Title: Spikotay
Rating: PG-13 - R
Codes: J, C
Author: Voyager
Part 3/3
Disclaimer: Everything is owned by Paramount, I'm just having some fun; no infringement intended.
Summary: Beaming up to Voyager leaves Chakotay in a sticky situation
Authors note: There is some violence in this part; and also some character death, not major characters though.
Continued from Part two
Ensign Samantha Wildman strolled into the Mess hall for a late supper, even though it was only 2100 and found Neelix messing around in the galley. Stopping in front of the counter, she peered over it and tried to hide a smile that crept on her face as Neelix popped into her line of view and said boisterously,
"Hello, Ensign, what can I get you this fine evening?"
"Hello Neelix, thanks for tucking Naomi into bed for me; I was just too busy. What do you have?" Neelix waved off the thank you; his fur dancing in the slight breeze the motion made.
"No need to thank me, you know I want to spend more time with her. Tonight I have made a delicious Leola Root stew with a side order of salad." Smiling a fake smile Sam ordered the meal, grimacing inside as the nauseous smell hit her nose and thanked Neelix. Turning around, she made her way to one of the many empty tables and sat down and began to eat, holding her breath with every mouthful. Just as she was finished with the stew, she noticed a painful itch on her shin and bent down to scratch it. As she lowered her hand, she felt something tickle her palm and shuddered instinctively. Scratching her shin, she felt something crawl on her hand and froze. Shaking slightly Sam bent her head down and saw something which made her skin crawl. The blue spider which everyone was looking for was sitting on her palm, looking up at her with eight beady eyes and antenna twitching furiously.
"Neelix" Sam spoke in a shaky voice, trying not to scream as the spider crawled on her uniform and seemed to look up at her even more, as if it recognized her somehow. Neelix, who was in the back cleaning his pots and pans, didn't hear her say his name, but looked up in time to see her face go a nasty shade of white and her hand that wasn't holding her fork shake. Moving to her as fast as he could he saw what was causing her to shake and said in a shaky voice,
"Um, I'll get Captain Janeway. Put the spider in your glass and cover it up quickly. I mean, put Commander Chakotay in the cup and cover it, yes that's, that's what I meant." Tapping his combadge with enough force to hurt his chest, he squealed out in a scared voice,
"Neelix to Captain Janeway" it took only a minute for her to respond, and when she did, she sounded a bit harassed,
"Yes Neelix, what is it?"
"Uhh, Sir, I think Ensign Wildman found what everyone is looking for"
"Neelix?" was the confused reply.
"You are looking for something with eight legs, eight eyes and that is blue right? Well, it's right here in the mess hall." His voice was still slightly shaky, but under control now as he heard the unmistakable sounds of jogging footsteps as Janeway answered slightly winded,
"I'm on my way. Keep it there Neelix."
"Yes sir, Neelix out" turning back to Sam, who had now put the spider in her empty cup and was holding the top carefully he nodded his head and went over to the counter where he took a cover from one of his smaller pots and gave it to Sam, who immediately covered it better just as Janeway stormed into the room with Tuvok at her heals and took in the situation as she stopped in front of them. Sam was shaking slightly, trying not to faint; Neelix was a little off color and was fiddling with his apron.
"Neelix, where is it?" Janeway asked as she looked from him to Sam. Neelix pointed to Sam, who still was holding the container and stated,
"In there captain; I've punched air holes so it wouldn't die." Nodding to Tuvok, the Vulcan immediately ran a scan over the cup and said without emotion
"It is the spider. I can detect some other DNA in its DNA structure; it is the commander's Captain." Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Janeway took the container from Sam, who thanked her and walked out of the mess hall without saying anything to either of them, making her way to sickbay.
Once in Sickbay, Captain Janeway immediately called for a level three force field around the commanders' bed and set about putting the spider into a container which would be more appropriate for the situation. B'Elanna, who was still hard at work trying to put the Doctors program together, looked up when she stormed in and asked,
"You found him?" shaking her red hair in annoyance Janeway said as she ran scans over Chakotay's body,
"More like Ensign Wildman found him, inside her pant leg. Now, if only we had the Doc's program up and running again, we could solve this mystery." Smiling wildly, B'Elanna looked up as she hit one more button on the console said to the room,
"Computer, activate EMH" he shimmered into appearance, wearing his blue uniform and looking quite perturbed as he turned to look at her,
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency… Oh Captain, did you find the pesky little guy?" nodding her head in exasperation Janeway stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him with her death glare in place,
"No Doctor, someone else found him, in her cuff of her pants. Now what happened to you?"
"I don't know captain; one minute I was running tests on the commander, when suddenly, I went off line. Why is there security in here? Has something happened?" nodding her head, Janeway answered pointing towards Chakotay,
"Yes Doctor, something has happened. We have reason to believe that the commander shut down your program by adding useless information, shorting out your program; doing something to Ensign Kim and Gods know what else. They are here for our protection and his also." Doc's jaw dropped in shock as he took in all this information and stated,
"How could he do all that? He doesn't even have his mind anymore; it's the spiders mind inside his body. And what's this about Ensign Kim? Last I heard Ensign Kim was in his quarters." Waving her hand in a 'forget it' gesture, B'Elanna strolled over to him and said,
"Don't worry about it Doc, we have everything under control. Captain, I should go to Engineering, see if I can do anything there that would help find Harry." Janeway nodded her head and she left taking one last look over her shoulder at Chakotay, who was now up and looking around at the force field.
Harry woke up in a cargo container, wondering where the hell he was and why he was there. He couldn't move at all, and there was a horrible stench surrounding him. Moving his hand up to his chest, he tried to hit his combadge, but there was nothing to hit, except his own skin. It was pitch black in there; he couldn't see anything, but he did feel something, something that felt like blood seeping through a wound and sticking to him like glue.
"Hello?" he tried to shout out, but nothing happened except a small hissing breath. Trying not to panic now, he tried again, louder this time while he banged hard on the inside of the container, but to no avail. Thinking hard now, he tried to think of a way out and shifted position to get more maneuvering room so he could reach up and grab a hold of the lid. Reaching up, he grabbed onto something squishy and grimaced; it felt like something dead. Skittering back till he hit the side of the container, which wasn't very far he began pounding with all his strength trying to get someone's attention, hoping he wasn't in the empty cargo bay, where no one would find him.
Meanwhile in Sickbay, where Harry was only five meters away from; Captain Janeway was leaving to make the report and get everyone back from the planet. Commander Chakotay suddenly burst towards the force field, trying to get to Doc, who was sitting in his office, not knowing that there was any sound. The security team however noticed it and were trying to home into the sound by turning their heads sideways and motioning to each other. The one on the left hand side, John, went over to the supply room and noticed the sound had increased. Carefully he went to the lone cargo container and looked closely at it, noticing a slight quiver in it every time the sound came. Motioning to his partner, he took out his phaser and carefully pried open the lid.
"God almighty!" he suddenly shouted as the stench hit him right in the face. Inside the container, the dead crewman shot out as Harry jumped at the sound, making the body land on top of the security officer. Harry feel halfway out, his strength depleted after hammering on the container for twenty minutes straight and passed out again from weakness. Doc ran straight for him, after hearing the officers shout and pulled him onto a bio bed, scanning him with the tricorder.
"Sickbay to Captain Janeway." Doc said as he gave Harry a hypo spray full of vitamins. Meanwhile, the other Security guard was pulling John to his feet, trying not to touch the dead body that was on top of him.
"Janeway here. What is it Doctor?"
"Ensign Kim is in Sickbay; it seemed he was here all along, locked inside a cargo container with the body of Crewman Groal. He's okay, just fainted from exertion. I might need more security here, things may get messy." He answered as Chakotay slammed into the force field again, this time almost making it. There were animal sounds coming out of his mouth as he landed back on the bed, chest heaving from effort.
"They're on their way Doctor. What ever you do, do not turn off the force field, he is dangerous. Keep me posted, Janeway out." Doc went over to the crewman and ran a scan over his dead, creamy body; it was if his body was melted. Checking his tricorder, he froze; turning to John, the security guard who the body landed on, he grabbed him by the arm and tossed him onto a bed, grabbing a hypo spray and saying,
"He died from acid; it looks like you are infected now too. I've never seen this kind before; I might have to put you in stasis, until I can find the solution. Don't worry; I've caught it just in time." John looked terrified as he heard this, but nodded in understanding when Doc administered the hypo, therefore putting him to sleep, before moving his body to the stasis chamber and placing him in there. The other security moved into position around the force filed, keeping a close eye on Chakotay, who was trying even harder to get through.
"Computer, change level of force field to level ten." Doc ordered as the field shimmered for three dangerous seconds before going hard again. Now sure of the strength of the field, Doc went back into his lab and began making an antidote for John hoping he could before it was too late.
Now, with nothing to do but wait for the results from his experiment Doc went towards the spider which was sitting in the container and looked at it closely. It looked harmless; deep blue color with little dots of light blue mixed around its body. Little beady eyes turned upward when he came close to it; almost as if it recognized him somehow. Taking his tricorder, Doc manipulated the controls to emit a low frequency squeak to imitate the speech pattern of the spider and asked it questions. The experiment was to see if it was truly Commander Chakotay's mind inside the tiny little creature, and what he got surprised him. The spider answered back with a high pitch squeak causing the other half of him; commander Chakotay who was lying on the floor now getting his strength back to look up at the guards and hiss.
"Hmm, it seems that the spider can communicate with us by squeaking sounds emitted through its lips. Also, when emitted, the commanders' body reacts by hissing and spitting. I am going to ask the spider, which appears to have the commanders mind what happened to them, and how we can change them back." Tapping the buttons again, he squealed out the question and got back an answer almost immediately. Putting the information into the universal translator, he got a mechanical answer back,
"I do not know, I was on the planet, there was a problem with the transporter and the next thing I knew I was in the body of a spider and was trying to get a message to Captain Janeway." Now that he had the translator working, Doc asked out loud,
"Do you have any idea how we can change you back, without killing you or the spider?" two seconds later a reply was heard, echoing through the office,
"How about going through the transporter again? You would have to get me onto my body though and from what I can see, that may be a problem." nodding slightly, Doc agreed that it would, but first he would have to try it through the Holodeck to make sure it would work.
"I will need to run simulations in the Holodeck first to make sure it could work. There is one problem though; you, the spider part will have to be on the exact part of your body in order for this to work, it could take some time. I will get back to you soon" placing the container on a high shelf, he went to work contacting Captain Janeway with his findings and requesting help with making the simulation on the Holodeck.
Seven hours later, Tom Paris walked out of the Holodeck after running the simulation non stop, trying to figure out where the spider would be on Chakotay's' body at the time of transport. He was shaking all over after standing next to Holo Chakotay and watching as Doc placed the bug on a different apart of him each time, trying to find the one spot which would get the commanders mind back into his body and get the dangerous spiders back in its. Finally after enough time for Tom to stay away from the Holodecks for at least a week, they figured out where the spider was. Walking out with the Doc in toll behind him, Tom tapped his combadge to report their findings to Captain Janeway.
"Paris to Janeway"
"Janeway here, what did you find?" Tom took a deep cleansing breath then spoke,
"We know where the spider was when he transported up, and after much consideration, we feel confident that if we place the spider in the exact spot and transport them to the planet and back again, it would work. Of course there will be security around him to make sure the spider gets off." There was silence for a few seconds as Janeway thought of everything, than she responded with a hint of pride in her voice.
"Good job Tom. Get to work on it immediately. We have one problem though; how are we going to get the commanders body onto the platform long enough so he wouldn't hurt anymore of my crew?" Tom entered the lift and said,
"Well, one thing at a tine sir, first we have to place the spider on him, than we can just transport them from Sickbay. Doc will do it, since he's immune to everything, than we'll see what happens."
"Of course Tom. I'll meet you in Sickbay, Janeway out." the link severed and Tom entered Sickbay to see the four extra security surrounding Chakotay. He felt a shiver run through his back bones thinking of what happened to Harry, who was now in his quarters resting. Moving to Doc's office, he picked up the container holding the spider and looked at it closely; now that he thought of it, spiders weren't that bad, if they didn't try to kill his best friends.
"You'll be out of our lives soon enough, you little pest." He spoke in a soft voice. He jumped when the spider answered back through the translator,
"You want to get rid of me Tom?"
"Uh, no commander. Just stay there for another hour and we'll have your mind where it belongs. Stay there." Placing the container on top of the shelf again, he walked away and stood in front of the force field, just as Janeway entered and saw everything as it was when she left. Walking up to Tom, she put a hand on his shoulder watching as he jumped five feet in the air then spun around to see her amused smirk.
"Captain, jeez you scared the heck out of me. I'm just waiting until everything is ready. Doc is in the transporter room, telling B'Elanna what to do." He stammered as he ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair. She smiled warmly and answered with a hint of impatience,
"Good job Tom; I want my first officer back. Okay, let's get this show on the road. Now if only there would be no disruptions while we do this."
"Sir?" Tom asked as they went back to the console and waited for the okay.
"Oh, there is a vessel coming at high warp towards our position, and I would like to get this over with before we engage them, if it comes to that." She explained as the Doctor came back in with a satisfied grin on his face. He walked over to where they were standing and said,
"Okay, everything is ready now."
Everything was set for the commander and the spider. In Sickbay, Doc was just about to place the spider on the commander and order the transport to commence when there was a giant shaking that made the force field shimmer and disappear.
"Red Alert. Captain to the Bridge." rang Tuvok's voice over the ship wide intercom. Janeway hurried out of the room and made her way to the Bridge, just as Chakotay burst through the surgical bay and forced himself onto a security officer who tried to stop him.
Doc pulled on the commanders' arm, hoping to stop him before he did anything to harm anyone, but before he even had a chance, another shake over took them and his program went offline. With nothing stopping him, he latched onto the nearest security guard and bit hard on his neck. Blood spurted everywhere as the guard screamed with agony and fell to the floor, landing on the other guards and Tom, who was grabbing a hypo spray and moving carefully behind Chakotay, hoping to get him unconscious. With an almighty squeal of anger, Chakotay picked up Tom, who almost had him and threw him against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. Tom landed on his back, appalled from the inhuman strength which threw him, trying to get his breathing under control and looked on in horror. Chakotay advanced on the three other guards, who all had their Phasers out and licked his lips, while his antennae dripped with the now dead officers' blood.
"We need more security in Sickbay!" called out one security guard as he shot Chakotay, but missed as he dodged an attack and spin around trying again. He missed again as Chakotay turned around, now advancing on him; arms reaching for his throat and grinning. The guards face paled as he slowly backed up, hitting a bio bed and froze, watching as the hands wrapped around and began squeezing tight, blocking the air from his lungs. Now able to stand without collapsing again, Tom slowly moved behind Chakotay, keeping a close eye on the officer and Chakotay at the same time.
"Chakotay, please, you don't want to do this." Tom said calmly as he moved and stopped behind him, placing the hypo on his neck. It hissed, but didn't have the desired effect that Tom hoped for. Instead, it just made him angrier and he spun around to grab Tom by the throat face inches away from his and squealed. The officer slumped on the bed, back turned at an awkward angle gasping for breath, his chest heaving; face a nasty shade of purple. During all of this, the battle was still raging, ship rocking back and forth as the vessel cut into the shields and penetrated the hull in the lower decks.
Inside the transporter room, B'Elanna was barking orders to Engineering, while trying to get a lock onto Chakotay and the spider. She had Lieutenant Carey fix the holo emitter from Sickbay, and hoped it wasn't too late as the ship rocked again, this time sparks flying from the console in front of her.
"Damn!" she cursed under her breath as it went dead. Tearing open the paneling underneath it, she fixed the problem and tried again, this time only half succeeding. There was a blue shimmer, then the container holding the spider emerged unharmed. Running over to the pad, she picked it up and looked it over; nothing looked wrong with it, so she put it by the console and tried to get Chakotay.
Sickbay was becoming a three ring circus now as every available security officer was there, trying to subdue the commander, who had killed two more officers after tossing Tom again like a little rag doll. It was pandemonium as every single officer was advancing on him, trying to get an edge so they could subdue him and finally finish what was supposed to be an easy thing to do.
"Captain Janeway to the Doctor, what's going on down there?" rang Janeway's voice over the intercom making everyone jump slightly and loose their edge.
"Sir we…we are having…a slight problem getting him to co-operate. The Doc is gone; his emitters were damaged during the attack." Paris replied with a shaky voice as he got up again, grimacing as he felt the broken bones crunch under his weight. Just then, Doc appeared
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He looked around and saw every single officer, fighting with the commander, trying to get an edge so they could finish and get him back again to normal.
"Well, I never, here let me help." With that, he strolled over and used the Vulcan nerve pinch. Immediately, Chakotay fell to the floor, asleep and everyone sighed a deep sigh of relief. Picking him up, Doc said
"I'm here Captain; commander Chakotay is now safe for transport. I suggest we do this quickly, I don't know how long we have."
"Understood Doctor. I'll be there shortly. Janeway out." Doc nodded to the security guards that were still standing, then went over and began working on the injured crew. Tom moved over to him and said softly,
"I'm afraid Ensign Hulfs is dead. He was bitten in the neck by Chakotay's fangs and he bled out. Those other ones were strangled." Doc nodded and went about setting the stasis chambers so he could fill out the reports officially when Chakotay was back to normal. He noted the time in the logs though, then set about to go to the transporter room to over see the experiment. Tom limped out of Sickbay and followed as Doc went to the lift and down to the transporter room.
"Okay, lay him on the pads and place the spider wherever it was." B'Elanna ordered as Captain Janeway, Tom, Doc and Tuvok stood around the console, looking over her shoulder as she put the information into the computer. Two security officers who weren't too hurt did as they were told and stood back, each secretly hoping it would work. B'Elanna tapped more instructions into the console and said as she looked up,
"Okay, now Doc, once I place the force field over the pad, you go and place the spider on him, then come back." He nodded smartly and did as he was told; everyone tensed as they saw where it was, on the back of Chakotay's neck, under his uniform jacket. Holding their breath, Doc stood off to the side and waited patiently while B'Elanna commenced the transport. The shimmer glowed around his prone form, dispelling his molecules into the buffer, and disappeared. Next, B'Elanna spread her fingers over the console and watched as the transport took effect again. On one pad laid Chakotay with his head attached, looking pale and dead-like; on the other, with the container bounced an angry spider, its beady eyes looking at them furiously and menacingly. Immediately Doc ran over to the prone figure of Chakotay while everyone waited patiently and scanned him. After five minutes, he looked up and nodded,
"He's back to normal. I'll need to take him to sickbay for further tests though; I'm not sure if he'll remember anything or not." Janeway nodded as the force field was removed and strolled over to him, looking down at Chakotay and said with authority,
"Beam him directly to Sickbay."
"Yes sir." B'Elanna said as she did the job. Two minutes later, they looked over to the container and noticed the spider wasn't moving. Tapping the container, Tom ran a scan of his own and shook his head,
"It's dead Captain, I think the stress of the transporter killed him." Tuvok walked over and picked up the container and stated stoically,
"I will take it to sickbay for further tests. Excuse me Captain" she nodded and he walked out. Janeway broke out into a big wry grin and stated,
"Well, now that this adventure is over, let's get these repairs under way. B'Elanna, you're needed in Engineering. Tom, you should probably go to Sickbay and help Doc with his patients." With that, she turned around and walked out going back to the Bridge and reading the many reports that had added up over the couple of days. Tom and B'Elanna looked to each other, shrugged and walked out hand in hand.
Three days later, Chakotay was sitting up in his bed in sickbay, looking at Doc as he scanned him again one last time when Janeway walked in, saw him and smiled. Stepping closer to him, she smirked at him and said
"Well Commander, you had quite an adventure. How are you feeling?" Chakotay shook his head and shrugged.
"I feel fine. I don't remember much, but from what Doc told me, I did some things which were so unlike me. I'm sorry Captain." She shook it off, put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze and answered,
"Don't apologize. It wasn't you. We learned everything we needed to learn from the spider. It seemed that all the spiders are dangerous and relentless. They secrete poisonous venom that kills anything upon contact. Fortunately, Doc had found an antidote and saved Harry and the security officer. Both are feeling better and resting in their quarters." He stood up and stretched his large body upwards to get the kinks out of his back and said as they walked out of Sickbay.
"I'm glad to hear that. I would hate to think about what would have happened if Harry died. So what has happened since I've been gone?" laughing at his slight smirk, dimples threatening to come out, Janeway answered as they entered the lift,
"Nothing much. We had a nice battle with a fake vessel; nice job by the way with the isolinear chip. You gave Ensign Wildman quite a scare by climbing in her cuff. While Doc was trying to get you, we had a battle with another of the Delta quadrants fine races."
"Sorry I missed it." Chakotay replied as the lift stopped and they walked out and made their way towards the mess hall for some much needed food. All he wanted to do now was to eat a healthy supper and go to his quarters and sleep for about three days.
The end.