Disclaimer: see part 1
Cœur de Lion
By Katie
Chapter 12
Kein guter Abend
(Not a Good Evening)
"Pardon?" Chakotay looked quizzically at the German's
face. His blue eyes were icy and piercing, he could imagine quite
well what it meant to get into trouble with him. Brigitte's actions to
get information from him seemed all the more brave to him now
that he knew Brückner.
"I said that I was quite certain that your first name was
Maurice rather than François," Brückner repeated, pronouncing
every word over-correctly as though he thought Chakotay were
slow in understanding.
"Of course it is," Chakotay said without hesitance, "I mean,
they're both my first name. It's Maurice-François Leroux. I don't
care what people call me."
Brückner raised his eyebrows. "So. Then you'll certainly
have nothing to object to showing me your passport?"
Chakotay's expression remained calm. "Of course not,
Hauptmann." He gave Brigitte's hands another squeeze and got up
from his crouching position. "I'll go and get it for you in a minute."
"Schön, I'll wait here," Brückner nodded. He looked as
though he were sorry that Chakotay was having a reasonable
explanation for the use of his names.
Chakotay nodded and disappeared into the hall. On his way
upstairs he tried to find a solution to his dilemma. After all he'd
promised the German to show him his passport. But he had no idea
whatsoever if Catherine still had Maurice's passport. In addition,
he'd just made up the story about his first name, it could very well
be that Catherine's late husband had had just Maurice as a first
name. He'd have to come up with yet another solution in no time.
Chakotay was halfway up the stairs, when someone called
after him. "Monsieur Leroux!" When Chakotay turned and bent
over the banister he recognized Sam Wildman standing in the
dimly lit hall.
"Yes?"
Wildman was up the stairs in no time and pulled him after
her by the sleeve. The door to Catherine's apartment wasn't locked,
but after they'd made it into the tiny hall of it, Sam locked the door
behind her.
"What is it, Ensign?" Chakotay asked her in a hushed
voice.
"Thank God, it's working, Commander," Wildman sighed
in open relief, leaning against the door. "I'll explain everything to
you later. Now we'll just have to get you a valid passport."
"How are going to do that?" Chakotay asked. He knew that
they were obviously prisoners on their own vessel, locked into a
place that was normally a place to relax and enjoy oneself.
"We've gained limited access to the program's parameters.
We wanted to put the security protocols back on line, but the
access panel is without reach for us," Wildman started. "But this is
already leading too far. Wildman to Doctor."
"Doctor here," the disembodied voice of the Doctor replied
over the secret commlink.
"We'll need a passport for Maurice-François Leroux. Add
his personal data to a passport of occupied France during World
War II," Wildman asked.
"I'll hack into the Hirogen's files, that'll take me a minute,"
the Doctor allowed. "So I take it our little plan's working?"
"It'd be perfect if we could get access to security
protocols," Sam sighed. "Naomi's just fine, by the way. She doesn't
remember anything about being brainwashed by the Hirogen."
"Thank Goodness. I'm done here, Ensign. The passport
should materialize in a second," the Doctor announced. "Doctor
out."
Just like the hologram had announced did the passport
materialize in mid-air between them. Chakotay caught it before it
fell down. He flipped it open and checked on Maurice's data.
"Good work. We could've needed a forger like him with the
Maquis," Chakotay observed dryly.
Sam laughed tenuously. Then she suggested getting back.
"I take it we'll pretend that we're still under the control of their
neural interfaces?"
"That'd be the wisest thing to do. So it's technology they
used," Chakotay said, his tone sad.
Back in the night club, Chakotay went straight to Brückner
who'd returned to his secluded spot in the corner of the room
together with his friends. Brigitte he had left sitting by herself at
the bar, still pale and looking somewhat shaky. Chakotay asked
himself when B'Elanna would regain her consciousness. He hoped
that she'd make no big deal of it. Tuvok, acting as bartender Paul,
didn't look like he'd regained his consciousness by now. But it
couldn't be long anymore, Wildman had explained it to him on
their way back down.
"Et voilà, Hauptmann," Chakotay said, passing the
document to Brückner. The German accepted it, flipped it open and
studied it intently, comparing the face on the black and white
photograph with the face of the man standing in front of him.
Chakotay noticed his eyes scanning for and reading the name. It
almost appeared as if Brückner were really disappointed when he
realized that Chakotay had just told him the truth. The Commander
winked at the Ensign over the German's shoulder.
"Make sure to keep the passport with you. You might be
controlled more often in the future," Brückner said, muscles
working in his jaw as a means to suppress his anger.
"Bien entendu, Hauptmann. If you'll excuse me, I'll have to
look after my friend," Chakotay bowed slightly at the waist and left
the corner. He let the passport disappear in the depths of his
trousers' pocket.
B'Elanna watched Chakotay approach, not quite sure what
to make of the situation they were in. At first, she thought she were
dreaming, but the surroundings were just too perfect and too real to
be the images of a dream. She blinked once, twice to make sure her
senses weren't playing a practical joke on her, but they weren't.
There was Tuvok standing behind the counter, dressed into a white
tuxedo. Chakotay, dressed in black trousers, a white shirt and
suspenders, approached her. Sam Wildman was standing next to
the piano man. Then it hit her like lightning when she remembered
her last waking minutes as B'Elanna Torres.
Her sudden realization must have caused an open display
of emotions in her face, for Chakotay crouched in front of her and
called her softly by the name her mother had given her.
"What's going on here, Chakotay?" she softly asked,
assessing the situation from the corners of her eyes. There were no
Hirogen in here. At least one good sign. Or was it?
"I'll explain later. Wildman is also awake. Tuvok still
seems to be under the Hirogen's control. We think it'd be best just
to keep playing the game," Chakotay whispered to her. Since he
tried to calm his friend down, nobody in the room frowned at the
intimacy of their talking.
"What about Naomi, is she all right? And Seven?"
"Naomi's okay, but I don't know about Seven," Chakotay
said.
Then B'Elanna noticed her belly. "What's that supposed to
mean?" she growled.
"That you're nine months pregnant," Chakotay chuckled.
"Don't worry, it's just a projection."
"And a damn good one it is. The baby even kicks,"
B'Elanna noticed when she felt the holographic child kick her in
the liver. She grimaced and winced convincingly. Chakotay
touched her arm to console her a little bit at least. Considering the
mind controlling devices the Hirogen had it was little surprise that
they could create such a realistic holographic pregnancy.
"The Doctor's working on getting us out of here," he
offered.
"He'd better work on getting that child out of me,"
B'Elanna murmured.
=/\=
"Guten Abend."
Kathryn spun around and froze. She'd turned her back on
the door for the matter of a second only, just to check on the
progress Tom was making. He'd reported to her earlier that safety
protocols were off line and that it was his main aim to get them
back on line. The holographic Nazis and the Hirogen must have
been watching them for quite some time now, waiting for the right
moment to come out of their hiding places.
Kathryn braced herself, squaring her shoulders and setting
her jaw. She decided that it be best if she kept acting like Catherine
Leroux. Whatever plan people were working on to get them out of
here was fine with her and she didn't want to spoil it—maybe she
could explain the open hatch by means of secret German
technology. "Messieurs," she returned.
Paris hadn't turned when the Hirogen and the Nazi guard
had entered the Hauptmann's office. From the corner of her eye
Janeway had noticed that her pilot wanted to keep working as long
as possible. She knew that he'd been close to putting the safety
protocols back on line, and that he wasn't going to stop. Kathryn
didn't know what she would do without him.
"So, finally we get to know each other," Sarpa dryly said.
"I didn't know the leader of the Résistance was such a particularly
beautiful woman."
Kathryn lowered her head and looked at the hunter with
her death glare from beneath her lashes. "Of course you didn't."
Sarpa smiled his lipless smile. "Schell, get that guy away
from those books!" He barked at one of the holographic soldiers
and gestured for Kathryn to hand over her gun. With her back
turned on Tom she couldn't see what was going on. But from what
she could hear she knew that Tom still wasn't giving in. The dumb
noise when fist meets jaw and Tom's howl of frustration told her
that he'd knocked Schell down. The German collapsed to the floor
and took a vase with him that was standing on a small table nearby.
The porcelain shattered into a million pieces on the wooden floor.
"Stand back or I'll shoot her!" Sarpa snapped at Tom. He
wanted to keep his sick little game up for a while, even if his urge
to kill those two was almost overwhelming his senses.
Tom exchanged two more isolinear chips before he yelled
at Janeway to get down. Before either Janeway or Sarpa realized
what Paris meant, did the wall around the access panel explode.
The shock wave threw Kathryn and Tom to the ground. At the
same time Sarpa developed a nervous trigger finger. A shot went
off from his gun, but the sound was muffled by the shrieking of the
bulkheads as the massive explosion ripped the wall between the
corridor and the holodeck open. Tom managed to creep to Janeway
in time before the debris started raining down on them. He pulled
her halfway to the desk of the radio operator and shielded her with
his body.
In contrast to Sarpa they were lucky. The Hirogen hadn't
realized soon enough what was going on. A piece from the
bulkhead had penetrated his thick armadillo skin and probably his
skull as well. The lower half of his body was buried beneath a thick
beam of duranium that had come down from the ceiling. The room
was covered in a mixture of debris from the building and Voyager.
When the dust had settled, Tom carefully lifted his weight
off Kathryn's body. It seemed like an eternity before she moved,
and Tom had the worst suspicions about her stillness. But then
Kathryn turned around and propped herself up on one elbow with a
groan.
"Are you all right, Captain?" Tom asked in concern.
"Oh, my leg," Kathryn said softly, running one of her
hands down to her left thigh. She felt something warm and wet
beneath her fingers.
Tom bowed over her and examined the wound in the
flickering light of the broken hologrid. "That damn bastard must
have hit you before he went down," he murmured. He produced a
white hankie from the pocket of his trousers. Then he ripped away
as much cloth from around the wound as possible and gently
pressed the hankie on it. It was soaked red in no time. Kathryn lay
back and winced at the pain.
"So you didn't get the safety protocols back on line," she
observed.
Ripping part of the leg of her trousers into stripes, Tom
answered: "I'm sorry he hit you, but otherwise he wouldn't be dead
by now. There, this pressure bandage should help stop the
bleeding. I just hope Chakotay won't space me."
"Why's that?" Kathryn smiled, gritting her teeth.
"I promised him to take good care of you."
"You did, you probably saved my life," Kathryn realized
all of a sudden. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Do you think you can walk? The
Hirogen will be here soon," Tom dismissed. It was only natural to
save his Captain's life, it wasn't as if he'd had abundant time
pondering what was to be done. He felt like he'd blush any second.
"I think so, yes," Kathryn nodded. She had to use the pain
for her own ends, turning it into the strength she'd need to get
away. She knew it was going to work, it had been the power that
had kept her alive on Tau Ceti Prime. Gratefully she accepted her
pilot's proffered hand and let him pull her to her feet. She grimaced
when she put weight on her injured leg, but it worked. Once again
her determination was stronger than her body.
"You go to Sickbay, I'll check on the guys in the *Cœur de
Lion*," Tom decided.
A faint smile graced Kathryn's pale lips then. "Is this an
order?" The humor in her voice could hardly be ignored, yet did
Tom answer very seriously: "No, it's concern for a dear friend."
=/\=
The Hirogen dressed up as a German soldier of World War
II was hunting her down the debris-scattered corridors of Voyager.
Kathryn couldn't remember where or when the Hirogen had spotted
her walking down the corridor. All she cared about now was how
to get away from him and to Sickbay. At least she succeeded in
leading him around in circles. Maybe someone would spot them
through the hole in the wall and help her. If this someone was not a
Hirogen, that was.
The air was loaded with evil-smelling gases given off
hissing by circuits that normally were hidden behind the gray
panels of the bulkheads. With the explosion Tom had caused, he
had not only blown up the Hirogen's control over the holodecks,
but he'd also hurt their ship. Her intestines were laid open now, so
to speak, with all the conduits and hoses hanging from the ceiling,
in danger of being cut through by the sharp edges of the burst
metal.
The gray carpeting was littered with little pieces of debris.
Every step she took made a crunching sound beneath the heels of
her shoes. This made it easy for her pursuer to follow, it was as
though she were leaving crumbs of bread behind.
The blood was roaring in her ears, urging her on, a
welcome excuse to ignore the throbbing pain in her left thigh. Her
black, blood-soaked pair of trousers was sticking to her skin, and
with every step she took she was reminded that she should have
gone to Sickbay instead of running away from it. The pressure
bandage Tom had made earlier was also soaked through by now.
She needed rest.
She turned around the corner. This corridor would take her
to an access hatch of Jeffries Tube 146, from which she could get
to an equipment locker that held a phaser. But she never got access
to it. The space in front of the hatch was blocked by a beam and
half of the ceiling of the surrounding area. There was no way for
her to get through it. She was trapped.
The Hirogen was right behind her. Escape was impossible.
The alien dressed in the ancient uniform was towering over her, his
lip-less mouth curled up in what seemed to be an extremely vicious
smile. Kathryn felt as though her body and mind were paralyzed.
She couldn't move or make a straight thought. Since when was
Kathryn Janeway the one to be paralyzed by her fear? Perhaps it
was because she knew exactly what was going to happen now. The
Hirogen would kill her.
With a swift motion the Hirogen pulled a wicked-looking
knife from the leg of his left boot. He held it in mid-air, pointing it
directly at her throat. She took as many steps backwards as she
could. Her fingers clenched the debris. The pain in her leg and her
hands were gone. All that existed was the fear of dying. Never
before had it been that strong as it was now.
What kind of captain was she? Afraid of a wanna-be Nazi
villain who threatened her with a knife? Hell, she'd faced far worse
situations before, so what was wrong with her now?
The Hirogen slowly took a few steps toward her, his huge
frame casting its shadow on her.
"Please don't kill me." The beg came over her lips in a
whisper. She felt her heart go to her feet, flooding the pit of her
stomach with pure fear. "Please, don't do this, please." Tears were
streaming down her cheeks now, but the sobs caught in her throat,
making her choke on her own fear.
The Hirogen didn't say anything. He withdrew his knife, let
his armored arm hang next to his body. A smile slowly found its
way to her face, tugged tentatively at the corners of her lips,
pulling them up into a smile of true gratitude.
The smile froze on her lips as she felt the cold blade of the
knife buried deep within her, stabbing the pain. She let go of the
debris, looking first at her cut palms, then at the dagger that had
been driven into her belly up to the hilt. The fear and gratitude in
her eyes changed into disbelief. Her head was beginning to swim,
her knees gave way and slowly she slid to her knees, the torn metal
of the ceiling cutting the back of her blouse.
Red warmth spilled into her mouth, and as she opened it to
let out a mumbled question, her life started pouring from her in a
constant purple red stream.
Then everything around her went black in the white heat of
her pain. The fear was gone. Now she wanted it to come back.
Better making a fool of herself in her fear than bearing this white
heat of pain searing through her body.
=/\=
Nobody knew what was going on when suddenly all of the
Hirogen fell down. They fell although nothing had happened to
them at all, at least nothing one could see. The crusaders thought
that it was some kind of Saracen black magic that had killed them.
When word spread that even the King had been killed, they fell
into despair.
What they didn't know was that the Hirogen had just fallen
asleep where they were standing. The Doctor had worked this
black magic. He was still standing in front of his console, smiling
in deep satisfaction as the computer listed every single Hirogen
that fell asleep upon his order. The solution had been so simple. If
he could awake his crewmates from their true personas' sleep, he
could as well sent the Hirogen to sleep. And he'd achieved all of
this by the same means, namely by Seven's nanoprobes. They'd
once saved Harry Kim's and Neelix' lives, so why not use them
again? The prospect of having to treat the crew afterwards with
drugs that swept the Borg version of nanites out of their systems
seemed a cheap price to pay in comparison to the alternatives—
particularly when there were no acceptable alternatives.
The Doctor had remembered Captain Jean-Luc Picard's
command that had put the Borg out of action after the battle at
Wolf 359. It had been the simple command of sending the Borg to
sleep—or regeneration, as Seven would prefer to refer to Borg
sleep. With the Hirogen out of the way, they could regain control
of their ship. He'd already deactivated the shields in the brig and to
crews' quarters, and had sent a note what was to be done next to all
terminals.
Unfortunately was his action of rescue a little too late for
the Captain of Voyager. The Hirogen who had been after her had
already buried his knife in her stomach when he finally fell asleep.
The explosion hadn't only ripped open the wall between
the holodeck and the corridor, but between two adjacent holodecks
as well. By now confused French from Ste Claire were meeting
even more confused English and French crusaders in Acre. They
could walk freely between the two holodecks, but they couldn't
leave them.
The tent of the King had collapsed under the power of the
shock wave. Now, Harry and Seven were crawling out from under
the heavy purple tarpaulin. They hadn't suffered any injuries,
which was the best proof for the functioning of the safety protocols
they could get. When they saw the mess and confusion around
them, it wasn't hard to realize what had happened. "Oh my God,"
Harry murmured beneath his breath. He watched a knight taking a
few tentative steps towards one of the Nazis.
"Seven! Harry!" somebody yelled from the unbelievable
noise that had arisen as soon as the first confusion was gone. Seven
heard Tom Paris calling their names. Her more sophisticated Borg
hearing ability proved useful yet again. Eventually, she could make
out Paris running across Ste Claire's market place, Commanders
Chakotay and Tuvok following suit.
When Tom finally joined them, he was struggling for air.
"Quick, Seven, the Captain is somewhere out there trying to get to
Sickbay. She's severely injured," he managed to say between
gasps.
"What the hell made you leave the Captain alone in her
condition?" Chakotay barked at Tom. The last time Chakotay had
given him such a dressing down had been when they'd first met on
Voyager's bridge, right after Tom had shopped his former Maquis
cell. The fact that the Commander was so upset now sent shivers
down the young man's spine. It was an open secret that there was
*something* going on between the two commanding officers, yet
did nobody know exactly what this *something* was. Tom realized
now that this *something* was the same something that had
developed between himself and B'Elanna.
"I ...," Tom shook his head, "I'm sorry, I don't know. I just
wanted to make sure you were safe."
Chakotay breathed deeply. "I understand. B'Elanna is fine,
Wildman is with her and Naomi." Frankly, if he'd been in Tom's
place, he'd have acted just like that. After all Kathryn was made of
stern stuff, especially her determination. Chakotay couldn't really
blame the pilot. He clapped his shoulder in a forgiving manner.
"Now let's get started."
Then they separated and ran off into different directions to
look for their Captain, almost tripping over sleeping Hirogen every
now and then. They didn't have to look for Kathryn very long.
Seven found her in a near corridor. It was severely damaged, in
fact, it couldn't have been damaged by the explosion Lieutenant
Paris had caused. But that remained to be explained later. The
Captain had been damaged as well, but other than the corridor she
needed to be taken care of as soon as possible. Noticing the blood
and state of unconsciousness of her commanding officer, Seven
asked the Doctor for an emergency beam-out to Sickbay. Thanks to
his far-sightedness Carey and his team had regained transporter
control as soon as the Hirogen had been put out of action.
=/\=
Tom met B'Elanna halfway across the central square of Ste
Claire. Seven had made a shipwide announcement that they'd
gained the upper hand and that Janeway had been brought to
Sickbay, so the two women and Naomi had deemed it safe to leave
the *Cœur de Lion*. When Tom realized what his girl-friend
looked like, he just couldn't believe his eyes. The last time he'd
seen B'Elanna she hadn't been nine months pregnant. And since the
Hirogen had only seized Voyager three weeks ago, he was sure that
her pregnancy belonged to her role in this setting. Nevertheless did
he embrace her tenderly.
"My God, B'Elanna!" he whispered in her ear when he
finally held her in his arms. The words of her letter still in mind, he
almost felt like Bobby Davies.
The fierceness with which she returned the hug didn't
surprise him. "Tom."
Naomi was staring wide-eyed at the couple. She just
couldn't believe that someone like the engineer woman was loved
by a man, especially by Uncle Tom, who was always so nice to
her. Suddenly, she felt a pair of hands settle on her shoulders. She
turned her head and looked up at her mother. "Come on, little one,
let's leave the two of them alone," she said softly.
Just after the Wildmans had left, did the Doctor demand
Tom's attention. "Lieutenant Paris, I'll need you immediately in
Sickbay. Doctor out." The Hologram didn't even leave time for him
to acknowledge the order.
"I'll come with you. I don't have a particularly good feeling
about this," B'Elanna resolved, pointing at her prominent belly.
"It's just a holographic projection, honey," Tom soothed
her. "And it suits you quite well."
B'Elanna glared at him. "Yeah, so well that it's actually
kicking my guts out!"
Tom sighed and grabbed her by the hand. The Doctor had
sounded like this was a real bad emergency, so he didn't want to let
him wait longer than necessary. He'd had enough of his lectures in
the past few weeks. Besides, it couldn't do any harm if B'Elanna
went with him. If her team needed her, they'd have to contact her
anyway.
=/\=
Knowing that Kathryn was in the safe haven of the
Doctor's Sickbay, Chakotay turned at the matters at hand. Together
with Tuvok he discussed their course of action. A full report of all
departments as to what had happened in the last three weeks would
have to wait. Nobody knew exactly for how long the Doctor had
sent the Hirogen to sleep, so they had to take care of them first.
They beamed them into Cargobay 1 and left them heavily guarded
under the surveillance of Tuvok's security team. Meanwhile,
Chakotay took over command over their ship and reestablished the
former command codes. Before the Hirogen on the ships
surrounding Voyager could realize what had happened to their
comrades on the alien vessel, Chakotay and the bridge crew were
already keeping them stalled.
But the people working in Sickbay didn't know any of this,
they had more important matters that needed taken care of. The
moment Seven had beamed to Sickbay together with the Captain,
the Doctor knew that he wouldn't be able to tend to her injuries
alone. He needed the help of Tom Paris, no matter how annoying
the pilot could be at times. Seven simply had too little expertise in
assisting him, whereas Paris already knew what needed to be done,
he knew about how the Doctor proceeded.
Especially now this know-how was essential. The injuries
the Captain had suffered weren't ones starship captains usually
happened to be injured with. Stab wounds weren't that exceptional,
he had to admit that, but bullet wounds were quite unusual these
days.
"Seven, please hand me the cortical stimulator over there
and then get back to the bridge," the Doctor murmured, carefully
adjusting the still form of Kathryn Janeway on the biobed of the
main surgery area.
"You will require assistance for the Captain's surgery,"
Seven observed, wiping her blood stained hands on a towel.
"Yes, I've already contacted Mr Paris. He's on his way
here," the Doctor replied, removing the soaked pressure bandage
from his patient's leg.
"And here I am," Paris announced in an almost too cheerful
manner. B'Elanna walked in right behind him as fast as she could
considering her condition. The Doctor, however, didn't notice the
Chief Engineer's blessed condition, he was already too engrossed
in his work.
She just received a quizzically raised eyebrow of her
special friend, before the former Borg left Sickbay.
"My God!" Tom blanched when he saw Janeway lying on
the biobed. "I shouldn't have ever left her alone."
The Doctor frowned and studied him with his dark eyes.
"Mr Paris, whether this is your fault or not remains to be
unanswered for the time being. Now, pull yourself together and
lend me a hand, maybe it helps soothing your conscience."
Tom merely nodded. Janeway's pallor was frightening,
particularly with the bright red blood everywhere that just helped
to make her look even worse. Tom grabbed the towel Seven had
used earlier and began to clean the worst up, so that the Doctor was
able to examine the wounds. In no time at all, Tom had undressed
her to her underwear and had treated the wounds with an antiseptic.
When he discovered her cut palms, he reached for a dermal
regenerator. The simple golden band that graced her left ring finger
didn't go unnoticed. A timid smile tugged at the voluntary nurse's
lips. Whatever had gone on the holodeck between the Captain and
the Commander was none of his business. Tom didn't comment on
his discovery and left the wedding ring where it was. Maybe it was
just a part of Catherine Leroux' character, who was he to tell.
"The bullet hit the femur," the Doctor explained.
Meanwhile he'd finished his preparations for the surgery. "Well,
whatever it is, the Captain goes for all or nothing. We'll have to
perform a classical surgery, Lieutenant, I hope you're up to it."
"She's the Captain," Tom merely said. He turned around to
look after B'Elanna. She'd made herself comfortable on one of the
vacant biobeds and had curled up into a sleeping position. She was
already deeply asleep by now. Tom wondered if after all this was
just a bad dream, hoping that none of this was true once he woke
again. But he had to endure this a little bit longer. Murphy willing,
he wouldn't wake before Chakotay would have gotten his chance to
read him the riot act.
To be continued ...
Cœur de Lion
By Katie
Chapter 12
Kein guter Abend
(Not a Good Evening)
"Pardon?" Chakotay looked quizzically at the German's
face. His blue eyes were icy and piercing, he could imagine quite
well what it meant to get into trouble with him. Brigitte's actions to
get information from him seemed all the more brave to him now
that he knew Brückner.
"I said that I was quite certain that your first name was
Maurice rather than François," Brückner repeated, pronouncing
every word over-correctly as though he thought Chakotay were
slow in understanding.
"Of course it is," Chakotay said without hesitance, "I mean,
they're both my first name. It's Maurice-François Leroux. I don't
care what people call me."
Brückner raised his eyebrows. "So. Then you'll certainly
have nothing to object to showing me your passport?"
Chakotay's expression remained calm. "Of course not,
Hauptmann." He gave Brigitte's hands another squeeze and got up
from his crouching position. "I'll go and get it for you in a minute."
"Schön, I'll wait here," Brückner nodded. He looked as
though he were sorry that Chakotay was having a reasonable
explanation for the use of his names.
Chakotay nodded and disappeared into the hall. On his way
upstairs he tried to find a solution to his dilemma. After all he'd
promised the German to show him his passport. But he had no idea
whatsoever if Catherine still had Maurice's passport. In addition,
he'd just made up the story about his first name, it could very well
be that Catherine's late husband had had just Maurice as a first
name. He'd have to come up with yet another solution in no time.
Chakotay was halfway up the stairs, when someone called
after him. "Monsieur Leroux!" When Chakotay turned and bent
over the banister he recognized Sam Wildman standing in the
dimly lit hall.
"Yes?"
Wildman was up the stairs in no time and pulled him after
her by the sleeve. The door to Catherine's apartment wasn't locked,
but after they'd made it into the tiny hall of it, Sam locked the door
behind her.
"What is it, Ensign?" Chakotay asked her in a hushed
voice.
"Thank God, it's working, Commander," Wildman sighed
in open relief, leaning against the door. "I'll explain everything to
you later. Now we'll just have to get you a valid passport."
"How are going to do that?" Chakotay asked. He knew that
they were obviously prisoners on their own vessel, locked into a
place that was normally a place to relax and enjoy oneself.
"We've gained limited access to the program's parameters.
We wanted to put the security protocols back on line, but the
access panel is without reach for us," Wildman started. "But this is
already leading too far. Wildman to Doctor."
"Doctor here," the disembodied voice of the Doctor replied
over the secret commlink.
"We'll need a passport for Maurice-François Leroux. Add
his personal data to a passport of occupied France during World
War II," Wildman asked.
"I'll hack into the Hirogen's files, that'll take me a minute,"
the Doctor allowed. "So I take it our little plan's working?"
"It'd be perfect if we could get access to security
protocols," Sam sighed. "Naomi's just fine, by the way. She doesn't
remember anything about being brainwashed by the Hirogen."
"Thank Goodness. I'm done here, Ensign. The passport
should materialize in a second," the Doctor announced. "Doctor
out."
Just like the hologram had announced did the passport
materialize in mid-air between them. Chakotay caught it before it
fell down. He flipped it open and checked on Maurice's data.
"Good work. We could've needed a forger like him with the
Maquis," Chakotay observed dryly.
Sam laughed tenuously. Then she suggested getting back.
"I take it we'll pretend that we're still under the control of their
neural interfaces?"
"That'd be the wisest thing to do. So it's technology they
used," Chakotay said, his tone sad.
Back in the night club, Chakotay went straight to Brückner
who'd returned to his secluded spot in the corner of the room
together with his friends. Brigitte he had left sitting by herself at
the bar, still pale and looking somewhat shaky. Chakotay asked
himself when B'Elanna would regain her consciousness. He hoped
that she'd make no big deal of it. Tuvok, acting as bartender Paul,
didn't look like he'd regained his consciousness by now. But it
couldn't be long anymore, Wildman had explained it to him on
their way back down.
"Et voilà, Hauptmann," Chakotay said, passing the
document to Brückner. The German accepted it, flipped it open and
studied it intently, comparing the face on the black and white
photograph with the face of the man standing in front of him.
Chakotay noticed his eyes scanning for and reading the name. It
almost appeared as if Brückner were really disappointed when he
realized that Chakotay had just told him the truth. The Commander
winked at the Ensign over the German's shoulder.
"Make sure to keep the passport with you. You might be
controlled more often in the future," Brückner said, muscles
working in his jaw as a means to suppress his anger.
"Bien entendu, Hauptmann. If you'll excuse me, I'll have to
look after my friend," Chakotay bowed slightly at the waist and left
the corner. He let the passport disappear in the depths of his
trousers' pocket.
B'Elanna watched Chakotay approach, not quite sure what
to make of the situation they were in. At first, she thought she were
dreaming, but the surroundings were just too perfect and too real to
be the images of a dream. She blinked once, twice to make sure her
senses weren't playing a practical joke on her, but they weren't.
There was Tuvok standing behind the counter, dressed into a white
tuxedo. Chakotay, dressed in black trousers, a white shirt and
suspenders, approached her. Sam Wildman was standing next to
the piano man. Then it hit her like lightning when she remembered
her last waking minutes as B'Elanna Torres.
Her sudden realization must have caused an open display
of emotions in her face, for Chakotay crouched in front of her and
called her softly by the name her mother had given her.
"What's going on here, Chakotay?" she softly asked,
assessing the situation from the corners of her eyes. There were no
Hirogen in here. At least one good sign. Or was it?
"I'll explain later. Wildman is also awake. Tuvok still
seems to be under the Hirogen's control. We think it'd be best just
to keep playing the game," Chakotay whispered to her. Since he
tried to calm his friend down, nobody in the room frowned at the
intimacy of their talking.
"What about Naomi, is she all right? And Seven?"
"Naomi's okay, but I don't know about Seven," Chakotay
said.
Then B'Elanna noticed her belly. "What's that supposed to
mean?" she growled.
"That you're nine months pregnant," Chakotay chuckled.
"Don't worry, it's just a projection."
"And a damn good one it is. The baby even kicks,"
B'Elanna noticed when she felt the holographic child kick her in
the liver. She grimaced and winced convincingly. Chakotay
touched her arm to console her a little bit at least. Considering the
mind controlling devices the Hirogen had it was little surprise that
they could create such a realistic holographic pregnancy.
"The Doctor's working on getting us out of here," he
offered.
"He'd better work on getting that child out of me,"
B'Elanna murmured.
=/\=
"Guten Abend."
Kathryn spun around and froze. She'd turned her back on
the door for the matter of a second only, just to check on the
progress Tom was making. He'd reported to her earlier that safety
protocols were off line and that it was his main aim to get them
back on line. The holographic Nazis and the Hirogen must have
been watching them for quite some time now, waiting for the right
moment to come out of their hiding places.
Kathryn braced herself, squaring her shoulders and setting
her jaw. She decided that it be best if she kept acting like Catherine
Leroux. Whatever plan people were working on to get them out of
here was fine with her and she didn't want to spoil it—maybe she
could explain the open hatch by means of secret German
technology. "Messieurs," she returned.
Paris hadn't turned when the Hirogen and the Nazi guard
had entered the Hauptmann's office. From the corner of her eye
Janeway had noticed that her pilot wanted to keep working as long
as possible. She knew that he'd been close to putting the safety
protocols back on line, and that he wasn't going to stop. Kathryn
didn't know what she would do without him.
"So, finally we get to know each other," Sarpa dryly said.
"I didn't know the leader of the Résistance was such a particularly
beautiful woman."
Kathryn lowered her head and looked at the hunter with
her death glare from beneath her lashes. "Of course you didn't."
Sarpa smiled his lipless smile. "Schell, get that guy away
from those books!" He barked at one of the holographic soldiers
and gestured for Kathryn to hand over her gun. With her back
turned on Tom she couldn't see what was going on. But from what
she could hear she knew that Tom still wasn't giving in. The dumb
noise when fist meets jaw and Tom's howl of frustration told her
that he'd knocked Schell down. The German collapsed to the floor
and took a vase with him that was standing on a small table nearby.
The porcelain shattered into a million pieces on the wooden floor.
"Stand back or I'll shoot her!" Sarpa snapped at Tom. He
wanted to keep his sick little game up for a while, even if his urge
to kill those two was almost overwhelming his senses.
Tom exchanged two more isolinear chips before he yelled
at Janeway to get down. Before either Janeway or Sarpa realized
what Paris meant, did the wall around the access panel explode.
The shock wave threw Kathryn and Tom to the ground. At the
same time Sarpa developed a nervous trigger finger. A shot went
off from his gun, but the sound was muffled by the shrieking of the
bulkheads as the massive explosion ripped the wall between the
corridor and the holodeck open. Tom managed to creep to Janeway
in time before the debris started raining down on them. He pulled
her halfway to the desk of the radio operator and shielded her with
his body.
In contrast to Sarpa they were lucky. The Hirogen hadn't
realized soon enough what was going on. A piece from the
bulkhead had penetrated his thick armadillo skin and probably his
skull as well. The lower half of his body was buried beneath a thick
beam of duranium that had come down from the ceiling. The room
was covered in a mixture of debris from the building and Voyager.
When the dust had settled, Tom carefully lifted his weight
off Kathryn's body. It seemed like an eternity before she moved,
and Tom had the worst suspicions about her stillness. But then
Kathryn turned around and propped herself up on one elbow with a
groan.
"Are you all right, Captain?" Tom asked in concern.
"Oh, my leg," Kathryn said softly, running one of her
hands down to her left thigh. She felt something warm and wet
beneath her fingers.
Tom bowed over her and examined the wound in the
flickering light of the broken hologrid. "That damn bastard must
have hit you before he went down," he murmured. He produced a
white hankie from the pocket of his trousers. Then he ripped away
as much cloth from around the wound as possible and gently
pressed the hankie on it. It was soaked red in no time. Kathryn lay
back and winced at the pain.
"So you didn't get the safety protocols back on line," she
observed.
Ripping part of the leg of her trousers into stripes, Tom
answered: "I'm sorry he hit you, but otherwise he wouldn't be dead
by now. There, this pressure bandage should help stop the
bleeding. I just hope Chakotay won't space me."
"Why's that?" Kathryn smiled, gritting her teeth.
"I promised him to take good care of you."
"You did, you probably saved my life," Kathryn realized
all of a sudden. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Do you think you can walk? The
Hirogen will be here soon," Tom dismissed. It was only natural to
save his Captain's life, it wasn't as if he'd had abundant time
pondering what was to be done. He felt like he'd blush any second.
"I think so, yes," Kathryn nodded. She had to use the pain
for her own ends, turning it into the strength she'd need to get
away. She knew it was going to work, it had been the power that
had kept her alive on Tau Ceti Prime. Gratefully she accepted her
pilot's proffered hand and let him pull her to her feet. She grimaced
when she put weight on her injured leg, but it worked. Once again
her determination was stronger than her body.
"You go to Sickbay, I'll check on the guys in the *Cœur de
Lion*," Tom decided.
A faint smile graced Kathryn's pale lips then. "Is this an
order?" The humor in her voice could hardly be ignored, yet did
Tom answer very seriously: "No, it's concern for a dear friend."
=/\=
The Hirogen dressed up as a German soldier of World War
II was hunting her down the debris-scattered corridors of Voyager.
Kathryn couldn't remember where or when the Hirogen had spotted
her walking down the corridor. All she cared about now was how
to get away from him and to Sickbay. At least she succeeded in
leading him around in circles. Maybe someone would spot them
through the hole in the wall and help her. If this someone was not a
Hirogen, that was.
The air was loaded with evil-smelling gases given off
hissing by circuits that normally were hidden behind the gray
panels of the bulkheads. With the explosion Tom had caused, he
had not only blown up the Hirogen's control over the holodecks,
but he'd also hurt their ship. Her intestines were laid open now, so
to speak, with all the conduits and hoses hanging from the ceiling,
in danger of being cut through by the sharp edges of the burst
metal.
The gray carpeting was littered with little pieces of debris.
Every step she took made a crunching sound beneath the heels of
her shoes. This made it easy for her pursuer to follow, it was as
though she were leaving crumbs of bread behind.
The blood was roaring in her ears, urging her on, a
welcome excuse to ignore the throbbing pain in her left thigh. Her
black, blood-soaked pair of trousers was sticking to her skin, and
with every step she took she was reminded that she should have
gone to Sickbay instead of running away from it. The pressure
bandage Tom had made earlier was also soaked through by now.
She needed rest.
She turned around the corner. This corridor would take her
to an access hatch of Jeffries Tube 146, from which she could get
to an equipment locker that held a phaser. But she never got access
to it. The space in front of the hatch was blocked by a beam and
half of the ceiling of the surrounding area. There was no way for
her to get through it. She was trapped.
The Hirogen was right behind her. Escape was impossible.
The alien dressed in the ancient uniform was towering over her, his
lip-less mouth curled up in what seemed to be an extremely vicious
smile. Kathryn felt as though her body and mind were paralyzed.
She couldn't move or make a straight thought. Since when was
Kathryn Janeway the one to be paralyzed by her fear? Perhaps it
was because she knew exactly what was going to happen now. The
Hirogen would kill her.
With a swift motion the Hirogen pulled a wicked-looking
knife from the leg of his left boot. He held it in mid-air, pointing it
directly at her throat. She took as many steps backwards as she
could. Her fingers clenched the debris. The pain in her leg and her
hands were gone. All that existed was the fear of dying. Never
before had it been that strong as it was now.
What kind of captain was she? Afraid of a wanna-be Nazi
villain who threatened her with a knife? Hell, she'd faced far worse
situations before, so what was wrong with her now?
The Hirogen slowly took a few steps toward her, his huge
frame casting its shadow on her.
"Please don't kill me." The beg came over her lips in a
whisper. She felt her heart go to her feet, flooding the pit of her
stomach with pure fear. "Please, don't do this, please." Tears were
streaming down her cheeks now, but the sobs caught in her throat,
making her choke on her own fear.
The Hirogen didn't say anything. He withdrew his knife, let
his armored arm hang next to his body. A smile slowly found its
way to her face, tugged tentatively at the corners of her lips,
pulling them up into a smile of true gratitude.
The smile froze on her lips as she felt the cold blade of the
knife buried deep within her, stabbing the pain. She let go of the
debris, looking first at her cut palms, then at the dagger that had
been driven into her belly up to the hilt. The fear and gratitude in
her eyes changed into disbelief. Her head was beginning to swim,
her knees gave way and slowly she slid to her knees, the torn metal
of the ceiling cutting the back of her blouse.
Red warmth spilled into her mouth, and as she opened it to
let out a mumbled question, her life started pouring from her in a
constant purple red stream.
Then everything around her went black in the white heat of
her pain. The fear was gone. Now she wanted it to come back.
Better making a fool of herself in her fear than bearing this white
heat of pain searing through her body.
=/\=
Nobody knew what was going on when suddenly all of the
Hirogen fell down. They fell although nothing had happened to
them at all, at least nothing one could see. The crusaders thought
that it was some kind of Saracen black magic that had killed them.
When word spread that even the King had been killed, they fell
into despair.
What they didn't know was that the Hirogen had just fallen
asleep where they were standing. The Doctor had worked this
black magic. He was still standing in front of his console, smiling
in deep satisfaction as the computer listed every single Hirogen
that fell asleep upon his order. The solution had been so simple. If
he could awake his crewmates from their true personas' sleep, he
could as well sent the Hirogen to sleep. And he'd achieved all of
this by the same means, namely by Seven's nanoprobes. They'd
once saved Harry Kim's and Neelix' lives, so why not use them
again? The prospect of having to treat the crew afterwards with
drugs that swept the Borg version of nanites out of their systems
seemed a cheap price to pay in comparison to the alternatives—
particularly when there were no acceptable alternatives.
The Doctor had remembered Captain Jean-Luc Picard's
command that had put the Borg out of action after the battle at
Wolf 359. It had been the simple command of sending the Borg to
sleep—or regeneration, as Seven would prefer to refer to Borg
sleep. With the Hirogen out of the way, they could regain control
of their ship. He'd already deactivated the shields in the brig and to
crews' quarters, and had sent a note what was to be done next to all
terminals.
Unfortunately was his action of rescue a little too late for
the Captain of Voyager. The Hirogen who had been after her had
already buried his knife in her stomach when he finally fell asleep.
The explosion hadn't only ripped open the wall between
the holodeck and the corridor, but between two adjacent holodecks
as well. By now confused French from Ste Claire were meeting
even more confused English and French crusaders in Acre. They
could walk freely between the two holodecks, but they couldn't
leave them.
The tent of the King had collapsed under the power of the
shock wave. Now, Harry and Seven were crawling out from under
the heavy purple tarpaulin. They hadn't suffered any injuries,
which was the best proof for the functioning of the safety protocols
they could get. When they saw the mess and confusion around
them, it wasn't hard to realize what had happened. "Oh my God,"
Harry murmured beneath his breath. He watched a knight taking a
few tentative steps towards one of the Nazis.
"Seven! Harry!" somebody yelled from the unbelievable
noise that had arisen as soon as the first confusion was gone. Seven
heard Tom Paris calling their names. Her more sophisticated Borg
hearing ability proved useful yet again. Eventually, she could make
out Paris running across Ste Claire's market place, Commanders
Chakotay and Tuvok following suit.
When Tom finally joined them, he was struggling for air.
"Quick, Seven, the Captain is somewhere out there trying to get to
Sickbay. She's severely injured," he managed to say between
gasps.
"What the hell made you leave the Captain alone in her
condition?" Chakotay barked at Tom. The last time Chakotay had
given him such a dressing down had been when they'd first met on
Voyager's bridge, right after Tom had shopped his former Maquis
cell. The fact that the Commander was so upset now sent shivers
down the young man's spine. It was an open secret that there was
*something* going on between the two commanding officers, yet
did nobody know exactly what this *something* was. Tom realized
now that this *something* was the same something that had
developed between himself and B'Elanna.
"I ...," Tom shook his head, "I'm sorry, I don't know. I just
wanted to make sure you were safe."
Chakotay breathed deeply. "I understand. B'Elanna is fine,
Wildman is with her and Naomi." Frankly, if he'd been in Tom's
place, he'd have acted just like that. After all Kathryn was made of
stern stuff, especially her determination. Chakotay couldn't really
blame the pilot. He clapped his shoulder in a forgiving manner.
"Now let's get started."
Then they separated and ran off into different directions to
look for their Captain, almost tripping over sleeping Hirogen every
now and then. They didn't have to look for Kathryn very long.
Seven found her in a near corridor. It was severely damaged, in
fact, it couldn't have been damaged by the explosion Lieutenant
Paris had caused. But that remained to be explained later. The
Captain had been damaged as well, but other than the corridor she
needed to be taken care of as soon as possible. Noticing the blood
and state of unconsciousness of her commanding officer, Seven
asked the Doctor for an emergency beam-out to Sickbay. Thanks to
his far-sightedness Carey and his team had regained transporter
control as soon as the Hirogen had been put out of action.
=/\=
Tom met B'Elanna halfway across the central square of Ste
Claire. Seven had made a shipwide announcement that they'd
gained the upper hand and that Janeway had been brought to
Sickbay, so the two women and Naomi had deemed it safe to leave
the *Cœur de Lion*. When Tom realized what his girl-friend
looked like, he just couldn't believe his eyes. The last time he'd
seen B'Elanna she hadn't been nine months pregnant. And since the
Hirogen had only seized Voyager three weeks ago, he was sure that
her pregnancy belonged to her role in this setting. Nevertheless did
he embrace her tenderly.
"My God, B'Elanna!" he whispered in her ear when he
finally held her in his arms. The words of her letter still in mind, he
almost felt like Bobby Davies.
The fierceness with which she returned the hug didn't
surprise him. "Tom."
Naomi was staring wide-eyed at the couple. She just
couldn't believe that someone like the engineer woman was loved
by a man, especially by Uncle Tom, who was always so nice to
her. Suddenly, she felt a pair of hands settle on her shoulders. She
turned her head and looked up at her mother. "Come on, little one,
let's leave the two of them alone," she said softly.
Just after the Wildmans had left, did the Doctor demand
Tom's attention. "Lieutenant Paris, I'll need you immediately in
Sickbay. Doctor out." The Hologram didn't even leave time for him
to acknowledge the order.
"I'll come with you. I don't have a particularly good feeling
about this," B'Elanna resolved, pointing at her prominent belly.
"It's just a holographic projection, honey," Tom soothed
her. "And it suits you quite well."
B'Elanna glared at him. "Yeah, so well that it's actually
kicking my guts out!"
Tom sighed and grabbed her by the hand. The Doctor had
sounded like this was a real bad emergency, so he didn't want to let
him wait longer than necessary. He'd had enough of his lectures in
the past few weeks. Besides, it couldn't do any harm if B'Elanna
went with him. If her team needed her, they'd have to contact her
anyway.
=/\=
Knowing that Kathryn was in the safe haven of the
Doctor's Sickbay, Chakotay turned at the matters at hand. Together
with Tuvok he discussed their course of action. A full report of all
departments as to what had happened in the last three weeks would
have to wait. Nobody knew exactly for how long the Doctor had
sent the Hirogen to sleep, so they had to take care of them first.
They beamed them into Cargobay 1 and left them heavily guarded
under the surveillance of Tuvok's security team. Meanwhile,
Chakotay took over command over their ship and reestablished the
former command codes. Before the Hirogen on the ships
surrounding Voyager could realize what had happened to their
comrades on the alien vessel, Chakotay and the bridge crew were
already keeping them stalled.
But the people working in Sickbay didn't know any of this,
they had more important matters that needed taken care of. The
moment Seven had beamed to Sickbay together with the Captain,
the Doctor knew that he wouldn't be able to tend to her injuries
alone. He needed the help of Tom Paris, no matter how annoying
the pilot could be at times. Seven simply had too little expertise in
assisting him, whereas Paris already knew what needed to be done,
he knew about how the Doctor proceeded.
Especially now this know-how was essential. The injuries
the Captain had suffered weren't ones starship captains usually
happened to be injured with. Stab wounds weren't that exceptional,
he had to admit that, but bullet wounds were quite unusual these
days.
"Seven, please hand me the cortical stimulator over there
and then get back to the bridge," the Doctor murmured, carefully
adjusting the still form of Kathryn Janeway on the biobed of the
main surgery area.
"You will require assistance for the Captain's surgery,"
Seven observed, wiping her blood stained hands on a towel.
"Yes, I've already contacted Mr Paris. He's on his way
here," the Doctor replied, removing the soaked pressure bandage
from his patient's leg.
"And here I am," Paris announced in an almost too cheerful
manner. B'Elanna walked in right behind him as fast as she could
considering her condition. The Doctor, however, didn't notice the
Chief Engineer's blessed condition, he was already too engrossed
in his work.
She just received a quizzically raised eyebrow of her
special friend, before the former Borg left Sickbay.
"My God!" Tom blanched when he saw Janeway lying on
the biobed. "I shouldn't have ever left her alone."
The Doctor frowned and studied him with his dark eyes.
"Mr Paris, whether this is your fault or not remains to be
unanswered for the time being. Now, pull yourself together and
lend me a hand, maybe it helps soothing your conscience."
Tom merely nodded. Janeway's pallor was frightening,
particularly with the bright red blood everywhere that just helped
to make her look even worse. Tom grabbed the towel Seven had
used earlier and began to clean the worst up, so that the Doctor was
able to examine the wounds. In no time at all, Tom had undressed
her to her underwear and had treated the wounds with an antiseptic.
When he discovered her cut palms, he reached for a dermal
regenerator. The simple golden band that graced her left ring finger
didn't go unnoticed. A timid smile tugged at the voluntary nurse's
lips. Whatever had gone on the holodeck between the Captain and
the Commander was none of his business. Tom didn't comment on
his discovery and left the wedding ring where it was. Maybe it was
just a part of Catherine Leroux' character, who was he to tell.
"The bullet hit the femur," the Doctor explained.
Meanwhile he'd finished his preparations for the surgery. "Well,
whatever it is, the Captain goes for all or nothing. We'll have to
perform a classical surgery, Lieutenant, I hope you're up to it."
"She's the Captain," Tom merely said. He turned around to
look after B'Elanna. She'd made herself comfortable on one of the
vacant biobeds and had curled up into a sleeping position. She was
already deeply asleep by now. Tom wondered if after all this was
just a bad dream, hoping that none of this was true once he woke
again. But he had to endure this a little bit longer. Murphy willing,
he wouldn't wake before Chakotay would have gotten his chance to
read him the riot act.
To be continued ...