Eight
She breathed in, taking with the meagre air a mouthful of hot smoke that scorched her throat and lungs. She choked, coughing, the motion wracking her trapped body. Something was pinning her down, a heavy weight on her already constricted lungs.
"Kathryn!"
His voice came at her over the crackle of flames, through an orange light that tainted the fumes around her with a sickly toxic glow.
"Chakotay?" She croaked, gasping.
"Yes!" The relief in his voice was palpable. "Captain, we're here. We're trying to get you out. Just stay with us. Please stay with us."
"I can't… I can't move."
"We'll get you out," came Chakotay's voice, again, after a brief pause. "B'Elanna's-"
His words were drowned out by the roar of a growing fire. Janeway turned her head and lifted her shoulders, trying to see. Flames crackled a few feet away, their anger illuminating a festival of wreckage. She was lying on her back beneath what might once have been a bulkhead, but was now merely twisted metal. More ruined shapes were piled around her, glinting in the fire's harsh light. The heat was intense. Her skin was slick with sweat, rivers of it pouring grime into her already stinging eyes.
Janeway tried to move again, but the only parts of her not pinned down were her right arm, her shoulders and her head. She struggled, uselessly pushing against the weight bearing down on her, trying not to panic.
That was when the agony kicked in. It seared through her like flame itself, burning upwards from her legs until it engulfed her whole. She felt the white light of oblivion flooding behind her eyes and at its edges, absolute darkness. Janeway struggled to ride the torment, gasping for breath.
"Kathryn?"
She shook her head, trying to clear it. "Yes."
"Stay with me," Chakotay urged her. "I'm right here. We'll get you out. Just don't go to sleep, OK? Stay with me."
Janeway turned her head, trying to find him in the gloom.
"Here," came his voice. "Up here."
She tipped her head back. Several feet above where she lay, a criss-cross of metal formed another wall to her current prison. Through the darkness, shadows flickered, and Janeway realised that two of them were shapes she knew. Chakotay stood, hands gripping the barrier, his large shoulders leaning towards her as if his bulk alone could force its way through. Beside him crouched B'Elanna, operating some kind of tool, adding showers of sparks to the maelstrom of noise and flame around her.
They were trying to cut her out, Janeway realised. They were trying to cut through the wreckage to get to her.
She turned her head again, looking for the source of the flames that were eating their way toward her. Every furious belch from the inferno brought it a few inches further in her direction.
They weren't going to make it. The flames would reach her before they did. Or, even worse, at the same time.
Burn then, came the echo in her head. Burn alive.
Janeway pushed against the metal holding her down, biting her lip against the pain so hard that she tasted blood in her mouth. Lights swam in her eyes, but she blinked against the looming threat of unconsciousness. How long had she been here? How long had she been in that dream-state, when she could have been helping them help her escape?
She heard a yell of pain and frustration, rising over the melee like a scream. It took her a moment to realise the sound had come from her own throat.
"Kathryn!"
"I can't move," she shouted. "Chakotay, I can't move."
"We're coming," he told her. "Just hold on, we're coming."
"There's no time," she shouted, still pushing uselessly, energy ebbing in the wake of the pain. "The fire-"
As if it had heard her, another belch of flame erupted into the space. It fountained up towards her would-be rescuers. She heard a shout of warning from Chakotay, and he and B'Elanna disappeared, replaced by a wall of fire that towered over her. It subsided as quickly as it had appeared.
"Chakotay," she shouted, her voice hoarse, "B'Elanna?"
There was a pause, an absence more terrifying to her than the roar of the flames about to engulf her. Then-
"We're here," came his voice. "I'm here." The sound of the tool started up again and then a thump that vibrated through her prison. She looked up and saw that Chakotay was throwing his shoulder against the weakened grille, trying to force it to split beneath the combined pressure of B'Elanna's cutter and his own weight.
The flames roared again, a new spring welling so fierce and so close that she had to turn her head and shield her eyes, panting for scant breath.
"Chakotay, there's no time."
"We'll get you out," he shouted back.
"No," she said. "The fire – it's getting worse. Isn't it? It's spreading, it's-"
"Just hold on," he said again. "We'll get you out."
"You won't. Even if you get through, I'm trapped. There's no time to-"
"There's time," he told her.
She twisted her head and realised that the flames were forming a ring around her. Soon the ring would close, trapping her behind walls that no tool could cut through.
"There isn't," she said. "And you know it."
He ignored her, throwing his weight against the grille again. It gave, maybe an inch. Not enough.
"The ship can't lose her captain, her first officer and her chief engineer in one go," Janeway shouted. "Get out of here. That's an order."
She couldn't tell over the constant roar of the flames, but he seemed to have fallen silent. For a moment Kathryn thought he'd gone.
"You're right," came his sudden shout. "B'Elanna, give me the cutter. You go."
"No-" Janeway began, but the rest of her order died in her throat as pain swallowed her whole. It exploded behind her eyes like fireworks, blinding her, robbing her of breath, of time, of…
The next thing she knew, Chakotay was crouching over her, his fingers against her cheek.
"Stay with me, Kathryn," he told her. "I'm going to need your help. You have to stay conscious now."
"You have to leave. Please. Go, now."
He ignored her, instead running his eyes over the twisted bulkhead that had crushed her against the deck. Dropping the cutting tool, he gripped its edge and tried to heft it up. She felt it move a tiny amount. Not enough. The pain when he let go again took her breath away.
"I'm not getting out of this one, Chakotay."
His mouth was set in a grim line. "You will. We're getting you out. Help's coming, we just need to give them time." He looked around for a second before standing quickly and taking hold of a large sheet of dented metal, pulling it after him as he returned to her side.
"Listen to me!" with her one free hand she gripped the front of his jacket and pulled him toward her. "Please," she said, the words rasping through her burnt throat. "Please. I can't watch it again. Don't make me watch it happen again."
He placed his hand over hers, a frown on his face. "You can't watch what again?"
Kathryn could see the sweat trickling along the lines of his crow's feet. She remembered his eyes, so steady as they looked into hers while she'd ordered him to his death.
"Please don't die," she whispered. "Not because of me. Not-"
The flames disappeared, as surely as if they had been doused with water. There was a moment of absolute silence and then, from somewhere far below, there came a guttural roar. A rush of heat washed over them as the temperature rose even further. The air itself felt as if it was on fire. The sound built and built, deafening.
"Backdraft," Janeway gasped. "Chakotay, get out! Get-"
The inferno erupted around them, a wall of fire so thick it blocked out everything else. Chakotay lunged forward, dragging the sheet of metal with him. He threw himself over her, putting the sheet between his back and the flames, and himself between her and the metal. His cheek pressed into hers as the flames rolled over them. She could feel the tension in his broad shoulders as they pressed into her, the feel of his hot breath, erratic against her neck. The roar went on and on. She could feel the heat radiating from the metal behind him and knew it must be scorching his skin. She shifted her face, turning toward his, Chakotay's cheek sliding against hers until he drew back a fraction to look at her. She could see the pain, written in his eyes and in the tight clench of his jaw. If there had been any fluid left in her it would have turned to tears, but her eyes were as dry as her lips, as dry as the non-existent air around them.
He was going to die, because of her. They were both going to burn alive, just as the entity had said. Kathryn pulled her hand up, forcing it between them until she could touch the skin of his neck, still holding his gaze. Chakotay looked at her for another moment and then leaned forward until their foreheads were touching. She could feel him trembling and wound her hand into his jacket, holding on as tightly as she dared.
[TBC]