Disclaimers: See Chapter 1
AN2: It's finally been updated! I have no excuses, except that I couldn't get this to work out for the longest time. It's been a long time coming and I hope you all enjoy this new chapter.
AN: A big thank you to Shakayla for beta'ing this chapter for me. You are amazing :D
The beam of light struck Kathryn with a loud crack and the force of the impact flung her backwards, her momentum stopped when her body crashed against the wall by the viewscreen. The sound of bones breaking, the smell of burnt flesh and the sharp scent of blood permeated the bridge. Upon impact, Kathryn uttered a low grunt a pain before her body fell to lie in a heap on the carpeted floor.
As soon as the energy had struck Janeway, the bright light had dissipated from the bridge leaving behind a crew frozen in shock. The attack had come so swiftly that it took a few seconds to realize what had happened to their Captain.
Chakotay rose from his seat and ran to kneel by her collapsed body. As gently as possible, he ran his hands up and down her body feeling for broken bones or the sign of blood. He quickly reached out and checked for a pulse. He released a deep breath that he didn't even realize he was holding at finding her weak and thready pulse. A bruise started to form on Janeway's pale face and a trail of blood seeped down her nose and month, staining the ground beneath her. He brushed aside her hair. As he pulled away, his fingers were covered and stained red with her blood.
"Bridge to Sickbay! Medical Emergency." Chakotay called out tapping on his comm badge and praying that nothing else would go wrong.
"Sickbay to Commander Chakotay. Please state the nature of the medical emergency," The Doctor inquired.
"The Captain's been struck down by some kind of electrified beam." Chakotay responded.
"Beam her directly to sickbay. It would be too dangerous to attempt to move her without knowing the full extent of her injuries," The Doctor instructed, as the sound of equipment filtered through the open comm channel.
"Understood. Be ready, we are transporting her now." Chakotay replied. He nodded to Harry to initiate the site to site beam out and watched as she disappeared from view.
"Bridge. We've got her. Sickbay out."
Chakotay turned to glance at the Tactical station. "Tuvok, find a way to block whatever that was. The last thing I need or want is someone else getting injured if it comes through here again."
"Aye, Sir," Tuvok responded, his fingers flying over the console trying to analyze the source of the beam in order to keep it from infiltrating their defenses again.
"Kes!" The Doctor called out, his voice urgent as he sought out the young Ocampan that had become his assistant not long after their voyage started. "Prepare the surgical bay for the Captain's arrival."
"Yes, Doctor." Kes answered as she rushed about the room grabbing vials and a soft blue cloth to cover the Captain when she arrived. She tried to remain calm – wanted to pretend that this was just another one of the Doctor's many tests. The knowledge that in a matter of minutes the Captain would be transported to Sickbay with unknown injuries caused a flicker of fear to run through her.
The whine of the transporter drew her attention and she hurried over, waiting for the beam to dissipate and reveal the injured woman. Kes held back a gasp at the small pool of blood that surrounded the Captain, matting her hair and dampening her uniform until it was slightly sticky and wet.
The Doctor scanned her, his eyes narrowing at the injuries being listed. "Kes, The Captain has had severe trauma to her body. She has broken three ribs, her right hip and ankle. There's also some internal bleeding from one of her ribs puncturing her lung and some damage to the pons varolli. Overall nothing that can't be treated." The Doctor reported in a positive tone of voice.
He continued, issuing orders as he worked. "Kes, prepare the Captain for surgery." Nodding, he passed the tricorder to Kes and carefully lifted the Captain onto the surgical bed. Kes quickly attached a cortical monitor and made notes of their readings.
"Right away, Doctor." Kes answered, pushing forward the tiny cart she had prepared.
There was a loud beep from the tricorder and the Doctor started to frown. "That's strange." He muttered under his breath.
"What is it, Doctor?" Kes asked.
The medical readings above the Captain's biobed began to plunge rapidly and the frantic beeps echoed throughout sickbay. Her body stiffened and she began to convulse violently on the bed. Perspiration dotted her forehead and she became flushed. Her agonized gasps for air rattled within the sickbay. The Doctor restrained her from doing further bodily harm to herself.
"Kes, the Captain is going into cardiac arrest!" The Doctor barked out sharply as he scanned the tricorder intently to determine exactly what should be done. "Begin a fifteen kilo dyne burst on my mark, ten second duration." The Doctor instructed as he held Janeway's struggling body and proceed to strap her down to prevent further injuries to herself. "Now!"
Kathryn's body arched up and her breathing continued grow increasingly erratic. Her face and lips were starting to turn blue, as her lungs failed to provide her oxygen. Her heart beat slowed to almost an inaudible beat, slugglishly struggling to pump as every system within her body started to shut down. Her body began to succumb to the injuries she had received, injuries that had minutes before seemed treatable, now were pushing her closer to death's door.
Kes looked up with a worried expression, her voice trembled slightly with each word she uttered, "No effect, Doctor! Her life signs are dropping further."
"Another burst, twenty seconds. Now!" The Doctor ordered in a frantic voice, as the life sign readings became more unstable. The doctor worked quickly to revive the Captain's weakened body. "Again!"
"Nothing, Doctor." Kes whispered.
"Hypospray with twenty-five milligrams of cordrazine," the Doctor demanded. Kes quickly prepared the hypo spray and handed it to the Doctor. He turned the Captain's face away from him and injected it into her neck.
Janeway ceased struggling; her body shuddered one last time before she collapsed limply onto the bed. Though her form was still, breathing in quick pants and exhaling in a low wheezes. She was perspiring heavily, her normally porcelain face was flushed from her efforts to draw air, but at least her readings were slowly returning to normal.
Sickbay was eerily quiet as the Doctor ran the tricorder over the Captain.
"How is she, Doctor?" Kes asked quietly.
The Doctor glanced at Kes with a worried expression. "I don't know. For the time being Captain Janeway is stable, but unless I can repair the damage she will die. The surgery will last a few hours. If all goes well, she should regain consciousness after that."
He studied his patient quietly for a few more minutes. Finally, he offered in a subdued voice. "Let's begin."
The silence on the bridge had become unbearable. Every crew member's thoughts were on the recent events that had occurred and the injury to their Captain. No one seemed to know what to say to lighten the situation.
Chakotay looked torn between staying on the bridge and needing to be in sickbay with Kathryn. The crew was waiting for news of the Captain and he should be there for them if they needed to speak to him. But he felt an instinctive pull to be at her side and protect her from further harm.
His mind kept bringing up the image of her broken body, the sight and smell of her blood was a vivid memory that would haunt his dreams for many nights to come. He paused when he saw the worried looks on the faces of those who surrounded him.
"Commander, how do you think the Captain is?" Kim asked in a worried tone.
Chakotay looked at all the expectant faces glancing his way. He saw hope and fear clash in each person's eyes as they pondered their Captain's condition.
"The Captain is going to be fine. I'm sure that the Doctor will have her up and running in no time. How many times has he claimed that medical emergencies are simply procedures for a skilled physician such as himself." Chakotay replied in a confident tone, denying the small sliver of fear that was worming its way into his conscious. "Status report, Ensign Kim."
"All systems are working within acceptable parameters, Sir." Kim reported.
"Any activity from the nebula?"
"No, Sir. Everything has returned back to normal."
"I guess after going against Captain Janeway, it decided to cut its losses." Chakotay joked, trying to break the tension on the bridge. "I know that I, for one, would never want to go up against her in a fight."
"Captain Janeway would be pleased to hear that, Commander." Tuvok responded in a stiff tone.
Chakotay saw everyone crack a smile at the Vulcan's response to Chakotay's attempt to lighten the mood on the sober bridge.
"Alright, everyone, let's back away from the nebula and work on a way to modify the shields in case anything else happens." Chakotay ordered as he sat down and began reviewing the sensor information about the nebula.
Chief Medical Officers Log Supplemental, Stardate 48316.8
I have repaired the damage to the Captain's body, but it still unknown
if there will be any permanent damage until she regains
consciousness. She has began to breath on her own and no longer
requires the aid of the artificial respirator.
End Log
"Kes, how is our patient?" The Doctor asked.
"The Captain seems to be responding well to the treatment," Kes replied, glancing over at the still body of her Captain, finding it difficult to see her so weakened and hurt, two words that Kes had never thought to link to her Captain. Gently as she could, she brushed aside the strands of hair that had fallen over the Captain's cheeks and over her eyes, needing the contact with the warm flesh to convince herself that despite the Captain's appearance, she was still with them. "But at times, I keep getting a strange reading for some of the scans that I've performed on the Captain. There seems to be odd waves, almost like an overlapping patter, emitting from the Captain's brain."
The Doctor glanced over at the readings with a frown. "Let me see that, Kes."
"Hmmm."
"What is it?" Kes asked.
The Doctor looked up with a smile," Nothing is the matter, Kes. The wave-like readings are the brain's way of responding to the trauma that the body endured. The Captain appears fine and should wake up soon."
The Doctor started to walk away from Janeway's prone body when he saw her eyes twitch and she started to shift on the bed. A low moan emerged from Janeway as she opened her eyes and stared at the Doctor with a confused expression.
"Captain, are you alright?" The Doctor asked with a smile.
Janeway continued to just look up at him with dazed and perplexed eyes. Faint traces of fear began to creep into those clear blue eyes.
"Sickbay to Commander Chakotay."
"Chakotay here." He replied. "Is everything alright, Doctor?"
"Everything is fine Commander. Perhaps you could come down to sickbay and be of some assistance. The Captain is awake, but she hasn't said anything to either Kes or myself. Maybe she would respond to your presence."
"I'll be right down, Doctor."
The Doctor was just finishing injecting the Captain with a hypo spray when Chakotay entered sickbay. Pausing at the foot of the bio-bed, Chakotay's eyes swept over her, needing the phyiscal reassuance that all was well with her, not just the verbal announcement of her status by the Doctor. Under his dark gaze, he saw Kathryn flinch away from the Doctor and even in the distance that he stood away from, he saw the wariness in her eyes before she closed them.
"Doctor?" Chakotay inquired in a concerned voice.
"She's fine. Just a little disoriented and has a mild concussion. I just gave her something to help control the pain. I'll need to take a few more readings for further diagnosis. I'll return in just a minute."
Chakotay paced back and forth in front of the Captain's biobed. He kept tossing worried glances at Janeway's prone body. Janeway looked so small and helpless while lying down without moving. Her expressive eyes were closed and her chest rose and fell with each ragged breath she took. Chakotay saw one of her hands twitch against the blanket that covered her. He quickly rushed to side and picked up her hand.
"Kathryn," Chakotay whispered softly. "Come on, I know that you're there. Just open your eyes."
The Doctor let out an exasperated breath." Commander, leave my patient alone. It will take the hypo spray a minute to start to dull the pain. You might want to wait until it begins to work before bombarding her with questions, it stands to reason that the pain at the moment is too much for Captain Janeway to handle."
It was during the Doctor's reprimand that Kathryn opened her eyes. She looked about in confusion, her heart started to race frantically and she let out a startled gasp. Chakotay and the Doctor spun around in her direction.
"Captain!" The Doctor exclaimed in an excited voice.
Where was she? Who were these people surrounding her? Who was she? Kathryn thought frantically as she looked around suspiciously.
"How are you feeling?" The Doctor inquired as he scanned her.
"I'm fine." Kathryn responded in a quiet voice after a moment of silence.
"Good! Another crew member pulled away from the jaws of death by excellent doctoring. Captain, I recommend a few days of rest," The Doctor paused, only to continue in a sarcastic tone, "but I expect that you will probably disregard my advice and return to your duties immediately."
Kathryn just continued to look at the Doctor without responding to his verbal comment.
"Where am I and who are you?" Kathryn asked turning to the handsome male with the strange facial art on his face.