Part 2
The sky was a deep blood red, just like it always had been for as long as Kathryn could remember. It was summer so the sky stayed red until fall when other colors would take place due to the climate in the higher sky.
She had never seen the sun, only heard of it.
Shadows were everywhere, she observed from where she stood in the doorway. She was hesitating, but knew she had to get moving before nightfall. Everything was bathing in red and shadows. Occasionally there would be some lighter color somewhere, but it was very rare. It looked like the end of a war zone.
Kathryn laughed silently at the irony. It was a war zone.
No one was safe, even if you did know how to protect yourself. Wild animals had evolved from normal earth animals from over 2400 years ago, making it unsafe to travel, alone or in groups.
Nothing was like what she had heard from the elders about this being a beautiful place. Ha! Beautiful! What a joke. Nothing could grow outside. No one was safe among the streets. Men were killed for their hair just so someone else could make a hat or keep warm with it while women were raped in the middle of the day. Children were meals for the animals and birds that stalked the land and sky.
Kathryn took a deep breath and began the trek to the other houses so she could meet her family, who were moving away from this part of the city.
Her cousin had been killed just one week earlier. Her mother had taken it very hard. She believed she should have watched over him, but with the increase of activity in this area she had been distracted and Josh had been dead in a matter of seconds. After, when they found his remains, there hadn't been anything left to bury.
Her innocent 5 year old cousin that didn't know the world he was living in was dead.
"Damn them to hell," Kathryn said to herself.
There were big clans around that promised protection, provided you could pay. Usually they wanted food and supplies, but some of them asked for a younger daughter or, in some cases, a younger son.
The biggest clan leader had been interested in Kathryn. He had seen her one day and the next showed up at her family's home asking for her as a prize.
When she had come out he had caught her hands and tried to take her body. When one of his hands came into contact with her butt and squeezed she'd had enough and hurt him in his most sensitive area.
He cursed her and spat out words that left no doubt that she would pay for it, and she had, with her cousins' life. It was their fault the animals had come through the security fence and Josh had lost his life.
Tears ran down her cheeks. There was no justice.
This broken world. Just because of the attack so long ago. An attack without any reason. No defense against the attackers; nowhere to run and hide.
Kathryn was now on the longest stretch of her journey and started to walk faster. It wasn't wise to go slow through here, especially when you didn't know what was in the bushes.
Suddenly, she stumbled over something that came out of nowhere. Kathryn gasped. A rat, or some kind of relative. It was so big it could consider itself a large cat.
Kathryn sighed in relief, she had to hurry. She was late.
She broke out into a run.
'I hope they don't have to wait to long for me,' she thought to herself
Kathryn was ready to marry and wanted a child more then anything, even if it meant to raise them in this world. She wished, more than anything to marry someone she loved, like her parents. She was engaged with Mark, and although he never made her heart beat faster, she felt safe with him. Who knows? Maybe she would learn to love him. It wasn't that far of a leap, from safety to love, and in a world like this, the safety he provided was enough.
Rain started to fall from the dark sky where the occasional black cloud would appear, soaking this broken world.
Even with the rain falling hard, Kathryn could see smoke rising from a far point down the road.
'Oh God, something has happened.'
She began a death run, thinking she could help whoever was in trouble, but when she got there she nothing was moving. Not even people turning their heads to see who was running up. No one was there. The rain soaked through her clothes, right into her bones. Her long hair was plastid on her head and shoulders.
The closer she got the more familiar the scene became. 'No, it can't be true,' she pleaded. 'Please don't let it be true.'
The wagon was tilted over and the belongings burned down, every personal item destroyed. Among them lay a doll, with a pink and white dress. At least it used to be. Her blond hair was burned away, her little necklace was gone, as well as half her head, crushed. Her doll. Liz. It was her favorite toy as a child.
Kathryn bent down and when she was above Liz, picked her up, and suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. She quickly turned around where a dead tree stood. It wasn't the tree that caught her attention, but what was in the tree.
"NO..." Kathryn cried out with all of her strength and collapsed onto the ground. She looked up into the face of her youngest brother. Beaten, bleeding, dirty, dead, and hanging from the tree like some sick ornament.
Beside him was her mother, her clothes was ripped so it left no doubt. She had been raped.
Like her little sister Phoebe that was higher up her face marked with scares, also raped, humiliated, her innocent taken away from her. Beside her was Kathryn's older brother, James, also probably raped. Kathryn's heart had stopped beating by now, but it broke again when she saw her fiancée'. She couldn't tell by his face it was him. That had been beaten in so badly it was unrecognizable. It was the ring on his left hand told her it was him, and the way her heart instinctively lurched when she saw what was left of his body. Even her dog, was in the tree. Some sick freak had, without any doubt, made the most of Molly before they skinned her.
"Oh God, no, no, no, please no. Let me die." Her nose and throat were surprisingly dry and all the blood in her head rushed out, probably to where all the other blood was. In a pool on the base of the damn tree.
"God damn it, who did this," She cried to the corpses. "WHO? Just tell me who and I will kill them. Please come back! Don't leave me! Please God…" Kathryn shouted and sniffed in a mix of anger and grief. A grief that could even break a Vulcan.
In her emotional state she saw one of their knives and, as if in trance, she reached for it. She lifted it to her hand, creating a deep cut across it. The blood didn't feel warm or cold, neither did it hurt. It was like watching through some one else's eyes. Her engagement ring was on her left hand but she felt nothing when she looked at it. Nothing. Mark was dead, her family was dead. When she didn't feel anything from the hand wound, she cut her wrist and the veins beneath the surface.
A noise behind her woke her from her state of grief. She turned to see a morent in front of her, cornering her. Nature had crossed a lion and one of the few alien animals on earth, a Klingon reptile. Nasty creatures. Detected prey like a shark. Blood seemed to call to them and attract blood thirsty morents. And they were always blood thirsty. It smelled the blood from her family and her. She dropped the knife and stumbled backward but collided with the wagon, and a piece of splintered wood pierced her side.
She fell to her knees, holding her side. To spare her mind the last moment of life she closed her eyes. Waiting for the beast to kill her. 'Let me leave this dead world,' she begged whatever god was listening. 'Please let me die.'
Chakotay was on his way home after leaving his friends when he heard a blood chilling scream. He ran as fast as he could toward the scream not knowing how far away it came from. When he got there he saw a woman being attacked by a morent. He reached for his weapon and took a step forward to provoke the beast.
Chakotay dared a look at the woman before he responded to the beast's roar and attack. He succeeded in getting in reach of the only place his specially made knife could penetrate, the chest. He jumped back as fast as he could to not get caught or hurt by the falling animal.
Chakotay was fast, but not fast enough, because morent's claws caught his leg and the sheer weight of it almost broke it.
'Oh spirit's,' he groaned.
Making sure morent was dead Chakotay made his way to the woman, now half lying on the ground. Taking the few steps to her he saw the dead and understood half of what had happen.
He raised her head and the first thought that passed his mind was how beautiful she was. The next she wasn't responding. He saw her wrist and the knife lying beside her.
"Oh no, you are not dying on me," he caught sight of the ring and his heart sank. "Mrs. Unknown."
He scooped her up in his arms and started to run as fast as his leg and the rain would allow, which wasn't fast.
His hair felt as heavy as sea grass out of the water but it was just the beginning of blood loss from his leg that had begun.
Some time during the run he glanced down at her and saw her eyes were focused on him. He smiled down at her while trying to balance them on the soaked grass over to his house. By the time he carried her into his home, she had lost consciousness.
Kathryn could hear voices but not who they belonged to. It was to dark and she was didn't want to do anything else but fall back into the darkness and let it consume her. She couldn't physically cry, but her heart took over that as the darkness overpowered her.
"Chakotay you should know better then to take her here. You saw her clothes. You know what it means to take one of them into our house," Kolopak said to Chakotay, who watched the still form of the woman he saved. He was laying next to her in a room they used for the wounded.
Their medical technology wasn't big but it let them heal smaller wounds and fractures. Blood loss was another thing. Chakotay would feel weak for the next few days, but he didn't care.
"I just couldn't leave her to that morent, father." Chakotay turned his head to look at his father and said, "I don't care what clan she belongs to, I couldn't let her die. You didn't see what I saw, the dead hanging from that tree. You should know what that means better then anyone of us."
Kolopak took a deep breath to calm his rising temper. By the spirit's he knew what that meant! His wife had been a victim of the same "punishment" as they put it. God, why did you give me a son with a soul of a rebel?
"Chakotay, if she doesn't..."
"No." Protested Chakotay almost immediately. "When she gets better."
"When she gets better you better takes her to where you found her and leave her there so she can go home to her people."
"But father, we don't know if she has a family or any relative."
Kolopak looked over to Kathryn and sighed. 'No,' he prayed fervently, 'please don't make my son to fall in love with this woman. I don't know what I will do… We don't need more destruction in our lives right now.'
"Let cross that bridge when we come to it." Kolopak took up a hypospray.
"You need to sleep now Chakotay," he said as he leaned in to give his son a light sedative.
Kathryn ran and ran, felling the exhaustion setting in but she couldn't stay. If she did she would die. Fire blossomed up behind her and she could hear the sound of her followers. A mark was in the sky, a sign she never seen before. Over to the side she could see another body lying on the ground.
A church rose high and proud in front of her. She took her last strength and made a death run to it as she held her crying baby. "Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary."
The leader came right behind her and swung his sword, right at Kathryn's back.
"No!" Kathryn fell to the ground with a gapping hole in her back and the crying baby half crushed under her dead weight. She saw from another view point the leader grab her body and turn her so he could take the child, his face in the dark the whole time.
Looking down on her he turned and walked away...
No, my baby...
"No, not my baby," Kathryn cried out when she shot up from the bed just to fall right down on the floor just as fast. There she lay and cried the whole time over and over about her baby.
Chakotay and Kolopak were startled by the sudden cry that erupted from the other bed and turned just in time to see her fall out of it. Kolopak dropped the hypospary onto the floor.
Chakotay started to get up but felt he didn't have the strength to stand on his own, so he leaned on his father and they made their way around to the other side.
"No, please don't take her," Kathryn cried and when Chakotay knelt beside her. He fell down on his butt because, once again, he was reminded of his lack of strength. He put his hands on her face, making her look at him and then took her hand in his and he felt her trembling.
"'Hush, now. Hush. It's just a dream," Chakotay said, trying to console her. Kathryn opened her eyes and looked into dark chocolate brown eyes. Hers held so much fear and something else he couldn't name: confusion, helplessness… attraction?
'No it's just your imagination, stupid,' he thought quickly.
Kathryn raised her hand to his temple when she saw something that caught her attention, a mark on his forehead. Noticing this mark jolted her out of her dream state and she became aware of what she was about to do. She quickly dropped her hand, shame invading her face as she flushed. She looked up at it again. Where had she seen that mark?
Chakotay let out a breath he wasn't aware he held. She almost touched him.
"It was a dream, wasn't it?" He asked her.
Kathryn was struck by his voice, she understood him. 'Of course you do,' she chided herself. 'Why wouldn't you?' What was it he had asked? Her dream, yes it was a dream. She didn't have a child. "Yes."
Chakotay let out a sigh, at least she hadn't lost a child at the tree, but that didn't make the experience any less life shattering. She started to shake more, and out of instinct, he put his arms around her.
Why was she feeling so safe in his arms? 'I don't care any longer.'
Kathryn suddenly felt very tired and lowered her head to the nape of his neck. Her tears were soaking his shirt and skin, but she felt the blissful moment when a silent, quiet, sleep invade her senses.
'I don't ever want to leave his arms,' she silently realized. The last thought that passed through her mind was the knowledge of his tattoo and where she had seen it. It was the mark in the sky in her dream. Darkness invaded her senses before she could wonder what it meant.
Neither of them saw Kolopak from the other side of the room, watching them from the doorway. This was not good, not good at all. Some higher power was working with his son and that woman.
'Perhaps the Spirits made it their destiny to meet this way. Like enemies from two different clans in this world, they already have a special bond between them. There is nothing I can do now. If it is the wish of the Spirits, I won't stand in their way.
"Just don't let me lose my son…" Kolopak whispered to himself as he quietly made his exit.
Kathryn woke up some time later to the gentle feeling of being rocked back and forth like a child, just like her father did when she was little. Her mother had done it to Phoebe instead and let her husband spoil Kathryn rotten with his love.
He was always there when Phoebe needed her father, but since Kathryn was the first born, she held a special place in his heart. She was his little golden bird. It was in those moments he would tell her anything she wanted to know and...
Wait a minute… Her family was dead. So... who the hell was rocking her? Kathryn heard a voice that was defiantly not her father's.
She opened her eyes and looked up into the same chocolate brown eyes she had seen when she passed out.
'My God they are beautiful,' she thought as she felt herself drown in them. When she tried to move she moaned as her muscles protested at the shock from being used again.
Chakotay felt her move before she moaned and knew she was awake.
"Hi." He looked into her orb blue eyes.
"Hi." Her throat felt like it had been dragged along a stone road, behind a wagon, and down a hill. Would it ever feel better?
"What is your name," the man asked.
"Kathryn. And you?"
"Chakotay," he said as he smiled down at her. If she wasn't already lying in his lap she would have fallen.
Wait. Go back. She was laying in his… Oh God. The next thing she noticed was the style of this room and his clothes.
'My God, I have to get away from here.'
Kathryn tried to get up but found it impossible.
Chakotay felt her stiffening. "Kathryn, you are not in danger. I brought you here so you could recover. Nothing bad is going to happen to you here."
"Ok, I believe you," she whispered.
Fat chance she believed him, but she realized she had to stay so she could get her strength back. The next second she heard the hiss of a hypospray and then blackness.
Over the next week Kathryn found out she enjoyed the company of this Chakotay fellow. Since he lived in the same room as her, she spent her days talking to him. They found out they had more in common then they first thought. Kathryn told him of her family and how she was on her way to them and how she found them. She told him about Mark and her father.
"I always looked up to my father. He was the best man I ever knew."
"How did he die?"
"Protecting me. When we were on visit to my grandparents a monster came through the grid and attacked me. My father jumped in and killed it. He died later of his injuries. The next man I could ever trust that wouldn't leave me was Mark. I always felt secure in his arms. I loved him more then a brother but less then a lover. Do I make any sense?"
"Yes, you do." Chakotay took her hand and watched the ring on her left finger.
He in turn told her about his mother and his life as the third son of Kolopak and his two other brothers that he never knew.
"My oldest brother, Kierko, was still-born."
"Oh I'm so sorry Chakotay."
"My parents took it very hard at first. My mother was afraid of letting my father near her in case she got pregnant again and lost the child. She blamed herself for it."
"But she got over it?"
"It took a few years, but yeah, she did. Then she became pregnant with their second child, another son. He survived and her fears of losing her babies went away. He died in a street fight among some other older boys when he went to buy some food and supplies. They robbed him after they beat him. He died during the winter storm that came a few hours later that year. My father couldn't go looking for him because it was too dark and my mother was in labor with me. The doctor couldn't get to them in time; it went to fast so my father had to help her. At the same time I was born my brother died of the cold and his wounds."
"When did you find out about this?"
"My mother had drinking problem after that. Once when I got home she was so drunk she yelled, shouted, blamed, and accused me for her losing her son. No one was in the house at the time but us.
"My father was out to hunt, and she lost her temper and ended up hitting me. I was five years old then and as any little kid, her words were craved into my heart forever."
"How horrible." Kathryn was close to tears.
"The next day when she was sober, and when my father got home, they saw the bruises on my cheek and asked me what had happened. She didn't remember what the events of the day before."
"Chakotay," came his mother's voice when she saw him. "What happen? Kolopak it's Chakotay."
"What?" He came into the kitchen. "Chakotay, what happen?"
"Notting." mumbled the young Chakotay while his mind replayed the events from yesterday and the words his mother said.
She took him by his arms. "Chakotay, please we can't help you if you don't let us know what happen."
That was the limit for Chakotay and he tore from his mothers grasp.
"W'y do you want to 'elp me? I s'ould not been born t'en you wouldn't 'ad to be so sad 'cause of my older brot'er." He screamed at them with his broken English.
They stood planted on the spots. "Chakotay, what are you talking about?"
His mother reached out to him again.
"Don't toc' to me. If I 'adn't been born that day you would still 'ave my older brot'er wit' you and not me, cause I am a fu...fu...fuck...fucking mistake." Tears ran down his cheeks. "I was never meant to be, I am a wron' step by a slyt and a... fuck...ogasm crazy plick. Ma'be dat ba'tard woldn't be so..."
Kolopak grabbed his son's arms. "Who said it Chakotay, who?" He was boiling over with rage at whoever could have said this to his son. He knew words like that weren't meant to come out of the mouth of a five year old boy.
Tears blinding him but he could still see the door step out of the house. "Mom..." he whispered before dashing to the door and out of the house. Running for hours and hours. He didn't return the next day or the next. Kathryn reached out and stroke the tear that slid from his eye while tears ran from her own.
"What happen?" Kathryn asked.
"I didn't return home for two weeks, I starved myself on the way. I was all the way to the border when some one recognized me and brought me home. I didn't talk to my mother for years, and when we did, we where strangers. Just our common facial features told we were family. I was 17 when I started talking to her again. She hadn't taken a single drop of alcohol since I ran away. That day we talked was the day she died. Killed by some clan that wanted her, but since she was married no one could have her. A jealous clan leader killed her so no one would have her. Later I asked father why they didn't have another baby during the years after me. He told me after the first week of my disappearance mom stabbed herself with a knife and destroyed her chances of ever having children again."
Kathryn didn't know what to say. "I…I am…so terribly sorry Chakotay..."
They embraced each other and held on tight.
The second week they grew closer and, slowly, returned to health together. A big challenge came when Chakotay had to move to another room. Kathryn was miserable, Chakotay was miserable, but when Chakotay could finally get up again and walk around he went to visit Kathryn.
Neither of them saw what was happening.
Finally the day came when Kathryn could get out of her own bed. She took unsteady steps to the door, almost falling twice. But she made it and outside and she stood on the top stair over looking the lower level. Servants stopped with what they where doing and looked up to her on her feet again and were happy to see that she was progressing nicely.
A door on the ground level opened and out came Chakotay, with a cane. He didn't see her until he was about to go upstairs. The sight he saw when he looked up took his breath away. There, standing upstairs, stood Kathryn in her white gown and smiling down at him. She looked like an angel with her hair out and framing her face beautifully.
His heart hammered in his chest.
Later that night, when Kathryn was sleeping, her door opened quietly. In came a dark figure that moved slowly, but without a sound. He sat down on Kathryn's bed and looked at her. The shifting mattress made her wake up, but she held her eyes closed until she felt a soft hand caress her face. She stared up into black eyes as the owner made eye contact.
Kathryn felt her breath came in small pants. "What are you doing here Chakotay?"
He trailed his fingers over her lips, feeling how she trembled now.
"I couldn't sleep Kathryn. I know you feel what is between us."
"Yes." came her breathless answer.
"I tried to forget it but I can't any longer. I need you. I... I..." What did he have to lose? "I love you, Kathryn."
She was shocked to hear him say this, but she suddenly realized why. It wasn't because of his words but because she had been afraid he didn't love her. When did she start to love him? What was it she fell in love with? How did this even happen?
"I'm sorry Kathryn if you are offended by this," he said quietly. He had misread her silence as a rejection. "I'll leave now."
"No, please Chakotay, wait," Kathryn said as she came up from her bed. When she reached him she threw herself into his arms and kissed him hard and passionate.
He returned it with equal force and when they broke apart he nibbled at her lower lip. She led him back to her bed and kissed him once more.
They fell onto her bed as the passion increased and they both knew they wouldn't be able to stop if they continued, however, neither wanted to stop.
"Kathryn if you don't want to do this you better tell me now. I won't forgive you if you're just toying with me," Chakotay said with a hint of seriousness in it.
So this was the moment of truth. "I love you, Chakotay. Just be careful."
That caught his attention. "Kathryn, are you a virgin?"
When she nodded a smile crept on his lips. This beautiful woman was untouched and pure from the source and he was the one to seal that with his desire. She felt a little unsure of what to do next so she dropped small kisses wherever she could reach.
That was all he needed and he started to explore her. Both were so caught up with what they were doing they didn't notice the slight twinkle of light on the sky outside their window. Some new and old visitors had arrived back to where it all started.
The next morning Chakotay woke up to the feeling of Kathryn draped over his chest, drawing imaginary circles. Her long hair cold to the touch but just as silky as it had been last night in his fingers. He entwined a lock onto his finger.
"I didn't know you were so talented, Chakotay."
"Disappointed?"
"God no. I am just a little sore right now, but I'm yours whenever you want me."
"Be careful with what you offer, Kathryn. You may get more then you bargain for."
"I hope so." She started to kiss him and soon the passion again rose to new heights.
"Time to get up... Oh. My. God…" One of the maids that had reasonability over Kathryn this month just walked in to find Kathryn and Chakotay kissing very passionately and naked in bed. As soon as they heard her they broke apart and sat up clutching the sheets to them so they could hide whatever she didn't need to see.
Marie couldn't believe what she just walked into. "I should leave you to get dressed."
"Marie, I would appreciate if you didn't say anything to any one else of what you saw here," Chakotay said as he hurried past her in a blanket and closing the door before her.
Marie looked stunned and amazed around to Kathryn where she clutched another blanket around her, looking ratter embarrassed being caught like this. Marie started to laugh. This was unbelievable. Here she was, a poor, simple maid, walking in on the son of the master of the house, in bed with a woman he shouldn't be involved with at all and now begging her not to say anything so his father wouldn't hear about it.
When she calmed down a little she agreed with not saying anything only if they kept her informed with how it went for them.
"What can I say, I'm hopeless romantic," Marie concluded.
They breathed out a sigh of relief. "I would hug you if it wasn't for my sate of dress right now." Chakotay said. "And I don't know if Kathryn would approve of it."
Marie looked a little embarrass at Kathryn. "As long as he doesn't kiss you, I wouldn't really see the problem. Although the fact that you're naked might make her a little uncomfortable…"
"I leave you alone right now, but breakfast will be ready in about an hour," Marie replied as she left.
Chakotay locked the door and walked back to Kathryn. "I think I can make it twice in one hour. Wanna try?"
Kathryn just laughed and kissed Chakotay while she dragged him down on top of her on the bed.
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They looked around the dead planet. They had done this. They were responsible for this and now, all these years later, it still didn't look good. One of them scanned the ground with a tricorder, a sad expression shadowed the beautiful face of a young woman with red spots along the side of her head and neck.
"Well?" The man said to her.
"There is nothing we can do, this planet is beyond help. It's going to self destruct in a matter of months. The chemicals coming from the holes are already deadly if inhaled. It will destroy all organic life forms in seconds." She closed the tricorder.
"This is our responsibility," he said to her. "Our ancestors' mistake is our responsibility."
The man looked around. "They're almost out of time. I had hoped…" his voice trailed off before he said with a sad determination, "Unfortunately no hope can replace what we did to them. We need to find someone to send back to save their world, but it can't be just anyone, or they could just make matters worse. We must choose carefully, and we must find them soon."
The female nodded in agreement. "We better start looking now. Soon, not even we will be able to be here."
End Part 2