Disclaimer: Star trek voyager belongs to paramount. However, there are many 'fun' and 'exciting' yet 'challenging' characters within this story that I have created, and therefore paramount does not own them.

V

Chapter 4: MRT

"Good morning admiral," Alex said in a sarcastically happy way.

Kathryn returned the same sarcastic smile, "what's happened now?" she walked over to where he was standing.

"Do you remember Paul?" he placed a hand on her shoulder and pressed some more buttons on the console in front of him, "you know the one that hates us, and we hate him."

She gave him an exhausted look, "yes."

"It seems he's been going through our computer systems for the past few months, undetected." The screen now displayed list upon list of files that had been accessed.

"How long?" intrigued, she scrolled down through the data.

"Since you got back from the delta quadrant I presume, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's been accessing files for much longer." She looked at him confused, "let me put it this way, he wasn't caught out by accident," he added.

This wasn't her area, why had she been called in for this? It wasn't as if she was the only one that Paul had taken a hating to, there were several other people in intelligence that he seemed to dislike. "What do you need me for?" she asked, sceptically.

"I just thought I'd ruin your weekend," he said sarcastically, (he was in that kind of mood) "no," he sobered, "it seems it's been voyager's files that he's been going through the most, we don't know why, but seeing as voyager was your ship, I'm guessing that you might be able to spread some light into the investigation."

Was your ship! She still considered voyager her ship, she probably always would. It annoyed her when people spoke about voyager as if it had just been another assignment, and now it was over with, and would eventually just fade into another chapter of her life. She didn't mention this to Alex though. Seven years ago she would have, but they had grown so far apart in those seven years that she didn't even consider telling him. Instead she pinched the bridge of her nose, "I'll need a coffee," she sighed.

V

Thirteen years ago Alex ran to catch up with Kathryn. "You're not seriously going to use MRT on him are you?" He fell into stride beside her.

"Why not?" she looked across at him, ready to challenge his next words.

"You know exactly why not, it could be dangerous."

She stopped, and faced Alex, defiance in her face. "Statistically he should be fine, besides you've used it before."

"Not when I'm-" two agents walked along the corridor talking, they went passed and he waited until they were out of ear shot. Once they were gone he didn't really want to finish the sentence, he hated confronting Kathryn.

"Yes?" Her tone was dangerous.

"When I'm," he squinted as a reflex, "look, you've been through a lot, I just don't think that now is a good time. You need absolute concentration for MRT, and you haven't even been granted clearance."

She didn't want to listen and so walked off. He quickly caught up with her and stayed at her pace. "Kathryn, don't do this." She wasn't listening to him. "Okay," he stopped. Feeling that she was going to win she turned around, facing him again. "If you want him to go through MRT then I'll do it, I can put more concentration into it. But I want you to be sure, there's a chance that he won't make it."

She relaxed in her shoulders and in her face, and for the first time in days he could see the full extent of the pain she was covering up. "Okay," she said quietly with a lump in her throat, "thank you."

V

MRT probably wouldn't crack him. It might though, but he didn't really care. Either way he would get back at Kathryn, it would destroy her.

Paul was always in a dark room. Always at a computer console, always plotting against people. He did nothing by accident, that's what he liked about computers, you had time to control every aspect of what was going on, even if it was by designing a program that controlled everything for you, you were still in total control.

The time in-between staying in a dark room and working (if you could call it that) at a computer console was unimportant. Outside of a computer he was a nobody, but he liked it that way. It made him harder to trace, harder to stop.

Everything was falling into place. Starfleet had 'caught' his actions on their systems, and 'worked out' what systems he had accessed. Of course he hadn't made a mistake, he wasn't like that, he didn't make mistakes, he was always right. He had wanted Starfleet to find out part of what he had been up to. It was quite simple, he had just gone through every file that he wanted them to see that he had visited and left a little message at the end: 'Paul 'as been 'ere'.

The rest of his activities were totally untraceable, they may never know all of the files he had accessed. The next stage of his plan was a little harder to act out, a little less controllable, but equally exciting.

V

They sat opposite each other at the table, having just ordered. A waiter came over, holographic of course, and held out a wine, clearly displaying the label for them both to see.

"Yes, that looks good," Chakotay confirmed.

The waiter, assuming that Chakotay was in charge of the choice of wine, poured some out into a glass for him. He tasted it, not the best that he had tasted, but it was good nether the less. He smiled at the waiter, although he was holographic, and confirmed that the wine was satisfactory.

"How long will you be gone then?" Chakotay asked Kathryn once the waiter had poured her some wine and left them to get on with their meal.

"I'm not sure," she took a sip from the glass, "I haven't seen many of my family and friends for so long, I thought I'd just get it over and done with in one go," she smiled up at him, it wasn't exactly a lie, "you don't mind do you?"

Returning the smile he shook his head, "just remember to call me from time to time."

"Every night," she wasn't sure that she would have a chance to call him every night, but she was going to try.

They linked hands across the table, and spent most of the evening smiling and talking about nothing in particular. Skipping desert, because Chakotay never ate it, they left the restaurant and took a walk along the quay.

Kathryn slipped her arm through Chakotay's and walked beside him. "Are you okay?" he asked a question that he had been meaning to ask all evening, as in-between smiles she still looked troubled, as she had that morning a few days ago.

"I'm fine," she said, trying not to let on that there was something troubling her, "why do you ask?" this way she would be able to correct anything that she was doing that was letting him think there was something wrong.

"I don't know," he wasn't going to give away his secrets, "I just get the feeling that there's something troubling you. Want to talk to me about it?"

She did, but couldn't. There were so many things that she wanted to tell him, share with him, and get off her conscious, but she knew that she couldn't. And the fact that he could tell that there was something amiss just made it worse. "I don't want to bother you with it," there was no point in pretending that there wasn't something wrong anymore, "it's not important, don't worry."

But he was worrying. He didn't like it when Kathryn shut him out like this. He had never like it. There had been many occasions on voyager when she had done things without telling him about it first, and he had only found out afterwards. He had a feeling that this may be another one of those times.

"But I do worry Kathryn, can't you see that?" He stopped, as did she, he held both of her shoulders in front of him. He looked at her, waiting for her to say something, but she didn't. He gave up, dropping his arms by his sides. "Look," he sighed, "just promise me that you won't do anything stupid." She had a habit of doing that he had noticed, soon after they had first met.

She looked down at the ground, then finally lifting her face to his. She slipped both arms around his waist, and lay her head against his shoulder. Instinctively he folded his arms across her back. "I love you Chakotay," she said quietly, but loudly enough for only him to hear.

He gave up, it was impossible to get anything out of Kathryn Janeway when she shut people out. It was probably only something small, that only she would worry about, but still, he got the feeling there was more to it. He kissed the top of her head, "I love you too," he whispered, so only she could hear.

V

End of chapter 4.