Two weeks had gone by since the death of Talias brother. She was doing better, she was back to herself again in Chakotays eyes. She would smile and go to the hollodeck and go to the bar and meet up with friends. He wasn't worried about her anymore, she was more worried about him. That month Chakotay had gotten a message from his father about cardassions raiding nearby villages. He slept with a phaser under his pillow every night and patrolled throughout the day. His father wrote of how he and others had modified a few federation shuttles to fire quantum torpedoes, a dangerous thing to have strapped to a little ship. What was more troubling was that his near elderly father was piloting such a ship! His father was never a very violent person unless you tried to hurt him or mess with his property. Chakotay didn't understand what his father was fighting for or why, or how he got involved in such a thing like attacking giant cardassian ships. It seemed like an act of terrorism which he was obligated to report to a full ranking officer immediately. But Chakotay wasn't by any means an upstanding officer in anyone's eyes. He wasn't going to turn in his father to the almighty Starfleet that knew all and had the final say in everything. No, even if his father was a COMPLETE idiot, he wasn't going to tell anyone about his plans; not even Talia. He kept telling himself that his father had reason for whatever the hell he was doing out there, even if it was stupid... So stupid.

He kept reading the transmitting in bed, going over every stupid detail his father had carefully written. He kept saying it was for the good of the community and that he had a duty to keep families in their homes. But he didn't know everyone in,the colony, or have any duty to protect them, he was an old man who was in no proffesion that obligated him to protect anyone. The only thing that would explain everything g to Chakotay was to talk to his father, so he got out of bed and opened a transmitting to anywhere on his father's colony that he thought he could be. His home, a ship, the pub. He waited but it didn't take very long for his father's face to appear on the screen of his consul.

"Chakotay! What a surprise to have you call me. It's been so long." The old man said with a great smile.

"How have you been dad?" Chakotay asked.

"Days are long when you are protecting hundreds of people. How have you been my boy? Are you on one of your ships right now? No how could you I can see the ocean right behind you!"

"It's shore leave dad." Chakotay thought quickly. He hadn't told his dad Starfleet had sent him back the academy and didn't plan to. His father would go mad. "Besides this isn't about me. Dad, what the hell are you doing out there? Do you honestly believe you're making a difference by taking on giant ships?"

"My boy it doesn't matter if what I'm doing makes a difference or not, I just want to keep this community safe, and since we refused to leave those spoon heads have been stalking us from the skies! It's not right what they're doing! I'm doing what I'm doing to keep those bastards out of my colony! Don't you understand that these people are my family?"

"It's not like you them all!" He heared the door open behind him.

"It doesn't matter!" He replied quickly, "These people don't deserve what has been,happening to them. We are bound together by what we've gone through, that makes us family which makes us willing to die for each other. Don't you know what it's like to be willing to die for someone whom you care about." Chakotay turned around and saw Talia standing behind him listening tentatively. "Hello there."

Chakotay eyes grew wide slightly mortified at his father greeting the woman he loved. She smiled at his father a nodded slightly; she was holding a padd with both her hands and was in civilian clothes. "Hold on." He said to the screen and muted it then completely turned around in his chair to face Talia. "I didn't know you were coming over." He said seriously.

"Well you asked me to proof read your report so I did and I'm done. I came to return it to you, and maybe do something else." She said with her mischievous smile.

"I'd like that I would, but this is very important. And I need to finish this conversation. Come back later?" He asked growing a smile back. She smiled back to him and nodded leaving the padd on his bed. Immediately after she left his smile disappeared not because it wasn't real but because that was what his father did to him. He made him sultry. He murmured the screen. "Sorry."

"Who was that?" His father said moving his head trying to get with better view of Chakotays room.

"Dad-" He tried to stop him.

"She's pretty. One of your fellow officers or a girl you picked up in g he local bar? Where are you anyway? On earth?"

"Father! Please don't talk about Talia." Chakotay protested but immediately regretted it realizing revealing her name was an error.

"Talia? Hmm, are you two serious? Is she an officer too?"

"Father! Please stop. I want to discuss what you're doing in this rebel group you've joined not my romantic life!"

"Well I'm not telling you anything until you tell me about this Talia of yours. She's pretty, and she looks nice. I just want to know if you are happy." Replied the stubborn old man. Chakotay kept his face the way it was as he laughed through the screen. His father was always adamant about hearing about Chakotays happiness since he joined Starfleet. As he laughed Chakotay let out a smile and eventually gave in.

"Talia is, is someone that I would consider very close to. We are in a relationship, and I'm very, very happy with her." He said simply. His father grinned over the screen. "Now, about your project..."

A long time ago Chakotay didn't understand what it meant to be part of a community, the kind his father had told him of, the one he was willing to die for. He thought his father was crazy for doing something like that. But after being in voyager for so long he understood the concept. It was his home now and he was proud of it. The crew was his family even if he didn't know everyone of them personally. Voyager was a place that he was proud of, when she looked good he felt accomplished; when the crew was well fed and happy he was happy.

Now seeing Voyager in such shape, and the crew in such distress he felt a bottomless pit of despair. He had worked so hard to make voyager the ship they it was, and because of his choice to drag the ship through the void the ship was half destroyed and the crew half dead. He had actually no idea how many people were dead and Alice, but as he ran through the corridors, over and past crewmembers he would look at them. Some wouldn't move, some would just be breathing, some had arms stretched out towards him begging for help. He could t stop though, he didn't know why, if he was willing to do anything g for his crew than why couldn't he stop for a moment and help a person to their feet?

He was running to catch up with B'Elanna who had been trying for the last twenty minutes to inch her way into engineering, but there were so many road blocks that it had taken so long. Chakotay had been crawling through Jeffreys tubes and running through halls, his lungs felt fine, but doing so much at once took a lot out of a person. But he couldn't stop, if engineering had been hit hard than there may not have been anyone except B'Elanna to fix the ship. No other engineers, just her.

He made it to the deck passing another hand full of crewmen in the halls. Around a dozen corners and down a thousand halls. He was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. No matter what they needed to contain the core just in case there was anything wrong with it and needed to get censors back online. Seven had said that there were a few Borg ships in a far area and a possible second storm. They would be dead for sure if one was close. They needed to see where everyone was and how many were alive which by the looks of things looked like two thirds of the crew alive. Looking at them suffer as he passed them made his heart heavy. He was willing to trade places with everyone of them to stop their pain. He was their first officer and it was his duty to keep them safe and he felt that he had failed. He had failed. Passing by them, trying to ignore them so he would reach engineering was hard for him, but they could all be dead if he didn't get there and help. Then he would have failed for sure. He was willing to give up his life for them if that was what it took and at that moment he was willing. It was better than watching his family suffer. He kept his head up and kept running.

They finally found a way in. They opened the only door that opened to the upper part of engineering where B'Elannas private work station was. He had to manually open the doors with the paddles. She helped by grabbing his left arm and pulling, her other arm was still aching from her shoulder. The doors finally budged allowing them access to the top of engineering. The only thing they could see was a white cloud of smoke smelling sweet as a gum tree from Risa. That was never a good sign, it usuAlly meant there was a plasma fire somewhere, the smoke smelled sweet unlike regular fires. They swayed the smoke away from their faces as it engulfed them they kept going forward until they could see where they were going. It finally cleared away from their faces and they could see the extent of the damage.

The warp core was in tact, there was no sign of a breach thank god. But consuls were flashing, broken and on fire. Some of those systems controlled some of the most important parts of the ships. There was a plasma fire at the main communication center and it was growing, heading towards the warp core. The environmental systems would have extinguished it but they were offline too. The only extinguishers they had in stock were for small fires, not this one, this one was big and increasingly dangerous.

"Chakotay! If the fire gets near the any of the warp systems we could have a melt down." B'Elanna said in a way she had never heard her use before. He understood her concern.

"A warp meltdown? That hasn't occurred on a starship in almost a century! How is that possible?"

"The fire has certain properties that can annotate the core, and with the amount of heat it can activate a melt down and there is nothing I would be able to do to stop it. Even if the ejection system was online, which it's not! It would only delay a mass explosion that would devastate the area! We need help getting the fire out."

Chakotay took the extinguisher from the side of one of the walls and from the the top section activated it. It hit the fire but only lasted 20 seconds only extinguishing the edge of the fire. Where was the rest of the engineering team he kept thinking. There were a few unconscious bodies and dead by the door, one was engulfed in flames. But that wasn't even half of the people that were on duty in engineering when the meteors hit.

"This one's gone." Chakotay yelled to B'Elanna who was working to get environmental controls online. "I'm going down there to see if those people are alive, and if there's another extinguisher." He used the ladder and carefully made his way down to the warp core. The systems that monitored the core was shaky but still online. Matter anti matter containment was normal but nearly enough to be abnormal which meant that heat inside the core was raising. The smoke was worse on the main level, Chakotay couldn't see his own hand nor the crewmen he was trying to save. The smoke down on the main level was worse smelling than the upper level. This smoke had the scent of burnt flesh, something Chakotay smelled often in the maquis. He didn't know who was burning, he saw nothing. He needed to find the other extinguisher but there was so much in his line of sight, he could have passed it long ago. He felt more tired and began to cough as smoke began filling in his lungs, he had just gotten his lungs back in working order too. The grey smoke grew as the green flame did. Chakotay waved his arms in front of his face struggling to see and breathe, he wasn't willing to die for nothing.

He just started feeling the walls for anything that felt like the extinguisher. He was no engineer, he had only a general direction as to where the thing would be. He knew he was in the right place but where? It barely mattered anymore. The damage he had caused the fire with the first attempt had already been for nothing. The fire had grown back to its original size. It became even harder to see, he started heading back to the ladder, he knew where that was. He needed to regain his perspective and quickly. He turned back hearing a noise behind him. The smoke grew more aggressive.

What was there making the smoke grow? Had it overtaken another crew member? He scurried up the ladder taken his first smoke free breath. The noise continued as the smoke filled the room. They covered their eyes from the stinging smoke

It stopped. B'Elanna and Chakotay opened their eyes, most of the smoke had dissipated. They stood from the railings looking down in awe. The fire was gone and replaced with an industrial extinguisher which was kept in a cargo bay. "Commander, lieutenant. I did not expect to see you here." The person said. Chakotay smiled, B'Elanna smiled even bigger.

"Vorik!" She yelled.