Disclaimer: Voyager not mine, characters not mine, story is mine.

Chapter 15: Imprint.

Five years, eleven months- Fury

People were rushing about the bridge, frantically typing in commands to prevent the ship from collapsing in on itself from the damage that it had sustained, Tuvok was giving orders over his comm. badge for more security to report to engineering, and Chakotay was working with Harry to divert power to emergency force fields. But there was something very different since Kathryn had given her last order, as the major damage reports stopped, and the sounds of explosions ceased and Kathryn waited impatiently to hear what was happening.

"Warp power is returning to normal," Tom reported.

"B'Elanna, report," Kathryn barked.

There was a pause, "captain, Kes has stopped doing… whatever it was that she was doing."

"Is she still in engineering?" she asked.

"Yes," again the chief engineer took a moment before continuing, "so is Noah."

"Noah," some of the alarm she felt slipped into her voice and she felt more than saw Chakotay cross the bridge towards her.

"He must have entered whilst Seven and I were trying to shut down the warp core…" there was an unintentional pause as the chief engineer was suddenly distracted, "captain, I think you should get down here," she suggested.

"Is something wrong?" Kathryn stood from her seat, and without hesitating made a beeline for the turbo lift, turning just before she entered to make a quick choice between her first officer and chief of security to accompany her, both of who were looking ready to follow her to engineering.

"I'm not sure. You should come down here and see for yourself." B'Elanna didn't mean to unnecessarily worry her captain, but she knew she wouldn't be able to simply explain what was happening.

"Tuvok, you have the bridge," Kathryn made the emotional choice instead of the logical as Chakotay entered the turbo lift after her.

Once the order had been made for the turbo lift to go down to engineering, some of the worry that Kathryn felt towards her son was replaced by anger at the realisation that she was allowing her emotions to dictate her actions. The ship was falling apart, and as captain her place was on the bridge, but as a mother she was instinctively drawn to her son to check that he was okay. It happened in every battle situation; there was always a piece of her mind worrying about Noah, where he was, if he was safe, who he was with… over the years she gotten better and better at ignoring those thoughts, but they never went away, and every now and again they would take complete control of her.

"I'm sure he's okay," Chakotay said soothingly, "B'Elanna didn't sound too worried over the comm.."

She turned to him angrily, "Noah knows to stay put whenever there's an emergency, and I've told him a thousand times not to visit any critical areas of the ship without supervision."

"Neelix may have been taking him there before Kes' shuttle arrived," he gave a reasonable explanation for their son's presence in engineering, "it all happened so fast, Neelix may not have had time to take him to the mess hall."

Looking unconvinced her anger wasn't in any way quelled, "why would Neelix be taking Noah to engineering? The children don't have any lessons today."

Chakotay sighed inwardly, he could see that she was angry not only at their son being somewhere he shouldn't be, but also at her own reaction to what B'Elanna had told them. Although he himself was worried and concerned over the safety of Noah, he had long ago learnt to just accept that feeling of complete helplessness he experienced in such situations, and he got on with it as best he could. Kathryn wasn't able to accept the fact that she didn't always have control, and so she took the news that their son could potentially be in danger very hard.

"Well let's not jump to any conclusions," he tried his best to prevent her thinking of everything bad that could have happened.

Turning to him she looked about ready to make a reply, but the doors to the turbo lift opened, and she forgot about anything she was going to say, as she stepped out into the corridor, and made getting to engineering as fast as possible her top priority.

It was dark when they entered engineering, the edges of the room lit up by consoles lining the walls and the dim emergency lighting making it possible to see elsewhere. The warp core gave off its usual blue illumination in the centre of the space, as the plasma moved about randomly inside, bathing everything in the immediate vicinity in its soft glow. Kes was sat just before the warp core, on her knees, bent slightly forwards with her eyes closed and a peaceful look on her face. In front of her Noah was stood, with a hand held up to the side of the ocampan's face. After taking a long look at the strange sight Kathryn and Chakotay trained their attention on B'Elanna and Seven who were standing by a console watching the scene with odd curiosity.

"What's going on?" she took command of the situation and decided that the gathering of information was required before she took any action.

B'Elanna looked round, the baffled expression on her face mirroring the confusion that they had heard in her voice earlier. "I'm not sure captain," she crossed over to where her two commanding officers were stood, Seven following closely behind. "When Noah entered engineering, Kes simply stepped away from the warp core. For a moment she looked as if she was about to collapse, then she went to her knees and Noah approached her before we could really register what was happening. They've been like this since."

"What are they doing?" Chakotay asked, glancing round at his son once again.

"We have run some preliminary scans," Seven stepped forwards, "from what we can tell they have entered a telepathic connection."

"Telepathic connection?" she repeated.

"That's not the strangest part," B'Elanna cut in, "Kes has erected some form of force field around herself and Noah. We have yet to find a way of penetrating it, without injuring either of them."

"Have you called the doctor?" Kathryn asked.

"I have, but he's busy in sick bay, and our scans don't indicate that they are in any danger," B'Elanna explained why the EMH wasn't already present, "so he's making sick bay his priority at the moment."

If Kathryn had have had a choice, she would have preferred that the doctor were examining her son, but she realised that the hologram's reasons for not being there were logical, and there was little point in arguing with him to get down to engineering.

Before any more questions could be asked, or answers attempted, a gasp from one of the security officers standing closely by the scene diverted their attention back over to Kes and Noah. The Ocampan, who had aged considerably in the years since they had last seen her, adopted a slightly pained expression as her old and weathered face started to change. Her wrinkled skin started to tighten and return to the pale, youthful skin they all remembered her to have. Her grey hair started to colour, until it was the same golden blonde of the almost four year old woman who had left the ship three years previously, and a healthy pink glow returned to her cheeks.

In an instant, and without any warning, her eyes flickered open and she took in a sharp breath. Any pain she had been experiencing seemed to vanish, as a soft smile was plastered across her face and she met the gaze of the young boy standing in front of her. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Noah dropped his hand from the side of her face, and allowed her to run an affectionate hand through his dark hair before he glanced across at the familiar group of security guards, and then turned his head completely to see his parents standing, watching him in a stunned silence.

Instinctively Kathryn crossed the deck over to where her son was, and as she had suspected, the force field that had previously been erected around the two of them had been dropped, and she was able to reach out to her son and pull him into her arms without any form of resistance. "Are you okay?" she asked the young boy now held in her arms.

"What the hell just happened?" Chakotay stepped towards Kes before his son had a chance to reply.

The Ocampan woman stood from the floor, the soft smile still apparent on her face despite the fact that the security officers were remembering her previous furious and explosive state and were raising their phasers in preparation for a repeat event. "Noah isn't entirely human is he?" she looked between Kathryn and Chakotay.

The commanding officers exchanged a brief look, and there was a short moment before either of them volunteered a response. "Not completely, no," Kathryn confirmed.

"He was conceived aboard the caretaker, using my own, and Kathryn's DNA," Chakotay added, not completely sure if he should so freely be offering up the information.

Reaching a hand out, Kes tenderly touched the side of the boy's face, "the caretaker," she repeated softly, "I see that now. But he wasn't like this before, he has changed since I last saw him."

"It has been three years," B'Elanna reminded her.

"Not just his age," Kes repeated, looking across at the chief of engineering, "his entire being is different. He has so much more potential than I think you realise Kathryn," she turned her eyes to the mother of the boy.

"What do you mean?" she asked, remembering when the doctor had first informed her of the changes that were occurring slowly, but steadily to the genetic make up of her son. Since then, there had been check ups, and his condition hadn't changed, but then it hadn't worsened, and so they had decided not to take any action for fear of creating a problem by trying to solve one that hadn't been there in the first place.

"I mean that one day, he will become more powerful than I ever could be." She noticed her captain's worried expression, "not for a long while I don't think," she tried to sound reassuring, "but whereas I wasn't prepared for everything that awaited me, somehow I think Noah will be able to control and understand everything about this wonderful gift."

"Gift?" Chakotay repeated with a frown, not quite sure he would use exactly the same wording, "what did you just do to him?"

"I didn't do anything," she said. "For years my powers have been in complete control of me, and whilst I was tormented by them, I started to wrongly blame Voyager for leaving me in the middle of the delta quadrant, unprepared, without a clue, and all alone. I came here with the intention of going back in time to save myself from ever venturing away from my home world, but just before I made that jump in time, I sensed another presence calling out to me. Noah came here to engineering to help me, and he has," she touched her face, "somehow he has given me back the control that I lost so long ago, and the youth that has been slipping away from me since." She beamed widely, "I feel like my old self again."

"How could he do that?" Chakotay not only looked confused, but also very worried.

Her smile fell, "I'm not sure, and I don't know why the caretaker has done this; but I think when the time is right, Noah will know what to do."

Kathryn looked down at her son in her arms, although she loved him more than it was possible to describe or explain, she couldn't help feel somewhat resentful of the caretaker for what he had done. There had been a few but rather large hurdles to overcome since she had found out that she was to be a mother. The first had been the unexpected, and inconvenient timing of the pregnancy, then there had been the idea of the father being a man who she hardly knew and trusted even less, later followed by the revelation that the caretaker had impregnated her without explanation or waiting for consent.

From the moment that Noah was born, she had instantly fallen in love with him, which had made it easy to forget that she had taken no willing part in creating her son, and so she had been able to pretend that he was like any other child. Then the Devore inspectors had revealed to her and Chakotay that there had been more intervention from the caretaker than they had initially considered. That news had been a little easier to accept, as it hadn't really affected Noah at the time, but now to hear from Kes that the alterations being made to his genetic structure were already changing who her son was, it was a more frightening concept than when she was first told that she was to be a mother.

"He will be fine," Kes saw the worried expression in Kathryn's face reflected back in Chakotay's.

"Can you not stop what's happening to him?" she asked, deciding that she'd rather not find out what 'potential' her son had. She'd had quite enough surprises as far as her son was concerned.

"I wouldn't know how to, even if I knew it was the right thing to do," she answered apologetically, "I'm sorry that I can't offer you the help that you want, or an explanation, but I can promise to return to Voyager if I sense that your son is in any danger from what is happening, and offer whatever assistance I can."

"You don't plan on staying with us aboard Voyager?" Kathryn asked, now sad to suddenly hear that her old friend was making plans to leave them again after such a brief visit.

"I can't," she said equally sadly, "I don't know how much longer my control will last, and I need some time to think through everything whilst my mind is clear, and to find a way of remaining this way."

"Where will you go?" Chakotay's previous worry over the safety of his son had slipped away from him, and now he only felt the ache that came with knowing that you had a difficult goodbye to say ahead of you.

"I'm not sure," she noticed that the security officers had placed their phasers back in their holsters, "maybe back to Ocampa, I think I need to spend some time with my own people again."

It was then that Kes turned to the now at ease security detail, and in turn greeted them in the warm and friendly manner that they all recognised as the Ocampan who had lived with them for so many years. Despite the insistent persuasion from all that had known her well, she refused to stay aboard the ship, and without explanation they all understood why, as she had long ago left and moved on with her life, and to stay would be to relive a past that needed no reviving.

Before she started to make her way to the transporter room to return to her shuttle, she had stood in engineering, and with little more that the closing of her eyelids, and the traces of a concentrating frown, she repaired the damage that she had caused to Voyager. Noah had said goodbye to her as if she was any other alien he had only recently met, seemingly nonplussed by what he had done, and then Kathryn had handed him across to his father, who after exchanging an affectionate embrace with Kes, had taken Noah from engineering.

In the transporter room Kes had seen Neelix for the first time in almost three years, and had taken her arms around him in a bittersweet farewell. And then she had left. She had transported across to her shuttle, and only seconds later, her shuttle was reported to be off the ship's sensors.

-

Kathryn watched her son sleeping soundly in his bed, his dark hair ruffled, and a peaceful expression on his face (that reminded her much of his father's) as he dreamt. After the days events Chakotay had taken him to sickbay whilst she had said farewell to Kes in the transporter room, and their son had been given a full medical examination once the doctor had stabilised all the rest of his patients.

The EMH hadn't been able to further enlighten them as to exactly what had happened, all that he had been able to say was that whatever Noah had done, was most probably the result of the stimulation that Kes had provided, and now that she had left, his brain patterns had returned to normal. They weren't sure whether to try to recreate a similar situation to provoke the telepathic abilities that there son may process, or just to leave it, in case they caused more harm in there investigations. One thing that had been made clear, was that what was happening to their son on a genetic scale, would ultimately affect the course of his life.

Feeling Chakotay come up and stand behind her to gaze at their son for a while through the open door, it wasn't until she felt his hand rest on her shoulder that she said anything. "He's only a child, he has the right to grow up like any other boy," she said, the anguish she felt towards the situation evident in her voice.

"Are you saying that we should consider the treatment the doctor came up with?" he asked in a hushed voice, not wanting to wake his son.

"I don't like the idea of not knowing what to expect," she admitted, "at least if we stop the alterations that are occurring to his genetic structure, we won't have to find out what they're for."

He sighed heavily, the idea of the treatment had been weighing heavily on his mind for the past few months, but up until now he had been able to put off making a decision. "What's happening to him isn't an accident though, what right do we have to stop this?"

"We're his parents," her voice was heavy, "we should do all we can to help him now, because we don't know what will happen in the future."

"You're thinking that something bad is going to happen," he pointed out, taking a step back, "the way that he reached out to Kes today, I think that's a good sign of what's to come."

"I don't want to take any kind of risk with my son Chakotay," she walked away from the door and over to the couch, the bedroom doors closing behind her as she did so. She paused before she looked round to meet his gaze, "I don't understand why this is happening to him," she said as she sank down onto the couch, feeling rather deflated by everything that was going on.

"This is obviously what the caretaker intended," he reasoned. "For a long time we wondered why the caretaker had impregnated you, the foetus was scanned and probed and nothing unusual came up. So we considered that maybe it had been an accident, or that the caretaker had been experimenting with our species. And then when Noah was born, and we both saw that he had ten fingers and ten toes just like any other human baby," Chakotay smiled at the memory, as he crossed the room to join her, "we started forgetting to question why, and we simply told ourselves that he was our son, and there was nothing more to it than that."

"He is our son," she insisted as he sat down beside her.

"I'm not doubting that," he was quick to reassure her, "but what I am saying is that he was created by the caretaker, and it was naïve of us to think that this was ever going to be simple. Maybe when the caretaker realised just before his death that he would never be able to have his own offspring, creating Noah was his way of passing down at least some part of what he was, of leaving just enough of an imprint for him to live on through an alien being. Noah may be part of the caretaker, but he will always be a much larger part of us."

"For how much longer though?" her question was rhetorical, "he is becoming less and less human with each day, we should stop this whilst we can."

Chakotay bit back his immediate response until he had taken some time to consider her words. "I don't think I can agree to that," he said at last, "at least not until I see some evidence that it's the best thing to do."

"And what about if when you do see this evidence it's already too late?" she made him question himself, and again there was a long pause before he replied.

"There is no guarantee that this will work, or that this is the best thing for Noah. Right now the biggest mistake would be to be go ahead with the treatment."

Kathryn sighed, "Chakotay, I want your support even if you don't agree with me."

"I can't do that," he confessed reluctantly, knowing that his words would only anger her, "and you can't treat Noah without my permission."

"I think you'll find I can," her words were cruel even if the way she delivered them wasn't, "you may be his biological father, but he was not conceived naturally, and there are no legal documents of you adopting him. You have no legal rights over him."

"So this is what it's come down to has it?" he felt bitterly disappointed with her for stooping to such a low level to get what she wanted, but he wasn't surprised that she was manipulating the situation, she'd become quite good at it in the past few years. "You haven't taken your role as his mother seriously for a long time, and now you just expect to be able to come in and make such an important decision without me."

"I did want to make this decision with you Chakotay, but if I can't have your support, then I can't do that."

He stood from where he was sitting and strode over to the dining table, standing just before it with his arms folded and taking some calming breaths; Kathryn rarely wound him up on purpose, but when she did, she did it better than even Seska could have done. He was about to ask her to leave, but then something occurred to him that he didn't think even she had considered, and suppressing his anger as best he could he turned around to face her. "You might not need my permission for anything that involves our son," he agreed, "but you do need my permission to take a sample of my DNA that the doctor requires for the treatment."

All expression suddenly drained from her face as she realised the truth of his words, "and you would refuse to help your own child?"

"You can manipulate me into going along with your command decisions, and you can push me to one side if it means that you achieve your goal of returning home, but how dare you accuse me of not caring for my son." He shot back, "I love him more than anything, and I would give my own life for him if it meant saving him from any pain. You might be able to deny me some of my rights as his father, but for this particular decision, it's going to be me who has the ultimate say in what happens."

Kathryn stood and shot her husband a hateful glare, "I hope you don't live to regret this decision, because if anything happens to him, it's going to be you who I blame."

He shrugged, "I think maybe you should leave, I have an early start in the morning."

"You know it's at times like this when I wonder who's changed more for the worse," she said angrily, "you're always criticising me, but I think you need to take a long hard look at yourself."

He didn't say anything, just watched her expectantly until she did as instructed and walked out of his quarters, the anger evident in her stride as she left.

To be continued.