A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.
Chapter 2: Judas
"I can't believe you, Kathryn!" Chakotay raged at Kathryn as they were talking with each other in her quarters the next day. "I cannot believe you would ever do something so stupid and shameful as becoming a Christian! You know better than anybody about all the atrocities that have been caused by Christianity throughout the course of human history! You know about the Crusades! You know about how Native Americans were murdered in cold blood and had their lands stolen from them by white Christians! You know how white Christians in America enslaved thousands of blacks! How could you possibly want to be a part of something like that?! How in the lowest pit of hell could you possibly be so stupid?!"
Kathryn closed her eyes for a long moment and sighed, patiently absorbing all of Chakotay's verbal blows. She then told him, "Just because a person claims to be a Christian, it doesn't mean that they truly are. Judas claimed to be a follower of Christ, yet he betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. And tragically, there have been many Judases in Christianity through the centuries. That's why Jesus warned His followers in Scripture that we should be vigilant and on our guard against false teachers and not be deceived by them. But just because there have been Judases who have committed atrocities in Christ's name over the years, it doesn't mean that Christianity is false. And frankly, you have a lot of nerve complaining about me being a Christian, accusing me of being a part of an atrocity, when you've done some pretty despicable things yourself here lately. You haven't done anything nearly as terrible as enslavement, of course, but stabbing Seven in the back the way you did is absolutely horrible and inexcusable. Seven told me this morning how you yelled at her and tore her down yesterday evening for her decision to become a Christian, and she told me all about how you broke up with her and cruelly told her that you'd only been using her the entire time to try to get to me. I know my inability to be in a romantic relationship with you hurt you and made you very lonely through the years, and I feel very bad about that, and I am sorry for it, but you know I never did that out of a cruel desire to hurt you. You know that I did what I did because I was deeply afraid of what would happen if I lost yet another person who was really close to me, who I was personally responsible for. But even though by inability to be with you romantically did cause you some pain, you are still our First Officer and as First Officer, you had a responsibility to Seven. You leading her on and selfishly using her, just to try to provoke me into jealousy, was cruel and inexcusable, Chakotay, and you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself."
"Well you hurt my pride!"
"So what if I did?! Pride is your entire problem in the first place! Why are you really reacting with such a vengeance to Seven and me coming to faith in Christ? Is it really because you think our spiritual beliefs are so terrible? Or is it because, in your pride, you don't want to humble yourself before the great Almighty God who created the universe and admit that you're a sinner in need of a Savior?"
"You mean to tell me that you really want to spend your life serving a God who sends people to hell for all eternity?!"
"He allowed His own Son to choose to be tortured to death on a cross to prevent that from happening. Everyone who goes to hell goes there through their own choice. They go there because they blindly and stupidly prefer to cling to their pride; because in their heart of hearts, they'd rather believe lies than embrace the truth. After giving up His own Child to save people, what more could He possibly have done? You tell me, Chakotay."
"I give up! You're as bad as the Doctor!"
"I actually take that as a compliment. Ever since Jesus made him human and he became born again, he has become a truly wonderful man," Kathryn said with the softest smile in her eyes, and it was then that Chakotay began to sense what her true feelings were towards him.
After a long, silent moment, he said, "You've fallen in love with him."
Kathryn nodded and admitted, "You're right. Dr. Luke and I are very much in love with each other."
"I cannot believe you! You made me be alone all these years, and then after pushing me away all this time, you start dating the Doctor?!"
"Now wait just one minute, Chakotay. Yes, I did push you away for a long time because I was afraid, and I know that was hard on you, but I never did that to try and hurt you. And when I finally was able to work up the courage to face my deepest fears about love and I admitted to the Doctor that I had fallen in love with him, you had already been dating Seven for months. And because you were in a relationship with Seven at the time, I was under no obligation whatsoever to remain single. What were you expecting Seven and me to do? Were you expecting Seven to just let you play selfish games with her? Were you expecting me to be waiting in the wings for you after you got done playing your little games with Seven and discarded her? Did you really expect that of us, Chakotay? Do you really believe Seven and I are that stupid? Do you really believe that Seven and I have that little self-respect? If so, you need a huge reality check, Chakotay."
Unable to utter a word in his own defense, Chakotay let out a frustrated sigh and angrily stomped out of Kathryn's quarters.
"I sure wish I could've been in here earlier today to see you give it to Commander Chakotay with both barrels," Luke said with a laugh as he and Kathryn were sitting at the dinner table eating supper together in her quarters that evening.
"I will admit that given the ridiculous and despicable way Chakotay was behaving, it was pretty satisfying to put him in his place. But I have to admit, I am pretty concerned."
"About what, Katie?"
"What if this doesn't blow over in a few days like I'm hoping it will? What if Chakotay is unable to move past his anger and move on and it begins to affect our professional relationship? What if this ends up having a bad effect on our entire crew?"
"Commander Chakotay's a big boy and it's his responsibility to deal with his own feelings, whatever they are, like an adult. And if Commander Chakotay cannot behave like an adult, if he insists on continuing to behave like a spoiled teenage brat, then treat him like one. Send him to his room, so to speak, until he's willing to stop acting like a baby; until he's willing to start acting like a proper first officer once again. And above all, do not blame yourself. You have done absolutely nothing wrong, and neither have I. If Commander Chakotay wants to act like an idiotic Judas – and given his behavior with you and Seven, it appears that he does – then that's his problem, not ours."
Kathryn smiled then and said, "You're so right, love." In the next moment, she leaned over and gave Luke a long, passionate kiss, and after that, they continued enjoying their meal together.
The next day, Voyager encountered a planet called Maisa, and just being in the vicinity of it triggered a series of flashbacks in Neelix, memories that had been suppressed in his subconscious mind for years. And as soon as everything came to the surface in his mind, he spoke with the Captain and informed her of all his memories regarding Maisa. Even though it appeared to be a harmless M-class planet that Captain Janeway intended to visit on an away mission, Neelix informed her that the planet called Maisa was in fact a terribly dangerous place inhabited by the Maisans, a very cruel alien race. Years earlier, in the seconds before Neelix had been suddenly killed, God had slowed time down during those crucial few seconds and had shown him the truth of the gospel in a powerful vision, and Neelix had put his faith in Christ. Then when he died, his spirit had gone to be with the Lord in heaven during the nineteen hours that he had been physically dead. And during his time there, he was overjoyed to learn from Jesus that all of his deceased loved ones who had been killed in the metreon cascade years ago had received similar visions from Him and had come to faith in Christ before their deaths. And even though he didn't get a chance to see them while he was in heaven, he knew they were there and he knew they were safe. Neelix did spend all his time with the Lord in heaven, though, and he learned that in His wisdom, the Lord was going to temporarily block his memories of his time there because of Maisa. He knew that when Voyager would eventually encounter the planet Maisa on their journey home, Neelix would have been anxious to go to the planet's surface and share the gospel with the Maisans. And the Maisans, who were already aware of the gospel, absolutely despised Christians, and had Neelix gone to Maisa and tried to share the gospel with them, they would have tortured him to death without the slightest hesitation. Therefore, the good Lord chose to block out Neelix's memories of learning the gospel and being born again and his time in heaven, but now that they were in the vicinity of Maisa, all of those buried memories in his subconscious mind resurfaced, and when he shared everything with the Captain, she was overjoyed, and naturally, she decided to avoid Maisa like the plague. Unfortunately, Chakotay was furious to learn that the Captain's spiritual beliefs were now influencing her command decisions, and their already strained relationship became even more difficult for both of them.
Meanwhile, Neelix also shared his experiences with Dexa and Brax, and they also came to faith in Christ and got baptized by the Captain on Holodeck Two, as did Tom, B'Elanna, and even Tuvok. As soon as they heard that Neelix, Dexa, and Brax were getting baptized, they requested it as well, because in the weeks following the telepathic link they'd all shared with the Saurans and with the Captain, they'd experienced Christ for themselves through her thoughts and memories. And again, Chakotay was absolutely livid when he heard about it, and he continued to stomp his foot and direct all kinds of vitriol at the Captain like the childish, stubborn, prideful Judas that he was.
But no matter how much of a Judas that Chakotay acted like, it still wasn't enough to dampen everyone else's joyful spirits in the following days, weeks, and months. The day after she, Neelix, and Brax were baptized, Dexa gave birth to hers and Neelix's baby girl, Alixia, named after Neelix's favorite sister, and then everybody had the time of their lives during the Christmas and New Year holidays. And around eighteen weeks later on the twenty-eighth of April, Lieutenant Samantha Wildman gave birth to hers and Lieutenant Harry Kim's son, James Han Kim, whom they named after both of their fathers. And the very next day, Commander Paris and Commander Torres, who had been receiving fertility treatments from the Doctor during the past few months to try to conceive again, announced that they were expecting their second daughter, whom they were naming Julia after Tom's mother. Dr. Luke soon performed the necessary genetic modification procedure on Baby Julia to correct a curvature in her spine, a common problem with female Klingon babies, and afterwards, B'Elanna, Tom, and the rest of the crew celebrated the news of the expected addition to their family. Things may have been a bit difficult with Chakotay continuing to show his true colors of ugly pride, but overall, Kathryn and her crew could not possibly have been happier, and they couldn't thank Jesus enough for all their blessings.