Chapter Three

Another month passed, and still no opportunities for food appeared. People were beginning to compare this stretch to the Void, but at least here there were stars and systems to investigate. None of them were of any use though, and their food and energy shortages were about to be compounded by another empty stretch of space. The captain had charged Seven of Nine with finding any planet or anomaly that could help them, but so far, the head of Astrometrics was drawing a complete blank. It looked like their possibilities were thinning out, and there was no potential Eden coming up on sensors for the next eight hundred light years.

Their continued fruitless search was fraying everyone's nerves. Neelix was taking more than his fair share of abuse in the mess hall, though he did his best to keep up a brave face and boost morale. Chakotay was running ragged trying to settle disputes and counsel those who needed it. And without coffee, or even better-than-coffee substitute, Kathryn Janeway could teach classes in irrationality. Every setback, large or small, was cause for anger the likes of which the crew hadn't seen in quite a while, and their feelings about the captain were exacerbated by their own insecurities in their current situation. Her new temper meant a lot less tolerance of infractions, and as a result, Ensign Callahan was doing two days in the brig due to an ill-advised after-hours trip to the mess hall.

The bridge was a tense place, one that the senior staff would have given their left arm to be away from. Tom and Harry, who were rarely ever at odds, seemed to be doing everything in their power to irritate one another. B'Elanna was burying herself in her work to avoid being caught between her friend and her lover, which in turn was driving the Engineering staff crazy. Tuvok's eternal patience was being tested by the unending number of transgressions, to the point where even he was unable to quiet his mind for meditation at night. The Doctor and Seven were the only ones that seemed to be handling the situation with any sort of normality, using time without alien encounters to follow their own pursuits, and for the Doctor to continue Seven's social lessons between bouts of patching up those who had decided to alleviate the tension with their fists.

The worst though, by far, was the command team. Chakotay's well-known patience for dealing with Kathryn Janeway had reached its limit, and he didn't hold back in letting her know it. Kathryn herself was immediately defensive, feeling that he'd withdrawn his support and was now just serving as the contrary he'd once described himself to be. They'd clashed over a lot of things, but nothing more than Callahan's brig stint. He'd thought she was far too harsh on someone who had missed the evening meal, while she'd accused him of wanting to whitewash the incident, fearing that his negligence would eventually result in a full-blown mutiny. Kathryn once again felt the impulse to relieve her first officer of duty, but then was tempered a bit when she remembered how badly she'd felt after the last time. Instead, she assigned him to duty that would take him off the bridge for the rest of the day, which Chakotay was more than happy to accept.

He returned to the bridge the next day, sitting silently next to her as they worked. She was concentrating on trying to find ways to lessen the drain on their energy reserves, while Chakotay wrote his report on the latest mess hall problem, which had ended in a six-person brawl. The bridge was eerily quiet – even the beeps and chimes from the consoles seemed to be subdued. So when a proximity alert sounded at Ops, everybody jumped.

"Harry?" Janeway called, her heart speeding up a little in anticipation as she turned in her seat.

The ensign, who had nearly been falling asleep at his station, seemed to spring back to life, fingers flying to fine-tune the readouts. "I'm detecting a new star system two light years to port."

The captain glanced at Seven, who was standing behind her, then back to Kim. "It didn't show up before?"

Harry shook his head. "No, Captain, it just appeared on sensors." Checking the readings again, he added, "Six planets, three gas giants and what looks like an asteroid field immediately surrounding the star."

"Signs of life?"

"I'm seeing indications of inter-planetary infrastructure, though it isn't clear to what extent at this distance," Harry said. "Unable to tell if there are warp-capable vessels."

Chakotay turned to the former Borg. "Why didn't this system appear on the charts you created?"

Tapping into Ensign Kim's readings, she coolly said, "I do not know."

"We'll worry about that later," the captain brusquely cut them off. "Tom, alter course to take us closer so that we can get better readings."

Paris turned back to his console. "Aye, Captain."

The captain turned aft with a full head of steam. "Seven?"

Normally unflappable, Seven was hurriedly tapping into the console. "Astrometric sensors did not indicate any star systems for at least one hundred and eighty-six light years along our course," she defended.

Janeway growled. "Time to the system?" she called out, her eyes never leaving Seven.

"At warp six, thirty-three hours," Paris replied, refusing to move his eyes from his console.

"Increase to warp eight."

"Captain," Chakotay started to warn, "B'Elanna–"

"I know what she said!" she snapped, her eyes flashing at him. Then to Seven she ordered, "Seven, you and Harry recalibrate the astrometric sensors. Then start rescanning the area. God knows how many other systems you may have missed."

"Yes, Captain."

Turning on her heel, Janeway disappeared into the ready room, but had barely made it behind her desk before the door chimed. "Come in."

Chakotay stepped inside, ready to argue. "Is that it?"

The captain looked up. "What?"

"You've been dressing down people for a lot less than that lately," he pointed out. "But Seven of Nine is responsible for a major error, and she barely gets an instruction."

She fixed him with a hard look. "Are you accusing me of favoritism?"

"I'm not accusing. I'm telling." Leaning down to face her, hands on the desk, he continued. "I've seen you not only order Ensign Kim to completely strip and rebuild his station when Voyager's systems malfunctioned, but you've inspected his work yourself before letting him loose. With Seven, you barely batted an eyelash."

"I am as hard on her as I am on anybody else," Kathryn shot back. "Putting her in the brig isn't going to get the problem fixed."

"I'll tell that to Ensign Callahan."

Her expression could have frozen fire. "Are you finished?"

He softened just a bit. "Look, we've all been under a lot of strain. But you're causing issues with the crew because of your constant bad mood."

They glared at one another for a bit, neither willing to end the standoff. He wondered if he'd pushed too hard. But they couldn't keep going the way they were – the grumblings from below decks were only getting louder, putting him in a difficult position.

She was the first to back down, looking away as she slumped back into her chair. "Noted," she said softly, her jaw grinding as his words sank in.

"Captain…"

Janeway looked back at him. "You should get back to the bridge, Commander."

Knowing that he wasn't going to get any further, he capitulated. "Aye, Captain."

Chakotay left her alone, and the anger that she'd felt when he confronted her started to ebb. "Damn you…" she breathed, rubbing at her temple as a headache started to form. Doesn't he understand the pressure I'm under? To her, it seemed like every time she dared show some emotion, he was telling her it was the wrong one. Or at least when it doesn't suit his purpose.

Kathryn sighed, memories of their past conflicts coming flying to the surface. With the Borg, he'd had no qualms about countermanding her orders while she lay unconscious in Sickbay. With Ransom, he'd tried his damnedest to keep her from doing what she felt she needed to do to get through that crisis. Now she felt like he was countering her just for the hell of it. Must be the lack of caffeine, she tried to reason with herself, though it sounded like a hollow argument. He needs some down time, she tried again, which didn't sound much better than her first excuse. Maybe I do too.

Deciding that perhaps she should spend some time on her own to calm down and hopefully not snap at anybody else for the next few hours, Kathryn delved into the readings from Ops to see what other information was there.