May 20, 2378 1100 Ready Room
"Commander, Please join me in my ready room. Tuvok you have the bridge," Captain Janeway said and then stood and walked to the ready room.
"Of course, Captain," Chakotay replied and followed her to the ready room.
Chakotay wasn't sure who wanted to talk to him, Captain Janeway or his fiancée Kathryn, and he realized this was a dilemma he might face for a long time to come.
"May I ask one question before you start to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about?" Chakotay asked hesitantly.
"Yes, of course Chakotay," Kathryn replied.
"Who wants to talk to me, my Captain or my fiancée?" asked Chakotay.
"Both, but first your Captain wants to talk to you and then Kathryn does, OK?" she responded.
Chakotay nodded, assumed a parade rest posture with his hands clasped behind his back and his feet spread slightly apart. "All right, Captain, I'm listening," he said.
"In order to maintain an air of professionalism, you and your fiancée will refrain from personal interactions while on duty. Is that understood?" she asked.
"A clarification if you don't mind, Captain. What about breaks during a duty shift, for instance for a meal, are we to consider ourselves on duty then?" he inquired with a grin.
"For now I'm going to say no, but I may change my mind, if you and your fiancée should lack proper judgment about appropriate conduct for officers," she answered, barely able to keep a straight face.
"May I make a suggestion, Captain?" Chakotay asked.
"Please do," responded Kathryn.
"Let's take an early lunch break," Chakotay suggested.
"Alright," she said with an impish grin and then activated her commbadge.
"Tuvok, the commander and I are taking an early lunch, please continue to cover the bridge for the next half hour," she said.
"Certainly Captain," replied Tuvok
Chakotay closed the distance between them and kissed her. She playfully pushed him away a bit but remained in his arms.
She said, "Remember what the captain said about proper judgment about appropriate behavior."
"And just what is inappropriate about a man kissing his fiancée?" Chakotay asked.
"Well, nothing per se but we are just off from the bridge, what if someone walked in on us?" she asked mischievously.
"Computer, lock ready room doors, authorization Chakotay alpha1. There, now that won't be a problem," he said. Chakotay drew her down on the ready room couch with him. "Now what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked easily.
"Well, I was wondering if you'd thought about your upcoming conversation with your sister. Are you going to tell her about us?" Kathryn asked.
Chakotay looked at her sharply; it almost seemed to him that she was nervous.
"Yes, I've thought a lot about that conversation and yet, I'm not sure exactly what I will say but I'm sure the topic of our getting married will come up. Does that bother you?" he asked.
"No, no not really. I guess I'm just wondering whether your sister will approve of me. And I suppose I'm also concerned about how we tell everyone else about our engagement," Kathryn answered
"Well, you don't have to worry about whether Maliya approves of you are not, because I'd marry you regardless of her approval or disapproval," he didn't think Kathryn looked any more relaxed, so he added, "besides I'm sure Maliya's going to love you."
Kathryn laid her head down on his shoulder at that point and asked, "How shall we inform the crew of our decision to get married?"
"I'm not sure I know how. I know how I don't want to do it," Chakotay replied.
"How's that?" she asked.
"Well I don't want to make some ship wide announcement over the comm system or send out PADD messages to the entire crew. Nor do I want to make an announcement to the senior staff at the end of a staff meeting," he replied.
"Why not?" Kathryn asked. "All of those sound like efficient ways to handle the situation." she said.
"Kathryn," Chakotay said in a tone of voice that sounded a bit annoyed, "our engagement isn't a 'situation'. We aren't announcing a change in duty assignments or a new energy saving protocol. I don't want it to feel like what we tell them comes from the captain and first officer of Voyager. I want this to be from Kathryn and Chakotay," he concluded.
"All right, I understand your viewpoint, but how do we do that?" she asked.
"Well, I was thinking, when I talk to Maliya, Seven of Nine will overhear my conversation, so she'll find out that way. I think I'll ask her to keep it quiet until we can tell other crewmembers and I was thinking that maybe we should tell the senior staff individually and in private. Well, except Tom and B'Elanna we can tell together," Chakotay replied.
"I think that's a good idea. How about this, while you're talking to Maliya, I'll tell Tuvok about our plans?" she suggested.
Chakotay nodded vigorously to that suggestion, he'd much rather Kathryn informed Tuvok and that he be left out of that discussion.
"Then we can talk to the doctor together. And how about we ask Harry to meet us at Tom and B'Elanna's this evening and we can tell the 'Three Musketeers' together?" she added.
"OK, that sounds pretty good that just leaves Neelix. How about we tell him together and ask him to let us make an announcement on his next 'Briefing with Neelix' show?" Chakotay proposed.
"I think that's workable. What's our timetable for all this?" She asked.
"Well, the sooner we tell the doctor the better. I hate feeling like we have the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads because of Dr. Crusher's directive." He paused, and then added in a thoughtful tone, "I suppose she probably thinks we're even now."
"Even? Even over what?" Kathryn asked.
"Oh, remember I mentioned being demoted because I lied about my age on my Star Fleet Academy application?" Chakotay asked.
"Yes, I remember, it was only last night that you told me," she said in a tone of voice that said 'do you think I'm that forgetful?' "So what's that got to do with Dr. Crusher?" Kathryn asked puzzled.
"Well its sort of her fault the truth came out, well, hers and my buddies on the Gettysburg." Chakotay said.
"I think I hear a story coming on. Let me replicate us some lunch and you can tell me the whole story," Kathryn said as she got up and went to the replicator.
"What would you like?" Kathryn asked.
"A bowl of tomato soup, a cheese sandwich and an orange, oh and a glass of ice tea." Chakotay answered.
Kathryn requested two of each of the things Chakotay had requested, except she made her beverage an iced cappuccino, and then brought the tray with their lunches on it over to the coffee table in front of the couch.
"OK, tell me this story," she said, as she took a sip of soup out of her mug.
"Well, it was a long time ago, 15 and half years ago to be precise. We'd just pulled into Starbase 47 for R&R and crew rotation. I was among those being rotated out. I'd just been promoted to Commander and was being sent to Utopia Planitia to oversee completion of a Galaxy class ship. Rumor had it I'd be made XO on the ship when it launched," he said as he began to relate the story.
Kathryn watched Chakotay intently as he told his story in between taking bites of his sandwich and sips of his soup.
"Well, to make matters even better it just happened to be my birthday. So some of the officers on the Gettysburg that I'd gotten to be pretty good friends with - Pat Cochran, Orlando Delgado and Kha Nguyen took me out to celebrate. They'd found this bar that had a good supply of Romulan ale and it just so happened the bar was sponsoring this bare knuckles last man standing tournament. After I had had a few ales I was drunk enough to let them talk me into entering the stupid contest. So I stripped off my uniform jacket and got in the ring. I started fighting whoever would get in there with me. After I'd knocked out about half a dozen guys no one else would get in the ring with me, so I was declared the winner. By that time the guys realized I'd taken quite a few blows from my opponents and I was three sheets to the wind to boot, so they decided to take me to the base's infirmary." Chakotay stopped for a moment to take a drink of iced tea.
"Ah and let me guess, Dr. Crusher was the doctor on duty in the infirmary," Kathryn said.
"Yes, well anyway, she was concerned that with all that boxing that maybe I had a concussion. So she starts asking me simple questions, like 'Do you know what today is?' I said sure, it's my birthday. I don't think she believed me at first, but the guys backed me up. So she followed up with how old are you? And I asked her 'really or officially?' She asked me to explain what I meant so I told her about lying on my academy application. My buddies and Dr. Crusher were all really shocked at what I'd just said, but of course I was too drunk to immediately remember the consequences. Unfortunately for me one of the guys I beat up was still in the infirmary and he was a real sore loser. He's the one who reported it to Star Fleet headquarters," Chakotay concluded as he polished off the last of his sandwich.
"And they busted you back to lieutenant for that?" Katherine asked.
"Well, actually I lost one grade for conduct unbecoming to an officer for getting drunk and fighting and the other grade for lying on my application," Chakotay replied and then gave a small chuckle. "I've never touched Romulan ale since then."
"If you hadn't gotten set back you'd have surely made captain long before you resigned to join the Maquis," Kathryn said.
"Yeah, I suppose so. When I resigned Nimebeh was furious. I didn't know it at the time, but he was one of the people who went to bat for me and kept me from being cashiered out. When I resigned he told me that I was up for promotion to commander again at the end of the term. The brass planned to send me out for a stint as XO of a big star ship then I'd be given my own command, probably one of the new Intrepid class ships he said," Chakotay added morosely.
"Wait, are you saying if you hadn't resigned and joined the Maquis that Voyager would have been your ship?" Kathryn said incredulously.
"Yeah or one of her sister ships, at least that's what Nimebeh said. But he might have been blowing smoke just to try to keep me from resigning. Kind of ironic isn't it? I make a couple of stupid decisions in my life and the whole picture changes and sometimes not just for me," Chakotay replied gloomily.
"Well, look at it this way, if you hadn't joined the Maquis, then Tuvok wouldn't have been sent out to spy on you. I wouldn't have led Voyager out to the Badlands to retrieve him and we would probably never have even met." Kathryn said.
"I guess when you put it that way I can't regret my decisions, but there are times when I feel like it's my fault everyone is stuck out here so far from home," Chakotay confessed.
"Oh, so I'm not the only one in this family who's good at taking guilt trips," Kathryn said in a light-hearted tone.
"I love how that sounds," Chakotay said.
"How what sounds?" Kathryn asked a bit confused.
"You called us, you and me, a family," Chakotay said and then pulled Kathryn into his arms to kiss her. The kiss grew passionate and Kathryn finally pushed him away.
"Chakotay we can't do this on duty, OK?" she said.
"But we're not on duty, we're on our lunch break, see!" he held up an orange segment to emphasize his point.
"I know, but - well, I'm just not comfortable with that level of uh, well you know …" Kathryn tried to explain with little success.
"Please tell me I'm not marrying a prude," Chakotay teased.
"I'm not a prude, I promise you I'm not." she said emphatically. "I guess I just have a different set of sensibilities than you do. Kissing you so passionately when we're here in the ready room on a break from our duties just feels wrong."
"It feels wrong for you to kiss me?" Chakotay said in a tone of voice that made Kathryn realize she'd said something wrong.
"No, it feels wonderful to kiss you. I just feel like … oh I don't know, uncomfortable. Like I'm doing something at a time and place I shouldn't be," Kathryn explained.
"OK, I think I understand. Your ready room is a place we often work in, so it seems like we're mixing the personal and the professional too much. Is that it?" he asked.
"Yes, I think that's it exactly. If you'd kissed me like that in my quarters or yours or in the holodeck I'm sure it would have been OK," she replied, glad Chakotay understood.
"OK, I can see that balancing our personal and professional lives may be more difficult at certain times and in certain places, but I'm sure we'll get the hang of it," Chakotay said trying to sound confident.
"Well, I hate to say this, but I think its time I got back to the bridge. What about you?" Kathryn asked.
"I need to get to my office, I have several requests from crewmembers to talk. I think it's about the boosters but I'm not sure," Chakotay replied then rose and began taking the dishes from lunch to the recycler.
"Shall we meet in sickbay after I call my sister?" he asked.
"All right and I'll make arrangements to meet Harry at Tom and B'Elanna's this evening," Kathryn replied.
Chakotay gave Kathryn a light kiss on the cheek then turned to leave and ran straight into the door, "Damn" he said.
Behind him Kathryn laughed, and then helpfully added, "You locked the doors, remember?"
Chakotay turned to Kathryn and gave her a huge grin. "Look what you do to me, woman. Get me so mixed up I run into locked doors. Computer, unlock ready room doors, authorization Chakotay alpha1."
The doors swished open due to his still close proximity, so he exited the ready room, then turned and held the doors open by hand and said, "I will see you in sickbay at approximately 1410, captain."
May 20, 2378 1355 Astrometrics
Chakotay waited anxiously in Astrometrics for Seven to establish the communications window. Seven of Nine was nervous in the Commander's presence because of her experimentation with her human emotions, which had involved using a holographic simulation of the commander. She had chosen Commander Chakotay not only because he was an extremely handsome human male, but also because she knew her mentor Kathryn Janeway was in love with Commander Chakotay. She reasoned that any man the captain could fall in love with had to be an extraordinary individual. Although all she had experienced was with a facsimile derived from medical scans, psychological profiles and some key bits of programming, she'd been duly impressed by the man. Now she felt herself somewhat embarrassed in his presence though she didn't know why, as he was completely unaware of her inappropriate use of the holodeck.
"Commander, do you wish me to leave after I establish the link?" Seven asked.
"Isn't the normal procedure for you to remain in case there are difficulties with the link?" Chakotay responded.
"It is, but sometimes crewmembers have requested that I step outside so they may have privacy." She replied.
Chakotay was torn, he had told Kathryn he'd let Seven know about there engagement by letting her overhear his conversation with his sister, but the communication with his sister might be difficult. His desire for privacy warred with his need for a stable communications link and the knowledge that Seven of Nine might learn something valuable about human relationships by eavesdropping on the conversation, plus the fact that he felt as though he'd promised Kathryn to give Seven their news.
"You don't need to leave," Chakotay said, "but I'd appreciate it if you didn't repeat anything you overhear unless you clear it with me first, OK?" he said.
"Yes, Commander of course." Seven replied, and then added a moment later. "The communications uplink is online commander."
"Hello Commander," said a young Lieutenant in Star Fleet Headquarters' Communications Division. "We have established a link with your sister on Trebus and are patching it through."
"Thank You, Lieutenant. Please standby to receive an upload of information," Chakotay nodded to Seven to start the upload, "about a detour that Voyager is making that will delay the rendezvous with the deep space probes. Please see to it that the information is forwarded through proper channels. We will be awaiting acknowledgement and further instructions," Chakotay said.
"Yes Commander, and here's your link to Trebus now," the young officer responded.
Suddenly the image of a simply dressed, statuesque woman of indeterminable age with the same jet-black hair, deep brown eyes and bronzed skin as Chakotay appeared on the screen in Astrometrics. She was as beautiful as Chakotay was handsome and there was no doubting the kinship between the two of them.
"Maliya" Chakotay breathed his sister's name as though it were a benediction and in return heard his name from his sister's lips in nearly the same tone, as each of them gazed upon the sibling they had at some time given up for lost.
"Oh how handsome you look with father's tattoo!" she exclaimed.
Chakotay looked down and chuckled a bit, "I've worn it so long now I'd forgotten you hadn't seen me with it," he replied.
"When did you take to wearing it?" she asked.
"When I returned home to Trebus and swore to carry on father's fight against the Cardassians," he answered, his voice full of the emotions that return visit to his ruined home had evoked.
"Oh my dear brother, how devastating it must have been for you to return and find us all gone and the planet in ruins," she said with great compassion.
Chakotay was stunned into silence for a moment. How could his sister, who had obviously been through so much, have so much compassion for him, the brother who hadn't been there to protect her?
"How can you worry about me? You're the one who was there, who went through, well I don't know what because you conveniently didn't tell me." He stopped for a moment, and then forged on. "What did happen Maliya? What happened to you and Taya all those years?"
"Do I really have to tell you, brother? Have you no imagination? Do you know nothing of our people's history? What always happens to the women who are taken captive by the enemies? Do you really want the details? Do I need to give you more reasons to hate Cardassians?" She hurled the questions at him so that it almost seemed she was angry with him and that's how he took it.
"I'm sorry Maliya," Chakotay replied. "You have every right to be angry with me. I should have been there to protect you and-"
"No," Maliya shouted at him. "I'm glad you weren't there." She paused a moment and then continued more calmly, "If you had been, I would not only have lost my father, husband and son, but my brother as well. No Chakotay, I'm glad you weren't there and I'm even glad that you got thrown across the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant, that way you weren't there with the other Maquis who were slaughtered. Fate has saved you for something my brother, I am not sure what but something."
"If you aren't angry at me for not being there to protect you, then why did you sound so angry?" Chakotay asked still puzzled.
"Because I'm tired of being asked about what happened to me at the hands of the Cardassians. Everyone thinks I should talk about it; write about it, that I should spend hour after hour talking about it with counselors. That's all such a waste of my time, dwelling on what happened. And I refuse to do it. I won't sacrifice the present agonizing over a past I can't change. If I do that, then I'm still a victim of the Cardassians. I just want to get on with my life. Can you understand that?" she asked him simply.
"Yes," Chakotay said, then he smiled.
"Why are you smiling?" she was torn between curiosity and annoyance.
"I was just thinking how similar what you said sounded to something I said once to Kathryn," Chakotay responded gently, as he thought how well his parents had taught he and his sister to live in the now.
"Kathryn, as in Kathryn Janeway, Captain of Voyager?" Maliya asked, with the tone of a sister who knew the way her brother said this woman's name was very significant.
"Yes," Chakotay replied cautiously, knowing that somehow his sister had picked up on something.
"And what did you say to her exactly?" she asked
"That I wouldn't sacrifice the present for a future that might not come." he replied.
"Sounds like an interesting conversation." Maliya said, hoping her brother would elaborate.
"Yes," responded Chakotay. He realized now would be a good time to tell her he was marrying Kathryn, but for some reason he just didn't want to yet. He realized he wanted to wait until the last bit of the conversation to tell her and he wanted to spring it on her as a surprise. He didn't know why, but for some reason he felt like they were kids again and he had a secret he wanted to torture her with. He grinned again, Spirits this felt good!
"Well?" his sister said expectantly.
"Well what?" he replied, teasing his sister.
"Ooh, don't you do that to me. I hated it when we were kids and I still hate it," Maliya said, half-angry and half-overjoyed that she and her big brother could still bicker like little kids.
"So tell me, what does your present include, nowadays?" Chakotay said, deciding to change to safe topics.
"Mostly fighting with bureaucracies trying to get the supplies and equipment necessary to terraform Trebus and Dorvan back into planets that can support colonies," she replied.
"You're helping the ultra-traditionalists terraform their planet?" Chakotay asked incredulously. He couldn't believe the elders of Dorvan would sit still for Terraforming, nor could he believe his little sister, a dyed in the wool progressive, would try to help them.
"Yes, and believe it or not, they've been easier to deal with than our own people," she replied.
"How so?" Chakotay asked.
"All four of the main tribes on Trebus lost their leaders and three of the four have had to try to build consensus about who the new leaders should be. I'm not sure which tribe is worse, the Diné who chose but are now fighting over whether there was something wrong with their process, the Lakota who can't seem to chose or our own people who made such a stupid choice," she responded.
"Who did our people choose?" Chakotay asked, mildly curious as to who had been chosen to follow his father.
"Well, who do you think they chose, Chakotay?" she asked, sounding as though she thought him slow-witted for not knowing.
"I haven't got a clue," he replied, honestly not understanding why his sister thought he would.
"Why you, of course, Baatab," she replied, grinning when she saw the look on her brother's face as she addressed him as Baatab, which meant chief in their dialect.
"What?" he exclaimed. Then a moment later, "Oh, I get it you're teasing me. Trying to get even with me, huh?"
"No dear brother, though sometimes I do think it's the biggest joke anyone's ever played on me. Seeing as how our tribe can't effectively request anything because our leader is in another quadrant of the galaxy!" she said with just a hint of annoyance.
"Of all the ridiculous, obstinate things to do. I suppose the explanation for this must be that you and I are the only surviving progressives in the tribe?" Chakotay postulated.
"No, surprisingly, nearly even numbers of progressives and status quos survived as did traditionalists and they all voted for you too." she replied.
"Well, isn't there someone else the people were willing to accept as leader who could fill in during my absence? Surely whoever got the next most votes could be prevailed upon to accept the position?" Chakotay said hopefully.
"The vote was unanimous, brother," Maliya said.
"Wait a minute, unanimous?" he said incredulously. "You mean you went along with this lunacy?"
"Um, well at the time I didn't think through the ramifications and only thought about what a good leader you are," she replied rather sheepishly.
Chakotay let out a big sigh and then said, "I ought to just let you deal with this mess you've created, but…"
"Yes?" Maliya said hopefully.
"Send me a report on where things stand and I'll see what I can get from the Federation for you," Chakotay said.
He shook his head, he couldn't believe he'd just agreed to take over the administration of his tribe from 20,000 light years away; he must be getting soft in the head.
"Alright, if you're sure you want to do it," she replied.
"Well, I've gotten pretty good at paperwork and administrative details over the years here on Voyager. But look, you tell whatever passes for a council of elders in our misbegotten tribe that this is just a temporary thing until they can find a more reasonable solution, OK?" Chakotay added.
"OK. Oh, dear brother, we've spent over half our time already and you haven't told me how you really are," Maliya lamented.
"I'm good, really good. I know that probably sounds strange but my years on Voyager have been good for me and well the last few days have been very revealing to me," he added.
"How so?" Maliya asked.
"Well, a lot of things had happened recently that upset me; your letter for one. Then well, I learned that well, this is kind of awkward to talk about but, well…" Chakotay faltered.
"Yes?" she said, trying to get her brother to open up about what was bothering him
"Oh hell, I don't know why I'm acting so embarrassed about this with you. I learned that the contraceptive booster that Star Fleet has had its personnel on for many years adversely affects fertility over the long term. And well, I've had this dream for a long time about marrying the woman I love and having at least one child with her and I started to wonder if that could ever happen. Then I learned that Boothby died. Remember me telling you about him?" Chakotay asked distractedly.
"Yes, brother I do. I thought you said you were good, all this you're telling me sounds bad to me," Maliya said.
"Well, it started out bad, but it all is turning out very well. You see it gave my crew the opportunity to show me what I mean to them. They've all done things to show how much they care about me, like giving me this time to talk to you. I hadn't allowed myself to acknowledge how much more than my subordinates they had become to me. They are my friends and neighbors and some are even like family to me," Chakotay explained.
"Voyager is your Village then," Maliya said.
"Yes, Voyager is my Village now," Chakotay agreed.
"So, who in your new Village are you claiming as family, brother?" she asked with a smile.
"Well, the Chief Engineer, B'Elanna Torres is my other little sister and she just had a baby this morning!" said Chakotay enthusiastically.
"Oh that's wonderful! Isn't B'Elanna a Klingon name?" Maliya asked.
"Yes, B'Elanna is half Klingon," replied Chakotay.
"Well, I always wanted a sister, though I hadn't really considered a half Klingon one 20,000 light years across the galaxy from me." Maliya said.
Chakotay was relieved she'd taken that so well, "You'll love B'Elanna and her husband and daughter."
"OK, let the other shoe drop now would you, before we run out of time," Maliya said.
"Oh, all right, you know me too well. Well my biggest news is," he paused a moment, "I'm getting married," Chakotay finally said.
Maliya let out a scream of joy. "Oh Chakotay, that's wonderful. So have you and Kathryn settled on a wedding date?"
"Wait, how did you know that I'm marrying Kathryn?" Chakotay asked perplexed.
"Your voice caressed her name and your face lit up when you mentioned her," Maliya answered. "Now hurry up and tell me, when are you getting married?" she prodded.
"I don't know, whenever we come across a compatible culture on an M class planet," Chakotay answered his sister's question still a bit bemused by his sister's ability to read him and Kathryn's affect on him.
"Why do you have to wait until you find an M Class planet to get married and what do you mean by a compatible culture?" Maliya asked a bit confused.
"Well, who would you expect to marry us?" It was Chakotay's turn to put that familiar tone in his voice that only one's sibling can do so well that says, 'geesh, you're being dense.' "Only the captain of a ship is authorized to perform marriages. Kathryn can't very well conduct her own wedding ceremony. And a compatible culture would be one that at least shared the same basic concept of marriage," Chakotay explained.
"How often do you come upon M Class planets with compatible cultures, brother? I mean is this likely to be a long engagement?" Maliya asked, ignoring her brother's sarcasm.
"Spirits, I hope not!" Chakotay said fervently.
Maliya laughed at her brother's vehement response. "What's the matter, are you an impatient bridegroom?" she asked.
"Yes, very definitely!" Chakotay said.
"So how long have the two of you been engaged?" Maliya asked.
"Oh, a lttle over six hours," he replied with a laugh.
"Wait, your new little sister has a baby and you get engaged all in the same morning?" Maliya asked in disbelief.
"Yes and it's Kathryn's birthday, too. I don't know if I could have gotten her to say yes without my new niece's appearance, well that and the meddling of our kindly medical hologram," Chakotay added.
"Oh, so she played hard to get, huh?" Maliya asked teasingly.
"No, it wasn't like that. She refused to get involved with me for a variety of, what seemed to her, good reasons, including a just recently suspended protocol against fraternization," Chakotay answered defending the woman he loved. "But the bottom line was and is, we love each other and want to have a child together and we need to have that child sooner than later," he concluded.
"So, you are finally going to get started on creating a family," she said.
"Yes, after we're married and well … after the doctor says its safe for Kathryn to conceive," Chakotay replied.
"Oh, now I see why you're so anxious to get married," Maliya said with a knowing smile.
"What?" Chakotay asked distractedly.
"She won't let you in her bed until you're married, will she?" Maliya asked.
Chakotay didn't answer.
"Will she?" Maliya repeated the question.
"Maliya!" Chakotay wailed.
"Well?" she prompted.
"No, she won't!" Chakotay answered petulantly. "Happy now?"
"Well, you're in good company. I did the same thing to Pacal and mother told me she did it father too," Maliya added.
"Somehow knowing that is of absolutely no comfort." Chakotay said ruefully.
Seven of Nine said, "we'll lose the link in 30 seconds, commander."
"Well, we have to say goodbye, I'll write if you will, OK?" Chakotay promised.
"All right, write lots of details brother," she paused then said in a voice quavering with emotion, "and brother I love you and wish you and your fiancée all the best."
"I will write, I promise. Tell Taya I said Hi," Chakotay said and as his eyes filled with tears and the commlink began to deteriorate he added, " I love you, little sister. I love you very much."
The commander's tears confused Seven of Nine and her instincts said she should comfort him even though she was still in shock from the revelation that the captain had agreed to marry him.
"Commander are you all right?" she asked.
"Yes Seven, I'm fine." Chakotay's keen understanding of people made him realize that the tears on his face probably confused Seven, so he decided to exploit a "teachable moment" and expand Seven's knowledge of human emotions. "I know the tears on my face are probably confusing you, but sometimes people cry when they are happy too. Crying sometimes signals a great release of emotion. Believe me these are tears of joy."
"I see. Commander Chakotay, may I assume the information about your impending marriage to Captain Janeway is something you wish me not to discuss outside this room?" Seven asked.
"Yes, Seven I would appreciate it if you kept it a secret, at least until Kathryn and I publicly announce our engagement," Chakotay replied.
"Very well, I will comply," Seven replied, and then added with an all too rare smile, "Congratulations Commander."
"Thank you Seven. And Seven, please keep a sharp look out for M Class planets. I'd really like to marry Kathryn sooner than later." he said fervently.
"Yes Commander," Seven answered.