AN: Here we are, another chapter here. We've got a time jump that's explained in the chapter. We're moving forward with the story!
I wrote two chapters today, and one yesterday, so if you missed anything, please go back and make sure you got it!
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Chakotay stood and let it all sink in.
They'd just beamed what seemed to practically be the entire contents of the ship to the surface of the planet—it was everything that Kathryn had requested. They would have the time to check over everything they had and put in any extra requests that might be necessary.
At that time, Voyager would leave orbit.
Voyager would leave them behind.
When they came out of stasis, Chakotay didn't know what he expected to happen exactly. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he imagined that the doctor would say that they'd found a solution to their problem. They had a cure for the virus. It had only been a temporary setback. He didn't know, until he heard it, that he'd never expected the doctor to say that they'd worked tirelessly to find a cure and simply hadn't found one.
Kathryn had considered their options, and she'd halfway talked them over with Chakotay, Carol, and Daryl. Then she'd made the decision that was, really, the only decision that they could make.
The only hope they had of finding any kind of cure in a timely manner was to consult with the Vidiians. They were an alien species that had done nothing but threaten Voyager and anyone else with which they had contact. They had superior medical technology and a lifelong knowledge of the Delta Quadrant, but putting the crew in contact with them would be putting them all in a situation where they were risking their lives. Kathryn wouldn't allow the crew to do that. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few in this moment.
Upon waking, they discovered that the doctor had been working for nearly three weeks on a cure. They'd remained in stasis during that time. For their bodies, at least, not a moment had passed since they'd closed their eyes. That wasn't true for the crew of Voyager, though. Time was passing for them and they were wasting resources while they remained in orbit of a planet that could offer them nothing but a fatal virus and a type of prison sentence.
Voyager couldn't remain in orbit forever. Kathryn had promised the crew that she'd do everything in her power to get them home. The next step of keeping that promise was letting them go.
She had already handed over command of the ship to Tuvok—permanently. She would speak to the crew when he contacted them later to say that they were ready to leave orbit.
The virus wouldn't harm any of them as long as they remained in the planet's atmosphere. They were stranded on the planet, but they could live there. They could build lives there, even if they were lives unlike any they might have imagined.
Still, Kathryn had requested a great deal of research equipment and she'd been granted that. She'd also been granted a shuttle large enough to hold the four of them. She believed that she could find a cure. She believed that they could catch up with Voyager.
Or, perhaps, she simply needed to believe that for just a little while.
"Everything's here that I need for my research," Kathryn confirmed as she burrowed through the items that had been beamed down.
Carol and Daryl were walking around the outside of the collection of items, clearly trying to decide what they should do and how they should proceed.
"Do you really think we're going to need that?" Chakotay asked. "Do you really think you can find a cure for this?"
"If I can find a specimen of the insect that bit us," Kathryn said, "then I can begin to figure out what it is that's keeping us protected in the atmosphere. I can figure out how to replicate it."
"And then what?" Daryl asked.
"We'll catch up with Voyager and continue back to the Alpha Quadrant," Kathryn said.
She was cheerful. She was too cheerful. Chakotay could already tell that there would be a moment, somewhere, where she'd come to terms with all of this. Right now, though, she was doing her best to keep morale up.
Honestly, though, morale didn't look too terribly low. Carol and Daryl were pleased to find they were alive. They were pleased to discover that, as long as they remained in the protective atmosphere of the planet, they had little reason to believe that they wouldn't stay alive. That was all that really seemed to concern them a great deal.
"Well, it looks like we're going to be here a while, at least," Chakotay offered, gathering up some of the panels that had been beamed down to erect their shelter. "We should start setting up a camp. What do you think? Beige or gray for the outside?"
Kathryn smiled as he showed her the two sides of the panels.
"I guess it depends on what kind of mood you're in," she said.
"Beige for the inside?" Chakotay asked.
"I've always looked better in beige," Kathryn said.
"Beige it is," Chakotay said. As he gathered up as many panels as he could carry at once, Daryl seemed to realize what he was doing. He stepped forward and gathered quite a few as well. "I think over there—near the trees. That's a good place to put the shelter."
"There's actually a clearin' further in," Daryl said. "Decent sized opening. Carol and me saw it when we were here earlier. If we put the shelter there, we get the shade. Some protection."
Chakotay didn't point out that "earlier" had been three weeks earlier. He doubted the cleared area had grown up too much. They could clear whatever undergrowth needed to be torn out, and he thought Daryl's plan was good.
"Lead the way, Daryl," Chakotay offered.
He followed after Daryl with Kathryn carrying supplies behind him and Carol following close on her heels with all that she could carry.
"I guess we'll get to see life from your perspective for a while," Kathryn offered. "From what I read, the survivors of the Millennium Plague lived in the most challenging times that anyone had seen in a hundred years. I guess now it's our turn to rough it."
Chakotay laughed to himself. He heard Daryl laugh, too.
"Rough it?" Chakotay teased. "We have shelter, furniture, a replicator, medical supplies, research supplies, seeds, a sonic shower. I don't know, Captain. It may be too rough for me."
"Ain't that the damn truth," Daryl said with a laugh as he walked up ahead.
"Well we don't have a bathtub," Kathryn said.
"A bathtub?" Chakotay asked.
"Oh—I love a bathtub," Kathryn said, putting down items when they reached the clearing area that Daryl had mentioned. She stretched her back and then turned, with the rest of them, to go back for another load of items. They walked lazily, in no kind of formation, back toward their mass of supplies. Chakotay couldn't help but notice that everyone, at the moment, looked light. Happy. He felt that way, himself. "A bathtub's my favorite way to relax."
"I love a bathtub, too," Carol said. "The big ones. I always wanted one you could sit in with water all the way up to your chin."
Kathryn laughed.
"They don't have to be very deep for me to do that," she teased.
"For now," Chakotay said, "I guess you'll just have to learn to unwind with the sonic shower, Captain." He ignored the shiver that ran through him at his own words. He ignored the thoughts that immediately came into his mind. This wasn't the time or the place—if there was even such a time or place. He could only forgive himself because he was, after all, only a man.
Kathryn looked at him over her shoulder and smiled—completely oblivious to his inappropriate thoughts.
"It looks like we're going to be here for a while, Chakotay," she said. "And—I'm not your captain any longer. Maybe you should consider simply calling me Kathryn."
Chakotay felt the weight of the suggestion as it dropped into his gut. He wanted very little as much as he wanted to call Kathryn by her name, at all times. He wanted the closeness that came with that intimacy.
But he was afraid to think more of it than she meant.
Still, he smiled at her. He reminded himself to be casual. They were moving their supplies. They were facing the very first hours of a life that would be very different for them—even if Daryl and Carol might feel more at home than they had since the Araulians had first taken them from their home.
"You might have to give me a couple of days to get used to it," Chakotay offered. "But—I'll work on it…Kathryn."
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Daryl hated to see a woman cry—especially over something legitimate.
Kathryn had hidden it well. She'd done her best to swallow back the tears, but a few had escaped.
If he was being honest, his own chest was knotted up by listening to her speech. It was time for Voyager to go. Her ship was leaving her behind—it was leaving all of them behind, but it had a different meaning for her and for Chakotay. Their family was leaving them behind.
She'd given them a very heartfelt thanks for everything they'd done for her and everything they'd given her. If Daryl had never been on the ship and seen the way that things were run, he would have believed that she'd given them nothing, but they'd given her everything. She'd promised them that they would be successful. They would make it home. They'd see their dreams come true.
She'd thanked them for being her family.
And then she'd set them free to go home.
When the communication had disconnected, she was no longer Captain Janeway. Officially, she was simply Kathryn.
And Daryl could feel the ache in his own chest at how hard it had been for her to let them go. To say goodbye.
He knew, though, that it was hard to admit that the life that you had known was just gone. After the turn, they'd all spent a lot of time imagining that they'd just stumble across someone that would help them understand that it had all been a mistake—a misunderstanding—and everything would go back to normal.
Things still weren't really normal. The normal that Daryl and Carol had once known was gone. Now, they were simply more flexible. They were simply more ready to call something new "normal," especially if it meant that they weren't being torn apart by reanimated corpses.
Kathryn would settle into her new normal, but it was going to take longer than five minutes of coming to terms with things.
Daryl hoped, too, that she'd realize that she could be happy. There was potential for happiness all around them. She just had to stop fretting over what wasn't and open her eyes to what was.
Daryl almost felt like he owed her something. After all, if she hadn't gotten them onboard her ship and taken care of them like she had, there was no telling how long it might have taken him to kiss Carol—and, more than that, to ever do any of the other things they'd already done together. There was no telling how long it would have taken him to admit that he loved Carol.
And, if it hadn't been for everything Kathryn's ship had given them, they wouldn't be facing the possibility of another seventy or eighty years together to make up for all the time they'd lost in their lives before.
Daryl felt like he owed it to her to help her find some happiness.
Of course, he wouldn't tell her that's what he was doing.
Daryl helped Chakotay construct their dwelling out of the panels that were sent down to the planet while Carol had helped Kathryn organize and arrange their supplies. The instructions on the shelter were simple enough and the shelter went together without too much trouble. It was something like a modular home, but it went up with a great deal less effort than a traditional modular home might have. Daryl assumed the structure was "roughing it" for those who had been accustomed to life on Voyager, but it was practically a five-star hotel for those who had slept in tents with one eye open, waiting to be brutally murdered in their sleep.
It took them most of the day to finish everything and to be prepared for their first night—out of the little stasis pods—on the planet. It would be their first night in their new little home. They quickly ate a replicated meal—which was not Daryl's favorite thing to do, despite the fact that he didn't mind the taste of the food, but it was the quickest thing they could do at the moment. Then they went about finishing bringing their things inside and setting up the house.
When they brought the tables, chairs, and beds inside, the little home really started to look like something.
"It's kind of depressing," Chakotay mused, when he'd put down the last chair.
"It'll keep the rain and the sun out," Daryl offered. "At the end of the day, that's all that matters."
"It's a pretty bleak view of home to have," Kathryn said.
"It's safe," Daryl said. "That's the best thing a home can be."
"There's something to be said for comfort, too," Chakotay said. "Still, we're lucky for all that we have. At least we're not sleeping on the floor."
"A few flowers or something could brighten it up," Carol offered. "We can look for some tomorrow."
"There'll be a lot to do tomorrow," Daryl said. "We ought to start thinkin' about food. Explore the area, now that we know we're lookin' at it as a place to live and not a place to camp for a couple of nights."
"I can start my research tomorrow," Kathryn said. "The sooner I start, the sooner we'll find our way back to Voyager."
Daryl caught the expression that crossed Chakotay's face at the words, but he didn't dare ask the man about his thoughts on the matter. Not with Kathryn that close by, and certainly not with that look in her eye. She needed some sweet dreams—however they could get them for her.
"Whatever we're gonna do," Daryl offered, "we're all gonna need some sleep. Time to turn in."
"Carol and I will take that room," Kathryn said, gesturing off in the direction of one of the two bedrooms. The modular home boasted two bedrooms, a living area, and something like a kitchen and work area.
Daryl laughed to himself.
"Beg your pardon?" He asked.
"Carol and I will take that room," Kathryn repeated. "Women and men."
"This ain't summer camp," Daryl said. "And—sorry, but you ain't the captain no more. Me an' Carol's accustomed to sleepin' together. We gonna take that room."
"There are two rooms and four beds," Kathryn said. "Clearly Tuvok intended for us to room as males and females."
Daryl laughed to himself. He glanced toward Carol. She looked amused. He glanced toward Chakotay. He couldn't read what the hell the man was thinking.
He was doing this shit for him, too. He hoped he could understand that.
Daryl squared himself up to his full height. That put him easily five inches taller than Kathryn, who was at least an inch shorter than Carol. He wished he could be gentle with her. He wished he could simply lead her in the direction of what was good for her. It was clear, though, that she would not go quietly in the direction that everyone else could clearly see was best for her.
He wouldn't hurt her—not really, and not ever—but he would nudge her. He put on the best unreasonable tone that his life as a Dixon had taught him to manage.
"I don't give a damn what the pointy-eared bastard thought. You see four beds. I see two cots that I'ma figure out how to join tomorrow. Carol an' me's got that room. You figure out your arrangements, but they ain't my problem."
"Daryl," Carol said softly, a warning that his acting was a bit too good, perhaps. He would explain himself to her later if such a thing were necessary.
Chakotay stepped forward. He didn't challenge Daryl, though. Daryl had half-expected him to. Instead, Daryl almost thought he caught a hint of a smile on Chakotay's lips as he looked at him. Instead of challenging Daryl, he dropped a hand onto Kathryn's shoulder and squeezed it affectionately.
"I can sleep out here," Chakotay said. "We can—work on other arrangements."
Kathryn sighed. She looked at Chakotay and shook her head.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "Really—it's the same as the shuttlecraft when we've gone on reconnaissance missions."
Chakotay hummed and nodded his head.
"Then let's get some sleep, Kathryn," he offered. "We'll have plenty to keep us busy tomorrow."
Kathryn nodded. She looked lighter. She didn't look as angry as she'd wanted to be about the rooming arrangement. Before she turned to let Chakotay guide her into the other room, she'd even offered Carol and Daryl each a smile and a goodnight.
They'd returned the wish for a goodnight—meaning it more than, maybe, she even knew—before they'd headed for their own little room.
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AN: This is kind of random, but I just wanted to say that I know that a lot of people in Trek are vegetarians. I'm letting you know ahead of time that I'll be kind of ignoring that moving forward. There will be hunting/fishing/meat-eating and nobody's going to make a big deal of it. I just wanted you to know.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think!
