It was dark, but she didn't feel inclined to call for lights. They contented themselves with touching the wall to make sure they didn't run into anything. The tricorder returned to them from their mysterious benefactor contained a map, though it seemed rather vague and there was some trouble deciphering it. Janeway hoped her interpretation of the instructions matched the intent of the person who had left it for them, since a legend had not been provided.

"We're hot…hot…cold," Janeway murmured. And what exactly is this symbol supposed to mean? she wondered indignantly. Could mean anything in another culture, danger, don't go there, I- oh, damn it all.

The corridor had forked off; the corridor continuing straight ahead, one to the left and one to the right.

"Turn right," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "Do you feel like it's getting hotter?" she asked softly, after a few more such twist and turns.

"I think we're going downwards as well."

"Out of the plasma cooker, into the warp core?" she asked lightly.

"Hope not."

Janeway rolled her eyes. "Same. Hey, I can see something…I think it's getting brighter down there."

Their surroundings had again changed, reflecting a more primitive style. Slowly, the man-made structures were non-existent, and it seemed clear that they were walking down a natural tunnel, of a cave, rather than something the Rian'chMuri had built.

"This is really confusing me," Janeway said. "Their headquarters seem to be made of both advanced and primitive structures, not to mention these natural formations. I don't know…"

"Perhaps they built on and continued with pre-existing structures?" Chakotay suggested. "If they were looking for somewhere to hide, then found this place with its own buildings from previous residents, and complete with extensions into caves…what a find for them. If someone were to discover them, they could always dart down into the caves and escape."

"Hopefully not while we're here," Janeway said dryly. "But who knows? This isn't based on any concrete evidence. Although it would go a way to explaining the contradictions I've noticed."

"I wonder who our benefactor is," mused Chakotay. "It just seems odd that they would only give us one of our tricorders and phasers back; they could have been a little more forthcoming."

"Let's just keep our minds on the task at hand, shall we?" Janeway said, in a manner that suggested what she said was more in the line of an order, no matter how she phrased it.

Typical. It's always about work, work, work.

"Well, pardon me, Commander, for wanting to concentrate on our safe return to Voyager, rather than indulge in idle speculation," Janeway snapped back.

"Excuse me?" Chakotay said, confused.

"You know-" Janeway glared at him, before restraining herself to, "Never mind."

Chakotay's eyebrows rose. "No, really. What was that all about?"

Janeway looked at him doubtfully. "Just in response to your comment about my always focussing on work."

He stared at her. "I didn't say that."

"Of course you did," Janeway said, becoming exasperated again. "I heard you. You said, quote, 'Typical.It's always about work, work, work,' unquote."

"Captain, I thought that, but I am very sure I didn't say it out loud," Chakotay said with a conviction she couldn't fault.

"Well…maybe…" Janeway reached up to tap the tiny device attached to her ear. "On any other occasion, I would have suspected you of simply speaking your thoughts out loud, but what with these…"

"She was only just testing them out," Chakotay followed her train of thought. "There could conceivably be side effects."

"She said she would be able to access our thoughts and memories and experiences, but never said how exactly," Janeway said, thinking it out. "Who knows, maybe the link was supposed to be to her, but it's formed between us, or- this could be an aberration. I don't know," she said in frustration. "I wish-" she looked at him, focussing on this one thought with intensity.

Chakotay understood what she was trying to do, but couldn't pick up an obviously out of place thought, that she might have placed in his mind. "You wish you were back on Voyager?" he hazarded a guess.

"That's right. Did you-?"

"No, I just guessed."

Janeway sighed. "I guess we don't really know much about these things. All the more reason to get back to the ship so the Doctor can examine these and determine their effects, and how to get them off!"

"And so he can complain about how much we expect of him and yet never appreciate his work," Chakotay chuckled. "I remember him saying that anywhere else, in the Federation, in the Alpha Quadrant, his cure would have-" he stopped abruptly.

Janeway raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to finish. "Why-" she began, then the answer surfaced in her mind, and she made a sound of disgust. "Not the Temporal Prime Directive again."

"Wait, now that you definitely got from my mind," Chakotay said with certainty.

"Yes. It's an odd feeling," Janeway said. "To me, it was as though…I'm sure you know how it is, when you've been faced with a temporal anomaly, where you change something or influence something in a minor way, then when things go back to normal and you're in your own time, these memories suddenly appear in your mind, either an entirely new set to account for the shift in the timeline, or something that hasn't fit in before and you're only just connecting the dots…"

"Now there's the silver lining in this cloud," Chakotay said. When Janeway looked at him enquiringly, he expanded, "Soon, I might be able to read your mind from end to end, backwards and forwards, and finally find a few answers to some of the things that have been puzzling me."

"Well, that works for me as well," Janeway retorted. "You never did explain that burnt out deflector dish. Temporal Prime Directive, hah! Starfleet never came up with a regulation that dealt with this situation."

Chakotay looked at her amused. "Since when has any situation we've been in been covered by Starfleet regs?"

Janeway indicated wry agreement.

As they continued, the tunnel widened into a cavern- which abruptly cut off to a pool of bubbling magma, or something a close relative of it.

"Wonderful," Chakotay grimaced. "That- blotch that vaguely resembles a map of yours any help?"

"Well, we're supposed to get to the other side, clearly," Janeway said, studying it with a frown. "But it's not telling me how exactly to go about doing that in a safe manner." She stepped over to the ridge and looked over to study the roiling mass. "That does not look harmless."

Chakotay noticed it wasn't a pure pool of the magma, or whatever it was; it appeared to be submerged in the rocky floor, and in some points, that floor was high enough to still exist above the toxic mass. "I suppose we'll just have to pick our way across very carefully-" Something caught his attention mid-sentence, and Janeway looked to see where he was concentrating.

On the far side of the grotto, a natural ledge had formed, a few feet higher than their current position.

"You're not serious," Janeway said flatly.

"I am."

"You're suggesting we trust our weight to something that looks like it'll crumble apart as soon as we step on it?"

Chakotay nodded down to the pool. "We could try to jump down to a safe spot, as I was saying, pick our way through somehow. But I don't fancy our chances avoiding serious burns."

"So, we go back- not an option. We get down there- very dangerous. Or…" Janeway looked at the ledge again with a sinking heart. "We put our faith in that unstable overhang."

"I say we go with option number three," Chakotay said, adding on with a smile, "Hope you're not scared of heights."

Janeway licked her lips nervously. "Number three it is," she conceded reluctantly.

They walked over to the rocky shelf, eyeing it warily as though expecting it to fall apart any moment in front of their very eyes.

"I'll help you up," Chakotay stated.

Janeway thought about refusing, but then saw no need to reject his offer with the probable outcome of overbalancing and landing in the pool; currently high on her list of what not to do- number one, in fact.

So, after carefully tucking the tricorder away, she sought and grabbed onto handholds, carefully pulling herself up. The rocky ledge was not, of course, precisely drawn with straight lines and edges, which made climbing the few metres a little easier. She was dreading the feeling of rock crumbling away beneath her feet, but Chakotay's hands were reassuring tight around her waist. Finally, she was standing on the ledge, instead watching Chakotay's ascent.

"All right, we're up, now all we have to do is get across," he said casually.

She grimaced at that nonchalant, almost blasphemous remark, given their circumstances, but nodded resolutely and began inching her way across. There was quite a way to go, and she was determinedly not looking down as she firmly reminded herself that she was a Starfleet captain, in control, calm and capable, and with an example to set- beside her, accompanied by the ominous sound of rock crumbling and a muted splash as the pieces dropped into the viscous pool, Chakotay slipped.

"Chakotay!" She grabbed at him as he windmilled, teetering on the very edge- "Goddamnit, hold on!" As she said it, she knew it was a stupid thing to say, and Chakotay's thoughts reaffirmed that. "Oh, for crying out loud," Janeway muttered, quickly shuffling along to give Chakotay room and pulled him to her.

No sooner had they moved, the rest of the ledge where he had been standing crumbled fully and collapsed into the molten pool. Janeway froze there, watching the pieces roll down the side of the cavern, each individual stone and rock, falling…falling…

"Kathryn?" Chakotay's voice was low, calm. He acted as he would to a skittish animal. "Come on, Kathryn, calm down. Breathe with me."

Her breathing, which had accelerated so quickly, slowed to its normal pace as she mimicked his breathing. In, out; in, out; in…Her wide eyes closed for a moment as she concentrated on just breathing, refocussing, and then getting on with the job.

That's my girl.

Janeway glanced at him guardedly, wondering if he knew she had heard that. Whether or not that was the case, he kept silent, and Janeway tilted her head decisively, saying, "Well. Now that that's over and done with, time's a-wasting." Ignoring him, she was about to continue when Chakotay touched her shoulder.

"Hey, thanks."

"Sure," Janeway said distantly.

His eyes narrowed as she moved on. You are afraid of heights…

Janeway wondered briefly if the bond was growing or he was becoming more adept at directing thoughts at her. She shrugged, unable to deny his statement, and certain he knew she had heard it.

It's- unresolved fear left over from that alien who wanted me in his matrix…I still have nightmares about him and that whole experience sometimes. Among other things, She remembered the nightmare about Tuvix, and how good it had felt to have Chakotay hold her, how safe and protected she had felt.

As soon as she thought it, she felt uncomfortable. There was a pause, and she wondered if he had heard.Part of her hoped he had, but she was conflicted by what she had learnt about being captain; that one didn't fraternize with a member of the crew…

Everyone has their own personal nightmare, Chakotay said. Nothing to be ashamed about. I suppose it's an inevitable consequence of life.

Janeway realized he hadn't heard anything after that, and was strangely disappointed, but quickly moved on from that thought.

The crew doesn't expect you to be some sort of all mighty, all-powerful being, he added. See what that did for Q!

Janeway grinned, appreciating the sudden levity and the insult to Q, also feeling and thankful for the comfort emanating from his thoughts, the fact that he hadn't pressured her to talk about the nightmares or that other night. It was curious how quickly she had come to accept the change in the status quo. Before, the idea of him seeing her with such a weakness, let alone admitting it later, would have been unthinkable. And yet here they were, with something much more intimate occurring, all because of this mind link between the two of them.

Janeway was wary of how much she enjoyed the sensation of sharing thoughts with him. It certainly wouldn't do for him to find out something more inappropriate, something much less innocuous than her weaknesses, something that she had trouble accepting within herself.

This situation, such a danger to her emotions, might well be the trigger to release- something she took great pains to never think about, and so this activity of sharing thoughts and feelings, however reluctantly she enjoyed it, was definitely something to restrict.

Janeway withdrew into herself once more.