The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad
Voyager fantasies by Lt Taya 17 Janeway
from the brink of apocalypse
He stayed with her for three days as she recovered slowly from her ordeal. He'd put her on the couch in her ready room, and she slept continuously, curled up under a thick woolen blanket. All that while he stayed in the ready room and never left it. He read, issued commands, and unsuccessfully tried to hold conversations with Chelon. At regular intervals he'd gather the herbs and ingredients Kes had left for him to make her a healing brew. At other times he'd just sit by her side, holding her small hand in his and trying to heal her with the simple spell he'd learnt.
On the third day he made the healing brew as usual, pouring the thick brown liquid into a green earthenware bowl. Putting the bowl on the floor beside the couch, he rearranged himself, cradling her head in his lap. He picked up the bowl, and tilted her head back, pushing the bowl against her lips. "Drink this," he told her softly, although he knew that she was too lost from the world to hear him. The tactic had worked in the past few days, why not today?
He was pleased to see that she looked much better than when he brought her in. The color had returned to her cheeks, and she'd regained most of the muscle mass she'd lost in her frantic dash against the Maldorians. The fever she'd developed a couple of days ago was gone, and her breathing no longer had that halting quality it had at the peak of the fever. That night he and Kes had maintained a ten-hour vigil by her side, so worried that the shallow breaths would stop and never return. But she had broken through the night and made her way back to recovery. She had won.
As he tipped the bowl slightly for her to drink, she abruptly stirred, waking. He immediately set the bowl down and took her hand. "Kathryn." Closing his eyes he sought to touch her mind.
Her clear blue eyes fluttered open as she stretched slightly. "Chakotay?" she asked groggily. "What just happened?" She pushed herself into a sitting position, and he helped support her. "I can't remember…"
"There was a battle. You nearly killed yourself trying to protect the ship from harm."
"I remember that. But what happened after?"
"We won the battle. Kes hypothesized that in your weakened state the resulting backwash and instability from the annihilation blast wiped out whatever reserve of energy you had left. You've been sleeping ever since then."
"How long? Weeks? Months? Years?"
Chakotay laughed softly. "Nowhere that long, I'm afraid. Three days; I'd have died of boredom otherwise."
"You've been here all this while?"
Chakotay shrugged. "I needed to monitor your progress. There were some times when we weren't sure if you'd make it." He took her hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze, glad that they no longer felt like they were going to break at the slightest pressure.
"I had a fever, didn't I?" she asked. He nodded, and she leaned back on the couch, gazing out at the greenery by the window in thought. "I remember that part… it was like being lost in a featureless world. I turned and turned but I couldn't find the way back to my body. And then I heard you and Kes calling me back, and it helped me find the way." She smiled. "Thank you."
He said nothing for a while, then he reached out to brush a few strands of stray hair away from her face. For a few moments, blue eyes met brown and shared a spark of mutual understanding. Then he broke contact, picking up the bowl of healing brew from the floor. "Here, drink this."
Janeway took the bowl and looked at the thick brown liquid warily. "I hope this isn't leola root stew."
"It isn't. It's worse- it's a herbal brew for healing. Kes' own recipe." She made a face, and he laughed. "It isn't that bad either; you've been drinking it for the past three days."
She tentatively took a sip of the broth-like brew, and nodded. "Compared to Mr. Neelix's occasional new foray, this is mild."
"You've gotten the rest of the crew very impressed, by the way," he told her as she drank the brew slowly. At her incredulous look, he elaborated, "Harry checked up on the shield generators- or what was left of them. They were completely burnt out during the first onslaught of the Maldorian attack; the only thing holding up the whole ship for the remainder of the battle was you. Given all that, collapsing on the bridge seems too trivial a result." He smirked. "Myriam could hardly believe you had enough power to hold a ship as massive as this together."
"How are Tom and Seven?"
"They're fine. The ship is fine; the whole crew is fine. We had some minor injuries, but nothing serious. Nothing as bad as yours, at any rate." He gave a frank gaze. "The crew has been pestering me non-stop for the past few days about your progress."
"Really." She shook her head, then abruptly looked back at him. "By the way… you wouldn't have any bread to go with this soup, would you?"
He obligingly got up to replicate a loaf of French bread for her. As he keyed in the commands to her replicator, he remarked casually, "They've been charting your weight gain in the Mess Hall for the past few days."
He imagined he heard her spluttering on her brew. "What? My... weight gain?"
He headed back with a small warm loaf of bread, and he tore off a hunk and handed it to her. "As an indicator of your health. You lost nearly thirty kilograms of mass trying to burn enough energy to draw off the power you needed from the Fire sphere."
She dipped the bread into the brew and considered. "We won, didn't we?"
"Of course. As soon as you're well enough we'll go to see Myriam."
She sobered as she ate, pondering on what she'd learnt in the past. "Chakotay… you heard what Kes said. We've crossed over a dimensional barrier to get here. Have we considered how we're going to return to our original dimension… wherever that is?"
"That's what we have to consult Myriam and Kes about. But I doubt our job here is done… there's so much more to do before the war can come to a close." He put his hand gently on her lap. "Much as you and I want to go home, we still have to help these people."
Janeway's brow creased. "I understand your concerns, Chakotay, but you must consider the scope of their live spans. These people see blocks of time in hundreds of years. I'm not sure if I want to spend the next seventy years here fighting someone else's war."
Chakotay sighed. "Well, over the past three days, I've had a lot of time to think about it. At the rate we're going, this war isn't going to last another seventy years. The Panizhe have already pushed the Maldorian forces onto their last legs; the storming of Haldon have brought them- us- one step closer to ending the war." He took her hand as she put the empty bowl down on the deck. "The resistance movement may have been around for centuries, but the true battle only begun mere decades ago. I'll give it a few years, at most."
Her gaze grew distant as she considered the verdant forest outside the ship. "Whatever our decision may be, we'll have to consult with Myriam first." She placed her feet gently on the floor and put pressure on them, seeing how well her legs stood up to it. When she deemed they were strong enough, she pushed herself to her feet, Chakotay's arm guiding her. The newly regenerated muscles felt stiff and awkward for a moment, but she let the blood rush to them, her balance more steady with every step. Chakotay supported her elbow, helping her keep balance.
A thought struck her as they headed slowly for the door. "Oh, how's B'Elanna, by the way?"
Chakotay smiled. "Never better," he said. "It seems she found her talents quite abruptly in the middle of the battle. When Myriam assessed her, she called herself a fool for not realizing what she was in the first place."
"Which is-?"
"B'Elanna's a Warrior, Kathryn," he said. "She is at her peak in battle, filled with righteous anger and a determination to win. No wonder she couldn't reach her powers the way Myriam taught her to. Warriors are in a class of their own; they do things differently from the rest of the Mage. Myriam has already handed tutorship over to Nydea. I hear she's a hideously fast learner."
A soft smile touched Janeway's lips as she thought of Torres, the fierce fighter that she was, blossoming under the tutelage of Nydea, who had built a reputation of being an unforgiving teacher. "If Seven's a Seer, B'Elanna a Warrior, and Kes a Healer, what does that make me?"
Chakotay laughed as he put one arm around her shoulder, escorting her out of the ready room. "It makes you one very special lady, Kathryn Janeway."