Disclaimer: Paramount, God...how far apart are they?
Rating: PG, why not?
Dedication: For EndFEMANow, my former roommate.

Resurrection
Chapter 8

Another volley rocked the Bridge and Janeway lurched forward. She wiped her eyes with back
of her hand, which only made the stinging worse.

"Report!"

"The shield modifications are holding, Captain," Seven of Nine said from above Janeway.

The Borg woman's voice still held that strangely calm quality that it had only lost once or twice.
"Minor damage to decks nine and thirteen."

"Well, that's slightly encouraging," the captain mumbled underneath her breath. She hit a
button on the center console. "B'Elanna, tell me you have some good news."

"I think so, Captain." B'Elanna was shouting over the din in Engineering and Janeway
flinched. "I can modify the deflector to discharge several wide ion bursts. That should disable
any ships with less than sixty percent shielding."

Another Minatian blast hit Voyager, forcing Tom to bring the ship back another two hundred
kilometers.

"How many of those ships do we have, Seven?" Janeway asked, looking up at the Borg woman
hopefully.

Seven's fingers flew over the console. A surprise blast shook the Bridge and she grabbed
on to the console just before she went flying into the captain's lap. "About thirty ships fall
under those specifications, Captain."

Janeway grinned. "I like those odds much better. What about the remaining ships,
B'Elanna?"

She heard the half-Klingon woman sigh. "I'm still working on that, Captain..." There was a
long pause. "Wait! I've got it!"

Janeway looked out at the Minatian ships closing in on them. "Quickly, Lieutenant
Torres..."

"The warp core releases a negligible amount of theta radiation gas every ten minutes. If
we could collect it, send it out in a tube..."

"And then hit it with a tachyon beam," Harry interrupted, "We should be able to blow up
anything in the shouting distance."

"Which we will be in," Seven reminded them all dryly.

The Minatians sent a reminder of their own, as six different beams flew across the shields
and sparks flew inside the Bridge.

"What the hell was that?" Janeway asked.

"I'm not sure, Captain," Harry said. "But whatever it is, we've now got a hole opening up
in our shields near Sickbay."

Janeway's heart stopped for a handful of seconds. "I don't care where you pull the energy
from, Ensign but you are to reinforce those shields now."

Harry nodded, afraid. "Yes, ma'am."

"What's going on with those shield modifications, Seven?"

Seven shook her head. "They are starting to weaken. If any more of those volleys are shot
at us, we will lose the shields entirely."

Janeway gripped her armrests. "B'Elanna get me an ion wave, some theta radiation in a
tube, and a tachyon beam. And I mean now."

Klantio bent down, his flat nose only a few centimeters from the square screen. He watched
his female captive with great interest. She was stretched across the width of her cell, staring at
the ceiling. She would shift her hands under her head every ten minutes or so, but other that
those rare motions, she remained still.

He tapped his long, pointed finger on the screen and then turned to the underling that sat
in the room with him.

"When was the last time the captain was fed?" he asked, smoothly.

The solider closed his eyes, and Klantio could see as the yellow orbs rolled back in his
head. This Minatian had been chosen because of his memory; there was no need for a central data bank so long as he was alive.

"A guard last visited her cell at 1622. He brought with him a small tray."

Klantio smiled. He felt the skin on his face tighten as the scar tissue tried to
accommodate the moving muscles underneath. With the index finger on his left hand, he began to make slow, half-circles of pressure on his left temple. He could feel where he was missing a small piece of skull and knew how little was between his flesh in that area and his brain.

The Minatian leader made a ninety-degree turn to his left and began an examining another
screen. Voyager's first officer was being held onto a table by thick metal straps. As the
commander had lost almost all voluntary muscle control, the straps were the only things keeping him from sliding to the floor.

"What's the commander's status?" he asked.

The non-descript solider called up his mental list again. "He's unconscious most of the
time. The moments of lucidity are farther and farther apart."

Klantio nodded. "Inform the guards to move Chakotay to Janeway's cell."

"Sir?" Klantio's living computer was startled by the order.

"If she sees his condition is not improving, she may be a tad more cooperative in order to
get his cure," Klantio explained.

The ship's memory nodded and walked out of the monitoring room. Klantio turned his eyes
back to the commander's screen. Five minutes went by, and the return of his underling also showed two guards entering the surgical room. They unclamped the straps and dragged him off the table.

Klantio could see that Rinyht was not happy with the handling of his patient, but the doctor remained silent.

The guards and prisoner left the screen and Klantio waited patiently, settling his eyes
back on Janeway's screen. She suddenly shifted to her knees, peering out into the hallway between the bars. As the guards came into view, Janeway pressed herself against the back wall, watching as they deposited her first officer on the floor. They closed the door behind them and were off screen again.

She waited for a few moments before she went over to him, and Klantio saw that she was
speaking. He pressed a button on a panel and the camera zoomed in to only hold the faces of his
two captives. The captain was crying.

Good.

Janeway heard footsteps in the corridor outside of her cell and froze. She had only been
back for twenty minutes or so; what did they want her for? She felt her heart beat speed up and
she hurried to hide her spoon-weapon.

Her two guards, Minatian males she had named Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum after the
characters in Alice in Wonderland, stood before her cell, a very familiar third form between them.

They unlocked the door, unloaded their burden, and locked the door, leaving her cell again.
She waited a handful of minutes just staring at the barely breathing form of her first
officer. She was in shock-how long had it been since they were last together? A month, most
likely. Yes, a month since the turbolift doors had closed, breaking their eye contact.

Slowly, she crawled over to his side and turned him over. His face was smudged with dirt,
but Janeway could still make out the cuts and bruises on his face. The wounds had healed
improperly and she knew infection was imminent.

"Chakotay," she said softly, touching his shoulder. She felt his body tense under her hand
but his eyes did not open. "Chakotay, wake up. It's me, the captain." She stopped. "Chakotay,
wake up. It's Kathryn. Open your eyes, please."

Naomi Wildman looked up from the "post" where Neelix had left her. She was supposed to be
keeping an eye on the sleeping guard. She didn't understand why she had to watch a man who was sleeping. And snoring. The entire cargo bay could hear him. If he woke up, everyone would know.

Sliding off the bin she was sitting on, she tiptoed to another grouping of containers.

She'd been watching Tom and Harry search through them frantically, but she didn't know what they were looking for. Neelix had started to help after awhile, but he wasn't having any luck either.

Implementing a trick the Talaxian had taught her, the young girl placed her small hands on
the container lid and pressed down. There was a slight hissing noise and the lid popped up. She
looked around to make sure her guard was still asleep and then pushed the lid back.

Inside she found masks-triangular pieces of plastic connected by a tube to a small tank.
Curious, Naomi picked one up but had to put it down when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Fearing her guard had woken up, the small child hid behind the bin and peered out a little.

"Ensign Paris," she said quietly when she identified the blonde officer.

Tom took a moment to find her and then smiled a little. "What is it, Naomi?"

"I found something," she said, gesturing towards the inside of her hiding space. "They're
masks."

Tom's face lit up and he crouched down next to her, peering inside. "Naomi, you just saved
the day."

"I did?" Naomi asked.

Tom nodded. "Yup. But I don't want you to tell anyone about what you've found. Put the
lid back on, but don't close it all the way. I'll tell you when we need the masks, okay?"

Naomi nodded in return. "Okay, Ensign Paris."

Tom smiled. "Good job, kid"

Klantio placed his scarred hands on his hips and stared at his view screen. "I must speak
with the councilor."

"Warrior," said the skinny Minatian on the other end, "the councilor does not want to speak
to you. You are disgraced; you are unnecessary."

Klantio narrowed his triangular eyes to slits. The secretary knew nothing of disgrace. Klantio remembered that Huntil had only lasted a week at the military academy. He was forever
'unnecessary.'

"I have a powerful ship now; I boarded it. It will serve the glory of the Minatian
Empire."

Huntil stared and then raised an eyebrow. He wondered if Klantio was as stupid as he
sounded. "A ship? I'm sure this ship has friends..."

"If we study Voyager, we will be ready for any attack. It would greatly benefit the
councilor to see me."

The screen went blank. Klantio feared that the secretary had disconnected him and began a
silent string of curses. He turned away from the view screen and then heard the ding of incoming
communication.

A moment later, the Councilor appeared, looking quite frazzled and unamused. His orange
triangular eyes were only partially open; his lips were a sickly grey color. His head bore many
discolorations due to bruising and scarring. "A ship?"

"A warship, Councilor. More powerful than anything we have. We're on our way to you. The
crew is still alive so they can teach our people how to build the ship."

The Councilor nodded, although the action was haphazard and lethargic. "Excellent job,
warrior."

"I've got it," B'Elanna declared loudly but silenced herself quickly when Seven glared at
her.

The Klingon woman's hands were covered in black and gray powder from inside the wall panel.
Cargo Bay One was rarely maintenenced electronically so dust usually built up inside the walls.

"You've got twenty minutes before they realize what's happened."

Seven nodded. She looked over at the guards, three Minatian soldiers who were clearly
bored out of their minds. After all, what kind of trouble can 150 people behind a level-ten
forcefield get into?

Standing up slowly, Seven walked towards the doors of the cargo bay. There was a two-meter
gap between the edge of the forcefield and the freedom of the corridor. The guards were to her
left on the other side of the field. None were looking in her direction. Taking a deep breath,
Seven stepped through the force field, shivering as the electricity touched her skin.
She kept her eyes on the guards and walked quickly toward the doors. When she was a foot
away, the doors opened and the air from the corridor came in. Her body tensed but the guards
didn't look up. She hurried into the corridor.

A Minatian had just turned the corner and his eyes landed on her. She looked at him coldly
and when he started to run towards her, she quickly turned into the next corridor. He followed
shortly after and Seven grabbed his arm as soon as she saw it. Pushing it back toward his body,
she was rewarded with a loud snap. He tried to scream, but Seven dealt him a solid blow to the
head. He dropped to the floor.

"Thank you," she said to the unconscious and injured form after picking up his gun.
Looking around again, she made her way to the turbolift.