"Max?" said Noah Lessing, "No, Voyager." His voice was furious, "You are going to give us back Engineering, right now."
"Fat chance," said B'Elanna flatly, "Engineering is more important than the Bridge and we have it. Face it, you've lost. Give up now and maybe we'll be lenient."
"Oh, like you were with Rudy," hissed Noah dangerously.
"That wasn't our fault," said B'Elanna angrily slamming her fists on the console, "He made his own decision."
"Our Captain is dead because of you! And you know what?" he moved out of frame for a moment, "You're going to know what it feels like unless you give up right now."
Noah Lessing moved back into frame and in his arms, almost in his lap, with a kill phaser to her head, was Captain Janeway.
They all gasped, B'Elanna gestured wildly with her off-camera hand for them to do something, anything. But she was the best engineer there, there was nothing to be done.
Gretchen couldn't take any breath in as she gasped silently. Her skin burned as she instinctively bared her teeth. She turned suddenly and ran.
"Kill her and we'll kill you," she heard B'Elanna say, "Kill her, and we execute two of our hostages. We have thirteen of your people."
Noah Lessing laughed, "You're Starfleet,"
Gretchen reached the alcove they had come from, pulled out her phaser, and again shot Marla Gilmore in the chest.
"I'm Maquis," said B'Elanna savagely, "And half-Klingon. I will tear your throat out and drink your blood."
There was silence for a moment, as she hauled Marla Gilmore's body up, and started to drag it towards the console. As she neared Harry and Tom moved to help.
"We have nothing left to lose," Noah Lessing said calmly, "None of us do. I'm not going to die like Rudy did. I'm not going to go back to a cell. If you want to fight to the death, I don't mind anymore."
His eyes were blank as his finger moved toward the fire button.
B'Elanna was pushed out of the way as Marla Gilmore's blonde face appeared in front of the console.
"He's losing it," said Gretchen softly, as Marla's eyes opened, "Tell him the truth about Captain Ransom."
"Noah," said Marla in confusion, starring at the console, "Noah, no! What are you doing with Captain Janeway?"
"I'm going to make her pay for what she did to us," said Noah forcefully, "For what she did to Rudy."
"Max killed Rudy," said Marla, standing on her own now, but shaking, "Max hacked his visualizer to kill him."
"Why would he do that Marla? They're lying to you."
"No, he said it himself, He tried to kill me," she said in a high-pitched voice, wrapping her arms around herself.
"No," said Noah, "You must be mistaken. He had no reason to kill Rudy."
"He had every reason," screamed Marla, "He wanted to get home. Rudy's death gave him a way to do it. We used those creatures, those aliens. Max used Rudy."
"That's, that's different Marla," said Noah, "Those aliens, they were just, they were just…."
"Just beings that wanted to live," said Marla, "Creatures who never hurt us, until we gave them a reason to."
Marla starred off, "We both went through the Academy. We used to believe in making allies of different life forms. When we got here though….there were so, so, many aliens that were our enemies…..It was easy to think of them all as our enemies. When we started the experiments…I knew it was wrong….I did, but I let myself believe,….that because they were aliens they were ….unimportant …..animals. I knew they were sentient, but I pretended they weren't…..so…..it was easier. I thought we were all that mattered, that getting home was worth anything we did."
"But it wasn't," said Marla, looking back at the console, "When Max held that phaser on me, I knew what those aliens must have felt when we trapped them. What it was to be looked at as less than human. To be nothing but a bump in someone else's road…I never want to be looked at like that again,….but I know I deserve anything I get. Let Voyager make their decision on what's to be done with us. We've lost our right to our freedom."
Noah Lessing looked at her sadly, nodded, and put down his phaser.
Every single one of Janeway's senior staff looked miserable as they entered her poorly lit Briefing Room. It was now early night and had been five hours since the Equinox's mutiny ended with the surviving 15 crew members being re-confined to Sickbay. It had been four since Janeway and most of her crew had regained consciousness.
Janeway looked over the faces of her senior staff, minus the occupied EMH and Chakotay, who had the Bridge. While they all looked miserable, the four who had been conscious during the mutiny were visibly exhausted and otherwise the worst off. Tom and Harry were wearing the dirtiest uniforms she had ever seen. B'Elanna was not wearing her command jacket, but her hair was crusted over with a black substance Kathryn was not sure she wanted to know about.
Gretchen's uniform was clean, but she was starring at the wall with a blank expression that made Janeway wonder if she should have her checked for a concussion, though the Doctor had cleared everyone in the room.
"Report" said Janeway.
"Engineering is mostly unharmed, which is more than I can say for the rest of the ship," said B'Elanna, more tiredness than anger in her voice, which was a bad sign, "We're going to be fixing lights, doors, and minor systems for weeks. And I'm going to have to scrub every single computer on this ship, multiple times, for the virus, just in case. Max always was devious and after this, I'd put nothing past him."
"The crew is as well as can be expected," said Tom, "Everyone's shaken up, and the Doctor is seeing to the injured in the holodeck since the Equinox crew is still in Sickbay. Many of our crew have been treated for neural trauma, broken bones, or bruised bodies, but only two were bad enough to confine to beds."
"That brings us to the security report," said Janeway, turning to the Vulcan, "Tuvok."
"My recommendation is as I stated in my report following the mutiny. The immediate and permanent removal of the Equinox crew from Voyager."
Janeway nodded, "Yes, that's what we're here to discuss."
Janeway sighed, "I was trying to avoid this. Taking justice into our own hands with fellow Starfleet officers. It's a heavy thing to take away freedom. To take away what we all want, the chance to go home. We tried to try them fairly, and frankly, we're all lucky to be alive. Rudy Ransom was the only one we had a chance to officially try, and he's dead. So we're going to do this another way. As Captain of Voyager, I declare the Equinox crew, all of them, guilty of mutiny. Senior staff, I ask for you to vote on their sentence."
The crew nodded, "Tom, Harry, B'Elanna, Gretchen, you saved the ship while the rest of us were asleep, go get some rest until morning. We'll meet again at 0900 and take a final vote. Everyone else, there's work to do. You're dismissed."
Her staff started to leave the room, "Gretchen," she said, and the younger woman turned to her, eyes empty, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she replied tightly.
Janeway starred at her for a moment, then spoke to her firmly.
"I want you to go be evaluated by the Doctor again, better yet, I want you to stay under observation overnight. You are not to leave the holodeck until the meeting tomorrow, that's an order."
"That's okay," she answered blankly, "I had something I wanted to talk to him about anyway."
"Harry," said Janeway, as she saw Harry and Tom lingering just outside the doorway waiting, "I want you to escort Gretchen to the Doctor."
"Yes, ma'am."
Janeway found her way to the holodeck an hour later. When she entered she found it had been turned into a more spacious Sickbay, with five pods set up in the center, and a diagnostic station on one side.
The EMH walked over to her as she arrived. She could see no one else in the space, and assumed they must be in the closed medical pods.
"How are things Doctor?
"I must say, this set-up is extremely convenient. There are a few tools that don't synthesize well, and in a true crisis a loss of power would be catastrophic, but for everyday emergencies this is a marvelous Sickbay."
"How are the patients?"
"The two who were seriously injured in the mutiny are recovering slowly. Both have serious burns from an exploded console, but they're resting comfortably now, and they will recover."
"What about Gretchen?"
"Ah, yes. Miss Kincaid. I'm really not qualified for that. It's…psychological trauma of some kind. I'm neither a psychiatrist, nor a counselor. For now she needs rest, I gave her a hypospray and these new pods are quite comfortable and sound-proof. After that…I don't know. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings."
Kathryn tightened her lips and examined the Sickbay for a moment, instinctively looking for Gretchen's pod but their occupants were hidden, "Why are there five pods Doctor?"
"Oh, that," said the Doctor, rolling his eyes, "When Gretchen made protests about being kept, Ensign Kim and Lt. Paris insisted that they all needed to be held for observation. I'm certain they would have roped Lt. Torres into the ruse too, except that she would have killed them."
He continued, "I suppose mutinies make people jumpy. Not to mention what Captain Ransom did to himself a few nights ago."
Kathryn shuddered involuntarily, "I don't know if it's worse or better, but according to Gretchen's report, Maxwell Burke killed Rudy Ransom."
"Well," said the Doctor stiffly, "I can't decide either."
Kathryn finally got to bed at about 3:00 in the morning. She tossed and turned, mind unwilling to shut down. Finally after a hopeless hour, she sat on the edge of her bed with her head in her hands, then stood up and ordered coffee.
Janeway debated for a moment, and then set out for the Bridge.
"Why am I not surprised?" said Chakotay from his First Officer's seat as she appeared on the Bridge. He had gotten a few hours of sleep earlier.
"I'm not quite back on duty," said Janeway easily, "I'm going to go drink coffee in my Ready Room."
Chakotay smiled, and she passed him, grateful that the door to her Ready Room was working. Unfortunately, the lights were not. When the door closed behind her, it was all darkness, except for the dim starlight out the windows.
Janeway went further into her room, intending to turn on her desk lights, and stopped cold as she saw the outline of someone on her couch.
The face was close to the window and she was able to make it out.
"Gretchen?" she gasped, "What are you doing here?"
The face turned towards her, and Kathryn was able to make out a few blinks.
There was a very long, pitiful, sigh, "Just when it felt like home." Gretchen's eyes were starring distantly at nothing.
"Don't try to wake up," said Janeway, moving towards her desk, "That couch isn't very comfortable. But you're welcome to stay. I'm just going to work on some reports."
To Janeway's relief, Gretchen blinked several more times, closed her eyes, put a hand under her head, and lay down on the couch.
Janeway scrolled and typed in silence, not even ordering another coffee from the replicator when her first one was gone. She let the Doctor know through a report where his patient was.
The lighting was still dim, but it looked to Kathryn as if Gretchen slept for 2 or 3 hours. But as she had no solid theories as to how Gretchen had slipped past the Doctor, avoided the hypospray, and entered her Ready Room, Janeway had no true idea if she was unconscious or not.
Finally when Kathryn glanced over to the couch again, she found Gretchen's eyes clearly open. Janeway said nothing in case she wanted to sleep more, but soon Gretchen stirred, sitting up slowly and then standing.
"Why don't you stay and have breakfast with me Gretchen?"
"Why do I feel like that's an order," said Gretchen testily, then shaking her head and saying evenly, "I'm sorry, you let me stay, I shouldn't be so rude."
"I didn't force an exhausted member of my crew who's currently under medical supervision to leave my hard couch." said Kathryn lightly, smiling much brighter than she felt, "Clearly I'm a saint."
"I should get back to the holodeck," said Gretchen evenly, looking at the door.
"Go ahead," said Kathryn kindly, seeing that Gretchen both felt some better, and that trying to confine her hadn't worked, "You have two hours before the next staff meeting."