Chapter Twenty-Six

No one spoke a word. No one had to. Everyone inside the sealed medical bay knew what had happened, or what was likely to happen momentarily.

Chakotay's face was white as a ghost. He gripped his phaser, as if in a moment he would have to fire it at some imaginary enemy. As if the twenty armed women lining the building were not sufficient to defend them from the real enemy outside.

At long last, the code sounded, the double doors burst open, and Seven stumbled inside, carrying the lifeless body of Kathryn Janeway.

"Kathryn!" Chakotay half screamed, rushing toward the women.

"Get her on the biobed, now. Cassandra, prepare the cortical stimulator. Sit down, Commander, or I'll remove you from the medical bay."

"Chakotay." B'Elanna's hand gripped his arm.

"Get away from me B'Elanna!"

"Chakotay, for heaven's sake, pull it together!" She turned him around and stared at him with her frank, dark eyes full of concern. "Let the man work. Okay?"

She searched his face for some sign of sanity. In reply, he gripped both of B'Elanna's hands in his.

"Just breathe, Chakotay. Think about what she needs right now. She needs you to keep calm, all right?"

"Clear!"

"No effect."

"Ten milligrams cordrazine"

"Yes sir."

Chakotay's mind was overtaken by dark images, the nightmares he had suffered in years past when he had lost her, or almost lost her. He felt there was some kind of demon in the room, stopping him from truly being with her when she needed him.

"Sir, I'm detecting no neural activity."

"One more time, Cassandra! Fifteen milligrams. Clear!"

"Doctor – "

"I said do it a-"

The Doctor stopped himself, evidently struck by some type of recollection. He covered his mouth with his hand.

"Doctor?"

The room went deadly quiet.

"Thank you, Cassandra," he said thinly. "Computer. Record time of death as somewhere between fifteen hundred and nineteen hundred hours."

"Don't you dare!" Chakotay released B'Elanna, and stared uncomprehendingly at the Doctor. "Don't you dare say that! Don't you let her die!"

"Chakotay – "

Seven reached out to try to comfort her friend, but instead he ripped her weapon from her belt.

"Then you do it! You found her, God knows how, and you must have some way to bring her back."

"Chakotay, I assure you I did everything I–"

"Bullshit! Did everything you could - what have any of you done? The only reason she is fighting this goddamned war is because of you!"

"Commander. Put it down."

"Who the hell are you to give me orders?"

"Chakotay..."

At the sound of this voice, Chakotay abandoned his rebellion, and he let the weapon fall to the ground, forgotten. Kathryn's eyes were open, and she gasped for breath, struggling to move.

"She's conscious!"

"Chakotay..."

Chakotay sank to his knees beside the biobed. "I'm here, love," he said, wrapping her in his arms. "I'm here."

The Doctor, having never before observed this type of interaction between his former Captain and her first officer, was almost as taken aback by it as he was by the fact that she had regained consciousness. For seven years, they had served as the command team aboard Voyager, sometimes amicably, sometimes with barely veiled friction between them. But here they were, huddled together in each other's arms like Tristan and Isolda.

Recovering his composure, the Doctor returned to work, passing a tricorder over Kathryn's body.

"Chakotay-" " she repeated.

"What is it, Kath? What did they do to you?"

"It hurts-" she managed, her eyes shutting tightly.

"Where? Doctor, is she injured?"

"She appears to be suffering from three fractured ribs and a collapsed lung," said the Doctor, "which I can treat easily. However, she also appears to be pregnant. Were you aware of this, Captain?"

Chakotay stared at the deathly pale woman in his arms, and his own heart nearly stopped.

"Kathryn? Are you-"

She opened her eyes and looked at him with an expression of great regret. "Chakotay I'm sorry," she whispered, a tear falling down her scratched cheek. "They did this to me. It's…"

"Kath, who did this to you?"

"Commander, I'm detecting both human and Borg genetic material."

Kathryn gripped Chakotay's hand, wincing in pain.

"The Ultimate Starfleet Officer," she whispered. "It's inside me…"

It took Chakotay many moments to realize what was happening. He stared wildly at B'Elanna.

"Psychic Sisters."

"Doctor," said B'Elanna, rising. "Captain Janeway needs to be treated with a drug called Psychic Sisters. Seven, Cassandra, do any of you have it?"

Seven withdrew a vial half-full of blue liquid from inside her jacket. "This is all I have left," she said. "As you know, we're in short supply. Take it. But know that we will all die if we cannot locate its source."

"I know where to get it," said Chakotay, standing without letting go Kathryn's hand. "It's on Alpha Walker. It's being generated as part of the neural circuitry of the space station."

Seven's blue orbs widened. "Let's go."

"That might be difficult, under the circumstances."

A new voice, similar in timbre and inflection to a hundred others, made Chakotay turn his head. Several more Cassandras had entered the medical bay, and they stood shoulder to shoulder near the door.

"Seven, I've received word," said the tall woman with hazel eyes who stood at the head of the formation, "that Margaret Thorpe has activated the auto-destruct sequence on the space station."

Seven's eyes flashed in sudden anger. "Why?"

"I don't know. I have no choice but to conclude that she intends to terminate herself, and Alpha Walker."

"Why the hell would she do something like that? We're in the middle of a war."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow delicately. "Maybe she has reason to believe we're going to lose."

Seven frowned, weighing her alternatives.

"She's given up," said Chakotay. "When we discovered that the biologic was being manufactured on Alpha Walker, she became emotional. She feels she's been tricked by O'Shaughnessy, who abused her for years and is now playing her for a fool by generating the biologic right under her nose. This is her revenge on him."

Seven rolled her eyes. "I knew that woman was a narcissistic basket-case from the moment I met her."

"You don't know what she's been through, Seven." Kathryn's voice cut through the room. The effect of Psychic Sisters was immediate; she was sitting up, and some of the color had returned to her face.

"She told you?"

"No," said Kathryn, "she never told me. But I can see things much more clearly now. Sometimes, just like you, I know things without having to be told. I have to go to Alpha Walker, I'll talk to Margaret."

Kathryn tried to lift herself off of the biobed, with great difficulty.

"Captain, with all due respect, have you lost your mind?" exclaimed the Doctor, holding her still. "You've got multiple injuries, you can't even walk!"

Kathryn's bright eyes were fixed on Chakotay, that fiercely determined stare he knew far too well.

"Then I'll crawl," she said.