Redemption
Chapter 20
Disclaimer - Paramount and Viacom own the characters from Voyager, although they didn't often treat them right. The story line belongs to me.
A special thanks to: My friend and editor of all my stories, Mill3rs.
Chakotay shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Captain Janeway had been in her ready room for over three hours. Voyager had left Leterian space and was moving slowly on a heading back to the Alpha Quadrant.
"Captain to Chakotay." The captain's voice sounded over the comm system. "Please join me in my ready room." Chakotay rose and left the bridge after responding to her hail. "Commander, I'll be in my quarters for the rest of Alpha shift." Janeway stated when the doors slid shut behind him. He approached her desk.
"Are you alright, Captain?" He asked, worried that she might be ill. Janeway rarely left her command during a shift.
"No, Commander, I just have so many reports to review and I'd prefer to go over them in my quarters. It has been a trying few days." She responded as she stood. Janeway moved to the doors leading to the corridor. "Feel free to use the ready room, unless you're needed on the bridge. I'm sure you also have some paper work to attend to."
"Aye, Captain." He answered. Chakotay touched his commbadge. "Lieutenant Tuvok, you have the bridge; I'll be in the Captain's ready room."
"Yes, Commander. I will notify you if anything occurs that necessitates your attention." The steady voice of the Vulcan tactical officer came through Chakotay's commbadge.
Several hours later, Chakotay stood up from the Captain's desk and walked onto the bridge to see that his Beta shift replacement had arrived. "You have the bridge." He ordered as he turned towards the turbolift.
* * * * *
"Computer, location of Crewman Ken Dalby." Chakotay asked as the doors to the turbolift closed.
"Crewman Dalby is in Stellar Cartography." The emotionless voice of the computer sounded in the lift's speaker.
Chakotay smiled as he thought of two reasons that Dalby would be in Stellar Cartography at this time. Jenny and Megan Delaney, the beautiful twin sisters who worked the Beta shift. He had seen many of the crewmen eyeing the tall redheads in the mess hall or passing them in the corridors. Rumor had it that Lieutenant Paris was seen leaving their quarters in the late hours of Gamma shift and even the young Ensign, Harry Kim, followed after them like a lost pup. The lift stopped and Chakotay moved to his quarters, where he changed out of his uniform. He sat at his console and pulled up sensor logs for the gym; remembering that Dalby liked to work out with the free weights before his shifts. There it is. Dalby usually is in the gym at 0600 hours each morning and he's frequently the only one there. I believe I'll go for an early session myself, tomorrow. Chakotay closed the monitor down and headed for the mess hall for some dinner.
* * * * *
"Ah, Commander, it's so good to see you joining the crew for dinner. I have a new batch of my Jabalian stew or hair pasta with Fetran beans." Neelix came out of the galley with a large pot of rather pungent smelling stew. The Talaxian gave Chakotay a big smile as he started to scoop out a serving of the stew.
"Sorry, Neelix, I don't eat meat." Chakotay said as he turned towards the replicators. He had heard about the excessive use of spices in the dishes Voyager's self-appointed cook was concocting in his galley.
"But Commander, the hair pasta has no meat in it. I always have a separate dish made for the vegetarians aboard." Neelix headed back into the galley and returned with a smaller pot. He ladled out a large serving of the pasta, grabbed a slice of bread and placed them on a tray. "Just tell me where you plan to sit, Commander and I'll bring your dinner to your table, along with a nice hot cup of tea. You do prefer tea to coffee, right? I know that Captain Janeway must have her coffee, although I don't know how she can drink that bland drink. I myself prefer a nice spiced Alerian cider. It can be served either hot or cold and goes with meat or vegetables." He prattled on while Chakotay tried to take the tray and move to a table.
"Neelix, I think the Commander might be hungry after his shift and would prefer to talk with you after his meal." Kes came walking up behind Neelix and deftly grabbed the tray from him, smiled at Chakotay and begin to walk to a far table. She placed the tray on the table and turned to the commander. "I'm sorry, Commander, but Neelix does tend to ramble on when there are not many crewmen here. I think he gets rather lonely at times, surrounded by his pots and spices."
"Thank you for rescuing me, Kes." Chakotay smiled down at the young Ocampa. "I am rather tired and would enjoy a quiet meal." He sat, picked up his fork and began to eat when he noticed Gerron enter the mess hall. The younger man looked around uneasily and moved to the counter where Neelix began an involved description of the choices for dinner. "Kes, would you ask Crewman Gerron if he would join me, please?"
"Yes, Commander." Kes answered, giving him a knowing smile as she went off the rescue Gerron. Coming up behind Neelix, Kes took his hand and started to move him towards the galley. "Neelix, I believe that the Alpha shift crew will be arriving any minute and we don't have enough bread out. I know they'll want some of that wonderful cake you've been working on."
"Of course, Kes, how could I forget the cake?" Turning to Gerron, he sputtered on. "Crewman, do you like sweets?" Not waiting for an answer, Neelix moved to the galley, opened the oven door and removed a large round pan and place it on the counter.
Kes touched Gerron on the arm and whispered to him. "Commander Chakotay asked if you could join him. He's at the corner table." She pointed out where Chakotay was sitting. Gerron picked up his tray and moved slowly towards the far corner of the room.
"Commander, you wanted to see me?" Gerron asked nervously as he stood by the table.
"Please, sit down, Gerron." Chakotay indicated the seat across from him. "Have you and Lieutenant Torres finished grading the Dilithium crystals?"
"Yes, Sir. It took us about four hours but we've stored them according to grade. There's more than half of the yield at a very high grade. B'Elanna feels that we can run for about several months with what we mined." As Chakotay smiled at him, Gerron relaxed and began to eat. "This stew is quite good, although Neelix does tend to go heavy on the spices."
Chakotay laughed at Gerron's comment and the two men continued their meal, talking about past times on the Liberty. Standing up, they took their trays to the recycler and left the mess hall. "Have a good night, Gerron." Chakotay said as he entered the turbolift.
"You too, Commander." Gerron smiled as the lift doors opened.
* * * * *
At 0600 hours, the doors to the gym slid open quietly and Dalby entered, moving to the weight bench. Removing his sweat shirt, he placed 125 pound weights on each end of the bar and positioned it carefully on the stand. Lying down on the bench he grasped the bar and began to bench press in sets of ten. He didn't notice the doors opening or someone else entering the gym until a shadow fell across the bench. Looking up he saw his former captain standing over him. "Morning, Captain." He greeted Chakotay.
Chakotay looked down at Dalby and idly picked up another weight disc. "Good morning, Ken. That looks too easy, I'm sure you could lift another 100 pounds." He grabbed the bar, lowered it to the rack and proceeded to add two 50 pound discs to the ends of the bar. Looking at Dalby's concerned face; he smiled as he held onto the bar. "I'll spot you."
Dalby grasped the bar in the middle and pushed it up, then lowered it slowly to his chest. Chakotay moved swiftly to the side of the bench and leaning over placed his hands in the middle of the bar adding his body weight. Dalby began to struggle to breathe and looked up in panic at Chakotay. "Why…why are you doing this?" He managed to gasp out as he tried to push the bar away.
Chakotay glared down at Dalby. "I understand that Lieutenant Paris has been the victim of some unfortunate incidents in the past few weeks. You wouldn't know anything about them would you, Dalby?" He spit out.
Dalby continued to struggle against the weight of the bar with Chakotay pressing down on it. "I…I don't know….what you're… talking about." He replied in a harsh voice as the weight pushed against his chest.
"I don't want to hear of any further incidents involving Lieutenant Paris or Crewman Gerron." Chakotay's voice was calm and quiet against the sharp sounds of Dalby's breathing. "We can end it here or I'll deal with it the Maquis way. Is that clear?"
Dalby took a deep breath as Chakotay released his weight on the bar. "Aye, Sir. Lieutenant Paris won't be bothered." As Chakotay leaned against the bar again, Dalby grimaced in pain, shook his head and added. "Gerron will be left alone, too."
Chakotay lifted the bar back onto the rack and turned towards the door. "I'm glad we understand each other." He walked through the exit as the doors slid open and left the gym.
Dalby staggered to his feet, grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat off his face as he gulped in huge breaths of air. Visibly shaken, he pulled his sweat shirt over his head and walked slowly out to the turbolift. Entering the turbolift, Dalby thought back to when he first met Tom Paris. He had been a senior at Starfleet Academy…..
* * * * *
"Hey, Ken!" A deep voice rang out in the senior dormitory. A tall Klingon man with dark hair pulled off of his face in a leather band came around the corner as Ken Dalby walked towards the elevator. "I hear they're going to post the new Nova Squadron members this week."
Dalby turned to face his friend. "Yes, K'Trall, and I plan to be on that list." He replied confidently. Dalby had been turned down for the squadron in his junior year but had been taking practice runs, as well as spending most of his free time in the simulators. "I'm heading for the flight simulators right now; want to come along?"
"No, I have to study for my astrophysics midterm. I wouldn't worry, you're sure to make it this year." K'Trall clapped Dalby on the back nearly knocking the shorter man off balance. "See you at the messhall for dinner?"
"Sure, I'll be there about 1900 hours." Dalby gave his friend a grin as he entered the elevator. He knew there were several other seniors who had aced the simulators but he felt sure that none of the juniors would beat his scores.
Leaving the dormitory, Dalby heard several younger students talking about the simulator programs. "I can't believe that kid aced a level six program. He's just out of high school, only 16 too." A thin, Bolian cadet, wearing junior rank pins, said.
"Hell, he's been flying those sims since he was a kid. His old man's Admiral Paris." Another deeper voice answered. The two laughed as they moved off in the direction of the mess hall.
Dalby had heard of the Admiral's son and how he had been flying shuttles since he was only eight years old. He vaguely remembered someone mentioning that he had started that year as one of the youngest freshman at the academy.
Entering the simulator building, Dalby moved to the shuttle mock-up he had reserved. Climbing in, he ordered up a level six program with an unpredictable alien attack. After an hour of skillful flying, Dalby exited the shuttle program to find Admiral Paris standing at the far console displaying the results of the simulations. He nervously approached the older gentleman.
Before he reached the other side of the room, a young, blond haired cadet in a freshman's uniform strode across the room coming to stand next to the Admiral. "Well, Sir, how was my score this time?" He asked in an uneasy voice.
The Admiral looked up at the boy with a stern look on his face. "Well, Thomas, you've done better. I think you should run it again."
"But, Sir, I've been at it for five hours. I was hoping to meet some friends for dinner at the mess." The boy's face reflected his fatigue and disappointment at the Admiral's remarks.
"Of course it's up to you, Thomas but, if I were you, I would repeat the simulation until you raise your score." The Admiral's voice indicated that he wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Yes, Sir. I'll repeat it now, Sir." The young cadet turned wearily back to the shuttle and climbed in. Looking back at the Admiral, he shook his head and pulled the hatch closed.
Dalby watched as the Admiral smiled, reset the console for the second shuttle and then turned and left the building without even acknowledging him. Glad I'm not that kid. I think I'll go meet K'Trall for dinner. Maybe I'll come back later and try that program. Glancing at the console, he looked at the top scores for the second shuttle and noted the name, T. Paris in the top three spots. His old man's as tough on him as he is on the rest of us. Dalby left the simulation building and headed across campus to the mess hall.
to be continued…..