The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad
Voyager fantasies by Lt Taya 17 Janeway
animal instinct
Chakotay was in his quarters when his commbadge sounded. He put down the padd he was reading and answered it.
It was Josh. The boy was incoherent, babbling endlessly over the comm. The only words he could catch were "Kathryn" and "sick". He sat up, his heart sinking. Something's happened to her, he thought in despair. "Josh, what's wrong? Is she sick?"
The boy paused and took a deep breath. "I don't know… I think she's not well. She keeps-" Suddenly he let out a yell, and started to shout in a continuous string again. All Chakotay heard was something about throwing. Throwing up? Had she been poisoned?
"Josh, calm down," Chakotay told they hysterical boy. "I'm on my way." Ending the communication, he leapt out of his seat and hurried down to the transporter room.
The interior of the shuttle Phoenix was a mess. Objects were strewn all over the ground: medkits, tricorders, spare plasma relays, boots. In the pilot's seat was Janeway, glancing distrustfully out at everything around her; near the door were the two children, scrunched up against the door in fear. Janeway looked disheveled and distressed, as if she'd been through a whole bout of crying. Every muscle in her face seemed to be clenched. "What happened?" Chakotay asked them.
Josh's eyes were wide as he glanced sidelong at Janeway. "I think the Empress put some spell or the other on her. She's acting all weird."
Chakotay glanced at Janeway, crouched tensely in the seat, then turned his attention back to Josh. "How weird?"
The boy shrugged. "She was okay when she came back, sort of. She was just pacing endlessly around the shuttle. Then she started crying." Josh scratched his head. "Not the normal kind of crying, you know. She just started and she wouldn't stop, and she was hiding in the corner, there." He pointed. "When I tried to get her out, she asked if I could take her to the nearest cliff, and when I said yes, she bit me."
"She bit you." Chakotay repeated in disbelief.
Josh displayed his wrist, which still had the red-and-white imprint of her teeth. "Really, really hard," he confirmed. "Then… she started to throw things at us. So I decided she was acting way weird, and I called you. Even though Bryanna said you couldn't do anything to help."
Chakotay looked back at Janeway. "Will she still bite now?"
"I don't think so, but the tiger will."
"The tiger?" Chakotay craned his neck. "I don't see any tiger."
"It's only a cub, hiding under her chair, but it tried to bite me when I got to close just now. It looks like it has sharp teeth." Josh twisted his fingers together. "Can you help her?"
"I don't know anything about spells," said Chakotay, "but I can try." He gestured to Bryanna, frozen against the wall in fear. "Could you help me?"
"I don't know anything about spells either," whimpered the child.
Chakotay shook his head in resignation. "Then I guess I'll have to go it alone, don't I?." He moved closer cautiously. "Kathryn?" he began tentatively. "It's me, Chakotay."
A low, soft sound stopped him in his tracks. She was growling, a deep-throated feral sound in response to sheer physical threat, her eyes narrowed, crouched in a battle-ready position. "Relax," he placated. "I'm not going to hurt you-"
She snarled at him, teeth bared viciously.
Chakotay took a step back, and she resumed her wary growl.
Cautiously, he made his way around the periphery of the shuttle, moving slowly so as not to alarm her, keeping his hands held out so that she could see he held no weapons. He talked softly to her as he moved, placating and soothing her. All this while her eyes never left him, watching him like a hunted animal. She doesn't recognize me, he realized.
As he neared her he could see the tiger cub hunched under the pilot's seat, watching his as well, fangs bared, hackles raised. Where had it come from? It must be protecting her as well. A gift from the Empress, helping Nayrn to wreak whatever havoc she was doing on Janeway?
In any case, he had to get her out fast. Making no sudden moves, he tapped his commbadge. "Chakotay to transporter room. Prepare for site-to-site beamup to the captain's quarters on my command," he said. Then he focused his efforts back on Janeway.
He reached a hand slowly out to her. Both the cub and the woman snarled in warning.
Yet Chakotay persisted. "I'm here to help," he told Janeway. "You're not feeling well. We need to get you back to Sickbay."
Janeway ceased snarling at his soothing words, but still she stared belligerently at him, teeth bared. He inched his hand closer, and she tensed, her growl sharpening.
Just another few more inches…
The tiger cub moved so fast that he couldn't dodge in time. With a flash of fangs, the cub had snapped its jaws around Chakotay's wrist. Josh had been right- the cub did have sharp teeth. The small canines shredded through Chakotay's flesh, and he let out a cry of pain, snapping his hand away from his assailant. Blood ran down his forearm as he clutched at his injured wrist, his jaw clenched to shut out the throbbing pain.
Janeway paused in her defensive mode, and perked slightly up. "Hurt?" she asked Chakotay softly.
Chakotay saw that she was concerned over his plight. Maybe there was some way to reach the woman locked inside after all. So he chose not to answer, instead slumping on the floor, cradling his torn wrist.
She got of the seat and crouched closer to Chakotay. "Hurt?" she asked again, and now Chakotay could hear the note of insecurity and regret in it. She reached out to touch his injured arm.
Keep at it. She could see that he was hurt and wasn't going to harm her. He played on her maternal instincts. "Hurt," he responded. "Need help."
She reached out to take his hand, and in that split second grabbed her with his good arm. She screamed and struggled against him even as he yelled, "Energize!"
They rematerialized in her quarters, and she sprang away from him, snarling. "Kathryn!" He said desperately. "Don't be afraid. I won't harm you. Tell me what happened."
The only reply he got was another snarl.
Voyager was in orbit, he thought. Kes had taught him to recognize spells, and right now he needed to know what kind of spell had possessed her. Since the tiger cub wasn't around, he figured that bruises and a few more bites would be a small price to pay for finding out what had happened to her. But first, he needed reinforcements. He contacted the transporter room and told him to beam the children over as well.
Unfortunately, the cat came along with them too.
Damn. It was too late to do anything else. Swiftly he bounded to her side and grabbed her tightly with both arms before she had a chance to react. She shrieked and tried breaking free, but Chakotay was a lot stronger that she was, and he trapped her, struggling and pounding at him with her fists.
"Relax!" he told her. "I'm trying to help you!"
He forced his way into her mind and nearly got blown away. For it was as if someone had dumped a tornado into the order of her mindscape. She was trapped somewhere in the middle of the gale, he thought, trying to break free, or trying to weather the storm until it was over. He imagined he could see her, in the full blast of the storm, from where he stood in the relatively calm periphery.
I'm here to help, he told her silently. Stop fighting me.
I'm not fighting you. Her voice sounded distant and tired. Only the body is.
Somehow she had heard him. Chakotay finally understood. She was letting the most basic, primal parts of her mind, all reflexes and no coherent thought, preside over the body while the higher self battled this monstrous storm. She had fallen back on animal instincts.
Chakotay tried to channel all his strength into her, soothing and calming her. Her body relaxed against his as she quieted down, realizing her life was not in danger. Chakotay realized she was shaking from cold. Her skin felt like ice, brittle and frozen. Much of her metabolic energy was going onto the metaphysical plane: she needed an external source of heat soon, or she might die of hypothermia. "Bryanna," he told the child over his shoulder. "Go run some hot water into the tub."
"I'll do it," Josh offered, and he ran to the bathroom.
She was shivering with the effort of her mental battle. Chakotay felt helpless. Even in orbit there wasn't much he could do without the Empress catching wind of it, hence he was unfamiliar with the utilization of magic. All he could do was to hold her and pray that she would be alright. In the background he could hear the soft gurgling of water into the tub.
"It's ready," announced Josh as he exited from the bathroom. "Is she going to be alright?"
"I hope so." Chakotay muttered softly. She glanced up at him, puzzled by the disturbed tone in his voice. Now for the hard part. "Josh, close your eyes." He reached for the zipper of her gown.
Her reaction was instantaneous. She drew back from him, eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?" she snarled. It was the most she had said to him since he'd brought her aboard.
"A bath," he said quickly. "I'm only helping you to take a hot bath. Now, hold still."
She relented a little, dropping her defensive stance, standing stiffly while he undressed her, watching his every move with wary intensity.
Josh suddenly realized why Chakotay had asked him to close his eyes. He squeezed them shut as Chakotay led Janeway, naked, across the room to the bathtub. As an afterthought, he clapped his hands over Bryanna's eyes as well. The child screeched in protest. "I'm a girl, Josh, I can look! Josh, let me see!"
Shaking his head, Chakotay guided his captain into the tub. She immediately settled in the furthest end away from him, sinking into the steaming hot water up to her chin. Chakotay took a jar of instant bubble bath from the shelf at the side and added several drops into the water, watching as the bathwater frothed up into an opaque layer. Then he called for Josh.
"I can't go," protested the child. "She's not wearing anything."
"I put bubble bath in the water," Chakotay told him. "You won't be able to see anything."
Reluctantly, the child shuffled back into the bathroom. "What do you want me to do?"
"Keep an eye on her," Chakotay said. "I don't want her drowning on me."
Leaving Janeway in Josh's care, he quickly headed out of the bathroom and towards the small kitchen area in her quarters. Now, where does she keep all the herbs she uses for Kes' lessons? he wondered. He might not be able to Cast, but at least he could make a variety of healing brews he had picked up from Kes. At first, it had seemed pretty a primitive way of healing to him, but Kes explained that conventional medicine only healed injuries in the first three dimensions; healing by magic entailed something so much more complex that it was impossible to duplicate even with modern technology. Using natural resources, on the other hand, was drawing healing power by the grandmaster of quantum magic, Mother Nature herself. He found the bundle of herbs and powders and quickly replicated a bowl of hot water to begin the mixing. He added the basic ingredients for a simple brew, then a few additional ones for enhancing mental strength.
He paused at this point, gazing thoughtfully at the half-filled bowl. He'd learnt from Kes that the most potent brews used fresh human blood as a key ingredient. Other than being rich in plasma proteins and dissolved nutrients, the complexity of blood possessed very powerful healing properties in the higher dimensions- properties that would degrade with the progression of the fourth dimension: time. A packet of blood that had been frozen in stasis for five hundred years might still be viable for transfusion, but its magical properties would be long gone. The blood had to be fresh; which was why most Healers loathed using it except in the direst emergencies.
But since he was bleeding anyway…
He held his injured wrist over the bowl and twisted it abruptly both ways with a snap, splitting the fibrin crust that had begun to clot. The blood ran freely over his knuckles and dripped into the bowl as he flexed his arm to speed its flow. In this way he managed to fill the rest of the bowl. He grabbed a tablecloth and bound his wrist to avoid making a mess, mixed the brew, then brought it to her, still warm.
She accepted the bowl cautiously, and sniffed it. "It's not poisoned," he assured her.
She glanced up at him in alarm. "It's human blood."
"Mine," he confirmed. "It'll help you get better."
She pushed the bowl back towards him. "I don't want it."
Chakotay sighed. "I've already made it, so you might as well drink the brew, alright?" He crouched down so that he could see eye to eye with her. "Please don't waste the blood."
She glanced at him with uneasy eyes. "You got hurt."
"It's a small thing, and it wasn't your fault. Now please drink it."
She tentatively took a small sip of the brew, then tilted her head back, eyes closed, as the first wave of warm healing washed over her. "It's good."
"I'm glad you like it. Now, finish it."
She glanced at him with narrowed eyes, more of the woman named Kathryn Janeway coming back to her. "I'll drink it as how I like, thank you very much," she told him dryly.
He smiled, and settled on the edge of the tub to watch her drink the brew. Josh and Bryanna came to hover over his shoulder. "Is she going to be alright now?" Josh persisted.
Chakotay reached out to put a hand on her head gently, and for once she didn't react with hostility. She had leaned back against the walls of the tub, eyes shut in concentration. Chakotay could feel her presence close by, stirring beneath the cocoon of Nayrn's web. And not only that: there were others as well that he could feel: Kes, Torres, the doctor, even Chelon. Somehow she'd sent out a distress call, and they were responding. Josh had been wise to bring her back to Voyager when he did.
After a long while, she opened her eyes again, and this time Chakotay could see the marked change in her. The storm was over; by a sheer miracle, she had survived unhurt.
The three of them, on the other hand… his wrist was still throbbing, a bruise was forming on his cheek where she'd hit him in her struggle. Josh and Bryanna both sported various contusions caused by heavy flying objects, and the boy was going to have a bite mark for days. He was just lucky that she hadn't broken any skin. And to think we were worried about her being hurt.
She set the bowl down on the floor, and was about to rise from the tub when eyes opened wide, and she sat back down abruptly. "What are the children doing here?" she asked.
Josh turned bright pink. "I didn't see anything, I swear!" he exclaimed, stumbling backwards out of the bathroom. Chakotay looked down so that the boy couldn't see that he was trying not to laugh. Children were so amusing sometimes. Bryanna followed him out silently.
Janeway gave Chakotay a wry smile. "Commander, would you mind?"
"Mind-? Oh." He got what she meant, and backed out of the door to grab a towel and a fresh uniform. He returned, and standing discreetly out of range of sight handed her the towel and the garments.
She dressed and stepped out of the bathroom, uniform crisp, neat and impeccable. "You feel better, I trust?" he asked her, taking her hand gently.
She glanced down at his bandaged wrist, where blood had begun to show through the linen cloth. "Better than some, at any rate." She reached for his hand. "Here, let me help you with that."
Chakotay moved his hand away from her. "The Doctor can handle this perfectly. You should rest and conserve your energy." He put his good hand on her arm. "What happened back there?"
She gave him a wry look. "We walked into a trap. Suffice to say, I've had enough of the Empress to last me the next few months."
"What kind of trap?" asked Chakotay. "An attempt on your life?"
"More or less." She folded her arms, gazing out at the starfield, brow creased in perturbation. "I have no idea what she did to me… some form of depressant, I'd guess." She paced towards to the window. "I must say that the woman has a great deal of skill. Her influence, shall I say, was so subtle I didn't notice it until I'd reached the point where I was looking for a cliff to jump off."
The thought of his captain throwing herself off a cliff was almost too much for him to bear. "Next time, you're taking me with you on any mission like this," he insisted firmly.
"I appreciate your concerns, Chakotay, but I think I can take care of myself." She turned to give him a devilishly sparkling smile. Then her expression became somber. "The Empress is more ruthless than I expected. We clearly underestimated her." She walked over to the two children standing forlornly in one corner. "She killed an innocent child just to get to me." She knelt down before Bryanna and hugged the child tightly. "I'm sorry."
Bryanna closed her eyes and said nothing.
Janeway stood up. "You were right about one thing, Chakotay. We can't just walk away from this war. Not any longer. This time, we're going to fight to the end."
He said nothing, letting his smile be all the answer she needed. She took his hand. "Let's get this wrist of yours down to Sickbay. Then we'll have another chat with Myriam."