, that's your ship?" Janeway asked uncertainly, attempting to break the thick silence, glancing out towards the unfamiliar craft that had rescued them from their captors.
"That's right," Paris said proudly, his bright blue eyes flickering up briefly. "A beauty, isn't she? That baby's the product of three best- selling holonovels."
Chakotay grunted once as Paris nudged his torso, and Tom quickly raised an instrument to knit his broken ribs.
"I'm surprised you found us," Janeway said carefully. "I didn't realize Chakotay had contacted anyone."
Tom looked at her, his expression carefully neutral. "Yeah, he sent us something a few hours ago. It's just lucky for you guys," he gestured around the damaged shuttle, "that B'Elanna and I were taking the kid out on a joyride just a few sectors away. A few minutes more, and you might've been toast."
"Tom," Chakotay asked, "What did you do with the men who were in here? Did you beam them onto your ship?"
"Hell no!" Paris exclaimed. "You think I'd put that mercenary scum within ten feet of my family?"
"But where else could you have beamed--" Chakotay began, then he understood. Janeway listened without expression.
"So, what's the story?" Tom asked, pressing Chakotay's newly healed ribs to make sure they were completely fixed. "I knew their power signature right away. Mercenaries. But why were they here?"
Chakotay looked over at Janeway, and she steeled herself for another session of intrusive questions.
"I think Admiral Janeway was about to tell me." His gaze was pointed. The look Tom sent her also bored into her skull.
Janeway rose to her feet, feeling more comfortable looking down on the two men. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked stubbornly out the view port.
"I don't expect her to answer, of course," Chakotay continued loudly, dark eyes locked on her the whole time. Tom rose to his feet and hoisted Chakotay up with him. "No, Admiral Janeway's been stonewalling me this whole time, hasn't she?"
"She has?" Tom asked.
"Yep. Kathryn has a secret," Chakotay said.
"Must be pretty big," Tom said, his words and intense blue gaze directed more at Kathryn now than Chakotay, "To attract the attention of those guys. I'm guessing they're Syndicate?"
Chakotay sent Tom a startled glance. The sudden hardness in Janeway's eyes gave her away.
Chakotay stared between the two for a few moments, stunned. Then, "My God, Kathryn, what the hell did you do to get the Orion Syndicate after you?"
She looked down at the floor briefly, then spoke, "You were lucky to survive this, Chakotay. You might not be so lucky when they come again," she glanced at Tom briefly, then back at Chakotay, "And I assure you, they'll come again."
After a silence, Janeway said, "Look-- this is my business. I can take care of it. I know it's too dangerous to take me back to Deep Space Seven now, but if you just drop me off at the nearest--"
"Like hell we will," Chakotay snapped. "We're not just going to leave you there."
"I assure you, gentlemen, I'll survive. It's the two of you I'm worried about--"
"Forget it," Tom cut in.
"Kathryn..." Chakotay said, then softer, "You can trust us. Tell us what's going on."
Janeway looked between the two implacable men, and her shoulders slumped. There was no way for her to sway them. She remembered that look, on Chakotay's face, on Tom's. It was in the void. She urged the crew to leave her behind. They could escape through the wormhole. She'd destroy it and catch up to them eventually. She was willing then to condemn herself to exile in the void for the sake of saving her crew and the inhabitants of the void. But her senior staff refused then the same way they were refusing now.
But no. Not this time. There was no third option. There was no third choice.
Janeway held their gazes, steel in her eyes. "Let me make one thing clear: I will never tell you. You are wasting my time and yours. Unless you release me while you still can, you will not live to see the next reunion. Do you understand?" Turning to Paris, "Tom, you have a wife, a child to think about. Do you want them to die with you? And Chakotay," she turned back to the older man. "Are you going to die needlessly for this?"
Chakotay made a decision. He glanced at Paris and saw the same resolve.
"Tom?" He shot a defiant look at his former captain. "Kathryn and I will have to board your shuttle. They know this ship now."
"Sure," Tom replied, glancing at Janeway's unreadable face.
"And maybe you should drop Miral off with someone," Chakotay added. Grimly, "This could get very serious."
As time dragged on, Kathryn found herself growing increasingly tired. Chakotay already slumbered in the pilot's seat, but Kathryn was disinclined to rest in the seat next to him again. Her neck still had a kink from her earlier nap in the uncomfortable chair.
She searched the small vessel and located two makeshift bunks in the back room. She stretched herself out on the bottom one and drifted into an uneasy sleep.
After an interminable period of time, she was awoken by a vague rumbling sensation. Janeway lay there with her eyes closed, desiring sleep, reluctant to face another trial. She tried to identify the sensation. The ship's trembling was too soft for weapon's fire, too pronounced for mere turbulence. A tractor beam?
Kathryn opened her eyes and saw a large Bajoran glowering down at her.
She felt little surprise; truthfully, it had taken them longer to catch her than she'd expected. She just wished she'd thought of something more compelling to say than her simple, "Please don't hurt him."
The Bajoran grunted. She wasn't sure how to interpret his reply as he grasped her under the arm with a gloved fist and yanked her out of the bunk. He pulled her around and with a firm shove propelled her towards the navigational pit. Janeway followed his directives uneasily.
They emerged into the navigational pit, and she saw on the view screen a small vessel holding Chakotay's ship with a tractor beam. Two men already had Chakotay on the floor, one pinning down each arm. A third seemed to be in charge of the situation, and he looked over towards Janeway as she entered. Chakotay raised his head to see as well, and Janeway felt a knot in her throat when she saw his face, pummeled and bloody.
"Are they the only two onboard?" the leader asked the Bajoran gripping Janeway's arm.
"Yes. I conducted a thorough search."
The leader, a large Orion male, raked his eyes over her coldly for a moment before asking, "Did he assault her?"
"No," Janeway answered. "He didn't."
They ignored her as though she were mute. The man next to her grasped her pants around the waist and yanked them down to her knees. Janeway focused on the floor, humiliated, while he wriggled a finger into her. At the bottom of her vision, she could see her pale and gangly legs trembling in the cold air of the shuttle like the limbs of a scared child. She felt sick knowing that Chakotay was watching this.
"Doesn't feel like it," the man said gruffly. He pulled her pants back up with a firm jerk.
"That's fortunate," the Orion said, turning to glare down at the man on the floor, "For you. If you'd assaulted Admiral Durant's wife," he said slowly, "I would have severed your genitals and choked you with them."
Chakotay looked up at the Orion through one angry, glittering eye, the other too swollen for sight. His voice was jagged as he said, "I would never hurt her. I have respect for a woman's dignity, unlike you assholes--"
The Orion's foot swung out and connected brutally with Chakotay's jaw. A pained cry tore from his lips, and his head jerked sideways. He seemed to slump down, disoriented. Janeway, in a sudden rage, almost ripped forward to defend her friend. She caught herself. Cold reason stayed her charge. Chakotay might still have a chance to escape this alive. But if she gave her feelings away now...
Gods. Her next words could determine whether he'd live or die.
She cleared her throat to catch the leader's attention. "Excuse me, Mister--" she paused, uncertain what to call him. The Orion glanced over at her as though she were some fly, daring to speak.
"Don't worry, we'll get around to you, too, Janeway."
She ignored him. "Listen, you've found us. Please, you have me. He's no threat to you, why don't you just forget about him--"
"You asking me to let him go? Preposterous!" His eyes narrowed into small slits. "I don't want your advice, Janeway. You would be well advised to remain silent."
Janeway felt suddenly desperate, fearful. "He was a Maquis," her voice trembled somewhat as she spoke. Her nightmare was coming true. No, she couldn't lose Chakotay, not after all of this. "He was a Maquis," she said again, "And he still has friends. They'd be very angry if he were killed--"
"Maquis," the Orion scoffed, glancing down at Chakotay with undisguised contempt. "The Dominion obliterated the Maquis years ago. They have no influence." He looked up again to scrutinize her expression. "You seem rather upset at the prospect of his death, Admiral Janeway. You're fond of the man who abducted you?"
She knew he was trying to pry something out of her, and she steeled her expression. "It's nothing personal. I just hate violence. Please. I don't want anyone else to die on my account."
He sneered at that. "Such a humanitarian!" He looked down at Chakotay again. "Oh, don't worry. He has some time yet. We have quite a few questions for Mr. Chakotay here, don't we?" The Orion pressed his foot under Chakotay's chin and nudged the disoriented man's head up. "We'd like to know how this little abduction came about... We wouldn't want to rely on the good Admiral's word alone."
Janeway bowed her head, her heart pounding, a sense of hopelessness washing over her. It was too late. They were going to kill him. They were going to torture and then kill him, and it was her fault. There was no way to save him. Everything she'd tried, everything she'd done, for nothing. She was going to be Durant's slave for the rest of her days, and Chakotay... her love, her life was going to be dead.
She was too desolate for tears. For anything. She stood there, staring at the ground, hearing the voices buzz around her, trying not to look at her violently abused friend.
The voices suddenly grew loud, reached a crescendo, and Janeway looked up sharply to see what they were shouting about. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a bright flash, and when she looked over, she saw the ship that had been holding Chakotay's in a tractor beam bursting into a large ball of flames.
Her breath left her, her heart pounding violently in her ears again. Hope? Could there be a chance?
"Return fire!" the Orion hissed at one of his subordinates, and the lackey tapped futilely at the console before pounding his fist on it.
"I can't!"
Chakotay's ship abruptly rocked from the unknown attacker's phaser fire.
"Imbecile!" the Orion roared, lancing forward and ripping his lackey from the controls. "I'll do it myself--"
"The control panel's encrypted!" the subordinate shouted, and the Orion shortly discovered the same thing. Disbelief crossed his face. Janeway suddenly felt a smug satisfaction, proud of Chakotay despite her earlier irritation at the very same safety measure.
The ship rocked violently again, nearly sending Janeway to the floor, and raining sparks from a control panel behind her head.
The Orion leader staggered away from the console and swept over to Chakotay, grasping the half-conscious man by his collar and jerking him up to glare into his face. "What's the encryption--"
He never finished his sentence. The blue light of a transporter beam enveloped him. His subordinates disappeared with him.
Janeway stood there, hearing her own breathing in the now nearly- empty shuttle. After a beat, she rushed over to Chakotay. He was a mess. One eye was swollen shut; his nose looked to have been broken. There was dry, caked blood around it and a gash in his cheek. Kathryn could see that his lips were swollen, and the hint of blood at their corners told her that they might have knocked loose a few teeth.
"Chakotay?" she whispered, and she raised a hand to gingerly cup his cheek. Even that slight touch hurt him, and he winced. Janeway recoiled quickly, afraid to touch him.
"Kathryn?" his voice was thick and slurred, his jaw heavy.
"Chakotay, it's going to be okay. They're gone now. Someone--" she looked towards the view screen uncertainly, an unfamiliar ship hovering near them. "Someone helped us."
"M' sorry," he slurred. "Didn't detect them until they--"
"It's not your fault," Kathryn said.
He tried to sit up a little, but she put her hands gingerly on his shoulders to ease him back down. "Careful."
"Kathryn... Who were those people? What did they want?" he asked through gasps of breath.
Janeway's mouth felt suddenly dry. "Chakotay, I'm going to go in back and grab a dermal regenerator. And we have to contact that ship. We may have to get you to a hos--" she started to stand up, but his hand locked around her arm with surprising strength and pulled her back down.
"Kathryn--" His dark eye locked sharply upon her, and he seemed suddenly threatening despite his physical state. "Don't dodge the question."
She looked away from him, reaching up to try to pry his fingers from her arm. "Chakotay, you need medical care."
"Later!" he growled, gritting his teeth as he struggled to sit up again, this time successfully. He was out of breath when he propped his back against the wall, and clearly in a good deal of pain. Chakotay's bruising grip on her arm held her in place. His voice was exasperated. "Damn it, Kathryn, we nearly--"
"Hello?" A familiar voice called from outside the cockpit.
Janeway turned to see Tom Paris enter the room.
Paris looked slightly older than she remembered. He had a shadow of a beard and a confident set of his shoulders. There was a little less mischief in his eyes, a little more austerity in his expression. She knew instantly that this man was a far cry from the immature helmsman she remembered.
She realized her mouth was hanging open, and she quickly recovered his composure. Chakotay was smiling with strained lips as he said, "About time you came, Paris."
"What can I say. Heavy traffic," Paris replied with a smirk. His eyes fell on Janeway, and though he seemed unsurprised by her presence, there was shock in his eyes as he took in her exterior. His voice lacked its usual cockiness as he murmured, "Long time no see, Admiral."
She nodded warily. "It's good to see you, Tom." She threw a glance at Chakotay, still propped up against the wall, and quickly gestured for Tom to come over. "Tom, Chakotay's hurt."
Paris dug in back of a console for a med kit, and Janeway moved aside so Paris could take her place next to Chakotay. He whipped the dermal regenerator across Chakotay's various wounds and abrasions with startling precision and skill.
Janeway sat there watching, feeling useless and somewhat awkward. She sensed that Tom was privy to everything Chakotay was, and she felt uncomfortable knowing that the two men had communicated without her knowledge.
"So, that's your ship?" Janeway asked uncertainly, attempting to break the thick silence, glancing out towards the unfamiliar craft that had rescued them from their captors.
"That's right," Paris said proudly, his bright blue eyes flickering up briefly. "A beauty, isn't she? That baby's the product of three best- selling holonovels."
Chakotay grunted once as Paris nudged his torso, and Tom quickly raised an instrument to knit his broken ribs.
"I'm surprised you found us," Janeway said carefully. "I didn't realize Chakotay had contacted anyone."
Tom looked at her, his expression carefully neutral. "Yeah, he sent us something a few hours ago. It's just lucky for you guys," he gestured around the damaged shuttle, "that B'Elanna and I were taking the kid out on a joyride just a few sectors away. A few minutes more, and you might've been toast."
"Tom," Chakotay asked, "What did you do with the men who were in here? Did you beam them onto your ship?"
"Hell no!" Paris exclaimed. "You think I'd put that mercenary scum within ten feet of my family?"
"But where else could you have beamed--" Chakotay began, then he understood. Janeway listened without expression.
"So, what's the story?" Tom asked, pressing Chakotay's newly healed ribs to make sure they were completely fixed. "I knew their power signature right away. Mercenaries. But why were they here?"
Chakotay looked over at Janeway, and she steeled herself for another session of intrusive questions.
"I think Admiral Janeway was about to tell me." His gaze was pointed. The look Tom sent her also bored into her skull.
Janeway rose to her feet, feeling more comfortable looking down on the two men. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked stubbornly out the view port.
"I don't expect her to answer, of course," Chakotay continued loudly, dark eyes locked on her the whole time. Tom rose to his feet and hoisted Chakotay up with him. "No, Admiral Janeway's been stonewalling me this whole time, hasn't she?"
"She has?" Tom asked.
"Yep. Kathryn has a secret," Chakotay said.
"Must be pretty big," Tom said, his words and intense blue gaze directed more at Kathryn now than Chakotay, "To attract the attention of those guys. I'm guessing they're Syndicate?"
Chakotay sent Tom a startled glance. The sudden hardness in Janeway's eyes gave her away.
Chakotay stared between the two for a few moments, stunned. Then, "My God, Kathryn, what the hell did you do to get the Orion Syndicate after you?"
She looked down at the floor briefly, then spoke, "You were lucky to survive this, Chakotay. You might not be so lucky when they come again," she glanced at Tom briefly, then back at Chakotay, "And I assure you, they'll come again."
After a silence, Janeway said, "Look-- this is my business. I can take care of it. I know it's too dangerous to take me back to Deep Space Seven now, but if you just drop me off at the nearest--"
"Like hell we will," Chakotay snapped. "We're not just going to leave you there."
"I assure you, gentlemen, I'll survive. It's the two of you I'm worried about--"
"Forget it," Tom cut in.
"Kathryn..." Chakotay said, then softer, "You can trust us. Tell us what's going on."
Janeway looked between the two implacable men, and her shoulders slumped. There was no way for her to sway them. She remembered that look, on Chakotay's face, on Tom's. It was in the void. She urged the crew to leave her behind. They could escape through the wormhole. She'd destroy it and catch up to them eventually. She was willing then to condemn herself to exile in the void for the sake of saving her crew and the inhabitants of the void. But her senior staff refused then the same way they were refusing now.
But no. Not this time. There was no third option. There was no third choice.
Janeway held their gazes, steel in her eyes. "Let me make one thing clear: I will never tell you. You are wasting my time and yours. Unless you release me while you still can, you will not live to see the next reunion. Do you understand?" Turning to Paris, "Tom, you have a wife, a child to think about. Do you want them to die with you? And Chakotay," she turned back to the older man. "Are you going to die needlessly for this?"
Chakotay made a decision. He glanced at Paris and saw the same resolve.
"Tom?" He shot a defiant look at his former captain. "Kathryn and I will have to board your shuttle. They know this ship now."
"Sure," Tom replied, glancing at Janeway's unreadable face.
"And maybe you should drop Miral off with someone," Chakotay added. Grimly, "This could get very serious."
