AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Chakotay followed Daryl over to the place he chose near the wall and sat with him. The spot, it seemed, was Daryl's best effort to be out of the way of everyone else. With the entire crew crammed into one cargo bay—all the supplies having been moved out to avoid having them get any ideas about using any of it to try to escape—there wasn't much room to be away from anyone.
"Are you coming up with a plan or…?" Chakotay asked.
Daryl laughed to himself. From his pocket, he fished out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. The Kazons had searched them all. They'd stripped them of phasers and communicators, but they hadn't really taken anything else. Daryl's items, after all, were somewhat antiquated, even for those who had come from Earth.
"Got the only plan I'ma have for a while," Daryl said, taking a draw from the cigarette he lit for himself and returning his pack and lighter to his pocket.
"And what's that?" Chakotay asked.
"As many Kazons as they brought onto this ship," Daryl mused, "I figure we still outnumber them that's onboard—even if it's just by a couple. However many Kazons they got out there, they still gotta have crews on them ships that was surroundin' us. Of the Kazons they got on here, not all of 'em are their cream of the crop military Kazons. They got people right now that's tryin' to rewire this ship to get it moving."
"Right," Chakotay agreed. "We're somewhat in over our heads."
"We're way fuckin' in over our heads," Daryl mused.
"Do we organize to try to overpower them?" Chakotay asked.
"There's one door outta here," Daryl said. "That one. The guards are armed with rifles and probably a half a dozen of our little phaser things each. The only damn way we get outta here is if we pry the door open, right?"
"That's the way it looks right now," Chakotay confirmed.
"We pry that door open an' they gonna pepper the hell outta this space with bullets or lazers or whatever the hell you call the beams that shoot out the phasers." Chakotay didn't offer Daryl any information about the phasers. He understood that wasn't the point of what Daryl was saying, and it didn't matter anyway. "They'll wipe a shit ton of us out 'fore we even get the chance to get out there an' try to overpower them."
"You're right," Chakotay said. He leaned his head back against the wall and searched his own mind for some idea about what they might do to escape. "If we wait until we get where we're going, they're going to open the doors for us. They'll bring us out of here."
"We can spread out more if we don't gotta funnel through the door. Not so much shootin' fish in a barrel then," Daryl said. His tone indicated he agreed with Chakotay. Even though he was unfamiliar with the saying, Chakotay could guess the meaning behind it.
"They'll still be armed, and we still won't be," Chakotay said.
"We wait," Daryl said.
"For what?" Chakotay asked.
Daryl laughed to himself like there was something funny about all of this. He hummed to himself.
"We'll know when it happens," he said. "You ain't forgot that—well, we left Carol, Kathryn, and B'Elanna out there."
"Of course, I haven't forgotten," Chakotay said. "I'm half-sick worrying about what's happening to them. Especially now that we've seen how much the Kazons enjoy torturing their would-be slaves. I believe Kathryn's going to get away. They all are. Somehow. Whether it's when we get wherever we're going or…it's just something I have to believe. You know?"
"Oh, I know all about just—havin' to believe shit," Daryl mused. "There's a lot I just believe, too."
"One of the worst things," Chakotay said, "is that I'm never going to know if I have a son or a daughter."
"You got a son with that woman," Daryl offered.
Chakotay's stomach turned.
"It's not the same thing," Chakotay said.
"I know it's not," Daryl offered. "But the kid ain't asked for what his mama done, and he ain't asked to be a bastard."
"He belongs to Culluh, now," Chakotay said. "And Culluh's going to make sure that I never see my child—my…child with Kathryn."
Daryl laughed to himself.
"Shit—hell. Maybe we don't throw in the towel just fuckin' yet, all right?" Daryl mused. "Because—I ain't gonna give up on ever seein' my kid. To hell with that thought."
"You don't really seem upset about this," Chakotay said. "I thought—as distraught as Carol was? I thought you'd be more upset."
"Let's just say that—there's a lot you don't know about Carol," Daryl offered.
"What is there to know?" Chakotay asked.
"I ain't gonna jinx her," Daryl offered. "Not now."
"But you're not worried?" Chakotay asked.
"Not yet, I'm not," Daryl mused. "And I don't believe for a fuckin' second that we ain't getting outta this damn cargo bay and out of whatever damn mess we're in with these knock-off Klingons. I'ma see my kid. And you gonna see yours."
"If that's the case, then we need to start figuring out some kind of plan," Chakotay said. "Not just—sit around waiting for a plan to fall into our laps."
"We'll know what our plan is," Daryl said. "It'll come to us. For now—I think the most important thing we can do is not rush into anything. Not lose numbers or bodies by just throwin' people at these Kazons. It's better we don't do shit until we actually know what the hell the plan is. Until we see our window of opportunity."
"I wish I had the same kind of faith you seem to have right now," Chakotay mused, finding that he felt oddly lighter simply seeing that Daryl was sincerely unbothered, especially given the high stress level of their current situation.
"Borrow some of mine," Daryl offered. "What kinda—fire extinguishers you got on this ship?"
Chakotay furrowed his brow at Daryl, but he'd come to expect that the man was going to ask him strange questions. He was infinitely curious about life three-hundred years in the future from when he'd been born.
"There are fire extinguishers built into each room of the ship," Chakotay said. "There are portable ones, located in most rooms, in case something takes those offline. Then there's also a ship-wide system in the case of a larger issue. Why?"
Daryl laughed to himself.
"Just curious," he offered. "No reason."
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They were on something of a Seska-led tour of Voyager where the Cardassian spy surveyed what she considered her new kingdom as it was slowly being occupied by Kazon soldiers. While they toured, the Kazon soldier that Seska called Verri was happy to do the dirty work of helping to train Kathryn. At least, that's what they were calling it. The third time he'd laid the electrical rod against her back, Kathryn hadn't been able to swallow down every sound that wanted to escape her. She didn't want Seska to have the satisfaction of knowing she could cause Kathryn any pain, but the burns were impossible to ignore entirely, especially as they compounded and covered more of the area of her back.
Kathryn wasn't even being punished for any act against anyone. She was being punished for things like not walking quite as straight as Verri seemed to think she should. She accepted, though, that there was little she could do at the moment except try to avoid the wrath of the Kazon or Seska.
Like Carol, she believed that they would get out of this, but the key to getting out of it was really reading the Kazons well and discovering their weak points. It was better to bide their time, for just a little while, than to try something rash that would end up getting them all killed.
From the restoration of a power—which Kathryn could practically hear purring through the walls of Voyager after the almost absolute silence that had surrounded them for a while—Kathryn could tell that B'Elanna was getting things back online. She was doing what Kathryn had asked her to do. She was playing along. She was doing what they required of her. She was being a good slave.
They needed the ship online as much as the Kazons needed the ship online. Whatever finally ended up happening, they would need to escape—and they would need the ship to be functioning well in order to do that. At the very least, B'Elanna needed the warp drive running and enough of the ship's power returned to make it fully operational. A few photon torpedoes wouldn't hurt anything, but they couldn't be too picky. Still, with the Kazons not fighting against them, and with Culluh providing B'Elanna with everything she needed, as long as she appeared to be a good servant, she was likely to make short work of the most basic repairs—the rest could wait until they had their freedom again.
Kathryn walked with Seska into sickbay as she'd been commanded to do, fully aware that Verri was behind her with the electric rod poised to sear more of her flesh if he perceived even the slightest misstep on her part.
"Computer," Seska commanded, stepping into the now-fully-lit sickbay. It was more evidence that B'Elanna was already working a great deal of her engineering magic elsewhere in the ship. "Activate the EMH."
"Please state the nature of your medical emergency," the doctor said, immediately appearing. "What happened? Seska? When did you get here? Captain?"
The EMH would have been deactivated, voluntarily or involuntarily, during the battle with the Kazons. The computer wouldn't have been able to sustain him when there was so much power loss throughout the ship, and it would have been very unlikely that he would have had the time or the thought to attach and activate his mobile emitter.
"A lot's happened, Doctor," Kathryn said.
"Are you all right, Captain?" The doctor asked.
Kathryn offered him the best smile she could, and she nodded her head. She had no idea what she looked like. Judging from the EMH's expression, though, it wasn't good.
"Oh, enough with the reunions," Seska said with some obvious exasperation. "She's not your patient or your concern. You belong to the Kazon-Nistrim now."
"Captain?" The EMH asked, looking at Kathryn with the obviously desperate desire that she tell him that Seska was lying.
"I'm sorry," was all that Kathryn could say. She truly was sorry. She was sorry about the whole situation. The best that she could do was to try to solve it, but she knew that there was no solving it until the moment was right.
"Now," Seska said, ignoring everything around her, "the Kazons medical practices are somewhat antiquated in comparison to those on Voyager. Of course, that will change once your program is copied and integrated into all Kazon ships. For now, I want you to have a look at my son." Seska placed the infant on a biobed and the doctor reluctantly walked over. It was clear that he was experiencing a state of absolute disbelief.
"Your son," he mused.
"Yes," Seska said. "And Commander Chakotay's son."
Kathryn didn't miss that Seska cut her eyes in Kathryn's direction to try to drive the dagger deeper and twist it, if it all possible.
"Commander Chakotay's son?" The doctor asked.
"Doctor—if your program is malfunctioning," Seska offered, suddenly irritated, "then we can have it taken offline entirely."
"No," the doctor said quickly. "No. It's not malfunctioning."
"Then, please, Doctor, have a look at my son," Seska said, nearly growling out the words.
The doctor accepted the job that had been assigned to him, and he started to work examining Seska with a tricorder, quickly—which she allowed—before he moved on to the infant.
Seska continued to speak, mostly coming up with ways and reasons to repeat that the baby was the biological offspring of Chakotay. Kathryn knew it was mostly for Seska's entertainment, and it was mostly meant to hurt her. It did hurt Kathryn, but not quite as deeply as Seska hoped it would. Kathryn hurt more for the betrayal and the violation that she knew Chakotay felt, than she hurt for any relationship that had ever existed between the man she loved and the Cardassian spy that betrayed them all.
Verri was disinterested in Kathryn for the time being, since Kathryn stood still other than the fact that she let her eyes and her mind wander.
Kazon soldiers were around every corner in the corridors. She didn't know how many of his Kazon-Nistrim soldiers Culluh had brought aboard, but he'd certainly brought a decent amount to patrol the ship while their comrades worked on restoring Voyager to all her glory.
If they were able, in any way, to gain their freedom from their Kazon—and Kazon affiliated—guardians, there would be no way to get to the cargo bay, without being caught, using the corridors. In addition, the Jefferies tubes would be inaccessible because there would, without a doubt, be Kazon soldiers near most of their nearby access points.
But there were access points in sickbay to the ventilation systems, and those ran to nearly the same places as the Jefferies tubes. There were no Kazon soldiers posted in sickbay. If there was nobody there, there was no need for guards—and Seska was gone from Voyager before B'Elanna had acquired the technology for the EMH's mobile emitter, so she wouldn't even expect that the hologram could move outside of sickbay.
The EMH would have to stay put, and hopefully he would know that, because there was no way for Kathryn to communicate that to him. Even though he was able to move freely around the ship with the help of his mobile emitter, he was still intimately linked to the ship's computer system. If he were to move around, the Kazons that were monitoring any computer activity on the ship would, without a doubt, be notified of his actions.
Still, sickbay offered the clearest and most clandestine access points they might find to any of the ship's systems.
Kathryn's attention was drawn back to the current moment when she heard Seska's voice change tone and volume to reflect her displeasure at something.
"What do you mean?" She practically howled.
"I'm sorry," the doctor said, his expression not at all matching the words. Despite his best efforts to appear expressionless, there was a hint of pleasure playing at his features. "There's no way this child is the offspring of Commander Chakotay. It's the first Cardassian-Kazon hybrid in the system, but the child absolutely has Kazon DNA, and he absolutely has no human DNA at all. Beyond that, Commander Chakotay's DNA is in the system and, I'm sorry, but there isn't a match." The doctor gave Seska the broadest smile he could. "But congratulations are in order because he's certainly the healthiest Cardassian-Kazon hybrid that I've ever seen."
Kathryn turned her face, quickly, to hide her smile when the doctor glanced in her direction, clearly pleased with his discovery. Chakotay, too, would be pleased with the news, but it was evident that Seska wasn't taking it so well.
She snatched up her child—much more roughly than Kathryn liked to think she'd handle her own infant, if she ever got a chance to meet it—and spoke immediately to Verri.
"Let's go," she said. "There's nothing else to see here. Computer—deactivate EMH."
Without the opportunity to say another word, or to react with more than a shocked expression, the doctor vanished as quickly as he'd appeared in sickbay. Kathryn quietly followed after Seska, content to continue her small tour of Voyager under its Kazon occupation, avoiding the wrath of Verri, and trying to figure out just exactly how they were going to save the ship and her entire crew.
