A/N: Sorry about the delay with this chapter! I didn't mean to drive anyone "barmy" (great word, btw!) Chapter was a lot more complex than I initially realized. It needed to, um, gestate a little longer. Glad I waited. I hope you like it. Thanks for the reviews, as always.
Time Enough
Chapter 20: Anarchy Inside and Out
As she descended the desert planet's atmosphere, D'goba's sensors started to blip wildly. Her animated eyes became still as she trained them on the view screen images. Two Evil Ones appeared to be threatening the Borg female and a third creature.
"Ush'maul!" she prayed, as her paws flew furiously across the Silver Bullet's conn station console. "Arise and scatter our enemies!"
D'goba made a course correction with a slide of one claw.
Just as the Silver Bullet sailed into the planet's troposphere, her communicator began to crackle. "D'goba, return to orbit at once!"
D'goba disengaged her communication grid. Then she skillfully placed her flyer about a kilometer over the cliff where sensors indicated the Borg. Hovering placed a huge drain on her ship's resources but she could think of no other way to deploy the weapon with an element of surprise. Her sensors detected a triangular confinement array with Starfleet signatures. She would use it to transport herself to the surface.
Before she engaged her transporter, she touched her controls. A small deflector dish descended from the belly of the Silver Bullet. It was pointed straight down. Her console beeped once. Then a blinding flash of white light bathed her view screen.
The bodies of two Ket'zali lay crumpled together, she observed. But still D'goba kept her weapon trained on them as she backed herself to the Blessed Borg. She and the other creature were lying on their backs. The Borg's face was frozen in a curious expression, D'goba thought as she neared her position reverently. Since her race was not given to facial expressions, D'goba could not interpret the high eyebrows or the lips pulled back from the teeth.
=/\=
Ket'zali was sitting on Kathryn's chest, constricting her airways. The blows to her head seemed infinite in the haze they brought. She could feel her lips swelling and her field of vision began to dim. The metallic taste of her own blood kept her from sinking into unconsciousness. But still Captain Kathryn Janeway beat her fists against the creature's head. She kneed his back. She bucked her hips. She wasn't going gently into any damn good night.
His blows were still forceful as hers began to lose their sting. Kathryn thought she would black out any second, when the weight on her chest vanished. In a nanosecond, she only felt a combadge pressing against her left shoulder. Even the weight of silken wool fabric of her Gweelee blouse was painful.
A man's whispers pierced the dank silence of the dark corridor.
"Mrs. O'Nine!" The dulcet Gaelic vowels rolled into the trills of the consonants. She knew this man, she told herself.
It took all of her will power to open her eyes, but a small light burned into her eyes and she shut them again. She covered her face with her forearms and moaned.
"Mrs. O'Nine! T'is I, Officer Apoda!"
Kathryn turned her head, trying to remember that she was getting enough air.
"Kat! I'm Byth. Seven's friend."
"Seven!" She sucked in a long wind and exhaled to a coughing fit.
"Yes!"
Kathryn tried to sit up. Suddenly the flood of what happened hit her. In her mind, the Captain scrambled to her feet quickly, but in reality her broken and bruised body slipped and fumbled as it managed to slump against a wall. Officer Apoda's hand on her shoulder and another in her grasp finally helped her rise to her feet. "The Ket'zali?"
He gestured with an arm, his flashlight revealing a scaly cadaver. Its severed head rested beside its still-twitching torso. Janeway grabbed the Officer's arm, directing his light to the body's chest. There was no sign of the red Starfleet tattoo Sa'feer wore. She suddenly became dizzy. "Officer! My daughter...is up there."
The Officer waved a fin-like hand. One of the men hit a hidden panel, pushing several command nodes. The sound of metal rubbing against metal filled the corridor as a ladder rose from the ground and the hatch lifted.
Captain Janeway wiped her arm across her nose and mouth, flinching at the tenderness she felt. Her stomach tightened like a shrinking coil of tritanium when she thought of Seven and Dani.
"Mrs. O'Nine," the officer said with a hand on her shoulder just as she gripped the ladder. "Let me go first."
She studied him, the deep shadows giving him a determined glint.
"Please, Mrs. O'Nine. Seven would gut me alive if I let her wife come to any harm." He glanced down at the creature. "More harm than I've already allowed."
"All right."
He lifted his head through the hatch, surprised to find a triumphant scene. Another creature, similar to the Ket'zali, stood brandishing a weapon over two invaders. Both were wrapped in a tight coil of barbed wires that tightened every time they struggled against the bonds. Seven stood beside the hatch, with the wide-eyed child beside her. Mr. Commagees was studying the two in bonds, while he interrogated them.
"Seven!" Officer Apoda said, crawling out.
"Byth," she said, reaching down to offer her hand.
He slapped her shoulder as he rose to the surface, turning suddenly to grasp a small-boned hand that reached up from the underground passage.
Seven nearly cried out when she saw the auburn-haired woman rise from the corridor. One of Kathryn's legs was still lagging behind when Seven engulfed her in a hug, pulling her out of the underground tunnel. Seven pressed her lips against Janeway's, surprised to hear a moan of pain. "Darling," Kathryn whispered, smiling through swollen black eyes. "Easy. My lips are—."
"You are damaged," Seven said, scanning the woman head to toe.
Seven's look of abject pity made Kathryn wonder of the state of her body. She only knew that even Seven's hug was excruciating. Perhaps her ribs were merely bruised, not broken, as she feared. One eye was swollen shut, giving her a distorted view of the world. Captain Janeway certainly did not want to know what shape the rest of her face was in. She squeezed her thigh, feeling a million stings were the damned lizard had bitten her. But the injuries would all have to wait. She was alive and it was enough. "Nothing a little tender loving care won't cure."
Kathryn had expected a running hug from Dani. When she felt none, she pulled away from Seven, turning to find the girl standing by the side. The girl was looking up through her long, strawberry eyelashes. The sun-blasted wind tangled the red hair of mother and daughter. Dani looked strangely unsettled, as if she expected more turmoil any minute. "Dani," she whispered, opening her arms to the girl. "Darling? Are you all right?"
Dani's sapphire eyes, so like Seven's, shifted side to side, as if she were reading.
Kathryn looked behind her, trying to understand where Dani's focus was. She was staring at the three meter-high towers that formed a triangle. The blinking lights of the targeting scanners that Seven and Kathryn had erected weeks earlier drew her gaze. As part of "Operation: Desert Feint," the plan was to use the towers to compensate for the planet's scattering of transporter matter streams to beam the trio back to the Delta Flyer.
Seven stepped forward. "Eridani?"
Dani opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was dry. Kathryn and Seven noticed the change in Dani the instant it occurred. The girl's face contorted, and she began to back up, shaking her head. "No," she whispered. "Not yet!"
"What do you mean—?" Janeway whirled around.
Captain D'goba leapt forward, crashing into one of three Ket'zali who materialized on the plateau between the targeting towers. The pair growled and rolled in the mud.
Another Ket'zali swung its mighty tail back in an arc that would sweep the frail form of Kathryn Janeway off the cliff. Seven's Borg hand yanked the Captain back. Kathryn flew back, her arms and legs trailing behind her. The tail swiped the air just micro millimeters away from the woman's head. His momentum carried him over the cliff.
A Gweelee harpoon pierced the ground where the third Ket'zali had stood just moments before.
With his well-muscled legs, the third Ket'zali catapulted himself through the air, on a collision course for Eridani Janeway, who stood frozen in fear.
"Dani!" Janeway cried. She stumbled to her feet, as Seven darted past her. Officer Apoda frantically reeled in his harpoon, loading the weapon for another round.
The Ket'zali collided with the child seconds after Mr. Commagees enfolded the girl in his arms. The three tumbled over the high plateau, falling into the cold depths. They were swept away by the rushing rapids of Guadalquiver.
=/\=
Seven quickly straddled Finn's sandski, revving it. Officer Apoda jumped on the other. D'goba and the third Ket'zali had tumbled over a dune, as they both growled and spit grave insults.
Janeway jumped behind Seven after collecting the targeting towers.
"Officer, how do we get to where the river drains?" Seven asked, as he sped up beside her in his own sandski.
"West a bit and then follow the river to the valley, where it empties. But I know a shortcut," he said over the loud crashing of the whitewater and the winds. Another sound, a single thrum of vibrations caught his attention.
In the distance was a dark, looming cloud circled strangely against the yellow sky.
=/\=
Dani's ears ached. The pressure of falling into the cold water from so high felt like a thousand needles had pricked her eardrums. When her lungs quivered and threatened to heave, Dani opened her eyes and she inhaled to a sputtering cough. The water was the palest blue crowned with foamy white. The sight of a dark, five-limbed creature thrashing nearby whipped her own arms into a futile frenzy. Green text continued to teletype frantically over her visual centers.
Suddenly, two hands caught her, lifting her head above water. Warm air filled her and she was nearly paralyzed by coughing. Her arms flailed to steady herself on something solid.
"Easy, Dani!"
Dani flopped more until Finn turned her around. She grabbed his shoulders, bringing herself against him.
"Now Dani," Finn said, trying to yell above the roar of the whitewater. "Don't choke me.... That's better. Now I want you to hug me from the back. You are going to ride the waves in style, m'girl."
The canyon began to zip by; even the thrashing black creature could not match Mr. Commagees' natural agility in the water. "Hold on, lass," he yelled behind him. "Don't let go for any reason Okay?"
When she saw that Mr. Commagees was swimming effortlessly toward the thrashing creature, Dani tightened her grip around his scaly neck. "Gentle, lass," he husked. "Our only advantage is the blessed water that King Tryto gives. Let us not waste it!"
He eased forward, grabbing one of the spindly legs and tugging the creature down. The water covered him briefly, before it re-emerged. His arms were flapping and his flattened mouth gasping for air.
"Thought ye were a creature of fluidic space!" Mr. Commagees taunted. "Can't get more fluidic than good, old-fashioned water, now can ye? But ye're quite pathetic!"
The creature's eye turrets twisted and swiveled wildly. A second tug of his leg submerged him and Mr. Commagees' hand shoved the creature's head down for good measure. "Not so tough while you take a bath, are ye?"
Dani yelped when she felt something graze her leg.
Mr. Commagees surged upward to show Dani that he was the complete master of their journey down the Guadalquiver. When he splashed down again, the waves rose over the creature and again Seven's boss tugged his leg.
=/\=
Finn's inner guppy felt so alive in the water. Gliding through the aqua was like heaven, except for the clumsy land creature that wanted to consume his friends. But the creature's lungs required oxygen after all and Finn was able to successfully deprive him of it before the wadi neared its natural completion. The water was gentling and becoming more shallow. The white was disintegrating.
Finn edged toward the sand, just as the black figure washed to the sandy shore.
Dani clung to Fin's neck, but the man tapped her shivering arms. "He's gone, lass," he replied. "We took him out, easy as pie."
"We did?" She disengaged from the man. Her burgundy blouse was dripping and her pants were so heavy with water, they nearly dropped from her slender body. She tugged them upward as the girl turned to look at Mr. Commagees' obese body. He was lounging in the small pool.
"Are you going to stay in the water, Finn?"
"Yes, Dani," he said. "With this heat, I'd look like a dried out pantoonie!" He lifted his scaly heft up on both his arms to looking around. "I'll bet your mothers will be here in no time."
The valley was large, perhaps twenty kilometers in every direction. They were surrounded by high cliffs north and south, from which they'd come. They stood in a vast delta where the monsoon rain runoff emptied.
"But I'll stay here until yer mums arrive," he whispered just before he half submerged his head. "We'll be fine, Dani."
She nodded, wiping her face with her hands. The water was sheeting off of her, evaporating quickly. The cooling effect caused her to shudder, even in the rising heat of the day. Her eyes took her back up the river, where she could see the spraying line of white rapids meander through the canyon.
She gasped, pointing to a spindly, squid-like ship as it streaked across the sky toward them. "Oh, no! No!"
=/\=
"Hurry, Seven!" Janeway urged into her lover's ear. Her mind raced with a thousand possibilities. A thousand ways she would have planned differently paraded themselves before her. A thousand things she would have told Dani pinged inside of her. All of it was useless chaff now adrift in her frenetic mind.
She had to sharply turn her head to scan the horizon with her good eye. A lone red dot seemed to shimmer and flicker along the line of water she traced in the heat of the Gweelee noonday.
Captain Janeway covered her bloody thigh with a hand. Its throb was relentless and she ground the back of her teeth to keep from crying out. Her brown slacks were a bloody dripping mess. Just a little longer, she told herself. She hauled herself up, straining at the synchronous throb of her entire body. Her brief view failed to locate the creature that had pushed Dani and Mr. Commagees over the cliff.
What would she do if she saw it? Feel more helpless, she thought dismally. Powerlessness was not a place where Kathryn Janeway allowed herself to live. She'd known the edges of it, like any human, especially as a child under parental authority. After her decision to destroy the array and effectively stranding her ship and her crew in the Delta Quadrant seventy-five thousand light years from home, she'd felt many things. Heartache when even one crewman was lost. Anger for the relentless battering they took from hostile natives and usually for no good reason. But never powerlessness. Even when she faced that damned Krenim timeship, Kathryn Janeway still had Voyager. Her ace in the hole was to take that timeship offline, ramming her own into it. She didn't know it would restore the timeline, but she was prepared to live with the consequences.
Janeway snorted morosely at her own oxymoronic absurdity. She was single then. Seven had just come aboard. The Captain never fathomed the woman would come to mean so much to her. A child together with her was not even a thought she ever entertained. Yet now, Kathryn found herself shaking at the very thought of losing either of them. Maybe this is why all of the best Captains are irascible bachelors without progeny to call their own, she thought. Kathryn closed her eyes and shook her head. No, powerlessness was not even an option, she scolded herself.
But when Captain Janeway opened her eyes, a sharp of stab of wretched helplessness came at her in the form of a stygian squid-like ship that defiled the yellow sky.
=/\=
Seven cursed the friction of the sand under the small transportation ski. The drag coefficient was large enough to limit their speed, regardless of the onboard mass. As a member of the Borg Collective, they were the ultimate achievement in evolution. By extension, only civilizations with useful technology were assimilated. It was the technology that was paramount, not the civilization or the individual components thereof.
Machines made frail humans better. She was much more than Annika Hansen. She was Seven of Nine. Though she did not believe she understood the sum total of Eridani Janeway, Seven was sure that her child was better as Borg.
For these reasons, the sight of the ship belonging to Species 8472 did not alarm Seven. Nor did the five Mencari ships descending to the surface on a course for these coordinates. If they could not defeat Species 8472 and the Ket'zali they could overpower them with sheer force of numbers. It was a reasonable hypothesis given that Mencari outnumbered both alien groups.
But Seven was astounded that the descending Starfleet's insignia did little to comfort her. Instead her mind was assaulted with random images of she and Kathryn returning to Voyager and to their former relationship, as if nothing planet-side had ever changed. The unwanted thoughts bubbled over in guilt for indulging in them at such a perilous time. But the pounding of her temples persisted, along with an unknown and strange roiling in her belly.
She forced her mind away from those troublesome thoughts to more important matters at hand. She could see her daughter and Mr. Commagees in the distance. With her Borg-enhanced visual acuity, Seven knew from the still gangly predator's carcass looming large on the banks that it was dead. Seven of Nine warmed to the idea that the foolish lout with the big mouth and the big heart to match had seen to her daughter's safety. The wind forced her tears across into her wild, blonde hair, erasing their very existence.
=/\=
Dani hunkered down against a large boulder. She was bracing herself against the ultraviolet rays that were burning her lips and skin. Her lips were cracked and beginning to tingle. Licking them only seemed to make it worse and she had no more spit anyway.
She watched the ship from Species 8472 hover above the ground, a hundred meters to the south. From their trajectory, Dani had no illusions about the ship's goal. "I think they know where we are," she said bleakly to Mr. Commagees.
He was looking desiccated where his body was exposed to the brutal Gweelee sun.
A strange, murky cloud drifted over the pair, blocking the sun. It brought relief to them both, but the Chinook wind kicking down the western slope from snow covered peaks brought its own problems as Dani and Mr. Commagees both began to shiver.
=/\=
The six members of the away team's phasers were aimed right between the water creature's buggy eyes. "Don't move!" Chakotay growled.
Mr. Commagees' fat lips fell wide and he began to sink slowly below the water's shallow depths.
"I said...!" Chakotay fired a warning shot a meter over his head. "Don't move!" He'd just fired his weapon when he saw the strawberry blonde locks of a young girl dart out from behind a big boulder.
Dani placed herself between the Starfleet Officers and the creature. She was brashly staring up at Chakotay with her jaw lifted. It was the look of utter determination on her that reminded him of Seven. His gun wavered.
"Get out of the way!" he growled.
"You don't understand!"
"We really do!" yelled another officer, Lieutenant Arence Andrews, as he fell to one knee. His weapon was still trained on the creature and by extension on Dani. His hand shook with violent tremors.
Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres holstered her weapon, stepping in front of unpredictable Andrews and another officer, Ensign Lazarotti Jarvin. "I think we should listen to the kid," B'Elanna said and then looked down to smile at her.
"Brilliant strategy," Chakotay snarled. He didn't want B'Elanna on this mission but it was the only way to keep an eye on her. Since their brawl he'd suspected her of mutiny, along with that chickenshit husband of hers.
"Fine," she replied. "I'm just an egghead engineer." B'Elanna stepped beside Dani to stand with the girl. "Then aim at both of us."
Crewman Marla Gilmore frowned at the Chief Engineer, rolling her eyes. "For heaven's sakes," she said and then fell to one knee, smiling at the girl. "Come on, Dani," she cooed, stretching an arm to her. "We want to help you." She wiggled her fingers for the girl.
Ensign Jerry Platt bounded out of the shuttle, startling everyone. "Captain Chakotay!" He ran clumsily up to the First Officer. "Mencari ships are incoming."
"How many?" Chakotay kept his phaser trained on the strange creature bobbing in the water.
"Two at least. But it gets worse."
Chakotay's face grew red. "All of it, Ensign! Not just spoonfuls of information!"
The young Ensign flushed at the man's public reprimand. His ruddy complexion burnished to dark red. Even the red highlights in his hair blushed. "Yes, sir," he yelled, bringing his body to rigid attention as if he were still a cadet. "We've got Ket'zali ships and some with signatures belonging to Species 8472."
"How many, dammit?"
"Three!"
Chakotay tapped his combadge, as he wiped his forehead with the back of his phaser-gripped hand. "Chakotay to Voyager."
"Captain?" Harry's deepened voice sounded distracted.
"Why didn't you tell us about—?" They all heard the characteristic sounds of popping electronics.
"They're riding our ass, Captain," he said. "They came at us suddenly. I think they used the planet's strange atmosphere for sensor cover until they were right on top of us."
Another explosion's reverberation carried through the com signal.
"How many more?"
"We stopped counting at ten."
"Evasive maneuvers, Ensign."
"Aye, Captain."
=/\=
Kathryn and Seven jumped off the sandski before it came to a stop. Kathryn's mind raced at the scene before her. Commander Chakotay and at least three other Starfleet officers appeared to be threatening her child.
Seven gathered Dani in her arms. Captain Janeway heard the gasps as they realized who stood before them. She turned steely eyes on her First Officer. "What do you think you're doing, Commander?"
It was young Ensign Platt who answered. "We're rescuing you," he replied in a voice that cracked.
"Pointing phasers at an eight-year-old? Is that your idea of a rescue, Ensign?"
Platt's pale face flushed and he lowered his weapon. "It was the creature behind her. We thought—"
"Ensign," Chakotay whispered.
Janeway put her hands on her hips and eyed each of the officers in turn. She managed to give B'Elanna the faintest look of gratitude before she turned a flinty gaze on the rest. Her trained eye quickly assessed her crew, alarmed by what the clues heralded. There was the savagery in their eyes that stole any of the Captain's satisfaction at seeing part of her crew.
"This is my child—" she said with an sharp edge.
"We know, Kathryn," the First Officer replied.
"—And Mr. Commagees is our friend." Captain Janeway studied her First Officer, watching his jaw muscles jump. She softened her voice. "I think we should be more worried about the other aliens, don't you?"
Chakotay lowered his weapon and ordered the others to do the same. "Sorry.... Captain."
Janeway noticed the hesitancy with her title, but she really didn't have time to digest what it all meant. She squinted to see a Ket'zali and Species 8472 ship landing to the south and Mencari ships to the north. This was an untenable position to defend against. The enemies on all sides could overrun them with superior numbers. Yet, they appeared to be fortifying themselves. Their battle tactics defied standard Starfleet military theories. It was all so ridiculous, Janeway wondered momentarily if she were dreaming. But the piercing pain in her thigh, the throb of her head and the fury coursing through her veins told her this was no nightmare.
In that brief space of time, Janeway came up with a plan. She was going to adapt Operation: Desert Feint for the collective needs. She tossed the targeting towers to the young Ensign. "Set these up. They don't have much distance, but the Doctor can beam us out of here to the Delta Flyer."
Chakotay's lips pursed and his eyes narrowed. When he cleared his throat, the Captain turned her full attention on him. It was then she finally focused on him completely. Her First Officer was wearing four non-regulation leaf-like pips. His dark hair was nearly shoulder length, falling down in a curtain of black behind his ears. He'd added another tattoo—a small, stylized bird spreading its wings—below his cheekbone. He'd always been self-confident. But he was unfailingly kind. But his air of arrogance seemed untempered now. It was as if he'd given himself over to something. Or someone. The thought chilled her or perhaps it was the fever she could feel setting in. Whatever the case, Janeway perceived that the man was balancing himself on the edge of a blade and submitting to her again could push him the wrong way. Yet, she was Captain and her responsibilities for the crew and the ship meant she had to push, to shove, to cajole, and to use reasonable and necessary force to get them all home alive.
"The targeting towers are useless," he finally said.
"What did you say?" She took a step forward, her head tipped. Janeway stared up at him through one eye.
He met her gaze without a flinch. "The Doctor is on Voyager at my orders."
Months of planning shot to hell with one careless command. The next question came out like a barbed Velocity disk dripping with poison. "Why?"
"He's configuring the nanoprobes to deploy against Species 8472."
Janeway heard the arrogant tinge in his statement, as if Chakotay knew he'd made the right choice and that she'd be unable to find a flaw in his plan.
She cupped an eye against the bright sun, careful not to touch her forehead. Her skin was already feeling tender under the sizzling Gweelee sun. Captain Janeway swayed slightly as her gaze searched the cloudless sky. "Is there enough for the entire Armada?"
He touched his combadge. "Chakotay to the Doctor."
"This is the Doctor and I hope you've found a way to get these nanoprobes down there that doesn't involve a transporter or a shuttle because—"
They all heard an explosion over the signal. While the First Officer prodded and wheedled the holographic doctor, Captain Janeway quickly assessed the other members of his away team.
Crewman Marla Gilmore flanked Chakotay and her glances at the man lingered a bit too long and smoldered a bit too hot to be ordinary professional regard. A red and black tattoo snaked along a muscle cord at Gilmore's neck, down to her chest under the tunic. Her confidence was a far cry from the disgraced lieutenant they'd taken aboard after the U.S.S. Equinox had been destroyed more than a year ago.
The motley group of Starfleet Officers seemed to lack a cohesion they once had. There were definite signs of cliques and dissension. A few things were certain, however: they all were haggard. The "space pallor"—that gaunt coloring most species demonstrated when deprived of natural sunlight for months on end—was in full force. And their uniforms were regulation, except for small deviations. Gilmore's purple undershirt was missing and her tunic was zipped a bit lower than decorum allowed. One of Chakotay's tunic sleeves was embroidered with a design Janeway couldn't quite make out.
All of them except B'Elanna tucked their black slacks into regulation Starfleet boots that were tipped in orange.
Before she could study her Chief Engineer, Janeway heard Chakotay shouting. "Find a way, Doctor! Chakotay out!"
The First Officer and the Captain exchanged soul-searching expressions. "We've got a problem," he whispered. "There is only a fraction of the probes available and we have no access to them at this point."
She arched a brow northward, where the intimidating squid-like ships moored. "We've had our back to the wall before," Janeway said, shaking her head as she walked to the shuttle. She looked back to see her First Officer staring at Seven's back. It wasn't just any look. It was the look of scorched earth for a drop of life-giving rain. Her eyes darted to Gilmore, who watched him with the same intensity. Again, Janeway tamped down these personal thoughts into the most inaccessible recesses of her mind. Pining for Seven was not going to get them out of this mess. "Chakotay!" she said sharply. "You're with me! The rest of you, fortify your positions! I think we're going be here a while."
=/\=
Seven found Dani in remarkable spirits, considering her ordeal. She'd engulfed the girl in a fierce hug and then offered her boss a hand. "Thank you," she whispered, shaking his fin delicately. "You have given me more than all the Shades and Palms on Gweelee."
"Ah, Seven," he said. "Dani's like me guppy, she is."
When Mr. Commagees eyes turned toward an infuriated Kathryn, Seven followed his gaze. The ex Borg easily took in the changes in the crew, in much the same way that Kathryn had. They seemed altered beyond normal parameters, though toward what unifying goal Seven could not fathom. It was merely data at this stage. The crew had indeed adapted to some unknown force.
What troubled her more was the sight of Kathryn. In an instant, she was the formidable Captain Janeway. A woman so forceful and resolute, that a giant lizard bite and a severe beating had done little to dampen her determination. Seven trembled along with child in her embrace. She feared that Kathryn was slipping out of her arms for the cold, pressed steel of Voyager.
The fact that Kathryn had stomped away to the shuttle, giving little heed to either she or Dani sent a paroxysm of anguish through Seven so excruciating the former Borg drone nearly sobbed aloud. Instead, she leaned down and pressed her lips onto rusty hair.
Both her daughter and Mr. Commagees drew closer to her. "Mom?" Dani asked, tipping her head back. Seven could see the girl's eyes were red-rimmed, matching the shade of her freckled skin. She rubbed her thumb over her cracked lips, feeling the scales of skin peeling away.
"I am... experiencing momentary misalignment of my cortical node," she said, with a raise of the eyebrow.
Mr. Commagees pulled out a small black bottle from his now-dry vest. "Need a swallow of me Kaybayhay?"
Under other circumstances she might have dismissed the offer. To her boss' and daughter's surprise, she put the bottle to her lips and tipped her head back. She closed her eyes as she took a long swallow of the local whiskey. The liquid's hot descent to her churning stomach made her instantly regret the breech. "Thank you," she said anyway, handing the closed bottle back.
Mr. Commagees watched over Seven's shoulders as Kat marched into the shuttle, as he gestured to her with his bottle "So, Seven," he purred in his usual melodic tones, tucking the bottle away. "Kat is the woman in charge of this group?" He looked up at Seven, who was sitting on the big boulder by the pond, holding Eridani close to her. "Kat—she's the Captain? And not you?"
Seven raised a brow. "Why does that surprise you, Finn?"
"She's a slip of a girl! That's why!"
"She's remarkable," she said bleakly.
Mr. Commagees tipped her head, wondering at Seven's flat comment. It was like all of the magic in his friendly Borg just drained away. "Are ye all right, Seven?"
Seven found the gaze of her daughter and Mr. Commagees to be oppressive, so she stood abruptly. "I am preparing to do my duty." For I can do no other, she thought.
=/\=
Chakotay felt oddly displaced to see Seven of Nine riding on that transport with two arms curled around her lithe body. Two arms that weren't his. When Janeway had stormed over to him in her typical Alpha female routine, he was actually relieved that the two women hadn't regarded each other. For a moment there, all of B'Elanna's theories that Janeway the bitch had bagged Seven just bubbled up. He thought he was going to explode. But then Kathryn had become the Captain. The woman who'd led them for the last six odd years.
Whatever they'd been doing—those two and that damned kid who started this whole mess—whatever they were doing it couldn't have been pleasant. At least not with Janeway looking like she'd gone a few rounds with an oversized Nausicaans.
Chakotay stepped into the shuttle, nodding as Lt. Andrews was asked to leave. He stilled himself for an ugly feud. He was surprised when one of Kathryn's blue eyes was staring up at him helplessly. In her hand, she held a medical tricorder.
"Do you mind doing a little patch up work so I don't have to grind my teeth to nubs with every step?"
The playful lilt in her voice seemed to soothe that rabid jaguar inside of him that Chakotay was finding more challenging to control. "Sure," he said. "Have a seat, Captain. But remember, you get what you pay for?"
She closed her eyes in relief as she fell into the seat. "I'll remember that. In either case, Chakotay," she said in a gravelly voice that projected fatigue, "I won't sue you."
"Thank you," he said, as he passed the device over her for a basic diagnostic.
The Captain opened the good eye to regard him with a crooked smile. "Only because a good lawyer is hard to come by in the Delta Quadrant."
He touched a few buttons and read the results. "I think, Captain, that a good lawyer is scarce anywhere in the galaxy. It would be like looking for a generous Ferengi or a patient Klingon."
"Oxymoron," she whispered. "Sounds like our situation now. Victorious Apocalypse?"
"Hmm, that pretty much describes your wounds, Captain."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Spare me the details, Doctor," she ordered. "Just slap on some duct tape and send me back into the ring!"
Chakotay smiled faintly at the reference to the early days of boxing, when that was the order of the day. He waved the tricorder over her bruised, swollen eye first. "You know, Kathryn," he said quietly. "It is good to see you."
"Is my medical situation so dire?" she asked, opening her one good eye. "You tried to chew my ass out there and now you're trying to make up." Kathryn let her eye wander to the man's pips. "Commander."
His smile was abashed, as he reflexively fingered the extra pip at his neck. "You go right for the jugular, Captain," he replied with a light tone.
"Not at all."
Chakotay shifted the tricorder over her lips, as she opened both eyes. He noticed her blinking furiously at his insignia. "Believe me, the self-promotion was a necessity."
"Did you have to desecrate the uniforms? And with orange?"
Chakotay lowered the tricorder to study her. Her tone suggested levity, but there was something else he couldn't quite identify. When the Captain arched her brow at him, he resumed the pass over her wounds.
He noticed that she was now trained on his tunic. "And what about the embroidered leafy pansies on your sleeve?" she asked.
"I can explain—"
"You'll have to, but not now."
"And for the record," he said with a smirk. "They're fire-breathing dragons."
A corner of her mouth curled. "My mistake."
He tried to concentrate on operating the tricorder so that he didn't give in to his rage. She was the only woman who could ever do this to him. And the galling thing was, Janeway knew it. Chakotay wasn't sure what game she was playing, but he didn't like it one damn bit. The irony was, they both knew the rules to this game. The first one to bust a warp coil was the loser.
He finally finished and closed the tricorder. "How do you feel?"
"That's rhetorical, right?" she asked as peered between the tatters of her thigh. The million needle-like stabs appeared to be sealed, but the thigh felt warm to the touch.
He waggled a hypospray at her. "I've heard the Doctor complain endlessly—in fact, I think he has a looping subroutine just for you—that describes just how perverse a patient you are."
"That's a little harsh considering, don't you think?" the Captain said mildly. "I sat here for ten minutes while aliens from the fifth dimension amass in untold numbers a stone's throw away. How is that not anything but the model of cooperation?"
He proffered the hypospray. "May I?"
She tipped her head, exposing the cords of her neck muscle.
=/\=
Seven stepped into the air-conditioned shuttle to find Kathryn sitting at a workstation with an elbow on a console and her head in her hand. "Captain?"
Seven watched as the Captain's eyes grew large. Her mouth dropped in surprise, but quickly she recovered as Dani bopped into a chair beside her and Mr. Commagees lumbered in.
Seven recognized the brief, but fleeting plea of her lover's eyes, just as Chakotay returned from aft. His eyes softened as he let a trembling hand rise and then fall. "Commander," she said, as she took a medical tricorder to scan her daughter. "My child and Mr. Commagees require medical attention."
"Fine, Seven," the Captain said imperiously. She swiveled her chair to the Commander. "Commander, what exactly are we facing?"
He walked over to console to pull up a topographical map of the region. He tapped one spot, just south of them. "The Ket'zali horde is converging on these coordinates."
"They're cutting off yer retreat," Mr. Commagees said from across the room.
Chakotay half turned to regard the man with a skeptical gaze. "But the nearest city is due west of here."
"Well, ye must be a blooming genius—!"
"Mr. Commagees," Kathryn said with an authoritative edge she'd never used with him. She wondered vaguely why Finn didn't care for Chakotay. "Mr. Chakotay is not from around here."
The Gweelee merchant sniffed. "Quite apparent, Kat. That's quite apparent."
Chakotay crossed his arms, amused at the man's reference to the Captain's nickname. "So why don't you tell us what you know."
Mr. Commagees lumbered over slowly, unhurried by time or Armageddon. He circled the map with his entire arm. "This is the Valley of Shynar." He tapped a southerly point on the screen. "The bloody bastards are here, cutting off yer retreat to Gweelee City," he said. He licked his eyeballs, forcing Chakotay back and then he tapped the north. "More bottom feeders are here, cutting off that escape route. The east and west are blocked from the high mountain ranges. You've got twelve hours until sunset in the east. The Chinook winds will begin to blow down the snow-tipped western slopes. Those winds'll tear yer flesh off, if these...creatures don't attack first."
Kathryn slowly rose, drawing Seven's secret glance. "That's a good assessment, Mr. Commagees. Thank you," she said. She turned to look up at Chakotay. "What kind of shape is Voyager in?"
He pursed his lips. "Not in any shape to take anyone on. I think even a Talaxian transport vessel could take her out. She's operational, but everything is barebones."
The Captain inhaled sharply, placing a hand flat on the console to steady herself.
"It gets worse," Chakotay said, glancing at the child.
"Give it to me," she ordered.
He leaned into whisper into her ear. "Species 8472 is back."
=/\=
Seven identified nine tactical errors that Chakotay had committed his "rescue" attempt. He was inefficient. On the bridge or in the bed. Now his grim tactical assessment was maddening. Kathryn required alternatives, not a list of difficulties.
Then Seven saw it. She saw Dani's beautiful eyes wide in fear. Ket'zali was a trigger. Then the Borg mother registered her elevated heart rate and her rapt attention to the tactical report.
Seven seized a hypospray and adjusted it. Without warning or preamble, Seven pressed it to her daughter's neck just as Chakotay began discussing the dimensional aliens. Dani's child-like shriek had drowned out any further information about Species 8472.
"That hurt!" The girl glared at her. "You did that on purpose!"
"I apologize, Eridani," Seven said. "However, you are incorrect. I did not arrange for your skin to be damaged from ultraviolet radiation."
Dani rubbed her neck with a pout. "You could have warned me."
Seven was about to herd her daughter and boss to the aft compartments when Janeway's razor sharp question pierced the air. "Seven, where are you taking them?"
She stopped, turning slowly. The swelling of Kathryn's eye was down, but it remained purple and green. Her lips remained distended and cracked. Her nose and cheek were smudged with Gweelee soil. Her thick auburn hair was in sweet disarray. Seven blinked momentarily to regain her focus. "Given the heat of the day, I thought it prudent to take Eridani and Mr. Commagees to convalesce in the aft sections."
Before she had even finished, Janeway was shaking her head no. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for the Captain to explain. "This ship is too big a target for our...friends out there. Take what they need, like a canteen and covering, but I want them away from here."
"Our shields—"
"Won't protect them for long. Not with the fire power out there."
She stared at Kathryn for a long, tense moment. Seven felt suddenly isolated, wondering what was going through Janeway's head. Her distance and manner were hurtful at first, but now they were raising an ire in Seven that she found disconcerting. But something inside of her—that place that loved Kathryn—spoke first. "I will comply."
=/\=
Seven returned to the shuttle alone, finding Janeway and Chakotay huddled over the screen, which was covered in electronic notations. She noticed the way Kathryn used the console to prop herself up. She also recorded with grim revulsion that Chakotay seemed to cheer at her entrance.
"Captain," she said. "May I speak with you in private?"
Janeway inhaled sharply, scratching her forehead. She turned to smile at her First Officer. "Chakotay, could you please check the group's preparations. Use the time to see if enemy positions have altered and then report back."
He nodded. He let his pinky graze Seven's hand as he passed. She quickly drew her arm in toward her belly, as she watched the man exit.
When the shuttle was sealed, Seven slowly lifted her eyes to Captain Janeway. Her Borg enhanced vision told her that the Captain's fever was back. She stepped close, but just as she neared the woman, Janeway closed her eyes.
"Seven, please."
Seven reached behind the Captain for the tricorder, running it along the woman. "You are feverish. Did whoever treated you earlier not notice the infection setting in on your leg wound?"
"I suppose not," she said. "Maybe I didn't have one then."
Seven lifted her eyes up to meet the Captain's, alarmed at the implications of such a comment. She knew Kathryn had been treated only thirty minutes prior.
"I can wait—?"
Seven snapped the tricorder closed. "No, Pips." Her eyes narrowed slightly, waiting for her lover to speak again.
"Dammit, Seven, I am not Pips here. I am—"
"Incorrect," she stated flatly but in precise intonation as she adjusted a hypospray. "Where my child is in danger, you are Pips."
"But we'll save Dani—"
"Our unborn child," Seven clarified. "My child that you carry." Seven placed her spread hand on the woman's belly, causing Kathryn to close her eyes again.
The Captain placed her own hand over Seven's, squeezed it and gently pulled it away from her. "Listen to me, darling. This has to be quick. Something's not right...among the crew. If Chakotay—"
The bay opened to find the First Officer peering in, as if he were anxious to see them. He came up beside Seven, a breath away to face her. "If Chakotay what?"
Janeway pushed off the console, mumbling an apology as she walked between them. "I was saying depending on their tactical changes, we might try to use the shuttle as a decoy."
Captain Janeway met the cold stare her comment elicited. "Do you have a better idea, Commander?"
"It depends," he said mysteriously. "But I think something's a foot."
=/\=
A glistening, threadlike tower was rising above the southern plain of Shynar amidst the Ket'zali ships. It shimmered in the Gweelee heat, making the spindling, silver girders look like looms of spider webs. Ket'zali warriors stood on platforms around the rising obelisk. The faraway sound echoed the rat-tat-tapping of thousands of hammers that glinted and flashed in the valley.
"What the hell is that?" Janeway asked, cupping her eye against the butterscotch swelter.
"A tower," replied one of the ensigns.
"Seven!" Janeway yelled to the back of the group. "What do you think it is?"
Seven stepped away from B'Elanna, where she had left Dani and Mr. Commagees. She walked slowly forward, careful to avoid the Captain's gaze. Her eyes traced the outline of the escalating riser. "It appears to be the beginning of a colossal deflector," she replied, turning on her heels to face the Captain.
"A deflector—but what would they—?"
"Perhaps they intend to open a singularity to Fluidic Space," Seven said flatly.
"Captain!" Chakotay yelled, pointing to a line of Ket'zali warriors forming at the base. "
"Janeway to Voyager!" Kathryn said, slapping her combadge.
"Cap... Captain! Janeway! This is—" An explosion boomed over the comlink, along with Harry's shout. "Incoming!"
"Report, Ensign!"
"Captain! We're under heavy attack by Ket'zali ships!"
Janeway hadn't planned on stepping into that crisis. She'd wanted Voyager to blast that damn deflector into oblivion and stall any plans the aliens had from opening a singularity to Fluidic Space.
Her eyes locked gazes with Chakotay, accepting the faint rise of his eyebrows as the invitation it was. She brushed the back of her hand against her forehead, surprised to find perspiration dripping into her eyes. "Mister Kim," she said. "Take Voyager into the planet's corona!"
"Ma'am?"
"Do it!"
"What...what...what—" Another explosion reverberated through the comlink. "What does Chakotay say?"
Janeway ground down hard on her back teeth. The muscles rippled along her jaw line. This crew was not the same. That was for damned sure. It was her turn to glare archly at her First Officer.
"Harry! This is Chakotay. You have your orders."
"Aye...Captain!" Before the comlink cut out, they heard Harry order the ship hard to starboard on an intercept to the G-type star.
Janeway's gaze leveled on the tower again. It had grown about ten meters in that brief time. "Now what?"
Chakotay half turned to look at the shuttle.
Janeway gave a grim smile, clapping his shoulder as she marched toward the shuttle.
=/\=
The shuttle's phasers fired twice. The tower scaffolding crashed to the ground, along with an untold number of Ket'zali. Water splashed up, as the pieces fell into the Guadalquiver.
Blue spiky lightning arced across the yellow sky, descending on the Voyager shuttle in an electrical rage. Dani plastered herself against a boulder between her parents. Captain Janeway's arm covered her shoulder, while Seven's Borg appendage covered her head. Other crewmembers were scattered, taking cover from the raining down of shuttle bits. A chunk struck Ensign Jarvin's leg, bringing a sailor's tumble of swear words.
"Hold on, Jarvin!" Chakotay yelled. "We'll take care of you! Just wait until—"
=/\=
The acrid smell of plasma burned their noses. The smoke assaulted their eyes. The younger crewmembers stared at the charred hole where the shuttle had stood. "We're toast!" Ensign Platt muttered in a Midwestern American drawl.
Chakotay descended on him like a sack of hammers. "Stop it! All of you! We've faced odds a lot worse than this!"
Ensign Jarvin hobbled upright, holding his leg. "We've lost our only means of escape! Voyager has burned up in that fucking sun! We're cut off! We're surrounded. Those bastards are going to drag us all to hell...." He limped close to Chakotay, stabbing the man with a finger. "And you have the balls to stand there and—"
"Ensign Jarvin!" Janeway shouted, stepping away from Dani. "Stand down! I said stand down, man."
Jarvin mumbled something under his breath and shuffled back to a bit of shade beside a rock, sliding down to find a seat in the dust.
"It looks bleak!" Janeway said. "You do not have to tell us! Chakotay's faced Cardassians in a bucket of bolts!"
The First Officer looked at her with a touch of amusement on his lips. "And the Captain's been assimilated more times than I remember."
"Once," she said dryly. "I was assimilated once. But it was enough."
"This doesn't help!" Jarvin grumbled from the ground. "Chumming about how bad we had it last year or four years ago! Or even six damn years ago! It don't mean a thing!"
Janeway carefully squatted beside the man. Her sympathetic expression nearly faltered when her thigh began to sting. "My point, Lazarotti, is we aren't dead." She stood up, looking around and trying desperately not to linger on Seven and Dani. She could see plainly the bleakness on all their faces. She tamped down ruthlessly on her own despair.
"Even if the sky were to open and we all fell into the grip of Species 8472 and all the odious apparatus of Ket'zali rule, we shall not flag or fail!"
Captain Janeway limped among them, meeting each of their gazes. "We'll go on to the end. We'll fight in the sand and the mud." Captain Janeway gestured up. "We'll fight in the air! We'll defend ourselves, our children and our ship—whatever the cost may be! If this day finds us subjugated and starving—and I don't for a moment believe—then Voyager beyond the stars, armed and free, will carry on! She will find her way home, to the safe harbor of the Federation in God's good time. But we, my friends—we shall never surrender!"
The howling wind whistled in their ears. The clank of Ket'zali hammers renewed their clamor. The smoldering sizzle of plasteel buzzed around them from the chunks of the shuttle.
A hundred thousand footfalls from south of them brought them out of the courageous moment. Row upon row of Ket'zali marched forward. Their weapons gleaming shards of death in the sun as the marching rumbled the ground where Captain Janeway and her crew stood in the middle of the desolate Valley of Shynar.
Chakotay raised his small phaser. "Form up, people!" With his heel, he dug a line in the drying mud. "One line. Ready your weapons. Take aim, but hold your fire!"
As the small contingent began to gather themselves, Chakotay walked over to Captain Janeway. He rubbed her shoulder with his own, hoping the gesture was lost to everyone in the shuffle. "Great speech," he whispered.
"You think so?" she said dryly. "Winston Churchill might be rolling over in his grave after I sliced and diced his most famous address."
"It did what it had to do," he said, gesturing toward the sea of Ket'zali.
She inhaled deeply, as she surveyed the vast plain full of aliens. Then she looked to see a gleam in her First Officer's eyes. He was enjoying the conflict. That was not like him. He was not himself. She wondered belatedly if he had been altered by the aliens, if he was a spy or a clone of some sort. She shook her head as she turned to gaze instead at the murderous throng. No, she would know if Chakotay was not himself. He was definitely her old friend. Now he was something more and she hoped to everything holy that he was on their side.
"I wonder what the Mencari behind us are waiting for?" East and west, a vast army of Mencari lizards vacillated like a murky sea. Janeway could see bright ribbons of color adorning spears in their legionary-like formation. But they held their station.
"They're probably waiting on Ush'maul for a sign," he said slyly.
Janeway met his gaze. Her First Officer hadn't looked directly at the line of advancing enemies, but she could see him trembling. It wasn't fear, she told herself. It's anticipation! She shuddered at the thought.
The Captain had enlisted in Starfleet to explore, see the quadrant. She didn't sign up for war, but sometimes it was part of the job. Janeway detested the military history she was forced to consume at the Academy and the military strategy that she was required to memorize. But it was part and parcel of defense. She never thought she'd face her own Waterloo.
"Captain!"
Her stomach dropped to see the shimmering Ket'zali army stomping in place. The line of soldiers had to be a kilometer long and that deep. The vibrations shook the pebbles at her feet. A low eerie, glottal note sounded from a brassy bugle with a long cylinder that curled up to a flaring bell. Each subsequent note was lower in pitch, until a great boom like the crack of thunder rang in the valley.
Captain Janeway brushed her forearm across her brow. Still the sweat stung her eyes. Her tongue was cotton. Her leg began to throb again. She pressed into her quad muscles to try to dull the pain. She withdrew her hand to find it drenched in blood.
When the ground began to quake, Captain Janeway looked up to see the army begin its advance. "Damn," she whispered to herself.