The Best of Intentions
Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager, its characters, etc. are owned by Paramount.
Chapter Five
"Report!" Chakotay ordered as he strode furiously onto the bridge. Harry's head snapped up, and he peered at Chakotay with an indefinable expression.
"Sir, the Equinox is under attack." Chakotay's knees buckled, and he grabbed the nearest console to prevent himself from hitting the floor.
"Commander?" Harry was instantly at his side. "Are you all right?"
"Kathryn." It was the only thing he could think of to say.
And then Tuvok was in front of him, gripping his shoulders tightly.
"What happened in Sickbay, Commander?" The cool wash of the Vulcan's voice was bracing, and Chakotay mustered his strength.
"The Doctor from the Equinox. He has the mobile emitter, and he beamed back to the ship with the Captain." Harry's face went white.
"Sir, the Equinox's shields went down a few minutes ago. The aliens began attacking them immediately." Harry's voice was hoarse. "We managed to beam off a few of the crew members, but…"
Chakotay opened his mouth to speak, but Harry held up a hand.
"It wasn't us, Commander. It appeared to be an internal command that brought the shielding offline." Harry broke off, fidgeting with the console in front of him and avoiding Chakotay's eyes. "Sir, the Equinox has taken heavy damage. I don't see how anyone aboard could have…survived." He looked at his commanding officer with pleading eyes.
"Commander." It was Tuvok, who had moved back to his station and was studying the display in front of him. "The aliens have broken off their attack and appear to have returned to their realm."
"Life signs?" Chakotay asked, his heart twisting painfully.
"I am unable to determine that. There is too much systems damage interfering with the sensors."
Chakotay straightened. "Tuvok, B'Elanna, you're with me. Can you beam us directly to the ship or do we need to take a shuttle, Ensign?" Harry hesitated.
"Sir, the transporter beam is functional, but there's a warp core breach in progress on the Equinox," he began.
"How long do we have?"
"Maybe five minutes." Chakotay looked at B'Elanna who nodded, a supply kit already in her hand.
"That's enough. Beam me directly to engineering."
"Send Tuvok to Sickbay," Chakotay ordered. "And beam me to the bridge. Weapons at the ready, everyone."
The familiar tingle of the transporter beam settled over him, its sparkle fading the ruins of the bridge into oblivion. When he rematerialized onto the Equinox, the red alert klaxons were blaring. Smoke and debris were everywhere. The bridge was a lifeless expanse of rubble, with the desiccated remains of several crew members sprawled on the floor. Chakotay gingerly stepped over the bodies and headed into the corridor beyond.
He pulled out his tricorder, but the haze of electromagnetic interference from the damage to the ship along with residual nucleogenic particles made the readings erratic. After several frustrating seconds attempting to recalibrate the device, Chakotay gave up and instead raced down the corridors, heedless of the broken bulkheads and buckled floor plating beneath his feet.
"Kathryn! Kathryn, where are you?" His voice didn't carry, it couldn't. There was too much smoke and hissing electrical equipment and emotion clogging his throat. His commbadge chirped.
"Tuvok to Commander Chakotay. I have located the Doctor and Seven of Nine. I am preparing to transport them back to Voyager." Tuvok's voice sounded muffled.
"Acknowledged," he responded. "Are they all right?" Tuvok paused for a split second before answering, and Chakotay's heart began to thud.
"Seven is injured," he said. "However, I have managed to download the Doctor into his mobile emitter and repair the...alterations...made to his programming."
"And the doctor from the Equinox?"
"Let's just say that threat has been…eliminated," exulted a familiar voice, and Chakotay managed a grin.
"Excellent work, Doctor," he praised. "I'll see you back on Voyager. Chakotay to Torres."
"Torres here." The engineer's words mingled with an increasing background of static.
"I haven't been able to locate the Captain yet. Any possibility of getting the internal sensors online, B'Elanna?"
"I'm sorry, Chakotay. The last alien attack pretty much destroyed most of the computer command processes. There's so much damage that the backup systems won't even engage, although I have managed to stabilize the warp core. At least for the moment. But I'd estimate we have less than fifteen minutes before we need to get Voyager as far away from here as possible."
"What about using the targeting scanners from Voyager?"
"It's hard to tell. As soon as I'm back on the ship, I'll attempt to lock onto Captain Janeway's lifesigns. But without her communicator, our options are limited. The damage to the ship's systems is causing high levels of interference. Establishing a clear lock will be difficult, if not impossible."
"Just do it," Chakotay said fiercely. "That's an order!" He slammed his hand down on his commbadge, ending the communication, and continued sprinting down the hallways. He pulled out his tricorder again, resetting it to scan for human lifesigns and hoping that proximity would boost its output. The device beeped sporadically and each time his heart would leap, only to plummet once again as the noise abruptly ceased. He climbed up and down ladders, squeezed through Jefferies tubes, and stumbled through corridor after corridor, wondering if somewhere along the line he had gotten hopelessly lost and was going in circles. After all, the Equinox wasn't that big of a vessel.
And then he rounded what seemed like the same corner for the hundredth time and stopped, almost toppling backwards into a gaping hole in the deckplating, as a support beam plummeted from the ceiling and crashed to the floor directly in front of him. He stood unmoving, barely breathing, for a very long moment.
And then his tricorder went crazy.
The high-pitched chirping was almost anachronous in the crashing overture of the ceiling collapse. He stared unseeingly at the screen, mashing away the sweat that was dripping into his eyes. It read two lifesigns, both human, both very faint, ten meters ahead of him. Chakotay took a deep breath and launched himself over the pile of rubble.
He came crashing down on the other side, falling to one knee, feeling the cracked metal below him slice through his uniform and the skin beneath. He swore savagely and staggered to an upright position, grasping a bulkhead beside him. He limped a few steps forward, and then he saw it. A slice of red penetrating the dull gray of destruction, a scant few meters in front of him.
"Kathryn!" he yelled, his feet pounding and clanging against the ruined floor. He skidded to a halt in front of a door—or rather, half of one. The metal structure had been nearly sheared off and it hung limply, partially shielding the figure that lay on the ground in the threshold.
In one swift movement, Chakotay ripped off the remaining door plate and flung it to the side. He knelt beside the figure below, reaching his hand out to turn the bloodied face.
And realized it was Rudy Ransom.
An anger that Chakotay believed he had long ago exorcised came rushing up in him. He grasped Ransom's shoulders and shook him. The captain of Equinox opened his eyes, which had very little life remaining in their cold gray depths. His breathing was shallow and rasping.
"Where is she?" Chakotay demanded, spittle flying from his mouth and hitting the dying man's face. "What did you do to her?" He roughly shook him again. Ransom moaned slightly, his cracked lips parting. Chakotay had no compassion for the man's pain and whipped his phaser from his belt. He held it to Ransom's throat.
"Where is she?" he roared, and the man flinched.
"Th…there." He tilted his head to indicate the room beyond them. "The aliens…save...her…" Blood began to trickle from between his lips. He drew one last shuddering breath and then went silent. Chakotay stared at him for a moment, horrified by what had just happened, by the situation, by what he had just done. And then he gently laid Ransom on the floor and stepped over the inert body into the shattered room beyond.
Through the dim smokiness of the room, Chakotay saw the figure huddled in a far corner, curled up in obvious pain against the wall. He ran over to her and knelt down, running his tricorder up and down her body. The list of injuries scrolling across the screen were too numerous for him to process and so he dropped the device and took her limp form in his arms.
"Kathryn? Kathryn, please, can you hear me?" Chakotay cradled her head in his lap. She was still, far too still for his liking, and his heart pounded. And then he caught a flicker of movement, a slight tremble of her lips.
"Kathryn?" he said again. He bent his head to her and felt lightheaded as he caught a wisp of breath against his face. And then finally heard her voice.
"Cha…ko…tay…" Her eyes fluttered for a second then quieted, as if speaking his name was an act that required the whole of her strength.
"I'm right here, Kathryn," he murmured.
"Ran…som…" Her voice was fraught with fear, and her eyes were suddenly wide.
"He's dead," he said softly. "He won't be able to hurt you any more."
"No!" The cry flew from her mouth, and she shook her head, struggling in a futile effort to sit up. "Mutiny… aliens attacked…Ransom…saved me…" Her frantic eyes met Chakotay's, and his breath fled from his body. Ransom had traded his life for Kathryn's.
Spirits, what had he done…
Tears filled Kathryn's beautiful blue eyes and spilled down her battered cheeks, and he found himself blinking hard.
"I'm going to get you back to the ship. The Doctor will-"
"Doc…tor," she gasped. "Not…ours."
"I know," he said soothingly. "But our Doctor is back on Voyager now."
"Sev...en?" Her voice was even fainter, her lips taut in a face that was a study in contrasts. Pale, yet bloody, angry with bruises and abrasions yet almost porcelain in sheen.
"Her, too." Kathryn's hand traveled weakly up to touch his arm. He cradled it in his own, his fingers softly stroking hers. Her eyes opened wide, searchingly, pleadingly, for a long moment. Chakotay felt his stomach flip.
"I…was…wrong…" she breathed. Her eyes fell shut.
"We both were," he said, and then, finally, he began to cry.
To be continued…