With his wound exposed to the open air, the best and only medicine available, Chakotay dropped to one side on the cot and fell asleep hard, a big snoring wall of man. The dark cycle had begun. Janeway picked up the device and climbed into the small, protected space between Chakotay and the wall. As dangerous as he could be, the space next to Chakotay still felt like the safest place in the prison. There wasn't enough light to tune the device any further. Zio hadn't reappeared. Janeway wondered if perhaps someone had killed him too. There was no way of knowing. There was no source of reliable information or any order at all in this madhouse. In the dim warmth, weary and frightened, Janeway too fell asleep.
When she awoke, the device was missing from her hands. She lurched around to see Chakotay through the shadows sitting on the edge of the cot, jumpsuit still bunched around his waist, as he pulled wires from the pipe casing. All her fury rose up with tidal force. She lunged at his throat, but even wounded he was too strong and fast for her. He jerked away and used the force of her own attack to throw her under him on the cot. He pulled her arms up to pin her wrists with one big hand. His broad thigh forced her knees apart.
"This is what you want, isn't it?" Chakotay said in a low, vicious tone, like him only in the sound of the voice Janeway knew so well. "This is what you've been begging for all along."
Even in the poor light she could see that the absent look was back in his eyes. The clamp had taken over completely. As she struggled beneath him, Janeway saw in a flash of clarity how this would play out back on Voyager. If he raped her under the influence of the clamp, he would never forgive himself. It would ruin their command relationship, not to mention their friendship, no matter what she did later. With a soft cry, she stopped fighting and did the only thing she could do now, face to face with the brutality that was the clamp.
"You're right," Janeway answered. She lifted her head to brush his lips with a gentle kiss. "It's what I want. Make love to me."
Chakotay blinked. She saw the moment when his eyes changed and became something recognizable again. Her words had acted like a sort of electric shock, overwhelming the clamp's influence momentarily. He released her wrists and lifted himself onto his elbows. She only realized then that she'd hardly been able to breathe under him.
"No," he said finally. "Not in this place. Not like this." He got up, slipped carefully and painfully back into the top of the jumpsuit, and went to stand in a place where he could watch movement out in the prison without being seen. Janeway rolled onto her side, refastened the front of her jumpsuit where Chakotay had yanked it open, and pulled her knees to her chest. She pulled the device close to evaluate the damage. They would have to start all over again. Her normal self would have started immediately, but the clamp and the darkness and the lingering terror of Chakotay's attack upon her made the task seem all but impossible. Sleep was so very tempting. With Chakotay standing guard, she let her head drop to the cot.
It felt like only a few minutes later, but Janeway's legs were cramped in the position where she'd been sleeping. Voices had awakened her: Zio and Chakotay whispering as far away as they could get from her without leaving the shelter. She kept still and listened.
"It'll only get worse," Zio was saying. "You and I will continue to suffer attacks as long as she's with us. I'm only telling you the facts. We will inevitably be killed defending her. Either we escape, or we come up with a way to share her with the other prisoners, maybe barter her for food and supplies."
A scuffling sound made Janeway open one eyelid just enough to see Chakotay grab Zio by the collar of his jumpsuit and haul the smaller man up on his toes.
"Here are the facts." Chakotay's voice hissed, soft but deadly. "She is my friend. I will never barter her, and if you want to get to her, you'll have to kill me first."
"That can be arranged," Zio answered with a smirk. "A woman is a valuable commodity."