The door to the Captain's quarters chimed.
"Come," answered Janeway, seated on the couch in a black shirt and grey slacks, so similar to her uniform that they might has well have been Starfleet issue.
B'Elanna entered. "Captain, you asked me to stop by when it was convenient."
"Yes, I did. Please have a seat."
The engineer seated herself opposite the captain and wrung her hands in her lap.
"Can I offer you something? Coffee?" Janeway motioned to a metal pot.
Everyone still had a slight chill in their bones from the arid planet. Or was it from Seska?
"Sure," she replied.
"B'Elanna, it is not my habit to ask members of my crew to divulge personal information about another crew member." Handing her the mug, she went on, "But it is not everyday that I lose my ship to my first officer's ex-lover. Chakotay is not responding to anyone at the moment and I am concerned."
B'Elanna clasped both hands around the mug and studied the captain cautiously.
Janeway continued, "Chakotay will share what he likes with whom he likes, but Seska… Seska was found dead in my ready room. The whole crew has been shaken by the last few days. I never would've thought our hold on Voyager could be so precarious. We have three dead. The whole experience has left me feeling a little haunted. But by a ghost I do not understand."
"Captain," B'Elanna stammered and took a deep 'I'm in control' breath, "I'm glad that you have asked me here to talk about Seska."
"Really?"
"Ever since we found out she was a Cardassian, some disturbing pieces came together in my mind. I tried to talk to Chakotay, but…lets just say he wouldn't listen."
Kathryn smiled at B'Elanna's restraint; aware that her first officer was not the man he used to be. She let the sentence drop without question or comment.
"B'Elanna, setting aside the puzzle of the Commander's personal feelings, do you have any idea why Seska was so obsessed with Commander Chakotay? It's like he was some kind of diabolical target for her."
"A good description, Captain. For Seska, it was about power. I mean their whole relationship. She was a Cardassian operative that infiltrated the Starfleet Academy and then the Maquis, but the more I think about the energy she put into seducing Chakotay, it was personal from day one."
"Personal?"
"Captain, it's like Cardassian torture techniques. They will use torture simply to break the will of an individual even when they know that the individual has no useful information. It is not about the information, it is about owning and controlling that person's will. A game of domination, a power play."
"B'Elanna, few know this, but I was captured by the Cardassians on my first deep space assignment. We had covert operations break us out, but I was incarcerated long enough to witness what you are saying."
B'Elanna looked up at her Captain and continued confidently, "Then you must see the psychological warfare. Seska was a Cardassian trying to break a man's will, but we couldn't see it because of her Bajoran physiology."
"What did this 'psychological warfare' look like back when you were a Maquis?"
"For one, she tried her damnedest to use sex to manipulate him. She did her level best to try to control Chakotay just like she worked the Kazon Maje. But he put an end to it. Chakotay would not allow her to use their personal relationship to compromise his command and that was the power she wanted."
"To what end? What power could she wield for the Cardassians as a Bajoran aboard a Maquis vessel?"
B'Elanna decided suddenly to change modes, and blurted out, "Captain, you are going to need specific examples to see what I am saying. A picture of what it was like. I know the exact day that Chakotay took Seska into his bed because she boasted to me about it the next day."
Janeway's face went blank, unsure why she was being given this information, but wanting to understand the history, she didn't stop B'Elanna.
"It was after one of our greatest successes in battle. We were mining the perimeter of a moon that they used to launch heavy raids against Maquis colonies. Near the end of our mission, three Cardassian warships came in as we were heading out. We came under heavy fire and sustained a hell of a lot of damage. Between Chakotay's creative maneuvering and Seska's 'lucky shots' we destroyed, not disabled, but destroyed all three ships."
"You are suggesting that she killed her own people to gain leverage in their personal relationship?"
"Exactly! One moment we thought we were as good as dead, and the next moment we were flying through Cardassian debris. And Seska was cheering on Chakotay for getting us through it!"
Janeway looked a little pale as she repeated, "She fired the shots that destroyed the Cardassians?"
"Yes, Captain." B'Elanna met Janeway's sober stare. She continued, "The Maquis spirits were pretty high that night on the colony. Seska rode the wave of the celebration and hung as close to Chakotay as she could all night. He left the party alone and she was gone soon after. Captain, she actually told me that she compromised the security to his quarters and entered while he was changing!"
Realizing that she had gotten carried away in describing Seska's outrageous behaviour B'Elanna leaned back in her seat. "Any way, as a Bajoran, her excitement at our success wasn't surprising, but when I found out she was Cardassian… I remembered that night and my blood ran cold. I'm sure; it was all part of a premeditated attempt to get at Chakotay."
"And have you never talked to him about this? Found out if he sees it the same way?"
"Are you kidding? Dredge up his sex life with Seska! I wouldn't dare, at least not without a bat-leth!"
The Captain changed the course of her questioning. "You said she was trying to control him, compromise his command, in what way?"
"Captain, in Chakotay's cell there was a strict rule of non-aggressive action towards Starfleet and Federation ships. Don't get me wrong, we had our share of skirmishes when it couldn't be avoided. But, where other Maquis might raid the Federation for much needed supplies and inflict Federation casualties, no matter how low we were if any of Chakotay's people were caught engaging in a Federation raid… well he didn't pull any punches."
"So where did he get his supplies?"
"As one of the highest ranking Starfleet officers to join the Maquis, I'm guessing Chakotay came well connected."
"You think that someone in Starfleet gave him supplies?" Janeway asked incredulously.
"I'm saying he had connections, and most of the time we did not have to steal. I never saw a Federation vessel leave medical supplies or weapons, but Chakotay knew where to find," B'Elanna emphasized, "Federation supplies waiting for him. He never explained their origin."
"Fascinating."
"But, Seska 'the Bajoran' was determined to increase the hostility of the crew towards the Federation and openly criticized him for being too Starfleet. At times we thought she was right. She knew the Maquis mindset better than any of us, and knew how to use it against him. That is until one day when she fired on a Federation runabout, and he physically threw her from the console. I think that was the end of any physical intimacy. It was all of six weeks from her initial boasting." B'Elanna drank some of her coffee. "As I re-think it all knowing that she was a Cardassian infiltrator, my guess is that her official objective was to uncover Chakotay's Starfleet support, and her personal objective was to break down Chakotay's Federation loyalties."
"Break him? How?"
"Badger him about his Federation ties. Remind about his comfy job teaching at the Academy, while the Federation let his family die. He was grieving and angry, and she fueled it with luring arguments. Sex was one weapon, but manipulating anger was her forte. Seska wanted to set the targets and tried to toy with all of us to get her way."
"And how did he respond?"
"He was pretty tolerant. A Maquis leader trying to reach an angry wounded Bajoran. She could act real sweet when she needed to, and he mistook her for sincere, but he wasn't controlled by her. At least most of the time. Often it backfired, and the anger she was toying with blew up at her. It was really weird though, when he'd yell at her, she'd poise herself like he just complimented her on her figure." B'Elanna paused and reflected, "As I see it, Seska put her body, mind, and soul into that power struggle and lost. Imagine, Captain, after all her effort at sowing seeds of hatred towards Starfleet, the final blow she must have took when he chose to become your first officer and handed out Starfleet uniforms to the Maquis!"
"Thank you, B'Elanna. That explains a lot." Janeway leaned back against the couch, stared up into empty space and let out a long sigh. "I'm worried about the crew. Without a ship's counselor, I've relied on Chakotay's skills to help in that area. But I think he feels responsible… responsible for losing the ship, for the deaths, and I can't reach him. If we are going to come through this and recover the crew's confidence and morale, I need him. Can you help me reach him?"
"I'm not sure how?"
"He needs to talk to someone. You are his closest friend."
"I don't know, Captain, sometimes I think I'm his friend because he doesn't have to talk to me. I just whip his butt in hover ball, but I doubt if that's going to do the trick this time."
"Will you talk to him with me?"
"He'll think we are ganging up on him."
"He'll be right. If had a ship's counselor, I'd order him to get help. But I don't, so I don't see any other options. Do you?"
"No, Ma'am. When did you have in mind?"
"Computer locate, Commander Chakotay."
"Commander Chakotay is in his quarters."