I do not own voyager or its characters
Chakotay headed to the bridge hastily leaving Kathryn in her quarters still. He was getting closer to getting her out of the dark hole she had dug herself. That wasn't on his mind though, not even the possible Borg. It was the way he felt about Kathryn that occupied his thoughts. He needs errors thought he could feel that way for captain Janeway, but now he did and he liked it. They had tried before for a relationship but it handy been the right time. Now they were in a part of space that seemed like an endless darkness that brought brought everyone's emotions to the surface. People were sad or bored to tears, people were angry, people were going stir crazy. Chakotay had been just like them a week before, but now there was someone who could be with him, someone whom he could express how he felt.
He stepped off the turbo lift, turning to the right and headed for the doors. Seven was waiting for him as eagerly as she could, it that you would ever know. On the screen Chakotay saw a chart of the whole region. Before, a chart showed the region of black space with no signs of life forms, asteroid fields, or debris of any kind. Now seven had reconfigured the censors and could now detect up and coming obstacles. All except the native alien ships. It wasn't really a problem since the species hadn't shown any aggressive intentions recently.
The new censors were able to detect obstacles and anomalies only to a certain extent. It only showed what they were likely to encounter in a month at the most. There was an impressive amount of radiation, too much to see any farther. The screen showed two meteor storms, one only days away and the configured shields were weakened by the previous storm. It was possible that they wouldn't hold through another storm at least not currently.
"Seven, how long will that meteor storm be till it will come into regular censor range? He asked her pointing to the nearest storm.
"Approximately 3 days, seven hours, and twenty four minutes. They are similar to the ones we encountered yesterday." The screen moved to show the calculated path it would take. "Curious, I believe these rocks are native to the void, and yet we have not detected any planets.
"Perhaps it was part of the void species planet. Or maybe what's left of it."
"If it was, it must have been destroyed more than ten centuries ago. According to the reading Lt. Torres conducted."
"They've had long term warp ships for ten centuries?" Chakotay inquired.
"Evidently, they did say they were native to this area of space."
Chakotay returned to his post on the bridge. He passed many crewmen in the corridors, no body smiled at him, no one bothered to say hello. Chakotay smiled and nodded to a few crew members trying to acknowledge them and to get a response. Most of them didn't look at him and the ones who did lost what ever expression that was on their face. Not even former maquis members would acknowledge him. He was like a ghost in the corridors.
She stood in the turbo lift, "Bridge." He said, the computer beeper and started to lift. At least something listens to me, he thought. He turned to where ensign Tal stood anxiously awaiting for their stop to get off. She was always such a friendly person, they would talk sometimes about basically anything they could in the small amount of time they would see each other. But that day she was silent and she tried to avoid eye contact. 'Whats everyone's problem today?' He kept thinking. Everyone has been uncomfortable around him, not just that day but ever since he became acting captain. He didn't know if it was the responsibility of the captain that made them all weary of confronting him, or something he had done as a captain in his few months. Did Kathryn have the same cold shoulder from the crew that he was getting? He was so,used to people talking to him, whether it was a personal problem or a change in assignments, even the occasional catch up conversation. They were all gone. It was only B'Elanna, the other senior officers and Kathryn who he truly felt connected with.
The turbo lift doors opened and Tal hastily exited. She stopped taking for a moment and turned her head to see if he was still watching her. He was. She sigh, smiled at him, nodded her head and continued walking. Chakotay felt even more isolated now, not only did the crew try to avoid him, but they felt the need to force themselves to.
The lift went up two more decks then it let him off on the bridge. Tom was the only regular officer at his post. "Good morning." He said before sitting in his chair.
"Chakotay." Tom said just to say hello. There was a pause of silence. Chakotay stared at the screen, expecting stars as he always did, but they as always weren't there. He always thought it was going to be the last time he would believe something would be there. "Are you ready for the meeting in the conference room?" Tom asked in a reminding tone.
"Excuse me? Oh! Right the meeting, yes let's go. Are the others in there already?" Tom nodded at him as they walked through the doors. The rest of the bridge officers were in their seats talking about ship gossip. B'Elanna was arguing with the doctor, Neelix was talking to Harry, tuvok and the doctor were in their chairs. When Chakotay moved to the front of the room they all took their seats. "Ok who wants to start?" The doctor stood.
Winter had come to the academy grounds. It didn't snow but the temperature dropped a good amount. Chakotay walked to his emergency assistance class he was forced to take one semester. He was failing horribly, mainly because he was skipping most of the class's including the one that day; he was just heading in that direction to return to his room. There were some more important things to deal with in there.
He pulled on Talia's uniform, exposing her shoulder and kissed her up her neck, she smiled and laughed as they moved around the bed
"I don't have time for this Chakotay I told you." She said playfully pushing him off. He just grabbed her again.
"You can make the time, I did." He pulled down the other shoulder and began zipping down her back zipper. She grabbed his back and held it for a moment. Then let go.
"No. I really can't, I really really don't have time. I have physics class in five minutes and I need to go. I actually want to graduate." She pushed him off again, this time somewhat serious. Chakotay looked at her as she pulled up her uniform and put on her boots. He could see a chunky metal beaded necklace she was attempting to hide with her uniform. It was the one he gave her a few months before. Choker, silver metal beads, black thick string. He was surprised no one had disappointed her for being out of uniform or violating it. They wouldn't let him get a tattoo, not that he really wanted one. It would just make his father happy, but he hadn't seen him in months. She put up her hair into the ugly Starfleet issued bun but she still looked beautiful.
"I have to go, but ill see you later." She kissed Chakotay one last time and went out the door. She knew he wasn't very interested in his studies, but she was. She was a great science cadet and a fantastic student. In a few years it was guaranteed that she would be chief science officer of a ship. He had served on ships before, In fact he wasn't technically a cadet anymore. He returned to the academy to receive further training. His former captain thought it would be the best for him since he seemed eager to go against regulations when the chance presented itself. Chakotay usually didn't mean to disobey orders, he had a problem following Starfleet rules, growing up on an native American colony and all. When he did do it purposely it was because the Starfleet rule was morally wrong to him. His captain once ignored a bajoran distros call because it was beyond federation borders. It was a horrible endeavor.
After four years at the academy and two years as an ensign serving on star ship after star ship, they made him go back to the beginning. His life was always about him looking forward, and Starfleet made him take one giant step back. It made him angry, enraged would probably be the better word; he had worked so hard to be an officer and then they decided he wasn't good enough yet. Now her questioned if Starfleet was even a fit for him Anymore.
The doctor gave a long winded speech about an ensign who broke his wrist on the hollow deck after a long argument with two other officers. He said that crew tension was tighter than ever before on Voyager. As if no one had noticed. Then it was B'Elanna's turn to speak.
"Ok we are still having issues with the port nassel but that should be fixed within a day. Frankly that's not the issue, the issue is the new shield configuration. It might not last long." She stopped.
Chakotay held his head. He was tired, tired of far too much, "I'll bite. Why not?"
"They take a lot of energy, a lot. The last time we used them they used up 36 percent of our power supply. We may not make it through the next storm"
"Well find a way!" All fell silent," is there anything else?" They stayed quiet, just watching him. "Dismissed." He stood up and left the room heading for the turbo lift. The doors to the conference room opened letting the rest of them leave. B'Elanna passed him,
"Come with me." She said solidly and kept walking. She walked inside the turbo lift nodding her head telling him to follow. Her tone of voice was worrisome but he got in. He was going there anyway.
"Deck 5." She told the computer. It beeped, closed the doors and headed down. "Computer fault. What the hell has gotten into you Chakotay?!" She yelled.
"What are you talking about?" He yelled back.
"I'm talking about that display in the conference room! Yelling at me, ignoring important issues, day dreaming in a meeting! What's going on with you?"
"Nothing, nothings going on." He quickly answered. B'Elanna changed her expression. Something was going in with him. She needed to know what it was without provoking either of them.
"Come to the mess hall with me. We can talk there." She said softly. Chakotay nodded his head. "Resume."
The turbo lift started again letting them off a few moments later. They walked into ghee mess hall and sat on the couches closest to the door. Neelix saw them and out on his best smile, then swaddled over to them from the kitchen, but before he could go anywhere far B'Elanna waved him away. "So what's going on?" She asked Chakotay.
"I don't know." He said rubbing his face." I think it's the strain of being captain to such an unhappy crew. Have you noticed that?" She nodded." No one will talk to me anymore, either because I'm captain and I'm too hard to approach now, or its soMething I've done."
"I don't think it's anything you've done Chakotay. They just miss Janeway."
"And that's another thing! Kathryn and-" he stopped to think. Telling B'Elanna about the captain and his feeling towards each other could be disastrous. They were in a crisis. There was no time for love affairs as far as the crew was concerned. He looked into her eyes," I wish I could tell you, I really do. But what'd going on with captain Janeway Is only her buisness and only sometimes mine. If there was someone I would want to talk to about it you'd be the first one I can think of." And with that Chakotay stood up and walked away. B'Elanna stayed sitting with a small smile on her face. She loved to talk with him. Chakotay got to thinking about Kathryn.
It was mid afternoon when Chakotay finally visited Janeway's quarters. She let him in quickly but he didn't seem too happy. "What ever happened to you leaving your quarters Kathryn" he asked with sarcasm in his voice.
"Captains prerogative. I'm not needed out on the bridge so why go?"
"I need you! The crew is suffering without you! And there's a meteor storm heading right for us that we cannot avoid. We need you there, especially me." The stress of constant boredom, threat and blackness was becoming too much. Kathryn he'd Chakotay face once he stopped pacing. They looked at each other and she kissed him slowly.
"Okay." She said. Chakotay looked very surprised, surprised that she didn't fight him and that she was going to leave. Really leave this time. "Ok."