Chapter Five
Kathryn Janeway, former fifty-eight year old Admiral of Starfleet Command, current forty-two year old Captain of the lost Federation Starship Voyager, was exhausted. After finally defeating the entity known as The First Evil, she had collapsed from sheer pain and fatigue. Her whole body hurt, and she was so tired that she could barely see straight, much less think coherently. Dimly, she felt herself being lifted gently and the voices that she heard sounded is if they were speaking from the other end of a long tunnel.
Report, Tuvok
"The Captain has sustained several broken bones, cracked ribs and multiple contusions. Majority of the lacerations are superficial, but there a few that are quite deep." Tuvok answered, scanning the Captain.
We still can't get a transporter lock. Suggestions?
"The Captain said that everything much be concluded." Seven said. "Logically, that means that she still has to awaken these 'Slayers' before it is considered 'over'."
Chakotay thought it over, and they waited for his word. Fine. Give her a hypospray, and take her where she needs to go. Carry her if you have to. Let's get this thing done and get out of here.
Tuvok took the hypospray from the medkit and was about to press it to Kathryn's neck when he was stopped.
"I will take care of her injuries." Dawn said softly. "Then I will take you to the others."
The young brunette knelt down beside the fallen captain. "Thank you, Admiral." She whispered in Kathryn's ear before kissing her forehead. Janeway's body filled with a pale green light and her wounds began to heal and fade before their eyes. The glow brightened until Seven and Tuvok were forced to close their eyes against it and when they deemed it safe to see again, they found themselves in an underground cavern. All along the circular walls, and up at least 15 feet, where young women, and a few men, encased in pale green crystals. Tuvok tapped his communicator to request verification of their location, but all he got was static. The captain was once again on her feet, standing before the encased Buffy Summers. Kathryn eyes roamed over the peaceful features of the young woman that had been her lover in another life. It was the first time she had ever seen Buffy sleep without the unconscious twitching of her senses detecting the evil that had overrun her hometown. The stress lines that had made her look so much older than she really was were also gone. For that alone, Kathryn would have done it all again.
Taking a deep breath, Kathryn stepped back to examine the crystal encasing. She was about take the bat'leth and smash it when she noticed the indented handprint on the crystal where Buffy's hand was pressing against the inside. Eyes narrowing, she handed the weapons over to Seven and stepped forward again. Cautiously, she pressed her hand into the imprint. "Come, sweet child, it's time to wake up."
'Who are you calling child?' Buffy's laughing voice sounded in her head as the fingers she was pressing against suddenly curled around her own. 'You're only ten years older than I am.'
The crystal encasing began to crack. The cracks spider-webbed through the crystal and shards began to fall away for the body moving restless inside it, disintegrating into fine green dust as it felt and vanishing into nothingness. There was a flare of green light as Buffy's body collapsed into Kathryn's arms. The light flashed upwards in a wave, flowing over the other casings, causing them to begin breaking open as well. The next level up, Kathryn saw Willow and Faith fall out of their shells. Then her attention was redirected back to the woman in her arms.
"N'mina." Buffy murmured, nuzzling Kathryn's neck before drawing her tongue sensually up from the base of Kathryn's throat up to cover her lips in another sizzling kiss that almost buckled the captain's knees. First Mate, the word translated in Kathryn's head before all though vanished under the onslaught of that delicious mouth.
Seven of Nine, who had been watching the progress of the awakenings above her, looked back at her captain when the other woman suddenly moaned. She felt a strange tightening in her lower abdomen area as this time, instead of stopping the kiss as before, the captain drew the female in her arms closer. She had heard the word that the young woman had uttered, but the universal translator did not recognize the language and there was nothing in her cortical node to translate it.
"Commander, we must separate the captain for they have all awakened." Seven said to Tuvok. "It is most probable that the transporters will be restored once there are all free of their chambers, and Captain Janeway ordered an immediate beam out."
"You are correct." Tuvok agreed, moving over to the kissing women. "Captain? Captain Janeway, we are preparing to return to Voyager."
The mention of her ship was enough to penetrate the fog Kathryn had fallen into. Gasping, she managed to break the kiss, looking around in confusion until her gaze fell on her Security Chief. "Tuvok?"
"They are almost free." He told her, pointing upwards. "We suspect that once the last one is freed, the transporter will be able to lock onto our signatures once again, and you ordered everyone beamed directly to Sickbay once the connection was re-established. I assumed that you did not wish to be caught in a compromising position."
Kathryn blinked a few times to clear the haze, and licked her lips. Vaguely, she realized that there was a strange taste on her tongue, but before she could pursue the thought, her communicator chirped. She tapped her own to open the channel. "Janeway here."
Captain, thank the Great Spirit. Chakotay said. We were getting really worried up here. Our screens went black after that fight, and you just vanished from your location and reappeared somewhere else. We've re-established transporter lock and are prepared to beam all twenty-eight life signs directly to Sickbay as ordered. I'm sending Paris to help out the Doctor and Ro with a security team.
With effort, Kathryn pulled herself together and steadied Buffy on her own two feet. "Energize."
- - - BtVS - - ST:Voyager - - -
When they materialized in the Sickbay, the Doctor found himself surrounded by the oddest thing. Young men and women of various ages and seemingly human nationalities. It was obvious that the majority of them were disoriented. Several had fallen into fighting stances as their confused senses made them defensive. A moment later, Tom Paris entered the room, with Ro Laren and a security detail right behind him, and suddenly the situation became… interesting.
Even disoriented, the girls surged forward to surround the Captain and the three women closest to her, effectively blocking them from the security team, and began growling. The security team, Lt. Paris, and even Lt. Cmdr. Ro took several steps back, almost as if in fear. Even Tuvok was affected to a lesser degree. The Doctor was about to comment when he felt the vibration of sub-vocal harmonics in the room. Seven of Nine's expression revealed that she felt it as well. Only the Captain actually heard the growls that were coming from Faith and Buffy.
"Stop them." She ordered Buffy. "The security team is standard procedure. They're not going anywhere no matter how intimidating you all are."
Buffy shrugged and told them all to calm down in their new language. To the Starfleet officers, the words came through the translators as a bunch of gibberish, but Kathryn quickly realized that she was understanding every word.
"You can understand our language?" Kathryn asked Buffy, who nodded. "Why can't you speak it? And why do I understand your language when it's not in the translation protocols?"
"We understand it, but it's no longer our first language." Buffy said in perfect English. "You can understand our language because you were one of us, in spirit if not in body."
"Will you let the doctor check you over?" Kathryn asked. "Without giving him any grief."
"With those scanner things?" Buffy asked. "No needles, no straps?"
Suddenly, Kathryn remembered Buffy's stories about her cousin Celia and her own experience at the psychiatric hospital, and her antagonistic views toward hospitals became blindingly clear. Hospitals, even medical ones, strapped you down for tests. Bound you to a bed for an undetermined length of time and poked and prodded you with needles, and gave you sedatives when you became agitated. If there was one thing that she had learned about Slayers, it was that they did not appreciate being constrained against their will.
"No, Liz." Kathryn assured her softly. "No straps and no needles. I promise."
Buffy smiled and hopped onto the nearest bio-bed. Taking that as his cue, the Doctor began examining her with a medical tricorder. Kathryn was amused, but not very surprised, to see Willow staring over his shoulder. When the Doctor twitched in irritation as second time, Seven forestalled his caustic remarks by handing the young genius another tricorder and explaining its various functions. Kathryn foresaw them spending a lot of time together. She suspected that Seven and Willow would be at about a similar intellectual level.
"Well, Doctor?" Kathryn returned her attention to the examination.
Bridge to the Captain.
Kathryn tapped her communicator. "Go ahead, Chakotay."
Captain, you'd better come see this.
Kathryn exchanged a look with Tuvok. "We're on our way."