Star Trek Liberty
By Kyizi
Episode 2: Caretaker, Part 2
Continued.
(For disclaimer etc, see previous part)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Anna ran down the hallway, she wasn't sure what was going on, but then again, she hadn't been sure since the moment she had first stepped onto the ship. She hadn't been sure about her career choices being correct, but if she made it out of this alive, she was glad she hadn't decided to be an engineer, and if she had? Well, she'd be changing her mind. Everything was so different here, real life situations were impossible to prepare for, but there was one thing she was sure about, and that was the feelings she was getting.
Stepping into the turbo lift, she waited until it began to make its way to the bridge before beginning to pace. She had to let the Captain know that she could sense this Caretaker.she had to let them know that-
"No!" her eyes widened as the lift stopped. She wasn't on the bridge, in fact she wasn't on any level.the lift wasn't moving, and the Captain had no idea what she was in for.
~~~~~~~
"Typical," Torres muttered to herself. She glared at Paris, but he didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. It wasn't until the array had stopped transmitting the pulses that she had recognised what she was hearing.
Someone, likely Kerris, had been in her personal files and taken her favourite piece of music.well, her father's favourite piece of music, she'd had no idea who the "Rat Pack" were when she was a child, only that her father loved them. And since he'd left, she'd made no attempt to find out any more. But she had kept one of her father's favourites on file. Kerris had obviously patched the rhythm through the signal so that "Come Fly With Me" was playing beneath the regular pulse.
She shook her head, making a mental note to personally skin Kerris for going through her personal files when they made it back and continued to climb. It had been a good idea.but there was no way in hell that she was telling Kerris that.
Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't realised that they'd reached the surface until people began to disappear in front of her. She reached her hand through the gap and pulled herself out, ignoring the offers of help. The pain was getting worse, but there was no way she was showing weakness, especially in front of a traitor like Tom Paris.
"Get down!"
Instincts taking over, she threw herself to the ground at Paris' yell. A large explosion rocked the ground beneath them and she sat up quickly. Chakotay! He was down there. He'd come to save her and now she had to return the favour. Without even realising what had been happening, she noted that Paris was nodding at the small alien with the strange beard. He removed the Starfleet comm. badge from the man and handed it to the Ocampan girl that had come with them.
"Make that three to beam up."
Her eyes widened but before she could protest, she was on Voyager's transporter pad, swearing enough to make her mother proud.
~~~~~~~
Chakotay grimaced as the ground shook again. His broken leg was aching and he knew there was no way he was making it back. He was vaguely aware of Paris and Neelix joining them, but it wasn't until Paris reached down to help him that he realised what was happening.
"Get out of here Paris, before the whole thing comes down!"
"I intend to. As soon as I get you up."
That did it, the man was insane. Traitor or not, it was against his religion to wish anyone dead.including himself. "You get on those stairs, they'll collapse! We'll both die!"
"Yeah? But on the other hand, if I save your butt, your life belongs to me. Isn't that some kind of Indian custom?"
Chakotay narrowed his eyes a little. "Wrong tribe," he said, hoping to make the man leave him. He didn't want anyone's life on his hands.
"I don't believe you. You'd rather die than let me be the one to rescue you?"
Chakotay almost sighed. Tom Paris wasn't leaving him. He didn't like it, not just because of who Tom was, but because it brought questions of the man's true character to light and it made him wonder about the past. But it really wasn't the time to think about the past, the past was done, and Tom Paris was a traitor.
"Fine," he said, making sure that Paris realised he wasn't happy about it. "Be a fool. If I have to die, at least I'll have the pleasure of watching you go with me."
"Isn't there some kind of Indian trick where you can turn yourself into a bird and fly us out of here?"
Chakotay almost cracked a smile, if only. "You're too heavy,"
He groaned as the bone in his leg shifted. The world was falling apart around him, Tom Paris was his only company and he couldn't run away. He was in hell, he had to be.
They made their way towards the surface, the others long gone. He could sense something was about to happen.something wasn't going to go right and suddenly the stairs gave way.
~~~~~~~
"There are two other ships out there." Tiera said, instantly plotting escape courses should they be required and feeding them into the navigational systems.
"Voyager's sending us a communiqué. They're the Kazon-Olga. Oh and as an aside note, they have B'Elanna back. Gee, got there priorities right, don't they?"
"Are Chakotay and B'Elanna heading back over?" Kerris asked, her eyes scanning the routes that Naïve was entering into the computer.
"Okay, as another aside, they don't have Chakotay,"
"What?" both women turned to him and he held his hands up.
"Don't blame me!" he said, turning back to his screen. "I'm just the messenger. Oh, no, wait, they got him."
"I shoot messengers, they often know more than they need to."
Dylan frowned. "Kerris, you shoot everything."
~~~~~~~
"Captain Janeway and our old 'friend' Tuvok are beaming aboard the array,"
"I think you spend way too much time with Kerris, man, you're starting to adopt her permanent state of sarcasm,"
Antonio grinned. "Come on Chris, you're just jealous."
"Yes, because I want to spend time with someone who would sooner castrate me than talk to me."
Antonio laughed and picked up the hydro-spanner, moving further into the Jeffries tube he and Thomas were currently working on. "Well, maybe if you didn't piss her off so much."
"It's the Cardassian blood, I'm telling you it mixes bad with Bajoran."
"Yeah, I think she knows that," Antonio said softly.
"Sorry, man, didn't mean to bring it up."
"Don't apologise to me, just take my advice and refrain from saying anything to Kerris, you might just end up on the wrong end of a castration after all.and that'd only be for starters."
"Tolaris, what's your location?"
"Thomas and I are on working on the engines, Captain, good to have you back. Hope you have our friendly little Klingon friend with you."
"Go to hell, Tolaris."
"Nice to hear your voice again, too, B'Elanna." Antonio smirked.
Thomas shook his head and smiled. "Hey, Torres, you plannin' on getting down here and givin' us a hand?"
"On my way, although given that Kerris will likely destroy my engines the minute I fix them."
"Fix them properly this time and maybe I won't need break them to save all our necks."
"Now, now children." Tiera's voice joined in the conversation. "I think we need to get some work done."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Thomas shook his head. "Can't you feel the love, Naïve?"
"G'Night John Boy." There was silence and Thomas gave him a questioning look. Antonio shrugged. "What?"
~~~~~~~
Chakotay smiled as he took the seat next to Kerris. The woman nodded her head and turned back to the controls, moving the ship next to Voyager as more ships joined their Kazon 'friends'.
"I think there's trouble brewing in paradise, that thing's huge," Tiera said as she turned to greet him. "Good to have you back, Chakotay, and I think the guys are glad you brought their Chief back to them, I don't think the prophets even know what Kerris did to the engines while we were away."
"Look, I am an engineer as well you know and I am sitting right here."
Chakotay laughed. "We know, we know, but I don't think the crew will ever let you forget the time you almost blew us up."
"Hey, if B'Elanna hadn't changed the."
"They're firing."
Instantly the crew was on alert. They all jumped to their feet moving to the systems they knew were still in need of repair. A few moments later, B'Elanna joined them. She went instantly to the front of the ship and sat next to Chakotay.
"The engines are pretty much done. We've only got a few minor systems to repair but nothing life threatening." Chakotay nodded and she turned to the view screen. "What's going on?"
"Their weapons array has been hit. They're in trouble."
"Neither of us has enough fire power to stop that ship." B'Elanna stated, and he wished she hadn't. He knew that already, but having it said, certainly didn't make him feel any better. They were in a terrible predicament and he had to find a conclusion, the only problem was, he had already found one, he was just reluctant to do it.
He took a deep breath and began to run his fingers over the console, making trying to find out what was the best way to go about it. "I'm setting a collision course but the guidance system is disabled. I'll have to pilot the ship manually. Get the crew ready to beam to Voyager. And drop shield for transport."
Torres seemed reluctant, but nodded. He turned on the communications system and opened a link to Voyager. "Paris, my crew's coming over. Tell one of your crackerjack transporter Chiefs to keep a lock on me. I'm gonna try and."
"Wait!"
"Oh my God." Chakotay's eyes widened as half of Voyager broke apart before their very eyes.
~~~~~~
Aeva ran through the hallway, a small group of engineers following her. She had to get to main engineering and find out what the hell was going on. There was no internal communication, everything was gone and there was no one to tell her what to do. Decks six through nine were gone and she had no idea what was left of the Primary Hull.
"Help!"
She stopped, causing the woman behind her to squeal. There was a lot of noise around them, but she could definitely hear something. They were near main engineering now and she wanted nothing more than to run the remainder of the way and help but she had to help.
"I think it's coming from the turbo lift,"
She turned and nodded at the woman she vaguely remembered as Celes. "It broke down about an hour ago. Surely they sent someone to fix it by now."
"An hour ago?" The man behind her shook his head. "Man, I'd be freaking out if I was in there for an hour."
Will someone please help me!
"Okay, what the hell was that?" Aeva stood back a little, unsure where the phantom voice had come from.
"I have no idea, but I do know that there's someone in there, I can hear the banging."
"You're right," Aeva nodded and the group headed for the lift shaft.
~~~~~~~
"What are our options?"
"Sorry, Captain, but I don't think we have any,"
Janeway squared her shoulders and stepped to the centre of the bridge. "I think it's a little early to be writing us all off so soon Mr. Paris."
"Sorry, Captain."
Janeway nodded and stumbled a little as another blast rocked the ship. "Harry, I need you working on communication. I want to be able to talk to Chakotay as soon as possible."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Tuvok, what's our status?"
"Decks three through six have been destroyed."
"Deck six? So that means we have no escape pods," Janeway said, closing her eyes briefly. "Go on, what about the Engineering Hull?"
"We have lost decks six to nine in the second explosion."
Janeway nodded. "Okay," she took a moment, before straightening up and turned to her bridge crew. "Ensign Kim, how's our communication?"
"I've nearly.got it!"
"Open a channel,"
When Ensign Kim nodded, Janeway turned to the screen where a fuzzy image of Chakotay greeted her. "Chakotay, are your transporters operational."
"Yes. What can we do?"
"I think you know," Janeway said and the fuzzy image nodded. "I guess we think alike regardless of being on the wrong sides."
"I guess we do," he paused for a moment. "You realise that we can't fit every."
"I do. Just do whatever you can. Janeway out." The image blinked off and they were greeted instead with the looming ship that would be their destruction.
"I don't think I want to know, Captain, but do you want me to set course for the array?"
Janeway smiled weakly. "Yes, Mr. Paris, set course for the array."
~~~~~~~
"You have got to be kidding me!"
Seska's voice was irritating enough, but at that precise moment in time, Kerris could really do without it. "Would you please go screech somewhere else and let us do our jobs?"
"They were sent to capture us and now you want to save them?"
"Seska! Now is not the time!"
Chakotay's voice shocked them all. The usually calm man had a way of creating silence whenever that calm disappeared, even for a split second. After a pause, Seska glared at him and stalked off, leaving Kerris to sigh in relief.
"Tiera, did you say you had the guidance system on line?"
"It never went off. Okay, it did initially, but it was fixed while you were away, I just turned it off to save energy while we didn't need it. In case you didn't notice, we're not exactly doing all that well, power wise."
"I had noticed, thank you, Naïve." Chakotay said, leaning over her shoulder. "You've got us all ready to go?"
"Ready as we'll ever be,"
"That inspires confidence. Kerris, you ready to fly us out of here?"
"We'll be gone as soon as you give the word,"
Chakotay nodded and opened up a ship wide communiqué. "Okay, we're ready to go. Are the transporters ready yet, B'Elanna?"
"Almost, give me two more.right they're ready."
"Start getting people over here, now. I need everyone helping. This isn't a normal rescue. The people over there know their way around the inside of a ship. I want them all helping. If they're engineers, then I want them helping to get us out of here, if they can help, they will. Got it?"
There was a general consensus and Chakotay turned back to the screen. All he could do now was wait.
~~~~~~~
Janeway sat in her chair, watching as her ship collapsed around her, knowing that what was left of her crew and supplies was currently being beamed aboard the Liberty. Voyager was her ship, it was her first command.perhaps her only command and now it was over. She had failed. She had failed herself and her crew.
The ship rocked as another shot hit the hull. She turned to the console to her left and began to start the reaction that would send the warp core into overload, the command that should destroy the array.the command that would end her first mission, and Voyager's last.
~~~~~~~
"Kerris, get ready, we're almost."
"I have eyes! I can see where we are and where we're almost. Shit!"
The ship rocked as a minor explosion turned them into a roll. After a moment, she steadied them and continued to shadow Voyager until the last possible minute.
"Think you can try to leave the ship in tact up there?"
"B'Elanna this is not the time!" Chakotay answered, although he was well aware that B'Elanna's comment had more than likely annoyed Kerris enough to make sure she'd get them out of this, if only so that she could get back at B'Elanna.
"Okay, now!"
Chakotay watched as the view screen showed the array shooting out of its peripheral vision and held his breath, watching as the sensors showed the Kazon were following them.
Suddenly there was an almighty explosion and the ship rocked violently throwing him towards the console and then everything went black.
~~~~~~~
Everyone was moving; the ship was working like a colony of ants as everyone scurried about, making sure that their jobs were done. No one was willing to think of what they had lost.of who they had lost.
The explosion of the array had sent them hurtling through the Delta quadrant, leaving behind the Kazon and, unfortunately causing them to lose more of their own.
~~~~~~~
Chakotay looked up, wincing at the pain in his neck. There was another knock at the door and he sighed.
"Come in,"
After a moment, Captain Janeway entered, her hair a mess and her uniform not much better. He tried to smile at her, but it came out as more of a wince. There was nothing he could do or say that would make her feel any better about what had happened, so he didn't even bother trying.
"Take a seat," he said, indicating the space next to him on his couch. "It's not much, but it's all we got."
"It's fine,"
There was a moment of silence as Janeway settled herself, although it continued for longer than was necessary, neither one wanting to break the silence for it seemed a lot more comfortable than what they had to discuss.
"Well."
Chakotay nodded. "Well," he paused and took a deep breath. "I think that perhaps we need to talk."
Janeway nodded. "I think we do."
~~~~~~~
Chakotay looked at his crew.at their crew.all twenty-one of them.
"This won't be easy."
"What won't? The fact that we're stuck in the middle of nowhere? The fact that."
"Seska, that's enough," although he spoke softly, no one present could miss the command that was there. He turned back to look at them all. "This isn't going to be easy, there are only twenty-three of us left; twenty-three out of about two hundred. We lost a lot of good people today, a lot of good friends.
"But we won't give up. We've all left something, or someone back in the Alpha Quadrant. Whether it's a family, a home or just memories, we all have something we want to go back to. And we will."
"What?" Mikelo stood up, his look incredulous. "Are you serious? You want us to risk life and limb to spend the next hundred years or so trying to get back to a life where they," he indicated the Starfleet crew that was sectioned off. "Can put us in jail? I don't think so, I don't care!"
"That's enough, Don,"
"Look, I don't presume to know you,"
"No, don't," Mikelo spat out, making his obvious distrust and hatred for the Starfleet Captain known.
"But are you trying to tell me that you don't have someone you want to go back home to? Who were you fighting in the Maquis for?"
Mikelo went silent and sat down. There was another uncomfortable silence and Chakotay turned to Janeway and nodded, allowing her to continue.
"I lost someone very dear to me today. I lost one of the best friends I ever had." She paused for a moment, not allowing the tears for her friend to overpower her. "But I will not allow Tuvok's death to be in vain. He died fighting today. Everyone we lost died fighting. Don't you think they want their families to know that? Don't you think we owe it to them to let their families know that?"
"Yes,"
The soft-spoken voice caused everyone to turn and face the girl. She didn't look old enough to be out of school let alone lost in the middle of nowhere thousands of light years from home.
Janeway nodded to the cadet and turned to look at what was left of her previous crew. She had ten surviving members out of over a hundred and fifty; only fifteen percent of her crew had survived and she owed it to the other eighty five percent to make it home.
Chakotay's voice interrupted her reverie. "We will make this work. But if we want to make it home, we have to work together. We started off as two crews and now we have to function as one. There will be no Starfleet and no Maquis."
At this, Janeway felt her crew's eyes on her, as if they were finally noticing that she was no longer in her uniform. She nodded to them and turned back to Chakotay, giving him her full attention.
"However, that does not mean that we can do whatever we want. We will abide by a command structure. This is my ship, and my crew know it best, but that does not mean that Voyager's crew are in any way less important. Engineering will run under B'Elanna's orders, the ship under mine. But not mine alone. Captain Janeway will be my second in command."
Chakotay ignored Seska's outburst and turned to Kerris, Tolaris and Torres, waiting for their reaction. Torres sent a distrusting look to Janeway, but nodded. Antonio also nodded and Kerris shrugged.
"As long as I get to drive the ship, I don't care."
Chakotay smiled. "You will, just remember to leave it in one piece for Mikelo and Paris as well."
Not waiting to hear any reaction about what Kerris thought of letting Paris drive 'her' ship, he turned back to the others. "Kes, Neelix, you're welcome to join us for as long as you like, but if you want, we can drop you off anywhere."
The two smiled and Neelix replied. "We've decided to stay for a little while, if you don't mind, Chakotay."
"The more the merrier,"
With a nod, he dismissed them all, allowing them time to digest what he had just said, allowing them time to grieve. He sighed and turned to Janeway, indicating his quarters, letting her know he wanted to chat. They had discussed a little earlier, but they now needed to think about the day to day running. They had to think of their survival.and right at that moment, he was thinking of his own as Seska headed straight for him.
"Captain Janeway."
"I think the 'Captain' is a little redundant now, Chakotay," Janeway said, smiling slightly.
"Okay, what?"
"Kathryn,"
"Okay, Kathryn, I think we need to discuss our crew before they dismantle the ship,"
Janeway nodded and entered his quarters, well aware of the looks that young Bajoran, Seska, was sending her way. She didn't know the woman, but already disliked her, but she would have to learn to live with it. It was a small ship and the last thing she needed was an internal war going on.
She felt uncomfortable, almost as if she had been demoted. She wasn't the Captain anymore, she was.she didn't know what she was. She wasn't sure of anything about their new situation, but she was sure of one thing. They were getting this crew home.
~~~~~~~
END EPISODE 2
Okay, that's it! I know I haven't made it obvious who's survived and who hasn't but there was no way for me to do that without a list, and that just wouldn't work within the story. So what I've done is made up a character list, which is attached at the end.
WRITERS: Feel like writing an episode of Liberty? Then email me and I'll explain exactly what I'm doing with the series! I'd love to have other people get involved, so don't hesitate to email me at kyizi@yahoo.com
COMMENTS/FEEDBACK: Always love to hear from people! Let me know what characters you like/dislike etc. What did you think of the story? Drop me a line!
If anyone's interested in writing, sharing ideas etc. on a more permanent basis, then I've started a Yahoo! Group
To join the Liberty Yahoo! Group, you can subscribe at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/star_trek_liberty
Star Trek: Liberty
The Crew
* = original character
Maquis
Chakotay (Human)
B'Elanna Torres (Klingon/Human)
Seska (Bajoran (Cardassian))
Lon Suder (Betazoid)
Chell (Bolian)
*Kerris Nye (Bajoran/Cardassian)
*Antonio Tolaris (Human)
*Christopher Thomas (Human)
*Dylan Rei (Bajoran)
*Tiera Naïve (Bajoran)
*Mikelo Don (Bajoran)
Star Fleet
Kathryn Janeway (Human)
Tom Paris (Human)
Harry Kim (Human)
Joe Carey (Human)
Vorik (Vulcan)
Celes Tal (Human)
Lyndsey Ballard (Human)
Samantha Wildman (Human)
*Anna Faye (Betazoid)
*Aeva Zain (Trill)
Other
Kes (Ocampan)
Neelix (Talaxian)
By Kyizi
Episode 2: Caretaker, Part 2
Continued.
(For disclaimer etc, see previous part)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Anna ran down the hallway, she wasn't sure what was going on, but then again, she hadn't been sure since the moment she had first stepped onto the ship. She hadn't been sure about her career choices being correct, but if she made it out of this alive, she was glad she hadn't decided to be an engineer, and if she had? Well, she'd be changing her mind. Everything was so different here, real life situations were impossible to prepare for, but there was one thing she was sure about, and that was the feelings she was getting.
Stepping into the turbo lift, she waited until it began to make its way to the bridge before beginning to pace. She had to let the Captain know that she could sense this Caretaker.she had to let them know that-
"No!" her eyes widened as the lift stopped. She wasn't on the bridge, in fact she wasn't on any level.the lift wasn't moving, and the Captain had no idea what she was in for.
~~~~~~~
"Typical," Torres muttered to herself. She glared at Paris, but he didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. It wasn't until the array had stopped transmitting the pulses that she had recognised what she was hearing.
Someone, likely Kerris, had been in her personal files and taken her favourite piece of music.well, her father's favourite piece of music, she'd had no idea who the "Rat Pack" were when she was a child, only that her father loved them. And since he'd left, she'd made no attempt to find out any more. But she had kept one of her father's favourites on file. Kerris had obviously patched the rhythm through the signal so that "Come Fly With Me" was playing beneath the regular pulse.
She shook her head, making a mental note to personally skin Kerris for going through her personal files when they made it back and continued to climb. It had been a good idea.but there was no way in hell that she was telling Kerris that.
Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't realised that they'd reached the surface until people began to disappear in front of her. She reached her hand through the gap and pulled herself out, ignoring the offers of help. The pain was getting worse, but there was no way she was showing weakness, especially in front of a traitor like Tom Paris.
"Get down!"
Instincts taking over, she threw herself to the ground at Paris' yell. A large explosion rocked the ground beneath them and she sat up quickly. Chakotay! He was down there. He'd come to save her and now she had to return the favour. Without even realising what had been happening, she noted that Paris was nodding at the small alien with the strange beard. He removed the Starfleet comm. badge from the man and handed it to the Ocampan girl that had come with them.
"Make that three to beam up."
Her eyes widened but before she could protest, she was on Voyager's transporter pad, swearing enough to make her mother proud.
~~~~~~~
Chakotay grimaced as the ground shook again. His broken leg was aching and he knew there was no way he was making it back. He was vaguely aware of Paris and Neelix joining them, but it wasn't until Paris reached down to help him that he realised what was happening.
"Get out of here Paris, before the whole thing comes down!"
"I intend to. As soon as I get you up."
That did it, the man was insane. Traitor or not, it was against his religion to wish anyone dead.including himself. "You get on those stairs, they'll collapse! We'll both die!"
"Yeah? But on the other hand, if I save your butt, your life belongs to me. Isn't that some kind of Indian custom?"
Chakotay narrowed his eyes a little. "Wrong tribe," he said, hoping to make the man leave him. He didn't want anyone's life on his hands.
"I don't believe you. You'd rather die than let me be the one to rescue you?"
Chakotay almost sighed. Tom Paris wasn't leaving him. He didn't like it, not just because of who Tom was, but because it brought questions of the man's true character to light and it made him wonder about the past. But it really wasn't the time to think about the past, the past was done, and Tom Paris was a traitor.
"Fine," he said, making sure that Paris realised he wasn't happy about it. "Be a fool. If I have to die, at least I'll have the pleasure of watching you go with me."
"Isn't there some kind of Indian trick where you can turn yourself into a bird and fly us out of here?"
Chakotay almost cracked a smile, if only. "You're too heavy,"
He groaned as the bone in his leg shifted. The world was falling apart around him, Tom Paris was his only company and he couldn't run away. He was in hell, he had to be.
They made their way towards the surface, the others long gone. He could sense something was about to happen.something wasn't going to go right and suddenly the stairs gave way.
~~~~~~~
"There are two other ships out there." Tiera said, instantly plotting escape courses should they be required and feeding them into the navigational systems.
"Voyager's sending us a communiqué. They're the Kazon-Olga. Oh and as an aside note, they have B'Elanna back. Gee, got there priorities right, don't they?"
"Are Chakotay and B'Elanna heading back over?" Kerris asked, her eyes scanning the routes that Naïve was entering into the computer.
"Okay, as another aside, they don't have Chakotay,"
"What?" both women turned to him and he held his hands up.
"Don't blame me!" he said, turning back to his screen. "I'm just the messenger. Oh, no, wait, they got him."
"I shoot messengers, they often know more than they need to."
Dylan frowned. "Kerris, you shoot everything."
~~~~~~~
"Captain Janeway and our old 'friend' Tuvok are beaming aboard the array,"
"I think you spend way too much time with Kerris, man, you're starting to adopt her permanent state of sarcasm,"
Antonio grinned. "Come on Chris, you're just jealous."
"Yes, because I want to spend time with someone who would sooner castrate me than talk to me."
Antonio laughed and picked up the hydro-spanner, moving further into the Jeffries tube he and Thomas were currently working on. "Well, maybe if you didn't piss her off so much."
"It's the Cardassian blood, I'm telling you it mixes bad with Bajoran."
"Yeah, I think she knows that," Antonio said softly.
"Sorry, man, didn't mean to bring it up."
"Don't apologise to me, just take my advice and refrain from saying anything to Kerris, you might just end up on the wrong end of a castration after all.and that'd only be for starters."
"Tolaris, what's your location?"
"Thomas and I are on working on the engines, Captain, good to have you back. Hope you have our friendly little Klingon friend with you."
"Go to hell, Tolaris."
"Nice to hear your voice again, too, B'Elanna." Antonio smirked.
Thomas shook his head and smiled. "Hey, Torres, you plannin' on getting down here and givin' us a hand?"
"On my way, although given that Kerris will likely destroy my engines the minute I fix them."
"Fix them properly this time and maybe I won't need break them to save all our necks."
"Now, now children." Tiera's voice joined in the conversation. "I think we need to get some work done."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Thomas shook his head. "Can't you feel the love, Naïve?"
"G'Night John Boy." There was silence and Thomas gave him a questioning look. Antonio shrugged. "What?"
~~~~~~~
Chakotay smiled as he took the seat next to Kerris. The woman nodded her head and turned back to the controls, moving the ship next to Voyager as more ships joined their Kazon 'friends'.
"I think there's trouble brewing in paradise, that thing's huge," Tiera said as she turned to greet him. "Good to have you back, Chakotay, and I think the guys are glad you brought their Chief back to them, I don't think the prophets even know what Kerris did to the engines while we were away."
"Look, I am an engineer as well you know and I am sitting right here."
Chakotay laughed. "We know, we know, but I don't think the crew will ever let you forget the time you almost blew us up."
"Hey, if B'Elanna hadn't changed the."
"They're firing."
Instantly the crew was on alert. They all jumped to their feet moving to the systems they knew were still in need of repair. A few moments later, B'Elanna joined them. She went instantly to the front of the ship and sat next to Chakotay.
"The engines are pretty much done. We've only got a few minor systems to repair but nothing life threatening." Chakotay nodded and she turned to the view screen. "What's going on?"
"Their weapons array has been hit. They're in trouble."
"Neither of us has enough fire power to stop that ship." B'Elanna stated, and he wished she hadn't. He knew that already, but having it said, certainly didn't make him feel any better. They were in a terrible predicament and he had to find a conclusion, the only problem was, he had already found one, he was just reluctant to do it.
He took a deep breath and began to run his fingers over the console, making trying to find out what was the best way to go about it. "I'm setting a collision course but the guidance system is disabled. I'll have to pilot the ship manually. Get the crew ready to beam to Voyager. And drop shield for transport."
Torres seemed reluctant, but nodded. He turned on the communications system and opened a link to Voyager. "Paris, my crew's coming over. Tell one of your crackerjack transporter Chiefs to keep a lock on me. I'm gonna try and."
"Wait!"
"Oh my God." Chakotay's eyes widened as half of Voyager broke apart before their very eyes.
~~~~~~
Aeva ran through the hallway, a small group of engineers following her. She had to get to main engineering and find out what the hell was going on. There was no internal communication, everything was gone and there was no one to tell her what to do. Decks six through nine were gone and she had no idea what was left of the Primary Hull.
"Help!"
She stopped, causing the woman behind her to squeal. There was a lot of noise around them, but she could definitely hear something. They were near main engineering now and she wanted nothing more than to run the remainder of the way and help but she had to help.
"I think it's coming from the turbo lift,"
She turned and nodded at the woman she vaguely remembered as Celes. "It broke down about an hour ago. Surely they sent someone to fix it by now."
"An hour ago?" The man behind her shook his head. "Man, I'd be freaking out if I was in there for an hour."
Will someone please help me!
"Okay, what the hell was that?" Aeva stood back a little, unsure where the phantom voice had come from.
"I have no idea, but I do know that there's someone in there, I can hear the banging."
"You're right," Aeva nodded and the group headed for the lift shaft.
~~~~~~~
"What are our options?"
"Sorry, Captain, but I don't think we have any,"
Janeway squared her shoulders and stepped to the centre of the bridge. "I think it's a little early to be writing us all off so soon Mr. Paris."
"Sorry, Captain."
Janeway nodded and stumbled a little as another blast rocked the ship. "Harry, I need you working on communication. I want to be able to talk to Chakotay as soon as possible."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Tuvok, what's our status?"
"Decks three through six have been destroyed."
"Deck six? So that means we have no escape pods," Janeway said, closing her eyes briefly. "Go on, what about the Engineering Hull?"
"We have lost decks six to nine in the second explosion."
Janeway nodded. "Okay," she took a moment, before straightening up and turned to her bridge crew. "Ensign Kim, how's our communication?"
"I've nearly.got it!"
"Open a channel,"
When Ensign Kim nodded, Janeway turned to the screen where a fuzzy image of Chakotay greeted her. "Chakotay, are your transporters operational."
"Yes. What can we do?"
"I think you know," Janeway said and the fuzzy image nodded. "I guess we think alike regardless of being on the wrong sides."
"I guess we do," he paused for a moment. "You realise that we can't fit every."
"I do. Just do whatever you can. Janeway out." The image blinked off and they were greeted instead with the looming ship that would be their destruction.
"I don't think I want to know, Captain, but do you want me to set course for the array?"
Janeway smiled weakly. "Yes, Mr. Paris, set course for the array."
~~~~~~~
"You have got to be kidding me!"
Seska's voice was irritating enough, but at that precise moment in time, Kerris could really do without it. "Would you please go screech somewhere else and let us do our jobs?"
"They were sent to capture us and now you want to save them?"
"Seska! Now is not the time!"
Chakotay's voice shocked them all. The usually calm man had a way of creating silence whenever that calm disappeared, even for a split second. After a pause, Seska glared at him and stalked off, leaving Kerris to sigh in relief.
"Tiera, did you say you had the guidance system on line?"
"It never went off. Okay, it did initially, but it was fixed while you were away, I just turned it off to save energy while we didn't need it. In case you didn't notice, we're not exactly doing all that well, power wise."
"I had noticed, thank you, Naïve." Chakotay said, leaning over her shoulder. "You've got us all ready to go?"
"Ready as we'll ever be,"
"That inspires confidence. Kerris, you ready to fly us out of here?"
"We'll be gone as soon as you give the word,"
Chakotay nodded and opened up a ship wide communiqué. "Okay, we're ready to go. Are the transporters ready yet, B'Elanna?"
"Almost, give me two more.right they're ready."
"Start getting people over here, now. I need everyone helping. This isn't a normal rescue. The people over there know their way around the inside of a ship. I want them all helping. If they're engineers, then I want them helping to get us out of here, if they can help, they will. Got it?"
There was a general consensus and Chakotay turned back to the screen. All he could do now was wait.
~~~~~~~
Janeway sat in her chair, watching as her ship collapsed around her, knowing that what was left of her crew and supplies was currently being beamed aboard the Liberty. Voyager was her ship, it was her first command.perhaps her only command and now it was over. She had failed. She had failed herself and her crew.
The ship rocked as another shot hit the hull. She turned to the console to her left and began to start the reaction that would send the warp core into overload, the command that should destroy the array.the command that would end her first mission, and Voyager's last.
~~~~~~~
"Kerris, get ready, we're almost."
"I have eyes! I can see where we are and where we're almost. Shit!"
The ship rocked as a minor explosion turned them into a roll. After a moment, she steadied them and continued to shadow Voyager until the last possible minute.
"Think you can try to leave the ship in tact up there?"
"B'Elanna this is not the time!" Chakotay answered, although he was well aware that B'Elanna's comment had more than likely annoyed Kerris enough to make sure she'd get them out of this, if only so that she could get back at B'Elanna.
"Okay, now!"
Chakotay watched as the view screen showed the array shooting out of its peripheral vision and held his breath, watching as the sensors showed the Kazon were following them.
Suddenly there was an almighty explosion and the ship rocked violently throwing him towards the console and then everything went black.
~~~~~~~
Everyone was moving; the ship was working like a colony of ants as everyone scurried about, making sure that their jobs were done. No one was willing to think of what they had lost.of who they had lost.
The explosion of the array had sent them hurtling through the Delta quadrant, leaving behind the Kazon and, unfortunately causing them to lose more of their own.
~~~~~~~
Chakotay looked up, wincing at the pain in his neck. There was another knock at the door and he sighed.
"Come in,"
After a moment, Captain Janeway entered, her hair a mess and her uniform not much better. He tried to smile at her, but it came out as more of a wince. There was nothing he could do or say that would make her feel any better about what had happened, so he didn't even bother trying.
"Take a seat," he said, indicating the space next to him on his couch. "It's not much, but it's all we got."
"It's fine,"
There was a moment of silence as Janeway settled herself, although it continued for longer than was necessary, neither one wanting to break the silence for it seemed a lot more comfortable than what they had to discuss.
"Well."
Chakotay nodded. "Well," he paused and took a deep breath. "I think that perhaps we need to talk."
Janeway nodded. "I think we do."
~~~~~~~
Chakotay looked at his crew.at their crew.all twenty-one of them.
"This won't be easy."
"What won't? The fact that we're stuck in the middle of nowhere? The fact that."
"Seska, that's enough," although he spoke softly, no one present could miss the command that was there. He turned back to look at them all. "This isn't going to be easy, there are only twenty-three of us left; twenty-three out of about two hundred. We lost a lot of good people today, a lot of good friends.
"But we won't give up. We've all left something, or someone back in the Alpha Quadrant. Whether it's a family, a home or just memories, we all have something we want to go back to. And we will."
"What?" Mikelo stood up, his look incredulous. "Are you serious? You want us to risk life and limb to spend the next hundred years or so trying to get back to a life where they," he indicated the Starfleet crew that was sectioned off. "Can put us in jail? I don't think so, I don't care!"
"That's enough, Don,"
"Look, I don't presume to know you,"
"No, don't," Mikelo spat out, making his obvious distrust and hatred for the Starfleet Captain known.
"But are you trying to tell me that you don't have someone you want to go back home to? Who were you fighting in the Maquis for?"
Mikelo went silent and sat down. There was another uncomfortable silence and Chakotay turned to Janeway and nodded, allowing her to continue.
"I lost someone very dear to me today. I lost one of the best friends I ever had." She paused for a moment, not allowing the tears for her friend to overpower her. "But I will not allow Tuvok's death to be in vain. He died fighting today. Everyone we lost died fighting. Don't you think they want their families to know that? Don't you think we owe it to them to let their families know that?"
"Yes,"
The soft-spoken voice caused everyone to turn and face the girl. She didn't look old enough to be out of school let alone lost in the middle of nowhere thousands of light years from home.
Janeway nodded to the cadet and turned to look at what was left of her previous crew. She had ten surviving members out of over a hundred and fifty; only fifteen percent of her crew had survived and she owed it to the other eighty five percent to make it home.
Chakotay's voice interrupted her reverie. "We will make this work. But if we want to make it home, we have to work together. We started off as two crews and now we have to function as one. There will be no Starfleet and no Maquis."
At this, Janeway felt her crew's eyes on her, as if they were finally noticing that she was no longer in her uniform. She nodded to them and turned back to Chakotay, giving him her full attention.
"However, that does not mean that we can do whatever we want. We will abide by a command structure. This is my ship, and my crew know it best, but that does not mean that Voyager's crew are in any way less important. Engineering will run under B'Elanna's orders, the ship under mine. But not mine alone. Captain Janeway will be my second in command."
Chakotay ignored Seska's outburst and turned to Kerris, Tolaris and Torres, waiting for their reaction. Torres sent a distrusting look to Janeway, but nodded. Antonio also nodded and Kerris shrugged.
"As long as I get to drive the ship, I don't care."
Chakotay smiled. "You will, just remember to leave it in one piece for Mikelo and Paris as well."
Not waiting to hear any reaction about what Kerris thought of letting Paris drive 'her' ship, he turned back to the others. "Kes, Neelix, you're welcome to join us for as long as you like, but if you want, we can drop you off anywhere."
The two smiled and Neelix replied. "We've decided to stay for a little while, if you don't mind, Chakotay."
"The more the merrier,"
With a nod, he dismissed them all, allowing them time to digest what he had just said, allowing them time to grieve. He sighed and turned to Janeway, indicating his quarters, letting her know he wanted to chat. They had discussed a little earlier, but they now needed to think about the day to day running. They had to think of their survival.and right at that moment, he was thinking of his own as Seska headed straight for him.
"Captain Janeway."
"I think the 'Captain' is a little redundant now, Chakotay," Janeway said, smiling slightly.
"Okay, what?"
"Kathryn,"
"Okay, Kathryn, I think we need to discuss our crew before they dismantle the ship,"
Janeway nodded and entered his quarters, well aware of the looks that young Bajoran, Seska, was sending her way. She didn't know the woman, but already disliked her, but she would have to learn to live with it. It was a small ship and the last thing she needed was an internal war going on.
She felt uncomfortable, almost as if she had been demoted. She wasn't the Captain anymore, she was.she didn't know what she was. She wasn't sure of anything about their new situation, but she was sure of one thing. They were getting this crew home.
~~~~~~~
END EPISODE 2
Okay, that's it! I know I haven't made it obvious who's survived and who hasn't but there was no way for me to do that without a list, and that just wouldn't work within the story. So what I've done is made up a character list, which is attached at the end.
WRITERS: Feel like writing an episode of Liberty? Then email me and I'll explain exactly what I'm doing with the series! I'd love to have other people get involved, so don't hesitate to email me at kyizi@yahoo.com
COMMENTS/FEEDBACK: Always love to hear from people! Let me know what characters you like/dislike etc. What did you think of the story? Drop me a line!
If anyone's interested in writing, sharing ideas etc. on a more permanent basis, then I've started a Yahoo! Group
To join the Liberty Yahoo! Group, you can subscribe at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/star_trek_liberty
Star Trek: Liberty
The Crew
* = original character
Maquis
Chakotay (Human)
B'Elanna Torres (Klingon/Human)
Seska (Bajoran (Cardassian))
Lon Suder (Betazoid)
Chell (Bolian)
*Kerris Nye (Bajoran/Cardassian)
*Antonio Tolaris (Human)
*Christopher Thomas (Human)
*Dylan Rei (Bajoran)
*Tiera Naïve (Bajoran)
*Mikelo Don (Bajoran)
Star Fleet
Kathryn Janeway (Human)
Tom Paris (Human)
Harry Kim (Human)
Joe Carey (Human)
Vorik (Vulcan)
Celes Tal (Human)
Lyndsey Ballard (Human)
Samantha Wildman (Human)
*Anna Faye (Betazoid)
*Aeva Zain (Trill)
Other
Kes (Ocampan)
Neelix (Talaxian)