Zio's shelter had cots for all three of them and a good enough view of the chute that Janeway's tests on the device could continue more safely. Janeway and Chakotay didn't ask where the former residents had gone, but a day or so later when Zio finally distanced himself from the shelter, looking for more parts for the device, Chakotay edged close to speak in Janeway's ear.
"You don't see the way he looks at you. We can't trust him," he insisted. "He's just looking for a chance to get rid of me, so he can get to you."
Janeway was sitting on the ground, bent over wires protruding from the device. "I never said we had to trust him, but we do need him to survive long enough to get out of here."
Chakotay's face was sweaty, Janeway noticed, now that he was leaning close. He smelled like a targ and was scratching manically at his clamp. He jumped up to pace the tiny space. She had also observed that Chakotay was on such constant guard around Zio that he was no longer able to meditate.
"You want to escape with him and leave me behind. That's it," he accused as he spun back toward her. "You're going to let him shiv me once the device is working – improve your chances of escape."
Janeway set the device on the ground beside her and faced him fully. "No. Chakotay, listen to me. You are my friend. I would never betray you. But you've had the clamp several days longer than I have. It's affecting you more, especially when you can't meditate. You have to remember that." She was up on one knee, a hand on the cot beside her, imploring him to be reasonable.
With a low cry, Chakotay seized her by her arms and threw her down on the cot. "Don't tell me what to remember," he said, his face inches from hers. "I remember everything."
"Then remember who you are," Janeway answered. His knee had pinned her leg painfully but she kept her face calm. She searched for the man she knew in the crazed depths of his brown eyes but found only a frightening stranger. Somehow, she had to call back her friend. "Remember that you're the best first officer I've ever had. Remember that you're my best friend."
His eyes were fixed and angry, pupils dilated. He looked drugged, Janeway thought, or possessed. The clamp was like a different brain taking over. He pressed even closer and whispered in her ear, "I remember that I'm the man you've denied all these years. You're my property now, Kathryn. You'll give me what I want." Before she could protest, he lifted his head just enough to force his mouth down on hers.
Janeway was angry too. Her mind was running through ways to force him off her and inflict maximum damage – take out his knees, like he'd said – but the clamp was acting on her too. Besides arousing her aggressions, it was arousing every animal survival instinct in her, including a primal mating urge almost Klingon in its ferocity. The sensation of Chakotay's heavy body stretched on top of hers was powerfully erotic. Without consciously intending to, she grabbed the loose fabric of his jumpsuit and yanked him closer as she growled into his kiss.
The flicker of light as Zio re-entered the shelter was enough to startle them apart like guilty teenagers.
"Don't mind me," Zio said with an airy wave at the cot where Janeway and Chakotay now sat at opposite ends, looking away from each other. "This place is all about baser urges, and I like to watch." Red-faced and mortified, Janeway slid back to the floor to return to her work on the device. Chakotay rose to examine Zio's new finds.
Later that day, Janeway managed to disable the force field for the first time as the others stood guard. She climbed to the top of the chute – a significant effort in her best condition, completely draining as she was, injured and dehydrated. When she wiped clean the hatch at the top, the sight of deep space, not the planet's surface, was more of an emotional blow than she was prepared to face. She sat still for several minutes fighting down a panic made all the more intense by the clamp.
Alone at the top of the chute, Janeway tried to calm her mind enough to form a plan. There would be supply ships coming to this hatch. They had to find a way to take one of those ships, and that would require as many of the prisoners as possible, all that hadn't yet been driven completely mad by the clamp. It was the only way. She prepared a speech in her mind, straightened her shoulders, and pushed off for the fast ride down.
The response was not what she had hoped.
"We can take it together – " she was saying when the first prisoner tackled her to the ground. Another snatched her by the wrists and began to drag her away. Weakened by the days of imprisonment, she found it harder this time to twist away and land blows. Zio was nowhere to be seen. He had promised only food and shelter, not physical protection, she recalled now. Two men were dragging her away from the chute when Chakotay landed a ringing blow to the head of one and reeled to take on the other. He didn't see the blade before it had sliced across the middle of his back.
Janeway saw the blood even as Chakotay dropped her second attacker with a series of hard blows. When the man dropped the knife, Chakotay grabbed it and buried it in the man's chest, just as he had before, only this time more practiced, more intentional. Janeway grabbed his hand and hurried him back to Zio's shelter. Chakotay followed, carrying the blade, less shaken than he had been the first time he'd killed another prisoner. He was grinning now, waving the blade as if looking for the next fight, even as he allowed her to pull him back into the shelter. His attitude unsettled her more than being attacked. The Chakotay she knew was no killer.
"What are you doing?" Chakotay demanded when they were hidden again. "We need to get back up the chute!"
"You're hurt," she said. "You need to rest. We'll go back when I've cleaned your wound. We can't let the others see that you're hurt. It will only put you in more danger." She led him to sit on the cot and carefully peeled back his jumpsuit to reveal the bloody slice across his back. She began to pour a little of their small store of water straight onto the wound to flush out any contamination from Chakotay's filthy jumpsuit. "It's not too deep," she told him. "We just need to keep it clean. Try to stay in here until it scabs over."
As Chakotay's racing breath and pulse gradually slowed, he turned his head to the side to speak to her. His own voice – the sound of the Chakotay she remembered – had returned. "It doesn't hurt much," he said. "Not yet, anyway. Might just be the adrenalin. I didn't mean to kill him, Kathryn. It just felt so good, hitting him, and then I saw his knife lying there. I'm getting to the point where I'll attack anyone. I'm not sure how much longer you'll be safe around me." All at once, the energy seemed to drain out of him. A despair that Janeway hadn't seen before now filled his face. He lowered his head.
"Shhh," Janeway soothed. She leaned around to see him better and put a gentle hand to his face. "It's okay. You saved my life, and now we know we can get through the force field. I promised we'd find a way out, and we will. Hold on."
Hesitantly, as if he feared touching her at all, Chakotay lifted his hand to her face. His eyes were his own, but very frightened. They sat that way for a minute, gaining some small measure of comfort from the knowledge that, for now, the clamp had not yet won.