Captain Janeway walked slowly through the streets of the city, quietly window-shopping as she made her way towards the café where she was meeting Chakotay for a lunch date. Suddenly, a streak of light shot down from the sky and crashed the ground with an enormous explosion. The force of the shock wave knocked Kathryn off her feet.
Chunks of debris flew up into the air in every direction. Screams sounded from further into the city and a knot began to form in Kathryn's stomach. Chakotay was in there somewhere. This was the nightmare scenario that had kept her from admitting her love to him for so long – watching helplessly as danger overcame them and his life was threatened.
A mad rush of terrified people knocked her to the ground and caused her to choke on the dust their running feet stirred up. She regained her balance on trembling legs just as the next explosion rocked the ground.
"Janeway to Voyager," she hailed. "We need an emergency beam-out."
"We are unable to get a lock on you at the moment," Tuvok's annoyingly calm tones responded. "There is some kind of atmospheric radiation above your position, likely caused by the explosions. It is rendering the targeting scanners inoperative in that area. You must clear the region before we can beam you out."
"Acknowledged. I'll find Chakotay and call you when we're out."
Setting her eyes on the burning horizon, she took off running. Somewhere in that mess of rubble was the man who set her heart racing, and she would be damned if she would let the universe take him from her.
=/\=
A ball of fire burst from the rear of Voyager as the shuttle bay door exploded outwards. The Delta Flyer shot like a missile out of the launch bay and flew towards the planet below.
Kathryn's hands danced over the console as she performed evasive manoeuvres to keep Voyager from locking a tractor beam on the shuttle. Her jaw clenched as she pushed the shuttle's engines to their limit, hoping against hope that she would make it in time.
An image of Chakotay's bleeding face flashed across her mind. She shook her head sharply and focussed her eyes on the sensor readouts.
Come on, just a little further, she silently coaxed the Flyer. We just need to get under that radiation cloud and then I can beam them out of there.
=/\=
"Chakotay!" Kathryn yelled frantically, shoving her way through the throng of people. She found what she supposed used to be the café, but it was little more than rubble now. She searched around desperately for his familiar face. "Chakotay!"
"Kathryn!" She finally heard his voice over the din around them. "Kathryn!"
She ran towards the sound of it but hit the pavement hard as another building exploded nearby. Dust filled her lungs and she fought to draw breath. She pushed herself up off the ground and scanned through the haze around her. Rubble was piled high where people had been standing moments before, with Chakotay among them.
"No!" she cried, dashing towards the rubble.
Just as her hands touched the crumbling stone, she felt a transporter beam take hold of her.
She materialized in the cockpit of the Delta Flyer, Chakotay lying before her, barely conscious.
"Oh, Chakotay." She knelt down beside him and touched a hand to his face.
"I'm okay," he coughed.
"No, you're not." She looked around for a medkit and her eyes landed on the helm seat.
No one was flying the shuttle.
"What the hell?" She jumped up and checked the monitor. The 'autopilot' light was on, with a course back to Voyager laid in.
=/\=
The ghost Kathryn knelt beside Chakotay and traced a finger along the lines of his tattoo. "You'll be okay now," she said softly, knowing he couldn't hear her.
She watched the material Kathryn find the medkit and bring it over to tend to Chakotay as well as she could.
"Kathryn," she heard Chakotay rasp, "if I don't make it… I want you to have this." He withdrew his hand from his pocket and handed her a small velvet box.
"I'll keep it for now," the material Kathryn said, taking the box, "but I won't open it, and you can give it to me properly when you get better."
Suddenly, the comm system crackled to life and Tuvok's voice echoed in the room.
The ghost Kathryn smiled, knowing that they would be alright now. She began to feel light-headed and looked down to see that her body was fading out of reality. It seemed that time was being set back to normal now. Her work had been completed, and the temporal loops were over.
Neither her material counterpart nor her lover noticed as the ghost of herself faded away into nothingness.
=/\=
The turbolift doors swished open and Captain Janeway strode onto the Bridge.
Commander Tuvok rose from her chair to greet her. "What is the Doctor's prognosis?"
"He's operating on Chakotay now. He says he'll be fine, but he'll be off-duty for a few days to recover. It's lucky you beamed us out when you did, otherwise it might've been too late for him." She crossed her arms and tilted her head. "That was a risky gambit, sending the Delta Flyer out on autopilot like that."
Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "We did not. The shuttle appeared to come to life on its own and resisted all of our attempts to shut it down. It even shot out the launch bay doors when we locked them down."
Kathryn looked surprised. "Must have been a ghost," she shrugged.