By Carolyn Carey
Chapter 5 "Confutatis"They had docked at the starbase. Talshek was in bad condition and had immediately been taken to the infirmary. The resident Kalanar physician had been helpless. Kalanar medical science left a lot to be desired. In the end Talshek had been taken to Voyager's sickbay where the EMH, delighted to see his captain, took care of the Kalanar commissioner. With the help of Voyagers medical equipment, and the ingenuity of the Doctor, Talshek had been stabilized. However, the EMH did not hold much hope for his recovery. His injuries were too severe and had been left untreated for too long to repair the damage.
Kathryn Janeway was sitting at the desk in her ready room aboard Voyager. She had finally been granted access to her vessel. She would always remember the feeling of elation that coursed through her when she first set foot again on the NCC - 74656. After all, she had given up all hope of ever seeing her ship again.
Despite his condition, Talshek had managed to order his people to assist her in the recovery of her crew. The Kalanar were going to staff Voyager and set a course for the Laxys system. Once there, they were going to beam her crew aboard. No need to explain the situation to the overseer of the penal colony on Laxys III.
Kathryn Janeway sat gazing at the star field outside the viewport. Unfamiliar configurations greeted her, bringing with them the realization of just how far removed from Earth she still was. Would she ever see the blue planet again? But this was no time for gloomy thoughts. After all, she was looking forward to being reunited with her crew...
Her crew... what lives had they lived on Laxys III? Were they still alive? Well, she would find out soon enough. Voyager was to depart for its three-hour journey to the Laxys system in twenty minutes.
Voyager had been traveling towards Laxys III for two hours now. But things were not going as they were meant to.
"Captain Janeway, sensors have picked up a fleet of Neddiin warships on an intercept course."
Janeway turned to look at the Kalanar soldier who occupied the operations station on Voyager's bridge. What would she have given to have Harry Kim in his place now? To have Tom at the helm, Tuvok, her old Vulcan friend at Tactical, and Chakotay at her side? As it was, only unfamiliar faces surrounded her. How was she supposed to defeat an entire fleet of enemy warships with no one but enemies as her crew? She still regarded the Kalanar as adversaries. She did not trust them. Trust was something that needed to be earned, and so far the Kalanar had done very, very little to earn it. These people had been very reluctant to assist her, even when the Commissioner had ordered them to. If he were to die, what would happen to her? She could only hope to get her crew back before Talshek took his final breath. And for that matter, she was still uncertain as to what to make of the Commissioner's recent change of heart to let her and her crew go.
"How long until they reach us?"
"Approximately four minutes, Captain Janeway."
"Red Alert! Shields up. What's our weapons status?"
"All systems are working at one hundred percent efficiency."
Good. That was at least something.
"Are we in proximity of any nebulae or anything else that would give as a tactical advantage?"
"No."
Oh well, can't win them all...
"In that case we have no other option but to engage them. Battlestations everyone!"
The battle was a quick one. Voyager was knocked about by the disruptor fire of seven Neddiin warships, but eventually got the upper hand. Two of the warships were destroyed, the remaining five disabled. Voyager got away with her shields down to six percent, several hull breaches and power failures all over the ship. Life support had briefly gone offline, but backup systems had kicked in. Warp and impulse were under repair. With a bit of luck they would resume their course to Laxys III within the hour.
Janeway toured her ship, watching as a group of alien engineers attempted to repair her vessel. She wished she had B'Elanna or at least Carey... The Kalanar were not familiar with Voyager's systems, and she feared they were doing more damage than good.
She had just entered engineering when all the lights went off. A console exploded somewhere near the warp core. It seemed that her fears were justified. A Kalanar engineer must have caused a systems overload in an attempt to fix something. Her combadge chirped.
"Doctor to the Captain! How am I supposed to work like this?"
"We're experiencing a power failure, Doctor. I'm sure everything will be under control if you just hold on for a few minutes. I'm in engineering now."
"You'd better get that power online quickly! Commissioner Talshek's condition is turning critical. He won't survive without life support..."
She had not thought about that.
"We'll do what we can, Doctor! I'll get back to you. Janeway out!"
She was filthy, covered in black oil stains. At last she had managed to get main power back online. She needed a shower and a change of clothes, but first she would contact sickbay to check how things were going there.
"Janeway to the Doctor! How's he doing?"
The Doctor sounded somber.
"Captain, I think you'd better get here quickly! He wishes to speak to you. I don't think he'll make it much longer. Please, hurry!"
Something in her froze. The man had kidnapped her and her crew, impounded her vessel, enslaved her people. But somehow he did not seem so bad anymore. She had begun to understand his desperation to defend his homeworld from the malevolent and cannibalistic Neddiin. Even if she did not approve the means by which he was trying to achieve his goal, she understood. He had looked after her when she was sick, had provided medical care, food and shelter for what must have been, in his eyes, a mere slave. This man was not entirely loathsome. And he had said he was sorry for what he had done to her and her crew. Could she hate a man who was repentant and dying? No. She knew herself better than that.
Sickbay was dimly lit. The doctor had ordered a low illumination to make his patient feel more comfortable. As soon as she entered sickbay the EMH turned his attention away from the dying man and stepped towards her.
"Captain, he wishes to speak to you alone. Be quick. He hasn't got much time left. I'll be in my office if you need me."
She simply nodded and felt her throat constrict.
As she stepped closer to the bio-bed, she saw how shallow his breathing had become. His skin had turned ashen, and dark circles loomed under his eyes. Death had already a firm grip on him. The outcome was inevitable. Talshek was dying. Tears began to collect in the corners of her eyes, and she forced them back.
She closed the distance between herself and the man on the bio-bed and took his hand. It was ice cold. In response to her touch Talshek's eyes opened a little.
"Captain!"
His voice was barely audible, a mere whisper.
"Shhh, don't talk. Just rest."
"No... Captain, I don't have much time left. If I should die before you find your crew, you must keep my death a secret. My men will turn against you if they find out that I'm gone. Also, I need you to help me make my testament... The grounds... the estate, the slaves..."
"Stop talking like that Talshek. You'll be fine."
"No Kathryn, don't lie to me. I know that I'm dying. I can feel the life force slipping away from me. No matter how much I want to hold on to it, it's moving further and further away. Please..."
Kathryn swallowed hard, then took a padd and began to record Talshek's final words.
"All my slaves are to be set free on the day of my death, the land and house to be evenly distributed between them, as well as all my other belongings, except for this chain I've worn since the day of my birth. I want you to have it, Kathryn."
"Does it have a symbolic meaning of some kind?"
"Every male Kalanar of noble birth is given one of these at birth. He either leaves it to his family or friends when he dies, or he gives it to the woman he chooses to spend his life with. You may not have realized it, Kathryn Janeway, but I had chosen you for that position. My decision to take you into my service was just the beginning of my obsession with you. When you fell sick after our arrival on Kalanar Prime I thought I had lost you. The doctor wasn't sure you were going to make it. And it was all my fault... When you decided not to reciprocate my feelings, I decided to teach you a lesson. That's why I sent you to the fields. I watched you day and night for an entire week. I did neither sleep nor eat throughout that time. My obsession with you was making me sick. At night I would watch you bathe at the river. Later on I would sneak into the servant's quarters and watch you toss and turn in your sleep. Sometimes you would cry out in your sleep, and I would chastise myself, knowing that I was the cause of your nightmares. You are the most beautiful, strong and intelligent woman I have ever had the honor of knowing. My only regret is that I made you hate me, and that hurts me more than the pain of death. Now I shall leave this existence, knowing that the only woman I've ever loved feels nothing but revulsion and hatred for me..."
The tears that she had fought so hard to hold back were now flowing freely down her cheeks. She moved her hand to his face and softly caressed his cheek.
"Talshek, I don't hate you. I don't condone what you've done, but I don't hate you. I understand that you were trying to protect your people. That's why you abducted alien vessels, including Voyager. But you have demonstrated genuine regret for your actions. I only hope that you live to teach your people to change."
Talshek grasped her hand and kissed the palm. Tears were now also rolling down his cheeks.
"You are also the kindest woman I've ever met, Kathryn Janeway. Thank you for allowing a bad man to die in peace."
"Don't talk like that, Talshek. You're not bad. You looked after me when I was sick, and I got better. I intend to return that favor. You have to fight. You can make it."
"Kathryn, will you see to it that my last will is carried out according to my instructions?"
"Of course I will."
"You know, on Kalanar we say that when someone dies a star is born somewhere in the universe. That is how we live on... at least that's what the ancient scriptures say... I've never believed in those stories. I wish I could now..."
His face turned into an ugly grimace as a surge of pain went through him. His face seemed to turn a little grayer. The tiny flame that still flickered in his eyes almost vanished. His hand tightened around hers, and she gave it a comforting squeeze. Then all pain stopped, and the muscles in his face relaxed.
"Kathryn, the pain... it's gone."
Janeway's heart sank at the commissioner's last words. She knew only to well why the pain had stopped. His brain was beginning to shut down. He only had a few seconds to live.
"Am I granted a second chance? Should this not be my last hour after all? Please, Kathryn, help me up. I want to take a walk around the ship, let my people see that I'm better. Will you help me?"
"Of course, Talshek, but I believe you should rest for a few more hours. The sudden strain could worsen your condition. You don't want to exert yourself this soon. Why don't you get some sleep first?"
"You are a very wise woman, Kathryn Janeway. I do feel a little tired."
He closed his eyes. Kathryn remained at his side and watched on as the rise and fall of his chest became more and more imperceptible. Finally it stopped altogether. She took the chain from him and put it around her neck. Then she caressed his cheek for the last time and put a tender kiss where his tears had left a path.
"Doctor... he's gone."
With those words she exited sickbay.
The rescue mission was short and without complications. They reached the Laxys system minutes after Talshek's death. The lifesigns of the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager were easily identified on the ship's sensors. Quickly they were beamed aboard. The mission took place at night, so they would not be missed until the next morning.
Some crewmembers were in bad shape, undernourished, exhausted and injured or sick. But they were all alive. That was the most important thing. Naomi and her mother had fared best on Laxys III, since they had not been forced to work in the mines.
Chakotay and the senior officers were extremely weak, but otherwise unharmed. They had been sent to their quarters with strict instructions to rest and a dietary plan to boost their depleted neutrino levels.
After the rescue mission the ship had laid in a course for Kalanar Prime in order to drop off the Kalanar crew and deliver the body of the Commissioner to his people. Kathryn Janeway attended his funeral. He was buried on a beautiful hill on his grounds. Kathryn personally saw to it that Talshek's last will was carried out. The slaves were set free and the land and house were evenly distributed among them. She was invited to a farewell party on the night following Talshek's funeral, but she refused. She wanted to leave Kalanar space as soon as possible.
With her crew still confined to quarters by doctor's orders, she took the helm herself and laid in a course for the Alpha quadrant. Eventually she withdrew to her ready room, leaving the ship on autopilot.
"Computer, initialize musical selection "Requiem aeternam" from Giuseppe Verdi's "Messa di Requiem".
She could not stop thinking about him. Somehow Talshek had touched her. He had loved her all along, and yet she had hated him until it was too late to make any difference. His love for her had caused him to reconsider his actions, and he would probably have changed the future of his people, if he had not died. Of course, his slaves had been given their freedom, but what could freedom mean in a world were the stronger ones simply forced the weak into submission? How long would those slaves really remain free? How long until someone saw the opportunity to overpower them, making Talshek's beautiful estate and grounds their own? How long until some other tyrant came along and took their freedom from them again?
She had difficulty thinking of Talshek as a tyrant now. She had seen another side entirely of him. A gentle and kind man who regretted the mistakes he had made in the past. A man who could love a woman he barely knew, a mere slave to him, so much that he would change his errant ways.
She played with the chain, running it through her fingers. The gold glittered in the light of her ready room. At the end of it hung a medallion with the insignia of Talshek's house. It was a diamond shaped object with a humming bird in its center, and softly rolling hills in the background. Kathryn recalled seeing the beauty of Talshek's grounds for the first time, that day she got out of bed for the first time and looked out of the window...
The door chime sounded.
"Enter."
It was Chakotay. He still appeared only a shadow of his former self. He had lost a lot of weight. His high cheekbones were even more pronounced than usual.
"Kathryn, I thought I might just check on you. Are you all right? You haven't rested for a minute since we got back. You never told me what happened to you after the Commissioner took you away from us. I thought maybe you'd like to talk about it?"
She looked at him, smiled a little ruefully and shook her head.
"Maybe another time, Chakotay. I'm tired and it's a long story."
Her first officer sighed in resignation. He was not going to get her to talk about it tonight, but he would keep on trying until she told him all that had happened.
"Why don't you get some rest and I take over for you?" he suggested.
"I believe the doctor ordered you to get some rest..."
"Well, I thought I'd follow my Captain's example and ignore his recommendations." he jested.
She actually smiled a little.
"Captain to the bridge. Sensors have discovered a stellar phenomenon of scientific interest two hundred kilometers of the port-bow.", the voice of Voyager's computer announced.