AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I can't tell you how excited I am that some of you are willing to give this a chance. It's great to be able to play with two of my favorite couples in the same world (albeit they're from very differing worlds originally).
Anyway, thanks so much! I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think!
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"Mr. Dixon," Kathryn said, leaning against the biobed that Daryl had abandoned.
"Daryl," he said.
"I beg your pardon?" Kathryn asked.
"Don't call me Mr. Dixon—not if you gonna be talkin' to me for a while. Daryl."
Kathryn smiled to herself.
"Daryl," she said with a nod. "If you can promise me that you'll stay calm and listen to us, we can fix that probably dizzy sensation you're feeling right now. Also—there's a security team waiting outside that door in case you're feeling overly combative, but I would like to send them back to complete more important work if you think that we can have a simple conversation without you turning to violence."
The man stared at her. His expression was hard or, at the very least, it was clear that he wanted it to be hard. He wanted to make himself unreadable. Perhaps, for most people, he would have been. Part of being a Starfleet captain, though, meant that Kathryn had a great deal of practice reading individuals from any number of species. If she could read Vulcans, she could at least somewhat read the man who was facing off with her.
And she saw when his eyes flicked toward his companion—Carol.
"We'll wake her up," Kathryn assured him, "as soon as you're ready. I think she might benefit, however, from a little more rest and from you being able to help explain everything to her. I assure you—she's fine. She's only resting. I've been under myself. Many times. It's a deep sleep. Not even any bad dreams."
"She hasn't slept like that in a while," Daryl offered.
Kathryn smiled at him.
"Then that's even more reason to let her rest while I fill you in," Kathryn said. "What do you say—Daryl? Can I send my security team back to work?"
Daryl's eyes flicked in Chakotay's direction before they settled back on Kathryn. He looked a little woozy and she knew it was the effect of the sedation that the doctor was using. It was a particular kind of sedative that would allow him to stay awake but, essentially, it would render him unable to be much of a threat.
It would also make him feel wretched, and Kathryn preferred not to start things that way.
"If you don't hurt us," Daryl said, "then I got no reason to hurt you."
Kathryn nodded.
"I understand," she said. She touched her combadge. "Lieutenant Tuvok—we've got things under control here. You and your team can return to your stations."
"Are you certain, Captain?" Tuvok's response came.
"Daryl is a most reasonable individual," Kathryn assured him. She winked her eye at the man who was focusing very intently on every single move that she made. He had, as long as he was able to keep his vision focused, probably memorized every freckle on her face by now. "We'll be fine here."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Tuvok responded.
"That like a—walkie talkie?" Daryl asked.
"Something like that," Kathryn ceded, glad that she'd at least studied a little history. Tom Paris, she imagined, would come in handy while helping to acclimate the two newcomers aboard the ship. He'd been fascinated with their time period. "Doctor—could you help our friend feel a little less dizzy and a little more like himself?"
When the doctor moved, a little too quickly perhaps, toward Daryl, the man reacted by putting his hands up to block the EMH.
"The hell do you think you're doing?" Daryl growled at him.
"It's a hypospray," Kathryn offered. "It's a method of administering medication. It won't hurt you. It'll stop the dizziness." Daryl still jerked away, clearly unsure of them and their medication. The EMH lacked some bedside manner, and so he seemed ready to enter into what could only be considered a slapping contest with the man who was too drunk to stay upright easily, but who was determined to protect himself and, as he leaned over Carol's body, Kathryn assumed he was doing his best to try to protect her, too. The hypospray was new, and Kathryn tried to remind herself that it was probably frightening. She could still remember, during a class she took at Starfleet Academy to become more culturally sensitive, when they were subjected to some other cultural practices of medicine. She'd been terrified to undergo her first—of a few, since then, given that she was sometimes prone to injury while on different missions—blood draw with a hypodermic needle instead of a hypospray. "Doctor—don't you have something to administer to me?"
"Captain?" The doctor asked, his frustration with his new patient every bit as evident as Daryl's frustration with his whole current life condition.
"Doctor—don't you have something that you could administer to me? So that Daryl could observe?" Kathryn asked.
"But Captain…" the doctor started, his frustration almost causing him to cough out the protest. He, like many of the others, had already learned when she wasn't willing to negotiate, though, so he sighed deeply, looked through his PADD a moment for her information, and disappeared to quickly return with another cartridge. He held it up, clearly a little irritated. "This is a cartridge." He slipped it into the hypospray, exchanging it for the cartridge that would later be administered to Daryl. "This is a hypospray. We use the hypospray to administer medication. Here."
Kathryn pulled her collar to the side and bared her neck to the doctor. She had no idea what he was giving her, but she was almost always behind on her monthly checkups, and that often meant being behind on one thing or another. He pressed the hypospray to her neck and released the medication. Daryl watched with a great deal of interest.
"Is that sufficient, Captain?" The doctor asked. Kathryn laughed to herself.
"Perhaps with a little less condescension next time," Kathryn said. "Do try to remember that our guests are…new here."
The doctor changed the hypospray cartridge again and held it out toward Daryl. This time, Daryl leaned his neck in the direction of the doctor, but he kept his eyes on Kathryn like he wasn't certain that he trusted her. He visibly jumped when the hypospray hissed, and muttered a curse. He rubbed his neck when the doctor pulled away.
"You'll get used to it," Kathryn assured him. She could, almost immediately, see some relief on his features. He looked around, this time without looking like he was going to be sick.
"Where are we?" He asked. "You military? We thought the government was gone."
"How about—one question at a time?" Kathryn asked. He nodded at her. She sighed. "I really don't know where to begin. I wasn't exactly trained for this particular scenario."
"It's almost a first contact," Chakotay offered.
Daryl furrowed his brow at Chakotay and Kathryn swallowed down her amusement. He was mad, but he might not even know exactly what he was mad about. Chakotay had done him no damage.
"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway," she said.
"So, you're like—the leader," Daryl said. "You're in charge."
"You could say that," Kathryn offered. "We're part of Starfleet. With the Federation."
"That some kind of foreign military?" Daryl asked.
"It is," Kathryn said. "It's absolutely like some kind of foreign military."
"What the hell you been waitin' on?!" Daryl asked loudly. "You just now showin' up? Do you know how fuckin' long we been out there? Do you know—what the hell we lost? She lost her damn kids—and you just now showin' the fuck up?!"
Daryl got to his feet. With the drug being removed from his system, his strength was coming back, as was the full effect of the natural fire that clearly burned within the man. As he stepped toward her, Kathryn straightened up and prepared herself in case he should react against her in any way. Chakotay stepped forward, prepared to stop him, but Kathryn held her hand up in Chakotay's direction and held eye contact with Daryl.
"I'm very sorry," Kathryn said. "I truly am. I'm sorry for your losses. There were so many tragic losses during the Millennium Plague. And, unfortunately, the government, as you knew it, was completely destroyed. The new government, Daryl, was built by the survivors out of their need to restore peace among those that were left, and to start to rebuild the world. They were survivors, like you and…Carol, that rebuilt the government and got Earth back on her feet. Nobody ever came to save you. You had to save yourselves."
Daryl stared at her. Hard. His eyes darted back and forth, slightly, as he tried to take in everything she'd said and everything it meant. He tried to take in everything about her.
If she'd been easily intimidated, Kathryn would have been intimidated by the intensity of the man's stare. She didn't fear him, though. Not at all. And if he did lash out, she was confident that it wouldn't be personal. At this moment, his reactions were coming from a very emotional place.
"I'm sorry," Kathryn repeated, softening her voice as much as she could. He relaxed a little. Sometimes, she knew, all anybody really needed was some validation. She shook her head at him. "I don't know where to begin to explain it to you so that you can understand everything. You'll have questions for months—years. And we'll all do our best to answer them. I suppose that the best thing to do right now is to rip off the proverbial bandage, Daryl, and explain to you what's happened."
"It's what the hell I been waitin' for," Daryl said. There was less anger in his voice, now, but he did flick his eyes toward Chakotay to see if the man was moving toward him. Kathryn looked at Chakotay as well. Instead of glaring at him, like Daryl did, she offered him a smile that she knew would reassure him. She appreciated him there, beside her—she always did. And she appreciated that he trusted her to handle this. For the time being, she could handle it.
"Have a seat?" Kathryn asked. Daryl returned to the biobed, this time without needing assistance. He did a quick one-over of his companion. He rested his hand on the sleeping woman's shoulder and looked back at Kathryn. She sighed. "You're on the Federation Starship Voyager. We're far away from home. An accidental encounter with another species landed us in the Delta Quadrant. Now we've got a very long journey ahead of us."
"Another species?" Daryl asked. "Like—animals?"
"Like what you might call aliens, Daryl," Kathryn offered.
"Little green men?" Daryl asked, furrowing his brow.
Kathryn laughed to herself.
"Not all of them are little, or green, and they're certainly not all men," Kathryn said. "But we've learned a lot since your time period."
"My time period?" Daryl asked.
Kathryn nodded her head.
"We were stranded here by an unfortunate encounter with an alien species," Kathryn offered. "In the same token, so were you. We were recently working with a species called the Araulians. They were going to help us return to Earth. To the Alpha Quadrant. In exchange, we were going to help them get accepted into the United Federation of Planets, and we were going to offer them the opportunity to start a new life since most of their species had been wiped out by the Borg. They had some other plans, though, and intended to try to go back in time to a point in their history where they believed they could change the outcome of everything that happened in their world. We weren't aware of their plans, and they used Voyager to test their device against our knowledge. They sent us back to Earth, however temporarily, but they sent us hundreds of years back in Earth's history. To be specific, they sent us back to the time of the Millennium Plague. Back to your time."
Daryl stared at her, mouth drawn up oddly and brows furrowed, and Kathryn didn't blame him a bit.
"You're sayin' that we're in space?" Daryl asked. Kathryn nodded. "And—we're in the future?" She nodded again. "Because my time is different than your time."
"Now you're here, with us," Kathryn said. "But your time was over three hundred years in the past. When we got there, to Earth in your time, the Araulians captured you and your companion before we knew what was happening, and we weren't able to stop them. They reset their device, returned us to this time, and they fled. We were only able to keep one from returning to their ship and, unfortunately, he died in the struggle. Their plan had been to study the two of you—along with those who had gone on the short trip—to see if the time change caused any significant damage. From there, they would know how to move forward with their plan."
"They managed to escape with their technology, but not with the two of you. When they admitted their plan to us through communication, they believed they'd be punished for what they did. They panicked and self-destructed," Chakotay offered. "Taking with them their technology and any hope that we had of returning you to your time period."
"You're sayin' we're stuck here?" Daryl asked. Kathryn nodded when he looked at her. "In the future. In space."
"In the Delta Quadrant," Kathryn said. "On Voyager. But—she's your home now. You're safe here. You will both be provided for. All your needs will be met. I promise you. In time, I'm sure, you'll have plenty to offer all of us. But for now? You're just part of our family."
"You're an alien?" Daryl asked.
Kathryn smiled to herself. He was confused. He was so very, very confused, but she understood it, and she would issue an order, herself, that everyone have as much patience as possible with their new arrivals.
"I'm a human," Kathryn said. "For all I know, Daryl, I may be…well, I may be your great, great, great whatever granddaughter. With five or six generations between us."
"I don't have any children," Daryl offered.
Kathryn nearly laughed to herself. She'd studied first encounters a great deal. New encounters with new individuals were one of the things she loved most about her career choice. One of the things that never failed, though, was the brain's choice to latch onto certain odd points when nothing else made sense.
He'd already told them about the lost children. Kathryn nodded her head, hoping to give him some comfort and, maybe even a little hope. She smiled at him.
"You may, someday," she offered. "I'm certain you've still got a long life ahead of you."
"It's a lot to take in," Chakotay offered.
Daryl laughed ironically to himself. He scratched, absentmindedly at his neck. He looked around. Then, he looked back at Chakotay.
"Are you an alien?" He asked.
"I'm a human," Chakotay offered, with some amusement on his features. Daryl eyed the doctor.
"I'm a hologram," the doctor offered before Daryl even asked the question that was, undoubtedly, coming.
Daryl looked back at Kathryn and she laughed to herself.
"You're going to have an immense number of questions," Kathryn said. "And—we'll all do our best to answer them. Beyond that—you're going to have plenty of opportunity to see as many aliens as you'd like. For the time being, though, why don't we wake your companion? You can help us orient her a little."
