It wasn't a pleasant return to consciousness for Janeway. Her entire body was still shuddering from the pulse that had been sent through it, and rebelled at her attempts to move. Soon she realized that it wasn't entirely due to the pulse but to the fact that she was tied up- to something large and warm that…seemed to be moving…Chakotay!
"Commander?" she forced out, licking her dry lips.
"Here and intact- I think," was the dry reply. "You?"
"Without the Doctor to provide an expert opinion, I'll run with a simple 'I'll live'."
It seemed that a belt of a kind had been looped around them with a buckle that she couldn't reach with her bound hands. Her feet had been bound too and she felt anger surge in her at the unwarranted treatment. First things first, however.
"Commander? We have to try to stand up."
"That's going to be entertaining- wait, I think someone's coming."
Four people entered the room, all tall, solidly built men. They looked like Rian'chMuri, Janeway noted with surprise.
"We're here to see your representatives for your government," she said. "If there's been some misunderstanding, perhaps we could resolve it without kidnapping?"
One, obviously the leader, stepped forward, studying her for a moment, and she lifted her chin up a notch higher to look him boldly in the face, assessing him as he did her. He lashed out with a foot and connected hard with her ribs. Janeway barely managed to suppress a cry of pain.
"You will not speak unless spoken to," he ordered.
"Does that count as spoken to?"
"Who are you?" he addressed Chakotay.
Janeway pinned him with a steely stare. "If you want answers, you'll speak to me," she said.
"You are his superior?" there was doubt in his voice. "A woman?"
"Save me from chauvinistic xenophobes," Janeway muttered. "Yes, I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Starship Voyager. And you are…?"
"The people you are to meet with are not the true representatives," he said, forgoing the introduction.
Fine. See if I care about your name. Janeway's belligerent thoughts were in inverse proportion to her careful, diplomatic reply, "I was under a different impression. They informed us that they were, in fact, the representatives of your people and if they're impostors, I assure you we're not in league with them."
"You picked the wrong side to ally yourselves with," he sneered. "We are the Opposition,"- oh yes, an original people, by all counts, she thought wryly- "and we will rise up against these false leaders who claim to look out for our best interests yet allow a great enemy to share our borders without mounting an attack force to deal a pre-emptive strike before they attack us! Instead, they have meetings over subspace channels, to hear the diplomats to speak false words promising peaceful relations…" his outraged diatribe halted and his voice acquired a tone of practiced menace that made Janeway yearn to roll her eyes. "You are not welcome here, and you will be held here til we decide what to do with you. Be good and do not attempt to escape. You will not enjoy the repercussions," with that he spat in her general direction, thankfully missing, and left with his entourage, all laughing raucously while she seethed.
When she was sure they had left, she hissed, "We are so getting out of here."
"Ready when you are. But it's going to be difficult with our different sizes," Chakotay warned her, prophetically as it turned out.
The first few times they tried, it was difficult to get up even a few inches; Chakotay's build against Janeway's more delicate frame did not make for easy lift off. Practise made the next attempt more successful, but then the overbalance problem resurfaced and they not only fell down, they fell sideways, Janeway this time unable to suppress a cry of pain at she fell on her injured side.
"Are you all right, Captain?" Chakotay asked, concerned. He wasn't sure how badly she was hurt, and he was sure she wouldn't tell him. As per normal, she replied:
"Fine."
"Let's rest a while," Chakotay said, but she wouldn't hear of it.
"Come on, let's try again. We got even higher that time," Janeway was determined not to let her injury slow their escape down.
He sighed, shaking his head at her stubbornness, but complied. This time they were successful.
"Are your bonds looser?" Janeway asked.
They were, but not enough to get free.
"Maybe we can untie each other's," Chakotay suggested after a frustrating few minutes. They each tried to turn around, but couldn't in the little maneuvring space their bonds allowed them.
"Just hold on," Janeway said. "I'll get around you."
That was again, easier said than done. The belt pulled tightly against her, restricting her air and pressing on her injured ribs. She bit down on her lip and forced herself to continue, finally reaching Chakotay's front and resting against him for a moment, before realizing her position and quickly turning around to face him.
Chakotay had been glad that the Captain had finished wriggling and twisting against him, because his reaction to her wasn't so easily disguised when she was this close to him. Unfortunately, it seemed his relief had been misplaced, because now, even more intimately nestled against him, she stiffened and held herself rigidly, painfully aware of their closeness- this would be killing her more than him, he thought humorously: the impropriety of being plastered against her First Officer.
Janeway lifted her bound hands to begin working on his. Their closeness was starting to affect her, but with iron control, she shoved that inappropriate reaction to the back of her mind, focussing on his bonds to the exclusion of everything else. Finally, his hands were free and he silently began working on hers. After that, he hesitated as they both considered the problem of the belt.
Chakotay thought about it for a moment, then without asking and ignoring the small gasp that escaped Janeway, put his arms around her and felt around for the buckle on the belt, which was low on her waist and perilously close to an area she would not be pleased if he touched. The buckle came undone, and Janeway mimicked his actions to reach the other, with an infinitesimal reluctant pause that only he could have detected, unbuckling the second one and then pulling the belt off to let it fall to the ground.
They hopped and shuffled awkwardly apart, before sitting abruptly on the ground to work on those ties.
That was when they heard the voices approaching their position. Janeway looked at Chakotay, in the split second before the door opened, in panic and then scowled at her reaction, leaning back and scissoring her legs up viciously in the air to catch the first person in hard on the chest, causing them to drop a weapon which she quickly rolled to pick up and shoot him with, not knowing or caring about the setting it was on.
More people poured into the room, all with weapons pointed at her and Chakotay. She was outnumbered. Janeway unenthusiastically set the weapon down, and lifted her hands in surrender. The leader she had identified earlier shoved past the others and stopped in front of her; she struggled up to a sitting position.
"Oh, no, I think I like you in the position of an inferior," he remarked, kicking her to the ground.
Janeway bit the inside of her cheek to keep any signs of pain showing even as it spread through her body at the assault. She heard Chakotay protesting, yelling at him, attempting to divert his attention, but to no avail. Janeway narrowed her eyes and in a flurry of motion, she twisted and lashed out to trip the alien, ignoring her injuries and fixated on getting back at him. He fell heavily, as his men, grins at the beating wiped off their faces, moved out of their relaxed position to aim their weapons at her again. One moved forward, and in an act of overzealousness, hit her over the head with his weapon.
"Now who's 'inferior'?" Janeway mocked the felled man openly, before she was knocked unconscious for the second time that day.
The leader slowly got to his feet, turning burning eyes to the unfortunate subordinate that had dealt the blow. "Now I'll have to wait til she wakes up to avenge myself," he said in a low tone that was nonetheless intimidating. "In the meantime, I'm glad you've volunteered to take her place."
The man attempted in vain to protest the punishment.
"Shut your mouth, unless you want to make things worse for yourself!" the leader roared. Apparently he couldn't take much more of the challenges to his authority, and this unlucky minion would pay for that. "Now, make sure they're bound sufficiently this time, because if they get free again, you'll all suffer his fate!"
The men hurried to do his bidding before exiting, and Chakotay shook his head at the barbarity of it all, before turning a worried look to Janeway. She definitely would not be feeling 'fine' when she regained consciousness.