See Chapter one for Disclaimers:
Chapter 3
Dr. Hoon read the Doctor's Report, his facet eyes turning a deep crimson colour, so much so that his fellow medics became quite concerned, but only Armel dared to approach the Gorn to enquire what was wrong.
"Oh, Armel," he hissed doing his best to control his anger. "You'd better read this for yourself. I suggest you sit down; it's not pleasant reading." The Trill medical technician took the Gorn's advice and was glad he did so, for Hoon had not been exaggerating.
"Why? That is what I can't understand," Armel said, having read the report, his skin paler than normal making his brown spots stand out, even more.
"I wish I knew. No doubt he had his reasons," he hissed. Armel had noticed that when Hoon was agitated or anxious his es's became longer and came out more like a hiss of a snake, it could be quite comical if it weren't for the fact that the green lizard's facet eyes were red.
"Do you want to tell....."
"NO! No, Armel," he said amending his tone. "At least we now know what we need to look for," he sighed. "Is that Human doctor still here?"
"If you mean Dr. Julian Bashir; yes he is," answering his own question. "Do want to arrange a meeting with him?"
"Please, Armel. Give him that," pointing to the data PADD. Armel nodded quietly and left the big Gorn to his troubled thoughts.
The lack of healing in Chakotay's bone structure was giving the medics treating him grave cause for concern, so when he was visited at home by the Starfleet Doctor Bashir, he was surprised.
"I wasn't aware you were here," he said warily, having greeted not only the doctor but the Trill Ezri Dax, who'd accompanied him and Hoon.
"Julian is still helping the symbionts to recover from the unrest and revolt, which took place not long after Voyager's return," Ezri informed him, standing next to her fellow Trill Alyxx. The two could not have been more different, Ezri young and dark with the usual Trill spots, and Alyxx older with longer hair and the soft forehead ridges to go with her lighter brown spots. Yet one could tell who carried the older symbiont. Knowing this newcomer was a trained councillor unsettled him.
"I think it's possible that you could help the symbionts and they you," Julian said carefully.
"How?" he asked frowning.
"Julian, be careful," Ezri advised, realising he knew, he'd not been told everything.
"Why should he do that? Don't I have a right....."
"Yes, Chakotay you do," Alyxx said quietly, moving to kneel beside him. "But in this case, we need to take extra care because of....."
"Teero!" he spat the name out, like a foul taste. "What has he done to me?" the venom still in his voice, his hands clenched into fighting fists.
"You not want to know," Hoon said sadly, his facet eyes reflecting his feelings on the matter. Chakotay didn't push it, reaching out to Alyxx who took his hands in hers.
"What, what do you need me to do?" he asked softly.
"Nothing for the moment, I'm afraid. We're still hoping to get the Symbiosis Commission to allow you free access to the pools."
"Julian, they are not going to allow that. We've been trying for weeks now, just to get them to agree to you going to the pools," Ezri snapped at him, her tone and body language spoke volumes as to her frustration with the Commission. They were all silent, thinking about the chain of events that had lead them here; and Bashir felt he had the answer to the symbionts problems and yet!
"The Tourist still has limited access, do they not?" he queried thoughtfully.
"What are you getting at, Chakotay?"
"Both Julian and I are off-worlder's, tourists if you like," he said, a grin forming on his face.
"It just might work. I'll have to find some civilian clothing," Julian Bashir grinned. "This will be fun!" his face lighting up.
"Hold your horses, both of you; Julian you are too well known to get passed the security guards at the entrance. That goes for you too, Chakotay!" Ezri admonished them both, yet their expressions didn't alter.
"I think that's where we come in, Ezri Dax!" the emphasis on her symbionts name wasn't lost on the younger woman. "Where's your sense of fun, Dax?" Alyxx Darkka enquired impishly.
"Lost along with my youth," she replied, but her mouth quirked suddenly into a beaming smile, seeing the irony of her statement.
For although Dax was in its ninth lifetime Ezri had only just started hers. "Perhaps we could make it a 'family' outing. Do you think your father will come?" she asked Darkka. The older woman smiled and said she'd ask, making for the com-unit.
The symbiont pools at the Caves of Mak'ala were somewhere Chakotay had wanted to go since arriving on Trillus Prime, but the usage of his wheelchair due to the nature of the damage to his pelvic bone, had made the idea of a visit to the pools a distant dream. Now here he was outside with four joined Trills and a young pioneering human doctor.
"Julian, why do you think I'll be able to help?" he asked softly, sitting in his chair enjoying the sunshine with Alyxx's father Azar Rohin and his new wife Sofian Ven; whilst Ezri and Alyxx went to speak to the Guardians.
"The drug currently in your system has the same chemical properties that the symbionts secrete when they mate. They don't produce this chemical; they just react to it and only for as long as they need to spawn. But lately the symbionts have been so badly traumatised by events of the last few months, that they're not responding, to the chemical changes in the pool waters the Guardians introduce," he explained sadly.
"That is to be expected, Julian," noted Azar. "Even now people are still unsettled and keep trying to hurt the symbionts."
"You hope that my presence will trigger a reaction?"
"It is possible," he said looking at the main entrance to the caverns.
"You don't sound hopeful, Dr. Bashir," commented Sofian Ven.
"I'm not. I'm not sure of anything, Dr. Ven. Without access to the pools I have no way of testing or evaluating any possible scenarios. It's so frustrating."
"I do know how you feel," she said putting a comforting hand on his arm. "My joining, however it happened has put me out of favour with the Commission Board."
"How did that happen?" Chakotay asked, trying to take his mind off what might happen in the pools. Sofian smiled at him. "Because I seem to remember you were somewhat of a sour bitch, if you'll pardon the pun." The woman laughed and then grinned.
"I was wasn't I?" she acknowledged. "I'd been asked by the Commission to assess the damage at the pools done by the rebels. They had not left the area and used my appearance to gain themselves entry. I ended up in the water and I couldn't swim. Out of reach of the Guardians who noticed my plight belatedly and just when I thought I'd taken my last breath, Ven came to my rescue," she paused putting her hand on her pouch where Ven resided, a gentle expression on her face. "Ven wriggled into my pouch and helped me to the surface. The Guardians realised what had happened before I did. I'd completed my own Initiate training, years ago but was passed over for younger candidates. Ven was the symbionts best breeder and was always passed over for a joining to others."
"So you both got what you wanted by fulfilling a need," he observed quietly. "You believe that Julian is right, don't you?"
"Like Julian, Chakotay I can't say for sure. The possibility is there and I believe we should take it, especially if it helps you also."
"There's no guarantee is there?" Her silence gave him his answer. Ezri and Alyxx rejoined them, their faces giving nothing away as to how the meeting with the Guardians had gone.
"Well don't keep us in suspense," said Bashir a tad irritated.
"The Guardians welcomed the idea, Julian."
"I got the feeling, Ezri if it weren't for the Symbiosis Commissions objections to any human just entering the caverns, let alone the waters of the pool; you could do your tests etc, with their full blessing and co-operation."
"But the Commission won't give their consent," noted Azar sadly.
"Has anyone asked the symbionts?" The others looked at him askance. "Just a thought, it is their future too," he added feeling he'd trodden on someone's toes. "Well isn't it?" anxious now.
"Of course it is, Chakotay," Sofian assured him. They continued to talk among themselves, yet Chakotay only half listened, so he was startled when his name was called.
"Sorry, I was miles away," he admitted.
"You were more than that!" Azar said, good-naturedly.
"Chakotay everything alright?" Alyxx asked him concerned. He didn't answer her as one of the Guardians approached and invited the group into the caverns.
"You'll need to change into the required garments," the Guardian said, leading them through the tunnels to the side rooms where they could change. Chakotay was helped by a Guardian to strip and put on the long white robe. It had to sit over his left shoulder as it was strapped to his side, to prevent any more damage to the broken bone. Chakotay listened as he was resettled into his chair, a soft 'hum' coursed through the air, but he wondered if anyone else heard as he appeared to be the only one who react to its presence. As they approached the pools he felt the hum increase in volume and he noticed the water was a light pulsing blue.
"Looks like they're communicating," said Sofian. For Chakotay her words were practically drowned out by the singing he could hear.
"Do you hear it?" he asked, feeling it thrum through his body as well as his mind.
"Hear what?" Julian asked, hearing only the silence of the area.
"A hum!" he replied, trying to shut it out, as it hurt his ears. It was Ven who realised what was happening and told Julian Bashir to do nothing, except monitor the situation. One of the Guardians gave the Doctor a Starfleet issue Medical tricorder and went to join his fellows who stood in a line together blocking anyone's access to the group and the pool. They too began to hum at the same frequency that only Chakotay could hear.
"This must cease!" shouted a new voice; one that Sofian recognised. She was about to go and deal with the newcomer – a member of the Symbiosis Commission Board and the most vocal opponent of any involvement by Starfleet; but the security guards under the direction of the Guardians held this person back very forcefully.
"We can not allow this violation...."
"Hush!" commanded one of the Guardians. "The symbionts are speaking," he said and then reclosed his eyes and continued humming along with his fellows. At the pool edge Chakotay sat feeling the hum vibrating through his body, he was at a lost as to what to do and then he heard a voice:
"You need to get into the water and trust us," the voice was Sofian or at least he thought it was.
Gentle hands helped him out of the chair and into the water; he felt the symbionts around him, touching him skin to skin - the robe no longer covering him - their song eager and encouraging at the same time. He could even pick out the odd individual but on the whole they were one massive choral choir. Chakotay felt as if he was drowning in that sound when a beacon of light amidst the noise shone out to reach him, the four voices of Ven, Rohin, Dax and Darkka.
//There's nothing to fear, Chakotay. Trust us we will not hurt you// they gently told him, even the chorus around him echoed that thought. Beneath him from the depths of Trill he heard a deeper hum reach out to him and enter his mind. He tried to fight this intrusion, this violation of him.
//Open your thoughts, do not resist, Chakotay Son of Kolopak// the new voice said in a tone that his spirit guide would use. //We mean you no harm, Shikasha// It was the use of the ancient name for 'brother' that Chakotay felt his resistant finally melt away; he took a deep breath and allowed himself to be pulled under the water, where the symbionts simulated him to sow his seed into the spawn around him.
Back on the shore within the cavern Julian sat at the pool edge monitoring the situation, his medical tricorder taking in all the data, his troubled eyes kept looking up at the four joined Trills, who also sat at the pools edge, linked together to each other and the symbionts in the pool, as the electrical blue flashes were continually going from the four to the water and back again. For a second time he saw Chakotay disappear beneath the surface of the water and a cloud of sperm spill into and around the symbiont spawn. The tricorder bleeped as the male again broke the surface of the blue broiling waters. Julian Bashir noted the electrical activity in the man's brain which told him something that shouldn't be happening.
"This must stop!" said the Commission's Official. It was more of a plea, rather than a command.
"That could prove somewhat difficult," he responded, still reading his tricorder.
"That man's Human!" the woman spat.
"True, he is," he said getting to his feet to confront the woman. "I don't understand it any more than you do," Bashir commented without emotion. "But it is happening and before our eyes."
They could see Chakotay's naked body just beneath the surface of the water, which had not stopped flashing blue since before the male entered the pool and continued to do so. As they watched the symbionts acting like spawning fish, flicked and swam over and around the male's body, paying particular attention to his pelvic region. Once more he took a deep breath and held it as the symbionts pulled him into their realm and his seed gushed out of him. When he broke the surface this time it was clear to see that he was exhausted, his breathing quick and shallow. He was gently nudged towards the four joined Trill who helped him out of the water, which was now calm and filled with warm fertile spawn.
A Guardian wrapped a heavy thick gown around the male's naked body.
"We have a sleep chamber prepared for him," he said and was about to lead the way, but the Symbiosis Commission's Official stepped in their way.
"He is to leave here now!" she ordered angrily. Bashir grabbed her arm and pulled her aside, allowing the group to proceed. "I should have you arrested," glaring at him.
"Maybe you should," he sighed. "But you should know this; Chakotay is currently linked to every symbiont within a these caverns. To break that link would be damaging not only to him, but the symbionts as well, including those who are joined," he said forcefully. He let the thought of recent events hang between them and then he joined the Guardian who had escorted his friends from the area. The female Trill stood there feeling abandoned recalling the painful events of the last few months, realising what the Starfleet doctor meant. Suddenly the waters in the pool became disturbed and a large wave left the surface and dowsed the Commission's Official, drenching her from head to foot in cold, very cold water.
"I think you had better leave, Ma'am," said a Guardian trying to hide his smile. With as much dignity as she could muster she stormed out of the area.
He stirred in the warm comfortable bed, the chorus in his mind a gentle hum. He could still pick out the odd individual but it was Ven, Rohin, Dax and Darkka who stood out to him. It was also comforting to know that they were close. Chakotay knew it was Darkka who sat next to his bed and that she hadn't left his side at all.
"You should get some sleep too," he said drowsily, opening an eye to look at her.
"I will," she assured him. "How do you feel?"
"As though I've slept for a week," stretching his body under the thick covers. "I seem to have done nothing else but sleep," he grinned.
"Sleep is good medicine, as any doctor will tell you," noted a new voice.
"Hello, Julian," he said grinning at the man, who ran his medical scanner over him. "How am I shaping up?" he asked, cheekily. Alyxx smiled, happy to hear him playfully tease the doctor.
"If your sense of humour is anything to go by, I'd say reasonable!" he said his face deadpan.
"Hmm, that bad?" Chakotay questioned. Alyxx Darkka laughed, until she was crying tears of joy.
"Now look what you've done," Julian accused, shaking his head sorrowfully.
"What is going on?" asked Sofian concerned, entering the chamber, Ezri on her heels. One look at the two male's deadpan faces and twinkling eyes and she knew they were exercising their human sense of humour. She stood closed fists on her hips, expression stern.
"You two look like a couple of mischievous school boys. Now behave the pair of you or you'll be put on report," she said, yet her own eyes were telling. Darkka by this time had got her mirth under some semblance of control, but she wasn't sure how long that would hold.
"Ah! Miss," sulked Julian Bashir dramatically, "It is the holidays; surely we can have some fun!" he pouted. Sofian looked from one to the other totally mystified by what the two males were playing at, especially as Alyxx burst out laughing again. Peeping out from under the covers, Chakotay grinned cheekily, whilst Bashir tried his best to keep a straight face and failed miserably.
"Sounds like a rumpus is going on in here," said Azar, watching his daughter holding her sides, her face happy.
"More like a rebellion," said Sofian Ven.
"Ah! You've yet to understand the human concept called humour," he said, looking round at the Starfleet personnel. "I think we should leave them to it," he said leaning toward her ear and gently steered his wife out of the chamber.
"Don't. Not another word out of either of you," Alyxx admonished the two males, rubbing her aching sides. "I think I'll get some fresh air," quietly getting to her feet and ignoring them both. Ezri watched her go and yet kept a stern eye on the two males; she shook her head at them and left herself.
For a moment Doctor and patient quietly contemplated each other and then Bashir took the seat Alyxx had vacated, beside the bed.
"We did over do it!"
"True, but it felt good," he said and sighed. "What news do you have for me, Doctor Bashir?"
The younger man sat quietly and looked seriously at his patient, knowing that he had a right to hear all the facts about his case. Julian took a deep breath and started to give Chakotay the details of his recent medical history.
What the Doctor had told him hadn't been pleasant to hear and he knew that he still had to under go some more tests to ascertain whether he was free of the drug and all that went with its use and the healing of his bone structure. He certainly wasn't looking forward to his shoulder being reset, but at least his pelvis shouldn't cause too many problems and he'd be able to leave the wheelchair behind.
Chakotay was still at the symbiont pools being cared for by the Guardians. He was grateful for the peace and a chance to think. Today he sat at the pool edge, watching the water and listening to the gentle singing of the symbionts; His link to them all but a distant memory. He'd been a little disappointed to learn that his DNA would be overruled by the symbionts.
"Were you hoping for some little Chakotay's?" teased a voice he knew well, as she sat down beside him. He smiled softly.
"I don't know what I was expecting, Alyxx," he replied honestly, still looking at the water. "I feel so...used," he admitted, after a moment's silence.
"Not used, My Friend; abused, would be a better description. Including what happened on Voyager," she told him. She sat close to him without touching him physically, for he was wary of being hurt. "You've endured, physical, mental, sexual and psychological abuse, that's going to take sometime to come to terms with."
"Are you assigned as my counsellor?" he asked with a smile.
"I wish I was, Chakotay," her tone caused him to look at her. "I've received my recall to return to active duty," she said sadly. "I leave day after tomorrow," answering his unspoken question.
"I shall miss you," his dark eyes revealing more than his words.
"And I you," gently placing her hand on his arm. "Time heals all wounds, or so they say. You need time to find yourself, who you are, what you want from life."
"And you think I won't find that with you around," he teased, trying to smile whilst feeling very sad and unhappy that she was leaving Trill and him.
"I don't know, Chakotay," she responded truthfully, her green eyes sad also. "Do you remember Professor Fen?" she asked lightly, changing the subject.
"I can recall a Professor Fenayard. Why?" puzzled by her growing grin.
"Wait and see," she said mysteriously, getting to her feet and holding out her hand to him, to help him up back into the wheelchair. He took the offer and returned, not to the sleep chamber but to the main city – Mak'ala with her and Hoon's apartment. That night they shared a meal together swapping stories of different events in their lives as Starfleet officers and the various Commanding officers they'd served under. Hoon told them something of his life on Gornia and Cestas III, especially his childhood as a youngling.
Chakotay spent a peaceful night feeling warm and content, although he knew in the morning by the time he awoke Alyxx Darkka would have gone, to rejoin her ship as head of the science department, he was pleased he'd come to her home planet – Trillus Prime and spent the time getting to know her again, rather than going to Dorvan V or his sister's residence. Now all he had to do was to get well so he could find himself, he owned her, himself and his friends on Voyager that much. The morning would be a new day and for once he was looking forward to its arrival.