He wouldn't be late, no matter how many arguments between Chell and Neelix needed to be broken up. Despite his determination, time was ticking. His step quickened.
He knew Seven was still working so he walked right in to the cargo bay. Chakotay pulled up short at the sight in front of him.
Naomi and Icheb sat on the floor of cargo bay two, just beginning to spread out a puzzle.
"What's going on here?" Chakotay moved inside, remembering his deadline.
"Commander," Icheb said, jumping up immediately. He practically stood at attention, to Chakotay's amusement.
"At ease."
"I didn't expect to see you, sir." Indeed, he thought the Commander was due for his customary dinner with Captain Janeway. Icheb glanced uneasily at the puzzle pieces strewn over the floor.
"Don't worry," Chakotay reached the container he was after, "I'm not staying. What are you two up to?"
"I'm tutoring Naomi on genetics."
Chakotay smiled, looking down at the puzzle as he opened the container. "Looks like you found a creative approach."
Icheb and Naomi watched as the Commander rifled through the bin. While Naomi returned to her puzzle, Icheb spoke, his nervousness seeping through in his words, but not his confident tone. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Seven. I'm supposed to be writing a paper on transwarp instability."
Chakotay didn't bother telling the young man that Seven wouldn't fault him for the change of plans. Instead, he teased Icheb in a way he knew Icheb wouldn't understand. "Don't worry, your secret's safe, as long as you keep mine."
"Sir?" Icheb watched Chakotay remove a bottle from one of the containers. He didn't have much personal experience, but the Collective knowledge told him it was probably alcohol.
"Antarian cider," supplied Chakotay at Icheb's quizzical quirk of the head. "Not the replicated stuff. There are only a couple of bottles left and I don't want Mr Neelix getting his hands on them."
A glance confirmed to Icheb where Chakotay was storing the bottles, but he knew it to be a less effective spot than other locations. "Then you should store them with the salvaged Borg components. Neelix never inventories those containers. He says they give him the creeps."
"Officer-level thinking, Icheb. Would you mind?"
Always eager to please, Icheb dipped his head. "Of course. Enjoy your evening, Commander."
Chakotay smiled widely. "Thanks, Icheb. I plan to."
Icheb nodded and headed over to the bins to do as the Commander requested.
[Janeway's Quarters]
Janeway crouched on the floor, pieces of her replicator around her like the puzzle Naomi and Icheb were trying to assemble. She sighed. It was a lost cause.
The door chimed.
[Astrometrics]
It was after the end of her shift, but Seven wasn't really sure what to do with herself so she continued working. She supposed she could conduct some research, or see if Icheb wanted help with his paper. Maybe she and Naomi could play a game.
She'd initially booked holodeck time, but that was before Chakotay announced he was having dinner with the Captain. That information had come during their breakfast together only that morning. It irked her that he would change their plans at the last minute like that. She breathed deeply and pushed away her irritation. It was useless and irrelevant in the long run.
The holodeck was still booked. She could do anything. And yet nothing really interested her.
Lieutenant Paris and Ensign Kim were always looking for extra holodeck time. She could give it to them. However, she vaguely remembered hearing they were having a game night in Harry's quarters. A little rummaging in her memory supplied the term Monopoly, though she was uncertain what sort of game emulation of a business model could be.
Waste was not something Seven liked to do, not even with regards to the holodeck. With a sigh, she shut down what she was doing and headed out. She could figure out what she wanted to do when she got there. Maybe she could hike or run some other exercise program.
The corridors were busy with people coming off shift and the night crew taking over. Numerous people conversed off to the side, either to update their colleagues or to just catch up on daily gossip.
Seven, only nodding to those who noticed and acknowledged her passage, made it to the holodeck on time.
[Janeway's Quarters]
She didn't bother to stand, instead calling for the doors to admit her guest.
"Was there a malfunction with the replicator?"
Janeway glared up at her guest. "Not a single word, Tuvok."
[Holodeck]
"You're late."
"What are you doing here?"
"How does a picnic in the Alps sound?"
Seven looked around, at a loss for words.
Chakotay smiled and gestured to the checkered blanket at his feet. "Join me?"
"I thought you were having dinner with the Captain," said Seven, moving forward and settling herself on the blanket. It was pleasant, cushioned into a comfortable softness by the thick grass and flowers around them. The sky was a light blue and dotted with fluffy clouds. Around them were mountains spotted with exposed rock and covered up to the white snows of their peaks with grasses, flowers, and other alpine plants.
"I may have lied just a little in order to surprise you." He handed her a plate and began ladling out chicken, vegetables, and salad.
"It worked. I was almost angry."
He chuckled, but his eyes were assessing, trying to determine if she really was mad. Satisfied with her pleased smile, he relaxed. "The Captain did schedule a dinner for tonight, but when I – I asked to postpone it."
"For me?"
Chakotay nodded, charmed by her honest incredulousness. "Of course." His smiled widened as she leaned forward quickly to kiss him.
"Thank you." She looked around. "I don't understand."
Busy sprinkling parmesan on the salad, Chakotay answered absentmindedly. "Understand what?"
"Why did you go through all this trouble?"
"Later," he promised. He handed her a glass of cider.
"Chakotay, you know—"
"It's real, not synthehol," he assured her. They'd discovered by happy accident during a random date night that real alcohol did not cause her to become inebriated nearly as quickly as synthehol. It was a mystery even the Doctor had been unable to explain since the two were chemically identical and thus should have had the same effect. Chakotay had shrugged and pointed out that home-grown food tasted better so why not alcohol too?
"Where did you find it?" Real food and alcohol was prized, which was why the crew took such good care of their aeroponics and hydroponics bays.
"I had it stored away. Don't ask me where. If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
"It wouldn't be in the storage containers in cargo bay two, would it?"
Chakotay almost choked.
"I was cataloguing the supplies and found it," she explained, smiling.
"I'd be mad, but clearly I need to find a better hiding spot, which is my own fault." He took his glass and raised it up, Seven following suite. "To us."
Seven nodded, raising the glass to her lips, but before she could, Voyager gave a violent shudder.
"Computer, pause program," Chakotay said, the two of them immediately standing and heading for the doors. They made it to the corridor where Seven stopped at the first computer display.
"It's a gravimetric surge. I'll try to localize it."
"Damage?"
"It's overloading our inertial dampers and destabilising the warp core."
"I'll get down to engineering, lend a hand."
Seven nodded, not taking her eyes from the display as she worked as best she could from the limited location.
Chakotay ran to engineering, not aware of the various updates and initial analysis Seven gave to Harry Kim, who took a late shift in order to captain the ship. When Janeway made it back to the bridge, Seven updated her as well, but Chakotay didn't know that either.
B'Elanna ordered everyone out just as Chakotay entered. He headed right for the warp core, either ignoring or not hearing her shout of caution and began putting in commands. They worked in tandem a moment, trying to keep the ship from falling apart despite the personal danger.
She would have warned him away, but there was no time and the energy from the special anomaly hit Voyager unexpectedly.
The only one still close to the warp core, the energy discharge sought out Chakotay like a bolt of lightening found the tallest point in a thunderstorm. He was struck and fell to the floor.
B'Elanna ran to him, gasping as she watched his skin glow and half his face turn more wrinkled than an apple left out for six weeks.
He wasn't fully gone, B'Elanna's voice breaking through his daze. She sounded calm, which he knew masked panic. Her words slurred together in his mind as he drifted away.
[Sickbay]
Chakotay woke to the bright lights of sickbay. He groaned. The light stabbed at him, leaving his head throbbing.
"Welcome back. Lie still."
Stifling another groan at the Doctor's brisk tone, Chakotay sat up. "What happened?"
"You were transported here. Your body was in a state of temporal flux."
Chakotay still felt groggy, too much so to fully appreciate the Doctor's words upon their first utterance. Seven would have rolled her eyes at him. "Temporal flux?"
The Doctor huffed and answered in a swift, irritable tone. "You had the liver of an eighty-year old man, and the kidneys of a twelve-year old boy. Fortunately, I was able to create a chronoton-infused serum that brought you back into temporal alignment."
Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, Chakotay barely followed the EMH's words. "What?"
The Doctor began shuffling tools and samples around on one of the trays, paying no attention to the Commander's confusion. "Anywhere else, that antidote would've earned me a prestigious award. Of course, on Voyager, it's just another day in the life of an under appreciated EMH."
"What about the rest of the crew? No other casualties?" Chakotay asked, baffled at how the Doctor could just rattle such a speech off and read his PADD seemingly without concern for anyone else.
"Not that I'm aware of. I've tried calling the bridge, but no one answered. Were we attacked?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so. We ran into some sort of anomaly." Seven had told him, but his head hurt too much for him to remember her exact wording right away… "A gravi – a gravol – gravimetric surge. Seven said it was a gravimetric surge."
"Seven?" The Doctor seemed momentarily perplexed, which confused Chakotay further, but the EMH quickly moved back to pompous indignation. "Well, naturally, no one thought to inform me."
"Nope." Chakotay stood, which gained the Doctor's attention.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Leaving, and you're going with me."
"I am?"
"Yes." Chakotay crooked his head as he looked at the Doctor. Something was off about the EMH. His answer was not sarcastic or snarky. He wasn't being deliberately difficult, just legitimately confused by Chakotay's demand. "There may be other injured crewmen."
"In case you've forgotten, I'm a prisoner of these walls."
"Where's your mobile emitter?" Chakotay asked, already suspicious of what the answer would be.
"My what?" There was no guile, no sarcasm, no lies. It settled Chakotay's mind. Something beyond unusual was happening. He had to check out the rest of the ship and figure out just what was going on.
"What do you think about Seven of Nine?"
The Doctor scowled, but not in the way of a jealous rival. "What? Commander, perhaps I better examine you more thoroughly."
"No, I have to go. I'll be back."
He took a medkit with him and headed for the turbolift. He heard the Doctor asking about the mobile emitter, but didn't have time to explain.
He entered the small lift and hesitated, wanting to check on Seven more than anything, but he didn't know if she'd returned to astrometrics, the bridge, or engineering. It was against policy, but that was the first instinct he chose to follow. "Computer, locate Seven of Nine."
"Unable to comply."
His heart beat furiously against his ribs. What had happened to her? "Explain."
"Command not recognized."
That made little sense to him, but he rationalized that it could be a simple glitch. "Locate crewman identified as Seven of Nine."
"Unable to comply."
He huffed. "Explain."
"There is no person identified as Seven of Nine on Voyager."
He still hoped for a glitch, but it was a vain hope and he knew it. There were only a few reasons he could think of for Seven to not be on Voyager anymore: kidnapping, temporal flux, alternate or parallel universe, or some other random anomaly. Given the Doctor's confusion about the mobile emitter and Seven, he was already leaning to one answer.
Clearly, he'd have to return to his post and figure things out from there. "Bridge."
Things were pretty normal until he felt a distortion ripple through the turbolift. It was like being jolted very suddenly and very shortly by electricity. The medkit disappeared as well, but the turbolift continued.
The bridge was busier than anticipated. Since he glanced to the left first and it had been Harry who contacted him about the anomaly first, it was the ensign he addressed. "Harry, what's going on?"
Harry looked at him blankly, utterly confused. He could see the pips on the officer's neck, but didn't recognize him. "Sir? I'm afraid I don't know you."
Captain Janeway stood, drawing Chakotay's attention. He held back a gasp as he could no longer deny the truth. She looked younger, her hair long and held in the tight bun that was custom for her years ago. Her stance as she looked him over was one he recognized; confidence mixed with determination and a vulnerability she wouldn't admit even to herself.
"Take him into custody" said Janeway immediately. Security officers took out their phasers to do her bidding without question. She eyed him frankly, hands on her hips. "How did you get aboard this ship?"
He almost smiled at her reaction to shoot first. It was so typically her. "Kathryn, I know this may be hard to believe but I think I've somehow been thrown seven years into Voyager's past."
"Oh, I didn't know we were on a first-name basis. Who are you?"
"In a very short time I'm going to be Commander Chakotay, your second in command."
Her brows rose. She recognized the name, having reviewed Starfleet's reports on the Valjean. "Really? Let's try another theory. You learned Voyager had been assigned to capture you, and you managed to get on board to sabotage her."
"Check your sensors," he said. "See if they're showing any strange temporal readings." And yet he knew she was too stubborn and distrusting to either take his word for it or trust the facts supporting him.
Harry, ever eager and naturally the type to seek out information, checked sensors before Chakotay finished speaking. "Captain, the environmental controls are fluctuating."
Captain Janeway wasn't taking any chances and she wasn't about to put her mission at risk. No matter what, this man was going to see the inside of a holding cell. "Take him to the brig."
Resigned to his fate, Chakotay didn't fight or put up an argument as two security officers guided him back to the turbolift and back down towards the brig. Despite her hard shell, he knew Janeway was not unpersuadable. She could be meant to see reason.
Not even halfway there, the same thing happened as when he was headed to the bridge. This time instead of a medkit disappearing, it was the guards.
"Halt turbolift," Chakotay ordered, hardly believing his luck. "Astrometrics – no, belay that. Engineering." As much as he wanted to see if Seven was at her usual post, he hoped if he could return to the scene where this all started, he could figure out what caused the splits in time and maybe fix it.
[Engineering]
Chakotay was prepared to see almost anything, but his mind had either failed or refused to consider one potential scene. He stepped inside and was immediately shocked into paralysis.
"Seska!"
A sharp knock from behind left him with the sensation of falling into darkness.
Pain. It was the only thing that registered at first. Time, existence, everything swirled around without a purchase.
Seska's face, her true Cardassian visage, looked in front of him and he jerked back.
"Hush."
"Five years ago," he mumbled, his head still woozy and his mind just catching up to his eyes. He would have moved away from Seska more, but strong hands grabbed him at her command and held him still.
The pain in his head lessened and he felt his skin pulling tight, being healed by the dermal regenerator she held. When she moved back, he felt better. A headache remained, the only evidence of how hard he'd been struck.
"You didn't really think I'd hurt you, did you?" Her tone, just as he always remembered it, was smug, cocky.
Her eyes were dark and calculatingly cruel as they regarded him. He gazed into those eyes, remembering the heartache and betrayal she'd made him feel. He'd never hated anyone more in his life. She was, in that moment as in the past, the embodiment of absolutely everything he despised from the Alpha Quadrant. "I wouldn't put anything past you."
"Then you have an idea of what I'll do to find what I want."
He sighed. "And what is it you want, Seska?" With the pain in his head, he couldn't remember her exact motives at this point, nor could he guess how the time shifts would affect her.
"I want to know how many more of your people are back on board."
"Go to hell."
She slapped him. Hard.
His ears ringing, Chakotay nonetheless had a moment of clarity. "All right, I'll tell you," he said, still shaking his head to clear it a bit. "I've got a dozen officers with me. We've already locked you out of every key system. In less than an hour, we'll be in control again."
"In less than a minute you're going to be dead if you don't give me access to those systems."
"So much for the sweet façade." She raised her hand again, but he quickly nodded to the side. "I'll need to use that console."
Her dark eyes glittered. "Just don't do anything you'll regret."
One of the Kazon, whose name Chakotay had forgotten over the years, pushed Chakotay toward the warp core.
Thanking his years of boxing, Chakotay in turn punched the other man. Before his enemies could regroup, he grabbed the Kazon's weapon and fired. He hit as many Kazon as he could – Seska was the first and fastest to dive for cover – and hit the warp core controls for good measure.
The computer gave out a warning and Seska shouted at her men, but as the coolant system began to fail, Chakotay made his way upstairs.
He threw the Kazon weapon ahead of him onto the upper deck, surprised when it disappeared. This was his chance. He climbed up after it and looked down.
One of the Kazon males made to come after Chakotay, but Seska was too clever. She pulled him back, looking up at where Chakotay and the weapon had disappeared. "Scan the perimeter and report any anomalous readings. There's something wrong here."
Safe for the moment, Chakotay thought about what to do. Again, he wanted to find Seven, but he didn't know what he would find if he managed it. Below him, the Kazon scuttled all over engineering.
"Computer, locate Seven of Nine."
"Unable to comply."
"All right." He knew which course to take then.
[Sickbay]
Eager to avoid confrontation through corridors that might be full of anything from Hirogen to Kazons, Chakotay used the Jefferies tubes.
The hatch ahead was labelled for sickbay. He pushed it open and a wavering voice greeted him.
"Whoever you are, I suggest you surrender. I'm armed." The Doctor held up a hypospray.
"It's only me, Doc." He shuffled out of the tube, grateful for the haven.
"Commander," the EMH reached out and helped Chakotay out, "please tell me what's going on."
"If you tell me the stardate."
"49624."
"I should have guessed. No wonder you didn't know about the mobile emitter. You don't get it for another year."
"I don't understand."
"The ship seems to have been fractured. Different areas exist in different time periods."
"But—"
"Doctor, what did you do to me when I was beamed here?"
"Just the chronoton treatment. It's quite impressive to begin with. I don't know what else—"
"So far I'm the only one who can cross from one zone into another. That serum you gave me… it must've made me immune. Normal technology won't pass through the barriers."
The EMH nodded. "If everything is in a state of quantum flux, nothing should pass from one time to another since it doesn't exist in the same place in multiple times."
"I'm going to need help figuring out a way to bring the ship into alignment." He thought a moment. He needed help, especially with engineering under Seska's control. That meant he'd need to bring hyposprays to the people he intended to use. "Can you replicate a chronoton-infused hypospray casing using the same principles you used to make the serum?"
"I think so. Why?"
"I have to take some of it with me if I'm going to get the allies I need." When the Doctor nodded, Chakotay went to the computer and tried yet again to find Seven. The computer could tell him nothing. It didn't even want to tell him where the rest of the crew was.
[Bridge]
Chakotay entered, the hypospray in his hand.
Harry drew his phaser, but Harry wasn't the one Chakotay needed. "Captain."
Janeway stood to face the returned intruder. Her stance had not softened in his absence. If anything, she'd grown warier and for good reason. "Where are my officers?"
Despite knowing she wouldn't believe him, Chakotay decided honesty was the best choice. "The turbolift passed through a temporal barrier. They couldn't get through. If you're willing to hear me out, I can explain. At least partly."
"You mean about your being from the future?" She all but scoffed in his face.
"Your first Starfleet posting was on the Al-Batani, where you once knocked out power to six decks by misaligning the positronic relays." A few people smirked at that information, but he ignored them.
"Nice try," she crossed her arms, "but you could have read that in a Maquis intelligence file." She hated to admit that he wouldn't have had to be so covert as to that. Anyone could have read that on social media, the incident having made its rounds through certain circles hours after occurring.
Fine. He'd have to get personal. "What about Molly, your Irish Setter? You rescued her from a pound on Taris Seti four. She was the runt of the litter, but you thought she had spunk. You love music, but you never learned to play an instrument, which is something you still regret."
That he couldn't have gotten from any intelligence file. She'd only told a select few about Molly being a runt and regretting her lack of musical knowledge. They were things she'd kept private because of pride. "How do you know these things?"
"Because you told me, about three years from now."
She froze, thinking about it. "My ready room."
Naturally, Janeway led the way, Chakotay only partially paying attention to the crewman who followed.
She scanned the serum as he suggested. It contained what he said, but she still didn't trust it. The Maquis, Chakotay's crew in particular, were well known for their cunning. "It's a fascinating story. But as the Ferengi say, a good lie is easier to believe than the truth."
Biting back his frustration, he challenged her. "So, you're saying no one on your crew has encountered any of these temporal barriers?"
That bit she couldn't deny. "My helmsman disappeared when she tried to walk down that corridor, but that doesn't prove she passed through a temporal barrier."
"Then what else could have happened to her? You're stuck on the bridge and you've been picking up anomalous readings indicating temporal shifts. If you inject yourself, I can take you down that corridor and show you everything I've said is true."
Janeway, instead, handed the serum off to the officer, Andrews, at the door. "Have Mister Kim run a full spectral analysis. For all I know, this is poison and Mr Chakotay is trying to assassinate me."
It was clear to him that there was no way she was going to believe him, not even with the evidence wholly in his favour. There was no time – despite the way it was being fractured and played around with – to debate this. For all Chakotay knew, the anomaly causing the fractures would get worse or become irreversible.
Janeway's fatal flaw was always her pride. She believed herself invincible, which was how Chakotay managed to grab her. As she handed off the serum, he took advantage of her distraction, pulling her against him. He held another hypospray to her neck and addressed Andrews. "She's right. It's poison, and I'll use it."
He backed them all the way out into the corridor with Andrews following. "Let her go."
Chakotay shook his head. "Lower your weapon."
Andrews hesitated, but did as demanded.
Chakotay injected Janeway and drew them back behind the barrier before Andrews could do more than shout an objection.
On the other side, Chakotay and Janeway watched the officer's panicked attempts to gather help for a situation he could do nothing about.
"Andrews!" Janeway called. The man didn't hear and she stood, frozen in shock or disbelief. She didn't even realize Chakotay had loosened his grip on her.
"He can't hear you. We've moved into a different time frame."
Janeway continued to watch Andrews and the reinforcements he'd called. They began scanning. It was clear they still couldn't see past the barrier.
"You want more proof? It's right down that corridor. You just have to trust me."
"It isn't easy when you're holding me hostage." She said it more out of stubbornness than a belief that he was dangerous; the hypospray had already been injected and his grip was loose enough that she could get away without much effort.
Chakotay removed his arm completely. "Stay or go. it's your choice."
"Now that I'm inoculated, I can go anywhere on the ship I want?"
"That's right."
"Then I suppose I don't need you anymore."
He'd forgotten how headstrong and frustratingly immovable a force she used to be. He was amazed she'd gotten through the Academy without being thrown out or punched in the face. "Without me, you'll be walking into a future that you know nothing about. Again, it's your choice."
She opened her mouth to argue more, but Chakotay started walking away, giving her no choice but to follow. "Where are we going?"
"The astrometrics lab." He'd put it off long enough. It was time to see if Seven was there and more importantly begin figuring out a way to put the ship back together.
"Voyager doesn't have an astrometrics lab."
He smiled. Don't need me, eh? "It will."
[Corridor]
Chakotay didn't notice his strides grow more hurried the closer to the lab they got. He did, however, notice his heart speed up as the doors opened, but his hope fell to ash in his stomach when he saw Seven was not there. Instead, a young woman with pale red hair and tiny horns on her forehead greeted them. The sight didn't register with him at first. Though he hadn't consciously thought about it, he'd naturally assumed the ship had been split into past time periods. It never occurred to him that there could be future ones.
"Captain." Next to the red-haired woman, a tall man with Borg implants on his face looked equally surprised.
"I'm sorry," said Janeway. "I don't recognise you, Lieutenant."
"It's me, Naomi Wildman."
The young man gazed at them. "How did you—"
Chakotay stared back, his mind finally accepting what was in front of him. "Are you Icheb?"
"Something tells me you weren't expecting us," said Janeway. She looked around, registering the surprise on everyone's faces.
Icheb gave a slight shake of his head. "No, ma'am."
"You both died," said Naomi. Her eyes were wide, as though she were seeing her heroes for the first time… or ghosts.
"Seventeen years ago," Icheb confirmed.
Chakotay felt his chest clench, but he refused to ask the how's their statement invited. With any luck, fixing the ship's temporal status would mean the timeline would be different. "The Captain and I haven't risen from the grave. The ship's been fractured into different timeframes."
"We know," said Naomi. Thirty-seven timeframes to be exact."
"How did you calculate that?" Janeway asked, eying the computers around them. They looked more sophisticated than she expected, meaning they were a few years newer than Voyager. She too wanted to know the details of her death, but knew better. Prime Directive rules blared in her head and in any case, she too hoped things would change once Voyager was set to rights. If she was lucky, even Chakotay would just be a blip on her radar.
Naomi smiled and turned back to the computer. "We've had seventeen years to upgrade the sensors. A chrono-kinetic surge interacted with the warp core."
"The accident that occurred in my timeframe," Chakotay supplied.
Icheb brought up a schematic of Voyager, split up into the various timeframes. "It shattered the space-time continuum aboard the ship."
"The question is, can we repair the damage?"
"If we could get to a section of the ship that still exists in that time period," suggested Janeway, "maybe we could counteract the surge, stop it from happening."
Icheb was already shaking his head. "That section was the focal point of the surge. It seems to have been obliterated." Engineering still existed, but the time period in which the anomaly struck it was gone.
Naomi dipped her head sadly. "It's too bad Seven's not here."
"Seven? What's Seven?" Janeway looked from Naomi to Chakotay. Chakotay looked stricken, perhaps wondering what had happened to this Seven.
Giving himself a shake, Chakotay forced himself to answer. "Someone who knows more about temporal mechanics than any of us."
"Unfortunately, she hasn't been found either." Icheb frowned, checking the computers again, but even their enhanced sensors refused to find the former drone.
Chakotay held his breath. "She's not…"
Icheb shook his head. "There's no reason to believe she's dead or completely off Voyager. There are a number of crewmen we can't find. Even our sensors can only do so much." He smiled. "We didn't see you coming."
"Okay." Chakotay turned to Janeway. "Maybe we can find her in another timeframe."
[Corridor]
Though there was nothing to suggest Seven couldn't be anywhere on Voyager, even back at the holodecks, Chakotay thought it most likely to find Seven in the cargo bay. If she wasn't in astrometrics, that was the next logical place to look.
"So why are we looking for this Seven in the Cargo bay?" Janeway asked, hurrying to keep up.
"She spent a lot of time there." His pace quickened.
"Working?" With such a strange name, Janeway suspected this Seven person to be an android, possibly one used to organize the manifest.
Chakotay smiled. If she only had an idea of what would befall her precious ship. "No, mostly regenerating."
[Cargo Bay two]
The doors slid open and both officers hesitated.
"Maybe you'd better fill me in." Janeway looked around with horrified amazement. She was too concerned with the numerous Borg wandering nonchalantly around her ship and their technology transforming the cargo hold into a Cube to notice the myriad of emotions crossing Chakotay's face.
"Looks like the time you forged a temporary alliance with the Borg." He tried to shake off his disappointment. He now knew without a shadow of a doubt what he'd find. He steeled himself, straightening his shoulders and presenting a strong front just in time.
"What's happened to this vessel?" Seven, assimilated and fully entrenched in the Borg Collective, strode up to them with her customary frankness, making both Janeway and Chakotay jump. Her skin was as pale as death and her body armour as imposing as a war machine. The sight made both Janeway and Chakotay's stomachs curl, but for different reasons.
"Seven." Her name slipped past his lips before he could stop it. She glanced at him without emotion. He wanted to rip the ocular implant from her, to pull every last bit of machinery from her, to kiss her until she remembered who she really was, but he knew it would all be useless. Instead, he clenched his fists and bit his tongue.
"Correct." Her one human eye was the bright blue he remembered, but it was cold as ice as it regarded him. "What has happened to this vessel?"
Swallowing and trying to remind himself that she'd be different when they righted the timeline, Chakotay made the introduction a little stiffly. "Captain Janeway, meet Seven of Nine, tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix zero one."
"Hello."
Seven glanced between them. "This vessel is damaged."
Chakotay sighed. "Yes, Voyager has been fractured into various timeframes by an anomaly."
Seven, quick on the uptake and having come to her own conclusions after extensive scans, led the way to a computer console. "The ship has been split into thirty-seven sections, all with different temporal assignments."
"Yes, that's what we've seen," Janeway said. She looked at Chakotay. He tore his gaze from Seven and nodded. "Can you help put things back into sync?"
"Yes." Seven drew up a visual of a Borg ship. "When a Borg cube travels trough a transwarp corridor, the temporal stresses are extreme. To keep the different sections of the Cube in temporal sync, we project a chronoton field throughout the vessel."
"How?" asked Janeway.
"Each Cube has specially designed conduits. If we install similar conduits throughout this vessel, then generate a sufficiently powerful field, we may be able to force Voyager back into temporal sync."
"Sync with what?" asked Chakotay. He trusted Seven, but he also knew this version of her would be loyal to the Collective. Did she intend to make it so the Borg would succeed in taking over?
Seven, however, was not personally manipulative and even as a drone knew there was only one way to fix things without endangering the ship. Besides, the Borg had learned long ago not to mess with timelines. "The vessel will return to the moment of the original chrono-kinetic surge. Since the surge will last for six or seven seconds, Commander Chakotay will have a short time in which he could try to counteract the warp core reaction."
Chakotay nodded, but he also spotted a problem thanks to his experience with the medkit and Kazon rifle. "Even if we could replicate these conduits, we'd have no way to get them through the temporal barriers."
After a few seconds of thought, Janeway answered. "Bioneural circuitry. It runs through every section of the ship, almost like a nervous system. If we could inject the gel packs with your serum, we could use them to transmit the chronoton field."
Seven ran some calculations. "The warp core could be recalibrated to generate that field."
"Work on it," said Janeway. "Chakotay and I will see about modifying the serum."
Seven whipped around as the two Starfleet officers moved away. "Your plan is inefficient."
Chakotay stifled a chuckle, but Janeway was taken aback. "Why?"
"There are only two of you. If I were to assimilate you into a small Borg Collective, you could then assimilate others. The work would proceed more rapidly."
Since the drone made no move to carry out the suggestion of assimilation and Chakotay seemed more amused than afraid, Janeway waved it away. "Sorry, but I like my plan better. We'll be back."
Chakotay hesitated, wishing she was the same person he'd left in his own timeframe. "Bye, Seven."
Seven of Nine blinked and turned away to continue working.
Chakotay heaved a sigh as he joined Janeway. "So?"
"So, what?"
"That went well."
They entered the corridor and Janeway had the distinct impression Chakotay was silently laughing at her. She rubbed a hand over her face. "That was an interesting experience."
"You'll get used to dealing with the Borg." Her eyes widened and Chakotay couldn't help smirking.
"You mean we're going to be seeing more of them?"
"We'll run into them on a few occasions and Seven—"
"You claim she'll be a member of my crew." Janeway made a face to show just how likely she believed that to be.
Chakotay laughed. "Trust me. She's a very different person once she's no longer brainwashed by the Collective."
"Let's hope so." She sighed deeply. "It doesn't seem like my first command is shaping up the way I expected."
"In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself astray in a dark wood, where the straight road had been lost."
Janeway looked at him incredulously. "I didn't know Dante's Inferno was on the Maquis reading list."
Chakotay didn't bother telling her he'd read it once in high school without really appreciating it. Did she think anything other than an education on Earth was worthless? "Actually, when things were getting a little difficult, I borrowed your copy. It seems to sum up a lot of what we go through."
Janeway looked at him, perhaps more surprised by this than their encounter with the Borg. "My fiancé gave me that book as an engagement gift. I've never lent it to anyone."
Chakotay shook his head, oblivious to how much information that gave away and just what it meant to her. She'd loaned it to him a long time ago, only briefly mentioning that it had been a gift. He'd read it and only because the quote came up in other readings and seemed to apply to many days in the Delta Quadrant had he stewed over it. "Not yet. Anyway, I agree with Dante. If you always see the road ahead of you, it's not worth the trip."
"A soldier and a philosopher." Her steely tone had warmed to something akin to appreciation. "Your intelligence file doesn't do you justice."
He laughed, but didn't notice her assessing gaze on him. It had been so long since he'd been a Maquis that he forgot how monumental every little gesture had been during those early days, how every kindness between Starfleet and Maquis carried substantial weight.
If I really did lend him my book… Try as she might, she couldn't help but place meaning on that single gesture. For her to give anyone her fiancé's gift, she would have to care a great deal about that person. Chakotay hadn't alluded to any sort of romantic relationship between them, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. Still, he was Maquis, which made it unlikely. She watched him closely. If she could look past the Maquis bit, she could admit he was handsome and intelligent, daring and confident. Yes, she could see a relationship springing up between them under the right circumstances. Still, it was difficult to think of a situation she'd be in where a Maquis captain would be such a close ally.
"You know," said Chakotay as they neared sickbay, "Seven was right."
"What? You want her to assimilate us?"
Smirking again, he shook his head. "I was thinking it should be the other way around." He held up the hypospray he'd injected Janeway with. "Helping hands make work go swifter."
"I don't think giving the Borg access to all of Voyager is a great idea."
"Again, you seem to be missing my point."
[Sickbay]
"Ah, I'm glad you're back." The EMH handed each of them an ammunition belt and hypospray without waiting for a reply. "I've replicated these belts to resist the effects of the temporal barriers, just like the hyposprays."
"Good work, Doctor." Chakotay took his and put it around his waist.
Chakotay moved over to where the Doctor had replicated more doses of the serum and began counting as the Doctor and Janeway talked. If they had enough for the gel packs, they could begin inoculating select crewmembers right away. He'd need backup if he was going to be in engineering with the Kazon. He didn't trust Seska to help him for a second.
Hardly paying attention, Chakotay nonetheless heard Janeway's tone grow sharp.
"Killed? How?"
Chakotay looked over, warning bells blaring in his head.
The Doctor was confused and answered without thinking. "In the incident that stranded us here in the Delta—"
"Doctor!" Chakotay interrupted. "The Temporal Prime Directive, remember?"
"Of course. I'm sorry." He ducked his head and returned to his office.
Janeway looked long and hard at Chakotay. "The Delta Quadrant? Is that what he was about to say?"
"Ready?" He didn't look at her.
"Fine." Both of them could seek out their own goals. "I'll take the upper decks, you take the lower."
"I don't think splitting up's a good idea." Not without knowing just what was where. Even he couldn't say what dangers they might face, not if future timeframes awaited them. She could fall victim to anything, as could he. Besides, he didn't fully trust her judgement just then.
"We'll get the job done faster."
He sighed. "As your First Officer, it's my duty to protect you. I know a lot more about what's out there than you do, and we have no way of communicating if something goes wrong. It may take a little longer, but we should go together." He also didn't trust her not to do something stupid now she knew about the Delta Quadrant.
She scowled, but gestured for him to lead the way. "After you, Commander."
In the corridor not far from sickbay, they opened a panel to reveal two gel packs. Janeway injected them with the serum and they replaced the panel.
"Can I ask you something?" Janeway asked. Chakotay cringed internally, but didn't object. "I started out with a crew of a hundred and fifty-three. I already know I lost my doctor. How many others?"
"We'll suffer casualties like any other starship." He started walking, hoping she would drop the issue.
"That's not much of an answer."
"I don't think it's wise to give you too many answers, but you should know that you gain new crewmen as well as losing some."
"Like you. How do you get to be my First Officer?"
"Our crews will be forced to work together after we get stranded."
"In the Delta Quadrant." She didn't glare, but her captain's stoicism was authoritative as well as disguising a deep fear. "How does that happen?"
Before he could answer, a giant virus rounded the corner and pursued them.
Chakotay didn't hesitate. "Run!"
Luckily, they didn't have to run far. A barrier flashed and they stopped, looking back to see the virus disappear.
"What the hell was that?"
Chakotay resisted a shudder. "A macrovirus. They infected the ship a few years ago."
"Sounds like it's going to be one disaster after another on this ship."
He was inclined to agree, but felt she needed some philosophy to ensure she continued helping him. "You once told me that Starfleet captains don't choose their missions, the missions choose them. You're going to have the opportunity to study things no human has ever seen before."
"Including some very large germs." She sighed. And I thought Kirk was making half the shit up.
They made it through the holodeck with only a minor inconvenience. Tom Paris' Captain Proton characters required a little buttering up, but persuadable. The only danger there was the massive amount of eye rolling he and Janeway did while listening to the grandiose speeches.
Even a brush with the Maquis crew in the transporter rooms went relatively smoothly. The only thing that gave Chakotay any concern was B'Elanna's temper. True to form, the half Klingon accused him of collaboration and pointed an accusing finger at Janeway for stranding them in the Delta Quadrant.
He eyed Janeway as they headed to the mess hall. She'd been quiet after B'Elanna's angry outburst. He knew the thing that was bothering her was not the Maquis but the information that it was Janeway herself who caused them to be stranded.
"You're questioning yourself," Chakotay said.
She didn't bother denying it. He seemed to know her too well for that. "More accurately, something I haven't done yet."
"You can't."
"Why not? What possible good can come of me stranding my ship here?"
Chakotay had no ready answer and cursed to himself when they entered the mess. It really wasn't a good timeframe to enter when the Captain was already wavering. It was the aftermath of an energy surge that split Voyager and caused more than a few deaths. He couldn't look at the scene without feeling a little sick himself. Filling Voyager's mess were numerous crewmembers with open wounds, all moaning in pain or weeping at the loss of a friend.
Tom, who was dirty and working hard despite clearly being at the end of his rope, was issuing orders. He noticed Chakotay and Janeway. "How did you get in here?"
"There isn't time to explain." Chakotay moved to the panel he knew held the gel pack. He kept his eyes off the suffering people around him, the only way he could go about his task without jumping to help. They needed to fix Voyager.
A crewmember near him groaned in pain.
Chakotay gritted his teeth and tuned it out. If they fixed Voyager, this incident would solve itself.
Janeway, not having the knowledge of how the situation would work out, was unable to keep her attention away from the suffering people around her. "What happened to them?"
Tom answered as he pressed a hypospray to an officer's neck. "Radiation poisoning. The EPS relays overloaded when we ran into the anomaly. We need the Doctor and medical supplies, or we're going to have a lot more casualties."
Chakotay found the panel and opened it up. The gel pack was injected and he stood, his heart sinking as he saw where Janeway was.
"Tuvok?" She crouched at her friend's bedside. He was injured, worse than she'd ever seen him. He held out his hand and she took it, her eyes burning with tears.
"I am pleased you're here. I didn't think I would see you again. I want you to know it has been an honour to serve with you, and to be your friend."
Janeway called Tom over, but it was too late.
"Live long and prosper." Tuvok's farewell was a whisper as Janeway's tears dried into a steely, cold determination. She'd not let this happen, not again.
Chakotay hesitated, but they needed to keep working. "We need to go."
Janeway shook Chakotay's hand from her shoulder and stood. "Yes, we do."
[Turbolift]
"Voyager getting stranded. All these deaths, this entire future, it's my fault." Her eyes burned at the realization, the admittance of such a terrible wrong. "I've got to do something to change it."
"What do you have in mind?" He knew what she was going to say, but he wanted her to say it out loud. Maybe she'd hear it and realize what a bad idea it was.
"Maybe we can find a way to modify Seven of Nine's plan. Put Voyager into temporal sync with my timeframe. Now that I know what to expect, I could avoid getting trapped in the Delta Quadrant in the first place."
Yep. It was as bad as he expected and she had the determined look in her eye which usually meant she'd go through with whatever plan she'd concocted. He felt the stress of the situation begin to get to him. "Halt turbolift. Seven's plan is dangerous enough. Trying to alter it is too risky."
"It's worth the risk."
"Listen, Tuvok is alive in my timeframe. If Seven's idea works, Tuvok and the other crewman will be fine."
"They'll still be stuck in the Delta Quadrant. If the temporal anomaly doesn't kill them, something else will. The Borg, macroviruses, all kinds of anomalies... The Delta Quadrant is a death-trap."
"Last time I checked, the Alpha Quadrant wasn't a children's cartoon either. It's not like Romulans, Cardassians, and any number of anomalies aren't always poised to destroy starships. Besides, what about the Temporal Prime Directive?"
"To hell with it."
"And what about the lives you'd be ruining by changing things?"
"Just what am I missing? Seems to me that any lives I'd change would be better off."
"How about people like Tom Paris?" he said angrily, hardly caring now what he blurted out. "Tom's a former convict, who'll be our pilot, medic, and husband to B'Elanna Torres."
"The Maquis woman I met?"
"She's going to be your Chief Engineer. Two crews, Maquis and Starfleet, are going to become one and they'll make as big a mark on the Delta Quadrant as it'll make on them. It's horrible that we're here, but we'll be protecting people like the Ocampans, curing diseases, encouraging peace. We'll all be following a leader who sets a course for Earth, and never stops believing that we'll get there."
"Two crews who could be in the Alpha Quadrant instead of fighting and dying for people and places they have no other connection to besides unfortunate circumstance. It's meaningless."
What right does she think she has to change the course of everyone's lives? The thought was angry and what made him angrier was the realization that if she refused to listen to him, he'd never meet Seven, that he and others like him would never have the chance to prove themselves. If they didn't go to the Delta Quadrant, what would happen to the people whose lives were positively impacted? What would happen to his crew or hers in the Alpha Quadrant? He was right to say that danger lurked there as well. That alone spurred him to speak.
"Fine! How about people like Icheb or Seven of Nine, a Borg who'll become a member of this crew after you help her recover her humanity, a woman I love."
"You—" Well, there went her theories on a possible relationship with him.
"Seven has a rough start and it's people like you who not only save her from the Borg but save her from herself. If you don't keep things the way they are, she won't be rescued, neither will the others like her whose lives Voyager affects." The Maquis won't earn forgiveness from Starfleet. I won't be rescued…
She glared at him for several, long moments. "Are you going to be lecturing me like this for the next seven years?"
He almost laughed in relief. "Don't worry, you'll always get the last word."
"Fine. In that case, let's get back to work."
[Corridor]
Last but not least…
Engineering was not far ahead and it was the encounter Chakotay dreaded the most. Even seeing Seven decked out in full Borg armour had ultimately not been so difficult as seeing the Cardassian spy. Seven at least proved to be an ally and he consoled himself with the knowledge she'd soon be normal. Seska was unable to change from being the manipulative, cunning, and power-hungry psychopath she was. He knew she'd be trouble on every possible level and to add insult to injury, she'd try to use his own emotions against him.
"So, ready to see this Seska?" Janeway watched him closely, unsurprised when he frowned at the question.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"Can I ask you something?"
Chakotay gave a short nod, wary of what it might be.
"You said Seska was a member of your crew who turned out to be a Cardassian spy."
He nodded again.
"You don't have to confront her. I could go in myself."
"No." He glanced at her. "That's not a question."
"Why do you want to see her again?"
He drew back, not expecting that in the least. "I don't want to see her again."
Janeway pierced him with eyes like hooks. "What was your relationship with her before you discovered she was a spy?"
Chakotay cleared his throat, unhappy how quickly Janeway was able to make him squirm. "We – ah – had a personal relationship, but we broke it off before that."
"Uh-huh." She wagged a finger at him. "And now you get to have a final confrontation, maybe even get the final say in this time."
"Your point?"
"You need to get over her and get your head in the game. That is, if you really want to get back to your timeframe and back to your Seven of Nine."
"Don't worry." Chakotay sighed. "I don't plan on doing anything stupid."
"No," Janeway's gaze bore into him, reading his angry stance more easily than he would have guessed, "but you just might anyway. You don't strike me as the type to get close to someone easily, Commander. I'd even bet it's slowed down your relationship with Seven more than you realize. I know because I'm like that too, and I know that if I had an ex in this situation, I'd be prone to do something—"
"Stupid?"
She put her hands on her hips, waiting.
"You're right. It did affect me a great deal. I even thought about revenge for a long time, but that's not why I'm here now." Is it? No, of course not. "We need to fix Voyager. That's it."
There were a few seconds while Janeway assessed him and then, accepting what she saw or realizing there was nothing more she could do, she nodded and they continued on.
"You know," said Janeway, "Cardassian spy, Borg drone… You sure have interesting tastes in women, Commander."
His laughter made her laugh, which carried them all the way to the doors of engineering.
As was their plan, Chakotay went in alone.
"Chakotay." Seska's smug voice greeted him almost immediately.
"Seska."
"I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to show up here again."
"In case you didn't notice," said Chakotay, trying to ignore the mix of weapons pointed at him by Seska's men, "the ship isn't what it should be."
"Yes, my scans show unusual temporal readings." Her dark eyes focussed on Chakotay like lasers.
"This timeframe's sensors can't piece it together, but we did," said Chakotay. "We're going to inject all the circuitry with a serum and force the ship back into sync. We've already injected the gel packs in the other timeframes. That just leaves the ones here. It's in both our interests to work together."
To everyone's surprise, Seska only thought about it a moment, answering almost flippantly. "I agree. Let him go."
The Kazon, Rulat, practically shouted at her. "You believe him?"
"His story is too preposterous to be a lie." Unlike Janeway, Seska was more willing to believe the evidence in front of her. She knew damn well that he spoke the truth and wouldn't ignore it out of pride. "I'll admit it's an ingenious solution."
Chakotay didn't believe her for a second, but pretended to anyway. "I'm glad you're cooperating."
"Oh, I believe in cooperation, as long as it benefits me." She followed him to the gel pack, like a cat following a mouse.
"Good."
She smiled, rubbing her fingers together as though she longed to reach out. "You know, it's true what they say."
"What's that?"
"Men get more distinguished as they get older. A few lines here, a little grey there. It adds character."
"Good thing you have a lot of handsome single Kazon to prey on now." He pulled his head away as she tried to stroke his hair. He fought back bile at the touch. He was at the console. So close…
"Too bad I think your mind has started to go." Her smirk became a scowl in a second. She put more stock in being clever than prideful, but even she had her limits.
"Maybe."
"You know, the fact that you're in uniform and from the future tells me your people are going to take over the ship again. I can't allow that to happen. Step away from the console."
Before he could do much to resist, a Kazon seized Chakotay from behind and dragged him from his work.
"It's an ingenious plan," said Seska, smiling. "It just needs a slight modification."
Chakotay struggled as she began inputting commands into the computer. "What are you doing?"
"Recalibrating your pulse to bring the ship into temporal sync with my time frame."
"That's not possible."
"When will you learn to stop underestimating me?" She continued putting in her commands.
"If you make even the slightest miscalculation you'll destroy the ship and kill everyone. Besides, the initial break didn't happen here. It might be impossible to sync Voyager into your timeframe."
"What other choice do I have? If I can get Voyager into my own timeframe, then I'll be able to ensure that you never retake the ship." Her confident grin turned coy. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. You can start fresh with me."
The suggestion was repugnant. "I'd rather not."
Scowling again, she nodded to the Kazon. They raised their weapons. "Your choice. Goodbye, Chakotay."
Above, hidden from view by the same break in time that Chakotay originally escaped through, Janeway, Tom, and Harry watched the attempt at diplomacy. It occurred pretty much as predicted.
Janeway nodded to the two men. "Now."
Jumping down through the invisible barrier, the two men landed in crouches, effectively startling the Kazon. The fight was on.
Chakotay returned to the panel as Icheb and Naomi entered. They ran to a console of their own and caused explosions where the rest of the Kazon warriors stood.
In the chaos of Maquis and Starfleet flooding engineering, Seska slipped out of sight and out of mind. She waited, like a spider, for an opportunity.
Janeway came down the lift, getting a weapon tossed to her from Tom. Distracted by the fighting and trying to ensure her people didn't get caught in the crossfire, Janeway didn't notice Seska's hiding place.
Sneaking up quietly, Seska seized her moment and grabbed Janeway from behind, holding a phaser to the other woman's head. "Stop! Put down your weapons."
"Don't listen to her." The phaser pressed a little more into Janeway's flesh.
Seska, however, knew Chakotay too well. "Oh, your faithful First Officer isn't going to let you die." She looked to him with a smirk. "Are you?"
Of course, he wouldn't. Besides being a loyal officer, Janeway was still his friend. Chakotay lowered his weapon as did the rest of the crew.
"I thought not. Very clever, Chakotay, inoculating them with your serum."
"You're not going to win, Seska."
"I don't see why not. Now it's time to inoculate my people so we can have access to the rest of the ship."
"That's not going to happen, Seska. I won't do that." Even for Janeway, he couldn't do that.
"I'll kill her. Even if you're not sleeping together like the crew thinks, you don't want to be responsible for that, do you?"
"You're not going to shoot her."
"What makes—" Seska didn't have time to ask what made Chakotay so confident because the reason for his calmness walked through the door.
Seven of Nine had been finishing up inoculating the rest of the gel packs and ensuring her calculations were correct for the push back into the correct timeframe. She'd also kept an eye on the progress of Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay. It was something Commander Chakotay had asked her to do in case they needed more reinforcements than planned. He was wise.
Understandably surprised right out of her smugness, Seska let go of Janeway as the Borg drone entered and made a beeline for her. Janeway dodged to the side as Seska fired on the drone.
Seven saw the phaser fire, but didn't bother to dodge. It bounced off her armour. She took the Cardassian's weapon without trouble and held her immobile.
"Thanks," said Janeway, looking at Seven in new appreciation and no small amount of wariness. The drone simply stared at her, expressionless.
After the Kazon and Seska were stored safely away, Janeway addressed the motley crew. "The rest of us should return to our sections. After Chakotay initiates the warp pulse, he should find himself back at the moment Voyager encountered the chrono-kinetic surge. He's only going to have a few seconds to reset the deflector polarity. If the time line is restored, the rest of us should have no memory of what's happened here. So, I'd like to thank you now for all your loyalty and hard work. Good luck to each of you."
The group dispersed, looking grim as they placed their futures in the hands of Fate and Commander Chakotay.
Janeway waited behind. When they were alone, she turned to face him. She hesitated.
He said he was in love with Seven of Nine and she believed he must be right about the difference between an assimilated drone and one rescued from the Collective, but still…
I loaned him Mark's book.
"Kathryn?" He knew whatever was on her mind must be serious. She had the stiff set to her shoulders that meant she was preparing herself for something potentially unpleasant.
"Mind if I ask you one last question?"
"Sure. I might not be able to answer it."
"Fair enough."
"What is it?" He braced himself for her to ask about the Delta Quadrant again.
"For two people who started off as enemies, it seems we get to know each other pretty well. So, I've been wondering. Just how close do we get? I know you said you love Seven of Nine," she just barely managed to conceal how improbable she believed that to be, "but Seska suggested…"
This was more difficult to answer and it surprised him more than any other question about the Delta Quadrant she could have asked.
In their early days, when he'd admired her, and there had been no other options, and he'd been desperate for something to help him get over Seska, he'd believed they could be a couple. Thankfully, her gentle rebuffs had outlived his interest and his need for a rebound. His emotions and mind had righted themselves and their friendship remained just that. This was all too much for him to explain and he knew that to tell her too much might change the outcome of it all. So, he settled for something simple.
"Let's just say there are some barriers we never cross and never should."
They shook hands and he watched her walk away, frowning as he thought over those early years and how much had changed. Her question and Seska's insinuation that he and the Captain were a couple reminded him of Janeway's own accusation that he was hung up on Seska, that her influence had affected his relationship with Seven years later. Had it? He didn't think so. She'd been hard to get and he'd fought for her, more than he'd ever fought for anyone. And yet he felt Janeway was somewhat right.
He loved Seven, but there was something he'd been holding out on, an idea he'd toyed with but not committed to.
When he was sure Janeway was back where she needed to be, Chakotay initiated the pulse. A bright light engulfed him and the rest of Voyager.
He was a little disoriented when the light cleared and he found himself in engineering with B'Elanna, but he forced himself to focus. "Reroute main power to the deflector, and set the polarity to the frequency I'm inputting."
B'Elanna frowned at him. "Why?"
"Have you ever heard of a lightning rod? In about three seconds, we're going to need one."
Still confused, B'Elanna did as he told her, watching the readout as sensors detected an energy flare. The burst from the anomaly suddenly reached out toward Voyager. Her breath caught in concern, but the deflector dish caught the energy. It really was like a lightning rod.
The lights in engineering went out, leaving backup power.
"The deflector's burned out," said B'Elanna.
Chakotay checked internal sensors. Everything seemed normal. "But at least we're all in one piece."
"Chakotay?"
"Trust me, a burned deflector is better than the alternative."
Still confused, B'Elanna nodded and began giving orders to conduct repairs.
He stayed a few more minutes to assure Captain Janeway that B'Elanna had not acted without orders, even assured her there was a reason for his actions. However, there was something he had to deal with. So, he left engineering in B'Elanna's capable hands.
"Chakotay to Seven of Nine."
"Seven here."
Unable to help it, he smiled, imagining her at her post in astrometrics, her fingers flying even as she spoke to him.
"Commander?" she asked as the moment dragged and he daydreamed.
"Meet me in the holodeck, please," he said, giving himself a little mental shake.
"Commander, the deflector dish—"
"Will be fine. B'Elanna's working on it."
"But—"
"I'll meet you there in ten minutes. Chakotay out." Chuckling, he nodded a farewell to B'Elanna, who looked at him like he'd lost his mind.
A quick stop was required before he met Seven. It didn't take long, but she still beat him to the holodeck.
She stood outside the holodeck doors, blessedly whole and free of Borg armour. She turned to look at him and he'd never been so glad to see her blue eyes, wide and full of expression he felt he'd somehow overlooked up until then.
"Chakotay, what—" His lips captured hers, silencing her objections. He was even more enthusiastic than she would have anticipated given their short time apart. He drew a small grunt of surprise from her as he pulled her body close and dipped her back. A moan was eventually dragged from her as his tongue parted her lips.
Smiling a slightly smug smile when he righted her, Chakotay pulled Seven into their paused program.
They finished dinner and almost made it to dessert before Seven's questions could no longer be ignored. "Chakotay, what happened? You seem on edge."
He swallowed more cider, feeling the liquid courage course through his veins. "I do actually have something I want to talk to you about."
"Proceed." She watched him closely, concerned by his strange behaviour.
"Have you ever thought about having quarters, real quarters?"
"No. It would be impractical with my alcove." To even contemplate moving all the wiring and large components was exhausting.
"What if you left your alcove where it is and just divided your time between there and normal quarters?"
"I already do that with you. It would not make sense to occupy another room."
"So, why don't you move in with me then?"
Seven froze, not entirely sure if he was joking or not.
"There's plenty of room and you're right that you already spend half your time there." As she sat, immobile, he was suddenly nervous as a teenager telling a girl that he had a crush on her.
Seven, for her part was still in shock, staring at him and not entirely sure if he was serious. Was it moving too fast? Were they ready for that… was she? She could think of nothing to say.
"Or, I have an even better idea. Why don't…" Chakotay sat up straighter, pulling a small object from his pocket. It was a simple but elegant ring. "Seven, will you marry me?"